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AS A MAN THINKETH: The Classic Law of Attraction Guide - James Allen (1902) · THE SECRET LAW OF ATTRACTION: Manifest Wealth, Success & Abundance

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  Speaker 1: James Allen, As a man Think Forward. This little volume,
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  Speaker 1: the result of meditation and experience, is not intended as
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  Speaker 1: an exhaustive treatise on the much written upon subject of
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  Speaker 1: the power of thought. It is suggestive rather than explanatory,
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  Speaker 1: its object being to stimulate men and women to the
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  Speaker 1: discovery and perception of the truth that they themselves are
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  Speaker 1: makers of themselves by virtue of the thoughts which they
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  Speaker 1: choose and encourage, that mind is the master weaver both
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  Speaker 1: of the inner garment of character and the outer garment
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  Speaker 1: of circumstance, And that as they may have hitherto woven
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  Speaker 1: in ignorance and pain, they may now weave in enlightenment
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  Speaker 1: and happiness. James Allen, broad Park, Avenue, Ilfracombe, England. As
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  Speaker 1: a man Think, Thought and character the aphorism as a
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  Speaker 1: man thinketh in his heart, so is he not only
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  Speaker 1: embraces the whole of a man's being, but is so
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  Speaker 1: comforting pensive as to reach out to every condition and
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  Speaker 1: circumstance of his life. A man is literally what he thinks,
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  Speaker 1: his character being the complete sum of all his thoughts.
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  Speaker 1: As the plant springs from and could not be without
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  Speaker 1: the seed, so every act of a man springs from
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  Speaker 1: the hidden seeds of thought, and could not have appeared
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  Speaker 1: without them. This applies equally to those acts called spontaneous
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  Speaker 1: and unpremeditated, as to those which are deliberately executed. Act
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  Speaker 1: is the blossom of thought, and joy and suffering are
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  Speaker 1: its fruits. Thus does a man garner in the sweet
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  Speaker 1: and bitter fruitage of his own husbandry. Thought in the
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  Speaker 1: mind hath made us what we are by thought was
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  Speaker 1: wrought and built. If a man's mind hath evil thoughts,
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  Speaker 1: pain comes on him, as comes the wield the ox behind.
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  Speaker 1: If one endure in purity of thought, joy follows him
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  Speaker 1: as his own shadow. Sure man is a growth by
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  Speaker 1: law and not a creation by artifice, and cause and
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  Speaker 1: effect is as absolute as an undeviate one. I in
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  Speaker 1: g In the hidden realm of thought, as in the
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  Speaker 1: world of visible and material things, a noble and godlike
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  Speaker 1: character is not a thing of favor or chance, but
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  Speaker 1: is the natural result of continued effort in right thinking,
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  Speaker 1: the effect of long cherished association with godlike thoughts. An
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  Speaker 1: ignoble and bestial character, by the same process, is the
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  Speaker 1: result of the continued harboring of groveling thoughts. Man is
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  Speaker 1: made or unmade by himself. In the armory of thought.
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  Speaker 1: He forges the weapons by which he destroys himself. He
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  Speaker 1: also fashions the tools with which he builds for himself
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  Speaker 1: heavenly mansions of joy and strength and peace. By the
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  Speaker 1: right choice and true application of thought, man ascends to
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  Speaker 1: the divine perfection. By the abuse and wrong application of thought,
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  Speaker 1: he descends below the level of the beast. Between these
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  Speaker 1: two extremes are all the grades of character, and man
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  Speaker 1: is their maker and master of all the beautiful truths
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  Speaker 1: pertaining to the soul, which have been restored and brought
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  Speaker 1: to light. In this aid. None is more gladdening or
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  Speaker 1: fruitful of divine promise and confidence than this. That man
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  Speaker 1: is the master of thought, the molder of character, and
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  Speaker 1: the maker and shaper of condition, environment, and destiny. As
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  Speaker 1: a being of power, intelligence, and love, and the lord
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  Speaker 1: of his own thoughts, man holds the key to every situation,
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  Speaker 1: and contains within himself that transforming in regenerative agency by
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  Speaker 1: which he may make himself what he wills. Man is
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  Speaker 1: always the master, even in his weaker and most abandoned state,
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  Speaker 1: But in his weakness and degradation he is the foolish
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  Speaker 1: master who misgoverns his household. When he begins to reflect
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  Speaker 1: upon his condition and to search diligently for the law
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  Speaker 1: upon which his being is established, he then becomes the
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  Speaker 1: wise master, directing his energies with intelligence and fashioning his
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  Speaker 1: thoughts to fruitful issues. Such is the conscious master. And
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  Speaker 1: man can only thus become by discovering within himself the
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  Speaker 1: laws of thought, which discovery is totally a matter of applicationation,
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  Speaker 1: self analysis, and experience. Only by much searching and mining
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  Speaker 1: are gold and diamonds obtained. And man can find every
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  Speaker 1: truth connected with his being if he will dig deep
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  Speaker 1: into the mind of his soul, and that he is
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  Speaker 1: the maker of his character, the molder of his life,
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  Speaker 1: and the builder of his destiny. He may unerringly prove
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  Speaker 1: if he will watch, control and alter his thoughts, tracing
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  Speaker 1: their effects upon himself, upon others, and upon his life
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  Speaker 1: and circumstances, linking cause and effect by patient practice and investigation,
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  Speaker 1: and utilizing his every experience, even to the most trivial
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  Speaker 1: every day occurrence, as a means of obtaining that knowledge
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  Speaker 1: of himself, which is understanding wisdom. Power in this direction,
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  Speaker 1: as in no other, is the law absolute, that he
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  Speaker 1: that seekethendeth, and to him that knocketh, it shall be opened.
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  Speaker 1: For only by patience, practice, and ceaseless importunity can a
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  Speaker 1: man enter the door of the Temple of Knowledge James Allen.
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  Speaker 1: As a man thinks Part two. Effect of thought on circumstances.
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  Speaker 1: Man's mind may be likened to a garden, which may
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  Speaker 1: be intelligently cultivated or allowed to run wild. But whether
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  Speaker 1: cultivated or neglected, it must and will bring forth. If
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  Speaker 1: no useful seeds are put into it, then an abundance
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  Speaker 1: of useless weed seeds will fall therein and will continue
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  Speaker 1: to produce their kind. Just as a gardener cultivates his plot,
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  Speaker 1: keeping it free from weeds and growing the flowers and
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  Speaker 1: fruits which he requires, so may a man tend the
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  Speaker 1: garden of his mind, weeding out all the wrong, useless
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  Speaker 1: and impure thoughts, and cultivating toward perfection the flowers and
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  Speaker 1: fruits of right, useful and pure thoughts. By pursuing this process,
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  Speaker 1: a man sooner or later discovers that he is the
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  Speaker 1: master gardener of his soul, the director of his life.
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  Speaker 1: He also reveals within himself the laws of thought and
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  Speaker 1: understands with ever incre greacing accuracy how the thought forces
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  Speaker 1: and mind elements operate in the shaping of his character.
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  Speaker 1: Circumstances and destiny. Thought and character are one, and as
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  Speaker 1: character can only manifest and discover itself through environment and circumstance,
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  Speaker 1: the outer conditions of a person's life will always be
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  Speaker 1: found to be harmoniously related to his inner state. This
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  Speaker 1: does not mean that a man's circumstances at any given
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  Speaker 1: time are an indication of his entire character, but that
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  Speaker 1: those circumstances are so intimately connected with some vital thought
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  Speaker 1: element within himself that for the time being they are
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  Speaker 1: indispensable to his development. Every man is where he is
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  Speaker 1: by the law of his being. The thoughts which he
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  Speaker 1: has built into his character have brought him there, and
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  Speaker 1: in the arrangement of his life. There is no element
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  Speaker 1: of chance, but all is the result of a law
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  Speaker 1: which cannot err. This is just as true of those
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  Speaker 1: who feel out of harmony with their surroundings as of
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  Speaker 1: those who are contented with them. As a progressive and
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  Speaker 1: evolving being, man is where he is that he may
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  Speaker 1: he may learn, that he may grow, and as he
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  Speaker 1: learns the spiritual lesson which any circumstance contains for him,
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  Speaker 1: it passes away and gives place to other circumstances. Man
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  Speaker 1: is buffeted by circumstances so long as he believes himself
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  Speaker 1: to be the creature of outside conditions. But when he
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  Speaker 1: realizes that he is a creative power, and that he
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  Speaker 1: may command the hidden soil and seeds of his being
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  Speaker 1: out of which circumstances grow, he then becomes the rightful
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  Speaker 1: master of himself. That circumstances grow out of thought. Every
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  Speaker 1: man knows who has for any length of time practiced
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  Speaker 1: self control and self purification, for he will have noticed
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  Speaker 1: that the alteration in his circumstances has been in exact
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  Speaker 1: ratio with his altered mental condition. So true is this,
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  Speaker 1: that when a man earnestly applies himself to remedy the
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  Speaker 1: defects in his character and makes swift and marked progress,
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  Speaker 1: he passes rapidly through a succession of vicissitudes. The soul
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  Speaker 1: attracts that which it secretly harbors, that which it loves,
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  Speaker 1: and also that which it fears. It reaches the height
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  Speaker 1: of its cherished aspirations, it falls to the level of
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  Speaker 1: its unchastened desires, and circumstances are the means by which
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  Speaker 1: the soul receives its own. Every thought seed sown or
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  Speaker 1: allowed to fall into the mind and to take root
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  Speaker 1: there produces its own blossoming sooner or later into act
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  Speaker 1: and bearing its own fruitage of opportunity. In circumstance, good
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  Speaker 1: thoughts bear good fruit, bad thoughts bad fruit. The outer
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  Speaker 1: world of circumstance shapes itself to the inner world of thought,
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  Speaker 1: and both pleasant and unpleasant external conditions are factors which
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  Speaker 1: make for the ultimate good of the individual. As the
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  Speaker 1: reaper of his own harvest, man learns both by suffering
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  Speaker 1: and bliss following the inmost desires aspirations, thoughts by which
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  Speaker 1: he allows himself to be dominated, pursuing the willow the
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  Speaker 1: wisps of impure imaginings, or steadfastly walking the highway of
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  Speaker 1: strong in high endeavor, a man at last arrives at
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  Speaker 1: their fruition and fulfillment in the outer conditions of his life.
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  Speaker 1: The law of growth and adjustment everywhere obtains. A man
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  Speaker 1: does not come to the almshouse or the jail by
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  Speaker 1: the tyranny of fate or circumstance, but by the pathway
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  Speaker 1: of groveling thoughts and base desires. Nor does a pure
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  Speaker 1: minded man fall suddenly into crime by stress of any
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  Speaker 1: mere external force. The criminal thought had long been secretly
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  Speaker 1: fostered in the heart, and the hour of opportunity revealed
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  Speaker 1: its gathered power. Circumstance does not make the man, it
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  Speaker 1: reveals him to himself. No such conditions can exist as
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  Speaker 1: descending into vice and its attendant sufferings apart from vicious inclinations,
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  Speaker 1: or ascending into virtue and its pure happiness, without the
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  Speaker 1: continued cultivation of virtuous aspirations. And man, therefore, as the
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  Speaker 1: lord and master of thought, is the maker of himself,
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  Speaker 1: the shaper and author of environment. Even at birth, the
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  Speaker 1: soul comes to its own, and through every step of
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  Speaker 1: its earthly pilgrimage, it attracts those combinations of conditions which
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  Speaker 1: reveal itself, which are the reflections of its own purity,
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  Speaker 1: and in purity, its strength and weakness. Men do not
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  Speaker 1: attract that which they want, but that which they are.
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  Speaker 1: Their whims, fancies, and ambitions are thwarted at every step,
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  Speaker 1: but their inmost thoughts and desires are fed with their
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  Speaker 1: own food, be it foul or clean. That divinity that
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  Speaker 1: shapes our ends is in ourselves. It is our very self,
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  Speaker 1: only himself. Manacles man, thought, and action are the jailers
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  Speaker 1: of fate. They imprison, being base, They are also the
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  Speaker 1: angels of freedom, they liberate, being noble. Not what he
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  Speaker 1: wishes and prays for does a man get, but what
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  Speaker 1: he justly earns. His wishes and prayers are only gratified
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  Speaker 1: and answered when they harmonize with his thoughts and actions.
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  Speaker 1: In the light of this truth, what then, is the
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  Speaker 1: meaning of fighting against circumstances? It means that a man
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  Speaker 1: is continually revolting against an effect without while all the
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  Speaker 1: time he is nourishing and preserving its cause in his heart.
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  Speaker 1: That cause may take the form of a conscious vice
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  Speaker 1: or an unconscious weakness, But whatever it is, it stubbornly
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  Speaker 1: retards the efforts of its possessor, and thus calls aloud
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  Speaker 1: for remedy. Men are anxious to improve their circumstances, but
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  Speaker 1: are unwilling to improve themselves. They therefore remain bound. The
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  Speaker 1: man who does not shrink from self crucifixion can never
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  Speaker 1: fail to accomplish the object upon which his heart is set.
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  Speaker 1: This is as true of earthly as of heavenly things.
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  Speaker 1: Even the man whose sole object is to acquire wealth,
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  Speaker 1: must be prepared to make great personal sacrifices before he
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  Speaker 1: can accomplish his object, and how much more so he
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  Speaker 1: who would realize a strong and well poised life. Here
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  Speaker 1: is a man who is wretchedly poor. He is extremely
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  Speaker 1: anxious that his surroundings and home comforts should be improved,
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  Speaker 1: yet all the time he shirks his work and considers
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  Speaker 1: he is justified in trying to deceive his employer on
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  Speaker 1: the ground of the insufficiency of his wages. Such a
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  Speaker 1: man does not understand the simplest rudiments of those principles
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  Speaker 1: which are the basis of true prosperity, and is not
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  Speaker 1: only totally unfitted to rise out of his wretchedness, but
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  Speaker 1: is actually attracting to himself a still deeper wretchedness by
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  Speaker 1: dwelling in and acting out indolent, deceptive, and unmanly thoughts.
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  Speaker 1: Here is a rich man who is the victim of
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  Speaker 1: a painful and persistent disease as the result of gluttony.
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  Speaker 1: He is willing to give large sums of money to
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  Speaker 1: get rid of it, but he will not sacrifice his
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  Speaker 1: gluttonous desires. He wants to gratify his taste for rich
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  Speaker 1: and unnatural viands and have his health as well. Such
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  Speaker 1: a man is totally unfit to have health because he
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  Speaker 1: has not yet learned the first principles of a healthy life.
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  Speaker 1: Here is an employer of labor who adopts crooked measures
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  Speaker 1: to avoid paying the regulation wage, and in the hope
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  Speaker 1: of making larger profits, reduces the wages of his workpeople.
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  Speaker 1: Such a man is altogether unfitted for prosperity, and when
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  Speaker 1: he finds himself bankrupt, both as regards repay, reputation and riches,
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  Speaker 1: he blames circumstances, not knowing that he is the sole
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  Speaker 1: author of his condition. I have introduced these three cases
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  Speaker 1: merely as illustrative of the truth that man is the causer,
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  Speaker 1: though nearly always is unconsciously of his circumstances, and that
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  Speaker 1: whilst aiming at a good end, he is continually frustrating
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  Speaker 1: its accomplishment by encouraging thoughts and desires which cannot possibly
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  Speaker 1: harmonize with that end. Such cases could be multiplied and
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  Speaker 1: varied almost indefinitely, but this is not necessary, as the
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  Speaker 1: reader can, if he so resolves, trace the action of
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  Speaker 1: the laws of thought in his own mind and life,
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  Speaker 1: and until this is done mere external facts cannot serve
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  Speaker 1: as a ground of reasoning. Circumstances, however, are so complicated.
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  Speaker 1: Thought is so deeply rooted, and the conditions of happiness
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  Speaker 1: very so vastly with individuals that a man's entire sole condition,
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  Speaker 1: although it may be known to himself, cannot be judged
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  Speaker 1: by another from the external aspect of his life alone.
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  Speaker 1: A man may be honest in certain directions yet suffer privations.
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  Speaker 1: A man may be dishonest in certain directions yet acquire wealth.
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  Speaker 1: But the conclusion usually formed that the one man fails
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  Speaker 1: because of his particular honesty and that the other prospers
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  Speaker 1: because of his particular dishonesty underscore is the result of
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  Speaker 1: a superficial judgment, which assumes that the dishonest man is
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  Speaker 1: almost totally corrupt and the honest man almost entirely virtuous.
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  Speaker 1: In the light of a deeper knowledge and wider experience,
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  Speaker 1: such judgment is found to be erroneous. The dishonest man
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  Speaker 1: may have some admirable virtues which the other does not possess,
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  Speaker 1: and the honest man of noxious vices which are absent
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  Speaker 1: in the other. The honest man reaps the good results
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  Speaker 1: of his honest thoughts and acts, he also brings upon
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  Speaker 1: himself the sufferings which his vices produce. The dishonest man,
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  Speaker 1: likewise garners his own suffering and happiness. It is pleasing
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  Speaker 1: to human vanity to believe that one suffers because of
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  Speaker 1: one's virtue. But not until a man has extirpated every sickly,
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  Speaker 1: bitter and impure thought from his mind, and washed every
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  Speaker 1: sinful stain from his soul can he be in a
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  Speaker 1: position to know and declare that his sufferings are the
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  Speaker 1: result of his good and not of his bad qualities.
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  Speaker 1: And on the way to yet, long before he has
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  Speaker 1: reached that supreme perfection, he will have found working in
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  Speaker 1: his mind and life the great law, which is absolutely just,
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  Speaker 1: and which cannot therefore give good for evil evil for good.
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  Speaker 1: Possessed of such knowledge, he will then know, looking back
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  Speaker 1: upon his past ignorance and blindness, that his life is
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  Speaker 1: and always was justly ordered, and that all his past experiences,
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  Speaker 1: good and bad, were the equitable outworking of his evolving,
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  Speaker 1: yet unevolved self. Good thoughts and actions can never produce
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  Speaker 1: bad results. Bad thoughts and actions can never produce good results.
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  Speaker 1: This is but saying that nothing can come from corn,
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  Speaker 1: but corn nothing from nettles but nettles. Men understand this
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  Speaker 1: law in the natural world and work with it, but
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  Speaker 1: few understand it in the mental and moral world, though
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  Speaker 1: its operation there is just as simple and undeviating, and
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  Speaker 1: they therefore do not co operate with it. Suffering is
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  Speaker 1: always the effect of wrong thought. In some direction. It
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  Speaker 1: is an indication that the individual is out of harmony
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  Speaker 1: with himself with the law of his being. The sole
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  Speaker 1: and supreme use of suffering is to purify, to burn
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  Speaker 1: out all that is useless and impure. Suffering ceases for
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  Speaker 1: him who is pure. There could be no object in
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  Speaker 1: burning gold after the draws have been removed, and a
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  Speaker 1: perfectly pure and enlightened being could not suffer. The circumstances
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  Speaker 1: which a man encounters with suffering are the result of
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  Speaker 1: his own mental in harmony. The circumstances which a man
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  Speaker 1: encounters with blessedness are the result of his own mental harmony. Blessedness,
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  Speaker 1: not material possessions, is the measure of right thought. Wretchedness,
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  Speaker 1: not lack of material possessions, is the measure of wrong thought.
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  Speaker 1: A man may be cursed and rich, he may be
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  Speaker 1: blessed and poor. Blessedness and riches are only joined together
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  Speaker 1: when the riches are rightly and wisely used, and the
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  Speaker 1: poor man only descends into wretchedness when he regards his
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  Speaker 1: lot as a burden unjustly imposed. Indigence and indulgence are
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  Speaker 1: the two extremes of wretchedness. They are both equally unnatural
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  Speaker 1: and the result of mental disorder. A man is not
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  Speaker 1: rightly conditioned until he is a happy, healthy, and prosperous being,
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  Speaker 1: and happiness, health, and prosperity are the result of a
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  Speaker 1: harmonious adjustment of the inner with the outer of the
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  Speaker 1: man with his surroundings. A man only begins to be
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  Speaker 1: a man when he ceases to whine and revile and
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  Speaker 1: commences to search for the hidden justice which regulates his life.
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  Speaker 1: And as he adapts his mind to that regulating factor,
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  Speaker 1: he ceases to accuse others as the cause of his
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  Speaker 1: condition and builds himself up in strong and noble thoughts,
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  Speaker 1: ceases to kick against circumstances, but begins to use them
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  Speaker 1: as aids to his more rapid progress and as a
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  Speaker 1: means of discovering the hidden powers and possibilities within himself. Law,
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  Speaker 1: not confusion, is the dominating principle in the universe. Justice,
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  Speaker 1: not in justice, is the soul and substance of life,
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  Speaker 1: and righteousness, not corruption, is the molding and moving force
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  Speaker 1: in the spiritual government of the world. This being so,
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  Speaker 1: man has but to right himself to find that the
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  Speaker 1: universe is right. And during the process of putting himself right,
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  Speaker 1: he will find that as he alters his thoughts towards
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  Speaker 1: things and other people, things and other people will alter
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  Speaker 1: towards him. The proof of this truth is in every person,
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  Speaker 1: and it therefore admits of easy investigation by systematic introspection
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  Speaker 1: in self analysis. Let a man radically alter his thoughts,
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  Speaker 1: and he will be astonished at the rapid transformation it
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  Speaker 1: will effect in the material conditions of his life. Imagine
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  Speaker 1: that thought can be kept secret, but it cannot. It
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  Speaker 1: rapidly crystallizes into habit, and habit solidifies into circumstance. Bestial
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  Speaker 1: thoughts crystallize into habits of drunkenness and sensuality, which solidify
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  Speaker 1: into circumstances of destitution, disease. Impure thoughts of every kind
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  Speaker 1: crystallize into enervating and confusing habits, which solidify into distracting
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  Speaker 1: and adverse circumstances. Thoughts of fear, doubt, and indecision crystallize
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  Speaker 1: into weak, unmanly, and irresolute habits, which solidify into circumstances
• 19:32
  Speaker 1: of failure, indigence, and slavish dependence. Lazy thoughts crystallize into
• 19:37
  Speaker 1: habits of uncleanliness and dishonesty, which solidify into circumstances of
• 19:43
  Speaker 1: foulness and beggary. Hateful and condemnatory thoughts crystallize into habits
• 19:48
  Speaker 1: of accusation and violence, which solidify into circumstances of injury
• 19:52
  Speaker 1: and persecution. Selfish thoughts of all kinds crystallize into habits
• 19:56
  Speaker 1: of self seeking, which solidify into circumstances more or less distressing.
• 20:02
  Speaker 1: On the other hand, beautiful thoughts of all kinds crystallize
• 20:05
  Speaker 1: into habits of grace and kindliness, which solidify into genial
• 20:09
  Speaker 1: and sunny circumstances. Pure thoughts crystallize into habits of temperance
• 20:14
  Speaker 1: and self control, which solidify into circumstances of repose and peace.
• 20:18
  Speaker 1: Thoughts of courage, self reliance, and decision crystallize into manly habits,
• 20:23
  Speaker 1: which solidify into circumstances of success, plenty, and freedom. Energetic
• 20:28
  Speaker 1: thoughts crystallize into habits of cleanliness and industry, which solidify
• 20:33
  Speaker 1: into circumstances of pleasantness. Gentle and forgiving thoughts crystallize into
• 20:38
  Speaker 1: habits of gentleness, which solidify into protective and preservative circumstances.
• 20:43
  Speaker 1: Loving and unselfish thoughts crystallize into habits of self forgetfulness
• 20:47
  Speaker 1: for others, which solidify into circumstances of sure and abiding
• 20:51
  Speaker 1: prosperity and true riches. A particular train of thought persisted in,
• 20:56
  Speaker 1: be it good or bad, cannot fail to produce its
• 20:59
  Speaker 1: results on the character and circumstances. A man cannot directly
• 21:04
  Speaker 1: choose his circumstances, but he can choose his thoughts, and
• 21:07
  Speaker 1: so indirectly yet surely shape his circumstances. Nature helps every
• 21:13
  Speaker 1: man to the gratification of the thoughts which he most encourages,
• 21:17
  Speaker 1: And opportunities are presented which will most speedily bring to
• 21:20
  Speaker 1: the surface both the good and evil thoughts. Let a
• 21:23
  Speaker 1: man cease from his sinful thoughts, and all the world
• 21:26
  Speaker 1: will soften towards him and be ready to help him.
• 21:29
  Speaker 1: Let him put away his weakly and sickly thoughts, and
• 21:32
  Speaker 1: low opportunities will spring up on every hand to aid
• 21:35
  Speaker 1: his strong resolves. Let him encourage good thoughts, and no
• 21:38
  Speaker 1: hard fate shall bind him down to wretchedness and shame.
• 21:42
  Speaker 1: The world is your kaleidoscope, and the varying combinations of
• 21:46
  Speaker 1: colors which at every succeeding moment it presents to you
• 21:49
  Speaker 1: are the exquisitely adjusted pictures of your ever moving thoughts.
• 21:53
  Speaker 1: So you will be what you will to be. Let
• 21:55
  Speaker 1: failure find its false content in that poor word environment.
• 21:59
  Speaker 1: But spirit scorren warns it and is free. It masters time,
• 22:03
  Speaker 1: it conquers space, It cows that boastful trickster chants and
• 22:07
  Speaker 1: bids the tyrant circumstance on crown and fill a servant's place.
• 22:12
  Speaker 1: The human will that force unseen, the offspring of a
• 22:16
  Speaker 1: deathless soul, can hew a way to any goal, though
• 22:19
  Speaker 1: walls of granite intervene. Be not impatient in delays. But
• 22:23
  Speaker 1: wait is one who understands when spirit rises and commands,
• 22:27
  Speaker 1: the gods are ready to obey. James Allen, as a
• 22:30
  Speaker 1: man thinks Part three. Effect of thought on health and body.
• 22:36
  Speaker 1: The body is the servant of the mind. It obeys
• 22:40
  Speaker 1: the operations of the mind, whether they be deliberately chosen
• 22:43
  Speaker 1: or automatically expressed. At the bidding of unlawful thoughts, the
• 22:47
  Speaker 1: body sinks rapidly into disease and decay. At the command
• 22:51
  Speaker 1: of glad and beautiful thoughts, it becomes clothed with youthfulness
• 22:54
  Speaker 1: and beauty. Disease and health like circumstances are rooted in thought.
• 23:00
  Speaker 1: Sickly thoughts will express themselves through a sickly body. Thoughts
• 23:05
  Speaker 1: of fear have been known to kill a man as
• 23:07
  Speaker 1: speedily as a bullet, and they are continually killing thousands
• 23:10
  Speaker 1: of people just as surely, though less rapidly. The people
• 23:14
  Speaker 1: who live in fear of disease are the people who
• 23:16
  Speaker 1: get it. Anxiety quickly demoralizes the whole body and lays
• 23:21
  Speaker 1: it open to the entrance of disease, while impure thoughts,
• 23:24
  Speaker 1: even if not physically indulged, will soon shatter the nervous system. Strong,
• 23:30
  Speaker 1: pure and happy thoughts build up the body in vigor
• 23:33
  Speaker 1: and grace. The body is a delicate and plastic instrument
• 23:37
  Speaker 1: which responds readily to the thoughts by which it is impressed,
• 23:41
  Speaker 1: and habits of thought will produce their own effects, good
• 23:44
  Speaker 1: or bad, upon it. Men will continue to have impure
• 23:48
  Speaker 1: and poisoned blood so long as they propagate unclean thoughts.
• 23:52
  Speaker 1: Out of a clean heart comes a clean life and
• 23:54
  Speaker 1: a clean body. Out of a defiled mind proceeds a
• 23:58
  Speaker 1: defiled life, and a corrupt thought is the fount of action.
• 24:03
  Speaker 1: Life and manifestation. Make the fountain pure, and all will
• 24:06
  Speaker 1: be pure. Change of diet will not help a man
• 24:10
  Speaker 1: who will not change his thoughts. When a man makes
• 24:13
  Speaker 1: his thoughts pure, he no longer desires impure food. Clean thoughts,
• 24:18
  Speaker 1: make clean habits. The so called saint who does not
• 24:22
  Speaker 1: wash his body is not a saint. He who has
• 24:25
  Speaker 1: strengthened and purified his thoughts does not need to consider
• 24:28
  Speaker 1: the malevolent microbe. If you would protect your body, guard
• 24:32
  Speaker 1: your mind, if you would renew your body, beautify your mind.
• 24:37
  Speaker 1: Thoughts of malice, envy, disappointment, despondency rob the body of
• 24:42
  Speaker 1: its health and grace. A sour face does not come
• 24:46
  Speaker 1: by chance. It is made by sour thoughts. Wrinkles that
• 24:50
  Speaker 1: mar are drawn by folly, passion, and pride. I know
• 24:54
  Speaker 1: a woman of ninety six who has the bright, innocent
• 24:57
  Speaker 1: face of a girl. I know a man well under
• 25:00
  Speaker 1: middle age whose face is drawn into inharmonious contours. The
• 25:05
  Speaker 1: one is the result of a sweet and sunny disposition.
• 25:08
  Speaker 1: The other is the outcome of passion and discontent. As
• 25:12
  Speaker 1: you cannot have a sweet and wholesome abode unless you
• 25:14
  Speaker 1: admit the air and sunshine freely into your rooms. So
• 25:17
  Speaker 1: a strong body and a bright, happy, or serene countenance
• 25:21
  Speaker 1: can only result from the free admittance into the mind
• 25:24
  Speaker 1: of thoughts of joy and good will and serenity. On
• 25:27
  Speaker 1: the faces of the aged, there are wrinkles made by sympathy,
• 25:30
  Speaker 1: others by strong and pure thought, and others are carved
• 25:33
  Speaker 1: by passion. Who cannot distinguish them with those who have
• 25:37
  Speaker 1: lived righteously. Age is calm, peaceful, and softly mellowed, like
• 25:42
  Speaker 1: the setting sun. I have recently seen a philosopher on
• 25:46
  Speaker 1: his deathbed. He was not old except in years. He
• 25:50
  Speaker 1: died as sweetly and peacefully as he had lived. There
• 25:54
  Speaker 1: is no physician like cheerful thought for dissipating the ills
• 25:57
  Speaker 1: of the body. There is no comforter to compare with
• 26:00
  Speaker 1: goodwill for dispersing the shadows of grief and sorrow. To
• 26:04
  Speaker 1: live continually in thoughts of ill will, cynicism, suspicion, and
• 26:08
  Speaker 1: envy is to be confined in a self made prisonhole.
• 26:12
  Speaker 1: But to think well of all, to be cheerful withal,
• 26:15
  Speaker 1: to patiently learn to find the good in all. Such
• 26:17
  Speaker 1: unselfish thoughts are the very portals of heaven. And to
• 26:20
  Speaker 1: dwell day by day in thoughts of peace toward every
• 26:23
  Speaker 1: creature will bring a bounding peace to their possessor. James Allen,
• 26:28
  Speaker 1: as a man thinks Part four, thought and purpose. Until
• 26:33
  Speaker 1: thought is linked with purpose, there is no intelligent accomplishment.
• 26:37
  Speaker 1: With the majority, the bark of thought is allowed to
• 26:40
  Speaker 1: drift upon the ocean of life. Aimlessness is a vice,
• 26:45
  Speaker 1: and such drifting must not continue for him who would
• 26:47
  Speaker 1: steer clear of catastrophe and destruction. They who have no
• 26:51
  Speaker 1: central purpose in their life fall an easy prey to
• 26:54
  Speaker 1: petty worries, fears, troubles, and self pityings, all of which
• 26:58
  Speaker 1: are indications of weakness, which lead just as surely as
• 27:02
  Speaker 1: deliberately planned sins, though by a different route to failure.
• 27:06
  Speaker 1: Unhappiness and loss, for weakness cannot persist in a power
• 27:10
  Speaker 1: evolving universe. A man should conceive of a legitimate purpose
• 27:14
  Speaker 1: in his heart and set out to accomplish it. He
• 27:18
  Speaker 1: should make this purpose the centralizing point of his thoughts.
• 27:22
  Speaker 1: It may take the form of a spiritual ideal, or
• 27:24
  Speaker 1: it may be a worldly object according to his nature
• 27:27
  Speaker 1: at the time being. But whichever it is, he should
• 27:30
  Speaker 1: steadily focus his thought forces upon the object which he
• 27:33
  Speaker 1: has set before him. He should make this purpose his
• 27:37
  Speaker 1: supreme duty, and should devote himself to its attainment, not
• 27:40
  Speaker 1: allowing his thoughts to wander away into ephemeral fancies, longings,
• 27:44
  Speaker 1: and imaginings. This is the royal road to self control
• 27:48
  Speaker 1: and true concentration of thought. Even if he fails again
• 27:52
  Speaker 1: and again to accomplish his purpose, as he necessarily must,
• 27:56
  Speaker 1: until weakness is overcome, the strength of character gained will
• 27:59
  Speaker 1: be the man measure of his true success, and this
• 28:01
  Speaker 1: will form a new starting point for future power and triumph.
• 28:06
  Speaker 1: Those who are not prepared for the apprehension of a
• 28:08
  Speaker 1: great purpose should fix the thoughts upon the faultless performance
• 28:11
  Speaker 1: of their duty, no matter how insignificant their task may appear.
• 28:16
  Speaker 1: Only in this way can the thoughts be gathered and focused,
• 28:19
  Speaker 1: and resolution and energy be developed. Which being done, there
• 28:22
  Speaker 1: is nothing which may not be accomplished. The weakest soul,
• 28:27
  Speaker 1: knowing its own weakness, and believing this truth that strength
• 28:30
  Speaker 1: can only be developed by effort and practice, will thus
• 28:33
  Speaker 1: believing at once begin to exert itself, and adding effort
• 28:37
  Speaker 1: to effort, patience to patience and strength to strength, will
• 28:41
  Speaker 1: never cease to develop, and will at last grow divinely strong.
• 28:46
  Speaker 1: As the physically weak man can make himself strong by
• 28:48
  Speaker 1: careful and patient training, so the man of weak thoughts
• 28:51
  Speaker 1: can make them strong by exercising himself in right thinking.
• 28:56
  Speaker 1: To put away aimlessness and weakness, and to begin to
• 28:59
  Speaker 1: think with purpose is to enter the ranks of those
• 29:01
  Speaker 1: strong ones who only recognize failure as one of the
• 29:04
  Speaker 1: pathways to attainment, who make all conditions serve them, and
• 29:07
  Speaker 1: who think strongly, attempt fearlessly, and accomplish masterfully. Having conceived
• 29:13
  Speaker 1: of his purpose, a man should mentally mark out a
• 29:16
  Speaker 1: straight pathway to its achievement, looking neither to the right
• 29:19
  Speaker 1: nor the left. Doubts and fears should be rigorously excluded.
• 29:23
  Speaker 1: They are disintegrating elements which break up the straight line
• 29:27
  Speaker 1: of effort, rendering it crooked, ineffectual. Useless thoughts of doubt
• 29:32
  Speaker 1: and fear never accomplished anything, and never can. They always
• 29:36
  Speaker 1: lead to failure, purpose, energy, power to do, and all
• 29:41
  Speaker 1: strong thoughts cease when doubt and fear creep in the
• 29:45
  Speaker 1: will to do springs from the knowledge that we can do.
• 29:48
  Speaker 1: Doubt and fear are the great enemies of knowledge, and
• 29:51
  Speaker 1: he who encourages them, who does not slay them, forwarts
• 29:55
  Speaker 1: himself at every step. He who has conquered doubt and
• 29:59
  Speaker 1: fear conquered failure. His every thought is allied with power,
• 30:04
  Speaker 1: and all difficulties are bravely met and wisely overcome. His
• 30:09
  Speaker 1: purposes are seasonably planted, and they bloom and bring forth
• 30:12
  Speaker 1: fruit which does not fall prematurely to the ground. Thought
• 30:16
  Speaker 1: allied fearlessly to purpose becomes creative force. He who knows
• 30:20
  Speaker 1: this is ready to become something higher and stronger than
• 30:23
  Speaker 1: a mere bundle of wavering thoughts and fluctuating sensations. He
• 30:27
  Speaker 1: who does this has become the conscious and intelligent wielder
• 30:30
  Speaker 1: of his mental powers. James Allen, As a man thinks,
• 30:35
  Speaker 1: Part five The thought factor in achievement. All that a
• 30:39
  Speaker 1: man achieves and all that he fails to achieve, is
• 30:41
  Speaker 1: the direct result of his own thoughts. In a justly
• 30:45
  Speaker 1: ordered universe, where loss of equipoise would mean total destruction,
• 30:49
  Speaker 1: individual responsibility must be absolute. A man's weakness and strength, purity,
• 30:55
  Speaker 1: and impurity are his own and not another man's. They
• 30:58
  Speaker 1: are brought about by himself and not by another, and
• 31:01
  Speaker 1: they can only be altered by himself, never by another.
• 31:05
  Speaker 1: His condition is also his own and not another man's.
• 31:10
  Speaker 1: His suffering and his happiness are evolved from within. As
• 31:14
  Speaker 1: he thinks, so he is as he continues to think,
• 31:17
  Speaker 1: so he remains. A strong man cannot help a weaker
• 31:21
  Speaker 1: unless that weaker is willing to be helped. And even
• 31:23
  Speaker 1: then the weak man must become strong of himself. He must,
• 31:27
  Speaker 1: by his own efforts, develop the strength which he admires
• 31:30
  Speaker 1: in another. None but himself can alter his condition. It
• 31:35
  Speaker 1: has been usual for men to think and to say,
• 31:37
  Speaker 1: many men are slaves because one is an oppressor, let
• 31:41
  Speaker 1: us hate the oppressor. Now, however, there is, amongst an
• 31:45
  Speaker 1: increasing few, a tendency to reverse this judgment, and to say,
• 31:49
  Speaker 1: one man is an oppressor because many are slaves, let
• 31:52
  Speaker 1: us despise the slaves. The truth is that oppressor and
• 31:56
  Speaker 1: slave are co operators in ignorance, and while seeming to
• 31:59
  Speaker 1: afflict each other or in reality afflicting themselves. A perfect
• 32:04
  Speaker 1: knowledge perceives the action of law and the weakness of
• 32:07
  Speaker 1: the oppressed and the misapplied power of the oppressor. A
• 32:10
  Speaker 1: perfect love, seeing the suffering which both states entail, condemns neither.
• 32:15
  Speaker 1: A perfect compassion embraces both oppressor and oppressed. He who
• 32:19
  Speaker 1: has conquered weakness and has put away all selfish thoughts
• 32:23
  Speaker 1: belongs neither to oppressor nor oppressed. He is free. A
• 32:28
  Speaker 1: man can only rise, conquer, and achieve by lifting up
• 32:32
  Speaker 1: his thoughts. He can only remain weak and abject and
• 32:36
  Speaker 1: miserable by refusing to lift up his thoughts. Before a
• 32:40
  Speaker 1: man can achieve anything, even in worldly things, he must
• 32:44
  Speaker 1: lift his thoughts above slavish animal indulgence. He may not,
• 32:48
  Speaker 1: in order to succeed, give up all animality in selfishness
• 32:52
  Speaker 1: by any means, but a portion of it must at
• 32:55
  Speaker 1: least be sacrificed. A man whose first thought is bestial
• 32:59
  Speaker 1: and due ulgence could neither think clearly nor plan methodically.
• 33:03
  Speaker 1: He could not find and develop his latent resources, and
• 33:06
  Speaker 1: would fail in any undertaking. Not having commenced to manfully
• 33:10
  Speaker 1: control his thoughts, he is not in a position to
• 33:13
  Speaker 1: control affairs and to adopt serious responsibilities. He is not
• 33:18
  Speaker 1: fit to act independently and stand alone. But he is
• 33:21
  Speaker 1: limited only by the thoughts which he chooses. There can
• 33:25
  Speaker 1: be no progress, no achievement without sacrifice, and a man's
• 33:29
  Speaker 1: worldly success will be in the measure that he sacrifices
• 33:32
  Speaker 1: his confused animal thoughts and fixes his mind on the
• 33:36
  Speaker 1: development of his plans and the strengthening of his resolution
• 33:39
  Speaker 1: and self reliance. And the higher he lifts his thoughts,
• 33:43
  Speaker 1: the more manly, upright, and righteous he becomes. The greater
• 33:47
  Speaker 1: will be his success, the more blessed and enduring will
• 33:50
  Speaker 1: be his achievements. The universe does not favor the greedy,
• 33:54
  Speaker 1: the dishonest, the vicious, although on the mere surface it
• 33:57
  Speaker 1: may sometimes appear to do so. It helps the honest,
• 34:00
  Speaker 1: the magnanimous, the virtuous. All the great teachers of the
• 34:04
  Speaker 1: ages have declared this in varying forms, and to prove
• 34:08
  Speaker 1: and know it, a man has but to persist in
• 34:10
  Speaker 1: making himself more and more virtuous by lifting up his thoughts.
• 34:14
  Speaker 1: Intellectual achievements are the result of thought consecrated to the
• 34:18
  Speaker 1: search for knowledge or for the beautiful and true in
• 34:20
  Speaker 1: life and nature. Such achievements may be sometimes connected with
• 34:25
  Speaker 1: vanity and ambition, but they are not the outcome of
• 34:28
  Speaker 1: those characteristics. They are the natural outgrowth of long and
• 34:31
  Speaker 1: arduous effort and of pure and unselfish thoughts. Spiritual achievements
• 34:36
  Speaker 1: are the consummation of holy aspirations. He who lives constantly
• 34:41
  Speaker 1: in the conception of noble and lofty thoughts, who dwells
• 34:44
  Speaker 1: upon all that is pure and unselfish, will, as surely
• 34:47
  Speaker 1: as the sun reaches its zenith and the moon its
• 34:50
  Speaker 1: full become wise and noble in character, and rise into
• 34:53
  Speaker 1: a position of influence and blessedness. Achievement of whatever kind
• 34:58
  Speaker 1: is the crown of effort, the diadem of thought. By
• 35:02
  Speaker 1: the aid of self control, resolution, purity, righteousness, and well
• 35:07
  Speaker 1: directed thought, a man ascends by the aid of animality, indolence, impurity, corruption,
• 35:12
  Speaker 1: and confusion of thought, a man descends. A man may
• 35:16
  Speaker 1: rise to high success in the world, and even to
• 35:19
  Speaker 1: lofty altitudes in the spiritual realm, and again descend into
• 35:22
  Speaker 1: weakness and wretchedness by allowing arrogant, selfish, and corrupt thoughts
• 35:26
  Speaker 1: to take possession of him. Victories attained by right thought
• 35:30
  Speaker 1: can only be maintained by watchfulness. Many give way when
• 35:35
  Speaker 1: success is assured, and rapidly fall back into failure. All achievements,
• 35:40
  Speaker 1: whether in the business, intellectual or spiritual world, are the
• 35:44
  Speaker 1: result of definitely directed thought, are governed by the same law,
• 35:47
  Speaker 1: and are of the same method. The only difference lies
• 35:50
  Speaker 1: in the object of attainment. He who would accomplish little
• 35:54
  Speaker 1: must sacrifice little. He who would achieve much must sacrifice much.
• 35:58
  Speaker 1: He who would attain highly must sink sacrifice greatly. James Allen,
• 36:03
  Speaker 1: As a man thinks Part six, Visions and Ideals, The
• 36:08
  Speaker 1: dreamers are the saviors of the world. As the visible
• 36:12
  Speaker 1: world is sustained by the invisible, So men, through all
• 36:15
  Speaker 1: their trials and sins and sordid vocations, are nourished by
• 36:19
  Speaker 1: the beautiful visions of their solitary dreamers. Humanity cannot forget
• 36:24
  Speaker 1: its dreamers. It cannot let their ideals fade and die.
• 36:27
  Speaker 1: It lives in them. It knows them as they realities
• 36:30
  Speaker 1: which it shall one day see and know. Composer, sculptor, painter, poet, prophet, sage.
• 36:37
  Speaker 1: These are the makers of the afterworld, the architects of heaven.
• 36:41
  Speaker 1: The world is beautiful because they have lived. Without them, laboring,
• 36:45
  Speaker 1: humanity would perish. He who cherishes a beautiful vision, a
• 36:49
  Speaker 1: lofty ideal in his heart will one day realize it.
• 36:53
  Speaker 1: Columbus cherished a vision of another world, and he discovered it.
• 36:57
  Speaker 1: Copernicus fostered the vision of a multiplace city of worlds
• 37:00
  Speaker 1: and a wider universe, and he revealed it. Buddha beheld
• 37:04
  Speaker 1: the vision of a spiritual world of stainless beauty and
• 37:07
  Speaker 1: perfect peace, and he entered into it. Cherish your visions,
• 37:11
  Speaker 1: Cherish your ideals, Cherish the music that stirs in your heart,
• 37:15
  Speaker 1: the beauty that forms in your mind, the loveliness that
• 37:18
  Speaker 1: drapes your purest thoughts. For out of them will grow
• 37:21
  Speaker 1: all delightful conditions, all heavenly environment. Of these, if you
• 37:25
  Speaker 1: but remain true to them, your world will at last
• 37:28
  Speaker 1: be built. To desire is to obtain. To aspire is
• 37:32
  Speaker 1: to achieve. Shall man's basest desires receive the fullest measure
• 37:37
  Speaker 1: of gratification, and his purest aspiration starve for lack of sustenance?
• 37:42
  Speaker 1: Such is not the law. Such a condition of things
• 37:45
  Speaker 1: can never obtain. Ask and receive, dream lofty dreams, And
• 37:50
  Speaker 1: as you dream, so shall you become. Your vision is
• 37:54
  Speaker 1: the promise of what you shall one day be. Your
• 37:56
  Speaker 1: ideal is the prophecy of what you shall at last unveil.
• 38:00
  Speaker 1: The greatest achievement was at first and for a time
• 38:03
  Speaker 1: a dream. The oak sleeps in the acorn, the bird
• 38:07
  Speaker 1: waits in the egg, and in the highest vision of
• 38:09
  Speaker 1: the soul, a waking angel stirs. Dreams are the seedlings
• 38:13
  Speaker 1: of realities. Your circumstances may be uncongenial, but they shall
• 38:18
  Speaker 1: not long remain so. If you but perceive an ideal
• 38:21
  Speaker 1: and strive to reach it, you cannot travel within and
• 38:24
  Speaker 1: stand still without. Here is a youth hard pressed by
• 38:28
  Speaker 1: poverty and labor, confined long hours in an unhealthy workshop,
• 38:32
  Speaker 1: unschooled and lacking all the arts of refinement. But he
• 38:36
  Speaker 1: dreams of better things. He thinks of intelligence, of refinement,
• 38:41
  Speaker 1: of grace and beauty. He conceives of mentally builds up
• 38:45
  Speaker 1: an ideal condition of life. The vision of a wider
• 38:48
  Speaker 1: liberty and a larger scope takes possession of him, unrest
• 38:52
  Speaker 1: urges him to action, and he utilizes all his spare
• 38:55
  Speaker 1: time and means, small though they are, to the development
• 38:58
  Speaker 1: of his latent powers and resources. Very soon, so altered
• 39:02
  Speaker 1: has his mind become that the workshop garment is cast aside,
• 39:06
  Speaker 1: and with the growth of opportunities which fit the scope
• 39:09
  Speaker 1: of his expanding powers, he passes out of it forever.
• 39:13
  Speaker 1: Years later, we see this youth as a full grown man.
• 39:17
  Speaker 1: We find him a master of certain forces of the mind,
• 39:20
  Speaker 1: which he wields with world wide influence and almost unequal power.
• 39:24
  Speaker 1: In his hands, he holds the chords of gigantic responsibilities.
• 39:28
  Speaker 1: He speaks, and lo lives are changed. Men and women
• 39:31
  Speaker 1: hang upon his words and remold their characters and sunlike
• 39:36
  Speaker 1: he becomes the fixed and luminous center round which innumerable
• 39:39
  Speaker 1: destinies revolve. He has realized the vision of his youth.
• 39:44
  Speaker 1: He has become one with his ideal. And you, too,
• 39:48
  Speaker 1: youthful reader, will realize the vision, not the idle wish
• 39:52
  Speaker 1: of your heart, be it base or beautiful, or a
• 39:55
  Speaker 1: mixture of both. For you will always gravitate toward that
• 39:58
  Speaker 1: which you secretly most lof. Into your hands will be
• 40:02
  Speaker 1: placed the exact results of your own thoughts. You will
• 40:05
  Speaker 1: receive that which you earn, no more, no less. Whatever
• 40:09
  Speaker 1: your present environment may be, you will fall, remain, or
• 40:13
  Speaker 1: rise with your thoughts, your vision, your ideal. You will
• 40:17
  Speaker 1: become as small as your controlling desire, as great as
• 40:20
  Speaker 1: your dominant aspiration. In the beautiful words of Stanton Kirkham Davis.
• 40:24
  Speaker 1: You may be keeping accounts, and presently you shall walk
• 40:27
  Speaker 1: out of the door that for so long has seemed
• 40:29
  Speaker 1: to you the barrier of your ideals, and shall find
• 40:32
  Speaker 1: yourself before an audience, the pen still behind your ear,
• 40:35
  Speaker 1: the ink stains on your fingers, And then and there
• 40:37
  Speaker 1: shall pour out the torrent of your inspiration. You may
• 40:41
  Speaker 1: be driving sheep, and you shall wander to the city,
• 40:43
  Speaker 1: bucolic and open mouthed, shall wander under the intrepid guidance
• 40:47
  Speaker 1: of the spirit, into the studio of the Master. And
• 40:50
  Speaker 1: after a time he shall say, I have nothing more
• 40:52
  Speaker 1: to teach you. And now you have become the master
• 40:56
  Speaker 1: who did so recently dream of great things while driving sheep.
• 41:00
  Speaker 1: You shall lay down the saw and the plain to
• 41:02
  Speaker 1: take upon yourself the regeneration of the world. The thoughtless,
• 41:07
  Speaker 1: the ignorant, and the indolent, seeing only the apparent effects
• 41:10
  Speaker 1: of things, and not the things themselves, talk of luck,
• 41:13
  Speaker 1: of fortune and chance. Seeing a man grow rich, they
• 41:18
  Speaker 1: say how lucky he is. Observing another become intellectual, they
• 41:23
  Speaker 1: exclaim how highly favored he is, And noting the saintly
• 41:28
  Speaker 1: character and wide influence of another, they remark how chance
• 41:31
  Speaker 1: aids him at every turn. They do not see the
• 41:35
  Speaker 1: trials and failures and struggles which these men have voluntarily
• 41:38
  Speaker 1: encountered in order to gain their experience. Have no knowledge
• 41:41
  Speaker 1: of the sacrifices they have made, of the undaunted efforts
• 41:45
  Speaker 1: they have put forth, of the faith they have exercised
• 41:48
  Speaker 1: that they might overcome the apparently insurmountable and realize the
• 41:51
  Speaker 1: vision of their heart. They do not know the darkness
• 41:55
  Speaker 1: and the heartaches. They only see the light and joy,
• 41:58
  Speaker 1: and call it luck. They do not see the long
• 42:01
  Speaker 1: and arduous journey, but only behold the pleasant goal and
• 42:04
  Speaker 1: call it good fortune. Do not understand the process, but
• 42:08
  Speaker 1: only perceive the result, and call it chance. In all
• 42:12
  Speaker 1: human affairs, there are efforts and there are results, And
• 42:15
  Speaker 1: the strength of the effort is the measure of the result.
• 42:19
  Speaker 1: Chance is not gifts. Powers, material, intellectual, and spiritual possessions
• 42:25
  Speaker 1: are the fruits of effort. They are thoughts, completed, objects, accomplished,
• 42:29
  Speaker 1: visions realized. The vision that you glorify in your mind,
• 42:34
  Speaker 1: the ideal that you enthrone in your heart. This you
• 42:36
  Speaker 1: will build your life. By this you will become James Allen,
• 42:41
  Speaker 1: as a man thinks, Part seven serenity. Calmness of mind
• 42:46
  Speaker 1: is one of the beautiful jewels of wisdom. It is
• 42:50
  Speaker 1: the result of long and patient effort in self control.
• 42:54
  Speaker 1: Its presence is an indication of ripened experience and of
• 42:57
  Speaker 1: a more than ordinary knowledge of the laws and alle
• 43:00
  Speaker 1: operations of thought. A man becomes calm in the measure
• 43:03
  Speaker 1: that he understands himself as a thought evolved being, For
• 43:06
  Speaker 1: such knowledge necessitates the understanding of others as the result
• 43:10
  Speaker 1: of thought. And as he develops a right understanding and
• 43:13
  Speaker 1: sees more and more clearly the internal relations of things
• 43:16
  Speaker 1: by the action of cause and effect, he ceases to
• 43:18
  Speaker 1: fuss and fume, and worry and grieve, and remains poised, steadfast, serene.
• 43:24
  Speaker 1: The calm man, having learned how to govern himself, knows
• 43:28
  Speaker 1: how to adapt himself to others, and they, in turn
• 43:31
  Speaker 1: reverence his spiritual strength and feel that they can learn
• 43:34
  Speaker 1: of him and rely upon him. The more tranquil a
• 43:38
  Speaker 1: man becomes, the greater is his success, his influence, his
• 43:41
  Speaker 1: power for good. Even the ordinary traitor will find his
• 43:45
  Speaker 1: business prosperity increase as he develops a greater self control
• 43:49
  Speaker 1: and equanimity, for people will always prefer to deal with
• 43:52
  Speaker 1: a man whose demeanor is strongly equable. The strong, calm
• 43:56
  Speaker 1: man is always loved and revered. He is like a
• 44:00
  Speaker 1: shade giving tree in a thirsty land, or a sheltering
• 44:03
  Speaker 1: rock in a storm. Who does not love a tranquil heart,
• 44:07
  Speaker 1: a sweet, tempered, balanced life. It does not matter whether
• 44:11
  Speaker 1: it rains or shines, or what changes come to those
• 44:14
  Speaker 1: possessing these blessings, for they are always sweet, serene, and calm.
• 44:19
  Speaker 1: That exquisite poise of character, which we call serenity, is
• 44:23
  Speaker 1: the last lesson of culture, the fruitage of the soul.
• 44:26
  Speaker 1: It is precious as wisdom, more to be desired than gold,
• 44:30
  Speaker 1: yea than even fine gold. How insignificant mere money seeking
• 44:34
  Speaker 1: looks in comparison with a serene life, a life that
• 44:37
  Speaker 1: dwells in the ocean of truth, beneath the waves, beyond
• 44:41
  Speaker 1: the reach of tempests, in the eternal calm. How many
• 44:45
  Speaker 1: people we know who sour their lives, who ruin all
• 44:48
  Speaker 1: that is sweet and beautiful by explosive tempers, who destroy
• 44:51
  Speaker 1: their poise of character and make bad blood. It is
• 44:55
  Speaker 1: a question whether the great majority of people do not
• 44:58
  Speaker 1: ruin their lives and mar their happiness by lack of
• 45:00
  Speaker 1: self control. How few people we meet in life who
• 45:04
  Speaker 1: are well balanced, who have that exquisite poise which is
• 45:07
  Speaker 1: characteristic of the finished character. Yes, humanity surges with uncontrolled passion,
• 45:13
  Speaker 1: is tumultuous with ungoverned grief, is blown about by anxiety
• 45:17
  Speaker 1: in doubt. Only the wise man, only he whose thoughts
• 45:20
  Speaker 1: are controlled and purified, makes the winds and the storms
• 45:24
  Speaker 1: of the soul obey him. Tempest tossed souls. Wherever ye
• 45:28
  Speaker 1: may be, under whatsoever conditions ye may live, know this.
• 45:31
  Speaker 1: In the ocean of life, the isles of blessedness are smiling,
• 45:35
  Speaker 1: and the sunny shore of your ideal awaits your coming.
• 45:38
  Speaker 1: Keep your hand firmly upon the helm of thought. In
• 45:41
  Speaker 1: the bark of your soul reclines the commanding master. He
• 45:45
  Speaker 1: does but sleep, wake him self. Control is strength, Right
• 45:49
  Speaker 1: thought is mastery. Calmness is power. Say unto your heart, peace,
• 45:55
  Speaker 1: be still,