Part Twenty-Four
Enclosed you will find Part Twenty-four, your final lesson of
this course.
If you have practiced each of the exercises a few minutes every
day, as suggested, you will have found that you can get out of life
exactly what you wish by first putting into life that which you
wish, and you will probably agree with the student who said: "The
thought is almost overwhelming, so vast, so available, so definite,
so reasonable and so usable."
The fruit of this knowledge is, as it were, a gift of the Gods;
it is the "truth" that makes men free, not only free from every lack
and limitation, but free from sorrow, worry and care, and, is it not
wonderful to realize that this law is no respecter of persons, that
it makes no difference what your habit of thought may be, the way
has been prepared.
If you are inclined to be religious, the greatest religious
teacher the world has ever known made the way so plain that all may
follow. If your mental bias is toward physical science, the law will
operate with mathematical certainty. If you are inclined to be
philosophical, Plato or Emerson may be your teacher, but in either
case, you may reach degrees of power to which it is impossible to
assign any limit.
An understanding of this principle, I believe, is the secret for
which the ancient Alchemists vainly sought, because it explains how
gold in the mind may be transmuted into gold in the heart and in the
hand.
PART TWENTY-FOUR
1. When the scientists first put the Sun in the center of the
Solar System and sent the earth spinning around it, there was
immense surprise and consternation. The whole idea was
self-evidently false; nothing was more certain than the movement of
the Sun across the sky, and anyone could see it descend behind the
western hills and sink into the sea; scholars raged and scientists
rejected the idea as absurd, yet the evidence has finally carried
conviction in the minds of all.
2. We speak of a bell as a "sounding body," yet we know that all
the bell can do is to produce vibrations in the air. When these
vibrations come at the rate of sixteen per second, they cause a
sound to be heard in the mind. It is also possible for the mind to
hear vibrations up to the rate of 38,000 vibrations per second. When
the number increases beyond this, all is silence again; so that we
know that the sound is not in the bell, it is in our own mind.
3. We speak and even think of the Sun as "giving light." Yet we
know it is simply giving forth energy which produces vibrations in
the ether at the rate of four hundred trillion a second, causing
what are termed light waves, so that we know that we call light is
simply a form of energy and that the only light there is, is the
sensation caused in the mind by the motion of the waves. When the
number increases, the light changes in color, each change in color
being caused by shorter and more rapid vibrations; so that although
we speak of the rose as being red, the grass as being green, or the
sky as being blue, we know that the colors exist only in our minds,
and are the sensations experienced by us as the result of the
vibrations of light waves. When the vibrations are reduced below
four hundred trillion a second, they no longer affect us as light,
but we experience the sensation of heat. It is evident, therefore,
that we cannot depend upon the evidence of the senses for our
information concerning the realities of things; if we did we should
believe that the sun moved, that the world was flat instead of
round, that the stars were bits of light instead of vast suns.
4. The whole range then of the theory and practice of any system
of metaphysics consists in knowing the Truth concerning yourself and
the world in which you live; in knowing that in order to express
harmony, you must think harmony; in order to express health you must
think health; and in order to express abundance you must think
abundance; to do this you must reverse the evidence of the senses.
5. When you come to know that every form of disease, sickness,
lack and limitation are simply the result of wrong thinking, you
will have come to know "the Truth which shall make you free." You
will see how mountains may be removed. If these mountains consist
only of doubt, fear, distrust or other forms of discouragement, they
are none the less real, and they need not only to be removed but to
be "cast into the sea."
6. Your real work consists in convincing yourself of the truth of
these statements. When you have succeeded in doing this you will
have no difficulty in thinking the truth, and as has been shown, the
truth contains a vital principle and will manifest itself.
7. Those who heal diseases by mental methods have come to know
this truth, they demonstrate it in their lives and the lives of
others daily. They know that life, health and abundance are
Omnipresent, filling all space, and they know that those who allow
disease or lack of any kind to manifest, have as yet not come into
an understanding of this great law.
8. As all conditions are thought creations and therefore entirely
mental, disease and lack are simply mental conditions in which the
person fails to perceive the truth; as soon as the error is removed,
the condition is removed.
9. The method for removing this error is to go into the Silence
and know the Truth; as all mind is one mind, you can do this for
yourself or anyone else. If you have learned to form mental images
of the conditions desired, this will be the easiest and quickest way
to secure results; if not, results can be accomplished by argument,
by the process of convincing yourself absolutely of the truth of
your statement.
10. Remember, and this is one of the most difficult as well as
most wonderful statements to grasp.... remember that no matter what
the difficulty is, no matter where it is, no matter who is affected,
you have no patient but yourself; you have nothing to do but to
convince yourself of the truth which you desire to see manifested.
11. This is an exact scientific statement in accordance with
every system of Metaphysics in existence, and no permanent results
are ever secured in any other way.
12. Every form of concentration, forming Mental Images, Argument,
and Autosuggestion are all simply methods by which you are enabled
to realize the Truth.
13. If you desire to help someone, to destroy some form of lack,
limitation or error, the correct method is not to think of the
person whom you wish to help; the intention to help them is entirely
sufficient, as this puts you in mental touch with the person. Then
drive out of your own mind any belief of lack, limitation, disease,
danger, difficulty or whatever the trouble might be. As soon as you
have succeeded is doing this the result will have been accomplished,
and the person will be free.
14. But remember that thought is creative and consequently every
time you allow your thought to rest on any inharmonious condition,
you must realize that such conditions are apparent only, they have
no reality, that spirit is the only reality and it can never be less
than perfect.
15. All thought is a form of energy, a rate of vibration, but a
thought of the Truth is the highest rate of vibration known and
consequently destroys every form of error in exactly the same way
that light destroys darkness; no form of error can exist when the
"Truth" appears, so that your entire mental work consists in coming
into an understanding of the Truth. This will enable you to overcome
every form of lack, limitation or disease of any kind.
16. We can get no understanding of the truth from the world
without; the world without is relative only; Truth is absolute. We
must therefore find it in the "world within."
17. To train the mind to see Truth only is to express true
conditions only, our ability to do this will be an indication as to
the progress we are making.
18. The absolute truth is that the "I" is perfect and complete;
the real "I" is spiritual and can therefore never be less than
perfect; it can never have any lack, limitation, or disease. The
flash of genius does not have origin in the molecular motion of the
brain; it is inspired by the ego, the spiritual "I" which is one
with the Universal Mind, and it is our ability to recognize this
Unity which is the cause of all inspiration, all genius. These
results are far reaching and have effect upon generations yet to
come; they are the pillars of fire which mark the path that millions
follow.
19. Truth is not the result of logical training or of
experimentation, or even of observation; it is the product of a
developed consciousness. Truth within a Caesar, manifests in a
Caesar's deportment, in his life and his action; his influence upon
social forms and progress. Your life and your actions and your
influence in the world will depend upon the degree of truth which
you are enabled to perceive, for truth will not manifest in creeds,
but in conduct.
20. Truth manifests in character, and the character of a man,
should be the interpretation of his religion, or what to him is
truth, and this will in turn be evidenced in the character of his
possession. If a man complains of the drift of his fortune he is
just as unjust to himself as if he should deny rational truth,
though it stand patent and irrefutable.
21. Our environment and the innumerable circumstances and
accidents of our lives already exist in the subconscious personality
which attracts to itself the mental and physical material which is
congenial to its nature. Thus our future being determined from our
present, and if there should be apparent injustice in any feature or
phase of our personal life, we must look within for the cause, try
to discover the mental fact which is responsible for the outward
manifestation.
22. It is this truth which makes you "free" and it is the
conscious knowledge of this truth which will enable you to overcome
every difficulty.
23. The conditions with which you meet in the world without are
invariably the result of the conditions obtaining in the world
within, therefore it follows with scientific accuracy that by
holding the perfect ideal in mind you can bring about ideal
conditions in your environment.
24. If you see only the incomplete, the imperfect, the relative,
the limited, these conditions will manifest in your life; but if you
train your mind to see and realize the spiritual ego, the "I" which
is forever perfect and complete, harmonious; wholesome, and
healthful conditions only will be manifested.
25. As thought is creative, and the truth is the highest and most
perfect thought which anyone can think, it is self-evident that to
think the truth is to create that which is true and it is again
evident that when truth comes into being that which is false must
cease to be.
26. The Universal Mind is the totality of all mind which is in
existence. Spirit is Mind, because spirit is intelligent. The words
are, therefore, synonymous.
27. The difficulty with which you have to contend is to realize
that mind is not individual. It is omnipresent. It exists
everywhere. In other words, there is no place where it is not. It
is, therefore, Universal.
28. Men have, heretofore, generally used the word "God" to
indicate this Universal, creative principle; but the word "God" does
not convey the right meaning. Most people understand this word to
mean something outside of themselves; while exactly the contrary is
the fact. It is our very life. Without it we would be dead. We would
cease to exist. The minute the spirit leaves the body, we are as
nothing. Therefore, spirit is really, all there is of us.
29. Now, the only activity which the spirit possesses is the
power to think. Therefore, thought must be creative, because spirit
is creative. This creative power is impersonal and your ability to
think is your ability to control it and make use of it for the
benefit of yourself and others.
30. When the truth of this statement is realized, understood, and
appreciated, you will have come into possession of the Master-Key,
but remember that only those who are wise enough to understand,
broad enough to weigh the evidence, firm enough to follow their own
judgment, and strong enough to make the sacrifice exacted, may enter
and partake.
31. This week, try to realize that this is truly a wonderful
world in which we live, that you are a wonderful being that many are
awakening to a knowledge of the Truth, and as fast as they awake and
come into a knowledge of the "things which have been prepared for
them" they, too, realize that "Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard,
neither hath it entered into the heart of man," the splendors which
exist for those who find themselves in the Promised Land. They have
crossed the river of judgment and have arrived at the point of
discrimination between the true and the false, and have found that
all they ever willed or dreamed, was but a faint concept of the
dazzling reality.
Though an inheritance of acres may be bequeathed,
an inheritance of knowledge and wisdom cannot. The wealthy man may
pay others for doing his work for him, but it is impossible to get
his thinking done for him by another or to purchase any kind of
self-culture.
S. Smiles |