MINDFULNESS VIDEO SERIES (10): SILENT WITNESS MEDITATION

Do not try to control or stop any thoughts. Instead let the mind think about anything. Now as a detached observer or witness observe your mind and its everchanging contents. As you observe your mind as a completely disinterested viewer, just say to yourself “I am the silent witness, I make no effort to think. But thoughts come automatically. I am watching thoughts flow through my mind, but I am aloof from them. I am the silent witness to my mind’s activities.
Now imagine that you are sitting beside a stream. Observe the water flow by. See how thoughts flow through your mind just like sticks and leaves float down the river as you watch from the riverbank. The stream may be very clear or it may very polluted. Similar, the stream of mind stuff may be very clear, or it may be very polluted. But you are not the stream or the sticks or leaves flowing in the stream. You are the detached observer sitting peacefully on the riverbank. Just observe any sensations, thoughts, desires, fears, plans, emotions etc. as they bubble up to the surface of your mind and then disappear. Remember, don’t hold onto or judge any particular thought or emotion. If you find yourself holding onto a particular thought or emotion, then consciously let it go. Just remain a detached observer of the mind and its everchanging contents.
It is extremely liberating to realize that you are not your mind. The mind is the sitting place for an endless number of desires, demands, thoughts, emotions, images, speculations and so on. When you identify with your mind, you get pushed, pulled and affected in various ways by the mind’s constant and everchanging contents. This could be demands, plans, emotions, desires, images etc. When this happens, you are like a person who is helplessly getting swept downstream by very strong currents of a swiftly moving river. You do not have to react to what is entering the stream of your mind. If I jump into a raging river, I will lose control over where I am going. Similarly, if I act upon strong emotions that are appearing in my mind, then I will almost surely lose control over what I am going to do or say.
As long as you identify yourself with your mind or the contents of your mind, you can never be at peace. But if you understand that you, the self, are not your mind or its contents, then you can be an unaffected perceiver and observer of the mind’s contents, including its demands, plans, emotions, desires etc.
When you remain a witness of your mind’s activities, then you will not be swept away by the mind’s strong currents.