In “Imaginal Meditation,” Emily West Horn introduces an approach to imaginal practice—drawing on Vajrayana deity yoga, Jack Kornfield, Chögyam Trungpa, and Dzongsar Khyentse Rinpoche—to show how invoking, dissolving, and embodying the image of the Buddha can loosen the boundary between self & world, inclining the mind toward non-duality.
💬 Transcript
Emily Horn: So I want to explore imaginal meditation with you all today. And I want to start just simply with the Buddhist Geeks definition of it, and then I’m going to unpack what imaginal meditation means in the context of the third turning, and in particular Vajrayana practice. I’m not going to unpack what Vajrayana is or some of these terms that we’ve already previously unpacked.
So if you have questions about Vajrayana and Buddhism, things like that, you can watch the other recordings with these sessions. I’m also going to talk about a few of the challenges that I’ve seen and that I’ve experienced with imaginal meditation. And then, of course, we’ll actually practice it after this concludes.
So, the general definition that Buddhist Geeks offers and proposes for you all is: imaginal meditation is the practice of incorporating subtle imagery and energy, the result of which is fullness. So we’re moving into a somewhat — for some people — challenging practice, because it’s really asking us to move beyond our ordinary way of perceiving.
It’s asking us to shift outside of whatever framework you might be entering through. Imaginal meditation asks us to actually sense into the possibilities. It’s a creative practice. And it also challenges the rational mind a little bit, because we’re moving from perceiving to imagining what you might not have even perceived or recognized before.
And it’s also aiming at incorporating subtle vibes. I think “vibe” is the new word, not “energy” necessarily, so we can go with that. If you have these kinds of experiences where it’s like, “Huh, I’m not sure exactly what that is, but I felt it” — I’ve had a lot of those experiences around people. It’s like I can feel this certain kind of energy, vibe, and I’m like, what is that? Well, imaginal meditation is asking us to actually say, okay, there is something beyond our ordinary perception that we can actually get more and more attuned to, and then start to embody.
For example, in the meditation, in the way that I’m going to zoom in today with you all, we’re going to be working with the image of the Buddha. So that image in itself has a certain kind of vibe, and it invokes a certain kind of experience. I’ll give you more information about that in a moment. But I want to also offer you a little bit about what it is from the Vajrayana perspective.
He says, “The technique of visualization” — and I want to highlight and bold “visualization,” and I’m going to honor his way of talking about things, but then I’m also going to tell you all why Buddhist Geeks has changed that to “imaginal.” So “visualization” isn’t the way we’re going to be talking about it. However, I do want to honor where this is coming from and the way that it’s spoken about typically. So: “The technique of visualization is employed throughout the Vajrayana practices of Tibetan Buddhism. Its use of our imagination makes it quite different from other meditations such as shamatha, which is concentration or calm abiding. Imagination also plays a major part in our deluded experience of life. Everything we encounter and perceive in our daily life is a product of our imagination, but because we believe in the illusions we create, they become such deeply rooted mental habits that we completely forget that they’re little more than fantasy. The imagination is therefore one of our most powerful tools, and working with it by changing the ways we look at our world is what we call the practice of visualization.”
So it’s really aimed at starting to sense into: okay, wait, maybe we are creative beings. Maybe there is more here than we actually can recognize. And what’s it like to imagine a different way of living, of being? In some ways, what would it be like to imagine that human beings could all live together and thrive? It can go into that way of looking at it.
Now, I’ve also done a lot of different kinds of visualization or imaginal practices. There are so many different kinds. When I studied with Jack Kornfield, he taught me and others how to guide people. It’s kind of like a mix between a psychological framework and a Buddhist framework. He would offer ways to unlock different ways of knowing through symbols. There were healing journeys. There was a healing temple that we would imagine and venture into. There are time-travel visualizations, imaginal practices where you get on magic carpets and go exploring. And it’s really just a way of getting to know these parts of us that we don’t typically recognize.
There’s also, in psychotherapy, if you’ve done trauma work, which I have — there was a whole thing with my therapist before I could even do EMDR, which is an alleviation-of-trauma technique. And “resourcing”: I had to visualize and imagine a place that brought me some nurturing and comfort. That was my go-to place when things got intense. I would go back to the beach in LA, or wherever. I think that was my safe spot at the time.
So there are all kinds of ways that this has been incorporated into meditation in the West. A lot of the teachers that I’ve studied with, I know, have drawn from Vajrayana and some of the imaginal practices in that tradition. Today, though, we’re going to zoom into a type of deity yoga — or deity imaginal practice. And we’re going to use the Buddha, and I’ll tell you a little bit more about that again in a minute.
So I also want to touch on this: when we sense into imaginal practice, I’m not sure what your relationship to it is. So take a moment and just sense in — have you done this before? Do you feel a little reactive, like, “Oh,” about this? Is it really intriguing, “Ooh, what’s going to happen?” So just sense into what’s going on for you as we explore this, because it does ask us to engage a part of us that, for whatever reasons, is not very well known.
I’m not sure how many people in the United States visualize Buddhas and then start to embody them, let alone Europe, and then as we expand. So I think some of you are there. One of the challenges that comes up with this practice is — again, I highlighted and bolded that word “visualization” — that can be a challenge, with thinking that it’s only visual. So I want to see what we can do in the session to expand and imagine in so many different ways. It can be very unique to you how your imagination actually takes form and shape and senses in this practice.
To think of it as visualization — sometimes visualization gets equated, or there’s this association, with images: like you think in pictures, you see pictures. And I just want to invite us to soften around that, because this practice — some people will see very clearly in images, and that’s not the case for everyone. So just soften around what you might think this needs to look like. It might be kinesthetic. And for me, thought imprints are a way that, a lot of times, I’ve gotten really attuned to sensing the vibes behind thoughts and intuition in these imaginal practices. Sometimes it comes in the form of a thought. So just allow yourself to expand and include more and more and more when we go into the practice. That’s part of where imagination practices take us — to include more and more and more in our experience.
Another challenge — and this is pretty much for all practices, and in particular this one — in a lot of ways it can bring up these thoughts like, “Am I doing this right? Am I doing this right?” The important thing to keep in mind with this practice is that however you invoke the image — we’re going to be working, of course, with imagery and imagining — however that imagining process happens for you, see if you can, if that thought comes in, “Am I doing this right?” — it’s a creative process. There’s not really a right or wrong. The mind will come in to try to steal your experiences, like Trudy Goodman says. So just keep that with a little yellow sticky note on it. “Doing it right, doing it wrong” — that’s part of the imaginal process. It can be really creative, and it can be fun.
Another thing that comes up a lot when people begin to practice this — and of course we call it a practice for a reason — is trying to analyze what’s happening. Trying to, like, “Oh, I read that article and that article said I should do it this way, or that article said... and oh wait, what now? What is imaginal practice again? What does that really mean?” So you’re going to start to try to analyze the practice and the concepts and the theory. And if that’s happening during the practice, I invite you to just be like, okay, not right now. Let me see if I can suspend that kind of cognitive knowing for just a moment here and sense into: okay, what is really being invoked in this practice? Or what are we really aiming to invoke?
And honestly, it’s really about how it comes alive for you. That’s the important part. If it feels alive, then you’re in the process of it. It can feel alive in one minute and then not another minute, but you’re still just trying to sense into that. What is the vibrancy of what’s happening? Can I really be in the moment and sense into this life quality that’s here? You may see something very clearly, or you may feel something very clearly, but sense into: okay, we’re aiming to bring this alive and then see it as clearly as possible, in whatever way that looks for you — whether it’s kinesthetic, thinking, sensing.
So another challenge that comes up in this practice is getting fixated. You may get fixated on seeing each and every detail of what we’re trying to invoke. I’ve done guided practices with this kind of imagery, like, “We’re going to invoke the Buddha.” There are so many different images of the Buddha. I’ve done a lot with this Blue Medicine Buddha, and he’s got all kinds of accoutrements; he is very fancy-looking, in my opinion. And so for a while it was like, “Oh gosh, I don’t see it like that when I start to practice. I forgot that detail.” So if the details are inspiring to you, and you’re one of those people who really loves the details and they just come up — like, “Oh, I can see the eyes, I can see the hair” — that’s great. And if that’s not what’s happening for you, that’s not, in my experience, the most important part. Again, it’s that sense of aliveness. It’s the sense of the clear knowing of it. And again, that can look a lot of different ways. So relax, if you’re one of the people who get hung up on details, as much as you can. It’s okay not to see all the little pieces of it.
I’ve sort of alluded to this, but I’ll name it directly: in some ways a challenge is people who are unwilling to believe the unbelievable. So I want to challenge you to expand and be open to what’s kind of unbelievable. Be open to experiences that you might not — that might not fit in your current framework. Because, again, we’re working with subtle vibes, and the more we sensitize to that and attune to that, the more you might notice that it’s always been here.
For example, when I was doing a lot of meditation practice at one point — it was on a retreat we were doing — one of the instructions was to imagine, of course, the Buddha, and then, if we’re having a difficult moment, or even if not, one of the anchoring phrases was, “This happy Buddha is like this, this calm Buddha is like this.” And I was doing that, and then I started feeling like these Buddhas were coming. I could feel the sense — perception just changes, especially with a lot of concentration. It’s kind of like doing drugs or psychedelics, let me be specific. And so I just kept feeling — and imagining — all these different kinds of Buddhas. And I went to Jack and I was like, “Ah, I don’t know, it feels like all these Buddhas are coming.” And he was just like, “Okay, cool.” And I was like, “But I don’t even know if it’s me or them.” I started to lose the differentiation between the outside and the inside. It started to merge together in a way where I was not so sure who was who and what was what. It was all just kind of happening. But my mind was seeing Buddhas.
So part of what happens in this practice is we invoke the imagery, and then we start to actually become it and embody it. So it starts to break down the separation between all these different aspects of experience that we typically see as separate. So that’ll be part of what we do in the practice: we’ll invoke the Buddha, and then we’ll start to dissolve the Buddha and embody the Buddha. Aiming toward — sensing into what I’m going to tell you about in a minute, which is non-duality.
Jack Kornfield says: you recognize that you can embody these energies. When you do that, then you can allow it to fill every cell of your being, every corner of your consciousness; see the world with the eyes of the Buddha or St. Francis; sense that you are holy. Practice this repeatedly until it becomes more natural to your heart than your ordinary identity. So in some ways our ordinary identity can become quite extraordinary, when we sense into: wait a second, there is more to this experience, to this human beingness, than sometimes I’m attuned to. And this practice helps us incline to that, and then start to — okay, yeah, let’s see what this is like to be this Buddha.
Again and again, it stretches us. Imagination stretches us. Chögyam Trungpa, from Shambhala: The Sacred Path of the Warrior — I’ve already talked about Trungpa — says: “You can experience a vast realm of perceptions unfolding. There is unlimited sound, unlimited sight, unlimited taste, unlimited feeling, and so on. The realm of perception is limitless — so limitless that perception itself is primordial, unthinkable, beyond thought. There are so many perceptions that are beyond imagination. There are a vast number of sounds. There are sounds that you’ve never heard. There are sights and colors that you’ve never seen. There are feelings that you’ve never experienced before. There are endless fields of perception.”
Endless fields of perception. So just sense into what it would be like to start to unlock, and then become whole, by starting to imagine in a new way — to include more and more and more of those vast, limitless ways to perceive. So again, when we invoke it and then we dissolve it, we’re going to start to sense into what it’s like for the external and the internal to come together. And, as I mentioned before, non-duality.
So let me tell you a little bit about what I mean by that. I went to ask Jack one time, I was like, “So what is this non-duality?” He still laughs at me. He’s like, “There are so many kinds of non-duality.” So it sounded nice to zoom in and say, okay, this is what we’re talking about with this particular practice that we’ll be doing today. So, again, from Dzongsar Khyentse Rinpoche: “The meaning of non-duality here is the absence of separation — the absence of separation, or the absence of difference, between appearance and emptiness. In other words, nothing we perceive — not the guru, the student, or anything else, not the Buddha — truly exists externally. And until we fully realize non-duality, the exercise of dissolving or merging the deity or guru with ourselves is an extremely useful tool.”
So it’s starting to incline us to imagining: okay, what would it be like if we really perceived in a way that we are interconnected, that we are not separate, that all this is happening within one field of experience? And of course there are different ways that we each experience it, but what would it be like if we started to imagine in a sense that, yes, we are individuals, but we’re also so connected that — wait, where does that line start and stop? So just something to imagine. I’ve had experiences where I’ve perceived reality in such a way that I’m not quite so sure where my body stops and starts. You remember Vince talked about the subtle bodies and the different bodies. So in some ways, what if our body extended beyond what we typically think? What if?
So again, we’re going to be evoking and then dissolving. One more thing from Dzongsar Khyentse Rinpoche. He says: “Eventually you will come to realize that dissolution happens in the same way that the space inside a container mixes with the sky and the whole atmosphere. And this is the part of the practice that many students misunderstand. Imagine a clay pot. It is both surrounded by and filled with space. When the pot breaks, the space that had been inside the pot mixes with the space that has been outside of it, and the two become inseparable. It is not possible to tell the inside space from the outside space. Space is just space, and there’s no way of knowing where any part of it originated. This is how the practitioner and the guru-Buddha dissolve into each other to become inseparable.”
So it’s kind of a reorientation of thinking and sensing. It’s like, okay, wait, what is this like, to actually sense into this sense of non-separation?
So I want to give you a little bit of a different take. I want a little bit of a Western view here. There’s an article — a New York Times article by David Brooks. He talks about Plato and Aristotle here for a minute. So: “Plato gives the impression that imagination is a somewhat airy-fairy luxury good. It deals with illusions and make-believe and distracts us from reality and our capacity to fully reason about it.” So I’m not sure if that’s in there somewhere, in some of your consciousness. I had a strong reaction, in some ways, to imaginal meditation at a certain point, because my parents were New Agey. So anyway, that’s Plato. “Aristotle, though, countered and said that imagination is one of the foundations of all knowledge.” So, interesting.
David Brooks goes on to say: “A person who feeds his or her imagination with a fuller repertoire of thoughts and experiences has the ability not only to see reality more richly, but also — even more rare — to imagine the world through the imaginations of others. This is the skill we see in Shakespeare to such a miraculous degree: his ability to disappear into his characters and inhabit their points of view without ever pretending to explain them. Imagination helps you perceive reality, try on other realities, predict possible futures, and experience other viewpoints.”
So just imagine what it would be like to be able to connect to people regardless of situations and circumstances and beliefs, you know what I mean? You could imagine a thriving world, where we’re all thriving.
