Why Open Eyed Meditation?

Most people think you practice meditation with the eyes closed. But that's not always the case. Raja Yoga is open-eyed meditation and it’s taught by the Brahma Kumaris. Why 'open eye' meditation? Isn't it easier with your eyes closed? This is the meditation for anyone, anywhere, anytime. It is important to remember that meditation is a practice. Meditation is about taking time out to reconnect with your own true self; the soul the point of light energy…

Transcript

Om Chanti,

We're going to talk about open-eyed meditation.

So welcome to Soul to Soul.

This is Rose from Ramakumari.

This is Glasgow,

Inner Space.

And so although the practice of eyes yoga is the practice with your eyes open,

People say,

Why do we have to keep our eyes open?

Most people feel it's easier with your eyes closed,

Because it can feel easier with your eyes closed,

Because we've told that that's the way that people would do meditation with their eyes closed.

It does feel easier,

But nothing much happens with your eyes closed.

It's like a laziness.

And if I keep my eyes open,

It takes a bit of effort.

So why would I keep my eyes open?

Because this meditation is to help us to clear our karmic accounts.

And to do that,

You have to interact with everyone,

Everywhere.

Situations and things that come that are uncomfortable.

And if I think I can just close my eyes,

Then I'm not going anywhere.

And it's important to remember that it's a practice,

And it's about taking time out.

So if I practice taking time out,

What am I taking time out from?

From the stress and the worry in my life.

And situations that make me really concerned.

So I can find solutions through meditation.

Reconnect,

Actually,

With my own true self,

The soul,

The point of light energy.

So I keep my eyes open,

And I teach myself to focus on the way I feel,

And my thoughts,

And I take it from there.

We play many roles in life and have many responsibilities.

So who is the real you behind the many roles and responsibilities?

The aim of open-eyed meditation is to carry this awareness throughout your day.

If we can practice this,

Keeping eyes open and thinking about what's upsetting me,

You'll get a lot of benefits and less stress.

You'll also feel more relaxation and having more energy.

Also,

We can feel we have more answers.

But the main aim is to rediscover your spiritual self.

And the spiritual self,

The soul,

Is naturally peaceful.

And when I practice this,

I can learn to trust my own self more.

So open-eyed meditation helps to remove the barriers between you and the rest of the world.

So again,

The benefit,

When you practice with your eyes open and hold that state throughout the day,

You stop feeling disconnected and unrelated to others.

So you can teach yourself to remember what you were being prompted by when you were practicing your meditation with open eyes.

And you can feel that strangers transform into friends,

And you start to relate to others' souls.

Understand that people behave badly because they're disconnected from their own peace and power.

Be more compassionate,

Be tolerant and kind,

Not only with others,

But with you yourself.

Am I looking at something?

What am I doing?

Why are my eyes open?

Where are they looking?

Well,

To begin with,

You can go easy on yourself.

Sometimes it's quite a struggle to begin with.

But you get used to focusing,

If you have a picture in front or a point of light in front,

And you practice just resting your eyes comfortably on that,

But encouraging yourself to keep your eyes open as much as possible,

And after a while it becomes a habit.

And actually,

Because you're doing that,

You're focusing your energy so that you can instruct your energy how to feel,

Really,

And to understand how stress affects us.

You'll not understand that if you're currying through a little sleep with your eyes closed and go into what you think is a peaceful mood.

You say,

Oh,

I had such a wonderful,

Peaceful meditation.

You did nothing there,

Except have a rest.

It sounds very active then.

It's not a passive.

No,

It's very active.

Did you find that easy from the start,

Or did you have to get used to that idea?

I had to get used to that,

Because I think most people have to get used to that.

I have to say,

I made myself keep my eyes open,

But I didn't really understand,

To begin with,

The benefits.

I just kept my eyes open because I was obedient,

And I just practiced peace.

After a while I realized there was more to it than practicing peace,

That to practice to understand myself that I was not peaceful,

That I was upset,

That I was distressed,

That I was annoyed,

Et cetera.

And because I understood that,

I was able to deal with it,

And I could deal with it in a calm,

Stay more calm,

Stay calm.

So I faced my own discomfort,

If you like.

And because I did that,

It became easier and easier to keep my eyes open,

And to come away from meditation feeling that I had actually achieved something.

Yeah,

It's really interesting because there seems to be so many different descriptions,

Or commentaries,

Or possible experiences,

And some are just very,

Very focused on peace and silence.

For a joke I'm very focused on peace,

Silence,

The world of light,

Point of light.

And then others are very,

Almost like an inner exploration,

It's like an adventure into the emotions and feelings and thoughts and sorting things out.

And it's very active and full.

Are they all equally valid,

Or how do you decide?

Well,

I think in a way I focused on peace,

Mostly,

Because peace is a power.

And because of focusing on peace,

Then when I came into my day,

I had the strength to interact with others and face the challenges,

If that makes sense.

Sometimes these challenges would come to me in meditation,

And then I would think of how I would overcome these challenges.

But mostly I would focus on peace and feel myself relaxed and healthy and content,

And then the day would come along full of all its different worries,

Etc.

And I was more and more able to cope with these things and move through them,

And feel that I'd put a full stop or I'd done something quite active there,

Which was very positive,

Which I would never have been able to do if I hadn't practiced the peace of rajakha meditation.

If that makes sense.

At rajakha meditation centres,

When people are sitting together,

Quite often there'd be one person sitting at the front and looking at the centre of the forehead,

The seat of the soul.

Obviously when you have your private meditation,

You're at home and there's not a lot of people around you just looking at a point of light or resting your eyes in front.

What is that about when you're looking at the centre of the forehead?

Well,

It means whoever's sitting there is actually conducting the meditation and using their power of peace to look at others,

To encourage their power of peace,

The power of peace in others.

And it also keeps people focused,

And they feel obliged to sort of look at the person,

And that's good as well.

It's kind of encouraging us to be peaceful.

Do people always find that comfortable to look at the centre of the forehead?

No,

I think it takes a little bit of practice as well.

Everything is practice.

You go to school for the first time,

You have to practice.

Learning to read and write and all the rest of it,

It's all practice.

So everything is a practice.

Yeah,

Because just in general,

Day-to-day life,

People don't even look at each other properly anymore,

Meaningfully or for any length of time.

So it must be quite an unnerving experience almost at first if you're not used to it,

To have someone resting their eyes on the centre of your forehead for a prolonged period,

And to have that kind of faith or trust that they're only having benevolent thoughts and feelings.

Yeah,

It's not the fashion now.

People look away and people are embarrassed to look at other people,

And people say,

What are you looking at?

Why are you looking at me?

So you have to just have a look at them when they're not looking.

Look at the centre of the forehead very carefully.

If you're just out there.

But if you happen to be able to engage yourself in conversation with someone,

You can look at the centre of their forehead.

And if you see them as a peaceful soul,

Then you're giving them a lot of good energy.

It's funny because on one level everybody's craving attention.

But then if you actually give spiritual attention,

It's unusual.

So it can be a bit uncomfortable.

Yeah,

It's very unusual.

I remember when I started it did feel a bit uncomfortable because it made me so aware of how uncomfortable I was within myself.

But it ends up being something really lovely and freeing.

It's like you feel clean that you can look at someone else without anything in between.

And you learn how to do this in a very tactful way.

Because it seems tempting to think I could just do this as I go about my day,

I'm a soul,

I'm a point of light.

I think it's important to sit yourself down early in the morning and feel such a relief to start your day with spiritual silence and awareness.

That empowers you for the day.

And also when you really do practice this,

You usually have a spiritual class in the morning.

And then another good thing is if you're able to have some spiritual teachings throughout the day,

If it happens to be something that's there for you to attend,

Or you're lucky enough that it's there.

Or listen to something.

Or take a few minutes out every now and again throughout the day if you can to be aware that you're the soul.

And go on with your day in a very natural way.

You'll find you have more power to not be so challenged.

And another thing is at night before you go to sleep,

If possibly you can sit for a few minutes in silence and settle everything down.

And then you've got a chance of sleeping better and waking up in the morning ready to start again.

I also like the bit where you said that people behave badly because they're not aware of themselves.

They have so much discomfort just as we did.

And that pops out as anger,

All kinds of irritation and sadness.

So have you developed a lot more understanding,

Not just of yourself but of others?

How does that impact on your relationships?

Well,

It does take time because others can be very tricky.

And you can get caught up in their aggression or their dislike and you can wonder what you've done.

And then you realise it's their own disturbance actually a lot of the time.

If you check yourself that you're not doing any prompting to cause them that feeling,

Then it really isn't you.

Then you can still be friendly and smile and be OK with everyone.

But it does take time to reach that.

After the first lesson on that you're a soul,

Meditate with your eyes open,

Do it in the morning.

Come back,

Lesson two.

Invariably,

The question will be,

Do I have to keep my eyes open?

I'll always say,

You know,

Take a rest if you like in between and close your eyes if you feel it's too much.

But then teach yourself to open them again.

Do your best to practise keeping your eyes open.

There does seem to be some magic in that.

Yeah,

Otherwise they'll just go to sleep.

Yeah,

Especially early in the morning.

Yeah,

And I've noticed even,

You know,

Sitting in front of you,

They can just about,

You know,

Nod off and fall asleep trying to look at you.

Because this habit,

This tiredness,

This exhaustion is in them.

It's like we're kind of almost shut off from ourselves.

We cannot just sit on them.

And that's where all their stress and their worry and lack of power is coming from.

They have no power to even look at you.

It's funny,

Isn't it,

That it takes a lot of power just to sit in peace and look with peace.

And looking at someone takes a lot of power.

And when they shift their eyes and they look all over the place and they look down and shut their eyes and they're exhausted actually inside.

So you have a lot of compassion because you understand the soul needs power.

And so it's doing your best to open your eyes and keep them open.

That's the start of their journey of peace.

Just keep encouraging yourself.

Just keep encouraging yourself.

Yeah.

Open your eyes.

Om Shanti.

Now we'll have some meditation.

Om Shanti.

This is open-eyed meditation,

Raja Yoga meditation.

Most people think that you practice meditation with the eyes closed.

But that's not always the case.

Remember,

I am a soul,

A being of light in the center of the forehead,

The energy.

Raja Yoga is open-eyed meditation and it's taught by the Brahma Kumaris.

Now,

Why open-eye meditation?

Isn't it easier with your eyes closed?

This is the meditation for anyone,

Anywhere,

Anytime.

And it's important to remember that meditation is a practice.

Meditation is all about taking time out.

Remember,

I am a soul,

A being of light in the center of the forehead,

The energy.

We take time out to reconnect with our own true self.

The soul,

The point of light,

Energy.

Who is the real you behind the many roles and responsibilities?

The aim of open-eye meditation is to carry this awareness throughout the day.

But the main aim is to discover your spiritual self.

The soul is naturally peaceful.

You can learn to trust yourself more.

Remember,

I am a soul,

A being of light in the center of the forehead,

The energy.

And open-eye meditation helps to remove the barriers.

When you practice with your eyes open,

You stop feeling disconnected and so unrelated to others.

And you start to relate soul to soul.

Understand that people behave badly because they're disconnected from their own peace and power.

So be more compassionate,

Tolerant and kind.

Not only with others,

But with your own self.

Remember,

I am a soul,

A being of light in the center of the forehead,

The energy.

The child of the one above,

I am the soul of Shanti.