Turiya
Also known as: The fourth state, Pure awareness
Sanskrit: तुरीय (turiya), meaning 'the fourth.'
Turiya is the 'fourth state' of consciousness described in the Mandukya Upanishad, distinct from waking, dreaming, and dreamless sleep. It refers to pure awareness itself, the constant background presence in which the other three states arise and pass.
Unlike waking, dreaming, and deep sleep, which come and go, turiya is described as ever-present: it is what is aware of all three ordinary states, yet is not itself a state that begins or ends. Many nondual teachings point to turiya not as an exotic experience to attain, but as what is already present as the observing awareness in this very moment.
The Mandukya Upanishad describes turiya as the fourth state beyond waking, dreaming and deep sleep, not a fourth experience alongside the other three but the changeless awareness present within and underlying all of them, including the gap between one state and the next. It is sometimes mistakenly imagined as an exotic altered state attained through special effort; the classical teaching is closer to the opposite, that turiya is already the case in every moment, waking, dreaming or sleeping, simply unnoticed rather than absent.
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Related Terms
Nonduality
Nonduality (or non-duality) is the direct recognition that awareness and its contents, such as thoughts, sensations, and the sense of being a separate self, are not two separate things but a single, seamless reality. It is a description of direct experience, central to Advaita Vedanta and related contemplative traditions.
Samadhi
Samadhi is the eighth and final limb of Patanjali's yoga, describing a state of deep meditative absorption in which the sense of a separate observer dissolves into unified awareness with the object of meditation. It is traditionally considered the culmination of sustained meditative practice.