Article #4: Excerpt from "In Tune With the Infinite" by Ralph Waldo Trine

It is the people who have come into realization of their own true selves who carry this power with them and who radiate it wherever they go—they have, as we say, found their center. And in all the great universe there is but one center—the Infinite Power that is working in and through all. The ones who then have found a center are the ones who have come into the realization of their oneness with the Infinite Power, the ones who recognize themselves as spiritual beings, for the Infinite is spirit.

Such is the person of power. Centered in the Infinite, you have thereby, so to speak, connected yourself with, you have attached your belts to, the great powerhouse of the universe. You are constantly drawing power to yourself from all sources. For, thus centered, knowing yourself, conscious of your own power, the thoughts that go from your mind are thoughts of strength; and by virtue of the law that like attracts like, you by your thoughts are continually attracting to yourself from all quarters the aid of all whose thoughts are thoughts of strength, and in this way you are linking yourself with this order of thought in the universe.

And so to those that have, to those shall be given. This is simply the working of a natural law. Your strong, positive and hence constructive thought is continually working success for you along all lines and continually bringing to you help from all directions. The things that you see, that you create in the ideal, are through the agency of this strong constructive thought continually clothing themselves, taking form, manifesting themselves in the material. Silent, unseen forces are at work that eventually manifest in the visible.

Fear and all thought of failure never suggest themselves to you when you are such a person; or if they do, your mind expels them at once so you aren't influenced by, and don't attract to you, this type of thought from without; you're in another current of thought. So, the weakening, failure-bringing thoughts of the fearing, vascillating or pessimistic about you have no influence on you. The one who is of the negative, fearing kind not only has his energies and his physical agents weakened or even paralyzed through the influence of this kind of thought that is born within him, but he also in this way connects himself with this order of thought in the world about him. And in the degree that he does this he becomes a victim to the weak, fearing, negative minds all around him. Instead of growing in power, he increases in weakness. He is in the same order of thought with those of, whom it is true, "and even that which they have shall be taken from them." This again is simply the working of a natural law, the same as is its opposite. Fearing lest I lose even what I have I hide it away in a napkin. Very well. I must then pay the price of my "fearing lest I lose."

Thoughts of strength both build strength from within and attract it from without. Thoughts of weakness actualize weakness from within and attract it from without. Courage begets strength, fear begets weakness. And so courage begets success, fear begets failure. It is the man or the woman of faith, and hence of courage, who is the master of circumstances and who makes his or her power felt in the world. It is the man or the woman who lacks faith and who as a consequence is weakened and crippled by fears and forebodings who is the creature of all passing occurrences.

Within each one lies the cause of whatever comes to him. Each has it in his own hands to determine what comes. Everything in the visible, material world has its origin in the unseen, the spiritual, the thought world. This is the world of cause, the former is the world of effect. The nature of the effect is always in accordance with the nature of the cause. What one lives in his invisible thought world, he is continually actualizing in his visible material world. If he would have any conditions different in the latter, he must make the necessary change in the former. A clear realization of this great fact would bring success to thousands of men and women who all about us are now in the depths of despair. It would bring health, abounding health and strength to thousands now diseased and suffering. It would bring peace and joy to thousands now unhappy and ill at ease.

And oh, the thousands all about us who are continually living in the slavery of fear. The spirits within that should be strong and powerful, are rendered weak and impotent. Their energies are crippled, their efforts are paralyzed. Fear is everywhere—fear of want, fear of starvation, fear public opinion, fear of private opinion, fear that what we own today may not be ours tomorrow, fear of sickness, fear of death. Fear has become with millions a fixed habit. The thought is everywhere. The thought is thrown upon us from every direction ... To live in continual dread, continual cringing, continual fear of anything, be it loss of love, loss of money, loss of position or situation, is to take the readiest means to lose what we fear we shall."

By fear nothing is to be gained but, on the contrary, everything is to be lost. "I know this is true," says one, "but I am given to fear; it's natural to me and I can't help it." Can't help it! In saying this you indicate one great reason for your fear by showing that you do not even know yourself as yet. You must know yourself in order to know your powers, and not until you know them can you use them wisely and fully. Don't say you can't help it. If you think you can't, the chances are that you can't. If you think you can, and act in accordance with this thought, then not only are the chances that you can, but if you act fully in accordance with it, that you can and that you will is an absolute certainty. It was Virgil who in describing the crew which in his mind would win the race, said of them, "They can because they think they can." In other words, this very attitude of mind on their part will infuse a spiritual power into their bodies that will give them the strength and endurance which will enable them to win.

Then take the thought that you CAN—take it merely as a seed thought, if need be; plant it in your consciousness, tend it, cultivate it and it will gradually reach out and gather strength from all quarters. It will focus and make positive and active the spiritual force within you that is now scattered and of little avail. It will draw to itself force from without. It will draw to your aid, the influence of other minds of its own nature, minds that are fearless, strong, courageous. You will thus draw to yourself and connect yourself with this order of thought. If you are earnest and faithful, the time will soon come when all fear will loose its hold; and instead of being an embodiment of weakness and a creature of circumstances, you will find yourself a tower of strength and a master of circumstances.