Three Dimensions of Life
We must know that we have three dimensions that everyone goes through. Waking, dreaming and sleeping. We don’t understand these three dimensions well – usually, we ignore them. We just do not even pay any attention to our dreams. We don’t pay attention to our deep sleep or even ponder on it. If we do this, then we can know the fourth state of consciousness, which is none of this but is in the background of all that, which one can experience in meditation.
Every night when we sleep or even when we take a nap in the afternoon, do we know what happens? There are three levels of sleep that we experience. If it’s deep sleep, we are simply gone. Then there is light sleep. And REM sleep, where there are dreams.
Wakefulness and sleep are like sunrise and darkness. Dream is like the twilight in between and meditation is like the flight to the outer space, where there is no sunset, no sunrise, nothing!
-Gurudev Sri Sri Ravi Shankar
You Have Three Bodies
The ancient scriptures say we have three bodies: the physical one, the subtle one and the causal body. We have a subtle body that is made up of all thoughts and emotions. When we are sleeping in the REM state, our subtle body is working. This is functioning in the dream state. This is why in dreams, you can see colours, you can smell fragrances and you can feel the sense of touch – you can even experience a warm hug! Without using any of the five senses, you experience all the five senses. Our subtle body is functioning in the dream state.
In dreams, we experience all that we do in the waking state of the real world or what we consider the real world. Scientists say even this is not the real world!
But in deep sleep, we experience another level of our body or the third part, the causal body. The causal body is functioning in deep sleep. That is all energy wherein you don’t feel the boundaries, you don’t feel the body at all. But when we wake up from deep sleep, what is the experience we have? Energetic!
If you are only in your subtle body and you had dreams all night when you wake up you will feel very tired but when you have had deep sleep, then the phenomenon is that you are with your causal body which is the source of all energy, enthusiasm, freshness and liveliness. So when you wake up after a deep sleep you feel very refreshed, energized and charged. We sleep every night but we have never met with the Sleep; we’ve never shaken hands with our deep sleep; meditation helps you to do that.
Is Meditation the Same as Sleep?
Meditation is akin to deep sleep but is not deep sleep. If you sleep too long, you feel more tired. It’s similar for people, when they are intoxicated, when they wake up there is a hangover. When you feel more tired and lazy and do not feel like doing anything. The same also happens post drugs also, recreational drugs. After that people feel whacked up and completely drained and depleted and have no energy.
This doesn’t happen with meditation. Meditation helps you to tap into that source of energy which is part of your own body, your causal body. Meditation gives you the high and the strength when you come out of meditation and it is healthy. It boosts our immune system up to five times. There is scientific evidence that says meditation boosts our immune system.
Especially during the COVID period, healthcare professionals around the world were into meditation because they found it so beneficial. There was tremendous pressure on healthcare professionals and the medical community during COVID-19. Especially in the first few months, before the vaccine came out, they didn’t know what to do. How should they treat patients? At that time Gurudev conducted meditation for people around the world twice a day, where more than one million doctors and nurses attended. Their feedback was excellent; they said it really helped them to carry on and sustain their energy level through the tough time.
Going into silence unconsciously is sleeping. Choosing to be silent consciously is meditation. This gives you more energy and can help open doors to subtle dimensions.
Gurudev Sri Sri Ravi Shankar
Ticket to Liberation
It’s through the five senses that the mind gets into a state of non-dissolving. When your mind retreats from all the five senses and goes inside, what happens? You are completely in Laiyy (which means rhythm and dissolving). This is what happens in sleep. Where are you in sleep? You are dissolved!
The sense of ‘I, my, mine’ is the cause of bondage. Liberation comes when this sense is dissolved. You cannot be bound for twenty-four hours. So you go to sleep. In sleep, you lose the sense of ‘l, my, mine’. When you are sleeping what and where are you? You lose your name and your identity. You don’t even know that your body is lying on the bed. You lose every identity. You cannot say that it is Sri Sri Ravi Shankar’s sleep and no one can take it. Sleep is sleep. There is no Sri Sri and no Ravi Shankar. Nobody is there – no name and no form. Just sleep.
Meditation, on the other hand, is consciously being aware and dissolving the ‘I’ in me; when ‘I’ ceases to exist, that is freedom; that is liberation.
With sleep, someone who is tired after a day of hard work will sleep well even if there are mosquitoes. You have to work hard to enjoy sleep. In this world, we can only enjoy opposite values in turn, but the happiness of samadhi is far greater. Meditation takes you beyond the opposite values.
Yog Nidra (NSDR: Non-Sleep Deep Rest)
Nature compels you to go into silence unconsciously and that is sleep. Sleep gives you energy. Today, too much dreaming, and wanting to do too many things has caused insomnia. You will fall asleep like a baby when you keep in mind two things: “I want nothing. I do nothing.”
Sleeping consciously is yoga nidra. If you have trouble sleeping, you may want to try yoga nidra. There is an online yoga course on sleeping too. You can do that. You can learn much more in the Art of Living Workshop to Get Rid of Anxiety & Sleep Disorder.
Sleep During Meditation
An audience member asked Gurudev the following question: Is it alright to sleep during meditation?
Gurudev replied: It’s fine unless you are snoring and troubling others! Meditation is deep rest. What is samadhi? It is equivalent to a million years of rest. If you meditate even for a second and sleep before and after, never mind.
