[jonesboy]

The third aspect, after those of the methods of
posture and of breathing, is the gaze.
When practising Shine in Dzogchen the eyes are
not closed.

It is customary to keep the eyes closed in other
meditation practices, such as in the inner Tantras, when
visualising a deity or mandala in order to 'transform's
impure vision into pure vision. With the eyes open this
would be far more difficult. Why? Because all around
you would still see impure vision. When you have to
work with your imagination it is easier to do it, and it
comes more spontaneously, with your eyes closed.
In our case, however, to engage in contemplation
there is no need to train in the 'transformation' of our
vision by means of the creative imagination, nor, on
the other hand, is it necessary to 'think' of anything;
you engage in the practice remaining present to your
perception of everything appearing to your six senses6
in the present moment.

Thus in the Dzogchen Semde, apart from in its
initial stages Shine is not a meditation exercise (in the
sense of there being 'something on which' to meditate
discursively) but is instead a practice that from the very
beginning aims at the state of p ure contemplation.
(Shine nevertheless is only a preliminary to true
contemplation that must eventually be surpassed).

The eyes must re main open, and the gaze must be fixed.
It should now be clear that as you do not close your
eyes, in order to start to practice fixation you need a
point on which to fix your gaze. This point can be the
Tibetan letter A, as depicted in the bookmark; in any
case, it is not so important for it to be the letter A from
the Tibetan alphabet, it could also be a western A or
any A.

Fix your gaze on the A.