WITNESS

Before the birth of the universe there existed your "Original Face," the limitless Self that has been present throughout the unfolding of inert matter into life-and that continues to dwell within us at every level of consciousness. Where is this grand evolution taking us-and how can each of us participate more fully in it?

 

An "integral" map of the Kosmos (the universe that includes the physical cosmos as well as the realms of consciousness and Spirit) offers an unprecedented guide to discovering your highest potentials. We have to pursue questions especially relevant to spiritual seekers: What are the most effective tools for "jumping" to the next level in your spiritual, creative, and cognitive development? Does prayer work? How do women and men experience consciousness differently? Is subtle energy real and, if so, how do we harness it? Why is developing "witness consciousness" so crucial for self-realization? Can we cultivate infinite love by loving one, finite person? We have "to balance and harmonize our experiences at whatever stage of growth we are in-and to deepen our capacity for compassion, consciousness, and care." Meditation develops what Wilber calls the Witness: our observing consciousness, which is not identified or attached to the objects that parade in awareness. The Witness really makes its appearance first at the Vision-Logic Stage, the stage at which we begin to have a perspective on both our body and our mind. With right practice, we can go deliberately into this pure resting awareness, past all attachment, letting go of all we have been, and burning our karma by a kind of non-action. After the last of the nine stages, the Causal Stage, we let go of even this Witness and become one with the non-dual ground of our being, which is pure Emptiness. This Emptiness is also the fullness of being, and in this state, there is a profound oneness of consciousness and the world. My favorite one is the state of the ever-present Witness (turiya) or pure Self, the great mirror-mind that impartially witnesses the waking, dreaming, and deep sleep states but is not itself a separate state: it is the Witness of all those states, and itself neither comes nor goes. (Technically, there is a fifth state, turiyatita, which occurs when the Witness itself dissolves into everything that is witnessed, and there is the pure nondual realization of One Taste. For this simple introduction, I will treat them together as the ever-present nondual Self or pure Witness.)The waking state, the dreaming state and the deep sleep state comes and goes, but the Witness is ever-present. Extraordinary and remarkable states of consciousness can be reached and practiced and attained in the gross, subtle, and causal realms. But the Witness cannot be attained, because it is ever-present. The Witness cannot be practiced, because it is ever-present. The Witness cannot be reached, because it is ever-present. As Sri Ramana Maharshi often said, "There is no reaching the Self. If Self were to be reached, it would mean that the Self is not here and now but that it has yet to be obtained. What is got afresh will also be lost. So it will be impermanent. What is not permanent is not worth striving for. So I say the Self is not reached. You are the Self;you are already That." Or the great Zen Master Huang Po, " That there is no reaching enlightenment is not idle talk, it is the truth. Hard is the meaning of this saying!" You can no more reach enlightenment or attain the Self than you can attain your feet or acquire your lungs. Notice: the clouds float by in your awareness, thoughts float by in your mind, feelings arise in the body, and you are the Witness of all of those. The Witness is already fully functioning, fully present, fully awake. The enlightened Self is one hundred percent present in your very perception of this page. Enlightened Spirit is that which is reading these words right now: how much closer can you possibly get? Why go out and start looking for the Looker? The great search for enlightenment is not just a waste of time; it is a colossal impossibility because the enlightened Self is ever-present, as the Witness of this and every moment.This is why there is, in strictest truth, no reaching enlightenment, no finding the Self. And yet, of course, it certainly appears that there are those who are more awake to this fact than others-we call them "enlightened"-and in a sense that is true. But what actually happens in these cases is not the discovery of enlightenment but a profound recognition of something that is already present. It is like looking into a store window and seeing a hazy figure looking at you. You move your head around until you can see who it is, and with a sudden shock you realize that it is your own reflection in the window: you are looking at your self. Just so with realization or awakening. It appears that you are looking at the world "out there," which seems very real and very separate from you, but then suddenly there is the realization-the simple recognition-that you are simply looking at your Self, and your Self is the entire World as it is arising moment to moment, right now and right now and right now. When the world impartially, the world arises in the Witness, and you and the world are one. You do not see the sky; you are the sky. You do not hear the birds singing you Witness; you are the birds singing. You do not feel the earth; you are the earth. All of this comes in a sudden, spontaneous, uncaused, tacit recognition, the recognition of nondual One Taste, your very own Self, the Original Face you had before your parents were born, the Self you had before the universe was born; this pure, ever-present, nondual Self, spaceless and therefore infinite, timeless and therefore eternal-and yet it is the only thing you have ever really known. You already know that you are you; and that you is, in deepest truth, pure and nondual Spirit. That realization or recognition-which seems to have a beginning in time-actually carries one other recognition: there has never been a time that you did not know the Self. You have always known, in the deepest center of your awareness-in what Ramana Maharshi called the I-I (because it is the Witness of the little I or ego-in the deepest center of your own pure awareness, you have always known that you will never really die (because the Self is timeless), and you already know that you have always been here (because the Self is ever-present). You already know all this, way in the back of your mind. You are perfectly aware that you are the Witness of this moment. You know that you are the absolute; you know that you are God; you know that you are Goddess; you know that you are Spirit, and you know that every sentient being in the entire Kosmos can make that simple statement: when I abide as the pure Self, I-I am God. I have always known this; you have always known this. And you have always known this because the Self is ever-present.This tacit recognition seems to have a beginning in time, until it occurs, whereupon it becomes clear that it has always been completely obvious. "Oh, That!" This profound realization never began because it never ended. There is the recognition "I am That," and the simultaneous recognition that I have always known this. Zen calls it the gateless gate. On this side of the gate that "separates" us from enlightenment, the gate seems to be real-until we pass through it, turn around, and see that it was never really there: thus, gateless in truth. But it is much simpler than that. You are the Self, you are the Witness, you know it now, and you have known it always.This ever-present recognition is often called "enlightenment." It is a simple, profound, irreversible recognition, just like looking in the window and recognizing yourself, whereupon you also realize that it has always been so. A wonderful description of such an awakening can be found in Andrew's My Master Is My Self. Simply upon seeing his Master, Andrew recognized his own Self-just like that-and there is only one Self in the entire Kosmos, hence the title.Strictly speaking, this awakening or realization was not caused by anything. It was not caused by his teacher H.W.L. Poonja, not caused by Andrew, not caused by meditation, not caused by anything-because, in fact, it is ever-present. You cannot cause something that is already here. Still, on this side of the gateless gate, there are certain factors that seem to facilitate this awakening. Of these, satsang-or simply sitting in the Presence of those whose realization is brilliant, clear, and radiant-is probably the most profound. But there are countless other facilitating factors, including meditation, the many yogas (raja, jnana, bhakti, karma, kriya, laya) and-as we will see-ITP. But none of them can actually cause you to awaken because the awakened Self is already ever-present, and you already know it. So when enlightenment occurs, it almost appears as an "accident." As Baker Roshi put it, "Enlightenment is an accident. Meditation makes you accident prone." Truth be told, nobody really understands all the factors that can help facilitate enlightenment. If they did, we would all be enlightened by now. Moreover, many of the states taken to be "enlightened" are actually states of the subtle or causal realm. That is, they are extraordinary experiences-luminosities, interior sounds, states of formlessness, bliss, and ecstatic-all have a beginning in time. But the Witness does not have a beginning in time, because it is ever-present. That which has a beginning in time is merely finite and temporal; it comes, it stays a bit, and it goes. But the enlightened Witness does not have a beginning in time; it is ever-present and you know it is ever-present (you are aware of the Witness right now, as that which is reading this page). Enlightenment, in fact, is the only thing that never begins (for it is always ever-present).In short, you do not become enlightened; you simply wake up one morning and confess that you always already are, and that you have been playing the great game of hide-and-seek with your Self. And if that is the game you are playing, then certain "facilitating factors-from meditation to ITP-can be engaged as part of the game, until you tire of their worthlessness, grow weary of the great search, admit the impossibility of becoming enlightened, and realize that you are already so, abiding then as the timeless Self that you have always been, smiling with the sudden shock that my Master is my Self, and I have been looking into the Kosmic window at my own reflection.The witnessing of awareness can persist through waking, dreaming and deep sleep. The Witness is fully available in any state, including your own present state of awareness right now. So I'm going to talk you into this state, or try to, using what are known in Buddhism as "pointing out instructions." I am not going to try to get you into a different state of consciousness, or an altered state of consciousness, or a non-ordinary state. I am going to simply point out something that is already occurring in your own present, ordinary, natural state. So let's start by just being aware of the world around us. Look out there at the sky, and just relax your mind; let your mind and the sky mingle. Notice the clouds floating by. Notice that this takes no effort on your part. Your present awareness, in which these clouds are floating, is very simple, very easy, effortless, spontaneous. You simply notice that there is an effortless awareness of the clouds. The same is true of those trees, and those birds, and those rocks. You simply and effortlessly witness them. Look now at the sensations in your own body. You can be aware of whatever bodily feelings are present-perhaps pressure where you are sitting, perhaps warmth in your tummy, maybe tightness in your neck. But even if these feelings are tight and tense, you can easily be aware of them. These feelings arise in your present awareness, and that awareness is very simple, easy, effortless, spontaneous. You simply and effortlessly witness them. Look at the thoughts arising in your mind. You might notice various images, symbols, concepts, desires, hopes and fears, all spontaneously arising in your awareness. They arise, stay a bit, and pass. These thoughts and feelings arise in your present awareness, and that awareness is very simple, effortless, spontaneous. You simply and effortlessly witness them. So notice: you can see the clouds float by because you are not those clouds-you are the witness of those clouds. You can feel bodily feelings because you are not those feelings-you are the witness of those feelings. You can see thoughts float by because you are not those thoughts-you are the witness of those thoughts. Spontaneously and naturally, these things all arise, on their own, in your present, effortless awareness. So who are you? You are not objects out there, you are not feelings, you are not thoughts-you are effortlessly aware of all those, so you are not those. Who or what are you? Say it this way to yourself: I have feelings, but I am not those feelings. Who am I? I have thoughts, but I am not those thoughts. Who am I? I have desires, but I am not those desires. Who am I? So you push back into the source of your own awareness. You push back into the Witness, and you rest in the Witness. I am not objects, not feelings, not desires, not thoughts. But then people usually make a big mistake. They think that if they rest in the Witness, they are going to see something or feel something-something really neat and special. But you won't see anything. If you see something, that is just another object-another feeling, another thought, another sensation, another image. But those are all objects; those are what you are not. No, as you rest in the Witness-realizing, I am not objects, I am not feelings, I am not thoughts-all you will notice is a sense of freedom, a sense of liberation, a sense of release-release from the terrible constriction of identifying with these puny little finite objects, your little body and little mind and little ego, all of which are objects that can be seen, and thus are not the true Seer, the real Self, the pure Witness, which is what you really are. So you won't see anything in particular. Whatever is arising is fine. Clouds float by in the sky, feelings float by in the body, thoughts float by in the mind-and you can effortlessly witness all of them. They all spontaneously arise in your own present, easy, effortless awareness. And this witnessing awareness is not itself anything specific you can see. It is just a vast, background sense of freedom-or pure emptiness-and in that pure emptiness, which you are, the entire manifest world arises. You are that freedom, openness, emptiness-and not any itty bitty thing that arises in it. Resting in that empty, free, easy, effortless witnessing, notice that the clouds are arising in the vast space of your awareness. The clouds are arising within you-so much so, you can taste the clouds, you are one with the clouds. It is as if they are on this side of your skin, they are so close. The sky and your awareness have become one, and all things in the sky are floating effortlessly through your own awareness. You can kiss the sun, swallow the mountain, they are that close. Zen says "Swallow the Pacific Ocean in a single gulp," and that's the easiest thing in the world, when inside and outside are no longer two, when subject and object are nondual, when the looker and looked at are One Taste. You see? We attribute the highest value to the awareness of the Witness through which the essence of "everything" is "tasted" (Taste of One). We position this awareness as the culmination of many disciplines requiring years of training to which only the very few are prepared to submit themselves. The possibilty of fast enlightment is highlighted by the contrast in many traditions between Rapid Enlightenment and that which is the fruit of long effort. In Christianity any such rapidity is indicated in terms of "grace". The "centro-centric" understanding of Everything through Witness awareness precludes the possibility of distributive understanding of Everything. By this might be meant the possibility that, as with the fingers of a hand endeavouring to hold a ball, Everything can only be "grasped" by several fingers together. Is it possible that Witness awareness is but one of the fingers and that fingers from other models are required for larger awareness? Of course "grasp" is an entirely inappropriate metaphor as he would indeed argue -- and as argued elsewhere. There is a long tradition of considering that gurus who have struggled towards wisdom and subtler modes of awareness, as in the case of Wilber, are in many ways above criticism -- to the point of being "shadow free". Indeed the problematic facets of their characters are not a matter for reflection by their disciples, typically urged into "positive thinking". Such facets only emerge in accounts by the disaffected whose objectivity is itself questionable -- as "negative thinking". Is the existence of such problematic facets of relevance to the insights of any Theory of Everything? Is the failure to address them in a non-dualistic manner evidence of the kind of polarized thinking such a model seeks to transcend? Of what relevance are the insights of depth psychologists suggesting that it is through such "shadow" features that greater integration and maturity lie? Is it not the case that such shadow features are precisley what undermines meaningful interaction between those of differing traditions and approaches to subtler forms of awareness? Again, is concern about such shadow dynamics not a healthy corrective to false certainty -- enabling the degree of doubt vital to new learning?