Alright so this might appear to be a weird question but I tend to think about weird things. I know the Buddha promises happiness, peace, and fulfillment for those who understand emptiness/anatta. This might sound odd, but one of my underlying fears(and I must admit it's more of a minor fear right now, but it's something always in the back of my mind) is that experience of emptiness/anatta could lead to psychosis, depersonalization, loss of identity, and loss of touch with reality... essentially losing one's mind. I remember reading a book on Jewish mediation and the author presented a meditation on emptiness towards the end of the book but gave many warnings on how any spiritual activities that focus on "emptiness" should never be done without a teacher due to their danger. What are the dangers of meditation on emptiness? What precautions should be taken?
One of the books I'm reading right now actually briefly talks about this subject and how the author knew a guy that ended up getting a lot of psychotic episodes from his meditation practices and ended up having to give up meditation completely (I don't know the complete story, perhaps the guy had an underlying mental disorder to begin with). Anyways, the author's reasoning was that the people experiencing these negative effects are misunderstanding anatta. Essentially these people are clinging to the idea that everything is absolutely empty, and thus they lose touch with reality. But they are only seeing half the picture. Yes, everything is empty of inherent existence or nature, but yet we still exist. Yes, my true identity is empty of inherent existence but yet I still exist , you can have a conversation with me, we can go for a run, or eat lunch... these things are real. This is the paradox of existence - you are empty but yet you are real. Sure, a Bear is empty of inherent existence, but it still exists in a sense - if you ever have an encounter with a black bear growling right in front of your face, you'll probably understand that the experience is real.
So anyways, the point here is that the people who "lose there minds" while pursuing emptiness are only seeing half the picture. This is really hard to describe in words, but the best teaching I've found on the subject is this: "form is emptiness and emptiness is form." (nothing inherently exists) But you could also say, "form is form and emptiness is emptiness." (things relatively exist).
Maybe I'm just overthinking this, afterall, there are hundreds of thousands of Buddhists and most of them seem to be pretty healthy, there certainly doesnt seem to be a correlation between Buddhism and psychosis lol and science is starting to confirm the positive benefits of meditation and Buddhist practices. But perhaps there are certain individuals who have an easier ability to "open doors" in their perception, and for such individuals, mediation and experience of emptiness can be a dangerous thing. If this is the case, what precautions should one take who is pursuing a Buddhist path of experiencing emptiness? Like I said, this isn't a huge fear of mine but I guess I just want to get this off my chest.
