Eyes Wide Shut
Many experts who know a lot more than I do about various schools of meditation practice believe the best posture is one that includes open eyes, downcast gaze.
According to Pema Chodron, author of “Uncomfortable with Uncertainty” and many other writings, the open gaze is a way of “remaining awake and relaxed with all that occurs”. It also is thought to help you stay awake, which sounds pretty practical.
Then again, she is also a proponent of a practice called tonglen, which essentially means breathing in the pain and discomfort of the world and breathing out love and kindness – lovely and aspirational, but really tough when you feel the need of comfort yourself.
Right now, I just know that I am a pretty visual person, and it’s a step too far to try to shut out all of the visual information. It’s enough of a challenge to quiet the monkey mind without feeding it through my eyeballs. One thing at a time.