S1: All observation (regardless of kind) requires an observer.

For example, a thought–one sort of observation–requires an observer in order for that thought to be registered, indeed in order for it to appear in the first place.

S2: Necessarily, the observer is different or separate from the observed.

For example, a bodily sensation is different from the observer. Or a visual perception is separate from the observer. You can verify the distinctness of the subject and the object.

S3: You are the observer, never the observed.

Whatever else you are, it cannot be denied that you are observing this perception, this sensation, this thought, or this emotion.

S4: It follows that whatever the observed is like the latter cannot possibly affect the observer.

Sadness–an observation–cannot affect or “touch” the observer. If you are like a movie screen, then if an imaginary fire is burning on the screen, the imaginary fire cannot affect the screen. The screen doesn’t, itself, get hot when the imaginary fire is burning. In the same way, sorrow is felt, perhaps deeply so–but without touching you, the observer.

S5: Take a sample of “the observer condition”: is it true that you, the observer, are peaceful?

Initially, you’ll experience “a blank state.” Good enough for a start. You, yourself, are not cold or warm, are not a shape or a color, are not a lilt of sadness or a surge of anger, etc. That “blank state” is peace. Just let it ripen.