MANIFESTING SECRETS: THOUGHT, CHARACTER AND 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. Just as a gardener cultivates his plot, 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.

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. Akin to sea currents and waves, the underlying beliefs and thought patterns of a person are his enduring, deep thoughts—they form his character. Hence, they are the prime determinants of his circumstance.

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.

One of the central themes of the writings of our prophets, from the time of oral traditions of what we now know as Vedanta—5000 years ago, is the need for a person to take charge. The one who is bounced around by circumstances and is inert, is truly unrealised. Self-realisation occurs when we comprehend at a deeper, profound level, the omnipotence resplendent inside of us. When we learn to truly be the masters and the captains of our existence.

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.

A man does not come to the alms-house or the jail by the tyranny of fate or circumstance, but by the pathway of grovelling 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.

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.

Contrary to popular narratives, it is our strongest network of thoughts, our sturdiest neural patterns of the brain that create our outward circumstance.

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.

Men are anxious to improve their circumstances, but are unwilling to improve themselves; they therefore remain bound. Charles Haanel says that people find it most difficult to do mental work. Hence, we find that may people wish to outsource their circumstance to someone who can alter their course by charging a fee. However, what has been created by me has to be altered by me alone as I am the author. Hard work in moulding one’s character is the master key.

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. 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.

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 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. The dishonest man may have some admirable virtues, which the other does, not possess; and the honest man obnoxious vices which are absent in the other. It is not for to judge another.

Good thoughts and actions can never produce bad results; bad thoughts and actions can never produce good results. Few understand it in the mental and moral world 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 suffering is to purify, to burn out 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.

A man only begins to be a man when he ceases to whine and revile. And as he adapts his mind, he ceases to accuse others as the cause of his condition; 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.

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.

Let a man radically alter his thoughts, and he will be astonished at the rapid transformation it will affect 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. Selfish thoughts of all kinds crystallize into 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:

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

Let a man cease from his sinful thoughts, and 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.

……………

Be not impatient in delays

But wait as one who understands;

When spirit rises and commands

The gods are ready to obey."

James Allen

(Some content in this article is attributable to James Allen)