MENTAL CONDITIONS AND
THEIR EFFECTS
WITHOUT going into the details of the greater steps and lessons in the right life (a task outside the scope of this small work), a few hints and statements concerning those mental conditions from which life in its totality springs, will prove helpful to those who are ready and willing to penetrate further into that inner realm of heart and mind where Love and Wisdom and Peace await the strenuous comer.
All sin is ignorance. It is a condition of darkness and undevelopment. The wrong-thinker and wrong-doer is in the same position in the school of life as is the ignorant pupil in the school of learning. He has yet to learn how to think and act correctly, that is, in accordance with Law. The pupil in learning is not happy so long as he does his lessons wrongly, and unhappiness cannot be escaped while sin remains unconquered.
Life is a series of lessons. Some are diligent in learning them, and they become pure, wise, and altogether happy. Others are negligent, and do not apply themselves, and they remain impure, foolish, and unhappy.
Every form of unhappiness springs from a wrong condition of mind. Happiness inheres in right conditions of mind. Happiness is mental harmony; unhappiness is mental inharmony. While a man lives in wrong conditions of mind, he will live a wrong life, and will suffer continually. Suffering is rooted in error. Bliss inheres in enlightenment. There is salvation for man only in the destruction of his own ignorance, error, and self-delusion. Where there are wrong conditions of mind there is bondage and unrest; where there are right conditions of mind there is freedom and peace.
Here are some of the leading wrong mental conditions and their disastrous effects upon the life:—
| Wrong Mental Conditions |
Their Effects |
| Hatred. | Injury, violence, disaster, and suffering. |
| Lust. | Confusion of intellect, remorse, shame, and wretchedness. |
| Covetousness. | Fear, unrest, unhappiness, and loss. |
| Pride. | Disappointment, chagrin, lack of self-knowledge. |
| Vanity. | Distress, and mortification of spirit. |
| Condemnation. | Persecution, hatred from others. |
| Ill-will. | Failures and troubles. |
| Self-indulgence. | Misery, loss of judgment, grossness, disease, and neglect. |
| Anger. | Loss of power and influence. |
| Desire, or Self-slavery. | Grief, folly, sorrow, uncertainty, and loneliness. |
The above wrong conditions of mind are merely negations; they are states of darkness and deprivation and not of positive power. Evil is not a power; it is ignorance and misuse of good. The hater is he who has failed to do the lesson of Love correctly, and he suffers in consequence. When he succeeds in doing it rightly, the hatred will have disappeared, and he will see and understand the darkness and impotence of hatred. It is so with every wrong condition.
The following are some of the more important right mental conditions and their beneficent effects upon the life:—
| Right Mental Conditions |
Their Effects |
| Love. | Gentle conditions, bliss, and blessedness. |
| Purity. | Intellectual clearness, joy, invincible confidence. |
| Selflessness. | Courage, satisfaction, happiness, and plenty. |
| Humility. | Calmness, restfulness, knowledge of Truth. |
| Meekness. | Equipoise, contentment under all circumstances. |
| Compassion. | Protection, love and reverence from others. |
| Goodwill. | Gladness and success. |
| Self-control. | Peace of mind, true judgment, refinement, health, and honor. |
| Patience. | Mental power, far-reaching influence. |
| Self-conquest. | Enlightenment, wisdom, insight, and profound peace. |
The above right conditions of mind are states of positive power, of light, of joyful possession, and of knowledge. The good man knows. He has learned to do his lessons correctly, and thereby understands the exact proportions which make up the sum of life. He is enlightened, and knows good and evil. He is supremely happy, doing only that which is divinely right.
The man who is involved in the wrong conditions of mind, does not know. He is ignorant of good and evil, of himself, of the inward causes which make his life.
He is unhappy, and believes other people are entirely the cause of his unhappiness. He works blindly, and lives in darkness, seeing no central purpose in existence, and no orderly and lawful sequence in the course of things.
He who aspires to the attainment of the Higher Life in its completion—who would perceive with unveiled vision the true order of things and the meaning of life—let him abandon all the wrong conditions of heart, and persevere unceasingly in the practice of the good. If he suffers, or doubts, or is unhappy, let him search within until he finds the cause, and having found it, let him cast it away. Let him so guard and purify his heart that every day less of evil and more of good shall issue therefrom; so will he daily become stronger, nobler, wiser; so will his blessedness increase, and the Light of Truth, growing ever brighter and brighter within him, will dispel all gloom, and illuminate his Pathway.