Watching the Watcher - Non-Linear Logic

When you say "I" and I say "I", when she says "I" and he says "I", we are all referring to the very same "I".

This hub is about more than mere meditation. It is words pointing to non-duality and should not be taken literally. Trying to use words to point to that which is beyond words and concepts. The words themselves may sound strange and not make much sense, but they are being used as a type of seed to create an awakening to infinity or divinity, if you will. Please try to read these words without judgement and without trying to understand them with your mind. It is impossible to lasso infinity with words, it can only be pointed to.

The article begins discussing a topic that is normally viewed as a form of meditation that may or may not actually be meditating. Either way, its a searching inside for the one who is looking through your eyes and watching the world go by. Then we will move on to non-duality, which cannot be defined with words any better than the watcher can.

Some may call the watcher by the word god, but that too is only a concept, a name for something that lies outside the mind's ability to understand it. I say to you now that this is what lives inside of each of us and is watching the world through this body. This may be a bit hard to swallow for people who are used to searching for god outside of themselves and believe completely in the illusion of being an individual. It is our hope that these words may help you look beyond the concepts that you define and limit yourself to be.

There is something more here than it appears to be on the surface, there is something more to us. We all feel this and everyone may react differently. Some worship a god, others practice magic and some just ignore it. We split the world into small pieces and label them to understand with mind, a useful tool but doing this we also miss much.

There are many religions that study non-duality and one can employ any of them to find this, but it can also be found within by anyone who takes the time and conviction to look deep enough.

For just a few moments let go of all you were taught about yourself and the world, your past experiences that caused you to believe either this or that and even your beliefs and convictions. Just read the words and let them roll around and sink in without trying to understand them too much. Please read and enjoy the non-sense of these words as they go by.

Do you perceive the world from the point of view of the individual? Do you perceive the world from the point of view of infinite undivided awareness? An individual is in competition and even conflict with the world around them. Infinite awareness sees the world as part of itself and in perfect harmony with itself. Buddha once said when one sees the world in this way they will tilt their head back and just laugh. Perception is everything ...

It is not possible to see the source of the reflections, or is it? The divine awareness within all of us is infinite and so cannot be seen with the mind, but still it is there and it is what we all really are. We may call this the watcher who is viewing the world through us but itself cannot be directly viewed. Looking into a mirror we can only see the reflection and not the awareness viewing the reflection. It is not possible to define infinity, only aspects of it. But still we look and search never actually seeing the whole undivided source. Everyone at some time asks the question "who am I?" or even "What am I?". Everyone comes up with their own answer, but it never completely fits, it never ends the search, it never clicks everything into comprehension. So we may just decide to go along with the status quo, what others tell us the truth is and give up searching within ourselves for it. Look within yourself again and let go of the beliefs you were taught and try to find the answer within yourself, because it is surely there.

An easier way to find what we are may be to find what we are not. Look inside beginning at the outside and travel inward. Are you only your body, or is there something more? Are you only your body and mind or is there something more? Are you only your body mind and soul or something more? Before we can go farther we may ask what is the soul? It appears as a type of buzz word many use, but what does it actually mean? I would think the word soul represents the idea of individuality that survives death. It may mean the individual survives death in a sense and moves into a new dimension of reality, or is born again in this world? So the next question is are you just an individual or is there something more? This is the point that can be difficult to go beyond because of our attachments to being an individual. Do you have the courage to look to see if there is something more? Is there something more to us than being individual? Is there something more to us than mind and concepts? You will have to answer that for yourself, no one can answer these questions for you. Keep searching within yourself as far as you can to see what you may find? Can you go beyond words and concepts to see for yourself? The mind will do its best to stop you in every way possible because it begins to feel threatened after a certain point in self realization.

Watching the watcher can be worked on with meditation, but what I'm referring to in this article is not only a meditation. We can seek the watcher within with meditation and also without meditating. It is something that we already are and so there is no exact method one must use to find it, other than searching in anyway you desire. The distractions of life and being an individual block this truth from us. So it just a matter of changing perspective to look through the distractions to See the source that is watching the world go by through our eyes.

Seeking to See the unseen, the unknowable, that lies outside of definition. The source of all that both exists and does not exist at the same time. Just as empty bliss is not really empty and can also be said to be full, it is merely not allowing yourself to attach to the thoughts in your mind. Empty bliss is only giving up attachment to the thoughts running through your mind so they slow, but never completely cease. Another truth is that the thoughts come from some place deeper and are not really ours alone, they only appear to be. It is very similar when searching for the watcher within, as it lies outside of concept, is deeper and is not ours alone. Use the same methods of non-attachment as you would to experience empty bliss.

We are living within a type of a dream. The grand dream of individuality. Divine awareness is having a dream and we are it. But if we are the dream than obviously we are also the dreamer itself. Find the answers for yourself, they are all within yourself. Your mind may conjure up thousands of reasons not to do this, but if you want to find the truth, it lives within yourself.

To watch the watcher you simply have to look within and let go of the thoughts as they go by. Study yourself and look beyond the thoughts and the concepts to find what is the source of life. Many may never go that far because it feels safer just to believe what we were taught than to find the truth for ourselves. Be that as it may, either we give in to the description of ourselves and the world that others tell us, or we seek until we find it ourselves. The world of concepts can bring us a sense of security that is very easy and natural to cling to. But it also blinds us to the truth that is living within each of us. Who or what we really are before, during and after death.

"He lives in one long moment, having no beginning and no end. What comes is accepted, what goes is accepted. Everything appears and disappears in front of him as the ever changing display of phenomena. He knows himself to be nameless and formless awareness, while people refer to him as Wu Hsin."

We are flowers of awareness. The nature of awareness is cyclic. Awareness blooms into a myriad of life forms and then goes into dormancy for a time to soon repeat ... for infinity ...

Focusing attention on the body, mind and ego-self naturally distracts one from their true absolute self. Simply change your focus to view yourself as the Self of the universe and when this is taken to heart things will begin to clear. When this first becomes real for you it may be a bit of a shock to find everything you thought you were and the world is just a reflection of your true self. Nothing changes but perception, but that turns out to change your outlook dramatically.

Based on the words of the ancient Chinese Seer Wu Hsin.

Is Wu Hsin real is irrelevant. Are you and I real is irrelevant. Is anything real is irrelevant. All simply is ...

"Words are the net used to capture the world. Mind is the means used to devour the world. Both fail. Can the wind be kept in a box? Truth is halved when it is told." Wu Hsin 322 BCE

"The nature of mind is the process of thought. So to attempt to cease thought goes against the grain of nature. Therefore the goal is not to cease thought but to cease identifying with thought." Wu Hsin 311 BCE

The perceiver and the perception are two opposite ends of the same yardstick.

I once wrote awareness is a paradox. Since then I have found awareness is not the paradox, the paradox is created when mind tries to name and define the undefinable. Infinity cannot be lassoed with concepts.

Adam and Eve are still, this very moment standing in the garden of Eden chewing on the apples from the tree of knowledge of good and evil. They have never left, as time itself is also only one of the apples, or fruits of concept. No longer naked awareness, they stand clothed in concepts, chewing ... chewing ... chewing ... our world into existence for us. While the serpent of DNA slithers up and down the tree hissing temptations. In aggrandizement we have lost our way out and continue to chew. The tree is beautiful as it stands in all its glory and the only problem we have with it is that we have grasped and are clinging to it as if it is all that is real and so have forgotten what and who we really are. If we would only enjoy the taste of the apples and not swallow, we could find our way again. In other words release our attachment to the concept tools that we use in our process of naming what we perceive. The names are great, being lost in them is the core of all suffering.

There is only life, death is just a superstitious name for change. No such thing as life after death because there is no such thing as death. Life is a never ending process of change and growth, an endless cycle. While the awareness perceiving it all remains still, pure and divine.

The world we know is a like of dream created from memory. Personality is our reaction to our memories. Memories of things that we have experienced, memories of things we were taught and memories that have been handed down since we created the concept of time itself. DNA itself is based on memories of divine awareness. All that is real is divine awareness right here, right now and that is timeless. Divine (undivided) awareness is the core of all and all sprouts from this nameless center.

"Cognition is prior to recognition. The former arises in being, the latter is personal, arising from mind as memory. Where as cognition is pure, recognition is tainted by the supposed self-center. The world cognized is a beautiful wondrous world. The world recognized is filled with alternating joy and sorrow. It is not the mind that comes to this understanding. It is the knower of mind that realizes this. The moon's eclipsing of the sun never negates the existence of the sun, it merely masks it. Likewise, the personal eclipses the divinity that resides within everyone. It's presence is felt in the absence of the seemingly separate self." Wu Hsin 311 BCE

"Everything is merely perceived. It is only later that the Perceiver stakes his claim and labels, categorizes, and judges. First there is existence and presence. It is only later that My existence and presence arrives. Since one cannot be what one perceives, what is one really?" Wu Hsin 311 BCE

"It is only by removing all of the water plants that allows the full scope and majesty of the water to be discerned. The impediment is the preoccupation with the plants" Wu Hsin 311 BCE

"The I in I saw, I remembered, I felt, is not the person. It is the voice of That which moves the person and sustains the person. It is That. You are That. In That, one's marriage to the me is finished. The me may remain, but its falseness is now seen through. When the false loses its hold, it becomes as ash of a burnt rope. It is there, but has no substance." Wu Hsin 311 BCE

"Lacking labels, lacking definition, One is boundless. To reduce oneself to the span of a lifetime and the volume of a body is the summit of ignorance. Understanding this is not necessary. The end to misunderstanding is sufficient." Wu Hsin 322 BCE

"True happiness does not come and go. True peace does not come and go. What comes and goes is what obscures true happiness and true peace." Wu Hsin 311 BCE

"A shadow is insubstantial to the one who casts it. When it becomes clear that any one is merely a shadow, the attention returns to the source and rests there." Wu Hsin 311 BCE

"Whereas the world is observable. Whereas the person is observable. That which observes cannot be found. Those who have found that which cannot be found have transcended both the world and the person." Wu Hsin 311 BCE

"Within the natural order there are opposites, but no opposition. All opposition is sourced from that which is not natural." Wu Hsin 322 BCE

"Why bemoan what one was, what one might have been, while ignoring what one is in every moment? Is this not the heart of unhappiness?" Wu Hsin 311 BCE

"All names pertain to forms. All forms come and go. Who then dares to assign a name to the nameless?" Wu Hsin 311 BCE

"While you are sleeping, you dream that a snow leopard is just about to pounce on you. You wake up! Likewise, this Wu Hsin is about to pounce on You! And the end result will be the same. The paradox is that when the awakening occurs, "You" is no where to be found!" Wu Hsin 311 BCE

"The feeling of separateness, the feeling of individuality is the mother of all desire. The wanting of things that one seemingly is not. In appreciation of wholeness, all desire vanishes. One cannot want what one already is." Wu Hsin 311 BCE

"One's ideas of oneself change over time. Being is constant. Therefore, the choice is between attending to continuous change or attending to the changeless." Wu Hsin 311 BCE

"What is death? The candle is gone. The flame is gone. The smoke is gone. The sky remains." Wu Hsin 322 BCE

"Wu Hsin has given up all notions of what he is not. Not the mind, not the body, not the senses. He knows that he knows these, but is not them. His is a life of ease. No longer habitual, no longer mechanical, remembering only what needs to be remembered. Doing only what needs to be done, spontaneously in every moment." Wu Hsin 311 BCE

Why does one travel to Wu Hsin or anyone for answers, when all of the answers lie within oneself? Stop listening to what others are telling you the world is and what you are. Find this within yourself. The truth sleeps hidden, behind even mind waiting within yourself. Simply open yourself to it. You are It!

Quotes of Wu Hsin displayed in this hub are from the book "The Lost Writings of Wu Hsin" translated by Roy Melvyn.