Mental imagery is more subtle and primary than verbal thought.
Words are shaped from it, draw their meaning from it,
and when they have been spoken,
return to the image to add their colors to it.
Imagery is more subtle and primary than emotion,
What we feel is informed by it, decides the aroma of experience by it,
And when the felt sense has been known,
returns to the image and leaves its residue on it.
The primary tool of consciousness is image making. All that is known, remembered, or creatively constructed is done so on a foundation of imagery. Many people will think “but what about language and words?” Yes language and words are also a part of the user interface of consciousness, but if we make careful and acutely detailed observations of the activity of thought, we see that language is derived from image. Before words come there are images. When we recall a memory and construct an idea to formulate into words, it’s the image that comes first. Language simply translates it so that it can be conveyed to others.
Images are being constructed or recalled at the base of all mental activity. This activity is so primary and subtle however that it’s usually subconscious. But if we aim attention toward this level of mental activity, we can learn to see the image making activity consciously. If we are thinking about what we need to get done today, that list of objectives is made from images. We see ourselves sitting at the desk opening emails, driving to the grocery store etc. If we are thinking of what we want from the grocery store, we see the carton of orange juice and the bag of spinach, not the words on the sheet of paper. When we are remembering to call someone on the phone their face flashes for a moment across the screen of the mind, then we say “oh i need to call so and so”. And when we remember the phone number, if anyone even bothers with that anymore, it’s the image of the numbers that comes to mind in the pattern of dialing on the keypad, or the image of ourselves picking up the phone, thumbing through the contact list or the app to find their name.
If the mind is given to disgust, or fear, or some judgment that makes us feel bad, if we really slow down and pay attention, we’ll find a distorted image there. It’s an image of what we imagine could be or an image of something that has happened to us before. I remember when I was served brussel sprouts for the first time as an adult. I was disgusted at first sight. I didn’t really know why. I just hated brussel sprouts. Later I remembered that when I was a child I had a terrible experience of being forced to eat boiled brussel sprouts. By the way, nobody should ever be forced to eat any boiled vegetables. They are lifeless and mushy with little nutrition left in them, but I had to stay at the table until they were gone. I spent hours at the table just staring at them. The image was burned so deep in my mind that even after I was grown, and lived on only vegetables, I still had this image lurking under the surface. Once I realized this image was seared in my subconsciousness distorting my experience of brussel sprouts I was able to release it. I love brussel sprouts now. It is an incredible little cabbage. Lightly steamed, roasted or chopped into a slaw, they are wonderful.
In the images we hold are all the preferences we have, but they also contain the rules and roles we have for everything we do. We have images of ourselves and the world around us that tell us how things “aught” to be, how we ought to be and why. Sometimes these images are helpful for navigating life more efficiently, but often they are misleading. People are often ruled by this image making part of the mind conforming mindlessly to the “aughts”, rather than relating to them in constructive ways. When the image we hold contains negative impressions from the past or when it’s been infused with the fearful fantasies of worst-case scenarios this tool becomes a chain of bondage, holding us to an illusion. Even when the image is a decent representation of some aspect of reality, following it unconsciously can have a binding effect in our lives. When we blindly follow our unexamined images, we are in essence conforming our thinking and behavior to an illusion. We are putting ourselves and others into a category, deciding what things are and what things mean based on representations of reality and not based on reality itself. Most of us are hopelessly stuck on images that have little to do with reality. We move through the world not really even looking at the world but looking at the images we have placed over the top of the world. And we are constantly trying to make sure we are, and everybody else is conforming to those images.
One way to tell if we are conforming to an image or if we are meeting reality as it is, is through our moods. If we become angry or irritated by an experience it’s because the image we have set up for that experience didn’t match the actual experience. We became disappointed because our expectation showed us a picture of how things should be, but that picture was formed from our cobbling together images from previous experiences, and we became invested in it. If we feel guilty or embarrassed because we didn’t do a good job or “missed the mark” in some way its because the vision we have of ourselves did not line up with the picture we made of our performance. Whenever the mind made image of ourselves looks different than the image we make of our current perception, or the imagined perception of others, we can become rather disappointed. When the “aught” does not match the “is”, in other words, we have a problem.
Living by images is as unavoidable as living without air. Without images we couldn’t get to the store because we wouldn’t know left from right or even know a street from a river, since knowledge and memory are instantiated and organized in images. But making images unconsciously, especially making images to represent ourselves or the selves of other people, will never go well consistently. No one can be limited to an image. Even though a picture is worth a thousand words as the saying goes, no person or life experience is sufficiently described in 1000 words or even a million. Reality is an ineffable and multidimensional wonder. And even if we manage to make images that work well for the moment, in the next it’ll change, they will change, we will change, and some new unexpected feature of reality will re-create itself. This is the mystery of perpetual becoming.
Our likes and dislikes are highly governed by images. Our past experiences have set up images so that our likes are things associated with a pleasing feeling and our dislikes are associated with things that are unpleasant. But in either case, the memories are not present moment realities. Neither our likes nor our dislikes have any reality outside the images that encode them. We can function well enough inside these associations for a time and there’s even a certain degree of obligation to function optimally within these codes. Being a good student, a good employee, a good parent, spouse or whatever means certain basic images need to be upheld. But when we are working our whole lives to fit into an image rather than working to master image making, we will only ever be a servant to the image. We will follow rules that don’t make sense, we’ll work toward outcomes we don’t want, obey mores that are at cross purposes to our real desires or moral obligations, we will become like automatons stuffing ourselves into a world that’s only representational. To be free, we must remain in direct contact with the reality of each moment.
We can use images as temporary guides, like directions on a map, but ultimately we need to be responsive to the territory of the real. We need to be able to respond to what is, even when it’s unlike the image. And, we need to become the master of the image, constructing them and deconstructing them with conscious awareness. We need to know that even when they are well formed they are yet untrue, that the image is not the reality and never will be. There is a reality beyond the prejudices and the assumptions, beyond the stereotyping, beyond the superficial level of appearances, beyond the impressions, memories and all the expectations they set up in consciousness and the rehearsed reactions and reflexes they seem to justify, there is an innocent unknowing mind, curious, attentive and perfectly responsive to what matters most about everything and everyone.
There is a real world, and a real self, but it’s not adequately represented by images, its only translated or clothed by them. Just as the word sky is not the actual sky, the image of the world or the image of the self is not the self. The world and the self are within and beyond the image. Whatever the world is or whatever we are in its entirety we may never really be able to say, but it is something we can live out. We can live it as a present moment reality by spontaneously recognising and enacting the authentic truth of being. But first we must be willing to let go of the images, and we must be willing to rebuild them when we find them lacking, and come into a conscious relationship with their construction. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve heard from a friend who was giving me directions, “don’t follow google maps because it’s wrong”. They’ll then proceed to tell me the right way to get to their house. I know that the directions given by a conscious entity are usually more accurate than that of an algorithm. The reason is because algorithms aren’t conscious reasoning beings. But like a program we have our own kind of algorithms, automating unconscious functions.
The maps we have in our head are often wrong. But even when they are somewhat accurate its also often the case that we can get by quite well without them, because the reality directly in front of us tells everything we need to know anyway. We can navigate the present moment, no matter how complex or difficult it may seem with no map, and no past model of understanding. We don’t need a memorized set of rules, etiquette or technical knowledge in most cases to be responsive in an innocent and authentic way that is adequate to the moment. The life power in us is more than capable of meeting every need, in and through us. But if we are in bondage to the images and layers of constructed interpretations they assert on our consciousness, we will not be free to respond to what is. We will not listen to people, or to ourselves, and see what’s vital and alive here. We will instead fit what they are saying, or doing into the box most like our image of them or people “like” them. We will distort our perceptions attempting to contort the natural and authentic expression into our expectations. We will follow the letter of the law rather than the spirit of the law. We will follow the image of the role even if it goes against what’s good and true.
Yes, let’s make images, make maps and models of reality, let’s create fantasies and mold clay sculptures out of the fluidic mind stuff to co-create what might become. And let’s polish those images to shine like a brilliant mirror when held up to the direct light of reality, but let’s do it intentionally, consciously and without attachment or belief that it should be true. Let’s also learn to settle the mind and observe the subtle activity of image making that’s always already occurring, and refine those images by shaping them in accordance with the luminous realities we directly observe. Progress in this skillet is achieved by our work with theta states. Trance work, lucid dreaming, visualization and active imagination all of which are aided by our state training practices with the frequency range of 4-7Hz. Theta state training will put us into alignment with the subtle states of consciousness and the image making faculty, and through practice and with greater conscious awareness we will learn to become the directors of this most glorious and divine power of creativity.