user254: Is there text (e.g. suttas, and/or articles by modern authors) which describes "non-attachment" as an object of meditation? Specifically, how is "non-attachment" an "object"?
I'm asking partly because of this answer which says:

In the correct practise of Anapanasati, the meditation object is non-attachment. The resultant awareness of breathing is merely a sign (nimitta) that the mind is correctly non-attached.

I previously found texts reference more palpable meditation "objects", e.g. Kasinas or breathing.
I once found something which seemed like it might be a meditation on non-attachment, towards the end of the Atthi Raga Sutta (SN 12.64):

Just as if there were a roofed house or a roofed hall having windows on the north, the south, or the east. When the sun rises, and a ray has entered by way of the window, where does it land?"
"On the western wall, lord."
"And if there is no western wall, where does it land?"
"On the ground, lord."
"And if there is no ground, where does it land?"
"On the water, lord."
"And if there is no water, where does it land?"
"It does not land, lord."
"In the same way, where there is no passion for the nutriment of physical food... contact... intellectual intention... consciousness, where there is no delight, no craving, then consciousness does not land there or increase.

However, literally, that's presented more as if it's a simile than as an object or type of meditation.
In the context of "meditation on non-attachment", is awareness of breathing a symptom of attachment to (i.e. contact with) form and perception (or if not, why not)?
Have I misunderstood what's meant by "the meditation object is non-attachment" -- perhaps it means the "the meditation goal, ambition, or purpose is non-attachment", but not "the meditation focus or contact is non-attachment"?

user10100: Focusing on non-attachment for practitioner is daydreaming. It is like people daydream about money but never work to get any money. No one can get the effect before they will make the clause of that effect, similarly, no one can take non-attachment before they completely developed their meditation.
Non-attachment = wholesome consciousness & resultant consciousness & arahanta consciousness & nibbāna. 
Ārammaṇa = object = stuff is sensed or imagined by consciousness.
Ekāyano maggo = various paths that lead to just the same one destination (one destination of vipassanā = nibbāna).
Destination of samatha-meditation =  5 hindrances avoiding, not destroy. Samatha-meditation develop consciousness to focus on single object of samādhi consciousness, instead of various objects of uddaccha-hindrances consciousness. However, 5 hindrances still can arise after stop samatha-meditation.
Process of samatha-meditation =  just focus on samatha-object (and the way to develop that focusing), but overlook other objects.
Object of samatha-meditation =  breathe for ānāpānassati, 32 organs for kāyagatāsati, happiness living being for mettā, etc.
Destination of vipassana-meditation = destroy roots (avijjā&taṇhā) of causes and effects (paṭiccasamuppāda).
Process of vipassana-meditation =  After practitioners have gotten jhāna, then they leave jhāna, and focus on whole suffering to clearly comprehend suffering in the past, present, and future, as alike as it is. What suffering is? Suffering is anicca, dukkha, and anatta, that arising and vanishing by roots, so they are anicca, dukkha, and anattā. This clear comprehension about suffering will destroy roots (samudaya,avijjā&taṇhā), that ignores suffering, attaches suffering, and being clause of kamma that make the suffering, the whole khandha. (This is paṭiccasamuppāda and ariyasacca)
Object of vipassanā-meditation =  5 khandha, that are clauses and effects so they have 3 characterizes, that make we know 5 khandha is "suffering". And the roots/main clauses  of 5 khandha's arising and vanishing (avijjā taṇhā kamma āhāra phassa nāmarūpa).

Every wholesome consciousness are  non-attachments (kusalamūla is not akusalamūla).
So practitioner who getting anapanassati nimitta, has not attaching in nimitta. Because they just focus on breathe to pause their nivarana, 5 hindrances in 5  kāmaguṇa, the objects of the five physical senses.
If the practitioner attach nimitta, he having kāmachānda-hindrances. So his anapanassati nimitta, that appear because of wholesome consciousness, will lost. Then the meditation will not develop.

user11762: We can meditate on the awareness that doesn't develop attachments.
Phenomena come and go - freely, "not landing anywhere".
It can be described as the practice of Letting Go
With practice, we realize:

... When only concentration remains and there is no environment and no body, at that point there is still one thought left. The final step is to let go of even that one thought. And that would be letting go of the mind.

Anything that appears - consciously appears as empty.

The fourth of Bodhidharma's practices, "union with the Dharma," is a basic tenet of Buddhism that all phenomena are impermanent and do not have an intrinsic self. In the practice of union with the Dharma, we try to personally experience this impermanence and selflessness through direct contemplation of emptiness. This is the highest practice of Ch'an, and it leads to the highest attainment. It is the practice that allows us to reach the point of "entry through principle" that we talked about earlier. 
http://chancenter.org/chanctr/ddp/talks/spiritchan.html

Compare this with "Avalokitesvara Bodhisattva’s Method of Complete Penetration Through the Sense Organ of Hearing", described in Shurangama sutra.
For more details, see Charles Luk. The Secrets of Chinese meditation.
In my practice I used this method:

First you contemplate the sounds.
At some point, you shift the awareness to the sensory field where sounds appear. So you contemplate "the canvas of sound", rather than individual sounds.
Then at some point you move to the contemplation of feeling of hearing.

Then senses work very clearly, but without specific focusing on phenomena, no attachment arises.
Thus from the contemplation not attaching to phenomena we explore and develop non-attached awareness. And then we can let go even the contemplation.
Naturally not abiding, without loss of awareness, without generation of attachments.

user43: I think all these descriptions -  meditation on non-attachment, meditation with no goal, "just sitting", Diamond Samadhi etc. all refer to the type of meditation where your goal is to learn to be at peace with whatever happens in your phenomenal field - without either suppressing it or getting carried away by it.
One metaphor I heard to describe this, is the touch-and-go practice of the airplane pilots. You let the free-floating thoughts/emotions emerge and take shape just enough to get a flavor of each, but not to take over your awareness completely. You don't get attached to either the thoughtless state, or to any individual thought (or emotion) hence meditation on non-attachment. 

254: <p>Is there text (e.g. suttas, and/or articles by modern authors) which describes &quot;non-attachment&quot; as an object of meditation? Specifically, how is &quot;non-attachment&quot; an &quot;object&quot;?</p>
<p>I'm asking partly because of <a href="https://buddhism.stackexchange.com/a/21787/254">this answer</a> which says:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>In the correct practise of Anapanasati, the meditation object is non-attachment. The resultant awareness of breathing is merely a sign (nimitta) that the mind is correctly non-attached.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>I previously found texts reference more palpable meditation &quot;objects&quot;, e.g. <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kasina" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Kasinas</a> or breathing.</p>
<p>I once found something which seemed like it might be a meditation on non-attachment, towards the end of the <a href="http://www.accesstoinsight.org/tipitaka/sn/sn12/sn12.064.than.html" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Atthi Raga Sutta (SN 12.64)</a>:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Just as if there were a roofed house or a roofed hall having windows on the north, the south, or the east. When the sun rises, and a ray has entered by way of the window, where does it land?&quot;</p>
<p>&quot;On the western wall, lord.&quot;</p>
<p>&quot;And if there is no western wall, where does it land?&quot;</p>
<p>&quot;On the ground, lord.&quot;</p>
<p>&quot;And if there is no ground, where does it land?&quot;</p>
<p>&quot;On the water, lord.&quot;</p>
<p>&quot;And if there is no water, where does it land?&quot;</p>
<p>&quot;It does not land, lord.&quot;</p>
<p>&quot;In the same way, where there is no passion for the nutriment of physical food... contact... intellectual intention... consciousness, where there is no delight, no craving, then consciousness does not land there or increase.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>However, literally, that's presented more as if it's a simile than as an object or type of meditation.</p>
<p>In the context of &quot;meditation on non-attachment&quot;, is awareness of breathing a symptom of attachment to (i.e. contact with) form and perception (or if not, why not)?</p>
<p>Have I misunderstood what's meant by &quot;the meditation <em>object</em> is non-attachment&quot; -- perhaps it means the &quot;the meditation <em>goal, ambition, or purpose</em> is non-attachment&quot;, but not &quot;the meditation <em>focus or contact</em> is non-attachment&quot;?</p>
 10100: <p><strong>Focusing on non-attachment for practitioner is daydreaming</strong>. It is like people daydream about money but never work to get any money. No one can get the effect before they will make the clause of that effect, similarly, no one can take non-attachment before they completely developed their meditation.</p>

<p><strong>Non-attachment</strong> = wholesome consciousness &amp; resultant consciousness &amp; arahanta consciousness &amp; nibbāna. </p>

<p>Ārammaṇa = <strong>object</strong> = stuff is sensed or imagined by consciousness.</p>

<p>Ekāyano maggo = various paths that lead to just the <strong>same one destination</strong> (one destination of vipassanā = <strong>nibbāna</strong>).</p>

<p><strong>Destination of samatha-meditation</strong> =  5 hindrances avoiding, not destroy. Samatha-meditation develop consciousness to focus on single object of samādhi consciousness, instead of various objects of uddaccha-hindrances consciousness. However, 5 hindrances still can arise after stop samatha-meditation.</p>

<p><strong>Process of samatha-meditation</strong> =  just focus on samatha-object (and the way to develop that focusing), but overlook other objects.</p>

<p><strong>Object of samatha-meditation</strong> =  breathe for ānāpānassati, 32 organs for kāyagatāsati, happiness living being for mettā, etc.</p>

<p><strong>Destination of vipassana-meditation</strong> = destroy roots (avijjā&amp;taṇhā) of causes and effects (paṭiccasamuppāda).</p>

<p><strong>Process of vipassana-meditation</strong> =  After practitioners have gotten jhāna, then they leave jhāna, and focus on whole suffering to clearly comprehend suffering in the past, present, and future, as alike as it is. What suffering is? Suffering is anicca, dukkha, and anatta, that arising and vanishing by roots, so they are anicca, dukkha, and anattā. This clear comprehension about suffering will destroy roots (samudaya,avijjā&amp;taṇhā), that ignores suffering, attaches suffering, and being clause of kamma that make the suffering, the whole khandha. (This is paṭiccasamuppāda and ariyasacca)</p>

<p><strong>Object of vipassanā-meditation</strong> =  5 khandha, that are clauses and effects so they have 3 characterizes, that make we know 5 khandha is "suffering". And the roots/main clauses  of 5 khandha's arising and vanishing (avijjā taṇhā kamma āhāra phassa nāmarūpa).</p>

<hr>

<p>Every wholesome consciousness are  non-attachments (kusalamūla is not akusalamūla).</p>

<p>So practitioner who getting anapanassati nimitta, has not attaching in nimitta. Because they just focus on breathe to pause their nivarana, 5 hindrances in 5  kāmaguṇa, the objects of the five physical senses.</p>

<p>If the practitioner attach nimitta, he having kāmachānda-hindrances. So his anapanassati nimitta, that appear because of wholesome consciousness, will lost. Then the meditation will not develop.</p>
 11762: <p>We can meditate on the <strong>awareness that doesn't develop attachments</strong>.</p>

<p>Phenomena come and go - freely, "not landing anywhere".</p>

<p>It can be described as the practice of <em><a href="http://www.chancenter.org/chanctr/ddp/channews/09-1982.html" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Letting Go</a></em></p>

<p>With practice, we realize:</p>

<blockquote>
  <p>... When only concentration remains and there is no environment and no body, at that point there is still one thought left. The final step is to let go of even that one thought. And that would be letting go of the mind.</p>
</blockquote>

<p>Anything that appears - consciously appears as empty.</p>

<blockquote>
  <p>The fourth of Bodhidharma's practices, "union with the Dharma," is a basic tenet of Buddhism that all phenomena are impermanent and do not have an intrinsic self. In the practice of union with the Dharma, we try to personally experience this impermanence and selflessness through direct contemplation of emptiness. This is the highest practice of Ch'an, and it leads to the highest attainment. It is the practice that allows us to reach the point of "entry through principle" that we talked about earlier. </p>
  
  <p><em><a href="http://chancenter.org/chanctr/ddp/talks/spiritchan.html" rel="nofollow noreferrer">http://chancenter.org/chanctr/ddp/talks/spiritchan.html</a></em></p>
</blockquote>

<p>Compare this with <em><a href="http://chancenter.org/cmc/1996/03/26/avalokitesvara-bodhisattvas-method-of-complete-penetration-through-the-sense-organ-of-hearing-part-1/" rel="nofollow noreferrer">"Avalokitesvara Bodhisattva’s Method of Complete Penetration Through the Sense Organ of Hearing"</a></em>, described in <em>Shurangama sutra</em>.</p>

<p>For more details, see <em>Charles Luk. The Secrets of Chinese meditation</em>.</p>

<p>In my practice I used this method:</p>

<ol>
<li>First you contemplate the sounds.</li>
<li>At some point, you shift the awareness to the sensory field where sounds appear. So you contemplate "the canvas of sound", rather than individual sounds.</li>
<li>Then at some point you move to the contemplation of feeling of hearing.</li>
</ol>

<p>Then senses work very clearly, but without specific focusing on phenomena, no attachment arises.</p>

<p>Thus from the contemplation not attaching to phenomena we explore and develop non-attached awareness. And then we can let go even the contemplation.</p>

<p>Naturally not abiding, without loss of awareness, without generation of attachments.</p>
 43: <p>I think all these descriptions -  meditation on non-attachment, meditation with no goal, "just sitting", Diamond Samadhi etc. all refer to the type of meditation where your goal is to learn to be at peace with whatever happens in your phenomenal field - without either suppressing it or getting carried away by it.</p>

<p>One metaphor I heard to describe this, is the touch-and-go practice of the airplane pilots. You let the free-floating thoughts/emotions emerge and take shape just enough to get a flavor of each, but not to take over your awareness completely. You don't get attached to either the thoughtless state, or to any individual thought (or emotion) hence meditation on non-attachment. </p>
