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That’s a powerful phrase — “Ascending the Stairway of Waking, Dreaming, and Deep Sleep: Swapna Nidra Jnana Sadhana – An Advaita Insight Exploration Path.” Here's a structured breakdown and summary in bullet points with clarifying quotes and insights from an Advaita Vedanta perspective:
🧘♂️ Swapna-Nidra-Jnana Sadhana: Exploring Consciousness Through the Three States
📍 Context: The Three States of Consciousness in Advaita Vedanta
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Jagrat (Waking) – Experience of the external world through the senses.
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Swapna (Dreaming) – Mental world experienced internally.
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Nidra (Deep Sleep) – Absence of individual experience, presence of pure potentiality.
“You are not the waking body, nor the dreaming mind, nor the blankness of sleep — you are the witness of all three.” – Mandukya Upanishad
🪜 Ascending the Stairway: A Nondual Practice Path
1. Jagrat Sadhana – Waking Insight
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Recognize that waking life is just one layer of reality.
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Cultivate witness consciousness while interacting with the world.
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Practice neti neti (not this, not this) to disidentify from the body and roles.
“The waking world is no more real than the dream — both arise in mind and dissolve in mind.”
2. Swapna Sadhana – Dream Inquiry
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Observe dreams as spontaneous projections of the mind.
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Practice lucid dreaming or yoga nidra to witness the mind in its raw form.
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Reflect on how the ego and self-image also appear and dissolve in dreams.
“Who is the ‘I’ that watches the dream? That same ‘I’ watches the waking state.”
3. Nidra Sadhana – Deep Sleep Contemplation
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Deep sleep is the gateway to pure consciousness, even though the ego isn’t active.
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Reflect: If there is no ‘you’ in deep sleep, who woke up and said “I slept well”?
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Realization dawns that pure awareness is present even without objects or thoughts.
“In deep sleep, there is no ego, no duality — only Brahman remains.”
🔁 Turiya – The Fourth State (The Goal of the Sadhana)
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The fourth state (Turiya) underlies and transcends all three.
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It is pure, unchanging awareness, not subject to waking, dreaming, or sleep.
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Realizing Turiya is the essence of Jnana (Self-knowledge) and liberation (moksha).
“Turiya is not the experience of waking, dreaming, or sleep. It is the background silence in which all three appear and disappear.”
🛤️ Jnana Sadhana – The Path of Knowledge
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Use observation of the three states as a tool for self-inquiry.
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Regular contemplation: Who is the one constant through all states?
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Realization comes not by effort, but by direct seeing of the Self as awareness.
“That which illumines waking, dreaming, and sleep — that Thou Art (Tat Tvam Asi).”
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