Deep Sleep (Suṣupti)
Dreamless rest: no world, no dreams — a peaceful near-blankness, yet someone was there to enjoy it.
Suṣupti is dreamless deep sleep — the state in which both the outer world and the inner dream-world fall away, leaving a quiet, undivided rest. There are no objects here and no images, only a peaceful near-blankness; yet one wakes saying 'I slept well,' so some awareness must have been present. The contemplative traditions take this as a vital clue: a taste of consciousness without objects, though still veiled by a kind of unknowing.
How it traveled
- UpadeśasāhasrīKālaḍi (Kaladi) · 710explains
- VivekacūḍāmaṇiŚṛṅgeri (Sringeri) · 1400explains
Key passages(18)
Vivekacūḍāmaṇi · Śaṅkara (traditionally ascribed; authorship doubted)
'When a man being asleep, reposing, and at perfect rest sees no dreams, that is the Self, this is the immortal, the fearless, this is Brahman.' Then Indra went away satisfied in his heart. But before
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Bṛhadāraṇyaka Upaniṣad · Vedic Revelation (śruti)
Next, when he is in profound sleep, and knows nothing, there are the seventy-two thousand arteries called Hita, which from the heart spread through the body . Through them he moves forth and rests in
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Vivekacūḍāmaṇi · Śaṅkara (traditionally ascribed; authorship doubted)
He replied: "O Gârgya, As all the rays of the sun, when it sets, are gathered up in that disc of light, and as they, when the sun rises again and again, come forth, so is all this (all the senses) gat
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That which is night to all beings, in that the self-controlled man wakes. That in which all beings wake, is night to the Self-seeing Muni.
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