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In meditation keep your eyes open, not closed.
Instead of shutting out life,
remain open and at peace with everything.
You leave all your senses - hearing, seeing, feeling - just open, naturally, as they are, without grasping after their perceptions.
--Sogyal Rinpoche
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If you simply "SIT" and turn off for a specified amount of time every day, you may bring calm into your everyday life, but you will not make everyday life your meditation. For this reason I believe we all must learn to meditate with our eyes open.
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When you meditate with your eyes open, you are doing what is called the "lion's meditation." Even while you are going deep within, you are focusing your conscious attention both on the physical plane and on the subconscious plane. Both the physical world, with its noise and distractions, and the subconscious world, the world of sleep, are inviting you, but you are conquering both of them. You are saying, "Look, I am alert. You cannot take me into your domain." Since your eyes are open, you will not fall asleep. So you are challenging the world of the subconscious. At the same time you are maintaining your mastery over the physical plane, because you can see what is going on around you.
