How to visualize?

Hey guys and gals.

I’m reading Tinzen Wangyal Rinpoche’s book and doing the exercises and have ran into some resistance, I’m hoping someone here could point me in the right direction.

A little bit about me, I started having the occasional lucid dreams a few years ago, then I read Stephen Laberge’s book and have been keeping a dream journal off and on, and doing the occasional RC, and the frequency of LDs have gone up from maybe several a year to around 1 per month, but it’s plateaued recently. And even though I’ve had some incredible experiences with LDs, such as having 3 consecutive LDs a night, and a 3 layered LD, it’s still very sporadic and inconsistent.

I decided that I needed to start doing meditation on a regular basis, as well as consistent LD practices. I don’t want it to be just a passing curiosity any more, I want to make it part of my life for good.

I’ve been doing the following routine every night for the last week or so:

Zhine meditation with the tibetan “A”, then 9 purifying breaths, then guru yoga, then
protection visualization, and during sleep I’ve been doing the first part of the main practice, which is the visualization of a red lotus at the throat chakra with a luminous “A” at the centre.

Here is where I’ve met the most resistance. And I think I have 2 categorical difficulties here.

  1. How does one visualize something within the body?
    I’ve tried a few things.
    I’m tried to visualize things as my eyes would see them, if they weren’t closed. But since my eyes wouldn’t be able to see my throat, I guessed that I needed to rotate my “inner eyes” down so I’m looking down at my throat.
    I also tried to just leave my inner eyes where they are, and just see the glow from the objects.
    Another thing I tried was to have an image of myself in front of me, as if there were a perfect mirror, and to see the lotus and symbol there, and simultaneously focus my body awareness at the throat chakra so there is sensation of energy being there.
    I’m not sure which one is “right”, the book doesn’t get into the more fundamentals of meditation techniques, at least up to this point.

That’s also my second issue, I suspect that there are steps for a beginner to learn to visualize or imagine or feel energies and objects that are associated with more fundamental meditation and spiritual practices. I think those are beyond the scope of this book, but would be enormously helpful here, as well as in all other areas of life.
For example I couldn’t hold an image of the red lotus with all 4 syllables and the “A” symbol at the same time, I’m just attempting with either the lotus with no syllables or the “A” by itself, and even that is hard.

So there we are, thanks for taking the time to read this and for any help you might be able to give. :smile:

When I visualize something within my body, I “look down” at it, yes, with my imagination. Sometimes, I visualize my body—or a part of my body—as if I’m another person looking at me. But usually I don’t get too caught up about it; I just “look down.”

A simple technique for feeling energies, and parts of the body, is simply to conceive as your attention as a point of light. Right now, notice where your attention is, and then intentionally move your intention—with as much focus as possible—into your throat. Notice your neck, the skin. Then, notice the tissues underneath, the voicebox, etc. Then, shift the attention into the throat center itself. Hold it there while you imagine the red lotus and so on.

Let me know what kind of results you get with the Tibetan practice. I’ve looked at it before, but don’t use it. I have done a lot of meditation, though, involving attention points, moving energy, etc.