--- In [email protected], "Alex Stanley" < [EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > --- In [email protected], TurquoiseB <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > wrote: > > I'm wondering whether there might be a better model > > for witnessing than a simple binary ON/OFF switch. > > How about more of a rheostat control? > > Sure, why not? But, it does seem like the witnessing state can come > and go, a la the binary ON/OFF switch. IIRC, one guy at the Wednesday > night satsangs expressed great relief when the 24/7 witnessing > stopped. I also spoke with one of the Waking Down teachers about > witnessing sleep, and he said he'd experienced it and that sleep was > more enjoyable without it. > > Back in May, I drove up to Minneapolis, and I got lost in St. Louis > Park (a suburb) looking for my hotel. And, it was very interesting to > become aware that part of me was not at all involved in the anger and > frustration of being lost in a big city. > > Fast forward to a few days ago, when our water system died, and I > needed to access the cistern, and I discovered that the cistern lid > was half-buried under heavy clay because the goddamned vastu > rectification encroached on it, and I had to fucking hack away at > rock hard soil in 100 fucking degree heat because some superstitious > bullshit meant soil needed to be piled up on top of existing critical > infrastructure. Was I aware of that uninvolved witness at that > moment? No fucking way. I was pissed off beyond belief and totally > overshadowed. > > I think the lesson there is that shift happens, and it's best to not > latch on to any particular state or experience.
I can identify with all of the above. I had to help my neighbor move furniture today in heat almost as bad, and could have sworn at the time that there was no witnessing going down. Then I sat at twilight on the terrace of the house I'm staying in. It is built upon and overlooks the ramparts of the medieval village. The swallows were out, swooping everywhere, pick- ing insects out of the air. And voila! there was full-fledged, Grade A Prime witnessing. And the second thought that hit me, after the thought, "Oh, there's that witnessing thing again," was, "Oh shit...this has been here all day, but I just didn't notice it." So I'm wondering whether the ON/OFF switch really is the proper metaphor. Now that I look back on it, another way of describing today would be that during the day I was operating with a low appreciation of the witnessing, and when evening came, for whatever reason, I shifted to operating with a higher appreciation of witnessing. But there was no sense of shift, of a transistion from non-witnessing to witnessing. It was more like noticing, after the fact, that I had moved from less witnessing to more witnessing. I've never really noticed this "lack of shift" before. It's an interesting perception, and has caused me to rethink many things and challenge many previously-assumed assumptions. Cool day. To subscribe, send a message to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Or go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/FairfieldLife/ and click 'Join This Group!' Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/FairfieldLife/ <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
