As a Man Thinketh Chapter 2b

As a Man Thinketh Chapter 2b

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Welcome back to The Daily Mastermind. My name's George Wright III with your daily dose of inspiration, motivation, and education so that you can create your ultimate destiny.

Today we're gonna continue with our reading of As A Man Thinketh, with the second part of Chapter Two. Men do not attract that which they want, but that which they are.

Their whims, fancies, and ambitions are thwarted at every step, but their inmost thoughts and desires are fed with their own food, be it foul or clean. The divinity that shapes our ends is in ourselves. It is our very self. Only himself manages man—thought and actions are the goals of fate. They imprison, being base.

They're also the angels of freedom.

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The Power of Thoughts and Actions

They liberate being noble. Not what he wishes and prays for does a man get, but what he justly earns. His wishes and prayers are only gratified and answered when they harmonize with his thoughts and actions. In the light of this truth, what then is the meaning of fighting against circumstances?

It means that a man is continually revolting against an effect without, while all the time he's nourishing and preserving its cause in his heart. That cause may take the form of a conscious vice or an unconscious weakness, but whatever it is, it stubbornly retards the efforts of its possessor and thus calls aloud for remedy.

Men are anxious to improve their circumstances but are unwilling to improve themselves. They therefore remain bound. The man who does not shrink from self-crucifixion can never fail to accomplish the object upon which his heart is set. This is as true of earthly as of heavenly things. Even the man whose sole object is to acquire wealth must be prepared to make great personal sacrifice before he can accomplish this objective—and how much more so he who would realize a strong and well-poised life.

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Illustrative Cases of Thought and Circumstance

Here is a man who is wretchedly poor. He is extremely anxious that his surroundings and home comforts should be improved. Yet all the time he shirks his work and considers he is justified in trying to deceive his employer on the grounds of the insufficiency of his wages. Such a man does not understand the simplest rudiments of those principles which are the basis of true prosperity, and is not only totally unfit to rise out of his wretchedness, but is actually attracting to himself a still deeper wretchedness by dwelling in and acting out idling, deceptive, and unmanly thoughts.

Here is a rich man who is a victim of a painful and persistent disease as the result of gluttony. He is willing to give large sums of money to get rid of it, but he will not sacrifice his gluttonous desires. He wants to gratify his taste for rich and unnatural indulgence and have his health as well. Such a man is totally unfit to have health because he has not yet learned the first principle of a healthy life.

Here is an employer of labor who adopts crooked measures to avoid paying the regulation wage and, in the hope of making larger profits, reduces the wages of his workpeople. Such a man is altogether unfit for prosperity and when he finds himself bankrupt both as regards reputation and riches, he blames circumstances, not knowing that he is the sole author of his condition.

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The Law of Thought and Its Effects

I have introduced these three cases merely as illustrative of the truth: that man is the causer, though nearly always unconsciously, of his circumstances. And that whilst aiming at a good end, he is continually frustrating its accomplishment by encouraging thoughts and desires which cannot possibly harmonize with that end.

Such cases could be multiplied and varied almost indefinitely, but this is not necessary, as the reader can, if he so resolves, trace the action of the laws of thought in his own mind and life. And until this is done, mere external facts cannot serve as a ground of reasoning.

Circumstances, however, are so complicated, thought is so deeply rooted, and the conditions of happiness vary so vastly with individuals that a man’s entire soul condition—although it may be known to himself—cannot be judged by another from the external aspects of his life alone.

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Honesty, Dishonesty, and Deeper Truths of Judgment

A man may be honest in certain directions, yet suffer privations. A man may be dishonest in certain directions, yet acquire wealth. But the conclusion usually formed—that one man fails because of his particular honesty and that the other prospers because of his particular dishonesty—is the result of a superficial judgment. This judgment assumes that the dishonest man is almost totally corrupt and the honest man almost entirely virtuous.

In the light of deeper knowledge and wider experience, such judgment is found to be erroneous. The dishonest man may have some admirable virtues which the other does not possess, and the honest man may have obnoxious vices which are absent in the other. The honest man reaps the good results of his honest thoughts and acts, but he also brings upon himself the sufferings which his vices produce. The dishonest man likewise garners his own suffering and happiness.

It is pleasing to human vanity to believe that one suffers because of one’s virtue. But not until a man has expelled every sickly, bitter, and impure thought from his mind, and washed every sinful stain from his soul, can he be in a position to know and declare that his sufferings are the result of his good and not of his bad qualities.

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The Absolute Justice of the Law

And long before he has reached supreme perfection, he will have found working in his mind and life the great law, which is absolutely just and which cannot, therefore, give good for evil or evil for good. Possessed of such knowledge, he will then know—looking back upon his past ignorance and blindness—that his life is and always was justly ordered.

He will see that all his past experiences, good and bad, were the equitable outworking of his evolving yet unevolved self. Good thoughts and actions can never produce bad results. Bad thoughts and actions can never produce good results. This is but saying that nothing can come from corn but corn, nothing from nettles but nettles.

Men understand this law in the natural world and work with it, but few understand it in the mental and moral world, though it operates there just as simply and undeviatingly. Because of this lack of understanding, they do not cooperate with it.

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Suffering as a Path to Purification

Suffering is always the effect of wrong thought in some direction. It is an indication that the individual is out of harmony with himself and with the law of his being. The sole and supreme use of suffering is to purify—to burn out all that is useless and impure.

Suffering ceases for him who is pure. There can be no object in burning gold after the dross has been removed, and a perfectly pure and enlightened being could not suffer.

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Mental Harmony and Life Conditions

The circumstances which a man encounters with suffering are the result of his own mental inharmonies. The circumstances which he encounters with blessedness are the result of his own mental harmony. Blessedness—not material possessions—is the measure of right thought. Wretchedness—not lack of material possessions—is the measure of wrong thought.

A man may be cursed and rich. He may be blessed and poor. Blessedness and riches are only joined together when the riches are rightly and wisely used. The poor man only descends into wretchedness when he regards his lot as a burden unjustly imposed. Indigence and indulgence are the two extremes of wretchedness, both equally unnatural and both the result of mental disorder.

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The Search for Justice and Truth

A man is not rightly conditioned until he is a happy, healthy, and prosperous being. Happiness, health, and prosperity are the result of a harmonious adjustment of the inner with the outer—of the man with his surroundings.

A man only begins to be a man when he ceases to whine and revile and commences to search for the hidden justice which regulates his life. As he adapts his mind to that regulating factor, he ceases to accuse others as the cause of his condition. Instead, he builds himself up in strong and noble thoughts. He ceases to kick against circumstances but begins to use them as aids to his more rapid progress and as a means of discovering the hidden powers and possibilities within himself.

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The Law Governing the Universe

Law, not confusion, is the dominating principle in the universe. Justice, not injustice, is the soul and substance of life. Righteousness, not corruption, is the molding and moving force in the spiritual government of the world.

This being so, man has but to right himself to find that the universe is right. During the process of putting himself in order, he will discover that as he alters his thoughts towards things and other people, those very things and people will alter towards him.

The proof of this truth is in every person, and it therefore admits of easy investigation by systematic introspection and self-analysis.

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The Transformation of Thought

Let a man radically alter his thoughts, and he will be astonished at the rapid transformation it will make in the material conditions of his life. Men imagine that thought can be kept secret, but it cannot. It rapidly crystallizes into habit, and habit solidifies into circumstance.

Base thoughts crystallize into habits of drunkenness and sensuality, which solidify into circumstances of destitution and disease. Impure thoughts of every kind crystallize into cunning and confusing habits, which solidify into distracting and adverse circumstances. Thoughts of fear, doubt, and indecision crystallize into weak, irresolute habits, which solidify into circumstances of failure, indigence, and slavish dependence.

Lazy thoughts crystallize into habits of uncleanliness and dishonesty, which solidify into circumstances of foulness and beggary. Hateful and condemnatory thoughts crystallize into habits of accusation and violence, which solidify into circumstances of injury and persecution. Selfish thoughts of all kinds crystallize into habits of self-seeking, which solidify into circumstances more or less distressing.

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The Fruit of Noble Thinking

On the other hand, beautiful thoughts of all kinds crystallize into habits of grace and kindliness, which solidify into genial and sunny circumstances. Pure thoughts crystallize into habits of temperance and self-control, which solidify into circumstances of repose and peace. Thoughts of courage, self-reliance, and decision crystallize into manly habits, which solidify into circumstances of success, plenty, and freedom.

Energetic thoughts crystallize into habits of cleanliness and industry, which solidify into circumstances of pleasantness. Gentle and forgiving thoughts crystallize into habits of gentleness, which solidify into protective and preservative circumstances. Loving and unselfish thoughts crystallize into habits of self-forgetfulness for others, which solidify into circumstances of sure and abiding prosperity and true riches.

A particular train of thought persisted in, whether good or bad, cannot fail to produce results on the character and circumstances.

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Closing Reflections

A man cannot directly choose his circumstances, but he can choose his thoughts, and so indirectly, yet surely, shape his circumstances. Nature helps every man to the gratification of the thoughts which he most encourages, and opportunities are presented which will most speedily bring to the surface both the good and evil thoughts.

Let a man cease from his sinful thoughts, and all the world will soften towards him and be ready to help him. Let him put away his weakly and sickly thoughts, and lo, opportunities will spring up on every hand to aid his strong resolves. Let him encourage good thoughts, and no hard fate shall bind him down to wretchedness and shame.

The world is your kaleidoscope, and the varying combinations of colors at every succeeding moment are the exquisitely adjusted pictures of your ever-moving thoughts.

So you will be what you will be. Let failure find its false content in that poor word "environment," but spirit scorns it. It is free. It masters time. It conquers space. It cowers the boastful trickster "chance," and bids the tyrant "circumstance" uncrown and serve.

A human will—that force unseen, the offspring of a deathless soul—can hew its way to any goal, though walls of granite intervene.

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