The mental eye

These inner pictures are useful. They let us plan a journey, remember a friend, imagine a kinder response. Difficulty arrives when we forget that we are looking at a picture, and respond to it as though it were happening now.

The teaching of the mental eye is not about clearing the mind of images. It is about recognising them: this is memory, this is imagination, this is a picture rather than the room I am sitting in.

With practice, the recognition becomes quick and light. The picture is still there, but it no longer decides how the day will feel.