The Religion and Philosophy of the Veda and Upanishads v2.c40.s9.1

v2.c40.s9.1

The soul, despite its close connexion with the body, which we have traced in detail, is also enabled by its nature to approach closely the absolute. The spirit is most remote from the absolute in its normal waking activities: in that case the senses and the mind are at work, but when there is sleep the senses and the mind are merged in the breath. A further distinction is then made between the condition of the soul in the sleep of dreams, and in deep dreamless sleep, in which the soul enters into the purest light, and then as a consequence of its own nature emerges again from it. These three stages alone are found in the oldest Upaniṣads, and it is not till the latest Upaniṣads that a fourth is added in accordance with the constant tendency further to subdivide.