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The Watcher

Tristram30Tristram30
edited April 2011 in Buddhism Basics
I directly experienced that thoughts, feelings and emotions are things which just happen, and which I have no control over, just the same as the physical sensations in my body. Like I can watch a twitch in my leg, I can watch the sensation of anger in my mind.

I then realised something incredible - that the watcher is also not me, and is also my ego. All this time when I was watching my thoughts, beliefs and instinctive behaviour, I was fooled into thinking that the thing I was watching was my ego. All along, my ego was in the seat of the watcher and when I search for the watcher, there is simply nothing there. What was being watched and what is watching?

How utterly incredible is the human mind?

Comments

  • taiyakitaiyaki Veteran
    edited April 2011
    emptiness of emptiness. the emptiness is aware of the emptiness, which is aware of the emptiness. lol


    you are the awareness or consciousness. but from that perspective you are the ego as well. just there is no grasping to an ego identity. and it's not that you as an individual is consciousness. rather consciousness is.

    so no one has consciousness. there isn't someone being consciousness. all there is is consciousness.

    have fun!
  • beingbeing Veteran
    emptiness of emptiness. the emptiness is aware of the emptiness, which is aware of the emptiness. lol


    you are the awareness or consciousness. but from that perspective you are the ego as well. just there is no grasping to an ego identity. and it's not that you as an individual is consciousness. rather consciousness is.

    so no one has consciousness. there isn't someone being consciousness. all there is is consciousness.

    have fun!
    Well said! Very enlightening. :)
  • Tristram30Tristram30
    Well put Taiyaki, love that!!
  • aMattaMatt Veteran
    How utterly incredible is the human mind?

    Its pretty remarkable. Recognizing that the brain doesn't need a centric, static identity to function can be very liberating.

    Often we look at our hands saying "my body is watching my hand" which is still true, especially at the biological level. We observe our minds. With practice, the observation becomes more slight, less definite. We realize the the need to watch arises as a component of the suffering that arises, and our practice stills both.
  • JeffreyJeffrey Veteran
    The mindfulness isn't the constant focus on one thing. Rather it is the ability to recognize that you are caught up in something.
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