The Witness of the Witnessed

"Most of us feel we are a separate subject of experience, that is ‘I, myself’ is related with the object or ‘other’. This is not in any way a mistake, it is part of the natural process of evolution and yet it comes at a price in that we believe and feel ourselves to be a fragment, a separate, temporary, finite self or person, and as this fragment, there are three consequences of the belief that we are this separate, independently existing self or person. The first is that this fragment always feels incomplete. It feels a sense of lack. The second consequence of this belief is that the separate person or self is nearly always trying to defend itself or protect itself and therefore it finds itself in a state of conflict. The third inevitable consequence of this belief is that we feel we are separate from the world, separate from our environment, and it is this belief that is the underlying cause for the exploitation and degradation of the earth. So to begin with we emphasize the knower element in all experience: I am the knower of the known. The experiencer of the experienced. The witness of the witnessed. Simply be knowingly this presence of awareness.

"Most of us feel we are a separate subject of experience, that is ‘I, myself’ is related with the object or ‘other’. This is not in any way a mistake, it is part of the natural process of evolution and yet it comes at a price in that we believe and feel ourselves to be a fragment, a separate, temporary, finite self or person, and as this fragment, there are three consequences of the belief that we are this separate, independently existing self or person. The first is that this fragment always feels incomplete. It feels a sense of lack. The second consequence of this belief is that the separate person or self is nearly always trying to defend itself or protect itself and therefore it finds itself in a state of conflict. The third inevitable consequence of this belief is that we feel we are separate from the world, separate from our environment, and it is this belief that is the underlying cause for the exploitation and degradation of the earth. So to begin with we emphasize the knower element in all experience: I am the knower of the known. The experiencer of the experienced. The witness of the witnessed. Simply be knowingly this presence of awareness.