Open Eye Meditation

Seer and seen are false, seeing is Truth

The word meditation instantly conjures up the image of sitting in a quiet place with eyes closed and remaining silent and in solitude for a given period of time. Such meditation certainly has an important role to play when one first becomes aware of the constant state of being tossed around by thoughts. Here one has to be careful to not confuse meditation with any violent suppressing of thoughts through grit and will power. Instead if it is done watchfully and gently with awareness, it helps us to go inward and be unaffected by the current of thoughts which also slows down due to lack of reaction from the watchful awareness.

Closed eye meditation

The direct way to abide in this watchful awareness is the process of self-inquiry. When we close the eyes and see thoughts rising, instead of trying to control anything, if we just gently inquire who is the thinker, the answer is clear that the thinker is ‘me’, which is only a self-image built up over time through memory and therefore another form of thought. Thus when it is clear that the thinker is another thought, then instead of absurdly seeking to control one thought with another thought or replace with another supposedly “good” thought, one can simply see that the thinker and the thought are both false. They are both a product of memory and therefore the past. And given that everything changes every moment in existence, any image from the past can never capture what is living in the present. And if we inquire what is actually living in the present, it is clear that the very presence that is aware of the thinker and the thought and unaffected by the rising and subsiding of the thinker or the thought alone exists.

This awareness is not a product of memory or the past but it is self-effulgent and just is. When we see the truth of this, then there is complete attention to what is living. Now when a thought rises, the subject and the object of the thought are both clearly seen as false and therefore dropped and what remains is a relaxed and yet complete attention to what is. In the absence of any vested interest for or against something, there is the attention without any motive just as one at times sits and stares at the clouds in the sky. Such attention is relaxed or effortless because there is nobody “attending”, that is to say, no ‘me’ that wants something out of the process. And such attention is also complete because there is no thinker with his desires, fears etc that comes in the way to cause inattention to what is. This relaxed yet complete attention to the very movement of thinking, if any, causes no reaction but just an instant seeing and dropping of what rises. This state of complete attention has nobody to record any image inwardly of what rises, but only a watching that happens automatically as it were and yet perfectly in pure awareness. It is much like the actor who plays a role with complete attention while untouched inwardly by the character he plays.

Open eye meditation

Now can this process be done only with closed eyes? If so, then what happens when we spend the rest of the day with our eyes open? If we can be meditative only with eyes closed and otherwise our old habit of inattention reigns supreme, doesn’t it make meditation a fragmentary activity, that is dependent on place and time? An escape from the rigors of living into a cozy cocoon which becomes a crutch? It’s not much different then from a drug addict requiring his daily fix to keep going with the rest of the day. So the question is can one bring this meditative quality all day with eyes open, that is to living itself which is to deal with relationships of all kinds — at home, work, near, far etc.?

Here again, the direct way of self-inquiry if pursued diligently and alertly in every waking encounter provides us the key to open-eye meditation that breaks us out of the old habit of inattention and being caught in images. We spend our days relating to people, things, situations through speaking, acting, observing, listening etc. Now just as when sitting with eyes closed, even with open eyes, we can gently inquire who is the apparent subject of these actions — the speaker, the doer, the observer or the listener. Again the answer is ‘me’ which is a self-image stored in memory and therefore just another thought which is of the past and false. The object of these actions as we imagine it — the spoken, the done, the observed, the listened is equally another set of images in memory and therefore false. So the division between the imagined subject and the object is only a product of memory or the past and has no connection with the living present. What is present again is only the awareness that is not a product of memory but just is. And when we clearly see the truth of this, then again there is complete attention to what is living.

Therefore when the image of the speaker and the spoken are both seen as just thought of the past which is false and thus dropped, what remains is a casual and yet complete attention to what is — the speaking. Again, because there is no vested interest, desire, fear etc. in the act of speaking (or observing, listening etc) to an imagined subject for or against an imagined object, there is the attention without any motive to the simple act of speaking itself. Such attention is then casual and complete due to nobody reacting and nothing to record about any entity — I or the other. The total attention is then only on the very action itself. Such a state of total attention is to live in meditation. This requires us to see clearly the old habit of inattention during our day to day affairs because of the past images at play. All pettiness, conflicts, comparisons, jealousy, hatred etc rise only due to these images. To alertly see the truth of this every moment and therefore to instantly drop all vested interests while relating to anyone or anything but remain just relaxed and completely aware as while watching the rain fall or a bird fly is to remain in total attention which is to abide as pure presence.

This whole way of living meditatively is brought out beautifully in this brief exchange between Ramana Maharshi and Paul Brunton. The Maharshi told Paul Brunton once, “Right now you are seeing me and I am seeing you. This seeing alone is Truth!” When mentally Brunton had the doubt, ‘But there are already two involved, the seer and the seen’, Maharshi smiled and firmly said : “In this seeing, if you do not identify yourself from head to foot as ‘you’, what is seeing?”.