A simile to help you become conscious of the various layers and faculties active in thinking and imagining - The Painter and Her Canvas

 

                                                        Painting by Andreea Dumata 

1. Carefully observe a plant or an animal. Make a clear mental image. Make sure you clearly think through the idea of what this plant or animal is. Make all of your normal associations of the ideas and memories that are linked with this plant or animal. 

2. Now let us start to carefully separate the different parts or layers or elements of what you just accomplished while thinking and perceiving in normal consciousness. 

Look at the mental image or memory image of the animal in your mind's eye. Consider these aspects: 

i. The CANVAS - What are the qualities of this substance on which you 'paint' this memory image?  In other words, what is the canvas of memory made of? What are its qualities? 

ii. The BRUSHES - How do you change the colors or size of a mental image or memory picture? How do you change the angle you are viewing it from? What tools do you use to paint on the canvas? 

iii. The PAINT container - Where does the memory image come from? If you change its color or background, how do you dip your cognitive tools or brushes into the paint can? Where are the paint cans stored?  How do the brushes actually work? 

iv. The PAINTER's HANDS - When you rotate or enlarge or change the colors of a mental picture, or a memory image, what 'hands' are you using to turn this image? What are the acts of will that are working with the brushes?

v. The MODEL - How do you know what you are painting on the canvas of memory? How do you know you are still thinking about a duck and not an eagle? How do you compare the memory image on the canvas from the MEANING of the original Model you are using as your reference?  

vi. LOOKING at the MODEL vs. PAINTING - What different activities are taking place when you rotate or enlarge or alter the memory image VS when you understand, see, recognize, and think of the pure content or IMAGELESS concept that controls the meaning of the painting?  (In my Husserl book, I discuss this at length). 

vii. WHY are you PAINTING?  Justify the moral reasons why you are painting this image in the first place? What justifies your right to paint this image or investigate the cognitive apparatus at all? This marks the difference between spiritual-moral research and mere subjective, intellectual, or psychological playing. (I discuss this in my Resurrection of Thinking book). 

viii. The PAINTER - Where is the real painter? Is she inside your body? Where does she take up a vantage point to invite new models to sit? How does he conceive of new paintings? Is the painter being painted?  Are there other painters watching from the corners of the art studio?  How do they affect the painting?  

ix. ERASE the painting and WAIT with devotion. What arises here?  In regard to Dumata's painting above - what is inside the Red light that shines through the Door in the woods? Who paints the painter? (For more, see Yeshayahu Ben-Aharon's works). 

Repeat and enjoy!