Such is the Law

Worry is like a cat chasing its tail—it never gets anywhere and at last drops exhausted within the tiny circle it has trod.

“Such is the Law which moves to righteousness,

Which none at last can turn aside or stay;

The heart of it is Love, the end of it

Is peace and consummation sweet. Obey.” —THE LIGHT OF ASIA.

To sympathize with others we must first understand them, and to understand them we must put away all personal preconceptions concerning them, and must see them as they are.

What matters is how events are construed (interpreted).

George Kelly's theory, called constructive alternativism, involves the notion that, even though there is only one true reality, it is always experienced from one or another perspective or "alternative construction". Since there are an infinite number of different alternative constructions or perspectives we may take on the world, we are always free to change to a different one if our current one is not doing such a good job helping us adapt or get what we want. 

We need only sail in natural waters.

Back in the days of sailing vessels, British and American sea captains were faced with a peculiar problem. In crossing westward from England to Boston, the voyage was much slower than when crossing eastward from Boston to England. In fact, the westward crossing took an additional two weeks, which represented considerable loss of time and energy. The owners of the vessels carried their problem to Benjamin Franklin, who was Deputy Postmaster General at that time. Franklin, in turn, consulted a veteran sea captain named Timothy Folger. 

The power of meditation.

Said the divine Gautama, the Buddha, "He who gives himself up to vanity, and does not give himself up to meditation, forgetting the real aim of life and grasping at pleasure, will in time envy him who has exerted himself in meditation," and he instructed his disciples in the following "Five Great Meditations":"

1. The first meditation is the meditation of love, in which you so adjust your heart that you long for the weal and welfare of all beings, including the happiness of your enemies. 
2. "The second meditation is the meditation of pity, in which you think of all beings in distress, vividly representing in your imagination their sorrows and anxieties so as to arouse a deep compassion for them in your soul. 
3. "The third meditation is the meditation of joy, in which you think of the prosperity of others, and rejoice with their rejoicings. 
4. "The fourth meditation is the meditation of impurity, in which you consider the evil consequences of corruption, the effects of sin and diseases. How trivial often the pleasure of the moment, and how fatal its consequences. 
5. "The fifth meditation is the meditation on serenity, in which you rise above love and hate, tyranny and oppression, wealth and want, and regard your own fate with impartial calmness and perfect tranquillity."

By engaging in these meditations the disciples of the Buddha arrived at a knowledge of the Truth. But whether you engage in these particular meditations or not matters little so long as your object is Truth, so long as you hunger and thirst for that righteousness which is a holy heart and a blameless life. In your meditations, therefore, let your heart grow and expand with ever broadening love, until, freed from all hatred, and passion, and condemnation, it embraces the whole universe with thoughtful tenderness.

As the flower opens its petals to receive the morning light, so open your soul more and more to the glorious light of Truth. Soar upward upon the wings of aspiration; be fearless, and believe in the loftiest possibilities. Believe that a life of absolute meekness is possible; believe that a life of stainless purity is possible; believe that a life of perfect holiness is possible; believe that the realization of the highest truth is possible. He who so believes, climbs rapidly the heavenly hills, whilst the unbelievers continue to grope darkly and painfully in the fogbound valleys.

"There is self and there is Truth; where self is, Truth is not, where Truth is, self is not." 

Thus spake Buddha, the teacher of Truth, and Jesus, the manifested Christ, declared that 

"No man can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and Mammon."

Every prophet, sage, and savior became such by the power of meditation.

Buddha meditated upon the Truth until he could say, "I am the Truth."

Jesus brooded upon the Divine immanence until at last he could declare, "I and my Father are One."

From poverty to power

or

the realization of prosperity and peace

James Allen

[1906]

"I am the way."

"I AM", the way.

"I AM".

The Only Way To Attain Liberation.

Arthur Schopenhauer (1788 – 1860) was a German philosopher known for his pessimism and philosophical clarity. At age 25, he published his doctoral dissertation, On the Fourfold Root of the Principle of Sufficient Reason, which examined the four separate manifestations of reason in the phenomenal world.
Schopenhauer's most influential work, The World as Will and Representation, claimed that the world is fundamentally what humans recognize in themselves as their will. His analysis of will led him to the conclusion that emotional, physical, and sexual desires can never be fully satisfied. The corollary of this is an ultimately painful human condition. Consequently, he considered that a lifestyle of negating desires, similar to the ascetic teachings of Vedanta, Buddhism and the Church Fathers of early Christianity, was the only way to attain liberation.
Schopenhauer's metaphysical analysis of will, his views on human motivation and desire, and his aphoristic writing style influenced many well-known thinkers, including Friedrich Nietzsche, Richard Wagner, Ludwig Wittgenstein, Erwin Schrödinger, Albert Einstein, Sigmund Freud, Otto Rank, Carl Gustav Jung, Leo Tolstoy, Thomas Mann, and Jorge Luis Borges.

Thoughts on “THOUGHTS”.

"The soul that is impure, sordid and selfish, is gravitating with unerring precision toward misfortune and catastrophe; the soul that is pure, unselfish, and noble, is gravitating with equal precision toward happiness and prosperity. Every soul attracts its own, and nothing can come to it that does not belong to it. To realize this is to recognize the Universality of Divine Law." ~ James Allen

"All that we are is the result of what we have thought; it is founded on our thoughts; it is made up of our thoughts."~ Buddha

"Your own thoughts, desires and aspirations comprise your world, and, to you, all that there is in the Universe of beauty and joy and bliss, or of ugliness and sorrow and pain, is contained within yourself. By your own thoughts you make or mar your life your world, your Universe."~ James Allen

"Thoughts, are things." ~ Prentice Mulford

"Thoughts, so far from being mere brain flashes, are, judging solely from their effects, real entities, apparently composed of spiritual substance, the nature of which is outside the range of discovery of our present faculties." ~ T. Sharper Knowlson

"Thought, is not an event which dies in a world ethereal, supersensible, imperceptible; it has continually its likeness and repercussion in our organism." ~ Levy

"Thought is not, as is many times supposed, a mere indefinite abstraction, or something of a like nature. It is, on the contrary, a vital, living force, the most vital, subtle and irresistible force in the Universe."~ Ralph Waldo Trine

"You say you are chained by circumstances; you cry out for better opportunities, for a wider scope, for improved physical conditions, and perhaps you inwardly curse the fate that binds you hand and foot. It is for you that I write: it is to you that I speak. Listen, and let my words burn themselves into your heart, for that which I say to you is the truth: You may bring about that improved condition in your outward life which you desire, if you will unswervingly resolve to improve your inner life. I know that pathway looks barren at its commencement (truth always does, it is only error and delusion which are at first inviting and fascinating), but if you undertake to walk it; if you perseveringly discipline your mind, eradicating your weaknesses, and allowing your soul-forces and spiritual powers to unfold themselves, you will be astonished at the magical changes which will be brought about in your inward life. As you proceed, golden opportunities will be strewn across your path, and the power and judgment to properly utilize them will spring up within you. Genial friends will come unbidden to you; sympathetic souls will be drawn to you as the needle is to the magnet, and books and all outward aids that you require will come to you unsought."~ James Allen

From:
DYNAMIC THOUGHT
BY
HENRY THOMAS HAMBLIN
[1923]