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Category: Beautiful words

Created: Saturday, 07 September 2013 18:28

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You continuously tell us “To be a witness, to be aware”, of everything we do, think, feel. But can a witnessing consciousness really sing, dance and taste life?

Mind is bound to raise these questions, sooner or later.

Why mind is so much afraid of your becoming a witness? 

Because your becoming a witness is the death of the mind. Mind is a doer, it wants to do things, and witnessing is a state of non-doing. The mind is afraid that, If you become a witness, it will not be needed anymore." And in a way the mind is right. Once the witness arises in you the mind has to disappear, just like if you bring light into your room and the darkness has to disappear; it is inevitable. Mind can exist only if you remain fast asleep, because mind is a state of dreaming and dreams can exist only in sleep.

By becoming a fitness, you are no longer asleep, you are awake. You become aware and perceptive, ever so crystal-clear, so young and fresh, ever so vital and potent. You become like an intense flame, burning from both ends, and in that state of intensity, enlightenment and consciousness, mind will die, it will commit suicide for so to say. Hence the mind is afraid.

And mind will create many problems for you, it will raise many many questions. It will make you hesitate to take the jump into the unknown, it will try to pull you back. It will try to convince you that, "with me, you'll feel  safe and secure; with me you are living under a shelter, well guarded. I'll take every care of you. With me you are efficient and skillful. The moment you leave me, you will lose all your knowledge, and  you will relinquish all security and safety. You will have to drop your armor, and you will be going into the unknown. You are unnecessarily taking a risk, for no reason at all."

And it will try to create beautiful rationalization. This is what almost always  happens to every meditator. It is not you who is asking the question; it is your mind, your enemy, which is putting the questions through you. It is your mind which is saying, "Can a witnessing consciousness really sing, dance and taste life?" Yes, it can.

In fact only a witnessing consciousness can really sing, dance and taste life. This doesn't only look like a paradox - it is one ! But all truths  are always paradoxical, and remember: if truth is not paradoxical, then it is not truth at all, then it is something else.

When you are in the mind, how can you sing? Mind creates misery; out of misery there can be no song. When you are in the mind, how can you dance? Yes, you can go through certain empty gestures called dance, but it is not a real dance.

The real dance happens only when you have become a witness. Then you are so blissful that the very bliss starts overflowing; that is the dance. The very bliss starts singing; a song arises on its own accord. And only when you are a witness can you taste life.

I can understand your question: You are worried that by becoming a witness, you will  merely end up as a spectator of life. Not so, to be a spectator is one thing, and to be a witness a totally different thing, qualitatively different.

A spectator is indifferent, he is dull, he is in a kind of sleep, he does not participate in life, he is afraid, he is a coward. He stands by the side of the road and simply goes on seeing others living. That's what you are doing all your life: somebody else acts in a movie and you just watch. You are a spectator ! People are glued to their chairs for hours  in front of their TVs, i.e. they're just spectators. Somebody else is singing, you are listening.

Somebody else is dancing, you are just a spectator.

Somebody else is loving and you are just looking on.

You are not a participating. Professionals are doing what you should have done on your own. A witness is not a spectator. Then what is a witness?

A witness is one who participates, yet remains alert. A witness is not one who has escaped from life. He lives in life, lives far more deeply, far more passionately, but yet remains deep down a watcher; goes on to remember  "I am a conscious individual."

Try it walking on the road: remember that you are  conscious of what goes on around you. Walking continues …and a new thing is added, a new richness is added, a new beauty. Something interior is added to the outward act. You become a flame of consciousness, and then the walking has a totally different joy to it; you are on the earth and yet your feet are not touching the earth at all. I am not against action, but your action has to be enlightened by awareness. The world of action is the best opportunity to be aware. It gives you a challenge, it constantly remains a challenge.

Either you can fall asleep and become a doer; then you are a worldly man, a dreamer, a victim of illusions, or you can become a witness and yet go on living in the world; then your action has a different quality to it. It is really action.

Those who are not aware, their actions are not real actions but reactions; they only react. Somebody insults you and you react. Insult the Buddha: he does not react, he acts. Reaction is dependent on an other person pushing a button, with you being only a victim, a slave; you function like a machine.

The real person, who knows what awareness is, never reacts; he acts out of his own awareness. The action does not come from the other's act; nobody can push his button. If he feels spontaneously that this is right to do, he does it; if he feels no action is needed, he'll just keep quiet. He is not repressive; he is always open and expressive. His expression is multidimensional. In song, in poetry, in dance, in love, in prayer, and in compassion.

If you don't become aware, then there are only two possibilities: either you will be repressive or indulgent. Both ways you remain in a bondage.

Osho: "The Dhammapada: The Way of the Buddha"