Seeing all change, I stay as I am

समाध्यासादिविक्षिप्तौ व्यवहारः समाधये ।एवं विलोक्य नियमं एवमेवाहमास्थितः ॥ १२-३॥

samādhyāsādivikṣiptau vyavahāraḥ samādhaye ।evaṃ vilokya niyamaṃ evamevāhamāsthitaḥ ॥ 12–3॥

Seeing the transitions between abnormal states of incorrect perception and the meditative states as a (natural) rule,

I stay as I am. (12–3)

~ Ashtavakra Gita (Chapter-12, Verse-3)

What is there to watch? If one stays watchful, what is there to watch? Can the Truth be watched? What is it that you end up watching, whenever you watch?

All that is transient, temporal, false — that is what is watched.

And how is that watched?

That is watched through non-identification.

“So, all those things are happening. Yes they are happening. But they are not carrying me away. They do have the power to take me along with them, but that is not happening.”

“A great wind is blowing, it’s a storm. My body can experience that storm, so it’s not that I am imagining. The storm is indeed there, but it is not taking me away. I am not being blown away.”

“Everything about me is shaking, shivering. Look at my hair, look at my clothes. I can feel the gust on my face, but it is almost as if I am riveted to the Earth. I cannot be taken away.”

And these two things are happening at the same time, simultaneously.

“On one hand I am fully experiencing the storm. It’s severe, call it ‘a cyclone’. On one hand it is being fully experienced, I have proof that a great cyclone is raging. What is the proof? Look at how my clothes are sticking to my body. Look at the condition of my hair, my eyes are all full of dust. Nothing is clearly visible. Objects around me are all flying away here and there in a chaos.”

“So it is undeniable that there is indeed a storm here. But at the same time I stand here unshakable, unmovable.”

That is ‘watching’, that is what it means to watch.

There is sufficient reason for you to buckle down, yet something very unreasonable is happening — you are standing tall and firm.

It is against all logic.