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mythologies have something to say about it - - the fourth dimension.
Raphael represents the fourth. Gurdjieff used to call his way 'the fourth way' because his whole work consists of transforming time into timelessness, mind into no-mind. Time and mind are synonymous, two aspects of the same phenomenon. The East, Yoga in particular, divides human consciousness into four parts. One is waking, the second is dreaming, the third is sleeping, and the fourth is simply called the fourth -- turiya. No other name is given to it, just 'the fourth'.
Raphael represents the fourth, turiya -- entering into timelessness, mindlessness, entering into no-thought. And that's what meditation is all about.
Waking is full of thoughts -- too full; one is crowded, there is no space for god to be. So is dreaming -- too full of imagination, fantasy, pictures. The third, sleep, is better than both waking and dreaming, because one is not crowded; no thought exists, no dream. But then another problem arises one becomes unconscious. We know only one way of being conscious, and that is continuously remaining occupied. Our consciousness is a by-product of occupation. The moment we are not occupied we start dozing, falling into sleep. If you have nothing to do, you will suddenly start feeling sleep overtaking you.
The greatest problem that all meditators face is that when they watch the mind, and through slowly watching it thoughts start disappearing, the first thing that becomes a problem is sleep. Hence the Zen master with his staff, moving around the meditators, watching who is dozing, hitting him hard on the head and waking him up. To move from waking consciousness into sleep is easier for the mind; it knows the way. But to move from waking consciousness, from thought to no-thought, and still not fall asleep, is a totally new phenomenon.
Sleep is far better still than waking and dreaming, because it is empty. But the emptiness is a negative state. Emptiness is not a fulfilment and cannot be. Unless this thoughtless state of sleep becomes suffused, permeated, with consciousness, unless this emptiness of thought becomes fullness of awareness, meditation has
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