The unreal grows at the expense of the real

“Imagination plays a very important part in our life, because we believe in it. The real can grow only at the expense of the imaginary. But in ordinary life the unreal grows at the expense of the real.” —P.D. Ouspensky

Man grows an imaginary picture of himself after years of being in the sleeping state of imagination. We grow into adulthood with our days filled with narrow and harmful intellectual habits, undisciplined and uncontrolled attention, and biased ways of looking at things. As we age, we lock in on imaginary ideas and form false notions of who we are. If we are lucky, we are somewhat aware of this growing falsehood.

Imagination, or pilot-less mind activity, is at the root of this false sense of self. The buildup of imaginary picture is an arch enemy to awakening because our true self remains hidden beneath layers of falseness. The personality that generates this imaginary picture spends most of its time maintaining a skewed view of the world and of oneself and its capacities.

Psychological work on oneself is about eating away at this imaginary picture. When I work on myself, I start with observing my autopilot tendencies, including my imaginary picture. From that understanding, I employ techniques and actions that interfere with this imaginary functioning. For instance, if I notice that I am mindlessly turning around a subject like a ping pong ball, with which there’s only yes and no, good and bad, etc., it’s a clue that my imaginary picture is active. I can be sure that my own automatic pilot is preventing a deeper truth from getting inside me.

Take a common example. I noticed that when in a grocery store line, waiting to check out, the mind will wander and naturally move to subjects that take me away from the moment. This is imagination. In that state of sleep, the notion of self is based in part on such imagination-based conjuring, as well as on other influences like where I live, my family, and culture.

Returning to the grocery line, my imaginary picture comes forward and is quite obvious when someone cuts in front of me. Suddenly, I am indignant, and I am ready to express my negative feelings. These indignant feelings about somebody who “inappropriately” got in front of me expose this imaginary picture of who I imagine myself to be and I imagine all sorts of motives. I might think, “I would never do that” or “Who do they think they are?” which is another way of saying, “Don’t you know how important I am?”

These incessant turnings in my head – unveiling your imaginary picture – require close examination and deconstruction to find something that’s true in myself. As a discipline, there’s practicality in trying to not identify with anything including my imaginary picture. Try not to express negativity when the person cuts in front of you next time. If you are not in imagination and are present in the grocery line, you will be free of your imaginary picture (at least while you are present). All the small struggles to overcome imagination and imaginary picture in ordinary circumstances are what helps reveal our real or Higher Self.

The Laundress, Jean-Baptiste Greuze

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