What Is Witnessing, and How Does It Contribute to a Meditative Life?

When Michael Gottlieb established Royal Way and Royal Way Spiritual Retreat Center, he declared that it would be “an instrument for bringing modern man and woman to the experience of God. The mind cannot know God, even when it wants to. It can think about God. It can talk about God. The experience of God is one breath away from the mind.”

Meditation, he added, “is one of a very few effective ways to live fully.”

Most of us dwell in the mind most of the time. But for those of us who are seeking the divine in our lives, reaching for higher consciousness—the experience of God—Michael makes it clear that the mind will not get us there. The mind is relentlessly busy and easily swayed by the distractions of modern life. This is why the practice of meditation is fundamental to the Royal Way life. In meditation, Michael Gottlieb teaches, “You can free yourself from your mind.” He adds that the mind is filled with repetitive thought patterns—“old audiotapes that have been playing in your head perhaps for many years.”

The mind is so dominant in our lives that we tend to identify with it. We come to equate our train of thought with who we are. We identify with those old audiotapes playing on an endless loop in our mind. We drown in noise, and miss out on the true nature of ourselves and the world around us. The antidote, the key to a quiet mind, is meditation.

Royal Way teaches and practices many kinds of meditation, but fundamental to all of them is the practice of witnessing. Michael teaches that witnessing is the way of the Buddha—the key to finding stillness and peace, which are not of the mind.

Witnessing Is Buddha’s Essential Meditation

The meditation through which Gautama Buddha became enlightened is known as vipassana. Michael Gottlieb describes vipassana as “the essential meditation.” He adds: “All other meditations are different forms of witnessing. But witnessing is present in every kind of meditation as an essential part. It cannot be avoided. Buddha has deleted everything else and kept only the essential part: to witness.”

What Is Witnessing?

The simple way to describe witnessing is watching. But we can describe it in a number of other ways as well:

• Witnessing is becoming an objective observer of your own life.

  
  

• Witnessing is awareness.

  
  

• Witnessing is listening to your thoughts—watching them without engaging them.

  
  

• Witnessing is like looking in a mirror—without judgment or criticism.

  
  

• Witnessing is an ongoing alertness.

  
  

• Witnessing is a state of presence.

“Witnessing or watching is our most pressing and precious goal,” writes Royal Way founder Michael Gottlieb. “This is a true state of meditation: an ongoing alertness and awareness, which separates us from identifying from the ego-mind. That is true meditation. That is the true meditative state.”

The Difference Between Witnessing and Thinking

It is reasonable to wonder, if we are attempting to become observers of our own life, what the difference is between witnessing and thinking. If we are witnessing our thoughts or witnessing our body sensations or witnessing a feeling, what are we using to witness?

If not the mind, then what? The answer is awareness.

“Awareness is not a part of the mind,” Michael says. “It flows through the mind, but it is not part of the mind. Mind is just an instrument. Awareness is not part of it. Awareness flows through it.”

Michael adds that witnessing does not imply that we stop using the mind when and if we need it. The mind is, Michael writes, “an intricate, magical instrument … a marvel of creation.” We can and should use it to solve problems, to advance science, to overcome challenges.

Witnessing, in fact, enhances the mind. The trick is not to become identified with the mind.

“Just by watching, the mind does not cease,” Michael says. “The brain cells do not cease. Actually, they become more alive, because there will be less conflict, more energy. They will become more fresh, and you can use them more efficiently, more accurately. But you will not be burdened by them, and they will not force you to do something. They will not push and pull you here and there. You will be the master.”

How to Begin the Practice of Witnessing

“You can take the first step right now,” Michael Gottlieb said in a Royal Way Spiritual Center discourse on witnessing. “Start listening to the voice in your head as often as you can, and pay particular attention to any repetitive thought patterns, those old audiotapes that have been playing in your head perhaps for many years. This is what I mean by watching the thinker: Be there as the witnessing presence.”

How Vipassana Meditation Incorporates Witnessing

“The literal meaning of the word ‘vipassana,’ in Pali, the language in which Gautama Buddha spoke, is ‘to look,’ writes Michael Gottlieb. “And the metaphorical meaning is to watch, to witness.”

When we practice vipassana meditation, we become observers of all that is in and around us. But rather than becoming submerged in what we are observing, we simply watch with awareness. We don’t become attached to what we are watching. Some have described it as “stepping outside the story.”

Here are examples of what we may witness in vipassana:

•  The breath. Watch the breath flowing in and out.

  
  

• The body. Watch your body sensations. This can occur while sitting or being active, such as in a walking meditation. Michael Gottlieb quotes Buddha, who was asked why he walks so slowly: “He said, ‘This is part of my meditation, always to walk as if you are walking in wintertime into a cold stream of water. You walk slowly, with alertness, because the stream is very cold. And you are aware,  because the current is very strong—witnessing each of your steps because you can slip on the stones in the stream.” 

• Thoughts. Watch but don’t judge the thoughts. Don’t become engaged with them. When we assess our thoughts, we are no longer witnessing; we are thinking, and our goal is to go beyond everyday mentalism.

  
  

• Emotions and feelings. As with thoughts, it is important not to become identified with the emotions or feelings as we watch them. We are stepping outside the story, observing the emotions with neutral awareness. As Michael Gottlieb described it, “To watch an emotion in this way is basically the same as listening to or watching a thought. The only difference is that while a thought is in your head, an emotion has a strong physical component and so is primarily felt in the body. You can then allow the emotion to be there without being controlled by it. Just like with the thoughts, you no longer are the emotion. You are the watcher, the observing presence.”

Conclusion: The Benefits of Witnessing

Through the process of meditating as a nonattached witness, we can experience the simple delight of being fully in the here and now—what Ram Dass described as “the subtle joy of just being here, alive, enjoying being present in this moment.” We feel less stress and anxiety when we witness without identification. And as noted already, the mind becomes sharper and clearer. We use it as we need it, but we don’t allow the mind to control us.

Experiencing the benefits of witnessing, of vipassana, requires practice, requires the actual experience. As Michael Gottlieb wrote, “The essence of what I’m saying here cannot be understood by the mind. But the moment you grasp it, there is a shift in consciousness from mind to being, from time to presence. Suddenly everything feels alive, radiates energy, emanates being.”

Michael added: “Minds are divided and separate. Consciousness is one. To attain to that consciousness, to that oneness, witnessing is the way. Watching is the method.”

If you are interested in learning more about meditation and Royal Way happenings, you are invited to Get in Touch, and we will be happy to connect with you and discuss our upcoming retreats.