TODAY'S CONSIDERATIONS
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Next, quotations from Maharaj will be offered, excerpted from the book QUOTATIONS AND POINTERS dealing with NON-DUALITY, ADVAITA, NISARGA YOGA and more
The quotations and pointers from Maharaj which will be offered during the next few days will be arranged by category and subject matter. The quotes offered today will deal with:
"THE TWO TYPES OF WITNESSING"
"There are two witnessing stages."
(The pointer was offered earlier that the two types of witnessing are "subject-object witnessing" and "Pure Witnessing." Many times, Maharaj simply used the term "witness" to refer to "Pure Witnessing"; at other times, he used "witness" to refer to the subject-object witness. Once a seeker can differentiate "the witness" from "Pure Witnessing," then it becomes clear in each case which of the two types Maharaj is referencing in any given instance. In a few of the quotations below, for the sake of clarification until all seekers understand his actual reference, inserts [ ] will be used to illustrate the difference.)
"For [s-o] witnessing (that is, Subject-Object Witnessing), there must be something else to witness. We are still in duality!"
"Nobody can say: ‘I am the witness'. The ‘I am' is always witnessed. The state of detached awareness is the witness-consciousness . . . ."
"The 'I am' looks at things, the witness sees through them. It sees them as they are -- unreal and transient. To say 'not me, not mine' is the task of the witness."
"In other words, the difference between the person and the [Pure] Witness[ing] is as between not knowing [oneself] and knowing oneself."
"There is no effort in witnessing. You understand that you are the witness only and the understanding acts. You need nothing more, just remember that you are the witness only."
[Pure] "Witnessing is primarily awareness of consciousness and its movements."
"It is you that need my body to talk to you. I am not my body, nor do I need it. I am the Witness[ing] only. I have no shape of my own. You are so accustomed to think of yourselves as bodies having consciousness that you just cannot imagine consciousness as having bodies. Once you realise that bodily existence is but a state of mind, a movement in consciousness, that the ocean of consciousness is infinite and eternal, and that, when in touch with consciousness, You are the [Pure] Witness[ing] only, you will be able to withdraw beyond consciousness altogether."
"The Guru is basically without desire. He sees what happens, but feels no urge to interfere. He makes no choices, takes no decisions. As Pure Witness[ing], 'he' watches what is going on and remains unaffected."
"Man becomes what he believes himself to be. Abandon all ideas about yourself and you will find yourself to be the pure witness, beyond all that can happen to the body or the mind."
"You live, you feel, you think. By giving attention to your living, feeling and thinking, you free yourself from them and go beyond them. Your personality dissolves and only the witness remains."
"The witness" [that is, "Pure Witnessing, a.k.a., "The True Self"] "is not a person. The person comes into being when there is a basis for it, an organism, a body. In it the absolute is reflected as awareness."
Q: "What about the witness? Is it real or unreal?"
M: "It is both. The last remnant of illusion, the first touch of the real. To say: I am only the witness is both false and true: false because of the 'I am', true because of the witness. It is better to say: 'there is witnessing'. The moment you say: 'I am', the entire universe comes into being along with its creator."
Q: "Has the witness name and form, or is it beyond these?"
M: "The witness is merely a point in awareness. It has no name and form." [That pointer allows for a key understanding that is missed by most seekers and by those who only think that they are "realized": The pointer "The witness is merely a point in awareness" means that "the Pure Witnessing" is merely a point in awareness. And the salient fact which that pointer makes clear is that the "Pure Witnessing" is all that the "True Self" or the "Real Self" is; therefore, because there is no aware-of-ness in the post-manifestation state of awareness, then there can be no post-manifestation self-ness and there can be no post-manifestation "Self-ness," no "Self," no "True Self," no "Real Self," no being, no "Being," no non-being, no "non-Being," and no identity or "Identity" of any kind, either.]
"The personality gives place to the witness; then, the witness goes and pure awareness remains."
"The nature of the self is pure awareness, pure witnessing, unaffected by the presence or absence of knowledge or liking."
"One must also know that a rope exists and looks like a snake. Similarly, one must know that the real exists and is of the nature of witness-consciousness. Of course it is beyond the witness, but to enter it one must first realise the state of pure witnessing. The awareness of conditions brings one to the unconditioned."
"As long as we imagine ourselves to be separate personalities, one quite apart from another, we cannot grasp reality which is essentially impersonal. First we must know ourselves as witnesses only, dimensionless and timeless centres of observation, and then realise that immense ocean of pure awareness, which is both mind and matter and beyond both."
Questioner: "Is the witness-consciousness permanent or not?"
Maharaj: "It is not permanent. The knower rises and sets with the known. That in which both the knower and the known arise and set, is beyond time. The words permanent or eternal do not apply."
"The witness only registers events. In the abeyance of the mind even the sense 'I am' dissolves. There is no 'I am' without the mind."
"When the mind is quiet, we come to know ourselves as the pure witness. We withdraw from the experience and its experiencer and stand apart in pure awareness, which is between and beyond the two. The personality, based on self-identification, on imagining oneself to be something: 'I am this, I am that', continues, but only as a part of the objective world. Its identification with the witness snaps."
"In witnessing, in awareness, self-consciousness, the sense of being this or that, is not. Unidentified being remains."
"All has its being in me, in the ‘I am’, that shines in every living being. Even not-being is unthinkable without Me. Whatever happens, I must be there to witness it."
"You must watch yourself continuously - particularly your mind - moment by moment, missing nothing. This witnessing is essential for the separation of the self from the not-self."
"The person is never the subject. You can see a person, but you are not the person."
"Watching . . . thoughts and concepts, I came to the conclusion that whatever is happening is in the consciousness. All kinds of things were happening - thoughts and experiences - and they were credited to my account; but once I have seen what it is, all those account books have been burned and I no longer have any account. How amusing it is to see someone who thinks of himself as an individual, who thinks of himself as a doer or achiever."
After "having stabilized in the consciousness, the next step is to be in a position to observe the consciousness, and all the play that is happening in the consciousness, just to understand. Attachment to the body and to the consciousness is very strong; to get rid of it is very difficult."
" . . . That consciousness principle is there at that center. As you merge into the world, the movement increases. Watch that center point, watch that movement of consciousness. That central, stationary point of the wheel watches the movement of consciousness. The one that observes the movement is almost stationary. To bring about the actions of the world — the movement — consciousness must descend. If there is no consciousness, there is no worldly movement. Similarly, you must become stabilized in a more stationary position, near the center. When you leave that center point, the movement takes over."
"Consciousness is there in the child as it is in the parents; it is always the same consciousness whether in the child or the adult. There is only one consciousness." [The reference is to the Pure Consciousness. The problem is that the Pure Witnessing, the Pure Consciousness, becomes blocked - some even say, "corrupted" - by programming, conditioning, domestication, acculturation, etc. and by the assumption of identities.]
"Just as a sleeping man forgets all and wakes up for another day, or he dies and emerges into another life, so do the worlds of desire and fear dissolve and disappear, but the universal witness never sleeps and never dies."
"At the root of all creation lies desire. Desire and imagination foster and reinforce each other. The fourth state (turiya) is a state of pure witnessing, detached awareness, passionless and wordless. It is like space, unaffected by whatever it contains. Bodily and mental troubles do not reach it -- they are outside, 'there', while the witness is always 'here'."
"Reflected awareness, the sense ‘I am aware’ is the witness, while Pure Awareness is the essence of Reality."
"What you are describing is not awareness at all, but only thinking about the experience. True awareness (samvid) is a state of pure witnessing, without the least attempt to do anything about the event witnessed. Your thoughts and feelings, words and actions may also be a part of the event; You watch all unconcerned in the full light of clarity and understanding. You understand precisely what is going on, because it does not affect You. It may seem to be an attitude of cold aloofness, but it is not really so."
To be continued.
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