做自己命運的主人
恐懼意味著害怕、畏縮，毫無疑問它是一種消極情緒，心中懷有恐懼的時候，我們通常都會為了躲開危險而試圖回避。人類因為有了能思考的大腦，恐懼的對象變得更為廣泛，在豐富的想象力的作用下，使得人類恐懼無處不在，無時不有。
恐懼是由腎上腺素分泌的激素所產生的，它能夠使神經中樞變得脆弱，影響到血液的循環，使我們的肌肉係統變得軟弱無力。因此，恐懼影響著整個生命的狀態，無論是大腦、神經、肌肉，還是整個身體。
形容恐懼的詞匯是如此的豐富，害怕、不安、擔心、恐怖、驚嚇、驚慌、擔憂、猶豫、膽怯、困擾、不安全感、憂心忡忡、沮喪、驚恐不安、驚訝、驚惶換措、畏懼、戰栗、大禍臨頭、末日將至等等，足可證明人類恐懼的普遍存在，更說明人類戰勝恐懼的任務是何等的艱巨。
恐懼與孤獨又是緊密聯係在一起的。當我們心中隻有自己的時候，我們就會因為孤獨而恐懼，但是如果我們能夠與別人建立融洽的關係，相互關心，相互愛護，恐懼就會自動消失。總而言之，恐懼是一種過分的自我關注所產生的結果。當然，戰勝恐懼的主要方式是獲得一種強有力的力量。那麽被我們稱作“力量”的這種神秘的生命力到底是什麽呢？我們中的很多人可能尚不清楚，但這並不影響我們使用這種力量。
其實，在我們的生命體中蘊藏著一種主要的力量，隻要遵循這種力量的法則和原理，我們就可以讓這種生命的能量如滾滾的江水一樣湧入自己的胸懷，提升生命的潛能，從而最大可能地釋放自己的潛能。就如同我們不知道電是何物。但是我們卻知道如果遵循電的法則，電就會成為我們聽話的工具；它能照亮我們的家庭、我們的城市，使機器發動起來，成為我們生活的最好的助手。
- 探索真理
人類對於真理的探索，已經有了合乎邏輯的方法，它是一種程序化的、係統化的進程，而不再是盲目的探險。
- 探索終極的動因
追根究底，所謂的探索真理，其實就是在探索終極的動因。回顧人類發展的曆史，每一次重大的社會進步，都取決於我們對某種動因的掌握，而一旦我們能把這種動因確實，並有意識地加以控製，我們自身一切的遭遇都能在我們的展望和掌握之中。
- 人可以做自己命運的主人
所以，人生，絕不是一場賭博；人，也絕不是際遇的玩偶。我們要做自己命運的主人，也完全可以做自己的主人。
- 萬物之間彼此聯係
- 矛盾無處不在
- 事物是矛盾的，同時又是整體的
- 精神世界亦是如此
- 一切皆然
- 隻有精神世界是永恒
物質在不斷地變化，不斷地更新換代。彈指一揮間，千年也會成為過去，而精神卻是真實永恒的。如果我們身處一個大都市，看著這裏的高樓大廈，車水馬龍，這裏的物質文明絕不是一個世紀之前的人所想象、企及的。而如果我們的子孫在百年之後站在我們今天的位置看這裏，他對我們今天所擁有的一切會毫無概念，因為今天的一切早就在曆史的長河裏變得麵目全非了。
- 世界在不斷地變化
- 宇宙精神的演變
萬物無時無刻不處於瞬息萬變之中，變化的根源又來自於宇宙精神的演變，任何事物都逃不過這個體係。
- 精神世界是最重要的
- 精神世界是動態的
人類的思考能力正是我們的精神世界與宇宙精神相共振，並把宇宙精神轉化成動態心智的能力。精神的運動結果就形成了我們所謂的心智、思考力。
- 使精神產生運動的驅動力
任何一件事物要想運動就必須供給它充足的動力和燃料。對於人的思考來說，食物就是使它產生運動的物質燃料。一個人不吃東西就無法思考。我們的思維，如果不借助一定的物質手段，當然也就不可能成為快樂與福祉的源泉。
- 積極的思想會產生積極的結果
- 因果循環的自然真理
自然法則統治整個自然界。而隻有我們的思想才能夠理解這些自然法則，而一旦理解了這些思想法則，我們的心靈就會充滿了力量。
- 知識產生真理
我們從小到大，都在接受獲得知識的訓練，這些知識是我們的精神能量的發電站，我們獲得的知識越多，精神的能量就越大。
- 精神的發電廠
- 什麽是精神發電廠的原材料
這種看似神秘的原材料就是我們的思想。
- 思想具有最強大的力量
- 思想創造奇跡
- 看到現象背後的本質
透過現象看本質，我們必須充分意識到，一切事物的表象都並非真實：地球不是靜止的；大地也不是平坦的……
- 理解更多的真理
按照這個思路走下去，總有一天——也許就在某個寧靜的清晨，我們就會知道更多的宇宙精神運行的真理，而人類所有的思想和行為模式都會因此而做出調整和改變，人類將會因此變得更強大。這一天，指日可待！
本課重點
１、矛盾的對立麵是什麽？
——物質世界中存在著不計其數的矛盾對立麵：事物總是有著不同的顏色、形狀、大小；電有正負有兩極；世界有宏觀，也有微觀。等等。
２、矛盾的對立麵是分別獨立的實體嗎？
——不是，它們都是同一個事物整體。
３、在物質、精神和心靈世界中有一個最基本的創造性原理，這個原理是什麽？
——宇宙精神，它是永恒的能量，萬物都是由它而來。
４、我們如何與這個創造性法則相聯係？
——通過我們的思考能力。
５、這種創造性法則是如何運行的？
——思想是種子，思想引發行為，行為產生現實中的結果。
６、為什麽物質世界不是永恒的？
——物質在不斷地變化，一切物質存在都會在曆史的長河中變得麵目全非。
７、真正永恒的是什麽？
——精神世界。
８、什麽是精神發電廠的原材料？
——人類的思想。
９、我們怎樣才能夠理解更多的真理、自然法則？
——透過現象看到事物的本質。
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Part Nineteen
Fear is a powerful form of thought. It paralyzes the nerve centers, thus affecting the circulation of the blood.
This, in turn, paralyzes the muscular system, so that fear affects the entire being, body, brain and nerve, physical, mental, and muscular.
Of course the way to overcome fear is to become conscious of power. What is this mysterious vital force which we call power? We do not know, but then, neither do we know what electricity is.
But we do know that by conforming to the requirements of the law by which electricity is governed, it will be our obedient servant; that it will light our homes, our cities, run our machinery, and serve us in many useful capacities.
And so it is with vital force. Although we do not know what it is, and possibly may never know, we do know that it is a primary force which manifests through living bodies, and that by complying with the laws and principles by which it is governed, we can open ourselves to a more abundant inflow of this vital energy, and thus express the highest possible degree of mental, moral, and spiritual efficiency.
This part tells of a very simple way of developing this vital force. If you put into practice the information outlined in this lesson you will soon develop the sense of power which has ever been the distinguishing mark of genius.
PART NINETEEN
1. The search for truth is no longer a haphazard adventure, but it is a systematic process, and is logical in its operation. Every kind of experience is given a voice in shaping its decision.
2. In seeking the truth we are seeking ultimate cause; we know that every human experience is an effect; then if we may ascertain the cause, and if we shall find that this cause is one which we can consciously control, the effect or the experience will be within our control also.
3. Human experience will then no longer be the football of fate; a man will not be the child of fortune, but destiny. Fate and fortune will be controlled as readily as a captain controls his ship, or an engineer his train.
4. All things are finally resolvable into the same element and as they are thus translatable, one into the other, they must ever be in relation and may never be in opposition to one another.
5. In the physical world there are innumerable contrasts, and these may for convenience sake, be designated by distinctive names. There are sizes, colors, shades or ends to all things. There is a North Pole, and a South Pole, an inside and an outside, a seen and an unseen, but these expressions merely serve to place extremes in contrast.
6. They are names given to two different parts of one quantity. The two extremes are relative; they are not separate entities, but are two parts or aspects of the whole.
7. In the mental world we find the same law; we speak of knowledge and ignorance, but ignorance is but a lack of knowledge and is therefore found to be simply a word to express the absence of knowledge; it has no principle in itself.
8. In the Moral World we again find the same law; we speak of good and evil, but Good is a reality, something tangible, while Evil is found to be simply a negative condition, the absence of Good. Evil is sometimes thought to be a very real condition, but it has no principle, no vitality, no life; we know this because it can always be destroyed by Good; just as Truth destroys Error and light destroys darkness, so Evil vanishes when Good appears; there is therefore but one principle in the Moral World.
9. We find exactly the same law obtaining in the Spiritual world; we speak of Mind and Matter as two separate entities, but clearer insight makes it evident that there is but one operative principle and that is Mind.
10. Mind is the real and the eternal. Matter is forever changing; we know that in the eons of time a hundred years is but as a day. If we stand in any large city and let the eye rest on the innumerable large and magnificent buildings, the vast array of conveniences of modern civilization, we may remember that not one of them was there just over a century ago, and if we could stand on the same spot in a hundred years from now, in all probability we should find that but few of them remained.
11. In the animal kingdom we find the same law of change. The millions and millions of animals come and go, a few years constituting their span of life. In the plant world the change is still more rapid. Many plants and nearly all grasses come and go in a single year. When we pass to the inorganic, we expect to find something more substantial, but as we gaze on the apparently solid continent, we are told that it arose from the ocean; we see the giant mountain and are told that the place where it now stands was once a lake; and as we stand in awe before the great cliffs in the Yosemite Valley we can easily trace the path of the glaciers which carried all before them.
12. We are in the presence of continual change, and we know that this change is but the evolution of the Universal Mind, the grand process whereby all things are continually being created anew, and we come to know that matter is but a form which Mind takes and is therefore simply a condition. Matter has no principle; Mind is the only principle.
13. We have then come to know that Mind is the only principle which is operative in the physical, mental, moral and spiritual world.
14. We also know that this mind is static, mind at rest, we also know that the ability of the individual to think is his ability to act upon the Universal Mind and convert it into dynamic mind, or mind in motion.
15. In order to do this fuel must be applied in the form of food, for man cannot think without eating, and so we find that even a spiritual activity such as thinking cannot be converted into sources of pleasure and profit except by making use of material means.
16. It requires energy of some kind to collect electricity and convert it into a dynamic power, it requires the rays of the sun to give the necessary energy to sustain plant life, so it also requires energy in the form of food to enable the individual to think and thereby act upon the Universal Mind.
17. You may know that thought constantly, eternally is taking form, is forever seeking expression, or you may not, but the fact remains that if your thought is powerful, constructive, and positive, this will be plainly evident in the state of your health, your business and your environment; if your thought is weak, critical, destructive and negative generally, it will manifest in your body as fear, worry and nervousness, in your finance as lack and limitation, and in discordant conditions in your environment.
18. All wealth is the offspring of power; possessions are of value only as they confer power. Events are significant only as they affect power; all things represent certain forms and degrees of power.
19. A knowledge of cause and effect as shown by the laws governing steam, electricity, chemical affinity and gravitation enables men to plan courageously and to execute fearlessly. These laws are called Natural Laws, because they govern the physical world, but all power is not physical power; there is also mental power, and there is moral and spiritual power.
20. What are our schools, our universities, but mental powerhouses, places where mental power is being developed?
21. As there are many mighty powerhouses for the application of power to ponderous machinery, whereby raw material is collected and converted into the necessities and comforts of life, so the mental powerhouses collect the raw material and cultivate and develop it into a power which is infinitely superior to all the forces of nature, marvelous though they may be.
22. What is this raw material which is being collected in these thousands of mental powerhouses all over the world and developed into a power which is evidently controlling every other power? In its static form it is Mind - in its dynamic form, it is Thought.
23. This power is superior because it exists on a higher plane, because it has enabled man to discover the law by which these wonderful forces of Nature could be harnessed and made to do the work of hundreds and thousands of men. It has enabled man to discover laws whereby time and space have been annihilated, and the law of gravitation overcome.
24. Thought is the vital force or energy which is being developed and which has produced such startling results in the last half century as to bring about a world which would be absolutely inconceivable to a man existing only 50 or 25 years ago. If such results have been secured by organizing these mental powerhouses in 50 years, what may not be expected in another 50 years?
25. The substance from which all things are created is infinite in quantity; we know that light travels at the rate of 186,000 miles per second, and we know that there are stars so remote that it takes light 2,000 years to reach us, and we know that such stars exist in all parts of the heaven; we know, too, that this light comes in waves, so that if the ether on which these waves travel was not continuous the light would fail to reach us; we can then only come to the conclusion that this substance, or ether, or raw material, is universally present.
26. How, then, does it manifest in form? In electrical science a battery is formed by connecting the opposite poles of zinc and copper, which causes a current to flow from one to the other and so provides energy. This same process is repeated in respect to every polarity, and as all form simply depends upon the rate of vibration and consequent relations of atoms to each other, if we wish to change the form of manifestation we must change the polarity. This is the principle of causation.
27. For your exercise this week, concentrate, and when I use the word concentrate, I mean all that the word implies; become so absorbed in the object of your thought that you are conscious of nothing else, and do this a few minutes every day. You take the necessary time to eat in order that the body may be nourished, why not take the time to assimilate your mental food?
28. Let the thought rest on the fact that appearances are deceptive. The earth is not flat, neither is it stationary; the sky is not a dome, the sun does not move, the stars are not small specks of light, and matter which was once supposed to be fixed has been found to be in a state of perpetual flux.
29. Try to realize that the day is fast approaching -- its dawn is now at hand -- when modes of thought and action must be adjusted to rapidly increasing knowledge of the operation of eternal principles.
Silent thought, is, after all, the mightiest agent in human affairs.
Channing
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Study Questions with Answers
181. How are extremes placed in contrast?
They are designated by distinctive names, such as inside and outside, top and bottom, light and dark, good and bad.
182. Are these separate entities?
No, they are parts or aspects of one Whole.
183. What is the one creative Principle in the physical, mental and spiritual world?
The Universal Mind, or the Eternal Energy from which all things proceed.
184. How are we related to this creative Principle?
By our ability to think.
185. How does this creative Principle become operative?
Thought is the seed, which results in action and action results in form.
186. Upon what does form depend?
Upon the rate of vibration.
187. How may the rate of vibration be changed?
By mental action.
188. Upon what does mental action depend?
Upon polarity, action and reaction, between the individual and the Universal.
189. Does the creative energy originate in the individual or the Universal?
In the Universal, but the Universal can manifest only through the individual.
190. Why is the individual necessary?
Because the Universal is static, and requires energy to start it in motion. This is furnished by food which is converted into energy, which in turn enables the individual to think. When the individual stops eating he stops thinking; then he no longer acts upon the Universal; there is consequently no longer any action or reaction; the Universal is then only pure mind in static form -- mind at rest.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Part Nineteen
Fear is a powerful form of thought. It paralyzes the nerve centers, thus affecting the circulation of the blood.
This, in turn, paralyzes the muscular system, so that fear affects the entire being, body, brain and nerve, physical, mental, and muscular.
Of course the way to overcome fear is to become conscious of power. What is this mysterious vital force which we call power? We do not know, but then, neither do we know what electricity is.
But we do know that by conforming to the requirements of the law by which electricity is governed, it will be our obedient servant; that it will light our homes, our cities, run our machinery, and serve us in many useful capacities.
And so it is with vital force. Although we do not know what it is, and possibly may never know, we do know that it is a primary force which manifests through living bodies, and that by complying with the laws and principles by which it is governed, we can open ourselves to a more abundant inflow of this vital energy, and thus express the highest possible degree of mental, moral, and spiritual efficiency.
This part tells of a very simple way of developing this vital force. If you put into practice the information outlined in this lesson you will soon develop the sense of power which has ever been the distinguishing mark of genius.
PART NINETEEN
1. The search for truth is no longer a haphazard adventure, but it is a systematic process, and is logical in its operation. Every kind of experience is given a voice in shaping its decision.
2. In seeking the truth we are seeking ultimate cause; we know that every human experience is an effect; then if we may ascertain the cause, and if we shall find that this cause is one which we can consciously control, the effect or the experience will be within our control also.
3. Human experience will then no longer be the football of fate; a man will not be the child of fortune, but destiny. Fate and fortune will be controlled as readily as a captain controls his ship, or an engineer his train.
4. All things are finally resolvable into the same element and as they are thus translatable, one into the other, they must ever be in relation and may never be in opposition to one another.
5. In the physical world there are innumerable contrasts, and these may for convenience sake, be designated by distinctive names. There are sizes, colors, shades or ends to all things. There is a North Pole, and a South Pole, an inside and an outside, a seen and an unseen, but these expressions merely serve to place extremes in contrast.
6. They are names given to two different parts of one quantity. The two extremes are relative; they are not separate entities, but are two parts or aspects of the whole.
7. In the mental world we find the same law; we speak of knowledge and ignorance, but ignorance is but a lack of knowledge and is therefore found to be simply a word to express the absence of knowledge; it has no principle in itself.
8. In the Moral World we again find the same law; we speak of good and evil, but Good is a reality, something tangible, while Evil is found to be simply a negative condition, the absence of Good. Evil is sometimes thought to be a very real condition, but it has no principle, no vitality, no life; we know this because it can always be destroyed by Good; just as Truth destroys Error and light destroys darkness, so Evil vanishes when Good appears; there is therefore but one principle in the Moral World.
9. We find exactly the same law obtaining in the Spiritual world; we speak of Mind and Matter as two separate entities, but clearer insight makes it evident that there is but one operative principle and that is Mind.
10. Mind is the real and the eternal. Matter is forever changing; we know that in the eons of time a hundred years is but as a day. If we stand in any large city and let the eye rest on the innumerable large and magnificent buildings, the vast array of conveniences of modern civilization, we may remember that not one of them was there just over a century ago, and if we could stand on the same spot in a hundred years from now, in all probability we should find that but few of them remained.
11. In the animal kingdom we find the same law of change. The millions and millions of animals come and go, a few years constituting their span of life. In the plant world the change is still more rapid. Many plants and nearly all grasses come and go in a single year. When we pass to the inorganic, we expect to find something more substantial, but as we gaze on the apparently solid continent, we are told that it arose from the ocean; we see the giant mountain and are told that the place where it now stands was once a lake; and as we stand in awe before the great cliffs in the Yosemite Valley we can easily trace the path of the glaciers which carried all before them.
12. We are in the presence of continual change, and we know that this change is but the evolution of the Universal Mind, the grand process whereby all things are continually being created anew, and we come to know that matter is but a form which Mind takes and is therefore simply a condition. Matter has no principle; Mind is the only principle.
13. We have then come to know that Mind is the only principle which is operative in the physical, mental, moral and spiritual world.
14. We also know that this mind is static, mind at rest, we also know that the ability of the individual to think is his ability to act upon the Universal Mind and convert it into dynamic mind, or mind in motion.
15. In order to do this fuel must be applied in the form of food, for man cannot think without eating, and so we find that even a spiritual activity such as thinking cannot be converted into sources of pleasure and profit except by making use of material means.
16. It requires energy of some kind to collect electricity and convert it into a dynamic power, it requires the rays of the sun to give the necessary energy to sustain plant life, so it also requires energy in the form of food to enable the individual to think and thereby act upon the Universal Mind.
17. You may know that thought constantly, eternally is taking form, is forever seeking expression, or you may not, but the fact remains that if your thought is powerful, constructive, and positive, this will be plainly evident in the state of your health, your business and your environment; if your thought is weak, critical, destructive and negative generally, it will manifest in your body as fear, worry and nervousness, in your finance as lack and limitation, and in discordant conditions in your environment.
18. All wealth is the offspring of power; possessions are of value only as they confer power. Events are significant only as they affect power; all things represent certain forms and degrees of power.
19. A knowledge of cause and effect as shown by the laws governing steam, electricity, chemical affinity and gravitation enables men to plan courageously and to execute fearlessly. These laws are called Natural Laws, because they govern the physical world, but all power is not physical power; there is also mental power, and there is moral and spiritual power.
20. What are our schools, our universities, but mental powerhouses, places where mental power is being developed?
21. As there are many mighty powerhouses for the application of power to ponderous machinery, whereby raw material is collected and converted into the necessities and comforts of life, so the mental powerhouses collect the raw material and cultivate and develop it into a power which is infinitely superior to all the forces of nature, marvelous though they may be.
22. What is this raw material which is being collected in these thousands of mental powerhouses all over the world and developed into a power which is evidently controlling every other power? In its static form it is Mind - in its dynamic form, it is Thought.
23. This power is superior because it exists on a higher plane, because it has enabled man to discover the law by which these wonderful forces of Nature could be harnessed and made to do the work of hundreds and thousands of men. It has enabled man to discover laws whereby time and space have been annihilated, and the law of gravitation overcome.
24. Thought is the vital force or energy which is being developed and which has produced such startling results in the last half century as to bring about a world which would be absolutely inconceivable to a man existing only 50 or 25 years ago. If such results have been secured by organizing these mental powerhouses in 50 years, what may not be expected in another 50 years?
25. The substance from which all things are created is infinite in quantity; we know that light travels at the rate of 186,000 miles per second, and we know that there are stars so remote that it takes light 2,000 years to reach us, and we know that such stars exist in all parts of the heaven; we know, too, that this light comes in waves, so that if the ether on which these waves travel was not continuous the light would fail to reach us; we can then only come to the conclusion that this substance, or ether, or raw material, is universally present.
26. How, then, does it manifest in form? In electrical science a battery is formed by connecting the opposite poles of zinc and copper, which causes a current to flow from one to the other and so provides energy. This same process is repeated in respect to every polarity, and as all form simply depends upon the rate of vibration and consequent relations of atoms to each other, if we wish to change the form of manifestation we must change the polarity. This is the principle of causation.
27. For your exercise this week, concentrate, and when I use the word concentrate, I mean all that the word implies; become so absorbed in the object of your thought that you are conscious of nothing else, and do this a few minutes every day. You take the necessary time to eat in order that the body may be nourished, why not take the time to assimilate your mental food?
28. Let the thought rest on the fact that appearances are deceptive. The earth is not flat, neither is it stationary; the sky is not a dome, the sun does not move, the stars are not small specks of light, and matter which was once supposed to be fixed has been found to be in a state of perpetual flux.
29. Try to realize that the day is fast approaching -- its dawn is now at hand -- when modes of thought and action must be adjusted to rapidly increasing knowledge of the operation of eternal principles.
Silent thought, is, after all, the mightiest agent in human affairs.
Channing
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Study Questions with Answers
181. How are extremes placed in contrast?
They are designated by distinctive names, such as inside and outside, top and bottom, light and dark, good and bad.
182. Are these separate entities?
No, they are parts or aspects of one Whole.
183. What is the one creative Principle in the physical, mental and spiritual world?
The Universal Mind, or the Eternal Energy from which all things proceed.
184. How are we related to this creative Principle?
By our ability to think.
185. How does this creative Principle become operative?
Thought is the seed, which results in action and action results in form.
186. Upon what does form depend?
Upon the rate of vibration.
187. How may the rate of vibration be changed?
By mental action.
188. Upon what does mental action depend?
Upon polarity, action and reaction, between the individual and the Universal.
189. Does the creative energy originate in the individual or the Universal?
In the Universal, but the Universal can manifest only through the individual.
190. Why is the individual necessary?
Because the Universal is static, and requires energy to start it in motion. This is furnished by food which is converted into energy, which in turn enables the individual to think. When the individual stops eating he stops thinking; then he no longer acts upon the Universal; there is consequently no longer any action or reaction; the Universal is then only pure mind in static form -- mind at rest.
