![]() ![]() I can feel a line, an exploration that I had never experienced before. Practicing this way of seeing supports the asanas. It is a seeing that participates in the deconditioning of the body, which lets the identified person come to rest and makes room for pure presence. Then there is no longer any seeking in the gaze and the object disappears. On the contrary, when my gaze, like the body, expands in all directions, the pain falls away. When there is intention in the gaze toward a direction the pain and the tension arise. Extending the arms to the left, the head follows the movement, then I open my eyes and invite my gaze to extend the line that presents itself naturally. Legs crossed, I explore the directions with the arms, I let the tension in the shoulders come alive and the arms glide through space. My eyes are still sensitive but the pain is finally gone. The work of deconditioning the eyes is crucial if one is to experience a peaceful mind. I understand the deep impact of this work, and its importance like never before. ![]() All the eye deconditioning work that I have learned from Éric Baret in recent years – visualization exercises, tactile exploration – take on another dimension. A restless mind is an optic nerve in tension. ![]() When I speak on the phone, or even when I am thinking, I feel some form of tension in my eyes: eyelids open or closed, the eyes react to mental activity.Ī realization hits me,I suddenly experience in my body the full extent of the truth I have been studying in yoga for years: the activity of the eye and the mind are intimately connected. But no, I realize that even then, the eyes are active. One would think that when the eyelids are closed, the eye would finally be at rest. My eyes are so sensitive that no movement can escape my sensory receptors the pain alerts me immediately. The eyes, connected to the brain, constantly record and analyze all the data they receive, without respite. It is the first time I so clearly experience proof of how the eye is always active: the eye constantly moves to capture information, to analyze what to do, where to go, what to look out for. The pain is so acute that I feel the slightest movement, the slightest tension in the eye. Here are some notes I made during the month of June, on the role of the gaze in yoga. Everything will become an invitation to learn. Doing this will become so natural that at some point it will simply become a part of you without you realizing it. Get in the habit of having a notebook or your phone’s recorder at hand’s reach: take notes on details you observe, questions, understandings or observations that arise during your practice or spontaneously during the day. Encountering pain, discomfort or incapacity is always an opportunity to explore and discover subtleties that we would not have been able to grasp otherwise. They allow us to become aware of things that we would not understand or feel otherwise. ![]() Yet, these limits – whether occasional or experienced daily – are always a gift. As a yoga teacher, I often hear “I can’t come to class, I have an injury”, “I can’t practice yoga, I’m not flexible enough”, “I had to stop yoga because I had a problem in such and such an area of my body” as if yoga was only for healthy people. ![]()
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