MIDL 29/36: Insight Meditation: Mindfulness Of Seeing

In this meditation, Stephen Procter will guide you in the insight meditation skill of observing the autonomous (anatta) nature of the process of sight and how to relax the effort of attention that supports it. As insight develop your mind will weaken its identification with sight and thereby more easily let go of tendencies of your mind to be attracted and averse towards what you see in daily life. Support articles and instructions for this guided meditation can be found in the Free Online MIDL Insight Meditation Course by checking Stephens Procter's teacher profile.

Transcript

During this mindfulness training,

We'll investigate the first sense door of sight and learn the difference between the experience of looking and seeing.

If you just start out by taking your meditation posture and closing your eyes over lightly,

Start to be aware of what it feels like just to be here.

Becoming aware of any sounds around you.

Allowing the change within the sound to hold your attention.

Allowing the change within the sound to hold your attention.

Now slowly bring your awareness into your body.

Becoming aware of any warmth or coolness within your body,

Holding them gently in mind.

Also become aware of the touch of your hands.

And the pressure of your body as it rests on the chair or on the floor.

Your whole body just sitting here.

And the pressure of your body as it rests on the chair or on the floor.

And the pressure of your body as it rests on the chair or on the floor.

Now relax your chest and belly and start to be aware of the movement of breathing within your body.

The gentle flow of the breathing.

Wherever the breathing is most clear to you is okay.

And just being aware of the movement of that breath.

Noticing that as the breath comes in your body feels expanding outwards.

And as the breath goes out your body deflates relaxing inwards.

Just aligning your awareness with the movement of your body as it breathes.

And just being aware of the movement of your body as it breathes.

And now bring your awareness to your eyes and eyelids.

Notice what sensations you can feel there.

Does your mind produce any images or sights?

Can you notice any light within your eyes?

If images or light is appearing within your eyes just be aware of it.

And just be aware of the movement of your body as it breathes.

Now very soon I'm going to ask you to open your eyes.

When you do I want you to become aware of what it feels like when the light strikes your eyes.

When we first do this don't look around.

Just focus on one place on the floor or a wall.

Now slowly open your eyes.

Become aware of any blinking of your eyelids.

Become aware of any focusing that is occurring within your eyes.

Now slowly open your eyes.

Notice how the visual world suddenly appears to you.

Notice how the visual world suddenly appears to you.

Notice how complex just sitting here becomes.

Notice any mental commentary in the background of your mind.

Now bring your awareness to your forehead.

And using free slow gentle breaths out through your nose.

Open relax the frontal lobes of your brain.

Allow any commentary to dissolve.

Allow the effort to think to relax.

Use your body to Now,

Bring your awareness back to the area of your eyes.

Becoming aware of what it feels like to see.

Start to notice any focusing of your eyes.

Any effort within your eyes to look.

And relax that effort,

Soften that effort.

Relax.

Relax the effort so that your eyes are not focused on anything at all.

Now I'd like you to slowly look around the room.

See if you can notice whenever your eyes are drawn towards something.

And then soften,

Relax that looking.

Relax the effort to look so your eyes are not focused on anything at all.

So that you can experience just the purity of seeing.

Keep slowly looking around the room.

And notice any time your eyes get drawn into anything.

And when they do,

Soften,

Relax the seeing.

Soften,

Relax the effort to look.

Now I'd like you to find one object in the room to look at.

And notice what it feels like to look.

And notice the effort involved.

Also notice any mental commentary that arises within your mind.

And notice any time your eyes are drawn towards something.

Now bring your awareness to your forehead.

Using three slow,

Gentle breaths out through your nose.

Relax any mental commentary,

Any mental involvement,

Any looking.

And notice any time your eyes are drawn towards something.

Now widen your eye awareness to the whole room.

And relax your eyesight back into just seeing again.

And notice the beauty of just seeing.

And no effort,

No commentary,

No individual things.

And notice any time your eyes are drawn towards something.

And just sitting here silently in the room.

Just experiencing your whole body.

And you become a totally different person.

Become sensitive to the experience of seeing.

Observe every time your mind habitually engages with sight.

Every time your eyes focus in on something.

And then soften their engagement.

With a slow breath out through your nose,

Soften,

Relax their doing.

Soften,

Relax the seeing.

Soften,

Relax the seeing.

Soften,

Relax the seeing.

Just sitting here in the simplicity of seeing.

Sitting in the beauty of presence.

Keep using your body as an anchor for your awareness.

Soften,

Relax the seeing.

Soften,

Relax the seeing.

Soften,

Relax the seeing.

Soften,

Relax the seeing.

Just being very present,

Very still.

Relaxing,

Relaxing.

Now allow your eyes to close over gently.

Notice the world change as a sensitivity to lie to shut down.

Notice the effect this has on your mind.

Keep your awareness on the point between your eyes and using slow gentle breaths soften relax into this point.

Gently breathing in slowly breathing out relax.

Gently breathing in slowly breathing out relax.

Notice any engagement of your mind to use your eyes.

Any visions any light and soften.

Soften relax.

Gently breathing in slowly breathing out relax.

Now bring your awareness back into your body and just sitting here.

And opening to any sounds around you allowing the sound to come into you.

And when you're ready you can gently open your eyes.

Become aware of the feeling of sight as it appears.

The returning of the world around you.

The deep awareness of your body.

And soften.

Thank you for spending this time meditating with me.

Take care of yourself and have a wonderful day.

And goodbye.

Reviews

This was a struggle, to stay relaxed in seeing and not locking in to looking when something catches my attention. Thank you for this experience!

Experiencially, resounding. Really brings about a much keener perception of the dimensions lying within the sense of sight.

A beautiful meditation, it took me on quite a journey. When you mentioned the “eye door”, I became aware of the frame of my eyes, and noticed how it moved with my breath, then when I closed my eyes, the focus was naturally on the spot between my eyes, where I felt myself dissolve. This feeling of dissolving continued when I opened my eyes again, and I noticed that the world was just there around me. A great meditation for relaxing engagement with and relationship to what is going on around me.

Very interesting and relaxing. Thank you Stephen. I notice at least three “levels”. Looking feels to me like focusing on something. Seeing feels like letting the focus be soft and broad, allowing in the peripheral vision; it feels more like a wave of color and shape. Then there are the times my mind wanders and I don’t “see” at all, except images in my imagination. Is this roughly what you mean by the distinction between looking and seeing?

Thank you —
John

Once again everything changes. Thanks👍
Good meditation. 🤷🏻‍♂️

Ironically, this is quite thought provoking at the end.

An excellent and well guided session, as they all are. I find that as I see without focusing on individual things, my eyelids grow tired and want to close. I soften into that weariness and keep them open, except for some mindful blinking, noticing the sensations of doing so, and when the time comes to close the eyes, it feels so good to close them, letting go. Thank you, as always, Stephen, for these well prepared sessions, each one adding a new layer to my MIDL practice.

Thank you Stephen. This was highly interesting. I didn’t realize how much effort goes into focusing on objects and the perception and mental proliferation that follows. I noticed the contrast after softening and going back to just seeing. It is so interesting how the mind just has a continual urge to “know” experiences and then mentally proliferate about this raw sensory data. Softening seems to bring me back closer to the sensory experience of see without the mental overlay.

Exceptional, and very challenging, perhaps even more so for the visual artist I am. There is quite a bit of de conditioning to done here. Thank you again,Stephen, for all these tools you give us, to help us in developing mindfulness.

Thank you, Stephen! I never paid this much attention to the doorway of sight... on one hand focusing the attention, realizing the power of this sense, and then softening into it, pulling back from the automatic habit of judging or mentally interpreting every point of focus. I will try to be aware of this lesson as I go though my day...

Usually I take my glasses off for my meditations. I did this the 1st 2 times I did this practice and found it easy. I then thought to try with my glasses on and that has proved to be very different. Glasses off, easy to relax as vision is blurry anyway! Glasses on, mind whirring. Interesting to compare.

This is wonderful. Thank you Stephen

Thank you.
I couldn’t find 42/52 .Searched for it for a long time

All I can say is wow! A really different and enlightening session that changes how I experience an automatic function like seeing. Will be processing what this means to me as I practice this throughout the week

Wow!!! Not at all what I expected. There were many revelations in this that I'm going to need to revisit to fully absorb. I'm anxious to do so.

Stephen is really taking us to the deep core of presence. Mindfulness in its purest form.

So restful, I bookmarked will return.

So "insightful". For the very first time in my life, I experienced the gifts of my eyes. Of seeing unconditionally. Such a miracle we are! Tears of gratitude and appreciation for greeting the world thru these eyes of mine... Thank you Sir for another wonderful meditation.✨🙏🏼✨

So great. I be back tomorrow.