Sitting Meditation

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  • #128183

    Anonymous
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    I’ve been practicing sitting meditation for about a year. I purchased Bruce’s Monthly Meditation series and have used that as the basis of my practice.

    I’m having difficulty transitioning from meditating with my eyes closed to meditating with my eyes open and unfocused. When I attempt to meditate with open eyes, I find my eyelids very rapidly become heavy and I am just struggling to keep them open.

    I would welcome any advice on how to move forward with my practice.

    Thanks, Ann

    #130473

    Anonymous
    Guest

    Hi Ann,
    I’ve been meditating for quite a while now (over 10 years). Some days my eyes are open more, other days less. The issue, sometimes, is whether or not I’m focusing on new aspects of the breathing/feeling/dissolving process. The more natural the process becomes, and the more I can LET GO and ALLOW it all to happen, the easier qi can flow and the more awake I seem to become, and thus my eyes can open naturally, easily, and comfortably.
    It may be that your qi has not filled your dan-tian enough to open up into the eyes. You may want to check your alignments. Are they set right so that qi may flow easily – especially in the cervical vertebrae? Bruce’s book, Opening the Energy Gates, can be helpful in benefiting your alignments, and opening up those blocked places – espcially the Swing Exercises taught there.
    Hope this helps.
    Steve

    #130474

    Anonymous
    Guest

    I didn’t start to work on opening my eyes until after almost a decade of sitting meditation. For a long time I found it to be more distracting than it was beneficial. In retrospect, I think I was just trying to meditate with my eyes open because it was the next step in the progression, not because it was helpful (as if meditation isn’t challenging enough on its own). :)

    When I started realizing that there wasn’t any real difference between perceiving what was inside of me versus what was outside of me, I finally was able to relax into sitting meditation with my eyes open. At that point I no longer cared whether they were open or not. It seemed kind of irrelevant.

    I believe this was more about my heart-mind beginning to open up than about my eyes opening.

    #130475

    Anonymous
    Guest

    This beginning stage of meditation seems still reside in the more unconscious and dreamy realm or expresses a general fatigue making it difficult to open the eyes by lack of energy.

    By centering on the belly it is often forgot to fill also the head with energy. Longevity breathing has a last part by using also the tips of the lungs for a full breath guided in the head were 40 % of the body’s energies is used.

    The simplest way is to guide the breath to the forehead or even the eye area or wherever you feel dumbness or lack of energy for some time and observe the effects on opening the eyes.

    Axel

    #130476

    Anonymous
    Guest

    I notice that when my eyelids are getting heavy it’s a sign that I’m really tired. I’ll either take a nap or just practice with my eyes closed.

    I spent a lot of time trying to learn how to meditate with my eyes open. At the beginning I found it helpful to try and find ways to bridge the gap. I’d try and find the something that was slightly harder then practicing with my eyes closed. Here are some of the intermediate steps that I played with

    – I’d wait until the dissolving was going really strong, then I’d crack my eyes open a little bit. If the dissolving ground to a halt, then I’d close my eyes again.

    – At first I would play with opening my eyes while practicing in the dark. That way I couldn’t see anything that would distract me.

    – At first I would open my eyes only a slight crack and then open them wider and wider over time.

    – At first I would open my eyes only when the dissolving was already going well. Over time I’d open my eyes sooner and sooner.

    – At first I would look down and then over time I would look up. I found looking up to be more distracting

    I would play with different combinations of the above to slowly work to the point where dissolving with my eyes open became comfortable.

    Hope this helps

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