Wide Angle Vision - Active Meditation

Wide Angle Vision is a way of getting into a meditative state yet remaining active. I personally have a problem with meditating. It can be very difficult for me to sit and quiet my mind. I’ve done it, I’ve had great results but it has always been a personal challenge.

I’ve always found active meditations much easier to do. My first encounter with active meditation was through Nichiren Daishonin Buddhism and chanting Nam Myoho Renge Kyo. This summer marks 20 years of practicing this active form of meditation. I have an active mind and I have experienced for myself how an active meditation suits an active mind better than a still meditation.

The whole purpose of me meditating is to get into alignment with who I really am, to feel good, to lift my energy and vibration to be more of a match to that of the Universe.

If you have an active mind think of your mind as a car that you are driving at 60MPH. You are driving along and someone tells you to slow down (meditate) and you have no idea about the breaks so you attempt all sorts of things to slow the car down. You may see some results. The whole point of slowing down is to get on the right road, but slowing down isn’t the only way to get you on the road that you want. You can get on the road you want to be on by matching your energy to the speed of the vehicle and just slowing down the internal dialogue.

Being in sync with the Divine is the whole point. Active meditation is a way of getting that connection yet slowing down the brain enough to allow paranormal experiences yet maintaining awareness of your physical world. Another way to expand awareness and the focus of a normal relaxed meditation is to open your eyes once you’ve gotten into a really relaxed state. It is a way of switching the meditation from an internal experience to an external experience.

I’ve now learned that my relaxation meditations are more vivid more real, have more clarity and physicality to them if I do them with my eyes open.

Wide Angle Vision is very easy to do. It is simply using your peripheral vision and maintaining the use of it. It is letting go of your focus on one object or line of vision and expanding it, having a complete lack of focus. This lack of focus and broader vision allows your mind to get into a state of Alpha. The more you stay in Wide Angle Vision the deeper into a state of Alpha you will go and the more aware you will become.

How To Do Wide Angle Vision:

In a wide open space - preferably outside - stand with your arms straight out at your sides. Look straight ahead with your head facing forwards. Have your palms facing out and wiggle your fingers. Allow yourself to see any movement from your fingers through your peripheral vision. Bring your arms forward slowly wiggling fingers until you see the movement, if you don’t see it straight away. Remember that most of us spend our lives being trained OUT of Wide Angle Vision, so wherever you see the movement of your fingers is fine. Notice how, even though you lack focus, you can see more movement and your hearing improves.

Wide Angle Vision is actually an awareness skill that my husband teaches, he teaches mostly physical skills, where I teach spiritual skills and philosophy - sometimes we cross over! When we teach this in nature, we have people look around and listen, to see how much wildlife they hear and see. Then we have them do Wide Angle Vision and do the same thing. Everyone is always amazed at how much more they saw and heard while using Wide Angle Vision. Using it is like turning on the Nature switch, your environment comes to life! When in Wide Angle Vision you keep your vision in peripheral until you see movement, then you focus on that movement. You are much more able to see the subtle movements and hear subtle sounds than you would be in the non meditative state of Beta.

One of my students was having a difficult time at work and I had her practice staying in Wide Angle Vision at work for the whole day. It really improved her work experience because she was able to stay in a calmer more meditative state yet still do her job through the day. She was able to have more awareness and clarity.

If you think about the average day of an average person in a first world country you will understand how we’ve been trained out of Wide Angle Vision. We live in boxes, drive in boxes, watch boxes and sometimes we even read box shaped objects. Houses, cars, TVs, computers, books, they all train us to see in segments instead of looking at the bigger picture.

An Lipan Apache Elder told me a story that he had heard from his Lipan Apache Elder who had escaped the white man. The Elder was able to be invisible to his hunters in wide open spaces because of his knowledge of how the white man saw. He said that because the white man saw in segments he had to put the segments together to make a big picture, and he would simple hide invisibly in the seam of two segments.

I love that story, it is so moving to me. The Natives have taught me so much and I am very appreciative!

My husband’s website is: http://huntergathererschool.com if you want to check out his work or ask him questions about physical awareness skills.

I love you.

Thank you.

With Love and Appreciation,
Angela
www.angelabear.com