Essay 5 of 12

Awakening Together – Regina Dawn Akers

“The eye with which I see God is the same eye with which God sees me.”

— Meister Eckhart

If you are willing to consider "spiritual awakening" as functionally equivalent to "happiness," then you have just arrived at your destination. Everything you need for these goals is here, or is referenced on the website (https://awakening-together.org). Awakening Together, founded by Regina Dawn Akers, has been called the world's first online church. It is entirely non-denominational, dedicated to non-dual teachings in furtherance of revealing, and abiding in, the one true Self (see definitions of these italicized terms at the conclusion of the "Introduction").

The website is a complete resource for becoming familiarized with a broad variety of teachings involved in awakening, including practices of meditation, contemplation, journaling, and retreats, with links to videos (including the Awakening Together YouTube channel), podcasts, books, and numerous other sources. As for the specific contents of this website, we will consider more details as we proceed through the current summary.

However, the sheer volume of the materials referenced in, or linked to, the website suggests that the curious reader will be required to delineate or circumscribe the relevant search parameters to some degree. A good place to start would be the YouTube channel, where, on the first page, we are greeted by Ms. Akers and offered a video "tour." You will simply know, in short order, that you are in the right place.

The Way of Community

This is the way of community. Accordingly, its purpose and core values are as follows:

Purpose:

We are an assembly of equals joined in common purpose: Awakening to one true Self. Within an appearance of many faiths, many cultures and many symbols, we seek to discern one truth and to rest in its embrace.

Core Values:

1. We trust everyone is led by unique inner guidance to one experience, called awakening, which is realization of one true Self. We live this value by supporting one another on different paths of awakening.

2. We realize everyone is equal and no one has been given spiritual intuition that is an authority over the spiritual intuition of others. We live this value by listening to each other, respecting each other, and allowing each one to be where they are.

3. We accept one true Self, which is one Presence or Being, non-dual, without beginning or end, and absolutely changeless. We live this value by practicing letting go of the belief in the individual self as who we are.

4. We affirm one true Self as the only truth. We live this value by embracing what is helpful on the path of awakening without idolizing any spiritual doctrine as truth.

5. We accept all forms as temporary appearances permitted through enduring awareness of Self. We live this value by honoring all appearances and all experiences while continually reflecting on changeless truth.

The Teachings

Awakening Together’s resources are amazingly eclectic with regard to the broad range of practices and materials available, yet they still fall comfortably within the core values listed above. A perusal of the website reveals the enormous depth and breadth of the materials, and the wide range of various teachers, represented in its contents. For example, it includes the following:

A section entitled “Free Resources” with links to websites of various eminent teachers; guided meditations; and instructions for practice, such as “Root Cause Inquiry,” discussed below;
Links to retreats and courses, the latter including MPP (Minister Preparation Program); a 42-day program based on the Manual for Teachers in A Course in Miracles; a 500-day program studying NTI (see the “NTI” section which follows); and three years of Gentle Healing courses for new students;
Audios and podcasts, including the Awakening Together YouTube channel, wherein the numerous videos provide a comprehensive resource on their own, comprising a large number of instructional topics connected to awakening. As an example, they include a long series entitled “Awakening Games” which create an appreciation for cognitive and perceptual changes that accompany Self-realization; and,
Links to numerous books (see Suggested Readings below); she has even written a recent book on the Tao Te Ching! (Tao Te Ching: An Interpretive Translation to Live By).

I have still barely scratched the surface here.

Root Cause Inquiry

“Root Cause Inquiry,” one of Ms. Akers’ foundational teachings, provides insight into problematic thought patterns, causing them to dissolve (this is a functional alternative to Byron Katie’s “The Work,” described in the chapter “Cutting Through Egoic Thought Patterns”). As an overview to Ms. Akers’ “Root Cause Inquiry,” one starts by noticing an upset of some kind and “drilling down” with repeated inquiries such as “Why am I upset about that?” and “Why does that bother me?” As repeated inquiries probe more and more deeply, one ultimately encounters variations of the “I am bad” belief, which is at the core of guilt, self-loathing and fear. We come to recognize these as foundational beliefs, forms of self-judgment that can be undone through a relentless watching of the mind. Every time we judge ourselves in a negative fashion, we are “refilling the guilt cup” with stories and reinforcing the “I am bad” belief system.

We cannot have happiness or truth as long as we believe the stories. Regardless of the form, what lies at the end terminal of the root cause inquiries – the originating causal factors -- are beliefs that can be undone because they are created by the mind, and there is a Source of Wisdom (divine guidance) that exists beyond the mind. We need to watch these false beliefs arise, refuse to allow them to become reinforced in our belief systems, and come to rely on this Source – instead of the mind -- for the truth of what we are.

The entire realm of variations in “I am bad” beliefs represents a subconscious network of crippling undercurrents that many people adapt into their self-images from being disciplined in maladaptive ways as children. They end up representing a ball and chain on the awakening process. Ms. Akers’ suggested means of dealing with them, as just described, represent a key feature of her teachings that do not appear in others’ teaching systems.

Another core teaching that she uses pertains to a basic recommendation on which to rely when one is “stuck” or failing to make the expected progress at any given stage in the process of self-discovery. It is the instruction “Rest-Acceptance-Trust” (R.A.T.), meaning, lighten up, relax, and stop thinking. Rest assured that the answer will reveal itself, and trust in the process. Do nothing for a while. This process recognizes the importance of spontaneous realizations that lead to awakening which are not directly induced.

Details of Root Cause Inquiry are explicated thoroughly on their website.

It is best to do it as a journaling process. It can be helpful to start with a prayer inviting inner spiritual wisdom and discernment (the Holy Spirit) into this inquiry.
The starting point is an emotional upset.
Begin by accepting, “I am always upset because of a belief in my mind,” and be willing to see the root cause of this upset, something that may not be at all apparent now.
First question to ask is: Why do I feel ______? Fill in the blank with the emotional upset. For example, Why do I feel angry? Why do I feel hurt? Why do I feel guilty? Why do I feel embarrassed? etc.
If you aren’t sure what you are feeling, start by asking, “How am I feeling?” or “How does this make me feel?” It is helpful to identify the best description of the feeling before beginning the journaling process. You can look at a list of feelings online and see what resonates. Here’s one list that may be helpful. Scroll down on the webpage to find the list of upset feelings: http://eqi.org/cnfs.htm>
The first answer to the question points to the first level of belief. It could be called “the story.” For example, “I feel angry because he didn’t call when he said he would!” This is the starting point, because the story is the first level of belief. However, the process of Root Cause Inquiry will take us beyond the first level of belief to a deeper level.
Once you’ve looked at the first level of belief, you have to bring an assumption into the process in order for the process to work. The assumption is, “If my mind was perfectly healed, nothing would upset me, not even this.” Then you ask, “So why does this upset me?” Your question can be more specific. For example, “Why does it bother me that he didn’t call when I expected him to?”
At this point an answer will come that begins to point toward your perception and beliefs. If the answer that comes points outward at someone else, try again. For example, if the answer is “Because he doesn’t care about me,” that answer points outward toward “him”. Remind yourself that you are looking for the ideas in your own mind that are causing the upset. Say something like, “I am always upset because of something in my mind. So, why does it upset me that he didn’t call when I expected him to?” This refocuses the attention inward. The answer may come back as “I am upset because I feel like he doesn’t care.” That is pointing inward instead of outward, so that answer is moving in the right direction.
With each inward pointing answer that comes, ask another question that will point further inward. A common question that can continue to be asked is, “And why does that upset me?” Always we are assuming that it wouldn’t upset me if the mind was healed, so we are looking for the root unhealed idea that is causing the upset. So, for example, if I have identified I upset because I feel like he doesn’t care about me, I might ask, “Why does that upset me?” The answer might come, “I feel shame.” At this point I have identified something that is all about me and my thoughts. There is no ‘other’ in this thought. This means I am getting very, very close to the root belief that is upsetting me. This belief was triggered by the outward event, but not caused by the outward event. I may also feel a deep emotion at this point that is different than the beginning emotion. The beginning emotion may have been a defense mechanism, a cover up, hiding this raw emotion. I may have felt ‘anger’ and now I feel ‘shame’. This is the more honest feeling.
Even at this level, it is helpful to look and see what is deeper. So now I can ask, “Why do I feel shame?” For some, this won’t work at this point. The mind is anxious to escape so it will run back to the story-level, back to “he did it!” If so, the question needs to be refocused. I need to remind myself I am looking inward for a belief that is causing this shame. So if “why” questions don’t work at this point, try another inward probing approach like, “When I feel shame, what am I believing about myself?” The answer could come up in any set of words from “I am ugly” to “I am unlovable.” If there is form in the answer, like “I am ugly”, ask, “How does the idea that ‘I am ugly’ make me feel?” That may go to the next level of belief, which is before form … I am unlovable (or something similar).
When you feel you have uncovered the true cause of the upset, which is always a belief in your mind that has nothing to do with the story or form, you can look back at the original belief which was the story. You should be able to see that the first level of belief was not the real cause of your upset. For example, you should be able to see that you weren’t upset because he didn’t call. You were upset because you believe you are unlovable. It should be clear to you that the story just triggered the deeper belief.
Now sit with the root belief and the feelings that are present with it. Realize this is an interpretation that you put on the story. You are the one that has decided ‘this event means this about me’. Also realize that you have been teaching yourself this belief for a very long time, interpreting many events to have this same meaning, and that is why it feels so strong in you. It doesn’t feel strong because it is true; it feels strong because it has been heavily reinforced through your interpretation of events.
When you have accepted responsibility for the interpretation as the interpreter, Rest, Accept and Trust with the root cause until it passes. Realize that if this is a deeply reinforced root belief, you may see it many, many times before it is healed and the feeling of upset may become greater before it disappears. This is because you are bringing it out of the subconscious into awareness. Therefore, it often feels like it is getting bigger when in actuality it is coming out to be healed.

Literary works

What may truly be of greatest importance is the literary work of Regina Dawn Akers, who has brought together 1) her own channeled works, for which she is the scribe, and 2) the works of Michael Langford, her mentor, a reclusive mystic who is possibly the sine qua non of the Direct Path in meditation. Collectively, these resources would probably have never been collected and made available to the world in such an effective and direct way without her efforts in founding this online church.

The most significant of these literary works, in my view, are NTI and The Inner Ramana (channeled works scribed by Ms. Akers), and The Direct Means to Eternal Bliss, written by Mr. Langford. Owing to the overwhelming importance of NTI, we will be delving heavily into content here, and to a somewhat lesser extent, into the content of the Langford book as well. Ms. Akers is the scribe for NTI, the source of which is the Holy Spirit, to be discussed in more detail below.

The Inner Ramana, like NTI, is a collection of teachings received and scribed by Ms. Akers, except here the source is “The Inner Ramana” which appears to be the ascended master Ramana Maharshi. Since our discussions in the forthcoming chapter “The Way of Wisdom” do in fact center on this ascended master, we will not be covering its related content here; rather, we refer the reader to this chapter for content connected with Ramana Maharshi’s teachings.

NTI

In my view, this work is destined to become a spiritual classic. Its title – NTI – The Holy Spirit’s Interpretation of the New Testament – may be misleading for some. Specifically, the title could create the conclusion that one is reading about the Bible, which is not accurate. Rather, NTI is a collection of channeled communications received by Ms. Akers from Holy Spirit, summarizing a compendium of exceedingly useful and powerful universal spiritual truths.

With regard to the reference to “Holy Spirit,” there appears to be a paradox: Divine guidance, or spiritual intuition, comes from “inside us” because it is our highest Self – yet it is only operative when we are “empty” (and thus able to receive). Like most spiritual phenomena, it resists “logical” analysis.

NTI familiarizes us with this divine Source extensively. What follows is a selection of the core teachings from this remarkable work:

Matthew Ch. 6 v 16-18:

Let your Heart be your loving master whom you do not question.

Matthew Ch. 6 v 19-23:

Follow the twinkle in your own eye.

Matthew Ch. 10 v 7-10:

God is within and it is from within that you are led.

Do not focus on what is outside. Do not worry about what you are to eat or what you are to wear or where you are to sleep. Focus only on the Word Within, and seek nothing else. Everything will be provided, that you may do the work I ask.

Comment:

Here is the promise that you are cared for… Note the “Word Within” is yet another synonym for “Holy Spirit,” “divine guidance,” etc.

Matthew Ch. 13 v 47-50:

The sorting of thoughts is the work that must be done. This is the moment-to-moment choice you must make. Where will you put your faith?

Comment:

In the Chapter entitled “Cutting Through Egoic Thought Patterns” we pointed out that it is not all thoughts that must be neutralized but rather those which contribute to egoic thought patterns that lead to suffering. So yes, our work is in the sorting of thoughts.

Matthew Ch. 15 v 1-9

Look into your heart for the purpose of what you do, for it is not what you do that is important, but why you do it. In your search for Me, you agonize over choices in the world. You want to know if it is right that you do this or if it would be better that you do that. I say do what you choose in peace and I will use what you do.

Comment:

The road to heaven is paved with good intentions! He will work to make use of our mistakes!

Luke Ch. 3 v 13-18

Distractions only distract you from what is true, so that your focus is on distractions…

But then the awakened willingness within comes, and it calls you to turn away from distractions. It calls you to return your mind fully to the awareness of truth. In this calling your distractions can serve the purpose of truth. For all things given to your willingness will be used by your willingness to waken the call within you. This will continue until your distractions are no more, and you are fully awake to the singular thought of God without distractions of any kind.

Luke Ch. 4 v 24-31

Do not deny the doubt that you see. It is not to be denied. It is the part of the mind that rejects the healing that is offered to it. It will seem to resist the healing and try to cast it away. But do not fear. In spite of its struggle and raucous noise, healing cannot be rejected. Through your willingness to be healed, healing will walk through the mob in your mind, passing it by in gentleness, leaving it in peace to quiet on its own.

This is the way we walk together. It is the way of peace and great joy.

Comment:

There is the explicit reference to joy. It is inevitable on this path, and this shows how it happens: “through your willingness to be healed.”

Corinthians I Ch. 10 v 18-22

I am waiting for your signal which is the empty shell. When you have given the signal to me I will know you are ready for the Light. You will not have to ask twice.

Corinthians II Ch 4 v 13-15

Above all else, watch your thoughts. What are you allowing your thoughts to think? Are you thinking of the illusion of the world as if it is real? If so, you are expressing your desire to accept the veil of darkness. Is this your true desire? If not, why do you permit yourself to express it through the activity of your thoughts?

Watch your thoughts. Ask them to express your true desire. Your thoughts must do as you ask, because you are the thinker of your thoughts. Let them express your true desire. If they do not, let them go.

Comment:

Recall discussion of “true desire” in the chapter entitled “The Way of Devotion.” These excerpts, and all that follow, form the core of the teachings from NTI.

Corinthians II Ch 4 v 16-18

Fix your eyes and your thoughts on the true desire of your Heart, not because it is your hope for the future, but because it is your reality now. You are what your Heart tells you that you are. Only you do not see it, because you do not focus yourself there.

Focus on the world, and you will believe the world. Believe the world, and you choose to keep the veil, which hides your truth.

Focus on your Heart in all your thoughts, and you choose against the veil. You choose, instead, that the veil may be lifted, that you may see your truth and your brother’s truth and know in the joy of your Heart that it is true.

Comment:

Recall in Root Cause Inquiry that the “negative foundational beliefs” (guilt, fear, etc.) connected with the “I am bad” belief are creations of the mind. Through realization of our own desire for truth, these creations become supplanted by the authentic view of us generated by the Source of Wisdom (divine guidance, Holy Spirit, etc.).

The foregoing NTI excerpt is pregnant with beautiful implications. When you “Focus on your Heart,” you dissolve the veil that separates you from this Source. Thus, while the “I am bad” belief comes from the mind, the truth that replaces it comes from the Heart.

Corinthians II Ch 5 v 1-10

This life that you experience within the world is a gift to yourself. It is a gift based upon a wish that you could experience something different. I have told you this before. I have also told you that it is a perfect gift, for you have given yourself exactly as you asked. You have the experience that is different from the experience of Heaven.

Comment:

The preceding passage refers to the birth of the ego, specifically, the split in which we became, in our minds, separate from God, i.e., “a wish that you could experience something different” (than the Kingdom of Heaven). This is the origin of all guilt and the split mind which we now have.

If this experience of the world is the experience you have asked to receive, why do you suffer from it? It is because you asked to suffer by asking not to experience Heaven.

Listen to me carefully now, for I will tell you why you think the way you do and why you experience that which you experience. In seeing the desire that has been hidden, you can decide to change the desire.

Corinthians II Ch 5 v 11-15

Within the mind now, you will find the desire for the world. You will know this is your desire if you watch your thoughts. For your thoughts are about the world, and your thoughts stem from your desire. I have told you that your mind is split. The desire for the world is split with the true desire of the Heart. Both are there, and so both are in your thoughts.

If you look in your mind, you will find that your mind is split and that your thoughts are split into two categories. You have thoughts of the world, and you have thoughts that are not of the world. The thoughts that are not of the world are the thoughts of letting go of the world. This is your true desire.

Comment:

Referring to chapter entitled “The Pathless Path,” these are, respectively, Rupert Spira’s domains of experience (thoughts of the world) and being (thoughts that are not of the world).

But when you look in your mind, where are your thoughts as you suffer, as you are afraid or as you are angry? Are they with God or are they with the world?

When your thoughts are with the world, you request an experience other than God. This, then, is the experience you are given. When you let go of the world, you experience truth.

Corinthians II Ch 5 v 16-21

This is what it means to become an empty shell. It is to let go of the world, thoughts of the world, and desire for the world.

Corinthians II Ch 6 v 1-10

You can choose to think apart from your experience. As you do this earnestly, your experience will change, and you will find yourself willing to let go of the world.

Comment:

What follows is a recipe for happiness in practical, “do this, now do that” terminology:

To think apart from your experience and to think apart from the world is a request that is to be taken literally in all circumstances without exception. This will seem to take practice, but as you practice, the increase in willingness will make the practice easier.

Here is how you are to practice: As you suffer, choose not to suffer. Let the experience of the body continue without the desire for the experience to be different. Rejoice that the experience is not your reality.

When you are afraid, choose not to be afraid by remembering that what you fear is not real. It is of the world or it is born of thoughts of the world. It is an experience but it is not real. It is not real, so it is not your truth.

Comment:

Realizing this world is not real becomes the path to indescribable joy.

Corinthians II Ch 6 v 11-14

When you are joyous because the world seems to be going your way, and today seems to be your day, remember that is not your joy. Your joy is truth, which is beyond the world.

I say to you, do not look at the world and ask how you should think or feel. This is to believe that the world is your lord. To believe that is to believe that it is real. Accept that it is not real by surrendering to your desire for truth. Accept the truth, and deny the world. Let your joy come from you, and accept not that the world can change it.

Corinthians II Ch 7 v 1-10

A mistake that you make is the belief that you are guilty for the imagining that you do. I tell you, you are not guilty because you are imagining. You are not guilty because you are taking a walk through fantasy. You are not guilty because you have literally done nothing.

This seems difficult for you to accept, because you believe the world. You believe the world is real, so you must be guilty. Can you see the direct connection between your belief in the world and your feeling of guilt?

Can you imagine for a moment that the world is not real? Can you imagine it as fantasy or a made up day dream? When you imagine this, really feel it. Feel that the world is not real. And when you feel it, do you see how your feeling of guilt goes too?

This is what I am telling you. The world is an illusion. It is not real. Heaven has not changed because of this imagined experience. And so you are not guilty. And because you are not guilty, you are free.

Comment:

With guilt gone, we now feel the source of real love.

I have told you before how loved you are. You have felt this love and known it. This love that I speak of, which you know is God, came to be known to you from within. This love that touched you and moved you with holiness came into your awareness from within you. And this love you knew was real. You felt its comfort and you recognized it.

Nothing in the world can comfort you and love you. The love that comforts always comes from within. You always feel it there and know it there. You may credit something in the world with having caused it, but that is a mistake. The love came into your mind and filled your awareness through your willingness to know yourself as love.

Comment:

Following is a description of a meditation practice that takes us within, from whence this love originates.

The Direct Means to Eternal Bliss by Michael Langford.

As stated previously, Mr. Langford has been Regina Dawn Akers’ teacher for a significant time and therefore has had a substantial influence in Awakening Together’s teachings. His teachings blend together seamlessly and in a most effective manner with those which we have been considering, as we shall see momentarily.

The author uses the terminology defined in the Introduction, which includes the “little s” self, referring to the egoic “person-self” (manifesting as thought, especially “the I thought”), whereas “big-S” Self is the Self that is common to all of us as part of God, which manifests, as he puts it, as infinite-eternal-awareness-love-bliss. The Self is the true identity that we share, whereas the self is the separate “impostor” self, the ego, pretending to be real.

In Mr. Langford’s terminology, thought is something foreign, pretending to be the true Self but alien to it. It is in fact not a real entity and is opposed to our true nature. The awareness that looks through the eyes now, that appears to wake up in the morning, is the true Self.

He states, “living from thought instead of living from awareness is the cause of all human suffering.” [Langford, Michael, The Direct Means to Eternal Bliss, Freedom Religion Press, 2015, p. 17]

His position statement is that humans have been living with the same unsolved problems of sorrow, fear, violence, war, cheating and lying for thousands of years. They remain “stuck in the same pool of unsolved inward problems” because of the impostor self – the ego.

The ego knows that if attention is turned inward, it will be found to be a myth, an illusion, a dream. Therefore, through a series of clever manipulations, the ego strives to maintain in us an outward-facing perspective, when in fact the problems posed by the ego can only be solved by looking inward.

As Mr. Langford puts it, “the impostor (thought) pretending to be your Self should not be tolerated even for one moment. [It] is like a parasite. Because the ego is afraid of ending, and controls all thinking, it directs thought in ways that preserve its imaginary self so that it will not be brought to an end.” [Langford, The Direct Means to Eternal Bliss, p. 16]

He writes, “Instead of spending all of one’s time in spiritual practice, the ego finds almost endless ways to spend one’s spare time, and this is one of the ego’s primary preservation strategies. Some examples are television, entertainment, reading, discussion, and thinking. The ego can find thousands of ways to avoid spiritual practice.” [Langford, The Direct Means to Eternal Bliss, p. 35]

He writes, “Instead of spending all of one’s time in spiritual practice, the ego finds almost endless ways to spend one’s spare time, and this is one of the ego’s primary preservation strategies. Some examples are television, entertainment, reading, discussion, and thinking. The ego can find thousands of ways to avoid spiritual practice.”
[Langford, The Direct Means to Eternal Bliss, p. 35]

Ego preservation strategies include:

Scattering attention;
Pretending that a journey through thought is an authentic spiritual experience;
Choosing belief over the Direct Experience of awareness;
Wasting time;
Spending time in entertainment; and,
Reading one spiritual book after another to avoid the practice that leads to the ego’s final end.

Mr. Langford states that “the ego has convinced almost all humans and almost all spiritual aspirants that thought is a means to know absolute Truth.” [Langford, The Direct Means to Eternal Bliss, p. 29] He points out that for these people intent on spiritual awakening, it is essential to stop using thoughts and concepts as a means to know absolute Truth. The proper use of videos, books, retreats and concepts in general is to drive us to practice [This principle is reiterated frequently by Ms. Akers]. It is only through spiritual practice (meditation) that awakening occurs.

The most essential ingredient is what Mr. Langford calls “the extremely intense desire for Liberation.” When this becomes sufficiently strong, this desire “will bring you everything you need to succeed in your quest for Liberation including the answers to all your questions, the Direct Path teachings, the solution to all obstacles, the motivation to practice, etc.” [Langford, The Direct Means to Eternal Bliss, p. 41]

The meditation techniques taught in this book direct one’s perspective inward to solve these challenges. In this book there are practice instructions – the “Direct Path teachings” -- for several different methods of meditation including: 1. The Awareness Watching Awareness Method. 2. The Abandon Release Method. 3. The Eternal Method. 4. The Infinite Space Method. 5. The Loving All Method. We will concentrate here on Awareness Watching Awareness.

The Awareness Watching Awareness method (AWA) is a Direct Path method as defined in the "Introduction". It is one of the most widely used and popular Direct Path methods, incorporating the key essential components of many other meditation techniques, for example practices used in Zen Buddhism, and Dzogchen in Tibetan Buddhism.

The practice is an adaptation of the well-known “I AM” meditation approach used by many teachers, such that the true meaning of meditating on “I AM” is in fact my awareness watching my awareness. Thus, the meditation is simply being conscious of one’s own awareness. This is the simple awareness that is present when one wakes up in the morning, or the background of awareness that is present during waking hours.

AWA is exceedingly simple. This simplicity is an essential aspect of the practice, because the ego will capitalize on any opportunity afforded by complexity to interject confusion, distortions and detours into the act of practice. The ego loves complexity and despises simplicity, which frustrates its attempts to sabotage the practice.

There are many ways to do AWA. One way, preferred by the present author, is to simply notice one’s own awareness. This can be the answer that arises when one asks the question, “Who is aware?” As one progresses, additional questions can be asked; for example, “Who hears these sounds?” “Who experiences these thoughts?” etc. Being conscious of the answer leads one directly into a state of Awareness Watching Awareness (AWA).

Awareness is that which is looking through your eyes reading this sentence – just your ordinary, everyday awareness. One need only notice this awareness. This is Awareness Watching Awareness! It really is that simple.

Mr. Langford offers 25 different scenarios for practicing Awareness Watching Awareness. Here are just a few samples:

Shut your eyes. Turn your awareness away from what your awareness is aware of and towards awareness only of itself.

Shut your eyes. Focus on the awareness that thoughts are arising in. Do not focus on the thoughts. Thoughts come and thoughts go. The awareness in which thoughts are arising does not come and go. Be aware of the awareness that does not come and go. When there are thoughts, watch the awareness, not the thoughts.

Look at the room, or if you are outside, look at the sky. Your awareness is the seer. Shut your eyes. See the seer. Turn your attention away from thought and towards the seer. [Langford, The Most Direct Means to Eternal Bliss, p. 84]

Awakening Together – Regina Dawn Akers

The Way of Community

The Teachings

Root Cause Inquiry

Literary works

NTI

The Direct Means to Eternal Bliss by Michael Langford.

Further Readings

Suggested Readings

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