Jack suggested as a writing assignment to read a couple of references to “the witness†in LOK and compare them to how the witness is treated in the current readings.
The recent class readings from Love of Knowledge have been examining various facets of what we commonly think of as the self: for instance we seem to have an objective self who is active in the world, a narrator self who tells stories which feature itself at the centre, the owner self who claims to possess whatever is experienced, and the witness self who is introduced as potentially being more fundamental than a property owner, a story teller, or the historical consequence of birth in this world.
What this more fundamental role might be is left as a mystery worth exploring.
I jumped ahead to references to “the witness†that occur later in the book, and the shift was dramatic and thought-provoking.
“The only witness of knowledge is knowledge†LOK 367.
“The objects of knowledge do not approach us, nor must we journey ‘somewhere else’ to know ‘more’. For it’s in the nature of time, space and knowledge to be inseparable. As we come to embody space and time, knowledge is revealed as intrinsic to the nature of all being.â€Â LOK 368.
“Knowledge as its own witness suggests the possibility that known and unknown alike can be understood as aspects of knowledge. Like an artist or playwright, knowledge establishes the known world of labelled entities and unknown essences, of past and present and future.â€Â LOK 384.
The inquiry into the witness has been transformed from a dimension of the familiar self to the face of a knowledge that exists above, beyond and inside that self. The self thinks of itself as “the witness†simply because it views itself as central to everything it notices, including the awareness and presence inherent to our living embodiment. Considering knowledge to be the essence of our capacity to notice, explore, bear witness, experience, and participate, feels like a wider perspective–one which even the self could get on board with. It offers the self an opportunity to be part of a greater and unthreatening realm in which the exhaustion of always organizing, controlling, and taming an abundant energy, which exists prior to the self’s use of it, is recognized as not necessary.
Hayward and Klaus,
Your comments deepen my appreciation for something important: the self is one way of knowing (perhaps initially our only doorway into a deeper knowing), but learning to recognize “the presence of knowledge” and “a wider knowing” can allow a shift to greater openness.
Hi Michael,
this seems to be one of the most important insights with TSK: the self gets under intensive exploration, but not to get rid of it or destroy it in a more or less forceful way (which is probably not possible anyway). Discovering a wider knowing the self can afford to let itself melt or relax into this wider perspective without fear.
Michael
It seem that Knowledge allows all ways of knowing and self is one way of knowing. Conventional, ordinary experience could not be possible were it not for the presence of Knowledge. This transcendent dimension appears when we ask what makes the ordinary possible. It seems all appearance and experience reveals the presence of Knowledge as benefactor.
Hayward