As A Man Thinketh (1) James Allen

As A Man Thinketh

James Allen

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Who was James Allen?

Although his book, As A Man Thinketh, has inspired millions
around the world and is partly responsible for launching an entire
self-improvement industry, very little is known about its author,
James Allen. He was born in Leicester, England in
1864 and worked as a personal secretary for an
executive of a large English corporation until 1902. At
the age of 38 he “retired” to writing and moved with his
wife to a small cottage at Ilfracombe, England. He
penned more than 20 works before suddenly passing
away at the age of 48.

As A Man Thinketh has influenced many contemporary writers
including Norman Vincent Peale, Earl Nightingale, Denis Waitley
and Tony Robbins, among others.

His “little volume”, as he called it, has been translated into five
major languages, inspiring millions of readers to recognize that
man’s visions can become reality, simply through the power of
thought.





Forward

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
Ilfracombe, England

I

Thought And Character


“As a man thinketh in his heart, so is he," not only embraces
the whole of a man's 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 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
fruit; 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 man's mind hath evil thought,
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 are as absolute and undeviating in the hidden
realm of thought as in the world of visible and material things. A
noble and God-like character is not a thing of favor or chance, but
is the natural result of continued effort in right thinking, the effect
of long-cherished association with God-like thoughts. An ignoble
and bestial character, by the same process, is the result of the
continued harboring of groveling thoughts.

Man is made or unmade by himself. In the armory 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, the molder of character, and the
maker and shaper of condition, environment, and destiny.

As a being of power, intelligence, and love, and the lord of his
own thoughts, man holds the key to every situation, and contains
within himself that transforming and regenerative agency by which
he may make himself what he wills.

Man is always the master, even in his weakest and most
abandoned state. But in his weakness and degradation he is foolish
master who misgoverns his "household." When he begins to reflect
upon his condition and search diligently for the law upon which his
being is established, he then becomes the wise master, directing his
energies with intelligence and fashioning his thoughts to fruitful
issues. Such is the conscious master, and man can only thus
become by discovering within himself the laws of thought. This
discovery is totally a matter of application, self-analysis and
experience.

Only by much searching and mining are gold and diamonds
obtained, and man can find every truth connected with his being, if
he will dig deep into the mine of his soul. That he is the maker of
his character, the molder of his life, and the builder of his destiny,
he may unerringly prove, if he will watch, control, and alter his
thoughts, tracing their effects upon himself, upon others and upon
his life and circumstances, linking cause and effect by patient
practice and investigation. And utilizing his every experience, even
the most trivial, everyday occurrence, as a means of obtaining that
knowledge of himself which is understanding, wisdom, power. In
this direction, as in no other, is the law absolute that "He that
seeketh findeth; and to him that knocketh it shall be opened.” For
only by patience, practice, and ceaseless importunity can a man
enter the door of the temple of knowledge.





II

Effect Of Thought on Circumstances


A man's mind may be likened to a garden, which may be
intelligently cultivated or allowed to run wild; but whether
cultivated or neglected, it must, and will bring forth. If no useful
seeds are put into it, then an abundance of useless weed-seeds will
fall therein, and will continue to produce their kind.

Just as a gardener cultivates his plot, keeping it free from
weeds, and growing the flowers and fruits which he requires so may
a man tend the garden of his 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, a man sooner or later discovers that he is the mastergardener
of his soul, the director of his life. He also reveals, within
himself, the flaws of thought, and understands, with everincreasing
accuracy, how the thought-forces and mind elements
operate in the shaping of character, circumstances, and destiny.

Thought and character are one, and as 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 a man's circumstances at any given time are an
indication of his entire character, but that those circumstances are
so intimately connected with some vital thought-element within
himself that, for the time being, they are indispensable to his
development.

Every man is where he is by the law of his being; the thoughts
which he has built into his character have brought him there, and
in the arrangement of his 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 that he
may learn that he may grow; and as he learns the spiritual lesson
which any circumstance contains for him, it passes away and gives
place to other circumstances.

Man is buffeted by circumstances so long as he believes
himself to be the creature of outside conditions, but when he
realizes that he is a creative power, and that he may command the
hidden soil and seeds of his being out of which circumstances grow;
he then becomes the rightful master of himself.

That circumstances grow out of thought every man knows who
has for any length of time practiced self-control and self-purification,
for he will have noticed that the alteration in his
circumstances has been in exact ratio with his altered mental
condition. So true is this that when a man earnestly applies himself
to remedy the defects in his character, and makes swift and marked
progress, he passes rapidly through a succession of vicissitudes.

The soul attracts that which it secretly harbors, 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 unchastened desires,
and circumstances are the means by which the soul receives it own.

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 own fruitage of opportunity and circumstance.
Good thoughts bear good fruit, bad thoughts bad fruit.

The outer world of circumstances 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 own harvest, man learns both of
suffering and bliss.

Following the inmost desires, aspirations, thoughts, by which
he allows himself to be dominated (pursuing the will-o'-the wisps of
impure imaginings or steadfastly walking the highway of strong and
high endeavor), a man at last arrives at their fruition and fulfillment
in the outer conditions of his life.

The laws of growth and adjustment everywhere obtain. A man
does not come to the alms-house or the jail by the tyranny of fate or
circumstance, but by the pathway of groveling 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. Circumstance does not make the man;
it reveals him to himself. 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
and the shaper of and author of environment. Even at birth the soul
comes of 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 own 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 own food,
be it foul or clean. Man is manacled only by himself; thought and
action are the jailors of Fate--they imprison, being base; they are
also the angels of Freedom--they liberate, being noble.

Not what he wished 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 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?

Here is a man who is wretchedly poor. He is extremely anxious
that his surroundings and home comforts should improve, yet all
the time he shirks his work, and considers he is justified in trying
to deceive his employer on the ground of the insufficiency of his
wages. Such a man does not understand the simplest rudiments of
those principles which are the basis of true prosperity, and is not
only totally unfitted to rise out of his wretchedness, but is actually
attracting to himself a still deeper wretchedness by dwelling in, and
acting out, indolent, deceptive, and unmanly thoughts.

Here is a rich man who is the victim of a painful and persistent
disease as the result of gluttony. He is willing to give large sums of
money to get rid of it, but he will not sacrifice his gluttonous
desires. He wants to gratify his taste for rich and unnatural foods
and have his health as well. Such a man is totally unfit to have
health, because he has not yet learned the first principles of a
healthy life.

Here is an employer of labor who adopts crooked measures to
avoid paying the regulation wage, and, in the hope of making larger
profits, reduces the wages of his workpeople. Such a man is
altogether unfitted for prosperity. And when he finds himself
bankrupt, both as regards reputation and riches, he blames
circumstances, not knowing that he is the sole author of his
condition.

I have introduced these three cases merely as illustrative of
the truth that man is the causer (though nearly always
unconsciously) of his circumstances, and that, whilst aiming at the
good end, he is continually frustrating its accomplishment by
encouraging thoughts and desires which cannot possibly harmonize
with that end. Such cases could be multiplied and varied almost
indefinitely, but this is not necessary. The reader can, if he so
resolves, trace the action of the laws of thought in his own mind
and life, and until this is done, mere external facts cannot serve as
a ground of reasoning.

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 (although it may be
known to himself) cannot be judged by another from the external
aspect of his life alone.

to be continued