As A Man
Thinketh
by James Allen
Rewritten and
translated into more modern terms
A
mind is like a garden, which may be cultivated or allowed to grow wild; but whether
cultivated or neglected, it must, and will, produce
something. If no useful seeds are planted,
then an abundance of useless weed seeds will fall into it, and you will have an unproductive crop.
Just
as a gardener cultivates his plot, keeping it free from weeds, and growing the
flowers and fruits that he wants, we may tend the garden of our mind, weeding
out all the wrong, useless, and impure thoughts, and cultivating the flowers
and fruits of right, useful, and pure thoughts.
By pursuing this process, we sooner or later
discover that we are the master gardener of the soul, the director of life.
This also reveals how thought forces and mind factors operate in the shaping of
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 the inner state. This does not mean that our
circumstances at any given time are an indication of our entire character, but those current circumstances are so intimately
connected with some vital thought element that, for the time being, they are
indispensable to our development.
The laws of thought govern our very existence.
Thoughts that we have built into our character have brought us to where we are
today. And in the arrangement of life there is no such things as chance, but
every event in our lives is the result of a law that cannot error. It never
makes a mistake. It doesn’t matter whether you feel "out of harmony"
with your surroundings or if you are contented with them. You are responsible.
As
progressive and evolving beings, we are here to learn the spiritual lesson from
all circumstances. And as we discover them, they pass away and give place to
other circumstances.
We
are knocked about by circumstances so long as we believe we are creatures of
outside conditions. And when we realize that we may command the hidden soil and
seeds of our being (out of which circumstances grow), we then become the
rightful master of our world.
Circumstances grow out of thought. If we practice self-control and
self-purification, we will notice that the alteration in our circumstances have
been in exact ratio with our altered mental condition. When we earnestly apply
ourselves to remedy defects in our character, we make swift progress and pass
rapidly through a succession of vicissitudes. (Sudden change from one
circumstance to another, and another)
The soul attracts that which it secretly
holds on to; that which it loves, and also that which it fears. It reaches the
height of its cherished dreams. It falls to the level of its carnal desires -
and circumstances are the means by which the soul receives knowledge.
Every thought allowed to remain in the mind will take root there. These thoughts will eventually blossom into acts that will produce the fruit 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 that make for the ultimate good of the individual. As
the reaper of our own harvest, we learn as much from suffering as we do from
bliss.
A person does not end up in prison by fate
or circumstance, but by continued negative and immoral thoughts. Nor do the
pure-minded fall into crime by stress or external force; the criminal thought
had long been in mind, and at the hour of opportunity, materialized.
Circumstance does not make us; it shows us
our true selves. Even at birth the soul knows everything, and through every
step of its earthly journey it attracts conditions it desires. All conditions
are the reflections of our own purity and impurity, strength and weakness.
We do not attract that which we want, but that which we are. Our whims, fancies, and ambitions
are thwarted at every step, but our inmost thoughts and desires will
materialize, whether good or bad. The "divinity that shapes our
ends" is in ourselves; it is our very self.
Only our thoughts can truly shackle us.
Thought and action are the jailers of Fate - they imprison. They are also the
angels of Freedom - they liberate. We get what we justly earn, no more no less.
Our wishes and prayers are only gratified and answered when they harmonize with
our thoughts and actions.
So what does "fighting against
circumstances,” mean? It means that we are constantly fighting things we do not
want, while all the time, nourishing and preserving them in our hearts. It may
be 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.
We long to improve our circumstances, but are
unwilling to improve our selves. We therefore remain bound. We must stop destroying ourselvevs, to accomplish our heart’s desire. This is as true of earthly
as of heavenly things. We must make great personal sacrifices before we can
accomplish great wealth; and even more so, to have a strong and well-poised
life.
Here is a man who is wretchedly poor. He is
extremely anxious that his surroundings and home comforts improve. Yet all the
time he shirks his work, and considers he is justified in trying to deceive his
employer on the grounds of the low wages. Such a man does not understand the
simplest of principles that are the basis of true prosperity. He 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, lazy,
deceptive, and negative 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 foods 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 who cheats to avoid
paying a proper wage, and, in the hope of making larger profits, reduces the
wages of his work force. Such a man is unfit 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 we are the cause (though nearly always
unconsciously) of our circumstances. That, while striving for good things, we
are continually frustrating our accomplishment by encouraging thoughts and
desires, which cannot possibly harmonize with what, we want. I could show you
thousands of similar cases, but this is not necessary. Until you trace the action
of the laws of thought in your own mind and life, you will not grasp this type
of reasoning.
Circumstances are so complicated; thought is
so deeply rooted, that conditions of happiness vary widely. Therefore, we
cannot judge another person just by looking at their external conditions.
A man may be honest in certain directions,
yet dishonest in others. A woman may be dishonest in certain directions, yet
acquire wealth. But the conclusion usually formed that the one person fails because of honesty, and that the other
prospers because of dishonesty, is
the result of a superficial judgment. This assumes that the dishonest are
almost totally corrupt, and honest, almost entirely virtuous. In the light of a
deeper knowledge and wider experience, such judgment is found to be wrong. The
dishonest may have some admirable virtues, which the other does not possess;
and the honest may have obnoxious vices that are absent in the other.
Honest
people reap good results, due to honest thoughts and acts; their vices are the
cause of their suffering. The dishonest likewise bring about their agony and
happiness.
It is pleasing to human vanity to believe
that one suffers because of one's virtue. Unless you have gotten rid of
every sick, bitter, and impure thought from your mind, and washed every sinful
stain from your soul, you can’t be in a position to know and declare that your
sufferings are the result of your good, and not of your bad qualities. The
one Great Law is absolutely just, and cannot give good for evil, evil for good.
If you will, look back on your past ignorance and blindness, you will see that
this life is, and always was, justly ordered, and that all past experiences,
good and bad, were the outworking of your evolving, yet un-evolved self. It is simply that and nothing more.
Good thoughts and actions can never produce
bad results. Bad thoughts and actions can never produce good results. Nothing
can come from corn but corn, nothing from weeds but weeds. We 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).
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. Suffering purifies, and burns all that is useless and impure from our lives. Those that are "pure" do not experience misery and distress for long. There is no reason in throwing
away the trash barrel with the trash, and likewise, a perfectly pure and
enlightened being cannot suffer.
Suffering is the direct result of our own
mental disharmony. 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.
Destitution and over-indulgence are the two
extremes of wretchedness. They are both equally unnatural and the result of
mental disorder. We are not properly conditioned until we are happy, healthy,
and prosperous. And happiness, health, and prosperity are the result of a
harmonious adjustment of the inner world with the outer world.
Only when we stop complaining can we bring
about our desires. When we forgive others, we stop seeing them as the cause of
our problems. We then cease to kick against circumstances, but begin to use them as aids to more rapid progress,
and as a means of discovering the hidden powers and possibilities within.
Law, not chaos, is the dominating
principle in the universe. Justice, not injustice, is the soul and
substance of life. And righteousness, not corruption, is the molding and moving
force in the spiritual government of the world. This being so, we have to but
put ourselves right to find that the universe is right; and during the process
of putting ourselves right, we will find that, as we alter our thoughts toward
things and other people, things and other people will alter toward us.
The proof of this truth is in every person,
and it is easily understood 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.
We
imagine that thought can be kept secret, but it cannot. It rapidly materialize
into habit, and habit solidifies into habits like drunkenness and sensuality,
which solidify into circumstances of destitution and disease. Impure thoughts
of every kind crystallize into weakening and confusing habits, which solidify
into distracting and adverse circumstances. Thoughts of fear, doubt, and
indecision materialize into weak, and uncertain habits, which solidify into
failure, apathy, and dependence.
Lazy thoughts come into being as habits of
sloppiness and dishonesty, which solidify into circumstances of poverty and
begging. Hateful and condemnatory thoughts materialize into habits of
accusation and violence, which solidify into circumstances of injury and
persecution. Selfish thoughts crystallize into habits of self-seeking, which
solidify into distressing circumstances.
On the other hand, beautiful thoughts
crystallize into habits of grace and kindness, which solidify into genial and
sunny circumstances. Pure thoughts materialize into habits of temperance and
self-control, which solidify into circumstances of repose and peace. Thoughts
of courage, self-reliance, and decision crystallize into strong 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 turn into habits of gentleness, which
solidify into protective and preservative circumstances. Loving and unselfish
thoughts crystallize into habits of not worrying about what others do or think,
which solidify into circumstances of sure and abiding prosperity and true
riches.
A particular train of thought persisted in,
whether good or bad, cannot fail to produce that result. We cannot directly choose our circumstances, but
we can choose our thoughts, and so indirectly, yet surely, we shape our world.
Nature helps everyone to satisfy the
thoughts that they most encourage, and opportunities are presented which will
most speedily bring to the surface both the good and evil events.
If
we stop our immoral thoughts, the entire world will soften toward us, and be
willing to help. Just put away our weakly and sickly thoughts, and lo! Opportunities will spring up on every
hand to aid us. Encourage good thoughts, and no hard fate shall bind you down
to sadness and shame. The world is your kaleidoscope, and all the colors and wonders that you see, are the reflections of
your random and deliberate, ever-moving thoughts.
