Or perhaps, the image of the universe enacting itself. Language will baffle the meaning of what I'm trying to say, because "universe" is extremely vague, and the very next point I want to make is that the basis for any activity and imagination is the same.
Just as biofocusing focuses on and focuses from, and both are equally important, the yantra points to evolution and involution of humanity. Evolution in this sense is not of the Darwinian kind, but of human extension into the material and social world. Involution takes human consciousness back to its starting point, and evolution takes human consciousness to ever-increasing perceptual finesse in the "real" world.
The yantra is an objective portrayal of the path from the inner to the outer, the merging of the subjective with the objective, the geometric metaphor of body, soul and spirit as one.
Looking at a yantra, we see evolving and involving patterns. Our lives reflect the same, more mysteriously. Can we understand our lives? No. Can we live our lives knowing peace and fulfillment? Yes. What are we to make of seemingly random acts of horror and loss and mankind's abominable cruelty? From the outer perspective we can't make sense; from the inner perspective nothing is lost.
My essay into making links at this point is to suggest that what we experience in respect of imagination is yantra at work. Our eyes see the graphics here, our souls experience both the vey inner and the extremities of the outer when we expand our consciousness into active imagery. As we go towards the point of origin, we expand. As we journey into the physical world, we concentrate. The geometry of the yantra reflects that these are made of the same movements.
I have my hand on the steering wheel as I negotiate the traffic. I pressurize my finger in exactly the way the scalpel requires. Yet at the same instant I am at the very heart of God. I am in my home of homes.
Time as we know it in terms of days and hours is a construct: I imagine that when we leave the body, the journey takes as long as we want the adventure to last.
The logic of the body, the logic of mind and the logic of spirit are difficult to pin down as a set of rules. This is a ridiculous understatement, and that is exactly why the imagination is so quick, absurd and creative. At every instant creativity pours everywhere.
The Eastern mind will no doubt resonate more easily with this connection. For the Western mind, schooled for centuries in attitudes of rationality, be told that reason and imagination are extensions of each other.
I think of philanthropic statesmen and politicians, pioneering scientists, missionaries who have more than a cultural agenda, compassionate individuals everywhere, kindness made manifest in the human sphere.
I think of intensity of purpose, clarity of vision, energy of action.
And then I think of an engine out of tune with its proper operation: the soul out of order with balance between the inner and the outer.
Etymologically, "yantra" means "support" or"machine".
The facility of the imagination is neither a thing nor objective, like a yantra. Yet is is a necessary mile, maybe ten or more, of the journey that we're all on.
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