Tratak has many potential uses, but the word may simply be translated as (intense) concentration. Actually it means an unbroken gaze or attention fixed on an object, a steady gazing at a particular point or object without winking - looking at or into it.
The object need not be material, it could be a thought, an inner symbol, a psychic center, etc. Though this is one of the six purificatory exercises, it is mainly intended for developing concentration and mental focusing.
Tratak is included both as a part of the Hatha Yoga as a cleansing process, and it is very useful for students of Hatha Yoga, Jnana Yoga, Bhakti Yoga, and Raja Yoga. This practice helps also to improve eyesight.
Through Tratak, you increase your ability to hold your mind on one thing, concentrated, as long as possible. This not only builds up concentration but also willpower and the ability to use your energy and yourself economically. (But this should be done in an easy, relaxed way.)
There are three reasons for using Tratak:
1. Therapy. Relaxation and eye exercise. If you use Tratak as an eye exercise to
strengthen your vision and get rid of glasses, you would do it slightly differently from the description that appears later in this chapter. Certainly you would also use a candle, but instead of closing your eyes before tears come, you would keep them open as long as you can and try not to blink even when tears stream down your cheeks. But rest your eyes and close them now and then. To improve your eyes, you should do Tratak for five to fifteen minutes every day.
Other eye exercises recommended in connection with Tratak are: Move your eyes by looking up and down and from side to side without turning your head, look at objects close by and far away, roll your eyes and then rest them by covering them with your palms which you have first rubbed quickly together so that they are warm. Also Neti, nose cleaning helps.
By arresting the unconscious movements of the eyes, tensions are released in the brain.
Paul McCartney Teaches Yoga for Our Eyes, exercises to strengthen the eye muscles and improve sight
2. Concentration. Tratak can be used to attain greater calm and concentration for studying, work, etc. - and to attain higher ‘powers’, such as in Prana Vidya (knowledge of energy currents in the body), healing of yourself and others by directing this psychic energy and concentrating on tense and diseased areas (see also the previous chapter on Pratyahara).
Tratak gets rid of fatigue and results in natural, effortless concentration.
We have called this chapter ‘Inspired Interest’. With this kind of concentration, you need only decide to do something and direct your attention to it; then in a natural way you will be absorbed in the work in question. The work also becomes fun and satisfying.
3. Meditation. Tratak is used for its own sake and as a preparation for more extensive techniques. Many other Yoga and meditation exercises are enriched by the use of Tratak, which makes the mind sensitive and receptive to finer states.
Outer Tratak, Inner Tratak
There are two kinds of Tratak: outer (Bahir Tratak), gazing on an outer object, image, etc., with open eyes; and inner (Antar Tratak), ’seeing’, gazing or directing one’s attention to an inner object without using ordinary sight, usually with closed eyes.
The first exercise could be said to be a combination of inner and outer Tratak, but we will call it outer because the object we see afterwards with closed eyes, the candle flame imprinted on our retinas, is so coarse that it must be considered outer.
After Tratak it is good to do a ‘little deep relaxation’, to meditate and merge with your personal symbol.
A couple of practical remarks before the exercise:
The room you sit in should be dark with the exception of the candle you use. If you wear glasses, take them off before you start. Finally, and very basic: two seemingly contradictory elements enter into the meditation. We call them straining and relaxing, gathering and dispersing the attention field; holding back and totally giving oneself. The two poles are a basic premise for working on attention. The whole work takes place between these two. When do you do one and when the other?
It could easily lead to inner conflict, if you’re not aware of the problem. In Tratak you must be able to sit relaxed and do the whole exercise like a game, and on the other hand you must stick to the exercise and do it precisely without blinking or moving. Don’t overdo it, do it at the most for fifteen to twenty minutes once a day.
Outer Tratak
Sit right in front of a lit candle. The flame is at eye level or slightly higher and the candle is three to four feet away from your eyes, find the right distance for yourself, the level of your eyes and the candle flame should be in a horizontal line. Your back should be straight and your body motionless as long as you hold this position. Make your body completely calm. Experience the body’s form the whole body, until you are one with it. Hold that a while - the whole body.
Observe the breath in your nose. Feel how air goes in and out of your nose. The natural breath in your nose. Stay with that a while.
When you feel calm, open your eyes and look into the flame.
Look at the little glowing point at the top of the wick. Look at this point without blinking - look as long as you can - without
straining -without blinking -until tears come, or just before tears come.
When you feel a need to close your eyes, do it, but don’t move.
Sit completely calm and motionless, with closed eyes and look at what appears on your retina when you have closed your eyes.
After a moment a light point is sure to appear.
This is the print of the flame on your retina you see now a little star a glowing point.
Look at it as long as you can.
Does it move?
Let it move up to the center between your eyebrows, look at it there. If it wanders elsewhere, do not follow it. Keep it at the eyebrow center as long as you can.
Sometimes the point vanishes then appears again and then disappears.
And the point or background may change colors perhaps the point turns black and the background light, go on looking at it until it disappears.
The object need not be material, it could be a thought, an inner symbol, a psychic center, etc. Though this is one of the six purificatory exercises, it is mainly intended for developing concentration and mental focusing.
Tratak is included both as a part of the Hatha Yoga as a cleansing process, and it is very useful for students of Hatha Yoga, Jnana Yoga, Bhakti Yoga, and Raja Yoga. This practice helps also to improve eyesight.
Through Tratak, you increase your ability to hold your mind on one thing, concentrated, as long as possible. This not only builds up concentration but also willpower and the ability to use your energy and yourself economically. (But this should be done in an easy, relaxed way.)
There are three reasons for using Tratak:
1. Therapy. Relaxation and eye exercise. If you use Tratak as an eye exercise to
strengthen your vision and get rid of glasses, you would do it slightly differently from the description that appears later in this chapter. Certainly you would also use a candle, but instead of closing your eyes before tears come, you would keep them open as long as you can and try not to blink even when tears stream down your cheeks. But rest your eyes and close them now and then. To improve your eyes, you should do Tratak for five to fifteen minutes every day.
Other eye exercises recommended in connection with Tratak are: Move your eyes by looking up and down and from side to side without turning your head, look at objects close by and far away, roll your eyes and then rest them by covering them with your palms which you have first rubbed quickly together so that they are warm. Also Neti, nose cleaning helps.
By arresting the unconscious movements of the eyes, tensions are released in the brain.
Paul McCartney Teaches Yoga for Our Eyes, exercises to strengthen the eye muscles and improve sight
2. Concentration. Tratak can be used to attain greater calm and concentration for studying, work, etc. - and to attain higher ‘powers’, such as in Prana Vidya (knowledge of energy currents in the body), healing of yourself and others by directing this psychic energy and concentrating on tense and diseased areas (see also the previous chapter on Pratyahara).
Tratak gets rid of fatigue and results in natural, effortless concentration.
We have called this chapter ‘Inspired Interest’. With this kind of concentration, you need only decide to do something and direct your attention to it; then in a natural way you will be absorbed in the work in question. The work also becomes fun and satisfying.
3. Meditation. Tratak is used for its own sake and as a preparation for more extensive techniques. Many other Yoga and meditation exercises are enriched by the use of Tratak, which makes the mind sensitive and receptive to finer states.
Outer Tratak, Inner Tratak
There are two kinds of Tratak: outer (Bahir Tratak), gazing on an outer object, image, etc., with open eyes; and inner (Antar Tratak), ’seeing’, gazing or directing one’s attention to an inner object without using ordinary sight, usually with closed eyes.
The first exercise could be said to be a combination of inner and outer Tratak, but we will call it outer because the object we see afterwards with closed eyes, the candle flame imprinted on our retinas, is so coarse that it must be considered outer.
After Tratak it is good to do a ‘little deep relaxation’, to meditate and merge with your personal symbol.
A couple of practical remarks before the exercise:
The room you sit in should be dark with the exception of the candle you use. If you wear glasses, take them off before you start. Finally, and very basic: two seemingly contradictory elements enter into the meditation. We call them straining and relaxing, gathering and dispersing the attention field; holding back and totally giving oneself. The two poles are a basic premise for working on attention. The whole work takes place between these two. When do you do one and when the other?
It could easily lead to inner conflict, if you’re not aware of the problem. In Tratak you must be able to sit relaxed and do the whole exercise like a game, and on the other hand you must stick to the exercise and do it precisely without blinking or moving. Don’t overdo it, do it at the most for fifteen to twenty minutes once a day.
Outer Tratak
Sit right in front of a lit candle. The flame is at eye level or slightly higher and the candle is three to four feet away from your eyes, find the right distance for yourself, the level of your eyes and the candle flame should be in a horizontal line. Your back should be straight and your body motionless as long as you hold this position. Make your body completely calm. Experience the body’s form the whole body, until you are one with it. Hold that a while - the whole body.
Observe the breath in your nose. Feel how air goes in and out of your nose. The natural breath in your nose. Stay with that a while.
When you feel calm, open your eyes and look into the flame.
Look at the little glowing point at the top of the wick. Look at this point without blinking - look as long as you can - without
straining -without blinking -until tears come, or just before tears come.
When you feel a need to close your eyes, do it, but don’t move.
Sit completely calm and motionless, with closed eyes and look at what appears on your retina when you have closed your eyes.
After a moment a light point is sure to appear.
This is the print of the flame on your retina you see now a little star a glowing point.
Look at it as long as you can.
Does it move?
Let it move up to the center between your eyebrows, look at it there. If it wanders elsewhere, do not follow it. Keep it at the eyebrow center as long as you can.
Sometimes the point vanishes then appears again and then disappears.
And the point or background may change colors perhaps the point turns black and the background light, go on looking at it until it disappears.
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