Coaching practices for The Second I Close My Eyes to Meditate I Lose My Grip on Where I Am and Old Frightening Stuff Comes Rushing Up Out of the Dark I Want to Keep My Eyes Open and Rest Them on Something Real in the Room So I Never Lose My Hold on the Present

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Does this sound like the set of challenges you might be facing?

• The second I close my eyes to meditate I lose my grip on where I am and old frightening stuff comes rushing up out of the dark
• When I meditate I close my eyes and sink into a private inner world, and then it never carries over into real life with my eyes open
• When I close my eyes the picture of what I was looking at flickers and vanishes almost instantly, and I want to learn how to hold that inner image steady for more than a second or two.
• Closing my eyes to meditate just hands my mind a blank screen to run wild on
• The second I lie down and close my eyes to do this I’m fighting sleep

Practices that may help

1. Use external anchors instead of closed-eye inward attention
   Keep eyes open and soft-focused, or anchor on an external object, to reduce the risk of dissociation during practice.
   Trauma-Sensitive Mindfulness, Made Practical
2. Practicing with eyes open and lowered
   Keep eyes softly open and cast downward — in Zen, the open eye is the practicing eye.
   Kinhin: Zen Walking Meditation
3. Developing the preliminary sign (parikamma nimitta)
   Gaze at the kasina until you can see it clearly with eyes open and hold its image for a few seconds with eyes closed.
   Kasina Meditation: Concentration Through a Physical Object
4. Bahir trataka — external candle gaze
   Sit one metre from a candle and hold an unblinking gaze on the flame tip until tears form.
   Trataka: The Yoga Practice of Fixed-Gaze Meditation
5. Working with drowsiness — staying present while lying down
   Use specific techniques to maintain alertness during the body scan without fighting sleepiness.
   Body Scan Meditation, Made Practical
6. Antar trataka — internalised after-image
   Close your eyes after gazing and hold the mental image of the flame at the brow centre.
   Trataka: The Yoga Practice of Fixed-Gaze Meditation
7. Expand: widen awareness back to body and situation
   After the breath anchor, expand attention outward to include the whole body and the surrounding moment.
   The Three-Minute Breathing Space
8. Jyoti dharana — holding the inner light
   Visualise a steady inner flame at the space between the eyebrows and rest attention there.
   Trataka: The Yoga Practice of Fixed-Gaze Meditation
9. Train flexible attention
   Practise deliberately moving attention between external cues and internal experience — and back.
   Detached Mindfulness, Made Practical
10. Distinguish applying from sustaining attention
    First, aim attention at the object (applying); then, stay with it without tightening (sustaining).
    Shamatha: The Buddhist Practice of Calm Abiding

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