Observe the Observer
Excerpt from The Truth Is
Edited by Prashanti de Jager, page 193
Devotee: In my Zen practice I get quiet, but then a painful pressure arises in my head and my heart as I become more aware of all that is going on within and around me.
But what about the observer in the Zen practice? The observer has to be observed. Now I tell you to observe the observer and what effort do you need to do this? And if you do it, what is the reward and what are the consequences?
To do this, turn your face within and let the observer become the object and let the supreme Consciousness look at this observer. Even if you try to understand, this understanding will not touch it. You will never understand this. Understanding will be a relationship between subject and object. What will you understand if you erase the object from your mind? What will you do?
So with any method of teaching you are always dealing with objects and this will not give you any fruit. Therefore, I tell you keep Quiet and it will be taken care of by itself. Only see that the thoughts are passing and see where they come from and where they go. You remain a witness; simply witness, whatever happens be a witness. Any circumstances, good or bad, come and go. What does not come and does not go is the witness. When you take care of this then the witness will be coming and going in front of someone else! Let the witness dance in front of something which has no name. Let the witness come and go as an object. And how to see the position. How to observe the observer? How to witness the witness?
Just Be Consciousness
Yes, that is it. I remember a story of Saint Kabir. Kabir had just come out of his mud house when he saw two men fighting. A policeman came out and arrested them. One man says, “He has attacked me!” and the other says the same thing. So both were sent to court but the court cannot decide without a witness. So the policeman said, “Only Kabir was there to witness this man chopping the hand of the other.”
Thus Kabir was summoned to the court and when he appeared the magistrate asked him, “You were there?”
“Yes, I was there,” Kabir said.
“What did you see? Who attacked who first?” asked the magistrate.
Kabir answered, “The one who sees and cannot speak. The one who speaks and cannot see.”
The magistrate was baffled. What does this mean? What does this mean?
The eyes have seen but they cannot speak. The tongue speaks but it cannot see. So the eyes cannot speak as a witness. While the tongue is speaking, it has not seen so it cannot be believed. The magistrate was completely puzzled and set free both men.
So you need a witness and you cannot speak.
Devotee: I can’t think either. [Laughing]
Yes, when you see, you become the witness. It is really a joke, I tell you.