Last week, there was a question from someone else about making an experience the 'object of awareness rather than the subject of awareness': https://ecosophia.dreamwidth.org/241747.html?thread=42340435#cmt42340435
I meditated on this this morning, which has led to some questions. The idea makes sense in that if I am anxious about something, I can 'widen out' so that seeing whatever I am anxious about in a wider perspective helps reduce the anxiety.
However, especially when I was younger, I would frequently find that my "good" experiences would undergo something that might be similar. I would be having a great experience of some sort, completely caught in the moment, and then my mind would jump in and say, "hey, it's you that is experiencing this, and at some point this great experience you're having is going to be over and only a memory". I don't know if that is the same thing as 'making an experience the object, not subject, of awareness'.
So is the technique described in the original question meant to be used for negative emotions? It seems like my consciousness has it the other way around. Negative emotions often totally fill my awareness, and positive emotions get distanced.
This has me wondering whether a) that full in-the-moment awareness where the "me" sense is forgotten is a state that some spiritual practices are meant to recapture, or b) whether the goal is rather to see that both "good" and "bad" experiences are poles of the same thing, and spiritual practice is meant to teach one to distance oneself from them. Indeed, I now suddenly wonder if this is what is meant by detachment?
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branchandroot
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Date: 2023-08-07 12:42 pm (UTC)https://ecosophia.dreamwidth.org/241747.html?thread=42340435#cmt42340435
I meditated on this this morning, which has led to some questions. The idea makes sense in that if I am anxious about something, I can 'widen out' so that seeing whatever I am anxious about in a wider perspective helps reduce the anxiety.
However, especially when I was younger, I would frequently find that my "good" experiences would undergo something that might be similar. I would be having a great experience of some sort, completely caught in the moment, and then my mind would jump in and say, "hey, it's you that is experiencing this, and at some point this great experience you're having is going to be over and only a memory". I don't know if that is the same thing as 'making an experience the object, not subject, of awareness'.
So is the technique described in the original question meant to be used for negative emotions? It seems like my consciousness has it the other way around. Negative emotions often totally fill my awareness, and positive emotions get distanced.
This has me wondering whether a) that full in-the-moment awareness where the "me" sense is forgotten is a state that some spiritual practices are meant to recapture, or b) whether the goal is rather to see that both "good" and "bad" experiences are poles of the same thing, and spiritual practice is meant to teach one to distance oneself from them. Indeed, I now suddenly wonder if this is what is meant by detachment?
Many thanks!