Witnessing

"One of the most important Dharma Teachings concerns the dire necessity to cultivate witnessing, becoming conscious of the thoughts and patterns in your head. If you cannot become conscious of your programs and the underlying roots, it means that you may have to live many of your unconscious and self-destructive behavior tendencies.

Those behavior programs can lead you into deeper suffering if you identify with them, if you are incapable of watching them. It is imperative to cultivate watching the mind.

There is the beautiful story of Mara, the god of desire, tempting Shakyamuni Buddha to keep him from Final Enlightenment. The story goes that Shakyamuni serenely went beyond all his temptations and entered into the Great Flowering of Consciousness.

Mara is not some deity outside. Mara is the thoughts in your head that take you astray. Mara is the thoughts in your head pretending to represent your interest, while in fact working against your deepest interest."