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As a Man Thinketh (Paperback)
by James Allen
| Category:
Motivation, Inspiration, Personal achievement, Self improvement |
| Market price: ¥ 118.00
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¥ 108.00
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| MSL Pointer Review:
A motivation classic, this little book has inspired millions around the world with compelling wisdom. |
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Author: James Allen
Publisher: Wildside Press
Pub. in: September, 2005
ISBN: 1557423601
Pages: 52
Measurements: 8.5 x 5.5 x 0.1 inches
Origin of product: USA
Order code: BA00076
Other information: First published in 1904.
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- Awards & Credential -
First published in 1904, this little book is yet one of the most powerful books on self improvement. |
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- MSL Picks -
As A Man Thinketh by James Allen encompasses the idea that "All that a man achieves and all that he fails to achieve is the direct result of his own thoughts." James Allen eloquently explains how our thoughts create our reality and that "In a justly ordered universe, where loss of equipoise would mean total destruction, individual responsibility must be absolute. A man's weakness and strength, purity and impurity, are his own and not another man's." Before reading the book I was unsure to what extent our thoughts played in the creation of our experience. I have always believed we can do whatever we put our minds to, though I was unsure of what extent we could exercise control in the creation of our experience and by what means does one actively create? After reading this book I felt my questions were answered and life suddenly took on a whole new perspective. I felt as though I had uncovered another piece of the jigsaw puzzle of life, slotting into place a new perspective that not only helped uncover and concretize a new understanding of life but also shone light across the rest of the picture. A world of possibilities became apparent with the realization that through an effort in right thinking and observation of circumstance I could begin to experiment to see just what exactly I can create. This same observation would bring clarity to how my negative thinking affects reality and what role it has in my learning and progress.
Circumstance does not make the man; it reveals him to himself.
As each day passes the message this book puts forward becomes ever increasingly apparent. "Good thoughts and actions can never produce bad results; bad thoughts and actions can never produce good results." Mentally reviewing past experiences I can see and understand the correlation between thoughts I had chosen to entertain and my circumstances. Looking at my present situation I can see how my thoughts are synchronous with the reality I see before me. At an ever increasing pace I am now seeing how quickly my thoughts change and effect my present, my future and my past. The more I practice looking at life as a reflection and part of myself the more it seems like a game where we have to remain aware and look for clues as to how to best attune ourselves to the thoughts that will allow us to interact with our situation in the most harmonious way.
Until thought is linked with purpose there is no intelligent accomplishment. With the majority the bark of thought is allowed to "drift" upon the ocean of life. Aimlessness is a vice, and such drifting must not continue for him who would steer clear of catastrophe and destruction.
Reading this book helped me to understand that there is no such thing as chance and that we can all take responsibility for every occurrence in our lives. Through the acceptance of responsibility we can use our current experience to design a way forward which best serves everybody. If there is nobody else to blame except ourselves then we should be thankful to all those involved in revealing what we ourselves have created.
Since reading As A Man Thinketh one of my goals now is to help as many of the people around me, as I can, to think about and use the ideas put forth in the book to construct their own viewpoint from which they can then draw conclusions. Embracing the gift of responsibility for a power which grants us control over our circumstances would change the fundamentals of society. I believe this would push us all in a more positive direction. I can vividly imagine a world where people were encouraged to think outside the construct of the societal framework, frames which less binds us together as it does section us off from the world outside of the box. If our circumstances our brought about by our thinking then it would equate that global circumstances are a reflection of our collective global thinking. If we were to fundamentally change the way we think about reality, and even learn to positively influence reality, then the world will outwardly reflect this change in thinking. My goal in life is to attune my thoughts to ones that will help turn the vision I see of a world that works for everybody into a reality.
Reading As a Man Thinketh helped move me to one of the most exciting standpoints yet, which is that there is no such thing as chance. Looking from one angle it would not appear to me that everything is predestined. I do, however, think we co-create every situation in our lives through our thinking. Our thoughts assist in the creation of our reality and when we don't pay attention to our thoughts and feelings then the situations our subconscious mind creates might seem random and we may use the “chance” concept as a valid excuse and reason for not taking responsibility for the unwanted experience. Realizing I have no excuses for anything has been a huge turning point in my life. The idea to me makes life in my mind fair. At least for the experiences I can vouch for.
A man does not come to the alms-house or the jail by the tyranny of fate or circumstance, but by the pathway of groveling thoughts and base desires. Nor does a pure-minded man fall suddenly into crime by stress of any mere external force. The criminal thought had long been secretly fostered in the heart, and the hour of opportunity revealed its gathered power. Circumstance does not make the man; it reveals him to himself. No such conditions can exist as descending into vice and its attendant sufferings apart from vicious inclinations, or ascending into virtue and its pure happiness without the continued cultivation of virtuous aspirations; and man, therefore, as the lord and master of thought, is the maker of himself and the shaper of and author of environment. Even at birth the soul comes of its own and through every step of its earthly pilgrimage it attracts those combinations of conditions which reveal itself, which are the reflections of its own purity and impurity, its strength and weakness.
One of the most important new ideas this book helped me grasp was the idea that there is no such thing as chance and that we are solely responsible for our personal circumstances.
After reading As a Man Thinketh it felt strongly apparent that this world of ours works in just the way it's supposed to, indeed quite perfectly, and it would seem to me that it is us who are playing the game of life some how unaware of the rules. James Allen has given a wonderful example and explanation of how life works in perfectly fair way.
If there is no chance and our situation is brought about by our thoughts then how does that relate to a situation in life such as being diagnosed with cancer? My understanding follows that smoking does not directly cause cancer, it creates the ideal environment where a cancer could grow. It is my feeling that our thoughts and actions are intrinsically related and our mind, body and spirit are intrinsically connected and reflect one another. I believe we all have what I can at best describe as a magical force inside us. Ever seen Star Wars? I feel the outcome of our life depends on whether we control the force, or whether it controls us. Where does cancer come from? I think we create it. I think through our thoughts and actions and choice of lifestyle and things we choose to expose ourselves to... and through our neglect of certain areas of our life, that we cause such a thing as cancer, and indeed everything else, to manifest.
We all have the power to create some really powerful things whether it is consciously and for the greater good, or unconsciously and perhaps for the worse. I think this also works on a global level reflecting our world wide collective consciousness. I think every single one of us is responsible for the state of the world - all the conflicts of the world, or the cancers of the world, so to speak. Take for example the conflict in Iraq or the Israeli situation, the problems in South Asia... I believe it's all a reflection of our collective state of mind and the conflicts that go on inside of us. We are in control... you, me... everybody. And we all have blood on our hands.
Paul Sartre once said that all human anguish comes from our individual responsibility for what each of us do and become. There is no fixed human nature, no predestination, no God that determines our course. And we suffer because we cannot handle this burden.
The power to think, feel, express, believe, will, do and progress is, from the start, all within our hands. This is an extremely dangerous distribution of power, and on some level we all know it. As a result, most of us sacrifice our liberties to tradition and majority in an effort to off-load that responsibility.
And we do it because we have a lot invested in our communal uniformity. Life in orthodoxy is comfortable, familiar and requires nothing of us to perpetuate it other than our silent complacency. We sell our freedom for some semblance of safety and the diaphanous concept of an establishment.
The world around us is an extension of the world inside of us. When we do wrong, we are only doing it to ourselves. I think our whole world has got cancer... and it could even look as thought it's dying, although I hope its getting better. If you look at satellite shots of the world and look at our major cities and the pollution cloud that engulfs them, our poor world even looks like it has cancers growing on it.
Thinking about thinking and the thoughts we choose to entertain is something we all need to do carefully. Ever since reading As A Man Thinketh I've been realizing more and more how our thoughts create our reality. I think As a Man Thinketh should be compulsory reading for the whole human race. The more I think about it the more it makes sense.
This book has entirely changed my thinking and now I look at life from a totally different standpoint, one where I can see how I am in complete control of my circumstances. Now when I look at seemingly problematic situations I ask myself why and how I have created the situation and I ask what can be learned from the situation. Reading this book has helped me to see that when planned situations do not come together as intended, I think we should remember that the perfect thing has happened at the perfect time to teach us exactly what we need to know for the greater good of everybody. Why was the outcome the most ideal thing that could have happened? If we create our circumstances then we obviously create them for a reason and by looking for that reason we can see how our circumstances serve to benefit us, no matter what they are.
I now realize how important it is to be selective with the thoughts I allow myself to entertain. Oftentimes I am quite unsure of where the thoughts in my head come from, but now when I find myself thinking something less than constructive I stop and reword my inner dialog to shape a more positive feeling.
He who cherishes a beautiful vision, a lofty ideal in his heart, will one day realize it. (From quoting Julian Murphy, UK)
Target readers:
General readers.
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James Allen (1864-1912) was an Englishman who retired from the business world to pursue a lifestyle of writing and contemplation. His books are classics in the fields of inspiration and spirituality. Although best known for As a Man Thinketh, he authored several other books that deal with the power of thought including The Path to Prosperity, The Mastery of Destiny, The Way of Peace, and Entering the Kingdom.
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From Publisher
Mind is the Master power that moulds and makes, And Man is Mind, and evermore he takes The tool of Thought, and, shaping what he wills, Brings forth a thousand joys, a thousand ills: He thinks in secret, and it comes to pass: Environment is but his looking-glass. A blueprint on living, this little gem serves as a course of action for approaching life in a meaningful manner. His practical philosophy of successful living has awakened millions to the discovery and perception of the truth. Weaving his way through the inner dynamics the human psyche, James Allen shows us what we already intuitively know: how changing ones' mind-set can improve one's circumstances - no matter how difficult. Written in a succinct, easy-to-digest style, As A Man Thinketh is a valuable tool to anyone serious about achieving a purpose-filled life.
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A man's mind may be likened to a garden, which may be intelligently cultivated or allowed to run wild; but whether cultivated or neglected, it must, and will, bring forth. If no useful seeds are put into it, then an abundance of useless weed seeds will fall therein, and will continue to produce their kind.
Just as a gardener cultivates his plot, keeping it free from weeds, and growing the flowers and fruits which he requires, so may a man tend the garden of his mind, weeding out all the wrong, useless, and impure thoughts, and cultivating toward perfection the flowers and fruits of right, useful, and pure thoughts. By pursuing this process, a man sooner or later discovers that he is the master-gardener of his soul, the director of his life. He also reveals, within himself, the laws of thought, and understands, with ever-increasing accuracy, how the thought-forces and mind-elements operate in the shaping of his character, circumstances, and destiny.
Thought and character are one, and as character can only manifest and discover itself through environment and circumstance, the outer conditions of a person's life will always be found to be harmoniously related to his inner state. This does not mean that a man's circumstances at any given time are an indication of his entire character, but that those circumstances are so intimately connected with some vital thought-element within himself that, for the time being, they are indispensable to his development.
Every man is where he is by the law of his being; the thoughts which he has built into his character have brought him there, and in the arrangement of his life there is no element of chance, but all is the result of a law which cannot err. This is just as true of those who feel "out of harmony" with their surroundings as of those who are contented with them.
As the progressive and evolving being, man is where he is that he may learn that he may grow; and as he learns the spiritual lesson which any circumstance contains for him, it passes away and gives place to other circumstances.
Man is buffeted by circumstances so long as he believes himself to be the creature of outside conditions, but when he realizes that he is a creative power, and that he may command the hidden soil and seeds of his being out of which circumstances grow, he then becomes the rightful master of himself.
That circumstances grow out of thought every man knows who has for any length of time practiced self-control and self-purification, for he will have noticed that the alteration in his circumstances has been in exact ratio with his altered mental condition. So true is this that when a man earnestly applies himself to remedy the defects in his character, and makes swift and marked progress, he passes rapidly through a succession of vicissitudes.
The soul attracts that which it secretly harbors; that which it loves, and also that which it fears; it reaches the height of its cherished aspirations; it falls to the level of its unchastened desires; and circumstances are the means by which the soul receives its own.
Every thought-seed sown or allowed to fall into the mind, and to take root there, produces its own, blossoming sooner or later into act, and bearing its own fruitage of opportunity and circumstances. Good thoughts bear good fruit, bad thoughts bad fruit.
The outer world of circumstance shapes itself to the inner world of thought, and both pleasant and unpleasant external conditions are factors which make for the ultimate good of the individual. As the reaper of his own harvest, man learns both by suffering and bliss.
Following the inmost desires, aspirations, thoughts, by which he allows himself to be dominated (pursuing the will-o'-the-wisp of impure imagining or steadfastly walking the highway of strong and high endeavor), a man at last arrives at their fruition and fulfillment in the outer condition of his life.
The laws of growth and adjustment everywhere obtain… (Chapter Two: Effect of Thought on Circumstances)
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| View all 7 comments |
Tony, USA
<2006-12-21 00:00>
I was introduced to this great work by James Allen over 32 years ago in the form of an audio tape narrated by Earl Nightingale. Shortly thereafter, I bought the book and read it everyday. It is a short easy read, only 73 pages and 7 chapters:
1) Thought and Character
2) Effect of Thought on Circumstances
3) Effect of Thought on Health and the Body
4) Thought and Purpose
5) The Thought-Factor in Achievement
6) Visions and Ideals
7) Serenity
Each chapter is short and to the point. The book is thought provoking and stimulating.
Here is one of my favorite quotes from As A Man Thinketh:
"Mind is the Master power that moulds and makes,
And Man is Mind, and evermore he takes
The tool of Thought, and, shaping what he wills,
Brings forth a thousand joys, a thousand ills,
Environment is but his looking glass."
Here is another one...
"You will be what you will to be,
Let failure find it's false content
In that poor word, “environment,”
But spirit scorns it, and is free.
"It masters time, it conquers space;
It cows that boastful trickstar, Chance,
And bids the tyrant Circumstance
Uncrown, and fill a servant's place.
"The human Will, that force, that force unseen,
The offspring of a deathless Soul,
Can hew a way to any goal,
Though walls of granite intervene,
"Be not impatient in delay,
But wait as one who understands,
When spirit rises and commands,
The gods are ready to obey."
Some interesting thoughts from this book.
- A man can only rise, conquer, and achieve by lifting up his
thoughts.
- Good thoughts and actions can never produce bad results;
bad thoughts and actions can never produce good results.
- He who has conquered doubt and fear has conquered failure.
This is a small book with giant sized inspiration and thoughts. I recommend reading it every day for the first few weeks and see if you notice a substantial difference.
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Lane Fox, USA
<2006-12-21 00:00>
There is so much life-improving wisdom, advice, and guidance packed inside the short 52 pages of this wonderful book that you could read it 100 times and still learn something new every time.
In fact, do yourself, your family, your relationships, your health, and your finances a favor and read this book 100 times.
Here is what you will discover within the pages of this book:
1. The exact reason you are suffering in certain areas of your life right now.
2. How to obtain true prosperity and riches.
3. How to attract all that you want to you.
4. How to create more freedom for yourself.
5. How to bring your body back to perfect health.
6. How to replace fear, worry, and doubt with peace, confidence, and accomplishment.
7. How to achieve great victories in your life.
8. How to gain purpose, energy and power.
9. How to realize all your dreams.
10. How to get rid of bad relationships and create beautiful relationships.
11. How you and you alone make your environment, conditions and circumstances what they are.
12. How you can change your environment, conditions and circumstances to be what you want them to be.
13. How you can literally define and create your own destiny.
14. How to become more in tune and in harmony with God's laws and the laws of the Universe.
Bottom line, this book will bring about the exact transformation in your life that you are looking for. Don't hesitate. Get this book now. |
A reader, USA
<2006-12-21 00:00>
Although his book, As A Man Thinketh, has inspired millions around the world and been a major influence in the self-improvement industry, very little is known about its author, James Allen. James Allen was born in Leicester, England. When he was fifteen, the family business failed and his father left for America to find work. His father was murdered before he could send for the family and subsequently, James left school and worked for several British manufacturers. His literary career lasted only nine years until his death. As A Man Thinketh was his second book. At the age of 38 he "retired" to writing and moved with his wife to a small cottage at Ilfracombe, England. He penned more than 20 works... I have recently discovered the titles of several other books by James Allen and fortunately for all of us, they are still in print. All of these may be purchased directly from Sun Publishing Company or ordered through your normal book retailer.
As A Man Thinketh has influenced many contemporary writers including Norman Vincent Peale, Earl Nightingale, Denis Waitley and Tony Robbins, among others.
His "volume", has been translated into five major languages, inspiring millions of readers to recognize that man's visions can become reality, simply through the power of thought.
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A reader, USA
<2006-12-21 00:00>
I feel compelled to defend this book against the ignorant remarks by previous reviews. This is NOT a new-age book. Had he read the book he would know that the book was written by a shy, humble man named James Allan in the year 1904. Last I checked 1904 wasn't the peak of new-age thought.
The author never asserts that if you think "rich, rich, rich" you will become rich any more than thinking "unicorn, unicorn, unicorn" will turn you into a mythical creature. The premise of this short yet remarkable book is that you can shape your destiny simply choosing to think positive thoughts. If you preoccupy yourself with your fears and self doubt, you will most certainly be a slave to these negative thoughts. These self defeating thoughts only serve to prevent you from success. If you think positive thoughts, you're putting yourself on the path of success. Focus on your strengths, don't let thoughts of self-doubt harbor in you. The concepts are not new and hardly new-age. There are no new ideas in this book, James Allan was just the first to present them is all.
James Allan emphasizes the importance of hard work and effort throughout the book. He states in the book "He who would accomplish little must sacrifice little. He who would achieve much must sacrifice much. He who would attain highly must sacrifice greatly." Effort and sacrifice are common themes throughout the book. James Allan makes the point that all your hard work will be in vain if your mind is filled with thoughts of failure.
Read some books by Rick Patino, Jack Welch, Vince Lombardi, Sammy Davis Jr. (on a side note, Sammy Davis Jr.'s book is even called Yes I Can which is what he would tell himself whenever negative thoughts crept in his head) or anyone who overcame the odds to be a huge success and you will see that they live their lives exactly as James Allan advises, they think only positive thoughts, they visualize their success rather than being fixated with their weaknesses. Nothing new age about it folks.
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