Questioner: You said that sleep means, close your eyes and unaware. And meditation means, okay close your eyes but be aware. Can we do, with regard to this, can we do the meditation with open eye?
Sadhguru: Once there was a sufi master. His name was Ibrahim. In Ibrahim’s ashram there were many people. One day, two disciples met in his garden, in the garden of the ashram. Both were little frustrated and both of them said, I wish we could smoke. They want to smoke, but they’re in an ashram. So then they talked about it for some time and said, why don’t we go and ask the master. Can we smoke? They decided to go and ask him separately.
Then next evening, one man was again sitting in the same spot frustrated. Another man came smoking. Hey, you’re smoking. How can you smoke? Master told me not to smoke. What did you ask him? He said, I asked him, can I smoke when I’m meditating? He said – no. How are you smoking? He said, that’s your problem. I asked him, can I meditate when I’m smoking? He said okay.
The samyama meditations are basically to train you to meditate with eyes open
So right now, can I meditate with my eyes open? No. With eyes open, can I be meditative? Yes. But in my meditation, can I open my eyes? No. Okay! In fact the samyama we are talking about, you know we mentioned something about samyama. The samyama meditations are basically to train you to meditate with eyes open. So that 24 hours, no matter what you’re doing, you’re constantly meditating, actively. With eyes open, in all the activity that you perform, you can become active meditation. Then it’s a different world by itself. So samyama meditations are for that purpose, to train you to open eyes and meditate. But don’t attempt shoonya with eyes open. With eyes closed, staying aware, you know how many problems you have. You open your eyes, where all you will go.
