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Experiments with parasites found on plants indicate that even the lowest
order of life is enabled to take advantage of natural law. This experiment
was made by Jacques Loch, M.D., Ph. D., a member of the Rockefeller
Institute.
"In
order to obtain the material, potted rose bushes are brought into a room and
placed in front of a closed window. If the plants are allowed to dry out,
the aphids (parasites), previously wingless, change to winged insects. After
the metamorphosis, the animals leave the plants, fly to the window and then
creep upward on the glass."
It
is evident that these tiny insects found that the plants on which they had
been thriving were dead, and that they could therefore secure nothing more
to eat and drink from this source. The only method by which they could save
themselves from starvation was to grow temporary wings and fly, which they
did.
Experiments such as these indicate that Omniscience as well as Omnipotence
is omnipresent and that the tiniest living thing can take advantage of it in
an emergency.
Part Fifteen will tell you more about the law under which we live. It will
explain that these laws operate to our advantage; that all conditions and
experiences that come to us are for our benefit; that we gain strength in
proportion to the effort expended, and that our happiness is best attained
through a conscious cooperation with natural laws.
PART FIFTEEN
1. The
laws under which we live are designed solely for our advantage. These laws
are immutable and we cannot escape from their operation.
2. All
the great eternal forces act in solemn silence, but it is in our power to
place ourselves in harmony with them and thus express a life of comparative
peace and happiness.
3.
Difficulties, inharmonies, and obstacles, indicate that we are either
refusing to give out what we no longer need, or refusing to accept what we
require.
4.
Growth is attained through an exchange of the old for the new, of the good
for the better; it is a conditional or reciprocal action, for each of us is
a complete thought entity and this completeness makes it possible for us to
receive only as we give.
5. We
cannot obtain what we lack if we tenaciously cling to what we have. We are
able to consciously control our conditions as we come to sense the purpose
of what we attract, and are able to extract from each experience only what
we require for our further growth. Our ability to do this determines the
degree of harmony or happiness we attain.
6. The
ability to appropriate what we require for our growth, continually increases
as we reach higher planes and broader visions, and the greater our abilities
to know what we require, the more certain we shall be to discern its
presence, to attract it and to absorb it. Nothing may reach us except what
is necessary for our growth.
7. All
conditions and experiences that come to us do so for our benefit.
Difficulties and obstacles will continue to come until we absorb their
wisdom and gather from them the essentials of further growth.
8.
That we reap what we sow is mathematically exact. We gain permanent strength
exactly to the extent of the effort required to overcome difficulties.
9. The
inexorable requirements of growth demand that we exert the greatest degree
of attraction for what is perfectly in accord with us. Our highest happiness
will be best attained through our understanding of, and conscious
cooperation with natural laws.
10. In
order to possess vitality thought must be impregnated with love. Love is a
product of the emotions. It is therefore essential that the emotions be
controlled and guided by the intellect and reason.
11. It
is love which imparts vitality to thought and thus enables it to germinate.
The law of attraction, or the law of love, for they are one and the same,
will bring to it the necessary material for its growth and maturity.
12.
The first form which thought will find is language, or words; this
determines the importance of words; they are the first manifestation of
thought -- the vessels in which thought is carried. They take hold of the
ether and by setting it in motion reproduce the thought to others in the
form of sound.
13.
Thought may lead to action of any kind, but whatever the action, it is
simply the thought attempting to express itself in visible form. It is
evident, therefore, that if we wish desirable conditions, we can afford to
entertain only desirable thoughts.
14.
This leads to the inevitable conclusion that if we wish to express abundance
in our lives, we can afford to think abundance only, and as words are only
thoughts taking form, we must be especially careful to use nothing but
constructive and harmonious language, which when finally crystallized into
objective forms, will prove to our advantage.
15. We
cannot escape from the pictures we incessantly photograph on the mind, and
this photography of erroneous conceptions is exactly what is being done by
the use of words, when we use any form of language which is not identified
with our welfare.
16. We
manifest more and more life as our thought becomes clarified and takes
higher planes. This is obtained with greater facility as we use word
pictures that are clearly defined, and relieved of the conceptions attached
to them on lower planes of thought.
17. It
is with words that we must express our thoughts, and if we are to make use
of higher forms of truth, we may use only such material as has been
carefully and intelligently selected with this purpose in view.
18.
This wonderful power of clothing thoughts in the form of words is what
differentiates man from the rest of the animal kingdom; by the use of the
written word he has been enabled to look back over the centuries and see the
stirring scenes by which he has come into his present inheritance.
19. He
has been enabled to come into communion with the greatest writers and
thinkers of all time, and the combined record which we possess today is
therefore the expression of Universal Thought as it has been seeking to take
form in the mind of Man.
20. We
know that the Universal Thought has for its goal the creation of form, and
we know that the individual thought is likewise forever attempting to
express itself in form, and we know that the word is a thought form, and a
sentence is a combination of thought forms, therefore, if we wish our ideal
to be beautiful or strong, we must see that the words out of which this
temple will eventually be created are exact, that they are put together
carefully, because accuracy in building words and sentences is the highest
form of architecture in civilization and is a passport to success.
21.
Words are thoughts and are therefore an invisible and invincible power which
will finally objectify themselves in the form they are given.
22.
Words may become mental places that will live forever, or they may become
shacks which the first breeze will carry away. They may delight the eye as
well as the ear; they may contain all knowledge; in them we find the history
of the past as well as the hope of the future; they are living messengers
from which every human and superhuman activity is born.
23.
The beauty of the word consists in the beauty of the thought; the power of
the word consists in the power of the thought, and the power of the thought
consists in its vitality. How shall we identify a vital thought? What are
its distinguishing characteristics? It must have principle. How shall we
identify principle?
24.
There is a principle of Mathematics, but none of error; there is a principle
of health, but none of disease; there is a principle of truth, but none of
dishonesty; there is a principle of light, but none of darkness, and there
is a principle of abundance, but none of poverty.
25.
How shall we know that this is true? Because if we apply the principle of
Mathematics correctly we shall be certain of our results. Where there is
health there will be no disease. If we know the Truth we cannot be deceived
by error. If we let in light there can be no darkness, and where there is
abundance there can be no poverty.
26.
These are self-evident facts, but the all-important truth that a thought
containing principle is vital and therefore contains life and consequently
takes root, and eventually but surely and certainly displaces the negative
thoughts, which by their very nature can contain no vitality, is one which
seems to have been overlooked.
27.
But this is a fact which will enable you to destroy every manner of discord,
lack and limitation.
28.
There can be no question but that he who "is wise enough to understand" will
readily recognize that the creative power of thought places an invincible
weapon in his hands and makes him a master of destiny.
29. In
the physical world there is a law of compensation which is that "the
appearance of a given amount of energy anywhere means the disappearance of
the same amount somewhere else," and so we find that we can get only what we
give; if we pledge ourselves to a certain action we must be prepared to
assume the responsibility for the development of that action. The
subconscious cannot reason. It takes us at our word; we have asked for
something; we are now to receive it; we have made our bed, we are now to lie
in it; the die has been cast; the threads will carry out the pattern we have
made.
30.
For this reason Insight must be exercised so that the thought which we
entertain contains no mental, moral or physical germ which we do not wish
objectified in our lives.
31.
Insight is a faculty of the mind whereby we are enabled to examine facts and
conditions at long range, a kind of human telescope; it enables us to
understand the difficulties, as well as the possibilities, in any
undertaking.
32.
Insight enables us to be prepared for the obstacles which we shall meet; we
can therefore overcome them before they have any opportunity of causing
difficulty.
33.
Insight enables us to plan to advantage and turn our thought and attention
in the right direction, instead of into channels which can yield no possible
return.
34.
Insight is therefore absolutely essential for the development of any great
achievement, but with it we may enter, explore and possess any mental field.
35.
Insight is a product of the world within and is developed in the Silence, by
concentration.
36.
For your exercise this week, concentrate on Insight; take your accustomed
position and focus the thought on the fact that to have a knowledge of the
creative power of thought does not mean to possess the art of thinking. Let
the thought dwell on the fact that knowledge does not apply itself. That our
actions are not governed by knowledge, but by custom, precedent and habit.
That the only way we can get ourselves to apply knowledge is by a determined
conscious effort. Call to mind the fact that knowledge unused passes from
the mind, that the value of the information is in the application of the
principle; continue this line of thought until you gain sufficient insight
to formulate a definite program for applying this principle to your own
particular problem. |
