This writing moves from reality on a global level to invisability, questions perceptions, science technological essence and searching in understanding of myself. It consists of Synthesis of Eastern and Western thought...
...Take a deep breath...
Paramahansa Yogananda(1999), widely recognized as one of the prominent spiritual teachers of our time wrote in his book “A world of transition”:
Change yourself and you have done your part in changing the world.
Every individual must change his own life if he wants to live in
a peaceful world. The world cannot become peaceful unless
and until you yourself begin to work towards peace (p.202).
We live in reality of total contradictions and contrasts, reality of degradation in the majority of human kind, of violence and aggression. The crisis in which we are in it is not economic, social, cultural, racial, national, and ecological in nature, it is a crisis of consciousness. It is a reality where parallel to super development of technology and science; seventy two percent of the world lives in poverty, thirty-four thousand children die out of hunger and treatable diseases every single day. We have more and more mentally, emotionally and physically sick people, who try to pull through every day life. Meaningless conflicts and wars, total separation, isolation and lost of self. How numb we have become to accept the live images on the television screens of people being killed for patriotic and safety reasons. To what level of denial have we sunk to that we think this is normal and this is how life should be. Why did and do we accept it? Why have we forgotten about the power of the spirit and human intelligence which has endless capacity to create and transform reality? Where our imagination has taken us or left us…or…
In the western part of the world we experience the result of super materialistic development and we as healers face daily the human suffering, missing the presence of spiritual breath and fulfilled silence. The eastern part of the world is lost in old traditions and practices of spirituality looking toward the west for more practical and simple way of experiencing life, trying to rediscover the incredible amount of wisdom from over six thousand years ago. There is definite imbalance and lack of harmony in every piece of the Earth. We institutionalized life, establishing organizations, associations, foundations, stereotypic theories, dogmas, methods, techniques, creating reality in which we have enslaved the human spirit, living an outward life. If our thoughts, emotions and actions are the trinity throughout which we create our reality, what is lacking so to create a better world of peace and harmony? How the art and its endless capacity can be mobilized to assist the elevation of the human consciousness? How can we breathe in light toward transformation? How can we open these energies within us? Are we too much in our minds ignoring the energies of the heart? Are we aware of our own imagination and the possibilities to recreate our lives? How we use this invisible but always present energy?
James Engell (1981) wrote, “Imagination for Schelling is an immaterial and even mysterious energy” (p.305). It is always there in its multi-dimensional presence. It seems that moves from the known to the unknown, from complication to simplicity. In some moments this mysterious energy becomes visibly materialized and probably most often its highest creations never become present. Other times it comes spontaneously unexpected and others structurally invited. Sometimes imagination is escorted with emotional experiences, others is emotionally free.
“The imagination is not matter, and it is not “received” by any senses, but it alone explains how we face change, connect the past, present and future, and direct our actions” (p.52). During a creative flow, even though every creative process I have experienced never repeats itself, the flow of imaginative energy manifests uniquely and it depends strongly to the state of mind, reflecting physically on the brain function. According to Engell (1981), “The imagination orchestrates the crescendo and harmony of feeling and thought” (p.53).
Using Mind Mirror EEG, Anna Wise (1997) measured and trained brainwaves. In “The High Performance Mind,” Wise stated that brainwaves play an important part in non‑verbal communication. She studied electrical impulses produced by the brain, stating that the four kinds of brainwaves; alpha, beta, theta, and delta communicate information along the conscious, subconscious and unconscious mind. She described:
While theta brainwaves are associated with creativity, other brain rhythms are needed to bring this creativity into your consciousness mind. A combination of additional frequencies is needed to access the profound potential of theta brainwaves. Delta waves make up the unconscious mind, they are radar that seeks out and receives information on an instinctive level. High deltas are mostly intuitive, but all of them work together to create a wide range of mental, emotional and spiritual states. (Compare with music sometimes the combination is melodious, smooth and flowing.) Our goal is to create a full, powerful and harmonious symphony of brainwaves (p.93).
As Wise (1997) concluded:
To enhance creativity, the artist has two choices: meditate before creating, as in alone meditation, or encourage the awakened mind brain waves pattern with the eyes open while in the act of creating.
Pattern of creativity is on the way to form awakening mind patterns (p.107).
A Buddhist perspective supports this, “When the thought becomes a routine, it creates a pattern and loses its energy flow. The mind has certain independency than the body but the body is interdependent of the mind. There are different levels of the mind, which defines different energy levels.” (The Dalai Lama, 1995, p.129) This quite a significant direction of thought and realization can give some further perspective on why it is so difficult the energy flow to be shifted from more surfaces to deeper level of consciousness. The reality, which we create, has very repetitive nature, where control and power is easier to impose. On that surface level is where the mind operates within intellectual framework of perceptions, transferred and adapted information. On that level the imagination energy has its limited expression, function and ability to create. Engell (1981) summarized:
Schelling, like Coleridge, gives imagination at least two functions in the human mind. We receive elementary stimuli from the outside world, such as noise, light, color, hardness, stench, and sweetness. This is the original sensory perception, according Schelling and he calls this stage of mind the first potential of power. But these stimuli are then grouped, ordered and arranged into objects, and these groupings have a connection with the world of forms and ideas…. We compare the passive perceptions in ourselves with our active ordering of them. The two, active and passive, interplay in an unending dialectic (p.307).
Very common observation is that most human beings circulate within that level, the level of no originality. It is usually a repetition on pre-existing matter, ideas, etc. To study clients’ creative imagination, becomes essential to have objective perception from where life has been self created and experienced and the momentum ability to shift towards expansion and actual change. Is the imagination flow is blocked within its passive function or is it capable to travel further beyond the ego and intelligence? “Throughout the act and product of its own creativity, the ego or intelligence actually sees itself becoming objective and real. Imagination frees man from the closed circle of self-reflection and subjectivity” (James Engell, 1991, p.318). It does create a definite new form, the work of art, which expresses the mind relationships to its own perceptions and to the external world, but can go above and beyond this manifestation. The work of art becomes external and objective. The mind has created something, through transferring its vibrations to the physical body, which releases itself from never ending series of perceptions and self-perceptions. The work of art becomes apart of the world, a part of nature, yet created by a free act of the mind. The unity or the absence of it within the art piece becomes a reflection of state of being. It represents the unity of mental and emotional energies being materialized. My mind shifts in the direction of duality of imagination. The mystery of how this energy can move from elegance to aggression and what is the drive, which directs this move. Is this related in any way to the mind-heart connection? In the time of observation of a piece of art we can know what the source of energy that dominated the work is. Did it come from the heart or did it come from the mind? It is deep intuitive knowing that is based on complex emotional experience…we feel the soul of the matter. Beauty and aesthetics are important but not absolutely, the heart of the artwork to be experienced.
According to Chogyam Trungpa (1996) the establisher of “Dharma art” “that main point of dharma art is discovering elegance and that is the question of state of mind, according to the Buddhist tradition” (p.5). Further the philosophy of dharma art defines the purpose of art is “a work of art to bring out the goodness and dignity of a situation. (Trungpa Choguam, 1996, p.8). Overcoming aggression is a main intention of dharma art. According to Buddhist Vajryana tradition, if your mind is preoccupied with aggression, you cannot function properly. On the other hand, if your mind is preoccupied with passion, there are possibilities. In a state of aggressive mental energy we do not want reality to experience in the fullest sense of all. Instead, we seem to always try to bring in substitute reality. Another layer of seeking brings me into the realm of imagination in relation of developing awareness of self and overcoming the boundaries of the ego-self experience. It is a new place of integrity and wholeness, where creative imagination unities the momentum and continuum of experience. From the individual to the collective…from the collective to the individual…A moving within…inward…outward, where the spirit is truthfully rediscovered, materializing itself in pieces. The secret of the best art is internal process: it shapes and generates form from within; it unifies all parts. It is not the imposition of a form on a heterogeneous mass or the external manipulation of surface effect. In other words: “creative imagination is the secret of art” (James Engell, 1981, p.319).
If we begin to theorize about the existence of the world, its solidity, its eternity, or whatever, we are blocking out a very large chunk of our experience. We are trying to prove too much and trying to build a foundation too much. …The question of perception becomes very important, because perceptions can’t be packed down into a solid basis. They are shifty, and they continuously float in and out of our life” (p. 57-p.58).
These lines are a moving reflection of new, old, re-discovered thought and
feeling in process of ever lasting dance…a dance… a perfect dance in its own imperfection…
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