As a Man Thinketh So Is He

“We ourselves are the makers of ourselves,” wrote British philosophical writer James Allen more than a hundred years ago. Allen was a successful publisher during his time, and also one of the earliest exponents of positive psychology. His most famous work, As a Man Thinketh (Allen, 1903) is a pioneering work on the personal growth genre. The title of the book was borrowed from Proverbs 23:7 of the Bible, “For as a man thinketh in his heart, so is he.” Just as the bible quote suggests, the circumstances experienced by a man is highly dependent on the beliefs and attitudes he holds in his mind.

Men do not attract that which they want, but that which they are. They may desire things like a stable relationship or a comfortable life, but never manage to get them, because their thoughts are inconsistent with the result which they want to obtain. Allen gave some examples in his book to illustrate:

“Here is a man who is wretchedly poor. He is extremely anxious that his surroundings and home comforts should be improved. Yet all the time he shirks his work, and considers he is justified in trying to deceive his employer on the ground of the insufficiency of his wages. Such a man does not understand the simplest rudiments of those principles which are the basis of true prosperity. He is not only totally unfitted to rise out of his wretchedness, but is actually attracting to himself a still deeper wretchedness by dwelling in, and acting out, indolent, deceptive, and unmanly thoughts.”

“Here is an employer of labour who adopts crooked measures to avoid paying the regulation wage, and, in the hope of making larger profits, reduces the wages of his work-people. Such a man is altogether unfitted for prosperity. And when he finds himself bankrupt, both as regards reputation and riches, he blames circumstances, not knowing that he is the sole author of his condition.”

Therefore, the external environment is nothing but a long-laboured result of one’s thoughts which have long been secretly fostered in his heart, waiting for the hour of opportunity revealed its gathered power. “A man does not come to the almshouse or the jail by the tyranny of fate of circumstance, but by the pathway of grovelling thoughts and base desires… 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.”

A man cannot directly choose their environment in which they want to be, but he can apply this thoughts to slowly, but surely, shape his environment. When people say they are “fighting against circumstances”, it simply means that they remain bound because, while anxious to improve their circumstances, they are unwilling to improve themselves. “It means that a man is continually revolting against an effect without, while all the time he is nourishing and preserving its cause in his heart. That cause may take the form of a conscious vice or an unconscious weakness; but whatever it is, it stubbornly retards the efforts of its possessor, and thus calls aloud for remedy.”

One may protest that not all rich people are noble, and not all poor people are undignified, but Allen argued, “A man may be honest in certain directions, yet suffer privations. A man may be dishonest in certain directions, yet acquire wealth… (because) the dishonest man may have some admirable virtues which the other does not possess; and the honest man obnoxious vices which are absent in the other. The honest man reaps the good results of his honest thoughts and acts; he also brings upon himself the sufferings which his vices produce. The dishonest man likewise garners his own suffering and happiness.”

Therefore, things could only be produced by their own kind. “Good thoughts and actions can never produce bad results. Bad thoughts and actions can never produce good results. This is but saying that nothing can come from corn but corn, nothing from nettles but nettles… Suffering is always the effect of wrong thought in some direction. It is an indication that the individual is out of harmony with himself, with the Law of his being.”

In other words, all men are made or unmade by the way they think, and they must therefore pay attention to their thoughts very closely. “A man’s mind may be likened to a garden, which may be intelligently cultivated or allowed to run wild… 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.”

Just like any skill in life, it takes time and effort to develop a habit of right thinking. “As the physically weak man can make himself strong by careful and patient training, so the man of weak thoughts can make them strong by exercising himself in right thinking.” And just like brushing one’s teeth, it has to be practised every day without giving way to complacency. “A man may rise to high success in the world, and even to lofty altitudes in the spiritual realm, and again descend into weakness and wretchedness by allowing arrogant, selfish, and corrupt thoughts to take possession of him. Victories attained by right thought can only be maintained by watchfulness. Many give way when success is assured, and rapidly fall back into failure.”

In conclusion, let’s quote a poem from the beginning of the book:

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.

Reference: Allen, J. (1903). As a Man Thinketh. London: (n.p.).