thinking. The basis of all functional disorders is in the mind, though the manifestation is dyspepsia, melancholia, palpitation of the heart, or any one of a hundred others. There is nothing organically wrong with the body. It is your mental image that is out of adjustment. Change the one and you cure the other.
In this day of the gymnasium and the daily dozen, it may sound impractical to suggest that it is the mind, not the body, which needs the care. But I am far from being the first to suggest it.
There is a very successful physician in London whose teaching is that gymnastic exercise does more harm than good. He contends that the only exercise necessary for the perfect development of the body is yawning and stretching.
I would go farther than that. I would say that no physical exercise is essential to the perfect development of the body. That since the only cause is mind, the principal good of exercise is that when we go through the motions we impress upon our subconscious mind the picture of the perfect figure that we would have. And that mental visualization is what brings the results.
You can get the same results without the physical exercise by visualizing in your mind’s eye the figure of the man you want to be, by intensely desiring it, by BELIEVING that you have it.
You can win to perfect health by knowing that there is but one right idea in Universal Mind for every organism in your body — that this right idea is perfect and undying — that you have only to hold it before your subconscious mind to see it realized in your body. This is the truth that makes you free.
Chapter 11 — The Law of Attraction
The old adage that “He profits most who serves best” is no mere altruism.
Look around you. What businesses are going ahead? What men are making the big successes? Are they the ones who grab the passing dollar, careless of what they offer in return? Or are they those who are striving always to give a little greater value, a little more work than they are paid for?
When scales are balanced evenly, a trifle of extra weight thrown into either side overbalances the other as effectively as a ton.
In the same way, a little better value, a little extra effort, makes the man or the business stand out from the great mass of mediocrity like a tall man among pigmies, and brings results out of all proportion to the additional effort involved.
It pays — not merely altruistically, but in good, hard, round dollars — to give a little more value than seems necessary, to work a bit harder than you are paid for. It’s that extra ounce of value that counts.
For the law of attraction is service. We receive in proportion as we give out. In fact, we usually receive in far greater proportion. “Cast thy bread upon the waters and it will return to you an hundred-fold.”
Back of everything is the immutable law of the Universe — that what you are but the effect. Your thoughts are the causes. The only way you can change the effect is by first changing the cause.
People live in poverty and want because they are so wrapped up in their sufferings that they give out thoughts only of lack and sorrow. They expect want. They open the door of their mind only to hardship and sickness and poverty. True — they hope for something better — but their hopes are so drowned by their fears that they never have a chance.
You cannot receive good while expecting evil. You cannot demonstrate plenty while looking for poverty. “Blessed is he that expecteth much, for verily his soul shall be filled.” Solomon outlined the law when he said:
There is that scattereth, and increaseth yet more;
And there is that withholdeth more than is meet,
But it tendeth only to want.
The liberal soul shall be made fat;
And he that watereth shall be watered also himself.
The Universal Mind expresses itself largely through the individual. It is continually seeking an outlet. It is like a vast reservoir of water, constantly replenished by mountain springs. Cut a channel to it and the water will flow in ever-increasing volume. In the same way, if you once open up a channel of service by which the Universal Mind can express itself through you, its gifts will flow in ever increasing volume and YOU will be enriched in the process.
This is the idea through which great bankers are made. A foreign country needs millions for development. Its people are hardworking, but lack the necessary implements to make their work productive. How are they to find the money?
They go to a banker — put their problem up to him. He has not the money himself, but he knows how and where to raise it. He sells the promise to pay of the foreign country (their bonds, in other words) to people who have money to invest. His is merely a service. But it is such an invaluable service that both sides are glad to pay him liberally for it.
In the same way, by opening up a channel between universal supply and human needs — by doing your neighbors or your friends or your customer’s service — you are bound to profit yourself. And the wider you open your channel — the greater service you give or the better values you offer — the more things are bound to flow through your channel, the more you are going to profit thereby.
But you’ve got to use your talent if you want to profit from it. It matters not how small your service — using it will make it greater. You don’t have to retire to a cell and pray. That is a selfish method — selfish concern for your own soul to the exclusion of all others. Mere self-denial or asceticism as such does no one good. You’ve got to DO something, to USE the talents God has given you to make the world better for your having been in it.
Remember the parable of the talents. You know what happened to the man who went off and hid his talent, whereas those who made use of theirs were given charge over many things.
That parable, it has always seemed to me, expresses the whole law of life. The only right is to use all the forces of good. The only wrong is to neglect or to abuse them.
“Thou shalt love the Lord thy God. This is the first and the greatest Commandment.” Thou shalt show thy love by using to the best possible advantage the good things (the “talents” of the parable) that He has placed in your hands. “And the second is like unto it. Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.” Thou shalt not abuse the good things that have been provided you in such prodigality, by using them against your neighbor. Instead, thou shalt treat him (love him) as he would treat you. Thou shalt use the good about you for the advantage of all.
If you are a banker, you’ve got to use the money you have in order to make more money. If you are a merchant, you’ve got to sell the goods you have in order to buy more goods. If you are a doctor, you must help the patient you have in order to get more practice. If you are a clerk, you must do your work a little better than those around you if you want to earn more money than they. And if you want more of the universal supply, you must use that which you have in such a way as to make yourself of greater service to those around you.
“Whosoever shall be great among you,” said Jesus, “shall be your minister, and whosoever of you will be the chiefest, shall be servant of all.” In other words, if you would be great, you must serve. And he who serves most shall be greatest of all.
If you want to make more money, instead of seeking it for yourself, see how you can make more for others. In the process you will inevitably make more for yourself, too. We get as we give — but we must give first.
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