The Great Path - Oshorajneesh.com

CHAPTER 2. THE STARS MIRRORED
KNOWING WAKEFULNESS, DREAMING AND DEEP SLEEP – EACH SEPARATELY – -TURIYA,
THE FOURTH STATE, IS ATTAINED.
Turiya, the fourth state, means supreme knowledge. The fourth state means that there is no
darkness of any sort within. All the inner landscape is illuminated; no area of darkness remains.
Nothing of ourselves, neither within nor without, is unknown to us. The light of wakefulness makes
everything visible.
As we are now, we are either awake or dreaming or in deep sleep. We have no idea of the fourth
state. When we are awake we see the outside world, but we ourselves are in darkness. Objects
become visible, but we have no knowledge of our inner self. The world lights up but not the soul.
This is the state of semi-wakefulness, half-wakefulness.
What we call waking up in the morning, is just this half-wakeful state. This is not really worthwhile
because it is the useless which is visible; the useful remains hidden. We see the rubbish, but the
diamonds remain in obscurity. We cannot see our own selves though the whole world is made visible
to us.
The second state is the state of dreaming. In dreaming we lose not only ourselves, but also the
outside world. All we see are images floating in the mind, reflections of the external world. We see
these reflections as we would see the moon or the stars mirrored in a lake. On waking we see things
distinctly; in dreams we see them as reflections.
The third state that we are acquainted with is deep sleep. In this state, first the external world, the
world of objects is lost to us; then the reflections fade, dreams disappear and we are left in total
darkness. This is known as deep sleep. In this state we have no knowledge either of the outer world
or of the inner world.
In the waking state we have knowledge of the external world. In the dream state, which is between
wakefulness and deep sleep, we have knowledge only of the reflections formed in the wakeful state,
but no knowledge of the objects without.
The fourth state is turiya. This state is the goal we are striving to reach. All meditations, all yoga, are
endeavors to reach the fourth state. The fourth state means knowledge of both, what is within and
what is without - complete wakefulness; there is no darkness within or without. This is what is known
as buddhahood. Mahavir called this enlightened state, jinatva. The light spreads everywhere, inside
and out; and in this light we know objects and also know our self. These sutras show how the fourth
state is attained.
The first sutra says:
KNOWING WAKEFULNESS, DREAMING AND DEEP SLEEP –
EACH SEPARATELY – TURIYA, THE FOURTH STATE IS
ATTAINED.
The Great Path 25 Osho