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The Power of Imagination and Visualisation Can Aid in Coming into Direct Contact with One's Psychic Being · Sri Aurobindo Studies

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  The power of visualization has been recognized as an aid in
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  healing from illness and excelling in sports, and in
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  helping an individual achieve results in the external world.
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  The spiritual seeker also can put this power to work to
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  achieve results in the inner world.
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  Practitioners of Tibetan Buddhism are trained on how to
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  utilize visualization in their spiritual practice, and
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  considerable focus is placed upon the techniques involved.
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  Devotees from other traditions also frequently use
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  visualization, whether consciously or unconsciously, to
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  place themselves in a state of receptivity to the spiritual
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  forces. Highly mentalized individuals
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  frequently mistake acceptance of an idea as the true realization.
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  This, however, is misleading. They may experience a change of
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  thought, but their vital being and their bodies remain
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  untransformed, unchanged. The progress that occurs on the
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  mental plane needs to be transmitted and accepted by the
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  vital and physical levels of the being in order to become an
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  integral progress that also has the power to express itself in
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  the external world. The power of visualization is
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  one method for aiding the seeker and moving the spiritual
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  pressure and the mental idea into the vital and physical
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  realms and thereby effectuating the realization in the entire
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  being. One of the main leverage points
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  is the direct and solid contact with one psychic being, the
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  spiritual center of the being, hidden deep within behind the
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  secret heart. This brings forth the power of
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  realization. The mother provides insight into
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  how to use the power of visualization to effectuate this
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  direct psychic contact. The mother notes quotes when one
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  goes on the discovery of one's inner being, of all the
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  different parts of one's being, one very often has the feeling
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  that one is entering deep into a hall or room, and according to
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  the colour, the atmosphere, the things it contains, one has a
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  very clear perception of the part of the being one is
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  visiting. And then one can go from one
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  room to another, open doors and go into deeper and deeper rooms,
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  each of which has its own character.
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  And often these inner visits can be made during the night.
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  Then it takes a still more concrete form, like a dream, and
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  one feels that he is entering a house and that this house is
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  very familiar to him. And according to the time, the
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  periods, it is internally different.
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  And sometimes it may be in a state of very great disorder,
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  very great confusion, where everything is mixed up.
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  Sometimes there are even broken things.
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  It is quite a chaos. At other times these things are
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  organized, put in their place. It is as though one had arranged
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  the household, one cleans up, puts it in order, and it is
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  always the same house. This house is the image, a kind
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  of objective image of your inner being in accordance with what
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  you see there and do there. You have a symbolic
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  representation of your psychological work.
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  It is very useful for concretizing.
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  It depends on people. Some people are just
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  intellectuals. For them everything is expressed
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  by ideas and not by images. But if they were to go down into
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  a more material domain, well, they risk not touching things in
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  their concrete reality and remaining only in the domain of
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  ideas, remaining in the mind and remaining there indefinitely.
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  Then one thinks one is making progress, and mentally one has
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  done so, though it is something altogether indefinite.
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  The mind's progress may take thousands of years, for it is a
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  very vast and very indefinite field which is constantly
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  renewed. But if one wants to progress in
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  the vital and physical well, this imaged representation
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  becomes very useful for fixing the action, making it more
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  concrete. Naturally, it doesn't happen
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  completely at will, it depends on each one's nature.
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  But those who have the power of concentrating with images, well,
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  they have one more facility to sit in meditation before a
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  closed door, as though it were a heavy door of bronze, and one
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  sits in front of it with the will that it may open and to
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  pass to the other side. And so the whole concentration,
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  the whole aspiration is gathered into a beam and pushes, pushes,
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  pushes against this door and pushes more and more with an
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  increasing energy until all of a sudden it bursts open and one
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  enters. It makes a very powerful
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  impression. And so one is as though plunged
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  into the light, and then one has the full enjoyment of a sudden
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  and radical change of consciousness with an
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  illumination that captures 1 entirely and the feeling that
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  one is becoming another person. And this is very concrete and
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  powerful way of entering into contact with one's psychic
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  being. End Quote.
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  Reference. Shrioro Bindu and the Mother
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  Powers within, Chapter 3. Imagination, pages 35 to 37.