Awareness is an attribute while Consciousness is not; one can be conscious of being aware, but not aware of consciousness. Collective Consciousness is the totality of consciousness, beyond all–being as well as not-being.
-Ram Ramanathan, deliberately misquoting Nisargadatta Maharaj’s English Translation
In awareness and consciousness, I deliberately interpret this famous quote from a self-realized master, Nisargadatta Maharaj. I truly believe that his expressions originally in Marathi, may have been wrongly translated.
In Sanskrit, the word Pragya denotes awareness, and Chit denotes consciousness. In all spiritual literature, Chit rules above Pragya, consciousness above awareness. It would have been impossible for a realized person such as Nisargadatta to have misinterpreted this.
The Mandukya Upanishad is the go-to scripture of the levels of awareness moving into consciousness. It starts with the mindful awareness of the body, senses, and the mind at the individual level, and moves up three levels through subtle energy awareness, causal awareness, and finally disengaged collective conscious awareness. These are the four states as described in the Mandukya Upanishad.
Mindful Awareness
Mindful Awareness is the individual awareness of what our body and mind sense, retain and remember. This is the minimum level of awareness we need to function. In this state we are aware of what we see, hear, touch, feel and smell. We often remember and retain these memories, at least for a while. Though some say only 30% of what we sense is retained, with practice and awareness one can increase this. Unfortunately, this is a basic skill we oftentimes lose in pursuit of wants of wealth, power, and enjoyment, which provide instant gratification without awareness.
The process underlying this is complex, involving neurobiological, psychological, and psychical processes handled by our mind with tremendous ease and speed. I use the word mind rather than the brain because the intelligence system involved in this data processing, storage, and retention is spread throughout our cellular system and not confined to our neural network in the brain.
Dream State Awareness
Dream State Awareness is akin to the subconscious awareness states described by Freud and Jung. As different from Mindful Awareness, which happens at the beta level of the brain wave function, this higher-level awareness occurs at alpha brain wave level function. Meditation, deep relaxation, and REM sleep state initiate this level of awareness.
At this level, sensing, remembering, and retaining are secondary, and may not always happen. What happens is a subtler level of deeper awareness that relaxes, nurtures, and heals. What we learn in these estates can be foundational and transformational. If you experience a nightmare, the emotions remain, though there is no physical evidence. The gross elements of sensation are not experienced, only the subtler elements of emotions and cognition.
Deep Sleep Awareness
Deep Sleep Awareness is akin to the pure unconscious state of Freudian Jungian awareness, in which there is no evidence of sensing, feeling, or cognition. These occur at even subtler and deeper levels on mind activity at theta and delta level brain wave functions. The body needs to be at rest and all of the non-autonomic mind systems as well. What is in action here is the autonomic nervous system alone, taking care of survival, deep healing, and rejuvenation. This happens with consistent practice of meditation techniques such as Vipassana and Yoga Nidra.
Mandukya Upanishad terms this state as Pragya, awareness, as a differentiated state from consciousness, which it leads to. In the first two levels of Mindful and Dream State Awareness, we are still in the individual consciousness level. However, at the Deep Sleep Awareness level, we can if we practise glimpsing the Collective Consciousness level of awareness.
Mindless Fourth State of Awareness
Mindless Fourth State of Awareness is awareness of consciousness of the highest order. This occurs at the gamma level of brain wave function. I speak from experience and willing to evidence this under controlled conditions. This state of awareness was studied and recorded by Dr. Herbert Benson of Harvard University. There are several studies linking deep meditation with gamma waves.
This Fourth state of awareness, called Turiya in Mandukya Upanishad, simply the Fourth State, is a detached, disengaged, witnessing mode of consciousness, transcending the other three. This is the true “being” state where you just “are.” You are no longer an actor in the drama of your life, merely a witness. This is a state similar to the samadhi state in yoga, and the Nibbana state of Buddha. It is a state of acceptance, some say the state of complete surrender to the flow of the universe, in which all that prevails is acceptance, compassion, gratitude, and bliss.
At Coacharya, we call this the Mindless State. Zen calls it the No Mind State. We help, learners willing, learn this process to achieve mastery in coaching presence, one in which the coach is absent in ego, and present only as a disengaged witness. Our logo of a zero atop infinity, symbolising a meditative yogi, represents the infinite energy potential we have when our body-mind is mindless.
Mindless state of Aware Collective Consciousness is an energy state experienced in the material body. The wave and particle co-exist in alignment with the Quantum Theory.
It is possible to experience it. It’s impossible to teach, but possible to learn. Join us if you are brave.
