–Harrison

SECRETS OF MENTAL SUPREMACY

By W. R. C. Latson

INTRODUCTION

My mind to me a kingdom is.–Epictetus.

The mind’s the measure of the man.–Watts.

As a man thinketh in his heart, so is he.–Jesus.

The man does not contain the mind: the mind contains the man.–Socrates.

In the universe there is nothing great but man: in the man there is nothing great but mind.–Aristotle.

IN the brief articles which will make up this series my object will be to present in the shortest, plainest, and most practical manner methods which, in my experience and that of many others who have been more or less under my influence, have seemed to be conducive to increased mental efficiency.

It is said that there is no royal road to learning; and while in a sense this is true, it is also true that, in all things, even in mind training, there is a right way and a wrong way–or rather there is one right way, and there are a thousand wrong ways.

Now, after trying, it seems to me, most of the wrong ways, I have found what I believe to be the right way; and in these articles I shall try to expound it to you. You need not expect an essay on psychology or a series of dissertations upon the “faculties of the mind”; for there will be nothing of the kind. On the other hand, I shall, so far as possible, avoid text-book terms and the text-book tone–both of which are quite absurd and quite futile. I shall try to give you bare facts. I shall try to give you plain directions, stripped of all verbal and pseudo-scientific flummery, for the acquisition of mental activity and mental supremacy.

W. R. C. Latson, M.D.

New York City.

MIND AND ITS MATERIAL

CHAPTER 1

FIRST of all, before you are able to think at all, you must have something to think about. You must have some mental “stock in trade.” And this mental stock in trade you can gain only through the senses. The appearance of a tree, the roar of the ocean, the odor of a rose, the taste of an orange, the sensation you experience in handling a piece of satin–all these are so much material helping to form your stock of mental images–”the content of the consciousness,” as the scholastic psychologists call it.

Now, all these millions and millions of facts which make up our mental stock in trade–the material of thought are gained through the senses, sight, hearing, smell, taste, touch, and so on.

Value of the Perceptions.

In a recent article in a leading French scientific journal, a well-known scientist, Dr. A. Peres, has presented some ideas which are so thoroughly in accord with my own observations extending over many years, that I yield to the temptation to quote. Dr. Peres first makes note of modern degeneracy in this respect. I append a free translation of a few extracts which seem to me especially worthy of attention:-

“‘Have we naught but arms and legs? Have we not also eyes and ears?

And are not these latter organs necessary to the use of the former? Exercise then not the muscles only, but the senses that control them.’ Thus was a celebrated philosopher wont to express himself. Nevertheless when we measure acuteness of vision we find that it is becoming weaker; hardness of hearing is on the increase; we suffer daily from lack of skill in workmen, in domestics, in ourselves; as to taste and smell, they are used up–thus do the inevitable laws of atavism act.

“The trouble is that, despite Rousseau’s objurgating, we have always paid too little attention to the hygiene and education of the senses, giving all our care to the development of physical strength and vigor; so that the general term ‘physical education‘ finally has assumed the restricted meaning of ‘muscular education.’

“The senses, which put us in contact with exterior objects, have nevertheless a primordial importance. … So great is their value that it is the interest and even the duty of man to preserve them as a treasure, and not to do anything which might derange their wonderful mechanism.”

The length and exactness of the sight, the skill and sureness of the hand, the delicacy of the hearing, are of value to artist and artisan alike by the perfection and rapidity of work that they insure. Nothing embarrasses a man so trained; he is, so to speak, ready for anything. His cultivated senses have become for him tools of universal use. The more perfect his sensations, the more justness and clearness do his ideas acquire. The education of the senses is the primary form of intellectual education.

“The influence of training on the senses is easily seen. The adroit marksman never misses his aim; the savage perceives and recognizes the slightest rustling; certain blind persons know colors by touch; the precision of jugglers is surprising; the gourmet recognizes the quality of a wine among a thousand others; odor is with chemists one of the most sensitive reactions.

“The senses operate in two ways, either passively, when the organ, solely from the fact that it is situated on the surface of the body, and independently of the will, is acted upon by exterior bodies; or actively, when the organ, directed and excited by the will, goes, so to speak, in advance of the body to receive the impression. Passively, we see, hear, touch, smell; actively, we observe, listen, feel, sniff. By the effect of the attention and by arranging our organs in certain ways, our impressions become more intense. . . .

“The impressions made by exterior objects on the sense-organs, the nerves and the brain, are followed by certain mental operations. These two things are often confounded. We are in the habit of saying that our senses often deceive us; it would be more just to recognize that we do not always interpret correctly the data that they furnish us. The art of interpretation may be learned. . . .

“The intuitive, concrete form given nowadays to education contributes to the training of the senses by developing attention, the habit of observation; but this does not suffice. To perfect the senses and make each of them, in its own perceptions, acquire all possible force and precision, they must be subjected to special exercises, appropriate and graded. A new gymnastic must thus be created in all its details.”

There are, of course, a certain number of “specific” or racial impressions and tendencies that come down through what is called heredity; but these are merely instincts and impulses, and while they have an influence upon the person’s character and habits of thought, they do not, in themselves, provide actual material for thought.

If you can imagine a person who was blind and deaf, who could not smell or taste or feel or move; he would be quite unable to think, for he would have in his mind nothing about which to think. The material of thought, the mental stock in trade, is gained through the senses; and in any rational effort to train the mind we must begin by training the senses–the perceptions, as they are more accurately called,–so that we may see, hear, smell, taste, and feel with more precision and keenness. Trained perceptions are the very foundation of all mental power.

Our system of training for mental supremacy will begin, then, with a brief study of the perceptions, or senses, and the methods by which we may gain the power of seeing more clearly, listening more intently, of feeling more delicately, and, in general, of developing the perceptive powers.

MEMORY AND ITS USES

CHAPTER 1 CONTINUED…

But the perceptions are of little value unless we remember what we have perceived. You may have read all the wise books ever written, you may have traveled the wide world over; you may have had all kinds of interesting and unusual experiences; but–unless you can remember what you have read, what you have seen, and what you have done –you will have no real use of it all. You will have gained no mental “stock in trade,” no material by the employment of which you may hope to achieve mental supremacy. It will be necessary, then, for us to study not only methods of developing power of perception, but the means by which perception may be retained and recalled at will.

The Power of Associating Memories.

But the memory itself is not enough. I have known people of unusual powers of memory who could not talk, write, or think well–who were like “the bookful blockhead, ignorantly read, with loads of learned humor in his head”; but who, in spite of all their experience and their recollection of it, had nothing to write, nothing to say.

So–memory is not enough. One must have the power of putting memories together–of analyzing, comparing, contrasting, and associating memories–until the entire mass of memories, which form the “content of the consciousness,” is wrought into one splendid, homogeneous whole–a mass of images, each one of which is intimately connected with many others, and all of which are under instant command of the central sovereign— the will.

It will be necessary, then, to give special attention to this most important matter of analyzing, comparing, and grouping mental images. Of all the activities of the mind this faculty, called “the power of association,” is the one most directly conducive to what is generally called “a brilliant mind.”

Imagination and Judgment.

The possession of trained perceptions, of a retentive memory and great powers of association are of enormous value; but only when combined with another faculty–imagination; and imagination is merely the power of recombining certain memories in such a fashion that the combination is new. Imagination is a faculty of the highest possible importance. Every splendid achievement, every invention, every business enterprise, every great poem, or book or picture, has been not only conceived but completed in imagination before it became actualized in fact.

And then it is necessary to be able to compare the mental pictures, gathered by the perceptions, remembered and classified by memory and association, so as to determine the relation of these memories to each other and their application to other ideas or mental images. And this valuable faculty of the mind is called judgment.

Necessity for Concentration.

Now, in order to do well in any one of the things of which I have been writing, it is necessary that the entire mind should be engaged upon that one thing. To do anything well one must do only that thing at that time. And this is particularly true of the action of the mind. The focusing of the entire power of the mind upon one thing is commonly known as concentration or “the power of attention.”

So essential is this power of concentrating the entire mind upon the task in hand that it is not too much to say that no great degree of mental power can ever be gained without concentration. So in our study of the practical methods by which mental supremacy may be achieved, we shall pay special attention to the development of this invaluable faculty.

But in order to do anything with the mind (or with the body either, for that matter) one must choose, must wish to do that thing. And this choice, this decision to do something, is called the will. The power to choose quickly and decisively and to act vigorously upon that choice is a rather rare thing. He who has that power is said to have a strong will.

This question of will and its development is most important. The great difference between men – between strong men and weaklings, between the honored and the disregarded, between the masters and the serfs—is will. A man of strong, unfaltering will is sure to succeed even if his abilities are mediocre; but a man of weak will, no matter what his abilities, is not likely to achieve either success or honor among men.

As a great psychologist has said: “The education of the will is really of far greater importance than that of the intellect.” And again: “Without this [will] there can be neither independence, nor firmness, nor individuality of character.” Ik Marvel says: “Resolve is what makes a man manifest. . . . Will makes men giants.”

The will, like any other mental faculty, may be highly developed by training; and this, with many practical exercises, also we will take up in its proper place.

Importance of the Social Faculties.

The above brief outline of the mental powers embraces those which any one may develop and use without help from or association with other people. The highest powers of the mind, however, or at any rate, the most impressive powers of the mind, can be developed only through contact with others–through social intercourse.

A man might have miraculously keen perceptions, perfect memory, splendid imagination, infallible judgment, indomitable will–he might have all of these; and yet he would miss the rewards of mental supremacy unless he were capable of dealing with other people–unless he were socially accomplished.

In our efforts to train the powers of the mind, therefore, it will be necessary to make a study of some of the principles affecting our relations with other people; and so we shall in the same practical and straightforward way discuss sympathy, adaptability, and self-command. The important question of verbal expression as applied to both speech and writing will also receive special attention.

Mental Action a Unit.

In conclusion you must not forget that, although I speak of the various mental acts as if they were separate, this is done only for convenience of discussion and description. As a matter of fact the mind is one thing—a unit. All the various “faculties” act together constantly. One cannot remember what an oak tree looks like unless he has carefully observed an oak tree. He cannot imagine an oak tree unless he remembers it. He cannot judge of the difference between an oak tree and a maple tree unless he can imagine a picture of the two side by side. And he cannot do any one of these things without attention; nor again can he concentrate his attention without an act of will.

So we see that the various acts of the mind, perception, memory, imagination, judgment, attention, and will, are inextricably interdependent—and that one act involves all the rest.

Happily this makes our task all the easier and more interesting. In this series I shall begin by giving you some plain practical advice as to the development of the perceptive powers—the ability to see, hear, feel, taste, and smell more efficiently. But with every moment of practice such as I advise you will also be developing a more exact and acute memory, a finer and more expansive imagination, a greater power concentration, and a stronger will. When we come to discuss the cultivation of the will power the exercises will require the use of the perceptions, the memory, the imagination, and other faculties. So, you see, in developing the mind in any one phase of its activity you are, at the same time and by the same act, adding to the power and usefulness of the entire mind.

TRAINING OF THE PERCEPTIVE FACULTIES

CHAPTER 2

Man is the eyes of things.—Hindu Proverb.

THAT far-seeing genius, Goethe, once said that he regarded himself as the center of all phenomena, a sort of focus to which converged everything in the universe, out of which came–Goethe. He also claimed that the real standard for all things in life was simply the mass of sensations that were appreciable to the human senses.

In other words, Goethe understood perfectly the now widely recognized–and widely ignored–educational principle that all mental activity is based upon the perceptions–upon the things we see and hear and feel and taste and smell.

As well might you try to build a house without wood or bricks or stone or mortar, as to try to think without a good “stock in trade” of impressions, images, and memories gathered by the senses and the perceptions.

Blurred Mental Pictures.

One of the never failing marks of the common mind, the untrained, inefficient mind, is that the mental pictures it contains are confused, blurred, inexact. A person with such a mind will tell you that an auto car just passed him on the road. “Was it a big, red car?” you ask. Well, he does not quite know. It might have been red, and yet he guesses it was black; possibly it was gray. How many people were in it? Three or four or five –four, he thinks. Ask him to give you an outline of a book he has read or a play he has seen, and he is equally helpless. And so on.

Such a person is the typical inefficient. You will find thousands of these inefficients filling unimportant places in shops and offices. And even the trivial duties of such positions they are unable to perform properly. They cannot read a line of shorthand notes and be sure of its meaning; they cannot add a column of figures and be certain of the result without repeated checking’s. Such unfortunates are the “flotsam and jetsam” of the commercial world-the unfit who, in the struggle for existence, must necessarily be crowded out by those whose mental processes are more positive and more exact.

The extent to which the perceptions can be developed is almost incredible. I know personally a bank teller who can detect a counterfeit coin without a glance at it, judging only by weight, feeling, and ring. Another man of my acquaintance makes a large salary merely by his ability to judge tea through its flavor–a “tea taster.” I know an orchestra conductor who, in the full fortissimo of his sixty piece band, will detect a slight error of any one performer. I could give many other instances within my own experience of remarkable powers of trained perception.

The Perceptions Are Easily Trained.

For the encouragement of those who are aware that they do not get the best possible service from their senses and perceptions–that they do not see all there is to be seen, hear exactly and distinctly and so on–for the benefit of these I may say at once that the senses and perceptions are easily trained. A month or two of discipline such as I am about to describe will show most marked and gratifying development. In most cases a few months’ training is all that is necessary; for the habit of close observation is soon formed, and once formed no further thought is required. The matter takes care of itself.

The Perceptions of Children.

First of all, a word about the senses and perceptions of children. Just here is one of the grievous defects of our defective school system. It practically ignores the fact that the child develops, not through reasoning, but through observation and activity. The child observes everything. His senses are active and acute. Childhood is the time to accumulate observations and experiences; later they will form the material for thought and general development.

The child should be encouraged to perceive and to remember. All the methods which I am about to describe are applicable to children of less than ten years old. The more elaborate and far ranging the mass of perceptions are, memories which the child carries over from infancy and childhood into youth and adult age, the greater, other things being equal, will be his intellectual possibilities.

Most of Us Are Sensorily Starved.

Most of us are grossly deficient in mental images. At a test made not long ago in Boston eighty per cent, of the children had no idea what a beehive was like, over half of them had no conception of a sheep, and over nine tenths had no notion of the appearance or nature of growing wheat. Of course they knew of other things which the country bred child would not know; but fancy the loss in the imagination of one to whom the following lines arouse no vision of a pure, rustic matutinal scene:-

“The breezy call of incense-breathing morn, the swallow twittering from the straw-built shed, the cock’s shrill clarion or the echoing horn no more shall rouse them from their lowly bed.”

THE GREAT SECRET OF SENSE TRAINING

CHAPTER 2 CONTINUED…

The great secret of a true development of the perceptions is discrimination–the realization of differences. To the savage a sound is a sound; to the musician it is excruciating discord or exquisite harmony. To the musician a little depression in the ground, a bent twig, a turned leaf–they are nothing; to the savage they mean food, an enemy, safety, or danger. In the printed pages the unlettered boor sees only foolish black marks on white paper; but in those black marks the man of education sees that which makes his heart beat faster, his eyes swim with tears–which tells him secrets of life the clodhopper will never, never know. The differences are in the trained or untrained perceptions.

Most of the exercises which I shall describe are quite simple–many, perhaps, will seem trivial. But remember, as a great educator has said: “The . . . point in education is the power to attend to things which may be in themselves indifferent by arousing an artificial feeling of interest.”

So the first exercise is quite simple–simple, but not easy. Try it and see.

Take any object you like–a book, a pen, a pair of scissors. Lay it on the table before you. Then take pencil and paper and describe it. Simply tell what you see. Can you? I doubt it. Tell its dimensions, weight, color, form, markings, lettering, origin, uses, possibilities, shortcomings. See how fully you can write about the object. The result will probably not please you. You will find that you have not nearly the powers of expression which you supposed you possessed. But–it is good training; and with practice your powers will grow rapidly.

You can do the same thing out of doors. Look at a mountain peak, the ocean, a horse, a bird. If you think for a moment there is nothing to write about these things read up “Poem in the Valley of Chamouni,” Byron’s splendid passage beginning “Roll on, thou deep and dark blue ocean, roll,” the superb poem in the book of Job describing the horse, Shelley’s “Skylark,” and so on. James Whitcomb Riley has said: “There is ever a song somewhere, my child.” And to find the material for the song it is necessary only to look with refined and educated perception–to look trying to see all the various sides, all the many phases of the object looked at.

In the same way you should study also many other natural objects–autumnal tints, frost marks, snowflakes, trees, both their general form and the shape of their leaves, all the common flowers. Last of all, and in many respects most practically important of all, make it a habit to observe closely the human face. Try to recognize and discriminate the signs of education, refinement, intellect, in the face, as distinguished from the stigmata of ignorance, coarseness, and brutality.

Another good exercise for the training of the sight is this: Procure a number of ordinary marbles, say three dozen; one dozen each of red, of white, and of blue. Then mix them together in a receptacle. Now grasp a handful of the marbles, give one glance at them and throw them back again. Then note down how many of each color there were in the hand. At first you will find this difficult. In a short time, however, you will be able to distinguish at a glance between, say, three red, five white, and seven blue–and three red, six white, and six blue—with corresponding development of the powers of perception in all other directions.

A very simple and very good exercise for the development of the faculty of sight is the following:-

Procure about a dozen white paste-board cards, say three by five inches in size. Then with a small brush or with a pen draw upon each a number of small black circles. The circles should be solid black, about one quarter inch in diameter. On the first card draw one, on the second two, and so on, until the last, on which you will make twelve. Group them so far as possible in a circle.

Now to use them: Hold the cards face downward and shuffle them. Then take up the top one, give one brief glance at it, and try to perceive how many black circles there are upon it. Don’t try to count during your brief glance. Don’t squint, scowl, or strain the eyes. Merely glance, and then try to remember and count what you saw.

At first you will probably find it difficult to discriminate between five circles and six; after a time, however, you will be able to decide instantly upon any number of circles up to fifteen, twenty or even more.

Training the Ear to Hear.

Few people know how to hear. Of most it might well be said “ears and they hear not.” I do not mean that in most people the organ of hearing is in any way defective, but that as a result of inattention and lack of practice they do not get clear, vivid impressions from the sounds which impinge upon their auditory apparatus.

One of the best methods of training the hearing faculty is to listen attentively to the varied sounds of the country. The humming of insects, the cry of the robin, thrush, catbird, blackbird, swallow,–all these and the many other sounds peculiar to the country should be carefully studied.

The sounds incidental to city life are less picturesque and in a sense less varied than those of the country; and yet, if we speak only of the musical advantages of the city, there alone we have material for a splendid auditory training. Concerts, the opera, social music, the phonograph, even the hand organs on the street provide opportunities for a training of the ear. These opportunities may be utilized in various ways.

One of the best and most practical, perhaps, is to habitually require of one’s self a knowledge of the melody of popular selections. How many people, not distinctly musical, know the air of the “Soldiers’ Chorus” from “Faust,” the “Toreador’s Song” from “Carmen,” or the overture to “Tannhauser”? And yet these are things that we hear every day on the street organs.

A very fine exercise for the development of the hearing faculty is merely to listen to the ticking of a watch. A method which I have found very practical and helpful is the following:-

Place the watch upon the table at which you are sitting. Now turn toward it the left ear. Can you hear it? Yes, plainly. Move a foot, two feet, three, four, from the table. Can you hear the watch? Yes. Now increase the distance, foot by foot, until you can no longer hear the watch. Now listen! listen! Concentrating the attention upon the sound until, out of the silence, or of a confusion of sounds, there comes to you the clear, rhythmical ticking of the tiny mechanism. All this time you are sitting with your left ear turned toward the watch. The same practice should, of course, be gone through with the right ear.

This exercise is valuable not only in cultivating the power of hearing, but also in developing concentration of the attention and will. It is merely another phase of the same method by which an orchestra conductor can, at will, select one instrument out of a band, and hear only that one to the exclusion of any other piece.

Training the Sense of Smell.

We hear much to the effect that, as an animal, man is inferior to the beasts of the field; but, like a great deal else that we hear, it is not true–at least not to any extent. The truth is that, merely as an animal, man is the masterpiece of creation. In actual strength, endurance, grace, and rapidity of motion, the best physical types of men compare favorably with any other animal of the same size and weight. This is a biological fact.

But in one respect, at least, he is distinctly inferior, and that is as regards the sense of smell. There are very few animals that are not better equipped than man in this respect.

For this inferiority there are many reasons, which we cannot discuss in this place.

I may remark, however, that in some people the sense of smell is developed to a surprising degree. I once knew a woman, well born and highly educated who, while blindfolded, could name any one of her friends who came within a foot or two of her. The same woman was also usually able to determine, by their odor, the owner-ship of articles belonging to those whom she knew well. I know another woman who can distinguish copper, brass, steel, and iron by their taste and odor. I may also add that what we call “taste” is also largely smell. The achievements of tea, coffee, tobacco, and whisky experts depend very largely upon delicacy of the olfactory sense.

A good method of training this sense is the following: Procure a number of small pasteboard or wooden boxes such as are used by druggists in the dispensing of pills or tablets. Any druggist will provide them for a trifle.

Then put into each box a small quantity of one of the following substances: cinnamon, cloves, red pepper, mustard, black pepper, ginger. A half dozen boxes are enough, selecting for them such of the above substances as are most readily procurable.

To practice this method, simply close your eyes, open a box at random and try to determine what the substance is by the odor. This method may be varied by having a number of small vials, each containing one of the fragrant oils, such as oil of cloves, wintergreen, lemon, verbena, lavender, peppermint, bergamot, nutmeg, and so on. It is a good plan also to take careful note of the distinctive odor of the various fragrant flowers so that they may afterward be recognized by the perfume which is peculiar to each.

Training for the Taste.

There are, in reality, only four savors or tastes: sweet, sour, bitter, and salt. As I have just remarked, what we call taste is very largely smell, or flavor. The best way to develop delicacy of the gustatory sense is to eat very simple food, and to put thereon very little or no seasoning in the form of salt, sugar, mustard, pepper, vinegar, or other condiment. Then, and then only, will one be able to appreciate the real flavor of the food. No one, for instance, who is in the habit of using pepper and other condiments, can really taste a strawberry.

In conclusion, I want to emphasize two things: first, that a training of the perceptive powers is the best possible investment one can make–even regarding the matter from its lowest view point–the monetary; second, that the exercises which I have suggested in this chapter, while they may seem very simple, almost trivial, will in every case where they are seriously practiced, add immensely not only to the powers of perception but to practical efficiency of every faculty of the mind.

MEMORY AND HOW TO DEVELOP IT

CHAPTER 3

Memory is accumulated genius.–James Russell Lowell.

Memory is the permanence of perception.–Latson.

THE value of any man to himself and to the world at large depends in great degree upon his memory–upon his ability to recall and to use at any desired moment the recollection of what he has seen, heard, experienced, or thought.

Memory is really the stock in trade of our mental life. Our perceptions bring to us a vast mass of experiences-things that we have seen, heard, touched, tasted, and smelled–our thoughts and experiences. But these things are valuable only when they are held in the memory. For, unless they are remembered they cannot be used. Most of us have forgotten much more than we remember. We have studied – at school, at college, at home. We have read many, many books. We have had any number of interesting and instructive conversations. We have, some of us, traveled and seen many rare and curious things. And of it all, how much is in our possession at the moment–how much is at our ready command? Not one tenth—probably not one hundredth.

Imagine the enormous loss to us. Imagine the waste of time and effort. Imagine what it would mean to you or to me if, instead of possessing a memory which preserved for us only one hundredth of our experiences, we could remember and apply at will one half, three quarters, four fifths of what we have been through.

“But that is impossible,” you say. Allow me to contradict you. There have been many cases of recollective power which prove otherwise. The most striking of these was Antonio Magliabecchi, who lived in Italy in the seventeenth century. From being a mere servant he rose until he became the librarian of Cosmo III., the Grand Duke of Turin. Magliabecchi’s memory was prodigious; nothing that he had ever seen or heard or experienced was ever lost to him. It is said that after one reading he could repeat verbatim any book in the library of his patron, who at this time owned one of the largest collections of the day.

“Impossible,” you say. Not at all. I know a man who can neither read nor write except to sign his name. He is an Irishman who began life in this country with a pick and a shovel. Today he is a man of wealth and power, financially and politically. He is a contractor, real estate operator, stock speculator, and is interested in several other lines of business. He keeps no books and employs no bookkeepers. All his values, dates, and figures are carried in his head; and at any moment he can tell to a cent how he stands with any of his business associates.

Among the ancient Greeks it was not at all unusual to find an educated patrician who could recite verbatim the entire poems of Homer–the Iliad and the Odyssey. Cyrus the Great could call by name any man of his army, numbering one million. Napoleon had power of memory almost as remarkable. Gladstone, when presenting to Parliament his yearly budget, would speak for several hours, presenting monetary details running into many million pounds without one glance at the written report lying on the table before him. Robert G. Ingersoll, that great jurist and brilliant orator, would attend a trial lasting many days without taking any notes. Yet in his speeches to the jury, lasting sometimes many hours, he never forgot or missed a point of the opposition.

And so I might go on. Scott, Milton, Shakespeare, Washington, Clay, Webster–all these were remarkable for their power of memory. In fact it is safe to say that every man who has ever attained a high place among men has been possessed of a retentive and exact memory.

So we can see that, as an asset in practical life, whether one’s ambition be literary, artistic, scientific, or merely the transferring of dollars from some one’s pocket into his own–as a practical asset, power of memory is of the highest conceivable value. A good memory will give you an incalculable advantage over others–an advantage which no other mental qualification will balance.

Memory Training Not Difficult.

The mind is like potter’s clay–it is easily molded. And there is no direction in which development is so easy as in the department of memory. Even a few days of practice along the lines which I shall suggest will generally make a noticeable difference, and two or three months of conscientious training will often be sufficient to metamorphose a poor, weak, and inexact memory into one that is tenacious and reliable.

The Nature of Memory.

In the introductory article of this series I promised you that I would not be theoretical or descriptive, but that I would make these chapters purely practical. Now, I intend to keep my word; but, in order to make what follows more intelligible and helpful, it will be well just here to stop for a moment and make a few brief statements as to the nature of memory.

In the first place, I may say at once that, in reality, there is no such thing as “the memory.” This sounds very much like an old-fashioned Irish “bull”; but it is merely a statement of sober fact. There is no memory: there are only memories. When I say that I am not merely juggling with terms; the difference is important and fundamental.

I mean just this: Memory is not, as we used to be taught many years ago, a “faculty of the soul”–a little section of the brain to be developed all by itself. Not at all. Memory is merely a term used to describe the way that certain acts or thoughts tend to remain in the mind. And every act or thought has its own separate little memory.

Some acts or thoughts we remember easily; other acts or thoughts we remember with difficulty, if at all. If some one were to describe to me the details of a case of insanity, symptoms, history, treatment, I should remember it a long time; because, as a physician,

I am interested in psychiatry. But, although I listened patiently a day or two ago to a long account of the Wall Street adventures of an acquaintance of mine, I am quite sure that I could give no intelligent account thereof, because I know little and care less about such matters. In the same way some people have good memory for names, but cannot recall faces, others can remember dates, but have no power to recollect names. And so on.

The point is just this: We remember best the things in which we have most interest, the things with which we are most familiar. The little memory of any act or thought may stick in the mind or it may not–whether it is or is not remembered depends mainly upon the amount of attention we have given to that act or that thought at the time it was occurring.

If, therefore, we would have fine powers of memory–if we desire a large supply of clear, vivid memories all under instant command, it is essential that we should pay to the thing we wish to remember strict attention and careful study. And this is really the great secret of what is called “good memory.”

In other words, a memory is simply a permanency, a recurrence, of a perception; and that memory is clear and complete just in proportion as the perception was clear and complete. If, on an introduction to a stranger, I scarcely glance at his face and pay little or no attention to the name, I am not likely to remember either the man or the name. If, on the other hand, I look closely at him and attend carefully to the name, I shall be likely to remember it, perhaps for years.

I, myself, frequently have presented to me twenty-five or thirty strangers in the course of an evening; and I am usually able afterward to recall all or nearly all of their names and faces.

This is merely the result of a habit of attention to the matter.

THE BASIC LAW OF MEMORY

CHAPTER 3 CONTINUED…

Now, then, based upon the principle just discussed, we may formulate our first rule for the development of memory: Study the object you wish to remember in all its phases, in all its peculiarities, in all its relations. For the time being keep every other thought out of the mind. Make the object part of yourself; and you will never forget it. I say object, but I mean, of course, anything, fact, figure, idea, principle, or plan, to all of which the same rule applies.

So much for the rule; but you would like to know exactly how to apply this rule to practical development. Well, one of the best ways I know is the following:-

You are walking down the street. A carriage passes at which you have glanced casually. After it has passed, question yourself about it. What kind of a carriage was it–landeau, barouche, brougham, or what? What was the color of the wheels? Had they rubber tires? How many horses were there? Their color? The coachman–black or white? The livery, if any? How many occupants–men or women? How dressed? Do you remember all their faces, so that if you saw them again you would know them? And so on.

By the time you have done this conscientiously on a dozen occasions you will be surprised and delighted at the improvement in your ability both to perceive and to remember; for, as I cannot reiterate too often, the two, perception and memory, are practically one.

Well, after passing the carriage and getting all the good you can out of the experience in an educational way, you will come to a shop window–the window of a toy shop, let us say. Don’t stop to look at the window; that will merely confuse you. Take one glance at it, and pass on.

Then ask yourself what you saw in the window. If practicable have a pad and pencil, and write down each article as you remember it. This is the method employed by the famous conjurer, Robert Houdin–a method by which he so trained the memory both of himself and of his young son that they were able to remember over thirty thousand questions and answers, which formed the code of their famous “second sight” act.

Another valuable method of memory training is to make it a rule every night, either before or after retiring, to review in detail the events of the day. This was the method employed by the great Edward Thurlow, lord high chancellor of Great Britain. At first his memory was so poor that he was unable to recall what he had eaten for breakfast. Eventually, however, he developed one of the most remarkable memories on record. I know of a number of cases in which this method has proven of the utmost value.

Another very simple and convenient, but at the same time very useful, method of culturing the power of recollection is the following: Take some interesting book, such as a historical work, or some attractive novel. Read a paragraph to yourself slowly and carefully. Then close the book and repeat aloud the substance of the section which you have just read. Make no attempt to repeat the passage word for word. Simply give the sense of it as you remember. It matters little whether you repeat the author’s words or use your own. After your first attempt (which is not likely to be a striking success) read the paragraph again and make a second effort to recall and express its general meaning.

When you have learned this paragraph fairly well, pass on to the next, and so on, until you come to the last paragraph on the page. Then take that page as your task, and give an account of the entire page. After practicing this way on every paragraph and every page until the end of the chapter, take the chapter as a whole and repeat it as fully and exactly as you can.

This seems like hard work. And it is, at first. But it soon becomes interesting, especially as you begin to find that, although at first you were unable to give any clear idea of a paragraph you had just read, you are soon able to recall, and to clearly express, the sense of an entire chapter without any great effort or difficulty.

This exercise trains not only the memory, but the perceptions, the will, and the powers of expression. So far as I know, it was invented by Henry Clay, in his early farm boy days, and was often quoted by him as being the method which had done most toward developing his prodigious memory and splendid oratorical ability.

A valuable variation of the above exercise is to write out at length, instead of attempting to express in spoken words, your recollection of the paragraph, the page, the chapter. For those who desire the widest development–a development of the power of expression in writing as well as in speech–I should suggest that they practice this exercise by both talking and writing their memories of the passage.

By the time you have gone over one book in this way, talking out certain passages and writing others, you will not only know that book in a way that few people ever know any book; but you will have developed added powers of attention, will power, memory, and expression, which will prove a surprise and a delight to you.

The Pictorial Faculty.

One of the prime secrets of memory is to develop the ability to recall before the mind a picture of the object desired –a vivid recollection of its appearance. When a schoolboy I discovered that there was no use whatever in my studying either my spelling or my geography lesson. All that was necessary was for me to pass my eye slowly down the list of words for spelling and to look at the map of the particular section we were studying. After that I could bring up before me a clear picture of any word called for or of any section of the map covering our lesson.

In questioning musicians who are able to play from memory long passages on the piano or violin, I find that in the majority of cases they remember the appearance of the page of music, and follow the notes just as if the real page were before them. This power of visualizing memories has been in some people developed to a surprising extent. The mnemosynic achievements of the Houdins and of Magliabecchi referred to above, as well as of other prodigies like the mathematical wonder, Zerah Colburn, and his prototype, Jacques Inaudie–the memory feats of these depend largely, in some cases entirely, upon the visualizing faculty.

And what is the best method of developing this power of sight memory? There are several very simple and valuable. First try this: Write out in a clear hand a list of words in column form. The list should contain at first not more than five or six words; later it may be extended to twenty or even thirty.

Now place your list of six words before you and look at it for a moment. Don’t stare or strain the eyes. Don’t try to remember the words–yet. This is the moment for observation—forgetting upon the photographic plate of the mind a clear memory-picture of the list of words. After a moment of steady gazing, cover the paper and try to remember exactly what the words were and how they looked. At first you are likely to find this difficult. Soon it will be easy to remember six–to recall the words, passing up as well as down the column. Then gradually increase the number until you can handle at least twenty-five.

A useful variation of this exercise is to use figures instead of words, arranging them at first as a square of four figures, and calling each one off while you remember its position. Here again, as soon as four is easy for you, increase the number of figures by two, until you can retain, after a single look, a clear picture of thirty-six or more figures. I have known a boy of twelve who was able to remember sixty-four figures–a square of eight figures up and eight across. He would, on request, call off first line of figures forward, third line of figures backward, line of units down, and so on–in other words, this boy could see in his mind’s eye a mental picture of those sixty-four figures that was absolutely as clear as the original had been to the physical eye.

I may add that the boy I refer to was not in any sense exceptional, save that he had become interested in the “tricks” which I taught him and his fellows. All of them are now men of notably fine memory.

The same method may be varied in other ways. For instance, letters may be substituted for the figures or words may be arranged in groups, say twelve in groups of three each, the exercise being to remember not only the word but its position in relation to the other words. So exercises for developing the power of memory can be multiplied indefinitely. Those given above, however, are more than sufficient, if properly practiced.

Union accomplishes all things.–Sophocles.

I have only to take up this or that to flood my soul with memories.–Mme. Deluzy.

The whole art of mental training is based upon the fact that any action at first executed with conscious effort becomes, in time, ub-conscious and habitual–Thompson Jay Hudson.

Within the secret chambers of the brain, the thoughts lie linked by many a mystic chain. Awake but one, and lo, what legions rise! Each stamps its image as the other dies.–COWPER.

ASSOCIATION OF IDEAS

CHAPTER 4

OF all the operations of the mind the one most directly conducive to mental readiness is the power of associating or grouping ideas. The man or woman in whom the power of association is well developed has a mind which may be likened to a vast skein of threads. Each thread represents an idea. And of these thread-ideas all those which are at all related are grouped together like so many threads tied in a knot; so that if you touch one of the thread-ideas you are instantly in communication with all of that group.

When ideas are grouped or associated in this orderly manner any thought coming into the mind will instantly suggest a large number of related thoughts. This means an active, an efficient, frequently a brilliant mind.

Now let us understand at once that what is commonly called “education”–that is, a mere knowledge of facts–no matter how extensive it may be, does not necessarily confer the power of associating or grouping ideas in such a manner that they are readily avail-able for purposes of speaking, writing, or thinking. Indeed I have known men of vast learning who could not talk well, who could not write well, who could not even think well. A well stored mind–that is, mere erudition, while it can be acquired only by a per-son with a good memory, does not by any means necessarily imply the power of association.

One who possesses unusual power of associating ideas is always interesting; often brilliant. His ideas are, as I have said, like threads knotted together. Each idea suggested to him calls up in his mind many related ideas. In the mind of the merely erudite man, for instance, the mention of the word “horse” will arouse few, if any, other mental pictures. In the mind, however, of the person who has the power of association the idea “horse” awakens a large number of interesting thoughts. There is the horse so superbly described in the biblical poem, Job.

There is the famous horse Bucephalus, the war charger of Alexander the Great, whom only he could ride. The person with strong power of association remembers, too, the wonderful horse, Kantara, ridden by Gautama, the Buddha. Then he thinks of the horse of Darius which, by neighing at the critical moment, caused his master to be elected king of Persia—Darius the Great. He recalls to mind the story of the great wooden horse, inside of which the Greek soldiers were smuggled into Troy, to the downfall of that city. And lastly, the man with trained powers of association will be able to tell you something about the interesting history of the horse, both before and since it was first tamed and ridden many thousands of years ago by Melizeus, King of Thessaly.

And so with any other subject you might suggest to him. In the mind of such a person every idea is intimately associated with many other more or less related ideas; and, even though his actual stock of information may be small, his mental images are so closely

connected and so quickly recalled that the practical power and usefulness of his mind is greater than in the case of another person with a larger stock of knowledge and inferior power of association.

Another great advantage of well-developed powers of association is that it is almost a preventive of forgetfulness. As I have explained in the chapter on the training of the memory, that which we fully understand, we do not, cannot, forget. Now a complete understanding of any idea is simply the result of a process of making that idea the center of a mass of associations.

If you had to leave your boat in a stream with a very rapid current you would tie the boat to the shores, not only with one rope but with several ropes running to different points on each side of the stream. And the more lines you tie the boat with and the more directions they extend in, the less likely will your boat be to escape, and the more readily can you recover it at will. The same principle applies to ideas. Each associational relation is like a tiny thread binding one particular idea to another idea; and, when we bind that one particular idea to a great many other ideas, we make sure, first, that we will not forget it, and second, that when there comes into the mind any one of the ideas with which we have associated the new idea, the new idea will immediately be drawn into the mind.

All this being true, we will be ready to appreciate the following important statement: It is necessary to get into the mind a large stock of ideas; this can be done only by perception and memory; but it is equally necessary that the ideas and memories in the mind shall be so associated or grouped that one idea instantly calls up many other related ideas. And this can be done only by developing the power of association.

How Associations Are Made.

And here arises the practical question: How shall I so train my mind that the ideas it contains shall be closely associated, each one with many others?

In trying to give you an intelligible answer to this question it will first be necessary to discuss briefly something of the process by which associations are formed in the mind.

Some one has said: “Thoughts are things.” Now this statement is quite meaningless unless we have a clear idea as to what is meant by the term “thing.” But let us imagine for a moment that the “thing” is something concrete, commonplace, and physical, like a brick–an ordinary building brick. For a thought may be regarded as an object, a thing, just as a brick can be studied as an object, a thing.

Now in order to make associations around anything we must first of all get a clear idea of that thing. And so we must begin by studying our brick–analyzing it. We will find that the brick has form, color, dimensions (length, breadth, thickness), weight, hardness, roughness, certain utilities and possibilities, history, money value, and so on. This process of determining the qualities peculiar to the object or idea is called analysis; and analysis is the first step essential to the formation of associations. For it should be understood that most of the ideas associated with any particular object are based, not upon that object as a whole, but upon some quality or qualities of the object.

Now having analyzed our brick we may take certain of its qualities and on that basis make associations between the brick and other objects or ideas. If we take its form we shall find that it is something like a wooden paving block, something like a book, some-thing like a cigar box. If we take the usual color of the brick-red, we note that it resembles terra cotta, the building material, that it is a shade frequently seen in wall covering and rugs and also found in the shingle stains often used on the roofs of country houses. As to the uses of the brick, we find the brick can be associated with granite, marble, and other building materials, cobble stones, wooden paving blocks, concrete, and various other substances used for pavement, and so on.

Now, in all this we have gone through four distinct processes of reasoning; and, without these four processes, no association between ideas could exist. First of all we analyzed our brick; next we extended our ideas of it, trying here and there until we found certain objects which could be associated with the brick. Lastly we noted that every other object we thought of was either like the brick in some certain particular or was entirely unlike it in every particular. These processes we may call extension, likeness, and unlikeness.

So these four processes of reasoning–analysis, extension, likeness, and unlikeness–must be gone through in order to make complete and valuable associations.

In the example just given I chose for my object a brick because the mere fact of its being a simple, prosaic, and commonplace object rendered my explanation more clear. The same process, the same treatment, however, may and, in fact, must be applied to other and more complicated ideas.

First of all we analyze the object from every standpoint and in every particular and detail. If a concrete object we study all its qualities as we did in the case of the brick. If an idea, we consider carefully all its phases. Then trace all its relations to other ideas, noting in what respect it resembles or differs from such other ideas. Then we shall have gone through the four processes–analysis, extension, likeness, and unlikeness.

To give you an instance illustrating this interesting and important method: Not long ago I was one of a number of guests at a country house. One evening when a number of us were sitting on the porch, the little daughter of our hostess approached with a dish containing some fine apples, and said to me: “Will you have an apple, Doctor?” “My dear, that is a dangerous question to ask a man,” said I. “Do you not know that all the sin and misery in the world came because a woman once asked a man to have an apple–and because he took it?”

And the child laughed and said: “Oh, I know. You mean the apple that Adam took from Eve.” Clever child!

Now my remark was made without any conscious effort of mind whatever–without any striving or deliberate action of the will. It was entirely subconscious and effortless. Afterward I amused myself by tracing out exactly what my mind had done when the child asked that question. And this is what happened: Analysis “girl–offers apple.” Out of this analysis I selected the idea “apple” and upon this based my extension. First of all I thought of the old adage “tender as the apple of the eye.”

Then in rapid succession there came into my mind memories of: the apple that William Tell is said to have shot off the head of his son; “apples of gold in pitchers of silver” mentioned in the Bible; the “apple of Sodom,” the fruit of the other tree, which is beautiful externally but filled with a kind of ashes–therefore often used as a symbol for disappointment; the apples of the Hesperian field, said to be guarded by the four mystic sisters–the Hesperides; the apple for which Paris ran his race.

Now all of these ideas, found by extension of the original idea “apple,” were appropriate; but none seemed quite to fit. Then came the thought of the story of Eve and her proffer of the “apple” to Adam. This exactly fitted the occasion. And hence the reply.

In this instance also you can easily trace the processes–analysis, extension, seeking resemblances or likenesses, and discarding ideas less appropriate or unlike. And do not forget that, in the mind that is even fairly well trained, these pictures flash up with incredible rapidity. I know that in my own mind, as in the instance just cited, six or seven pictures will often occur, and I will select the one which it seems appropriate to mention, within the few seconds that ordinarily intervene between a remark and the reply to it.

ASSOCIATION AND MEMORY

CHAPTER 4 CONTINUED…

In an earlier paragraph I told you that proper association of ideas practically insured power of memory. Let me now try to give you some notion of how this principle of mental activity can be utilized.

Let us take a simple instance. Epictetus says: “My mind to me a kingdom is.” Now, first of all, we consider this splendid utterance until we thoroughly understand and appreciate it. That is good, but it is not enough. We desire to possess this sentence—to make it a part of our mental stock in trade, so that we can use it at appropriate times in public speaking, in writing or in conversation. How shall we do this? Well, we have really four ideas in the quotation: the mind, a kingdom, contentment (implied), and the personality of the man, Epictetus, who wrote the sentence.

Let us first learn something of Epictetus. Let us analyze his character and place a mental picture of him in the midst of a network of associations which will make that picture of Epictetus our own forever. We find the following points for association: A slave–became free–great philosopher–blameless life–banished–friend of Adrian and Marcus Aurelius.

So we may associate the picture of Epictetus with the following ideas:

slaves who were great men; great philosophers who were banished; men of humble origin who became friends of kings; Adrian and Marcus Aurelius–any one of these will almost certainly suggest to us the idea, the mental picture, of Epictetus.

Now to return to Epictetus’ sentence: The three ideas, kingdom, mind, contentment, should each be dwelt on for a moment in this wise: Kingdom, a place of vast extent, un-limited resources, boundless possibilities, infinite powers, much to explore, much to conquer. And to Epictetus, his mind was like a kingdom; and he was content. After the idea of a kingdom of great extent, take up the thought of the mind and its possibilities.

Dwell on this until you see how, to a man of intellect, the mind is really

a kingdom–a kingdom more interesting and wonderful than any mere physical country could possibly be. Then ponder on the notion of contentment in spite of humble circumstances. Associate this with the idea of Thoreau, of Purun Dass, of Diogenes, of Gautama, and of Jesus of Nazareth–all of whom were content to live simply, finding their kingdom in the mind and soul. “My kingdom is not of this world,” said Jesus.

Thereafter any of these ideas will be likely to suggest the epigram we are studying; for all of these ideas are now united together by the network of associations we have constructed.

Now to work out in this way all the many things which you want to remember and to have at instant command, seems, of course, like very hard work. Happily, however, such a method of forming associations, of binding ideas into bundles or clusters, as it were, is necessary only until the habit is once formed. Then the matter goes on automatically, of itself.

Conscious Action Becomes Unconscious.

It is a beneficent law of the mind (and of the body, too, for that matter) that any act, after it has been repeated a certain number of times, tends to become automatic–to do itself without any sensation of effort, sometimes even without our knowledge. A few months of careful effort will in practically every case develop such a habit of associating apposite ideas, that the student will possess, without further care or drill, this most superb accomplishment of the mind–the power of association.

It requires both care and attention to form any desirable habit, either of mind or body; but, the habit once formed, no further care or attention is necessary. To learn to write, for instance, to form the letters, to combine them into words, to elaborate the words into sentences and paragraphs, the paragraphs into pages–all this takes time, a number of years. Once thoroughly learned, however, as by a trained writer, the practice of writing requires no special care or effort.

And so with this important matter of association. Few people have it to any great degree. In most people the ideas are separate, isolated. Cardinal

Newman says of some seafaring men that they “find themselves now in Europe, now in Asia; they see visions of great cities and wild regions; they are in the marts of commerce or in the islands of the south; they gaze on Pompey’s Pillar or on the Andes; and nothing which meets them carries them forward or backward to any idea beyond itself. Nothing has . . . any relations; nothing has a history or a promise.” All this means, in a word, that these men have not the power of association.

In order to arrange our ideas into clusters or groups, we must for a time give special attention to the matter. As a help to study along these lines, I can recommend the following exercises which have proven in my own personal experience and in that of others advised by me, of the greatest possible value.

Take any object you like–a rose, a pencil, a chair, a wheel, a knife. Having selected your object write out a list of its peculiarities. Say you have taken a knife–an ordinary table knife. Now, describe its form, color, size, shape, weight, material, and state its peculiarities–hard, cool, sharp, heavy, opaque, elastic.

Having written out this list of descriptive points, take them up one by one and think of what other objects have the same quality. For instance, in material the knife, being of steel with an ivory handle, resembles all cutlery and steel machinery, differing from them not in material but perhaps in the manner and degree of the tempering. The ivory handle will suggest a large number of articles made of that material. The sharpness of the knife suggests lancets, swords, scissors, and so on, and may also be applied in a figurative way, as to the nature of a remark (”Her words were like a dagger thrust into his soul”); or the effect of a glance (”An eye like a bayonet
thrust met mine”) and so on.

This treatment of the object “knife” if done exhaustively will prove a most valuable exercise. Three or four hours over it will be time well spent. Not that you are specially interested in the subject “knife,” its analysis or its relations, but that in going through the exercises with any object whatever, you are getting your mind into the habit of treating all subjects in the same analytical manner. By the time you have treated twenty different objects in accordance with this method, you will have gone far toward gaining the invaluable accomplishment of associating ideas.

IMAGINATION AND HOW TO CULTIVATE IT

CHAPTER 5

The mind can make substance and people planets of its own.–Byron.

The universe to man is but a projection of his own inner consciousness.–Kant.

OF all the powers of the mind, imagination is the most picturesque, and, in many respects, the most interesting. Without it the world would be barren. Not merely would there be no pictures, no music, no books, but there would be no houses, no bridges, no ocean greyhounds, no great business enterprises –nothing, in fact; for everything that man has made has been first conceived in the imagination before it was born into actual being.

We cannot think of a person being without any power of imagination; for that is an impossibility. But many, many people, I am sorry to say, are greatly deficient in imagination; and this lack of imagination alone is enough to render them commonplace, uninteresting, and of little use or significance in the world.

A man or woman may be deficient in imagination and yet be honest, straightforward, hard working, conscientious. But for such a man or such a woman the higher rewards of life are hopelessly unattainable. He or she may make an excellent bookkeeper, but never an accountant; a skillful typist, but never a secretary; a faithful stock-boy, but never a salesman. The accountant, the secretary, the salesman, must have imagination.

Of course when it comes to any actual creative work–painting, sculpture, musical composition, literature–the power of imagination, highly trained, refined, daring, and vivid, is the great essential. The creators of famous masterpieces have, in instances, lacked everything else but this one thing–imagination. Some of the great artists have lived all their lives in misery and want. Some have been ignorant, some have been coarse, some have been immoral, some have been eccentric, some have been almost or quite insane. But one thing all have possessed in common, and that is—a superb imagination.

In no respect, I believe, do men differ so widely as in the power and activity of their faculty of imagination. Hundreds of men and women have walked and sat in the old country churchyard, and no one had observed there anything that was especially interesting or picturesque. But one day there came to the churchyard a man with a fine imagination, a poet. He saw more than mere grass and trees and headstones; and he gave to the world the most perfect poem in the English language. His name was Thomas Gray, and the poem was the famous “Elegy in a Country Churchyard.”

Thousands of people had seen an apple fall from a tree to the ground. But one day a man with a great imagination saw that commonplace thing. His imagination seized upon it, and he propounded Newton’s theory of the law of gravitation, one of the most important achievements in the whole history of human thought.

Another man sees his mother’s teakettle boiling. He observes that the lid is raised by the expanding steam. His great imagination starts from this homely detail; and he gives to the world–the steam engine. Napoleon, poor, obscure, hungry, trudging up and down the streets of Paris in search of employment, dreams of making all Europe one vast empire–his empire. And he all but succeeds.

And so we might go on indefinitely. Enough, perhaps, to repeat that the world’s masters have always been possessed of fine and daring imagination, and that, without great powers of imagination, there can be accomplished no great or important work of any nature whatever.

Imagination Easily Cultivated.

Perhaps you feel that your own imagination does not always serve you as well as it should; perhaps you are wishing that it was better–that you could produce in it such improvement as to enable you to create some good and worthy thing in the world. In that case I am glad to be able to tell you that, of all the powers of the mind, none is capable of being so easily, conveniently, and rapidly cultivated as the imagination. And I may remark that, as in the case of other faculties, the means taken to cultivate the imagination will at the same time necessarily train and strengthen the mentality in every other direction.

First of all, it must be understood that the act of imagining, of bringing images before the mind, is not a separate function of the mentality, but that it is closely interwoven with, partly consists of, in fact, several other of the mental faculties. So in developing the power of imagination we must first speak of these other faculties which are really a part of it. If we study an act of imagination, we shall find that first of all we must have some material for our image.

To most people the act of imagination means the creation of something entirely new. They think that the picture created by the painter, the poet, the novelist, is new in every detail. Now, this is a radical error. The artist does not create anything that is entirely new. And this for a very good reason–there is not and never will be anything entirely new. Now, as in the days of Solomon: “There is nothing new under the sun.”

You may imagine, for instance, a green horse with purple wings. You say: Surely, that is an entirely new idea. I say: No, it is merely a new combination of four very old and commonplace ideas–a horse, a pair of wings, and the two colors, green and purple. And so in all creations, no matter what they may be –however new they may seem–it is only the combination that is new. The materials combined are old, as old, very often, as human thought itself.

We see, then, that the first raw material for imagination is our percepts–the things we have seen and heard and felt and smelled and tasted. And it seems hardly necessary to state that the better service we have gotten from our senses and perceptions, the more clear and vivid will be our power to bring before the mind images made up of those things. The first task, then, of him who would develop his power of imagination is to educate the senses.

IMAGINATION AND MEMORY

CHAPTER 5 CONTINUED…

But the imagination requires more than mere perception. The things perceived must be remembered. A thing that we have forgotten–lost out of the conscious mind–cannot be used as material for an act of imagination. And then the things perceived and remembered should have been grouped and associated into clusters; so that when one wishes to imagine a certain picture he will have a vast amount of material in his mind from which to select materials for that picture.

In cultivating the power of imagination, then, we must begin by educating perception, memory, and association; for (and here is my definition of imagination) imagination is merely a combination of perception, memory, and association with initiative, will. This is not at all text-bookish; but it will give you–as the text-books probably would not on such short acquaintance –a clear idea of the process.

Some Practical Exercises.

Let me state right here that you are exercising your imagination all the time during all your waking hours. You imagine thousands of things every day. Everything you do, every person you go to meet, everything you say-these are all in the imagination before they become realities. Your imagination has much exercise, but–it is not the right kind of exercise. The mental pictures are not clear and vivid. How shall you make them so? Demand it of yourself. And this brings me to your first practical exercise.

Get a good, lively novel, something full of action, and as near as possible to the here and the now. Make yourself comfortable and begin to read. When you come to the end of the first paragraph, stop and image before your mind a clear picture of what was expressed or described. Was it a scene? See it, mountains, sea, farmhouse, city residence, cold, warm, rainy, bright. Try to make it as vivid as it would be were you actually gazing on the scene.

That is what the writer of the story did, or you would not be reading it. During the next paragraph the scene is changed; something is added to the picture. See this. Take much time; it is an exercise. Then comes a person, say a man. See him. Is he tall, short, dark, light, prepossessing, repellent? How is he dressed? Force yourself to imagine every detail. And so on, for a chapter.

By this time you will have had enough for once; but if you have acted conscientiously in accordance with my hints, you will feel an understanding, an interest, and a sympathy with that book and its characters that will surprise you. By the time you have read a dozen chapters in this manner you will have proven to yourself in many ways that your imagination–and, in fact, all your mental powers—have markedly improved. Besides, you will know for the first time the real joy of reading. This is the kind of reading Emerson had in mind when he said: “There is the creative reading as well as creative writing.”

Another method by which the imaging faculty can be cultivated is the following: Take fifteen or twenty minutes at the end of the day and make a detailed review of its more important occurrences. Take much time; supply every detail; see and hear again everything that was said and done. Examine each episode critically. What mistakes did you make? In what way could you have handled the situation more easily, advantageously, diplomatically?

How would you proceed again under similar circumstances? In this exercise be careful, first, to see–actually see, clearly and vividly—every event, person, action, detail, of each episode; second, in imagining how you, yourself, and others might have acted, beware of criticizing the actions of other people. Try to feel that whatever went wrong, you, yourself, had you possessed sufficient will, sympathy, delicacy, intelligence, and control might have made it right. Don’t try to finish all the events of the day; that would be impossible. When the fifteen or twenty minutes is up, stop. This is the method of Pythagoras, who devoted his entire evening to meditating on the occurrences of the day.

For developing the power of auditory imagination the following methods are useful. Recall to mind the words and melody of some familiar song as rendered by a good singer, and imagine how it sounds. Hear the words; note the quality of the voice and accompaniment. Three or four songs or three or four repetitions of the same song are enough for once.

Call up in your memory one at a time the various sounds of the country and hear them in imagination–the hum of bees, the sound of the wind, the rustling leaves, the cries of the various birds, the lowing of cattle, and other noises peculiar to the life of the country.

Another exercise of value is the following: Recall some experience of your past which, at the time, made a strong impression upon you. Review it in all its details, slowly and care-fully. Consider its causes, the means whereby it would have been prevented, outside influences which affected it, the consequences of the occurrence upon yourself and others. What influence has it had upon your life since that time? Good? Bad? Why? If good, may the same experience not be realized again? If bad, by what means may it be avoided? This method should be followed with various experiences. As you can easily understand, the exercise develops far more than imagination. It teaches reason, judgment, self-control, and that thoughtful intelligent care of the self which is the happy medium between brutal selfishness and base self-abnegation.

Another helpful exercise is the following: Recall some attractive landscape that you have seen. Paint from memory a picture of it: Suppose it was a running brook in the mountains. Remember the rocks at the shore, the trees with their low hanging branches, the cows that used to stand knee deep in the water at noon. Call to memory the twitter of birds in the foliage, the hoarse cawing of the crows in the not distant pines, the occasional lowing of a cow in the adjoining field. Hear the laughter of the boys as they come for an early evening plunge in the cool still water of the near-by mill pond.

Smell again in imagination the odor of the earth, the trees, the wild flowers, the fresh cut hay in the near-by meadow. Go through it all minutely, resolutely. Don’t omit any detail.

Then begin on the creative phase of the imagination. Paint a picture in your mind, first, say a landscape—a view of a high mountain on the right, a great tree on the left, between the two a verdure clad hillside, beyond a lake, above a blue sky, low upon which hangs the setting sun. Add all the details which I have not space to enumerate.

Compose many pictures like this, taking time to put in every little bush and rock and cloud. Unless you make the picture vivid and complete, you will miss the real benefit of the exercise. Every picture ever painted has been thus elaborated in the imagination of the artist before it was objectified upon the canvas.

Next add action to your picture.

Upon the lake is a little sailboat containing a merry party. How many? How do they look? How are they dressed, etc.? Suddenly a squall comes up. The boat capsizes. Another boat puts out from shore and rescues the unfortunates. And so on.

One of the most interesting and valuable of exercises for the imagination is this: You are reading a book of fiction, and have reached, let us say, the end of the third chapter. Now sit down and write out of your own imagination a sequel to the story from the point at which you stopped reading. Who is going to marry whom? How is the villain to be punished? What is to become of the adventuress and so on. Write another sequel at the end of the fourth chapter. At the end of the fifth, the eighth, the tenth chapters do the same thing.

Now in this exercise, while the incidental literary practice is most valuable, the main point is to train the imagination. You should therefore think, imagine more than you write, setting out the rest of the story as you imagine it in brief simple terms and yet extended enough to be clear. Take much time. Better to work out one good, ingenious sequel in five hours than to spend twice that amount of time in doing hurried, blurred and incomplete work.

Lastly make up an entire story. Imagine your hero–if you like, a heroine. Develop your situation, and bring matters to a logical termination. It is best training for the mind (for all the other faculties’ as well as for the imagination) not to put the story into writing until it is completed in thought. Some of the most successful story writers follow this method, never committing the story to writing until it has been fully elaborated in the imagination. The best plan is to first block out in the imagination the general plot of the story. Then go over it again and again, elaborating the situations and adding details, until the whole story seems like an occurrence in your own personal experience.

Then write it out, making no special attempt at literary form, but striving only for clearness and exactness of description and detail. You may then make a second copy or even a third, if you like, with every writing trying to gain a more and more clear mental picture of the personages, scenes, and occurrences which make up your story.

A few hours a week devoted to study along lines which I have here sketched, will do wonders, not only in cultivating the power of imagination, but in developing every desirable quality of mind.

HOW TO CONCENTRATE THE ATTENTION

CHAPTER 6

Attention makes the genius.–Willmot.

Genius is merely continued attention.–Helvetius.

Attention is a sure mark of the superior genius.–Lord Chesterfield.

Attention is the stuff that memory is made of.–James Russell Lowell.

If I have made any improvement in the sciences it is owing more to patient attention than to anything else.—Sir
Isaac Newton.

CONCENTRATION of the attention is one of the master keys of power.

Without it one can accomplish nothing great or significant. The most perfect perceptions, the most retentive memory, the most daring and picturesque imagination–without concentration they can effect nothing. The principle of concentration may be well illustrated by a physical comparison. Suppose we take a football weighing four ounces and propel it through the air by means of the charge of powder generally used for a projectile of four ounces’ weight.

What effect will the impact of the football have? None whatever. But suppose we concentrate the four ounces’ weight into a sphere of lead less than half an inch in diameter and put behind it the same propulsive force–what then will happen? Now the difference between the football and the leaden bullet is the difference between diffusion and concentration–the difference between the impingement that is harmless and that which is deadly.

And so it is in the world of thought. The thoughts of some people are like a football–big, expanded by wordy wind, slow moving, ineffective; the thoughts of others are like bullets–concentrated, swift, direct, going straight to the center, without pause or hindrance.

“This one thing I do,” said that profound philosopher, Paul of Tarsus. And if we study the history of the world’s master spirits we shall find that this has been their policy. The uncouth butcher who pushed Charles I. from the throne and established a form of government based on moral principle instead of special right; the pallid, undersized French advocate who, in the hope of establishing his wild dream of democracy, sent the flower of French aristocracy walking up Dr. Guillotine’s stairway; the ignorant tinker who gave to the world what is perhaps the greatest allegory in profane literature; the undersized plebeian Corsican adventurer, who made himself master of the world–all these had for their motto the idea of concentration–”This one thing I do.”

Now what is meant by concentration of the attention, or, as it is some-times called, the power of attention? You see, in the kind of language which I am using to you, we do not attempt to express things with scientific precision; for that means the use not only of many, many words, but the introduction of many new, and to us, unnecessary words. So for our purpose we may use the terms, concentration, power of attention, concentration of attention, as if they meant the same thing–as they actually do.

What is Concentration?

Now what is concentration? In a word, concentration may be defined as being that state of mind in which the total and entire energies of the individual, physical as well as mental, are focused upon the thing he is doing or thinking. All actions and all thoughts not connected with what he is doing or thinking are kept out of the mind; and all his forces are bent upon the task in hand. He who can do this has concentration, has the power of attention. He who has not this power must acquire it before he can hope to do or be anything admirable or worthy in the world.

Any one who has performed any difficult feat of strength, such as lifting a heavy weight, “muscling” him-self up on the horizontal bar or trying to make a track record at the “hundred yard dash” or the “two-twenty,” will realize how large a factor in these muscular performances is the mere fact of concentration. In these, as well as in a great many other so-called physical feats, such as jumping, marksmanship, shot putting and so on, the slightest wandering of the mind from the work in hand is absolutely destructive of success. In acrobatic work, such as flying trapeze and flying rings, as well as in juggling and balancing, the same is true. Acrobatic jugglers and gymnasts are always masters of the art of attention–of concentration as applied to their special feats.

ATTENTION LARGELY A NEGATIVE ACT

CHAPTER 6 CONTINUED…

Now concentration is largely a negative process; it depends as much upon what you do not do, as upon what you do.

To take an example: You sit down to write a difficult letter. The trolley car whizzes by with its villainous “bangbang.” You are suddenly re-minded that you should have gone down town to get that book your wife wanted. But there’s the letter. You turn back to it. You write another line or two, and then–suddenly you hear the excited bark of little Fido, the Scotch terrier. You go to the window and look out. Nothing the matter–only another terrier not quite so Scotch across the street. You read back a few lines of your letter and start again. You don’t quite know what to say. Your eye wanders round the room. Ah, yes, that suit to be pressed. You attend to this matter. Then back to your letter. And so on. A half hour has passed, and the letter is only begun. Now this is a fair example of the lack of concentration–of a wandering mind. And such a habit of thought is an absolute bar to any achievement that is helpful either to one’s self or to the world at large.

And how shall this tendency be overcome? By what means may we gain the power of bringing every faculty of the mind to bear upon the task of the moment, without allowing any of our thought or attention to wander into other directions.

It is very simple–simple, but not at first easy. Merely refuse to let the mind wander. Be the master of your mind-of yourself. Remember what Milton says: “He who is master of himself is king of men.” But of course you want more specific directions than this. It is easy to say, “concentrate”; but you need to know exactly how to concentrate.

Remembering that attention is merely the act of applying the mind, the entire mind, to the task in hand, you will understand that the faithful practice of the various exercises advised in previous chapters of this series cannot but be of the greatest value as aids to the development of the power of attention. Every effort of the mind, whether to perceive, to recollect, to associate, to imagine, or to judge, must necessarily involve a concentration of the faculties of the mind upon that particular act, whatever it may be. So, first of all, I may assure you that the practices I have advised, if you have faithfully followed them, will have by this time notably increased your power of attention. As a matter of fact, such assurance on my part is superfluous; for if you have exercised as I have directed, you, yourself, will already have noted a marked change in this direction as well as in others.

Do not allow yourself to overlook the fact that whatever may be the mental act in which you are engaged, the act of attention is necessarily involved. There is no faculty of the mind in which you have so many opportunities of exercise.

So the first exercise I shall advise is that you go over carefully all the methods which I have detailed in the chapters on perception, memory, association, imagination, and judgment, making a special effort while doing them not to allow the mind to wander for a moment from the task in hand. This alone, if persistently and conscientiously done, would insure you a high degree of this splendid intellectual accomplishment.

One of the best methods I know for him or her who would begin at the beginning and learn to concentrate the attention is the following:-

Select some task, which, while simple, requires accuracy and close attention. A sum in addition or multiplication is well adapted for this purpose. Now settle yourself down to this; resolving that, until it is finished and verified, you will not allow the mind to take in, or at any rate hold, any other idea or picture whatever.

While adding or multiplying the figures, you will suddenly find that there pops into the mind some other idea-the clang of a bell (fire or the ambulance) ; a shouting on the street (a fight or a runaway); a thought of the landlady, your tailor, your grocer.

Now just here is where you are required to make the essential act of concentration–of trained attention. Shut the door on these outside thoughts.

Turn back to your work. For a time, at any rate, you cannot prevent the intrusion of extraneous thoughts; you can, however, resolutely refuse to allow them to remain in the mind. At first they will come, insistently, again and again, beating at the door of your consciousness. “Let me in; let me in,” they cry. “Never mind those stupid figures. I am more interesting. I am more important to you. You must, you ought, you’ve got to think of me. Let me in.” “But no,” says the trained mind. “This one thing I do. One thing at a time. I can think of but one object at once; and if I let you into my mind I can do justice neither to you nor to my task. Avaunt.” But the haunters do not retreat so easily. They return and return with incredible persistency. They pound at the door of your mind. They insist on intruding, and occasionally they get in.

Then–don’t worry or fret about them. Don’t let them bother or excite you. Don’t be discouraged. Simply bring the attention back to the original subject of thought. As Dr, William James, Professor of Psychology in Harvard, has said: “Effort of attention is the essential phenomenon of will.”

Another exercise for concentration of the attention is simply to count. Count one hundred beginning with 2 and adding three each time, e. g., 2, 5, 8, 11, 14, etc. Or, beginning with 2, add 6, 7, 9, 13, or 17 each time, e. g., 2, 8, 14, 20, etc.; 2, 9, 16, 23, 30, etc.; 2, 11, 20, 29, 38, etc. Or, beginning with 100, count downward, subtracting 3, 6, 7, 9, 11, 13, 17, or 19 each time, e. g., 100, 97, 94, 91, etc. All this may seem very simple. But you will find that, unless you already have a very finely developed power of attention, you will not at first be able to complete the hundred in any of these exercises without the entrance into the mind of vagrant, extraneous thoughts. By the time you are able to add or subtract freely in this way without any wandering of the attention, you may congratulate yourself on having acquired to an unusual degree the power of concentrated attention.

For the next exercise you will need about three dozen large sized blank cards: the best size is about three by five inches. Upon one of these cards write a number of four figures, such as 4357. Upon several others write four figures arranged in a square, as 47 and under that 93. Then on several cards write six figures, as 457, under which you place 236, or figures such as 47, 52, and 96 under each other. Other cards should contain from seven to ten numbers in a simple column.

Prepare a dozen of these cards’. Now to use them: Shuffle the cards, face downward. Draw one, give a rapid glance at its face, and then repeat aloud the numbers that you saw, first in the order in which they were written, i. e., 4357, then backward, 7534. Or, to take another card, repeat 47, 52, 96, in the order in which they appear. Then backward, 96, 52, 47; then go down the units column, 7, 2, 6, then up the tens column, 9, 5, 4, and so on.

After a few hours of practice such as this, you will begin to know the figures on each card by memory. This, while a good thing in one way, makes the exercise of less value as a training in concentration; so it will be necessary for you to make up another set. In the second set make a larger number of figures on each card, say something like 947, 853, 201, under each other, making a square of nine figures, or 94, 78, 53, 20, 16 in a column, or a line of twelve or fifteen single figures, arranged as for an example in addition.

After a period of practice with these cards you will find again that you are learning to remember the numbers from previous glances rather than from the one last glance. Then it is time to make another set. This time make your figure squares still larger. Run them up to squares like this: 4702, 3895, 6374, 9765, etc.; or make collections of numbers like 470, 238, 956, etc., making a list of perhaps five or six lines of three figures each. In my own experience along this line I have known of students who could remember with unerring fidelity a figure square consisting of sixty-four figures arranged in a square, as 48964325, 93842739, etc. It seems incredible; but it is entirely true that, after a time, it is quite as easy to recall a mental picture of sixty-four figures as of twelve or sixteen.

It is perhaps an improvement on the above described practice to have the assistance of another who will shuffle the cards and exhibit one for a fleeting second. Where you can get some one to work with you, it is a good plan for the assistant to read a few lines of prose–say about twenty words at first–which you afterwards repeat from memory. Or he may call out a list of words or figures to which you listen and which you afterward repeat.

And now for the last and most important exercise which I have to suggest. And I may say right here that if you practice persistently and conscientiously you will acquire the power of concentration to a greater degree and in a shorter time than by all other methods combined. This exercise, like most things that are great and important, is also very simple. It is this: Make every detail a work of art. Think this over. It means that you do everything–the most trivial acts–with strict and exclusive attention.

Are you lacing your boots? There is a way in which that homely little act can be performed more rapidly, easily, and satisfactorily than it can in any other way. Standing, walking, dressing one’s self, writing, shaking hands, shaving, handling knife and fork, opening a book–all these and a million other trivial acts–if done consciously and attentively, afford a training in concentration which it is absolutely impossible to gain in any other way. When asked by some inquisitive reporter the secret of his success, “Sunset” Cox replied: “I think it is my attention to detail. I pride myself upon the way I can wrap up a paper parcel.” This is the true spirit–”the pride of success.” Make every detail a work of art.

And then the gain! You develop not only the power of concentration. You develop perception, memory, association, imagination, will. And this is one of the most satisfactory results of the practice of mental training-in developing any one faculty you are at the same time developing others. But as regards concentration, when you are training that, you are at the same time training all the other powers of the mind.

PSYCHO-PHYSICAL DEVELOPMENT

CHAPTER 7

THE human body is one–an entity. In ordinary conversation we refer to the individual as if he or she were composed of three different elements, the physical, the mental, and the spiritual. In reality, however, these three are merely different phases of one form of activity. The spirit is the great omniscient, omnipotent, omnipresent, eternal thing which animates both mind and body. Mind and body in turn are merely representations of the action of the spirit. In the perfectly organized individual spirit, mind, and body would act together perfectly without friction, without effort, without the necessity for any special training.

There are, in fact, a few exceptional cases in which spirit, mind, and body act with some degree of harmony—in which the pure impersonal spirit (the Sat, the Atman, as the wise Hindus call it) acts in such a manner as to largely dominate the thoughts, feelings, and movements of the thindividual. These people we call geniuses—the shining ones of the ages.

This intimate interaction of body, mind, and spirit is the mystic “at-one-ment” so frequently referred to in the writings of the old philosophers, Egyptian, Hindoo, Chinese, and Hebraic. Such harmonious action once achieved, the individual is in immediate possession of health, strength, energy, beauty, and expressiveness

As Browning writes in “Paracelsus” :-

“There is an inmost centre in us all, where truth abides in fullness; and to know

Rather consists in opening out a way whence the imprisoned splendor may escape,

Than in effecting entry for a light supposed to be without.”

A wiser teacher than Browning said: “Seek ye first the Kingdom of Heaven and His righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.” The Kingdom of Heaven as used in this and other cases by Jesus undoubtedly refers to this mystic “at-one-ment” between spirit, mind, and body. “As a man thinketh in his heart so is he.”

Two Phases of Human Action.

In every human action there are two distinct phases–thought and motion.

Thoughts lie hidden in the gray caverns of the brain. They are potential, latent. Motions are physical, obvious. Every thought, every impulse, every emotion has its ellipsis in some action of the muscles; and when such thought, impulse, or emotion is perfectly expressed in muscular activity, we have the ideal human being. In this connection it may be appropriate to introduce two brief quotations from the writings of Professor William James of Harvard College.

He says: “There is no more valuable precept in moral education than this–if we wish to conquer undesirable emotional tendencies in ourselves, we must assiduously, and in the first instance cold-bloodedly, go through the outward movements of those contrary dispositions we prefer to cultivate. . . . . Smooth the brow, brighten the eye, contract the dorsal rather than the ventral aspect of the frame, and speak in the major key, pass the genial compliment and your heart must be frigid indeed if it does not gradually thaw.”

And in another place the same author has said: “No reception without reaction, no impression without correlative expression,–this is the great maxim which the teacher ought never to forget. An impression which simply flows in at the pupil’s eyes or ears, and in no way modifies the active life, is an impression gone to waste. It is physiologically incomplete.

It leaves no fruits behind it in the way of capacity acquired. Even as mere impression it fails to produce its proper effect upon the memory; for to remain fully among the acquisitions of this latter faculty, it must be wrought into the whole cycle of our operations. Its motor consequences are what clinch it. Some effect, due to it in the way of activity, must return to the mind in the form of the sensation of having acted, and connect itself with the impression. The most durable impressions, in fact, are those on account of which we speak or act, or else are inwardly convulsed.”

Of all the many evil effects of what we call civilization, the most blasting is that its general influence is to break up the close interrelation between thought and motion. In order to live the conventional life of the well-behaved man or woman one is compelled to constantly stifle and deny desires, impulses, thoughts, and such denial inevitably leads to injury of mind and body.

Relation of Mind and Body.

Mental activity simply means certain chemical and mechanical changes occurring in nervous matter. These changes occur not only in the nervous matter of the brain, but also in the nerves which cause muscular action.

This is a large subject and it is quite impossible within the limits of a work such as this to make it clear. It may be said at once, however, that each emotion and each thought has its corresponding output along the motor nerves–that each emotion and each thought has a muscular picture which is peculiar to itself. Now, if the muscles be free and flexible, the thought which occupies the higher nerve centers will be translated by a certain position of the muscles. In other words, a person marked by such peculiarity will be expressive and interesting. All the great singers, actors, and orators–all those most successful on the stage, in politics or in society–have been distinguished by this peculiar expressiveness.

EXERCISES

CHAPTER 7 CONTINUED…

In order to be expressive several things are requisite. The body must be erect, the joints and hinges of the body, as explained in previous chapters, being each in its proper place. There must have been acquired the habit of keeping the muscles in a state of relaxation and receptivity. Among the many exercises which the writer has employed for the purpose of developing this power are the few given herewith. A careful study and practice of these exercises can hardly fail to result in an increase in general expressiveness, health, and personality.

Exercise No. 1.

(Anticipation, pleasurable expectation.)

Imagine that some one is coming toward you whom you very much wished to see. You would naturally lean forward to greet him, extending one or both hands and smiling. Now, holding this idea, this mental picture, before the mind, allow the flexible body to show it forth in gesture, facial expression, and a few words of greeting spoken aloud. Exactly what you do does not in the least matter. Simply hold the thought so intently that for the moment you accept the imagined situation as real, and let the body go.

This exercise may be varied infinitely by changing the picture, always, however, imagining a situation such as will produce a feeling of pleasurable anticipation.

Exercise No. 2.

(Horror.)

Imagine that you are looking at some dangerous animal (a snake, if you are a man: if a woman, a mouse will answer every purpose) that you cannot escape. You naturally draw back in horror.

Like the former exercise, in this you are to forget the body entirely–to let it go–putting all your attention upon the imagined situation. In this exercise, as in the preceding, any situation may be invented which will induce the thought of horror.

Exercise No. 3.

(Joy.)
Imagine some situation which would awaken in you a state of joy and yield the body up to the feeling.

Exercise No. 4.

(Guilt.)

Try to imagine that you have committed some crime, say, for instance, theft. Imagine that you are brought before a judge and that you are pleading guilty and asking for mercy.

Allow this thought to permeate mind and body, showing by gestures and attitude your appreciation of the situation.

Exercise No. 5.

(Accusation.)

Imagine that some one has committed a crime against you; that you are facing him before a tribunal. Make your accusation, if necessary, in words, taking at the same time the attitude appropriate to this emotional state.

Exercise No. 6.

(Depression.)

Imagine such circumstances as would produce in you a feeling of depression and yield the body to it.

These exercises, although they may seem unusual, have powerful and far reaching results. That this is true any one may prove to himself in a week of faithful practice. It must be understood, however, that they cannot be properly practiced until the body has been made erect and thoroughly flexible by a persevering practice of the exercises described in preceding chapters.

As to mental images, literature and poetry afford many suggestions. David at the bier of Absalom, Hero over the body of Leander, Socrates drinking the cup of hemlock, Luther on the way to Worms, Hamlet before his father’s ghost, Robinson Crusoe when he discovers the footprint in the sand, Rip Van Winkle on awakening from his long sleep, Mark Antony in his speech to the Romans, Regulus parting from his wife and children–these and many other scenes afford vivid dramatic situations.

In all this work the great point is to subordinate the body, to make the body obedient, flexible, acquiescent, and interpretative of the mind. Those who are interested in any form of expressive art, dramatic, lyrical, or scenic, will find these simple exercises of value.

THE LOST ARTS OF CILDHOOD

CHAPTER 8

Except ye be converted and become little children ye shall not enter into kingdom of heaven.—Matthew 3. For of such is the kingdom of heaven. Matthew 19,14.

THE more deeply the man of science studies the sayings attributed to Jesus, the Seer of Judea, the more profoundly is he impressed not only by the brilliant intellect and wonderful oratory of Jesus, but by his marvelous insight into subjects which were in his time unknown even to the most lucid thinkers of ancient times.

In the history of the race two thousand years is not a very long time, and previous to the beginning of the Christian era there had been accomplished along lines of philosophical, physical, and cosmological research much more than, with all our boasted erudition, has been done since. In fact, some of our most striking discoveries are merely corroborations of knowledge of the Brahmins, the Chinese, the Phoenicians, and other of the ancient peoples who lived thousands of years before the alleged appearance of Jesus of Nazareth.

How much of this ancient knowledge Jesus possessed it is impossible to say–probably most if not all. One thing is certain: Some things he knew and said, which, so far as we know, were entirely original and iconoclastic. And one of these things, entirely new then (and almost entirely new now, for that matter) was to the effect that in child study we should find the key to the kingdom of heaven.

Now as I have explained elsewhere in these Sermons of a Scientist, the Kingdom of Heaven (or the Kingdom of God) is not a place where good people go when they die. The Kingdom of Heaven is a state of mind, of Spirit-that state in which spirit, therefore mind, therefore body, are all three in harmony with the Great Oversoul, and with His laws.

For us who are adults, who for three, four, or five decades have been guilty of the thousand, thousand crimes, physical, mental, spiritual, incidental to commonplace living for us it is necessary to be reborn to be radically changed in spirit, therefore in mind and body, before we can enter the Kingdom of Heaven, the physical realm of peace, rest, and power. So Jesus said to the disciples: “Verily I say unto you, except ye be converted and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the Kingdom of Heaven.” By which He meant exactly what He did when He said to Nicodemus: “Except a man be born again, he cannot see the Kingdom of God.”

Of the many millions that have, with close attention and deep reverence, read the words I have quoted, few, if any, have seen the clear, profound, practical wisdom of the statement of Jesus that only the man, the woman, who became as a little child, could enter into the realm of peace and power.

And now let us analyze a little. What is there about the child which we should emulate? What characteristics has the child, unpossessed by the adult which when developed in the adult will give entrance into the kingdom of God?

Mind you, it is not stated that children are in the Kingdom of Heaven. Nor can they be. They lack the actual knowledge, the experience, the poise. But it is in the experience, the hard and bitter experience which develops poise and power, that man loses the

simplicity, trustfulness, and tenderness of childhood. It is when, in addition to his adult powers, he achieves the lost arts and powers of childhood, that he enters the Kingdom of Heaven.

What Are the Lost Arts of Childhood?

Let us consider first some of the physical characteristics of normal childhood. The healthy child is remarkable for his erect body, his up-turned face, his clear and far-reaching voice, the ease and grace of his movements, his wonderful endurance. That these are among the normal powers of the average healthy child may be determined by a few minutes of close observation upon any playground. A moment’s thought will show how rare are such powers among adults.

The healthy child is erect. Therefore the chest is high and expanded, the body is carried like an erect column and the breathing is slow and deep. This gives the only conditions under which the normal tone of voice in song or speech can be reproduced. The erect carriage means that the joints and muscles of the body are in their normal and mechanical relation to each other.

So we have in the normal child movements which are at once rapid, graceful, and economical–so economical of vital force that the child’s endurance has passed into a proverb. Children will keep on romping for hours at a time without fatigue. But an adult who joins in their play will usually be tired out in ten or fifteen minutes. Why is this? Because the child moves properly and the adult does not move properly. Because bodily movement is one of the lost arts of childhood.

A MASTER OF THE DIFFICULT ART OF REST

CHAPTER 8 CONTINUED…

And then the ability to rest. The tired child throws himself down on the couch or floor or ground and rests. The tired adult, on the other hand, often fidgets, tosses, fumes, and worries because he can’t sleep. Then his sleep, when it comes, is not restful; and he awakens after eight or more hours quite as fatigued as when he went to bed. Few adults have retained from childhood the power to rest. For the power to rest is another one of the lost arts of childhood; and he who would enter the Kingdom of Heaven, the realm of peace, must be a master of the difficult art of rest.

The world is full of men and women whose most ardent ambition is to succeed in some art–music, painting, acting, writing. And out of the multitude who drudge laboriously, unrestingly at their chosen task how few succeed?

But–study the little children. Watch them at play, when they believe themselves unobserved. They are playing “house,” “school,” “church,” and so on. On no stage in the world will you find acting so true, so finished, so perfect an exposition of the actor’s conception of his part. From a purely technical standpoint, the dramatic work of the average healthy, intelligent child is beyond criticism–it is simply perfect.

And then the child’s moral and spiritual qualities. By nature he is absolutely truthful-truthful both in the sense of seeing the truth and of telling it–until he is seduced into lying by fear and bad example.

Michelet, that deep and tender philosopher, has said: “No consecrated absurdity of mankind would have survived one generation had not the man silenced the objection of the child.”

Do you remember the first lies they told you? How strange it seemed for people, people whom perhaps you loved and feared and worshiped with the pure, white hot intensity of the child–how strange for them to do that!

Soon, however, you learned to do it yourself, learned the fatal utility, the convenience of the lie. And so the angel with the flaming sword waved you away from the Eden of Unconquerable Innocence, and only after many years of wandering in waste places, only by being born again, may you re-enter Eden, the Kingdom of Heaven.

And, with the truthfulness of childhood, the simplicity, the kindliness, the democracy, the independence—all of these are among the lost powers of childhood and all of these we must achieve if we would possess the highest powers of body, mind, and spirit.

“Except ye become as a little child” no true power, physical, artistic, intellectual, spiritual, is possible. To him or her who in simplicity accepts the teaching, the kingdom is close at hand; and “a little child shall lead them.” The truly great of earth are not the ones most highly polished by conventional educational methods. On the other hand, they are often the lonely and the neglected. They have starved in garrets and dreamed in hovels; from squalid prison cells they have sent forth “thoughts that breathe”; under the silent stars they have conceived thoughts as high as the stars themselves. They are those who “through great tribulation” have been born again, and who, as little children, have entered into the realm of peace, wisdom, love, and power, the mystic Kingdom of Heaven.

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1. Mental Chemistry

What is fatal friction? It is anything you say or do that creates some sort of tension between you and another person, or an organization, which is so severe it is unlikely to ever go away. Once this fatal friction is there, your career, for the most part, will be permanently held back wherever you are working. You can create fatal friction by an inappropriate remark, an inappropriate action, by challenging a supervisor, by entering into an inappropriate relationship at work, and more.

Several years ago I took a trip to Yosemite with a law firm I was working with. One Friday afternoon the law firm rented a bus, and a bunch of attorneys who managed to get away for the weekend all piled into the bus and left from Los Angeles. The bus ride itself was uneventful and on Saturday morning at 5:30 a.m. everyone got up to go on a long hike up Half Dome. The hike took nearly the entire day.

As we all prepared for the hike that morning, I noticed one of the older attorneys in the firm speaking with a very attractive woman who seemed to probably be in her late 30s. I recognized her from somewhere, but could not remember her name. I figured I had seen her pictures in a legal magazine of some sort at one time, but I was not sure. I couldn’t help noticing that the older attorneys around this woman seemed to be acting very deferential towards her. For example, it was quite cold and she had not brought any gloves. A very important attorney in our firm took off his nice leather gloves and said:

“Here, take my gloves. I do not need them. My hands have a lot of blood in them and will stay warm.”

I had no idea what “a lot of blood” meant, but this statement was very funny and I remembered it. The woman took his gloves and as we huffed up the mountain the man went without his gloves.

I learned a short time later that the woman was one of the most important attorneys in the United States and was currently the General Counsel of a Fortune 500 company. In fact, I believe the company was probably within the 25 largest in the entire United States. The law firm had decided to invite her along for the trip.

The hike itself was a lot of fun and very scenic. It was the end of summer and the firm had brought along all of its summer associates who were, at the time, between their second and third years of law school. They were all extremely excited about the trip, and were in much better shape than many of the older attorneys they were hiking with. The summer associates were also on their very best behavior because they were hoping to impress the management of the firm and get offers from the law firm to spend more time working there.

After a long day of hiking up and down the mountain, I finally got down to the lodge area around 5:00 p.m. and I saw many of these summer associates sitting at a table, drinking beer. I had been sitting behind a desk 12 hours per day, not doing any exercise whatsoever for the past couple of years, and was absolutely exhausted after the hike. In fact, after this epic hike, I think I probably lost around 10 pounds. The hike was one of the most tiring things I had ever done. As I trudged past these summer associates, I noticed they appeared to have already taken showers, and were ready for a fun night. I noticed that there were two pitchers of beer on the table. Three of the associates were sharing one of the pitcher, and another associate was drinking directly from the second pitcher–without using a glass.

“It looks like you’re ready for a fun night!” I told him.

“I brought two bottles of Jägermeister for later!” he responded.

This young man was currently attending Harvard Law School and, without liquor in him, he was generally a pretty mellow sort of guy. However, by the end of the evening his experience in this law firm would come to an abrupt end as he, incredibly, ended up completely consuming those two full bottles of Jägermeister.

After dinner and throughout the rest of the evening this associate became increasingly drunk. The important General Counsel woman had decided it would be fun to sit outside one of the cabins with the summer associates, who were all enjoying the night. At some point, in his inebriated state, the drunken associate did something incredibly inappropriate involving his mouth and the woman’s breasts. From what I understand, for the people there it was one of the more memorable moments they had ever witnessed. However, it got worse as the drunk associate continued trying to hook up with the married General Counsel woman–and berating her as she tried to fend him off.

The next morning everyone got back on the bus. I saw several of the older attorneys gathered around the General Counsel woman apologizing to her in hushed tones, telling her how sorry they were and so forth. When everyone was on the bus, roll call was taken and the associate who had been so intoxicated the night before was nowhere to be found. For around 10 minutes we all sat on the bus, until finally the guy was hustled on to the bus by a couple of other summer associates. He had not showered and was covered in vomit. As soon as the bus started rolling, he ended up vomiting again.

As one could imagine, after this episode the young summer associate was not hired by the firm. He wandered around the office in his last few weeks there with no work to do, because no one wanted anything to do with him. It was a funny episode, to some extent, because it was about the most graphic episode I had ever witnessed that ended up getting someone not hired. However, this man’s example points out something that is all too common. The summer associate did what many other people commonly do in the workplace; he made the mistake of introducing “fatal friction” into his relationship with his employer, and this made it difficult (and eventually impossible) for him to continue working for the employer. The introduction of “fatal friction” is among the most damaging and harmful things that can happen to you in your career.

By fatal friction I mean creating a situation that is so troublesome that going forward in the future you are never going to be trusted, never going to be respected, or always have difficulty relating to people on the job. Just like so many other people, I too have been guilty of this sort of thing.

When I left my first law firm to go to a second one, a couple of partners in the law firm tried to get me to stay. One day one of the partners stopped by my office and asked me why I was leaving. He was someone I had had a little bit of anger towards, because he was married and having an affair with one of my coworkers at the time. He was also favoring her with the sort of work he was giving out, and overlooking her mistakes.

“There is no reason you should be leaving here. Why are you leaving?” he asked me.

I said something I will never forget and he would not either:

“Better work, better money and a better firm,” I told him.

“Ok,” he said, and he smiled and walked away.

A year and a half later I was working at another law firm, and I asked the law firm I had previously resigned from if I could come back. They said I could and I was planning on doing so. When this guy found out that I was planning on coming back he raised a big stink and was very upset about the prospect of me returning He told all of the partners in the law firm about what I had said when I left. Just by repeating to the other partners what I had said back then, the partner had introduced a “fatal friction” into the situation, which ended up ruining the prospect of me returning to the firm.

I have had people quit our company and, in the process, conduct themselves horribly. Then, for years later, I receive calls and emails from other companies that are interviewing these people for new positions. I am never sure what to say about these people because they created all sorts of tension at the end of my working relationship with them.

“Would you hire this person again?” they always ask.

“I want to tell you about what a great job this person did on a certain project, and how much a coworker of mine respected the work they did,” I might say. I will then launch into a 15-minute monologue about something I like about the person. I have learned that it is never a good idea to say bad things about other people because it can come back and bite you. I always try to say nice things about people. I look for the good but, admittedly, this is not easy to do under all circumstances. Nevertheless, when someone creates “fatal tension” in their workplace, it is never a good thing. I had to learn this lesson the hard way in my life.

Several years ago I was out for a dinner in New York City with a man, his wife and a few other people I knew. As we started talking, the man mentioned that he had grown up in the same town I did. We started discussing different people that we knew. Then he mentioned someone that I knew that had put me in a very uncomfortable situation on one occasion. I had been over at his house and he had come on to me. When he asked me if I knew the person, I said something to the effect of: “I sure do. Did he invite you over to his house and come on to you too?” Since we were sharing stories about various people at the time, I did not think I had done anything all that bad.

The table went silent, and I sort of looked around, unaware of what was occurring.

“What’s wrong?” I asked. I did not understand why the table had suddenly gotten so quiet.

“He’s my younger brother,” the man said.

I was absolutely stunned. I did not know what to do. While the situation I described had in fact occurred, I had done something that would forever create fatal tension between this man and myself. A couple of years later this man had risen to a position of significant power and influence in the industry I was in, and because of what I had said at dinner that one time, I never was in a position to ask for his assistance with anything.

You can never be happy and you can never achieve what you are capable of if you are constantly in conflict with others. If you offend others, you can never be as successful as you are capable of being, or live the life you are capable of living. Friction is the worst possible thing that you can create in your relationships. When you create friction, you make it impossible for things to work out the way they can for you and, instead, you make it impossible for things to work out.

• Have you ever been in a situation wherein you did something that upset people?
• Have you ever known someone who seems to make mistakes and upset people everywhere they go?

I have known people who cannot drive down the street without getting angry with people and occasionally yelling at other cars. I’ve known people who go into most social situations and get angry about one person or another. I know people who go to work and always get angry with their bosses for one reason or another. There are people out there who are always in conflict about one thing or another, and who are always introducing tension into virtually every situation they get into.

It is impossible to reach your full potential if you are introducing tension into your situation. Tension, feeling threatened, insulting others and more are all things that will hold you back to an incredible degree in everything you ever do. In your career, it is extremely important that you not only avoid creating fatal friction, but you also avoid the sorts of people that do. I review the résumés of people every day and speak with people who have been moving between various jobs for years, creating tension with one employer after another. Many people do this in their personal relationships as well. You will never reach your full potential as long as you are introducing this sort of friction into your career and the people in your life.

You need to move through life and your career doing everything you can to avoid introducing fatal friction between you and others.

Related posts:

1. Avoid the Complexity Creep
2. The Importance of Creating and Maintaining Value
3. The Importance of Finding and Creating Demand

I became aware of how prevalent this attitude is on a recent trip.

A few days ago I was on a flight from Los Angeles to Chicago, where I was going to attend a recruiting conference. When the flight took off, the stewardesses went around and served everyone drinks and then closed a curtain and took their seats in the back of the cabin. There they started discussing some airlines union and some events occurring in the aviation industry, and they were clipping coupons.

“Those pilots that lost their jobs and flew 100 miles past Minneapolis and forgot to land the plane…do you know what they were doing?” one stewardess asked the other.

“A friend who knows a stewardess that was on that plan told me they were surfing the Internet and that is why they did not notice where they were. They were so engrossed in the Internet.”

“I heard the same thing.”

There is Internet on many airplanes now, and from what I have heard, once the flight takes off, many pilots like to take out their notebook computers and start surfing the Internet. Based on this “inside information” I learned on the flight, apparently a couple of pilots had been more interested in surfing the Internet than they had been in flying a giant airplane, and they had hurtled past their destination at over 500 miles an hour. They had not even heard air traffic control for an hour. Apparently the situation became so serious that the air force had prepared to send fighter planes into the air, in order to intercept the airplane. This was all because the pilots were doing something other than their jobs.

There was a woman sitting next to me who overheard this conversation as well, because the stewardesses were speaking so loud:

“I have a friend who is an executive at Virgin Atlantic. He was traveling between between London and New York a few weeks ago and he got in trouble for not being logged in during the flight, and sleeping instead. They now expect their executives to be working during the flight if it is during business hours, not napping and enjoying themselves. Can you believe the nerve? He is so upset he is going to look for another job.”

The woman seemed to be saying that she thought it was something of an “outrage” that people who were being paid while flying should also be expected to do work while in transit. Apparently, before there was Internet on airplanes, the executives who were flying around on company business could be out of touch, and no one would know whether they were working or not. Now, with Internet on airplanes, the executives can all be connected with their bosses and others with Instant Messenger, email and so forth, and they are expected to be working if they are flying during business hours. This woman essentially seemed to be upset that these executives were expected to both work and get paid for working.

For at least two hours, behind a curtain in the back of the airplane, the two stewardesses sat there clipping coupons and discussing the union, unfair working conditions and so forth. Since I was seated at the very back of the plane with them, I could hear their entire conversation, and all their gripes about management. I asked one of the stewardesses for a glass of water at one point during the flight and she sighed and put down a giant arrangement of coupons she had been working on. She then got up and continued talking to the other stewardess without saying a word to me, handed me the water and sat down again with her coupons.

I looked at the coupons she was clipping and noticed that she had put some major effort into the work. In fact, after being rudely handed my water, I realized that the two stewardesses were actually trading coupons:

“I do not eat cheese because I am lactose intolerant. Do you have anything you can trade me for this Kraft Cheese coupon?” one asked.

“Of course. Do you wear contacts or not? I have a coupon for contact lens solution,” the other chimed in.

These two stewardesses had come to work with giant coupon collections to trade back and forth during their work. I could only assume that they were being paid while flying, and that they had coordinated turning the little airplane galley into their own personal trading post.

When I fly by carriers like Singapore Airlines, the stewardesses are circulating all the time. If they see someone who looks like they are trying to take a nap, they will offer a pillow or a blanket. If someone has finished a drink, they will offer a refill. They are constantly picking up trash, making sure the bathrooms are cleaned and more. In short, the stewardesses are engaged with their work, and even seem to like their jobs.

An airplane is a little ecosystem, and for the people who work there it is an office as well. However, the more I thought about it, the more I realized how many people out there simply are not doing their jobs, and are not grateful for the work that they have. Pilots surfing the Internet, stewardesses clipping coupons, executives being expected to work while flying–and everyone complaining about work, these are all examples of people who are not engaged with their work.

As I listened to the stewardesses talk, I could not help thinking that, instead of clipping coupons and complaining about their jobs while working, maybe they should have been doing their jobs. Maybe they should be grateful for the jobs that they have. In the course of the flight, I had encountered and learned about:

• pilots who were more concerned with surfing the Internet than flying an airplane,
• an executive with a major airline looking for a new job, because he is upset about being expected to work while flying during business hours,
• two stewardesses who came to work to trade coupons and complain about their jobs,
• a passenger next to me who was “outraged” that someone she knows who works at an airline is expected to both work and be paid at the same time.

I filed this information away and then, when my airplane landed, I picked up my bags and went to get a hotel shuttle to the airport hotel. I arrived later in the evening on a Sunday, and the airport was very quiet. The shuttles were supposed to come by every 15 minutes. I stood outside in the cold for at least 25 minutes, next to where the hotel shuttle was supposed to pick me up. After 30 minutes or so, I called the hotel:

“It says the hotel shuttle is supposed to be here every 15 minutes,” I told the front desk.

“Hold on,” the front desk told me.

The front desk came back and explained that the shuttle driver said he had been there once already within the past 15 minutes and would be back in 15 more minutes.

“You must have just missed him the first time he was there, and then ‘been distracted’ and missed him the second time he was there,” the front desk person informed me.

This did not make any sense, since I had been standing there for 30 minutes, and the shuttle theoretically should have come twice during this period of time.

Five minutes later the shuttle pulled up.

“I was right here 15 minutes ago!” the shuttle driver told me. He looked a little guilty and concerned.

“No you weren’t,” I told him. “This is a giant bus there is no way I could have missed you. I was standing right here.”

The drive to the hotel was quiet. I realized that, since it was Sunday evening, the driver probably figured no one would be arriving and took a break or something while being paid, instead of swinging around to pick me up. I figured that the airport shuttle bus driver had figured out how to not work and be paid at the same time, just like everyone else seemed to want to do.

I have been driven around in these little airport shuttles with people who are enthusiastic about their jobs before. They chat with you and talk about the city you are visiting, local attractions, how busy the airport is and more. They grab your bags and help you put them in the shuttle. They welcome you to the city you are in, recommend restaurants and send you on your way, better off for having seen them. They are excited about their jobs and the work that they are doing.

When I got to the recruiting conference I was attending I went to several presentations. At a couple of the presentations, recruiters were discussing how social networking sites like LinkedIn, Facebook and so forth are really good tools for recruiting candidates. One recruiter got up and started talking about some incredible statistics regarding how much time the average worker spends on social networking Websites each day while at work. I do not remember how much time it was; however, it was at least an hour. The recruiter had a little graph that showed the amount of time and the number of people spending time on social networking sites, which is continually increasing as time goes on.

“Many employers have ‘gotten wise’ to this,” one recruiter said. “They are now blocking people from using various social networking sites at work.”

As I listened to this presentation, I started to think again about how many people are actually not doing work while they are at work. Instead of working, employers are dealing with the problem of people who are not doing their jobs, because they are busy screwing around on social networks. This seemed pretty amazing to me. The graphs I saw showed these statistics going up and up, as more and more people spend more and more time not working and, instead, screwing around.

The seminar I was attending lasted from Monday through Wednesday. There was an exhibit hall set up in a big auditorium for all sorts of companies that service the recruiting industry. Some of the companies there were giant businesses that had sent employees to man the booths. Others were smaller companies of a few people, and the owner of the business was typically there with a few employees.

The conference ended around 3:30 p.m. on Wednesday. When I had arrived at the conference on Wednesday morning, however, I noticed that many of the exhibitors were already taking apart their booths. By 12:00 noon more than half of the exhibitors had completely taken down their booths. I noticed a pattern with all of this: The only exhibitors who had taken down their booths were large companies that had sent employees to the conference to exhibit. Smaller companies, the ones that seemed to be run and owned by only a few people, kept their exhibits up for as long as possible, until the conference was actually over.

What this showed me is that the employees of the larger companies were trying to get out of the conference as soon as possible, so they could avoid work. Since the owners of the smaller companies were at the conference, the employees of the smaller companies had no way to avoid working.

In these few days, I saw so many people avoiding work. All around us there are all sorts of people who are avoiding work and not carrying their weight, and then there are people out there who are doing the work. Which side of the equation are you on? You need to be engaged with the work you do and you should never, ever be avoiding work. If you find yourself avoiding work, then you are probably in the wrong job. Looking for reasons not to be productive, and distracting yourself with other things is a very bad sign.

More than the work not being what you want, though, there is another component that merits even more examination: That component is YOU. Your work and your satisfaction and engagement with your work will largely be a product of how you see your work. Do you see your work as good, or do you see it as bad?

When I was in college, I spent my first year in a dorm that was in the process of being scheduled for demolition, because it was so old and worn down. It had been built very cheaply and everyone used to talk about what a dump it was, how they did not want to be housed there and so forth. People used to complain about it constantly. When I found out that I had to spend my first year of college there, I had several choices: One, I could embrace it and get excited; or, Two, I could hate and despise it, like everyone else seemed to.

I made the decision to like the dorm. The dorm had a huge cavernous basement that people used to call “scary”, and all sorts of similar things. I decided that this basement would make a great running track for me, and I ran around it all winter, whenever I wanted to exercise. I never had to go to the gym. I found tons of little things about this dorm to appreciate, and probably ended up being the only person who was truly sad to see the dorm go when it was finally demolished.

Everything is like this. Your job is how you choose to see it. You can look at your job and see it as bleak, or you can look at it as fun and exciting. You can choose to work and be engaged in what you do, or you can choose to avoid work and despise what you do.

The people I encountered on my trip, and all of the people out there who are consistently avoiding work will never amount to anything. This is not how you get ahead in the world–it is how you fall back and sink into a life and career marked by frustration, pain and negativity. These are the sorts of people who cause trouble for companies, who collectively force bankruptcies, who are the first to be laid off, and who have the most unsatisfying careers and lives. Be someone who is engaged with work, not someone who avoids work.

Related posts:

1. The Most Valuable Work Is Work That Repeats Itself
2. Find Joy in Your Life’s Work–and Never Be Without Work
3. Love People Who Give You Work and Love Your Work

One of the most important lessons for our lives and careers comes from the Parthenon in Greece. The Parthenon has been standing in the same location for almost 2,500 years and is considered one of the world’s great cultural monuments. It is largely because of the Parthenon’s multiple columns that the Parthenon has survived for so long. If you understand and employ the lessons of the Parthenon, you should never have any issues with feeling secure in your career and life.

I personally have run my career according to what I call the Parthenon Principle (the “Principle”). I define the Principle as the following:

Your career needs to be supported by multiple pillars. The more pillars that support your career, the better. If you are in a situation wherein you are supported by just one pillar or just a few, you are in danger and need to make sure you get more pillars.

I left a job as an asphalt contractor to be an attorney due to the Principle. I left the first law firm I worked for due to the Principle, and I left the second law firm due to this Principle. I run my career right now due to the Principle. The Principle is something that can guide your life and enrich your career as well, and it is something you should always be aware of. The more you understand and employ the Principle, the better off you will be. Here are some of the rewards for understanding and guiding your career under the Principle:

• If you lose your job, you do not care for the most part.
• If you do not get an important job, you do not care for the most part.
• If a business you are involved in fails, you do not care for the most part.
• If something happens in one part of your career, you do not care.

The rewards gained from understanding the Principle are profound. Over the past year, for example, I have seen incredible reversals of fortune in two businesses I operate–a student loan business and a recruiting business. The financial losses from these have been millions of dollars a month. While the loss of jobs and business from this has been painful, other businesses have picked up the slack, and I have been largely unaffected. I feel as secure today as I felt before this turn of events. I feel this way because I am running my career according to the Principle. The scariest and worst thing I believe I could do for myself would be to support my companies on one pillar alone. At all points in time, I have multiple businesses running, and this enables me to feel secure. In fact, I would say I feel more secure than the CEOs of most Fortune 500 companies because I have tried to create a Parthenon with my own career. You should do the same.

The Parthenon represents the fact that we cannot just do things in one way in any pursuit, and rely upon that one way of doing things. We cannot be dependent upon any single method of support in our careers. If we are to rely upon one way of doing things, then we are taking a massive gamble. A career and life needs to be supported in multiple ways and through multiple outlets. Being overly dependent for your income on one data point is extremely dangerous.

For example, about 18 months ago I was in the student loan business, and this was my largest business. Overnight, the value of student loans on Wall Street went almost to zero. The government changed the compensation that student loan lenders could receive. I was almost entirely put out of business overnight. At the time, our company had probably $20,000,000 in real estate and other assets dedicated to this business. We had hundreds of employees who were dealing with this business in one form or another. Then overnight everything changed. The business stopped operating, and even the company’s real estate holdings lost probably half of their value within the following 12 months.

We pulled through this catastrophe quite easily and without too much difficulty because we were anchored by so many other businesses.

Then something else happened. Our second largest business, a large group of recruiting companies, experienced a dramatic and devastating loss in revenue. The company coughed a bit due to this, but has since pulled through just fine due to even more businesses that we have started. Due to the Principle again, the business ended up being fine because there were so many other companies there to pick up the financial slack. This is how it is with the Principle: Multiple pillars help you survive. This does not just apply to companies. It also applies to you and your career.

About a decade ago, I was sitting in my office in front of a computer and I received an email, and everyone in the office received the same message. In the subject line it said something like “All Personnel: Partnership Class Decisions”. At the time, I was in my third year of practicing law and I was very dedicated (at least, I thought) to what I was doing. The Holy Grail for young attorneys is to become a partner in a law firm. Attorneys go to college and work and compete very hard to get into the best law schools. Then they go to law school and continue to work and compete very hard. Only the best attorneys from the best schools typically get jobs with the best law firms, and very few of the attorneys who go to work in the best law firms ever end up becoming partner in these “best law firms”. The entire process is extremely difficult. Once an attorney is inside one of these law firms, he or she typically needs to dedicate himself or herself to the work with a great passion, in order to succeed. It is not uncommon for these attorneys to work 3,000 hours a year for many years in order to become partners.

When this email came into my inbox, you could hear the entire office go silent as everyone started reading it. Although the subject line of the email mentioned “All Personnel”, the more I read the email, the more I realized that this email was not something I should have been reading. It should have been addressed to “All Partners”. Someone had made a terrible mistake. While I am reconstructing this from memory, I remember that the email contained statements such as the following:

Jack will not quit if we do not make him partner this year. We have decided to string him along until next year at which point we will make him partner. He is clearly material to be a partner in our firm right now but we will delay making him a partner yet one more year.

Cindy is someone who is not partner material in our firm. Nevertheless, the decision has been made that until she quits, or otherwise leaves, we will let her know that she should “keep trying,” and in the outside chance that she does leave, she is easily replaceable.

The email then listed various individuals who would be made partner that year, and a smattering of people who would not make partner and would be asked to leave the firm. I could not believe what I was reading. A few minutes later, all of the computers in the building were turned off by some sort of remote switch. Someone had made a terrible mistake by sending out this particular email to everybody. Incredibly, a couple of days later, the head of the law firm sent an email to everyone implying they had fired the head of human resources for sending this email.

There was someone in our office in Los Angeles that I referred to as “Jack” in the quote above. He was one of the more solid and good guys I had ever known, and I liked him a great deal. He had been working in the law firm for over a decade and was then in his fourteenth year of practice or so. It is rare for someone to be an “associate” and not a “partner” for fourteen years and not leave the law firm or decide to do something else altogether, but Jack was someone who was solid and really stuck things out. I remember walking by his office the day the email had gone out, and he had a noticeable perk to him that was absent before. I think he was on the phone with his wife and telling her about what had just happened.

Over the next year, an incredible number of changes occurred within the law firm. The most important change was that the power structure within the law firm was reorganized. An important partner from another law firm, whom I’ll call “Robert”, had come over and assumed leadership of the office. Under Robert’s leadership, the firm was eliminating many of the attorneys who had been there before his arrival, and Robert also ensured that many of the attorneys he had brought with him were placed into the partnership ranks.

The next year when partnership decisions were handed out, Robert made partner a few young associates he had brought with him from the other firm, but not Jack. The day after Jack learned that he had not made partner, he reported to work as usual and was in his office that morning. Robert came into his office and asked Jack to do a very simple assignment that an attorney with six months of experience should have been doing–not someone with 15+ years of experience. Jack responded with some hostility. From what I heard, Jack said something like the following:

“You know, I am a little upset right now because I have been working here over a decade and believed I was going to be made a partner in this law firm yesterday. I am not sure why you are demeaning me by giving me this work right now. I am pretty upset right now, and would rather not deal with you while I am upset.”

Robert apparently looked at him for around 10 seconds and said “okay” and then walked away. Less than 30 minutes later, Robert walked into Jack’s office and said something along the lines of the following:

“I have two pieces of paper here. One is a check for $30,000. The other is a severance agreement for you to sign that says you will not sue us. If you sign the severance agreement you can have the check. If you do not want to sign the agreement you cannot have the check, and you are fired. Either way, I want you to be out of the office within the next 15 minutes and never come back.”

Robert may very well have had good reasons for doing this to Jack, but the episode was quite alarming for me to hear. It was astonishing to me how a 10+ year career could just come to a screeching halt like this. The good news is that Jack was able to find another job eventually, and everything ended up being okay. However, I have seen similar things happen to scores of other attorneys, and it does not always turn out okay. Many of those people did not find other jobs for a long, long time.

What is the lesson of this? Under the Principle, you need to have many options available to you at any given time, and it is dangerous to put all of your eggs in one basket. Here, Jack was entirely dependent upon the whim of one law firm and their decisions about what happened to him. He also did not have numerous clients at the time. If he had had numerous clients and were he not as dependent upon the law firm for most of his work, he would have had better leverage. He could have left the law firm and easily made money with those clients. However, Jack did not have any of these things, and it held him back.

The Principle demands that you give yourself multiple methods of support in your career. If you want to be a lawyer, that is fine; however, you better be sure that your career is not entirely dependent upon the whims of one person. You need to have clients or a skill so profound that you can help dictate the terms of your career. The more you support yourself with multiple methods of doing things, the better off you will be.

This is why the Parthenon survives to this day. Its weight is supported in multiple ways, by so many pillars.

The Greeks built the Parthenon to celebrate their victory over the Persians, and it was completed in 432 B.C.

Over the course of the next 1,000 years, this building was a temple to the Goddess Athena.

• Sometime in the Sixth Century the Parthenon was converted to a Christian church.
• In 1456, after Athens fell to the Ottomans, the Parthenon was converted into a mosque. The Ottomans added a minaret to the Parthenon; however, the building was not further modified.
• In 1687, the Venetians attacked Athens and the Ottomans used the Parthenon to store gun powder. The Parthenon was hit with a shell and the gun powder exploded destroying much of the building. But the Parthenon still survived and is still standing today.

The Parthenon is now a massive tourist destination. The building just keeps providing value no matter what age it is, and it is all due to those columns. If there were not so many columns, it would not still be standing. You too need to provide value and run your career in such a way that you are always providing value.

Although I am an attorney, I originally did not want to go to law school and become an attorney. Instead, my dream was to be an asphalt contractor. The problem with me being an asphalt contractor, though, was that my skin was not very good at being out in the sun and, specifically, on asphalt in the sun. As an asphalt contractor you need to work on black pavement all day around smoking hot asphalt. The black asphalt really absorbs the sun and it is not the equivalent of being out on a sports field, for example. It is much worse. I would get so sunburned being outdoors that several times a summer I would literally physically have to peel a layer of my skin off that had become very burned. My face was constantly coated with zincs and all sorts of lotions to keep the sun out as much as possible. Being outdoors on hot asphalt was not something I believed my body could handle over the long term.

“You would do fine being an asphalt contractor,” I remember a relative saying to me one day. “But your body probably would not, and you could not last doing this.”

So I decided to practice law instead, where I could work mainly indoors. You need to choose what you are doing and your career based on the idea that you can keep doing it forever, and will not be stopped. You do not want to be stopped by the sun, by one person who does not like you, or anything for that matter. You need to run your career in such a way that you are supported like the Parthenon and can adapt to all climates.

One of the interesting characteristics of the Parthenon and its columns is that they were designed to be thicker at their bases than they are at the top. Architecturally this was done so that they would appear taller when standing at the base of the Parthenon. This creates an optical illusion for people visiting the Parthenon and portrays more strength and height than really exists. In your career and life, you need to be supported with a strong foundation and always need to be portraying strength. The less weaknesses you have, the better.

Although it occurred a long time ago, most Americans remember the controversy surrounding Tanya Harding and Nancy Kerrigan in the 1994 US Figure Skating Championship in Detroit. Here, acquaintances of Harding struck Kerrigan on the knee after a practice. Both skaters became almost overnight celebrities due to this particular incident. In my mind, what makes this so interesting is that it highlights the incredible vulnerability that many people have in their careers. The idea that a career could be taken down by a blow to the knee is a dangerous lesson. In our careers, it is extremely important that we are not just dependent upon a knee, or one potential outlet. We need multiple outlets in order to succeed.

One of the saddest things that I regularly read about is the careers of child stars who end up not succeeding later in life. I have heard about some becoming robbers and having similar problems after having had incredibly successful careers when they were younger. There are also stories of young stars who have ended up having great careers when they are older, but these stories seem less common. The idea that I am trying to stress is this: if you do not have other options in your career and job search, then you are making a horrible decision. Your career needs to be supported with multiple pillars because the idea of long-term security should factor into how you run your career.

My first legal job was with a law firm and group of people whom I really liked. However, the longer I was at the law firm, the more I realized that I would never be able to run my career from the standpoint of the Principle. The business and clients that came into the law firm came primarily from two or three very powerful partners who earned millions of dollars per year. The other partners in the law firm were partners in the sense they had titles but they really did not have any business for the most part. Consequently, their careers were controlled by those with clients. While my perception may have been off a bit, the idea I got while working in this law firm was that the partners had so much work that they were not really looking for others to bring more clients into their business. Instead, they were most interested in worker bees whom they could control. The firm had so much work that the worker bees did not have any time to go out and meet people and get business. It was largely due to this reason that I left this firm; I did not see much of a future in it. The primary partners were, at the time, making twenty-five times as much money, in some cases, as the other partners. The idea of continuing to work in a firm wherein I would be so dependent upon a few people above me did not appeal to me.

The challenge of all of our careers is to be supported like the Parthenon on numerous columns and with numerous potential sources of work, should one source fail. You should never allow yourself to be boxed in by being dependent upon just one person, skill or income stream for your success. If you are an attorney, you probably need to have lots of clients. If you are in a company, you need to have lots of allies. If you are good at one thing, you need to make sure that you have other skills, in case whatever job you are doing becomes obsolete. You do not want to be vulnerable to any one person, or to the economy.

I left the practice of law and eventually went into recruiting because, for me, this seemed like something that was more in accordance with the Principle.

• First, I felt the profession was safe because recruiting has been around in one form or another for thousands of years.
• Secondly, I knew I could be diversified because I would have several candidates at one time, whom I could work with and, since recruiters get paid if and when a person gets a job, I knew that if one person did not get a job, another person would.
• Third, I knew that since the job required me to find candidates, and my success would be determined based on this skill, I would not be dependent upon another person to give me work.
• Fourth, I knew that I could work with numerous law firms and not just one, and this would give me extra support.
• Fifth, I knew that since I was working with law firms, even if the economy was poor, there would still be business and recruitment opportunities. When one practice area in a law firm is doing poorly during a recession, another is doing well. For example, corporate work may dry up in law firms during a recession but bankruptcy will take off.

This is an example of a career that uses the Parthenon. Eventually, to keep this business going in all economic climates, I started other businesses that supported this business when it slowed down, despite the support it had. Year after year, I have had an enjoyable career that is without a lot of stops and starts, due to my understanding of the Principle.

You too need to use the Principle in your own career. Support your career and life with multiple pillars.

Related posts:

1. Treating Your Career Like A Small Business
2. The Importance of Fitting In
3. Group Rules, Walking Off, Suffering, and Your Career

They reassembled the Steinway Piano so they could return it as well. When they reassembled the piano, however, the same thing happened: only a thud came out when they tried to play it.

This is how it is with many people and businesses. We only look at the results, and not the process that goes into creating a particular result. In order to build a piano, you need to have studied instrument- making for some time, and to really understand a lot about the process. You also need to understand and study musical theory. It could take generations for a family to become proficient in making a great piano. There is just so much that goes into it.

This is how it is with everything. You cannot just call yourself a piano company and start making pianos. You cannot just decide that you want to do something and expect immediate success just by trying to copy an outcome. You need to understand the complete process that goes into what you are trying to do.

My first year as a legal recruiter, I generated over $1,000,000 in fees. This means, essentially, that for the work I did personally, I sent out over $1,000,000 in bills to law firms for my services. Since the average bill for recruiting back then was probably around $30,000 or so, this means that I made a tremendous number of placements. When you are doing well, it tends to attract more business to you.

Within a few months, I had hired various people to help me with recruiting, and pretty soon the word had gotten around that our team was really good. Soon after that, various local attorneys around Los Angeles started calling me. Several people I know of copied me and went into the business only to fail pretty quickly.

I loved recruiting and I am sure I had some natural skills for it. However, by the time I started recruiting in an office, I had already essentially been doing the job in one capacity or another for almost 15 years. Since a young age, I had run an asphalt business that had required me to sell door-to-door to people, businesses and others. Sales skills were really important in that business. While asphalt and recruiting are very different in many respects, in actuality they have a tremendous number of similarities. Here is the biggest similarity:

If you emphasize the process over the results in the recruiting and asphalt business, you will succeed.

One of the biggest mistakes many people make in business is emphasizing results over process, or style over substance. The more people concentrate on the process and substance of their work, the better they do:

• The more people concentrate on their intended results, the worse they do in the long run.
• The most successful job seekers are the ones who have the ability to excel in their work process.
• The most successful companies are the ones who have the ability to excel in their work process.
• The most successful workers and employees are the ones who have the ability to excel in their work process.
• The most successful asphalt contractors are the ones who concentrate on their work process.
• The most successful legal recruiters are the ones who concentrate on their work process.

I am not saying that results do not matter; they do. But what ultimately matters most, and what makes people successful is focusing on the process and how things are done.

A lot of the problems in the American economy have been caused by a massive emphasis on results rather than process. For example, the Wall Street practice of emphasizing quarter-by-quarter profits and gains has been extremely dangerous to our company in numerous respects.

I believe that in business, in your job search, and in everything else–process is the most important thing. It is how you do things that matters, and not just the result you hope to attain.

Process in the Asphalt Sealing Business. In the asphalt sealing business there is essentially one thing you are doing: You are putting black stuff on people’s asphalt and then leaving.

This is the result of what happens when you do the work. This is what most contractors and others concentrate on, and it is why most of them fail or eek out poor livings at best.

In the asphalt sealing business, there are a lot of tricks that contractors can do. When you are putting asphalt sealer on a driveway or parking lot, essentially what you are working with is a black coating that fills in cracks and pores and makes the surface look good. More importantly, the coating serves to protect the surface from oil spills and other things. This material is typically purchased from a factory in a raw state, when it is very heavy and thick like molasses. The contractor has to water down the material in order to make it the proper consistency to be used on asphalt.

From the consumer’s point of view, it does not matter how much water you put into this concoction, within limits. After the material dries on someone’s asphalt, it is generally going to look quite similar, regardless as to how much water was used in the mix. Contractors can save a tremendous amount of money by watering the material down more heavily. This is something that many contractors do. The difference is that a few months later, the material that has been applied ends up looking very bad, which does not do the customer much good.

There are other tricks of the trade as well. One of the most outrageous scenarios involves people traveling from city to city purchasing used motor oil (which used to be practically free) and then putting this on peoples’ driveways and parking lots. They would get paid for the work, and the customer would have a piece of pavement that looked decent when the “contractors” left, but the asphalt would never dry and the job would end up having been a complete waste of money and time.

Here are some other tricks of the trade:

• There are chemical thickeners you can buy to bulk up watered down sealer, for example.
• Using a squeegee will apply much more sealer than a brush, but it costs more.
• You can fill cracks with sand instead of tar (which is more expensive).
• It is better to put the material on when the asphalt is cool because it can cure longer (but this means you cannot work when the asphalt is hot, unless you have cooled it).

I could create a long list of the various things that contractors do to cut corners when they are doing this work. However, it is really never a good idea to cut corners. This is what most people and contractors do, however.

Asphalt contractors who emphasize the process of the work they are doing always do much better in the long run. They come back and work for people year after year. There is a certain confidence they exude in their work. They are craftsmen, not salesmen. They take pride in their work. They build careers, and meaningful careers at that. You can do very well financially (and in many other ways) as an asphalt contractor. However, very few people truly do well in the asphalt business. In fact, not only do most asphalt contractors fail, the contractors who do not fail end up making mediocre livings at best.

Every year tens of thousands of people go to law school. They all graduate and compete for the same jobs. How many people choose to become asphalt contractors? Hardly any. You could learn most of what you need to know about this job in less than a week. There are some complex areas of the job that require engineers to work on roads and stuff, but basically anyone can do the work or run a business doing this. When a state or city needs to build a road out of asphalt, they will get bids from a contractor. Most times there are only a few people bidding on many of these jobs because there are just not a ton of people in the business with credibility. The reason is that most people get a single job and simply try and make as much money as they can as quickly as they can. They cut corners. The people who do not cut corners get good reputations and end up doing better in the long run.

Process in the Legal Recruiting Business. In the legal recruiting business, there is essentially one thing you are doing: Finding an attorney and making an introduction between the attorney and a law firm or a legal employer.

This is the result that occurs when you do the work. This is what most legal recruiters in the business concentrate on, and it is why most of them fail to even moderately reach their full potential.

When I got into the legal recruiting business, I quickly noticed people cutting corners, just like people do in the asphalt business. If you were looking at the profession from a distance, without any form of understanding, you too would likely think that all that recruiters do is find people and make introductions. I remember one of the most upsetting interviews I ever had was interviewing someone for the job of being a recruiter, who told me that the job sounded great. He told me that he thought he could spend time out on the golf course doing the work, forwarding résumés around on his Blackberry between strokes. This person simply thought that all the job involved was forwarding résumés from one person to another.

Incredibly, the more I learned about the business, the more I saw that most recruiters seemed to feel this way. In fact, this sort of idea was indeed how most recruiters seemed to approach the entire business. They would put a little advertisement on a job site, or in a legal newspaper, and then forward someone’s résumé to an interested employer. Others would simply cold call attorneys. The idea was that they were simply going out and plucking people from one firm, and sending them over to other firms.

This simplistic understanding of the job characterizes the way many people approach it. Without going into too much detail, however, there is a much more in-depth way of looking at the work:

• The best recruiters are constantly writing and lecturing about recruiting-related issues and their industry.
• The best recruiters put together very compelling and in-depth presentations about their candidates.
• The best recruiters meet with employers on a weekly basis.
• The best recruiters know about the industry and the most important things happening in it.
• The best recruiters are constantly networking at industry events.
• The best recruiters have highly developed research skills to find jobs.
• The best recruiters have highly developed research skills to find candidates.
• The best recruiters never compromise their integrity.
• The best recruiter help people, even when it does not mean a short-term reward.
• The best recruiters are committed to working hard throughout their careers.

There are actually thousands of little things like this that the best recruiters are constantly doing in order to excel at their jobs, and all of these details are what make them incredibly good at their job. Most of these things are not, however, related to simply emailing résumés. They are related to the deeper process of recruiting.

When you speak with recruiters who are process rather than results oriented, you can always tell. They are not focused so much on getting résumés out the door or making money. They are doing a good job at all “touch points”.

The importance of process in recruiting also has a huge impact on the bottom line. The best recruiters do well in all economic climates due to their emphasis on process and not results.

Process and Your Career and Job Search. Just as a successful piano maker, contractor or recruiter needs to concentrate on the process in order to be successful at their trade, so too do you in both your career and job search. Good results only come about when you concentrate on the entire process of what you are doing, refine each step of the process, and ensure you are getting better and more skilled each step of the way.

A job search ideally should not start, for example, when you are looking for a job. There are thousands of data points that go into finding a job and ensuring that you get a good job when you are looking for one. For example, you need to consistently be building relationships, and building every single relationship you can over time. The more relationships you build both inside and outside of work, the more people you are going to have to call upon when you are interested in getting a new job.

The harder you work in your existing job, the more people are going to be interested in helping you when you are looking for a job. People will come to your defense and do everything they can to help you when they believe that you are someone who will work hard. When you do the right thing and always make a good effort, this will come back to help you.

This is the opposite of what many people do, however. Many people are only out for short-term rewards and “quick fixes” at every turn. They do not think in terms of building long-term relationships with those around them. In your career, you need to be consistent, to give results and perform over time–not just in the short term.

When you are looking for a job, the quality and the depth of work you put into your résumé matters. The quality of the letters that accompany your résumé matters. Whether or not you apply to enough employers, to increase your odds of getting a job, matters. Your interviewing skills matter. The entire process that you follow matters and the better that you do at each step, the more likely you are to get the results you want.

Think about the manufacturing a world-class piano. A lot of thought goes into each little component of the piano. Whether it is the wood used, the thickness of the wood, the polish of the wood, where the wood comes from, how the wood is sanded, how the wood is fitted into the piano, the glue that is used in the piano, the dexterity of the person working with the wood, the machine that the wood is compressed on (if it is compressed) and more–the thought that goes into each part of the process matters. Every data point is refined and studied and probably has been refined and studied for a long period of time.

You need to make sure that you continually improve every single data point that is involved in the process of your seeking a job, or growing your career.

Several years ago, in the late-1980s, I was taking a test drive of a Corvette with the President of a German car company. He thought the American Corvette was a piece of junk, and did not like the car at all. He told me a story about how his company operates, contrasted with how a typical American automobile company operates.

He said that American car companies build a car model, and then completely change up the model the next year. They may throw a different transmission in the car, a different engine, radically change the styling and so forth–the idea being that they are trying to show progress and innovation, although, in reality not much is really changing. In contrast, he told me that when his company builds a car, over the next decade or so they keep refining it and making it better and better. They figure out a way to make the transmission better and to make small “almost invisible” changes that continually improve the car. They are concentrating on the process of improvement in building a car, and the result is that when you get in one of their automobiles, it feels very different. The cars also last longer. They run better. There are a myriad of powerful things that make these cars superior, and they are all the result of concentrating on the process.

You need to be focused on the process in your job and job search. Pay attention to the small, almost invisible things that collectively make a difference. Think of yourself as an instrument, like a fine piano. It is the attention to everything that goes into you that will ultimately produce the best notes.

Related posts:

1. Smash through Whatever Ceiling You Are Seeing: Concentrate on Your Largest Reward
2. Concentrate on the Positive, Not the Negative
3. Concentrate on Your Contribution

One of the most powerful and important things you can do in order to get a job and achieve anything in life is learn how to just get your foot in the door. Once you are able to get your foot in the door, everything really changes.

My entire life, I have seen firsthand the power of people getting their foot in the door. A large part of the battle for success in your career revolves around your ability to do this, because once you get your foot in the door incredible things can happen to you. Once you are in, the people you are working with will protect you, if you work hard. You will also be in a position to impart massive change on the world.

Several years ago I was in a relationship with a woman who worked for David Geffen, who is one of the most powerful and richest men in Hollywood. This woman used to work at Geffen’s house, and when she was there she would see people like President Bill Clinton walking around. Amazingly, Geffen never completed college. He started out his career working in the mailroom at the William Morris Agency. In order to get the job, he had needed to prove that he had graduated from college, and he forged a letter showing to that effect. Geffen was such a hard worker that, once he was able to get his foot in the door, he was able to achieve what his true pedigree would not have allowed him to achieve. While people may not approve of Geffen forging the fact that he went to college, doing so got him in the door. The rest is history; getting his foot in the door gave Geffen the opportunity to become a powerful agent and, ultimately, hang out with presidents, make movies, become a generous benefactor and more.

All of his successes came from the ability to get in the door.

Several years ago, I was speaking to an attorney who was working at what is widely considered the most difficult law firm to get hired by in the United States. The attorneys who work in this law firm all seem to have graduated as the top one or two students from the best law schools in the United States. Simply stated, it is all but impossible to get a job at this law firm. When I looked at this woman’s transcript, however, I realized that she had done very well in law school, but nowhere near well enough to get a job at this particular law firm. Then I realized something else - she had started working at the law firm at the age of 18, as a secretary, and had worked there for almost 7 years before finally going to a third tier law school. Nevertheless, the law firm had happily hired her once she had graduated from law school, because she already had her foot in the door.

During the Korean War, Chinese Communists used the foot-in-the-door phenomenon with American prisoners. Unlike the North Koreans, who were very savage with the American prisoners, the Chinese were very nice to the prisoners. The Americans who were captured had been trained to provide nothing but their name, rank and serial number. The Chinese, however, managed to be extremely successful in getting the prisoners to be informants, to denounce the United States and more.

A prisoner might be taken to a room, given a cigarette and something to eat. Then they would sit there with the Chinese for some time. They could potentially sit there for hours chatting about this or that, but really nothing in particular. The prisoner would feel like he was being treated very well, and would let his defenses down to some degree. Then the prisoner might be asked to make a very simple statement that, on the surface, did not sound all that bad:

“In Communism there is no unemployment and in the United States there is. Therefore, America is not perfect.”

However, where this gets interesting is in regards to what the Chinese would do later. According to one account of this in Readings in Managerial Psychology by Harold J. Leavitt, Lewis R. Pondy and David M. Boje wrote:

But once these minor requests were complied with, the men found themselves pushed to submit to related but more substantive requests. A man who just agreed with his Chinese interrogator that the United States is not perfect, might then be asked to indicate some of the ways in which he thought this was the case. Once he had so explained himself, he might be asked to make a list of these “problems with America” and to sign his name to it. Later he might be asked to read his list in a discussion group with other prisoners. “After all, it’s what you really believe isn’t it?” Still later he might be asked to write an essay expanding on his list and discussing these problems in greater detail.

The Chinese might then use his name and his essay in an anti-American radio broadcast beamed not only to the entire camp, but to other POW camps in North Korea as well as to American forces in South Korea. Suddenly he would find himself a “collaborator”, having given aid and comfort to the enemy. Aware that he had written an essay without any strong threats or coercion, many times a man would change his image of himself to be consistent with the deed, and with the new “collaborator” label, often resulting in even more extensive acts of collaboration.

A huge secret of getting the results you want from people, organizations and others is to start small and get them to make larger and larger commitments. For example, when a man asks a woman out he never says, “Hey, lets go have sex and then spend the next 60 years of our lives together in a committed relationship.” Instead, he invites her to have coffee, go see a movie, take a walk and so forth. Everything begins with very small steps, and these small steps lead to greater and greater commitment.

When a religious organization comes to your door, the people do not say: “Hey, we would like to invite you to renounce every other religion on the planet, come to our church every Sunday for the rest of your life, and give us as much of your money as you can until you die.” Instead, they offer you a pamphlet and then ask if they can come back to see you at another time after you have had a chance to review the pamphlet. They seek smaller commitments from you at first. They know that the most important thing they can do is get their foot in the door. Once they get their foot in the door, everything else falls into place much more easily.

The Scientologists do not ask people on the street if they are interested in getting therapy for the rest of their lives, in order to get aliens out of their body. No, they know it would be “crazy” to do this. Instead, they ask people to take a personality test, and then they build upon this. You need to start small with anything, before you can build upon it. Organizations are all smart enough to know that the first step and challenge they face is getting their foot in the door.

One of the funniest things I have seen that business schools, college career counseling offices and other organizations often do with their students is encourage them to ask for “informational interviews” with various alumni of the school, who work in important positions, and in the cities they are seeking to work in. For example, the counselors will coach their students to go out and contact various alumni and tell them they are planning on working in a given industry, in a certain city (the industry could be large and very broad such as banking, retail, law, health care, etc). The students tell the alumni that they are interested in getting some information about what it is like to work in a given industry in that city and to “learn from someone in the trenches” or something along those lines. Since this is such a small request and seems quite harmless–”I’d love to provide this alumnus of my school some information”–the alumni of the school almost always agree. They figure that since there is some sort of affiliation between them and the student (having attended the same school), and the student is simply seeking some harmless information, there is nothing wrong with speaking to the student at all.

The student will invariably show up at the person’s place of business well dressed, with a folder containing their résumé, and with a list of a few prepackaged questions to which they already know the answers. The student will then sit down with the employer and commence speaking with him/her. The entire time the employer is speaking he or she is, on some level, evaluating whether or not the student could potentially make a good hire. The student is not really there to get information 99% of the time, but to “get his/her foot in the door” and hopefully get a job, or future interview at the least. While the employer has easily agreed to the small request of an informational interview, he or she suddenly starts feeling a small tug to potentially hire the student. The “informational interview” is an incredibly effective tactic, and a brilliant example of the foot-in-the-door phenomenon.

We see the foot-in-the-door phenomenon in shopping centers, grocery stores and all sorts of places every day. The “free sample” in the grocery store is an example of the foot-in-the-door tactic. You are offered a piece of something to eat or drink, and you try it. You then end up buying something you normally would not have bought. Someone sprays some perfume on you while you are strolling through a department store, and you decide to purchase it.

What does the foot-in-the-door mean for your career? It means that you do not always need to ask for the moon when looking for a job. You can start out small and build from there. David Geffen started out working part time at the William Morris Agency. You can start out working in your dream job part time. You can start out as a contract employee. If you want an important job inside the company you can start out doing something that is relatively unimportant. Who cares what it is? Starting out doing something unimportant is a good way to get your foot in the door.

This is what internships are in many companies. Numerous companies and other organizations have unpaid internships for students. People come from all over the country to work for one organization or another for free each summer, or during the school year. You might ask, why would someone want to work for an organization for free? This is a great question. Working some place for free does not seem to make a lot of sense, until you realize that the person is really just doing everything within their power to get their foot in the door.

If you really, really want to work for a particular employer, the most important thing you can do is get your foot in the door. In a bad job market you can really make the foot-in-the-door phenomenon work for you. For example, many people are looking at the prospect of being unemployed for potentially weeks (or longer) in a bad recession. If you are going into a job interview where there is a lot of competition with an employer you really want to work for, a good strategy might be to say something along these lines during the later stages of your interview:

“Listen, I have really wanted to work at this company for a long time. Financially, I am okay and do not have any pressing need for money at the moment. I am more concerned about having something to do during the day. I like working. I like the atmosphere here, and I really like this company. I would like to come work here for free for a month so you can see what I am like. Regardless of what happens, I will make the best effort I can during this time; you will have someone doing the job right away, and it will not cost you anything.”

This strategy is incredibly effective and it can work wonders. Why? Because you are showing a commitment to the employer. You are showing that you like to work. You are not making the employer feel guilty about not paying you. You are not obligating the person in any way, and you are giving the employer something for nothing. This strategy works and it is like a guided nuclear missile you can use against your competition for the jobs you are most interested in. Try it if you really want the job. If you pull it off right, it will get you a foot in the door, and once you get your foot in the door, this can lead to a full-time job later.

You need to get your foot in the door and knowing how to do this will pay huge rewards. The most successful salespeople, job seekers and others all know that the biggest step they make in their march towards a job or sale is getting the employer, or prospect, to open that door.

Related posts:

1. Socrates and Your Job Search
2. Do Not Be Immobilized in Your Job Search
3. The Best Way to Prepare for a Job Search and Interviews

For the majority of the show, the designers are creating their outfits for the competition. Each of the designers gets stressed out, and some of the contestants psych-out the others, criticize the others and more. Then there are other designers who do not participate in the politics going on around them; instead they just stay focused on their work. Some of the people are very creative, and they really try and do their own thing, whereas some others are not as creative, and they tend to copy others. Some contestants have good work habits; others have bad work habits. Some contestants cheat, while others are fair. Some of the designers isolate themselves from the group, and others lead the group. However, regardless of all of this, the end result is always the same: One person will win each competition–and one person will lose.

Every possible conflict that occurs in the office and in our careers occurs on this show, and it is for this reason that that I actually enjoy it a great deal. In every career, people are trying to get traction and stay in the game. People are seeking to improve. People do not want to drop out of the game, and they want to stay engaged at all times. Some people get psyched out by others, and some do not.

My favorite part of Project Runway is when the host of the show, Heidi Klum, says, “In fashion, you are either in or you’re out.”

This statement encapsulates the main message of the show, but it is also a terrific metaphor for your career–whatever it may be, because in your career (and life) being “in” or “out” is, in my mind, the equivalent of meaning you can either

• Fall down or slip backwards, or
• Move forward and keep growing.

When you are part of the working world, you are typically either moving forward and achieving something of significance, or you are slipping, or have fallen down. The challenge is that virtually every one of us will start slipping at some point. In professional sports, athletes begin to get old and their performance can start to slip. Rock stars get older, and their appearances often start to change; suddenly they are no longer as energetic or exciting on stage, or their sounds are no longer catchy to audiences. However, aside from jobs that entail performing on the field or on the stage, there are countless other jobs in which we can hold our own against time, and prevent our performance from slipping for some time. Kirk Kerkorian, for example, is an extremely successful person in finance. He plays tennis several times a week and keeps busy in his profession–and he is in his 90s. Kerkorian is an example of someone who keeps moving forward despite his age.

One of the things that people seem to love to do is to speak about others’ misfortunes on an ongoing basis. For example, when I am out and about around town, I often learn about stuff such as which neighbors are having their homes foreclosed, who lost their job, who is getting divorced, who has a substance abuse problem and more. News about people slipping and falling down in their lives and careers seems to spread very quickly. In fact, news about bad things happening to people spreads much more quickly, and tends to be much more interesting to most people than good news. We hear stories about people falling down on a daily basis for a simple reason: it is very common for people to fall down. Your challenge in your career and in your life is to be one of the people who do not fall down. Instead, you want always to be moving forward and growing.

I want to further address the concept of “slipping”. Many people are slipping due to things within their control. If you are slipping, you are not doing well for one reason or another:

• You may not be appreciated in your job.
• You may be bored or disliking your work, and slipping due to this.
• Your work may be criticized at the office.
• You may be experiencing problems related to your ability to accomplish the work you are given.
• You may be making all sorts of careless mistakes.
• You may not be getting raises.
• You may be getting demotions.
• You may be in the wrong industry, or in an industry that is dying.

If you are slipping, you will eventually and almost always end up falling down. This is just the way it is. You simply cannot remain slipping for a long period of time and ever expect to do well in the long run.

People typically find themselves slipping for two reasons. First, people may be slipping due to their own performance, decisions and things within their control. Second, people may be slipping due to things that are outside of their control but which, nevertheless, they can and should be fixing. Regardless of why you are slipping, it is important that you take action.

If you are slipping for things within your control, you need to fix yourself. The problem with slipping is that that once you start, it is not easy to stop. Think about being on a hill covered with ice. Once you start slipping, it is difficult to keep yourself from falling. This is like the force of gravity: It is easier to move down than to move up. Because slipping is so easy, most people who begin slipping have a more difficult time turning around than they do simply sliding down.

Slipping for reasons that have to do with you personally may have to do with

• your work habits,
• your self-discipline,
• your attitude,
• your behavior,
• unrealistic pay demands,
• your reliability,
• your skill on the job, or
• your ability to get along with coworkers.

If you are slipping for reasons like this, which are within your control, then you need to fix yourself–or put yourself in an environment in which you will be valued. Taking a brutal self-inventory and fixing these issues is often the most important thing you can do. The thing about fixing yourself is that it is not at all easy. Many people refuse to fix themselves once they start slipping, and they end up spending their entire lives slipping and falling down. Is there anything you are doing that is causing you to slip? If there is, you need to take a good hard look at whatever it is and fix it.

A second type of slipping takes place when you are brought along with others who are already slipping. It is like holding hands with a bunch of people who are sliding down an icy hill. You do not want to be brought along, and need to let go as soon as everyone starts to slip. You should not want any part of slipping.

I have been meeting all sorts of people recently who are in businesses that are sliding backwards. Just in the last week, I met two people in the advertising industry on separate occasions who were sliding backwards. One man I spent some time with on Friday night at a party just had his salary cut at the advertising agency he is with. If an agency is cutting salaries, this is typically a sign that things are sliding backwards. If an entire industry is cutting salaries and laying people off, this is an even worse sign. In many industries at the moment like advertising, newspapers, magazines, manufacturing and others–entire companies–and indeed, even entire industries seem to be slipping backwards. If you are in an industry that is slipping backwards, this is not a good sign. This is more like an entire busload of people sliding down the icy hill: Everyone on the bus is powerless, and even if they were to all work together, they could not keep the bus from slipping.

Is the group you are with slipping or moving forward? Are you slipping or moving forward? You always want to be moving forward, not slipping backwards. Some people spend years of their lives and careers slipping backwards. This is a huge mistake. If you are slipping, nothing is more important than taking immediate action to fix this.

When I was in my 20s, my grandmother went into a nursing home community. When people moved into the nursing home community they got their own apartment, and someone came and cleaned the apartment for them maybe one day per week. People could drive their cars out and get food, and prepare meals in their own apartments. For me, visiting my grandmother at the nursing home was not a bad thing, and it was no different from if I had been visiting her in a nice condominium, for example.

However, the nursing home was a larger sort of installation and, in addition to the nice apartments, there were other areas of the property as well. As people got older, they would stop making their own dinner and would go down to a cafeteria in the nursing home each day. They might be able to make some cereal each morning back inside their apartments, and perhaps even a light lunch, but the nursing home would make them their dinner. Then, eventually, they would start going down to the cafeteria for all of their meals. Soon, the cleaning service would come every day to the apartment because people could not clean as much on their own. Then, after some time, the person would be moved to another apartment that was similar, but where there was a nursing station on the same floor. Ultimately, the person would be moved into a hospital type room, and then another after that, which is where they would die.

I have witnessed this progression not just with my grandmother, but numerous people who got old and sick throughout the years. When someone is moved to another area of the nursing home people always say “it is just until they get better” from this or that; however, the person never gets better. They always get sicker and are moved to another area of the hospital sometime later. Once the person starts to slip, they never stop slipping, and they rarely go back to where they were.

This is the progression for most of us who will live long natural lives. We will continue to slip more and more as we progress in our old age, and eventually we will be gone. The warning signs for someone dying in a nursing home are very clear. In our careers, though, the signs of slipping are not as apparent.

If you are with a group of people who are slipping for long enough, or if you personally have been slipping for long enough, eventually you will fall down. Falling down is being called into a private office with your boss and the head of human resources, and being told you are losing your job. Falling down is when you are unemployed and cannot find another job. Falling down is the absolute worst thing that can happen to you, which is why it is so important to recognize when you are slipping.

I encounter people on a daily basis who have lost good jobs and cannot find another. These people are typically frustrated and unhappy because their life has been altered in a significant and painful way. When I get the opportunity to speak with people who have fallen down in their careers and in their lives, I view them as being at an incredible crossing because, at this point in time, they have to decide if they are going to get up and start moving forward again, or stay where they are. You need to fight the gravity that keeps you down when you have fallen. Stand up and fight.

Many people I meet are very quick to tell me things like their titles, what they are doing and what they have done. This is especially true of men, for example, and at the risk of being called sexist, I believe that men in general, take these things more seriously than women. Men love to brag and talk about their various accomplishments when they are doing well (more so than women, I think). In bragging about their various accomplishments, it is as if men are saying, “Look at me, I have not slipped. I am still standing up!”

I think the reason that bad news is more interesting to us than good news is because we are all afraid of falling down too. We are so obsessed with our fear of falling down that we are more interested in learning about danger and negative things than positive things. At some point you are going to fall down. You are going to lose a job, get a massive pay cut, have a difficult time finding a job, get in trouble on the job, or something along those lines. Something bad happens to almost everyone in his or her career and life at one point or the other, and everyone falls down.

If you do not fall down and have a dramatic fall, then you will, at the very least, start slipping at some point. You will stop making progress and start moving backwards. Slipping is a dangerous thing as well. You can only slip for so long before you fall down completely.

You may have started slipping 10 years ago, and you may have been slipping ever since. Many people slip for years and do everything they can to hold on before they lose their job and fall down. You may have fallen down 10 years ago and never gotten up. There is nothing wrong with slipping, or falling down. We all slip and we all fall at various points in time. One of the worst things that anyone can do is give up once they have started slipping, or after they have fallen down.

It is what we do when we slip or fall down that makes all the difference. Gravity is a force that eventually slows down most people’s achievement and ability to reach various goals in their lives. Unless you continue to push through, that force of gravity in your career will eventually stop you in your tracks. Resist this gravity in order to keep yourself from slipping or falling, and nothing else can stand between you and your dreams.

Related posts:

1. Criticism, Your Career, and Your Life
2. Karma, Universal Laws and Your Career
3. Bad Manners, Rumors and Your Career

This book has been tremendously inspiring to me and the life-transforming thoughts contained in its pages have made a phenomenal difference in my life. The indelible mark Trine has left on the world in the form of his elevated thinking has influenced countless people and I am sure you too can benefit immensely from it.

–Harrison

IN TUNE WITH THE INFINITE

By Ralph Waldo Trine

PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION

THERE is a golden thread that runs through every religion in the world. There is a golden thread that runs through the lives and the teachings to all the prophets, seers, sages, and saviors in the world’s history, through the lives of all men of truly great and lasting power. All that they have ever done or attained to has been done in full accordance with law.

What one has done, all may do. This same golden thread must enter into the lives of all who today, in this busy work-a-day world of ours, would exchange impotence for power, weakness and suffering for abounding health and strength pain and unrest for perfect peace, poverty of whatever nature for fullness and plenty.

Each is building their own world. We both build from within and we attract from without. Thought is the force with which we build, for thoughts are forces. Like builds like and like attracts like. In the degree that thought is spiritualized does it become more subtle and powerful in its workings. This spiritualizing is in accordance with law and is within the power of all.

Everything is first worked out in the unseen before it is manifested in the seen, in the ideal before it is realized in the real, in the spiritual before it shows forth in the material. The realm of the unseen is the realm of cause. The realm of the seen is the realm of effect. The nature of effect is always determined and conditioned by the nature of its cause.

To point out the great facts in connection with, and the great laws underlying the workings of the interior, spiritual, thought forces, to point them out so simply and so clearly that even a child can understand, is the author’s aim. To point them out so simply and so clearly that all can grasp them, that all can take them and infuse them into everyday life, so as to mold it in all its details in accordance with what they would have it, is his purpose That life can be thus molded by them is not a matter of mere speculation or theory with him, but a matter of positive knowledge

There is a divine sequence running throughout the universe. Within and above and below the human will incessantly works the Divine will. To come into harmony with it and thereby with all the higher laws and forces, to come then into league and to work in conjunction with them, in order that they can work in league and in conjunction with us, is to come into the chain of this wonderful sequence. This is the secret of all success. This is to come into the possession of unknown riches, into the realization of undreamed-of powers.

Ralph Waldo Trine

Within yourself lies the cause of whatever enters into your life. To come into the full realization of your own awakened inner powers is to be able to condition your life in exact accord with what you would have it.

A NEW MESSAGE FROM THE AUTHOR

WE are born into a strange time -a time that tries men’s souls. Bewilderment and fear hold many; change and uncertainty stalk through the land -all lands.

Those who keep their courage up and go serenely on are coming through in a way that those who weaken or lie down cannot know. But to do this many lives need help—real concrete help. A remark by an old college friend some years ago has come to my mind every now and then of late. ‘After all,’ said he, ‘it is well for one to have a little philosophy in ones life. A farm boy, eager for a better education and to get ahead pushing his way through college in the face of great odds, he has been doing a splendid work in a great city, and for his country, and yet has always remained humble. His own character indicates to me he has in goodly measure the philosophy which he commended.

‘Yes’ I replied ‘if it has the element of use.’ For I had even then read much in the philosophies of the present and of earlier times, and was forced to the conclusion that very large parts of them are of little real value—interesting, but of little real value—because of their lack of the element of use; use in the everyday problems of life.

Each of us has their problems of one sort or another, and no life is free from them. We all need help. This is particularly true at present because of the peculiar time we have been born into.

I have often said to friend and acquaintance during the last two or three years that there is perhaps no one quality men need so much, and right down in their hearts long for so much, as the quality of courage. For courage to me is nothing more or less than a positive, creative type of thought. It not only keeps us going, but all the time works out effects on the course of our journeying. Thoughts are forces, subtle, vital, creative, continually building and shaping our lives according to their nature. It is in this way that the life always and inevitably follows the thought.

Thoughts of strength engender strength from within and attract it from without. Thoughts of weakness actualize weakness within and attract it from without. Courage therefore begets success, as fear begets failure.

There is something in the universe that responds to intrepid thinking. The POWER that holds and that moves the stars in their courses sustains, illumines and fights for the brave and the upright. Courage has power and magic in it. Faith and hope and courage are great producers—we cannot fail if we live always in the brave and cheerful attitude of mind and heart. He alone fails who gives up and lies down.

To open ourselves to this sustaining POWER, to live continually under its guidance, this is our part. Those of us who do our part will keep free from fear, and therefore from a weakening, corroding worry, the two black twins that carry the germs of despair and defeat, costly for ourselves, unfair for our families, our friends and as our neighbors, costly even for our country.

Years ago, shortly after this book was written, I used on the title page of a little book, as a sort of keynote, the sentence: ‘The moment we fully and vitally realize who and what we are, we then begin to build our own world even as God builds His.’

What is the fundamental fact, the fundamental principle of life, the real basis of any healthy or even worthy philosophy of life—Can we find it and know it? There’s the rub. But long ago there came one who with a great aptitude for discerning the things of the mind and the spirit, a great clarity of perception that enabled Him to understand the reality of life, the One Life, and to identify His own life with it—the Infinite Spirit of life and power that is back of all, animating and working through all, the life of all.

So direct and intimate was His understanding of it that He used the term Father: I and my Father are one. And to make it of value in that it was not for Him alone, He said: As I am you shall be. My consciousness of the One Life shall be your consciousness, My insight and power shall be your insight and power, if you will receive My message and do the things I tell you. And truly He handled the stuff of life with a wonderful artistry. This is the message that the Master, Jesus of Galilee, tried so hard to get over into the world. It is through this that He becomes the supreme Way-revealer, the Way-revealer to us men of earth.

The Way He showed is what man so sadly needs for a higher and a more efficient individual life, and what the world needs for a more efficient and harmonious and co-operative life. Here is the basis of all idealistic philosophy -a philosophy, a religion of power, of concrete creative power and therefore of use. All are partakers and individual expressions of the One Life, all related and interrelated. As we open ourselves fully to the realization of this we bring harmony into our individual lives, and out of that harmony we create a world of harmony and co-operation, in which each individual and each country enjoys freedom and the fruits of labor, instead of enslavement, of disruption, and of eventual destruction.

Yes, from the conception of the One Life flows the inevitable reality that all men are brothers. There is great gain, there is even an obvious self-interest in building our individual lives and our world life upon that reality. If we do so, we will establish a just and therefore more lasting peace.

What a frightful price we have now to pay for our ignorance, our negligence, our self-seeking, our forgetting that the good of all is the only real and lasting good! Out of all the travail good may come, but again that will depend on us.

We must keep our courage up, must keep our vision clear, must keep our balance, so that we may free ourselves and others with us from the frightful dangers dislocation and disorder that are the results of the great world conflicts.

A single stanza by Edwin Markham voices the poet’s inspiration:

At the heart of the cyclone tearing the sky,

And flinging the clouds and the towers by,

Is a place of central calm.

So, here in the roar of mortal things

I have a place where my spirit sings,

In the hollow of God’s palm.

This was the poet’s way of expressing the great truth we are considering and I know he believed it thoroughly, for we talked it over many times together. This was his belief as to the mission and the revelation of the Master, and the Kingdom of God that comes into being when all men realize they are brothers, and are wise enough to live and to act as brothers.

In this again lie the truth and the song that arose from it and sang itself through our earlier poet Whittier, good Quaker and true always to the “Inner Light”:

I know not where His islands lift

Their fronded palms in air,

I only know I cannot drift

Beyond His love and care.

A dark age can come only if we men of earth fail to do our part. We will not fail. We cannot fail. But the sands in the hour-glass may be running lower than we know. We must bestir ourselves.

Ralph Waldo Trine

PRELUDE

THE optimist is right. The pessimist is right. The one differs from the other as the light from the dark. Yet both are right. Each is right from their own particular point of view, and this point of view is the determining factor in the life of each. It determines as to whether it is a life of power or of impotence, of peace or of pain, of success or of failure.

The optimist has the power of seeing things in their entirety and in their right relations. The pessimist looks from a limited and a one-sided point of view. The one has their understanding illuminated by wisdom, the understanding of the other is darkened by ignorance. Each is building their world from within, and the result of the building are determined by the point of view of each The optimist, by their superior wisdom and insight, is making their own heaven, and in the degree that they make their own heaven are helping to make one for all the world beside. The pessimist, by virtue of their limitations, are making their own hell, and in the degree that they make their own hell are they helping to make one for all mankind.

You and I have the predominating characteristics of an optimist or the predominating characteristics of a pessimist. We then are making, hour by hour, our own heaven or our own hell; and in the degree that we are making the one or the other for ourselves are we helping make it for all the world beside.

The word heaven means harmony. The word hell is from the Old English hell, meaning to build a wall around, to separate; to be helled was to be shut off from. Now if there is such a thing as harmony there must be that something one can be in right relations with; for to be in right relations with anything is to be in harmony with it. Again, if there is such a thing as being helled, shut off, separated from, there must be that something from which one is helled, shut off, or separated.

THE SUPREME FACT OF THE UNIVERSE

THE great central fact of the universe is that Spirit of Infinite Life and Power that is behind all, that animates all, that manifests itself in and through all; that self-existent principle of life from which all has come, and not only from which all has come, but from which all is continually coming. If there is an individual life, there must of necessity be an infinite source of life from which it comes. If there is a quality or a force of love, there must of necessity be an infinite source of love whence it comes. If there is wisdom, there must be the all-wise source behind it from which it springs. The same is true in regard to peace, the same in regard to power, the same in regard to what we call material things.

There is then this Spirit of Infinite Life and Power behind all, which is the source of all. This Infinite Power is creating, working, ruling through the agency of great immutable laws and forces that run through all the universe that surrounds us on every side. Every act of our everyday lives is governed by these same great laws and forces. Every flower that blooms by the wayside, springs up, grows, blooms, fades, according to certain great immutable laws. Every snowflake that plays between earth and heaven, forms, falls, melts, according to certain great unchangeable laws.

In a sense there is nothing in all the great universe but law. If this is true there must of necessity be a force behind it all that is maker of these laws, and a force greater than the laws that are made. This Spirit of Infinite Life and Power that is behind all is what I call God. I care not what term you may use, be it Kindly Light, Providence, the Over Soul, Omnipotence, or whatever term may be most convenient. I care not what the term may be as long as we are agreed in regard to the great central fact itself.

God, then, is this Infinite Spirit which fills all the universe with Himself alone, so that all is from Him and in Him, and there is nothing that is outside. Indeed and in truth, then, in Him we live and move and have our being. He is the life of our life, our very life itself. We have received, we are continually receiving our life from Him. We are partakers of the life of God; and though we differ from Him in that we are individualized spirits, while He is the Spirit including us as well as all else beside, yet in essence the life of God and the life of man are identically the same, and so are one. They differ not in essence, in quality; they differ in degree.

There have been and are highly illumined souls who believe we receive our life from God after the manner of a divine inflow. And again, there have been and are those who believe that our life is one with the life of God, and so that God and man are one. Which is right? Both are right; both right when rightly understood.

In regard to the first: if God is the Infinite Spirit of Life behind all, whence all comes, then clearly our life as individualized spirits is continually coming from this infinite Source by means of this divine inflow. In the second place, if our lives as individualized spirits are directly from, are parts of this Infinite Spirit of Life, then the degree of the Infinite Spirit that is manifested in the life of each be identical in quality with that Source, just as a drop of water from the ocean is, in nature, in characteristics, identical with the ocean, its source. And how could it be otherwise? The liability to misunderstanding in this latter case, however, is this: in that although the life of God and the life of man in essence are identically the same, the life of God so far transcends the life of individual man that it includes all else beside. In other words, so far as the quality of life is concerned, in essence they are the same so far as the degree of life is concerned they are vastly different.

In this light is it not then evident that both conceptions are true, and, more, that they are one and the same? Both conceptions may be typified by one and the same illustration.

There is a reservoir in a valley which receives its supply from an inexhaustible reservoir on the mountain side. It is then true that the reservoir in the valley receives its supply by virtue of the inflow of the water from the larger reservoir on the mountain side. It is also true that the water in this smaller reservoir is in nature, in quality, in characteristics identically the same as that in the larger reservoir which is its source. The difference, however, is this: the reservoir on the mountain side, in the amount of its water, so far transcends the reservoir in the valley that it can supply an innumerable number of like reservoirs and still be unexhausted.

And so in the life of man. If, as I think we have already agreed, however we may differ in regard to anything else, there is this Infinite Spirit of Life behind all, the life of all, and so, from which all comes, then the life of individual man, your life and mine, must come by a divine inflow from this Infinite Source, And if this is true then the life that comes by this inflow to man is necessarily the same in essence as is this Infinite Spirit of Life. There is a difference. It is not a difference in essence. It is a difference in degree.

If this is true, does it not then follow that in the degree that man opens himself to this divine inflow does he approach to God? If so, it then necessarily follows that in the degree that he makes this approach does he take on the God-powers. And if the God-powers are without limit, does it not then follow that the only limitations are the limitations he sets to himself, by virtue of not knowing himself?

THE SUPREME FACT OF HUMAN LIFE

From the great central fact of the universe in regard to which we have agreed? namely, this Spirit of Infinite Life that is behind all and from which all comes, we are led to inquire as to what is the great central fact in human life. From what has gone before, the question almost answers itself.

The great central fact in human life, in your life and mine, is the coming into a conscious, vital realization of our oneness with this Infinite Life, and the opening of ourselves fully to this divine inflow.

This is the great central fact in human life, for in this all else is included, all else follows in its train. In just the degree that we come into a conscious realization of our oneness with the Infinite Life, and open ourselves to this divine inflow, do we actualize in ourselves the qualities and powers of the Infinite Life.

And what does this mean? It means simply this: that we are recognizing our true identity, that we are bringing our lives into harmony with the same great laws and forces, and so opening ourselves to the same great inspirations, as have all the prophets, seers, sages, and saviors in the world’s history, all men of truly great and mighty power. For in the degree that we come into this realization and connect ourselves with this Infinite Source, do we make it possible for the higher powers to play, to work, to manifest through us.

We keep closed to this divine inflow, to these higher forces and powers, through ignorance, as most of us do, and thus hinder or even prevent their manifesting through us. Or we can intentionally close ourselves to their operations and thus deprive ourselves of the powers to which, by the very nature of our being, we are rightful heirs. On the other hand, we can come into so vital a realization of the oneness of our real selves with this Infinite Life, and can open ourselves so fully to the incoming of this divine inflow, and so the operation of these higher forces, inspirations, and powers, that we can indeed and in truth become what we may well term, God-men.

And what is a God-man? One in whom the powers of God are manifesting, though yet a man. No one can set limitations to a man of this type, for the only limitations he can have are those set by the self. Ignorance is the most potent factor in setting limitations to the majority of mankind, and so the great majority of people continue to live their little, dwarfed, and stunted lives simply by virtue of the fact that they do not realize the larger life to which they are heirs. They have never as yet come into a knowledge of the real identity of their true selves.

Mankind has not yet realized that the real self is one with the life of God. Through its ignorance it has never yet opened itself to the divine inflow, and so has never made itself a channel through which the infinite powers and forces can manifest. When we know ourselves merely as men, we live accordingly, and have the powers of men. When we come into the realization of the fact that we are God-men, then again we live accordingly, and have the powers of God-men. In the degree that we open ourselves to this divine inflow are we changed from mere men into God-men.

A friend has a beautiful lotus pond. A natural basin on his estate -his farm as he always calls it -is supplied with water from a reservoir in the foothills some distance away. A gate regulates the flow of the water from the main that conducts it from the reservoir to the pond. It is a spot of transcendent beauty. There, through the days of the perfect summer weather, the lotus flowers lie full blown upon the surface of the clear, transparent water. The June roses and other wild flowers are continually blooming upon its banks. The birds come here to drink and bathe, and from early until late one can hear the melody of their song. The bees are continually at work in this garden of wild flowers. A beautiful grove, in which many kinds of wild berries and many varieties of brakes and ferns grow, stretches at the back of the pond as far as the eye can reach.

Our friend is a man, nay more, a God-man, a lover of his kind, and as a consequence no notice bearing such words as ‘Private rounds, no trespassing allowed,’ or Trespassers will be prosecuted,’ stands on his estate. But at the end of a beautiful by-way that leads through the wildwood up to this enchanting spot, stands a notice bearing the words ‘All are welcome to the Lotus Pond.’ All love our friend. Why? They can’t help it. He so loves them, and what is his is theirs.

Here one may often find merry groups of children at play. Here many times tired and weary-looking men come, and somehow, when they go their faces wear a different expression -the burden seems to be lifted, and now and then I have heard them when leaving, sometimes in a faint murmur, as if uttering a benediction, say, ‘God bless our brother-friend.’ Many speak of this spot as the Garden of God. My friend calls it his Soul Garden, and he spends many hours in quiet here. Often have I seen him after the others have gone, walking to and fro, or sitting quietly in the clear moonlight on an old rustic bench, drinking in the perfume of the wild flowers. He is a man of a beautifully simple nature. He says that here his greatest and most successful plans, many times as by a flash of inspiration, suggest themselves to him.

Everything in the immediate vicinity seems to breathe a spirit of kindliness, comfort, goodwill, and good cheer. The very cattle and sheep as they come to the old stone-fence at the edge of the grove and look across to this beautiful spot seem, indeed, to get the same enjoyment that the people are getting. They seem almost to smile in the realization of their contentment and enjoyment, or perhaps it seems so to the looker-on, because he can scarcely help smiling as he sees the manifested evidence of their contentment and pleasure.

The gate of the pond is always open wide enough to admit a supply of water so abundant that it continually overflows a quantity sufficient to feed a stream that runs through the fields below, giving the pure mountain water in drink to the cattle and flocks that are grazing there. The stream then flows on through the neighbor’s fields.

Not long ago our friend was absent for a year. He rented his estate during his absence to a man who, as the world goes, was of a very ‘practical’ turn of mind. He had no time for anything that did not bring him direct practical returns. The gate connecting the reservoir with the lotus pond was shut down, and no longer had the crystal mountain water the opportunity to feed and overflow it. The notice of our friend, ‘All are welcome to the Lotus Pond,’ was removed, and no longer were the gay companies of children and of men seen at the pond. A great change came over everything. On account of the lack of the life-giving water the flowers in the pond wilted, and their long stems lay stretched upon the mud in the bottom. The fish that formerly swam in its clear water soon died and gave off an offensive odor to all who came near. The flowers no longer bloomed on its banks. The birds no longer came to drink and to bathe. No longer was heard the hum of the bees, and more, the stream that ran through the fields below dried up, so that the cattle and the flocks no longer got their supply of clear mountain water.

The difference between the spot now and the lotus pond when our friend gave it his careful attention was caused, as we readily see, by the shutting of the gate to the pond, thus preventing the water from the reservoir in the hills, which was the source of its life, from entering it. And when this, the source of its life, was shut off, not only was the appearance of the lotus pond entirely changed, but the surrounding fields were deprived of the stream to whose banks the flocks and cattle came for drink.

In this do we not see a complete parallel so far as human life is concerned? In the degree that we recognize our oneness, our connection with the Infinite Spirit which is the life of all, and in the degree that we open ourselves to this divine inflow, do we come into harmony with the highest, the most powerful, and the most beautiful everywhere. And in the degree that we do this do we overflow, so that all who come in contact with us receive the effects of this realization on our part. This is the lotus pond of our friend, he who is in love with all that is truest and best in the universe. And in the degree that we fail to recognize our oneness with this Infinite Source, and so close, shut ourselves to this divine inflow, do we come into that state where there seems to be with us nothing of good, nothing of beauty, nothing of power, and when this is true, those who come in contact with us receive not good, but harm. This is the spot of the lotus pond while the farm was in the hands of a tenant.

There is this difference between the lotus pond and your life and mine. It has no power in itself of opening the gate to the inflow of the water from the reservoir which is its source. In regard to this it is helpless, and dependent upon an outside agency. You and I have the power, the power within us, to open or close ourselves to this divine inflow exactly as we choose. This we have through the power or mind through the operation of thought.

There is the soul of life, direct from God. This it is that relates us to the Infinite. There is, then, the physical life. This it is that relates us to the material universe about us. The thought life connects the one with the other. It is this that plays between the two.

Before we proceed further let us consider very briefly the nature of thought. Thought is not, as is many times supposed, a mere indefinite abstraction, or something of a like nature. It is, on the contrary, a vital, living force, the most vital, subtle, and irresistible force there is in the universe.

In our very laboratory experiments we are demonstrating the great fact that thoughts are forces. They have form, and quality, and substance, and power, and we are beginning to find that there is what we may term a science of thought. We are beginning also to find that through the instrumentality of our thought forces we have creative power not merely in a figurative sense, but creative power in reality.

Everything in the material universe about us, everything the universe has ever known, had its origin first in thought. From this it took its form. Every castle, every statue, every painting, every piece of mechanism, everything had its birth, its origin, first in the mind of the one who formed it before it received its material expression or embodiment. The very universe in which we live is the result of the thought energies of God, the Infinite Spirit that is behind all. And if it is true, as we have found, that we in our true selves are in essence the same, and in this sense are one with the life of this Infinite Spirit, do we not then see that in the degree that we come into a vital realization of this stupendous fact, we, through the operation of our interior, spiritual, thought forces, have in like sense creative power?

Everything exists in the unseen before it is manifested or realized in the seen, and in this sense it is true that the unseen things are the real, while the things that are seen are the unreal. The unseen things are the cause, the seen things are effect. The unseen things are the eternal the seen things are the changing, the transient. The ‘power of the word’ is a literal scientific fact. Through the operation of our thought forces we have creative power. The spoken word is nothing more or less than the outward expression of the workings of these interior forces. The spoken word is then, in a sense, the means whereby the thought forces are focused and directed along any particular line, and this concentration, this giving them direction, is necessary before any outward or material manifestation of their power can become evident.

Much is said in regard to building castles in the air, and one who is given to this building is not always looked upon with favor. But castles in the air are always necessary before we can have castles on the ground, before we can have castles in which to live. The trouble with the one who gives himself to building castles in the air is not that he builds them in the air, but that he does not go farther and actualize in life, in character, in material form, the castles he thus builds. He does a part of the work, a very necessary part, but another equally necessary part remains still undone.

There is in connection with the thought forces what we may term the drawing power of mind, and the great law operating here is one with the great law of the universe, that like attracts like. We are continually attracting to us, from both the seen and the unseen side of life, forces and conditions most akin to those of our own thoughts.

This law is continually operating whether we are conscious of it or not. We are all living, so to speak, in a vast ocean of thought, and the very atmosphere around us is continually filled with the thought forces that are being continually sent or that are continually going out in the form of thought waves. We are all affected, more or less, by these thought forces, either consciously or unconsciously and in the degree that we are more or less sensitively organized, or in the degree that we are negative and so are open to outside influences, rather than positive, thus determining what influences shall enter into our realm of thought, and hence into our lives.

There are those among us who are much more sensitively organized than others. As an organism their bodies are more finely, more sensitively constructed. These, generally speaking, are people who are always more or less affected by the mentalities of those with whom they come in contact, or in whose company they are. A friend, the editor of one of our great journals, is so sensitively organized that it is impossible for him to attend a gathering, such as a reception, talk and shake hands with a number of people during the course of the evening, without taking on, to a greater or less extent, their various mental and physical conditions. These affect him to such an extent that he is scarcely himself, and in his best condition for work, until some two or three days afterwards.

Some think it unfortunate for one to be sensitively organized. By no means. It is a good thing, for one may thus be more open and receptive to the higher impulses of the soul within, and to all higher forces and influences from without. It may, however, be unfortunate and extremely inconvenient to be so organized unless one recognize and gain the power of closing themselves, of making themselves positive to all detrimental or undesirable influences. This power everyone, however sensitively organized they may be, can acquire.

This they can acquire through the mind’s action. And, moreover, there is no habit of more value to anyone, be they sensitively or less sensitively organized, than that of occasionally taking and holding themselves continually in the attitude of mind -I close myself, I make myself positive to all things below, and open and receptive to higher influences, to all things above. By taking this attitude of mind consciously now and then it soon becomes a habit, and if one is deeply in earnest in regard to it, it puts into operation silent but subtle and powerful influences in effecting the desired results. In this way all lower and undesirable influences from both the seen and the unseen side of life are closed out, while all higher influences are invited, and in the degree that they are invited will they enter.

And what do we mean by the unseen side of life? First, the thought forces, the mental and emotional conditions in the atmosphere about us that are generated by those manifesting on the physical plane through the agency of physical bodies. Second, the same forces generated by those who have dropped the physical body, or from whom it has been struck away, and who are now manifesting through the agency of bodies of a different nature.

The individual existence of man begins on the sense plane of the physical world, but rises through successive gradations of ethereal and celestial spheres, corresponding with his ever unfolding deific life and powers, to a destiny of unspeakable grandeur and glory. Within and above every physical planet is a corresponding ethereal planet, or soul world, as within and above every physical organism is a corresponding ethereal organism, or soul body, of which the physical is but the external counterpart and materialized expression.

From this etherealized or soul planet, which is the immediate home of our arisen humanity, there rises or deepens in infinite gradations spheres within and above spheres, to celestial heights of spiritualized existence utterly inconceivable to the sense of man. Embodiment, accordingly, is two-fold -the physical being but the temporary husk, so to speak, in and by which the real and permanent ethereal organism is individualized and perfected, somewhat as ‘the full corn in the ear’ is reached by means of its husk, for which there is no further use. By means of this indestructible ethereal body the corresponding ethereal spheres of environment with the social life and relations in the spheres, the individuality and personal life is preserved forever.’

The fact of life in whatever form means the continuance of life, even though the form be changed. Life is the one eternal principle of the universe and so always continues, even though the form of the agency through which it manifests be changed. ‘In My Father’s house are many mansions.’ And, surely, because the individual has dropped, has gone out of the physical body, there is no evidence at all that the life does not go right on the same as before, not commencing for there is no cessation but commencing in the other form exactly where it has left off here, for all life is a continuous evolution, step by step, there one neither skips nor jumps.

There are in the other form, then, mentalities and hence lives of all grades and influences, just as there are in the physical form. If, then, the great law that like attracts like is ever operating, we are continually attracting to us from this side of life influences and conditions most akin to those of our own thoughts and lives. A gruesome thought that we should be so influenced, says one. By no means, all life is one, we are all bound together in the one common and universal life. Especially not so when we take into consideration the fact that we have it entirely in our own hands to determine the order of thought we entertain, and consequently the order of influences we attract, and are not mere willowy creatures of circumstance, unless indeed we choose to be.

In our mental lives we can either keep hold of the rudder and so determine exactly what course we take, what points we touch, or we can fail to do this, and failing, we drift, and are blown hither and thither by every passing breeze. And so, on the contrary, welcome should be the thought, for thus we may draw to us the influence and the aid of the greatest, the noblest, and the best who have lived on the earth, whatever the time, wherever the place.

We cannot rationally believe other than that those who have labored in love and with uplifting power here are still laboring in the same way, and in all probability with more earnest zeal, and with still greater power.

‘And Elisha prayed, and said, Lord, I pray thee, open his eyes, that he may see. And the Lord opened the eyes of the young man, and he saw: and, behold, the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire round about Elisha.’

While riding with a friend a few days ago, we were speaking of the great interest people are everywhere taking in the more vital things of life, the eagerness with which they are reaching out for a knowledge of the interior forces, their ever-increasing desire to know themselves and to know their true relations with the Infinite. And in speaking of the great spiritual awakening that is so rapidly coming all over the world, the beginnings of which we are so clearly seeing during the closing years of this, and whose ever-increasing proportions we are to witness during the early years of the coming century, I said, ‘How beautiful if Emerson, the illumined one so far in advance of his time, who labored so faithfully and so fearlessly to bring about these very conditions, how beautiful if he were with us today to witness it all! how he would rejoice!’ ‘How do we know’, was the reply, ‘that he is not witnessing it all? and more, that he is not having a hand in it all -a hand even greater, perhaps, than when we saw him here?’ Thank you, my friend, for this reminder. And, truly, ‘are they not all ministering spirits sent forth to minister to those who shall be heirs of salvation?’

As science is so abundantly demonstrating today, the things that we see are but a very small fraction of the things that are. The real, vital forces at work in our own lives and in the world about us are not seen by the ordinary physical eye. Yet they are the causes of which all things we see are merely the effects. Thoughts are forces, like builds like, and like attracts like. For one to govern their thinking, then, is to determine their life.

Says one of deep insight into the nature of things, ‘The law of correspondences between spiritual and material things is wonderfully exact in its workings. People ruled by the mood of gloom attract to them gloomy things. People always discouraged and despondent do not succeed in anything, and live only by burdening someone else. The hopeful, confident, and cheerful attract the elements of success. A man’s front or back garden will advertise that man’s ruling mood in the way it is kept. A woman at home shows her state of mind in her dress.

A slattern advertises the ruling mood of hopelessness, carelessness, and lack of system. Rags, tatters, and dirt are always in the mind before being on the body. The thought that is most put out brings its corresponding visible element to crystallize about you as surely and literally as the visible bit of copper in solution attracts to it the invisible copper in that solution. A mind always hopeful, confident, courageous, and determined on its set purpose, and keeping itself to that purpose, attracts to itself out of the elements things and powers favorable to that purpose.

‘Every thought of yours has a literal value to you in every possible way. The strength of your body, the strength of your mind, your success in business, and the pleasure your company brings others, depends on the nature of your thoughts…… In whatever mood you set your mind does your spirit receive of unseen substance in correspondence with that mood. It is as much a chemical law as a spiritual law. Chemistry is not confined to the elements we see. The elements we do not see with the physical eye outnumber ten thousand times those we do see.

The Christ injunction, “Do good to those who hate you,” is based on a scientific fact and a natural law. So, to do good is to bring to yourself all the elements in nature of power and good. To do evil is to bring the contrary destructive elements. When our eyes are opened, self-preservation will make us stop all evil thought. Those who live by hate will die of hate: that is, “those who live by the sword will die by the sword.” Every evil thought is as a sword drawn on the person to whom it is directed. If a sword is drawn in return, so much the worse for both.’

And says another who knows full well whereof he speaks: ‘The law of attraction works universally on every plane of action, and we attract whatever we desire or expect. If we desire one thing and expect another, we become like houses divided against themselves, which are quickly brought to desolation. Determine resolutely to expect only what you desire, then you will attract only what you wish for. . . . Carry any kind of thought you please about with you, and so long as you retain it, no matter how you roam over land or sea, you will unceasingly attract to yourself, knowingly or inadvertently, exactly and only what corresponds to your own dominant quality of thought. Thoughts are our private property, and we can regulate them to suit our taste entirely by steadily recognizing our ability so to do.’

We have just spoken of the drawing power of mind. Faith is nothing more nor less than the operation of the thought forces in the form of an earnest desire, coupled with expectation as to its fulfillment. And in the degree that faith, the earnest desire thus sent out, is continually held to and watered by firm expectation, in just that degree does it either draw to itself, or does it change from the unseen into the visible, from the spiritual into the material, that for which it is sent.

Let the element of doubt or fear enter in, and what would otherwise be a tremendous force will be so neutralized that it will fail of its realization. Continually held to and continually watered by firm expectation, it becomes a force, a drawing power, that is irresistible and absolute, and the results will be absolute in direct proportion as it is absolute.

We shall find, as we are so rapidly beginning to find today, that the great things said in regard to faith, the great promises made in connection with it, are not mere vague sentimentalities, but are all great scientific facts, and rest upon great immutable laws. Even in our very laboratory experiments we are beginning to discover the laws underlying and governing these forces. We are now beginning, some at least, to use them understandingly and not blindly, as has so often and so long been the case.

Much is said today in regard to the will. It is many times spoken of as if it were a force in itself. But will is a force, a power, only in so far as it is a particular form of the manifestation of the thought forces, for it is by what we call the ‘will’ that thought is focused and given a particular direction, and in the degree that thought is thus focused and given direction, is it effective in the work it is sent out to accomplish.

In a sense there are two kinds of will—the human and the divine. The human will is the will of what, for convenience sake, we may term the lower self. It is the will that finds its life merely in the realm of the mental and the physical—the sense will. It is the will of the one who is not yet awake to the fact that there is a life that far transcends the life of merely the intellect and the physical senses, and which, when realized and lived, does not do away with or minify these, but which, on the contrary, brings them to their highest perfection and to their powers of keenest enjoyment. The divine will is the will of the higher self, the will of the one who recognizes their oneness with the Divine, and who consequently brings their will to work in harmony, in conjunction with the divine a will. ‘The Lord thy God in the midst of thee is mighty.’

The human will has its limitations. So far and no farther, says the law. The divine will has no limitations. It is supreme. All things are open and subject to you, says the law, and so, in the degree that the human will is transmuted into the divine, in the degree that it comes into harmony with, and so acts in conjunction with the divine, does it become supreme. Then it is that ‘Thou shalt decree a thing and it shall be established unto thee.’ The great secret of life and power, then, is to make and to keep one’s conscious connection with this Infinite Source.

The power of every life, the very life itself, is determined by what it relates itself to. God is immanent as well as transcendent. He is creating, working, ruling in the universe today, in your life and in mine, just as much as He ever has been. We are apt to regard Him after the manner of an absentee landlord, one who has set into operation the forces of this great universe, and then taken Himself away.

In the degree, however, that we recognized Him as immanent as well as transcendent, are we able to partake of His life and power. For in the degree that we recognize Him as the Infinite Spirit of Life and Power that is today, at this very moment, working and manifesting in and through all, and then, in the degree that we come into realization of our oneness with this life, do we become partakers of, and so do we actualize in ourselves the qualities of His Life. In the degree that we open ourselves to the inflowing tide of this immanent and transcendent life, do we make ourselves channels through which the Infinite Intelligence and Power can work.

It is through the instrumentality of the mind that we are enabled to connect the real soul life with the physical life, and so enable the soul life to manifest and work through the physical. The thought life needs continually to be illumined from within. This illumination can come in just the degree that through the agency of the mind we recognize our oneness with the Divine, of which each soul is an individual form of expression.

This gives us the inner guiding which we call intuition. ‘Intuition is to the spiritual nature and understanding practically what sense perception is to the sensuous nature and understanding. It is an inner spiritual sense through which man is opened to the direct revelation and knowledge of God, the secrets of nature and life, and through which he is brought into conscious unity and fellowship with God, and made to realize his own deific nature and supremacy of being as the son of God. Spiritual supremacy and illumination, thus realized through the development and perfection of intuition under divine inspiration, gives the perfect inner vision and direct insight into the character, properties, and purpose of all things to which the attention and interest are directed…..

It is we repeat, a spiritual sense opening inwardly, as the physical senses open outwardly, and because it has the capacity to perceive, grasp and know the truth at first hand, independent of all external sources of information, we call it intuition. All inspired teaching and spiritual revelations are based upon the recognition of this spiritual faculty of the soul, and its power to receive and appropriate them….. Conscious unity of man in spirit and purpose with the Father, born out of his supreme desire and trust, opens his soul through this inner sense to immediate inspiration and enlightenment from the Divine Omniscience, and the co-operative energy of the Divine Omnipotence, under which he becomes a seer and a master.

‘On this higher plane of realized spiritual life in the flesh the mind holds the impersonal attitude and acts with unfettered freedom and unbiased vision, grasping truth at first hand, independent of all external sources of information. Approaching all beings and things from the divine side, they are seen in the light of the divine Omniscience. God’s purpose in them, and so the truth concerning them, as it rests in the mind of God, are thus revealed by direct illumination from the Divine Mind, to which the soul is opened inwardly through this spiritual sense we call intuition.’ Some call it the voice of the soul, some call it the voice of God, some call it the sixth sense. It is our inner spiritual sense.

In the degree that we come into the recognition of our own true selves, into the realization of the oneness of our life with the Infinite Life, and in the degree that we open ourselves to this divine inflow, does this voice of intuition, this voice of the soul, this voice of God, speak clearly, and in the degree that we recognize, listen to, and obey it, does it speak ever more clearly, until by-and-by there comes the time when it is unerring, absolutely unerring, in its guidance.

FULLNESS OF LIFE – BODILY HEALTH AND VIGOR

GOD is the Spirit of Infinite Life. If we are partakers of this life and have the power of opening ourselves fully to its divine inflow, it means more, so far to its divine inflow, it means more, so far as even the physical life is concerned, than we may at first think. For very clearly, the life of this Infinite Spirit, from its very nature, can admit of no disease, and if this is true, no disease can exist in the body where it freely enters, through which it freely flows.

Let us recognize at the outset that, so far as the physical life is concerned, all life is from within outwards. There is an immutable law which says: ‘As within, so without, cause, effect.’ In other words, the thought forces, the various mental states and the emotions, all have in time their effects upon the physical body.

Someone says, ‘I hear a great deal said today in regard to the effects of the mmd upon the body, but I don’t know that I place very much confidence in this.’ Don’t you? Someone brings you sudden news. You grow pale, you tremble, or perhaps you fall into a faint. It is, however, through the channel of your mind that the news is imparted to you. A friend says something to you, perhaps at the table, something that seems very unkind. You are hurt by it as we say. You have been enjoying your dinner, but from this moment your appetite is gone. But what was said entered into and affected you through the channel of your mind.

Look! Yonder goes a young man, dragging his feet, stumbling over the slightest obstruction in the path. Why is it? Simply that he is weak-minded, an idiot. In other words, a falling state of mind is productive of a falling condition of the body. To be sure-minded is to be sure footed. To be uncertain in mind is to be uncertain in step.

Again, a sudden emergency arises. You stand trembling and weak with fear. Why are you powerless to move? Why do you tremble? And yet you believe that the mind has but little influence upon the body. You are for a moment dominated by a fit of anger. For a few hours afterwards you complain of a violent headache. And still you do not seem to realize that the thoughts and emotions have an effect upon the body.

A day or two ago, while conversing with a friend, we were speaking of worry. ‘My father is greatly given to worry,’ he said. ‘Your father is not a healthy man’ I said. ‘He is not strong, vigorous, robust, and active.’ I then went on to describe to him more fully his father’s condition and the troubles which afflicted him. He looked at me in surprise and said, ‘Why, you do not know my father?’ ‘No,’ I replied. ‘How then can you describe so accurately the disease with which he is afflicted?’ ‘You have just told me that your father is greatly given to worry. When you told me this you indicated to me cause. In describing your father’s condition I simply connected with the cause its own peculiar effects.’

Fear and worry have the effect of closing up the channels of the body, so that the life forces flow in a slow and sluggish manner. Hope and tranquility open the channels of the body, so that the life forces go bounding through it in such a way that disease can rarely get a foothold.

Not long ago a lady was telling a friend of a serious physical trouble. My friend happened to know that between this lady and her sister the most kindly relations did not exist. He listened attentively to her delineation of her troubles, and then, looking her squarely in the face, in a firm but kindly tone, said: ‘Forgive your sister.’ The woman looked at him in surprise and said: ‘I can’t forgive my sister’ ‘Very well, then,’ he replied, ‘keep the stiffness of your joints and your kindred rheumatic troubles.’

A few weeks later he saw her again. With a light step she came toward him and said I took your advice. I saw my sister and forgave her. We have become good friends again, and I don’t know how it is, but somehow or other from the very day, as I remember, that we became reconciled, my troubles seemed to grow less and today there is not a trace of the old difficulties left, and really, my sister and I have become such good friends that now we can scarcely get along without one another.’ Again we have effect following cause.

We have several well-authenticated cases of the following nature. A mother has been dominated for a few moments by an intense passion of anger, and the child at her breast has died within an hour’s time, so poisoned became the mother’s milk by virtue of the poisonous secretions of the system while under the domination of this fit of anger. In other cases it has caused severe illness and convulsions.

The following experiment has been tried a number of times by a well-known scientist. Several men have been put into a heated room. Each man has been dominated for a moment by a particular passion of some kind, one by an intense passion of anger, and others by different other passions. The experimenter has taken a drop of perspiration from the body of each of these men, and by means of a careful chemical analysis he has been able to determine the particular passion by which each has been dominated. Practically the same results revealed themselves in the chemical analysis of the saliva of each of the men.

Says a noted American author, an able graduate of a great medical school and one who has studied deeply into the forces that build the body and the forces that tear it down: ‘The mind is the natural protector of the body….. Every thought tends to reproduce itself, and ghastly mental pictures of disease, sensuality, and vice of all sorts, produce scrofula and leprosy in the soul, which reproduces them in the body. Anger changes the chemical properties of the saliva to a poison dangerous to life. It is well known that sudden and violent emotions have not only weakened the heart in a few hours, but have caused death and insanity.

It has been discovered by scientists that there is a chemical difference between that sudden cold exudation of a person under a deep sense of guilt and the ordinary perspiration, and the state of the mind can sometimes be determined by chemical analysis of the perspiration of a criminal, which, when brought into contact with selenic acid, produces a distinctive pink color. It is well known that fear has killed thousands of victims, while, on the other hand, courage is a great invigorator.

‘Anger in the mother may poison a nursing child. Rarey, the celebrated horse-tamer, said that an angry word would sometimes raise the pulse of a horse ten beats in a minute. If this is true of a beast, what can we say of its power upon human beings, especially upon a child? Strong mental emotion often causes vomiting. Extreme anger or fright may produce jaundice. A violent paroxysm of rage has caused apoplexy and death. Indeed, in more than one instance, a single night of mental agony has wrecked a life. Grief, long-standing jealousy, constant care and corroding anxiety sometimes tend to develop insanity. Sick thoughts and discordant moods are the natural atmosphere of disease, and crime is engendered and thrives in the miasma of the mind.’

From all this we get the great fact we are scientifically demonstrating today that the various mental states, emotions, and passions have their various peculiar effects upon the body, and each induces in turn, if indulged in to any great extent, its own peculiar forms of disease, and these in time become chronic.

Just a word or two in regard to their mode of operation. If a person is dominated for a moment by, say, a passion of anger, there is set up in the physical organism what we might justly term a bodily thunder-storm, which has the effect of souring, or rather of corroding, the normal, healthy, and life-giving secretions of the body, so that instead of performing their natural functions they become poisonous and destructive. And if this goes on to any great extent by virtue of their cumulative influences they give rise to a particular form of disease, which in turn becomes chronic. So the emotion opposite to this, that of kindliness, love, benevolence, goodwill, tends to stimulate a healthy, purifying, and life-giving flow of all the bodily secretions. All the channels of the body seem free and open, the life forces go bounding through them. And these very forces, set into a bounding activity, will in time counteract the poisonous and disease-giving effects of their opposites.

A physician goes to see a patient. He gives no medicine this morning. Yet the very fact of his going makes the patient better. He has carried with him the spirit of health, he has carried brightness of tone and disposition, he has carried hope into the sick chamber, he has left it there. In fact, the very hope and good cheer he has carried with him has taken hold of and has had a subtle but powerful influence upon the mind of the patient, and this mental condition imparted by the physician has in turn its effects upon the patient’s body, and so through the instrumentality of this mental suggestion the healing goes on.

Know, then, whatever cheerful and serene

Supports the mind, supports the body, too.

Hence the most vital movement mortals feel

Is hope, the balm and life-blood of the soul.

We sometimes hear a person in weak health say to another, ‘I always feel better when you come.’ There is a deep scientific reason underlying the statement. ‘The tongue of the wise is health.’ The power of suggestion so far as the human mind is concerned is a most wonderful and interesting field of study. Most wonderful and powerful forces can be set into operation through this agency. One of the world’s most noted scientists, recognized everywhere as one of the most eminent anatomists living, tells us that he has proved from laboratory experiments that the entire human structure can be completely changed, made over, within a period of less than one year, and that some portions can be entirely remade within a period of a very few weeks.

‘Do you mean to say,’ I hear it asked, ‘that the body can be changed from a diseased to a healthy condition through the operation of the interior forces?’ Most certainly, and more, this is the natural method of cure. The method that has as its work the application of drugs, medicines and external agencies is the artificial method. The only thing that any drug or any medicine can do is to remove obstructions, that the life forces may have simply a better chance to do their work. The real healing process must be performed by the operation of the life forces within.

A surgeon and physician of worldwide fame recently made to his medical associates the following declaration: ‘For generations past the most important influence that plays upon nutrition, the life principle itself, has remained an unconsidered element in the medical profession, and the almost exclusive drift of its studies and remedial paraphernalia has been confined to the action of matter over mind.

This has seriously interfered with the evolutionary tendencies of the doctors themselves, and consequently the psychic factor in professional life is still in a rudimentary or comparatively undeveloped state. But the light of the nineteenth century has dawned, and so the march of mankind in general is taken in the direction of the hidden forces of nature. Doctors are now compelled to join the ranks of students in psychology and follow their patrons into the broader field of mental therapeutics. There is no time for lingering, no time for skepticism or doubt or hesitation. He who lingers is lost, for the entire race is enlisted in the movement.’

I am aware of the fact that in connection with the matter we are now considering there has been a great deal of foolishness during recent years. Many absurd and foolish things have been claimed and done; but this says nothing against, and it has absolutely nothing to do with the great underlying laws themselves. The same has been true of the early days of practically every system of ethics or philosophy or religion the world has ever known. But as time has passed, these foolish, absurd things have fallen away, and the great eternal principles have stood out ever more and more clearly defined.

I know personally of many cases where an entire and permanent cure has been effected, in some within a remarkably short period of time, through the operation of these forces. Some of them are cases that had been entirely given up by the regular practice, materia medica. We have numerous accounts of such cases in all times and in connection with all religions. And why should not the power of effecting such cures exist among us today? The power does exist, and it will be actualized in just the degree that we recognize the same great laws that were recognized in times past.

One person may do a very great deal in connection with the healing of another, but this almost invariably implies co-operation on the part of the one who is thus treated. In the cures that Christ performed He almost always needed the co-operation of the one who appealed to Him. His question almost invariably was, ‘Dost thou believe?’ He thus stimulated into activity the life-giving forces within the one cured. If one is in a very weak condition, or if their nervous system is exhausted, or if their mind through the influence of the disease is not so strong in its workings, it may be well for them for a time to seek the aid and co-operation of another. But it would be far better for such a one could they bring themselves to a vital realization of the omnipotence of their own interior powers.

One may cure another but to be permanently healed one must do it themselves. In this way another may be most valuable as a teacher by bringing one to a clear realization of the power of the forces within, but in every case, in order to have a permanent cure, the work of the self is necessary. Christ’s words were almost invariably -Go, and sin no more, or, Thy sins are forgiven thee, thus pointing out the one eternal and never-changing fact that all disease and its consequent suffering is the direct or the indirect result of the violation of law, either consciously or unconsciously, either intentionally, or unintentionally.

Suffering is designed to continue only so long as sin continues, sin not necessarily in the theological, but always in the philosophical sense, though many times in the sense of both. The moment the violation ceases, the moment one comes into perfect harmony with the law, the cause of the suffering ceases, and though there may be residing within the cumulative effects of past violation, the cause is removed, and consequently there can be no more effects in the form of additions, and even the diseased condition that has been induced from past violation will begin to disappear as soon as the right forces are set into activity.

There is nothing that will more quickly and more completely bring one into harmony with the laws under which we live than this vital realization of our oneness with the Infinite Spirit, which is the life of all life. In this there can be no disease, and nothing will more readily remove from the organism the obstructions that have accumulated there, or in other words, the disease that resides there, than this full realization and the complete opening of one’s self to this divine inflow. ‘I shall put My spirit in you, and ye shall live.’

The moment a person realizes their oneness with the Infinite Spirit they recognize themselves as a spiritual being, and no longer as a mere physical material being. They then no longer make the mistake of regarding themselves as body, subject to ills and diseases, but realize the fact that they are spirit, spirit now as much as they ever will or can be, and that they are the builder and so the master of the body, the house in which they live, and the moment they thus recognize their power as master they cease in any way to allow it the mastery over them.

They no longer fear the elements or any of the forces that they now in ignorance allow to take hold of and affect the body. The moment they realize their own supremacy, instead of fearing them as they did when they were out of harmony with them, they learn to love them. They thus come into harmony with them, or rather, they so order them that they come into harmony with them. He who formerly was the slave has now become the master. The moment we come to love a thing it no longer carries harm for us.

There are almost countless numbers today, weak and suffering in body, who would become strong and healthy if they would only give God an opportunity to do His work. To such I would say, Don’t shut out the divine inflow. Do anything else rather than this. Open yourselves to it. Invite it. In the degree that you open yourselves to It, its inflowing tide will course through your bodies a force so vital that the old obstructions that are dominating them today will be driven out before it. ‘My words are life to them that find them, and wealth to all their flesh.’

There is a trough through which a stream of muddy water has been flowing for many days. The dirt has gradually collected on its sides and bottom, and it continues to collect as long as the muddy water flows through it. Change this. Open the trough to a swift-flowing stream of clear, crystal water, and in a very little while even the very dirt that has collected on its sides and bottom will be carried away. The trough will be entirely cleansed. It will present in aspect of beauty and no longer an aspect of ugliness. And more, the water that now courses through it will be of value, it will be an agent of refreshment, of health and of strength to those who use it.

Yes, in just the degree that you realize your oneness with the infinite Spirit of Life, and thus actualize your latent possibilities and powers, you will exchange disease for ease, inharmony for harmony, suffering and pain for abounding health and strength. And in the degree that you realize this wholeness, this abounding health and strength in yourself, will you carry it to all with whom you come into contact, for we must remember that health is contagious as well as disease.

I hear it asked, What can be said in a concrete way in regard to the practical application of these truths, so that one can hold themselves in the enjoyment of perfect bodily health, and more, that one may heal themselves of any existing disease? In reply, let it be said that the chief thing that can be done is to point out the great underlying principle, and that each individual must make their own application, one person cannot well make this for another.

First let it be said that the very fact of one’s holding the thought of perfect health sets into operation vital forces which will in time be more or less productive of the effect of perfect health. Then speaking more directly in regard to the great principle itself, from its very nature, it is clear that more can be accomplished through the process of realization than through the process of affirmation though for some affirmation may be a help, an aid to realization.

In the degree, however, that you come into a vital realization of your oneness with the Infinite Spirit of Life, whence all life in individual form has come and is continually coming, and in the degree that through this realization you open yourself to its divine inflow do you set into operation forces that will sooner or later bring even the physical body into a state of abounding health and strength. For to realize that this Infinite Spirit of Life can from its very nature admit of no disease, and to realize that this, then, is the life in you by realizing your oneness with it you can so open yourself to its more abundant entrance that the diseased bodily conditions and effects will respond to the influences of its all-perfect power, this either quickly or more tardily, depending entirely upon yourself.

There have been those who have been able to open themselves so fully to this realization that the healing has been instantaneous and permanent. The degree of intensity always eliminates in like degree the element of time. It must, however, be a calm, quiet, and expectant intensity, rather than an intensity that is fearing, disturbed, and non-expectant. Then there are others who have come to this realization by degrees. Many will receive great help, and many will be entirely healed by a practice somewhat after the following nature: With a mind at peace, and with a heart going out in love to all, go into the quiet of your own interior self, holding the thought -I am one with the Infinite Spirit of Life, the life of my life. I then as spirit, a spiritual being, can in my own real nature admit of no disease. I now open my body, in which disease has got a foothold, I open it fully to the inflowing tide of this Infinite Life, and it now, even now, is pouring in and coursing through my body, and the healing process is going on.

Realize this so fully that you begin to feel a quickening and a warm glow imparted by the life forces to the body. Believe the healing process is going on. Believe it, and hold continually to it. Many people greatly desire a certain thing, but expect something else. They have greater faith in the power of evil than in the power of good, and hence remain ill.

If one will give themselves to this meditation, realization, treatment, or whatever term it may seem best to us, at stated times, as often as they may choose, and then continually bold themselves in the same attitude of mind, thus allowing the force to work continually, they will be surprised how rapidly the body will be exchanging conditions of disease and inharmony for health and harmony. There is no particular reason, however, for this surprise, for in this way they are simply allowing the Omnipotent Power to do the work, which will have to do it ultimately in any case.

If there is a local difficulty, and one wants to open this particular portion, in addition to the entire body, to this inflowing life, one can hold this particular portion in thought, for to fix the thought in this way upon any particular portion of the body stimulates or increases the flow of the life forces in that portion. It must always be borne in mind, however, that whatever healing may be thus accomplished, effects will not permanently cease until causes have been removed. In other words, as long as there is the violation of law, so long disease and suffering will result.

This realization that we are considering will have an influence not only where there is a diseased condition of the body, but even where there is not this condition it will give an increased bodily life, vigor, and power.

We have had many cases, in all times and in all countries, of healing through the operation of the interior forces, entirely independent of external agencies. Various have been the methods or rather, various have been the names applied to them, but the great law underlying all is one and the same, and the same today. When the Master sent His followers forth, His injunction to them was to heal the sick and the afflicted, as well as to teach the people. The early Church fathers had the power of healing, in short, it was a part of their work.

And why should we not have the power today, just as they had it then? Are the laws at all different? Identically the same. Why, then? Simply because, with a few rare exceptions here and there, we are unable to get beyond the mere letter of the law into its real vital spirit and power. It is the letter that killeth, it is the spirit that giveth life and power. Every soul who becomes so individualized that they break through the mere letter and enter into the real vital spirit will have the power, as have all who have gone before, and when they do, they will also be the means of imparting it to others, for they will be one who will move and who will speak with authority.

We are rapidly finding today, and we shall find even more and more, as time passes, that practically all disease, with its consequent suffering, has its origin in perverted mental and emotional states and conditions. The mental attitude we take toward anything determines to a greater or less extent its effects upon us. If we fear it, or if we antagonize it, the chances are that it will have detrimental or even disastrous effects upon us. If we come into harmony with it by quietly recognizing and inwardly asserting our superiority over it, in the degree that we are able successfully to do this, in that degree will it carry with it no injury for us.

No disease can enter into or take hold of our bodies unless it find therein something corresponding to itself which makes it possible. And in the same way, no evil or undesirable condition of any kind can come into our lives unless there is already in them that which invites it and so makes it possible for it to come. The sooner we begin to look within ourselves for the cause of whatever comes to us, the better it will be, for so much the sooner will we begin to make conditions within ourselves such that only good may enter.

We, who from our very natures should be masters of all conditions, by virtue of our ignorance are mastered by almost numberless conditions of every description.

Do I fear a draught? There is nothing in the draught—a little purifying current of God’s pure air— to cause me trouble, to bring on a cold, perhaps an illness. The draught can affect me only in the degree that I myself make it possible, only in the degree that I allow it to affect me. We must distinguish between causes and mere occasions. The draught is not cause, nor does it carry cause with it. Two persons are sitting in the same draught. The one is injuriously affected by it, the other experiences not even an inconvenience, but they rather enjoy it. The one is a creature of circumstances, they fear the draught, cringe before it, continually think of the harm it is doing them.

In other words, they open every avenue for it to enter and take hold of them, and so it, harmless and beneficent in itself, brings to them exactly what they have empowered it to bring. The other recognizes themselves as the master over and not the creature of circumstances. They are not concerned about the draught. They put themselves into harmony with it, make themselves positive to it, and instead of experiencing any discomfort, they enjoy it, and in addition to its doing them a service by bringing the pure fresh air from without to them, it does them the additional service of hardening them even more to any future conditions of a like nature. But if the draught was cause, it would bring the same results to both. The fact that it does not, shows that it is not a cause, but a condition, and it brings to each, effects which correspond to the conditions it finds within each.

Poor draught! How many thousands, nay millions of times it is made the scapegoat by those who are too ignorant or too unfair to look their own weaknesses square in the face, and who instead of becoming imperial masters remain cringing slaves. Think of it, what it means. A man created in the image of the eternal God, sharer of His life and power, born to have dominion, fearing, shaking, cringing before a little draught of pure life-giving air. But scapegoats are convenient things, even if the only thing they do for us is aid us in our constant efforts at self-delusion.

The best way to disarm a draught of the bad effects it has been accustomed to bring one, is first to bring about a pure and healthy set of conditions within, then, to change one’s mental attitude toward it. Recognize the fact that of itself it has no power, it has only the power you invest it with. Thus you will put yourself into harmony with it, and will no longer sit in fear of it. Then sit in a draught a few times and get hardened to it, as everyone, by going at it judiciously, can readily do. ‘But suppose one is in delicate health, or especially subject to draughts?’ Then be simply a little judicious at first, don’t seek the strongest that can be found, especially if you do not as yet in your own mind feel equal to it, for if you do not, it signifies that you still fear it. That supreme regulator of all life, good common sense, must be used here, as elsewhere.

If we are born to have dominion, and that we are is demonstrated by the fact that some have attained to it -and what one has done, soon or late all can do -then it is not necessary that we live under the domination of any physical agent. In the degree that we recognize our own interior powers, then are we rulers and able to dictate; in the degree that we fail to recognize them, we are slaves, and are dictated to. We build whatever we find within us, we attract whatever comes to us, and all in accordance with spiritual law, for all natural law is spiritual law.

The whole of human life is cause and effect, there is no such thing in it as chance, nor is there even in all the wide universe. Are we not satisfied with whatever comes into our lives? The thing to do, then, is not to spend time in railing against the imaginary something we create and call fate, but to look to the within, and change the causes at work there, in order that things of a different nature may come, for there will come exactly what we cause to come.

This is true not only of the physical body, but of all phases and conditions of life. We invite whatever comes, and did we not invite it, either consciously or unconsciously, it could not and it would not come. This may undoubtedly be hard for some to believe, or even to see, at first. But in the degree that one candidly and openmindedly looks at it, and then studies into the silent, but subtle and, so to speak, omnipotent workings of the thought forces, and as they trace their effects within them and about them, it becomes clearly evident, and easy to understand.

And then whatever does come to one depends for its effects entirely upon their mental attitude toward it. Does this or that occurrence or condition cause you annoyance? Very well, it causes you annoyance, and so disturbs your peace merely because you allow it to. You are born to have absolute control over your own dominion, but if you voluntarily hand over this power, even if for a little while, to some one or to some thing else then you of course become the creature, the one controlled.

To live undisturbed by passing occurrences you must first find your own center. You must then be firm in your own center, and so rule the world from within. He who does not himself condition circumstances allows the process to be reversed, and becomes a conditioned circumstance. Find your center and live in it. Surrender it to no person, to no thing. In the degree that you do this will you find yourself growing stronger and stronger in it. And how can one find their center? By realizing their oneness with the Infinite Power, and by living continually in this realization.

But if you do not rule from your own center, if you invest this or that with the power of bringing you annoyance, or evil, or harm, then take what it brings, but cease your railings against the eternal goodness and beneficence of all things.

I swear the earth shall surely be complete,

To him who shall be complete,

The earth remains jagged and broken

Only to him who remains jagged and broken.

If the windows of your soul are dirty and streaked, covered with matter foreign to them, then the world as you look out of them will be to you dirty and streaked and out of order. Cease your complainings, however, keep your pessimism, your ‘poor, unfortunate me’ to yourself, lest you betray the fact that your windows are badly in need of something. But know that your friend, who keeps their windows clean that the Eternal Sun may illuminate all within and make visible all without, know that they live in a different world from yours.

Then, go wash your windows, and instead of longing for some other world you will discover the wonderful beauties of this world, and if you don’t find transcendent beauties on every hand here, the chances are that you will never find them anywhere.

The poem hangs on the berry-bush

When comes the poet’s eye.

And the whole street is a masquerade

When Shakespeare passes by.

This same Shakespeare, whose mere passing causes all this commotion, is the one who put into the mouth of one of his creations the words: ‘The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars, but in ourselves, and we are underlings,’ And the great work of his own life is right good evidence that he realized full well the truth of the facts we are considering. And again he gave us a great truth in keeping with what we are considering when he said:

Our doubts are traitors,

And make us lose the good we oft might win

By fearing to attempt.

There is probably no agent that brings us more undesirable conditions than fear. We should live in fear of nothing, nor will we when we come fully to know ourselves. An old French proverb runs:

Some of your griefs you have cured,

And the sharpest you still have survived,

But what torments of pain you endured

From evils that never arrived.

Fear and lack of faith go hand in hand. The one is born of the other. Tell me how much one is given to fear, and I will tell you how much they lack in faith. Fear is a most expensive guest to entertain, as also is worry; so expensive are they that no one can afford to entertain them. We invite what we fear, just as, by a different attitude of mind, we invite and attract the influences and conditions we desire. The mind dominated by fear opens the door for the entrance of the very things, for the actualization of the very conditions it fears.

‘Where are you going?’ asked an Eastern pilgrim on meeting the plague one day. ‘I am going to Baghdad to kill five thousand people,’ was the reply. A few days later the same pilgrim met the plague returning. ‘You told me you were going to Baghdad to kill five thousand people,’ said he, ‘but instead, you killed fifty thousand.’ ‘No,’ said the plague. ‘I killed only five thousand, as I told you I would; the others died of fright.’

Fear can paralyze every muscle in the body. Fear affects the flow of the blood, likewise the normal and healthy action of all the life forces. Fear can make the body rigid, motionless, and powerless to move.

Not only do we attract to ourselves the things we fear, but we also aid in attracting to others the conditions we in our own minds hold them in fear of. This we do in proportion to the strength of our own thought, and in the degree that they are sensitively organized and so influenced by our thought, and this although it be unconscious both on their part and on ours.

Children, and especially when very young, are, generally speaking, more sensitive to their surrounding influences than grown people are. Some are veritable little sensitive plates, registering the influences about them, and embodying them as they grow. How careful in their prevailing mental states then should be those who have them in charge, and especially how careful should a mother be during the time she is carrying the child, and when every thought, every mental as well as emotional state has its direct influence upon the life of the unborn child. Let parents be careful how they hold a child, either younger or older, in the thought of fear. This is many times done, unwittingly on their part, through anxiety, and at times through what might well be termed over-care, which is fully as bad as under-care.

I know of a number of cases where a child has been so continually held in the thought of fear lest this or that condition come upon him, that the very things that were feared have been drawn to them, which probably otherwise never would have come at all. Many times there has been no adequate basis for the fear. In case there is a basis, then far wiser it is to take exactly the opposite attitude, so as to neutralize the force at work, and then to hold the child in the thought of wisdom and strength that it may be able to meet the condition and master it, instead of being mastered by it.

But a day or two ago a friend was telling me of an experience of his own life in this connection. At a period when he was having terrific struggle with a certain habit, he was so continually held in the thought of fear by his mother and the young lady to whom he was engaged, the engagement to be consummated at the end of a certain period, the time depending on his proving his mastery, that he, very sensitively organized, continually felt the depressing and weakening effects of their negative thoughts. He could always tell exactly how they felt toward him, he was continually influenced and weakened by their fear, by their questionings, by their suspicions, all of which had the effect of lessening the sense of his own power, all of which had an endeavor-paralyzing influence upon him. And so instead of their begetting courage and strength in him, they brought him to a still greater realization of his own weakness and the almost worthless use of struggle.

Here were two who loved him dearly, and who would have done anything and everything to help him gain the mastery, but who, ignorant of the silent, subtle, ever-working and all-telling power of the thought forces, instead of imparting to him courage, instead of adding to his strength, disarmed him of this, and then added an additional weakness from without. In this way the battle for him was made harder in a three-fold degree.

Fear and worry and all kindred mental states are too expensive for any person, man, woman, or child, to entertain or indulge in. Fear paralyses healthy action, worry corrodes and pulls down the organism, and will finally tear it to pieces. Nothing is to be gained by it, but everything to be lost. Long-continued grief at any loss will do the same. Each brings its own peculiar type of ailment. An inordinate love of gain, a close-fisted, hoarding disposition will have kindred effects. Anger, jealousy, malice, continual fault-finding, lust, has each its own peculiar corroding, weakening, tearing-down effects.

We shall find that not only are happiness and prosperity concomitants of righteousness, living in harmony with the higher laws, but bodily health as well. The great Hebrew seer enunciated a wonderful chemistry of life when he said, ‘As righteousness tendeth to life, so he that pursueth evil, pursueth it to his own death.’ On the other hand, ‘In the way of righteousness is life, and in the pathway thereof there is no death.’ The time will come when it will be seen that this means far more than most people dare even to think as yet. ‘It rests with man to say whether his soul shall be housed in a stately mansion of ever-growing splendour and beauty, or in a hovel of his own building -a hovel at last ruined and abandoned to decay.’

The bodies of almost untold numbers, living their one-sided unbalanced lives, are every year, through these influences, weakening and falling by the wayside long before their time. Poor, poor houses! Intended to be beautiful temples, brought to desolation by their ignorant, reckless, deluded tenants. Poor houses!

A close observer, a careful student of the power of the thought forces, will soon be able to read in the voice, in the movements the features, the effects registered by the prevailing mental states and conditions. Or, if they are told the prevailing mental states and conditions, they can describe the voice, the movements, the features, as well as describe, in a general way, the peculiar physical ailments their possessor is heir to.

We are told by good authority that a study of the human body, its structure, and the length of time it takes to come to maturity, in comparison with the time it takes the bodies of various animals and their corresponding longevity, reveals the fact that its natural age should be nearer a hundred and twenty years than what we commonly find it today. But think of the multitudes all about us whose bodies are aging, weakening, breaking, so that they have to abandon them long before they reach what ought to be a long period of strong, vigorous middle life. Then, the natural length of life being thus shortened, it comes to be what we might term a race belief that this shortened period is the natural period.

And as a consequence many, when they approach a certain age, seeing that as a rule people at this period of life begin to show signs of age, to break and go downhill, as we say, they, thinking it a matter of course and that it must be the same with them, by taking this attitude of mind many times bring upon themselves these very conditions long before it is necessary. Subtle and powerful are the influences of the mind in the building and rebuilding of the body. As we understand them better it may become the custom for people to look forward with pleasure to the teens of their second century.

There comes to mind at this moment a friend, a lady well on to eighty years of age. An old lady, some, most people in fact, would call her, especially those who measure age by the number of the seasons that have come and gone since one’s birth. But to call our friend old would be to call black white. She is no older than a girl of twenty-five, and indeed younger, I am glad to say, or I am sorry to say, depending upon the point of view, than many a girl of this age. Seeking for the good in all people and in all things, she has found the good everywhere. The brightness of disposition and of voice that is hers today, that attracts all people to her and that makes her so beautifully attractive to all people, has characterized her all through life. It has in turn carried brightness and hope and courage and strength to hundreds and thousands of people through all these years, and will continue to do so, apparently, for many years yet to come.

No fears, no worryings, no hatreds, no jealousies, no sorrowings, no grievings, no sordid graspings after inordinate gain, have found entrance into her realm of thought As a consequence her mind, free from these abnormal states and conditions, has not externalized in her body the various physical ailments that the great majority of people are carrying about with them, thinking in their ignorance, that they are natural, and that it is all in accordance with the ‘eternal order of things’ that they should have them. Her life has been one of varied experiences, so that all these things would have found ready entrance into the realm of her mind and so into her life were she ignorant enough to allow them entrance.

On the contrary she has been wise enough to recognize the fact that in one kingdom at least she is ruler, the kingdom of her mind, and that it is hers to dictate as to what shall and what shall not enter there. She knows, moreover, that in determining this she is determining all the conditions of her life. It is indeed a pleasure as well as an inspiration to see her as she goes here and there, to see her sunny disposition, her youthful step, to hear her joyous laughter. Indeed and in truth, Shakespeare knew whereof he spoke when he said, It ’s the mind that makes the body rich.’

With great pleasure I watched her but recently as she was walking along the street, stopping to have a word and so a part in the lives of a group of children at play by the wayside, hastening her step a little to have a word with a washerwoman carrying her bundle of clothes, stopping for a word with a laboring man returning with dinner-can in hand from his work, returning the recognition from the lady in her car, and so imparting some of her own rich life to all with whom she came into contact.

And as good fortune would have it, while still watching her, an old lady passed her, really old, this one, though at least ten or fifteen years younger, so far as the count by the seasons is concerned. Nevertheless, she was bent in form and apparently stiff in joint muscle. Silent in mood, she wore a countenance of long-faced sadness, which was intensified surely several fold by a black, somber headgear with an immense heavy veil, still more somber-looking if possible. Her entire dress was of this description. By this relic-of-barbarism garb, combined with her own mood and expression, she continually proclaimed to the world two things, her own personal sorrows and woes, which by this very method she kept continually fresh in her mind, and also her lack of faith in the eternal goodness of things, her lack of faith in the love and eternal goodness of the Infinite Father.

Wrapped only in the thoughts of her own ailments, and sorrows, and woes, she received and she gave nothing of joy, nothing of hope, nothing of courage, nothing of value to those whom she passed or with whom she came in contact. But on the contrary she suggested to all and helped to intensify in many those mental states all too prevalent in our common human life. And as she passed our friend one could notice a slight turn of the head which, coupled with the expression in her face, seemed to indicate this as her thought -your dress and your conduct are not wholly in keeping with a lady of your years. Thank God, then, thank God they are not. And may He in His great goodness and love send us an innumerable company of the same rare type; and may they live a thousand years to bless mankind, to impart the life-giving influences of their own royal lives to the numerous ones all about us who stand so much in need of them.

Would you remain always young, and would you carry all the loyousness and buoyancy of youth into your mature years? Then have care concerning but one thing, how you live in your thought world. This will determine all. It was the inspired one, Gautama, the Buddha, who said, ‘The mind is everything, what you think you become.’ And the same thing had Ruskin in mind when he said, ‘Make yourself nests of pleasant thoughts. None of us as yet know, for none of us have been taught in early youth, what fairy palaces we may build of beautiful thought, proof against all adversity.’ And would you have in your body all the elasticity, all the strength, all the beauty of your younger years? Then live these in your mind, making no room for unclean thought, and you will externalize them in your body. In the degree that you keep young in thought will you remain young in body. And you will find that your body will in turn aid your mind, for body helps mind just as mind builds body,

You are continually building, and so externalizing in your body, conditions most akin to the thoughts and emotions you entertain. And not only are you so building from within, but you are also continually drawing from without forces of a kindred nature. Your particular kind of thought connects you with a similar order of thought from without. If it is bright, hopeful, cheerful, you connect yourself with a current of thought of this nature. If it is sad, fearing, despondent, then this is the order of thought you connect yourself with.

If the latter is the order of your thought, then perhaps unconsciously and by degrees you have been connecting yourself with it. You need to go back and pick up again a part of your child nature, with its careless and cheerful type of thought. The minds of the group of children at play are unconsciously concentrated in drawing to their bodies a current of playful thought. Place a child by itself, deprive it of its companions, and soon it will mope and become slow of movement. It is cut off from that peculiar thought current and is literally “out of its element.”

‘You need to bring again this current of playful thought to you which has gradually been turned off. You are too serious or sad, or absorbed in the serious affairs of life. You can be playful and cheerful without being puerile or silly. You can carry on business all the better for being in the playful mood when your mind is off your business. There is nothing but ill resulting from the permanent mood of sadness and seriousness -the mood which by many so long maintained makes it actually difficult for them to smile at all.

‘At eighteen or twenty you commenced growing out of the more playful tendency of early youth. You took hold of the more serious side of life. You went into some business. You became more or less involved in its cares, perplexities and responsibilities. Or, as man, you entered on some phase of life involving care or trouble. Or you became absorbed in some game of business which, as you followed it, left no time for play. Then as you associated with older people you absorbed their old ideas, their mechanical methods of thinking, their acceptance of errors without question or thought of question.

In all this you opened your mind to a heavy, care-laden current of thought. Into this you glided unconsciously. That thought is materialized in your blood and flesh. The seen of your body is a deposit or crystallization of the unseen element ever “lowing to your body from your mind. Years pass on and you find that your movements are stiff and cumbrous, that you can with difficulty climb a tree, as at fourteen. Your mind has all this time been sending to your body these heavy, inelastic elements, making your body what now it is…..

‘Your change for the better must be gradual, and can only be accomplished by bringing the thought current of an all-round symmetrical strength to bear on it, by demanding of the Supreme Power to be led in the best way, by diverting your mind from the many unhealthy thoughts which habitually have been flowing into it without your knowing it, to healthier ones…..

‘Like the beast, the bodies of those of our race have in the past weakened and decayed. This will not always be. Increase of spiritual knowledge will show the cause of such decay, and will show, also, how to take advantage of a Law of Force to build us up, renew ever the body and give it greater and greater strength, instead of blindly using that Law of Force, as has been done in the past, to weaken our bodies and finally destroy them.’

Full, rich and abounding health is the normal and the natural condition of life. Anything else is an abnormal condition, and abnormal conditions as a rule come through perversions. God never created sickness, suffering, and disease, they are man’s own creations. They come through his violating the laws under which he lives. So used are we to seeing them that we come gradually, if not to think of them as natural, then to look upon them as a matter of course.

The time will come when the work of the physician will not be to treat and attempt to heal the body, but to heal the mind, which in turn will heal the body. In other words, the true physician will be a teacher, his work will be to keep people well, instead of attempting to make them well after sickness and disease comes or and still beyond this there will come a time when each will be their own physician. In the degree that we live in harmony with the higher laws of our being, and so, in the degree that we become better acquainted with the powers of the mind and spirit, will we give less attention to the body, no less care, but less attention.

The bodies of thousands today would be much better cared for if their owners gave them less thought and attention. As a rule, those who think least of their bodies enjoy the best health. Many are kept in continual ill health by the abnormal thought and attention they give them.

Give the body the nourishment, the exercise, the fresh air, the sunlight it requires, keep it clean, and then think of it as little as possible. In your thoughts and in your conversation never dwell upon the negative side. Don’t talk of sickness and disease. By talking of these you do yourself harm and you do harm to those who listen to you. Talk of those things that will make people the better for listening to you. Thus you will infect them with health and strength and not with weakness and disease.

To dwell upon the negative side is always destructive. This is true for the body just as it is true of all other things. The following from one whose thorough training as a physician has been supplemented by extensive study and observations along the lines of the powers of the interior forces, are of special significance and value in this connection:

‘We can never gain health by contemplating disease, any more than we can reach perfection by dwelling upon imperfection, or harmony through discord. We should keep a high ideal of health and harmony constantly before the mind….

‘Never affirm or repeat about your health what you do not wish to be true. Do not dwell upon your ailments, nor study your symptoms. Never allow yourself to be convinced that you are not complete master of yourself. Stoutly affirm your superiority over bodily ills, and do not acknowledge yourself the slave of any inferior power….. I would teach children early to build a strong barrier between themselves and disease by healthy habits of thought, high thinking, and purity of life. I would teach them to expel all thoughts of death, all images of disease, all discordant emotions, like hatred, malice, revenge, envy, and sensuality, as they would banish a temptation to do evil.

I would teach them that bad food, bad drink, or bad air makes bad blood, that bad blood makes bad tissue, and bad flesh bad morals. I would teach them that healthy thoughts are as essential to healthy bodies as pure thoughts to a clean life. I would teach them to cultivate a strong will power, and to brace themselves against life’s enemies in every possible way. I would teach the sick to have hope, confidence cheer. Our thoughts and imaginations are the only real limits to our possibilities. No man’s success or health will ever reach beyond his own confidence, as a rule, we erect our own barriers.

‘Like produces like the universe through. Hatred, envy, malice jealousy, and revenge all have children. Every bad thought breeds others, and each of these goes on and on, ever reproducing itself, until our world is peopled with their offspring. The true physician and parent of the future will not mediate the body with drugs so much as the mind with principles. The coming mother will teach her child to assuage the fever of anger, hatred, malice, with the great panacea of the world, Love. The coming physician will teach the people to cultivate cheerfulness, goodwill, and noble deeds for a health tonic as well as a heart tonic, and that a merry heart doeth good like a medicine.’

The health of your body, like the health and strength of your mind, depends upon what you relate yourself with. This Infinite spirit of Life, this Source of all Life, can from its very nature, we have found, admit of no weakness, no disease. Come then into the full, conscious, vital realization of your oneness with this Infinite Life, open yourself to its more abundant entrance, and full and ever-renewing bodily health and strength will be yours.

And good may ever conquer ill,

Health walk where pain has trod,

As a man thinketh, so is he,

Rise, then, and think with God.

The whole matter may then be summed up in one sentence, ‘God is well and so are you. ‘You must awaken to the knowledge of your real being. When this awakening comes, you will have, and you will see that you have, the power to determine what conditions are externalized in your body. You must recognize, you must realize yourself as one with Infinite Spirit. God’s will is then your will; your will is God’s will, and with God all things are possible.’ When we are able to do away with all sense of separateness by living continually in the realization of this oneness, not only will our bodily ills and weaknesses vanish, but all limitations along all lines.

Then delight thyself in the Lord, and He shall give thee the desires of thine heart. Then will you feel like crying all the day long, ‘The lines are fallen unto me in pleasant places, yea, I have a goodly heritage.’ Drop out of mind your belief in good things and good events coming to you in the future. Come now into the real life, and coming, appropriate and actualize them now. Remember that only the best is good enough for one with a heritage so royal as yours.

We buy ashes for bread,

We buy diluted wine,

Give me the true –

Whose ample leaves and tendrils curled

Among the silver bills of heaven,

Draw everlasting dew.

THE SECRET, POWER AND EFFECTS OF LOVE

THIS is the Spirit of Infinite Love. The moment we recognize ourselves as one with it we become so filled with love that we see only the good in all. And when we realize that we are all one with this Infinite Spirit, then we realize that in a sense we are all one with each other. When we come into a recognition of this fact, we can then do no harm to any one, to any thing. We find that we are all members of the one great body, and that no portion of the body can be harmed without all the other portions suffering thereby.

When we fully realize the great fact of the oneness of all life, that all are partakers from this one Infinite Source, and so that the same life is the life in each individual, then prejudices go and hatreds cease. Love grows and reigns supreme. Then, wherever we go, whenever we come in contact with the fellow man, we are able to recognize the God within. We thus look only for the good, and we find it. It always pays.

There is a deep scientific fact underlying the great truth, ‘He that takes the sword shall perish by the sword.’ The moment we come into a realization of the subtle powers of the thought forces, we can quickly see that the moment we entertain any thoughts of hatred toward another, they get the effects of these diabolical forces that go out from us, and have the same thoughts of hatred aroused in them, which in turn return to the sender. Then when we understand the effects of the passion, hatred or anger, even upon the physical body, we can see how detrimental, how expensive this is. The same is true in regard to all kindred thoughts or passions, envy, criticism, jealousy, scorn. In the ultimate we shall find that in entertaining feelings of this nature toward another we always suffer far more than the one toward whom we entertain them.

And then when we fully realize the fact that selfishness is at the root of all error, sin, and crime, and that ignorance is the basis of all selfishness, with what charity we come to look upon the acts of all! It is the ignorant man who seeks his own ends at the expense of the greater whole. It is the ignorant man, therefore, who is the selfish man. The truly wise man is never selfish. He is a seer, and recognizes the fact that he, a single member of the one great body, is benefited in just the degree that the entire body is benefited, and so he seeks nothing for himself that he would not equally seek for all mankind.

It selfishness is at the bottom of all error, sin, and crime, and ignorance is the basis of all selfishness, then when we see a manifestation of either of these qualities, if we are true to the highest within us, we will look for and will seek to call forth the good in each individual with whom we come in contact. When God speaks to God, then God responds, and shows forth as God. But when devil speaks to devil, then devil responds, and the devil is always to pay.

I sometimes hear a person say, ‘I don’t see any good in him.’ No? Then you are no seer. Look deeper and you will find the very God in every human soul. But remember it takes a God to recognize a God. Christ always spoke to the highest, the truest, and the best in men. He knew and He recognized the God in each because He had first realized it in Himself. He ate with publicans and sinners. Abominable, the Scribes and Pharisees said. They were so wrapped up in their own conceits, their own self-centeredness, hence their own ignorance, that they had never found the God in themselves, and so they never dreamed that it was the real life of even publicans and sinners.

In the degree that we hold a person in the thought of evil or of error do we suggest evil and error to them. In the degree that they are sensitively organized, or not well individualized, and so, subject to the suggestions of the thought forces from others, will they be influenced, and so in this way we may be sharers in the very evil-doing in which we hold another in thought. In the same way when we hold a person in the thought of the right, the good, and the true, righteousness, goodness, and truth are suggested to them, and thus we have a most beneficent influence on their life and conduct. If our hearts go out in love to all with whom we come in contact, we inspire love, and the same ennobling and warming influences of love always return to us from those in whom we inspire them. There is a deep scientific principle underlying the precept: If you would have all the world love you, you must first love all the world.

In the degree that we love will we be loved. Thoughts are forces. Each creates of its kind. Each comes back laden with the effect that corresponds to itself and of which it is the cause.

Then let your secret thoughts be fair –

They have a vital part, and share

In shaping words and molding fate,

God’s system is so intricate.

I know of no better practice than that of a friend who continually holds himself in an attitude of mind that he continually sends out his love in the form of the thought, ‘Dear everybody, I love you.’ And when we realize the fact that a thought invariably produces its effect before it returns, or before it ceases, we can see how he is continually breathing out a blessing not only upon all with whom he comes in contact, but upon all the world. These same thoughts of love, moreover, tokened in various ways, are continually coming to him from all quarters.

Even animals feel the effects of these forces. Some animals are much more sensitively organized than many people are, and consequently they get the effects of our thoughts, our mental states, and emotions much more readily than many people do. Therefore whenever we meet an animal we can do it good by sending out to it these thoughts of love. It will feel the effects whether we simply entertain or whether we voice them. And it is often interesting to note how quickly it responds, and how readily it gives evidence of its appreciation of this love and consideration on our part.

What a privilege and how enjoyable it would be to live and walk in a world where we meet only Gods. In such a world you can live. In such a world I can live. For in the degree that we come into this higher realization do we see only the God in each human soul, and when we are thus able to see Him in every one we meet, we then live in such a world. And when we thus recognize the God in everyone, we by this recognition help to call it forth ever more and more. What a privilege, this privilege of yours, this privilege of mine!

That hypocritical judging of another is something then with which we can have nothing to do; for we have the power of looking beyond the evolving, changing, error-making self, and seeing the real, the changeless, the eternal self which by and by will show forth in the full beauty of holiness. We are then large enough also to realize the fact that when we condemn another, by that very act we condemn ourselves.

This realization so fills us with love that we continually overflow it, and all with whom we come in contact feel its warming and life-giving power. These in turn send back the same feelings of love to us, and so we continually attract love from all quarters. Tell me how much one loves and I will tell you how much they have seen of God. Tell me how much they love and I will tell you how much they live with God. Tell me how much they love and I will tell you how far into the Kingdom of Heaven -the kingdom of harmony -they have entered, for ‘love is the fulfilling of the law.’

And in a sense love is everything. It is the key to life, and its influences are those that move the world. Live only in the thought of love for all and you will draw love to you from all. Live in the thought of malice or hatred, and malice and hatred will come back to you.

For evil poisons, malice shafts

Like boomerangs return,

Inflicting wounds that will not heal

While rage and anger burn

Every thought you entertain is a force that goes out, and every thought comes back laden with its kind. This is an immutable law. Every thought you entertain has moreover a direct effect upon your body. Love and its kindred emotions are the normal and the natural, those in accordance with the eternal order of the universe, for God is love. These have a life-giving, health-engendering influence upon your body, besides beautifying your countenance, enriching your voice, and making you ever more attractive in every way. And as it is true that in the degree that you hold thoughts of love for all, you call the same from them in return, and as these have a direct effect upon your mind, and through your mind upon your body, it is as so much life force added to your own from without. You are then continually building this into both your mental and your physical life, and so your life is enriched by its influence.

Hatred and all its kindred emotions are the unnatural, the abnormal, the perversions, and so, out of harmony with the eternal order of the universe. For if love is the fulfilling of the law then these, its opposites, are direct violations of law, and there can never be a violation of law without its attendant pain and suffering in one form or another. There is no escape from this. And what is the result of this particular form of violation? When you allow thoughts of anger, hatred, malice, jealousy, envy, criticism, or scorn to exercise sway, they have a corroding and poisoning effect upon the organism, they pull it down, and if allowed to continue will eventually tear it to pieces by externalizing themselves in the particular forms of disease they give rise to. And then in addition to the destructive influences from your own mind you are continually calling the same influences from other minds, and these come as destructive forces augmenting your own, thus aiding in the tearing down process.

And so love inspires love; hatred breeds hatred. Love and goodwill stimulate and build up the body; hatred and malice corrode and tear it down. Love is a savior of life unto life; hatred is a savior of death unto death.

There are loyal hearts, there are spirits brave,

There are souls that are pure and true,

Then give to the world the best you have,

And the best will come back to you.

Give love, and love to your heart will flow,

A strength in your utmost need,

Have faith, and a score of hearts will show,

Their faith in your word and deed.

I hear it said, How in regard to one who bears me hatred, towards whom I have entertained no such thoughts and feelings, and so have not been the cause of them becoming my enemy? This may be true, but the chances are that you will have but few enemies if there is nothing of an antagonistic nature in your own mind and heart. Be sure there is nothing of this nature. But if hatred should come from another without apparent cause on your part, then meet it from first to last with thoughts of love and goodwill. In this way you can, so to speak, so neutralize its effects that it cannot reach you and so cannot harm you. Love is positive, and stronger than hatred. Hatred can always be conquered by love.

On the other hand, if you meet hatred with hatred, you simply intensify it. You add fuel to the flame already kindled, upon which it will feed and grow, and so you increase and intensify the evil conditions. Nothing is to be gained by it, everything is to be lost. By sending love for hatred you will be able so to neutralize it that it will not only have no effect upon you, but will not be able even to reach you. But more than this, you will by this course sooner or later be able literally to transmute the enemy into the friend. Meet hatred with hatred and you degrade yourself. Meet hatred with love and you elevate not only yourself but also the one who bears you hatred.

The Persian sage has said, ‘Always meet petulance with gentleness, and perverseness with kindness. A gentle hand can lead even an elephant by a hair. Reply to thine enemy with gentleness. Opposition to peace is sin.’ The Buddhist says, ‘If a man foolishly does me wrong I will return him the protection of my ungrudging love. The more evil comes from him the more good shall go from me.’ ‘The wise man avenges injuries by benefits,’ says the Chinese. ‘Return good for evil, overcome anger by love; hatred never ceases by hatred, but by love,’ says the Hindu.

The truly wise man will recognize no one as an enemy. Occasionally we hear the expression, ‘Never mind; I’ll get even with him.’ Will you? And how will you do it? You can do it in one of two ways. You can, as you have in mind, deal with him as he deals, or apparently deals, with you—pay him, as we say, in his own coin. If you do this you will get even with him by sinking yourself to his level, and both of you will suffer by it. Or, you can show yourself the larger, you can send him love for hatred, kindness for ill-treatment, and so get even with him by raising him to the higher level.

But remember that you can never help another without by that very act helping yourself; and if forgetful of self, then in most cases the value to you is greater than the service you render another. If you are ready to treat him as he treats you, then you show clearly that there is in you that which draws the hatred and ill-treatment to you; you deserve what you are getting and should not complain, nor would you complain if you were wise. By following the other course you most effectually accomplish your purpose, you gain a victory for yourself, and at the same time you do a great service for him, of which it is evident he stands greatly in need.

Thus you may become his savior. He in turn may become the savior of other error-making, and consequently care-encumbered men. Many times the struggles are greater than we can ever know. We need more gentleness and sympathy and compassion in our common human life. Then we will neither blame nor condemn. Instead of blaming or condemning we will sympathize, and all the more we will

Comfort one another,

For the way is often dreary,

And the feet are often weary,

And the heart is very sad.

There is a heavy burden bearing,

When it seems that none are caring,

And we half forget that ever we were glad.

Comfort one another

With the hand-clasp close and tender,

With the sweetness love can render,

And the looks of friendly eyes.

Do not wait with grace unspoken,

While life’s daily bread is broken —

Gentle speech is oft like manna from the skies.

When we come fully to realize the great fact that all evil and error and sin with all their consequent sufferings come through ignorance then wherever we see a manifestation of these in whatever form, if our hearts are right we will have compassion, sympathy and compassion for the one in whom we see them. Compassion will then change itself into love, and love will manifest itself in kindly service. Such is the divine method. And so instead of aiding in trampling and keeping a weaker one down, we will hold them up until they can stand alone and become the master.

But all life-growth is from within out, and one becomes a true master in the degree that the knowledge of the divinity of their own nature dawns upon the inner consciousness and so brings them into a knowledge of the higher laws; and in no way can we so effectually hasten this dawning in the inner consciousness of another, as by showing forth the divinity within ourselves simply by the way we live.

By example and not by precept. By living, not by preaching. By doing, not by professing. By living the life, not by dogmatizing as to how it should be lived. There is no contagion equal to the contagion of life. Whatever we sow, that shall we also reap, and each thing sown produces of its kind. We can kill not only by doing another bodily injury directly, but we can and we do kill by every antagonistic thought. Not only do we thus kill, but while we kill we commit suicide. Many a man has been made sick by having the ill thoughts of a number of people centered upon him; some have been actually killed. Put hatred into the world and we make it a literal hell. Put love into the world and heaven with all its beauties and glories becomes a reality.

Not to love is not to live, or it is to live a living death. The life that goes out in love to all is the life that is full, and rich, and continually expanding in beauty and in power. Such is the life that becomes ever more inclusive, and hence larger in its scope and influence. The larger the man, the more inclusive they are in their love and their friendships. The smaller the man, the more dwarfed and dwindling their natures, the more they pride themselves upon their ‘exclusiveness.’ Anyone—a fool or an idiot—can be exclusive. It comes easy. It takes and it signifies a large nature to be universal, to be inclusive.

Only the man of a small, personal, self-centred, self-seeking nature is exclusive. The man of a large, royal, unself-centered nature never is. The small nature is the one that continually strives for effect. The larger nature never does. The one goes here and there in order to gain recognition, in order to attach themselves to the world. The other stays at home and draws the world to them. The one loves merely for themselves. The other loves all the world; but in their larger love for all the world they finds themselves included.

Verily, then, the more one loves the nearer one approaches to God, for God is the Spirit of Infinite Love. And when we come into the realization of our oneness with this Infinite Spirit, then divine love so fills us that, enriching and enrapturing our own lives, from them it flows out to enrich the life of all the world.

In coming into the realization of our oneness with the Infinite Life, we are brought at once into right relations with our fellow man. We are brought into harmony with the great law, that we find our own lives in losing them in the service of others. We are brought to a knowledge of the fact that all life is one, and that we are all parts of the one great whole. We then realize that we cannot serve another without at the same time serving ourselves.

We also realize that we cannot do harm to another without by that very act doing harm to ourselves. We realize that the man who lives to themselves alone lives a little, dwarfed, and stunted life, because they have no part in this larger life of humanity. But the one who in service loses their own life in this larger life, has their own life increased and enriched a thousand or a million fold, and every joy, every happiness, everything of value coming to each member of this greater whole comes as such to them, for they have a part in the life of each and all.

And here let a word be said in regard to true service. Peter and John were one day going up to the temple, and as they were entering the gate they were met by a poor cripple who asked them for alms. Instead of giving him something to supply the day’s needs and then leaving him in the same dependent condition for the morrow and the morrow, Peter did him a real service, and a real service for all mankind by saying, Silver and gold have I none, but such as I have I give unto thee. And then he made him whole. He thus brought him into the condition where he could help himself. In other words the greatest service we can do for another is to help them to help themselves. To help them directly might be weakening, though not necessarily. It depends entirely upon circumstances. But to help one to help themselves is never weakening, but always encouraging and strengthening, because it leads them to a larger and stronger life.

There is no better way to help one to help themselves than to bring them to a knowledge of themselves. There is no better way to bring one to a knowledge of themselves than to lead them to a knowledge of the powers that are lying dormant within their own soul. There is nothing that will enable them to come more readily or more completely into an awakened knowledge of the powers that are lying dormant within their own soul, than to bring them into the conscious, vital realization of their oneness with the Infinite Life and Power, so that they may open themselves to it in order that it may work and manifest through them.

We shall find that these same great truths lie at the very bottom of the solution of our social situation; and we shall also find that we shall never have a full and permanent solution of it until they are fully recognized and built upon.

WISDOM AND INTERIOR ILLUMINATION

THIS is the Spirit of Infinite Wisdom, and in the degree that we open ourselves to it does the highest wisdom manifest itself to and through us. We can in this way go to the very heart of the universe itself and find the mysteries hidden to the majority of mankind, hidden to them, though not hidden of themselves.

In order for the highest wisdom and insight we must have absolute confidence in the Divine guiding us, but not through the channel of someone else. And why should we go to another for knowledge and wisdom? With God is no respect of persons. Why should we seek these things second hand? Why should we thus stultify our own innate powers? Why should we not go direct to the Infinite Source itself? ‘If any man lack wisdom let him ask of God.’ ‘Before they call I will answer, and while they are yet speaking, I will hear.’

When we thus go directly to the Infinite Source itself we are no longer slaves to personalities, institutions, or books. We should always keep ourselves open to suggestions of truth from these agencies. We should always regard them as agencies, however, and never as sources. We should never recognize them as masters, but simply as teachers. With Browning, we must recognize the great fact that

Truth is within ourselves, it takes no rise

From outward things, whate’er you may believe.

There is an inmost center in us all.

Where truth abides in fullness.

There is no more important injunction in all the world, nor one with a deeper interior meaning, than ‘To thine own self be true.’ In other words, be true to your own soul, for it is through your own soul that the voice of God speaks to you. This is the interior guide. This is the light that lighteth every man that cometh into the world. This is conscience. This is intuition. This is the voice of the higher self, the voice of the soul, the voice of God. ‘Thou shalt voice behind thee, saying: This is the way, walk ye in it.’

When Elijah was on the mountain it was after the various physical commotions and manifestations that he heard the ’still, small voice,’ the voice of his own soul, through which the Infinite God was speaking. If we will but follow this voice of intuition, it will speak ever more clearly and more plainly, until by and by it will be absolute and unerring in its guidance. The great trouble with us is that we do not listen to and do not follow this voice within our own souls, and so we become as a house divided against itself.

We are pulled this way and that, and we are never certain of anything. I have a friend who listens so carefully to this inner voice, who, in other words, always acts so quickly and so fully in accordance with his intuitions, and whose life as a consequence is so absolutely guided by them, that he always does the right thing at the right time and in the right way. He always knows when to act and how to act, and he is never in the condition of a house divided against itself.

But someone says, ‘May it not be dangerous for us to act always upon our intuitions? Suppose we should have an intuition to do harm to someone?’ We need not be afraid of this, however, for the voice of the soul, this voice of God speaking through the soul, will never direct one to do harm to another, nor to do anything that is not in accordance with the highest standards of right, and truth, and justice. And if you at any time have a prompting of this kind know that it is not the voice of intuition, it is some characteristic of your lower self that is prompting you.

Reason is not to be set aside, but it is to be continually illumined by this higher spiritual perception, and in the degree that it is thus illumined will it become an agent of light and power. When one becomes thoroughly individualized they enter into the realm of all knowledge and wisdom, and to be individualized is to recognize no power outside of the Infinite Power that is at the back of all.

When one recognizes this great fact and opens themselves to this Spirit of Infinite Wisdom, they then enter upon the road to the true education, and mysteries that before were closed now reveal themselves to them This must indeed be the foundation of all true education, this evolving from within, this evolving of what has been involved by the Infinite Power

All things that it is valuable for us to know will come to us if we will but open ourselves to the voice of this infinite Spirit. It is thus that we become seers and have the power of seeing into the very heart of things. There are no new stars, there are no new laws or forces, but we can so open ourselves to this Spirit of Infinite Wisdom that we can discover and recognize those that have not been known before; and in this way they become new to us. When in this way we come into a knowledge of truth we no longer need facts that are continually changing. We can then enter into the quiet of our own interior selves.

We can open the window and look out, and thus gather the facts as we choose. This is true wisdom. ‘Wisdom is the knowledge of God.’ Wisdom comes by intuition. It far transcends knowledge. Great knowledge, knowledge of many things, may be had by virtue simply of a very retentive memory. It comes by tuition. But wisdom far transcends knowledge in that knowledge is a mere incident of this deeper wisdom.

He who would enter into the realm of wisdom must first divest himself of all intellectual pride. He must become as a little child. Prejudices, preconceived opinions and beliefs always stand in the way of true wisdom. Conceited opinions are always suicidal in their influences. They bar the door to the entrance of truth. All about us we see men in the religious world, in the world of science, in the political, in the social world, who through intellectual pride are so wrapped in their own conceits and prejudices that larger and later revelations of truth can find no entrance to them; and instead of growing and expanding, they are becoming dwarfed and stunted, and still more incapable of receiving truth. Instead of actively aiding in the progress of the world, they are as so many dead sticks in the way that would retard the wheels of progress. This, however, they can never do. Such always in time get bruised, broken, and left behind, while God’s triumphal car of truth moves steadily onward.

When the steam engine was still being experimented with, and before it was perfected sufficiently to come into practical use, a well-known Englishman—well known then in scientific circles— wrote an extended pamphlet proving that it would be impossible for it ever to be used in ocean navigation, that is in a trip involving the crossing of the ocean, because it would be utterly impossible for any vessel to carry with it sufficient coal for the use of its furnace. And the interesting feature of the whole matter was that the very first steam vessel that made the trip from England to America had, among its cargo, a part of the first edition of this carefully prepared pamphlet. There was only the one edition. Many editions might be sold now.

This seems indeed an amusing fact; but far more amusing is the man who voluntarily closes himself to truth because, forsooth, it does not come through conventional, or orthodox, or heretofore accepted channels, or because it may not be in full accord with, or possibly may be opposed to, established usages or beliefs. On the contrary—

Let there be many windows in your soul,

That all the glory of the universe

May beautify it. Not the narrow pane

Of one poor creed can catch the radiant rays

That shine from countless sources. Tear away

The blinds of superstition, let the light

Pour through fair windows, broad as truth itself

And high as heaven….

Tune your ear

To all the worldless music of the stars

And to the voice of nature, and your heart

Shall turn to truth and goodness as the plant

Turns to the sun. A thousand unseen hands

Reach down to help you to their peace-crowned heights,

And all the forces of the firmament

Shall fortify your strength. Be not afraid

To thrust aside half-truths and grasp the whole.

There is a great law in connection with the coming of truth. It is this: Whenever a man shuts himself to the entrance of truth on account of intellectual pride, preconceived opinions, prejudices, or for whatever reason, there is a great law which says that truth in its fullness will come to that one from no source. And on the other hand, when a man opens himself fully to the entrance of truth from whatever source it may come, there is an equally great law which says that truth will flow in to him or to her from all sources, from all quarters. Such becomes the free man, for it is the truth that makes us free. The other remains in bondage, for truth has had no invitation and will not enter where it is not fully and freely welcomed.

And where truth is denied entrance the rich blessings it carries with it cannot take up their abode. On the contrary, when this is the case it sends an envoy carrying with it atrophy, disease, death, physically and spiritually as well as intellectually. And the man who would rob another of his free and unfettered search for truth, who would stand as the interpreter of truth for another, with the intent of remaining in this position, rather than endeavoring to lead him to the place where he can be his own interpreter, is more to be shunned than a thief and a robber. The injury he works is far greater, for he is doing direct and positive injury to the very life of the one he thus holds.

Who has ever appointed any man, whoever they may be, as the keeper, the custodian, the dispenser of God’s illimitable truth? Many indeed are moved and so are called to be teachers of truth; but the true teacher will never stand as the interpreter of truth for another. The true teacher is the one whose endeavor is to bring the one they teach to a true knowledge of himself and hence of his or her own interior powers, that they may become their own interpreter. All others are, generally speaking, those animated by purely personal motives, self-aggrandizement, or personal gain. Moreover, he who would claim to have all truth and the only truth, is a bigot, a fool, or a knave.

In the Eastern literature is a fable of a frog. The frog lived in a well, and out of his little well he had never been. One day a frog whose home was in the sea came to his well. Interested in all things, he went in. ‘Who are you? Where do you live?’ said the frog in the well. ‘I am so and so, and my home is in the sea.’ ‘The sea? What is that? Where is that?’ ‘It is a very large body of water, and not far away.’ ‘How big is your sea?’ ‘Oh, very big.’ ‘As big as this?’ pointing to a little stone lying near. ‘Oh, much bigger.’ ‘As big as this?’ pointing to the board upon which they were sitting. ‘Oh, much bigger.’ ‘How much bigger, then?’ ‘Why, the sea in which I live is bigger than your entire well; it would make millions of wells such as yours.’ ‘Nonsense, nonsense; you are a deceiver and a falsifier. Get out of my well. Get out of my well. I want nothing to do with any such frogs as you.’

‘Ye shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free,’ is the promise. Ye shall close yourselves to truth, ye shall live in your own conceits, and your own conceits shall make fools and idiots of you, would be a statement applicable to not a few, and to not a few who pride themselves upon their superior intellectual attainments. Idiocy is arrested mental growth. Closing one’s self for whatever reason to truth and hence to growth brings a certain type of idiocy, though it may not be called by this name. And on the other hand, another type is that arrested growth caused by taking all things for granted, without proving them for one’s self, merely because they come from a particular person, a particular book, a particular institution. This is caused by one’s always looking without instead of being true to the light within, and carefully tending it that it may give an ever-clearer light. With brave and intrepid Walt Whitman, we should all be able to say:

From this hour I ordain myself loos’d of limits and imaginary lines,

Going where I list, my own master total and absolute,

Listening to others, considering well what they say,

Pausing, searching, receiving, contemplating,

Gently, but with undeniable will divesting myself

of the holds that would hold me.

Great should be the joy that God’s boundless truth is open to all, open equally to all, and that it will make each one its dwelling place in proportion as they earnestly desire it and open themselves to it.

And in regard to the wisdom that guides us in our daily life, there is nothing that it is right and well for us to know that may not be known when we recognize the law of its coming, and are able wisely to use it. Let us know that all things are ours as soon as we know how to appropriate them.

I hold it as a changeless law,

From which no soul can sway or swerve,

We have that in us which will draw

Whate’er we need or most deserve.

If the times come when we know not what course to pursue, when we know not which way to turn, the fault lies in ourselves. If the fault lies in ourselves then the correction of this unnatural condition lies also in ourselves. It is never necessary to come into such a state if we are awake, and remain awake, to the light and the powers within us. The light is ever shining, and the only thing that it is necessary for us diligently to see to is that we permit neither this thing nor that to come between us and the light. ‘With Thee is the fountain of life; in Thy light shall we see light.’

Let us hear the words of one of the most highly illumined men I have ever known, and one who as a consequence is never in the dark, when the time comes, as to what to do and how to do it. ‘Whenever you are in doubt as to the course you should pursue, after you have turned to every outward means of guidance, let the inward eye see, let the inward ear hear, and allow this simple, natural beautiful process to go on unimpeded by questionings or doubts….

‘In all dark hours and times of unwanted perplexity we need to follow one simple direction, found, as all needed directions can be found, in the dear old gospel, which so many read, but alas, so few interpret. “Enter into thine inner chamber and shut the door.” Does this mean that we must literally betake ourselves to a private closet with a key in the door? If it did, then the command could never be obeyed in the open air, on land or sea, and the Christ loved the lakes and the forests far better than the cramping rooms of city dwelling houses; still His counsels are so wide-reaching that there is no spot on earth and no conceivable situation in which any of us may be placed where we cannot follow them.

‘One of the most intuitive men we ever met had a desk in a city office, where several other gentlemen were doing business constantly and often talking loudly. Entirely undisturbed by the many various sounds about him, this self-centered, faithful man would, in any moment of perplexity, draw the curtains of privacy so completely about him that he would be as fully enclosed in his own psychic aura, and thereby as effectually removed from all distractions as though he were alone in some primeval wood. Taking his difficulty with him into the mystic silence in the form of a direct question, to which he expected a certain answer, he would remain utterly passive until the reply came, and never once through many years’ experience did he find himself disappointed or misled.

‘Intuitive perceptions of truth are the daily bread to satisfy our daily hunger; they come like the manna in the desert day by day; each day brings adequate supply for that day’s need only. They must be followed instantly, for dalliance with them means their obscuration, and the more we dally the more we invite erroneous impressions to cover intuition with a pall of conflicting moral fantasy born of illusions of the terrene will.

‘One condition is imposed by universal law, and this we must obey. Put all wishes aside save the one desire to know truth; couple with this one demand, the fully consecrated determination to follow what is distinctly perceived as truth immediately it is revealed. No other affection must be permitted to share the field with this all-absorbing love of truth for its own sake. Obey this one direction, and never forget that expectation and desire are bride and bridegroom and forever inseparable, and you will soon find your hitherto darkened way grow luminous with celestial radiance, for with the heaven within, all heavens without incessantly cooperate.’

This may be termed going into the ’silence.’ This it is to perceive and to be guided by the light that lighteth every man that cometh into the world. This it is to listen to and be guided by the voice of your own soul, the voice of your higher self.

The soul is divine and in allowing it to become translucent to the Infinite Spirit it reveals all things to us. As man turns away from the Divine Light do all things become hidden. There is nothing hidden of itself. When the spiritual sense is opened, then it transcends all the limitations of the physical senses and the intellect. And in the degree that we are able to get away from the limitations set by them, and realize that so far as the real life is concerned it is one with the Infinite Life, then we begin to reach the place where its voice will always speak, where it will never fail us, if we follow it, and as a consequence where we shall always have the divine illumination and guidance. To know this and to live in this realization is not to live in heaven hereafter, but to live in heaven here and now, today and every day.

No human soul need be without it. When we turn our face in the right direction it comes as simply and as naturally as the flower blooms and the winds blow. It is not to be bought with money or with price. It is a condition waiting simply to be realized, by rich and by poor, by king and by peasant, by master and by servant the world over. All are equal heirs to it. And so the peasant, if he find it first, lives a life far transcending in beauty and in real power the life of his king. The servant, if he find it first, lives a life surpassing the life of his master.

If you would find the highest, the fullest, and the richest life that not only this world but that any world can know, then do away with the sense of separateness of your life from the life of God. Hold to the thought of your oneness. In the degree that you do this you will find yourself realizing it more and more, and as this life of realization is lived, you will find that no good thing will be withheld, for all things are included in this. Then it will be yours, without fears or forebodings, simply to do today what your hands find to do, and so be ready for tomorrow, when it comes, knowing that tomorrow will bring tomorrow’s supplies for the mental, the spiritual, and the physical life. Remember, however, that tomorrow’s supplies are not needed until tomorrow comes.

If one is willing to trust themselves fully to the Law, the Law will never fail them. It is the half-hearted trusting to it that brings uncertain, and so, unsatisfactory results. Nothing is firmer and surer than Deity. It will never fail the one who throws themselves wholly upon it. The secret of life then is to live continually in this realization, whatever one may be doing, wherever one may be, by day and by night, both waking and sleeping. It can be lived in while we are sleeping no less than when we are awake. And here shall we consider a few facts in connection with sleep, in connection with receiving instruction and illumination while asleep?

During the process of sleep it is merely the physical body that is at rest and in quiet, the soul life with all its activities goes right on. Sleep is nature’s provision for the recuperation of the body, for the rebuilding and hence the replacing of the waste that is continually going on during the waking hours. It is nature’s great restorer. If sufficient sleep is not allowed the body, so that the rebuilding may equalize the wasting process, the body is gradually depleted and weakened, and any ailment or malady, when it is in this condition, is able to find a more ready entrance. It is for this reason that those who are subject to it will take a cold, as we term it, more readily when the body is tired or exhausted through loss of sleep than at any other time. The body is in that condition where outside influences can have a more ready effect upon it than when it is in its normal condition. And when they do have an effect they always go to the weaker portions first.

Our bodies are given us to serve far higher purposes than we ordinarily use them for. Especially is this true in the numerous cases where the body is master of its owner. In the degree that we come into the realization of the higher powers of the mind and spirit, in that degree does the body, through their influence upon it, become less gross and heavy, finer in its texture and form. And then, because the mind finds a kingdom of enjoyment in itself, and in all the higher things it becomes related to, excesses in eating and drinking, as well as all others, naturally and of their own accord fall away.

There also falls away the desire for the heavier, grosser, less valuable kinds of food and drink, such as the flesh of animals, alcoholic drinks, and all things of the class that stimulate the body and the passions rather than build the body and the brain into a strong, clean, well-nourished, enduring, and fibrous condition. In the degree that the body thus becomes less gross and heavy, finer in its texture and form, is there less waste, and what there is is more easily replaced, so that it keeps in a more regular and even condition. When this is true, less sleep is actually required. And even the amount that is taken does more for a body of the finer type than it can do for one of the other nature.

As the body in this way grows finer, in other words, as the process of its evolution is thus accelerated, it in turn helps the mind and the soul in the realization of ever higher perceptions, and thus body helps mind just as mind builds body. It was undoubtedly this fact that Browning had in mind when he said:

Let us cry “All good things

Are ours, nor soul helps flesh, more now,

Than flesh helps soul.”

Sleep, then, is for the resting and the rebuilding of the body. The soul needs no rest, and while the body is at rest in sleep the soul life is just as active as when the body is in activity.

There are some, having a deep insight into the soul’s activities, who say that we travel when we sleep. Some are able to recall and bring over into the conscious, waking life the scenes visited, the information gained, and the events that have transpired.

Most people are not able to do this and so much that might otherwise be gained is lost. They say, however, that it is in our power, in proportion as we understand the laws, to go where we will and to bring over into the conscious, waking life all the experiences thus gained. Be this, however, as it may, it certainly is true that while sleeping we have the power, in a perfectly normal and natural way, to get much of value by way of light, instruction, and growth that the majority of people now miss.

If the soul life, that which relates us to Infinite Spirit, is always active, even while the body is at rest, why may not the mind so direct conditions, as one falls asleep, that while the body is at rest it may continually receive illumination from the soul, and bring what it thus receives over into the conscious, waking life? This, indeed, can be done, and is done by some to great advantage; and many times the highest inspirations from the soul come in this way, as would seem most natural, since at this time all communications from the outer, material world no longer enter. I know those who do much work during sleep, and who get much light along desired lines. By charging the mind on going to sleep as to a particular time for waking, it is possible, as many of us know, to wake on the very minute. Not infrequently we have examples of difficult problems, problems that defied solution during waking hours, being solved during sleep.

A friend, a well-known journalist, had an extended newspaper article clearly and completely worked out for her in this way. She frequently calls this agency to her aid. She was notified by the managing editor one evening to have the article ready in the morning, an article requiring more than ordinary care, and one in which quite a knowledge of facts was required. It was a matter in connection with which she knew scarcely anything, and all her efforts to find information regarding it seemed to be of no avail.

She set to work, but it seemed as if even her own powers defied her. Failure seemed imminent. Almost in desperation she decided to retire, and putting the matter into her mind in such a way that she would be able to receive the greatest amount of aid while asleep, she fell asleep and slept soundly until morning. When she awoke her work of the previous evening was the first thing that came into her mind. She lay quietly for a few minutes, and as she lay there, the article, completely written, seemed to stand before her mind. She ran through it, arose, and without dressing took her pen and transcribed it on to paper, literally acting simply as her own amanuensis.

The mind acting intently along a particular line will continue so to act until some other object of thought carries it along another line. And since in sleep only the body is in quiet while the mind and soul are active, then the mind on being given a certain direction when one drops off to sleep, will take up the line along which it is directed, and can be made, in time, to bring over into consciousness the results of its activities. Some will be able very soon to get results of this kind, for some it will take longer. Quiet and continued effort will increase the faculty.

Then by virtue of the law of the drawing power of mind, since the mind is always active, we are drawing to us even when sleeping influences from the realms kindred to those in which we in our thoughts are living before we fall asleep. In this way we can put ourselves into relation with whatever kinds of influence we choose, and accordingly gain much during the process of sleep. In many ways the interior faculties are more open and receptive while we are in sleep than while we are awake. Hence the necessity of exercising even greater care as to the nature of the thoughts that occupy the mind as we enter into sleep, for there can come to us only what we by our own order of thought attract. We have it entirely in our own hands.

And for the same reason—this greater degree of receptivity during this period—we are able by understanding and using the law to gain much of value more readily in this way than when the physical senses are fully open to the material world about us. Many will find a practice somewhat after the following nature of value: When light or information is desired along any particular line, light or information you feel it is right and wise for you to have, as, for example, light in regard to an uncertain course of action, then as you retire, first bring your mind into the attitude of peace and goodwill for all. You in this way bring yourself into an harmonious condition, and in turn attract to yourself these same peaceful conditions from without.

Then resting in this sense of peace, quietly and calmly send out your earnest desire for the needed light or information; cast out of your mind all fears or forebodings lest it come not, for ‘in quietness and in confidence shall be your strength.’ Take the expectant attitude of mind, firmly believing and expecting that when you awake the desired results will be with you. Then on awaking, before any thoughts or activities from the outside world come in to absorb the attention, remain for a little while receptive to the intuitions or the impressions that come. When they come, when they manifest themselves clearly, then act upon them without delay. In the degree that you do this, in that degree will the power of doing it ever more effectively grow.

Or, if for unselfish purposes you desire to grow and develop any of your faculties, or to increase the health and strength of your body, take a corresponding attitude of mind, the form of which will readily suggest itself in accordance with your particular needs or desires. In this way you will open yourself to, you will connect yourself with, and you will set into operation within yourself, the particular order of forces that will make for these results.

Don’t be afraid to voice your desires. In this way you set into operation vibratory forces which go out and which make their impress felt somewhere, and which, arousing into activity or uniting with other forces, set about to actualize your desires. No good thing shall be withheld from those who live in harmony with the higher laws and forces. There are no desires that shall not be satisfied to the one who knows and who wisely uses the powers with which he is endowed.

Your sleep will be more quiet, and peaceful, and refreshing, and so your power increased mentally, physically, and spiritually, simply by sending out as you fall asleep, thoughts of love and goodwill, thoughts of peace and harmony for all. In this way you are connecting yourself with all the forces in the universe that make for peace and harmony.

A friend who is known the world over through his work along humane lines, has told me that many times in the middle of the night he is awakened suddenly and there comes to his mind, as a flash of inspiration, a certain plan in connection with his work. And as he lies there quietly and opens himself to it, the methods for its successful carrying out all reveal themselves to him clearly. In this way many plans are entered upon and brought to a successful culmination that otherwise would never be thought of, plans that seem, indeed, marvelous to the world at large.

He is a man with a sensitive organism, his life in thorough harmony with the higher laws, and given wholly and unreservedly to the work to which he has dedicated it. Just how and from what source these inspirations come he does not fully know. Possibly no one does, though each may have their theory. But this we do know, and it is all we need to know now, at least, that to the one who lives in harmony with the higher laws of their being, and who opens themselves to them, they come.

Visions and inspirations of the highest order will come in the degree that we make for them the right conditions. One who has studied deeply the subject in hand has said: ‘To receive education spiritually while the body is resting in sleep is a perfectly normal and orderly experience, and would occur definitely and satisfactorily in the lives of all of us, if we paid more attention to internal and consequently less to external states with their supposed but unreal necessities….

Our thoughts make us what we are here and hereafter, and our thoughts are often busier by night than by day, for when we are asleep to the exterior we can be wide awake to the interior world; and the unseen world is a substantial place, the conditions of which are entirely regulated by mental and moral attainments. When we are not deriving information through outward avenues of sensation, we are receiving instruction through interior channels of perception, and when this fact is understood for what it is worth, it will become a universal custom for persons to take to sleep with them the special subject on which they most earnestly desire particular instruction. The Pharaoh type of person dreams, and so do his butler and baker; but the Joseph type, which is that of the truly gifted seer, both dreams and interprets’.

But why had not Pharaoh the power of interpreting his dreams? Why was Joseph the type of the ‘truly gifted seer’? Why did he not only dream, but had also the power to interpret both his own dreams and the dreams of others? Simply read the lives of the two. He who runs may read. In all true power it is, after all, living the life that tells. And in proportion as one lives the life do they not only attain to the highest power and joy for themselves, but also become of ever greater service to all the world. They need remain in no hell longer than they themselves choose to; and the moment they choose not to remain longer, not all the powers in the universe can prevent them leaving it. One can rise to any heaven one chooses; and when a person chooses so to rise, all the higher powers of the universe combine to help them heavenward.

When one awakes from sleep and so returns to conscious life, they are in a peculiarly receptive and impressionable state. All relations with the material world have for a time been shut off, the mind is in a freer and more natural state, resembling somewhat a sensitive plate, where impressions can readily leave their traces. This is why many times the highest and truest impressions come to one in the early morning hours, before the activities of the day and then attendant distractions have exerted an influence. This is one reason why many people can do their best work in the early hours of the day.

But this fact is also a most valuable one in connection with the molding of everyday life The mind is at this time as a clean sheet of paper. We can most valuably use this quiet, receptive impressionable period by wisely directing the activities of the mind along the highest and most desirable paths, and thus, so to speak set the pace for the day.

Each morning is a fresh beginning. We are, as it were just beginning life. We have it entirely in our own hands. And when the morning with its fresh beginning comes, all yesterdays should be yesterdays, with which we have nothing to do. Sufficient is it to know that the way we lived our yesterday has determined for us our today. And, again, when the morning with its fresh beginning comes, all tomorrows should be tomorrows, with which we have nothing to do. Sufficient to know that the way we live our today determines our tomorrow.

Every day is a fresh beginning.

Every morn is the world made new,

You who are weary of sorrow and sinning,

Here is a beautiful hope for you,

A hope for me and a hope for you.

All the past things are past and over,

The tasks are done, and the tears are shed.

Yesterday’s errors let yesterday cover.

Yesterday’s wounds, which smarted and bled,

Are healed with the healing which night has shed.

Let them go, since we cannot relieve them,

Cannot undo and cannot atone.

God in His mercy receive, forgive them!

Only the new days are our own.

Today is ours, and today alone.

Here are the skies all burnished brightly;

Here is the spent earth all reborn,

Here are the tired limbs springing lightly

To face the sun and to share with the morn

In the chrism of dew and the cool of dawn.

Every day is a fresh beginning,

Listen, my soul, to the glad refrain,

And, spite of old sorrow and older sinning,

And puzzles forecasted, and possible pain,

Take heart with the day and begin again.

Simply the first hour of this new day, with all its richness and glory, with all its sublime and eternity-determining possibilities, and each succeeding hour as it comes, but not before it comes. This is the secret of character building. This simple method will bring anyone to the realization of the highest life that can be even conceived of, and there is nothing in this connection that can be conceived of that cannot be realized somehow, somewhen, somewhere.

This brings such a life within the possibilities of all, for there is no one, if really in earnest and if they really desire it, who cannot live to their highest for a single hour. But even though there should be, if they are only earnest in their endeavor then, through the law that like builds like, they will be able to come a little nearer to it the next hour, and still nearer the next, and the next, until sooner or later comes the time when it becomes the natural, and any other would require the effort.

In this way one becomes in love and in league with the highest and best in the universe, and as a consequence, the highest and best in the universe becomes in love and in league with them. They aid them at every turn; they seem literally to move all things their way, because forsooth, they have first moved their way.

THE REALIZATION OF PERFECT PEACE

THIS is the Spirit of Infinite Peace, and the moment we come into harmony with it there comes to us an inflowing tide of peace, for peace is harmony. A deep interior meaning underlies the great truth, ‘To be spiritually minded is life and peace.’ To recognize the fact that we are spirit, and to live in this thought, is to be spiritually minded and so to be in harmony and peace. Oh, the thousands of men all about us weary with care, troubled and ill at ease, running hither and thither to find peace, weary in body, soul, and mind; going to other countries, traveling the world over, coming back, and still not finding it. Of course they have not found it and they never will find it in this way, because they are looking for it where it is not. They are looking for it without when they should look within. Peace is to be found only within, and unless one find it there they will never find it at all.

Peace lies not in the external world. It lies within one’s own soul. We may travel over many different avenues in pursuit of it, we may seek it through the channels of the bodily appetites and passions, we may seek it through all the channels of the external, we may chase for it hither and thither, but it will always be just beyond our grasp, because we are searching for it where it is not. In the degree, however, that we order the bodily appetites and passions in accordance with the promptings of the soul within will the higher forms of happiness and peace enter our lives; but in the degree that we fail in doing this will disease, suffering, and discontent enter in.

To be at one with God is to be at peace. The child simplicity is the greatest agency in bringing this full and complete realization, the child simplicity that recognizes its true relations with the Father’s life. There are people I know who have come into such a conscious realization of their oneness with this Infinite Life, this Spirit of Infinite Peace, that their lives are fairly bubbling over with joy.

I have particularly in mind at this moment a comparatively young man who was an invalid for several years, his health completely broken with nervous exhaustion, who thought there was nothing in life worth living for, to whom everything and everybody presented a gloomy aspect, and he in turn presented a gloomy aspect to all with whom he came in contact. Not long ago he came into such a vital realization of his oneness with this Infinite Power, he opened himself so completely to its divine inflow, that today he is in perfect health, and frequently as I meet him now he cannot resist the impulse to cry out, ‘Oh, it is a joy to be alive.’

I know an officer in our police force who has told me that many times when off duty and on his way home in the evening, there comes to him such a vivid and vital realization of his oneness with this Infinite Power, and this Spirit of Infinite Peace so takes hold of and so fills him that it seems as if his feet could scarcely keep to the pavement, so buoyant and so exhilarated does he become by reason of this inflowing tide.

He who comes into this higher realization never has any fear, for he has always with him a sense of protection, and the very realization of this makes his protection complete. Of him it is true, ‘No weapon that is formed against thee shall prosper’; ‘There shall no ill come nigh thy dwelling’; Thou shall be in league with the stones of the field, and the beasts of the field shall be at peace with thee.’

These are the men who seem to live charmed lives. The moment we fear anything we open the door for the entrance of the actualization of the very thing we fear. An animal will never harm a person who is absolutely fearless in regard to it The instant one fears they open themselves to danger; and some animals, the dog for example, can instantly detect the element of fear, and this gives them the courage to do harm.

In the degree that we come into a full realization of our oneness with this Infinite Power do we become calm and quiet, undisturbed by the little occurrences that before so vex and annoy us. We are no longer disappointed in people, for we always read them aright. We have the power of penetrating into their very souls and seeing the underlying motives that are at work there.

A gentleman approached a friend the other day, and with great show of cordiality grasped him by the hand and said, ‘Why, Mr. —, I am so glad to see you.’ Quick as a flash my friend read him, and looking him steadily in the eye, replied, ‘No, you are mistaken, you are not glad to see me; but you are very much disconcerted, so much so that you are now blushing in evidence of it.’ The gentleman replied, ‘Well, you know in this day and age of conventionality and form we have to put on the show and sometimes make believe what we do not really feel.’ My friend once more looked him in the face and said, ‘Again you are mistaken. Let me give you one little word of advice: You will always fare better and will think far more of yourself, always to recognize and to tell the truth rather than to give yourself to any semblance of it.’

As soon as we are able to read people aright we will then cease to be disappointed in them, we will cease to place them on pedestals, for this can never be done without some attendant disappointment. The fall will necessarily come, sooner or later, and moreover, we are thus many times unfair to our friends. When we come into harmony with this Spirit of Peace, evil reports and apparent bad treatment, either at the hands of friends or of enemies, will no longer disturb us. When we are conscious of the fact that in our life and our work we are true to that eternal principle of right, of truth, of justice that runs through all the universe, that unites and governs all, that always eventually prevails, then nothing of this kind can come nigh us, and come what may we will always be tranquil and undisturbed.

The things that cause sorrow, and pain, and bereavement will not be able to take the hold of us they now take, for true wisdom will enable us to see the proper place and know the right relations of all things. The loss of friends by the transition we call death will not cause sorrow to the soul that has come into this higher realization, for they know that there is no such thing as death, for each one is not only a partaker, but an eternal partaker, of this Infinite Life. He knows that the mere falling away of the physical body by no means affects the real soul life. With a tranquil spirit born of a higher faith they can realize for themselves, and to those less strong can say:

Loving friends! be wise and dry

Straightway every weeping eye;

What you left upon the bier

Is not worth a single tear,

‘Tis a simple sea-shell, one

Out of which the pearl has gone.

The shell was nothing, leave it there.

The pearl—the soul—was all, is here.

And so far as the element of separation is concerned, he realizes that to spirit there are no bounds, and that spiritual communion, whether between two persons in the body, or two persons, one in the body and one out of the body, is within the reach of all. In the degree that the higher spiritual life is realized can there be this higher spiritual communion.

The things that we open ourselves to always come to us. People in the olden times expected to see angels and they saw them; but there is no more reason why they should have seen them than that we should see them now; no more reason why they should come and dwell with them than that they should come and dwell with us, for the great laws governing all things are the same today as they were then. If angels come not to minister unto us it is because we do not invite them, it is because we keep the door closed through which they otherwise might enter.

In the degree that we are filled with this Spirit of Peace by thus opening ourselves to its inflow does it pour through us, so that we carry it with us wherever we go. In the degree that we thus open ourselves do we become magnets to attract peace from all sources; and in the degree that we attract and embody it in ourselves are we able to give it forth to others. We can in this way become such perfect embodiments of peace that wherever we go we are continually shedding benedictions.

But a day or two ago I saw a woman grasp the hand of a man (his face showed the indwelling God), saying, ‘Oh, it does me so much good to see you. I have been in anxiety and almost in despair during the past few hours, but the very sight of you has rolled the burden entirely away.’ There are people all around us who are continually giving out blessings and comfort, persons whose mere presence seems to change sorrow into joy, fear into courage, despair into hope, weakness into power.

It is the one who has come into the realization of their own true self who carries this power with them and who radiates it wherever they go, the one who, as we say, has found their center. And in all the great universe there is but one center, the Infinite Power that is working in and through all. The one who then has found their center is the one who has come into the realization of their oneness with this Infinite Power, the one who recognizes themselves as a spiritual being, for God is spirit.

Such is the man of power. Centered in the Infinite, they have thereby, so to speak, connected themselves with, have attached their belts to, the great power-house of the universe. They are constantly drawing power to themselves from all sources. For, thus centered, knowing themselves, conscious of their own power, the thoughts that go from their mind are thoughts of strength, and by virtue of the law that like attracts like, they by their thoughts are continually attracting to themselves from all quarters the aid of all whose thoughts are thoughts of strength, and in this way they are linking themselves with this order of thought in the universe.

And so to them that hath, to them shall be given. This is simply the working of a natural law. Their strong, positive, and hence constructive thought is continually working success for them along all lines, and continually bringing to them help from all directions. The things that they see, that they create in the ideal, are through the agency of this strong constructive thought continually clothing themselves, taking form, manifesting themselves in the material. Silent, unseen forces are at work which will sooner or later be made manifest in the visible.

Fear and all thoughts of failure never suggest themselves to such a man; or if they do, they are immediately sent out of their mind, and so they are not influenced by this order of thought from without. They does not attract it to them. They are in another current of thought. Consequently the weakening, failure-bringing thoughts of the fearing, the vacillating, the pessimistic about them, have no influence upon them.

The one who is of the negative, fearing kind not only has their energies and physical agents weakened, or even paralyzed through the influence of this kind of thought that is born within them, but also in this way connect themselves with this order of thought in the world about them. And in the degree that they do this do they become a victim to the weak, fearing, negative minds all around them. Instead of growing in power, they increase in weakness. They are in the same order of thought with those of whom it is true—and even that which they have shall be taken away from them. This again is simply the working of a natural law, just as is its opposite. Fearing lest I lose even what I have I hide it away in a napkin. Very well. I must then pay for the price of my ‘fearing lest I lose.’

Thoughts of strength both build strength from within and attract it from without. Thoughts of weakness actualize weakness from within and attract it from without. Courage begets strength, fear begets weakness. And so courage begets success, fear begets failure. It is the man of faith, and hence of courage who is the master of circumstances, and who makes his or her power felt in the world. It is the man who lacks faith and who as a consequence is weakened and crippled by fears and forebodings, who is the creature of all passing occurrences.

Within each one lies the cause of whatever comes to them. Each has it in their own hands to determine what comes. Everything in the visible, material world has its origin in the unseen, the spiritual, the thought world. This is the world of cause, the former is the world of effect. The nature of the effect is always in accordance with the nature of the cause. What one lives in their invisible, thought world, is continually actualizing in their visible, material world. If he would have any conditions different in the latter they must make the necessary change in the former. A clear realization of this great fact would bring success to thousands of men who all about us are now in the depths of despair. It would bring health, abounding health and strength to thousands now diseased and suffering. It would bring peace and joy to thousands now unhappy and ill at ease.

And oh, the thousands all about us who are continually living in the slavery of fear. The spirits within that should be strong and powerful, are rendered weak and impotent. Their energies are crippled, their efforts are paralyzed. ‘Fear is everywhere -fear of want, fear of starvation, fear of public opinion, fear of private opinion, fear that what we own today may not be ours tomorrow, fear of sickness, fear of death. Fear has become with millions a fixed habit. The thought is everywhere. The thought is thrown upon us from every direction…. To live in continual dread, continual cringing, continual fear of anything, be it loss of love, loss of money, loss of position or situation, is to take the readiest means to lose what we fear we shall.’

By fear nothing is to be gained, but on the contrary, everything is to be lost. ‘I know this is true,’ says one, ‘but I am given to fear; it’s natural to me and I can’t help it.’ Can’t help it! In saying this you indicate one great reason of your fear by showing that you do not even know yourself as yet. You must know yourself in order to know your powers, and not until you know them can you use them wisely and fully. Don’t say you can’t help it. If you think you can’t the chances are that you can’t.

If you think you can, and act in accordance with this thought, then not only are the chances that you can, but if you act fully in accordance with it that you can and that you will is an absolute certainty. It was Vergil who, in describing the crew which in his mind would win the race, said of them: They can because they think they can. In other words, this very attitude of mind on their part will infuse a spiritual power into their bodies that will give them the strength and endurance which will enable them to win.

Then take the thought that you can, take it merely as a seed-thought, if need be, plant it in your consciousness, tend it, cultivate it, and it will gradually reach out and gather strength from all quarters. It will focus and make positive and active the spiritual force within you that is now scattered and of little avail. It will draw to itself force from without. It will draw to your aid the influence of other minds of its own nature, minds that are fearless, strong, courageous. You will thus draw to yourself and connect yourself with this order of thought. If earnest and faithful, the time will soon come when all fear will loose its hold; and instead of being an embodiment of weakness and a creature of circumstances, you will find yourself a tower of strength and a master of circumstances.

We need more faith in everyday life -faith in the power that works for good, faith in the Infinite God, and hence faith in ourselves created in His image. And however things at times may seem to go, however dark at times appearances may be, the knowledge of the fact that ‘the Supreme Power has us in its charge as it has the suns and endless systems of worlds in space.’ will give us the supreme faith that all is well with us, just as all is well with the world. ‘Thou wilt keep in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on Thee.’

There is nothing firmer, and safer, and surer than Deity. Then, as we recognize the fact that we have it in our hands to open ourselves ever more fully to this Infinite Power, and call upon it to manifest itself in and through us, we shall find in ourselves an ever increasing sense of power. For in this way we are working in conjunction with it, and it in turn is working in conjunction with us. We are then led into the full realization of the fact that all things work together for good to those that love the good. Then the fears and forebodings that have dominated us in the past will be transmuted into faith, and faith, when rightly understood and rightly used, is a force before which nothing can stand.

Materialism leads naturally to pessimism. And how could it do otherwise? A knowledge of the Spiritual Power working in and through us as well as in and through all things, a power that works for righteousness, leads to optimism. Pessimism leads to weakness. Optimism leads to power. The one who is centered in Deity is the one who not only outrides every storm, but who through the faith, and so the conscious power that is in them, faces storm with the same calmness and serenity that they face fair weather, for they know well beforehand what the outcome will be. They know that underneath are the everlasting arms. He it is who realizes the truth of the injunction, ‘Rest in the Lord, wait patiently for Him and He shall give thee thy heart’s desire.’ All shall be given, simply given, to him who is ready to accept it. Can anything be clearer than this?

In the degree, then, that we work in conjunction with the Supreme Power do we need the less to concern ourselves about results. To live in the full realization of this fact and all that attends it brings peace, a full, rich, abiding peace—a peace that makes the present complete, and that, going on before, brings back the assurance that as our days, so shall our strength be. The one who is thus centered, even in the face of the unrest and the turmoil about us, can realize and say:

I stay in my haste, I make delays,

For what avails this eager pace,

I stand amid eternal ways,

And what is mine shall know my face.

Asleep, awake, by night or day,

The friends I seek are seeking me.

No wind can drive my bark astray,

Nor change the tide of destiny.

The waters know their own, and draw

The brooks that spring in yonder height.

So flows the good with equal law

Unto the soul of pure delight.

The stars come nightly to the sky.

The tidal wave unto the sea,

Nor time, nor space, nor deep, nor high,

Can keep my own away from me.

COMING INTO FULLNESS OF POWER

THIS is the Spirit of Infinite Power, and in the degree that we open ourselves to it does power become manifest in us. With God all things are possible—that is, in conjunction with God all things are possible. The true secret of power lies in keeping one’s connection with the God who worketh all things; and in the degree that we keep this connection are we able literally to rise above every conceivable limitation.

Why, then, waste time in running hither and thither to acquire power? Why waste time with this practice or that practice? Why not go directly to the mountain top itself, instead of wandering through the by-ways, in the valleys, and on the mountain sides? That man has absolute dominion, as taught in all the scriptures of the world, is true not of physical man, but of spiritual man. There are many animals, for example, larger and stronger, over which from a physical standpoint he would not have dominion, but he can gain supremacy over even these by calling into activity the higher, mental, psychic, and spiritual forces with which he is endowed.

Whatever cannot be done in the physical can be done in the spiritual. And in direct proportion as a man recognizes himself as spirit, and lives accordingly, is he able to transcend in power the man who recognizes himself merely as material. All the sacred literature of the world is teeming with examples of what we call miracles. They are not confined to any particular times or places. There is no age of miracles in distinction from any other period that may be an age of miracles. Whatever has been done in the world’s history can be done again through the operation of the same laws and forces. These miracles were performed not by those who were more than men but by those who through the recognition of their oneness with God became God-men, so that the higher forces and powers worked through them.

For what, let us ask, is a miracle? Is it something supernatural? Supernatural only in the sense of being above the natural, or rather, above that which is natural to man in his ordinary state. A miracle is nothing more nor less than this One who has come into a knowledge of his true identity, of his oneness with the all-pervading Wisdom and Power, thus makes it possible for laws higher than the ordinary mind knows of to be revealed to him. These laws he makes use of, the people see the results, and by virtue of their own limitations, call them miracles and speak of the person who performs these apparently supernatural works as a supernatural being. But they as supernatural beings could themselves perform these supernatural works if they would open themselves to the recognition of the same laws, and consequently to the realization of the same possibilities and powers.

And let us also remember that the supernatural of yesterday becomes—as in the process of evolution we advance from the lower to the higher, from the more material to the more spiritual— the common and the natural of today, and what seems to be the supernatural of today becomes in the same way the natural of tomorrow, and so on through the ages.

Yes, it is the God-man who does the things that appear supernatural, the man who by virtue of his realization of the higher powers transcends the majority and so stands out among them. But any power that is possible to one human soul is possible to another. The same laws operate in every life. We can be men of power or we can be men of impotence. The moment one vitally grasps the fact that they can rise they will rise, and they can have absolutely no limitations other than the limitations they set to themselves. Cream always rises to the top. It rises simply because it is the nature of the cream to rise. We hear much said of ‘environment’.

We need to realize that environment should never be allowed to make the man, but that man should always, and always can, condition the environment. When we realize this we shall find that many times it is not necessary to take ourselves out of any particular environment, because we may yet have a work to do there, but by the very force we carry with us we can so affect and change matters that we shall have an entirely new set of conditions in an old environment. The same is true in regard to ‘hereditary’ traits and influences.

We sometimes hear the question asked, ‘Can they be overcome?’ Only the one who doesn’t yet know themselves can ask a question such as this. If we entertain and live in the belief that they cannot be overcome, then the chances are that they will always remain. The moment, however, that we come into a realization of our true selves, and so of the tremendous powers and forces within, the powers and forces of the mind and spirit, hereditary traits and influences that are harmful in nature will begin to lessen, and will disappear with a rapidity directly in proportion to the completeness of this realization.

There is no thing we cannot overcome.

Say not thy evil instinct is inherited,

Or that some trait inborn makes thy whole life forlorn,

And calls down punishment that is not merited.

Back of thy parents and grandparents lies

The great Eternal Will: That too is thine Inheritance

-strong, beautiful, divine

,Sure lever of success for one who tries.

There is no noble height thou canst not climb,

All triumphs may be thine in Time’s futurity,

If, whatso’er thy fault, thou dost not faint or halt,

But lean upon the staff of God’s security.

Earth has no claim the soul cannot contest,

Know thyself part of the Eternal Source,

Naught can stand before thy spirit’s force.

The soul’s Divine Inheritance is best.

Again there are many who are living far below their possibilities because they are continually handing over their individualities to others. Do you want to be a power in the world? Then be yourself. Don’t class yourself, don’t allow yourself to be classed among the second-hand, among the they-say people. Be true to the highest within your own soul, and then allow yourself to be governed by no customs or conventionalities or arbitrary man-made rules that are not founded upon principle. Those things that are founded upon principle will be observed by the right-minded, the right-hearted man, in any case.

Don’t surrender your individuality, which is your greatest agent of power, to the customs and conventionalities that have got their life from the great mass of those who haven’t enough force to preserve their individualities— those who in other words have given them over as ingredients to the ‘mush of concession’ which one of our greatest writers has said characterizes our modern society. If you do surrender your individuality in this way, you simply aid in increasing the undesirable conditions; in payment for this you become a slave, and the chances are that in time you will be unable to hold even the respect of those whom you in this way try to please.

If you preserve your individuality then you become a master, and if wise and discreet, your influence and power will be an aid in bringing about a higher, a better, and a more healthy set of conditions in the world. All people, moreover, will think more of you, will honor you more highly for doing this than if you show your weakness by contributing yourself to the same ‘mush of concession’ that so many of them are contributing themselves to. With all classes of people you will then have an influence. ‘A great style of hero draws equally all classes, all extremes of society to him, till we say the very dogs believe in him.’

To be one’s self is the only worthy, and by all means the only satisfactory, thing to be. ‘May it not be good policy,’ says one, ‘to be governed sometimes by one’s surroundings? What is good policy? To be yourself, first, last, and always.

This above all—to thine own self be true,

And it must follow, as the night the day,

Thou canst not then be false to any man.

‘When we appeal to the Supreme and our life is governed by a principle, we are not governed either by fear of public opinion or loss of others’ approbation, and we may be sure that the Supreme will sustain us. If in any way we try to live to suit others we never shall suit them, and the more we try the more unreasonable and exacting do they become. The government of your life is a matter that lies entirely between God and yourself, and when your life is swayed and influenced from any other source you are on the wrong path.’ When we find the kingdom within and become centered in the Infinite, then we become a law unto ourselves. When we become a law unto ourselves, then we are able to bring others to a knowledge of laws higher than they are governed or many times even enslaved by.

When we have found this center, then that beautiful simplicity, at once the charm and the power of a truly great personality, enters into our lives. Then all striving for effect — that sure indicator of weakness and a lack of genuine power — is absent. This striving for effect that is so common is always an indicator of a lack of something. It brings to mind the man who rides behind a dock-tailed horse. Conscious of the fact that there is not enough in himself to attract attention, in common with a number of other weaklings, he adopts the brutal method of having his horse’s tail sawed off, that its unnatural, odd appearance may attract from people the attention that he of himself is unable to secure.

But the one who strives for effect is always fooled more than he succeeds in fooling others. The man of true wisdom and insight can always see the causes that prompt, the motives that underlie the acts of all with whom he comes in contact. ‘He is great who is what he is from nature and who never reminds us of others.’

The men who are truly awake to the real powers within are the men who seem to be doing so little, yet who in reality are doing so much. They seem to be doing so little because they are working with higher agencies, and yet are doing so much because of this very fact. They do their work on the higher plane. They keep so completely their connection with the Infinite Power that It does the work for them and they are relieved of the responsibility. They are the care-less people. They are careless because it is the Infinite Power that is working through them, and with this Infinite Power they are simply co-operating.

The secret of the highest power is simply the uniting of the outer agencies of expression with the Power that works from within. Are you a painter? Then in the degree that you open yourself to the power of the forces within will you become great instead of mediocre. You can never put into permanent form inspirations higher than those that come through your own soul. In order for the higher inspirations to come through it, you must open your soul, you must open it fully to the Supreme Source of all inspiration.

Are you an orator? In the degree that you come into harmony and work in conjunction with the higher powers that will speak through you will you have the real power of molding and of moving men. If you use merely your physical agents, you will be simply a demagogue. If you open yourself so that the voice of God can speak through and use your physical agents, you will become a great and true orator, great and true in just the degree that you so open yourself.

Are you a singer? Then open yourself and let the God within forth in the spirit of song. You will find it a thousand times easier than all your long and studied practice without this, and other things being equal, there will come to you a power of song so enchanting and so enrapturing that its influence upon all who hear will be irresistible.

When my cabin or tent has been pitched during the summer on the edge or in the midst of a forest, I have sometimes lain awake on my cot in the early morning, just as the day was beginning to break. Silence at first. Then an intermittent chirp here and there. And as the unfolding tints of the dawn became faintly perceptible, these grew more and more frequent, until by and by the whole forest seemed to burst forth in one grand chorus of song. Wonderful! wonderful! It seemed as if the very trees, as if every grass-blade, as if the bushes, the very sky above and the earth beneath, had part in this wonderful symphony. Then, as I have listened as it went on and on, I have thought, What a study in the matter of song! If we could but learn from the birds. If we could but open ourselves to the same powers and allow them to pour forth in us, what singers, and what movers of men we might have! Nay, what singers and what movers of men we would have!

Do you know the circumstances under which Mr Sankey sang for the first time The Ninety and Nine’? Says one of our able journalists: ‘At a great meeting recently, Mr Ira D. Sankey, before singing “The Ninety and Nine,” which, perhaps, of all his compositions is the one that has brought him the most fame, gave an account of its birth. Leaving Glasgow for Edinburgh with Mr Moody, he stopped at a paper-stall and bought a penny religious paper. Glancing over it as they rode in the train, his eye fell on a few little verses in the corner of the page. Turning to Mr Moody, he said, “I’ve found my hymn.” But Mr Moody was engaged and did not hear a word. Mr Sankey did not find time to make a tune for the verses, so he pasted them in his music scrapbook.

‘One day they had an unusually impressive meeting in Edinburgh, in which Dr Bonar had spoken with great effect on “The Good Shepherd.” At the close of the address Mr Moody beckoned to his partner to sing. He thought of nothing but the Twenty-third Psalm, but that he had sung so often. His second thought was to sing the verses he had found in the newspaper, but the third thought was, how could it be done when he had no tune. Then a fourth thought came, and that was to sing them anyway. He put the verses before him, touched the keys of the organ, opened his mouth and sang, not knowing where he was going to come out. He finished the first verse amid profound silence. He took a long breath and wondered if he could sing the second the same way. He tried and succeeded; after that it was easy to sing it. When he finished the hymn the meeting was all broken down and the throngs were crying. Mr Sankey says it was the intense moment of his life. Mr Moody said he never heard a song like it. It was sung at every meeting, and was soon going over the world.’

When we open ourselves to the highest inspirations they never fail us. When we fail to do this we fail in attaining the highest results, whatever the undertaking.

Are you a writer? Then remember that the one great precept underlying all successful literary work is, Look into thine own heart and write. Be true. Be fearless. Be loyal to the promptings of your own soul. Remember that an author can never write more than he themselves are. If he would write more, then they must be more. They are simply their own amanuensis. They in a sense write themselves into their book. They can put no more into it than they themselves are.

If he is one of a great personality, strong in purpose, deep in feeling, open always to the highest inspirations, a certain indefinable something gets into their pages that makes them breathe forth a vital, living power, a power so great that each reader gets the same inspirations as those that spoke through the author. That which is written between the lines is many times more than that which is written in the lines. It is the spirit of the author that engenders this power. It is this that gives that extra twenty-five or thirty per cent that takes a book out of the class called medium and lifts it into the class called superior, that extra per cent that makes it the one of the hundred that is truly successful, while the ninety-nine never see more than their first edition.

It is this same spiritual power that the author of a great personality puts into their work that causes it to go so rapidly from reader to reader; for the way that any book circulates is mainly from personal recommendation -any book that reaches a large circulation. It is this that many times causes a single reader, in view of its value to themselves, to purchase numbers of copies for others. ‘A good poem,’ says Emerson, ‘goes about the world offering itself to reasonable men, who read it with joy and carry it to their reasonable neighbors. Thus it draws to it the wise and generous souls, confirming their secret thoughts, and through their sympathy really publishing itself.’

This is the type of author who writes not with the thought of having what they write become literature, but they write with the sole thought of reaching the hearts of the people, giving them something of vital value, something that will broaden, sweeten, enrich, and beautify their lives; that will lead them to the finding of the higher life and with it the higher powers and the higher joys. It nearly always happens, however, that if they succeed in thus reaching the people, the becoming literature part somehow takes care of itself, and far better than if they aimed for it directly.

The one, on the other hand, who fears to depart from beaten paths, who allows themselves to be bound by arbitrary rules, limits their own creative powers in just the degree that then allow themselves to be so bound. ‘My book,’ says one of the greatest of modern authors, ’shall smell of the pines and resound with the hum of insects. The swallow over my window shall interweave that thread or straw he carries in his bill into my web also.’ Far better, gentle sage, to have it smell of the pines and resound with the hum of insects than to have it sound of the rules that a smaller type of man gets by studying the works of a few great, fearless writers like yourself, and formulating from what he thus gains a handbook of rhetoric. ‘Of no use are the men who study to do exactly as was done before, who can never understand that today is a new day.’

When Shakespeare is charged with debts to his authors, Landor replies, ‘Yet he was more original than his originals. He breathed upon dead bodies and brought them into life.’ This is the type of man who doesn’t move the world’s way, but who moves the world his way. I had rather be an amanuensis of the Infinite God, as it is my privilege literally to be, than a slave to the formulated rules of any rhetorician, or to the opinions of any critic.

Oh, the people, the people over and over! Let me give something to them that will lighten the everyday struggles of our common life, something that will add a little sweetness here, a little hope there, something that will make more thoughtful, kind, and gentle this thoughtless, animal-natured man, something that will awaken into activity the dormant powers of this timid, shrinking little woman, powers that when awakened will be irresistible in their influence and that will surprise even herself. Let me give something that will lead each one to the knowledge of the divinity of every human soul, something that will lead each one to the conscious realization of their own divinity, with all its attendant riches, and glories, and powers -let me succeed in doing this, and I can then well afford to be careless as to whether the critics praise or whether they blame. If it is blame, then under these circumstances it is as the cracking of a few dead sticks on the ground below, compared to the matchless music that the soft spring gale is breathing through the great pine forest.

Are you a minister, or a religious teacher of any kind? Then in the degree that you free yourself from the man-made theological dogmas that have held and that are holding and limiting so many, and in the degree that you open yourself to the Divine Breath, will you be one who will speak with authority. In the degree that you do this will you study the prophets less and be in the way of becoming a prophet yourself. The way is open for you exactly the same as it has ever been open for anyone.

If when born into the world you came into a family of the English-speaking race, then in all probability you are a Christian. To be a Christian is to be a follower of the teachings of Jesus, the Christ; to live in harmony with the same laws He lived in harmony with: in brief, to live His life. The great central fact of His teaching was this conscious union of man with the Father. It was the complete realization of this oneness with the Father on His part that made Jesus the Christ. It was through this that He attained to the power He attained to, that He spake as never man spake.

He never claimed for Himself anything that He did not claim equally for all mankind. ‘The mighty works performed by Jesus were not exceptional, they were the natural and necessary concomitants of His state; He declared them to be in accordance with unvarying order; He spoke of them as no unique performances, but as the outcome of a state to which all might attain if they chose. As a teacher and demonstrator of truth, according to His own confession, He did nothing for the purpose of proving His solitary divinity…. The life and triumph of Jesus formed an epoch in the history of the race. His coming and victory marked a new era in human affairs; He introduced a new because a more complete ideal to the earth, and when His three most intimate companions saw in some measure what the new life really signified, they fell to the earth, speechless with awe and admiration.’

By coming into this complete realization of His oneness with the Father, by mastering, absolutely mastering every circumstance that crossed His path through life, even to the death of the body, and by pointing out to us the great laws which are the same for us as they were for Him, He has given us an ideal of life, an ideal for us to attain to here and now, that we could not have without Him. One has conquered first, all conquer afterward. By completely realizing it first for Himself, and then by pointing out to others this great law of the at-one-ment with the Father, He has become the world’s greatest Savior.

Don’t mistake His mere person for His life and His teachings, an error that has been made in connection with nearly all great teachers by their disciples over and over again. And if you have been among the number who have been preaching a dead Christ, then for humanity’s sake, for Christ’s sake, for God’s sake, and I speak most reverently, don’t steal the people’s time any longer, don’t waste your own time more, in giving them stones in place of bread, dead form for the spirit of living truth. In His own words, ‘let the dead bury their dead.’ Come out from among them. Teach as did Jesus, the living Christ. Teach as did Jesus, the Christ within. Find this in all its transcendent beauty and power, find it as Jesus found it, then you also will be one who will speak with authority. Then you will be able to lead large numbers of others to its finding. This is the pearl of great price.

It is the type of preacher whose soul has never as yet even perceived the vital spirit of the teaching of Jesus, and who as a consequence instead of giving this to the people, is giving them old forms and dogmas and speculations, who is emptying our churches. This is the type whose chief efforts seem to be in getting men ready to die. The Germans have a saying, Never go to the second thing first. We need men who will teach us first how to live. Living quite invariably precedes dying. This also is true, that when we once know how to live, and live in accordance with what we know, then the dying, as we term it, will in a wonderfully beautiful manner take care of itself. It is in fact the only way in which it can be taken care of.

It is on account of this emptying of our churches, for the reason that the people are tiring ot mere husks, that many short-sighted people are frequently heard to say that religion is dying out. Religion dying out? How can anything die before it is really born? And so far as the people are concerned, religion is just being born, or rather they are just awaking to a vital, every-day religion. We are just beginning to get beyond the mere letter into its real, vital spirit. Religion dying out? Impossible even to conceive of. Religion is as much a part of the human soul as the human soul is a part of God. And as long as God and the human soul exist religion will never die.

Much of the dogma, the form, the ceremony, the mere letter that has stood as religion—and honestly, many times, let us be fair enough to say—this, thank God, is rapidly dying out, and never so rapidly as it is today. By two methods it is dying. There is, first, a large class of people tired of or even nauseated with it all, who conscientiously prefer to have nothing rather than this. They are simply abandoning it, as a tree abandons its leaves when the early winter comes.

There is, second, a large class in whom the Divine Breath is stirring, who are finding the Christ within in all its matchless beauty and redeeming power. And this new life is pushing off the old, the same as in the spring the newly awakened life in the tree pushes off the old, lifeless leaves that have clung on during the winter, to make place for the new ones. And the way this old dead-leaf religion is being pushed off on every hand is indeed most interesting and inspiring to witness.

Let the places of those who have been emptying our churches by reason of their attempts to give stones for bread, husks and chaff for the life-giving grain, let their places be taken even for but a few times by those who are open and alive to these higher inspirations, and then let us again question those who feel that religion is dying out. ‘It is the live coal that kindles others, not the dead.’ Let their places be taken by those who have caught the inspiration of the Divine Breath, who as a consequence have a message of mighty value and import for the people, who by virtue of this same fact are able to present it with a beauty and a power so enrapturing that it takes captive the soul.

Then we will find that the churches that today are dotted here and there with a few dozen people will be filled to overflowing, and there will not be even room enough for all who would enter. ‘Let the shell perish that the pearl may appear.’ We need no new revelations as yet. We need simply to find the vital spirit of those we already have. Then in due time, when we are ready for them, new ones will come, but not before.

‘What the human soul, all the world over, needs,’ says John Pulsford, ‘is not to be harangued, however eloquently, about the old, accepted religion, but to be permeated, charmed, and taken captive by a warmer and more potent Breath of God than they ever felt before. And I should not be true to my personal experience if I did not bear testimony that this Divine Breath is as exquisitely adapted to the requirements of the soul’s nature as a June morning to the planet. Nor does the morning breath leave the trees freer to delight themselves and develop themselves under its influence than the Breath of God allows each human mind to unfold according to its genius. Nothing stirs the central wheel of the soul like the Breath of God. The whole man is quickened, his senses are new senses, his emotions new emotions, his reason, his affections, his imagination, are all new-born.

The change is greater than he knows, he marvels at the powers in himself which the Breath is opening and calling forth. He finds his nature to be an unutterable thing; he is sure therefore that the future must have inconceivable surprises in store. And herein lies the evidence, which I commend to my readers, of the existence of God, and of the Eternal human Hope. Let God’s Breath kindle new spring-time in the soul, start into life its deeply buried germs, lead in heaven’s summer, you will then have as clear evidence of God from within as you have of the universe from without. Indeed, your internal experience of life, and illimitable Hope in God will be nearer to you, and more prevailing, than all your external and superficial experience of nature and the world.’

There is but one source of power in the universe. Whatever then you are, painter, orator, musician, writer, religious teacher, or whatever it may be, know that to catch and take captive the secret of power is so to work in conjunction with the Infinite Power, in order that it may continually work and manifest through you. If you fail in doing this, you fail in everything. If you fail in doing this, your work, whatever it may be, will be third or fourth rate, possibly at times second rate, but it positively never can be first rate Absolutely impossible will it be for you ever to become a master.

Whatever estimate you put upon yourself will determine the effectiveness of your work along any line. As long as you live merely in the physical and the intellectual, you set limitations to yourself that will hold you as long as you so live. When, however, you come into the realization of your oneness with the Infinite Life and Power, and open yourself that it may work through you, you will find that you have entered upon an entirely new phase of life, and that an ever increasing power will be yours. Then it will be true that your strength will be as the strength of ten because your heart is pure.

O God! I am one forever

With Thee by the glory of birth.

The celestial powers proclaim it

To the utmost bounds of the earth.

I think of this birthright immortal,

And my being expands like a rose,

As an odorous cloud of incense

Around and above me flows.

A glorious song of rejoicing

In an innermost spirit I hear,

And it sounds like heavenly voices,

In a chorus divine and clear.

And I feel a power uprising,

Like the power of an embryo god.

With a glorious wall it surrounds me,

And lifts me up from the sod.

PLENTY OF ALL THINGS – THE LAW OF PROSPERITY

THIS is the Spirit of Infinite Plenty, the Power that has brought, that is continually bringing, all things into expression in material form. He who lives in the realization of his oneness with this Infinite Power becomes a magnet to attract to himself a continual supply of whatsoever things he desires.

If one holds themselves in the thought of poverty they will be poor, and the chances are that they will remain in poverty. If one holds themselves, whatever present conditions may be, continually in the thought of prosperity, they set into operation forces that will sooner or later bring them into prosperous conditions. The law of attraction works unceasingly throughout the universe, and the one great and never changing fact in connection with it is, as we have found, that like attracts like. If we are one with this Infinite Power, this source of all things, then in the degree that we live in the realization of this oneness, in that degree do we actualize in ourselves a power that will bring to us an abundance of all things that it is desirable for us to have. In this way we come into possession of a power whereby we can actualize at all times those conditions that we desire.

As all truth exists now, and awaits simply our perception of it, so all things necessary for present needs exist now, and await simply the power in us to appropriate them. God holds all things in His hands. His constant word is, My child, acknowledge me in all your ways, and in the degree that you do this, in the degree that you live this, then what is mine is yours. Jehovah-jireh—the Lord will provide. ‘He giveth to all men liberally and upbraideth not.’ He giveth liberally to all men who put themselves in the right attitude to receive from Him. He forces no good things upon anyone.

The old and somewhat prevalent idea of godliness and poverty has absolutely no basis for its existence, and the sooner we get away from it the better. It had its birth in the same way that the idea of asceticism came into existence, when the idea prevailed that there was necessarily a warfare between the flesh and the spirit. It had its origin therefore in the minds of those who had a distorted, a one-sided view of life. True godliness is in a sense the same as true wisdom. The one who is truly wise, and who uses the forces and powers with which they are endowed, to them the great universe always opens her treasure house. The supply is always equal to the demand -equal to the demand when the demand is rightly, wisely made. When one comes into the realization of these higher laws, then the fear of want ceases to tyrannize over them.

Are you out of a situation? Let the fear that you will not get another take hold of and dominate you, and the chances are that it may be a long time before you will get another, or the one that you do get may be a very poor one indeed. Whatever the circumstances, you must realize that you have within you forces and powers that you can set into operation that will triumph over any and all apparent or temporary losses. Set these forces into operation and you will then be placing a magnet that will draw to you a situation that may be far better than the one you have lost, and the time may soon come when you will be even thankful that you lost the old one.

Recognize, working in and through you, the same Infinite Power that creates and governs all things in the universe, the same Infinite Power that governs the endless systems of worlds in space. Send out your thought— thought is a force, and it has occult power of unknown proportions when rightly used and wisely directed—send out your thought that the right situation or the right work will come to you at the right time, in the right way, and that you will recognize it when it comes. Hold to this thought, never allow it to weaken, hold to it, and continually water it with firm expectation.

You in this way put your advertisement into a psychical, a spiritual newspaper, a paper that has not a limited circulation, but one that will make its way not only to the utmost bounds of the earth, but of the very universe itself. It is an advertisement, moreover, which if rightly placed on your part, will be far more effective than any advertisement you could possibly put into any printed sheet, no matter what claims are made in regard to its being ‘the great advertising medium’. In the degree that you come into this realization and live in harmony with the higher laws and forces, in that degree will you be able to do this effectively.

If you wish to look through the ‘want’ columns of the newspapers, then do not do it in the ordinary way. Put the higher forces into operation and thus place it on a higher basis. As you take up the paper, take this attitude of mind: If there is here an advertisement that it will be well for me to reply to, the moment I come to it I will recognize it. Affirm this, believe it, expect it. If you do this in full faith, you will somehow feel the intuition the moment you come to the right one, and this intuition will be nothing more nor less than your own soul speaking to you. When it speaks then act at once.

If you get the situation and it does not prove to be exactly what you want, if you feel that you are capable of filling a better one, then the moment you enter upon it take the attitude of mind that this situation is the stepping-stone that will lead you to one that will be still better. Hold this thought steadily, affirm it, believe it, expect it, and all the time be faithful, absolutely faithful to the situation in which you are at present placed. If you are not faithful to it then the chances are that it will not be the stepping-stone to something better, but to something poorer. If you are faithful to it, the time may soon come when you will be glad and thankful, when you will rejoice that you lost your old position.

This is the law of prosperity: When apparent adversity comes, be not cast down by it, but make the best of it, and always look forward for better things, for conditions more prosperous. To hold yourself in this attitude of mind is to set into operation subtle, silent, and irresistible forces that sooner or later will actualize in material form that which is today merely an idea. But ideas have occult power, and ideas, when rightly planted and rightly tended, are the seeds that actualize material conditions.

Never give a moment to complaint, but utilize the time that would otherwise be spent in this way in looking forward and actualizing the conditions you desire. Suggest prosperity to yourself. See yourself in a prosperous condition. Affirm that you will before be in a prosperous condition. Affirm it calmly and quietly, but strongly and confidently. Believe it, believe it absolutely. Expect it, keep it continually watered with expectation. You thus make yourself a magnet to attract the things that you desire.

Don’t be afraid to suggest, to affirm these things, for by so doing you put forth an ideal which will begin to clothe itself in material form. In this way you are utilizing agents among the most subtle and powerful in the universe. If you are particularly desirous for anything that you feel it is good and right for you to have, something that will broaden your life or that will increase your usefulness to others, simply hold the thought that at the right time, in the right way, and through the right instrumentality, there will come to you or there will open up for you the way whereby you can attain what you desire.

I know of a young lady who a short time ago wanted some money very badly. She wanted it for a good purpose; she saw no reason why she shouldn’t have it. She is one who has come into an understanding of the power of the interior forces. She took and held herself in the attitude of mind we have just pointed out. In the morning she entered into the silence for a few moments. In this way she brought herself into a more complete harmony with the higher powers. Before the day closed a gentleman called, a member of a family with which she was acquainted. He asked her if she would do for the family some work that they wanted done.

She was a little surprised that they should ask her to do this particular kind of work, but she said to herself, ‘Here is a call. I will respond and see what it will lead to.’ She undertook the work. She did it well. When she had completed it there was put into her hands an amount of money far beyond what she had expected. She felt that it was an amount too large for the work she had done. She protested. They replied, ‘No; you have done us a service that transcends in value the amount we offer to pay you.’ The sum thus received was more than sufficient for the work she wished to accomplish.

This is but one of many instances in connection with the wise and effective use of the higher powers. It also carries a lesson -Don’t fold your hands and expect to see things drop into your lap, but set into operation the higher forces and then take hold of the first thing that offers itself. Do what your hands find to do, and do it well. If this work is not thoroughly satisfactory to you, then affirm, believe, and expect that it is the agency that will lead you to something better. ‘The basis for attracting the best of all the world can give to you is first to surround, own, and live in these things in mind, or what is falsely called imagination. All so-called imaginings are realities and forces of unseen element. Live in mind in a palace and gradually palatial surroundings will gravitate to you. But so living is not pining, or longing, or complainingly wishing. It is when you are “down in the world”, calmly and persistently seeing yourself as up. It is when you are now compelled to eat from a tin plate, regarding that tin plate as only the certain step to one of silver. It is not envying and growling at other people who have silver plate. That growling is just so much capital stock taken from the bank account of mental force.’

A friend who knows the power of the interior forces, and whose life is guided in every detail by them, has given a suggestion in this form. When you are in the arms of the bear, even though he is hugging you, look him in the face and laugh, but all the time keep your eye on the bull. If you allow all of your attention to be given to the work of the bear, the bull may get entirely out of your sight. In other words, if you yield to adversity the chances are that it will master you, but if you recognize in yourself the powers of mastery over conditions then adversity will yield to you, and will be changed into prosperity. If when it comes you calmly and quietly recognize it, and use the time that might otherwise be spent in regrets, and fears, and forebodings, in setting into operation the powerful forces within you, it will soon take its leave.

Faith, absolute dogmatic faith, is the only law of true success. When we recognize the fact that a man carries their success or failure with them, and that it does not depend upon outside conditions, we shall come into the possession of powers that will quickly change outside conditions into agencies that make for success. When we come into this higher realization and bring our lives into complete harmony with the higher laws, we shall then be able so to focus and direct the awakened interior forces, that they will go out and return laden with that for which they are sent. We shall then be great enough to attract success, and it will not always be apparently just a little way ahead. We can then establish in ourselves a center so strong that instead of running hither and thither for this or that, we can stay at home and draw to us the conditions we desire. If we firmly establish and hold to this center, things will seem continually to come our way.

The majority of people of the modern world are looking for things that are practical and that can be utilized in everyday life. The more carefully we examine into the laws underlying the great truths we are considering, the more we shall find that they are not only eminently practical, but in a sense, and in the deepest and truest sense, they are the only practical things there are.

There are people who continually pride themselves upon being exceedingly ‘practical’; but many times those who of themselves think nothing about this are the most practical people the world knows. And, on the other hand, those who take great pride in speaking of their own practicality are often the least practical. Or again, in some ways they may be practical, but so far as life in its is concerned, they are absurdly impractical.

What profit, for example, can there be for the man who, materially speaking, though they have gained the whole world, have never yet become acquainted with their own soul? There are multitudes of men all about us who are entirely missing the real life, people who have not learned even the A, B, C of true living. Slaves they are, abject slaves to their temporary material accumulations. Men who, thinking they possess their wealth, are on the contrary completely possessed by it. Men whose lives are comparatively barren in service to those about them and to the world at large. Men who when they can no longer hold the body—the agency by means of which they are related to the material world—will go out poor indeed, pitiably poor. Unable to take even the smallest particle of their accumulations with them, they will enter upon the other form of life naked and destitute.

The kindly deeds, the developed traits of character, the realized powers of the soul, the real riches of the inner life and unfoldment, all those things that become our real and eternal possessions, have been given no place in their lives, and so of the real things of life they are destitute. Nay, many times worse than destitute. We must not suppose that habits once formed are any more easily broken off in the other form of life than they are in this. If one voluntarily grows a certain mania here, we must not suppose that the mere dropping of the body makes all conditions perfect. All is law, all is cause and effect. As we sow, so shall we also reap, not only in this life but in all lives.

He who is enslaved with the sole desire for material possessions here will continue to be enslaved even after he can no longer retain his body. Then, moreover, he will have not even the means of gratifying his desires. Dominated by this habit, he will be unable to set his affections, for a time at least, upon other things, and the desire, without the means of gratifying it, will be doubly torturing to him. Perchance this torture may be increased by his seeing the accumulations he thought were his now being scattered and wasted by spend thrifts. He wills his property, as we say, to others, but he can have no word as to its use.

How foolish, then, for us to think that any material possessions are ours. How absurd, for example, for one to fence off a number of acres of God’s earth and say they are his. Nothing is ours that we cannot retain. The things that come into our hands come not for the purpose of being possessed, as we say, much less for the purpose of being hoarded. They come into our hands to be used, to be used wisely. We are stewards merely, and as stewards we shall be held accountable for the way we use whatever is entrusted to us. That great law of compensation that runs through all life is wonderfully exact in its workings, although we may not always fully comprehend it, or even recognize it when it operates in connection with ourselves.

The one who has come into the realization of the higher life no longer has a desire for the accumulation of enormous wealth, any more than he has a desire for any other excess. In the degree that they come into the recognition of the fact that they are wealthy within, external wealth becomes less important in their estimation. When they come into the realization of the fact that there is a source within from which they can put forth a power to call to them, and actualize in their hands at any time, a sufficient supply for all their needs they no longer burden themselves with vast material accumulations that require their constant care and attention, and thus take their time and their thought from the real things of life. In other words, they first find the kingdom, and they realize that when they have found this all other things follow in full measure.

It is as hard for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of heaven, said the Master—He who having nothing had everything—as it is for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle. In other words, if a man give all his time to the accumulation, the hoarding of outward material possessions far beyond what he can possibly ever use, what time has he for the finding of that wonderful kingdom which, when found, brings all else with it. Which is better, to have millions and to have the burden of taking care of it all—for the one always involves the other—or to come into the knowledge of such laws and forces that every need will be supplied in good time, to know that no
good thing shall be withheld, to know that we have it in our power to make the supply always equal to the demand?

The one who enters into the realm of this higher knowledge never cares to bring upon themselves the species of insanity that has such a firm hold upon so many in the world today. They avoid it as they would avoid any loathsome disease of the body. When we come into the realization of the higher powers, we will then be able to give more attention to the real life, instead of giving so much to the piling up of vast possessions that hamper rather than help it. It is the medium ground that brings the true solution here, as it is in all phases of life.

Wealth beyond a certain amount cannot be used, and when it cannot be used it then becomes a hindrance rather than an aid, a curse rather than a blessing. All about us are persons with lives now stunted and dwarfed which might be made rich and beautiful, filled with a perennial joy, if they would begin wisely to use that which they have spent the greater portion of their lives in accumulating.

The man who accumulates during their entire life, and who even leaves all when they go out for ‘benevolent purposes’, comes far short of the ideal life. It is but a poor excuse of a life. It is not especially commendable in me to give a pair of old, worn-out shoes that I shall never use again to another who is in need of shoes. But it is commendable, if indeed doing anything we ought to do can be spoken of as being commendable, it is commendable for me to give a good pair of strong shoes to the man who in the midst of a severe winter is
practically shoeless, the man who is exerting every effort to earn an honest living and thereby take care of his family’s needs. And if in giving the shoes I also give myself, he then has a double gift, and I a double blessing.

There is no wiser use that those who have great accumulations can make of them than wisely to put them into life, into character, day by day while they live. In this way their lives will be continually enriched and increased. The time will come when it will be regarded as a disgrace for a man to die and leave vast accumulations behind them. Many a person is living in a palace today who in the real life is poorer than many a one who has not even a roof to cover him.

A man may own and live in a palace, but the palace for them may be a poorhouse still.

Moth and rust are nature’s wise provisions—God’s methods—for disintegrating and scattering, in this way getting ready for use in new forms that which is hoarded and consequently serving no use. There is also a great law continually operating the effects of which are to dwarf and deaden the powers of true enjoyment, as well as all the higher faculties, of the one who hoards.

Multitudes of people are continually keeping away from them higher and better things because they are forever clinging on to the old. If they would use and pass on the old, room would be made for new things to come. Hoarding always brings loss in one form or another. Using, wisely using, brings an ever renewing gain. If the tree should as ignorantly and as greedily hold on to this year’s leaves when they have served their purpose, where would be the full and beautiful new life that will be put forth in the spring? Gradual decay and finally death would be the result. If the tree is already dead, then it may perhaps be well enough for it to cling on to the old, for no new leaves will come. But as long as the life in the tree is active, it is necessary that it rid itself of the old ones, that room may be made for the new.

Opulence is the law of the universe, an abundant supply for every need if nothing is put in the way of its coming. The natural and the normal life for us is this -to have such a fullness of life and power by living so continually in the realization of our oneness with the Infinite Life and Power that we find ourselves in the constant possession of an abundant supply of all things needed. Then not by hoarding, but by wisely using and ridding ourselves of things as they come, an ever renewing supply will be ours, a supply far better adapted to present needs than the old could possibly be. In this way we not only come into possession of the richest treasures of the Infinite Good ourselves, but we also become open channels through which they can flow to others.

HOW MEN HAVE BECOME PROPHETS, SEERS, SAGES AND SAVIORS

I HAVE tried thus far to deal fairly with you in presenting these vital truths, and have spoken of everything on the basis of our own reason and insight. It has been my aim to base nothing on the teachings of others, though they may be the teachings of those inspired. Let us now look for a moment at these same great truths in the light of the thoughts and the teachings as put forth by some of the world’s great thinkers and inspired teachers.

The sum and substance of the thought presented in these pages is, you will remember, that the great central fact in human life is the coming into a conscious, vital realization of our oneness with the Infinite Life, and the opening of ourselves fully to this divine inflow. I and the Father are one, said the Master. In this we see how He recognized His oneness with the Father’s life. Again He said, The words that I speak unto you I speak not of Myself: but the Father that dwelleth in Me, He doeth the works. In this we see how clearly He recognized the fact that He of Himself could do nothing, only as He worked in conjunction with the Father. Again, My Father works and I work. In other words, my Father sends the power, I open Myself to it, and work in conjunction with it.

Again He said, Seek ye first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you. And He left us not in the dark as to exactly what He meant by this, for again He said, Say not Lo here nor lo there, know ye not that the kingdom of heaven is within you? According to His teaching, the kingdom of God and the kingdom of heaven were one and the same. If, then, His teaching is that the kingdom of heaven is within us, do we not clearly see that, putting it in other words, His injunction is nothing more nor less than, Come ye into a conscious realization of your oneness with the Father’s life. As you realize this oneness you find the kingdom and when you find this, all things else shall follow.

The story of the prodigal son is another beautiful illustration of this same great teaching of the Master. After the prodigal had spent everything, after he had wandered in all the realms of the physical senses in the pursuit of happiness and pleasure, and found that this did not satisfy but only brought him to the level of the animal creation, he then came to his senses and said, I will arise and go to my Father. In other words, after all these wanderings, his own soul at length spoke to him and said.

You are not a mere animal. You are your Father’s child. Arise and go to your Father, who holds all things in His hands. Again, the Master said, Call no man your father upon the earth: for one is your Father, which is in heaven. Here He recognized the fact that the real life is direct from the life of God. Our fathers and our mothers are the agents that give us the bodies, the houses in which we live, but the real life comes from the Infinite Source of Life, God, who is our Father.

One day word was brought to the Master that His mother and His brethren were without wishing to speak with Him. Who is My mother and who are My brethren? said He. Whosoever shall do the will of My Father which is in heaven, the same is My brother, and My sister, and mother.

Many people are greatly enslaved by what we term ties of relationship. It is well, however, for us to remember that our true relatives are not necessarily those who are connected with us by ties of blood. Our truest relatives are those who are nearest akin to us in mind, in soul, in spirit. Our nearest relatives may be those living on the opposite side of the globe—people whom we may never have seen as yet, but to whom we will yet be drawn, either in this form of life or in another, through that ever working and never failing Law of Attraction.

When the Master gave the injunction, Call no man your father upon the earth: for one is your Father, which is in heaven, He here gave us the basis for that grand conception of the fatherhood of God. And if God is equally the Father of all, then we have here the basis for the brotherhood of man. But there is, in a sense, a conception still higher than this, namely, the oneness of man and God, and hence the oneness of the whole human race. When we realize this fact, then we clearly see how in the degree that we come into the realization of our oneness with the Infinite Life, and so every step that we make Godward, we aid in lifting all mankind up to this realization, and enable them, in turn, to make a step Godward.

The Master again pointed out our true relations with the Infinite Life when He said, Except ye become as little children ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven. When He said, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God, He gave utterance to a truth of far greater import than we have as yet commenced fully to grasp. Here He taught that even the physical life cannot be maintained by material food alone, but that one’s connection with this Infinite Source determines to a very great extent the condition of even the bodily structure and activities. Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God. In other words, blessed are they who in all the universe recognize only God, for by such God shall be seen.

Said the great Hindu sage, Manu, He who in his own soul perceives the Supreme Soul in all beings, and acquires equanimity toward them all, attains the highest bliss. It was Athanasius who said, Even we may become Gods walking about in the flesh. The same great truth we are considering is the one that runs through the life and the teachings of Gautama, he who became the Buddha. People are in bondage, said he, because they have not yet removed the idea of I. To do away with all sense of separateness, and to recognize the oneness of the self with the Infinite, is the spirit that breathes through all his teachings. Running through the lives of all the mediaeval mystics was this same great truth -union with God.

Then, coming nearer to our own time, we find the highly illumined seer, Emanuel Swedenborg, pointing out the great laws in connection with what he termed the divine influx, and how we may open ourselves more fully to its operations. The great central fact in the religion and worship of the Friends is the inner light—God in the soul of man speaking directly in just the degree that the soul is opened to Him. The inspired one, the seer who when with us lived at Concord, recognized the same great truth when he said, We are all inlets to the great sea of life. And it was by opening himself so fully to its inflow that he became one inspired.

All through the world’s history we find that the men who have entered into the realm of true wisdom and power, and hence into the realm of true peace and joy, have lived in harmony with this Higher Power. David was strong and powerful and his soul burst forth in praise and adoration in just the degree that he listened to the voice of God, and lived in accordance with his higher promptings. Whenever he failed to do this we hear his soul crying out in anguish and lamentation. The same is true of every nation or people. When the Israelites acknowledged God and followed according to His leadings they were prosperous, contented, and powerful, and nothing could prevail against them. When they depended upon their own strength alone and failed to recognize God as the source of their strength, we find them overcome, in bondage, or despair.

A great immutable law underlies the truth, Blessed are they that hear the word of God and do it. Then follows all. We are wise in the degree that we live according to the higher light.

All the prophets, seers, sages, and saviors in the world’s history became what they became, and consequently had the powers they had, through an entirely natural process. They all recognized and came into the conscious realization of their oneness with the Infinite Life. God is no respecter of persons.

He does not create prophets, seers, sages, and saviors as such. He creates men. But here and there one recognizes their true identity, recognizes the oneness of their life with the Source whence it came. They live in the realization of this oneness, and in turn becomes a prophet, seer, sage, or savior. Neither is God a respecter of races or of nations. He has no chosen people; but here and there a race or nation becomes a respecter of God and hence lives the life of a chosen people.

There has been no age or place of miracles in distinction from any other age or place. What we term miracles have abounded in all places and at all times where conditions have been made for them. They are being performed today, just as much as they ever have been, when the laws governing them are respected. Mighty men, we are told they were, mighty men who walked with God; and in the words ‘who walked with God’ lies the secret of the words ‘mighty men’. Cause, effect.

The Lord never prospers any man, but the man prospers because he acknowledges the Lord, and lives in accordance with the higher laws. Solomon was given the opportunity of choosing whatever he desired, his better judgment prevailed and he chose wisdom. But when he chose wisdom he found that it included all else beside. We are told that God hardened Pharaoh’s heart. I don’t believe it. God never hardens any one’s heart. Pharaoh hardened his own heart and God was blamed for it. But when Pharaoh hardened his heart and disobeyed the voice of God, the plagues came. Again, cause, effect. Had he, on the contrary, listened -in other words, had he opened himself to and obeyed the voice of God -the plagues would not have come.

We can be our own best friends or we can be our own worst enemies. In the degree that we become friends to the highest and best within us, we become friends to all; and in the degree that we become enemies to the highest and best within us, do we become enemies to all. In the degree that we open ourselves to the higher powers and let them manifest through us, then by the very inspirations we carry with us do we become in a sense the saviors of our fellow-men, and in this way we all are, or may become, the saviors one of another. In this way you may become, indeed, one of the world’s redeemers.

THE BASIC PRINCIPLE OF ALL RELIGIONS – THE UNIVERSAL RELIGION

THE great truth we are considering is the fundamental principle running through all religions. We find it in every one. In regard to it all agree. It is, moreover, a great truth in regard to which all people can agree, whether they belong to the same or to different religions. People always quarrel about the trifles, about their personal views of minor insignificant points. They always come together in the presence of great fundamental truths, the threads of which run through all. The quarrels are in connection with the lower self, the agreements are in connection with the higher self.

A place may have its factions that quarrel and fight among themselves, but let a great calamity come upon the land, flood, famine, pestilence, and these little personal differences are entirely forgotten and all work shoulder to shoulder in the one great cause. The changing, the evolving self gives rise to quarrels; the permanent, the soul self unites all in the highest efforts of love and service.

Patriotism is a beautiful thing; it is well for me to love my country, but why should I love my own country more than I love all others? If I love my own and hate others I then show my limitations, and my patriotism will stand the test not even for my own. If I love my own country and in the same way love all other countries, then I show the largeness of my nature, and a patriotism of this kind is noble and always to be relied upon.

The view of God in regard to which we are agreed, that He is the Infinite Spirit of Life and Power that is at the back of all, that is working in and through all, that is the life of all, is a matter in regard to which all men, all religions can agree. With this view there can be no infidels or atheists. There are atheists and infidels in connection with many views that are held concerning God, and thank God there are! Even devout and earnest people among us attribute things to God that no respectable men would permit to be attributed to themselves. This view is satisfying to those who cannot see how God can be angry with His children, jealous, vindictive. A display of these qualities always lessens our for men, and still we attribute them to God.

The earnest, sincere heretic is one of the greatest friends true religion can have. Heretics are among God’s greatest servants. They are among the true servants of mankind. Christ was one of the greatest heretics the world has ever known. He allowed Himself to be bound by no established or orthodox teachings or beliefs. Christ is pre-eminently a type of the universal. John the Baptist is a type of the personal. John dressed in a particular way, ate a particular kind of food, belonged to a particular order, lived and taught in a particular locality, and he himself recognized the fact that he must decrease while Christ must increase. Christ, on the other hand, gave Himself absolutely no limitations. He allowed Himself to be bound by nothing. He was absolutely universal and as a consequence taught not for His own particular day, but for all time.

This mighty truth which we have agreed upon as the great central fact of human life is the golden thread that runs through all religions. When we make it the paramount fact in our lives we shall find that minor differences, narrow prejudices, and all these laughable absurdities will so fall away by virtue of their very insignificance that a Jew can worship equally as well in a Catholic cathedral, a Catholic in a Jewish synagogue, a Buddhist in a Christian church, a Christian in a Buddhist temple. Or all can worship equally well about their own hearth-stones, or out on the hillside, or while pursuing the avocations of everyday life. For true worship, only God and the human soul are necessary. It does not depend upon times, or seasons, or occasions. Anywhere and at any time God and man in the bush may meet.

This is the great fundamental principle of the universal religion upon which all can agree. This is the great fact that is permanent. There are many things in regard to which all cannot agree. These are the things that are personal, non-essential, and so as time passes they gradually fall away. One who doesn’t grasp this great truth, a Christian, for example, asks ‘But was not Christ inspired?’ Yes, but He was not the only one inspired. Another who is a Buddhist asks, ‘Was not Buddha inspired?’ Yes, but he was not the only one inspired. A Christian asks, ‘But is not our Christian Bible inspired?’ Yes, but there are other inspired scriptures. A Brahmin or a Buddhist asks, ‘Are not the Vedas inspired?’ Yes, but there are other inspired sacred books. Your error is not in believing that your particular scriptures are inspired, but your error is—and you show your absurdly laughable limitations by it—your inability to see that other scriptures are also inspired.

The sacred books, the inspired writings, all come from the same source -God, God speaking through the souls of those who open themselves that He may thus speak. Some may be more inspired than others. It depends entirely on the relative degree that this one or that one opens themselves to the Divine voice. Says one of the inspired writers in the Hebrew scriptures, Wisdom is the breath of the power of God, and in all ages entering into holy souls she maketh them friends of God and prophets.

Let us not be among the number so dwarfed, so limited, so bigoted as to think that the Infinite God has revealed Himself to one little handful of His children, in one little quarter of the globe, and at one particular period of time. This is not the pattern by which God works. Of a truth I perceive that God is no respecter of persons, but in every nation he that revereth God and worketh righteousness is accepted of Him, says the Christian Bible.

When we fully realize this truth we shall then see that it makes but little difference what particular form of religion one holds to, but it does make a tremendous difference how true he is to the vital principles of this one. In the degree that we love self less and love truth more, in that degree will we care less about converting people to our particular way of thinking, but all the more will we care to aid them in coming into the full realization of truth through the channels best adapted to them. The doctrine of our master, says the Chinese, consisted solely in integrity of heart. We shall find as we search that this is the doctrine of everyone who is at all worthy the name of master.

The great fundamental principles of all religions are the same. They differ only in their minor details according to the various degrees of unfoldment of different people. I am sometimes asked To what religion do you belong?’ What religion? Why, bless you, there is only one religion, the ‘religion of the living God! There are, of course, the various creeds of the same religion arising from the various interpretations of different people, but they are all of minor importance. The more unfolded the soul the less important do these minor differences become. There are also, of course the various so-called religions. In reality, however, there is but one religion.

The moment we lose sight of this great fact we depart from the real, vital spirit of true religion and allow ourselves to be limited and bound by form. In the degree that we do this we build fences around ourselves which keep others away from us, and which also prevent our corning into the realization of universal truth; there is nothing worthy the name of truth that is not universal.

There is only one religion. ‘Whatever road I take joins the highway that leads to Thee,’ says the inspired writer in the Persian scriptures. ‘Broad is the carpet God has spread, and beautiful the colors He has given it.’ ‘The pure man respects every form of faith,’ says the Buddhist. ‘My doctrine makes no difference between high and low, rich and poor, like the sky, it has room for all, and like the water, it washes all alike’ The broad-minded see the truth in different religions; the narrow-minded see only the differences,’ says the Chinese.

The Hindu has said, The narrow-minded ask, “Is this man a stranger, or is he of our tribe?” But to those in whom love dwells, the whole world is but one family.’ ‘Altar flowers are of many species, but all worship is one.’ ‘Heaven is a palace with many doors, and each may enter in his own way.’ ‘Are we not all children of one Father?’ says the Christian. ‘God has made of one blood all nations, to dwell on the face of the earth.’ It was a latter-day seer who said, That which was profitable to the soul of man the Father revealed to the ancients; that which is profitable to the soul of man today revealeth He this day.’

It was Tennyson who said, ‘I dreamed that stone by stone I reared a sacred fane, a temple, neither pagoda, mosque, nor church, but loftier, simpler, always open-doored to every breath from heaven, and Truth and Peace and Love and justice came and dwelt therein.’

Religion in its true sense is the most joyous thing the human soul can know, and when the real religion is realized we shall find that it will be an agent of peace, of joy, and of happiness, and never an agent of gloomy, long-faced sadness. It will then be attractive to all and repulsive to none. Let our Churches grasp these great truths, let them give their time and attention to bringing people into a knowledge of their true selves, into a knowledge of their relations, of their oneness, with the Infinite God, and such joy will be the result, and such crowds will flock to them, that their very walls will seem almost to burst, and such songs of joy will continually pour forth as will make all people in love with the religion that makes for everyday life, and hence the religion
that is true and vital.

Adequacy for life, adequacy for everyday life here and now, must be the test of all true religion. If it does not bear this test, then it simply is not religion. We need an everyday, a this-world religion All time spent in connection with any other is worse than wasted. The eternal life that we are now living will be well loved if we take good care of each little period of time as it presents itself day after day. If we fail in doing this, we fail in everything.

ENTERING NOW INTO THE REALIZATION OF THE HIGHEST RICHES

I HEAR the question, What can be said in a concrete way in regard to the method of coming into this realization? The facts underlying it are, indeed, most beautiful and true, but how can we actualize in ourselves the realization that carries with it such wonderful results?

The method is not difficult if we do not of ourselves make it difficult. The principal word to be used is the word Open. Simply to open your mind and heart to this divine inflow which is waiting only for the opening of the gate, that it may enter. It is like opening the gate of the trough which conducts the water from the reservoir above into the field below. The water, by virtue of its very nature, will rush in and irrigate the field if the gate is but opened. As to the realization of our oneness with this Infinite Life and Power, after seeing, as I think we have clearly seen by this time, the relations it bears to us and we to it, the chief thing to be said is simply, Realize your oneness with it. The open mind and heart whereby one is brought into the receptive attitude is the first thing necessary. Then the earnest, sincere desire.

It may be an aid at first to take yourself for a few moments each day into the quiet, into the silence, where you will not be agitated by the disturbances that enter in through the avenues of the physical senses. There in the quiet alone with God, put yourself into the receptive attitude. Calmly, quietly, and expectantly desire that this realization break in upon and take possession of your soul. As it breaks in upon and takes possession of the soul, it will manifest itself to your mind, and from this you will feel its manifestations in every part of your body. Then in the degree that you open yourself to it you will feel a quiet, peaceful, illuminating power that will harmonize body, soul, and mind, and that will then harmonize these with all the world. You are now on the mountain top, and the voice of God is speaking to you. Then, as you descend, carry this realization with you. Live in it, waking, working, thinking, walking, sleeping. In this way, although you may not be continually on the mountain top, you will nevertheless be continually living in the realization of all the beauty, and inspiration, and power you have felt there.

Moreover, the time will come when in the busy office or the noisy street you can enter into the silence by simply drawing the mantle of your own thoughts about you and realizing that there and everywhere the Spirit of Infinite Life, Love, Wisdom, Peace, Power and Plenty is guiding, keeping, protecting, leading you. This is the spirit of continual prayer. This it is to pray without ceasing. This it is to know and to walk with God. This it is to find the Christ within. This is the new birth, the second birth. First that which is natural, then that which is spiritual. It is thus that the old man Adam is put off and the new man Christ is put on. This it is to be saved unto life eternal, whatever one’s form of belief or faith may be; for it is life eternal to know God. ‘The Sweet By and By’ will be a song of the past. We shall create a new song: ‘The Beautiful Eternal Now.’

This is the realization that you and I can come into this very day, this very hour, this very minute, if we desire and if we will it. And if now we merely set our faces in the right direction, it is then but a matter of time until we come into the full splendor of this complete realization. To set one’s face in the direction of the mountain and then simply to journey on, whether rapidly or more slowly, will bring one to it. But unless one set their face in the right direction and make the start, they will not reach it. It was Goethe who said:

Are you in earnest? Seize this very minute:

What you can do, or dream you can, begin it.

Boldness has genius, power, and magic in it.

Only engage, and then the mind grows heated.

Begin, and then the work will be completed.

Said the young man, Gautama Siddhartha, I have awakened to the truth and I am resolved to accomplish my purpose. Verily I shall become a Buddha. It was this that brought him into the life of the Enlightened One, and so into the realization of Nirvana right here in this life. That this same realization and life is within the possibilities of all, here and now, was his teaching. It was this that has made him the Light Bearer to millions of people. Said the young man, Jesus, Know ye not that I must be about My Father’s business? Making this the one great purpose of His life, He came into the full and complete realization—I and the Father are one. He thus came into the full realization of the Kingdom of Heaven right here in this life. That all could come into this same realization and life here and now was His teaching. It was this that has made Him the Light Bearer to millions of people.

And so far as practical things are concerned, we may hunt the wide universe through and we shall find that there is no injunction more practical than, Seek ye first the kingdom of God and His righteousness and all other things shall be added unto you. And in the light of what has gone before, I think there is no one who is open to truth and honest with themselves who will fail to grasp the underlying reason and see the great laws upon which it is based.

Personally I know lives that have so fully entered into the kingdom through the realization of their oneness with the Infinite Life, and through the opening of themselves so fully to its divine guidance, that they are most wonderful concrete examples of the reality of this great and all-important truth. They are people whose lives are in this way guided not only in the general way, but literally in every detail.

They simply live in the realization of their oneness with this Infinite Power, continually in harmony with it, and so continually in the realization of the kingdom of heaven. An abundance of all things is theirs. They are never at a loss for anything. The supply seems always equal to the demand. They never seem at a loss in regard to what to do or how to do it. Their lives are care-less lives. They are lives free from care because they are continually conscious of the fact that the higher powers are doing the guiding, and they are relieved of the responsibility.

To enter into detail in connection with some of these lives, and particularly with two or three that come to my mind at this moment, would reveal facts that no doubt to some would seem almost incredible, if not miraculous. But let us remember that what is possible for one life to realize is possible for all. This is indeed the natural and the normal life, that which will be the everyday life of everyone who comes into and who lives in this higher realization and so in harmony with the higher laws. This is simply getting into the current of that divine sequence running throughout the universe, and when once in it life then ceases to be a plodding, and moves along day after day much as the tides flow, much as the planets move in their courses, much as the seasons come and go.

All the frictions, all the uncertainties, all the ills, the sufferings, the fears, the forebodings, the perplexities of life come to us because we are out of harmony with the divine order of things. They will continue to come as long as we so live. Rowing against the tide is hard and uncertain. To go with the tide and thus to take advantage of the working of a great natural force is safe and easy. To come into the conscious, vital realization of our oneness with the Infinite Life and Power is to come into the current of this divine sequence. Coming thus into harmony with the Infinite brings us in turn into harmony with all about us, into harmony with the life of the heavens, into harmony with all the universe. And above all, it brings us into harmony with ourselves, so that body, soul, and mind become perfectly harmonized, and when this is so, life becomes full and complete.

The sense life then no longer masters and enslaves us. The physical is subordinated to and ruled by the mental; this in turn is subordinated to and continually illumined by the spiritual. Life is then no longer the poor, one-sided thing it is in so many cases; but the threefold, the all-round life with all its beauties and ever-increasing joys and powers is entered upon. Thus it is that we are brought to realize that the middle path is the great solution of life; neither asceticism on the one hand nor license and perverted use on the other. Everything is for use, but all must be wisely used in order to be fully enjoyed.

As we live in these higher realizations the senses are not ignored but are ever more fully perfected. As the body becomes less gross and heavy, finer in its texture and form, all the senses become finer, so that powers we do not now realize as belonging to us gradually develop. Thus we come, in a perfectly natural and normal way, into the super-conscious realms whereby we make it possible for the higher laws and truths to be revealed to us. As we enter into these realms we are then not among those who give their time in speculating as to whether this one or that one had the insight and the powers attributed to him, but we are able to know for ourselves. Neither are we among those who attempt to lead the people upon the hearsay of someone else, but we know whereof we speak, and only thus can we speak with authority.

There are many things that we cannot know until by living the life we bring ourselves into that state where it is possible for them to be revealed to us. ‘If any man will do His will, he shall know of the doctrine.’ It was Plotinus who said, The mind that wishes to behold God must itself become God. As we thus make it possible for these higher laws and truths to be revealed to us, we will in turn become enlightened ones, channels through which they may be revealed to others.

When one is fully alive to the possibilities that come with this higher awakening, as they go here and there, as they mingle with their fellow-man, they impart to all an inspiration that kindles in them a feeling of power kindred to their own. We are all continually giving out influences similar to those that are playing in our own lives. We do this in the same way that each flower emits its own peculiar odor. The rose breathes out its fragrance upon the air and all who come near it are refreshed and inspired by this emanation from the soul of the rose. A poisonous weed sends out its obnoxious odor; it is neither refreshing nor inspiring in its effects, and if one remain near it long they may be so unpleasantly affected as to be made even ill by it.

The higher the life the more inspiring and helpful are the emanations that it is continually sending out. The lower the life the more harmful is the influence it continually sends out to all who come in contact with it. Each one is continually radiating an atmosphere of one kind or the other.

We are told by the mariners who sail on the Indian Seas that many times they are able to tell their approach to certain islands, long before they can see them, by the sweet fragrance of the sandalwood that is wafted far out upon the deep. Do you not see how it would serve to have such a soul playing through such a body that as you go here and there a subtle, silent force goes out from you that all feel and are influenced by; so that you carry with you an inspiration and continually shed a benediction wherever you go; so that your friends and all people will say, his coming brings peace and joy into our homes, welcome his coming; so that as you pass along the street, tired, and weary, and even sin-sick men will feel a certain divine touch that will awaken new desires and a new life in them; that will make the very horse, as you pass him, turn his head with a strange, half-human, longing look? Such are the subtle powers of the human soul when it makes itself translucent to the Divine. To know that such a life is within our living here and now is enough t