Nuggets of the New Thought. Atkinson William Walker
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you learn to love the sunshine and look forward to seeing it always, you seem to draw it to you. The Law of Attraction brings to you your share of the sunshine with which the world is plentifully supplied. And, if you fall into the habit of looking for and expecting the shadow, the shadow will always be found.
It is astonishing what a change the Mental Attitude of the person will make. Change your Mental Attitude, and the whole world seems to change. It is like taking off the smoked glasses that have caused the world to seem dark and gloomy, and seeing the brightness and colors of the world.
Many of you have been making dark dungeons of your minds. You have steadily shut out the sun, and your minds have become musty, damp and mildewed. Across the floor crawl noxious creatures. The slimy form of Fear drags itself slowly along, leaving its track behind; the hideous shape of Jealousy eyes you from one corner – a creature of darkness; the venomous reptile Hate shows its fangs; the vampire Worry flits across the chamber. Fearful shapes are there glowering in the darkness – frightful forms crouch in corners and recesses. All is gloom, darkness, horror. A fit breeding place for the foul creatures who fear the light – a fit nursery for monsters. Look within the dark chambers of your mind – see what it really is – see what it generates. Look within – look within. Ah, you see at last. No wonder you shriek with terror – no wonder you turn away with horror. No, no, do not turn away – look and see yourself as you are. You need the lesson. Now that you see what you have been carrying around with you, and are sickened at the sight, start to work to remedy the evil. Throw wide open the doors; throw open the windows of the soul.
Ah, yes, never fear, there is plenty of sunshine in the Universe. Plenty for all of you. There is an infinite supply. Draw it to you. Take it freely. It is there for you. It is your own – your very own. It is as free as air and the material sunshine. There is no tariff on it. It is not controlled by any trust or combine. It is not adulterated. It is everywhere, everywhere. Ho! ye who are dwelling in darkness! Here is Life and Happiness for you! Here is Peace for you! Here is Joy for you! Joy, comrades, Joy! Open wide your windows; open wide your doors.
Yes, yes! I hear you say that you cannot dispel the gloom with which you are surrounded. Nonsense. Do you not know that darkness is not a positive thing – it is the essence of negation. It is not a real thing at all – it is merely the absence of light. And here you have been for all these years, believing that the darkness was a real thing that you could not get rid of. Just stop for a moment and think. If a room in your house is dark and gloomy, do you hire a man to shovel out the darkness – do you attempt to do it yourself in your desire for light? No, no, of course you do not. You just raise the shades, and throw open the shutters and the sunshine pours in and lo! the darkness has vanished. So it is with the gloom of the soul, the darkness of the mind. It is a waste of energy to attempt to dig away the darkness – to cast out the shadows. You'll never get light in that way. All that you need to do is to recognize the advantage of light – the fact that light is to be had – that there is plenty of it anxiously waiting to be let in. Then all that you need to do is to
"Let a little sunshine in;
Let a little sunshine in;
Open wide the windows,
Open wide the doors,
And let a little sunshine in."
THE HUNGER OF THE SOUL
The soul, as well as the body and mind, requires nourishment – The want, a promise of the fulfillment – The law of unfoldment – Nourishment provided when it is needed – Provided for in the Divine Plan – The feast of good things.
The Soul, as well as the body and the mind, requires nourishment. We have felt that hunger for spiritual knowledge which transcended our hunger for bread – exceeded our craving for mental sustenance. We have felt soul-hungry and knew not with what to appease it. The Soul has cried out for food. It has been fed upon the husks of the physical plane for so long that it is fairly starving for the proper nourishment. It seeks this way and that way for the Bread of Life and finds it not. It has asked this authority and that authority for information as to where this food may be had – where could be obtained the food that would nourish the Soul – but it has been given nothing but the stone of Dogma and Creeds. At last it sank exhausted and felt that perhaps there was no bread to be had. It has felt faint and weary and almost believed that all was a delusion and a will-o'-the-wisp of the mind – that there was no reality to it. It felt the chill of despair creeping over it and all seemed lost.
But we must not lose sight of the fact that just as the hunger of the body implies that somewhere in the world is to be found that which will satisfy it – that just as the hunger of the mind implies that somewhere is to be found mental nourishment – so the mere fact that this soul-hunger exists is a proof that somewhere there is to be found that which the Absolute has intended to satisfy it. The want is the prophecy of the fulfillment. Yes, and the want and its recognition afford the means of obtaining that which will satisfy the want. When, in the course of unfoldment either on the physical, mental or spiritual plane, it becomes necessary for the well-being of the unfolding Ego to draw to itself certain things which it requires in the process of evolution, the first step toward the obtaining of that necessary thing is the consciousness of a great and pressing want – the birth of a strong desire. And then the desire grows stronger and stronger, until the Ego becomes desperate and determines to obtain the necessary thing at any cost. The obtaining of that thing becomes the prime object in life. Students of evolution realize this fact perhaps more than the rest of us. The subconsciousness of the plant or animal becomes surcharged with this great desire, and all the conscious and subconscious power of the living thing is put forth to obtain that which is necessary for its development.
And on the mental plane the same thing is true. The hunger for knowledge, when it once possesses a man, will cause him to cut loose from old environments, surroundings and everything else which has held him, and he forces himself to the place where that knowledge may be obtained – and he obtains it. If he only wants it hard enough he gets it. When we think of Lincoln in his boyhood days, painfully and laboriously striving for knowledge, lying on his side before the log fire and reading his book by the light of its flames – and this after a hard day's work such as only the boy on the farm knows – when we think of this we may understand the effects of a strong desire possessing the mind of man or boy, woman or girl.
And this hunger for spiritual knowledge and growth, from whence comes it? When we understand the laws of spiritual unfoldment we begin to understand that the Ego is growing and developing – unfolding and casting off old worn-out sheaths. It is calling into operation new faculties – exploring new regions of the mind. In the super-conscious regions of the Soul are many faculties lying dormant, awaiting the evolutionary hour of manifestation along conscious lines. As the faculties approach the hour of birth into the new plane they manifest an uneasiness which is communicated to the subconscious and conscious planes of the mind, causing a restlessness and uneasiness which is quite disturbing to the individual in whom they are manifesting. There is a straining for expression – a reaching forward for development – a desire for growth which produces something akin to pain. All growth and development is accompanied by more or less pain. We speak of the beautiful growth of the plant – of the lily – and wish that we could grow as easily and as painlessly as it does. But we forget that all growth means a breaking down – a tearing away – as well as a building up and adding to. The lily's growth appears painless to us, but if we were endowed with keen enough vision – with clear enough sight – with a power enabling us to feel that which is going on within its organism, we would be made aware that there is a constant change going on – a tearing down of tissue, a using up of cells, a pressing upon and breaking through of confining sheaths – all meaning growth, development and unfoldment. We see only the birth of the new parts and lose sight of the pain and destruction preceding it. All through life is manifested the "growing pains" of development. All birth is attended with pain.
And so it is with the birth into consciousness of these unfolding spiritual faculties. We feel an uneasiness, dissatisfaction, yea, even pain, as we strive to call into conscious