“Looking outward, the sun of our awareness illuminates our world, looking in on itself, it notices the watcher of the world”
Dear Integral Meditators,
October has a full routine of classes, retreats & workshopsto enjoy, both live & online, starting with the Mindful Self-Confidence workshop this Saturday 5th, & the Cultivating your Nirvana, or inner freedom mini retreat on the morning of the 12th.
You can find full details of all sessions beneath this weeks article on ‘Witnessing the witness’.
In the spirit of meditation in action,
Toby
Witnessing the witness – The sun turning in on itself
The witness self – your inner sun
One way to center yourself in the present is to focus on a single object in the present moment, such as your body, your breathing, a thought, an image and so on. A second major way to center yourself is to center your attention around the observer within you, and its process of observation. This practice is called witnessing. All you need to do is center in your position as the witnessing observer within your field of awareness.
When you witness, it is important to get the balance right between transcending and including. What I mean by this is the balance of two qualities:
- Transcending means you observe in a detached manner, treating your observed content as an object
- Including meaning that you observe your objects inclusively, touching them with care and warmth
In a previous article I compare witnessing to the Sun;
- The sun shines its life-giving warmth upon us generously
- At the same time it’s light and warmth are completely impersonal and detached
So, when you witness, good technique transcends and includes the observed object, like the sun shines it’s light on us.
Things to witness
One of the great things about witnessing is exactly the way it turns subjects of consciousness into objects of consciousness. It is much easier to work with and master an object of consciousness compared to something that you are deeply identified with. So, what I like to do regularly is to take as my object of witnessing awareness the things that are bothering or triggering me that day. For example:
- If I’m feeling anxious about something such as a meeting
- If I’m feeling the need to be right with someone, and the past conversation keeps replaying
- If I’m feeling grumpy or distressed about physical pain
- If I’m feeling sad
…or attached to something/someone, and sometimes if I am feeling good about something, and I can tell I’m really identified with that feeling.
What you do is take your experience as the object of sun-like witnessing, and make it into an object of consciousness rather than a subject of consciousness. At a certain point you will feel the subjective power of that experience fading. It is still there, maybe even still feeling strong, but it is an object, rather than a subject of consciousness. This changes the experience, making it much easier to adapt to and work with.
The sun turning in on itself
Another core practice that you can build once you get used to witnessing, is witnessing the witness. If you were to imagine the light of the sun, which normally shines outwards, turns and shines inwards, this is the essential movement of witnessing the witness. This is a different form of witnessing because:
- Witnessing consciousness itself has no form, it is just formless, timeless awareness. So there is nothing to ‘see’
- Secondly, the witness is the absolute subject of consciousness. As such it cannot know itself in the same way as looking at an object from the outside. When you witness the witness, you simply notice the feeling of being the witness, and take that sense of formless timeless ‘being’ as your object of meditation
If you imagine the sun as your basic image for witnessing, and then imagine the sun turning it’s light and shining in on itself, this is a useful analogy and image for meditation to use to gradually access direct experience of the ‘witnessing the witness’ practice.
Structuring your witnessing practice
If I do a 20-minute witnessing meditation for example, quite often I will split the time;
- 5minutes witnessing an object
- 5minutes witnessing the witness
- x2
Putting them together creates a powerful one-two punch for the practice!
Related article: Witnessing like the sun
Witnessing – Being that which is not
Bodies within bodies – Witnessing with your energy bodies
Bare attention – Your inner bird-watcher
© Toby Ouvry 2024, you are welcome to use or share this article, but please cite Toby as the source and include reference to his website www.tobyouvry.com
Upcoming meditation sessions & workshops with Toby
Ongoing on Tuesday’s & Wednesday’s (live & online), 7.30-8.30pm – Weekly integral meditation classes
Ongoing, Tuesday/Wednesday evening’s, 7.30-8.30pm – Meditating with the power of intention – An eleven module course
Saturday 5th October, 9.30am-12.30pm – Developing Your Self-Confidence Through Mindfulness Workshop
Saturday 12th October, 9-11.30am – Integral meditation deep dive mini-retreat – Cultivating your Nirvana, or inner freedom
Saturday 26th October, 9.30am-12.30pm – Meditation & Mindfulness for Creating a Mind of Ease, Relaxed Concentration and Positive Intention
Saturday October 26th, 5-6pm Singapore time – Engaged mindfulness & meditation online class : What is self-awareness?
Tuesday 29th & Wednesday 30th Oct, 7.30-8.30 – Deepavali Meditation – Connecting to your inner light
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