Witnessing is the subtlest aspect of consciousness that marks the arising of a new mind or the whole mind. Nisargadatta Maharaj said that the witness is the bridge between pure awareness and the identified aspect of consciousness (mind). In other words, it is the pathway from movement to stillness.
The whole mind, as opposed to the fragmented mind, witnesses the totality of all functioning or What-Is. In witnessing, the observer becomes the observed, the experiencer becomes the experiencing, or the seer becomes the scene. It is the breakdown of the subject-object relationship where the subject becomes the object or vice versa.
In witnessing, things are simply seen for the way they are rather than the way they should or should not be. There is no “you” to filter or distort perception. The perceived “you” is also an object within the scene, among others.
So things are seen, but there is no seer. Therefore, the witness is the “being” that remains in a natural state, silently watching all phenomena. It watches every feeling, thought, and sensation, but there is never a need to change or manipulate anything.
Witnessing brings about an acceptance of What-Is, which is God’s will. The acceptance is total, which even includes things that are unacceptable, like war, poverty, violence, racism, casteism, inequality, economic and environmental crisis, etc.
Acceptance, however, is not an attitude of resignation in the face of adversity. Therefore, I still condemn wars, racism, and violence, but with the renewed understanding that despite my best intentions and sincere efforts, things may or may not happen according to my desired outcomes. That even the above phenomena are expressions of wholeness.
The action that comes out of total acceptance has an entirely different quality to it. It is not driven by the individual’s urge to assert their idea of righteousness. It comes from the recognition that all phenomena are happenings brought about by the source and not an individual’s doing.
This recognition dissolves the burdens of shame, blame, guilt, pride, and arrogance. The whole mind sees the infinite intelligence beyond appearances. The limited fragmented mind, on the other hand, is a product of thinking. It believes itself to be separate from the whole mind. The fragmented mind is divergent and tied up with religion, region, culture, nationalism, profession, and other social identities.
The Notion of “ME” versus the “OTHER”
The divided mind creates the notion of “me” versus the “other.” The other becomes suffering irrespective of whether it is a friend, a relative, or a foe. We suffer our friendships and relationships more than our enemies. The fragmented mind lacks the strength to go beyond duality and tap into the infinite source of creativity and joy. It reminds trapped in identifications that propagate suffering in horizontal time.
The whole mind is a vertical thought. It is not characterized as a movement. It is the witness of the movement. The unchanging and eternal subject witnesses the changing objects. The fragmented mind keeps changing with identifications. It is the unreality born out of an inference brought about by ignorance. As a child, you never knew of yourself as the fragmented mind. At some point, it came about through identifications.
You were told that you exist independently of others. A newborn has no concept of separateness. It considers itself, the world, and the mother as one unit. Therefore, the newborn does not have a fragmented mind. But as the child grows into an adult, they undergo worldly conditioning, which convinces them that they are separate from others.
This conditioning takes place in form of comparison and competition between siblings, friends, neighbors, work colleagues, and so on. Modern social media platforms are a breeding ground for separateness, where people posting selfies and giving intimate details about their personal lives crave attention, validation, and adulation. No matter how many likes or followers you have, nothing is ever enough. Our suffering continues till we keep operating in the phenomenal world with a sense of separation.
The End of the Thinking Mind
Witnessing bring about an end to the thinking mind through the insight that it is a happening in the impersonal awareness of I AM. It is an impersonal phenomenon. The individual cannot cultivate the witness through any practice.
Witnessing happens spontaneously when the fragmented mind dissolves. The whole mind (witness) ceases the fragmentation, and what remains is the biological organism that acts spontaneously as and when a situation arises. Therefore, living becomes spontaneous and free from the burden of the thinking mind.
I remember, many years back, when I was troubled by afflicting thoughts, witnessing would begin spontaneously. A movement would start as a thought and expand horizontally as a chain, forming thinking where I would imagine the worst possible outcomes. “If I fail my exam tomorrow, I won’t get a good job; then my parents will abandon me, and my friends will think I’m a loser,” and so on.
The end link of this chain of thoughts was either ending my life or harming myself in some way. Witnessing started cutting off this chain midway. The thought would arise, and at some point, there was this recognition that these are just thoughts. The chain would break abruptly and dissolves the whole toxic energy and negativity associated with thinking.
It restored the sense of calm that was disrupted by thinking. It brought about the insight that there is no thinker. Now, without the thinker, the thoughts cannot continue for long. The discomfort gets cut off immediately.
The Arising of Dispassion
As the thinking mind begins to dissolve, the grasping of identifications begins to loosen. Witnessing exposes all tricks of the ego-mind. One begins to see the divisive nature of thought and the futility of thinking. What emerges is the creative working mind that produces art of great magnificence. The working mind is never concerned with the outcome. It works in complete flow contemplating the steps and strategies to execute a piece of work or art.
Vairagya, or dispassion with worldly things, comes about from witnessing. In the Ashtavakra Gita, when king Janaka asks the Sage Ashtavakra, what is the ultimate truth? The Sage replies, “know yourself as the pure consciousness, the unaffected witness of the phenomenal world, and you will know the truth.”
However, note that dispassion cannot be cultivated by the individual through effort. Not by any suppression, repression, or denial. It comes from the impersonal understanding of the futile nature of thought. It comes with the understanding that the one creating desires in the hope of future fulfillment is an illusion. It comes with the understanding that clinging to either of the dualistic opposites of pain and pleasure perpetuates suffering. The understanding, in and of itself, brings relief rather than doing something.
A couple of months back someone asked me how to be the witness. Look at the trap of the ego mind. It wants to be the witness because it has an agenda – self-expansion. Who wants to be the witness? The ego-mind thinks that by knowing the witness, it will become what it wants to be or unbecome what it is now. Whereas now is all there is. Now is the whole mind.
The misconception begins with a false assumption that I’m not the witness and that it is something to be acquired from the outside. You can never be the witness. How can you? You already are it. Your “being” itself is the witness. What creates separation is a belief that “I’m not it.” That I have to “do” something to get it.
Witness cannot be objectified because objectification required a subject or “you” to create an object. Any attempt to know the witness through effort creates a “you” that introduces separation. And as I mentioned in the beginning, witnessing is the breakdown of subject-object relationship.
Witnessing Brings About an Acceptance that Weakens the Ego
“One should remain as a witness to whatever happens, adopting the attitude, ‘Let whatever strange things that happens happen, let us see!’ This should be one’s practice. Nothing happens by accident in the divine scheme of things.”
Ramana Maharshi
Ramesh Balsekar emphasized that witnessing impersonally what happens, which means that we don’t see events as a series of personal doings of individuals but act with the understanding that everything happens as per the cosmic law, brings freedom from shame, blame, malice, guilt, pride, arrogance, jealousy, resentment, and so on.
Acceptance is the complete understanding that no one is the doer of actions. Actions happen based on circumstances and the conditioning of the individual. It is only the mind that assigns a doer, either “me” or the “other,” and labels the events as good or evil, moral or immoral, virtue or vice, and so on, which creates suffering as thinking in horizontal time. The conceptual thought “me,” with its sense of personal doership, creates a story. And story creates conflicts in daily living, disrupting peace and harmony.
Witnessing is a watchfulness devoid of the subject or “me.” It simply watches things and events without creating labels or judgements. In witnessing, there is no one to label or judge anything. And hence, there is no separation of consciousness from its content (thoughts, feelings, and sensations).
You can only be the witness; you cannot do witnessing as an activity because activity implies the subject. Witnessing does not happen in the domain of the analytical mind. It is beyond time. The analytical mind is a superimposition on the witness. The superimposed (fragmented) mind prevents us from realizing our natural state that is ever-present.
When the ego-mind realizes that its true nature is the witness and not the illusory thought “me,” it suspends all effort or personal doership. Therefore, the need to control and manipulate others for one’s advantage begins dissolving. It is a recognition of the pure consciousness that powers all life.
Witnessing exposes the repeated thinking patterns of the ego-mind by bringing them to the light of pure awareness. The light destroys the darkness of unconsciousness. What remains is the peace that is our true nature. In that understanding, the problems of mundane living are no more seen as problems. In the absence of the thinking mind, life becomes spontaneous. And spontaneous living is peaceful living.
The above article is a sample from my latest book – The End of “Me & My Story.” You can get it here on Amazon.
