1. Sitting comfortably with your hands in your lap, or standing in a quiet spot, look at the cover of a book.
2. Relax your eyes and simply look.
3. Allow your attention to examine the details of the book's cover.
4. Continue doing this until you see something that catches your attention.
5. Then focus on why it caught your attention. Was it the color, the shape, the texture?
6. Refocus on the book's cover, and continue for a few moments.
7. Does something else arise to take your attention?
8. Notice any connections you make between the book's cover and your personal experience as you do this exercise.
Whatever arises for you is a bit of insight. It may not be the most profound insight you will ever experience, but it is insight. In the moments when we are not totally focused on the outer environment, or when we have a gap in our thought process, we allow insight to pop into our minds.
You don't need a huge gap, just a relaxed state and attention to the meditation process.
The simple act of altering your focus can place you in a slightly altered state of mind. In fact, we alter our states of mind every moment of out waking (and sleeping) life. We are constantly processing information, relating it to what we already know, and storing it for future use. Usually we are not conscious of the process, but we enter an altered state from moment to moment to moment.
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