It\u2019s a serious matter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Prime cause: sensing a loss of control<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n In meditation, this is most frequently related to depersonalization, the \u2018loss of self,\u2019 the feeling of no longer being an entity in uncontroversial control of oneself \u2015 whether or not symbolized through a hallucinatory experience of something outside.<\/p>\n\n\n\n To any organism, this can be related to the sense of no longer being an active agent, or even no longer being alive, being symbolically ‘dead while alive.’ Since life itself starts with a sense of active agency, losing it may be challenging indeed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I said this is a serious matter!<\/p>\n\n\n\n And yet this is also the aim of deep meditation.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Any meditation that has not this finality \u2013 whether the purpose is to attain it or not \u2013 is a substitute, not the real thing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n This should lead to caution. At the same time, even crossing a street is deadly challenging if one doesn\u2019t know what one is doing. It\u2019s no reason to keep standing on one side forever. Correct support is indicated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Another part of deep meditation: being friendly to oneself<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n This makes the \u2018loss of self\u2019 into a loss of only the usual idea of the self \u2015 still not straightforward but a different game altogether.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u2018The self\u2019 is not an object you might lose, although, in everyday life, it may feel as such, and people may vehemently hold on to such. Meditation gets interesting when it serves to let you depart from this illusion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The red light \u2013 do not cross the street \u2013 is on when you think you need to do this departing by force, being not from the inside out.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The green light is on when you are ready to \u2018let your self evolve\u2019 from the inside out.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Who can be anxious in meditation?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Think of this: \u2018you\u2019 cannot decide to be anxious or not. It happens to \u2018you\u2019 (or not). It is your deeper self that generates the anxiety. It is your self itself that is anxious of getting lost \u2015 which, as said, is precisely the aim of deep meditation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Therefore, the thing to do is to invite your self, to let it evolve \u2018from the inside out,\u2019 not to coerce it in any way. If you do this properly, it will react when it is ready, and otherwise not.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The royal road toward meditation is spontaneous.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n All the effort that you may make before this happens quite entirely by itself is needed to then get it for free.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Even so, take care of any anxiety that may arrive at you. It is not needed, but if it comes, it is part of your experience, which you should validate. Don\u2019t try to avoid it; don\u2019t look away from it; don\u2019t try to actively subdue it; don\u2019t run away. It is there for a reason. It is your friend.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It doesn\u2019t want to hurt you.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n If it does, you are hurting yourself \u2015 possibly quite substantially. Seriously enough, stay away from deep meditation if you don’t understand this. It is dangerous.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Otherwise, one good preventive idea is to devote part of your mediation on feeling safe and OKAY. There is no danger ahead \u2013 and instead, many worthwhile experiences \u2013 if you can let your self evolve by itself \u2015 by definition in congruence with your own deepest wish.<\/p>\n\n\n\n If you are ready, you may take as a lesson my own hilarious adventure in the zendo<\/a>.<\/p>\n