Social Witnessing to Self Witnessing

Ha! One is obviously paying attention - good on you.

WATCHING what is taking place in the world outside of oneself has great significance. Being a witness to what is taking place is a prerequisite for creating greater awaress for oneself, for the collective humanity as well.

Changing Direction

Be watchful of that which is taking place in the society, community, publicly, in the world_at_large is an outward moving direction of witnessing. The direction can be reversed. One can witness what is taking place within himself. One finds that one is in a world that is swiftly moving towards disintegration. The corruption is seen seemingly to be everywhere.

Only one thing remains within that is totally uncorrupted, and that is your witnessing nature. The world cannot touch it. Your thoughts, the thoughts, information, ideas, etc., that are received from the outside society, from others, can influence, manipulate & consume one's mind, coloring it, distorting one's ability to see clearly. But not your witnessing consciousness.

Your thoughts can be changed, you can be converted; you are being converted every moment. Every influence is a converting influence, because either for, or against, you react. And even if you react against a particular influence, you have been converted, you have been manipulated. Every moment you are being manipulated by outside situations, impressions, influences. But one thing remains untouched, and that is your witnessing nature.

A child is born. If no language is taught, then the child will not be able to know any language. Learning a language is not nature - it is nurtured. If the child is taught nothing, he will know nothing; if he is taught Hinduism, he will be Hindu; if he is taught communism, he will be a communist. Whatsoever he is taught he will be. It is not his nature. So no one is born as a Hindu, no one is born as a Mohammedan. These are not part of one's nature, it is not innate - these are conditionings. You are forced to be conditioned into a particular pattern. So Hinduism is a habit, not nature. Mohammedanism is again a habit, not nature. Being American, Russian, a democrat or republican is again a habit. By "habit" I mean something taught, something learned. You are not born with it.

Witnessing is not like that. You are born with it. Of course, it is hidden. In the deepest depths of one's being is the seed. Everything is taught except the witnessing nature. Knowledge is taught, but not knowing. A child is born with knowing, not with knowledge. He has the capacity to know - that's why you can teach him - but that capacity belongs to him. You will go on conditioning. Many things will be taught, and he will learn many things - languages, religions, ideologies. He will be burdened; and the more burdened, the more experienced, the more he will have a mind. And the society will value it, respect it.

Mind is respected in the society because it is a social product. So whenever there is a brilliant mind - that means one who is efficient in accumulating - society appreciates, respects it. This mind created by society will be there, and this mind will go on growing. And you can die with this mind, burdened with this mind, without knowing the inner nature that you were born with.

Witnessing, the effort towards it, means breaking this mind, breaking the habit of continuous thought that is taking place, creating a crack in this mind, to have a peek, a probe into nature - into your nature. You are born as an unknown witnessing energy. Then the society encrusts you, clothes you all around. That clothing is your mind & everything that has beein stuffed into it, and if you are identified with this clothing then you will never be able to know that which you are, that which you always have been. And one can die without knowing oneself. That capacity is there. But in a way it has a beauty of its own also.

One has to throw the society from inside; one has to be free from society. And when I say that one has to be free from society, I don't mean to be free from the outside society. You cannot be. Wherever you move, the outside society will be there. Even if you move to a forest, the trees and the animals will become your society. And when a monk, a hermit, moves to a forest and begins to live with animals, you say, "What beauty!" But he is again creating a society. When a hermit lives in the forest and begins to talk with trees, you say, "What a religious man!" But, really. he is again creating a society.

You cannot live without society as far as your outside world is concerned. You exist in society! But you can throw the society from inside, you can be free from society inside. And those who try to free themselves from the society which exists outside are just in a futile effort. They are in a futile effort - they cannot succeed. and they are deceiving themselves, because the real problem is not how to get away from the society which exists outside; the real problem is how not to be burdened inside by the society.

If there are no thoughts, if there are no memories, if there are no past burdens of experience, you are freed from society inside. You become virgin, pure, innocent. You are reborn. And then you know what your nature is, what your Tao is, what your dharma is. Dharma is translated again and again as "religion'. It is not; it is not religion. Dharma means nature; dharma means that which you already are - your essence.

One can live in the world & not have the world live with you.

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