Imagination is an amazing force. Yet, while it is the cornerstone of so much brilliance, if left uncontrolled or misunderstood, it can very much work to our disadvantage. This week, observe the power of your imagination. When is it a virtue? When is it a vice?
In the psychologically brilliant Yoga Sutras of Patanjali, imagination, or vikalpah, is considered one of the 5 vrittis, or modifications, of the mind. The vrittis, which also include correct perception, wrong knowledge, doubt, and sleep/fatigue, are the complex states of the mind that may be painful or non-painful, and cognizable or non-cognizable. One of the ultimate goals of yoga is to fully understand these workings of the mind. From here, freedom ensues.
Mr. B.K.S. Iyengar so clearly elaborates upon Yoga Sutra I.9, which relates to vikalpah, (sabdajnana anupati vastusunyah vikalpah) in his Light on the Yoga Sutras:
“Playing with fanciful thoughts or words, and living in one’s own world of thought and impressions which have no substantial basis, is vikalpah, a vague and uncertain knowledge which does not correspond to reality. In such a state of delusion, one is like a hare in the fable who imagined it had horns.
If vikalpah is brought to the level of factual knowledge by analysis, trial, error, and discrimination, it can awaken a thirst for correct or true knowledge, and delusion can be transformed into vision and discovery.”
This week, observe when your imagination can go a little too far and create fanciful scenarios or excessive fears. I’ll confess – I can be a worrywart. Nothing has been more invaluable in helping me harness my roaming imagination than acknowledging this tendency and working to observe recurring patterns. This investigation has also helped me find something incredibly powerful: the actual source of certain fears.
Good luck with your work and embrace the discovery that results!
Sophie Herbert is an alignment focused yoga teacher (and perpetual student), a singer-songwriter, and a visual artist. She has lived, studied, and volunteered extensively in India; teaches yoga in Brooklyn and Manhattan; and recently released her first full-length album, "Take a Clear Look." Please visit her website at SophieHerbert.com.
From: Understand Your Imagination: Yoga On and Off the Mat | P90X2 Workouts | 6/23/11 at 1:57 pm
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