Susupti

[Greg Goode]

At 12:17 PM 10/13/97 -0600, Nanda Kumar wrote:
>In an earlier response to my statement about the body and mind not being
>negated, somebody brought up the subject of susupti (dreamless, deep
>sleep). As far as my understanding goes, the concept of susupti is used
>only to highlighten the concept of Maya and it's not really important in
>itself.

This is true, it's mainly a teaching point.  An easy reference because
everyone has had experience with it and can relate.  It's never the
endpoint.  There is one teacher, Francis Lucille, who equates deep sleep with
the formess awareness that we actually are.  But most others differentiate
Susupti from Turiya something like this:

                    Susupti       Turiya
                    =======       ======
Ego present?         No            No
Awareness present?   Yes           No
Tamas present?       No            Yes


So the idea is to realize the state in which there is awareness without ego.

Ramana Maharshi has spoken of "the state beyond Turiya," which I think is
also a teaching point, since the Mandukya Upanishad doesn't mention it in
its catsupad doctrine of the 4 parts to the Self.

--Greg