awake awareness

"When we are operating from thought-based knowing , we look to thought to know; we think about thinking, ruminating, obsessing, and orienting by thought.  When we shift into spacious awareness as the ground of Being, then thinking goes into the background and we don't see pop-ups and multiple programs running on our mind-screens.  Then, our conceptual minds are quiet but, just as we can use our hands at any moment, we can use thought whenever needed.  Awake awareness in its fullness is empty, knowing, loving, and embodied."  (Shift into Freedom, p. 179)

We can learn to know from the ground of Being instead of knowing from the individual mind which is based on programming from our past.

We can learn to shift into spacious awareness through meditation or from the exercises that Lock Kelly presents in his book, Shift into Freedom. 

As we learn to unhook from thought and emotion we become open and receptive to Source/God/Spirit/Higher Self.  We can call upon our personal mind as needed but we are no longer ruled by thought and emotion.  This is freedom.

Awake Awareness

Here is what Locke Kelly has to say about awake awareness, and you will find that it is the same idea as Michael Singer's letting go of the self :

"Awake awareness is sometimes called 'pure awareness,' but it's also inherent within all forms of our consciousness...Awake awareness is always already here, and it is only a matter of learning how to directly access it.  One of the most important things to learn is how to separate awareness from thinking, and then we can see that thoughts and emotions are not the center of who we are.  We then discover that awareness is the source of mind that brings the peace that passes understanding...awake awareness can 'know' something without referring overtly to thoughts, but it can also use thought when needed."  (Shift into Freedom, p.14)  

I am not my thoughts and feelings.  I am not this image that I present to the world.  I am not who I think I am...this identity that I have created is an illusion.  My physical self is real, but the consciousness that infuses it is Who I really am.  When we begin to realize that we are not the persona that we have created there is a lightening of attachment to fear, insecurity, expectations etc.  There is nothing to prove and nothing to defend.  A weight is lifted and there is the peace that passes all understanding.

Shift into Freedom provides many practical techniques for shifting one's awareness away from thought and emotion and onto awareness itself.  I highly recommend the book.  I am considering starting a group in the next few months to practice these techniques and explore this material.