Effect of Thought on Circumstances

As a man thinketh: Chapter 2

A man tend the garden of this mind, weeding out all the wrong, useless, and impure thoughts , and clutivating toward perfection the flowers and fruits of right, useful, and pure thoughts. By persuing 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.

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 hi life there is no elemen of chance, but all is the results of a law which cannot err. this is just as true to those who feel "out of harmony"with their surrounding as of those who are contented with them.

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 ration 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 a swift and marked progress, he passes rapidly throught a succesion of vicissitudes.

The soul attracts that which it secretly harbors; 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 uncahstened 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, blossoming sooner or later into act and bearing its own fruitage of opportunity and circumstances.
(Good thoughts bear good fruits, bad thoughts bad fruit)

As a the reaper of his own harvest, man learns both by suffering and bliss.
The divinity that shapes our ends" is in ourselves; it is our very self.
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 harmonies with his thoughts and actions.

Men are anxious to improve their circumstances, but are unwilling to improve themselves; they therfore remain bound. 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 simples rudiments of those principles which are the basis of true prosperity, and is not only totally unfitted to rise out of wrecthedness by dwelling in , and acting out, indolent, deceptive and unmanly thoughts.

The case above are merely an 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.

Good thoughts and action 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 is just as simple and undeviating), and they, therfore do not cooperate with it.

Suffering is always the effect of wrong thought in some direction. It is and indication that the individual is out of harmony with himself, with the law of his being.