Speaker 1: Lessons fifteen and sixteen of the power of concentration. A
man forgets because he does not concentrate his mind on
his purpose, especially at the moment he conceives it. We
remember only that which makes a deep impression. Hence we
must first deepen our impressions by associating in our minds
certain ideas that are related to them. We will say
a wife gives her husband a letter to mail. He
does not think about it, but automatically puts it in
his pocket and forgets all about it when the letter
was given to him. Had he said to himself, I
will mail this letter. The box is at the next corner,
and when I pass it, I must drop this letter,
it would have enabled him to recall the letter the
instant he reached the mailbox. The same rule holds good
in regard to more important things. For example, if you
are instructed to drop in and see mister Smith while
out to luncheon to day, you will not forget it
if at the same moment the instruction is given, you
say to yourself something similar to the following. When I
get to the corner of blank Street on my way
to luncheon, I shall turn to the right and call
on mister Smith. In this way, the impression is made,
the connection established, and the sight of the associated object
recalls the errand the important thing to do is to
deepen the impression at the very moment it enters your mind.
This is made possible not only by concentrating the mind
upon the idea itself, but by surrounding it with all
possible association of ideas, so that each one will reinforce
the others. The mind is governed by laws of association.
Such is the law that ideas which enter the mind
at the same time emerge at the same time, one
assisting in recalling the others. The reason why people cannot
remember what they want to is that they have not
concentrated their minds sufficiently on their purpose at the moment
when it was formed. You can train yourself to remember
in this way by the concentration of the attention on
your purpose in accordance with the laws of association. When
once you form this habit, the attention is easily centered
and the memory easily trained, then your memory, instead of
failing you at crucial moments, becomes a valuable asset in
your everyday work. Exercise in memory concentration. Select some picture,
put it on a table, and then look at it
for two minutes. Concentrate your attention on this picture. Observe
every detail. Then shut your eyes and see how much
you can recall about it. Think of what the picture represents,
whether it is a good subject, whether it looks natural,
Think of objects in ground, middle ground, background, of details
of color and form. Now open your eyes and hold
yourself rigidly to the correction of each and every mistake.
Close your eyes again, and notice how much more accurate
your picture is. Practice until your mental image corresponds in
every particular to the original. Nature is a wonderful instructor.
But there are very few who realize that when we
get in touch with nature, we discover ourselves. That by
listening to her voice, with that curious inner sense of ours,
we learn the oneness of life and wake up to
our own latent powers. Few realize that the simple act
of listening and concentrating is our best interior power, for
it brings us into close contact with the highest, just
as our other senses bring us into touch with the
coarser side of human nature. The closer we live to nature,
the more developed is this sense. So called civilization, has
over developed our other senses at the expense of this one.
Children unconsciously realize the value of concentration. For instance, when
a child has a difficult problem to solve and gets
to some knotty point which he finds himself mentally unable
to do, though he tries his hardest, he will pause
and keep quite still, leaning on his elbow, apparently listening.
Then you will see, if you are watching, sudden illumination come,
and he goes on happily and accomplishes his task. A
child instinctively but unconsciously knows when he needs help, he
must be quiet and concentrate. All great people concentrate and
owe their success to it. A doctor thinks over the
symptoms of his patient, waits listens for the inspiration, though
quite unconscious perhaps of doing so. The one who diagnoses
in this way seldom makes mistakes. An author thinks his plot,
holds it in his mind, and then waits and illumination comes.
If you want to be able to solve difficult problems,
you must learn to do the same. Lesson sixteen. How
concentrating can fulfill your desire. It is a spiritual law
that the desire to do necessarily implies the ability to do.
You have all read of Aladdin's Lamp, which accomplished such
wonderful things. This, of course, is only a fairy story,
but it illustrates the fact that man has within him
the power if he is able to use it to
gratify his every wish. If you are unable to satisfy
your deepest longings, it is time you learn how to
use your God given powers. You will soon be conscious
that you have latent powers within capable, when once developed,
of revealing to you priceless knowledge and unlimited possibilities of success.
Man should have plenty of everything, and not merely substance
to live on, as so many have. All natural disease
can be realized. It would be wrong for the infinite
to create wants that could not be supplied. Man's very
soul is in his power to think, and it therefore
is the essence of all created things. Every instinct of
man leads to thought, and in every thought there is
great possibility, because true thought development, when ally to those
mysterious powers that perhaps transcended, has been the cause of
all the world's true progress. In the silence, we become
conscious of that something which transcends thought, and which uses
thought as a medium for expression. Many have glimpses of
that something, but few ever reach the state where the
mind is steady enough to fathom these depths. Silent concentrated
thought is more potent than spoken words, for speech distracts
from the focusing power of the mind. By drawing more
and more attention to the without. Man must learn more
and more to depend on himself to seek more for
the infinite within. It is from this source alone that
he ever gains the power to solve his practical difficulties.
No one should give up when there is always the
resources of infinity. The cause of failure is that men
search in the wrong direction for success, because they are
not conscious of their real powers, that, when used, are
capable of guiding them. The infinite within is foreign to
those persons who go through life without developing their spiritual powers.
But the infinite helps only he who helps himself. There
is no such thing as a special providence. Man will
not receive help from the infinite except to the extent
that he he believes and hopes and prays for help
from this great source. Concentrate on what you want and
get it. The weakling is controlled by conditions. The strong
man controls his conditions. You can be either the conqueror
or the conquered. By the law of concentration, you can
achieve your heart's desire. This law is so powerful that
that which at first seems impossible becomes attainable. By this law,
what you at first see as a dream becomes a reality.
Remember that the first step in concentration is to form
a mental image of what you wish to accomplish. This
image becomes a thought seed that attracts thoughts of a
similar nature around this thought. When it is once planted
in the imagination or creative region of the mind, you
group or build associated thoughts which continue to grow as
long as your desire is keen enough to compare close concentration,
form the habit of thinking of something you wish to
accomplish for five minutes each day. Shut every other thought
out of consciousness. Be confident that you will succeed. Make
up your mind that all obstacles that are in your
way will be overcome, and you can rise above any environment.
You do this by utilizing the natural laws of the
thought world, which are all powerful. A great aid in
the development of concentration is to write out your thoughts
on that which lies nearest your heart, and to continue,
little by little to add to it until you have
as nearly as possible exhausted the subject. You will find
that each day, as you focus your forces on this
thought at the center of the stream of consciousness, new plans, ideas,
and methods will flash into your mind. There is a
law of attraction that will help you accomplish your purpose.
An advertiser, for instance, gets to thinking along a certain line.
He has formed his own ideas, but he wants to
know what others think. He starts out to seek ideas,
and he soon finds plenty of books, plans, designs, et
cetera on the subject, although when he started he was
not aware of their existence. The same thing is true
in all lines. We can attract those things that will
help us. Very often we seem to receive help in
a miraculous way. It may be slow in coming, but
once the silent, unseen forces are put into operation, they
will bring results. So long as we do our part.
They are ever present and ready to aid those who
care to use them. By forming a strong mental image
of your desire, you plant the thought seed which begins
working in your interest, and in time that desire, if
in harmony with your higher nature, will materialize. It may
seem that it would be unnecessary to caution you to
concentrate only upon achievement that will be good for you
and work no harm to another. But there are many
who forget others and their rights and their anxiety to
achieve success. All good things are possible for you to have,
but only as you bring out your forces into harmony
with that law that requires that we met out justice
to fellow travelers as we journey along life's road. So
first think over the thing wanted, and if it would
be good for you to have. Say I want to
do this. I am going to work to secure it.
The way will be open for me if you fully
grasp the mental thought of success and hold it in
the mind. Each day, you gradually make a pattern or mold,
which in time will materialize. But by all means keep
free from doubt and fear the destructive forces. Never allow
these to become associated with your thoughts. At last, you
will create the desired conditions and receive help in many
unlooked for ways that will lift you out of the
undesired environment. Life will then seem very different to you,
for you will have found happiness through awakening within yourself
the power to become the master of circumstances instead of
their slave. To the beginner. In this line of thought,
some of the things stated in this book may sound strange,
even absurd, But instead of condemning them, give them a trial.
You will find they work out. The inventor has to
work out his idea mentally before he produces it materially.
The architect first sees the mental picture of the house
he is to plan, and from this works out the
one we see. Every object, every enterprise must first be
mentally created. I know a man that started in business
with thirteen cents and not a dollar's worth of c
In ten years, he has built up a large and
profitable business. He attributes his success to two things, belief
that he would succeed and hard work. There were times
when it did not look like he could weather the storm.
He was being pressed by his creditors, who considered him bankrupt.
They would have taken fifty cents on the dollar for
his notes and considered themselves lucky. But by keeping up
a bold front he got an extension of time when needed.
When absolutely necessary for him to raise a certain sum
at a certain time, he always did it. When he
had heavy bills to meet, he would make up his
mind that certain people that owed him would pay by
a certain date, and they always did. Sometimes he would
not receive their check until the last mail of the
day of the extension. And I have known him to
send out a check with the prospect of receiving a
check from one of his customers the following day. He
would have no reason other than his belief in the
power of affecting the mind of another by concentration of
thought for expecting that check. But rarely has he been disappointed.
Just put forth the necessary concentrated effort, and you will
be wonderfully helped from sources unknown to you. Remember the
mystical words of Jesus the Master. Whatsoever thing ye desire,
when ye pray, pray as if ye had already received,
and ye shall have