Before you act on any thought that arises, any impulse, any plan, any habitual response, pause. Do not stop the thought. Simply notice that you are thinking it. Then notice the one who is noticing.

This is the witness. This is the doorway.

You do not need to maintain it perfectly. You only need to return to it. Again and again. Each return is enough.

Reflection works the same way. At the end of a day, or in the middle of one, simply ask: Where was I just now? Was I present, absent? The question itself is an act of waking.

Awakening is not self-improvement. It is the end of the self that needed improving.

J. Ashford.