Meditating with your eyes opened.

This post is about two things actually. Both to do with meditating, and something I just experienced in my last meditation... which was quite neat.

I set my clock to play a rainforest sound after 20 minutes, and then set an alarm for 30. This way I could meditate for 20, and then practice meditating in a noisier environment to remain focused on the breath. After 20 minutes my room was filled with rainforest sounds, and after a few breaths I had completely tuned it out. Perhaps this was so easy because I had already gotten my mind into a quiet state after the 20 minutes of meditation. Soon enough 30 minutes came and the other alarm came. After a few more breaths I slowly opened my eyes. I didn't do anything else though... I just sat there staring. Not thinking about anything external. I was still very focused on my breath, but i found that I didn't have to try, I just was, and if a thought entered my mind, it would easily flow out.

Anyway, back to the open-eyed thing... I was just sitting there focusing at one point. The whole room started to turn white, as if it was fading away (I've experienced this before, just as an effect of staring in one spot for too long). Soon everything faded back into vision, and the room started to bend, and wave around, like a ripple in a water. I would shift my eye site every now and then as well, so it's not like I was staring in one spot the whole time. I did, however find it hard to take my gaze off things. Now I was trying to focus more on the room as opposed to my breath. I noticed a few things. The room was drastically out of proportion. Things that were far away looked very close, and vise versa, it was actually really strange. Things that were small and close up looked like they were far away and big... just weird stuff like that. When I looked at things though, it felt like they were empty. No thoughts came to my mind when I looked at them. Of course I knew what they were, and I was able to think about them. But unless I tried, nothing came to mind... I was just looking. This was quite neat. It was sort of trancelike, but not quite. I ended up sitting there for 40 minutes! (alarm still ringing :P)

Anyway the second thing I noticed is that it remained afterwards. I got up, and walked around the house, but I didn't really do much. I sat down in the living room and phased out again, staring at things. It's not like when you stare into space and you think about something else. I just was staring and pretty much drawing a blank. Obviously I didn't just STOP THINKING, but my thoughts were slower and occasional, at least the conscious ones. I felt like i was tripping out. Sounds were sort of distant, and they changed as well, and everything amused me. I looked at my face in the mirror for like 5 minutes. I was just looking, I dont even know why.

This was pretty neat anyway. I wonder if the meditation was the full cause for this, so I'm going to try it again tomorrow as well. I'm probably going to start increasing the times I meditate for.

Just felt like sharing this. I'm a real beginner when it comes to meditation, so if any experienced meditators here know more about what I'm talking about, let's hear! Anyone who hasn't though, try it out - after a bit of meditation, open your eyes, and just keep focusing on your breath.

Take it easy,
Dylan

Interesting, this is very similiar to what I experiance ALL the time. Its very hard to hold conversations when in this state, but its quite fun to just walk around and see everything "differently". I suppose you now know what I mean :P

Were you blinking normally? Staring at something without blinking can give weird effects, but I don't see this really as meditation if you are not blinking -- as blinking is a natural reflex, so if you were not blinking would mean you were concentrating on not blinking and therefore not really meditating, unless not blinking was the object of your meditation, though that doesn't seem wise or likely... anyways just curious if you were blinking normally.

I often do open eye meditation, but do not focus both eyes on a single object. I focus on an object with my left eye about 45° to the front-left of my center and another object with my right eye about 45° to the front-right of my center. And just be aware of the continuing and equal presence of both objects (while blinking normally). Once both objects are "fixed" you can expand the meditation by shifting your eyes and looking around some, but keeping both objects within your peripheral vision and still being aware of the continuing presence of both. To do otherwise would be to drop out of the meditation.

They say this can be one of the most powerful forms of meditation. I suppose because forcing each eye to concentrate on a different object forces both hemispheres of the brain to be simultaneously active & equally engaged, and that makes it easier to "clear the mind" of other thoughts. I dunno that is just a guess as to why it seems to work better than focusing on a single or event (breathing, candle flame, etc), but it is a good meditation to do. Don't get me wrong, I also sometimes do breathing meditation (closed eye), walking meditation and others... each type has a place in its own right.

I first learned meditation with eyes shut, but since then I've learned all eyes-open techniques, which makes more sense to me because I don't walk around with my eyes shut, do I?

What you describe sounds very much like experiences I've had. I would just recommend not to become attached to any experience encountered in meditation--don't decide, "this is the goal of meditation, this is what I meditate for," as this can become a roadblock. Myself, I got hung up for a long time on the emptiness and interconnectedness and unity of things, which is a perfectly good thing to recognize, but it can become just an intoxicating mode of experience if you hang on to it.

What was the rainforest song, can you download it from anywhere Dylan? What you done sounds really good, i want to try it the next time ive got a day off.

I done something like that on the plane a few days ago, i closed my eyes and tuned out for a little while, then all of a sudden i could see through my closed eyes, everything was out of proportion and it was almost like time dialation...couldn't see people though.

But yeah i think you should keep at your meditating, it's definetly a life skill and i think your doing great!

catchya mate
Ben

Dreamscape, I was blinking normally, I didn't try to force anything, it just happened. I actually wasn't indending to do this, I was just getting out of the meditation and when I opened my eyes just felt really drawn to looking at things and ended up looking with minimal thinking for a while. I still thought of course. I'm a very inexperienced meditator, but I am definately improving.

Taosaur, I meditate with my eyes shut as well. This only happened by accident, but I intend to pursue it. I have the same view as you on it - we walk around with our eyes opened, of course. I plan on doing both meditations however... But I like the idea as well, of quieting your mind enough to being able to look and examine things in a SLIGHTLY more objective view, or at least less subjective. I mean, I'm not referring to that other thread, where I to become objective, that would be ego dissolution... but I simply mean more like, quieting my thoughts, which in turn will allow me to simply look. Engaging in purely observation. I still haven't come to a conclusion of what my views are on that whole ego-dissolution stuff :?. It's aside the point though, so let's ignore it.

After a meditation yesterday I decided to walk outside, and I found myself drawn to the simplest things. Everything seemed different. People are thinking too much. All of our time spent awake is done thinking for at least most people. You walk down the street, and you are engaged in thoughts. "What am I going to do about __________?" "What about ____?" "It was funny when ________" etc. Sure, you can examine things, you can look closely at a tree for example, but your mind is still dominated almost entirely by your thoughts. What you see in the tree reminds you of similarities in other things, it triggers old memories, you think about the tree, you think about those memories. But purely looking. Things I've walk past and even looked at thousands of times seemed different, new. It's hard to explain if you don't know what I mean. It just FEELS and even looks different. But I was walking in my neighbourhood and felt like a stranger. A foreigner within a place I've lived all my life. That sounds corny as fuck, but it really seemed neat. Similar to when you smoke a lot of weed, but it's not the same in that extensions of space are mainly forgotten. You're fully aware of where you are, you're just drawn into things, looking more. It feels like the senses are hightened. Ok I'm gonna end that there, I'm sure one sentance would have been sufficient to explain to those of you who know what I mean, but I just felt like going on for the sake of it.

Taosaur, again you bring up a very good point. If my goal of meditation is to keep experiencing something like this, then if I suddenly stop, I will lack that idea of fulfillment which I was trying to get rid of in the first place. I'm glad you pointed me out on that, it's hard to notice. But at the same time, I think an idea like that is necessary, though not to reject new experiences. Of course you're going to do meditation for a reason. At the moment, for me, that idea is to help clear the mind and practice letting go, as well as trying to exprience the world through the senses more - through what I see, as opposed to what I think about what I see. But tell me, how is it possible to not do meditation for a reason? In all honesty, I think everyone has and will have a reason, whether or not they say they do. Perhaps you're suggesting that my reason isn't wise enough, and I'd love for you to explain further. Again, like I said, I'm very new to all this.

Xisdence the rain forest sound was just playing through one of those sound digital clock things. I was talking about them in the research forums. Nonetheless there are plenty of places on the net to download nature sounds like that. You slightly confused me though, because you called it "rain forest song", and I'm not sure if you really think I meant a song, or if that was just a slipup. It was merely sounds, no song. :P

Take it easy everyone,
Dylan

this happened to me as well, one time when i was going up for school. I was REALLY tired,turned of the alarm and then I was just laying there in trance for about 20 mins, then I came back to reallity just totally relax. Lucky me who had a lot of time left to school even after this meditation.

Normally I got problems sometimes to meditate with closed eyes. I guess the force of sleep and the will of getting to school putted me in some semi sleep mode :D


btw one of my friends fell asleep with wide open eyes at a airplane, heh someone asked his parents if he was dead :D
she was like nay,he is just sleepin

Dylan, don't concern yourself too much about it, you seem to be doing fine, and I am by no means the most accomplished meditator myself. It's fine to have reasons or goals concerning meditation, just be prepared to let go of them; if you already knew what you would learn from meditation, it wouldn't be necessary to meditate.

and that is when you contemplate 8)

I've found a few sites on meditating and looked into this in the past, I never was really able to get into it, well anyways does anyone know of any sites that are all about meditating, sort of similar to this but about meditation?