Witness, Attention and the Sense of Relatedness
Adi Da Samraj – 1990
DEVOTEE: ..You Call us to be aware of where attention is fixed.
DEVOTEE: Yes, that’s the question. There’s a sense of attention, the feeling of relatedness, and I guess the question then is how the quality of that sense is different. You said that there is a “radical” change in the Position of the Witness altogether relative to sensitivity to attention and the feeling of relatedness, Prior to Realizing the Witness Position.
AVATAR ADI DA: Yes, it’s just that, the Witness Disposition Itself, That’s the difference, otherwise, attention is exactly the same as it ever was. It’s just that! Just as your hands look the same from the Witness-Position as from the point of view of attention, But there’s a profoundly different quality in the Disposition of the Witness, you see, than there is in merely being attention, or noticing attention from the point of view of the body-mind complex, you see. But it’s a change of disposition, of position altogether, and everything that that contains, rather than a change in the phenomenal condition itself.
DEVOTEE: There’s more freedom relative to…..
AVATAR ADI DA: There’s absolute Freedom. Whereas, in the body mind, noticing its own mechanism of attention, there isn’t profound Freedom, There is no Freedom!
But even so, still you can notice attention, Not only attention, all the mechanisms of the body-mind. You can observe them right now, without standing in the Witness-Position, or knowing you are. Of course, you always already are in that Position, but you don’t know it’s so. You are moment to moment identifying with the body-mind, and not realizing that you Stand Prior to it, you don’t realize that your own consciousness right now stands Prior to the body-mind. In your disposition, identified with the body-mind, you feel your consciousness, your awareness, is just part of being the body-mind. You don’t discriminate. To stand in the Witness Position, a profound discrimination must have occurred, a tacit discrimination must have occurred, in which you realize you stand Prior to the body-mind, including attention, which is simply the leading faculty of the body-mind.
DEVOTEE: So attention does still tend to become fixed, but you Stand Free of that and are always aware of that Freedom,
AVATARA ADI DA: Attention is always fixed and it’s always on something.
DEVOTEE: Because that’s the nature of it.
AVATARA ADI DA: It’s the feeling of relatedness. It goes to something, something physically tangible, or a concept, or a vision, or a feeling, a sense of some kind, you see. It’s always on something — abstract, concrete, whatever, It’s always on something, and it’s essential feeling is the feeling of relatedness, Hm? And the feeling of relatedness is self-contraction, because simultaneous with the feeling of relatedness is the feeling of separateness feeling oneself over against that to which one is apparently related, Hm? In other words, the self-contraction is there. And the self-contraction is not only feeling separate. It is actively separative, because it is self-contraction, you see. So all these things are there in attention itself, Hm?
DEVOTEE: And we become firmly established in that feeling of relatedness in this fourth stage disposition, but You always Call us beyond by sacrifice to release it and that’s what can allow the transition to the sixth stage practice from the fourth [stage] practice.
AVATARA ADI DA: Yes, ultimately, through this constant process of sadhana, going beyond the self contraction, the ultimate, original form of the self contraction is noticed, And it is the feeling of relatedness itself, or attention itself, Hm? It’s the root of self-contraction.
And it’s your own doing, Hm? You do separation. It’s not merely a fact that you are separate. You may think it’s a fact because, through this naive perception, you notice you are bodily existing and other bodies over against it, you know, you notice somebody and you know right away there’s somebody else, you see. So, naively, your sense of separateness seems to be justified, because you’re not aware of all the subtleties of this scheme of Unity, Hm? You are grossly identified, or making a gross identification in your self contraction, what ultimately you must Realize, or will Realize, or do Realize, ultimately most perfectly, is that there is no separation whatsoever, at any time., There is never separation. It has always been your own act. Always. There is no separation
The Basics
“My suggestion is that at each state the proper order of operation of the mind requires an overall grasp of what is generally known, not only in formal logical, mathematical terms, but also intuitively, in images, feelings, poetic usage of language, etc. This kind of overall way of thinking is not only a fertile source of new theoretical ideas: it is needed for the human mind to function in a generally harmonious way, which could in turn help to make possible an orderly and stable society.” – David Bohm
Even what you regard to be the apparent separation between bodies is a presumption based on your own self contraction. And when the self-contraction is utterly absent, paradoxically still walk around the room and talk to individuals and bang into their bodies with My own, you see – but, paradoxically, when there is utter Freedom from self-contraction, or from this act of separateness that informs your entire disposition and even all of your perceptions, but ultimately there is the Realization of utter, Absolute Non-Separation, And, paradoxically, it’s totally compatible with still here in this apparent human form…and the ability as you see Me Demonstrating all the time the natural ability to walk about being an apparent individual in the bodily sense, you see,
There is no separation whatsoever. All of “this” is the Self-Radiance of Consciousness Itself. It is One Immense Fore, Boundless and Centerless. And there is not the slightest “difference’ in It. This is self-evident WHEN the “self”-contraction is UTTERLY transcended.