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Guided Meditation: Imagination for Meditation

Warm greetings to our meditation time together. I want to start with a principle of meditation that is not well appreciated or taught. In some of the challenges we have for meditation, the art is rather than fighting the challenge, transforming the challenge into something that helps us to be present and to enter into the meditation space.

For example, if there's a lot of thinking going on and you really can't stop the thinking—you are obsessing about something or other, and you try to come back but it's hard, or you keep spinning out—then rather than struggling with your thinking, you might reorient your thinking to think about meditation. Think about what's actually happening in the present moment. Thinking about meditation is not exactly the same as meditation, but it's certainly better than the alternative, because you're pointing the thinking into the present to what's actually happening, what you're dedicated towards.

A variation of this has to do with the imagination. If we're thinking about the past or the future, it's partly an act of imagination. We're thinking thoughts of fantasy. It's imagination especially when there are visualizations going on. To some degree, imagination is at play with a lot of the ways in which we drift off in thought, and that's one of the reasons why it can be so compelling.

So it's also possible to use imagination to be present, to point us back into the present moment. Ideally, for the purposes of meditation, this would be a very simple act of imagination—imaginations which support settling and concentrating and becoming more attentive to the present moment. To harness the power of imagination to be present is something that the Buddha^[1] never taught explicitly, but in his teachings it's kind of implicit, and I'll talk about that later.

I'll offer you some simple acts of imagination that maybe can help you gather yourself together and become focused and present here in the moment. As you hear these little exercises in imagination, keep in mind this is the purpose of them: to help us really be here in the present moment.

To begin, give some care for your meditation posture. Attention to the posture is the beginning of mindfulness meditation. Being mindful of the posture, making mindful adjustments. As you exhale, mindfully relaxing and softening parts of your body. Gently close your eyes.

To begin the process of being present in the place you're at—here in this body, this time—slowly, maybe tenderly, take a few long, slow, deep breaths. Breathing in deeply, and maybe lovingly exhale a long exhale. Letting your breathing return to normal. Then one more time, one more round of going through your body. On the exhale, relaxing the parts of your body that are easy to relax. As you relax, relax into the pull of gravity.

Sitting here quietly meditating in your meditation place, evoke your imagination. With your eyes closed, imagine yourself sitting meditating where you're meditating. Imagine yourself in this space. Imagine yourself on your spot. Imagine you're seeing yourself in your meditation posture. In a sense, you're using your imagination to imagine what is actually happening here. It is an act of imagination a little bit removed from the direct experience: imagining your spine, your back. Have a picture in your mind perhaps of what's happening with your hands, your legs. If you have an easy ability to visualize, maybe visualize yourself sitting here quietly, peacefully. Just here.

Then imagine that side by side with you is a person who really inspires you in the Dharma^[2]. Maybe the Buddha sits next to you, or Kuan Yin^[3], or some teacher that greatly inspires you. They're meditating next to you. What would it be like to have this inspiring meditator side by side with you, sharing with you in the meditation in your space?

Imagine that sitting here in your own experience, you're sharing a lot of experiences with this companion of yours. Both of you feel the temperature of the room. Both of you hear the same sounds around you. This inspiring person next to you, imagine how this person feels the temperature, hears the sounds. Like you, this person is breathing. While there might be differences between your breath and theirs, there's also a lot of similarities. They also experience their rhythm of breathing in and breathing out. Maybe imagine how this person would sit peacefully and feel that rhythm and sensations of breathing.

Like you, this person feels their body. Maybe there are some differences, but a lot of similarities to be in this body, to feel it and sense it. Imagining how this person meditates and holds and relates to their body from the inside out—maybe with peacefulness, or calmness, or ease.

As you're sitting with yourself here, can you feel or intuit within yourself some degree of calmness or peace? Embodied calmness. Settledness. Which receives your breathing, the experience of breathing. Imagine what it'd be like for you to be peaceful. Maybe you're not peaceful particularly, but imagine what it'd be like. Maybe remembering a time that you were peaceful or contented, settled, at ease. Remembering what it was like at that time physically, the actual experience from the point of view of your body. What was it like in your body to be peaceful and settled, at ease?

And then to let go of the imagination of your companion. Of some other time and place where you felt peaceful. Even the imagination of yourself sitting here. But allow there to linger some of the qualities of peace or calmness. Gently, tenderly now, allow the experience of breathing to be received in whatever calmness or peacefulness that there is.

Receiving the experience of the inhale. Allowing for exhaling. Letting there be an ever so short pause before you inhale. That pause where the mind can get quiet, in which then you can just receive the inhale when it wants to begin. An ever so short pause before the exhale, so that you can feel more fully how good it is to allow for the release, the exhale.

Imagining that all around you and all within you is lots and lots of space. Lots of room. And breathing has lots of breathing room. Room with space which is peaceful, expansive, peaceful. Breathing in and breathing out. Allowing and releasing. It is intimate with all the space and room. Peace that's also present here.

Imagining the mind. What it would be like if there was a refreshing silence in the mind. A silence that maybe spread through all the space that's here. Silence that makes your thinking not so important. Silence that allows the thinking to relax and dissolve, diffused into the silence. Breathing in and breathing out in space and silence.

Having a very teeny pause at the end of the out-breath, the end of the in-breath. A relaxed pause can be a little protection from being caught up in your thoughts or your imagination. A little reminder to stay here with the direct experience of breathing.

As we come to the end of the sitting, take a few moments to imagine some of the people that you'll encounter today, or communicate with today, or maybe think about today. Imagine what it would be like if you could encounter them being peaceful. Having a simple goodwill without any animosity or anxiety, or any strong desire or expectation for anything. Imagine what it'd be like to meet them in a peaceful goodwill that is not so strong as to disturb them, but just nice for you. Imagining that possibility.

Then wishing, aspiring that whatever benefit and goodness has come from this meditation, that it might be translated in your body and your heart and the mind to walking through the world in a way that brings benefit to others, whether seen or unseen, knowingly or unknowingly. May it be that the merit, the benefits, the goodness of our meditation together spreads into the world with kind actions, supportive actions, generous activity for the welfare and happiness of all beings.

May all beings be happy. May all beings be safe. May all beings be peaceful. May all beings everywhere be free.