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Contents
Forward
Thought and Charactor
Effect of Thought on Circumstances
Effect of Thought on Health and Body
Thought and Purpose
The Thought Factor in Achievement
Visions and Ideals
Serenity
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AS A MAN THINKETH
by James Allen ******************************************************************
FORWARD
This little volume (the result of meditation
and experience) is not intended as an exhaustive treatise on
the much-written-upon subject of the power of thought. Is it
suggestive rather than explanatory, its object being to stimulate
men and women to the discovery and perception of the truth that-
"They themselves are makers of themselves"
by virtue of the thoughts which they chose and encourage; that
mind is the master weaver, both of the inner garment of character
and the outer garment of circumstance, and that, as they may
have hitherto woven in ignorance and pain they may now weave
in enlightenment and happiness.
JAMES ALLEN
Broad Park Avenue
Ilfracombe
England
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THOUGHT
AND CHARACTER
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[TOP]
The aphorism, "As a man thinketh
in his heart so is he," not only embraces the whole of
man's being, but is so comprehensive as to reach out to every
condition and circumstance of his life. A man is literally what
he thinks, his character being the complete sum of his thoughts.
As the plant springs from, and could not be without, the seed,
so every act of man springs from the hidden seeds of thought,
and could not have appeared without them. This applies equally
to those acts called “spontaneous” and “unpremeditated”
as to those which are deliberately executed.
Act is the blossom of thought, and joy and suffering are it’s
fruits; thus does a man garner in the sweet and bitter fruitage
of his own husbandry.
“Thought
in the mind hath made us.
What we are
By thought was wrought and built.
If a man’s mind
Hath evil thoughts, pain comes on
him as comes
The wheel the ox behind...
...If
one endure
In purity of thought, joy follows him
As his own shadow - sure."
-from
The Dhammapada, Chapter 1 (The Twin Verses), verses
1 and 2
Man is growth by law, and not a creation by artifice, and cause
and effect is as absolute and undeviating in the hidden realm
of thought as in the world of visible and material things. A
noble and Godlike character is not a thing of favor or chance,
but is the natural result of continued effort in right thinking,
the effect of long-cherished association with Godlike thoughts.
An ignoble and bestial character, by the same process, is the
result of the continued harboring of groveling thoughts.
Man is made or unmade by himself; in the armory of thought he
forges the weapons by which he destroys himself; he also fashions
the tools with which he builds for himself heavenly mansions
of joy and strength and peace. By the right choice and true
application of thought, man ascends to the Divine Perfection;
by the abuse and wrong application of thought, he descends below
the level of the beast. Between these two extremes are all the
grades of character, and man is their maker and master.
Of all the beautiful truths pertaining to the soul which have
been restored and brought to light in this age, none is more
gladdening or fruitful of divine promise and confidence than
this - that man is the master of thought, the molder of character,
and the maker and shaper of condition, environment, and destiny.
As a being of Power, Intelligence, and Love, and the lord of
his own thoughts, man holds the key to every situation, and
contains within himself that transforming and regenerative agency
by which he can make himself what he wills.
Man is always the master, even in his most weakest and abandoned
state; but in his weakness and degradation he is the foolish
master which misgoverns his “household.” When he
begins to reflect upon his condition, and to search diligently
for the Law upon which his being is established, he then becomes
the wise master, directing his energies with intelligence, and
fashioning his thoughts to fruitful issues. Such is the conscious
master, and man can only thus become by discovering within himself
the laws of thought; which discovery is totally a matter of
application, self-analysis, and experience.
Only by much searching and mining are gold and diamonds obtained,
and man can find every truth connected with his being if he
will dig deep into the mine of his soul; and that he is the
maker of his character, the molder of his life, and the builder
of his destiny, he may unerringly prove, if he will watch, control,
and alter his thoughts, tracing their effects upon himself,
upon others, and upon his life and circumstances, linking cause
and effect by patient practice and investigation, and utilizing
his every experience, even to the most trivial, everyday occurrence,
as a means of obtaining that knowledge of himself which is Understanding,
Wisdom, and Power. In this direction, as in no other, is the
law absolute that “He that seeketh findeth; and to him
that knocketh it shall be opened”; for only by patience,
practice, and ceaseless importunity can a man enter the Door
of the Temple of Knowledge.
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EFFECT
OF THOUGHT ON CIRCUMSTANCES
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[TOP]
A man’s mind may be likened to
a garden, which may be intelligently cultivated or allowed to
run wild; but whether cultivated or neglected, it must, and
will, bring forth. If no useful seeds are put into it, then
an abundance of useless weed seeds will fall therein, and will
continue to produce their kind.
Just as a gardener cultivates his plot, keeping it free from
weeds, and growing the flowers and fruits which he requires,
so may a man tend the garden of his mind, weeding out all the
wrong, useless, and impure thoughts, and cultivating toward
perfection the flowers and fruits of right, useful, and pure
thoughts. By pursuing this process, a man sooner or later discovers
that he is the master gardener of his soul, the director of
his life. He also reveals, within himself, the laws of thought,
and understands, with ever-increasing accuracy, how the thought
forces and mind operate in the shaping of his character, circumstances
and destiny.
Thought and character are one, and as character can only manifest
and discover itself through environment and circumstance, the
outer conditions of a person’s life will always be found
to be harmoniously related to his inner state. This does not
mean that a man’s circumstances at any given time are
an indication of his entire character, but that those circumstances
are so intimately connected with some vital thought element
within himself that, for the time being, they are indispensable
to his development.
Every man is where he is by the law of his being; the thoughts
which he has built into his character have brought him there,
and in the arrangement of his life there is no element of chance,
but all is the result of a law which cannot err. This is just
as true of those who feel “out of harmony” with
their surroundings as of those who are contented with them.
As a progressive and evolving being, man is where he is that
he may learn that he may grow; and as he learns the spiritual
lessons which any circumstance contains for him, it passes away
and gives place to other circumstances.
Man is buffeted by circumstances so long as he believes himself
to be the creature of outside conditions, but when he realizes
that he is a creative power, and that he may command the hidden
soil and seeds of his being out of which circumstances grow,
he then becomes the rightful master of himself.
That circumstances grow out of thought every man knows who has
for any length of time practiced self-control and self-purification,
for he will have noticed that the alteration in his circumstances
has been in exact ratio with his altered mental condition. So
true is this that when a man earnestly applies himself to remedy
the defects in his character, and makes swift and marked progress,
he passes rapidly through a succession of vicissitudes.
The soul attracts that which it secretly harbors, that which
it loves, and also that which it fears; it reaches the height
of it’s cherished aspirations; it falls to the level of
it’s unchastened desires - and circumstances are the means
by which the soul receives it’s own.
Every thought seed sown or allowed to fall into the mind, and
to take root there, produces its own, blossoming sooner or later
into act, and bearing its own fruitage of opportunity and circumstance.
Good thoughts bear good fruit, bad thoughts bad fruit.
The outer world of circumstances shapes itself to the inner
world of thought, and both pleasant and unpleasant external
conditions are factors which make for the ultimate good of the
individual. As the reaper of his own harvest, man learns both
by suffering and bliss.
Following the inmost desires, aspirations, thoughts, by which
he allows himself to be dominated (pursing the will-o’-the-wisps
of impure imaginings or steadfastly walking the highway of strong
and high endeavor), a man at last arrives at their fruition
and fulfillment in the outer conditions of his life. The laws
of growth and adjustment everywhere obtain.
A man does not come to the almshouse or the jail by the tyranny
of fate or circumstance, but by the pathway of groveling thoughts
and base desires. Nor does a pure-minded man fall suddenly into
crime by stress of any mere external force; the criminal thought
had long been secretly fostered in the heart, and the hour of
opportunity revealed its gathered power. Circumstance does not
make the man; it reveals him to himself. No such conditions
can exist as descending into vice and its attendant sufferings
apart from vicious inclinations, or ascending into virtue and
its pure happiness without the continued cultivation of virtuous
aspirations; and man, therefore, as the lord and master of thought,
is the maker of himself, the shaper and author of environment.
Even at birth the soul comes to its own, and through every step
of its earthly pilgrimage it attracts those combinations of
conditions which reveal itself, which are the reflections of
its own purity and impurity, its strength and weakness.
Men do not attract that which they want, but that which they
are. Their whims, fancies, and ambitions are thwarted at every
step, but their inmost thoughts and desires are fed with their
own food, be it foul or clean. The “divinity that shapes
our ends” is in ourselves, it is our very self. Man is
manacled only by himself: thought and action are the jailers
of Fate - they imprison, being base; they are also the angels
of Freedom - they liberate, being noble. Not what he wishes
and prays for does a man get, but what he justly earns. His
wishes and prayers are only gratified and answered when they
harmonize with his thoughts and actions.
In the light of this truth, what, then, is the meaning of “fighting
against circumstances’? It means that a man is continually
revolting against an effect without, while all the time he is
nourishing and preserving its cause in his heart. That cause
may take the form of a conscious vice or an unconscious weakness;
but whatever it is, it stubbornly retards the efforts of its
possessor, and thus calls aloud for remedy.
Men are anxious to improve their circumstances, but are unwilling
to improve themselves; they therefore remain bound. The man
who does not shirk from self-crucifixion can never fail to accomplish
the object upon which his heart is set. This is as true of earthly
as of heavenly things. Even the man whose sole object is to
acquire wealth must be prepared to make great personal sacrifices
before he can accomplish his object; and how much more so he
who would realize a strong and well-poised life?
Here is a man who is wretchedly poor. He is extremely anxious
that his surroundings and home comforts should be improved,
yet all the time he shirks his work, and considers he is justified
in trying to deceive his employer on the ground of the insufficiency
of his wages. Such a man does not understand the simplest rudiments
of those principles which are the basis of true prosperity,
and is not only totally unfitted to rise out of his wretchedness,
but is actually attracting to himself a still deeper wretchedness
by dwelling in, and acting out, indolent, deceptive, and unmanly
thoughts.
Here is a rich man who is a victim of a painful and persistent
disease as the result of gluttony. He is willing to give large
sums of money to get rid of it, but he will not sacrifice his
gluttonous desires. He wants to gratify his taste for rich and
unnatural viands and have his health as well. Such a man is
totally unfit to have health, because he has not yet learned
the first principles of a healthy life.
Here is an employer of labor who adopts crooked measures to
avoid paying the regulation wage, and in the hope of making
larger profits, reduces the wages of his workpeople. Such a
man is altogether unfitted for prosperity, and when he finds
himself bankrupt, both as regards reputation and riches, he
blames circumstances, not knowing that he is the sole author
of his condition.
I have introduced these three cases merely as illustrative of
the truth that man is the causer (though nearly always unconsciously)
of his circumstances, an that, while aiming at a good end, he
is continually frustrating its accomplishment by encouraging
thoughts and desires which cannot possibly harmonize with that
end. Such causes could be multiplied and varied almost indefinitely,
but this is not necessary, as the reader can, if he so resolves,
trace the action of the laws of thought in his own mind and
life, and until this is done, mere external facts cannot serve
as a ground of reasoning.
Circumstances, however, are so complicated, thought is so deeply
rooted, and the conditions of happiness vary so vastly with
individuals, that a man’s entire soul condition (although
it may be known to himself) cannot be judged by another from
the external aspect of his life alone. A man may be honest in
certain directions, yet suffer privations; a man may be dishonest
in certain directions, yet acquire wealth; but the conclusion
usually formed that the one man fails because of his particular
honesty, and that the other prospers because of his particular
dishonesty, is the result of a superficial judgment, which assumes
that the dishonest man is almost totally corrupt, and the honest
man almost entirely virtuous. In the light of a deeper knowledge
and wider experience, such judgment is found to be erroneous.
The dishonest man may have some admirable virtues which the
other does not possess and the honest man obnoxious vices which
are absent in the other. The honest man reaps the good results
of his honest thoughts and acts; he also brings upon himself
the sufferings which his vices produce. The dishonest man likewise
garners his own suffering and happiness.
It is pleasing to human vanity to believe that one suffers because
of one’s virtue; but not until a man has extirpated every
sickly, bitter, and impure thought from his mind, and washed
every sinful stain from his soul, can he be in a position to
know and declare that his sufferings are the result of his good,
and not of his bad qualities; and on the way to, yet long before
he has reached, that supreme perfection, he will have found,
working in his mind and life, the Great Law which is absolutely
just, and which cannot, therefore, give good for evil, evil
for good. Possessed of such knowledge, he will then know, looking
back upon his past ignorance and blindness, that his life is,
and always was, justly ordered, and that all his past experiences,
good and bad, were the equitable outworking of his evolving,
yet unevolved self.
Good thoughts and actions can never produce bad results; bad
thoughts and actions can never produce good results. This is
but saying that nothing can come from corn but corn, nothing
from nettles but nettles. Men understand this law in the natural
world, and work with it; but few understand it in the mental
and moral world (though its operation there is just as simple
and undeviating) and they, therefore, do not cooperate with
it.
Suffering is always the effect of wrong thought in some direction.
It is an indication the individual is out of harmony with himself,
with the Law of his being. The sole and supreme use of suffering
is to purify, to burn out all that is useless and impure. There
could be no object in burning gold after the dross had been
removed, and a perfectly pure and enlightened being could not
suffer.
The circumstances which a man encounters with suffering are
the result of his own mental inharmony. The circumstances which
a man encounters with blessedness are the result of his own
mental harmony. Blessedness, not material possessions, is the
measure of right thought; wretchedness, not lack of material
possessions, is the measure of wrong thought. A man may be cursed
and rich; he may be blessed and poor. Blessedness and riches
are only joined together when the riches are rightly and wisely
used; and the poor man only descends into wretchedness when
he regards his lot as a burden unjustly imposed.
Indigence and indulgence are the two extremes of wretchedness.
They are both equally unnatural and the result of mental disorder.
A man is not rightly conditioned until he is a happy, healthy,
and prosperous being; and happiness, health, and prosperity
are the result of a harmonious adjustment of the inner with
the outer, of the man with his surroundings.
A man only begins to be a man when he ceases to whine and revile,
and commences to search for the hidden justice which regulates
his life. And as he adapts his mind to that regulating factor,
he ceases to accuse others as the cause of his condition, and
builds himself up in strong and noble thoughts; ceases to kick
against circumstances, but begin to use them as aids to his
more rapid progress, and as a means of discovering the hidden
powers and possibilities within himself.
Law, not confusion, is the dominating principle in the universe;
justice, not injustice, is the soul and substance of life; and
righteousness, not corruption, is the molding and moving force
in the spiritual government of the world. This being so, man
has to right himself to find that the universe is right; and
during the process of putting himself right, he will find that
as he alters his thoughts toward things, and other people, things
and other people will alter toward him.
The proof of this truth is in every person, and it therefore
admits of easy investigation by systematic introspection and
self-analysis. Let a man radically alter his thoughts, and he
will be astonished at the rapid transformation it will effect
in the material conditions of his life. Men imagine that thought
can be kept secret, but it cannot; it rabidly crystallizes into
habit, and habit solidifies into circumstance. Bestial thoughts
crystallize into habits of drunkenness and sensuality, which
solidify into circumstances of destitution and disease: impure
thoughts of every kind crystallize into enervating and confusing
habits, which solidify into distracting and adverse circumstances:
thoughts of fear, doubt, and indecision crystallize into weak,
unmanly, and irresolute habits, which solidify into circumstances
of failure, indigence, and slavish dependence: lazy thoughts
crystallize into habits of uncleanliness and dishonesty, which
solidify into circumstances of foulness and beggary: hateful
and condemnatory thoughts crystallize into habits of accusation
and violence, which solidify into circumstances of injury and
persecution: selfish thoughts of all kinds crystallize into
habits of self-seeking, which solidify into circumstances more
or less distressing. On the other hand, beautiful thoughts of
all kinds crystallize into habits of grace and kindliness, which
solidify into genial and sunny circumstances: pure thoughts
crystallize into habits of temperance and self-control, which
solidify into circumstances of repose and peace: thoughts of
courage, self-reliance and decision crystallize into manly habits,
which solidify into circumstances of success, plenty and freedom:
energetic thoughts crystallize into habits of cleanliness and
industry, which solidify into circumstances of pleasantness:
gentle and forgiving thoughts crystallize into habits of gentleness,
which solidify into protective and preservative circumstances:
loving and unselfish thoughts crystallize into habits of self-forgetfulness
for others, which solidify into circumstances of sure and abiding
prosperity and true riches.
A particular train of thought persisted in, be it good or bad,
cannot fail to produce its results on the character or circumstances.
A man cannot directly choose his circumstances, but he can chose
his thoughts, and so indirectly, yet surely, shape his circumstances.
Nature helps every man to the gratification of the thoughts
which he most encourages, and opportunities are presented which
most speedily bring to the surface both the good and evil thoughts.
Let a man cease from his sinful thoughts, and all the world
will soften toward him, and be ready to help him; let him put
away his weakly and sickly thoughts, and lo! opportunities will
spring up on every hand to aid his strong resolves; let him
encourage good thoughts, and no hard fate shall bind him down
to wretchedness and shame. The world is your kaleidoscope, and
the varying combination of colors which at every succeeding
moment it presents to you are the exquisitely adjusted pictures
of your ever-moving thoughts.
“You will be what you will be;
Let failure find its false content
In that poor word, ‘environment’,
But spirit scorns it, and is free.
“It masters time, it conquers space;
It cows that boastful trickster, Chance,
And bids the tyrant Circumstance
Uncrown, and fill a servant’s place.
“The human Will, that force unseen,
The offspring of a deathless Soul,
Can hew a way to any goal,
Though walls of granite intervene.
“Be not impatient in delay,
But wait as one who understands;
When spirit rises and commands,
The gods are ready to obey.”
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EFFECT
OF THOUGHT ON HEALTH AND BODY
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[TOP]
The body is the servant of the mind.
It obeys the operations of the mind, whether they be deliberately
chosen or automatically expressed. At the bidding of unlawful
thoughts the body sinks rapidly into disease and decay; at the
command of glad and beautiful thoughts it becomes clothed with
youthfulness and beauty.
Disease and health, like circumstances, are rooted in thought.
Sickly thoughts will express themselves through a sickly body.
Thoughts of fear have been known to kill a man as speedily as
a bullet, and they are continually killing thousands of people
just as surely though less rapidly. The people who live in fear
of disease are the people who get it. Anxiety quickly demoralizes
the whole body, and lays it open to the entrance of disease;
while impure thoughts, even if not physically indulged, will
soon shatter the nervous system.
Strong, pure and happy thoughts build up the body in vigor and
grace. The body is a delicate and plastic instrument, which
responds readily to the thoughts by which it is impressed, and
habits of thought will produce their own effects, good or bad,
upon it.
Men will continue to have impure and poisoned blood so long
as they propagate unclean thoughts. Out of a clean heart comes
a clean life and a clean body. Out of a defiled mind proceeds
a defiled life and corrupt body. Thought is the font of action,
life, and manifestation; make the fountain pure, and all will
be pure.
Change of diet will not help a man who will not change his thoughts.
When a man makes his thoughts pure, he no longer desires impure
food.
Clean thoughts make clean habits. The so-called saint who does
not wash his body is not a saint. He who has strengthened and
purified his thoughts does not need to consider the malevolent
microbe.
If you would perfect your body, guard your mind. If you would
renew your body, beautify your mind. Thoughts of malice, envy,
disappointment, despondency, rob the body of its health and
grace. A sour face does not come by chance; it is made by sour
thoughts. Wrinkles that mar are drawn by folly, passion, pride.
I know a woman of ninety-six who has the bright, innocent face
of a girl. I know a man well under middle age whose face is
drawn into inharmonious contours. The one is the result of a
sweet and sunny disposition; the other is the outcome of passion
and discontent.
As you cannot have a sweet and wholesome abode unless you admit
the air and sunshine freely into your rooms, so a strong body
and a bright, happy, or serene countenance can only result from
the free admittance into the mind of thoughts of joy and good
will and serenity.
On the faces of the aged there are wrinkles made by sympathy;
others by strong and pure thought, and others are carved by
passion: who cannot distinguish them? With those who have lived
righteously, age is calm, peaceful, and softly mellowed, like
the setting sun. I have recently seen a philosopher on his deathbed.
He was not old except in years. He died as sweetly and peacefully
as he had lived.
There is no physician like cheerful thought for dissipating
the ills of the body; there is no comforter to compare with
good will for dispersing the shadows of grief and sorrow. To
live continually in thoughts of ill will, cynicism, suspicion,
and envy, is to be confined in a self-made prison hole. But
to think well of all, to be cheerful with all, to patiently
learn to find the good in all-such unselfish thoughts are the
very portals of heaven; and to dwell day by day in thoughts
of peace toward every creature will bring abounding peace to
their possessor.
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THOUGHT
AND PURPOSE
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[TOP]
Until thought is linked with purpose
there is no intelligent accomplishment. With the majority the
bark of thought is allowed to “drift” upon the ocean
of life. Aimlessness is a vice, and such drifting must not continue
for him who would steer clear of catastrophe and destruction.
They who have no central purpose in their life fall an easy
prey to petty worries, fears, troubles, and self-pityings, all
of which are indications of weakness, which lead, just as surely
as deliberately planned sins (though by a different route),
to failure, unhappiness, and loss, for weakness cannot persist
in a power-evolving universe.
A man should conceive of a legitimate purpose in his heart,
and set out to accomplish it. He should make his purpose the
centralizing point of his thoughts. It may take the form of
a spiritual ideal, or it may be a worldly object, according
to his nature at the time being; but whichever it is, he should
steadily focus his thought forces upon the object which he has
set before him. He should make this purpose his supreme duty,
and should devote himself to its attainment, not allowing his
thoughts to wonder away into ephemeral fancies, longings, and
imaginings. This is the royal road to self-control and true
concentration of thought. Even if he fails again and again to
accomplish this purpose (as he necessarily must until weakness
is overcome), the strength of character gained will be the measure
of his true success, and this will form a new starting point
for future power and triumph.
Those who are not prepared for the apprehension of a great purpose,
should fix the thoughts upon the faultless performance of their
duty, no matter how insignificant their task may appear. Only
in this way can the thoughts be gathered and focused, and resolution
and energy be developed, which being done, there is nothing
which may not be accomplished.
The weakest soul, knowing its own weakness, and believing this
truth - that strength can only be developed by effort and practice,
will, thus believing, at once begin to exert itself, and, adding
effort to effort, patience to patience, and strength to strength,
will never cease to develop, and will at last grow divinely
strong.
As the physically weak man can make himself strong by careful
and patient training, so the man of weak thoughts can make them
strong by exercising himself in right thinking.
To put away aimlessness and weakness, and to begin to think
with purpose, is to enter the ranks of those strong ones who
only recognize failure as one of the pathways to attainment;
who make all conditions serve them, and who think strongly,
attempt fearlessly, and accomplish masterfully.
Having conceived of his purpose, a man should mentally mark
out a straight pathway to its achievement, looking neither to
the right or the left. Doubts and fears should be rigorously
excluded; they are disintegrating elements which break up the
straight line of effort, rendering it crooked, ineffectual,
useless. Thoughts of doubt and fear never accomplish anything,
and never can. They always lead to failure. Purpose, energy,
power to do, and all strong thoughts cease when doubt and fear
creep in.
The will to do springs from the knowledge that we can do. Doubts
and fears are the great enemies of knowledge, and he who encourages
them, who does not slay them, thwarts himself at every step.
He who has conquered doubt and fear has conquered failure. His
every thought is allied with power, and all difficulties are
bravely met and wisely overcome. His purposes are seasonably
planted, and they bloom and bring forth fruit which does not
fall prematurely to the ground.
Thought allied fearlessly to purpose becomes creative force:
he who knows this is ready to become something higher and stronger
than a mere bundle of wavering thoughts and fluctuating sensations;
he who does this has become the conscious and intelligent wielder
of his mental powers.
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THE
THOUGHT FACTOR IN ACHIEVEMENT
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[TOP]
All that a man achieves and all that
he fails to achieve is the direct result of his own thoughts.
In a justly ordered universe, where lose of equipoise would
mean total destruction, individual responsibility must be absolute.
A man’s weakness and strength, purity and impurity, are
his own, and not another man’s; they are brought about
by himself, and not by another; and they can only be altered
by himself, never by another. His condition is also his own,
and not another man’s. His suffering and happiness are
evolved from within. As he thinks, so he is; as he continues
to think, so he remains.
A strong man cannot help a weaker unless that weaker is willing
to be helped, and even then the weak man must become strong
of himself; he must, by his own efforts, develop the strength
which he admires in another. None but himself can alter his
condition.
It has been usual for men to think and to say, “Many men
are slaves because one is an oppressor; let us hate the oppressor.”
Now, however, there is among an increasing few a tendency to
reverse this judgment, and to say, “One man is an oppressor
because many are slaves; let us despise the slaves.” The
truth is that oppressor and slave are cooperators in ignorance,
and, while seeming to afflict each other, are in reality afflicting
themselves. A perfect Knowledge perceives the action of law
in the weakness of the oppressed and the misapplied power of
the oppressor; a perfect Love, seeing the suffering which both
states entail, condemns neither; a perfect Compassion embraces
both the oppressor and oppressed.
He who has conquered weakness, and has put away all selfish
thoughts, belongs neither to the oppressor nor oppressed. He
is free.
A man can only rise, conquer, and achieve by lifting up his
thoughts. He can only remain weak, and abject, and miserable
by refusing to lift up his thoughts.
Before a man can achieve anything, even in worldly things, he
must lift his thoughts above slavish animal indulgence. He may
not, in order to succeed, give up all animality and selfishness,
by any means; but a portion of it must, at least, be sacrificed.
A man whose first thought is bestial indulgence could neither
think clearly not plan methodically; he could not find and develop
his latent resources, and would fail in any undertaking. Not
having commenced manfully to control his thoughts, he is not
in a position to control affairs and to adopt serious responsibilities.
He is not fit to act independently and stand alone. But he is
limited only by the thoughts which he chooses.
There can be no progress, no achievement without sacrifice,
and a man’s worldly success will be in the measure that
he sacrifices his confused animal thoughts, and fixes his mind
on the development of his plans, and the strengthening of his
resolution and self-reliance. And the higher he lifts his thoughts,
the more manly, upright, and righteous he becomes, the greater
will be his success, the more blessed and enduring will be his
achievements.
The universe does not favor the greedy, the dishonest, the vicious,
although on the mere surface it may sometimes appear to do so;
it helps the honest, the magnanimous, the virtuous. All the
great Teachers of the ages have declared this in varying forms,
and to prove and know it a man has but to persist in making
himself more and more virtuous by lifting up his thoughts.
Intellectual achievements are the result of thought consecrated
to the search for knowledge, or for the beautiful and true in
life and nature. Such achievements may be sometimes connected
with vanity and ambition, but they are not the outcome of those
characteristics; they are the natural outgrowth of long and
arduous effort, and of pure and unselfish thoughts.
Spiritual achievements are the consummation of holy aspirations.
He who lives constantly in the conception of noble and lofty
thoughts, who dwells upon all that is pure and unselfish, will,
as surely as the sun reaches its zenith and the moon its full,
become wise and noble in character, and rise into a position
of influence and blessedness.
Achievement, of whatever kind, is the crown of effort, the diadem
of thought. By the aid of self-control, resolution, purity,
righteousness, and well-directed thought a man ascends; by the
aid of animality, indolence, impurity, corruption, and confusion
of thought a man descends.
A man may rise to high success in the world, and even to lofty
attitudes in the spiritual realm, and again descend into weakness
and wretchedness by allowing arrogant, selfish, and corrupt
thoughts to take possession of him.
Victories attained by right thought can only be maintained by
watchfulness. Many give way when success is assured, and rapidly
fall back into failure.
All achievements, whether in the business, intellectual, or
spiritual world, are the result of definitely directed thought,
are governed by the same law and are of the same method; the
only difference lies in the object of attainment.
He who would accomplish little must sacrifice little; he who
would achieve much must sacrifice much; he who would attain
highly must sacrifice greatly.
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VISIONS
AND IDEALS
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The dreamers are the saviors of the world.
As the visible world is sustained by the invisible, so men,
through all their trials and sins and sordid vocations, are
nourished by the beautiful visions of the solitary dreamers.
Humanity cannot forget its dreamers; it cannot let their ideals
fade and die; it lives in them; it knows them as the realities
which it shall one day see and know.
Composer, sculptor, painter, poet, prophet, sage, these are
the makers of the afterworld, the architects of heaven. The
world is beautiful because they have lived; without them, laboring
humanity would perish.
He who cherishes a beautiful vision, a lofty ideal in his heart,
will one day realize it. Columbus cherished a vision of another
world, and he discovered it; Copernicus fostered the vision
of multiplicity of worlds and a wider universe, and he revealed
it; Buddha beheld a vision of a spiritual world of stainless
beauty and perfect peace, and he entered into it.
Cherish your visions; cherish your ideals; cherish the music
that stirs in your heart, the beauty that forms in your mind,
the loveliness that drapes your purist thoughts, for out of
them will grow all delightful conditions, all heavenly environment;
of these, if you but remain true to them, your world will at
last be built.
To desire is to obtain; to aspire is to achieve. Shall man’s
basest desires receive the fullest measure of gratification,
and his purist aspirations starve for lack of sustenance? Such
is not the Law: such a condition of things can never obtain:
“Ask and receive.”
The greatest achievement was at first and for a time a dream.
The oak sleeps in the acorn; the bird waits in the egg; and
in the highest vision of the soul a waking angel stirs. Dreams
are the seedlings of realities.
Your circumstances may be uncongenial, but they shall not long
remain so if you but perceive an Ideal and strive to reach it.
You cannot travel within and stand still without. Here is a
youth hard pressed by poverty and labor; confined long hours
in an unhealthy workshop; unschooled, and lacking all the arts
of refinement. But he dreams of better things: he thinks of
intelligence, of refinement, of grace and beauty. He conceives
of, mentally builds up, an ideal condition of life; the vision
of a wider liberty and a larger scope takes possession of him;
unrest urges him to action, and he utilizes all his spare time
and means, small though they are, to the development of his
latent powers and resources. Very soon so altered has his mind
become that the workshop can no longer hold him. It has become
so out of harmony with his mentality that it falls out of his
life as a garment is cast aside, and, with the growth of opportunities
which fit the scope of his expanding powers, he passes out of
it forever. Years later we see this youth as a full grown man.
We find him a master of certain forces of the mind which he
wields with world-wide influence and almost unequaled power.
In his hands he holds the cords of gigantic responsibilities;
he speaks, and lo! lives are changed; men and women hang upon
his words and remold their characters, and, sunlike, he becomes
the fixed and luminous center around which innumerable destinies
revolve. He has realized the Vision of his youth. He has become
one with his Ideal.
And you, too, youthful reader, will realize the Vision (not
the idle wish) of your heart, be it base or beautiful, or a
mixture of both, for you will always gravitate toward that which
you, secretly, most love. Into your hands will be placed the
exact results of your own thoughts; you will receive that which
you earn; no more, no less. Whatever your present environment
may be, you will fall, remain, or rise with your thoughts, your
Vision, your Ideal. You will become as small as your controlling
desire; as great as your dominant aspiration: in the beautiful
words of Stanton Kirkham Davis, “You may be keeping accounts,
and presently you shall walk out of the door that for so long
has seemed to you the barrier of your ideals, and shall find
yourself before an audience-the pen still behind your ear, the
ink stains on your fingers-and then and there shall pour out
the torrent of your inspiration. You may be driving sheep, and
you shall wander to the city-bucolic and opened mouthed; shall
wander under the intrepid guidance of the spirit into the studio
of the master, and after a time he shall say, ‘I have
nothing more to teach you.’ And now you have become the
master, who did so recently dream of great things while driving
sheep. You shall lay down the saw and the plane to take upon
yourself the regeneration of the world.”
The thoughtless, the ignorant, and the indolent, seeing only
the apparent effects of things and not the things themselves,
talk of luck, of fortune, and chance. Seeing a man grow rich,
they say, “How highly favored he is!” And noting
the saintly character and wide influence of another, they remark,
“How chance aids him at every turn!” They do not
see the trials and failures and struggles which these men have
voluntarily encountered in order to gain their experience; have
no knowledge of the sacrifices they have made, of the undaunted
efforts they have put forth, of the faith they have exercised,
that they might overcome the apparently insurmountable, and
realize the Vision of their heart. They do not know the darkness
and the heartaches; they only see the heart and joy, and call
it “luck”; do not see the long and arduous journey,
but only behold the pleasant goal, and call it “good fortune”;
do not understand the process, but only perceive the result,
and call it “chance.”
In all human affairs there are efforts, and there are results,
and the strength of the effort is the measure of the result.
Chance is not. “Gifts,” powers, material, intellectual,
and spiritual possessions are the fruits of effort; they are
thoughts completed, objects accomplished, visions realized.
The Vision that you glorify in your mind, the Ideal that you
enthrone in your heart - this will build your life by, this
you will become.
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SERENITY
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Calmness of mind is one of the beautiful
jewels of wisdom. It is the result of long and patient effort
in self control. Its presence is an indication of ripened experience,
and of a more than ordinary knowledge of the laws and operations
of thought.
A man becomes calm in the measure that he understands himself
as a thought-evolved being, for such knowledge necessitates
the understanding of others as the result of thought, and as
he develops a right understanding, and sees more and more clearly
the internal relations of things by the action of cause and
effect, he ceases to fuss and fume and worry and grieve, and
remains poised, steadfast, serene.
The calm man, having learned how to govern himself, knows how
to adapt himself to others; and they, in turn, reverence his
spiritual strength, and feel that they can learn of him and
rely upon him. The more tranquil a man becomes, the greater
is his success, his influence, his power for good. Even the
ordinary trader will find his business prosperity increase as
he develops a greater self-control and equanimity, for people
will always prefer to deal with a man whose demeanor is strongly
equable.
The strong, calm man is always loved and revered. He is like
a shade-giving tree in a thirsty land, or a sheltering rock
in a storm. “Who does not love a tranquil heart, a sweet-tempered,
balanced life? It does not matter whether it rains or shines,
or what changes come to those possessing these blessings, for
they are always sweet, serene, and calm. That exquisite poise
of character which we call serenity is the last lesson of culture;
it is the flowering of life, the fruitage of the soul. It is
precious as wisdom, more to be desired than gold-yea, than even
fine gold. How insignificant mere money-seeking looks in comparison
with a serene life-a life that dwells in the ocean of Truth,
beneath the waves, beyond the reach of tempests, in the Eternal
Calm!
“How many people we know who sour their lives, who ruin
all that is sweet and beautiful by explosive tempers, who destroy
their poise of character, and make bad blood! It is a question
whether the great majority of people do not ruin their lives
and mar their happiness by lack of self control. How few people
we meet in life who are well-balanced, who have that exquisite
poise which is characteristic of the finished character!”
Yes, humanity surges with uncontrolled passion, is tumultuous
with ungoverned grief, is blown about by anxiety and doubt.
Only the wise man, only he whose thoughts are controlled and
purified, makes the winds and the storms of the soul obey him.
Tempest-tossed souls, wherever ye may be, under whatsoever conditions
ye may live, know this-in the ocean of life the isles of Blessedness
are smiling, and the sunny shore of your ideal awaits your coming.
Keep your ideal firmly upon the helm of thought. In the bark
of your soul reclines the commanding Master; He does but sleep;
wake Him. Self-control is strength; Right Thought is mastery;
Calmness is power. Say unto your heart, “Peace, be still!”
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