Dysfunctional Imagination
Below is an excerpt from my forthcoming book… © Mahabodhi Burton 5 minute read This excerpt is taken from the chapter on ‘The Evidence Bases in Religion, Science and Politics.’ It follows on from the section on ‘Poetic Logic.’ Dysfunctional Imagination The second sequence—called ‘Dysfunctional Imagination’—illustrates how a person engages reactively with symbols in a way that deepens their delusion. By taking symbols literally; by engaging with ones of low intrinsic value; by being skeptical about them (when acting ‘as if’ they are true would be helpful); and by approaching reality with fear and superstition, the person will be negatively transformed by the experience, moving further away from reality and deeper into fantasy. Take literally I explored earlier how literalism comes about through focusing on the details of the symbol and questioning their veracity, rather than letting the symbol be a conduit through which a message from the Universe can come through; this is an example of unwise attention, and often of laziness. Of low intrinsic value The second way that we can fall prey to dysfunction when we are dealing with symbols and myths is when we do not engage with symbols of high enough value. Concerned to remain loyal to the group, we settle for folk art or ethnic religion, rather than approach more transcendent values. Or, if we engage with such values, we fail to refine our awareness so that we can truly appreciate them. In short, we veer towards philistinism: philistine: ‘a person who is hostile or indifferent to culture and the arts.’ The romantic intrigue and dramatic action of a Hollywood blockbuster may be emotionally stimulating, but may not say much about how we should live our lives; we need to really ask: ‘Does this story make me want to be a better person or deal with my life in a better way?’ Treat with skepticism The third thing that we can fall prey to when we are dealing with symbols and myths is being skeptical about the value of imagination per se: we treat all imagination as fantasy, placing our faith instead in dry reason, as does British-American essayist and avowed atheist Christopher Hitchens: ‘Faith is the surrender of the mind; it’s the surrender of reason, it’s the surrender of the only thing that makes us different from other mammals. It’s our need to believe, and to surrender our skepticism and our reason, our yearning to discard that and put all our trust or faith in someone or something, that is the sinister thing to me.’[1] But...
Poetic Logic
Below is an excerpt from my forthcoming book… © Mahabodhi Burton 12 minute read This excerpt is taken from the chapter on ‘The Evidence Bases in Religion, Science and Politics.’ It follows on from the section on ‘Tantric Deities’ and explores ‘Functional Imagination.’ The five wisdoms (jnanas) The Mandala of the Five Buddhas expresses the fact that a whole range of often complementary qualities are present in the Enlightenment experience. Whatever is at the centre of a mandala orders the mandala: as the king his kingdom. Each Buddha has a specific wisdom: Vairocana’s Supreme Wisdom could be said to be the combined effect of the other four: Aksobhya: Mirror-like Wisdom Ratnasambhava: Wisdom of Equality Amitabha: Discriminating Wisdom Amoghasiddhi: Action-Accomplishing Wisdom We will see how these wisdoms can be brought to bear on current world problems at the ends of Chapters 2 to 6. Poetic logic In Tibetan ritual practice one enters the mandala from the east; then proceeds to the south, the west, the north and finally moves into the centre. This sequence, combined with the symbolism and associations of the Five Buddhas, illustrates the process in operation when we are dealing with the field of Imagination: which includes symbolism, myth; and therefore religion. Imagination and symbolism may be the only way we have to engage our emotions with those patterns in the universe that we wish to respect and remember. And like concepts, they have an inner logic, which I choose to call ‘poetic logic.’ There are five elements to poetic logic: The way that we view imagination, poetry and symbolism The quality of the symbol in representing Right View The degree to which we believe in / dwell upon the symbol The actions we take in relation to it The degree to which we are transformed by it, and into what Or, in one word; 1) Reason, 2) Beauty (the object itself), 3) Emotion, 4) Action (the action in relation to it), 5) The Change brought about; Imagination engages all of our faculties in order to bring about change. However, it cuts both ways; Imagination can lead to growth, but it can equally lead to delusion. The former I call Functional Imagination, the latter Dysfunctional Imagination. Functional Imagination The first sequence—called ‘Functional Imagination’—illustrates how a person engages creatively with symbols to bring about personal growth and transformation. By taking symbols poetically; by engaging with ones of high intrinsic value; by repeatedly dwelling on them with confidence (perhaps acting ‘as if’ they are true: suspending disbelief and stepping into them as if they are the reality); and by...
Ritual and devotion
Below is an excerpt from my forthcoming book… © Mahabodhi Burton 5 minute read This excerpt is taken from the chapter on ‘Buddhist Practice and follows on from the section on ‘Imagination.’ Ritual and devotion Ritual and devotion is an important aspect of Buddhist practice, which most Buddhists engage in, to some degree—although admittedly some people are more temperamentally averse to it than others.[1] Some of that resistance may be due to the person questioning the value of imagination per se—as in seeing imagination as fantasy, and therefore as a form of delusion—but this is a wrong view: when imagination takes us into a world of unreality—then it is fantasy, but when it brings us closer to reality—then it is Imagination proper. Generally, ritual and devotion are a way of building confidence in the Buddha, Dharma and Sangha; through bringing them to mind and engaging with them emotionally—even physically—as when we make offerings to, or bow to, a Buddhist shrine. Image of Wat Phra Dhammakaya in Pathum Thani, Thailand by suc on Pixabay. Confidence Shraddha means “to place one’s heart upon” and represents an emotional interest in Buddhist practice and the confidence that such practice will bring ourselves and others the happiness that we desire; to the extent that faith (in Buddhism) is present, a person’s attention, thought and emotion—that is, the whole of their citta—is oriented towards its object. This idea is reflected in the fact that there are three grounds for confidence in Buddhism—reason, intuition and experience. Unlike its equivalent in theistic religion, faith in Buddhism is never blind. And just as reflection practices are designed to cultivate wisdom, by guiding the intellect towards Right View, devotional practices are designed to cultivate confidence, by guiding our emotions towards the Buddhist Ideal. What we value we adorn! The design of the Apple iPhone ‘adorns’ the view that ‘technology will solve all our problems.’ Buddhist devotional practices such as offering a stick of incense, bowing to a shrine or performing a devotional ceremony (called a puja) similarly adorn an idea—but a very different one, that the practise of Buddhism will satisfy our deepest needs. They thus help solidify our emotional connection with it. Reviewing what we explored in Chapter 1: the Buddha Aksobhya represents Non-Literalism—seeing poetry or symbolism as such; the Buddha Ratnasambhava represents the Quality of Refuge—taking up the highest value object of devotion; the Buddha Amitabha represents Non-Skepticism—acting ‘as if’ a story is true if to do so is helpful or effective; the Buddha Amoghasiddhi represents Effective Ritual Action—acting ritually in a way that fortifies devotion to a particular Ideal; and the Buddha Vairocana represents Effective Transformation—transforming the individual through the effective...
The Symbol
Below is an excerpt from my forthcoming book… © Mahabodhi Burton 7 minute read Diving into Chapter 1, ‘The Evidence Bases of Religion, Science and Politics,’ this excerpt explores Imagination in the Coleridgeian sense and the symbol as ‘conductor’ of Reality (Capital R.) It follows on from Kindness as a common thread amongst religions. Imagination and ‘Poetic Logic’ As religion freely applies the use of ritual and symbolism, it is important, now—in our coverage of the topic—to spend some time understanding the principles behind those; as well as introducing ourselves to the most important archetypal figures in the Buddhist pantheon. The term Industrial Revolution characterizes the period in Britain between 1760 and 1840, in which a shift took place from an agrarian economy to an industrial one. In 1816 Coleridge published the statesman’s manual[1] in which he speaks of the industrial era as suffering from ‘a general contagion of mechanic philosophy’; it being ‘the product of an unenlivened generalizing understanding’: he felt that many people—particularly the higher classes—confused the faculty of imagination with fantasy and he wanted to correct that view: to do so he coined the term esemplastic: meaning ‘to shape into one’, to describe the creative imagination: ‘The Biographia Literaria was one of Coleridge’s main critical studies in which he discusses the elements and process of writing. In this work, Coleridge establishes a criterion for good literature, making a distinction between the imagination and “fancy”. Whereas fancy rested on the mechanical and passive operations of one’s mind to accumulate and store data, imagination held a “mysterious power” to extract “hidden ideas and meaning” from such data. Thus, Coleridge argues that good literary works employ the use of the imagination and describes its power to “shape into one” and to “convey a new sense” as esemplastic. ‘He emphasizes the necessity of creating such a term as it distinguishes the imagination as extraordinary and as “it would aid the recollection of my meaning and prevent it being confounded with the usual import of the word imagination. Use of the word has been limited to describing mental processes and writing, such as “the esemplastic power of a great mind to simplify the difficult”, or “the esemplastic power of the poetic imagination”. ‘The meaning conveyed in such a sentence is the process of someone, most likely a poet, taking images, words, and emotions from a number of realms of human endeavour and thought and unifying them all into a single work. Coleridge argues that such an accomplishment requires an enormous effort of the imagination and, therefore, should be granted with its own term.’[2] As Kulananda says:...
Kindness As Constructive Imagination
Below is an excerpt from my forthcoming book… © Mahabodhi Burton 10 minute read This excerpt is from the chapter ‘The Evidence Bases in Religion, Science and Politics,’ in which I explore how kindness is developed through paying attention to what living beings truly are: a process Tse-Fu Kuan calls ‘Constructive Imagination.’ Feeling and emotion Metta—Universal Loving Kindness–is one way that we redirect our emotions along the most wholesome pathway; it is, however, very important first to be clear about the difference between feeling (vedana) and emotion–as an aspect of ‘mind’ or citta. Sangharakshita: ‘When Buddhist psychology refers to developing mindfulness of feelings, however, something rather different is meant from the “getting in touch with one’s feelings” with which psychotherapy is concerned–something less complex, perhaps more useful. Indeed, being able to identify feelings (in the sense of vedana as defined by the Buddhist tradition) is what makes it possible for us to follow the Buddhist path. The Pali term vedana refers to feeling not in the sense of the emotions, but in terms of sensation. Vedana is whatever pleasantness or unpleasantness we might experience in our contact with any physical or mental stimulus. ‘To understand what we would call emotion, Buddhism looks at the way in which that pleasant or painful feeling is interwoven with our reactions and responses to it.’[1] Feeling as vedana, then, is just experience: specifically the experience of pleasure, pain or neither. On the other hand, the etymology[2] of the word ‘emotion’ is connected with ‘moving out,’ in the sense of ‘responding.’ Emotion, then, is that aspect of the mind or psyche (Pali: citta) which ‘moves in relation to experience.’ Citta encompasses the sum total of how the psyche moves in response to experience: it therefore includes thinking, emotion and the distribution of attention: It is useful to consider the above diagram. In the teaching of the Four Foundations of Mindfulness (satipatthanas,) the Buddha says we need to bring mindfulness to four areas, if we are to bring happiness into the world, avoid suffering and ultimately attain Nirvana.[3] These foundations are body (kaya,) feeling (vedana,) mind (citta) and views (dhammas) and they all condition each other. Usually that conditioning, when taken between feeling and emotion, involves moving towards pleasurable experiences that are desired and away from painful experiences that are undesired—and maybe not responding at all to neutral experiences. Emotion then is most of the time an unconscious and reactive response to feeling; while feeling and the emotion feel to be one thing, they are actually distinct. Feeling is just what is presented to us in the moment: thus, it is something we...
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