In the following address from SACBW’s annual national congress and gala dinner hosted on 13 September 2013, inspirational speaker and writer, Luisa Rodrigues, shared her insights on thinking right and setting your mind to succeed.
Imagine the brightest of sunny days, the bluest of soft warm skies as a brilliant sun looks down upon a group of men gathered about a wondrous man with glorious love in his tender eyes as he bends above them to impress his words upon their hearts—
AS YOU THINK IN YOUR HEARTS, SO ARE YOU—
AS YOU THINK, AS YOU THINK IN YOUR HEARTS.
And while hundreds of years have passed into infinite memories since that sweet sunny day—although hundreds of teachers have said again,
AS YOU THINK IN YOUR HEART, SO ARE YOU—
The day has yet to arrive when we know that it is true and that we truly become whatever we think in our hearts.
AS YOU THINK, AS YOU THINK IN YOUR HEARTS.
Thought is the causative power, words and deeds are the fruit of our thinking.
All that you are now is the result of your beliefs; every action and word shows what you believe and hold in your mind.
When we think within our own right angle of vision, and when we hold steady that position in the right angle of our life, we attract to ourselves all that is good in universal life.
That is all that is necessary for us to extend the boundaries of what we believe to be possible.
We are submerged in the anguish of unbelief.
We have no right to be sick.
We have no right to be poor.
We have no right to be unhappy.
Fear attracts to us anything upon which we centre our attention; the thing we fear comes upon us.
Fear is the opposite pole of faith; faith is the force to use in dissolving the confusion generated by fear.
Never give up thinking in the possibility of having that which you desire. Increase your belief in the possibility of all good things being now manifest. No matter how great your faith may seem to be, make it a little greater, and then look out that your words and actions are consistent with what you are determined to believe.
Measure yourself by the quality of your thought; by the strength of your desire; by the purity of your love, and by the accuracy of your selection. You become what you think; you do as you desire; you have what you manifest your life as you select.
In ancient times, the disciple who was instructed into the arcana of Egyptian magic was told at a certain stage in his development how to accomplish his wishes and do wonder works by pronouncing two little words—IT IS.
To every true and good wish of your heart, say—IT IS.
Thought is our material; it is our capital, and it is our privilege to do what we will to do with our own capital.
Our faith must be such that it can’t be moved by appearances, and it must persist when impossibilities seem to face us. Put away all doubt, all distrust, all discouragement; recognise your power, qualify in truth, desire to do good, love God’s treasures, select good in your life, and you will find yourself steadily and surely becoming master of your thought, and, in that vital mastery, you uplift yourself and our entire race.
It rests entirely with you and me what quality of thought energy we’ll entertain, and we become what our thoughts represent.
All accomplishment comes, first, by attracting the thought energy with discrimination; second, by assimilating it in love; third, by expending it wisely.
It is our privilege, yours and mine, to learn to think coherently, and to form our own point of view, our own angle, concerning the things which relate to the mastery and reconstruction of our conditions.
Thought is mind in action. We can’t understand or live coherently apart from mind; it is the medium of all present consciousness of being and of action.
Every thought which we attract, and assimilate, and send out, carries with it a suggestion, and whoever or whatever is of its quality, is on the line of that suggestion.
The tongue that can decree effectually never voices an evil wish. Its words are on the good, the beautiful, and the true. It does not describe disease, for the tongue of the wise is health.
When you decree your good, begin to conduct yourself in speech, and action, as though you had already received it, and it was apparent to the eyes of all.
For your word of decree is just like a seed which you have put into the ground, and all that you need to do is to keep it from being trampled upon by doubts and fears and to see that the sun and dew of an active faith nourish it until it should come to fruition.
When we grow greater than our problem, stronger than our burden, through the greatness of our wisdom, and the strength of our love, all confusion dissolves, because in the dynamic action of love, and wisdom in co-operation, nothing destructive can possibly endure.
Thinking constructively means thinking always uplifting thoughts concerning yourself and everybody else; it means realising the love nature and the love quality of every living creature.
Thinking constructively is not thinking spasmodically, with a love thought one moment and a fear thought the next—with a thought of hope, and divine intention today, and a fall into despair tomorrow—that process of mind action is very confusing because, being uncertain, the result is unexpected and unequal to the mental atmospheric conditions, and conflict follows.
You are God’s Living Decree of Good to this world.
Let your light shine.
In the recognition, and the realisation of the good, and only the good in all intelligent action, we appreciate and respect ourselves, which is a potent healing force, and a spiritual stimulant for all of our life’s intention.
So long as we believe that we cannot control our thoughts, or that we must think what other people have thought, and found suitable for them, so long we’ll be unable to control our life conditions. It is for us to think what we will to think and then we’ll do what we intend to do.
It is wise, it is practical, indeed it is essential, that we always think good of ourselves; in the first place, it is the only way we can think good of other folk; also, it relates the atoms of our physical body to strength, because we breathe into our body the thoughts which we select to entertain.
Sometimes we select to entertain thoughts, which act like a great stupefying force, and which result in arrested development; we have an unequal or unbalanced condition which weakens our body or purse.
Think that there is such mighty abundance in the universe that there is always the supply to meet every demand, and if you strengthen your demand, naturally, the supply strengthens, and increases in abundance—marvellous abundance—and freedom, and fullness, in and of every requirement conceivable to your mind.
Hold fast to the idea of your own greatness, and cling with the faith of eternity that you are a shine with the light of truth; you are a flame with the glow of health; you are enriched with divine abundance, and no lesser thought will come between you and your faith in yourself.
Do you think any sort of poverty—of the body or the mind or the purse—can exist long in an atmosphere created by such a vitalised dynamic thought as that?
When we know the truth of a fact or a condition—don’t only believe it, but actually know it—also know how to meet it, and, if necessary, how to overcome it.
Decree that you’ll manifest health, and abundance, on each and every plane of your being; begin immediately to think abundantly.
We glory in the treasures in our Father’s house, in our home; we glory in the many mansions, in our especial mansion, and we claim our birthright of health, and of prosperity, of beauty, and of joy. We dwell continually in the consciousness of being the Sons and Daughters of the Highest, and whatever we wish we bring to pass, by pronouncing the magical words—
IT IS.
Declare your own path in freedom, and remember always, and always, whatever the need, whatever the response, there is only fulfilment.
Consciously recharge your positive reconstructive energy and declare —
I have learned that when I am kind to life that life is kind to me.
I have learned that the responsibility of my life is to give all that I have, and all that I am, and all that I know, freely and unreservedly to those who need it, with no thought of result, and no expectation of reward.
I have learned that when I do the very best I know at all times, and in all ways, that the greatest things I am capable of knowing are added unto me.
I have learned these facts by accepting the privilege of my human individuality and using my common sense.
Fear is our great limitation; we are afraid of each other because we are afraid of ourselves and in our fear emotion, we demagnetise our bodies and every condition which concerns our part of life.
Common sense comes to the rescue, and says, there is absolutely nothing to fear; in its balanced light, we steady our mind and balance ourselves in a common-sense spirituality where we can abide, and strengthen our capacity for attracting and assimilating the infinite good which we claim.
And, by so doing, we create harmony; and happiness results, but happiness is not hysterical fun— neither does it result from emotion of any kind; it is consistent, and enduring harmony, made manifest in daily living.
It is common sense to live because you love to live.
It is common sense to work because you love to work, and to play, for the reason that your life, and your work, and your play, are only successful in the love vibration.
It is common sense to pray to your heavenly Father that you may abide in togetherness with Him, where life itself becomes one glorious revelation of His love.
Life is not a joke and we aren’t here only to have fun—we are here to bring our part of life to the highest form of its expression, which we have selected, and which we have the capacity to meet, and it is our duty to constantly and consistently strengthen our capacity.
So long as we believe that we cannot control our thoughts, so long we’ll be unable to control our life conditions.
It rests entirely with us what quality of thought energy we’ll entertain. We attract thoughts which are responsive to our own quality, but we don’t need to retain or entertain any form of universal energy which is not responsive to our will.
We become the thing concerning which we think, and which we breathe into ourselves; we may be whatever we desire to be, we may live the life we select, we may have what our love demands— if we will only be true to ourselves and think right.
It is for you to turn the light into your own consciousness, decide for your own good, and let no human opinion swerve you from that which you know is your own.
It requires mental effort to change one’s viewpoint; it might change one’s relation to life, and few are willing to think for themselves; it is much easier to have someone else solve our problems, and to go along life’s pathway in the same rut other rut-lovers have.
The fact is that it is stupid to live a life of negative intention—in other words, to be resigned to poverty and failure. The world needs thinkers, people who dare to view life from their angle in the universe, and who have the strength to live their life in line with their vision of truth.
It is for you to think what you will to think, and then you will do what you intend to do.
Everyone has the attributes of freedom; we can think, and we can act, we can love, and we can learn, we can sow, and we can reap, we can direct our own life action, and what Paul says, or what the king does, has nothing whatever to do with you or with me.
The constructive thinker is he who is the healer, and the man who lives because he loves to live, and who sees joy in his daily work, is doing the healing and the saving work for himself, and for everyone around him, because his intention is always good.
There is absolutely nothing to fear except your own delusion; there is no such thing as THEY SAY. People are not nearly so interested in our affairs as we seem to think, and when we are true to ourselves, we soon become true to everybody else, and then we find ourselves loving everybody, and when we really love other people, there is no question about their loving us, and when people love us, they love the things we do.
We cannot escape the truth that everything in our lives rests entirely in our own hands; if we are not supreme in our own dominion, and if we suffer, it is because we are not masters of that realm which is our very own, and which we must eventually conquer.
We find ourselves walking along sorrowful lines many times because we fail to appreciate ourselves, and to give ourselves proper recognition; no-one can be happy, and do the good and beautiful thing unless he realises that he himself is good and beautiful.
When we are conscious of our strength on any plane, we live at the point of our highest realisation. If I know that I am clever, I will live up to that cleverness, as it were, and do the clever thing. On the contrary, if I have a belief that I am stupid, and that what I do is of no consequence, I will very soon live stupidly, and be stupid, because we attract exactly the sort of experience our quality demands, and we get out of it, just and justly, what our capacity permits.
Wise indeed is he who can answer the WHY of an inquiring child.
Why?
Because the child mind is direct—and he who becomes as a little child is seeking the direct truth without fear, and without limitation; the natural, normal child mind is not shadowed by fear and misunderstanding; it has not obscured its touch with the infinite mind by cramming its memory with non-essentials, or by trying to get ahead of its friends and companions. So the child mind is a very clear medium for his soul demand, and its questions are far more subtle than the supposedly wiser mind perceives.
Never fear that you won’t have the knowledge according to the strength of your desire, and never doubt that you will have the power, and the ability to express yourself according to your knowledge, for your strength comes according to the quality of your motive, and whether you express it in music, in oratory, in the domestic, or social, or commercial realm, or in any other form of art or science, the genius of you will reveal itself whenever and however you are ready and willing and awake to your own share in and of the God work.
Let us now decree that we will use our freedom by freeing ourselves, and we can’t be free in the bondage of pain and inharmony. So we are going to forgive, and to forget all of our past suffering and discord, and we’ll stop our habit of thinking at random, and allow other people’s thoughts to control us; instead, we’ll balance our minds, and so regulate our own thought energy.
Onward Brothers and Sisters—
The light is yonder, just beyond the fearline.
Only fear is to be feared, so move on out of its shadow into the light of your own faith, and in the joy of your own work, that you may be alive, and attuned to the goodness of your service. Forgive your yesterdays; they have given strength and wisdom to your today. Release them, and let them go, that you may go forward in the path of a more vitalised service for yourself, and for all else of God’s beautiful, living things, which need your faith, and your strength, and your love.
Lift up your eyes to the everlasting hills. Reach out your arms to the star of your highest aim, and sing the soul song of gladness that you are going forward in unity with life’s intention, and pray that your faith in its fulfilment may endure always.
WHOLE.
COSMIC.
COMPLETE.
AND SO IT IS.
