From a site visitor: “You mentioned the Pure Witness last week. What is the difference in witnessing and Pure Witnessing?”
F.: Pause for a few moments to read a description of the vision at the following link and find the three birds in the vision: http://floydhenderson.com/article1.htm . Now, consider the eagle (which represents the witness). What is it witnessing? How is it witnessing?
What it is witnessing are all of those illusory “things” of the relative “world” below. It is the consciousness that can objectively witness those things of the relative existence and can “see” that it—the consciousness—is not the body, not the mind, not the religious or spiritual roles formerly played (represented by the raven) and that it is not even the Child Ignorance (represented by the gull). Subject-object witnessing is happening as it sees all that it is not (i.e., “I see that I am not that”; however, it does not see What It Truly Is. It does not see its True Self. All of the false must be seen before the truth can be seen. All that you are not must be seen before You can see What You Truly Are). How is it witnessing? Objectively, without attachment. The witness is seeing the lie of duality as it discards each former identity that was false.
As the consciousness purifies and shifts the focus away from the relative and toward the Absolute, note what the True Self (the Pure Witness) is [a] not witnessing and what it [b] is witnessing. First, it is not witnessing anything that dealt with the relative existence. It has “turned its back on all that” and has “left behind all that dealt with the relative.” It has “turned” and is looking toward the light. It is no longer looking at the false but is seeing the truth. It is witnessing its Oneness with all, so no subject-object witnessing remains at the True Self level. It is witnessing That Which It Truly Is. That is Pure Witnessing—devoid of subject-object observations and thus devoid of duality. The witness can see what it is not; the Pure Witness sees That Which It Truly Is…both in manifested space and as it approaches the unmanifested state. The witnessing stage allows the consciousness that is being re-purified to realize what is not; the Pure Witness stage allows the Pure Consciousness to know What Was, What Is and What shall forever Be. Please enter the silence of contemplation.
