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Imagination

JeroenJeroen Luminous beings are we, not this crude matterNetherlands Veteran

“Our only hope is to stop, to look, to understand, and to get out of the traps of memory. For memory feeds imagination and imagination generates desire and fear.”
― Nisargadatta Maharaj

Does imagination survive enlightenment? It seems to me the imagination feeds delusion and many other aspects of samsara, while insight and seeing things as they are are traits acquired on the path.

Comments

  • federicafederica Seeker of the clear blue sky... Its better to remain silent and be thought a fool, than to speak out and remove all doubt Moderator
    edited August 2021

    I think we need to define the type of imagination you are specifically referring to. Imagination covers visualisation, which is often necessary, particularly while Metta meditating, for example...

  • howhow Veteran Veteran

    @Kerome said:

    Does imagination survive enlightenment?

    While defining imagination is relatively easy, the real elephant in that sentence, in need of a description, is a non dualistic description of the enlightenment we are trying reference it to.

    Do that and I think you'll soon find imagination to be just another collection of phenomena that simply arises, lives and departs, needing neither encouragement or banishment for enlightenment's sake.

    lobsterShoshin1
  • Shoshin1Shoshin1 Sentient Being Oceania Veteran

    @Kerome said:

    “Our only hope is to stop, to look, to understand, and to get out of the traps of memory. For memory feeds imagination and imagination generates desire and fear.”
    ― Nisargadatta Maharaj

    Does imagination survive enlightenment? It seems to me the imagination feeds delusion and many other aspects of samsara, while insight and seeing things as they are are traits acquired on the path.

    Hmm where would we be without imagination...It's hard to imagine not having it...

    Imagine there's no heaven
    It's easy if you try
    No hell below us
    Above us, only sky
    Imagine all the people
    Livin' for today
    Ah
    Imagine there's no countries
    It isn't hard to do
    Nothing to kill or die for
    And no religion, too
    Imagine all the people
    Livin' life in peace
    You
    You may say I'm a dreamer
    But I'm not the only one
    I hope someday you'll join us
    And the world will be as one
    Imagine no possessions
    I wonder if you can
    No need for greed or hunger
    A brotherhood of man
    Imagine all the people
    Sharing all the world
    You
    You may say I'm a dreamer
    But I'm not the only one
    I hope someday you'll join us
    And the world will live as one

    lobster
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