... Aurobindo - Some Comparisons Eckhart Tolle and Sri Aurobindo Mind and the Witness Consciousness Perhaps a more significant difference in the perspectives of Eckhart and Sri Aurobindo regarding the role of mind in spiritual life pertains to the witness consciousness. As stated earlier in this chapter, in Eckhart's view, to be identified with the mind is to be in a stare... it is a state in which one is not present. Therefore, when one is identified with the mind, one does not have a Page 91 witness consciousness. However, as stared in the previous chapter, there is, according to Sri Aurobindo, a witness consciousness in the mind, also, for he distinguishes two parts of consciousness at each level— physical, vital, mental. One part of consciousness—called... Prakriti or Nature—is the part that is active and involved, and is relatively unconscious. The other part—called Purusha, Person or Soul—is the part that stands back as a Witness. Thus there is a witness consciousness at each level—physical, vital, mental. As the Mother explains in answer to a question asked by a student regarding the meaning of "the mental witness" spoken of by Sri Aurobindo: There ...
... the calm, the increasing understanding of soul and life and their deeper significances without which the full supramental experience cannot come. Page 243 The Witness Purusha or Witness Consciousness By itself the Purusha is impersonal, but by mixing itself with the movements of Prakriti it makes for itself a surface ego or personality. When it appears in its own separate nature then... effective, but usually it cannot be done completely at once owing to the past habit and the two methods continue together until the complete surrender is possible. The attitude of the witness consciousness within—I do not think it necessarily involves an external seclusion, though one may do that also—is a very necessary stage in the progress. It helps the liberation from the lower prakriti—not... ours is a Yoga which joins these things together and does not keep them always separate. It is by a constant repetition and development of the experience Page 245 [ that the witness consciousness can become constant ]. But the witness being does not always remain as a point. It becomes something extended supporting the rest. The Purusha and Change of the Prakriti That is the old ...
... The witness consciousness implies some degree of detachment from mental and other inner activities. All those in whom some growth of an inner life has taken place have developed to a smaller or greater extent the ability to detach oneself and to stand back as observer of one's thoughts and feelings. They are said to have a witness consciousness. The concept of the witness consciousness has been... Eckhart Tolle and Sri Aurobindo 4 Sri Aurobindo on the Witness Consciousness The witness consciousness is a state in which one stands back as an observer of one's thoughts and feelings. Such a state of consciousness is in contrast to the ordinary state in which one is more or less completely identified with one's mental and other inner movements. Speaking... doer instead of the witness. The illusory sense of being the doer of all actions, which is one of the innate characteristics of the egoic consciousness, is due to the identification of the witness consciousness of the Purusha with the active consciousness of Prakriti. When the Purusha is identified with and covered up by Prakriti, it "remains behind as the unseen Witness supporting the play of the ...
... as bound as ever to the ordinary consciousness. These ambivalent feelings of encouragement and discouragement about the power of the witnessing Presence led me to undertake a study of the witness consciousness in the light of Sri Aurobindo. The study forms Chapter 4 of this book. As a result of the study, I have come to understand that the witnessing Presence that Eckhart teaches can itself be regarded... can come only after a long process of making the Witness not only a detached Watcher but also the Master of the being. This point has been elaborated in Chapter 4, "Sri Aurobindo and the Witness Consciousness." Page 14 No Problems in the Now A revelatory teaching Eckhart often reiterates is that there are never any problems in the Now. This teaching, which is apt to be puzzling ...
... ordinary, 95 outer and inner, 95 overmind, 96 silencing of, instructions, 141, 142 and spiritual life, 84-91 supermind, 94, 96 vital, 155 and the witness consciousness, 91-94 Mother's viewpoints attention, 105 consciousness, state of, 16, 29, 30, 67 delight of being, 10, 11 dispersion, state of, 118, 119 faith, 4 fear... power of Guru's grace, 27, 28 relevance in the spiritual life, 7, 8 self-realization, 21 silence, 24, 25 spiritual path, 43, 44 time, 25, 26 true self, 79 witness consciousness state, 67-76 Sri Ramakrishna, 27, 28 on spiritual path, 42, 43 stillness, 100, 101 śuddhi, 120 surrender, concept of, 52, 55, 63, 105-111, 121 T Tao... the Truth, 7 Truth-Consciousness, 84, 96, 97, 158, 159 U unconsciousness, 19, 23, 49, 50, 63, 64, 75, 81, 83, 91, 94, 122, 123, 129, 154 W the witness consciousness, 67-76, 91-94 witnessing Presence, practice of, 14-15 Y yoga, 6 Adwaita and Sankhya processes in, 69, 70 aim and object of, 145, 146 attention in, 104, 105 ...
... things there. It is quite possible for the witness consciousness to follow these happenings which usually transmit themselves in a coherent transcription to the sleeping part of the consciousness—the latter receives them and they appear as clear significant dreams as opposed to the incoherent dreams of the subconscient. Or else the witness consciousness may feel itself there watching the happenings ...
... Master" As a part of his regular daily sadhana the sadhaka of the Integral Yoga has to learn to develop in himself the witness consciousness which constantly observes in a detached and dispassionate way all that occurs in his Nature part. This witness consciousness has to grow in time into an anumantā consciousness which has a double role of giving the consent to the movement of nature or ...
... cultivate the significant dreams worth having; (ii i) how to recall on waking all the important dreams we may have had during our sleep; and finally (iv) how to maintain an uninterrupted 'witness consciousness' throughout our sleep period without disturbing in the least our body' s restful relax at ion. But all these depend fundamentally on the art of entering the state of sleep. It will not... can be created a separation, even in sleep, between Page 329 'Prakriti' and 'Purusha', that is to say, between the executive Nature part and the detached and observing 'Witness consciousness' (s ā ksī-cetan ā ) . (ii) One can know, while in the act of dreaming, that one is indeed dreaming. One can then organise one's dream-phenomena and exercise a good control over the actual ...
... within or above while the outer consciousness and its ignorant movements are indifferently watched and felt to be something intrinsically foreign and disparate. This is the solution of the 'Witness Consciousness'. (ii)To be satisfied with the indirect glories of the spiritual consciousness as reflected and refracted in the bosom of our normal mentality. This is what has been termed 'spiritual... spiritual heights, so that its present opacity and refractoriness may be altogether rectified. This is the solution of 'divine transfiguration' as envisaged by our Yoga. Evidently the 'Witness Consciousness' and 'spiritual-mental realisation' fall far short of our goal; for, be it once again stated, this goal is no less than the establishment of Life Divine upon earth, a dynamic waking existence ...
... taken in the meantime, by which I mean the expression of what is going to be transposed into the terrestrial consciousness … ‘And what is strange (I was conscious, fully conscious; the “Witness”-consciousness is never annulled, but it is not disturbing): I knew, I saw (although my eyes were closed, I was lying on my bed), I saw my body move … Every gesture, every finger, every attitude was something ...
... not produce anything real. Yet the mind struggles and I feel depressed and heavy in the head. Why should the mind struggle? In all these things the mind has to remain passive and only a witness consciousness behind watching what is passing. It can be seen afterwards if anything has to be altered, but the mind interfering can only hamper the inspiration or pervert it. 27 July 1936 I seem to ...
... mind, life and body. That also is one way of doing it. There is also the separation of Purusha from Prakriti till one becomes the witness only and feels separate from all the activities as the Witness Consciousness. There are other methods also. The method of gathering of the mind is not an easy one. It is better to watch and separate oneself from the thoughts till one becomes aware of a quiet space ...
... conceivable activities and to create a myriad forms visible to us and invisible and use them as stable supports for its incessant flux of action and creation. Entering exclusively into the witness consciousness he becomes silent, untouched, immobile; he sees that he has till now passively reflected and appropriated to himself the movements of Nature and it is by this reflection that they acquired from ...
... mental and vital accretions that deform it altogether. It is only when he is able to draw back (whether at once or after a time) from his experiences, stand above them with the dispassionate witness consciousness, observe their real nature, limitations, composition, mixture that he can proceed on his way towards a real freedom and a higher, larger and truer siddhi. At each step this has to be done. For ...
... it without experiencing ANY CHANGE OF EFFECT, which probably means I was centered not in the material consciousness but in a higher consciousness dwelling and looking on from elsewhere —a witness consciousness—and I was in a state where everything flows... flows like a river of tranquil peace.... Truly, it's marvelous—all creation, all life, all movements, all things, and everything like a single ...
... And when it disappears, when it's wholly, completely surrendered and no longer exists by itself, then the Force going through becomes... sometimes it's awesome. Sometimes one can see, the witness-consciousness can see that there would be really no limits to the possibilities. But it's not "that" yet, far from it.... It comes as an example of what can be done. But... before it can be spontaneous and ...
... spirit that feels a release in the silence empty of all mental or other activities, for in that silence it becomes self-aware. For the blankness to be real one must have got into the Purusha or Witness Consciousness. If you are looking at it with your mind or vital, then there is not blankness, for even if there are not distinct thoughts then there must be a mental attitude or mental vibrations — e.g. the ...
... not the consciousness itself. There is an inner consciousness behind the surface in which one has to learn to live. There is yet another state, the consciousness of the Purusha, the witness consciousness which stands behind the dynamic being, and another way to live within is to withdraw into the Purusha consciousness, to live there, to identify oneself with it. This helps one to remain unaffected ...
... decimals of eternity". Page 119 There is a film-world or images caught in "imagination's camera". Travelling through "the Kingdom of Little Life" , the awakened eye of the witness consciousness does not see merely the huge waste of material and effort involved in the process '^ of evolution but sees in it "the secret crawl of consciousness to light"...through ...
... divine becoming is hidden, "...and by the Inconscient kept". The identification with Nature is complete in the beginning and continues as long as the Puruṣa does not succeed in establishing a witness-consciousness: "...the thousandfold enigma has been solved "In the single light of an all-witnessing Soul." It is with this attainment of the Purusha-consciousness as the witness that the ...
... seem to disappear in a vast action of nescient unillumined energy, while at an opposite pole of spiritual quiescence action of force may seem to disappear in the stillness of the observing or witness consciousness. These two conditions are the two extremes of an apparently separated Purusha and Prakriti, but each at its extreme point does not abolish but at the most only conceals its eternal mate in the ...
... spirit that feels a release in the silence empty of all mental or other activities, for in that silence it becomes self-aware. For the blankness to be real one must have got into the Purusha or Witness consciousness. If you are looking at it with your mind or vital, then there is not blankness,—for even if there are no distinct thoughts then there must be a mental attitude or mental vibrations—e.g. the ...
... Chaitya Purusha. (The psychic being is the soul developing in the evolution.) 2) The distinction between Purusha and Prakriti is according to the Sankhya System—the Purusha is the silent witness consciousness which observes the actions of Prakriti—Prakriti is the force of Nature which one feels as doing all the actions, when one gets rid of the sense of the ego as doer. Then there is the realisation ...
... and upon seeing this person, I asked myself, 'is he this Page 292 one or that one?' As I became less involved in the action and looked with a more objective consciousness, the witness-consciousness, I saw that it was simply a mixture of both persons—everything is mixed in the Subconscient.... Already when I lived in Japan there were four people I could never distinguish during my nighttime ...
... mental and vital accretions that deform it altogether. It is only when he is able to draw back (whether at once or after a time) from his experiences, stand above them with the dispassionate witness consciousness, observe their real nature, limitations, composition, mixture that he can proceed on his way towards a real freedom and a higher, larger and truer siddhi. At each step this has to be done ...
... day or two now, I do not know, there was, as it were, a total vision of this effort of the earth towards its divinisation, and it was as if someone were saying (it is not "someone", it is the witness consciousness, the consciousness that observes, but it formulates itself in words; very often it formulates itself in English and I have the feeling that it is Sri Aurobindo, the active consciousness of Sri ...
... disappears, when it is wholly, Page 240 wholly surrendered, does no more exist by itself, then the Force passing through it becomes... sometimes formidable. Sometimes one can see, the witness consciousness can see that there should truly be no limit to the possibilities. But it is not yet that, it is far from that.... It comes as an example of what can be. But... before it becomes spontaneous ...
... ) One or two days ago, I don't know, there was a sort of general vision of this striving of the earth towards its divinization, and someone seemed to be saying (not "someone": it was the witness-consciousness, the consciousness observing, but it gets formulated in words—very often it's formulated in English and I have a kind of impression that it is Sri Aurobindo, his active consciousness, but sometimes ...
... effort—the constant effort you have to make in material life just to live, just to keep all those cells together. The strange thing is that (I was very conscious, perfectly conscious; the "Witness" consciousness is never canceled, but it isn't in the way) is that I knew, I saw (yet my eyes were closed, I was lying in my bed), I saw my body moving—it had movements of such a Rhythm!... You see, every ...
... The Outer (Ordinary) Mind and the Inner (Subliminal) Mind The inner mind has also been previously alluded to (Chapter 5, pp. 91, 92) in connection with mind and the witness consciousness. ...
... itself which is proper to that plane, the mental Purusha in the mental plane, the vital Purusha in the vital, the physical Purusha in the physical. 24 The Purusha is the silent witness consciousness which observes the actions of Prakriti — Prakriti is the Force of Nature which one feels as doing all the actions, when one gets rid of the sense of the ego as doer. 25 Page 346 ...
... novice sadhakas. Ours is a state of quasi-total identification with the streaming flow of subjective movements. For successful meditation we have to develop there a constantly functioning 'witness consciousness', 'sāksī-cetanā'. But how is one to do it? Is there any sadhana-procedure for that? The answer is: There is; and this sadhana has to pass through a succession of progressively advanced ...
... control of mind nature or vital nature over the being and assume the position of the witness, knower and ruler." (The Life Divine, p. 525) Now the more of this disidentification and witness consciousness is established in the sadhaka' s being, the more will he be able to extend his sway over the turbulence of the vital. Fifth Step: The sadhaka will now proceed to reason with the errant ...
... It is a day or two now... there was, as it were, a total vision of this effort of the earth towards its divinisation, and it was as if someone were saying (it is not "someone", it is the witness consciousness... but it formulates itself in words; very often... in English and I have the feeling that it is Sri Aurobindo...) and it was something that said, "Yes, the time of proclamations, of revelations ...
... emotions, feelings and their actions and reactions, from the desires, impulses and passions of the vital, and from the body, and remain unaffected by it. It is the Purusha as the Sakshi, the witness consciousness. Gita says that by practising this separation of Purusha and Prakriti man would be able to control his nature more effectively and it would serve as the initial step in the process of transformation ...
... process of that stabilization, consciousness expands, and consciousness becomes known as truly self-conscious, as self-luminous, a status in which one does not need to exercise discriminating intelligence to produce the spark of consciousness; for it is found to be swayam-prak ā ś a (self- luminous). At a higher level of silence, even the witnessing consciousness is transcended, or even if there... self-knowledge, in which the jiva clearly experiences that that witnessing consciousness belongs really to itself, and knowledge at that stage consists of witnessing consciousness as seated above the movements of Apara Prakriti and as a status quite different and capable of sustaining itself, independent of Prakriti, independent of attractions and repulsions, of shocks of pleasure and pain, of honour... impartial observer and witness of all the movements of Prakriti. That silence is known by jiva's identity with that silence and in that state jiva is further experienced as an impartial witness, uplifted, ud ā sina (seated above), and capable of observing any and every movement of Prakriti with equality (samatvam). As one intensifies that uplifted state of consciousness, there is a greater se ...
... obscurity, the process by which the mechanical and inconscient takes on the appearance of consciousness. It is because of the reflection of Prakriti in Purusha; the light of consciousness of the Soul is attributed to the workings of the mechanical energy and it is thus that the Purusha, observing Nature as the witness and forgetting himself, is deluded with the idea generated in her that it is he who thinks... there is a multiplicity of witnesses, many Purushas. The separative ego-sense, we may say, is a sufficient explanation? But the ego-sense is a common principle of Nature and need not vary; for by itself it simply induces the Purusha to identify himself with Prakriti, and if there is only one Purusha, all beings would be one, joined and alike in their egoistic consciousness; however different in detail... is that pleasure determined? In the strict Sankhya analysis it can only be by a passive consent of the silent Witness. Passively the Witness consents to the action of the intelligent will and the ego-sense, passively he consents to the recoil of that will from the ego-sense. He is Witness, source of the consent, by reflection upholder of the work of Nature, sākṣī anumantā bhartā , but nothing more ...
... which is being witnessed. You are now interested in—that's not the right word—you know yourself as the underlying field. Then that which is being witnessed is relatively unimportant. Before, when you were witnessing, you were still very much interested in that which was being witnessed, not knowing the field, the witness itself, [chuckle] So you can say there is a shift from witness to awareness of... understand how it came about, what produced it, is that analyzing? ECKHART: When you look at the anger, the main thing is to look at it. Sometimes out of that state of looking—the witnessing consciousness, the Presence—out of that state, very often realizations come. And so, as you look at that emotional movement, which is all that is needed, sometimes suddenly you realize, for example, what... see that she's repeating some pattern to do with her father in childhood in her relationships with men. But what she saw—that's but one of many possible examples—is through the act of the witnessing consciousness. [What is] primary is ro stay present with what is here, give attention to that. Secondary, is certain insights in the form of thoughts, realizarions, which Page 39 may arise ...
... Nature and a form figured in her creations, there is an impersonal self one in all which sees and knows all things; there is an equal, impartial, universal presence and support of creation, a witnessing consciousness that suffers Nature to work out the becoming of things in their own type, svabhāva , but does not involve and lose itself in the action she initiates. To draw back from the ego and the troubled... instruments and creations. But the impersonal Self does not act and is not part of Nature: it observes the action from behind and above and remains lord of itself and a free and impassive knower and witness. The soul that lives in this impersonality is not affected by the actions of which our nature is an instrument; it does not reply to them or their effects by grief and joy, desire and shrinking, attraction... involved and loses its self-knowledge and has to return to that knowledge. This pure Self, this Atman is on the contrary always there, always the same, always the one self-conscient impersonal aloof Witness or impartial supporter of the action. It is this lacuna, this impossible vacuum that compels us to suppose two Purushas or two poses of the one Purusha, one secret in the Self that observes all from ...
... levels of self-consciousness {Brahmānandavalli, Chapters 1-5), and based on the knowledge of the relationship between Puruṣa consciousness (the consciousness which refers to originating consciousness, controlling consciousness and witnessing consciousness) and Prakrit! consciousness (the consciousness which tends to execute and accomplish the will and command of Puruṣa consciousness), it speaks... methods by which concentration can be attained, namely, meditation, contemplation, witnessing the passage of thoughts as they pass through the mind, and quieting and silencing the mind. There are also dynamic methods of meditation, in which the light of higher knowledge is introduced into lower states of consciousness and even of impulses and vibrations of desires, so that the latter can be enlightened... and highest consciousness of the self. The three lower levels of consciousness of the self are described as those Page 86 of annamaya Puruṣa (Puruṣa consciousness that controls the physical consciousness), prāṇamaya Puruṣa (Puruṣa consciousness that controls the vital consciousness), and manomaya Puruṣa (Puruṣa consciousness that controls the mental consciousness). A transition ...
... were in order. Still, Sri Aurobindo remained Sri Aurobindo to us; there was no loss of reverence. Some of us had hotly discussed topics even to the point of losing our temper before his Witness-Purusha consciousness. That would be very unusual before the Mother. To put a homely simile, they were like a father and mother, both loving but one indulgent, liberal, large, the other a firm though not inc... relationship. I came to the conclusion that it was that of Shiva and Shakti. The Mother has said, "Without him, I exist not; without me he is unmanifest." And we were given the unique opportunity of witnessing the dual personality of the One enacting on our earth-plane an immortal drama, rare in the spiritual history of man. I could perfectly realise that without the Mother, Sri Aurobindo's stupendous... years afterwards of another illness altogether," Here was a patient, then, who came with faith in the Mother. I began to do my duty regularly. At first the patient came for Pranam to the Mother. I witnessed her intense concentration and preoccupation with the case. While listening to the report, she would suddenly go into a trance and Sri Aurobindo would intently watch over her. Once she was on the point ...
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