Think of yourself as a guide helping someone explore their own house, but they believe they’re locked in just one room. Your toolkit helps them discover the whole house was always accessible.

1. Pointers are like giving them hints about what lies beyond that room: “The kitchen exists” or “There’s a garden.” These aren’t meant to be believed, just to spark curiosity. They’re deliberately incomplete because the full reality can’t be captured in words. Examples might be “Awareness is always present” or “You are not your thoughts.”

2. Questions are your primary investigation tools. They help clients look directly at their experience rather than their beliefs about experience. Instead of telling them there’s a door, you ask “What do you see on that wall?” Good questions bypass the thinking mind and point to direct experience: “What is aware of this moment?” or “Can you find where your thoughts come from?”

3. Exercises are structured explorations that clients can do in session or at home. They’re like giving them a flashlight and specific instructions: “Shine it in that corner and tell me what you see.” The famous “headless way” experiments or simple awareness exercises fall here.

4. Analogies make the unfamiliar relatable through familiar experiences. Just as I used the house metaphor above, you might compare awareness to a movie screen that remains unchanged by whatever film plays on it.

5. Understanding checks help you gauge where clients are and what’s needed next. “What did you notice during that exercise?” or “How would you explain this to someone else?” These reveal misconceptions and guide your next moves.

The art lies in knowing when to use each tool. Start with gentle pointers and simple analogies, then use questions to guide direct investigation. Exercises deepen the exploration, and understanding checks ensure you’re moving together. Your role isn’t to give clients new knowledge but to help them notice what’s already here. These tools aren’t teaching devices – they’re revealing devices.