Experienced meditators combine meditation with sleep, thereby awakening consciousness in the higher worlds.

Proper meditation must be combined with drowsiness.

My preferred method of meditating is to just let everything be as it is. Is there any specific instruction for the type of meditation that you are talking about?

Sometimes I meditate on equanimity. But I stopped doing that since I realized that equanimity is just a natural byproduct of allowing everything to be as it is.

Isn't it true that meditation just starts to happen on its own when we allow everything to be as it is? And when I say "allow everything to be as it is" I'm not talking about indulging my destructive fantasies, I'm just talking about letting things come and go, without clinging. Can't this approach to meditation also awaken consciousness?

The form of meditation you’re referencing is beneficial and can awaken consciousness. It is a non-exclusive or Zen form of meditation.

This can be more difficult than exclusive forms of meditation, whereby you concentrate upon one object at the exclusion of everything else. However, the end result is illumination.

These two courses explain both methods well:

This can be more difficult than exclusive forms of meditation, whereby you concentrate upon one object at the exclusion of everything else. However, the end result is illumination.

Why do you say that the non-exclusive or Zen form of meditation is more difficult? Isn't it easier since you don't have to focus on anything and you can just let your mind wander.

And are you implying that even during the Zen meditation you have to retain a sense of equanimity? Equanimity with whatever arises in the mind? I haven't really been doing that, and maybe I should...

Non-exclusive meditation is not mental wandering. Study the two courses we provided for clarity.

Yes, Zen meditation requires equanimity. Study the following course for a better understanding of how to master it:

Thanks, Almustafa.

I came to the conclusion that it's not necessary to manufacture a state of equanimity since equanimity is already the nature of the mind. Trying to concentrate or focus on equanimity is counterproductive, leads to suppression, and just creates another delusion. The thoughts that arise within the field of consciousness arise from consciousness itself and are therefore not separate from consciousness. It is a function of consciousness to give rise to ideas. If you focus on the equanimous aspect of consciousness at the exclusion of the turbulence of the contents of consciousness you would only be making equanimity into another a delusion. You aren't really meditating until you get rid of all "pairs of opposites" of all conceptions of goodness and badness, of all discriminative thinking. Our nature is intrinsically equanimous, and to the extent that we give up discriminative thinking, there will remain nothing but equanimity. The same applies to purity. Our nature is intrinsically pure, and to the extent that we give up discriminative thinking, there will remain nothing but purity.

It's okay to let the mind wander, provided that we restrain ourselves from acting upon it. We can restrain ourselves by setting aside formal periods of meditation. But ultimately, we have to give up our own personal will in our daily lives.