CENTER OF THE EYE

“In keeping the center of the I empty, the miracle of life can enter and heal.”

~ Anonymous

It’s not by chance that the dark center of the human eye, the pupil, is actually an empty hole through which the world becomes known to us. Likewise, in a spiritual sense, the I is the empty center through which we see everything. It’s revealing that such a threshold is called the pupil, for it is only when we are emptied of all noise and dreams of ego that we become truly teachable.

Like the center of the eye, both the Buddhist and Zen traditions speak of an unbreakable emptiness at the heart of all seeing from which all living things emerge. The Hindu Upanishads tell us that in the center of the seed of the great nyagrodha tree there is nothing, and out of that nothing the great tree grows. We are then reminded that in our time on Earth we grow like this tree - out of that nothing. As the essence of the tree is the empty center of its seed, so the essence of our life is the intangible presence at the center of our soul.

Therefore, our chief work as human beings rests in the sincere effort to allow that central presence to in-form us. Thus, all forms of prayer and meditation are aimed at keeping the center of the I empty, so the miracle of life in its grace and immensity can enter and heal us.

~ Close your eyes and erase the many thoughts and images that arise, one after another, as if your mind is a blackboard and your breath is a sponge wiping each appearance clean.

~ Do this until you experience a slowing down of messages. Then open your eyes as if waking for the very first time.

~ Keep breathing slowly and take in the first thing you see. Feel what is before you. See and feel the wood that makes up the chair next to you and resist preempting its presence by pronouncing it a chair.

The Book of Awakening

~ Mark Nepo