Sometimes I feel small and the world feels even smaller. Claustrophobic. How can I experience the opposite?

General discussion of issues related to Theravada Meditation, e.g. meditation postures, developing a regular sitting practice, skillfully relating to difficulties and hindrances, etc.
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kenteramin
Posts: 56
Joined: Sat Jul 31, 2021 8:04 am

Sometimes I feel small and the world feels even smaller. Claustrophobic. How can I experience the opposite?

Post by kenteramin »

So, the title is a mess. I didn't know how to phrase the question. And the rest is going to be even more confusion. Sorry :)
Also, I couldn't figure out what's the right place to ask. The experience I'm going to describe is not related to a Theravada meditation technique. I post here because maybe the answer will be in a form of a technique.

In ordinary awareness (mode?) I feel small, contained and the world feels expansive, vast. It's mostly because of the visual perception. Bodily sensations, thoughts, feelings, etc, feel like they don't inhabit space. One dimensioned. I'll try to trow some more adjectives. Those sensations feel contained, compact, connected, limited, closed. And the visual perception has depth, space, distance, it is infinite and has dimensions.
Sometimes when I play with my visual awareness I feel it diminishes, looses depth. It's not that I am in the world. It's the world is in 'me'. I loose the source of space, of vastness, of dimensionality.

It's like the world as a reflection in a crystal ball vs the world as an appearance in a crystal ball. Where the crystal ball is me.
I've heard oftentimes how people experience infinite consciousness. It feels like absolute opposite of that.
Do you have an idea what is this feeling/perception about? Why does it happen? How do I reach for the opposite of that?

I guess one appropriate answer to my post is 'drop the shi that's getting you into that state and do some proper meditation'.


P.S. I hope we can avoid unnecessary pointings to anatta. All the first person pronouns are provisional
SarathW
Posts: 21222
Joined: Mon Sep 10, 2012 2:49 am

Re: Sometimes I feel small and the world feels even smaller. Claustrophobic. How can I experience the opposite?

Post by SarathW »

Just based on the topic title I suggest.
- Just walk around in a park, travel somewhere if safe
- Practice loving-kindness
- Do some work like gardening or some manual work
“As the lamp consumes oil, the path realises Nibbana”
Jack19990101
Posts: 714
Joined: Wed Jun 09, 2021 4:40 am

Re: Sometimes I feel small and the world feels even smaller. Claustrophobic. How can I experience the opposite?

Post by Jack19990101 »

kenteramin wrote: Wed Jan 19, 2022 5:51 pm So, the title is a mess. I didn't know how to phrase the question. And the rest is going to be even more confusion. Sorry :)
Also, I couldn't figure out what's the right place to ask. The experience I'm going to describe is not related to a Theravada meditation technique. I post here because maybe the answer will be in a form of a technique.

In ordinary awareness (mode?) I feel small, contained and the world feels expansive, vast. It's mostly because of the visual perception. Bodily sensations, thoughts, feelings, etc, feel like they don't inhabit space. One dimensioned. I'll try to trow some more adjectives. Those sensations feel contained, compact, connected, limited, closed. And the visual perception has depth, space, distance, it is infinite and has dimensions.
Sometimes when I play with my visual awareness I feel it diminishes, looses depth. It's not that I am in the world. It's the world is in 'me'. I loose the source of space, of vastness, of dimensionality.

It's like the world as a reflection in a crystal ball vs the world as an appearance in a crystal ball. Where the crystal ball is me.
I've heard oftentimes how people experience infinite consciousness. It feels like absolute opposite of that.
Do you have an idea what is this feeling/perception about? Why does it happen? How do I reach for the opposite of that?

I guess one appropriate answer to my post is 'drop the shi that's getting you into that state and do some proper meditation'.


P.S. I hope we can avoid unnecessary pointings to anatta. All the first person pronouns are provisional
First mode is : Subject is form, object is form.
2n mode is : subject is form, object is immeasurable form.
2nd mode transcends 1st.

Ref - MN 77 Eight bases of Transcendental.
kenteramin
Posts: 56
Joined: Sat Jul 31, 2021 8:04 am

Re: Sometimes I feel small and the world feels even smaller. Claustrophobic. How can I experience the opposite?

Post by kenteramin »

SarathW wrote: Wed Jan 19, 2022 9:13 pm Just based on the topic title I suggest.
- Just walk around in a park, travel somewhere if safe
- Practice loving-kindness
- Do some work like gardening or some manual work
Thank you. I thought that loving-kindness might be an antidote :anjali:
Jack19990101 wrote: Thu Jan 20, 2022 1:24 pm First mode is : Subject is form, object is form.
2n mode is : subject is form, object is immeasurable form.
2nd mode transcends 1st.

Ref - MN 77 Eight bases of Transcendental.
:anjali:
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Pondera
Posts: 3071
Joined: Thu Aug 11, 2011 10:02 pm

Re: Sometimes I feel small and the world feels even smaller. Claustrophobic. How can I experience the opposite?

Post by Pondera »

Close one eye. Depth perception disappears. Open the other eye. Depth perception is an illusion. In fact, if it wasn’t for the power of the brain, you’d be looking at things upside down. Believe it or not the image you have in front of you has been flipped by the brain. The eye evolved to know what to kill and to know when to run away.

Guard your faculties. Start with the inside of the nostrils. When you have a fixed mentality on the inside of the nostrils, it will remind you that the sense of sight does not penetrate past the eye. The illusion of space is only going to add to the illusion of an “I” - a “perceiver”.

Embrace your environment without holding onto it. Notice what parts of your brain are stimulated by each different faculty of sense.

From here, allow your mind to settle on these areas in the brain. If your detection is sensitive enough you will activate these areas in such a way that the body will relax. If the body relaxes, then the mind relaxes. If the mind relaxes, then the heart relaxes. If the heart relaxes, then you will obtain the hearts release.

Perception; brain; body; heart; release.
Like the three marks of conditioned existence, this world in itself is filthy, hostile, and crowded
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