I am finding that Witness Consciousness has two distinct steps to it. The first of course is the initial thought watching. This leads to a huge breakthrough in awareness and a “knowing” that is easy to experience. But then I have observed that without practice people go back into their ego and the drama of the world. The knowing that comes with the initial breakthrough never leaves however.
This requires step number two. In a way, this is more work than the first step. Practice! Yes, we need to keep watching our thoughts in order to stop the slide back into the ego mind and the patters of unconsciousness that we all have. This requires a sustained effort at “watching” over a period of a year or two until it becomes second nature. That’s why building a community of watchers is so important in order to support the practice.
Does anyone else have thoughts on this two-step process?
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9 comments:
Hi, Mark. My experience with "witnessing" thoughts is this: I do it visually, picturing myself as a double standing to the right of and behind myself, listening to my thoughts and feelings. My "witness" may sometimes have an observing response like, "Wow, Sue, you're pretty angry now," or a compassionate response like "I can see how upset you are." This witnessing helps me access deeper feelings and have compassion for myself. Practicing this takes discipline. Can you share more on how to do that? I myself teach Stress Management to health professionals and have a blog www.susaneisner.typepad.com with posts on meditation. I learned of your blog through Sabrina Gibson's class. Thanks, Susan Eisner
Susan: What a wonderful description. What you have described is what I call "self observation." You are obviously very advanced at it. Now take it a step further. Start witnessing and observing the voice in your head that sounds like "you" talking to you. That will move you to a new level. Keep us abreast of your progress. All the best, Mark
Hi Mark,
When I witness my thoughts I practice letting go of them and sinking back into the darkness (is it dark because I cannot see its light) of me. It feels like a "releasing" of my grasp of them and dropping back into that still silence. I obviously havent practiced enough yet because I still get tangled up in my thoughts and mistake them for reality at times...
Sorry for my bad english. Thank you so much for your good post. Your post helped me in my college assignment, If you can provide me more details please email me.
Dear Anonymous:
I would be happy to email you, but I don't see how to do that. If you would like to contact me you can email me at mark@masteringthought.com.
I have read a great deal of lit by J. Krishnamurti who explains something called choiceless awareness. He was big on the egoless, choiceless, state of the witness consciousness where you became a process of pure listening. He felt dualisim was the the curse bringing the fragmentation and violence of modern culture. He saw hope in a sort of egoless state of choiceless neutrality. Have you read any of his books?
This has all the elements of 'The Work' of Gurdjieff and Ouspensky. Well worth following up on. At college I shared a house with others, one of whom was as interested in self evolution as I. As well as self watching we bolstered each other when either had a bad day by simply saying "You don't need that" (i.e. the 'mood'). Instead of falling on the downward spiral we each were able to ride the upward spiral (of emotions etc.) and for three years we were blessed by synchronicity as the universe responded to our higher vibrations. I appreciate this sounds a tad 'New-Agey' but the results were concrete. Keep up the good work and,people, SHARE.
Hi,
Yes, those are the core steps. First comes the watching, not only of thoughts, but emotions, and everything. And yes, if you don't practice, its easier to slide back into ego centered focus. Its all about focus. Its how we chose to focus. Do we want to be conscious and the witness? Or asleep and plugged into the ego. Its very difficult because the mind is so used to its identitiy as such, its almost second nature. Its like teaching who you are all over again. Its wild, an adventure, but such is life. Great article!
Justin
And btw, its nice to see a therapist in psychology, writing about this!
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