Daily Meditations

[John E. Mead]

I find some daily meditations actually require a bit of thought. They are not always a simple statement that sounds good.

I often find Sri Aurobindo as a challenge, he rarely states anything that is understandable to the lazy-minded.

So today I was looking at the quote:

"They told me, "These things are hallucinations." I inquired what was a hallucination and found that it meant a subjective or a psychical experience which corresponds to no objective or no physical reality. Then I sat and wondered at the miracles of the human reason."

 

Well, sounds nice. However, what is the piece really about. Does the first sentence really relate to the second? Then comes the insight and purpose for his statement.  Human Reason fits the definition of hallucination; The definition of hallucination is a hallucination by the grand thinker who defined the term. At that, one must marvel at the irony. So, yes:

 

“Then I sat and wondered at the miracles of the human reason”

 

FYI

Currently DSM-IV defines hallucinations as follows:

“A sensory perception that has the compelling sense of reality of a

true perception but that occurs without external stimulation of the

relevant sensory organ.”

[John E. Mead]

I was looking at active/creative imagination (etc) and mediation w.r.t. the Pantanjali concept of Fancy a while ago. I decided Fancy did not fit the use of imagination, since in Theosophy it is used actively and directed toward a specific cognitive use with a goal. more like meditation/contemplation etc.

I look forward to your post! Always ready to look at new ideas/relations etc. !

[Joe Fulton]

In I.K. Taimni's translation of the Yoga Sutra's this corresponds to Fancy.

This is a really interesting thought because it seems that all acts of active imagination are attempts to bring into subjective reality that which does not exist physically.

More on this thought later.