Strange visual attachment

[anagarika]

This is something I´ve been noticing since my very fist meditation sessions nearly a decade ago - and it hasn´t changed too much since. I have a very visual mind, which I think is not uncommon, but I wonder how specific is the way this visual proclivity manifests in me. I can relatively easily visualize things on purpose, but even when I don´t, there are - most of the time - subtler or grosser visual perceptions of sceneries or places. Usually those are places from my everyday surroundings (rooms, garden, streets, ...) or natural sceneries (forests, mountains, ...). The places are always empty, without people, and the images are static, but can change. As the mind settles, the image typically starts fading into the background, but it is almost always still there. Another possibility is that with deepening concentration, the familiar scenery may start to morph into an unfamiliar one (as if from other worlds). It doesn´t really disturb me, when my meditation goes really well, the image gets very dim and is hardly noticable (and I don´t certainly worry about it), but it almost never disappears completely.

As I already mentioned, I´m not too concerned about it, but I still try to inquiry into it and find the reason for this particular fascination. However, I wasn´t able to come up with any explanation so far. Ajahn Punnadhamo told me to simply ignore those images as nimittas that arise naturally in the mind, which I do, but I´d like to figure out the cause. Is it some kind of attachment? If so, what would be the attachment? I´m not aware of any emotional implications that would be so strong to cause these images to reappear everytime. Some of the places are simply images of where I live, which is a nice place, but I don´t think I´m too obsessed about it. Some of the images are emotionally completely neutral to me - mere sense impressions from the past.

Does anyone have experienced something similar? Or at least heard about it? Would you recommend a particular meditation which could possibly harness this inclination to arrive at some samadhi/insight?

[Johnny Dangerous]

I have this same experience, only sometimes the “landscapes” I guess you would call them are associated with very subtle emotional states that I can’t really put into words.

Generally these experiences are positive, I feel like gaining a little clarity into the nature of appearances allows for some deeper experiences like this, which are often hard to describe with language. Some of the experiences are very blissful and spacious, which said to me don’t get too attached.

I doubt they mean anything specifically, other than that one is simply developing more clarity wrt appearances, but I have never asked a teacher about it either.

My working theory is that certain landscapes are conducive towards samadhi, and that these qualities are precisely why they are recommended in some teachings. So, there are some natural images that resonate in a positive manner with meditative absorbtion.

[Tao]

I knew of another person who sees different landcapes when meditating.

Not usual, but not very rare. I dont know the reasons. I think it's quite inoffensive

BTW Recently I met a person (other one) who doesnt have inner chat at all, but he is 100% visual so he sees himself at situations instead of chat o usual thought. And yes, his suffering is the same...

We're working treating his imaginery exactly as we treat thoughts, so self-liberation is self-liberation of images...

Minds are way more different than we think-

People are awesome!

PS: It's the second one I found in that situation, but the other one was met just by mail. So probably also it's not one in one million but more usual...

[PadmaVonSamba]

I have a very visual mind

….

I still try to inquiry into it and find the reason

You already answered it. You have a visual mind. You are visually-oriented. So am I. If you give me driving directions, I can’t follow them at all. If you draw me a crude zig-zag line representing the left and right turns I will need to make, I can picture the whole thing.

This has to do more with brain activity and sensory stimuli than with mind. We use sensory input to construct patterns of information in the mind. Dogs, for example, rely heavily on smell. They can smell where a person was yesterday. That’s why they are used to track people who are lost. That’s how they map things.

Humans rely heavily on deductive reasoning. When we see or smell smoke, we immediately construct the source as being some kind of fire: house fire, bbq cookout, a pile of leaves burning, incense, etc. Olfactory (sense of smell) is the earliest developed brain-sensory function to evolve.
Most people share a similar ability with regards to smell/taste perceptions.

Vision developed later. The fact that some people are more visually oriented is probably due to evolution. Early on, seeing visual clues and, from them, deducing that a saber tooth tiger is nearby, was probably a very good survival skill. Those who had it lived, they had kids who inherited it, and here you are today.

[anagarika]

I have a very visual mind

….

I still try to inquiry into it and find the reason

You already answered it. You have a visual mind. You are visually-oriented. So am I. If you give me driving directions, I can’t follow them at all. If you draw me a crude zig-zag line representing the left and right turns I will need to make, I can picture the whole thing.

This has to do more with brain activity and sensory stimuli than with mind. We use sensory input to construct patterns of information in the mind. Dogs, for example, rely heavily on smell. They can smell where a person was yesterday. That’s why they are used to track people who are lost. That’s how they map things.

Humans rely heavily on deductive reasoning. When we see or smell smoke, we immediately construct the source as being some kind of fire: house fire, bbq cookout, a pile of leaves burning, incense, etc. Olfactory (sense of smell) is the earliest developed brain-sensory function to evolve.
Most people share a similar ability with regards to smell/taste perceptions.

Vision developed later. The fact that some people are more visually oriented is probably due to evolution. Early on, seeing visual clues and, from them, deducing that a saber tooth tiger is nearby, was probably a very good survival skill. Those who had it lived, they had kids who inherited it, and here you are today.

Dear me, only now do I notice my sloppy writing - of course, I meant to write: "I still try to inquire into it"

Anyway, it seems it can be safely ignored then. It´s probably just brain taking care of its own business. The only instance where I noticed it can slightly distract me is when I´m doing kasina meditations. This is essentially a visual meditation - I´m using a blue disc. It´s easy for me to visualise it in a vibrant colour, but I noticed it is always on the background of a landscape/place. So basically there are always two images layered on each other. Again, as the disc gets more vivid, the background tends to fade out, but is is always there. Before I manage to stabilise the kasina, sometimes I get distracted by the background thinking "it shouldn´t be there". I should probably treat this thought as any other thought, i.e. just ignore it.