Relax, with your eyes open or closed. Settle into just being here, a peaceful body breathing. Observe the sensations of your breath coming and going. Establish a clear sense of observing as distinct from that which is observed.
Observe the flow of mind-objects without getting drawn into them; don’t chase mental carrots or struggle with sticks.
Have thoughts and so on, but don’t be them: don’t identify with the contents of awareness. Watch the movie without stepping into the screen.
Allow experiences to come and go without attempting to influence them. Likes and dislikes may arise regarding mind-objects; accept these preferences as just more mind-objects. See that all mind-objects have the same nature: they come and they go.
Settle into the present moment. Drop the past and let go of the future. Receive each moment without trying to connect one moment to the next. Abide as presence, neither remembering nor planning. There is no straining, no seeking for anything. Nothing to have, nothing to do, nothing to be.
Notice the gaps between mind-objects, a palpable way to discern the field of awareness distinct from its contents. For example, deliberately think a specific thought, such as “there is breathing,” and then observe what is present immediately before and after the thought. See that there is a kind of peaceful readiness, an unused capacity, a fertile vacancy.
Notice the spacelike qualities of awareness: it is boundless, still and silent, empty until something appears, vast enough to hold anything, always present and reliable, and never altered by the mind-objects passing through it like shooting stars. But do not mistake any concept of awareness – which is just another mind-object – for awareness itself. Keep returning to simply being, simply present, opening out to the infinite, without boundaries.
Gently explore other qualities of awareness; stay with your direct experience instead of conceptualizing awareness. Is there a kind of luminosity to it? Does awareness have a subtle compassion? Are mind- objects simply modifications of awareness itself ?