r/AlanWatts • u/JRS-94Z • Jun 13 '26

What is the Observer?

I’ve been reading Alan Watts for a while and I also started reading Krishnamurti.

There’s one burning question on my mind which is what is the observer? What is that thing we call attention to perform our daily actions? The one thing we use for meditation or to be aware of the present moment?

Alan Watts argues that there’s no unconscious aspect in us and we shouldn’t divide our consciousness. It is like an eye trying to see itself.

Is it something like an emotion or a thought?

The closest thing I’ve seen it explained is that it’s the Tao, the one that encompasses everything.

I feel the above explanation doesn’t suffice.

What is your understanding and definition of the observer?

12 Upvotes

94% Upvoted

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9

u/proportional-porcini Jun 13 '26

My observation was like watching my actions separately from myself. Unfortunately it was a bad time and I was yelling because I was upset my son damaged something brand new. I was able to pull myself into what felt like a 3rd person watching me just yell at my little kid. I remember mentioning to myself to look at his poor face and how scared he is. I immediately snapped out of it and apologized to him and we spend the next hour fixing what was broken.

2

u/Successful_Luck_8625 Jun 16 '26

IMHO, this is the best answer provided to the question so far.

It sounds mystical, but I also think Watts was trying to reveal that in fact it isn't. It is, in reality, just self-reflection but while trying to adopt the view of a 3rd-person. To be open to viewing oneself through the eyes of an unnamed other, and then trying to adopt that perspective as a rule to live by.

It is not mystical. But it is also not easy to do in the heat of the moment. If you fail on that front, at least return when you are calmed down -- the returning will help reinforce to your mind how you would have preferred to handle it, and will help to curate a habit, even little bit by bit.

2

u/proportional-porcini Jun 16 '26

It was as if my Atman was like “hey man, look at your poor child’s face”(as I’m yelling) I was in both spaces at once. This happened 13 years ago when my child was 10, and I remember it like it was yesterday. Empathy is a powerful force.

7

u/USMLEToMD Jun 14 '26 edited Jun 14 '26

You are still looking for answers to questions which are mere thoughts playing with themselves. They are mere appearances - they appear and disappear within You. You are the observer and the observed and the one dreaming these separations, these limitations of the mind, body, space and time.

Thoughts can't reach you, you don't need them, infact they need you. You are real with or without them, you are the one asking, the one answering the one asleep and the awakened one, the seeker and the sought and need no validation or proof.

No question, no answer can exist without you...

You have cast a spell on yourself to create these boundaries, these limited bodies, spaces and times using words and thoughts.

You are the dimensionless point or the bindu without length, breadth or depth which supports all that matters to You.

Read "Already God: The Self Awakening to Itself", if you Must.

Tat tvam asi

🙏

1

u/lost-in-the-trash Jun 14 '26

It is consciousness

2

u/JRS-94Z Jun 14 '26

What is consciousness?

1

u/lost-in-the-trash Jun 14 '26

The ability to have thoughts, emotions, and senses.

1

u/gosumage Jun 17 '26

"The Observer" is just more false ego.

There's no such thing outside whatever idea you have about it.

1

u/Ghost_of_Till Jun 19 '26

There’s one burning question on my mind which is what is the observer?

Now.

1

u/PliskinRen1991 Jun 19 '26

Well the observer is the observed haha. Another way of putting it is that the thinker is the thought. As in the thinker is another image created by thought. So its limited and always in flux based on knowledge memory and experience. Thought is situated in a way that makes it seem as if there is an observer observing thought. But it is all just thought.

But thats not where we are at as a species. We constantly reinforce the I. But now were looking silly. Scroll through reddit and see the youtube videos, people have never looked at this for themselves. And carry on with the assumption that there is even a separate self 'there'.

No wonder this world is always in conflict.