Centering in witness – consciousness

Om Sathguru Sri Seshadri Swamigal Thiruvadikkae

Disciple:

My discipline seems to be changing. I am working in a mental hospital with people whose minds run amuck. It is very difficult for me to remain centered while helping those people because I am very susceptible to the wanderings of their minds.

Master:

You could do your work quietly easily if you would become firmly centered in witness – consciousness, which means, functioning with one’s awareness centered not in the mind, but in the witness beyond the mind. Once you become established in the inner witness, things outside you do not have much effect on you. The mind is subject to all kinds of thoughts, desires, and passions, such as anger, greed, lust, pride, vanity, conceit, delusion, and fear. Since the mind can be attacked by these passions at any given time, there is always bound to be agitation in the mind; but these mental agitation can never go anywhere near the witness. The witness remains untouched. Delusion and attachment cease to exist for one who has become centered in the witness, the Self.

The Witness

Om Sathguru Sri Seshadri Swamigal Thiruvadikkae

Disciple:

Sometimes it does seem that there is a witness that is separate from the mind and can watch the mind do its tricks. But at other times the mind seems so powerful that even the witness gets caught up in it. Why Master?

Master:

The ordinary mind can’t go anywhere near the witness. Suppose that you stand for the mind, and I am the witness of the mind, I can watch you only if you are at some distance from me. If you were to come too close to me, you would no longer be an object of perception; you would become one with the seer.

Disciple:

Then, is it not possible for me to merge my mind with that witness?

Master:

For that you will have to study “Spiritual Masters” – Part I and Part II – The Methodology of Spiritual Masters.

The witness of the mind has to be different from the mind. The inner witness lives in the mind but is apart from the mind. The mind is the vehicle of the witness, and therefore it can’t also be the driver of the vehicle. The Self makes the mind think, but it can’t be known by the mind.

Disciple:

Since we are operating through the mind, how can we ever hope to comprehend the witness?

Master:

The witness continues to exist even when the mind ceases to exist. It is the highest reality, and psychologists should try to experience it. But most psychologists will find it very difficult to get to that place because they are accustomed to working at a point, which is quite far away from the witness. If you want to get to that place, you will have to meditate and follow discipline in your life.