How to really pay attention, an abbreviated guide:
Don't.
But seriously though.
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OK, a bit less facetiously:
Awareness of any given thing does not require a "you" "being" "aware". Not talking ontology, here. Just simple technique.
If you are "being" something into the picture, that is a *distraction*, unless you are concentrating on that being-thing.
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There is a mode of awareness that looks, for example, like "I am pouring tea".
The "I am" here is superfluous to the "pouring" and the "tea", and vice-versa.
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There is another mode of awareness, applicable to the same situation, that looks like "I am".
Or like "pouring tea".
If you want to really get into one of these things, they can always be dissociated from each other (as objects of concentration, that is).
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I don't know that I particularly know what I'm talking about here. This is just how I've tended to break down my concentration practice.
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