Chapter 2 - How to Get What you Want

"Ye shall know the truth and the truth shall set you free."-St. John 8:32

Sage: If a thing is true, there is a definite way in which it is true. And the truest thing in Life is that it contains inherent within itself absolute joy and liberty of mind, body, and affairs.

Pupil: Do you mean that my understanding of life's laws can give me the realization of perfect liberty in my individual life:

Sage: Yes, providing you do not make the common error of judging everything from a material standpoint only. Recent research in physical science has established the fact that there is enough power in a lump of day to destroy a city. All the average mind is able to see is the inert clay, whereas, in reality, it is the physical instrument which contains the invisible power.

Pupil: Then when I understand the law of vibration, I can get anything I want; achieve anything I desire:

Sage: life fills all space, and through the understanding and use of Life's laws, you can give direction to a particular duality of creative force, which, if held in place by the will, is absolutely certain to reproduce in a corresponding physical form. What every human being wants is more liberty and more joy in life. From whatever angle you study the subject of life, you will find that degrees of livingness and liberty are invariably manifested by varying degrees of intelligence. What you would term inanimate life represents the lower forms of intelligence; in plant life you recognize a higher degree of intelligence. To illustrate this, look at a flower. Is it not beautiful? Does it not prove to you the indisputable presence of a Great Intelligence which is expressing itself as beauty, form, and color, and above all, joy:

Pupil: Yes.

Sage: Still you will not find it difficult to recognize in the animal kingdom a quality of life and Intelligence which is greatly in advance of that manifested in the flower. Then the intelligence which expresses itself in the mind of man as the power of initiative and selection is the highest expression of Intelligent Life. Thus you see that the inanimate, the plant, the animal, and the human all represent the same Universal Life, the only difference being in the vary* degrees of intelligence. For example: You are expressing a very high degree of intelligence in desiring to understand the laws of Life. When you have discovered some part of these laws, you will ascend the scale of intelligence as you make practical application of your discoveries. Another example: Two men leave college with the same degrees and situated very similarly relative to social and financial position. Both study the laws of Mind; both are obliged to struggle. One, by making a great mental effort, keeps mentally above the discouraging conditions, and finally becomes a smooth read, which the other one becomes disheartened and ill, barely eking out a miserable existence. You can readily see where the high form of intelligence was manifested in these two cases. Intelligence was there, but it could only grow by being used constructively.