Chapter 9 – Awareness
Note: Throughout this book, whenever the term ‘the eye’ is
mentioned, it refers to the third eye, and not to the physical
eyes.
9.1 Centredness through vigilance in the eye
Let us start with a simple experience. Close your eyes and do a
reconnection: become aware between the eyebrows and breathe
with the throat friction. Build up the vibration in the eye. Then
open your eyes and look at any object in front of you. Even
though your eyes are open, keep a strong awareness of the
vibration between the eyebrows. What is in your field of
consciousness? The object, you, and the vibration between the
eyebrows.
Something interesting can be noticed: it is as if you were looking
at the object from between the eyebrows. You are not trying to do
so, it just happens automatically. You just look at an object,
keeping a strong awareness of the vibration in the eye. And very
naturally you find yourself looking at the object from between
the eyebrows. In other words, you are centred. Note that you are
not actively doing anything to achieve centredness, it just happens
by itself. This is because the very nature of the third eye is
centredness. Therefore whenever your eye is operating, you find
yourself centred.
Take another object and start looking at it. At the same time,
remain aware of the vibration between the eyebrows. Another
finding is that your mind tends to quieten. Once more, you are
not trying to make your mind silent. Anyway it is hopeless to try
to achieve inner silence by fighting against the mind. So don't try
anything, don't do anything, just keep some awareness of the
vibration in the eye. And as a by-product you will find that your
mind is quieter than usual.
How does this happen? As soon as you are in the eye, you are
already a bit out of the mind. Remember the eye contact exercise
we did in section 5.9. We were observing the layer of ordinary
mental consciousness, called manas in Sanskrit. This manas-mind,
made of grasping and conditioning, is the facade, the one that goes