I found out how to do sungazing due to the efforts of Shri Hira Ratan Manek (HRM) who has been working diligently to educate people about this practice. So far my practice has been very close to following the suggestions as outlined by Hira Manek. I have also received valuable guidance and feedback during my practice from BeiYin (pictured at left).
Basically sungazing is a standing meditation or a sun meditation, using the sun as the focal point of your meditation. It is quite powerful and I benefited much from doing it. The instructions are very simple. You start on the first day by gazing at the sun for 10 seconds and then adding 10 seconds more for each time you sungaze. This you continue until you reach 44 minutes maximum amount of time of gazing at the sun, which takes approximately 9 months. When you gaze at the sun you should be barefoot and standing on bare earth or sand (not on plants or on rocks or manmade surfaces). The sungazing is done within the period of one hour after sunrise and one hour before sunset. During these times the Ultraviolet index is low and supposedly safe for the eyes. I have finished the full practise and did not suffer any damage to my eyes, although my vision did not improve from it. A few years later it starts to improve, but this seems to me to be due to the kundalini transformation I am within, which may have been triggered by the sungazing. An alternative to improving one’s eyesight are the techniques discussed in here: Universal Tao: Perfect Eyesight. Midway, I had some problems with my eyes getting dry, which I detail in the sungazing testimonial I’ve written, and found out it’s important to stay well hydrated = drink lots of water. When I first heard about it then I remembered being told in my youth to not look at the sun that it would hurt your eyes. So for me, first I had to dispel this notion in my head before I could even start. After a cursory search in the Internet, I could hardly find anything to negate this belief, nearly all repeated the same story, apparently without basis. I did finally find one article: Galileo, solar observing, and eye safety which convinced me that it was a safe thing to do at least during these times of the day and so I began… As more people are sungazing and documenting their experience, more objective information is becoming available. One modification I did was to do Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT) before I started a session to relax and clear any emotions, and afterwards to take a walk in nature.
From sungazing, I had several realizations. The first is that one needs to make it a priority to do it every day, even if there is not sunshine. If there is not sun that day, do the practice anyway, just gazing at the brightest point in the sky. This keeps one consistant in your daily practice, establishing a habit and not allowing excuses to not do it. I also realized that it’s important to only add on 10 seconds after one has actually sungazed the previous amount of time. This nongazing time includes cloud cover and also when you aren’t gazing at the sun or you are shading your eyes in some way, because it seems too bright. I was over zealous at first and in a rush to get more minutes and so didn’t keep very precise track of the time. I’m not really certain about the technical aspects – that the pineal gland is getting bigger and absorbing the sunlight. But intuitively, it makes sense to me that this process needs it’s time and a regular, gradual exposure is best. There is no reason to rush it, the journey is what is most important.
One thing I had trouble with was, ‘What does it mean to gaze at the sun?’ At first I looked directly at the sun with an intense focus and later when the minutes added up then it became too bright for me too look at and I stopped. When I started again, then I reread HRM’s instructions and realized that I was not relaxed and simply gazing at the sun – like looking at a TV set. I was mentally focused to stare at the sun and this caused tension. I also heard later that if one was focused in this way, then the pupil of the eye could be constricted causing a more intense beam of light to fall inside the eye. With a relaxed way of looking there is no tension. So what I do now, is look at the sun but not really look at it. It is like my eyes fall on the sun, but I am looking inside instead of outside. I can see it, but I’m not mentally focused on it. If you’re having difficulties then you may want to experiement with other ways and observe to see if something else works for you versus stopping for several months like I did. (I did pick it up again later and finished… I found that when I asked essential questions, I received the answer I needed in that moment.
Finally, I need to say that what is here in this page and on others in my site, is only my individual viewpoint which I am sharing coming out of my experience of sungazing. I am not recommending that anyone sungazes nor am I offering advice on how to do it. I am not a medical or trained professional and any kind of undertaking like this, one can only do by their own decision. I can tell you that things will come up during this process, according to your personal history, and that if you relate to these happenings then you will grow. Also I can tell you that my experience of sungazing has been one of learning to listen more to my heart – and discovering that all the answers are there…
Betsy
I began sun gazing a few years ago but had to give it up because I moved to a valley where the sun doesn’t appear until more than an hour after riding because of the hills and likewise when setting does not fit into the time frame. I miss the practice and am wondering if there is a solution.
Hi Nadine, thank you for your question. Yes, there is a solution and believe me it works very well and is simple. After I did sungazing then later in life I came across a simple meditation because I was looking for some technique to increase my ability to sustain focus and then found while doing it that it was exactly like sun gazing. So there is external sun gazing, but one can just as easily do internal sungazing. Here are the directions: On a piece of blank white paper, put a small solid round dot in the center of the page using black marker or pen. Now sit and just gaze at that dot, just like you do in sun gazing. Do this for about 5 minutes, then close your eyes and you will see the image of the dot appear inside with a negative image. The black dot becomes a white dot, and you see it in the center of your field of view with eyes closed. So now just gaze at that sun, eventually this internal image will fade but you can keep gazing at the changing appearance with focus or gaze still directed to this center spot where the white sun image disappeared. You can also do a similar thing with a candle, but I like the dot because it looks like the sun inside.
Truly, I found it was just as beneficial to gaze at anything actually, there is not a special power in gazing at the sun that you absorb or activates glands, etc. I think the sun gazing is powerful meditation for several reasons. You are vertical and standing so highest energy travels in spine, your feet are on earth barefoot so you are grounded. Gazing at sun and standing on mother earth, your body becomes like a lightening rod. But I think very important is that in order to go on with it to longer gazing time, you have to let go of clinging to body and mind and become fully relaxed with ‘no focus’. So that latter ability: learning how to unfocus, I think is the best benefit.
You could also just gaze at the clouds and just imagine you see the sun, that is also powerful. Lastly, you could check the UV level at that time of day when the sun appears in your area, it might be low enough at that time to do the sun gazing. In general, I think winter sun is much less powerful than summer sun – depending upon where you live of course. You can look up these facts of UV in your location with google and also check on sungazing site for safe UV level for sungazing.
If you give this a try, let me know if that helps!