The Art of Observing

Consciousness has a transcendent quality, it is apart from everything, and it has an immanent quality, it is involved in everything.                                                                    That same nature is within us.                                                                                                       We have a transcendental aspect of our consciousness, where we can observe the object whilst feeling apart from it, and yet we can identify with the experience that we are having with the object.

Observe how the consciousness operates within us, in our experiences.                          Some of us do not give attention to it, but we are constantly observing the experience. That is why we can say, “I am going to change the way I feel, or change the way I think, or change the way I experience something”; because we are observing.                            The more we observe, the more we can see, and the more we can change.                         So the goal is to observe the experience of conscious being, and one may call that “witnessing”.                                                                                                                                        Sri Vasudeva

 

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How to Witness without Identifying with Change

In this meditation, we are going to centre in that inner posture, that holds us in the  observing mode, without judgement, without labelling, without like and dislike. The only aspect that does not change is that witness conscious aspect of being, where you observe all that changes; mind changes, emotion changes, body changes.

The goal is not to identify with the change, just to observe the change from that centre of peacefulness. 

Observe how quickly we identify with change. A thought comes, and we become carried away by it. An emotion comes, and we get carried away by it. The body’s vitality changes, and we become carried away by it. Is it possible that we can observe everything without being carried away, without losing that centre of consciousness where we are constantly in present moment observation?

A good practice here, as you stay observing without judgement, is to focus on your breathing. Just allow the breath to gracefully and naturally flow as you breathe out completely and breathe in deeply. A rhythmic breath allows us to become more peaceful, more stable in the consciousness. Sri Vasudeva

How to Witness the Human Experience

Let us just observe the consciousness space in which the “I” is having an experience. Holding the intention to have the fullest experience of being in the human experience.

We would like to be in a space of no judgment, so do not label your thoughts when they arise. Do not be carried away by them. Observe them, let them come, let them go until the mind becomes truly silent. 

And in that silent space, begin to observe the grossness of the physical body. It is the body that you have in this lifetime. It is a body that your soul carries in its being. Free the mind of judgment as you observe the body. Accept it for what it is. Your joy should be how to transform the experience of the body through your subtle being. So you are identifying with the physical body because you are using your mind to hold your body in its space of observation.

The ego is having the experience of a human body, the experience of being of a certain gender; male, female. It is having the experience of a field of vitality that I call the core of the physical body, and the experience of whether the body is vital or lacking in vitality. The ego is having an emotional experience. The ego will have an experience of speaking or singing, of communication, of using the voice. It will have the experience of listening using the ear. It will have the experience of the human brain and how the thought can influence the brain and the mind.

 

“There is lack of vitality in me, or there is too much vitality in me. There is sadness in me, and happiness in me.” You need to observe these things. You need to see how they feature in your space because they are important, they affect your well-being, how you feel. But can you witness them in a way of not becoming caught in them? That is where the power is; in the non-judgmental nature of witnessing. Only when you are witnessing from a place of no judgment can you really see things in their entirety. The moment you are caught in one aspect, then you may lose the sense or the awareness of the whole. So in your observing, you need to observe the discriminating mind and whether it is caught up in judgment, limiting the experience that you are having.

Fundamentals of Meditation

Today instead of quoting directly from my beloved Teacher and guide I thought I would respond to requests I received seeking more help in understanding the fundamentals in the meditation practise.

The goal in meditation is to come into a place of    pure Being, allowing silence to pervade our entire being, at every level. 

Lets take the “pure Being” part first of all. When we allow ourselves to become caught up, and identified with the body and the senses we have moved away from pure Being. How do we know we are caught up? When we put the majority of our attention into how the body looks, how it feels, then the thoughts we create cause us to identify with the body. Think about how much time we spend grooming the body and how distressed we feel when that sleek outward appearance is affected in any way. Of course the media persuades us the way the body looks is everything.

To get to pure Being we have detach ourselves at every level, not    just physical. We need to detach from the mental, emotional and vital levels too. 

The technique we use to disentangle ourselves is “witnessing.” For example we might notice the restlessness of the body. We observe it with no judgment, no conflict, complete acceptance of what is. We give attention to the mind. Is there a compulsion to think? We can quell the momentum of thinking by observing the thoughts as they come and go. When does a thought begin, when does it end? Is there a gap between the thoughts? What happens in that gap? Notice the growing silence and restfulness in the Being.

The second step will be focusing on our spinal column and the brain as we breathe out and breathe in. We make a circle or an orbit.

We breathe in at the third eye centre. Then breathe out taking our attention down the centerline of  the body, right down to the perineum area. Then breathe in keeping the pelvic area firm and grounded.      Breathe up along the spinal column  right up to the medulla point at the back of the neck and across the brain to the third eye.That’s how we connect to every level of being. 

How will we know when every level is coming into balance? There is a greater feeling of physicality, grounding in the body, and connection with the earth. The body feels more revitalized at the core in the gut. The being feels unburdened, filled with more love and compassion. The gift of the throat chakra is a greater sense of spaciousness and the listening power becomes stronger. The silence within the mind is more accentuated and our intuitive ability becomes greater. We now become aware that all is happening in the Divine, in that infinite consciousness of being.  

This is how we centre our consciousness in the Source of our being.

Let me know if this was useful for you. Can you better understand the goal of meditation and the steps we follow to achieve that goal?

 

Witnessing opens us to the Infinite

Consciousness is capable of infinite expansion. That is why you can become so creative with so many ideas, because you expand so that you can see from many different angles. That is why we listen to people in conversations; so we can begin to appreciate the many ways of seeing in the consciousness. So consciousness has an infinite nature and we need to give attention to that consciousness inside and move away from all the contraction, the limitation – that is what the Māyā is, it is a contraction of consciousness that makes us see the unreal for the real.

So when we think of Self, we do not think of an immortal Self, we think human. The wise ones say that we are immortal but we are dreaming mortality, they say “Be conscious, wake up and see that you are dreaming.” I showed you the dream-like nature of life – everything around you is changing before your very eyes,  and I said, “That which is changing cannot be real, cannot be eternal.” The goal then is to keep on witnessing.

The Timeless Space

There is a timeless aspect to the consciousness where the pure observer is. Thought, emotions and the physical body exist in time, but the place from where we observe is beyond time. Sri Vasudeva

Witnessing Can Take us to the Rapturous “I”

In the Māyā, we have this identity of Self but it is an ego identity, not true Self. And this ego has to be transcended as it were, because we need to come back to the experience of true Self. The ego will still exist though in the experience of true Self because once you have a form, the identity of the form is there and that is the ego. We have an energetic form on the inside and we have a physical form, so we have an energetic ego and we have a physical ego.

We have a causal ego with all the karmas that are sleeping in the causal body; we have a subtle ego in the dream state – the dream is the mind state – and; we have the gross ego or that of the waker, the physical body. So we have the three states of consciousness; the waking, the dreaming, the deep sleeping. And we have spoken about that fourth state, the turiya. In all of these experiences, we have an ego at play, and this ego has to undergo a transformation in the evolutionary process obviously.

It requires witnessing, the posture of the sākśī, and it has to move from the waker, through the dreamer in the mind, beyond the deep sleep, into that fourth state of witnessing. Can you be excited about that? Can you be excited that in focusing on beingness, you can really see the journey? But if you are caught, if you become the doer, you cannot. So you need to be in the beingness observance. And there it is the “I am”; not the “I am the doer,” but just the “I am,” just coming more into “I am.” So when you think of “satchidānanda,” “sat chit” is just that pure consciousness state where just the “I” exists in its pure being, and the “ānanda” is like the “ābhoga”; it is the joy, the rapture. So when we say, “satchidānandoham,” that is what we are saying; we are that sākśī that is in bliss. Satchidānandoham. Satchidānandoham. That is the same turīyā bhoga, the rapturous experience of the “I” in freedom.

For more details on the practise listen to Sri Vasudeva on Day 33 Forty days 2017. The full talk and meditation is available for a few days here.  To download a personal copy go to  www. blue-star.org

Discoveries

We’ve been talking about observing the stories the mind creates and I promised to share a little more of my practice.

I became so interested in the observation process and wondered if I could watch the stories as they were being created in the mind. This was fascinating because what I discovered so far, is that the mind begins to create a story when I start to lose focus on what is happening in the present moment!

This was a great surprise to me, because I thought I was being present moment focused. As I pondered the experience I realized that there are gradations in the experience of present moment awareness. Sometimes I was more present than others and when I was more present the experience was more expansive, more blissful, more harmonious. I could increase how present I was by more consciously engaging in an experience.

Do you ever find, you tell yourself a story about how if you were in what you consider an ideal spiritual community, you would be able to experience more of your spiritual Self? That Self may have more love or peace or harmony. You probably have variations to this story.

Well another discovery I made as I practiced observing and being more conscious, was that the circumstances I was in, were ideal for growing or manifesting those same qualities I was wishing for! The more present I was, the more I realized how perfectly designed my situation was to help me to make a leap, not just a little step. As the mind became clearer I could see the opportunities better, the mundane seemed to disappear and everything around me became a rich spiritual field. This could be what is meant by “everything is in Divine order”. Isn’t this interesting?

Whenever we join in practice the collective field we create together is wonderfully supportive. Thank you so much for sharing this journey with me. Lets see what we will discover this week!