Friday, May 3, 2019

Third Eye Open


Meditation. It is often associated with eastern religions like Buddhism, but in recent years mindfulness meditation has gone mainstream. The basic idea is to set aside a relaxing period of time to turn your attention inward and observe the very essence of being. At the simplest level of mindfulness practice you need only close your eyes and focus on your natural breathing rhythm, usually in the form of the tickle of airflow coming in and out your nostrils. Meditation is not a time for contemplation, in fact, you'll want to allow any palpable thoughts that do arise to pass in and out of focus. In this way your meditation can achieve a kind of mindful steady state of near nothingness. 

Apps and podcasts abound which can provide guided meditations if you're interested in pursuing this further. Such meditation may very well provide benefits (as with other forms of relaxation) from alleviating stress and refreshing your mind so that you can pursue life outside of meditation with greater verve.

You might also find meditative exercise a unique exploration, and adventure within your personal mindscape where you can brush up against the core insubstantiality of existence. In a sense, meditative practice can also be turned toward joyful entertainment.

Separate from my standard meditations, I occasionally enjoy pursuing a internal visual experience using a similar technique. I still find a quiet place and close my eyes, but instead of focusing on breath, I focus on visual sensation. That is to say I pay special attention to whatever my visual cortex generates while eyes are closed to visual stimuli. In practice, this experience usually starts with a grayish black backdrop mottled with slightly brighter swirls, streaks and spots. I then give all my attention to that array as it morphs in real time. I find if I give greatest attention to a bright area it can amplify and move substantially. The resulting visuals can be quite amazing.

In some of my sessions the backdrop has taken on an analog pixelated nature akin to a star cluster. The faux stars might slowly shift then rapidly swarm in ever more complex patterns, like an abstract cloud of locust. Sometimes I attempt to guide the experience toward a particular color that I note and that artifact might swell into a supernova of brightness. Other times, quite randomly, a high definition image will appear for an instant and then disappear into an impressionist's gray-scale rendition of white noise. Rarely, an image can even self-animate, and I watch with as much detachment as possible so as not to end the experience prematurely.

These experiences are accomplished without any drugs or alcohol. Personally, I find these internal visual meditations quite interesting, as they are very different from recalling a picture or event from memory. In those everyday recollections, the visual is generally quite washed out and abstract in nature; at best a translucent visual overlay.  When I recall a friend's face, an exotic location, or an experience, the mental imagery is adequate to discuss it in detail, but still lacks the vividness of present moment observations this meditative technique creates.

In the end, should you find yourself with some downtime, consider trying out this visual exercise or full blown mindfulness meditation for yourself. For me it has provided an intriguing, calming way to shut out the external, and often chaotic world, for a short while. It isn't necessarily easy to push away the rapid fire of thoughts our modern brains are trained for; still, meditation can provide a unique path to start the day fresh or to end the day with a fun exercise.

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