(Chapter 1 of C. W. Kyle’s – Concentration, the Key to Constructive Thought)
1. The Silence, The Source of Power
To be able to go into the Silence at will should be the aim of the student. Before one is enabled to do this, however, the control of the mind must be perfected. It requires that thinking shall have become a habit; a habit so fixed that one may, on the moment, become so concentrated that their every energy and attention may be given unreservedly to the subject in mind. This control is freedom. A freedom of action that shuts out sight and sound of the exterior world and holds the senses, by the power of concentration, with a firm grip, to the subject under consideration. For the free use of such power we should ever strive until attained.
Freedom! oh, what would this world be,
If Freedom sat upon the Heights!
To rule one’s self is to be free,
How few yet taste of her delights!
It is one thing to control the mind thus, and it is another and quite as important an achievement, to be able to hold the mind in a state of absolute quietness; to remain alert and not think; to be so profoundly stilled that no wayward thought of the lower mind may enter.
This is no metaphysical form of ideation, but, on the other hand, it is the highest, the most practical and desirable state the human consciousness may reach, where thoughts wholly apart and distinct from subjects one may have previously been considering, flash into the mind with a strength and clearness that sets them in a class by themselves. In this manner alone may the universal intelligence be contacted, and to lead men to this ultimate source of wisdom and power should our most ear nest efforts be put forth.
One of the master thinkers of the age just past, whose mental impress stamps itself indelibly upon the highest form of the civilization of the present, in speaking of this state of consciousness said: Any person who has made observations on the state and progress of the human mind, by observing his own, cannot but have observed that there are two distinct classes of what are called Thoughts; those that we produce in ourselves by reflection and the act of thinking, and those that bolt into the mind of their own accord. I have always made it a rule to treat those voluntary visitors with civility, taking care to examine, as well as I was able, if they were worth entertaining; and it is from them I have acquired almost all the knowledge that I have.”
To raise our consciousness to a plane where by reason of that which it has come to be, it attracts “voluntary visitors” from the higher planes of intelligence, is to make the most of our abilities, demonstrating as it does, the truth of the saying, “To him that hath more shall be given,” not as a favor, but because he has complied with the law governing the growth of consciousness.
Do you wish wisdom? Do you wish for health, for wealth, for happiness, for power, for peace, for love? Here is the only avenue open to you whereby you may obtain the actual realization of your desires. It is the one thing in all the whole world worth striving for, for in grasping this, in making sure of your connection with the Source of All, you are placed in possession of “Aladdin’s Lamp” and the “Philosopher’s Stone.” In other words, you have arrived.
There is nothing mysterious about this method of bringing the mind to function consciously within all of these separate states of consciousness . . separate only in the sense of an ever increasing realization of power. It is the plain, normal advancement of the intellect, absolutely sane, and in the most exacting sense scientific. You may come to know it for yourself; to realize in the most practical way the truth of it, and to receive and enjoy for yourself all of the inestimable powers and benefits this mastership of mind confers. It is all you can ever wish for or expect in the human consciousness. It is not difficult of attainment, if you determine to possess yourself of it. It requires the exercise of all your common sense in a concentrated degree, for it includes thinking, expressing and living your highest conceptions of truth.
Nothing wants you unless you first want it. You attract what you are. If you want anything you must, in essence, become that thing, when the supreme law of attraction, of growth, will be put in operation against which there is no power that can keep you from the thing you may desire. You are a supreme magnet in the great field of cosmic energy, charged with the power to draw your own to yourself.
The result of the highest revelation, using that word in the plain sense and meaning that whenever any fact that was unknown to us is made known, that it is revealed, shows that there is but one substance; that mind is universal, and, consequently in everything; that thought is the creator, and that all that is, is the product of thought.
All things spring from one source, and that source being infinite, it follows that nothing ever was or ever can be separated from it; space when used in this connection being an illusion. Everything, percept, concept, thought, form and act is included in the infinite. Infinity can have nothing opposed to it. “We only oppose ourselves from a lack of the knowledge of Unity.
The expression of Jesus, “I and my Father are one,” clearly sets out his understanding of the truth of Unity. Harmony, peace and perfection are meaningless words unless founded upon the presupposition of Unity, and a lack of the understanding of this law and its application, has been the cause of all the trouble in the world. A comprehension of this law constitutes the supreme lesson for man to learn.
The physical man is the outer form of an inner concept and image, and so intimately connected are his bodies, of which he has seven, that there may be said to be no clear line of division between them; each one of them being “put on” and “put off” as the spirit has use for them. Each of these bodies is provided with receiving and distributing centers through which the life force flows, and when working in harmony the man is in full possession of all the forces that go to make of life a round of happiness, of health, of success and love.
The physical body is a perfect battery, composed of brain centers, and a perfect system of nerves which receive and transmit, according as they are attuned, all of the higher vibrations of which they are capable, hence, the importance of the injunction, “Get in tune with yourself,” for all the life there is; all the intelligence there is, and all the power there is, and all the love there is, is pouring in upon you all the time, and you are free to register so much of it as you are cap able of doing.
By an understanding of the law you may function in each of these bodies as you will. You, the Thinker, are the ruler of them all, and to come to know the powers of your mastership and exercise them wisely, is the one great object of life. Discord, disease, and all inharmony arises from the lack of the normal adjustment of the nerve centers of the physical body and from its inharmonious relations with the finer bodies within it.
Until physical science shall come to understand the co-relation and inter dependence of man’s several bodies; their interpenetration and the separate uses of each of them, it will be at a loss to account for excrescent growths, malformations and many diseases, especially of nervous disorders, irregularities of the heart, and mental disorders of a temporary nature, including a multitude of mental afflictions running from morbidness to feeble mindedness and from imbecility to insanity.
If the subconscious mind, or “psychic self,” as the inner body has been denominated, becomes abnormal, changing its relations to the physical body, from any cause, the most serious results may be expected to ensue.
Negative thinking and indulging the emotional nature to excess is the primary cause of all these disturbances. The present condition of the race at tests how very inadequate is the attempt to treat these disorders from the physical side of life only. The normal relations of these bodies must be brought about before harmonious results may be expected, and as disordered thoughts caused the inharmony, constructive thought must be aroused that order may be restored. This is best done, as is well known, by inducing natural rest and sleep during which undisturbed condition the life force re adjusts the disordered relations and normal action ensues.
During sleep the negative thoughts no longer disturb and the results of their former action are most easily overcome by giving Nature’s restoring powers the opportunity to work their will unhindered; the patient sleeps, perspires, and the danger is past. What has occurred? The negative mind has been stilled, and the exterior forces have ceased to trouble, giving the inner forces of the man the opportunity to do the healing and restoring work. This is the object of all methods of drugless healing.
The power by which you govern all of this marvelous machinery through which life is expressed is THOUGHT. “As a man thinketh in his heart so is he.” If you desire health, THINK HEALTH; if you desire wealth THINK WEALTH, and if you desire LOVE, THINK LOVE, always THINK LOVE for it fulfills every requirement of the law; it meets every possible demand that may be made upon you, and it clears the way of all obstructions.
Concentration is the method by which you will win the desire of your heart; it matters not what your trouble may be, concentrated thought will bring you sure and perfect relief. By the positive exercise of thought are you made just What you are and by its exercise you may become whatsoever you will to be.
The object and purpose of going into the Silence is that we may contact the higher vibrations . . to come in touch with the Source of Universal Energy and Power. Herein lies the secret of all becoming, for here we are enabled to catch all that we may be enabled to express of the Divinity of being. Happy is he who has found this never failing oasis in the otherwise comparatively lifeless desert of human experience.
When you contact this supreme state you will know it; you will never have a doubt about that experience, for no flash of lightning, however vivid, could have impressed you so much as will this first experience. When you once have experienced the effect of contacting this powerful voltage, you will no longer be enslaved by the bonds of the psychic mind. From the indolent state of the subjective . . the world of idle fancies and dreams, in which the many are content to dwell . . you will be carried into a practical, sane and sensible plane of life where the power which you have received will call into activity every energy of your whole nature, and your life of action and genuine worth to yourself and others will begin.
“We awake to the consciousness of it, we are aware of it (this indefinable plus) coming forth in our mind; but we feel that we did not make it, that it is discovered to us, that it is whether we will or no.”
Thoughts are things of force and power,
I feel and know this saying true,
For but within the present hour,
They swift have flown to me from you
The End