Transcription
All right, so we're going to be unfolding (something like that) what we mean by this word, 'eros,' and how it works, and that whole exploration. We're going to be unfolding that gradually over the week. Let me say something now about image, because as you'll see, those two are intimately connected. They involve each other. So I'll just say a little bit, and then we're going to do a guided meditation. So when we use the word 'image,' we mean an imaginal image. In other words, by the word 'image,' we don't just mean the use of the imagination. Okay? Even if there's mindfulness. I can mindfully imagine what Jane is going to cook me for tea later on ... [laughs] I don't know what that is. It may or may not be imaginal, okay?
Almost always we won't prefix it by imaginal image. Mostly when we say 'image,' here in this retreat, we mean imaginal image. We don't just mean something intrapsychic either. So the imaginal might be -- it's a way of perceiving. Catherine had a lovely turn of phrase earlier; I can't remember what it was, but we can perceive this moment imaginally, this room, this togetherness, this speaking, this hearing imaginally. It's not just something that happens in here; it's something that happens in relationship, in the world, with others, with oneself. Sure, intrapsychically, but also extrapsychically, if those words even really refer to anything. We'll come back to that.
Neither is an image just something visual. So again, in our language, in English, we tend to think 'image,' and people think, "This must be something visual." When we're doing imaginal practice meditation, we want to be sensitive, receptive, attuned to what is the primary sense of this image that I'm working with. It may be aural. It may be kinaesthetic. It may be through the tongue. I'm repeating what you guys should already know, but it's not primarily visual, okay?
Now, for example, we have mettā practice, which you'll all be pretty familiar with, I imagine, and very common in mettā practice, some way or another, we imagine someone or other, and we usually imagine giving mettā to this person. Or occasionally we imagine receiving mettā from that person. That may or may not be imaginal. It certainly uses the imagination; it may or may not be imaginal. So when we say an 'imaginal figure,' or an 'image,' it doesn't, for instance, just refer to someone who maybe represents mettā to you -- so my lovely, kind grandma or whatever it is -- or someone who you use for mettā to kind of kick-start that or use as a platform for mettā to come into your heart, into your intention. That's all great. It's wonderful. And it's a skilful use of the imagination. It may or may not be imaginal.
So an imaginal figure, an imaginal being, could be a person, could be an animal, could be a tree, could be something that we don't even consider a figure or a being. Could be a sense of music. It's really broad. And they may, that thing, that imaginal thing, may serve the function, as part of what it does, of supporting mettā and opening mettā, but it's more than that. There's more than that involved in imaginal. It's more than the heart. Yeah? So mettā involves the heart. The heart is involved in the imaginal, but the soul is involved in what's imaginal.
There is, too, with an imaginal figure, an imaginal being, an imaginal other, there is a sense that something is resonating. There are resonances in the soul, resonances of meaningfulness. They're complex. They're not just purely simple, usually. So the whole soul is stirred, is vibrating, in complex, multifaceted ways. This is characteristic of an image. The imaginal figure also has a kind of quality of unfathomability. It's as if I can't capture them or exhaust what they mean to me. Their meaningfulness surpasses what can be captured in words or in a simplistic formula.
There's a mystery to them. They're mysterious. There's a bottomless mystery to an imaginal figure. As I said, soul-resonances, meaningfulness. This is something we notice more and more with an imaginal figure, so it's not like you have to create this or anything, but you will notice with any imaginal thing, it has dimensionality. It's not just flat, just what it seems to be on the surface. There seem to be kind of layers to it, if you like, dimensions, depths. And eventually we start to notice with an imaginal figure there's a quality of divinity or sacredness. Now, what that could mean is hugely wide. The manifestations of sacredness, the kinds of sacredness, what sacredness looks and feels like is really, really wide.
Beauty as well. And again, what that word means, it's not small. It's really, really wide. Beauty may be what most people in the world consider horrific and ugly and dark, etc. It's beauty, beautiful to your soul, and that's a characteristic of the imaginal. An imaginal being, an imaginal thing, an imaginal figure, also has a kind of autonomy. This is very much related to what Catherine was talking about, the otherness. We see they don't exist independent of me, but it's as if I can feel that they have this independent existence, this autonomy, as if I'm really in contact with another being who is independent of me.
And we are interested in them, like there's something deeply interesting about them. So my grandma, my mettā figure, may not be that interesting to me. She's sweet and she's kind, but she doesn't have this, like, "I'm interested." [Catherine in background: She might!] She might. [laughter] 'Reverence' is a lovely word. I just found the other day it comes from the Latin revereri, apparently, which means 'to be in awe of.' So there's something almost bigger than we are about an imaginal figure. Usually we conceive of it the other way around: we've got the psyche, and the imaginal figure is in the psyche. It's a part of us. I start to get a feel for this, start to get a soul-sense of this, and there's a sense of "the imaginal figure is bigger than I am in some way."
And with that, there is a sense of awe, which could be very subtle. They're bigger than. Is this ringing bells? It's fine if you don't, are not aware of it yet. It's stuff to notice. It's stuff I'm saying that when you hang out with imaginal figures, you just start to let yourself get a feel for what's involved, it's as if you start slowly to notice these aspects, these dimensions of imaginal figures. If it's like, "Oh, well, I haven't seen that yet," or "I haven't had that experience," don't worry about that. I'm kind of just highlighting some delineations. I'll say something else about delineations. You know, any delineations we make, they're supposed to be helpful. If I push far enough into any delineation, it starts to fall apart. It blurs with its opposite. Boundaries crumble. It starts not to make sense. So don't get too hung up. Any delineation we make, any conceptual distinction, is just to help. Okay? But these are aspects that we notice with imaginal practice, the more we work with it.
You guys are looking a little perplexed. [laughter] Is this ...? No? It's good? Okay, good. All right. Let's do a guided meditation together.
[10:26, guided meditation begins]
So just taking a few moments to settle into a posture that's comfortable for you. Feeling the contact of the body with the floor, wherever it contacts. Feeling yourself sitting here. Just take a little time tuning in, opening to, becoming sensitive to the energy body, as Catherine described this morning, just opening that awareness, stretching it, expanding it over the space of the physical body, permeating that space, a little bit wider.
Now, in a way, it doesn't really matter what happens here. But just spend some time if you want to, if it's possible, to gently cultivate, gently tend to the sense of well-being, the samādhi throughout that space. You know ways of doing that, and just caring, supporting that sense of well-being, the sense of harmonization, openness, perhaps even pleasure in the energy body.
So it could be that. Or it could be, you know, because sometimes, as Catherine said, sometimes that's just not possible, and what's happening is something that doesn't feel so harmonized or aligned, and maybe even some difficult emotions. But again, using the energy body to work skilfully with that difficulty. Tuning in, caring for, easing if it's possible. Just being with. Either way, or a mixture.
Really what we're doing with the energy body is coming into a certain kind of mode of relationship, a certain way of perceiving the field of the body. It matters less what the actual experience is; it's a certain mode of paying attention.
One way or another, and whatever actually is happening in that field of the energy body, one way or another, the way of paying attention to it is caring for it. It's supporting the well-being. So the awareness can be delicate, light, pervading, opening. Caring in any of the many ways that care can manifest.
Just again and again, when the awareness shrinks, opening it out, pervading, permeating that space, that field. Sensitive, alive, attuned.
Staying in touch, sensitive to the energy body throughout the meditation. When you're ready, seeing if an image wants to come, wants to form, arrives. Sometimes it comes out of the loosening of a certain amount of samādhi, the dwelling in the energy body with well-being. Sometimes an image comes rather from a difficulty that we're experiencing, from an emotion, and the energy in the emotion in the energy body gives rise, can give rise to an image. So if one comes, just allow it to come, and come into relationship with it. If it seems like nothing wants to come, then choose something. Just deliberately choose an image that has been an image for you in the past, previously. Just more deliberate. Can you stay in touch with the energy body in the presence of an image?
So the imaginal constellation may form itself in a number of ways. See what feels right, what feels like it fits, if you like. (1) It may be that you are in relationship with an imaginal figure. Maybe they're in front of you. Maybe they're behind you, or above, below. But there's a dyad there: you and this imaginal being of some sort, in relationship.
(2) Alternatively, it might be that you start to identify with the imaginal figure. You become this imaginal being, this imaginal thing. (3) Or a third possibility is that you identify with or become this imaginal figure and, so to speak, enter them, take their place, and look at you, look at who you usually take yourself to be in this existence. So there's the usual, there's that dyad of relationship, but the identities have, so to speak, reversed.
(4) Or a fourth possibility is that you're just witnessing others. So it doesn't feel so much that you are involved in a dyad or a relationship there so much. You're witnessing something. So any of those are perfectly fine.
Maybe you can get a sense, see if you can get a sense, without forcing or pressuring, can you get a sense of what wants to happen? What wants to happen? Can you allow whatever wants to happen to happen, if it feels okay? So perhaps there's a gazing between you and the imaginal figure. And you feel into that gazing. What's moving, what's transpiring in that gazing?
Perhaps you or they are receiving something or other, somehow or other. Perhaps something is radiated from one to the other, from each to each. How do you know that, if it is? How do you feel it? How do you sense it? Don't put too much pressure on the psyche. Very light, looseness, light touch. Perhaps there's a breathing together with this other, in rhythm with each other. Perhaps you just want to be with them, or there's just a being together. Or some kind of moving together, maybe dancing, whatever. Perhaps the connection, the being with, wants to be sexual. Just see if that feels okay, and what that even means, what it looks like, what it feels like, how it manifests. There's absolutely no hierarchy here: "Some kind of contact is better than other kind of contact, or this happening is better than that." Absolutely none. No shoulds whatsoever. What wants to happen?
And if it does want to be sexual, you know, there's a whole range to what that can be. Could be very, very subtle, very gentle, very light. May not even involve touch. Or it might. There might be a caress of some kind. Can be a huge range. Can be all the way to very intense, almost voracious. All of it fine. See what wants to happen, what feels right. Always, just as much as possible, the mindfulness, the sensitivity, the attunement, in the body, the energy body, the heart, the soul.
The realm of the imaginal is not constrained by physical facts of anatomy, so there can be gender reversal or fluidity or non-genderedness or multiple-genderedness. There may want to be an entering or an opening of some kind of penetration. It may be sexual. It may be more in terms of liquid or light. Be really open and sensitive, see, receptive.
It may be right to eat this being, or be eaten by them. Just see. That could be, again, voracious or very gentle. And it's completely fine to be deliberate and just make a choice to try something. Just check that it feels soulmaking. It's your navigation that you're on the right track. So deliberate or not deliberate is less important. Again, no hierarchy. No should. Doesn't have to be sexual, or doesn't have to not be sexual.
See in the openness, in the playfulness, in the sensitivity, if you can get a sense of what the primary sense modality of the image is. Let that lead. Let the primary sense lead. Or what element may seem primary -- liquid or space, earthiness, light. With that, you might also get a sense of what the sort of register of the image wants to be, in terms of how solid-feeling it is, or how insubstantial. You might find that the image has a kind of intrinsic wavelength to it -- it wants to be, for instance, very substantial, or very earthy and solid. Or you might just want to play with that a little bit and see what happens.
The delicacy of attunement, of sensitivity, to the emotions, to the energy body, to the soul-resonances. Playfulness and delicacy of attuning, attunement. And with that, letting yourself linger, participate, in this relationship or this witnessing. Linger. Just as much as feels comfortable, opening, enjoying.
Staying with the image, and what do you notice in the energy body, in relationship? So there's how the energy body feels; there might also be an image of your body. What is the image of your body in relationship? What do you notice in your emotions in relationship? What do you notice in the relationship? What is involved in the relationship? Is there love there? Is that something you notice? Perhaps from you to this image. Perhaps from this image to you. Can be very, very subtle. Is there perhaps reverence? Again, can be very, very subtle. Is there some kind of wanting that you notice? And again, that can be very subtle, too, or more obvious. And what is it that is wanted? And how?
And lastly, and again staying with your experience with the energy body and the resonances, can you notice the qualities of the image, how it is? What do you notice there in relationship?
And then just giving a fullness of attention to your energy body, sensitive to that space. And when you're ready, opening the eyes.
[48:40, guided meditation ends]
So how do we choose, how do you choose an image? How do you choose an imaginal being, figure, for this kind of thing? Well, in a lot of ways, we could say they choose us. Soul gives us an image. We could say that. We could say the image itself, as I said, has an autonomy, seeks you out. And/or, at the same time, we can deliberately choose. We choose an image -- something that's worked before, or a dream image, etc. So both in terms of practicalities, you know, sometimes we just receive an image, and you can wait for it to come to you, but also in terms of practicalities, you can just make a choice -- that dream I had last night or whatever it is, or this image that I know has worked for me before. You just make a choice. Practically, you can receive, or you can make a deliberate choice.
Conceptually, they're actually less different than it might seem. We're going to hopefully talk about that. It seems like they're two different ideas, but what we're going to say is that in this whole realm of soulmaking work, we discover and we create, in some kind of word that we don't have in English, where we discover/create. The distinction between subject and object and agency is blurred; there's an amalgam. So I discover, the image is revealed to me; I also know that I create the image, both. So practically speaking, either way is fine. Conceptually, there's something a little more interesting going on.
You can start anywhere in this kind of practice. You could, as I said, start with a dream image that has made an impact on you, and just recall that and work with that. It could be that, as I said, a previous image that has worked for you and been potent has that kind of imaginal quality, something that you remember from before. It could be in our lives -- actually, it is in our lives -- the case that there are people, human beings, flesh and blood people, who are images for us. You can choose one of those. It's a person. Why? Because, as I said, there's no distinction here between intrapsychic and extrapsychic. That person is an image for us; they are therefore imaginal. So you can choose someone who's an actual person, if that feels okay for you.
You can start with the mindfulness of the energy body, okay, and let that kind of guide you in if you want. You could start with developing the samādhi in the energy body, and that looseness. That sort of fluidity, liquidity of the energy body that comes with a little bit of samādhi makes the psyche a little bit more loose, and then the images can come. Also when there's an emotional difficulty, there's enough energy in the emotional difficulty, if I can relate to it in the energy body, it can give birth to images. Okay? So there are lots of different ways in. I have to care for that emotion. I have to come into contact with it, be mindful of it in the energy body, feel it, hold it, care for it, and then maybe it can give birth to an image.
Some of you know emptiness practices. So again, they will, because they fabricate less, they create a bit more liquidity, and in that space of more looseness of the psyche, an image can be born. And sometimes something in the room, right now, there is a thing, or the whole room, or the whole space I'm in, or the outside, life itself is image now in this moment, and you can go from that. Or this thing in front of me, or this tree, or this person, or myself sitting here in this room, is an image; it's already image, and you can go with that. Okay?
I was going to say more, but it's already been too long, so we can pick it up another time. So this now will form another thread for our practice, working with images. So we've got the energy body, and the exercise Catherine did this morning with the balances of the attention. But energy body in different ways, as you know, and imaginal practice with an imaginal other. Yeah? So we have a couple of threads to play with, and you can be flexible moving between the two. Is that clear? Yeah? And we'll come back more to talking about all this and understanding how to work and what's going on and how can we understand it, as we go on.
