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