Guide: Witnessing

Landmark: Have Experimented with Witnessing
Beacons	Association
Realms	Enrollment
Lenses	Witnessing
Guides	Brushing Your Teeth

Landmark: Notice Your Wandering Mind
Beacons	Attention
Realms	Enrollment
Lenses	Presence
Guides	Brushing Your Teeth

	Guide: Witnessing
Guide: Witnessing
Beacons	Association

The Concept

While doing common tasks, practice relaxing your hold on the concept that you have some sort of consciousness that directs your actions. Try to be the most mindful you can, and simply let your hold on The Self go, riding the stream of events that takes you through the task. You can do these exercises while doing any task at all, not just chores, but it may be easier to start with simple household tasks that you do every day.

Why

As you unlearn The Self, you should be able to apply that awareness in a progression something like this.

Small, rote tasks - combing your hair
More complex tasks - emptying the dishwasher
Medium complex tasks - writing an email
Very complex tasks - writing a creative paragraph
Long Durations - shopping
Everyday Enlightenment

How

Each exercise will feel a little different, and there are some ideas below, but the general pattern is

Start your task
Become as mindful as you know how, let all thoughts evaporate, let go of any need to understand or control the moment
Appreciate the task as a whole, sensing that it will get accomplished without you having to push it
Begin to slowly appreciate the major steps or movements necessary to get the task done
Once you have learned what you need from this "top down" approach, reverse the flow of observation...
Note that the tiniest muscle movements you need for anything will never be under your conscious control - there are thousands of micromovements taking place each second
Move up from that into an awareness of small movements that happen without any conscious thought
Continue to move further up into the larger motions and how they also are simply taking place
Finally note how decision making (such as when to change the comb to another hand) also do not require conscious thought

The exercises below may seem very prescriptive, describing exactly what to do at each step but do not approach them that way. These are just examples showing what someone might experience, and your experience will not follow the steps given. Instead, you will have to observe your own experience and then go back and reread the exercises to understand the objective. And then try again.

Guides are a Pathway in The Map of Everyday Enlightenment which are typically articles about a particular time and place for meditative practices. Guides contain Landmarks that highlight examples of how this could work for you, as well as other explanations of how to make use of certain concepts or techniques. The Landmarks in Guides can be reviewed in the context of progress through the Realms of Everyday Enlightenment, and when used in that way, Guides become another way to decide where to go next.

The Guide to Witnessing showcases one common activity we all do twice a day - brushing your teeth. As such, it is one really great activity to use as a time to work on your practice. And one other special thing about it is that it is typically done in front of a mirror, which opens up some areas to explore. As with all of the practices found in Everyday Enlightenment, you should generalize what you learn, and apply it to other types of meditative practices, and other activities you do frequently. Each of the Landmarks in this guide focus on a different Beacon or Realm, but each of them can be practiced while Brushing Your Teeth.

Use the following Landmarks as ways to integrate meditative practices into your everyday life and to check in on how you are progressing in your own journey.

Landmark: Notice Your Wandering Mind

The Landmark of Notice Your Wandering Mind asks whether you can notice when your mind tends to wander off in different directions. This Landmark is within the Realm of Enrollment, and is part of the Beacon of Attention, more specifically the Lens of Presence.

Landmark Lookouts:

Notice Your Wandering Mind: Are you able to notice times when your mind wanders?
A Wandering Mind is Different: Can you feel that a wandering mind is different than a tranquil mind or a focused mind?
It's Possible to Let the Mind Return: When your mind does wander, do you notice the moment when it comes back from that distant thought, and back into The Now?

The idea here is to just practice basic Attention and Presence during something you do every day.

Pick up your toothbrush and squeeze a strip of toothpaste onto it.
Turn on the tap and wet the brush, your daily dental hygiene routine is now a mindfulness exercise.
As you start brushing, pay attention to where your thoughts wander off.
Are you thinking about your meetings? Your grocery list? Or maybe an argument from last night?
Each time you catch your mind straying, gently guide it back to the sensation of brushing.
Focus on the taste of the toothpaste, the feel of the bristles against your teeth and gums, the sound of brushing.
Once you're done brushing, rinse your mouth and your brush.
Clean up your space, put everything back where it belongs, and stand still for a moment, taking in the quiet.
Use this small window of time twice a day to practice focusing and reigning in your wandering mind.

Landmark: Have Experimented with Witnessing

The Landmark of Have Experimented with Witnessing asks whether you are able to experience basic Witnessing during simple tasks. This Landmark is within the Realm of Enrollment, and is part of the Beacon of Association, more specifically the Lens of Witnessing.

Landmark Lookouts:

Awake to what Witnessing Is: Do you understand what you experienced, and does that understanding make you more awake?
Experienced that at Least Sometimes There is no Controlling Mind to be Aware Of: Did you experience a full awareness that there were no thoughts, impulses, or any kind of directive force present?

This is just one example; it can be applied to any trivial activity. Note that you may not be able to do all of these steps at first - don't worry about that at all. Just try to understand the general flow and see which parts start falling into place for you. Also note that this exercise uses a mirror but that isn't a requirement at all - see also for example Emptying the Dishwasher.

Stand in front of the mirror with your hands at your sides
Become as mindful as you know how
Look at yourself in the mirror and allow your attention to The Self to evaporate, and sense that the Mirror Self is going to do something
Notice that the Mirror Self picks up the toothpaste
Notice that the micromovements and larger movements for this simple task didn't need any conscious direction at all, it just happened
The Mirror Self now lifts its other arm and unscrews the cap, placing it on the sink, and then picking up the toothbrush.
Appreciate that three steps in one larger task all took place as if they were puzzle pieces fitting together seemlessly
Continue on in this fashion as your teeth are being brushed
Do not try and tell your Mirror Self which tooth to brush next or how long to linger on each tooth, just allow that to happen
Do not try and tell your Mirror Self when the task is done, just let it end naturally
Once you are done, and the toothbrush and toothpaste are back in their places, mentally review the steps listed in The Pattern above and appreciate what just happened

Emptying the Dishwasher