Meditation and Visualization

By Matsyavatara Dasa

In the Bhaktivedantic Tradition, Visualization (darshana) is one of the most ancient and efficient techniques to deal with the psychology of the unconscious: thoughts, emotions, beliefs, which can intensely affect our personality and the quality of our life. Visualization and Meditation exercises allow us to awaken and strengthen our metacognitive faculties in relation to Self Observation, interpretation and leadership, so as to revive our deep inner wellness. We can learn to transform those beliefs which frighten us and which are the cause of serious emotional instability and suffering; we can strengthen our skill to face crisis and traumas, and improve our psychological universe.

According to the Bhaktivedantic Tradition, in order to activate and develop the introspective process, Meditation and Visualization is a fundamental and practical application, very similar to many other techniques already used and accepted in psychology and psychotherapy, whose efficiency is provided by scientific studies.

Main attention is drawn to skills of support and leadership, which are continuously sharpened a by means of the process of conceptual elaboration and visualization. By practicing, we reach a higher platform of awareness from which to understand mechanical unconscious concepts, implied meanings, lost emotional memories, vanishing relationships, misunderstandings and all those psychological objects which can be evoked, brightened, corrected, elaborated, so as to establish a higher psychological balance and success. Through the process of disidentification of the ego, we gain the ability to deal with emotions, and we can find our own self.

During the practice of Visualization there is no Auto-suggestion (Self-hypnosis): sounds, images, impressions arise in each single mind; these spontaneously evoked psychological products are elaborated with the help of guided analysis and creative sublimation exercises (writing, drawing, etc.), which help release tension. The outcome of meditation is the seed and inspiration for a next elaboration, in a personalized individual process.

What is meditation, in short? It is a significant experience to rely on and refer to underneath all our emotional experiences; it is a personal conduct of morals and ethics, affectionate connection to the image of a Divine concept which the practicioner emphatically vibrates to. The image plays a precious role, it is an open door for the person who meditates, a way to enter a higher level of consciousness and can on some occasions originate paranormal phenomena.

It sounds odd that Official Psychology ignores the archetypal level and its related energetic fields, which are able to produce phenomenas not apprehendable by our ordinary, limited instruments and rational thinking.

The Visualization - Meditation experience brings to surface memories hidden in the subconscious (samskara), lets the practicioner approach, learn to deal with and transform them. Past events shape on the conscious level, depicted as meaningful symbolic images: by the enlightening interpretation of an inner guide (istha devata), they can be elaborated within a superior awareness, which can transform negative unconscious tendencies. Conflicts and crisis are overcome, as the dark side of the psyche is enlightened and healed.

By this process, the subject can activate and transfer an energetic wave which progressively transforms negative emotions by virtue of theoretical knowledge and continuous practice: the first correction is on the cognitive rational process, the second one acts directly on the unconscious level. This is where psychological contents built by emotional negative energies lay, and where the unconscious drives of personality originate.

Within the process of meditation the practicioner addresses all the emotional energy he/she has available to his / her own God, who is usually pictured as a Divine sacred image.

According to the Bhaktivedantic discipline, besides being a useful tool in diagnosis and therapy, Meditation and Visualization experiences people to improving their quality of life, and even to complete recover from psychological symptoms which could instead be somatized and become the cause of serious regressive pathologies. In this context the cure of the symptom is just a side effect, on a global evolution process of the living entity that affects the various levels of personality and sides of life.

The Meditation and Visualization program requires will-power and the wish to correct our emotional and cognitive distortions, with the help of self-activation and the development of a deeper perception of our identity, in favor of new psychological perceptions, reaching a concrete and total relationship experience on higher levels of reality.

The value of such an experience will be thoroughly enjoyed by the person who can place and acknowledge the theoretical basis which are the ground of the Bhaktivedantic meditation science. At its highest level, Visualization (darshana) and meditation (dhyana) teach how to pursue the intimate relationship between individual things and the Whole, finding anywhere the spiritual common denominator, the foundation and support of all living entities and the world.

Visualization is a concrete sharing experience, you can learn to think and see things in a free, newer and more creative way, based on high ethical principles of universal value. You can discover the nature of living entities not as isolated individuals, rather as a network, an interconnected system.

In Meditation and Visualization, each of the participants plays the role of the doer and the witness at the same time, a chance to benefit not only from an individual experience but also from the empathic transmission of others. It represents a fundamental instrument to recover and purify the powerful energy of desire, in its endless shadows and components. It is the recovery of such energy-desire that favors a quick evolution and the discovery of inner paths to reach the metaspace of the heart, where the human being meets God and reaches the Infinite by means of an inner Guide, with the unlimited source of Love and Knowledge.