Right And Wrong Thinking And Their Results
	Man The Architect Of Himself <  Previous Contents Next  >

It has been shown in the preceding pages that man is the creature of his own thinking, molded and fashioned by it, and that if he will, he may control his thinking as he chooses. Then the con elusion is unavoidable and must be true in all its comprehensiveness that, by control of his mental actions, a man can make himself whatever he chooses.

A glance at the principles will show the accuracy of this conclusion with all its unlimited possibilities. Thinking is the primal action and the cause, immediate or remote, of all other human actions and conditions. Man can control his thinking absolutely. Control of the cause controls the result; but thinking is the cause; then by controlling his thinking man may make himself whatever he will.

It is true that complete control of the thinking is at first dependent upon certain elements of character but character itself is the result of habitual thinking, and therefore it may be entirely changed by appropriate thinking; that is, control of the thinking, by turning it into new channels, may destroy or remove present elements of character and substitute new ones. This is merely dropping out the objectionable elements and putting desirable ones in their places, which all depends upon the exercise of correct choice and persistence in maintaining that choice.

Tremendous as the results may be, the conditions by which they may be attained are wonderfully simple. As has been so often said in these pages, it is one's own thinking which produces his action and determines its character. Even if he is induced to modify his thinking and change his opinions because of the advice or argument of another, yet such changes are at last made by himself, and thus the opinions become his own.

Change of character is not re-formation nor creation in the exact meaning of the words. It is not a making over of the old materials into some- thing different, nor is it a making of new materials. In point of fact, by this process nothing is, of itself, either changed or modified. The whole work consists in ceasing to do certain things and in doing certain other things. The man stops thinking certain thoughts and consequently stops doing certain acts of a corresponding character, and he thinks thoughts of another character and therefore performs other acts. A thought is never made over into another kind of thought, nor is any act ever made over into an act of some other kind. '

The liar who stops thinking about lying cannot lie any more; he necessarily tells the truth because there is not anything else that he can do. The thief who stops thinking about stealing cannot steal; indeed, whatever he may have been before, he is no longer a thief; it was his thinking that made him a thief; and only a return to that thinking can make him a thief again. If a man stops thinking wrongful, immoral, or sinful thoughts, then the wrongful, immoral, or sinful actions cannot occur under any circumstances, and the man is no longer immoral or sinful. It is the same in all wrongdoing. Neither the liar nor the thief has changed anything either in himself or outside himself, but each has simply stopped thinking certain thoughts and consequently has stopped doing certain deeds. One element is removed and another is substituted in its place. This comprises the whole work of re-formation, or reformation, so called.

Every man, if he will set himself about it, may, by persistent practice, put any class of erroneous thoughts entirely out of his mind and thus wholly destroy that error so far as he is himself concerned. He has then freed himself from an extraneous some- thing which was attached to him like a barnacle to a ship, preventing his progress. When these are all cast away, the man will stand out in his own true character, manifesting his real self, and ready for either the smooth or stormy seas which he may encounter on his way.

The same man may, with even less effort, accept a true thought and, by earnest conviction and constant recognition, make it his own. It then becomes a part of himself, coloring his whole life and making him different from what he would have been without it. In this particular he has literally built himself anew, and there is no limit to a man's reconstruction of himself by this method.

This aspect of evil, of our relation to it, and of the method of its avoidance, eradication, and destruction changes the entire view of the subject, places it on a new basis, and removes many of the difficulties which have been connected with it.

Inherited tendencies are a barrier to action in compliance with this principle only in so far as they may be more difficult to overcome because deeper seated and of longer standing. They do not constitute an exception. The control of inherited tendencies in thinking is like the control of all other thinking, is prosecuted in the same way, and may be wholly within one's own power. Whatever their character or the attendant difficulties, they stand in the same relation to the person, his thinking, and his actions as do all others. Whatever the inheritance, it can be utterly destroyed by persistently refusing to think those thoughts which conduce to it.

That which is called "the disposition," or any other peculiarity, however strongly entrenched by inheritance or long-continued habit, can be changed; objectionable qualities can be eliminated, desirable ones can be cultivated and enlarged, and others can be added. There is not any predestination nor any fatality except as one makes it by his own thinking or lack of thinking. This statement of the situation shows the absurdity of the doctrine of fatality, at least when applied to human beings and their actions. The only limitation is that which one makes for himself by his own thinking or through his failure to control his thinking.

One person inherits a tendency toward music and cultivates it by continuous mental application, resulting in wonderful attainments. A second person, with equal initial advantage, follows some other course, and the latent musical ability is never developed. He makes something else of himself. A third, with less natural capacity for music, spends a lifetime in its cultivation, but does not attain the proficiency of the first, who had at the beginning of his career large advantages derived from the thinking and actions of his ancestors; yet the relative progress of the third may be as great or even greater.

Two persons inherit a tendency toward some evil course; one allows his thoughts to run in that direction to his own destruction, while the other resolutely takes the opposite way with his thinking and makes a true man of himself. The number of such instances will never be known because the one who corrects his evil tendencies prefers not to parade his earlier defects.

There are not any "born criminals," if by that term it is meant that they cannot govern their inherited tendencies and escape from them. The plea of an inherited tendency is never a valid excuse for an evil deed, though it is a sufficient reason for the palliation of man's condemnation of his fellow-man, and also for holding out to him a helping hand to steady him over the rough places along the way of life.

After the usual consideration of inheritance, education, surroundings, and past indulgence, the fact remains that the man's own thinking is the cause of his actions and that by abandoning the thought the actions will also be abandoned. By this method, instead of lopping off the outer branches, the axe is applied to the root of the error and the whole is destroyed. When this is understood, what an immense advantage it will be to all mankind! They will then soon learn that it is far easier to control the thoughts than to control the actions when the thoughts are not controlled -- to destroy the root instead of wasting time with the branches.

Even physical conditions, acquired or otherwise, are the results of previous thinking, and, because they have been produced by thinking, changed they must be if a change in thinking is persistently continued. Thinking is the monarch who governs the man and everything connected with him. The invisible and intangible everywhere dominate the visible and tangible. Invisible gravitation controls not only the minute atoms, but the worlds, the suns, and the whole material universe.

A passing change of thought changes the expression of the face for the moment, and if the thought becomes habitual, the changed expression becomes permanent. So with everything else about the body, even the motions and attitudes in walking, standing, and sitting -- whatever a man does. The man is not subject to his features, but the features are subject to the man, that is, to his thinking; and they change as his character changes -- as his habit of thinking changes.

All varieties of character-reading by the examination of external conditions and actions point to the fact that it is the invisible and intangible mind which fashions not only the face but the whole body. It is the same with each item in the whole physical system, because all changes occur in accordance with invariable principle. It is not the bones of the skull that shape the brain, but the brain that shapes the skull; and, as it is mental activity that develops and enlarges the brain, so it must be mental activity that changes and shapes the skull. Thus the mind by its action builds the whole body. By controlling the builder, man builds and fashions himself; therefore he is his own architect.

There is a preponderance of defective human architecture because comparatively few have recognized the all-important connection between thinking and action; and a large proportion of the few who do recognize it, doubting the possibility of success, do not make any attempt to test the principle; while still others, after a spasmodic effort, are too indolent, mentally, to persevere.

Man does not reach all his aspirations at a single bound. Complete success in changing the thinking requires persistent and perhaps long-continued practice, but it will bring results as permanent as the change which has been made in the thinking. "We build the stairs by which we climb," and he who would build well the mansion for his soul must be persistent, courageous, and confident.