I’m changing my approach towards meditation. I’m focusing on nonduality for the coming period -until I focus on something else 🙂.
Since my true nature is the simple awakeness that observes all objects in consciousness, I thought I’d try meditation with my eyes open. I’m meditating since 2014 and I’ve always done this with my eyes closed (with a few rare, unsatisfying exceptions). I’ve learned a lot from Fred Davis though and I’m looking at it from a different angle now.
So I placed my phone in front of me with this video on, a simple burning candle. I did this because otherwise attention will always be scanning my field of vision for something interesting to think about. By fixating my view on the candle and keeping it there, I can stay more concentrated. So I’m fixed on the candle, but in my peripheral vision I see the whole room if course, and my arms and legs. While staring at the candle I’m also aware of breath, thought and body. I’m trying you stay aware of the process of perceiving, because that takes me closest to my true nature. I did this for an hour. It actually worked well, it’s hard to explain but it was easier to get into a witnessing mode, slightly dissociated from experience. A few times there was an itch and the hand moved to scratch it and I had the distinct impression that this was happening by itself (which is true) and I did not actively decide to do that. The same goes for seeing the candle, this also is just happening. ‘Seeing the candle’ just happens, it is What Is in this moment. I don’t know if this makes sense to anyone but it does to me; it resembles the short experience of nonduality a bit ‘I’ experienced in February of last year. So I’m probably going to keep doing this for some time. It’s like many teachers say; you can’t do anything to get enlightened because nobody is doing anything so you just have to be lucky, but you can create circumstances that increase the odds of you being lucky. I feel that maybe this may increase my odds. Next to that I’m doing my best to stay in observation mode during the day, so that at all times part of my awareness is noticing What Is in the moment, looking through the body instead of as the body.