Awareness is the conscious acknowledgement of what is. Imagination is imaging something that is not. Awareness is a faculty, available to all, that can be cultivated when there is interest in discovering what really is.
Imagination is something that is done to avoid or ignore what is.
While imagery and imagination have been promoted and used as a substitute for awareness, it does not work. By definition, we cannot imagine reality, we can only become aware of what really is.
Imagining ourselves as peaceful comes from the same mental function that gives rise to the experience of anxiety. Anxiety is a state of agitation and mental grind about something that is being imagined.
As we begin to awaken to what is real, we first become aware of the content of our consciousness. That content is filled with the thoughts and imaginings we’ve been conditioned to have as well as an underlying awareness of what is real. Discerning the difference, while disturbing at first, is also a huge relief from the suffering that comes from believing that what we are thinking, feeling and imagining is real.
Filed under: General Healing Essays Tagged: | anxiety, awakening, awareness, imagination
So when we are encouraged to use our imagination or “think creatively” to get out of certain anxiety producing situations that creates more anxiety. So being quiet and just being aware will start to lead us to answers to the question, what really is?
Yes, well said. The phrase you used that sums up the truth of what you wrote is “to get out of . . certain situations”
Whatever we use to “get out of something” is an avoidance of what is. If there is something “bothering” or “agitating” about what is, it is how we are viewing it.
Nancy, I might need help with the word imagination as you are using it. As an artist, I have great regard for the creative/positive benefit of imagination but what you seem to caution us against is imagining. Do you mean fearful imagining? I think I’m missing something here.
Dear Pat,
You bring up an important distinction. Consider the difference between imagination and inspiration. You have most likely been using the word “imagination” for both. Inspiration refers to divine ideas flowing into consciousness – which is the creative process. “Imagination” can be used to image both good and bad fantasies – but they are both fantasies. For example, I heard someone once overflowing with excitement about someone she had just met whom she was sure was her “soulmate.” She had the rest of their lives together laid out in her imagination, and for her, she was having a “good dream.” But, dream it was.
Nancy