Part Eleven
Your life is governed by law - by actual, immutable principles
that never vary. Law is in operation at all times; in all places.
Fixed laws underlie all human actions. For this reason, men who
control giant industries are enabled to determine with absolute
precision just what percentage of every hundred thousand people will
respond to any given set of conditions.
It is well, however, to remember that while every effect is the
result of a cause, the effect in turn becomes a cause, which creates
other effects, which in turn create still other causes; so that when
you put the law of attraction into operation you must remember that
you are starting a train of causation for good or otherwise which
may have endless possibilities.
We frequently hear it said, "A very distressing situation came
into my life, which could not have been the result of my thought, as
I certainly never entertained any thought which could have such a
result." We fail to remember that like attracts like in the mental
world, and that the thought which we entertain brings to us certain
friendships, companionships of a particular kind, and these in turn
bring about conditions and environment, which in turn are
responsible for the conditions of which we complain.
PART ELEVEN
1. Inductive reasoning is the process of the objective mind by
which we compare a number of separate instances with one another
until we see the common factor that gives rise to them all.
2. Induction proceeds by comparison of facts; it is this method
of studying nature which has resulted in the discovery of a reign of
law which has marked an epoch in human progress.
3. It is the dividing line between superstition and intelligence;
it has eliminated the elements of uncertainty and caprice from men's
lives and substituted law, reason, and certitude.
4. It is the "Watchman at the Gate" mentioned in a former lesson.
5. When, by virtue of this principle, the world to which the
senses were accustomed had been revolutionized; when the sun had
been arrested in his course, the apparently flat earth had been
shaped into a ball and set whirling around him; when the inert
matter had been resolved into active elements, and the universe
presented itself wherever we directed the telescope and microscope,
full of force, motion and life; we are constrained to ask by what
possible means the delicate forms of organization in the midst of it
are kept in order and repair.
6. Like poles and like forces repel themselves or remain
impenetrable to each other, and this cause seems in general
sufficient to assign a proper place and distance to stars, men and
forces. As men of different virtues enter into partnership, so do
opposite poles attract each other, elements that have no property in
common like acids and gases cling to each other in preference and a
general exchange is kept up between the surplus and the demand.
7. As the eye seeks and receives satisfaction from colors
complementary to those which are given, so does need, want and
desire, in the largest sense, induce, guide and determine action.
8. It is our privilege to become conscious of the principle and
act in accordance with it. Cuvier sees a tooth belonging to an
extinct race of animals. This tooth wants a body for the performance
of its function, and it defines the peculiar body it stands in need
of with such precision that Cuvier is able to reconstruct the frame
of this animal.
9. Perturbations are observed in the motion of Uranus. Leverrier
needs another star at a certain place to keep the solar system in
order, and Neptune appears in the place and hour appointed.
10. The instinctive wants of the animal and the intellectual
wants of Cuvier, the wants of nature and of the mind of Leverrier
were alike, and thus the results; here the thoughts of an existence,
there an existence. A well-defined lawful want, therefore, furnishes
the reason for the more complex operations of nature.
11. Having recorded correctly the answers furnished by nature and
stretched our senses with the growing science over her surface;
having joined hands with the levers that move the earth; we become
conscious of such a close, varied and deep contact with the world
without, that our wants and purposes become no less identified with
the harmonious operations of this vast organization, than the life,
liberty, and happiness of the citizen is identified with the
existence of his government.
12. As the interests of the individual are protected by the arms
of the country, added to his own; and his needs may depend upon
certain supply in the degree that they are felt more universally and
steadily; in the same manner does conscious citizenship in the
Republic of nature secure us from the annoyances of subordinate
agents by alliance with superior powers; and by appeal to the
fundamental laws of resistance or inducement offered to mechanical
or chemical agents, distribute the labor to be performed between
them and man to the best advantage of the inventor.
13. If Plato could have witnessed the pictures executed by the
sun with the assistance of the photographer, or a hundred similar
illustrations of what man does by induction, he would perhaps have
been reminded of the intellectual midwifery of his master and, in
his own mind might have arisen the vision of a land where all
manual, mechanical labor and repetition is assigned to the power of
nature, where our wants are satisfied by purely mental operations
set in motion by the will, and where the supply is created by the
demand.
14. However distant that land may appear, induction has taught
men to make strides toward it and has surrounded him with benefits
which are, at the same time, rewards for past fidelity and
incentives for more assiduous devotion.
15. It is also an aid in concentrating and strengthening our
faculties for the remaining part, giving unerring solution for
individual as well as universal problems, by the mere operations of
mind in the purest form.
16. Here we find a method, the spirit of which is, to believe
that what is sought has been accomplished, in order to accomplish
it: a method, bequeathed upon us by the same Plato who, outside of
this sphere, could never find how the ideas became realities.
17. This conception is also elaborated by Swedenborg in his
doctrine of correspondences; and a still greater teacher has said,
"What things soever ye desire, when ye pray, believe that ye receive
them, and ye shall have them." (Mark 11:24) The difference of the
tenses in this passage is remarkable.
18. We are first to believe that our desire has already been
fulfilled, its accomplishment will then follow. This is a concise
direction for making use of the creative power of thought by
impressing on the Universal subjective mind, the particular thing
which we desire as an already existing fact.
19. We are thus thinking on the plane of the absolute and
eliminating all consideration of conditions or limitation and are
planting a seed which, if left undisturbed, will finally germinate
into external fruition.
20. To review: Inductive reasoning is the process of the
objective mind, by which we compare a number of separate instances
with one another until we see the common factor that gives rise to
them all. We see people in every civilized country on the globe,
securing results by some process which they do not seem to
understand themselves, and to which they usually attach more or less
mystery. Our reason is given to us for the purpose of ascertaining
the law by which these results are accomplished.
21. The operation of this thought process is seen in those
fortunate natures that possess everything that others must acquire
by toil, who never have a struggle with conscience because they
always act correctly, and can never conduct themselves otherwise
than with tact, learn everything easily, complete everything they
begin with a happy knack, live in eternal harmony with themselves,
without ever reflecting much what they do, or ever experiencing
difficulty or toil.
22. The fruit of this thought is, as it were, a gift of the gods,
but a gift which few as yet realize, appreciate, or understand. The
recognition of the marvelous power which is possessed by the mind
under proper conditions and the fact that this power can be
utilized, directed, and made available for the solution of every
human problem is of transcendental importance.
23. All truth is the same, whether stated in modern scientific
terms or in the language of apostolic times. There are timid souls
who fail to realize that the very completeness of truth requires
various statements -- that no one human formula will show every side
of it.
24. Changing, emphasis, new language, novel interpretations,
unfamiliar perspectives, are not, as some suppose, signs of
departure from truth but on the contrary, they are evidence that the
truth is being apprehended in new relations to human needs, and is
becoming more generally understood.
25. The truth must be told to each generation and to every people
in new and different terms, so that when the Great Teacher said --
"Believe that ye receive and ye shall receive" or, when Paul said --
"Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things
not seen" or, when modern science says -- "The law of attraction is
the law by which thought correlates with its object", each statement
when subjected to analysis, is found to contain exactly the same
truth. The only difference being in the form of presentation.
26. We are standing on the threshold of a new era. The time has
arrived when man has learned the secrets of mastery and the way is
being prepared for a new social order, more wonderful than anything
every heretofore dreamed of. The conflict of modern science with
theology, the study of comparative religions, the tremendous power
of new social movements, all of these are but clearing the way for
the new order. They may have destroyed traditional forms which have
become antiquated and impotent, but nothing of value has been lost.
27. A new faith has been born, a faith which demands a new form
of expression, and this faith is taking form in a deep consciousness
of power which is being manifested, in the present spiritual
activity found on every hand.
28. The spirit which sleeps in the mineral, breathes in the
vegetable, moves in the animal and reaches its highest development
in man is the Universal Mind, and it behooves us to span the gulf
between being and doing, theory and practice, by demonstrating our
understanding of the dominion which we have been given.
29. By far the greatest discovery of all the centuries is the
power of thought. The importance of this discovery has been a little
slow in reaching the general consciousness, but it has arrived, and
already in every field of research the importance of this greatest
of all great discoveries is being demonstrated.
30. You ask in what does the creative power of thought consist?
It consists in creating ideas, and these in turn objectify
themselves by appropriating, inventing, observing, discerning,
discovering, analyzing, ruling, governing, combining, and applying
matter and force. It can do this because it is an intelligent
creative power.
31. Thought reaches its loftiest activity when plunged into its
own mysterious depth; when it breaks through the narrow compass of
self and passes from truth to truth to the region of eternal light,
where all which is, was or ever will be, melt into one grand
harmony.
32. From this process of self contemplation comes inspiration
which is creative intelligence, and which is undeniably superior to
every element, force or law of nature, because it can understand,
modify, govern and apply them to its own ends and purposes and
therefore possess them.
33. Wisdom begins with the dawn of reason, and reason is but an
understanding of the knowledge and principles whereby we may know
the true meaning of things. Wisdom, then, is illuminated reason, and
this wisdom leads to humility, for humility is a large part of
Wisdom.
34. We all know many who have achieved the seemingly impossible,
who have realized life-long dreams, who have changed everything
including themselves. We have sometimes marveled at the
demonstration of an apparently irresistible power, which seemed to
be ever available just when it was most needed, but it is all clear
now. All that is required is an understanding of certain definite
fundamental principles and their proper application.
35. For your exercise this week, concentrate on the quotation
taken from the Bible, "Whatsoever things ye desire, when ye pray,
believe that ye receive them and ye shall have them"; notice that
there is no limitation, "Whatsoever things" is very definite and
implies that the only limitation which is placed upon us in our
ability to think, to be equal to the occasion, to rise to the
emergency, to remember that Faith is not a shadow, but a substance,
"the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not
seen."
Death is but the natural process whereby all
material forms are thrown into the crucible for reproduction in
fresh diversity. |