I have been meditating from the last 3-4 months. I am taking lessons from Yogoda. I am feeling difficulty in keeping the eye gaze up, as it lowers down after a while. Then again lifting it up & so on. It creates a tension in eye. Also, focussing attention in between eyebows or spiritual eye, is also difficult as strain / tension is faced in doing so..... Please help or advise
—Chetan, India
Dear Chetan,
Try imagining that you are gazing at a mountain peak in the distance, so that your eyes are directed slightly above the horizon line but not so high up as to cause a strain.
If this is difficult to imagine, stretch your arm out straight in front of you with the thumb held vertically. Have the top of the thumb at the same height as the top of your head and gaze at the thumb.
In both examples you are turning the eyes up at an angle that should be comfortable for you. Try to relax your eyes at that angle and then close the eyelids.
If neither of these is comfortable, then lower the gaze slightly, so that it is just a little bit above a level gaze.
The uplifted gaze will happen naturally as you focus more and more deeply on the breath and begin to feel your concentration gathering at the point between the eyebrows. But by lifting the gaze slightly you help to move the mind toward greater concentration and upliftment.
The eyes will follow your consciousness.
If you go into a dreamy state, where the mind is drifting (subconsciousness), the eyes will point downward. If you begin to get into thinking and planning (conscious mind), the eyes will be pointing straight ahead. When the mind lifts in superconsciousness, the eyes will automatically lift upward (as I mentioned earlier).
Do not “obsess” out the eye position. Work with this in a gradual way. When you notice that the eyes are not upward, gently redirect them there.
Put your primary focus on observing the flow of breath inside the nose.
Try to feel the sensation of the breath on the inside of the nose higher and higher, so that eventually you are feeling it just at the place the air enters the skull – right beneath the spiritual eye.
As you focus more deeply on the breath high in the nose, your eyes will tend more to go in that direction.
I think that the more you focus on the sensation of breath, instead of making the eyes a major focus of energy, you will have more success gently redirecting the eyes.
Blessings on your practice,
Anandi
