Magic

Altucher has an intriguing post on Magic - short but intensely sweet. He speaks of himself as a kid, desiring, not to be a CEO or a lawyer or a doctor or whatever mundane thing takes over our lives, but to be "be a hobbit. Or a prince of the world of Chaos. Or a minor demi-god on Mt. Olympus. Everywhere I looked I saw opportunities for magic." This child's heart, he maintains, can be regained and maintained in the face of all the debased "adult" concerns. Money quote:


   We forget quickly the sense of magic. The power of daydreams. But the truth is: the world that seems so real when we are adults still contains just as many mysteries, if not more, as when we were kids.

   The key to restoring that magic: just for this second, forget the stresses caused by yesterday. The worries brought about by tomorrow. Right now, this second, picture any scenario you want and imagine it already exists. It takes practice to find it, and the demons from the past and the future will fight you. But ignore them for just this second. Practice.

This is fantastic (in every sense of that word). Magic, in this sense, is not just the trick of the magician or the falseness of magical thinking. Rather, it denotes the enchantment with which the child views the world - a freshness of being and perceiving that cuts through the fear and anxiety and depression and boredom which haunt the lives of so many adults. Altucher's remedy returns us to the Now - freed from the haunting past and fearful future - and gives us the ultimate joy of the imagination which connects us to the Magic which lives in the heart of all sentient beings. As Mencius put it, "The great man is he who does not lose his child's-heart." 

The child lives on in us. As Jesus put it, "anyone who will not receive the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it." The kingdom of God - the realm of magic - is only accessible to those who live in their child's heart. Thus, we awaken to the Reality which transcends the real and transforms our lives.