According to Osho, witnessing yourself is not a step toward something else—it is the whole path. Begin by simply watching your actions, then your thoughts, and finally your most subtle feelings, like a mirror without judgment. In true witnessing, the mind’s hunger for “more” dissolves. Don’t theorize; be sincere and practice now. This living, silent awareness is the only religion.
Just watch what you do, think, and feel right now—quietly and without judging—and that’s the whole thing.
From the Discourses
Passages where Osho speaks to this question — each links to the complete discourse.
Beloved Osho, I want to concentrate my efforts. Be sincere with me. Is to be a witness of myself the only thing, or is there something else?
I am not interested in intellectual questions. First, be a witness to yourself, then ask. You want me to be sincere with you; please just be sincere with yourself. It is all wanting -- "I want to concentrate my efforts." It is just wishing. Who is preventing you? What are you doing here? The only thing I am teaching is to be a witness of your actions, thoughts, feelings. Start with the actions because that is the easiest, then thoughts, and then feelings -- which are the most subtle. But it seems people simply go on only thinking about things. "What is there after witnessing yourself? Is there something more?" Do you think witnessing is not more than enough? But the mind functions in this way, it always asks for more. It asks continuously -- wherever you are it will ask for more. But in witnessing the mind disappears, hence…
For years I am most of the time witnessing and I feel it like a disease. So is it that there are two kinds of witnessing and mine is wrong? Tell me.
And only then can the third step be taken, which will bring you close to what Gurdjieff calls self-remembering, or Krishnamurti calls awareness, or the Upanishads call witnessing. But first the two steps have to be fulfilled; then the third comes easy. Don't start doing the third immediately. First the object, then the consciousness, then the subject. Once the object is dropped and the emphasis on the consciousness is no longer a strain, the subject is there but there is no subjectivity in it. You are there but there is no "I" in it, just being. You are, but there is no feeling that "I am." That confinement of "I" has disappeared; only amness exists. That amness is divine. Drop the "I" and just be that amness. And if you have been working too long on witnessing, then for a few months, at least for three months, drop it completely,…
By knowing oneself as the individual witnessing self of the intellect, and all its moods, and cultivating such feelings as "I am that," one should renounce any identification with all things except the self. After ceasing to follow others, one should create a distance with one's own body. Then one should stop following scriptures and give up one's identification with the self also.
WHEN A YOGI IS ROOTED IN THE SELF, HIS MIND IS DESTROYED BY FOLLOWING RIGHT METHOD, RIGHT LISTENING, AND HIS FIRST HAND EXPERIENCE, AND BY SEEING OTHERS AS HIS OWN SELF. HE THEN, CONTEMPLATES THE SELF, INSIDE THE HEART, WITHOUT GIVING AN EAR TO WHAT PEOPLE SAY, WITHDRAWING HIS ATTENTION FROM THE OBJECTS OF THE SENSES: SOUND, TOUCH, SIGHT, TASTE AND SMELL COLLECTIVELY; AND HE DOES NOT GIVE IN TO SLEEP OR FORGETFULNESS OF THE SELF. The word "witnessing" is one of the most significant words, particularly in Eastern spiritual alchemy. This word is a key word. So we must understand what witnessing means. We act, we do something, and the moment we do it we become the doer -- you walk, you become the walker. But there is one more possibility -- to remain a witnesser, to remain a witness. Walk, eat, or do whatsoever; don't be identified with…
Osho, I practice self-analysis, “introspection,” to awaken the witnessing. Is this right as a first step? Kindly explain.
That is why you see: the wife is happily sitting, listening to the radio, knitting her sweater; the moment the horn honks downstairs—husband has arrived—she lies down: “I have a headache.” Don’t think she’s faking; it really happens. I’m not saying she is deceiving—this has become her habit. The husband’s horn is enough to trigger a headache. Association has formed. Don’t think I say she’s cheating. Perhaps in the beginning she faked it; now that is long past—now it’s a habit. As the husband comes, the headache rises—because only when she has a headache does the husband put his hand on her head. Otherwise, who puts his hand on his wife’s head! Someone might put a hand on another’s wife; who puts a hand on his own! Only when the wife is troubled does the husband show a little sympathy. Love is gone; now only sympathy keeps things moving. The…
So learn to witness more and more: outer things, people, nature. Witness -- don't forget that you are just a witness, a watcher. Then inner things -- thoughts, desires, memories -- watch and remember that you are a witness. This is what George Gurdjieff used to call self-remembering. Continuously remember that you are a witness; never for a moment let this remembrance lapse. Many times you will forget and you will become identified. The moment you remember that you have forgotten, don't repent. Don't waste time in repentance, because that is getting identified with a new idea, the idea of repentance. Don't feel guilty, otherwise again you are identified. Just take note that you had forgotten, that's all: remember again. No need to repent, no need to feel guilty. Again start watching, and slowly slowly, the knack...