A Conversation with a friend: Is consciousness a mind state?

A conversation with a friend: About consciousness and mind states.
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Questioner:
Is breathing an act of consciousness? Who breathes? What is living? Who is living? What is energy? Who is energy? If we did not have knowledge of the physical self how would we know who we were? Just as in deep sleep, no one is conscious of the one sleeping until when one wakes up?
Reply:
Breathing, perceiving, sensing … are body mind activities. Consciousness does not breathe directly. The body does, but in fact the body knows nothing of breathing. It is thought that says: ‘I am breathing’. It is thought that says: ‘The body is breathing’. Breathing is a cosmic process, like the weather. Its substance is consciousness, the source.

The body does not say I am breathing and knows nothing of breathing since it does not have an independent reality from the reality of consciousness. The body is not knowing. It is known. Like a tree knows nothing of leaves growing on the branches nor does water know nothing of flowing stream. It is thought that says such things. Thought is known but it is not knowing.
Energy is a term in physics that explains the concept of motion and acceleration. There is no who or what to it.
It is the identification that you, consciousness, are the body mind that gives you the impression that it is through the body mind that you can know who/what you are. Thus, erroneously, you rely on the senses and on the mind states to find out who/what you are, rather than recognizing the reality of consciousness as your direct experience.
Consciousness does not know itself via a conceptual system. It is directly ‘Self-knowing’. In deep sleep as well as in the waking state, consciousness is ever awake, conscious and does not need any shortcuts to know itself. It is never not-itself.
In ignorance consciousness identifies with a form and forgets its true nature (as consciousness) and believes that when the body goes to sleep, it, consciousness, does as well. Consciousness does not sleep, the body does.

Questioner:
Is consciousness Self-knowing without mind? Does mind exist outside of consciousness? So how can consciousness know itSelf as itSelf? Knowing of a sense of identity but of what? Of you? How can space know itSelf? Can what is not space know itself as space?
Reply:
Yes, consciousness is self knowing with or without mind. Consciousness is ever conscious. Yet, consciousness chooses to forget its eternal self-knowingness by identifying with a temporal mortal body mind. It turns it attention towards an object and away from itself. While the mind cannot know consciousness, consciousness knows the mind. Consciousness is the mind’s substance and source. Nothing exist outside the reality of consciousness. By mind, I refer to thoughts, perceptions and sensations; namely, the phenomenal realm of experience.

Consciousness knowing itself as the one and only reality is the realization of the Self. It is thought that asks: ‘How?’ and engages in further thought. Thought cannot reach nor comprehend its source. Only in the hands of higher reasoning, can thought be a useful tool to understand the falsehood of identification.

Mind does not exist as an independent reality. Its reality is consciousness. Only consciousness is real, taking on the form of mind, while all along, it remains untouched as consciousness… remaining itself. Nothing exists outside consciousness. How could anything exist outside of its knowingness?
Consciousness knows itself as consciousness via consciousness. Ask yourself. Are you not consciousness? Don’t you know you are conscious via consciousness? It is via consciousness that you know you are conscious.

Questioner:
Yes I am consciousness. I am All knowing consciously. Yet in sleeping who is conscious? You say, consciousness NEVER SLEEPS. But is it not the person, is it not the body that goes through that phenomenal state just like when you eat? So where am I while all this takes place? Consciousness when I open my eyes, I say I am consciousness. As soon as I close my eyes and go to sleep who is it that says I am consciousness? Are there two different states taking place?
Reply:
In deep sleep, consciousness is conscious, the body is sleeping. There are no body mind events in deep sleep and nothing to record. Since the body mind is not there, the mind mistakenly says consciousness is absent. But consciousness is never absent. How do you know you went into deep sleep if not via the presence and reality of consciousness?
Consciousness is eternally conscious and never turned off. It is the mind that is turned off in deep sleep. When the mind comes back on deck, it believes itself to be real and says: ‘I was unconscious in deep sleep’. The mind imagines itself to be consciousness, while it is a byproduct of consciousness. It is the dream of consciousness that creates it and perceives it. There is nothing else but consciousness that is conscious. It is not the body or mind that is conscious. Thus why look at the body mind for answers? Both body and mind are phenomenal events that are perceived by consciousness and out of which they arise.

Consciousness is omnipresent. It is present in all states, but not necessarily Self knowing in all states. It is Self knowing in Turiya, the awakened state.
In the waking state (such as this instant), consciousness conceives, creates and perceives events, like this very perception. In deep sleep, it does not conceive nor perceive events.
Turiya is peace and happiness in the presence or absence of events, independent of events.

Questioner:
Can this same event happen when you are awake? Is this Self realization or Samadhi?
Reply:
In Turiya, all states (waking, dreaming, deep sleep) are permeated with causeless peace and happiness. When peace is established and does not come and go, that is the ‘establishment’ as the Self. That is Self-realization.

Questioner:
So when one says: ‘Ah man I am tired I just want to go sleep’. Mind is saying this correct?
Reply:
Yes. But this does not necessarily mean ignorance. It is consciousness that takes on the form of a tired body. This does not necessarily mean identification with the body. A sage’s body gets tired and the sage puts the body to sleep after a long day. A sage is not identified with the body.

Questioner:
A sage?
Reply:
A Jnani. The Self.

Questioner:
Okay. Is God another word for consciousness?
Reply:
Yes. When consciousness is Self knowing and established … it is God smiling.

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