EVERYDAY MAGIC:
Magic is your dreams made real. It's real easy to do. No mumbo-jumbo. Just an effort of will to materialise that which you wished you could experience.
Modern man is damaged goods. He has lost the ability to live out his dreams. We have become slaves to our environment. We love the security of a house and a car and all the material possessions that envelop us with the promise of immortality. We live vicariously through the heroic acts portrayed in movies and on television. The realities of our life are nevertheless mundane. We wake up, go to work, eat, watch TV and sleep. Day in, day out. We have blue Mondays and T.G.I.F. on Fridays. Even if we "love" our jobs we are still on a treadmill that will not cease until we are carried away in a box.
There are very few people in the entire world that have ever felt fulfilment and are at peace with the world. I've met the brightest and best, I've met the richest of the rich and I've met those with mind-boggling talents. The truth is that I've met no one who is not enslaved by material goods or ideological confusion. Blame cannot be apportioned. Collectively, we have walked down a cul-de-sac in evolution.
Ironically, there have always been means by which we have escaped this dilemma. We have traditionally resorted to religions to access alternatives to the current situation. But after years of visceral and seductive visual and aural media manipulation in western culture and the mind-numbing brutalities of living in 3rd-world societies we have become jaded. Without getting into the merits, or otherwise, of religious belief I believe it is possible to bring back a bit of that which has been lost. If we achieve this then we might start the process of becoming whole again.
There is a fundamental problem in the concept of freedom. We all long for this amorphous state of being without getting realistic about what it entails. One can find a lot of peace by accepting that freedom is not absolute. We are always constrained by society and environment and our selves in some way or other. This is the reality. Where freedom does play a role is in our relationship to our bravery and our imagination within these limits.
(There are some very misguided people who believe that absolute freedom from these constraints would entail freedom from the taboos surrounding murder, rape, incest, paedophilia, corruption, theft...etc, ad nauseum. There are many reasons why transgressing these boundaries are Not A Good Thing. Freedom from rationality is why some people have gone beyond these limits.
In truth, one can "get away with it" and never be made to face the law that is our social contract. It is also true that one will never escape the damage one does to one's self. If one talks to soldiers who killed in the name of a justifiable cause; one will still find trauma. The same trauma, for example, that also affects hunters. The same trauma that affects butchers who give us the meat that is part of our daily diet.
At some point or other, one gains insight into the horror one has committed. To discover the horror is a mixed blessing.
There is the opportunity to change one's life. But our living is tempered by the ongoing memories of the past that colour one's everyday life. Worse still is if one doesn't gain insight into what one has done. The pitfall is then that one goes about one's daily business with the same mind-set one had in transgressing the universal laws/taboos.
The odds are monumentally stacked against oneself. Life becomes a nightmare of disasters as one attempts to relate to the world that is within the boundaries. Failed marriages and relationships, damaged children, broken dreams, failed business endeavours and permanently being at odds with everything. A lifetime of pain.)
Where magic occurs is when one is pleasantly surprised by the world.
Is it not magical to watch a baby smile ? Is it not magical to be deep in a forest surrounded by moss and mushrooms ? Is it not magical to forgiven by the one you love ? Is it not magical to feel strong and healthy ? We have magic in us and around us. We can live in a magical state if we so wish.
Half the secret is to be open to receiving it. Magic is ever present and all pervasive. The reason it catches us by surprise more often than not is because we are forever wrapped up in our own problems or messing about in other people's problems.
To open one's heart is to allow one to become vulnerable. There is a trade-off. If one becomes open to accepting love one is also more susceptible to becoming hurt.
If one is open to seeing all that is good then one's eyes will inevitably be opened to the full horror of man's inhumanity. Nevertheless, this discomfort is necessary if one is to move towards wholeness. There is no light unless it understood as being distinct from dark. Therefore one has to experience the dark to fully appreciate its alternative. This does not imply that one has to seek out degradation of the human soul. It means that being open to the realities that surround us in order to fully appreciate that which is good implies a state of being that allows that which is bad to also enter.
The alternative is to wrap oneself up in a cocoon of rigid myopia that allows nothing to enter and one is left in a grey and joyless world.
How differently can you see ? How about seeing the luminescent glow that plants exude as a matter of course ? How about being in sensory overload by the taste of French bread and butter ? How about being transported by music into a place where both body and mind are vibrating sympathetically ?
These things we all had as children and lost as we grew older. We lose this facility because we are jaded. Because we stop paying attention. Because we close ourselves off as it interferes with earning a living.
It is easy to open ourselves up again. It requires trust. As does love. We have no love without trust. Trust in another is the same as trust in the world. But to love the world requires endless forgiveness.
Start small. Forgive yourself. Then forgive the people you love. With this small lever you will topple the world. By forgiving yourself you free yourself from the burden of the past. Nevertheless, this means nothing unless you have a means by which to continue into the future.
Here is an elegant paradigm that is both lucid and acceptable to all ; "I will always do everything to the best of my ability and with benevolent intent."
This enables one to act in the world without regret because you will always be guided by the best that is in you. This does not imply that you will never make mistakes. You will. The difference is that these "mistakes" are easier to recover from. It becomes easier to forgive oneself and that is the start of all that is good.
You will also find that you will not be immunised from being hurt by people who are not guided by benevolent principles. This is inevitable but still easier to recover from as You Did The Best That You Could At That Time And Under Those Circumstances. Forgiveness allows one to start again. It allows one to move on and do better next time. More importantly, forgiving others allows you to become free of the past. If you don't learn forgiveness you are forever entrapped by your hatred of the other person. This means that they, in a sense, control you.
(For example ; Governments do not really care whether or not you are for or against them. If you are for them then everything they say will get a response from you. If you are against them then everything they say will still get a response from you. In a profound sense you are being controlled by them Because You Believe In Politics. You are within the political paradigm and therefore are predictable.
What governments really fear is if you are completely apathetic. This implies that you are "outside" of the law and "outside" of civil society and cannot be relied on to pay taxes etc..... This doesn't imply that you will. You might very well decide to be A Good Citizen because it suits you. The difference in this case is that it is your free choice and not some knee-jerk response to a given set of political circumstances. But they don't know this. So it scares them.
If somebody said to you "Meet me in the alley at noon. I'm going to kill you." you would be a fool to arrive.
Similarly, you are a fool to allow governments or other people to decide the frame of reference [paradigm] that you live within. To be free you have to free yourself of the emotions that control you. Be open to the feelings. Then forgive them so that you become free of these feelings. Then choose the appropriate behaviour that is benevolently guided.)
What is implied is that you willingly choose to live within a benevolent state of being. You have found freedom but you determine the frame of reference for that freedom.
Once one has freed oneself from the burden of the past one can work on the burden of the present. "I will always do everything to the best of my ability and with benevolent intent." frees oneself to a large degree yet one still has to prioritise one's energies so that they are used to best effect.
We are all bound by the necessities of survival. We need food and shelter. Where things get confusing is that one is often set on the path of material acquisition because we, or our partners, aspire to More of everything. The distinction between our needs and our desires is very often the cause of our personal pain.
We can often cater to our needs without harming those around us. Pursuing that which we desire often hurts those around us, as compromises have to be made. If you want more money it will mean time at the expense of those you love. Sometimes it means stepping into grey areas of the law and that is at the expense of the rest of society. Either way, you land up defecating on your own doorstep. If one pursues more in pursuit of satisfying one's ego then one never takes the time to deal with one's personal dysfunction.
In a nutshell one is, once again, entrapped by narrowing one's options. The more you acquire in terms of status and wealth the more you stand to lose once the party is over. These things make one bound to the place and the time that feeds the aggrandisement and this negates other possibilities.
Take care of your needs and if you receive the rest as a bonus then see it for the transitory thing that it is and avoid becoming bound to it. One's being is constrained and diminished if one defines oneself by what one possesses.
This is difficult to understand unless one has been both rich and poor. Rest assured that one is far wealthier doing that which one loves than doing that which one does not love merely in pursuit of wealth. This quandary mostly hits people as they are starting out in life. For example ; "How do I earn a living by acting if I cannot earn enough by acting to support myself ?". This one is the bane of every aspirant artist. Yet it is mostly a Western problem. In societies with an entrenched culture of the extended family it is not a problem. Your relatives support you until you are able to stand on your own two feet. In truth, your partner should do the same. If you do not receive this support then, if they are not lacking in love, they are certainly lacking in compassion and wisdom. This is where magic starts.
Acts of kindness are magical to the recipient. It is magical to collect your children from school and take them directly to the beach. It is magical to listen to every word your partner says. It is magical to bring a chocolate back from your lunch-break and give it to a co-worker. It is magical to hold your partner intimately in a shopping mall. But, most of all, it is magical to help someone achieve his or her dreams.
If someone wants to achieve something then it is all you can do to offer everything in pursuit of that dream. That which defines us as human is our capacity to imagine something that is a possibility still to be actualised. It is magical to the giver and receiver to help people achieve. Unity is strength. We are all the poorer if we see others as competitors or are jealous of their potential.
Bravery is magical. To walk up to someone you admire and tell them so creates magic. To approach someone you are attracted to and tell them how you feel is magical. To give up the job you hate without having a safety net is magical. To allow yourself a large imagination and to attempt the impossible is magical. To believe in yourself is magical. To be brave enough to allow your children to find their own space is magical. To give up control is magical. To trust the world to catch you when you fall is magical.
Allowing oneself the time to stop and look is magical. To enter a child's world is magical. To bring oneself back from the abyss of self-centredness is magical. To accept that imperfection does not exist is to enter the realm of the magical. If it appears imperfect at first then slow your thinking down and look again. Illumination will come. Open your heart and accept it.