Jack suggested as a writing assignment to read a couple of references to \u00e2\u20ac\u0153the witness\u00e2\u20ac\u009d in LOK and compare them to how the witness is treated in the current readings.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
What this more fundamental role might be is left as a mystery worth exploring.<\/p>\n
I jumped ahead to references to \u00e2\u20ac\u0153the witness\u00e2\u20ac\u009d that occur later in the book, and the shift was dramatic and thought-provoking.<\/p>\n
\u00e2\u20ac\u0153The only witness of knowledge is knowledge\u00e2\u20ac\u009d LOK 367.<\/p>\n
\u00e2\u20ac\u0153The objects of knowledge do not approach us, nor must we journey \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcsomewhere else\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 to know \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcmore\u00e2\u20ac\u2122.\u00c2\u00a0 For it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s in the nature of time, space and knowledge to be inseparable.\u00c2\u00a0 As we come to embody space and time, knowledge is revealed as intrinsic to the nature of all being.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d\u00c2\u00a0 LOK 368.<\/p>\n
“Knowledge as its own witness suggests the possibility that known and unknown alike can be understood as aspects of knowledge.\u00c2\u00a0 Like an artist or playwright, knowledge establishes the known world of labelled entities and unknown essences, of past and present and future.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d\u00c2\u00a0 LOK 384.<\/p>\n
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.\u00c2\u00a0 The self thinks of itself as \u00e2\u20ac\u0153the witness\u00e2\u20ac\u009d simply because it views itself as central to everything it notices, including the awareness and presence inherent to our living embodiment.\u00c2\u00a0 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.\u00c2\u00a0 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\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s use of it, is recognized as not necessary.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Jack suggested as a writing assignment to read a couple of references to \u00e2\u20ac\u0153the witness\u00e2\u20ac\u009d 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 … Continue reading