Good Morning Garden

Thought is the real causative force in life, and there is no other. You cannot have one kind of mind and another kind of environment. You cannot change your environment while leaving your mind unchanged. This is the real key to life; if you change your mind your conditions must change too; your body must change, your activities must change; your home must change; the color tone of your whole life must change.

And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind. (Romans 12:2).

This may be called the Great Cosmic Law. The practical difficulty in applying it arises from the fact that our thoughts are so close to us that it is difficult, without a little practice, to stand back and look at them objectively. Yet that is just what you must learn to do. You must train yourself to choose the subject of your thinking at any given time, and also to choose the emotional tone.

If you are not determined to start in now and carefully select all day the kind of thoughts that you are going to think, you may as well give up all hope of shaping your life into the kind of things that you want it to be. The way to start on a seven-day mental diet is to begin now.

How would a food diet work if the dieter decided they would eat what they wanted instead of what the diet prescribes? It is the same with a mental diet. If we choose to cling to our negative ways of thinking and our damaging emotional responses to our environment, then their will be no change in our lives.

Think and feel well,
Z gardener

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The subject of diet is one of the foremost topics of the present day public interest. Newspaper and magazines teem with articles and bookshops are filled with volumes unfolding the mysteries of proteins and vitamins. Experts are saying that you become the thing you eat. This is perfectly true, as far as it goes, but I am going to deal with the subject of dieting at a level infinitely more profound and far reaching in its effect; mental dieting.

The food you furnish your mind determines the character of your life. The subjects that you allow your mind to dwell upon, make your surroundings what they are.

As thy days, so shall thy strength be (Deuteronomy 33:25), which in modern language may be translated “as thy thoughts so shall thy life be.”

Everything in your life today; the state of your body, the state of your fortune, the state of your home, the present condition of every phase of you life, is entirely conditioned by the habitual tone of your past thinking. And the condition of your life next week, and next year, will be conditioned by the thoughts and feelings that you entertain from now onward. In other words, you choose your life.

Doing it today,
Z gardener

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Once you have contacted the Power within, and have allowed it to take over your responsibilities for you, it will direct and govern all your affairs from the greatest to the least without mistakes. The government shall be upon his shoulder. You are tired, and driven, and worried, and weak, and ill, and depressed, because you have been trying to carry the government upon your own shoulder; the burden is too much for you, and you have broken down under it. Now, immediately hand over your self-government, that is, the burden of making a living, or of healing your body, or erasing your mistakes, to the Child. He, the Tireless One, The All-Powerful, the All Wise, the All Resourceful, assumes it with joy; and your difficulties have seen the beginning of the end.

Cast thy burden upon the Lord, and he shall sustain thee. (Psalm 55:22).

How valuable would it be if we had the smartest, most powerful and capable consultant in the world who had agreed to manage all our personal, business and others affairs with an absolute guarantee of of success.? The bad news is, most of us could not afford such an advocate, and in fact, no such entity can be bought for any amount of money. The good news is we all have such a counselor and it does not cost one dime. However, it does require that we respond to his offer and relinquish control of our self-centered human existence, spirit and heart to his will.

Your hired,
Z gardener

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Life is a reflex of mental states. As far as you are concerned, the character that things will bear will be the character that you first impress upon them. Bless a thing and it will bless you. Curse it and it will curse you. If you put your condemnation upon anything in life, it will hit back at you and hurt you. If you bless any situation, it has no power to hurt you, and even if it is troublesome for a time it will gradually fade out.

Bless your body. If there is anything wrong with a particular organ, bless that organ. Bless your home. Bless your business. Bless your associates. Turn any seeming enemies into friends by blessing them. Bless the climate. Bless the town, and the state, and the country.

Bless a thing and it will bless you.

So shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth: it shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it. (Isaiah 55:11).

Words are more powerful than bullets. The words of Hitler caused six million Jews to be exterminated. The words of Christ became the world-wide religion of the Holy Roman Empire in a mere five hundred years . That religion, which started with twelve unremarkable, ordinary people ultimately stretched from Ireland to India in the ancient world.

Words to the wise,
Z gardener

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What you think upon grows. This is an Eastern maxim, and it sums up neatly the greatest and most fundamental of all the laws of mind.

What you think upon grows. Whatever you allow to occupy your mind you magnify in your own life. Whether the subject of your thought be good or bad, the law works and the condition grows. Any subject that you keep out of your mind tends to diminish in your life, because what you do not use atrophies.

The more you think about your grievances or the injustices that you have suffered, the more such trials will you continue to receive; the more you think of the good fortune you have had, the more good fortune will come to you.

This is the basic, fundamental, all-inclusive law of mind, and actually all psychological and metaphysical teaching is little more than commentary upon this. What you think upon grows.

Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things. (Philippians 4:8).

What, in our garden will we grow? Will we till forgiveness into our soil or plow old hurts up into new furrows? Will we sew peace and love or plant anger and resentment? Will we water it with understanding and compassion or sprinkle it with judgement and condemnation? Will we nurture it with faith and hope or poison it with hate and fear? Will we clear the rows with clarity and charity, or ignore the weeds of confusion and selfishness?

The answers to those questions will determine how our gardening will go, how our gardens will grow and the harvest we will know.

Plant well,
Z gardener

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Every thought is made up of two factors, knowledge and feeling. A thought consists of a piece of knowledge with a charge of feeling, and it is the feeling alone that gives power to the thought. No matter how important or magnificent the knowledge content may be, if there is no feeling attached to it nothing will happen. On the other hand, no matter how unimportant or insignificant the knowledge content may be, if there is a large charge of feeling something will happen.

It makes no difference whether the knowledge content is correct or not as long as you believe it to be correct. Remember that it is what we really believe that matters. A report about something may be quite untrue, but if you believe it, it has the same effect upon you as if it were true; and that effect again will depend upon the quantity of feeling attached to it.

When we understand this law we see the importance of accepting the truth with joy in every phase of our experience.

Thou wilt show me the path of life: in thy presence is fullness of joy. (Psalm 16:11).

To be grateful, thankful, yes even joyful for that which we dislike or that hurts us is indeed a great challenge for most of us. Yet the Bible instructs us to be grateful for all things. The truth stated above describes why we are so instructed and is why faith plays such a critical role in our spiritual life. That spiritual and mental life is what forms and gives substance to our physical reality. We have all heard the stories of the person who fumed about being late to drop off their child at day care, only to be stricken with gratitude later that same day because that it was located in the Murrah Federal building that terrorist destroyed. Although an extreme example, all things in our lives reflect the same truth. We are what we think and believe. Our reality yields to our thoughts and beliefs just as our future is dictated by the same.

Peace inside, peace outside,
Z gardener

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It is an unbreakable mental law that you have to forgive others if you want to demonstrate over your difficulties and to make any real spiritual progress.

The vital importance of forgiveness may not be obvious at first sight, but you may be sure that it is not by chance that every great spiritual teacher from Jesus Christ downward has insisted so strongly upon it.

You must forgive injuries, not just in words, or as a matter of form, but in your heart; and that is the long and the short of it. You do this, not for the other person’s sake, but for your own sake. Resentment, condemnation, anger, desire to see someone punished are things that rot your soul. Such things fasten your troubles to you with rivets. They fetter you to many other problems that actually have nothing whatever to do with the original grievances themselves.

Not rendering evil for evil, or railing for railing; but contrariwise blessing; knowing that ye are thereunto called, that ye should inherit a blessing (1 Peter 3: 9).

Brothers and sisters, we alone hold the key to that which shackles us to our wrongs, hurts, injustices and grievances. Forgiveness, more than any other act, eliminates negativity from our lives and makes room in our gardens for beauty. No matter how justified our anger, how hurt we are, how badly we were treated or how unfairly punished, we are our own prison keeper; only we can keep this dungeon locked.

Rendering love,
Z gardener

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Practice makes perfect. This familiar proverb embodies one of the great laws of human nature and “being a law” it is never under any circumstances broken.

There is simply no significant achievement without practice and the more practice, provided it is done intelligently, the greater will the proficiency be and the sooner will it be attained. It is true in every conceivable branch of human endeavor. Practice is the price of proficiency.

In metaphysics the effects of this law are particularly striking. Thought control is entirely a matter of intelligent practice. And true religion may well be summed up as the Practice of the Presence of God.

Be ye doers of the word, and no hearers only (James 1:22).

With discipline, practice and God’s help we can manage most of our conscious thoughts. We do not have the ability to prevent all thoughts and emotions that spring from our subconscious or conscious mind. However, we do have total control on which thoughts and feelings we embrace, nurture or allow to linger. This is where the practice of thought and emotion control make a fundamental, essential and pivotal impact in the practice of the presence of God. A simple technique for flicking a burring ember of negativism from our consciousness is to to use the law of substitution. Simply focus our thoughts on God instead of the undesired issue.

Practicing, practicing, practicing,
Z gardener

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As soon as the subconscious mind accepts any idea, it immediately begins trying to put it into effect. It uses all its resources (and these are far greater than is commonly supposed) to that end. It uses every bit of knowledge that you have ever collected, most of which you have totally forgotten, to bring about its purpose. It mobilizes the many mental powers that you possess, most of which you never consciously use. It draws on the unlimited energy of the race mind. It lines up all the laws of nature as they operate both inside and outside of you, to get its way.

Sometimes it succeeds in its purpose immediately. Sometimes it takes a little time, sometimes it takes a long time; but if the thing is not utterly impossible, the subconscious will bring it about; once it accepts the idea.

This law is true for both good and bad ideas. This law, when used negatively, brings sickness, trouble, and failure; and when used positively, brings healing, freedom, and success. We give the orders; the subconscious does the work.

His secret is with the righteous (Proverbs 3:32).

How do we program our subconscious? We do so by where we direct our conscious thoughts, feelings desires and goals. That which we affirm, think about, talk about, wish for, visualize or daydream about is what we attract. “As a man thinketh, so is he”. That is why thought discipline is the key to the reality we build for ourselves. Yesterday we discussed a technique for relaxation before our mental work. Here is a simple, pleasant and healthy way to program our subconscious before we attain full thought discipline (or to help achieve it).

Peace,
Z gardener

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Another of the great mental laws is the Law of Relaxation. In all mental working effort defeats itself. This is just the opposite of what we find on the physical plane, but it will not surprise us because we know that in many cases the laws of mind are the reverse of the laws of matter.

On the physical plane, the harder you press a drill the faster will it go through a plank. The harder you hammer a nail the sooner does it go into the wall. But any attempt at mental pressure is foredoomed to failure because the moment tension begins, the mind stops working creatively. When you try to force things mentally, when you try to hurry mentally, you simply stop your creative power.

In all mental working be relaxed, gentle, and unhurried for effort defeats itself.

In quietness and in confidence shall be your strength. (Isaiah 30:15).

Before beginning any mental work, prayer, meditation, visualization or working through issues of any kind, one should begin with a period of relaxation. One of the simplest methods to achieve a relaxed state is deep breathing. If one takes just three full, slow deep breaths in through the nose and exhales slowly, fully fully and deeply through the mouth, they would be amazed at the relaxing effects of it. This short exercise works well in any situations when one needs to calm themselves such as when they have to speak publicly. Repeating this ten times will change one’s entire metabolism and release much stress and tension. The next step is to close one’s eyes and clear their minds of all worldly concerns and thoughts: just let go and give the mind a few moments off work. Then, relax your physical body from head to toe by flexing and releasing the muscles starting with the face working down. It is in this quiet state that one then is ready to accomplish their mental work.

Letting go,
Z gardener

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