Beyond the First Glimpse: What Loch Kelly Reveals About Awake Awareness

Evelyn Reed · 2026-09-15

Ever have that moment? A sudden flash of clarity, a feeling of deep peace, or a sense that everything is just… connected. For many on the mindful living path, that's the first glimpse. It's powerful. It's transformative. But then what happens? What comes after that initial opening? That's exactly what we're exploring today, through a profound conversation between host Michael Taft and renowned meditation teacher Loch Kelly. It's a dialogue that moves past the introductory concepts and digs into the rich, nuanced territory of sustained awakening and flow. ### The Crucial Distinction: Waking Up vs. Waking With Kelly introduces a fascinating and vital distinction that can reshape your practice. He talks about 'waking up' and 'waking with.' - **Waking Up:** This is that first recognition. It's the moment you realize the openness, the stillness, the profound absence of a separate, solid 'self' narrating your life. It's like stepping out of a stuffy room into fresh, open air. You see the space. - **Waking With:** This is the next stage, where that awake awareness doesn't just observe life—it *infuses* it. Appearances—your thoughts, feelings, the world around you—are no longer seen as separate from that awake space. They arise within it, inseparable. Kelly calls this 'one taste,' where the witness and the witnessed blend. Think of it like this: First, you realize you're the ocean (waking up). Then, you learn to experience every wave—every joy, every challenge—as nothing but the ocean itself, dancing (waking with). It’s a shift from separation to seamless participation. ### Where Flow States Enter the Picture This conversation naturally flows into the subject of… well, flow states. You know the feeling. You're so absorbed in an activity—writing, playing music, even a deep conversation—that time vanishes. Self-consciousness drops away. There's just the doing. Kelly connects these accessible flow states directly to the awakened awareness he describes. They're not separate phenomena. A flow state can be a gateway, a taste of that 'waking with' reality in everyday action. It shows you that effortless, choiceless awareness is possible right here, not just on the meditation cushion. When you're in flow, you're not trying to control the music you're playing; you're *being played by* the music. That's a hint of 'one taste.' The doer dissolves into the doing. ### Making This Real for Your Daily Life So, what does this mean for you, a professional dedicated to mindful living? It's an invitation to look deeper. Your initial glimpses of peace and presence are valid and beautiful starting points. But the journey doesn't end there. Kelly's framework encourages us to ask: Am I just visiting awareness, or am I learning to *live from* it? Can that open, still, compassionate awareness become the background of my entire day—during stressful meetings, difficult conversations, or mundane tasks? It's about integration. It’s moving from having mindful moments to being a mindful presence, from achieving states to abiding in your natural state. This isn't about adding more effort to your practice. Often, it's about recognizing what's already effortlessly here, and then letting life unfold from that recognition. The path of awakening, as this dialogue reveals, is less about climbing a mountain to a distant peak and more about discovering you were never at the bottom to begin with. You're already home. The practice is simply to stop leaving.