{"id":18459,"date":"2023-01-28T12:00:23","date_gmt":"2023-01-28T11:00:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/kennethsorensen.dk\/?p=18459"},"modified":"2026-08-12T11:54:46","modified_gmt":"2026-08-12T10:54:46","slug":"meditation-and-the-psychological-functions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kennethsorensen.dk\/en\/meditation-and-the-psychological-functions\/","title":{"rendered":"Meditation and the Psychological Functions"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

My Heart Was Warmed and a Fire Was Kindled: The Seven Stages of a Complete Meditation Exercise from Memory to Action<\/span><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

By Roberto Assagioli<\/strong>
Assagioli Archive in Florence<\/span><\/span>, Doc. #10815
Original title: La Meditazione<\/em>
Original English title: <\/span><\/span>Meditation<\/span><\/span><\/em>.<\/span>
Course of Lectures on Psychosynthesis, Year IV, Lesson XX, July 14, 1931
Translated with Notes by Jan Kuniholm<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Editorial Note<\/strong>
The abstract and contextual subtitle in this online edition have been added by the editor, Kenneth S\u00f8rensen, to support readability, navigation, and archival consistency. The original wording has not been altered. The translator’s notes, marked [Tr.], were contributed by Jan Kuniholm and provide bibliographic references, linguistic clarifications, and scholarly context to the original lecture material.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Abstract<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

In this lecture, Roberto Assagioli presents the complete meditation exercise as a structured passage through seven psychological functions. Beginning with memory and reflective thought, the practitioner moves through imagination and the arousal of feeling to desire, impulse, and finally the will, which stands behind the entire process and directs it toward action. Assagioli warns against stopping at the emotional stage, where insights risk evaporating into mere sentiment, and insists that the purpose of every meditation exercise is to embody its ideals as living reality through word, writing, and concrete action.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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After the extensive theoretical and practical preparation we have made during this course, we are now in a position to understand well what meditation is and to do it satisfactorily. Let us first see what meditation <\/span><\/span>is not<\/span><\/span><\/em> .<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Some people believe that meditation means mentally examining a given problem, reasoning about it, drawing purely rational and philosophical conclusions from it. \u2014 Now this is not so: this is <\/span><\/span>reflection<\/span><\/span><\/em> , not meditation.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Meditation <\/span><\/span>also<\/span><\/span><\/em> makes use of reflection, but that is not all there is to it; and much less is meditation a r\u00eaverie, a passive r\u00eaverie, without order and without restraint. It is instead an ordered, disciplined inner activity, consciously aimed at an end.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

All the inner faculties operate in meditation. \u2014 This will become clear by examining a complete meditation exercise.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

1 – MEMORY<\/span><\/span><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

The first psychic faculty that operates in meditation is <\/span><\/span>memory<\/span><\/span><\/em> . It is necessary to recall the theme, the subject matter, so to speak, of meditation and the various elements and points to be considered, \u2014<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

2 – THINKING\u2014REFLECTION<\/span><\/span><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Intellectual activity follows. \u2014 It is necessary to think, to reflect on the chosen theme, to develop it, to deepen it, thus evoking new ideas and new reasons.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

This constitutes the first part of meditation, but the most vital and central part of it has not yet been done. \u2014 Exact ideas and thoughts, as such, do not have the dynamic power, the propulsive and arousing force necessary for the purpose of meditation to be implemented or fully realized. \u2014 Thoughts must become concrete, alive, warm, active; and therefore they must clothe themselves in images, incarnate themselves, so to speak. \u2014 Here, therefore, another faculty comes into play:<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

3 – IMAGINATION<\/span><\/span><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

There is no need for me to insist on demonstrating the power of imagination: we have often spoken of it. \u2014 Suffice it to recall that it is actually the imagination that arouses and causes the subconscious, this enormous reservoir of energies, <\/span><\/span>to act<\/span><\/span><\/em> . \u2014<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Imagination makes you sick and imagination makes you well. Imagination arouses feelings and emotions.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

You see now why we insisted in the first part of our course on exercises for evoking images, on experiments in visualization. This is about learning to master, to discipline, and to direct the imagination; to become capable of evoking the images we desire, which are useful for our purposes: to evoke them vividly, clearly, intensely, and to hold them for a long time before our inner eye so that they can operate most effectively in us, shaping and directing the subconscious, evoking the desired feelings.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Those images become living forces, almost entities with an autonomous life, and they recur spontaneously: almost imposing themselves. Therefore be cautious about playing with the imagination.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

4 – FEELINGS AND EMOTIONS<\/span><\/span><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

This is the next stage: the awakening, the arousing of <\/span><\/span>feelings<\/span><\/span><\/em> .<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

What must take place in us is what the Psalmist says so well (Psalm 39 v.3):<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

“My heart was warmed within me as I meditated, a fire was kindled.” <\/span><\/span>[1]<\/span><\/span><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

(See Petit ) <\/span><\/span>Joy<\/span><\/span><\/em> in meditating <\/span><\/span>[2]<\/span><\/span><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

(Love\u2014its miracles)<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Only thus is there full participation of the personality; only thus is the propulsive force that leads to action aroused. But it is precisely here that there is the greatest danger, the greatest pitfall that can make the meditative work done so far futile.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

There is danger of allowing that force of feeling to dissipate \u2014 of letting it evaporate and disperse, so to speak. There is the temptation to be pleased and delighted by the lofty and comforting feelings aroused by thought and imagination, to be blissful in them and almost to allow oneself to live in that ideal world without proceeding to action, without caring about <\/span><\/span>embodying<\/span><\/span><\/em> those ideals and to making them a <\/span><\/span>living reality<\/span><\/span><\/em> , here.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

This produces a dualism, a harmful dissociation of the personality; an escape from life, an inability to act; and nervous and psychic disorders can also result. (See James: <\/span><\/span>On Some of Life’s Ideals,<\/span><\/span><\/em> p. 154). <\/span><\/span>[3]<\/span><\/span><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Those who belong to certain psychological types are more easily prone to this error, and must especially guard against it.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

They are:<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n