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02 - Effect of Thought on Circumstances - As a Man Thinketh - James Allen · Logic Library

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