“Could you tell us some more about using the dice, Enlightened One?” asked the thirteenth disciple.

“Sure. After you have gone to the next level and gained control of your mind you can play with the emotions that are occurring in your head,” said The Enlightened One. “You can make changes to them, as it were.

“Change the roll of the dice by using Creativity and going outside the box, or changing the things that are inside the box, to give yourself different views on what was bothering you.

“Change the roll of the dice by using Evolution to give you a new perspective on your feelings, seeing them as primitive human ones designed to push you to take action even if that wouldn’t be effective or make any sense.

“You cannot directly change the dice, of course, because physically you remain as a human being, but that doesn’t mean that you can’t use mental techniques to cause them to alter. The dice always remain ‘six-sided,’ meaning they match the primitive human emotions, but by doing something imaginative you can act as if they were given more sides, such as eight, ten, twelve or more. You can also imagine something that causes the dice to flip over, for example from all ones, representing extremely negative emotions, to all sixes, representing extremely positive ones. It’s just a matter of imagination.

“All three ‘going beyond’ techniques – Perspective, Evolution and Creativity – are based on imagination. Imagination is the key to taking control of your mind and helping it to come up with better answers. It is fortunate for us that we have this power!

“The dice will roll, that is inevitable, and they will fall on whatever combination of numbers nature decrees. That is how your human mind works: events or thoughts cause the dice to roll in your head automatically, and they fall on the result that your primitive mind decides. After that happens, after the negative feeling occurs, you can step in and use your imagination to bring about a change. That is what the practice of Perspective, Evolution and Creativity will do for you.”

“So, underlying everything is imagination,” observed the thirteenth disciple. “And what controls that imagination?”

“You do,” replied The Enlightened One. “For as long as you are conscious of what you are doing. When you lose consciousness your more primitive mind will take over and run the show.”

“What is this consciousness?” asked the disciple.

“It is your higher self in operation,” answered The Enlightened One. “Your true self, if you like, the one that stands apart from your primitive side.”

“How can that exist in the mind?”

“It does exist, that is the critical point. You have this consciousness that can oversee your mind and override what it is doing. It may be located in the frontal lobe of your brain, and when it is active you are fully conscious, but when it becomes inactive, or less active, the other parts of your mind take over and run the show. There are different ways to ensure your full consciousness is activated – the one I recommend is going to the next level. Living in the present is another way of doing this,” added The Enlightened One.

“So, going to the next level helps you to stay conscious,” said the disciple. “Then you will be empowered to use your imagination to change the roll of your primitive emotional dice. And the three techniques that take you to the next level are based on imagination. Perspective is imagining the size and age of the universe and beyond. Evolution is imagining the creatures that are to come, even up to the ultimate creature that could ever exist. Creativity is imagining what happens when you add things from outside the box, or change the things that are inside the box. All come from imagination.”

“That is correct,” said The Enlightened One. “You have summarized it well.”

“Is living in the present also based on imagination?” asked the disciple.

“Of course it is,” replied The Enlightened One. “You refocus your mind onto the things that are around you, that are happening to you – this refocusing is done by first imagining yourself looking at them.”

“And then you do look at them!” said the disciple. “Just as when you imagine going to the next level and then you basically do go to the next level.”

“As much as a human being can,” added The Enlightened One.

“As much as a human being can,” echoed the thirteenth disciple. “So how can you imagine something that tips the dice over to the positive? Isn’t there a contradiction in that because you can’t imagine something that is not true and, let’s face it, your primitive self already feels badly about it!”

“Yes, that is all correct,” agreed The Enlightened One. “What you need to do is imagine something that is true yet also makes you feel more positive about the bad situation. This would include acknowledging or accepting the existence of this bad thing, for example, as I discussed before.”

“So you acknowledge or accept that there is a problem, and maybe you don’t want to work on this one, and then you imagine that it shouldn’t really matter to you anymore because you have basically said you are moving on from this. It would be a waste of time to continue feeling badly about this, so you turn your attention to something else and carry on with that,” suggested the thirteenth disciple.

“Yes, that works well,” agreed The Enlightened One. “You acknowledge the issue, you don’t hide it from yourself or say it is okay, because it is not, and then you move on. You might even say to yourself that it is not worth worrying about this issue anymore because you have consciously acknowledged it is not good and have decided it is not something that you want to work on solving right now. You can imagine yourself smiling at this point and tipping over the dice in your head. That may help you to relax and feel better.”

“You can’t fix everything in the world,” contributed the disciple, “there are too many difficult problems, but you can choose where you should rightly and truthfully put your efforts and feel better that you are doing that. You are being realistic, not hiding things from yourself or trying to trick yourself, and you are moving on sensibly and with good intentions.”

“I agree,” said The Enlightened One.

“Well, thank you, Enlightened One. You have helped me a lot and I am really grateful,” said the thirteenth disciple. “Goodbye.”

“Goodbye, sir, and good luck,” said The Enlightened One.