Do the Eyes Have It?

     I have been reading an overview of Zen Buddhism (more on that at a later date) and decided to give another try meditating with my eyes open.  I hadn't been successful in the past and always preferred to meditate with my eyes closed.

     The advice in this book was to sit with my eyes only partly open, gazing downward at a spot about 3-4 feet in front of me.  I tried that and found that my eyes kept jerking to the right, as if they were suddenly speed reading.  Has that ever happened to you?

     Then I learned to soften my focus a bit and that helped.  However, my eyes would then get heavier and heavier and want to close.  Blinking every breath or two helped that.

     After I softened my focus, I found that I could still have an awareness of the outer world while maintaining my primary focus inward.  Ta-da!  That is probably the whole point -- to learn how to keep an inner focus while in the world.  Now, all I need to do is practice, practice, practice.

     Maybe then my eyes will finally have it.

(photo courtesy of pixabay.com)