Corrective Thinking
By Lucille Cedercrans
Lesson 1
This series of
instruction is being written for all those who wish to enter into a
study of meditation but have not sufficient knowledge of terminology
and basic concepts to profit by such a study.
You will note that our title of the series has to do with the Path
of Initiation. I should like to explain what is meant by that
particular term in order for you to understand our realized goal and
purpose of the presentation of this teaching.
The next evolutionary step for humanity is its entry into the Fifth
Kingdom in nature, the conscious Soul incarnate. Man is
differentiated from the animal by his ability to realize self
consciousness. The conscious Soul incarnate is differentiated from
average man by his ability to realize Soul consciousness.
Initiation means a new beginning; in one sense, a birth; a path or
way of least resistance for the birth of the Soul within the
conscious awareness of man.
Our many series of lessons are designed to show man step by step the
way into this new awareness.
The initial step upon the path consists in right thinking, and so we
have subtitled our first series, “Corrective Thinking”.
Thought is the cause of all manifestation. A manifestation is the
appearance of a material form, whether it be that of a child, a
circumstance or situation, or a realized condition.
Each thought we think will take material form in our affairs sooner
or later, depending upon the clarity and strength of that thought.
This may seem difficult to accept at first; for when you consider
the many undesirable things that have happened to you, you wonder
how you could have thought them into existence. To prove the truth
of the statement you only need to think back to those little
everyday annoyances you constantly meet and then remember how you
think in regard to them. As an experiment do this:
Consider something troublesome that is an almost everyday occurrence
and then write down every thought you can remember thinking about
it; as you catch yourself thinking about it at odd times, jot down
these thoughts too. You will soon realize that where this subject is
concerned you are extremely negative in your thinking.
Do not try to trace the big things, the really painful ones yet, for
you are not ready to discover their cause. It lies buried in your
subconscious and takes a different method of discovery.
After you feel you have pretty well dug up the negative thoughts in
regard to this annoyance, deliberately counteract them with positive
thinking. The first step is to stop feeling annoyance and meet the
manifestation with interest. What is it trying to teach you? What
lesson does in contain? Why have you considered it an annoyance in
the first place?
The next and hardest step of all is to love it. Does this surprise
you? Love is the Law of the Universe. It heals, soothes and makes
right. Nothing can stand against love, for love changes the
character of that which we think of as bad to good. Out of bad will
come good if it is met with love.
Then regardless of how undesirable a thing is or even how evil it
appears, learn to love it and remember that one of the basic
concepts of metaphysics is that there is no such thing as evil. It
is only apparent evil and has behind it the purpose of God. “God
works in mysterious ways His wonders to perform”; and who can fathom
His plan or call His manifestations evil? Man may create apparent
evil out of the error in this thinking, but even that is only
apparent and done with the permission of God. God created man and
gave him a will. He gave him a right to exercise that will, knowing
that sooner or later man would understand God’s Will and it would
become his own.
The last step is not so difficult after the second one has been
taken. It just takes a little discipline. With love in your heart,
replace the negative thoughts with positive ones. Write down all of
the opposites to your negative thoughts and think them every time
the subject comes to mind.