What did Buddha taught about space time?
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It echoes in my mind that space time is not fundamental. I thought I read this in some psychics experiments, saw it in YouTube videos and/or read it in a book related to Buddhism. But I far from recall the details. I searched for space time not being fundamental on the topic of Buddhism but I am not really finding much about it.
With space time not being fundamental I mean to say that it is a construct of the mind. One can understand it is a mental construct, but still experience space time.
I am asking about the Buddhist view on space time, and the implications of that view.
I am asking because of the following experience I had. Recently I experienced some different perception during meditation. It was like my perception of the room I was sitting in vanished and there was no perception anymore of me having a body, sitting in a room. But I would not say I changed, I was still present. And I had my eyes closed all along. This experience of no longer having a body happened to me a couple of times during meditation now.
More recent I was doing a mental exercise to get the difference more clear about experience coming from sensory perception, and experience coming from the mind. I did so by focusing on my body, and then on some memory of how something felt tactically, and then switch focus back on my body, and so forth. I was switching like this continuously. Every time that I switched I mentally called out the difference (using my inner voice, so not out loud):
> Experience from sensory perception
and
> Experience from mental perception
At some point the distinction became more clear. At that moment it was clear to me the experience of space time arises because of a mental process.
At that moment I could solely focus on sensory perception, and the awareness of space time was gone. And I could go back as well to experience space time again. I then experienced having a body again, sitting in the car, on a parking lot in front of the office.
And I could go back again, focusing solely on sensory perception, where there was no experience anymore of me having a body.
It was like space contracted to be dimensionless and I had no awareness of my body anymore, nor the car I was sitting in. Or maybe I should say that there was nothing more but the experience of the body. The bodily awareness was different. All encompassing vs being part of something else. I am having difficulties to describe my experience. I could still think of my body and the car though, but the experience of having a body and sitting in a car stayed away. It stayed away for as long as I kept this focus on sensory perception. It was like I was withholding my mind from creating the spatial awareness or something.
I'm so curious to explore this more. Also how it relates to the self-awareness and experience of space time in dreaming (so a lucid dream).
And I am really curious if there is some perspective from Buddhism on this kind of experience.
Asked by Mike de Klerk
(388 rep)
May 10, 2019, 01:36 PM
Last activity: May 10, 2019, 03:42 PM
Last activity: May 10, 2019, 03:42 PM