EYES OPEN. NO THOUGHTS.
This practise is reserved for the moment you wake up in the morning. When you open your eyes, your mind begins its day. Without thinking about it, you get straight into your usual morning routine. Everything you need to do starts to show up, and it’s not long before you’ve rebooted your personal story.
You see parts of your mind are programmed to run automatically, just like your phone. When you switch it on certain things just happen.
However, these is a small window of space and time right before that story you love to tell yourself begins. You a moment, you are awake but not yet engaged with the world. Natural. In this state there is no thought to block the pure awareness you are experiencing.
You can expand this moment into a conscious expericnce. Here’s how;
THE PROCESS
go to sleep the night before with the intention of taking the following steps the moment you open your eyes
when your first aware you are awake, open your eyes
stare at the ceiling without focusing on anything in particular
try to keep your eyes open. focus on this only, nothing else
What this practise does is set a trap for undisturbed awareness. Each step is important. By focusing on keeping your eyes open, your brain has not choice but to block thinking. The effort to stay awake occupies it entirely. Once you’ve mastered this practise, you will be in a state of ‘eyes open, not thoughts’.
As you lie there, simply notice what this state feels like. Very few people have ever been awake without thinking for more than a few seconds. With time and practise, you can sustain this for unto a minute. It’s a profound thing to be still, quiet, calm and alert with no ego to defend or story to construct. The more you are aware of how significant the experience is, the more insight into your true self you will have.
This practise is a nice starting point.