"We do not need magic to change the world ..."

J.K. Rowling, author of the best-selling Harry Potter book series, recently offered the Commencement Address at Harvard University. Her talk - “The Fringe Benefits of Failure, and the Importance of Imagination” - is a beautifully moving one, and I invite you to enjoy it in its entirety (about 20 minutes).

There's much in what Ms. Rolling says about the power and importance of the imagination that is relevant to contemplative practice. Our capacity to imagine, for instance, brings with it the power to empathize with others, and to vision a better future for us all. "What we achieve inwardly will change outer reality" wrote the Greek author, Plutarch. Inner Alchemy as well as Ceremonial Taoist practices that utilize the imagination are based on this same premise.

How does this work? In terms of qi - life-force energy - we could say that the forms of our imagination have a vibratory presence which necessarily resonates into the more material aspects of our lives. The German acupuncturist Heiner Fruehauf offers a similar view, in the language of western science: “Since our brain is a frequency transformer in which imagination and reality are ultimately indistinguishable, it should not surprise us that mental images affect the body as strongly as their material counterparts.”

Ms. Rowling ends her magically inspiring talk by reminding the new graduates that:

"... if you retain the ability to imagine yourself into the lives of those who do not have your advantages, then it will not only be your proud families who celebrate your existence, but thousands and millions of people whose reality you have helped transform for the better. We do not need magic to change the world, we carry all the power we need inside ourselves already: we have the power to imagine better."