As a Man Thinketh

INTRODUCTION

This book you are holding can change your life. It was written by James Allen in 1902 and is called As a Man Thinketh. Since then, it has helped many people learn to control themselves and master their own lives. The book contains timeless wisdom. It is like a guide to thinking and seeing things in the right way. This helps you gain real control over your life’s situations. Your circumstances and what happens to you are directly tied to the quality of your thoughts. It might seem like your inner thoughts are separate from the events that happen around you. But in truth, your mind is what brings good or bad events into your life. This book helps protect you from weaknesses in your character and mind. These weaknesses don’t just cause problems inside you; they also attract troubling events from the outside.

For people today, learning to manage and control your thoughts is very important. It’s a key step in becoming a truly well-developed person. You might want to be polite and sophisticated. But if you can’t control your mind, you can easily become overwhelmed. The constant flow of information from your senses can confuse you. It can throw you off balance and change how you see the world. If your mind isn’t strong, you’ll find it hard to even appear calm when bad things happen to you. However, people who have true self-control are not simply pushed around by fate or chance. They calmly make things happen according to their own will. Because they have strong character and pure intentions, they attract only good things into their lives.

Reaching this level of mental skill is not difficult. However, not many people today understand the amazing connection between your mind and what actually happens in your life. To help with this, each page in this book offers a single idea. These ideas will guide you to better understand your thoughts and intentions. The book contains short sayings. Some may seem simple, but they hold the key to developing a strong and good character. Study these sayings carefully. Think about them deeply. This is not a book you should read once and then forget. Instead, you should reflect on its messages. If you truly take these ideas to heart, your mind will become stronger. This mental strength will create positive results in your daily circumstances and actions, no matter what you are doing. This is a positive outcome that most people would welcome.

Chapter 1

Thought and Character

Your actions start as thoughts. Joy and suffering are the results, or “fruits,” of these thoughts. This means you experience the good and bad outcomes based on what you think. What you are today is because of your thoughts. Your thoughts have built you. If you have bad thoughts, pain will follow you, much like a cart follows the animal pulling it. But if you hold onto pure and good thoughts, joy will follow you as surely as your own shadow.

There’s an old saying: “As a person thinks in their heart, so they become.” This saying applies to every part of a person’s being and every situation in their life. It means you are, quite literally, what you think. Your character is the complete total of all your thoughts.

Think of a plant. It grows from a seed and cannot exist without it. In the same way, every action you take grows from the hidden seeds of your thoughts. No action can happen without a thought coming first. This is true for actions you plan carefully. It is also true for actions that seem spontaneous or unplanned. All of them start with a thought.

People develop according to natural laws, not by chance or by some trick. The rule of cause and effect is just as real and unchanging in the hidden world of your thoughts as it is in the physical world you can see and touch. Your thoughts (the cause) will always lead to certain results (the effect).

A good and admirable character doesn’t happen by luck or special favors. It is the natural outcome of ongoing effort to think in good and positive ways. It comes from holding onto uplifting thoughts for a long time. Similarly, a bad or base character is the result of constantly focusing on negative or harmful thoughts.

You make or unmake yourself. In your mind, where your thoughts live, you create the “weapons” that can harm you. But you also create the “tools” to build a wonderful life filled with joy, strength, and peace.

By choosing your thoughts wisely and using them correctly, you can reach your highest potential. But if you misuse your thoughts or apply them wrongly, you can fall to a very low state of being. All levels of character exist between these two extremes. And you are the one who creates and controls your own character.

Many wonderful truths about the human spirit have been rediscovered in our time. One of the most cheering and hopeful is this: You are the master of your thoughts. You are the shaper of your character. And you are the creator of your life conditions, your environment, and your destiny.

As a person with power, intelligence, and love, you are in charge of your own thoughts. Because of this, you hold the key to handling any situation. You have within you the ability to change and renew yourself. This means you can make yourself into the person you want to be.

You are always the master of your thoughts, even when you feel weak or lost. But in such times, you might act like a foolish master who mismanages their own life (their “household”). When you start to think deeply about your situation and search for the basic principles that govern your life, you become a wise master. A wise master directs their energy intelligently. They guide their thoughts to produce good results. This is what it means to be a conscious master of your thoughts. You can only become this by discovering the laws of thought within yourself. This discovery comes through:

• Putting principles into practice.
• Analyzing yourself honestly.
• Learning from your experiences.

Gold and diamonds are found only after much searching and digging. Similarly, you can find all the truths about yourself if you are willing to dig deep into your own mind and spirit. You can definitely prove that you are the maker of your character, the shaper of your life, and the builder of your destiny. You do this when you:

• Watch, control, and change your thoughts.
• Notice how your thoughts affect you, other people, and your life situations.
• Connect thoughts (causes) with their outcomes (effects) through patient practice and observation.
• Use every experience, even small daily events, to learn about yourself. This self-knowledge leads to Understanding, Wisdom, and Power.

There’s a firm principle that applies here: “Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and the door will be opened to you.” Only through patience, practice, and constant effort can you enter the “Temple of Knowledge” and truly understand these things.

Chapter 2

Effect of Thought on Circumstances

Your mind is like a garden. You can choose to cultivate it carefully, or you can let it run wild. Either way, it will always produce something. If you don’t plant useful seeds (good thoughts), then many useless weed seeds (bad thoughts) will naturally fall in and grow, producing more of their kind.

Just as a gardener takes care of their plot by removing weeds and growing the flowers and fruits they want, you can tend to the garden of your mind. You can weed out all the wrong, useless, and impure thoughts. At the same time, you can cultivate the “flowers and fruits” of right, useful, and pure thoughts, helping them grow towards perfection. By doing this, you will sooner or later discover that you are the main gardener of your inner self and the director of your own life. You will also uncover the laws of thought within yourself. You will understand with increasing clarity how thought-forces and elements of your mind operate in shaping your character, circumstances, and destiny.

Your thoughts and your character are deeply connected; they are like one thing. Since your character can only show itself and be discovered through your environment and circumstances, the outer conditions of your life will always closely match your inner state. This doesn’t mean your current circumstances show your entire character all at once. Rather, it means your current circumstances are very closely linked to some vital thought-element within you. For now, these circumstances are essential for your development.

You are where you are because of the natural law of your being. The thoughts you have built into your character have brought you to your current situation. In the arrangement of your life, there is no element of chance. Everything is the result of a law that cannot make a mistake. This is just as true for those who feel “out of harmony” with their surroundings as it is for those who are content with them.

As a being who is constantly progressing and evolving, you are in your current situation so that you may learn and grow. As you learn the spiritual lesson that any circumstance contains for you, that situation passes away and makes room for other circumstances.

You are pushed around by circumstances as long as you believe you are merely a creation of outside conditions. But when you realize that you are a creative power, and that you can command the hidden “soil and seeds” of your being (your thoughts) out of which circumstances grow, you then become the rightful master of yourself.

Anyone who has practiced self-control and self-improvement for any length of time knows that circumstances grow out of thought. They will have noticed that the changes in their circumstances happened in exact proportion to their changed mental condition. This is so true that when a person earnestly applies themselves to fix the defects in their character and makes swift and clear progress, they pass rapidly through many changes in their life situations.

Your inner self (your soul) attracts what it secretly harbors – what it loves, and also what it fears. It reaches the heights of its cherished dreams and aspirations. It also falls to the level of its unchastened, or uncontrolled, desires. Circumstances are the means by which your soul receives what is due to it. Every thought-seed sown or allowed to fall into the mind and take root there produces its own kind. Sooner or later, it blossoms into action and bears its own fruit of opportunity and circumstance. Good thoughts bear good fruit; bad thoughts bear bad fruit.

The outer world of your circumstances shapes itself to the inner world of your thoughts. Both pleasant and unpleasant external conditions are factors that contribute to your ultimate good. As the reaper of your own harvest, you learn from both suffering and happiness.

By following the innermost desires, aspirations, and thoughts that you allow to dominate you – whether you are pursuing the fleeting illusions of impure imaginings or steadfastly walking the path of strong and high goals – you will eventually arrive at their fulfillment in the outer conditions of your life. The laws of growth and adjustment apply everywhere.

A person does not end up in extreme poverty or in jail because of the tyranny of fate or circumstance. They arrive there by following the pathway of negative thoughts and base desires. Nor does a pure-minded person suddenly fall into crime simply due to some external force; the criminal thought had been secretly nurtured in their heart for a long time, and the moment of opportunity revealed its gathered power.

Circumstances do not make you who you are; they reveal you to yourself. You cannot descend into harmful behaviors and the suffering that comes with them unless you already have those negative inclinations. Similarly, you cannot ascend into goodness and its pure happiness without continuously cultivating virtuous aspirations. Therefore, as the lord and master of your thoughts, you are the maker of yourself, and the shaper and author of your environment.

Even at birth, the soul comes to its own. Through every step of its earthly journey, it attracts combinations of conditions that reveal its nature – conditions that are reflections of its own purity and impurity, its strength and weakness. People do not attract what they merely want, but what they fundamentally are. Their casual whims, fancies, and ambitions may be blocked at every step. However, their inmost thoughts and desires are always fed with their own kind of results, whether those results are positive or negative.

The power that shapes your destiny is within you; it is your very self. Only you can hold yourself back. Your thoughts and actions can be like jailers, imprisoning you if they are negative. Or, they can be like angels of freedom, liberating you if they are noble.

You do not get what you wish and pray for; you get what you justly earn. Your wishes and prayers are only granted and answered when they harmonize with your thoughts and actions.

In light of this truth, what does it mean to “fight against circumstances?” It means that you are continually rebelling against an outer effect, while all the time you are nourishing and preserving its cause in your heart. That cause may take the form of a conscious bad habit or an unconscious weakness. Whatever it is, it stubbornly slows down your efforts and thus clearly calls for a remedy.

People are eager to improve their circumstances, but they are often unwilling to improve themselves. Because of this, they remain bound and stuck.

The person who does not shrink from deep self-correction and sacrifice can never fail to accomplish the object upon which their heart is set. This is as true of earthly goals as it is of spiritual ones. Even the person whose sole object is to acquire wealth must be prepared to make great personal sacrifices before they can achieve their object. So, how much more sacrifice is needed for someone who wants to realize a strong and well-balanced life?

Consider a person who is miserably poor. They are extremely anxious for their surroundings and home comforts to improve. Yet, all the time, they avoid their work and believe they are justified in trying to deceive their employer because they feel their wages are too low. Such a person does not understand the simplest basics of the principles that form the basis of true prosperity. They are not only totally unfitted to rise out of their miserable state but are actually attracting to themselves even deeper misery by dwelling in, and acting out, lazy, deceptive, and weak thoughts.

Now, think of a rich person who is the victim of a painful and persistent disease as a result of overeating. They are willing to give large sums of money to get rid of it, but they will not sacrifice their excessive desires for food. They want to gratify their taste for rich and unhealthy foods and have good health as well. Such a person is totally unfit to have health because they have not yet learned the first principles of a healthy life.

Consider an employer who uses dishonest methods to avoid paying fair wages. In the hope of making larger profits, this employer reduces the wages of their workers. Such a person is altogether unfitted for prosperity. When they find themselves bankrupt, both in reputation and riches, they blame circumstances, not knowing that they are the sole author of their condition.

People are the cause of their circumstances, though they are nearly always unconscious of this. While aiming for a good end, a person often frustrates its accomplishment by encouraging thoughts and desires that cannot possibly harmonize with that end. Such cases could be multiplied and varied almost indefinitely. However, this is not necessary, as you, the reader, can, if you so choose, trace the action of the laws of thought in your own mind and life. Until this is done, mere external facts cannot serve as a solid ground for reasoning.

Circumstances are very complex, thought is deeply rooted, and the conditions for happiness vary greatly among individuals. Because of this, one person’s entire inner state (although it may be known to themselves) cannot be judged by another person from the external appearance of their life alone. A person may be honest in certain ways, yet suffer hardship. Another person may be dishonest in certain ways, yet acquire wealth. The common conclusion that the one person fails because of their particular honesty, and that the other prospers because of their particular dishonesty, is the result of a superficial judgment. This judgment assumes that the dishonest person is almost totally corrupt, and the honest person almost entirely virtuous. In the light of deeper knowledge and wider experience, such a judgment is found to be incorrect. The dishonest person may have some admirable virtues that the other does not possess. The honest person may have negative habits that are absent in the other. The honest person reaps the good results of their honest thoughts and acts; they also bring upon themselves the suffering that their negative habits produce. The dishonest person likewise gathers their own suffering and happiness.

It is pleasing to human vanity to believe that one suffers because of one’s virtue. But not until a person has removed every unhealthy, bitter, and impure thought from their mind, and washed every negative stain from their soul, can they be in a position to know and declare that their sufferings are the result of their good qualities, and not of their bad ones. On the way to, yet long before reaching, that supreme state of inner perfection, they will have found the Great Law working in their mind and life. This Law is absolutely just and cannot, therefore, give good for evil, or evil for good. Possessed of such knowledge, they will then know, looking back upon their past ignorance and blindness, that their life is, and always was, justly ordered. They will understand that all their past experiences, good and bad, were the fair and balanced outcomes of their evolving, yet still imperfect, self.

Good thoughts and actions can never produce bad results; bad thoughts and actions can never produce good results. This is simply saying that nothing can come from corn but corn, nothing from weeds but weeds. People understand this law in the natural world and work with it. However, few understand it in the mental and moral world (though its operation there is just as simple and consistent), and therefore, they do not cooperate 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 themselves, with the Law of their being.

The sole and supreme use of suffering is to purify, to burn out all that is useless and impure. Suffering ceases for the one who is pure. There would be no object in burning gold after all the impurities (dross) have been removed, and a perfectly pure and enlightened being could not suffer.

The circumstances that a person encounters with suffering are the result of their own mental disharmony. The circumstances that a person encounters with joy and peace are the result of their own mental harmony. True well-being (blessedness), not material possessions, is the measure of right thought. Unhappiness, not the lack of material possessions, is the measure of wrong thought. A person can be troubled and rich; they can be content and poor. Contentment and riches are only joined together when the riches are rightly and wisely used. The poor person only descends into unhappiness when they regard their lot as a burden unjustly imposed.

Extreme poverty (indigence) and excessive indulgence are the two extremes of unhappiness. They are both equally unnatural and the result of mental disorder. A person is not in a right condition until they are a happy, healthy, and prosperous being. Happiness, health, and prosperity are the result of a harmonious adjustment of the inner self with the outer world, of the person with their surroundings.

A person only truly begins to mature when they cease to whine and complain, and instead commence a search for the hidden justice that regulates their life. As they adapt their mind to that regulating factor, they stop accusing others as the cause of their condition and build themselves up in strong and noble thoughts. They cease to fight against circumstances and instead begin to use them as aids for more rapid progress, and as a means of discovering the hidden powers and possibilities within themselves.

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. A person has only to set themselves right to find that the universe is right. During the process of putting themselves right, they will find that as they alter their thoughts towards things and other people, things and other people will alter towards them. The proof of this truth is in every person, and it therefore allows for easy investigation through systematic self-reflection and self-analysis.

If you radically alter your thoughts, you will be astonished at the rapid transformation it will bring about in the material conditions of your life.

People imagine that thoughts can be kept secret, but they cannot. Thoughts rapidly crystallize into habit, and habit solidifies into circumstance.

• Animal-like thoughts crystallize into habits of drunkenness and excessive indulgence, which solidify into circumstances of poverty and disease.
• Impure thoughts of every kind crystallize into draining and confusing habits, which solidify into distracting and adverse circumstances.
• Thoughts of fear, doubt, and indecision crystallize into weak, indecisive habits, which solidify into circumstances of failure, poverty, and helpless dependence.
• Lazy thoughts crystallize into habits of uncleanliness and dishonesty, which solidify into foul conditions and situations of begging.
• Hateful and condemning 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 that are more or less distressing.

On the other hand:

• Beautiful thoughts of all kinds crystallize into habits of grace and kindliness, which solidify into pleasant and bright circumstances.
• Pure thoughts crystallize into habits of moderation and self-control, which solidify into circumstances of calm and peace.
• Thoughts of courage, self-reliance, and decision crystallize into strong, capable 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 supportive circumstances.
• Loving and unselfish thoughts crystallize into habits of putting others first, which solidify into circumstances of sure and lasting prosperity and true riches.

A particular train of thought, whether good or bad, if persisted in, cannot fail to produce its results on your character and circumstances. You cannot directly choose your circumstances, but you can choose your thoughts, and so indirectly, yet surely, shape your circumstances.

Nature helps every person to achieve the results of the thoughts they most encourage. Opportunities are presented that will most speedily bring to the surface both good and evil thoughts, showing their effects.

If you cease from harmful (sinful) thoughts, the whole world will soften towards you and be ready to help. If you put away weak and unhealthy thoughts, opportunities will spring up on every hand to aid your strong resolves. If you encourage good thoughts, no hard fate will bind you down to unhappiness and shame. The world is your kaleidoscope, and the varying combinations of “colors” which at every succeeding moment it presents to you are the perfectly adjusted pictures of your ever-moving thoughts.

Ultimately, you will be what you will to be. Let failure find its false comfort in that poor excuse, ‘environment,’ but your spirit looks down on that excuse and is free. Your spirit masters time; it conquers space. It tames that boastful trickster, Chance, and orders the tyrant Circumstance to give up its crown and take a servant’s place. The human Will, that unseen force, the child of a deathless Soul, can carve a path to any goal, even if walls of granite stand in the way. Do not be impatient when there are delays. Instead, wait like one who understands. When your spirit rises and commands, even the powers of the universe (the ‘gods’) are ready to obey.

Chapter 3

Effect of Thought on Health and the Body

Your body is like a servant to your mind. It follows your mind’s instructions, whether you choose those thoughts on purpose or they happen automatically. When your mind is filled with harmful or negative thoughts, your body can quickly become sick and weak. But when your mind has happy and positive thoughts, your body can reflect youthfulness and beauty.

Just like your life situations, your health and sickness also start in your thoughts. Unhealthy thoughts will show up as an unhealthy body. Thoughts of fear have been known to affect a person as severely as a physical injury. These fearful thoughts are constantly harming thousands of people just as certainly, though perhaps more slowly. People who constantly live in fear of getting sick are often the ones who do get sick. Anxiety quickly weakens your whole body. It makes your body more vulnerable to illness. Also, impure or negative thoughts, even if you don’t act on them physically, can soon damage your nervous system.

Strong, pure, and happy thoughts build up your body, making it energetic and graceful. Your body is a delicate and flexible instrument. It quickly responds to the thoughts that impress upon it. Your habitual ways of thinking will produce their own effects on your body, whether those effects are good or bad.

People will continue to have unhealthy blood as long as they keep thinking unclean or negative thoughts. A clean heart and mind lead to a clean life and a clean body. But a polluted mind leads to a polluted life and an unhealthy body. Thought is the source of your actions, your life, and everything that happens. If you make this source pure, then everything that flows from it will also be pure.

Changing your diet alone will not help you if you don’t also change your thoughts. When you make your thoughts pure, you will no longer want unhealthy or impure food.

If you want to protect your body, you must guard your mind. If you want to renew your body, make your mind beautiful with positive thoughts. Thoughts of ill will, envy, disappointment, and hopelessness rob your body of its health and grace. A sour-looking face doesn’t just happen by chance; it is created by sour, unhappy thoughts. Wrinkles that spoil your appearance are often drawn by foolishness, uncontrolled emotions, and excessive pride.

For example, I know a woman who is ninety-six years old, yet she has the bright, innocent face of a young girl. I also know a man who is not yet middle-aged, but his face is marked with lines of unhappiness and stress. The woman’s appearance is the result of a sweet and sunny nature. The man’s appearance is the outcome of uncontrolled negative feelings and discontent.

Clean thoughts lead to clean habits. Someone who claims to be holy but doesn’t keep their body clean is not truly living a holy life. If you have strengthened and purified your thoughts, you build a natural defense and don’t need to constantly worry about harmful germs.

You can’t have a pleasant and healthy home unless you let fresh air and sunshine into your rooms. Similarly, a strong body and a bright, happy, or calm appearance can only come from freely welcoming thoughts of joy, kindness, and peace into your mind.

Older people have wrinkles. Some wrinkles are formed by a life of sympathy and understanding. Others are shaped by strong and pure thoughts. Still others are carved by uncontrolled negative feelings. Most people can tell the difference between these kinds of wrinkles.

For those who have lived good and upright lives, old age is often calm, peaceful, and gentle, like a beautiful setting sun. I recently saw a wise philosopher on his deathbed. Though he was old in years, his spirit was young. He died as sweetly and peacefully as he had lived his life.

Cheerful thoughts are the best medicine for healing the body’s problems. There is no better comfort than goodwill and kindness for easing the shadows of grief and sorrow.

If you constantly live with thoughts of ill will, cynicism, suspicion, and envy, you are trapping yourself in a mental prison you created. But to think well of everyone, to be cheerful with everyone, and to patiently learn to find the good in everyone – these kinds of unselfish thoughts are like gateways to true happiness and peace. Living day by day with peaceful thoughts toward every living being will bring great and overflowing peace to the person who thinks them.

Chapter 4

Thought and Purpose

You can’t achieve much intelligently unless your thoughts are connected to a clear purpose. For most people, their thoughts are like a boat left to drift aimlessly on the ocean of life. Not having a purpose (aimlessness) is a bad habit. If you want to avoid serious problems and setbacks, you must stop drifting.

People without a main goal in life easily become victims of small worries, fears, troubles, and self-pity. These are all signs of weakness. This weakness leads to failure, unhappiness, and loss, just as surely as intentional wrongdoings do (though in a different way). This is because weakness cannot last in a world that favors growth and strength.

You should choose a worthwhile goal in your heart and decide to achieve it. You should make this goal the main focus of your thoughts. This goal might be a spiritual aim, or it could be a practical, worldly achievement. It depends on your nature and current situation. Whatever your goal is, you should steadily focus all your mental energy on it. Treat this purpose as your most important duty. Dedicate yourself to achieving it. Don’t let your thoughts drift off into daydreams, vague wishes, or fantasies. This is the best way to develop self-control and real concentration. Even if you fail many times to reach your goal (which is likely until you overcome your weaknesses), the strength of character you gain is your real success. This strength becomes a new foundation for future power and achievement.

If you are not ready to take on a very big goal, then focus your thoughts on doing your current duties perfectly. It doesn’t matter how small or unimportant your tasks may seem. This is the only way to gather and focus your thoughts. It’s how you develop determination and energy. Once you do this, there is nothing you cannot achieve.

Even the person who feels weakest, if they understand their own weakness and believe that strength only comes from effort and practice, will immediately start to make an effort. By continually adding effort to effort, patience to patience, and strength to strength, they will keep developing. Eventually, they will grow exceptionally strong.

Just as a physically weak person can become strong through careful and patient exercise, a person with weak thoughts can make their thoughts strong by practicing right thinking.

When you stop being aimless and weak, and start to think with purpose, you join the group of strong people. These strong individuals see failure only as a stepping stone to achievement. They make all situations work for them. They think with strength, try new things without fear, and achieve their goals skillfully.

Once you have your purpose in mind, you should mentally draw a straight path to achieving it. Don’t look to the right or the left; stay focused on the path. You must firmly shut out all doubts and fears. They are destructive forces that break your focus and your line of effort. They make your attempts ineffective and useless. Thoughts of doubt and fear have never achieved anything, and they never will. They always lead to failure. When doubt and fear enter your mind, your sense of purpose, your energy, your power to act, and all your strong thoughts disappear.

The strong desire and determination to do something (the will to do) comes from knowing that you can do it. Doubt and fear are the biggest enemies of this knowledge. If you encourage these enemies, or if you don’t get rid of them, you hold yourself back with every step you take.

If you have overcome doubt and fear, you have overcome failure. Every thought you have is then connected to power. You will meet all difficulties bravely and overcome them wisely. Your goals are set at the right time, like seeds planted in the right season. They will grow, blossom, and produce results that are solid and lasting.

When thought is fearlessly joined with purpose, it becomes a creative force. Someone who understands this is ready to become more than just a collection of unsteady thoughts and changing feelings. The person who actually does this becomes a conscious and intelligent master of their own mental powers.

Chapter 5

The Thought-Factor in Achievement

Everything you achieve and everything you fail to achieve is a direct result of your own thoughts. In a fairly organized universe, where a loss of balance would lead to total collapse, your personal responsibility must be complete. Your weaknesses and strengths, your good qualities and impurities, belong to you and no one else. You bring them about yourself, not through someone else. Only you can change them; no one else can do it for you. Your situation in life is also your own. Your suffering and your happiness develop from inside you. As you think, that is what you become. As you continue to think in a certain way, that is how you will remain.

A strong person cannot help someone weaker unless that weaker person is willing to be helped. Even then, the weaker person must become strong on their own. They must use their own efforts to develop the strength they admire in others. No one but you can change your own situation.

People used to think and say, “Many people are oppressed because one person is an oppressor. Let’s hate the oppressor.” Now, however, a growing number of people are starting to see it differently. They might say, “One person is an oppressor because many allow themselves to be oppressed. Let’s look down on those who allow oppression.” The truth is that both the oppressor and the oppressed are partners in ignorance. While they seem to be harming each other, they are actually harming themselves. Someone with perfect understanding sees how natural laws work in the weakness of the oppressed person and in the misused power of the oppressor. Someone with perfect love sees the suffering that both situations cause and doesn’t condemn either person. Perfect compassion includes both the oppressor and the oppressed. If you have overcome your own weakness and gotten rid of all selfish thoughts, you don’t belong to either group. You are free.

You can only rise, overcome challenges, and achieve your goals by elevating your thoughts. You will remain weak, hopeless, and miserable only if you refuse to lift your thoughts to a higher level.

Before you can achieve anything, even in everyday worldly matters, you must lift your thoughts above acting only on basic physical desires and impulses. To succeed, you don’t necessarily have to give up all basic human drives or every bit of selfishness. But at least some part of these lower impulses must be sacrificed. A person whose main focus is always on satisfying crude physical urges cannot think clearly or plan effectively. They couldn’t find and develop their hidden talents and abilities, and they would fail in any project. If you haven’t started to strongly control your thoughts, you are not in a position to manage important matters or take on serious responsibilities. You are not ready to act independently or stand on your own. However, you are limited only by the thoughts you choose to have.

There can be no progress and no achievement without sacrifice. Your success in the world will match how much you sacrifice your confused, base thoughts and instead focus your mind on developing your plans and strengthening your determination and self-reliance. The higher you lift your thoughts, the stronger, more upright, and more principled you become. Then, your success will be greater, and your achievements will be more positive and long-lasting.

The universe doesn’t favor greedy, dishonest, or harmful people, even if it sometimes looks that way on the surface. It helps people who are honest, generous, and good. All the great teachers throughout history have said this in different ways. To prove it and know it for yourself, you just need to keep working on becoming a better person by elevating your thoughts.

Intellectual achievements come from thoughts that are dedicated to searching for knowledge, or for what is beautiful and true in life and nature. These achievements might sometimes be linked with vanity or ambition. But they are not directly caused by those traits. They are the natural result of long and difficult effort, and of pure and unselfish thoughts.

Spiritual achievements are the ultimate fulfillment of high spiritual goals. Someone who constantly focuses on noble and elevated thoughts, and who thinks about all that is pure and unselfish, will become wise and noble in character. This is as certain as the sun reaching its highest point at noon or the moon becoming full. They will also rise to a position of positive influence and true happiness.

You can rise to great success in the world, and even reach high levels of spiritual understanding. However, you can fall back into weakness and unhappiness if you allow arrogant, selfish, and corrupt thoughts to take control of you.

Achievement of any kind is the reward of effort and the prize of focused thought. With self-control, determination, purity, principled living, and well-directed thought, you rise higher. But by acting on base impulses, being lazy, having impure thoughts, being corrupt, and having confused thoughts, you go downward.

Successes you gain through right thinking can only be kept through constant awareness and effort. Many people relax too much when success seems certain, and then they quickly fall back into failure.

All achievements – whether in business, learning, or spiritual life – are the result of clearly focused thought. They are all governed by the same laws and achieved through the same methods. The only difference is the specific goal you are trying to reach.

If you want to accomplish a little, you need to sacrifice a little. If you want to achieve a lot, you must sacrifice a lot. If you want to reach very high levels of attainment, you must sacrifice greatly.

Chapter 6

Visions and Ideals

People who have big dreams – the dreamers – are like saviors for the world. Just as the physical world we see is supported by unseen forces, people going through difficult times, making mistakes, or doing unpleasant jobs are inspired and uplifted by the beautiful visions of these often solitary dreamers. Humanity cannot forget these dreamers or let their high ideals disappear. Society lives through these ideals and recognizes them as the future realities it will one day experience.

So, dream big dreams. As you dream, that is what you will become. Your vision of yourself is a promise of who you can be one day. Your ideal – your perfect image of what could be – is a prediction of what you will eventually show the world.

If you hold onto a beautiful vision or a high ideal in your heart, you will one day make it real. For example, Columbus cherished a vision of another world, and he found it. Copernicus imagined many worlds and a larger universe, and he shared that idea. Buddha envisioned a spiritual world of pure beauty and perfect peace, and he experienced it.

So, cherish your own visions. Cherish your ideals. Cherish the inspiring feelings in your heart, the beauty you imagine in your mind, and the loveliness that surrounds your purest thoughts. From these things, all wonderful situations and a positive environment will grow. If you stay true to your visions and ideals, your world will eventually be built according to them.

To truly desire something is to be on the path to getting it. To aspire, or aim high, is to be on the path to achieving it. Should a person’s lowest desires get fully satisfied, while their purest hopes and dreams go unsupported? That is not how the universe works. That kind of situation shouldn’t happen. The principle is: “Ask, and you will receive.”

Composers, sculptors, painters, poets, prophets, and wise teachers – these are the people who shape the future and create a better world. The world is more beautiful because these people have lived. Without them, ordinary working people would struggle much more and lose hope.

Every great achievement started as a dream. An oak tree sleeps inside a tiny acorn. A bird waits inside an egg. And in the highest vision of your inner self, an amazing potential is stirring, like an awakening angel. Dreams are the tiny seeds from which realities grow.

Your current situation might be unpleasant, but it won’t stay that way for long if you can see an ideal future and work hard to reach it. You cannot make progress in your inner thoughts and dreams without also seeing changes in your outer life.

Imagine a young person facing great poverty and hard work. They might be stuck for long hours in an unhealthy workplace, with no formal education and lacking social graces. But this young person dreams of better things. They think about becoming intelligent, refined, graceful, and surrounded by beauty. They imagine and mentally build an ideal life. A vision of greater freedom and more opportunities takes hold of their mind. A feeling of restlessness pushes them to act. They use all their spare time and any small resources they have to develop their hidden talents and abilities.

Very soon, their mind changes so much that the old workshop no longer fits them. It becomes so different from their way of thinking that it falls away from their life, like an old piece of clothing being thrown out. As new opportunities appear that match their growing abilities, they move beyond that old life forever.

Years later, we see this young person as a mature adult. They have become a master of certain mental abilities, using them with worldwide influence and great power. They handle huge responsibilities. When they speak, lives are changed. People listen intently to their words and reshape their own characters. Like the sun, this person becomes a bright, steady center around which many other lives turn. This person has made the vision of their youth real. They have become one with their ideal.

And you, the reader, will also make the true vision of your heart real – not just a casual wish. This vision might be for something basic or something beautiful, or a mix. You will always move towards what you secretly love most. You will receive the exact results of your own thoughts. You will get what you earn – no more, no less. No matter what your current situation is, you will fall, stay the same, or rise based on your thoughts, your vision, and your ideal. You will become as limited as your main desire, or as great as your highest aspiration.

Someone once wrote beautifully about this. They described how you might be doing ordinary work, like keeping accounts. But one day, your inner vision could lead you to walk away from what seemed like a barrier to your dreams, and you could find yourself inspiring a large audience. Or, you might be a shepherd in the countryside. But your inner spirit could guide you to a great master’s studio, and soon you’d become a master yourself, fulfilling the great dreams you had while tending sheep. You might put down your carpenter’s tools to take on the task of helping to renew the world. The point is that your current job doesn’t define your potential if you have a strong inner vision and drive.

People who don’t think deeply, who are uninformed, or who are lazy, often only see the surface results of things, not the actual causes. They talk about luck, good fortune, and chance. When they see someone get rich, they say, “How lucky!” When they see someone become very knowledgeable, they exclaim, “How fortunate!” And when they notice someone with a good character and wide influence, they remark, “Chance helps them so much!”

These observers don’t see the difficulties, failures, and struggles that successful people willingly faced to gain experience. They don’t know about the sacrifices made, the determined efforts put in, or the faith shown to overcome what seemed like impossible obstacles and make their heart’s vision real. They don’t know about the dark times and the heartaches. They only see the light and joy and call it “luck.” They don’t see the long, hard journey, but only the pleasant destination, and call it “good fortune.” They don’t understand the process, but only see the result, and call it “chance.”

In everything people do, there are efforts, and there are results. The strength of the effort determines the size of the result. It’s not about chance. Talents, abilities, material goods, knowledge, and spiritual qualities are all the fruits of effort. They are thoughts carried through to completion, goals achieved, and visions made real.

The vision that you cherish and lift up in your mind, the ideal that you place in the highest position in your heart – this is what you will build your life around. This is what you will become.

Chapter 7

Serenity

Calmness of mind is a beautiful and valuable part of wisdom, like a precious jewel. It comes from long and patient effort in practicing self-control. When someone is calm, it shows they have mature experience. It also shows they have a deep understanding of how thoughts work and the laws that govern them.

You become calmer as you understand that you are a being who has developed and been shaped by your thoughts. This understanding helps you realize that other people are also the result of their thoughts. As you develop this correct understanding, you see more clearly how things are connected through cause and effect. Then, you stop fussing, getting angry, worrying, and grieving unnecessarily. You remain calm, steady, and peaceful.

The calm person, having learned how to control themselves, knows how to get along well with others. Others, in turn, deeply respect their inner strength. They feel they can learn from this calm person and depend on them. The calmer you become, the greater your success, your influence, and your ability to do good will be.

Even an ordinary businessperson will find their business does better as they develop more self-control and remain even-tempered. This is because people always prefer to do business with someone who behaves in a consistently calm and stable way.

A strong, calm person is always loved and deeply respected. They are like a tree that gives shade in a dry, thirsty land, or a rock that offers shelter in a storm. Everyone loves a calm heart and a kind, patient, and balanced life. It doesn’t matter if life brings sunshine or rain, or what changes happen to those who have these qualities. They always remain pleasant, peaceful, and calm.

That perfect balance of character, which we call serenity, is like the final lesson in personal growth, the mature fruit of the inner self. Serenity is as precious as wisdom. It is more desirable than gold – yes, even more than the finest gold. Trying only to get money seems so unimportant when compared to a serene life. A serene life is one lived in deep truth, far beneath the stormy surface waves of life, in a place of Eternal Calm.

We know many people who make their own lives bitter. They ruin everything sweet and beautiful with explosive tempers. They destroy their own balanced character and create conflict and anger. It makes you wonder if most people don’t ruin their lives and spoil their happiness simply because they lack self-control. We meet so few people in life who are truly well-balanced – who have that perfect inner calm that shows a fully developed and mature character.

Yes, humanity often rushes around with uncontrolled passion. People are thrown into chaos by uncontrolled grief. They are blown about by anxiety and doubt. Only a wise person, whose thoughts are controlled and purified, can make the winds and storms of their inner self obey them.

To all you people feeling troubled and overwhelmed by life’s storms, wherever you are and whatever your situation: know this. In the great ocean of life, there are islands of happiness smiling at you. The sunny shore of your ideal life is waiting for you to arrive. Keep firm control over your thoughts, like a captain steering a ship. Inside you – in your soul, which is like a ship – there is a commanding, powerful inner self, your true Master. This Master might seem to be asleep, but you can awaken this inner guide. Remember: Self-control gives you strength. Right thinking gives you mastery over yourself. Calmness gives you power. So, say to your own heart and mind: “Peace, be still! Be calm!”