Mastery of Self for Wealth, Power, Success Part 11

Our a.n.a.lysis, then, exhibits fear where reason ought to appear, in

A GENERAL ENUMERATION OF FEAR-CAUSES.

Fear of hurt of self by self (fear of self): subst.i.tute reason, thus--just estimate; no cause; cause magnified.

Fear of hurt of self by outer things (fear for self): subst.i.tute reason, thus--just estimate; no cause; cause magnified.

Fear of threat by things: subst.i.tute reason, thus--right cause; no cause; cause magnified.

Threat by others: subst.i.tute reason, thus--right cause; no cause; cause magnified.

Threat to others: subst.i.tute reason, thus--right cause; no cause; cause magnified.

Threat by events: subst.i.tute reason, thus--right cause; no cause; cause magnified.

Threat by the future: subst.i.tute reason, thus--right cause; no cause; cause magnified.

You are invited to work out the particulars of this a.n.a.lysis, and to examine them with reference to your self and life. You will make some important discoveries. One of the many questions suggested is this: Is the cause of antic.i.p.ated possible consequences justly estimated in your thought--is it a right cause--is it really as you suppose? The idea is that you think of any one of your fears and then ask the question in the form just indicated. Thus we may have the following statement of

KINDS OF FEARS.

Fear of Self: timidity, lack of confidence, possible unaccountable states.

Fear for Self: weakness, antic.i.p.ated failure, imagined disgrace.

Fear of Things: animals, inanimate objects, physical forces.

Fear of Others: human beings, apparitions, devils, Deity.

Fear for Others: children, parents, husband, wife, relatives, friends, strangers.

Fear of Events: present, future, imaginary, possible, probable, contingent.

Fear of the Future: in life; beyond the present life.

Instinct and reason strive to place us in right relations with all these causes. The existence in us of fear shows that we already are, either in mind or in fact, in wrong relations therewith.

The mastery of fear involves the discovery of right relations, mental or concrete, and the placing of self in those right conditions which are determined and provided for by the ground- plan of our nature.

And the first thing thus provided for is health. All treatment for the conquest of our universal enemy must begin with development of individual tone: tone of body, tone of mind, tone of the deeper self.

I am not writing for those who are const.i.tutionally fearless, but I have in mind all who do yield to the feeling of fear. Our ideal, however, is not a mere animal courage, not the courage of insensibility. It is rather the courage of the whole man or woman making for the WHITE LIFE. If you are only partially yourself, you cannot possess the highest courage. Such courage may be yours, infallibly, if you will but resolve for the goal and go on into the great ideals of the harmonic personality. This you can do-- anyone can do. And to come thereto is the greatest thing in the world.

You are invited, then, to begin by subst.i.tuting in your thought the idea of self-preserving reason for any kind of fear (even the so-called normal) as your perpetual guard and guide. Make it a profound conviction of your deepest self that no real harm can come to that self because you have entered the highway of the WHITE LIFE--THE LIFE OF PURITY, REASON, HONOR, GOOD-WILL, AND CONFIDENT a.s.sURANCE. Swing your life into the unfolding and infolding of the Infinite White Life of Worlds. Courage will become to you the very breath of your lungs.

I send you this sure message: Fear is dead In all the pure, by reason's wisdom led, Who wear white honor and evince good-will, And trust the self to Love's unfailing skill.

I send you this sure message: Courage lives When man to Courage all a.s.surance gives.

THE SOUL OF THE CELL.

This crystal of Quartz,--the queen of its tribe, Amethyst, Onyx, Chalcedony, Heliotrope, Agate,-- Some toiler of old j.a.pan, the Artist fantastic, Has polished to likeness of ice, Ruining form to reveal it Fleche d'Amour That the marvelous, delicate, hairlike inclosures Of crystallizations foreign might please the beholder.

Herein worked the Infinite well, And, let us say, too, the artisan patient, To one limit--significant boundary!

HEALTH!

I request you to define it--configure the wonder Of this dust-common, beneficent Gift.

Who lacks it, he knows quite precisely his want; Who has it divulges precisely the thing.

Yet never man--scientist, poet, physician-- In words can portray it--the Soul of the Cell,

THAT lurks only in spheres of the Substance of Life; Fares past the quartz and hides in the throat of the wearer.

Shuns diamond glory for greater of flesh; Builds higher and higher to balance unstable In beauty of male and in exquisite female, And sends through the intricate meshwork of cells-- Sheer matter, kin of this quartz-- Its evidence: light-hue, radiance crimson, Eye-gleam, pulse-throb, vigor and nerve-thrill Of just that common, miraculous Gift, HEALTH of a body wherein dwells soul.

THERE, say I, the Infinite worked well!

Come now to YOU the artisan's skill for this marvel, Physical man: to refine and enn.o.ble; To reveal the inclosure of spirit unmarred, And grow in the mobile, responsive flesh Mind perfect, held fast in OUR Crystal superb, The Universe complete.

--THE AUTHOR.

CHAPTER III.

PHYSICAL TONE.

"In the healthy body every cell is polarized in subjection to the Central Will. Perfect health, therefore, is orderly obedience, government and harmony. Every cell is a living ent.i.ty, whether of vegetable or animal potency, and wherever disease is, there are disunion, error, rebellion and insubordination; and the deeper the seat of the confusion, the more dangerous the malady and the harder to quell it."--J. C. Street.

The thought of the above quotation does not mean that the insubordination is necessarily conscious to the diseased individual, but that it surely obtains within the physical arena of his life. Because it is not the outcome of his deliberate choice, the case is not hopeless in the nature of things, but is open to better conditions. The deeper self which has intended no rebellion against the laws of bodily well-being may now distinctly intend harmony, and so lift the body to a higher plane.

And the last sentence in the quotation does not mean that you are to undertake a vast amount of hard work, a.s.suming that you are not in perfect physical condition. You are, rather, just to begin and go on thinking yourself in a real way as in harmony with the Central Will, which is our White Life, and to hold steadfastly in the deeper self the ideas, Affirmation and Realization of Splendid Personal Tone.

Some of the meanings of these powerful words will be unfolded later, In the meantime, as all things are subject to law, let us observe a number of the general conditions to three-fold health, that of body, mind and the inner self, regarding their totality as the atmosphere, so to speak, in which courage most easily and perfectly thrives.

Fear in man is a result of repeated suggestion, to which low health-tone is a natural invitation. Health is the primary tonic against fear. Perfect physical health is mere strength. Perfect mental health is mere brain sanity. Perfect soul-health is the whole of the man at his best. When the body is buoyant, the mind clear and inspired, the soul harmonic with all existence rightly in the universe, then is the impulse of fear easily mastered and the habit of fear finds no encouragement. There are, indeed, courageous invalids who have not come into the secret of right thought so far as health is concerned, and fearing atheltes and scholars who have neglected the secret of courage, and timorous saints who have failed to possess themselves of the confidence of goodness. Nevertheless, the eternal law is evident that the one great enemy of fear is

The White Life in Harmonic Mind in Buoyant Body.

A person who affirms and realizes these conditions must, in the nature of things, be possessed of perfect health. In the tone of such health courage is inevitable.

That you may come to this ideal, you are invited to observe the following instructions. Health is a trinity, and we may begin our studies with its natural basis: