Focus your attention on the third eye

What the Method Is

The core instruction for this meditation technique, as given by Shiva, is: “Attention between eyebrows, let mind be before thought. Let form fill with breath essence to the top of the head and there shower as light.”. This technique is specifically designed to open the third eye, which is referred to as the pineal gland in modern physiology and “shivanetra” in Tantra.

How It Is Done

To practice this method, you should:

  • Close your eyes and focus both of your eyes just in the middle of the two eyebrows, as if you are looking with your physical eyes.
  • Give total attention to this point. The third eye naturally absorbs attention powerfully, making it the simplest area to train attention, as it is “magnetic” for it.
  • Maintain this focus until your eyes become fixed and it becomes difficult to move them, indicating you have found the correct point.
  • When focused, you may start to feel the subtle essence of breath, or prana, flowing in. Visualize this prana essence filling your entire head, particularly the top (sahasrara chakra), and then imagine it showering down as light from the peak of your head. This visualization should be done purely through imagination, as when attention is focused at the third eye, imagination becomes potent and can create phenomena.
  • Alternatively, or in conjunction, you can close all seven openings of your head (eyes, ears, nose, mouth) with your hands to stop outward consciousness flow. This causes consciousness to concentrate at the third eye, making that inner space “all inclusive”. If using this approach, be cautious not to completely plug the nose or mouth, allowing for natural breath release. It is best done as a sudden “jerk” for a few seconds rather than prolonged practice.
  • When closing your eyes, do so relaxedly, not forcibly, to avoid tension.
  • To aid in stopping eye movements, visualize deep, velvety darkness around and within you. Feel as if you are in a deep, dark night and are dying, allowing the eyes to stop.
Commentaries and Insights
  • Opening the Third Eye: The third eye is a non-functioning gland that is “not blind” but simply “closed.” This technique directly aims to open it, causing the energy that normally flows through the two physical eyes to be diverted to this subtle center.
  • Witnessing Consciousness: Focusing on the third eye immediately makes one a witness to thoughts. Thoughts appear to run before you like a film, rather than being identified with you. This shift allows you to observe anger, sex, or any mood as an object, without being affected or identified with it, thereby leading to the finding of the witness.
  • Prana and Cosmic Energy: The breath is understood not just as air but as a vehicle for prana (vitality). When focused at the third eye, one can feel this essence directly. The energy-filled center is not dependent on physical “fuel” but is connected to a cosmic source of energy. This essence showering from the top of the head signifies inner rebirth.
  • Dream and Reality Fuse: When centered in the third eye, the distinction between dreams and reality can dissolve, with dreams becoming as real as waking life, and waking reality appearing as a dream. This is the experiential basis for Shankara’s philosophy of maya (illusion).
  • “All-Inclusive” Inner Space: The space at the third eye is described as “all inclusive,” meaning that knowing this inner space allows one to know the entire existence, aligning with the Upanishadic teaching “Knowing the one, one knows all”.
  • Encountering the Deathless: Realizing this inner space also leads to knowing the deathless within, indicating a transcendence of mortality.
  • Purity and Danger: While focusing attention at the third eye, imagination becomes highly potent. This emphasizes the Tantric insistence on purity of mind before practice; otherwise, impure thoughts (e.g., murderous intent) could potentially manifest dangerously.
  • Sensations and Warnings: Practitioners may experience sensations like warmth, a burning sensation, or even a feeling like fire or a bullet hammering the third eye. Osho advises against continuing if the sensation becomes unbearable or feels like a bullet penetrating the skull, and recommends opening the eyes and moving them to divert the energy. Traditional practices sometimes used cooling agents like sandalwood paste (tilak) on this spot.
  • Light Without Source: As the third eye opens, the inner darkness disappears, revealing light without any external source. This “sourceless light” is likened to God in the Upanishads.
  • Avoiding Mere Imagination: It is crucial not to imagine the third eye opening or light, but to wait for the natural experience. Imagining can lead to beautiful “spiritual dreams” but not genuine realization.
  • Relationship to Navel Center: While practicing this or any other centering technique, the ultimate effect is to bring one’s consciousness back to the navel (hara), which is considered the original, existential root of being. The specific center used for centering is less important than the act of centering itself.
  • Suddenness of Enlightenment: These techniques prepare the practitioner for a sudden spiritual explosion (samadhi), which is not a gradual process but a sudden event, much like death. The clarity felt during practice is a preparation, but the ultimate clarity of enlightenment is fundamentally different.
  • Mental vs. Experiential: Osho stresses that these are not intellectual exercises but require doing and direct experience. The mind often dismisses simple techniques, preferring arduous ones that feed the ego, but true transformation comes from direct engagement, not mere intellectual understanding. Tantra is a science of the how not the why.
  • Subtle Body Connection: The third eye is part of the subtle body (sukshma sharir) and allows vision of the subtle world and the soul or spirit of others.
  • Centering as a Means: Centering is the method, not the ultimate goal. It gathers diffused energy, making it “atomic,” which then allows for an “explosion” where the individual center dissolves into the cosmic, resulting in an oceanic experience of omnipresence.