From the chapter "The Observing Self" in Charlotte Joko Beck's book Everyday Zen, thoughts about oneness and self-awareness and non-clinging to separation:

I have been asked, "Isn't observing a dualistic practice? Because when we are observing, something is observing something else." But in fact it's not dualistic. The observer is empty. Instead of a separate observer, we should say there is just observing. There is no one that hears, there is just hearing. There is no one that sees, there is just seeing. But we don't quite grasp that. If we practice hard enough, however, we learn that not only is the observer empty, but that which is observed is also empty. At this point the observer (or witness) collapses. This is the final stage of practice; we don't need to worry about it. Why does the observer finally collapse? When nothing sees nothing, what do we have? Just the wonder of life. There is no one who is separated from anything. There is just life living itself: hearing, touching, seeing, smelling, thinking. That is the state of love or compassion: not "It is I," but "It is Thou."

(cf. Unselfing (2009-01-14), Stranger in a Strange Land (2009-12-11), Core Buddhism (2011-10-17), I Q's (2012-04-28), Ground of Being (2013-10-03), Witness Space (2014-07-31), 0-1 (2014-08-29), Nothing But Faith in Nothing (2014-09-07), ...) - ^z - 2014-09-24