Loch Kelly - Notes on Effortless Mindfulness and Loch Kelly's approach to nondual awareness

 

Effortless Mindfulness and Loch Kelly's approach to nondual awareness

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/

Radiant Mind - awakening unconditioned awareness by Peter Fenner - Notes

 

This is a review of both the book "Radiant Mind", and the audio version of the book narrated by Peter Fenner. Both of these items were released around 2009 or so, and were popular at that time with both nondual and Mahayana Buddhist communities, and have since become less popular and/or dormant. 

The Radiant Mind 'course', which was offered around 10 years back by PF seems not to be offered anymore, and the author mainly does guest lectures at various Buddhist related colleges, and does some one-on-one coaching on the side.

Both the course, and the books have quite mixed reviews and experiences.. there's not a lot in between- participants and readers either love it or hate it. It seems a number of participants in the live course back when it was available did take exception to the cost of the course (being in the thousands) vs what they received which was essentially a review of the book/CD course and some clarifications by PF. I've taken notes and reviewed from my experience only and discarded what has been written on various sites, looking at the content and approach from scratch.

For those who are familiar with contemporary awareness teachings, then most of this material won't be new. In fact, there's quite a few exercises that are repeated very closely by other 'awareness' / advaita teachers. The unique part with this course and recording though is the delivery in how PF speaks and walks the reader/listener through the exercises in a very slow but effective way. There's also the added benefit of having received the 'just sitting' practice early on, which does very quietly enable one to accumulate some sort of familiarity with beingness and awareness while just sitting and not engaged in any activity purposefully.

Side note- the audio course (CD or Audible) is actually different to the written text/book, which is deeper in content than the audio course. The audio course is great for repeatedly getting down the practice contemplations and practical side, while the book itself is better for some more psychological context and theory around nondual awareness and some comparisons with Mahayana Buddhist pointers.

The Book:

The book has 

Practices

In terms of practices, 3 main practice areas are given, although the bulk of the practical exercises happens around the last chapter in the course/book:

1. "Just sitting"

This is a rather unique style of meditative sitting practice, not really the same as "shikantaza" in Zen, nor the same as resting in awareness in approaches such as Mahamudra or even Dzogchen, although it is probably most similar to these approaches, and the author's background in this work comes from these traditions. This practice pretty much involves being secluded, undisturbed, awake and seated in a spot for around 20 minutes, and "just doing what you're doing".. ie. sitting and doing nothing, but not making any effort to do something or focus, or even become aware of the process, but rather to just have a very relax, almost non-existent knowing that one is sitting and various phenomena are occurring. It's also similar to the 'do-nothing' approaches of teachers such as Shinzen Young, Angelo Dilulo and others. There's various "Do nothing" meditation sessions available on YT, each with their own take on how this is done. 

2. Relaxation meditation

The idea of relaxation and non-effort runs through most of the exercises and a specific exercises/practice is given in the final chapter of the audio course that takes around 20 minutes, and is a relaxing 'nothing to do' type of release meditation. This is in contrast to the bulk of mediations out there that work through body relaxation or breathing relaxation. So in this respect, PF has kept on track with his overall themes of nondoing and relaxing effort or concentration.

3. Direct contemplations and approaches with awareness

Another group of exercises relates to directly attempting to experience awareness or have some insight into the nature of ever-present unconditioned awareness. There are various pointers that are given, and various entry-points that one can take to directly experience or know awareness as it is. e.g. listening to silence, non-thought or 'not-knowing' mind, awareness as bliss, paradoxical pointers and enquiries similar to koans etc.

Some of the guided contemplations also focus on different aspects of unconditioned awareness, such as the bliss/peace aspect (although noted this is not a sensation or conditioned experience). Other contemplations focus on the all-embracing nature of unconditioned awareness as not excluding the unmanifest or the manfiest experience.

4. Present moment awareness

A final theme that runs throughout the book and course is the idea of present moment awareness, or the now-ness of one's being here and now. There is one particular mediation that works on deconstructing the past and future as concepts that are not present here and now apart from thought. 

There are many practical psychological exercises and explorations in the book. The first few chapters focus on exploring one's pre-conceived ideas about awareness, and also obstacles that may be present (or unexplored) that can lead to issues with resting in unconditioned awareness.

Some things I really like about Peter Fenner's approach:

+ I love how Peter Fenner presents his material in easy to understand, plain English, without cultural or technical terms and ideas. This makes it accessible for a wide audience without a background in Buddhism, Tibetan Buddhism, and eastern philosophy, but who are interested in nonduality.

+ Peter narrates his material, particularly the Radiant Mind course (Sounds True) in a calm, clear and conductive manner matching what he's trying to get across. The whole recording not only acts as an information source, but also an experiential journey and meditation itself into the field of nonduality and unconditioned awareness.

+ The exercises in the book and the audio course are beneficial in uncovering assumptions and beliefs we have about nonduality, awareness, and spirituality in general. This is helpful in uncovering hidden obstables that we all carry with us into the path.

+ The Radiant Mind course is complete in that it can be undertaken in a self-directed manner, either long-term or on a shorter-term time frame. Originally designed to be 9 months, it can be shorted to several months, or even shorter depending on how much the participant/listener wants to get from it. I completed the audio course several times, and received some new insights/material on each listening. Likewise, the suggested "Just Sitting" practice deepens and grows over time to reveal an approach to nonduality that is ever-fresh and changing.. versus some of the more fixed philosophical positions that some teaches offer.

+ PF offers support services, counselling and some other courses (such as a teaching course) for those further interested in pursuing this approach to nonduality-- which is a rather unique approach, given the author's background, context, and way of working with nonduality and phenomenal reality in a balanced and mature way.

Overally, I feel this is a great introduction to nondual awareness with an emptiness flavour and some Mahayana Buddhism mixed in, but in a way that doesn't require much background experience or prior knowledge. The audio course is narrated very well, and easy to listen to and follow along both casually and also as a complete meditation in itself. One should come away from this course (and book) with some balanced ideas about nonduality, emptiness and various approaches to gently coming to know what nonconceptual awareness is (and its nature). Highly recommended.