The Wisdom of James Allen
III – 4 Classic Works from the author of As a Man Thinketh, including: Out from
the Heart, Byways of Blessedness, From Passion to Peace & The Heavenly Life
ISBN:
1-889606-08-1
Price:
$10.95
Pages:
352
Description:
James Allen, a 19th century
English writer, is best known as the author of the best-selling, inspirational
classic, As a Man Thinketh. For over a hundred years, this timeless work
has motivated readers to lead more successful, effective, and peaceful lives.
James Allen is also the author of over twenty other books, that are lesser known
but equally powerful. The Wisdom of James Allen III is the third book in
the Laurel Creek James Allen Wisdom series. It combines four of his classic
works in one volume and includes: Out from the Heart, Byways of
Blessedness, From Passion to
Peace, and The Heavenly Life
James Allen was an advocate
of ethics in all the areas of our lives. His goal was to reveal universal
spiritual principles to the masses in order to relieve people of their
suffering, empower the individual, and thus uplift humanity. Allen=s works focus on teaching
individual responsibility, finding the cause of personal problems within our own
selves, and revealing how each of us can harness our inner power to master our
own destinies. The wisdom contained in his works provides a valuable guide for
life.
Table of
Contents:
BOOK 1: Out from the Heart
The
Heart and the Life
The Nature and Power of Mind
Formation of Habit
Doing and Knowing
First Steps in the Higher Life
Mental Conditions and Their Effects
Exhortation
BOOK 2: Byways of Blessedness
The
Right Beginning
Small Tasks & Duties
Transcending Difficulties
Burden-Dropping
Hidden Sacrifices
Sympathy
Forgiveness
Seeing No Evil
Abiding Joy
Silentness
Solitude
The Simple Laws of Life
Happy Endings
BOOK 3: From Passion to
Peace
Passion
Aspiration
Temptation
Transmutation
Transcendence
Beatitude
Peace
BOOK 4: The Heavenly
Life
The
Divine Center
The Eternal Now
The “Original Simplicity”
The Unfailing Wisdom
The Might of Meekness
The Righteous Man
Perfect Love
Perfect Freedom
Greatness and Goodness
Heaven in the Heart
BOOK 1: Out from the
Heart
(Excerpt):
As
the heart, so is the life. The
within is ceaselessly becoming the without. Nothing remains unrevealed. That
which is hidden is but for a time, it ripens and comes forth at last. Seed,
tree, blossom, and fruit are the fourfold order of the universe. From the state
of your heart proceed the conditions of your life. Your thoughts blossom into
deeds; and your deeds bear the fruitage of character and
destiny.
Life is ever unfolding from within, and revealing itself to the light.
Thoughts engendered in the heart at last reveal themselves in words, actions,
and things accomplished.
As the fountain from the hidden spring, so flows forth your life from the
secret recesses of your heart. All that you are and all that you do are
generated there. All that you will be and do will take its rise
there….
Excerpt #1:
Revenge is a virus which eats into the very vitals of the mind, and
poisons the entire spiritual being. Resentment is a mental fever which burns up
the wholesome energies of the mind, and “taking offense” is a form of moral
sickness which saps the healthy flow of kindliness and goodwill, and from which
everyone should seek to be delivered.
The unforgiving and resentful spirit is a source of great suffering and
sorrow, and he who harbors and encourages it, who does not overcome and abandon
it, forfeits much blessedness, and does not obtain any measure of true
enlightenment. To be hard-hearted is to suffer, is to be deprived of light and
comfort; to be tender-hearted is to be serenely glad, is to receive light and be
well comforted.
It will seem strange to many to be told that the hard-hearted and
unforgiving suffer most; yet it is profoundly true, for not only do they, by the
law of attraction, draw to themselves the vengeful passions of other people, but
their hardness of heart itself is a continual source of
suffering.
Excerpt
#2:
Love is Manifested Here and
Now
When a man, who has recently taken up the study of some branch of
theology, religion, or “occultism,” says: “If I had not burdened myself with a
wife and family I could have done great work; and had I known years ago what I
know now, I would have never married.” I know that man has not yet found the
commonest and broadest way of wisdom (for there is no greater folly than
regret), and that he is incapable of the great work, which he is so ambitious to
perform.
If a man has such deep love for his fellow men that he is anxious to do
great work for humanity, he will manifest that surpassing love always and in the
place where he is now. His home will be filled with it, and the beauty,
sweetness, and peace of his unselfish love will follow wherever he goes, making
happy those about him and transmuting all things into good. The love that goes
abroad to the air itself, and is undiscoverable at home, is not love-it is
vanity.
Have I not seen (Oh, pitiful sight!) the cheerless home and neglected
children of the misguided missionary and religionist? It is on such self-delusion as this that
self-pity and self-martyrdom ever wait. Its self-inflicted misery is regarded by
the deluded one as a holy and religious burden which he or she is called upon to
bear.
Only a great man can do great work; and he will be great wherever he is, and will do his noble work under whatsoever conditions he may find himself when he has unfolded and revealed that work.
You who are so anxious to work for humanity, to help your fellow men,
begin that work at home. Help
yourself, your neighbor, your wife, your child. Do not be deluded; until you do,
with utmost faithfulness, the nearer and the lesser, you cannot do the farther
and greater.
BOOK
3: From
Passion to Peace
(Excerpts)
Excerpt
#1:
Foolish men blame others for their lapses and sins, but let the
truth-lover blame only himself. Let him acknowledge his complete responsibility
for his own conduct and not say, when he falls, this thing, or such and such a
circumstance, or that man was to blame. For the most which others can do is
afford the opportunity for our own good or evil to manifest itself; they cannot
make us good or evil.
Excerpt
#2:
The
divine consciousness is not an intensification of the human; it is a new form of
consciousness. It springs from the old, but it is not a continuance of it. Born
of the lower life of sin and sorrow, after a period of painful travail, it yet
transcends that life and has no part of it, as the perfect flower transcends the
seed from which it sprang.
As passion is the keynote of the self-life, so serenity is the keynote of
the transcendent life. Rising into it, a man is lifted above disharmony and
known, not as an opinion or an idea, but as an experience, a possession, then
calm vision is acquired, and tranquil joy abides through all
vicissitudes.
The Transcendent Life is ruled, not by passions, but by principles. It is
founded not upon fleeting impulses, but upon abiding laws. In its clear
atmosphere the orderly sequence of all things is revealed, so that there is seen
to be no room for sorrow, anxiety, or regret.
BOOK
4: The
Heavenly Life
(Excerpts)
Excerpt #1:
Complain not that you are surrounded by irritable and selfish people, but
rather rejoice that you are so favored as to have your own imperfections
revealed, and that you are so placed as to necessitate within you a constant
struggle for self-mastery and attainment of perfection. The more there is of
harshness and selfishness around you, the greater the need of humility and love.
If others seek to wrong you, all the more it is needful that you should cease
from all wrong, and live in love. If others preach humility and love, and do not
practice these, trouble not, nor be annoyed. Rather, in the silence of your
heart, and in the contact of others, put into practice these things, and they
shall preach themselves. And though you utter no declamatory word, and stand
before no gathered audience, you shall teach the world.
Excerpt
#2:
This
world is beautiful, transcendently and wonderfully beautiful. Its beauties and
inspiring wonders cannot be numbered; yet, to the sin-sodden mind, it appears as
a dark and joyless place. Where passion and self are, there is hell, and there
are all pains of hell; where Holiness and Love are, there is Heaven, and all the
joys of Heaven.
Heaven is here. It is also everywhere. It is wherever there is a pure
heart. The whole universe is abounding with joy, but the sin-bound can neither
see, hear, nor partake of it. No one is, or can be, arbitrarily shut out from
Heaven; each shuts itself out. Its Golden gates are eternally ajar, but the
selfish cannot find them. They mourn, yet see not; they cry, but hear not. Only
those who turn their eyes to heavenly things; their ears to heavenly sounds, are
happy Portals of the Kingdom revealed, and they enter and are
glad.