Post-traditional meditation training & spiritual practices for the twenty-first century
Meditation as a Path of Vision
In a lonely place free from disturbance, the yogi should look between the eyebrows and remain motionless, their senses restrained and body motionless.
— Śivasaṃhitā 3.98
They who are endowed with an unshaken mind, firm in devotion, armed with the strength of Yoga, their breath concentrated in the seat of mystic vision between the eyebrows, will realise the Supreme Divine Spirit.
— Bhagavadgītā 8.10
As long as the breath is restrained in the body, the mind devoid of thought and the gaze centred between the eyebrows, how can there be fear of death?
— Haṭhapradīpikā 2.40
Many of the major texts of yoga reiterate the following instruction: the yogi enters meditation by placing their attention "between the eyebrows." Located between the eyebrows is the ājñā cakra or third-eye, the 'command' centre that controls the mind and senses. Rather than struggling against the mind to establish inner calmness, the third-eye functions like a master switch, radiating stillness and awakening the subtle energies of the body. It is the portal to the chidākāsha, or the inner worlds of consciousness. Today, however, if super-sensible experience is at all acknowledged, it's generally left to serendipity; meditate enough and one day, eventually, subtle perception may start to arise. Taking seriously the venerable instructions given above, with a resolutely experiential approach, the meditation trainings offered here instead begin by establishing yogic vision as foundational.
Why is such an approach is important?
It's a big topic worthy of lengthy treatment, but the short answer is nothing less than the recovery of a whole dimension of human experience, and ancient vision of our spiritual place in the Cosmos.