Active Imagination and Hinduism Meditation.

Hello dear people of HDF, I'd like to ask a question about a technique of Analytical Psychology. It is called Active Imagination.

I'll quote briefly from Wikipedia and request for those who can spare a few minutes to read the entire article:

Quote:

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Active Imagination is a concept developed by Carl Jung between 1913 and 1916. It is a meditation technique wherein the contents of one's unconscious are translated into images, narrative or personified as separate entities. It can serve as a bridge between the conscious 'ego' and the unconscious and includes working with dreams and the creative self via imagination or fantasy. Jung linked Active Imagination with the processes of alchemy in that both strive for oneness and inter-relatedness from a set of fragmented and dissociated parts.

Entire article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Active_imagination

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Analysts say that once you being practicing this technique you stop dreaming so often because the contents of your unconscious are already worked during your conscious vigil with participation of the ego, so therefore the unconscious has little use in contacting our conscious through dreams.

So I get curious... What would the several types of meditation from Hinduism say about this? Would that be helpful? I know that this is maybe only acting on the mental level, however, I've seen from experiencing that being in peace with yourself is a natural step towards natural spiritual interest. Ashantasya kutah sukham.

I'd also like to thank Devotee for a great contribution he gave here about dreams. And Yajvan for also posting about how identifying their constituent elementes here.

Om Tat Sat

PS: As you may notice, dreams are a subject of high interest for me because of the natural strength in which they presented themselves to me which then led to my current interest in Analytical Psychology.

namaste PI.

One form of dhyAna--meditation, is to contemplate on a mUrti--image, of a deity, where we must necessarily use the technique of active imagination. Here is a quote from David Frawley:

"Each deity has a subtle body form for meditation or contemplation (Dhyana Murti). The deity appears in a certain color, making certain gestures, carrying certain weapons, wearing certain ornaments, and so on. These are revealed in various meditation verses on the deity (Dhyana Shloka). The meditation form is the initial way to contact the deity and to energize its power within our psyche, as we most respond to human forms in our daily life. We should seek to commune with the form of the diety. If we meditate upon it strongly enough the form will come alive and teach us, and reveal the deeper aspects of its reality."

(Ref: http://books.google.com/books?id=L5C...0murti&f=false)

Such form to meditate upon could well be that of a guru. TirumUlar in his 'Tirumandiram' says:

theLivu--Knowledge/wisdom/peace results by having darshan of Guru's holy frame;
theLivu results by uttering Guru's holy name;
theLivu results by listening to Guru's holy words;
theLivu results by contemplating Guru's form.

Meditation thus involves active imagination that uses all the five primary senses. With the meditation ripening more and more, blessings of the the dhyAna-mUrti will be obtained in the form of darshanam--darshan, sparshanam--touch, saMbhAShaNaM--dialogue, and finally, Alingganam--deity embracing the devotee.

Once the state of samAdhi is reached and the sAdhaka--practioner, could sustain it gradually, all the sensations would disappear like the objects in a room disappear when suddenly flooded with an immense amount of white light (a popular movie technique), and only the sensation of bliss would remain.