The silent witness is the holy grail of spirituality

 Most of us live a life of restraint, control, suppression, and so on. When you say, 'I must control myself, my anger, my jealousy, my laziness, my indolence' and so on, who is the controller? Is the controller different from that which he controls? Or are they both the same? The controller is the controlled. So as long as there is a controller he is exercising his capacity to control. And we are saying the controller is the essence of desire. And he is trying to control his activities, his thoughts, his wishes, and so on. So realising all that, can one live a life which is not promiscuous, which is not doing what you like, but a life without any form of control. 

J Krishnamurti, in Essence of JK, extracts, Vinod Mittal

The observer role is crucial in the spiritual breakthrough. It’s like looking through a window pane onto life, without trying to be stoic, detached, spiritual, etc. It’s not a conscious trying to achieve something but a passive falling into a natural state of being. Mistakes are possible because the ego is clever and we may once again convince ourselves that we are the observer whereas observing is with no person around to do anything. Continued mischief is impossible though because our agenda can be spotted sooner or later. We will also spot the mistaken role of a “light-worker” who means well but does what he does because he has an image to defend. 

The silent witness is the holy grail of spirituality. No lifelong quest to find it is required. It’s right where we are in the present moment. 

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