Lesson 10: Figmentalization of the
Dynamic Cosmic Energy

You've probably heard the phrase, "It's just a figment of your imagination." What's a figment, you might ask?

fig·ment (noun). Something invented, made up, or fabricated.

That's what we do all the time. We figmentalize - invent, make up, and fabricate. We do this with every perception, every feeling, every attitude, every analysis, and every opinion. Our lives are filled with figmentalization. This happens spontaneously. We don't even notice it most of the time.

We take the basic substance of experience and overlay it with figments. Everything gets the gloss. Only at rare moments do we see things without the figments obscuring the underlying reality. When this does occur, when the figments are cast aside and we merge with truth itself, we call it directly knowing.

The underlying dynamic cosmic energy is decorated with figments of our imagination, and this is what we go by; this is what makes up our day-to-day reality. The field of cosmic energy is constantly boiling up things that flash into existence within the field of awareness. Then the decorations start, and what we see, what we know, and what we react to is this odd combination of the cosmic energy and figments of our imagination. Absorbed within this world of figments is called "living in samsara."

This, of course, is fine. No problemo. We are (mostly) here for that. We love to be alive, and much of what being alive is figmentalizing the underlying dynamic cosmic energy within the space of our awareness and dancing our dance with each other. But our hearts also yearn for direct knowing. We want to get grounded in Truth.

As the Amitabha Sutra says, "In his own country, each brings forth the appearance of a vast and long tongue, everywhere covering the three-thousand, great thousand worlds."

Our wanting, at least for a moment, to cast off the layers of figmentalization and just directly experience truth takes us to spiritual practices such as Naked Awareness. Here we clearly identify how the mind is overlaying the moment with mental stuff, and we detach awareness from what it is aware of and experience pure awareness. We realize for ourselves the nature of awareness (essence of mind, the Divine) by clearly and directly experiencing awareness within a moment of pure contemplation, a moment when there is no figmentalizing going on. From that experience there emerges an understanding of our nature and the nature of life, which gives us clues about what we really want to do with our precious time here.

It isn't all that easy, actually, because everything is defined by the figments. Figments reinforce other figments. We fill our relationships with our figments. We live and die for our figments. We get afraid when we lose our figments.

To cease figmentalizing, one has to pull away from all figments and experience essence of mind with essence of mind. No figments. No thoughts. No concepts. No beliefs. We need to have this present awareness, which is that intimate central source, look directly at itself, purely, in this moment, without any expectations of a really good figment resulting from doing it. When the figments that create a separate self dissolve, the separate self dissolves, and the space of pure luminous knowing truth abides.

This whole lesson is a figment of my imagination. It is also a figment of your imagination. Letting it dissolve from the mind, there is just … thus.

Summary:

• We overlay the basic dynamic cosmic energy with figments of our imagination.
• We react to these overlays as if they are real.
• We sometimes long for the simple, direct experience of Truth, unobscured by the overlays.
• When awareness becomes aware just of itself, the figments dissolve.

That’s About It

This marks the end of the 10th and final lesson of this short course. I don’t think anyone, when they get to this point, would feel that they have gotten all that it has to offer. There will always be more to realize, more to directly experience, since the subjects covered here can go very deep.

This course is just a little survey of ideas and experiences around the act of seeing with naked awareness and developing access to the base. You can always deepen your experiences and understanding of these things. If you find you are able to take advantage of the states introduced in this course, you might want to go back through the lessons to see if you can get each experience more deeply. It’s entirely up to you, though.