Questions to ponder over part 2

[Guest guest]

Anyone who ponders the nature of consciousness comes to realize that there

are three modes of experience: waking, dream, and dreamless sleep. All three

of these states are experienced by a single witness who says: " I slept

without dream, " " I slept and dreamed, " and " I am now awake. " Who is that

witness? This is Gargya's inquiry. Who is the unchanging witness of change?

Who is the unseen seer? For no intelligent person of unclouded intellect can

doubt the existence of such a ONE.

 

Sleep

 

" 'As the rays of the sun, O Gargya, when he sets,' replied the sage, 'gather

themselves up in his disk of light, to come out again when he rises, so the

senses gather themselves up in the mind, the highest of them all. Therefore

when a man does not hear, see, smell, taste, touch, speak, grasp, enjoy, we

say that he sleeps. Only the Pranas are then awake in the body, and the mind

is led nearer to the Self.' " (Prashna Upanishad 4:2-4)

 

Prana is the primal life-force or vital energy. The prana that manifests in

the evolving universe also manifests in the evolving body of each human

being. In the body there are five basic forms of prana: 1) Prana, the prana

that moves upward; 2) Apana: The prana that moves downward, producing the

excretory functions in general. 3) Vyana: The prana that holds prana and

apana together and produces circulation in the body. 4) Samana: The prana

that carries the grosser material of food to the apana and brings the

subtler material to each limb; the general force of digestion. 5) Udana: The

prana which brings up or carries down what has been drunk or eaten; the

general force of assimilation.

 

The pranas also correspond to the five elements: earth (prithvi), water

(apa), fire (tejas), air (vayu), and ether (akasha). One of these five

elements is the foundation for one of the five senses: earth=smell,

water=taste, fire=sight, air=touch, and ether=hearing/speech.

 

In the waking state all the pranas are quite active and fundamentally

outflowing, even those that maintain the internal functions of the body

being externalized through being expended in the fulfillment of their tasks.

But in sleep they withdraw into the inner reservoirs of the body and the

state of sleep occurs. On the subtlest energy level they withdraw into the

manas, the energy field we call the mind. For the mind is the highest

" sense, " being the sum and goal of them all. It is not amiss to say that the

senses serve the mind-at least when the right order prevails. Otherwise they

drag the mind helplessly along addicting and enslaving it. Breaking the web

of this addiction-slavery is then impossible without the practice of

pranayama-control and refinement of the pranas. For this reason all viable

spiritual traditions have methods that involve breath-the most objective

manifestation of prana-to some degree. (See Chapter Five: Breath and Sound

in Meditation in Om Yoga-Its Theory and Practice.)

 

When the pranas withdraw into the mind, their distracting activities

lessen-unless they occupy and overwhelm the mind with constant and vivid

dreaming. When/If the mind is thus granted a reprieve from their clamor, it

begins to sense what is behind it, just as it is behind the senses. The mind

is the witness of the senses, but it is also witnessed. That ultimate

witness is the Self. Therefore the upanishad says that in sleep " the mind is

led nearer to the Self. "

 

(to be continued)

OM

 

 

 

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