The Simple Joy and Power of Detached Witnessing

The Simple Joy and Power
of Detached Witnessing

18 February 2025
(with subtitles)

Q1: Guruji, I want to say thank you.

It's ...

Yeah.

I feel blessed.

M: Yes.

Q1: Yeah. It's ...

Q1: It looks like, inside the something, it's ...

I cannot say if 'changed' is a good word,

but I don't know, something ...
It's happening inside.

M: It's happening, something? It's good.
Q1: Yes.

Q1: Yeah, and ...

Sometimes there are hard moments,

but something can witness the whole ...
[checks word with friend]

Friend: The scene.

Q1: The scene of the person that is suffering,

and it's enjoying too.

M: Is the witness ...
What the word witness means, actually,

is that which is aware,

the one who is aware of something,
but is not involved.

M: That's what witnessing means, isn't it?
Q1: Yeah.

M: That's why they call,
'Who's the next witness?'

In court they ask,
'Can the next witness come?'

If the next witness comes
and the court case, as I said before,

is like, someone was walking along,

and saw that the traffic lights come,

and somebody went through it
and hit another car.

And they came out and started fighting.

And one man came and hit this person,

and the person's dog came out
and bit the man and ...

And then it all goes to court.

Then they ask, 'Can we have a witness?'

So witness number one comes,

And they say,
'Please tell us. Where were you?'

'We were standing by the traffic lights,
Your Honour.

And I saw this red car come
and hit the blue car.

I saw this man come over
and he hit this lady.'

'And then what happened?'

'Then the dog came out of the car.'

'Was the dog tied up in the car?'

'No, the lady opened the door of the car,

the dog came out, and bit the man.'

'OK. And then what?'

'Well, I thought it was a bit one-on-one before,

now with the dog it was too much.
So I went in and I grabbed the dog.'

He said, 'But you're no longer a witness,

because you're part of the crime scene!'

'Witness number two!' ...
'Where were you standing?'

'Actually, I was standing
on the other side of the road.

I saw this man came,
and I heard what he said, also.'

'So then what happened?'

'Then I saw this man interfering.

I said, "Come on, leave the people alone.

It's nothing to do with you."

He said, "Who are you?"
And I said, "I'm also just looking".

And he hit me in the face
and I kicked him in the nuts.'

'But you are not a witness.

You are also part of the crime scene.'
So who is the witness?

You cannot really be the witness
if you get involved in that way.

Because the minute you get involved,
the witnessing is compromised.

Unless you say, 'Then I saw that
something in my mind

was going over there,
and I was kind of watching inside myself,

and I saw that some anger came up inside

and I was watching all of this as well.'

Which court will accept that?

This body got involved.

'This body hit this person,
and held the dog, and so on,

but myself, I was quite calm inside my mind.'

Who would accept that?
[laughter]

Nobody would accept it.
[laughter]

Is such a witness plausible in our example?

I saw faces going, 'Hmmm'.
[laughter]

Witnessing means here,

that you are seeing your emotions coming,

you see scenarios being created in the mind.

You're feeling judgments coming, like this,

but you stay detached from them.

You see scenarios where you'd be
strongly emotionally identified,

but somehow, you don't log into their energy.

Something stays back,
and has to keep on remembering,

'That I'm just here as a witness.

In this witnessing,
nothing is happening to me

because I'm not involved.'
You see?

If you're not involved,
the scene cannot go on, actually,

because it needs
the involvement of the 'you',

which it normally gets.

But as you keep holding the attention
in the Self-awareness,

witnessing becomes Self-aware,
rather than situation aware,

that's what happens.

First you are looking,

and the mind is throwing
one story after another.

You feel this,
and then you're called, 'Witness!'

'Detach!'

The mind is still ... [demonstrates turmoil]

What is that which is aware of all of this,

including the personal feelings?

Say of this, 'What is this?'

And everything begins to slow down.

And this is every time that you look.

And from witnessing,
something greater happens,

Self-awareness comes alive.

And when Self-awareness becomes alive,

the scenes lose their magnetism for you.

Because here there is no excitement.

There is a spacious joy of presence!

But in the beginning,
it takes tremendous effort

to keep out of the reflex to get identified.

This is what I say,

Learn to let it not be your business.

But even the sense of the person which is ...

If the sense of the person is not there,
you are detached!

So really, watch the person!
You see?

Gradually, it becomes like this.

I would say that this is one of the most
potent spiritual exercises!

Because it doesn't need other support,

just looking and clarifying, which is you.

You beyond 'you'.
You beyond 'you the person'.

Something is here.

And at a certain point,
you cannot even call it 'you'.

It's just a presence is here.

And it's not a presence that feels,

'Where did you come from?'

It absorbs the 'I' inside

and it fills everything here.

Every cell is rejoicing,

in a space of peace and serenity and joy.

You may even call it love.

And the heat of the moment is transformed.

It's like it's radiating.

It's conquering everything.

That is your power!

And the more you exercise this,

more and more
something feels [long slow exhale].

The world gets off your chest.

It becomes like ...

It's as though you're cocooned.

You're cocooned in an invisible space.

Like a silent cocoon, and you are moving,

and through this cocoon
you can shake hands,

say, 'Hi, how are you?' And so on.

It's like the noise [makes big engine noise]
is kind of more far away.

And there is a peace,

and a real appreciation.

The sense of being threatened personally
has moved away,

and is replaced by a universal feeling
of oneness and joy.

Maybe not all at once.

Maybe all you feel is just to be here.

But the more you give respect to that,

self-respect to that,

it's like you are charging:
You are on Self-charge.

It's very good.

Q1: I pray every day,

that God gives me more wisdom and strength.

Because something can see that there is,

like you said before,
there is a sort of avoidance.

There is both.
There is avoiding, but there is the other side.

There is love. There is ...

[Q1 checks words with friend]
Friend: Desire.

Q1: There is desire, urge,

there are both sides, still.

M: Even upon the realisation of the Self,

the play of duality is still active.

But it has a different tone about it.
You know?

We should not be surprised at that.

Duality plays, but it has a different tone.

When the ego force has subsided,
then it's happening in presence.

Then you're not experiencing the world
through person,

but through presence.

And presence is infinitely more kind
than the person.

Q1: Yeah, it's less attachment
to the ego-mind person.

And ...
Thank you.

M: Yes, this unassociated presence
is the Guru of the world, in each one.

Q2: Guruji, can I ask one small thing?
M: OK.

Q2: ... Is it possible,
that there could be a playing in this?

M: Yeah.

Q2: Is it possible that there could be
playing in this system?

Just one screw, one pivot,
where the identity is fixed.

That there's just one thing holding,

Q2: and when you pull that out,

Q2: that it could just dis ...

M: This pulling out is the seeing that
the person is itself phenomenal.

Because we are the presence itself,
the beingness itself,

that is expressing through the belief,
'I am this body'.

'I'm a woman.' 'I'm a man'. 'I'm this age'.
And so on.

It's taking all the qualities of the body

and claiming them to be qualities of itself.
It is the beingness.

And to do that,
it takes on the identity of a person.

When it takes on the identity of a person,
it definitely becomes a type.

It becomes one amongst many.

When it reverts back to beingness,
in the way that I'm speaking,

it becomes universal consciousness.

Q2: Could there be like one belief,
one ego belief that's ...

M: The belief is, 'I am this'.
The belief is, 'I am this person'.

'I am this structure.

I was born here.

This is my age.' This belief.

You can call it one,
based upon the body as its location.

'I am this.'

That thought alone

generates lifetimes
of varied experiencing and struggle.

Q2: So that's why you just said,
'Do you believe it?'

M: Yes, as long as we believe,
and we do believe,

it is the gasoline of the engine of personhood.

It goes on like that.
And it doesn't just drop.

Rarely. Sometimes it can just go.

Sometimes, it's just with repeated seeing that
it loses power, actually.

Considering how long it may be going on for,
it loses it very quickly.

The natural orientation of being is to evolve.

Evolve means to dissolve the ego.

But where you come back to,
is never going to be a shock.

It's always a delight.
As when you come back, you find you're still here!

But not with all that baggage of personhood.

Some traits may continue,

but gradually, they also will just go away.

Q2: Guruji, I do see that
much is dissolving just by itself.

It's just ...
There's a lot of dissolving just happening.

Q2: And by your grace, in the last ...

M: Don't pay too much attention to it,
because it's tricky.

You're thinking now,
'Five, four, three, two, seven! Seven?

Six, five ... Fifteen?'
[laughter]

You see, don't pay too much attention to it.

It's more that whatever it is,
it is seen.

And if it is seen,
that which sees is not a number.

Don't give any shape to that.
Don't give a shape to that.

If you give a shape to that,
it becomes an entity.

The Self is not an entity.

It's pure consciousness, pure awareness.

Limitless.

For the human expression of consciousness

to awaken to this is rare, rare.

And yet, each is that!

And we are here for this.

Or at least from my standpoint,
we are here for this!

But ...
The ego mind doesn't just give up and say,

'Okay, so now you're going there.
Okay, I'll leave you.'

No, you stay with it.
It doesn't matter how long.

'Oh, you've been left for hundreds of ...'
It doesn't matter.

It doesn't matter.
It doesn't matter.

Om
Thank you, thank you.

Lord of this universe,

shining inside the heart of each one,

as that vibration, that intuition, 'I Am'.

Know that to be the embodied Self.

And this embodied Self

comes out from the Parabrahman,
the Supreme.

M: Amen.
Group: Amen.

[silence]

I would just like to close today
with this blessing

that in whichever heart
feels a response to this,

without having to go to the mind
for any self-reference.

If your feeling is,
'I may not grasp everything here,

but I open my heart to faith

and to receive the grace that
has brought me to this very point.'

Take the darshan of God's grace.

So be it. So be it.

Om. Hallelujah. Alhamdulillah. Amen.

M: Thank you.
Group: Thank you.

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