As a man thinketh
governed by the same law and are of the same method; the only
difference lies in _the object of attainment._
He who would accomplish little must sacrifice little; he who would
achieve much must sacrifice much; he who would attain highly must
sacrifice greatly.
VISIONS AND IDEALS
THE dreamers are the saviours of the world. As the visible world is
sustained by the invisible, so men, through all their trials and
sins and sordid vocations, are nourished by the beautiful visions of
their solitary dreamers. Humanity cannot forget its dreamers; it
cannot let their ideals fade and die; it lives in them; it knows
them as the _realities_ which it shall one day see and know.
Composer, sculptor, painter, poet, prophet, sage, these are the
makers of the after-world, the architects of heaven. The world is
beautiful because they have lived; without them, labouring humanity
would perish.
He who cherishes a beautiful vision, a lofty ideal in his heart,
will one day realize it. Columbus cherished a vision of another
world, and he discovered it; Copernicus fostered the vision of a
multiplicity of worlds and a wider universe, and he revealed it;
Buddha beheld the vision of a spiritual world of stainless beauty
and perfect peace, and he entered into it.
Cherish your visions; cherish your ideals; cherish the music that
stirs in your heart, the beauty that forms in your mind, the
loveliness that drapes your purest thoughts, for out of them will
grow all delightful conditions, all, heavenly environment; of these,
if you but remain true to them, your world will at last be built.
To desire is to obtain; to aspire is to, achieve. Shall man's basest
desires receive the fullest measure of gratification, and his purest
aspirations starve for lack of sustenance? Such is not the Law: such
a condition of things can never obtain: "ask and receive."
Dream lofty dreams, and as you dream, so shall you become. Your
Vision is the promise of what you shall one day be; your Ideal is
the prophecy of what you shall at last unveil.
The greatest achievement was at first and for a time a dream. The
oak sleeps in the acorn; the bird waits in the egg; and in the
highest vision of the soul a waking angel stirs. Dreams are the
seedlings of realities.
Your circumstances may be uncongenial, but they shall not long
remain so if you but perceive an Ideal and strive to reach it. You
cannot travel _within_ and stand still _without._ Here is a youth
hard pressed by poverty and labour; confined long hours in an
unhealthy workshop; unschooled, and lacking all the arts of
refinement. But he dreams of better things; he thinks of
intelligence, of refinement, of grace and beauty. He conceives of,
mentally builds up, an ideal condition of life; the vision of a
wider liberty and a larger scope takes possession of him; unrest
urges him to action, and he utilizes all his spare time and means,
small though they are, to the development of his latent powers and
resources. Very soon so altered has his mind become that the
workshop can no longer hold him. It has become so out of harmony
with his mentality that it falls out of his life as a garment is
cast aside, and, with the growth of opportunities, which fit the
scope of his expanding powers, he passes out of it forever. Years
later we see this youth as a full-grown man. We find him a master of
certain forces of the mind, which he wields with worldwide influence
and almost unequalled power. In his hands he holds the cords of
gigantic responsibilities; he speaks, and lo, lives are changed; men
and women hang upon his words and remould their characters, and,
sunlike, he becomes the fixed and luminous centre round which
innumerable destinies revolve. He has realized the Vision of his
youth. He has become one with his Ideal.
And you, too, youthful reader, will realize the Vision (not the idle
wish) of your heart, be it base or beautiful, or a mixture of both,
for you will always gravitate toward that which you, secretly, most
love. Into your hands will be placed the exact results of your own
thoughts; you will receive that which you earn; no more, no less.
Whatever your present environment may be, you will fall, remain, or
rise with your thoughts, your Vision, your Ideal. You will become as
small as your controlling desire; as great as your dominant
aspiration: in the beautiful words of Stanton Kirkham Davis, "You
may be keeping accounts, and presently you shall walk out of the
door that for so long has seemed to you the barrier of your ideals,
and shall find yourself before an audience--the pen still behind
your ear, the ink stains on your fingers and then and there shall
pour out the torrent of your inspiration. You may be driving sheep,
and you shall wander to the city-bucolic and open-mouthed; shall
wander under the intrepid guidance of the spirit into the studio of
the master, and after a time he shall say, 'I have nothing more to
teach you.' And now you have become the master, who did so recently
dream of great things while driving sheep. You shall lay down the
saw and the plane to take upon yourself the regeneration of the
world."
The thoughtless, the ignorant, and the indolent, seeing only the
apparent effects of things and not the things themselves, talk of
luck, of fortune, and chance. Seeing a man grow rich, they say, "How
lucky he is!" Observing another become intellectual, they exclaim,
"How highly favoured he is!" And noting the saintly character and
wide influence of another, they remark, "How chance aids him at
every turn!" They do not see the trials and failures and struggles
which these men have voluntarily encountered in order to gain their
experience; have no knowledge of the sacrifices they have made, of
the undaunted efforts they have put forth, of the faith they have
exercised, that they might overcome the apparently insurmountable,
and realize the Vision of their heart. They do not know the darkness
and the heartaches; they only see the light and joy, and call it
"luck". They do not see the long and arduous journey, but only
behold the pleasant goal, and call it "good fortune," do not
understand the process, but only perceive the result, and call it
chance.
In all human affairs there are _efforts,_ and there are _results,_
and the strength of the effort is the measure of the result. Chance
is not. Gifts, powers, material, intellectual, and spiritual
possessions are the fruits of effort; they are thoughts completed,
objects accomplished, visions realized.
The Vision that you glorify in your mind, the Ideal that you
enthrone in your heart--this you will build your life by, this you
will become.
SERENITY
CALMNESS of mind is one of the beautiful jewels of wisdom. It is the
result of long and patient effort in self-control. Its presence is
an indication of ripened experience, and of a more than ordinary
knowledge of the laws and operations of thought.
A man becomes calm in the measure that he understands himself as a
thought evolved being, for such knowledge necessitates the
understanding of others as the result of thought, and 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
fuss and fume and worry and grieve, and remains poised, steadfast,
serene.
The calm man, having learned how to govern himself, knows how to
adapt himself to others; and they, in turn, reverence his spiritual
strength, and feel that they can learn of him and rely upon him. The
more tranquil a man becomes, the greater is his success, his
influence, his power for good. Even the ordinary trader will find
his business prosperity increase as he develops a greater
self-control and equanimity, for people will always prefer to deal
with a man whose demeanour is strongly equable.
The strong, calm man is always loved and revered. He is like a
shade-giving tree in a thirsty land, or a sheltering rock in a
storm. "Who does not love a tranquil heart, a sweet-tempered,
balanced life? It does not matter whether it rains or shines, or
what changes come to those possessing these blessings, for they are
always sweet, serene, and calm. That exquisite poise of character,
which we call serenity is the last lesson of culture, the fruitage
of the soul. It is precious as wisdom, more to be desired
than gold--yea, than even fine gold. How insignificant mere money
seeking looks in comparison with a serene life--a life that dwells
in the ocean of Truth, beneath the waves, beyond the reach of
tempests, in the Eternal Calm!
"How many people we know who sour their lives, who ruin all that is
sweet and beautiful by explosive tempers, who destroy their poise of
character, and make bad blood! It is a question whether the great
majority of people do not ruin their lives and mar their happiness
by lack of self-control. How few people we meet in life who are well
balanced, who have that exquisite poise which is characteristic of
the finished character!
Yes, humanity surges with uncontrolled passion, is tumultuous with
ungoverned grief, is blown about by anxiety and doubt only the wise
man, only he whose thoughts are controlled and purified, makes the
winds and the storms of the soul obey him.
Tempest-tossed souls, wherever ye may be, under whatsoever
conditions ye may live, know this in the ocean of life the isles of
Blessedness are smiling, and the sunny shore of your ideal awaits
your coming. Keep your hand firmly upon the helm of thought. In the
bark of your soul reclines the commanding Master; He does but sleep:
wake Him. Self-control is strength; Right Thought is mastery;
Calmness is power. Say unto your heart, "Peace, be still!"