I tried my best to make the title relevant but I just couldn't quite fit everything into a few words.
Anyway, I've done a lot of exploring on my own lately and I'm happy to say that I've made great progress on the front of paying attention to details. But I still can't solve a few of the problems I run into when I practice.
My most common problem: I don't know what to look at next. It's frustrating because if I try to mechanically move my eyes this way or that, it's tantamount to staring, and the exact same thing happens when I try to mechanically move my attention (one of the bigger 'discoveries' I've made is the connection between how the eyes move and how the mind moves). But if I don't do anything, then I'm staring without shifting my attention. I know that I'm supposed to let my attention move to whatever seems interesting, but whenever I'm practicing, I find it difficult to keep my attention natural and at the same time, observe it. I'm sure my logic is suspect somewhere, but I can't figure out where.
Now that I think about it, the above is the root of all of my other problems. I would much appreciate any advice you guys can give me.
I can only describe which thoughts are 'working' best for me.
That is to tell myself that I can't 'make' or 'bring about' clear vision and in fact this is not necessary, because it already 'is there'.
My eyes are only hindered by some 'obstacle' to function in their natural way.
So I don't have to concentrate on making my vision better, but only on 'creating' the very best 'conditions for their optimal functuning' and then guide them a bit to the 'direction' where they can find their 'natural self-realization' - without interfering too much nor 'citicizing their work' too much.
My eyes can only 'reflect' their momentary state and the state of my mind in the transmitted image - when they are tense and strained, the vision can't be good and when they are perfectly relaxed and not hindered, the vision can't be other than perfect.
So I try to accept the state of momentary blur as a sort of 'report' of my actual state of mind and eyes, and as a 'starting point' from where they can find to their natural self-realization by bio-feedback, always following the 'clearness' to more and more finer contours. And this not because my vision is supposed to be good and I have to do my best to achieve perfect vision - but because in this process my eyes and my mind will loose the stress and strain by taking up their natural way of functioning and this will make me relaxed and relieved and feel better on the whole.
Thanks for the reminder to not force anything on the eyes. Maybe I'm just trying too hard to force something that I don't have control over anyway. I like your thought process (as described in the first paragraph), and I'll try to incorporate some of those thoughts into my own thinking.
Hi Pikachu
There is one more thought I would like to share with you.
I have read in Huxleys book the chapter about swinging and due to his explications I understood much better what Bates intended with this 'exercise': It is not meant to improve the agility of the eyes but to experience to 'let go' the achieved 'vision level' and not to fight against the variation in visual acuity.
A certain level of sharp vision is never 'acquired' as a 'possession', but can only be 'experienced'.
Even a 'normal-sighted' person has moments of short blurry vision between the sharp periods, but he usually is not aware of it.
A person with an error of refraction has different levels of blurry vision and moments of better or even completely sharp vision in between. But we always tend to 'hold' and 'perpetuate' the moments of good vision and thus interrupt the natural way of functioning of the eyes.
By this wrong habit ( reinforced by glasses, which 'fix' and perpetuate a certain level of visual acuity) - by trying to exclude every 'relapse' into less clear vision between the sharp moments - we cut us off the 'experience', which necessarily includes fluctuating visual acuity. The more we try to 'hold' moments of clear vision, the faster they go away. And this leads to a lot of strain.
By accepting the moments of - temporary - blur, the eyes are liberated from the pressure to 'produce' a permanent sight which is always as good as possible, they can relax - and by this relaxation, the 'process of eyesight-functioning' will become more and more precise; the blurry moments will gradually become less 'deep' and less frequent and by the time we (hopefully) won't be aware of them any any more...
Pikachu Wrote:I tried my best to make the title relevant but I just couldn't quite fit everything into a few words.
Anyway, I've done a lot of exploring on my own lately and I'm happy to say that I've made great progress on the front of paying attention to details. But I still can't solve a few of the problems I run into when I practice.
My most common problem: I don't know what to look at next. It's frustrating because if I try to mechanically move my eyes this way or that, it's tantamount to staring, and the exact same thing happens when I try to mechanically move my attention (one of the bigger 'discoveries' I've made is the connection between how the eyes move and how the mind moves). But if I don't do anything, then I'm staring without shifting my attention. I know that I'm supposed to let my attention move to whatever seems interesting, but whenever I'm practicing, I find it difficult to keep my attention natural and at the same time, observe it. I'm sure my logic is suspect somewhere, but I can't figure out where.
Now that I think about it, the above is the root of all of my other problems. I would much appreciate any advice you guys can give me.
Thanks in advance.
Hello there,
You need to master the long swing too. Do you really do that ? It is important.
If you master it, then you know where to look at next, because it is about learning to scan the environment no matter if the environment is interesting or not.
I would say the driveforce for me is the feeling of being dynamically relaxed, not so much that the details must be interesting. Maybe you require interesting details too much ?
Bad vision for me is like an analogy of wearing a lot of clothes that does not fit you at all, and you simply cannot be yourself in those horrible clothes. and you want to hide some were in those clothes.
Then first of all natural vision does not permit clothes of strain at all. There is no such term in natural visual habits.
So I use to think that I just need to take all those "clothes of strain" off and just get relaxed naked eyes that are resting on details of this world with no such "clothes of strain" at all. I just observe the details of the world as if I hoover over it, no strain, I don't care about if the details are interesting or not, I just follow details and observe them with my naked eyes, the details are already there, there is no need to impact or change anything, I just accept the world as it is, the world I look at is good enough, because it is the feeling of total visual dynamic relaxation that is counting.
@Nini: Have you ever found yourself "fighting it", like you want to let go but can't or don't know how? Sometimes, I notice that I'm "holding on" to something but when I try to let go, something won't let me. Maybe it's an innate fear that hasn't manifested itself yet.
@hammer: Could you explain how the long swing helps one know where to look next? I've been on-and-off with long swing practice lately. I don't think I've mastered it yet, but it seems to be easier than it was before. I still haven't hit the "ah-ha" moment though.
Pikachu Wrote:@Nini: Have you ever found yourself "fighting it", like you want to let go but can't or don't know how? Sometimes, I notice that I'm "holding on" to something but when I try to let go, something won't let me. Maybe it's an innate fear that hasn't manifested itself yet.
Yes, I know this very well and I can say, in my case it is a sort of fear - the fear of losing control, not to have good vision 'in my possession', always 'reliably available'. If it is not perfect, than as least as good as possible, but I should be able to count on it.
That is what I tried to describe with the difference between 'possession' and 'experience'.
And the for 'vision by experience' I try to accept the momentary image as it is, which my eyes are able to 'produce' in their actual state - without putting them under the pressure to see constantly as sharp and clear as possible.
Without this pressure - the impatience (or 'eagerness/greedyness' as Huxley calls it), my eyes and mind are much more relaxed and the saccadic movements become more and more precise and corrective saccadic movements have the time and opportunity to reach their goal. So there are more and more clear impressions and the blurry moments in between become less 'deep' and less frequent, and the over-all experienced eyesight will be more and more clear.
Pikachu Wrote:It's frustrating because if I try to mechanically move my eyes this way or that, it's tantamount to staring, and the exact same thing happens when I try to mechanically move my attention (one of the bigger 'discoveries' I've made is the connection between how the eyes move and how the mind moves). But if I don't do anything, then I'm staring without shifting my attention. I know that I'm supposed to let my attention move to whatever seems interesting, but whenever I'm practicing, I find it difficult to keep my attention natural and at the same time, observe it.
Hi,
If you are thinking about your eyes in a physical way when you shift, it can interfere w/ shifting in a more natural manner - you want to work on divorcing yourself as much as possible from thinking about your eyes, and just focus on the object of interest, and it's constituent parts. The size of the object, and it's visual properties will dictate where to shift next. When I look at an object, I don't know where I'm going to look next. Whatever stands out most will grab your attention the most, and it's to those points that your eyes will gravitate. When you scan an object, examine it, there's a level of randomness to it. Until you have developed a familiarity with it, you 'allow' your eyes and attention to scan it in an easy and continuous manner, only really fixating on a small area if it pops out as something that draws more interest.
I don't quite understand how one can, as you say, mechanically move their attention - as attention is a matter of the mind, not something physical (although the eyes follow the mind in a physical way). Can you close your eyes and think of an object, and move your attention to different parts, without thinking about your eyes in a mechanical way? It's no different when the eyes are open.
Pikachu Wrote:@hammer: Could you explain how the long swing helps one know where to look next? I've been on-and-off with long swing practice lately. I don't think I've mastered it yet, but it seems to be easier than it was before. I still haven't hit the "ah-ha" moment though.
Hello again,
Yes, it is simply because the long swing prevents staring, and this makes the awareness more easy going in general.
In order to master this there might however be mental aspects that need to first be taken care of, and they are rather personal from case to case.
In my case I have found out that I in general pretty much relied on external factors instead of relying on myself to solve the problems in the instant moment. I also found out that I was too kind to myself, which prevented me from acting more aggressively. So this ruined my self confidence because I thought I was worth less as a human compared to others. But, I have managed to change this attitude completely now and I feel much more confident with myself now, and that enables me to get the genuine dynamic relaxation feeling needed that I talked about.
@arocarty: That's something I hadn't thought of before. I'll have to think it over.
When I say that my attention is mechanical, I mean that it is jerky (is that the right word?). I know it's probably the wrong approach, but sometimes when I practice, I find myself thinking: "Pay attention to that... Now what? ... Uh, pay attention to that. ... Back to the first point, etc.", like I'm afraid that if I don't tell myself what to pay attention to, everything will blow up in my face or something.
@hammer: All right. I'll have to remember to practice the long swing more often.
Thanks again everyone! You've given me some great advice, and more importantly, you've given me a direction - something to aim for. Well, it's back to experimentation and investigation for me.
