This is another quote from Stephen Buhner in “The Secret Teachings of Plants”. The description below seemed to describe the experience of tratak from a different perspective. It also provides an explanation of how the vacillations of the mind (vrittis) can interfere with the attainment of this state…mind perception vs heart perception.
It is a lot of words, but for me there was truth in it.
"… sitting comfortably and looking at something that attracts your attention. Just let yourself look at it a moment, noticing its shape and colors. Then, let yourself notice how it feels to you. At that exact instant your entire physiological functioning will alter in a very noticeable manner. (But for it to happen you have to pay attention to the thing you are focused on, not the alteration you are expecting.)
This shift in the focus of awareness, from thinking to external sensory perception, significantly modifies and slows the duration of the cardiac cycle… The immediate alteration in heart function that occurs with this shift in attention sends specific messages to the sensory-detecting areas of the brain and acts to facilitate – to enhance – these sensory perceptions. And the enhanced perception that comes with heart focused perception does not habituate – in other words, perceived external events remain fresh and new each time this kind of dynamic is experienced.
This attention to the environment [I]whether internal or external[/I] leads to a sympathetic-like dilation of the eyes, which become soft-focused instead of pinpoint focus, with increased peripheral vision at the same time that the heart slows – a parasympathetic activity… This indicates that both systems are at work but in a uniquely balanced manner.
[I]Soft focused-eyes and bodily relaxation[/I] increases as the attention-interest value of a thing increases. The more interesting it is, the more this physiological state is enhanced.
[i]…it is by this that you can recognize the state of being[/I]…
Mental activities cause an almost immediate cessation of these physiological dynamics, with concomitant increases in heart rate and pupillary constriction. Any internal manipulation of symbolic information results in cardiac acceleration, an increase in sympathetic nervous system activity, and pupil constriction. So, too, does any verbalizing, or any requirement to store, manipulate, and retrieve symbolic information.
[I] linear thinking breaks state [/I]"
