What should I do with my eyes during zazen?
Leave them open, and let them rest. Lower your gaze to the floor about a metre in front of you, at roughly forty-five degrees, and let the lids fall halfway. Don't stare at a spot. Don't hunt for anything. The eyes are not there to find something; they are there to stop going after things. Closing them feels peaceful, but it invites dreams and drowsiness, and you begin sitting somewhere else. Open, soft, unfocused, you stay here, in this room, with this wall. When you notice the eyes have grabbed something, a crack in the plaster, a shadow, a speck of dust, that grabbing is the whole mind in miniature. Just release it. In your next sitting, each time you catch your eyes gripping, soften them, and let the floor come to you.
This was one stranger’s question. In the app, you sit, say what is actually going on, and the teacher answers you, in a voice, privately. The first dokusan is free.
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