Void experience

[ssmith7]

Hello,

 

I wanted to write and get some feedback on an experience that happened just moments ago. I sat down to meditate and entered a weird state. The precursors to this state of consciousness were feelings of openness and a bit of expansion. I was connected to all of that invisible space. Before I could finish my mediation, I found myself looking into pure nothingness. Literally staring into emptiness. I decided to stay with the nothingness so I dissolved my awareness of my physical body and noticed that I was watching emptiness, yet there was no one there to be a watcher. Intellectually I knew I was still sitting on my floor, but for those brief moments, I was watching nothing as nothing. That same nothingness is always around. I can feel it as I type. It become more pronounced when I am running or in some kind of pain. It is the backdrop for which all of those events, movements, emotions, feelings of pain/pleasure, thoughts, etc. take place in our lives.

 

This experience was not as dramatic as others who say they entered a state called "The Void". Others say they literally leave the body in order to hang out that wondrous realm. My experience was different as mental thoughts, though mitigated, were still somewhat present. For example, the statement, "Peer into the dimension of the dimensionless", popped into my head. I think it was my voice.

 

Does this sound anything like your experience with the Void?

 

Thank you.

[Marblehead]

I know nothing about the void but I like your experience.

[Kasuku]

its wrong to see the void as void - in emptiness heres substance - pure yang - look for that - dont fall into the yin realm of darkness and coldness

[Jetsun]

I can relate a bit, it doesn't have to be dramatic at all. if I am correct then what you are talking about is always present and always has been, we just don't notice it. Any word to describe it like "void" or "nothing" creates an image or impression in the mind which is inherently confining in some way, yet any description arises in it so can't possibly define it, so it is beyond both negative and positive descriptions (those usually come after when the mind tries to own it) but of course we have to use words if we want to try communicate to others, which is the limitation of using language to try talk about the indefinable. Does this make sense to you?

[Jetsun]

Jetsun, I first "fell into" this space/location/awareness without knowing a name for it. Just an experience of black and super quiet. Retelling my happening, someone else named it (with ease) for me. After hearing "the void," it was a word I had heard before, but hardly knew anything about. Which was good I suppose, because I did not have any preconceived ideas about "the void."

It can be a problem if you have studied many teachings as then your mind tries to get the experience to fit in with its understanding of what it thinks it should be, or can project onto it rather than simply being with what it is. It must be a blessing for those who find a good teacher straight away before they fill their minds with ideas.

 

I didn't have this problem so much with "the void" but before when I took Ayahuasca I had read loads of books and watched loads of films about it so in my mind I convinced myself I knew exactly what it was about before I took it.. then reality hit me on the head quite harshly, as there is only one winner when you go to war with reality, hopefully I learned my lesson. Beginners mind is the ideal.

[Marblehead]

I didn't have this problem so much with "the void" but before when I took Ayahuasca I had read loads of books and watched loads of films about it so in my mind I convinced myself I knew exactly what it was about before I took it.. then reality hit me on the head quite harshly, as there is only one winner when you go to war with reality, hopefully I learned my lesson. Beginners mind is the ideal.

There is a very important concept within these words.

[de_paradise]

I'd call it a state of consciousness beyond the 5 senses, no need to intellectualize. Its great that you still have the residue of the experience, and I'd be curious if that lasted past a few weeks. My experiences in this tend to be deep out of normal consciousness, and I can feel my energy body, use my mind as to create the impression of flying or travelling, or sliding down an oily slide.

[adept]

http://thetaobums.com/topic/25534-entering-the-void/?hl=%2Bentering+%2Bthe+%2Bvoid

 

Here's an experience I had and the comments that followed.

[ion]

Nothingness is the birthplace of awareness, it is the original being, it has no trace, just an awareness. True nothingness is not void, void is the first infinity of the male and female integration. It is not nothing, because there is space. More realisticly it, being void, is the first form.

 

Void is not to be mistaken with empty space either. Or it could be said that, empty space is the 3rd form of nothingness, the physical form of void.

 

Void is not just darkness/emptyness. It is nothingness intermingled with brightness. It is dark, but has clarity; its backbone is infinity.

 

Nothingness is, but exist only as the original being, by definition it has no form, but it is aware of its being' it's sense of being and self awareness are the birth place of all things.

 

The male aspect never exists indepenently from the female aspect; the male aspect is an inversion and same thing as nothingness which is the original female.

 

From the aspect of nothingness there is the origination of male, at the "moment" of males origination, nothingness responds and integrates the male by inverting its quality, just as the male is the inversion of that original female. Males origination is the first action, its immediate reaction to the environment,(nothingness) is infintesimal smallness, female inverts by being activated (which is an action on male), and infintesimaly expansive.

 

Male is invisable, expressing itself only as clarity amidst eternal darkness. yet still there is no emptiness, there is no depth or height, no gravity to fall; no dimension, only essence, principle and awareness of the everpresent sense of being.

 

I've spent years in nothingness, the undulating light and the dark. A quality of knowing and seeing that used to take over my senses in trance states that had me afraid to begin meditation practice for years because the trances would just come on without anything causing it. I thought if I sat and allowed the state of meditation that trance state would take me to scary places.

 

There is even something written in my natal chart about my having knowlede of the void.

 

Many people will tell you to stay out of there, that it is negative and not to give it any mind. NOnsense. The void is the begining, the launchpad of reality and the origin of life. Starting with nothingness, one can watch the essence of Tao originate and elaborate reality. Only from there can you watch creation happen step by step.

[Daong]

Did you feel like the white dot in this?

 

Edited September 26, 2013 by Daong

[voidisyinyang]

sit in full lotus.

[ion]

Did you feel like the white dot in this?

 

The white dot is purely representational, bot in the Image, and in the void space where its some times seen as light. The curviture in the Tai chi symbol is also representative of the undulation produced by the white and the black existing in the same "space", which can also be felt, and also seen as breathing or a breathlike shape in emptiness.

 

The reality is there is no space and they are both there to keep it that way, they are being nothingness yet they have a portion of a diversified way of being that, so like chemicals, they react, yet they dont play out because they exist as expressions of infinity.

 

The closest image in physical reality you could conjure is an empty vacuous space as female in reaction to male, and the ever collapsing infinetness of a singularity as the male aspect, which alsoemits no actual light.

 

These things though are not the "emptiness" that Buddha talks about when he says "everything is empty".

 

Emptiness in that respect is the notness of everything, that nothing has a charecteristic to its nature, or a self, meaning that it is anything. That we make ourselves aware of things, and that what we are "aware" of comes into being as the reality we experience, and that things are what or that they are; the reality is that things are nothing, just an aspect of ego cultivated consciousness.

[Daong]

The white dot is the energy required to perceive the void. Without perceiving there would be no experience for you to share would there?

[dawei]

Void is NOW

[Marblehead]

Void is NOW

Void does not exist.

[ion]

The white dot is the energy required to perceive the void. Without perceiving there would be no experience for you to share would there?

 

 

The perception of void is embeded in mind, it is now, like dawei said, and it also does not exist like marblehead says.

 

Everything is mind, and mind begind in nothingness, and that is how something comes from nothing.

 

In the begining, there was absolutely nothing, and it became aware. Because nothing by nature does not exist, only its awareness existed. Because the awareness of nothing existed, and its existence is dependent on infinity, and nothing's infinitude(because it is not nothing if something exist within it) i, nothings awareness, trancends the confines of nothingness as they are in that state, and inverts into male aspect, which rather then being comparable to the lack of all things, is comparable to all things collapsing inward in an infintesamly small point.

 

This causes the previous form of nothing to expand, giving the impression of outwardness and space, however its an in travesable space, even male cant be "within" the "space", yet male "ends up" on "the othersde", which is essentially another dimmension of nothing, as it ends up there the nothingness there (female) springs into being.

 

Non-existance is the original state of the female aspect, which conjurs up the male aspect, which acts on nothingness. Nothingness, integrates/immitates/reflects, and does the opposite of males collapsing which again is expanding eternaly.

 

Because they are non-existant, the dimmension of non-existance is a dimmension of mind and awareness because each of these that come into being develop a self awareness.

 

It is the self awareness of these that "actually exist". The first of which is just a sense of being, the same exact sense of being that all of us share and that gives us the impression of being, self and life. It is the same exact sense of being that you will still have after the death of your body.

 

It is the same sense of being as is within male/female and everything live or dead.

 

The male and female aspects each have a sense of being, and each have self awareness, and because their nature is the same,( the only difference being the direction they "move"), they also share the exact same self awareness; they have the same I am.

 

But because their bodies do not exist, only the awareness of their being exists, and when we reach void, it is that exact same awareness we are sharing.

 

Anything seen or experienced there is real, but represenative of its reality because its reality has no form. The white can be seen, and it can also be seen just as a ripple or a dimple. The female can be seen as darkness, or right on top of our daily reality.

 

The interplay can be seen from the female, and it can be seen from the male.

 

Just as the two come into being and gain awareness, so does the symetry between the two. So do all their shared attributes, equilibrium, balance, eternity etc., also so does the phenomenon they bring forth gain a self awareness. The transmutation, the diversification, the replication, the elements of time and creation. All these things come into being, gain awareness, and by the same force of infinities being, they spread infinitely so eternity gets filled with a gazillion specks of white nothing undulating and spreading across the sea of infinitude. But there is no time and space as of yet so the visual is purely represenitive of its actuality.

 

There are a gazillion yin/yang interplaying at any givven point all the time everywhere underneath reality, and within reality you see its expression everywhere.

 

Just as sense of being and self awareness arises on all these "things", the collective of all these things being a thing also gains awareness. This Awareness is mind and the conduit from which nothing becomes something.

 

It realizes its being and considers itself almost consciously. It realizes it is eternal, and thus has comfort and bliss. It considers possabilities, that this aspect of its reality, plus that aspect could be something other then nothing, and in a way to complicated to explain from this angle, all things come into being.

 

So the experience of void is a state of awareness, and it rests in the begining of time and mind. The core of sentience. Reach it, but dont hold it and it may spring to life.

[Neophyte]

Void does not exist.

 

Void DOES exist: it is the formless aspect of the Dao.

 

 

its wrong to see the void as void - in emptiness heres substance - pure yang - look for that - dont fall into the yin realm of darkness and coldness

 

 

 

But one will always see the void as void until the light of vitality manifests. This light will only appear after long training, when one's jing, chi and shen are full.

Edited September 30, 2013 by Neophyte

[Marblehead]

Void DOES exist: it is the formless aspect of the Dao.

No, that is the Mystery (potential).

[ChiDragon]

Void DOES exist: it is the formless aspect of the Dao.

 

Yes, exactly.....!!!

You do read profoundly into the Tao Te Ching. Void is Wu(無) which is the formless aspect of the Tao.

[Marblehead]

 

Yes, exactly.....!!!

You do read profoundly into the Tao Te Ching. Void is Wu(無) which is the formless aspect of the Tao.

Hehehe. You are wrong too.

 

Wu is Mystery (potential).

Edited September 30, 2013 by Marblehead

[dawei]

I like Ion's explanation and how void is both/and, to exist and not exist through awareness.

 

I would say that void does not exist only in the sense that it is unmanifested or not arising from something previous;

 

That it exists in the sense of potential. Potential is the potential to exist. Our NOW is the potential NOW.

 

So yes, Wu is potential is Void; a formless function of Dao (the eternal process of awareness and arising). Just as the manifest is the form function of Dao.

 

From this both spirit and physical manifest; Invisible and visible...

[ChiDragon]

Hehehe. You are wrong too.

 

Wu is Mystery (potential).

 

I told you this before.

Wu was a given name to Tao in her invisible state with a great potential power to create.

 

It is three against one(you), now. I won't say that you're wrong because Tao is omnipresent and mysterious to most of us.........

Edited October 1, 2013 by ChiDragon

[silent thunder]

I became lucid in Void once.

 

In much the same way that I become lucid in the dream state; I became aware in Void while asleep one night.

 

I suddenly became lucid.

I was succinctly aware that there was nothing to be aware of...

I had no body, there was no form and beyond the staggering fact that there was no form, I had an instinctive understanding that in this presence, form was impossible. Nothing I had ever known or would ever understand was anywhere in relation to this 'place'. Impossible Darkness, Utter Isolation. The magnitude of the thought was terrorizing and nauseating.

 

I had no idea, no word for it.

The only thought was that any reality I had ever associated with, was impossibly far away... unreachable.

 

Panic ensued and I awoke.

 

Much later I was reading a description of sonic models of dimensional travel that described the 'void' that exists between each note in a scale or each dimension in a reality and the resonance of that experience returned with full recall. I had a word for my experience.

 

Void.

[ion]

I would say that void does not exist only in the sense that it is unmanifested or not arising from something previous;

 

That it exists in the sense of potential. Potential is the potential to exist. Our NOW is the potential NOW.

 

So yes, Wu is potential is Void; a formless function of Dao (the eternal process of awareness and arising). Just as the manifest is the form function of Dao.

 

From this both spirit and physical manifest; Invisible and visible...

Thats exactly what I was saying, dawei, thank you!

 

 

I became lucid in Void once.

 

In much the same way that I become lucid in the dream state; I became aware in Void while asleep one night.

 

I suddenly became lucid.

I was succinctly aware that there was nothing to be aware of...

I had no body, there was no form and beyond the staggering fact that there was no form, I had an instinctive understanding that in this presence, form was impossible. Nothing I had ever known or would ever understand was anywhere in relation to this 'place'. Impossible Darkness, Utter Isolation. The magnitude of the thought was terrorizing and nauseating.

 

I had no idea, no word for it.

The only thought was that any reality I had ever associated with, was impossibly far away... unreachable.

 

Panic ensued and I awoke.

 

Much later I was reading a description of sonic models of dimensional travel that described the 'void' that exists between each note in a scale or each dimension in a reality and the resonance of that experience returned with full recall. I had a word for my experience.

 

Void.

 

 

It is unreachable in the physical sense, because it is immaterial.

 

Sounds similar to some of my initial experences. Panic generaly ensues with a rapid onset of identity awareness. At first there is just the sense of being, then the sense of familiarity. Without propper preperations, meaning having not started the practice of meditation, the sense of being starts to have sense of familiarity, so without propper mindfullness and concentration of dhyana,the mind snaps out of it and it can be like an anxiety attack.

 

The sense of familiarity is what got my attention, and the idea of somthing being familiar subtly there. When I become aware that something feels familiar, it implies a relative reality, to draw up the concept of self and other, even though it is not a real conscious thought, causes an immediate sense of self awareness, and a manic questioning, "who is this I who is being aware of itself being?!" , and it causes the panic, its all the sudden frightenig to be, and to all the sudden seem to have come into being within the void that instant, yet have no sense of identity.

 

Then the sense of identity falls togeather quickly. You remember that you have a "mom", a friend called Pat, a telephone and stuff like that, but they are not even fully there, but the concepts are developing and its reassuring, and reassuring that everything is real and concrete around you.

Edited October 1, 2013 by ion

[Marblehead]

I like Ion's explanation and how void is both/and, to exist and not exist through awareness.

Yes, I know that this is where you are right now.

 

I just don't like the word "void" because as I undersand the TTC, Lao Tzu does not speake of it.

 

In my understanding, void would equate to "absolute Nothingness" and this, just as with Tao, cannot be spoken of.

 

 

I told you this before.

Wu was a given name to Tao in her invisible state with a great potential power to create.

 

It is three against one(you), now. I won't say that you're wrong because Tao is omnipresent and mysterious to most of us.........

Okay, now I can agree with you because you didn't yse the word "void".

 

I became lucid in Void once.

Okay. Nice dream. Now forget about it because it was only a dream. When you woke up you were still you even though your mind has changed slightly, this which happens all the time without those types of dreams.

 

Sounds similar to some of my initial experences.

Rest your mind and you won't have them anymore. All you will have is the 'now' moment. That's reality.