“As long as we are noticing we are practising. Don’t then think ‘I’m a bad person’ – to notice is a positive thing – commit to just notice without doing something. We don’t have to change then and there. We might think ‘what’s the point of being aware if I’m not going to change anything?’- but things do change. It changes because of a change in our attitude.

We are not thinking ‘I’m being aware in order for me to change’, it’s more like: I’m being aware because awareness has a power in its own right and I’m going to trust that power. That power of awareness.

Eventually we realise that we are not really experiencing anything other than our awareness.”

Lama Shenpen Hookham

From the Heart of Meditation course, the first part of the Living the Awakened Heart Training– the structured, comprehensive, supported, distance learning programme in Buddhist meditation, reflection and insight. The training, which is open to all, brings the profound Dzogchen and Mahamudra teachings to a Western audience in an experiential, accessible way, through spiral learning. Find out more and how to join at www.ahs.org.uk/training