Transcend the movement and keep the eyes open until they water, then close them gently, allowing the heat and emotions to release with the tears. With closed eyes, see the after-image of the candle through the eyes, until it disappears. Continue to hold the image for as long as you can.
In the third phase, you must greet the sun as it rises. You may put ghee on the eyes before starting. Find the sun while the globe is still red or deep orange and still touching the horizon. Stare into the sun only if it does not hurt and keep the eyes as still as possible. Depending on where you are, the sun will move quite fast and you will only have a 10-15 minute interval to do your trāṭaka practice in the morning and evening. Once it stops touching the horizon, you should NOT do trāṭaka with the sun. Use a candle instead.
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The eyes are essentially extensions of the fat blobs that compose our brain and nervous system. The nerves are essentially encased in fat, and eyes are made of the same tissue and are directly connected from the deepest core of the brain, shielded in skull bone for protection as it emerges outward from the head as probes for the body. The eyes are modified nerves that capture energy in the form of light and sometimes heat. This anatomy is amazingly similar in most animals.
The human eye has three fluid compartments surrounded by fat on all sides of its ball shape. Under the thick clear outside protein shield of the eye, called the cornea, the first fluid compartment is filled with aqueous humor, the anterior chamber, and covers the colored muscles of the round iris. Through the narrow opening of the iris, known as the pupil, is the second compartment, called the posterior chamber. Problems in this area, especially increases in pressure, cause glaucoma. Behind a thin film at the back of this space is the chamber holding the aqueous humor, a watery fluid that gives hydration and circulation to the eye. Behind it is a large cavity known as the vitreous body or vitreous humor which gives shape to the eye and lubricates the nerves that lie on the back of the eye.
When we see, the light that enters the anterior chamber shoots back through the vitreous humor and lands on the back of the eye in an area that has light receptors to detect color or black/white. These receptors send the information directly to many areas of the brain and instaneously the brain interprets a hundred things and makes it known that we saw something.
The eyes provide depth of field, the understanding of how far away something is and how thick it is, by integrating slightly different perceptions of light from each eye which sees slightly different angles of the same object. The eyes also detect and distinguish color, contrast of dark and light, see at night, track movements, focus on objects both near and far away, and create balance through information to the body about where it is in relation to other objects. Some say the eye can only see those wavelengths of light in the visual spectrum, starting from the edge of ultraviolet light, at 390 nanometers in the color violet, to 780 nanometers in the color deep-red, at the edge of infrared light. Others say that some people can sense into the infrared light range or see hazes that are above 780nm, which are visible to animals including bees, dogs, cats, cattle, reindeer, hedgehogs, bats, ferrets, and okapis.
Despite all that is known in the detailed neural science of the eye, it is surprising to the practical consumer that conventional medicine has not connected the billions of dollars creating scientific knowledge about the eye with tools for repairing vision when it loses function. Today, blindness due to diabetic retinopathy, cataracts, and macular degeneration are considered incurable by modern medicine. Infections such as conjunctivitis and blepharitis are treated with steroids and antibiotics, and complications from eye surgeries, contact lenses, and lens implants continue.
Because fat melts more easily than other tissues, and nerve tissues are composed of special fats that are especially sensitive to heat, it is better not to overheat the eyes, which are actually modified nerves. This is why Ayurveda suggests cool water for the eyes every morning.
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Ancient ayurveda gave us tools to keep the eyes healthy through the toils of the day, emphasizing the prevention of disease through daily maintenance and periodic rituals that strengthened the eyes. The first tool was washing the eyes with cold water in the early morning routine, keeping solid and stable the oils and fat that compose the eyes.
Each night before bed, I put ghee into my eyes for routine cleansing and as my favorite beauty ritual. Starting on the eyelids of both eyes, I rub clean ghee into the skin, then to the margin of the lids, until ghee seeps into the space and covers the eyeball. When things look hazy it means enough ghee has penetrated.
Used to clean the eyes, ghee is cooling in nature according to Ayurveda and has the same properties that the body has. Good ayurvedic ghee has the same fats that the human body requires for its cells and functioning of its tissues. Most of the patients who use ghee regularly have told me they feel their eyes look more sharp, that the whites look cleaner, and that they feel less fear of putting things into their eyes after using ghee for a few nights.
While it is safe, the practice is foreign to most modern-day, westernized people and thus this practice is best done the first time with someone who has done it before, then learned and practiced on others before trying on your own.
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According to Ayurveda, the eyes, while oily and fatty in nature, are dominated by functions of vata and pitta
Fire and water are two of the five elements: their qualities are sharp, fiery, and acidic. The theme underlying these qualities is transformation and is called pitta. Fire and water do not mix and seem to be an impossible combination. Put a potato in fire and it will char to ash, or in water and it will sit and spoil, but put it in water in a vessel on top of fire, between the two elements, and working together they transform the potato into a delicious, edible item.
This transformation also occurs in the eye. We transform light that reflects off things in our environment and then makes its way through the oily balls filled with water to the back of the eye; we sense this light and reflexively transform the reflection as information about objects, their distance, their structure, calling it vision. Thus there is a heat constantly produced by the photons coming into the eye. Sankhya philosophy espouses that we have our five senses to interact with the physical world. Fire, with its light, brightness, and heat is sensed primarily through our eyes, though each of our five senses also detect aspects of fire through touch and sound, and through smell and taste indirectly.
In the body, the theme of transformation oversees a multitude of vital functions and the associated structures that are needed to fulfill those functions: the digestive portions of the gut, the biotransformation enzymes of the liver, the various information conveyed by the skin, and the fiery will force of the mind/soul, that is sometimes called self-determination.
It follows that diseases in these areas disturb the theme of transformation and are therefore disturbances in the balance of pitta in the body. The body requires balanced pitta to be present for healthy transformation to happen.
When the eyes have too much sharpness, fire, and acidity, they are pitta-dominated. The result is poor quality of transformation. The heat of fire and the sharpness create, hot, dry eyes that burn and tingle as the oily tissues dry out. The dryness and burning lead to itching and inflammation with its signs of redness, swelling, pain, and heat. Ayurveda interpreted these signs and symptoms as a whole with the term pitta. In the eyes, it is called alochaka pitta.
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