wn creating. For this reason
our thought must be so grounded upon knowledge that we shall _feel_
the truth of it, and thus be able to produce in ourselves that mental
attitude of feeling which corresponds to the condition which we desire
to externalise.

We cannot think into manifestation a different sort of life to that
which we realise in ourselves. As Horace says, "_Nemo dat quod non
habet_," we cannot give what we have not got. And, on the other hand, we
can never cease creating forms of some sort by our mental activity,
thinking life into them. This point must be very carefully noted. We
cannot sit still producing nothing: the mental machinery _will_ keep on
turning out work of some sort, and it rests with us to determine of what
sort it shall be. In our entire ignorance or imperfect realisation of
this we create negative forms and think life into them. We create forms
of death, sickness, sorrow, trouble, and limitation of all sorts, and
then think life into these forms; with the result that, however
non-existent in themselves, to us they become realities and throw their
shadow across the path which would otherwise be bright with the
many-coloured beauties of innumerable flowers and the glory of the
sunshine.

This need not be. It is giving to the negative an affirmative force
which does not belong to it. Consider what is meant by the negative. It
is the absence of something. It is not-being, and is the absence of all
that constitutes being. Left to itself, it remains in its own
nothingness, and it only assumes form and activity when we give these to
it by our thought.

Here, then, is the great reason for practising control over our thought.
It is the one and only instrument we have to work with, but it is an
instrument which works with the greatest certainty, for limitation if we
think limitation, for enlargement if we think enlargement. Our thought
as feeling is the magnet which draws to us those conditions which
accurately correspond to itself. This is the meaning of the saying that
"thoughts are things." But, you say, how can I think differently from
the circumstances? Certainly you are not required to say that the
circumstances _at the present moment_ are what they are not; to say so
would be untrue; but what is wanted is not to think from the standpoint
of circumstances at all. Think from that interior standpoint where there
are no circumstances, and from whence you can dictate what circumstances
shall be