Ask Osho!

Are there different kinds of witnessing, and is my experience of it wrong?

Synthesized from Source definition

"True witnessing is a relaxed, egoless awareness; if your experience feels tense or sickly, it is merely the ego masquerading as consciousness."

Core Insight:
According to Osho, if your “witnessing” feels tense or sickly, it isn’t witnessing at all but ego-based self-consciousness. True witnessing is relaxed, egoless awareness. Begin as Patanjali suggests: first concentrate on the object (dharana), forgetting yourself; next, drop the object and notice only the fact of watching. Only then does authentic, subjectless witnessing flower; otherwise meditation becomes another ego-disease.
If watching yourself feels tight, you’re in your ego; instead, calmly look at something, then feel the simple watching and let the “me” drop away.
Why this matters practically
- Reduces anxiety and strain by dropping ego-centered self-consciousness.
- Offers a clear method: focus on an object, then on the fact of watching.
- Keeps meditation healthy, not another ego-driven performance.
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