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• Observation: The action or process of closely observing or monitoring something or someone.  Oxford Dictionary
• Observation: The act of careful watching and listening: the activity of paying close attention to someone or something in order to get information.  Merriam Webster
• Observation:  An act or instance of noticing or perceiving.  Dictionary.com
• Perception,  Awareness,  Self-awareness,  Perception,  Mindfulness,  The senses,  Listening,  Concentration,  Attention

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Observation reveals truth

• One finds the truth by making a hypothesis and comparing observations with the hypothesis. David Douglass
• Generally, there is a lot of truth value in stepping back, observing, then logically generalizing the extremes of what you see.  Criss Jami
• A few observations and much reasoning lead to error; many observations and a little reasoning to truth. Alexis Carrel
• The only way we can ever get through to the truth is by finding out what we are not. We do that by looking, by observation. Barry Long
• What is true for you is what you have observed yourself.
• Surely it is time to examine into the meaning of words and the nature of things, and to arrive at simple facts, not received upon the dictum of learned authorities, but upon attentive personal observation of what is passing around us. Francis Wright
• What is important is not what you hear said, it’s what you observe. Michael Connelly
• Learn how to see. Realize that everything connects to everything else.    Leonardo da Vinci
• Truth

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Observation brings wisdom and understanding

• To acquire knowledge, one must study; but to acquire wisdom, one must observe. Marilyn vos Savant
• Wisdom and understanding can only become the possession of individual men by travelling the old road of observation, attention, perseverance, and industry.  Samuel Taylor Coleridge
• Observing and understanding are two different things. Mary E. Pearson
• Wisdom,  Understanding

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Observation creates ideas, inspiration and insights

• But how shall I get ideas? Keep your wits open! Observe! Observe! Study! Study! But above all, Think! Think! And when a noble image is indelibly impressed upon the mind — Act! Orison Swett Marden
• Art and nature have stores inexhaustible by human intellects; and every moment produces something new to him who has quickened his faculties by diligent observation.  Samuel Johnson
• Ideas,  Inspiration,  Insight

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Observation teaches and aids discovery

• If I have ever made any valuable discoveries, it has been owing more to patient observation than to any other reason. Sir Isaac Newton
• Observation more than books and experience more than persons, are the prime educators. Amos Bronson Alcott
• The voyage of discovery is not in seeking new landscapes but in having new eyes. Marcel Proust
• You can observe a lot by watching. Yogi Berra
• Learning,  Discovery

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Observation unleashes genius

• Every man who observes vigilantly and resolves steadfastly grows unconsciously into genius.  Edward Robert Bulwer- Lytton
• Genius makes its observations in short-hand; talent writes them out at length.  Christian Nevell Bovee
• It is a product of Einstein’s genius – taking a commonplace observation, combining it with some simple imaginary experiments, and arriving at a revolutionary conclusion. Clifford M. Wills
• Genius

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Observation broadens and opens the mind

• Nothing has such power to broaden the mind as the ability to investigate systematically and truly all that comes under thy observation in life.  Marcus Aurelius
• People’s minds are changed through observation and not through argument.  Will Rogers
• Open-mindedness

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Observation compliments the power of thinking

• Thinking is more interesting than knowing, but less interesting than looking. Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
• Accuracy of observation is the equivalent of accuracy of thinking. Wallace Stevens
• Thinking

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Become a passionate observer of life

• I am a Passionate Observer of Life.  Jonathan Lockwood Huie
• The whole of life lies in the verb seeing.  Teilhard de Chardin

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Observe with all your senses

• Observe, record, tabulate, communicate. Use your five senses. . . . Learn to see, learn to hear, learn to feel, learn to smell, and know that by practice alone you can become expert.  William Osler
• Observation – activity of both eyes and ears. Horace Mann
• The senses

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Observe through the eyes of wonder

• Only those who look with the eyes of children can lose themselves in the object of their wonder. Eberhard Arnold
• The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious. It is the source of all true art and all science. He to whom this emotion is a stranger, who can no longer pause to wonder and stand rapt in awe, is as good as dead: his eyes are closed. Albert Einstein
• Wonder

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Observe in a fresh, new way, as if for the first time

• One’s destination is never a place but rather a new way of looking at things.  Henry Miller
• Talent is a long patience, and originality an effort of will and intense observation. Gustave Flaubert
• Discovery consists in seeing what everyone else has seen and thinking what no one else has thought.  Albert Szent- Gyorgyi
• Look at everything as though you were seeing it either for the first or last time. Then your time on earth will be filled with glory. Betty Smith
• Explore the familiar with new eyes

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Observe not just with your eyes but your inner senses too

• Close both eyes to see with the other eye. Rumi
• He will see most without who has the best eyes within; and he who only sees with his bodily organs sees but the surface.  Henry Ward Beecher
• I shut my eyes in order to see.  Paul Gauguin
• The heart has eyes which the brain knows nothing of. Charles H. Perkhurst

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True observation is seeing, not just looking

• All of us are watchers — of television, of time clocks, of traffic on the freeway — but few are observers. Everyone is looking, not many are seeing   Peter M. Leschak
• Seeing through is rarely seeing into.  Elizabeth Bibesco
• To look at a thing is very different from seeing it. Oscar Wilde
• The question is not what you look at, but what you see. Henry David Thoreau

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Observe with pure, conscious awareness

• . . . . integral wisdom involves a direct participation in every moment: the observer and the observed are dissolved in the light of pure awareness, and no mental concepts or attitudes are present to dim that light.  Lao Tzu
• Observe what is with undivided awareness.  Bruce Lee
• Awareness

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Observe from both close up and from afar

• Distance lends enchantment to the view. Mark Twain
• You cannot see the mountain near.  Ralph Waldo Emerson
• The task of the right eye is to peer into the telescope, while the left eye peers into the microscope. Leonora Carrington

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Observation is at the heart of spirituality

• The true purpose (of Zen) is to see things as they are, to observe things as they are, and to let everything go as it goes. Shunryu Suzuki
• Spirituality

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Observation is at the heart of Science

• This process of self-discovery is scientific and the invariable rule of science has to be applied – experiment and observe.  Barry Long
• In the fields of observation chance favors only the prepared mind. Louis Pasteur
• Reason, observation, and experience; the holy trinity of science.  Robert Green Ingersoll
• Science is simply common sense at its best – that is, rigidly accurate in observation, and merciless to fallacy in logic. Thomas Henry Huxley
• Science progresses best when observations force us to alter our preconceptions. Vera Rubin
• When Kepler found his long-cherished belief did not agree with the most precise observation, he accepted the uncomfortable fact. He preferred the hard truth to his dearest illusions; that is the heart of science. Carl Sagan
• Truth in science is always determined from observational facts.  David Douglass
• Science

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Observation is at the heart of being a writer

• If a writer stops observing he is finished. Experience is communicated by small details intimately observed.  Ernest Hemingway
• The good writer, the great writer, has what I have called the three S’s: the power to see, to sense, and to say. That is, he is perceptive, he is feeling, and he has the power to express in language what he observes and reacts to.  Lawrence Clark Powell
• A writer needs three things, experience, observation, and imagination, any two of which, at times any one of which, can supply the lack of the others. William Faulkner
• Writing

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Observation is at the heart of photography

• To me, photography is an art of observation. It’s about finding something interesting in an ordinary place… I’ve found it has little to do with the things you see and everything to do with the way you see them.  Elliott Erwitt
• My life is shaped by the urgent need to wander and observe, and my camera is my passport. Steve McCurry
• Always seeing something, never seeing nothing, being photographer.   Walter De Mulder
• It is my intention to present – through the medium of photography – intuitive observations of the natural world which may have meaning to the spectators. Ansel Adams
• Photography

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Observation is at the heart of art

• Nothing exists until or unless it is observed. An artist is making something exist by observing it. And his hope for other people is that they will also make it exist by observing it. I call it ‘creative observation.’ Creative viewing. William S. Burroughs
• The Artist is he who detects and applies the law from observation of the works of Genius, whether of man or Nature. The Artisan is he who merely applies the rules which others have detected.  Henry David Thoreau
• What is art but a way of seeing? Saul Bellow
• Art

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To observation, add reflection and experimentation

• There are three principal means of acquiring knowledge. . . observation of nature, reflection, and experimentation. Observation collects facts; reflection combines them; experimentation verifies the result of that combination.  Denis Diderot
• This process of self-discovery is scientific and the invariable rule of science has to be applied – experiment and observe.  Barry Long
• Observation is a passive science, experimentation an active science. Claude Bernard
• Our observation of nature must be diligent, our reflection profound, and our experiments exact. We rarely see these three means combined; and for this reason, creative geniuses are not common. Denis Diderot
• The ultimate court of appeal is observation and experiment… not authority. Thomas Henry Huxley
• Reflection,  Experimentation

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To observation, add experience

• Even after the observation of the frequent conjunction of objects, we have no reason to draw any inference concerning any object beyond those of which we have had experience.  David Hume
• Experience is a poor guide to man, and is seldom followed. What really teaches a man is not experience, but observation. H. L. Mencken
• You have to experience life, make observations, and ask questions. Mos Def
• Experience

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To observation, add reasoning and theory

• I believe in evidence. I believe in observation, measurement, and reasoning, confirmed by independent observers. I’ll believe anything, no matter how wild and ridiculous, if there is evidence for it. The wilder and more ridiculous something is, however, the firmer and more solid the evidence will have to be.  Isaac Asimov
• It is also a good rule not to put overmuch confidence in the observational results that are put forward until they are confirmed by theory. Arthur Eddington
• Reason, observation, and experience; the holy trinity of science.  Robert Green Ingersoll
• The theory that can absorb the greatest number of facts, and persist in doing so, generation after generation, through all changes of opinion and detail, is the one that must rule all observation. Adam Smith
• You make observations, write theories to fit them, try experiments to disprove the theories and, if you can’t, you’ve got something. Kary Mullis
• Reason,  Logic

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Acutely observe life and human nature to learn and broaden your mind

• Judgment can be acquired only by acute observation, by actual experience in the school of life, by ceaseless alertness to learn from others, by study of the activities of men who have made notable marks, by striving to analyze the everyday play of causes and effects, by constant study of human nature. B.C. Forbes
• Nothing has such power to broaden the mind as the ability to investigate systematically and truly all that comes under thy observation in life.  Marcus Aurelius
• If you make listening and observation your occupation you will gain much more than you can by talk. Sir Robert Baden- Powell

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Observe the world around you

• Look around you…Feel the wind, smell the air. Listen to the birds and watch the sky. Tell me what’s happening in the wide world.  Nancy Farmer
• Stop a moment, cease your work, and look around you.  Thomas Carlyle

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Observe examples of excellence and mastery

• Whatever your discipline, become a student of excellence in all things. Take every opportunity to observe people who manifest the qualities of mastery. These models of excellence will inspire you and guide you toward the fulfillment of your highest potential.  Michael Gelb and Tony Buzan
• I get quiet joy from the observation of anyone who does his job well. William Feather
• Excellence,  Mastery

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Observe beauty

• Blessed are they who see beautiful things in humble places where other people see nothing. Camille Pissarro
• There are always flowers for those who want to see them. Henri Matisse
• Everything has beauty, but not everyone sees it. Confucius
• If eyes were made for seeing, then beauty is its own excuse for being.  Ralph Waldo Emerson
• Many people have never learned to see the beauty of flowers, especially those that grow unnoticed. For instance, when you walk outside and look down at your feet, you may see tiny flowers nestled in the moss and clover hiding under a curled fern. Most people just step on them. I paint them. Erika Just
• Never lose an opportunity of seeing anything that is beautiful; for beauty is God’s handwriting – a wayside sacrament. Welcome it in every fair face, in every fair sky, in every fair flower, and thank God for it as a cup of blessing. Ralph Waldo Emerson
• Beauty

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Observe the laws of nature and life

• Carefully observe the natural laws in operation in the world around you, and live by them. From following them, you will learn the morality of modesty, moderation, compassion, and consideration (not just one society’s rules and regulations), the wisdom of seeing things as they are (not of merely collecting “facts” about them), and the happiness of being in harmony with the Way (which has nothing to do with self- righteous “spiritual” obsessions and fanaticism).  And you will live lightly, spontaneously, and effortlessly.  Benjamin Hoff
• God is a mystery. But a comprehensible mystery. I have nothing but awe when I observe the laws of nature. There are not laws without a lawgiver, but how does this lawgiver look? Certainly not like a man magnified.  Albert Einstein
• Remember that the body is the temple of the soul.  Those who mistreat the body tend to mistreat the soul within. Observe vital health laws, such as exercise, healthy diet, and self- control.  Susan Santucci
• The laws must be observed over a period of time—and with complete self-honesty and a sensitive understanding of the principles. To try them out for a while and then give up on them would be like stopping an exercise program after three days because it hasn’t given you bulging muscles yet. For these principles to produce the personal success you hope for, they must be followed with about the same intensity and perseverance needed to become a good piano player or a very competent golfer, and that’s not easy. Geshe Michael Roach
• Despite the amount of suffering, pain, misery, sorrow and travail which can exist in life, the reason for existence is the same reason as one has to play a game—interest, contest, activity and possession. The truth of this assertion is established by an observation of the elements of games and then applying these elements to life itself. L. Ron Hubbard
• Nature

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Observe nature itself

• Direct observation of the luminous essence of nature is for me indispensable. Robert Delaunay
• The observation of nature is part of an artist’s life, it enlarges his form and knowledge, keeps him fresh and from working only by formula, and feeds inspiration.  Henry Moore
• The more we come in contact with animals and observe their behaviour, the more we love them, for we see how great is their care of the young. Immanuel Kant

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Observe on your travels

• A traveler without observation is a bird without wings.   Moslih Eddin Saadi
• Traveling is seeing; it is the implicit that we travel by. Cynthia Ozick
• Travel

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Observe the happiness that surrounds you

• Waste not time searching for happiness. Freeze frame time, still the moment, and observe the happiness that already surrounds you. Mary Rain
• Happiness

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Observe the suffering of others to nurture your compassion

• The essence of love and compassion is understanding, the ability to recognize the physical, material, and psychological suffering of others, to put ourselves “inside the skin” of the other.  We “go inside” their body, feelings, and mental formations, and witness for ourselves their suffering.  Shallow observation as an outsider is not enough to see their suffering.  We must become one with the subject of our observation.  When we are in contact with another’s suffering, a feeling of compassion is born in us.  Compassion means, literally, “to suffer with.”  Thich Nhat Hanh
• Suffering,  Compassion

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Observe the little things

• Never trust to general impressions, my boy, but concentrate yourself upon details. Arthur Conan Doyle
• To a great mind, nothing is little. Arthur Conan Doyle
• Life is in the little things

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Observe before choosing to adopt any belief

• Do not believe in anything simply because you have heard it. Do not believe in anything simply because it is spoken and rumored by many. Do not believe in anything simply because it is found written in your religious books. Do not believe in anything merely on the authority of your teachers and elders. Do not believe in traditions because they have been handed down for many generations. But after observation and analysis, when you find that anything agrees with reason and is conducive to the good and benefit of one and all, then accept it and live up to it. Buddha
• Belief

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Observe all men but yourself most of all

• Observe all men; thy self most.  Benjamin Franklin
• Association with human beings lures one into self-observation. Franz Kafka
• You are either ready to discover yourself or you are not. Ready means you have been knowingly or unknowingly practicing self-observation. Barry Long

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Self-observation without judgement is the highest form of intelligence

• The highest form of human intelligence is to observe yourself without judgement.  Jiddu Krishnamurti
• Mindfulness

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Observe yourself without condemning, comparing or wishing to be different

• If you can look at yourself without condemning what you see, without comparing yourself with somebody else, without wishing to be more beautiful or more virtuous; or you can just observe what you are and move with it, then you will find that it is possible to go infinitely far. Then there is no end to the journey, and that is the mystery, the beauty of it. Jiddu Krishnamurti
• Let go of the need to compare

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Self-observation makes you much more consciously aware

• Encourage yourself by remembering that any detection of negativity within you is a positive act, not a negative one. Awareness of your weakness and confusion makes you strong because conscious awareness is the bright light that destroys the darkness of negativity. Honest self- observation dissolves pains and pressures that formerly did their dreadful work in the darkness of unawareness. Vernon Howard
• Awareness

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Self-observation is the beginning of self-transformation

• Self-observation brings man to the realization of the necessity of self-change. And in observing himself a man notices that self- observation itself brings about certain changes in his inner processes. He begins to understand that self- observation is an instrument of self-change, a means of awakening.  George Gurdjieff
• Self-Observation is itself the beginning of transformation.  Dennis Lewis
• Until we know ourselves and are aware of ourselves as separate from others and from the environment—until we can be separated even from ourselves so that we can observe our own tendencies, thoughts, and desires—we have no foundation from which to know and respect other people, let alone create change within ourselves. Stephen Covey
• Observe always that everything is the result of change, and get used to thinking that there is nothing Nature loves so well as to change existing forms and make new ones like them.  Marcus Aurelius
• Anything which is not directly observed tends to persist.
• Transformation

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Self-observation makes us more able to observe others

• The observation of others is coloured by our inability to observe ourselves impartially. We can never be impartial about anything until we can be impartial about our own organism. A. R. Orage

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Learn to observe yourself and your life without becoming too attached or identified

• How can you develop equanimity? Here, as always, are my suggestions.  Learn to meditate, even just a little. Learn to detach yourself and be an observer.  Take deep breaths.  Be Teflon. Let things roll off you. Seek understanding.   Leo Babauta
• When you become identified you cannot observe. P D Ouspensky
• Observe what is with undivided awareness.  Bruce Lee
• Non-attachment

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Detached observation is watching yourself and your life as if it’s happening to someone else

• I’m talking about self-observation. It means to watch everything in you and around you as far as possible and watch it as if it were happening to someone else. Anthony de Mello

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In this way, you can observe your life without getting trapped in the drama

• I watch myself unfold. I become the observer of my life instead of being trapped in the midst of the drama. Susan Jeffers
• I wonder what Susan is going to do now? I set myself apart from the drama. I become the observer instead of the decision maker. Susan Jeffers
• When we become the observer, we take ourselves one step away from the drama. Becoming observer allows me to let go of expectations and to create a sense of wonder instead of fear about the future. Susan Jeffers
• Life is God’s movie

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Detached self-observation is at the heart of meditation and mindfulness

• Mindfulness: a simple and direct practice of moment-to-moment observation of the mind-body process through calm and focused awareness without judgment.  Jon Kabat-Zinn PhD
• In mindfulness meditation we observe more than just any pain that may happen to be present. We become aware of the whole physical body, emotions, and thoughts, and of how each of these interacts with the others. One thing we can then begin to see is that although pain is present in our experience it isn’t the whole of our experience. Mindfulness gives us a sense of the physical and mental “landscape” within which our pain is experienced, and which helps to give a sense of perspective to our experience of it.  Bodhipaksa
• Mindfulness meditation is sometimes referred to as “living in the now.” This is because you don’t seek to focus your attention on any one single thought, object or sound. Instead, you allow your mind to wander, and you welcome all experiences. However, here is the key: When you practice mindfulness meditation, you’re a detached observer. You don’t react to what you’re witnessing. Rachel Rofe
• Meditation means many things: it means turning inwards; it means quiet observation, reflection and awareness of ourselves; it means to be conscious of consciousness, to become a detached observer of the stream of changing thoughts, feelings, drives and visions, until we recognize their nature and their origins.  Lama Govinda
• These two forms of equanimity, the one that comes from the power of observation, and the one that comes from inner balance, come together in mindfulness practice. As mindfulness becomes stronger, so does our equanimity. We see with greater independence and freedom. And, at the same time, equanimity becomes an inner strength that keeps us balanced in middle of all that is.  Gil Fronsdal
• In meditation, you are not supposed to “concentrate”on the things that arise in the mind. Rather, you are supposed to “bear witness” to the things that arise in the mind. Now bearing witness means what? It means to stand aside and observe, become aware, and examine: “Yes this is there. That is there. This is happening. That is going on.” This is very important because it lays the foundation for the actual inner spiritual work that the meditation will provoke. Meditation is the foundation for deeper spiritual evolution.  Swami Sai Premananda
• Generosity is another quality which, like patience, letting go, non-judging, and trust, provides a solid foundation for mindfulness practice. You might experiment with using the cultivation of generosity as a vehicle for deep self-observation and inquiry as well as an exercise in giving. A good place to start is with yourself. See if you can give yourself gifts that may be true blessings, such as self-acceptance, or some time each day with no purpose. Practice feeling deserving enough to accept these gifts without obligation-to simply receive from yourself, and from the universe. Jon Kabat-Zinn
• Mindfulness,  Meditation

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Observe your mind and thoughts in a detached way

• All cravings are the mind seeking salvation or fulfillment in external things and in the future as a substitute for being. As long as I am my mind, I am those cravings, those needs, wants, attachments, and aversions…  Don’t seek to become free of desire or “achieve” enlightenment.  Become present.  Be there as the observer of the mind.  Eckhart Tolle
• Be the witness of your thoughts. You are what observes, not what you observe. Buddha
• Be present as the watcher of your mind — of your thoughts and emotions as well as your reactions in various situations. Be at least as interested in your reactions as in the situation or person that causes you to react. Notice also how often your attention is in the past or future. Don’t judge or analyze what you observe. Watch the thought, feel the emotion, observe the reaction. Don’t make a personal problem out of them. You will then feel something more powerful than any of those things that you observe: the still, observing presence itself behind the content of your mind, the silent watcher.  Eckhart Tolle
• Don’t follow past thoughts, don’t anticipate the future, and don’t follow illusory thoughts that arise in the present, but turning within, observe your own true nature and maintain awareness of your natural mind, just as it is.  Garab Dorje
• Identification with the mind gives it more energy; observation of the mind withdraws energy from it. Eckhart Tolle
• Observe the mind. Smile at it. Eckhart Tolle
• The greater part of human pain is unnecessary. It is self-created as long as the unobserved mind runs your life. Eckhart Tolle
• We may not be able to control the thoughts our mind throws at us, but we can choose to remain conscious and observe these thoughts rather than instantly reacting to them.  Tina Su
• Sit in reverie and watch the changing color of the waves that break upon the idle seashore of the mind.  Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
• Non-attachment

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Observe your breath through meditation

• Meditation is universal. You sit and observe your breath. You can’t say this is Hindu breath or Christian breath or Muslim breath.  Charles Johnson
• Meditation

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Observe your body

• Take three deep breaths and smile everywhere in your body. Observe what’s happening in your body. Proceed now with kindness and understanding.  Deepak Chopra

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Observe your reactions to things

• The first thing you have to know is yourself. A man who knows himself can step outside himself and watch his own reactions like an observer.  Adam Smith

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Observe fearful thoughts without trying to ignore, fight or control them

• In contrast to traditional techniques of challenging your anxious thoughts, this strategy is based on observing and then letting them go.   1.  Acknowledge and observe your anxious thoughts and feelings. Don’t try to ignore, fight, or control them like you usually would. Instead, simply observe them as if from an outsider’s perspective, without reacting or judging.  2.  Let your worries go. Notice that when you don’t try to control the anxious thoughts that pop up, they soon pass, like clouds moving across the sky. It’s only when you engage your worries that you get stuck.  3.  Stay focused on the present. Pay attention to the way your body feels, the rhythm of your breathing, your ever-changing emotions, and the thoughts that drift across your mind. If you find yourself getting stuck on a particular thought, bring your attention back to the present moment.  Jeanne Segal

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Observe your fear

• Get curious about what thoughts generate your fear, where do you feel the fear, and how do you react to it? Again, be an observer of what is going on.  Henri Junttila
• Get specific about what exactly you’re afraid of. Look at the pictures you have in your head about the situation. What is happening in them? What are you really scared of? Become an observer of your inner space.  Henri Junttila
• Watch the fear as an energy inside you. Welcome it. Be friends with it. Really feel and observe it. Give it space. The more you allow it, the more it will release and become transmuted. Eckhart Tolle
• Fear

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Observe your emotions and use them as a guide

• Feelings are your guide. Trust your feelings and learn to express them, and do not blame anyone for how you feel. Be yourself, observe yourself. Look to understand any crisis you have been in or will be in.  Barbara Marciniak
• Watch your emotional responses with detachment (i.e. sense their physiological effect on your body and breathing.) Observe them. Feel them but calmly, not tensed up. The emotion will move through you and soften up. Unblock emotions in this way. Bob Parsons
• When you observe and describe your internal state, that is one step in managing your emotions. For some, this means taking time to identify the specific emotions they’re feeling: jealousy, hurt, anger, or fear?  Karyn Hall, PHD
• Emotion

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Observe what you heart is saying and follow it

• Everyone should carefully observe which way his heart draws him, and then choose that way with all his strength.  Hasidic saying
• If you observe well your own heart will answer. Rene A. Schwaller de Lubicz
• The heart has eyes which the brain knows nothing of. Charles H. Perkhurst
• The heart

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Observe your pain

• Focus attention on the feeling inside you. Know that it is the pain-body. Accept that it is there. Don’t think about it –   don’t let the feeling turn into thinking. Don’t judge or analyze. Don’t make an identity for yourself out of it. Stay present, and continue to be the observer of what is happening inside you. Become aware not only of the emotional pain but also of “the one who observes,” the silent watcher. This is the power of the Now, the power of your own conscious presence. Then see what happens. Eckhart Tolle
• The pain-body doesn’t want you to observe it directly and see it for what it is. The moment you observe it, feel its energy field within you, and take your attention into it, the identification is broken. A higher dimension of consciousness has come in.  I call it presence. You are now the witness or the watcher of the pain-body. This means that it cannot use you anymore by pretending to be you, and it can no longer replenish itself though you. You have found your own innermost strength. You have accessed the power of Now.  Eckhart Tolle
• Pain

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Observe your life through your Higher Self

• Decide now to place your conscious mind on guard at the door of your subconscious mind. Decide now to allow only empowering, positive, nurturing messages to pass through that door. Decide now to hand over the direction of your conscious mind to your Higher Self and in so doing become the silent observer of your life. Tania Kotsos

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Observe your life experiences without need to label them as good or bad

• Acceptance is observation of life and suspension of judgment about whether what is happening is good or bad, right or wrong. R Smotherman
• This quality of awareness involves cultivating impartial observation in regard to any experience—not labeling thoughts, feelings, or sensations as good or bad, right or wrong, fair or unfair, but simply taking note of thoughts, feelings, or sensations in each moment.  Bob Stahl

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Our observations are influenced greatly by what we want to see and what we look for

• Humans see what they want to see.  Rick Riordan
• One man’s observation is another man’s closed book or flight of fancy. Willard Van Orman Quine
• People only see what they are prepared to see.  Ralph Waldo Emerson
• The eye sees only what the mind is prepared to comprehend. Henri Bergson
• What we see depends mainly on what we look for. John Lubbock
• Perception

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Our observations are influenced greatly by our beliefs and perceptions

• All perceiving is also thinking, all reasoning is also intuition, all observation is also invention. Rudolf Arnheim
• An observation, strictly, is only a sensation. Nobody means that we should reject everything but sensations. But as soon as we go beyond sensations we are making inferences.  H. Jeffreys
• The assumption that seeing is believing makes us susceptible to visual deceptions.  Kathleen Hall Jamieson
• The eyes are not responsible when the mind does the seeing. Publilius Syrus
• You are one of the rare people who can separate your observation from your perception…you see what is, where most people see what they expect. Tsitsi Dangarembga
• You must understand that seeing is believing, but also know that believing is seeing. Denis Waitley
• What you see and hear depends a good deal on where you are standing; it also depends on what sort of person you are.  C. S. Lewis
• We don’t see things as they are. We see them as we are.  Anaïs Nin
• Belief,  Perception

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Sometimes the most obvious things are the hardest to observe

• The obscure we see eventually. The completely obvious, it seems, takes longer. Edward R. Murrow
• The hardest thing to explain is the glaringly evident which everybody had decided not to see.  Ayn Rand

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Share your observations in plain language

• The greatest thing a human soul ever does in this world is to see something and tell what it saw in a plain way. John Ruskin
• There is no more difficult art to acquire than the art of observation, and for some men it is quite as difficult to record an observation in brief and plain language. William Osler

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• There are three kinds of men. The ones that learn by reading. The few who learn by observation. The rest of them have to pee on the electric fence for themselves.  Will Rogers
• Rational, adj. Devoid of all delusions save those of observation, experience and reflection. Ambrose Bierce
• Canadians are generally indistinguishable from Americans and the surest way of telling the two apart is to make that observation to a Canadian.   Richard Staines
• I never gossip. I observe. And then relay my observations to practically everyone. Gail Carriger

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