(1) I know what ought to be.
(2) I am capable of judging.
(3) I can know the future.
(4) I need power over my fellow beings in order to be in charge.
Teaching is about the fundamental issues of life - which is to see the truth which casts these conditioned ideas out.
Magic is the many techniques of trying to actualize the 4 pet ideas by solving a circumscribed precise problem produced by the 4 pet ideas of conditioning.
The idea that I know what ought to be keeps one in a state of struggle, conflict and resistance against what is. Struggle, conflict and resistance is the manifestation of the problem.
So, a magic formula is required to get rid of the problem. No one ever considers the source of the manifestation called "a problem".
The magic formula may be a potion commonly called a prescription, i.e. a tranquilizer, a mood changer, a deadening agent, a sedative. One may also obtain this magic potion of problem solving at the nearest bar. One may also resort to one's favorite pusher. One may resort to astrology, fortune telling or some other means of the occult to gain assurance that all will be well in the future for me, or that those bad people that are to blame for my situation will reap disaster.
At another time one may use the magic formula that all will be well and all will be as I know it ought to be in the future, I may repeat the affirmation that all is well, and that all will be in accord with my affirmation.
One may join a given institution because the institution agrees that my "what ought to be" is the WHAT OUGHT TO BE, and now with the force of the entire institution behind me, my "what ought to be" must of necessity brought into being in the future by the magic of numbers.
One may use the psychology of rejection and disapproval to force those who are the cause of my not having "what ought to be" to reform their ways. Also one may use the psychology or flattery. Of course, one could also resort to psychological blackmail - "I will kill myself if you don't do what you ought to do".
These magical methods mentioned here are only a sample of the magical techniques to gain what I know ought to be.
Each of us is no doubt familiar with many more.
However, each magical method has a fundamental flaw. While frequently producing the result of solving a certain circumscribed problem it produces at least two other problems that now have to be dealt with.
The result of magic formulas is to promise much but delivers a far heavier burden that it ever relieved.
The pet idea that I can judge what is good and what is bad, of course is based on the idea that I know what ought to be. I know that I should never be disturbed in any way and in every disturbance, I can easily see what is to blame, and I can feel righteous indignation at the evil that lurks in the hearts of men, and that I alone can see through their evil and know that they know what ought to be and that they are going ahead doing wrong anyway.
Therefore it is my duty to use every method at my command to straighten them out and stop them from their evil.
I may use the magic of the LAW to bring them to their senses. I may make a wax figure and push pins into it. I may have them declared criminal or insane. I may use the magic of hate and in extreme cases use the supreme magic of killing or at least want to. This, too, promises to bring one the blessed state
of non-disturbance but instead produce more misery.
The pet idea that I can know the future and therefore can avoid all disturbance of course is a fallacy because if I knew the future, all I could do is dread the coming disturbance and be more miserable longer. In the struggle the pet idea that "I can know the future" that one may resort to astrology, the tarot cards, the I Ching, the pendulum, the ouijii board, reasoning by logic "if A, then B, but on the other hand", consults one's computer, study ones biorhythms charts, study the guts of a sacrificed animal or bird, flip a coin, read the wall street journal and newsweek, consult a fortune teller. All of which leads to confusion, worry, expense and misery.
The pet idea that "I need power in order to be in charge" leads one to strain and overwork to get money, which represents power; to be overbearing, to climb the corporate ladder so that others must do as I say or be banished.
One may carry arms or become proficient in martial arts. One may obtain or earn academic degrees which proclaim that I am an authority and therefore others must do as I say or suffer the consequences.
I may become proficient in the psychology of manipulation and manipulate fellow human beings by psychological suggestions that appeal to the other persons motivations.
These magic formulas frequently solve the certain circumscribed problem; the problem being a sense of inferiority. The person that doesn't feel inferior has no need to control or be in charge.
Again, while these magical methods promise much and do really produce results of being in charge, they create twice as many problems, resentments and hates toward the magical operator that "the latter state of the man is worse than the first." Thus troubles and contentions arising on all sides. So much the method of magic.
Teaching is about basic principles of living the way that end all sense of problems and therefore the need for magical formulas.
Magic is the attempt to solve a problem.
THE BASIC IDEAS OF TEACHING ARE:
(1) To be knowing the not-I's and their pet ideas.
(2) To be in the state of self remembering:
1. What am I?
2. Where am I?
3. What is going on here?
4. What can I do?
When one remembers that I am the awareness function of X, a privileged invited guest, I see clearly that there is nothing in me that knows what ought to be; that there is nothing in me capable of judging whether any situation or any person is good or bad; capable of judging whether any situation or any person is either good or bad; that there is nothing in me that can know the future even one second ahead or even wants to.
