Awake Awareness
a place beyond the ordinary mind of daily life, and the witnessing mind of mindfulness. Now awareness can permeate our body and connect us to all of life, while quieting the default-mode network of our brains; bringing us to an awake state which can reveal extraordinary experiences of connectedness, open-heartedness and bliss. Our teachers studied awake awareness practices with Dan Brown, Alan Wallace, Loch Kelly, and the Dalai Lama.
Sections
The New Way
Paths
Experience
The New Way
Dzogchen, found in the Nyingma and Bon traditions of Tibetan Buddhism, is a very advanced system of meditation on the deepest, subtlest, foundational levels of mind. The term “dzogchen” means “great completion,” referring to the fact that all the qualities of Buddhahood are complete on the level of rigpa (pure awareness), the deepest foundational level of them all. With “pointing out instructions” a person will be able to touch into this subtlest level of awareness. Doing so, allows a person to have a wider perspective, to be less burdened by anxiety and fear, and to be able to be of service to others and life itself. This experience is also called open-hearted awareness, as now a person will be able to meet our world with love and resilience.
How can this be reconciled with mindfulness meditation, and is it still important?
Mindfulness meditation can be seen as a bridge to Awake Awareness, but also as a parallel practice that help to build your capacity and discipline to concentrate and be still within your body and mind. What we are introducing as Awake Awareness is a window into a deeper realm, which can be experienced as a profound non-dual, blissful and loving state, in which deep compassion, interconnectedness, and wisdom emerges.
Mindfulness still plays an integral role, especially in the case of helping to exercise the attention capacity of our minds. By becoming aware of our thoughts and feelings and by learning to quieten our propensity to be reactive, we make space to bring mindful awareness, as well as our curiosity and longing, to a deeper level of reality.
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Awake Awareness is experienced as effortless; seeing what is already there. It opens doors into a field of awareness that holds our deep, inherent compassion and wisdom.
We feel as if we were “always here,” and as if there was a “vast expanse.” There is also a knowing quality to this experience, often called “timeless, formless, changeless, knowing awareness.”
At that point, you can become part of that vast field of awareness, sometimes called non-dual awareness, because the sense of a separate Self drops away. This allows us to feel at one with that the vastness of life.
When we train our mind to become concentrated, a path opens to cultivating awake awareness. What do we mean by that? In Buddhist philosophy, we talk about differentiated levels of mind, ranging from ordinary mind taken up by daily concerns, to a deeper and more spacious level of mind. This deeper level helps us to connect to the ultimate aspect of reality.
This very subtle level might feel like an experience of timelessness, formlessness, or complete stillness.
Paths
Concentration
By calming our conceptual mind, we can prepare our mind to access a more subtle level. Although sometimes counter-intuitive, we can use this method to cut through to touch deep states of awareness
Glimpses
Simple routes into awareness exist, which can be described as “effortless.” For some people these can directly lead to deep experiences of mind, without much or any prior experience.
Love
Working with groups draws us together, and we can grow into spaces of awake awareness; joining our open-hearted presence with those we meet.
Experience it for yourself
Try this recorded Awake Awareness practice in your own time. We encourage you to trust your intention to meditate, and not be hard on yourself, if it doesn’t come through to you the first time around.
These practice are deeply meaningful to many and are worth giving yourself the time and patience you need to open into the field quality of Awake Awareness. Join our free daily meditations for more.
