Question
Hello, Master Kosen,
First question: When I practice meditation, sometimes I feel as if I am spacing out, with a fixed gaze and very blurred vision (no more depth). In short, am I spacing out, or am I going in the right direction?
Second question: Why can't my mind really grasp the difference between emptiness and nihilism? Their definitions on paper are different, but in my mind the two come together... Is that normal?
Best wishes.
Nazgal
Answer from Master Kosen
Of course, you must remain vigilant—vigilant about your posture, because the attitude of the mind and the posture go hand in hand.
Also vigilant about your breathing, especially the exhalation, which should stabilize and strengthen the posture, as if you were digging a hole in a mountain.
It is normal for the objects surrounding your reality to become translucent as our attention withdraws from them.
If your consciousness completely loses contact with an object and no longer pays it any attention, then the object disappears.
Nihilism is an isthmus; it is an extreme. As for emptiness, it is far from nihilistic, since it adds the notion of space to everything.
Kosen