The Expanding and Condensing Exercise

This is an article from the May, 1996 issue of Reports From the Field



By Steve Randall





"Expanding and Condensing" is a TSK exercise that is not described or even mentioned in the Time, Space, and Knowledge book, though apparently it was intended to be a lead-in exercise for the Giant Body visualizations.  (One version of the exercise appears in Dynamics of Time and Space on pp. 3-6.)  However, it has also been found by many TSK students to be a very effective  practice even after years of working with the TSK vision.


In the description of the exercise the term focal setting is used, so this term should be introduced.   'Outside TSK' the  term is most commonly used in referring to the adjustment of a camera lens.  The scene or view that a photographer wishes to represent on film is selected from the infinity of views available by changing the focal setting so that the object or scene of interest stands out.


The term focal setting is also used in the TSK book, but the usual photographic meaning has been extended in a certain way.  In TSK, focal setting refers not to the setting of a lens that selects one view of 'the world', but to a particular world-view, perspective, or way of viewing.  Furthermore, the view is considered to include not only what is on the 'other  side' of the lens, or the side away from the photographer-it includes the photographer as well.  Although the photographer is not conventionally considered a part of a focal setting (even though the setting exists only because of his action), in TSK the viewer or self is simply another aspect of the focal setting, even though the observer may feel himself to be outside of the focal setting.  (This feeling is another part of the setting.) 





In a further extension of the concept, the TSK type of focal setting includes all of one's experience, not just one's visual experience.  Feelings, thoughts, sensations, and intuitions--all types of experience are included within the setting.





Another difference from the photographic notion of focal setting is that with TSK a focal setting does not imply a view of just part of 'the world'.  Instead, our feelings and thoughts about being inside a larger spatially-extended physical universe are themselves aspects of an all-encompassing focal setting; they do not need to point to a reality outside the focal setting.  From a  nonconventional point of view, we might even say 'the world' is within certain focal settings; focal settings are not inside 'the world'.  Nothing need be presumed or felt to be 'outside of' or apart from the focal setting that contains it.  And focal settings themselves do not stand on or presuppose any more basic or fundamental aspect of reality.


TSK's idea of focal setting is close to the commonly used term frame of mind, which indicates a certain mood or state that we are in.  According to our usual 'realistic' point of view, we would not think that we were actually in a frame of mind, because we ordinarily think that we 'have minds' and states of mind.  But our common use of phrases such as "When I am in that frame of mind . . . " may be pointing to a more encompassing focal setting that is available, one in which the self or experiencer does not seem outside the experience, observing, directing, and owning it-self appears within it as an integral part.





Another term close to focal setting is space.  We might hear someone say, "I was in a really strange space yesterday."  In this sense, the word is used as slang for a mood or frame of mind, with the connotation of a subtle, higher dimension being involved in the experience indicated.  The higher dimension is pointed to by the use of the word in.



 The Exercise Description


Now for a description of "Expanding and Condensing."  This exercise, like all space exercises, is initially best done in a light, open setting that is free of distraction.  Attend to the focal setting or space that 'you are in'.  Allow the space to expand or move outward in all directions.  (If these instructions still don't make any sense, just imagine that the space you are in is expanding.)  Continue to follow the expansion, simply noticing what is happening.  


Eventually, some kind of condensation will occur.  You may feel your self coming out of an expanded space, or the space may be felt to shrink somewhat, or the expansion may be held back by a relatively dense or heavy or opaque aspect of the experience, for example a pain in the leg.  Follow the condensation in whatever direction it goes.  This motion inward may be trusted, even though the self may be unaccustomed to thinking of condensation as being wholesome or 'growth-oriented.'  Eventually the momentum of condensation will probably reach a natural turning point where expansion will occur.  


Let the movement of expanding and condensing continue as it will.  Over time, less effort and concentration may be necessary.  Elements of the experience in the movement might become less distinguished, or separate, as attention spreads evenly over all.  The feeling of self-often felt as doer at a central position in the exercise-can open up as a deep sense of relaxation pervades the exercise.  Eventually it may feel as though no one is doing the exercise-there is just relaxation, clarity, and energy.


When doing this exercise, or any other TSK exercise, there is no way to do it 'wrong' or incorrectly.  Any ideas and feelings about not doing it correctly are themselves part of the exercise.  Their energy may seem to point to some better way of doing the exercise, but rather than presenting goals toward which experience 'should be funneled', this energy can be 'fed back' into the expanding and condensing so that the exercise can continue and deepen.  


Finally, especially after some experience with the exercise, it may be started by expanding any aspect of experience-a sensation, emotion, thought, and so on-not just the space or focal setting.  With such an apparently small part of reality as a starting point, the significance of the following may become clear:  


     "When a single feather 
     and a thousand worlds
     Are equally this Space,
     Who can say which contains which?"


(p. xli, Time, Space, and Knowledge) 





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