LESSON IV. CONCENTRATION, THE SILENT FORCE THAT PRODUCES RESULTS IN ALL BUSINESS

I want you first to realize how powerful thought is. A thought offear has turned a person's hair gray in a night. A prisonercondemned to die was told that if he would consent to anexperiment and lived through it he would be freed. He consented.They wanted to see how much blood a person could lose and stilllive. They arranged that blood would apparently drop from a cutmade in his leg. The cut made was very slight, from whichpractically no blood escaped. The room was darkened, and theprisoner thought the dropping he heard was really coming from hisleg. The next morning he was dead through mental fear.

The two above illustrations will give you a little idea of thepower of thought. To thoroughly realize the power of thought isworth a great deal to you.

Through concentrated thought power you can make yourself whateveryou please. By thought you can greatly increase your efficiencyand strength. You are surrounded by all kinds of thoughts, somegood, others bad, and you are sure to absorb some of the latterif you do not build up a positive mental attitude.

If you will study the needless moods of anxiety, worry,despondency, discouragement and others that are the result ofuncontrolled thoughts, you will realize how important the controlof your thoughts are. Your thoughts make you what you are.

When I walk along the street and study the different people'sfaces I can tell how they spent their lives. It all shows intheir faces, just like a mirror reflects their physicalcountenances. In looking in those faces I cannot help thinkinghow most of the people you see have wasted their lives.

The understanding of the power of thought will awakenpossibilities within you that you never dreamed of. Never forgetthat your thoughts are making your environment, your friends, andas your thoughts change these will also. Is this not a practicallesson to learn? Good thoughts are constructive. Evil thoughtsare destructive. The desire to do right carries with it a greatpower. I want you to thoroughly realize the importance of yourthoughts, and how to make them valuable, to understand that yourthoughts come to you over invisible wires and influence you.

If your thoughts are of a high nature, you become connected withpeople of the same mental caliber and you are able to helpyourself. If your thoughts are tricky, you will bring trickypeople to deal with you, who will try to cheat you.

If your thoughts are right kind, you will inspire confidence inthose with whom you are dealing.

As you gain the good will of others your confidence and strengthwill increase. You will soon learn the wonderful value of yourthoughts and how serene you can become even when circumstancesare the most trying.

Such thoughts of Right and Good Will bring you into harmony withpeople that amount to something in the world and that are able togive you help if you should need it, as nearly everyone does attimes.

You can now see why it is so important to concentrate yourthoughts in the proper channels. It is very necessary that peopleshould have confidence in you. When two people meet they have notthe time to look each other up. They accept each other accordingto instinct which can usually be relied on.

You meet a person and his attitude creates a suspicion in you.The chances are you cannot tell why, but something tells you,"Have no dealings with him, for if you do, you will be sorry."Thoughts produce actions. Therefore be careful of your thoughts.Your life will be molded by the thoughts you have. A spiritualpower is always available to your thought, and when you areworthy you can attract all the good things without a great efforton your part.

The sun's rays shine down on our gardens, but we can plant treesthat will interfere with the sun light. There are invisibleforces ready to help you if you do not think and act to interceptthese. These forces work silently. "You reap what you sow."

You have concentrated within powers that if developed will bringyou happiness greater than you can even imagine. Most people gorushing through life, literally driving away the very things theyseek. By concentration you can revolutionize your life,accomplish infinitely more and without a great effort.

Look within yourself and you will find the greatest machine evermade.

How to Speak Wisely. In order to speak wisely you must secure atleast a partial concentration of the faculties and forces uponthe subject at hand. Speech interferes with the focusing powersof the mind, as it withdraws the attention to the external andtherefore is hardly to be compared with that deep silence of thesubconscious mind, where deep thoughts, and the silent forces ofhigh potency are evolved. It is necessary to be silent before youcan speak wisely. The person that is really alert and well poisedand able to speak wisely under trying circumstances, is theperson that has practiced in the silence. Most people do not knowwhat the silence is and think it is easy to go into the silence,but this is not so. In the real silence we become attached tothat interior law and the forces become silent, because they arein a state of high potency, or beyond the vibratory sounds towhich our external ears are attuned. He who desires to becomeabove the ordinary should open up for himself the interiorchannels which lead to the absolute law of the omnipotent. Youcan only do this by persistently and intelligently practicingthought concentration. Hold the thought:

In-silence-I-will-allow-my-higher-self-to-have-complete-control.I-will-be-true-to-my-higher-self.I-will-live-true-to-my-conception-of-what-is-right.I-realize-that-it-is-to-my-self-interest-to-live-up-to-my-best.I-demand-wisdom-so that-I-may-act-wisely-for-myself-and-others.

In the next chapter I will tell you of the mysterious law, whichlinks all humanity together, by the powers of co-operativethought, and chooses for us companionship and friends.