The Clock and Four Stages of Experience

The minute hand of the clock is the individual soul. It goes round and round - the hour hand does move, silently and slowly, with dignity. The hour hand is the Supreme Soul. Once in an hour, these two meet, but the individual soul does not get that consummation fixed forever. It loses the precious chance, and so has to go round and round again. Liberation happens when the two merges and there is just one. Like the silkworm that spins from out of itself the cocoon that proves to be its tomb, people spin from out of their own mind, the cage in which they get trapped. Assign your mind the task of serving the Lord and it will grow tame. Give your mind to the Lord. Forget the past and don’t worry about errors in future. Bring to memory only those things that are worth remembering and assiduously follow your spiritual practices. You will achieve spiritual progress.

Baba (thought for the day)

If the devotion is only on the waking state level, how do we know? We have to look at the reality of the dream stage and if we know the difference, we also know when it is the reflection of the waking stage and when it is dream stage and it does make sense the way it is reflected in the inner view or dream.
The waking state is outside, the dream stage is inside and the deep sleep state is no difference at all, but only temporary merging.

We will see if we get it in thinking it over ...

As Baba said yesterday, we have to start contemplating on divinity now. Now is important, because one day it will be too late. It takes time to dig a well and he explained to us the four different stages of consciousness and we know it already from meditation, but if we remember that we were talking about seven states of consciousness and Veda and Baba talks about four stages of consciousness and for types of experiences, we have to understand the difference as well and he doesn’t explain it the same way, but nevertheless it is the same.
We find the explanation with seven states of consciousness also in the Patanjali sutras.
But how do we have to look at it to understand it?

Patanjali is the father of yoga and he explains how the states of consciousness develop and how our awareness expands, but Baba talks about practical experience.
We know the waking and the dream state, but we don’t think about the difference really. There was a picture in the dream of him on the podium with the country flags and the people were separated by height and they all wanted something from him, it was in the dream state a picture of agony, but that is the dream reality, so how do we get the meaning of it. It was an insight in the dream and therefore, it was dream stage, but in the dream stage it was agony to get aware that all people wanted something and they didn't look nice and it was not about love. But it was on the waking stage level of devotion, seeing divinity everywhere, but still separate from them, it is duality. 

And it said 'seven million people' going for as it seems old-fashioned cultural values, most of the people in the West I guess. With other words the insight is telling us that they are all on the level of waking stage of consciousness only. There is hardly any awareness of the devotees when it is about states of consciousness and the dream stage of consciousness. It helps us to see the difference.

They are, according to the Veda, four stages - the waking, dream, deep sleep, and the liberated stage (turiya). In the first stage, one is awake to the objective world and is oriented outward. Since one identifies with the gross body complex at this stage, the experiences are also gross. In the dream the self is in-faced. Reactions, responses, and experiences are all self-contained. They do not belong to the area outside of oneself. Next comes deep sleep (sushupti). This stage is free from even dreams. There is no feeling of either separation or identity, the particular or the universal, experiencer or experience. There is only the Atma, in which one has temporarily merged. In the fourth step (Turiya), the individual is no more so. It has attained the basic truth of life and of creation. Those who have reached this step no longer have concern with the individual self. These are four states one experiences, but they are also stages one has to go through in search of Self-Knowledge.

He refers to Veda, that is important, we also have to refer to Veda. But we don’t know Veda good enough, therefore, we have to listen to him.
We know that there are three states of consciousness, we make the experience of it every day. He doesn’t talk about Turiya as just transcendental awareness, he talks about a stage of life, a liberated stage as we are no more in the body and the mind on that level.

If it is all directed outwards and that is seen as him on the stage with the country flags and people separated by height and adoring him, outside as divinity and they look for it in cultural values and there we definitely don’t find it. That is wrong understood and as it seems also a mind settlement, that it is about cultural values only.

It is about the culture of yoga and turiya nobody knows in their culture, therefore, it is wrong understood and they don’t listen to him, because they settled in a silent mind agreement that it is clear and they don’t have to search for self-knowledge anymore.
 

That is mind conclusion and part of the waking stage only. On the waking state it seems easy, like we know and it is all clear as mud, that means it is not clear at all and nothing is understood, but they just go on like it would be clear. 

As they don’t listen to Baba, they don't know about the other stages of consciousness.
If we live only the first stage, we actually have not the wisdom to stop the search for self-knowledge, that is when it only begins. There are three more to go.
The experiences of the first stage is only outside oriented and as it is identified with the body complex, (body complex is mind included) it is only gross.

In the first stage, one is awake to the objective world and is oriented outward. Since one identifies with the gross body complex at this stage, the experiences are also gross.

It reflects in the dream stage of consciousness what we experience in the waking stage and it is the reality seen out of the insight in our own self and it is about the dream stage of consciousness.
Baba is the man who is in our dream to awake us, that is the dream stage of consciousness and when we are only in the mind it is not understood. If it is misunderstood, it get into a mind settlement. If we listen to him, we hear that he talks about Veda and where is Veda in our old traditions and culture or where is Veda in our Christian church?

We don't find it there. 

According to Veda we have four stages of consciousness. It is according to Veda, the scriptures and it means also we have to listen to him and that is Veda. He tells us to respect the old traditions, but he never tells us to look for it in our old traditions. 

It is about Veda and Veda makes the difference between the four stages of consciousness and not our old cultures or traditions, in the Swiss culture you don’t find any knowledge of the four stages of consciousness, that is part of Yoga, Patanjali, meditation and the vedic scriptures.

But it is like spinning the mind reality from the inside it is settled on that mind level to not be forced to search for self-knowledge, it has to do with the dullness of the mind. 

The mind doesn’t want to make an effort and go for self-knowledge. So the mind gets to the ‘mind conclusion’ on the waking stage of consciousness level that there is nothing more to look for and it is in our cultural values and the rest the mind thinks it is his business and we are not 'that', we are mind.
It arranges the mind to not be it, so we can blame him for it and give him the responsibility for it and just adore him. That is how we put him on the podium and we stay in distance to him.

Seven million people on that outside level of the waking stage only and if we talk to them in the study circle we notice that they seem to never have heard of the existence of different stages of consciousness. And if we listen to him and use his words, it is all gross and not subtle really.

If we are aware of the four stages of consciousness if we contemplate on divinity, it helps to understand it.

In meditation we concentrate on the mantra, that is the first step and it is just thinking the mantra and meditation is actually just an expression for it, in the waking stage it is concentration and only on the merging level it is called meditation.

The aim is meditation.
If we are on the first stage of consciousness the awaking state, we focus consciously on the mantra and repeat it and every time we notice that we are in thoughts and not with the mantra, we are in the mind again and on the waking state of consciousness, don’t we?

We begin all over again, we take the mantra and repeat it until the same happens again, thoughts come, we forget it and when we notice we are in thoughts, we get back to the mantra and that we do for twenty minutes, that is the our mediation.

What happens is we forget everything, time, space, identity etc.

Next comes deep sleep (sushupti). This stage is free from even dreams. There is no feeling of either separation or identity, the particular or the universal, experiencer or experience. There is only the Atma, in which one has temporarily merged.

This is what happens during mediation, when we forget time and space, it is like deep sleep (sushupti). 

That is why there no feeling of either separation or identity, no feeling of the particular or the universal and not a feeling about the experience or experience.

We have merged temporarily with the Atma, that is the third stage of consciousness. That is what we call transcendental consciousness, it is a temporarily merging with the Atma and when we get aware of thoughts, we know we are back in the mind and we take the mantra again and begin with the mantra again, it is repeated until it is forgotten. It means when we get aware of it that we are in thoughts, there can be any time and space in between and we are not aware of it, because it is about the third stage of consciousness, what we also know from deep sleep and sushupti, there is no memory of it, and the mind is gone.

In the fourth step (Turiya), the individual is no more so. It has attained the basic truth of life and of creation. Those who have reached this step no longer have concern with the individual self. These are four states one experiences, but they are also stages one has to go through in search of Self-Knowledge.

Baba explains the forth step as non-changing, it is beyond change and the basic truth of life is attained.  If we have reached the fourth step we are enlightened and there is no more an individual self.

But the main thing is when he is telling us that we have to go through those four stages, we have to experience them and we have to go through it in search for self-knowledge.

What we know from meditation is the first and the third stage, we know when we are awake, we have to meditate and we know that we forget everything and when we come back we begin again with the mantra, it is an effortless process. 

We know we develop the fourth step by regular meditation, but we don’t know when we get there. We have hardly any notion about the second step, the dream stage and we didn’t learn how to contemplate on the higher self.

With meditation we didn't contemplate on the divine and on insights, but we thought about science to make it real for the West, but it was no contemplation, it was all learnt by heart.

But we heard a lot about the different states of consciousness. But afterwards during practice we also had any notion of it, as we were only focused on programs and meditation and therefore, we didn’t contemplate at all.

If it is on the level of sushupti we have no memory of it. But we are not aware of it that we develop it. With meditation we developed it and that consciousness is expanding. 

We know it is about ‘expanding love’, but we are not aware of that temporarily merging in that stage. But it is what we experience during Bhajans, we are singing and focused on him and he is present and in the end only he is present and not the individual, we all merge in that experience. It is temporarily merging on that level and after Bhajans we feel good or some are afraid to lose it and to be disturbed by others and we feel all that ego stuff in that moment more than we would like and we try to keep the experience and we don’t talk usually with others and go back home and keep the experience. 

As there is no memory of the temporarily merging with him, we cannot recall it.

Next comes deep sleep (sushupti). This stage is free from even dreams. There is no feeling of either separation or identity, the particular or the universal, experiencer or experience. There is only the Atma, in which one has temporarily merged.

It is very difficult to get aware of that stage of consciousness, but it is present during singing, otherwise, there would not be any feeling of Baba’s presence, but we don’t get aware of it, because we are that absorbed that we forget everything. 

During meditation that was part of mediation, during singing we don’t get aware of it.

What happened during Darshan, we are in the waking stage of consciousness and by silent sitting we can transcend, but we don’t get aware of it, it just happens and the Darshan is the same as the man who is in our dream to awake us, there is the dream stage and we see it in the air, it is the level of insights and we know from our experience with Baba and Darshans that we cannot answer it on the waking state level, the mind is not active during Darshan.

It is seeing, only that is active during Darshan, the sight of truth, the dream stage is awakened. If we try to reason about it on the mind level, we go nowhere. If we make that difference between the four level of experience in our own consciousness, we can see the level confusion that is happening between those different stages and we actually have to get there to see that difference so that it makes sense and we can understand it.

Darshan is on the ‘dream stage’, it is insight, sight of truth.

But how do we get aware of the third state, that we merged temporarily?

The fourth stage we are developing and if we get there it doesn't change anymore, there is no more individual self. That stage we know from Darshan as it is present in him in that higher level of consciousness and if we want to be 'that' as well, we have to realize that we are 'that' as well, we have to develop that fourth state of consciousness.

In the fourth step (Turiya), the individual is no more so. It has attained the basic truth of life and of creation. Those who have reached this step no longer have concern with the individual self. These are four states one experiences, but they are also stages one has to go through in search of Self-Knowledge.

That is what was present, we are two and more and it is about, ‘You and I are We’ and it is always about truth, therefore, it is always true. If he said it in the interview room and ‘you’ was a group of devotees and the ‘I’ was Baba himself or if it is ‘you and I’ and you are somewhere else and I am here, it is still the same, ‘we’. The basis of it is ‘we’ and the second step is ‘we and he is I’.

‘We’ (Baba included) it is the waking stage of our consciousness and He (contemplation is the divine principle) is I’. We have all the level of consciousness here, 'We' is the waking stage and ‘He’ is the dream stage of consciousness and ‘I’ is the merging stage and deep sleep state of consciousness and if it doesn't change anymore it will be the turiya state, the fourth state of consciousness. We have to contemplate and listen to his words and that is how we get able to experience ‘I am I’.

These are four states one experiences, but they are also stages one has to go through in search of Self-Knowledge.

It is not about a stage of consciousness, it is about the search of self-knowledge.

The minute hand of the clock is the individual soul. It goes round and round - the hour hand does move, silently and slowly, with dignity. The hour hand is the Supreme Soul. Once in an hour, these two meet, but the individual soul does not get that consummation fixed forever. It loses the precious chance, and so has to go round and round again. Liberation happens when the two merges and there is just one. Like the silkworm that spins from out of itself the cocoon that proves to be its tomb, people spin from out of their own mind, the cage in which they get trapped. Assign your mind the task of serving the Lord and it will grow tame. Give your mind to the Lord. Forget the past and don’t worry about errors in future. Bring to memory only those things that are worth remembering and assiduously follow your spiritual practices. You will achieve spiritual progress.

Baba is talking about the third stage in this thought for the day and that was just in question yesterday. It was the question of it how to get aware of the third stage, wasn’t it?

The minute hand of the clock is the individual soul. It goes round and round - the hour hand does move, silently and slowly, with dignity. The hour hand is the Supreme Soul. Once in an hour, these two meet, but the individual soul does not get that consummation fixed forever.

We can see that in those four stages of consciousness he mentioned as Veda.
The minute hand of the clock is the waking stage of our consciousness and the individual soul and it goes round and round and the hour hand does move also but slowly and that is here compared to the supreme soul, that is divinity and the dream stage of consciousness.

And once in an hour they meet and that is when they merge temporarily or there is an insight in Darshan, but the individual soul does not get that consummation fixed forever.  

That is what he explained as the deep sleep stage of consciousness, it is merging, but only temporary merging, isn't it?

It loses the precious chance, and so has to go round and round again.

That is the reality of the individual soul on the waking stage of consciousness, not even aware that it merged for some time.  

Liberation happens when the two merges and there is just one.

Now how do we get aware of it? 

It happens by contemplation and it is like digging a well, it needs some time. It is what we are doing here. We think it over and in the end there has to be just one. 

That is when we get aware that we are that as well and there is nothing but that alone and only one.

Like the silkworm that spins from out of itself the cocoon that proves to be its tomb, people spin from out of their own mind, the cage in which they get trapped.

That is a great example of the mind cage in which we get trapped. 

We have been talking it over also just now, how it is spinning from itself the cocoon that is his tomb as well and it is the same mind pattern always and it is the cage in which we get trapped by the mind. We saw is a cave, but that is the same, it is a cage. 

And in that trap if the body dies we actually are in the body and we don’t get the Darshan of the divine, but we get Yama Darshan, the god of death, only if we have realized the soul divinity will be present.

Assign your mind the task of serving the Lord and it will grow tame. Give your mind to the Lord. Forget the past and don’t worry about errors in future. Bring to memory only those things that are worth remembering and assiduously follow your spiritual practices. You will achieve spiritual progress.

And here he tells us that can get there in serving him.
If we know our duty we just do it and that will be serving him if we understand it right, but if we serve the mind level we serve the wrong level.
We have to give our mind to him, it is on the dream level and that is a different reality as he is the man who is in our dream to awake us, we have to see him only and that is not so easy for the Western minds at least not with the people I know. 

In listening to him and thinking it over, we give the mind to him. We contemplate about his words and whatever comes up in the mind reflects in our own life, but after all it is just about him and related to his words and by thinking it over we are able to understand it, otherwise, it doesn't get closer to us.

Forget the past and don’t worry about errors in future. Bring to memory only those things that are worth remembering and assiduously follow your spiritual practices. You will achieve spiritual progress.

We have to see it in our own life. Even if we forget the past, our own life has always somehow to do with the past, it has happened in the past, but contemplation is getting the lesson of it only and we see it in a different light.
And if we go on looking for it on the wrong place, we cannot find it, that is a fact and again logical and it has nothing to do with the dream stage, but with the waking state and common sense and logic. It is the problem of illusion, no matter what, the mind is looking for happiness on the wrong place.

Bring to memory only those things that are worth remembering and assiduously follow your spiritual practices. You will achieve spiritual progress.

He said in the dream, that he is the insight and the following step.
In that sense contemplation is our spiritual practice and as well the study circle and we just do it and see it as duty and by doing it we achieve spiritual progress and mediation in the morning is for me taking care of it that my mind is free of stuff sticking to it.

After we went for dynamic mediation I had stopped silent meditaton for a while and I noticed more tiredness, I missed the silence and before Baba left the body he was in my dream and he said that I had to start new again. 

Since years I sit up in the morning for about a half an hour before getting up and I do my meditation, but it is not the only Sadhana, it is part of it and writing about contemplation is also part of it.

Bring to memory only those things that are worth remembering and assiduously follow your spiritual practices. You will achieve spiritual progress.

We cannot just take sentences and look at it without seeing the whole of it. 

It is not on the mind level when he tells, forget the past, contemplation on the Lord is also about the past, but only what is needed to be remembered in the context of his words. If we have to learn a lesson and he tells us in the insight that he is also the following step. It is about the following step and we often take examples of the past to make it clear. It is about seeing it in our own life to be able to absorb and that is also the following step and in doing it it makes sense. If we listen to his words it is about contemplation, that is listening to him and seeing it in our own life to be able to absorb the wisdom in his words and in a sense it really feels like digging a well to have it ready  

'You and I are we' is the first step, either we are with Baba and listen to him or we are not with Baba and do not listen to him. If we want to make that experience of his presence, the 'I am I'  and not only the mind, we have to listen to him and it is not developing the imaginary faculty of the mind thinking it is him, when in reality it is not him. We have to go by it, if we don't, there is not presence of 'I am I' if we do not listen to him.

'We and He is I', in the 'we' the divine principle is present, the 'we' is on the waking stage of consciousness and the 'He' is the divine principle and therefore, it is the dream stage of consciousness and together we get aware of the 'I', that is unity and there is only One and in the beginning it changes and it is not a permanent state, but we merge temporarily. 

Only if it doesn't change anymore we are in the fourth and turiya state of consciousness when it is not anymore limited and a permanent a state in our own self and there is nothing present but 'that', there is only one.
But to get there we have to be aware of the waking stage and we also get the difference to the dream stage and we experience it together we get to the deep sleep state and that is still only temporary merging and the purpose is to get on the level where there is only one and it is therefore, no more change possible.
And that is how we went through all four stages of consciousness, don't we?