Mindful wanderers.
When I was a little boy, my parents and I lived off the grid for a year or so while they built our new house in the forest. We heated with wood and used kerosene lanterns for light. We listened to “Prairie Home Companion” on a battery-operated AM radio.
I can remember staring at the candles at night and looking up to watch the flickering shadows on the wooden beams of the ceiling. There was, and is, something so beautiful, calming, and ancient about the light of a flame.
When I began meditating and exploring yoga in my twenties, I eventually discovered candle meditation. Candle meditation is a form of tratak, which means “to look or gaze.” Tratak can be practiced on any object—the ocean, a tree, a cloud—but I find a candle to be one of my favorite focal points.
Candle focus is special because fire has a unique effect on the mind. For hundreds of thousands of years, our ancestors gazed at fire every single night, sometimes for hours, while preparing to sleep. Gazing at fire is mesmerizing and trance inducing. When we gaze at a flickering flame, our brain begins to shift out of beta brainwave state, which is associated with thinking and alertness, into alpha brainwave state, which corresponds to a relaxed and creative state of mind. Alpha brainwaves then become theta brainwaves, which are associated with meditation, intuition, and the unconscious. When we shift out of our beta/monkey-mind activity and into alpha and theta, the mind becomes relaxed, open, and receptive.
In our world, fire has been replaced with televisions, smartphones, and computer screens; in a few years, we could be surrounded by three-dimensional projections that we can interact with through goggles or other technology. The difference between fire and screens is that, when fire is our focus, the mind is able to relax and process unintegrated content. Flickering screens, on the other hand, move us into a receptive space and then project images into our minds when they are most vulnerable and open.
During the winter months, candle focus can be a particularly powerful practice. As the days grow shorter and the darkness deepens, meditating with a candle can be both soothing and inspiring. You might want to wrap yourself up in a blanket or cloak, turn out all the lights, and settle onto your cushion. The candle is a presence of its own, and you may feel the element of fire almost as a living, breathing companion as you drop into your meditation.
Ayurveda teaches us that the senses literally ingest everything that they take in during the day. All the sounds, sensations, tastes, smells, and sights are food for the senses and, if we wish to remain in balance, we need to take time to let them rest and restore. Around the winter holidays especially, when there is so much talk of peace—yet, often, so little peace to be found—sitting with a candle can help refresh the eyes and settle the nervous system.
My family lives in a house with electricity, but I will often turn off all the lights and use candles instead, because the quality of the light is so peaceful and comforting. The light of a candle, no matter how small, can warm the long winter nights and support you in accessing deeper states of tranquility and contemplation.
Children could potentially be the last frontier in terms of meditation. On the one hand, it is easy to argue that meditation techniques will help them focus and calm down. Certainly, several schools have tried this, with mixed results. Often, what happens is that a teacher walks around teaching the children to keep their eyes closed and breathe deeply. The minute her back is turned, a child opens his eyes and starts shooting paper rockets at his current arch-enemy.
One exercise, however, is easier on children than others. It is called trataka or trataka yoga kriya. A simple way of saying it is “candle gazing”, although this phrase does not do it justice. Trataka is about focusing your eyes on a particular object. It could be a candle or it could be your shoulder.
There are four types of tratakas. Dakshina jatru trataka is when your head remains straight and your eyes focus on your right shoulder. Try it. The effect is that of a dancer who looks to the right. Vama jatru trataka is the same practice, except that the eyes are focused on the tip of the left shoulder. Namikagra trataka is when the eyes are focused on the tip of the nose.
Bhrumadhya trataka is when the eyes are focused on the spot between the two eyebrows. Another method is when you sit at arm’s length from a candle that is placed in a spot where the flame does not flicker. The goal is to stare at the tip of the candle without blinking your eyes. What happens typically is that your eyes begin watering after a few minutes. Then you shut your eyes and relax. You bring your closed-eye gaze to the spot between the eyebrows.
Trataka is an especially good practice if you have a young daughter who has not achieved puberty. This practice delays the onset of puberty, according to yoga practitioners. This is because trataka nurtures the pineal gland, which René Descartes called “the seat of the soul”. In yogic philosophy, the pineal gland is located in the ajna chakra or the “third eye”. When the pineal gland weakens, it stimulates the sexual hormones leading to puberty. This is my broad and rather non-expert interpretation. There are many essays on this topic.
Making your daughter do trataka is an easy way of improving her concentration and delaying the onset of puberty. A simple approach is to keep a candle by the bedside. Ask your child to lie on her side and gaze at the candle just before she goes to sleep. This will get her into the habit and knock her out in a few minutes. Even Western medical doctors concede that the endocrine system responds to mind-body practices such as yoga and meditation. Hormones have powerful effects on the body, and they can be managed through ancient techniques such as modulating the breath and focusing the eye. This can also open the seat of the soul, leading to soul-stirring ideas.
Piezoelectricity in the human pineal gland
Melatonin secretion by the pineal gland has been reported to be affected by exposure to electromagnetic fields (EMFs). In an initial investigation to determine if calcifications commonly found in the pineal gland could respond to EMFs by a transducer mechanism, studies were conducted to ascertain if pineal tissues were piezoelectric. Second harmonic generation (SHG) measurements showed that pineal tissues contained noncentrosymmetric crystals, thus proving the presence of piezoelectricity. Both mulberry-like and faceted crystalline calcifications were observed by scanning electron microscopy (SEM). Some of the calcifications had compositions similar to that of hydroxyapatite; others contained a high concentration of aluminum.
TRATAKA MEDITATION BENEFITS
Candle gazing can be a very efficient way to practice meditation and is a great option for those who struggle to stop their mind wandering. That’s because by keeping the eyes open and having an animated object to focus on it is easier to stay focused and enter a state of pure awareness, as we aim to in transcendental meditation.
From practicing Trataka, we get all the usual benefits of a meditative state, but according to Hatha yoga traditions there are also several other benefits such as:
- Improves vision/eyesight
- Improves concentration and memory
- Enhances patience and willpower
- Improves productivity
- Calms the mind and promoting inner peace
- Improves clarity and decision making
- Provides stress and anxiety relief
- Deepens sleep and helps sleep related disorders
- Strengthens intuition and clairvoyance
Now, it’s worth noting that there is no scientific evidence to support these claims… so take these benefits with a grain of salt. Nonetheless, Trataka is a great tool to enhance meditation and that’s an awesome benefit in itself!
HOW TO DO A CANDLE GAZING MEDITATION
So if I’ve sparked your interest , here’s how you can do your very own candle gazing meditation in 6 easy steps!
- Set your space:as with any other meditation practice, the space around you is important to set the scene and get you in the zone. Dim the lights, perhaps using a himalayan salt lamp to give a warm ambience to the room. Make sure you won’t be disturbed and turn off any electronics.
- Put your candle on a surface in front of you:place your candle on a hard surface away from any flammable items. You want the candle to be around eye level so bare this in mind and preferably use a table rather than the floor.
- Light the candle: this is non-negotiable!
- Sit in a comfortable position:sit as you would in any other meditation – whatever position is most comfortable for you. You may choose to sit on a meditation cushion with a blanket over you to keep warm for the duration of your practice. You should be around 3ft to 4ft from your candle.
- Gaze at the candle: your focus now is to keep your gaze fixed at the candle flame without fidgeting or blinking. Your eyes are likely to water after some time but this is normal. Continue until you cannot physically keep your eyes open any longer.
- Finish by closing your eyes: When you close your eyes, you may see an image of the candle flame in your mind’s eye. Try to direct this image at your third eye chakra (the point between your eyebrows). When the image completely fades, reopen your eyes and repeat the process.