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+The Project Gutenberg Etext of As A Man Thinketh, by James Allen
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+Title: As A Man Thinketh
+
+Author: James Allen
+
+Release Date: October, 2003 [Etext# 4507]
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+[This file was first posted on January 27, 2002]
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+The Project Gutenberg Etext of As A Man Thinketh, by James Allen
+******This file should be named mntkh10.txt or mntkh10.zip******
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+Edited by Charles Aldarondo Aldarondo@yahoo.com
+
+
+
+
+
+AS A MAN THINKETH
+
+BY
+
+JAMES ALLEN
+
+Author of "From Passion to Peace"
+
+_Mind is the Master power that moulds and makes,
+And Man is Mind, and evermore he takes
+The tool of Thought, and, shaping what he wills,
+Brings forth a thousand joys, a thousand ills:--
+He thinks in secret, and it comes to pass:
+Environment is but his looking-glass._
+
+Authorized Edition
+
+New York
+
+
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+
+
+
+
+THOUGHT AND CHARACTER
+
+EFFECT OF THOUGHT ON CIRCUMSTANCES
+
+EFFECT OF THOUGHT ON HEALTH AND THE BODY
+
+THOUGHT AND PURPOSE
+
+THE THOUGHT-FACTOR IN ACHIEVEMENT
+
+VISIONS AND IDEALS
+
+SERENITY
+
+
+
+
+
+
+FOREWORD
+
+
+
+
+
+THIS little volume (the result of meditation and experience) is not
+intended as an exhaustive treatise on the much-written-upon subject
+of the power of thought. It is suggestive rather than explanatory,
+its object being to stimulate men and women to the discovery and
+perception of the truth that--
+
+"They themselves are makers of themselves."
+
+by virtue of the thoughts, which they choose and encourage; that
+mind is the master-weaver, both of the inner garment of character
+and the outer garment of circumstance, and that, as they may have
+hitherto woven in ignorance and pain they may now weave in
+enlightenment and happiness.
+
+JAMES ALLEN.
+
+BROAD PARK AVENUE,
+
+ILFRACOMBE,
+
+ENGLAND
+
+
+
+
+
+
+AS A MAN THINKETH
+
+THOUGHT AND CHARACTER
+
+
+
+
+
+THE aphorism, "As a man thinketh in his heart so is he," not only
+embraces the whole of a man's being, but is so comprehensive as to
+reach out to every condition and circumstance of his life. A man is
+literally _what he thinks, _his character being the complete sum of
+all his thoughts.
+
+As the plant springs from, and could not be without, the seed, so
+every act of a man springs from the hidden seeds of thought, and
+could not have appeared without them. This applies equally to those
+acts called "spontaneous" and "unpremeditated" as to those, which
+are deliberately executed.
+
+Act is the blossom of thought, and joy and suffering are its fruits;
+thus does a man garner in the sweet and bitter fruitage of his own
+husbandry.
+
+"Thought in the mind hath made us, What we are
+By thought was wrought and built. If a man's mind
+Hath evil thoughts, pain comes on him as comes
+The wheel the ox behind....
+
+..If one endure
+In purity of thought, joy follows him
+As his own shadow--sure."
+
+Man is a growth by law, and not a creation by artifice, and cause
+and effect is as absolute and undeviating in the hidden realm of
+thought as in the world of visible and material things. A noble and
+Godlike character is not a thing of favour or chance, but is the
+natural result of continued effort in right thinking, the effect of
+long-cherished association with Godlike thoughts. An ignoble and
+bestial character, by the same process, is the result of the
+continued harbouring of grovelling thoughts.
+
+Man is made or unmade by himself; in the armoury of thought he
+forges the weapons by which he destroys himself; he also fashions
+the tools with which he builds for himself heavenly mansions of joy
+and strength and peace. By the right choice and true application of
+thought, man ascends to the Divine Perfection; by the abuse and
+wrong application of thought, he descends below the level of the
+beast. Between these two extremes are all the grades of character,
+and man is their maker and master.
+
+Of all the beautiful truths pertaining to the soul which have been
+restored and brought to light in this age, none is more gladdening
+or fruitful of divine promise and confidence than this--that man is
+the master of thought, the moulder of character, and the maker and
+shaper of condition, environment, and destiny.
+
+As a being of Power, Intelligence, and Love, and the lord of his own
+thoughts, man holds the key to every situation, and contains within
+himself that transforming and regenerative agency by which he may
+make himself what he wills.
+
+Man is always the master, even in his weaker and most abandoned
+state; but in his weakness and degradation he is the foolish master
+who misgoverns his "household." When he begins to reflect upon his
+condition, and to search diligently for the Law upon which his being
+is established, he then becomes the wise master, directing his
+energies with intelligence, and fashioning his thoughts to fruitful
+issues. Such is the _conscious _master, and man can only thus become
+by discovering _within himself _the laws of thought; which discovery
+is totally a matter of application, self analysis, and experience.
+
+Only by much searching and mining, are gold and diamonds obtained,
+and man can find every truth connected with his being, if he will
+dig deep into the mine of his soul; and that he is the maker of his
+character, the moulder of his life, and the builder of his destiny,
+he may unerringly prove, if he will watch, control, and alter his
+thoughts, tracing their effects upon himself, upon others, and upon
+his life and circumstances, linking cause and effect by patient
+practice and investigation, and utilizing his every experience, even
+to the most trivial, everyday occurrence, as a means of obtaining
+that knowledge of himself which is Understanding, Wisdom, Power. In
+this direction, as in no other, is the law absolute that "He that
+seeketh findeth; and to him that knocketh it shall be opened;" for
+only by patience, practice, and ceaseless importunity can a man
+enter the Door of the Temple of Knowledge.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+EFFECT OF THOUGHT ON CIRCUMSTANCES
+
+
+
+
+
+MAN'S mind may be likened to a garden, which may be intelligently
+cultivated or allowed to run wild; but whether cultivated or
+neglected, it must, and will, _bring forth._ If no useful seeds are
+_put _into it, then an abundance of useless weed-seeds will _fall
+_therein, and will continue to produce their kind.
+
+Just as a gardener cultivates his plot, keeping it free from weeds,
+and growing the flowers and fruits which he requires, so may a man
+tend the garden of his mind, weeding out all the wrong, useless, and
+impure thoughts, and cultivating toward perfection the flowers and
+fruits of right, useful, and pure thoughts. By pursuing this
+process, a man sooner or later discovers that he is the
+master-gardener of his soul, the director of his life. He also
+reveals, within himself, the laws of thought, and understands, with
+ever-increasing accuracy, how the thought-forces and mind 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 practised 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 harbours; 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 unchastened
+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 endeavour), a man at last arrives at their fruition and
+fulfilment 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 grovelling 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 gaolers 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 labour who adopts crooked measures to avoid
+paying the regulation wage, and, in the hope of making larger
+profits, reduces the wages of his workpeople. Such a man is
+altogether unfitted for prosperity, and when he finds himself
+bankrupt, both as regards reputation and riches, he blames
+circumstances, not knowing that he is the sole author of his
+condition.
+
+I have introduced these three cases merely as illustrative of the
+truth that man is the causer (though nearly always is unconsciously)
+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 unevolved self.
+
+Good thoughts and actions can never produce bad results; bad
+thoughts and actions can never produce good results. This is but
+saying that nothing can come from corn but corn, nothing from
+nettles but nettles. Men understand this law in the natural world,
+and work with it; but few understand it in the mental and moral
+world (though its operation there is just as simple and
+undeviating), and they, therefore, do not 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 moulding 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 colours, 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 cowes 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."
+
+
+
+
+
+
+EFFECT OF THOUGHT ON HEALTH AND THE BODY
+
+
+
+
+
+THE body is the servant of the mind. It obeys the operations of the
+mind, whether they be deliberately chosen or automatically
+expressed. At the bidding of unlawful thoughts the body sinks
+rapidly into disease and decay; at the command of glad and beautiful
+thoughts it becomes clothed with youthfulness and beauty.
+
+Disease and health, like circumstances, are rooted in thought.
+Sickly thoughts will express themselves through a sickly body.
+Thoughts of fear have been known to kill a man as speedily as a
+bullet, and they are continually killing thousands of people just as
+surely though less rapidly. The people who live in fear of disease
+are the people who get it. Anxiety quickly demoralizes the whole
+body, and lays it open to the, entrance of disease; while impure
+thoughts, even if not physically indulged, will soon shatter the
+nervous system.
+
+Strong, pure, and happy thoughts build up the body in vigour and
+grace. The body is a delicate and plastic instrument, which responds
+readily to the thoughts by which it is impressed, and habits of
+thought will produce their own effects, good or bad, upon it.
+
+Men will continue to have impure and poisoned blood, so long as they
+propagate unclean thoughts. Out of a clean heart comes a clean life
+and a clean body. Out of a defiled mind proceeds a defiled life and
+a corrupt body. Thought is the fount of action, life, and
+manifestation; make the fountain pure, and all will be pure.
+
+Change of diet will not help a man who will not change his thoughts.
+When a man makes his thoughts pure, he no longer desires impure
+food.
+
+Clean thoughts make clean habits. The so-called saint who does not
+wash his body is not a saint. He who has strengthened and purified
+his thoughts does not need to consider the malevolent microbe.
+
+If you would protect your body, guard your mind. If you would renew
+your body, beautify your mind. Thoughts of malice, envy,
+disappointment, despondency, rob the body of its health and grace. A
+sour face does not come by chance; it is made by sour thoughts.
+Wrinkles that mar are drawn by folly, passion, and pride.
+
+I know a woman of ninety-six who has the bright, innocent face of a
+girl. I know a man well under middle age whose face is drawn into
+inharmonious contours. The one is the result of a sweet and sunny
+disposition; the other is the outcome of passion and discontent.
+
+As you cannot have a sweet and wholesome abode unless you admit the
+air and sunshine freely into your rooms, so a strong body and a
+bright, happy, or serene countenance can only result from the free
+admittance into the mind of thoughts of joy and goodwill and
+serenity.
+
+On the faces of the aged there are wrinkles made by sympathy, others
+by strong and pure thought, and others are carved by passion: who
+cannot distinguish them? With those who have lived righteously, age
+is calm, peaceful, and softly mellowed, like the setting sun. I have
+recently seen a philosopher on his deathbed. He was not old except
+in years. He died as sweetly and peacefully as he had lived.
+
+There is no physician like cheerful thought for dissipating the ills
+of the body; there is no comforter to compare with goodwill for
+dispersing the shadows of grief and sorrow. To live continually in
+thoughts of ill will, cynicism, suspicion, and envy, is to be
+confined in a self made prison-hole. But to think well of all, to be
+cheerful with all, to patiently learn to find the good in all--such
+unselfish thoughts are the very portals of heaven; and to dwell day
+by day in thoughts of peace toward every creature will bring
+abounding peace to their possessor.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+THOUGHT AND PURPOSE
+
+
+
+
+
+UNTIL thought is linked with purpose there is no intelligent
+accomplishment. With the majority the bark of thought is allowed to
+"drift" upon the ocean of life. Aimlessness is a vice, and such
+drifting must not continue for him who would steer clear of
+catastrophe and destruction.
+
+They who have no central purpose in their life fall an easy prey to
+petty worries, fears, troubles, and self-pityings, all of which are
+indications of weakness, which lead, just as surely as deliberately
+planned sins (though by a different route), to failure, unhappiness,
+and loss, for weakness cannot persist in a power evolving universe.
+
+A man should conceive of a legitimate purpose in his heart, and set
+out to accomplish it. He should make this purpose the centralizing
+point of his thoughts. It may take the form of a spiritual ideal, or
+it may be a worldly object, according to his nature at the time
+being; but whichever it is, he should steadily focus his
+thought-forces upon the object, which he has set before him. He
+should make this purpose his supreme duty, and should devote himself
+to its attainment, not allowing his thoughts to wander away into
+ephemeral fancies, longings, and imaginings. This is the royal road
+to self-control and true concentration of thought. Even if he fails
+again and again to accomplish his purpose (as he necessarily must
+until weakness is overcome), the _strength of character gained_ will
+be the measure of _his true_ success, and this will form a new
+starting-point for future power and triumph.
+
+Those who are not prepared for the apprehension of a _great_ purpose
+should fix the thoughts upon the faultless performance of their
+duty, no matter how insignificant their task may appear. Only in
+this way can the thoughts be gathered and focussed, and resolution
+and energy be developed, which being done, there is nothing which
+may not be accomplished.
+
+The weakest soul, knowing its own weakness, and believing this truth
+_that strength can only be developed by effort and practice,_ will,
+thus believing, at once begin to exert itself, and, adding effort to
+effort, patience to patience, and strength to strength, will never
+cease to develop, and will at last grow divinely strong.
+
+As the physically weak man can make himself strong by careful and
+patient training, so the man of weak thoughts can make them strong
+by exercising himself in right thinking.
+
+To put away aimlessness and weakness, and to begin to think with
+purpose, is to enter the ranks of those strong ones who only
+recognize failure as one of the pathways to attainment; who make all
+conditions serve them, and who think strongly, attempt fearlessly,
+and accomplish masterfully.
+
+Having conceived of his purpose, a man should mentally mark out a
+_straight_ pathway to its achievement, looking neither to the right
+nor the left. Doubts and fears should be rigorously excluded; they
+are disintegrating elements, which break up the straight line of
+effort, rendering it crooked, ineffectual, useless. Thoughts of
+doubt and fear never accomplished anything, and never can. They
+always lead to failure. Purpose, energy, power to do, and all strong
+thoughts cease when doubt and fear creep in.
+
+The will to do springs from the knowledge that we _can_ do. Doubt
+and fear are the great enemies of knowledge, and he who encourages
+them, who does not slay them. thwarts himself at every step.
+
+He who has conquered doubt and fear has conquered failure. His
+every, thought is allied with power, and all difficulties are
+bravely met and wisely overcome. His purposes are seasonably
+planted, and they bloom and bring forth fruit, which does not fall
+prematurely to the ground.
+
+Thought allied fearlessly to purpose becomes creative force: he who
+_knows_ this is ready to become something higher and stronger than a
+mere bundle of wavering thoughts and fluctuating sensations; he who
+_does _this has become the conscious and intelligent wielder of his
+mental powers.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+THE THOUGHT-FACTOR IN ACHIEVEMENT
+
+
+
+
+
+ALL that a man achieves and all that he fails to achieve is the
+direct result of his own thoughts. In a justly ordered universe,
+where loss of equipoise would mean total destruction, individual
+responsibility must be absolute. A man's weakness and strength,
+purity and impurity, are his own, and not another man's; they are
+brought about by himself, and not by another; and they can only be
+altered by himself, never by another. His condition is also his own,
+and not another man's. His suffering and his happiness are evolved
+from within. As he thinks, so he is; as he continues to think, so he
+remains.
+
+A strong man cannot help a weaker unless that weaker is _willing_ to
+be helped, and even then the weak man must become strong of himself;
+he must, by his own efforts, develop the strength which he admires
+in another. None but himself can alter his condition.
+
+It has been usual for men to think and to say, "Many men are slaves
+because one is an oppressor; let us hate the oppressor." Now,
+however, there is amongst an increasing few a tendency to reverse
+this judgment, and to say, "One man is an oppressor because many are
+slaves; let us despise the slaves."
+
+The truth is that oppressor and slave are co-operators in ignorance,
+and, while seeming to afflict each other, are in reality afflicting
+themselves. A perfect Knowledge perceives the action of law in the
+weakness of the oppressed and the misapplied power of the oppressor;
+a perfect Love, seeing the suffering, which both states entail,
+condemns neither; a perfect Compassion embraces both oppressor and
+oppressed.
+
+He who has conquered weakness, and has put away all selfish
+thoughts, belongs neither to oppressor nor oppressed. He is free.
+
+A man can only rise, conquer, and achieve by lifting up his
+thoughts. He can only remain weak, and abject, and miserable by
+refusing to lift up his thoughts.
+
+Before a man can achieve anything, even in worldly things, he must
+lift his thoughts above slavish animal indulgence. He may not, in
+order to succeed, give up all animality and selfishness, by any
+means; but a portion of it must, at least, be sacrificed. A man
+whose first thought is bestial indulgence could neither think
+clearly nor plan methodically; he could not find and develop his
+latent resources, and would fail in any undertaking. Not having
+commenced to manfully control his thoughts, he is not in a position
+to control affairs and to adopt serious responsibilities. He is not
+fit to act independently and stand alone. But he is limited only by
+the thoughts, which he chooses.
+
+There can be no progress, no achievement without sacrifice, and a
+man's worldly success will be in the measure that he sacrifices his
+confused animal thoughts, and fixes his mind on the development of
+his plans, and the strengthening of his resolution and
+self-reliance. And the higher he lifts his thoughts, the more manly,
+upright, and righteous he becomes, the greater will be his success,
+the more blessed and enduring will be his achievements.
+
+The universe does not favour the greedy, the dishonest, the vicious,
+although on the mere surface it may sometimes appear to do so; it
+helps the honest, the magnanimous, the virtuous. All the great
+Teachers of the ages have declared this in varying forms, and to
+prove and know it a man has but to persist in making himself more
+and more virtuous by lifting up his thoughts.
+
+Intellectual achievements are the result of thought consecrated to
+the search for knowledge, or for the beautiful and true in life and
+nature. Such achievements may be sometimes connected with vanity and
+ambition, but they are not the outcome of those characteristics;
+they are the natural outgrowth of long and arduous effort, and of
+pure and unselfish thoughts.
+
+Spiritual achievements are the consummation of holy aspirations. He
+who lives constantly in the conception of noble and lofty thoughts,
+who dwells upon all that is pure and unselfish, will, as surely as
+the sun reaches its zenith and the moon its full, become wise and
+noble in character, and rise into a position of influence and
+blessedness.
+
+Achievement, of whatever kind, is the crown of effort, the diadem of
+thought. By the aid of self-control, resolution, purity,
+righteousness, and well-directed thought a man ascends; by the aid
+of animality, indolence, impurity, corruption, and confusion of
+thought a man descends.
+
+A man may rise to high success in the world, and even to lofty
+altitudes in the spiritual realm, and again descend into weakness
+and wretchedness by allowing arrogant, selfish, and corrupt thoughts
+to take possession of him.
+
+Victories attained by right thought can only be maintained by
+watchfulness. Many give way when success is assured, and rapidly
+fall back into failure.
+
+All achievements, whether in the business, intellectual, or
+spiritual world, are the result of definitely directed thought, are
+governed by the same law and are of the same method; the only
+difference lies in _the object of attainment._
+
+He who would accomplish little must sacrifice little; he who would
+achieve much must sacrifice much; he who would attain highly must
+sacrifice greatly.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+VISIONS AND IDEALS
+
+
+
+
+
+THE dreamers are the saviours of the world. As the visible world is
+sustained by the invisible, so men, through all their trials and
+sins and sordid vocations, are nourished by the beautiful visions of
+their solitary dreamers. Humanity cannot forget its dreamers; it
+cannot let their ideals fade and die; it lives in them; it knows
+them as they _realities_ which it shall one day see and know.
+
+Composer, sculptor, painter, poet, prophet, sage, these are the
+makers of the after-world, the architects of heaven. The world is
+beautiful because they have lived; without them, labouring humanity
+would perish.
+
+He who cherishes a beautiful vision, a lofty ideal in his heart,
+will one day realize it. Columbus cherished a vision of another
+world, and he discovered it; Copernicus fostered the vision of a
+multiplicity of worlds and a wider universe, and he revealed it;
+Buddha beheld the vision of a spiritual world of stainless beauty
+and perfect peace, and he entered into it.
+
+Cherish your visions; cherish your ideals; cherish the music that
+stirs in your heart, the beauty that forms in your mind, the
+loveliness that drapes your purest thoughts, for out of them will
+grow all delightful conditions, all, heavenly environment; of these,
+if you but remain true to them, your world will at last be built.
+
+To desire is to obtain; to aspire is to, achieve. Shall man's basest
+desires receive the fullest measure of gratification, and his purest
+aspirations starve for lack of sustenance? Such is not the Law: such
+a condition of things can never obtain: "ask and receive."
+
+Dream lofty dreams, and as you dream, so shall you become. Your
+Vision is the promise of what you shall one day be; your Ideal is
+the prophecy of what you shall at last unveil.
+
+The greatest achievement was at first and for a time a dream. The
+oak sleeps in the acorn; the bird waits in the egg; and in the
+highest vision of the soul a waking angel stirs. Dreams are the
+seedlings of realities.
+
+Your circumstances may be uncongenial, but they shall not long
+remain so if you but perceive an Ideal and strive to reach it. You
+cannot travel _within_ and stand still _without._ Here is a youth
+hard pressed by poverty and labour; confined long hours in an
+unhealthy workshop; unschooled, and lacking all the arts of
+refinement. But he dreams of better things; he thinks of
+intelligence, of refinement, of grace and beauty. He conceives of,
+mentally builds up, an ideal condition of life; the vision of a
+wider liberty and a larger scope takes possession of him; unrest
+urges him to action, and he utilizes all his spare time and means,
+small though they are, to the development of his latent powers and
+resources. Very soon so altered has his mind become that the
+workshop can no longer hold him. It has become so out of harmony
+with his mentality that it falls out of his life as a garment is
+cast aside, and, with the growth of opportunities, which fit the
+scope of his expanding powers, he passes out of it forever. Years
+later we see this youth as a full-grown man. We find him a master of
+certain forces of the mind, which he wields with worldwide influence
+and almost unequalled power. In his hands he holds the cords of
+gigantic responsibilities; he speaks, and lo, lives are changed; men
+and women hang upon his words and remould their characters, and,
+sunlike, he becomes the fixed and luminous centre round which
+innumerable destinies revolve. He has realized the Vision of his
+youth. He has become one with his Ideal.
+
+And you, too, youthful reader, will realize the Vision (not the idle
+wish) of your heart, be it base or beautiful, or a mixture of both,
+for you will always gravitate toward that which you, secretly, most
+love. Into your hands will be placed the exact results of your own
+thoughts; you will receive that which you earn; no more, no less.
+Whatever your present environment may be, you will fall, remain, or
+rise with your thoughts, your Vision, your Ideal. You will become as
+small as your controlling desire; as great as your dominant
+aspiration: in the beautiful words of Stanton Kirkham Davis, "You
+may be keeping accounts, and presently you shall walk out of the
+door that for so long has seemed to you the barrier of your ideals,
+and shall find yourself before an audience--the pen still behind
+your ear, the ink stains on your fingers and then and there shall
+pour out the torrent of your inspiration. You may be driving sheep,
+and you shall wander to the city-bucolic and open-mouthed; shall
+wander under the intrepid guidance of the spirit into the studio of
+the master, and after a time he shall say, 'I have nothing more to
+teach you.' And now you have become the master, who did so recently
+dream of great things while driving sheep. You shall lay down the
+saw and the plane to take upon yourself the regeneration of the
+world."
+
+The thoughtless, the ignorant, and the indolent, seeing only the
+apparent effects of things and not the things themselves, talk of
+luck, of fortune, and chance. Seeing a man grow rich, they say, "How
+lucky he is!" Observing another become intellectual, they exclaim,
+"How highly favoured he is!" And noting the saintly character and
+wide influence of another, they remark, "How chance aids him at
+every turn!" They do not see the trials and failures and struggles
+which these men have voluntarily encountered in order to gain their
+experience; have no knowledge of the sacrifices they have made, of
+the undaunted efforts they have put forth, of the faith they have
+exercised, that they might overcome the apparently insurmountable,
+and realize the Vision of their heart. They do not know the darkness
+and the heartaches; they only see the light and joy, and call it
+"luck". They do not see the long and arduous journey, but only
+behold the pleasant goal, and call it "good fortune," do not
+understand the process, but only perceive the result, and call it
+chance.
+
+In all human affairs there are _efforts,_ and there are _results,_
+and the strength of the effort is the measure of the result. Chance
+is not. Gifts, powers, material, intellectual, and spiritual
+possessions are the fruits of effort; they are thoughts completed,
+objects accomplished, visions realized.
+
+The Vision that you glorify in your mind, the Ideal that you
+enthrone in your heart--this you will build your life by, this you
+will become.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+SERENITY
+
+
+
+
+
+CALMNESS of mind is one of the beautiful jewels of wisdom. It is the
+result of long and patient effort in self-control. Its presence is
+an indication of ripened experience, and of a more than ordinary
+knowledge of the laws and operations of thought.
+
+A man becomes calm in the measure that he understands himself as a
+thought evolved being, for such knowledge necessitates the
+understanding of others as the result of thought, and as he develops
+a right understanding, and sees more and more clearly the internal
+relations of things by the action of cause and effect he ceases to
+fuss and fume and worry and grieve, and remains poised, steadfast,
+serene.
+
+The calm man, having learned how to govern himself, knows how to
+adapt himself to others; and they, in turn, reverence his spiritual
+strength, and feel that they can learn of him and rely upon him. The
+more tranquil a man becomes, the greater is his success, his
+influence, his power for good. Even the ordinary trader will find
+his business prosperity increase as he develops a greater
+self-control and equanimity, for people will always prefer to deal
+with a man whose demeanour is strongly equable.
+
+The strong, calm man is always loved and revered. He is like a
+shade-giving tree in a thirsty land, or a sheltering rock in a
+storm. "Who does not love a tranquil heart, a sweet-tempered,
+balanced life? It does not matter whether it rains or shines, or
+what changes come to those possessing these blessings, for they are
+always sweet, serene, and calm. That exquisite poise of character,
+which we call serenity is the last lesson of culture, the fruitage
+of the soul. It is precious as wisdom, more to be desired
+than gold--yea, than even fine gold. How insignificant mere money
+seeking looks in comparison with a serene life--a life that dwells
+in the ocean of Truth, beneath the waves, beyond the reach of
+tempests, in the Eternal Calm!
+
+"How many people we know who sour their lives, who ruin all that is
+sweet and beautiful by explosive tempers, who destroy their poise of
+character, and make bad blood! It is a question whether the great
+majority of people do not ruin their lives and mar their happiness
+by lack of self-control. How few people we meet in life who are well
+balanced, who have that exquisite poise which is characteristic of
+the finished character!
+
+Yes, humanity surges with uncontrolled passion, is tumultuous with
+ungoverned grief, is blown about by anxiety and doubt only the wise
+man, only he whose thoughts are controlled and purified, makes the
+winds and the storms of the soul obey him.
+
+Tempest-tossed souls, wherever ye may be, under whatsoever
+conditions ye may live, know this in the ocean of life the isles of
+Blessedness are smiling, and the sunny shore of your ideal awaits
+your coming. Keep your hand firmly upon the helm of thought. In the
+bark of your soul reclines the commanding Master; He does but sleep:
+wake Him. Self-control is strength; Right Thought is mastery;
+Calmness is power. Say unto your heart, "Peace, be still!"
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg Etext of As A Man Thinketh, by James Allen
+
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