closed eyes vs. opened eyes

[chickenman]

just curious... some meditation techniques will suggest the meditator keep his eyes opened, focusing on an object, while other techniques suggest the eyes be kept closed. i'm looking for some insight as to why this is and what is the benifit of one over the other.
it is my (limited) experience that with the eyes open it is harder to calm the monkey mind. it would seem logical that the less sensory input one would have to process, the easier it would be to combat distractions. it's hard enough to deal with distracting sounds, let alone processing the distracting images that come from opened eyes. or do i have this all wrong?
any opinions?
thank you.

[Jainarayan]

I can only give my experience. When I do mālā japa I close my eyes and focus on the mantra. In my case it's a name of Vishnu. I also do mālā japa with om mani padme hum. Thoughts come and go, and I just let them. Other times I meditate on Vishnu (my ishta-devata) using a yantra, keeping my eyes half open, but fixed on the yantra. Eventually everything in the surrounding area blurs and I see only the yantra. Again, thoughts come and go, and I let them go. That's all not necessarily right nor wrong for anyone else, just what I do.

[lowlydog]

just curious... some meditation techniques will suggest the meditator keep his eyes opened, focusing on an object, while other techniques suggest the eyes be kept closed. i'm looking for some insight as to why this is and what is the benifit of one over the other.
it is my (limited) experience that with the eyes open it is harder to calm the monkey mind. it would seem logical that the less sensory input one would have to process, the easier it would be to combat distractions. it's hard enough to deal with distracting sounds, let alone processing the distracting images that come from opened eyes. or do i have this all wrong?
any opinions?
thank you.

I'm taught to keep eyes closed at all times during seated meditation, for the less sensory input reason. But the practice is not only meant to be a formal practice it is meant to be developed to the point where one does this 24/7 in all positions the body finds itself in. So as progression is made one can practice with eyes open and eyes closed. We are additionally asked not to practice outdoors for the same reason, it is difficult to pinpoint the fine breath when one is beginning the practice and sitting with wind blowing on the face.

[Johnny Dangerous]

For me closing the eyes helps calm excitement if needed, for instance to further focus on breath. I was taught that the ideal is eyes half open, but wide open or closed eyes are helpful to find the middle ground between over excitement and dullness, IME of course. There are also forms of Shamatha and Vipassana that involve visual objects, obviously can't do those with eyes closed. Sensory input can be hard to deal with, but eventually like everything else it becomes an object of examination by my understanding, so eyes being open or closed seems to just be a means to end, rather than a rule.

Personally I can only do visualizations with my eyes open for some reason, not sure why that is.