thought control with eyes open?

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H2O
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thought control with eyes open?

Post by H2O »

Hello, been struggling with Bardon's Initation to Hermetics first lesson mental exercise which is called thought control. This is where you passively observe whatever thoughts you are having at the time. I think I would be doing better with my eyes open, I would stay awake and would spot a new thought quicker.

I am worried long term if I do these exercises with my eyes open and I am forced to do them with my eyes closed later on in the course I could be back to square one.

p.s I apologize if I posted in the wrong place

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chowderpope
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Re: thought control with eyes open?

Post by chowderpope »

I think it would be fine with eyes open. Sometimes i'll look at a candle flame to have a visual focus, im sure you could do similarly with any object to focus on.
Awake from sleep! Remember you're the son of a Great King, see to whom you're enslaved!

Firice
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Re: thought control with eyes open?

Post by Firice »

Hi H20, I've been perfecting Level 1 since Dec 2016 and hopefully my tips will be useful to you:

for thought observing, you could do the following:

1. Achieving the prerequisite state of mind: to higher levels of concentration and different levels of the mind with imagination. Imagine yourself in a place very secluded and somewhere you really like and somewhere people can't disturb you. There are 2 ways of creating this new reality so as to get your mind "distracted" from the usual distractions of the 5 human senses:

1.1 Imagine the thoughts coming up in-front of you from far far away in rectangular or in any form and dismiss them one after another. There is an essential operation you do while dismissing that I'll explain afterwards of explaining the second option below:

1.2 cinema hall: imagine your real-self in a cinema hall and seeing the thoughts that come up in your mind as black and white pictures and movies in the screen. When you see these thoughts, say to yourself in your mind in the third person..." he is thinking about such and such...."

2. Labelling of thoughts while observing:: this is the part that Bardon didn't mention. Probably he wanted his disciples to search out themselves. From my personal experience I've found that if you don't know how to label and observe your thoughts, you can't do it well yourself. Here I'll giving you some information of the Yoga of the Mind and from the Yoga Sutras of the Indian Sage Patanjali (the oldest text translated into English as far as I know):

To label thoughts, first classify them according to the source:

1. Correct (any thought that gets you closer to God and life plans) 2. Incorrect 3. Fantasy / Imagination 4. Memory 5. Reasoning

Then, classify them according to their "colours":

1. Ignorance 2. Attraction 3. Aversion 4. Ego 5. Fear of Losing anything (all these 5 types of thoughts are coloured and only the uncoloured type is the type we seek after)

Coloured thoughts are anything that creates attachment between us and any object in the material world. Our objective is to slowly dissociate and become truly free beings. In the very first two weeks, you'll see it is taking time to classify. Then you'll see it's become easier to classify and also to observe particular patterns of your thoughts.

Critical Success Factors: you'll know you have gotten close to success when you can reduce these streams and various types of thoughts that are distractions into the bare minimum. The "Monkey mind" or mental "chatter". As you use the techniques and also the principles of no harm to any other person, control over your own instincts, having control over your "Nafs" (all negative emotions arising from anger and lust), you will see that slowly. Also, as you start gaining insights into your thought patterns, you may want to keep a separate notebook to list why you think and what you think and how you think and what you want to think to be a better man.

Additionally but very importantly, you may want to cut down on habits such as smoking or also sex without love as told by Montak Chia. I've noticed that any type of addictive habits make it difficult to get your mind stable, cravings make the two parts of the brain stick together.

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Re: thought control with eyes open?

Post by Firice »

It will be helpful if you start observing your thoughts usually for the whole day and label them to become skilfull in labelling.

Also, it will help if you try to develop your WILL and FAITH.

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Re: thought control with eyes open?

Post by Firice »

To be more specific in my answer (apologies for becoming too detailed, my bad :-) ), about keeping eyes open or closed, I can't tell you what happens in the later stages but I can tell you the consequences and you can decide for yourself.
In my understanding, for Void meditation specially, we are supposed to actually enter the Void and create an absolute vacancy. This would require us to annihilate all external sensory stimulus coming in through the 5 usual senses (sight, sound, touch, smell. taste). Now, practically it's not possible to block out - a speeding car's noise will and can come to you. What I do is :

1. Focus on the Void itself
2. Shift concentration from the external to your inside

In this way, the what's on the inside is nurtured and grows big and what's on the outside becomes smaller.

Secondly, in my understanding, though Bardon's level 1 being focused on Power and Will and Fire, we are supposed to get in touch with our soul and the consciousness. If we keep our eyes open we are simply using the brain machine and being active in the material plane.

However, it maybe that keeping eyes open may help in telekinesis, as in making external manifestations of what's on your mind.

In conclusion, I am reminded of William Mistele's mention of the Indian Yoga teacher who had an awesome sense of calmness in him while teaching Void however the Americans couldn't easily catch up with him since their culture and upbringing was more materialistic. Questions such as the motivating factors, the nature and philosophy behind Void exists but that's not relevant to this thread. Hopefully I've been helpful here. Good luck !

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