Tag: fourth state of consciousness

Turiya

The Witness That Is Everything

Most understand Turiya as the silent witness beyond waking, dreaming, and deep sleep. It is often considered the empty observer, untouched by the movements of mind, body, and experience. This perspective, though true, is not the full picture. The notion of an “empty witness” can still carry a subtle duality—a sense of something separate, detached, and standing apart from what it observes. Yet, Turiya is not merely a state one enters or a refuge from illusion; it is the foundation of all states and, ultimately, the realization that there was never an “other” to witness.

The empty witness is not just within the individual who reaches the fourth state of consciousness. That would suggest an inside and an outside, a seer and a seen. Turiya dissolves that illusion. It is not simply the background of experience but the existence of experience itself, witnessing its unfolding as everything.

To say that Turiya is merely an untouched observer is to misunderstand its nature. This assumption can lead to a false dichotomy, where one believes that ultimate truth lies in detachment alone. However, this view neglects the profound insight that the so-called witness is not separate from the world it observes. There is no distance between observer and observed, no boundary where witnessing begins or ends. It is all Turiya.

This recognition dismantles the very scaffolding of selfhood. The one who thought they were the observer disappears into the realization that the witnessing presence is not housed within them—it is existence itself, seeing, knowing, and being all things simultaneously.

What changes when this is seen? The sense of a separate self dissolves, revealing that awareness is not confined to a particular point of view. The wind moving through the trees, the laughter of a child, the pulse of the universe—all of it is the same knowing, the same presence. There is no need to “enter” Turiya because nothing has ever been outside of it.

This is not an experience to be gained, not a state to be reached. It is what has always been. The seeker who longed to discover it was never apart from it. The effort to grasp it was the very movement of Turiya exploring itself. There is only this, endlessly revealing itself to itself, never absent, never other than what is.

Morgan O. Smith

Yinnergy Meditation/Neurofeedback, Spiritual Life Coaching & My Book, Bodhi in the Brain…Available Now!

https://linktr.ee/morganosmith

Turiya

The Unseen Ground of Consciousness

Turiya, often described as the fourth state of consciousness, stands beyond waking, dreaming, and deep dreamless sleep. What does it feel like to exist within this state? The experience itself cannot be fully captured by language, for Turiya transcends the usual boundaries of perception. It is not merely a state that one “enters” and “leaves”; rather, it is the ground upon which all other states rest.

There’s a subtle, yet profound, recognition that one is not the individual witness, but the infinite awareness in which all phenomena arise and dissolve. In Turiya, the experience is not of observing the states of waking, dreaming, and deep dreamless sleep separately, but of witnessing them as simultaneous expressions of a unified field of consciousness. Here, distinctions lose their meaning—what was once experienced as separate now collapses into a seamless continuum.

This state has often been referred to as the first stage of enlightenment. Yet, even such descriptions fall short. The essence of Turiya is not something “attained” through effort. Instead, it is revealed through the dissolution of identity, a quiet remembrance of one’s true nature.

Imagine an eternal presence where time does not move, where forms arise and fall like waves on the surface of an ocean, yet the ocean itself remains unshaken. Divinity, in this context, is not something external or far-off—it is what you are. The divine becomes aware of itself, witnessing all, yet remaining untouched by the movements within itself. It is existence contemplating its own essence, eternal and ever-present.

The beauty of Turiya is in its simplicity. It does not need complex metaphors to explain itself. It is felt as a continuous hum of being, beyond concepts, thoughts, and emotions—a recognition that everything, including the experiencer, is merely a reflection of the same undivided consciousness.

To experience Turiya is to see the eternal play of life from the perspective of the timeless. It is to understand that the very states we once believed to be separate—waking, dreaming, deep dreamless sleep—are all mere movements within the One.

Morgan O. Smith

Yinnergy Meditation, Spiritual Life Coaching & My Book, Bodhi in the Brain…Available Now!

https://linktr.ee/morganosmith