By James Allen.
The human mind may be likened to a garden, which may be intelligently cultivated
or allowed to run wild; but whether cultivated or neglected, it must, and will,
bring forth. If no useful seeds are put into it, then an abundance of useless
weed-seeds will fall therein, and will continue to produce their kind.
Just as a gardener cultivates his plot, keeping it free from weeds, and growing
the flowers and fruits which he requires, so may a man tend the garden of his
mind, weeding out all the wrong, useless, and impure thoughts, and cultivating
toward perfection the flowers and fruits of right, useful, and pure thoughts. By
pursuing this process, a man sooner or later discovers that he is the
master-gardener of his soul, the director of his life. He also reveals, within
himself, the laws of thought, and understands, with ever-increasing accuracy,
how the thought-forces and mind elements operate in the shaping of his
character, circumstances, and destiny.
Thought and character are one, and as character can only manifest and discover
itself through environment and circumstance, the outer conditions of a person's
life will always be found to be harmoniously related to his inner state. This
does not mean that a man's circumstances at any given time are an indication of
his entire character, but that those circumstances are so intimately connected
with some vital thought-element within himself that, for the time being, they
are indispensable to his development.
Every man is where he is by the law of his being; the thoughts which he has
built into his character have brought him there, and in the arrangement of his
life there is no element of chance, but all is the result of a law which cannot
err. This is just as true of those who feel "out of harmony" with their
surroundings as of those who are contented with them.
As a progressive and evolving being, man is where he is that he may learn that
he may grow; and as he learns the spiritual lesson which any circumstance
contains for him, it passes away and gives place to other circumstances.
Man is buffeted by circumstances so long as he believes himself to be the
creature of outside conditions, but when he realizes that he is a creative
power, and that he may command the hidden soil and seeds of his being out of
which circumstances grow, he then becomes the rightful master of himself.
That circumstances grow out of thought every man knows who has for any length of
time practiced self-control and self-purification, for he will have noticed that
the alteration in his circumstances has been in exact ratio with his altered
mental condition. So true is this that when a man earnestly applies himself to
remedy the defects in his character, and makes swift and marked progress, he
passes rapidly through a succession of vicissitudes.
The soul attracts that which it secretly harbors; that which it loves, and also
that which it fears; it reaches the height of its cherished aspirations; it
falls to the level of its unchaste desires, and circumstances are the means by
which the soul receives its own.
Every thought-seed sown or allowed to fall into the mind, and to take root
there, produces its own, blossoming sooner or later into act, and bearing its
own fruitage of opportunity and circumstance. Good thoughts bear good fruit, bad
thoughts bad fruit.
The outer world of circumstance shapes itself to the inner world of thought, and
both pleasant and unpleasant external conditions are factors, which make for the
ultimate good of the individual. As the reaper of his own harvest, man learns
both by suffering and bliss.
Following the inmost desires, aspirations, thoughts, by which he allows himself
to be dominated, (pursuing the will-o'-the-wisps of impure imaginings or
steadfastly walking the highway of strong and high endeavor), a man at last
arrives at their fruition and fulfillment in the outer conditions of his life.
The laws of growth and adjustment everywhere obtains.
A man does not come to the almshouse or the jail by the tyranny of fate or
circumstance, but by the pathway of groveling thoughts and base desires. Nor
does a pure-minded man fall suddenly into crime by stress of any mere external
force; the criminal thought had long been secretly fostered in the heart, and
the hour of opportunity revealed its gathered power. Circumstance does not make
the man; it reveals him to himself No such conditions can exist as descending
into vice and its attendant sufferings apart from vicious inclinations, or
ascending into virtue and its pure happiness without the continued cultivation
of virtuous aspirations; and man, therefore, as the lord and master of thought,
is the maker of himself the shaper and author of environment. Even at birth the
soul comes to its own and through every step of its earthly pilgrimage it
attracts those combinations of conditions which reveal itself, which are the
reflections of its own purity and, impurity, its strength and weakness.
Men do not attract that which they want, but that which they are. Their whims,
fancies, and ambitions are thwarted at every step, but their inmost thoughts and
desires are fed with their own food, be it foul or clean. The "divinity that
shapes our ends" is in ourselves; it is our very self. Only himself manacles
man: thought and action are the jailers of Fate--they imprison, being base; they
are also the angels of Freedom--they liberate, being noble. Not what he wishes
and prays for does a man get, but what he justly earns. His wishes and prayers
are only gratified and answered when they harmonize with his thoughts and
actions.
In the light of this truth, what, then, is the meaning of "fighting against
circumstances?" It means that a man is continually revolting against an effect
without, while all the time he is nourishing and preserving its cause in his
heart. That cause may take the form of a conscious vice or an unconscious
weakness; but whatever it is, it stubbornly retards the efforts of its
possessor, and thus calls aloud for remedy.
Men are anxious to improve their circumstances, but are unwilling to improve
themselves; they therefore remain bound. The man who does not shrink from
self-crucifixion can never fail to accomplish the object upon which his heart is
set. This is as true of earthly as of heavenly things. Even the man whose sole
object is to acquire wealth must be prepared to make great personal sacrifices
before he can accomplish his object; and how much more so he who would realize a
strong and well-poised life?
Here is a man who is wretchedly poor. He is extremely anxious that his
surroundings and home comforts should be improved, yet all the time he shirks
his work, and considers he is justified in trying to deceive his employer on the
ground of the insufficiency of his wages. Such a man does not understand the
simplest rudiments of those principles which are the basis of true prosperity,
and is not only totally unfitted to rise out of his wretchedness, but is
actually attracting to himself a still deeper wretchedness by dwelling in, and
acting out, indolent, deceptive, and unmanly thoughts.
Here is a rich man who is the victim of a painful and persistent disease as the
result of gluttony. He is willing to give large sums of money to get rid of it,
but he will not sacrifice his gluttonous desires. He wants to gratify his taste
for rich and unnatural viands and have his health as well. Such a man is totally
unfit to have
health, because he has not yet learned the first principles of a healthy life.
Here is an employer of labor who adopts crooked measures to avoid paying the
regulation wage, and, in the hope of making larger profits, reduces the wages of
his workpeople. Such a man is altogether unfitted for prosperity, and when he
finds himself bankrupt, both as regards reputation and riches, he blames
circumstances, not knowing that he is the sole author of his condition.
I have introduced these three cases merely as illustrative of the truth that man
is the cause, though often unconsciously so, of his circumstances, and that,
whilst aiming at a good end, he is continually frustrating its accomplishment by
encouraging thoughts and desires which cannot possibly harmonize with that end.
Such cases could be multiplied and varied almost indefinitely, but this is not
necessary, as the reader can, if he so resolves, trace the action of the laws of
thought in his own mind and life, and until this is done, mere external facts
cannot serve as a ground of reasoning.
Circumstances, however, are so complicated, thought is so deeply rooted, and the
conditions of happiness vary so, vastly with individuals, that a man's entire
soul-condition (although it may be known to himself) cannot be judged by another
from the external aspect of his life alone. A man may be honest in certain
directions, yet suffer privations; a man may be dishonest in certain directions,
yet acquire wealth; but the conclusion usually formed that the one man fails
because of his particular honesty, and that the other prospers because of his
particular dishonesty, is the result of a superficial judgment, which assumes
that the dishonest man is almost totally corrupt, and the honest man almost
entirely virtuous. In the light of a deeper knowledge and wider experience such
judgment is found to be erroneous. The dishonest man may have some admirable
virtues, which the other does, not possess; and the honest man obnoxious vices
which are absent in the other. The honest man reaps the good results of his
honest thoughts and acts; he also brings upon himself the sufferings, which his
vices produce. The dishonest man likewise garners his own suffering and
happiness.
It is pleasing to human vanity to believe that one suffers because of one's
virtue; but not until a man has extirpated every sickly, bitter, and impure
thought from his mind, and washed every sinful stain from his soul, can he be in
a position to know and declare that his sufferings are the result of his good,
and not of his bad qualities; and on the way to, yet long before he has reached,
that supreme perfection, he will have found, working in his mind and life, the
Great Law which is absolutely just, and which cannot, therefore, give good for
evil, evil for good. Possessed of such knowledge, he will then know, looking
back upon his past ignorance and blindness, that his life is, and always was,
justly ordered, and that all his past experiences, good and bad, were the
equitable outworking of his evolving, yet not fully evolved self.
Good thoughts and actions can never produce bad results; bad thoughts and
actions can never produce good results. This is but saying that nothing can come
from corn but corn, nothing from nettles but nettles. Men understand this law in
the natural world, and work with it; but few understand it in the mental and
moral world (though its operation there is just as simple and undeviating), and
they, therefore, do not co-operate with it.
Suffering is always the effect of wrong thought in some direction. It is
an indication that the individual is out of harmony with himself, with the Law
of his being. The sole and supreme use of suffering is to purify, to burn out
all that is useless and impure. Suffering ceases for him who is pure. There
could be no object in
burning gold after the dross had been removed, and a perfectly pure and
enlightened being could not suffer.
The circumstances, which a man encounters with suffering, are the result of his
own mental in harmony. The circumstances, which a man encounters with
blessedness, are the result of his own mental harmony. Blessedness, not material
possessions, is the measure of right thought; wretchedness, not lack of material
possessions, is the measure of wrong thought. A man may be cursed and rich; he
may be blessed and poor. Blessedness and riches are only joined together when
the riches are rightly and wisely used; and the poor man only descends into
wretchedness when he regards his lot as a burden unjustly imposed.
Indigence and indulgence are the two extremes of wretchedness. They are both
equally unnatural and the result of mental disorder. A man is not rightly
conditioned until he is a happy, healthy, and prosperous being; and happiness,
health, and prosperity are the result of a harmonious adjustment of the inner
with the outer, of the man with his surroundings.
A man only begins to be a man when he ceases to whine and revile, and commences
to search for the hidden justice which regulates his life. And as he adapts his
mind to that regulating factor, he ceases to accuse others as the cause of his
condition, and builds himself up in strong and noble thoughts; ceases to kick
against circumstances, but begins to use them as aids to his more rapid
progress, and as a means of discovering the hidden powers and possibilities
within himself.
Law, not confusion, is the dominating principle in the universe; justice, not
injustice, is the soul and substance of life; and righteousness, not corruption,
is the molding and moving force in the spiritual government of the world. This
being so, man has but to right himself to find that the universe is right; and
during the
process of putting himself right he will find that as he alters his thoughts
towards things and other people, things and other people will alter towards him.
The proof of this truth is in every person, and it therefore admits of easy
investigation by systematic introspection and self-analysis. Let a man radically
alter his thoughts, and he will be astonished at the rapid transformation it
will effect in the material conditions of his life.
Men imagine that thought can be kept secret, but it cannot; it rapidly crystallizes into habit, and habit solidifies into circumstance. Bestial thoughts crystallize into habits of drunkenness and sensuality, which solidify into circumstances of destitution and disease: impure thoughts of every kind crystallize into enervating and confusing habits, which solidify into distracting and adverse circumstances: thoughts of fear, doubt, and indecision crystallize into weak, unmanly, and irresolute habits, which solidify into circumstances of failure, indigence, and slavish dependence: lazy thoughts crystallize into habits of uncleanliness and dishonesty, which solidify into circumstances of foulness and beggary: hateful and condemnatory thoughts crystallize into habits of accusation and violence, which solidify into circumstances of injury and persecution: selfish thoughts of all kinds crystallize into habits of self-seeking, which solidify into circumstances more or less distressing.
On the other hand, beautiful thoughts of all kinds crystallize into habits of
grace and kindliness, which solidify into genial and sunny circumstances: pure
thoughts crystallize into habits of temperance and self-control, which solidify
into circumstances of repose and peace: thoughts of courage, self-reliance, and
decision crystallize into manly habits, which solidify into circumstances of
success, plenty, and freedom: energetic thoughts crystallize into habits of
cleanliness and industry, which solidify into circumstances of pleasantness:
gentle and forgiving thoughts crystallize into habits of gentleness, which
solidify into protective and preservative circumstances: loving and unselfish
thoughts crystallize into habits of self-forgetfulness for others, which
solidify into circumstances of sure and abiding prosperity and true riches.
A particular train of thought persisted in, be it good or bad, cannot fail to
produce its results on the character and circumstances. A man cannot directly
choose his circumstances, but he can choose his thoughts, and so indirectly, yet
surely, shape his circumstances.
Nature helps every man to the gratification of the thoughts, which he most
encourages, and opportunities are presented which will most speedily bring to
the surface both the good and evil thoughts.
Let a man cease from his sinful thoughts, and all the world will soften towards
him, and be ready to help him; let him put away his weakly and sickly thoughts,
and lo, opportunities will spring up on every hand to aid his strong resolves;
let him encourage good thoughts, and no hard fate shall bind him down to
wretchedness and shame. The world is your kaleidoscope, and the varying
combinations of colors, which at every succeeding moment it presents to you are
the exquisitely adjusted pictures of your ever-moving thoughts.
"So You will be what you will to be;
Let failure find its false content
In that poor word, 'environment,'
But spirit scorns it, and is free.
"It masters time, it conquers space;
It cows that boastful trickster, Chance,
And bids the tyrant Circumstance
Uncrown, and fill a servant's place.
"The human Will, that force unseen,
The offspring of a deathless Soul,
Can hew a way to any goal,
Though walls of granite intervene.
"Be not impatient in delays
But wait as one who understands;
When spirit rises and commands
The gods are ready to obey."
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This is taken from As A Man Thinketh.
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