How To Live Life And Love It
	"How To Live Life And Love It!" <  Previous Contents Next  >

MASTER: If you are anxious and uncertain about the future because of the fast-moving and extremely chaotic changes now going on all about you, here is a lesson that will help you find your true self and to stay at peace. Once we really find the true self we are in tune with Life as it is. Then we can live life and love it! Life really is glorious once one knows how to live it. Try to imagine for a few minutes that you know a secret which opens all of the closed doors of seeming limitation and that you can then step into a new world in which all is Life and Liberty. In order to enter this fair paradise of freedom the mind must be trained to choose carefully the emotional trend of thinking.

PUPIL: Do you mean that only those who have developed their different mental faculties through study and practice of Truth can enter this kingdom?

MASTER: That is exactly what I mean, since thoughts alone are creative. Those who have leaned the value of the trained will, imagination, intuition, and who live accordingly, can really feel secure. The tendency of thought, the habits of thought, determine with precision one's outward affairs. So as you start to travel this road which leads to absolute liberty in all things it is necessary to leave behind all excess baggage such as self pity, intolerance, criticism, fear, despondency, feelings of superiority, and all other negative and destructive occupants of your mental house. Take all these and put them in a secure bag; then tie a string of resolute determination tightly around them and dump them on a trash-pile. Cover the worthless bag of destructive evils with oil and set it on fire. Then are you really ready to start on your journey.

PUPIL: It would seem that one is only able to "go places" on this road by developing self-control. Is that so necessary?

MASTER: Yes, vitally necessary. However true and powerful a truth may be there must be a method of application of the principle to the individual. The best and surest method of manifesting the truth that God and man are one, and that God lives in and thinks through each of us, is to deliberately cultivate self-control with its consequent serenity of mind. In your endeavor to use this great Power for your individual purpose in the affairs of your hourly life you must be able to catch your thought the minute it begins to wander into doubts, fears, condemnations, criticisms, etc. and turn it in the direction you DO wish to go. Thus will you build certainty into your soul and body and the possession of certainty within means certainty and all things good in the affairs.

PUPIL: You make it seem that my disposition and self-control need much of my attention. I will admit that I am not patient; and of course I am intolerant, but only with those who deserve it -only with those who do not seem to try to do their part do I lose my temper.

MASTER: It is not my intention to be personal about your disposition. But I do say earnestly that every person who wishes to enjoy the blessings of true freedom MUST learn careful thought-selection, which means absolute thought-control, or self-control. In this way you will very soon entertain only the thought-guests you admire and enjoy. The uncouth, the grouchy, the selfish, the condemnatory, the suspicious, the tramp thoughts, all of whom will try to make a convenience of your mental domain, must be turned out of your mind. The best way to do this is put your whole feeling into an affirmation, whatever one appeals to you at the moment. Hold steadily to that thought and feeling until everything unlike it is out of your mind. Then lock your mental doors and use your will to keep out thoughts you have dismissed from your presence.

PUPIL: This making my mind do my new will is not going to be easy. I will practically have to make over completely my habitual mental processes.

MASTER: No, it will not be easy. But the goal the discipline will lead you to is worth a thousand times the effort required, however much effort that may be. If you will mentally stick tight to your resolve to make your mind a conscious center of divine operation, even for one week, seeing yourself growing steadily into what you wish to become, you will be amazed at your own growth and the genuine interest you have in everything around you.

Also you will discover many, many wonderful things about yourself that you never knew before. Once you focus your attention and your intention on the Intelligent Life within you, and try to reproduce it in your own self, you will begin to get results that will seem almost phenomenal to you, and at once. Keep your consciousness focused on the fact that the Spirit of Life has no fears, no anxiety, and soon your feeling will correspond with It. Just try this, say for two weeks, without slipping; then ask yourself if you would go back to your old estate, if you could.

PUPIL: Is one apt to be "hypnotized," and thus hindered in progress, by the thoughts of others about one? Sometimes I seem to be making real progress when suddenly, and for no apparent reason, there is an almost uncontrollable impulse and feeling of "oh what is the use!" I am like a ship without a rudder, trying to plow through some invisible, and invincible, force, and "getting nowhere fast," as the saying is. At best these experiences are long, long detours off the main road. What causes these episodes?

MASTER: You gave it its right name in the beginning. It is hypnotism; but as a rule it is self-hypnotism, almost unconsciously done because of the old habits of thought; and it comes as the result of your letting things other than your aim hold your attention. Your efforts to control your thoughts should be steady, continuous, with no unguarded moments. Mere spasmodic efforts, however strongly indulged in at the times of their occurrence to you, will never take you very far on the road to the new goal you have set. Before you study any further in these lessons, yes right now, make up your mind positively that you are entering upon the study to win, and that you will make an earnest, steady, continuous effort to do so.

My own personal remedy for overcoming any tendency to slip back into the old rut of wrong thinking, and I assure you that I have always found it a most potent and sure panacea, is, believe it or not, that wonderful thing, derisively called "old-fashioned and out of date" by some, -The Lord's Prayer. Go carefully over the Lord's Prayer every day. If you do not already know it thoroughly, memorize it, so that you can repeat it anywhere, anytime, silently if you like. Us it, repeat it carefully, slowly, and with much depth of feeling, as often as there is the least tendency to slip off your path.

After you have finished with your reading, or repetition of the Prayer, then take up your mental picture again, mentally seeing, feeling, believing, knowing that you are already in possession of whatever it is that you want.

This is what Jesus meant when He said for us to always, "ask believing that ye already have and ye SHALL HAVE!" If you will do these things, very soon you will find that you ARE on the road to Freedom and Joy, and it will constantly grow easier for you to stay on the highway, without so many detours.

PUPIL: Just now I should like very much to have more money. In fact I must have it. Do you mean that I can attract the money I need by living with the Lord's Prayer for, say half an hour every morning and every night, just "precipitate" the money right out of the very air? That seems incredible!

MASTER: What you ask is incredible! And you are not getting my real meaning. The finest statement of the Law of Life ever uttered is, in my opinion, that wonderful, wonderful statement of Jesus, namely: "Seek ye FIRST the kingdom of God and His righteousness (right-use-ness) and (then) all things will be added unto you." But please note that FIRST you must seek the kingdom, must make an honest effort to make your mind a center of divine operation only, and for its own sake and not from any ulterior motive.

Then will all things be added unto you. What happens to you through the steady, persistent use of the Lord's Prayer, as we were discussing it, is this: With the constant change in your mental attitude as you progress you are developing more and more strength and spiritual power. This self-mastery you are steadily developing is the growth of Divine Wisdom, Power and Beauty within you. Naturally then your whole outside world will gradually change to correspond to your new inside world because your most habitual thought takes outward form. Delightful changes will come into the circle of your individual world. Your thought and feeling will attract corresponding shapes; and you will feel much encouraged to go on and on and on into more and more joy and freedom.