I'd like to ask Dave and others who have (or almost have) cured their eyesight.
Could you please share your experience about the period of transition from the state when "my vision is mostly poor with quite a bit of clear flashes" to "my vision is mostly good with relapses of poor vision from time to time".
How did it happen? Was this change drastic or slow and unremarkable? Was there anything you realized and changed in your practice to make it happen?
For me it's been a gradual but rough change. I mean what I do now is be as much as possible as myself, calm, quiet, not taken over by thoughts... it's very hard to describe, but it's that peacefulness that seems to necessary for things to work right, including vision. So I find that it's a matter of ensuring that state as much as possible, taking the time to be it again when I get the chance, and stay that way for as long as I can before forgetting myself, and that's what for me goes most of the way towards keeping myself from straining.
It's something that Bates really didn't know much about. He knew it, he knew the state, but he didn't have a frame of reference or the assistance of other people to draw from. Nowadays, at least where I am, there's yoga everywhere, meditation everywhere, spiritual ideas of self everywhere, that eventually you kind of start to understand what the deal is. Calling it "relaxation" is accurate but not very explanatory and not always very helpful.
It's like in that movie "A Beautiful Mind." At the end, he is still haunted, but he has overcome his mental problem in a way that it no longer is a problem for him. It's not really like that, but sort of, in the sense that the predisposition has been programmed such that when I am off balance, it will always result in blur. It's kind of just a matter of not allowing that portion of programming code to be activated, but it's still there, waiting. (I think Paul the programmer would understand what I mean!)
David
Site Administrator
"Half of our funny, heathen lives, we are bent double to gather things we have tossed away." - George Meredith
I think I understand what you mean (and I'm a programmer too ). It happens that I am coming to understand the same thing myself. I also find that if I am long enough in this state of the mind, my vision clears. It is not always however that I am disposed to reach this state, even though I seem to do the same things. One of the reasons of this I think is that I still forget myself and go deep into strain while working.
What I'm looking for is some encouragement and maybe some tips. I liked very much your recent post "Palming" in the Methods of the Month section. Could you also shed some light on this subtle topic - how do you make this relaxed state permanent and habitual? How do you manage to not be taken over by thoughts and do your everyday work at the same time? How long did it take you and what did you learn on your way?
That's the million dollar question, how to stay like this when doing other things. I find that it's just another example of practicing it as much as possible under easy conditions so that doing it under adverse conditions becomes easier and easier. And taking lots of breaks. Like right now, as I stop typing for a moment, out of habit I breathe in (and continue to breathe deeply) and pause, leaving my mind blank for a moment. And then continuing slowly. Slowly being the key word. I can't go as fast as something in me wants to go. I mean in my thoughts, in looking at things... I can't look at something and take it in as quickly as someone who has always had normal vision can. It takes me a moment to register and process, even assuming I see it clearly. I'm not sure if that's a permanent thing, just how my body works, or if it's something that will get quicker over time, like the way you see little kids are a little slow in things like that as they're developing. I had vision problems since I was a baby, so maybe I didn't really go through that process correctly. Or maybe it's not even as slow as I think and is totally normal - hard to say!
I guess I have a lot to say about that kind of stuff, I just never do.
David
Site Administrator
"Half of our funny, heathen lives, we are bent double to gather things we have tossed away." - George Meredith
). It happens that I am coming to understand the same thing myself. I also find that if I am long enough in this state of the mind, my vision clears. It is not always however that I am disposed to reach this state, even though I seem to do the same things. One of the reasons of this I think is that I still forget myself and go deep into strain while working.