Essay About Man Thinketh And Tool Of Thought

As a Man Thinketh
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AS A MAN THINKETH
JAMES ALLEN
Author of “From Passion to Peace”
_Mind is the Master power that moulds and makes,
And Man is Mind, and evermore he takes
The tool of Thought, and, shaping what he wills,
Brings forth a thousand joys, a thousand ills:–
He thinks in secret, and it comes to pass:
Environment is but his looking-glass._
Authorized Edition
New York
CONTENTS
THOUGHT AND CHARACTER
EFFECT OF THOUGHT ON CIRCUMSTANCES
EFFECT OF THOUGHT ON HEALTH AND THE BODY
THOUGHT AND PURPOSE
THE THOUGHT-FACTOR IN ACHIEVEMENT
VISIONS AND IDEALS
SERENITY
FOREWORD
THIS little volume (the result of meditation and experience) is not
intended as an exhaustive treatise on the much-written-upon subject
of the power of thought. It is suggestive rather than explanatory,
its object being to stimulate men and women to the discovery and
perception of the truth that–
“They themselves are makers of themselves.”
by virtue of the thoughts, which they choose and encourage; that
mind is the master-weaver, both of the inner garment of character
and the outer garment of circumstance, and that, as they may have
hitherto woven in ignorance and pain they may now weave in
enlightenment and happiness.
JAMES ALLEN.
BROAD PARK AVENUE,
ILFRACOMBE,
ENGLAND
AS A MAN THINKETH
THOUGHT AND CHARACTER
THE aphorism, “As a man thinketh in his heart so is he,” not only
embraces the whole of a mans being, but is so comprehensive as to
reach out to every condition and circumstance of his life. A man is
literally _what he thinks, _his character being the complete sum of
all his thoughts.
As the plant springs from, and could not be without, the seed, so
every act of a man springs from the hidden seeds of thought, and
could not have appeared without them. This applies equally to those
acts called “spontaneous” and “unpremeditated” as to those, which
are deliberately executed.
Act is the blossom of thought, and joy and suffering are its fruits;
thus does a man garner in the sweet and bitter fruitage of his own
husbandry.
“Thought in the mind hath made us, What we are
By thought was wrought and built. If a mans mind
Hath evil thoughts, pain comes on him as comes
The wheel the ox behind.
..If one endure
In purity of thought, joy follows him
As his own shadow–sure.”
Man is a growth by law, and not a creation by artifice, and 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 and
Godlike character is not a thing of favour or chance, but is the
natural result of continued effort in right thinking, the effect of
long-cherished association with Godlike thoughts. An ignoble and
bestial character, by the same process, is the result of the
continued harbouring of grovelling thoughts.
Man is made or unmade by himself; in the armoury 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 the Divine Perfection; by the abuse and
wrong application of thought, he descends below the level of the
beast. Between these two extremes are all the grades of character,
and man is their maker and master.
Of all the beautiful truths pertaining to the soul which have been
restored and brought to light in this age, none is more gladdening
or fruitful of divine promise and confidence than this–that man is
the master of thought,