‘Witnessing is a apply that solves your issues with out altering them. They’re nonetheless issues, however they don’t seem to be issues in the best way they have been. It solves all of your issues and none on the identical time.’
Expensive Integral Meditators,
This week’s article seems at meditative effortlessness from the attitude of witnessing apply. It’s a playful variation on a previous article on ‘That which solves all your problems & none‘ from again in 2014. In the event you take pleasure in it, then it should type a central a part of this week’s Tuesday & Weds meditation class. So do be at liberty to pop in, both reside or on-line!
It’s a barely longer article, so that you would possibly discover it worthwhile studying it in two or three elements, coming again to it at totally different instances…
Within the spirit of the easy,
Toby
Easy adaptation – Fixing all of your issues & none (II)
You’ll be able to’t grasp what you might be over recognized with
This text is about the way to adapt and movement with challenges in our life in as ‘easy’ or ergonomic method as attainable. We are able to divide our challenges into ‘issues’ and ‘conditions’. In a earlier article entitled ‘Wanting what you like, or liking what happens?’ I made the excellence between the 2 as follows:
“A number of the issues that we have now labelled ‘problems’ in our life are extra like ‘conditions’. An issue is one thing that by definition has an answer. A scenario is extra a set of circumstances that we discover ourself in. There could also be no obvious resolution to the scenario, or the answer would value greater than it will be price to ‘clear up’ the issue. On this case we have now to easily settle for and work with what’s. If we will harmonize our relationship to what ‘is’ as we speak, which means our conditions, then chances are high we are going to discover methods to take pleasure in it and derive some worth from it.”
If we need to clear up and adapt effortlessly, a major precept is you’ll be able to’t grasp what you might be over recognized with. Right here we’re going to discover the way to develop into extra goal in our challenges, subsequently struggling much less as we adapt and clear up.
The last word topic of consciousness
Initially in meditation (after which in each day consciousness), if we glance inside, we will divide our consciousness into two:
- The objects inside consciousness, or the content material that we will observe
- The topic of consciousness, or that which is observing, AKA ‘the witness self’
Through the day, very often (virtually at all times actually), we confuse the themes of consciousness with the objects of consciousness. We determine with our bodily physique and sensations, feelings, and moods. We determine with our story, our concept of who we’re, in addition to our beliefs and worldviews. All of those might be noticed, watched, made into objects. The ‘self’ is, to make use of a Zen expression, ‘the last word topic of consciousness’. It’s that inside us that observes, which we will expertise and be, however that we can’t watch as an object. You’ll be able to relaxation within the witness self, however you’ll be able to’t ‘see’ it. It is because it’s merely consciousness itself, with no traits of type or time. It simply ‘IS’!
Witnessing to adapt & clear up
One of many beauties of sitting because the witness self is that it helps us to regularly dis-identify with the issues in our consciousness that we’re presently recognized with. By doing this we make our challenges in addition to the ideas, emotions and beliefs related to them objects reasonably than topics. Which means its a lot simpler to work with them and grasp them, as a result of they don’t seem to be ‘me’ or ‘mine’. I might be extra goal, calm, strategic and (holistically) compassionate as a result of I’m not over figuring out with what’s going on. In the event you apply witnessing to any problem, you’re going via, it should assist considerably. Listed below are two examples from the final week:
- In a dialog with a pal, I used to be informed a narrative of somebody who had been aggressive and racist to him. Later within the day I felt robust anger and protectiveness about this. I seen I used to be strongly recognized with this ‘protector/guardian/’ facet of myself. I modulated it just by witnessing it; making it an object of consciousness reasonably than ‘me. This helped me to combine the great elements of this a part of my character, with out losing power getting caught up and connected to the power it generated in me.
- I had a dialogue which verged on an argument. I seen that there was part of me that I recognized with that was very involved about being ‘proper’. Noticing and witnessing this a part of self helped me to remodel it from topic to object, and settle for the scenario with out losing psychological, emotional or verbal power. Comparatively effortlessly it helped me to maintain targeted on what I thought of essential within the day, with out getting ‘trapped’ by my identification with rightness.
By witnessing round your challenges, you’ll be able to change your expertise of them with out a lot of a wrestle, utilizing the expertise of witnessing. I can’t suggest extremely sufficient constructing your competency round this area of mindfulness. Life will get loads simpler, free-er and extra artistic, even within the face of intractable and long-term circumstances.
A ultimate considerably Zen sentence for you: ‘Witnessing is a apply that solves your issues with out altering them. They’re nonetheless issues, however they don’t seem to be issues in the best way they have been. It solves all of your issues and none on the identical time.’
Article content material © Toby Ouvry & Integral Meditation Asia 2024. you might be welcome to share, however please cite the supply, thanks! Contact information@tobyouvry.com
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