When a meditator engages in quiet awareness of the "here and now," rather than concentrating on an object, sound, or activity, the person is employing: ?

The person is employing "the open monitoring technique."

In "open monitoring meditation" one starts to practice “awareness of thinking.”  All we should do to rehearse this type of reflection is to know about our musings and emotions and watch them without connection. From multiple points of view the meditator turns into a logical eyewitness of the workings of his or her own brain, and starts to have an expanding consciousness of exactly what considerations achieve changes in feelings: what makes them upbeat and what makes them pitiful.  

stewards ice box was the purchase of alaska from russia and it was called that because people thought it was not a good idea to purchase alaska