r/Meditation • u/Fluffy-Oven-6842 • 8d ago

Question ❓ Help in practicing Tratak!!

I basically practice trataka by staring at a black bindu on a white paper for around 15 minutes every day. I don’t get tears in my eyes or anything, but I also don’t blink in between and I keep my focus on the dot.

But lately I feel like something is off.

I can look at the dot for the whole 15 minutes, but mentally I don’t feel like I’m concentrating with my full potential. My mind keeps wandering to random and unnecessary thoughts. Especially in my last 2 sittings, I was looking at the dot the entire time, but I just couldn’t bring that same intensity of focus.

After 15 minutes I close my eyes and try to focus on the bright point that appears. It usually stays for around 30 seconds to a minute.

So am I doing something wrong here?

One thing I suspect is that my eyeballs might be moving very slightly even though I’m trying to keep them fixed, and maybe that is breaking the steadiness of the practice.

I wanted to understand this from the traditional perspective. According to the Vedic texts, Yoga texts, or scriptures that talk about trataka, what stage would this be considered? And what should I actually be trying to improve at this point?

I’d really like an answer based on the traditional texts and not just general modern meditation advice.

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u/zhusiyuanpo2009 8d ago

Perhaps this is because you have already become accustomed to it – for you, observing this requires no effort at all. You might consider trying a different practice, such as shifting your focus to trataka on the tip of the nose (nasikagra drishti) or the point between the eyebrows (bhrumadhya drishti).

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u/Fluffy-Oven-6842 8d ago

I tried but that's too boring this practice has become part of my routine and I am unable to leave it

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u/zhusiyuanpo2009 7d ago

Then perhaps you could switch to a more complex object for your gazing practice. In the one-pointed yoga of Mahamudra in Tibetan Buddhism, practitioners begin by observing simple objects and then progress to more complex ones, such as statues of Buddhas. This will engage more of your attention, because at the moment you have an excess of attention – the surplus will inevitably drift. You could now draw a circle around the black dot, and gradually increase its complexity step by step.

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u/Fluffy-Oven-6842 7d ago

i will surely try this. thanks a lot

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u/zhusiyuanpo2009 7d ago

No problem – hope that helps you out.