In our tradition of meditation, your eyes should be kept open: this is a very important point. If you are sensitive to disturbances from outside, when you begin to practice you may find it helpful to close your eyes for a while. Close your eyes slightly, but not completely.
Let your eyelids droop naturally, leaving a small gap for light to pass through, and look inward quietly. Try it yourself, and you will find that your mind naturally turns inward. Once you feel established in calm, gradually open your eyes, and you will find your gaze has grown more peaceful and tranquil. Now look downwards, along the line of your nose, at an angle of about 45 degrees in front of you. One practical tip in general is that whenever your mind is wild, it’s best to lower your gaze. When distracted or excited, lower your gaze and tilt your head slightly downward. Whenever you are dull and sleepy, bring the gaze up. Slightly lift your chest and tilt your head upwards, to bring your gaze up. Once your mind is calm and the clarity of insight begins to arise, you will feel free to bring your gaze up, opening your eyes more and looking into the space directly in front of you. This is the gaze recommended in the practice of the Great Perfection. Gazing at the space, at this point, there is no self, no phenomena, no knowledge or views in the mind, not even the view of the Great Perfection. Then, merge with the space of the Dharma realm. This practice uses the external emptiness and luminosity to inspire the mind to merge with our Buddha nature, which is luminous in essence. By nature, there is no self, no phenomena. The luminosity and emptiness can help inspire our innate Buddha nature, because luminosity and emptiness are the inherent characteristics of wisdom. Use emptiness and luminosity to inspire the mind to merge with our true nature. Your mind becomes more and more spacious and pervasive. You will discover now that your vision becomes more expansive, and that there is more peace and equanimity in your mind. This is the way of practice: Don’t gaze at anything in particular. When an ordinary being is attached to something or someone, whether out of greed or anger, his eyes are fixed on that thing or that person. When we meditate, don’t focus on anything in particular; instead, turn back into yourself slightly, and let your gaze expand. When you are not attached to anything, you naturally have a broad vision. Why is Avalokiteshvara called “thousand-eyed”? It’s not that he has a thousand physical eyes, but his mind is all-pervasive, illuminating everywhere. Using figurative language, we say that he has a thousand or even ten thousand eyes.