Letter of Transmittal
The vibratory activities of the planetary Universe are governed by a law of periodicity. Everything that lives has periods of birth, growth, fruitage, and decline. These periods are governed by the Septimal Law.
The Law of Sevens governs the days of the week, the phases of the moon, the harmonies of sound, light, heat, electricity, magnetism, atomic structure. It governs the life of individuals and of nations, and it dominates the activities of the commercial world.
Life is growth and growth is change. Each seven year period takes us into a new cycle. The first seven years is the period of infancy. The next seven the period of childhood, representing the beginning of individual responsibility. The next seven represents the period of adolescence. The fourth period marks the attainment of full growth. The fifth period is the constructive period, when men begin to acquire property, possessions, a home, and family. The next from 35 to 42, is a period of reactions and changes, and this in turn is followed by a period of reconstruction, adjustment, and recuperation, so as to be ready for a new cycle of sevens, beginning with the fiftieth year.
There are many who think that the world is just about to pass out of the sixth period; that it will soon enter into the seventh period, the period of readjustment, reconstruction, and harmony; the period which is frequently referred to as the Millennium.
Those familiar with these cycles will not be disturbed when things seem to go wrong, but can apply the principle outlined in these lessons with the full assurance that a higher law will invariably control all other laws, and that through an understanding and conscious operation of spiritual laws, we can convert every seeming difficulty into a blessing.
Week Sixteen: Gaining Spiritual Understanding
- Wealth is a product of labor. Capital is an effect, not a cause; a servant, not a master; a means, not an end.
- The most commonly accepted definition of wealth is that it consists of all useful and agreeable things which possess exchange value. It is this exchange value which is the predominant characteristic of wealth.
- When we consider the small addition made by wealth to the happiness of the possessor we find that the true value consists not in its utility but in its exchange value.
- This exchange value makes it a medium for securing the things of real value whereby our ideals may be realized.
- Wealth should then never be desired as an end, but simply as a means of accomplishing an end. Success is contingent upon a higher ideal than the mere accumulation of riches, and he who aspires to such success must formulate an ideal for which he is willing to strive.
- With such an ideal in mind, the ways and means can and will be provided, but the mistake must not be made of substituting the means for the end. There must be a definite fixed purpose — an ideal.
- Prentice Mulford said: “The man of success is the man possessed of the greatest spiritual understanding and every great fortune comes of superior and truly spiritual power.” Unfortunately, there are those who fail to recognize this power. They forget that Andrew Carnegie’s mother had to help support the family when they came to America…that Harriman’s father was a poor clergyman with a salary of only $200.00 a year…that Sir Thomas Lipton started with only 25 cents. These men had no other power to depend upon, but it did not fail them.
- The power to create depends entirely upon spiritual power. There are three steps: Idealization, visualization, and materialization. Every captain of industry depends upon this power exclusively. In an article in Everybody’s Magazine, Henry M. Flagler, the Standard Oil multimillionaire, admitted that the secret of his success was his power to see a thing in its completeness. The following conversation with the reporter shows his power of idealization, concentration, and visualization — all spiritual powers:
- “Did you actually vision to yourself the whole thing? I mean, did you, or could you, really close your eyes and see the tracks? And the trains running? And hear the whistles blowing? Did you go as far as that?”
“Yes.”
“How clearly?”
“Very clearly.” - Here we have a vision of the law, we see “cause and effect,” we see that thought necessarily precedes and determines action. If we are wise, we shall come into a realization of the tremendous fact that no arbitrary condition can exist for a moment, and that human experience is the result of an orderly and harmonious sequence.
- The successful business man is more often than not an idealist and is ever striving for higher and higher standards. The subtle forces of thought as they crystallize in our daily moods is what constitutes life.
- Thought is the plastic material with which we build images of our growing conception of life. Use determines its existence. As in all other things our ability to recognize it and use it properly is the necessary condition for attainment.
- Premature wealth is but the forerunner of humiliation and disaster, because we cannot permanently retain anything which we do not merit or which we have not earned.
- The conditions with which we meet in the world without correspond to the conditions which we find in the world within. This is brought about by the law of attraction. How then shall we determine what is to enter into the world within?
- Whatever enters the mind through the senses or the objective mind will impress the mind and result in a mental image which will become a pattern for the creative energies. These experiences are largely the result of environment, chance, past thinking, and other forms of negative thought, and must be subjected to careful analysis before being entertained. On the other hand, we can form our own mental images, through our own interior processes of thought regardless of the thoughts of others, regardless of exterior conditions, regardless of environment of every kind, and it is by the exercise of this power that we can control our own destiny, body, mind, and soul.
- It is by the exercise of this power that we take our fate out of the hands of chance, and consciously make for ourselves the experiences which we desire, because when we consciously realize a condition that condition will eventually manifest in our lives; it is therefore evident that in the last analysis thinking is the one great cause life.
- Therefore, to control thought is to control circumstances, conditions, environment, and destiny.
- How then are we to control thought? What is the process? To think is to create a thought, but the result of the thought will depend upon its form, its quality, and its vitality.
- The form will depend upon the mental image from which it emanates; this will depend upon the depth of the impression, the predominance of the idea, the clarity of the vision, the boldness of the image.
- The quality depends upon its substance, and this depends upon the material of which the mind is composed; if this material has been woven from thoughts of vigor, strength, courage, and determination, the thought will possess these qualities.
- And finally, the vitality depends upon the feeling with which the thought is impregnated. If the thought is constructive, it will possess vitality; it will have life, it will grow, develop, expand; it will be creative; it will attract to itself everything necessary for its complete development.
- If the thought is destructive, it will have within itself the germ of its own dissolution; it will die, but in the process of dying, it will bring sickness, disease, and every other form of discord.
- This we call evil, and when we bring it upon ourselves, some of us are disposed to attribute our difficulties to a Supreme Being, but this supreme being is simply Mind in equilibrium.
- It is neither good nor bad — it simply is.
- Our ability to differentiate it into form is our ability to manifest good or evil.
- Good and evil therefore are not entities, they are simply words which we use to indicate the result of our actions, and these actions are in turn predetermined by the character of our thought.
- If our thought is constructive and harmonious we manifest good; if it is destructive and discordant we manifest evil.
- If you desire to visualize a different environment, the process is simply to hold the ideal in mind, until your vision has been made real; give no thought to persons, places, or things; these have no place in the absolute; the environment you desire will contain everything necessary; the right persons and the right things will come at the right time and in the right place.
- It is sometimes not plain how character, ability, attainment, achievement, environment, and destiny can be controlled through the power of visualization, but this is an exact scientific fact.
- You will readily see that what we think determines the quality of mind, and that the quality of mind in turn determines our ability and mental capacity, and you can readily understand that the improvement in our ability will naturally be followed by increase in attainment and a greater control of circumstances.
- It will thus be seen that Natural laws work in a perfectly natural and harmonious manner; everything seems to “just happen.” If you want any evidence of this fact simply compare results of your efforts in your own life, when your actions were prompted by high ideals and when you had selfish or ulterior motives in mind. You will need no further evidence.
- If you wish to bring about the realization of any desire, form a mental picture of success in your mind by consciously visualizing your desire; in this way you will be compelling success and you will be externalizing it in your life by scientific methods.
- We can only see what already exists in the objective world, but what we visualize already exists in the spiritual world, and this visualization is a substantial token of what will one day appear in the objective world if we are faithful to our ideal. The reason for this is not difficult; visualization is a form of imagination; this process of thinking forms impressions on the mind, and these impressions in turn form concepts and ideals, and they in turn are the plans from which the Master Architect will weave the future.
- The psychologists have come to the conclusion that there is but one sense, the sense of feeling, and that all other senses are but modifications of this one sense. This being true, we know why feeling is the very fountainhead of power, why the emotions so easily overcome the intellect, and why we must put feeling into our thought, if we wish results. Thought and feeling is the irresistible combination.
- Visualization must, of course, be directed by the will; we are to visualize exactly what we want; we must be careful not to let the imagination run riot. Imagination is a good servant but a poor master, and unless it is controlled it may easily lead us into all kinds of speculations and conclusions which have no basis or foundation in fact whatever. Every kind of plausible opinion is liable to be accepted without any analytical examination and the inevitable result is mental chaos.
- We must therefore construct only such mental images as are known to be scientifically true. Subject every idea to a searching analysis and accept nothing which is not scientifically exact. When you do this you will attempt nothing, but what you know you can carry out and success will crown your efforts; this is what business men call far-sightedness; it is much the same as insight, and is one of the great secrets of success in all important undertakings.
- For your exercise this week, try to bring yourself to a realization of the important fact that harmony and happiness are states of consciousness and do not depend upon the possession of things. Realize that things are effects and come as a consequence of correct mental states. So that if we desire material possession of any kind our chief concern should be to acquire the mental attitude which will bring about the result desired. This mental attitude is brought about by a realization of our spiritual nature and our unity with the Universal Mind which is the substance of all things. This realization will bring about everything which is necessary for our complete enjoyment. This is scientific or correct thinking. When we succeed in bringing about this mental attitude it is comparatively easy to realize our desire as an already accomplished fact; when we can do this we shall have found the “Truth” which makes us “free” from every lack or limitation of any kind.
A man might frame and let loose a star, to roll in its orbit, and yet not have done so memorable a thing before God as he who lets a golden-orbed thought to roll through the generations of time. — H. W. Beecher
Questions & Answers for Week Sixteen
Upon what does wealth depend?
Upon an understanding of the creative nature of thought.
Upon what does its true value consist?
Upon its exchange value.
Upon what does success depend?
Upon spiritual power.
Upon what does this power depend?
Upon use — use determines its existence.
How may we take our fate out of the hands of chance?
By consciously realizing the conditions which we desire to see manifested in our lives.
What then is the great business of life?
Thinking.
Why is this so?
Because thought is spiritual and therefore creative. To consciously control thought is therefore to control circumstances, conditions, environment, and destiny.
What is the source of all evil?
Destructive thinking.
What is the source of all good?
Scientific correct thinking.
What is scientific thinking?
A recognition of the creative nature of spiritual energy and our ability to control it.
The greatest events of an age are its best thoughts. It is the nature of thought to find its way into action. — Bovee