Of all the books I have read ever since I was blessed with the gift of literacy, one book that stands out in thought-provocation and economy of words is a long-lost 27-paged classic by James Allen entitled AS A MAN THINKETH.
Characteristically, I have often shared this book with friends, but most of them dont get to read it to the end because of its "rugged" language. And they therefore dont get blessed by the priceless wisdoms Mr Allen grafted in the book.
What I have therefore chosen to do in order to get as many of my friends to benefit from the book is to share some extracts of the book in digestable bits. I believe this will be easier to comprehend and even create a thirst to read the book itself in everyone. Where Mr Allen's language was more complex for easy understanding, I have paraphrased for easy understanding without compromising his semantic and his depth.
Below are the excerpts from the first chapter of the book.
Enjoy!
THOUGHT AND CHARACTER
A man is literally what he thinks, his character being the complete sum (total results) of all his thoughts. 5
As the plant springs from…the seed, so every act of man springs from the hidden seeds of thought…This applies equally to those acts called “spontaneous” as to those which are deliberately executed. 5
Act is the blossom (manifestation) of thought…joy and suffering are its fruitage (fruits); thus…a man garner in (reaps) the sweet and bitter fruitage of his own husbandry. 5
We are wrought (constructed) and built by thought. 5 (paraphrased)
Man is a growth by law, and not a creation by artifice. 5
Cause and effect are as absolute and undeviating in the hidden realm of thought as in the world of visible and material things. 5
A noble and God-like character is not a thing of favour or chance, but is the natural result of continued effort in right thinking, (as well as) the effect of long-cherished association with God-like thoughts. An ignoble and bestial character…is the result of the continued harbouring of grovelling thoughts. 5
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. 6
By the right choice and true application of thought, man ascends to…divine perfection. By the abuse and wrong application of thought he descends below the level of the beasts. [Between these two extremes are all the grades of character, and man is their maker and master]. 6
Man is the master of thought, the moulder of (his own) character, and the maker and shaper of (his) condition, environment, and destiny. 6
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. 6
Man is always the master, even in his weakest and most abandoned state. But in his weakness and degradation he is a foolish master who misgoverns his “household” (i.e. his life). When he begins to reflect upon his condition and 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. 6
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. 6
A man may truly prove that he is the maker of his character, the moulder of his life, and the builder of his destiny 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 the most trivial, everyday occurrence) as a means of obtaining that knowledge of himself which is understanding, wisdom and power. 6 (paraphrased)
Only by patience, practice, and ceaseless importunity (tireless persistence) can a man enter the door of the temple of (self-) knowledge. 7
EFFECTS OF THOUGHTS ON CIRCUMSTANCES
A man’s mind can 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. 8
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. 8
Thought and character are one, and as character can only manifest and discover itself through environment and circumstance, (so will) the outer conditions of a person’s life be always found to be harmoniously related to his inner state. 8
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. 8
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. 9
Man is buffeted (battered) by circumstances as 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. 9 (paraphrased)
Any man who has for any length of time practised self-control and self-purification knows that circumstances grow out of thought. 9 (paraphrased)
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 (harvests). 9
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 fruitage of opportunity and circumstance. Good thoughts bear good fruit, bad thoughts bad fruit. 9
The outer world of circumstances shapes itself (in accordance) to the inner world of thought. 9
Man, in the outer conditions of his life, always arrives at the fruition and fulfilment of the inmost desires, the aspirations, and the thoughts he allows himself to be dominated by. 9 (paraphrased)
A man does not come to the alms-house (beggary) 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 (pressure) or any mere external force. The criminal thought had long been fostered in the heart, and the hour of opportunity revealed its gathered power. 9-10
Circumstance does not make the man; it reveals him to himself. 10
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. 10
Man, as the lord and master of thought, is the maker of himself and the shaper of and author of (his) environment. 10
Even at birth, the soul comes of its own and through every step of its earthly pilgrimage…attracts those conditions which reveal itself, which are the reflections of its own purity and impurity, its strength and weakness. 10
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. 10
Man is manacled (chained) only by himself; thought and action are the jailors of Fate – they imprisoned, when they are base; they are also the angels of Freedom – they liberate, when they are noble. 10 (paraphrased)
Man does not get what he wishes and prays for; he gets what he justly earns (paraphrased). “His wishes and prayers are only gratified and answered when they harmonize with his thoughts and actions.” 10
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 outside effect, while all the time he is nourishing and preserving its cause in his heart… And this cause may be a vice or an unconscious weakness; but whatever it is, it is stubbornly retarding the efforts of its owner, and by so doing is calling aloud for urgent remedy. 10 (paraphrased)
Men are anxious to improve their circumstances, but are unwilling to improve themselves; they therefore remain bound. 10
The man who does not shrink from self-crucifixion can never fail to accomplish an object upon which his heart is set. 10
Man is the causer [though nearly always unconsciously] of his circumstances, and…whilst aiming at the good end, he is continually frustrating its accomplishment by encouraging thoughts and desires which cannot possibly harmonize with that end. 11
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. 12
“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 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 in the process, before he has even reached that supreme perfection of self-knowledge, he would have found working in his mind and life, the great law which is absolutely just, and which cannot give good for evil, nor evil for good. 12 (paraphrased)
Good thoughts and actions can never produce bad results; bad thoughts and action 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, and they, therefore, do not cooperate with it. 12
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 (in man). 12
There could be no object in burning gold after the dross had been removed, a perfectly pure and enlightened being could not suffer. 12
The circumstances in which a man encounters with suffering are the result of his own mental inharmony. The circumstances which a man encounters blessedness are the result of his mental harmony. 12
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. 12-13
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 (in life) as a burden unjustly imposed. 13
Indigence and indulgence are the two extremes of wretchedness. They are both equally unnatural and the result of mental disorder. 13
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. 13
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. 13
Law, not confusion, is the dominating principle in the universe; justice, not injustice, is the soul and substance of life. Righteousness, not corruption, is the moulding and moving force in the spiritual government of the world. 13
A 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. 13
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. 13
Men imagine that thought can be kept secret, but it cannot. It rapidly crystallizes into habit, and habit solidifies into circumstances… A particular train of thought persisted in, be it good or bad, cannot fail to produce its results on the character and the circumstances (of the man). 13-14
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 gratification of the thoughts which he most encourages. 14
The world is your kaleidoscope, and the varying combination of colours which at every succeeding moment it presents to you are the exquisitely adjusted pictures of your ever-moving thoughts. 14
Though walls of granite intervene, the human will can hew a way to any goal. 15 (paraphrased)
EFFECTS OF THOUGHTS ON HEALTH AND 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. 16
Disease and health, like circumstances, are rooted in thought. Sickly thoughts will express themselves through a sickly body. 16
The people who live in fear of diseases are the people who get it. Anxiety quickly demoralizes the whole body and lays it open to the entrance of disease. 16
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. 16
Men will continue to have impure and poisoned blood, so long as they propagate unclean thoughts. Out of a clean heart come a clean life and a clean body. Out of a defiled mind proceed a defiled life and a defiled body. 16
Thought is the fount (source) of action, life and manifestation; make the fount pure and all will be pure. 16
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. 16-17
If you want to perfect your body, guard your mind. If you want to renew your body, beautify your mind. Thoughts of malice, envy, disappointment, and despondency rob the mind of its health and grace. 17(paraphrased)
A sour face does not come by chance; it is made by sour thoughts. Wrinkles that mar (the face) are drawn by folly, passion, pride. 17
As you cannot have a sweet and wholesome abode (house) 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 body of joy and goodwill and serenity. 17
[On the faces of the age there are wrinkles made by sympathy, others by strong and pure thought, and others are carved by passion…] With those who have lived righteously, age is calm, peaceful, and softly mellowed like the setting sun. 17
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. 17
To live continually in thought 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 (gateways) of heaven. 17
THOUGHT AND PURPOSE
Until thought is linked with purpose there is no intelligent achievement. 18
With the majority the bark (light stick) of thought is allowed to “drift” upon the ocean of life…and such…must not continue for him who would steer clear of catastrophe and destruction. 18
Aimlessness is a vice. 18
They who have no central purpose in their life fall an easy prey to petty worries, fears, and self-pityings…which lead…to failure, unhappiness, and loss. 18
To put away aimlessness and weakness and to begin to think with purpose is to enter the ranks of those strong ones who recognize failure as one of the pathways to attainment. Who make all conditions serve them, and who think strongly, attempt fearlessly, and accomplish masterfully. 19
Doubts and fears…are disintegrating elements which break up the straight line of effort, rendering it crooked, ineffectual, useless. 19
Purpose, energy, power to do, and all strong thoughts cease when doubt and fear creep in. 19
The will to do springs from the knowledge that we can do. Doubt and fear are the great enemies of (that) knowledge, and he who encourages them, who does not slay them, thwarts himself at every step. 19
He who has conquered doubt and fear has conquered failure. 19
Thought allied fearlessly to purpose becomes a creative force. He who knows this is ready to become something higher and stronger…He who does this has become the conscious and intelligent wielder of his mental powers. 19
THE THOUGHT FACTOR IN ACHIEVEMENT
All that a man achieves, and all that he fails to achieve (are) the direct result of his own thoughts. 20
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. 20
His condition is also his own, and not another man’s. His sufferings and happiness are evolved from within. As he thinks, so is he; as he continues to think, so he remains. 20
…Oppressor and slaves are cooperators in ignorance, and, while seeming to afflict the other, are in reality afflicting themselves… He who has conquered weakness and has pushed away all selfish thoughts belong neither to oppressor nor oppressed. He is free. 20
Before a man can achieve anything, even in worldly things, he must lift his thoughts above slavish animal indulgence. 21
There can be no progress nor achievement without sacrifice, and a man’s worldly success will be by the measure that he sacrifices his confused animals thoughts, and fixes his mind on the development of his plans, and the strengthening of his resolutions and self-reliance. The higher he lifts his thoughts, the greater will be his success, the more blessed and enduring will be his achievements. 21
The universe does not favour the greedy, the dishonest, the vicious, although on the mere surface it sometimes may appear to do so. It helps the honest, the magnanimous, the virtuous. 21
Intellectual achievements are the results of thoughts consecrated to the search for knowledge, or for the beautiful and true in nature. 21
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 selfless will…become wise and noble in character, and rise into a position of influence and blessedness. 21-22
Achievement of any kind is the crown of effort (and) the diadem of thought. 22
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. 22
A man may rise to high success in the world, even to lofty attitudes in the spiritual realm, and again descend into weakness and wretchedness by allowing arrogant, selfish, and corrupt thoughts to take possession of him. 22
Victories attained by right thought can be maintained only by watchfulness. 22
All achievements, whether in the business, intellectual, or spiritual world, are the result of definitely directed thought. 22
He who would accomplish little need sacrifice little; he who would achieve much must sacrifice much. He who would attain highly must sacrifice greatly. 22
VISIONS AND IDEALS
The dreamers are the saviours of the world. 23
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. 23
He who cherishes a beautiful vision, a lofty ideal in his heart, will one day realize it. 23
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. 23
To desire is to obtain; to aspire is to achieve. 23
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. 23
The greatest achievement was at first and for a time a dream… Dreams are the seedlings of realities. 24
Your circumstances may be uncongenial (unfriendly), but they shall not remain so if you only perceive an ideal and strive to reach it. YOU CANNOT TRAVEL WITHIN AND STAND STILL WITHOUT (outside). 24
You…will realize the vision [not just 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 love most. 24
Into your hands will be placed the exact results of your own thoughts. You will receive that which you earn; no more, no less. 24
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. 24
In all human affairs there are efforts, and there are results. The strength of the effort is the measure of the result. 25
Gifts, powers, material, intellectual and spiritual possessions are the fruits of effort. They are thoughts completed, objectives accomplished, visions realized. 25
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. 25
SERENITY
Calmness of mind is one of the beautiful jewels of wisdom. It is the result of long and patient effort in self-control…an indication of ripened experience, and…a more than ordinary knowledge of the laws and operations of thought. 26
A man becomes calm in the measure that he understands himself as a thought-evolved being (product of his thought). 26
The calm man, having learned how to govern himself, knows how to adapt himself to others. 26
The more tranquil a man becomes, the greater is his success, his influence, his power for good. 26
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. 26
That exquisite poise of character that we call serenity is the last lesson of culture. It is the flowering of life, the fruitage of the soul. 26
How insignificant money-seeking looks in comparison with a serene life… It is a question whether the great majority of people do not ruin their lives and mar their happiness by lack of self-control. 26-27
[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. 27
Keep your hand firmly upon the helm of thought. In the core of your soul reclines the commanding Master; He does but sleep; wake Him. 27
Self-control is strength. Right thought is mastery. Calmness is power. Say unto your heart, “Peace. Be still!” 27
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