Mastery of Fate
	Express Your Individuality <  Previous Contents Next  >

THE purpose of life is continuous advancement, and this necessitates the constant appropriation of the new, and the constant elimination of the old. To promote the first essential, a practical system of ideals is required; and to promote the second, we must master the art of letting go.

If we desire the new to be created, the creative process of mind must be supplied with new and better impressions. Should we fail to do this, the creative energies will employ the old ideas, or impressions that are suggested from without.

In the mastery of fate, one of the greatest essentials is to prevent environment from impressing the mind; and to prevent this, your mind should be filled with your own ideal impressions. But this is not possible to any satisfactory degree unless a definite system of idealism is adopted, because no impression will become strong and predominant unless it is given constant attention.

In this connection, the true use of the imagination becomes extremely important. Everything that we imagine we impress upon mind; therefore, through the imagination we can work ourselves into almost any condition or state of being. In meeting circumstances and events imagination can be made to serve a most valuable service, and thus become directly instrumental in changing environment and fate.

When adversity comes we usually try to find the silver lining; but when we fail to find this, discouragement follows, which in turn but intensifies the darkness and the trouble.

However, we can create a silver lining with the imagination that will serve the same purpose; because when we picture the better side of things, and keep mind steadily upon that picture, the better will impress itself upon the mind. The result is that our thoughts change for the better, and we improve with our thoughts; and the improvement of man means the improvement of his environment.

Anyone who is in trouble can work himself out by creating in his imagination the silver lining of emancipation, and keeping the eye single upon that ideal picture.

Anyone who wishes to change his fate can do so by imaging upon mind a different fate, and by keeping that image so constantly before mind that every thought becomes the likeness of the new fate.

The law is that the external world of man changes when his mental world changes; and through the constructive use of the imagination the mental world can be changed in any way that we may desire.

When failure seems near, we should image success, refusing absolutely to think of the dark side. By imaging success, we impress upon mind the idea of success; thoughts will be created containing the elements of success, and from these thoughts we shall receive the power that can produce success. Any threatening failure can be overcome and entirely averted by this simple process, providing we live and work as we think.

By training the imagination to serve the system of ideals that we may have adopted, we shah soon gain full control of the process that forms impressions upon mind; and when this is accomplished every high ideal, every great purpose and every superior quality that we have in mind will be so well impressed upon the mental creative process that perpetual growth into every desirable condition must positively take place.

But to promote this advancement, we must learn to let go completely of everything that has served its purpose, or that in any way interferes with the steady progress of the whole man.

To acquire the art of letting go is an accomplishment with few equals, and is easily attained by learning to act upon the subjective side of everything in our own systems. It is the subjective side that holds; therefore, the subjective side alone can let go. The subjective contains the root of every thought, every desire, every tendency, every physical condition and every mental state that exists in the human system; it is the foundation of everything in the personal man, and originates the cause of everything that takes place in the life of man.

Whatever we place in the hands of the subjective, the subjective will continue to hold until it is called upon to let go. Every cause that gains a foothold in the subjective will continue to produce its effects, until the subjective is directed to have it removed; and every impression that is formed upon the subjective will continue to act as a pattern for the creation of thought until a different impression is formed in its place. To know how to deal with the subjective is therefore one of the greatest essentials; and the reason why so few have the power to master their fate is because the conscious direction of the subjective is almost unknown.

Mind has two sides, the outer and the inner; or the objective and the subjective. The objective is the conscious mind; the subjective is the subconscious mind. The objective acts; the subjective reacts. The objective mind gives orders; the subjective carries them out. The objective selects the seed and places that seed in the subjective; and the subjective causes that seed to grow and bear fruit after its kind. Whatever the objective desires to have done, the subjective has the power to do, and will do, if properly directed; though it must be properly and consciously directed.

In the average mind the subjective is directed ignorantly and irregularly; sometimes for good, more frequently otherwise. Therefore, the results are as they are; uncertain, unsatisfactory and limited. However, when we learn to direct the subjective consciously and with method, we shall be able to produce any result desired, at any time desired.

To direct the subjective, the will must be employed, as it must be in all forms of direction; and in the use of the will is where the real secret is found. The will must not act upon the external phase of any idea, desire or condition, but must intentionally act upon the internal side only.

When you move a muscle, the will acts upon the subjective side of that muscle. If the will should act upon the objective side, the muscle would become stiff, unable to move at all. Likewise, when the will acts upon the objective side of any idea, desire, tendency, habit, mental state or physical condition, no change whatever will take place. But the very moment that the will acts upon the subjective side of those things, they will begin to change according to the desire predominant in mind at the time.

Therefore whatever we wish to remove from the subjective, we should direct the will intentionally upon the subjective side of that which we desire to remove, and desire deeply to have that something removed.

It may require some training to master this process, but when the process is mastered, we can drop anything from mind instantaneously. Any idea, any habit, any desire, any state of discord or confusion, any diseased condition -all can be eliminated completely from the system, when we acquire the art of letting go.

To train the objective mind to act directly upon the subjective, consciousness should be more thoroughly developed in the realms of the finer feelings and the finer elements of life. Efforts should be made to come in touch with the higher vibrations in the system, because whenever we act in the higher vibrations, we act upon the subjective.

Whatever we desire the subjective to do while we act in the finer feeling of the higher vibrations that the subjective will proceed to do.

To act consciously and directly upon the subjective will also deepen the realization of life, which is extremely important; because the deepest life gives the strongest power, and in the creation of a greater destiny we need all the power we can secure.

When this deepening of life is continued in the serene attitude, mind is kept constantly in touch with the source of unbounded power, and thus receives as much power each day as may be required.

This brings us to one of the greatest essentials in the mastery of fate living; because there is nothing that contributes so much to the supremacy of man as a real, full life.

To bring out the best that is within him, man must not merely exist; he must live. When man actually lives he is what he is, and is all that he is. He does not try to be something else, or someone else. He does not imitate, but continues to be himself. And this is one of the secrets in the creation of a greater destiny.

The average person does not try to be himself, but tries constantly to imitate. He does not try to bring out his own individuality, but tries to fashion his personality and personal life according to some exterior model that is supposed to be the standard in the world's eye. The result is, he misplaces himself; because a person is always misplaced and misdirected when he tries to imitate the life of another; and no misplaced person can master his own fate.

Such a mind goes willingly and unconsciously into all sorts of foreign conditions, and then wonders what he has done to bring about such a mixed and undesirable fate.

When the individual tries to be himself, he will begin to act wholly in his own world, the only world where he can be his very best. And by trying to be himself, he begins to draw upon the unbounded possibilities that exist within himself, thus making himself a larger and a greater being constantly.

The individual that tries to imitate persons or environments does not express himself; therefore, his own hidden powers continue to lie dormant.

To express one's own individuality, and to be oneself, the greatest essential is to live real life; the life that is felt in the depth of inner consciousness.

To be yourself, be all that you are where you are, and greater spheres of action will constantly open before you. Be satisfied to be what you are, but do not be satisfied to be less than all that you are.

When one begins to live -in the depth of real life, and begins to draw upon his own inexhaustible self, he will find that he is so much that there is no end to the possibilities that exist in his own life and his own world.