Consciousness- The big puzzle Part-1?
There are three states of Consciousness, waking, dreaming and sleeping.
Why do we call them consciousness?
Because in each state, self is aware and has an experience of objects.
Understanding the process of becoming aware or conscious
Light from objects falls on our eye and an inverted image is created. This light is Photons, an electromagnetic vibration. Image is transmitted through neuro-transmitters (Chemical energy) to the back of the brain in the occipital region, which is a black box and light never enters there. The signals are transmitted further to various parts of the brain and the neurons on the cortex vibrate. These vibrations are dissected as object.
Whatever happens in the brain happens with the vibratory fields.
The act of seeing is the dissection of the vibratory fields and not of light.
Touch, taste, smell and hearing are similar processes. Information is passed through neuro transmitters to the brain where it is the vibration of the neuron field is dissected. We see or we become conscious or aware of the object.
Who is this, that had an experience?
This question is pushed under the carpet and this is the reason that we have confusion and questions in our mind about consciousness.
The one who is seeing, the one who is experiencing is Pure State of Consciousness and is known as “Drishta”.
Consciousness had three components
Objects
Senses of perception
Self (“I”)
All the three are necessary. Even if one is not present there is no consciousness.
When we become conscious we become aware of three vibratory fields of an object, which are dissected by the intellect but to us they appear as one. Brain is the processor of information and Mind is non-local infinite.
(Please refer to my blogs “Mindfulness Part 1,2,3” to understand difference between brain and mind)
A house, car. Mobil phone, dog, cat, tree, grass, hands, feet, you , me, black or white. Each image (Form) has a corresponding thought (Word or Name) in our mind.
When we spoke the word “Phone” it was sound on the gross level of speech.
1. The word was Name or title (Shabd or Naam). This is the first vibratory field on the gross level produced by our physical vocal cords.
2. The knowledge (Gyan) or its utilitarian value that it is an object with which we communicate is derived and conceived by the thinking mind/brain in the realm of thoughts. All thoughts, emotions and feelings are vibratory fields on finer levels than the spoken words.
3. However, Image (Roop or Arth) is cognised on the finest relative level of mind which contains the perfect image of the “Phone”. This image is an Idea like the blue print of an Architect.
Each vibratory field is an experience of the self.
The self is conscious on all levels.
There are hundreds of Phones, all different from each other but they are similar to the perfect image of the Phone in the mind. However, hard we may try to make a perfect phone in the physical realm but it will never match the perfect image of the phone in the non-material mind.
The perfect “Phone” does not exists physically but it exists as an idea in the non-material mind. The perfect phone has thousands of components like the screen, case, keys, the circuit boards, the batteries and they are also part of the “Perfect phone”. The perfect idea of each component is also located in the mind on the finest relative level.
Let’s wrap it up.
Self is conscious on all levels.
Sound (Name) of gross vibrations on the physical level
Knowledge (Utility functions) on subtle thinking level
Image on the finest relative level of vibrations
When we go beyond the levels of relativity into the field of silence, the Self, the experiencer is still there. In absence of any vibrations on physical, subtle and finest relative level, what does it experiences?
Vedic science has a fourth state, “Transcendental Consciousness”. This state not only has its own physiological and psychological correlates but is also a state of Pure Awareness???
In this state the self has an experience of the SELF.
Consciousness becomes Conscious of itself.
This is the beginning of the puzzle.
What is this SELF?
Who am I?
It is pure state of consciousness. Transcendental Consciousness, Turiya, Para, is beyond the five senses of perception.
Just the way we talked about the idea of a perfect phone, there is perfect IDEA of all ideas in the transcendental state of consciousness.
Where is consciousness then?
It is an eternal, omnipresent, omniscient, singularity without definition, non-local and unborn.
Please follow me for Part-2