This site is maintained by the Waking Down Community Network. It is offered as a support for those involved in the work of Waking Down in Mutuality (WDM), but because the bulk of the material here is not written or reviewed by WDM teachers, the content should not be assumed to represent WDM dharma.
The proper use of Creative Imagination is not to try to "capture God" and reduce the Mystery to an idol. The purpose of Creative Imagination is to get us in Contact with Presence and Love. This propels us further into yearning for that which is beyond our present Icon and what it points us toward. The unique god which we contact through creative imagination is the messenger that pulls us toward the Unknowable Mystery.
Disciplined Imagination is a forbidden capacity of ongoing personal revelation. In other words, using creative imagination in a disciplined way to focus attention on subtle dimensions has been a forbidden capacity in the western world.
Taoism, Tantra, Shamanism, Buddhism, Sufism and Devotional Hinduism ( Bhakti) have made use of Mythology, Visualization and the poetic Imagination to contact the subtle dimensions of Mystery. The disciplined use of Creative Imagination is mistaken for mere fantasy by most people presently.
The fear of free individuals contacting the source of personal revelation has made our own connection to Divinity a Taboo.
Even among Non-Dual folks it's fine to "Be God", but having an ongoing relationship "With God" is suspect.
Today's culture trains the logical thinking mind to contact and be in useful relationship to gross form.
Imagination can be, and indeed should be trained to contact and be in useful relationship to subtle form.
In both cases these are useful stances when they are understood to be the means to contact and be in relationship with certain dimensions of reality, one is gross, one is subtle, both are partial metaphors of the Mystery.
They become traps when they claim to be actual literal descriptions of reality itself.
Reality is not ever captured by the partial pictures given by any stance, perspective or point of View.
When a stance or perspective claims to capture reality it becomes an idol and actually stands in the way of and hides what it describes.
When a stance or perspective acknowledges that it is a partial picture that points to a reality larger than itself it becomes an icon and is transparent to the reality that it describes, revealing part of it and enticing the desire, the yearning for more.
By contacting and increasing our communion with presence we contact the Divine Personhood of our own life.
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Eduardo's colorful and informative magazine Mutuality Matters can be downloaded below. These are print-ready PDF's—enjoy.
