The eyes in meditation

Tuesday morning is our meditation bliss hour.

Time to turn inward and find some stillness .. before the day and the week take over and we get all caught up in the busyness.

This is a new class.  From the very first day when I expect no-one to arrive .. beginners and experienced meditators have shared their morning.  There is a lovely band on 'regulars' now, keen to just arrive .. again and again .. to the moment, to their meditation, to the day.  It is inspiring to be part of their journey.

We have started to wandered into the 'open field' quite a lot.  The field of just silence.  No guiding or anchoring atention to my voice .. just venturing out into the spaciousness of silence to practice.  This is a joy.

But I have also started to add a little theme each week. Some point of reflection, some nourishment I hope for our regular personal practice.  Last week we looked at hand mudra's .. mindfulness of body through the hands.  This week .. the eyes in meditation.

Open? is a wakefulness practice.  Learning to just 'see' rather than be entertained, read, detect or peruse.  Cultivating that stillness and peacefulness regardless of what is going on around us.  Eyes open can help us ward off drowsiness and lethargy.  

In the buddhist tradition we often see the eyes wide open and staring slightly upwards. The Buddha is said to have awakened at the moment he looked up and saw Venus the morning star, just above the horizon.

Closed? a deeper connection is often experience with that sense of turning our focus...inward.  Sits well with the Judaeo-Christian culture of prayer and contemplation, and we are less distracted by the world around us.  But we can become sleepy and lost to our dreams and fantasies.

There are no rules.  It can take some time to rest easily with eyes open, it just takes a little practice.  I usually suggest that those new to meditation try first with their eyes closed, resting their gaze to the 'third eye' location (between the eyebrows) where people naturally find a sense of connection with the sense of 'spaciousness' .. it is requires a little practice and mindfulness.

Today we tried Trataka (candle gazing) meditation where first the eyes are open and then closed .. holding the image of the flame at the Ajna/Agya Chakra (third eye).   You can find more about Trataka meditation from this previous post.

Did you meditate this morning?