March Thoughts: James Allen

As the fountain from the hidden spring, so issues man’s life from the secret recesses of his heart.

Mind clothes itself in garments of its own making.

There is no nobler work or higher science than that of self-perfection.

He who aims at the possession of a calm, wise, and seeing mind engages in the most sublime task that man can undertake.

Calmness of mind is one of the beautiful jewels of wisdom. A man becomes calm in the measure that he understands himself as a thought-evolved being. . . and he as he develops a right understanding, and sees more and more clearly the internal relations of things by the action of cause and effect, he ceases to fret and fume, and worry and grieve, and remains poised, steadfast, serene.

Events have no inherent meaning

You can never draw any conclusion, for sure, from an event. In other words, you can’t know anything for sure about anything merely as the result of an event or a series of events. All you can know for sure is that the event happened.

There is a Place Where You Are Not Alone.

Hugh Prather ( 1938 – 2010 ) was a writer, minister, and counselor, most famous for his first book, Notes to Myself (ISBN 0-553-27382-5), which was first published in 1970 by Real People Press, and later reprinted by Bantam Books. It has sold over 5 million copies, and has been translated into ten languages.
Together with his second wife, Gayle Prather, whom he married in 1965, he wrote other books, including The Little Book of Letting Go; How to Live in the World and Still Be Happy; I Will Never Leave You: How Couples Can Achieve The Power Of Lasting Love; Spiritual Notes to Myself: Essential Wisdom for the 21st Century; Shining Through: Switch on Your Life and Ground Yourself in Happiness; Spiritual Parenting: A Guide to Understanding and Nurturing the Heart of Your Child; Standing on My Head: Life Lessons in Contradictions; A Book of Games: A Course in Spiritual Play; Love and Courage; Notes to Each Other; A Book for Couples; The Quiet Answer; and There is a Place Where You Are Not Alone.

His work underscored the importance of gentleness, forgiveness, and loyalty; declined to endorse dramatic claims about the power of the individual mind to effect unilateral transformations of external material circumstances; and stressed the need for the mind to let go of destructive cognitions in a manner not unlike that encouraged by the Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) of Aaron T. Beck and the rational emotive behavior therapy (REBT)commended by Albert Ellis.

What YOU see is what YOU get. II

Projection makes perception; the world you see is what you GAVE it, nothing more than that. The outside picture of an inward condition. As a man thinketh, so does he perceive. Perception is a RESULT, and not a cause.

"I AM responsible for what I see.
I CHOSE the feelings I experience, and I DECIDED ON the goal I would achieve.
And everything that SEEMS to happen TO me, I ASKED FOR and received as I had asked."

As a Man Thinketh; a responsibility assumption.

As a Man Thinketh is a literary essay of James Allen, published in 1902.

The title is influenced by a verse in the Bible from the Book of Proverbs chapter 23 verse 7, “As a man thinketh in his heart, so is he.”

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

What You Are

"People who say that spiritual truths are impractical for earthly affairs are merely evading their inner dishonesty." VH

Take to a mercantile calling.
Get an unusually good education.
Hold this word:
"I am equal to all occasions."
ECH

Wisdom Treatment
I have never, as the judgement of Jesus Christ, accused the world, or myself, of being foolish or ignorant.

I am not the result of inheriting foolishness and ignorance. I inherit the wisdom of God, my Father.

I am not surrounded by a foolish and ignorant race. I am surrounded by the wisdom of God. 

Faith and Belief and Vision

Here is tremendous and helpful spiritual advice:
 Do nothing.
Say nothing.
Think nothing.
Live nothing.
VH

Forget not that the motivation for this course is the attainment and the KEEPING of the state of peace. Given this state, the mind is quiet, and the condition in which God is remembered is attained. (CH 24,1.1-1.2)

Faith and belief and vision are the means by which the goal of holiness is reached.

Faith versus un-Belief.

Happiness is impossible if we think it will come when we achieve this or that future objective. Only the present moment is alive, therefore, only in the here and now can happiness be in motion. We would not try to enjoy a musical composition when it is finished; we appreciate it from note to note. VH

Vernon-isms

"Now, one of the hardest things for a man to grasp is that it is SUPERBLY GOOD TO SEE THE BAD. The badness in itself is not good but awareness of it is wonderful, for freedom from the painful game results. It is like a doctor's discovery of an illness, which produces healthy treatment."

Where is the world you see when its cause is gone?

"Never forget that the vast majority of human beings have no interest at all in inner awakening." VH

Protection and Surety.

Guy Finley:
When you run into a personal obstacle, you have not run into an outer condition that is denying you happiness. You have run into your own present life-level. Your level of being is what determines where you are at any given moment, because your experience is always who you are.
 Read Entire Writing

Joining our will with the Will of God.

"Whatever is necessary for you is also possible for you."
Vernon Howard

There is a place in you where the strength of God abides.

"Let the right part of you handle the wrong part of another person and you will come out right." VH
(See also

"Cease to break the law which forbids you to lean on human schemes. The people you hope can solve your problems are the very causes of problems." VH

The United States to Great Britain.

 [Boston Herald, May 15, 1898]

Hail, brother! fling thy banner
To the billows and the breeze;
We proffer thee warm welcome
With our hand, though not our knees.

Lord of the main and manor!
Thy palm, in ancient day,
Didst rock the country's cradle
That wakes thy laureate's lay.

The hoar fight is forgotten;
Our eagle, like the dove,
Returns to bless a bridal
Betokened from above.

List, brother! angels whisper
To Judah's sceptred race, —
"Thou of the self-same spirit,
Allied by nations' grace,

"Wouldst cheer the hosts of heaven;
For Anglo-Israel, lo!
Is marching under orders;
His hand averts the blow."

Brave Britain, blest America!
Unite your battle-plan;
Victorious, all who live it, —
The love for God and man.

"The United States to Great Britain" by Mary Baker Eddy
The First Church of Christ, Scientist, and Miscellany, pp. 337 – 338

In 1898, Mary Baker Eddy, of Christian Science, wrote a poem titled “The United States To Great Britain” In this poem, Mrs. Eddy refers to the United States and Great Britain as "Anglo-Israel," and our "brother," Great Britain, as "Judah's sceptred race".

An 1890 book advocated British Israel-ism. According to the doctrine, the Lost Ten tribes of Israel found their way to Western Europe and Britain, becoming ancestors of the British and related peoples. British Israel-ism (also called Anglo-Israel-ism) is a doctrine based on the hypothesis that people of Western European descent, particularly those in Great Britain, are the direct lineal descendants of the Ten Lost Tribes of Israel. The doctrine often includes the tenet that the British Royal Family is directly descended from the line of King David. The central tenets of British Israel-ism have been refuted by evidence from modern genetic, linguistic, archaeological and philological research. The doctrine continues, however, to have a significant number of adherents. The movement has never had a head organization or a centralized structure. Various British Israelite organizations were set up across the British Commonwealth and in America from the 1870s; a small number of such organizations are active today.

Love Has Forgiven Me.

Is it necessary to be at the mercy of painful moods and feelings? It is not.
Is there a practical plan for escaping from attacks of depression, dismay, nervousness? There is.

Vernon Howard

God’s Love is the basis of forgiveness. Fear condemns and love forgives. Forgiveness thus undoes what fear has produced, returning the mind to the awareness of God. For this reason, forgiveness can truly be called salvation. It is the means by which illusions disappear. “God is the Love in which I forgive you, [insert name]” put’s you in a position to forgive yourself. When you become aware of any kind of negative reaction to anyone, present or not, tell them silently: “God is the Love in which I forgive you.” God does not forgive because He has never condemned. And there must be condemnation before forgiveness is necessary. Forgiveness is the great need of this world, but that is because it is a world of illusions. Those who forgive are thus releasing themselves from illusions, while those who withhold forgiveness are binding themselves to them. As you condemn only yourself, so do you forgive only yourself. Lesson 46

HAPPY Valentines Day Feb 14th 2013

Commitment
 

Although it's not always easy,

this is part of loving someone
unconditionally

with all your heart and
with all you have to give!

It's a promise that should last a lifetime.

It
describes you as a person and
describes the essence of your soul.

It's a promise to be there,
one for the other,
no matter what happens,
no matter who falls.

For better or for worse.

For better
or
for worse.

(Lynn Johnson)

The world can show me myself.

“Remember these facts about Negative Thoughts and Feelings. They clear up much puzzlement about human nature, revealing people as they really are. This insight gives you calm command in all human relationships.
 The appearance of one negative word or act in a person indicates the existence of dozens of other negative characteristics. Here is what this means. When seeing an angry man, you also see someone with a depressed, worried and frightened nature. When observing a sour and scornful woman, you also observe a weak and tense woman. Negative characteristics are like a school of sharks. You may see only one at a time, but dozens of others are swimming below the surface.
Take these facts into consideration when entering any human relationship. Then, because you see the entire person standing before you, no one will ever be able to deceive you. “ VH

Living without limits

Guy Finley: Most of us at least sense that whenever we fall into despair, lose our temper, or relive some past painful regret, we have lost possession of ourselves. To some extent we know that negative states limit our freedom because... [continued]

ALL are destined to awaken to Reality, to come to know the Truth.

'And the light shineth in darkness and the light comprehendeth it not.[ John 1:5] And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world and men love darkness rather than light because their deeds were evil. [John 3:19] For everyone that doeth evil, hateth the light. Neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved.[ John 3:20]'

There exists a rarity on this earth which is called a conscious, aware human being. An aware human being knows two worlds. He knows the world of consciousness, of being awake, of being saved. That’s what it means to be conscious, to be saved, to be saved from unconsciousness.

He knows what it means to be in the higher world and because he is living in that higher world, he understands the lower world perfectly. There is nothing about the world of evil, that I just read about, that he doesn’t understand. All very clear, therefore, it can’t be a danger to him, can’t be a threat." Vernon Linwood Howard from a talk given 6/6/1986

Here is a man in whom there is no deception.

Statue of St. Bartholomew
Milan Cathedral
(Italian: Duomo di Milano
Lombard: Domm de Milan)
Milan, Italy
(Marco d'Agrate, 1562) [1]

Bartholomew was one of the Twelve Apostles of Jesus, and is usually identified with Nathanael, alternatively Nathaniel. Jesus immediately characterizes him as "Here is a man in whom there is no deception."

Eusebius of Caesarea's Ecclesiastical History (v §10) states that after the Ascension, Bartholomew went on a missionary tour to India, where he left behind a copy of the Gospel of Matthew. Along with his fellow apostle Jude, Bartholomew is reputed to have brought Christianity to Armenia in the 1st century. Thus both saints are considered the patron saints of the Armenian Apostolic Church. In the course of time Bartholomew's name to became associated with medicine and hospitals.

Prepare Each Morning and Give Thanks at Night

It is well to start the day right. Starting the day right does indeed save time. How much time should be so spent? This must depend on the teacher of God himself.

Whatever opinion we put into a thing, that we take out of it.

His years of study of the human mind, of sickness in all its forms, and of the prevailing religious beliefs, gave him the ability to see through the opinions, doubts, and fears of those who sought his aid, and put him in instant sympathy with their mental attitude. He seemed to know that I had come to him feeling that he was a last resort, and with but little faith in him or his mode of treatment. But, instead of telling me that I was not sick, he sat beside me, and explained to me what my sickness was, how I got into the condition, and the way I could have been taken out of it through the right understanding.

The Influence of the Mind on the Body

Daniel Hack Tuke ( 1827 - 1895) was an English physician and expert on mental illness. Tuke came from a long line of Quakers from York who were interested in mental illness and concerned with those afflicted. His great-grandfather William Tuke and his grandfather Henry Tuke co-founded the Retreat, which revolutionized the treatment of insane people. His father Samuel Tuke carried on the work of the York Retreat and reported on its methods and its results. Daniel's older brother James Hack Tuke (1819 - 1896) was the next overseer of the York Retreat. See my blog Love Is Letting Go of Fear.

Join the #spreadlove movement

https://twitter.com/search?q=%23spreadlove

Vitamin L {love} is a very dangerous vitamin to be depleted of. And the best way to get it, is to give it.

{ask gem} how our emotional history distorts reality {the brain cannot reliably distinguish between reality and fantasy.} @ http://gemmastone.org/ask-gem-how-our-emotional-history-distorts-reality/

Man, seek no longer the origin of evil; thou thyself art its origin.

Jean-Jacques Rousseau ( 1712 –  1778) was a Genevan philosopher, writer, and composer of 18th-century Romanticism of French expression. His political philosophy influenced the French Revolution as well as the overall development of modern political, sociological, and educational thought.

The first man who, having fenced in a piece of land, said "This is mine," and found people naïve enough to believe him, that man was the true founder of civil society. From how many crimes, wars, and murders, from how many horrors and misfortunes might not any one have saved mankind, by pulling up the stakes, or filling up the ditch, and crying to his fellows: Beware of listening to this impostor; you are undone if you once forget that the fruits of the earth belong to us all, and the earth itself to nobody. — Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Discourse on Inequality, 1754

JR Miller DD

 J. R. Miller [James Russell Miller] ( 1840 – 1912) was a popular Christian author, Editorial Superintendent of the Presbyterian Board of Publication, and pastor of several churches in Pennsylvania and Illinois.

In 1857, Miller entered Beaver Academy and in 1862 he progressed to Westminster College, Pennsylvania, which he graduated in June, 1862. Then in the autumn of that year he entered the theological seminary of the United Presbyterian Church at Allegheny, Pennsylvania.

MEDITATION

There are certain signs by which one can know whether he is engaging in reverie or MEDITATION.
The indications of reverie are:	The indications of Meditation are:
1. A desire to avoid exertion.	1. Increase of both physical and mental energy.
2. A desire to experience the pleasures of dreaming.	2. A strenuous striving after wisdom.
3. An increasing distaste for one’s worldly duties.	3. A decrease of irksomeness in the performance of duty.
4. A desire to shirk one’s worldly responsibilities.	4. A fixed determination to faithfully fulfill all worldly responsibilities.
5. Fear of consequences.	5. Freedom from fear.
6. A wish to get money with as little effort as possible.	6. Indifference to riches.
7. Lack of self-control.	7. Possession of self-control.

Above Life’s Turmoil

James Allen
(1864–1912)

 We cannot alter external things, nor shape other people to our liking, nor mould the world to our wishes but we can alter internal things,-our desires, passions, thoughts,-we can shape our liking to other people, and we can mould the inner world of our own mind in accordance with wisdom, and so reconcile it to the outer world if men and things. The turmoil of the world we cannot avoid, but the disturbances of mind we can overcome. The duties and difficulties of life claim our attention, but we can rise above all anxiety concerning them. Surrounded by noise, we can yet have a quiet mind; involved in responsibilities, the heart can be at rest; in the midst of strife, we can know the abiding peace. Above Life’s Turmoil by James Allen (1910)

the Great Reality

James Allen
(1864–1912)

TO the awakened and enlightened,
To those who seek to be awakened and enlightened,–
There is darkness and there is Light ;
There is dreaming and there is Waking ;
There is illusion and there is Reality.

the Transition

James Allen
(1864–1912)

THE Voice of the Spirit to the children of sorrow,–
Arise ye ! Awake !
Open your eyes, and see !
Why will ye sleep the sleep that is painful ?
Come out of the night of unrest,
Out of the dark nightmare of sin and affliction !
For there is a Way out of the place of darkness,
And out of the dwelling-place of deep darkness a Pathway that is sure.

the Awakening

James Allen
(1864–1912)

SONS of Light, I salute you.
Children of the Morning, I greet you.
Awake ! arise! and rouse ye them that slumber!
I proclaim to you the advent of the Morning;
The dawn of the New Day is upon every living thing, 

The Pause that Refreshes

"The Truly Good Woman
A woman who felt guilty over past misdeeds said to herself, 'I must repent. I will start by doing good to others.'

So she joined charitable organizations and said nice things to people. But to her surprise she felt a vague resentment toward her activities. She felt _forced_ to be good. This doubled her guilt, for now she felt guilty over her resentment toward doing good.

Vernon Howard
(1918 – 1992)

Though confused, she intelligently reflected, 'There is something dreadfully wrong. This is not goodness at all; it is self-enslaving stage-acting. True goodness must be something entirely different.'

So she began a search for true goodness, which she finally found. She explained to herself, 'True goodness blooms in the absence of an unconscious self-picture of being good.'

_Abolish conditioned thoughts about personal goodness and badness and authentic goodness flourishes. _"