Meditation Techniques

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Trataka Meditation: Still Eyes, Still Mind​

By Giovanni Dienstmann 84 Comments

We are told that “the eyes are the windows of the soul”. If that is true, how can you make use of this fact to improve your meditation practice? Here is where the techniques of Trataka meditation come in.

In this article, I explore the relationship between the eyes and the brain from a scientific perspective, and then describe trataka and other gazing meditation techniques to achieve stillness of mind through the use of your eyes. If years ago I knew about the importance of this practice, my meditation would have progressed faster.

Out of the main five senses, sight is arguably the most powerful. In order to perceive through touch or taste, we need to be in contact with the object. In order to perceive a smell or sound, we need to be near the source of that smell or sound. However, with our eyes we can perceive objects and landscapes miles away, without actually being there. Indeed, 80% of all sensory data we process comes through our vision (source).

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?


Jump to section

• The Eyes-Mind Connection
• Trataka Benefits: Still Eyes, Still Mind
• Gazing Meditation Practices
  • Trataka — Yogic Gazing Meditation
  • Sky Gazing in Tibetan Buddhism
  • Gazing in Zen
  • Gazing in Other Traditions
• Common Questions
• Parting Thoughts
• Trataka PDF

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The Eyes-Mind Connection​

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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 (1, 2).


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 (1, 2). 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).

Next time you feel anxious, angry, or stressed, observe how is the movement of your breath, and of your eyes. Then consciously bring a sense of relaxation and stillness to them both, and you will notice that the emotional state changes as well.




If you can focus your eyes, you can focus your mind. Learn how.
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Interestingly, in the past few decades Western Psychology is developing theories and methodologies based on the same principle. One of them is EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing), which is a therapeutic modality for treating trauma, started in 1987 by psychologist Francine Shapiro.

In a research done by the National Institute of Mental Health, EMDR was found to be substantially more efficacious than Prozac for PTSD. It is now recognized as an effective treatment by the World Health Organization (WHO), and is one of the treatments for PTSD sanctioned by the Department of Veterans Affairs.

Conclusion: Your vision is tightly connected to your mind. Your mental/emotional states affect your eye movements. You can also affect your mind, and even manage trauma, by doing certain practices with your eyes.

Trataka Benefits: Still Eyes, Still Mind​

Our eyes are constantly making microscopic jerking movements called microsaccades, designed to make sure that the image of anything falling onto the retina is constantly changing (this is called Troxler’s Phenomenon). They do this so that the objects in our field of vision keep being registered by the brain; otherwise, by constantly staring at an object for long enough, it tends to disappear from our perception.

In fact, our eyes can focus on multiple things every second. This restless scan of the environment, much like our fight or flight response, was a necessity when living in the jungle. In our modern lifestyle, however, our inability to turn off this anxiety producing pattern does not contribute to our survival or quality of life.

Yet, the intensive use of computer and smartphones is training us to be ever more restless with our eyes. This is one of the reasons why our attention span keeps getting shorter.

Conversely, what the meditators of yore found is that by stilling these micro movements of the eyes, stillness of mind could be induced.

Let’s run a quick experiment. Look for a few seconds at the two images below.

You’ll notice that in the first one, the wheels appear to be moving; while the second one seems to have blinking black dots.

Now look at them again, but instead focus your eyes on one of the dots in the image, and be attentively vigilant that your eyes don’t move even a bit. If you manage to do that, the movements will disappear, and you will see the images for what they are. The second image will probably be more challenging.

If you really stilled your eyes for a minute or two, you might have also experienced a stillness of your mind as well. If not, it becomes evident with a bit more practice.

Conclusion: Distractions in the mind translate to micro movements in the eyes or eyelids, and vice-versa. Stillness of eyes brings stillness of mind, and vice-versa.

Gazing Meditation Practices​

Stilling the eyes is not the only way to achieve stillness of mind, but it is a powerful way, and the feedback is much quicker. Schools of Yoga, Zen, and Tibetan Buddhism have developed open eye meditation techniques based on this principle.

Interestingly, research from neuropsychologist Marcel Kinsbourne shows that there is a definite relationship between eye position and the dominant hemisphere of your brain; so much so that changing the eye position can directly affect your mood and experience of the world. In his experiments, pictures appearing on the left side of our viewing field, and sounds in the left ear (both transmitted to the right brain), are perceived less agreeable than when they are presented to the other side.

This is relevant because most of the techniques below involve holding a central gaze. This can explain the experience of many practitioners regarding tratak meditation and similar techniques: that there is an integration and unification of the whole brain.

If looking right activates the left hemisphere, and looking left activates the right hemisphere, then it’s not unreasonable to conclude that holding a perfectly centered and forward gaze produces a balanced brain activity in both hemispheres.

Trataka — Yogic Gazing Meditation​

What is the meaning of Trataka?

Trataka is a meditation technique which involves focusing the eyes (and, in turn, the mind) through intent but relaxed gazing. Initially, this practice is done with open eyes on an external object. It then progresses to internal practice (with eyes closed), and to gazing the void. Sometimes it’s spelled tratak or tratika.

There are many ways of doing trataka, and candle gazing is just one of them (the most popular).

In all forms of trataka, you can integrate breath awareness or the repetition of a mantra if you find it helpful, although it’s not commonly taught this way.

I have personally done extensive research on trataka, and it is currently my favorite support practice (even though I’m more auditory than visual). It is a very rich technique, so here I can only summarize its main elements.

There has been very little scientific research in this practice (example). So what we know in terms of its benefits is mostly all anecdotal evidence from practitioners that have devoted years to its practice. In this context, trataka is attributed to have the following benefits:

• Improves concentration, memory, and willpower
• Improves visualization skills
• Improves cognitive function
• Cures eye diseases
• Makes the eyes stronger, clearer, and brighter
• Helps with insomnia
• Clears accumulated mental/emotional complexes
• Brings suppressed thoughts to the surface
• Increases nervous stability
• Calms the anxious mind
• Balances the activity in the two hemispheres of the brain
• Improves vision in the dark (if practiced on a candle flame)
• Soothing effect on the cranial nerves (Dr. Giridar Yogeshwar)
• Enhances self-confidence and patience

For a review on the general benefits of meditation, refer to this article.


Stage One: External

The first level of the practice is external gazing. The object can be almost anything, though the most popular choices are a candle flame, a black dot in a white wall, or an image with particular significance for you. Other objects used are your image in a mirror (your right eye), a transparent glass, a needle, a current of water, the moon in the sky, or the first minutes of the rising sun.

Set your gaze on the object, and keep it there without blinking and without letting your eyes move. After 1 to 3 minutes, your eyes will be tired or tears may be coming. Then close your eyes for a few minutes, and gaze at the afterimage of that object in your mind, if you can see it. When you are ready, open your eyes and go for another round. At the end of your practice, gently wash your eyes with cold water.

Note: if you practice trataka for purification of the eyes, then you would try to keep the eyes open and allow tears to fall as much as possible. This is the Trataka Kriya, which is used in the tradition of Hatha Yoga. In this article, however, we are talking about Trataka as a meditation practice.

Here are some precautions and practical considerations:

• Using a candle is a often preferred because the flame has a natural attraction for many people.Fire is like magnet for the eyes and mind. Also, it leaves a very clear after-image in the mind.
• Some Yogis express concern that unbroken practice with a candle, for more than two months, may cause a permanent impression on the retina. So if you practice with a candle, and practice it every day, take a couple of weeks of break from the practice every two months. Or swap to another object.
• Don’t practice external tratakafor more than 10 minutes (especially the candle-gazing version), unless you have the guidance of a teacher experienced in this technique.
• The trick in mastering tratakalies in relaxing the eyes as much as possible – otherwise your vision will soon blurr and the eyes will flicker. Don’t worry if all you can do is 10 seconds without blinking; with time you will be able to go long periods without blinking.
• Place the object at eye level on a little table or support ahead of you, in a way that it’s level with your eyes. As to the distance from you, some teachers recommend an arm’s length distance (this works for me), while others recommend up to 5 feet away. Experiment and see what makes most sense.
• Be sure you can see the object clearly, without blurr. If needed, wear your glasses.
• If you are using a candle, make your room completely dark, and make sure there is no wind (as the flame ideally needs to be still). For other objects, dim light is preferred, and the source of light should be behind you.
• Gaze with purpose, as if you are looking for something. Moment after moment, all you are doing is watching that point, without thinking about it.
• Some Yoga texts mention trying to “pierce the object with your gaze”; others say that it should be a relaxed gaze. Probably a matter of experimentation to see what’s best.
• Try not to blink, but don’t try too hard. The less thought you give to not blinking, the easiest it is.
• Don’t strain your eyes. If you feel discomfort, then blink the eyes and continue the practice. But don’t move the pupils.
• Don’t do trataka on a candle if you have cataracts, glaucoma, myopia, astigmatism or epilepsy.

Other two traditional practices of external trataka, and which don’t involve any object, are gazing at the tip of your nose (nasikagra drishti) or gazing at the space between the eyebrows (shambhavi mudra). The former induces calmeness and centeredness; the latter, alertness and expansion.

To practice nose tip gazing, bring your extended forefinger about one palms-length away from your nose, and in level with it. Gaze at the tip of your finger for some moments until you are comfortable with it. Then slowly start bringing the finger closer to the tip of your nose, while holding it with your gaze. Stop along the way if needed, so your eyes get used to it. When your finger touches the nose, drop your finger, and just keep gazing at the nose. Do this for no more than 10-15 minutes in the first few weeks.


To practice eyebrow center gazing, follow a similar procedure, with the difference that the tip of your finger should be level with your eyebrows.

These two techniques can also be practiced with closed eyes. It causes less strain on the eyes, but it’s harder to keep the focus.

Both these practices are very powerful at making the mind quiet and centered. But remember to approach these practices slowly and with patience. Otherwise, you might experience a headache.


Stage Two: Internal

With time, your concentration and visualization abilities increase, and you progress to practicing internal gazing exclusively. Here, you are either looking at a mental image of your object, or simply visualizing a dot of light on your“mind screen” (the black space in front of your closed eyes).

You can also practice internal trataka with an external scene as a prop. Center your gaze on a central point in your visual field, and observe the whole scenery around you. Then close your eyes and try to recreate the same scene within. Keep your awareness in the eyebrow center and let the image build up for you, just as it did when you looked at it externally.


Stage Three: Space

After mastering internal gazing, you can proceed to gazing into the void.

Even thought you could do this from the start, it is advised to first master external trataka. Otherwise, your mind won’t have the stability needed to make the best use of theses practices, and you will likely get often lost in distraction or lethargy.

Common modalities of this type of trataka are:

• Boochari Mudra —> raise your hand in front of your face, and gaze at the tip of your finger for a couple of minutes. Then remove your hand, but keep gazing at that same spot. You are now gazing at space, or emptiness. Be aware of space only, and don’t register any other events.When the focus dissipates, raise the hand and start again.
• Space—> select two objects in your visual field, and focus on the space between them. After some time, close your eyes and focus on the space between your thoughts.
• Evening Sky—> also a Tibetan practice called Sky Gazing (see description below).
• Darkness—> in a lightless room, gaze at a spot in the darkness in front of you. (Warning: do not try this practice if you have suppressed emotions or were exposed to traumatic experiences, as they are likely to surface powerfully through this exercise).
• The Seer—> with your eyes closed, turn your gaze 180 degrees around to yourself, the source of all seeing. Gaze at the“I”, the observer, the perceiving consciousness. This is indeed, a type of Self-Enquiry meditation, although almost everyone attempts it without undergoing the previous training of external and internal trataka.

Through trataka, all the attention and power of the mind is channeled in one continuous stream. In many lineages of Yoga, it is considered the alphabet of meditation, and is regarded as a highly effective concentration exercise. The ancient Yoga manuals claim that “Trataka destroys the eye diseases and removes sloth, etc. It should be kept secret very carefully, like a box of gold.” (Hatha Yoga Pradipika 2:31)

Luckily us, the gold is out! ?

In the ladder of Yoga, trataka is often considered the bridge between the body-oriented practices – like postures (asanas) and breathing exercises (pranayama) – and the mind oriented practices of meditation (dhyana) and the superconscious state (samadhi). It is also an essential preparation for all visualization-type meditations.

Recommend books on the subject of Trataka are Asana Pranayama Mudra Bandha and Dharana Darshan (the latter is one is the most comprehensive expositionI’ve found so far). These two treatises, and other Bihar Yoga books, were the bulk of my study on trataka.

We’ll now explore other tratakapractices from different traditions.

Sky Gazing in Tibetan Buddhism​

Dzogchen, a tradition in TibetanBuddhism, recommends the practice of sky gazing.

A great article on the topic is from my friend Chad Foreman (here), from whom I borrow the following instructions:

1. Find a high place with a good view of an expansive clear sky. (You can also lie on your back outside and try it).
2. Sit comfortably and for a few moments calm your mind with long deep slow breaths.
3. With a good posture, tilt your head slightly upward and with a noble disposition gaze without distraction or dullness into the clear expansive blue sky (best done on non-cloudy days).
4. Let go of all thoughts, allowing them to pass by like clouds, and encourage your awareness to slowly merge with the expansive blue sky.
5. Notice how inner thoughts evaporate into your inner sky-like awareness like clouds evaporating in the sky.
6. Recognize that this open and expansive experience is actually the most fundamental and natural state of your being.
7. Sustain this recognition of an open and expansive state of being for as long as possible, and return to it when you get distracted.

Unlike the Yogic practices of trataka, which emphasizes concentration, the practice above emphasizes resting in a natural state of mind (which the clear blue sky represents).

Here is another description of this practice, this one much like the“stage three” practices of Yogic trataka(gazing the void):

The method of Dzogchen gazing disorientates the conceptual mind. It’s very important to practice the gaze first. You have to do that in order to keep your eyes from seeking forms upon which they tend to settle.

In terms of Dzogchen, we train through the senses and the sense-fields rather than through trying to let go of thought. We learn to fix the senses. We keep the senses unmoving in relation to the external world.

You would sit by the sea. Or you would sit by a river. You would focus on the surface detail of the water, so that you saw it very clearly and crisply. You would then fix your gaze. You would achieve that by keeping your eyes from moving. The eye muscles habitually track movements by flicking backwards and forwards along the line of movement.You become aware of that darting movement, and you continually attempt to freeze it – to fix your gaze.

This is a specific of many Dzogchen practices. The impression you would receive would be like a photograph taken at a slow shutter speed. This is one of the best ways to train in fixing the gaze.

The way to train in focusing in space, in terms of Dzogchen, is to learn to feel comfortable when your eyes have no object of focus. This seems challenging at first, but it is by no means difficult.

Gazing in Zen​

In Zazen meditation, we rest our gaze on the floor, about two to three feet ahead. Or while facing a wall we place the gaze about one-third from the bottom of the wall to your own height. We don’t gaze at the wall, but through it, to be open to peripheral vision.

You are not looking at anything, and not seeing anything, but just gazing softly. The eyes are also kept immovable and the eyelids half-closed, to minimize the need for blinking. Then, you bring the attention to the breath, or to the body “just sitting”.

Gazing in Other Traditions​

In classical Greece, the philosophers practiced navel-gazing (omphaloskepsis), as an aid to contemplation of basic principles of the cosmos and human nature.

You also find the practice of gazing in the Orthodox Church, where icons of saints and personages from the Bible are the only companions that monastics take with them for contemplation during long periods of retreat.

In Theravada Buddhism, there is the practice of Kasina meditation, which also starts by gazing at an external object, and later progresses to focusing on the mental image of that object. The ten objects recommended by the Buddha for this are: earth, water, fire, wind, white, yellow, red, blue, space (or sky), bright light. We can see the strong similarities with the selection of trataka objects from the Yoga tradition – which shouldn’t be surprising, since the Buddha learned meditation from Yogis of his time.

In Taoism, there is a flower gazing practice, where we keep a relaxed and receptive focus on a flower, and feel that we are drinking in the color, shape, scent, and healing energy of the flower (full instructions). They also have moon-gazing qigong practice.

In Sufism, there is also the internal practice of“gazing at the Beloved”.

“If you want to know God,then turn your face toward your friend and don’t look away.” – Jalaluddin Rumi

In Jewish mysticism (Kaballah) there is the practice of gazing at certain geometrical forms and symbols.

[If you have more information about these practices, or gazing meditations in other traditions, please let me know. I’ll be happy to include them here and credit you.]

Common Questions​

How to practice open eye meditation (gazing)?
Choose an object for your gazing practice—it could be a candle gaze, a dot on the wall, a stone, or any image.
Place it two to three feet in front of you, at eye level. Sit in the meditation posture, take three deep breathes, and keep your eyes open.
Gaze gently and continuously at the object, with full focus, and without moving your eyes. When the eyes get tired, close them and observe the after-image of the object in the mind’s screen.

What is mirror meditation?
Mirror meditation is a type of gazing meditation (Trataka), that uses your reflection in a mirror as the object of focus. You can focus on pupil of your right eye, or the space between the eyebrows.
This practice helps develop concentration quickly, and also improves self-confidence and personal magnetism.

What does it mean to see an eye during meditation?
Spontaneously seeing an image of an eye during meditation is considered a very good sign by some meditation masters. It is widely reported by many meditators, so it seems to be a symbol of the unconscious mind. The Yogis say that this means your Third Eye is beginning to awaken.

What are some yogic eye exercises that we can do before gazing meditation?
Keeping your head completely still, move your eyes left and right ten times; then up and down ten times; then make full circles in the clockwise and then counter-clockwise direction, five times each. This is a good exercise for the eye muscles, and some teachers recommend it as a preparation for gazing meditation.

Parting Thoughts​

We usually read a lot about how to do meditation by using the sense of touch (as in breath awareness, mindfulness, and walking meditation) and the sense of hearing (mantra meditation, TM, nada yoga).

In this article I have focused on techniques that use our sense of sight. Other types of meditation will use feelings (like loving-kindness and some tantric meditations), places in the body (chakra meditation, yoga nidra), or imagination.

Even if gazing meditation is not for you, simply being more aware of your eyes movements in your own meditation practice, and trying to still them, can be helpful when following other techniques

We have seen how the sight is the most powerful sense, and how it is a direct door to influencing our mental states. If you can spend 5 minutes in a perfect gaze, your mind will definitely experience a sense of stillness – otherwise you couldn’t have held the gaze.

The moment you have even the slightest memory, thought, or imagination, your eyes will have a micro-movement, and you will notice that straight away.

When I tried these meditations for the first time, I disliked them immediately. But a year later, when I tried them again with a better understanding of their value, I began to really enjoy them.

My main meditation practice improved a lot after seriously engaging in trataka as a support practice. That is what motivated me to write this piece.

Have you tried any similar practice?

If so, please share your experiences.

Finally, check out our meditation teacher training course to learn how to teach gazing meditation, and several other types of meditation, in a variety of settings.

Trataka PDF

 

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Lama Lena's "eyeball trick" explained by James Low​

One of my favorite things about Lama Lena is the way she teaches the "eyeball trick" in her meditation instruction. You relax the focus muscles in the lens of the eye, release point focus, and that relaxes the "attention muscle" in your mind. Very very helpful. Practical. "Here, do this" instead of "just sit there, open."

James Low gave a wonderful explanation of how this works. Focusing on an object, separating it from the background, also separates us as a subject. By opening into panoramic vision, letting the object merge into the background - it actually never was separate from the background, that's just an illusion - we let our sense of "I" merge into everything that arises as well. Lhundrup. He explains it better than I can. Just a short clip, cued up here

Edit: If the link doesn't automatically jump to the time, go to 4:42:10

This is called "The gaze of a child in a temple.".

It is a Dzogchen and/or Mahamudra teaching. Other phrases that point to particular gazes/"mind postures" that are part of the same teaching are "soaring like an eagle (Garuda?) In the sky", and "still as a mountain".

As u/hiddenyogi has noted, it's a common analogy in Dzogchen. Here's an example from Dudjom Rinpoche

Whatever manifestations of the phenomenal world may arise, remain in a state of natural freshness, without grasping at them like a small child looking inside a temple. If you do so, all phenomena remain in their own place, their aspect is not modified, their color does not change, their luster does not vanish. Although the phenomenal world is present, if you do not contaminate it by wanting and clinging, all appearances and thoughts will arise as the naked primal wisdom of the radiant void

https://www.abuddhistlibrary.com/Buddhism/A - Tibetan Buddhism/Authors/Dudjom Rinpoche/Mountain Retreat Instructions/mountain_retreat.pdf

Thanks.

Seems remarkably like vipassana ? Like, when we sit and watch the aggregates arise and pass, in the sky of the mind.

When I click the link it opens at the beginning and is 7 hrs. Do you know the point where he mentions it?

I just started with Lama Lena and she seems great so far. Very plain spoken and direct, but clearly has deep expertise as her lineage and experience would suggest. Looking forward to working with her.

When you say relax the lens, do you mean to have a “soft focus” as it’s called? Taking a broad focus and not fixating on any one thing? Just want to clarify.

Thanks!

Sorry about that. The link works for me. It's at 4:42:10

In https://lamalenateachings.com/3-words-that-strike-the-vital-point-garab-dorje/ she talks about letting your focus blur, so you're not focusing on an object.

you have to let go with the muscles that control the lens of your eyes. You have to relax those muscles. Now those of you wearing glasses have a great advantage, you can take them off. This will immediately cause things to be blurry and make it much easier for you to relax the focus muscles of your eye lens. There is these muscles that the lens attaches too, you gotta relax them. So what you do with your eyes, and this is the key to trekchö, is you let the line of your gaze follow your nose outward and down and so you find a point where your eyes naturally will focus. Found your point, you’re looking at our point? Without moving your eyeballs stop looking at the point. Let our vision blur. Unfocus your eyeballs, leave your eyelids about half open, not all the way closed, but not all the way open. Allow them to blink whenever they want to, don’t try to restrain your blink reflex. But do let your vision blur. If you do not blur your vision, this is much less likely to work for you. With your vision blurred, open the orifice of your attention.

In https://lamalenateachings.com/dzogchen-levels-beginner-intermediate-advanced/she says you want a bigger focus, not just fuzzy

However, what the lack of focus booze gives you, as do other drugs. You know, consider your own experiences if you’ve played with that. I am of the baby-boomer generation. We use these analogies. You younger folks may not. That’s a fuzzy focus, using alcohol or recreational drugs to soften one’s point focus, just gives it a fuzzy focus. It’s not a bigger focus. It’s just out of focus. It’s like you’re looking through binoculars and you’re turning the little knob and it gets fuzzy but you’re still looking through a couple of tunnels.

That’s not what we’re trying to do. We’re trying to actually open the orifice of focus of our attention. Not of our eyes. Not of our ears. Of our attention.

Without letting go of its clarity...

So what you’re gonna do is release the point focus of your gaze. Without having it become totally fuzzy. Allowing clarity to remain but expanding, allowing it to expand into full peripheral vision, rather than being focused in the middle. It is a little bit fuzzy in the middle, but it gets clear all the way out to the edges.
When you do this with your eyes, it will make it easier for you to relax your attention

She is amazing. For me, I've found that she embodies the teaching, so it is possible to receive transmission, and she tells you exactly what to do, how to do it, and how often to do it. She also explains why it works. So practical.

I find James Low's teaching complements hers. It reassures me that I'm doing it right.

I greatly appreciate that.

You know, what Forrest Knutson is saying is correct. Much of the lore going around about right/left brain differences is bs, but this much is accurate (I'm a neuropsychologist.) The left hemisphere is involved in seeing details while the right is involved in the big picture. Several studies have show this. Iain McGilchrist has a great little video that summarizes it:

This is also very similar to Les Fehmi's Open Focus technique. He reinvented focusing on space and the broad, panoramic perspective in the course of playing around with neurofeedback. Relaxing all effort along with broad spacious awareness was the only way the brain would produce alpha synchrony. So he accidentally rediscovered some basic aspects of Dzogchen.

Other research by Barbara Fredrickson, a psychologist, showed that when our attention s narrowly focused, that's associated with more negative emotional states, like stress. This happens with archers sometimes, who keep a narrow focus on their target and can have a wave of anxiety (a.k.a. “target panic”). On the other hand, a broad focus of attention is associated with a more positive balance of emotion. So a broad focus is naturally more conducive to feelings like joy.

Edit: Actually the only part he’s wrong about is the pupil dilation. That has to do with how much light is let in, not the breadth of visual field.

It's at 4:42:09.

The same/similar trick is also taught in a neat way here:

I can't speak for anyone else, but when I expand out my gaze as wide as possible into the periphery (when my hands are so far back I can barely see my fingers wiggle at the periphery of my vision using the hakalau trick), I start to feel a shift happen where I no longer feel located in my body, behind my skull looking out at an external point, but rather I feel more diffusely identified with this open-awareness-space that fills the entire field of vision and the room and my body/skull is just another point in that awareness-space. So it becomes less about trying to "fill in" missing external areas that I can't see visually because of the location of my body and more of a shift in which the notion of something external to my body has less meaning. I don't know how to describe this phenomenon and don't think I'm doing a great job. But what can ya do, language is limited? Points for the South Park reference!

That's strange. It still shows up for me. Just search for "Hakalau Saved My Life" on YouTube by Forrest Knutson, the Kriya Yoga teacher.

Yes, this is very useful. It arises naturally for me during practice. Reducing the priority of sensory input leads to adaptation.

Something somewhat similar happens to me during walking meditation. As a retreat progresses, the focus will get softer and softer until it’s kind of a hazey, almost soup like texture. Space becomes something you feel as well as see. The space itself becomes the object as internal emotions are projected out into that space and every aspect of existence can be noted as occurring there and only there. Wish I could explain it better. It’s kinda wild
Another similar trick is to try to focus on the left and right peripheral edges of the field of view.

 

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Practices for Daily Life from Zen Master Hakuin​

Energy

Recently I was talking to someone on here about the practice of Centering in the Hara and they wrote "you sound like Hakuin." I'd actually never read any Zen Master Hakuin, so I looked him up.

Turns out Hakuin had some great advice for practicing meditation in the midst of an active life, especially if you want things like...

• All-day energy, even into one's old age
• Resolving weird body stress symptoms like chronic fatigue, cold hands and feet, tinnitus, headaches, health problems that have stumped doctors (that might be caused by stress), etc.
• The ability to stay centered all day long despite lots of obligations
• Overcoming procrastination, difficulty making decisions, and other productivity problems
• Completely integrating the practice of awakening into a "householder" life

Despite living in from 1686-1769, his advice is still extremely relevant. And in fact, I do sound like Hakuin, because I've had similar results as he has, from very similar practices (although I do not claim mastery of them).

I'm not even close to being a Hakuin scholar, but here are some intriguing passages from his Orategama and Yasenkanna, with my commentary after each quote.

Orategama commentary​

The essential point brought out in this book is that, whether reading certain parts of the sacred teachings, whether examining the principles of the Dharma, whether sitting for long periods without lying down or whether engaged in walking practices throughout the six divisions of the day, the vital breath must always be made to fill the space between the navel and the loins.

Hakuin consistently emphasizes practicing 24/7, in the midst of all activities of life. In particular, he recommends doing belly (diaphragmatic) breathing all day long. I suspect "vital breath" also refers to sending your "energy" (chi/ki/prana/whatever you want to call it) down into your lower belly center below the navel (hara/lower dantien/tanden/kikai, etc.). I think this is exactly correct.

For me, this progresses as follows:

1. First getting sensation back into the numb lower belly.
2. Then focusing on the sensations of digestion in the lower belly.
3. And finally, keeping about 20% of my attention on those sensations in the midst of daily life.

Step one can be achieved by doing a variety of things like belly breathing: noticing the sensations of the belly rising and falling, expanding and contracting, by deliberately breathing down from the bottom of the ribcage to the pelvic floor. Or you can put your hands on your lower belly and try to push into the hands (only as a warmup exercise) to get the belly to be the prime mover in breathing (not the chest and shoulders). Or you can just fix your attention on the lower belly and wait patiently.

After 30, 60, 120 or more minutes of doing this, then I can feel sensations inside my lower belly, below the belly button, usually in an area about 2-4 inches across. It feels a little like gas or bloating or other digestive sensations. Probably this is the peristalsis of the intestines. This is the key sensation to place your focus on.

After a long time of focusing on these digestive sensations, it starts to feel like a ball of tension collects a couple inches below the belly button, about 2 inches in diameter. Unlike a ball of tension in the head which is experienced as a headache, this ball of tension in the belly feels good, it feels like inner power. At this point, my body overall is very calm, but also active, like a cat ready to pounce. My mind becomes very calm too. And my emotions are as calm as a completely still lake.

Once that energy ball in the belly forms, I can keep it going easily in the background with about 20% of my attention on it, and 80% of my attention on whatever else I'm doing. I can then do things with ease, with zero energy drain no matter what I'm doing. I feel super confident, assertive, peaceful, and powerful. I have zero procrastination and can easily make decisions. If I lose it for a moment and feel stress arising, I can easily recenter myself in an instant. Basically I become a fucking badass. And then I lose it a day or two later, because that's the practice.

Sometimes I can't get this far, so I just focus on step one. Sometimes I give up on the practice entirely for days, weeks, or months and do something else instead. But I keep coming back to it because it is absolutely amazing for the benefits it brings my daily life.

Now back to Hakuin:

Even though one may be hemmed in by worldly cares or tied down by guests who require elaborate attention, the source of strength two inches below the navel must naturally be filled with the vital breath, and at no time may it be allowed to disperse. This area should be pendulous and well rounded, somewhat like a new ball that has yet to be used.

This sounds like how Ken Kushner Roshi describes hara breathing. In typical belly breathing, the belly expands with inhale and contracts with exhale. Then at some point the lower belly stays relaxed and expanded even on exhale, and only the upper belly expands and contracts on inhale and exhale. Weirdly, I find this is easiest to do standing in the shower, probably because I'm so relaxed. The important thing Hakuin emphasizes is practicing this 24/7. I find when I can do that, the benefits are exponentially greater than just practicing it for 30-60 minutes "on the cushion."

If a person is able to acquire this kind of breath concentration he can sit in meditation all day long without it ever tiring him; he can recite the sutras from morning to night without becoming worn out; he can write all day long without any trouble; he can talk all day without collapsing from fatigue.

If you can maintain belly breathing or hara breathing all day, you get endless energy for doing stuff as a result. I've found this to be absolutely true myself. My usual mode is to get really exhausted doing stuff. At times in my life I've had full-blown chronic fatigue syndrome. But when I can maintain belly/hara breathing, with the intention to drop my "energy" down into the lower belly center, all of a sudden I have limitless energy. It is so dramatically different it is unreal.

Even if he practices good works day after day, there will still be no indications of flagging; in fact the capacity of his mind will gradually grow larger and his vitality will always be strong. On the hottest day of summer he will not perspire nor need he use a fan; on the snowiest night of deepest winter he need not wear socks (tabi) nor warm himself. Should he live to be a hundred years old, his teeth will remain healthy and firm. Provided he does not become lax in his practices, he should attain to a great age. If a man becomes accomplished in this method, what Way cannot be perfected, what precepts cannot be maintained, what samadhi cannot be practiced, what virtue cannot be fulfilled?

I'm autistic and often have had experiences of shutting down due to sensory overwhelm. Like when I drive a car, I typically have to roll up the windows on the highway, due to the noise and the feel of the wind bashing against my skin. I choose clothing based on what is most soft, and do not wear scratchy fabrics like wool. But when I am centered in the hara, none of this stuff bothers me. Again, it's like night and day. Even cold tolerance increases. I don't have to do cold showers to build it up. If I'm centered I can just go outside in the cold (for a bit) without shivering or reacting. That said, I'm still going to brush and floss my teeth.

When I was young the content of my koan meditation was poor. I was convinced that absolute tranquility of the source of the mind was the Buddha Way. Thus I despised activity and was fond of quietude. I would always seek out some dark and gloomy place and engage in dead sitting.

Hakuin frequently critiques the "quietistic" approach to meditation. I interpret this as meditation that is somewhat fragile, a samatha that doesn't last after you get up from the cushion or leave the meditation retreat, that you can't really bring into the activities of daily life. Hakuin practiced in this way at first, then decided it wasn't enough because while he was peaceful when meditating, he got stressed again when doing things. So then he pushed himself too hard and gave himself something like chronic fatigue, what he called "Zen Sickness."

if by yourself you recklessly seek for your own brand of awakening, you will engage in excessive study and become entangled in inappropriate thoughts. At this time the chest and breathing mechanism become stopped up, a fire rises in the heart, the legs feel as though they were immersed in ice and snow, the ears are filled with a roaring sound like a torrent sounding in a deep valley. The lungs shrink, the fluids in the body dry up, and in the end you are afflicted with a disease most difficult to cure. Indeed you will hardly be able to keep yourself alive. All this is only because you do not know the correct road of true practice. A most regrettable thing indeed!

By overdoing study and practice, Hakuin messed up his nervous system and gave himself physical problems like cold legs and feet and tinnitus. A "fire in the heart" might just be acid reflux (GERD, gastroesophageal reflux disease), also known as heartburn. We now know that stress and anxiety can cause or worsen GERD.

Elsewhere he also describes experiencing fear and anxiety as a result of this style of practice. I myself suffered from incredible amounts of anxiety growing up, and still have some bodily stress symptoms like headaches and fatigue. There is also similarity here to long-haul COVID, under the heading of a class of nervous system and autoimmune, stress-influenced ailments that used to be called "psychosomatic" and now are called "functional disorders" or "Bodily Distress Syndrome." In Hakuin's time as well as ours, doctors find them hard to cure.

I was most fortunate in receiving the instruction of a good teacher. The secret methods of introspection were handed down to me and for three years I devoted myself to an assiduous practice of them. The serious disease from which I suffered, that up until then I had found so difficult to cure, gradually cleared up like frost and snow melting beneath the rays of the morning sun.

Similar to Hakuin, when I can center myself in the lower belly, my bodily stress symptoms also resolve on their own.

Even though I am past seventy now my vitality is ten times as great as it was when i was thirty or forty: My mind and body are strong and I never have the feeling that I absolutely must lie down to rest. Should I want to I find no difficulty in refraining from sleep for two, three, or even seven days, without suffering any decline in my mental powers. I am surrounded by three to five hundred demanding students, and even though I lecture on the scriptures or on the collections of the Masters' sayings for thirty to fifty days in a row, it does not exhaust me. I am quite convinced that all this is owing to the power gained from practicing this method of introspection.

It sounds like he's just bragging now, but I have found something similar. For me I haven't mastered hara development, so it's more hit or miss. But on days when I am centered, I totally know what he's talking about. It feels like I'm slowly charging up with energy, like a phone plugged in to an outlet, even while I'm doing stuff. When I'm not centered, it's like everything feels draining, requiring energy to start and feeling like I have less of it when I'm finished. When I'm not centered, I need 1-3 naps a day just to function. When I'm centered, I'm not even tired at bedtime (but I can still easily fall asleep).

Frequently you may feel that you are getting nowhere with practice in the midst of activity, whereas the quietistic approach brings unexpected results. Yet rest assured that those who use the quietistic approach can never hope to enter into meditation in the midst of activity. Should by chance a person who uses this approach enter into the dusts and confusions of the world of activity, even the power of ordinary understanding which he had seemingly attained will be entirely lost. Drained of all vitality, he will be inferior to any mediocre, talentless person. The most trivial matters will upset him, an inordinate cowardice will afflict his mind, and he will frequently behave in a mean and base manner. What can you call accomplished about a man like this?

Practicing staying centered while doing things seems like slow practice to just going on retreat full time. I've often felt this too. But when I got off retreat, I'd almost immediately lose all my calm anyway. This is why I love the hara development practice, because when I can get there, it truly is practice in the midst of activity, transforming the stress around the action in real time.

For penetrating to the depths of one's own true self-nature, and for attaining a vitality valid on all occasions, nothing can surpass meditation in the midst of activity. Supposing that you owned several hundred ryo of gold and you wanted to hire someone to guard it. One candidate shuts up the room, seals the door, and just sits there. True, he does not allow the money to be stolen, but the method he adopts does not show him to be a man with much vitality. His practice may best be compared with that of the Hinayana follower, who is intent only on his own personal enlightenment.

Now suppose that there is another candidate. He is ordered to take this money and to deliver it to such and such a place, although the road he must take is infested with thieves and evil men who swarm like bees and ants. Courageously he ties a large sword to his waist, tucks up the hem of his robes, and fastening the gold to the end of a staff; sets out at once and delivers the money to the appointed place, without once having trouble with the thieves. Indeed, such a man must be praised as a noble figure who, without the slightest sign of fear, acts with forthrightness and courage. His attitude may be compared to that of the perfect bodhisattva who, while striving for his own enlightenment, helps to guide all sentient beings.

Hakuin was very adamant that this practice-in-daily-life approach was far superior to the ascetic avoid-doing-stuff-that-could-trigger-you approach. I think both are valid, but I tend towards Hakuin's view. There is something incredibly empowering about knowing you can do anything, and nothing whatsoever could take you away from your practice of awakening. All too often meditation practice can be just another way to avoid doing hard things, speaking for myself here at least!

If you suddenly awaken to the wisdom of the true reality of all things of the One Vehicle alone, the very objects of the senses will be Zen meditation and the five desires themselves will be the One Vehicle. Thus words and silence, motion and tranquility are all present in the midst of Zen meditation. When this state is reached, it will be as different from that of a person who quietly practices in forests or mountains, and the state to which he attains, as heaven is from earth.

Hakuin says that the objects of the senses themselves are meditation, and therefore you don't "give up sensuality" in Hakuin's view, as some Theravada folks today still emphasize. This kind of awakening is an integration of opposites, words and silence, motion and tranquility. It leads to an "anti-fragile" kind of awakening that persists both while doing things and while not doing things.

A man who carries on his practice, shunning from the outset the objects of the five senses, no matter how proficient he may be in the doctrine of the emptiness of self and things and no matter how much insight he may have into the Way, is like a water goblin who has lost his water or a monkey with no tree to climb, when he takes leave of quietude and enters into the midst of activity. Most of his vitality is lost and he is just like the lotus that withers at once when faced with the fire.

Practicing in a silent, perfect environment away from all temptation and triggers (the five senses) is nice, but fragile. It doesn't last when taking it into activity. It's artificial and thus doesn't work very well for daily life.

But if you dauntlessly persevere in the midst of the ordinary objects of the senses, and devote yourself to pure undistracted meditation and make no error whatsoever, you will be like the man who successfully delivered the several hundred ryo of gold, despite the turmoil that surrounded him. Dauntlessly and courageously setting forth, and proceeding without a moment's interruption, you will experience a great joy, as if suddenly you had made clear the basis of our own mind and had trampled and crushed the root of birth and death. It will be as if the empty sky vanished and the iron mountain crumbled. You will be like the lotus blooming from amidst the flames, whose color and fragrance become more intense the nearer the fire approaches.

This is exactly how it feels to me when practicing centering in the hara in daily life. Somehow the sensations of "energy" as pressure in the low belly get stronger the more they are challenged by the stresses and activity of the day, like the lotus that blooms more intensely the nearer the fire approaches.

If at all times even when coughing, swallowing, waving the arms, when asleep or awake, the practitioner accomplishes everything he decides to do and attains everything that he attempts to attain and, displaying a great, unconquerable determination, he moves forward ceaselessly, he will transcend the emotions and sentiments of ordinary life.

Centering in the belly increases one's Will. I find I start to effortlessly follow through with my intentions, over and over. Whereas when I try to do things from my head, I fail over and over.

His heart will be filled with an extraordinary purity and clarity, as though he were standing on a sheet of ice stretching for thousands of miles. Even if he were to enter the midst of a battlefield or to attend a place of song, dance, and revelry, it would be as though he were where no other person was. His great capacity, like that of Yün-men with his kingly pride, will make its appearance without being sought.

When you are totally centered, it's like being alone in a crowd. You are unmanipulable, completely clear in your purpose, not persuaded or thrown off by external circumstances, whether a battlefield or a party. Either way you are crystal clear about your intentions and unwavering in fulfilling them.

Yasenkanna commentary​

Long ago, Wu Ch'i-ch'u told master Shih-t'ai: In order to refine the elixir, it is necessary to gather the vital energy. To gather the vital energy, it is necessary to focus the mind. When the mind focuses in the ocean of vital energy or field of elixir located one inch below the navel, the vital energy gathers there. When the vital energy gathers in the elixir field, the elixir is produced. When the elixir is produced, the physical frame is strong and firm. When the physical frame is strong and firm, the spirit is full and replete. When the spirit is full and replete, long life is assured. These are words of true wisdom.

Don't get caught up in words like "vital energy" and "elixir field" if they trip you out. Hakuin is sharing this quote because it describes a subjective experience. That experience is when you do the centering practice, you feel physically coordinated, you get what's called "physical pliancy" in The Mind Illuminated. You feel strong and powerful emotionally too. Maybe it also benefits your health, or maybe that's an exaggeration. But it feels fucking great.

...as I began reflecting upon my everyday behavior, I could see that the two aspects of my life - the active and the meditative - were totally out of balance. No matter what I was doing, I never felt free or completely at ease.

What motivated Hakuin to discover these methods was that he wasn't able to feel at ease while doing stuff. Relatable.

I became abnormally weak and timid, shrinking and fearful in whatever I did. I felt totally drained, physically and mentally exhausted. I traveled far and wide, visiting wise Zen teachers, seeking out noted physicians. But none of the remedies they offered brought any relief. ...By pushing yourself too hard, you forgot the cardinal rule of religious training. You are suffering from meditation sickness, which is extremely difficult to cure by medical means.

Basically Hakuin had chronic fatigue aka Bodily Distress Syndrome aka "Zen Sickness" which doctors and Zen teachers couldn't help him with, but the hara practice along with the "soft butter method" (basically Progressive Muscle Relaxation or a body scan style Vipassana) helped him resolve.

You should draw what Mencius called the 'vast, expansive energy' down and store it in the elixir field-the reservoir of vital energy located below the navel. Hold it there over the months and years, preserving it single-mindedly, sustaining it without wavering. One morning, you will suddenly overturn the elixir furnace, and then everywhere, within and without the entire universe, will become a single immense piece of pure elixir. When that happens, you will realize for the first time that you yourself are a genuine sage, as unborn as heaven and earth, as undying as empty space. At that moment, your efforts to refine the elixir will attain fruition.

If you can manage to maintain hara practice 24/7 for years, you also get enlightenment. Win-win.

Ever since then, people of all kinds—monks, nuns, laymen, lay-women—have told me how, when the odds were stacked ten to one against them, they were saved from the misery of grave and incurable illnesses owing to the wonderful benefits of Introspective Meditation. They have come to me here at Shoin-ji in numbers I cannot even count to thank me in person.

It worked for Hakuin and thousands of people he taught. It works for me. Maybe it could also work for you, who knows.

May all beings be happy and free from suffering.

EDIT 2025-2-5
See also this shorter, excellent article by Ken Kushner on Hakuin on his hara development blog.

love the post

a lot of it reminds me of daoist energetics practice -

resting the awareness in the dan tian - daoism also has a practice to 'reset the default awareness' to be centered there called 'anchoring the breath' - (in 2 parts) (there is also a written breakdown of the stages this looks to take us through, over time, and some extra info/tips about them https://static1.squarespace.com/sta...a6f356b/1605688628067/Stages+of+Breathing.pdf )

building the vital breath(/energy), as talked of in the nei yeh https://thekongdanfoundation.com/lao-tzu/nei-yeh-inward-training/

the teeth staying healthy - in the xi sui jing/bone marrow level of qi depth, qi is said to also enter the teeth and nails, keeping them healthy

not solely practicing in quietude - daoist practice has internal/body practice (ming), and practice that connects outwards (xing), and practices to align with external fields etc. Also it has the idea of being one foot in one foot out, where you don't leave the world but need to develop internally as well as connecting the development out into the world, with the external linked side being the more important aim

drawing the energy down into the elixir field - is known as 'sinking qi'. Also linked to that, the moment when you become 'the pure elixir' which would be the stage of becoming 'full of elixir' and moving to the final level of 'emptiness'. Both of these stages being mentioned in the 6 levels of song https://heavenmanearthmelbourne.com/blog/2022/3/24/six-levels-of-song-release-by-sifu-adam-mizner and corresponding to the 'yi jin jing' description of the development of qi's progress deeper into the system

also the term elixir being used, is a daoist alchemical term as well - its more specific that the generic term 'qi', but is basically a more refined and powerful version of the same scale/overall type of energy.

Yes, Hakuin’s teacher that he got these methods from (Master Hakuyū) probably had some Taoist alchemy influences. Thanks for adding your thoughts and for these links!

For anyone taking up the practice, instead of trying to breathe down to your hara, think of it as: the hara pulling down the breath to itself.

Also, look into "Zhan Zhuang". It can really loosen up the energy system in your body.

Zhan Zhuang is most excellent and completely compatible with centering in the hara.

Just tried this practice of hara breathing and dear good I feel so fucking alive lol. Has definitely helped with a deadening sensation I have been having lately, greatly appreciate your contribution. Nice thing about my job is i drive so the time so I have baby opportunities throughout the day to continue this hara breathing

Awesome! Yes I think Hakuin really figured something out with the practice of centering in the low belly. Start with reading those two docs I linked, and practicing belly breathing with just an intention to "drop" energy from your head down into your lower belly, below the belly button. Seems weird but it starts to work on you after a while. Little 1-5 minute "microhits" of belly breathing / centering throughout the day can also really help. Best of luck with your practice!

This is wonderful! It took me many years of struggle with chi crowding the head, despite extensive, deep meditation practice, before I discovered Hakuin. His butter egg method is delightful, and effective. But I didn’t realize he also advocated so strongly for what the Tibetans call vase breathing. You should definitely take a look at lung practices in the Tibetan schools, especially Tummo and gentle vase breathing. Tsoknyi Rinpoche, for instance, teaches gentle vase breathing as a precursor to Shamatha and before pointing out the nature of the mind.

Ah yea good point, it’s totally vase breathing! Tsoknyi Rinpoche is wonderful, I’ve sat with him in person a couple times.

Hi, amazing post thank you. Are you talking literally 2-3 inches below your belly button on the outside near the skin, or deep within the abdomen? I have heard of a “false lower dantian” near the skin so I want to make sure I am concentrating on the right place. Thank you!

People have strong opinions on where exactly the hara/tanden/lower dantein is. For me personally, I find it helpful to be lessprecise at first, just focusing on the entire belly area (including above the belly button) with belly breathing.

Then gradually as I get more concentrated to focus below the belly button in general. And then sensations cluster on their own in a ball of pressure or tension about 2-3” below the belly button and inside the body (not on the skin).

But it’s not that I’m great at keeping my attention at that spot before these sensations start—I very much suck at keeping my attention there until the energy sensations arise on their own!

I do agree that the skin is not “it” for me though. It’s a feeling in the intestines. But you can start with skin sensations and move inward. Feel for any sort of digestive sensations at all, something that feels like you have gas or indigestion, but less uncomfortable than that. Celebrate whenever you notice the faintest and briefest of digestive sensations, as if to say, “Yes! More of that please!” to your brain.

I think this practice very much has something to do with waking up the enteric nervous system. We have a surprising number of neurons in the gut, most serotonin is produced in the gut, and there are lots of nerve impulses going from the gut to the brain via the vagus nerve (which everyone loves talking about these days, due to the popularity of the polyvagal theory).

Before we had brains, we had stomachs, evolutionarily speaking at least. There’s something powerful about waking up that ancient digestive wisdom in terms of subjective/spiritual experience.

there's a good video on this from a nei gong teacher

change the rate of breathing/fill with extra air, its just to have the awareness 'listening to'/tuned into that area. 'Dan tian breathing' is actually a term for how the dan tian's processing of energy has an intake/expulsion of energy cycle, similar to how lungs do, but on an energetic level.

This feels useful. Thanks for sharing!

I notice that you mentioned The Mind Illuminated by Culadasa. Do you practice TMI? If so, from what point in the stages did you start finding this useful?

I myself have been working on TMI stage 4 for about a year, and only very recently has my off-cushion introspective awareness become strong enough that it even feels possible for me to apply Hakuin's advice here.

You’re welcome! I read TMI (great book) but didn’t practice it very seriously, in part because I find focusing my attention on the sensations of breath at the nostrils for me encourages more tightness in the head.

Culadasa addresses this through the balance of attention and awareness. But for me it’s better addressed by focusing on belly breathing and dropping attention into the lower belly. Different strokes for different folks.

I did lots of Goenka body-scan style Vipassana many years ago, which is probably why I can apply Hakuin’s advice. Interestingly the other method he taught that he learned from his teacher was a body-scan like meditation called “the soft butter method.” I think they probably go well together.

How is the "soft butter method" different from Goenka's Vipassana? If you know, can you elaborate, please?

It’s very similar. https://buddhismnow.com/2015/09/12/zen-sickness-by-zen-master-hakuin/

I also feel as though I don't really enjoy meditation (as frequently) when I pay attention to the breath at my nostrils. There is something about breathing from my diaphragm that I find very grounding and centering, I am also a singer so I find it very grounding to attend to my breath from the abdomen. It just feels kind of forced at the nostrils and when I was new to meditation I always assumed that the default was paying attention to your breath inside your body, I thought the obsession with the nostrils was super weird when first heard about it.

My mom is a retired choir director, I know what you mean as a singer paying attention to the breath at the abdomen. Sometimes when I do the centering in the hara practice, my speaking voice becomes much more resonant. Probably some chronic tension in my neck and throat releases.

Thanks for sharing, Duff! I always read your posts/comments.

I'm interested in trying this practise because focussing on the breath at the nostrils makes me feel uncomfortable after a few days and lightheaded sometimes. Do you think it's possible or advisable to try this while walking?

For doing it while walking, I find it’s easiest if I do a few minutes standing first, really sinking the qi into the low belly. Like stand and put your hands on your low belly and see if you can breathe only with the movement of your belly first. Then try to walk while maintaining that, with belly breathing and attention on the lower belly.

If you can’t do that quite yet, it’s OK. For belly breathing, most people find lying down is easiest, then sitting, then standing, then walking, in that order. But ultimately the goal is to do belly breathing and keep the energy going in the lower belly as much as possible while doing anything and everything!

Is it basically just keeping awareness on belly, and the breath inside the belly? And you do that all day? Just want to make sure I comprehended it. I like that you actually give practical advice. Thank you

Check out my other post on Centering in the Hara for more info and resources.

But overall it’s basically…

1. Get sensation going in the low belly, usually though belly breathing
2. Pay attention to the sensations there, especially those inside the body in the intestines
3. Intend to sink your energy down into the low belly
4. Stay with those sensations and that intention and the belly breathing as much as possible, until it starts to have a life of its own

Interesting stuff. I am coming to this by way of yogic meditation, with focus on the chakras. My practice has been to circulate energy, with an intention to raise energy up to higher chakras (e.g. Center of head).

From that paradigm, it makes total sense that sending energy to the solar plexus would provide the benefits outlined here. I dig maintaining constant meditative awareness on this area as a daily practice.

Being new to sinking Qi and daoism - curious if there are subsequent practices in which Qi is raised to higher parts of the body? Heart, throat and middle of the head?

There are tons of different QiGong techniques from lots of different competing systems, and some of them do bring energy up the spine and into the head, although usually then they bring it down the front of the body and into the lower dantien.

In general, Taoist Inner Alchemy tends to be more “grounded” and yogic traditions more “transcendent” although both tendencies can be found in both traditions for sure.

Thanks.

Just scratching the surface of the Microcosmic Orbit, which feels at least somewhat analogous to kriya pranayama. Both circulate energy up the spine and then back down.

I like the idea of having techniques for both grounding and transcendence... and the ability to park/direct energy to various parts of the body with intention.

Appreciated.

The important thing about Hakuin is he was displaying classic signs of too much energy going up and not enough flowing down, as his teacher Hakuyu pointed out.

Good to know. Being pretty grounded, my journey happens to be centered more around raising energy for the moment. Yet, I am interested in exploring what sinking energy is like. Seems advisable to have mastery of both the gas pedal and the brakes.

hi Duff! Thanks for sharing this, I somehow didn't see it when lurking the past few months, it was a joy to read!

I've been gravitating towards hara-breathing myself, without knowing it was actually hara practice - I use MIDL (Mindfulness In Daily Life) by Stephen Proctor where he teaches to "soften", which for me is most directly felt with a softening of the belly sensations, a deep & calming breath.

I'm also part of a men's group for sexual tantra, or yoga of sexual intimacy, and the men's practice, specifically, the past few months was to breathe as deeply as possible, everywhere we go, and to truly softly gaze in the eyes of those we talk to, as if we breathe life into everything around us to stay as centered as possible (give or take), to soften the front of our body, relax held tension, etc... so that during sexual practice with a partner, that same grounding & soft energy is able to hold the feminine creative & flowy energy and see magic happening through breathing alone.

This post was a lovely pat on the back signaling I'm on the right path, as the "quietistic" approach isn't for me either!

Cheers

Excellent post! I have practiced this and looking for help. Have you/anyone in this forum experienced anxiety attacks once you started on this path?

Some context- I tried hara breathing in the past after reading 'the vital center of man' by kgd and 'the little book of hara' by Peter Willberg. Earlier I was an avid practitioner of goenka style Vipassana but its very head centric and used to trigger my sciatica pain. Hara breathing helped me in relaxing the belly (hence the core) and overall i felt much more relaxed and energetic (and more vulnerable). Later, I started having anxiety and panic attacks in the middle of the day. It was as if something unlocked inside me, and I was overwhelmed. As a result, I resorted back to what I knew best (goenka style of Vipassana) but then again, it triggers my sciatica due to belly not being relaxed. As you can gauge, I am terrified of dipping my toes again in hara breathing. May be i should be learning this formally like I did Vipassana but I don't know if there are any genuine centers in India.

Thanks for reading. Any help/ insight / similar experience would be helpful.

Goenka vipassana is great, hara meditation is great. Sorry to hear of your sciatica and panic/anxiety attacks. Have you ever tried tapping or other Pattern Interrupt Methods? (See this article by me.) That's one thing that really helped me get to the bottom of my anxiety personally.

Thanks for replying. I will have a look at the article. It sounds quite fresh to me. Btw, are you aware of any centers where I can learn hara breathing formally under a master? Preferably in India. Where did you learn it from?

I am not familiar with India’s meditation scene at all, unfortunately. I learned it from a combination of books and online instruction from Kenneth Kushner (see his https://www.haradevelopment.org/blog).

Oh yes, I did reach out to him. He is very kind in his responses. Do you also learn 1on1 with him? Unfortunately, I could not find any centers to teach hara breathing in India online at least. Btw, I found out a video by Craig Holliday on youtube that explains a lot what I am going through related to hara awakening. You might like it:

I did not learn 1-on-1 from him, but took an online Zoom class or two from Ken. That was helpful and confirming. Thanks for the video, I'll check it out.

Didn't you now that real Zen doesn't do any practice? Who is this Hakuin guy anyway? I learned all of this on r/zen!

/s

Okay, fine, I'll read the post now!

Excellent! Banki was another of my favourites along with Huang Po. Utterly pragmatic advice. Hakuin was a marvellous teacher! Thanks for this fine post!

Thanks for the post! I've been looking for an off-the-cushion type of meditation, and maybe this is it.

Could you talk about your experience with this?

And finally, keeping about 20% of my attention on those sensations in the midst of daily life.

Are you able to "split" attention between 2 objects?

I ask because I find myself completely unable to do that. To me, it feels like there are discrete, non-overlapping periods of:

• attention on daily life activity
• attention on meditative sensations

Thanks again!

It’s similar to how Culadasa talks about keeping awareness in the background when your attention is on the breath. Or like if you’re cooking several dishes, part of your mind is on the water boiling as you’re cutting up vegetables. Or like if you’re talking to a friend but only have 10 minutes, so you’re also keeping a little attention on the time.

Another way to put it is like you get yourself into a centered state “on the cushion” (in formal meditation), and then you see how long you can bring that centered state into “off cushion” activities.

Thanks, I tried switching my go to object to underbelly multiple times but somehow always forgot.

One additional side practice may be placing attention on different parts of body and trying to sense the difference, belly vs heart, for example.

u/mesamutt

Duff, I'm so happy you're back.

What do you think of this video?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c_EycxnmccY

Daizan Skinner talks about awakening with this technique.

I would like to read your comment.