Sight is not absolutely essential in this process, but we use sight because it is the dominant sense. It’s easiest to interrupt the flow of thought in sense perception and move the mind beyond sense perception with sight.
If one were blind, one can simply focus on a feeling.
Put on the music, and listen. Zazen means to sit, to listen. You’re listening to enlightenment, to the universes, to the planes of mind.
Meditate. Look at the candle flame – or whatever object you have chosen to gaze upon – with intensity.
If you keep focusing, gradually thoughts will become quieter and quieter, gradually the images will disappear from the mind. What is happening is the kundalini energy begins to radiate and rise, it causes the mind to be quiet.
When we mediate, we are raising the kundalini through focus, through concentration. There is a metaphysical astral process that’s taking place.
The key to gazing is stopping thought. Gazing is a soft focus; you are touching something with your luminosity. If you could but look into the mountains you would see a diffuse glow.
Whatever you focus on, you become. That is the key line, you know. Meditation is the bow and concentration is the arrow.
In pranayama you don’t worry about taking breaths, you focus on exhalation. If you exhale properly you will inhale. The more deeply you exhale the more deeply you will inhale.
It takes a number of years to learn to hold the mind perfectly in one place. But each day we do it a little better, and in the doing we’re releasing energy that is taking our mind in higher diffuse planes of attention.
By disciplining and training the mind to focus on one thing, we gain control of perception; we learn to grab it and put it someplace we want it to be.
When you start your meditation, picture a beautiful blue sky without any clouds in it. Feel that your body is growing lighter. Visualize that you are floating in the sky and that all tension, fatigue, worry and problems have left you.
After several minutes, picture that your entire body is merging with the blue sky. Feel that you have become the infinite blue sky that stretches endlessly in every direction.
The mind must be made calm and still. Then it is aimed at the sky, at the brightness, at that infinitude of being that stretches out endlessly in every direction forever.
We want to know what our self is. We are the sky. Our thoughts are the birds that come and go. You can enjoy the birds and their beauty, but it is the sky that lasts.
Take a deep breath and exhale slowly. Mentally picture all tiredness, tension, and fatigue leaving you. Visualize that a wave of golden light is entering you at the top of your head and passing throughout your entire body.
Picture that the waves of golden light have now become a solid river of golden light that is constantly passing through you. Picture this golden light expanding beyond your body and filling up the entire room.
You may feel a sensation of floating. You may see colors, maybe no phenomena, it doesn’t matter. You are absorbing power.
Imagine a vast ocean. Feel that you are part of that ocean. Imagine that each wave in the ocean is slowly moving through you. Feel that each wave is a wave of joy.
Now imagine that you are going beneath the surface of the ocean. Below the surface all is calm, silent, and serene. As you visualize yourself going deeper and deeper into the depths of the ocean, feel that a profound peace is entering you.