“What would you say… you do here?” Fans of the cult classic 1999 movie “Office Space” recognize this iconic line from “The Bobs” grilling each employee of Initech for a round of potential layoffs. Office workers stuck in mindless, boring white collar jobs might recognize it from their last performance review, or even their nightmares. How can one fill the seemly never-ending hours of staring at excel spreadsheets or sitting through video calls and meetings that could have been an email? The ancient practice of Trataka meditation provides a time-honored solution to a modern problem.
What is Trataka Meditation?
Trataka meditation is a form of meditation that uses your sense of sight to still the mind. In the simplest terms, you’re concentrating on a a single point in space to bring stillness to yourself. You select an object and focus your gaze on it. Taking in the details and committing your energy to applying right concentration to every aspect of the object. You then switch to closing your eyes and visualizing the object internally. It’s very similar to traditional sitting zazen meditation. Except instead of focusing on your breath, you focus on an external object.
Traditionally, monks and lay-people would use a candle or ghee lamp as the focus of their concentration. But modern problems call for modern solutions. You can use any object as the focus of your attention. Whether that be a point on the wall, a star in the sky or even that excel spreadsheet you finished three hours ago but are procrastinating submitting because you don’t want to move on to the next task.
Yeah… If You Could Just Go Ahead and Learn Trataka Meditation. That’d be Great. M’Kay?
Trataka meditation practice follows a flow that many experienced meditators may already be familiar with. You can use the following outline as general outline of the steps to practice Trataka:
- Select the object of your focus. This could be the powerpoint that’s due next week, the Excel spreadsheet you’ve been working on for longer than you need to to avoid your next task, or the dull meeting where corporate buzzwords are tossed around like Japanese Shinto and Buddhist practitioners toss toasted soybeans to ward off evil spirits at a Setsubun festival.
- Assume a comfortable posture. If you’re able to assume the half or full lotus, do so! If you’re stuck in an office chair trying to look busy. Simply assume a position that allows you to maintain a straight, upright back, relaxed shoulders and place your hand either on your lap or, if you need to appear busy, on your mouse or keyboard. The key here is to be comfortable.
- Begin the process of “Bahiranga Trataka” or “external gazing”. Take a few deep breaths in through your nose and out through your mouth. Then turn your attention to the object of your focus. Do your best to not blink, and allow your eyes to water if they naturally do. Focus on the object. The shape, size and even intricate details. Don’t check your formulas or make sure your budget actualizations line up with the other docs you’d normally cross reference. Simply take in the object for what it is. Study it, appreciate it, observe it.
- Transition to “Antaranga Trataka” or “internal gazing”. When those eyes start watering or feeling tired. Close them! There’s no need to punish yourself here! Try to imagine the object in your mind. You may even see an afterglow of the image behind your closed eyes. Kind of like when you look at the sun or a bright light for a bit too long. If you’re staring at a computer monitor the brightness of the screen might even assist you in the visualization. If your boss catches you during this part of the process you can always play it off like you were deep in concentration about your job.
- Repeat the process at least 3-5 times. Or for as long as you can get away with it. Some people like to use a process called “palming” to end the session. Essentially, all you’re doing when palming is rubbing your hands together to create warmth and then placing them over your eyes to warm and relax them after the activity.
If you’re more of a visual learner, Bharti Yoga on YouTube has a great guided meditation you can follow along with until you’re comfortable enough with the process to do it on your own. It’s probably in your best interest to get the process down at home and put it into practice at work. After all, the last thing you want is your own personal Bill Lumbergh to catch you, take your stapler and move you to the basement in Storage B. It happened to Milton in Office Space, don’t let it happen to you too!
I’d say in a given week, Try to do About Fifteen Minutes of Real, Actual, Trataka Work
Make it 15 minutes a day if you can. Trataka meditation isn’t just about avoiding work. It can actually enhance and improve your work. Studies show that Trataka mediation has a plethora of benefits that can make you a more calm, balanced, and efficient employee. It purifies the eyes, calms mental chatter and significantly sharpens your focus and working memory. So you’re not just slacking off like Peter from Office Space when you take time out of your day to practice. You’re actually being industrious. Think of it as bumping yourself up from 15 to 37 pieces of flair.
