The TSK Email Forum
Thread XXXx01: Expanding and Condensing
[This version of the exercise was written by Steve Randall, 10/12/98]
"Expanding and Condensing" is a TSK exercise that is not described or even mentioned in the Time, Space, and Knowledge books, though it may have been intended as a lead-in exercise for the Giant Body visualizations. (Another simple version of the exercise appears in Dynamics of Time and Space on pp. 3-6; still other versions of this exercise will be published in this thread as they become available.) 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)
entry 0001: SDTS, p. 224: The usual terms we use for knowledge are linear in their connections and implications. We speak of a point of origin and a zero-point, but in fact every point is zero and every zero moves toward transition. Each transition is also a point, also an axis, also an axiom. Each axis is a ratio, and each ratio is 16. Each ratio allows for expansion and contraction, the archetypes of the rhythms of unfolding and establishing through which appearance manifests.
entry 0002: Molly Riley [10/14/98] wrote: "Isn't
this something like paying attention to what's going on all around
you . . . ?" and Steve Randall replied, "If you combine
this with the focused concentration of a surgeon, then I'd say
it's one particular example of expanding and condensing."
Then Don Salmon added [10/15/98]: "Perhaps another way of
experiencing this kind of expansion/condensation is to take the
whole experience of space - 360 degrees: "what's going on
all around you" - as "ground" - and to take the
focal point of concentration as "figure" - and to playfully
switch awareness between figure and ground, but without losing
either. This leads to a kind of simultaneity of all-encompassing
space and focused space within which both are contained and pervaded."
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