Imagination: What is the real importance of imagination?

The funny thing is that truth is in the eye of the beholder which can easily misconstrue what is really there. It's somewhat like interpretation between languages, where one person would translate those words one way and the other another way.

@rebelann I refer more to ultimate truth, or to spiritual truth. (As compared to truth-telling, as in not telling lies, or distorting the reports about the truth of something that we have seen, thought about, or witnessed, for ourselves) This type of truth, if it exists, only exists perfectly so, in the eyes of God. When we grab onto it, God tells us it will then set us free of all of our own views of truth, and we will then know the highest of truths. An example, in the physical world, is the truth of the law of gravity. This is a law of truth, and if somebody tries to hold another version of it in their own eye, or mind, and then jumps off of a high building, thinking that this truth will not affect themselves, they will die, never the less, in a pile of squashed bones still, on the footpath below. Any truth in the eye of a beholder is only ever their own view of truth, not necessarily the highest view, or God's view of truth.

I think that imagination can be a good tool for our minds to use, as Einstein used it so well, to come up with his theories about time, and relativity. On the other hand, though, can imagination help our heart to see truth, or would it more distort truth, and so move us away from seeing the real truth, as an inner knowing, so that we then see it more, as then, just as an imaginary meandering, a fantasy, blinding us from seeing the real truth then too. I think Papaji means that we should not let our own imagination form our own versions of truth, which are contrary to the real truth. We should allow truth to always just be itself, without adding anything imaginary to it.

Yes, apparently, Einstein's wife was better at putting it down on paper, and did a lot of that side of the equations for him. At least he came up with the theories that Bohr could not come up with. Bohr should have bore down, and did the sums himself, if he needed them. Such backwork, is often boring to the genius, who wants to keep on thinking in his own way, without these bores boring holes into his imagined theories.

@DocAndersen Yes, he took another wife with him to America, when he went there in 1933. She did not live long there though, dying in 1936.

@innertalks interestly when he fled germany, he left that wife there.

Imagination used to go hand-in-hand with visualisation for me too. As I get older, I seem to not be able to visualise things so easily anymore, though. It is good that you have hung onto your imagination. Yes, a good writer needs imagination, and creativity skills too.

@innertalks and not only for my writing but provides inspiration for my poetry as well

@RasmaSandra I am not sure what I am using when I write poetry. My brain just seems to connect it together for me somehow. Perhaps, inspiration gives me the push though, as if I am feeling some deep emotion deeply, that's when I usually write a poem.

Thanks, siva. Perhaps, Papaji claimed that he succeeded, otherwise why would he even talk about it. Imagination, though, on its own, can often mislead us. We imagine a door is opening, but it is really only a fantasy, and if we balance more fantasy imaginations with reality, and rational thought, we can keep our feet on the ground, and our heads still in the clouds. Yes, imagination is a tool, but we are fools, if we allow ourselves to become that tool, and mistake the tool, for the underlying soul that is utilising those tools.

@Shiva49 Yes, it is even said that God imagined first, and then spoke out with his word, and his word, or his actions, then created all around him, with his imagination still contained in each part of that world for them to use for themselves too. Imagination always leads all to all else. Without it, we remain fixed in our ways.

@innertalks Imagination makes us think of the possibilities and slowly inch towards them. Arthur C Clarke had predicted the present reality of technology over fifty years ago. My father longed to hear BBC world news on TV and he did before he passed away. Maybe, we imagine first and then work to achieve our aspirations. It is a trigger to make them happen. I think imagination leads us to truth, the art of the possible. There is nothing that is not possible, in a way.

Yes, even new ways of doing old things requires imagination for these improvements to come about too.

@innertalks exactly man