Millions eat bread...

[yajvan]

hariḥ oṁ
~~~~~~

namasté


Millions eat bread but few know how to make it.
Millions turn on lights every day but few know of the electrons that make this occur.
Millions drive auto's yet few can explain how it really works or even how to change a tire.

99.99% of the human population cycle through 3 states of consciousness every day (wake, dream, sleep)
yet few know the 4th ( turīya&#185 the foundation of all the other 3 states.

How curious life can be, no?

Yet there is hope... I can learn to bake, learn to be an electrician , learn to be a mechanic and I can take on sādhana
and expose & experience this turīya.





praṇām

1. turīya - constituting the 4th part ; some also call this nirguṇa brahma or the transcendent

[Believer]

1. turīya - constituting the 4th part ; some also call this nirguṇa brahma or the transcendent

For the benefit of us, your laymen disciples, please don't be so frugal with words.
Communication from a Sadhak to Sadhak is at a higher level, but from a Sadhak to laymen has to be 'dumbed down'; else we will continue to eat bread, without knowing how to make it.

[yajvan]

hariḥ oṁ
~~~~~~

namasté Believer,

For the benefit of us, your laymen disciples, please don't be so frugal with words.
Communication from a Sadhak to Sadhak is at a higher level, but from a Sadhak to laymen has to be 'dumbed down'; else we will continue to eat bread, without knowing how to make it.

Then lets break bread and enjoy...If one wished to bathe in the knowledge of this 4th:

• turīya तुर्य - the forth or forming the 4th part; yet there are no 'parts' other thenturīya being 4th in line of wake , dream and sleep or turīya a 4th ( some too say a 4th part)
• turīyātīta is turīya + atīta - the 4th + beyond, past. Hence turīyātīta is beyond the 4th. atīta अतीत - gone beyond, past

The following posts will (IMHO) offer a substantial foundation on this matter:

The import of turīya: http://www.hindudharmaforums.com/showthread.php?t=1822

Finding turīya : http://www.hindudharmaforums.com/showthread.php?t=2996

Revisting turīya: http://www.hindudharmaforums.com/showthread.php?t=3312



praṇām

[Adhvagat]

Yajvan, thanks for that. I was wondering about Turiya end even revisiting some old threads you commented about it.

Since I'm a laymen, terms like Self (in its various applications) and Turiya make me feel completely lost!

Recently I was reflecting on the concept of Deus Ex Machina, because someone said that Deus Ex Machina only made sense in dreams, it was dream logic. However, we don't know how to create thoughts out of electrical impulses, we don't know how to pump blood and bring a body to life, and even though we don't master the basis of life, we're experiencing life right now... Life itself is Deus Ex Machina!

[yajvan]

hariḥ oṁ
~~~~~~

namasté PI

Yajvan, thanks for that. I was wondering about Turiya end even revisiting some old threads you commented about it.

Since I'm a laymen, terms like Self (in its various applications) and Turiya make me feel completely lost!

Yes, I can see how this can occur. I often wonder why the wise stay with the notion of Self as ātman. I will assume it is done to personalize it a bit more.
So, what I did was bend. I went with their defintions. Yet when I think of Self I think ātman, being all pervasive Self.
Yet once it is experinced just once, then one says ahhh! now I understand.


On this turīya

Svāmī lakṣman-jū says it this way:
when the awareness becomes fully illumined in its own Self and takes a firm hold of turiya and does not lose this
not even for a moment that then is turīyātīta .

The upaniṣads tell us this Self ( ātman) is the size of 1/100th of a hair. Are they saying that is its dimension? The wise are telling us it is
very subtle, very innocent, yet is pervasive. There is no place it is not i.e. pracaya - a heap , mass , quantity = totality.

This turīya is found in these gaps, in the middle, in madhya¹ . We initially must shut out all the distractions initially to appreciate it in meditation. We silence the senses and direct the mind to subtler levels to experience this subtle turīya. We are culturing the mind to experience it very innocently.

Then over time we can entertain activity AND still experience this SELF/turīya simultaneously. This is the essence of karma yoga.

This is the refinement of the nervous system. Hence we come to rūpātitā¹ as our personal experience.

praṇām

words

• madhya middlemost , intermediate , central
• rūpātitā - rūpā+ati+tā : rūpā = having the form + ati = beyond, surpassing + tā = crossing