Western Concept: Three Levels of Consciousness

Freud and Jung divided consciousness into three primary levels, which correspond to yogic philosophy. They are:

1. Conscious Mind – This level of awareness only describes what floats up to the surface during our waking hours. In yoga it is called sthula, or the gross dimension. Many people mistakenly view the show from the gross dimensional balcony thinking that the actors and costumes are real. They are not. These images and situations only arise from a hidden layer of consciousness called the subconscious mind.
2. Subconscious Mind – This level of awareness is what we refer to as our dreaming state. It also houses our individual memories. In yogic philosophy it is called sukshma, or the subtle dimension. It seems less ‘real,’ as when we are dreaming, but it is not much different than our waking reality. It is still just a layer of experience, emotion, sensation and the forms (people, buildings, archetypal symbols) that appear in our dreams. All of our samskaras, or mental tendencies are stored at this level of mind or consciousness.
3. Unconscious Mind – This level of awareness should be called the ‘unaware state,’ for it is in this layer, also associated to deep, dreamless sleep, that our deep karmas are stored. In yogic terms it is called sushupti. This is where our collective, cosmic memory is stored. Some call it the akashic record. This level of awareness is rarely penetrated but it governs all experience at the conscious level. Unconscious Mind is even more subtle than the subconscious mind.

There was a yogic sage who divided the layers of the mind into even further categories, based on its vast depth and breadth, and which most psychologists to date have a hard time coming close to describing. His name was Vyasa, and he broke consciousness into even smaller parts.
Veda Vyasa, or Krishna Dvaipayana, was a legendary sage who is given credit for writing the Mahabhrata. This epic book of poetry was inspired by Vyasa’s upbringing in the forest by an ascetic father and an aboriginal princess for a mother. He lived among hermits and learned the sacred wisdom of ancient Indian sages before him. The Bhagavad Gita (300BC – 300AD), renown to all yogis, is just a section of this work, which is said to have been compiled in less than two years while Vyasa was living in caves on the Himalayan border. Since it was penned, the Mahabhrata has inspired countless other poets who long for the states of consciousness that Vyasa was so easily able to obtain.

“I asked my destiny, ‘please tell me who pushes me forward forever?’ She said, ‘look behind.’ I did and found, I’m being pushed around by the ‘me’ I’ve left behind.” –Driver (Chalak) By Rabindranath Tagore Translation by Snehendu Kar