Effect of Thought on Circumstance

“Effect Of Thought On Circumstances

This tremendous chapter describes in a very blunt way how James Allen viewed and might have viewed in the present what we might often refer to as “”accountability”, “holding management accountable”, “holding elected officer accountable,” “holding one’s own feet to the fire” or whatever similar new term you might coin. He in a rather straight forward and figurative way using various analogies and / or metaphors illustrates how each of us as an individual must exercise individual responsibility which begins in our own individual personal thought process and actual thoughts. We might well say this can be a “First-Class” way of thinking or as John Sullivan, PhD, and well known local and international Human Resources speaker and chairman of the Human Resources Department at San Francisco State University’s College of Business, might say “World-Class” thought-process. Before we begin pointing fingers at others for whatever we are unhappy with or have not achieved, we might want to begin with reviewing our individual thought process, actual thoughts and habits. The chapter on this written by James Allen is, I think, highly useful in that it is a straight forward talk from him to us who always would like to keep record of our activities and results at an individual and / or organizational level(s). Sometimes we may get frustrated about not reaching our goals and objectives and having to reset them or just throw them away. Often the minor adjustment might just be something as subjective as, yet real and which turns into tangible matter or act, our individual thoughts.

Sincerely,

Rom A. Day, B.A. Industrial and Organizational Psychology with Business Administration, CSU' SFSU

An Individual American Thinker, doer and American Voter

Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness

“Effect Of Thought On Circumstances

Briefly edited by Rom A. Day

Tuesday, September 18, 2007 Wednesday, September 05, 2007

Men'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 laws of thought, and understands, with ever-increasing accuracy, how the

thought-forces and mind elements operate in the shaping of his 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 [closely] 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 harbours; 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 its own.

Every thought-seed sown or allowed to fall into the mind, and to take root there, produces its own, blossom-

ing 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 circumstance 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 by 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

endeavour), a man at last arrives at their fruition and fulfillment in the outer conditions of his life. The laws of

growth and adjustment everywhere obtains.

A man does not come to the almshouse or the jail by the tyranny of fate or circumstance, but by the

pathway of groveling thoughts and base desires. Nor does a pure-minded man fall suddenly into crime by stress

of any mere external force; the criminal thought had long been secretly fostered in the heart, and the hour of

opportunity revealed its gathered power. Circumstance does not make the man; it reveals him to himself No

such conditions can exist as descending into vice and its attendant sufferings apart from vicious inclinations,

or ascending into virtue and its pure happiness without the continued cultivation of virtuous aspirations; and man,

therefore, as the lord and master of thought, is the maker of himself the shaper and author of environment.

Even at birth the soul comes to its own and through every step of its earthly pilgrimage it attracts those

combinations of conditions which reveal itself, which are the reflections of its own purity and, impurity, its

strength and weakness.

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 manacles man: thought

and action are the gaolers of Fate--they imprison, being base; they are also the angels of freedom--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 is 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 [postponed self-gratification or

reward] 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

sacrifices before he can accomplish his object; and how much more so he who would realize a strong and

well-poised life?

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 ground 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 unfitted

to rise out of his wretchedness, but is actually attracting to himself a still deeper wretchedness by dwelling in,

and acting out, indolent, deceptive, and unmanly thoughts.

Here is a rich man who is the 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 viands and have his health as well. Such a man is totally unfit

to have health, because he has not yet learned the first principles of a healthy life.

Here is an employer of labour 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

unfitted 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.

I have introduced these three cases merely as illustrative of the truth that man is the causer

(though nearly always is unconsciously) of his circumstances, and that, whilst [while] 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 aspect of his life alone. 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 the 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, which assumes that

the dishonest man is almost totally corrupt, and the honest man almost entirely virtuous. In the light of a

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 obnoxious vices which are abscent in the other. The honest man

reaps [, gets a return on investment, collects, picks up] the good results of his honest thoughts and

acts; 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 extirpated [figuratively speaking to have pulled out by the roots, destroyed completely] every sick-

ly, 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; and

on the way to, yet long before he has reached, that 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,

evil for good. Possessed of [having and holding as property] such knowledge, he will then know, looking

back upon his past ignorance and blindness [figuratively speaking “lacking in knowledge

or understanding”], that his life is, and always was, justly ordered, and 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 its operation there [in the natural world] is just as simple and undeviating), and they, therefore,

do not co-operate with it.

Suffering is always the effect of wrong thought in some direction. It is an indication that the

individual is out of harmony with himself, with the Law of his being. The sole and supreme use of s

uffering is to purify, to burn out [get rid of] all that is useless and impure. Suffering ceases for him who

is pure. There could be no object in burning gold after the dross had been removed, and a perfectly pure

and enlightened being could not suffer.

The circumstances, which a man encounters with suffering, are the result of his own mental inharmony.

The circumstances, which a man encounters with blessedness, are the result of his own mental harmony.

Blessedness, not material possessions, is the measure of right thought; wretchedness [very poor in quality or

ability], 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; and 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. They are both equally unnatural

and the result of mental disorder. A man is not rightly conditioned until he is a happy, healthy, and

prosperous being; and 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. And as he adapts his mind to that regulating factor, he

ceases to accuse others as the cause of his condition, and builds himself up in strong and noble thoughts;

ceases to kick against circumstances, but begins to use them as aide [help or assistants] to his more rapid

progress, and as a means of discovering the hidden powers and possibilities within himself.

Law, not confusion, is the dominating principle in the universe; justice, not injustice, is the soul

and substance of life; and righteousness, not corruption, is the moulding 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; and during the process of putting himself right he will find that as he alters his thoughts towards

things and other people, things and other 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. Let a man radically alter his thoughts, and he will be aston-

ished at the rapid transformation it will effect [i.e. change] 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. Bestial thoughts crystallize into habits of drunkenness and sensuality, which solidify

into circumstances of destitution and disease: impure thoughts of every kind crystallize into enervating

[i.e. causing a decline in strength or vigor] and confusing habits, which solidify into distracting and

adverse circumstances: thoughts of fear, doubt, and indecision crystallize into weak, unmanly, and

irresolute habits, which solidify into circumstances of failure, indigence [i.e. poverty], 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 nto habits of self-seeking, which solidify into circumstances more or less distressing.

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 circ-

umstances of sure and abiding prosperity and true riches.

A particular train of thought persisted in, be it good or bad, cannot fail to produce its results

on the character and circumstances. 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 op-

portunities 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 colours, which at every succeeding moment it presents to you are the exquisitely

adjusted pictures of your ever-moving thoughts.

So you will be what you will to be; Let failure find its false content in that poor word,

'environment,'But spirit scorns it, and is free.

"It masters time, it conquers space; It cowes that boastful trickster, chance, And bids the tyrant

Circumstance uncrown, and fill a servant's place.

"The human will, that force unseen, the offspring [i.e. the young of a person, animal,

or plant; figuratively speaking the result or product] of a deathless soul, can hew a way

to any goal, though walls of granite intervene.

"Be not impatient in delays but wait as one who understands; when spirit rises and

commands the gods are ready to obey"” --(As A Man Thinketh by James Allen

Broad Park Avenue, IIfracombe, England; Printed in the United States of America.)

webpage edited 2019 0722 09:52 P.M. MT; 09/29/2017