Trataka Meditation – Powerful technique to focusing your mind

“When meditation is mastered, the mind is unwavering like the flame of a lamp in a windless place.”

Bhagavad Gita

Normally we think that meditation is about closing our eyes. In Trataka Meditation, sight is the tool used to focus and still your mind. Traditionally a candle is used for Trataka Meditation, but you can also gaze at the moon, the rising sun, a symbol or a point on the floor in front of you.

In this article, I will introduce to you the technique of Trataka Meditation. I will also give you a little insight on scientific research concerning the connection of mental states and eye movements.

I can only highly suggest you try Trataka Meditation out. It doesn’t take you long and you don’t need much. Since Trataka Meditation stems from the Yogi Tradition, I firstly encountered it during my Yoga Teacher Training. It helped me tremendously in attaining focus during a closed-eyed meditation.

Benefits of Trataka Meditation

Trataka Meditation is a form of Hatha yoga that is been practiced for a long time. Here are some of it’s benefits:

• Strengthens eye muscle
• If you struggle with a wandering mind, it helps you to center
• Our eyes constantly make micro-movements, indicating distraction of the mind. By stilling the eyes, you still your mind.
• Balances the activity of our two brain hemispheres
• Helps with insomnia
• Improves your ability to visualize and hold a mental image
• Improves willpower and concentration
• Eases anxiety
• Improves vision in the dark (If you use a candle)
• Purifies your Ajna-Chakra

How to do Candle Gazing

Prepare your practice by darkening your room. Place the candle about 1 – 1,5m away from you. The flame should be at about the level of your eyes. Close your windows, as the flame should optimally be perfectly still.

Now light the candle and get into your meditation posture. This can be sitting on a chair or traditionally on your matt/meditation cushion in lotus or half-lotus. Make sure you are in a comfortable position that you can hold for an extended period of time without moving or adjusting. Put on comfortable and warm clothes and make sure your spine is straight.

Now take a few minutes to settle in. I like to previously stretch my body a little, as this makes me more relaxed. You can now deepen your breath, close your eyes and watch your breath for a few moments before starting your Trakata-Meditation.

Stage 1 – External Gazing

Set your eyes on the candle. Gaze at the flame without blinking or moving your eyes. Continue to breath slowly and relax your body. After 1-3 minutes, your eyes will get tired or start to tear up. If you practice Trataka Kriya (a purification practice for the eyes from Hatha Yoga), then you would let the tears come and stream down. Otherwise, now is the time to close your eyes.

With your eyes closed, keep the mental image of the flame. Stay a few minutes with your eyes closed and hold that after-image in your mind’s eye. If your mind wanders of, simply bring your attention back to that mental image. Traditionally, the mental image is focused on in the space between your eyebrows.

After sitting a few minutes with your eyes closed, you repeat the process a few times. After finishing off your practice, make sure to lay down in savasana (back flat on your mat) for at least 5 minutes to come back, rest and then continue your day. Also, wash your eyes out with cold water afterwards.

This is what most people primarily mean when they talk about Trakata Meditation. Especially when first starting out, I advise you to only practice this first stage over the course of a few months.

Also, don’t worry If you aren’t able to hold your eyes open for longer than a few seconds in the beginning. It will quickly get easier as you learn to relax and grow more comfortable with it.

Stage 2 – Internal Gazing

The external gazing practice is mostly considered as the whole Trakata Meditation. But there are two more stages of this meditation technique that can be practiced when you are more progressed and experienced.

If you practiced external gazing for an extended period of time and find yourself holding the mental image in your mind very easily, you can now practice internal gazing exclusively.

Here, you can visualize a mental image or simply a dot of light and focus on this. Some also like to look at an external scene first and then let that whole scene appear in their mind’s eye. When doing this meditation, try to hold that mental image in that internal space between your eyebrows.

Step 3 – Gazing into the void

This could also be practiced from the beginning, but I found it to be very hard and not effective because your mind easily wanders of. I advise you to practice external trakata before and then, eventually, progress to gazing into the void.

There are many ways to practice this. Here are a few examples I like doing:

• Sky gazing: This is a calming Tibetan practice. You allow your thoughts to pass by like clouds and realise your awareness to be like the endless sky.
• Boochari Mudra: Hold your hand at arms-length in front of you. For a few minutes, simply gaze at the tip of your finger. Then, slowly lower your hand down and keep your eyes on that spot your fingers were previously. You are now gazing at nothingness or space. Relax while doing this without registering anything else (i.e., the background). Repeat when your focus is lost.
• Darkness: Really darken your room and gaze into the void. Be cautious because in doing this, traumatic events or suppressed emotions may come up.

Tips and Precautions for Trakata Meditation

• Don’t practice external Trakata for more than ten minutes without a teacher as guidance.
• If your practice Trakata with a candle, make sure to take a break every few days. Some Yogis are concerned that practicing with a candle every day for more than two months may harm your retina.
• While doing external trakata, try to stay relaxed with your body and eyes. This will allow you to gaze at the candle longer. I always envision myself “locking” my eyes on the flame as If hanging something on a nail at the wall.
• If in the beginning of your practice you are only able to hold your eyes open for a few seconds, don’t worry. It will get easier with time.
• If you stare a lot at a blue screen (i.e., phone, computer, TV), Trakata is a great technique to relax your mind before sleep. It could also be a little harder for you as your eyes might be dry from the blue light.
• Don’t practice Trakata on a candle If you have problems with your eyes (i.e., glaucoma, myopia) or epilepsy.
• As always in Yoga, be gentle with your body. If your eyes hurt, don’t forcefully keep them open or resist blinking. Remember to practice ahimsa (non-violence).

Eye movements and the brain

The connection between our eyes and the brain is important. In fact, our visual system starts developing two weeks after conception, directly evolving from our central nervous system. Almost half of our brain structure is linked to the ability to see.

Different patterns of eye movements have been linked to multiple mental health conditions like schizophrenia [1]. But eye movement is not only important when it comes to mental health problems. When watching pictures, artists and non-artists have a different pattern of eye movement [2]. Eye movement is also an indicator of memory [3] or different types of emotions [4].

Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) is a very successful therapeutic intervention in treating trauma related disorders like PTSD or even insecure attachment styles [5, 6]. It was invented in 1987 by Francise Shapiro and is now one of the approved treatments for PTSD by the WHO.

It is also known that looking on one side (i.e, left) activates the other hemisphere of your brain (i.e., right). This principle relates to almost anything in our body like lifting up the left or right arm. In Gazing Meditation, a central gaze is held. It is possible that this may lead to an integration of both sides of our brain.

The connection between our breath and our physical and mental states are probably familiar to you. We all heard how deep breathing has a calming effect on the nervous system or have been told to breathe out when getting an injection as it eases pain. Still, the examination of this connection is relatively new in our Western Science. Whereas in Eastern traditions and philosophies, this interconnection has been known and practiced with for many hundred of years already.

The same goes for our sense of seeing. Examining the relationship between our sight and our mental states is a recent development. Trataka Meditation on the other hand is an old practice but I would not consider it any less valuable than what Science comes to find out only now.

Other Gazing Techniques

Different schools like Zen or Tibetan Buddhism have evolved different Gazing Techniques over time. But Gazing was not only used in Buddhist traditions only. Here you have a quick overview over some Gazing Techniques I came across:

• Flower Gazing (Taoism): This is said to be very healing. In flower gazing, one drinks in every aspect of that flower.
• Gazing at a loved one (Sufism): This is widely known through my all-time favorite mystic and poet Rumi. Divinity is found through gazing at a beloved.
• Navel Gazing (Ancient Greece): This was used as a tool for contemplation about the universe and fundamental principles.

Final Words

When I first encountered Gazing Meditation in my Yoga Teacher Training, I head no knowledge of its effects or background. I simply practiced it because I found it to be a nice ritual before going to sleep. I soon after realised that calming my mind and focusing during my closed-eye meditation got way easier. I personally link a lot of that “progress” (for a lack of a better word) to practicing Trakata.

In the beginning, practicing Trakata may be difficult. But as with all things you try for the first time, this too gets a lot easier very fast. I now find a very profound and deep sense of peace and calmness while candle gazing. My focus shifted from concentrating on how long I can keep my eyes open to only experiencing the flame.

In researching for this article, I was astonished by how many different Gazing techniques there are. Zen Buddhism, Taoism, Sufism or ancient Greece all had Gazing techniques because of how significant the mind-eye connection is. EMDR as a Western therapy treatment form using eye-movements is, in my opinion, only one more aspect of this.

“If you want to know God, then turn your face toward your friend and don’t look away.”

Rumi