Basics of Buddhism – 5 - Imagination

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This morning we continue a series of talks about the Basics of Buddhism by discussing the power of our imagination.  As the third key component of Buddhist practice, along with mindfulness and meditation, visualization through imagination helps us transform the way we experience ourselves and our world. 

If we want to transform the way we experience ourselves and the world, imagination is an important skill to cultivate. Normally, we might think of imagination as making things up, NOT being fully in the present. The definition of imagination is the power of forming a mental image of something not present—isn’t that the opposite of this whole idea of Buddhist practice? The answer might seems to be Yes, BUT it turns out these two things don’t have to be mutually exclusive. Let’s look more deeply at how we can direct the use of imagination in a positive way. Imagination can be a powerful stepping stone that stretches us beyond our current conditioned responses and old ways of seeing the world, into a new world of new perspectives. It’s like a bridge leading us to a greater understanding about what it means to be truly present.  Imagination can actually re-wire our brain for happiness.

Why would we need imagination to awaken? Let’s start with where you are in this exact moment. What is your main motivation for wanting to learn something new? To relax? To de-stress? To experience peace? To find answers? There are many different motivations that encourage us to practice, all excellent reasons in their own way.  I offer that all of these motivations are grounded in our imagination. We imagine that life could be different. We imagine that having this experience of Buddhism might change our lives in some positive way. The first step in learning anything new is imagining that things could be different. Imagination brings forth the full potential of each moment in our lives, allowing us to see alternative ways of living.

When people get depressed, one of the most debilitating aspects is that they cannot imagine living without depression. When we are in pain, we sometimes lose our ability to imagine life without pain. We all get caught up in the experience we’re having, clinging to it with the unconscious assumption that things will never be different. And yet, it is possible, in the midst of any difficult experience, in the middle of reacting in our old unskillful ways, we can realize that all things changes. Nothing stays the same forever.  All things are impermanent.  This is an important principle in Buddhism, and one in which imagination can play a key role.

When we awaken to the possibility that things are ever-changing, we are able to direct our experience of the present beyond our current limited thoughts and feelings. The teachings of the Buddha are all about waking up to the fullness of each moment, and imagination is teaching us how to be fully open to all possible experiences. Stephen Batchelor is a well-respected Buddhist practitioner, scholar and teacher, and he has a whole chapter on imagination in his book Buddhism Without Beliefs. In it, he describes that there are three important factors in Buddhist practice: First, commitment, Second, practicing the technique, and Third is imagination. It’s noteworthy that he puts imagination in such an important place. When we look at the first two steps of the eightfold path, we find Wise View and Wise Intention, and at the core of these two steps is practicing imagining how things might be in a broader context.

So, how might we use imagination as the rocket fuel for a passionate, joyful life? Here’s some ideas:

First, we can recognize and remember our ability to access imagination exists in each and every moment. Each moment is sacred—not just the ones spent in church or at home meditating. Each and every moment is sacred. We are creating our life moment by moment. When we feel stuck in a certain situation or overwhelmed by the circumstances in our lives, we can remind ourselves to leverage the power of imagination to see clearly the breadth and depth of the possibilities beyond our limited way of thinking. WE TRULY ARE JUST MAKING ALL THIS UP. We are deciding moment by moment, how to live and how to respond to all that life creates. Most of the time, we fall back on the easy answers, like what our parents did or what our friends are doing or what we think we should do or what we did in the past. We might unfortunately think of life as just getting by, doing what we have to do…but the Buddhist practice is about life being so much more.

Imagination is a powerful tool that we have available to us in each moment to stretch beyond our mental limitations. Imagination is a process of seeing ourselves, all others and the world in all its glory.

Practicing imagination strengthens our capacity to think outside the box!   One of my favorite quotes from Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll:

 “Alice laughed. ‘There's no use trying,’ she said: ‘one can't believe impossible things.’ 

‘I daresay you haven't had much practice,’ said the Queen. ‘When I was your age, I always did it for half-an-hour a day. Why, sometimes I've believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast.’”

Our ability to think beyond our limitations is a learnable skill. The visualizations that are part of the Buddhist practices, like loving-kindness, the point of peace and the offering practice, these efforts strength our imagination muscle—in fact the practices re-wire our brains into a new way of seeing the world.   Visualizations might seem corny or artificial, but they still work! Buddhist teachers encourage their students that even if you feel like you’re faking it, we are still planting seeds, the seed of loving-kindness, planting the seed of awakening to our innate goodness, just by the mere practice of imagining. Stephen Batchelor likens Visualization more to artistic creation than technical problem solving. We can think of living as an artistic endeavor. Each of us is creating this life that we are experiencing. Each of us is making choices about how to live, moment by moment. The limitations that we think exist are in most cases, self-imposed. Imagine all the possible ways you could live your life!  Imagine how long that list could be!

AND, we can never run out of imagination. Everyone feels down at times, we get sick, and get old, we feel scared and angry and frustrated. But, the truth of our being is that there is a never ending source of light and imagination within us. We may feel angry, but we are not anger. WE may feel afraid, but we are not fear. Thoughts and emotions are NOT who we are. We can imagine that we are pure awareness, we can imagine that we are love and compassion and wisdom and goodness. We can imagine being fully awake, fully present. This powerful process of imagination opens us up to the amazing possibilities of how to live our life.

This innate goodness within everyone, in Buddhism it’s referred to as Buddha Nature, can be liken to the SUN, which is always shining. It never stops. It doesn't need something outside of itself to shine. It just keeps shining. no matter what. There may be clouds in the way, it might be night time on Earth, so we don’t see the Sun, but the Sun is still shining. The light of our being is the same way. It might be covered up or out of view, but it’s still there . This unique point of open awareness is always present in each moment.

Who or what is having this experience of living anyway? Who or what is having these thoughts or feeling these feelings right now? Who or what are you? Loosen any certainty that you are a certain way, loosen the clinging to any misconception that life must unfold in a certain direction, that living is limited to a limited set of emotions and thoughts. Imagine that you are not a thing but rather pure awareness manifesting anew in each moment.

Life is more an unwritten book to be explored rather than a finished product to be defended. The Buddha’s enlightenment is an exercise in seeing life in a whole new way. Because first, he imagined that there was a whole new way to be discovered. If he didn’t imagine another possibility, he would have never started looking in the first place!

We each have this incredible tool of imagination within us:

1. Each of us can know that it is always available in every moment.
2. Exercise it, strengthen your use of it, and
3. Rest in knowing that imagination is limitless.
4. We can imagine our lives as a clean sheet of paper, waiting for the living to be written down, to be lived, moment by moment. In this moment, imagine your life as that clean piece of paper. What would you write? How would you live? What would you create anew?

Strengthening our imagination muscle enables us to benefit from the practice of visualization.   Buddha found that there are certain qualities that we can cultivate through visualizing and imagining experiencing them.  Here is the “fake it till you make it” part that has been scientifically proven to be true.  An athlete can mentally imagine performing his physical activity and by doing so, does a better job when he begins to actually play.  So too, we, as spiritual athletes, can practice feeling a certain way, and we slowly begin to experience the world in this new way of being.