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# Eye
- URL: https://www.jamesreeves.co/eye/
- Published: 2020-02-17T23:30:00.000Z
- Updated: 2025-11-15T03:50:43.000Z
- Author: James A. Reeves
- Tags: Notebook

Today I learned about the metaphor of the shark’s eyelid. Sharks have a transparent membrane that allows them to see despite the blood and carnage that fills the water when it attacks. This is a handy symbol for our ability to function while remaining blind to the pain in our lives—particularly the damage we cause.

Before switching to the simplicity of an hourglass, I would listen to meditation recordings that said utterly deranged things to me. Sometimes it was a panic-inducing question: *Do you feel like you’re behind your face?* Or batshit commands: *Breathe through your backside.* Even the more benign instructions sent my mind reeling: *Release your thoughts, memories, and images*. This phrase left me imagining a man ringing a bell in the night while calling, “Bring out your dead.” So much chit-chat and babble, the endless comings and goings of the mind. In prison, solitude is a punishment; in a monastery, it is a reward. “Treat every moment as your last,” said Shunryu Suzuki. “It is not preparation for something else.”

#### [Seefeel – Starethrough](http://jamesr323.sg-host.com/radio/Starethrough.mp3?ref=jamesreeves.co)

###### From *Starethrough* | Warp, 1994 | [More](https://warp.net/artists/91324-seefeel/info?ref=jamesreeves.co)

[http://jamesr323.sg-host.com/radio/Starethrough.mp3](http://jamesr323.sg-host.com/radio/Starethrough.mp3?ref=jamesreeves.co)

Seefeel’s back in heavy rotation this winter, a woozy blend of fuzzed-out guitars, cosmic vocals, and dub tactics that holds up incredibly well after twenty-five years. See also: [Shunryū Suzuki](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shunry%C5%AB%5FSuzuki?ref=jamesreeves.co) and [nictitating membranes](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nictitating%5Fmembrane?ref=jamesreeves.co).