Consciousness Diagram................................................................
“experienced” by meditators in one Advaita tradition, namely that ofThis diagram characterizes one model of consciousness as^
Nisargadatta Maharaj and his teacher Siddharameshwar. You needto understand that all models are false, incomplete metaphors, but at (^)
the same time can offer the seeking mind a conceptual structure tohang on to, allowing the seeker to stop philosophizing about (^)
consciousness, and to just dive within. Other teachers will have othermodels, other methods, and the students will make other discoveries. (^)
There is no one best way, or best awakening.
starting with the everyday experience of body and world. This isSiddharameshwar states there are four levels of consciousness,^
where everyone habitually lives.
Subtle Body, which is our inner, “mental” world of inner space or void,“Below” that, or one might say, more “subtle” than that is the^
the light of whether called Kundalini, Chi, or Prana.consciousness, emotions, and the internal energies,
loses awareness of the world, the Subtle body, and even all selfBelow that is the great dark Void where the meditator entirely^
awareness. It is a state of conscious sleep, wherein after one hasreturned from this state, he or she “remembers” that he or she was (^)
still existent, but there is no trace of what this state was likeexperientially. It is a veil of forgetfulness and is the flip side of (^)
“knowingness.” The Absolute knows both knowing and unknowing.
Below that is our core Self experience, the 'I Am', Turiya. Its nature isof brilliant light, ecstatic love, and infinitely flowing energies, or Shakti. (^)
This bliss energy “leaks” upwards, through the Causal and Subtlebodies, into the everyday awareness of the persistent meditator.