T has become evident from the previous chapters that man's control of body and condition? rests not in chance but on conscious choice. So soon as he acquires the new understanding, he perceives that he gets out of life just what he puts into it, "that as he thinks in his heart so is he," that he "shall ask what he will in my name (that of the real self) and it shall be done unto him. He then perceives that whatever has happened to him up to this time has not been due to chance nor the fickle favor of fortune, nor the good or bad will of God, nor man nor the devil. He perceives that he is dealing with the law, that "as a man soweth in word or deed so shall he also reap," that the Cosmic Consciousness acts as the law of Hfe, that it is impartial and impersonal, and that "he sendeth his rain upon the evil and the good, upon the just and the unjust.n5565 ¶1
' ' These are notable discoveries. But by them a man is put upon his own resources. He has no devil to blame. There is no luck good or bad ; there are no mistakes except his own; and the inharmony he feels is the inharmony he makes. We are living in a universe of pure intelligence, infinite in power, continuously creative, and impersonally manifesting in poverty or wealth, sickness or health, according to the dictates of our own selections. We set the mould into which Spirit shall pour Itself out into form for us. If we are rich, it is by no chance. Either consciously or unconsciously, we have kept the law; we have sowed faith in supply. Big men of finance tell us that they have never even thought of themselves as not having or making plenty of money. They have always expected financial success and have therefore gained it.n5565 ¶2
They have expected it! In that, is the secret. Our demonstration is in the terms of our expectancy. He who anticipates poverty with dread, will eventually hear the great gaunt wolf howling at his door unless he changes his thought.n5565 ¶3
If, on the other hand, you have the perfect wealth consciousness, yet dread disease, then you are laying yourself open to its invasion. A man might keep every law of success ; but violating the law of health, he would reap the fruits in ill-health of some sort. Multimillionaires are not immune to dispepsia — if they have the dispeptic consciousness.n5565 ¶4
We are free from the things we do not want, only by forgetting them and turning our thought to the things we do want. The law of consciousness reveals the fact, therefore, that we bring into our lives just what comes, by the attitude we assume toward life. Blessed is that man who expects something, for verily he shall have his reward. And he who expects nothing will get that, too.n5565 ¶5
As eagerly as water flows to fill a vacuum, so Spirit flows to every point where receptivity is provided, becoming what we think. The same substance becomes the rose and the thorn, the buttercup and the burr, the sunshine and the cloud, the rain and the rainbow; it flows through the blood as the corpuscle or tlie germ, and deposits as the cancer or the cure. Neutral, impartial, impersonal, it assumes the form and the quality which our own thought provides. Out of the intangible, ever-present, infinite, all-powerful substance of Spirit by which you are surrounded and in which you are immersed, you draw your bane or blessing, pain or pleasure. As the mirror takes the image you reflect into it without a murmur and without a change, so this all-encircling consciousness images your thought and puts it forth into expression. But, unlike the mirror, it is infinitely creative. It does not pass away until all is fulfilled; and unless you change the image by changing the thought, it will go on creating for you indefinitely. This is the reason why "the thing I greatly feared has come upon me." Fear has gripped the thought and the imagination. The more intense it is, the clearer is the image of the disaster which is dreaded ; and, in some form or other, we draw out of the Universal the very thing that we do not want. Happy is he who knows this and carefully scrutinizes every thought and motive that he may put forth in idea only that which is beautiful and good, and bring into his life the full fruit of his bouyant faith.n5565 ¶6
Boldly must he, who makes the discovery of his own life and powers, face the issue. He may not like the situation; he may resent the responsibility. He may wish to hark back to a devil or a God to blame for his misfortunes: he may wish that he could escape the burden. He cannot. He may say with Job. "Let the day perish wherein I was born.,,n5565 ¶7
But he is here; and he must face the fact. One cannot avoid danger by turning his back, nor escape the light by shutting his eyes. We cannot fit Truth to us ; we must fit ourselves to the truth. We cannot break the law; but we can be broken by trying to break it. He who opposes the law is ground to dust and ashes, not by its volition but his own, as a knife may be ground away against the stone. Instead of crying out against the law, we must seek to understand it. We must "know the truth; and the truth will set us free.,, We are bound in the chains of our own ignorance ; and our escape is not by struggle but by knowledge.n5565 ¶8