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Manifesting - The Real Meaning

12/25/2025

Most books that talk about manifesting, talk about getting what you desire—whether it's money, a job, or a partner—through the spiritual power of manifesting. In these books, it's about going after what you want in a grounded manner, free of fear or doubt.

That advice is great, but it is predicated on your being in a spiritual space where you are free of fear or doubt—which means being free of the control of your ego-mind. And that is no easy matter, even if you're a practicing Buddhist, given how we are raised and what our life experiences have taught us,

Most of the posts in this blog in one way or another address the process of freeing yourself from the control of your ego-mind. Because the ego-mind is the home of all our fears, anxieties, doubts—all of our judgments and perceptions.

If you haven't to some extent gone through this process, then you really can't manifest anything, because your ego-mind is still in control. You may be successful in getting what you want, but that won't provide you with peace and happiness.

After all, lots of people—probably most—that achieve what they want are not in any way spiritual. Thus despite their achievements, they continue suffering; they continue to be frustrated, anxious, insecure. Because they are still in the control of their ego-mind.

The point of manifesting is getting what you are seeking while being consistent with your spiritual values, not driven by your ego-mind. And so be at peace and happy.

Manifesting is done in two stages. The first is coming to understand spiritually that you already have what you want. For example. let's say you want to manifest financial abundance, good fortune, and financial security. That sounds like getting more money on a regular basis.

But does it really? The spiritual basis of manifestation from the Bible are the following:

Believe that you have received it and it will be yours.
What is seen was not made out of what was visible.

This does not mean that if you do these two things, you will have the increased riches and security you want. It means that you will see that you already have financial abundance and security..

Ih my example, I am retired with a small pension. I teach to supplement my pension. I live very frugally but still am short every month. This could easily lead to anxiety and trying to find better paying or other sources of income out of desperation.

However, by reciting my mantra, "Things are the way they are because it's just the way it is; it's meant to be, and it's all ok," (see my post, "It's Just the Way it Is - Take III") together with the mantra, "Grant me the courage to manifest financial abundance, good fortune, and financial security," I understand that I have those things right now under my current circumstances. I have everything I truly want, feel blessed, and feel secure because I have turned my will and my life over to the care of my Buddha nature/divine essence/child of the Universe within me. And I have faith.

When you are in that space, you can pursue avenues to make more money that are consistent with your spiritual values. Which I have done, although none of them have so far come through. But instead of feeling defeated or anxious, I know that I'm ok.

I have manifested financial abundance, good fortune, and financial security in my current circumstances. That is how I feel.

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The Curse of Bad Memories

12/15/2025

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There's an old saying, "A stone once thrown cannot be recalled." That certainly applies when someone causes another person trauma; that person will often if not usually never forget the trauma regardless how good the relationship between the two people otherwise is. One can make amends, but it makes no difference—the memory remains, raw.

Our ego-mind never lets us forget something bad that happened to us. Rarely do good memories come to us unbidden. But bad memories do with frequency. It's the ego-mind's way of "protecting" us. And just like so many other things the ego-mind does with the idea of protecting us, it does just the opposite: it harms us.

Instead of fostering the knowledge that things are the way they are because it's just the way it is, that we experienced childhood trauma or adult trauma because it's just the way it was, the ego-mind reacts in a self-righteous way to anything that has harmed us and never lets that feeling go. And so we continue to be tortured by the memory and are never able to lead our lives in peace.

This is the exact opposite of the Serenity Prayer: "Lord, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change—which is the way things are right now at this moment (and were in the past), and the courage to change the things I can—which is how I relate to myself and others, the thoughts I think, the words I speak, the actions I take." (The words in italics are my explication of the prayer.)

Our ego-mind does not want to give up the anger we felt at being traumatized, regardless what it was. That is an aspect of pridefulness, of a lack of humility. But if we are in touch with our true selves—our heart, the child of the universe within us, our divine essence, our Buddha nature—then there is nothing more important to us than retaining our natural state of peace; we accept the past, present, and future so that nothing offends and we will allow nothing to disturb our inner peace. To live our lives well is to be at peace and humble.

There is a line in an ancient Chinese poem that says, "When faith and mind are not separate, and not separate are mind and faith, this is beyond all words and thought." That is the essence of peace—faith and humility.

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Listening

12/6/2025

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I have written about the difficulty of listening twice before. But it is so important to having good relationship with others, and indeed one's own peace, that I am writing once again.

One of the most frequent causes for conflict between people—whether family, friends, or colleagues—is that people do not generally listen to what's being said to them. They listen, in the sense of hearing what's said, but they pay no attention to what's being said.

One sees this all the time with children in school—2nd grade and younger. With them, it's obvious, physically. Even after being admonished time and time again, there's no question they're not paying attention to what's being said, whether it's a classmate or the teacher.

Unfortunately, this isn't just a problem with young children. Through all the years of our life, we continue to hear but not really listen. Listening requires not just knowing what's being said, but processing it and having some understanding of why it's being said.

In the workplace, we all have our own agendas and ideas which are going through our heads as we listen to someone speak, which prevents us from really paying attention and processing what they're saying. That can get you in trouble.

But the more serious problems occur with interpersonal relationships. Those close to us often will tell us something, perhaps something we do that causes them discomfort, but because we don't understand where the person is coming from, what they're feeling, we don't give their comment much credence, especially if what they're requesting is inconvenient for us, which is usually the case. We don't want to change or watch what we're saying, even if we care for someone deeply. This causes conflict between people, often quite serious.

In order to listen deeply, we need to turn off the thoughts that are going through our mind while the person is speaking to us and just listen to him or her. That does not come naturally. But that's just the first step—paying attention.

The more difficult part in interpersonal relations is freeing ourselves from our ego-mind which will get defensive if someone complains about our actions, regardless how justified the person is. Even with someone as deep into their practice as I am, I will get defensive when someone complains about something I do or have done, and only the next morning when I meditate/pray and the situation replays itself in my mind will I understand what the person was complaining about and I admit I was wrong.

It's amazing—disconcerting really—how I have freed myself from so many skandhas, so much of my conditioning, and yet I still obviously am not completely free of my ego-mind. As is often said, the path never ends.

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