Visualization / inSelf Yoga Substitution
Visualization is a natural function of the mind. It may be rated as being part of the faculty of imagination, which is condemned by Patanjali in the Yoga Sutras, where he assigns that to be one of the five unwanted mento-emotional operations.
Imagination is usually random and undeliberate while visualizations contrived and determinate. However both are prohibited by Patanjali.
What to do instead?
We use focus instead. The problem with our method is that most of the time, when applying it we do not get any tangible result. This could be frustrating all depending on what kind of person you are.
If I imagine something and if my mind is sensitive enough to my mento-emotional constructions, then I experience some psychic response in my nature as a result, that could be fulfilling even though I did not achieve the result in fact. An example is that lottery ticket which I never won but which I imagined that I won. Just by that imagination I felt happy and was on top of the world, even though the fact is that I am still a poor man with barely enough to make-by.
If instead I considered that I did not win, then focusing on the lottery ticket, checking the newspapers again and again to be sure that my number was not listed, might result in abject frustration.
But it is possible to imagine that I won the lottery and then find out that I actually did when I found my number listed in the newspaper. This could happen.
Because of the prohibition put on yogis by Patanjali, the yogi must leave aside imagination and visualization. Instead he should use focus. There is a problem with focus because as soon as we say focus, that implies a target. If there is no target then how can one focus?
The answer to this lies in the words patience and location. If the target has a location but if the target is present or is not present there, then the focus should be on the location when the target is absent and on the target directly when it is present. This means that the meditator should make a note of the location because it may be that the target is absent from its location or it has become invisible even though it is at the location.
If the meditator has no idea about the location of the target then he (she) should wait patiently in meditation for the target to appear or for the activity of the invisible target to begin. As soon as there is activity or as soon as the target appears, the meditator should note the location and focus there. In these practices, the location of the target is just as good as the target. The meditator should be confident that focusing on the location is a valid way of reaching the target even if the target is invisible for the time being.
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An example is the meditation upon the muladhara base chakra.
In some yoga systems, besides inSelf Yoga™, students are directed to imagine the base chakra or it visualize it. They are given parameters such as its shape, location, color and functions. With these they visualize the chakra at a certain place in the body or they imagine it to be a place which fits the description.
For inSelf Yoga™ the student is given the location or he may not be given even that. He is directed to focus steadily on the location, or he may be told to wait in meditation until somehow or the other, he perceives the target or its activity. How long will he wait?
He may wait for hours, weeks or years even before he gets an inkling about the target.
