What is this "treposa" really called?

February 14, 2011 7:12 PM

"Dan, one of my patients, attended a retreat where he engaged in treposa, a meditation procedure in which two people hold hands for several minutes, lock gazes, meditate deeply upon one another, and then repeat the process with new partners." The author of this passage seems to have gotten the name of this meditation practice wrong. Does it actually exist at all?

The passage is from Irvin Yalom's Love's Executioner. I immediately googled the term and found that his reference to it was the only one on the internet. Does anyone know what it's actually called? And if you want bonus points, what kind of groups do this sort of meditation?

posted by CutaneousRabbit to religion & philosophy (9 answers total)

Trataka? It involves gazing at an external object, but I see it mentioned here in the context of yoga with a partner.
posted by prenominal at 7:53 PM on February 14, 2011 [1 favorite]

"White Tantric Yoga® is done in pairs as a group meditation. You sit facing a partner and follow instructions for meditation given on video by the Mahan Tantric, Yogi Bhajan"
posted by AlsoMike at 7:55 PM on February 14, 2011

Eye-gazing is a feature of neo-tantric practice. In Portland, check out the events offered by Sacred Tantra Club or LoveTribe.

Also, with less of a woo vibe, apparently there are eye-gazing parties for singles.
posted by ottereroticist at 8:04 PM on February 14, 2011 [2 favorites]

A local coach teaches workshops in eye-gazing (scroll down).

Here is an online community dedicated to the practice of eye-gazing.
posted by ottereroticist at 8:08 PM on February 14, 2011

Yalom is apparently still alive; maybe you could ask him?
posted by staggernation at 8:42 PM on February 14, 2011 [1 favorite]

The patient may well have gotten it wrong. Or the person leading the workshop may have gotten it wrong. I'm voting for "trataka got garbled somewhere, and either the patient or Yalom didn't understand that it referred to gazing meditation in general."
posted by Sidhedevil at 9:47 PM on February 14, 2011

Heart of Now does this kind of thing.

I don't know what they call it, but it can be pretty powerful.
posted by saffronwoman at 6:40 AM on February 15, 2011 [1 favorite]

For future reference, it seems to have been trespasso that Yalom was thinking of.
posted by CutaneousRabbit at 2:18 AM on February 27, 2011

Was it a term he created? That seems to be the only website that mentions it; all other Google results lead back to it.
posted by prenominal at 6:58 AM on February 27, 2011