Dear John,

Squinting is an invaluable technique used by artists, and something we can apply in our own lives too. For artists, it’s simple to do: you just periodically look at your work with your eyes partially closed. Here is what a very fine artist, Robert Genn, has to say about the subject: 

“Looking at work with half-closed eyes has several benefits. Simply put, squinting makes note of weak areas. Squinting tells you what’s wrong and what’s bad. Squinting lets you know where darkness or lightness might be added. Also, by drawing together the eyelids, you see the subject as more or less reduced to black and white. When work is viewed without the benefit of color, decisions can be more readily made. It seems that in standard easel-working vision, you ‘can’t see the forest for the trees.’” 

Isn’t that one of the common mistakes we make in life, focusing on the trees instead of the forest? If we apply the squinting technique to our lives, it will help us extract ourselves from all the details and see our major energy patterns. Doing this as a regular habit can help keep our lives on course. 

Even the position of the eyes is significant. Here is what Paramhansa Yogananda writes about the great yogi, Lahiri Mahasaya: “His intense joy of God-communion is slightly revealed in a somewhat enigmatic smile. His eyes, half open to denote a nominal direction on the outer world, are half closed also. Completely oblivious to the poor lures of the earth, he was fully awake at all times to the spiritual problems of seekers who approached for his bounty.”