Talks on Mandukya

As to that turiya of Mandukya fame, they say fools call it the fourth. The wise ones know that as the one. There are three states of reflected consciousness. There is one satcitananda.

Each Mandukya state of consciousness has its own microcosmic atman and macrocosmic brahman. For atman is brahman is the Mandukya’s mahavakya.

The three states of consciousness as noted in the Mandukya are your basic ones of waking, dreaming, and sleeping. These are altered states of reflected consciousness. Pure consciousness is stateless.

Guadapada knows there are no states of consciousness. These particular concepts are merely straw men made to be readily deconstructed by any earnest apprentice in the act of revelation. Like Shankara.

Footnotes to Talks on Mandukya

In avidya, this consciousness is like the last state. In reality, that's the one and only.

For every microcosmic atman is a macrocosmic brahman. For every person is a god. Make one up if you have to. 

Some people think altered consciousness is like a fourth kind of consciousness. Dreaming is altered consciousness.

There are two states of dreaming—the waking one and the sleeping one from the point of view of the waking one. 

I am reading the Mandukya for a third time. The first time was memorable. The second time, it was personal. Third time is, as they say, fathoming the gist