Magical Thinking
2024, July, Issue 104
“And, I was just a mere frog.”
From, The Frog: A Spiritual Autobiography, Spanning Many Lifetimes, pg. 209 © 2021.
“Despite all the reasons there could be to stay away, I returned from the dead. Bodhicitta, in its ultimate form, gave me no choice whatsoever.”
From, The Frog: A Spiritual Autobiography, Spanning Many Lifetimes, pg. 425© 2021.
It might seem like I am talking about magical thinking when I talk about prayer flags sending out blessings in the wind, or chanting mantras, or being a frog for that matter. It might seem like it is magical thinking; however, I have an alternate point of view that should be considered. Maybe our daily life, the norms we live with and adhere to are actually magical thinking, not real or based upon reality in any way. Please consider that this world we live in may be illusion.
People sometimes reject Spiritual Practice without even the slightest bit of hesitation, all based upon a socially acceptable or an egotistical presumption about reality, maybe thinking that it is not in agreement with the popular materialist paradigm, or that it is not in agreement with how they might feel about things. Reality is usually something quite different than what we believe or think is true. It really does take Spiritual Practice to get past all the nonsense, the magical thinking that we have accepted.
We live in a culture, within a society, within a world filled with all sorts of ideas about what constitutes reality. For the most part, they are all completely wrong, just more wild-eyed beliefs generated by the lunatic asylum. If it is a concept, belief or idea, it completely misunderstands reality. That has been my experience within this ineffable light. When I became fully integrated with the Dharmakaya, I could see very clearly how beings wander in their own delusions, their own magical thinking.
It's not mantras and meditation that is magical thinking, it is our ordinary way of approaching this world, thinking that it is real. When we examine mind, when we examine appearances, it does not take very long before we see how none of this is real. We look at how everything changes from one moment to another. We look at how we fabricate labels for everything. It’s all made to look real by our own mind. We’ve fallen for the magician’s tricks, and that magician is us. We fool ourselves as part of an ongoing habit.
This idea that normal behavior is somehow acceptable and that everything else is simply ridiculous, is magical thinking. Our own ego makes reality not real, or flawed, right from the start, and we make certain that we don’t examine this assumption. We’ve been habitualized from a very young age to simply accept fairly random assumptions about reality. Our ego takes further steps by defending that.
We live in a world that manipulates us into behaving a certain way, believing a certain way, then it keeps us in line by discouraging any sort of dissent. We sort of go along with this, thinking that it will be less trouble if we do, not realizing our own error. Ego tries to make sense out of it all. It does so in a way that generates magical notions, rejecting what might be construed as weird or outside of the norm.
Sometimes people reject certain spiritual advice, dismissing meditation or mantras, or Bodhicitta, considering that as something magical, as something that won’t help with practical matters. They’re worried about all the negativity coming their way, and they misconstrue positive inner actions as not helping; when, in fact, our own inner meditation becomes a force of nature, changing the world in a positive way. The worst thing to do is to generate negativity, engaging dark forces on their own terms. If we wish to change the world, we need to start with ourselves. We become like prayer flags, sending blessings into the wind. Our own evolution has this potentiality.
This is all that we can do. It is the best that we can do. We illuminate the world. We uncover infinite potentiality within ourselves. This only seems like magic.
Meditation and Mantras appear as magical thinking, from a deluded point of view. This is really not magical at all, it taps into ineffable light, which is reality beyond the constraints of our own dark and deluded existence. When Buddha awakened, the world appeared as a magical display. As you meditate, you will begin to see glimpses of this magic all around.
In these dangerous times that will now continue until past the year 2030, we should generate Bodhicitta every chance we get. We start with ourselves, just like prayers on the wind, sending out blessings for all. Then we genuinely practice meditation and mantras, as I have suggested. You can do additional practices, as you see fit, as you realize what works well for you.
This positive karma of our own enlightenment mind really changes the world. If we engage in negativity, we change our world for the worst possible outcomes. Don't worry, as long as you practice meditation with the intention of Bodhicitta, we will be liberated from a world of destruction and confusion.
Bodhicitta is the key for a better world.
Blessings in Light,
Robert Aho
Thank you, Robert.
I have the growing feeling that the world is just "expression", like a mirage made of the same energetic "dough", which translates into everything that has a separate place in space/time or in mind (such as thoughts, planets, stars, atoms, and so on) by virtue of different vibration and frequency of that very same energetic vibrational "plastiline". When I feel this way, it looks obvious that the Universe is a great mirage, like a collective hallucination floating in Nothingness. The only thing that keeps it "solid" is the continuous reinforcement of thought, which acts like a glue putting this show together as if it were a compact thing. Is this correct?
At the same time, and precisely as a consequence of the exposed above, I also feel that the only way to influence this great mirage which is made of energy is precisely, and as you say, by influencing this energy field that is the basis of the whole show, and from that paradigm, meditation, prayer or energetic practices are more valuable than typical human action of any type (political, social, etc.).
Oh, I am editing...Can you please elaborate in that 2030 particular date? What´s your take on that? I know that you mentioned a supposed Padmasambhava profecy. I am hearing many recent NDE´s where the collected message is that times of trouble come, big time, and after that, and not very far from this year, a totally surprising, unexplainable, exponential change for the better, something closer to a mutation than to a progressive evolution in humans.
Can you please shed some light on this? Thank you.
Keep the faith in the view and do what you can bring benefit to this world as much as possible through the many skillful methods. Magical thinking could be the best thing for this troubled world?
Thanks Again A HO🙏🏻