Untitled - June 27, 2026
00:00:06 Speaker: So welcome friends in and of an awakening world. The question is how does witnessing help you in your awakening process and also in your life. And a really good, a good example is imagine you are in a forest and you are standing next to a needle tree, and you're standing so close to the tree that the needles of the tree are actually continuously pricking into your body. And imagine you'd be standing like this, not just for a couple minutes, not just for hours, but for days, months, lifetimes. You'd be just so close to it. So what would start happening is that you would obviously feel a lot of pain, but maybe even grow numb of the pain because the needles are continuously actually, you know, touching into the body. But also you would at some point just think of yourself as this, you know. There is no distance to it at all. And then imagine that one fine day you're actually, you know, you, you, you are taking a step back and you are creating that distance to the tree. You would obviously feel this great relief because you're no longer pricked by the needles of the tree. And you would see this tree as a distance to the tree. So you would actually start seeing it at a distance to you. So the tree is no longer viewed as you with distance to it. Plus you would be able to see much more of that tree. You would actually see its whole size. You would see what it's made of. You would see like little details of the tree, and then imagine you would still be looking at the tree, but you would step yourself back and back and back, maybe up on a plateau even, and you would see more and more of the tree. You would see more and more of the valley. You would see the whole forest. You would see all these details like houses. And there's this great sense of this great vision. You know, it usually also comes with a sense of even physically, if you're on a, on a, you know, on a mountain top or something, you see, you have this whole vision, you start actually, you know, there's also this great sense of, of freedom. And also distance helps you see more clearly. And it's exactly the same thing actually with thoughts, emotions, sensations, the perception of the body because you are so close to it and you have been so close to it and you never investigated it, and there's no distance, there's absolutely no distance. So whatever arises, you know, whatever emotion comes up, whatever thought comes up, whatever sensation of the body comes up, it is instantly grasped. You're instantly actually picking it up, making it yours, and making it about you. And the thought. Then that's what the mind is. The mind has the power to actually direct you. So there's a thought. There's a thought occurring, there's a thought arising. You instantly pick it up, you make it yours and it directs your actions. You become dependent on whatever arises. Now, depending on what arises within someone's mind can be very, very negative. Can be a lot of subsets of very negative emotions continuously. But similar to standing to the tree for such a long time, you're so accustomed to that you're so you know, you you know this is yours. You don't even question it. You don't question the negative thought. You don't question whether that's actually you. It just becomes what generates response, what generates action, what generates, what generates, um, well-being also, or the sense of well-being or the sense of not well-being. So witnessing is really relevant and also relevant for finding out what you are. Because if you still believe to be your thoughts, to be your emotions, to be your sensations, very difficult to realize what you actually are because no distance is there. So witnessing is so important because it's the same kind of thing in the beginning when you are witnessing thoughts, witnessing emotions, witnessing sensations, it feels like an effort, feels an effort not to follow those emotions. It feels like an effort not to follow those thoughts. It feels like an effort not to follow your mind. But actually, that distance is always already here. It isn't that you actually factually establish it because your true self as awareness is always at a distance too. It is never enmeshed in. It is pure in that sense. It doesn't hold anything. Stuff arises within you. Yeah. But it is coming and going, coming and going, coming and going. It is seen from that distance. But what witnessing helps you do is to remember that distance. And it's also to remember, hey, I'm not my emotions. Something exists eternally before there is something you as source from which all this stuff arises. But there's also always the distance there. There's always the distance to whatever arises actually. So witnessing helps you to get distance to that. It also actually. What does that mean factually the same as stepping away from the tree. You are seeing from a broader vision. You're starting to see not from inside the sense perception. And that also allows for very, very heavily ingrained conditionings thought mechanisms. This whole rippling stuff, you know, as an emotion or a sensation, I instantly have to respond to that. It allows you to stay at a distance to that, not respond in the same manner, not respond at all. Just seeing it. It can then collapse. Doesn't have to grasp you. Doesn't have to define you. It is no longer you. You will see it. It's no longer you. You will not necessarily pick it up. It will not define your day. It doesn't define your well-being. It doesn't define your sense of happiness because it comes and goes. It's and it's, it's seen as that. You know it. There is no bypassing at all because you're still seeing it. It isn't that you are unaware of it. It's just not picked up. It's not identified. It's as looking at a room. There's a side table in the room, a side table you are not using. You're not you know, the side table can still be there. It's just you're not engaged with it. It's the same with with negative emotions or with sensations or with thoughts. And what also happens is there's a, there's a continuing awareness that you actually exist prior, there is a continuing awareness. Hey, I'm not found in there. I can observe this. I'm the one that is aware of this. So I'm not actually found in whatever is arising in side of my true self as awareness. At some point this witnessing it deepens and deepens and you see actually perceptions or thoughts and how this whole identification process is what is the process of picking something up, making it yours, having this reactive chain to it. Da da da da da. You are actually it is as if you're on a plateau. You're witnessing whatever is arising, even your personal construct or situations or spiritual phenomena or whatever it is. You are observing this from your true self. You go deeper and deeper and deeper and deeper actually into this. I call it spacious awareness into your own spaciousness. Or you could say, into the emptiness of mind. It is. There is an even even through witnessing the sense of your own emptiness starts to increase. The sense of the phenomenal reality starts to become stronger. It means that you see phenomena coming and going, coming and going, coming and going, coming and going. You see how this is actually generated. You see reality as phenomena arising within awareness. At some point, you know, in the beginning you are very you have to have this effort of actually witnessing. Then you start seeing that this distance is actually always already there. And the mind's power to grasp you, to make you go into a certain direction, To grasp, you know, to take the lead becomes lessened. And also your interest actually becomes lessened in appearances because they the this phenomenal quality is so strongly just known to you. It's just seen to you. You're just aware of it. And, and what you are is shining. You know, it just it is just this, this, this, this luminous quality of awareness itself. It's just just outshining actually all these whatever arises in it. But what happens for self realization is that some, at some moment you're less interested in, you know, having to witness somehow, you know, you become more and more interested in that seeing itself, the Seer itself, consciousness or awareness itself. You're no longer observing. You know, outside you could say you're no longer observing what arises. You are interested in that which is aware. You could say you're turning your gaze, but it's also that you, this clarity about you, this relaxation as you. It's just is, is just taking precedence from beforehand where you were witnessing. But witnessing is so relevant because if you have never witnessed, then all you have is your gamut of emotions, sensations Depending on how you know what, what what is it that always is generated? It defines your sense of well-being and it really the mind confines your capacity to operate from freedom, your capacity to operate beyond your conditioning, beyond your trauma, beyond your whatever it is the mind conjures up in a moment, you will instantly respond to whatever it is that arises. So even just to witness, even just to create this distance again, that is actually factually there, but not to instantly come from these mechanisms, you know, that is also already helped similar to you stepping away from the pricking tree, you know, in the beginning there's this great relief. It's the same. You're starting to see, hey, I'm not these. I'm not found in these emotions. I'm not found in these sensations, I am not found in my conditioning. Thought patterns. I exist prior and, and you are creating a distance to these reactive reactive compulsions or these modes of operating in a distinct manner. You you come into contact with your true self. It's the same for everyone, but it just also creates the sense of this great sense of, of liberation already in the process. Actually, you know, people always like, oh, self realization, when is it? What's the goal? That dot dot dot de? But you have to see what, what what beauty is generated, what freedom, what peace with which you know already actually on this path simply by you starting to witness seeing you're not you're not having to be caught up in, you know, you always have a freedom. Freedom already there. You just need to start, start the mind. You know, the mind is, is all that, that is conjured up. Uh, the mind gives you certain directions. These, these mechanisms are engrained. Is this you? No,, you are pure, undiluted, untainted, all of these already now. So witnessing is so helpful, you know, starting to create this distance, observing, staying out, not taking on what the mind suggests. In the beginning, it's effortful. At some point it's no longer effort because the distance is simply there. It is seen. And your person is even seen. You know from that this is this is how this deepens and how how you can deepen this. So that is the, the, the, the greatness of creating distance. And similar to You in this body from your sense perception creating distance. You will have a different view. It's a different view if you stand so near to stuff. If you see it from a distance or if you're overlooking the whole valley, it's the same you deeper and deeper actually seeing from awareness. What is happening in your mind? What is your person? What is this whole space?
00:18:34 Speaker: Namaste.
