As a Man Thinketh - By James Allen

Chp. 2 Effect of Thoughts on Circumstances

“Circumstances do not make the man, it reveals him to himself.”

“Men do not attract that which they want, but that which they are.”

“Suffering is always the effect of wrong thought in some direction.”

In this chapter, the author compares man’s mind with garden. He says that whether we cultivate our garden or allow it to run wild is our choice but irrespective of whether it is cultivated or neglected, it will bring forth. Just as a gardener cultivates his plot, keeping it free from weeds and growing the flowers and fruits he requires, so 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 are right, useful and pure thoughts.

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.

When a man is ‘fighting against his circumstances’ it means that he is continually revolting against an effect without, while all the time he is nourishing and preserving its cause in his heart.

Men are curious to improve their circumstances but are unwilling to improve themselves; they therefore remain bound.

Circumstances are so complicated, thoughts are so deeply rooted and the conditions of happiness vary so vastly with individuals, that a man’s entire soul-condition CANNOT be judged by another from the external aspect of his life alone.

Men imagine that thought can be kept secret but it cannot; it rapidly crystallizes into habit and habit solidifies into circumstance.

A man cannot directly choose his circumstances, but he can choose his thoughts and so indirectly, yet surely, shape his circumstances.

The world is your Kaleidoscope and the varying combinations of colors, which at every succeeding moment it presents to you, are the exquisitely adjusted pictures of your ever-moving thoughts.

“Be not impatient in delays

But wait as one who understands;

When the spirit rises and commands

The Gods are ready to obey.”

Do let me know which thought hit you the most in the comments section! :)

Happy Weekend! :)