I think it was Krisnamurti who emphasized the importance of nonjudgmental witnessing of self, of which this essay by Benoit reminds me. Not taking sides means to me to not focus on thoughts that emerge and create an internal battle between different thoughts. When I don't take hold of any thoughts and am actively and neutrally attentive, battling of two sides never gets started. That I value. The author seems to say "permitting my imagination to produce whatever it likes" and simply watching the mental images without grabbing hold of them results in the imagination not producing images. If I have experienced that, it has been for only very brief periods. With more commitment, I'm sure I could build up the mental automatism to help curb the natural automatism of imagination. I'm sure that would be good for me -- I may do it.
On Mar 26, 2022 David Doane wrote :