NOEMAYA

In a previous blog post, we went over the verses of Mandukya Upanishad with a brief commentary of Shankara. In summary, Atman or the Great Self, was envisaged as having four quarters: waking, dreaming, dreamless, and Turiya. Turiya, the transcendental state, was established as the highest state of realization in which the Unmanifest comes to itself. Verse 7 was devoted to Turiya, but there’s so much more that needs to be clarified about Turiya and the transcendental experience.

To begin with, and as Shankara has clarified too, Turiya is really not a state. The waking, dream, and dreamless phases of experience can be classified as states, but even so not in a mutually exclusive realities but rather as layers built on top of one another: the dream state is a layer superimposed on top of the dreamless state, and the the waking state is a third layer superimposed on top of both the dream and dreamless states, and this is done in a manner very similar to layers of sound in a work of music. Turiya, on the other hand, is not anything distinct from these layers; it is rather the reality of these state, that which gives them a sense of actuality and presence.

To put things back into perspective using our analogy of music: if waking, dreaming, and dreamless states are reverberations of instruments laid on top of each other on three different tracks, Turiya would be the tone that’s heard in each one; it is tone itself. So, Turiya is present in all tracks and yet transcends them all as each track is only a particular manifestation of tone, with silence of the dreamless state being the unmanifest state of tone.

Regarding the three states, and in order to reserve the word “consciousness” in reference to Turiya, these three cannot be said to be states of consciousness but rather the states of matter, for they do not by themselves possess the power of illumination or agency. Agency, on the other hand, is an apparent phenomenon created when consciousness is falsely superimposed on matter. Here, matter has a purely phenomenological sense; it’s that which is illumined or that which can become manifest. The closest word we have in western philosophical terminology to matter is “mind.” Matter in the modern scientific sense is therefore nothing but a fabrication of the mind, i.e. its gross manifestation, and hence it is even further removed from any place in metaphysics.

In summary, the waking, dreaming, and dreamless states are states of matter, i.e. mind, and not states of consciousness. Consciousness is devoid of all distinctions and differentiations and transcends the order of change and becoming. Becoming belongs to the order of matter where becoming is objectified in light of consciousness. Where in our modern science and even spiritual or drug-induced jargon we talk about states of consciousness, it’s just because consciousness is confused with contents of experience, and for all good reasons, for consciousness itself cannot become an object of any science or empirical investigation. Consciousness has no states or modalities.

One might wonder: what’s the point of making such distinctions? There are enough theories and beliefs about the world in religions and modern science, and adding more to them is of no avail. That’s true if we’re thinking simply of developing human understanding, but the goal here is not the development of human understanding but it is rather the realization of the ultimate ground of reality. If metaphysics is a science of the Real, science in the sense of bringing things to absolute self-evidence, then metaphysics must culminate in a direct realization of its subject-matter, i.e. the Absolute. In other words, metaphysics must lead to realization. Therefore, a proper, however provisional, articulation of the relation between the means and the goal is crucial in leading to such realization. This is especially more so now because a long history of philosophy and science has contaminated the original and effective sense of metaphysical terms, such as consciousness, Being, etc.. Without rescuing the original sense of these terms, metaphysics will fall flat on its face and become incapable of its promise.

The aspect of metaphysics that deals with clarification of the sense of the terms and relationships necessary in effective realization, is what’s called the doctrine. Doctrine is not a set of axioms and tools to be taken at face value and accepted blinding as a matter of faith. Doctrine is designed to clear up the path and common misunderstandings, some natural and some cultural, that are in the way of realization. For example, if doctrine is not clear about that fact that Turiya is not really a state and doesn’t stand in contrast to other states of matter (dream, dreamless, and waking), then the practitioner would fall into the endless pit of constantly seeking novel spiritual states and experiences, none of which has anything to do with Turiya and authentic realization. It’s a established part of Advaita doctrine as expounded by Shankara that work cannot lead to liberation, whether this work is service, or solitary spiritual practice, all of which presuppose that Turiya is point in the future and has pre-requisites for its realization. In fact, there are absolutely no conditions for the realization of Turiya, for such realization is not by any means removed from our immediate experience right here and right now.

Effective realization of Turiya is not a matter of changing states, for all changes run tangent to the sphere that ultimately needs to be penetrated in order to realize Turiya, and such penetration is rather a matter of seeing than seeking. As Swami Vivekananda has beautifully expressed, “Don’t seek. See!.”

The seeing that constitutes the highest realization is not a human seeing, for the human agency with all its cognitive faculties, is that which is seen through as a transparent, illusory, layer of phenomena when Turiya is realized. One can even say that what appears to be blocking the vision of Turiya is precisely the human cognition. The human seeing is sheer blindness in comparison to the seeing that’s uncovered in Turiya. This seeing is a flash of spiritual insight in which “the phenomenality of the universe is seen through.”

Therefore, the ultimate aim of doctrine is to progressively lead the aspirant to a state of perfect surrender and abandonment in which all seeking, including seeking of realization, is dropped. With consistent application of the doctrine and prolongation of such state (which is structurally similar to dreamless state), the illusion of phenomenal being will be broken through on its own accord. To put it another way using the earlier music analogy, Turiya is said to be realized when the aspirant succeeds in filtering out the two layers of sound belonging to the waking and dreaming states (experienced as thoughts in waking state) while he/she is in the waking state. Since the homogeneous silence of the dreamless state (the third, empty track) is still present in all states (including the waking state), the result of such filtration is that the spirant, while in the waking state, is bound to experience the dreamless (formless), undifferenced state. Realization of Turiya is precisely the moment when the aspirant succeeds in recreating the dreamless state while in the waking state. The track is being played (essence of wakefulness) but the two layers that manifest tone in its particular aspect are somehow muted. Obviously, the aspirant himself in its particular, individualized existence, must be muted as well.

What is seen as a result of such realization, is a recognition that none of the states mentioned above were truly real; or, that the reality of such states was indeed nothing but the reality of Turiya falsely superimposed on phenomena. Turiya, therefore, constitutes a reversal of all relationships: what’s considered as being and concrete in world-human-experience is realized to be an abstraction and a non-being; and what was considered to be abstract and non-being (i.e. Turiya), is realized to be the concrete and the sole Being, the indivisible and nondual reality which both Advaita vedanta and phenomenology allude to as the highest realization.

Something else that must be added about doctrine is that it can itself become a prison once its original aim is forgotten. If the aspirant stops at the doctrine and takes it as a statement of the true and final relationship between the world and transcendence, then the doctrine will become more of a hinderance than a liberating tool that in the final analysis and post-realization needs to be dispensed with. Upon realization of Turiya, the doctrine is realized to be as illusory and false as any other worldly construct or belief, including all science, philosophy, and religion. But the aspirant, upon returning, doesn’t see these things as absolutely false and has no intention of crushing them; he/she, rather, has seen the true import of such statements, that though they’re absolutely false, they’re relatively true. He doesn’t come back with a conviction about the world and its dogmatic constructs but rather with a deep understanding of and compassion for them, for he now knows that all things, however false, are attempts at describing the same ineffable Absolute.

We can end with an analogy to illuminate the paradoxical relation between the world and Turiya, and the doctrine as a means of attaining transcendence: the aspirant always starts from the individual state where the world and Turiya are seen to be at two distinct levels, the ground and the roof. The doctrine is a ladder that provides a means of reaching the roof. Once the aspirant climbs the ladder and reaches the roof, they look back and see that the distinction in level was illusory to begin with; in fact, the low ground and the ladder were nothing but paintings that created the illusion of hight, similar to street 3-D art that creates an optical illusion. In this sense, there’s no need for that ladder anymore, for there’s no low ground and no roof; the aspirant doesn’t need to climb down, for there’s no down from where he stands. From the point of view of realization, there’s always been one level, only appearing to be differentiated by way of optical illusion. In such transcendence, it’s also realized the the aspirant himself, and the previously given act of transcendence, were all paintings as well. Therefore, it’s not accurate to say that the aspirant will return, for there’s nothing real to return to.

All this being said, the painting in this analogy has the strange effect that once it’s looked at, it’s mistaken for reality again; the same realized aspirant, upon looking down on the painting will forget its original nature and will take levels as distinctly real again, and consequently he will start climbing the ladder again thinking he’s at the bottom. It must be understood that as long as Turiya is identified with an individual being, i.e. the aspirant in this case, it won’t be safe from the hypnotizing effect of the paining for reasons of principle.

Elaborating further on the strangeness of this illusion, the aspirant that climbs the illusory ladder from an illusory ground level, upon realization of Turiya sees that he was there at the top to begin with, rendering his climb and efforts also illusory. He hasn’t arrived at or realized anything. He’s been there at the top all along, simply hallucinating that It’s an aspirant in a pit trying to climb up and out of it. Imagine a Penrose staircase where upon traversing the illusory steps one is seen to have already been where one started; the traversing was itself part of the illusion.

To put this in the context of some mystical traditions that use theories of reflection as part of the doctrine, the apparent aspirant and its climbing is in fact the reflection of the Self in the Heraclitean flux (the fluid painting) that produces the hypnotizing effect. This should remind us of the story of Narcissus from Greek mythology who was so impossibly handsome that he fell in love with his own image reflected in a pool of water. The Self that’s apparently looking closer and closer at the waters of Lethe, sees Its own image getting closer and closer to It, and being hypnotized by the effect of Lethe (river of forgetfulness) thinks that it is someone else trying to emerge from inside the water. This apparently emerging reflection is nothing but the spiritual aspirant. It’s indeed the Self’s movement that animated this whole illusion of the world, of the aspirant, and of all seeking and realizing. The human’s seeking to realize the Self is indeed the Self’s seeking to remember its own true nature. The aspirant is instantly annihilated when the Self realizes its true nature. As sufis put it: the longing of the dervish to find God, is in reality God’s longing to find Itself which comes to fruition when the dervish is annihilated.

Turiya, when captivated by its own objectifying nature, is experienced as the aspirant, and when sees this captivation as mere captivation is freed from that captivation. An apparent self-forgetfulness in world-captivation is the very nature of Turiya. This is just a kind of thing that it is: it has a mode of wakefulness that arises from self-forgetfulness and is marked with illusory, differentiated being; it also has a mode of wakefulness that is recognized in awakening to the illusion of the former wakefulness. Ultimately, even these two modes are illusory and belong only to the hypnotizing painting. Turiya has no modes or states, and more importantly, it can’t be explained from within the painting (the world of phenomena and human expression) or in terms of it. Turiya is to be ultimately realized and not understood. When It’s realized, It is seen as the true nature of all things and the ultimate reference of all meanings.