I love the writings of Genevieve Behrend, who is the only student the famous philosopher and metaphysical teacher Thomas Troward ever had. In her book called “Attaining Your Desires” from 1929, Ms. Behrend shares many of the lessons she learned from Troward, in a format that recreates a private classroom, in which we can be the “pupil” asking questions while Troward is the “sage” helping us to discover insight and truths about getting what we want and changing our results.
Here’s a passage I think you’ll enjoy, and after you’ve read it, I suggest taking a moment to think about what it means to you. Perhaps this is the first time you’ve considered the truth that you are the center of your own world, and you create the reality you experience. Evelyn. Now here’s Genevieve:
HOW YOU CAN CONTROL CIRCUMSTANCES AND ERRONEOUS CONDITIONS
SAGE: In essence they are the same. You are able to control the circumstances and conditions relative to your individual world, of which you are the center, by making your thoughts and feelings correspondent in quality (at least in a degree) to what you believe are those of the originating, intelligent forces of life.
PUPIL: Is it true that the life in me contains everything that I, as an individual, could ever require? Are my thoughts and feelings the centralizing power of my particular world? If so, then [Robert] Browning explains the situation when he says, “We carry within us the wonders we seek without us.” If I know and practice this great fact, the wonder of Life’s understanding power will come forth in me by its own divine right, and assume command over all my problems in exactly the same degree that I recognize it. Is that correct?
SAGE: Yes, Browning has voiced the truth in that sentence. The divine Principle in you is complete, and is the only Life there is. But this should not lead you into the error of believing that you are not to exert yourself. Remember that the life-germ in you is an Intelligence which can call into specific action all of life’s forces from out the entire universe, but it can only work through your intelligence in correspondence to what you confidently believe it can and will do. Therefore, be practical in your reasoning, and diligent in your deeds.
Suppose I give you an example: You have a glass of dirty water. In order to have the clear water, you would continue to pour the clean water into the glass of dirty water until every drop of the dirty water had flowed out of it, wouldn’t you? The same rule applies to adverse conditions. Pour into them a steady stream of confidence in the power of God in you to change them, and they will change, correspondingly.