The Path of Prosperity: Chaper Five

(This month we here at Successful Living are focusing on some of the great self development books of the past. Now we focus on James Allen and his classic Path of Prosperity. We will have a chapter posted on Monday, Wednesday and Friday until the complete book is posted).

Chapter 5
The Secret of Health, Success and Power

We all remember with what intense delight, as children, we listened to the nevertiring fairy-tale. How eagerly we followed the fluctuating fortunes of the good
boy or girl, ever protected, in the hour of crisis, from the evil machinations of the
scheming witch, the cruel giant, or the wicked king.

And our little hearts never faltered for the fate of the hero or heroine, nor did we
doubt their ultimate triumph over all their enemies, for we knew that the fairies
were infallible, and that they would never desert those who had consecrated
themselves to the good and the true.

And what unspeakable joy pulsated within us when the Fairy-Queen, bringing
all her magic to bear at the critical moment, scattered all the darkness and trouble,
and granted them the complete satisfaction of all their hopes, and they were
"happy ever after."

With the accumulating years, and an ever-increasing intimacy with the so-called
" realities" of life, our beautiful fairy-world became obliterated, and its wonderful
inhabitants were relegated, in the archives of memory, to the shadowy and
unreal.

And we thought we were wise and strong in thus leaving for ever the land of childish
dreams, but as we re-become little children in the wondrous world of wisdom,
we shall return again to the inspiring dreams of childhood and find that they are,
after all, realities.

The fairy-folk, so small and nearly always invisible, yet possessed of an all-conquering and magical power, who bestow upon the good, health, wealth, and happiness, along with all the gifts of nature in lavish profusion, start again into reality and become immortalized in the soul-realm of him who, by growth in wisdom,
has entered into a knowledge of the power of thought, and the laws which govern
the inner world of being.

To him the fairies live again as thought-people, thought-messengers, thoughtpowers
working in harmony with the over-ruling Good. And they who, day by day, endeavor to harmonize their hearts with the heart of the Supreme Good, do in reality acquire true health, wealth, and happiness.

There is no protection to compare with goodness, and by "goodness" I do not
mean a mere outward conformity to the rules of morality; I mean pure thought,
noble aspiration, unselfish love, and freedom from vainglory.

To dwell continually in good thoughts, is to throw around oneself a psychic atmosphere of sweetness and power which leaves its impress upon all who come in
contact with it.

As the rising sun puts to rout the helpless shadows, so are all the impotent forces
of evil put to flight by the searching rays of positive thought which shine forth
from a heart made strong in purity and faith.

Where there is sterling faith and uncompromising purity there is health, there is
success, there is power. In such a one, disease, failure, and disaster can find no
lodgment, for there is nothing on which they can feed.

Even physical conditions are largely determined by mental states, and to this
truth the scientific world is rapidly being drawn.

The old, materialistic belief that a man is what his body makes him, is rapidly
passing away, and is being replaced by the inspiring belief that man is superior to
his body, and that his body is what he makes it by the power of thought.

Men everywhere are ceasing to believe that a man is despairing because he is dyspeptic, and are coming to understand that he is dyspeptic because he is despairing, and in the near future, the fact that all disease has its origin in the mind will become common knowledge.

There is no evil in the universe but has its root and origin in the mind, and sin,
sickness, sorrow, and affliction do not, in reality, belong to the universal order,
are not inherent in the nature of things, but are the direct outcome of our ignorance
of the right relations of things.

According to tradition, there once lived, in India, a school of philosophers who
led a life of such absolute purity and simplicity that they commonly reached the
age of one hundred and fifty years, and to fall sick was looked upon by them as an
unpardonable disgrace, for it was considered to indicate a violation of law.

The sooner we realize and acknowledge that sickness, far from being the arbitrary
visitation of an offended God, or the test of an unwise Providence, is the result of
our own error or sin, the sooner shall we enter upon the highway of health.

Disease comes to those who attract it, to those whose minds and bodies are receptive
to it, and flees from those whose strong, pure, and positive thought-sphere
generates healing and life-giving currents.

If you are given to anger, worry, jealousy, greed, or any other inharmonious state
of mind, and expect perfect physical health, you are expecting the impossible, for
you are continually sowing the seeds of disease in your mind.

Such conditions of mind are carefully shunned by the wise man, for he knows
them to be far more dangerous than a bad drain or an infected house.

If you would be free from all physical aches and pains, and would enjoy perfect
physical harmony, then put your mind in order, and harmonize your thoughts.

Think joyful thoughts; think loving thoughts; let the elixir of goodwill course
through your veins, and you will need no other medicine. Put away your jealousies,
your suspicions, your worries, your hatreds, your selfish indulgences, and
you will put away your dyspepsia, your biliousness, your nervousness and aching
joints.

If you will persist in clinging to these debilitating and demoralizing habits of
mind, then do not complain when your body is laid low with sickness. The following
story illustrates the close relation that exists between habits of mind and
bodily conditions.

A certain man was afflicted with a painful disease, and he tried one physician after
another, but all to no purpose. He then visited towns which were famous for
their curative waters, and after having bathed in them all, his disease was more
painful than ever.

One night he dreamed that a Presence came to him and said, "Brother, hast thou
tried all the means of cure?" and he replied, "I have tried all." "Nay," said the
Presence, "Come with me, and I will show thee a healing bath which has escaped
thy notice."

The afflicted man followed, and the Presence led him to a clear pool of water, and
said, "Plunge thyself in this water and thou shalt surely recover," and thereupon
vanished.

The man plunged into the water, and on coming out, Io! his disease had left him,
and at the same moment he saw written above the pool the word "Renounce."
Upon waking, the fall meaning of his dream flashed across his mind, and looking within he discovered that he had, all along, been a victim to a sinful indulgence,
and he vowed that he would renounce it for ever.

He carried out his vow, and from that day his affliction began to leave him, and
in a short time he was completely restored to health. Many people complain that
they have broken down through over-work. In the majority of such cases the
breakdown is more frequently the result of foolishly wasted energy.

If you would secure health you must learn to work without friction. To become
anxious or excited, or to worry over needless details is to invite a breakdown.
Work, whether of brain or body, is beneficial and health-giving, and the man who
can work with a steady and calm persistency, freed from all anxiety and worry,
and with his mind utterly oblivious to all but the work he has in hand, will not
only accomplish far more than the man who is always hurried and anxious, but he
will retain his health, a boon which the other quickly forfeits.

True health and true success go together, for they are inseparably intertwined in
the thought-realm. As mental harmony produces bodily health, so it also leads to
a harmonious sequence in the actual working out of one's plans.

Order your thoughts and you will order your life. Pour the oil of tranquility upon
the turbulent waters of the passions and prejudices, and the tempests of misfortune,
howsoever they may threaten, will be powerless to wreck the barque of your
soul, as it threads its way across the ocean of life.

And if that barque be piloted by a cheerful and never-failing faith its course will
be doubly sure, and many perils will pass it by which would other-wise attack it.
By the power of faith every enduring work is accomplished. Faith in the Supreme;
faith in the over-ruling Law; faith in your work, and in your power to accomplish
that work, -here is the rock upon which you must build if you would achieve, if
you would stand and not fall.

To follow, under all circumstances, the highest promptings within you; to be always
true to the divine self; to rely upon the inward Light, the inward Voice, and
to pursue your purpose with a fearless and restful heart, believing that the future
will yield unto you the meed of every thought and effort; knowing that the laws of
the universe can never fail, and that your own will come back to you with mathematical exactitude, this is faith and the living of faith.

By the power of such a faith the darkwaters of uncertainty are divided, every mountain of difficulty crumbles away, and the believing soul passes on unharmed.

To be continued.....

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