Remaining aware of everything means remaining as the witness.
The witness is usually, in spiritual circles, a synonym for the Self. The Self merely observes and is unchanged. Remaining as the witness, therefore, is remaining as the Self.
Only Mother/Father God – whom the Divine Mother acknowledged in An Hour with an Angel on Jan. 4, 2018, was the Godhead or Parabrahman – is beyond the Self. (1)
Please remember that, while we remain neutral in our awareness, awareness itself is not neutral. It is dissolutive. (2) If we “paint” an unwanted condition with our awareness, so to speak, and let our awareness simply rest on it, the condition will dissolve. Hopefully leaving no residue.
In light of these two considerations, I consider remaining as the witness – also known as remaining self-aware – to be an evolved spiritual practice.
Kathleen approaches the same goal of knowing the Self by contextualizing it as achieving balance. By forgiving everything and other practices, she has achieved balance, in my very biased opinion.
I’m approaching it from the vantage point of self-awareness. It’s just because I resonate to that path. Zen, Vipassana, enlightenment intensives, encounter groups – all share the same focus on self-awareness. (3)
Awareness is like a perpetual, cleansing waterfall. The longer the time I’m able to maintain awareness of myself, the greater the cleansing and healing effect.
As my awareness rests on me, I come to a time when I don’t think of myself as being restricted to a form or body named Steve.
The”I” that I remain aware of begins to loosen up, shift, and change. It becomes more like a cloud or space.
When I became the witness earlier today, I noticed less drama and more spaces. The space of love. The space of bliss.
I also was aware that the duration of my experiencing had grown from the last time I felt in touch with myself. When love and bliss came, after I breathed them up from my heart, they stayed a little longer.
Occasional solitude is such a valuable gift. I fear it’ll become a very scarce commodity in the times ahead. Let me never forget the beauty of stillness and silence.
Footnotes
(1) Beyond God is the Godhead. So, for other students of cross-cultural spirituality, here is the relationship between the Self and the One, stated in the language of several spiritual traditions: Christ —> God (the Father) —> Godhead; Self —> All-Self —> One; Atman —> Brahman —> Parabrahman.
(2) I’m led to believe the word is not in the dictionary. I may have made it up. For me, it means “dissolves something, a solvent.”
(3) There are so many synonyms for it. Staying with the “Now” or the “moment”” is one. Remaining with one’s self/the self/the Self. “Being with” oneself. Knowing the ways of the self. Self-Knowledge. “Getting in touch with” one’s self. On and on go the ways of describing self-awareness and its aims and ends.