How to handle weird meditative states: Grounding practices and more
What to do when you get stuck in seeing emptiness and have a hard time functioning in consensus reality
By Katharine Bierce
In Daniel Ingram’s long meditation manual, Mastering the Core Teachings of the Buddha, he discusses higher-level meditation experiences that can happen when you do a lot of Insight (vipassana) type practices. Insight practices are in part about breaking apart how you experience reality so you can see its constituent parts. Some people can experience really weird meditative states, sometimes when you’re not “trying” to meditate, and this can make it hard to live a normal life “off the cushion.”
At a recent meditation event taught by Shundo (David Haye), a Zen teacher who is based in San Francisco, he said something like: “It’s good to be one with the universe, and it’s also useful to be able to go shopping. Don’t get so stuck in oneness that you can’t go make lunch.”
Things to consider if you are experiencing being “stuck in emptiness”
Check your intention: what are you intending to practice?
If you’re doing Insight practices or deliberately cultivating the ability to connect with non-self/emptiness/however you want to say it – know that weird experiences do come up
Check the appropriateness of your behavior
Are you on a meditation cushion? Cool, it’s fine to experience weird states. Go to the next step: Remember anicca (impermanence) – that this state won’t last forever, however scary or annoying it is.
Are you trying to drive a car? Send some emails? Make lunch? Then set the intention to practice noticing your experience in a grounded, cohesive way. As Tucker Peck says, “Act normal in public and safe in private.”
See the list of practices below to help with that.
Are you not meditating on the cushion, but find your experiences disconcerting?
Remember that nothing lasts forever. You can use this experience as part of your path to remember that even this state of mind will pass at some point.
Try a grounding practice
Examples below.
Get additional support
If you feel really stuck, call a therapist who is also a meditation teacher (like Dr. Tucker Peck).
A hypothesis about why some meditation practitioners get “stuck in emptiness”
My theory of why this happens is because there are a few ways of seeing Insight or transcendent practice is energetically “up and out” or “breaking into pieces” while the other direction is manifestation practice and consensus reality is more about the cohesion of things coming together from intention to reality – the “down and in” direction.
The yogis who meditated in caves hundreds or thousands of years ago were mostly concerned with transcending the world of form. From first chakra (physical form) to seventh chakra (connection to all that is/oneness).
A lot of meditation and yogic practices are about transcendence: going in the up / first to seventh chakra. A mature spiritual practice also cultivates the manifestation / going I the downward or seventh to first chakra. In one word: integration.
When you drive a car, this is as important a practice as being able to both go forward in Drive or go backward in Reverse. while some action figures may be able to drive completely in Reverse in a movie, for your safety and that of others, it’s important to be able to access all functions of your transmission in your car, and in your mind.
Transcendence and Grounding: The Up and Down Energy Directions
An easy-to-understand example of the “grounding” or “manifesting” or “downward” direction, from seventh to first chakra is the decision to procreate. Here’s an example, numbered by chakra:
7. The intention to have a kid. Potentially, connecting with the spirit of your future child. Connecting with something beyond yourself.
6. Thinking about having a kid. Planning things like where you plan to give birth, finding healthcare practitioners you like, etc. What do you want to embody as a future parent? What values do you want to transmit?
5. Speaking about your intention to have a kid. Talking to your partner. Talking to healthcare providers.
4. Caring about this intention.
3. Putting your will into it. Reviewing your finances and making appropriate decisions.
2. The act of procreation.
1. Giving birth to a being with physical form.
For women who are going through menopause, I hypothesize the energy of menstruation that was going downward with menstrual flow every month, is now going upwards to connect to greater purpose (the transcendent direction). Which is why I hypothesize that it’s even more important for this group of people to connect with the downward flow of energy in Earth energy / grounding practices to balance your energy so there isn’t too much energy going up and not enough going down. (I say I hypothesize this because I am not in the menopause stage myself, but when my body is menstruating, I notice my energy feels more grounded and that it goes inward and downward rather; when I’m at work or caffeinated, I feel the energy going upward, like I’m living in my head, rather than my body.)
Suggested Grounding Practices to Do as a Complement to Meditation
These can help with seeing the cohesion of existence (i.e. “Emptiness also is form” – if you are stuck in “form is emptiness”)
Connect with nature.
Hold a rock.
Walk barefoot on the ground.
Appreciate the smell and beauty of flowers, if there are some around.
Plant some seeds. Shovel compost. Pull some weeds.
Set an intention for connection and cohesion.
Pray to / connect with Mother Earth in whatever way feels comfortable to you.
Connect with animals.
Play with a cat. Walk a dog. Notice how they interact with their environment.
Connect with your body.
Take a warm bath. Epsom salts or mineral water is nice but just soaking your whole body in warm water helps.
Make some tea. (Herbal tea recommended, as caffeine lifts the energy and you want a downward energy flow. I like rooibos and reishi mushroom blends for their earthiness.)
Listen to grounding music. What makes you happy?
The Beatles’ Come Together is pretty good : ) or the Beatles in general!
Exercise!
If you don’t want to leave your house, do some jumping jacks, pushups, situps, etc. indoors, or in a back yard outside.
If you feel OK to go further from your house, go for a walk / run etc.
Practice Earth element qigong or other grounding poses.
Mimi Kuo-Deemer has an Earth element qigong practice here on YouTube
Do a horse stance and feel your center of gravity.
Reasoning: I think that insight practice / overanalyzing tends to be a lot of Air or Space elements and you space out, hence, the need for Earth element practice.
Eat grounding foods.
If you’re an omnivore, eat more meat.
If you’re vegetarian, eat things that are hearty or heavy, like soups, bread, protein like beans or tofu, Impossible Burger, etc.
Read books about integration, like Jack Kornfield’s After the Ecstasy, the Laundry.
Disclaimer: I am not a therapist or medical professional. If you feel you need additional support, I recommend contacting a therapist who is also a meditation teacher, such as Dr. Tucker Peck.