Awakening the Imagination
If we want to lead the spiritual life fully there is a secret ingredient we must have: imagination. Without it we'll find it very hard to motivate ourselves through all the distractions and set-backs. So this week addresses the question: how can we awaken our imagination and bring its energy and insight into our daily lives?
Partly this is achieved simply by being in a beautiful and supportive environment with other practitioners for a sustained period. But we supplement this process with exercises, meditation and ritual, games and discussion aimed at achieving an atmosphere of trust and openness to our own and others' experience.
We may study published writers to see how they make their writing effective. We may look at how stories and poems are put together and discover how few words are necessary to write them.
Throughout all these activities the emphasis will be on the exploration rather than achieving a finished, finely-polished work; on self-discovery rather than measuring up to a pre-conceived standard.