🎧 Please listen to the audio using the player above.☝️
There is a difference between observing and witnessing. Observation involves active engagement with what is being observed and, therefore, constitutes an act within or an influence upon the observed. Witnessing, on the other hand, is inactive, objective, and above all, uninvolved recognition of what is perceived. Thus, when speaking of self-observation and its true meaning, it is useful to realize that what we actually seek to experience is, in essence, self-witnessing, or even better, “simply witnessing.”
Namely, as long as the mind, in the process of observation, chooses, evaluates, assigns meaning, forms opinions, plans, or analyses and so on, in other words, as long as it engages in any way with what is perceived, there is not yet pure and objective observation, that is, witnessing. In the practice of self-observation and the approach toward self-witnessing, it is therefore necessary to become aware of the mind’s constant activity, both the surface movements of thought and the subtler ones, and also of the existence of the idea of “I” that continuously operates in the background of mental and emotional processes.
It is precisely this awareness of the existence and operation of the idea of “I” that gradually brings us closer and closer to self-witnessing, for the distinction between consciousness (that is the witness) and the self (that is the observer) becomes increasingly clear.
Recognition of truth and of things as they truly are is only possible when the observer is absent. Likewise, moving inward and ever closer to one’s true self unfolds only through inactive and objective witnessing.
Therefore, let the practice of self-observation not remain a form of active observation, but rather lead to silent witnessing.
If this whisper resonated with you, consider sharing it with friends or loved ones — you might just help someone on their path.
