Seeking with such a spirit, then, the main Thoughts which Nature embodies, I venture to say that Infinite and Eternal Reality has there expressed itself in these great Words:
Reality, Truth, Law,
Beauty, Goodness, Harmony,
Power, Development, Happiness,
Love, Service, LIFE.
These are the Thoughts expressed in Nature which are manifest of the White Life. For such the nature of things always declares, when free to do so. By so much as any object of existence fully realizes itself, by so much are these Thoughts, so far as such realization requires, made concrete if only we have the seeing mind and the feeling heart. With these powers of perception, the seeing mind and the feeling heart, we come to know that all in Nature is good and means good to every man and woman and child in this world. There is no evil in Nature. All so-called evil in Nature is due either to some phase of her existence wrongly used or to some false interpretation in human thinking. Nature is REAL, TRUE, LAW-FULL, BEAUTIFUL, GOOD, HARMONIOUS, FULL OF POWER, A GROWING ORGANISM, A MINISTER OF SERVICE AND WELL-BEING, A LIVING THING, A LITERATURE OF LOVE. If you refer to microbes, poisons, deadly serpents, and the like, I reply that the perfect WHITE LIFE in man, together with the knowledge of science, would teach him to avoid wrong relations and develop within him physical, mental and moral tone (tonus, in the language of the schools). Thus would he be rendered immune from all so-called evils.
If your inner life contains nothing alien to these great Nature- Thoughts, if you see to it that their character is given your personal character, you will secure in the body a degree of the power of harmony which they possess, and your health will infallibly correspond. Do no mistake this sentence. Will you kindly read it—again until you see what it really means? The only limit to your health will be the limit of your ability to realize in yourself the mighty Thoughts which make Nature what she is. I do not mean that splendid results must immediately issue from the course indicated. Patience and time are important factors. I do not mean that a dying man can inevitably realize these Thoughts sufficiently to recover health. There are limits, not to the law, but to one's ability to use the law. In spiritual effort, effort of the inner self to lay hold upon the Universal Forces, you can make your own personal discoveries. I may not say a greater word. Above all, I do not mean that merely thinking the Thoughts will be enough, in any case. The method is one of realization as well as affirmation. But by so much as you become that which the Nature- Thoughts suggest, by so much will your physical and psychic health come to buoyancy, joy and power. You are now invited, then, to adopt the following as the permanent law of your thought-life:
I am, in every function of my body and every activity of my deeper
self, entirely GENUINE, representing TRUTH, obeying LAW, loving
BEAUTY, striving for GOODNESS, coming to HARMONY, possessed of
POWER, GROWING to better things, full of HAPPINESS, eager to
SERVE, a LIVING white life, and a Lover of all that is good.
If you will thoughtfully and believingly repeat this law twice a day say, for one hundred days, you will find life unfolding new meanings, fears fading and dying, and courage growing to real greatness.
8. IN THE MYSTERY OF THE SILENCE THE POWER OF REALIZATION BECOMES GREATEST AND MOST EFFECTIVE BECAUSE IN SUCH A STATE THE SELF MAKES ITS HIGH THOUGHTS A CONSCIOUS CLAIM ON ALL GOOD THINGS. The direct utility of the right thought-life is nowhere doubted. By this the psychic factor largely molds the body and influences its functions. Preceding methods or laws have all referred to the truth involved. But the law of direct realization is needed in order to complete the workings of the truth. By direct realization the self consciously claims the present benefit of the spirit or attitude of harmony. You may think of yourself as splendidly well and fearless: that is one thing-you REGARD yourself as in such conditions. And you may claim yourself NOW to be well and courageous: that is another thing—you TREAT yourself for health and fearlessness. When you think of your arm as moving, it does not necessarily move; you have merely entertained the idea. When you will your arm to move, you have claimed your power to move it and have realized the power—realized in actual thought that power. The difference would obtain if your arm were bound: you could still realize in thought the sense of movement. Realization of the Eternal Thoughts is a conscious claim in spirit and appropriation in spirit of the Thoughts as actual within yourself. Realization of benefits for health is a conscious holding of them in mind as present in you. One may in time acquire the fixed mood of realization, but it will assist you to bring about that mood if you will occasionally, say once a day, shut out all disturbances and alien thoughts and feelings, and try to come into communion with the White Life—go into the silence and, by quiet affirmation and sincere, trustful realization, claim the Universal Forces as your helpers in building up your physical tone and the spirit of courage. A sentence like the following may be used:
"Conscious of psychic uprightness in the white life, and of the beauty, utility and wonder of my physical being in its nature, and function, I now claim, and without doubt am receiving, the Universal Forces for my best tone and courage-spirit in all- improving health."