When open, objectless practice starts to feel unreal: ground first

If resting in open awareness leaves the world feeling dreamlike or you feeling absent, come back to the body and ordinary life first, then talk to a teacher.

Perché funziona

Lindahl and colleagues interviewed practitioners from Theravāda, Zen and Tibetan traditions and documented experiences that include derealisation — things seeming dreamlike or unreal — and changes in the sense of self, met variously with curiosity, bliss, fear or distress. Britton argues that practices helpful in moderation can become harmful past a point, so more is not always better. Dzogchen’s own texts say recognition is not a blank or absent state: Tulku Urgyen Rinpoche insists the empty nature is also knowing, and the third statement concerns confidence, not detachment from the world. A frightening sense of unreality is therefore a signal to restabilise in the body, the senses, people and routine, and to bring the experience to an experienced teacher — not evidence that you have reached rigpa.

Come farlo

1. Stop the open-awareness sessions for now. Open your eyes fully and look around the room; name a few things you can see and hear.
2. Feel your feet on the floor and your weight in the chair. Stand up, walk, drink something, eat a proper meal.
3. Fill the next hours with ordinary, concrete activity and contact with people — cooking, a walk outside, a conversation.
4. Tell an experienced teacher in your lineage what is happening, in plain words.
5. If the feeling persists, frightens you or gets in the way of daily life, see a clinician, ideally one familiar with meditation-related experiences; the meditation-related-challenges page describes these experiences and where to find support.
6. Return to practice only gradually, with short sessions and your teacher’s guidance.

Prove scientifiche

Lindahl and colleagues produced a taxonomy of meditation-related experiences from interviews with Western Buddhist practitioners and teachers, including derealisation and changes in sense of self, with responses ranging from positive to distressing. Britton’s review makes the case for a middle way in dosage. Tulku Urgyen Rinpoche’s teaching describes the nature of mind as empty and cognizant together, not as blankness. (observational)

The Lindahl study is qualitative and was designed to describe these experiences, not to estimate how often they occur, and it was not specific to Dzogchen. See the meditation-related-challenges page. If feelings of unreality ever turn into thoughts of harming yourself, contact a crisis line or emergency services now.

Fonti

• Lindahl, J. R., Fisher, N. E., Cooper, D. J., Rosen, R. K., & Britton, W. B. (2017). The varieties of contemplative experience: A mixed-methods study of meditation-related challenges in Western Buddhists. PLOS ONE, 12(5), e0176239.
• Britton, W. B. (2019). Can mindfulness be too much of a good thing? The value of a middle way. Current Opinion in Psychology, 28, 159–165.
• Tulku Urgyen Rinpoche and Tsoknyi Rinpoche (1999). As the Clouds Vanish — an excerpt adapted from Tulku Urgyen Rinpoche’s Rainbow Painting (Rangjung Yeshe Publications), with an interview with Tsoknyi Rinpoche. Tricycle: The Buddhist Review, Winter 1999.

Errore comune

Reading a frightening blankness or unreality as proof of deep recognition and pushing on with longer sessions. Nothing in the Dzogchen sources treats feeling absent or detached from the world as the goal.