As a Man Thinketh Chapter 1

As a Man Thinketh Chapter 1

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Welcome back to The Daily Mastermind. My name is George Wright III with your daily dose of inspiration, motivation, and education so that you can create your ultimate destiny. I'm so glad you tuned in today. I hope you're having a great start to your week. And this week, I'd like to do something a little different.

We talk a lot about daily rituals. We talk about doing things that will help you to build up your mind, your motivation, and inspire you.

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The Importance of Reading

And part of those daily rituals that I do is I read. And if you're not an avid reader, you know you gotta do that because readers are leaders. You’ve got to be able to find sources of inspiration and motivation that have been documented throughout time to make a big difference in your life.

And one of those books I'm referring to is As a Man Thinketh by James Allen. Now, this is a book written a long time ago, but it's one of the best books that I've found when it comes to creating a mindset of growth.

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Introduction to As a Man Thinketh

So what I'd like to do this week is actually read to you from As a Man Thinketh. I'm gonna read one chapter per day so that I can keep it in our timeframe of five, ten, maybe fifteen minutes, so that you can take in a nugget of information each day.

Another reason I'm gonna be reading these is so you’ll have something you can refer back to. You might not be an avid reader, but you can certainly go through the audiobooks. And these are some books that we'll have on our mobile app as well.

This week, I want to take you right into this book. As a Man Thinketh is going to give you a whole bunch of ideas on ways that you can create peace, serenity, growth, and really unleash your true potential.

So I'm gonna go ahead and get into it today. I'm gonna read the Foreword and Chapter One, and then tomorrow we'll read Chapter Two, the day after Chapter Three, and so on. There are seven chapters in this book. It’s a small book, but it’s something you can always come back to.

I’d like you to listen, take notes, and if you can, go back over it and dig into these thoughts, because they’re amazing once you really start to relate them to your own life.

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Reading the Foreword and Chapter One

This little volume—the result of meditation and experience—is not intended as an exhaustive treatise on the much-written-upon subject of the power of thought. It is suggestive rather than explanatory, its object being to stimulate men and women to the discovery and perception of that truth: that they themselves are makers of themselves by virtue of the thoughts which they choose and encourage.

That the mind is the master weaver, both of the inner garment of character and the outer garment of circumstance. And that as they may have hitherto woven in ignorance and pain, they may now weave in enlightenment and happiness.

—James Allen

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Thought and Character

Thought and character. The aphorism, as a man thinketh in his heart, so is he, not only embraces the whole of a man’s being but is so comprehensive as to reach out to every condition and circumstance of his life. A man is literally what he thinks, his character being the complete sum of all his thoughts.

As the plant springs from and could not be without the seed, so every act of a man springs from the hidden seeds of thought and could not have appeared without them. This applies equally to those acts called spontaneous and unpremeditated as to those which are deliberately executed.

Act is the blossom of thought, and joy and suffering are its fruits. Thus does a man garner in the sweet and bitter fruitage of his own husbandry.

Thought in the mind hath made us what we are. By thought was wrought and built. If a man’s mind hath evil thoughts, pain comes on him as comes the wheel the ox behind. If one endures in purity of thought, joy follows him as his own shadow—sure.

Man is a growth by law, and not a creation by artifice.

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The Power of Thought

Cause and effect is as absolute and undeviating in the hidden realm of thought as in the world of visible and material things. A noble and God-like character is not a thing of favor or chance, but is the natural result of continued effort in right thinking—the effect of long-cherished association with God-like thoughts.

An ignoble and base character, by the same process, is the result of the continued harboring of groveling thoughts. Man is made or unmade by himself. In the armory of thought, he forges the weapons by which he destroys himself. He also fashions the tools with which he builds for himself heavenly mansions of joy, strength, and peace.

By the right choice and true application of thought, man ascends to the divine perfection. By the abuse and wrong application of thought, he descends below the level of the beast. Between these two extremes are all the grades of character, and man is their maker and master.

Of all the beautiful truths pertaining to the soul, which have been restored and brought to light in this age, none is more gladdening or fruitful of divine promise and confidence than this: that man is the master of thought, the molder of character, and the maker and shaper of condition, environment, and destiny.

As a being of power, intelligence, and love, and the lord of his own thoughts, man holds the key to every situation and contains within himself that transforming and regenerative agency by which he may make himself what he wills.

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Mastery of Self and Discovering the Laws of Thought

A man is also the master, even in his weaker and most abandoned state. But in his weakness and degradation, he is the foolish master who misgoverns his household. When he begins to reflect upon his condition and to search diligently for the law upon which his being is established, he then becomes the wise master—directing his energies with intelligence and fashioning his thoughts to fruitful issues.

Such is the conscious master, and man can only thus become by discovering within himself the laws of thought. This discovery is totally a matter of application, self-analysis, and experience. Only by much searching and mining are gold and diamonds obtained, and man can find every truth connected with his being if he will dig deep into the mine of his soul.

That he is the maker of his character, the molder of his life, and the builder of his destiny, he may unerringly prove if he will watch, control, and alter his thoughts—tracing their effects upon himself, upon others, and upon his life and circumstances. Linking cause and effect by patient practice and investigation, and utilizing his every experience, even the most trivial, everyday occurrence, becomes a means of obtaining that knowledge of himself which is understanding, wisdom, and power.

In this direction, as in no other, the law is absolute: that he that seeketh, findeth; and to him that knocketh, it shall be opened. For only by patient practice and ceaseless opportunity can a man enter the door of the temple of knowledge.

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The Pathway to Knowledge and Wisdom

Only by patient practice and ceaseless opportunity can a man enter the door of the temple of knowledge. Each experience, each circumstance, is an opportunity to learn and to mold character through the discipline of thought. It is not through chance or accident that wisdom is gained, but by deliberate choice in thought and persistent effort in aligning one’s mind with truth and virtue.

In this pursuit, man discovers that he is not merely a passive recipient of fate but an active participant in shaping destiny. Thought is both the seed and the harvest, the cause and the effect, and only through recognition of this truth can one rise to mastery over self and circumstance.

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Transition into Chapter Two – Effect of Thought on Circumstances

Man’s mind may be likened to a garden, which may be intelligently cultivated or allowed to run wild. But whether cultivated or neglected, it must and will bring forth. If no useful seeds are put into it, then an abundance of useless weed seeds will fall therein and will continue to produce their kind.

Just as a gardener cultivates his plot, keeping it free from weeds and growing the flowers and fruit which he requires, so may a man tend the garden of his mind—weeding out all the wrong, useless, and impure thoughts and cultivating toward perfection the flowers and fruits of right, useful, and pure thoughts.

By pursuing this process, a man sooner or later discovers that he is the master gardener of his soul, the director of his life. He also reveals within himself the laws of thought and understands with ever-increasing accuracy how the thought forces and mind elements operate in shaping his character, circumstances, and destiny.

Thought and character are one, and his character can only manifest and discover itself through environment and circumstance.

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The Soul’s Aspirations and Its Outcomes

The outer condition 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 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. 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 content 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 lessons which any circumstance contains for him, it passes away and gives place to other circumstances.

A 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.

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