What Comes After the First Glimpse? Loch Kelly on Awakening

Evelyn Reed · 2026-09-15

Most people think awakening is the finish line. You catch one real glimpse of openness, and suddenly everything makes sense forever. But here's the thing—that first glimpse is actually the starting line, not the destination. That's the heart of a fascinating conversation between host Michael Taft and meditation teacher Loch Kelly, and it's worth sitting with for a minute. ### The Difference Between Waking Up and Waking With Kelly draws a line that's easy to miss but changes everything. He calls the first one "waking up"—that moment you recognize openness, stillness, and the absence of a separate self. It's real. It matters. But it's not the whole story. Then there's "waking with." This is where appearances—everything you see, hear, and feel—are experienced as inseparable from awake awareness. Some traditions call it "one taste." Instead of awareness being a quiet background you visit during meditation, it becomes the fabric of your everyday life. Think of it this way: waking up is noticing the sky behind the clouds. Waking with is realizing the clouds are made of the same stuff as the sky. ### Why Flow States Matter Here This is where things get practical. Kelly and Taft explore flow states—those moments when you're so absorbed in what you're doing that self-consciousness drops away. Athletes call it "being in the zone." Musicians know it. So do writers, gardeners, and anyone who's ever lost track of time doing something they love. Here's the connection: flow states are a kind of temporary "waking with." You're not trying to be present. You just are. The separate self quiets down, and experience moves through you without friction. - You stop narrating what's happening - Effort drops away naturally - Time feels different—sometimes slower, sometimes gone - Action and awareness feel like one thing ### What This Means for Your Practice If you've been chasing peak experiences on the cushion, this conversation offers a gentler path. You don't have to manufacture anything. You're learning to notice what's already here. As Kelly suggests, the goal isn't to escape ordinary life for some special state. It's to discover that ordinary life—washing dishes, driving to work, talking with a friend—is already saturated with the awareness you've been seeking. > "The glimpse is not the end. It's an invitation to live from what you've seen." So the next time you catch a moment of stillness, don't grip it. Don't turn it into a trophy. Let it flow into the rest of your day. That's where the real work—and the real freedom—begins. Whether you're a longtime meditator or just curious about mindfulness, this dialogue is a reminder that awakening isn't a one-time event. It's a way of being that unfolds, breath by breath, moment by moment.