Practical Insight
On the wonders of our three eyes and how we may harness & honour the gift of vision
There are so many cool and crazy cultural images, illustrations and stories about the eyes.
The eye of Sauron from Tolkien’s universe
Cyclops, the Greek/ Roman mythical creature with one eye
Cyclops and Cyborg from comics with their laser beam eye
Eye of the storm, in any story where there was a storm
Just to name a few; I’m sure there are many more.
None of the other sense organs get this much of a narrative. There hasn’t been a super hero for example, with an incredible nose that shoots lasers.
Our eyes are such a wonderfully curious feature.
Nowhere else in the human (or mammalian) body does such a collection of nerves and lenses exist. It’s that exposed part of the brain that literally witnesses the outside world.
What came first the eye with its ability to receive information in the form of light, or light itself, wanting to be perceived?
This is a great question whether you are a lover of biology or spirituality.
While physical eyes are hella cool unto themselves, the inner eye is an even more curious a feature.
Invisibly located at the centre of our foreheads, Yogis and mystic masters from from every spiritual practice and ancient tradition speak to its abilities, visions and abilities once harnessed.
It’s a lovely conundrum, because while it is described as an eye, it cannot see in way we understand sight and, we cannot see it.
The Inner Eye, called Ajna, or third eye in Yoga is an energy centre. There are millions of energy centres in the human body, but most of us commonly recognize the 7 associated with physical human body, of which the 6th from the root is the inner eye.
Light from an external source is not required to see with our inner eye. Actually, in my experience, I see better with mine when my natural eyes are closed.
Which begs the question, if our eyes are closed, where is the source of light that enables the inner eye to see?
Many people have different answers to this - some scientific, some religious, still others quantum and/ or spiritual.
For me, the Light that enables my inner eye to see also resides within me; just as yours resides within you.
In heightened states of prayer, meditative trances or even psychedelic journeys, we see an array of colours that seem unimaginable to us, when our eyes are closed. The hues, the textures and the vibrance of the colour palette come alive in truly unbelievable ways.
If you have experienced this, you know of what I speak.
If you haven’t, and you are reading this, then you will one day.
I like to think that this incredible kaleidoscope of colours we get to see within, is actually us - The True Self.
Not the personality, not the physical expression of our bodies, our minds and our actions, but simple the unbounded colour of our Spirit. It is truly wondrous.
When I first started seeing these colours and patterns, I was awestruck, because they are so cool. Then I started feeling and noticing a sort of relationship intelligence to them and I started trying to communicate; sort of like how one may communicate with an alien who randomly landed in one’s backyard.
That went awkwardly.
After much trying and seeking and wanting more this experience and not getting it, I sort of gave up, dejected. Until one day, I didn’t want for anything, and without me trying very hard, the colours showed up again in during a night long prayer.
I’m not sure why it was that night, but that’s when I realized that I was looking into a mirror with my inner eye. If I thought a thought that was painful or heavy, the colour spectrum changed. It responded to me, and maybe I responded to it.
It was a bit like making funny faces at yourself in the Mirror.
Shortly after that, the shapes became less like a kaleidoscope and more like shapes I recognized in the world, sort of.
I’d see a person with my inner eye, someone I knew in the world, but they had different colourful hues to them, and their shape was more diffuse. I realized that I couldn’t actually see discerning features like noses, mouths, arms and fingers, but I’d know it was the person - like feeling a memory of someone.
At first I thought this was auras, and it would help me discern and bad person from a good person.
This is when I discovered a bizarre nuance of the inner eye - it is non-discriminatory. It is uninterested in what is is good, beautiful, holy, helpful, evil, hideous, mundane or cruel.
Time and space, also don’t matter here much - past, present, future, what is yours or mine appears all at once movement.
This, I thought, was singularly unhelpful!
What is the point of seeing something with a mystical powerful inner eye, if I can’t actually use it in the world!??!?!??!?!?
The teaching I received was this:
While the inner eye is boundless in sight, the limits of it are determined by the power of one’s heart and the depth of one’s truth that has been accessed.
I had issue with the non-discriminatory nature of my inner eye, because I was interested in slicing the world into what was good and bad for me. I would never have admitted it at the time, but I wanted the knowing and type of power to give me an edge over others, so that I’d never be sad or hurt or betrayed ever again. I also wanted to hold the power of sight, so that I could see what others could not, and perhaps that would be my power and service in the world - it was a good way to be needed.
This was in equal parts an innocent desire as well as an egoic one - and very much inspired by comic books and sci-fi stories. While I was learning this lesson, I stayed at this level of interaction and relationship with this gift.
It’s called an inner eye I think because, one, it is within us, but also because it shows us who we actually are.
In my case, it showed me who I was If I ‘used’ my gifts to fulfil my need to being loved, respected and accepted.
We learn in physical realm, that while Light Informs, Sound Transforms.
I got to see all this in me, but then I had to do the gruelling work of finding the roots and truths of my beliefs and ideals, in order heal and transform
Once that started, my inner sight expanded, but only at the pace of my own learning. Every time I hit a block, and I had to pause and surrender into unknown depths. When I finally came out, my gift was more honed, and it gave me more information to work with.
I realized that this was more of a gift than a power.
One we all have.
One that is waiting for us to see and acknowledge it and ourselves.
Practical Insight
I love this word - Insight.
Not by accident, it describes both what is in the line of sight, and also sight that is inward.
This creates a lovely triad with our eyes: the two natural ones that see what is in the physical, and the one inner eye that shows us our reality around what we are viewing.
Our outer eyes tells us what dress our friend is wearing.
Our inner eye shows shows us the truth behind our relationship with our friend, the dress, the colour and the moment.
Our outer eyes watch the news and with the brain tries to make sense and figure out what is rational or true from the stories and statistics flashed about the screen.
Our inner eye, if open enough, beholds and resonates essential truths, letting all else fall away uninterested.
To learn to view the world with our three eyes, offers us the gift of discernment. It allows us to sort and clean out input and information that we’ve been receiving consciously or unconsciously through the day and through our lives. It is the bridge between objective happenings outside us and subjective relationship to those happenings inside us. This way, we receive a much fuller, vibrant, emotionally-intelligent information base to what we are viewing and our relationship with it.
If you’ve ever known something that you had no way of knowing - regardless of how small or big the thing was - you have experienced the gift of this tiny spot on our foreheads, the seat of our intuition.
The Invitation
Tonight, when you are ready to close your natural eyes for the night, I invite you to behold this little spot at the centre of your forehead - the place where loved ones kiss you, the spot that touches the floor in humility when we are crouched down, that seat of our wisdom and intuition.
Bring your focus to it, touch or rub it lightly with your fingers and say hello.
Send your love and your gratitude to this tiny, often forgotten portal in the human body, and if you feel brave, ask for an opening and a deeper relationship with it, with yourself.