More on Darkness: What does it means to 'not be able to see'?

I get a daily meditation in my email every morning from Richard Rohr's Center for Action and Contemplation. Today's meditation was about seeing the way mystics see.  No pun intended, but it was an eye-opener for me!  Third-eye seeing is how mystics view the world. 

Rohr explains the three eyes through which a person might 'see'. I paraphrase here and encourage the reader to go to the source  The first eye seeing with our senses-sight and the awareness we have -the thought- as it is related to what we see through our actual sight.  The second eye Rohr says is the seeing through our reason, reflection and meditation. This takes what we see with our eyes to a 'deeper' level.  In my understanding it is gives us more knowledge about what we are 'seeing'. It may or may not result in a correct interpretation of what we think we see.  And the third eye seeing that mystics have cultivated  happens when there is this wondrous seeing that happens when as Rohr says " our heart space, our mind space and our body awareness are all simultaneously open and non resistant...a moment of deep inner connection (in The Naked Now: Learning to See as the Mystics See p.28).

How might we, as persons who dread the darkness (because we can not see with our sight), see? Certainly when I am in the 'I can't see' mode, I easily go to panic and fear. What I see or can't see is at best a distortion or it is not seeable because it is in darkness.  My heart is not open, it is closed in protection and survival mode. My mind is flooded only the idea 'of worse case scenario' , and my body is frozen with anxiety, or readying for fight or flight.  (Mostly for those with panic issues, the primary panic reaction is to freeze-followed at times by either actual flight or flight through dissociation.)

Now that I know there are more ways of seeing I can experiment with my relationship with darkness.  Bigger, broader, more inclusive and expansive ways of seeing are available to me.  I'm at the beginning of this learning curve-so I start first with the acknowledgement that what I 'see' or don't 'see' when I am in darkness may not be accurately thought about (interpreted) in my mind.  Am I willing to allow that possibility (I am opening my mind-just a crack)?  I insert the word 'Love' in the crack in my mind, so it does not snap shut. I put my focus on my heart, which might be racing at the moment, reinforcing the panic response.  I will say a mantra to my heart: "love... love...love" with each breath, helping the heart 'remember' love comes through it. I give my body permission to be very still, to listen to my mantra and to be still, but not needing to be frozen.  I THINK this is the process of the second eye: reason, meditation and reflection. I will do this practice tonight as I am in the darkness and let you know how it goes...