Classic Audiobook Collection - In Tune With The Infinite by Ralph Waldo Trine ~ Full Audiobook [self help]

Episode Date: March 20, 2023

In Tune With The Infinite by Ralph Waldo Trine audiobook. Genre: self help In Tune With The Infinite is Ralph Waldo Trine's classic New Thought guide to living with greater peace, power, and purpose ...by aligning the inner life with a larger spiritual reality. Written in clear, uplifting language, it invites listeners to consider how thoughts, beliefs, and habitual attitudes shape health, work, relationships, and the quality of everyday experience. Trine argues that a calm, centered mind can become receptive to an infinite source of strength and wisdom, and he offers practical reflections on cultivating faith, courage, gratitude, and goodwill. Along the way, he challenges fear, worry, resentment, and self-doubt as forces that pull us out of harmony, replacing them with the steady discipline of constructive thinking and compassionate action. Part inspirational philosophy and part daily-life manual, the book weaves together spiritual principle and practical application, urging listeners to test its ideas in the ordinary moments where character is formed. The central conflict is internal: whether we will be ruled by reactive emotions and limiting beliefs, or learn to live from a deeper, steadier center that opens the door to clearer judgment, stronger resilience, and a more generous life. For ad-free listening try our premium subscription Chapters (Approximate) (00:00:00) Chapter 00 (00:03:14) Chapter 01 (00:05:40) Chapter 02 (00:12:32) Chapter 03 (00:48:29) Chapter 04 (01:49:55) Chapter 05 (02:12:36) Chapter 06 (02:52:20) Chapter 07 (03:13:14) Chapter 08 (03:45:55) Chapter 09 (04:08:59) Chapter 10 (04:20:22) Chapter 11 (04:31:41) Chapter 12 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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Starting point is 00:00:00 in tune with the infinite by ralph waldo trine there is a golden thread that runs through every religion in the world there is a golden thread that runs through the lives and the teachings of all the prophets seers sages and saviors in the world's history through the lives of all men and women of truly great and lasting power all that they have ever done or attained to has been done in full accordance with law what one has done all may do this says that they have ever done or attained to has been done in full accordance with law what one has done all may do this same golden thread must enter into the lives of all who today in this busy work-a-day world of ours would exchange impotence for power weakness and suffering for abounding health and strength pain and unrest for perfect peace poverty of whatever nature for fullness and plenty each is building his own world we both build from within and we attract from without thought is the force with which we build for these thoughts are forces like builds like and like attracts like in the degree that thought is spiritualized does it become more subtle and powerful in its workings this spiritualizing is in accordance with law and is within the power of all everything is first worked out in the unseen before it is manifested in the scene in the ideal before it is realized in the real in the spiritual before it shows forth in the material the realm of the unseen is the realm of cause the realm of the scene is the realm of effect the nature of effect is always determined and conditioned by the nature of its cause to point out the great facts in connection with and the great laws underline the workings of the interior spiritual thought forces to point them out so simply and so clearly that even a child can understand is the author's aim
Starting point is 00:01:55 to point them out so simply and so clearly that all can grasp them that all can take them and infuse them into everyday life so as to mold it in all its details in accordance with what they would have it is his purpose that life can thus be moulded by them is not a matter of mere speculation or theory with him but a matter of positive knowledge there is a divine sequence running throughout the universe within and above and below the human will incessantly works the divine will to come into harmony with it and thereby with all the higher laws and forces to come then into league and to work in conjunction with them in order that they can work in league and in conjunction with us is to come into the chain of this wonderful sequence this is the secret of all success this is to come into the possession of unknown riches into the realization of undreamed of powers end of preface section one of in tune with the infinite by ralph waldo trine this librevox recording is in the public domain fulness of peace power and plenty prelude the optimist is right the pessimist is right the one differs from the other as the light from the dark yet both are right each is right from his own particular point of view and this point of view is the determining factor in the life of each it determines as to whether it is a life of power or of impotence of peace or pain of success or failure the optimist has the power of seeing things in their entirety and in their right relations the pessimist looks from a limited and one-sided point of view the one has his understanding illumined by wisdom the understanding of the other is darkened by ignorance each is building his world from within and the result of the building is determined by the point of view of each
Starting point is 00:04:01 the optimist by his superior wisdom and insight is making his own heaven and in the degree that he makes his own heaven is he helping to make one for all the world beside the pessimist by virtue of his limitations is making his own hell and in the degree that he makes his own hell is he helping to make one for all mankind you and i have the predominating characteristics of an optimist or the predominating characteristics of a pessimist we are then making hour by hour our own heaven or our own hell and in the degree that we are making the one or the other for ourselves are we helping make it for all the world beside. The word heaven means harmony. The word hell is from the old English hell, meaning to build a wall around, to separate, to be held, was to be shut off from. Now if there is such a thing as harmony, there must be that something one can be in right relations with, for to be in right relations with anything is to be in harmony with it. Again, if there is such a thing as being held, shut off, separated from, there must be a thing as being held, shut off, separated from,
Starting point is 00:05:11 There must be that something from which one is held, shut off, or separated. End of Section 1 Section 2 of In Tune with the Universe by Ralph Waldo Trine. This Libravox recording is in the public domain. The Supreme Fact of the Universe The great central fact of the universe is that spirit of infinite life and power that is behind all, that animates all, that manifests itself, in and through all that self-existent principle of life from which all has come and not only from which all has come but from which all is continually coming if there is an individual life there must be of necessity an infinite source of life from which it comes if there is a quality or a force of love there must be of necessity be an infinite source of love whence it comes if there is wisdom there must be the all-wise
Starting point is 00:06:17 source behind it from which it springs. The same is true in regard to peace, the same in regard to power, the same in regard to what we call material things. There is then this spirit of infinite life and power behind all which is the source of all. This infinite power is creating, working, ruling through the agency of great immutable laws and forces that run through all the universe that surround us on every side. Every act of our every, every act of our every, everyday lives is governed by these same great laws and forces. Every flower that blooms by the wayside springs up, grows, blooms, fades, according to certain great immutable laws.
Starting point is 00:06:59 Every snowflake that plays between earth and heaven, forms, falls, melts, according to certain great unchangeable laws. In a sense, there is nothing in all the great universe but law. If this is true, there must of necessity be a force behind it all that is the maker of these laws and a force greater than the laws that are made this spirit of infinite life and power that is behind all is what i call god i do not care what term you may use be it kindly light providence the over-soul omnipotence or whatever term may be most convenient i care not what the term may be as long as we are agreed in regard to the great central fact itself god then is this infinite spirit which
Starting point is 00:07:46 fills all the universe with himself alone so that all is from him and in him and there is nothing that is outside indeed and in truth then in him we live and move and have our being he is the life of our life our very life itself we have received we are continually receiving our life from him we are partakers of the life of god and though we differ from him in that we are individualized spirits while he is the infinite spirit, including us as well as all else beside. Yet in essence, the life of God and the life of man are identically the same, and so are one. They differ not in essence, in quality, they differ in degree. There have been and are highly illumined souls who believe that we receive our life from God
Starting point is 00:08:37 after the manner of a divine inflow. And again, there have been and are those who believe that our life is one with the life god and so that god and man are one which is right both are right both right when rightly understood in regard to the first if god is the infinite spirit of life behind all whence all comes then clearly our life as individualized spirits is continually coming from this infinite source by means of this divine inflow in the second place if our lives as individualized spirits are directly from our part of this infinite spirit of life then the degree of the infinite spirit that is manifested in the life of each must be identical in quality with that source the same as a drop of water taken from the ocean is in nature in characteristics identical with that ocean its source and how could it be otherwise the liability to misunderstanding in this latter case however is this in that although the life of god and the life of man in essence are identically the same. The life of God so far transcends the life of individual man that it includes all else beside. In other words, so far as the quality of life is concerned, in essence they are the same. So far as the degree of life is concerned, they are vastly different.
Starting point is 00:10:06 In this light, is it not then evident that both conceptions are true? And more, that they are one and the same? Both conceptions may be typified by one and the same illustration. There is a reservoir in a valley which receives its supply from an inexhaustible reservoir on the mountainside. It is then true that the reservoir in the valley receives its supply by virtue of the inflow of water from the larger reservoir on the mountainside. It is also true that the water in the smaller reservoir is in nature, in quality, in characteristics
Starting point is 00:10:43 identically the same as that in the larger reservoir which is its source. The difference, however, is this. The reservoir on the mountainside, in the amount of its water, so far transcends the reservoir in the valley that it can supply innumerable number of like reservoirs and still be unexhausted. And so, in the life of man, if, as I think we have already agreed, however we may differ in regard to anything else, there is this infinite spirit of life behind all, the life of all, and so, from which all comes,
Starting point is 00:11:18 then the life of individual man, your life and mine, must come by a divine flow from this infinite source. And if this is true, then the life that comes by this inflow to man is necessarily the same in essence as is the infinite spirit of life. There is a difference. It is not a difference in essence. It is a difference in degree. If this is true, does it not then follow that in the degree that man opens himself to this divine inflow does he approach to God? If so, it then necessarily flows in that degree that he makes this approach, does he take on the God powers? And if the God powers are without limit, does it not then follow that the only limitations man has are the limitations he sets to himself by force?
Starting point is 00:12:06 virtue of not knowing himself end of section two section three of in tune with the infinite by ralph waldo trine this librivox recording is in the public domain the supreme fact of human life from the great central fact of the universe in regard to which we have agreed namely the spirit of the infinite life that is behind all and from which all comes we are led to inquire as to What is the great central fact in human life? From what has gone before, the question almost answers itself. The great central fact in human life, in your life and in mind, is the coming into a conscious, vital realization of our oneness with this infinite life and the opening of ourselves fully to this divine inflow. This is the great central fact in human life, for in this all else is included.
Starting point is 00:13:09 All else follows in its train. in just the degree that we come into a conscious realization of our oneness with the infinite life and open ourselves into this divine inflow do we actualize in ourselves the qualities and powers of the infinite life and what does this mean it means simply this that we are recognizing our true identity that we are bringing our lives into harmony with the same great laws and forces and so opening ourselves to the same great inspiration as have all the prophets, seers, sages, and saviors in the world's history, all men of truly great and mighty power. For in the degree that we come into this realization and connect ourselves with this infinite source, do we make it possible for the higher powers to play, to work, to manifest through us? We can keep close this divine inflow to these higher forces and powers through ignorance, as most of us do, and thus hinder or prevent their manifesting through us.
Starting point is 00:14:13 Or we can intentionally close ourselves to their operations and thus deprive ourselves of the powers to which, by the very nature of our being, we are rightful errors. On the other hand, we can come into so vital a realization of the oneness of our real selves with this infinite life, and can open ourselves so fully to the incoming of this divine inflow, and so to the operation of these higher forces, inspirations, and powers, that we can indeed, and in truth, become what we may well term, godmen. And what is a godman?
Starting point is 00:14:49 One in whom the powers of God are manifesting, though yet a man. No one can set limitations to a man or a woman of this type. For the only limitations he or she can have are those set by the self. ignorance is the most potent factor in setting limitations to the majority of mankind and so the great majority of people continue to live their little dwarfed and stunted lives simply by virtue of the fact that they do not realize the larger life to which they are errors they have never as yet come into a knowledge of the real identity of their true selves mankind has not yet realized that the real self is one with the life of God
Starting point is 00:15:31 through its ignorance it has never yet opened itself to the divine inflow and so has never made itself a channel through which the infinite powers and forces can manifest when we know ourselves merely as men we live accordingly and have merely the powers of men when we come into the realization of the fact that we are godmen then again we live accordingly and have the powers of godmen in the degree that we open ourselves to this divine inflow are we changed change from mere men into godmen a friend has a beautiful lotus pond a natural basin on his estate his farm as he always calls it is supplied with water from a reservoir in the foothill some distance away a gate regulates the flow of the water from the main that conducts it from the reservoir to the pond it is a spot of transcendent beauty there through the days of the perfect summer weather the lotus flowers lie full bloom upon the surface of the clear transparent water the june roses and other wild flowers are continually blooming upon its banks the birds come here to drink and to bathe and from early until late one can hear the melody of their song the bees are continually at work in this garden of wild flowers a beautiful grove in which many kinds of wild berries
Starting point is 00:16:51 and many varieties of breaks and ferns grow, stretches back of the pond as far as the eye can reach. Our friend is a man, nay more, a godman, a lover of his kind, and as a consequence, no notice bearing such words as private grounds no trespassing allowed, or trespassers will be prosecuted, stands on his estate.
Starting point is 00:17:14 But at the end of a beautiful byway that leads through the wild wood up to this enchanting spot, stands a notice bearing the words, All are welcome to the lotus pond. All love our friend. Why? They can't help it. He so loves them,
Starting point is 00:17:30 and what is his is theirs. Here one may often find merry groups of children at play. Here many times, tired and weary-looking men and women come, and somehow, when they go, their faces wear a different expression. The burden seems to be lifted, and now and then I've heard them when leaving, sometimes in a faint murmur as if uttering a benediction say god bless our brother friend many speak of this spot as the garden of god my friend calls it his soul garden and he spends many hours in quiet here often have i seen him after the others have gone walking to and fro or sitting quietly in the clear moonlight on an old rustic bench drinking in the perfume of the wild flowers he is a man of a beautifully simple nature he is a man of a beautifully simple nature he is a very simple nature he is a very simple nature he is a very
Starting point is 00:18:08 to and fro, or sitting quietly in the clear moonlight on an old rustic bench, drinking in the perfume of the wildflowers. He is a man of a beautifully simple nature. He says that here the real things of life come to him, and that here his greatest and most successful plans, many times as a flash of inspiration, suggest themselves to him. Everything in the immediate vicinity seems to breathe the spirit of kindliness, comfort, goodwill, and good cheer. The very cattle and sheep, as they come to the old stone fence at the edge of the grove and look across to this beautiful spot seem indeed to get the same enjoyment that the people are getting. They seem almost to smile in the realization of their contentment and enjoyment,
Starting point is 00:18:55 or perhaps it seems so to the onlooker, because he can scarcely help smiling as he sees the manifested evidence of their contentment and pleasure. the gate of the pond is always opened wide enough to admit a supply of water so abundant that it continually overflows a quantity sufficient to feed a stream that runs through the fields below giving the pure mountain water and drink to the cattle and flocks that are grazing there the stream then flows on through the neighbor's fields not long ago our friend was absent for a year he rented his estate during his absence to a man who as the world goes was of a very practical turn of a very practical turn of of mind. He had no time for anything that did not bring him direct practical returns. The gate connecting to the reservoir with the lotus pond was shut down and no longer had the Crystal Mountain Water the opportunity to feed and overflow it. The notice of our friend, all are welcome to the lotus pond, was removed and no longer were the gay companies of children
Starting point is 00:19:57 men and women seen at the pond. A great change came over everything. On account of the lack of the life-giving water, the flowers in the pond wilted, and their long stems lay stretched upon the mud in the bottom. The fish that formerly swam in its clear water soon died and gave an offensive odor to all who came near. The flowers no longer bloomed on its banks. The birds no longer came to drink and to bathe. No longer was heard the hum of bees.
Starting point is 00:20:28 And more, the stream that ran through the fields below dried up, so that the cattle and the flocks no longer got their supply of clear mountain water. The difference between the spot now and the lotus pond when our friend gave it his careful attention was caused, as we readily see by shutting off the gate to the pond, thus preventing the water from the reservoir in the hills which was the source of its life from entering it. And when this, the source of its life was shut off,
Starting point is 00:20:58 not only was the appearance of the lotus pond entirely changed, but the surrounding fields were deprived of the stream, to whose banks the flocks and cattle came for drink. In this, do we not see a complete parallel so far as human life is concerned? In the degree that we recognize our oneness, our connection with the infinite spirit which is the life of all, and in the degree that we open ourselves to this divine inflow, do we come into harmony with the highest,
Starting point is 00:21:26 the most powerful, and the most beautiful everywhere? And in the degree that we do this, do we overflow, so that all who come in contact with us receive the effects of this realization on our part? This is the lotus pond of our friend, he who is in love with all that is truest and best in the universe. And in the degree that we fail to recognize our oneness with this infinite source, and so close, shut ourselves to this divine inflow, do we come into that state where there seems to be with us nothing of good, nothing of beauty, nothing of power.
Starting point is 00:22:03 And when this is true, those who come in contact with us receive not good but harm. This is the spot of the lotus pond while the farm was in the hands of a renter. There is this difference between the lotus pond and your life and mine. It has no power in itself of opening
Starting point is 00:22:21 the gate to the inflow of the water from the reservoir which is its source. in regard to this it is helpless and dependent upon an outside agency you and i have the power the power within us to open or to close ourselves to this divine inflow exactly as we choose this we have through the power of mind through the operation of thought there is the soul life direct from god this it is that relates us to the infinite there is them the physical life this it is that relates us to the material universe about us the thought life connects the one with the other it is this that plays between the two before we proceed farther let us consider very briefly the nature of thought thought is not as many times supposed a mere infinite abstraction or something of a like nature it is on the contrary a vital living force the most vital subtle and irresistible force there is in the universe. In our very laboratory experiments, we are demonstrating the great fact that thoughts are forces. They have form and quality and substance and power,
Starting point is 00:23:38 and we are beginning to find that there is what we may term a science of thought. We are beginning also to find that through the instrumentality of our thought forces, we have creative power, not merely in a figurative sense, but creative power in reality. Everything in the material universe about us, everything the universe has ever known, had its origin first in thought. From this it took its form. Every castle, every statue,
Starting point is 00:24:08 every painting, every piece of mechanism, everything had its birth, its origin, first in the mind of the one who formed it before it received its material expression or embodiment. The very universe in which we live is the result of the thought energies of God, the infinite spirit that is back of all and if it is true as we have found that we in our true selves are in essence the same and in this sense are one with the life of this infinite spirit do we not then see that in the degree that we come into vital realization of this stupendous fact we through the operation of our interior spiritual thought forces have in like sense creative power
Starting point is 00:24:51 Everything exists in the unseen before it is manifested or realized in the scene, and in this sense it is true that the unseen things are the real, while the things that are seen are the unreal. The unseen things are cause, the seen things are effect, the unseen things are eternal, the seen things are the changing, the transient. The power of the word is a literal scientific fact. Through the operation of our thought forces we have creative power.
Starting point is 00:25:23 The spoken word is nothing more or less than the outward expression of the workings of these interior forces. The spoken word is then, in a sense, the means whereby the thought forces are focused and directed along any particular line, and this concentration, this giving them direction, is necessary before any outward or material manifestation of their power can become evident. Much is said in regard to building castles in the air, and one who is given to this building is not always looked upon with favor, but castles in the air are always necessary before we can have castles on the ground, before we can have castles in which to live. The trouble with the one who gives himself to building castles in the air
Starting point is 00:26:08 is not that he builds them in the air, but that he does not go farther and actual lies in life, in character, in material form, the castles he thus builds. He does a part of the work, a very necessary part, but another equally necessary part remains still undone. There is a connection with the thought forces
Starting point is 00:26:29 that we may term the drawing power of the mind, and the great law operating here is one with that great law of the universe. That like attracts like. We are continually attracting to us from both the seen and the unseen side of life, forces and conditions most akin
Starting point is 00:26:47 to those of our own thoughts. This law is continually operating whether we are conscious of it or not. We are all living, so to speak, in a vast ocean of thought, and the very atmosphere around us is continually filled with the thought forces that are being continually sent
Starting point is 00:27:05 or that are continually going out in the form of thought waves. We are all affected, more or less, by these thought forces, either consciously or unconsciously, and in the degree that we are more or less sensitively organized, or in the degree that we are negative and so are open to outside influences rather than positive, thus determining what influences shall enter into our realm of thought
Starting point is 00:27:30 and hence into our lives. There are those among us who are much more sensitively organized than others. As an organism, their bodies are more finely, more sensitively constructed. These, generally speaking, are people who are always more or less affected by the mentalities of those with whom they come in contact, or in whose company they are. A friend, the editor of one of our great journals, is so sensitively organized that it is impossible for him to attend a gathering, such as a reception, talk and shake hands with a number of people during the course of the evening, without taking on to a greater or less extent their various mental and physical conditions. These affect him to such an extent that he is scarcely himself
Starting point is 00:28:15 and in his best condition for work until some two or three days afterward. Some think it unfortunate for one to be so sensitively organized. By no means. It is a good thing, for one may thus be more open and receptive to the higher impulses of the soul within, and to all higher forces and influences from without. It may, however, be unfortunate and extremely inconvenient to be so organized, unless one recognize and gain the power of closing himself,
Starting point is 00:28:47 of making himself positive to all detrimental or undesirable influences. This power, every one, however sensitively organized he may be, can acquire. This he can acquire through the mind's action. And moreover, there is no habit of more value to anyone, be he sensitively or less sensitively organized, than that of occasionally taking. and holding himself continually in the attitude of mind. I close myself, I make myself positive to all things below,
Starting point is 00:29:19 and open and receptive to all higher influences, to all things above. By taking this attitude of mind consciously now and then, it soon becomes a habit, and if one is deeply earnest in regard to it, it puts into operation silent but subtle and powerful influences in affecting the desired results. In this way, all lower, and undesirable influences from both the scene and the unseen side of life are closed out,
Starting point is 00:29:47 while all higher influences are invited, and in the degree that they are invited will they enter? And what do we mean by the unseen side of life? First, the thought forces, the mental and emotional conditions in the atmosphere about us that are generated by those manifesting on the physical plane through the agency of physical bodies. Second, the same forces generated by those who have dropped the physical body, or from whom it has been struck away, and who are now manifesting through the agency of bodies of a different nature. The individual existence of man begins on the sense-playing of the physical world, but rises through successive gradations of ethereal and celestial spheres,
Starting point is 00:30:33 corresponding with his ever-unfolding deific life and powers, to a destiny of unspeakable grandeur and glory. Within and above every physical planet is a corresponding ethereal planet or soul world, as within and above every physical organism is a corresponding ethereal organism or soul body, of which the physical is but the external counterpart and materialized expression.
Starting point is 00:31:00 From this etherealized or soul planet, which is the immediate home of our arisen humanity, their rises or deepens in infinite gradations spheres within and above spheres to celestial heights of spiritualized existence utterly inconceivable to the sense man embodiment accordingly is twofold the physical being but the temporary husk so to speak in and by which the real and permanent ethereal organism is individualized and perfected somewhat as the full corn in the ear is reached by means of its husk for which there is no further use. By means of this indestructible ethereal body and the corresponding ethereal spheres of environment with the social life and relations in the spheres,
Starting point is 00:31:48 the individuality and personal life is preserved forever. The fact of life in whatever form means the continuance of life, even though the form be changed. Life is the one eternal principle of the universe and so always continues, even though the form of the agency through which it manifests be changed. In my father's house are many mansions.
Starting point is 00:32:14 And surely, because the individual has dropped, has gone out of the physical body, there is no evidence at all that the life does not go right on the same as before. Not commencing, for there is no cessation, but commencing in the other form, exactly where it has left off here. For all life is a continuous evolution. step by step, there one neither skips nor jumps. There are, in the other form then,
Starting point is 00:32:42 mentalities and hence lives of all grades and influences, the same as there are in the physical form. If then the great law that like attracts like is ever operating, we are continually attracting to us from this side of life influences and conditions most akin to those of our own thoughts and lives. A gruesome thought that we should be so influenced says one by no means all life is one we are all bound together in the one common and universal life and especially not when we take into consideration the fact that we have it entirely in our own hands to determine the order of thought we entertain and consequently the order of influences we attract and are not mere willowy creatures of circumstance unless indeed we choose to be in our mental lives we can either keep hold of the
Starting point is 00:33:35 rudder and so determine exactly what course we take what points we touch or we can fail to do this and failing we drift and are blown hither and thither by every passing breeze and so on the contrary welcome should be the thought for thus we may draw to us the influence and the aid of the greatest the noblest and the best who have lived on the earth whatever the time wherever the place we cannot rationally believe other than that those who have labored in love and with uplifting power here are still laboring in the same way, and in all probability with more earnest zeal and with still greater power. And Elisha prayed, and said, Lord, I pray thee, open his eyes that he may see. And the Lord opened the eyes of the young man, and he saw, and behold, the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire around about Elisha. While writing with a friend a few days ago, we were speaking of the great interest people are everywhere in taking in the more vital things of life,
Starting point is 00:34:44 the eagerness with which they are reaching out for a knowledge of the interior forces, their ever-increasing desire to know themselves and to know their true relations with the infinite. And in speaking of the great spiritual awakening that is so rapidly coming all over the world, the beginnings of which are so clearly seen during the closing years of this, and whose ever-increasing proportions we are to witness during the early years of the coming century, I said, how beautiful if Emerson, the illumined one so far in advance of his time, who labored so faithfully and so fearlessly to bring about these very conditions, how beautiful if he were with us today to witness it all,
Starting point is 00:35:27 how he would rejoice. How do we know? was the reply, that he is not witnessing at all, and more, that he is not having a hand in it all, a hand even greater, perhaps, than when we saw him here. Thank you, my friend, for this reminder, and truly, are they not all ministering spirits sent forth to minister to those who shall be heirs of salvation? As science is so abundantly demonstrating today, the things that we see are but a very small fraction of the things that are. The real vital forces at work in our own lives and in the world about us are not seen by the ordinary physical eye. Yet they are the causes of which
Starting point is 00:36:09 all things we see are merely the effects. Thoughts are forces. Like builds like, and like attracts like. For one to govern his thinking then is to determine his life. Says one of deep insight into the nature of things. The law of correspondences between spiritual and material things is wonderfully exact in its workings. People ruled by the mood of gloom attract to them gloomy things. People always
Starting point is 00:36:37 discouraged and despondent do not succeed in anything and live only by burdening someone else. The hopeful, confident, and cheerful attract the elements of success. A man's front or backyard will advertise that man's ruling mood in a way it is kept.
Starting point is 00:36:54 a woman at home shows her state of mind in her dress a slattern advertises the ruling mood of hopelessness carelessness and lack of system rags tatters and dirt are always in the mind before being on the body the thought that is most put out brings its corresponding visible element to crystallize about you as surely and literally as the visible bit of copper in solution attracts to it the invisible copper in that solution a mind always hopeful confident, courageous, and determined on its set purpose, and keeping itself to that purpose attracts to itself out of the elements, things and powers, favorable to that purpose. Every thought of yours has a literal value to you in every possible way, the strength of your body, the strength of your mind, your success in business, and the pleasure your company brings others,
Starting point is 00:37:49 depends on the nature of your thoughts. In whatever mood you set your mind does your spirit receive of unseen substance in correspondence with that mood. It is as much a chemical law as spiritual law. Chemistry is not confined to the elements we see. The elements we do not see with the physical eye outnumber ten thousand times to those we do see. The Christ injunction, do good to those who hate you, is based on a scientific fact and
Starting point is 00:38:17 a natural law. So, to do good is to bring to yourself all the elements in nature of power and good. good. To do evil is to bring the contrary destructive elements. When our eyes are opened, self-preservation will make us stop all evil thought. Those who live by hate will die by hate. That is, those who live by the sword will die by the sword. Every evil thought is as a sword drawn on the person to whom it is directed. If a sword is drawn in return, so much the worse for both. And says another, who knows full well whereof he speaks. The law of attraction works universally on every plane of action, and we attract whatever we desire or expect.
Starting point is 00:39:01 If we desire one thing and expect another, we become like houses divided against themselves, which are quickly brought to desolation. Determine resolutely to expect only what you desire, then you will attract only what you wish for, carry any kind of thought you please about with you, and so long as you retain it, no matter how you roam over land or sea you will unceasingly attract to yourself knowingly or inadvertently exactly and only what corresponds to your own dominant quality of thought thoughts are our private property and we can regulate them to suit our taste entirely by steadily recognizing our ability so to do we have just spoken of the drawing power of the mind faith is nothing more or less than the operation of the thought-few in the form of an earnest desire coupled with expectation as to its fulfilment and in the degree of that faith the earnest desire thus sent out is continually held to and watered by firm expectation in just that degree does it either draw to itself or does it change from the unseen into the visible from the spiritual into the material that for which it is sent let the element of doubt or fear enter in and what would otherwise be
Starting point is 00:40:22 tremendous force will be so neutralized that it will fail of its own realization continually held to and continually watered by firm expectation it becomes a force a drawing power that is irresistible and absolute and the results will be absolute in direct proportion as to its absolute we shall find as we are so rapidly beginning to find today that the great things said in regard to faith the great promises made in connection with it are not mere vague sentimentalities, but are all great scientific facts and rest upon great immutable laws. Even in our very laboratory experiments, we are beginning to discover the laws underlying and governing these forces. We are now beginning, some at least, to use them understandingly and not blindly, as has so often and so long been the case.
Starting point is 00:41:15 Much is said today in regard to the will. It is many times spoken of as if it were a force in itself, but will is a force, a power, only in so far as it is a particular form of the manifestation of the thought forces. For it is by what we call the will, that thought is focused and given a particular direction, and in the degree that thought is thus focused and given direction, it is effective in the work it is sent out to accomplish.
Starting point is 00:41:45 in a sense there are two kinds of will the human and the divine the human will is the will of what for convenience sake we may term the lower self it is the will that finds its life merely in the realm of the mental and the physical the sense will it is the will of one who is not yet awake to the fact that there is a life that far transcends the life of merely the intellect and the physical senses and which when realized and lived does not do away with or minimal these but which on the contrary brings them to their highest perfection and to their powers of keenest enjoyment the divine will is the will of the higher self the will of the one who recognizes his oneness with the divine and who consequently brings his will to work in harmony in conjunction with the divine will the lord thy god in the midst of thee is mighty the human will has its limitations so far and no farther says the law the divine will has no limitations it is supreme all things are open and subject to you says the law and so in the degree that the human will is transmuted into the divine in the degree that it comes into harmony with and so acts in conjunction with the divine does it become supreme then it is that thou shalt decree a thing and it shall be established unto thee the great secret of life and of power then is to make and to keep one's conscious connection with this infinite source the power of everyday life the very life itself is determined by what it relates itself to god is imminent as well as transcendent he is creating working ruling in the universe to-day in your life and in mine just as much as he ever has been we are too apt to regard him after the manner of an absentee landlord one who was set into operation the forces of this great universe and then taken himself away
Starting point is 00:43:48 in the degree however that we recognize him as imminent as well as transcendent are we able to partake of his life and power for in the degree that we recognize him as the infinite spirit of life and power that is to-day at this very moment working and manifesting in and through all and then in the degree that we come into the realization of our oneness with this life do we become partakers of and so do we actualize in ourselves the quality of his life in the degree that we open ourselves to the inflowing tide of this eminent and transcendent life do we make ourselves channels through which the infinite intelligence and power can work it is through the instrumentality of the mind that we are unable to connect the real soul life with the physical life and so enable the soul life to manifest and work through the physical. The thought life needs continually to be illumined from within. This illumination can come in just the degree that through the agency of the mind we recognize our oneness with the divine, of which each soul is an individual form of expression.
Starting point is 00:44:59 This gives us the inner guiding which we call intuition. Intuition is to the spiritual nature and understanding practically what sense perception is to the sensuous nature and understanding. It is an inner spiritual sense, through which man is open to the direct revelation and knowledge of God, the secrets of nature and life, and through which he is brought into conscious unity and fellowship with God, and made to realize his own deific nature and supremacy of being as the Son of God.
Starting point is 00:45:32 Spiritual supremacy and illumination, thus realized through the development and perfection of intuition, under divine inspiration, gives the perfect inner vision and direct insight into the character, properties, and purpose of all things to which the attention and interests are directed. It is, we repeat, a spiritual sense opening inwardly as the physical senses open outwardly, and because it has the capacity to perceive, grasp, and know the truth at first hand, independent of all external sources of information, we call it intuition. all inspired teaching and spiritual revelations are based upon the recognition of this spiritual faculty of the soul and its power to receive and appropriate them
Starting point is 00:46:19 conscious unity of man in spirit and purpose with the father born out of his supreme desire and trust opens his soul through this inner sense to immediate inspiration and enlightenment from the divine omniscience and the cooperative energy of the divine omnipotence under which he becomes a seer and a master. On this higher plane of real-life spiritual life in the flesh the mind holds the impersonal attitude and acts with unfettered freedom and unbiased vision, grasping the truth at first hand, independent of all external sources of information, approaching all beings and things from the divine side,
Starting point is 00:46:58 they are seen in the light of the divine omniscience, God's purpose in them, and so the truth concerning them, as it rests in the mind of God, are thus revealed by direct illumination from the divine mind, to which the soul is opened inwardly through the spiritual sense we call intuition. Some call it the voice of the soul. Some call it the voice of God.
Starting point is 00:47:21 Some call it the sixth sense. It is our inner spiritual sense. In the degree that we come into the recognition of our own true selves, into the realization of the oneness of our life with the infinite life, and in the degree that we open ourselves to this divine inflow, does this voice of intuition, this voice of the soul, this voice of God, speak clearly? And in the degree that we recognize, listen to, and obey it, does it speak ever more clearly, until by and by, there comes a time when it is unerring,
Starting point is 00:47:57 absolutely unerring, in its guidance. End of Section 3. Section 4 of In Tune with the Infinite by Ralph Waldo Trine. This Libravox recording is in the public domain. Fulness of Life, Bodley Health and Vigure God is the Spirit of Infinite Life. If we are partakers of this life and have the power of opening ourselves fully to its divine flow,
Starting point is 00:48:35 it means more, so far as even the physical life is concerned, than we may at first think. For very clearly, the life of this infinite spirit spirit from its very nature can admit of no disease and if this is true no disease can exist in the body where it freely enters through which it freely flows let us recognize at the outset that so far as the physical life is concerned all life is from within out there is an immutable law which says as within so without cause effect in other words the thought forces the various mental states and and the emotions all have in time their effects upon the physical body. Someone says, I hear a great deal said today in regard to the effects of the mind upon the body,
Starting point is 00:49:24 but I don't know as I place very much confidence in this. Don't you? Someone brings you sudden news. You grow pale, you tremble, or perhaps you fall into a faint. It is, however, through the channel of your mind that the news is imparted to you. A friend says something to you, perhaps at the table, something that seems very unkind.
Starting point is 00:49:45 You are hurt by it, as we say. You have been enjoying your dinner, but from this moment your appetite is gone. But what was said entered into and affected you through the channel of your mind. Look! Yonder goes a young man, dragging his feet, stumbling over the slightest obstruction in the path.
Starting point is 00:50:05 Why is it? Simply that he is weak-minded, an idiot. In other words, a falling state of mind is productive of a falling condition of the body. To be sure-minded is to be sure-footed. To be uncertain in mind is to be uncertain in step. Again, a sudden emergency arises.
Starting point is 00:50:24 You stand trembling and weak with fear. Why are you powerless to move? Why do you tremble? And yet you believe that the mind has but little influence upon the body. You are for a moment dominated by a fit of anger. For a few hours afterwards you complain of a violent headache. And still, you do not seem to realize that the thoughts and emotions have an effect upon the body. A day or two ago, while conversing with a friend, we were speaking of worry.
Starting point is 00:50:52 My father is greatly given to worry, he said. Your father is not a healthy man, I said. He is not strong, vigorous, robust, and active. I then went on to describe to him more fully his father's condition and the troubles which afflicted him. He looked at me in surprise and said, Why, you do not know my father? No, I replied, How then can you describe so accurately
Starting point is 00:51:17 the disease with which he is afflicted? You've just told me that your father is greatly given to worry. When you told me this, you indicated to me cause. In describing your father's condition, I simply connected with the cause its own peculiar effects. Fear and worry have the effect of closing up the channels of the body so that the life forces flow in a slow and sluggish manner. open tranquillity open the channels of the body so that the life forces go bounding through it in such a way that disease can rarely get a foothold not long ago a lady was telling a friend of a serious physical trouble
Starting point is 00:51:53 my friend happened to know that between this lady and her sister the most kindly relations did not exist he listened attentively to her delineation of her troubles and then looking her squarely in the face in a firm but kindly tone said forgive your sister the woman looked at him in surprise and said i can't forgive my sister very well then he replied keep the stiffness of your joints and your kindred rheumatic troubles a few weeks later he saw her again with the light step she came toward him and said i took your advice i saw my sister and forgave her we have become good friends again and i don't know how it is but somehow or other from the very day as i remember that we became reconciled my trouble seem to grow less and to-day there is not a trace of the old difficulties left and really my sister and i have become such good friends that now we can scarcely get along without one another again we have effect following cause we have several well authenticated cases of the following nature a mother has been dominated for a few moments by an intense passion of anger and the child at her breast has died within an hour's time so poisoned became the mother's milk by virtue of the poisonous secretions of the system while under the domination of this fit of anger in other cases it has caused severe illness and convulsions the following experiment has been tried a number of times by a well-known scientist several men have been put into a heated room each man has been dominated for a moment by a particular passion of some kind one by an intense passion of anger and others by different other passions The experimenter has taken a drop of perspiration from the body of each of these men,
Starting point is 00:53:43 and by means of a careful chemical analysis, he has been able to determine the particular passion by which each has been dominated. Practically the same results revealed themselves in the chemical analysis of the saliva of each of the men. Says a noted American author, an able graduate of one of our greatest medical schools, and one who has studied deeply into the forces that build the body and the forces that tear it down. The mind is the natural protector of the body. Every thought tends to reproduce itself
Starting point is 00:54:15 and ghastly mental pictures of disease, sensuality, and vice of all sorts produce scroffler and leprosy in the soul, which reproduces them in the body. Anger changes the chemical properties of the saliva to a poison dangerous to life. It is well known that sudden and violent emotions have not only weakened the heart in a few hours, but have caused death and insanity.
Starting point is 00:54:40 It has been discovered by scientists that there is a chemical difference between that sudden cold exudation of a person under a deep sense of guilt and the ordinary perspiration. And the state of the mind can sometimes be determined by chemical analysis of the perspiration of a criminal, which, when brought into contact with selenic acid, produces a distinctive pink color. It is well known that fear has killed thousands of victims,
Starting point is 00:55:06 while, on the other hand, courage is a great invigorator. Anger in the mother may poison a nursing child. Rarely, the celebrated horse tamer said that an angry word would sometimes raise the pulse of a horse ten beats in a minute. If this is true of a beast, what can we say of its power upon human beings, especially upon a child? Strong emotion often causes vomiting. Extreme anger or fright may produce jaundice.
Starting point is 00:55:36 A violent paroxysm of rage has caused apoplexy and death. Indeed, in more than one instance, a single night of mental agony has wrecked a life. Grief, long-standing jealousy, constant care and corroding anxiety sometimes tend to develop insanity. Sick thoughts and discordant moods are in the natural atmosphere of disease, and crime is engendered and thrives in the myasma of the mind. From all this we get the great fact we are scientifically demonstrating today that the various mental states, emotions, and passions have their various peculiar effects upon the body and each induces in turn, if indulged into any great extent, its own peculiar forms of disease, and these in time become chronic.
Starting point is 00:56:25 Just a word or two in regard to their mode of operation, if a person is dominated for a moment by, say a passion of anger, there is said upon the fifth. physical organism what we might justly term a bodily thunderstorm, which has the effect of souring or rather of corroding the normal, healthy, and life-giving secretions of the body, so that instead of performing their natural functions, they become poisonous and destructive. And if this goes on to any great extent, by virtue of their cumulative influences, they give rise to a particular form of disease, which in turn becomes chronic. So the emotion opposite to this, that of kindness, love, benevolence, goodwill,
Starting point is 00:57:09 tends to stimulate a healthy, purifying, and life-giving flow of all bodily secretions. All the channels of the body seem free and open. The life forces go bounding through them, and these very forces sit into a bounding activity will in time counteract the poisonous and disease-giving effects of their opposites. A physician goes to see a patient. He gives no medicine this morning.
Starting point is 00:57:34 yet the very fact of his going makes the patient better he has carried with him the spirit of health he has carried brightness of tone and disposition he has carried hope into the sick chamber where he has left it there in fact the very hope and good cheer he has carried with him has taken hold of and has had a subtle but powerful influence upon the mind of the patient and this mental condition imparted by the physician has in turn its effects upon the patient's body and so through the instrumentality of this mental suggestion the healing goes on know then whatever cheerful and serene supports the mind supports the body too hence the most vital movement mortals feel is hope the balm and life-blood of the soul we sometimes hear a person in weak health say to another i always feel better when you come there is a scientific reason underline the statement the tongue of the wise is health the power of suggestion so far as the human mind is concerned is a most wonderful and interesting field of study most wonderful and powerful forces can be set into operation through this agency one of the world's most noted scientists recognized everywhere as one of the most eminent anatomists living tells us that he has proven from laboratory experiments that the entire human structure can be completely changed made over within a period of less than one year and that some portions can be entirely remade within a period of a very few weeks do you mean to say i hear it asked that the body can be changed from a disease to a healthy condition through the operation of the interior forces most certainly and more this is the natural method of cure the method that has as its work the application of drugs medicines and external agencies is the artificial method the only thing that any drug or medicine can do is to remove obstructions that the life forces may have simply a better chance to do their work the real healing process must be performed by the operation of the life forces within a surgeon and physician of world-wide fame recently made to his medical associates the following declaration
Starting point is 00:59:55 For generations past the most important influence that plays upon nutrition, the life principle itself has remained an unconsidered element in the medical profession, and almost exclusive drift of its studies and remedial paraphernalia has been confined to the action of matter over mind. This has seriously interfered with the evolutionary tendencies of the doctors themselves, and consequently the psychic factor in professional life is still in a rudimentary or comparatively undeveloped state. But the light of the 19th century has dawned, and so the march of mankind in general is taken in the direction of the hidden forces of nature. Doctors are now compelled to join the ranks of students in psychology, and follow their patrons into the broader field of mental therapeutics. There is no time for lingering, no time for skepticism or doubt or hesitation. He who lingers is lost, for the entire race is enlisted in the movement.
Starting point is 01:00:57 I am aware of the fact that in connection with the matter we are now considering there has been a great deal of foolishness during the past few years. Many absurd and foolish things have been claimed and done, but this is nothing against, and it has absolutely. absolutely nothing to do with the great underlying laws themselves the same has been true of the early days of practically every system of ethics or philosophy or religion the world has ever known but as time has passed these foolish absurd things have fallen away and the great eternal principles have stood out ever more and more clearly defined i know personally of many cases where an entire and permanent cure has been affected in some within a remarkably short of time through the operation of these forces. Some of them are cases that have been entirely given up by the regular practice,
Starting point is 01:01:49 Materia Medica. We have numerous accounts of such cases in all times and in connection with all religions. And why should not the power of affecting such cures exist among us today? The power does exist, and it will be actualized in just the degree that we recognize the same great laws that were recognized in times past. times past. One person may do a very great deal in connection with the healing of another, but this almost invariably implies cooperation on the part of the one who is thus treated. In the cures that Christ performed, he most always needed the cooperation of the one who
Starting point is 01:02:27 appealed to him. His question almost invariably was, Does thou believe? He thus stimulated into activity the life-giving forces within the one cured. if one is in a very weak condition or if his nervous system is exhausted or if his mind through the influence of disease is not so strong in its workings it may be well for him for a time to seek the aid and cooperation of another but it would be far better for such a one could he bring himself to a vital realization of the inupitence of his own interior powers one may cure another but to be permanently healed one must do it himself in this way another another another may be most valuable as a teacher by bringing one to a clear realization of the power of the forces within but in every case in order to have a permanent cure the work of the self is necessary christ's words were almost invariably go and sin no more or thy sins are forgiven thee thus pointing out the one eternal and never-changing fact that all disease and its consequent suffering is the direct or indirect
Starting point is 01:03:38 result of the violation of law, either consciously or unconsciously, either intentionally or unintentionally. Suffering is designed to continue only so long as sin continues. Sin, not necessarily in the theological, but always in the philosophical sense, though many times in the sense of both, the moment the violation ceases, the moment one comes into perfect harmony with the law, the cause of the suffering ceases, and though there may be residing within the cumulative effects of past violation the cause is removed and consequently there can be no more effects in the form of additions and even the diseased condition that has been induced from past violation will begin to disappear as soon as the right forces are set into activity there is nothing that will more quickly and more completely bring one into harmony with the laws under which he lives than this vital realization of his of his oneness with the infinite spirit which is the life of all life in this there can be no disease and nothing will more readily remove from the organism the obstructions that have accumulated there or in other words the disease that resides there than this full realization and the complete opening of oneself to this divine inflow i shall put my spirit in you and ye shall live the moment a person realizes his oneness with the infinite spirit
Starting point is 01:05:06 he recognizes himself as a spiritual being and no longer as a mere physical material being he then no longer makes the mistake of regarding himself as a body subject to ills and diseases but he realizes the fact that he is spirit spirit now as much as he ever will or can be and that he is the builder and so the master of the body the house in which he lives and the moment he thus recognizes his power as master he seeks to be in any way to allow it the mastery over him he no longer fears the elements or any of the forces that he now in his ignorance allows to take hold of and affect the body the moment he realizes his own supremacy instead of fearing them as he did when he was out of harmony with them he learns to love them he thus comes into harmony with them or rather he so orders them that they come into harmony with him he who formerly was the slave has now been become the master the moment we come to love a thing it no longer carries harm for us there are almost countless numbers today weak and suffering in body who would become strong and healthy if they would only give god an opportunity to do his work to such i would say don't shut out the divine inflow do anything else rather than this open yourselves to it invite it in the degree that you open yourselves to it its inflowing tide will course through your bodies a force so vital that the old obstructions that are dominating them today will be driven out before it. My words are life to them that find them and health to all their flesh. There is a trough through which a stream of muddy water has been flowing for many days.
Starting point is 01:06:53 The dirt has gradually collected on its sides and bottom, and it continues to collect as long as the muddy water flows through it. Change this. Open the trough to a swift flowing stream of clear crystal water, and in a very little while, even the very dirt that has collected on its sides and bottom will be carried away. The trough will be entirely cleansed. It will present an aspect of beauty, and no longer an aspect of ugliness. And more, the water that now courses through it will be of value. It will be an agent of refreshment, of health, and of strength to those who use it. Yes, in just the degree that you realize your oneness with this infinite spirit of life, and thus
Starting point is 01:07:36 actualize your latent possibilities and powers, you will exchange disease for ease, in harmony for harmony, suffering and pain for abounding health and strength. And in the degree that you realize this wholeness, this abounding health and strength in yourself,
Starting point is 01:07:52 will you carry it to all with whom you come in contact? For, we must remember that health is contagious as well as disease. I hear it asked, what can be said in a concrete way in regard to the practical application of these truths, so that one can hold himself in the enjoyment of perfect bodily health, and more, that one may heal himself of any existing disease.
Starting point is 01:08:16 In reply, let it be said that the chief thing that can be done is to point out the great underlying principle, and that each individual must make his own application. One person cannot well make this for another. first let it be said that the very fact of one's holding the thought of perfect health sets into operation vital forces which will in time be more or less productive of the effect perfect health then speaking more directly in regard to the great principle itself from its very nature it is clear that more can be accomplished through the process of realization than through the process of affirmation though for some affirmation may be a help and aid to realization in the degree however, that you come into a vital realization of your oneness with the infinite spirit of life, once all life in individual form has come and is continually coming, and in the degree that through this realization you open yourself to its divine inflow,
Starting point is 01:09:14 do you set into operation forces that will sooner or later bring even the physical body into a state of abounding health and strength? For to realize that this infinite spirit of life can from its very nature admit of no disease, and to realize that this then is the life in you by realizing your oneness with it you can so open yourself to its more abundant entrance that the diseased bodily conditions effects will respond to the influence of its all-perfect power this either quickly or more tardily depending entirely upon yourself there have been those who have been able to open themselves so fully to this realization that the healing has been instantaneous and permanent the degree of intensity always illuminates in like degree the element of time it must however be a calm quiet and expectant intensity rather than an intensity that is fearing disturbed and non-expectant then there are others who have come to this realization by degrees many will receive great help and many will be entirely healed by a practice somewhat after the following nature with a mind at peace and with a heart going out in love to all go into the quiet of your own interior self holding the thought i am one with the infinite spirit of life the life of my life i then as spirit i as spiritual being can in my own real nature admit of no disease i now open my body in which disease has a spirit has been my own real nature admit of no disease
Starting point is 01:10:44 i now open my body in which disease has gotten a foothold i open it fully to the inflowing tide of this infinite life and it now even now is pouring in and coursing through my body and the healing process is going on realize this so fully that you begin to feel a quickening and a warming glow imparted by the life forces to the body believe the healing process is going on believe it and hold continually to it many people greatly desire a certain thing but expect something else they have greater faith in the power of evil than in the power of good and hence remain ill if one will give himself to this meditation realization treatment or whatever term it may seem best to use at stated times as often as he may choose and then continually hold himself in the same attitude of mind thus allowing the force to work continually he will be surprised how rapidly the body will be exchanging conditions of disease and in harmony for health and harmony there is no particular reason however for this surprise for in this way he is simply allowing the unnipotent power to do the work, which will have to do it ultimately in any case. If there is a local difficulty and one wants to open this particular portion,
Starting point is 01:12:07 in addition to the entire body, to this inflowing life, he can hold this particular portion in thought. For to fix the thought in this way upon any particular portion of the body stimulates or increases the flow of the life forces in that portion. It must always be born in mind, however, that whatever healing may be thus accomplished effects will not permanently cease until causes have been removed in other words as long as there is the violation of law so long disease and suffering will result this realization that we are considering will have an influence not only where there is a diseased condition of the body but even where there is not this condition it will give an increased bodily life vigor and power we have had in many cases in all times and in all countries of healing through the operation of the interior forces entirely independent of external agencies
Starting point is 01:13:03 various have been the methods or rather various have been the names applied to them but the great law underlying all is one and the same and the same to-day when the master sent his followers forth his injunction to them was to heal the sick and the afflicted as well as to teach the people the early church fathers had the power of healing in short it was a part of their work and why should we not have the power to-day the same as they had it then are the laws all that different identically the same why then simply because with a few rare exceptions here and there we are unable to get beyond the mere letter of the law into its real vital spirit and power it is the letter that killeth it is the spirit that giveth life and power it is the spirit that giveth life and power life and power. Every soul who becomes so individualized that he breaks through the mere letter and enters into the real vital spirit will have the power, as have all who have gone before, and when he does he will also be the means of imparting it to others, for he will be the one who will move and who will speak with authority. We are rapidly finding today, and we shall find even more and more, as time passes, that practically all disease, with its consequent suffering,
Starting point is 01:14:21 origin in perverted mental and emotional states and conditions the mental attitude we take toward anything determines to a greater or less extent its effects upon us if we fear it or if we antagonize it the chances are that it will have detrimental or even disastrous effects upon us if we come into harmony with it by quietly recognizing and inwardly asserting our superiority over it in the degree that we are able successfully to do this in that that degree will it carry with it no injury for us no disease can enter into or take hold of our bodies unless it find therein something corresponding to itself which makes it possible and in the same way no evil or undesirable condition of any kind can come into our lives unless there is already in them that which invites it and so makes it possible for it to come the sooner we begin to look within ourselves for the cause of whatever comes to us the better it will be for so much the sooner will we begin to make conditions within ourselves such that only good may enter we who from our very nature should be masters of all conditions by virtue of our ignorance are mastered by almost numberless conditions of every description do i fear a draft there's nothing in the draft a little purifying current of god's pure air
Starting point is 01:15:45 to cause me trouble, to bring on a cold, perhaps an illness. The draft can affect me only in the degree that I myself make it possible, only in the degree that I allow it to affect me. We must distinguish between causes and mere occasions. The draft is not cause, nor does it carry cause with it. Two persons are sitting in the same draft. One is injurously affected by it. The other experience is not even an inconvenience,
Starting point is 01:16:14 but he rather enjoys it. The one is a creature of circumstances. He fears the draft, cringes before it, continually thinks of the harm it is doing him. In other words, he opens every avenue for it to enter and take hold of him.
Starting point is 01:16:29 And so it, harmless and beneficent in itself, brings to him exactly what he has empowered it to bring. The other recognizes himself as the master over and not the creature of circumstances. He is not concerned about the draft.
Starting point is 01:16:44 he puts himself into harmony with it makes himself positive to it and instead of experiencing any discomfort he enjoys it and in addition to its doing him a service by bringing the pure fresh air from without to him it does him the additional service of hardening him even more to any future conditions of like nature but if the draft was cause it would bring the same results to both the fact that it does not shows that it is not a cause but a condition and it brings to each effects which correspond to the conditions it finds within each poor draft how many thousands nay millions of times is it made the scapegoat by those who are too ignorant or too unfair to look their own weaknesses square in the face and who instead of becoming imperial masters remain cringing slaves think of it what it means a man created the image of the eternal god sharer of his life and power born to have dominion fearing shaking cringing before a little draught of pure life-giving air but scapegoats are convenient things even if the only thing they do for us is to aid us in our constant efforts at self-delusion the best way to disarm a draft of the bad effects it has been accustomed to bring one is first to bring about a pure and healthy set of conditions within then to change one's mental attitude toward it recognize the fact that of itself it has no power it has only the power you invest it with thus you will put yourself into harmony with it and will no longer sit in fear of it then sit in a draught a few times and get hardened to it as every one by going at it judiciously can readily do but suppose one is in delicate health or especially subject to drafts
Starting point is 01:18:38 then he be simply a little judicious at first don't seek the strongest that can be found especially if you do not as yet in your own mind feel equal to it for if you do not it signifies that you still fear it that supreme regulator of all life good common sense must be used here the same as elsewhere if we are born to have dominion and that we are is demonstrated by the fact that some have attained it and what one has done soon or late all can do then it is not necessary that we live under the domination of any physical agent in the degree that we recognize our own interior powers then we are rulers and able to dictate in the degree that we fail to recognize them we are to recognize them we are to recognize them we are to recognize them we are to recognize them we are are slaves and are dictated to. We build whatever we find within us. We attract whatever comes to us, and all in accordance with spiritual law, for all natural law is spiritual law. The whole of human life is cause and effect. There is no such thing in it as chance, nor is there, even in all the wide universe. Are we not satisfied with whatever comes into our lives? the thing to do then is not to spend time in railing against the imaginary something we create and call fate but to look to the within and change the causes at work there in order that things of a different nature may come for there will come exactly what we cause to come
Starting point is 01:20:07 this is true not only of the physical body but of all phases and conditions of life we invite whatever comes and did we not invite it either consciously or unconsciously it could be but of all phases and conditions of life we invite it either consciously or unconsciously it could be not and it would not come this may undoubtedly be hard for some to believe or even to see it first but in the degree that one candidly and open-mindedly looks at it and then studies into the silent but subtle and so to speak omnipotent workings of the thought forces and as he traces their effects within him and about him it becomes clearly evident and easy to understand and then whatever does come to one depends for its effects entirely upon his mental attitude toward it does this or that occurrence or condition cause you annoyance very well it causes you annoyance and so disturbs your peace merely because you allow it to you are born to have absolute control over your own dominion but if you voluntarily hand over this power even if for a little while to someone or to something else then you of course become the creature the one controlled.
Starting point is 01:21:17 To live undisturbed by passing occurrences, you must first find your own center. You must then be firm in your own center, and so rule the world from within. He who does not himself condition circumstances allows the process to be reversed and becomes a conditioned circumstance. Find your center and live in it.
Starting point is 01:21:38 Surrender it to no person, to no thing. In the degree that you do this, will you find yourself growing stronger and stronger in it and how can one find a center by realizing his oneness with the infinite power and by living continually in this realization but if you do not rule from your own center if you invest this or that with the power of bringing you annoyance or evil or harm then take what it brings but cease your railings against the eternal goodness and beneficence of all things i swear the earth shall surely be complete to him or her who shall be complete the earth remains jagged and broken only to him who remains jagged and broken if the windows of your soul are dirty and streaked covered with foreign matter to them then the world as you look out of them will be to you dirty and streaked and out of order cease your complainings however keep your pessimism your poor unfortunate me to yourself lest you betray the fact that your windows are badly in need of something but know that your friend who keeps his windows clean that the eternal sun may illumine all within and make visible all without know that he lives in a different world from yours then go wash your windows and instead of longing for some other world you will discover the wonderful beauties of this world and if you don't find transcendent beauties on every hand here the chances are that you will never find them anywhere
Starting point is 01:23:13 the palm hangs on the berry bush when comes the poet's eye and the whole street is a masquerade when shakespeare passes by this same shakespeare whose mere passing causes all this commotion is the one who put into the mouth of one of his creations the words, the fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars, but in ourselves, that we are underlings. And the great work of his own life is right good evidence that he realized full well the truth of the facts we are considering. And again he gave us a great truth in keeping with what we are considering when he said, Our doubts are traitors, and make us lose the good we oft might win by fearing to attempt.
Starting point is 01:23:55 there is probably no agent that brings us more undesirable conditions than fear we should live in fear of nothing nor will we when we come fully to know ourselves an old french proverb runs some of your griefs you have cured and the sharpest you still have survived but what torments of pain you endured from evils that never arrived fear and lack of faith go hand in hand the one is born of the other Tell me how much one is given to fear, and I will tell you how much he lacks in faith. Fear is a most expensive guest to entertain, the same as worry is. So expensive are they that no one can afford to entertain them. We invite what we fear, the same as, by a different attitude of mind, we invite and attract the influences and conditions we desire. The mind, dominated by fear, opens the door for the entrance of the very things,
Starting point is 01:24:53 for the actualization of the very condition it fears. Where are you going? Asked an Eastern pilgrim on meeting the plague one day. I am going to Baghdad to kill 5,000 people, was the reply. A few days later, the same pilgrim met the plague returning. You told me you were going to Baghdad to kill 5,000 people, said he. But instead, you killed 50,000. No, said the plague.
Starting point is 01:25:20 I killed only 5,000, as I told you I would. the others died of fright. Fear can paralyze every muscle in the body. Fear affects the flow of the blood. Likewise, the normal and healthy action of all the life forces. Fear can make the body rigid, motionless, and powerless to move. Not only do we attract to ourselves the things we fear, but we also aid in attracting to others the conditions we in our own minds hold them in fear of.
Starting point is 01:25:49 This we do in proportion to the strength of our own thought, and in the degree that they are sensitively organized and so influenced by our thought, and this, although it be unconscious both on their part and on ours, children, and especially when very young, are generally speaking, more sensitive to their surrounding influences than grown people are, sometimes veritable little sensitive plates, registering the influences about them, and embodying them as they grow. How careful in their prevailing mental states, then, should be those who have them in charge,
Starting point is 01:26:27 and especially how careful should a mother be during the time she is carrying the child, and when every thought, every mental as well as emotional state, has its direct influence upon the life of the unborn child. Let parents be careful how they hold a child, either younger or older, in the thought of fear. This is many times done unwittingly on their part, through anxiety, and at times through what might well be termed overcare, which is fully as bad as undercare. I know a number of cases where a child has been so continually held in the thought of fear, lest this or that condition come upon him, that the very things that were feared have been drawn to him,
Starting point is 01:27:09 which probably otherwise never would have come at all. Many times there has been no adequate basis for the fear. in case there is a basis then far wiser is it to take exactly the opposite attitude so as to neutralize the force at work and then to hold the child in the thought of wisdom and strength that it may be able to meet the condition and master it instead of being mastered by it but a day or two ago a friend was telling me of an experience of his own life in this connection at a period when he was having a terrific struggle with a certain habit he was so continually held in the thought of fair by his mother and the young lady to whom he was engaged the engagement to be consummated at the end of a certain period the time depending on his proving his mastery that he very sensitively organized continually felt the depressing and weakening effects of their negative thoughts he could always tell exactly how they felt toward him he was continually influenced and weakened by their fear by their questionings by their suspicions all of which had the effect of less the sense of his own power, all of which had an endeavor paralyzing influence upon him. And so, instead of their beginning courage and strength in him, they brought him to a still greater realization of his own weakness and the almost worthless use of struggle.
Starting point is 01:28:33 Here were two who loved him dearly, and who would have done anything and everything to help him gain the mastery, but who, ignorant of the silent, subtle, ever-working and all-telling power of the thought-forces, instead of imparting to him courage, instead of adding to his strength, disarmed him of this, and then added an additional weakness from without. In this way, the battle for him was made harder in a threefold degree. Fear and worry and all kindred mental states are too expensive for any person, man, woman, or child, to entertain or indulge in.
Starting point is 01:29:08 Fear paralyzes healthy action. Worry corrods and pulls down the organism, and will finally tear it to people. pieces nothing is to be gained by it but everything to be lost long continued grief at any loss will do the same each brings its own peculiar type of ailment an inordinate love of gain a close-fisted hoarding disposition will have kindred effects anger jealousy malice continual fault-finding lust has each its own peculiar corroding weakening tearing down effects we shall find that not only happiness and prosperity concompetence of righteousness living in harmony with the higher laws but bodily health as well the great hebrew seer enunciated a wonderful chemistry of life when he said as righteousness tendeth to life so he that pursueth evil pursueth it to his own death on the other hand in the way of righteousness is life and in the pathway thereof there is no death the time will come when it will be seen that this means far more than most people dare even to think as yet it rests with the man to say whether his soul shall be housed in a stately mansion of ever-growing splendor and beauty or in a hovel of his own building a hovel at last ruined and abandoned to decay the bodies of almost untold numbers living their one-sided unbalanced lives are every year through these influences weakening and falling by the wayside long before their time
Starting point is 01:30:42 poor poor houses intended to be beautiful temples brought to desolation by their ignorant reckless deluded tenants poor houses a close observer a careful student of the power of the thought forces will soon be able to read in the voice in the movement in the features, the effects registered by the prevailing mental states and conditions. Or, if he is told the prevailing mental states and conditions, he can describe the voice, the movements, the features, as well as describe in a general way the peculiar physical ailments their possessor is heir to. We are told by good authority that a study of the human body, its structure, and the length of time it takes to come to maturity, in comparison with the time it takes the body's of various animals and their corresponding longevity,
Starting point is 01:31:33 reveals the fact that its natural age should be nearer 120 years than what we commonly find it today. But think of the multitudes all about us whose bodies are aging, weakening, breaking, so that they have to abandon them long before they reach what ought to be a long period of strong, vigorous middle life. Then, the natural length of life being thus shortened, it comes to be what we might term, a race belief, that this shortened period is the natural period and as a consequence many when they approach a certain age seeing that as a rule people at this period of life begin to show signs of age to break and go downhill as we say they thinking it a matter of course that it must be the same with them
Starting point is 01:32:15 by taking this attitude of mind many times bring upon themselves these very conditions long before it is necessary subtle and powerful are the influence of the mind in the building and rebuilding of the body as we understand them better it may become the custom for people to look forward with pleasure to the teens of their second century there comes to mind at this moment a friend a lady well on to eighty years of age an old lady some most people in fact would call her especially those who measure age by the number of seasons that have come and gone since one's birth but to call our friend old would be to call black-white she is no older than a girl of twenty-five and indeed younger i'm glad to say or i'm sorry to say depending on the point of view than many a girl of this age seeking for the good in all people and in all things she has found the good everywhere the brightness of disposition and a voice that is hers to-day that attracts all people to her and that makes her so beautifully attractive to all people has characterized her all through life it has in turn carried brightness and hope and courage and strength to hundreds and thousands of people through all these years and will continue to do so apparently for many years yet to come no fears no worryings no hatreds no jealousies no sorrowings no grievings no sordid graspings after inordinate gain we have found entrance into her realm of thought as a consequence her mind free from these abnormal states and conditions has not externalized in her body the various physical ailments that the great majority of people are lugging about with them thinking in their ignorance that they are natural and that it is all in accordance with the eternal order of things that they should have them
Starting point is 01:34:07 her life has been one of varied experiences so that all these things would have found ready entrance into the realm of her mind and so into her life were she ignorant enough to allow them entrance on the contrary she has been wise enough to recognize the fact that in one kingdom at least she is ruler the kingdom of her mind and that it is hers to dictate as to what shall and what shall not enter there she knows moreover that in determining this she is determining all the conditions of her life it is indeed a pleasure as well as an inspiration to see her as she goes here and there to see her sunny disposition her youthful step to hear her joyous laughter indeed and in truth shakespeare knew whereof he spoke when he said it is the mind that makes the body rich with great pleasure i watched her but recently as she was walking along the street stopping to have a word and so apart in the lives of a group of children at play by the wayside hastening her step a little to have a word with the washer woman toting her bundle of clothes stopping for a word with the laboring man returning with dinner pail in hand from his work returning the recognition from the lady in her carriage and so imparting some of her own rich life to all with whom she came in contact. And as good fortune would have it, while still watching her,
Starting point is 01:35:31 an old lady passed her, really old, this one, though at least ten or fifteen years younger, so far as the count by the seasons is concerned. Nevertheless, she was bent in form and apparently stiff enjoined in muscle. Silent in mood, she wore a countenance of a long-faced sadness. It was intensified surely several-fold
Starting point is 01:35:52 by a black, somber headgear, with an immense heavy veil still more sombre-looking if possible her entire dress was of this description by this relic of barbarism garb combined with her own mood and expression she continually proclaimed to the world two things her own personal sorrows and woes which by this very method she kept continually fresh in her mind and also her lack of faith in the eternal goodness of things her lack of faith in the love and eternal goodness of the influence of the influence of the influence of the father wrapped only in the thoughts of her own ailments and sorrows and woes she received and she gave nothing of joy nothing of hope nothing of courage nothing of value to those whom she passed or with whom she came in contact but on the contrary she suggested to all and helped to intensify in many those mental states all too prevalent in our common human life and as she passed our friend one could notice a slight turn of the head which coupled with the experience expression in her face seem to indicate this as her thought your dress and your conduct are not wholly in keeping with the lady of your years thank god then thank god they are not and may he in his great goodness and love send us an innumerable company of the same rare type and may they live a thousand years to bless mankind to impart the life-giving influences of their own royal lives to the numerous ones all about us who stand so much in need of them would you remember always young and would you carry all the joyousness and buoyancy of youth into your mature years then have care concerning but one thing how you live in your thought world this will determine all it was the inspired one gotama the buddha who said the mind is everything what do you think you become and the same thing had ruskin in mind when he said make yourself nests of pleasant thoughts none of us as yet know for none of us
Starting point is 01:37:54 us have been taught in early youth what fairy palaces we may build of beautiful thought proof against all adversity and would you have in your body all the elasticity all the strength all the beauty of your younger years then live these in your mind making no room for unclean thought and you will externalize them in your body in the degree that you keep young in thought will you remain young in body and you will find that your body will in turn a your mind. For body helps mind the same as mind builds body. You are continually building, and so externalizing in your body, conditions most akin to the thoughts and emotions you entertain. And not only are you so building from within, but you are also continually drawing from without, forces of a kindred nature. Your particular kind of thought connects you with a similar order of thought from without. If it is bright, hopeful, cheerful, you can yourself with a current of thought of this nature. If it is sad, fearing, despondent, then this is the order of thought you connect yourself with. If the latter is the order of your
Starting point is 01:39:05 thought, then perhaps unconsciously and by degrees you have been connecting yourself with it. You need to go back and pick up again a part of your child nature with its careless and cheerful type of thought. The minds of the group of children at play are unconsciously concentrated in drawing to their bodies a current of playful thought. Place a child by itself, deprive it of its companions, and soon it will mope and become slow of movement. It is cut off from that peculiar thought current and is literally out of its element.
Starting point is 01:39:37 You need to bring again this current of playful thought to you which has gradually been turned off. You are too serious or sad or absorbed in the seriousness affairs of life. You can be playful and cheerful without being puria, or silly. You can carry on business all the better for being in the playful mood when your mind is off your business. There is nothing but ill resulting from the permanent mood of sadness and seriousness. The mood which by many so long maintained makes it difficult for them to smile at all. At 18 or 20 you commence growing out of the more playful tendency of early youth. You took
Starting point is 01:40:16 hold of the more serious sight of life. You went into some business. You became more or less involved in its cares, perplexities, and responsibilities. Or as man or woman, you entered on some phase of life involving care or trouble, or you became absorbed in some game of business which, as you followed it, left no time for play. Then as you associated with older people, you absorbed their old ideas, their mechanical methods of thinking, their acceptance of errors without question or thought of question. In all this, you opened your mind to a heavy,
Starting point is 01:40:51 hair-laden current of thought. Into this you glided unconsciously. That thought is materialized in your blood and flesh. The scene of your body is a deposit or crystallization of the unseen element ever flowing into your body from your mind. Years pass on, and you find
Starting point is 01:41:10 that your movements are stiff and cumbrous, that you can with difficulty, climb a tree as at 14. Your mind has all this time been sending to your body these heavy, inelastic elements. making your body what now it is your change for the better must be gradual and can only be accomplished by bringing the thought current of an all-round symmetrical strength to bear on it by demanding of the supreme power to be led in the best way by diverting your mind from the many unhealthy thoughts which habitually have been flowing into it without your knowing it two healthier ones like the beast the bodies of those of our race have in the past weakened and decayed
Starting point is 01:41:51 this will not always be increase of spiritual knowledge will show the cause of such decay and will show also how to take advantage of a law or force to build us up renew ever the body and give it greater and greater strength instead of blindly using that law or force as has been done in the past to weaken our bodies and finally destroy them full rich and abounding health is the normal and the natural condition of life anything else is an abnormal condition and abnormal conditions as a rule come through perversions god never created sickness suffering and disease they are man's own creations they come through his violating the laws under which he lives so used are we to seeing them that we come gradually if not to think of them as natural then to look upon them as a matter of course the time will come when the work of the physician will not be to treat and attempt to heal the body but to heal the mind which in turn will heal the body in other words the true physician will be a teacher his work will be to keep people well instead of attempting to me make them well after sickness and disease comes on. And still beyond this, there will come a time when each will be his own physician, in the degree that we live in harmony with the higher laws of our being, and so in the degree that we become better acquainted with the powers of the mind and spirit,
Starting point is 01:43:20 will we give less attention to the body? No less care, but less attention. The bodies of thousands today would be much better cared for if their owners gave them less thought and attention, as a rule those who think least of their bodies enjoy the best health many are kept in continual ill-health by the abnormal thought and attention they give them give the body the nourishment the exercise the fresh air the sunlight it requires keep it clean and then think of it as little as possible in your thoughts and in your conversation never dwell upon the negative side don't talk of sickness and disease by talking of this you do yourself harm, and you do harm to those who listen to you. Talk of those things that will make people the better for listening to you. Thus you will infect them with health and strength, and not with weakness and disease. To dwell upon the negative side is always destructive.
Starting point is 01:44:19 This is true of the body, the same as it is true of all other things. The following from one whose thorough training as a physician has been supplemented by extensive study and observations along the lines of the powers of the interior forces are of special significance and value in this connection we can never gain health by contemplating disease any more than we can reach perfection by dwelling upon imperfection or harmony through discord we should keep a high ideal of health and harmony constantly before the mind never affirm or repeat about your health what you do not wish to be true do not dwell upon your ailments nor study your symptoms never allow yourself to be convinced that you are not complete master of yourself stoutly affirm your superiority over bodily ills and do not acknowledge yourself the slave of any inferior power i would teach children early to build a strong barrier between themselves and disease by healthy habits of thought high thinking and purity of life i would teach them to expel all thoughts of death, all images of disease, all discordant emotions like hatred, malice, revenge, envy, and sensuality, as they would banish a temptation to do evil. I would teach them that bad food, bad drink,
Starting point is 01:45:45 or bad air, makes bad blood, that bad blood makes bad tissue, and bad flesh, bad morals. I would teach them that healthy thoughts are as essential to healthy bodies as pure thoughts to a clean life. I would teach them to cultivate a strong willpower and to embrace themselves against life's enemies in every possible way. I would teach the sick to have hope, confidence, cheer. Our thoughts and imaginations are the only real limits to our possibilities. No man's success or health will ever reach beyond his own confidence. As a rule, we erect our own barriers. Like produces like in the universe through. Hatred, envy, malice jealousy and revenge all have children every bad thought breeds others and each of these goes on and on ever reproducing itself until our world is peopled with their offspring
Starting point is 01:46:43 the true physician and parent of the future will not medicate the body with drugs so much as the mind with principles the coming mother will teach your child to assuage the fever of anger hatred malice with the great panacea of the world world love the coming physician will teach the people to cultivate cheerfulness good-will and noble deeds for a health tonic as well as a heart tonic and that a merry heart doeth good like a medicine the health of your body the same as the health and strength of your mind depends upon what you relate yourself with this infinite spirit of life this source of all life can from its very nature we have found admit of no weakness no disease come then into the full conscious vital realization of your oneness with this infinite life open yourself to its more abundant entrance and full and ever renewing bodily health and strength will be yours and any good may ever conquer ill health walk where pain has trod as a man thinketh so he is rise then and think with god the whole matter may then be summed up in one sentence god is well and so are you you must awaken to the knowledge of your real being when this awakening comes you will have and you will see that you have the power to determine what conditions are externalized in your body you must recognize you must realize yourself as one with the infinite spirit god's will is then your will your will your will is god's will and with god all things are possible when we are able to do away with all sense of separateness by living continually in the realization of this oneness not only will our bodily ills and weaknesses vanish but all limitations along all lines
Starting point is 01:48:41 then delight thyself in the lord and he shall give thee the desires of thine heart then you will feel like crying all the day long the lines are fallen unto me in pleasant places yea i have a goodly heritage drop out of your mind your belief in good things and good events coming to you in the future come now into the real life and coming appropriate and actualize them now remember that only the best is good enough for one with the heritage so royal as yours we buy ashes for bread we buy diluted wine give me the true whose ample leaves and tendrils curled among the silver hills of heaven draw everlasting dew end of section four section five of in tune with the infinite by ralph waldo trine this librivox recording is in the public domain the secret power and effects of love this is the spirit of infinite love the moment we recognize ourselves as one with it we become so filled with love that we see only the good in all and when we realize that we are all one with this infinite spirit then we realize that we are all one with this infinite spirit then we realize in a sense, we are all one with each other. When we come into a recognition of this fact, we can then do no harm to anyone, to anything. We find that we are all members of the one great body, and that no portion of the body can be harmed without all the other portions suffering
Starting point is 01:50:26 thereby. When we fully realize the great fact of the oneness of all life, that all are partakers from this one infinite source, and so that the same life is the life of each of each other. individual then prejudices go and hatred cease love grows and reigns supreme then wherever we go wherever we come in contact with fellow man we are able to recognize the god within we thus look only for the good and we find it it always pays there is a deep scientific fact underlying the great truth he that takes the sword shall perish by the sword the moment we come into a realization of the subtle powers of the thought forces, we can quickly see that the moment we entertain any thoughts of hatred toward another, he gets the effects of these diabolical forces that go out from us, and has the same thoughts of hatred aroused in him, which in turn return to the sender. Then when we understand the effects of the passion, hatred, or anger, even upon the physical body, we can
Starting point is 01:51:32 see how detrimental, how expensive this is. The same is true in regard to all kindred thoughts or passions, envy, criticism, jealousy, scorn. In the ultimate, we shall find that in entertaining feelings of this nature toward another, we always suffer far more than the one toward whom we entertain them. And then when we fully realize the fact that selfishness is at the root of all error, sin and crime, and that ignorance is the basis of all selfishness, with what charity we come to look upon the acts of all. It is the ignorant man who seeks his own ends at the expense of the greater whole. It is the ignorant man, therefore, who is the selfish man. The truly wise man is never selfish. He is a seer and recognizes the fact that he, a single member of the one great body,
Starting point is 01:52:23 is benefited in just the degree that the entire body is benefited, and so he seeks nothing for himself that he would not equally seek for all mankind. If selfishness is is at the bottom of all error, sin, and crime, and ignorance is the basis of all selfishness. Then when we see a manifestation of either of these qualities, if we are true to the highest within us, we will look for and will seek to call forth the good in each individual with whom we come in contact.
Starting point is 01:52:53 When God speaks to God, then God responds, and shows forth as God. But when the devil speaks to devil, then devil responds, and the devil is always to pay. Sometimes I hear a person say, I don't see any good in him. No? Then you are no seer.
Starting point is 01:53:11 Look deeper, and you will find the very God in every human soul. But remember, it takes a God to recognize a God. Christ always spoke to the highest, the truest, and the best in men. He knew, and he recognized the God in each, because he had first realized it in himself. He ate with publicans and sinners. Abominable, the scribes and, and pharisees said they were so wrapped up in their own conceits their own self-centeredness hence their own ignorance that they had never found the god in themselves and so they never dreamed that it was the real life of even publicans and sinners
Starting point is 01:53:50 in the degree that we hold a person in the thought of evil or of error do we suggest evil and error to him in the degree that he is sensitively organized or not well individualized and so subject to the suggestion of the thought forces from others, will he be influenced? And so in this way we may be sharers in the very evil doing in which we hold another in thought. In the same way, when we hold a person in the thought of the right, the good and the true, righteousness, goodness, and truth are suggested to him, and thus we have a most beneficent influence on his life and conduct.
Starting point is 01:54:29 If our hearts go out in love to all with whom we come in contact, we inspire love, and this. same ennobling and warming influence of love always return to us from those in whom we inspire them there is a deep scientific principle underlying the precept if you would have all the world love you you must first love all the world in the degree that we love we will be loved thoughts are forces each creates its kind each comes back laden with the effect that corresponds to a self and of which it is the cause then let your secret thoughts be fair. They have a vital part in share. In shaping words and molding fate, God's system is so intricate. I know of no better practice than that of a friend who continually holds himself in an attitude of mind, that he continually sends out his love in the form of the thought. Dear everybody, I love you! And when we realize the fact that a thought invariably produces its effect before it returns,
Starting point is 01:55:30 or before it ceases. We can see how he is continually breathing out a blessing, not only upon all with whom he comes in contact, but upon all the world. These same thoughts of love, moreover token in various ways, are continually coming to him from all quarters. Even animals feel the effects of these forces.
Starting point is 01:55:51 Some animals are much more sensitively organized than many people are, and consequently they get the effects of our thoughts, our mental states and emotions much more readily than many people do. Therefore, whenever we meet an animal, we can do it good by sending out to it these thoughts of love. It will feel the effects, whether we simply entertain or whether we voice them, and it is often interesting to note how quickly it responds and how readily it gives evidence of its appreciation of this love and consideration on our part. What a privilege and how enjoyable it would be to live and walk in a way,
Starting point is 01:56:28 world where we meet only gods. In such a world, you can live. In such a world, I can live. For in the degree that we come into this higher realization, do we see only the God in each human soul? And when we are thus able to see him in every one we meet, we then live in such a world. And when we thus recognize the God in everyone, we, by this recognition, help to call it forth ever more and more. What a privilege. This privilege of yours, this privilege of mine. That hypocritical judging of another is something then, with which we can have nothing to do. For we have the power of looking beyond the evolving, changing, error-making self, and seeing the real, the changeless, the eternal self which by and by will show forth
Starting point is 01:57:18 in the full beauty of holiness. We are then large enough also to realize, the fact that when we condemn another, by that very act we condemn ourselves. This realization so fills us with love that we continually overflow it, and all with whom we come in contact feel its warming and life-giving power. These in turn send back the same feelings of love to us, and so we continually attract love from all quarters. Tell me how much someone loves, and I will tell you how much he has seen of God. Tell me how much he loves, and I will tell you how much he lives with God. Tell me how much he loves, and I will tell you how far into the kingdom of heaven, the kingdom of harmony he has entered, for love is the fulfilling of the law.
Starting point is 01:58:05 And in a sense, love is everything. It is the key to life, and its influences are beyond those that move the world. Live only in the thought of love for all, and you will draw love to you from all. Live in the thought of malice or hatred, and malice and hatred will come back to you. for evil poisons malice shafts like boomerangs return inflicting wounds that will not heal while rage and anger burn every thought you entertain is a force that goes out and every thought comes back laden with its kind this is an immutable law every thought you entertain has moreover a direct effect upon your body love and its kindred emotions are the normal and the natural those in accordance with the eternal order of the universe for god is love. These have a life-giving, health-engendering influence upon your body, besides beautifying your countenance, enriching your voice, and making you ever more attractive in every way. And as it is true that in the degree that you hold thoughts of love for all, you call the same
Starting point is 01:59:11 from them in return, and as these have a direct effect upon your mind and through your mind upon your body, it is as so much life-force added to your own from without. You are then continually building this into both your mental and physical life, and so your life is enriched by its influence. Hatred and all its kindred emotions are the unnatural, the abnormal, the perversions, and so out of harmony with the eternal order of the universe. For if love is the fulfilling of the law, then these, its opposites, are direct violations of the law, and there can never be a violation of law without its attendant pain and suffering in one form or another. There is no escape from this.
Starting point is 01:59:56 And what is the result of this particular form of violation? When you allow thoughts of anger, hatred, malice, jealousy, envy, criticism or scorn, to exercise sway, they have a corroding and poisoning effect upon the organism. They pull it down, and if allowed to continue, will eventually tear it to pieces by externalizing themselves in the particular forms of disease they give rise to. And then in addition to the destructive influences from your own mind, you are continually calling the same influences from other minds. And these come as destructive forces augmenting your own,
Starting point is 02:00:34 thus aiding in the tearing down process. And so love inspires love, hatred breeds hatred. Love and good will stimulate and build up the body. Hatred and malice corrode and tear. it down. Love is a savor of life unto life. Hatred is a saver of death unto death. There are loyal hearts, there are spirits brave, there are souls that are pure and true.
Starting point is 02:00:59 Then give to the world the best you have and the best will come back to you. Give love and love to your heart will flow. A strength in your utmost need. Have faith and a score of hearts will show. Their faith in your word and deed. I hear it said, How in regard to one who bears me hatred
Starting point is 02:01:18 Towards whom I have entertained no such thoughts and feelings And so have not been the cause of his becoming my enemy? This may be true, But the chances are that you will have but few enemies If there is nothing of an antagonistic nature in your mind and heart. Be sure there is nothing of this nature. But if hatred should come from another without apparent cause on your part, then meet it from first to last with thoughts of love and goodwill.
Starting point is 02:01:46 In this way you can, so to speak, so neutralize its effects that it cannot reach you, and so cannot harm you. Love is positive and stronger than hatred. Hatred can always be conquered by love. On the other hand, if you meet hatred with hatred, you simply intensify it. You add fuel to the flame already kindled,
Starting point is 02:02:08 upon which it will feed and grow, and so you increase and intensify the evil conditions. Nothing is to be gained by it. Everything is to be lost. By sending love for hatred, you will be able so to neutralize it that it will not only have no effect upon you, but it will not be able to even reach you.
Starting point is 02:02:28 But more than this, you will, by this course, sooner or later, be able literally to transmute the enemy into the friend. Meet hatred with hatred, and you degrade yourself. Meet hatred with love, and you elevate not only yourself, but also the one who bears you hatred. The Persian sage has said, Always meet penchalence with gentleness and perverseness with kindness.
Starting point is 02:02:52 A gentle hand can lead even an elephant by a hair. Reply to thine enemy with gentleness. Opposition to peace is sin. The Buddhist says, If a man foolishly does me wrong, I will return him the protection of my ungrudging love. The more evil comes from him, the more good shall go from me. The wise man avenges injuries by benefits, says the Chinese. Return good for evil, overcome anger by love.
Starting point is 02:03:21 Hatred never ceases by hatred, but by love, says the Hindu. The truly wise man or woman will recognize no one as an enemy. Occasionally we hear the expression. Never mind, I'll get even with him. Will you? And how will you do it? you can do it in one of two ways you can as if you have in mind deal with him as he deals or apparently deals with you pay him as we say in his own coin if you do this you will get even with him by sinking yourself to his level and both of you will suffer by it or you can show yourself the larger you can send him love for hatred kindness for ill-treatment and so get even with him by raising him to the higher level
Starting point is 02:04:06 but remember that you can never help another without by that very act helping yourself and if forgetful of self then in most all cases the value to you is greater than the service you render another if you are ready to treat him as he treats you then you show clearly that there is in you that which draws the hatred and ill-treatment to you you deserve what you are getting and should not complain nor would you complain if you were wise by following the other course you most effectually accomplish your purpose you gain a victory for yourself and at the same time you do a great service for him for which it is evident he stands greatly in need thus you become his saviour he in turn may become the saviour of other error-making and consequently care-encumbered men and women many times the struggles are greater than we can ever know we need more gentleness and sympathy and compassion in our common human life then we will neither blame nor condemn instead of blaming or condemning we will sympathize and all the more we will comfort one another for the way is often dreary and the feet are often weary and the heart is very sad there is a heavy burden bearing when it seems that none are caring and we half forget that ever we were glad comfort one another with the hand clasped close and tender with the sweetness love can render and the looks of friendly eyes do not wait with grace unspoken while life's daily bread is broken gentle speech is oft like mana from the skies when we come fully to realize the great fact that all evil and error and sin with all their consequent sufferings come through ignorance then whenever we see a manifestation of these in whatever form if our hearts are right we will have compassion sympathy and compassion for the one in whom we see them
Starting point is 02:06:06 compassion will then change itself into love and love will manifest itself in kindly service such is the divine method and so instead of aiding in trampling and keeping a weaker one down we will hold him up until he can stand alone and become the master but all life growth is from within out and one becomes a true master in the degree that the knowledge of the divinity of his own nature draws upon his inner consciousness and so brings him to a knowledge of the higher laws and in no way can we so effectually hasten this dawning in the inner consciousness of another as by showing forth the divinity within ourselves simply by the way we live by example and not by precept by living not by preaching by doing not by professing by living the life not by dogmatizing as to how it should be lived there is no contagion equal to the contagion of life whatever we sow that shall we also reap and each thing sown produces of its kind we can kill not only by doing another bodily injury directly, but we can, and we do kill by every antagonistic thought. Not only do we thus kill, but while we kill we suicide. Many a man has been made sick by having the ill thoughts of a number of people centered upon him. Some have been actually
Starting point is 02:07:30 killed. Put hatred into the world, and we make it a literal hell. Put love into the world, and heaven with all its beauties and glories becomes a reality. Not to love is not. not to live, or it is to live a living death. The life that goes out in love to all is the life that is full and rich, and continually expanding in beauty and in power. Such is the life that becomes even more inclusive, and hence larger in its scope and influence. The larger the man and the woman,
Starting point is 02:08:01 the more inclusive they are in their love and their friendships. The smaller the man and the woman, the more dwarfed and dwindling their natures, the more they pride themselves upon their exclusiveness. Anyone, a fool or an idiot, can be exclusive. It comes easy. It takes and it signifies a large nature to be universal, to be inclusive. Only the man or woman of small, personal, self-centered, self-seeking nature is exclusive.
Starting point is 02:08:30 The man or the woman of a large, royal, unself-centered nature never is. The small nature is the one that continually strives for effect. The larger nature never does. The one goes here and there in order to gain recognition, in order to attach himself to the world. The other stays at home and draws the world to him. The one loves merely himself. The other loves all the world,
Starting point is 02:08:57 but in his larger love for all the world, he finds himself included. Verily then, the more one loves, the nearer he approaches to God, for God is the spirit of infinite love. and when we come into the realization of our oneness with this infinite spirit then divine love so fills us that enriching and enrapturing our own lives from them it flows out to enrich the life of all the world in coming into the realization of our oneness with the infinite life we are brought at once into right relations with our fellow-men we are brought into harmony with the great law that we find our own lives in losing them in the service of others we are brought to a knowledge of the fact that all life is one and so that we are all parts of the one great whole we then realize that we can't do for another without at the same time doing for ourselves
Starting point is 02:09:51 we also realize that we cannot do harm to another without by that very act doing harm to ourselves we realize that the man who lives to himself alone lives a little dwarfed and stunted life because he has no part in this larger life of humanity but the one who in service loses his own life in this larger life has his own life increased and enriched a thousand or million fold and every joy every happiness everything of value coming to each member of this greater whole comes as such to him for he has a part in the life of each and all and here let a word be said in regard to true service peter and john were one day going up to the temple and as they were entering the gate they were met by a poor cripple who ask them for alms. Instead of giving him something to supply the day's needs, and then leaving him in the same dependent condition for the morrow and the morrow, Peter did him a real service,
Starting point is 02:10:49 and a real service for all mankind by saying, "'Silver and gold I have none, but such as I have I give unto thee.' And then he made him whole. He thus brought him into the condition where he could help himself. In other words, the greatest service we can do for another
Starting point is 02:11:06 is to help him to help himself. To help him directly might be weakening, though not necessarily. It depends entirely upon circumstances. But to help one to help himself is never weakening, but always encouraging and strengthening, because it leads him to a larger and stronger life. There is no better way to help one to help himself than to bring him to a knowledge of himself. There is no better way to bring one to a knowledge of himself than to lead him to a knowledge of the powers that are lying dormant within his own soul. There is nothing that will enable him to come more readily or more completely
Starting point is 02:11:42 into an awakened knowledge of the powers that are lying dormant within his own soul than to bring him into the conscious, vital realization of his oneness with the infinite life and power, so that he may open himself to it in order that it may work and manifest through him. We will find that these same great truths
Starting point is 02:12:00 lie at the very bottom of the solution of our social situation. and we will also find that we will never have a full and permanent solution of it until they are fully recognized and built upon end of section five section six of in tune with the infinite by ralph waldo trine this librivox recording is in the public domain wisdom and interior illumination this is the spirit of infinite wisdom and in the degree that we open ourselves to it does the highest wisdom manifests itself to and through us. We can in this way go to the very heart of the universe itself and find the mysteries hidden to the majority of mankind, hidden to them, though not hidden of themselves.
Starting point is 02:12:54 In order for the highest wisdom and insight, we must have absolute confidence in the divine guiding us, but not through the channel of someone else. And why should we go to another for knowledge and wisdom? With God is no respect of persons. Why should we seek these things second-hand? Why should we thus stullify our own innate powers? Why should we not go direct to the infinite source itself?
Starting point is 02:13:20 If any man like wisdom, let him ask of God. Before they call, I will answer, and while they are yet speaking, I will hear. When we thus go directly to the infinite source itself, we are no longer slaves to personalities, institutions, or books. We should always keep ourselves open to suggestions of truth from these agencies. We should always regard them as agencies, however, and never as sources. We should never recognize them as masters, but simply as teachers. With Browning, we must recognize the great fact that, the truth is within ourselves. It takes no rise from outward things,
Starting point is 02:13:58 whatever you may believe. There is an inmost center in us all, where truth abides in fullness. There is no more important injunction in all the world, nor one with a deeper interior meaning then, to thine own self be true. In other words, be true to your own soul, for it is through your own soul that the voice of God speaks to you. This is the interior guide. This is the light that lighteth every man that cometh into the world. This is conscience. This is intuition. This is the voice of the higher self, the voice of the soul, the voice of God. Thou shalt hear a voice behind thee saying, This is the way. Walk, key in it. When Moses was on the mountain, it was after the various physical commotions and manifestations
Starting point is 02:14:46 that he heard the still small voice, the voice of his own soul, through which the infinite God was speaking. If we will but follow this voice of intuition, it will speak ever more clearly and more plainly, until by and by it will be absolute and unerring in its guidance. The great trouble with us is that we do not listen to and do not follow this voice within our own souls. and so we become as a house divided against itself we are pulled this way in that and we are never certain of anything i have a friend who listens so carefully to this inner voice who in other words always act so quickly and so fully in accordance with his intuitions and whose life as a consequence is so absolutely guided by them, that he always does the right thing at the right time and in the right way. He always knows when to act and how to act,
Starting point is 02:15:39 and is never in the condition of a house divided against itself. But someone says, may it not be dangerous for us to act always upon our intuitions? Suppose we should have an intuition to do harm to someone. We need not be afraid of this, however, for the voice of the soul. this voice of god speaking through the soul will never direct any one to do harm to another nor to do anything that is not in accordance with the highest standards of right and truth and justice and if you at any time have a prompting of this kind know that it is not the voice of intuition it is some characteristic of your lower self that is prompting you reason is not to be set aside but is to be continually illumined by this higher spiritual perception and in the degree that is that is to be set aside but is to be continually illumined by this higher spiritual perception and in the degree that it is thus illumined, will it become an agent of light and power?
Starting point is 02:16:31 When one becomes thoroughly individualized, he enters into the realm of all knowledge and wisdom, and to be individualized is to recognize no power outside of the infinite power that is back of all. When one recognizes this great fact and opens himself to the spirit of infinite wisdom, he then enters upon the road to the true education, and mysteries that before were closed now reveal themselves to him. This must indeed be the foundation of all true education, this evolving from within, this evolving of what has been involved by the infinite power. All things that is valuable for us to know will come to us if we will but open ourselves
Starting point is 02:17:13 to the voice of this infinite spirit. It is thus that we become seers and have the power of seeing into the very heart of things. There are no new stars. There are no new laws or forces. But we can so open ourselves to this spirit of infinite wisdom that we can discover and recognize those that have not been known before, and in this way they become new to us. When in this way we come into a knowledge of truth
Starting point is 02:17:40 we no longer need facts that are continually changing. We can then enter into the quiet of our own interior selves. We can open the window and look out, and thus gather the facts as we choose. This is true wisdom. Wisdom is the knowledge of God. Wisdom comes by intuition. It far transcends knowledge.
Starting point is 02:18:01 Great knowledge, knowledge of many things, may be had by virtue simply of a very retentive memory. It comes by tuition. But wisdom far transcends knowledge. In that knowledge is a mere incident of this deeper wisdom. He who would enter into the realm of wisdom must first divest himself of all intellectual pride. He must become, as a little little wisdom.
Starting point is 02:18:22 He must become as a little child. Prejudices, preconceived opinions and beliefs always stand in the way of true wisdom. Conceded opinions are always suicidal in their influences. They bar the door to the entrance of truth. All about us we see men in the religious world, in the world of science, in the political, in the social world, who through intellectual pride are so wrapped in their own conceits and prejudices that larger and later revelations of truth can find no entrance to them.
Starting point is 02:18:55 And instead of growing and expanding, they are becoming dwarfed and stunted, and still more incapable of receiving truth. Instead of actively aiding in the process of the world, they are as so many dead sticks in the way that would retard the wheels of progress. This, however, they can never do. Such always in time get bruised, broken, and left behind, while God's triumphal car of truth moves steadily onward. When the steam engine was still being experimented with,
Starting point is 02:19:24 and before it was perfected sufficiently to come into practical use, a well-known Englishman. Well-known then in scientific circles, wrote an extended pamphlet proving that it would be impossible for it ever to be used in ocean navigation, that is, in a trip involving the crossing of the ocean, because it would be utterly impossible for any vessel to carry with it sufficient coal for the use of its furnace.
Starting point is 02:19:48 and the interesting feature of the whole matter was that the very first steam vessel that made the trip from England to America had among its cargo a part of the first edition of this carefully prepared pamphlet. There was only one edition, many editions might be sold now. This seems indeed an amusing fact, but far more amusing is the man who voluntarily closes himself to truth, because, forsooth it does not come through conventional or orthodox or heretofore accepted channels, or because it may not be in full accord with or possibly may be opposed to, establish usages or beliefs. On the contrary, let there be many windows in your soul,
Starting point is 02:20:29 that all the glory of the universe may beautify it. Not the narrow pain of one poor creed can catch the radiant rays that shine from countless sources. Tear away the blinds of superstition. Let the light pour through fair windows, broad as truth itself, and high as heaven. tune your ear to all the worldless music of the stars, and to the voice of nature, and your heart shall turn to truth and goodness
Starting point is 02:20:54 as the plant turns to the sun. A thousand unseen hands reach down to help you to their peace-crowned heights, and all the forces of the firmament shall fortify your strength. Be not afraid to thrust aside half-truths and grasp the whole. There is a great law in connection with the coming of truth.
Starting point is 02:21:14 It is this. Whenever a man or woman, shuts himself or herself to the entrance of truth on account of intellectual pride, preconceived opinions, prejudices, or for whatever reason. There is a great law which says that truth in its fullness will come to that one from no source. And on the other hand, when a man or woman opens himself or herself fully to the entrance of truth from wherever source it may come, there is an equally great law which says that truth will flow to him or to her from all sources, from all sources, from all.
Starting point is 02:21:46 all quarters. Such becomes the free man, the free woman, for it is the truth that makes us free. The other remains in bondage, for truth has no invitation, and will not enter where it is not fully and freely welcomed. And where truth is denied entrance, the rich blessings it carries with it cannot take up their abode. On the contrary, when this is the case, it sends an envoy carrying with it, atrophy, disease, death, physically and spiritually as well as in intellectually, and the man who would rob another of his free and unfettered search for truth, who would stand as the interpreter of truth for another, with the intent of remaining in this position, rather than endeavoring to lead him to the place where he can be his own interpreter,
Starting point is 02:22:33 is more to be shunned than a thief and a robber. The injury he works is far greater, for he is doing direct and positive injury to the very life of the one he thus holds. Who has ever appointed any man, whoever he may be, as the keeper, the custodian, the dispenser of God's immutable truth? Many indeed are moved and so are called to be teachers of truth, but the true teacher will never stand as the interpreter of truth for another. The true teacher is the one whose endeavor is to bring the one he teaches to a true knowledge of himself, and hence of his own interior powers, that he may become his own interpreter. all others are generally speaking those animated by purely personal motives self-anggrandizement or personal gain moreover he who would claim to have all the truth and the only truth is a bigot a fool or a knave in the eastern literature is a fable of a frog the frog lived in a well and out of his little well he had never been one day a frog whose home was in the sea came to his well interested in all things he went in
Starting point is 02:23:44 Who are you? Where do you live? said the frog in the well. I am so-and-so, and my home is in the sea. The sea? What is that? Where is that? It is a very large body of water, and not far away. How big is your sea? Oh, very big. As big as this? pointing to a little stone lying near. Oh, much bigger. As big as this? Pointing to the board upon which they were sitting. Oh, much bigger. How much bigger, then? why the sea in which i live is bigger than your entire well it would make millions of wells such as yours nonsense nonsense you are a deceiver and a falsifier get out of my well get out of my well i want nothing to do with any such frogs as you ye shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free is the promise ye shall close yourselves to truth ye shall live in your own conceits and your own conceits shall make fools and idiots of you
Starting point is 02:24:44 would be a statement applicable to not a few and to not a few who pride themselves upon their superior intellectual attainments idiocy is arrested mental growth closing oneself for whatever reason to truth and hence to growth brings a certain type of idiocy though it may not be called by this name on the other hand another type is that arrested growth caused by taking all things for granted without proving them for oneself merely because they come from a particular person, a particular book, a particular institution. This is caused by one's always looking without, instead of being true to the light within, and carefully tending it that it may give an ever clearer light. With brave and intrepid Walt Whitman, we should be able to say, From this hour I ordain myself, loosed of limits and imaginary lines, going where I list, my own master, total and absolute, listening to others, considering well what they say, pausing, searching, receiving, contemplating, gently, but with undeniable
Starting point is 02:25:50 will, divesting myself of the holds that would hold me. Great should be the joy that God's boundless truth is open to all, open equally to all, and that it will make each one its dwelling place in proportion as he earnestly desires it and opens himself to it. And in regard to the wisdom that guides us in our daily life, there is nothing that is right and well for us. to know that may not be known when we recognize the law of its coming and are able wisely to use it let us know that all things are ours as soon as we know how to appropriate them i hold it as a changeless law from which no soul can sway or swerve we have that in each of us which will draw what air we need or most deserve if the time comes when we know not what course to pursue
Starting point is 02:26:39 when we know not which way to turn the fault lies in ourselves if the fault lies in ourselves then the correction of this unnatural condition lies also in ourselves it is never necessary to come into such a state if we are awake and remain awake to the light and the powers within us the light is ever shining and the only thing that is necessary for us diligently to see to is that we permit neither this thing nor that to come between us and the light with thee is the fountain of life in thy light shall we see light let us hear the words of one of the most highly illumined men i have ever known and one who has a consequence is never in the dark when the time comes as to what to do and how to do it whenever you are in doubt as to the course you should pursue after you have turned to every outward means of guidance let the inward eye see let the inward ear hear and allow this simple natural beautiful process to go on unimpeded by questionings or doubts. In all dark hours and times of unwanted perplexity, we need to follow one simple direction. Found as all needed directions can be found,
Starting point is 02:27:52 in the dear old gospel, which so many read, but alas, so few interpret. Enter into thine inner chamber and shut the door. Does this mean that we must literally betake ourselves to a private closet with a key in the door? If it did, then the command could never be obeyed in the open air on land or sea and the Christ loved the lakes and the forests far better than the cramping rooms of city dwelling houses still his councils are so wide-reaching that there is no spot on earth and no conceivable situation in which any of us may be placed where we cannot follow them one of the most intuitive men we ever met had a desk in a city office where several other gentlemen were doing business constantly and often talking loudly entirely undisturbed by the many various sounds about him this self-centered faithful man would in any moment of perplexity
Starting point is 02:28:46 draw the curtains of privacy so completely about him that he would be as fully enclosed in his own psychic aura and thereby as effectually removed from all distractions as though he were alone in some primeval wood. Taking his difficulty with him into the mystic silence in the form of a direct question, to which he expected a certain answer, he would remain utterly passive until the reply came,
Starting point is 02:29:11 and never once, through many years' experience, did he find himself disappointed or misled? Intuitive perceptions of truth are the daily bread to satisfy our daily hunger. They come like mana from the desert day by day. Each day brings adequate supply for that day's need only they must be followed instantly for dalliance with them means their obscuration and the more we dally the more we invite erroneous impressions to cover intuition
Starting point is 02:29:38 with a pall of conflicting moral fantasy born of illusions of the terence will one condition is imposed by universal law and this we must obey put all wishes aside and save the one desire to know truth couple with this one demand the fully consecrated determination to follow but is distinctly perceived as truth immediately it is revealed. No other affection must be permitted to share the field with this all-absorbing love of truth for its own sake. Obey this one direction, and never forget that expectation and desire are bright and groom and forever inseparable, and you will soon find your hitherto darkened way grow luminous with celestial radiance, for with the heaven within, all heavens without incessantly cooperate.
Starting point is 02:30:25 This may be termed going into the silence. This it is to perceive and to be guided by the light that lighteth every man that cometh into the world. This it is to listen to and be guided by the voice of your own soul, the voice of your higher self. The soul is divine, and in allowing it to become translucent to the infinite spirit it reveals all things to us, as man turns away from the divine light,
Starting point is 02:30:53 do all things become hidden. nothing hidden of itself. When the spiritual sense is opened, then it transcends all the limitations of the physical senses and the intellect, and in the degree that we are able to get away from the limitations set by them and realize that so far as the real life is concerned, it is one with the infinite life. Then we begin to reach the place where this voice will always speak, where it will never fail us, if we follow it, and as a consequence where we will always have the divine illumination and guidance. To know this and to live in this realization
Starting point is 02:31:30 is not to live in heaven hereafter, but to live in heaven here and now, today and every day. No human soul need be without it. When we turn our face in the right direction, it comes as simply and as naturally as the flower blooms and the wind blows. It is not to be bought with money or with price.
Starting point is 02:31:50 It is a condition waiting simply to be realized by rich, by poor, by king and peasant, by master and by servant, the world over. All are equal heirs to it. And so the peasant, if he find it first, lives a life far transcending in beauty and in real power the life of his king. The servant, if he finds it first, lives a life surpassing the life of his master. If you would find the highest, the fullest, and the richest life that not only this world but any world can know, then do away with the sense of the separateness of your life from the
Starting point is 02:32:28 life of God. Hold to the thought of your oneness. In the degree that you do this, you will find yourself realizing it more and more, and as this life of realization has lived, you will find that no good thing will be withheld, for all things are included in this. Then it will be yours, without fears or forebodings, simply to do today what your hands find to do, and so be ready for tomorrow. When it comes, knowing that tomorrow will bring tomorrow's supplies for the mental, the spiritual, and the physical life. Remember, however, that tomorrow's supplies are not needed until tomorrow comes. If one is willing to trust himself fully to the law, the law will never fail him.
Starting point is 02:33:14 It is the half-hearted trusting to it that brings uncertain and certain, so unsatisfactory results. Nothing is firmer and surer than deity. It will never fail the one who throws himself wholly upon it. The secret of life, then, is to live continually in this realization, whatever one may be doing, wherever one may be, by day and by night, both waking and sleeping. It can be lived in while we are sleeping no less than when we are awake. And here shall we consider a few facts in connection with sleep.
Starting point is 02:33:47 in connection with receiving instruction and illumination while asleep. During the process of sleep, it is merely the physical body that is at rest in quiet. The soul life, with all its activities, goes right on. Sleep is nature's provision for the recuperation of the body, for the rebuilding, and hence the replacing of the waste that is continually going on during the waking hours. It is nature's great restorer. If sufficient sleep is not allowed the body, so that the rebuilding, may equalize the wasting process, the body is gradually depleted and weakened, and any ailment
Starting point is 02:34:24 or malady, when it is in this condition, is able to find a more ready entrance. It is for this reason that those who are subject to it will take cold, as we term it, more readily when the body is tired or exhausted through loss of sleep than at utmost any other time. The body is in that condition where outside influences can have a more ready effect upon it than when it is in its normal condition. And when they do have an effect, they always go to the weaker portions first. Our bodies are given us to serve far higher purposes
Starting point is 02:34:56 than we ordinarily use them for. Especially is this true in the numerous cases where the body is master of its owner. In the degree that we come into the realization of the higher powers of the mind and spirit, in that degree does the body, through their influence upon it, become less gross and heavy,
Starting point is 02:35:15 finer in its texture and form, and then, because the mind finds a kingdom of enjoyment in itself, and in all the higher things it becomes related to, excesses in eating and drinking, as well as all others, naturally and of their own accord, fall away. There also falls away the desire for the heavier, grosser, less valuable kinds of food and drink, such as the flesh of animals, alcoholic drinks, and all things of the class that stimulate the body and the passions, rather than build the body in the brain into a strong, clean, well-nourished enduring, and fibrous condition. In the degree that the body becomes less gross and heavy, finer in its texture and form, there is less waste,
Starting point is 02:35:59 and what there is is more easily replaced, so that it keeps in a more regular and even condition. When this is true, less sleep is actually required, and even the amount that is taken does more for a body of this finer type than it can do for, one of the other nature. As the body in this way grows finer, in other words, as the process of its evolution is thus accelerated, it in turn helps the mind and the soul in the realization of ever higher perceptions, and thus body helps mind the same as mind builds body.
Starting point is 02:36:34 It was undoubtedly this fact that Browning had in mind when he said, Let us cry, all good things are ours, nor soul helps flesh more now than flesh helps soul. sleep then is for the resting and the rebuilding of the body the soul needs no rest and while the body is at rest in sleep the soul life is active the same as when the body is in activity there are some having a deep insight into the soul's activities who say that we travel when we sleep some are able to recall and bring over into the conscious waking life the scenes visited the information gained and the events that have transpired most people are not able to do this, and so much that might otherwise be gained is lost. They say, however, that it is in our power, in proportion as we understand the laws, to go where we will, and to bring over into the conscious waking life all the experiences
Starting point is 02:37:31 thus gained. Be this, however, as it may, it certainly is true that while sleeping we have the power in a perfectly normal and natural way, to get much of value by way of light, instruction, and growth that the majority of people now miss. If the soul life, that which relates us to the infinite spirit, is always active, even while the body is at rest, why may not the mind so direct conditions as one falls asleep, that while the body is at rest,
Starting point is 02:38:00 it may continually receive illumination from the soul and bring what it thus receives over into the conscious waking life? This indeed can be done, and it is done by some to great advantage, and many times the highest inspirations from the soul come in this way, as would seem most natural, since at this time all communications from the outer material world no longer enter. I know those who do much work during sleep, the same as they get much light along desired lines. By charging the mind on going to sleep as to a particular time for waking,
Starting point is 02:38:35 it is possible, as many of us know, to wake on the very minute. Not infrequently we have examples of difficult. problems, problems that defied solution during waking hours, being solved during sleep. A friend, a well-known journalist, had an extended newspaper article clearly and completely worked out for her in this way. She frequently calls this agency to her aid. She was notified by the managing editor one evening to have the article ready in the morning, an article requiring more than ordinary care, and one in which quite a knowledge of facts was required. It was a matter in connection with which she knew scarcely anything,
Starting point is 02:39:16 and all her efforts at finding information regarding it seemed to be of no avail. She set to work, but it seemed as if her own powers defied her. Failure seemed imminent. Almost in desperation, she decided to retire, and putting the matter into her mind in such a way that she would be able to receive the greatest amount of aid while asleep. She fell asleep and slept soundly until morning. When she awoke, her work of the previous evening
Starting point is 02:39:43 was the first thing that came into her mind. She lay quietly for a few minutes, and as she lay there, the article, completely written, seemed to stand before her mind. She ran through it, arose, and without dressing, took her pen and transcribed it onto paper, literally acting as her own Emanuentes.
Starting point is 02:40:03 The mind, acting intently along a particular line, will continue so to act until some other object of thought carries it along another line. And since, in sleep, only the body is in quiet while the mind and soul are active. Then the mind on being given a certain direction when one drops off to sleep will take up the line along which it is directed and can be made in time to bring over into consciousness the result of its activities. Some will be able very soon to get results of this kind.
Starting point is 02:40:34 For some it will take longer. Quiet and continued effort will increase the, the faculty. Then by virtue of the law of the drawing power of the mind, since the mind is always active, we are drawing to us even while sleeping, influences from the realm's kindred to those in which we in our thoughts are living before we fall asleep. In this way, we can put ourselves into relation with whatever kinds of influence we choose and accordingly gain much during the process of sleep. In many ways, the interior faculties are more open and receptive while we are in sleep than while we are awake.
Starting point is 02:41:12 Hence the necessity of exercising even greater care as to the nature of the thoughts that occupy the mind as we enter into sleep, for there can come to us only what we by our own order of thought attract. We have it entirely in our own hands. And for the same reason, this greater degree of receptivity during this period, we are able by understanding and using the law to gain much of value more readily in this way than when the physical senses are fully open to the material world about us. Many will find a practice somewhat after the following nature of value.
Starting point is 02:41:47 When light or information is desired along any particular line, light or information you feel is right and wise for you to have, as for example, light in regard to an uncertain course of action, then as you retire, first bring your mind into the attitude of peace and goodwill for all. You in this way bring yourself into a harmonious. condition and in turn attract yourself to these same peaceful conditions from without then resting in this sense of peace quietly and calmly send out your earnest desire for the needed light or information cast out of your mind all fears are forebodings lest it come not for in quietness
Starting point is 02:42:27 and in confidence shall be your strength take the expectant attitude of mind firmly believing and expecting that when you awake the desired results will be with you. Then on awaking, before any thoughts or activities from the outside world come in to absorb the attention, remain for a little while receptive to the intuitions or the impressions that come. When they come, when they manifest themselves clearly, then act upon them without delay. In the degree that you do this, in that degree will the power of doing it ever more effectively grow? Or, if for unselfish purposes you desire to grow and develop any of your faculties, or to increase the health and strength of your body, take a corresponding
Starting point is 02:43:12 attitude of mind, the form of which will readily suggest itself in accordance with your particular needs or desires. In this way, you will open yourself too, you will connect yourself with, and you will set into operation within yourself the particular order of forces that will make these results. Don't be afraid to voice your desires. In this way, you set into operation, vibratory forces which go out and which make their impress felt somewhere, and which arousing into activity or uniting with other forces, set about to actualize your desires. No good things shall be withheld from him who lives in harmony with the higher laws and forces. There are no desires that shall not be satisfied to the one who knows
Starting point is 02:43:58 and who wisely uses the powers with which he or she is endowed. Your sleep will be more quiet and peaceful and refreshing. And so your power increased mentally, physically and spiritually, simply by sending out as you fall asleep thoughts of love and goodwill, thoughts of peace and harmony for all. In this way, you are connecting yourself with all the forces in the universe that make for peace and harmony. A friend who has known the world over through his work along humane lines has told me many times in the middle of the night he has awakened suddenly and there comes to his mind as a flash of inspiration a certain plan in connection with his work and as he lays there quietly and opens himself to it the methods for its successful carrying out all reveal themselves to him clearly
Starting point is 02:44:47 in this way many plans are entered upon and brought to a successful culmination that otherwise would never be thought of plans that seem indeed marvelous to the world at large is a man with a sensitive organism his life in thorough harmony with the higher laws and given wholly and unreservedly to the work to which he has dedicated it. Just how and from what source these inspirations come he does not fully know. Possibly no one does, though each may have his theory. But this we do know, and it is all we need to know, at least, that to the one who lives in harmony with the higher laws of his being,
Starting point is 02:45:24 and who opens himself to them, they come. Visions and inspirations of the highest order will come to the degree that we make for them the right conditions. One who has studied deeply into the subject in hand has said, To receive education spiritually while the body is resting in sleep is a perfectly normal and orderly experience and would occur definitely and satisfactorily in the lives of all of us if we paid more attention to internal and consequently less to the external states
Starting point is 02:45:55 with their supposed but unreal necessities. Our thoughts make us what we are here and hereafter, and our thoughts are often busier by night than by day. For when we are asleep to the exterior, we can be wide awake to the interior world, and the unseen world is a substantial place, the conditions of which are entirely regulated by mental and moral attainments.
Starting point is 02:46:18 When we are not deriving information through outward avenues of sensation, we are receiving instruction through interior channels of perception, and when this fact is understood for what it is worth, it will become a universal custom for persons to take to sleep with them in the special subject on which they most earnestly desire particular instruction.
Starting point is 02:46:39 The Pharaoh type of person dreams, and so does his butler and baker, but the Joseph type, which is that of the truly gifted seer, both dreams and interprets. But why had not Pharaoh the power of interpreting his dreams? Why was Joseph the type of the truly gifted seer? Why did he not only dream, but also had the power to interpret both his own dreams and the dreams of others? simply read the lives of the two. He who runs may read.
Starting point is 02:47:08 In all true power it is, after all, living the life that tells. And in proportion, as one lives the life, does he not only attain to the highest power and joy for himself, but he also becomes of ever greater service to all the world. One need remain in no hell longer than he himself chooses to, and the moment he chooses not to remain longer, not all the powers in the universe can prevent
Starting point is 02:47:32 is leaving it. One can rise to any heaven he himself chooses, and when he chooses so to rise, all the powers of the universe combine to help him heavenward. When one awakes from sleep and so returns to conscious life, he is in a particular receptive and impressionable state. All relations with the material world have for a time been shut off. The mind is in a freer and more natural state, resembling somewhat a sensitive plate, where impressions can readily leave their traces. This is why many times the highest and truest impressions come to one in the early morning hours before the activities of the day and their attendant distractions have exerted an influence. This is one reason why many people can do their best work in the early hours of the day.
Starting point is 02:48:20 But this fact is also a most valuable one in connection with the molding of everyday life. The mind is at this time a clean sheet of paper. We can most valuably use this quiet, receptive, impressional period by wisely directing the activities of the mind along the highest and most desirable paths and thus so to speak set the pace for the rest of the day each morning is a fresh beginning we are as it were just beginning life we have it entirely in our own hands and when the morning with its fresh beginning comes all yesterdays should be yesterdays with which we have nothing to do sufficient is it to know that the way we lived our yesterday has determined for us our today.
Starting point is 02:49:05 And again, when the morning with its fresh beginning comes, all tomorrows should be tomorrows, with which we have nothing to do, sufficient to know that the way we live our today determines our tomorrow. Every day is a fresh beginning, every morn is the world made anew. You who are weary of sorrow and sinning, there is a beautiful hope for you, a hope for me and a hope for you. All the past things are past and over. The tasks are done and the tears are shed.
Starting point is 02:49:37 Yesterday's errors let yesterday cover. Yesterday's wounds which smarted and bled are healed with the healing which mind has shed. Let them go since we cannot relieve them, cannot undo and cannot atone. God in his mercy receive, forgive them. Only the new days are our own. Today is ours and to day alone.
Starting point is 02:50:00 Here are the skies all burnished brightly. Here is the spent earth all reborn. Here are the tired limbs springing lightly to face the sun and to share with the morn in the chrism of dew and the cool of dawn. Every day is a fresh beginning. Listen my soul to the glad refrain, and spite of old sorrow and older sinning,
Starting point is 02:50:22 and puzzles forecasted and possible pain, take heart with the day and begin again. Simply the first hour, of this new day, with all its richness and glory, with all its sublime and eternity determining possibilities, and each succeeding hour as it comes, but not before it comes. This is the secret of character building. This simple method will bring anyone to the realization of the highest life that can be even conceived of, and there is nothing in this connection that can be conceived of that cannot be realized somehow, some when, somewhere. This brings such a
Starting point is 02:51:00 a life within the possibilities of all, for there is no one, if really in earnest, and if he really desires it, who cannot live to his highest for a single hour. But even though there should be, if he is only earnest in his endeavor, then, through the law that like builds like, he will be able to come a little nearer to it the next hour, and still nearer the next, and the next, until sooner or later comes the time when it becomes the natural and any other would require effort. In this way one becomes in love and in league with the highest and best in the universe, and as a consequence, the highest and best in the universe becomes in love and in league with him. They aid him at every turn. They seem literally to move all things his way, because
Starting point is 02:51:49 forsooth he has first moved their way. End of Section 6. Section 7 of In Tune with the Infinite by Ralph Waldo Trine. This Libravox recording is in the public domain. The Realization of Perfect Peace This is the spirit of infinite peace, and the moment we come into harmony with it, there comes to us an inflowing tide of peace, for peace is harmony.
Starting point is 02:52:28 A deep interior meaning underlies the great truth. To be spiritual-minded is life and peace. To recognize the fact that we are spirit, and to live in this thought is to be spiritually minded, and so to be in harmony and peace. Oh, the thousands of men and women all about us weary with care, trouble and ill at ease, running hither and thither to find peace,
Starting point is 02:52:53 weary in body, soul and mind, going to other countries, traveling the world over, coming back and still not finding it. Of course they have not found it, and they never will find it in this way, because they are looking for it where it is not. They are looking for it without, when they should look within. Peace is to be found only within,
Starting point is 02:53:15 and unless one find it there, he will never find it at all. Peace lies not in the external world. It lies within one's own soul. We may travel over many different avenues in pursuit of it. We may seek it through the channels of the bodily appetites and passions. We may seek it through all the channels of the external. We may chase for it hither and thither, but it will always be just beyond our grasp, because we are searching for it where it is not.
Starting point is 02:53:44 In the degree, however, that we order the bodily appetites and passions in accordance with the promptings of the soul within, will the higher forms of happiness and peace enter our lives, but in the degree that we fail in doing this will disease, suffering, and discontent enter in. To be at one with God is to be at peace. the child simplicity is the greatest agency in bringing this full and complete realization the child simplicity is the greatest agency in bringing this full and complete realization the child simplicity that recognizes its true relations with the father's life there are
Starting point is 02:54:23 people i know who have come into such a conscious realization of their oneness with this infinite life this spirit of infinite peace that their lives are fairly bubbling over with joy i have parted particularly in mind at this moment a comparatively young man who was an invalid for several years his health completely broken with nervous exhaustion who thought there was nothing in life worth living for to whom everything and everybody presented a gloomy aspect and he in turn presented a gloomy aspect to all with whom he came in contact not long ago he came into such a vital realization of his oneness with this infinite power he opened himself so completely to its divine inflow, that today he is in perfect health. And frequently, as I meet him now, he cannot resist the impulse to cry out. Oh, it is a joy to be alive. I know an officer on our police force who has told me that many times went off duty and on his way home in the evening, there comes to him such a vivid and vital realization of his oneness with this infinite power. And this spirit of infinite
Starting point is 02:55:30 peace so takes hold and so fills him, that it seems as if his feet could scarcely keep to the pavement so buoyant and so exhilarated does he become by reason of this inflowing tide he who comes into this higher realization never has any fear for he has always with him a sense of protection and the very realization of this makes his protection complete of him it is true no weapon that is formed against thee shall prosper there shall no ill come nigh thy dwelling thou shalt be in league with the stones of the field and the beasts of the field shall be at peace with thee. These are the men and women who seem to live charmed lives. The moment we fear anything, we open the door for the entrance of the actualization of the very thing we fear. An animal will never harm a person who was absolutely fearless in regard to it. The instant he fears, he opens himself to danger. And some animals, the dog, for example, can instantly detect the element of fear, and this gives them the courage to do harm. In the degree that we come
Starting point is 02:56:35 into a full realization of our oneness with this infinite power do we become calm and quiet undisturbed by the little occurrences that before so vex and annoy us we are no longer disappointed in people for we always read them aright we have the power of penetrating into their very souls and seeing the underline motives that are at work there a gentleman approached a friend the other day and with great show of cordiality grasped him by the hand and said Why, Mr. A, I'm so glad to see you. Quick as a flash my friend read him, and looking him steadily in the eye, replied, No, you are mistaken. You are not glad to see me, but you are very much disconcerted, so much so that you are now blushing in evidence of it, the gentleman replied. Well, you know this day in age of conventionality and form we have to put on the show,
Starting point is 02:57:30 and sometimes make-believe what we do not really feel. my friend once more looked at him in the face and said again you are mistaken let me give you one little word of advice you will always fare better and think far more of yourself always to recognize and to tell the truth rather than to give yourself any semblance of it as soon as we are able to read people or write we will then cease to be disappointed in them we will cease to place them on pedestals for this can never be done without some attendant disappointment the fall will necessarily come sooner or later and moreover we are thus many times unfair to our friends when we come into harmony with this spirit of peace evil reports and apparent bad treatment either at the hands of friends or of enemies will no longer disturb us when we are conscious of the fact that in our life and work we are true to that eternal principle of right of truth of justice that runs through all the universe that unites and governs all that always eventually prevails then nothing of this kind can come nigh us and come what may we will always be tranquil and undisturbed the things that cause sorrow and pain and bereavement will not be able to take the hold of us they now take for true wisdom will enable us to see the proper place and know the right relations of all things the loss of friends by the transition we call death will not cause sorrow to the soul that has come into this higher realization
Starting point is 02:59:03 for he knows that there is no such thing as death for each one is not only a partaker but an eternal partaker of this infinite life he knows that the mere falling away of the physical body by no means affects the real soul life with the tranquil spirit born of a high faith he can realize for himself and to those less strong he can say loving friends be wise and dry straightway every weeping eye what you left upon the buyer is not worth a single tear tis a simple sea-shell one out of which the pearl has gone the shell was nothing leave it there the pearl the soul was all is here and so far as the element of separation is concerned he realizes that to the spirit there are no bounds, and that spiritual communion, whether between two persons in the body or two persons, one in the body and one out of the body, is within reach of all. In the degree that
Starting point is 03:00:03 the higher spiritual life is realized, can there be this higher spiritual communion? The things that we open to ourselves always come to us. People in the olden times expected to see angels and they saw them. But there is no more reason why they should have seen them than that we should see them now no more reason why they should come and dwell with them than that they should come and dwell with us for the great laws governing in all things are the same to-day as they were then if angels come not to minister unto us it is because we do not invite them it is because we keep the door closed through which they otherwise might enter in the degree that we are filled with this spirit of peace by thus opening ourselves to its inflow does it pour through us so that we carry it with us where we go. In the degree that we thus open ourselves do we become magnets to attract peace from all sources. And in the degree that we attract and embody it in ourselves, are we able to give it forth to others? We can in this way become such perfect embodiments of peace that wherever we go, we are continually shedding benedictions. But a day or two ago I saw a woman grasp the hand of a man,
Starting point is 03:01:17 his face showed the indwelling God, saying, oh it does me so much good to see you i have been in anxiety and almost in despair during the past few hours but the very side of you has rolled the burden entirely away there are people all around us who are continually giving out blessings and comfort persons whose mere presence seems to change sorrow into joy fear into courage despair into hope weakness into power it is the one who has come into the realization of his own true self who carries this power with him and who radiates it wherever he goes. The one who, as we say, has found his center. And in all the great universe there is but one center, the infinite power that is working in and through all. The one who then has found his center is the one who has come into the realization of his
Starting point is 03:02:11 oneness with this infinite power. The one who recognizes himself as a spiritual being, for God is spirit. such is the man of power centered in the infinite he has thereby so to speak connected himself with he has attached his belts to the great powerhouse of the universe he is constantly drawing power to himself from all sources for thus centered knowing himself conscious of his own power the thoughts that go from his mind are thoughts of strength and by virtue of the law that like attracts like he by his thoughts is continually attracting to himself from all quarters the aid of all whose thoughts are thoughts of strength, and in this way he is linking himself with this order of thought in the universe. And so do him that hath to him shall be given. This is simply the working of a natural law.
Starting point is 03:03:04 His strong positive and hence constructive thought is continually working success for him along all lines and continually bringing to him help from all directions. The things that he sees, that he creates in the ideal, are through the agency of this strong constructive thought continually clothing themselves taking form manifesting themselves in the material silent unseen forces are at work which will sooner or later be made manifest in the visible fear and all thoughts of failure never suggest themselves to such a man or if they do they are immediately sent out of his mind and so he is not influenced by this order of thought from without he does not attract it to him he is in another current of thought consequently the weakening failure bringing thoughts of the fearing the vacillating the pessimistic about him have no influence upon him the one who is of the negative fearing kind not only has his energies and his physical agents weakened or even paralyzed through the influence of this kind of thought that is born within him but he also in this way connects himself with this order of thought
Starting point is 03:04:17 thought in the world about him. And in the degree that he does this, does he become a victim to the weak, fearing, negative minds all around him? Instead of growing in power, he increases in weakness. He is in the same order of thought with those of whom it is true, and even that which they have shall be taken away from them. This again is simply the working of a natural law, the same as its opposite. Fearing lest I lose even what I have, I hide it away in a napkin. Very well. I must then pray the price of my fearing lest I lose. Thoughts of strength build both strength from within and attract it from without. Thoughts of weakness, actualize weakness from within and attract it from without. Courage begets strength. Fear begets weakness. And so courage begets success. Fear begets
Starting point is 03:05:11 failure. It is the man or the woman of faith and hence of courage who is the master of circumstances and who makes his or her power felt in the world. It is the man or the woman who lacks faith and who as a consequence is weakened and crippled by fears and forebodings, who is the creature of all passing occurrences. Within each one lies the cause of whatever comes to him. Each has it in his own hands to determine what comes. Everything in the visible, material world has its origin in the unseen, the spiritual, the thought world. This is the world of cause.
Starting point is 03:05:50 The former is the world of effect. The nature of the effect is always in accordance with the nature of the cause. What one lives in his invisible thought world, he is continually actualizing in his visible material world. If he would have any conditions different in the latter, he must make the necessary change in the former. A clear realization of this great fact
Starting point is 03:06:13 would bring success to thousands of men and women who all about us are now in the depths of despair. It would bring health, abounding health and strength to thousands now diseased and suffering. It would bring peace and joy to thousands, now unhappy and ill at ease. And oh, the thousands all about us who are continually living in the slavery of fear,
Starting point is 03:06:35 the spirits within that should be strong and powerful are rendered weak and impotent their energies are crippled their efforts are paralyzed is everywhere fear of want fear of starvation fear of public opinion fear of private opinion fear that what we own today may not be ours tomorrow fear of sickness fear of death fear has become with millions a fixed habit the thought is everywhere the thought is thrown upon us from every direction to live in continual dread continual cringing continual fear of anything be it loss of love loss of money loss of position or situation is to take the readiest means to lose what we fear we shall by fear nothing is to be gained but on the contrary everything is to be lost i know this is true says one i am given to fear it's natural to me and i can't help it can't help it In saying this, you indicate one great reason of your fear by showing that you do not even know yourself as yet.
Starting point is 03:07:44 You must know yourself in order to know your powers, and not until you know them, can you use them wisely and fully. Don't say you can't help it. If you think you can't, the chances are that you can't. If you think you can, and act in accordance with this thought, then not only are the chances that you can, but if you act fully in accordance with it, that you can and that you will is an absolute certainty. It was Virgil, who in describing the crew which in his mind would win the race, said of them, They can because they think they can. In other words, this very attitude of mind on their part will infuse a spiritual power into their bodies
Starting point is 03:08:25 that will give them the strength and endurance which will enable them to win. Then take the thought that you can. take it merely as a seed thought if need be plant it in your consciousness tend it cultivate it and it will gradually reach out and gather strength from all quarters it will focus and make positive and active the spiritual force within you that is now scattered and of little avail it will draw to itself force from without it will draw to your aid the influence of other minds of its own nature minds that are fearless strong courageous you will thus draw to yourself and connect yourself with this order of thought. If earnest and faithful, the time will soon come when all fear will lose its hold. And instead of being an embodiment of weakness and a creature of circumstances, you will find yourself a tower of strength and a master of circumstances.
Starting point is 03:09:21 We need more faith in everyday life, faith in the power that works for good, faith in the infinite God, and hence faith in ourselves created in his image. and however things at times may seem to go however dark at times appearances may be the knowledge of the fact that the supreme power has us in its charge as it has the suns and endless systems of the worlds in space will give us the supreme faith that all is well within us the same as all is well with the world thou wilt keep him in perfect peace whose mind has stayed on thee there is nothing firmer and safer and surer than deity then as we recognize the fact that we have it in our own hands to open ourselves ever more fully to this infinite power and call upon it to manifest itself in and through us we will find in ourselves a never increasing sense of power for this is the way we are working in conjunction with it and it in turn is working in conjunction with us we are then led to the way we are then led to the way we are working in conjunction with us we are then led to into the realization of the fact that all things work together for good to those that love the good. Then the fears and forebodings that have dominated us in the past will be transmuted into faith, and faith, when rightly understood and rightly used, is a force before which nothing can stand.
Starting point is 03:10:42 Materialism leads naturally to pessimism. And how could it do otherwise? A knowledge of the spiritual power working in and through us, as well as in and through all things. A power that works for righteousness leads to optimism. Pessimism leads to weakness. Optimism leads to power. The one who ascended in deity is the one who not only outrides every storm, but who through the faith and soul, the conscious power that is within him,
Starting point is 03:11:10 faces storm with the same calmness and serenity that he faces fairweather, for he knows well beforehand what the outcome will be. He knows that underneath are the everlasting arms. He it is who realizes the truth of the injunction. Rest in the Lord. Wait patiently for him, and he shall give thee thy heart's desire. All shall be given, simply given to him who is ready to accept it. Can anything be clearer than this?
Starting point is 03:11:40 In the degree then that we work in conjunction with the supreme power, do we need the less to concern ourselves about results? To live in the full realization of this fact, and all that attends it, brings peace. a full, rich abiding peace. A peace that makes the present complete, and that, going on before, brings back the assurance
Starting point is 03:12:01 that as our days, so shall our strength be. The one who is thus centered, even in the face of all the unrest and the turmoil about us, can realize and say, I stay my haste, I make delays, for what avails this eager pace. I stand amid eternal ways, and what is mine shall know my face.
Starting point is 03:12:21 asleep, awake, by night or day, The friends I seek are seeking me. No wind can drive my bark astray, Nor change the tide of destiny. The waters know their own and draw, The brooks that spring in yonder height, So flows the good with equal law Unto the soul of purity light.
Starting point is 03:12:42 The stars come nightly to the sky, The tidal wave unto the sea, Nor time, nor space, nor deep, nor high Can keep my own away from me. end of section seven section eight of in tune with the infinite by ralph waldo trine this librivox recording is in the public domain coming into fullness of power this is the spirit of infinite power and in the degree that we open ourselves to it does power become manifest in us with god all things are possible that is in conjunction with god all things are possible the true secret of power lies in keeping one's connection with God, who worketh all things, and in the degree that we keep this connection are we able literally to rise above every conceivable limitation?
Starting point is 03:13:39 Why then waste time in running hither and thither to acquire power? Why waste time with this practice or that practice? Why not go directly to the mountain top itself, instead of wandering through the byways, in the valleys, and on the mountain sides? That man has absolute diminution, as taught in all the scriptures of the world is true not of physical man but of spiritual man there are many animals for example larger and stronger over which from a physical standpoint he could not have dominion but he can gain supremacy over even these by calling into activity the higher mental physic and spiritual forces with which he is endowed whatever can't be done in the physical can be done in the spiritual and in direct proportion as a man recognizes himself as spirit and lives accordingly, is he able to transcend in power the man who recognizes himself merely as material? All the sacred literature of the world is teeming with examples of what we call miracles.
Starting point is 03:14:42 They are not confined to any particular times or places. There is no age of miracles in distinction from any other period that may be an age of miracles. Whatever has been done in the world's history can be done again, through the operation of the same laws and forces. These miracles were performed not by those who were more than men, but by those who through the recognition of their oneness with God became Godmen, so that the higher forces and powers worked through them. For what, let us ask, is a miracle?
Starting point is 03:15:14 Is it something supernatural? Supernatural only in the sense of being above the natural, or rather above that which is natural to man or his ordinary state. miracle is nothing more or less than this. One who has come into a knowledge of his true identity, of his oneness with the all-pervading wisdom and power, thus makes it possible for laws higher than the ordinary mind knows to be revealed to him. These laws he makes use of.
Starting point is 03:15:42 The people see the results, and by virtue of their own limitations, call them miracles and speak of the person who performs these apparently supernatural works as a supernatural being. but they as supernatural beings could themselves perform these supernatural works if they would open themselves to the recognition of the same laws and consequently to the realization of the same possibilities and powers and let us also remember that the supernatural of yesterday becomes as in the process of evolution we advance from the lower to the higher from the more material to the more spiritual the common and the natural of today and what seems to be the supernatural of today becomes in the same way the natural of tomorrow and so on through the ages. Yes, it is the Godman who does the things that appear supernatural, the man who by virtue of his realization of the higher powers transcends the majority and so stands out among them.
Starting point is 03:16:41 But any power that is possible to one human soul is possible to another. The same laws operate in every life. We can be men and women of power or we can be men and women of impotence. The moment one virtually grasps the fact that he can rise, he will rise, and he can have absolutely no limitations other than the limitations he sets to himself. Cream always rises to the top. It rises simply because it is the nature of cream to rise. We are much said of environment. We need to realize that environment should never be allowed to make the man, but that man should always, and always can, condition the environment. We are much said of environment. We need to man should always, and always can, condition the environment.
Starting point is 03:17:23 When we realize this, we will find that many times it is not necessary to take ourselves out of any particular environment, because we may yet have a work to do there. But by the very force we carry with us, we can so affect and change matters that we will have an entirely new set of conditions in an old environment. The same is true in regard to hereditary traits and influences. We sometimes hear the question asked, Can they be overcome? Only the one who doesn't yet know himself
Starting point is 03:17:54 can ask a question such as this. If we entertain and live in the belief that they cannot be overcome, then the chances are that they will always remain. The moment, however, that we come into a realization of our true selves and so of the tremendous powers and forces within, the powers and forces of the mind and spirit,
Starting point is 03:18:14 hereditary traits and influences that are harmful in nature will begin to lessen, and will disappear with a rapidity directly in proportion to the completeness of this realization. There is no thing we cannot overcome. Say not thy evil instinct is inherited, or that some trait inborn makes thy whole life forlorn, and calls down punishment that is not merited. Back of thy parents and grandparents lies, the great eternal will, that too is thine inheritance, strong beautiful divine sure lever of success for the one who tries there is no noble height thou canst not climb all triumphs may be thine in time's fury if whatsoever thy fault dost thou not faint or halt but lean upon the staff of god's security earth has no claim the soul cannot contest know thyself part of the eternal source naught can stand before thy spirit's force the soul's divine inheritance is best again there are so many who are living far below their possibilities because they are continually handing over their individualities to others do you want to be a power in the world then be yourself don't clash yourself don't clash yourself don't
Starting point is 03:19:31 Don't allow yourself to be classed among the second-hand, among the they-say-people, be true to the highest within your own soul, and then allow yourself to be governed by no customs or conventionalities or arbitrary man-made rules that are not founded upon principle. Those things that are founded upon principle
Starting point is 03:19:50 will be observed by the right-minded, the right-hearted man or woman in any case. Don't surrender your individuality, which is your greatest agent of power, to the customs and conventionalities that have gotten their life from the mass of those who haven't enough force to preserve their individualities.
Starting point is 03:20:10 Those who, in other words, have given them over as ingredients to the mush of concession, which one of our greatest writers has said characterizes our modern society. If you do surrender your individuality in this way, you simply aid in increasing the undesirable conditions.
Starting point is 03:20:27 In payment for this, you become a slave, and the chances are, that in time you'll be unable to hold even the respect of those whom you in this way try to please. If you preserve your individuality, then you become a master. And if wise and discreet, your influence and power will be an aid in bringing about a higher, a better, and a more healthy set of conditions in the world.
Starting point is 03:20:51 All people, moreover, will think more of you, will honor you more highly for doing this than if you show your weakness by contributing yourself to the same mush of concession that so many of them are contributing themselves to. With all classes of people, you will then have an influence. A great style of hero draws equally all classes, all extremes of society to him, till we say the very dogs believe in him. To be oneself is the only worthy, and by all means the only satisfactory thing to be.
Starting point is 03:21:25 May it not be good policy, says one, to be governed sometimes by one's surroundings? What is good policy? To be yourself first, last, and always. This above all, to thine own self be true, and it must follow as the night the day. Thou canst not then be false to any man. When we appeal to the Supreme,
Starting point is 03:21:48 and our life is governed by a principle, we are not governed either by fear of public opinion or loss of others' approbation, and we may be sure that the Supreme will sustain. sustain us. If in any way we try to live to suit others, we never shall suit them. And the more we try, the more unreasonable and exacting do they become. The government of your life is a matter that lies entirely between God and yourself. And when your life is swayed and influence from any other source, you are on the wrong path. When we find the kingdom within and become
Starting point is 03:22:22 centered in the infinite, then we become a law unto ourselves. When we become, we become, a law unto ourselves, then we are able to bring to others a knowledge of laws higher than they are governed, or many times even enslaved by. When we have found this center, then that beautiful simplicity, at once the charm and power of a truly great personality enters into our lives, then all are striving for effect. That sure indicator of weakness and lack of genuine power is absent. This striving for effect that is so common is always an indicator, of a lack of something, it brings to mind the man who rides behind a dock-tailed horse, conscious of the fact that there is not enough in himself to attract attention.
Starting point is 03:23:08 In common with a number of other weaklings, he adopts the brutal method of having his horse's tail sought off, that it's unnatural, odd appearance may attract from people the attention that he himself is unable to secure. But the one who strives for effect is always fooled more than he succeeds in fooling others. The man and the woman of true wisdom and insight can always see the causes that prompt the motives that underlie the acts of all with whom he or she comes in contact.
Starting point is 03:23:36 He is great, who is what he is from nature, and who never reminds us of others. The men and the women who are truly awake to the real powers within are the men and women who seem to be doing so little, yet who in reality are doing so much. They seem to be doing so little because they are working with higher ages.
Starting point is 03:23:56 and yet are doing so much because of this very fact. They do their work on the higher plane. They keep so completely their connection with the infinite power that it does the work for them, and they are relieved of the responsibility. They are the careless people. They are careless because it is the infinite power that is working through them,
Starting point is 03:24:17 and with this infinite power are they simply cooperating. The secret of the highest power is simply the uniting of the out. agencies of expression with the power that works from within are you a painter then in the degree that you open yourself to the power of the forces within will you become great instead of mediocre you can never put into permanent form inspirations higher than those that come through your own soul in order for the higher inspirations to come through it you must open your soul you must open it fully to the supreme source of all inspiration are you an orator
Starting point is 03:24:56 In the degree that you come into harmony and work in conjunction with the higher powers that will speak through you, will you have the real power of molding and moving men? If you use merely your physical agents, you will be simply a demagogue. If you open yourself so that the voice of God can speak through and use your physical agents, you will become a great and true orator, great and true in just the degree that you so open yourself. Are you a singer? then open yourself and let the God within pour forth in the spirit of song you will find it a thousand times easier than all your long and studied practice without this and other things being equal there will come to you a power of song so enchanting and so enrapturing that its influence upon all who hear will be irresistible when my cabin or tent has been pitched during the summer on the edge or in the midst of a forest i have sometimes lain awake on my cot in the early morning just as the day was beginning to break silence at first then an intermittent chirp here and there and as the unfolding tints of dawn became faintly perceptible these grew more and more frequent until by and by the whole forest seemed to burst forth in one grand chorus of song
Starting point is 03:26:14 wonderful wonderful it seemed as if the very trees as if every grass-blade as if the bushes the very sky above and the earth beneath had part in this wonderful symphony then as i have listened as it went on and on i have thought what a study in the matter of song if we could but learn from the birds if we could but open ourselves to the same powers and allow them to pour forth in us what singers what movers of men we might have nay what singers and what movers of men we would have do you know the circumstances under which mr sankey sang for the first time the ninety and nine says one of our able journals at a great meeting recently in denver mr ire w sankey before singing the ninety and nine which perhaps of all his compositions is the one that has brought him the most fame gave an account of its birth leaving glasgow for edinburgh with mr Moody. He stopped at a newsstand and bought a penny religious paper. Glancing over it as they rode on the cars, his eye fell on a few little verses in the corner of the page. Turning to Mr. Moody, he said, I found my hymn. But Mr. Moody was busily engaged and did not hear a word Mr. Sankey, did not find the time to take a tune for the verses, so he pasted them in his music scrapbook.
Starting point is 03:27:39 One day they had an unusually impressive meeting in Edinburgh, in which Dr. Bonner had spoken with great effect on the Good Shepherd. At the close of the address, Mr. Moody beckoned to his partner to sing. He thought of nothing but the 23rd Psalm, but that he had sung it so often. His second thought was to sing the verses he had found in the newspaper, but the third thought was, how could it be done when he had no tune? Then a fourth thought came.
Starting point is 03:28:09 and that was to sing them anyway. He put the verses before him, touched the keys of the organ, opened his mouth and sang, not knowing where he was going to come out. He finished the first verse amid profound silence. He took a long breath and wondered if he could sing the second the same way.
Starting point is 03:28:27 He tried and succeeded. After that, it was easy to sing it. When he finished the hymn, the meeting was all broken down and the throngs were crying. Mr. Sankey says it was the most, intense moment of his life. Mr. Moody said he never heard a song like it. It was sung at every meeting and was soon going all over the world. When we open ourselves to the highest inspirations,
Starting point is 03:28:52 they never fail us. When we fail to do this, we fail in attaining the highest results, whatever the undertaking. Are you a writer? Then remember that the one great precept underlying all successful literary work is, look into thine own heart and write. Be true, be fearless, be loyal to the promptings of your own soul. Remember that an author can never write more than he himself is. If he would write more, then he must be more. He is simply his own amanuensis. He in a sense writes himself into his book. He can put no more into it than he himself is. If he is one of great personality, strong in purpose, deep in feeling, open always to the highest inspirations, a certain indefinable something gets into his pages that makes them breathe forth vital, living power, a power so great
Starting point is 03:29:46 that each reader gets the same inspirations as those that spoke through the author. That that's written between the lines is many more times more than that that's written in the lines. It is the spirit of the author that engenders this power. It is this, that is this, that gives that extra 25 or 30% that takes a book out of the class called Medium and lifts it into the class called Superior. That extra percent that makes it the one of the hundred that is truly successful, while the 99 never see more than their first edition. It is this same spiritual power that the author of a great personality puts into his work
Starting point is 03:30:26 that causes it to go so rapidly from reader to reader, for the only way that any book circulates in the ultimate is from mouth to mouth. Any book that reaches a large circulation. It is this that many times cause a single reader, in view of its value to himself, to purchase numbers of copies for others. A good poem, says Emerson, goes about the world offering itself to reasonable men who read it with joy and carry it to their reasonable neighbors. Thus it draws to it the wise and generous souls,
Starting point is 03:30:59 confirming their secret thoughts and through their sympathy really publishing itself this is the type of author who writes not with the thought of having what he writes become literature but he writes with the sole thought of reaching the hearts of the people giving them something of vital value something that will broaden sweeten enrich and beautify their lives that will lead them to the finding of the higher life and with it the higher powers and the higher joys it most always happens however that if he succeeds in thus reaching the people the becoming literature part somehow takes care of itself and far better than if he aim for it directly the one on the other hand who fears to depart from beaten paths who allows himself to be bound by arbitrary rules limits his own creative powers in just the degree that he allows himself so to be bound my book says one of the greatest of modern authors shall smell of the pines and resound with the hum of insects the swallow over my window shall interweave that thread or straw he carries in his bill into my web also far better gentle sage to have it smell of the pines and resound with the hum of insects than to have a sound of the rules that a smaller type of man gets by studying the works of a few great fearless writers like yourself and formulating from what he thus gains a handbook of rhetoric of no use are the men who study to do exactly as was done before who can never understand that to-day is a new day when shakespeare is charged with debts to his authors landor replies yet he was more original than his originals he breathed upon dead bodies and brought them into life this is the type of man who doesn't move the world's way but who moves the world his way i'd rather be an amanuensis of the infinite god as it is my privilege literally to be
Starting point is 03:32:58 than a slave to the formulated rules of any rhetorician or to the opinions of any critic oh the people the people over and over let me give something to them that will lighten the everyday struggles of our common life something that will add a little sweetness here a little hope there something that will make more thoughtful kind and gentle this thoughtless animal-natured man something that will awaken into activity the dormant powers of this timid shrinking little woman powers that when awakened will be irresistible in their influence and that will surprise even herself let me give something that will lead each one to the knowledge of the divinity of every human soul something that will lead each one to the conscious realization of his own divinity with all all its attendant riches and glories and powers let me succeed in doing this and i can then will afford to be careless as to whether the critics praise or whether they blame if it is blame then under these circumstances it is as the cracking of a few dead sticks on the ground below compared to the matchless music that the soft spring gale is breathing through the great pine forest are you a minister or a religious teacher of any kind then in the degree that you free your from the man-made theological dogmas that have held and that are holding and limiting so many,
Starting point is 03:34:22 and in the degree that you open yourself to the divine breath, will you be one who will speak with authority? In the degree that you do this, will you study the prophets less and be in the way of becoming a prophet yourself? The way is open for you, exactly the same as it has ever been open for anyone. If when born into the world you came into a family of the English-speaking race, then in all probability you are a Christian. To be a Christian is to be a follower of the teachings of Jesus, the Christ,
Starting point is 03:34:54 to live in harmony with the same laws he lived in harmony with. In brief, to live his life. The great central fact of his teaching was this conscious union of man with the Father. It was the complete realization of this oneness with the Father on his part that made Jesus the Christ. It was through this that he attained the power he attained to, that he spake never as man spake. He never claimed for himself anything he did not claim equally for all mankind.
Starting point is 03:35:24 The mighty words performed by Jesus were not exceptional. They were the natural and necessary concomitants of his state. He declared them to be in accordance with unvarying order. He spoke of them as no unique performances, but as the outcome of a state to which all mind attain if they choose. As a teacher and demonstrator of truth, according to his own confession, he did nothing for the purpose of proving his solitary divinity.
Starting point is 03:35:52 The life and triumph of Jesus formed an epoch in the history of the race. His coming and victory marked a new era in human affairs. He introduced anew because of more complete ideal to the earth, and when his three most intimate companions saw in some measure what the new life really signified they fell to the earth speechless with awe and admiration by coming into this complete realization of his oneness with the father by mastering absolutely mastering every circumstance that crossed his path through life even to the death of the body and by pointed out to us the great laws which are the same for us as they were for him he has given us an ideal of life life, an ideal for us to attain to here and now, that we could not have without him. One has conquered first, all may conquer afterward. By completely realizing it first for himself, and then by pointing out to others this great
Starting point is 03:36:50 law of the at-onement with the Father, he has become probably the world's greatest savior. Don't mistake as mere person for his life and teachings, an error that has been made in connection with most all great teachers by their disciples over and over again. And if you have been among the number who have been preaching a dead Christ, then for humanity's sake, for Christ's sake, for God's sake, and I speak most reverently, don't steal the people's time any longer, don't waste your own time more in giving them stones in place of bread, dead form for the spirit of living truth.
Starting point is 03:37:27 In his own words, let the dead bury their dead. Come out among them. Teach as did Jesus, the Christ within. Find this in all its transcendent beauty and power. Find it as Jesus found it. Then you will also be one who will speak with authority. Then you will be able to lead large numbers of others to its finding. This is the pearl of great price.
Starting point is 03:37:52 It is the type of preacher whose soul has never as yet even perceived the vital spirit of the teachings of Jesus, and who, as a consequence, instead of giving, giving this to the people is giving them old forms and dogmas and speculations who is emptying our churches. This is the type whose chief efforts seem to be in getting men ready to die. Germans have a saying, never go to the second thing first. We need men who will teach us first how to live. Living quite invariably precedes dying. This also is true that when we once know how to live and live in accordance with what we know,
Starting point is 03:38:31 then the dying, as we term it, will in a wonderfully beautiful manner take care of itself. It is in this fact the only way in which it can be taken care of. It is on account of this emptying of our churches, for the reason that the people are tiring of mere husks, that many short-sighted people are frequently heard to say that religion is dying out. Religion dying out? How can anything die before it is really born? And so far as the people are concerned, religion is just being born, or rather they are just
Starting point is 03:39:05 awaking to a vital, everyday religion. We are just beginning to get beyond the mere letter into its real, vital spirit. Religion dying out? Impossible even to conceive of. Religion is as much a part of the human soul as the human soul is a part of God. And as long as God and the human soul exist, religion will never die. much of the dogma the form the ceremony the mere letter that has stood as religion and honestly many times let us be fair enough to say this thank god is rapidly dying and never so rapidly as it is to-day by two methods it is dying there is first a large class of people tired or even nauseated with it all who consciously prefer to have nothing rather than this they are simply abandoning it the same as a tree abandoning it the same as a tree abandoned
Starting point is 03:39:58 its sleeves when the early winter comes. There is second, a large class in whom the divine breath is stirring, who are finding the Christ within in all its matchless beauty and redeeming power, and this new life is pushing off the old, the same as in the spring the newly awakened life in the tree pushes off the old lifeless leaves that have clung on during the winter to make place for the new ones. And the way this old dead leaf religion is being pushed off on every hand
Starting point is 03:40:28 is indeed most interesting and inspiring to witness. Let the places of those who have been emptying our churches by reason of their attempts to give stones for bread, husks and chaff for the life-giving grain. Let their places be taken even for but a few times by those who are open and alive to these higher inspirations. And then let us again question those who feel that religion is dying out. It is the live coal that kindles others, not the dead.
Starting point is 03:40:56 Let their places be taken by those. who have caught the inspiration of the divine breath, who as a consequence have a message of mighty value and import for the people, who by virtue of this same fact are able to present it with a beauty and a power so enrapturing that it takes captive the soul. Then we will find that the churches, that today are dotted here and there with a few dozen people, will be filled to overflowing, and there will not be even room enough for all who would enter. Let the shell perish what the pearl may appear. we need no new revelations as yet we need simply to find the vital spirit of those we already have then in due time when we are ready for them new ones will come but not before
Starting point is 03:41:41 what the human soul all over the world needs says john pulseford is not to be harangued however eloquently about old accepted religion but to be permeated charmed and taken captive by a warmer and more potent breath of god than they ever felt before and i should not be true to my personal experience if i did not bear testimony that this divine breath is as exquisitely adapted to the requirements of the soul's nature as a june morning to the planet nor does the morning breath leave the trees freer to delight themselves and develop themselves under its influence than the breath of god allows each human mind to unfold according to its genius nothing stirs the central wheel of the soul like the breath of god the whole man is quickened his senses are new senses his emotions new emotions his reasons his affections his imagination are all new-born the change is greater than he knows he marvels at the power in himself which the breath is opening and calling forth he finds his nature to be an unutterable thing he is sure therefore that the future must have inconceivable surprises in store and herein lies the evidence which i commend to my readers of the existence of God and of the eternal human hope. Let God's breath kindle a new springtime in the soul, start into life its deeply buried gems, lead in heaven's summer. You will then have as clear evidence of God from within as you have
Starting point is 03:43:15 of the universe from without. Indeed, your internal experience of life and a limitable hope in God will be nearer to you, and more prevailing than all your external, and superficial experience of nature and the world there is but one source of power in the universe whatever then you are painter orator musician writer religious teacher or whatever it may be know that to catch and take captive the secret of power is so to work in conjunction with the infinite power in order that it may continually work and manifest through you if you fail in doing this you fail in everything if you fail in doing this you fail in doing this you your work, whatever it may be, will be third or fourth rate, possibly at times, second rate.
Starting point is 03:44:03 But it positively never can be first rate. Absolutely impossible will it be for you to ever become a master. Whatever estimate you put upon yourself will determine the effectiveness of your work along any line. As long as you live merely in the physical and the intellectual, you set limitations to yourself that will hold you as long as you so live. when however you come into the realization of your oneness with the infinite life and power and you open yourself that it may work through you you will find that you have entered upon an entirely new phase of life and that ever-growing increasing power will be yours then it will be true that your strength will be as the strength of ten because your heart is pure oh god i am one forever with thee by the glory of birth the celestial powers proclaim it to the utmost bounds of the earth. I think of this birthright immortal, and my being expands
Starting point is 03:45:02 like a rose, as an odorous cloud of incense, around and above me it flows. A glorious song of rejoicing, an innermal spirit I hear, and it sounds like heavenly voices, in a chorus divine and clear, and I feel a power uprising, like the power of an embryo God, with a glorious wall it surrounds me, and lifts me up from the sod. End of Section 8. Section 9 of In Tune with the Infinite by Ralph Waldo Trine. This Libravox recording is in the public domain.
Starting point is 03:45:50 Plenty of All Things, the Law of Prosperity. This is the spirit of infinite plenty, the power that has brought, that is continually bringing all things into expression in material form. He who live, in the realization of his oneness with this infinite power becomes a magnet to attract to himself a continual supply whatsoever thinks he desires if one holds himself in the thought of poverty he will
Starting point is 03:46:18 be poor and the chances are that he will remain in poverty if he hold himself whatever present conditions may be continually in the thought of prosperity he sets into operation forces that will sooner or later bring him into prosperous conditions the law of attraction works unceasingly throughout the universe and the one great and never-changing fact in connection with it is as we have found that like attracts like if we are one with this infinite power this source of all things then in the degree that we live in the realization of this oneness in that degree do we actualize in ourselves a power that will bring to us an abundance of all things that is desirable for us to have in this way we come into possession of a power whereby we can actualize at all times those conditions that we desire as all truth exists now and awaits simply our perception of it so all things necessary for present needs exist now and await simply the power in us to appropriate them god holds all things in his hands his constant word is my child acknowledge me in all your ways and in the degree that you do this in the degree that you live this then what is mine is yours jehovah gire the lord will provide he giveth to all men liberally and upbraith not he giveth liberally to all men who put themselves in the right attitude to receive from him he forces no good things upon any one
Starting point is 03:47:55 the old and somewhat prevalent idea of godliness and poverty has absolutely no basis for its existence and the sooner we get away from it the better it had its birth in the same way that the idea of asceticism came into existence when the idea prevailed that there was necessarily a warfare between the flesh and the spirit it had its origin therefore in the minds of those who had it distorted a one-sided view of life true godliness is in a sense the same as true wisdom the one who is truly wise and who uses the forces and powers with which he is endowed to him the great universe always opens her treasure-house the supply is always equal to the demand equal to the demand when the demand is rightly wisely made when one comes into realization of these higher laws then the fear of want ceases to tyrannize over him are you out of a situation let the fear that you will not get another take hold of and dominate you and the chances are that it may be a long time before you will get another or the one that you do get may be a very poor one indeed whatever the circumstances you must realize that you have within you forces and powers that you can set into operation that will triumph over any and all apparent or temporary losses set these forces into operation and you will then be placing a magnet that will draw to you a situation that may be far better than the one you have lost and the time may soon come when you will be even thankful that you lost the old one recognize working in and through you the same infinite power that creates and governs all things in the universe the same infinite power that governs the endless systems of worlds in space send out your thought thought is a force and it has a force and it has a
Starting point is 03:49:47 cult power of unknown proportions when rightly use and wisely directed. Send out your thought that the right situation or the right work will come to you at the right time, in the right way, and that you will recognize it when it comes. Hold to this thought, never allow it to weaken, hold to it, and continually water it with firm expectation. You in this way put your advertisement into a psychical, a spiritual newspaper, a paper that has not a limited circulation, but one that will make its way not only to the utmost bounds of the earth, but of the very universe itself. It is an advertisement, moreover, which, if rightly
Starting point is 03:50:28 placed on your part, will be far more effective than any advertisement you could possibly put into any printed sheet, no matter what claims are made in regard to its being, the great advertising medium. In the degree that you come into this realization and live in harmony with the higher laws and forces in that degree you will be able to do this effectively if you wish to look through the want columns of the newspapers then do it not in the ordinary way put the higher forces into operation and thus place it on a higher basis as you take up the paper take this attitude of mind if there is here an advertisement that it will be well for me to reply to the moment i come to it i will recognize it affirm this believe it expect it if you do this in full faith you will somehow feel the intuition the moment you come to the right one and this intuition will be nothing more nor less than your own soul speaking to you when it speaks then act at once if you get the situation and it does not prove to be exactly what you want if you feel that you are capable of filling a better one then the moment you enter upon it take the attitude of mind that this situation is the stepping-stone that will lead you to one that will be still better. Hold this thought steadily, affirm it, believe it, expect it, and all the time be faithful, absolutely faithful, to the situation in which you are at present placed. If you are not
Starting point is 03:51:58 faithful to it then, the chances are that it will not be the stepping stone to something better, but to something poorer. If you are faithful to it, the time may soon come when you will be glad and thankful, when you will rejoice that you lost your old position. This is the law of prosperity, When a parent adversity comes, be not cast down by it, but make the best of it, and always look forward for better things, for conditions more prosperous. To hold yourself in this attitude of mind is to set into operation subtle, silent, and irresistible forces that sooner or later will actualize in a material form that which is today merely an idea. But ideas have occult power, and ideas, when rightly planted and rightly tended, are the seeds that actually actually actualize material conditions never give a moment to complain but utilize the time that would otherwise be spent in this way in looking forward and actualizing the conditions you desire suggest prosperity to yourself see yourself in a prosperous condition affirm that you will before long be in a prosperous condition affirm it calmly and quietly but strongly and confidently believe it believe it absolutely expect it keep it continually keep it continually watered with expectation. You thus make yourself a magnet to attract the things that you desire.
Starting point is 03:53:21 Don't be afraid to suggest, to affirm these things, for by so doing, you put forth an ideal which will begin to clothe itself in material form. In this way you are utilizing agents among the most subtle and powerful in the universe. If you are particularly desirous for anything that you feel it is good and right for you to have, something that will broaden your life or that will increase your usefulness to others. Simply hold the thought that at the right time, in the right way, and through the right instrumentality, there will come to you or there will open up for you
Starting point is 03:53:54 the way whereby you can attain what you desire. I know of a young lady who a short time ago wanted some money very badly. She wanted it for a good purpose. She saw no reason why she shouldn't have it. She is one who has come into an understanding of the power of the interior forces. She took and held herself in the attitude of mind we have just pointed out. In the morning, she entered into the silence for a few moments. In this way, she brought herself into a more complete harmony with the higher powers.
Starting point is 03:54:25 Before the day closed, a gentleman called, a member of a family with which she was acquainted. He asked her if she would do for the family some work that they wanted done. She was a little surprised that they should ask her to do this particular kind of work, But she said to herself, here is a call. I will respond and see what it will lead to. She undertook the work. She did it well. When she had completed it,
Starting point is 03:54:50 there was put into her hands an amount of money far beyond what she had expected. She felt that it was an amount too large for the work she had done. She protested. They replied, No, you have done us a service that transcends in value the amount we offer to pay you. The sum thus received was more than sufficient
Starting point is 03:55:08 for the work she wished to accommodate. This is but one of many instances in connection with the wise and effective use of the higher powers. It also carries a lesson. Don't fold your hands and expect to see things drop into your lap, but set into operation the higher forces and then take hold of the first thing that offers itself. Do what your hands find to do and do it well. If this work is not thoroughly satisfactory to you, then affirm, believe, and expect that it is the agency that will lead you to see you to see you.
Starting point is 03:55:38 that will lead you to something better. The basis for attracting the best of all the world can give to you is to first surround, own, and live in these things in mind, or what is falsely called imagination. All so-called imaginings are realities and forces of unseen element. Live in mind in a palace and gradually palatial surroundings will gravitate to you, but so living is not pining or longing or complainingly wishing. It is when you are down in the world, calmly and persistently seeing yourself as up.
Starting point is 03:56:13 It is when you are now compelled to eat from a tin plate regarding that tin plate as only the certain step to one of silver. It is not envying and growling at other people who have the silver plate. That growling is just so much capital stock taken from the bank account of mental force. A friend who knows the power of the interior forces and whose life is guided in every detail, by them has given a suggestion in this form. When you are in the arms of the bear, even though he is hugging you, look him in the face and laugh, but all the time keep your eye on the bowl.
Starting point is 03:56:49 If you allow all of your attention to be given to the work of the bear, the bowl may get entirely out of your sight. In other words, if you yield to adversity, the chances are that it will master you, but if you recognize in yourself the power of mastery over conditions, then adversity will yield to you and will be changed into prosperity. If when it comes to you calmly and quietly, recognize it, and use the time that might otherwise be spent in regrets and fears and forebodings
Starting point is 03:57:18 in setting into operation the powerful forces within you, it will soon take its leave. Faith, absolute dogmatic faith, is the only law of true success. When we recognize the fact that a man carries his success or his failure with him, and that it does not depend upon outside conditions, we will come into the possession of powers that will quickly change outside conditions into agencies that make for success. When we come into this higher realization
Starting point is 03:57:48 and bring our lives into complete harmony with the higher laws, we will then be able so to focus and direct the awakened interior forces that they will go out and return laden with that for which they are sent. We will then be great enough to attract success, and it will not always be apparently just a little ways ahead. We can then establish in ourselves a center so strong that instead of running hither and thither for this or that,
Starting point is 03:58:14 we can stay at home and draw to us the conditions we desire. If we firmly establish and hold to this center, things will seem continually to come our way. The majority of people in the modern world are looking for things that are practical and that can be utilized in everyday life. The more carefully we examine into, the laws underlying the great truths we are considering, the more we will find that they are not
Starting point is 03:58:38 only eminently practical, but in a sense, and in the deepest and truest sense, they are the only practical things there are. There are people who continually pride themselves upon being exceedingly practical, but many times those who of themselves think nothing about this are the most practical people the world knows. And, on the other hand, those who take great pride in speaking of their own practicality are many times the least practical. Or again, in some ways they may be practical, but so far as life in its totality is concerned, they are absurdly impractical. What profit, for example, can there be for the man who, materially speaking, though he has gained the whole world, has never yet become acquainted with his own soul? There are multitudes
Starting point is 03:59:26 of men all about us who are entirely missing the real life, men who have not learned even the ABC of true living. Slaves they are, abject slaves, to their temporary material accumulations. Men who thinking they possess their wealth are on the contrary, completely possessed by it, men whose lives are comparatively barren in service to those about them and to the world at large. Men who when they can no longer hold the body, the agency by means of which they are related to the material world will go out poor indeed pitiable poor unable to take even the smallest particle of their accumulations with them they will enter upon the other form of life naked and destitute the kindly deeds the developed traits of character the realized powers of the soul the real riches of the inner life and unfoldment all those things that become our real and eternal possessions have been given no place in their lives and so of the real things in life they are destitute.
Starting point is 04:00:31 Nay, many times worse than destitute, we must not suppose that habits once formed are any more easily broken off in the other form of life than they are in this. If one voluntarily grows a certain mania here, we must not suppose that the mere dropping of the body makes all conditions perfect. All is law.
Starting point is 04:00:51 All is cause and effect. As we sow, so shall we also reap. not only in this life but in all lives he who is enslaved with the sole desire for material possessions here will continue to be enslaved even after he can no longer retain his body then moreover he will have not even the means of gratifying his desires dominated by this habit he will be unable to set his affections for a time at least upon other things and the desire without the means of gratifying it will be doubly torturing to him perchance this torture may be increased by his seeing the accumulations he thought were his now being scattered and wasted by spendthrifts he wills his property as we say to others but he can have no word as to its use how foolish then for us to think that any material possessions are ours how absurd for example for one to fence off a number of acres of god's earth and say they are his nothing is ours that we cannot retain the things that come into our hands come not for the purpose of being possessed as we say much less for the purpose of being hoarded they come into our hands to be used to be wisely used we are stewards merely and as
Starting point is 04:02:09 stewards we shall be held accountable for the way we use whatever is entrusted to us that great law of compensation that runs through all life is wonderfully exact in its workings although we may not always fully comprehend it or even recognize it when it operates and connect with ourselves the one who has come into the realization of the higher life no longer has a desire for the accumulation of enormous wealth any more than he has a desire for any other excess in the degree that he comes into the recognition of the fact that he is wealthy within external wealth becomes less important in his estimation when he comes into the realization of the fact that there is a source within from which he can put forth power to call to him and act
Starting point is 04:02:55 actualize in his hands at any time a sufficient supply for all his needs he no longer burdens himself with vast material accumulations that require his constant care and attention and thus take his time and his thought from the real things of life in other words he first finds the kingdom and he realizes that when he has found this all other things follow in measure it is as hard for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of heaven said the master he who having nothing had everything as it is for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle in other words if a man give all his time to the accumulation the hoarding of outward material possession far beyond what he can possibly ever use what time has he for the finding of that wonderful kingdom which when found brings all else with it which is better to have millions of dollars and to have the burden of taking care of it all for the one always involves the other or to come into the knowledge of such laws and forces that every need will be supplied in good time, to know that no good thing shall be withheld, to know that we have in our power to make the supply always equal to the demand. The one who enters into the realm of this higher knowledge
Starting point is 04:04:13 never cares to bring upon himself the species of insanity that has such a firm hold upon so many in the world today. He avoids it as he would avoid any loathsome disease of the body, when we come into the realization of the higher powers we will then be able to give more attention to the real life instead of giving so much to the piling up of vast possessions that hamper rather than help it it is the medium ground that brings the true solution here the same as it is in all phases of life wealth beyond a certain amount cannot be used and when it cannot be used it then becomes a hindrance rather than an aid a curse rather than a blessing all about us are persons with lives now stunted and dwarfed who could make them rich and beautiful filled with a perennial joy if they would begin wisely to use that which they have spent the greater portion of their lives in accumulating the man who accumulates during his entire life and who leaves even all when he goes out for benevolent purposes comes far short of the ideal life it is but a poor excuse of a life it is not especially commendable in me to give a pair of old worn-out shoes that i shall never use again to another who is in need of shoes but it is commendable if indeed doing anything we ought to do can be spoken of as being commendable it is commendable for me to give a good pair of strong shoes
Starting point is 04:05:38 to the man who in the midst of a severe winter is practically shoeless the man who is exerting every effort to earn an honest living and thereby take care of his family's needs and if in giving the shoes i also give myself he then has a double gift and i a double blessing there is no wiser use that those who have great accumulations can make of them than wisely put them into life into character day by day while they live in this way their lives will be continually enriched and increased. The time will come when it will be regarded as a disgrace for a man to die and leave vast accumulations behind him. Many a person is living in a palace today, who in the real life is poorer than many a one who has not even a roof to cover him. A man may own and live in a palace, but the palace for him may be a poor house still. Moth and rust are nature's wise provisions, God's methods, for disintegrating and scattering, in this way getting ready for use in new forms, that which is hoarded and consequently serving no use. There is also a
Starting point is 04:06:46 great law continually operating whose effects are to dwarf and deaden the powers of true enjoyment, as well as all the higher faculties of the one who hordes. Maltitudes of people are continually keeping away from them higher and better things because they are forever clinging on to the old. If they would use and pass on the old, room would be made for new things to come. Horting always brings loss in one form or another. Using, wisely using, brings an ever-renewing gain. If the tree should as ignorantly and as greedily hold onto this year's leaves when they have served their purpose, where it would be the full and beautiful new life that will be put forth in the spring. Gradual decay and finally death would be the result.
Starting point is 04:07:33 if the tree is already dead then it may perhaps be well enough for it to cling on to the old for no new leaves will come but as long as the life in the tree is active it is necessary that it rid itself of the old ones that room may be made for the new opulence is the law of the universe an abundant supply for every need if nothing is put in the way of its coming the natural and the normal life for us is this to have such a fulness of life and power by living so continually in the realization of our oneness with the infinite life and power that we find ourselves in the constant possession of an abundant supply of all things needed then not by hoarding but by wisely using and ridding ourselves of things as they come and ever renewing supply will be ours a supply far better adapted to present needs than the old could possibly be in this way we not only come into possession of the richest treasures of the infinite good ourselves but we also become open channels through which they can flow to others end of section nine section ten of in tune with the infinite by ralph waldo trine this librovox recording is in the public domain how men have become prophets seers sages and saviors i have tried thus far to deal fairly with you in presenting these vital truths and have spoken of everything on the basis of our own reason and insight it has been my aim to base nothing on the teaching of others though they may be the teachings of those inspired Let us now look for a moment at these same great truths in the light of the thoughts and the teachings as put forth by some of the world's great thinkers and inspired teachers.
Starting point is 04:09:26 The sum and substance of the great thought presented in these pages is, you will remember, that the great central fact in human life is the coming into a conscious, vital realization of our oneness with the infinite life, and the opening of ourselves fully to this divine inflow. I and the Father are one, said the master, In this we see how he recognized his oneness with the father's life. Again he said, The words that I speak unto you, I speak not of myself,
Starting point is 04:09:56 but the father that dwelleth in me. He doeth the works. In this we see how clearly he recognized the fact that he of himself could do nothing, only has he worked in conjunction with the father. Again, my father works and I work. In other words, my father sends the power. I open myself to him.
Starting point is 04:10:15 it and work in conjunction with it. Again he said, Seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all things shall be added unto you. And he left us not in the dark as to exactly what he meant by this, for again he said, Say not lo here nor lo there, know ye not that the kingdom of heaven is within you? According to his teaching, the kingdom of God and the kingdom of heaven were one and the same. If, then his teaching is that the kingdom of heaven is within us, do we not clearly see that, putting it in other words, his injunction is nothing more nor less than, come ye into a conscious realization of your oneness with the Father's life, and as you realize this oneness, you will find
Starting point is 04:11:01 the kingdom, and when you find this, all things else shall follow. The story of the prodigal son is another beautiful illustration of this same great teaching of the master. After the prodigal had spent everything, after he had wandered in all the realms of the physical senses in pursuit of happiness and pleasure, and found that this did not satisfy him, but only brought him to the level of the animal creation. He then came to his senses and said, I will arise and go to my father. In other words, after all these wanderings, his own soul at length spoke to him and said, You are not a mere animal. You are your father's child. Arise and go with your father, who holds all things in his hands. Again, the master said,
Starting point is 04:11:44 call no man, your father upon the earth, for one is your father, which is in heaven. Here he recognized the fact that the real life is direct from the life of God. Our fathers and our mothers are the agents that give us the bodies, the houses in which we live, but the real life comes from the infinite source of life, God, who is our father. one day word was brought to the master that his mother and his brethren were without wishing to speak to him who is my mother and who are my brethren said he whosoever shall do the will of my father which is in heaven the same as my brother and my sister and mother many people are greatly enslaved by what we term ties of relationship it is well however for us to remember that our true relatives are not necessarily those who are connected with us by of blood. Our truest relatives are those who are nearest akin to us in mind, in soul, in spirit. Our nearest relatives may be those living on the opposite side of the globe,
Starting point is 04:12:49 people whom we may never have seen as yet, but to whom we will yet be drawn, either in this form of life or in another, through that ever-working and never-failing law of attraction. When the master gave the injunction, call no man your father upon the earth, for one is your father which is in heaven he here gave us the basis for that grand conception of the fatherhood of god and if god is equally the father of all then we have here the basis for the brotherhood of man but there is in a sense a conception still higher than this namely the oneness of man and god and hence the oneness of the whole human race when we realize this fact then we clearly see how in the degree that we come in to the realization of our oneness with the infinite life, and so every step that we make Godward,
Starting point is 04:13:40 we aid in lifting all mankind up to this realization, and enable them in turn to make a step Godward. The master again pointed out our true relations with the infinite life when he said, "'Except you become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven.' When he said, man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God. He gave utterance to a truth of a far greater import than we have as yet commenced fully to grasp. Here he taught that even the physical life cannot be maintained by material food alone, but that one's connection with this infinite source determines to a very great extent the condition of even the bodily structure and activities. Blessed are the pure in heart for they
Starting point is 04:14:26 shall see God. In other words, blessed are they who in all the universe recognize only God, for by such God shall be seen. Said the great Hindu sage, Manu, He who in his own soul perceives the supreme soul in all beings, and acquires equanimity toward them all, attains the highest bliss. It was Athanasius who said,
Starting point is 04:14:50 Even we may become gods walking about in the flesh. The same great truth we are considering is the one that runs through the life and the teachings of Qatama, he who became the Buddha. People are in bondage, said he, because they have not yet removed the idea of I. To do away with all sense of separateness,
Starting point is 04:15:10 and to recognize the oneness of the self with the infinite, is the spirit that breathes through all his teachings. Running through the lives of all the medieval mystics was this same great truth, union with God. Then coming nearer to our own time, we find the highly illumined seer, Emmanuel Swedenborg, pointing out the great laws in connection with what he termed, the divine influx and how we may open ourselves more fully to its operations the great central fact in the religion and worship of the friends is the inner light
Starting point is 04:15:43 god in the soul of man speaking directly in just the degree that the soul is open to him the inspired one the seer who when with us lived at concord recognized the same great truth when he said we are all inlets to the great sea of life and it was by opening himself so fully to the conchre to its inflow that he became one inspired. All through the world's history, we find that the men and the women who have entered into the realm of true wisdom and power, and hence into the realm of true peace and joy, have lived in harmony with this higher power. David was strong and powerful, and his soul burst forth in praise and adoration
Starting point is 04:16:23 in just the degree that he listened to the voice of God and lived in accordance with his higher promptings. Whenever he failed to do this, we hear his soul, crying out in anguish and lamentation. The same is true of every nation or people. When the Israelites acknowledged God and followed according to his leadings, they were prosperous, contented, and powerful, and nothing could prevail against them.
Starting point is 04:16:47 When they depended upon their own strength alone and failed to recognize God as the source of their strength, we find them overcome in bondage or despair. A great immutable law underlies the truth. Blessed are they that hear the truth, are they that hear the word of God and do it. Then follows all. We are wise in the degree that we live according to the higher light. All the prophets, seers, sages, and saviors in the world's history became what they became and consequently had the powers they had
Starting point is 04:17:19 through an entirely natural process. They all recognized and came into the conscious realization of their oneness with the infinite life. God is no respecter of persons. He doesn't create prophets, seers, sages, and saviors as such. He creates men. But here and there one recognizes his true identity, recognizes the oneness of his life with the source whence it came. He lives in the realization of this oneness, and in turn becomes a prophet, seer, sage, or savior. Neither is God a respecter of races or of nations. He has no chosen people. But here and there a race or a nation becomes a respecter of God, and hence lives the life of a chosen people. There has been no age or place of miracles in distinction from any other age or place.
Starting point is 04:18:08 What we term miracles have abounded in all places and at all times, where conditions have been made for them. They are being performed today just as much as they ever have been when the laws governing them are respected. Mighty men, we are told they were. Mighty men who walked with God, and in the words who walked with God lies the secret of the words mighty men cause effect the lord never prosperes any man but the man prospers because he acknowledges the Lord and lives in accordance with the higher laws Solomon was given the opportunity of choosing whatever he desired his better judgment prevailed and he chose wisdom but when he chose wisdom he found that it included all else beside we are told that God
Starting point is 04:18:56 hardened Pharaoh's heart. I don't believe it. God never hardens anyone's heart. Pharaoh hardened his own heart, and God was blamed for it. But when Pharaoh hardened his heart and disobeyed the voice of God, the plagues came. Again, cause, effect. Had he on the contrary listened? In other words, had he opened himself to, and obeyed the voice of God, the plagues would not have come. We can be our own best friends or we can be our own worst enemies. In the degree that we come best friends to the highest and best within us, we become friends to all, and in the degree that we become enemies to the highest and best within us,
Starting point is 04:19:36 do we become enemies to all? In the degree that we open ourselves to the higher powers and let them manifest through us, then by the very inspirations we carry with us, do we become, in a sense, the saviors of our fellow men, and in this way we all are, or may become, the saviors one of another. In this way you may become, indeed, one of the world's redeemers.
Starting point is 04:20:01 End of Section 10. Section 11 of In Tune with the Infinite by Ralph Waldo Trine. This Libravox recording is in the public domain. The Basic Principle of All Religions, the Universal Religion. The great truth we are considering is the fundamental principle running through all religions. We find it in every one. regard to it all agree it is moreover a great truth in regard to which all people can agree whether they belong to the same or to different religions people always quarrel about the trifles about their
Starting point is 04:20:42 personal views of minor insignificant points they always come together in the presence of great fundamental truths the threads of which run through all the quarrels are in connection with the lower self the agreements are in connection with the higher self a place may have its factions that quarrel and fight among themselves, but let a great calamity come upon the land, flood, famine, pestilence, and these little personal differences are entirely forgotten and all work shoulder to shoulder in the one great cause. The changing, the evolving self, gives rise to quarrels. The permanent, the sole self unites in all the highest efforts of love and service. Patriotism is a beautiful thing. It is well for me to love my country, but why should I love my own country more
Starting point is 04:21:29 than I love all others. If I love my own and hate others, I then show my limitations, and my patriotism will stand the test not even for my own. If I love my own country and in the same way love all other countries, then I show the largeness of my nature and a patriotism of this kind is noble, and always to be relied upon. The view of God in regard to which we are agreed, that he is the infinite spirit of life and power, that is back of all, that is working in and through all, that is the life of all, is a matter in regard to which all men, all religions can agree. With this view, there can be no infidels or atheists. There are atheists and infidels in connection with many views that are held concerning God.
Starting point is 04:22:15 And thank God there are. Even devout and earnest people among us attribute things to God that no respectable men or women would permit to be attributed to themselves. This view is satisfying to those who cannot see how God can be angry, with his children, jealous, vindictive. A display of these qualities always lessens our respect for men and women, and still we attribute them to God. The earnest, sincere heretic is one of the greatest friends true religion can have.
Starting point is 04:22:45 Heretics are among God's greatest servants. They are among the true servants of mankind. Christ was one of the greatest heretics the world has ever known. He allowed himself to be bound by no established or orthodox teachings or beliefs. Christ is pre-eminently a type of the universal. John the Baptist is a type of the personal. John dressed in a particular way, ate a particular kind of food, belonged to a particular order, lived and taught in a particular locality,
Starting point is 04:23:14 and he himself recognized the fact that he must decrease while Christ must increase. Christ, on the other hand, gave himself absolutely no limitations. He allowed himself to be bound by nothing. He was absolutely universal, and as a person, a consequence, taught not for his own particular day, but for all time. This mighty truth which we have agreed upon as the great central fact of human life is the golden thread that runs through all religions. When we make it the paramount fact in our lives, we will find that minor differences, narrow prejudices, and all these laughable
Starting point is 04:23:50 absurdities will so fall away by virtue of their very insignificance that a Jew can worship equally as well in a Catholic cathedral, a Catholic in a Jewish synagogue, a Buddhist in a Christian church, a Christian in a Buddhist temple. Or all can worship equally well about their own hearth stones, or out on the hillside, or while pursuing the avocations of everyday life. For true worship, only God and the human soul are necessary. It does not depend upon times or seasons or occasions. anywhere and at any time God and man in the bush may meet. This is the great fundamental principle of the universal religion upon which all can agree. This is the great fact that is permanent.
Starting point is 04:24:35 There are many things in regard to which all cannot agree. These are the things that are personal, non-essential, and so as time passes they gradually fall away. One who doesn't grasp this great truth, a Christian, for example, asks, But was not Christ inspired? Yes, but he was not the only one inspired. Another who is a Buddhist asks, Was not Buddha inspired?
Starting point is 04:24:59 Yes, but he was not the only one inspired. A Christian asks, but is not our Christian Bible inspired? Yes, but there are other inspired scriptures. A Brahman or a Buddhist asks, Are not the Vedas inspired? Yes, but there are other inspired sacred books. Your error is not in believing that your particular script, are inspired, but your error is, and you show your absurdly laughable limitations by it.
Starting point is 04:25:26 Your inability to see that other scriptures are also inspired. The sacred books, the inspired writings, all come from the same source, God. God speaking through the souls of those who open themselves that he may thus speak. Some may be more inspired than others. It depends entirely on the relative degree that this one or that one opens himself to the divine voice. says one of the inspired writers in the hebrew scriptures wisdom is the breath of the power of god and in all ages entering into holy souls she maketh them friends of god and prophets let us not be among the number so dwarfed so limited so bigoted as to think that the infinite god has revealed himself to one little handful of his children in one little quarter of the globe and at one particular period of time This isn't the pattern by which God works.
Starting point is 04:26:22 Of a truth I perceive that God is no respecter of persons, but in every nation he that revereth God and worketh righteousness is accepted of him, says the Christian Bible. When we fully realize this truth, we will then see that it makes but little difference what particular form of religion one holds to, but it does make a tremendous difference how true he is to the vital principles of this one. in the degree that we love self less and love truth more in that degree will we care less about converting people to our particular way of thinking but all the more we will care to aid them in coming into the full realization of truth through the channels best adapted to them
Starting point is 04:27:03 the doctrine of our master says the chinese consisted solely in integrity of heart we will find as we search that this is the doctrine of everyone who is at all worthy the name of master the great fundamental principles of all religions are the same they differ only in their minor details according to the various degrees of unfoldment of different people i am sometimes asked to what religion do you belong what religion why bless you there is only one religion the religion of the living god there are of course the various creeds of the same religion arising from the various interpretations of different people but they are all of minor importance the more unfolded the soul the less important do these minor differences become they are also of course the various so-called religions there is in reality however but one religion the moment we lose sight of this great fact we depart from the real vital spirit of true religion and allow ourselves to be limited and bound by form in the degree that we do this we build fences around ourselves which keep others away from us and which also prevent our coming into the realization of universal truth there is nothing worthy the name of truth that is not universal there is only one religion whatever road i take joins the highway that leads to thee says the inspired writer in the persian scriptures broad is the carpet god has spread and beautiful the colors he has given it the pure man respects every form of faith says the buddhist my doctrine makes no difference between high and low rich and poor. Like the sky, it has room for all. And like the water, it washes all alike.
Starting point is 04:28:52 The broad-minded see the truth in different religions. The narrow-minded see only the differences, says the Chinese. The Hindu has said, the narrow-minded ask, Is this man a stranger, or is he of our tribe? But to those in whom love dwells, the whole world is but one family. Altar flowers are of many species, but all worship is one. Heaven is a palace with many doors and each may enter in his own way. Are not we all children of one father? says the Christian. God has made of one blood all nations
Starting point is 04:29:24 to dwell on the face of the earth. It was a latter-day seer who said, That which was profitable to the soul of man, the father revealed to the ancients. That which is profitable to the soul of man today, revealeth he this day. It was Tennyson who said, I dreamed that the stone by stone I reared a sacred fift.
Starting point is 04:29:44 pain, a temple, neither pagoda, mosque nor church, but loftier, simpler, always open-doored to every breath from heaven, and truth and peace and love and justice came and dwelt therein. Religion in its true sense is the most joyous thing the human soul can know, and when the religion is realized, we will find that it will be an agent of peace, of joy, and of happiness, and never an agent of gloomy, long-faced sadness. It will then be attractive to all and repulsive to none. Let our churches grasp these great truths. Let them give their time and attention
Starting point is 04:30:21 to bringing people into a knowledge of their true selves, into a knowledge of their relations, of their oneness with the infinite God. And such joy will be the result, and such crowds will flock to them, that their very walls will seem almost to burst. And such songs of joy will continually pour forth, as will make all people in love with the religion
Starting point is 04:30:42 that makes for everyday life, and hence the religion that is true and vital. Adequacy for life, adequacy for everyday life here and now, must be the test of all true religion. If it does not bear this test, then it simply is not religion. We need an everyday, of this world religion.
Starting point is 04:31:03 All time spent in connection with any other is worse than wasted. The eternal life that we are now living will be well lived if we take good care of each little period of time as it presents itself day after day. If we fail in doing this, we fail in everything. End of Section 11. Section 12 of Intune with the Infinite by Ralph Waldo Trine.
Starting point is 04:31:32 This Librevox recording is in the public domain. Entering now into the realization of the highest riches. I hear the question. What can be said in a concrete way in regard to the method of coming into this realization? The facts underlying it are indeed most beautiful and true, but how can we actualize in ourselves the realization that carries with it such wonderful results? The method is not difficult if we do not of ourselves make it difficult. The principal word to be used is the word open,
Starting point is 04:32:06 simply to open your mind and heart into this divine inflow, which is waiting only for the opening of the gate, that it may enter. It is like opening the gate of the trough which conducts water from the resists, of war above into the field below. The water, by virtue of its very nature, will rush in and irrigate the field if the gate is but opened. As to the realization of our oneness with this infinite life and power, after seeing, as I think we have clearly seen by this time, the relations it bears to us and we do it. The chief thing to be said is simply, realize your oneness with it. The open mind and heart, whereby one is brought into the receptive attitude is the first thing
Starting point is 04:32:48 necessary than the earnest sincere desire it may be an aid at first to take yourself for a few moments each day into the quiet into the silence where you will not be agitated by the disturbances that enter through the avenues of the physical senses there in the quiet alone with god put yourself into the receptive attitude calmly quietly and expectantly desire that this realization break in upon and take possession of the soul as it breaks breaks in upon and takes possession of the soul, it will manifest itself to your mind, and from this you will feel its manifestations in every part of your body. Then in the degree that you open yourself to it, you will feel a quiet, peaceful, illuminating power that will harmonize
Starting point is 04:33:34 body, soul, and mind, and that will then harmonize these with all the world. You are now on the mountaintop, and the voice of God is speaking to you. Then as you descend, carry this realization with you. Live in it, waking, working, thinking, walking, sleeping. In this way, although you may not be continually on the mountaintop, you will nevertheless be continually living in the realization of all the beauty and inspiration and power you have felt there. Moreover, the time will come when in the busy office or on the noisy street you can enter into the silence by simply drawing the mantle of your own thoughts about you, and realizing that there and everywhere the spirit of the infinite life, love, wisdom, peace, power and plenty is guiding, keeping, protecting, leading
Starting point is 04:34:23 you. This is the spirit of continual prayer. This it is to pray without ceasing. This it is to know and to walk with God. This it is to find the Christ within. This is the new birth, the second birth. First that which is natural, then that which is spiritual. It is thus that the old man Adam is put off and the new man Christ is put on. This it is to be saved unto life eternal, whatever one's form of belief or faith may be, for it is life eternal to know God. The sweet by and by will be a song of the past.
Starting point is 04:35:00 We will create a new song, The Beautiful Eternal Now. This is the realization that you and I can come into this very day, this very hour, this very minute, if we desire and if we will it. And if now we merely set our first, faces in the right direction, it is then but a matter of time until we come into the full splendors
Starting point is 04:35:22 of this complete realization. To set one's face in the direction of the mountain, and then simply to journey on, whether rapidly or more slowly, will bring him to it. But unless one sit his face in the right direction and make the start, he will not reach it. It was Gerta who said, Are you in earnest? Seize this very minute. What you can do or dream you can, beginning. it boldness has genius power and magic in it only engage and then the mind grows heated begin and then the work will be completed said the young man gotama sit harder i have awakened to the truth and i am resolved to accomplish my purpose verily i shall become a buddha it was this that brought him into the life of the enlightened one and so into the realization of nirvana right here in this life that this same realization and life is within the possibilities of all here and now was his teaching it was this that has made him the light-bearer to millions of people said the young man jesus know ye not that i must be about my father's business making this the one great purpose of his life he came into the full and complete realization I and the Father are one.
Starting point is 04:36:38 He thus came into the full realization of the kingdom of heaven right here in this life, that all could come into this same realization and life here and now was his teaching. It was this that has made him the light-bearer to millions of people. And so far as practical things are concerned, we may hunt the whole wide universe through, and we shall find that there is no injunction more practical than, seek ye first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all other things shall be added unto you.
Starting point is 04:37:08 And in the light of what has gone before, I think there is no one who is open to the truth and honest with himself who will fail to grasp the underlying reason and see the great laws upon which it is based. Personally, I know lives that have so fully entered into the kingdom through the realization of their oneness with the infinite life and through the opening of themselves so fully to its divine guidance, that they are most wonderfully concrete examples of the reality of this great and all-important truth.
Starting point is 04:37:37 They are people whose lives are in this way guided not only in a general way, but literally in every detail. They simply live in the realization of their oneness with this infinite power, continually in harmony with it, and so continually in the realization of the kingdom of heaven. An abundance of all things is theirs. They are never at a loss for anything. The supply seems always to equal the demand. They never seem at a loss in regard to what to do or how to do it. Their lives are careless lives.
Starting point is 04:38:11 Their lives are free from care because they are continually conscious of the fact that the higher powers are doing the guiding, and they are relieved of their responsibility. To enter into detail in connection with some of these lives, and particularly with two or three that come to my mind at this moment, would reveal facts that no doubt to some would seem almost incredible. if not miraculous. But let us remember that what is possible for one life to realize is possible for all.
Starting point is 04:38:38 This is indeed the natural and the normal life, that which will be the everyday life of everyone who comes into and who lives in this higher realization, and so in harmony with the higher laws. This is simply getting into the current of that divine sequence running throughout the universe. And when once in it, life then ceases to be applauding and moves along day after day, much as the tide flows, much as the planets move in their courses,
Starting point is 04:39:05 much as the seasons come and go. All the frictions, all the uncertainties, all the ills, the sufferings, the fears, the forebodings, the perplexities of life come to us because they are out of harmony with the divine order of things. They will continue to come as long as we so live. Rowing against the tide is hard and uncertain. To go with the tide,
Starting point is 04:39:28 and thus to take advantage of the working of a great natural force is safe and easy. To come into the consciousness, vital realization of our oneness with the infinite life and power is to come into the current of this divine sequence. Coming thus into harmony with the infinite brings us in turn into harmony with all about us, into harmony with the life of the heavens, into harmony with all the universe, and above all it brings us into harmony with ourselves, so that body, soul, and mind become perfectly harmonized.
Starting point is 04:40:01 And when this is so, life becomes full and complete. The sense life then no longer masters and enslaves us. The physical is subordinated to and ruled by the mental. This in turn is subordinated to and continually illumined by the spiritual. Life is then no longer the poor, one-sided thing it is in so many cases, but the three-fold, the all-round life with all its beauties and ever-increasing joys and powers is entered upon. Thus it is that we are brought to realize
Starting point is 04:40:32 that the middle path is the great solution of life, neither asceticism on the one hand, nor license and perverted use on the other. Everything is for use, but all must be wisely used in order to be fully enjoyed. As we live in these higher realizations, the senses are not ignored, but are ever more fully perfected.
Starting point is 04:40:53 As the body becomes less gross and heavy, finer in its texture and form, all the senses become finer, so that powers we do not now realize as belonging to us gradually develop. Thus we come, in a perfectly natural and normal way, into the superconscious realms, whereby we make it possible for the higher laws and truths to be revealed to us. As we enter into these realms, we are then not among those who give their time in speculating
Starting point is 04:41:20 as to whether this one or that one had the insight and the powers attributed to him. But we are able to know for ourselves. Neither are we among those who attempt to lead the people upon the hearsay of someone else, but we know whereof we speak, and only thus can we speak with authority. There are many things that we cannot know until by living the life we bring ourselves into that state where it is possible for them to be revealed to us. If any man will do his will, he shall know of the doctrine.
Starting point is 04:41:51 It was Plotinus, who said, The mind that wishes to behold God must itself become God. And thus we make it possible for these higher laws and truths to be revealed to us. We will in turn become enlightened ones, channels through which they may be revealed to others. When one is fully alive to the possibilities that come with this higher awakening, as he goes here and there, as he mingles with his fellow men, he imparts to all an inspiration that kindles them in a feeling.
Starting point is 04:42:21 feeling of power kindred to his own we are all continually giving out influences similar to those that are playing in our own lives we do this in the same way that each flower emits its own peculiar odor the rose breathes out its fragrance upon the air and all who come near it are refreshed and inspired by this emanation from the soul of the rose a poisonous weed sends out its obnoxious odor it is neither refreshing nor inspiring in its effects and if one remain near it long he may be so unpleasantly affected as to be made even ill by it the higher the life the more inspiring and helpful are the emanations that it is continually sending out the lower the life the more harmful it is to the influence it continually sends out to all who come in contact with it each one is continually radiating an atmosphere of one kind or the other we are told by the mariners who sail on the indian seas that many times they are able to tell their approach to certain islands long before they see them by the sweet fragrance of the sandalwood that is wafted far out upon the deep. Do you not see how it would serve to have such a soul playing through such a body that as you go here and there, a subtle, silent force goes out from you that all feel and are influenced
Starting point is 04:43:38 by, so that you carry with you an inspiration and continually shed a benediction wherever you go, so that your friends and all people will say, His coming brings peace and joy into our homes welcome his coming so that as you pass along the street tired and weary and even sin-sick men and women will feel a certain divine touch that will awaken new desires and a new life in them that will make the very horse as you pass him turn his head with a strange half-human longing look such are the subtle powers of the human soul when it makes itself translucent to the divine to know that such a life is within our living here and now is enough to make one burst forth with song of joy. And when the life itself is entered upon, the sentiment of at least one song will be. Oh, I stand in the great forever. All things to me are divine. I eat of the heavenly mana. I drink of the heavenly wine. In the gleam of the shining rainbow, the father's love I behold, as I gaze on its radiant blending of crimson and blue and gold. In all the bright
Starting point is 04:44:46 birds that are singing, in all the fair flowers that blue, those welcome aromas are bringing their blessings of sweet perfume in the glorious tint of the morning in the gorgeous sheen of the night oh my soul is lost in rapture my senses are lost in sight as one comes into and lives continually in the full conscious realization of his oneness with the infinite life and power than all else follows this it is that brings the realization of such splendors and beauties and joys as a life that is thus related with the infinite power alone can know. It is this to come into the realization of heaven's richest treasures while walking on the earth. This it is to bring heaven down to earth, or rather to bring earth up to heaven.
Starting point is 04:45:36 This it is to exchange weakness and impotence for strength, sorrows and signs for joy, fears and forebodings for faith, longings for realizations. This it is to come into fullness of peace, power and plenty. This it is to be in tune with the infinite. End of Section 12. End of In Tune with the Infinite by Ralph Waldo Trine.

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