Eye's Open Meditation - Seeing Meditation - Naked Awareness Meditation

[AstralProjection]

So I don't like to meditate with my eyes closed because it causes me to want to fall asleep. So here I will write how I do seeing meditation with my eyes open, or naked awareness meditation, or seeing meditation. No other meditation has worked better for me. In fact today I was feeling pretty depressed most of the day then I did this meditation and wow. The ego really lowers and I could feel the presence of consciousness under my awareness. I could sense consciousness on the edges of my perception. I was soooo relaxed. It was amazing.

The key is use your peripheral vision. Many people don't consciously use their peripheral vision often but during eye's open meditation your peripheral vision is king. So what I do is put on some meditation music on my computer using spotify. Keeping my eye's open I focus on my peripheral vision meaning the vision that encompasses my whole field of vision. I wear glasses so sometimes this is aided by focusing my right eye in the right field of my glasses, and my left eye focusing on the left field of my glasses. But do whatever it takes to make your peripheral vision stronger. Once I get a good focus on my peripheral vision I then focus on my breathing. Feeling each breath "in" and then "out," over and over. The focus of my mind might shift but that is OK the main thing is that you focus on your naked awareness and the breath. You might want to become accused to different ways of using this naked awareness and that is good and OK to experiment with. Keeping my focus of vision as peripheral and unattached. The ultimate goal is to focus on the consciousness just under your perception, by being mindful. You can aid this by focusing on your body, feet and hands, arms and especially the breath. You might move around the main focus a little and that is OK just bring your main focus back to as much of your perception as you can with the breath. Eventually the ultimate goal is to dissolve the mind, (I have not done this fully yet but have pushed the limits of my perception). But before you do that you have to focus on pure naked awareness, that is key. I have done with meditation with great results.

Edited March 8, 2019 by AstralProjection

[EnlightenmentBlog]

I'll try this out. Sounds interesting.

What I do is stand in front of the window and look down on the boulevard beneath. I focus on whatever catches my attention - people, cars, birds, etc. Sometimes I get completely absorbed in whatever I'm looking and it feels like I'm not there. 

[Zigzag Idiot]

@AstralProjection 20 years ago as a two pack a day smoker, I was unable to meditate with eyes closed because of vertigo. But having quit smoking I can now meditate with eyes closed. I appreciate the value of your method. It's very close to what's called the practice of the sightless gaze.

Sightless Gaze - one attends to ones total visual field as one diffuse, panoramic field of light, taking in everything without identifying or labelling the impressions as things or actions, good or bad, pleasant or unpleasant.

Incorporating the sightless gaze after straightening my posture works well for me sometimes in initiating a drop into witness consciousness. 

Placing a good percentage of the overall attention on the peripheral vision is good for allowing awareness to be about context of experience more than content of experience. Awareness of content is more prone to discursive awareness or monkey mind than context awareness which is more aligned with 'being'.

I wear glasses as well and have noticed that leaving my glasses off when they are not necessary has the effect of quieting the mind to some degree. With the slightly blurred vision, it's easier to just be with context awareness.

I would wager you're experiencing some  good tastes of Witness Consciousness with your practice.

[Hellspeed]

How you will be able to switch focus from the mind if you are not willing to stay awake with eyes closed? The point is reaching awareness and being awake in sleep  You practice so much staying awake while sleepy until you get it. 

[AstralProjection]

7 hours ago, Hellspeed said:

How you will be able to switch focus from the mind if you are not willing to stay awake with eyes closed? The point is reaching awareness and being awake in sleep  You practice so much staying awake while sleepy until you get it. 

It's much easier to switch focus in the mind while your eye's are open.