Linda ”Polly Ester” Ö:
I’m trying to understand the terminology so that I can describe my experiences correctly and not read too much into things.
A few years back I mainly meditated by focusing on breathing slowly (one and a half breath per minute). I didn’t have any strict regime, but just did it when I felt like it, and it happened to be rather often and long times for a period. When I did that, I had the sensation that I came back to reality after being unconscious (I was sitting straight and not nodding like I would if falling asleep), and it was really bright and spacious (?) for a moment.
Nowadays I don’t get that intensive sensation of this, but I have had the sensation of coming back from not sensing enything, and when I do, I sort of feel things widening.
What does this mean? Is this something that can happen on various stages?
(I used to think this was what people meant with ”spacing out”, but it doesn’t seem that way. So... what is ”spacing out” then?)
"spacing out" is an idiom. It means "not paying attention" or "mind wandering."
What you experienced is sometimes referred to as an "unknowing event" - a moment where reality does something that can't quite be described. They happen a lot at various stages - it doesn't "mean" anything necessarily.
A cessation is like a much bigger version of what you experienced. For more on this, I highly recommend Daniel's book Mastering the Core Teachings of the Buddha, Revised Edition. You can read it online at mctb.org .
