Transcription
So I hope that it's obvious that in imaginal practice we're really talking about mindfulness of images, bringing mindfulness to bear on images and everything associated with those images -- or rather, certain aspects of experience associated with those images. We're not talking about daydreaming, about being lost in fantasy, about not being present, etc. I hope that's obvious, but sometimes I find that it isn't obvious to some people, and partly that's just because, as I mentioned in the opening talk, we're so used to, in this culture, regarding images a certain way. Also, sometimes, some people are very used to having quite a narrow range of view of what meditation is and what practice is, what it means to be present, etc. Hopefully it's obvious: we're really talking about mindfulness of images, or mindfulness with images. I want to explore now what's included, incorporated into that mindfulness in the imaginal practice.
For instance, what we're talking about is steadily attending to an image, holding an image in attention, rather than flitting from one image to another the way the mind does and the attention does when we are lost in daydreaming and not really present. So as much as possible, just as with the breath or something like that, we're steadily attending to, holding in the attention, an image. When the mind gets distracted, we notice that, just as with other practices, and we return to the image -- gently. You don't have to force it, you don't have to get too tight, just as with working skilfully with the breath or the mettā practice.
As we are holding an image and attending to it in this way, in this more steady way, it might want to evolve. The image might morph or change its form, or something else might be added to the image, some other character or something like that. So we let it evolve if it wants. But the attention is really on this image, which either stays relatively the same or evolves in some way or other.
With all this, there's a lot of mindfulness. It's asking quite a lot of our mindfulness. There's mindfulness of the body, and particularly of the energy body. So we've really put a lot of emphasis on that. There's mindfulness of the image. And there's mindfulness that it is an image -- knowing image as image, as I keep emphasizing. So mindfulness of the body, of the image, and knowing that it is an image.
There's mindfulness of our reactions, and our responses, and what happens, so to speak, in response to this image, or with this image -- so the thoughts that arise in response or reaction to the image, the views of the image or in response to the image. Sometimes they'll be very explicit. We notice that the mind is thinking or viewing in a certain way. And oftentimes it's more implicit. So even this awareness of the implicit view of the image, and what the image is, or what it might mean, etc., or what it's worth, all this, even that is included in our mindfulness. So mindfulness of view in relation to the image. Noticing the associations we might have with something in our life, or events, or trajectories, or the meaningfulnesses in our life.
Really, a sensitivity is required here with the mindfulness. Sensitivity to the resonances of energy, of emotion, to the qualities involved in the image and attending to it, opening and tuning to those qualities, perhaps, to those energies, to those emotions. Sensitive to the vedanā -- the pleasantness or unpleasantness, or neither pleasantness nor unpleasantness, so-called neutrality. We're aware of all this, sensitive to all that. How is the self-sense in relation to this image? Or how is the self-sense right now while I'm attending to this image? All this is part of the mindfulness and part of the sensitivity. So it's very different than daydreaming or being lost.
We could say we're attending, we're tuning, and we're opening to the imaginal, through the mindfulness. Attending, tuning, and opening. So let's break that down a little bit more and elaborate a little bit more. Here's another list of seven, a seven-point list to give you a sense. Some of it's very intuitive and obvious anyway, and some of it may not be. But to give you, to fill out the sense of what's really involved in this practice in terms of nuts and bolts.
(1) The first one is -- and we've touched on this before -- how do I sense the image right now? In other words, what is the primary sense modality? Not to elevate, necessarily, the visual sense. It could be auditory, the aural. It could be the body sense, more kinaesthetic. It could be even taste. Plenty of times something as strange as taste, there's a kind of knowing through the taste, or an imaginal taste, pregnant with all kinds of resonances. So how do we sense the image? This is part of the attending, part of recognizing. How do we sense this image? As I mentioned in one of the talks, maybe it's a more intuitive sense. It's not really one of the five inner senses or the inner correspondences of sight, sound, smell, taste, touch. Maybe it's more intuitive, and not so much of the five senses. Really important to be flexible here, rather than just to get stuck in one modality, one sense modality. How do we sense the image? And then, trust that. Tune to whichever way of sensing the image, whichever sense -- or without the senses -- is the most helpful to tune into, with regard to this particular image that's going on right now. So that's the first of this list.
(2) The second is, again, a bit of a question that you can lightly ask: does the image want to fill out at all? For instance, here's an imaginal figure, right now, coming to me. Where is this imaginal figure? What are the surroundings like? What's the imaginal territory, so to speak, that they are arising in? Are there any other imaginal figures around, or are they alone? Sometimes the image wants to fill out a little bit, and sometimes not so much. But just lightly, the question, giving it a chance to fill out, asking certain questions about territory and whether there are others there.
(3) The third instruction or aspect of, dimension of attending, tuning, opening: is it possible to get, so to speak, a sense of this imaginal figure or imaginal object, a sense, so to speak, of its character, their character? So, for example, I remember -- I don't know when it was; maybe almost two years ago, I'm not sure. But I think it was a spring day, and I was invited to Totnes to meet two women I didn't know at all, to do an interview. I actually didn't want to go, to be honest. I was too busy. I felt too busy, and I didn't want to go. But I went anyway, and we did some filming of each other, sort of a two-way interview, outside by the river. It was absolutely delightful. There was something about the interaction that was really a lot of fun and very lovely, and very inspiring as well, listening to this woman speak, and also when I spoke I felt a lot of inspiration flowing through.
That sense of inspiration carried on. Then, the next day in the morning meditation, the same scene -- this scene outside by the river, sitting on the bench with these two women, and even the other people around -- the same scene arose in the imagination, all the sunlight and the loveliness there. But in the background of the imaginal scene came, very spontaneously, the presence of a sort of angelic figure. It had a body of golden-white light. It had a masculine kind of presence, but his features were not clear, not at all visually clear. What was quite precise, though, was the particular quality or flavour or resonance of his presence. That was somehow very clear and very defined. It was very, very particular, even though visually it wasn't that clear. That quality of presence, or the flavour of his presence, it may be very hard to put into words -- I would struggle -- but there was something about joy, very much, and about love, that was there. But even the quality of love was not obvious. It wasn't the first thing or aspect that one was struck by. But there was something all-encompassing and delightful and bright in there.
Somehow, the presence of this angelic figure, in the imaginal sort of memory afterwards, this spontaneous image that came, somehow his presence was somehow very connected to -- and in a way, responsible for -- what I said, or the spirit that seemed to imbue how I responded to the questions that were being asked of me. And at the same time, this angelic figure was also pervading the two women who we were with doing these interviews, and pervading out delight, and pervading the enjoyment of each other and even the scene itself. So his presence was pervading the grass, the bench, the trees, the river, the sunlight. It wasn't separate from all that. And within the sense of the image, as I dwelt with it more and more, everything became luminous. That pervasion of this beautiful light and joy and love pervaded the whole scene. There was a kind of transubstantiation, if we borrow that word from the Catholic tradition, transubstantiation of the whole -- all the elements of the scene, all the material and psychic elements of the scene. It was different than a transfiguration, where actually something changes what it is or changes its shape. Everything retained its same form, but its substance was different, the whole world and the beings that were there.
In the imaginal practice, I noticed a little bit of a tendency to want to, "Oh, let's talk to him. Let's learn something from him." But I could sense, "Well, that's not quite right." Just focusing on this figure and his presence, the pervasion and the resonances there, that felt really right somehow, really wonderful and joyful and beautiful with that.
So with this third aspect of what we can check out with images, there's a sensing into the character of the figure, the resonances of that figure and the character of the figure -- and especially if there's any complexity of character. For example, in this one, with the example I just gave, the love was there, but it wasn't the most obvious thing. But when you notice it, then you realize, "Oh, there's a profound and pervasive love here." It wasn't obvious at first. Sometimes you might get images where the imaginal figure actually seems quite crusty and not very loving at all; one might think even the opposite. But there's a complexity of character to many imaginal figures. So one might see, for example, that here's a kind of crustiness, but underneath, or with that, or looking more closely, there's great love. Great love is there but it's not obvious.
With all this, or another aspect of that, is really the instruction to be sensitive to the nuances of character, of an image -- not, as we mentioned before, "Oh, that's the wanderer archetype," and just stick a label on it and lose the sensitivity, lose the attention and the curiosity and the openness to the more subtle manifestations of character and resonance. So really encouraging the sensitivity.
And this third dimension of the practice, we could actually broaden it to say not just "What is the sense of this character?", but let's broaden that to, again, ask lightly a question in the imaginal practice: "What is the specificity that is important in this image or to this image?" What is the specificity that is important in this image? I'll give you another example. In other words, what is it that I want to be really tuning into here that's important about the image, and important to really tune into that specific aspect with a lot of attention and differentiation and nuance and detail? Different images have different aspects of them that are what is most important, if you like.
For example, quite a few times, sometimes I might be meditating, and there's a sense -- it's, if you like, an imaginal sense -- that comes of the birdsong that I can hear. Perhaps I'm outside, or perhaps I can hear it through the window. And the birdsong is, let's say, heard or, through the imaginal lens, imagined as sacred text. The birdsong, in this moment that I'm perceiving, is perceived as somehow a sacred text.
Partly, saying that, I'm aware you'll think, "What do you mean by that?" That's what I want to explain, that the vagueness in some ways is part of it. I may well have read something about sacred texts or something in this tradition or that tradition beforehand, and so there's a kind of suggestibility there of the psyche. It's open to certain suggestions that then have fruition in images. No problem at all. No problem if that's the case, or you recognize that that's probably the case. If you think, "Oh, that's probably because I read this thing or I heard so-and-so say something," no problem. Again, the psyche is creative. It's how it works, how it takes in something from its environment, and then creates something, or allows an imaginal sense of something. So there was a recognition that it was possibly connected to things I had read in the not-too-distant past, and there was a sense of samādhi with it, but more important, there was a depth and a beauty to this sense, listening to the birdsong, and the whole bodily sense, and a sort of inexhaustible depth and beauty to this particular imaginal window or imaginally mediated hearing, opening to the birdsong as sacred text.
What was very specific, and this is what I want to get at, what was the specificity that was important in this image? One aspect of that was that there were very specific resonances emotionally to that whole sense of the birdsong as sacred text. And more importantly, it was a very specific way of seeing, of knowing the world. The world that opened up at that point, the world outside my window, the world that I was in, had very particular resonances and feeling tone and sense of its depth, particular kinds of that and its beauty. I certainly may not have been able to articulate that; it would be very difficult to put that into words. But it was really those aspects -- the world quality, the resonances, the kind of beauty, the kind of depth -- they were very, very specific and precise and beautiful, difficult as they were to describe.
Other aspects of the image, or that whole opening, it did not seem important that they were specifically tuned into. Those specifics were not so important. So for example, the exact relationship of this birdsong and the text, "What do you mean? Certain pictures or sounds?" No, it didn't matter exactly. The relation of the birdsong and the text and the body and the energy body and nature itself -- the exact relationships there were not important. Probably, in fact almost certainly, they wouldn't have made sense in a tight, rational framework. And in a way, they were not clear. They were not defined. They were more vague. Was this text a Sanskrit text, or a Pali text, or an Aramaic text, or a Hebrew text? It didn't matter. It was something -- and I'll return to this later -- something actually needed to be a little vague and open and not so defined in this image. Other aspects, their specificity was very important. What tradition are we talking about in this sacred text, belonging to what tradition? It was not important, did not matter.
So the question here, gently, is to tune into, see if you can get a feel with any image, again: what is the specificity that is important in this image, whatever it is? So that's the third thread or question or aspect of instruction: the sense of this figure, this imaginal object, his or her character, its character, and also the specificity that is important in this image. What is the specificity particular to this image that's most important?
(4) Okay, so the fourth aspect, or the fourth encouragement within this mindfulness of image and attending and tuning and opening, is around the emotional resonances and the resonances in the energy body that an image sets up, or that occur with an image. Emotional resonances and energy body resonances. There's quite a lot to say about this. In a way, we could say there are two extremes, regarding these energetic and emotional resonances, possible in practice. In one extreme, it's possible to exclusively tune into and focus on the sense data of an image -- in other words, really look at the particularities, or the specific, very fine detail of a visual image or this or that. We're really just tuning to the sense data of the image, and focusing on that, and concentrating on that, and trying to get it as clear and precise as possible. Here, on this retreat, we are not going to that extreme. For our purposes, I'm not so interested in that kind of way of tuning to images. It's fine and it's valid, but that's not so much what I'm going to emphasize at all. So that's an extreme that we're not that interested in. We're always connecting with the emotional resonances and the energy body resonances, so there's never an exclusive tuning into the detail, the sensual detail of an image, at the exclusion of the emotional, awareness of the emotional and sensitivity to the emotional and energetic body resonances.
Another extreme, or the other extreme, might be: here's an image, and the emotion that arises with this image, or the energy in the energy body that arises, or both, the mixture of that, is something that we focus on exclusively. So here's this image, and perhaps it's bringing a lot of love or a lot of joy, or a certain quality, let's say softening, in the energy body. One extreme is to almost tune more and more into that emotion or that energy in the energy body, that quality, and just go towards giving exclusive attention to the emotion as emotion, or the energy as energy, and letting the image go a little bit.
Doing that will take us deeper into the samādhi direction -- the samādhi will constellate more and more -- or the quietening of the emotional body, as we talked about in one of the instructions a few days ago. So that's an option. That extreme is an option on this retreat. It's really fine. It's a choice. It's a kind of leaning, a kind of steering, at times. One recognizes something is happening, perhaps quite strong, or subtle, and we just make the choice to go into more exclusively the emotion or the energy. That can take us in a slightly different direction as we let the image go. So that's possible.
But oftentimes what we'll be doing is something in between: focusing on the image, but aware, really, of the emotional resonances and certainly the energy resonances in the energy body, and the way that feels. As I said, this is really important in imaginal practice, because this ongoing sensitivity to the emotional and energy body resonances helps us to navigate. There's quite a lot to say about this. And actually, here's another list of seven possibilities -- so, this list of seven embodied in the larger list of seven.
So partly, this sensitivity to emotional and energetic resonances in the energy body helps us to recognize when an image is, let's say, 'right': "This image is right." And I mean 'right' in the sense of it nourishes and deepens and opens and supports soulfulness and soulmaking (and I'll talk about much more fully what I mean by 'soulfulness' and 'soulmaking'). But that, in the framework or the direction that I would like to most support, that's what constitutes the 'rightness' of an image: the soulfulness and the soulmaking. One of the ways that we recognize that an image is right and moving in that direction is through its effects on the energy body. The energy body, as I'll outline right now, it tells us almost, "This image is helpful for soulmaking. There's something important here for the psyche." So, a number of things to look out for in this respect. Those effects that tell us that the image is right, so to speak, they may include one or more of the following. These are not separate possibilities:
(4.1) The first is a kind of alignment of the vertical axis of the energy, of the vertical axis through the body, through the energy body. It feels more aligned. There's a sense of the energy coming into that vertical alignment within the energy body. So that's a signal, if you like. It can be very subtle. It's a signal that we're on the right track. The energy body is telling us we're on the right track here with whatever image is happening. When that alignment of the vertical axis in the energy body is very strong, it tends towards, also, the kind of emotions of reverence, of devotion, of prayerfulness. So that's also connected here. When it's very strong, those emotions are often not far away at all. But this felt alignment of the vertical axis in the energy body is one of the sort of cues and clues, if you like, that we're on the right track.
(4.2) A second is just the sense that the energy body kind of opens and expands a little bit. That sense of the expansion of energy, the widening of energy, is also very characteristic as a cue and a clue that we're on the right track.
(4.3) Third can be a kind of softening of the energy body. So I certainly don't just mean a relaxing of the physical musculature. That may happen. I'm really talking about energy body more than anatomical body. The texture, if you like, or the tone of that energy body can soften to one degree or another. It doesn't mean a slumping; there's still the uprightness there, but the texture feels like its got more softness in it. Something softens. This can be very, very subtle, or stronger, but can be very subtle.
(4.4) A fourth is, generally speaking, the energizing of the energy body. When an image is, again, so to speak, 'right' for the psyche, for the soul, the energy body will feel energized very often. That energization can be very, very subtle or very, very strong. There's a whole range there of possibility, and it's not that one is better or worse or whatever, stronger is better; it's just a range there. But energization is often a key aspect of what happens in the energy body when an image is important, let's say.
This energization can bring or reflect a feeling of power, vitality, force, into the whole being -- into the energy body, but into the whole psyche as well. Brings or reflects a feeling of power, of vitality, of force. And that may fill, the energy and that whole movement, may fill -- it doesn't have to -- but it may fill the whole energy body. It may wave through. It may sometimes erupt very suddenly in the energy body, and through even into the physical body. So sometimes one finds the head moving, or moving back, tilting upwards, a shudder move through the body. Sometimes the mouth opens by itself, spontaneously, and it's almost as if a silent roar comes out at times.
Now, these kind of things are absolutely not necessary. So again, don't regard them as sort of, "Oh, that's super advanced," or "That's better practice." I'm just mentioning them so that, in a way, one is not freaked out or alarmed or disturbed by their occurrence. They're absolutely not necessary though. Just to say that one of the aspects that can happen is energization. Sometimes it's strong, and sometimes that waves or erupts through the physical body, to the extent, for a moment or two, that it affects the physical body in different ways, but it's absolutely not necessary that that happens. It may or may not. Neither better nor worse. The fourth possibility to look out for is this energizing, and to notice and to feel. These are all, as I said, not totally separate; they're related, but it's worth differentiating them.
(4.5) The fifth is that there's some degree of increase in the sense of well-being in the energy body, or even bliss. And again, this can be very, very strong, or really quite subtle, not that remarkable. But there is some degree of an increase in well-being and bliss that's often characteristic of an image, as I said, being right or soulful. So it could be very, very subtle. But what we're doing here is really trusting the energy body, rather than the mind's initial sort of mental reaction or view or thought that might be actually a little bit too tight, about what's a right image or wrong image, or what kind of image I need, or what's okay and what's not okay, and what's weird and what's not. We're trusting more the energy body, and the manifestations in the energy body, the cues and the clues there. We're trusting that for the navigation more than the mind and its views, which are often just received and habituated from different cultures that we move in.
(4.6) The sixth is a possibility through the energy body, something to look out for and notice and feel. It's a kind of harmonization and a homogenization of the whole energy field, the whole energy space of the energy body. Harmonization, it feels more harmonized, and it feels more homogenized. So the energy feels like it's spread more evenly through the energy body, oftentimes, or can do. But also that includes a homogenization of the awareness through the space of the energy body. In other words, so often (perhaps it's our culture, perhaps it's just normal), it's very common to feel like the awareness is somehow in the head, looking at the body, or sometimes that they're even separate. But there's this sort of, the awareness is located here, and the body is more than that somehow. One thing that's characteristic here, a possibility, is this harmonization and homogenization of the energy, but also of the awareness through the space of the energy body, so that, generally speaking, the body and the awareness are less fragmented, and also the connection between them feels less disjointed, less fragmented.
(4.7) A seventh possibility that I think is maybe more common for some people, or some people with certain backgrounds in practice, let's say, is the contoured energy body can be felt. So remember we talked briefly about that earlier in the retreat. It's not so much this amorphous space right now, but one might also feel, and sometimes even see or feel, an energy body separate in space, distinct in space from the physical location of one sitting on the cushion or the chair meditating. That contoured energy body, this body of light or energy, is felt -- actually felt, not just seen; this is important -- felt as perhaps dancing or flying or somersaulting with or in response to this image that is occurring.
So this image, this imaginal figure, is opening up so much energy and such an inspiration of emotion, etc., that the contoured energy body -- we become aware of that, and it's felt as dancing, flying, somersaulting, or all kinds of possibilities, in a distinct location from the location of the physical body, separate from the physical body. But absolutely crucial it's felt, it's felt, it's felt. Sometimes either hearing about that or experiencing something like that, people get a little nervous and think, "Well, am I disconnecting? Am I disconnected from my body? Am I ungrounded?" And they get a little suspicious or nervous even. But no, it's absolutely not disconnected, that kind of experience. It's not ungrounded, as long as we feel it. It's a strange thing. It's almost like feeling two energy bodies at once, or a mixture. There's this one sitting here, and in this energy body I somehow feel this contoured energy body flying or turning somersaults or dancing or whatever it is. It's not ungrounded, it's not disconnected, as long as it's felt.
So there are seven possible manifestations to look out for, without needing to make a big deal of any of them, or judging, "This is good and that's bad," "That's better," "That's worse," any of that. Things to look out for. With any of these, any of those possibilities may bring with them, or rather, often implicit in them is that the energy body, at that time, then, has within it -- one can feel very specific qualities of emotion or energy, or (if we want to say) frequencies of energy, if we use that term, are present within the energy body. I may not have a word for this particular quality of energy or this particular frequency, but any of these seven possibilities we just went through, they can sometimes imply that or it's noticeable, and then really important to notice: can I really feel, can I really taste this very specific quality or frequency of energies, or mix of qualities or energies? Really make sure we notice, really taste and feel. Open to it, perhaps. Let it pervade the whole space, perhaps. Bathe in it. Focus on it. Enjoy it, as we mentioned before.
So attuning to those energetic qualities, lingering in them, dwelling with them, entering into them, opening to them, all that, to the degree that we lean into that -- lingering and dwelling and entering into -- to the degree that we lean that way and incline that way will, as we've already mentioned, allow us to enter more and more into the samādhi. So you can see that it's a very fluid navigation here in terms of image and energy, and where we incline the whole consciousness and energy at any time. But what's absolutely crucial to the navigation is the noticing of what's happening in the energy body, and then we can decide where we incline and sort of glide with the consciousness and the whole energy body.
There's one thing I should maybe also mention right now. Generally speaking, all this is much, much easier in a meditative posture, as we emphasized at the beginning, with the uprightness and the awakeness manifesting in the physical body, and with the openness and receptivity and softness there. So the meditative posture really allows both the sensitivity of mindfulness to the images, but especially, even more, the sensitivity of mindfulness in relation to the energy body and working with the energy body. Generally, that's a really good idea in the kind of work that we're doing and emphasizing on this course.
But sometimes one will find, occasionally one finds that it's not, that posture is not right for this image. Not too long ago, someone was telling me they were working with an image. Actually, it was an image that had been around quite a lot, of a bird. This image had opened up for them, and there was a lot of beauty and preciousness associated with this beautiful image of a bird. Some of the corresponding meaningfulnesses in the life with that were very important, in terms of openness and sensitivity and beauty, and lots of other things. And then something happened, actually in life, and then that was mirrored in the image. This bird then was perceived as having a broken wing, and as dying from this injury.
So I was talking with this person in an interview about this, and pointing out this timeless quality of images. We say, "This bird is going to die. It will die," and then we put that, very normally, very understandably, into a temporal context. "It's not dead now, but it's dying, and then it will die, and then it will be dead. And then what? I'll be without this bird, or this will have disappeared," or whatever it is. But actually there's a timeless quality to images that we can tune into. I might say more about this later on. In a way, the bird is dying, rather than "it will die at some point." It's always timelessly in the state that it's in now, wounded, with a broken wing. That's not going anywhere as a narrative. So that helped enormously. It's almost like feeling into that image at another level, outside of time -- really, really crucial.
So the person was working with the image, then, after we had that conversation, in the meditation, and then noticed, "Actually, it's working a little bit, but there's something wrong here." They were playing with different postures, and then they actually found when they went to their room and lay down on their bed and curled around -- curled their body, lying down -- around this bird, this wounded bird, they said, "That's the perfect posture for the image right there."
Just to continue a little bit, because there are other important learnings here: this is rare, but not only was it the case that, in this instance, the meditative posture was not quite right, but also there's the lying curled, their body curled around this wounded bird, bird with the wounded wing, the broken wing. Then they noticed, as they were meditating in that way, bringing all the sensitivity, they noticed that they were scared to look into the bird's eyes, into this little bird's eyes. Scared to see the suffering that they anticipated seeing there. But she brought herself to look into the bird's eyes, and then, very surprised seeing the love that was there in the bird's eyes. These bird's eyes were radiating love, wide open. The love was wide and it was steady. This was very surprising given the fear of actually doing that, and what she anticipated seeing. Oftentimes this is part of the autonomy, or recognizing that images are autonomous. They're not just necessarily, so to speak, parts of us, or we control them as much as we might think. We are often, so many times, surprised by these imaginal figures. It doesn't mean they're completely independent of us, remember, and independent of the way of looking. But they have a certain autonomy. Okay, but the main point there was really about the posture: usually the meditative posture is the best, but to be sensitive and open, open-minded there.
So those were all, as I said, possible cues and clues, signals that we're on the right track, this image is right despite it might seem weird or whatever, coming through the energy body, through the manifestations in the energy body. Now, I'm aware that might reflect my bias or my inclination, because my modality is more kinaesthetic than visual, for instance, so I'm certainly open to other cues or signals that a person might receive. Sometimes people get a light that appears that tells them that they're on the right track with an image. There are many possibilities, but this, to me, as I said before, this inclusion and thread or keeping as a basis the energy body allows so much other possibility in meditation, so if that can be incorporated, it's really important and helpful. And it might be that there are other cues and other sensory domains as well for different people.
So there's the inclusion of the energetic resonances in the energy body, and also, in this fourth aspect of the mindfulness, the inclusion of the emotional resonances. We've said how an image may often -- not always, but may often -- contain within it, or be pregnant with, or reflect or express, oftentimes multiple emotions. It's not just one emotion, and quite subtle shades or many aspects emotionally going on at once. Images are often quite condensed, rich, multidimensional in many respects, but even multidimensional, multi-aspected, let's say, emotionally. So in the mindfulness, one is aware of the emotional resonances, which might be plural and have very subtle shades of the image or with the image.
Again, with this richness, to reiterate, it may not be necessary to spend a long time with an image. Or certainly may not be necessary to go on some kind of journey through imaginal space or imaginal territories. It may be that a brief image, in one location, meditatively, is very, very rich. It might take one a long time to articulate all that richness, and all that multidimensionality and multi-aspectedness, and the resonances emotionally, energetically, and all that. It may take one a long time to articulate that verbally, even if one was able to, even from a brief image that's sort of very rich that way. That's the fourth aspect of the mindfulness here, the sensitivities: the awareness, sensitivity of, and also navigating possibilities regarding the emotional resonances and the energy body resonances.
(5) Then, a fifth aspect of what's included in the mindfulness is in relationship to thoughts, reactions, views. We've talked a little bit about this, but just to spell it out and go through again, or in more detail.
Careful -- again, it depends on the conceptual framework, but I would say for our purposes, or for what I would regard as the most interesting direction, careful of the temptation to seek advice from an image. We think, "Oh, great, this person can tell me what to do in my life," or something like that. I'm going to return to this point, but I would just say, notice if the orientation or if the stance to an image is, "Ah, here's my fairy godmother, or here's the wise old sage who's going to tell me what to do in this situation in my life," or something like that. For our purposes, or what I would like to emphasize is, generally speaking, we're more interested in the resonances, as I said. That's much more interesting than getting advice, and using it for the sake of the ego and the ego's journey.
And also, to notice and to take a little care, just to notice if there's a tendency to want to, in my view of the image at any time, the conceptual framework (it might be implicit, it might not be obvious), to reduce this image to, "It's just a sort of result of my history, what happened to me in my childhood or something else from the past." Just to notice if that kind of thing is going on. It's not that it's wrong at all, and sometimes of course an image does come from that, it is very related to that. Or these things, our history, and the image, and our unfolding, it all mirrors each other in a more complex way than simple causality, a simple view of causality would tend to allow us to conceive. But just notice if there's a tendency in the view to want to reduce it, perhaps to just a result of my history, or to view it purely literally and say, "Oh, it means this," or "It means exactly what it looks like. This wanderer means go wandering," or whatever. Or to reduce it in the sense of, "Oh, that represents mettā, or it represents my strength or some other psychological concept or force." We're kind of boxing it in, shrinking all the complexity and multidimensionality that's in an image, shrinking it into some concept, whether it's a Dharma concept or a psychological concept or whatever. So to notice if that tendency arises at any time, and just to take a little care with that. Again, it's not wrong. It just, in a way, might not be that interesting in terms of what then unfolds.
Similarly, with regard to the thoughts/reactions/views, to take care that we're not harbouring a view that the more outlandish the image the better, the more sort of far out. Some of these things can sound really amazing when we relate them to others, or to ourselves. But actually, that's not necessarily that important. What's much more important is the relationship with the image. Everything hinges on the relationship. The relationship is what matters, almost more than anything else, more than anything else. Included in that means the sensitivity to the resonances, as we've spoken about, in emotion, and in the energy body, and in the, so to speak, psychic resonances, the soul-resonances, the resonances for the soul in terms of meaningfulness. That's what matters: the relationship with, not actually what the image is itself.
Another thing that's worth saying is, sometimes in working with images in the meditation, it's really okay if there's a little bit of light reflection going on around the whole conceptuality of what an image is, or the framework, or a little bit of intellectual conceiving, sort of reflection or chewing over, at times. So often in meditation, we go, "Oh, that's terrible, thinking is terrible. Get away from the intellect," or whatever. We don't want to be just thinking, absolutely, but at times, that sort of shifting of a conceptual framework happens through some light thought, or thoughts just arise in relationship to the whole way of conceiving, and that can be really fruitful. So don't just slam the door shut on that all the time. It's part of navigating. You can sometimes allow that in, and sometimes have less of that.
Again -- and we've said this before -- notice if the mental reaction tends to just assign an image or an imaginal figure to a character and make a kind of stereotype out of it: "Oh, that's the warrior," or whatever it is. It will kill the aliveness of the image. What we really want is to let this image, allow it, give it enough respect that it can really be alive. It's not just an instance of a category. It's not just to be labelled and then the sensitivity in relationship to it lost.
In a way, that's part of saying to keep playing and keep responsive in the practice. It's so important in meditation in general, but also in imaginal practice perhaps even more. I might be going through these lists of seven things you can try, or there are other things you can look out for, one, two, three, four, five, whatever it is. Fine, that's all good. But in a way, these are just pointers. Much better if you can really allow yourself to improvise with all this. Rather than regarding it as formulaic, to be playful, to be responsive, to try different things. You may come up -- and I hope you do -- come up with ways of working that I haven't suggested, or you've not heard me say, or perhaps I haven't even come across myself. That would be wonderful. But in this fifth aspect of the mindfulness about thoughts/reactions/views, again, to reiterate, always the conceptual framework, the view, the way of looking makes a difference to what occurs imaginally, what's allowed to occur, and how it unfolds. So there's a lot of power contained in the conceptual framework, the view, the way of looking. That really makes a difference.
(6) Okay, the sixth aspect of the mindfulness or possible thread here -- and I'm going to talk more about this, but let's say a little bit now; I'll talk more about it, perhaps tomorrow -- is asking the image, "What do you want?" In other words, what does this imaginal figure want? Now, that may not be necessarily a literal question. You don't actually have to speak that question. It's something about the attitude and orientation and relationship with it. Turning it around from, "What can this image give me? What can I get from it? What can it do for me?", turning that around. I'm going to speak much more about this as we go on. "What do you want?"
As I said, it may not be literal. There may not be a verbal answer to that or anything. It's more approaching the image, and being open to sensing, perhaps, or intuiting, some kind of intentionality behind this image, perhaps even a demand, something it wants, a meaningfulness that's wrapped up, part of the meaningfulness that's wrapped up in the image. "What do you want?"
Now, of course, implied in having that kind of stance in relation to the image, and asking what it wants, and honouring that, is a trust. Again, I'll speak more about this. But it's implying that I trust, in that moment, I'm entering into or encouraging or adopting an attitude of trust in relation to this image. I trust it, and I trust its intentionality and what it wants. I'm trusting that it's benign, even though it might look like this crazy warrior, raging and bellowing fire or whatever it is, or something else, or a very strangely erotic image or whatever. I'm trusting it, and I'm trusting that it's benign -- or, a better word, benevolent. The etymology of that word, bene + volens, it wants what is good, like well-wishing. These images are benevolent. Can I play, actually play with an attitude of trusting them? That helps me turn the stance around and ask, "What do you want?"
What this imaginal figure wants, it may just want to be seen, to be known, to be witnessed. It may just want to be acknowledged, to be honoured, to be given a place, to be respected, and yes, honoured. Maybe it wants its holiness and its sacredness to be seen, or even its necessity to be acknowledged. So there can be all kinds of subtle aspects of what it wants. It may be more than that, or something different. It may be that this imaginal figure or object or whatever it is wants to be expressed in some way in one's life. It wants that your life expresses this imaginal figure in some way. Now, again, it doesn't necessarily -- and in fact, usually that won't be literally or concretely. In other words, something can be expressed without anyone else having any sense of it sometimes, or without it having a literal correspondence with the image. It can be expressed without that being visible to anyone else or tangible to anyone else.
Sometimes, in fact quite often -- and this is important -- sometimes an imaginal figure that comes to us has a different perspective, if you like, than the ego, or than our normal perspective, either on ourselves, or on things, or the world, or a situation, or others, or whatever. And so they embody and they express and they have a different perspective than normal, or our normal, and this is actually the important aspect of the image. This is what it's wanting to show us, or wanting to initiate us into. So obvious examples of that would be, for instance, Kuan Yin, or Avalokiteśvara, as a bodhisattva of compassion, has a different perspective than the ego's normal perspective. It's a non-ego perspective of universal compassion, universal love. It's seeing through different eyes, and it wants us to know that, and honour it, and recognize that, and wants us, if you like, to enter into that, perhaps.
So those would be more obvious manifestations of different perspectives. But there may be, for us, less obvious ones. I talked about my interest in opening the range of what is our usual emotional range, for instance; opening the range of our usual psychological range; opening the range of the self and its self-expression. Because images are different, are autonomous, we cannot just regard them as self. Opening to their different perspective, recognizing, honouring, getting a sense of the different perspective that any image might have, also opens our range beyond the more tightly circumscribed, usual range that we might have.
Again, in this, what could be a very subtle questioning or stance, "What do you want?", it may be that it's really about the love. The image is wanting to express or manifest or enter into or allow love, in all kinds of different ways. I'm going to talk more about this, perhaps tomorrow. It's more about the love, and we sense that's what it's wanting. Many different possibilities here.
It could be, then, for example, that we enter into an image and interact with the image, that that's what it wants, this image, this imaginal figure. It wants us to interact with it. How? Again, we can interact in all kinds of ways. It's not necessarily that dialogue at all is the appropriate way or the best way to interact with a particular image. If it's more interaction that has to do with love, and if love is the sense of "this is really the most important aspect going on," or one of the most important aspects going on at any time, then, again, we want the sensitivity to the particular quality or kind of love. There's a lot of range in the kinds of love, and the kinds of quality of love that there are. So what is the particular quality of the love that seems so central in this image and with this imaginal figure? It may be just universal mettā or compassion or something, but it may not be that. It may be much more personal and particular. There are all kinds of possibilities there.
I remember not too long ago I was doing walking meditation on the lawn here, and again I heard the birdsong, the beautiful birdsong around me as I was walking outside. The birdsong reminded me, made me think of one of my favourite jazz musicians, Eric Dolphy. He was active in the late fifties and the early sixties before he died in 1964. A beautiful, beautiful musician. But quite associated with the sort of avant-garde at that time, so he played alto sax, and bass clarinet, and flute, and really stretching the limits of jazz and the jazz vocabulary. Beautiful spirit, and quite out there in his explorations and what was coming through him. I was hearing the birdsong, just reminded of Eric Dolphy. He used to take his flute to the oceanside in California and sit on the rocks and play with the birds. So different birds would be there near the ocean, and they would be singing, and he was such a virtuoso on the flute and improvising, he would mimic and play back and forth with the birds. They would gather around him. Beautiful image in itself.
And so I hear the birdsong. I'm doing the walking, I hear the birdsong, and suddenly remember this story about Eric Dolphy playing with the birds. And then suddenly, very suddenly, I spontaneously imagine -- it just comes as an image -- that he's visiting, so to speak, from death, if you like. He's just visiting for a short time, and we talk, and I update him. This is not really happening in real time, with a sort of concretized dialogue, but it's what's implicit. And I update him a little, because he played with John Coltrane, and with a bass player, Charlie Mingus, in another band, and I tell him a little bit, because they, too, died, after him -- John Coltrane not too long later. And I update him on that, and how and when they died, and also on what people said about him, about Eric Dolphy, and how highly he is regarded, especially by a lot of musicians, by so many people. I think he wasn't really aware of that, or he was a very humble person, and so wanting to tell him that, wanting to communicate that to him.
I think at some point, perhaps I get the sense that our time is drawing to an end, that there's just a brief window of something, and that he has to go, I don't know, back to the realm of death or something, whatever. I find myself just sort of, if you like, blurting out, silently, just asking him, "Play something. Will you play something?" And so moved, to tears actually, by this request of mine that just bubbles up and sort of emerges. With that, the sense of the preciousness of his music, the beauty of it, and the preciousness of his playing, and just wanting, "Oh, just play something, will you?"
To me, this was an interesting image. It was really, more than anything else, the image seemed to be about loving him. So the love from me to him was what was most important in this image. And actually even caring for him. It was as if I wanted to take care of him physically, now, here. What happened in 1964 was he was on tour, in Germany, I think, or living there for a while, working as a musician. And he was a diabetic. He went into a coma because of the diabetes, because his sugar levels, insulin levels, were wrong. What I heard is, because he was African American and a jazz musician, the ambulance people came, and they just assumed that he was strung out on heroin, and they just left him. They said, "Oh, he'll get over it." And he went into a coma and died. I don't know how much of that story is exactly true, but certainly it wasn't recognized that he was a diabetic, and he died. The image came, and this wanting to take care of him, as if he would have another life, or another chance, or the same thing. Part of me wanted to say, "Wear a tag or a bracelet that says 'diabetic' or 'diabetic type 1' or whatever it is. Wear it in different languages, and in German." This sense of something in me really wanting to take care of him -- that was so central to the image, this loving him, and this immensely deep gratitude to him, for him, for what came through him, for that manifestation.
At one point, the love kind of flowed the other way, as well, because he reached out to me in the image and touched my heart centre with his hand, with the palm of his hand, very gently. There was something sort of, I don't know, it reminded me of Jesus, or some kind of Near or Middle Eastern mystical esoteric blessing. It was full of love, this gesture, and the gentleness, really like a blessing. He was blessing me. Really, really beautiful and touching.
This was all just in a few minutes, really. But occasionally I would get an impulse to ask him for advice, or something like that, even advice for the past when I used to be a jazz musician, and someone like him, as a complete master, could perhaps have helped me or sympathized at least with my struggling to gain mastery. Or advice in relation to work now, and creative work now, or whatever. That sort of attitude came up, and I sensed immediately that that's not the point of this image. It felt not right. That wouldn't be the right steering, the orientation, to ask for advice or whatever. The whole feel of it, when that arose, the orientation of getting something from him, when that arose, or advice or whatever, it somehow felt off. Something was stark, or not quite alive, and that indicated to me, "That's not right," very, very quickly. So the simpler orientation -- and to the mind, perhaps more puzzling -- of just loving him. The simpler just loving him, just the gratitude flowing forth, the flow going the other way, from me to him -- that felt really, really right. There was something right about that, beautiful and right. What was really central, then, in that image, in other words, was the love, and particularly my loving him, and my gratitude. Very beautiful and soulmaking, if we use that word again. So this sixth thread is in the stance, in the attitude in relationship to the image: "What do you want?"
(7) Then the seventh aspect or possibility here with the mindful work with the images is, in a way, we could delineate three possibilities in terms of the stance with regard to the imaginal figure.
(7.1) It can be that you, in the meditation, are beholding this figure or this angel. You're seeing or gazing at this figure or angel, and just kind of feeling the resonances as you do that, and stewing with that, cooking with that a little bit.
(7.2) It could be that you, or another possibility is that you enter into this figure or this angel or daimon or whatever we want to call it, and actually feel them from the inside, as if you identify with them. I hope I can find another word at some point, because I don't mean the ego identifying with that in a tight way. I mean 'entering into,' let's say. There are actually some tricks you can play. Sometimes it just happens. Sometimes we just intend it to happen. But gazing into their eyes, sometimes that helps in order to enter in. Sometimes imagining your energy body mimicking the movement in the body of the imaginal figure. So if they're, for instance, dancing in a certain way or whatever, you imagine dancing, or you feel how it feels for them to dance in that way, feel that in the energy body, and that helps us enter. Curiously, I have no idea why this works, but giving attention to the small of their back, attending to that, feeling that, entering into that in the imagination, also allows us to enter in, sometimes, to them. So there's, I behold the angel, the daimon, the imaginal figure. I look and gaze at them with the resonances. Or I enter into them, into their body, into their experience, seeing through their eyes.
(7.3) Or I am more attending to this feeling of being seen by this angel, by this imaginal figure or daimon. Really noticing, "Oh, they're looking at me, they're gazing at me in a certain way. I'm seen by them." And I really feel, I tune into, "How are they seeing me? How are they looking at me?" So that's a third possibility. And it could be a combination of those.
These are just some pointers that could be helpful -- some of them indispensable, some of them just possibilities that are helpful within the imaginal practice.
