The Ideal Made Real
Christian D. Larson
Foreword
The purpose of this work is to present practical
methods through which anyone, the beginner in particular, may realize
his
ideals, cause his cherished dreams to come true, and
cause the visions of the soul to become tangible realities in everyday
life.
The best minds now believe that the
ideal can be made real; that every lofty idea can be applied in
practical living, and
that all that is beautiful on the heights of existence
can be made permanent expressions in personal existence. And so popular
is this belief becoming that it is rapidly permeating
the entire thought of the world. Accordingly, the demand for instructive
knowledge on this subject, that is simple as well as
scientific, is becoming almost universal.
This book has been written to supply
that demand. However, it does not claim to be complete; nor could any
work on "The Ideal
Made Real" possibly be complete, because the ideal
world is limitless and the process of making real the ideal is endless.
To know how to begin is the principal secret, and he
who has learned this secret may go on further and further, forever and
forever, until he reaches the most sublime heights
that endless existence has in store.
No attempt has been made to formulate
the ideas, methods and principles presented, into a definite system. In
fact, the tendency
to form a new system of thinking or a new philosophy
of life, has been purposely avoided. Closely defined systems invariably
become obstacles to advancement, and we are not
concerned with new philosophies of life. Our purpose is the living of a
greater
and a greater life, and in such a life all
philosophies must constantly change.
In preparing the following pages, the
object has been to take the beginner out of the limitations of the old
into the boundlessness
of the new; to emphasize the fact that the
possibilities that are latent in the human mind are nothing less than
marvelous,
and that the way to turn those possibilities to
practical use is sufficiently simple for anyone to understand. But no
method
has been presented that will not tend to suggest new
and better methods as required for further advancement. The best ideas
are those that inspire new ideas, better ideas, and
greater ideas. The most perfect science of life is that science that
gives
each individual the power to create and recreate his
own science as he ascends in the scale of life.
(Great souls are developed only where
minds are left free to employ the best-known methods according to their
own understanding
and insight. And it is only as the soul grows greater
and greater that the ideal can be made real. It is individuality and
originality that give each person the power to make
his own life as he may wish it to be; but those two important factors
do not flourish in definite systems. There is no
progress where the soul is placed in the hands of methods; true and
continuous
progress can he promoted only where all ideas, all
methods and all principles are placed in the hands of the soul.
We have selected the best ideas and
the best methods known for making the ideal real, and through this work,
will place them
in your hands. We do not ask you to follow these
methods; we simply ask you to use them. You will then find them all to
be
practical; you will find that every one will work and
produce the results you desire. You will then, not only make real the
ideal in your present sphere of life, but you will
also develop within yourself that Greater Life, the power of which has
no limit, the joy of which has no end.
The Ideal Made Real
To have ideals is not only simple but natural. It is
just as natural for the mind to enter the ideal as it is to live. In
fact, the ideal is an inseparable part of life; but to
make the ideal real in every part of life is a problem, the solution
of which appears to be anything but simple. To dream
of the fair, the high, the beautiful, the perfect, the sublime, that
everyone can do; but everyone has not learned how to
make his dreams come true, nor realize in the practical world what he
has discerned in the transcendental world.
The greatest philosophers and
thinkers in history, with but few exceptions, have failed to apply their
lofty ideas in practical
living, not because they did not wish to but because
they had not discovered the scientific relationship existing between
the ideal world and the real world. The greatest
thinker of the past century confessed that he did not know how to use in
every day life the remarkable laws and principles that
he had discovered in the ideal. He knew, however, that those laws and
principles could be applied; that the ideal could be
made real, and he stated that he positively knew that others would
discover
the law of realization, and that methods would be
found in the near future through which any ideal could be made real in
practical
life; and his prophecy has come true.
To understand the scientific
relationship that exists between the real and the ideal, the mind must
have both the power of
interior insight and the power of scientific analysis,
as well as the power of practical application; but we do not find,
as a rule, the prophet and the scientist in the same
mind. The man who has visions and the man who can do things do not
usually
dwell in the same personality; nevertheless, this is
necessary. And every person can develop both the prophet and the
scientist
in himself. He can develop the power to see the ideal
and also the power to make the ideal real.
The large mind, the broad mind, the
deep mind, the lofty mind, the properly developed mind can see both the
outer and the
inner side of things. Such a mind can see the ideal on
high, and at the same time understand how to make real, tangible and
practical what he has seen. The seeming gulf between
the ideal and the real, between the soul's vision and the power of
practical
action is being bridged in thousands of minds today,
and it is these minds who are gaining the power to make themselves and
their own world as beautiful as the visions of the
prophet; but the ideal life and the world beautiful are not for the few
only. Everybody should learn how to find that path
that leads from the imperfections of present conditions to the world of
ideal conditions, the world of which we have all so
frequently dreamed.
The problem is what beginners are to
do with the beautiful thoughts and the tempting promises that are being
scattered so
widely at the present time. The average mind feels
that the idealism of modern metaphysics has a substantial basis. He
feels
intuitively that it is true, and he discerns through
the perceptions of his own soul that all these things that are claimed
for applied metaphysics are possible. He inwardly
knows that whatever the idealist declares can be done will be done, but
the problem is how. The demand for simple methods is
one of the greatest demands at the present time, methods that everyone
can learn and that will enable any aspiring soul to
begin at once to realize his ideals.
Such methods, however, are easily
formulated, and will be found in abundance on the following pages. These
methods are based
upon eternal laws; they are as simple as the
multiplication table and will produce results with the same unerring
precision.
Any person with a reasonable amount of intelligence
can apply them, and those who have an abundance of perseverance can,
through
these methods, make real practically all the ideals
that they may have at the present time. Those who are more highly
developed
will find in these methods the secret through which
their attainments and achievements will constantly verge on the
borderland
of the marvelous. In fact, when the simple law that
unites the ideal and the real is understood and applied, it matters not
how lofty our minds and our visions may be we can make
them all come true.
To proceed, the principal obstacle
must first be removed; and this obstacle is the tendency to lose faith
whenever we fail
to make real the ideal the very moment we expect to do
so. This tendency is present to some degree in nearly every mind that
is working for greater things, and it postpones the
day of realization whenever it is permitted to exercise its power of
retrogression.
Many a person has fallen into chronic despondency
after having had a glimpse of the ideal, because it was so very
beautiful,
so very desirable, in fact, the only one thing that
could satisfy, and yet seemingly so far away and so impossible to reach.
But here is a place where we must
exercise extraordinary faith. We must never recognize the gulf that
seems to exist between
our present state and the state we desire to reach. On
the other hand, we must continue in the conviction that the gulf is
only seeming and that we positively shall reach the
ideal that appears in the splendors of what seems to be a distant
future,
although what actually is very near at hand.
Those who have more faith and more
determination do not, as a rule, fall down when they meet this seeming
gulf; they inwardly
know that every ideal will some time be realized. It
could not be otherwise, because what we see in the distance is
invariably
something that lies in the pathway of our own eternal
progress, and if we continue to move forward we must inevitably reach
it. But even to these the ideal does at times appear
to be very far away, and the time of waiting seems very long.
They are frequently on the verge of
giving up and fears arise at intervals that many unpleasant experiences
may, after all,
be met before the great day of realization is gained;
however, we cannot afford to entertain such fears for a moment nor to
think that anything unpleasant can transpire during
the period of transition; that is, the passing from the imperfections
of present conditions to the joys and delights of an
ideal life. We must remember that fear and despondency invariably retard
our progress, no matter what our object in view may
be, and that discouragement is very liable to cause a break in the
engine
that is to take our train to the fair city we so long
have desired to reach.
The time of waiting may seem long
during such moments as come when the mind is down, but so long as the
mind is on the heights
the waiting time disappears, and the pleasure of
pursuit comes to take its place. In this connection we should remember
that
the more frequently we permit the mind to fall down
into fears and doubts the longer we shall have to wait for the
realization
of the ideal; and the more we live in the upper story
of life the sooner we shall reach the goal in view. There are many who
give up temporarily all efforts toward reaching their
ideals, thinking it is impossible and that nothing is gained by trying,
but such minds should realize that they are simply
making their future progress more difficult by retarding their present
progress. Such minds should realize the great fact
that every ideal can be made real, because nothing is impossible.
To reach any desired goal the doing
of certain things is necessary, but if those things are not done now
they will have to
be done later; besides, when we give up in the present
we always make the obstacles in our way much greater than they were
before. Those things that are necessary to promote our
progress become more difficult to do the longer we remain in what may
be termed the "giving up" attitude, and the reason why
is found in the fact that the mind that gives up becomes smaller and
smaller; it loses ability, capacity and power and
becomes less and less competent to cope with the problems at hand.
Whenever
we give up we invariably fall down into a smaller
mental state.
When we cease to move forwards we
begin to move backwards. We retard progression only when we cease to
promote progression.
On the other hand, so long as we continue to pursue
the ideal we ascend into larger and larger mental states, and thus
increase
our power to make real the ideals that are before us.
The belief that it is impossible to make real the ideal has no
foundation
whatever in truth. It is simply an illusion produced
by fear and has no place in the exact science of life. When you discern
an ideal you discover something that lies in your own
onward path. Move forward and you simply cannot fail to reach it; but
when you are to reach the coveted goal depends upon
how rapidly you are moving now. Knowing this, and knowing that fear,
doubt,
discouragement and indifference invariably retard this
forward movement, we shall find it most profitable to remove those
mental states absolutely.
The true attitude is the attitude of
positive conviction; that is, to live in the strong conviction that
whatever we see before
us in the ideal will positively be realized, sooner or
later, if we only move forward, and we can make it sooner if we will
move forward steadily, surely and rapidly during every
moment of the great eternal now. To move forward steadily during the
great eternal now is to realize now as much of the
ideal as we care to appropriate now; no waiting therefore is necessary.
To begin to move forward is to begin to make real the
ideal, and we will realize in the now as much of the ideal as is
necessary
to make the now full and complete.
To move forward steadily during the
great eternal now is to eternally become more than you are; and to
become more than you
are is to make yourself more and more like your ideal;
and here is the great secret, because the principle is that you will
realize your ideal when you become exactly like your
ideal, and that you will realize as much of your ideal now as you
develop
in yourself now. The majority, however, feel that they
can never become as perfect as their ideal; others, however, think
that they can, and that they will sometime, but that
it will require ages, and they dwell constantly upon the unpleasant
belief
that they may in the meantime have to pass through
years and years of ordinary and undesirable experience; but they are
mistaken,
and besides, are retarding their own progress every
moment by entertaining such thoughts.
If all the time and all the energy
that is wasted in longing and longing, yearning and yearning were
employed in scientific,
practical self development, the average person would
in a short time become as perfect as his ideal. He would thus realize
his ideal, because we attract from the without what
corresponds exactly to what is active in our own within. When we attain
the ideal and the beautiful in our own natures, we
shall meet the ideal and the beautiful wherever we may go in the world,
and we will find the same things in the real that we
dreamed of in the ideal.
When we see an ideal we usually begin
to long for it and hope that something remarkable may happen so as to
bring it into
our possession, and we thus continue to long and yearn
and wait with periods of despondency intervening. We simply use up
time and energy to no avail. When we see an ideal the
proper course to pursue is to begin at once to develop that ideal in
our own nature. We should never stop to wait and see
whether it is coming true or not, and we should never stop to figure
how much time it may require to reach our goal. The
secret is, begin now to be like your ideals, and at the proper time that
ideal will be made real.
The very moment you begin to rebuild
yourself in the exact likeness of your ideal you will begin to realize
your ideal, because
we invariably gain possession of that of which we
become conscious; and to begin to develop the ideal in ourselves is to
begin
to become conscious of the ideal. To give thought to
time is to stop and measure time in consciousness, and every stop in
consciousness means retarded progress. Real progress
is eternal; it is a forward movement that is continuous now, and in the
realization of such a progress no thought is ever
given to time.
To live in the life of eternal
progress is to gain ground every moment. It means the perpetual increase
of everything that
has value, greatness and worth, and the mind that
lives in such a life cannot possibly be discouraged or dissatisfied.
Such
a mind will not only live in the perpetual increase of
everything that heart can wish for, but will also realize perpetually
the greatest joy of all joys, the joy of going on. The
discouraged mind is the mind that lives in the emptiness of life, but
there can be no emptiness in that life that lives in
the perpetual increase of all that is good and beautiful and ideal.
The only time that seems long is the
time that is not well employed in continuous attainment, and the only
waiting time, that
seems the hardest time of all, is the time that is not
fully consecrated to the highest purpose you have in view. When we
understand that we all may have different ideals we
will find that we have an undeveloped correspondent in ourselves to
every
ideal that we may discern, and if we proceed to
develop these corresponding parts there will be some ideals realized
every
day. Today we may succeed in making real an ideal that
we first discovered a year ago.
Tomorrow we may reach a goal towards
which we have been moving for years, and in a few days we may realize
ideals that we
have had in view during periods of time varying from a
few weeks to several years; and if we are applying the principles that
underlie the process of making real the ideal, we may
at any time realize ideals of which we have dreamed for a life time.
Consequently, when we approach this subject properly
we shall daily come into the possession of something that is our own.
All the beautiful things of which we have dreamed will
be coming into our world and there will be new arrivals every day.
This is the life of the real
idealist, and we cannot picture a life that is more complete and more
satisfying; but it is not
only complete in the present. It is constantly growing
larger and more desirable, thus giving us daily a higher degree of
satisfaction and joy. When we discern an ideal that
ideal has come within the circle of our own capacity for development,
and the power to develop that ideal in ourselves is
therefore at hand. The mind never discerns those ideals that are beyond
the possibility of present development. Thus we
realize that when an ideal is discerned it is proof positive that we
have
the power to make it real now.
Those who have not found their ideals
in any shape or form whatever have simply neglected to make their own
ideal nature strong,
positive and pronounced. To live in negative idealism
is to continue to dream on without seeing a single dream come true;
but when the ideals we discern in our own natures
become strong, positive working forces our dreams will soon come true;
our
ideals will be realized one after the other until life
becomes what it is intended to be, a perpetual ascension into all that
is rich, beautiful and sublime.
Whether we speak of environments,
attainments, achievements, possessions, circumstances, opportunities,
friends, companions
or the scores of things that belong in our world, the
law is the same. We receive an ideal only when we become just like that
ideal. If we seek better friends, we shall surely find
them and retain them, if we develop higher and higher degrees of
friendship.
If we wish to associate with refined people, we must
become more refined in action, thought and speech.
If we wish to reach our ideals in the
world of achievement, we must develop greater ability, capacity and
power. If we desire
better environments, we must not only learn to
appreciate the beautiful, but must also develop the power to produce
those
things that have true quality, high worth and real
superiority. The great secret is to become more useful in the world;
that
is, useful in the largest and highest sense of that
term. He who gives his best to the world will receive the best in
return.
The world needs able men and women;
people who can do things that are thoroughly worthwhile; people who can
think great thoughts
and transform such thoughts into great deeds; and to
secure such men and women the world will give anything that it may hold
in its possession. To make real the ideal, proceed to
develop greatness, superiority and high worth in yourself. Train the
mind to dwell constantly upon the borderland of the
highest ideals that you can possibly picture; but do not simply yearn
for what you can see, and do not covet what has not
yet become your own. Proceed to remake yourself into the likeness of
that
ideal and it will become your own. To proceed with
this great development, the whole of life must be changed to conform
with
the exact science of life; that is, that science that
is based upon the physical and the metaphysical united as the one
expression
of all that is great and sublime in the soul.
The new way of thinking about things,
viewing things and doing things must be adopted in full, and this new
way is based upon
the principle that the ideal actually is real, and
therefore should be approached not as a future possibility, but as a
present
actuality. Think of the ideal as if it were real and
you will find it to be real. Meet all things as if they contained the
ideal, and you will find that all things will present
their ideals to you, not simply as mere pictures, but as realities.
View the whole of life from the heights of existence;
then you will see things as they are and deal with things accordingly;
you will see that side of the whole of existence that
may be termed the better side, and in consequence, you will grow into
the likeness of that better side. When you grow into
the likeness of the better side of all things, you will attract the
better
side of all things, and the ideal in everything in the
world will be made real in your world.
How To Begin: The Prime Essentials
To formulate rules in detail that will apply to each
individual case is neither possible nor necessary. All have not the
same
present needs nor the same previous training; but
there are certain general principles that apply to all, and these, if
followed
according to the individual viewpoint, will produce
the results desired. If the proper beginning is made, the subsequent
results
will not only be greater and be realized in less time,
but much useless experience and delay will be avoided. These
principles,
or prime essentials, are as follows:
1. Learn to be still.
When you undertake to live an ideal
life and seek to promote your advancement in every direction, you will
find that much
cannot be gained until your entire being is placed in a
proper condition for growth; the reason being that the ideal is ever
advancing toward higher ideals, and you must improve
yourself before you can better your life. It has been found that all
laws of growth require order, harmony and stillness
for proper action; therefore, to live peacefully, think peacefully, act
peacefully and speak peacefully are important
essentials. This will not only put the entire being into proper
condition for
growth, but will also conserve energy, and when you
begin to live the larger life you will want to use properly all your
forces;
neither misusing or wasting anything.
To acquire stillness never "try
hard," but simply exercise general self control in everything you do.
Never be anxious about
results, and they will come with less effort, and in
less time. Whenever you have a moment to spare relax the whole person,
mind and body; just let everything fall into the
easiest position possible. Make no effort to relax, simply let go. So
long
as you try to relax you will not succeed. While in
this relaxed condition be quiet; do not move a muscle; breathe deeply
but
gently, and think only of peace and stillness. Before
you go to sleep at night relax your entire system, and fall asleep with
peace in your mind; bathe your mind and body, so to
speak, in the crystal sea of the beautiful calm. These methods alone
will
work wonders in a few weeks.
While you are at work hold yourself
from anxious hurry or disturbed action; work in the attitude of poise
and you will accomplish
much more in the same given time and you will be a far
better workman. Train yourself to come into the realization of perfect
peace by gently holding a deep strong desire for peace
and by ordering all your actions to harmonize with the peaceful goal
in view. The result will be "the peace that passeth
understanding," and for this alone your gratitude will be both boundless
and endless.
2. Rejoice and be glad.
Cheerfulness is not only a good
medicine, but it is food for mind and body. The cheerful life will fill
every atom with new
life, and it is to the faculties of the mind what
sunshine is to the flowers and trees. To be happy always is one of the
greatest
things that man can do, and there are few things that
are more profitable in every sense of that term. No matter what comes,
be glad; and live in the conviction that all things
are working together for good to you. As your conviction is so is your
faith; and as your faith is so it shall be unto you.
When you live in the conviction that all things are working together
for good you will cause all things to work together
for good, and you will understand the reason why when you begin to apply
the real science of ideal living. No matter how dark
the cloud, look for the silver lining; it is there, and when you always
look at the bright side of things you develop
brightness in yourself.
This brightness will strengthen all
your faculties so that you can easily overcome what obstacles may be in
your way, and
thus gain the victory desired. Direct your attention
constantly to the bright side of things; refuse absolutely to consider
any other side. At first this may not be possible in
the absolute sense, but perseverance never fails to win. However, do
not try hard; gently direct your attention to the
bright side and know that you can. Ere long it will be second nature for
you to live on the sunny side. The value of this
attainment is very great; first, because joyousness will increase life,
power,
energy and force; this we all know from personal
experience, and we wish to have all the life and power that we can
possibly
secure; second, because the happiest soul never
worries, which is great gain. Worry has crippled thousands of fine minds
and
brought millions to an early grave. We simply cannot
afford to worry and must never do so under any condition whatever.
If we have that habit we can remove
it at once by the proper antidote, which is joyousness. After you have
trained yourself
to look only for the bright and the best, the bright
and the best will come to you, because you will be using your powers
to bring those very things to pass; therefore, rejoice
and be glad every moment. Let your heart and your soul sing at all
times. When you do not feel the joyous music within,
produce it with your own imagination, and ere long it will come of
itself
with greater and greater abundance; your soul will
want to sing because it feels music, and there are few joys that equal
the joy that comes when music is felt in the soul.
There are so many things that are sweet and beautiful in life that when
we once find the key to harmony we shall always
rejoice. In the meantime, be happy for the good you have found, and
through
that very attitude you will develop the power to
attract better things than you ever had before. This personal existence
is
brimful of good things and happy souls will find them
all.
3. Love everybody and be kind.
If you wish your path to be strewn
with roses, just be kind. Give your best to the world, and the best will
come to you without
fail; if it does not come today, never mind; just go
on being kind and refuse to consider disappointments. Never hold in mind
those things that you do not wish to retain; you thus
cause those things to pass away. This "shall also pass away" is true
of everything that is not pleasant; but unpleasant
things will not pass away so long as we hold them in thought. That which
you let go from your mind will pass away from you
entirely. Train yourself to be kindness in a permanent state of mind,
because
you cannot afford to criticize, condemn or be angry at
any time.
We know that anger not only disturbs
the mind, but also destroys the cells of the body, and no one can be
angry without losing
a great deal of life and energy. To find fault never
pays; it simply brings enmity, discord and criticisms; besides, the
faults
we constantly see in others will develop in ourselves.
The critical mind is destructive and the critical attitude is weakening
to the entire system; therefore, no one can be his
best who permits himself to think or talk about the flaws of life. Be
good
and kind to everybody; it is one of the royal paths to
happiness and peace. When anyone does wrong, do not condemn; help him
out; help him find the better way. "Cast your bread
upon the waters;" it will surely return; sometimes more quickly than you
expect it. Therefore, give abundantly of all that is
best in your life, and nothing is better than kindness and love. When
you begin to live an ideal life you will desire more
and more to live the largest life possible, and to accomplish this you
must learn to be much to everybody.
Your purpose must be to be useful in
the largest and truest sense of that term; and nothing can promote this
purpose so thoroughly
and so extensively as universal kindness. This does
not imply, however, that you are to permit yourself to be imposed upon
or unjustly used by the unscrupulous. It is our duty,
as well as our privilege to demand the right at all times, and to demand
justice for everybody and from everybody, but this
should be done in kindness, with the antagonistic attitude eliminated.
The love that loves everybody is not the love that
seeks to gain personal possession of some object of affection. We refer
to that larger kindness that excludes no one from our
whole-souled good wishes. This form of love is the greatest power in
the world, and the one who loves the most in this
larger, truer sense will accomplish the most. The reason why is found in
the fact that a great love invariably brings out all
that is large, great and extraordinary in human nature. To state that
the one who takes the greatest interest in the welfare
of the world does the most to promote his own interests may seem to
be a contradiction of terms; but it is true, and it
proves conclusively that the one who gives his best to the world will
invariably receive the best in return.
Never permit yourself to say that you
cannot love every creature that lives; say that you do love everything
that lives, and
mean it. What you say you are doing that you will find
yourself doing. This greater love illumines the mind, gives new life
to every fiber in your being, removes almost every
burden and eases the whole path of existence. Love removes entirely all
anger, hatred, revenge, ill will, and similar states, a
matter of great importance, for no one can live an ideal life while
such states of mind remain. To have a sweet temper and
loving disposition and a kind heart is worth more than tons of gold.
We are all finding this to be true, and we realize
fully that the person who loves everybody with that larger loving
kindness
has taken a long step upward into that life that is
real life. This is not mere sentiment, but the expression of an exact
scientific fact. A strong, continuous love will bring
all good to any one who lives and acts as he inwardly feels.
4. Have faith in abundance.
Have faith in God; have faith in man;
have faith in yourself; have faith in faith. Believe in everything, and
you relate yourself
to the best that is in everything. We all know the
value of self-confidence, but faith is infinitely deeper, larger and
higher.
Self-confidence helps us to believe in ourselves, as
we are at present, and thus helps us to make a better use of the talents
we now possess; but faith elevates the mind into the
consciousness of our larger and superior possibilities, and thus
increases
perpetually the power, the capacity and the efficiency
of the talents we now possess. Faith brings out the best that is within
us and puts that best to work now. He who follows
faith may frequently go out upon the seeming void, but he always finds
the
solid rock, The reason is that faith has superior
vision and goes instinctively to the very thing we desire to find. Faith
does not expect things to come of themselves.
Faith never stands and waits; it does
things; but while at work believes that the goal will be reached and
the undertaking
accomplished. The person who works in the attitude of
faith can never fail; because through faith he draws upon the
inexhaustible.
The person who works in the attitude of doubt can
never be at his best. Through the feeling of doubt he lowers his own
ability;
he holds back his best power and employs but a portion
of his capacity; but the one who works in faith will press on to the
very limit of his present capacity and then go on
further still, because the more faith he has the more fully he realizes
that there is no limit to his capacity, that the
seeming void that lies before is positively solid rock all the way and
he
may safely proceed. Whatever you do believe that you
can succeed in; do not for a moment permit yourself to doubt; know that
the Infinite is your source, that you live in the
universal and have the boundless upon which to draw for supply. If
people
or things do not come up to your ideal never mind;
give them time; continue to have faith in their better selves; they will
also scale the heights.
Expect them all to do their best, and
most of them will do so now; the others will soon follow, if you live
in the faith that
they will. The unbounded faith of one soul can elevate
the lives of thousands. This is a statement that is just as true as
it is great, and we should constantly give it the
highest place in mind. The man who has faith in the whole race is an
inspiration
to everybody. Many a person has risen rapidly in the
scale because some one had faith in him. Faith is the greatest elevating
power that we know in the world. Faith can convert any
failure into success and can promote the advancement of everybody,
no matter what the circumstances may be. Have faith in
yourself and you will advance as you never advanced before. Have faith
in others and they will inevitably follow. Have faith
in the Infinite and the Supreme Power will always be with you. This
power will see you through, whatever your goal may be.
Therefore, if you would enter the new life, the better life, the ideal
life, and inspire others to do the same, have faith in
abundance.
5. Pray without ceasing.
The true prayer is the whole-souled
desire for the larger, the higher and the better while the mind is
stayed upon the Most
High; and to pray without ceasing is to constantly
live in that lofty desire. The forces of mind and body always follow our
desires; therefore, if we would use our powers in
building up a larger life we must have high desires and true desires.
Turn
your desires upward and keep them there; desire the
greater things only; never desire anything less.
Those powers within you will cause
you to become as true, as great and as perfect as your heart has prayed
that you might
become. To cause our desires, thoughts and states of
consciousness to rise to the very highest states of being, we should
employ the silence daily; that is, we should enter
into the absolute stillness of the secret life of the soul. Through the
silence we shall find the secret of secrets, the path
to that inner world from which everything proceeds. To begin, be alone
and comfortably seated. Or, you may enter the silence
in association with someone that is in perfect harmony with yourself.
Relax mind and body; close your eyes and be perfectly
quiet; turn your attention upon the inner life of the soul and gently
hold your mind upon the thoughts of stillness and
peace.
Affirm with deep, quiet feeling,
"Peace is mine."
"I am resting in the stillness of the spirit."
"I have entered the beautiful calm."
"I am one with the Infinite."
“I am in the kingdom of the great within."
“I am in the secret places of the Most High,"
and similar states.
While you make these statements feel
that you are peaceful and still and that you are now in that inner world
where all is
quiet and serene. When you feel this deep, sublime
stillness you can use other affirmations according to your present
needs.
You may affirm that you are well and strong and happy
and harmonious, and that you have full possession of all those qualities
that you know have existence in real life. To feel the
perfect peace of the soul, however, is the first essential. After that
is attained your consciousness will deepen and you
will enter the great within to a greater and greater degree.
While the mind is in this interior
state of being every thought you think will be a power, and every desire
you express will
modify or change everything in your life according to
the nature of that desire and in proportion to its depth and unity with
the Supreme. For this reason you should train yourself
to think only right thoughts and create only the truest desires while
you are in the silent state. That which you think or
do while in the silence will have a greater effect upon your life than
that which you may attempt while on the surface of
outer consciousness.
Therefore, everything that is
important should be taken into the silence and through the silence to
the Infinite. This corresponds
perfectly with the statement
"Take it to the Lord in prayer."
The real purpose of the silence is to
enable the mind to enter the inner life and not only recreate all
thought according
to the higher truth, but to enter into a more perfect
touch with the divine source of things. The silence should be entered
every day for ten, twenty or thirty minutes. This is a
daily practice of extreme value.
Though you may not have any real
results at first, simply continue; you will reach your goal. When you
begin to become conscious
of your interior life and begin to live more or less
in touch with the world beautiful that is within you, you will find that
you can live in this high, peaceful state the greater
part of the time and thus be in the silence almost constantly. This
is not only a most desirable attainment, but it is the
one great attainment toward which every soul should work.
When a person can live in these
higher realms always and constantly, and desire the realization of the
highest and the best
that he knows, the prayer without ceasing, the true
spiritual prayer is being fulfilled. Such a prayer will be answered
eternally.
Every day will bring us something that we truly wished
for, and every moment will be supplied with all that is necessary to
make the present full and complete.
6. Think the truth.
When we learn to think the truth we
have actually come to the "parting of the ways." Here we find where the
old leaves off
and the new begins. In this state the wrong disappears
and the right is discerned and realized in an ever-increasing manner.
The foundation of all truth is expressed in the basic
statement "MAN IS A SPIRITUAL BEING CREATED IN THE IMAGE AND LIKENESS
OF GOD". Being created in the image of God man is now
divine and in possession of all the divine attributes. Each individual
is now in possession of infinite wisdom, infinite
power, infinite love, eternal life, perfect peace, everlasting joy,
universal
truth, universal freedom, universal good, divine
wholeness, spotless virtue, boundless supply.
True, these attributes exist
principally in the potential state, that is, they are possibilities
waiting in the within for
unfoldment, development and expression; nevertheless,
they do exist in every soul and to a degree that is limitless.
Therefore,
every soul does actually possess those attributes, and
to speak the truth we must recognize their existence and even now claim
their possession. To think the truth you must think
that you are divine in your true being, and that you possess these
attributes,
because this is the truth. You are divine in your true
being, because you are created in the image of God, and you do possess
the divine attributes just mentioned because that
which is divine must necessarily possess the attributes of the divine.
To think contrary to this would be
wrong thought, and from wrong thought comes all the wrong in the world.
The average person
does think contrary to this thought; therefore, he is
almost constantly in bondage to sin, sickness or trouble of some kind.
Divine wholeness, that is, perfect health of body and
mind is yours now, always was and always will be; therefore it would
be wrong for you to say, "I am sick." Your real being
is never sick, never will be, because it is divine and you are the real
being; you are not the body; you possess a body, and
that body may be indisposed, if you create wrong thought, but that body
is not you. You are a spiritual being created in the
image of God, therefore you are always well.
When sickness appears on the surface,
that is, in the body, know that it is on the surface only; that
sickness is not in you;
you are real being, and in real being perfect health
reigns absolutely and eternally. The sickness that sometimes appears
in the body is the result of a recognition of untruth,
either expressed in wrong thinking or wrong living. Right thought,
that is, that thought that invariably follows the
recognition of absolute truth, would not produce sickness; and no person
could become sick that is always filled and protected
with the power of right thought. When the light reigns supremely,
darkness
cannot enter. Wrong thought comes from a false
conception of yourself, and false conceptions will continue to form in
mind
so long as you are ignorant of the truth.
When you know the truth, that you are
the image of God, perfect in your own true being, you will think this
truth and all
your thought will; consequently, only right conditions
can exist in your life, and all will henceforth be well with you. When
you see yourself as you are in your true being, that
you are even now strong and well, in full possession of peace, love,
power, wisdom, freedom and all the good that is in
God, you will think of yourself accordingly and such thought is right
thought.
The result will be right conditions in mind and body.
From center to circumference your entire being will be well and perfect,
as it always was and ever will be in the truth.
To think the absolute truth at first
seems a contradiction of known facts, because we are so used to judging
from appearances,
but when we find that appearances are simply the
result of thought, that right thought produces good appearances, and
wrong
thought produces adverse appearances, and learn that
true being is the image of God, we shall no longer see contradiction
in thinking absolute truth. When we think the truth
about ourselves we shall always think the truth about others; we shall,
therefore, not think of them as they appear on the
surface but as they are in the perfection of real spiritual being. We
shall
overlook, forgive and forget the wrong appearance,
knowing that it is but a temporary effect of wrong thought, and we shall
proceed to inspire everyone to change that appearance
by thinking right thought, the thought of truth.
7. Live in the spirit.
To express this statement in its
simplest terms, we would say that to live in the spirit is to live in
the upper story of
mind and thought, or to live on the good side, the
bright side and the true side of everything. To the beginner this is
sufficient,
because this simple change in living must come before
the higher spiritual consciousness can be realized; but the change
though
simple at first will completely revolutionize life.
Ere long, however, the consciousness of the true side and the better
side
will become so clear that to live in the spirit will
mean infinitely more than to simply dwell in the upper story of mind,
and when this larger experience comes we shall know
from our own illumined understanding what it means to live in the
spirit.
When we begin to think the truth all kinds of
illusions and false beliefs will gradually vanish, and we shall not only
understand
that we are spiritual beings, but we shall feel that
we are all that divine life can be.
We shall positively know that we are
eternal souls living in a spiritual world now, expressing ourselves in a
physical world,
and we shall realize that we are actually created in
the image and likeness of the Infinite, united with the Infinite and
living in the life of Infinite being. Through the
fuller realization of truth we will learn that the spiritual is not some
vague, far away something that saints alone can know,
but that spirit is the essence of all things, the very life of all
things
visible and invisible, and that spirit is in itself
absolutely good and perfect. We will realize that there is but one
substance
from which all things proceed and that substance is
the expression of spirit; we will see that there is but one life, the
spiritual life, and that there is but one law, the
eternal coming forth in a greater and greater measure of life.
We will find that spirit is the basis
of all things, the soul of all things, and that therefore all things
are in reality
very good and very beautiful. We will find through the
spirit that evil is but a temporary condition produced by man's
understanding
of the goodness and the completeness of real being and
that to so live that we realize the absolute goodness and the perfect
harmony of the whole universe is to live in the
spirit. When we realize this we are on the true side of all things and
we
feel that we are. When we are in harmony with all
things we are in harmony with the Infinite and can feel His presence
always;
and we also find that to "dwell in the secret places
of the Most High" is to realize that we are in that great sea of life,
the great spiritual sea, the universal state of being,
the world of divine existence. While we are in this upper state, that
is, in the spirit, we are away from the false, and
actually in the true. We are in the spirit, and from the light of the
spirit
we can see clearly the truth concerning everything.
From this place we may ascend to
other and greater heights and enter into the ever-increasing realms of
life where existence
becomes fairer and higher, too beautiful for tongue to
ever describe. What is held in store for the soul that lives in the
spirit, eternity alone can reveal, but that the life
that is lived in the spirit is the only true life thousands have
learned,
both in this age and in ages gone by. To the beginner,
however, the first essential is to get away from material life, that
is, the common, the gross, the superficial, the
ordinary, the perverted and the wrong; then to go up higher, to enter
the
world of light and live in the more beautiful realms
of sublime existence. To live in the spirit, live in the highest and
most perfect state now, and do not for a moment come
down.
At first this state will simply be a
life that is finer, larger and more harmonious, where things move more
smoothly and where
the value of life seems to constantly increase; but
ere long living in the spirit will mean far more than merely a pleasing
state of existence, and the further we advance the
more this wonderful life will be, until we begin to understand the great
soul who declared: "Eye hath not seen nor ear heard,
neither hath it entered into the heart of man what God has prepared for
them that love Him."
In this connection we must bear in
mind that it is not necessary to reach the supreme heights in spiritual
life before we
can live in the spirit. We can live in the spirit no
matter where we may be in the scale of life, because the spiritual life
has just as many degrees as there are human souls.
Live in the realization that this universe has soul, that this soul is
divine, and that you live and move and have your being
in that great soul. Realize this as fully as your present state of
development will permit, and you have begun to live in
the spirit.
The realization of the divinity of
the soul side of all things will reveal to your mind the great truth
that all things are
perfect in their real state of being, and that the
real of everything lives in a universe of spirit, a universe that is
everywhere
within us all and about us all. However, before we
begin we must be convinced of the great truth that the spiritual life is
not mere sentiment nor a mere feeling of mind and
soul. The spiritual life is the real life, the foundation of all life,
the
essence of all life, the soul of all life, and every
true statement concerning the spiritual life is an exact scientific fact
readily demonstrated by anyone who will apply the
principle. And happy is the soul that does apply this principle, for
such
a soul will find life in the spirit, not only to be
real, but to be infinitely more perfect, more wonderful and more
beautiful
than anyone has ever dreamed.
The First Steps In Ideal Living
Give your best to the world no matter how
insignificant that best may be, and the world will invariably give its
best to you.
There was nothing great or remarkable about the
widow's mite, but it did produce remarkable results, and the reason was
she
gave her very best. When we give our best we not only
receive the best in return from the outer world, but we also receive
the best from the inner world. When you give your best
you bring forth your best, and it is the bringing forth of your best
that causes you to become better and better. When you
become better you will meet better people and enter into better
environments,
and everything in your life will change for the
better, because like does attract like.
To give much is to become much,
provided we give our best and give with the heart. The giving that comes
simply from the hand
does not count, no matter how large it may be. It
brings nothing back to us nor does it bring permanent good to anybody
else.
When you give your best you do not give from your
oversupply or from that which you cannot use. If you have something that
you cannot use, it does not belong to you, and you
cannot give, in the true sense of the term, what is not your own. To
give
does not mean simply to give money, unless that is the
best you have; but rather to give your own service, your own talents,
your ability, your own true worth and your own real
self. The man who lives a real life at all times and under all
circumstances
is giving his best and the very best possible that can
be given. A real life truly lived in the world is a power, and the
person who lives such a life is a power for good
wherever he may be.
The presence of such a person is an
inspiration and a light, as we all know. The man who loves the whole
world with heart
and soul, and loves without ceasing is doing far more
for the race than he who endows universities, and will receive a far
greater reward. We must remember, however, that such a
love is not mere sentiment. Real love is a power and will cause the
person who has it to do his very best for everybody
under every possible circumstance. That person whose heart is with the
race will never be satisfied with inferior work. He
will never shirk nor leave the problems of life to somebody else; he
will
go in and push wherever something good is being done,
and he will constantly endeavor to render better and better service
where ever his field of action may be Such a person
will give his best to the world, whether he gives through the channels
of art or mechanics, music or literature, physical
labor or intellectual labor, ideas or real living.
What he does will be the best, and
what he receives in return will be the best that the world is able to
give. Give the best
that you are through every thought, word and deed;
that is the principle; and your life will be constantly enriched both
from
without and from within. Through the daily application
of this principle you will develop superiority in mind, soul, character
and life, and the world will be better off because you
are here.
Expect the best from everybody and
everybody will do their best for you. There may be occasional exceptions
to this rule,
but through close examination we shall find that these
exceptions are due solely to our own negligence in applying the law
to every occasion. The man who expects the best from
everybody and has faith in everybody will certainly receive more love,
more kindness, better friendship, better service and
more agreeable associates by far than the one who has little or no faith
in anyone.
But, our faith in people must be
alive, and our expectations must have soul. To live constantly in the
fear that people will
do this or that, and that such and such mistakes may
be made, is to live in a confused mental world, and where there is much
confusion there will be many mistakes. Mental states
are contagious; how that can be is not a matter for present discussion,
but the fact that they are is extremely important, and
we all know that they are; therefore, if we live in fear and confusion
we will be a disturbing element among all those with
whom we associate, and if our associates are not mentally strong and
positive, they will be more or less confused by our
presence, and they are very liable to produce the very mistakes we
feared.
On the other hand, when we have faith
in people we help them to have faith in themselves, and the more faith a
person has
in himself the fewer his mistakes and the better his
work. When we have faith in everybody and are constantly expecting the
best from everybody we create wholesome conditions in
our own minds, conditions that will tend to develop the best in
ourselves;
that person, however, who has no faith in others will
soon lose faith in himself, and when he does there will be a turn for
the worse in his life. True, he may continue to
possess a mechanical self-confidence or an exaggerated state of egotism,
but
such a state will soon produce a reaction, and failure
will follow.
The self confidence that brings out
the best that is within us is always founded upon a living faith in the
inherent greatness
of man; therefore, no one can have real faith in
himself unless he also has faith in the greater possibilities of the
race,
and no one can expect the best from himself and give
soul to that expectation unless he also expects the best from others.
This is a scientific fact that anyone can prove in his
own daily experience. To expect the best from everybody will cause
everybody to do their best for you. Look for the best
everywhere and you will find the best wherever you go. Why this is so
is a matter upon which many delight to speculate, but
the why does not concern us just now. It is the fact that this law works
that concerns us, and concerns us very much.
Not everybody can fully understand
why the best is always found by him who never looks for anything but the
best, but everybody
can look for the best everywhere and thereby find the
best; and it is the finding of the best that attracts our attention.
It is real results that we are looking for, and the
simpler the method the better. The man who will constantly apply this
law will not remain in undesirable environments very
long, nor will he occupy an inferior position very long; better things
will positively come his way and he will not have to
wait an age for the change. The man who looks for the best is constantly
thinking about the best and constantly impressing his
mind with the best thought about everything; and since man is as he
thinks we can readily understand why such a man will
become better and better; therefore, by looking for the best everywhere
he will not only find the best in the external world,
but he will create the best in his mental world; this will give him
a greater mind, which in turn will produce higher
attainments and greater achievements.
That man, however, who is always
looking for the worst will constantly think about the worst and will
fill his mind with inferior
thoughts; that he, himself, will become inferior by
such a process is a foregone conclusion. We shall positively find,
sooner
or later, what we constantly look for; it is,
therefore, profitable to look for the best everywhere and at all times;
we become
like those things that we constantly and deeply think
about; it is, therefore, profitable to think only of the best whatever
may come or not. The average person may not find the
best the very first day this principle is applied.
Most of us have strayed so far away
from this mode of thinking and living that it may take some time to get
back to the path
that leads to the best; but one thing is certain,
whoever will look for the best everywhere, and continue to do so for a
reasonable
length of time, will find that path; besides, he will
have more delightful experiences while he is training himself to apply
this principle than he has had for any similar period
before. This, however, will be only the beginning; the future has far
greater things in store, if he will continue to look
for the best and never look for anything else.
When things are not to your liking,
like them as they are. In other words, while you are working for greater
things make friends
with the lesser things, and they will help you to
reach your goal. The person who is dissatisfied with things as they are
and discontented because things are not to his liking
is standing in his own way. We cannot get away from present conditions
so long as we antagonize those conditions, because we
are held in bondage to that which we resist. If you want present
conditions
to become stepping-stones to better things, you must
get on the better side of present conditions, and you do that by liking
things as they are while they remain with you. We must
be in harmony with the present if we wish to advance, because in order
to advance we must use the present, but we cannot use
that with which we are not in harmony.
This is a fact that deserves the most
thorough attention and will, when understood, explain fully why the
average person seems
powerless to rise above his surroundings. We must be
on friendly terms with everything that exists in our present world if
we wish to gain possession of all the building
material that our present world can give, and we cannot secure too much
material
if we desire to build a larger life and a greater
future. That which we dislike becomes detrimental to us, no matter how
good
it may be; nevertheless, it will always be with us
because it is impossible to eliminate permanently that which we
antagonize;
when we run away from it in one place we shall meet it
elsewhere in some other form; but that which we love will constantly
serve us and help us on to greater things; when it can
serve us no longer it will disappear.
To like those things, however, that
are not to our liking may seem difficult, but the question is why they
are not to our
liking; when we know that everything in our present
world is a stepping stone to something still better it will be natural
for us to like everything. Those things may not come
up to our ideals, but that is not their real purpose; it is not the
mission
of present things to serve as ideals, their mission is
to help us to reach our ideals, and they positively can do this if
we will take them into friendly cooperation. When you
take a drive to an ideal country place you do not dislike the horse
because he is not that country place; if you are
humane, you will love that horse because he is willing and able to take
you
where you wish to go. If you should dislike and
mistreat that horse or should fail to hitch him to the vehicle, you
would
not reach your destination.
This, however, is the very thing that
the average person does with the things of his present world; these
things are the horses
and the vehicles that can take us to the ideal places
we desire to reach; but we must hitch them up; we must treat them right
and use them. To cause all things that are about us
now to work together with us, we must be in perfect harmony with them;
we must like them as they are, and that becomes
comparatively easy when we know that it is necessary for them to be what
they
are in order that they may serve as our stepping
stones; if they were different there would be no stepping stones, and we
would have to remain where we are. When we realize
that everything that exists in our present world has the power to
promote
our advancement, if we properly use that power, and
when we realize that it is necessary to be in harmony with all things
to use the power that is within those things, we shall
no longer dislike anything; we shall even make friends with adversity,
because the power that is in adversity can be tamed by
kindness and love; and when that power is tamed it becomes our own.
These are great facts and easily demonstrated by
anyone, and whoever will apply these principles will find that by liking
everything that be finds he will secure the
cooperation of everything, and anyone can move forward rapidly when all
things
are working with him; consequently, by liking what he
finds he will find what he likes.
When you do not get what you want
take what you can get and call it good. It is better to have something
than nothing; besides,
we must use what we can get before we can become so
strong and so able that we can get whatever we may want. When a person
fails to realize his ideals, there is a reason;
usually the cause is this: he simply longs for the ideal but does not
work
himself up to the ideal. And to work himself up to the
ideal he needs everything that he can get and use now; by taking what
he can get he secures something to work with in
promoting his present progress, and by looking upon this something as
good
he will turn it to good account.
It is a well known fact that we get
the best out of everything when we meet everything in the conviction
that it is good for
something, because this attitude invariably brings the
mind into conscious touch with the real value of that which is met.
What we constantly look for we are sure to find,
therefore, by calling everything good that we get and by constantly
looking
for the real worth of that which we get, the good in
everything that we get will be found; the result is that everything we
receive or come in contact with will be good for
something to us and will have something of value to give us. Gradually,
the
good will so accumulate that we shall have all that we
want; life will be filled with that which has quality and worth, which
means that the development towards greater worth will
constantly take place, and development towards greater worth means the
constant ascension into the realization of our ideals.
By accepting and using the good that we can now secure we add so much
to the worth of our own life that we become worthy of
the greater good we may desire; in consequence, we shall positively
receive it.
This process may not satisfy those
who expect to reach the top at once or expect to receive the better
without making themselves
better, but it will satisfy those who would rather
move forward gradually and surely than stand empty handed waiting and
waiting
for ages hoping that some miraculous secret may be
found through which everything can be accomplished at once. The idea,
however,
is not that we should meekly submit to things as they
are and be satisfied with what little fate may seem willing to give
us; that is the other extreme and is just as
detrimental to human welfare. Take everything that legitimately comes
your way;
do not refuse it because it seems too small; take it
and call it good, because it is good for something; then make the best
possible use of it with a view of getting greater good
through that use; expect everything to multiply in your hands; have
that faith; accept little things, as well as large
things in that conviction, and every good that you do accept will be
instrumental
in bringing greater good to you.
To live in the attitude of turning
everything to good account has a most wholesome effect upon mind and
character, because
that mental attitude will tend to turn everything
within yourself to good account; the result will be the constant
development
of a finer character and a more capable mind. By
combining all the results from this mode of living and by noting the
greater
results that will invariably come from these combined
results we must conclude that the total gain will be great, and that
he who turns to good account everything that comes
into his life, will positively receive everything that be may required
to live an ideal life.
Live in the cheerful world, even if
you have to create such a world in your own imagination. Resolve to be
happy regardless
of what comes; you cannot afford to be otherwise.
Count everything joy; meet everything in the spirit of joy, and expect
everything
to give you joy. By creating a cheerful world in your
own imagination you develop the tendency to a sunny disposition, and
by meeting everything in the attitude of joy you will
soon meet only those things that naturally produce joy. Like does
attract
like. Much sunshine will gather more sunshine, and the
happiest mind meets the most delightful experiences.
When exceptions occur pass them by as
of no consequence, because they are of no consequence to you; you are
interested only
in happy events; it is only such events that you
desire to meet; therefore, there is no reason whatever why you should
pay
any attention to the other kind. It is a fact that the
less attention we pay to unpleasant conditions the less unpleasantness
we meet in life. That person who looks for the
disagreeable everywhere and expects to find it everywhere will certainly
find
what he is looking for in most places, if not in all
places. On the other hand, the person who expects only the pleasant will
seldom find anything else. We attract what we think of
the most. There is no better medicine than cheerfulness, especially
for the circulation and the digestive functions.
Keep your mind full of living joy and
your circulation will be strong in every part of your being, and a
strong full circulation
is one of the secrets to perfect health. Another great
secret to health is a good digestion, and it is well to remember that
so long as you are thoroughly bright and happy you can
digest almost anything. The greatest value of cheerfulness, however,
is found in its effect upon the mind; that is, in its
power to make faculties and talents grow, just as sunshine makes flowers
grow. It is a well-known fact that the most cheerful
mind is the most brilliant mind, other things being equal, and that the
brightest ideas always come when you are in the
brightest frame of mind. This makes cheerfulness indispensable to those
who
wish to improve themselves and develop superior mental
power. The depressed mind is always dull and never sees anything
clearly;
while the cheerful mind learns more readily, remembers
more easily and understands more perfectly; but we must not conclude
that cheerfulness is all that is necessary to the
development of a fine intelligence; there must be mental power and
mental
quality as well; but the power and the quality of the
mind, however great, cannot be fully expressed without an abundance
of mental sunshine.
Though the warmest sunshine may fail
to make a gravel knoll productive, still the most fertile soil will
remain barren so
long as the sunshine is absent. There are thousands of
fertile minds in the world that are almost wholly unproductive, because
they lack mental sunshine. If these would cultivate
real genuine mental brightness every part of the world would sparkle
with
brilliant ideas. What the acorn is to the oak bright
ideas are to a great and successful life, and we all can produce bright
ideas through the development of mental ability and
the cultivation of mental sunshine. Cheerfulness keeps the body in the
best condition and brings out the best that there is
in the mind. To attain the cheerful state we must remember that it is
a product of the inner life and does not come from
circumstances or conditions; therefore, the first essential is to create
a cheerful world in the imagination; picture in mind
the brightest states of existence that you can think of and impress joy
upon mind at all times; feel joy, think joy, and make
every action of mind and body thrill with joy; ere long you will have
created within yourself the subconscious cause of joy,
and when this is done cheerfulness and brightness will become permanent
elements in yourself.
Live in the present only, and seek to
make the great eternal now as full and complete as possible. It is what
we do for the
present that counts; the past is gone, and the future
is not ready to be acted upon. Give your time, your talent and your
power to that which is now at hand and you will do
things worthwhile, you will not waste thought upon what you expect to
do,
but you will turn all your energies upon that which
you now can do; results will positively follow. The man who does things
worthwhile in the present will not have to worry about
the future; for such a man the future has rich rewards in abundance.
The greater the present cause the
greater the future effect. Nine tenths of the worries in the average
life are simply about
the future; all of these will be eliminated when we
learn to live in the present only. Instead of giving anxious thought to
the bridge we may have to cross we should give
scientific thought to the increase of present ability and power; thus we
make
ourselves fully competent to master every occasion
that we may meet.
The present moment should be dealt
cause if we are advancing, the present is not only larger than the past,
but quite different
in many if not all respects. To follow the past is to
limit one's self to the lesser accomplishments of the past and thus
prevent the very best from being attained in the
present. The present moment should be dealt with according to the needs
of
the present moment regardless of what was done under
similar conditions in the past. There is sufficient wisdom at hand now
to solve all the problems of the present moment, if we
will make full, practical application of that wisdom.
He who lives for the present only
will live a larger life, a happier life, a far more useful life; this is
perfectly natural,
because he will not scatter his forces over past ages
and future ages, but will concentrate his whole life, all his power,
all his ability upon that which he is trying to do
now; he will be his best today, because he will give all of his best to
the life of today, and he who is his best today will
be still better tomorrow.
Never complain, criticize or condemn,
but meet all things in a constructive attitude of mind. The critical
mind is destructive
to itself, and will in time become wholly incompetent
to even produce logical criticism. To complain about everything is to
constantly think about the inferior side of
everything, thus impressing inferiority upon the mind; this will cause
the entire
process of thinking to become inferior; in
consequence, the retrogression of the man himself will inevitably
follow. Refuse
to complain about anything; complaints never righted a
wrong and never will. When you seek to gain justice through complaint
you temporarily gain something in one place and
permanently lose something in another; besides, you have harmed your own
mind.
The fact is that the more you
complain the worse things will become; and the more you criticize what
you meet today the more
adverse and inferior will be the things you are to
meet tomorrow. The reason why is simple; the complaining mind attracts
the cheap and the common, and the critical spirit goes
directly down into weakness and inferiority. However, we must remember
in this connection that there is a marked difference
between the critical attitude and the discriminating attitude. When
things
are not right we should say so, but while saying so we
should not enter into a "rip and tear" frame of mind; the facts should
be stated firmly but gently and without the slightest
trace of ill feeling or condemnation; simply discriminate between the
white and the black and state the facts, but let no
hurt whatever appear in your voice.
What we say is important, but the way
things are said is far more important; even truth itself, can be
expressed in such a
way that it hurts, harms and destroys; this, however,
is not true expression. It is truth misdirected, and always produces
undesirable effects. To state your wants in a friendly
manner is not complaint, but when there are hurts and whines in your
voice you are making complaints and you are harming
yourself; besides, you are producing unfavorable impressions upon those
with whom you come in contact. It is far better to
have faith in people than to criticize and complain, even though
everything
seems to go wrong, because when we have faith in
people we shall finally attract those who are after our own hearts, and
who
are competent to do things the way we wish to have
them done. Instead of complaining, or stating that there is always
something
wrong, we should live constantly in the strong faith
that everything is eternally coming right; we thus place ourselves in
harmony with those laws that can and will make things
right. This is no idle dream, nor shall we have to wait a long time
to secure results. The very day we establish faith in
the place of complaints, criticisms and distrust, the tide will turn;
things will change for the better in our world, and
continue to improve perpetually.
Make the best use of every occasion,
and nothing but opportunities will come your way. He who makes the best
of everything
will attract the best of everything, and it is always
an opportunity to meet the best. There are occasions that seem
worthless,
and the average person thinks he is wasting time while
he is passing through such states, but no matter how worthless the
occasion may seem to be the one who makes the best use
of it while he is in it will get something of real value out of it;
in addition, the experience will have exceptional
worth, because whenever we try to turn an occasion to good account we
turn
everything in ourselves to good account.
The person who makes the best use of
every occasion is developing his mind and strengthening his own
character every day;
to such a person every occasion will become an
opportunity and will consequently place him in touch with the greater
world
of opportunities. Much gathers more and many small
opportunities will soon attract a number of larger ones; then comes
promotion,
advancement and perpetual increase. "To him that hath
shall be given." Every event has the power to add to your life, and
will add to your life, if you make the best use of
what it has to give; this will constantly increase the power of your
life,
which will bring you into greater occasions and better
opportunities than, you ever knew before. Make the best use of
everything
that comes your way; greater things will positively
follow; that is the law, and he who daily applies this law has a
brilliant
future before him.
Never antagonize anything, neither in
thought, word nor deed, but live in that attitude that is non-resisting
to evil while
positively and continuously inclined towards the good.
You give your energy to that which you resist; you thereby give life
to the very thing you seek to destroy. To resist evil
is to increase the power of evil, and at the same time take life and
power away from that good which you wish to develop or
promote. The antagonistic mind develops bitterness in itself and
thereby
becomes just as disagreeable as the thing disliked;
frequently more so, and we cannot expect to be drawn into the more
delightful
elements of the ideal while we ourselves are becoming
less and less ideal.
To live in the antagonistic attitude
is to perpetuate a destructive process throughout mind and body, and at
the same time
suffer a constant loss of energy. We therefore cannot
afford to be antagonistic at any time, nor even righteously indignant,
no matter how perfectly in the right we may be; though
in this connection it is well to remember that indignation never can
be righteous. There are a number of minds that have
the habit of feeling an inner bitterness towards those beliefs or
systems
of thought which they cannot accept. Frequently there
can be no logical grounds for such a feeling. In many instances it is
simply hereditary, or the result of foundationless
prejudice; nevertheless, it is there and is actually sapping life and
power
out of the mind that has it.
This habit is therefore responsible
for much mental weakness, inability and consequent failure; and as
everything that tends
to decrease the life and the power of the individual
tends to shorten his life, as well as decrease the value and usefulness
of his life, it is evident that we cannot afford to
feel bitter toward any religion, any belief, any doctrine, any party or
any person whatever; we harm ourselves by so doing and
do not add to the welfare or happiness of anybody.
Be on friendly terms with the entire
universe and feel kindly towards every creature in existence; leave the
ills of perverted
life to die; let the "dead bury their dead." It is our
privilege to press on and promote the greatest good that we know; and
when we give our whole time and attention to the
highest attainment of the greatest good, evil will die of itself. This
is
what it means to overcome evil with good, and it is
the one perfect path to complete emancipation, both for the individual
and for the race. If you wish to serve the race do not
antagonize systems, doctrines, methods or beliefs; be an inspiration
to the race by actually doing the very best you know
now.
The First Thought In Ideal Thinking
But seek ye first his kingdom, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.
Matthew 6: 33.
The kingdom of God is a spiritual
kingdom within man and manifests through man as the spiritual life. His
righteousness is
the right use of all that is contained in the elements
of the spiritual life. The spiritual life being the complete life,
the full expression of life in body, mind and soul, it
is evident that the right use of the spiritual life will produce and
bring everything that man may need or desire. The
source of everything has the power to produce everything, provided the
power
within that source is used according to exact
spiritual law.
The spiritual life being the source
of all that is necessary to a full and perfect life, and the kingdom
within being the
source of the spiritual life, we can readily
understand why the kingdom should be sought first; and also why
everything that
we may require will be added when the first thought is
given to spiritual living, ideal thinking and righteous action.
Righteous
action, however, does not simply imply moral action,
but the right use of the elements of life in all action.
The kingdom of God is the spiritual
side of all things. This spiritual side is within the manifested or
visible side; that
is, everything is filled with an inner, finer
something that is perfect and complete. Every part of the outer world is
filled
and permeated with an inner world, and everything that
appears in the outer world is a partial manifestation or expression
of what exists in a perfect and complete state in the
inner world. This inner world is the kingdom referred to, and as it
is inexhaustible in every sense of that term, there is
nothing we cannot receive when we learn to draw upon the riches of
this vast inner realm. In the life of man we have the
outer and the inner worlds; the personal life in the without and the
great spiritual life in the within.
What appears in the outer world of
man, that is, in his personal existence, is the result of what he has
sought and brought
forth from his inner world. According to one of the
greatest of metaphysical laws we express whatever we become conscious
of. We, therefore, understand clearly why the personal
man, or his outer world, is the direct result of what he has become
conscious of in his interior world. Man is what he is
in the without, because he has sought the corresponding elements in
the within, and he may change the without in any
manner desired by seeking first in the within those qualities and
attributes
that he may desire.
To seek and find the within is to
become conscious of the within, and what is thus sought and found will
express itself in
personal life; but its real value will depend upon
whether it is properly used or not. To seek the richer kingdom within is
the first essential, but to promote the righteous use
of these greater riches is the second essential, and is just as
important
as the first.
To give the first thought at all
times to the great spiritual kingdom within, it is not necessary to
withdraw attention from
the outer world nor to deny one's self the good things
that may exist in the outer world. To seek the kingdom first is to
give one's strongest thought to the spiritual life,
and to make spiritual thought the predominating thought in everything
that one may do in life; in other words, live so
closely to the spiritual kingdom within that you are fully conscious of
that
kingdom every moment, and depend absolutely upon
supreme power to carry you through whatever you may undertake to do.
To seek the kingdom first the heart
must be in the spirit; that is, to live in the full realization of the
inner spiritual
life at all times must be the one predominating
desire. However, the mental conception of the spiritual life must not be
narrow,
but must contain the perfection of everything that can
possibly appear in life.
To think of the spiritual life as
being distinct from mind and body, is to prevent the elements of the
great interior life
from being expressed in mind and body, and what is not
expressed cannot be lived. The spiritual life in this larger sense
must be thoroughly lived in mind and body. The power
of the spiritual must be made the soul of all power, and the law of
spiritual
action must be made the rule and the guide in all
action.
When the spiritual is lived in all
life the richness and the quality and the worth of the spiritual will be
expressed in all
life, and spiritual worth means the sum total of all
worth. There are any number of minds in the world who now realize this
greater worth and who have found the spiritual riches
within to an extraordinary degree, but they have not in every instance
sought righteousness; therefore, these spiritual
riches have been of no use; frequently they have become obstacles in the
living of a life of personal welfare and growth.
Real righteousness means right living
and exact scientific thinking; that is, the correct expression of
everything of which
we are now conscious. To be righteous does not simply
mean to be moral and truthful and just, but to live in harmony with
all laws, physical, mental, moral and spiritual. To be
in harmony with physical law, is to adapt one's self orderly to
everything
in the external world; to resist no exterior force,
but to constructively use every exterior force in such a manner that
perpetual
physical development may take place.
To be in harmony with mental laws is
to promote scientific thinking; that is, to think the truth about
everything and to see
everything from the universal viewpoint. Scientific
thinking is that mode of thinking that causes all the forces of mind and
thought to constantly work for greater things. To be
in harmony with moral laws is to live a life of complete purity; and
purity in the true sense of the term is the doing of
all things at the right time, in the right place and with the right
motive;
in other words, every action is a pure action that
leads to higher and better things. All other actions are not pure,
therefore
not moral. To be in harmony with spiritual laws is to
live in constant conscious touch with the inner or higher side of
everything.
To apply the spiritual law is to seek
the spiritual first, no matter what the goal in view may be; to seek
first the spiritual
counterpart that is within everything, to make the
spiritual thought the predominating thought and to dwell constantly in
the spiritual attitude. We enter the spiritual
attitude when we enter the upper story of the mind and mentally face
that supreme
side of life that is created in the likeness of the
Supreme. Briefly stated, to be righteous is to be in harmony with the
outer side of life, to think the truth, to live in
real purity, to dwell on the spiritual heights and to give full and
complete
expression to the highest and the best of which we are
now conscious.
When this is done we shall rightly
manifest whatever we may find in the kingdom within. Righteousness,
however, is not a definite
goal but a perpetual process of attainment that
involves the entire being of man. The righteous man is right and perfect
as
far as he has ascended in the scale of life at
present, though not simply in a moral sense, but in every sense,
including
body, mind and soul.
The righteous man is never weak,
never sick, and is never in a state of discord or disorder. This is a
great truth that we
should not fail to remember. Sickness, weakness,
discord and all other adverse conditions come from the violation of law
somewhere
in human life, but the righteous man violates no law.
He is true to life as far as he has ascended in the scale of life. To
be righteous in the absolute sense of the term is to
use everything in our present world as God uses everything in His world,
which means in harmony with its own nature, in harmony
with its sphere of action, and in harmony with that law that leads
upward and onward forever.
Righteous action is that action that
is always harmonious and that always works for better things, greater
things, higher
things. The great majority of those minds that are
awakened to the reality of the spiritual side of things have already
found
an abundance of good things in the vast interior life
that is ready for manifestation in personal life, but as most of these
have neglected the law of real righteousness this
abundance remains inactive in the potential state and all other things
as
promised are not added. That all other things will be
added when His kingdom and His righteousness are sought first may not
seem clear to everybody, because the kingdom of God
has been looked upon as a far away place that we are to enter when we
leave the body, and righteousness has been looked upon
as simply a moral, just and honest mode of living.
But when we realize that the kingdom
is the great spiritual world within us, and that from this world comes
all wisdom, all
power, all talent, all life; in brief, everything that
we now possess in body, mind and soul, and that everything we are to
receive in the future must come from the same source,
we understand clearly why the kingdom must be sought first.
We cannot secure anything unless we
go to the source, and the spiritual kingdom within us is the one only
source of everything
that is manifested in human life. When we desire more
wisdom and a greater understanding it is evident that we can obtain
these things only by entering real mental light, and
that light is within us in the spirit. By entering into the
consciousness
of the illumined world within we naturally receive
more light. We ourselves, become illumined to a degree, frequently to a
great degree, and we thus gain the power to understand
perfectly what we could neither desire nor comprehend before. When
we seek more life and power we can find the greater
life only in the eternal life, and the eternal life is the life of the
spirit in the kingdom within.
"They that wait upon the Lord shall
renew their strength." To wait upon the Lord is to enter into the
spiritual presence of
the Infinite, and whenever we enter into the presence
of the Infinite we enter into the life of the Infinite and we are thus
filled through and through with the supreme power of
that life. When we enter into the spiritual kingdom within we enter into
the Christ consciousness and in that consciousness we
receive the life more abundant, because to be in the Christ
consciousness
is to be in the very spirit of the limitless life of
the Christ. When we seek health we can find it in the kingdom, because
in the spirit all is always well.
There is a realm within man where
perfect health reigns supremely and eternally. In that realm everything
is always perfectly
whole and to enter into that realm is to enter into
absolute health and wholeness. No one who lives constantly in the spirit
can possibly be sick, because sickness can no more
enter the spiritual state than darkness can enter where there is
absolute
light. To enter the kingdom within is to enter health,
happiness and harmony in the highest, largest degree; therefore, by
seeking the kingdom, health will be added, happiness
will be added, harmony will be added. It is impossible, however, to gain
health, happiness and harmony, in the true sense, from
any other source. But to seek these qualities in the kingdom is not
sufficient. We must also seek righteousness or the
right expressions of those things. If we misuse any organ, faculty,
function
or power anywhere in body, mind or soul, we cannot
remain in health, no matter how spiritual we may try to be.
To enter the kingdom within is to
enter the perpetual increase of power, because there is no limit to the
power of the spirit,
and the more power we enter into or become conscious
of the more power we shall give to mind and body; in consequence, the
more spiritual we become the stronger we become, the
more able we become, the more competent we become and the more we can
accomplish whatever our work may be; and he who can do
good work in the world invariably receives the good things of the
world.
To his life will be added all those
things that can make personal existence rich and beautiful. To enter the
kingdom within
is to enter the life of freedom. There is no bondage
in the spirit, and as we grow in the spirit we grow out of every form
of bondage. One adverse condition after another
disappears until absolute freedom is gained. Therefore, when we seek
first
His kingdom and His righteousness we shall find the
life of complete emancipation. Perfect freedom in all things and at all
times will positively be added.
There are thousands of aspiring souls
in this age that are trying to develop their powers and talents so that
they might be
of greater use in the world, but if these would seek
the kingdom first, they would find within themselves the real source
of every talent; and as the only way to permanently
increase anything is to increase the expressions of its source we
understand
perfectly why greatness can come only when we begin to
live in the great within.
We must always bear in mind that what
we become conscious of we bring forth into personal expression, but we
cannot become
conscious of the larger source of any quality or
talent unless we enter into the spirit of that quality and talent, and
as
the spirit of all things has its source of real
existence in the kingdom within, we must enter this interior world if we
wish
to become conscious of a larger and a larger measure
of those things that we wish to express.
That any person can improve his
environment or overcome poverty by seeking the kingdom first may not
seem possible, but the
truth is that adverse conditions will positively
disappear after one begins to actually live the full spiritual life.
Poverty
has two causes; lack of ability and the misplacing of
ability. To improve ability to any degree the within must be awakened.
We must learn to draw upon the inexhaustible sources
of the inner life and become conscious of the greater capacity that lies
latent within us. This is accomplished by seeking the
kingdom first.
By giving your first thought, your
predominating thought to the great and mighty world within, your mind
will gradually enter
more deeply into the life of this inner world. You
thus become conscious of the larger powers within, because consciousness
always follows the predominating thought. What you
think of the most develops in yourself. When you think the most of the
spiritual, consciousness will follow your spiritual
thought and thus enter more deeply into the spirit.
The result is you become conscious of
a larger spiritual domain every day, you become conscious of a greater
capacity within
yourself every day, and since you always express what
you become conscious of you will cause greater ability and capacity
to be developed and expressed in yourself every day;
you thereby remove the first cause of poverty and place yourself in a
position where you will be in greater demand, and the
greater the demand for your service the greater will be your recompense.
There are a number of people who have
misplaced their talents that may have considerable ability, but they
are not in the
work for which they are adapted, and therefore do not
succeed. They may have been forced into their present positions by
necessity,
or they may have chosen their present places through
inferior judgment, but both of these causes may be changed by seeking
the kingdom first. When we enter the spiritual
everything clears up. We not only see our mistakes, but also how to
correct
them; therefore, if you are in the wrong place, enter
the spiritual light of the kingdom within, and you will see clearly
where you belong. If you do not know whether you are
in the proper sphere or not, enter the spirit. Constantly live in the
spirit and you will soon know; you will also know when
and how to change.
By entering this state where the
outlook is infinitely greater you will see opportunities, open doors,
possibilities, and
pastures green that you never saw before; and you will
also see clearly which one you have the power and the capacity to take
advantage of now. If you have been forced into the
wrong place by necessity, the larger mental life that will come when you
seek the kingdom will give you the power to command
something better, and the superior wisdom that comes through the light
of the spirit will guide you in your choice. Instead
of adversity and constant need you will have peace, harmony and
abundance.
You will pass from the world of poverty and
limitations to a world that can offer a future as brilliant as the sun.
The man who fights adversity and
complains of his lot will continue in poverty and need. He will remain
in mental darkness;
he will be daily misled, and will always be doing the
wrong thing at the wrong time. Such a life breeds ill luck and
misfortune
and perpetuates the poverty that already exists.
However, let this person enter into harmony with his present fate, count
everything joy, and realize that he can make his
present misfortune a stepping stone to better things; then let him give
his
first thought to the kingdom, to the greater life and
power and capacity within, to the superior creative powers of his own
mind, those powers that are able even now to create
for him a better fate, if he will but place before them a better
pattern;
the results will be peace of mind first, then hope of
the better, then the vision of great changes near at hand, then the
faith that the new life, the new time and the better
days are now being created for his world.
And when a person begins to inwardly
feel that things are taking a turn, that better days are coming and that
the good is
beginning to accumulate in his life, the victory is
nearly won. A little more faith and perseverance and the crowning day
is at hand. From that moment all things will begin to
work together for good things and for still greater things, providing
the mind is held in constant conscious touch with the
spiritual kingdom within, and all the laws of life are employed
according
to the highest ideal of righteousness.
Many a person, however, has failed
while on the very verge of his victory, because he neglected the kingdom
when he began
to see the change coming. By giving his first thought
to the material benefits that he expected to secure, his consciousness
is taken away from the spirit and becomes confused in
those things that had not as yet been placed in the true order of
perpetual
increase. The result is a scattering of forces and his
loss upon the hold of the good things that were beginning to gravitate
towards his world.
While ascending this upward path we
must at every step keep the eye single upon the kingdom, upon the
spiritual, upon the
larger and the higher life within. When the other
things are being added we must not forget the kingdom and give our first
thoughts to the other things. We shall enjoy these
other things so much the more, if we continue to give the first thought
to the spirit. This is evident, because while giving
the first thought to the spirit everything that comes into our world
will be spiritualized, refined and perfected, and will
thus be given added power and worth. When we continue to give the first
thought to the spiritual kingdom those other things
that are added will enter our world at their best and we shall thus
receive
the best that those things may have to give.
We are always at our best when we are
on the heights, and we gain the power to create, produce and attract
those things from
every part of life that correspond to the life on the
heights. Therefore, by living on the heights in the spiritual kingdom
we gain everything that we may require; we gain the
best of everything that we may require, and we are in that condition
where
we can make the best use of what comes, and enjoy what
comes to the highest and most perfect degree. We can thus readily
understand
that when we seek the kingdom of God constantly,
giving our first thought to the spiritual and seeking to live
righteously
according to this larger view of righteousness, all
problems of life will be solved.
All the crooked paths of life will be
made straight; obstacles will disappear; our circumstances will change
to correspond
with our ideas, and we will daily enter into a better
life and a greater state of existence than we ever knew before. The
problems of the world can be solved in the same way.
Therefore, the greatest thing that we can do for the human race is to
make clear this law, that is, the law through which
His kingdom and His righteousness may be sought first by any individual,
no matter what the degree of that individual's
understanding may be. To promote a real spiritual movement on the
largest possible
scale is to cause the ills of humanity to gradually,
but surely, pass away. This planet will then become, not a vale of
tears,
but what it is intended to be, the kingdom of heaven
realized upon earth.
The human race, however, is the
product of human thought; therefore, the prime essential is to inspire
the human mind with
the power to give His kingdom and His righteousness
the first thought. To make the ideal real upon earth, all thinking must
be ideal; and to cause all things to become ideal the
foundation of all things must be based upon pure spiritual thought;
that is, every thought that is created in the mind
must be animated with this great first thought, the thought of the
kingdom
within and the full righteous expression of that
kingdom.
When we seek first the kingdom and
his righteousness all other things are added, not in some mysterious
manner, nor do they
come of themselves regardless of conscious effort to
work in harmony with the law of life. We receive from the kingdom only
what we are prepared to use in the living of a great
life and in the doing of great and worthy things in the world. We
receive
only in proportion to what we give, and it is only as
we work well that we produce great results; but by entering the
spiritual
life we receive everything that we may require in
order to give as much as we may desire, to do as much as we may desire.
We gain the power and the talent to do everything that
is necessary to give worth and superiority to our entire state of
existence.
When we enter the spiritual life we
gain every quality that is necessary in making life full and complete
now, and we gain
the power to produce and create in the external world
whatever we may need or desire. In other words, we receive everything
we want from within and we gain the power to produce
everything we want in the without. We, therefore, need never take
anxious
thought about these other things. By seeking first His
kingdom and His righteousness we shall positively receive these other
things. The way will be open to all that is rich,
beautiful and superior in life, and we shall be abundantly supplied with
the best that life can give.
The Ideal And The Real Made One
When the elements of the ideal are blended
harmoniously with the elements of the real the two become one; the ideal
becomes
real and the real gives expression to the qualities of
the ideal. To be in harmony with everything at all times and under
all circumstances is therefore one of the great
essentials in the living of that life that is constantly making real a
larger
and larger measure of the ideal; and so extremely
important is continuous harmony that nothing should be permitted to
produce
confusion or discord for the slightest moment.
Discord wastes energy, while harmony
accumulates energy. If we wish to be strong in mind and body and do the
best possible
work, harmony is absolutely necessary and we must be
in the best possible condition to make real the ideal. The person who
lives in perpetual harmony with everything will
accomplish from ten to one hundred per cent more than the average during
any
given period of time; a fact that gives the elements
of harmony a most important place in life. When harmony is absent there
is always a great deal of mental confusion, and a
confused mind can never think clearly, therefore makes mistakes
constantly.
To establish complete and continuous mental harmony
will reduce mistakes to a minimum in any mind; another fact that makes
the attainment of harmony one of the great
attainments.
The mind that is living in continuous
harmony is realizing a great measure of heaven upon earth regardless of
his personal
attainments or external possessions. He has made real
that ideal something that makes existence thoroughly worthwhile, and
he is rich indeed. To live in harmony is to gain the
joy everlasting, the contentment that is based upon the real value of
life, and that satisfaction that grows larger and
better for every day that passes by. On the other hand, to live in
discord
is to live in perpetual torment, even though our
personal attainments may be great and our personal possessions as large
as
any mind could wish.
To live the good life, the ideal
life, the beautiful life, we must be at peace with all things, including
ourselves, and every
thought, word and deed must be harmonious. Whatever we
wish to do or be it is wisdom to make any sacrifice necessary for the
sake of harmony, although that which we sacrifice for
the sake of harmony is not a sacrifice. When we enter into harmony we
will regain everything that we were willing to lose in
order that we might possess harmony.
When we establish ourselves in
perfect harmony we shall be reunited with everything that we hold near
and dear and the new
unity will be far sweeter, far more beautiful than the
one we had before. "My own shall come to me" is a favorite expression
among all those who believe that every ideal can be
made real, and many of these are waiting and watching for their own to
come, wondering in the meantime what can be done to
hasten that coming. There are many things to be done, however, but one
of the most important is the attainment of harmony. No
person who lives in perpetual harmony will be deprived very long of
his own, whatever that own may be. Whatever you
deserve, whatever you are entitled to, whatever belongs to you will soon
appear
in your world, if you are living in perfect harmony.
To enter harmony is to enter a new
world where everything is better, where opportunities are greater and
more numerous, and
where persons, conditions and things are more
agreeable. You will not only enter a better world, however, but the
attitude
of harmony will relate your life so perfectly to the
good things in all worlds that may exist about you, that the best from
every source will naturally gravitate towards your
sphere of existence. But harmony will not only cause the good things of
life to gravitate towards you; it will also cause you
to radiate the good qualities in your own being and thus become a
perpetual
benediction to everybody.
To be in the presence of a person who
dwells serenely in the beautiful calm is, indeed, a privilege,
especially to those who
can appreciate the finer elements of a truly
harmonious life. Whenever we are in touch with real harmony, whether it
comes
from the music of human life, the music of nature or
the music of the spheres, we are one step nearer the Beautiful. We can
therefore realize the great value of being able to
actually live in perfect harmony at all times. The life of harmony is
the
foundation of happiness and health and is one of the
greatest essentials to achievement and real success. When we look into
the past we can always find that our failures
originated in confusion; likewise our troubles and ills. On the other
hand,
all the good things that have happened to us in the
past, or that are happening in the present, had their origin and their
growth in the elements of continuous harmony; the
ideal and the real were made one, and we consequently reached the goals
we had in view.
The mind that works in perpetual
harmony does more work and far better work than is possible in any other
condition; besides,
harmonious work is invariably conducive to higher
development and growth. To work in harmony is to promote increase and
development
in all the qualities and powers of the personality;
while to work in confusion is to weaken the entire system and thus
originate
causes that will terminate in failure. The majority
state that they have no time for self development, but to live in
harmony
and work in harmony is to promote self development
every moment, and this development will not be confined simply to those
muscles or faculties that we use directly, but will
express itself throughout the entire system; and the mind especially
will,
under such conditions, steadily gain both in power and
in worth.
In the presence of these facts we can
realize readily that no person can afford to permit discord,
disturbance or confusion
at any time. The many declare, however, that they
cannot help it, but we must help it and we can. There is no reason why
our
minds should be excited or our nerves upset at any
time. We can prevent this just as easily as we can refuse to eat what we
do not want.
To proceed, we must apply exact
reason to this great subject. We should learn to understand that no
wrong will be righted
because we permit ourselves to "fly to pieces;" also
that the act of becoming nervous over a trouble will never drive that
trouble away. To live in a constant strain will not
promote our purpose nor arrange matters the way we want them. This is
a fact that we should impress deeply upon our minds,
and then impress our minds to take another and a better course. The
average
person feels that it is a religious duty to be as
excited as possible, and to string up all his nerves as high as
possible,
whenever he is passing through some exceptional event;
in consequence, he spoils all or practically all of that which might
have been gained; besides, he places his system in a
condition where all sorts of ills may gain a foothold.
There are many reasons why such a
large number of undertakings fail, but one of the principal reasons is
found in the fact
that few people have learned to retain perfect harmony
under all kinds of circumstances. Discord and confusion are usually
present to a great degree, and in consequence,
something almost invariably goes wrong. But when a person is in perfect
harmony
and does his very best, he will succeed at least in a
measure every time, and he will thus prepare himself for the greater
opportunities that are sure to follow: To believe that
intelligent, well educated people almost daily break down over mere
trifles is not mere simplicity, but the fact that it
is the truth leads us to question why. Intelligence and education should
give those who possess it the power to know better.
Modern education, however, does not
teach us how to use ourselves. We have learned how to mix material
substances so as to
satisfy every imaginable taste, and we have learned
how to use the tangible forces of nature so as to construct almost
anything
we like in the physical world, but we have not learned
how to combine the elements of mind so as to produce health, happiness,
strength, brilliancy and harmony whenever we may so
desire. A few, however, have made the attempt, but the elements of the
mind will not combine for greater efficiency and
higher states of expression unless the mind is in perfect harmony.
We have all learned to remember, but
few have learned to think. To repeat verbatim what others have thought
and said is counted
knowledge and with such borrowed knowledge the
majority imagine they are satisfied, the reason being they have not
discovered
the art of thinking thoughts of their own. This is an
art that every person must learn; the sooner the better, if the ideal
is to be made real. Original thinking is the secret of
all greatness, all high attainments, all extraordinary achievements
and all superior states of being; but no mind can
create original thought until a high state of mental harmony is
attained.
To produce mental harmony we must
first bear in mind the great fact that it is not what happens that
disturbs us, but the
way we think about that which happens; and our thought
about anything depends upon our point of view. The way we look at
things
will determine whether the experience will produce
discord or harmony, and it is in our power to look at things in any way
that we may desire. When we are face to face with
those things that usually upset the mind we should immediately turn our
attention upon the life and the power that is back of
the disturbing element, having the desire to find the better side of
that life and power constantly in view. Everything has
its better side, its ideal side, its calm and undisturbed side, and
a mere desire to gain a glimpse of that better side
will turn the mind away from confusion and cause attention to be
centered
upon that calm state that is being sought.
This will decrease discord at once,
and if applied the very moment we are aware of confusion we will
entirely prevent any
mental disturbance whatever. To meet all circumstances
and events in this way is to develop in ourselves a harmonious attitude
towards all things, and when we are established in
this harmonious attitude nothing whatever disturbs us; no matter what
may
happen we will continue to remain in harmony, and will
consequently be able to deal properly with whatever may happen.
The mind that is upset by confused
circumstances will lose ground and fail, but the mind that continues
calmly in harmony
with everything, no matter what the circumstances may
be, will master every occasion and steadily rise in the scale. He will
continue to make real the ideal, because he is living
in that harmonious state of being where the ideal and the real are
harmoniously
blended into one.
To promote the highest and most
perfect state of continuous harmony we must learn to meet those persons,
things and events,
with which we come in daily contact, in the right
mental attitude. The result of such an attitude is determined directly
by
the nature of our own attitude of mind, and as we can
express ourselves through any attitude we desire, it is in our power
either to spoil the most promising prospects, or
convert the most unpromising conditions into the greatest success. We
should
train ourselves to meet everything in that attitude of
mind that expects all things to work out right. When we deeply and
continually expect all things to work out right we
relate ourselves more perfectly with that with which we come in contact;
we take things, so to speak, the way they ought to be
taken, and we thereby promote harmony and cooperation among all things
concerned.
Though this be extremely important,
it is insignificant, however, in comparison with another great fact in
this connection;
that is, the way things respond to the leading desires
of the ruling mind; whether it is the exercise of the mysteries of
mental force or the application of a mental law not
generally understood, does not concern us just now; but it is a fact
that
things will do, as a rule what we persistently expect
them to do. To understand why this is so may require some study of the
great laws of mind and body, and everybody should seek
to understand these laws perfectly; but in the meantime anyone can
demonstrate the fact that things will work out right
if we constantly expect them to do so.
No matter what may happen we should
continue in the faith that all things will come right, and as our faith
is so it shall
be. To place ourselves in perfect harmony with all
things, the domineering attitude of mind must be eliminated completely.
The mind that tries to domineer over things will not
only lose control of things, but will lose control of its own faculties
and forces. At first it may seem that the domineering
mind gains ground, but the gain is only temporary. When the reaction
comes, as it will, the loss will be far greater than
the temporary gain. When you try to domineer over persons and things
you gain possession and control of those things only
that are too weak to control themselves. That is, you gain a temporary
control over negatives, and negatives have no
permanent value in your life; in fact, they soon prove themselves to be
wholly
detrimental.
Occasionally a domineering mind may
attract the attention of better things, but as soon as his domineering
qualities are discovered
those better things will part company with him at
once. The law of attraction is at the foundation of all natural
constructive
processes; therefore, to promote construction, growth,
advancement and real success we must work in harmony with that law.
If we wish to attain the superior, we must become
superior, because it is only like that attracts like. If we wish to gain
the ideal, we must become ideal. If we wish to make
real the ideal, we must live the ideal in the real. When you want good
things, make yourself better, and better things will
naturally be attracted to you; but good things do not submit to force.
Therefore, to try to secure better
things through forceful methods, or through the domineering attitude can
only result in
failure; such methods gain only the inferior, those
things that can add neither to the welfare nor the happiness of any one.
This fact holds good, not only among individuals, but
also among nations and institutions. The more domineering an institution
is the more inferior are its members, and the more
autocratic the nation the weaker its subjects. On the other hand, we
find
the best minds where the individual is left free to
govern himself and where he is expected to act wisely, to be true to the
best that is within him. In order that the individual
may advance he must steadily grow in the mastery of himself, and must
so relate himself to the best things in life that he
will naturally attract the best things; but these two essentials are
wholly interfered with by the domineering attitude.
Such an attitude repels everything
and everybody that has any worth. It spoils the forces of mind, thus
weakening all the
mental faculties, and it steadily undermines whatever
self-control a person might possess. Never try to control anything or
domineer over anything, but aim to live in perpetual
harmony with the highest, the truest and the best that is in everything.
Whatever happens we should approach
that event in that attitude that believes it is all right. We should
never permit the
attitude that condemns, not even when the things
concerned have proved themselves to be wrong. The attitude that condemns
is detrimental to our own minds, because it invariably
produces discord. When you meet all things in the expectation of
finding
them right, you always find something about them that
is right. This something you may appropriate and thus gain good from
everything that happens.
That person, however, who expects to
find most things wrong will fail to see the good that may exist among
the things that
come his way; therefore, he gains far less from life
than his wiser neighbor. But what is equally important, the man who
expects
to find everything right wherever he may go, will
gradually gravitate towards those people and circumstances that are
right.
The man who expects to find everything wrong usually
finds what he expects. The effect of these two attitudes upon mind and
character is even more important, because the man is
as his mind and character, and as the man is so is his destiny. The man
who expects to find most things wrong and meets the
world in that attitude is constantly impressing the wrong upon his mind,
and as we gradually grow into the likeness of that
which we think of the most, he is building upon sinking sand. The mind
that is constantly looking for the wrong cannot be
wholesome.
Such a mind is not in harmony with
the law of growth, power, and ability; therefore, can never do its best.
Unwholesome thoughts
will steadily undermine the finest character and mind,
and the world is full of illustrations. There is always something wrong
in the life of that person who constantly expects to
find things wrong, and the reason why is simple. His own expectations
are reacting upon himself; by thinking about the wrong
he is creating the wrong and thus bringing forth the wrong in every
part of his life.
The man, however, who expects to find
everything right and meets the world in that attitude is daily
nourishing his mind with
right thoughts, wholesome thoughts and constructive
thoughts; he thinks the most of that which is right, and is therefore
steadily growing more and more into the likeness of
that which is right, perfect, worthy and good; he is daily changing for
the better, and through this constant change he
steadily rises in the scale and thereby meets the better and the better
at
every turn. By expecting to find everything right he
finds more and more of that which is right, and as he is becoming
stronger
in mind, character and soul, he is affected less and
less by those few things that may not be as they should be.
When you meet a disappointment meet
it in the conviction that it is all right, because through this attitude
you enter into
harmony with the power that is back of the event at
hand, and you thus convert the disappointment into a channel through
which
greater good may be secured. Those who doubt this
should try it.; they will find that it is based upon exact scientific
facts
Transcend disappointment, and all the powers of
adversity will begin to rise with you and will begin to work with you
and
help you reach the goal you have in view. You will
thus find that, it is all for the best, because through the right mental
attitude you made everything work out in such a way
that the best transpired as a final result.
To live in what may be termed the
"all right" attitude, that is, in that attitude that expects to find
everything all right
and that constantly affirms that everything is all
right, is to press on to the realization and the possession of those
things
that are as you wish them to be. Disappointments and
failures, when met in this attitude, simply become open doors to new
worlds where you find better opportunities and greater
possibilities than you ever knew before. When the average person meets
disappointment he usually declares, "Just my luck;" in
other words, he enters that mental attitude that faces ill luck; he
thus fails to see anything else but misfortune in that
which has happened; and so long as that person, consciously or
unconsciously
expects misfortune, into more and more misfortune he
will go.
He who believes that he is fated to
have bad luck will have bad luck in abundance. The reason is he lives in
that mental attitude
that places his mind in constant contact with those
confused elements in the world that never create anything else but bad
luck. That person, however, who thoroughly believes
that everything that happens is simply a step to greater good, higher
attainments and greater achievements, will steadily
rise into those greater things that he expects to realize; the reason
being that he is living in that mental attitude that
places his mind in contact with the building power of life. Those powers
will always build for greater things to those with
whom they are in harmony, and we all can place ourselves in harmony with
those powers; therefore, we can all move upward and
onward forever, eternally making real more and more of that which is
ideal.
What we expect comes if our
expectation is filled with all the power of life and soul, and what we
believe our fate to be,
that is the kind of a fate we will create for
ourselves. To meet ill luck in the belief that it is your luck, your
particular
kind of luck, and that it is natural for you to have
that kind of luck is to stamp your own mind as an unlucky mind. This
will produce chaotic thinking, which will cause you to
do everything at the wrong time, and all your energies will be more
or less misdirected; in consequence, bad luck and
misfortune must necessarily follow.
Bad luck comes from doing the wrong
thing, or from being your worst; while good luck comes from being your
best and from doing
the right thing at the right time. It is therefore
mere simplicity to create good luck at any time and in the measure that
we may desire. The person that fears misfortune or
expects misfortune and faces life in that attitude is concentrating
attention
upon misfortune; he thereby creates a world of
misfortune in his own mind; and he who lives in mental misfortune will
produce
misfortune in his external life. Like causes produce
like effects; and this explains why the things we fear always come upon
us. We create mental causes for those things, and
corresponding tangible effects always follow.
Train the mind to expect the right
and the best, regardless of present circumstances, conditions or events.
Call everything
good that is met. Declare that everything that
happens, happens for the best. Meet everything in that frame of mind,
and no
matter how wrong or adverse conditions seem to be, you
cause them all to work out right.
When the mind expects the best, has
the faith that the right will prevail, and constantly faces the
superior, the true mental
attitude has been gained. Through that attitude all
the forces of mind and all the powers of will become constructive, and
will build for man the very thing that he expects or
desires while his mind is fixed upon the ideal. He relates himself
harmoniously
to the best that is in all things and thus unites the
ideal with the real in all things; and when the ideal becomes one with
the real, the ideal desired becomes an actual fact in
the real; and this is the goal every true idealist has in view.
He takes those elements that have
been revealed to him through the vision of the soul and blends them
harmoniously with the
actions of daily life. He thus brings the ideal down
to earth and causes the real of every day life to express the ideal in
everything that he may undertake to do. His life, his
thought, his action, his attainments, his achievements, all contain
that happy state where the ideal and the real are made
one. His dreams have become true. The visions of the soul are actually
realized, and the tangible is animated with that ideal
something that makes personal existence all that any one could wish
it to be.
First Step Towards Complete Emancipation
To forgive everybody for everything at all times,
regardless of circumstances, is the first step towards complete
emancipation.
Heretofore, we have looked upon forgiveness as a
virtue; now we know it to be a necessity. To those who possessed the
spirit
of forgiveness we have given our highest praise, and
have thought of such people as being self-sacrificing in the truest
sense
of that term. We did not know that the act of
forgiving is the simplest way to lighten one's own burdens. According to
our
former conception of this subject, the man who
forgives denies himself a privilege, the privilege of indignation and
revenge;
for this reason we have looked upon him as a hero or
as a saint, thinking that it could not be otherwise than heroic and
saintly
to give up the supposed pleasure of meting out revenge
to those who seemed to deserve it.
According to the new view, however,
the man who forgives is no more saintly than the one who insists upon
keeping clean, because
in reality the act of forgiving simply constitutes a
complete mental bath. When you forgive everybody for everything you
cleanse
your mind completely of every wrong thought or adverse
mental attitude that may exist in your consciousness. This explains
why forgiveness is a necessity and why the man who
forgives everything emancipates himself from all kinds of burdens. It is
therefore profitable, most highly profitable, to
forgive everybody, no matter what they have done, and this includes also
ourselves. It is just as necessary to forgive
ourselves as to forgive others, and the principal reason why forgiveness
has
seemed to be so difficult is because we have neglected
to forgive ourselves.
We cannot let go of that which is not
desired until we have acquired the mental art of letting go, and to
acquire this art
we must practice upon our own minds. That is, we must
learn to let go from our own minds all those things that we do not wish
to retain. When you forgive yourself completely you
wash your mentality perfectly clean. You let go of everything in your
mental system that is not good. You emancipate
yourself completely. Whatever you held against yourself or others you
now drop
entirely out of your mind; in consequence, you are
freed from your mental burdens, and when mental burdens disappear all
other
burdens will disappear also. The ills that we hold in
mind are the only things that can actually burden our lives.
Therefore, when we forgive everybody
for every ill we ever knew we no longer hold a single ill in our own
minds; we thus throw
off every burden and are perfectly free. This also
includes disease, because disease is nothing but a temporary effect of
a wrong that we mentally hold in the system. Forgive
everybody, including yourself, for everything, and all disease will
vanish
from your system. This may at first sight appear to be
a startling statement, but it is the truth, and anyone can prove it
to be the truth. "As a man thinketh in his heart so is
he." Therefore, when every wrong is eliminated from the heart of man
there can be no wrong in the man himself, and every
wrong is eliminated from that heart that forgives everything in
everyone.
Many persons, however, will state that they hold no
ill against anyone yet suffer just the same.
So they may think, nevertheless they
are mistaken and will see their mistakes when they learn the truth about
mental laws.
You may not hold direct ill against any person just
now, but your mind has not always been absolutely pure and absolutely
free from every wrong thought. You have had many wrong
desires in your heart, and have had many mistaken ideas. To hold a
mistaken idea is to hold a wrong in your heart. To
have wrong desires is to hold ills against yourself, as well as others.
To blame yourself, criticize yourself, feel provoked
at yourself or condemn yourself for your shortcomings is to hold ills
against yourself, and there are very few who are not
doing this every day to some degree.
When we forgive all and still suffer
we may not believe that forgiveness produces emancipation; but the fact
is that suffering
is impossible when forgiveness is absolute. When we
forgive completely we shall also eliminate completely every trouble or
ill that may exist in our world. When you have trouble
forgive those who have caused the trouble; forgive yourself for
permitting
yourself to be troubled, and your troubles will pass
away. When you have made a mistake do not condemn yourself or feel
upset;
simply forgive yourself, and resolve that you will
never make the mistake again. As you make that resolution, desire more
wisdom, and have the faith that you will secure the
wisdom you require.
"According to your faith so shall it
be." There are many who will think that the practice of forgiving
everybody for everything
will produce mental indifference and thus weaken
character, but it is the very opposite that will take place. To forgive
is
to eliminate the useless, everything that is not good;
and to free the mind from obstacles and adverse conditions is to enable
that mind to be its best, to express itself fully and
completely. This will not only strengthen the character and enlarge
the mind, but will cause the greatness of the soul to
come forth. There is many a character that appears to be strong on
account
of its open hostility to wrongs, but such a character
is not always strong. Too often it is composed of a few borrowed ideas
about morality backed up by mere animal force.
The true character does not express
hostility and does not resist or antagonize, but overcomes evil by
giving all its power
to the building of the good. A strong character meets
evil with a silent indifference; that is, indifference in appearance
only. The true character does not pass evil by because
he does not care, but because he does care. He cares so much that he
will not waste one single moment in prolonging the
life of the wrong; therefore gives his whole time and attention to the
making of good so strong that evil becomes absolutely
powerless in the presence of that good. No intelligent person would
antagonize darkness. By giving his time to the
production of light he causes the darkness to disappear of itself.
When we apply the same principle to
the elimination of evil a marvelous change for the better will come over
the world. No
person can forgive everybody for everything until he
desires the best from every person and from every source. In other
words,
we cannot forgive the wrong until we desire the right.
Therefore, the letting go of the inferior and the appropriation of
the superior constitutes one and the same single
mental process. We cannot eliminate darkness until we proceed to produce
light, and it requires only the one act for removing
the one and bringing forth the other.
From these facts it is evident that
when we let go of the wrong we gain more of that power that is right,
and we thus increase
the strength of character. To eliminate diseased
conditions from the body will increase the strength of the body and will
place the body in a position for further development,
if we desire to promote such development. Likewise, to eliminate all
ill feelings, all hatred, all wrong thoughts and all
false beliefs from the mind will increase the power of the mind and
place
every mental faculty in proper condition for higher
development. The same effect will be produced in the character, and all
awakened minds know that the greatness of the soul can
begin to come forth only when we have completely forgiven everybody
for everything.
The man who finds it easier to
forgive than to condemn is on the verge of superior wisdom and higher
spiritual power. He has
entered the path to real greatness and may rapidly
rise in the scale by applying the laws of true human development.
Instead
of producing weakness and indifference the act of
absolute forgiveness will produce a more powerful character, a more
brilliant
mind and a greater soul. Try this method for a year.
Forgive everybody for everything, no matter what happens, and do not
forget to forgive yourself.
You will then conclude that
forgiveness, absolute forgiveness, is not only the path to complete
emancipation, but is also
the "gates ajar" to a better life, a larger life, a
richer life, a more beautiful life than you ever knew before. You will
find that you can instantaneously remove disease from
the body, perversion and wrong from the mind by complete and
unrestricted
forgiveness; and you can in the same way steadily
recreate yourself into a new and better being. Forgive the imperfect,
and
with heart and soul desire constantly the realization
of the perfect; the imperfect will thus pass away and the more perfect
will be realized in a greater and greater abundance.
Whatever our place in life may be, we
must eliminate every burden of mind or body, if we wish to rise in the
scale, and the
first step in this direction is to forgive everybody
for everything. When you begin to practice forgiveness on this extensive
scale you will find obstacles disappearing one after
the other. Those things that held you down will vanish and that which
was constantly in your way will trouble you no more;
your pathway will be cleared. You will have nothing more to contend
with,
and everything in your life will move smoothly and
harmoniously towards greater and greater things.
This is perfectly natural, because by
forgiving everybody and everything you have let every form of evil go.
You have invited
all the good, and have therefore populated your own
world with persons and things after your own heart. Through perpetual
and complete forgiveness your mind will be kept
perfectly clean. Not a single weed will ever appear in the beautiful
garden
of your mind, and so long as the mind is clean neither
sickness nor adversity can exist in human life. This may be a strong
statement, but those who will try the principle and
continue to live it will find it to be the truth.
Since forgiveness is a necessity to
all who wish to eliminate the lesser and retain the greater, or in other
words make real
the ideal, it will be highly important to present the
simplest methods through which anyone may learn to practice this great
art. It has been said that to know all is to forgive
all; but it is not possible for anyone to know all. Therefore, if we
wish to forgive absolutely, we must proceed along a
different line. When we ask ourselves why people live, think and act as
they do we meet the great law of cause and effect. In
our study of this law we find that every cause is an effect of a
previous
cause, and that that previous cause is also an effect
of a cause still more remote.
We may continue to trace these causes
and effects far back along the chain of events until we are lost in the
dimness of the
past; but what do we learn by such a process of
analysis, nothing whatever. We fail to find anything definite about
anybody,
and consequently cannot fix the blame for anything;
but it is not possible to justly blame anybody when we cannot fix the
blame for anything. Therefore, we have only one
alternative, and that is to forgive. We can never find the real cause of
a
single thing. We may first blame the individual, but
when we discover the influence of environment, heredity and early
training
we cannot wholly blame the individual. If we blame the
parents, we must find the reason why those parents were not different,
also why previous generations were not different.
If we accept the theory that the
individual has lived before and that he came into his present
environments because he was
what he was in a previous state of existence, we must
explain why be did not live a different life in that other existence;
why did he act in such a manner in the past that he
should merit adversity and weakness in the present. If he knew no better
in the past., what is the reason that he did not know
any better? If we accept the belief that we have all inherited our
perverted
tendencies from Adam and Eve, we must explain why
those two souls were not strong enough to rise above temptation. If they
were tempted, we must explain why; we must explain why
the original man who was created in the image and likeness of God did
not express his divine nature in the midst of
temptation. But there is no way in which we can explain these things;
therefore,
to fix the blame for anything is absolutely
impossible.
The more we try to find the original
cause of anything the more convinced we become that to look for sin or
the cause of sin
is nothing but a waste of time. Every individual is
himself a cause, and his life comes constantly in touch with a number
of other causes; therefore, it is never possible to
say which one of these causes or combination of these causes produced
the original action. Back of every action we find
other actions that lead us to the one that we may now consider, but we
do
not know how those other actions were produced.
To trace them back to their original
source simply leads us into what appears to be a beginningless
beginning. For this reason
it is the height of wisdom to let the "dead bury its
dead," to let the past go, to forgive every sinner and forget every sin,
and to use our time, talent and power for the building
of more lofty mansions in the great eternal now. To look for the blame
is to find that we are all more or less to blame, and
also to find that there is no real fixed blame anywhere. We may then
ask what we are to do with this great subject; are we
to talk, theorize, speculate, condemn and punish? We know too well that
all of that is but a waste of time. The sensible
course to pursue is to forgive everybody for everything, to drop ills,
mistakes,
wrongs, disagreeable memories and proceed to use those
laws of life that we understand now in making life better for everybody
now.
The man who is habitually doing wrong
is mentally or morally sick. Punishment is a waste of time; besides, it
is absolutely
wrong, and one wrong cannot remove another. Such a
person should be taken where he can be healed and kept there until he is
well. We should not hate him or condemn him any more
than those who are physically sick. Sickness is sickness whether it
appears
in the body, the mind or the character, and he who is
sick does not need a prison; he needs a physician.
To absolutely remove this hatred for
the wrongdoers in the world we must cultivate a higher order of love,
that love that
loves every living creature with the true love of the
soul, and such a love is readily attained when we train ourselves to
look for the ideal soul of life that exists in
everything everywhere in the world. This idea may cause many to come to
the
conclusion that the act of forgiving the wrongdoer
will have an undesirable effect upon society, because we may be liable
to let people in general do as they please; but in
this they are wholly mistaken. Reason declares that you cannot justly
blame
anyone, and love does not wish to blame anyone;
forgiveness must therefore inevitably follow when reason and love are
truly
combined; but reason and love will never permit man in
general to do as he pleases. When we love people we are not indifferent
about their future: We do not wish them to go down
grade. We want them to improve, to do the right and the best and we will
do everything in our power to emancipate and elevate
the entire race.
Reason understands how the laws of
life can be applied in producing those results we may have in view;
therefore, the desires
of love can be carried out through the understanding
of reason, and thus every high purpose may be promoted by the right
spirit
and the proper methods. Others may declare that these
methods are in advance of our time and cannot be carried out at present;
therefore, it is useless to even talk about it.
However, be that as it may, the fact remains that forgiveness is a
necessity
to the true life, the emancipated life, the superior
life, the ideal life. For that reason every person who desires to make
real the ideal in his world must begin to practice
absolute forgiveness at once. If we can forgive everybody for everything
now, we should do so, whether the world in general can
do so or not. The man who wishes to move forward must not wait for
the race. It is his privilege to go in advance of the
race; thus he prepares the way for millions.
When he has demonstrated by example
that there are better ways of living, the race will follow. What the few
can do today
the many will do tomorrow, but if the few should wait
until tomorrow, the many would have to wait until the day following,
or possibly longer still. Be what you can be now. Do
what you can do now, no matter how far in advance of this age such
actions
may be. If you are capable of greater things today,
you owe it to the race to demonstrate those greater things now.
You sprung from the race. You are
composed of the finer elements that exist in the race, and should
consider it a privilege
to cause those elements to shine as brilliantly as
possible; and one of the greatest of all demonstrations in this age is
that of absolute forgiveness, to demonstrate the power
of forgiving everybody for everything at all times and under every
possible circumstance. We therefore conclude that
complete emancipation from everything that is not desired in life can be
realized only when we forgive absolutely in this great
universal sense; and when we have forgiven everybody for everything,
then we can say with the great Master Mind, "My yoke
is easy and my burden is light."
Paths To Perpetual Increase
The universe is overflowing with all manner of good
things and there is enough to supply every wish of every heart with
abundance
still remaining. How every heart is to proceed,
however, that its every wish may be supplied, has been the problem, but
the
solution is simple. In consequence, everybody may
rejoice. This world is not a "vale of tears," but is in truth a most
delightful
place, and is endowed with everything that is needful
to make the life of man an endless song. We now know that we do not
live to be miserable, but to rejoice. The bitterness
that sometimes appears in life is not a real part of life. The greatness
of existence alone is intended for man. To know the
bitter from the sweet and to appropriate the latter and always reject
the former is a matter, however, that is not clearly
understood. There may be thousands who know the bitter when they see
it, but they do not always know how to reject it.
To throw off the ills of life is an
art that few have mastered. But those who can eliminate the wrong are
not always able
to distinguish the right from the wrong, the reason
being that we have not looked at things from the viewpoint of that power
that produces things. The philosophers, the
theologians and the scientists, as a rule, make life very complex and
difficult
to live. Their profound expressions confuse the
multitudes, while ills and troubles continue as before; but to live is
simple.
Even a child can be happy; it therefore should not be
difficult for anyone else.
When we realize happiness in its
highest, broadest sense, we find that it comes in its fullness only when
we have everything
that the heart desires; and since the desires of the
heart increase in size and number with the enlargement of life, the joy
of living will increase in proportion providing all
the, desires of the heart are supplied. This fact, however, may at first
sight seem to make happiness very difficult to secure.
If we cannot enjoy the allness of joy until we have everything that
heart can wish for, then happiness is far away; so it
may seem, but things are not always what they seem.
All things are possible, and the most
difficult things become comparatively easy when we know how; therefore,
the way of wisdom
is not to look for those difficulties that ignorance
has connected with things, but look for that simplicity that is the soul
of all knowledge. When we learn to do things as they
should be done, all difficulties disappear, and even the largest life
becomes simple.
The doing of things is the universal
theme in this age. Those who simply tell us what to do are no longer
acceptable. We want
practical instructions that tell us how. The greatest
man of this age and of the future will not be the one who can move as
he wishes the emotions of multitudes by the magic art
of eloquence and bring whole nations to his feet by the artistic
juggling
of eloquent phrases. The great man will henceforth be
the man who can tell us how, and who can express himself so clearly
that anyone can understand.
This, however, we are now beginning
to do, and ere long the many will come back to the truth itself and
understand the real
truth in all its original simplicity. The path of
truth and life is perfectly straight and is illumined all the way. It is
therefore simplicity itself to follow this path when
we find it, but the many have strayed into the jungles of illusions and
misconceptions. These must all come back to the simple
path, and when they do the difficulty of living will wholly disappear.
To teach the race how to find the
simple things, the true things and the real things is now the purpose of
every original
thinker, and whoever can add to the world's wisdom in
this respect becomes a light to the race, indeed. One of the first
principles
in this new understanding of things is that which
deals with man's power to place himself in perfect touch with the source
of limitless supply; in other words to enter the path
of perpetual increase. As previously stated, the world is overflowing
with good things, because life is in touch with the
limitless source of all good things, and there is so much of everything
that the wish of every heart can be gratified. We do
not have to take from another to have abundance, because there is more
than sufficient for all.
The fact that some one has abundance
does not prove that he has taken some or all of his wealth from others,
although this
is what a great many believe to be the truth. Whenever
we see some one in luxury we wonder where and how he got it, and we
usually add that many are in poverty because this one
is in wealth. Such doctrine, however, is not true. It is thoroughly
false from beginning to end. The world is not so
poverty stricken that the few cannot have plenty without stealing from
the
many. The universe is not so bare and so limited that
multitudes are reduced to want whenever a few persons undertake to
surround
themselves with those things that have beauty and
worth. True, there is injustice in the world.
There are people who have secured
their wealth, not upon merit, but through the art of reducing others to
want; but the remedy
is not to be found in the doctrine that thousands must
necessarily become poor when one becomes very rich. This doctrine is
an illusion, and illusions cannot serve as foundations
for a better order. There is enough in life to give every living person
all the wealth and all the luxury that he can possibly
appropriate.
God is rich; the universe is
overflowing with abundance. If we have not everything that we want,
there is a reason; there
is some definite cause somewhere, either in ourselves
or in our relations to the world, but this cause can be found and
corrected;
then we may proceed to take possession of our own.
Among the many causes of poverty and the lack of a full supply there is
one that has been entirely overlooked.
To overcome this cause is to find one of the most important paths to perpetual increase, and the remedy lies within easy reach
of everyone who has awakened to a degree the finer elements in his life.
There may be exceptions to the rule,
but there are thousands who are living on the husks of existence because
they were not
grateful when the kernels were received. Multitudes
continue in poverty from no other cause than a lack of gratitude, and
other thousands who have almost everything that the
heart may wish for do not reach the coveted goal of full supply because
their gratitude is not complete.
We are now beginning to realize more
and more that the greatest thing in the world is to live so closely to
the Infinite that
we constantly feel the power and the peace of His
presence. In fact, this mode of living is the very secret of secrets
revealing
everything that the mind may wish to know or
understand in order to make life what it is intended to be. We also
realize that
the more closely we live to the Infinite the more we
shall receive of all good things, because all good things have their
source in the Supreme; but how to enter into this life
of supreme oneness with the Most High is a problem.
There are many things to be done in
order to solve this problem, but there is no one thing that is more
important in producing
the required solution than deep, whole-souled
gratitude. The soul that is always grateful lives nearer the true, the
good,
the beautiful and the perfect than anyone else in
existence, and the more closely we live to the good and the beautiful
the
more we shall receive of all those things. The mind
that dwells constantly in the presence of true worth is daily adding to
his own worth. He is gradually and steadily
appropriating that worth with which he is in constant contact; but we
cannot enter
into the real presence of true worth unless we fully
appreciate the real worth of true worth; and all appreciation is based
upon gratitude.
The more grateful we are for the good
things that come to us now the more good things we shall receive in the
future. This
is a great metaphysical law, and we shall find it most
profitable to comply exactly with this law, no matter what the
circumstances
may be. Be grateful for everything and you will
constantly receive more of everything; thus the simple act of being
grateful
becomes a path to perpetual increase. The reason why
is found in the fact that whenever you enter into the mental attitude
of real gratitude your mind is drawn into much closer
contact with that power that produces the good things received. In other
words, to be grateful for what we have received is to
draw more closely to the source of that which we receive.
The good things that come to us come
because we have properly employed certain laws, and when we are grateful
for the results
gained we enter into more perfect harmony with those
laws and thus become able to employ those laws to still greater
advantage
in the immediate future. This anyone can understand,
and those who do not know that gratitude produces this effect should
try it and watch results.
The attitude of gratitude brings the
whole mind into more perfect and more harmonious relations with all the
laws and powers
of life. The grateful mind gains a firmer hold, so to
speak, upon those things in life that can produce increase. This is
simply illustrated in personal experience where we
find that we always feel nearer to that person to whom we express real
gratitude. When you thank a person and truly mean it
with heart and soul you feel nearer to that person than you ever did
before.
Likewise, when we express
whole-souled thanksgiving to everything and everybody for everything
that comes into life we draw
closer and closer to all the elements and powers of
life. In other words, we draw closer to the real source from which all
good things in life proceed.
When we consider this principle from
another point of view we find that the act of being grateful is an
absolute necessity,
if we wish to accomplish as much as we have the power
to accomplish. To be grateful in this large, universal sense is to enter
into harmony and contact with the greatest, the
highest and the best in life. We thus gain possession of the superior
elements
of mind and soul and, in consequence, gain the power
to become more and achieve more, no matter what our object or work may
be.
Everything that will place us in a
more perfect relation with life, and thus enable us to appropriate the
greater richness
of life, should be employed with the greatest of
earnestness, and deep whole-souled gratitude does possess a marvelous
power
in this respect. Its great value, however, is not
confined to the laws just mentioned. Its power is exceptional in another
and equally important field.
To be grateful is to think of the
best, therefore the grateful mind keeps the eye constantly upon the
best; and, according
to another metaphysical law, we grow into the likeness
of that which we think of the most. The mind that is always
dissatisfied
fixes attention upon the common, the ordinary and the
inferior, and thus grows into the likeness of those things. The creative
forces within us are constantly making us just like
those things upon which we habitually concentrate attention. Therefore,
to mentally dwell upon the inferior is to become
inferior, while to keep the eye single upon the best is to daily become
better.
The grateful mind is constantly
looking for the best, thus holding attention upon the best and daily
growing into the likeness
of the best. The grateful mind expects only good
things, and will always secure good things out of everything that comes.
What we constantly expect we receive, and when we
constantly expect to get good out of everything we cause everything to
produce
good. Therefore, to the grateful mind all things will
at all times work together for good, and this means perpetual increase
in everything that can add to the happiness and the
welfare of man. This being true, and anyone can prove it to be true, the
proper course to pursue is to cultivate the habit of
being grateful for everything that comes. Give thanks eternally to the
Most High for everything and feel deeply grateful
every moment to every living creature.
All things are so situated that they
can be of some service to us, and all things have somewhere at sometime
been instrumental
in adding to our welfare. We must therefore, to be
just and true, express perpetual gratitude to everything that has
existence.
Be thankful to yourself. Be thankful to every soul in
the world, and most of all be thankful to the Creator of all that is.
Live in perpetual thanksgiving to all the world, and
express the deepest, sincerest, most whole-souled gratitude you can feel
within whenever something of value comes into your
life.
When other things come, pass them by;
never mind them in the least. You know that the good in greater and
greater abundance
is eternally coming into your life, and for this give
thanks with rejoicing; you know that every wish of the heart is being
supplied; be thankful that this is true, and you will
draw nearer and nearer to that place in life where that can be realized
that you know is on the way to realization. Live
according to this principle for a brief period of time, and the result
will
be that your life will change for the better to such a
degree that you will feel infinitely more grateful than you ever felt
before.
You will then find that thanksgiving
is a necessary part of real living, and you will also find that the more
grateful you
are for every ideal that has been made real, the more
power you gain to press on to those greater heights where you will find
every ideal to be real. And when this realization
begins you are on the path to perpetual increase, because the more you
receive
the more grateful you feel, and the more grateful you
feel for that which has been received the more closely you will live
to that Source that can give you more.
Consider The Lilies
Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin; yet I say unto you, that even Solomon
in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.
Matthew 6; 28, 29
The greatest service that anyone can
render to the race is to properly fill the place he occupies now, to be
himself today;
but it is not only others that will benefit by such
individual actions. The individual himself will receive greater good
from
life through this method than through all other
methods combined. The great secret of secrets is to live your own life
in
your own world as well as you possibly can now. In
this age thousands are seeking the path of spiritual growth and high
intellectual
attainments, while millions are dreaming of the life
beautiful; accordingly, systems almost without number are springing up
everywhere, claiming to reveal the hidden path to
these greater goals; but it is the truth that when everything has been
said,
the one statement that rises above them all is this:
Be all that you are today and you shall be even more tomorrow.
If you are in search of higher
spiritual and intellectual attainments enter into every form of wisdom
that surrounds you today
and fill your life with as much spirit as you can
possibly realize. If you wish to live an ideal life, then aim to make
real
the most beautiful life that you can think of today.
If you are longing for greater accomplishments and a larger sphere of
usefulness, then be your very best in the place that
you occupy now.
The mighty oak grows great because it
grows in the present; it does not think of the past or the future; it
is what it is
now; it does not wish to become mighty; it simply
grows on silently and continually. The lily of the field is beautiful
because
it is perfectly satisfied to be a lily, but it is not
satisfied to be less than all a lily can be. It does not strive or work
hard to become beautiful; it simply goes on being what
it is, and the result is it has been made immortal by the greatest
mind that ever lived. When we follow the example of
the lily we find the real secret of life, so simply and clearly stated
that any one can understand.
Be what you are today. Do not be
satisfied to be less than you can today and do not strive to be more.
Progress, growth, advancement,
attainment, these do not come through overreaching.
The mind that overreaches will have a reaction; he will fall to the
bottom
and will have to begin all over again. Real attainment
comes by being your best where you are just for today, by filling the
present moment with all the life you are conscious of;
no more. If you try to express more life than you can comfortably feel
in consciousness, you are overreaching and you will
have a fall. The great mistake of the age is to strive, to go about our
work as if it were extremely difficult. The man who
works the hardest usually accomplishes the least; while the truly great
man is the man who has trained his life and his power
to work through him.
The lilies of the field are not
engaged in hard labor, and yet their usefulness cannot be measured; they
are fulfilling their
true purpose; they are making real the ideal in their
own world and they are living inspirations to every soul in existence.
They live to be beautiful and they become beautiful,
not by being ambitious for beauty, but by permitting all the beauty they
possess to come forth. What is within us is constantly
pressing for expression. We do not have to call it forth nor labor
so much to bring it into action. All we are required
to do is to permit ourselves to be what we are, to permit what is within
to express itself fully and completely.
We do not have to work so hard to
become great. We are all naturally great, and our potential greatness is
ever ready to manifest,
if we would only cease our striving and let life live.
The lily is beautiful because it does not hinder its own inherent
beauty
from coming forth to be seen; but if the lily should
take up the strenuous life it would in one generation become a despised
weed. The human race today resembles in too many
instances the useless weed. Millions in every generation come and go
without
accomplishing anything whatever. They do not even live
a life that gives contentment. The reason is they strive too much,
and in their striving destroy the very powers that can
produce greatness.
We have worked hard for results, not
knowing that the only cause of results was within us, ready to produce
the very results
we desired, just for the asking. We have in many
instances destroyed our brains trying to invent methods for producing
health,
happiness, power and success, not knowing that these
things already existed within us in abundant supply, and that by
wholesome
thinking they would appear in full external
expression.
The secret of secrets is to let the
best within us have full right of way; this, however, most of us have
failed to do. In
consequence, the majority are undeveloped weaklings of
little use to themselves or to the world. The lily permits that which
is to have right of way. It does not interfere, but
man does interfere. He usually refuses to accept the gifts which nature
wishes to bestow upon him, and he hardly ever accepts
assistance from a higher power. He sets out for himself and works
himself
into old age and death trying to gain what was
actually given to him in the beginning. He leaves the real riches of
life and
enters the world of personal ambition expecting to
find something better and create something superior through his own
efforts,
but he fails because man alone can do nothing.
The average person does not realize
that to create something from nothing is impossible, nor has he learned
that the necessary
something can come only from the life that is within.
He may try to accomplish much and become much through personal ambition
and hard work, but no one can build without material,
and the material that is needed in building greatness can be secured
only by giving right of way to the life and the power
of the inner world. The man who expects to build greatness upon personal
limitations will pass away in the effort, leaving his
unfinished work to be taken up by some one else who will possibly build
upon the same useless foundation. Thus one generation
after another comes and goes, each expecting to succeed where
predecessors
failed; in the meantime very little is accomplished by
man, and he fails to receive what infinite life is ever waiting to
give.
This is the truth about man in
general. The multitudes have come and gone during countless ages and
have accomplished but
little. There have been a few great exceptions in
every age, but these were exceptions because they refused to follow the
ways of the world. They learned the lesson that the
lilies have taught, and they chose to let life live, to let the
greatness
from within come forth, to let power work, and to let
that which is in the real of man have full right of way. When a person
discovers what he is and permits that which he is to
have full expression, his days of weariness, trouble and failure are
gone.
Henceforth he will live as the
flower. His life will be full. He will fulfill his purpose and eternally
become more and more
of that which already is in the great within. When a
flower, which has so little of soul within itself, can become so much
by permitting itself to be itself, how much more might
man become if he would permit himself to be himself. Man is created
in the image of God, therefore marvels are hidden
within his wonderful soul. When these marvels are given full expression
then man begins to become that which the Infinite
intended that he should be. In the soul of the lily is hidden the spirit
of beauty; nothing more. But the lily does not hinder
this spirit from appearing in visible form; therefore, it becomes an
inspiration of joy to all the world. In the soul of
man even the Infinite is hidden; we can therefore imagine what man will
become when he permits the spirit of divinity to
express itself in his personal form. This is a great truth, indeed, and
deserves
constant attention from every mind that has learned to
think.
We may believe that every step forward that we have taken has been produced through personal efforts and hard work, but in
this we are mistaken.
In the first place, those
achievements that have followed hard work are always insignificant and
never of any permanent value,
but those steps forward that have permanent value and
that are truly great we find were taken during those moments when we
permitted real life to live. We therefore find that
striving accomplishes nothing, while we may through living, accomplish
anything.
There are times when many of us cease
our strenuous labor for a few moments and unconsciously open our souls
to that higher
something that we feel so much the need of when
wearied with misdirected labors, and the influx of real life that comes
at
such times is the cause of those real steps upward and
onward that we have taken. At such times we chose to be like the lily;
we permitted the good that was to come forth; we gave
up, so to speak, to higher power and did not interfere with its highest,
fullest expression. What we gain at such moments is
always with us and never fails to give us strength, power and
inspiration
even when we decide for the time being to adopt the
ways of the world once more. But since every step in advance comes when
we refuse to go the way of the world, we should now
understand that the way of the world is a mistake. We should therefore
free ourselves from that mode of life, thought and
action absolutely.
The world seeks to gain greater
things through personal ambition and hard work. The true way to attain
greater things is to
permit the greatness that is within to have full
expression; likewise when we seek health, happiness and harmony or a
beautiful
life, the true course is to permit those things to
come forth and act through us; they are ready to appear. We do not have
to work for them or strive so hard to secure them.
They are now at hand and will express themselves through us the very
moment
we grant them permission.
We have all discovered that whenever
we become perfectly still and permit supreme life to live in us we can
feel power accumulating
in our system until we feel as if we could move
mountains. We have also felt that while turning attention to the
everlasting
joy within and opening the mind fully to this joy that
there came into being a state of happiness, comfort and contentment
that seemed infinitely more perfect than the
imagination has ever pictured the joys of heaven to be. Likewise when we
failed
to find health in the without or through external
means we invariably found the precious gift coming from within, the
moment
we gave up, so to speak, to its wholesome life and
power.
In this age personal ambition is one
of the ruling factors, and nearly everybody is trying to outdo some one
else. The result
is we build up and tear down in the outer world, but
as a race we improve but little. The great within is ignored, held back
or prevented from free expression, while there are few
things in the great without that are really worthwhile. There never
was a time when we should consider the lilies of the
field more than now.
The human race is breaking itself
down striving to gain hold upon phantoms, while the great prize that has
already been given
is lost sight of in the dust and confusion. But to
inspire the present generation with a desire to return to nature and her
beautiful ways cannot be done to any extent, however,
except through living examples. It is the living of life that will
change
the life of the world. The world at large does not
listen to reason, nor can those who are in the mad rush stop to think;
besides, such minds are not sufficiently clear to
understand the principles upon which the living of life is based. Seeing
is believing, as far as the world is concerned, and
therefore they require living examples of those who have proven the
superiority
of the better way; accordingly, those who know how to
live as the lilies live should consider it a privilege to place their
light wherever it can be seen.
When you can prove through your own
life and experience that personal ambition and hard work are not
necessary to greater
things, but are actual hindrances, and that greater
things come of themselves to those who will permit themselves to be
themselves,
you have caused a great light to spring up, and few
there are who will not see it. Those who take everything literally may
wonder how anything can be accomplished without work,
but they must bear in mind that there is work, and work. The work that
is done by those who are down in the world's way is
hard, wearing and tearing. It is destructive to human life and builds
up one thing by tearing down another, and in the end
it brings no lasting good, neither to the individual nor to the race;
but the work that is done by those who have found the
better way is neither hard nor wearisome. It is not done through
strenuous
living nor external striving, but is done by the power
of the great within coming forth into expression in personal life.
In this mode of work you first give
your inner power right of way, then you direct it consciously and
intelligently. You do
not depend upon personal power and difficult personal
efforts. You place yourself in the hands of higher power, and as you
receive higher power you cause it to do that which you
wish to have done. You have all felt power working through you, and
at such times work was pleasure. You gave the
commands, of course, and you knew it was your own power, your own higher
power,
but no hard personal effort was required.
You simply opened the way somehow,
then decided firmly but gently what you wished to have done; and you
could feel a mighty
power coming forth, seemingly from an inexhaustible
source, taking full possession of thought and muscle, and doing the very
thing you desired to have done. After the work was
finished you discovered it was superior work, and although you had
engaged
in the task for many hours you actually felt stronger
than when you began.
The reason why is simple. You did not
depend upon personal limitations and strenuous efforts; and you did not
try to make
those limitations do a great deal more than they had
the capacity to do. You opened your life to all the power of your life
and you thus received enough power to do what you
wished to have done, and more; and so long as you have power to spare
you
can be neither weak nor tired. When the system is
thoroughly full of energy, work is a pleasure; and so long as that
fullness
continues weariness is impossible; and there is enough
power in real life to cause your system to be full of energy, and more,
at all times no matter how much you may do or how
great your task may be.
When we consider the lilies of the
field, how they grow, we find that they naturally permit the life that
is within them to
unfold; they do not try to grow; they have, as
everything has, the power of growth within them and they grow because
they
do not hinder that interior power and growth from
having their way. Likewise, when we know that divinity reigns within us
we do not have to work hard nor many years to reach
that state. We will grow and develop, both mentally and spiritually,
when
we permit the divinity within to unfold.
Everything seeks self-expression.
Nothing in nature, visible or invisible, will have to be forced into
expression, because
at the very heart of all things there is the deep,
strong desire to come forth and be. Therefore, if we wish to ascend in
the scale of life, we must cease those confused and
destructive states of mind that hinder expression, and become as the
lilies
of the field. Give the life within permission to
really live in us. The life within will live our life and give us a
beautiful
life. The power within will do our work and do that
work extremely well. The divinity within will make us Godlike in all
things,
and never cease to give us the things of the spirit so
long as we permit those things to come forth and abide in personal
existence.
What we are required to do that such
things may come to pass is to live, think and act in the likeness of the
Infinite. God
is, and He permits Himself to be what He is. Man must
do likewise, and all shall be well with him. Those who do not understand
may think that the individuality of man might
diminish, if he were to give himself up to the life and the power
within, but
such a conclusion will disappear when we realize that
the power from within is our own. We are simply causing ourselves to
become more and more of what we already are in
reality.
By giving free expression to our own
higher, interior powers we naturally become more powerful, and by giving
free expression
to our own inherent divinity we naturally become more
Godlike and more spiritual on every plane of being. The lilies of the
field do not become inferior lilies by permitting the
spirit of the beautiful to unfold from within their gentle lives. It
is by this method that they become what they are, and
they become so much that the glory of artificial man can never compare
with theirs. It is the same with the human soul. The
soul becomes great and beautiful by permitting its own greatness and
loveliness to come forth unhindered and undisturbed.
Thousands of people are at present
trying to develop higher powers. Many of these actually try to work hard
in their efforts
to gain the various gifts of mind and soul, and
because they do not succeed to any great extent they frequently become
discouraged
and give up, wondering whether or not the real truth
has been found. Others being ambitious to become great in the world try
to employ spiritual laws in the furthering of their
personal aims, but they find the reactions so disagreeable that the
prize
is not worth the labor. To fly to the top at once is
the ruling passion among many and when they fail with whatever methods
they may employ they conclude that what passes for
truth is nothing but man made doctrines.
The fact is, however, that the truth
always appears to be the untruth when misdirected. To apply the
principles of real truth
in the furthering of any lofty aim we may have in
mind, the first essential is to establish life in perfect touch with
eternal
life; the second essential is to positively determine
what we expect to attain and become in actual personal living; and the
third essential is to proceed in the attainment of
health, happiness and harmony. Without health nothing of permanent value
can be accomplished. Without happiness our talents
will be as the flowers without sunshine, and without harmony most of the
power we might receive would be thrown away.
To obtain health, happiness and
harmony we need simply let life live. Real life already has these
things, and when we let
life live in us those things will be expressed through
us. The next essential is to resolve that we will be fully contented
simply to live. To shine in the world, to acquire fame
or to do something wonderful that mankind may long remember us, that
we will not think of. Many a person has worked hard
for fame and died early, in obscurity. Fame in itself, however, is of
no value.
When you are neither happy nor well,
fame cannot make your life worthwhile. If you are miserable, it will
profit nothing if
everybody may know your name. It is not the praise of
man that we should seek, but the life of the Infinite. The praise of
the world can give us nothing, but life from within
can give us everything that the heart can wish for.
True fame comes to him who deserves
it without his trying to get it, but those only can deserve the honor of
the race who
have always been their best, who have not neglected a
single opportunity to be of service, and who have lived constantly for
the one purpose of being an inspiration to every soul.
We may look at this phase of the subject as we may, we can come to
only one conclusion. He alone is great and deserving
of honor who so lives that he always is all that God made him to be;
and it is such a life that is lived by the lilies of
the field.
When man will be as true to his large
world as the lilies are to their small world, mankind will become a
race of gods indeed,
and the Utopian dreams of the prophets will come true.
This, however, the ordinary thinker may declare to be impossible, but
nothing is impossible. If a flower can be true to
itself in its world, man can be true to himself in his world.
Those who are accustomed to the
worldly methods of thinking and working may feel that it is hardly
possibly to apply these
new ideas while associated with worldly minds, but we
must remember that it is not where we work or at what we work, but how
we work that determines what results are to be. To
work so that you permit the boundless power within to work through you
is the secret, and this will not only cause your work
to be pleasant, but will also cause you to do better and better work
every day.
It is therefore the royal path to
pleasantness today and greater things tomorrow. In the old way you are
compelled to almost
wear yourself out today in order that you might
provide for tomorrow; but not so in the new. While you are providing for
tomorrow
you are not only enjoying life today, but you are,
through the expression of greater and greater power from within, making
yourself larger, stronger and greater today. In the
development of talents you employ the same principle. You do not strive
for greatness; you know that you are potentially great
already, and by permitting this greatness to become alive in you, you
will accomplish great things.
When you apply this principle in
everything that you do, you will find your advancement to be steady and
even rapid; you will
move forward in all things, making the ideal real as
you ascend in the scale. The very moment you find a new ideal you find
that power within you that can make that ideal real;
thus your advancement becomes continuous, your progress eternal. To live
the life beautiful we simply let life live. We know
that life itself is beautiful and when we permit that life that is
beautiful
to live in us, we will live consciously and personally
the most beautiful life that we can picture in the ideal without making
any personal effort to do so.
When we begin to live, think and act
according to these principles we feel that we are carried on and on by
some mysterious
presence that seems to be doing everything for us
while giving us the pleasure and the glory. We soon learn, however, that
this presence is our self, our own larger, superior
self created in the image of God.; therefore, able to do everything that
we may wish to have done; and it is a joy, indeed, to
feel everything moving so smoothly and gently, so harmoniously and
pleasantly,
and at the same time producing such great results.
To engage in some extraordinary work
becomes one of our greatest pleasures, because nothing is hard or
difficult any more;
obstacles disappear the very moment we enter their
presence, and we realize inwardly that whatever we undertake to do will
be accomplished. We no longer tremble when in the
midst of events that require exceptional wisdom and power; we know that
wisdom is ready to speak whatever may be necessary
now, and that power is at hand to do whatever may be necessary to be
done
now. We are in touch with the greatness of the great
within and may draw upon that great, inexhaustible source whatever we
may need at any time.
Fear takes flight, while faith
becomes stronger, higher and more perfect; sorrow and despair are no
more, because all things
are working for the best. Even in the presence of
death and loss we see more life and greater gain. We know that what
passes
away merely ascends that it may live more and be
itself in a larger, higher measure than it ever was before. We know that
whatever comes will bring the new and the more
beautiful. It could not be otherwise, because having chosen to be all
that
we are, the all can never cease to come, and the more
the all continues to come the more the all will continue to bring. We
have laid aside the illusions of the world and adopted
the ways of truth. We have beheld the beauties of nature and have
opened
our minds to the visions of the soul. These have given
us the secret, and like the lilies of the field, we have learned to
be still and live.
Count It All Joy
We meet something at almost every turn that we think
ought to be different. If we have high ideals, we may not feel
satisfied
to permit those conditions to remain as they are; we
may even complain or antagonize. On the other hand, if our ideals be
low, we may feel wholly indifferent, but then we find
that those things go from bad to worse.
What we seek, however, is our present
comfort on the one hand and the betterment of everything about us on
the other hand,
and we wish to know how this may be brought about in
the midst of the confusion, the ignorance and the ills that we find in
the world. When we are indifferent to the wrong it
becomes worse; therefore, even for our own good we must do something
with
those adverse conditions that exist in the home, in
society, or in the state. We must meet all those things and meet them
properly, but the problem is, how?
To antagonize, criticize or condemn
never helps matters in the least; besides, such states of mind are a
detriment to one's
own peace and health. The critical mind wears itself
out while thinking about the wrong, but the wrong in the meantime goes
on becoming worse. To feel disappointed because the
universe does not move according to our fancy will not change the
universe,
but it will produce weakness in our own mind and body.
That person who lives constantly in the world of despondency will soon
lose all hold upon life; he consequently does nothing
in the world but bring about the end of his own personal life.
The usual way of dealing with the
problems of life solves nothing. The ordinary way of meeting temptation
gives the tempter
greater power, while the person who tries to resist is
usually entrapped in adversity and trouble. But St. Paul has told us
what to do under all such circumstances. Count it all
joy. That is the secret. Count it all joy no matter what may come,
agreeing
with all adversity at once, antagonizing nothing;
condemning no one, leaving criticism alone. Never be disappointed or
discouraged,
and have nothing whatever to do with worry. Whatever
comes, count it all joy. He who meets adversity in the attitude of
peace,
harmony and joy will turn enemies into friends and
failures into greater good.
When things do not come your way,
never mind. Continue to count everything joy, and everything will change
in such a manner
as to give you joy. If you are seeking the best, all
things will work together in such a way as to give you the best, and
your heart's desire shall be realized; possibly not
today, but life is long; you can wait. That which is good is always
good;
it is always welcome whenever it comes. In the
meantime you are living in harmony and joy, and that in itself is surely
a
great good.
That person who lives constantly in
gloom drives even the sunshine out of his own mind; the clouds of gloom
are so heavy that
he fails to see the brightness that is all about him.
That person, however, who counts everything joy will change everything
to brightness and thus receive joy from everything.
When you fail to receive what you sought, never for a moment be
disappointed.
Count it all joy. In fact, be supremely happy; you
have a reason so to be. When you fail to get what you seek it simply
means
that there is something still better in store for you;
then why should you not count such an event great joy. This is always
the case when your whole desire is to receive the
best; and when you train yourself to count everything joy, your mind
develops
that desire that always desires the best.
When you seek only the best, the best
only will come, and you must not feel disappointed when you are taken
away from a hovel
in order that you may enter a palace. When you meet
enemies or adversaries do not resist them or enter into warfare; look
for terms of agreement. Possibly they may seem to get
the best of the bargain now, but you can afford to give them the terms
they ask. The Infinite is your supply.
When one door closes another opens,
and if you depend upon the Supreme to open that other door, it will be a
door opening
into far greater and far better things than what you
seemingly lost; besides, by being kind to your adversary you lifted
yourself
up. You are now a higher and a greater being. That
means that you will now draw to yourself higher and better things;
consequently,
it was not the enemy that got the best terms; it was
you.
Whatever you are called upon to do,
do it and be happy. Count it all joy that you are given the opportunity
to bring sunshine
into dark places and develop your own latent power by
doing what seemed difficult. You are equal to the occasion, if you think
so; therefore you should consider it a privilege to
prove it. The world is waiting for great souls, souls that are ready to
do what others failed to accomplish. You can become
one of these great souls by proving to yourself that you are equal to
every occasion; and you will be equal to every
occasion, if you count everything joy.
When you are in the midst of
temptations, rejoice with your whole heart. You have found a great
opportunity to turn wrong
into right, and to turn wrong into right is always a
mark of greatness. Millions of people have died unhonored and unsung
who might have arisen to greatness and become leaders
and saviors in the world, if they would have demonstrated their
superiority
in the midst of temptation, tribulation and wrong.
Look upon all temptations and troubles as opportunities to make wrong
right,
and be glad that such opportunities have been
presented to you. Count it all joy; besides, the result will not only
produce
joy to yourself, but possibly to millions. He who
changes wrong into right rises in the scale, and you can think of no
greater
good coming to you than this.
He who remains below must be counted
with the small and the ordinary. He who goes up higher shall gain
everything that his
heart may wish for. Therefore, whatever comes, or
whatever you meet, or whatever you are called upon to do, proceed with
peace
and joy. Be glad that you have the opportunity to
prove your own power, and thus elevate yourself thereby. Be supremely
happy
to know that you may change many things for the better
through this attitude, and thus bless the lives of multitudes.
Train yourself to look at things
according to this principle, and you will find that everything can
produce joy. Everything
can give cause for rejoicing; that is, providing
everything is met in that attitude that counts everything joy. The same
principle
may be employed to great advantage in overcoming
difficulties. When you are asked to do what seems to be very difficult,
or
when you are called upon to perform duties you do not
like, never refuse. Count it all joy. To excuse yourself when such
occasions
appear is to lose most valuable opportunities.
Every person desires to make the most
of himself, but to accomplish this all latent power must be awakened,
and there is nothing
that will bring forth our latent powers more
thoroughly than the doing of what seems difficult. When you find
yourself shrinking
from certain tasks you have discovered a weak faculty
within yourself. Refuse to let that faculty remain in such a condition.
Go and do what you feared to do and let nothing hold
you back. In this way the weak faculty will be made strong and your
entire
nature will pass through most valuable discipline and
training.
Nothing is really disagreeable unless
we think so. That is, we may approach the disagreeable in such a way
that it ceases
to be disagreeable; and the secret is, count
everything joy. You may enter darkness and gloom, but if you are living
in a
world of brightness and cheer, that darkness will not
be darkness to you, nor will gloom enter your mind for a moment. You
can remain in your own happy world, no matter what may
happen, no matter what may take place in your immediate environment.
When you resolve to do certain things
and proceed with a conviction that you will enjoy the work thoroughly,
you will find
real pleasure in that work; besides, you will do the
work very well. Pleasure comes from within, and when the fountain of
joy within is overflowing, it will give joy to
everything that exists about us. To cause this fountain within to
overflow
at all times, count everything joy at all times. We
should never look for weakness, but when we find it we should proceed
at once to change it into strength. Whenever we meet
difficulties, or whenever we are called upon to do what we dislike we
have found a weakness.
We may remove that weakness by doing
with a will what the moment demands, and resolve to enjoy it. Never
permit such occasions
to pass by without being changed. The opportunity is
too valuable. Whatever your present sphere of action may require of you,
that you are able to do; and the present demand upon
your life and your talents must be supplied by you if you would bring
out the best that is in you, and make the great
eternal now full and complete.
Tasks that seem difficult and demands
that seem unreasonable are after all neither difficult nor
unreasonable. They are simply
golden opportunities for you to become what you never
were before. They are but paths to greater achievements, sweeter joys
and a larger life. Therefore, when you meet such
occasions, count it all joy. When you fail to gain or realize in the
present
what you expected, do not feel disappointed. Make up
your mind to be just as happy in those conditions that are, as you
expect
to be in those conditions that you are looking for.
The feeling of disappointment is not
produced by events. It is produced by your own attitude toward events.
You can meet all
events in such a frame of mind that you never feel
disappointed in the least, and that frame of mind is the result of
counting
everything joy. When you know that eternity is long
and that countless joys are in store for you, you will not feel sad now
because one insignificant event has been postponed.
And when you have full control of your mind you will have the power to
produce just as much happiness in the absence of that
event as in its presence, because events themselves cannot produce
happiness.
The same is true of things. We do not
gain joy from things, but from the way we think about things, and we
can think as we
choose at any time no matter what the circumstance may
be. When the present demands happiness from something different than
what you were looking for in the present, grasp the
opportunity to prove that you are equal to this occasion. You thus
develop
latent ability. When you count everything joy you know
that you can always produce joy. You know that whatever happens is
best, because you have the power to cause it to become
the best.
The best always happens to those who
seek only the best; therefore, whatever comes should be received as the
best, and we
must give it the opportunity to prove that it is
better than anything that could have happened. You are not dependent
upon
events for happiness. Happiness does not come from
what we do or where we go. Happiness comes from what we are now or what
we create out of what is present now. Whether we be
alone in a garret or in a gorgeous ballroom the amount of happiness we
are to receive in either place will depend entirely
upon our own frame of mind. The frame of mind that you desire for the
present moment you may have; if it does not come of
itself, you can create it; you are the master.
When things do not come the way we
like, we can like them the way they are coming. This is how we agree
quickly with our adversaries;
we thus-receive the enemy instead of fighting the
enemy; and that which we receive in the true attitude of mind becomes
our
own. Count everything joy and every adversity will
give up its power to you. That which is evil becomes good when we meet
it in such a way that we draw out of it the best that
it may contain, and we always attract the best from everything when
we meet everything in the conviction that all things
work together for good.
When nothing comes to give us
happiness in the external we can open the fount of everlasting joy in
the great within. The
heaven of the soul is ever ready to open its pearly
gates, but we must look towards the soul if we would pass through those
gates. We shall fail to see the fountain of joy
within, however, so long as our whole attention is fixed upon those
worldly
pleasures that failed to come into our world; but if
we count everything joy we no longer feel disappointed about what did
not happen; on the other hand we enter into that
joyous state of mind that will place us in direct contact with the
source
of limitless joy within the mind. When people speak
unkindly of you, you will become offended if you thought they spoke
unkindly,
but if your eyes are too pure to behold iniquity you
will go on your way as if nothing had been said; you count everything
joy and thus you will receive joy from your own lofty
position in the matter.
When you are asked to do certain
things do not proceed with a feeling that you are compelled to. Go and
do it because you
want to; say that you want to, and count it all joy.
We should never say "I have a duty to perform," but rather, "Here is
an opportunity which I have the privilege to embrace."
Train yourself to want to do whatever your present sphere of life may
demand. He who loves and thoroughly enjoys what he is
doing today will be asked to do greater things tomorrow. The large soul
never asks if things are unpleasant or difficult; such
thoughts never enter his mind.
Whatever he finds to do he proceeds
to do, with his mind full. of will and his heart full of joy. If you
dislike anybody,
you have found a weakness in yourself. You have found a
difficulty that must be overcome at once. Do not permit such obstacles
to remain in your way. The soul that knows no weakness
loves everything that God has created. The strong soul never considers
those imperfections in life that man has created.
Intelligence was not intended to be used in the study of nothingness,
illusions
or mistakes. When we hate anything we recognize the
existence and the power of those things that have neither real existence
nor real power; we therefore enter into a confused
state of mind.
What God has created we cannot help
but love, but if we see something else and dislike that something else
we are seeing something
that God has not created. In other words, we are
giving attention to illusions and mistakes, and the mind is not intended
for that purpose. Remove the illusion by transforming
that hate into love; this will change the point of view. You will thus
see things from the upper side, the divine side, and
when we look at things from the divine side we find that everything is
altogether lovely.
Therefore, when you dislike anybody
overcome that weakness by giving that person all the love of your heart.
Love that person
and mean it, no matter what he has said or done. There
is nothing in the world that lifts the soul so high above darkness
and illusion as strong, pure, spiritual love; and it
is not difficult to love a person when you know that he is God's
creation,
while his mistakes are simply man's creation. Mistakes
must be forgiven. Our desire is to do the will of God, and to do the
will of God is to love every creature in existence,
and to love everything as God loves everything.
True Use Of Kindness And Sympathy
The ordinary use of sympathy is responsible for a
very large portion of the ills and the troubles we find in the world;
the
reason being that nearly all suffering is mental
before it is physical, and that mental suffering is almost invariably
produced
when we enter into sympathetic touch with the ills
that we meet among relations, friends or associates. The average person
would suffer but little if he suffered only from the
troubles that arise in his own system. It is the pain that is felt
through
sympathy for others that gives him most of the burdens
he finds it necessary to bear. It is considered a sign of kindness,
goodness and high regard, however, to sympathize with
others in this manner, or rather to suffer with others, but this is
not the true use of kindness.
We do not help others by entering
into the same weakness that is keeping them in a world of distress. We
do not help the weak
by becoming weak. We do not relieve sickness by
becoming sick. We do not right the wrong by entering into the wrong, or
doing
wrong. We do not free man from failures by permitting
ourselves to become failures. We do not emancipate those who are in
bondage to sin by going and committing the same sin.
This is very simple; but ordinary sympathy is based upon the idea that
we sympathize with a person only when we suffer with
that person.
We expect to relieve pain by
proceeding to produce the same pain in our own systems; but we cannot
remove darkness by entering
into the dark We can remove wrong only by removing the
cause of that wrong, and to remove the cause of wrong we must produce
the cause of right. Darkness disappears when we
produce light; likewise, sickness and trouble will vanish when we
produce
health and harmony, but we cannot produce health and
harmony by entering into disease and trouble. This, however, is what
ordinary sympathy does; it has, therefore, failed to
relieve the world. The ordinary use of sympathy multiplies suffering
by making suffering contagious. It causes the
suffering of the one to give pain to the many, and then in turn causes
the pain
of the many to give additional pain to each individual
person whose sympathy is aroused in the same connection. We must remove
everything that tends to make ills contagious, whether
it is physical or mental, and it is very evident that ordinary sympathy
does spread pains and ills to a very great degree.
Therefore, one of the first essentials in producing emancipation or in
making real the ideal is to find the true use of
sympathy.
Sympathy itself must not be removed,
because it is one of the highest virtues of the soul. The average
person, however, misapplies
this virtue continuously, and in consequence brings
pains and ills both to himself and others, that could easily have been
prevented. There is a better use for sympathy, and
through this better use we cause all the good things in life to become
contagious. Instead of entering into sympathetic touch
with the weakness that may temporarily exist in the personality of
man we enter into sympathetic touch with the strength
that permanently exists in the soul of man.
Instead of morbidly dwelling upon the
ills and the wrongs which we find we proceed to gain the highest
possible realization
of the good, the right, the superior and the beautiful
that we know has existence back of and above the superficial life of
human nature. According to a metaphysical law, when we
enter into mental contact with the good in man we awaken the power
of that which is good in man, and the most perfect
mental contact is produced by sympathy.
To sympathize with the soul is to
increase the active power of the soul, because we always arouse into
greater action that
with which we sympathize, and when the active power of
the soul is increased the weakness of the personality will become
strength.
To sympathize with the power of health and harmony in
man will increase the power of health and harmony throughout his entire
system and the elimination of sickness and trouble
must inevitably follow. To sympathize with the pain a person may feel is
to do nothing to relieve that person. You take the
pain to yourself, but you do not take the pain away from the person with
whom you sympathize.
You thus double the suffering instead
of removing it entirely, as you should. On the other hand, when we
refuse to recognize
the suffering itself and proceed to awaken in that
person that something that can remove the suffering we protect ourselves
from pain, while we actually do something to relieve
that person from pain. We do not suffer with the person that suffers,
but we do something to remove suffering absolutely
from everybody concerned; instead of entering into the pain we take that
person out of pain. That is sympathy that is sympathy.
That is kindness that really results
in a kind act. It does not weep, but does better. It removes both the
cause and the effect
of the weeping. It awakens that superior power in man
that positively does produce emancipation. It does not cause suffering
to be transmitted to a score of other persons who have
done nothing to merit that suffering, but it stops the pain where it
is and puts it out of existence absolutely.
Every form of suffering comes from
the violation of some law in life. It is therefore wrong, but it cannot
be righted by making
a special effort to spread the results of that wrong
among as many others as possible. This, however, ordinary sympathy does;
it makes a special effort to make everybody feel bad
because some one is not feeling as he should; but the pains of the many
cannot give ease and comfort to the one, nor can many
minds in bondage set one mind free.
When any one is feeling bad it will
not help him to have a group of morbid minds suffer with him. When any
one is sorry it
will not remove the cause of his grief to have others
decide to be sorry also. Do something so that person will not feel bad
any more. Take him out of his trouble. That is real
sympathy; and while you are helping him out make him feel that your
heart
is as tender as tenderness itself. Do something so
that the grief may be removed through the realization of that greater
truth
that knows that all is well. That is kindness worthy
of the name.
Those, however, who are in the habit
of sympathizing in the ordinary way may think the new way cold, and
devoid of feeling
or love, but the fact is that it is the ordinary form
of sympathy that is devoid of love. When you love a person who is in
pain you will not stand around and weep pretending
that you are also feeling bad. You will put on the countenance of light
and cheerfulness and actually do something tangible to
remove his pain.
That's love; and if you have real
sympathy, you will minister to him with so much depth of feeling and
tender kindness that
you will touch the very innermost life of his soul.
All love, all tenderness, all kindness and all real feeling come from
the soul. Therefore, he whose sympathy is of the soul
will receive his love and his kindness directly from the true source;
in consequence, he will have more love and more
kindness by far than the one whose sympathy is a form of morbid feeling.
The real purpose of true sympathy is
twofold; first, to arouse in a greater measure that finer something in
everybody with
whom one may come in contact that will arouse this
greater something, not only in others, but also in him who lives in this
form of sympathy. In other words, to sympathize with
the superior in man is to banish the wrong and the inferior by causing
the expression of that divine something within that
has the power to in life that is not only tender and sweet and
beautiful,
but is also immensely strong, strong with the strength
of the Infinite; and second, to awaken everything in man that has
quality,
superiority and worth; that is, to make man feel the
supreme power of his own inherent divinity.
There is something in man that is
greater than all weakness, all ills, all wrongs, and when this something
is awakened, developed
and expressed, all weakness, all ills and all wrongs
must disappear. To sympathize with this greater something makes all
things
well. Such a sympathy will tend to build a stronger
life, a better life, a superior life, a more beautiful life; and to give
such a sympathy to everybody is kindness indeed.
There may seem to be kindness in
weeping with those who weep, but it is a far greater kindness to give
those people the power
to banish their sorrows completely, and he who does
this is not cold; he is the very essence of the highest and most
beautiful
love. There is no joy in having sorrow. There is no
pleasure in having pain. Therefore, what greater good can man do for man
than to help him gain complete emancipation from all
those things, and this is the purpose of this higher use of sympathy.
True sympathy is neither cold nor
purely intellectual. It is real soul-feeling, while ordinary sympathy is
simply a morbid
mental feeling. True sympathy is the very fire of real
spiritual love, because it springs from the very soul of love and is
in constant touch with the unbounded power of that
love. That such a sympathy should have extraordinary emancipating power
is therefore most evident. The ordinary use of
sympathy may appear to be kind. It may mean well, but it is usually
misdirected
kindness, and is nearly always weak. The higher use of
sympathy, that is, the expression of divine sympathy, is not only
kindness
itself, but it has the spiritual understanding and the
spiritual power to do what kindness wants to do.
Ordinary kindness is usually
crippled. It lacks both the power to do and the understanding to know
what to do. The true sympathy,
however, not only has the power to feel kindly, but
has the power to act kindly. It not only gives love and makes everybody
feel that they are in the presence of real love, but
it also gives that something that can cause the purpose of love to come
true. Real love invariably aims to produce comfort,
peace and emancipation. That is its purpose, and real sympathy can
fulfill
that purpose. Therefore, this higher sympathy is the
sympathy that is sympathy.
The same principle should be employed
in the use of every form of emotion, because every emotion is a
movement of the mind
conveying mental elements and powers with certain
definite objects in view. Therefore, the way the emotion acts will
determine
to a very great extent whether these mental powers
will build for better things, or produce undesirable conditions. Those
movements of the mind or emotions that express
themselves in love, heartfelt joy and spiritual feeling have a
beneficial effect;
while that mental feeling that is usually termed
emotionalism is never wholesome.
True spiritual feeling is calm, but
extremely beautiful and awakens orderly and harmoniously all the finer
elements of human
life. It is true spiritual feeling, or what may be
termed emotions sublime, that gives action and expression to personal
quality,
mental worth and individual superiority. In other
words, it is these actions of mind and soul that elevate thought,
action,
feeling, consciousness and desire above the planes of
the ordinary. Such emotions should therefore be cultivated to the very
highest and finest degree.
What is spoken of as heartfelt joy is
that wholesome joy that comes directly from the heart and that has
depth, reality and
joyous feeling; but that joy that runs into
uncontrolled ecstasy is never wholesome. Every feeling of joy that
causes the
mind to be carried away into excited or overwrought
ecstasy is not joy, but mental intoxication. Such joy does not produce
genuine happiness, and the reaction always disturbs
the equilibrium of the wind.
Depth of thought, clear thinking,
intellectual brilliancy, good judgment, mental poise, all of these will
diminish in the
mind that indulges in uncontrolled ecstasy,
emotionalism or pleasure that produces excitability and overwrought
emotional
feeling. The feeling of love, when it is love, is
always wholesome and elevating, but passionate desire is weakening
unless
it is permeated through and through with genuine love.
A deep, strong feeling of love will turn all desires, whether mental
or physical, into constructive channels, but we must
be certain that it is real love and not an artificial feeling
temporarily
produced by the misuse of the imagination.
Here every mental movement that is
intense, forced, overwrought or worked up to an abnormal pitch of
excited enthusiasm leads
to emotionalism, and emotionalism burns up energy.
Nearly all kinds of nervous diseases can be traced directly or
indirectly
to emotionalism in one or more of its many forms; and
as physical and mental weakness always follows the burning up of energy,
a number of physical and mental ills can be traced to
this source.
When emotionalism, fear, anger and
worry are eliminated, all kinds of insanity and all kinds of nervous
diseases will be things
of the past; while the power, the capacity and the
brilliancy of the average mind will increase to an extraordinary degree.
Strong emotional feelings and intense enthusiasm will
sometimes arouse a great deal of dormant, mental power. In consequence,
people sometimes do exceptional things while under the
emotional spell, but the entire process, as well as the final results,
are very similar to that produced by alcoholic
stimulants and other drugs. The system seems to be charged with a great
deal
of extra power for a while, but when the reaction
comes the entire system becomes much weaker than it ever was before. The
mind that permits itself to be aroused by intense,
emotional feeling will gradually lose its power of clear thought.
The understanding will become so
weakened that the principles of real truth cannot be fully comprehended,
while the judgment
will follow more and more the illusions of an
overwrought imagination. The fact that religious feeling among millions
is so
closely associated with this overwrought state of
emotionalism proves the importance of a better understanding of the use
of these finer mental elements. Emotionalism compels
the mind to follow mere feeling, and mere feeling, when not properly
blended with clear understanding, will be misdirected
at every turn.
Emotionalism also stupefies the finer
perceptions by intoxicating the mind, and by burning up the finer
mental energies; and
since these finer perceptions are required to discern
real truth we understand readily why highly emotional people cannot
comprehend the principles of pure, spiritual
metaphysics. Having been trained towards materialistic literalism
instead of
away from it, they are not to blame, however, for
their present state and deserve no criticism. Nevertheless, those who
wish
to find real religion and real spirituality must learn
to understand the psychology of emotion and must learn the true use
of all the finer feelings of the mind.
There is something in man that is
called religious feeling. It is present to a greater or lesser degree in
everybody and cannot
be removed, because it is a part of life itself. When
in action, and it is never inactive very long, it expresses itself in
some power of emotion. When this emotion or delicate
mental movement is permitted to act without any definite purpose it
becomes
emotionalism; that is, mental energy running rampant,
and becoming more and more intense until it destroys itself, as well
as all the energy it originally contained.
On the other hand, when this feeling
is directed towards the highest and the most perfect conception of
truth, life and being
that the mind can possibly picture, all that is lofty,
ideal and beautiful will be developed in the mind and soul of that
individual. This is natural, because there is nothing
that has greater developing power than deep, spiritual feeling; a fact
that those who desire to develop remarkable ability,
extraordinary talent and rare genius will do well to remember.
There is no mental faculty that is
more readily affected by the emotions than the imagination, and since
the imagination is
such a very important faculty, no mental or physical
action that in any way interferes with the constructive work of the
imagination
should be permitted. Emotionalism, however, invariably
excites the imagination, and an excited imagination will imagine all
sorts of things that are not true. The mind will thus
be filled with illusions, and in consequence, false beliefs, wrong
thoughts,
perverted states and misdirected mental energy will
follow.
The result will be sickness, trouble,
mistakes and failures in one or more of their many forms. It is now a
well demonstrated
truth that every thought has a definite power of its
own, and, that power will produce its natural effect in some part of
the human system. If the thought is not good the
effect will naturally be undesirable, and conditions will be produced in
mind or body that we do not want. But whatever we
imagine, that we think; therefore, when we excite the imagination we
imagine
all manner of things that are untrue, unreal or
abnormal; we produce false or perverted thought action in the mind; we
think
the wrong, and wrong thoughts invariably produce wrong
conditions in mind or body, or both.
What we imagine we reproduce in
ourselves to some degree, frequently to a marked degree; but an excited
imagination simply
cannot imagine what is good and wholesome. In every
form of development, whether in the body, the mind or the soul, the
imagining
faculty is employed extensively. All growth is
promoted by combining and recombining the elements of life in higher and
higher
forms, and since it is one of the functions of the
imagination to produce these higher, more complex and more perfect
combinations,
development cannot take place unless the imagination
works orderly, constructively and progressively.
An excited imagination will produce
false mental combinations or may waste energy by attempting to combine
mental elements
that will not combine. An orderly imagination may be
likened to a skilled workman who builds a beautiful mansion out of his
bricks, while an excited imagination might be likened
to some one who can do nothing more than pile those bricks into a heap.
The fact that emotionalism always excites the
imagination proves therefore how impossible it is for minds with
uncontrolled
emotions to develop the greatness that is latent
within them.
Another fact of great importance in
this connection is that emotionalism will intensify every mental
tendency that may be
active in mind at the time. If there is a tendency
towards abnormal desires, emotionalism will intensify those desires so
that it will be very difficult to resist temptation
should it appear. On the other hand, pure spiritual feeling would
transmute
those desires, and produce instead, an ascending
tendency, thus leading all the forces of mind towards higher ground.
To overcome emotionalism, intense
mental feeling, anger, excitability and all overwrought or abnormal
mental states, turn
attention upon the spiritual heights of the soul
whenever such mental feelings are felt. By training all mental feelings
and
emotions to move toward the deeper and the higher
spiritual state of being these same feelings will become stronger,
deeper,
finer and more beautiful than they ever were before.
We then establish the foundation upon which we can build an ideal
character,
and through such a character all the qualities of mind
and soul can be used beneficially in the midst of every experience,
whatever the nature of that experience may be.
To cause all the emotions to follow
ascending tendencies will increase remarkably the power, the fineness,
the life and the
rapture of every phase of feeling, not only in the
soul, but in the mind and the body as well. Every trace of coldness,
indifference
or lack of feeling will entirely disappear, and we
shall develop instead that higher form of kindness, sympathy and
spiritual
emotion that is created in the likeness of divine
emotion. Whoever employs this method will not permit his feelings to run
wild at any time, but will cause the life and the
power of every feeling to accumulate in his system.
He will hold them all in poise and
use their energies intelligently in the building up of his whole life
and in adding to
the joy, the rapture and the delight of the living of a
full, strong, ever-ascending state of existence. That person who
controls
his feelings and turns all the energies of those
feelings upon the spiritual heights of the soul will actually become a
living
flame of love, sympathy and sublime emotion. Such a
person will enjoy everything intensely, but his joy will be in such a
high state of harmony that he will waste nothing in
his life; instead, all the elements and powers of his life will continue
to accumulate, thus giving added strength, worth and
superiority to everything that he may physically, mentally or
spiritually
possess.Talk Health, Happiness And Prosperity
Talk happiness. When things look dark, talk
happiness. When things look bright, talk more happiness. When others are
sad,
insist on being glad. Talk happiness, and they will
soon feel better. Talk happiness; it pays in every shape and form and
manner. Give sunshine to others, and others will be
more than pleased to give sunshine to you. Talk happiness, and your
health
will be better, your mind will be brighter and your
personality far more attractive; but the qualities that happiness will
give to you will also be given to those who have the
pleasure to listen to you when you talk happiness.
Talk happiness, and you will always
remain in a happy frame of mind. You will encourage thousands of others
to do the same.
You will become a fountain of joy in the midst of the
garden of human life, and who can tell how many flowers of kindness
and joy unfolded their rare and tender beauty because
you were there. When others have lost courage, talk happiness. The
future
is bright for everybody. Talk happiness, and you turn
on the light in their pathway, and they will see the better things that
are before them. When the mind is depressed it is
blinded; it sees only the darkness; but when the light of joy is
admitted,
everything is changed. Therefore, talk happiness to
all persons and on all occasions.
We cannot have too much light in the
world, and the more we talk happiness the more light we produce wherever
we may be. What
greater pleasure could anyone desire than to realize
that he has eased the way of life for thousands and sent the sunbeams
and joy into the mental world of tens of thousands?
You can do this by talking happiness. Thus by constantly talking
happiness
you produce perpetual increase in your own happiness.
What we give in abundance always returns in abundance; that is, when
we give in the right spirit; and he who talks
happiness is always in the right spirit. When in the midst of discord,
trouble
or confusion, talk happiness. Harmony will soon be
restored. The majority can easily change their minds for the better when
some one takes the lead. You can take the lead by
talking happiness.
Talk prosperity. When times are not
good, man himself must make them better, and he can make them better by
doing his best
and having faith in that power that produces
prosperity. When men have faith in prosperity they will think
prosperity, live
prosperity and thus do that which produces prosperity;
and you can give men faith in prosperity by constantly talking
prosperity.
They may not listen at first, but perseverance always
wins. Prosperity is extremely attractive, and the more you impress it
upon the minds of others the more attractive it
becomes until no one can resist it; and when we admit the idea of
prosperity
into our own minds we will from that moment begin to
produce prosperity.
Think prosperity, talk prosperity,
and live prosperity; and you will rise in the scale no matter what the
circumstances may
be. Hold to the power that produces abundance by
having unbounded faith in that power and you will overcome all adversity
and reach the highest goal you have in view. The fear
of failure produces more failure than all other causes combined. You
can remove that fear by talking prosperity.
Talk health. It is the best medicine.
When people stop talking sickness they will stop getting sick. Talk
health and stay
well. Talk health to the person who is sick and you
will cause him to think health. He who thinks health will live health,
and he who lives health will produce health. When your
associates take delight in relating minutely everything they know about
the ills of the community, purify the muddy waters of
their conversation by talking health. Insist on talking health.
Prove that there is more health than
sickness, and that therefore health is the more important subject. The
majority rules.
Health is in the majority. Increase that majority by
talking more health. Take the lead in this manner of conversation, and
be positively determined to continue in the lead.
Others will soon follow, and when they do, sickness will diminish more
and
more until it becomes practically unknown among those
who have the privilege to live in your circle.
When the sins of the world are in
evidence, talk virtue. When the power of virtue is in evidence, talk
more virtue. Eternally
emphasize the good; give it more and more power, and
it will soon become sufficiently strong to produce that ideal of power
that you wish to make real. Talk virtue, and people
will think of virtue; they will dwell more and more upon the beauty of
virtue. Ere long they will desire virtue, and that
desire will become stronger and stronger until it thrills every atom in
human life.
To desire virtue is to become
virtuous. To live for the attainment of purity is to place in action all
the purifying elements
in your being, and you will soon realize that
perfectly clean condition that every awakened mind has learned to
worship. You
can purify the minds of thousands by constantly
talking virtue, and these thousands will in turn convey the power of
virtue
to as many thousand times thousands more.
Talk virtue eternally and there is no
end to the good that you may do. When the world seems bad, talk virtue.
The power of
good is not gone; it is just as great as it ever was,
and it is here and there and everywhere. You can open the mind of man
to the mighty influx of this power by eternally
talking virtue. You can, through the proper use of your own words,
change
the tide of human thought. You can cause all mankind
to desire virtue by forever talking virtue. On the surface many things
may seem to be what they ought not to be, but the
surface is not all there is. It is an insignificant part of the whole.
There is a hidden richness in life
that the many do not see, because their attention has never been turned
in that direction.
You can lead mankind into the gold mines of the mind
and into the diamond fields of the soul, and the secret lies in the
words
you speak. You can guide the mind of man by the way
you talk. Talking therefore should not be empty, but should ever have
a sublime goal in view. Your words point the way and
they who hear what you have to say will, to some degree, be influenced
to go whatever way your words may point. Your power,
therefore, in directing other minds towards greater and better things
is hidden in every word you speak, and how important
that this power be wisely employed.
We are responsible for every word we
express. It will affect somebody either for good or otherwise. Talk sin,
sickness and
trouble, and you will cause many to go directly into
more sin, sickness and trouble. Talk health, happiness and prosperity,
and you will cause many to find health, happiness and
prosperity in greater and greater abundance. When the world complains,
do not forget to emphasize the great fact that
universal good is even now at hand. The complaining mind wears colored
glasses.
He cannot see things as they are. You can help him to
remove those glasses by calling his attention to the fact that things
are not what they seem to him.
Everything lies in the point of view.
Look at things from the right point of view and you will be happy,
cheerful and optimistic
under all sorts of circumstances. But look at things
from the wrong point of view, and you will see nothing clearly;
everything
will appear to be what it is not. You will thus live
in confusion and your mistakes will be many. Remove this confusion by
placing yourself in harmony with eternal good, and you
can do this by talking about the good, thinking about the good and
emphasizing most positively every expression of good
with which you may come in contact. That which we think of and talk of
constantly will multiply and grow in our own world.
Talk peace. You will thus not only
prevent confusion, but you will remove those confused conditions that
may already exist.
You can still the storms of life everywhere by talking
peace. When man thinks the most of peace he will be in peace, and he
cannot fail to think of peace so long as he is
faithfully talking peace. Talk success, and you will inspire everybody
with
the spirit of success. You will help to turn the
energies of life upon the goal of success, and thus you will help all
minds
to move towards success. Never say that anything is
impossible.
Talk success, and you help to make
everything possible. Everybody should succeed. It is not only the
privilege of everybody
to succeed, but every person, to be just to himself,
must succeed. The fear of failure, however, is the greatest obstacle.
You can remove that fear by talking success. Hold the
idea of success before every mind with which you come in contact; you
will thus become one of the greatest philanthropists
in the world.
New and greater opportunities may be
found everywhere. Talk of these things and forget the missteps of the
past. We can leave
the lesser that is behind only by pressing on towards
the greater that is before. Talk success to everybody, and everybody
will press on towards the greater goal of success. Be
an inspiration among all minds; and you can be by holding up the light
of success, prosperity and attainment at all times.
Use your words in promoting advancement, in awakening new interest in
the better side, the brighter side, the sunny side,
and turn the mind of man upon those things that can be done.
He can who thinks he can, and you
help every person to think that he can by talking prosperity and
success. Impress the greater
upon every mind, and every mind will think the
greater; and he who thinks the greater is constantly building for
greater things.
Emphasize the sunny side in all your speech and you
provide a never failing antidote for complaints; and since the
complaining
mind soon becomes the retrogressing mind, this
antidote has extreme value. It may change for the better the destiny of
anyone
when brought squarely before his attention, and this
your words can do.
When one door closes another opens;
sometimes several. This is the law of life. It is the expression of the
law of eternal
progress. The whole of nature desires to move forward
eternally. The spirit of progress animates everything. Whenever a person
loses an opportunity to move forward this great law
proceeds to give him another. This proves that the universe is kind,
that
everything is for man and nothing against him. This
being the truth, the man who talks health, happiness, prosperity, power
and progress is working in harmony with the universe,
and is helping to promote the great purpose of the universe; and who
would not occupy a position of such value and
importance?
Whenever you talk trouble, failure,
sickness or sin you arraign your own mind against the law of life and
the purpose of the
universe. You will thereby be against everything, and
everything will, in consequence, be against you. You must, therefore,
necessarily fail in everything you undertake to do.
But how different everything will be when you turn and move in the other
direction. Go with the universe, and all the power of
the universe will go with you, and will help you to reach whatever
object
you may have is view.
Harmonize yourself with the laws of
life and you will steadily rise in the scale of life. Nothing can hold
you down. Everything
you undertake to do you will accomplish, because
everything will be with you. You will reach every ideal, and at the best
time and under the best circumstances cause that ideal
to become real. When you cease to talk failure and begin to talk
success
you invariably meet the turn in the lane. You find
that a new world and a better future is in store. Things will take a
turn
when you take a turn, and you will take a turn when
you begin to talk about those things that you desire to realize. Never
talk about anything else. The way you talk you go. The
way you talk others will go.
Therefore, talk health, happiness and
prosperity, and help everybody, yourself included, to move towards
health, happiness
and prosperity. The power of words is immense, both in
the person that speaks and in the person that is spoken to. The
simplest
way to use this power is to train yourself to talk the
things you want; talk the things that you expect or desire to realize;
talk the things you wish to attain and accomplish. You
thus cause the power of words to work for you and with you in gaining
the goal you have in mind. Whatever comes, talk
health, happiness and prosperity. Say that you are well; say that you
are
happy; say that you are prosperous. Emphasize
everything that is good in life, and the power of the Supreme will cause
your
words to come true.
What Determines The Destiny Of Man
The destiny of every individual is being hourly
created by himself, and what he is to create at any particular time is
determined
by those ideals that he entertains at that time. The
future of a person is not preordained by some external power, nor is
fate controlled by some strange, mysterious force that
masterminds alone can comprehend and employ. It is ideals that control
fate, and all minds have their ideals wherever in the
scale of life they may be.
To have ideals is not simply to have
dreams or visions of that which lies beyond the attainments of the
present; nor is idealism
a system of ideas that the practical mind may not have
the privilege to entertain. To have ideals is to have definite objects
in view, be those objects very high or very low, or
anywhere between those extremes.
The ideals of any mind are the real
wants, the real desires or the real aims of that mind, and as every
normal mind invariably
lives, thinks and works for that which is wanted by
his present state of existence, it is evident that every mind must
necessarily,
either consciously or unconsciously, follow his
ideals. When those ideals are low, ordinary or inferior the individual
will
work for the ordinary and the inferior, and the
products of his mind will correspond in quality with that for which he
is
working.
Inferior causes will originate in his
life and similar effects will follow; but when those ideals are high
and superior, he
will work for the superior; he will develop
superiority in himself, and he will give superiority to everything that
he may
produce. Every action that he originates in his life
will become a superior cause and will be followed by a similar effect.
The destiny of every individual is
determined by what he is and by what he does; and what any individual is
to be or do is
determined by what he is living for, thinking for or
working for. Man is not being made by some outside force. Man is making
himself with the power of those forces and elements
that he employs in his thought and his work; and in all his efforts,
physical
or mental, he invariably follows his ideals.
He who lives, thinks and works for
the superior becomes superior; he who works for less, becomes less. It
is therefore evident
that any individual may become more, achieve more,
secure more and create for himself a greater and a greater destiny by
simply
beginning to live, think and work for a superior group
of ideals. To have low ideals is to give the creative forces of the
system something ordinary to work for. To have high
ideals is to give those forces something extraordinary to work for, and
the fate of man is the result of what his creative
forces hourly produce.
Every force in the human system is
producing something, and that something will become a part of the
individual. It is therefore
evident that any individual can constantly improve the
power, the quality and the worth of his being by directing the forces
of his system to produce that which has quality and
worth. These forces, however, are not directed or controlled by the
will.
It is the nature of the creative forces in man to
produce what the mind desires, wants, needs or aspires to attain, and
the
desires and the aspirations of any mind are determined
by the ideals that are entertained in that mind.
The forces of the system will begin
to work for the superior when the mind begins to attain superior ideals,
and since it
is the product of these forces that determines both
the nature and the destiny of man, a superior nature and a greater
destiny
may be secured by any individual who will adopt the
highest and the most perfect system of idealism that he can possibly
comprehend.
To entertain superior ideals is to picture in mind and
to hold constantly before mind the highest conception that can be
formed
of everything of which we may be conscious.
To mentally dwell in those higher
conceptions at all times is to cause the predominating ideas to become
superior ideas, and
it is the predominating ideas for which we live, think
and work. When the ruling ideas of any mind are superior the creative
force of that mind will produce the superior in every
element, faculty, talent or power in that mind; greatness will thus
be developed in that mind, and the great mind
invariably creates a great destiny.
To entertain superior ideals is not
to dream of the impossible, but to enter into mental contact with those
greater possibilities
that we are now able to discern; and to have the power
to discern an ideal indicates that we have the power to realize that
ideal. We do not become conscious of greater
possibilities until we have developed sufficient capacity to work out
those possibilities
into practical, tangible results.
Therefore, when we discern the
greater we are ready to attain and achieve the greater; but before we
can proceed to do what
we are ready to do we must adopt superior ideals, and
superior ideals only. When our ideals are superior we shall constantly
think of the superior, because as our ideals are so is
our thinking, and to constantly think of the superior is to steadily
grow into the likeness of the superior.
When the ideals are very high all the
forces of the system will move towards superior attainments; all things
in the life
of the individual will work together with greater and
greater greatness in view, and continued advancement on a larger and
larger scale must inevitably follow. To entertain
superior ideals is not simply to desire some larger personal attainment
or to mentally dwell in some belief that is different
from the usual beliefs of the world. To entertain superior ideals is
to think the very best thoughts and the very greatest
thoughts about everything with which we come in contact.
Superior idealism is not mere
dreaming of the great and the beautiful, but is actual living in mental
harmony with the very
best we can find in all things, in all persons, in all
circumstances and in all expressions of life. To live in mental harmony
with the best we can find everywhere is to create the
best in our own mentality and personality; and as we steadily grow into
the likeness of that which we think of the most, we
will, through ideal thinking, perpetually increase our power, capacity
and worth. In consequence, we will naturally create a
greater and a more worthy destiny.
The man who becomes much will achieve
much, and great achievements invariably build a great destiny. To think
of anything
that is less than the best, or to mentally dwell with
the inferior is to neutralize the effect of those superior ideals that
we have begun to entertain. To secure the greatest
results it is therefore absolutely necessary to entertain superior
ideals
only and to cease all recognition of inferiority or
imperfection. The reason why the majority fail to secure any tangible
results from higher ideals is because they entertain
too many of the lower ideals at the same time.
They may aim high; they may adore the
beautiful; they may desire the perfect; they may live for the better
and work for the
greater, but they do not think their best thoughts
about everything, and this is the reason why they do not reach the goal
they have in view. Some of their forces are building
for greater things, while other forces are building for lesser things,
and a house divided against itself cannot stand.
Superior idealism contains no thought
that is less than the very greatest and the very best that the most
lofty states of
mind can possibly produce, and it entertains no desire
that has not the very greatest worth, the greatest power, and the
highest
attainment in view. Superior idealism does not
recognize the power of evil in anything or in anybody; it knows that
adverse
conditions exist, but it gives the matter no conscious
thought whatever. It is not possible to think the greatest thought
about everything while mind is giving conscious
attention to adversity or imperfection.
The true idealist, therefore, gives
conscious recognition to the power of good only, and he lives in the
conviction that all
things in his life are constantly working together for
good. This conviction is not mere sentiment with the idealist. He knows
that all things positively will work together for good
when we recognize only the good, think only the good, desire only the
good and expect only the good; likewise, he knows that
all things positively will work together for greater things when all
the powers of life, thought and action are
concentrated upon the attainment and the achievement of greater things.
To apply the principles of superior
idealism in all things means advancement in all things. To follow the
superior ideal is
to move towards the higher, the greater and the
superior, and no one can continue very long in that movement without
creating
for himself a new world, a better environment and a
greater destiny. To create a better future begin now to select a better
group of ideals.
Select the best and the greatest
ideals that you can possibly find, and live those ideals absolutely. You
will thus cause
everything in your being to work for the higher, the
better and the greater, and the things that you work for now will
determine
what the future is to be. Work for the greatest and
the best that you know in the present, and you will create the very
greatest
and the very best for the future.
To Him That Hath Shall Be Given
The statement that much gathers more is true on
every plane of life and in every sphere of existence; and the converse
that
every loss leads to a greater loss is equally true;
though we must remember that man can stop either process at any time or
place. The further down you go the more rapidly you
will move towards the depths, and the higher up you go the easier it
becomes
to go higher still. When you begin to gain you will
gain more, because "To him that hath shall be given."
When you begin to lose you will lose
more, because from "Him that hath not, even that which he hath shall be
taken away."
This is a great metaphysical law, and being
metaphysical, man has the power to use it in any way that he may desire.
As man
is in the within, so everything will be in his
external world. Therefore, whether man is to lose or gain in the without
depends
upon whether he is losing or gaining in the within.
The basis of all possession is found
in the consciousness of man, and not in exterior circumstances, laws or
conditions. If
a man's consciousness is accumulative, he will
positively accumulate, no matter where he may live; but whether his
riches
are to be physical, intellectual or spiritual will
depend upon the construction of his mind. When the mind has the greatest
development on the physical plane an accumulative
consciousness will gather tangible possessions. When the mind has the
greatest
development on the intellectual or metaphysical plane,
an accumulative consciousness will gather abundance of knowledge and
wisdom.
When the mind has the greatest
development on the spiritual plane an accumulative consciousness will
gather spiritual riches.
However competent you may be on the physical plane, if
your consciousness is not accumulative, you will not gain possession
of a great deal of this world's goods. Likewise, no
matter how diligently you may search for wisdom in the higher spiritual
possessions, if your consciousness is not accumulative
you will gain but little. In fact, you will constantly lose the
knowledge
of truth on the one hand while trying to gain it on
the other. Therefore, to gain abundance in the world of things or
tangible
possessions, the secret is to become competent in our
chosen vocations, and then acquire an accumulative consciousness.
To gain the riches of the mind and
the soul, the secret is to develop the same accumulative consciousness
and to consecrate
all the powers of mind and thought to spiritual
things. There are thousands in this age who have consecrated their whole
lives
to the higher state of being, but there are very few
who have gained the real riches of the spiritual kingdom, and the reason
is they have neglected the development of the
accumulative consciousness. In other words, they have overlooked the
great law,
"To him that bath shall be given."
Those who have nothing will receive
nothing, no matter how devotedly they may pray or how beautifully they
may live. But to
have is not simply to possess in the external sense.
Those who are conscious of nothing have nothing. Those who are conscious
of much have much, regardless of external possession.
Before we can gain anything we must have something, and to have
something
is to be conscious of something.
We must be conscious of possession in
the within before we can increase possession in any sphere of
existence. All possession
is based upon consciousness and is held by
consciousness or lost by consciousness. All gain is the result of an
accumulative
consciousness. All loss is due to what may be termed
the scattering consciousness; that is, that state of consciousness that
lets go of everything that may come within its sphere.
When you are conscious of something you are among those that hath and
to you shall be given more.
As soon as you gain conscious hold of
things you will begin to gain possession of more and more things. As
soon as you gain
conscious hold upon wisdom and spiritual power, wisdom
and spiritual power will be given to you in greater and greater
abundance.
On the other hand, when you begin to lose conscious
hold of things, thoughts or powers, you will begin to lose more and more
of those possessions, until all are gone.
When you inwardly feel that things
are slipping away from you, you are losing your conscious hold of
things, and all will
finally be lost if you do not change your
consciousness. When you inwardly feel that you are gaining more and
more, or that
things are beginning to gravitate towards your sphere
of existence, more and more will be given to you until you have
everything
that you may desire.
How we feel in the within is the
secret, and it is this interior feeling that determines whether we are
to be among those
that have or among those that have not. When you feel
in the within that you are gaining more you are among those that have,
and to you shall be given more. When you feel in the
within that you are losing what you have, you are among those that have
not, and from you shall be taken away even that which
you have.
When we learn that mind is cause and
that everything we gain may come from the action of mind as cause, we
discover that all
possession is dependent upon the attitude of mind, and
since we have the power to hold the mind in any attitude desired, all
the laws of gain and possession are in our own hands.
When this discovery is made we begin to gain conscious possession of
ourselves, and to him that hath himself all other
things shall be given.
To feel that you, yourself, are the
power behind other powers, and that you may determine what is to come
and what is to go,
is to become conscious of the fact that you are
something. You thus become conscious of something in yourself that is
real,
that is substantial and that is actually supreme in
your world. To become conscious of something in yourself is to have
something,
and to have something is to gain more; consequently,
by gaining consciousness of that something that is real in yourself you
become one of those that hath. and to you shall be
given.
To gain consciousness of the real in
yourself is to gain consciousness of the real in life, and the more you
feel the reality
of life the more real life becomes. The result is that
your consciousness of the reality of life becomes larger and larger;
it comprehends more and takes in more. In other words,
it is becoming accumulative. When this realization is attained you
gain conscious hold upon life and are gradually
gaining conscious hold upon everything that exists in life.
This means a greater and greater
mastery of life, and mastery is always followed by an increase in
possession. Whatever you
become conscious of in yourself, that you gain
possession of in yourself. Whatever you gain possession of in yourself,
that
you can constructively employ in your sphere of
existence, and whatever is constructively employed is productive; it
produces
something. Therefore, by becoming conscious of
something you gain the power to produce something, and products on any
plane
constitute riches on that plane.
The more you become conscious of in
yourself and in your life the greater your power to create and produce
in your sphere
of action, and the more wealth you produce the greater
your possession, providing you have learned how to retain the products
of your own talent. When we analyze these laws from
another point of view we find the consciousness of the real in ourselves
produces an ascending tendency in the mind, and
whenever the mind begins to go up, the law of action and reaction will
continue
to press the mind up further and further indefinitely.
Every upward action of mind, produces
a reaction that pushes the mind upward still farther. As the mind is
pushed upward a
second upward action is expressed that is stronger
than the first; this in turn produces a second reaction stronger than
the
first reaction, and the mind is pushed upward the
second time much farther than it was the first time. The fact is, when
the
mind enters the ascending scale the law of action and
reaction will perpetuate the ascension so long as the mind takes a
conscious
interest in the progress made; but the moment the mind
loses interest in the movement the law will reverse itself and the
mind enters the descending scale. Therefore, become
conscious of the law in yourself and take a conscious interest in every
step in advance that you make, and you will go up in
the scale of life continually and indefinitely.
When the mind is in the ascending
scale it is steadily becoming larger, more powerful and more competent,
and will consequently
be in demand where recompense is large and the
opportunities more numerous. Such a mind will naturally gain step by
step in
rapid succession. To such a mind will be given more
and more continually, because it has placed itself in the world of those
who have. The great secret of gaining more, regardless
of circumstances, is to continue perpetually to go up in mind. No
matter
how things are going about you, continue to go up in
mind.
Every upward step that is taken in
mind adds power to mind, and this added power will produce added results
in the tangible
world. When these added results are observed mind
gains more faith in itself, and more faith always brings more power. On
the other hand, when we permit ourselves to go down in
mind, because things seem to go down, we lose power. This loss of power
will prevent us from doing our work properly or from
using those things and conditions about us to the best advantage. In
consequence, things will actually go down more and
more; and if we permit this losing of ground to make us still more
discouraged,
we lose still more power, to be followed by still more
adversity and loss.
It is therefore evident that the way
we go in mind everything in our world will go also, and that if we
change our minds and
stay changed, everything else will change and stay
changed. If we continue to go up in mind, never permitting retrogression
for a moment, everything in our world will continue to
go up, and there will not even be signs of reverse, much less the loss
of anything which we wish to retain.
When things seem to go wrong we
should stay right and continue to stay right, and things will soon
decide to come and be right
also. This is a law that works and never fails to
work. When we permit ourselves to go wrong because things seem to go
wrong,
we produce what may be termed the letting go attitude
of mind, and when we cease to hold on to things, things will begin to
slip away. We must hold on to things ourselves, if we
wish to retain them for ourselves; and the secret of holding on to
things
is to continue positively in that attitude of mind
that is perpetually going up into the larger and the greater.
The laws of life will continue
perpetually to give to those who have placed themselves in the receiving
attitude, and those
same laws will take away from those who have placed
themselves in the losing attitude. When you create a turn in yourself
you will feel that things are also taking a turn to a
degree; and if you continue persistently in this feeling, everything
in your life will positively take the turn that you
have taken. As you go everything in your world will go, providing you
continue to go; the law of action and reaction
explains why.
In the last analysis, however,
everything depends upon whether consciousness determines how every
force, element, power or
faculty is to act, because they are all controlled by
consciousness. When your consciousness does not have the proper hold
on things, the power of your being will fail to gain
the proper hold on things; but when your consciousness does possess this
holding power, all the powers of your being will gain
the same firm grip upon everything with which they may have to deal.
To establish the accumulative
consciousness, that is, that consciousness that has complete hold on
things, train yourself
to inwardly feel that you have full possession of
everything in your own being. Feel that you possess yourself. Affirm
that
you possess yourself. Think constantly of yourself as
possessing yourself, everything that is in yourself, and you will soon
be conscious of absolute self-possession. Some have
this conscious feeling naturally, and they invariably gain vast
possessions,
either in tangible goods or in wisdom and higher
spiritual powers.
But every one can develop this state
of conscious possession of his whole self by remaining firm in the
conviction that "All
that I am is mine." When you begin to feel that you
possess yourself you actually have something in consciousness, and
according
to the laws of gain and possessions you will gain more
and more without end. You are in the same consciousness with those
who have, and to you will be given. You have
established the inner cause of possession through the conscious
possession of
your entire inner life, and the effect of this cause,
that is, the perpetual increase of external possession, must invariably
follow. In brief, you have applied the great law "To
Him That Hath Himself All Other Things Shall Be Given".
The Life That Is Worth Living
To the average person life means but little, because
he has not discovered the greater possibilities of his real existence.
He has been taught to think that to make a fortune or
to make a name for himself are the only things worthwhile, and if he
does not happen to have the necessary talent for these
accomplishments there is nothing much else for him to do but to merely
exist. However, if he has been touched with the force
of ambition, or if he has had a glimpse of the ideal, mere existence
does not satisfy, and the result is a life of
unhappiness and dissatisfaction.
But such a person must learn that
there are other openings and opportunities in life besides mere
existence, regardless of
what the mental capacity of the individual may be.
These other opportunities, when taken advantage of, will give just as
much
happiness, if not more, than what is secured by those
who have won the admiration of the world; besides, when one learns to
live for these other things real living becomes a fine
art, and he begins to live a life that is really worthwhile. There
is many a person whose present position in life
depends almost wholly upon his financial returns, and if these are
small,
with no indications of immediate increase, his life
seems to be almost, if not wholly, a barren waste; not because it is a
barren waste, but because he has not found the real
riches of existence. The trouble with this person is the point of view;
he is depending upon things instead of depending upon
himself. He must learn that there is something more to live for besides
his salary and what his salary can buy.
The value of the individual life is
not measured by the quantity of possessions, but by the quality of
existence. The value
of life comes not from having much, but from being
much; and happiness is invariably a state of mind coming, not from what
a person has, but from what he is. We must remember,
however, that he who is much will finally gain much, providing the
powers
in his possession are practically applied; and his
gains will have high quality whether they be gains in the world of
things
or in the world of mind, consciousness and soul.
The problem for the average person to
solve is what he actually can do with himself in his present position.
He may not be
earning much now, and his opportunities for earning
more may not be clearly in evidence, but he is nevertheless living in
a great sea of opportunities, many of which may be
taken advantage of at once. The first of these is the opportunity to
make
of himself a great personality, and in taking
advantage of this opportunity he should remember that to do great things
in
the world is not the only thing worthwhile. To be
great in the world is of equal if not greater worth, and he who is now
becoming
great in his own life will, without fail, do great
things in years to come.
The majority of those who have
practical capacity are making strenuous efforts to do something great,
something startling,
that will arrest the attention of the world; while
those who do not possess this practical capacity are not satisfied
because
they are not similarly favored. In the meantime
neither class gains happiness, and the best forces of life are employed
in
the making of things, most of which are valueless,
while the making of great personalities is postponed to some future
time.
The capacity to make great things is
not the only capacity of value in the possession of man; but all minds
do not possess
this capacity; all minds, however, do possess the
power to remake themselves in the exact likeness of all that is great
and
beautiful and ideal. Begin now to rebuild your own
personality and proceed in the realization of the fact that you have the
power to produce an edition DeLuxe out of your own
present personal self.
You could hardly find a purpose of
greater interest and of greater possibility than this, and results will
be secured from
the very beginning. To find your own personality
passing through a transformation process, bringing out into expression
the
finest and the best that you can picture in your
ideals, is something that will add immensely to the joy and the worth of
living. In fact, this alone would make life not only
worth living, but so rich that every moment would become a source of
unbounded satisfaction in itself.
The average person usually asks
himself how much money he can make during the next ten years, but why
should he not ask himself
how much happiness he can enjoy during those same
years, or how much brilliancy he can develop in his mind, or how much
more
beautiful he may become in body, character and soul?
He would find that by living for these latter things he would not only
perpetually enrich his life and live a life that is
thoroughly worth living, but he would find that the earning of money
would
become much easier than if he simply lived for
material gain alone.
The ambition of the average person is
to do something great in the world of things; but why is he not
ambitious to do something
great in the perfecting of his own being, the most
wonderful world in the universe? Such ambitions are truly worth living
for and working for, but our attention has not been
called to their extraordinary possibilities; therefore, we have
neglected
the greater while wasting most of our energies on the
lesser.
There are a number of ambitions
outside of the usual ones that could engage our attention with the
greatest of profit, because
they not only have worth in themselves, but they lead
to so many other things that have worth. The desire to secure as much
out of life as life can possibly give will not only
make living intensely interesting, but the more life a person can live
the more power he will get. Live a great life and you
gain great power. The increase of your power will enable you to carry
out a number of other ambitions, thus adding to the
richness of your life from almost every imaginable source.
When a person declares that his
greatest ambition is to live he is taking the most interesting, the most
satisfying, the most
profitable and the most complete course in life that
can possibly be selected. Living, itself, when made a fine art, is one
continuous feast, and the fact that all increase of
power comes from the increase of life makes the ambition to live not
only
the greatest ambition of all, but the means through
which all other ambitions may be realized.
If your present life does not hold as
much as you would wish, do not think of it as an empty state of
existence. Do not depend
upon those few things that you are receiving from the
external world; but begin to draw upon the limitless life and power
that exists in the vastness of your interior world.
Then you will find something to live for.
Then you will begin to live a life
that is thoroughly worthwhile. Then you will find the real riches of
existence, and you
will also find that these riches will so increase your
personal power and worth that you will become able to take advantage
of those opportunities that lead to things of tangible
worth.
When the world of things does not
seem to hold any new opportunities for you resolve to grow more and more
beautiful in body,
character and soul with the passing of the years. Make
this your ambition, and if you do your utmost to carry out this
ambition,
you will gain far more satisfaction from its
realization than if you had amassed an immense fortune. Live to express
in body,
mind and soul all that is high and beautiful and ideal
in your sublime nature, and you will not only give yourself unbounded
joy, but you will become a great inspiration to the
entire world.
The life that is not expressed
through the beautiful nor surrounded by the beautiful is not worth a
great deal to the mind
of man; but there is practically no end to the joy and
richness that man may gain through that which is actually beautiful.
The beautiful not only gives happiness, but it opens
the mind of man to those higher realms from which proceed all that is
worthy or great or ideal. To look upon the beautiful
is to gain glimpses of that vast transcendent world where supreme life
is working out the marvelous destiny of man.
Therefore, there can be no greater ambition than to live for the purpose
of giving
higher and more ideal expression to the life of that
sublime world.
To give expression in personal life
to the great riches of the interior world is worth far more, both to
yourself and to the
race, than it is to gain possession of any number of
things in the external world. The man who simply gains wealth never
gains
happiness; besides, he is soon forgotten. But the man
who will live for the purpose of giving expression to mental and
spiritual
wealth will gain unlimited happiness, and his life
will be so illustrious that his name will never be forgotten.
And remember that no matter how
insignificant your position in life may be today, or how small your
income, or how limited
your opportunities, you can begin this moment to give
expression to the vast riches of your interior life; and before you
take your departure from this sphere you may become
such a great light in the world of higher illumined attainment that your
accomplishments in this unique sphere of action will
continue to inspire the world for ages yet to come.
To live for the purpose of developing
the gold mines of the mind and the diamond fields of the soul, are
ambitions that might
engage the attention of millions who have found no
satisfaction in the world of things; and to those who will make these
their
leading ambitions a rich future is certainly in store;
and, in addition, the present will be filled to overflowing with almost
everything that can give interest and happiness to
life.
To develop a charming personality, to
live a long life, to live a happy life, and to retain your health, your
youth and your
vigor as long as you live, these are ambitions that
anyone can work for with the greatest interest and profit; and to him
who will accomplish these things the world will give
more honor than it has given to its greatest musicians, its most
brilliant
orators or its most illustrious statesmen.
To live for the purpose of unfolding
the latent powers of your being is a work that will not only prove
interesting to an
exceptional degree, but will prove exceedingly rich in
future possibilities. That there is practically no end to the
possibilities
that are latent in man is now the firm conviction of
all real psychologists. Therefore, we need not weep because there are
no more worlds to conquer. We are on the borderland of
greater worlds than were ever dreamed of by the most illumined seers
that the world has ever known.
We need not feel discouraged because
our position in life seems uninteresting or insignificant. We have
opportunities at our
very door that are so great and so numerous that it
will require an eternity to take advantage of them all. Though the
external
world may not as yet have given us much to live for,
the internal world stands ready to lavish upon us so much that is rich
and marvelous that not a single moment need be
otherwise than a feast fit for the gods. The doors of this internal
world are
open, and he who will walk in will begin to live a
life that is great, indeed.
When we look into life as life really
is there is so much to live for and there is so much to accomplish and
attain that even
eternity seems too short. The problem to solve is to
know the greatest thing we can do now; and the solution may be found
by resolving to live for that which is nearest at
hand, whatever that may be. Accept the greatest opportunity that you can
take advantage of now, and then begin to live for the
working out of everything that that opportunity may contain. Do not
long for opportunities that are out of reach. The
majority do this and thus waste their time.
Do not wait for opportunities to do
great things. The opportunity to make of yourself a great soul, a
marvelous mind and a
higher developed personality is at hand, and by taking
advantage of this opportunity you will awaken within yourself those.
powers that can do great things. You will thus cause
your present to become all that you may wish it to be; you will build
for a future that which will be nothing less than
extraordinary; and you will be living a life that is thoroughly worth
living
in the great eternal now. You will be making the ideal
real at every step of the way, but every moment will lead you into
worlds that are richer and realms that are fairer than
you ever dreamed of before.
It is therefore evident that when we
learn to live the life that is really worth living, there is no reason
whatever why a
single moment should be empty, dull or uninteresting
in the life of any person, because there is so much to live for that
has real worth, so much to enjoy that holds real
enjoyment, so much to do that is thoroughly worth doing; besides, the
whole
of life, when actually lived, is eternally alive with
interest, ever revealing the splendor of its vast transcendent domains.
And he who aims to live for the purpose of gaining the
realization of, and the possession of, as many spheres of this life
as possible will find full expression for every
ambition and every aspiration that he can possibly arouse in his mind.
Life
to him will be a continuous feast and existence will
become an endless advancement into the highest attainments and the
greater
achievements that even the most illustrious mind can
picture as its goal.
When All Things Become Possible
When the mind is placed in conscious contact with
the limitless powers of universal life all things become possible, and
faith
is the secret. To have faith is to possess that
interior insight through which we can discern the marvelous
possibilities
that are latent in the great within, and to possess
the power to enter into the very life of the great within. To most minds
there seems to be a veil in consciousness between the
spheres of present understanding and the spheres of the higher wisdom,
and though there are many who feel distinctly that
there is something greater within them, yet it seems hidden, and they
cannot
discern it.
Faith, however, has the power to
perceive those greater things within that previously seemed hidden, and
this is the reason
why faith is the evidence of things not seen. Faith
does not simply believe. It knows; it knows through higher insight,
because
faith is this higher insight. Faith is not blind,
objective belief, but a higher development of consciousness through
which
the mind transcends the circumscribed and enters into
the life of the boundless.
When faith is active consciousness is
expanded so much that it breaks all bounds and penetrates even those
realms that objective
man has never heard of before. In this way new truth
and discoveries are brought to light, and this is how man gains the
understanding
of what previously seemed to be beyond his
comprehension. When we define faith as that power in mind through which
consciousness
can penetrate into the larger sphere of life we
perceive readily why almost anything can be accomplished through faith,
and
we also understand why no one can afford to work
without faith. When consciousness enters a larger sphere of action its
capacity
is naturally increased, and the greater power that can
be drawn upon in performing any kind of work increases in proportion;
likewise, the knowing how to work will be promoted in
the same manner.
To do anything successfully one must
know how to do it and have the power to do what one knows should be
done, and both these
essentials are increased in proportion to the
enlargement of consciousness. One of the principal metaphysical laws
declares
that whatever you become conscious of you express
through your personality; therefore, according to this law more life,
more
power and more wisdom will come into actual possession
in the personal life as we become conscious of more and more of these
things in the mental life; in other words, the ideal
is made real.
The art of extending consciousness
into the realms of unlimited life and power and wisdom is the secret
through which all
great attainments and great achievements become
possible; but without faith this enlargement of consciousness cannot
take
place, because faith is that power that perceives and
enters into the greater things that are still before us. Faith looks
into the beyond of every faculty, talent or power and
perceives that there is much more of these same talents and powers
further
on. In fact, there is no visible limit to anything
when viewed through the eyes of faith.
Consciousness does not extend itself
in any direction until it feels that there will be tangible grounds upon
which to proceed.
You can become conscious only of those things that
seem real; therefore, to extend your consciousness in any direction you
must secure evidence of the fact that there is more
reality in that direction; and here we find the great mission of faith.
Faith supplies this evidence. Faith looks further on
into the beyond and sees real reality at every step, and proves to
consciousness
that things not seen are thoroughly substantial. Faith
discerns that there is no danger in going on and on because there is
solid ground all the way, no matter how far into the
limitless we may wish to go; there is no danger of being lost in an
empty
void by following faith. Instead, faith gives us a
positive assurance of finding more life, more power, more wisdom and a
fairer state of existence than we ever knew before.
The practical value of faith is
therefore to be found in its power to enlarge all the faculties and
spheres of action in the
mind of man, and as this enlargement can go on
indefinitely, as there is no end to the visible, we conclude that
anything
can be accomplished by following faith. No matter how
much wisdom or power we may require to reach the goal we have in view
we can finally secure the required amount through the
perpetual enlargement of consciousness.
This is evident, and since faith is
that something in mind that leads consciousness on and on into larger
fields of action
it becomes indispensable to all growth, to all great
achievements, to all high attainments and to the realization of all true
ideals. The man who has no faith in himself can
neither improve himself nor his work. When nothing is added to his
ability,
capacity or skill there can be nothing added to the
quality or the quantity of what he is doing. The effect will not improve
until we have improved the cause; and man himself is
the cause of everything that appears in his life.
Modern psychology, however, has
discovered and conclusively demonstrated that no faculty can be improved
until the conscious
sphere of action of that faculty is enlarged and
thoroughly developed. Therefore, to promote the efficiency of any
faculty
the conscious action of that faculty must become
larger and imbued with more life. This is the fundamental principle in
all
advancement, but consciousness will not enlarge its
sphere of action until it perceives that there is reality beyond its
present
sphere, and it is only through the interior insight of
faith that the greater reality existing beyond present limitations
is discovered to be real.
The lack of this interior insight
among the great majority is the principal obstacle that prevents them
from becoming more
than they are. Their minds have not the power to see
the potential side of their larger nature. They are aware of the
objective
only and can do only as much as the limited power of
the objective will permit. But they are not aware of the fact that there
is limitless power within, nor do they realize that
they can draw upon this great interior power and thus accomplish not
only
more and more, but everything that they may now have
in view.
Not having the power to look beyond
present attainment, the little world in which they live is all that is
real to them. Occasionally
there is a dream or a vision of greatness, but it soon
fades away, and in those rare instances when the high vision continues
for some time the knowledge of how to make real the
ideal is usually not at hand.
The human race is divided into three
classes; first, those who live in the limited world and never see
anything beyond the
limited; second, those who live in the limited world
but have occasional glimpses of greater things, though having neither
the knowledge nor the power to make their dreams come
true; and third, those who are constantly passing from the lesser to
the greater, making real every ideal as soon as it
comes within the world of their conscious comprehension.
The last group is small, but there
are millions today who are on the verge of a larger sphere of existence,
and for this reason
we should usher into the world at once a greater
movement for the promotion of faith than has ever been known before. It
is
more faith that these millions need in order to enter
into the beautiful life they can see before them. It is more faith they
must have before they can become as much as they
desire to be. It is faith, and faith alone, that can give them the power
to do what this great sphere of existence may require.
To make real the ideal in any life
faith must be combined with work, and no work should be undertaken
unless it can be animated
thoroughly with the power of faith. The reason why is
found in the fact that all practical action is weak or strong, depending
upon the capacity of that part of the mind which
directly controls that action; and the capacity of the mind increases in
proportion to the attainment of faith. To accomplish
what we have in view, it is not only necessary to know how to go about
our work, but it is necessary to have sufficient
power, and faith is the open door to more and more power.
The very moment you obtain more faith
you feel stronger; you are then certain of results and the very best
results; and the
reason why is found in the fact that faith always
connects the mind with the larger, the greater and the inexhaustible. On
the other hand, you may have an abundance of energy,
but do not see clearly how to apply that energy in such a way that
results
will be as desired; again the remedy is more faith.
Faith elevates the mind and lifts consciousness up above doubt,
uncertainty
and confusion. When you go up into faith you enter the
light and can see clearly how to proceed; but in this connection we
must avoid a very common mistake.
When we discover the remarkable power
of faith there is a tendency to depend upon faith exclusively and
ignore other faculties.
We sometimes come to the conclusion that it matters
little how we work or think or act so long as we have an abundance of
faith, because faith will cause everything to come
right. The fact, however, that we sometimes come to this conclusion
proves
that we have not found real faith, because when we
have an abundance of real faith we can see clearly the great truth that
all thought and action must be right to secure
results, and that all faculties and powers must be employed in their
highest
states of efficiency if we wish to make real the
ideal. Though it is absolutely necessary to have the vision, still the
vision
is not sufficient in itself. After the vision has been
discovered in the ideal it must be made real; the principle must be
applied; the new discovery must be worked out in
practical action; but these things require both fine intelligence and
practical
skill.
Faith without works is dead, because
it does nothing, uses nothing, creates nothing; it is as if it were not;
and works without
faith are so insignificant and ordinary that they are
usually very little better than nothing. But when work and faith are
combined then everything becomes possible. The power
of faith is placed in action; work becomes greater and greater, and
whatever
our purpose may be we shall positively scale the
heights. The great principle is to combine unlimited faith with skillful
work.
Work with all the skill that you can
possibly cultivate, but inspire all your efforts with the mighty soul of
a limitless
faith. Become as learned, as intellectual and as
highly developed in mind as possible, but animate your prodigious
intellect
with the supreme spirit of faith. Faith does not come
to take the place of art, skill or intellect. Faith comes to give real
soul to art, skill and intellect. Faith comes to fill
all physical and mental action with renewed life and power. It comes
to open that door through which all our efforts may
pass to higher and greater things.
Faith is not simply for the moral and
spiritual life; is not simply for what is sometimes called higher
endeavor. It is for
all endeavor, and it has the power to push all
endeavor with such energy and force that we simply must succeed, no
matter
what our work may be. The man who has faith in his
work, faith in himself, faith in the human race and faith in the
Supreme,
that man simply cannot fail, if he gives the full
power of his faith to everything that he undertakes to do.
We must eliminate the idea that faith
is something apart from everyday life, and that it is something for the
future salvation
of the soul only. We have held to that belief so long
that real faith has actually been separated from human existence, and
we find very few people today who really know what
faith actually is. The fact is that if you are not giving your faith to
everything you do, be it physical, mental or
spiritual, you have not as yet obtained any faith. When faith comes it
never
comes to give greater power to a part of your life. It
comes to give supreme power to all your life, and it comes to push
all your work towards higher efficiency and greater
results. When you have real faith you never undertake anything without
first placing your entire being in the very highest
attitude of faith.
Even the most trivial things you do
are done invariably in the spirit of faith. This is very important,
because by training
yourself to be at your best in little things it soon
becomes second nature for you to be your best in all things, and when
you are called upon to do something of exceptional
importance, something that may seem very difficult, you do not fall
down;
you are fully equal to the occasion. The more we
exercise faith the more it develops; it is therefore profitable to use
faith
at all times and in everything that we do.
When we know that faith is that
something that takes mind into the superior side of life and thus places
in action superior
powers it is not difficult to understand how to
proceed when we place ourselves in faith. As we think more and more of
this
higher side of our nature, this better side, this
wonderful side, we gradually become conscious of its remarkable
possibilities
and soon we can feel the power of superiority becoming
stronger and stronger in everything that we do in mind or body. To
develop the power of faith the first thing to do is to
train the mind to hold attention constantly upon the limitless side
of life; that is, to live in the upper story of being
and to think as much as possible about the true idea of faith, as well
as the interior essence of faith itself.
When you begin to see clearly that
faith is this higher development of mind, this insight that leads to
higher wisdom, greater
power and more abundant life, you actually find
yourself entering into the realization of those greater things whenever
you
think of faith. By concentrating your attention upon
the inner meaning of faith your mind becomes clearer, your faculties
become stronger and your entire being feels the
presence of more life; and that you can do much better work while in
this
condition is too evident to require any more
elucidation. While in the attitude of faith you cannot only do your
present work
better, but you will steadily develop the ability and
the capacity to do more difficult work, work that will prove more useful
to the community and more remunerative to yourself.
The world wants everything well done and is more than willing to pay for
good work. We are all seeking the best and the
majority aim consciously or unconsciously to give their best, but
without faith
it is not possible for anyone to be his best, give his
best, or do his best.
Do your best and the best will come
to you in return. The universe is founded upon justice, and justice will
positively be
done to you if you have faith in justice. Everything
in life is moving towards greater worth, and since justice is universal,
the greater the worth of a man the greater the value
of those things that he will receive in life. The worthy soul is always
rich in those things that have real worth; and when we
learn to harmonize ourselves more fully with all the laws of existence
we shall place ourselves in that condition where we
not only can give more that has worth but will also receive everything
of worth that actually is our own.
Whether you are working in the
commercial world, the professional world, the artistic world, the
intellectual world; in brief,
whatever your work may be, to have the best results
you must have faith, and it is practical results in practical everyday
life that determines how rapidly and how perfectly the
ideal shall be made real in your own world. Whoever will do his present
work as well as he possibly can, and continue to work
in the highest attitude of faith will positively advance and perpetually
continue to advance. He may not have accomplished much
thus far; but if he takes this course, combining efficient work with
supreme faith, he certainly has a splendid future
before him.
If your present work is not to your
liking do not plan to change at once. First proceed with your present
work in this higher
attitude of faith. You may thus find your present work
to be the very work you want; or your present work, if it is not what
is intended for you, will become the open door through
which you will reach that field of action that will be to your liking,
providing you animate your present work with all the
faith that you can possibly realize. Make yourself the best of your kind
whatever your sphere of action may be, because by so
doing you are not only increasing the number of great minds in the
world,
but you are adding immeasurably to the world's welfare
and joy; and he who combines his work with limitless faith will become
the greatest and the best in his sphere.
In the application of faith, however,
the whole of attention must not be directed upon the improvement of
your work, but more
especially upon the improvement of yourself. The more
you improve the better work you can do, but while you are improving
yourself your improvement will be incomplete and
insufficient unless you each day practically employ in your work what
you
have developed in yourself. Give the power of every
moment to greater attainment in yourself and to greater achievement in
your present occupation, and you will fulfill that
dual purpose in life that invariably leads to the heights. Develop more
power, more ability and more faith and combine these
in everything that you do.
Through the power of faith you will
not only discern higher and higher ideals, but you will also give
greater capacity to
your practical ability. In other words, you will not
only gain the power to see the ideal, but you will gain the power to
practically apply what you have seen; you will make
tangible in real life what the visions of the soul have revealed in the
ideal life; and as you grow in faith, so great will
this power become that there is no ideal you cannot make real. You will
have placed yourself in touch with limitless power,
the power of the Supreme, and therefore to you, all things will become
possible.
The Art Of Getting What Is Wanted
We frequently hear the statement "I never received
what I wanted until the time came when I did not care for it and did not
need it." This statement may in most instances be
based upon an unguided imagination, though this is not always the case,
because there are thousands of people who actually
have this very experience. They never get what they want until the
desire
for it, as well as the need of it, have disappeared.
There may be occasional exceptions, but the rule is that what we
persistently
desire we shall sooner or later receive. Too often it
is later, the reason being that most desires are purely personal and
are not inspired by those real needs that may exist in
the great eternal now. Mere personal desires are usually out of harmony
with the present process of soul-growth, and therefore
there is no supply in our immediate mental vicinity for what those
desires naturally need.
This is the reason why more time is
required for the fulfilling of these desires, and frequently the time
required is so long
that when the desire is fulfilled we do not need it
any more. When we desire only those things that are best for us now,
that
is, those things that are necessary to a full and
complete life in the present, we shall receive what we desire at the
very
time when those things are needed. What is best for us
now is ready in the mental world to be expressed through us. Every
demand has its own supply in the immediate vicinity,
and every demand will find or attract its own supply without any delay
whatever, but the demand must be natural, not
artificial.
The average person is full of
artificial desires, desires that have been suggested by what other
people possess or require.
But the question is not what we need now to compete
with other people so as to make more extravagant external appearances
than other people. The question is, what do we need
now to make our present life as full, as complete and as perfect as it
possibly can be made now.
Ask yourself this question and your
artificial desires will disappear. In the first place, you will try to
ascertain what
you are living for, and what may be required to
promote that purpose of life that may seem true to your deeper thought
on
the subject. In the second place, you will realize
that since it is the present and the present only for which you are
living
you will concentrate your attention upon the living of
life now. This will bring the whole power of desire down upon the
present
moment and engage all the forces of life to work for
the perfection of the present moment. The result will be the elimination
of nearly everything that is foreign to your present
state of existence.
To know what to desire and what to
ignore in the present may seem to be a problem, but it is easily solved
by depending upon
the demands of the soul instead of the demands of the
person. The desires of the average person are almost constantly colored
or modified by suggestions from the artificial life of
the world; they are therefore not normal and are not true to real life.
The desires of the soul, however, are always true and
are always in harmony with the greatest good and the highest welfare
of the entire being of man in his present sphere. It
is the soul that lives; therefore the soul can feel truly what is
necessary
to fulness and completeness in present life.
Real life never lives for the past or
for the future. Real life lives now, and therefore knows the needs of
life now. It is
the soul that grows and develops; therefore the soul
can feel what is required to promote present development. For these
reasons
it is perfectly safe to follow the desires of the soul
and those desires only; it will mean the best of everything for body,
mind and spirit, and the right things will appear in
the right places at the right time.
We live not to acquire things nor to
provide for an extravagant personal appearance. We live to become more
than we are. We
live to live a larger and a greater life perpetually;
therefore every desire must desire only those things that are conducive
to growth, advancement, attainment and superior states
of existence. The expression of desire, however, must not confound
cause with effect, but must so place every desire that
the power of cause invariably precedes the appearance of effect. To
promote advancement in life we must advance in our own
conscious beings before true advancement in the external world can
follow.
Forced advancement is artificial, and
is detrimental to the permanent welfare of the soul. Do not push the
person forward.
Live to give greater expression to the soul and you
will develop all the power that is necessary to push the person forward
towards any lofty goal you may have in view. Become
more than you are from the within, and external environments, demands
and opportunities will ask you to come forward. Thus
you promote true advancement.
There are a number of people who
believe that to follow the desires of the soul is to be led into
poverty, and hardships in
general, but those who have this belief know
practically nothing about the real nature of the soul. He who follows
the desires
of the soul will be led away from sickness, trouble
and poverty and will enter into the possession of the best of
everything,
physical, mental and spiritual. This is natural,
because the ruling desire of the soul is to promote the attainment of
greater
power, greater ability, a larger life, superior
qualities and greater capacity so that things may be done that are
really
worthwhile.
The soul lives to unfold the
limitless possibilities that are latent in the within. Therefore, to
live the life of the soul
and follow the desires of the soul is to become
greater, more able, more competent and more worthy every day. By
developing
greater power in yourself you overcome sickness and
trouble; and by constantly increasing your ability, your talent and your
genius you pass from poverty to abundance, no matter
where you may live or what your work may be.
The man who lives to perfect his
entire being will naturally desire only those things that are conducive
to the growth and
the development that he is trying to promote, and such
desires will be supplied without delay, because they are natural, and
they are in harmony with real life. What life may
require now that life can receive now. This is the law. But every
artificial
desire that we may hold in mind interferes with the
workings of this law, and since the average person is full of artificial
desires he usually fails to receive what is needed to
promote the welfare of real life.
Every desire that is held in mind
uses up energy; therefore, if the desire is artificial, all that energy
is thrown away,
or it may be employed in creating something that we
have no use for when it does come. It has been very wisely stated that
a strong mind should weigh matters with the greatest
of care before uttering a single prayer, because most of the prayers
of such a mind are answered; and should he pray for
something that he cares nothing for when it does come be will have a
burden
instead of a blessing.
The majority are entirely too
reckless about their desires; they desire things because they want them
at the time, but do
not stop to think whether the things desired will
prove satisfactory or not when they are received; and since we usually
get,
sooner or later, what we persistently desire, the art
of knowing what to desire is an art, the development of which becomes
extremely important. It is not an act of wisdom to
pray for future blessings or to entertain desires that will not be
fulfilled
until some future time.
When the future comes you may have
advanced so far, or changed so much, that the needs of your life will be
entirely different
from what they are in the present. Let every desire be
just for today, and let that desire be prompted by the ruling desire
of your life; that is, the desire to become a more
powerful personality, a stronger character, a more brilliant mind and a
greater soul. Live perpetually in the desire that you
will receive the best that life can give today, that all things will
work together for good to you now, and that everything
necessary to the promotion of your highest welfare will come in
abundance
during the great eternal now. Make this desire so
strong that your heart and soul are in it with all the power of life,
and
let every present moment be deeply inspired by the
very spirit of this desire. The result will be that the best of
everything
will constantly be coming into your world, and
everything that may be necessary to make your life full and complete now
will
be added in an ever increasing abundance.
In this connection we must remember
that is not best for anyone to pass through sickness, trouble and
misfortune. When people
have misfortune they sometimes console themselves with
the belief that it is all for the best, but this is not the truth;
though we can and should turn every adverse
circumstance to good account. When you come into trouble you have not
been living
for the best. You have made mistakes or entertained
artificial desires, and that is why trouble came. Had you lived in the
faith that all things are working together for good,
nothing but good would have come; and had you lived in the strong desire
for the best and the best only, you would have
received the very best that you could appreciate and enjoy now.
The belief that we have to pass
through trouble to reach peace and comfort is an illusion that we have
inherited from the
dark ages, and the belief that we are purified through
the fires of adversity is another illusion coming from the same source.
We are purified by passing through a perpetual
refining process, and this process is the result of consciousness
gaining a
deeper, a higher, a truer and a more beautiful
conception of that divinity in man that is created in the image and
likeness
of the Supreme; and it is well to remember that this
refining process can live and act only where there is peace of mind,
harmony of life and the joy of the spirit.
Higher states of life do not come by
passing through adversity but by living the soul-life so completely that
you are never
affected by adversity. The peace that passeth
understanding does not come from the act of overcoming trouble, but is
the product
of that state of mind that is so high and so strong
that it is never moved by trouble. The greatest victory does not come
through successful warfare, but through a life that is
so high and in such perfect harmony with all things that it wars
against
nothing, resists nothing, antagonizes nothing, pursues
nothing, overcomes nothing.
The life that is above things does
not have to overcome things, and it is such a life that brings real
peace, true joy and
sublime harmony. The belief that we have to fight for
our rights is another illusion; likewise, the belief that wrongs have
to be overcome. The higher law declares, be right in
all things and you will have your rights in all things. Be above all
things and you will not have to overcome anything.
Live in the spirit of the limitless supply and you will not have to
demand
anything from any source, because you will be in the
life of abundance.
There is value in the silent demand,
but it is not the highest thought. The highest thought is to desire with
heart and soul
whatever we may need now, and live in the absolute
conviction that all natural demands are supplied now; then we shall not
have to make any demands whatever, silent or audible. A
mental demand usually becomes a forced mental process, and such a
process, though it may succeed temporarily, as all
forced actions do, will finally fail; and when it does fail the mind
will
not be as high in the scale as it was before.
The highest state is pure
realization, a state where we realize that everything is at hand for us
now and will be expressed
the very moment we desire its tangible possession.
Here we must remember never to turn our desires into mental demands, but
to make every desire an inward soul feeling united
perfectly with faith. The highest desire is always transformed into a
whole-souled
gratitude, even before the desire has been outwardly
fulfilled, because when the desire is high in the spirit of faith it
knows at once the prayer will be answered, and
consequently gives thanks from the very depths of the heart.
The prayer that is uttered through
the spirit of faith and through the soul of thanksgiving, the two united
in one, is always
answered, whether it be uttered silently or audibly.
The desires that are felt in such a prayer are inspired by the divinity
that dwells within and are therefore true to real
life. They are soul desires. They belong to the present and will be
fulfilled
in the present at the very time when we want them and
need them. When we fail to get what is wanted, our wants are either
artificial or so full of false and perverted wants
that the law of supply is prevented from doing its proper work for us.
Under such conditions it is necessary to ask the great
question, "What am I living for!"
Then eliminate those desires that are
suggested by the world, and retain only those that desire the highest
state of perfection
for the whole man. It is the truth that when man seeks
first the kingdom of the true life, the perfect life, all other things
needful to such a life will be added. He who desires
more life will receive more life, and with the greater life comes the
greater power, that power with which man may create
his own destiny and make everything in his life as he wishes it to be.
In order to get what is wanted or
what is needed the usual process of desire must be reversed. Instead of
desiring things,
desire that greater life and that greater power that
can produce things. First, desire life, power, ability, greatness,
superiority,
high personal worth, and exceptional spiritual
attainments. Never desire definite environments, special things or
certain
fixed conditions. Leave those things to Higher Power,
because when Higher Power begins to act you will receive the very best
environments, the richest things and the most perfect
conditions that you can possibly enjoy. Desire real life first, and
all that is beautiful and perfect in the living of
such a life in body, mind and soul, will invariably be added. Follow the
desires of the soul and you will receive everything
that is necessary, not only for the life of the soul but for the life
of mind and body as well. Seek the Source of all good
things and you will receive all good things.
Paths To Happiness
To be happy is the privilege of everybody, and
everybody may be happy at all times and under all circumstances through
the
knowing and living of a few simple principles. The
reason why happiness is not as universal and as abundant as it might be
is because the majority seek happiness for itself
alone. Happiness is an effect. It comes from a definite cause.
Therefore,
if we would obtain happiness we must not seek
happiness for itself, but seek that something that produces happiness.
He who
seeks happiness directly, who desires happiness for
the sake of gaining happiness or who works directly for the attainment
of happiness will find but little real joy in his
life. To seek happiness is to fail to find it, but to seek the cause of
happiness is to find it in an ever increasing measure.
Happiness, however, is not the result of any one single cause. It is
the result of many ideal states of being grouped
together into one harmonious whole.
In brief, happiness is the result of
true being perfectly lived upon all planes of consciousness. Happiness
does not come
from having much, but from being much; therefore,
anything that will tend to bring forth into tangible expression more and
more of the real being of man will add to his joy. To
promote the larger and larger expression of the real being of man; in
other words, to promote the living in the real of more
and more of the ideal, a number of methods may be presented; but as
happiness is based upon simplicity, methods for
producing the cause of happiness must also be based upon simplicity,
therefore
only those principles that are purely fundamental need
be employed. These principles however must not be applied singly. It
is necessary to combine them all in practical everyday
living, and when this is done, more and more happiness will invariably
follow. The principles necessary to the perpetual
increase of happiness are as follows:
1. Live the simple life.
The complex life is not only a burden
to existence, but is invariably an obstacle to the highest attainments
and welfare of
man; and the majority, even among those whose tangible
possessions are very insignificant, are living a complex life; but
when the average person is told to remove complexity
from his world and adopt simplicity he almost invariably destroys the
beauty of life. The art of living a life that is both
simple and beautiful is an art that few have mastered, though it is
by no means difficult. Most of the life that is called
simple is positively devoid of beauty and has nothing whatever that
is attractive about it. In fact, it is positively a
detriment both to happiness and advancement.
To live the simple life is not to
return to primitive conditions nor to decide to be satisfied with
nothing, or next to nothing.
It is possible to live the simple life in the midst of
all the luxuries that wealth can buy, because simplicity does not
spring
from the quantity of possession but from the
arrangement of possession. The central idea in the living of a simple
life is
to eliminate non-essentials. The question should be,
"Which of the things that are about me do I need to promote the greatest
welfare of my life?" To answer this question will not
be difficult, because almost anyone can determine at first thought what
is needed and what is not needed to a complete life.
When the decision is made, non-essentials should be removed as quickly
as possible. True, we must avoid extremes, and
whatever we do we must do nothing to decrease the beauty or the harmony
of
life.
There are a great many things in the
world of the average person that he simply thinks he needs, though he
knows that those
things never did anything but retard his progress. It
therefore necessary to remove non-essentials from the mind before we
attempt to simplify our immediate surroundings. The
simple life is a beautiful life, with all burdens removed, and it is
only
the unnecessary that is burdensome.
To live the simple life, surround
yourself only with those things that are directly conducive to your
welfare, but do not
consider it necessary to limit the quantity of those
things. Surround yourself with everything that is necessary to promote
your welfare, no matter how much it may be, although
do not place in your world a single thing that is not a direct power
for good in your world. You thus establish the harmony
of simplicity without placing any limitations whatever upon your
possessions,
your welfare or your highest need. You thus eliminate
everything that may act as a burden; and we can readily understand that
when all burdens are removed from life the happiness
of life will be increased to a very great degree.
2. Live the serene life.
Be calm, peaceful, quiet and
undisturbed in all things and at all times. Confusion and hurry waste
energy, and it is a well
known fact that depression and gloom are produced, in
most instances, simply by the energy of the system running low. The
serene life, if lived in poise, will keep the system
brimful of energy at all tunes, and so long as you are filled through
and through with life and energy you wilt be full of
spirit and joy. Our saddest moments are usually the direct results of
reactions from turbulent thinking and living;
therefore, such moments will be eliminated completely when thinking and
living
are made peaceful and serene.
It is not necessary to live the
strenuous life in order to accomplish a great deal, although on the
other hand it is not quantity
but quality that we seek. Our object should not be to
do many things, but to do good things. If we can do many things that
are good, very well, but we must have duality first in
the mind; the quantity will increase as we grow in capacity, and there
is nothing that promotes the increase of mental and
physical capacity more than calm, serene living. The sweetest joys that
the mind can feel usually come from those deep
peaceful realizations of the soul when all is quiet and serene.
Therefore,
to cultivate the habit of living always in this
beautiful calm will invariably add happiness to happiness every day of
continued
existence.
3. Be in love with the world.
He who loves much will be loved much
in return, and there is nothing in the world that can give more joy and
higher joy than
an abundance of real love. The selfish love, that is
only personal, and that must be gratified to be enjoyed, gives but a
passing pleasure, the reaction of which is always
pain. When we love with such a love we are always unhappy when not
directly
loved in return, and the purely selfish love never
brings real love in return. When we love everybody with the pure love of
the soul, that love that does not ask to be loved in
return but loves because it is loved, we shall positively be loved in
return; and not simply by a few here and there, but by
great numbers.
To feel that you are loved
unselfishly, that you are loved not because anything is expected in
return, but because the love
is there and must come to feel this love is a source
of joy which cannot be measured, and this joy everybody can receive in
abundance now. The simple secret is to love the whole
world at all times and under every circumstance; love everybody with
heart and soul and mean it, and everything that
happens to you will add both to the pleasure of the mind and to the more
lofty
joys of the soul.
4. Be useful.
"Give to the world the best that you
have and the best will come to you." Hold nothing back. If you have
something that you
can share with the world, let everybody have it today.
Do all that you can for everybody, not because you expect reward, but
because it is a part of your nature. Be all that you
can be and do all that you can do. Never say, "I will do only as much
as I am paid for." Such an attitude has kept many a
person in poverty for life. Reward is an effect, not a cause.
Do not place the reward first, and
the service second. Increase your service and the reward will increase
in proportion; you
will thus not only place yourself in a position where
you can secure more and more of the good things of life, but you will
live in that position where you are bringing into
expression more and more of the good things that exist in your own life.
And we must remember that the greatest joy does not
come from gaining good things from the without, but from the expression
of good things from the within; and when both of these
are combined harmoniously we shall secure all the joys of life, the
joys that come from the outer world and the joys that
come from the beauty and the splendor of the inner world.
To combine these in your life, be
useful; express your best; be your best; do your best. You thus bring
forth riches from
within and attract riches from without. Give richly of
the best you have and good things in an ever increasing number will
constantly flow into your life. That deep
soul-satisfaction that comes to mind when we have rendered valuable
service to man
is entirely too good to be ignored; it is one of the
deepest and highest joys that man can know. Those people who are the
most valuable wherever they go are always the
happiest, and we all can be of service in a thousand ways; therefore, we
may
add to our happiness in just as many ways, if we will
always remember to be and do the best we can wherever we may go in the
world.
5. Think and speak the beautiful only.
Every word or thought that you
express will return to you. Never say anything to make others
discouraged or unhappy; it will
come back to yourself. He who gives unhappiness to
others is giving unhappiness to himself. He who adds to the joys of
others
is perpetually adding to his own joy. You can say
something good about everybody. Then say it. It will give joy to
everybody
concerned, yourself included. Think only of the
beautiful side of everybody. Everybody has a beautiful side. Find it and
think
of that only. You will thus live in the world of the
beautiful, and he who lives in the world of the beautiful is always
happy.
Speak kindly and pleasantly to
everybody; think kindly and pleasantly of everybody, and your days of
gloom will be gone. When
every word is animated with the spirit of kindness and
joy, you will not only increase the power of joy in your own life,
but you will be sowing the seeds of joy in the garden
of the universal life; and one of these days you will reap abundantly
from what you have sown. Let this sowing time be
continuous and the harvest will be continuous; thus you will be reaping a
harvest of boundless joy every day of your endless
existence.
6. Forgive and forget everything that seems wrong.
We have spent many a weary day simply
because we persisted in remembering something that was unpleasant.
Forget the wrong
and it will disturb you no more. Forgive others for
what they have done and you will have no unpleasant memories to cloud
the sky of your mental world. When people speak
unkindly of you, never mind. Let them say what they, like, if they must.
Nothing
can harm you but your own wrong thinking and living.
If people do not treat you right remember they would act differently
if they knew better, and you know better than to
become offended. So therefore forgive it all and resolve to be happy.
Forgive
everybody for what is not right and forget everything
that is not conducive to the right. You have no time to brood over ills
and troubles that exist only in your memory.
Your memory is created for a better
purpose. Remember the good, the true and the beautiful; this is one of
the greatest secrets
of perpetual happiness. When you forgive those who
have wronged you, you usually come to a place where you think more of
those
very persons than you ever did before, and when you
come to that place you will realize a joy that is far too sweet and
beautiful
for pen to ever describe. It seems to be a blessing
coming direct from heaven and it does not go away. This fact proves that
he who learns to forgive rises in the scale of life.
He who can forget and forgive the wrongs of the lowlands of undeveloped
life, invariably ascends to the heights, and it is
upon the heights that we find real happiness. Such is the reward of
forgiveness.
It will therefore not be difficult to forgive when we
know that the results are so rich and so beautiful; indeed, to forgive
and forget everything that seems wrong will thus
become a coveted pleasure.
7. Be perfectly contented with the present.
We have heard a great deal about the
value of divine discontent, but discontent is never divine any more than
indignation
is ever righteous. Perfect contentment is one of the
highest states of the soul and is one of those attainments that
invariably
follows ideal living. Discontent, however, in any of
its shapes or forms, always indicates that we are not on the true path.
So long as there is discontent there is something
wrong in our living, but the moment this wrong is righted perpetual
contentment
will be realized. If your present lot is not what you
wish it to be, discontent will not make it better.
Be perfectly content with the present
and create more lofty mansions for the future; thus you will not only
improve your condition
every year, but you will be supremely happy every day.
The more perfect your present contentment the more power you will have
to create for yourself a greater future, and the more
mental light you will have to build wisely for days to come. The more
contentment you realize in your mind the more
brightness and strength there will be in your mind.
Find the good that you already
possess, then enjoy it. Better things are even now on the way and
through the harmony of contentment
you will be prepared to receive them. You will also be
in that higher state of mental discernment where you can know good
things when you see them. Many people are so much
disturbed by the discord of discontent that they are unable to recognize
the good things already in their world; thus they add
doubly to the cause of discontent.
Contentment, however, does not mean
to be so satisfied with present conditions that we do not care to change
them. True contentment
not only appreciates the full value of the present,
but also appreciates those greater powers in life that can perpetually
add to the value of the present; therefore, the
contented mind gains everything that life can give in the great eternal
now,
while at the same time perpetually increasing the
richness, the worth and the beauty of the great eternal now. To be
contented,
find fault with nothing. Those things that are not
quite right can be made better. Proceed to make them better, and one of
the greatest joys of life comes directly from that
action of life that is causing things to become better.
The process of growth and advancement
is invariably conducive to joy; therefore, if we cease finding fault,
and use all our
time in promoting improvement, we will find sources of
happiness in every imperfection that we may meet in life. In other
words, when we aim to improve everything that we meet,
we bring out all the good that is latent in our world, and to increase
the expression of the good in our world is to increase
our own measure of joy.
8. Seek the ideal.
Look for the ideal everywhere; live
in ideal environments when possible; but if not possible in an external
sense create for
yourself an ideal environment in the internal sense.
Live in ideal mental worlds no matter what external worlds may be.
Associate
as much as possible with ideal people, and if you are
living an ideal life in your own mental and spiritual life, you will
attract ideal people wherever you go.
And one of the greatest joys of life
is to associate with those who are living in lofty realms. We have no
time to give to
the common and the ordinary. We want the best. We
deserve the best, and we can secure the best by seeking the best and the
best only. Live your own ideal life. Seek the ideal
both in the within and in the without, and aim to make the ideal real
in every thought, word and deed; you will thus cause
every moment to add to your joy.
9. Develop the whole man.
To promote an orderly growth
throughout your entire being is highly important, and to establish
perfect harmony of action
among all the various members of mind and body is
indispensable to happiness. Develop everything in your nature and place
all the elements in your being in perfect harmony. You
will thus ascend perpetually to higher states of being and greater
realms of joy.
Much of the discord and unhappiness
that comes into life is the direct result of one-sidedness and
undevelopment, and these
can be permanently removed only through the orderly
development of the whole man. Body, mind and soul must be perfectly
balanced
in every sense of that term. The more perfectly you
are balanced the greater will be your joy, because a balanced nature is
conducive to harmony, and harmony is conducive to
happiness.
10. Open the mind to beautiful thoughts only.
The world is full of thoughts, all
kinds of thoughts, but only those that are invited will come to you.
There is nothing that
affects life more than the thoughts we think; and the
thoughts we are to think will depend almost entirely upon our mental
attitude towards that which we meet in life. When we
resolve to receive only beautiful thoughts from everything with which
we come in contact the change for the better in life
will be simply remarkable. All things will become new. We will actually
enter a new heaven and a new earth, and the joys of
existence will multiply many times.
11. Be in touch with the harmony of life.
The universe is full of music, and
happy is the soul that can hear the symphonies of heaven; he can find no
greater joy. Every
soul that has been in tune with higher things is
familiar with that deep pleasure that comes to mind when the sensations
of
sublime harmony sweetly thrill every fibre of being;
and we can all so live that we can be in tune with the music of the
spheres.
When you learn how to place yourself in harmony with
the music of life you may for hours at a time remain within the gates
of everlasting joy, and you may enter into the very
life of that sublime something which eye has not seen nor ear heard. It
is then that you understand why the kingdom of heaven
is within and why all souls that have found that inner life is radiant
with joy. Here is happiness without measure, happiness
that you may enjoy anywhere and at any time. No matter what your
,environments
may be, enter into these lofty realms and you will be
the happiest soul in the world.
12. Consecrate every moment to the higher life.
The mind that is ever ascending can
never be sad. Perpetual ascension means perpetual joy. The happiest
moments that come
to you are those moments that come when you see
yourself rising in the scale of sublime existence. You are then
ascending
to the heights. You are entering into the cosmic
realms, those realms where joy is supreme; and one single moment in that
lofty realm gives more happiness than we can imagine
were a million heavens united in one. It is in these realms that we
enter
the secret places of the Most High, and to enter into
that sublime state is to gain all the happiness that life can give and
have that happiness while eternity shall continue to
be.
Creating Ideal Surroundings
We all believed, not so very long ago, that the
circumstances in which each individual was placed were produced by
inevitable
fate, and that the individual himself could not change
them, but would have to remain where he was until something in his
favor happened from external sources. What was to
cause that something to happen we did not know, nor did we give the
matter
much thought. We believed more or less in chance and
luck, and had no definite conception of the underlying laws of things.
But now many of us have changed our minds, as we have
received a great deal of new light on this most important subject. The
many, however, are still in the old belief ; they are
ignorant of the fact that man can create his own destiny, and that fate,
circumstances and environments are but the products of
man himself, acting alone, or in association with others. But this
is the fact, and it can be scientifically demonstrated
by anyone under any circumstance.
This new idea that man can change his
surroundings or transport himself to more agreeable environments
through the use of
psychological and metaphysical laws may seem
unthinkable and far fetched to a great degree; but when we study the
subject
with care we find that the principles, laws and
methods involved are not only natural but thoroughly substantial and can
be
applied in tangible everyday affairs. If the
surroundings in which you live are not what you wish them to be, know
that you
can change them. You can make those surroundings
ideal. You can make those surroundings better and better at every step
in
your advancement, thus making real higher and higher
ideals in your life. This is a positive truth and should be impressed
so deeply upon every mind that no former belief on the
subject can cause us to doubt our possession of this power for a
moment.
The importance of thus impressing
this fact upon the mind becomes very evident when we understand that no
matter how much
we may know, we will have no results so long as we are
in doubt as to whether what we have undertaken is really possible or
not. There are thousands of people who believe, in a
measure, that they can better their own conditions and they understand
fully all the principles involved, but they have no
satisfactory results because one moment they believe that the change is
possible while at the next moment they entertain
doubts. To have real results in any undertaking, especially in the
changing
of one's surroundings, one must believe with his whole
heart that he can, and he must constantly employ all the necessary
principles in that conviction.
No undertaking ever succeeded that
was not animated through and through with the positive faith that it
could be done, and
such a faith is simply indispensable if you wish to
create ideal surroundings for yourself, because the process depends
directly
upon the way you think. You must think that you can so
as to fully annihilate the belief that you cannot. Know that you can,
and in that attitude continue to apply the necessary
methods. Let nothing disturb your faith in the possibility of what you
have undertaken to do in this respect, and you will
positively succeed.
To create ideal surroundings, the
first essential is to gain a clear understanding of what actually
constitutes your surroundings.
The world in which you live is a state of many
elements, factors, forces and activities. The physical environment with
all
its various phases and conditions has been considered
the most important, but this is not necessarily true, because the mental
environment is just as much a part of the world in
which you live as the physical.
The term "world" is not confined
simply to visible things; it also includes states of mind, mental
tendencies, thoughts, desires,
motives and all the different phases of consciousness.
The place in which you live physically, the place in which you live
mentally, the place in which you live morally and
spiritually, these places combined constitute the world in which you
live.
All of these states and conditions are necessary parts
of your surroundings, and it is your purpose to make these necessary
parts as beautiful, as perfect and as ideal as
possible.
The place where you work with your
hands and with your brain is a part of your world, but the same is true
of the place where
you work in your dreams, in your aspirations and in
your ideals. The circumstances and events of your life, physically and
mentally; the opportunities that are constantly
passing your way; the people you meet in your work; the people you think
of
in your thoughts; the people you associate with and
friends that are near; the various elements of nature, both visible and
invisible; the many groups of things in all their
various phases that you come in contact with in your daily living; all
of
these belong in your world.
To enter into details it would be
possible to mention many hundreds of different elements or factors that
compose the world
in which the average person lives; but to be brief we
can say that your world is composed of everything that enters your life,
your home, your experience, your thought and your
dreams of the ideal. All of these play their part in bringing to you the
good that you may desire or the ills that you may
receive. Consequently, since the world in which you live is so very
complex
and since so much of it belongs to the mental side of
life, the process of change must necessarily involve mental laws, as
well as physical laws; but here the majority have made
their mistake.
Many great reformers and human
benefactors have tried to emancipate the race through the change of
exterior laws and external
conditions alone, forgetting that most of the troubles
of man and nearly all of his failures have their origin in the misuse
of the mind. We all know that mind is the most
prominent factor in the life of man, and yet this factor has been almost
entirely
overlooked in our former efforts to change the
conditions of the race. Everything that man does begins in his mind;
therefore,
every change that is to take place in the life of man
must begin in his mind.
This being true, we understand
readily why modern metaphysics and the new psychology can provide the
long looked for essentials
to human emancipation and advancement. When we examine
all the various things that go to make up the world in which we live
we may find it difficult to discover the real source
of them all. How they were produced; who produced them; why they
happened
to come to us, or why we went to them; these are
problems that we are called upon to solve before we can begin to create
ideal
surroundings.
To solve these problems the first
great fact to realize is that we are the creators of our own
environments; but at first
sight this fact may not be readily accepted, because
there are so many things that seem to be the creation of others. There
are two kinds of creation, however, the direct and the
indirect. In direct creation you create with the forces of your own
life, your own thought and your own actions, and your
own creations are patterned after the ideas in your own mind; but in
what is termed indirect creation some one else creates
what you desire.
It is your creation, however, in a
certain sense, because it was your desire that called it forth. To state
the fact in another
manner, the world in which you live may be your own
direct creation or it may be the creation of another, but you went into
that other one's world to live. In the majority of
cases, the world in which the individual lives is produced partly by his
own efforts and partly by the efforts of others,
though there is nothing in his world that he has not desired or called
forth
in some manner and at some time during his existence.
There are a number of people who are living in worlds created almost
entirely by others; in fact, the world of the average
person is three-fourths the creation of the race mind; but the question
is, why does a person enter into a world that is
created by others; why does he not live exclusively in a world created
by
himself?
There are many fine minds who are
living in the world of the submerged tenth, but they did not create that
world. That inferior
state existed long before the birth of its present
inhabitants; but why have those gone to live there who were not born
there,
and why have those who were born there not gone away
to some better world of their own superior creation? Why do the people
who live in that inferior world continue to perpetuate
all its conditions? No world can continue to exist unless the people
who live in that world continue to create those
conditions that make up that world. Then why do not those people who
live
in the world of the submerged tenth cease the creating
of that inferior world and begin the creation of the superior world
when we know they have the power to do so?
These are great questions, but they
all have very simple answers. To answer these questions the first great
fact to be realized
is that the mind of man is the most important factor
in everything that he does, and since no person can change his
environments
until he changes his actions we realize that the first
step to be taken is the change of mind. Learn to change your mind for
the better, and you will soon learn how to change your
surroundings for the better. Before you proceed, however, there is
another important condition to be considered; it is
the fact that a portion of what is found in our world is created by
ourselves,
while the rest is the product of those minds with
which we work or live. In the home each individual contributes to the
qualities
of the world which all the members of that home have
in common, but each individual lives in a mental world distinctly his
own, unless he is so negative that he has not a single
individual purpose or thought. When the mental world of each individual
is developed to a high degree it will become so strong
that the fate of that individual will not be affected by the adverse
conditions that may exist in the home.
The same is true of the environments
that we meet in our places of work. No man need be affected very long by
adverse surroundings
or obstacles that he may meet in his work. He will
finally become so strong that he can overcome every adversity that may
exist in his physical world and thus gain entrance to
better surroundings. However, we can readily see how a great deal of
discord can be produced in a home or in our place of
work where the different members are not in harmony with each other,
and we can also understand how the events,
circumstances and conditions of all those members, as well as each
individual member,
will be affected more or less by that in harmony;
providing however, that each individual is not developing that power of
his mental world that can finally overcome all
adversity.
We can also understand how harmony
and cooperation in a home or in a place of work would become a powerful
force for good
in the life of each individual concerned. Where a few
are gathered in the right attitude there immense power will be
developed;
in fact, sufficient power to do almost anything that
those few may wish to have done. This has been fully demonstrated a
number
of times; therefore, where many minds are associated
in the creation of a world in which all will live, more or less, these
higher mental laws should be fully understood and most
thoroughly applied.
To enter a world that does not
correspond with yourself and to go in and live where you do not
naturally belong is to go astray,
and such an action will not only cause all the forces
and elements of your life to be misdirected, but you will place yourself
in that position where nothing that is your own can
come to you. There are vast multitudes, however, who have gone astray
in this manner, and that is the reason why we find so
many people who are misplaced, who do not realize their ideals, and
who have not the privilege to enjoy their own. But we
may ask, why do people go astray in this manner; why do we associate
with people that do not belong in our world; why do we
enter environments that do not correspond to our nature; why do we
enter vocations for which we are not adapted, and why
do we pursue plans, ideas and ambitions that lead us directly away from
the very thing that our state of development requires?
These are questions that we must
answer, because no one can get the greatest good out of life or make the
most of himself
unless he lives in a world where he truly belongs. It
is only when you live in a world created by yourself or in a world that
others have created in harmony with you that you can
be your real self, and since one must be truly himself to be wholly free
and to promote his own advancement naturally and
completely the subject is of great importance.
There are two reasons why we stray
from our own true world and enter worlds where we do not belong; first,
because we frequently
permit the inferior side of our nature to predominate;
and second, because we permit the senses to guide us in almost
everything
that we do. No person who has qualifications for the
living of life in a superior world will ever enter an inferior world
if he does not permit inferior desires to lead him
into destructive paths; and no person, no matter what his work may be,
will go down the scale so long as he follows the
highest mental and spiritual light that he can possibly see during his
most
lofty moments.
Follow the highest and the best that
is in you, and you will constantly ascend into higher and better worlds;
all your creative
forces will thus build for you better and better
surroundings, because so long as you are rising in the scale everything
in
your life in the external as well as in the internal
must necessarily improve continuously. There is no need whatever of any
person ever entering an inferior world. No one need
pass into environments and surroundings that are less desirable than the
ones in which he is living now. In fact, a person may
take the opposite course. Endeavor constantly to attain superiority
and you will steadily work yourself up into
superiority, and as you become superior you will find an entrance into
those worlds,
those environments and those surroundings that are
superior.
There is a higher light, a better
understanding within yourself that will guide you correctly in all your
associations with
people and environments. Do not follow physical
desires or physical senses; let these be servants in the hands of higher
wisdom.
Follow this higher wisdom and you will make few
mistakes, if any. You will constantly pass into better and better
surroundings,
because you will constantly pass into a higher, a
better and a superior life. To follow the highest and the best that is
within
you under all circumstances does not constitute
supernaturalism.
It is simply good sense enlarged, and
those who take this course will continue to make real the ideal in
everything that may
exist in the world in which they live. In consequence,
both the mental world and the physical world in which we live will
perpetually change for the better; and all our
surroundings will improve accordingly, becoming more and more ideal
until everything
that exists about us is as beautiful as the visions of
the soul.
Changing Your Own Fate
When you discover that you are living in a world
that you did not create and that does not correspond with your ideals,
there
is a tendency to break loose from external conditions
at the earliest possible moment; but this tendency must be checked.
Nothing is gained through an attempt to change from
one world of effect to another world of effect without first changing
the cause. The majority believe that, when things are
wrong in the outer world the only remedy is to change external
conditions;
but the fact is that external conditions are simply
effects from internal causes, and so long as those internal causes
remain
the same, no attempt to change external conditions
will prove of permanent value. So long as there are adverse causes in
your
inner life there will be adverse effects in your outer
life, no matter how many times you may change from one condition to
another or from one place to another.
When you begin to seek emancipation
from the false world in which you are living now; in other words, when
you begin to take
positive measures to change your own fate, the first
thing to do is to resolve not to make any forceful effort to change
external
conditions without first changing the inner cause of
those conditions. Let outer things be as they are for the time being
and continue to remain where you are until you can
open a door to better things; but while you are waiting for this door to
open do not be idle in any manner whatever. Although
you are letting things be as they are in the external sense, and
although
you are not forcing yourself into different places or
circumstances, still your purpose must be to entirely remake yourself.
You came into this false state of
life because you were misled by your own judgment, and if you should
break loose, this same
judgment will mislead you again; you will thus pass
from one world that is not your own into some other world that is not
your own, and there will be no improvement in the
change. If you have not improved yourself in any manner whatever, your
judgment
will be just as inferior and unreliable as it was
before, and no attempt to follow this judgment into different conditions
will help matters in the least. Your object is not to
set yourself free from the false world in which you are living now and
then enter some other world that is not your own.
You are not ready to move, neither
physically nor mentally, until you have created a world of your own just
as you would have
it in your present state of development. Therefore,
all thought of change will but divert your attention from the real
purpose
in view. So long as you are constantly thinking about
external changes your mind cannot concentrate upon internal changes.
So long as you are trying to change external
conditions you cannot change yourself, and as you, yourself, are the
cause of
the new world which you are trying to create, you must
recreate yourself before you can create the external world as desired.
To change your fate begin with
yourself. If the environments in which you live are beneath your ideal,
nothing can be gained
by leaving those environments until the way is opened
naturally to better things. If you simply get up and leave, you will
gravitate into something elsewhere that will be just
as uncongenial as those conditions you left behind. First, find the
reason
why you are living in your present adverse
environments, then proceed to remove that cause.
There may be many reasons, but in
most cases the principal reason is a lack of ability or the lack of
power to apply the ability
you possess. In such a case you must remove inability
by becoming more proficient, and as soon as you are competent to render
better service you will readily find a better place.
This means larger remuneration, and you will thus be able to secure more
desirable surroundings. The many, however, will think
that to promote sufficient improvement so as to command greater
recompense,
and do so in a short time, is practically impossible
under the average conditions; but all difficulties that may be met in
this connection may be readily removed through the
principles of modern metaphysics.
Continuous improvement in everything
pertaining to the life, the power, the capacity or the mentality of the
individual can
be readily promoted by anyone and decided results
secured in a very short time. Therefore, no person need remain in
adverse
or limited conditions. He can, through the awakening
and the expression of the best that is in himself, become competent to
take advantage of greater opportunities and thus
change his fate, his future and his destiny.
If you wish to improve your physical
environments, remain content where you are while you develop the power
to earn and create
better environments. Contentment with things as they
are and harmony with everything about you are indispensable essentials
if you wish to increase your ability, your capacity
and your worth. To continue to kick against the pricks is to remain
where
pricks are abundant; but when we cease this mode of
action and begin to polish off all the rough corners of our nature and
improve ourselves in every manner possible, things
will take a turn. We will leave the world of pricks and enter a smoother
path. The polished man is admitted to the polished
world where there are no rough places and where adverse conditions are
few, if existing at all.
When circumstances are against you,
do not contend with circumstances. So long as we contend with things,
things will contend
with us. Do not resist present conditions; you prolong
their existence by so doing. Whatever comes, meet all things in the
attitude of perfect harmony and you will find that all
things, even the most adverse, can be readily handled and turned to
good account. We all know the marvelous power of the
man who can harmonize contending factions, be they in his own life or
in his circumstances.
He not only gains good from
everything that he meets, but he becomes a most highly respected
personage, and is sought wherever
opportunities are great and where great things are to
be accomplished. Learn to harmonize the contending factions in your
own life and experience, and you will find yourself
entering new worlds where circumstances are more congenial and
opportunities
far greater. You will thus meet more desirable events,
more desirable people, and superior advantages of every description
will appear in your pathway. If your present friends
are not to your liking admire them nevertheless for every good quality
that they may possess. Emphasize their good qualities
and ignore everything in their nature that seems inferior. This will
help you to develop superior qualities in yourself;
and this is extremely important, because as you develop superiority you
prepare yourself for places higher up in the scale.
Make yourself over, so to speak, in
your own friendship; increase your personal worth; polish your own
character; refine your
mind, and make real more and more of the ideal; double
and treble your love and your kindness and constantly increase your
admiration for everything that has real quality and
high worth. Continue thus until you have results, whether those results
begin to come at once or not; they will positively
come ere long, and the things that you develop in yourself you will meet
in your external world.
Change yourself for the better in
every shape and manner, and you change your fate for the better, but the
change that you
produce in yourself must not simply be negative in its
action. It is the positive character, the positive mind, the positive
personality that meets in the external world what has
been developed in the internal world. The fact that a change in yourself
can produce a similar change in your fate, your
environments, your circumstances, in brief, everything in your outer
world,
may not seem clear at first.; but it is easily
demonstrated to be the truth when we analyze the relationship that
exists between
man and the world in which he lives. Everything that
exists in your outer world has a correspondent in your inner world. This
inner correspondent is the cause that has either
created or attracted its external counterpart, and the process is easily
understood.
To state it briefly, environment
corresponds with ability. Circumstances are the aggregation of events
brought about by your
own actions and associations and friends, which follow
the law of like attracting like. That environment is the direct effect
of ability may not seem true when we observe that
there are many people living in luxury that have practically no ability,
but we must first demonstrate that these people have
no ability. We shall find that those who have actually accumulated their
own wealth have ability, in fact, exceptional ability,
though they may not always have employed it according to the exact
principles of justice. On the other hand, when we
understand the process of creation we shall find that ability employed
according
to principle will produce far greater results than
when it is employed unjustly. Therefore, the law underlying the power of
ability to create its own environment acts wholly in
the favor of him who lives according to the highest ideals of life.
This fact becomes more evident when
we discern that success is not measured simply by the accumulation of
things, but also
by the accumulation of those elements in life that
pertain to quality and worth in man's interior nature. It is wealth in
the mental and the spiritual worlds that has the
greatest value or the greatest power in promoting the welfare and the
happiness
of man, and this higher wealth can be accumulated only
by those who are living according to their ideals. However, the
accumulation
of mental and spiritual wealth will have a direct
tendency to increase the power and the capacity of practical ability,
and
practical ability when scientifically applied will
tend to increase tangible wealth; that is, to improve the value and the
worth of external environments.
When we consider this subject from
the universal viewpoint we shall find a perfect correspondent existing
between the size
of a man's possessions, physical, mental and
spiritual, and the size of his brains, taking the term "brains" to
signify ability,
capacity and worth in the largest sense; but the size
of brains can be increased perpetually. We therefore conclude that
possessions
in the larger sense can be increased perpetually, and
he who is perpetually increasing his possessions on all the planes of
his life is constantly changing his fate for the
better. We shall also find that when a person increases the power of his
own life he will bring about, through his own actions,
new events, and these new events will produce new circumstances.
To change circumstances is to change
fate; and whatever the change may be in fate, circumstances or events it
will be a change
for the better, if the increase of power is applied
according to the principles of ideals. Again, when a person develops
quality
and superiority in himself he will, through the law of
attraction, meet friends and associations that are after his own heart.
In other words, he will enter a world where his
ideals, both as to persons and as to things, are constantly being made
real
in every sphere of his present state of existence. He
is thus creating for himself a better fate in every sense of the term
and opening doors and pathways to a larger and a more
beautiful future than he has ever realized before; but the beginning
is in himself; in fact, every change for the better
must begin within the life of man himself, and whoever will begin to
change
for the better in the within will positively realize
greater and greater changes for the better in the without.
Building Your Own Ideal World
To build your own ideal world, the first essential
is to begin to build in the real everything that you can discern in the
ideal; and the second essential is to continue to
rebuild your ideal world according to higher and higher ideals. However
congenial or desirable or perfect our world may be, we
should continue to improve upon it constantly. When we cease to promote
progression we return to the ways of retrogression.
One of the principal causes of undesirable environments or unexpected
reverses among the more capable is found in the
tendency to '"stop, rest and enjoy" what we have gained whenever
conditions
are fairly satisfactory.
It is the mind that is ever creating
the new and ever recreating everything according to higher ideals that
is always free
and that is always enjoying the best. No one can be in
bondage to the lesser who is constantly rising out of the lesser, and
he who is ever growing into the best is constantly
enjoying the best. In the last analysis, retrogression is the only cause
of bondage, while constant progression is the only
cause of perfect freedom; and constant progression is promoted by the
continuous
recreation of everything in your world according to
higher and higher ideals.
To begin, your entire mentality must
be changed and constantly changed so as to correspond perfectly with
your newest thoughts
on every subject and your highest ideals of everything
that you can discern in your life. The mind is the cause and is the
source of every force that can act as a cause of
whatever may be developed, expressed or worked out through yourself into
your external world. Therefore, begin with the mind
and with all the elements of the mind. All desires, motives and
ambitions
must be concentrated upon the larger and the perfect
in their various spheres of action.
All the mental states must be in
harmony with each other, and with the outer as well as the inner
conditions of life. All
mental qualities must be expanded and enlarged
constantly, and consciousness must be trained to act perpetually upon
the verge
of the limitless. The entire world of thought must be
perpetually renewed, enlarged and perfected, and every step taken in
the mental world must be practically expressed and
applied in the outer world. In order to bring all the creative forces of
mind into harmony with the goal in view the ideal
wished to be realized must be thoroughly established in consciousness,
and
the goal in view must be constantly held before the
mental vision. In the rebuilding of your own world one of the principal
causes of failure will be found in a tendency to
change your plans, motives or desires; therefore, do not permit yourself
to entertain one group of desires today and a
different group tomorrow, and do not permit your faith to fall into
periodical
states of doubt. Decide upon what you wish to do,
accomplish, promote and attain, and proceed to live, think and work for
those things, regardless of what may happen.
The powers within you follow the
predominating states of mind, and when these states are constantly
changing, the creative
forces will be employed simply in taking initial
steps, but never in completing anything. On the other hand, when your
mental
states, desires, motives, plans, etc., continue to
concentrate upon the one supreme goal in view your creative forces will
perpetually build towards that goal, and you will be
daily rebuilding your entire world according to the higher, the better
and the greater that you have in view. There are
thousands of fine minds that are down in the scale today and cannot get
up,
because they are constantly changing their plans,
motives and desires. To create a new world you must fix in your mind
what
you wish to create, and then continue to build until
the complete structure is finished. Recreate your present world, then
constantly make it better, larger and more beautiful.
All the elements of your mind, both conscious and subconscious, must
be constantly inspired with your highest thought of
the larger, the better and the more beautiful.
Not a single thought should enter
your mind that is inferior or in the least beneath your ideal of life,
and not a single
moment of discouragement or doubt should ever be
permitted. Fix your mind on the soul's vision and hold it there through
all
sorts of circumstances or conditions. Do not waver for
a moment. Keep the eye single upon the heights and all the powers of
your being will build that great world that you can
see in your mental vision as you concentrate attention upon the heights.
The mind must be clean, strong and
high. It is the mind that does things. It is the mind that originates
things. Therefore,
if you wish to build for yourself an ideal world, the
mind must be ideal in every sense of the term, and every element of
the mind must always be its best and act at its best.
To promote the right use of mind the imagination must be guided with
the greatest of care. The imagination is one of the
most important powers in the mind. The imagination when misdirected can
produce more ills than any other faculty, and when
properly directed can produce greater good than any other faculty. In
fact,
the imagination when scientifically applied becomes a
marvelous power in the great creative process of the vast mental domain.
Train the imagination to picture, not
only the goal you have in view but all the highest ideals that you can
possibly imagine
as might exist within the realms of that goal. Train
the imaging faculty to impress upon the mind only those superior
qualities
that you wish to incorporate in your new world, and
whatever you impress upon the mind will be created in your mental world.
To create superior qualities in the mental world means
that you will create, as well as attract, the superior in your outer
world, and you thus promote the building of an ideal
world.
To build your own ideal world, the
more opportunities that you can take advantage of the better, but
opportunities come only
to those who have demonstrated their worth. Prove to
the world that you have worth, and you can have your choice of almost
any opportunity that the world can offer. There is
nothing that is in greater demand than great men and women, minds of
ability
and power, people who can do things. The great mind is
constantly in the presence of opportunities to change his environment
and his field of action; therefore, he may enter into a
new world almost any time. Those opportunities, however, do not come
of themselves; they come because he has made himself
equal to those opportunities.
Make yourself equal to the best and
you will meet the best. This is a law that is universal and is never
known to fail. Make
yourself a great power in your present sphere of
action. Learn to do things better than they have ever been done before.
Produce
something for the world that the world wants and the
gates to new and greater opportunities will open for you. Henceforth,
you may secure almost anything that you may wish, and
all the elements that may be necessary for you to employ in order to
build the ideal world you have in mind may be readily
obtained because you have placed yourself in touch with the limitless
supply of the best that life can give.
Those who are in search for new and
greater opportunities should eliminate the belief that the best things
have been said,
that all great things have been done and that all
remarkable discoveries have been made. The fact is we are just in the A
B C of literature, invention, art, music, industrial
achievements and extraordinary human attainments. The human race is now
on the verge of hundreds of undeveloped fields that
have just been discovered, and they have more possibilities in store
than
we have ever dreamed. Many of these possibilities when
developed will supply the world with the very things that the present
development of the race is demanding in every
expression of thought and desire.
It is therefore easier to attain
greatness, and do something of exceptional value at the present time
than it ever was before.
The opportunities of this age are very numerous, and
some of them hold possibilities that are actually marvelous. Those who
will prepare themselves to meet the requirements of
this age will therefore find a number of rich fields already at hand,
and all minds can prepare themselves as required.
Every person of moderate intelligence can, in a short time, place
himself
in the path of some of these new opportunities, and
all minds can find better opportunities in their present spheres if they
will proceed to become more than they are.
Train all the elements of your being
to work towards a higher goal and you will bring forth into expression
those greater
powers that will make for you a mentality that the
world will demand for its highest places of action and achievement. When
you proceed to build in yourself an ideal mental
world, a mental world of power, ability, capacity and high worth you
will
find it necessary to adapt this mental world to the
external world in such a way as to promote harmony of action. The added
power of your new mental world must work in harmony
with your external world if practical results are to be secured.
Circumstances come from personal
actions; therefore, to change circumstances, personal actions must be
changed, and to change
personal actions your ideal mental life must be
expressed in your personal life, and to this end the development of a
high
degree of harmony becomes necessary. Harmony, however,
will not only promote the united action of the inner world with the
outer world, but will also tend to eliminate mistakes
from personal actions, and when we eliminate, mistakes from personal
actions we will cease to produce adverse
circumstances. When you are in perfect harmony with yourself and
everything you eliminate
mental confusion. You thus place your mind in that
position where you can think clearly, reason logically and judge wisely.
The result is, you will do the right thing at the
right time. The elements of your life will be properly blended, and this
is necessary in order to create an ideal world.
Another essential in the practical
application of your ideals to real life is the development of what may
be termed interior
insight. This faculty will guide you perfectly in your
expression of the finer things of life through the tangible things
of life; in other words, you will see clearly how to
combine the ideal with those actions that are promoted for the purpose
of rebuilding the real. To combine the ideal with the
real and make the two one, we must come into the closest possible
relationship
with the finer things in life and learn to use that
phase of mind that is always in a cleared-up condition.
The lower story of the mind is often
darkened with false conclusions about things, and is frequently more or
less filled with
ideas that have been impressed through the senses; but
in the upper story we can see things, as they are; we can think
clearly,
and invariably come to the right conclusions. The
power to think in the upper story of the mind, the cleared-up side of
consciousness
where the sun is always shining and where there are no
clouds, is called interior- insight.
This interior insight not only
discerns the ideal, but can discern the practical possibilities that
every ideal may contain,
and we make the ideal real when we proceed to develop
and apply in actual life those practical possibilities that our ideals
may contain. Interior insight will also elevate all
our mental faculties and cause those faculties to function with far
greater
efficiency. In fact, the entire mind will be lifted up
into a state of greater power, greater brilliancy and greater ability
for high and efficient mental expression.
To develop interior insight, aim to
use consciousness in the discernment of what may be termed the spirit of
all things. Do
not simply think of things as they appear on the
surface, but try to think of things as they are in the spirit of their
interior
existence. The mere effort to do this will develop the
power to look through things or to look into things; and the growth
of this power promotes interior insight. You may thus
discern clearly the real worth and the real possibilities that exist
in the lofty goal that you have in view, and by
keeping the eye single upon that lofty goal, never wavering for a
moment,
all the powers of your being will work together and
build for those greater things that you can see upon the heights of that
goal.
Thus your entire world in the within
as well as in the without will constantly be recreated and rebuilt
according to the likeness
of your supreme ideals; in consequence, you will not
only build for yourself an ideal world, but you will be building for
yourself a world that is ever becoming more and more
ideal, and to live in such a world is ideal living indeed. The world
that is ever becoming more and more ideal is the world
in which to live, and the power to create such a world is now at hand
in every human mind.
