Develop Imagination with Open Attention

Imagination is the Divine Body in Every Man.
–William Blake

According to the great spiritual pioneer, Rudolph Steiner, imagination is one of three distinct stages in spiritual development, along with inspiration and intuition. By developing our capacity for imagination, we strengthen our spirits.

Achieving a state of open attentiveness is a wonderful first step toward developing the imagination. It is also both nourishing to the spirit and calming to the entire self! How to do it? Here are a few suggestions:

The first step in developing the imagination is exercising the capacity for attentiveness. Attentiveness to anything is of value, but particularly observing the movement of clouds, or the growth of a plant throughout the seasonal cycle–each and all of these provide excellent daily practice.

We might keep a journal of such observations from which we can later distill the essential from the non-essential, and begin to recognize the patterns present in the world and in ourselves. Goethe’s Italian Journey is one inspiring example. The notebooks and journal of the poet Gerard Manley Hopkins are an exemplary record of “spontaneous, sober observation of the external world,” which led him to those powerful Imaginative experiences expressed in his mature poems. Also, the notebooks of Leonardo da Vinci reveal how thoroughly he undertook such observation. (Note from Cait: Also check out the works of Annie Dillard and Diane Ackerman, both great observers of nature and wonderful writers.)

These exercises in attentiveness, the kind of imaginative fantasy or reverie evoked by exact observation, can strengthen the mind in seeing images. Open attention is also a deeply calming and satisfying spiritual practice all on its own.