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)
