After that, I sat all day practicing the Zazen technique used in Zen Buddhism for the first time. And I struggled. I wanted to go back to my familiar practice of eyed closed that I had done for thousands of hours.
. . .
Sharing my story with a friend frustrated with the lack of progress in her own meditation practice, I hoped to explain how we all face challenges. But she connected with something else I had said,
Wait,” She jumped in, “you can meditate with your eyes open? I should try that. Whenever I close my eyes, the darkness overwhelms me and I get kind of weirded out.
Many people tell me they fall asleep when they try to meditate. If that happens, you should probably just sleep because your body needs rest. But I hadn’t considered some may fight with keeping their eyes closed.
If you want to meditate — but you simply don’t want to meditate with your eyes closed — no problem.
Why people believe meditation requires closed eyes
- Our mind is usually focused on external objects, and meditation is about focusing inward.
- Sensory organs like eyes and ears keep us chained to physical senses, making inward meditation harder.
- Opening your eyes exposes you to interruptions, so many teachers suggest closing your eyes to limit potential distractions.
Open eyes may seem in conflict with the normal practice of meditation, but actually, they are more common.
Many traditions use open-eye meditation, you’re not alone
- Tibetan Buddhism: Traditionally, the correct way to meditate is to look downward, with our eyes at a 45-degree angle. Open eyes limit the mind from creating mental images and other distracting activity.
- Zen Buddhism: focuses on engaging and being present in the world (the bodhisattva ideal) rather than escaping and isolating yourself from the world with closed eyes.
- Trataka Meditation: A Hindu and Yoga meditation, uses gazing at a candle flame to awaken the third eye.
Most Buddhist traditions in Tibet and Japan never close their eyes. They teach to half-close your eye, relax and look downward. But new meditators often get confused, so teachers say to close your eyes because straining to keep them open or frequently blinking distracts you.
Benefits of open-eye meditation
- Easier to stay awake when sleepy.
- Don’t need perfect conditions that allow you to close your eyes.
- Develop strong concentration skills by focusing on a single object.
- Helps you merge your meditation practice with your regular life routine.
- Build your skill of watching and observing, which helps in social settings, coming up with new ideas, and many areas of life.
We live life with our eyes open. Practicing meditation with eyes open teaches you to find peace when in the same conditions as life. Learn how to find peace from the thousands of thoughts your mind processes without having to block out all visual inputs.
How to make practicing open-eye meditation easier
- Half-open-eyes: As tradition teaches, relaxing your eyes and resting them about 4ft in front of you will help limit visual distractions and reduce eye fatigue.
- Face a blank wall: The Zazen practice of open-eye meditation limits distractions by sitting in front of a blank wall. Avoid gazing off into the distance where lots of objects can distract you.
- Darken the room: Helps minimize distraction, but could make you sleepy.
- Pick a single point of focus: Choose something simple that you can get lost in, and remember not to strain and focus your eyes, but to focus your gaze by not moving your eyes to look at anything else.
- Use a candle: Bring your focus to one single spot of the candle flame, without any judgment, just rest your eyes on the light.
- Watch a spinning fan: Focusing on something moving consistently helps you get lost in the rhythm. It will also help you understand the difference between focusing your gaze verse focusing your eyes. Just don’t let the fan blow wind on your eyes.
- Walk around slowly: In traditional Zen meditation (Zazen), after sitting with your eyes open, you walk slowly in a small circle. To start, focus on the sensations in your feet, notice how they feel touching the ground. Then notice your legs and other moving body parts.
- Practice throughout the day: While exercising, doing the dishes, walking around the house, the beauty of open-eye meditation is you can do it anytime. And can be done for only a few seconds at a time.
- Don’t switch from open to closed eyes in a single session: That restlessness will distract you and won’t help build focus. With the exception of your eyes naturally closing when your meditation goes deeper. Or opening your eyes when you feel drowsy.
We want the presence of open-eyed meditation without being carried away by mind-wandering or distractions. So remember to bring your mind back when it wanders. And try to narrow your field of vision to something plain and simple.
Should you eventually meditate with closed eyes?
- When your eyes are closed, it is easier to focus on inner sensations, but it is easier to go asleep.
- When your eyes are opened, your consciousness is more active in the physical world, but you have more distractions.
Don’t hold yourself back from trying open-eye meditation because you think it inferior. That is not true. Both have a place in your meditation practice and journey. Do what works and feels good for you.
. . .
Every moment during your day presents an opportunity to practice open eye meditation, and you can do it for as short as 1 second. So try out some different techniques and don’t let closed eyes hold you back from experiencing peace of mind.
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This post was previously published on Change Becomes You and is republished here with permission from the author.
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Photo credit: Unsplash