ABSTRACT
A witness does more than watch an event or occurrence. To witness is to attest to some aspect of what one has seen. ‘Witness’ has Biblical and juridical roots. As a practice witnessing has received fullest elaboration in the contemplative stream within Hinduism and Buddhism, specifically in the instructions given to meditators on how to watch the mind. Witnessing provides insight into the nature of one’s investment in a given position and relatedly to one’s resistance to countenance reconsideration. The practice challenges the hitherto self-evident character of our beliefs. As the white heat of certainty cools, all that it currently bleaches or eviscerates can come into view. Witnessing remakes the relationship of observing self, subject of perception and process of knowing into a fluid triad, one that is continually evolving. The idea of knowledge as capture gives way to knowing as a form of communing.
