What Comes After the First Glimpse? Loch Kelly on Awakening and Flow

Emily Johnson · 2026-09-15

### The Moment After the Glimpse You know that first taste of awakening—when the chatter in your head goes quiet and everything feels open and still. It's beautiful. It's also just the beginning. In a recent conversation, meditation teacher Loch Kelly sat down with host Michael Taft to talk about what happens next. And honestly, it's a question most of us forget to ask. We get so focused on that first glimpse that we miss the deeper invitation. Loch calls it moving from "waking up" to "waking with." That shift changes everything. ### Waking Up vs. Waking With Waking up is recognizing openness, stillness, and the absence of a separate self. It's the classic awakening experience—sudden, clear, and often profound. But waking with is different. It's seeing everyday appearances as inseparable from awake awareness. Loch calls this "one taste." Nothing is excluded. The ordinary world and the awakened state aren't two things. They're one. Think of it like this: waking up is noticing the sky behind the clouds. Waking with is realizing the clouds are made of sky too. ### Flow States as a Doorway The conversation also dives into flow states—those moments when you're so absorbed in what you're doing that time disappears. Athletes call it "being in the zone." Musicians call it "the pocket." Loch suggests these states aren't just peak performance tricks. They're glimpses of waking with, happening naturally. - **Effortless attention**: You're not forcing focus; it's happening on its own. - **No separation**: The doer and the doing merge. - **Timelessness**: Hours feel like minutes. Flow isn't something you have to chase. It's a sign that your natural awareness is already here. ### Why This Matters for Your Practice If you've had a glimpse and wondered, "Is this it?"—no, there's more. And if you haven't had one yet, flow states might be your backdoor in. You don't need to sit on a cushion for hours. You just need to notice when awareness is already awake, already open, already here. > "The recognition is not the end. It's the beginning of living from that recognition." — Loch Kelly ### Bringing It Into Daily Life So how do you practice waking with? Start small. The next time you're washing dishes, walking your dog, or stuck in traffic, see if you can sense the awareness that's already present. Not the thoughts about the experience—the experience itself. You're not trying to change anything. You're just noticing that the same openness you glimpsed in meditation is right here in the middle of your messy, ordinary day. That's one taste. That's waking with. And the best part? You can't mess it up. Awareness doesn't come and go. Only your attention does.