Tag: Imagination

Drawing on her experience as a poet, Varasahaya discusses creativity, imagination, and the writing process as a spiritual practice. She reads some of her poems, and explains the process by which they came to birth, and what she learnt about letting go of self as she grappled with writing. Excerpted from the talk Writing As Spiritual Practice given at West London Buddhist Centre, 2017.

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Vishvapani traces his own relationship to the Buddha, from early family connections arising out of the turmoil of war to his experience of writing the book itself. In doing so he explores the tricky work of trying to engage with the imagination constrained and disciplined by the historical evidence. What emerges from his work with the Pali texts is a portrait of the Buddha and his world where it’s impossible to miss the vital sense of a...

The Buddha lived 2,500 years ago, so how can we meet him and open ourselves to the inspiration and resources that come from him?  Through imagination we can cultivate the capacity to meet the Buddha on an archetypal level.  This can have a powerful effect, karmically speaking.  We all have - and use - our imagination all the time, even if we don’t realise it!  We just need to learn how to ‘use it’ rather than having it ‘use us’...