Recently, I had an email exchange with Jonathan Robinson, my friend and co-host on our Awareness Explorers podcast. I had just finished reading the book, The Yoga of Consciousness: 25 Direct Practices to Enlightenment by SantataGamana, and knowing that Jonathan is a self-described method junkie, I thought a book that contained 25 different methods or practices would interest him. But my email to him contained a typo. I wrote, "Chapter 16, 'Practicing Non-Duality,' indeed has 215 methods, similar to Awareness Games." When I discovered my mistake, I wrote back, "Correction: 25 Methods (not 215). Typo." Jonathan responded, "Damn! I almost had a spontaneous orgasm when I saw 215." I replied, "Oops. But the 25 are choice. And I like the writing. So it's still worth it." But Jonathan had already eagerly purchased the book, and so he wrote back, "That's all fine and good, but can you come up with the other 190 methods that you just 'took' from me?" "Well, the title is 25 Direct Practices... after all," I replied, "But I think I can come up with 190 more." We were joking around with each other of course, but I couldn't resist the challenge of coming up with 190 practices, just for fun. So here goes… 190 Methods 1. Notice Awareness. 2. Become aware of awareness. 3. Be awareness. 4. Be consciousness. 5. Ask yourself, "Who am I?" 6. Ask yourself, "What is this 'me'?" 7. Ask yourself, "Who's experiencing this?" 8. Notice your body. Ask "Who has a body?" 9. Be the background. 10. Take a half step back in your mind and be that which sees. 11. Be the witness. 12. Ask yourself, "who hears this sound?" 13. Ask yourself, "who has this thought?" 14. Ask yourself, "Where does this thought come from?" 15. Ask yourself, "Did I decide to have this thought?" 16. Ask yourself, "What is the Self?" 17. Ask yourself, "Am I my hand?" 18. Ask yourself, "Am I my torso?" 19. Ask yourself, "Am I my head?" 20. Ask yourself, "Am I my body" 21. Ask yourself, "Am I my mind?" 22. Notice present experience. 23. Ask yourself, "Am I aware?" 24. Ask yourself, "How do I know I'm aware?" 25. Ask yourself, "Is it possible to not be aware?" 26.Try to step away from yourself. 27.Ignore all thoughts about the past. 28.Ignore all thoughts about the future. 29.Shift your attention from the content of awareness to awareness itself. 30.Shift your attention from what you're looking at to what's looking. 31.Notice if the sounds you hear and the sensations in your body appear in the same field of awareness. 32.Imagine you are bigger than your body, looking at your body from outside of it. 33.Imagine all you experience is made of awareness. 34.Notice what's in your experience other than words in your head. 35.Ignore all thought. 36.Notice if the sights you see and the thoughts in your mind appear in the same field of awareness. 37.See if there are many awarenesses or just one. 38.Examine the nature of awareness: Does it have a shape? 39.Examine the nature of awareness: Does it have qualities? 40.Examine the nature of awareness: Does it have dimensions? 41.Examine the nature of awareness: Does it have limits? 42.Examine the nature of awareness: Does it appear in time? 43.Notice what has not changed since you were a little child. 44.Notice what's noticing. 45.Notice what's experiencing. 46.Notice what's feeling. 47.Notice noticing. 48.Instead of objects being outside of you, imagine objects are experienced within you. 49.Instead of awareness being in you, imagine you are in awareness. 50.Allow everything to be as it is. 51.Don't have any intention. 52.Do nothing. 53.Just be. 54.See your body and mind as empty of separate existence. 55.See that only you, universal consciousness, have existence. 56.Be the silence in which sounds appear. 57.Be the space in which objects appear. 58.Be the emptiness in which thoughts appear. 59.Be the eternal now in which time appears. 60.Imagine there is nothing. 61.Imagine there is only one thing. 62.Notice what already accepts everything. 63.Notice what already loves unconditionally. 64.Be that acceptance. 65.Be that love. 66.Love unconditionally. 67.Allow thoughts to come and go. 68.Allow feelings to come and go. 69.Allow experiences to come and go. 70.Do not hold on to anything. 71.Let go of resistance to any thought. 72.Let go of resistance to any feeling. 73.Let go of resistance to any experience. 74.Relax and be still. 75.Allow your heart to open. 76.Let your body's edges become soft. 77.Let your body's edges become translucent. 78.Let your body's edges become porous. 79.Expand your boundaries as far as you can imagine. 80.Be a river, and float downstream. 81.Be a mirror and reflect everything choicelessly. 82.Know knowingness. 83.Be knowingness alone. 84.Shift your identity from the body to what's aware of the body. 85.Shift your identity from the mind to what's aware of the mind. 86.Shift your identity from your name to what knows your name. 87.Imagine you were just born. 88.Imagine you know no language. 89.Imagine what's looking out through your eyes is identical to what's looking out through everyone else's eyes. 90.Imagine what's looking out through your eyes is the same thing as what's looking out through everyone else's eyes. 91.See your body as an action figure. 92.See your body and mind as a camera. Be the photographer behind it. 93.See your body and mind as robot. Be the controller behind it. 94.See your body and mind as a Mars rover. Be Mission Control. 95.See your ego as a temporary whirlpool in a river, and dissolve back into the river. 96.Ask, "Is awareness ever not present?" 97.Notice that awareness is aware. 98.Notice that awareness is aware effortlessly. 99.Use the least amount of effort possible to keep your attention on awareness itself. 100.Shift your attention from virtual reality of the past and future to real reality of the present. 101.Be Now. Be Here. Be This. 102.See the world as appearing within you. 103.See the world as you. 104.Be the passenger to your experience. 105.Allow fear to be here. 106.Allow anxiety to be here. 107.Allow sadness to be here. 108.Know that fear is only trying to protect you. 109.Know that anxiety is only trying to protect you. 110.Know that sadness is only trying to protect you. 111.Thank the fear for protecting you. 112.Thank the anxiety for protecting you. 113.Thank the sadness for protecting you. 114.Notice what's noticing your breathing. 115.Allow everyone else to be as they are. 116.Know that everyone does what is in their nature to do. 117.Forgive everyone. 118.Forgive yourself. 119.Free the world from your expectations. 120.Say "yes" to everything. 121.What do you experience without analyzing? 122.What do you experience without concepts? 123.Be the screen that experience appears on. 124.Be the blank canvas that experience is painted on. 125.Be the blank page that words are written on. 126.Be the blank whiteboard that diagrams are drawn on. 127.Find out if you choose your thoughts. 128.Notice what is already happy. 129.See if you can stay with "Now. Here. This" without stepping away into past memory or imagined future. 130.Ask yourself, "Would I know I'm not enlightened without consulting the past?" 131.Imagine happiness wasn’t something to get. 132.Imagine happiness wasn’t something that comes from outside or arrives from elsewhere. 133.Imagine happiness wasn’t something to pursue, or to hope will happen sometime in the future. 134.Imagine happiness was something that’s already here, inside each of us, just waiting, hoping to be noticed. 135.Imagine happiness was our natural state, simply obscured by our thoughts about fixing, changing, improving. 136.Imagine happiness was our true self, informed by the unconditional choiceless acceptance of all that is. 137.What if all we have to do is notice it? 138.Instead of thinking of it as becoming happy, think of it as becoming happiness. Notice that we already are happiness. 139.Ask, "Is the sky affected by clouds?" 140.Ask, "Is the sky affected by birds?" 141.Be the sky, not the clouds. 142.Be the sky, not the birds. 143.Ask, "Is awareness affected by anything that appears in it?" 144.Be the awareness, not what appears in it. 145.Then be everything that appears as well. Because it's all made of awareness. 146.What if the body and mind are universal consciousness’s drones, sent forth into the world to record images and sounds and transmit them back to universal consciousness? 147.What if consciousness was not local? 148.Know that you are doing the best you possibly can. 149.How do you know what's supposed to happen? Look at what's happening. That's what's supposed to happen. 150.Surrender control. 151.Let go of trying to change your experience. 152.Let go of trying to fix yourself. 153.Let go of trying to fix others. 154.Let go of trying to fix the world. 155.Turn your attention to the sense of "I Am." 156.Abide as "I am." 157.Abide as pure awareness. 158.Be pure subjectivity. 159.Be the "Big I," not the "Little Me." 160.When listening to others, listen from awareness, not from the judging or planning mind. 161.When listening to music, imagine it arising and appearing within you. 162.When in nature, imagine yourself as part of nature. 163.Imagine there is no separation between you and everything else. 164.See that nothing is permanent. Except awareness. 165.See that nothing is perfect. Except awareness. 166.See that nothing is complete. Except awareness. 167.When riding in a car, bus, plane, or train, imagine that, instead of you moving through your environment, imagine your environment moving through you. 168.When moving your hand through the air, imagine that it's simply pixels changing color. 169.Ask yourself, "Has anything you've ever experienced—or could ever experience—happened outside of awareness?" 170.Every time you feel a negative emotion, ask "What is this appearing in?" 171.Every time you feel a negative emotion, be the pure awareness that sees it. 172.Find out what thought is made of. 173.Find out whether thought happens by itself. 174.See how long you can go without words going through your mind. 175.Ask, "Does the past exist without thought?" 176.Ask, "What if I completely forgot my story? Would I be the same person? 177.When thoughts come, don't let them linger; let them slide out the other side. 178.See that consciousness is all there is. 179.See that all there is is consciousness. 180.Let go of all effort. 181.Repeat your name over and over until it loses all meaning. 182.See that all is well. 183.See that all is one. 184.See that all is you. 185.Imagine the universe looking at itself through a little window of your face. 186.Imagine the universe looking at itself through seven billion little windows of eyes. 187.Imagine the "million-eyed mind." 188.See the universe as you. 189.Know that God is looking out through your eyes at himself. 190.Be. One Method That is, all methods in a nutshell • Allow whatever is arising right now to be just as it is, without any attempt to change it. o Without any attempt to understand it, describe it, label it, or improve it. o Without any attempt to get rid of anything, or to bring about anything. • Turn your attention from the content of awareness to awareness itself. • Turn around again and be awareness itself, looking at the world and at yourself. • See that no experience is outside of awareness. o In other words, you are all, all is you, you are awareness, all is awareness. • Rest as that. Rest As Awareness.