Seeing with eyes closed: the work of tantric meditation

This paper explores Buddhist meditation as a course of practical action, the work of meditation. The data on which the report is based comes from within the Tibetan Mahãyãna tradition. The paper explores forms of Vajrayãna Tantric meditation practices that include visualizations. Meditation practice is introduced as a mental technique by which one can work with the mind and learn from that experience. Meditation practice offers a controlled, purposeful, imaginative, exploration of states of consciousness. Within meditation visualization practices comprise a means of exploring certain meditative objects. This paper fashions a case study of a meditation practice that employs visualization and certain analytic conclusions are drawn. The results of this study of visualization in meditation are placed in the context of the broader academic literature on visualization practices in other contexts.