The Impact of Our Thoughts on Our Circumstances

The soul attracts:

that which it secretly harbours
that which it loves,
and also, that which it fears;
it reaches the height of its cherished aspirations;
it falls to the level of its chastened desires,
and circumstances are how the soul receives its own.

Just as a gardener cultivates his plot, keeping it free from weeds, and growing the flowers and fruits which he requires.

So may we tend the garden of our mind, weeding out all the wrong, useless, and impure thoughts, and cultivating toward perfection the flowers and fruits of right, useful, and pure thoughts.

By pursuing this process, we will sooner or later discover that we are the master gardener of our soul and the director of our life.

We also reveal, within ourselves, the laws of thought, and understand, with ever-increasing accuracy, how the thought forces and mind elements operate in shaping our character, circumstances, and destiny.

Thought and character are one,

As a 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 our circumstances at any given time are an indication of our entire character.

But those circumstances are so intimately connected with some vital thought element within ourselves that, for the time being, they are indispensable to our development.

Every man is where he is by the law of his being;

The thoughts which we have built into our character have brought us there, and in the arrangement of our life there is no element of chance, but all is the result of a law which cannot err.

This is just as true of those who feel “out of harmony” with their surroundings as of those who are contented with them.

As a progressive and evolving being, man is where he is so that he may learn that he may grow;

And as he learns the spiritual lesson that any circumstance contains for him, it passes away and gives place to other circumstances.

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 fruitage of opportunity and circumstance.

Good thoughts bear good fruit, bad thoughts bad fruit.

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 harvest, man learns both by suffering and bliss.

Following the inmost desires, aspirations, and thoughts, by which he allows himself to be dominated, a man at last arrives at their fruition and fulfillment in the outer conditions of his life.

The laws of growth and adjustment are everywhere obtained.

A man does not come to the alms-house or the jail by the tyranny of fate or circumstance but by the pathway of grovelling thoughts and base desires.

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.

Circumstances do not make the man.

It reveals him to that 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; and man, therefore, as the lord and master of thought, is the maker of himself the shaper and author of environment.

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 purity and, impurity, its strength and weakness.

Men do not attract that which they want, but that which they are.

Their whims, fancies, and ambitions are thwarted at every step, but their inmost thoughts and desires are fed with their food, be it foul or clean.

The “divinity that shapes our ends” is in ourselves; it is our very self.

Only himself manacles man: thought and action are the jailers of Fate they imprison, being base;

They are also the angels of Freedom they liberate, being noble.

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.

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.

Men are anxious to improve their circumstances, but are unwilling to improve themselves; they therefore remain bound.

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.

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?

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 cannot be judged by another from the external aspect of his life alone.

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 corrupt, and the honest man almost entirely virtuous.

In the light of 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 suffering and happiness.

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; and on the way to, yet long before he has reached that supreme perfection, he will have found, working in his mind and life, the Great Law which is just, and which cannot, therefore, give good for evil, evil for good.

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.

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 co-operate with it.

Suffering is always the effect of wrong thoughts 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 no object in burning gold after the dross had been removed, and a perfectly pure and enlightened being could not suffer.

The circumstances, that a man encounters with suffering, are the result of his mental harmony.

The circumstances, that a man encounters with blessedness, are the result of his mental harmony.

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.

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.

Indigence and indulgence are the two extremes of wretchedness.

They are both equally unnatural and the result of mental disorders.

A man is not rightly conditioned until he is a happy, healthy, and prosperous being.

Happiness, health, and prosperity are the result of a harmonious adjustment of the inner with the outer, of the man with his surroundings.

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.

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.

Law, not confusion, is the dominating principle in the universe

Justice, not injustice, is the soul and substance of life.

Righteousness, not corruption, is the moulding and moving force in the spiritual government of the world.

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 towards things and other people, things and other people will alter towards him.

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 affect in the material conditions of his life.

Men imagine that thought can be kept secret, but it cannot.

It rapidly crystallizes into habit, and habit solidifies into circumstance.

Bestial thoughts crystallize into habits of drunkenness and sensuality, which solidify into circumstances of destitution and disease.
Impure thoughts of every kind crystallize into enervating and confusing habits, which solidify into distracting and adverse circumstances.
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.
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 or less distressing.

On the other hand;

Beautiful thoughts of all kinds crystallize into habits of grace and kindliness, which solidify into genial and sunny circumstances.
Pure thoughts crystallize into habits of temperance and self-control, which solidify into circumstances of repose and peace.
Thoughts of courage, self-reliance, and decision crystallize into manly habits, which solidify into circumstances of success, plenty, and freedom.
Energetic thoughts crystallize into habits of cleanliness and industry, which solidify into circumstances of pleasantness.
Gentle and forgiving thoughts crystallize into habits of gentleness, which solidify into protective and preservative circumstances.
Loving and unselfish thoughts crystallize into habits of self-forgetfulness for others, which solidify into circumstances of sure and abiding prosperity and true riches.

A particular train of thought persists in, be it good or bad, cannot fail to produce its results on the character and circumstances.

We cannot directly choose our circumstances, but we can choose our thoughts, and so indirectly, yet surely, shape our circumstances.

Nature helps us to the gratification of the thoughts, that we most encourage, and opportunities are presented that will most speedily bring to the surface both the good and evil thoughts.

Let us cease the sinful thoughts, and all the world will soften towards us, and be ready to help us.

And let us put away all weakened and sickly thoughts, and opportunities will spring up on every hand to aid our strong resolves

Let us encourage good thoughts, and no hard fate shall bind us down to wretchedness and shame.