Boundless Space?

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Stick Man, modified 7 Years ago at 6/11/16 6:34 PM
Created 7 Years ago at 6/11/16 6:34 PM

Boundless Space?

Posts: 396 Join Date: 9/23/14 Recent Posts
Sitting meditation, suddenly I get the feeling I'm dropping deep within, into vast internal space, REALLY vast, like I am a HUGE being, and there is some mental activity but it seems miles above me and faint.

Or - like I'm sat in the cockpit of the Millenium Falcon, and all I have is a sense I'm moving forward through space.
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Mind over easy, modified 7 Years ago at 6/11/16 8:18 PM
Created 7 Years ago at 6/11/16 8:18 PM

RE: Boundless Space?

Posts: 285 Join Date: 4/28/12 Recent Posts
I don't have much experience with the formless jhanas but it sounds like it could be it.

For me, I get this feeling like I'm like an expanding balloon in a huge stadium or something of that effect. 
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Stick Man, modified 7 Years ago at 6/12/16 5:54 AM
Created 7 Years ago at 6/12/16 5:54 AM

RE: Boundless Space?

Posts: 396 Join Date: 9/23/14 Recent Posts
Mind over easy:
I don't have much experience with the formless jhanas but it sounds like it could be it.

For me, I get this feeling like I'm like an expanding balloon in a huge stadium or something of that effect. 

I just got into Leigh Brasington's stuff on jhanas, because I definitely wanted clearer descriptions as I am new to the buddhist outlook on it, and that's what he said it is like.

Hmm, could be. Is the mind still active for you or is it complete quiet ?
Matt, modified 7 Years ago at 6/12/16 10:14 AM
Created 7 Years ago at 6/12/16 10:14 AM

RE: Boundless Space?

Posts: 316 Join Date: 1/14/14 Recent Posts
John:
Sitting meditation, suddenly I get the feeling I'm dropping deep within, into vast internal space, REALLY vast, like I am a HUGE being, and there is some mental activity but it seems miles above me and faint.

Or - like I'm sat in the cockpit of the Millenium Falcon, and all I have is a sense I'm moving forward through space.


I'm familiar with a sensation DW calls 'Marshmallow Man' effect.  It's where my *body* feels large, in a very sold way.  This happens early in a cycle of insight.  I experience it as quite sticky, as in I can wriggle my body parts around and not loose the sensation of hugeness. I'm not as familiar with the more ethereal formless rehlms.
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Stick Man, modified 7 Years ago at 6/12/16 1:02 PM
Created 7 Years ago at 6/12/16 1:02 PM

RE: Boundless Space?

Posts: 396 Join Date: 9/23/14 Recent Posts
matthew sexton:
John:
Sitting meditation, suddenly I get the feeling I'm dropping deep within, into vast internal space, REALLY vast, like I am a HUGE being, and there is some mental activity but it seems miles above me and faint.

Or - like I'm sat in the cockpit of the Millenium Falcon, and all I have is a sense I'm moving forward through space.


I'm familiar with a sensation DW calls 'Marshmallow Man' effect.  It's where my *body* feels large, in a very sold way.  This happens early in a cycle of insight.  I experience it as quite sticky, as in I can wriggle my body parts around and not loose the sensation of hugeness. I'm not as familiar with the more ethereal formless rehlms.
That's something I don't recognise, does it have a sense of inner space, or just like your flesh is growing ? I used to have the common impression, when I was a kid, that my hands were really disproportionately huge when I looked at them.

Having read Brasington's description of 4th jhana I'm quite sure that is what I found, he even describes it as like falling into a cave. Bit disappointed that it's not a common thing for me so obviously I have a ways to go, though I used to practice much more than I do now. It's taken a while but I'm finally getting a picture of what my movements have been around this theravada map.

He also has a description of 5th jhana as being like sat on the front of a rocket into space, which I am sure I had when young - but in a gentle way and momentarily.

Kudos to Leigh Brasington he's proved a worthwhile read emoticon

He also has something to say on the feeling of heat which I've long wanted to know - he thinks it's the breakdown of dopamine to norepinephrine and makes hot pitti, like menopausal hot flushes are associated with norepinephrine - though I only experience such things as subjective emotional heat and not as an actual temperature rise.
Matt, modified 7 Years ago at 6/12/16 1:53 PM
Created 7 Years ago at 6/12/16 1:53 PM

RE: Boundless Space?

Posts: 316 Join Date: 1/14/14 Recent Posts
John:
matthew sexton:

I'm familiar with a sensation DW calls 'Marshmallow Man' effect.  It's where my *body* feels large, in a very sold way.  This happens early in a cycle of insight.  I experience it as quite sticky, as in I can wriggle my body parts around and not loose the sensation of hugeness. I'm not as familiar with the more ethereal formless rehlms.
That's something I don't recognise, does it have a sense of inner space, or just like your flesh is growing ? ...



There's a large distance between the normal mind's perspective and the giant body. So the word "cavernous" might apply, the impression that the body has expanded tremendously so the mind is at a distance to it, yet still contained within it.  That's my experience, anyway.
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Toph H, modified 7 Years ago at 6/16/16 5:36 PM
Created 7 Years ago at 6/16/16 5:36 PM

RE: Boundless Space?

Posts: 18 Join Date: 2/5/13 Recent Posts
John:
Sitting meditation, suddenly I get the feeling I'm dropping deep within, into vast internal space, REALLY vast, like I am a HUGE being, and there is some mental activity but it seems miles above me and faint.

Or - like I'm sat in the cockpit of the Millenium Falcon, and all I have is a sense I'm moving forward through space.


Usually what I've personally referred to as Boundless Space, it would be the sensation of physical body, fully slipping away, no external sensory inputs, the access point of darkness will expand into infinity(like outerspace).  I could traverse it(as at this point I would be formless, though have played with creating form or taking forms, and other experiments) into infinity, or shift to be the space.  So it's more like awareness or conciousness "floating" within a spacial dimension(there may be time dilation, as opposed to no time, and no space which is vastly different).  With mental activity, usually depending on what type of work I want to do, I'll orient accordingly so sometimes, I just pierce past it and open up into space, dive down past them or click upwards which shifts the experience accordingly.

It's very distinct no? emoticon