“Soft Eyes,” A Way of Seeing and Being – Resources and Quotes

Here’s a compilation of resources and quotes on the topic of “Soft Eyes” below. It goes by many other names: Whole Seeing, Effortless Seeing, Open Focus, Soft Focus, Wide-Angled Vision, Peripheral Vision, Panoramic Vision, “Enzan no Metsuke” (The Gaze to a Far-away Mountain), Seeing from Behind the Eyes and Looking without Looking.

Soft eyes seems to be a very important concept and habit to acquire for those in kendo and many other areas including: Horseback-riding [Albrough], Sports, Car-racing, [Christianson LookingWide], Relationships [Noll], Parenting, Teaching [MrSoClassroom], Health-care [Robinson], Public speaking [Zimmer], Performance [Howard], Sleeping, Learning [Gillas], martial arts of course [Fink] [Christianson_AikidoSoftEyes] and more [Christianson SeeingAnew].

I’d like to acknowledge the many authors and helpful articles cited below and, in particular, John Christianson SeeingAnew.Tripod.com for his kind permission to post many quotes from his articles (Thank you!). Personally, “Soft Eyes” has been a Godsend and something I wish to make a habit of. It helps me naturally shift to a place of calm and flow.

May you experience the flow!

Resources

There are many resources on Soft eyes:

Many are cited above and in the Quotes and References sections below.
For a comprehensive overview, I’d recommend:
- Visiting John Christianson’s site: SeeingAnew.Tripod.com, a treasure trove of articles on this topic or
- Reading a “How-to Guide” on Soft Eyes by George Gillas [Gillas_SoftEyes].
For more details on the physiology and the “how to” behind soft eyes, I’d recommend reading [Verstappen]. It also explains why we should not focus (in a “narrow” sense) in combat.

Quotes

The quotes below are organized by authors as follows:

Lori Albrough
Wendy Murdoch
George Gillas
George Vajda
John Christianson
John Christianson’s Quotes of Others:
- Part 1, Part 2 and Part 3
Ben Howard
Parker Palmer
Stefan Verstappen

Lori Albrough [Albrough]

To begin to understand soft eyes, we usually start by considering its opposite, which is hard eyes. When you are looking with hard eyes, you focus your vision intently on one thing, concentrating on its shape, form, and detail.
With soft eyes, you let your eyes physically relax. Instead of focusing on one thing, you allow that thing to be at the center of your gaze, while simultaneously taking in the largest possible expanse within your full field of vision.
By using soft eyes you increase your awareness of everything going on around you.
This hard eyes versus soft eyes dichotomy reminds me of a life philosophy, where our human nature is to fixate on one (usually negative!) thing to the exclusion of all else.
- But, by doing this we miss out on the awareness and enjoyment of many other things in our lives.

Wendy Murdoch [Murdoch]

(O)ne of my corollaries to Hard Eyes vs. Soft Eyes is the concept of Intense vs. Intent.
- When you are intense, things are strained, harsh, overbearing, demanding and unpleasant. The person who is intense is always trying to “make it happen” even when it is clear that it just isn’t right. Kind of like trying to put a square peg in a round hole, the intense person often won’t let go of something until it has been broken or beaten to death.
- Intent, on the other hand, implies that you know what you want to accomplish and you don’t feel the need to force it. … The person with intent will be able to sit back and relax as events occur, observing without reacting. He will alter the program as required (to) make things easier.
The person who is intense often does not trust the process and anticipates or attempts to avert perceived failure.
- Whereas the person who has intent is secure enough to know that they are going to succeed regardless of how long it might take or how much they will have to adapt to the situation.

George Gillas from [Gillas]

Holding a state of peripheral vision … slows or stops the “chatter” so you can gain access to the things you know (but may not be able to access consciously).
By shifting into peripheral vision your mind begins to process information differently.
- When I first started utilizing peripheral vision on a regular basis I noticed that the world around me seemed to move just a bit more slowly and I was simultaneously aware of much more.
One of the steps is to “move your awareness into the periphery…”
Quoting Dr. Larry Lampert, a Optometric Physician, Boca Raton, FL:
- Your peripheral vision goes into your brain 25 percent faster than your central vision.
- (P)eripheral vision, “… slows the game down. When you engage the power of your peripheral vision, you actually make the ball or puck appear bigger. The opposite is to ‘tunnel’ your vision.”
When you go into peripheral vision you maintain better control of your emotional state.
Using peripheral vision in a stressful situation will not change the situation; it will allow you to respond in a calm and centered manner rather than react with anxiety.

Peter Vajda from [Vajda]

“Soft eyes” … allows your “ego-mind” with its preconceived ideas, perceptions, premises, stories and beliefs to “take a short vacation.”
Often, viewing one’s environment with soft eyes will change the way you see it. And, when your view changes, so does the way you relate to it. When you change the way you relate to it, the way you respond to it also changes.
When we view – people, places, circumstances and events – with “soft eyes, we move through a kind of transformation where we discover a reality that was always there, but which we missed. We discover a reality that can shift the way we relate to people, solve problems, face challenges and live life – at work, at home, at play and in relationship.
When we step back, when we jettison our old, programmed, habitual ways of “seeing,” we open ourselves to possibilities, we come to situations with a new energy, we engage from, new perspectives, we shift our frame of reference, we become newly empowered, we redefine issues and discover new solutions. In essence, we respond differently, we even see ourselves and our experiences differently.

John Christianson from a Transcription of his fascinating talk on “Whole Seeing…” [Christianson_WholeSeeing]

Whole Seeing is a name that I’ve given to a kind of seeing that we are really hardwired to do as a human species. It’s an (antidote) to a concentrated, tight narrow focused kind of seeing.
One thing that seems to be indicative of that is our computer work. We’re narrowing in on that computer … with narrow focus … paying attention to our computer, what’s on that screen, what our task is, … – ignoring that our shoulders are climbing up to our ears, that our back is aching, … until we feel terrible.
- We could also work at that computer in more open focus …where we’re aware of our shoulders getting tight, … our eyes are straining, get up, stretch, look out a window.
(H)e (Edmund Jacobson, inventor of Progressive Relaxation, an Experimental Psychologist) proved in the laboratory that it’s impossible to think in visual images in your mind without also moving and tensing the muscles of the eye, … without getting muscle firing in the muscles of the eyes.
- He also found,… that it’s impossible to think verbally to oneself without activity in the speech mechanism, as if one was actually saying the words that you were thinking although on a more minuscule level.
He (Krishnamurti) suggested that in meditation,… when you are sitting,… “Don’t move your eyeballs.” …because “when you move the eyeballs thought begins”(.)
- (T)he whole thought mechanism is engaged when you move the eyes.
(G)o peripheral…
Countess Katherine Willaposka (Alexander Technique teacher):
- Eyes free to go apart. Eyes free to go apart,… –
There’s reportedly a Native American term, “Looking without looking.”
They (Stephen and Ondrea Levine) have a phrase, “Soft Belly.”… It invites peripheral seeing and peripheral seeing invites soft belly.

John Christianson’s Quotes of Others – Part 1 from [Christianson_EyesStill]

Eye movement desensitization may be a way of releasing painful memories as it releases the habitual re-experiencing of these past traumatic events. Eye movement desensitization may allow subjects to return to a more relaxed state of mind, by releasing the ingrained patterns of stressful eye movements that allow the events to be played out over and over again by the sufferers of this condition. It’s about learning how to stop playing horror movies in the video mode of the mind.
Note: Christianson points to, “for more on stilling the eyes,… to The Quiet Eye Sports Vision Research of Joan Vickers, Ph.D.”

John Christianson’s Quotes of Others – Part 2 from [Christianson_BehindTheEyes]

Seeing as if from behind the eyes. – Krishnamurti
I will say to a student, “It’s not your job to control your head. Then a deeper kind of support can come in.” It can break through … what is keeping you from sensing more effectively. – Bruce Fertman (Alexander Technique Teacher)
Gloria Ginn from Step 4 of “10 steps You Can Take Now to Improve Your Eyesight”
- (W)hen we have good vision we are not really conscious of our eyes, there is little effort involved and it is as if we were seeing from the back of our heads.
- However, when we aren’t seeing well we are often straining with our eyes – almost as if to reach out and grab with our eyes.
I have found many people are able to recapture the experience of effortless seeing by pretending that they are seeing from the back of the head. It is the sensation of making no effort to see.

Donna Farhi from The Breathing Book:
- I imagine that I am looking from behind my eyes, receiving the images around me rather than projecting the eyes outward and retrieving the images.
The eyes should be softened, this improves peripheral vision but more importantly, if you allow it, can soften the whole body too.
- Try it … look ahead, even at these words, this screen, now slowly soften the gaze … do you not feel the wave of relaxation travelling through your body, are your shoulders not less tense? – from a Tai Ji website “On Eyes”.

John Christianson’s Quotes of Others – Part 3 from [Christianson_AikidoSoftEyes]

Rod Windle and Suzanne Warren
- Soft eyes happen when we relax the muscles around our eyes and let ourselves see with our peripheral vision as well as with our central, focused vision. We see the individual in front of us, but we also see the people to either side, the clock above his head, the lights on the ceiling and the pattern on the floor. We take in everything and are distracted by nothing.
- Sometimes the smallest changes we make can have the largest effects. One example of this comes from what we can do with our eyes. How we look at someone, or at a group of people, can completely change how we respond.
George Leonard, The Silent Pulse:
- Using soft eyes entails not just adopting an alternative visual mode, but also entering an altered state of being. Once you’ve mastered the art of soft eyes, this state can be achieved in a split second.

Ben Howard from [Howard]

(R)elax your eyes, allowing your vision to soften. Letting your attention rest on (an) object, imagine that you are inviting and receiving it, just as it is, into your consciousness. At the same time, allow your perspective to widen, noticing how other objects and movements, sensed or actually seen, emerge in your peripheral vision.
- Open your hearing as well as your sight, and note the changes occurring in your body, your state of mind, and your general awareness.

Parker Palmer from [Palmer]

Normally when we are taken by surprise, there is a sudden narrowing of our visual periphery that exacerbates the fight or flight response — an intense, fearful, self-defensive focusing of the “gimlet eye” that is associated with both physical and intellectual combat.
- But in the Japanese self-defense art of aikido, this visual narrowing is countered by a practice called “soft eyes”, in which one learns to widen one’s periphery, to take in more of the world.
If you introduce a sudden stimulus to an unprepared person, the eyes narrow and the fight or flight syndrome kicks in.
- But if you train a person to practice soft eyes, then introduce that same stimulus, the reflex is often transcended.
- This person will turn toward the stimulus, take it in, and then make a more authentic response — such as thinking a new thought.

Stefan Verstappen [Verstappen]

In combat, it is movement that you most need to see, the punch or kick heading your way. The anatomy of the eye indicates that in order to better sense movement, the focus of the eye should be diffuse so that more light is directed to the periphery of the retina, the area more sensitive to movement, rather that the centre or focus point.
In Far Seeing the eyes focus through and beyond the object you are trying to track. By focusing far away, objects and events nearby will be slightly out of focus allowing more information from the peripheral sense field to be perceived. This improves your ability to track moving objects over a greater area.
In combat, the trick is not to look directly at your opponent, but to look through him. Slightly un-focus your vision and become more aware of your peripheral field of vision.
Relaxation is a key ingredient to mastering this technique.
Ultimately the best way to develop and practice Far Seeing is to be outdoors more often. The modern urban lifestyle confine many of us to spend most of our lives indoors where the subjects of visual attention are always within a few feet. Over the years, these visual habits begin to atrophy the muscles used to focus on distant objects.