We are told that "the eyes are the window of the soul". If that is true, how can make use of this fact to improve your practice?
After the brain, your eyes are the most complex organ in the body, containing more than 200 million working parts. They are also the fastest muscle in your body, and can function at 100% at any given moment, without needing to rest. This 576-megapixel camera can distinguish over 10 million colors, and process information as quickly as your ethernet cable. In fact, is so important that only one-sixth of it is exposed to the environment, with the remainder encased in bones.
But what does all of this has to do with the mind and meditation?
* The eyes and mind relationship:
After the brain, your eyes are the most complex organ in the body, containing more than 200 million working parts. They are also the fastest muscle in your body, and can function at 100% at any given moment, without needing to rest. This 576-megapixel camera can distinguish over 10 million colors, and process information as quickly as your ethernet cable. In fact, is so important that only one-sixth of it is exposed to the environment, with the remainder encased in bones.
But what does all of this has to do with the mind and meditation?
* The eyes and mind relationship:
The relationship between eyes and the brain starts in your first days of fetal life. Your eyes start to develop just two weeks after conception, with the retina and the optic nerve developing as a direct outgrowth of your brain. So the retina is actually a piece of the brain that has grown into the eye, and also share a similar structure.
On top of that, sight is so important that almost half of the brain is dedicated to vision and seeing.
Conventional medicine knows that mental health conditions translate into specific eye movement patterns. That is why people with good emotional intelligence are able to read your mental state through your eyes. Indeed, there has been much research literature suggesting that mental conditions involving attention (such as ADHD, dyslexia and anxiety) are accompanied by and increases inerratic eye movements.
The same is true regarding your breathing – it changes according to the emotion or mental state you are experiencing in every moment. There is a specific breathing pattern that sets in when we are angry, for example; and another when we are fearful, depressed, tired, happy, etc.
The contribution of Eastern philosophy and the“consciousness experimentation” of the Yogis is that the opposite is also true: your eyes and breathing patterns also directly influence your mental and emotional state. This is really good news, because it is much easier to work on the level of the breathing and eyeballs, than it is on the level of the mind (which is so subtle and volatile).
*If you can still your eyes you can still your mind
The practice of yoga is all about training and concentrating the mind. In the Ashtanga Yoga method one tool out of the tristhana method is the Dristhi that helps to train the mind intensively. Dristhi in Sanskrit means point of focus. Each posture in the Ashtanga Yoga method has a point of focus or a gazing point that helps to concentrate de mind and direct energy along the inner body. There are total of nine drishtis (Nose, Navel, Toes, Upwards, Third eye, right side, left side, Hands, Thumbs) the idea is to still and focus the mind on those particular points and not getting distracted by the outside world.
* Theory vs practice
The gazing points with the asana practice is a work in progress because if you are not able to do the full extend it will be improper for you to be using the proper gaze point. Like for example a person that is more stiff in Trikonasana B may not be able to turn the neck and look up to the stretched hand. That does not mean the person don't have a gaze, but he or she will have to make up a new one. Another example is Marichasana A where the final gaze is on the big toe, but that is only applicable if the practitioner is is deeply fold into the pose, where the chest rests on the leg.
* Don't
What is not acceptable is for the eyes to be wondering around the room. The yoga practice is all about cultivating concentration.
* Drishti as a view point
Drishti is not only a gazing point. It also can be our view point or the way we look things. In a more abstract way is the idea of a view point we cultivate in the yoga practice. As we work with the breath and the body, we begin naturally to withdraw attention (Pratyahara) from the world around us.
As Pattabhi Jois said "everywhere you look you see God"
* In our lives
Each physical activity if you think about there is a point of focus. For a football player it will be the ball as a moving object. What about simple activities in our daily lives? How do we interact with loved ones? Do we give fully attention? Do we look in their eyes and make them feel they are the most important thing at the moment or do we stare our smart phone screen?
Yoga practice helps us to see how well we are looking, how well we are looking and paying attention and the quality of that attention.
