If you know my meditation teaching style, you’re likely aware that I’ve focused on the concept of having “soft eyes” for years. “Soft eyes” encapsulates three ideas: keeping the eye muscles relaxed, maintaining a gentle focus within the eyes, and being openly receptive to whatever appears in your entire visual field.
By practicing these three aspects, your mind generally quiets down, your body begins to relax, and your breathing deepens and slows, moving more into your belly. When you then shift your attention inward to notice what’s happening in your body, you can become aware of sensations all over. The breathing experience becomes richer, leading to a calmer mind that stays at ease longer than usual.
This approach is a simple yet effective way to deepen your meditation practice. Instead of battling daily distractions to find brief moments of calm and concentration, you can achieve tranquility almost instantly. This technique usually works well for me.
However, it doesn’t always succeed, especially if I’m exceptionally tired, which has been the case recently due to our new puppy needing nighttime potty breaks, interrupting my sleep.
So, what can be done in such situations?
I’ve found it helpful to use certain phrases to keep my mind focused. Distracting thoughts pull our attention away from the immediate bodily experience into the realm of imagination. The kind of thinking I’ve described directs attention back from imagination to the present experience.
Timing is crucial, and you’ll have to find what works for you. If you repeat a phrase with every breath, it might feel overwhelming and too busy. Allow some time to simply observe the sensations of breathing without mental commentary. After saying phrases like “body alive” and “meeting everything with tenderness,” stay with your breathing for a few breaths.
If you find your mind wandering again, tighten the spacing of the phrases. If things are going well without distractions, you can space the phrases out more. When you are consistently focused on the body without distraction, try reducing the phrases to just “eyes soft” and “eyes kind,” incorporating some silent breaths in between.
If the phrases become mechanical, they will lose effectiveness and your mind will wander. Varying the frequency and testing their impact helps maintain alertness, focus, and calmness. You can also switch up the order of the phrases.
This technique has been integrated into my jhana teaching and practice. In the early stages of jhana, or meditative absorption, certain kinds of thinking are still present, and these phrases help deepen bodily awareness compatible with this state.
Experiment with these tools and share your experience with me. Thank you.
Dear Bodhipaksa,
During my first Vipassana course with Mother Sayama, I experienced immense joy, bliss, and contentment. However, in subsequent courses with Goenka’s assistant teachers, I felt nothing. My practice now seems hollow and mechanical. I need more warmth and feeling. Can you recommend a Jhana teacher in eastern Australia (not Ajahn Brahm)?
Thank you,
Roderick
Hi Roderick,
Unfortunately, I’m not aware of any Jhana teachers in eastern Australia. It’s possible that the shift from profound joy to a hollow experience may not necessarily be due to the teachers you’ve had. You might have experienced a change in your attitude during meditation. Initially, jhana arose spontaneously for you, but now you might be trying too hard to recreate that experience, which can hinder progress.
Here are a few suggestions:
1. Trust yourself and the process.
2. Allow the meditation to be more playful and less forced.
3. Notice what’s currently happening instead of striving for past experiences.
I hope these tips help revitalize your practice. Often, the sense of life and aliveness is already there, waiting to be noticed.
With metta,
Bodhipaksa
Hello again Bodhipaksa,
Thank you so much for your reply and helpful comments. De-mystifying jhanas and trusting oneself sounds like good advice, though believing that others know more can be tough to shake off! I’ll focus on deepening my concentration, relaxing, and maybe smiling more. Maybe another retreat will help, this time I’ll do my own things to deepen samadhi.
With metta,
Roderick