Open eye & closed eye meditation.. The differences?
Keyouse
Explorer
Hello there. I have practically only meditated with my eyes closed and only a couple times with them partially opened. I am wondering the difference between eyes opened slightly and closed, as well as what each type of meditation can be used for and how eah affects the mind!
I know that in zazen they open their eyes slightly and look at the wall or ground. Some teachers I have read say to not close the eyes as you may fall into that sort of trance-like/zoned out state.
In my experience of meditating with my eyes closed, it has benefited me greatly in calmness and overall contentedness, the time I between meditation.. As in it benefitted my mind overall and not just while meditating.
So what can you good people share with me regarding the differences between open-eyed and closed meditation? Thank you!
Comments
I personally think it is a preference. From what I have heard from teachers, it is recommended to do eyes slightly open to maintain your composure. One teacher said it is best to keep them open because Buddhism is about facing yourself, not closing your eyes and hiding. I do a little of both. Sometimes I find when things become too easy or too comfortable, it's a good time to change things up. Kind of like working out, when doing 20 pushups becomes easy, you either do more or you change how you do them to continue challenging your muscles.
I have not noticed a difference in my "results" whether I meditate with eyes open or closed, but sometimes I find that I see way too many images when my eyes are closed and I even have momentarily fallen asleep, lol. Usually if I take my allergy meds before I meditate, heh.
I think it's good to try both, along with trying different postures, different hand/arm positions, and walking vs sitting meditations.
Some teachers I have read or heard say open because the nature of meditation is to have equanimity and that includes equanimity to vision.
Thank you both. This is helpful.
@Keyouse Too easy to get sleepy or bliss-out with your eyes closed, and that's not the point of meditation. Most meditation teachers encourage open-eye meditation... just don't focus on anything with your eyes (unless it's an object of meditation).
They do. For good reason. I tend to vary it. At the moment my eyes are closed during formal sitting. You have to be awake, attentive, relaxed. Posture will keep you attentive. Meditation is not trance, sloth, yoga nidra, relaxation induction.
It is attentive attention.
For me, eyes closed, always. It might be more rigorous, and it might help me learn to actively block distractions, if I had my eyes open, but I find it much more calming to keep them closed. I focus better.
I think I'm in the minority.
I have a hard time doing eyes open. It was really, really hard when I first started. I get very distracted by my eyes going out of focus, and then I'm thinking about blinking and so on. It's just very distracting. Plus then I see the dog fidget all the time. It kind of depends on the meditation. I almost always do shamatha with eyes closed. When there is something more to focus on, like in Tonglen, I can do it with my eyes open much easier.
@karasti There are two different ways to do shamatha (to my knowledge). One is bare attention, the other is with an object (such as the breath). You can even switch back and forth between them. In time they'll become easier. More people have trouble with bare attention because there's nothing to focus on... and that is made harder with the eyes open, until you get used to it. What's important is to not over-do it. Start with very short intervals, as often as you feel comfortable. Even a minute or two here and there is helpful. It's very much like working out, you're not going to be great at it without some practice.
I know, I'm not new to meditation or anything
But over several years, it has only improved slightly, even focusing on breath. Most visualizations I have tried don't work that well for me and I just get frustrated. It works just fine for me to do it with my eyes closed so I mostly do that. I do occasionally work on it, but I have enough meditation and studying and preliminaries to do that spending a bunch of time just trying to do Shamatha with eyes open instead of closed isn't high on my priority list.
@karasti Whatever works.
Everyone has their own mind to deal with, and there's not a one-size-fits-all option.
Some traditions prefer you do one or the other, but there's not much difference in terms of practicing mindfulness of breathing. I usually sit with them closed, to help focus more on the breath; but I'll open them loosely and direct my gaze slightly down and a few feet in front of me if I'm really tired and starting to fall asleep.
As a dwindling Zennie, I'll vote for eyes open in general. No one walks down the street with his/her eyes closed and the same reasons apply in meditation ... don't want to fall asleep, don't want to trance out, don't want to play the ostrich, don't want to step in dog shit.
If meditation were about sitting on a cushion, then eyes closed might be OK. But meditation has to do with turning freely in this world and for that it is better to utilize any good tool you can find.
In the long run, eyes open and eyes closed amounts to the same thing. But in the short run, eyes open builds strength and clarity.
Just my two cents.
It's more like six. All are eyes-open.
Breathing, Counting breaths, Visualize breath, Focus on pure object, Focus in impure object, Visualize five colors (white, red, blue, yellow & green).
@Chaz Yeah I meant I only know the two.
Though it seems you're taking the two types I described, with object and without object, and expanding them to sub-types. Different levels of perspective or specific detail.
My Guru has published aa little booklet for his students that offers those 6 as distinct practices. They're intended to take the student on a progressive path from simple Shamatha to practices with increasingly extended awareness in preparation for Vipassana and analytical meditation.
Sounds good. I formally meditate in the morning, being tired is not an issue. The first methods I learned all involved the eyes being closed. Lately everyone uses 'eyes half open'. Good to find what suits, or change the form when required. In yoga and some Western systems an object of focus such as a candle light is often used. Attentive gentleness rather than poker faced severity has been most helpful for me.
You won't catch the monkey until you sit quietly or find the space to be aware of its shenanigans
I start off with half-open eyes, then close them for the last 3/4 of the meditation. I have a dry-eye syndrome that makes it kind of difficult to have open eyes the whole time. --You who meditate with eyes open for the full meditation, can you do that without blinking at all? Don't your eyes get dry and painful? Hmm....
I prefer to have eyes open, and 'fix' an object about three feet in front of me, on the floor.... my vision is downcast. I am not so easily distracted then, by my 'monkey-mind' having a field day in my obscure state....
Sometimes I do the 'candle-flame' meditation.... In a darkened room, i light a candle; fix my sight on the flame for a few minutes, then close my eyes. The 'negative' image I see is imprinted on my retina... I concentrate on this, without commentary, until it fades completely. Then I repeat the exercise three more times.
It's ok to blink. Impossible not to, really. If you are forcing yourslef to not blink, it's probably not meditation that your practicing.
Did someone teach you to not blink?
Thye only person I know who actually trained himself to blink as seldom as possible, is Michael Caine, the actor.
His reasoning is that when your face is 20-feet wide on the big screen, the power of the quiet voice, and the menacing stare is increased by a huge margin, when the person actually doesn't blink.
He trained himself to the point where his eyes would prickle and water copiously, desperately wanting to close.
But we don't have that expertise, and neither do we need it.
Meditating with open eyes, means meditating without having them closed.
Nowhere, to my knowledge, is it taught that you mustn't blink, either.
Statues are very good at keeping their eyes open, I find; they don't blink, you're right, but I guess the reason there, is that they can't.
You ain't Michael Caine, you ain't no statchew.
You can blink, it's ok!
blink!
Exactly so.
When the mind is agitated you tend to blink more, or dust or pollen etc.
Blinking normal. At ease, staring sadhu ascetic.
I had that with the blinking. It's not blinking more, rather it is (for me) noticing my blinking. After about 2 months of blinking it finally went away. Phew.
One, you see, one , you don't.