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apatride
New Caledonia
94 Posts |
 Posted - Feb 19 2013 : 12:35:30 AM
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Hey 
I think the rise of Witness can be noticed by small glimpses at the beginning of the journey. But in the same time, these glimpses seem so weak and intangible that it's easy to convince oneself that one has too much imagination and expectations, and that it leads one to feel the Witness rising where there is no such thing.
Let me introduce some of the small glimpses I've been noticing these days :
- vision shift : seems like I'm fully engaged in a situation, then suddenly a screen slips between me as awareness and the world. For now, this phenomenon needs a conscious effort from me, but it becomes easier & easier. With this shift, I can actually "feel" persons & objects' location in spaceness.
- presence in the back : harder to describe, but it seems like there is a presence or spaceness in my back, where I can release stuff (thoughts mainly) and be freed of them.
- silence (some) : contentment in just being there, no pressure for being or meeting others' expectations. For instance, recently I went to a party, I'm occasionnally djing and playing gigs for local events (electronic music). The crowd and the need for social chatting usually upset me, but that time I found myself quite mind-empty, just enjoying being there, no chit-chat in the head about should-I-speak-to-him/her, a faint smile on my face... Social interaction seem easier and fluider than before.
So I'd like to know if it looks like actual hints of Witness rising?
Thanks for those willing to share  |
Edited by - apatride on Feb 19 2013 05:16:20 AM |
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AYPforum
351 Posts |
Posted - Feb 19 2013 : 02:50:02 AM
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| Moderator note: Topic moved for better placement |
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SeySorciere
Seychelles
1553 Posts |
Posted - Feb 19 2013 : 04:08:47 AM
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Indeed they are !
Sey |
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mr_anderson
USA
734 Posts |
Posted - Feb 24 2013 : 11:14:56 PM
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These are definitely hints of the witness rising. Congrats! Over time it just continues to build.
This is what Yogani is talking about when he describes deep meditation as lifting us up out of identified awareness. Once we are in a state in which awareness is less enmeshed in identification with form, life just gets a whole lot easier and more fluid.
Thoughts and feelings which were once difficult and could have entangled us into unpleasant states of mind, are easily released. There's an increasing lightness of being as the body-mind realizes that it and its experiences appears to I, Awareness. The sense of the body-mind as being ones sole identity starts to go, and experience filters through the perspective of vast, timeless, ever-present, awareness.
In this way, experience is less threatening, easier, lighter, more fun, less personal, more fluid, less worrying... sensory perceptions and the meaning the mind gives to them, the story of our life - moment to moment - from the perspective of an individual with its own agenda & desires, this loosens up and starts to dissolve.
Simultaneously, this makes the life of the individual more fulfilling. Life no longer has to meet our expectations, or give us what we wanted, to be joyful and happy!
Life creates, and it also destroys, the universe gives, and it takes, there is birth, and there is also old age and death, health, happiness, also suffering and disease, success and failure... we cease the useless grasping at the positive polarity, taking what comes as it may, experiencing the joy of knowing ourselves as something beyond the polarities, and free from their constant flux.
Conversely as this happens, manifesting our desires also becomes easier and more automatic, as we are no longer attached to outcomes, driving happiness away from us due to fear. There's no self-denial in the rise of the witness, and personal desires, it's an inclusion of life in both the personal and trans-personal, a loss of the suffering that comes with identification, which actually allows a richer enjoyment of the incredible grace given by our moment to moment experience of being human.
Anyway, enough of my rant. That's how it's been rollin' down here for a while. Still a mystery. Still just going with it. |
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Bodhi Tree
2972 Posts |
Posted - Feb 24 2013 : 11:59:30 PM
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Well said, Mr. Anderson. Poetic.
...sTiLLfLoW...fLoWsTiLL...  |
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apatride
New Caledonia
94 Posts |
Posted - Feb 25 2013 : 04:39:25 AM
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Thanks mr anderson.
Sometimes I wonder if it's not too much imagination, as my experience of Witness is more conceptual than really perpectual. Looks like I can't help but grasping the experience and turn it into concept. Guess it will pass.
I was wondering, is it possible for one to build a fake feeling or experience of the Witness? I've been reading a lot about it, and sometimes I think maybe I can make it all up. |
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Bodhi Tree
2972 Posts |
Posted - Feb 25 2013 : 06:49:45 AM
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The fact that you're even wondering whether the presence of the witness is genuine is an indication of the presence of the witness, in my opinion. It's that fundamental question,"Who am I?"...that's bubbling up. Automatic self-inquiry. When the question is released (with no expectation of an immediate, concrete answer), then that's relational self-inquiry. When the answer is sought through a mental construct or singularity (limited identification), then that's non-relational self-inquiry.
It's the curious questioner that uses the mind to expand perception, which is the nature of love--to reach out to where it's lacking. Just like water will continue to flow and penetrate every crack or crevice, so will awareness move until it illuminates all aspects of being--a constant process of wondering and wandering. Yet, the search is rooted in an eternal presence that is simultaneously evolutionary, so the progress is more tangible than a mere dog that chases its tail in circles (or the cycle of suffering, called "samsara" in Buddhism).
I play music as well, and I relate to the feeling you describe of witnessing the music and feeling fully engaged in the wholeness of the experience (less boundaries between subject/object, performer/audience). Such a great feeling when I play with the band and we're in natural rhythm and harmony.
"The many are the One, and the One are the many." |
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apatride
New Caledonia
94 Posts |
Posted - Feb 25 2013 : 7:02:41 PM
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Yes of course, relational self-inquiry might be the key... I don't bother to find an answer to all of this, though. I think the only way to actually know is to keep on practicing and living my life, and eventually I will know for sure, according there is anything to know in the first place.
Last week-end I had a tough time with my head throbbing with pressure, but I found it easy to manage when I step back in pure awareness. The pressure is still here, but I don't identify with it anymore and it can remain here without bothering me that much. It's much more about acceptance than conflict with the disagreement.
It's quite hard to describe that place of awareness. Feels like an interface between the world and me as pure being, with a presence and a spaceness in that interface. Sometimes it's like I'm watching myself both internally and externally.
Subtle but definitely there. |
Edited by - apatride on Feb 25 2013 9:04:55 PM |
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mr_anderson
USA
734 Posts |
Posted - Feb 25 2013 : 8:54:52 PM
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It sounds pretty certain to me that the witness is present for you to some extent apatride. Like Bodhi said, if you're wondering whether or not it's there, it's probably there.
In fact, the witness is always there - are you aware right now? Well what is aware? The witness, pure awareness itself.
However, what happens through meditation is that we cultivate, I guess, more of an awareness of the witness, an awareness of awareness, and that frees us up from getting too caught up with the objects of our experience (particularly the ones - thoughts, feelings etc - that cause suffering). Instead of noticing only the content of experience, we notice that the content occurs in the empty space of awareness, and that somehow frees us from the content.
It's like the sensation when you're watching a really traumatic movie, and you're starting to feel pretty bad, and then you suddenly realize - oh yeah! I'm just watching a movie! Phew, thank god for that. At least that's the suffering release part. There's also other qualities to the experience which you correctly described.
Your description of 'that place of awareness' also sounds pretty accurate to me. Thats how it is for me too. |
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Bodhi Tree
2972 Posts |
Posted - Feb 25 2013 : 10:26:41 PM
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quote:
Originally posted by mr_anderson
It's like the sensation when you're watching a really traumatic movie, and you're starting to feel pretty bad, and then you suddenly realize - oh yeah! I'm just watching a movie! Phew, thank god for that.
Boom! A dream within a dream. |
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Small glimpses of the Witness
