Touch your eyes lightly

What the Method Is

The core instruction, as listed in the contents, is “Touch your eyes lightly”. Based on Osho’s general teachings on meditation, this method likely aims to enhance awareness and sensitivity through gentle physical contact with the eyes, which are considered crucial access points to inner consciousness.

How It Is Done

Given the lack of direct instructions, the practice of “Touch your eyes lightly” can be inferred by drawing on techniques that involve senses, touch, and the eyes, as discussed by Osho in the sources:

  • Gentle Contact: The instruction “lightly” implies a relaxed and effortless approach, rather than a forceful one. Osho often advises against straining or forcing, noting that doing so creates tension and hinders genuine experience.
  • Relaxation of Eyes and Face: When closing eyes for meditation, Osho suggests letting them be closed relaxedly, rather than forcing them shut, and to relax the face. This can be practised by first tensing and then relaxing the face to feel the difference.
  • Focus on Sensation: The act of touching should involve deep sensitivity and feeling, rather than mere mechanical action. This means focusing solely on the sensation of touch, allowing awareness to become vivid through that particular sense.
  • Inner Awareness: As with other sense-based techniques, the goal is to use the external sensation to turn attention inwards. When applying a touch, one should remember the awareness that is hidden behind the eyes, as the eyes are merely windows for the seer. The touch should not just be felt externally, but one should also “feel yourself also – that you are here in this touch, present totally”.
  • Connecting to Inner Energy: Similar to how massaging the sex center through deep breathing activates it, touching the eyes lightly could stimulate a flow of energy that helps them feel “fresh and alive”. This connects to the concept of prana (vitality), which can be felt as an essence through breath or concentrated through attention.
Commentaries and Insights
  • Eyes as a Gateway: Osho explains that the eyes are the “most non-bodily part in the human body, the least bodily,” serving as a deep meeting point between oneself and the body. A “single jump from the eyes can lead you to the source” of inner being, making them powerful for the inner journey.
  • Connection to Thought and Mind: Eye movements are directly linked to the thought process; if eye movements stop, thoughts stop immediately, and vice versa. Thus, gently touching the eyes to promote stillness might help cease mental activity and facilitate a no-mind state.
  • Developing Sensitivity: This technique, like many others, requires and helps to develop inner sensitivity. Osho notes that modern man has often lost touch with his body due to societal conditioning against self-touch. Re-engaging with the body through conscious touch helps restore this lost sensitivity, which is crucial for deeper meditative experiences.
  • Beyond Imagination to Reality: While the initial act might involve imagination, the aim is to move beyond it to direct experience. Osho stresses that while techniques begin with imagination, they are rooted in the reality that “everything consists of light”. When attention is focused, imagination becomes potent and can manifest phenomena.
  • The Goal: Awareness and Transformation: All techniques ultimately aim to foster alertness and awareness. Achieving this state allows one to transcend the mind and experience the “inner purity” and “true nature” that lies beyond. This leads to a profound transformation, making one a “different person”.
  • Simplicity and Ego: Osho often highlights that simple techniques are often dismissed by the ego, which seeks difficulty and grand challenges to feel fulfilled. However, these simple methods are powerful because they touch fundamental realities directly.
  • Individual Fit and Guidance: It is essential to find a technique that “fits” or “clicks” with the individual. If one feels “very uneasy or anything unbearable”, they should stop and try another method. For powerful techniques, Osho advises the guidance of a master, as initiation makes the method “qualitatively different” and tailored to the individual’s specific needs and state.
  • Safety Precaution (Inference from similar techniques): While no specific warning is given for “Touch your eyes lightly”, for other techniques involving energy flow, Osho warns against leaving energy “in the middle” or incomplete, as it can be harmful. This suggests that any energy aroused should be fully experienced or released.