On Soulmaking and Soulful Priors
Imaginal practice & soulmaking dharma
"Soulmaking Dharma" is a spiritual approach that blends Buddhist teachings with Western concepts of deep psychological growth and self-development influenced by the work of Freud, Jung, Feynman, Hillman, and Foucault. This approach combines abstract post-modern deconstruction techniques with a deeper, contemplative dissection of phenomenology.
A key aspect is Imaginal practice, a spiritual technology that explicitly identifies and enhances the meaning already present in our lives, helps to discover and unleash meaning where it seems absent, and enriches and strengthens meaningfulness where it barely exists.
In this post, I will share my experience with this practice, inspired by my teachers Catherine McGee and Yahel Avigur; I will argue about the transformative power of Images' (with a capital 'I') in shaping our perception and experience, explore their information-theoretic and practical dimensions and make the case of the skilful fabrication of reality that leads to more meaningfulness, beauty and dimensionality.
What is an Image
Central to this practice is 'Images', as conceptualised by Rob Burbea. In Burbea's view, Images are not merely literal representations or mental pictures. They are gateways into what he calls the "imaginal realm," a dimension of experience that is as real as the physical world but operates on a different level of consciousness. Images with a capital “I” aren’t just visual representations. Images can be tasted, smelled, heard, and have a sense of presence. Images often carry symbolic or metaphorical meanings. They can represent complex ideas, emotions, or spiritual truths that are difficult to articulate in words. Images can be intrapsychic or extrapsychic.
Intrapsychic Images involve personal perceptions and internal experiences. Examples may include Images of self, i.e. how one views one's personality, abilities, and appearance; emotional Images accompanying emotions; archetypal images and universal symbols, like Jungian archetypes; symbolic visuals in dreams; memories and recollections influenced by emotions and past perceptions.
Extrapsychic Images relate to external perceptions. They may include images of others and perceptions about other people influencing interactions; cultural and societal Images, i.e. stereotypes and norms defined by society; individual perceptions of one's surroundings; objects of desire or fear; and worldviews and other broad perceptions about the world, including political and religious beliefs.
In Rob Burbea's framework, both intrapsychic (internal) and extrapsychic (external) images share some key characteristics:
They fundamentally shape perceptions and interactions with the world. Intrapsychic images affect one's internal world and self-concept, while extrapsychic images influence views of others and the environment.
They are mental constructs influenced by personal, cultural, and psychological lenses and are, therefore, subjective and prone to biases;
They are dynamic, changeable, fluid and can evolve with new experiences or through conscious efforts, making them transformable through various practices;
They carry emotional significance and are rooted in narrative;
Both types of Images are open to reinterpretation, allowing for new understandings and perspectives of self and the world
They can be sensed in the body and heart; specific Images bring about specific reactions, shifts, and changes in your body and what it’s like to be you at any given moment.
Fabricating less vs fabricating skillfully
The core question of Imaginal practice revolves around a crucial choice: Should we aim to fabricate our perception of the world less, or should we focus on fabricating it more skilfully?
Both Western and Eastern approaches seek a less fabricated understanding of the world. Western methodologies lean more towards objective analysis and external realities, grounded in empirical and rational inquiry. Reality is typically viewed as material and quantifiable, and there’s a strong emphasis on the physical and observable aspects of the world. In contrast, Eastern Buddhist traditions focus more on the subjective and experiential understanding of the mind and consciousness, aiming for spiritual insight and liberation. Reality is seen as interdependent and constantly changing. The concept of emptiness challenges inherent existence, suggesting that things exist only in dependence on other factors and not in and of themselves. Despite their differences, both aim to reduce a fabricated understanding of reality.
The Case for Skillful Fabrication
The question arises: what if the aim of the path isn’t to eliminate fabrication (i.e. unskillful engagement with the world which causes suffering) but instead fabricate more skilfully in ways to perceive the world that open up more dimensionality, beauty and meaningfulness?
Complete non-fabrication is nearly impossible due to the nature of human cognition and perception. Our minds constantly interpret, construct, and reconstruct our experiences. Instead of trying to stop this process, learning how to engage with it skillfully might be more beneficial. Skillful fabrication allows for a more creative and meaningful engagement with life. Understanding how we construct our realities allows us to create narratives and perceptions that enrich our experiences consciously.
How to work with Images
The Imaginal approach does not just stop at acknowledging the above two paradigms but seeks to bridge them. When sensing with “soul”, the outward form or appearance of phenomena is preserved, but other “soulful qualities” also become perceivable.
However, most people's perception of 'reality' is limited by a form of reductionism, which overlooks the endless possibilities of viewing the world. Take, for example, an apple. Each time you see or eat an apple, you might put on your materialist perceptual lenses. You might notice a round fruit with red, green, or yellow skin that tastes sweet or slightly tart and is classified as Malus domestica, a member of the Rosaceae family. You might register that apples are a good source of vitamin C that helps your digestion, and note to make an apple pie as you are craving it. If you are climate-conscious, you might even ponder the environmental impact of apple production in terms of water usage, land use, and the carbon footprint of transportation. For most of us, the interaction with the mental construct of an apple might end there.
Allow me momentarily to bring forward some soulful dimensions of the same apple. Below, I will use some soulful lenses, some qualities that contribute to a deeper engagement with the apple (what Burbea calls the Soulmaking Lattice). Let's try this: with steady sensitivity to the whole body and interest for more, go through the questions below and pause each time something in you flutters or becomes slightly more alive, activated, or interested. Choose one that catches your imagination and linger longer to make it your own. Try and listen to resonances of these questions:
Trust: When you bite the apple, do you feel a sense of trust, not just in its taste and nourishment but also in the natural processes that brought it to fruition?
Reverence: as you hold the apple, can you feel a sense of awe or reverence for the natural transformation of this apple from a tiny seed to a ripe fruit and all the processes that led to this?
Loving and being loved: consider the care that went into growing the apple – from nurturing the tree to picking the fruit. Does this evoke feelings of being cared for by nature?
Eternality: How does the natural rhythm of the apple's existence within the cycle of seasons - blooming, growing, and eventually returning to the earth connect you to a broader sense of timelessness and continuity?
Concertina (other images waiting in the wings): Let the apple evoke personal memories or images. Does it remind you of a particular place, season, or moment?
Logos (ideas/concepts are involved): What more profound ideas or concepts come to mind when you think about an apple? Perhaps the notion of gravity from Newton’s apple or the symbolic meanings in various cultures and stories? Or health, temptation, or knowledge?
Both created and discovered: Consider how the apple is both a product of nature’s creativity and a discovery of your senses. How does experiencing the apple bridge your connection to the natural world and your sense of discovery?
Participation: Reflect on the mutual relationship between you and the apple. Consider how your perception gives the apple a place in your world and how, in turn, its presence and its journey to you affect your perception and experience.
Dimensionality: As you observe the apple, ponder if its life-giving nature, growth from seed to fruit, or role in human history evoke any spiritual reflections or connections for you.
Grace: notice the natural elegance of the apple's form – the smooth curve, the way its weight feels in your hand, and its colours blending from one hue to another. Can you see a kind of effortless grace in its existence, a seamless integration of form and function?
Soft and elastic edges: look closely at the apple's skin and how it curves and meets the atmosphere. Can you sense a kind of porousness or fluidity at this boundary? Does this challenge the notion of fixed separations between the apple and its surroundings?
Duty: do you feel a sense of responsibility towards the apple, perhaps regarding gratitude or environmental consciousness?
Humility: In contemplating the apple, consider the vast network of elements that contributed to its existence: the soil, the sun, the rain, and the countless human and non-human efforts. Does this interconnected web of existence inspire a sense of humility in you, a recognition of being just one small part of a larger whole?
Congrats, you just sensed with “soul”! Previously, we might have seen the apple through a materialistic lens, believing it to be composed of inert matter, devoid of life. However, adopting a different viewpoint reveals a distinctly different apple that may appear visually identical but is perceived in an entirely new light beyond conventional sensory interpretation. You might even start noticing that the apple has no inherent or independent existence separate from the 13 ways of looking described above (and there are many more lenses!).
This perception can become a feeling of love towards the apple. This sentiment seems reciprocated in a way – as if the apple, and through it, the earth or the cosmos itself, is expressing affection towards us. This exchange resonates within us, not just physically but in a more subtle, energetic way, touching what Rob Burbea might call the 'poetic body' – a realm where our sensory experiences intertwine with the profound and the poetic.
Now imagine being able to phenomenologically access the above “lenses” at will with every phenomenon that comes through your awareness. Wouldn’t this lead to a wondrous engagement with life? I think it would! And that’s this framework's power: every aspect of our everyday perception holds the potential for imaginal and soulful experiences. Recognising this unlocks the door to a life infused with feelings of soulfulness, sacredness, meaningfulness, and beauty; the depth of these sensations can be limitless.
Practically working with Images
This holistic approach to working with images in Imaginal practice calls for a balanced integration of heart-centred sensitivity, focused meditation, and cultivating conducive mental qualities. It is not merely an intellectual exercise; it's a holistic, heart-centred experience.
Working with Images in a practical sense often involves sitting quietly and focusing on these Images while staying attuned to their impact on the subtle body. This process requires sensitivity to the resonances and energetic shifts, allowing the image to unfold deeper layers of soulfulness and meaning. Another approach is to engage in samadhi or metta (loving-kindness) meditation. In these states of reduced mental fabrication, Images often spontaneously arise. Alternatively, one can consciously select an image, possibly from a dream or an experience, and meditate upon it. This opens up the dynamics of soulmaking.
Good baseline foundations for the above practices are a heart filled with gratitude that sets the stage for deeper emotional engagement; being attuned to subtle energies and shifts in your body and within oneself that enhances the interaction with Image; and a focused and deepened state of attention (samadhi) that allows for a more profound and meaningful engagement with the Image.
Why does imaginal practice matter?
Every act of perception is a weaver of soulful worlds.
The reason I believe this practice matters is because of how the brain seems to be perceiving the world. Under a predictive coding and Bayesian inference perspective, the brain is a predictive machine. It constantly generates models or hypotheses about what it expects to encounter in the environment. These predictions are based on prior experiences, and when new sensory data comes in, the brain updates its models using a form of Bayesian inference. Essentially, the brain balances its prior beliefs (priors) with new evidence (likelihood) to form posterior beliefs. This constant process allows us to navigate our environment efficiently.
Creating Soulful Priors
Let’s assume that I have downloaded some operating system that allows me to perceive the World as Sacred Text, which is being written as it’s being perceived. If imagination is powerful and linked with our brain's predictive mechanisms, then by consciously and deliberately engaging with our imagination, we can influence those predictive models and, consequently, our world experience. In other words, by purposefully exploring and reshaping our inner images, myths, and symbols, we can change the way our brain anticipates and interprets incoming information, leading to a different, potentially richer or more meaningful experience of the world.
In predictive coding, priors are pre-existing beliefs or models the brain uses to make predictions. Just as we have priors about basic things (like the laws of physics that predict how objects move), we also have deeper, more profound priors about the nature of existence, purpose, and meaning. These are heavily influenced by the archetypal images ingrained in our psyche. Imaginal practices can be seen as a way of shaping these priors, imbuing them with personal meaning, richness, and depth. My intrapsychic and extrapsychic Images, myths, and symbols can be seen as forming the "priors" or pre-existing beliefs based on which my brain makes its predictions.
For example, if my brain is primed to view the world as a sacred text, this belief becomes a fundamental 'prior'. Thus, when encountering new experiences, the brain filters these through the 'sacred text' model. It seeks and interprets cues in line with this belief, reinforcing the perception of the world as divinely orchestrated. This model influences how I interpret sensory data, aligning it with the concept of a sacred, living text, and it can foster a mindset where every aspect of existence is part of a divine script. Such a mindset leads to actively seeking and appreciating signs of sacredness in everyday life.
Lastly, one of the most striking aspects of this framework is the emphasis on the co-creative power of images. They shape our perceptions, colour our experiences, and even influence our sense of self. When we change the images we hold internally, we aren't just altering our mental landscape; we're actively co-creating our reality. This understanding places a profound responsibility and opportunity in our hands – the power to reshape our world from the inside out. Importantly, these priors can be cultivated through (meditative) practice.
What are the images for self, other, and the world that we are holding?
In our imaginal practice, we hold certain images that shape our perception of self, others, and the world. What are the Images you are holding? What are your soulful priors? I believe that if we more effectively and intentionally interacted with Images, we would train our Imagination muscle to reach (and co-construct) greater depths of reality.
And these Images can be as secular as you wish. For example, what if we used a prior of empowerment and agency in everything? An agent is empowered if the entropy of the distribution of all of its states is high, while the entropy of the distribution of a single state, given a choice, is low. By perceiving the world as an information channel where our actions influence future states, we might begin to see ourselves and the world around us as deeply interconnected agents. Under this prior, how would we shift our understanding and interaction with nature if a tree is not just a physical object but an active, dynamic agent interacting with its environment, offering possibilities for various future states? How would we provide more empowerment and increase the agency of the tree and nature itself? What would this symbiotic relationship look like? Or how would we change our actions if we viewed humans as a fundamentally cooperative species? This Image moves us away from seeing humans primarily as competitive beings, instead highlighting our innate ability to empathise, and work collectively for common goals. Or maybe we could view the world as having teleonomy. Instead of seeing the environment as a passive backdrop, this Image cultivates a sense of dialogue and interaction with the world around us, where every aspect of nature is seen as actively participating in existence in purposeful ways.
To tackle the meaning crisis, I believe that the neurobiology of meaning should be accompanied by a practice of meaning-making beyond Western/eastern epistemic divides; for meaningfulness and sacredness are beyond false dichotomies of (non) secularity.
While we argue about what’s quintessentially human and lose our minds over ill-defined notions of intelligence and creativity in the presence of AGI, I believe the generation of meaningfulness will be our Grand Enoblement task for years to come. These transformative Images can be part of a broader movement of effective cosmopoets that can skillfully explore the range and depths of liberating Images with rigour and integrity and metabolise them via pathways to action, be it via technology, policy, entrepreneurship, science, arts and any other path that calls us. At the movement's core is body-heart intelligence that enables the intentional cultivation of Imaginal practice, which brings forth more beauty, dimensionality and meaningfulness. A worldly and soulful version would seek to:
Critically assess various spiritual and psychological practices for their effectiveness in fostering deep personal and collective transformation.
Incorporate an altruistic perspective into Soulmaking, encouraging individuals to develop in ways that benefit themselves and enable them to contribute more effectively to the well-being of others.
Develop soulmaking practices that can be scaled and replicated, allowing a larger number of individuals to benefit from them.
Regularly review and adapt soulmaking practices based on feedback and new findings, ensuring they remain adaptive and relevant.
So, friends..may your mind perceive meanings, and your heart perceive meaningfulness(es). Off to a soulful 2024!