Metaphorical and sacred symbolism is only of use if it can be related to direct experience. When I finished writing Time and the Sentinel (see Selected Writings), I realised it had to be tested. Such descriptions are always based either on ideas and concepts, or on past experience from memory. If it’s the latter, the test is to see if it is current as well. The method is to turn the attention back (as in meditation). Then a questioning process can dig deeper and pull out the

I've been interested to explore the following abstract question with participants, using the insight questioning method of Symbolic Encounters. The starting point is a metaphorical question: What is on the other side of dukkha? (a Buddhist concept: suffering) ‘On the side of’ introduces a non-logical metaphor which confuses rational thinking and forces direct engagement with experience-- direct seeing -- in order to come up with any kind of response. Ideally you are guided b