witness and observer...

To begin with, it is essential not to confuse the witness with the observer. The witness belongs to the soul and the observer belongs to the mind. The observer can emulate witnessing, acting as a detached intelligence by observing without getting involved; but the false sense of witnessing here is not based on our real presence — it merely reflects how the ego 'feels' itself as it attempts to remain disidentified. Such pseudo-witnessing is an experience entirely con-fined to the mind.


When awareness is unawakened and not present as the base-consciousness, the observer can only witness from his sense of me. The center of true witnessing is not me but I am. Pure awareness witnesses by virtue of being naturally distinct and uninvolved, not because it is disidentified. The true witness does not observe.


Awareness needs relative consciousness — mind and ego — in order to observe that which is first witnessed from the much deeper place of our essence. Observation is active, witnessing is passive. Observation is continuously recreated through the will of the mind, witnessing is a steady stream of unchanging consciousness. To be in the state of witnessing is to exist behind everything arising in the field of cognition — perceptions, thoughts and feelings — as an immobile background of unconditional presence.


Anadi

the book of enlightenment

p 106-7