feeling of non-realism

[mobius]

This is quite difficult to explain but seems common to what I've read a lot of other people talking about to some degree.

Quite often when/during or after meditating, especially if I open my eyes and look at or feel something with my fingers or whatever, I get a sense that I'm not seeing reality. For example if I touch the carpet of my floor it's like I'm not touching or able to actually touch my carpet, or the carpet isn't really there at all, that its all just... an illusion? Actually as I think about it now this is a feeling that happens to me often and happened before I ever started meditating. Meditation may have just brought it to my attention, this and other things I've been listening to like the work of scientist Donald Hoffman.

It's like I somehow can't really connect with the world, like there's an impenetrable barrier between me and the world. Maybe I'm just sensing the truth that our lives are a creation in our brains based on our senses and in some fundamental sense we can't ever really see the world how it "really is"? But I don't know, that's just my intellectual side trying to make sense of it based on things I've read. I don't know if that's what this is really all about at all.

[Dharmic Tui]

I feel this, but believe it's more to do with a disconnect between an older self that thought it was more in tune with the world than it actually was.

[Matthew]

Hi mobius,

Something to look into: 'derealisation' .. just Google it. I'm not saying it's true of your situation, merely bringing your awareness to it as a possibility, in particular as you say it happened before you were meditating.

Peace,

Matthew

[Middleway]

This is quite difficult to explain but seems common to what I've read a lot of other people talking about to some degree.

Quite often when/during or after meditating, especially if I open my eyes and look at or feel something with my fingers or whatever, I get a sense that I'm not seeing reality. For example if I touch the carpet of my floor it's like I'm not touching or able to actually touch my carpet, or the carpet isn't really there at all, that its all just... an illusion? Actually as I think about it now this is a feeling that happens to me often and happened before I ever started meditating. Meditation may have just brought it to my attention, this and other things I've been listening to like the work of scientist Donald Hoffman.

It's like I somehow can't really connect with the world, like there's an impenetrable barrier between me and the world. Maybe I'm just sensing the truth that our lives are a creation in our brains based on our senses and in some fundamental sense we can't ever really see the world how it "really is"? But I don't know, that's just my intellectual side trying to make sense of it based on things I've read. I don't know if that's what this is really all about at all.

Although most people use the words consciousness and awareness interchangeably, there is indeed a difference. When you withdraw all your senses, the manifest world outside disappears (for you). Then you will become aware of mental formations such as feelings, memory as recalled thoughts etc. When you mind quiets down further, what remains is awareness. This is the only reality that is immobile and unchanging. All else is consciousness which is in constant state of flux.

To put it another way, the carpet you touch, the dog’s bark you hear and fragrance of a flower you smell are all consciousness. The whole world is consciousness. Your body and the mind are in the consciousness. And the consciousness is in awareness.

Hope I am making sense. If not, kindly ignore.