RE: Improving visualization skill

Bruno dharma, modified 2 Years ago at 3/18/22 4:32 AM
Created 2 Years ago at 3/18/22 4:32 AM

Improving visualization skill

Posts: 13 Join Date: 11/21/21 Recent Posts
Hello,
I'm currently trying to improve my visualization skill through meditation (I'm an artist using meditation to create).
I'm not making a lot of progress at the moment and I would appreciate some help. 

First I must make the distinction between vision that come to me one their own when I meditate, which are more akin to revalations (no control) and visions that I volontarily craft "in my mind's eyes". The latter is what I'm working on. For example, I would sit, enter a rather thoughtless state of consciousness then create an image in my mind's eyes. I usualy picture a fork as a basic exercise (not a generic fork, but a specific one that I have in my kitchen). I would move it around, spin it. Then I would move on to images of animals that I animate. Then I would imagine myself and walk around in the house. The future goal being to imagine my art wit this method. At the moment I have only been able to create with uncontrolled visions (the first type of vision mentioned above).

I'm looking for exercises that would help me improve my visualization skill in three specific ways:
  • Stability. Images tend to shapeshift a lot or disappear. I would like to be able to maintain the images in a stable form.
  • Clarity. Images look like they are projected on a dark screen. They seem transparent. When I manage to get them crisper, it doesn't last very long. I also have a blind spot, a bright dot in the middle of my imaginary field of vision that I might have developped while doing a short fire kasina home retreat (that bright dot looks a bit like a candle flame after-image).
  • Control. I would like to be able to move things around and move my point of view in a more controlable way.

Does any of you have an idea of an exercise I could do or a specific discipline I should study? Is there anything to gain from Jhana exploration in this regard? (I'm very comfrortable with jhanas exploration) I've tried a 5 days fire kasina home retreat, but I'm not sure it helped and I didn't enjoy the process, maybe another type of kasina would help?
(To give you an idea of my meditation level, I believe I'm currently somewhere along my third Path.)

Any help or suggestion would be appreciated.

Thanks!
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Chris M, modified 2 Years ago at 3/18/22 7:10 AM
Created 2 Years ago at 3/18/22 7:10 AM

RE: Improving visualization skill

Posts: 5117 Join Date: 1/26/13 Recent Posts
Howdy!

I suggest having a look at this form of meditation:  https://firekasina.org/
Steve Rudx, modified 1 Year ago at 5/10/22 11:55 PM
Created 1 Year ago at 5/10/22 11:55 PM

RE: Improving visualization skill

Posts: 17 Join Date: 2/26/22 Recent Posts

I'm currently trying to improve my visualization skill through meditation (I'm an artist using meditation to create).
I'm not making a lot of progress at the moment and I would appreciate some help. 

First I must make the distinction between vision that come to me one their own when I meditate, which are more akin to revalations (no control) and visions that I volontarily craft "in my mind's eyes". The latter is what I'm working on. For example, I would sit, enter a rather...
. . . .
Any help or suggestion would be appreciated.

Thanks!
The brain processes visual create and visual recall substantially differently.  You can check this out for yourself, probably, by standing in front of a mirror, or otherwise by paying careful attention to how you handle things.  Most people look up to their right when they are creating a visual image and up to their left when they are remembering an image.   Some people also utilize focussing straight ahead for visual recall.  The important thing is to figure out how you, as an individual, most easily handle these things and then attempt to skillfully leverage that knowledge toward your objective.

My guess would be that to the extent you are attempting to visually create something, you use one mode.  Yet, once you have imagined that image, you quite likely hand off to visual recall in order to draw the image with fidelity.  However, you will have to explore your strategy on your own.  Then you will need to figure out how to work that into your meditative realms.  My guess would be that j4 would be the best place to play around, although once again you are likely to be idiosyncratic.

If you have a good relationship with your subpersonalities you might see if you can work out a deal with them to collaborate in bringing the required subskills into meditation.  It should be a fascinating exploration!  Even something as "simple" as rotating a recalled image, such as the fork in your kitchen, likely involves a tight collaboration between recall and create as you roll the image.

Create has that skill of morphing.  Recall likely has that skill of higher fidelity. What happens if you imagine reaching up to pick up the fork after you imagine it?  I hope you perform some experiments to see if this allows you to make more headway.  Please get back to us.  Again, I would expect (but don't know) that the tranquility of a stable j4 might allow you to slow your unconscious skills down in order to deconstruct how you juggle all he complexities in the real world. Go slow and be patient.

Good luck!  Great question!

I
Bruno dharma, modified 10 Months ago at 5/15/23 5:50 AM
Created 10 Months ago at 5/15/23 5:50 AM

RE: Improving visualization skill

Posts: 13 Join Date: 11/21/21 Recent Posts
Hi,
After trying to improve this technique, I had to give up. For some strange reason, after having been an artist for more than 20 years, I woke one morning and my creativity was gone. I don't understand why, but I'm at peace with it.
Either way, now I won't practice this exercise anymore, so I thought I'd share my results and explorations here in case anyone wants to do the same thing and stumble onto this thread.

I've noticed a strange inverted reciprocity between clarity of the visions and control over the content of the images. If I wish to see something specific, it's blury, shapeshifting and drifting. However the moment I wish to make it clearer, it does, but it also shft into another subject or the mental camera pans to some surrounding subject.
I can't have both clarity and control. If I let my imagination wander, I get taken on a visual journey quite easily and it can get rather realistic, a bit like dreams, but I can't decide what I see.
It might be just me though.

The methods I've used to improve visualization include: 
- Fourth jhana concentration meditation with the prior intent to have a visual experience (I'm talking about a "soft" jhana as described in Brasington's Right Concentration obviously)
- A&P meditation when I have access to it (here I can only let go and see what it offers)
- Shamanic trance (very interresting technique for visualization)
- Astral projection (no success on that one and I'm not very interrested)
- Conscious dreaming (long practice but it leads to nothing short of life changing experiences that go beyond the limits of this visual practice. Every night is a wonder!)
- Tattva/kasina meditation (long, harduous practice that didn't leave lasting results even tough I still found them interesting)

Thanks for the help! And I hope this message will help others in turn.
Bruno

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