Ram Dass quotes about The Witness and witnessing (and awareness)

Mostly because of Ram Dass books, and also more recently because of the book I Am That, I have been digging deeper than ever into the spiritual concept of “The Witness.” By that I mean both in terms of how we use the witness as a mindfulness and meditation technique, and also what that really means.

To that end I have started collecting Ram Dass quotes about the witness and the process of witnessing as a form of mindfulness, and the following are the Ram Dass quotes about the witness that I’ve found so far.

Everything changes once we identify with being the witness to the story

• “Everything changes once we identify with being the witness to the story, instead of the actor in it.”

That’s one of the huge quotes that I remember reading, in his book, Polishing The Mirror, if I remember right, though it may also be in Be Here Now or Be Love Now.

I get in my witness, which is in my spiritual heart

• “Pain is the mind. It’s the thoughts of the mind. Then I get rid of the thoughts, and I get in my witness, which is down in my spiritual heart. The witness that witnesses being. Then those particular thoughts that are painful — love them.”

That’s a nice quote about using the witness to separate yourself from pain. It reminds me of the old Zen quote, “Pain is inevitable; suffering is optional.”

One way to get free of attachment is to cultivate the witness consciousness

• “One way to get free of attachment is to cultivate the witness consciousness, to become a neutral observer of your own life.”

I use this form of witnessing throughout the day. When I’m cutting vegetables I think, “Cutting vegetables,” and when I’m walking I think, “Walking,” etc. Just witness whatever your body is doing moment by moment. This is actually a famous mindfulness technique.

The witness place inside you is simple awareness

• “The witness place inside you is simple awareness, the part of you that is aware of everything. Just noticing, watching, not judging, just being present, being here now.”

Again, the idea is to be neutral and not judge what’s happening, just note what’s happening. It’s like you’re a bird-watcher and watching birds while you make notes in a notebook about what you’re seeing.

• “The witness is actually another level of consciousness. The witness co-exists alongside your normal consciousness as another layer of awareness, as the part of you that is awakening. Humans have this unique ability to be in two states of consciousness at once. Witnessing yourself is like directing the beam of a flashlight back at itself. In any experience — sensory, emotional, or conceptual — there’s the experience, the sensory or emotional or thought data, and there’s your awareness of it. That’s the witness, the awareness, and you can cultivate that awareness in the garden of your being.”

That Ram Dass quote is very similar to a Zen description of “the three nens,” which I first learned about in the book, Zen Training.

Witnessing is like waking up in the morning and looking in the mirror

• “Witnessing is like waking up in the morning and then looking in the mirror and noticing yourself — not judging or criticizing, just neutrally observing the quality of being awake. That process of stepping back takes you out of being submerged in your experiences and thoughts and sensory input and into self-awareness.”

Again, just witness what the body is doing. “Oh, look, the body is eating.” :)

The witness is your centering device

• “The witness is your centering device. It guides the work you do on yourself. Once you understand that there is a place in you that is not attached, you can extricate yourself from attachments. Pretty much everything we notice in the universe is a reflection of our attachments.”

The concept of attachment is a fun one, because as Ram Dass mentions in other quotes, there is no karma without attachment.

As you cultivate the witness ... it’s like you’re living on two levels

• “One of the things we develop along the way is the witness: the ability to quietly observe the phenomena, including our own behavior, our own emotions, our own reactions. And it’s fascinating. As you cultivate the witness more deeply, it’s like you’re living simultaneously on two levels: there’s a level of witness, and then there’s the level of desire, fear, emotions, action, reaction, etc.”

Again, just quietly note or observe what the body is doing.

There is another stage beyond that (beyond the witness)

• “There is another stage beyond that (beyond the witness), which is again the surrender issue. Here’s a quote: ‘When the mind gazes into the mind itself, the train of discursive and conceptual thought ends, and supreme enlightenment is gained.’”

I added the “beyond the witness” part of that quote because it is implied from the text just before this quote. So even though there is another stage beyond the witness, as human beings with all of our baggage and attachments, our first step is to identify with the witness, and then we can start working on anything beyond the witness.

You come into awareness where everything just is

• “See, when the witness turns in on itself, when the witness witnesses the witness. Then you go in behind that, and then you come into awareness where everything just is. You’re no longer busy with one part of your mind watching another. You’re not busy watching. You’re just being. It comes very simple again.”

There comes a point in meditation where, if you’re willing to work hard enough at it, your meditation practice takes on a life of its own. So then you no longer have to keep thinking, “Witness ... witness ... witness,” it just happens on its own.

The witness is always in the here and now

• “The witness is always in the here and now and it lives in each instant of living. To be in the witness is to listen with a still heart, with a waiting, open soul, without clinging, without opinions.”

I sometimes like to think of witnessing as being like The Observers in the Fringe tv series, where they just watch and make notes. It’s also like you’re watching a movie, but you’re not watching it for entertainment. It’s more like you’re paying attention to it to see how it was made ... you watch it with curiosity, but also detachment: “Oh, that’s an interesting scene, notice how the body does this right here,” that sort of thing.

As you cultivate the witness, things change

• “As you quiet your mind, you begin to see the nature of your own resistance more clearly, struggles, inner dialogues, the way in which you procrastinate and develop passive resistance against life. As you cultivate the witness, things change. You don’t have to change them. Things just change.”

“Things just change” is an interesting quote. It’s like when I started meditating I used to eat meat, and nobody ever told me to stop eating it, but now I don’t like to eat it at all. It just changed.

Bonus: More “witness” quotes from “I Am That”

Technically the following witness quotes are not related to Ram Dass; instead they are from a book titled, I Am That, by Nisargadatta Maharaj. But I want to share them here to show that almost every meditation teacher I know is saying the same things, they’re just using different words or language.

• “When the mind is quiet, we come to know ourselves as the pure witness. We withdraw from the experience and its experiencer and stand apart in pure awareness.”

• In talking to someone about painting, he says, “You see the painting going on. You are watching only, all else happens.”

• “You need nothing more, just remember that you are the witness only.”

And right after that he says:

• “If, in the state of witnessing you ask yourself, ‘Who am I?’, the answer comes through at once, though it is wordless and silent.”

Later in the book he states:

• “The Guru is little concerned with the person. His attention is on the inner watcher.”

After that he says:

• “The person is merely the result of a misunderstanding.”