Atmananda’s Essay “The Witness”

I begin by quoting a very dense paragraph from Atmananda, one that opens his very short essay simply entitled “Witness”:

No object can exist without getting recorded in knowledge. Sense-objects (sound, form, touch, taste, and smell), bodily activities, activities of the senses (seeing, hearing, etc.), and of the mind (thinking and feeling)-all come under the “object series” (i.e., the known). It is evident that without chis knowledge it is not possible to remember the past activities of the body, the senses, and the mind. It is through it that they get connected with each other, and this connection is absolutely necessary for one’s life in this world. There is no denying the fact that this knowledge is not transient like the bodily, sensory, and mental activities. Thoughts, feelings, and perceptions are getting immediately recorded in knowledge. If this knowledge were
not permanent, it would never be possible to remember them subsequently. This knowledge must come to show anything. Hence it stands as witness to everything. One cannot help standing as a witness to carry on life’s activities. The ordinary man does not know it, and hence his bondage and misery. If one knowingly takes up this stand, that by itself, without anything further, brings about liberation.

I’d like, in what follows, to merely unpack some of his claims–namely,

1. “No object can exist without getting recorded in knowledge.”
2. “There is no denying the fact that this knowledge is not transient like the bodily, sensory, and mental activities.”
3. And: “This knowledge must come to show anything.”

Conclusion: This knowledge must be the Witness.

Being “Recorded“

Let’s take the example of seeing. And let’s also use “Consciousness” in place of “knowledge.”

Can seeing exist apart from Consciousness? This needs to be scrutinized, investigated, and tested. The answer is that any attempt to discover the act of seeing apart from Consciousness is, indeed, an attempt illumined by Consciousness.

Try again: Try as hard as you can to engage in seeing without Consciousness being that which illumines this act. It’s just not possible.

Objection: “But I’m not always aware of just what I’m seeing.”

Reply: Metacognitive awareness–being aware of the fact that one is seeing a red tomato; being aware of the fact that one is angry just now–is not in question. What is in view is the far simpler fact that, so to speak, “the lights must be on” so that seeing can appear at all.

Not Transient

Argument #1: Suppose Consciousness were as transient as any experience: seeing, touching, thinking, feeling, bodily activity, etc. Then what would remain after every act of seeing is over? Yet, undeniably, ‘something’–which is not a thing at all–does remain. What is that?

Argument #2: Test: When any thought disappears, does Consciousness disappear with it? Answer: No. Consciousness does not, in fact, disappear when any experience subsides. But couldn’t Consciousness disappear in deep sleep? Find out. What will be understood is that Consciousness is not transient; instead, It is permanent.

Showing Anything

What might Atmananda mean when he says that Consciousness “must come to show anything”? He means that in order for any appearance (experience) to appear, it must be shown-to-appear. That is, the necessary condition for any appearance to appear is “the spotlight” of Consciousness in the mode of attention.

Consciousness, in the mode of attention, is like the spotlight that must be there in order for this act of seeing to be an act of seeing. It’s not as if seeing is there and then it’s illumined; rather, it’s the case that the act of seeing arises just as, and precisely when, it’s so illumined by Consciousness as attention.

Conclusion

If every experience must be “recorded in” and “shown by” Consciousness, if every experience is transient while Consciousness is not, then Consciousness must be that which is aware of every experience.

But to be aware of any experience whatsoever is just to be the Witness.

Therefore, Consciousness, when it faces “outward” toward experiences, is the Witness.

This, indeed, is the beginning of the Witness Teaching.