March 7, 2026
In contemplation
Today marks a change in my postings. For the past few years I have relied on Sufi poets as my partners in contemplation. I attended to Attar, ruminated with Rumi, hung out with Hafiz, and most recently contemplated the writings of Yunus Emre. These contemplations resulted in short, daily postings. Now I want to try longer pieces. My plan is to write one 600/700-word essay a week. I will gather my daily contemplations into this format and see what happens. My first effort is posted below.
Pondering the Observer
There is no self. No one to know. No one to be aware or awaken. See and hear without adding a self that says, “this is mine or this is my experience.” The self is an illusion of separation. Your true nature is the one who sees and hears without perceiving this and that. As the self perceives separation, you create a world from its perceptions. Desire and expectation arise. Judgment and hope ensue. Pleasure and pain, happiness and sorrow are experienced. A life, your life, is played out.
Do not own your experiences. They are not you. Observe your life with eyes that see without claiming what is seen. That which says, “I am seeing” is not there. It is part of the illusion of separation.
What is it in you that observes? Is it that which gives you a past and future? Can there be a life without the observer? Seeing as claimed by the self brings judgment and hope. Eyes that witness without owning do not see a past or future. They behold each moment as it is with peace of heart.
You are experiencing existence as the me of the body; that is, as a self. You cling to the self as you experience pleasure and pain, happiness and sorrow. These experiences become yours to own as a person. Experiences help to define you as a personality. Your personality is the me that you know in form. This is the self. As the self, you own your stream of experiences. The self is having the experiences. The observer is created by these experiences. It becomes their witness. You cannot witness what is not experienced. What is experienced is illusion. Self is an illusion of your perceived experiences. So is the observer.
Like the self, the observer is not your true nature. So, who are you if not the observer? The observer, like the self, is created by your experiences. In body, you are but an experience of illusion in consciousness. But somewhere in you, something is aware that knows you are aware that you are experiencing knowing. What is it that knows? To find it, you turn inward, but most often you find more things to know instead of the knower. You can struggle to know but you are not a knower in body. There is no knower separate from consciousness.
The knower is not the me of the body, its soul, or anything you can imagine. It is outside your awareness. The knower slips away when you identify with it. It cannot be separated out of consciousness as a self or an observer. Knowing is beyond your reach in existence because it is not a thing. It is not something that happens. Your awareness of knowing is but a signpost to the incomprehensible.
No matter what you experience, whether pleasure or pain, happiness or sorrow, there is an aspect of you that is not affected. This is your true nature. Your true nature is intact. It cannot be added to or subtracted from. It is whole, complete, perfect. The experience is transitory. The emotions it leaves behind are transitory. You are eternal. Observe each experience. Feel it. But do not act as if it is you, or that you have been affected. Allow your true nature to be in the experience with you. See the experience with eyes that see. Feel it with heart that is present. But do not own it as real. That experience is not your reality. You are not fragmented into experiences of this and that, here and now. You are the unity of the whole of the all. You are consciousness in existence.
Accept what comes into your life. Release it as it passes through. Cling to nothing. Without desire and expectation, you can maintain peace of heart in all situations. Be completely present in your life. Attend to each moment. Open your mind and heart to possibility. You are not limited. Do not bind your peace to any situation. Know your true nature and be free.