The Path of Prosperity: Chaper Three Continued

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).

You likewise may go into that sanctuary. It is within you. It is that state of consciousness which remains when all that is sordid, and personal, and impermanent
is risen above, and universal and eternal principles are realized.

That is the God state of consciousness; it is the sanctuary of the Most High. When
by long strife and self-discipline, you have succeeded in entering the door of that
holy Temple, you will perceive, with unobstructed vision, the end and fruit of all
human thought and endeavor, both good and evil.

You will then no longer relax your faith when you see the immoral man accumulating
outward riches, for you will know, that he must come again to poverty and
degradation.

The rich man who is barren of virtue is, in reality, poor, and as surely, as the
waters of the river are drifting to the ocean, so surely is he, in the midst of all his riches, drifting towards poverty and misfortune; and though he die rich, yet must
he return to reap the bitter fruit of all of his immorality.

And though he become rich many times, yet as many times must he be thrown back into poverty, until, by long experience and suffering he conquers the poverty within.

But the man who is outwardly poor, yet rich in virtue, is truly rich, and, in the
midst of all his poverty he is surely traveling towards prosperity; and abounding
joy and bliss await his coming. If you would become truly and permanently prosperous,
you must first become virtuous.

It is therefore unwise to aim directly at prosperity, to make it the one object of life, to reach out greedily for it, To do this is to ultimately defeat yourself.
But rather aim at self-perfection, make useful and unselfish service the object of
your life, and ever reach out hands of faith towards the supreme and unalterable
Good.

You say you desire wealth, not for your own sake, but in order to do good with it,
and to bless others. If this is your real motive in desiring wealth, then wealth will
come to you; for you are strong and unselfish indeed if, in the midst of riches, you
are willing to look upon yourself as steward and not as owner.

But examine well your motive, for in the majority of instances where money is
desired for the admitted object of blessing others, the real underlying motive is a
love of popularity, and a desire to pose as a philanthropist or reformer.

If you are not doing good with what little you have, depend upon it the more
money you got the more selfish you would become, and all the good you appeared
to do with your money, if you attempted to do any, would be so much insinuating
self-laudation.

If your real desire is to do good, there is no need to wait for money before you do
it; you can do it now, this very moment, and just where you are. If you are really
so unselfish as you believe yourself to be, you will show it by sacrificing yourself
for others now.

No matter how poor you are, there is room for self-sacrifice, for did not the widow
put her all into the treasury?

The heart that truly desires to do good does not wait for money before doing it,
but comes to the altar of sacrifice and, leaving there the unworthy elements of
self, goes out and breathes upon neighbor and stranger, friend and enemy alike
the breath of blessedness.

As the effect is related to the cause, so is prosperity and power related to the inward good and poverty and weakness to the inward evil.

Money does not constitute true wealth, nor position, nor power, and to rely upon
it alone is to stand upon a slippery place.

Your true wealth is your stock of virtue, and your true power the uses to which
you put it. Rectify your heart, and you will rectify your life. Lust, hatred, anger,
vanity, pride, covetousness, self-indulgence, self-seeking, obstinacy,- all these are
poverty and weakness; whereas love, purity, gentleness, meekness, compassion,
generosity, self-forgetfulness, and self-renunciation,- all these are wealth and
power.

As the elements of poverty and weakness are overcome, an irresistible and all conquering power is evolved from within, and he who succeeds in establishing
himself in the highest virtue, brings the whole world to his feet.

But the rich, as well as the poor, have their undesirable conditions, and are frequently farther removed from happiness than the poor. And here we see how
happiness depends, not upon outward aids or possessions, but upon the inward life.

Perhaps you are an employer, and you have endless trouble with those whom you
employ, and when you do get good and faithful servants they quickly leave you.

As a result you are beginning to lose, or have completely lost, your faith in human
nature.

You try to remedy matters by giving better wages, and by allowing certain liberties,
yet matters remain unaltered. Let me advise you.

The secret of all your trouble is not in your servants, it is in yourself; and if you
look within, with a humble and sincere desire to discover and eradicate your error,
you will, sooner or later, find the origin of all your unhappiness.

It may be some selfish desire, or lurking suspicion, or unkind attitude of mind
which sends out its poison upon those about you, and reacts upon yourself, even
though you may not show it in your manner or speech.

Think of your servants with kindness, consider of them that extremity of service
which you yourself would not care to perform were you in their place.

Rare and beautiful is that humility of soul by which a servant entirely forgets
himself in his master's good; but far rarer, and beautiful with a divine beauty, is
that nobility of soul by which a man, forgetting his own happiness, seeks the happiness of those who are under his authority, and who depend upon him for their
bodily sustenance.

And such a man's happiness is increased tenfold, nor does he need to complain of
those whom he employs. Said a well known and extensive employer of labor, who
never needs to dismiss an employee: "I have always had the happiest relations
with my workpeople.

If you ask me how it is to be accounted for, I can only say that it has been my aim
from the first to do to them as I would wish to be done by." Herein lies the secret
by which all desirable conditions are secured, and all that are undesirable are
overcome.

Do you say that you are lonely and unloved, and have "not a friend in the world"?
Then, I pray you, for the sake of your own happiness, blame nobody but yourself.
Be friendly towards others, and friends will soon flock round you. Make yourself
pure and lovable, and you will be loved by all.

Whatever conditions are rendering your life burdensome, you may pass out of
and beyond them by developing and utilizing within you the transforming power
of self-purification and self-conquest.

Be it the poverty which galls (and remember that the poverty upon which I have
been dilating is that poverty which is a source of misery, and not that voluntary
poverty which is the glory of emancipated souls), or the riches which burden, or
the many misfortunes, griefs, and annoyances which form the dark background in the web of life, you may overcome them by overcoming the selfish elements
within which give them life.

It matters not that by the unfailing Law, there are past thoughts and acts to work
out and to atone for, as, by the same law, we are setting in motion, during every
moment of our life, fresh thoughts and acts, and we have the power to make them
good or ill.

Nor does it follow that if a man (reaping what he has sown) must lose money or
forfeit position, that he must also lose his fortitude or forfeit his uprightness, and it is in these that his wealth and power and happiness are to be found.

He who clings to self is his own enemy and is surrounded by enemies.

He who relinquishes self is his own savior, and is surrounded by friends like a
protecting belt. Before the divine radiance of a pure heart all darkness vanishes
and all clouds melt away, and he who has conquered self has conquered the universe.
Come, then, out of your poverty; come out of your pain; come out of your troubles,
and sighings, and complainings, and heartaches, and loneliness by coming
out of yourself.

Let the old tattered garment of your petty selfishness fall from you, and put on
the new garment of universal Love. You will then realize the inward heaven, and
it will be reflected in all your outward life.

He who sets his foot firmly upon the path of self-conquest, who walks, aided by
the staff of Faith, the highway of self-sacrifice, will assuredly achieve the highest
prosperity, and will reap abounding and enduring joy and bliss.

To them that seek the highest good
All things subserve the wisest ends;
Nought comes as ill, and wisdom lends
Wings to all shapes of evil brood.

The dark'ning sorrow veils a Star
That waits to shine with gladsome light;
Hell waits on heaven; and afier night
Comes golden glory from afar.

Defeats are steps by which we climb
With purer aim to nobler ends;
Loss leads to gain, andjoy attends
True footsteps up the hills of time.

Pain leads to paths of holy bliss,
To thoughts and words and deeds divine-,
And clouds that gloom and rays that shine,
Along life's upward highway kiss.

Misfortune does but cloud the way
Whose end and summit in the sky
Of bright success, sunkiss'd and high,
Awaits our seeking and our stay.

The heavy pall of doubts and fears
That clouds the Valley of our hopes,
The shades with which the spirit copes,
The bitter harvesting of tears,

The heartaches, miseries, and griefs,
The bruisings born of broken ties,
All these are steps by which we rise
To living ways of sound beliefs.

Love, pitying, watchful, runs to meet
The Pilgrim from the Land of Fate;
All glory and all good await
The coming of obedient feet.


Want to know the Five Steps to Getting Everything You Want in Life? Then you need to check out the new Successful Living Video Newsletter right here.