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Osho on Confusion
in
Witnessing
Question:
Beloved master, How do I come to know when I am really
witnessing my body, feelings and thoughts, or when it is only my
mind pretending to be a witness?
Osho :
The question is only intellectual; you have not even tried to
pretend. When you are witnessing and you start feeling that it
may be just the pretense of the mind, then it is certainly a
pretense of the mind... because who is thinking about it as
pretense of the mind? -- something behind the pretense.
You can never get confused about witnessing, because behind
witnessing there is nothing. You cannot witness witnessing.
Anything that you can witness is part of the mind. So if you
witness that it is a pretense, it is a pretense. Witness the
pretense, don't get identified with it.
Witnessing has a beauty: it cannot be reduced to an object, you
cannot witness it. It is irreducible, it always slips back; it
remains only witnessing.
So whatever you feel, that means you are getting identified with
the mind. You have not tried it -- the question is simply
intellectual. If you had tried it the question would not have
arisen.
I witness my hand: that means I am not the hand. I witness the
mind: that means I am not the mind. You go on witnessing
anything that comes to you -- feelings, moods -- you are not it.
Finally, there is nothing to witness: this is it!
Only the witness is there, but nothing to witness, just
nothingness all around.
You have come to the witness. Nobody has
ever been deceived about it. But never make intellectual
questions; they won't solve existential problems. This is
something existential -- you have to do it. It is like swimming.
You cannot be taught swimming on a comfortable mattress in your
room. You can be told how to throw your hands and your legs
about, and you can do much exercise, but that is not swimming.
You have to go in the water.
There was one famous logician in India. Because he was a
logician, he said, "I cannot enter the water until I have
learned swimming, that is absolutely clear. Without knowing
swimming, how can I enter the water?" His swimming teacher told
him, "It is not a question of logic. If you want to learn
swimming, you will have to enter water without knowing swimming,
because entering the water is the beginning.
And that's the only way to learn it. If you decide that you will
enter the water only when you have learned swimming -- which is
very logical thinking -- then it is impossible, you will never
enter the water. So either be logical, or be existential." And
whatever I am telling you has nothing to do with logic. Try
witnessing. And whatever you find, it is not the witness. The
witness is always standing behind; otherwise, who is finding
these things? -- the pretense, the mind, anything.
When you cannot find anything, when all is silent, then there is
only the witness. It is a very strange situation. When there is
nothing to witness, you come to experience the witness in its
purity. When there is something to witness, the witness is
involved with some object. It is like the mirror. If you want to
know the purity of the mirror, then the mirror should be empty;
nobody should be standing in front of the mirror.
If somebody is standing in front of the mirror, then the mirror
is polluted by the reflection.
Your witness is the ultimate mirror. Anything that passes
pollutes your witness. But if you go on struggling, remembering
that whatever you see is not you -- just a simple exam: "the
object of my knowing is not me" -- soon the objects will
disappear, because you have broken the identity. And any moment,
suddenly out of nowhere, you find yourself absolutely alone
without any object.
The seer is there, but there is nothing to be seen.
Awareness
is
there, at its very peak, but there is nothing to be aware of.
The witness is there, but there is nothing to be a witness of.
So this should be the criterion of whether your witness is a
reality or just a projection, just imagination or an authentic
reality. And it is a very simple process, just like swimming.
Once you know swimming, you will be surprised that there was
nothing to learn.
Before knowing swimming, it seems dangerous, difficult -- you
cannot believe how people are swimming. But have you seen a dead
body? The dead body automatically comes up and starts swimming
-- not even swimming, it simply floats. The dead body knows
something which you don't know. If the dead body can float, why
can't you float? It is so simple that even dead bodies are doing
it.
One Japanese scientist has been trying with small children,
because his hypothesis is that the child in the mother's womb
remains in liquid, in water for nine months, so swimming must be
something very natural. It need not be learned. The hypothesis
seems to be correct. If the child manages in the mother's
womb.... In the mother's womb there is exactly the same kind of
water as in the ocean, with the same constituents.
That's why, when a woman is pregnant, she starts eating salty
things, because the water needs more and more salt. The child is
already swimming from the very first day. And in the very
beginning the child is just like a fish. Scientists think that
man began life as a fish in the ocean. Now, to teach a fish how
to swim would be just utter stupidity. This Japanese scientist
started working on six-month-old babies.
He would leave them in water in tubs, and he was surprised that
they were not afraid -- not only that, but they started
floating. Then he went down to three-month-old babies. They were
even more expert. Then he did his experiment with the newly-born
baby: he was the perfect master as far as swimming is concerned
-- nine months' training! That's why, once you know swimming,
you cannot forget it.
Everything that you learn you can forget, but something in
swimming is so natural, that once you know it you cannot forget
it. The same is true about witnessing. Every child is born a
witness. As he opens his eyes, his first act is witnessing. He
cannot think. He sees you, he sees your red clothes, but he
cannot think that these are red clothes. He does not know the
names of colors, he does not know what color means.
He simply reflects like a mirror. He is just a pure witness with
no knowledge, with no thought forming in him. That's why I say,
once you learn witnessing it is so easy, and you cannot forget
it. You had already known it -- it is a rediscovery.
Source: " From Bondage to Freedom" - Osho
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