Outside the business transactions, entertainment, and general hustle of our world, exists a lofty space of imagination and pretend. You may sense it in a fantastic fictional novel or perhaps see it in a more realistic light within a philosophy, as some kind of potential utopia.
It seems that most of us have a sense of what they believe to be a more perfect world. They usually adopt various political or religious ideologies in order to move the needle into what they believe would be a more preferable way of living for all. Yet, it is not a reality that can be readily experienced, as its very thought often goes up against an opposing idea or against our will to make the change ourselves. Thus, their imagination is sensed as blissful and exciting, while their reality is often frustrating and conflicting.
The Abuse of Imagination
I remember my first taste of this. I was washing myself in a bathtub at my grandfather’s lake house. I began imagining myself being literally within the Pokemon universe. Instead of a boring life of school work and video games, I was living a life full of constant adventure and challenge, in my mind’s eye. As I began imagining this perfect scenario, I started to wonder why I should even have the idea to begin with? Obviously, it was an impossibility and knowing this, quickly transformed the pleasure of imagination into an abuse of thought form. I began feeling sad for no reason.
Though some imaginations and ideas are actually physically possible, and yet still they are distantly improbable from ever truly becoming something we would experience day to day. Something like world peace, as an example, is a definite physical possibility — but when we look at what is involved in the idea, from economic to political and even religious and scientific disagreements, it almost seems like it isn’t worth imagining at all. Lest you want to become singed with the pain of a slow light that just bumbles along.
Some other ideas throughout the internet are also very fun to imagine happening, such as something like “NESARA” which is a belief that somehow, everyone will be compensated with an incredibly large amount of unconditional free money. Not sure what this would do to the economy, but that really isn’t the point. It is only about believing in the reality of it as possible, so that life seems worth living another day. Equally connected to this, is the idea that advanced, and compassionate extraterrestrial life, would reveal themselves to Earth all at once, to somehow fix all the problems that humanity has not yet conquered themselves. Anything at all can be imagined to relieve the mundane grind of having to constantly work to keep up a living.
It is also true that we imagine things that are even more probable and yet still extremely distant to what our day to day lives would demand from us if these scenarios were experienced. For instance, sometimes people often imagine that a complete economic collapse would allow things to get shaken up to such a degree, that there would finally be sweeping change across the globe. Or at the very least, they wouldn’t have to show up for work amidst the chaos. But, is this a solution? Or just another imagination that we tend to tune into to ease the pain of another day? Devastating climate related catastrophes, political scenarios, or isolated events are all imagined by us so that we can feel the excitement of something drastically changing with our life. Like a net of infinite size, it is thrown over our entire universe, and we become trapped in the idea that there is no way out, except through luck and happen-chance.
So if we go into these realms, we are likely to come out jaded and disappointed at their lack of being made manifest. Waiting and assuming that our imagination will do the heavy work. That our imagination will somehow negate the reality of our conflicts and hesitation.
Yet, this is abusing imagination. This would be using imagination as a type of drug to feel relaxed about the future and the present moment. However, disappointment is bound to occur when our expectations don’t meet the reality. Easily, we will find ourselves in arguments and conflict with other people who are operating under their own dream vision of what the perfect world would look like. As well, our actions can become nullified by simply believing that something outside ourselves will do all the work for us.
The Use of Imagination
But, let us take a step back for a moment! Understanding all of this, is there really any problem at all to simply imagining a scenario of preference and beauty? Of order and wonder beyond what we know in our current reality? Feeling good is always preferable to feeling bad about circumstances. As many mystics have pointed out, “All is mind”. So revelatory is this statement, that it confounds the sentiments of my previous “abuse of imagination” exposition. Since in this case, if “All is mind”, then imagination can actually help someone grow into fulfillment by utilizing the state of being it provides us.
In the state of joy, we can more easily overcome apparent obstacles that make us withdraw from expression and action. In this way, imagination can be like a tool that allows us to do what we want to do when we want to do it. Imagining that world peace is possible, that perhaps everyone will live in abundance, and that your philosophy is the most peaceful and harmonious of all philosophies, can actually tap you more into that type of experience. You will find that your behavior in reality will actually begin to slowly change towards a more preferable experience. Conflicts do not appear so much, because you realize that even though it would be a nice to experience your exact vision of the world, it is only imagination! The reality is the interaction I am having with you now! And in that, we ebb and flow down the river, instead of becoming bruised by the jagged rocks of our expectations and demands for something to change immediately without any sustained conscious balance in that direction.
So will we have some kind of interesting event in the future that significantly shifts our society towards a more harmonious, loving and ecologically/economically intelligent future? This is still up to our own free will to decide. Or if it is destiny, then we can accelerate towards that destiny by lightening up on ourselves and becoming free of judgment. Then we can have the energy to always express the most useful actions and words.
And in that, we can open the door of imagination and allow something real to finally pass through.
Rokazulu's Mystical Eschaton 