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Being a Witness
By Nikhil Gangoli
In some of my earlier articles in this series I have
stressed on
the need to witness your thoughts and feelings. Through
the act
of witnessing we dis-identify with the mind and obtain
some rest
from out fretful, anxious selves.
This act of witnessing can be done at any moment during
the day
when we are with ourselves and not fully occupied in our
work
and other activities. During our hours of meditation, of
course,
we are necessarily involved in being a witness.
A simple but powerful method of witnessing is as
follows:-
Simply acknowledge your thoughts and feelings as they
arise
within you. Anchor yourself in the present moment by
simultaneously being aware of your in breath and out
breath. For
example: ˇ°I am breathing in and am aware of a pleasant
sensation.ˇ± Or ˇ°I am breathing out and am aware of a
sad
sensation.ˇ± Or ˇ°I am breathing in and am aware of a
neutral
feelingˇ±
It may be noted that in Buddhist Philosophy feelings are
categorized as pleasant, unpleasant and neutral.
I have learned Vipassana meditation and during the
course Mr.
Goenka ¨C the main instructor ¨C compared our minds with
a
mischievous monkey. Just as a monkey is forever
restless,
jumping about from one object to another, so our minds
are
constantly flitting from object to object, from one thought
to
another. Thich Nhat Hanh describes the method I
described in the
preceding paragraph on acknowledging your thoughts
and feelings
like a guard observing and acknowledging all the visitors
to the
building whose entrance he is guarding.
But the above analogies contain a contradiction. It arises
because we are not separate from the thoughts and
feelings,
which annoy and distress us. When we feel anger,
sadness or
irritation we should not push these feelings away. We
should not
make off ourselves a battlefield, constantly grappling
with
ourselves. If we think of a guard observing and
acknowledging
the visitors to a building we get the impression that the
guard
is separate from the visitors. We think that our
witnessing
pressure is separate from the thoughts and feelings
witnessed.
However we are not separate from our monkey minds,
our
witnessing presence is not separate from the thoughts
and
feelings witnessed. And we need to recognize this fact
and be
one with our thoughts and feelings, observing them
compassionately and not creating a battlefield within
ourselves.
This may seem contradictory to you. On one hand I am
asking you
to witness your thoughts and feelings and dis-identify
with the
mind. On the other hand I am asking you to be one with
your
thoughts, not view them as enemies or adversaries, not
to create
a battlefield within yourself. It may seem to you that it is
impossible to do both together. Yet it is not only possible
but
is also surprisingly easy.
Life is full of contradictions. As Shakespeare said ˇ°There
are
more things in Heaven and Earth than are dreamed of in
your
philosophyˇ±.
One method of both witnessing your thoughts as well as
being one
with them is to observe your thoughts without reacting.
If you
react observe the reaction without reacting. This is a 3
step
method:
1. Welcome the thought or feelings into your
awareness.
2. Observe the same without reacting.
3. Let go of the thought
or feeling and bring your attention back to the breath, or
back
to your meditation practice.
Another way to think of this process is that we are
surrendering
to whatsoever thoughts and feelings that are arising.
There is a
famous text from the Bible, ˇ°Lord, let thy will and not
mine be
doneˇ±. We need some of this attitude of surrender as we
approach
our meditation practice.
If you follow my above instructions you will find it
surprisingly easy to meditate for longer and longer
periods of
time. There was a time when meditation for even half an
hour was
a huge effort for me. But now within just 4 months I find
that I
can meditate for an hour at a stretch and feel happy and
peaceful. I do not need to add that following these
methods in
your day-to-day life will also bring immense benefits to
you.
I hope you enjoyed this article and that it will be useful
to
you.
If you have any comments or question please visit The
Eastern
Philosophy Blog and post them. I promise to reply as
promptly as
I can. Here is the link
http://eastern-philosophy-and-meditation.blogspot.com/
Stay tuned for more articles in this continuing series.
About the Author
For more articles in this series straight to your inbox and a report on the connection between Eastern Philosophy and Quantum Physics please visit http://www.eastern-philosophy-and-meditation.com/ and sign up for the Free newsletter.
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