Wisdom Vault — onlinknow.co.za

that he can help it. Further, he will find that intelligence and will are instruments which can mold disposition to any extent, and that, too, with considerable rapidity if one is in earnest. What is disposition but a habit formed by repeating the same thing over and over again?

Cease repeating (doing) the thing, and lo! the disposition is changed, the character is altered. To cease from an old habit of thought or action is, I know, difficult at first, but with each added effort the difficulty decreases, and finally disappears, and then the new and good habit is formed and the disposition is changed from bad to good, the character is ennobled, the mind is delivered from torment and is lifted into joy.

There is no need for anyone to remain the slave of a disposition which causes him unhappiness, and which he himself regards as undesirable. He can abandon it. He can break away from the slavery. He can deliver himself and be free. 13.

Light on Individual Liberty WITHIN THE SPHERE of his own mind man has all power, but in the sphere of other minds and outside things, his power is limited. He can command his own mind, but he cannot command the minds of others. He can choose what he shall think, but he cannot choose what others shall think.

He cannot control the weather as he wills, but he can control his mind, and decide what his mental attitude toward the weather shall be. A man can reform the dominion of his own mind, but he cannot reform the outer world because the outer world is composed of other minds having the same freedom of choice as himself.

A pure being cannot cleanse the heart of one less pure, but by his life of purity and by elucidating his experience in the attainment of purity, he can, as a teacher, act as a guide to others, and so enable them more readily and rapidly to purify themselves.

But even then those others have the power to decide whether they shall accept or reject such guidance, so complete is man’s choice. It is because of this dual truth—that man has no power in the realm of others’ minds and yet has all power over his own mind, that he cannot avoid the consequences of his own thoughts and acts.

Man is altogether powerless to alter or avert consequences, but he is altogether powerful in his choice of causative thought. Having chosen his thoughts, he must accept their full consequences. Having acted, he cannot escape the full results of his act.

Law reigns universally, and there is perfect individual liberty. A man can do as he likes, but all other men can also do as they like. A man has power to steal, but others have the power to protect themselves against the thief. Having sent out his thought, having acted his purpose, a man’s power over that thought and purpose is at an end.

The consequences are certain and cannot be escaped, and they will be of the nature of the thought and act which produced them—painful or blessed. Seeing that a man can think and do as he chooses, and that all others have the like liberty, a man has to learn, sooner or later, to reckon with other minds, and until he does this he will be ceaselessly involved in suffering.