According to Osho, imagination itself is not desire; it’s a playful energy. It becomes desire—and thus bondage and tension—only when harnessed to a future goal. Desire works in the present for the future, splitting means and ends. Used as pure play, imagination keeps you present like a child, aligning with meditation and freedom.
Imagination creates stress only when you use it to chase a future result; if you just play with it now, it relaxes you.