I finished it! I’ve been reading this book for a long time. It was a present from my husband, but not from last birthday or Christmas. Sometime before that. It’s a small volume, and the only reason I took so long to finish it is that I would read a chapter and need to think about it for a while. Then other books were lots more compelling. So it often sat on the shelf with a bookmark in it. But I never stopped, and last week I got done.
This book is amazing. It is written by James Allen who wrote a whole book on, “As a man thinketh in his heart, so is he.” He has written 19 books in total. This is actually not one of his works, it is a compilation from all his other books. It is wonderfully put together. The main message of the book is to seek higher Truth and try to be good people: we do so by controlling our thoughts. When I was reading it, I would feel my soul being drawn up to a higher plane of thinking. I would stop making excuses for all my faults and just want to be better. And I also had complete confidence that I could.
He mentioned at one time that when we start trying to live a higher life, it’s hard at first. It’s the same as learning any other thing like learning to play a musical instrument. But as we practice it gets easier. Righteous correct living can get easy, but it certainly doesn’t start out that way: like anything we need to practice. I try to remember that when I’m improving some aspect of my life.
Another thing he mentioned a lot was meditation. Not the sit in a cross-legged position and hummm while focusing on the image of a tree. Preferably in the wee hours of the morning under open skies (is that not the most meditative setting?) you concentrate on some aspect of Truth and righteous living. You draw your thoughts up to eternal Truth. I do this a little, trying to wake up before the rest of my family and study the scriptures and think. It is the best part of my day.
