Last night the talk at the shala touched on this subject of drishti, how it is related to the "fire" element, and how sight is such a potentially distractive sense. Matter of fact, whenever I am practicing and my eyes start to wonder, it is pretty much guaranteed that I will be losing internal focus.
One thing Eddie mentioned, that I thought was worth remembering, was that whenever we are practicing, say, the warrior pose, and we are supposed to look at the middle finger, to see and test if we can rest the eyes there, instead of "look".
This idea of "placing the focus" rather than "looking" resonates with me, and just by listening to him speak I began to rest the eyes on the floor and go within.
My eyes are very fiery, (as you can see in the picture), they want to eat up information. Taming them is quite a challenge.
Do you get distracted during practice? which sense takes you out?
It's usually my wondering mind that gets me. :)
ReplyDeleteHi L, yes I find the same thing, and I noticed that the eyes tend to be the first intruder... they go out and the mind follows, but I suppose it can happen the other way around, yes, now that I think of it, it does!, great notice
ReplyDeleteI have trouble crossing my eyes. Nose tip is somewhat easier then middle of brow. I canNOT do the yoganidrasana driste unless I "lead" my eyes by drawing a line with my fingers...
ReplyDeleteI am lucky that I dont get to the crossing yet, at least I do not think there is anything like it in primary... I feel I would tend to strain if I had to cross them... yeap, a challenge
ReplyDeleteHmmm... I'm not really sure. I think driste is not emphasized so much in primary but I'd have to ask an expert.
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