The Way of Effortless Mindfulness: A Revolutionary Guide for Living an Awakened Life

by Loch Kelly, Neil Hellegers (Narrator)

"Effortless mindfulness" is a new way to immediately enter an optimal flow state available to us in the midst of our busy lives. In The Way of Effortless Mindfulness, Loch Kelly teaches that when you "unhook" awareness from chattering thoughts, you can access a peaceful mind and a naturally embodied wakefulness. From this heartful space, students report they find that right action comes easily and a loving tenderness for all of life is freely available.

This follow-up to Kelly's award-winning Shift into Freedom outlines practical and supportive material from neuroscience, psychology, and the wisdom of various spiritual traditions. Here you will find a reader-friendly guide to understanding exactly what effortless mindfulness is, practices for engaging with it, and how to avoid the pitfalls to the full embodiment of this timeless awareness. The Way of Effortless Mindfulness offers a compelling introduction to the next stage in the ongoing mindfulness revolution.

Genres: Meditation, Spirituality, Nonfiction, Buddhism, Audiobook, Psychology, Self Help

6 pages, Audible Audio

Published June 4, 2019

About the author

Loch Kelly, M.Div., LCSW is author of the best-seller, The Way of Effortless Mindfulness. He is an educator, contemplative psychotherapist and recognized leader in the field of consciousness and awakening. Loch is the founder of the non-profit Open-Hearted Awareness Institute. He is a graduate of Columbia University and Union Theological Seminary, where he received a fellowship to study Insight Meditation, Advaita, and Tibetan Buddhism in Sri Lanka, India, and Nepal. Loch trained with Tulku Urgyen Rinpoche in Nepal, served on the Teacher’s Council at New York Insight and is affiliated with Adyashanti. Loch has worked in community mental health, established homeless shelters and counseled family members after 9/11 in New York City. He collaborates with neuroscientists at Yale, UPenn and NYU to study how awareness training enhances compassion and wellbeing. Loch is dedicated to reducing suffering and supporting people to live from open-hearted awareness. Loch is known for his warm sense of humor, and his trust that awakening is the next natural stage of development. He teaches the advanced, yet simple, nondual pointers and direct methods of effortless mindfulness, informed by psychology and social justice. Loch lives in New York City with his wife Paige and their cat Duffy.

Reviews

[Morgan Blackledge · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another fantastic read by Loch Kelly.

Effortless Mindfulness loosely refers to a variant of non-dual practice.

Nondualism, or nonduality, or nondual awareness originates in the Hindu Advita Vedanta tradition, and analogously in Mahayana Buddhism. Very loosely, it refers to state of being in “pure awareness" or "pure consciousness" that is “centerless” and without dichotomies or other trappings of dualistic experience.

Effortless Mindfulness is essentially, Loch Kelly’s modernized way of teaching these practices, which unlike other types of mindfulness practices, are not effortful, and as such, can be lived (abided) in (for lack of a better way of saying it).

Loch Kelly defines non-dual awareness as “embodied and transcendent”.

And that (for me) is about the most succinct definition I am aware of.

Non-dual awareness is by definition hard to define, because it is not a concept, but rather a state of being.

To paraphrase Djuna Barns:

Ya kind of have to go there to know there.

Anyway.

Loch Kelly is about as good at getting you there as anyone.

So there ya go.

Anyway…

I think my favorite parts (no pun intended) of this book are the chapters that integrate Effortless Mindfulness with internal family systems (IFS) therapy. It turns out that Richard C Schwartz and Lock Kelly are bros. And have co-collaborated on each others work. As such, IFS and Effort Mindfulness are HIGHLY SYNERGISTIC.

If you love one, then definitely check out the other (if you haven’t already).

I predict you will VERY happy you did.

Great great great stuff.

5/5 STARZ

[David Peirce · Rating 5 out of 5]

I had read Kelly's previous book, Shift Into Freedom, but had not reviewed it. (I just gave it 4 stars and may go back and review it.) I devoured this follow-up quickly and recommend you read it, as well.

Kelly's "effortless mindfulness" differs from standard breath or noting techniques, both of which engage the mind in concentration activities, in that it shifts attention away from the mind altogether to locate awareness progressively further away from the mind, first in the body, which Kelly calls "local awareness", and then in one's broader surroundings, which Kelly calls "spacious awareness".

Without getting into metaphysical-speak regarding the nature of awareness or the "essential goodness" of people or imagining a big-C Consciousness, none of which is necessary for practicing any kind of mindfulness, I believe that these practices are akin to the techniques for shifting attention bodily and spatially that psychologist Les Fehmi teaches in his "Open Focus" books and courses.

A lot of the teaching material and exercises, particularly chapter 6 of this book, are the same as from Shift Into Freedom. However, this book shows a maturation of Kelly's teaching methods. He explains things more clearly. He also incorporates some useful psychology models.

If you've read Shift Into Freedom, this is worth reading, despite the redundant content. If you haven't read Shift Into Freedom, this is a fantastic way to begin a mindfulness practice.

[Kate · Rating 4 out of 5]

As someone who has been practicing meditation for years, and has read many books and listened to numerous lectures, I had never heard the term effortless mindfulness.. After having read The Way of Effortless Mindfulness by Loch Kelly, , I’m still not entirely sure I could describe the difference between effortless and regular mindfulness, but that is not for the author’s lack of trying.

That does not in any way detract from the book’s value as an instructive guide to mindfulness. In fact, this is the very book I wish I’d had when I first started meditating. At the time, I was struggling to figure out what, exactly, I was supposed to be doing in trying to clear my mind or focus on my breath. This book offers descriptions and instruction for many various approaches to mindfulness. There are many things I appreciated about the author’s approach, the primary one being that he recognizes that everyone is different and what may work for one person might not work for another.

Mindfulness has become so prevalent today, in many forms. This is not a spiritual guide, nor does it lay out ways to use meditation to further productivity. It is more instructive of using mindfulness as a way of approaching everyday life, in everyday situations.

[Nathan · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is already transforming my practice, not just of mindfulness, but of life.

Loch has a powerful way of helping you cut through the tangles and illusions of thought and the personas you wear both internally and externally.

Highly recommend. I have both the Kindle for reading and the audiobook for the Glimpse practices, although since Loch doesn’t read the audiobook this time - some of the Glimpse practices fall a bit flat... you have to pause to give yourself time between instructions.

Also highly recommend his series of meditations on the WakingUp App. Those practices go alongside this book very well.

[David Nash · Rating 4 out of 5]

It wasn't what I expected, though it was probably better than what I expected.

I found myself a bit stuck on the "unhooking" part.

I wish he'd tried some different phrases to help me understand, or maybe described the experience a bit more. Essentially it's about moving your centre of awareness out of your head, into your body out out into the space around you.

I put the book down at that point, but came back to read the rest of it. It didn't really make any more sense, but I still got stuff out of it.

I think the biggest issue with it is that there are little "Glimpses" (meditations) all the way through - but there's nowhere to listen to them!! You just have to read them, and many are eyes closed.

I think he suggests recording them for yourself, but I don't want to listen to a crappy recording of my own voice!

Despite those problems, I'm still rating it 4 stars, because the book and the ideas are so original! It's definitely changed the way I think about meditation!

[Saurav Poudel · Rating 2 out of 5]

I was excited to pick up the book but was soon disappointed. The idea doesn't have to be a length of a book. It has lots of fillers and you soon realize it is purely intellectual entertainment but not real learning.

I will leave with one example [Excerpt from the book]. You decide if this not over intellectualization.
How many different states of mindfulness definition do we need?
=====
“The first four types of awareness related to small mind, small self, and deliberate mindfulness are:
1.Attention
2.Self-awareness
3.Subtle energy awareness
4.Mindful awareness

These are followed by four types of awareness that are related to awareness-based mind, Self, and effortless mindfulness:
5.Awake awareness
6.Local awake awareness
7.Awake awareness-energy
8.Open-hearted awareness
”
======

[lyle · Rating 5 out of 5]

I had practiced conventional breath-based meditation, which the author calls "deliberate mindfulness meditation", for several years before reading this book. I had made progress using the deliberate method, but I was able to rapidly achieve much more using the effortless mindfulness method advocated here. Perhaps the conventional approach is adequate for many people, but in my case it was only partially effective and somewhat cumbersome, requiring very frequent reintervention of the witness part of oneself.

I seldom read a book more than once, but after the first reading and doing the "glimpses" I put it aside and came to realize that I carried with me a new spacious awareness much of the time and belatedly realized it was due to doing the glimpses. I went back and reread it twice to fine-tune my awareness, insuring that it was based on compassion too. The method is not difficult to follow and the author has carefully structured the steps required.

Many people will likely be reflexively skeptical of the concepts and terminology and write it off as self-centered gobbled-gook, but that will be a huge mistake because the outcome of the methods is broader awareness, a compassionate connectedness to other people and the world beyond oneself. It is important to suspend any preconceptions you may have when beginning to use these methods and give them the benefit of the doubt. There is one study, described in the book, that provides data-based support for the approach.

When I find something as interesting and beneficial as this I like to read more, so I wish the author had added suggestions for further reading, perhaps including any available original sources for the method within the Tibetan Buddhism where the author learned these methods. Also, the author refers to the outcome as "awake awareness" which I found to be less telegraphically descriptive that "nondual awareness" or "nondual mindfulness", which captures the way in which the method removes or at least blurs the subjective wall dividing awarnesses of what in inside and outside yourself. These are only minor issues though. Loch Kelly has made a wonderful revolutionary guide that merits a wide audience.

[Jamie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Books of this sort, which are often either sniffed at as "self-help" or dismissed out of hand as "woo woo", tend to write checks on the cover and jacket that the contents can't quite cash. This one manages to deliver. "Effortless Mindfulness" provides a framework through which to cultivate a way of living that integrates the contemplative insights and experiential states of Buddhist meditation into modern everyday life in a way that seems too good to be true, but which remarkably works. The one caveat is that while the book claims to be accessible to any person at any level of experience, I’m not sure that’s true. I personally would have had no idea what to do with this guidance — and would have had little patience for terminology like "energy" and “chakras" — if I wasn't already a somewhat experienced and well-read meditator going in. The book bills itself as a 101, but this is really 301 level stuff.

[Chris · Rating 4 out of 5]

I meditate, and sometimes books about meditation give me new perspectives or are calming. I hilighted many passages from this book. The author uses a lot of terms that it sounds like he created and that I am not familiar with. I will read this book again and try to put some of the simpler exercises into practice. He does touch on Internal Family Systems which is a pet peeve of mine.

[Tristan · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book packs a lot of great meditations between a lot of passages with unnecessarily complicated conceptual framings (which might add more effort to the practice, not less), or loose flowy language I couldn't help but skim.

This would have been better as a series of recorded meditations (I'm planning on recording them all myself, but would prefer listening to a less annoying voice than mine when meditating). Despite the lame prose, I found the meditations so useful that I'm giving this book 4 stars.

[Robin Jose · Rating 2 out of 5]

The biggest problem with this book is that it gets too conceptual. As an example, lot of time is spent on ‘Effortless Mindfulness” vs “Deliberate mindfulness” and why one is better than the other. I wish this time could be spent on how to ease out into whatever mindfulness it is. It gets a little too technical and may goes too aggressively into branding things. But maybe this is for people who wants to get into the “cutting edge” of mindfulness. I am a novice, and I could not really connect.

[Dean Paradiso · Rating 5 out of 5]

This review covers this book and also some other content (audio courses) from the author.

Here are some notes taken down while going through Loch Kelly's "Effortless Mindfulness" material. I did visit some of this material (the audio book "Effortless Mindfulness Now" and "Shift into Freedom") several years back, but at that time likely didn't understand the import of what was being explained.. or didn't take the time to really appreciate where LK was coming from.


Now, revisiting Loch Kelly's material, I can say it's 10 out 10 in terms of practical import aimed at delivering a taste of nondual, open, spacious awareness without the trappings of "containment" or "encasement" that most other nondual approaches entail.. further Loch Kelly brings something unique and new to the table in terms of tackling the issue of contained awareness or "I-am"ness that resides in a body or mind or self. This issue is a real sticking point for probably 90% or more of nondual aspirants, as it lends itself to living and experiencing life in a quasi-nondual way, but with a sort of "godlike" individual flavour.. the aspirant thinks they've attained some no-self, nondual awakening, when in fact, it's the egoic entity that's taken on a new form of consciousness or appropriated awareness that still functions in a completely individualistic and conditioned way. This will be explained more below.

For access to Loch's teachings, I would recommend going through:

1. Shift Into Freedom (audio book, audible)

This audiobook was created before the Effortless Mindfulness audio and book. It contains some of the basic ideas and approaches that LK uses later in more detail. It's also a good, practical way to encounter a large number of short meditations (or 'glimpses' as LK uses the term). The whole audio is around 3.5 hours and not too onerous, however, it should be done in small chunks as to fully appreciate each exercise. The only danger here is that it becomes too much of a 'doing' and smorgasbord of short meditations, which can leave some people a bit tired or bored or thinking 'ok, so what's next..'

2. Effortless Mindfulness (audio book, audible)

This audiobook is very well done, and really going into detail with the main practice of unhooking awareness from thinking and the ego, and getting a taste of spacious, non-localised awareness.. it's probably the closest thing to a nondual sense of awareness that one can hope for with these sorts of DIY approaches. Repeated over, you have a good chance of getting the insight that awareness isn't personal or localised or an object or something that needs to be worked at. LK uses his own ideas of 'foundations of effortless mindfulness' as a theoretical base for the approach.

3. The Way of Effortless Mindfulness

This is a book, published later than the audio courses/programs, and goes into a good amount of detail on the background of the author and the teaching approach. It could be read and used over an extended period of weeks and months. Each chapter contains glimpse exercises and can really be used for a self-directed meditation program over weeks. It's well worth getting and going through as it works well with the audio programs and other media.


4. Podcasts, YouTube

Loch Kelly has been gracious enough to post a large amount of material, interviews, explanations etc. all free online via podcast interviews, YouTube etc. He doesn't hold back with his approach or ideas, and you can gain a lot from going through online material in order to form a solid idea of what LK means by his various terms and wording and his general approach to nonduality.


Things I like about Loch Kelly's approach and teachings:

+ Highly practical and usable in everyday life. No long sitting sessions, and uses the approach of short and frequent sessions rather than extended long sessions

+ Well explained exercises and practices

+ Neutral / secular approach that can be used regardless of background

+ Plenty of content available freely online

+ Offers further courses for those wanting to go deeper into the teaching

General side note- There are a few issues that I personally have with purely secular / non-devotional approaches that are aimed at westerners looking to enter into the waters of nonduality without much recommended prior work or preparation. I also have some reservations about relying on nondual teachings and approaches to sort out one's life situation or level of psychological awareness, compassion, relationships etc. I won't list them here, however, I do recommend Loch Kelly's material completely, and it's a well planned and thought out approach in bringing something practical and unique to the nondual approaches table that's completely suitable for westerners and unaffiliated aspirants. Loch Kelly's approach certainly has a lot more 'good' points than 'bad' points, and is very well suited to those who've done a true try and test of basic mindfulness and/or meditation and are looking to explore nondual approaches as a compliment to their practice and journey.



Loch's official website:


https://lochkelly.org/

[Taka · Rating 2 out of 5]

Just one thing--

The glimpses were really, really hard to do as they were presented in written format, as it broke the flow every time I had to read the instructions or I'd get lost when I tried to remember the 12+ steps for some of those glimpses.

[Debra M. · Rating 2 out of 5]

I really wanted to love this book and it’s offering of a new way to meditate, but I felt like I was reading the same paragraph worded slightly different but containing the exact same words over and over and over and over again. I do mindfulness practices daily, but this author has somehow made me feel like I have wasted my time because I wasn’t doing it the right way, his way. His way is the true way and all other ways are “stupid.“ There were so many times throughout this book that he seemed almost passively aggressively saying that if you don’t practice effortless mindfulness then you are not practicing mindfulness at all. Maybe if the book didn’t seem so redundant, I might’ve understood it better. Even the “glimpses“ seemed as if he expected you to already understand how to do these practices. I started wondering if maybe most of us actually do already understand the things that he’s so complicatedly wrote about, but now we’re second-guessing ourselves because he said it differently than the way we have always understood it. Go ahead and give this book an honest try, but be prepared to have concepts that you probably already understand redefined with words that are extremely redundant and explanations that are wildly vague. He almost convinced me when he started connecting it to Richard Schwartz’s Parts Work, but then he went off into the Wizard of Oz afterthoughts. Just be prepared.

[Nico · Rating 2 out of 5]

It's a wonderful concept, the ability to live in a permanent and effortless state of mindfulness, and the glimpses, I thought, would make for a great way to open that up whenever it was called upon, but the book reads VERY esoterically. The author layers on "awareness" in such a meta way it felt to me while I was reading and attempting to practice his method that there was no way to tell what layer you were actually on.

Am I simply aware right now? Or am I actually being aware of the awareness? Am I aware that the awareness that I'm aware of is merely awareness or is it awareness of the awareness that I'm feeling. This is actually a thought process that the author assumes is totally natural for anyone reading his book.

I don't mind having multiple layers of awareness, and I actually found myself deepening into his sublevels on occasion but he writes on so joyfully and quickly as if this were the most natural ability in the world, and that one just merely had to think and it would come. Had to put the book down after deeming it unhelpful to really keep me focused on the present moment. Too bad.

[Ruta Kav · Rating 4 out of 5]

Loch Kelly’s effortless mindfulness, based on Dzogchen tradition is groundbreaking. I am so happy to have found this and so eager to learn and practice more.

[Teo · Rating 3 out of 5]

2019.06.08–2019.06.08

Contents

Kelly L (2019) (05:43) Way of Effortless Mindfulness, The - A Revolutionary Guide for Living an Awakened Life

Introduction
• A Different Form of Mindfulness
• Benefits of Effortless Mindfulness
• The Flow and Structure of This Book

Part I: Discovering

1. The Next Stage of Mindfulness
• Introducing Mindful Glimpses
• You May Not Know That You Know This Already
• Effortless Mindfulness Is Like a Flow State
• Introducing Awake Awareness
• Why We Haven’t Discovered Our Greatest Natural Gift
• Awakening as the Next Natural Stage of Human Development
• On Our Way to Effortless Mindfulness

2. Discovering Effortless Mindfulness
• Deliberate and Effortless Mindfulness
• Remembering Who We Are
• Two Levels of Mind
• Leaving the Witness Protection Program
• The Effortless Mindfulness Research
• Awakening Is Restful and Creative

3. Awakening Glimpse by Glimpse
• Stepping Out of the Cloud of Your Mind
• Local Awareness
• Five Foundations of Effortless Mindfulness
• • Foundation One: Awareness of Awake Awareness
• • Foundation Two: Awake Awareness as Aware of Itself
• • Foundation Three: Awareness from Awake Awareness-Energy
• • Foundation Four: Awake Awareness-Energy Embodied
• • Foundation Five: Open-Hearted Awareness
• Inner and Outer Doorways
• Transitioning from Deliberate to Effortless Mindfulness

4. Effortless Mindfulness Pain Relief
• What Is Pain?
• Local Awareness Is the Key to Pain Relief

Part II: Unfolding

5. Three Hypotheses
• Three Lenses of Consciousness
• • Solution for the Lens of Mind Hypothesis
• • Solution for the Lens of Self Hypothesis
• • Solution for the Lens of Awareness Hypothesis
• Type One: Attention
• Type Two: Self-Awareness
• Type Three: Subtle Energy Awareness
• Type Four: Mindful Awareness
• Type Five: Awake Awareness
• Type Six: Local Awake Awareness
• Type Seven: Awake Awareness-Energy
• Type Eight: Open-Hearted Awareness

6. Practicing the Five Foundations of Effortless Mindfulness
• Practices for the First Foundation of Effortless Mindfulness
• • Awareness of Awake Awareness
• • Open-Eyed Meditation
• • The First You-Turn
• Practices for the Second Foundation of Effortless Mindfulness
• • Awake Awareness as Aware of Itself
• Practices for the Third Foundation of Effortless Mindfulness
• • Awareness from Awake Awareness-Energy
• Practices for the Fourth Foundation of Effortless Mindfulness
• • Awake Awareness-Energy Embodied
• Practices for the Fifth Foundation of Effortless Mindfulness
• • Open-Hearted Awareness

Part III: Abiding

7. The Ultimate Medicine of No-self Self
• The Experience of Self
• More than the Sum of the Parts
• Knowing and Liberating Parts
• Psychological Underpass
• The Three Facets of Self
• • Facet One: Self-Essence
• • Facet Two: Self-Energy
• • Facet Three: Self-Leadership
• Your Self-Driving Vehicle
• Accessing Our True Self

8. How to Remain Awake
• Why It Is Hard to Remain in Self-Leadership
• The Dos and Don’ts of Awakening
• Living from Self-Leadership
• Peer Inquiries

9. Glimpsing All the Way Home
• Remembering to Remember

Appendix: Traps, Detours, and Rerouting Instructions
• Spaced Out
• Blissed In
• Stuck in Stillness
• The Witness Protection Program
• Getting Bored Back to the Mind
• Getting Scared Back to the Mind
• Going Back to the Mind for a Second Opinion
• Attention Overload: “Paying” Attention Until You Become Bankrupt
• Goldilocks: Porridge Too Cold, Porridge Too Hot
• Scarecrow Awakening
• Tin Man Awakening
• Cowardly Lion Awakening
• Dorothy Awakening
• Toto Awakening
• The Ruby Slippers of Effortless Mindfulness
• Intellectualization
• Being Under the Influence of the Ultimate
• Oneness Only
• Sauna Meditation State
• Avoiding the Void
• Looking but Not Leaping
• Loving the Description but Not Taking the Prescription
• Spiritual Bypass
• Psychological Underpass
• Parking at the Grand Canyon
• Nothing to Do/Doing Nothing
• Stopping at Not-Knowing
• Nobody Home
• Fundamental Fundamentalism
• Ethical Relativity
• Spiritual Robot
• Earning Awakening
• Stuck in the Student Role
• One and Done
• Nihilism or Eternalism
• Trying to Kill the Ego that Doesn’t Exist
• Awakening as One-Stop Shopping
• Whitewashing or Wearing Rose-Colored Glasses
• Psychic Dimension Detour
• Coney Island Hot Dog of Spiritual Pride
• Spiritual Superego
• Rubber Band Effect, or Getting It/Losing It

Acknowledgments
Notes

List of Mindful Glimpses
• Chapter 1
• • Wordless Awareness
• • Memory Door
• • From Your Heart
• • Background Awareness
• • Eyes of Awareness
• • The Peace Within
• • How to Do Not-Doing
• • Relax the Problem Solver
• Chapter 2
• • Awake Awareness Knows Without Using Thought or Attention
• Chapter 3
• • The Four Postures of Dynamic Stillness
• • Focusing on the Breath from Within the Breath
• • Beyond the Meditator
• • Lovingkindness and Compassion Are Already Here
• • Embodiment Scan
• Chapter 4
• • Experiencing Attention
• • Experiencing Local Awareness
• • Effortless Mindfulness Pain-Relief Method
• Chapter 5
• • I Am
• • Who Is Aware Now?
• • Looking from Awareness
• • Knowing from Open-Hearted Awareness
• Chapter 6
• • Awareness Following the Breath Home
• • Awareness of Space
• • Awareness of Awareness
• • The You-Turn
• • Mind, the Gap
• • Awareness Yoga
• • Infinite No-Self
• • Effortless Focus
• • Panoramic Awareness
• • Awake Awareness-Energy Embodied
• • The Now
• • Emotions as Awareness-Energy
• • Drop from Head to Heart-Mind
• • “Om Sweet Home” in Your Heart
• • Knowing from Heart-Mind
• • Cave of the Heart
• Chapter 7
• • Know Your Self
• Chapter 8
• • Peer Inquiry Practice 1
• • Peer Inquiry Practice 2
• • Peer Inquiry Practice 3
• • Peer Inquiry Practice 4
• • Peer Inquiry Practice 5
• • Peer Inquiry Practice 6

Index
About the Author
Also by Loch Kelly
About Sounds True

[Michael Moon · Rating 5 out of 5]

Thank You Mr Loch Kelly... Your essence shines on each page, from an obvious, kind hearted good nature, with a smiling humour that is liberating and delightful. A wonderful mirror to this beautiful book. You are a humble, gifted, crystal clear communicator. Such a rich blessing to find this apotheosis work. Each chapter is dynamic, natural yet luminous.., Deep, Rich, Tangible ~ Quintessential. So we dance radically in "The New Normal" in the potential of an Effortless Upgrade. This book is an evolutionary leap from the popular "Power of Now" and would truly serve humanity, with huge readership. ***💙***

[Greg B · Rating 4 out of 5]

A wonderful book that intelligently mixes modern psychology with ancient eastern wisdom practices into a modern, contemporary practical guide.

Loch explains and gives specific instructions for an advanced, yet simple form of mindfulness that brings immediate benefits.

To summarize the book in a few sentences: We are already awake. But our small mind and ego obscure this basic fact. This book is a precise empirical guide: Do small glimpses, many times, in the midst of your everyday life.

[Joe · Rating 3 out of 5]

I got a lot of value out of the micro-practices in this book, which are referred to as glimpses. This book was close to 4 stars for me, and the audiobook reading is what took it down a notch. Many of the meditations are in a list format. And the person reading the book just reads the lists, without time to contemplate each step. I would have preferred to have the many meditations on the audiobook version be useful as actual meditations!

[Reader · Rating 1 out of 5]

Very frustrating read, the author should have no business teaching this type of meditation. He uses overly obtuse and abstract wording that provides horrible instruction. I’ve read a lot of books on meditation and this one was by far the worst one. Its a shame that this guy is the main teacher for this type of meditation. The movement would do much better if they got rid of this guy and replaced him. Don’t waste your time reading this wordy garbage

[Howard · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a good book about a challenging subject. How do you write about something that is essentially beyond words? I struggled at first with the content. I felt like I wasn't getting it. Once I started trying the exercises throughout it, it started to sink in. Then I started to realize that I had had tiny glimpses of this in my past. Now I have tools to reconnect regularly with my deeper Self.

[Sieglinde · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ever have trouble trying to meditate? This book has a different way of thinking about meditating and has a variety of short methods to get you out of your thinking brain. The author gives easy to follow methods and backs it up with Buddhist and scientific information. This awaking of your awareness can give instant relief in many cases.

[Jeremy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Loch Kelly teaches a style of meditation based on the Sutra Mahamudra. Non dual awareness is a tricky one to explore and I need to spend more time with this. There's a couple of interviews and a series of guided meditations on the 'Waking Up' app, for anyone interested.

[D. S. Dennison · Rating 2 out of 5]

Made a few interesting points a along the way but, for the most part, I found this book impenetrable. It was clear the author understands very well what he wants to say. Unfortunately he wasn't able to articulate it.

[Cristie Underwood · Rating 4 out of 5]

Honest and in-depth advice for reaching your full potential. This advice is presented in easy to follow language that can be broken up and applied in pieces at a time.

[Di Pan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Really good practices for Mahamudra tradition of meditation.

[Cade · Rating 5 out of 5]

A wonderful book that just might change your entire perspective on, well, everything. Easy 5 stars.

[Gage Morris · Rating 4 out of 5]

I tried, which maybe is part of the problem, but I tried not trying and this just didn’t seem to connect, despite me having (by my opinion) a decent preliminary practice before picking this up.

[Ellen Keener · Rating 5 out of 5]

A very useful enjoyable guide to mindful awareness and an introduction to IFS