Mirror gazing or mirror trataka.

[hydrogen]

Has anyone have experiences with mirror gazing?

 

I recently experiment with it. The wikipedia says it's dangerous without guide of a guru. I think the best guru is within. So I tried it anyway.

 

I just stand to look at my own reflexion in the mirror in low light. After a while, my reflexion face become blur. If I continue staring, I hear a buzz sound intensified in my ear. I feel that I should do something. But I don't know what to do. I just continue looking. Then my reflexion disappear from the mirror.

 

After a few seconds, my image come back into the view again. I'd feel totally aware of my own body, alert and calm. It's different than my normal dream like meditation state.

 

I'd love to know more about this. Thanks.

[thelerner]

The disappearing reflection trick is pretty cool. Glenn Morris wrote about it in his book 'Pathnotes of a..'. As I recall he said it was caused by an aura effect. I can achieve it in dim lights by quieting the mind and turning my vision to a wide unfocused stare but if I think 'I've succeeded' the effect ends. So its kinda like a physical koan.

[Birch]

http://mindhacks.com/2010/09/18/the-strange-face-in-the-mirror-illusion/

 

For the disappearing thing, I couldn't find the thing I'd read before (it was a feedback/habituation thing)

[thelerner]

This is from: http://peacefulprosperity.com/face-dancing/

Secrets of the Shamans: Face Dancing by Benjamin Langley

This is a classic tradition/meditation from ancient shamanism.

It may or may not have been around longer than mankind…

Face Dancing is a term (Native American in origin) for meditation done while looking into a mirror. Gazing into a mirror can have a powerful effect. Glenn Morris writes a whole chapter on it in Pathnotes of an American Ninja Master.

This is an interesting journey into self that can be done with eyes open. Some of the potential results of face dancing are:

• greater alertness to the details and shifts of your face as well as the faces of others…
• development of such deep self acceptance that confidence, self-esteem, insecurities, etc. all become non-issues… (when you learn to accept yourself deeply on your own, accepting others, and yourself around others becomes much easier)
• appreciation of the vibe projected by your internal state (how does your face change when you are peaceful, when you are angry, when you smile?)

Like anything else, the more you practice, the better you get, and the further you can go. It’s probably best to start with the lights on… but once you are comfortable, do what ever it takes to

have a good time while opening up deeper levels of self!

 

 

Here’s a quick process you can start with.

1. Take a few moments to relax. Take a few deep breaths.
2. Look into the mirror. Allow yourself to relax. Pay attention. See how long you can be still staring into your own eyes.
3. Allow your eyes to relax (use more peripheral than focused vision). See what you can see. Notice the area of your forehead, your throat, your crown… also look around your head, neck, and shoulders.
4. As you relax, and continue to look into your own reflection, you may see changes… your face may disappear… you may see things that you don’t recognize (consciously) at all.

The best advice I can give you is to focus on awareness and acceptance. It is best to perform this exercise (and any exercise) with no expectation. There is nothing in your life that you can’t handle… the resources inside you are always greater than any challenge you may face, internal or external.

And one last tip for face dancing…

keep smiling,

ben

[Flolfolil]

hmm... i used to have problems with vanity so i generally avoid my reflection out of fear it will steal my soul/awareness or something

 

maybe confronting that fear head on might be a good idea. i feel really weird looking at myself

[idiot_stimpy]

From what I have read, looking into a mirror during meditation can trigger an out of body experience. I have no experience to back this claim up.

[Flolfolil]

that cool feeling (asmr) i get when i watch someone concentrating on something is completely absent when the thing the person is concentrating on is a mirror or some kind of computer screen... its there with art projects, books, human interaction, cooking, everything -except- mirrors and computers. i worry about this

[hydrogen]

 

1. Take a few moments to relax. Take a few deep breaths.
2. Look into the mirror. Allow yourself to relax. Pay attention. See how long you can be still staring into your own eyes.
3. Allow your eyes to relax (use more peripheral than focused vision). See what you can see. Notice the area of your forehead, your throat, your crown… also look around your head, neck, and shoulders.
4. As you relax, and continue to look into your own reflection, you may see changes… your face may disappear… you may see things that you don’t recognize (consciously) at all.

 

Thanks. I'll try to use more peripheral than focused vision. I've been focusing on my eyes.

Edited February 2, 2013 by hydrogen

[hydrogen]

From what I have read, looking into a mirror during meditation can trigger an out of body experience. I have no experience to back this claim up.

 

I have kind of strange feeling which seems to be a signpost of astral travel: like flash light on my left eyes, buzz sound on my ears, and vibration on my third eye. But I didn't know how to preceed. Maybe someone who's familiar with astral travel can help.

[Tibetan_Ice]

I have kind of strange feeling which seems to be a signpost of astral travel: like flash light on my left eyes, buzz sound on my ears, and vibration on my third eye. But I didn't know how to preceed. Maybe someone who's familiar with astral travel can help.

 

Hi Hydrogen

 

When I was 15, a Native American here in Canada taught me about gazing.

It reveals past lives' faces, in technicolor. It is a lot of fun.

You need two people to do this. (or you can do it by yourself in front of a mirror).

You sit in front of each other in a dimly lit room about 4 feet from each other.

You gaze into the other person's right eye. (if you gaze at yourself in a mirror, look directly into the left eye (your right eye but reversed because you are looking in the mirror).

After gazing for a while, the face disappears and a blackness manifests where the face used to be. You keep gazing... As the session goes on, the blackness turns into other faces. You have to sit perfectly still and fixate on the pupil of the right eye.

When we first did the tecnique, I started to see faces like a caveman, a pirate, a leopard.. We would tell each other what kind of faces we saw.

After practising for a few days, I learned that I could project a 'face' at him. We experimented and it worked well. I would project a face, then he would describe it to me. We were getting pretty good at it. I would pretend to become a nun, shrouded in a white veil and send that to him (just to freak him out).. He would send a skull with a broken jaw.. Lots of fun..

 

But you know, there are some channels which connect the eyes with the heart. The heart is where the Buddhist indestructible drop lives, that which continues on through many incarnations.

 

Here is something about the mechanics:

 

http://www.rinpoche.com/karmechagme/karmechagmeteaching.pdf

 

In the primordial wisdom of the sugatas, the principle mind is seated within the heart. Therefore, the second lamp is called the citta flesh lamp. So the heart is the lamp made of flesh or living tissue. The reason for this is that, as we saw earlier, while you are alive the fundamental seat of the eighth consciousness is your heart. Now when you die and your

mind leaves your body, that’s a whole different thing. Your body becomes a corpse. But as long as you are alive, your body and mind are interconnected. Therefore, the second lamp is the heart, which is the seat of mind.

 

The third lamp is called the smooth white channel lamp. This is the channel which connects the heart to the eyes. The eyes are the fourth lamp and the third lamp is the channel that connects these two. It is this channel that causes the appearances of Dharmata, seated in the heart to be visible. In order to be visible obviously they have to appear to the eyes and the connection between the heart and eyes is called the smooth white channel lamp. Now it is a channel, but it is a channel that does not contain either blood or lymph. It is empty of everything except wind. For example, in some Dzogchen tantras it says, “It is in the white place of the brain that the appearances arise to the senses.” This refers to the vision of the eyes because this channel passing from the heart, the smooth white channel lamp, passes via or through the brain.

The fourth lamp is called the distant lasso water lamp. This refers to something that is in the center of the eyes. Because you can see things that are distant, its called the distant lasso water because of the composition of the eye. It refers, not to the entire eye, but to the sense faculty within the eye that is at the end of the smooth white channel lamp. The smooth white channel lamp starts at the heart and ends at the optic nerve.

 

The fourth lamp is the gate for the appearance of wisdom. The wisdom, in this case, refers to the display of Dharmata and the condition for its appearance is the use of the eyes in a particular way, or gaze, in connection with a source of light. Traditionally the sun is given as the main example but it can also be the light of the moon, an electric light, or a light from a flame. Through the application of gaze you cause to appear to the fourth lamp, or in the fourth lamp, the eyes, a rainbow like light phenomenon. This embodies the purity of the Dharmakaya and the five certainties of the Sambhogakaya, initially appearing as multi colored light and circles of light. The gate for that appearance is the distant lasso water lamp. When you do this and apply the gaze and make use of the four lamps explained thus far, what you will see looks something like the tail of a peacock which contains circles, which are often five different colors; one surrounding another like circular shields used in warfare.

 

So, you see, there is a very profound connection between the eyes and the heart. So, it is entirely possible that mirror gazing or gazing at someone else is an entirely valid thing to do.

 

And, if you noticed in that quote, the channel from the heart to the eyes is capable of 'distance viewing'. So, in a way, it is also capable of astral viewing.. take a trip and never leave the farm. Seriously..

 

I have focused on the "Rainbow light phenomenon" in the optic channel by following the line of sight directly backwards into the optic channel, during a few meditations and I went to a place where I existed before I was born. It was quite startling. When I first arrived in that place, I had no idea where I was, but it all became so familiar to me that I remembered what/where it was. I had been stuck there for what seemed to be an eternity, waiting to be born. I was alone, totally alone, stuck by what looked like a huge pastel colored cloud bank. No way to escape..

 

I should mention, and this is the main reason I am writing to you. If you, or anyone has had psychotic episodes, perhaps you should not play with all this stuff until you gain more control over your mind. Gazing many be fun and exciting, but it can also activate kundalini, by activating the third eye. If you are not prepared for that and can't distinguish between the 'emptiness of the visions' and real life, then it could be very dangerous. It is dangerous because it is hard to shut off once it gets going. It is dangerous because the visions and things you will see are not 'real', have no tangible force in this reality, unless your mind gives them that power.

 

If you are gazing and you start to feel heat, or get the shakes, or you start to vibrate or have similar reactions to what you are describing, you are on the verge of activating your kundalini. If you are not a seasoned meditator, you could be getting into trouble.

 

The best thing I would recommend that you could do, before messing with this stuff is to train your attention and harness your mind through meditation. I would recommend getting the book called "The Attention Revolution" by Alan Wallace.. Read, and follow the practices. Learn how to discipline your attention and control the mind, rather than have it control you, or become a victim.

 

Once you can control the mind, through regular breath meditation practice, you will be in a better position to distinguish between astral projections, past life images and the earth plane.

 

http://www.amazon.com/Attention-Revolution-Unlocking-Power-Focused/dp/0861712765

 

TI

[hydrogen]

I should mention, and this is the main reason I am writing to you. If you, or anyone has had psychotic episodes, perhaps you should not play with all this stuff until you gain more control over your mind. Gazing many be fun and exciting, but it can also activate kundalini, by activating the third eye. If you are not prepared for that and can't distinguish between the 'emptiness of the visions' and real life, then it could be very dangerous. It is dangerous because it is hard to shut off once it gets going. It is dangerous because the visions and things you will see are not 'real', have no tangible force in this reality, unless your mind gives them that power.

 

If you are gazing and you start to feel heat, or get the shakes, or you start to vibrate or have similar reactions to what you are describing, you are on the verge of activating your kundalini. If you are not a seasoned meditator, you could be getting into trouble.

 

 

I really appreciate it, TI, that's very informative.

 

My Kundalini has been activited twice in the past year. It's too late for me to go back to normal.

 

My third eyes was opened during those time. I think it's in dormant state now since I don't see "vision" as before. When I close my eyes and focus the third eye spot. I can see a small bright dot. When I meditate, it sometimes changes time like green or blue purple. Most time it's golden color. If I focus more and do "om", it seem to radiate golden light.

 

Is that normal thing for third eye? Thanks.

[Tibetan_Ice]

I really appreciate it, TI, that's very informative.

 

My Kundalini has been activited twice in the past year. It's too late for me to go back to normal.

 

My third eyes was opened during those time. I think it's in dormant state now since I don't see "vision" as before. When I close my eyes and focus the third eye spot. I can see a small bright dot. When I meditate, it sometimes changes time like green or blue purple. Most time it's golden color. If I focus more and do "om", it seem to radiate golden light.

 

Is that normal thing for third eye? Thanks.

 

Hi Hydrogen,

If you see green or purple pulsing light, it is not the third eye. It is the sacral cranial pulses putting pressure on the eyes, which results in light emissions.

I'm not here to talk about the third eye.

If you want to read more about the third eye and what I've learned, you might try this link:

http://thetaobums.com/topic/24351-i-hunger-for-more/?p=351613

 

I'm more interested in what kind of meditation you are doing to stabilize and train your attention. Do you have a teacher or a body of teachings that you are following?

 

 

TI

[hydrogen]

I'm more interested in what kind of meditation you are doing to stabilize and train your attention. Do you have a teacher or a body of teachings that you are following?

 

I don't have a teacher.

 

I don't have a fixed method to stabilize and train my attention.

 

My current task is to open my meridian channels. I have blockage at my feet, kneels, hip, back and neck.

My long term goal is to be a healer. If I have a choice, I'd like to treat people with depression and mental problem. I don't know what insight I'd get from meditation yet.

 

I don't have a fixed routine yet. It depends on my body reaction and time available. I tend to start with a little whole body shake. Then do a few minutes reverse breathing. Then some breathing excercise or chantting om while focusing on my thired eye. I'll do kunlun (Max) for half hour. Then if I can ran SMCO, I do it. If not, I'll do zhan zhong or some movement qi gong.

 

I used to depend on sexual energy to power my practice. Now after kundalini thing, my libido is non existent. I'm looking for a source of energy that I can utilize.

 

I find mirror gazing while zhan zhong help me stabilize my mind.

 

Thanks for asking.

Edited February 5, 2013 by hydrogen

[Flolfolil]

you do kunlun and don't have libido? woah that's a shocker right there. i get a bit hard just with the leg bouncing myself lol

[Tibetan_Ice]

I don't have a teacher.

 

I don't have a fixed method to stabilize and train my attention.

 

My current task is to open my meridian channels. I have blockage at my feet, kneels, hip, back and neck.

My long term goal is to be a healer. If I have a choice, I'd like to treat people with depression and mental problem. I don't know what insight I'd get from meditation yet.

 

I don't have a fixed routine yet. It depends on my body reaction and time available. I tend to start with a little whole body shake. Then do a few minutes reverse breathing. Then some breathing excercise or chantting om while focusing on my thired eye. I'll do kunlun (Max) for half hour. Then if I can ran SMCO, I do it. If not, I'll do zhan zhong or some movement qi gong.

 

I used to depend on sexual energy to power my practice. Now after kundalini thing, my libido is non existent. I'm looking for a source of energy that I can utilize.

 

I find mirror gazing while zhan zhong help me stabilize my mind.

 

Thanks for asking.

 

The purpose of breath meditation is to rest the mind in the natural state. Shamatha. It is very healing and a good source of energy.

Your routine seems to be all energetic. You are moving the winds. You are moving your chi. But when do you ever rest and calm the mind? Shamatha? When do you discipline yourself to be unaffected by your thoughts?

 

From "The Attention Revolution" - Alan Wallace

Normally, when we observe something we can control, we do try to modify it in some way. But mindfulness of breathing involves letting the breath flow in and out with as little interference as possible. We have to start by assuming the body knows how to breathe better than the mind does. Just as the body knows best how to heal a wound or a broken bone, it also knows best how to breathe. Trust your body. You will likely find that sustained awareness of the breath, free of interference from emotional and attentional vacillations, soothes both the body and the mind. You can observe the healing process taking place before your very eyes.

 

Mindfulness is useful for overcoming physical and mental imbalances produced by a stressful, wound-up way of life, but you also can use mindfulness to help prevent such imbalances in the first place. Environmentalists talk about “cleaning up after the elephant”: the endless task cleaning up industrial contamination, and how a far more effective strategy is to avoid fouling up the environment in the first place. Likewise, mindfulness of breathing can be used to prevent the contamination of our inner environment. It helps us tether the elephant of the mind, and avoid the imbalances that so frequently come with modern living.

 

The healing of the body-mind has another significant parallel with environmentalist ideas. When a stream is polluted, one may try to add antidotes to the toxins in the water, hoping such additives will neutralize the damage. But the more straightforward and sensible approach is simply to stop the flow of contamination into the stream. When this is done, over time the flow of the water through soil, stones, and vegetation can purify the stream completely.

 

In the same way, rather than adopting any special breathing technique, you simply stop disturbing your respiration with disruptive thoughts and emotions. Before long, you will find that the healthy flow of the breath is restored naturally. According to Buddhism and other contemplative traditions, mental imbalances are closely related to the body, and especially the breath. Whether we are calm or upset, the breath reacts swiftly. Conversely, irregularities in the breathing also affect our emotional states. During the course of the day, our minds get caught up in a stream of often disturbing thoughts, plans, memories, and concerns. The next time you get angry or sad, elated or surprised, note the rhythm of your respiration. Check it out, too, when you’re hard at work, concentrating on the task at hand, or caught in a traffic jam.

 

Compare those breathing patterns with your respiration when you’re calmly sitting at home, listening to music or watching a sunset. When we are dreaming, all kinds of mental processes continue, even though our bodies and physical senses are dormant. Our emotional responses to dreams are just as real, and have the same impact on the body and the breath, as our emotions when we are wide awake. The only break we have from such sensory and mental input is when we are in deep, dreamless sleep. It’s then that the respiration can flow without disruptive influences from the mind. I believe this is the healthiest breathing that occurs for most of us throughout the day and night.

 

At the end of the day, we may fall asleep exhausted, but then eight hours later, we wake up, fresh and ready for a new day. All too often, this turns out to be just one more day of throwing our bodies and minds out of balance. We now have the opportunity to break this habit. We don’t have to wait until we’re asleep before respiration can heal the day’s damage. With mindfulness of breathing, we can do it anytime. Not controlling the breath, we let the respiration flow as effortlessly as possible, allowing the body to restore its balance in its own way. Simply focusing your attention on the sensations of the breath is directed attention, the first stage of this practice.

 

You have achieved the first stage once you are able to sustain your attention on the breath for even a few seconds. When pursued earnestly, a little mindfulness meditation in the morning or at night immediately brings greater clarity to all activities and provides a natural check on unhealthy habits.

 

...

 

In this practice, the locus of awareness gradually descends from the superficial level of the coarse mental activity that is immediately accessible through introspection down into the inner recesses of the mind that are normally below the threshold of consciousness. You discover in this training that the border between conscious and unconscious mental events shifts in relation to the degrees of relaxation, stability, and vividness of attention. Especially when you engage in this practice for many hours each day, for days, weeks, or months at a time, you dredge the depths of your own psyche. In doing so, you remember long-forgotten experiences, both pleasant and unpleasant, and a wide range of desires and emotions.

 

What happens here is a kind of luminously clear, discerning, free association of thoughts, mental images, memories, desires, fantasies, and emotions. You are plumbing the depths of your own mind, undistracted by external diversions. Once-hidden phenomena are unmasked through the lack of suppression of whatever comes up. This is potentially an extraordinarily deep kind of therapy, and the more intensively you practice it, the more important it is to proceed under the guidance of an experienced, compassionate teacher.

 

During your meditation sessions, internalize the wisdom of this contemplative tradition and make sure that you implement the core instructions of this practice: whatever arises in the mind, do not be carried away by it, and do not grasp onto or identify with it. Just let it be. Watch thoughts, feelings, or other mental events arise, with discerning intelligence be aware of their nature, and let them slip back into the space of awareness without any judgment or intervention on your part. This is the key to letting the knots of the psyche unravel themselves as the extraordinary healing capacity of the mind reveals itself. This is the path to deep sanity.

 

 

 

[hydrogen]

The purpose of breath meditation is to rest the mind in the natural state. Shamatha. It is very healing and a good source of energy.

Your routine seems to be all energetic. You are moving the winds. You are moving your chi. But when do you ever rest and calm the mind? Shamatha? When do you discipline yourself to be unaffected by your thoughts?

Yep, I have a monkey mind like they say. I need to do some thought training.

 

The problem is to find a comfortable positon. I'm a very inflexible. I couldn't touch my own toe a year ago. I still can't sit in half lotus yet. When I had abundant sexual energy, it seemed to quiet my body fine.

 

Alan Wallace started trainging in his early twenty. His body wasn't polluted by years of emotional turmoil as me. I bought his book as your recommendation. I'll see if his method works on me.

 

Thanks.

Edited February 6, 2013 by hydrogen

[Flolfolil]

i just lay down with pillow under my knees to meditate. i meditate after energy practice so no problem falling asleep

[Tibetan_Ice]

Yep, I have a monkey mind like they say. I need to do some thought training.

 

The problem is to find a comfortable positon. I'm a very inflexible. I couldn't touch my own toe a year ago. I still can't sit in half lotus yet. When I had abundant sexual energy, it seemed to quiet my body fine.

 

Alan Wallace started trainging in his early twenty. His body wasn't polluted by years of emotional turmoil as me. I bought his book as your recommendation. I'll see if his method works on me.

 

Thanks.

 

Well, Alan Wallace recommends shavasana for those who are uncomfortable sitting during meditation.

 

Although Buddhism generally encourages cross-legged meditation, the Buddha encouraged his followers to practice in any of four postures: walking, standing, sitting, and lying down. Any of these positions is perfectly suitable. Not everyone living

in the modern world has the same type of mind or nervous system. If you tend toward excitation, you may find lying down especially helpful for releasing the tightness and restlessness of your body and mind. But if you are more prone to laxity, you may simply fall asleep whenever you lie down, so it may be necessary for you to be upright when meditating.

 

Lying down can also be very useful for meditation if you’re physically tired but not yet ready for bed. In this case, you may not be able to rouse yourself to sit upright in a posture of vigilance, but the prospect of lying down for a while may be inviting. Surrender to your body’s need to rest, and use the supine position to calm the mind as well. This likely will be much more refreshing and soothing than watching television or reading a newspaper. The supine posture may be your only option if you are ill, injured, or frail. It may be especially useful for meditation by those in hospitals, senior care facilities, and hospices.

 

Wallace Ph.D., B. Alan (2006-04-10). The Attention Revolution: Unlocking the Power of the Focused Mind: v.ution (pp. 19-20). Perseus Books Group. Kindle Edition.

 

 

You will have to tell us how you make out.

Good luck.

 

TI