Extract from an essay by Anthony Lawlor (2009) “Re-imagining the architecture of healing” in IMAGINATION & MEDICINE, Edited by Stephen Aizenstat & Robert Bosnak, p.199 – 212

“Within spaciousness, formlessness spawns form, darkness sparks light, and silence resonates sound… Spaciousness, appearing as form, light and sound, spawns seeds of the imagination.

… From seeds of imagination, rays of perception project into spaciousness. Eyes search for light. Ears seek sound. Fingers reach toward form. As rays of perception extend into spaciousness, seeds of imagination discover varied characteristics of energy and matter… As rays of imagination senses the nuances of experiences, it gathers light into a measurable spectrum. It coalesces sound into a harmonious scale and weaves form into beautiful patterns. This continues until the ray of imagination reaches the limit of what is seeable, hearable and touchable. A bounding circle of perception is defined, establishing the center and circumference of the individual ray of imagination.

Within this structure, mind separates an individual from his surroundings… Imagining the world as a realm of self and other divides it into conflicting forces. Inner is perceived as apposing outer… Imagination distinguishes a safe self from a dangerous other. The primal wound opens.

Peering into the gap of the primal wound, imagination perceives an abyss. The separate self conceived by the mind confronts a danger of being swallowed by an omnivorous void. To survive , self scurries to mend the wound of duality. Mind fantasizes that eliminating the other will bring a return to primal wholeness… Since the other cannot exists without the self, attempting to kill the other plunges the mind into constant conflict with itself. Again and again, mind enters the fray, inflicting cycle after cycle of wounding.

Paradoxically, the primal wound of duality is also a womb of new possibilities. As the opposites of order and chaos, gain and loss encounter one another: spaciousness is churned into new forms of energy and matter.

Duelling forces of the primal wound shape the edges… Stepping through a portal’s opposing forces enacts a death of the old and a birth of the new. Recalling that a journey between opposing forces is a natural, inescapable dynamic of dwelling in the world can initiate the first stage of healing. *

Beyond the threshold, duelling powers continue the paradoxical work of wounding and healing. Alternating steps of struggle and break-through, fatigue and vitality, confusion and clarity mark the progression of the body and mind through a long road of healing. Along the way, places of arrival offer points of rest and renewal… Opposing forces rediscover their inherent unity… A new sensed of center is born. At each point of rest, a new seed of imagination arises."

Image credit: Glimmer, the Seventh Apparition by Gustav Arantes

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