Just One Look Forum Archives

Hello folks! I am new here. I ran across Just One Look while looking for advice on how to properly do Michael Langford's Awareness Watching Awareness meditation.

His technique seems difficult to me, but JOL is very easy. I felt a lot of energy/joy the first time I tried it.

Are the two techniques actually pointing at the very same thing? I was wondering if anyone here has an opinion about this.

I should add that I'm still trying AWA because ML is very insistent that his readers not give up on it, and keep trying the method exactly.

Nice to meet you all!

Hello, deeplooking,

Nice to make your acquaintance and I am glad you started the Just One Look method.

I came across John and Carla's work about 9 years ago, at the end of a period of intense spiritual search and can attest to the fact that the Just One Look method put a definitive end to that excruciating effort. I hope my experience proves useful to you.

I personally did a lot of analysis, comparison and synthesis of different methods and teachers, ranging from buddhist to Advaita Vedanta, aztec, Cristian and many others in between. I am very happy today to say...I really don't know!

I don't know if the Just One Look and the Awareness Watching Awareness point to the same reality. If they do, they sure go about doing it in different ways. There are so many directions, so many teachings, so many instructions to follow, and sometimes we get lost in the search, not knowing what is best, what is safe, what is flawless, what is right and effective.

And this is where John Sherman's discovery shines in its simplicity and its brilliance. All that's needed is the honest desire and impulse to take a brief look at the most intimate, the most intense and the most solid element in my existence, the ME of me, the I of me. All that's needed is to turn the attention around and look at that. And the rest takes care of itself. Whether that's awareness, attention, the cosmic mind, the local mind, the all-encompassing love, I don't know. And it's not necessary to understand it either, only to do it once. Isn't that nice? The rest takes care of itself.

Now, don't believe I'm any better, brighter or wiser than anybody else. I came upon John and Carla's instructions and they were right under my nose for 2 years while I perused meditation methods and release techniques.

And once I was all out of options I actually tried to look at myself. I didn't become a sage, a monk or an initiate. One day I just woke up, got dressed and, on my way to work, for the first time in my life, I felt: wouldn't you know it, there really is no need to understand all of that...it's enough to live one's life without anxiety.

If you like the AWA method, by all means, keep at it, it surely has value. As far as the Just One Look method goes, if you've tried it once, it will do its work on the fear of life and you'll be allright.

Take care and all the best,

DragosCristian

Hey deeplooking!

What a great good luck you found your way here - and DragosCristian, you did a great Job with your answer, there's actually no need to add anything. I'm here since 2008 and still flashed by the simplicity and usefulness of John and Carlas insight. To me, it sounds like you did it all right, so don't worry about any details. Do whatever feels right to you, and in between have a quick look at yourself, as described here, and as you probably already did. You will at times feel good, other times bad, yet your whole life will slowly but surely find a much more stable basis. Consider yourself very lucky!

With love,

Jan

Welcome, deeplooking.

I'm happy to hear that looking at yourself with your mind's eye gave you an experience of joy. That rarely happens. It's not required, though. It would have worked for you even if you hadn't noticed any internal response whatsoever, as is the case with most people trying this.

I too agree that continuing with AWA meditations will not harm you. Anything that helps you deal with the things that life or your mind throws at you will be alright. In my experience, it might even be required to stick with meditation for a while, to stabilize your psychology. You just pulled the rug from under it, which can cause it to make quite a racket. Therefore, please do not be disappointed if you develop differently. I've seen people posting after 4 years or so, that the first look doesn't do anything. It can be difficult to accept that most changes happen sort of under the radar. This is what makes this method so unique. Rather than giving you great experiences worth remembering, it actually turns you over to your own natural state, and that completely differs from what we've been taught to expect.

Should you feel like it some time down the road, learning Self-Directed Attention is recommended as an ongoing practice during the aftermath of the first look.

Felix

Good to hear of experience with Just One Look. Easy i don't know, but for me it is direct.