The scientific conception of the Universe is that of an “objective” and inevitable reality within which we are beasts of burden possessing a hopelessly subjective orientation and a narrowly limited amount of agency and control.
The esoteric conception of the Universe, however, is that of an environment that is subjective, within which we are infinitely powerful creators. The physical world, the sphere of sensation, is but a treasure-house of images reflecting those actualities that we focus our magic mirror upon.
Materialists describe their definite, limited world with phrases like “brass tacks” or “blunt facts”, as though the world presses itself upon our destinies and forces us to conform to its ultimate authority. Yet spiritualists know that it is we who collide with the “objective reality”, not it that seeks us out. We have no need to endure any reality if we do not like it but can get to work on rebuilding a world nearer to our heart’s desire, simply by shifting the magic mirror of the mind.
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You Are in This World but Not of It
We do not have the ability to move a mountain if we confine ourselves to physical means like shovels and pitchforks, yet struggle and strife is the method we most often turn to as we approach our most difficult problems. Little do we know that the mountain is only there because our magic mirrors shine that way. When we learn how to refocus our mirror, we shall see how easy it is to modify the conditions which impress themselves upon our physical senses without lifting a finger.
None of our problems really exist in the outside world, large as they may seem to loom and loudly as they may seem to roar. The outside world is but a reflection of the magic mirror of the mind, and the mind is a creature of deeply entrenched habit.
The rigidity, constriction, or inflexibility of one’s conditions indicate the rigidity, constriction, or inflexibility of one’s belief complexes. We may exclaim and point to the manifest evidence of an “objective reality” with which, it seems to us, we must compromise. However, what we are really pointing to is a reflection of a web of beliefs about the way things are or the way things must be. We are pointing out a web of chains— perhaps deeply and subtly hidden in the unconscious mind— that hold the conditions of our lives in a fixed shape that we do not like.
Just as the problem lies not without but within, so too is the solution found in the mind. Refocusing the magic mirror is the ability to adjust one’s point of view or perspective in a way that is wholehearted and genuine.
Subtle Shifts
Changing perspective is not a matter of paying empty lip service to half-hearted affirmations that we do not really believe. To merely speak words, we think we should believe or to repress words which we mean but think we should not say is still to seek out a solution through physical activity in the ephemeral sphere of sensations. Instead, we need to tend to how we are focusing on the magic mirror of the mind, and this means creating shifts in beliefs and attitudes that are authentic and deeply rooted.
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Overcoming a limiting belief that has many years of empirical evidence bolstering it is not something that will be accomplished in a day. The ways of the mind are changed in the same way that a yogi extends the normal limitation of her sinews by a patient, incremental stretching, until ultimately til they will accommodate the full expression of the pose.
We may, for instance, have lived through many difficult years of chronic illness or poverty. During these years, there may have been many times when our hopes were raised, as we seemed to find a solution, or our problems seemed to subside, only for things to take a turn for the worse and spiral back downwards once again. Because of this process, we naturally and rationally become jaded or cynical, and at the very least have a solidified sense that our problem is “just the way things are”.
We may also be quite resistant to hearing the idea that we ourselves are in some way responsible for this pattern, finding the idea that a “change in perspective” could bring a change in our circumstances irritating, insensitive, or even enraging. Yet it is precisely because we have accepted certain conditions of our lives as inevitable, insurmountable, or inescapable that our conditions correspond accurately and reflect an objective reality over which we are powerless.
However, we cannot simply decide not to believe in the authority of our reality or summon trust and faith in our own infinite power to create the world around us. We cannot leap from a deeply held belief about how sick we are into a true and genuine belief that we are healthy through sheer force of will or desire. The mind will not simply let go of what it has lived through, even if we dearly wish that it would, no more than the average person can approach a yoga mat for the first time and drop into a full split.
Disbelieve in Limitations
True and lasting refocusing of the magic mirror happens by the cumulative effect of repeated efforts, gaining only as much ground at a time as one is truly ready for. We make changes in our belief structures by first identifying the negative experience which we wish to release and naming the quality or emotion that characterizes this experience.
For instance, you may identify the experience as “poverty” and name the emotional character of this experience: “constricted”.
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Next, identify the experience and feeling states which are the opposite of those you are leaving behind. For instance, you might use words like “abundance”, “freedom”, “expansion”, or “adventure”.
If you have lived for a long time with chronic financial difficulty, you will not be able to immediately believe in the expression “I am abundant” or “I am rich” or “I am free to do anything I want”. Saying these statements will instead immediately recall to your mind all the ways in which these statements are not true.
However, taking the analogy of a yogi gradually stretching a muscle ever more open, you may find true statements which are moving closer to the full expression of this belief. You may not be able to say, “I have infinite financial wealth”, but you can refocus your mirror upon the idea “My consciousness is infinite”, or “I have infinite running water” or “there is wealth flowing all around me, and it is possible for me to connect into this web of exchange”.
By introducing this flexibility into your mental structures, choosing to spend more of your time focused on ideas that are harmonious with experiences you would like to have, you will see evidence in the world around you of the adaptability of your conditions.
Do not try to wrench your new beliefs into place by brute force. Instead, slowly stretch and bend your thoughts in graduated steps that are manageable on a daily basis. Before you know it, your beliefs about yourself will be holding a new shape, and so too shall the world around you that is their reflection.
