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Eyes Wide Open: Buddhist Instructions on Merging Body and Vision — Occult Philosophy

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Eyes Wide Open: Buddhist Instructions on Merging Body and Vision

Name: Eyes Wide Open: Buddhist Instructions on Merging Body and Vision
Price: 11.99 USD
Availability: InStock
Author: Johnson, Will
ISBN: 9781594770005

✍️ Johnson, Will

Reader Score

4.7

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📚 WHAT THE BOOK IS ABOUT

Will Johnson's "Eyes Wide Open" guides readers on a transformative journey to perceive reality with unclouded awareness. Drawing inspiration from the monk Shenxiu, this work introduces meditation practices designed to dissolve the illusory boundaries between observer and observed. It explores how our deeply ingrained beliefs, attitudes, and physical tensions distort our sight, fostering a sense of separation. By cultivating profound relaxation and engaging specific visual techniques, the book promises to unlock an ecstatic mindfulness, helping you see things as they genuinely are and reconnect with your essential nature.

Johnson, Will

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Occult Philosophy

Praise for this book

“Will Johnson is one of the foremost masters of embodied spirituality of his generation. To read Eyes Wide Open is to rediscover your own body and senses as the foundation for enlightenment.”

— Lama Willa Miller, author of Everyday Dharma: Seven Weeks to Finding the Buddha in You

🏛 Inner Traditions International 📅 2016 📖 98 pages 📔 Paperback 📐 Paperback ISBN: 9781594770005

Fun Fact

Johnson's 'Eyes Wide Open' offers a refreshingly direct and embodied path to spiritual insight, moving beyond abstract philosophy into tangible practice. Its strength lies in demystifying the connection between our physical being and our perception, providing accessible techniques for a deeper, more integrated awareness. While it might disappoint those seeking purely intellectual or dogmatic spiritual guidance, it's an invaluable resource for practitioners interested in experiential mindfulness and the often-overlooked power of vision. This book firmly establishes itself as a unique contribution to contemporary Buddhist and somatic spiritual literature.

📝 Description: Eyes Wide Open: Buddhist Instructions on Merging Body and Vision

Meditation practices to awaken the body and create a mind like a mirror, to literally see things as they are - Draws on the story of the monk Shenxiu to create a meditation practice for profound relaxation, inclusion and connection to the world around us, and realization of our essential nature - Explains how our attitudes, beliefs, and bodily tensions distort our perceptions and lead to our sense of separation from the world outside our bodies - Details techniques of vision, such as sky gazing, eye gazing, and mirror gazing, that lead to an ecstatic mindfulness Right behind your eyes, you are there. You can feel yourself there, looking. So intimate is your connection with your looking that when you say, "I'm looking," you're implying that how you look and what you see are a direct reflection of who you are in this moment. Your attitudes and beliefs reflect what you see, and the way you live in your body can color your perceptions as well. This splitting in two of experience--an inside-the-body world and an outside-the-body world--creates in many of us a sense of isolation and loneliness, a feeling of disconnection from the larger world at which we look. But the visual field is equally capable of reflecting a sense of connection and inclusion, an invitation to merge with the larger universe rather than confirming how irrevocably separated we are. Drawing on the story of the seventh-century Chinese monk Shenxiu, Will Johnson offers meditation exercises to create a mind like a mirror, cleansing it of obscuring layers of worry and emotion to literally see things as they are, not just how we perceive them to be. He explains how to awaken your body to the sensations we learn to ignore when we lose ourselves in thought and tense ourselves in ways that stifle the body's vibrancy. He offers meditative techniques to silence the projections of the mind and enter into a condition of ecstatic mindfulness. He details gazing practices, such as sky gazing, eye gazing, and mirror gazing, to cleanse our vision and remove whatever is distorting our perceptions. Through this new kind of seeing, divisions between your inner and outer world start to drop away. You begin to experience an intimate connectivity to the world you look out onto. By cleansing the mirror of the mind, we can come out of the dreams of who we think we are and awaken into our true, essential nature.

📑 What's inside

Introduction The Monk Who Lost the Contest
One
Awakening the Body
Bringing Sensations to Life Opening the Portals of the Body
Two
Mirror Bright
Three
Through the Looking Glass
Afterword
The Monk Who Won the Contest
Acknowledgments Resources Index

💎 Expert review

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💎

Esoterica Books editorial team

Occult literature desk

Johnson presents a compelling synthesis of Buddhist insight and somatic awareness, offering tools to dismantle the cognitive barriers that obscure direct experience. The emphasis on physical relaxation as a precursor to spiritual clarity is both innovative and accessible. However, this text may not suit readers who prefer rigorous academic theology or those seeking purely mystical experiences without foundational practice. It also might feel too grounded in bodily sensation for individuals strictly interested in abstract metaphysical theory. Nevertheless, for those willing to engage with the physicality of perception, it provides a refreshing and potent framework for waking up to reality.

✓ EDITOR'S REVIEW

📖 Why choose it

📖

Why this book is worth reading

Readers seeking to break free from the habitual fragmentation of their perception will find profound value in Will Johnson's guide. If you feel disconnected from your surroundings or burdened by physical and mental tensions that cloud your awareness, this book offers a practical pathway to reintegration. It is ideal for those who have dabbled in meditation but crave specific visual techniques to deepen their experience. By learning to dissolve the illusion of separation between observer and observed, you can unlock an ecstatic mindfulness that reveals the world in its genuine, unadulterated state. This journey invites you to see not just with your eyes, but with your entire being, fostering a renewed sense of essential nature and holistic unity.

⭐ Reader reviews

The starting rating comes from the team Esoterica Books —

⭐ Esoterica editorial review Editorial rating 4.7/5

★★★★★

If you've ever felt a disconnect between yourself and the world, or if traditional meditation hasn't quite clicked, this book offers a fresh, embodied approach. It’s for anyone seeking a deeper, more direct experience of reality through the often-underestimated power of vision and physical…

Reader rating

4.7

Based on 1 reviews

Esoterica Books editorial team

Johnson presents a compelling synthesis of Buddhist insight and somatic awareness, offering tools to dismantle the cognitive barriers that obscure direct experience. The emphasis on physical relaxation as a precursor to spiritual clarity is both innovative and accessible. However, this text may not suit readers who prefer rigorous academic theology or those seeking purely mystical experiences without foundational practice. It also might feel too grounded in bodily sensation for individuals strictly interested in abstract metaphysical theory. Nevertheless, for those willing to engage with the physicality of perception, it provides a refreshing and potent framework for waking up to reality.

❓ Frequently asked questions

The book guides you through unique, embodied meditation techniques, including specific visual practices like sky gazing, eye gazing with others, and mirror gazing, alongside profound relaxation methods inspired by Buddhist principles.

It explains that our sense of separation often stems from a perceived split between our inner and outer experience. Through its practices, the book aims to heal this division, fostering a deep sense of connection and inclusion with the world around us.

📖 Who should read this

🎯 Key themes and symbolism

Perception's Inner Mirror

This book delves into how our internal landscape—our beliefs, attitudes, and even the subtle tensions held within our bodies—acts as a filter, fundamentally shaping what and how we see. It argues that this internal 'coloring' of perception is a primary source of our feeling of isolation from the external world, offering methods to clarify this inner mirror.

Embodied Awakening

Rooted in the narrative of the monk Shenxiu, the text outlines a meditative path that emphasizes deep relaxation, radical inclusivity, and a profound connection to our surroundings. It's a practice not just for the mind, but for the entire physical being, aiming to integrate sensory experience with spiritual realization for a holistic awakening.

Visionary Techniques

Johnson introduces specific, powerful visual meditations such as sky gazing, eye gazing, and mirror gazing. These techniques are presented as direct pathways to transcend ordinary perception, encouraging a state of ecstatic mindfulness where the usual subject-object division dissolves, leading to a more unified and immediate experience of reality.

📜 Historical context

Rooted in the rich tradition of Buddhist mindfulness and non-duality, this work offers a contemporary interpretation of ancient contemplative practices. By drawing on the story of the Tang Dynasty Chan monk Shenxiu, Johnson bridges classical Zen insights with modern experiential methods, emphasizing the integration of body and mind in the pursuit of awakening, a core tenet of many esoteric traditions.

📚 Glossary

Mindfulness
Sky Gazing
Shenxiu

📔 Questions to reflect on

Reflect on a time when your mood or internal state visibly altered your perception of your surroundings. How did your inner world color your outer vision?
Consider where you habitually hold tension in your body. How might these physical constraints subtly influence your ability to fully 'take in' the world around you?
Describe a moment when you felt profoundly connected to your environment, free from a sense of separation. What was it about that experience that fostered such unity?