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

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 it 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?
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 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
absolutely 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 cooperate with it.
Suffering is always the effect of wrong thought 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 which a man encounters with suffering
are the result of his own mental inharmony. The circumstances
which a man encounters with blessedness are the result of his own 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