The Message of A Master
	Chapter 15 <  Previous Contents

Approaching the close of your instructions, I believe it well to outline an example of procedure for you. Since, as I have previously said, words are often so inadequate to convey the proper meaning when dealing with a subject of this kind, I will approach facts from different angles for better elucidation.

Here is an example: Invoking the aid of this law, neither money, friends or influence are necessary to the attainment of whatever your heart is set upon.

Whether you are a banker, a clerk or a bootblack, it is no respecter of person or position. Whether your ambition lies in direct line with the position you are now occupying, or whether it necessitates an entire change from what you are doing. You may have no definite plan in life except the fact that you want to get ahead. Since all the desire in the world will get you nowhere, it becomes necessary that a definite objective be first arrived at and then firmly established within.

After intelligent deliberation you decide upon one Supreme Goal. It is distant, perhaps, but the glorious assurance is that it can be attained. What is your first step? If a banker or merchant, is it a definite increase in volume monthly? Or, if an employee, is it a position above? There, you have your first and nearest objective in the direction of your Supreme Objective.

When the first objective is reached, what then? Set another one beyond that, immediately. Why? Because the perculiar nature of the Outer mind is to drop back into inertia after being forced through to an objective. You can imagine the Outer mind reflecting something after this fashion: “Well, I have been mercilessly whipped about and forced through to that thing, but I reached it and now I will have a rest.” And your answer will be: “No rest for you, for I have already started you upon another.” Because, once having attained that valuable momentum, maintain it. Cling to it. And as the momentum increases, the steps in your progress become more rapid, until eventually it will be possible to reach an objective almost immediately, as is the practice of those in my work.

The course followed in bringing forth your objective can be likened exactly to the process that takes place in a seed. Being fixed in the darkness of the soil, it proceeds to express or out-picture the exact picture held within its life cell and, in obedience to law, it sends up a shoot seeking the light. At the same time, it sends down roots seeking nourishment. If, on the way up, that shoot encounters obstacles in any form, it does not attempt to force them out of its way. It travels around them. If the roots fail to find the required nourishment, it withers away. If all goes well, it blossoms forth and, having reached its goal, a seed is again dropped and the process repeated. Bear in mind that the actual process takes place in darkness, beneath the surface. Thus it is with us. That is where all great and important ideas are developed.

Now, are you going to cast glances out of the corner of your eye to see how the thing is proceeding? Are you going to set to wondering how the thing works, or if it really is working? Not at all. You set the objective. You therefore planted the seed. You would not dig up a seed in your garden to see if it were sprouting. You planted and watered it and are satisfied that, according to the law of its being, it will come forth. Likewise, nothing upon earth can prevent your objective from becoming externalized, because nothing in the world can nullify Universal Law. You plant the seed idea. You hold it there. You nourish it. You have done your part. Trust the Law to do its part.

Will you encounter resistance? Oh, yes. Your activity creates it. Why? Because action requires reaction to support it. Resistance is the negative pole of action or activity, the positive pole as you have already heard, and you need both. If there were no resistance, action would be nonexistent.

It is resistance that keeps the airplane soaring. Without resistance, it could not fly. Neither could the birds; or the fish swim; or you walk. As the power of the engine increases, the greater the momentum of the airplane and the greater the resistance necessary to support it. The greater the momentum, the greater the altitude or height possible to attain. With the decrease in engine power comes the decrease in momentum and the consequent dropping of the plane.

This is an example for us. Momentum must be attained and then maintained if we are to reach the heights of achievement. And the work is delightful after the apparent difficulty of the first steps are passed. For there is nothing more joyous than the satisfaction of having achieved something worth while.

Are you to recognize resistance in any guise? No. For, if you recognize it as a power opposed to your progress, you are resisting it, therefore you automatically acknowledge it as a power greater than you, for no lesser power can retard the progress of a greater one. That is plain. And going further, remember this great truth: Whoever or whatever you resist, be it in thought, word or action; be it in the form of criticism, envy, jealousy, hatred or otherwise, you must assuredly help, and you weaken yourself proportionately. Why? Because you have deliberately taken a portion of your precious life force so necessary to your progress, and transferred it to that person or thing. Have you not witnessed the case at times, of one becoming exhausted after a “fit of rage” over another? Exhaustion is depletion. And to deplete means to empty. Something went out. Yes, to the other person to his profit and the other’s loss. This is an example of the transfer of life force in a violent form. You are very fortunate in having learned this wisdom. Now, by all means, practice it.