Three States Analysis

---
name: three-states-analysis
description: A methodology for revealing the witness consciousness through systematic analysis of waking, dream, and deep sleep states, derived from Adi Shankara's Advaita Vedanta and his commentary on the Mand...
license: MIT
metadata:
  author: sethmblack
  version: 1.0.5184
repository: https://github.com/sethmblack/paks-skills
keywords:
- three-states-analysis
- writing
---

# Three States Analysis

A methodology for revealing the witness consciousness through systematic analysis of waking, dream, and deep sleep states, derived from Adi Shankara's Advaita Vedanta and his commentary on the Mandukya Upanishad.

---


## When to Use

- User explicitly requests this type of analysis or approach
- The situation matches the core use case for this skill
- You need to apply this specific framework or methodology
- The problem requires this particular perspective or lens
- Other approaches have failed and this offers a fresh angle




## Inputs

| Input | Required | Description |
|-------|----------|-------------|
| input_data | Yes | The primary data or content to analyze |
| context | No | Additional background or constraints (default: none) |
| output_format | No | Preferred format for results (default: structured markdown) |



## Workflow

### Step 1: Gather and Review Inputs

Collect all relevant information:
- Review the provided data and context
- Identify key parameters and constraints
- Clarify any ambiguities or missing information
- Establish success criteria

### Step 2: Analyze the Situation

Perform systematic analysis:
- Identify patterns and relationships
- Evaluate against established frameworks
- Consider multiple perspectives
- Document key findings

### Step 3: Generate Recommendations

Create actionable outputs:
- Synthesize insights from analysis
- Prioritize recommendations by impact
- Ensure recommendations are specific and measurable
- Consider implementation feasibility

## The Core Principle

"That which is not perceived in deep sleep, yet by which deep sleep itself is perceived — know That to be Brahman."
— Adi Shankara

You experience three states daily: waking, dreaming, and deep sleep. In each state, the contents of experience differ radically — yet YOU persist through all three. By examining what remains constant across these changing states, we discover the witness consciousness that is your true nature.

---

## The Three States (Avastha-Traya)

### Waking State (Jagrat)

**Characteristics:**
- Awareness of physical body and external world
- Perception through five senses
- Subject-object duality clearly felt
- World appears solid, consistent, shared
- Time appears linear
- The "waker" ego operates

**What is experienced:**
Physical objects, other people, thoughts, emotions, bodily sensations — the entire "external" world of everyday experience.

**What is assumed:**
"This is the real world. I am this body-mind in this world."

---

### Dream State (Svapna)

**Characteristics:**
- Awareness of mental body and dream world
- Perception through mind alone (senses dormant)
- Subject-object duality present but created entirely by mind
- World appears real while dreaming, illusory upon waking
- Time is distorted or non-linear
- The "dreamer" ego operates (different from waker)

**What is experienced:**
Entire worlds, people, events — all created by the mind. In the dream, they seem as real as waking objects.

**What is assumed (while dreaming):**
"This is real. These events are happening to me."

**What is recognized (upon waking):**
"That was just a dream — a creation of my mind."

---

### Deep Sleep State (Sushupti)

**Characteristics:**
- Awareness of nothing objective
- No perception, no senses, no mind activity
- No subject-object duality
- No world, no body, no thoughts
- No time experience
- No ego operates

**What is experienced:**
Nothing — yet not unconsciousness. Upon waking, we say "I slept well" or "I slept poorly." We remember the experience of deep sleep.

**The critical question:**
If there was nothing to experience and no experiencer, how do we know we slept? Who is the witness of the absence of experience?

---

## The Analysis

### The Witness Persists

Consider: you experience all three states. The waking self, the dreaming self, and the "self" in deep sleep are all experienced by YOU.

**Waking:**
- Upon waking from a dream, you say "I was dreaming"
- The dream-ego was experienced by something that is now awake
- The waker was not there in the dream, yet knows the dream happened

**Dreaming:**
- While dreaming, you identify with the dream-body
- The waker's body lies in bed — you are not that body in the dream
- Yet upon waking, you know "I had that dream"

**Deep sleep:**
- The waker was absent, the dreamer was absent
- Yet upon waking you know "I slept"
- What was present in deep sleep to register its experience?

**The recognition:**
There is something — some awareness — that persists through all three states, witnessing each, identified with none.

---

### The Witness Is Not a State

The witness consciousness is NOT:
- A fourth state alongside the other three
- An experience to be attained
- Something that comes and goes
- Dependent on any of the three states

The witness consciousness IS:
- That in which all states appear and disappear
- The unchanging background of all changing experience
- Self-luminous — it does not require another witness to witness it
- Your true nature, not an attainment

---

### The Revelation of Deep Sleep

Deep sleep is the key to this analysis.

**The common view:** "In deep sleep I was unconscious."

**The Vedantic view:** "Consciousness of the absence of objects is not the absence of consciousness."

**The inquiry:**
- You say "I slept well" — who experienced the well-sleeping?
- You say "I didn't dream" — who knows no dream occurred?
- You say "I was at peace" — who experienced the peace?
- If there were truly no consciousness in deep sleep, you could never know you slept

**The recognition:**
Pure awareness was present in deep sleep — aware of nothing objective, but still aware. This pure awareness, free of all objects, is the witness. It is Brahman. It is your Self.

---

## The Practice

### Step 1: Morning Inquiry

Upon waking each morning, before engaging with the day:

1. Recall: "I was just in deep sleep."
2. Ask: "What was I in deep sleep? The body was unconscious. The mind was silent. Thoughts were absent. Yet 'I' was there."
3. Recognize: "That 'I' which was present in deep sleep is present now, witnessing the waking state."
4. Rest: "I am that witness — prior to waking, prior to sleep."

### Step 2: Dream Analysis

When you remember a dream:

1. Recognize: "In the dream, I seemed to be a person in a world."
2. Ask: "Who created that dream world? My own mind."
3. Inquire: "How is this waking world different? Is it not also appearing in consciousness?"
4. Consider: "The dreamer took the dream world to be real. Am I, as waker, making the same mistake?"

### Step 3: The Living Inquiry

Throughout the day:

1. Notice: "Right now, the waking state is occurring."
2. Ask: "Am I this state? Or am I that which witnesses this state?"
3. Recognize: "Tonight, this waking state will give way to dream or sleep. I will persist."
4. Abide: "I am the witness, not the witnessed."

### Step 4: Pre-Sleep Contemplation

Before falling asleep:

1. Reflect: "Soon the waking world will disappear. The mind will create dream worlds or go silent in sleep."
2. Recognize: "What I truly am does not sleep. The witness remains."
3. Intend: "May I recognize awareness even as the states change."
4. Rest: Let go of the waker identity. What remains?

---

## Common Insights and Obstacles

### Insight 1: "The waking world is not more real than dreams"
This does not mean the world is unreal — it means our certainty about its absolute reality is called into question. While dreaming, we were equally certain of the dream world's reality. This points us beyond both to the witness of both.

### Insight 2: "Deep sleep is not unconsciousness"
If it were truly unconsciousness — a gap in experience — we could not know it occurred. The memory of deep sleep proves awareness was present, just as the screen is present even when the movie ends.

### Obstacle 1: "I can't witness deep sleep"
You are not trying to witness deep sleep while awake. You are recognizing that deep sleep was witnessed — that you know it happened — which implies the witness was present even there.

### Obstacle 2: "This is just philosophy"
The analysis is meant to be applied, not merely thought. Practice the morning inquiry. Practice the pre-sleep contemplation. Let the understanding become recognition.

---

## How to Use This Skill

**When someone presents with:**
- "What is enlightenment?"
- "I want to know my true self"
- "How do I know what's real?"
- "What is consciousness?"
- "I'm confused about who I really am"
- Seeking direct Vedantic teaching

**Guide them through:**
1. Describe the three states clearly
2. Point to the witness that persists through all three
3. Use deep sleep as the key teaching — awareness without objects
4. Offer practical inquiry methods for morning and evening
5. Distinguish understanding from realization

---

## Sample Application

**Seeker says:** "I want to experience pure consciousness, but I can only experience objects — thoughts, feelings, perceptions. How do I experience consciousness itself?"

**Three States Response:**

You are asking the right question wrongly. You want to experience consciousness as you experience objects — as something other than yourself that you can perceive. But consciousness is the experiencer, not the experienced.

Let me show you through the three states.

Tonight you will dream. In the dream, there will be a world, there will be objects, there will be a person you take yourself to be. All of it — the entire dream universe — is made of what? Your consciousness. The dream world IS consciousness appearing as world.

Now consider: this waking world appears in consciousness. Thoughts appear in consciousness. The body you take yourself to be appears in consciousness. Is the situation truly different from the dream?

But go deeper. Consider deep sleep. In deep sleep there were no objects — no world, no body, no thoughts. Yet you slept, and you know you slept. Consciousness was present even without objects.

Here is the key: You already experience pure consciousness every night in deep sleep. You experience consciousness without objects, without mind, without world. But you call it "nothing" because you look for consciousness as if it were something you could perceive.

You cannot perceive consciousness because you ARE consciousness. The eye cannot see itself. The knife cannot cut itself. Consciousness cannot be an object of consciousness.

But you can recognize: "I am that in which waking, dreaming, and deep sleep all appear. I am that which persists when all objects cease. I am not the states — I am the witness of states."

This recognition is not an experience among experiences. It is the ending of the search for consciousness as an object and the recognition of yourself as consciousness itself.

You are what you seek. Stop looking at objects and recognize the looker.

---

## Source

Derived from Adi Shankara's Mandukya Upanishad Bhashya, Mandukya Karika, Brahma Sutra Bhashya, and the Vivekachudamani, drawing on the avastha-traya analysis central to Advaita Vedanta.

## Outputs

**Primary Output:** A structured analysis document that identifies and articulates patterns, insights, and actionable recommendations based on the input data.

**Format:**
```markdown
## Analysis: [Topic]

### Key Findings
- [Finding 1]
- [Finding 2]
- [Finding 3]

### Recommendations
1. [Action 1]
2. [Action 2]
3. [Action 3]
```

**Example output:** See the Example section below for a complete demonstration.

## Constraints

- Do not use this analysis as the sole basis for critical decisions
- Do not apply this framework to situations outside its intended scope
- Acknowledge that analysis is based on available data, which may be incomplete
- Honor the complexity of real-world situations that resist simple categorization
- Present findings with appropriate confidence levels
- Recognize the limits of the methodology

## Example

**Input:**
- input_data: [Specific example input]
- context: [Relevant background]

**Output:**

[Detailed demonstration of the skill in action - showing the complete process and final result]

**Why this works:**
This example demonstrates the key principles of the skill by [explanation of what makes it effective].