Paths To Power E-Book

Floyd B. Wilson

• Herausgeber: Andura Publishing
• Kategorie: Ratgeber
• Sprache: Englisch

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2020

Beschreibung

Experience the life-changing power of Floyd B. Wilson with this unforgettable book.

Leseprobe

Paths To Power

Floyd B. Wilson

THE purpose of the scholar today is to know how to use his own faculties. To such we can do no better than commend “Paths to Power,” by a most practical student in advanced thought, Hon. Floyd B. Wilson.

INTRODUCTION.

Few words are necessary, it seems to me, in presenting this little volume. The first seven papers may be considered as a series, each one following the other in a natural order of progression. The seventh the Assertion of the I completes the series. The other papers contain, to a certain extent, the application of the 7 principles of the philosophy presented.

Each student will need to make personal experiments, as I recognize that each one must modify, to some extent, the course I have followed, on account of his own temperament, environment and position in the cosmos. Many have been working and writing on similar lines; but they differ as to the discipline required to accomplish purpose. Herein I present a method that I have tested and proven to be practical.

A few of these articles have appeared in some of our monthly publications, and two or three have been read before the School of Philosophy and other societies in New York city during the past two years. All of these, however, have been recast, and the fourteen papers presented, although each is complete in itself, are parts of a whole.

New York City, September, 1901.

I – ONE’S ATMOSPHERE.

It is almost universally conceded that each one carries a certain atmosphere that may be felt by all who come in contact with him; but how that atmosphere is formed and held by each individual is an open question.

It is his nature (whatever that word may mean to the speaker), says one. Another, versed in astrology, knows that the stars, at the hour of birth, settled it all. Another has read the arguments in the books on heredity, and believes one may inherit spiritual qualities from father or mother or ancestors. A fourth reads history, and knows environment to be the sole cause. Yet a fifth, claiming to be wiser and broader-minded, believes in the stars, and fleshly ties, and environment, and education, as combining to create the atmosphere surrounding each one.

Accepting fully any of these theories, we must conclude that the individual is largely irresponsible. From him emanates what has been, by some of these forces, implanted within him. In short, a tide of circumstances first met him; and through his actions thereby forced was created the atmosphere that marks his individuality. If this were the truth the whole truth the subject would possess little of interest, and might be at once dismissed.

With our ideas of education, which we have been following and elaborating for centuries, the end has been to discipline the memory and to train the mind to generalizations and classifications that give the student information, poise, and judgment in lines dignified as intellectual.

With the experience gained by training students in language, mathematics, history, etc., progress has been made; so that, as the years go by, more and more (measuring by the bulk standard) is being added to the curriculum of the college. Classes being graduated today show greater proficiency in Latin, Greek, modern languages, mathematics, history, and so on, than classes on whose members degrees were conferred by the same college twenty-five years ago. Professors congratulate themselves on this, and promise in the near future even better things.

It is not the purpose of this paper to belittle or criticize this advance. In its way, it is well enough. A knowledge of Latin can be gained only by the study of Latin, and it is fortunate that the student can now make more rapid progress than formerly. Granting that the college method, in the subjects taught, leads the student as rapidly as he can safely progress in each one of them, still his real power in the world is given tangible expression by his atmosphere and what has college training had to do with that? College has its environment; the student remains within it for four or more years; its impress is not likely to be completely eradicated. Yet, if the student leave college holding any of the commonly cited theories to account for one’s atmosphere, he is simply adrift in the world of thought. Is there safe anchorage to be found? Let us see.

This subject of one’s atmosphere stands forth as a great is. It is a mighty reality. Though its creation may be surrounded with mystery, its existence is as real as the noon-day sun. We feel it everywhere in mingling with people; in some it attracts, and in others repels. Recognizing unfavorable atmosphere surrounding a friend or associate, attempts have been made to change it. As a rule, the result of such attempts has been a failure. What is worse, the great majority of the human family, while lamenting that their atmosphere is so-and-so, declare at the same time that they are powerless to change it.

This subject, therefore, has a charm more than sacred to every being; a charm reaching his innermost holy of holies. Let one declare repeatedly and openly as he may his inability to control his own atmosphere, his whole existence is full of proofs of his efforts to do that very thing. Taking a broad view, in the light of the new metaphysics, mingling the truths of the Eastern philosophy with the more vigorous mentality of the West, must there not be a demonstrable reason for these attempts to control? Why should the desire to change one’s atmosphere enter the mind, suggesting even discipline to that end, if there be no hope of its attainment? Does not the desire, coupled with the attempt to satisfy it, mean something?

Again, some have succeeded in their work. Do we not all of us know people whose atmosphere has been wholly changed? Have we not met them with surprise, feeling they were not our former friends, but reincarnations of them? How they succeeded has been vaguely told at best. The investigator listened to their story, but it did not bring conviction; so these experiences have brought little truth to the thinking world.

Where is the trouble? Is all real knowledge intuitional? Will the logic of intellect ever refuse light from that source? If so, we must recognize a higher guide than intellect to help us on these lines.

That the proposition may be clearly understood, it will be best to state it boldly. It is this: Man controls absolutely his own atmosphere. To prove this, we leave the logic of the schools. We must look within. We enter the throbbing silence of the intuitional. One cannot refuse to do so; because, in the statement of our proposition, it is self-evident that “man” cannot refer to the man as seen in the flesh. It is the great impersonality of one’s being; it is his ego; it is the unseeable; it is the eternal. “Man controls” means, then, that the true ego controls; and, primarily, if the true ego control, the true ego must have knowledge of such power.

Knowledge of power must precede the ability to use the power intelligently. If these simple, self-evident statements be true, how little does our conscious self know of the real self within! That, however, we may not stop to consider. The purpose of this paper is to lead the student to know his power, not to marvel why he has not known it before. It is true that many have learned of a seeming other self-hood to which they could appeal. They did not know the open way to the reservoir of wisdom within; they guessed, and, happily, guessed well. In this day of advanced thought, however, the student demands demonstration. Please note, in passing, that one might even have knowledge of his power and not exercise it. Knowledge of it gives courage, and yet all the work is to be done.

You may know you can learn Japanese, because of your acquaintance and discipline in other languages than the one first acquired at your mother’s knee; but such knowledge alone does not give you a mastery of even the simplest phrase in Japanese. Reasoning from past experiences in the study of language, you know what the result must be, with faithful work on your part, under the direction of a master in that tongue. All this reasoning is simple as to the learning of a language; now, how far does it help us in the demonstration attempted? If we can control nothing without knowledge of the power to control, this knowledge must precede the power.

From whom shall such knowledge be gained? We turn to Eastern philosophy, and read of, the marvels done, and being done, by the masters; and yet the story of their unfolding is unrevealed. We look about us here, and find some illustrious examples some noble victories won over conscious self by men who could only see and read the shining lights and signboards appearing to the eye of Hope above the limitless pathway of “I can.” But these men again are confusing and indefinite when attempting to tell the way. They may have some theories; but too often it seems they were led almost blindly. Nevertheless, that they won is something we must not overlook that.

It is evident from what I have herein presented that our proofs, if found at all, are to be found in the realm of the intuitional. How can one know that statements from the intuitional are truths? The conscious mind demands demonstration. May it not all be found somewhere in the history of progress? Let us note some conditions, states of mind, brought about by causes clearly understood. This may help us.

If ever you were in a railway accident where you suffered a severe shock, have you not noticed that for weeks and months thereafter, upon taking up a newspaper, your eye would quickly fall upon any item in it referring to a railway disaster of any nature whatever? It seemed to you that such occurrences were increasing, because you were always reading of them. Today, however, we know that your eye was directed to the paragraph by the action of the subconscious mind, from a motive in the nature of warning. The shock you had previously received made you for a moment absolutely still. At that instant, the subconscious mind became charged with the one thought of enlightening you, whenever it might, on that subject; hence, the seemingly unconscious action.

Here, then, we find a condition, a state of mind, an atmosphere, has been created. To overcome this atmosphere, one has only to charge the subconscious mind with thoughts of security and peace. This may be accomplished in divers ways; one of the simplest may be to sit alone fifteen minutes each day and hold the thought: “I AM under complete protection, and always safe”. Soon the sitter will  find the stories of accidents in the newspaper will no longer press themselves upon his attention. In the above case, the action which produced the condition was involuntary the action to change is voluntary and scientific.

Look over your list of friends for a moment, and select one whom you have known for years who never gives a complete, frank endorsement of another. Though he may speak of marked traits with praise, he invariably insists on adding qualifying phrases by way of criticism. Gradually you have observed that you could not come in his atmosphere without being treated to a budget of criticisms on others. These others might be your friends, or they might be public characters more or less well known. Your friend has learned to pride himself on his wonderful ability to discern faults quickly in those whom he may meet. Soon all his friends know what to expect when they come within his atmosphere. They also find that, within it, they are likely to supplement him on the same lines. They, too, become faultfinders. The effect of this on the principal, who created this atmosphere about himself, is to intensify his bitterness, till even they who once listened willingly, now withdraw from an atmosphere that has become too oppressive for them to breathe. No one would think it fair to lay this condition to “the stars,” or to “environment.”

There is hardly a reader who will not be able to recall the early life of at least one young man, whose childhood was spent in poverty, and who, in boyhood, expressed a firm desire to take a college course. If, a little later, that desire became a declared resolve, soon all the avenues opened to the end. That desire and resolve created an atmosphere which attracted the forces necessary to the attainment of the purpose. Many of these young men will tell us that, as long as they were hoping and striving and longing, mountains of difficulty rose before them; but that when they fashioned their hopes into fixed purposes, aid came unsought to help them on the way.

With a little reflection, illustrations will present themselves by the score to the reader as to some of the causes that may tend to produce this or that atmosphere. Our argument now forces the conclusion that the atmosphere about us is a product of thought. Thought makes it what it is, and thought alone can change it when it will. Though it be true that conditions are started as we have seen, sometimes without purpose of will, and sometimes by purpose half-conscious only, and sometimes by firm resolve, still, the bringing about of an atmosphere is always due to the active working of persistent thought. The atmosphere that marks strong individuality is universally conceded to be the product of the invisible emanation of thought centered on an idea.

Our proposition as to control, therefore, now reduces itself to this: If we know ourselves masters of our mental apparatus, we know we can control our thoughts and thus dictate our atmosphere.

It is, however, pertinent here to ask how it is our thoughts often seem to mark out their own course, regardless of our intentions. This assumption is only partly true; still, it is partly true. If one allows others to do his thinking, and is continually molding over his own thoughts so that they will run smoothly in the grooves that carry the thoughts of his friends, he brings confusion to his mental atmosphere; and he must not be surprised at the result. The mental work, being haphazard, may then produce an atmosphere neither contemplated nor desired. We can direct our thoughts if we will but we cannot direct them if we stop to question whether they are right. That we must know. Doubting disturbs the atmosphere about us to such an extent as to deprive it of all its attractive force to bring to us the thing we would. Fear or doubt is the mountain in our way; and there is no reason to harbor either in our thoughts for a single moment.

If, in silence, daily, we hold ourselves passive receptive for the particular good we most desire we open the way for the creation of the atmosphere that is sought. One must come to these sittings as nearly passive as possible; but, above all, free from doubt.

Let each one know this is the way, just as he knows the course he must pursue to learn a language. This is the way to catch glimpses of your true ego your great, impersonal and divine selfhood. Your mortal ego your everyday self is a product of thought. Allow it to be tossed about in the hurry and rush of business, receiving through the ethers the half expressed thoughts of others, and you have the average business man of the world. Control can never be gained without discipline. Your atmosphere, being a product of thought, must receive all its power and force through the creative energy that gives it existence.

If one knows, then, that thought creates atmosphere, and that each individual has the right and power to control his own thoughts, our proposition is proved. Work, in the silence, may be new to some. It seems hardly fair to call passiveness work; and yet work is our only word to signify the path to attainment. To many it will be found serious work to learn to hold themselves passive; so, in the silence, work. The moments spent in this way will do more to advance you to the end than any other thing you can do.

If you have never held yourself thoughtless silent know that others have done so. Knowing this, know also that what man has done, man can do again. Believing this, one may commence his task, and alone, in the silence, wait wait wait, until he knows.

Then, as knowledge comes, he finds himself attracting through vibrations new forces to his aid. These silent, mysterious, but potent, forces from the Infinite could not reach him before. Now, he has created an atmosphere which permits their entrance within it. They will never desert him if only he keeps his atmosphere true. No great willpower is required to produce the atmosphere one desires, or to keep it thereafter. Willingness that it may come, with the faith and trust that always precede works, is the simple guide. The illumination that follows will be proportioned to the broadness of the work attempted. As one learns more and more of the power of his true ego, he will come to know more and more of the unity of life. Then he will not have conquered self. He will have simply become acquainted with his own divine selfhood.

II – GROWTH.

Growth is a word of vast meaning and significance. Broadly, we speak of mental and physical growths. Each may pertain, as a whole, to the mind or to the body, in general, or to special lines on which development of mind or body is sought. When we speak of the growth of thought, we are considering the mental up-reaching to a comprehension of truth. There are other mental growths. One may, by force of will, discipline the thought-center to grasp the niceties in the construction of language, to acquire a fine appreciation of the exactness of mathematical laws, and so on. This student work is good mental-gymnastics if conducted rightly, and may prepare one for higher perceptions, for true spiritual growth. At the same time, this discipline may be carried on in such a way as to becloud intellect, and so fetter unfoldment.

To understand the laws of real mental growth, one must remember that the mind is the spiritual nature whose primary function is intuitive perception. Though the term mind is often used vaguely I shall, in this paper, use it only in its essential sense as the higher element of the soul.

True growth of the mind herein referred to is not brought about by storing in it historical facts. The growth which we seek is beyond the usual teachings. It is rather a freeing of the mind from material fetters so it may act for itself. It is the uncovering and bringing to light of knowledge already possessed. For ages this has been the problem of the Yogi. If one has a true conception of man and of creative force, and the unity that binds and holds them one, his next step is to bring himself into the harmonious vibrations that bind all, as the vibrations between the atoms of wood and stone bind their particles together; then, the universe of power is his.

Assuming the student has fairly grasped the meaning of the oneness in life, he next, before putting himself into harmony with all vibrative force, must recognize that vibrations pass through ethers, and in the ethers individual atmospheres are formed and held. His first discipline is to make his atmosphere right; then, and then only, are harmonious vibrations possible from him to the infinite source of power, and from the infinite source of power to him.

Claudius, Hamlet’s uncle, knelt in prayer, as the dramatist tells us; but, from his kneeling posture he arose with:

“My words fly up, ray thoughts remain below;

Words without thoughts never to heaven go.”

His atmosphere of guilt cut him off from, and prevented his connection with, the harmonious vibrations of infinite force.

In the battle of Chancellorsville, the great Confederate general Stonewall Jackson’s atmosphere became disturbed. His connection with the infinite was broken, I claim, and he, the idol of the Southern army, whose power over his soldiers had been magical, and whose fearlessness in battle had carried him safely through tempests of bullets, fell, never to rise again in the material body as a leader of earth’s forces on the fields of war.

Jesus stood before Pontius Pilate, as I read the history, a failure. How the atmosphere of him, the most powerful of psychics of ancient or modern times, became disturbed, one may not know. It may have been caused by the repetition of the words, “Unless I go away, the Comforter will not come to you.” I do not know the cause; but I do claim to know that a disturbing force did affect the ethers about him, the Master. He recognized this, and knew the vibrations of harmony between him and Infinity had been broken, as the atoms of wood recognize the foreign force that cleaves them in twain; and afterward following this, broke forth his first and only lamentation, “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?”

With these familiar illustrations before us, it seems to me that the logic of the philosophy I present will be understood; and, if accepted, we are ready to enter upon its consideration, to learn how we may apply it to assist our own spiritual growth or unfoldment.

The power to be gained by sitting in the silence, by absolute passiveness, by concentration, has been told a thousand times. Hours for concentration and helps to concentration have been themes for the teachers’ discourse over and over again. Every earnest seeker for truth finds, in his own unfoldment, something to reveal. Knowing, as I do, that only “in the silence “ is real growth possible, I am about to present herein some ways to reach the elementary or primary condition when one may go “in the silence” understandingly, and bring from it the knowledge he would.

I will here assume that the seeker has broken from the theological dogma of ignorance, superstition and fear; that he has forever blotted out from belief the possibility of there being a personal God, sitting in a material heaven on a material throne, welcoming good immaterial souls to this material heaven and, with equal justice, sending other immaterial souls to a material hell. What could a material heaven or a material hell hold of joy or fear to the immaterial soul?

Growth is impossible with such conceptions of Being with such ideas of possible material future dwelling-places for disembodied souls. Intelligence is fast burying this rubbish of out worn theological beliefs in unmarked graves beyond the possibility of resurrection.

Assuming, then, that you have awakened, or have never been enthralled in that nightmare of ignorance, and that God, or Being, means to you, above all, Intelligence; that within this Intelligence is substance the creative force of the universe; that you are one with that creative force; that you are an atom, if you please, in its composition then, can you not understand why it is your right and privilege to come into harmonious vibrations with all the other atoms, with the absolute creative force of the universe? This being your birthright, you want what is yours. God gave man dominion over all the earth. You are on the earth; you are man.

Do you not now understand? You are seeking only what Creative Intelligence gave you ages and ages ago. You are not seeking what does not belong to you, nor what it is impossible for you to gain except by payment of wearisome labor. No; you are only asking to know how to take the Almighty’s free gift to you. Fully recognizing this, let me lead you, if I may, to the treasures all your own. Not yours only, but mine. The way is “a strait and narrow one,” but it is open to all. If, then, you know your birthright your oneness with God your way to possession is, as I tersely put it in my very introduction, through vibrations, and these become magical with power when one’s atmosphere is made attractive and the channel of faith laid open.

Having attained a true concept of Being, and our relations to the great Impersonal It of the Universe, we are ready to enter upon the study of atmosphere. The atmosphere surrounding us was not placed there by our parents. We must drop all belief in the possibility of inheriting spiritual qualities. We may give the stars their fair share of credit without making them our prison-keepers as to atmosphere. We, being one with God, and having dominion over all things, must not bow to heredity or to the influence of the stars. “We cannot recognize any master, for, in doing so, we would, in our first statement, be repeating idle words and not appropriating the mighty truth they express. Our atmosphere then, marking our own individuality, may have become very unwholesome through our non­-recognition of the truth. Though that may be so, it is in our power to make it what we would.

Now, the ways: From our true selfhood springs the desire of the hour, the desire of the month or year, the desire of our life. Let it be, for illustration, the recognition of a desire to master the thought and purpose of the poet, Browning. To do this you must bring yourself into harmony with the vibrations from the Infinite that thrilled the intelligence of Browning as he wrote. How will you accomplish this?

First, if my argument is correct, you must fix your atmosphere you must Browningize it. Select an hour for the daily reading of Browning’s poems, first giving attention to the study of his life, by his best biographers. In the study of his life, pay special attention to the order in which he wrote his poems as far as you can, group them into periods that mark his literary growth. You will soon find that this particular hour in the day or night will have a sacredness. It will be a dedication of that time to the thought of Browning. Head no commentaries on Browning study no criticism on his works. You are seeking guidance from a higher source. You may, and will, carry more or less in your daily work, whatever it may be, your Browning atmosphere. However, try to overcome that during the other hours of the day you may and should (as far as possible) lay aside all mental debates that arise during these hour sittings. Leave them to be taken up on the following day. Within a few weeks you will have finished the drudgery of your work; and, at that hour each day, you will find new beauties in these poems. Sitting in the same chair, in the same room, and at the same hour each day, with mind resting on his thought, you will have found a new atmosphere, and that new atmosphere will be congenial to poetic inspiration on the lines that Browning found.