Should I Meditate With My Eyes Open or Closed?

A common question I receive is whether it’s better to meditate with the eyes open or closed. Let’s explore some of the benefits of each.

Within the various kinds of Buddhism and methods of meditation throughout the world we're going to find a variety of recommendations for either closing or opening the eyes during meditation.

To start, I just want to say that however you practice is fine. It's not like one is ultimately better than the other, but closing or opening the eyes during meditation can effect our practice in different ways. Within the variety of meditation styles there are also different contexts for opening or closing the eyes.

There are also practical reasons why we might want to choose one over the other. In my case, I enjoy meditating with my eyes mostly open because I tend to get a little bit dull or sleepy during practice.

Within the Buddhisms of Southeast Asia such as Theravada Buddhism, you mostly find contexts and styles of practice with an emphasis on closing the eyes. One of the reasons for this is because some styles of Theravada Vipasssana require more laser-like single-pointed focus on a certain part of the body, mental factor, or other component within practice. Closing the sense doorways (including the eyes) allows the meditator to enter into a certain kind of single-pointed concentration.

In some other lineages such as the lineages I practice in Tibetan Buddhism, we usually emphasize eyes half or fully open. Though of course you can also find single-pointed concentration practices similar to Theravada Buddhism. Here they might emphasize the eyes half open and using a meditation anchor like the breath, a visualization, or an outer object like a statue to stabilize one’s concentration.

Tibetan Buddhism also has practices (typically found in the Mahamudra and Dzogchen lineages) that emphasize awareness over concentration. These tend to be the styles of meditative awareness I teach from a bit more. Within those methods of practice we open the eyes fully and allow the gaze to rest in the space in front of us. We don't block the senses and simply allow the mind to rest within or on awareness.

Developing concentration still has a place within these styles of practice, but training in stabilizing or sustaining the essence of awareness takes priority over developing concentration, as concentration will develop as a natural quality of awareness.

So there's a quality of the mind that knows something's happening and then there’s awareness that knows we are perceiving it. When we're centering that type of awareness it benefits the practice not to block what's arising, (but to also not follow after it!) and when the eyes are open we're not blocking what we see.

This has many advantages, a more obvious one being that we are able to integrate our training in awareness more with everyday life when we are walking, talking, etc. As I said earlier, there's also the benefit of assisting us in staying more alert or awake during practice. When we close our eyes it’s very easy for subtle and more gross dullness to take hold within our practice. This can prevent the fuller benefits of meditation from arising.

So I just thought to share a few thoughts here on the benefits of meditating with the eyes open vs. closed. I hope this was helpful. If you want to know more I encourage you to research the different practice lineages and contexts for when meditating with the eyes open or closed might be most appropriate. As always you’re more than welcome to reach out with any questions.