Asian Eyes by Dr. Wu Tao-Wei I was asked a question by a young American that puzzled me at first simply because it was too close and personal. The question was: "Dr. Wu, you seem, like, really Westernized and understanding and all, so please tell me: why is it that when some Asian people look at me, they look at me as if I am not really there? Like, it's really eerie the way I look into their eyes and it's, like, they aren't looking at me at all but are like looking right through me. Why is that?" I gazed at this young American who had a gold stud stuck through one nostril, gold ear rings stuck through each ear lobe and a sort of needle with screw-on end-fittings stabbed through one eye-brow. I looked at his hair which was shaved all the way around his head except that on top was allowed to grow long and was braided into a long pig-tail hanging down the back of his neck. I looked at his blue jeans which were hanging precariously on the same level as his crotch so that his underwear-covered buttocks stuck out. I gazed once again into his confused and questioning face and I didn't know what to say. "There! Now you're doing it, too!" he stated with exasperation and then turned around and walked away with the backs of his blue jeans somehow managing to stay below his buttocks without falling down around his ankles It took me a long while to understand what this young barbarian was asking. There are three reasons that I can think of to explain this young man's observation. And I am sure that the questioner was generalizing since his observation was concerned only with one method of "seeing" and not with the other methods or with the philosophy behind them. Those who practice meditation or Tai Chi Chuan can readily answer this young man's query in two ways while you must be Chinese (or at least Asian) to be able to answer in the third way. In the practice of that wonderful slow-motion martial art and exercise known as Tai Chi Chuan, it is a teaching that one should "look to the left and gaze to the right." This ability of the human eye both "to look" and "to gaze", has many meditational and spiritual applications for daily life. For example, when you are parking your car, you want to use your ability to "look" so as to very carefully observe exactly how close or how far are the cars hemming in your parking space. By "looking" you can see every reflection of sunlight from the cars' paint and chrome as well as every inch of space needed to squeeze your car into the parking slot. "Looking" is used by most people in the West. Indeed, "looking" at things, is all that they know. It is the binocular vision we all use to see and to focus upon specific, individual things. But the human eyes can also "gaze" at things so as to take in a lot of area all at once. For this, it is necessary to relax your vision and use more of your peripheral vision. You want to be able to see everything without concentrating on any one particular spot. You want to be able to take in the sky and earth all at once without focusing only on a specific leaf or flower. Walking down a city street, you might want to take in the whole street all at once and be aware of it all at once, perhaps on the alert for danger or just for the joy of it all. To concentrate your eyes on any one thing by "looking", makes everything else disappear from your awareness. So, by "gazing" you can be aware of it all without getting caught up in any one item to the exclusion of all others. However, "gazing" is not merely allowing your eyes to go out of focus so that everything is blurry; rather it is concentrating on everything at once so that everything is bright. With "gazing" you can see everything without just looking at any one thing in particular. You can try this for yourself. As you read these words, you are "looking" but if you shift to your peripheral vision and become aware of your surroundings, you are "gazing". While "gazing", you will still be aware of these words as well as everything else in your visual window, but you probably won't be able to read these individual words again until you "look" at them. Does this make sense? These two eye methods make up the ordinary physical skills of every human. However, there are Asian mental concepts that make these skills even more interesting. And this is where, I am sure, my questioner was so puzzled. In the West, "looking" is the main method of "seeing". You hear a lot about "making eye contact" as a means of social success and salesmanship. So, when a Westerner "looks" at an Asian and "sees" the Asian "gazing" back at him, he becomes somewhat uneasy. After all, it is a Western social grace to "make eye contact" and "to look them straight in the eyes" whenever you are talking with someone. And it is considered rude or anti-social to do otherwise. So, why doesn't the Asian return a "look" with a "look" instead of with a "gaze"? This is where philosophy enters the picture. It may surprise many white people to learn that the founders of both Hinduism and Buddhism were blue-eyed Aryans of Northern India. So, we have the Aryan white people to thank for these ancient discoveries which they passed along to their Oriental neighbors. One of the basic concepts of Hinduism and Buddhism, is the idea that the things of the world are temporary and forever changing. And because they are temporary, they are not actually real in the sense that you can hold onto them forever. How real is an ice cube if it melts away and vanishes even as you "look" at it? To the Asian mind, everything is of the same nature as an ice cube - rocks, trees, oceans, people, everything changes and disappears and then reappears in other times and other places. Rocks turn into dust and blow away a lot slower than an ice cube melts, but that does not mean that rocks are any more "real" than the ice cube because both exist in the presence of infinite Time. And this is where most Asian "gazing" appears so illusive. While a Westerner "looks" at an Asian to see him as a specific individual, the Asian "gazes" at the Westerner as a non-specific entity surrounded by non-specific illusion. By viewing the world as a temporary phenomenon rather than as something solid that you can "look" at and grab hold of, a whole new universe is discovered behind it all. Meditation upon the Great Void, is a Buddhist method of "seeing" another level of Creation that cannot be perceived if you merely "look" at it. This is all very simple, but thinking about it too much makes it complicated. And because this involves "seeing" with the Third Eye and meditational breathing, I do not want to make this too complicated so I will end the philosophy here. Now, people who practice meditation (or incessant prayer) tend to carry their meditation with them wherever they go. After a while, whatever they look at, they believe to be nothing more than a shimmer of sunlight on a windy pond, beautiful but ceaselessly changing. And these people tend to "gaze" at the world rather than to "look" at it. After all, they are looking inside of themselves so what they observe on the outside is not as "real" to them as what they see on the inside. And so, you cannot expect these people to "look you in the eyes" and to recognize you as an individual when what they are doing is "gazing" at the universe and seeing everything as an empty manifestation of their own minds. Look into their eyes and you will not find anyone home. But you will "see" a deep and limitless Void. This deepness of inner vision, is confusing to Western People who believe that the only reality is the one that they can see and touch. So, do you understand the difference between "looking" and gazing"? There is a lot more to this which I will cover in later articles. So, if you practice "looking" and "gazing" in your daily life, your awareness of the universe will be really great. And finally, there is a particularly Chinese Taoist way of looking at Westerners that is not well known. You see, in Mandarin, a Westerner is often called a "yang gwei" or a "foreign ghost". And as everyone knows, a ghost is there but not there. And so, perhaps it is this that so puzzled the young man. He met some Chinese people who gazed at him as if he was a ghost, a non-human, a spirit. They did not react to him or "look" at him as he expected simply because they were merely waiting for him to disappear. Asian eyes have no mystery behind them that you cannot discover for yourself. After all, it was the blue-eyed conquerors of Northern India who taught the various yogas to the brown-skinned castes of that country; and it was that blue-eyed, Aryan prince -- Gautama Buddha -- who taught the secrets of the Third Eye to his disciples. And these disciples passed this knowledge along to China and Japan; they, in turn, passed it along to Western People once again. So, do you "see" what I am saying? Or must you "look" at your thoughts once again? Yes, you must "look" at your thoughts because to "see" them clearly, you cannot "gaze" at them or you will fall asleep. Those who understand this essay are awake. -------------------------------------------------------- Second Publication Rights Granted as long as the following is credited: First Published in the Chinese Swaztika Newsletter, for free subscription send blank eMail to: