---
title: "Witness of Presence and Recognitions (LA005)"
heading: "Witness of Presence and Recognitions (LA005)"
subheading: ""
updated: "2025-11-09T00:00:00+00:00"
words: 902
url: https://ananda.icu/talks/living-awareness/la005-witness-of-presence-and-recognitions
description: "When we speak of witnessing and observation, visualization exercises will not set us free. Self-inquiry is not a method for subject shifting. It's a process of peeling away our false identities. We are not the "seer", the "hearer" or the "observer". There is seeing, there is hearing, there is observation. In a neutral state, we recognize and acknowledge what is."
...


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**Words:** 902 ⁘ **Length:** 05:50 min ⁘ **Created:** 2025-11-09 

 When we speak of witnessing and observation, visualization exercises will not set us free. Self-inquiry is not a method for subject shifting. It's a process of peeling away our false identities.

We are not the "seer", the "hearer" or the "observer". There is seeing, there is hearing, there is observation. In a neutral state, we recognize and acknowledge what is. Rising and falling of experiences — we are not any of that.

Whatever that may or may not remain — worry not for future. Worry for clear presence in the here and now — the "what is". Sensations, emotions, thought-forms — mere phenomena in transit. Allow for all of it to exist — recognized in its objective nature.

Mind this well — self-awareness is not the emergence of "super-you". It is raw and natural awareness of your shifting field of contents. Witness the countless experessions of consciousness entering forms. Acknowledge the simple presence of what is, "as it is" — that's all.

_#LivingAwareness #Witness #Observation #SelfAwareness #WhatIs #SelfInquiry #Recognition #Neutrality #AsItIs #Suchness #AnandaICU_



[ Table of Contents ]
- ¶ Observing Beyond Seeing — Into Present Recognition ↴
- ¶ Witnessing at Work — Peeling Away the False Self ↴
- ¶ Resigned from Our Lies — Into Natural Liberation ↴

**As we talk about witnessing and observing** in the context of self-inquiry, self-awareness, let's be clear that this witnessing and observing is not a matter of your five senses. It's not a visual exercise for one.


### Observing Beyond Seeing — Into Present Recognition ¶

Suppose we may, in a moment of meditation or a burst of simply zoning out, shift to a third person perspective, as if watching ourselves from above. Like in a game, or as one might experience in an out-of-body experience. Is that observing? Is that witnessing? Well, it is helpful, in that it gives you a perspective outside of your immediate physical being. However, it is not the observing and witnessing that we speak of.

What we seek to witness, to observe, is the workings of awareness itself. Your entire cognitive process in all of its aspects. In this witnessing, there is a recognition. "This exists." An acknowledgement. It is. And non-reactivity. It is as it is, and I need not tell any tales to myself about it. I need not turn it into anything. Simple, neutral recognition.

In what you see, there is simply the seeing. What you hear, there is the hearing. You need not establish a subject entity around it. Likewise, there may be irritation. There may be bubbling joy. All of those, states of mind, as they are.


### Witnessing at Work — Peeling Away the False Self ¶

Our work, in witnessing, is simply the dissociation of a final permanent identity from the field of phenomena that are passing through, from the contents our consciousness experiences. Non-reactive and non-attached with whatever that should cross our horizon at any given time — without trying to enter into it or run away from it.

And in weaning ourselves from attachment to phenomena, we certainly recognize their transitory nature. All things have their beginnings, their presence, and their ends. They all pass away again. Now we need not enter into philosophical loops — but if we are simply still and present in the middle of what we recognize, the echo of their beginnings, and the looming of their ends, are naturally evident in the silence you hold without reaction.

So there is witnessing and observing. There is recognizing and acknowledging. But you need not convert yourself into, "I am the witness", "I am the observer", "I am the recognizer", "I am the acknowledger". Do not get into these self-assertions. They do not benefit you in the process of self-inquiry. None of this is for you to land with an ultimate subject self — rather it is a process of peeling away.

Recognition of your irritation, your happiness, and recognition of the fact that this recognition has taken place, and beyond, and beyond, and beyond... Where all of these are processes and phenomena, with their beginnings and with their ends — and as such you are not those.


### Resigned from Our Lies — Into Natural Liberation ¶

Then whatever final residue may be there at the end of the process, when all that is not a durable self has been peeled off — find that out when you get there. But worry not of it. Let all of this unfold as it may, step by step, layer by layer. Recognizing what is, not reacting to it. Take it from there.

As all things are liberated into their own innate nature, without your trying to make them anything for yourself — there is clarity. For there is a neutral recognition of what is. The "what is" nature of things is reality. And the "for me" nature, your hallucinations, they are not — they are lies.

Then we resign from the lies we tell ourselves about our inner contents and the contents out there in our environment. In that, reality itself is liberated, it is left as is — and in the process, your awareness too is untangled from the bondage of the nest you have built for yourself, accumulating all sorts of phenomena to have your temporary abiding.

Then be not a beaver in the stream or a hamster in its cage. All of this, as it is, and that — I am not. All things are as they are. They are not me — they are in my field of attention. Recognize, witness, observe all of that at each moment. It is as simple as that.