|
Effect of Thought on Circumstances
Effect of Thought on Circumstances
Extract from As A Man Thinketh by James Allen
Here is an extract from this great book that has been quoted by
motivational speakers and business leaders the world over. It is
available for full download at http://www.ImagesOfOne.com
Here it is:
Effect of Thought on Circumstances
A man's mind may be likened to a garden, which may be intelligently
cultivated or allowed to run wild; but whether cultivated or neglected,
it must, and will bring forth. If no useful seeds are put
into it, then an abundance of useless weed-seeds will fall therein,
and will continue to produce their kind.
Just as a gardener cultivates his plot, keeping it free from weeds,
and growing the flowers and fruits which he requires so may a man
tend the garden of his mind, weeding out all the wrong, useless
and impure thoughts, and cultivating toward perfection the flowers
and fruits of right, useful and pure thoughts. By pursuing this
process, a man sooner or later discovers that he is the master-gardener
of his soul, the director of his life. He also reveals, within
himself, the flaws of thought, and under- stands, with ever-increasing
accuracy, how the thought-forces and mind elements operate in the
shaping of character, circumstances, and destiny.
Thought and character are one, and as character can only manifest
and discover itself through environment and circumstance, the outer
conditions of a person's life will always be found to be harmoniously
related to his inner state. This does not mean that a man's
circumstances at any given time are an indication of his entire
character, but that those circumstances are so intimately connected
with some vital thought-element within himself that, for the time
being, they are indispensable to his development.
Every man is where he is by the law of his being; the thoughts which
he has built into his character have brought him there, and in the
arrangement of his life there is no element of chance, but
all is the result of a law which cannot err. This is just
as true of those who feel "out of harmony" with their
surroundings as of those who are contented with them.
As a progressive and evolving being, man is where he is that he
may learn that he may grow; and as he learns the spiritual lesson
which any circumstance contains for him, it passes away and gives
place to other circumstances.
Man is buffeted by circumstances so long as he believes himself
to be the creature of outside conditions, but when he realizes that
he is a creative power, and that he may command the hidden soil
and seeds of his being out of which circumstances grow; he then
becomes the rightful master of himself.
That circumstances grow out of thought every man knows who has for
any length of time practiced self-control and self-purification,
for he will have noticed that the alteration in his circumstances
has been in exact ratio with his altered mental condition.
So true is this that when a man earnestly applies himself to remedy
the defects in his character, and makes swift and marked progress,
he passes rapidly through a succession of vicissitudes.
The soul attracts that which it secretly harbors; that which it
loves, and also that which it fears; it reaches the height of its
cherished aspirations; it falls to the level of its unchastened
desires and circumstances are the means by which the soul receives
it own.
Every thought-seed sown or allowed to fall into the mind, and to
take root there, produces its own, blossoming sooner or later into
act, and bearing its own fruitage of opportunity and circumstance.
Good thoughts bear good fruit, bad thoughts bad fruit.
The outer world of circumstances shapes itself to the inner world
of thought, and both pleasant and unpleasant external conditions
are factors which make for the ultimate good of the individual.
As the reaper of his own harvest, man learns both of suffering and
bliss.
Following the inmost desires, aspirations, thoughts, by which he
allows himself to be dominated (pursuing the will-o'-the wisps of
impure imaginings or steadfastly walking the highway of strong and
high endeavor), a man at last arrives at their fruition and fulfillment
in the outer conditions of his life. The laws of growth and
adjustment everywhere obtain.
©Copyright Law of Attraction Info 2004-present
All rights reserved. A Law of Attraction Website
|
