Imagination gives sensations a meaning. Sensations that are not associated with a story are easily recognized as sensations. And sensations associated with a story seem to mean something.
Similarly, sensations give imagination a sense of substance, solidity, and reality. Imagination that’s not associated with sensations are easily recognized as imagination. When imagination is associated with sensations, it seems real, solid, and substantial. It has a charge.
Any stress, trauma, deficient or inflated self, perceived threat, compulsion, and attraction or repulsion is created in this way. That’s why – in the Living Inquiries – it’s helpful to look at each image and word making up whatever we explore, and notice and take time to feel the associated sensations.
That’s how the mind reprograms itself. That’s how it shifts from (a) taking the collection of imaginations and sensations making up an experience as real, solid and unquestionable, to (b) recognize the separate elements as just that – distinct and separate. That’s how the charge softens or is released. That’s how healing happens. That’s what gives more clarity.
Through this, we also get to see the process from sensations appearing to mean something, to sensations being revealed as sensations inherently without meaning. And we get to see how imagination that seems real and solid is revealed as imagination without an inherent reality to its story.
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Initial notes…..
- sensation with and without label
- with label – can be called emotions, craving, anxiety, good, bad etc.
- without – just a sensation
- imagination gives sensation meaning, and sensations gives substance to imagination
- can be same sensation – many different stories about it, each one giving it a different meaning, creating a different experience
- even the label sensation is a label, can explore how the experience of sensation is made up of w/i/s (if want to be thorough, explore “sensations” too – how the mind creates its experience of a sensation)
A sensation with a story attached to it can be experienced in any number of ways. As an emotion, anxiety, anger, craving, as desirable or undesirable, meaning that something terrible will happen, meaning that I am unlovable, or anything else.
Imagination gives sensations a meaning. And sensations gives imagination a sense of reality, solidity, and substance.
Imagination here means a story, thought, label, mental image, or words. And sensations means physical, bodily sensations.
Imagination that’s not associated with sensations are easily recognized as imagination. Sensations that are not associated with imagination is easily recognized as sensations. But when the two are associated, imagination seems real and substantial, and sensations seem to mean something.