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Welcome to Day 10 of our 40-Day Retreat.
Yesterday we dealt with the subject of “Witness Consciousness” and for me this is a very important subject on the journey. So we will spend a little more time today on this subject.
Awakening of spiritual energy – a personal experience
In my initial experiences of strong spiritual awakening in India, I had a new experience of watching myself respond to music and to song in a very energized environment. I was then beginning to understand that it was the initial awakening of this spiritual energy inside of me. What it did in that moment was to inspire this energy to inspire my actions. My hands began to clap for themselves, as it were, my body began to sway during the music, and I started to feel there was some kind of effortlessness. I was not doing anything, this was happening. Of course, as you can imagine, it was an enjoyable experience when you can step back and feel that you don’t have to make effort; that this was happening in perfect harmony with the music. So I was amazed at this initial experience.
I also had the experience of this energy influencing my movements, not only during the singing, but also after in my actions. So if I was walking I could actually feel that though my feet are moving, there was some kind of energy also directing my feet in motion. And I will try to be in harmony with this force that wanted to help me to move. That became a very interesting experience. It was so profound and it continued to stay with me. Whenever I went into a high-energy environment like a temple space or prayer hall, I would actually feel that my body movements were being inspired in this space. That my body would automatically begin to move for itself or do things for itself. I realized then that it was the energy of the space.
This therefore gave me a kind of meter or indication of what kind of space I was in. If the space were to inspire my movements very strongly, I knew then that it was an energized space. So that was the first experience of looking at myself doing things and feeling that I am not doing it. It is being done by some higher power inside of me. I loved the experience and I wanted it to grow more and more.
Witnessing – an experience of being carried
Ultimately, I began to understand that this is what witnessing is – that experience of being carried, in whatever you are doing, by some greater power than you, taking the burden away and all you need to do is look, to observe, and it’s happening. I have been saying to you that whenever I sing that’s what happens to me. I can actually feel that some greater power is singing inside of me. And of course, I can initiate the effort; I can work in harmony with it. I can begin to want to sing faster and the energy comes and pushes me to sing faster. Then sometimes if I don’t feel the need to sing faster if the energy in the space does not require it, I sing differently. So it’s marvellous when you can act in harmony with the greater power in the space around you. It was a response to the space, and it was a manifestation of a higher power in normal action, allowing me to look at the whole thing and to feel being carried.
I want you to see this as an invitation to look at yourself, to explore yourself. See if at any point in your experience that you feel being carried, where the actions are happening in a spontaneous way, and in a very effortless way and you are being carried. You will feel the experience of being carried.
Sutra speaks about the witness
The Shiva Sutras is a beautiful book. As sutra is a small profound verse. It can also be a sentence or a few words. It has profound meaning expressed in a very brief statement. Shiva Sutras are some very beautiful expressions or statements that are so profound that you have to contemplate them, as they carry very great truths. There is one especially that embodies the principle of the witness s and it speaks about the fourth state of being. In the Shiva Sutra the verse in Sanskrit is: Jagrat svapna susupta bhede
Turya bhoga sambhavah
Jagrat means waking; svapna means dreaming; susupti means deep sleep; bhede means different. Turya is the fourth state of being which the witness consciousness is. Turya is different from the waking, dreaming and deep sleeping in the sense that it is the witness of all these states. Abhoga means rapturous, joyous and sambhavah means to abide.
Witness abides in all the different states
This statement says that even during the different states of waking, dreaming and deep sleeping, the rapturous state of the “I” consciousness- the fourth state - abides. What this means is that the witness consciousness is always present in all the different states. It is the reality of those states. It is the unchanging part of all those states. Whilst you are waking there is the state of the “I” ness; while you are dreaming as well there is the state of the “I” ness. When you are deep sleeping there is also the state of the “I” ness but you are not aware of it.
The Sutras speak about the fourth of consciousness that is different from just waking, dreaming and deep sleeping. That is the rapturous state; this beautiful joyous state of witnessing “I” consciousness and it is present when you experience turya. You see it in the waking and dreaming states and you go into deep sleep with it. This means that you go into a profound sleep and you wake up with this beautiful, joyous, rapturous state. So this is the goal – the ability to experience this state.
The reason why I have chosen this statement is because it lies in other states of consciousness. We have been discussing the waking state throughout the past days, but this state allows us to speak about the dream state and also the deep sleep state. For me these are very profound experiences as they have a lot to teach you.
Dream – a state of reality
I would like to say to you that I have had profound spiritual experiences in the dream state, especially so during the 40-Days of 1978. They gave me a greater understanding of what the dream state is. It is not an imaginary state. When we go to sleep and dream, that is not just a random occurrence or an unimportant state of being. It is a profound state of being. In fact, I will venture to say that the actual experience of the crown, for me, came in a dream state and extended itself into the waking state. This shows how powerful the dream state is. It is not like an unimportant state, it is not like a state that is a figment of the imagination. It is also a state of reality that belongs to the subtle world.
What is interesting about this sutra is that it is saying that even when you are dreaming, the rapturous “I” consciousness is there. So this invites you to be more aware in your dream. If you go to sleep and you tell yourself, “I want to be more aware in my dream” and you begin to journal your dreams, you will be amazed at how much more present you will be in your dream.
Dream allows the mind to express those things that are suppressed, so if you are a follower of dreams you can actually see where some of your suppressed emotions are and you can deal with them. People call it “Dream Work” where they can look for suppressed healings or memories that influence your normal behaviour. In your dreams you see them.
In the dream state I have also had profound experiences of meeting souls who have passed on. This has been extremely exciting for me. It has given me a way of experiencing and communicating with them even after they have physically passed on.
“I” witnesses even in deep sleep
The deep sleep or profound sleep as a state of consciousness, allows us to see what can happen when the “I” is not in manifest form but still exists. That my “I” ness can still exist though not consciously manifested. That’s a beautiful thing, because we feel that when we have lost the sense of “I” that we have died; that there is no “me”. But the truth is, when you go into deep sleep you wake up again. The “I” never really did cease to exist. If it did, then that part of you will be completely gone.
If you observe how you feel just after you have gotten up from a profound sleep, you will feel the quality of rest. At that moment when you wake up from a profound sleep, if you just try to be a little more aware, you will actually feel “Wow! this is an extremely good rest.” Who is saying that? It is the witness who is there, now that it is able to express itself in the waking state. It is able to say now that it was an excellent rest. So it is actually expressing a feeling that was there in the deep sleep state.
Consciousness exists eternally
This is the idea that consciousness can continue to exist eternally, without the need to express itself in a conscious way. It gives the idea that consciousness is eternal. Even though it goes into deep sleep it emerges again. This is just food for thought, that the whole Universe can go into deep sleep, and it can also emerge again by the sheer force of the memories inside. What is unresolved inside has to push itself out again. That’s how the Universe works. That’s how we work. We are able to wake up again because we have a lot of memories, a lot of thoughts that are going to push from the Causal field- that field of memory- into conscious expression. So we wake up.
Here we see the idea of different states of consciousness: waking, dreaming, deep sleeping. That in these states we can experience a limited consciousness, especially so when we see how we are in the waking state or even the dreaming state. But the possibility of a fourth state of awareness exists, and this is the witness but it is a rapturous witness. It is a witness that is existing in all the other states.
Go into the space of effortlessness, rapture
So in a practical sense if every day and in every way in your conscious and even dreaming moments, you challenge yourself to observe, you can be aware of this witness inside of you. Try to see if you can get into that space where things become effortless, or what we called yesterday “the zone”. How can I be in harmony with everything around me? How can I be aware of the harmony where the doing or the effort becomes easy?
The idea of witnessing is not just to look and observe, but of going into the space where the effortlessness begins. If you are singing, for example, can you begin to witness yourself sing? Witness what the music is doing? Sometimes you might see when your body sways in a natural way to the music, that you will begin to get some of the effects. When you watch how you sing you may see how the song is coming in an effortless way from inside. But the idea is that when you touch the real thing, there is the sense of rapture, the joy. Turya bhoga sambhavah – the rapturous state of the “I” abides, exists.
Get into the practice, explore
I have left you with food for thought and also the invitation to practise in your everyday activities the idea of the witness. If I am walking, can I witness my walking? If I am speaking, can I witness my speaking? And are there moments of inspiration when I can feel that everything becomes effortless? If you explore those moments you begin to see more and more; the witness - that there is a part of me that is beyond the doer. There is another part of me, that even when doing is taking place it is not a part of me. That is witnessing.
Continue to explore this. In our meditation you have a chance to explore it. Meditation is just one of the activities in which you can explore it, but also remember in every thing you do, you can explore this awareness. This is the goal- to get to this state of awareness.
