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Sdhana:the Context and Image of Buddhist Practice

http://www.kamalashila.co.uk/styled-45/styled-50/

It is interesting to reflect on the nature of form. What is it? ou can say that there are !isual forms you see"

audi#le forms you hear and tangi#le forms you touch. Ideas and feelings also ha!e a form" though not a

!isual one - there is some kind of mental image. $hese forms and images" which engage your attention allthe time" are in some way #eyond !er#al description. %or e&ample" one can say that a perfume has a form"

since I can !ery clearly imagine the perfume of a rose. I can also !ery easily imagine the smell of frying

onions" yet I can't descri#e the images of these odours. (r I may #e a#le to find words that e!oke those

sensations #ut the words will ne!er #e the same as the e&perience itself and cannot encompass it fully.

Imagination uses stored memories of pre!ious sense impressions ) memories of all the sights you'!e seen"

the sounds you'!e heard and the ideas you'!e had ) as a kind of clip art" ready-made images for the

imaginati!e process. ou can see these images playing freely in your dreams and daydreams" #ut they also

come sharply into focus when you think and imagine. $he key to s*dhana is to reali+e that your imagination

is at play e!erywhere and all the time. Imagination does not take place on an e&alted plane, it is a faculty

that e!eryone uses in e!ery moment. It is continually at work in all the !arious worlds you inha#it" not only

in waking life #ut also in dreams" in meditation and in distractions from it ) and also in the transitional

states after death" according to the ardo $hdl teachings of $i#etan uddhism. wareness always

changes" #ut like matter and energy" it ne!er stops fore!er

oing s*dhana helps to show you the e&tent to which e!eryone's world consists of self-created images.

y working with the imaginal faculty of the mind" s*dhana e!en introduces a new le!el of mindfulness

practice" in which you consciously e&plore how you create your own world.

While awake" you see" you hear" you smell" you taste" you touch and you percei!e mental o#1ects ) you

e&perience the si& sense consciousnesses. $he si& sense consciousnesses are what constitute waking life.

2owe!er" sense consciousness is not uni3ue to waking life" for in dreams you also see" hear" touch"

remem#er and sometimes plan in detail" dri!en #y strong feelings and emotions. In fact" when you see therichness of your consciousness in dreams" it is disconcertingly difficult to pin down what is special a#out

the waking state. ou naturally !iew waking life as the most real and significant part of your e&istence, yet

while it happens" a dream is as real to you as waking life. $hus your world" waking or sleeping" is always

an interpretation of data pre!iously recei!ed through your senses. ou might o#1ect that e&periences in the

dream state are not real sense impressions #ut memories of sense e&periences" somehow mediated #y the

mind sense. $his is true" #ut sense e&perience is also mediated #y the mind sense in waking life. $he retina

and tympanic mem#ranes don't see or hear ) the raw data is processed #y the #rain and the !arious mental

faculties in ways that make it meaningful. o though waking and dreaming are !ery different" one can learn

a good deal from #eing mindful of #oth e&periences.

t all times" e!en when not meditating" sense e&perience is" in itself" pure and undistorted" #ut one co!ers

o!er the stream of fresh information with ha#itual e&pectations. $he purity of each moment of e&perience isre!ealed through this deeper application of mindfulness ena#led #y s*dhana meditation. ou start to notice

how you continually create a fairly fi&ed !ersion of the world. indfulness shows how that is a story one

tells oneself using sense memories, and in disco!ering oneself doing that" the faculty of imagination used in

s*dhana is un!eiled.

ctually" in normal life" you are imagining e!erything ) from what you might ha!e for dinner" to what it

might #e like to meet someone" to how that person themsel!es might feel. ou imagine your spiritual

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teacher" imagine the uddha" imagine other people generally. nd you certainly don't do this only when

planning to meet" or meditating on mett* #h*!an*, you continue to imagine them when actually meeting

them face to face. It takes an e&tra act of imagination really to see who someone else is and empathi+e with

them. %or we e!en imagine oursel!es ) indeed" we do that more than anything else.

$his endless imaginati!e play is the way the mind works. $o see it happening allows you to free up its

remarka#le energies and ena#les a far more effecti!e imagination of the state of 6nlightenment and itsem#odiment in uddhas" odhisatt!as and enlightened teachers. It #rings you closer to them and to your

potential to #e like them. Imagining a uddha" howe!er" is more demanding than imagining an ordinary

person. eing enlightened" the uddha lies outside the normal range of e&perience. *dhana practice

esta#lishes a #ridge #y creating an image rich enough to carry the power of your inspiration and e!entually

to 7possess' you with the essence of wakening.

In using the traditional iconographies 8such as a tawny light" a sword and a #ook of wisdom for

a91ughosa" white snowy radiance for ;a1rasatt!a and red sunset glory for mit*#ha