Scenes of Preliminary Meditative Concentration

When the mind settles down during contemplation of the breath, you may keep your eyes open yet feel a patch of darkness before you. This is a good sign of initial meditative concentration (dhyāna): the mind, which previously chased after the six sense objects, has turned inward and no longer perceives the sense objects, yet it is still shrouded by the domain of the aggregate of form (rūpa), so everything appears black before your eyes. If you continue to deepen your meditative concentration, you will eventually feel brightness before you even with your eyes closed, but there is still a long way to go before breaking through the domain of the aggregate of form.