Why Do I Feel Like People Are Talking About Me?

[faith]

It can be something silly like a walk in the street, and I hear a group of people go by and laugh. Or a large crowd, and I am hearing a multitude of whispers, conversations, and murmurs, and I start to think that they are talking about me. Why do I feel this way?

Thank you.

[Guest Annetta]

I feel like that too sometimes, I think it is from extreme self consciousness.  

[Prabhaker]

@faith

The present can be found only when mind has ceased utterly— when the past no longer overpowers you and the future no more possesses you, when you are disconnected from the memories and the imaginations. In that moment where are you? Who are you? In that moment you are a nobody And nobody can hurt you when you are a nobody. You cannot be wounded because the ego is very ready to receive wounds. The ego is almost seeking and searching to be wounded; it exists through wounds. Its whole existence depends on misery, pain.

When you are a nobody, anguish is impossible, anxiety is simply unbelievable. When you are a nobody, there is great silence, stillness, no noise inside. Past gone, future disappeared—what is there to create noise? And the silence that is heard is celestial, sacred. For the first time, in those spaces of no-mind, you become aware of the eternal celebration that goes on and on. That's what the existence is made of.

Except man, the whole existence is blissful. Only man has fallen out of it, has gone astray. Only man can do it because only man has consciousness.
Now, consciousness has two possibilities: It can become a bright light in you, so bright that even the sun will look pale compared to it-—Buddha says if a thousand suns have risen suddenly, when you look within with no mind it is all light, eternal light. It is all joy, pure, uncontaminated, unpolluted. It is simple bliss, innocent. It is wonder. Its majesty is indescribable, its beauty inexpressible, and its benediction inexhaustible. Aes dhammo sanantano—"so is the ultimate law."

If you can only put your mind aside, you will become aware of the cosmic play. Then you are only energy, and the energy is always here now, it never leaves the "herenow." That is one possibility; you can become pure consciousness.

The other possibility is you can become self-consciousness. Then you fall. Then you become a separate entity from the world. Then you become an island, defined, well-defined. Then you are confined because all definitions confine. Then you are in a prison cell, and the prison cell is dark, utterly dark. There is no light, no possibility of light. And the prison cell cripples you, paralyzes you.

Self-consciousness becomes a bondage; the self is the bondage. And consciousness becomes freedom.

Drop the self and be conscious! That is the whole message, the message of all the buddhas of all the ages, past, present, future.

The essential core of the message is very simple: Drop the self, the ego, the mind, and be.

Just this moment when this silence pervades, who are you? A nobody, a nonentity. You don't have a name, you don't have a form. You are neither man nor woman, neither Hindu nor Mohammedan. You don't belong to any country, to any nation, to any race. You are not the body, and you are not the mind.

Then what are you? In this silence, what is your taste? How does it taste to be? Just a peace, just a silence . . . and out of that peace and silence a great joy starts surfacing, welling up, for no reason at all. It is your spontaneous nature.

The art of putting the mind aside is the whole secret of religiousness because as you put the mind aside, your being explodes into a thousand and one colors. You become a rainbow, a lotus, a one-thousand-petaled lotus. Suddenly you open up, and then the whole beauty of existence—which is infinite—is yours. Then all the stars in the sky are within you. Then even the sky is not your limit; you no longer have any limits.

Silence gives you a chance to melt, merge, disappear, evaporate. And when you are not, you are; for the first time you are. When you are not, God is, nirvana is, enlightenment is. When you are not, all is found. When you are, all is lost.

Man has become a self-consciousness; that is his going astray, that is the original fall. All the religions talk about the original fall in some way or other, but the best story is contained in Christianity. The original fall is because man eats from the tree of knowledge. When you eat of the tree of knowledge, the fruits of knowledge, it creates self-consciousness.

The more knowledgeable you are, the more egoistic you are . . . hence the ego of the scholars, pundits, maulvis.

The ego becomes decorated  with great knowledge, scriptures, systems of thought. But they don't make you innocent; they don't bring you the childlike quality of openness, of trust, of love, of playfulness. Trust, love, playfulness, wonder all disappear when you become very knowledgeable. 
 And we are being taught to become knowledgeable. We are not taught to be innocent, we are not taught how to feel the wonder of existence. We are told the names of the flowers, but we are not taught how to dance around the flowers. We are told the names of the moun-tains, but we are not taught how to commune with the mountains, how to commune with the stars, how to commune with the trees, how to be in tune with existence.
Out of tune, how can you be happy?

Out of tune, you are bound to remain in anguish, in great misery, in pain. You can be happy only when you are dancing with the dance of the whole, when you are just a part of the dance, when you are just a part of this great orchestra, when you are not singing your song separately Only then, in that melting, is man free.

OSHO

[S33K3R]

Your mind is playing tricks on you to keep you in a state of negativity. If you are feeling negative it activates the primitive parts of the brain to take over which is what your brain wants. Do not allow your mind to feed you these lies. I myself had this problem. Do not allow your mind this freedom in your life.

[faith]

2 hours ago, Nichols Harvey said:

@faith

Depending on the frequency?

Does this happen a lot or just sometimes?

Sometimes is normal. But frequently you should get it checked out. It may be a medical problem or you might just need a short round of counselling to deal with whatever is bothering you.

It is nothing to worry about.  But just get yourself checked out just in case.

Well, my doctors always tell me I am as healthy as they get. And it happens sometimes, not all the time. I think I am just self-consious. I have had this problem for a long time, but in the last 2 years, it has improved.