by Lucille Cedercrans
By now if you have followed the suggestions in Lesson 3 you realize that your environment exerts a very great influence upon you, and not all of it can be called good from your point of view. I doubt if you have considered anywhere near the entire environment which includes the radio, newspapers, community in which you live, etc., and that is as it should be, for your immediate environment concerns only your sphere of influence. For instance, as you are influenced by others, so also do you influence them and these who are most easily reached by you we say are within your sphere of influence.What kind of influence do you wield upon others? Is it constructive? Is your influence a power for good? That of course will depend upon the way you react to others, whether you are positive or negative and with what degree of determination or strength of will you exercise your influence.
Let us now consider what is meant by a negative thought. A negative thought is always one of denial. If you hate something or someone, you are denying that thing or person the right to your love and so violating the basic relationship between you. The basic relationship between any two people is brotherhood, and is characterized by Love. Everyone has a Divine Right to your love, for all men are your brothers. It makes little difference how that relationship may manifest in the outer world. He may be your blood brother, a friend, husband or even an enemy, but underneath the superficial relationship he is in truth your brother and has a right to your love. To deny that love is to break the Universal Law of Relativity and bring imbalance into your life.
If you do not like a situation, you are denying your own growth. Within every situation is valuable lesson material for you. Remember you have earned, in some way, everything that happens to you; be it pleasant or unpleasant. When a situation is unpleasant, realize that it contains within it a good lesson. Experience is the great teacher and one of God's Laws. We experience that which we create. Learn then to love the situation for what it is, a lesson and grasp its Truth. As soon as you understand the lesson an undesirable experience holds for you, the situation will manifest no longer.
To become a power for good in your environment, you must become positive to it. This means that it does not cause you to react negatively. You do not hate, resent, envy, fear, etc., but rather you love everyone and everything around you.
If you know someone who is full of resentment, how can you help that person? It cannot be done by becoming annoyed with his complaints, by agreeing with his resentment, nor by avoiding or criticizing him. That is what is most commonly done.
First realize that within the heart of all men is good and that recognition of, and concentration upon that good will call it forth. Look for and find the good within him, and then pour forth your love to him. Appeal with love to the good you know is there.
Then realize that within the mind of all men there is intelligence. The mind is, by nature, intelligent; if it appears differently that is because it has not been influenced to think intelligently. No one is by nature "dumb". In some cases the brain cells may have been damaged and in that case the mind is unable to impress the brain with intelligent thought, but in most cases it is simply a lack of right training that causes a person to appear below normal mentality. His mind has been influenced to pick up thoughts which are unintelligible or irrational and his emotions have become perverted due to the denial of love by those around him. All cases of mental instability can be traced back to a great hunger for love.
To help this man, realize that he is, underneath all of the outer resentments, a child of God and therefore good. Realize that he resents because he does not understand and because he hungers for someone to love him. Often he himself has so inhibited his own natural love that he does not know how, and he is hungering to love as much as for it. Even though he does not understand, he is intelligent by nature and has the ability to understand.
Realizing all of this, bring the brother into your heart, loving him because he is your brother. At the same time, think towards him the understanding he needs to rise above his resentments. Do not speak to him until he indicates through some action that he is ready to listen to you. Hold your tongue and think. Then if he asks your advice, give it.
Gradually, one by one, become positive to the conditions within your environment and give your help in the way described above where it is needed.
