Enhance the Transformative Effects of Meditation on Everyday Life
When we meditate, our senses remain open and alert. Our noses still smell, our ears still hear, our hearts don’t stop beating and feeling, and our monkey mind still weaves its thoughts. We practise observing this circus of sensory input with equanimity, but while all other sensory gates are open, so often, we’re advised to close our eyes.
Awakening asks us to find the openness and clarity of being present with what is. And just like the literal act of waking up, our eyes need to open to see what is. As we lift the veils of illusion that obscure ultimate truths about our perceptions of reality, the final veils we need to remove are those of the lids of our eyes.
Open your Eyes
Many of us associate meditation with sitting in a tranquil, secluded space, eyes closed and disengaged from the outside world, but if, instead, we can become able to find presence in the midst of any distraction – sound, sight, thought, or sensation – we can more easily infuse the benefits of practice into life.
Leaving our eyes open helps us integrate the art of meditation into our every day. Open-eyes meditation blurs the lines between the two and paves the way towards living a more harmonious life. It empowers us to find the peace and clarity of presence amidst any busyness or chaos.
“The practice of open-eyed meditation is a powerful way to bring the clarity and wisdom of our practice into our everyday life[...] we learn to see the world as it truly is, without the distortions and projections of our mind.”
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Tsoknyi Rinpoche
At Moments of Space, we take influence from Dzogchen Buddhism and believe eyes-open meditation is the key to living an awakened life. We encourage leaving your eyes open where comfortably possible so you can journey towards living with presence, carrying a connection to your deeper consciousness wherever you go and whatever you see. We inspire and empower you to find your innate nature with eyes open in meditation, so you can then find it and return to it amid the chaos or distraction of life.
Our app offers a guided path to awakening, helping you build an open-eyes meditation practice throughout. Eyes closed meditation can be helpful in some practices, and our app offers this option at times as it allows you to focus and go inwards, removing visual distraction and giving you more control over where you direct your attention. However, sitting with eyes closed can also lead to a zombie-like state of relaxation or sleep, with a loss of presence. Leaving the eyes open keeps you in the state of wakeful presence required to be in meditation.
It does, however, leave you more open to distraction. But as in the teachings, meditation helps you see distractions as opportunities to remember your awareness. The obstacle becomes the way; the antidote becomes the cure. Distractions also let you practise equanimity and non-attachment. When you find yourself reacting to an interruption, you can then let that reaction go and settle back into the easy space of your own awareness.
Leaving the eyes open also lets you visually recognise the space in between all objects, and that amplifies the sense of space within you. You see not only the leaves on the tree but the space between them, and you see that mirrored back in the recognition of space within yourself, and your open awareness is enhanced. In that open, objectless awareness, instead of zooming your gaze in on one object, you allow all to be observed without fixation. Aware of everything and nothing at once, the non-duality of existence and the space between all you perceive as singular is revealed. Open-eyed, open awareness prepares you to find true presence in daily life and connect to your true nature at any time.To close your eyes in meditation is to go inwards and seek to find this authentic essence. But to leave them open is to know that you already are that essence without needing to seek it. As Buddha said, “Just open your eyes.”
Getting Started with Open-Eyes Practice
“When we meditate with open eyes, it is very important to avoid focusing too intently on any one thing[…] Instead, we should let our gaze rest gently and naturally on whatever is in front of us, without trying to control or manipulate our attention in any way.”
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Yongey Mingyur Rinpoche
Begin sitting for short sessions and gradually increase the time as you go. As you sit, rest your eyes in a half-open/half-closed position, slightly lowered down past your nose. Don’t force your gaze on an object, just allow it to be soft, open, and easy. If your eyes do naturally close, don’t fight that, always go with what feels best. The Moments of Space app has a range of short and long meditations to practise your new skills with; in seated practice, while out and about with our Walking meditations, and in our under three-minute Nano sessions that focus specifically on how to apply meditation techniques into daily life. With practice and guidance, the next stage of your awakening could be the one in which you truly open your eyes.
