Trataka meditation, also known as a tratak sadhana or candle-gazing meditation, is a meditation technique in which the practitioner center his focus on a single visual point. The point may be an image, a word, a symbol, or even just a dot on the wall. The idea is to allow the gaze to soften and rest gently on this point, so that the mind can relax. Candles are a particularly powerful object to use, because the soft flicker of the candlelight has a natural lulling motion that allows the individual to relax more easily, as if in a trance-like state.
The goal of tratak sadhana is to enter samadhi – an intense, focused concentration – by raising the energy in the sixth chakra, located at the third eye. This center is the chakra aligned with one’s vision, both physical sight and internal vision and intuition. Thus, resting the eyes softly is said to induce higher activity in this region.
