Prosperity Through Thought-Force: Some Other Things Part 5
Prosperity Through Thought-Force: Some Other Things Part 5
Fathers, mothers, what kind of justice would you show if you deliberately chose one child and said, “He shall have money, health, happiness,” and of the other, “He shall have cares, worry, poverty, misery”? Yet that is just what the Supreme Life says to us if the doctrine of predestination is true. Can you believe such a fearful thing could come from a mind in which lies exact, unfaltering justice? Would you do it? And yet some believe that the Universal Life is less just than the human being. The law is there, and that law says, in unmistakable terms: you make your own life by the thoughts you think.
Every thought received in your mind is in accordance with the attitude of that mind and that attitude is governed entirely by your desire, - as a man thinketh, etc. Though that desire may be beyond control, through years of heredity and your own uncontrolled thought, that does not change it, and you must suffer the same. If you desire to hate anyone, your mind is immediately filled with thoughts of hate, which you send out again reinforced by the strength of your own personality. This hateful thought meets and mingles with the great body of hateful thoughts which has been generated through countless years, and, reacting, comes back to your own mind, establishing a connection between the great body of hate and yourself from which a current constantly comes to you, degrading, weakening, eventually destroying you.
On the other hand it works precisely the same way if your mind desires love. Love others and others will love you, and your ability to love will grow, constantly adding strength to your mind. Anyone can bring the hate or love of the entire world on himself, as he chooses, by building up the quality in his own mind. As now constituted, the minds of most people desire to love their friends and hate their enemies. Now don’t you know you have no enemies excepting as you make them by considering them as such? You send them hating thought, they return it; this establishes a connection between you, constantly taking your strength to keep up the war. You cannot afford to do this; it is destroying your money making power.
Just reverse your plan and imagine him in mind as a friend; think of him as such; feel friendly towards him. That is strength. Then the current he generates will rebound from you like the sunrays from a plate of polished steel and do no harm, while he will feel your friendship and accept it heartily. Such a course requires mental strength, and by saying and thinking good will to all you can reach it.
That is controlling people. Acting ugly when they are ugly, fighting people, compelling them to do your bidding, is but a crude physical control at best; but when some violent tempered, infuriated man stands before you and you look into his eyes kindly, unflinchingly, absolutely fearless, the anger will fade away, the hostile attitude dissolve, your own look of good will and courage supplanting it, and you feel his hearty grasp of your extended hand. That is the mastery. That is self-control.
But if you become affected by his anger, lose your temper, act as ugly as he, then self-control is lost and he is your master and troubles are accumulating for you. The Indians with whom William Penn traded were affected by his mental condition. He meant to be just and they felt his honesty, and as a reward for holding the right mental attitude the Quaker garb was the best life insurance a person could have in Indian war times. If you master yourself first, hold yourself absolutely obedient to your desire for peace; you can control anyone, savage or civilized.
The passengers on a through train from Chicago to New York were disturbed by the constant crying of a little babe in its mother’s arms. She walked along the aisle of the car, tossed the babe up and down, laid it face downward on her lap, and her nerves were evidently at a tension. At last a gentleman asked her to permit him to try to quiet the child, and, in a few minutes, it was peacefully sleeping, and he did nothing but hold it in his arms. Evidently knowing the effects of the mental condition of the mother upon the baby, he would not allow her to take the child until both obtained a restful sleep. Poor baby! Poor mother! What a difference inherited or cultivated calmness in the mother would have made in the lives of both.
Had she been quiet in mind, which means that thoughts pass through one at a time, deliberately and not in droves (each crowding and jostling the other and more pushing from behind), the child would have been stronger, more courageous and healthful, and bright smiles of happy contentment would have shown in the baby face instead of the constant nervous crying.
Now, briefly, to summarize: Build yourself into a calm, determined, courageous, forceful man by the aid of autosuggestion, and the attractive force of your mentality will bring success to you. You need not seek it. It will seek you. Use the methods given for any quality desired, eloquence, wisdom, health, anything - you will get results.
Faith is a dead letter unless accompanied with active, progressive thoughts and actions.
Cowards cannot concentrate
