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CHAPTER XXIV
DISCIPLINE OF THOUGHT AND REFORM
OF CHARACTER
We have said that thought is creative. It not only acts about us, influencing others for good or ill, but
above all, it acts in us; It generates our words and our actions, and by them constructs each day the glorious or
miserable edifice of our life present and to be. We fashion our soul and its envelope by our thoughts. They
produce forms and images which are printed on the subtle material of which our etheric body is composed. So
little by little our life is peopled with forms frivolous or austere, gracious or terrible, gross or sublime; and the
soul shines with beauty, or grows ugly and repulsive. There is no subject more important than the study of
thought, its powers and its action. It is the initial cause of our elevation or our abasement. It prepares all the
discoveries of science, all the marvels of art, but also all the misery and shamefulness of humanity.
Following its given impulse, it founds or destroys institutions, empires and characters. Man is only
great, save through his thoughts, for by them his works shine and are perpetuated through the centuries.
Psychical research, better than all anterior doctrines, permits us to seize and comprehend all the force of the
projection of thought. We see it acting in spiritual phenomena, which it facilitates or fetters. Its role in
experimental séances is always a considerable one. Telepathy has demonstrated to us that minds can influence
one another at a distance. This is the means which is employed by the humanities in space, to communicate
among themselves across sidereal immensities. In all fields of social activities, in all the domains of worlds
visible or invisible, the action of thought is sovereign. It is no less so in ourselves, and upon ourselves,
rebuilding and modifying constantly our inner nature. The vibrations of our thoughts and words, reiterated in a
uniform manner, drive from us the elements which cannot vibrate in harmony, and attract the elements which
accentuate the tendencies of the being. Often unconsciously a work is elaborated – a thousand mysterious
workmen labor in the shadows. In the depths of the soul an entire destiny is outlined, and the hidden diamond
is polished or marred. If we meditate upon elevated objects, on duty – sacrifice – wisdom – love – our being is
impregnated, little by little, with the quality of our thoughts. That is why ardent, improvised prayer – the
uprising of the soul to infinite powers – has so much virtue. In this solemn dialogue with the being and its
cause, an influx from on high possesses us, and new senses are awakened. The comprehension and
compensations of life augment in us, and we feel better than we can express the gravity and grandeur of the
most humble existences. Prayer – the communion by thought with the spiritual universe, is the reaching of the
soul toward beauty and the eternal verities: it is, for an instant, entrance into spheres of real life - life superior
which has no limit. It, on the contrary, our thoughts are inspired by evil desires, by passion, jealousy, and hate,
the images which they create accumulate in our etheric bodies gross and dark fluids. So we can at will make in
ourselves light or shadow. All the communications from the Beyond tell us this. We are what we think, if we
think with force and persistence and will. But almost always our thoughts pass constantly from on subject to
another, rarely do we think for ourselves, but instead reflect the thousand incoherent thoughts of the
environment where we dwell.
Few men know how to think: how to drink from profound sources - from the great reservoir of
inspiration which each one carries within himself - even the most ignorant. They make for themselves an
envelope peopled with ephemeral forms. Their minds are like a building open to every passer-by. Rays of light
are mingled with shadows in perpetual chaos. It is the incessant combat between duty and passion, where
passion usually wins. Before all other things, to learn how to control our thoughts is most important; how to
discipline and turn them in one direction toward a noble and dignified goal.
The control of thought leads to the control of actions; for if one is good the other will be equally so,
and harmony will regulate our lives. If our acts are good and our thoughts are bad, and we carry in ourselves a
false center, sooner or later the influence of our evil thoughts will fall fatally upon us. Sometimes we see a
striking contradiction between the thoughts, writings, and actions of certain men, and we are led to doubt the
good faith and sincerity of their utterances. But often the acts of these men are but the blind impulsion of
thoughts and forces accumulated in past lives. Their high aspirations presented in their thoughts and words
will be realized in future actions. Without the theory of successive lives, such contradictions of character are
inexplicable.
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