My teaching draws from both approaches in a complementary way.

In Mindfulness based systems and traditions such as Insight Meditation and other forms of Buddhism, meditation techniques quiet and focus the mind, by concentrating attention on objects such as the breath, body sensations, thoughts, feelings, sounds, etc. Little by little the mind and body are clarified, healed, and purified. We eventually see through the limited, fixed sense of self, realizing our true nature which is love and well-being.

This approach is based on progressing through increasing levels of purification and insight. This is extremely effective in quieting the mind, lessening stress and emotional reactivity, and healing past traumas. It also takes work and effort to develop sufficiently effective meditation skills to gain these benefits.

The Direct Path (Nonduality)

In the Direct Path we go directly to awareness. In meditation, there is no attempt to focus attention or quiet the mind, or change any other aspect of our experience (thoughts, feelings, sensations, perceptions). We let go of any effort and simply abide in awareness. This is being, not doing.

In this approach, meditation is not a skill we need to learn and get better at. Meditation is resting in awareness, which is already present. When we abandon action, goal, and effort, we naturally relax and fall back, behind the mind, into awareness. Awareness is aware of the mind, but it is not the mind. Awareness is the being that we are, the sense of “I am” behind all experience. This is the essential understanding of Nonduality, upon which the Direct Path is based.

Awareness is Who We Are

The words awareness, being, consciousness, true nature, and love all point to the same thing: who and what we ultimately are. Being has been and will always be directly accessible to us. When we relax our habitual focus on the content of experience, we naturally return to who we are. When we let go of the conditioned struggle to create pleasant and avoid unpleasant experience, our true nature of peace, happiness and love is revealed. Abiding in being, we are truly at peace.

The Direct approach is direct but it is not instantaneous. For almost everyone it is gradual, as one habitually gets drawn back into thought, sensation, and perception, and loses the immediate awareness of being. But every moment of pure awareness, of pure being, is a moment of awakening. There is no degree of being that is more or less awakened, there is just being, so there is no progress. We are always fully who we are, regardless of what is happening in experience.

Integrating Two Paths

Many people who have meditated in other traditions and practices, often for years or decades, have found that the Direct Path brings the peace, happiness and love they have been longing and hoping for but not yet fully realized. And for those just starting out, it can be motivating to realize that for spiritual awakening our minds and our experiences do not need to be transformed, purified, or changed, but can remain as they are. Awakening is not something that happens to our minds or our identities; “we” do not awaken; awakening is our true nature revealed when the activity of identifying with thoughts, emotions and sensations ceases.

Mindfulness is relevant and essential for many people. It is one of the most powerful and effective ways to calm an over-stimulated mind, and integrate and heal internalized emotional patterns and ease traumas. The mind, body and emotions need care, support and healing, and Mindfulness practices provide that in a deep and meaningful way. Unlike the Direct approach, Mindfulness teaches us how to let go of identifying with experience by paying close and careful attention to it. By skillfully attending to our relational, psychological and emotional patterns and conditioning, we can grow out of harming ourselves and others in speech and action. As this deepens, we eventually realize our thoughts and emotions are not who we truly are, but are conditioned phenomena that arise and pass. Awakening is the realization that we are the being that remains aware behind it all.

Going Further

I teach the Direct Path and Nonduality alongside focused and powerful Mindfulness practices. This happens in small dedicated groups, on free weekly guided meditations on Zoom, and on residential meditation retreats held in a beautiful retreat center in the Rocky Mountains of Colorado. They all incorporate a mix of instruction, guided and unguided meditation, sharing and discussion. Together we open up to love, resting more and more in the peace of our true nature.