Silent Witness Meditation

“My mind is driving me nuts!”
“I feel so overwhelmed that I can’t even get out of bed."

Ancient wisdom tells us that, as long as we are controlled by our mind (and not controlling it), we will always experience unhappiness, or worse, debilitating depression. The great yogis of ages past utilized a “Silent Witness” meditation technique to help gain mastery over their minds, and as a first step towards self-realization.

Transcript

Let's practice a short meditation.

Sit for a moment.

Close your eyes.

Breathe in a relaxed way.

Now say to yourself,

I am,

I exist.

Meditate on the statement,

I am,

I exist.

Live for a moment that there is nothing more real to me than my own existence.

You have existed in the past.

You have had the body of a child.

Your body has transformed and changed,

But you are the same person experiencing these changes.

If I exist,

Who am I?

What am I?

Think back to your childhood or teenage body.

Contemplate upon the fact that the matter that your body,

Including your brain,

Is now made of is completely different from the material elements that made up your body or composed it when you were a child or teenager.

Your body from ten years ago is gone,

Yet you are not gone,

You continue to exist.

Since the body is gone,

But you continue to exist,

You can conclude that you are not that childhood body.

You can understand that you are not the body that you are sitting in here today.

Scientific research has revealed that 98% of all atoms in the human body are replaced every year,

Often multiple times over.

Even your bones are not that solid,

Stable and concrete like things that we usually think them to be.

They are undergoing such constant change that they have completely renewed.

You have new bones every year.

Since the body that you had on previously is gone,

Yet you still exist,

The only reasonable conclusion is that you are not the body that you had on a year ago and you are not the body that you have on today.

You are the constant factor in a sea of physical changes that makes up your body.

The body is not the self.

Similarly,

You are not the mind or its contents,

But the constant principle,

The unchanging perceiver or observer of the ever-changing mind.

We get ample proof of not being our thoughts when we try to quieten them or control or direct them.

All day long,

Your mind goes on and on with its endless chatter.

Even when it's time to go to sleep,

The mind doesn't let up.

It continues assailing you with a barrage of worries and problems.

Your work or your wife or husband,

The kids and the overwhelming number of things you need to do tomorrow.

Sometimes you just want your mind to stop and let you sleep,

But it won't cooperate.

We have all experienced the frustration of trying to get your mind to focus,

Like when you were in school,

Listen to the teacher or focus on homework or on a report that you are doing for work or some task that you need to do.

Yet,

Your mind wanders to your lunch plans or who you saw yesterday evening or something that has happened or a fight that has taken place or a television program you forgot to record.

Who is trying to quieten,

Control or direct the mind?

Think about that.

Who is this that is trying to control the mind?

It is I,

The self.

My mind is my possession.

It is not me.

You can also understand that you are not your mind by analyzing the very nature of perception.

Perception occurs when you become aware of or observe an object,

A sensation in your body or event directly through any of your body's senses.

Whenever there is perception,

Whenever you are aware of thoughts,

Images,

Sensations and so on,

Two factors are involved.

The first factor is that which is being perceived,

An image,

A sound,

A thought,

A sensation,

Some feeling.

The second factor is the perceiver,

The one who is aware of or perceiving those images,

Sounds,

Tastes,

Smells,

Thoughts or sensations.

It is the perceiver who concludes through these sensations that I am seeing a flower or I am cold or my arm hurts or I am worried or I have to go to work soon.

The question is this,

Who is the perceiver?

Who is that aware entity who is perceiving these thoughts,

Images,

Sounds or sensations?

By analyzing the process of perception,

You can understand that you are the perceiver.

You can understand that you are not the thought,

The image,

Sound or sensation being perceived,

Nor are you the medium that is facilitating perception,

That is the mind.

You are the I,

The self or person who is aware of the ever-changing thoughts,

Images,

Sounds,

Sensations,

Feelings and so on.

You the self are the perceiver of the ever-changing contents of the mind.

Let's take a moment to perform the following exercise.

Open your eyes and look at an object.

It doesn't matter what the object is.

Anything that you see around you,

Just focus on it for a moment.

Are you aware that you see the object?

If you are,

Then say to yourself,

I see the object.

Focus your attention on that object for a few moments.

Then close your eyes.

Now try to picture that object on the screen of your mind.

Become aware of the fact that you,

The perceiver,

Are observing or looking at that image as it appears in your mind.

Through this practice,

You can realize that you are the viewer of your mind.

You are the perceiver.

You can observe your mind and its contents,

Much as you can observe or perceive a movie screen or its contents in a theater.

Just as you are not the movie screen,

So you are not your mind.

We are now going to practice what is called silent witness meditation.

Have you ever sat beside a river or mountain stream and watched as twigs and leaves flow by bobbing up and down as they are swept downstream?

When the river is raging,

They move swiftly,

And when the current is gentle,

They float quietly past.

Your thoughts,

Desires,

And emotions are like these sticks and leaves being swept along in the current of our mind stream.

Just as we can sit on the riverbank peacefully watching the river and its contents flow by,

In the following guided mindfulness meditation,

We can experience calmly observing the stream of mind stuff that is sensations,

Thoughts,

Emotions flowing by rather than being helplessly swept along in their current.

Just envision yourself sitting by the side of a river,

Detached from the incessant flow of your mind's thoughts and demands.

As a detached witness,

You can directly experience inner peace.

We can analyze this by practicing a yoga exercise called silent witness technique.

Make sure you are sitting comfortably and have your eyes in a soft gaze or gently closed.

Now take a few deep breaths in through your nose and letting the air out through your mouth with a big sigh.

Each time you exhale,

Let your body relax.

Now begin to scan down your body from head to toe.

Just notice any sensation as you scan down from the top of your head.

You aren't trying to change anything.

Just become aware of your face,

The back of your head,

Your neck and shoulders.

Now become aware of your upper back and chest.

Become aware of shoulders,

Arms,

Your hands and torso.

Become aware of your hips and buttocks.

Now scan your lower body,

The thighs,

Knees,

Lower legs,

Ankles.

Feel the bottom of your feet sitting or resting on the floor.

And now notice your breath.

Notice whether your breaths are deep or shallow or somewhere in between.

Don't change anything.

Just be the passive observer of your breath.

With each inhalation,

Say to yourself mentally,

I'm aware that I'm inhaling.

And with each exhalation,

Say to yourself,

I'm aware that I'm exhaling.

It's natural for your mind to wander.

Don't worry about it.

As soon as you notice your mind has wandered,

Just gently bring it back to your breath.

Now let your breath return to normal.

Let your mind relax and go wherever it will.

Don't attempt to control the thinking process by trying to think certain thoughts or not think other things.

Instead,

Let your mind think about whatever it will.

Now as a detached observer or witness,

Observe your mind and its ever changing contents.

As you observe your mind as a completely disinterested viewer,

Just say to yourself,

I am the silent witness.

I make no effort to think.

But thoughts come automatically.

I am watching thoughts flow through my mind.

But I am aloof from them.

I am the silent witness to my mind's activities.

Now imagine that you are sitting beside an ever moving stream,

Observing the water passing by.

See how thoughts flow through your mind,

Just like sticks and leaves float down river as you watch from the river bank.

Just as a stream may be very clear or very polluted,

So a stream of mind stuff may be very clear or very polluted.

But you are not the stream or the sticks or leaves floating on the stream,

But rather the detached observer sitting peacefully on the river bank.

Just observe any sensations,

Thoughts,

Desires,

Fears,

Plans,

Emotions and so on as they bubble up to the surface of your mind and then disappear.

Remember,

Don't latch onto or judge any particular thought or emotion.

If you find yourself latching or holding onto a particular thought or emotion,

Then consciously let it go.

Just remain a detached observer of the mind and its ever changing contents.

It is extremely liberating to realize that you are not your mind.

The mind is the sitting place for an endless number of desires,

Demands,

Thoughts,

Images,

Speculations and so on.

When you identify with your mind,

You get pushed,

Pulled and affected in various ways by the mind's constant and ever changing contents,

Be they images,

Thoughts,

Plans,

Demands,

Fears or desires.

When this happens,

You are like a person who is helplessly swept downstream by the strong currents of a swiftly moving river.

As long as you identify yourself with your mind or the contents of your mind,

You can never be at peace.

But if you understand that you,

The self,

Are not your mind or its contents,

Then you can be an unaffected perceiver and observer of the mind's contents,

Including its demands,

Desires and so on.

And in this way,

You will not be swept away by the mind's strong currents.

Now we have ended the silent witness meditation.

You can bring your attention back to your breath and slowly open your eyes.

Reviews

Superb meditation with an excellent explanation of being a witness of the mind. 🙏💕

Always very nice and helpful

I enjoyed this meditation alot. A lovely reminder. Thank you 💞

Thank you this was so wonderful

🙏🏽 thank you Acharya, it was a very helpful reminder. Great voice too for softly guiding a mind

Subtly powerful 🙏💫🙏 Thank you very much.

extremely helpful to learn this technique. 🙏🏼

Very helpful for me. Namaste 🙏🏼

Beautiful and Empowering! Thank you!

Excellent structured explanation, I will use as a daily reminder. Thank you so much 🙏

Very thoughtful