Using 'Soft Eyes' http://www.centeredriding.org/newsshow.asp?

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Thursday, May 01, 2008 Author: Sally Swift What are Soft Eyes? Soft Eyes are you looking with wide open eyes and peripheral awareness, being aware of your entire field of vision and allowing yourself to feel sensations from within. Soft Eyes are much more than just a way of looking. It is a method of becoming distinctly aware of what is happening around you, beneath you and inside of you. This awareness includes feeling and hearing, as well as seeing. Using soft eyes, you become aware of the whole yourself, your body, your horses body beneath you and behind you, as well as all that is in front of you and around you. Here is an experiment that will help you practice using Soft Eyes. You can first try this experiment off your horse and then again while sitting on your horse. While sitting quietly, chose an object in front of you and focus very intently on that object. Keep looking intently at the object and concentrate on its outline, shape, density and color, very acutely taking in everything about the object. This is what I call the use of hard eyes. Now look at that object and without glazing or making your eyes fuzzy, R..E..L..A..X your eyes. Allow your eyes to take in the largest possible expanse above and below as well as to the right and to the left of the object. Sitting comfortably with your eyes wide open, work on having the feeling of going within yourself as your eyes encompass everything that comes into your field of vision, all the while still aiming at the central object. Practice switching back and forth between hard eyes and Soft Eyes. When you try this experiment on your horse, try using hard eyes and focusing first on your horses ears. Then with Soft Eyes, look above your horses ears and with your vision very wide and open, encompass everything that comes into your vision, all the while going into yourself and increasing your awareness of yourself and your horse. You will see that using Soft Eyes encompasses a method of becoming distinctly aware of what is going on around you, beneath you and inside of you. Through the use of Soft Eyes, it will be easier to feel what your horses back is doing to your seat. You will experience a greater field of vision, increased awareness of your own body and your horses body. You will experience less tension and feel easier and freer movement.

Drawing by Susan Harris, Senior Level IV Clinician from Cortland, NY.

To learn more about Centered Riding, Sally Swift's books "Centered Riding" and "Centered Riding 2 - Further Explorations" as well as "Centered Riding" on DVD (Program 1 and 2 are sold separately) are available for purchase at the following link: http://www.centeredriding.org/supportCR.asp. Centered Riding Instructors are located throughout the United States, Canada, Great Britain and Europe. To find a Centered Riding Instructor or Clinic, use the convenient search forms found on this website.

http://seeinganew.tripod.com/id21.html

Aikido Soft Eyes

Seeing Anew: Exploring Perception AIKIDO SOFT EYES
Home Exploring Perception with J.Krishnamurti J.Krishnamurti On Registering and Recording J.Krishnamurti on Keeping the Eyes Still Letter to a New Teacher. Whole Seeing & The Eyes Free to Go Apart Direction On Keeping the Eyes Still Aikido Soft Eyes Tom Brown Jr. & Splatter Vision Seeing As If From Behind the Eyes Looking Wide Going Peripheral & Sports Greats Exploring Headlessness with Douglas Harding Carlos Castaneda & Soft Eyes Yoga and Soft Eyes Soft Eyes and Horseback Riding Seeing with All the Senses as One Sense To See As A Child Out and Around

In the early seventies I was introduced to the Aikido concept of soft eyes. It was presented as an alternative to hard, narrowed seeing, a kind of softer focusing that took in more with an easier, less judgmental viewpoint. For the most part, soft eyes remained mostly a concept for me.I did see an Aikido demonstration in a large San Francisco hall where a very exonerated Aikido Master dispatched simulated attack after attack, from all directions by his students. Surely the ability to not over focus, to stay calmly aware of all of one's surroundings was aptly demonstrated that evening by this revered Aikido Master. In a book entitled, THE ZEN DRIVING BOOK, the author mentions something called no-seeing and mentions that Samurai warriors learned to cultivate a complete 360 degree field of awareness. There are also stories of Tai Chi masters successfully discharging rear attacks without ever facing their opponents. A friend of mine, who teaches Tai Chi Chi, refers to more peripheral-based seeing as 'wide-angle seeing'. Bruce Fertman, a master Alexander Techniuqe teacher and Martial Artist, tells the story of the great Tai Chi teacher who was once asked by a student, "What percentage of awareness should be given to the inner and what percentage to the outer?" The master replied, "Yes, one hundred percent inner, one hundred percent outer." Author Unknow "When I concentrate on something I usually do what I was taught in Aikido. What we would do is use what we simply call "soft eyes." That is where you look at your target object and then just let your eyes blur the edges, making the object "soft". The sensation is almost like that of crossing your eyes, but to a lesser extent."

Myself, H.D. Thoreau on Perception About the Website Manager

"This reduces the effect of getting tunnel vision when you concentrate on one particular object, and allows you to utilize your periphery much more effectively. In a martial situation this is worth more than gold as you direct and initiate movement against multiple opponents due to your relaxed focus on only one person." From: THE COURAGE TO TEACH: EXPLORING THE INNER LANDSCAPE OF A TEACHER'S LIFE by Parker Palmer "In the Japanese art of Aikido there is a practice called "soft eyes" - it means to widen one's periphery to take in more of the world. If a stimulus is introduced to an unprepared person, his eyes narrow and filight/fight response takes over. If the same unexpected stimulus comes to someone with "soft eyes" the natural reflex is transcended and a more authentic response takes its place - such as thinking a new thought. ...I want to make a conscious effort to help myself and my students develop softer eyes when confronted with something new. I believe it will allow all of us to have more authentic responses and "think" more "new" thoughts." (Parker Palmer) BY TOHEI SENSEI, 10th Degree Aikido Master "The eyes are the windows to the soul. When we look at a person, some times we can tell what they are thinking and how they are feeling. We take cues from people's expressions and body language. Our own eyes and expressions show tension, anger, sadness, disappointment, relaxation, calmness, happiness, and confidence. Some people believe that hard eyes create power and control. It is also a good way to get into a fight. But soft eyes can show confidence and kindness. If you are relaxed enough to have softe eyes then you are extending Ki. When you are extending Ki you are relaxed and easy to get along with. When you are tense or upset the people around you tend to move away. A smile always makes friends and this demonstrates that plus breeds plus. Being positive and having a smile on our face is a choice we make. This is extending Ki, your intention, focus, goal." (Tohei Sensei) SEEING THE BIG PICTURE: SOFT EYES By Rod Windle and Suzanne Warren "Sometimes the smallest changes we make can have the largest effects. One example of this comes from what we can do with our eyes. How we look at someone, or at a group of people, can completely change how we respond.

We can think of how we use our eyes as being either hard or soft. Hard eyes are when we focus intently on any one thing or point, as when we look at the tip of someone's nose or strain to read the writing on a far away street sign. There is a certain tension, a narrowing of vision. Peripheral vision becomes lost. We may become caught up in whatever it is we are looking at. Sometimes, hard eyes can be useful, as when we are putting a complex model together or trying to get a splinter out of our child's finger. Soft eyes happen when we relax the muscles around our eyes and let ourselves see with our peripheral vision as well as with our central, focused vision. We see the individual in front of us, but we also see the people to either side, the clock above his head, the lights on the ceiling and the pattern on the floor. We take in everything and are distracted by nothing. Seeing in this way sends an entirely different set of signals to the brain from seeing with hard eyes. As our eyes see more, somehow our brains become more open to the diversity of possibilities that always surround us. Soft eyes also tend to have a calming effect on the people around us, and often on ourselves as well." (Rod Windle and Suzanne Warren - Seeing the Big Picture: Soft Eyes) "Attention is what we use to filter out unwanted sensory input. If your attention is too tight and concentrated (by focusing too hard on one object in front of you), then you'll end up being oblivious to your peripheral vision. ...So, to develop our peripheral vision, relax your eyes, and don't look *hard* at anything. Dilate your pupils, and keep a soft focus in the direction you're looking. ...The idea isn't that you are developing your eyes especially for peripheral vision, but rather that you stop ignoring your peripheral vision. Don't look at things, but look through them." (Stephen Chan - Soft Eyes and Aiki Ju Jitsu) George Leonard in his book, The Silent Pulse: A Search for the Perfect Rhythm That Exists In Each of Us, devotes a major portion of his Appendix to Soft Eyes: "The visual mode I'm calling "soft eyes" provides an alternative. This mode is receptive rather than positive, synthesizing rather than reaching out to bring it in. With soft eyes we tend to perceive a whole field of vision in terms of the energy and motion that make it up, rather than perceiving the collection of discrete objects that exist within it. There is less than the usual distinction between figure and ground. With soft eyes, peripheral vision is enhanced, the depth of field appears to be greater, and colors seem remarkably vivid."

"Using soft eyes entails not just adopting an alternative visual mode, but also entering an altered state of being. Once you've mastered the art of soft eyes, this state can be achieved in a split second." The Silent Pulse by George Leonard The Courage to Teach by Parker Palmer "Soft eyes, it seems to me is an evocative image for what happens when we gaze on sacred reality. Now our eyes are open and receptive, able to take in the greatness of the world and the grace of great things. Eyes wide with wonder we no longer need to resist or run when when taken by surprise. Now we can open ourselves to the great mystery." (Parker Palmer, The Courage to Teach: Exploring the Inner Landscape of a Techer's Life)

NLP and 'Soft Eyes'

http://www.nlp-now.co.uk/softeyes.htm
One of the things about our in-depth NLP Core Skills course is that we are quite spoilt for choice by having so many techniques and insights to choose from. Because of this some wonderful little techniques can easily get overlooked after the course. Take "Soft Eyes", for instance. This is the blend of detailed vision and peripheral vision that we experiment with on the second day of the course and which can be used to: Simultaneously pay attention to what is in front of you and what's off to the sides Be better able to recognise subtle non-verbal communication - with individuals or when in groups Reduce the amount and intensity of internal self talk Feel more relaxed when driving while paying better attention to what is going on around you Improve your performance in team or combat sports Relax your facial muscles, shoulder muscles, and chest muscles Breathe more easily and comfortably Reduce or even prevent eye strain or tension headaches Feel more at ease when communicating with people and put them at ease, too Enter a generally more calm and "chilled out" state Not bad for something to which we normally allocate about 30 minutes of course time - and which, with a little practice, takes up no time at all to use.

How to use 'soft eyes'

Because some readers will have done core skills five or six years ago it might be useful to have a reminder of the how the technique works. (1) Peripheral Vision First spend a few days practising using your peripheral vision. Without focusing on anything in particular, look straight ahead and as you do this pay attention to what you notice simultaneously off to both sides i.e. out of the corners of your eyes. The "simultaneously" bit is important. You not trying to look first to one side and then to the other - that is simply using foveal vision. Instead you are looking straight ahead, without moving your eyes to one side of the other, while noticing what is off to both sides of you. The best place to practise peripheral vision is out of doors since there is more likely to be movement here than if you are sitting quietly at home. You could sit in a cafe and casually gaze ahead while noticing the movements of

people off to the sides. Or sit in a park and use peripheral vision to pay attention to the movements of trees or people. (2) Foveal Vision In foveal vision we are using a tiny area of about 2.5 millimetres on the retina or back of the eyeball. Foveal vision is great for paying attention to minute detail which is why it involved in so much of our daily activity; reading, threading a needle, peering at a computer screen, looking intently at somebody while communicating with them, etc. As you may remember from Core Skills, it also encourages eye strain, tension in the area around the eyes, jaw, shoulders or chest - as well as breath-holding or mild hyperventilation. (3) Soft eyes After practising peripheral vision for a little while it's quite easy to graduate to using Soft Eyes since this is merely a blend of both ways of looking. The aim is to look at detail while maintaining peripheral vision. You are looking at an object without staring at it intensely because you are also paying attention to the wider field of vision. At first doing this can feel slightly "spacey" but with a little practise it can become a normal way of looking at things. Incidentally, its useful to consider Soft Eyes to be a varying process rather like a continuum between foveal vision, at one extreme, and peripheral vision at the other. So sometimes your Soft Eyes will be almost sharp focus and at other times it will be almost full, wide peripheral vision.

Why is using Soft Eyes so beneficial?

1. Tension: Specialising in using foveal vision creates tension and since most of us will have been doing this from schooldays we become so used to this tension that we think its the norm. Develop your Soft Eyes skills and notice what difference it makes to your overall state. 2. Non-verbal messages: Soft eyes enables us to become much more aware of movement in front of us and around us. So, when communicating with other individuals are groups we can quickly pick up non-verbal indicators of interest, lack of interest, discomfort, etc. 3. Self Talk: For some reason Soft Eyes tends to significantly reduce sub-vocalising - the internal self talk - and this can reduce worrying, self criticism, etc. 4. Putting people at ease: if you're tense the people with whom you are communicating tend to become tense, too. It's a vicious circle. When communicating one-to-one soft eyes enables us to feel more at ease which then creates a benign circle in which others feel more at ease, too. 5. Driving: If you question highly skilled drivers you will find that they naturally use Soft Eyes all the time because it enables them to pay attention to what is going on in front of them, to either side, and in the mirrors at the same time. (Incidentally, its wise to only apply this to driving once it has become second nature to you). 6. Health: it goes without saying that chronic tension is not healthy. Overuse of foveal vision causes eye strain as well as tension in then head and neck and torso. Importantly it also tends to interfere with relaxed, easy reading. Its

a good idea to introduce frequent 1-2 minute Soft Eyes breaks into your working routine to give your body a break from tension

And finally
As with all techniques introduce this gradually - doing it for just a few minutes a few times daily. Incidentally, many people find that they start off practising techniques such as this with enthusiasm - only to find a few days later that their "new start" was quickly buried under a mountain of various demands on their time! One way of avoiding this is to create ways of automatically reminding you to do the technique. If you are very systematic, and work at a computer, you can set up a "reminder". Or simply put your watch on the other wrist. Or wear an elastic band on your wrist. Or make doing a particular activity (tea break, switching off car engine, putting phone back on cradle, etc) a reminder to practise the skill.

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Soft Eyes
http://powerelife.com/articles/softeyes.htm Seeing the world with an open heart We do not see the world as it is, we see the world as we are anonymous

The eyes are said to be the windows to the soul. When the eyes are soft, the heart becomes a point of connection. The left eye in particu intuition, subconscious and imagination. The right eye connects with the left brain, more closely linked with reason and learned behaviou Soft eyes welcome intimacy.

Intimacy in Power E is defined as the possibility of In-To-Me-I-allow-myself-and-the world to see. It is a gradual state of becoming transp others can see everything in us, more so, that we are willing to be ourselves in the presence of others and let go of our fears of abandon

Hard eyes convey looking at narrow, attention like. When the eyes are in a state of contraction, the left side of the brain is activated. W enter a thinking space.

Soft eyes convey looking through seeing through. When the eyes are soft. We slowly connect with the present moment and allow our to guide us.

It is a deeper connection. A truereflection of essence. When we look at something, we judge, the rational, mind intervenes, whereas whe within, the gaze is soft, allowing and perceptive. When the eyes are soft their ability to focus is enhanced. Focus is a form of love. Whenever we offer our focus, we have an opportunity to offer our selves and be fully present.

In Power E to focus is to be aware of all that surrounds you and yet to choose to focus your awareness of an object or point of awarenes extra-sensory perception increases to allow a feeling of being at ease and knowing. It is about having presence whilst seeing. It is about looking within, your gaze rests its awareness on the outer world. While understanding the reality of inner sight Power E - The Way of the Intelligent Heart

http://seeinganew.tripod.com/id9.html

Carlos Castaneda & Soft Eyes

Seeing Anew: Exploring Perception

Carlos Castaneda & Seeing

Home Exploring Perception with J.Krishnamurti J.Krishnamurti On Registering and Recording J.Krishnamurti on Keeping the Eyes Still Letter to a New Teacher. Whole Seeing & The Eyes Free to Go Apart Direction On Keeping the Eyes Still Aikido Soft Eyes Tom Brown Jr. & Splatter Vision Seeing As If From Behind the Eyes Looking Wide Going Peripheral & Sports Greats Exploring Headlessness with Douglas Harding Carlos Castaneda & Soft Eyes Yoga and Soft Eyes Soft Eyes and Horseback Riding Seeing with All the Senses as One Sense To See As A Child Out and Around

Carlos Castaneda, in THE SECOND RING OF POWER, wrote that his teacher, Don Juan, instructed him, "Instead of teaching me to focus my view, as gazers did, he taught me to open it, to flood my awareness by not focusing my sight on anything. I had to sort of feel with my eyes everything in the 180-degree range in front of me, while I kept my eyes unfocused just above the line of the horizon." An Unknown Student of Castaneda on seeing ..."The third item is the key to the entire process. It is a way of using the eyes, of using vision in a different way to that which constitutes the norm. In everyday usage the eyes tend to employ foveal vision; the aspect of vision where we focus upon specifics, and out of these build and maintain our perceptual model of the world. Of course a certain amount of peripheral vision is employed in the process of seeing, yet by comparison to foveal vision it is minimal, we open peripheral vision by: 1) Gently resting the gaze upon a distant fixed point. 2) Without moving

the eyes becoming aware of what is above, below and to the left and right. We effectively open the eyes in such a way that the rods and cones upon the surface of the eyes are saturated with information from the world. The result of this influx of information is saturation of the conscious mind, which can only process a limited amount of information simultaneously. The conscious mind checks out, as it were. What arises is communication of this information in the direction of Second Attention. This is evidence by the state of utilizing See/Feel neurological circuitry which cuts in directly as a result of the process. Having arrived at this state, it is to be noted that with all the components deeply and congruently in place, the cessation of internal dialogue is effectively cessation of the conscious process of maintaining our model of the world. We experience the world

Myself, H.D. Thoreau on Perception About the Website Manager

through new eyes. It is from this state of Stopping the World that we have the opportunity to assemble new worlds, to shift the Assemblage Point to new locations and experience and explore these worlds. Exercise 1) Whilst walking rest your gaze gently on the horizon point and curl your fingertips, as if you were holding cylinders in each of your hands, this is done in a relaxed way. 2) Without moving the eyes and gently resting your gaze become aware of what is present in your peripheral vision, above you, beneath you, to your right and to your left. 3) Continue this until such a time as the State deepens and settles." (Author Unknown)
From Magical Passes by Carlos Castaneda "Ancient masters believed there is an inherent amount of energy existing in each one of us, an amount which is not subject to the onslaughts of outside forces augmenting it or decreasing it. They believed that the quantity of energy was sufficient to accomplish something which those sources deemed to be the obsession of every man on Earth: breaking the parameters of normal perception don Juan Marcos was convinced that our incapacity to break those parameters was induced by our culture and social milieu. He maintained that our culture and social milieu deployed every bit of our inherent energy in fulfilling established behavioral patterns which didn't allow us to break those parameters of normal perception."

"Why in the world would I, or anyone else, want to break those parameters? I asked don Juan on one occasion." "Breaking those parameters is the unavoidable issue of mankind, he replied. Breaking them means the entrance into unthinkable worlds of a pragmatic value in no way different from the value of our world of everyday life. Regardless of whether or not we accept this premise, we are obsessed with breaking these parameters, and we fail miserably at it, hence the profusion of drugs and stimulants and religious rituals and ceremonies among modern man..." (Magical Passes by Carlos Castaneda) From William Blake's The Marriage of Heaven & Hell

"If the doors of perception were cleansed everything would appear to man as it is, infinite. For man has closed himself up, till he sees all things through narrow chinks of his cavern." Aldous Huxley - The Doors of Perception
"To be shaken out of the ruts of ordinary perception, to be shown for a few timeless hours the outer and inner world, not as they appear to an animal obsessed with survival or to a human being obsessed with words and notions, but as they are apprehended, directly and unconditionally, byMind at Large this is an experience of inestimable value to everyone and especially to the intellectual."