A man’s mind may be likened to a garden, which may be intelligently cultivated or allowed to run wild; but whether cultivated or neglected, it must, and will, bring forth. – (pg. 11)
When a human being starts a garden, then it is certain that some form of plant life will be produced in it, regardless of whether the piece of land is cultivated and tended or is grossly neglected. It is also exactly like this with the consciousness, because, depending on whether it is intelligently maintained or is neglected, it brings forth either rich, healthy and neutral-positive-equalised, mightful thoughts, which are creative and progressive, or, mightful, wildly growing, negative thoughts, which have a confusing and destructive effect. – (pg. 22)
If no useful seeds are put into it, then an abundance of useless weed seeds will fall therein, and will continue to produce their kind. – (pg. 11)
If no useful seeds are spread in a garden, rather only weeds, or if everything is left to fate, then only weeds and the like grow… – (pg. 22)
Just as a gardener cultivates his plot, keeping it free from weeds, and growing the flowers and fruits which he requires, so may a man tend the garden of his mind, weeding out all the wrong, useless, and impure thoughts, and cultivating toward perfection the flowers and fruits of right, useful, and pure thoughts. – (pg. 11)
Therefore the consciousness, and the thoughts which arise from it, must be cultivated and cared for, as with a precious garden which is kept free of weeds and in which flowers bloom and vegetables as well as fruit grow…And just as a garden is developed and tended and cared for according to the wishes of human being, so must the consciousness also be tended and cared for, and, in fact, in the form that all wrong, useless, negative and impure thoughts are eliminated in order to obtain the necessary space for the useful, pure, netrual-positive-equalised right and cultivated thoughts. – (pg. 24)
By pursuing this process, a man sooner or later discovers that he is the master-gardener of his soul, the director of his life. – (pg. 11)
And once the human being actually learns to think correctly, then, sooner or later, he/she discovered that he/she is master of his/her own psychical state…master of his/her life… – (pg. 24)
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. – (pg. 11)
Once he/she does that, then he/she reveals to himself/herself the laws of thinking and the might of his/her thoughts. And exactly through that, he/she gets to know, with increasing exactness, the kind and wise as well as the powers, and the sheer might, of the thoughts, and of the laws and elements of the consciousness, whereby the forming of his/her character, psyche, life-circumstances and life’s direction, and of his/her entire destiny, as well as morality and personality, is very much easier for him/her. – (pg. 24)
Thought and character are one, and as character can only manifest and discover itself through environment and circumstance, the outer conditions of a person’s life will always be found to be harmoniously related to his inner state. This does not mean that a man’s circumstances at any given time are an indication of his entire character, but that those circumstances are so intimately connected with some vital thought-element within himself that, for the time being, they are indispensable to his development.– (pg. 12)
The human being’s thinking and his/her character are therefore closely joined together, and since the character manifests itself only through one’s life circumstances and life situations, and through one’s personal impulsations and through environmental influences, then each human being can only discover and define his/her true character through his/her own observation and attentiveness. But a human being’s personal character does not always harmonise with the external circumstances, because these do not always exist in harmony in relation to his/her actual inner state. Therefore, life circumstances, and so forth, are not always a reflection of the character of the human being concerned. Therefore the human being is on Earth to learn, to become knowing and wise, and to grow. (..) And if the human being has learned his/her lesson which is contained in every single circumstance of life, then new circumstances of life arise which, in turn, have to be fathomed, which results in the occurrence of a new learning process. In accordance with this, the circumstances constantly change and make room for other, and new, life circumstances, from which, in turn, one must learn. – (pg. 26)
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 his life there is no element of chance, but all is the result of a law which cannot err. – (pg. 12)
But this means that there is a logical consistency and that neither the thoughts not the character, nor the construction and leading of one’s entire life, are based on a element of so-called chance, rather they are based on a well-thought-out, cause-and-effect foreordination born of creational law…which can never fall prey to irrationality. – (pgs. 26-28)
This is just as true of those who feel “out of harmony” with their surroundings as of those who are contented with them. – (pg. 12)
Therefore it applies to those human beings who do not live – with themselves and their surroundings – in love, peace, joy, harmony, and equalisedness, as well as to those who are satisfied with their lives and those of their neighbours as well as with the Creation and the world.. – (pg. 28)
As the progressive and evolving being, man is where he is that he may learn that he may grow; – (pg. 12)
The human being is a forward-directed and evolving Wesen which is integrated into a logical and conscious evolution. Therefore, the human being is on Earth to learn, to become knowing and wise, and to grow. – (pg. 28)
and as he learns the spiritual lesson which any circumstance contains for him, it passes away and gives place to other circumstances. – (pg. 12)
That means he/she has to learn certain things and lessons of life which deal just as much with life in the material realm and the environment as they do with the purely personal facts and the facts regarding character, morality and psyche, with which also belongs the inner and true nature which is conditioned by the Creation. And if the human being has learned his/her lesson which is contained in every single circumstance of life, then new circumstances of life arise which, in turn have to be fathomed, which results in the occurrence of a new learning process. – (pgs. 28-30)
Man is buffeted by circumstances so long as he believes himself to be the creature of outside conditions, – (pg. 12)
Consequently, the human being is shaken and knocked about by the circumstances of his/her life as long as he/she believes himself/herself to be a helpless created creation of external conditions and influences. – (pg. 30)
but when he realizes that he is a creative power, and that he may command the hidden soil and seeds of his being out of which circumstances grow, he then becomes the rightful master of himself. – (pgs. 12-13)
But if he/she recognizes the truth that he himself/she herself is the master of his/her learning as well as master of the might of his/her thoughts and all the effects which arise from them, then he/she also recognizes that the environment and the circumstances of life do not form his/her, rather that he himself/she herself forms them through the might of the his/her own thoughts – at least those environmental conditions and circumstances of life for which he himself/she herself is responsible. – (pg. 30)
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 ratio with his altered mental condition. – (pg. 13)
Every human being who practices self-cognition and takes up self-examination and lets appropriate self-control grow, comes to learn this fact. And everyone who has done that knows that all circumstances of life only grow out of the thoughts which mightfully become real. The thoughts and their might causes all changes to the circumstances of life, and so forth, to always produce effects in direct proportion to them (the thoughts and their might). The changes to the circumstances of life, and so forth, are in direct proportion to the respectively altered conditions of the thoughts. – (pgs. 30-32)
So true is this that when a man earnestly applies himself to remedy the defects in his character, and makes swift and marked progress, he passes rapidly through a succession of vicissitudes. – (pg. 13)
That is true in any case. Once the human being therefore seriously takes on the task of ordering his/her thoughts in a neutral-positive-equalised way and eliminating existing defects in his/her thoughts, then clear and very quick progress, which exhibits positive-neutral values, is undoubtedly obtained. In this form, a series of changes then quickly occurs… – (pg. 32)
The soul attracts that which it secretly harbors; that which it loves, and also that which it fears; – (pg. 13)
The psyche absorbs everything which is conveyed to it by the consciousness’s thoughts. Thus, openly or secretly, it accommodates values or unvalues, things which it hates or loves, things which it joyfully maintains or which it fears. – (pg. 32)
it reaches the height of its cherished aspirations; it falls to the level of its unchastened desires; and circumstances are the means by which the soul receives its own. – (pg. 13)
In each case, the state of the psyche is thereby formed accordingly, which results in it reaching the heights of the constantly positive efforts with the thoughts, or crashing into the abyss as a result of negative thoughts and constantly recurring anxieties, and so forth. The consciousness’s mental circumstances, and the might of the thoughts, are the means by which the psyche is influenced and steered. – (pg. 32)
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 fruit, bad thoughts bad fruit. – (pg. 13)
Every thought which is formed in the consciousness, or which enters it and establishes itself there, develops into the tremendous might…it continues and reproduces itself, in order to create from it, sooner or later, an action or quality, and so forth, which corresponds to it. In this way, every thought generates its own successes from opportunities, wishes, self-influencing and chances, and so forth, and, in fact each according to its kind – whether the thoughts are simply good and healthy and consequently bring good and healthy results, or whether they are ungood and are bad and, consequently, bring results which are ungood and are bad: results which are simply assessed as negative or positive. – (pg. 32)
The outer world of circumstance shapes itself to the inner world of thought, and both pleasant and unpleasant external conditions are factors which make for the ultimate good of the individual. As the reaper of his own harvest, man learns both by suffering and bliss. – (pg. 13)
Thoughts emerge not only from inner stimuli, rather they also form themselves in the consciousness as a result of external perceptions, as a result of the external world of circumstances, as a result of which the inner world of the thoughts comes about…Therefore, thoughts which come into being in the inside, as well as thoughts which arise as result of external influences and external circumstances, are factors which are among the human being’s greatest individual possessions…And, as a result, the human being always hauls in the return which he/she draws as a gain out of his/her thinking – …suffering,…or ..bliss… – (pgs. 32-34)
Following the inmost desires, aspirations, thoughts, by which he allows himself to be dominated (pursuing the will-o’-the-wisp of impure imagining or steadfastly walking the highway of strong and high endeavor), a man at last arrives at their fruition and fulfillment in the outer condition of his life. – (pg. 14)
If the human being follows his/her inner thoughts, hopes, desires and wishes, then he/she gives his/her own domination free reign and thereby ultimately reaches their fulfillment, and indeed in the external conditions of life… – (pg. 34)
The laws of growth and adjustment everywhere obtain. – (pg. 14)
This corresponds to the law of the growth of the progress and to the law of the adaptation of all things to each other: two laws which have their validity everywhere. – (pg. 34)
A man does not come to the almshouse or the jail by the tyranny of fate or circumstance, but by the pathway of groveling thoughts and base desires. – (pg. 14)
Consequently, he/she never ends in the gutter or in gaol as a result of the tyranny and terror of an imposed destiny determined by others, or as a result of some kind of circumstances beyond his/her control, rather solely as a result of the might of his/her thoughts, through which the way through life and the circumstances of life are determined. Lower thoughts, wishes, desires and yearnings, and so forth, lead to lower results. – (pg. 36)
Nor does a pure-minded man fall suddenly into crime by stress of any mere external force; the criminal thought had long been secretly fostered in the heart, and the hour of opportunity revealed its gathered power. – (pg. 14)
Therefore, NO human being with pure and positively-formed thoughts slips down into negative paths or even paths which equate to negative Ausartung, if suddenly a bad, negative, purely external pressure powerfully demands that which is evil, bad, or negative and perhaps even demands a crime. If a human being becomes a criminal, a felon, a miser, depraved, virtueless, jealous, vengeful or a hater, and so forth, then he/she has already maintained the corresponding thoughts in his/her consciousness for a long time, whereby he/she only waits until the opportune hour arrives to set free the power collected in all negative Ausartung. – (pg. 36)
Circumstance does not make the man; it reveals him to himself. No such conditions can exist as descending into vice and its attendant sufferings apart from vicious inclinations; or ascending into virtue and its pure happiness without the continued cultivation of virtuous aspirations;– (pgs. 14-15)
Aside from one’s own negative inclinations, wishes and desires, no circumstances are able to cloud one’s own “I”- consciousness and psyche. So, there are also no circumstances, however, which would, or could, lead to the true virtue, as well as to effective success and feelings of happiness, without a constant cultivation with virtuous efforts and hopes. – (pgs. 36-38)
and man, therefore, as the lord and master of thought, is the maker of himself, the shaper and author of environment. – (pg. 15)
Therefore, the human being is always lord and master of his/her own thinking and is thereby also creator of his/her own self. Just as the human being is architect and owner-builder of his/her surroundings and the external world,… – (pg.38)
Even at birth the soul comes to its own, and through every step of its earthly pilgrimage it attracts those combinations of conditions which reveal itself, which are the reflections of its own purity and impurity, its strength and weakness. – (pg. 15)
On the twenty-first day after conception, the spirit enters the body of the newly created human being and begins to enliven it…In this early process of the development, step by step, combinations of circumstances are attracted, which are interpreted by the consciousness and which are the reflection of its own negative or positive, its good or bad and of its strengths or weaknesses. – (pg. 38)
Men do not attract that which they want, but that which they are. – (pg. 15)
It is basically true that the human being attracts that which he/she is. – (pg. 40)
Their whims, fancies, and ambitions are thwarted at every step, but their inmost thoughts and desires are fed with their own food, be it foul or clean. – (pg. 15)
All quirks, inclinations, wishes, desires and Ziele can be changed and thwarted by the might of the thoughts, when the thoughts are given a corresponding direction and are awarded the necessary power…Therefore the consciousness forms the innermost thoughts which further develop by means of its power and which, in practice, nourish themselves and, indeed toward the good or evil or the negative or positive. – (pg. 40)
The “divinity that shapes our ends” is in ourselves; it is our very Self. Man is manacled only by himself. Thought and action are the jailers of Fate – they imprison, being base; they are also the angels of Freedom – they liberate, being noble. – (pg. 15)
The human being thereby becomes the creator of his/her own destiny, entirely according to the aphorism, “God helps those who help themselves.” In this sense, “God” is he/she who forms the human being’s destiny – the human being himself/herself – and this “God” is the inner self from which the thoughts, with their might, are created. (..) The thoughts, and the actions and formations which result from them, are the formers and guardians of one’s own destiny. They hold the human being prisoner when they are of a low, negative nature; and they create and give freedom, peace, love and harmony, when they are good, positive and equalized. – (pg. 40)
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 harmonize with his thoughts and actions. – (pg. 15)
Regarded in this sense, the human being receives not simply that for which he/she wishes, or for which he/she prays, rather always that which he/she produces and earns with the form of his/her thoughts/ (..)Wishes and prayers are truthly only fulfilled and answered when they are identical to the thoughts, actions and formations and to the harmonization. – (pgs. 40-42)
In the light of this truth, what, then, is the meaning of “fighting against circumstances”? It means that a man is continually revolting against an effect without, while all the time he is nourishing and preserving its cause in his heart. That cause may take the form of a conscious vice or an unconscious weakness; but whatever it is, it stubbornly retards the efforts of its possessor, and thus calls aloud for remedy. – (pgs. 15-16)
This is an irrevocable, profound truth, which also, however, allows it to be recognized that the human being has to constantly battle against many kinds of circumstances in his/her life. But what does that mean in light of the truth, other than that one constantly revolts against an effect, while, at the same time, the cause is nourished , tended and maintained the whole time in the consciousness, by the thoughts. This cause can be extremely manifold, and can have a form which can be of a conscious, as well as unconscious, nature. (…) But no matter what the causes are, they prevent, or delay – extraordinarily stubbornly – the human being’s efforts to become master of them and to find a suitable way to dismantle them or to avoid them. – (pg. 42)
Men are anxious to improve their circumstances, but are unwilling to improve themselves; they therefore remain bound. – (pg. 16)
And, viewed in this relationship, the fact is that most human beings want to improve their life circumstances, however they are in no way willing to change themselves. The reason for that simply lies in the fact that, while better life circumstances are indeed desired, one does not want to make allowance for the effort for that – for a change in oneself in all necessary realms. (..) And since the human being thinks this way, he/she remains bound… – (pgs. 42-44)
The man who does not shrink from self-crucifixion can never fail to accomplish the object upon which his heart is set. This is as true of earthly as of heavenly things. – (pg. 16)
However, if the human being does not shrink back from an honest self-examination, then – in his/her finding of inner freedom and finding of self – he/she will recognize and reach a Ziel, for which the entire innermost nature yearns. And that goes for all realms of life, thus for the purely external and material matters as well as for the things of the inner self, of the consciousness, the psyche, the morality, the character and fundamentally, naturally, the spirit.. – (pg. 44)
Even 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? – (pg. 16)
Even if it were the human being’s single Ziel to only live for pleasure, to live an existence in laziness or to only accumulate wealth, he/she would have to be ready to make great personal sacrifices in order to be able to reach his/her Ziel. But personal commitment and efforts are also required even more of those human beings who strive for a life which is strong and well-rounded, full of peace, love, equalisedness, freedom and harmony. – (pg. 44)
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. – (pg. 16)
There is a human being who has financial problems and feels wretched in his/her skin and situation. As a result of that, he/she maintains wishes and hopes that he/she comes out of his/her bad financial position, as well as his/her depression and burdening situation, so that finally everything turns out well. (..) The wishes and hopes are only directed at wanting to live differently, with having more money and with being able to change the bad situation, without maintaining the corresponding positive thoughts which pertain to the possibility for change, such as, that daily work must be engaged in and money must be earned in order to be able to overcome the financial problems. Instead of that, a shyness regarding any work is evident, or it is considered justified that one deceives or cheats the employer, because the opinion is harboured that an insufficient wage is paid, and so forth. – (pgs. 44-46)
Such a man does not understand the simplest rudiments of those principles which are the basis of true prosperity, and is not only totally unfitted to rise out of his wretchedness, but is actually attracting to himself a still deeper wretchedness by dwelling in, and acting out, indolent, deceptive, and unmanly thoughts. – (pgs. 16-17)
He/she also completely lacks the understanding of the life, as well as of the simple fundamental principles concerning how true prosperity is really built up. Through his/her thoughts, which he/she wrongly guides, such a human being makes himself/herself completely unsuitable and incapable of freeing and raising himself/herself out of…his/her wretched personal state…His/her wrong thinking, wrong wishes, hopes and actions, attract ever worsening circumstances and situations, as well as ever worsening inner conditions and states. The absence of evolutive thinking, and thereby positive thinking – that is to say, neutral-positive-equalised thinking – promotes the might of the negative, weak, lazy and deceptive thoughts which become real by means of their might, because they are lived out. – (pg. 46)
Here is a rich man who is the victim of a painful and persistent disease as the result of gluttony. He is willing to give large sums of money to get rid of it, but he will not sacrifice his gluttonous desires. – (pg. 17)
Serving as the second example is a human being who revels in wealth, and can afford everything that he/she ever wants. But the wealth leads him/her astray into the enjoyment of expensive alcoholic drinks,…whereby persistent physical damage emerges, which could however be remedied if the alcohol consumption were to be discontinued. Only too willingly would this human being pay immense amounts of money if his/her suffering and alcohol addiction could be thereby remedied; …but he/she does not want to do without nor sacrifice his/her vice and drinking habit. – (pg. 46)
He wants to gratify his taste for rich and unnatural viands and have his health as well. Such a man is totally unfit to have health, because he has not yet learned the first principles of a healthy life. – (pg. 17)
He/she wants to continue to give full expression to his/her fondness for his/her addiction, and further pander to his/her weakness and non-virtue, and be healthy nonetheless. Such a human being who has fallen prey to alcohol is completely incapable of a good health…Such a human being has not yet recognized the fundamental principles of a healthy life.. – (pg. 48)
Here is an employer of labor who adopts crooked measures to avoid paying the regulation wage, and, in the hope of making larger profits, reduces the wages of his work-people. Such a man is altogether unfitted for prosperity, and when he finds himself bankrupt, both as regards reputation and riches, he blames circumstances, not knowing that he is the sole author of his condition. – (pg. 17)
Serving as the third example is a human being who disadvantages and deceives his/her fellow human beings with crooked tricks and swindling, in order to thereby make an unlawful profit, or simply to gain advantages. (..) Such a human being is completely unsuited to prosperity and completely unsuited to being an upright member of society. And if, one day, he/she gets into trouble with the law, then he/she gives the circumstances and other human beings the blame, without knowing that he/she is the sole initiator of all the circumstances through which he/she gets caught up in the wheels of justice. – (pg. 48)
I have introduced these three cases merely as illustrative of the truth that man is the cause (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. Such cases could be multiplied and varied almost indefinitely, but this is not necessary, as the reader can, if he so resolves, trace the action of the laws of thought in his own mind and life, and until this is done, mere external facts cannot serve as a ground of reasoning. – (pgs. 17-18)
These three examples illustrate the truth, that nothing other than the human being’s thoughts are decisive in how one’s life and its circumstances form. (..) Unfortunately, the rule is that the human being does not think consciously, but largely unconsciously; consequently, the human being is also most always the unconscious cause of those circumstances in which he/she lives. And furthermore, it is a fact that while the human being wants the good and the positive, he/she constantly prevents exactly the achievement of the good and the positive, because, through wrongly steered thoughts, the human being maintains wishes, hopes and yearnings which in no wise agree with the good and positive, and therefore do not harmonise with them.
Circumstances, however, are so complicated, thought is so deeply rooted, and the conditions of happiness vary so vastly with individuals, that a man’s entire soul condition (although it may be known to himself) cannot be judged by another from the external aspect of his life alone. – (pg. 18)
The circumstances of the life are very often extremely complicated, and the thinking, as a rule, is extraordinarily deeply rooted, just as are the requirements for happiness, which the human being creates himself/herself. (..) However, the individual prerequisites for that are so different from one human being to another that the overall state of the psyche and of the consciousness cannot be assessed by third parties solely based on the external aspects of a human being’s life. – (pg. 50)
A man may be honest in certain directions, yet suffer privations; a man may be dishonest in certain directions, yet acquire wealth; but the conclusion usually formed that the one man fails because of his particular honesty, and that the other prospers because of his particular dishonesty, is the result of a superficial judgment, which assumes that the dishonest man is almost totally corrupt, and honest man almost entirely virtuous. – (pg. 18)
The appearance may deceive; consequently, one human being therefore appears to be honest, open and helpful, while that same human being, however, suffers deprivation. However, another may be unhonest and sly and can nonetheless build up extreme prosperity. If this is superficially viewed, and only an ordinary conclusion is drawn from it, then it appears that the honest, open and helpful one fails directly as a result of his/her virtues, while the unhonest and sly one achieves success as a result of his/her unvirtues. This, however, is a fallacy and the result of an effectively only superficial judgment, the precondition for which is that the honest human being lives in complete virtuousness and the unhonest one in complete corruption. – (pg. 50)
In the light of a deeper knowledge and wider experience, such judgment is found to be erroneous. The dishonest man may have some admirable virtues which the other does not possess; and the honest man obnoxious vices which are absent in the other. The honest man reaps the good results of his honest thoughts and acts; he also brings upon himself the sufferings which his vices produce. The dishonest man likewise garners his own suffering and happiness. – (pgs. 18-19)
If, however, everything is regarded in light of the truth – in a deeper knowledge in which the lived practical experience comes to the fore – then the premature judgment proves to be erroneous. As a matter of fact, both human beings harvest their own sorrows and joys, thus both the honest one, as well as the unhonest one. The situation of the honest human being is that he/she obtains the good success and good results of his/her honest, open and helpful thinking and actions, while, however, he/she is plagued by certain vices and habits which he/she is not able to overcome…The vices of the honest one may be subtle and be completely absent in the unhonest one, yet this unhonest one also has his/her suffering to bear. – (pg. 52)
It is pleasing to human vanity to believe that one suffers because of one’s virtue; but not until a man has extirpated every sickly, bitter, and impure thought from his mind, and washed every sinful stain from his soul, can he be in a position to know and declare that his sufferings are the result of his good, and not of his bad qualities; – (pg. 19)
However, human vanity believes, only too willingly and too quickly, that one who suffers gets into a difficult situation based on his/her virtues – a thinking which is completely wrong and must be put right. But this can only happen when the wrong, bitter, sick and unclean thoughts are consciously recognized as such and are removed from the consciousness. For this, effectively every unhealthy stain must be removed from the consciousness and from the psyche…Once this fact is recognized and these are accordingly dealt with in the necessary and right order, then the cognition emerges that suffering is not simply the result of only bad qualities, rather also of good qualities. – (pg. 54)
and on the way to that supreme perfection, he will have found working in his mind and life, the Great Law which is absolutely just, and which cannot give good for evil, evil for good. – (pg. 19)
Neutral-positive-equalised thoughts are so mightful that they can evolutively reach the highest possible form. But this means that the cognition and the knowledge about the might of the thoughts grows, and that they are integrated into a creational law which is absolutely fair, and that, in this fairness, nothing evil or negative can be answered with that which is good and positive, and nothing good and positive can be answered with that which is evil and negative… – (pg. 54)
Possessed of such knowledge, he will then know, looking back upon his past ignorance and blindness, that his life is, and always was, justly ordered, and that all his past experiences, good and bad, were the equitable outworking of his evolving, yet unevolved self. – (pg. 19)
And if he/she obtains this cognition, then – if he/she looks back at his/her earlier blindness and state of unknowledge – he/she becomes cognizant and possessing of knowledge so that, from then on into the future, his/her life and thoughts will be ordered fairly, and he/she becomes cognizant and possessing of knowledge that this order was given creationally all along in his/her deepest and innermost nature. (..) And there is an awakening of the cognition that only one’s own thoughts, nurtured and tended by the consciousness, mightfully made real everything which came about until that point in one’s life; indeed, as the product of the developing, and yet still so underdeveloped, self, of the self-educated ego, of the personality. – (pgs. 54-56)
Good thoughts and actions 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, therefore, do not cooperate with it. – (pgs. 19-20)
It is clear: thoughts and actions which are negative and ungood in turn create results which are negative and ungood. (…) Considered in another way, that means that, from a flower bulb, only a flower can sprout, from a weed seed, however, only a weed. This is an irrevocable natural law, with which both nature and the human being work. It is a law of the material world, which, however, also applies to the world of the metal and moral…Unfortunately, however, this law is only really understood by a few human beings and only extremely few have any thoughts at all about it, although its mode of functioning is simple to understand, and is also to be understood in this form, and is absolutely unavoidable. Nevertheless, however, on the whole, the human being simply lets the law be law and does not concern himself/herself about it… – (pg. 56)
Suffering is always the effect of wrong thought in some direction. It is an indication that the individual is out of harmony with himself, with the Law of his being. The sole and supreme use of suffering is to purify, to burn out all that is useless and impure. Suffering ceases for him who is pure. There could be not object in burning gold after the dross had been removed, and a perfectly pure and enlightened being could not suffer. – (pg. 20)
As a rule, suffering is always an effect of some form of wrong thinking if the suffering relates to negative, bad or evil outcomes. In this form, incidents of suffering are indicators that the law of harmony is disregarded and broken and that one is therefore not living according to the law of BEING…But the result of that is that suffering, which is produced by means of thoughts, must again be purified…This means that everything which is useless, wrong and unclean must be burnt out and eliminated from the thoughts. It is said that pure gold shimmeringly glistens, as does the Wesen of the human being, if it is pure; but before gold can shimmer and glisten in purity, all impurities must first be burnt out of it. (…) Self-created suffering is only ended when the human being – in his/her thoughts – is pure, enlightened and neutral-positive-equalised,… – (pgs. 56-58)
The circumstances which a man encounters with suffering are the result of his own mental inharmony. The circumstances which a man encounters with blessedness are the result of his own mental harmony. – (pg. 20)
All self-created circumstances from which some form of suffering develops for the human being, are, without exception, always the unavoidable product of one’s own wrong thoughts and, thereby, of one’s own mental disharmony. In contrast to that, all self-created circumstances which bring the human being grace and enjoyment, love, joy, happiness, peace, freedom and harmony, are the product of one’s own neutral-positive-equalisedness and harmony. – (pg. 58)
The circumstances from which suffering grows in the human being are the product of the might of his/her thoughts and are thereby also the product of his/her mental disharmony which is expressed through his/her thoughts and feelings. Consequently, the circumstances which the human being meets with grace, joy and enjoyment, are also the result of his/her own thoughts and feelings and are thereby the result of his/her own harmony. – (pg. 152)
Blessedness, not material possessions, is the measure of right thought; wretchedness, not lack of material possessions, is the measure of wrong thought. A man may be cursed and rich; he may be blessed and poor. – (pg. 20)
And in the same way, one’s virtues, good character and equalized personality are… effective criteria for right thinking; not, however, material possessions…Hardship, grief, suffering, and misery, and all Ausartungen, are the criteria of wrong thinking, not lack of material possessions,… In the material sense, many human beings are prosperous, wealthy and rich, however in themselves they are poor and miserable. A few are materially poor, however in themselves they are rich, blessed, joyful, full of harmony, love and freedom. – (pg. 58)
The benchmarks for right thinking are not material possessions, rather they are joy, happiness, harmony and equalisedness. (…) Therefore, a lack of material possessions can only have the disadvantageous effects when, on account of it, one nurtures and tends a wrong thinking, through which wrong feelings arise and, from that, the psyche is wrongly influenced. Thereby, that which applies here is only the benchmark for wrong thinking. – (pg. 152)
Blessedness and riches are only joined together when the riches are rightly and wisely used; and the poor man only descends into wretchedness when he regards his lot as a burden unjustly imposed. – (pg. 20)
But whatever the form is in this regard, one thing is indeed always certain: material wealth, and neutral-positive-equalised abundance pertaining to the thoughts, only ever go hand in hand when the material wealth is correctly used, with knowledge and wisdom…Thus the one who is materially poor only descends into misery when he/she regards his/her life and life-circumstances as grief and torment and as unjustifiably forced onto him/her. – (pg. 60)
Indigence and indulgence are the two extremes of wretchedness. They are both equally unnatural and the result of mental disorder. A man is not rightly conditioned until he is a happy, healthy, and prosperous being; and happiness, health, and prosperity are the result of a harmonious adjustment of the inner with the outer, of the man with his surroundings. – (pg. 21)
The extremes of inner misery are hardship, poverty, and debauchery, as well as vice, addictions and bad or evil and negative habits, and so forth. Altogether they are unnatural in the creational sense, and are solely the product of mental disturbances and, thereby, of a wrong thinking. (…) Therefore the human being cannot be effectively glad and happy when he/she maintains wrong and negative thoughts.(…) This also affects health and prosperity which are likewise the products of a harmonious equalisedness of the thoughts and of the inner self. An adaptation of the inner to the outer thereby results whereby the surroundings are also influenced… – (pg. 60)
A man only begins to be a man when he ceases to whine and revile, and commences to search for the hidden justice which regulates his life. And as he adapts his mind to that regulating factor, he ceases to accuse others as the cause of his condition, and builds himself up in strong and noble thoughts; ceases to kick against circumstances, but begins to use them as aids to his more rapid progress, and as a means of discovering the hidden powers and possibilities within himself. – (pg. 21)
One must stop moaning, vituperating and grieving, in order to begin seeking the concealed fairness which determines life…Once one has learnt to adapt the consciousness, with its thoughts, to this determining factor…the wrong attitude and school of thought, that others are responsible for the destiny which affects oneself, also ceases. (…)In such a moment, strong and healthy thoughts must be built up in order to obtain or build up the inner equalisedness and harmony. With that, the rebellion against an unalterable situation, and against its circumstances, comes to an end, whereby these thoughts change into the helpful factor in regard to one’s own, and quicker, inner growth, and they change into a means for the discovery and recognition of one’s own concealed powers and capabilities. – (pgs. 62-64)
On the other hand, such circumstances are often necessary for the further development of the consciousness; consequently they are to be regarded and used as helpers, in order to obtain a quicker evolutive growth as a result of them. But, in this sense, such circumstances can also be a means for the discovery and perception of hidden powers and possibilities in the human being himself/herself. – (pg. 154)
Law, not confusion, is the dominating principle in the universe; justice, not injustice, is the soul and substance of life; and righteousness, not corruption, is the molding and moving force in the spiritual government of the world. – (pgs. 21-22)
In this way, fairness and the creational guiding principle become the consciousness and the nature of the life. But the result of that is that righteousness in all things is the connecting and motivating power in the realm of the consciousness in this world, and thereby also with the human being, and indeed absolutely; consequently, no kind of corruption and no falseness find room anywhere any longer. – (pg. 66)
The complex of the creational laws is the ruling principle in the universe; there is no room in it for confusion, just as there is no room in it for unfairness. The laws of the Creation are namely the primal-principle of the life, and this primal-principle is based on love, in which, unbiased, uniform fairness prevails, which guarantees an equivalence of all life. The primal–principle of love and fairness thereby becomes the driving power, and the nature of the life. And, thereby, for the human being’s spiritual life, it is not the corruption, rather the righteousness which becomes the connecting and motivating power. – (pg. 154)
This being so, man has but to right himself to find that the universe is right, and during the process of putting himself right, he will find that as he alters his thoughts toward things and other people, things and other people will alter toward him. – (pgs. 21-22)
And since that is actually so, the human being must always vindicate himself/herself, in every respect and in every case, solely before himself/herself…And this vindication before himself/herself must happen before it is found out that laws of the Creation are right, and alone have validity; the vindication must occur before one finds out about the sole validity of the creational laws, because a necessary cognition in regard to the form of the thoughts must be created which enables any recognition of the laws at all. (…) And if he/she has reached this point, when he/she can assess his/her thoughts as being right, then he/she also sees that situations, human beings and circumstances always change in relation to himself/herself, when he himself/she herself changes his/her thoughts in regard to the situations, the human beings and the circumstances. – (pg. 66)
And since that is actually so, the human being has to constantly vindicate himself/herself before himself/herself, before he/she is able to find out that the laws of Creation – that is to say, the laws of the universe, the laws of the universal consciousness – are right. And during this process of vindication before himself/herself, the human being is able to see and recognize that he/she does not only change himself/herself in a positive sense, rather that also the situations and the other human beings change in relation to him/her. – (pg. 154)
The proof of this truth is in every person, and it therefore admits of easy investigation by systematic introspection and self-analysis. Let a man radically alter his thoughts, and he will be astonished at the rapid transformation it will effect in the material conditions of his life. – (pg. 22)
This is a truth which lies cogently in each human being, for which reason it is easy to examine by means of a systematic inner look, self-fathoming and self-recognition…If, however, the thinking is radically changed, then one can ascertain with astonishment how quickly the change not only has an effect on one’s feelings and psyche, rather also on one’s fellow human beings as on all circumstances and on the environment and on all of life. – (pg. 154)
Men imagine that thought can be kept secret, but it cannot; it rapidly crystallizes into habit, and habit solidifies into circumstance. – (pg. 22)
Very pretentiously, the human being pretends that he/she is able to keep his/her thoughts and feelings secret from others, but directly in doing so, he/she fools himself/herself, whereby he/she proves himself/herself to be a liar. In fact the thoughts and feelings very quickly crystallise into habits, which harden just as quickly into circumstances… – (pgs. 154-155)
Bestial thoughts crystallize into habits of drunkenness and sensuality, which solidify into circumstances of destruction and disease: impure thoughts of every kind crystallize into enervating and confusing habits, which solidify into distracting and adverse circumstances: – (pg. 22)
Lower thoughts form lower feelings, lower habits and lower circumstances, such as alcoholism, hate, affliction, resentment, sorrow, grief, bitterness, errors of judgment, and so forth – many kinds of suffering. If one’s thoughts are destructive, then they crystallise into confusing and exhausting habits and circumstances, which the human being, who is afflicted by them, is no longer able to control. – (pg. 156)
thoughts of fear, doubt, and indecision crystallize into weak, unmanly, and irresolute habits, which solidify into circumstances of failure, indigence, and slavish dependence: lazy thoughts crystallize into habits of uncleanliness and dishonesty, which solidify into circumstances of foulness and beggary: – (pgs. 22-23)
The bad and confusing habits and circumstances harden, and soon thoughts of fear, of doubt and of indecision arise, whereby already after a relatively short time, everything becomes automatic and all processes thereby run unconsciously. From the circumstances and habits which have arisen from that in that way, new circumstances arise which harden into failure, impoverished thinking and into dependency, and so forth. Also anxiety, fear and panic can arise from that if wrong convictions are created and one lives the experience of them. But wrong thoughts are also able to develop and harden into habits of uncleanliness and unhonesty, – (pg. 156)
hateful and condemnatory 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 more of less distressing. – (pg. 23)
while thoughts of hate and disdain form into habits, convictions and lived practical experiences of such a wrong form that accusations, Gewalt, injury and persecution arise from that. Selfish thoughts of every kind cause all altruistic factors to sink, and, instead of altruism, they promote selfishness and egoism, as well as many other tormenting circumstances and habits. – (pg. 156)
A particular train of thought persisted in, be it good or bad, cannot fail to produce its results on the character and circumstances. A man cannot directly choose his circumstances, but he can choose his thoughts, and so indirectly, yet surely, shape his circumstances. – (pg. 24)
If one holds firmly to a certain thought, be it good or bad, negative or positive, small or great, wrong or excellent, then, with absolute certainty, it will have its effects on one’s feelings and on one’s psyche as well as on one’s morality, character and entire personality. As a rule, the human being cannot directly choose his/her entire circumstances of life, however he/she can choose his/her thoughts by means of which he/she forms his/her feelings and psyche and – indirectly and, indeed, infallibly – his/her circumstances of life… – (pg. 158)
Nature helps every man to the gratification of the thoughts which he most encourages, and opportunities are presented which will most speedily bring to the surface both the good and evil thoughts. – (pg. 24)
In fact, the creational, natural powers in the human being work with him/her in making real the thoughts which are most intensively tended and nurtured. And this is both with thoughts which are negative as well as with those which are positive or neutral-positive-equalised. Naturally opportunities also thereby offer themselves for everything to be brought to the surface as quickly as possible so that, from the causes, effects arise, each formed according to the form of its origin; therefore, regardless of whether the casual thoughts are constructive or destructive. – (pg. 158)
Let a man cease from his sinful thoughts, and all the world will soften toward him, and be ready to help him; let him put away his weakly and sickly thoughts, and lo! opportunities will spring up on every hand to aid his strong resolves; let him encourage good thoughts, and no hard fate shall bind him down to wretchedness and shame. The world is your kaleidoscope, and the varying combinations of colors which at every succeeding moment it presents to you are the exquisitely adjusted pictures of your ever-moving thoughts. – (pg. 24)
No correlate found so far.
You will be what you will to be;
Let failure find its false content
In that poor word, “environment,”
But spirit scorns it, and is free.
It masters time, it conquers space;
It cows that boastful trickster, Chance,
And bids the tyrant Circumstance
Uncrown, and fill a servant’s place.
The human Will, that force unseen,
The offspring of a deathless Soul,
Can hew a way to any goal,
Though walls of granite intervene.
Be not impatient in delay,
But wait as one who understands;
When spirit rises and commands,
The gods are ready to obey. – (pgs. 24-25)
No correlate found so far.
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