Is there a benifit to "wishful thinking"?

Question

Is there a benefit to "wishful thinking" ?

not like in a very deluded way -

but like if i think about meditating a lot during the day - or getting money to also give others and aid practice

Answer 1

Is there a benifit to “wishful thinking”?

I would not exactly call that wishful thinking but rather the results from practicing the path correctly (in this life or previous lives).

Wanting to meditate or wanting to aid other beings spring from wholesome intentions, i.e. right intentions of good-will. These are path factors.

Right intentions-> actions that are based in non-greed, non-hatred, non-delusion, are bound to create wholesome future resultants.

So the benefit would be the fact that wholesome actions lead to wholesome results. Experiencing and undertanding that through the practice of insight meditation is a huge benefit. When the mind experiences this over and over it begins to understand causality and how suffering comes to be.

If you observe how craftsmen build a house you will see that they lay the bricks layer by layer. The first layer is the foundational layer. The layer everything else has to be based upon.

In the practice one of the foundational bricks is right intentions.

Answer 2

Can we stop adversities and yearnings by wishful thinking / wishful prayer, wherein one humbly or earnestly asks a higher power to provide something beyond oneself? – things such as Oh! Don’t let me go to decay and death - by such imploring can we stop it? No. You cannot stop aging by reciting a thousand verses of blessings. Can we prevent death? No. Can you avoid sickness by offering a token offerings? No. Supreme Buddha’s Dhamma says “Understand, come and see the principle causing dukkha or pain”. When this is, this will be. Hence when this is born, this is born. This is the noble principle; noble research method that will ennoble. Supreme Buddha says, a noble disciple makes inquiry wisely about dukkha or pain.