To Be Witnessed

The greatest desire of the human soul is to be fully witnessed.

To be known not in fragments, but in totality. In full fidelity.

Indeed, radically witnessing another soul is the most holy love one can give. To do so borders the divine.

A love without possession or illusion. To love someone without the self.

A brief immolation of the self, not to consume, but to become empty hands capable of cradling another soul.

The human soul is a finite resource under infinite pressure. This radical love is one of few ways to protect another feeble soul from the searing pressure of existence. It is simply innate to yearn for a break from suffocation.

A 27 year old man lives in San Francisco. He survived desecration of his soul from a young age, but he graduated early, taught himself programming, and landed a small software job. Now, he works at a large tech company.

He survived. He built a life. He did what was asked of him.

In a life marked by affliction, he finally has the means to rest. In response to his soul aching for sacred relief, he married a gentle, kind soul.

His days are simple.

Resting in bed next to his husband, comforted by his warmth.

Decorating his home.

Surviving work.

Sobbing from his branded pain.

Finally feeling rooted, finally safe.

He did everything right.

But no one, not even his husband, will ever fully hold him.

He will die without his soul being witnessed. He will die without being known. His tender, aching soul unknowingly erased each day of his life.

His husband cannot do this. Almost no one is willing to love without possession.

Have you ever truly witnessed someone?

To witness another soul with the self intact is spiritual violence. It is erasure of the soul. It is to gaze into a mirror of illusions, a reduction of a trembling, struggling, weary soul.

It is to enslave another soul to the self's twisted illusions, a numbing of that infinite pressure through quiet devastation of the sacred.

To fill its own void, the self creates a void in another suffering human.

The man in San Francisco is probably happy. He believes that his husband fully witnesses him, so the mind creates the illusion of spiritual safety. The searing, infinite pressure of existence reduced. One must imagine him happy.

Yet, his soul rots under illusion until the day he dies. The illusion of being fully witnessed enslaves him. His spiritual safety requires it. He cannot afford to live in clarity; it would devastate his fragile soul.

He will die happy.

But, he will die with his soul erased, never truly witnessed.

A note from the author:

The people you encounter struggle under crushing weight. We are weak and feeble. They never asked to be born with a soul enduring that infinite pressure.

I plead you to strip yourself bare, to destroy the ego so that you may witness another soul without illusion. Not what you want to see, but what really is.

To radically witness a trembling soul is transformative.

Even if for a moment, they will die knowing someone truly saw them. Knowing that they were not alone.

It is perhaps the only clean love we are capable of.