The Prosperity & Wealth Bible. Kahlil Gibran
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All riches have their origin in Mind. Wealth is in ideas — not money. Money is merely the material medium of exchange for ideas. The paper money in your pockets is in itself worth no more than so many Russian rubles. It is the idea behind it that gives it value. Factory buildings, machinery, materials, are in themselves worthless without a manufacturing or a selling idea behind them. How often you see a factory fall to pieces, the machinery rusts away, after the idea behind them gave out. Factories, machines, are simply the tools of trade. It is the idea behind them that makes them go.
So don’t go out a-seeking of wealth. Look within you for ideas! “The Kingdom of God is within you.” Use it — purposefully! Use it to THINK constructively. Don’t say you are thinking when all you are doing is exercising your faculty of memory. As Dumont says in “The Master Mind” — “They are simply allowing the stream of memory to flow through their field of consciousness, while the Ego stands on the banks and idly watches the passing waters of memory flow by. They call this ‘thinking’, while in reality there is no process of thought under way.”
They are like the old mountaineer sitting in the shade alongside his cabin. Asked what he did to pass the long hours away, he said — “Waal, sometimes I set and think; and sometimes I just set.”
Dumont goes on to say, in quoting another writer: “When I use the word ‘thinking,’ I mean thinking with a purpose, with an end in view, thinking to solve a problem. I mean the kind of thinking that is forced on us when we are deciding on a course to pursue, on a life work to take up perhaps; the kind of thinking that was forced upon us in our younger days when we had to find a solution to a problem in mathematics; or when we tackled psychology in college. I do not mean ‘thinking’ in snatches, or holding petty opinions on this subject and on that. I mean thought on significant questions, which lie outside the bounds of your narrow personal welfare. This is the kind of thinking which is now so rare — so sadly needed!”
The Kingdom of God is the Kingdom of Thought, of Achievement, of Health, of Happiness and Prosperity. “I came that ye might have life and have it more abundantly.”
But you have got to seek it. You have got to do more than ponder. You have got to think — to think constructively — to seek how you may discover new worlds, new methods, new needs. The greatest discoveries, you know, have arisen out of things, which everybody had seen, but only one man had NOTICED. The biggest fortunes have been made out of the opportunities, which many men had, but only one man GRASPED.
Why is it that so many millions of men and women go through life in poverty and misery, in sickness and despair? Why? Primarily because they make a reality of poverty through their fear of it. They visualize poverty, misery and disease, and thus bring them into being. And secondly, they cannot demonstrate the law of supply for the same reason that so many millions cannot solve the first problem in algebra. The solution is simple, but they have never been shown the method. They do not understand the law.
The essence of this law is that you must think abundance, see abundance, feel abundance, believe abundance. Let no thought of limitation enter your mind. There is no lawful desire of yours for which, as far as mind is concerned, there is not abundant satisfaction. And if you can visualize it in mind, you can realize it in your daily world.
“Blessed is the man whose delight is in the law of the Lord: And he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that bringeth forth his fruit in his season: his leaf also shall not wither; and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper.”
Don’t worry. Don’t doubt. Don’t dig up the seeds of prosperity and success to see whether they have sprouted. Have faith! Nourish your seeds with renewed desire. Keep before your mind’s eye the picture of the thing you want. BELIEVE IN IT! No matter if you seem to be in the clutch of misfortune, no matter if the future looks black and dreary — FORGET YOUR FEARS! Realize that the future is of your own making. There is no power that can keep you down but yourself. Set your goal. Forget the obstacles between. Forget the difficulties in the way. Keep only the goal before your mind’s eye — and you’ll win it!
Judge Troward, in his Edinburgh Lectures on Mental Science, shows the way:
The initial step, then, consists in determining to picture the Universal Mind as the ideal of all we could wish it to be, both to ourselves and to b others, together with the endeavor to reproduce this ideal, however imperfectly, in our own life; and this step having been taken, we can then cheerfully look upon it as our ever-present Friend, providing all good, guarding from all danger, and guiding us with all counsel. Similarly if we think of it as a great power devoted to supplying all our needs, we shall impress this character also upon it, and by the law of subjective mind, it will proceed to enact the part of that special providence which we have credited it with being; and if, beyond general care of our concerns, we would draw to ourselves some particular benefit, the same rule holds good of impressing our desire upon the universal subjective mind. And thus the deepest problems of philosophy bring us back to the old statement of the law: ‘Ask and ye shall receive; seek and ye shall find; knock and it shall be opened unto you.’ This is the summing-up of the natural law of the relation between the Divine Mind and us. It is thus no vain boast that mental science can enable us to makes our lives what we will. And to this law there is no limit. What it can do for us today it can do tomorrow, and through all that procession of tomorrows that loses itself in the dim vistas of eternity. Belief in limitation is the one and only thing that causes limitation, because we thus impress limitation upon the creative principle; and in proportion as we lay that belief aside, our boundaries will expand, and increasing life and more abundant blessing will be ours.”
You are not working for some firm merely for the pittance they pay you. You are part of the great scheme of things. And what you do has its bearing on the ultimate result. That being the case, you are working for Universal Mind, and Universal Mind is the most generous paymaster there is. Just remember that you can look to it for all good things. Supply is where you are and what you need.
Do you want a situation? Close your eyes and realize that somewhere is the position for which you of all people are best fitted, and which is best fitted to your ability. The position where you can do the utmost of good, and where life, in turn, offers the most to you. Realize that Universal Mind knows exactly where this position is, and that through your subconscious mind you, too, can know it. Realize that this is YOUR position, that it NEEDS you, that it belongs to you, that it is right for you to have it, that you are entitled to it. Hold this thought in mind every night for just a moment, then go to sleep knowing that your subconscious mind HAS the necessary information as to where this position is and how to get in touch with it. Mind you — not WILL have, but HAS. The earnest realization of this will bring that position to you, and you to it, as surely as the morrow will bring the sun. Make the law of supply operative and you find that the things you seek are seeking you.
Get firmly fixed in your own mind the definite conviction that you can do anything you greatly want to do. There is no such thing as lack of opportunity. There is no such thing as only one opportunity. You are subject to a law of boundless and perpetual opportunity, and you can enforce that law in your behalf just as widely as you need. Opportunity is infinite and ever present.
Berton Braley has it well expressed in his poem on “Opportunity”:
For the best verse hasn’t been rhymed yet,
The best house hasn’t been planned,
The highest peak hasn’t been climbed yet,
The mightiest rivers aren’t spanned;
Don’t worry and fret, faint hearted,
The chances have just begun,
For the Best jobs haven’t been started,
The Best work hasn’t been done.
Nothing stands in the way of a will, which wants — an intelligence, which knows. The great thing is to start. “Begin your work,” says Ausonius. “To begin is to complete the first half. The second half remains. Begin again and the work is done.” It