ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses, in particular, on the Second Life™ (SL) platform created by Linden Lab. Launched in 2003 with barely 1,000 users, the number of SL users with an account has grown to over 16 million. The chapter explores the relationship between visualization practices in certain meditational traditions and the imaginary itself. The imagination, according to Spinoza, is rooted in the body, or to put it slightly differently: The body has a mind of its own. The imaginary landscapes generated by visualization practices and meditational techniques such as those in the Vajrayana tradition of Tibetan Buddhism or from the Hindu Tantric tradition are deliberate in their virtuality. It is interesting to consider the relationship between Spinoza’s and the Dalai Lama’s emphasis on the relationship between the body and the mind, that one cannot exist without the other. The contemplative texts of the Sutra system acknowledge the cultivation of heightened awareness in relation to two senses, visual and auditory perception.
