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Discovering Loch Kelly

By Jacob Gotwals, July 14, 2019. Part of: Jacob's Blog, The Spiritual Awakening for Geeks Blog.

Yesterday, I heard a podcast episode that really caught my attention. It was on Michael Taft’s podcast, Deconstructing Yourself. The episode was called “Loch Kelly on Awareness, Freedom, and Effortless Mindfulness.”

This was the first time I’d heard Loch Kelly or experienced any of his work, and I was pretty impressed and excited about it. He’s a psychotherapist and he has done a lot of work exploring various meditative traditions and contemplative technologies. He’s studied with some of the same Tibetan Buddhist teachers that have inspired me. He also has experience with Theravadan Buddhism and is familiar with neuroscience research, and he integrates all of that into his work—which I think is really cool. It looks like he’s been able to describe some practices clearly and concisely, well-targeted for our culture, in an egalitarian way, with a lot of humility and a minimum of hierarchy. Really pretty well aligned with my values and my interests.

Ever since I heard that, yesterday afternoon, I’ve been pretty excited about learning more about his work. I bought his most recent book, which is called The Way of Effortless Mindfulness, and I just started reading it this morning. I’ve pretty impressed. I’m looking forward to experimenting with some of the practices he talks about, which are quite similar to some of the practices that I learned in my study of Tibetan Buddhism. I’m looking forward to exploring his take on those practices, seeing how it relates to what I’ve experienced, and seeing what I can learn from it and how I might be able to grow. I have a feeling this is going to impact Spiritual Awakening for Geeks and impact how I think about—and how I teach—meditation and awakening. I’m looking forward to seeing how all that goes and evolves.

Also, as a psychotherapist, I was really interested and I’m excited to hear about him talk about how he has applied awakening-related practices—nondual practices—in his psychotherapy work with a lot of success with his clients and patients who have experienced a lot of trauma. I’m looking forward to learning how I might integrate that into my psychotherapy work, as well.

References

  • "Loch Kelly on Awareness, Freedom, and Effortless Mindfulness" on Michael Taft’s podcast Deconstructing Yourself.

  • Loch Kelly’s book The Way of Effortless Mindfulness: A Revolutionary Guide for Living an Awakened Life.

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