"Allen, James - As a Man Thinketh" - читать интересную книгу автора (Allen James)

and bring forth fruit that does not fall prematurely to the ground.
Thought allied fearlessly to purpose becomes creative force.
He who knows this is ready to become something higher and stronger
than a bundle of wavering thoughts and fluctuating sensations. He
who does this has become the conscious and intelligent wielder of
his mental powers.


"THE THOUGHT-FACTOR IN ACHIEVEMENT"

All that a man achieves and all that he fails to achieve is the direct
result of his own thoughts. In a justly ordered universe, where loss
of equipoise would mean total destruction, individual responsibility must
be absolute. A man's weakness and strength, purity and impurity, are
his own and not another man's. They are brought about by himself and
not by another; and they can only be altered by himself, never by
another. His condition is also his own, and not another man's. His
sufferings and his happiness are evolved from within. As he thinks,
so is he; as he continues to think, so he remains.
A strong man cannot help a weaker unless that weaker is willing to
be helped. And even then the weak man must become strong of himself.
He must, by his own efforts, develop the strength which he admires in
another. None but himself can alter his condition.
It has been usual for men to think and to say, "Many men are slaves
because one is an oppressor; let us hate the oppressor!" But there is
amongst an increasing few a tendency to reverse this judgement and to
say, "One man is an oppressor because many are slaves; let us despise
the slaves." The truth is that oppressor and slaves are cooperators
in ignorance, and, while seeming to afflict each other, are in reality,
afflicting themselves. A perfect knowledge perceives the action of law
in the weakness of the oppressed and the misapplied power of the
oppressor. A perfect love, seeing the suffering which both states
entail, condemns neither; a perfect compassion embraces both oppressor
and oppressed.
He who has conquered weakness and has pushed away all selfish thoughts
belongs neither to oppressor nor oppressed. He is free.
A man can only rise, conquer, and achieve by lifting up his thoughts.
He can only remain weak, abject, and miserably by refusing to lift up
his thoughts.
Before a man can achieve anything, even in worldly things, he must lift
his thoughts above slavish animal indulgence. He may not, in order to
succeed, give up all animality and selfishness, necessarily, but a portion
of it must, at least, be sacrificed. A man whose first thought is bestial
indulgence could neither think clearly nor plan methodically. He could
not find and develop his latent resources and would fail in any undertaking.
Not having begun to manfully control his thoughts, he is not in a position
to control affairs and to adopt serious responsibilities. He is not fit
to act independently and stand alone. But he is limited only by the
thoughts that he chooses.
There can be no progress nor achievement without sacrifice, and a man's