Four States of Being
Human beings are structured with three faculties of mind, namely sensory faculty, ego and intellect, and the physical body. The fourfold human being can exist in four possible states.
Three of the four states, namely waking state, dream sleep state, and dreamless sleeping state, are natural and automatic. We move from one to the other amongst them naturally and effortlessly while conscious effort is needed to enter the fourth state of deep contemplation of which only humans are capable. If we understand the need to enter this state, the required human effort will be forthcoming.
Our sensory faculty functions in the following ways:
- Response to unconscious and autonomic physiological stimuli of the body to maintain biological survival. This functionality works unconsciously in an autonomic manner in all three natural states and is run under conscious control in the contemplative state.
- Subconscious or conscious response to stimuli from our immediate surroundings. This functionality characterizes the waking state and is absent in the other three states.
- Subconscious or conscious response to the memory of past sense experience of stimuli from our immediate surroundings. This functionality works as stated in the waking state whereas in the contemplative state is characterized by the shutting down of the subconscious or conscious responses while the experiential memory related with a specific object of contemplation is subjected to conscious processing in early stages. The ultimate stage of the contemplative state is marked by total lack of processing of any past memory. Then, there is no activity of the mind, just consciousness with its ability to animate the mind and body. Arrival at this point of the fourth state is the highest achievement of which a human being is capable.