A state of consciousness is a state of constant meditation?
No.
Consciousness can be defined as a collection of environments. This means that every thing that you experience, all of it, collectively, defines you from moment to moment.
Try this thought experiment. Imagine that you have do not have 5 senses externally or internally, no hearing, no sense of touch, no sight, no feeling etc. - what would be left to experience? No memories. No thoughts. Nothing. Where are you then? "You" are in the same place that you are in deep sleep. In other words you do not exist. A physical body that other people can see - yes. But where are you? You have no consciousness. You are not a conscious being when in deep sleep. You are an unconscious entity. For you the world does not exist. And for the world you do not exist.
What we call "I", "me", is the sense of self or individuality that naturally arises for each of us when living our normal life. This is inevitable and a natural consequence of the ever changing world.
However, this sense of self, this "I" is wholly dependent on environments for its existence. So we are not really individual at all. Take away our environments and there is no "me". So as much as we want to feel free to express our individuality we are actually dependent on what we think of as "not me" for our existence. Just as the victor depends on the loser.
You came out of oblivion at birth and return to oblivion upon death. There is no permanent entity. No permanent soul. No immaterial something that exists after death.
People who meditate are encouraged to question. To philosophise. To understand why they meditate. It is not enough to blindly follow and believe without questioning.
Question to understand - not to destroy. By doing so we can become more discriminating in our thoughts and actions. And realise that what we think we know is far far less than what we do not know.
