Look with Detachment
I thought rather than talk about a subject it may be more beneficial to go a bit deeper into practice, so that you may get the experience of it instead of just the words.
So, for the first method, I would like to offer you looking with detachment. This is a way of releasing the mind from not just what it sees, but also what it imagines it sees!
Both of these perspectives are the same, it’s just that the mind separates them to complicate and reinforce its position.
Neither of them is, in fact, you doing anything but the mind-controlling that it understands as reality.
What we are trying to do here is to let the mind release its controls so that the real “I” surfaces.
Silence is always the fertile soil that we must grow within if we are to create anything that is lasting. Nothing added so that nothing can ever be taken away.
Detachment: Now to begin
Either use a picture or an object as your focal point for the mind to understand. It can be anything at all, but perhaps not something that you attach to.
Adopt any comfortable seated position, do not worry which one you use, just make sure you will not fall asleep and not be disturbed.
Start by looking at the object and let the mind make of it what it will because the mind will start to create its or drama around why it is being asked to look at it.
Keep with the looking and do not let the mind distract you away from the object. If the mind starts to pull you this way or that be aware this is taking place and bring yourself back to just looking.
After a while, you may find that the mind is pulling harder and it takes more effort to resist. Stay with it. All good things require some effort!
What we are doing is tricking the mind into not wanting to recognise what’s in front of it so that when we can sit without the mind grasping at control, we can allow the “I” to look at what it sees and not feel it has to understand or know anything about the object!
The “I” that I point to is not you or anyone else. It is the “I” that is looking through every eye that is the Universal awareness we call God or the Divine.
It is truth indivisible, it never changes.
You could say that the “I” has complete awareness of all that is, so does not understand attachments!
This is where you will find yourself one day sitting with total awareness of everything around you and basking in the awareness of everything and nothing.
Everything is here, but nothing requires attention.