Absorbed
When we awaken to ourselves as the witness - the absolute, the experiencer/function of experiencing, formless ground, space & awareness - it can be in the foreground or the background, or the context of our experiences.
We can focus on it, absorb into it and rest in/as it. We can focus on the content of awareness and allow it to be in the background. Or we can allow it to be the context for our daily experiences as they arise and unfold. The first may be good as an intermittent practice for clarifying it and becoming more familiar with it. The latter is more integrated and functional in daily life.
During my initial deeksha in the Bay area three weeks ago, I went into a quite deep samadhi, and the witness was very strong and present afterwards. I experienced myself as firmly planted in the witness, and it has been that way since then.
The day after, I traveled back to Oregon and took the opportunity to explore and rest in/as the witness on the flight back. I functioned with ease - ate, read some, experienced myself from body through the absolute, drank water, went off the plane, found my luggage, bought a ticket for the Max (lightrail), went downtown and got off the lightrail at the right station, and walked towards the Amtrak station. There was a sense of great ease and beauty.
Walking to the Amtrak station, I ended up talking with a woman who was also headed there. It was very easy to talk about what was present, but I had to muster all my focus to find even the most basic information about myself - such as name, the name of where I lived, etc.
Going more exclusively into the witness I was effortlessly present, while all the information relating to this small self was quite far in the background. Afterwards, it seems more effortlessly integrated.
The absolute is the context for what arises in the present, including this small self - the body, emotions, thoughts, behaviors - and it is easy to access information and engage with the small self in the world.
And this is a continuous process - of clarifying and becoming more familiar with the absolute in itself and as a context for what arises, and how to live from it.