Be aware who is sensing

This meditation method, deeply rooted in Tantric teachings, guides practitioners to shift their awareness from the objects of their senses to the very source of sensing itself – the inner “knower” or consciousness. It reveals that the sensory experience, rather than being merely outward-directed, can become a profound pathway inward, ultimately leading to self-knowledge and liberation from identification with the body and mind.

What the Method Is

The core instruction or sutra for this method is: “When vividly aware through some particular sense, keep in the awareness.”. This entails shifting focus from the sensory experience itself (the object perceived) to the deeper consciousness that is doing the perceiving.

How It Is Done

To practice “Be aware who is sensing”, the guidance involves a fundamental reorientation of attention:

  • Understand the “Through” vs. “By”: The foundational step is to grasp that you do not see by your eyes, but through your eyes. Similarly, you hear through your ears and touch through your hands. The actual seer, hearer, or toucher is a hidden entity behind these sensory organs.
  • Practice with Any Sense: This method can be applied to any sensory experience:
    • Seeing: When looking at an object or person, consciously shift your focus. Instead of being lost in what you see, become aware of yourself looking. Imagine you are standing behind your eyes, using them as windows or spectacles to view the world. This shift makes the eyes merely instruments, and your look becomes more penetrating.
    • Hearing: While listening to music or any sound, do not become solely absorbed in the sound itself. Instead, actively remember and remain alert to the awareness that is hidden behind the act of hearing.
    • Touching: When you touch something or someone, for example, clasping a hand, don’t just feel the other person’s hand. Simultaneously, feel your own touch and your own presence in the act of touching. Let your entire being, your “soul,” infuse your hand, giving the touch a distinct, living quality. You can extend this to feeling your own body – its coldness, warmth, or the sensation of water during a shower – with heightened awareness.
  • Remain in Awareness: The essence is to consistently “keep in the awareness” while experiencing vividly through any sense.
  • Focus on the “Knower”: As you practice, strive to recognise the “knower” within you. This is the inner center where all diverse sensory reports (from eyes, ears, nose, hands) converge and unify, revealing that the “same man” is experiencing all these different sensations. This “knower” is your pure awareness, which has often been forgotten.
  • Gradual Approach: Initially, this practice might feel like a strain, as you are moving against ingrained habits. Begin by applying it to your beloved or close relations, where there is less fear, and gradually extend it to broader experiences. The goal is to develop this art of standing alert behind your senses.
Commentaries and Insights

Osho’s commentaries provide deep philosophical context and practical insights for this method:

  • Senses as a Bridge to the Center: Senses are located on the periphery of your being, acting as a boundary between your consciousness (at the center) and the external objects. They are a “bridge” or “doors” that can lead consciousness outwards to the world or inwards to your true self. The distance to your inner center from the senses is conceptually the same as the distance to outer objects.
  • The Root of Suffering: Self-Forgetfulness: Humanity lives primarily in the senses and through objects, leading to a profound forgetfulness of one’s own being. This “absent existence” is the core of all suffering, making life feel like a boredom or a hell. The aim of this method is to fill you with your own presence, making your existence religious.
  • The “Knower” and Undivided Being: By shifting focus to the “knower” behind the senses, you recognise that all your fragmented sensory experiences are unified within one conscious entity – you. This awareness helps you transcend the mind, which can reflect everything else but not you. When you are aware of yourself, you have transcended the mind.
  • Connection to Gurdjieff’s “Self-Remembering”: This method is closely related to Gurdjieff’s “self-remembering,” which he used as a fundamental technique. It involves feeling “I am” without verbalising or thinking the words. This non-verbal, non-mental feeling, even if momentary, can offer a profound glimpse of your real, existential self, transporting you “behind the mirror” of reflections.
  • Transformation of Actions into Meditation: This technique demonstrates that any act – singing, seeing, tasting, or even simple daily activities – can be transformed into meditation by bringing a quality of awareness to it. The essence lies not in the act itself, but in the quality of consciousness infused into it.
  • Breaking Identification with the Body: Tantra asserts that at present, you are your body, and your notions of a separate soul are often just ideas. This method starts from this fact. By observing your body from within, you begin to realise that you are the observer, distinct from the body itself. This creates a separation, leading to the understanding that you are not the body.
  • The Illusory Nature of the World: As you become more adept at looking through the senses and maintaining this inner alertness, the external world may gradually appear more illusory or dream-like. This then allows you to penetrate to the true “substance” or Brahman that underlies all appearances.
  • Spiritual Health and Alertness: The practice fosters a state of heightened alertness. Osho equates the mind to a spiritual disease and meditation to its medicine. Intense awareness reduces mental “dreaming” and brings you closer to reality, transforming a non-alert state into an alert one.
  • Simplicity and Ego: Osho often highlights that these Tantric methods appear deceptively simple. The ego, which thrives on challenge and difficulty, tends to dismiss such simplicity. However, spiritual “explosion” or transformation is not a causal phenomenon that requires complex, arduous effort; rather, it is a remembering of an already-present state. The techniques are merely tools to make you alert enough to recognise this inherent state.
  • No Need for External Authority: The effectiveness of this method is validated by your own inner experience, not by external scriptures or traditions. Your “own feeling is not an authority at all” for the mind, which often seeks external validation. However, this method guides you to rely on direct, internal experience as the ultimate authority.
  • Centering as the Path to Samadhi: While the ultimate goal (cosmic consciousness or samadhi) is not “centering,” the act of centering oneself through such techniques is the path or method to reach that goal. Centering gathers scattered energy, leading to an “explosion” where the individual center dissolves into the cosmos, resulting in an “oceanic feeling” of oneness.
  • Acceptance as the Framework: Tantra’s fundamental approach is “total acceptance.” This means working with existing energies and experiences, rather than fighting or suppressing them. By accepting the senses and their activities as they are, and then introducing awareness, transformation naturally unfolds without unnecessary tension or conflict.