When he comes to the full realization of his divinity, he will not be thrown from his base, nor will his peace be disturbed in the least by the vexatious happenings which trouble those who have not risen to their dominion, or who have not yet learned the secret of power.
“It is the greatest manifestation of power to be calm,” says Swami Vivekanandis. “It is easy to be active. Let the reins go, and the horses will drag you down. Any one can do that; but he who can stop the plunging horses is the strong man. Which requires the greater strength—letting go, or restraining? The calm man is not the man who is dull. You must not mistake calmness for dulness or laziness. . . . Activity is the manifestation of the lower strength, calmness of the superior strength.”
What have panics, or fires, or financial losses to do with the well-balanced man whom God made?
Suppose I should lose my property, what if my ships, my stores, and my houses should burn up, what has that really to do with me? It is true it may inconvenience me somewhat, and it may take some temporary power from my hand, but I cannot believe that an all-wise Creator has put my real self at the mercy of a panic, a fire, or any such emergency. Some people can so thoroughly impregnate themselves with thoughts of health, harmony, joy, gladness, and peace that accidents, misfortunes, and discordant moods cannot touch them.
I do not believe that the coming man, the ideal man, the man of the highest civilization, would be any more affected by a fire which destroyed his property than the laws of harmony would be affected by the burning up of all the musical instruments in the world.
The coming man will be so much master of his thought that he will be able to make himself one great magnet for attracting only those things which will add to his prosperity and enhance his happiness. He will be able to keep his body in perfect harmony by harboring only the health thought, and knowing how to exclude the disease thought, the sickly thought.
The coming man will always be cheerful, because he will entertain only the thoughts which produce happiness; he will not allow the clouds of worry or anxiety, or the darkness of melancholy, the blackness of jealousy and envy, to enter his mind. He will never mourn, but will always rejoice.
The coming man will no more allow the poisonous thoughts of pessimism, of disease, of wretchedness, of discord, to enter his mind, than he would take poisonous drugs into his stomach. He will be as able to control the kind and quality of his thoughts, as he is able to control the character of the guests he entertains in his home. He will invite only those he wants, only those whose influence he craves, and will exclude the enemy thoughts.
The coming man will not have the word “can’t ” in his vocabulary, for he will not have any doubt in his mind. The coming man will not know fear, which is now the greatest enemy of the human race, for he will not harbor the fear thought, which really results from a feeling of inefficiency, or inability to cope with the exigencies which may arise.
The coming man will always be prosperous because he will not allow the poverty thought, the limitation thought, to enter his mind. He will always hold thoughts of prosperity and abundance.
The coming man will live in an atmosphere of love and joyousness, for he himself will always feel and express love and joy. He will be healthy because soul and mind and body will be in that harmony which is perfect health.
Is it worth nothing to be able to think oneself out of discord into harmony, out of darkness into light, out of hatred into love, out of disease into health? Is it worth nothing to be able to rise into one’s dominion, to reign as a sovereign instead of grovelling as an abject slave? Such an attainment is worthy of the highest aspiration and the greatest effort. What it may mean to an individual is beautifully expressed by Ralph Waldo Trine:
“With this awakening and realization one is brought at once en rapport with the universe. He feels the power and the thrill of life universal. He goes out from his own little garden spot, and mingles with the great universe; and the little perplexities, trials, and difficulties of life that to-day so vex and annoy him, fall away of their own accord by reason of their very insignificance. The intuitions become keener and ever more keen and unerring in their guidance. There comes more and more the power of reading men, so that no harm can come from this source. There comes more and more the power of seeing into the future, so that more and more true becomes the old adage that coming events cast their shadows before. Health in time takes the place of disease; for all disease and its consequent suffering is merely the result of the violation of law, whether consciously or unconsciously. There comes a spiritual power which, as it is sent out, is adequate for the healing of others the same as in the days of old. The body becomes less gross and heavy, finer in its texture and form, so that it serves far better and responds more readily to the higher impulses of the soul. Matter itself in time responds to the action of these higher forces; and many things that we are accustomed by reason of our limited vision to call miraculous or supernatural become the normal, the natural, the every-day.”
The man who keeps his thoughts and his life tending upward will, in every emergency, find the forces of nature and of his fellow-men rushing to aid him, according to the law," To him that hath, shall be given,” and, because like produces like, the more one has of the success thought, the happiness thought, the good-will thought, the more powerful will be the attraction for kindred things. Thus all good things “shall be added unto him ” and he shall become “perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect.”
He Can Who Thinks He Can, and Other Papers on Success in Life
Chapter I. He Can Who Thinks He Can
Chapter III. Education By Absorption
Chapter IV. Freedom At Any Cost
Chapter V. What The World Owes To Dreamers
Chapter VI. The Spirit In Which You Work
Chapter VII. Responsibility Develops Power
Chapter VIII. An Overmastering Purpose
Chapter IX. Has Your Vocation Your Unqualified Approval?
Chapter X. Stand For Something
Chapter XI. Happy, If Not, Why Not?