Can I Use Visualization As A Tool For Meditation Focus?

[With English interpretation] Ven. Pomnyun Sunim's (법륜스님) Answer to “Can I use visualization as a tool for meditation focus?”
A question chosen from the weekly Sunday meditation with Ven. Pomnyun Sunim(법륜스님).

Peace of mind is only one step away.

Transcript

When my friend meditates, He uses some practices to focus his attention, Such as imagining that there are waves of heat or energy flowing through his body. Should I try different techniques like this? I don't know what you mean by effective for what? It could be more effective on becoming healthier. So from our practice, The effectiveness of a meditation is measured by how much advances you to your path to nirvana. Therefore, In other ways, How free can I be from feeling excited or reacting emotionally to some insults that I receive? Or how free can I be from my own desires to want to eat a tasty morsel or to want to buy or purchase some luxury items? Basically, How do I measure the effectiveness of meditation? The only way to measure in our path is how free can I be from my own desires? So for a beginner, It's very important for you to practice and gain the capacity from being able to maintain focus on the breath while you relax at peace. And while in motion, Be constantly mindful of the motions, Of the movements that you exercise. Because to be aware of the breath means you are mindful of your senses. To be aware of the temperature in your body and to be aware of the subtle sensation that course constantly throughout your body. But to imagine something and pay attention to what you have created as part of your imagination, That's something that you want to get away from in our meditation, Not really focus and pay attention to. What we are trying to do is get away from imbuing any thoughts with any meaning. Try to get away from our own thoughts. But this is your counter to that. You are actually enlisting a thought for you to pay attention to. So I don't know how effective or for what purpose the effectiveness of this technique may be. But for our meditation purposes, It's not desirable. So once again, It's good for you to be able to focus and be sensitive to the subtle sensations throughout your body. The subtle sensation and movements of your own emotions. Or the subtle movements of your own mind. All these are targets of your awareness, Of your mindfulness. However, Any thoughts, Any construct that you mentally create, Those are targets for you to get rid of, Not something for you to enhance and focus on.