Fear is a powerful form of thought. It paralyzes the nerve centers, thus affecting the circulation of the blood.
This, in turn, paralyzes the muscular system, so that fear affects the entire being, body, brain and nerve, physical, mental, and muscular.
Of course the way to overcome fear is to become conscious of power. What is this mysterious vital force which we call power? We do not know, but then, neither do we know what electricity is.
But we do know that by conforming to the requirements of the law by which electricity is governed, it will be our obedient servant; that it will light our homes, our cities, run our machinery, and serve us in many useful capacities.
And so it is with vital force. Although we do not know what it is, and possibly may never know, we do know that it is a primary force which manifests through living bodies, and that by complying with the laws and principles by which it is governed, we can open ourselves to a more abundant inflow of this vital energy, and thus express the highest possible degree of mental, moral, and spiritual efficiency.
This part tells of a very simple way of developing this vital force. If you put into practice the information outlined in this lesson you will soon develop the sense of power which has ever been the distinguishing mark of genius.
PART NINETEEN
1. The search for truth is no longer a haphazard adventure, but it is a systematic process, and is logical in its operation. Every kind of experience is given a voice in shaping its decision.
2. In seeking the truth we are seeking ultimate cause; we know that every human experience is an effect; then if we may ascertain the cause, and if we shall find that this cause is one which we can consciously control, the effect or the experience will be within our control also.
3. Human experience will then no longer be the football of fate; a man will not be the child of fortune, but destiny. Fate and fortune will be controlled as readily as a captain controls his ship, or an engineer his train.
4. All things are finally resolvable into the same element and as they are thus translatable, one into the other, they must ever be in relation and may never be in opposition to one another.
5. In the physical world there are innumerable contrasts, and these may for convenience sake, be designated by distinctive names. There are sizes, colors, shades or ends to all things. There is a North Pole, and a South Pole, an inside and an outside, a seen and an unseen, but these expressions merely serve to place extremes in contrast.
6. They are names given to two different parts of one quantity. The two extremes are relative; they are not separate entities, but are two parts or aspects of the whole.
7. In the mental world we find the same law; we speak of knowledge and ignorance, but ignorance is but a lack of knowledge and is therefore found to be simply a word to express the absence of knowledge; it has no principle in itself.
8. In the Moral World we again find the same law; we speak of good and evil, but Good is a reality, something tangible, while Evil is found to be simply a negative condition, the absence of Good. Evil is sometimes thought to be a very real condition, but it has no principle, no vitality, no life; we know this because it can always be destroyed by Good; just as Truth destroys Error and light destroys darkness, so Evil vanishes when Good appears; there is therefore but one principle in the Moral World.
9. We find exactly the same law obtaining in the Spiritual world; we speak of Mind and Matter as two separate entities, but clearer insight makes it evident that there is but one operative principle and that is Mind.
10. Mind is the real and the eternal. Matter is forever changing; we know that in the eons of time a hundred years is but as a day. If we stand in any large city and let the eye rest on the innumerable large and magnificent buildings, the vast array of conveniences of modern civilization, we may remember that not one of them was there just over a century ago, and if we could stand on the same spot in a hundred years from now, in all probability we should find that but few of them remained.
11. In the animal kingdom we find the same law of change. The millions and millions of animals come and go, a few years constituting their span of life. In the plant world the change is still more rapid. Many plants and nearly all grasses come and go in a single year. When we pass to the inorganic, we expect to find something more substantial, but as we gaze on the apparently solid continent, we are told that it arose from the ocean; we see the giant mountain and are told that the place where it now stands was once a lake; and as we stand in awe before the great cliffs in the Yosemite Valley we can easily trace the path of the glaciers which carried all before them.
12. We are in the presence of continual change, and we know that this change is but the evolution of the Universal Mind, the grand process whereby all things are continually being created anew, and we come to know that matter is but a form which Mind takes and is therefore simply a condition. Matter has no principle; Mind is the only principle.
13. We have then come to know that Mind is the only principle which is operative in the physical, mental, moral and spiritual world.
14. We also know that this mind is static, mind at rest, we also know that the ability of the individual to think is his ability to act upon the Universal Mind and convert it into dynamic mind, or mind in motion.
15. In order to do this fuel must be applied in the form of food, for man cannot think without eating, and so we find that even a spiritual activity such as thinking cannot be converted into sources of pleasure and profit except by making use of material means.
16. It requires energy of some kind to collect electricity and convert it into a dynamic power, it requires the rays of the sun to give the necessary energy to sustain plant life, so it also requires energy in the form of food to enable the individual to think and thereby act upon the Universal Mind.
17. You may know that thought constantly, eternally is taking form, is forever seeking expression, or you may not, but the fact remains that if your thought is powerful, constructive, and positive, this will be plainly evident in the state of your health, your business and your environment; if your thought is weak, critical, destructive and negative generally, it will manifest in your body as fear, worry and nervousness, in your finance as lack and limitation, and in discordant conditions in your environment.
18. All wealth is the offspring of power; possessions are of value only as they confer power. Events are significant only as they affect power; all things represent certain forms and degrees of power.
19. A knowledge of cause and effect as shown by the laws governing steam, electricity, chemical affinity and gravitation enables men to plan courageously and to execute fearlessly. These laws are called Natural Laws, because they govern the physical world, but all power is not physical power; there is also mental power, and there is moral and spiritual power.
20. What are our schools, our universities, but mental powerhouses, places where mental power is being developed?
21. As there are many mighty powerhouses for the application of power to ponderous machinery, whereby raw material is collected and converted into the necessities and comforts of life, so the mental powerhouses collect the raw material and cultivate and develop it into a power which is infinitely superior to all the forces of nature, marvelous though they may be.
22. What is this raw material which is being collected in these thousands of mental powerhouses all over the world and developed into a power which is evidently controlling every other power? In its static form it is Mind - in its dynamic form, it is Thought.
23. This power is superior because it exists on a higher plane, because it has enabled man to discover the law by which these wonderful forces of Nature could be harnessed and made to do the work of hundreds and thousands of men. It has enabled man to discover laws whereby time and space have been annihilated, and the law of gravitation overcome.
24. Thought is the vital force or energy which is being developed and which has produced such startling results in the last half century as to bring about a world which would be absolutely inconceivable to a man existing only 50 or 25 years ago. If such results have been secured by organizing these mental powerhouses in 50 years, what may not be expected in another 50 years?
25. The substance from which all things are created is infinite in quantity; we know that light travels at the rate of 186,000 miles per second, and we know that there are stars so remote that it takes light 2,000 years to reach us, and we know that such stars exist in all parts of the heaven; we know, too, that this light comes in waves, so that if the ether on which these waves travel was not continuous the light would fail to reach us; we can then only come to the conclusion that this substance, or ether, or raw material, is universally present.
26. How, then, does it manifest in form? In electrical science a battery is formed by connecting the opposite poles of zinc and copper, which causes a current to flow from one to the other and so provides energy. This same process is repeated in respect to every polarity, and as all form simply depends upon the rate of vibration and consequent relations of atoms to each other, if we wish to change the form of manifestation we must change the polarity. This is the principle of causation.
27. For your exercise this week, concentrate, and when I use the word concentrate, I mean all that the word implies; become so absorbed in the object of your thought that you are conscious of nothing else, and do this a few minutes every day. You take the necessary time to eat in order that the body may be nourished, why not take the time to assimilate your mental food?
28. Let the thought rest on the fact that appearances are deceptive. The earth is not flat, neither is it stationary; the sky is not a dome, the sun does not move, the stars are not small specks of light, and matter which was once supposed to be fixed has been found to be in a state of perpetual flux.
29. Try to realize that the day is fast approaching -- its dawn is now at hand -- when modes of thought and action must be adjusted to rapidly increasing knowledge of the operation of eternal principles.
Silent thought, is, after all, the mightiest agent in human affairs.
Channing
恐懼是思想的一種強有力的形式。它能夠麻痹神經中樞,影響到血液的循環,而這些反過來又會影響肌肉系統。因此,_恐懼影響著整個生命存在,身體、大腦和神經,這些影響包括身體的、精神的和肌肉的。


當然,戰勝恐懼的方式是對於力量的認識。被我們稱作“力量”的這種神秘的生命力到底是什麼呢?我們不知道,盡管一般人同樣不知道電是何物。但是我們卻知道如果遵循電的法則,電就會成為我們聽話的仆人。它能照亮我們的家庭、我們的城市,使機器發動起來,並在許多事情上為我們服務。


所以,生命力也是如此。盡管我們不知道它是什麼,可能永遠也不會知道,但我們卻知道這是一種運行在生命體中的主要力量,只要遵循這種力量的法則和原理,我們就足以讓這種生命的能量如滔滔江水般湧入自己的胸懷,從而最大可能地釋放精神、道德和心靈的功效。


這一章闡述了一種非常簡單的方法,來提升這種生命潛能。如果你把本課的信息付諸於實踐,你將很快找尋到力量感,而這些,正是天才擁有的物質。


《第十九章》


1、人們對於真理的探索不再是盲目的探險,而是系統化的進程,是合乎邏輯的動作。一切經驗在成形以前都能得到指引。


2、探索真理的過程,也就是探索終極動因的過程。我們知道,人類每一次經歷都是一個結果,如果我們能夠把原因確定下來,如果我們能夠有意識地控制它們的成因,那麼,我們的一切經歷、一切境遇不是都在我們自己的掌握之中了嗎?


3、那麼,人生的經歷將不再是一場命運的球賽。一個人不應該成為運氣的玩偶,而應是命運的寵兒。我們應該像船長控制他的船艦,像火車司機駕駛火車一樣,牢牢地掌握運氣和機遇。


4、萬事萬物都可以歸結到一個共同的成分中,因此,一切事物之間既有千絲萬縷的聯系,又都可以相_互轉化,而並不是站在彼此的對立面上。


5、在物質世界中有著數不清的對立面,為了方便稱呼起見,這些對立面被賦予不同的名字。一切事物都有顏色、形狀、大小、兩端。有北極,也有南極;有內,也有外;有肉眼能夠看到的,也有看不到的。所有這些,都不過是對這些對立面的一種表達方式而已。


6、一件事物的兩個不同的方面有它們各自的名稱。然而,這正反兩面是相互關聯的,它們不是獨立的實體,而是事物整體的兩個部分或兩個方面。


7、精神世界的法則也是一樣。我們說到“知識”和“無知”,但無知不過就是知識的匱乏,因而不過是表達“缺少知識”的一個詞,而它本身並沒有任何法則。


8、在道德世界中,我們也發現了同樣的規律。我們談論“善”與“惡”,然而,“善”是有意義的,是可以觸摸感知的,而“惡”不過是一種反面的狀態,是“善”的缺席。盡管有時候“惡”也是一種非常真實的存在,但它沒有法則可循,沒有生命,沒有活力。我們知道這是因為它總是被“善”所摧毀。恰如真理摧毀謬誤、光明趕走黑暗一樣,當“善”出現的時候,“惡”就會消失。因此在道德世界中只有一個法則,就是善的法則。


9、我們在心靈世界中也可以發現到同樣的道理。我們說到“物質”和“精神”,好像物質和精神是獨立的兩個實體,但是很明顯,精神世界中也只有一個法則,就是精神的法則。


10、精神是真實的、永恒存在的。物質處在不斷的變化之中,在無限的時間長河中,千年和一日沒有什麼區別。如果我們站在一個大都市中,讓目光停留在數不清的宏偉建築物上,看霓虹閃爍,看車水馬龍,包括蜂窩式移動電話在內的數不勝數的現代物質文明,都不是一個世紀之前的人所能想像得到的。如果我們能夠在一百年後站在今天所站立的位置上,就會發現今日所擁有的一切也已經消失得無影無蹤。


11、在動物王國中,我們可以發現,變化的法則全無二致。成千上億的動物來了又去,它們的生命跨度,不過短短的幾年。在植物世界中,就更是瞬息萬變了。有多少植物來了又去,差不多全部的草本植物都只有一年的生命。或許,在無機物的世界中,我們期待著可以找到更真實永久的存在,但是,無奈地看到的是滄海桑田,看起來穩固的陸地曾經有大海的波濤洶湧;矗立的高山曾經是一片平湖;當我們站在約塞米蒂國家公園的大峽谷前面,看著冰川曾經吞吐一切的斑斑履痕,不由得肅然起敬。


12、處於瞬息萬變之中的我們,知道這一切不過是宇宙精神的演變過程,萬事萬物都在這個過程中不斷地更新。我們知道物質不過是精神借用的一種形式,一個條件。物質本身沒有原法則可言,惟一的原理就是精神法則。


13、那麼,我們就應該知道,精神法則是運行於物質、精神、道德和心靈世界中的惟一法則。


14、我們同樣知道,精神是靜態的,處於靜止狀態。我們知道人類個體的思考能力也就是他作用於宇宙精神並使宇宙精神轉化為動態心智的能力。所謂的動態心智,就是指精神的運動狀態。


15、為了做到這些,就必須要有充足的動力燃料,食物是這些燃料的物質形式。一個人如果不吃東西,當然也就無法思考。這讓我們知道,精神的行為——比如思維過程,如果不借助物質的手段,也就不可能轉化為快樂和福祉的泉源。


16、如果要把電力轉化為動態能量,道德需要一定的能量創造出電力。如果要使植物茁壯生長,就需_要陽光給它必要的能量。同樣,如果人要思考,要讓宇宙精神發揮作用,沒有食物提供能量是不行的。


17、你已經知道,思想不斷地、永恒地在客觀世界中成形,它永遠在尋求表達,或許,你還沒意識到這一點,但你不能忽視這樣的事實——如果你的思想是積極的、強大的、建設性的,這將在你的健康狀態、事業水平以及生活境遇中體現出來;如果你的思想總體狀態是負面的、軟弱的、破壞性的、瀕臨毀滅的,它也同樣會在你身上體現出來,帶給你恐懼、憂慮、緊張的情緒,表現在你的捉襟見肘、生活困頓以及不和諧的外部環境上。


18、一切財富都是力量的產物。財產只有當它賦予力量的時候才具有價值。事件只有當它們影響到力量的時候才有意義。世間萬物,都表現為一定形態和一定程度的力量。


19、因果循環的道理在蒸汽、電力、化學力、重力原理中都有所體現,它讓人能夠大膽無畏地制定並執行計劃。統治自然界的原理被稱為自然法則,但並不是所有的能量都是自然物質的能量,精神能量同樣存在,也就是心靈或心理的力量。


20、我們的中小學以及大專院校,都不過是精神能量的發電站,它們是用來開發人的心靈潛力的地方,除此之外,還有什麼其他價值嗎?


21、為了讓那些沈重而龐大的機器能夠運轉,有很多發電廠為它們提供能量,人們發掘到很多原材料,這些材料在那裏被轉化成人類日常所需並給人類帶來舒適的生活。同樣,精神發電廠也需要找一些原材料,並且加以開發培育,以便使它們轉化成遠遠高於一切自然力的力量,盡管這些自然力十分神奇,但是精神力量豈不是更加偉大麼?


22、對於全世界成千上萬個精神發電廠來說,他們要找的原材料是什麼呢?是什麼材質最終轉化成為能夠控制其他一切能量的力量呢?這種原材料的靜態形式,就是精神;而它的動態形式,則是思想。


23、這種能量超乎一切,因為它存在於一個更高的層面上,因為它使人類得以發現那些自然界的法則,從而讓人類能夠驅使、利用偉大神奇的自然力,取代成千上萬人的辛苦勞作。人類因此能夠跨越時空的距離,戰勝重力原理。


24、思想是一種正在發展中的、有生命的力量或能量。在上半個世紀以來,思想創造了無數讓50年甚至是25年前的人絕對無法想像的奇跡。如果憑借50年內所組建的這些精神發電站就得到了這樣的結果,那麼50年內所組建的這些精神發電站就得到了這樣的結果,那麼50年後,還有什麼是不可期望的呢?


25、萬物產生的本原是無限廣大的。我們知道光以每秒186,000英裏的速度傳播,有些星球上的光線經過兩千多年才到達地球,而這種星球在宇宙中到處都是。我們也知道光以光波的形式傳播,如果光線傳播的以太(能媒)是不連續的,那麼光線也無法穿越那樣長的距離來到我們這裏;現在,我們就能夠得出這樣的結論,這種物質——或者說物質產生的本原,也主是以(能媒)——是普遍存在的(編者註:現代科學認為,光的傳播並不需要媒介,也就是說,作為光媒的“以太”應當是不存在的。但反過來,未來新的發現,也許會重新認識過去,發現一種隱藏的能量或物質來支持“以太”理論。)。


26、那麼,它在形式上是如何體現的呢?在電學中,把電池的相反兩極連接起來,就形成了電路,其中有電流通過,就產生了能量。在任何兩極都有類似的情況出現,又因為一切事物的外在形態都取決於它振動的頻率,也就是其中的原子同其他原子之間的關系。因此,如果我們希望改變客觀環境中的表現形式,我們必須改變的是事物的兩極。這就是因果循環的原理。


27、你本周的作業是,集中意念——當我用到這個詞的時候,它已經飲食了這個詞一切的內在涵義——全身心地沈浸在你思想的客體中,不受任何其他事物的幹擾,每天花幾分鐘做這個練習。為了讓身體獲得充足的養分,你每天都要進餐,那麼,為什麼你就不能花一些時間用來吸收精神食糧呢?


28、讓思想充分認識到一切事物的表象都是虛假的。地球不是方的,也不是靜止的;天空不是巨大的穹廬,太陽也不是繞地運行;星星並不像我們所想像的那樣,它只發出微弱的光芒;物質也並不像我們所認為的那樣固定不變,而是處於永恒運動的狀態中。


29、請相信,這一天很快就會來到——現在正是指曉時分——我們會知道越來越多的永恒運行的宇宙原理,而所有的思想和行為模式都會據此做出迅捷的調整。


           靜默的思想,終究是人類生活中最強大的手段。--錢寧

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