Thought and Character

By James Allen

The Aphorism “As a man thinketh in his heart, so is he,” embraces the whole of a man’s being. It is so comprehensive that it reaches out to every condition and circumstance of life. A man is literally what he thinks. His character is the sum of all his thoughts.

As the plant springs from the seed, and could not be without it, so every act of a man springs from the hidden seeds of thought. This truth applies as equally to those acts called “spontaneous” as to those which are deliberate.

Act is the blossom of thought, and joy and suffering are its fruits; thus a man harvests the sweet and bitter fruits of his own husbandry.

Man is a growth by law, and a creation by artifice, for cause and effect is as absolute and undeviating in the hidden realm of thought as in the world of visible and material things.

A noble character is not a thing of favor or chance, but the natural result of conditioned effort in right thinking, the effect of a long-cherished association with noble thoughts. An ignoble and bestial character, by the same process, is the result of the conditioned harboring of sensual thoughts.

A man’s mind is like a garden, which may be intelligently cultivated or allowed to run wild. But whether cultivated or neglected, it must, and will, bring forth. If no useful seeds are put into it, then an abundance of useless weed seeds will fall into it, and will continue to produce their useless kind.

Just as a gardener cultivates his plot, keeping it free from weeds, and grows the flowers and fruits which he needs, so may a man tend the garden of his mind, weeding out all the wrong useless, and impure thoughts, and cultivating all the right, useful, and pure thoughts. By this process, a man sooner or later discovers that he is the master gardener of his soul, the director of his life. He also reveals, within himself, the laws of thought, and understands, with ever-increasing accuracy, how thought forces and mind elements operate in shaping his character, circumstances, and destiny.

Thought and character are one and as circumstances, 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 the 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 him that, for the time being they are indispensable to his development.

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. All is the result of a law which cannot err. This is just a true of those who feel “Out of harmony” with their surroundings as of those who are contented with them.

YOUR FATE IS IN YOUR HANDS:

Man is made or unmade by himself. In the armory of thought he forges the weapons by which he destroys himself. He also fashions the tools with which he builds for himself heavenly mansions of joy and strength and peace. By the right choice and true application of thought, man ascends to divine perfection. By the abuse and wrong application of thought, he descends below the level of a beast. Between these two are all the grades of character, and man is their maker and master.

Of all the beautiful truths pertaining to the soul, none is more gladdening or fruitful of divine promise and confidence than this—that man is the master of thought, the molder of character, and the maker and shaper of condition, environment, and destiny.

HAPPINESS IS A STATE OF MIND:

Our life is what we make it by our own thoughts and deeds. It is our own state and attitude of mind which determine whether we are happy or unhappy, strong or weak, sinful or holy, foolish or wise. If one is unhappy, that state of mind belongs to himself, and is originated within himself; it is a state which responds to certain outward happenings, but its cause lies within, and not in those outward occurrences. If one is weak in will, he has brought himself to, and remains in, that condition by the course of thought and action which he has chosen and is still choosing. If one is sinful, it is because he has committed, and continues to commit, sinful acts. If he is foolish, it is because he himself does foolish things.

A man has no character, no soul, no life apart from his thoughts and deeds. What they are, that he is. As they are modified, so does he change. He is endowed with will, and can modify his character. As the carpenter changes the block of wood into a beautiful piece of furniture, so can the erring and sin-stricken man change himself into a wise and truth-loving being.

MAN AND MIND:

Man is; and as he thinks, so he is. A perception and realization of these two facts alone—of man’s being and thinking—lead into a vast avenue of knowledge which cannot stop short of the highest wisdom and perfection. One of the reasons why men do not become wise is that they occupy themselves with interminable speculations about a soul separate from themselves—that is, from their own mind—and so blind themselves to their actual nature and being. The supposition of a separate soul veils the eyes of man so that he does not see himself, does not know his mentality, is unaware of the nature of his thoughts without which he would have no conscious life.

Man cannot be separated from his mind; his life cannot be separated from his thoughts. Mind, thought, and life are as inseparable as light, radiance, and color, and are no more in need of another factor to elucidate them than are light, radiance and color. The facts are all sufficient, and contain within themselves the groundwork of all knowledge concerning them.

Man as mind is subject to change. He is not something “made” and finally completed, but has within him the capacity for progress. By the universal law of evolution he has become what he is, and is becoming that which he will be. His being is modified by every thought he thinks. Every experience affects his character. Every effort he makes changes his mentality. Herein is the secret of man’s degradation, and also of his power and salvation if he but utilize this law of change in the right choice of thought.

To live is to think and act, and to think and act is to change. While man is ignorant of the nature of thought, he continues to change for better or worse; but, being acquainted with the nature of thought, he intelligently accelerates and directs the process of change, and only for the better.

What the sum total of a man’s thoughts are, that he is. From this sameness of thought with man there is not the slightest fractional deviation. There is a change of result with the addition and subtraction of thought, but the mathematical law is an invariable quantity.


Via Ron McVan

Source Article from http://www.renegadetribune.com/thought-and-character/

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