Course XV - Teaching 4: Imaginative Picture

This step consists in exposing a picture that the soul has to observe and consider: it may be the development of an event already lived, scenes usually observed in the abyss, or images that express the divine.
Its object is to awaken in the meditator a movement of his sensibility, that is, affection. This sensibility cannot be purified or exalted by moral reflections or by considering general problems that are common to all men. It must be put before particular circumstances and, in front of every one of these circumstances, certain decision must be made.
The inner reality to know and control must be apprehended in portions –isolated in pictures– in such a way that the corresponding reaction is produced before every portion or picture.
So, the Imaginative Picture grants to the meditator his personal experiences so that he may examine them again with his new affection; and also parts of the reality so that he may affectionately decide.
It is impossible to speak of spiritual progress if the soul is not subject to the influence of different factors of life. A higher or lesser serenity of the soul is determined by the way of reaction before these factors, and this serenity is the rate of perfection. The same must be made with the continuous effort of the soul to purify its sensibility. The soul must contemplate different pictures offered by the individual life and by the universe so that the sensibility may be defined, cultivated and improved in front of every one of those pictures.
The rest of the exercise shall depend upon the perfection of the picture; hence it is necessary to imagine pictures of clear traits, vivid colors and clear-cut profiles to bring about a rapid and categorical reaction.
Vagueness, chiaroscuro, lack of definition and personal experiences not sufficiently expressed to mind, and the world not considered with the same honesty, as much in his abyssal aspect as in his spiritual aspect, just offer useless confused sensations and undefined reactions.
Do not fear to exaggerate as to colors and traits; you shall not run the risk of acquiring a wrong or altered vision of the world, whether individual or total.
You need a suggestive force, sufficiently intense to produce this effect, and then the sensibility shall be unburied and moved. A little clear picture does not raise the sensibility. On the other hand, after you outlined the picture, you must keep it in your mind for a while for your identification with it, that is, to exclude any other image from your mind. For instance, if the meditator sees a road, he must be so identified with this image that any other image must be discarded; he must see just that road and insist on the contemplation of this picture to the extent of possessing it.
Again avoid the risk of verbosity that, by rightly striving to outline the picture as clearly as possible, dilutes it; then imagination runs after the words instead of staying on the picture.
Certain souls do not find proper pictures for their meditations. This trouble derives, above all, from the desire of imagining extravagances. Life and the universe are precious pictures to be examined on the light of meditation. But, seemingly beginners often strive for seeking non-real pictures and for imagining beauties instead of seeing those abundant beauties where the human glance rests and of seeking ugliness always outside themselves. Many times this is due to an inaccurate conception about spiritual life, by attributing the mysterious and rare traits to the latter.
Other times, the trouble is that the imagination is hardly used in life. Reality became so limited and pressing for certain souls that these souls have neither time nor desire to imagine or use fantasy in order to beautify the outline of the world.
A recommendation for them is to seek in themselves, in their own history, elements to purify, and in the divine extension of beauty of nature, to find pictures that may provide spiritual bliss. But if this is not understood and troubles to find imaginative pictures persist, then prepare very simple pictures containing just one or two traits. See an act of avarice, and despise it; observe just an aspect of the sunset, and enjoy it.
People of excessive imaginative power should not use it to think up rare or incongruous pictures, entirely strange to the reality, for sensibility shall refuse to react accordingly before unreality. Power of impression, power of suggestion is absent in pictures of this kind. Many times, sensibility comes into action by merely beginning to outline the picture, since the mind already knows what effect he is seeking; then to persist in making the picture is unproductive. This must mark the end of the picture.
The picture must be left after its mission of raising sensibility and preparing for the transformation is fulfilled. To archive pictures is to build a museum, and the purpose of the imaginative picture is not to accumulate images but to bring opportunities to purify, raise and lead the sensibility to take the following step in meditation.