My Eyes

[Byrne]

Ever since my first incomplete attempts at sitting as a teenager I've experienced something unusual with my vision. As soon as I get "into" it whatever I'm looking, no matter how mundane, at starts to distort. Light, shadows, forms, all meld together in abstract ways. I tell the foreground from background and no image stays static. As a result my eyes start to spasm a little. Whenever I blink the visual is rebooted and starts anew immediately. As my eyes move without my consent I'm finding it impossible to keep them fixed on one single point. Thus far I just take Jundo's advice and sit with it. I suspect it could be related to a neurological condition I have called Complex Motor Stereotypy, which has blessed/cursed me with an extremely lucid and highly visual mind, but I'm not sure and the medical research on the condition is minimal.

Anyone else experience this? Any thoughts or advice?

Gassho

Sat Today

[Kyotai]

When looking at a wall, I sometimes see dark shadows or blotches, things that aren't really there when I focus on them. I usually try and find a dot on the wall and rest my gaze on that. I find if I don't have something to rest my gaze on, I get sleepy really fast.

Gassho, Kyotai
sat today

[Mp]

Hello Byrne,

There has been some talk on what our eyes do during zazen. Sometimes it can be the things in front of our eyes (objects) that cause distortions, but it can also be our own minds creating them. Either way try not to become fixed to them and just bring your eyes or mind back to a relaxed state. Sometimes lighting can be an issue, wallpaper, and the like ... try some different variations to find what works best for you. =)

Here are some other threads with similar thoughts and ideas ...

http://www.treeleaf.org/forums/showthread.php?8030-Zazen-Vision&highlight=visions%2C+eyes%2C

http://www.treeleaf.org/forums/showthread.php?5091-Visual-irritation-during-Zazen&highlight=visions%2C+eyes%2C

http://www.treeleaf.org/forums/showthread.php?9370-Visual-hallucinations-while-sitting&highlight=visions%2C+eyes%2C

http://www.treeleaf.org/forums/showthread.php?9958-Lucid-Blacking-Out-During-Zazen&highlight=visions%2C+eyes%2C

Hope this helps. =)

Gassho
Shingen

SatToday

[Kyonin]

Hi Byrne

Sometimes I have experienced super crazy light shows in my eyes. For what I have read it has to do with how your eyes and mind work when you are still, and how electric currents move through your optic system.

I would just relax and enjoy the show. It's nothing special.

Gassho,

Kyonin
#SatToday

[Jishin]

Hi,

Maybe closed eyes and open ears during Zazen?

Gassho, Jishin, _/st\_

[Jundo]

Hi,

The fellas above give good advice.

Let me just say that, in our Shikantaza way with the eyes about 1/3 open, there should be nothing particularly unusual or out of focus about the vision. It is seeing normally, but just not thinking about and judging what one is seeing. Otherwise, nothing usually particularly strange about the vision.

As some of the links above point out, there are times ... in the relative quiet and "sensory understimulation" of just sitting or looking at a wall ... that the eyes might play certain tricks such as seeing strange optical illusions, patterns in the wall and such. They are also the exception, not the rule, and one just treats them like all else ... more furniture in one's line of vision, not to be particularly throught about or judged.

If you are experiencing more than that, and regularly, it is either a medical condition (as Byrne describes) or one is doing something to excess (such as forcing the eyes to fixedly stare, failing to naturally blink, allowing them to really go out of focus or the like).

Gassho, J

What a room looks like before Zazen ...



What the room looks like during Zazen (but just not thinking particularly thoughts like "ugly sofa, nice chair, wish I were outside, need to clean this dirty floor ... "



SatToday