Tag Archives: Elysian Fields

36. [Cleary]: For mind is the womb of what’s in the triple world, for this wandering mind is seen here and yon; knowing the state of this world to be thus, unreal, one should not imagine the world.

Oftentimes I would find myself being uncomfortable with the Lanka’s admonition to silence the faculty of imagination. From time to time I’ve used this faculty in many a creative fashion, like on my YouTube Bodhichild channel. After much reflection on this, I’ve come to the realization that the Lanka is not saying to banish forever the creative-side of this faculty; indeed, the very composers of the Lanka oftentimes drew heavily upon their active-imagination to illustrate the Buddhadharma. Imagination, for the Lanka, means the incessant yearning to create image after image after image. Of course, [image] entails much here—like the intellect, the use of all the sensate faculties, memory, etcetera…anything apparently concretized in this wooden-world we live in but in reality is only fleeting and eventually dissolving away like a mirage in the sultry desert wastelands of Samsara. Hence, the discriminative-side of imagination needs to be curtailed. If not, then the possibility of a million Chimeric Realms will descend and keep you preoccupied in its discriminating-grasp for many eons to come. read more