1
chapter one
of the mastery of destiny by james allen
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recording by andrea fiore the mastery of
destiny by james allen
chapter 1 deeds character
and destiny there is and always has been
a widespread belief in fate or destiny
that is in an eternal and inscrutable
power
which apportions definite ends to both
individuals and nations
this belief has arisen from long
observation of the facts of life
men are conscious that there are certain
occurrences which they cannot control
and are powerless to avert birth and
death for instance
are inevitable and many of the incidents
of life appear equally inevitable
men strain every nerve for the
attainment of certain ends
and gradually they become conscious of a
power
which seems to be not of themselves
which frustrates their puny efforts
and laughs as it were at their fruitless
striving and struggle
as men advance in life they learn to
submit
more or less to this overruling power
which they do not understand perceiving
only its effects in themselves and the
world around them
and they call it by various names such
as god
providence fate destiny
etc men of contemplation
such as poets and philosophers step
aside as it were
to watch the movements of this
mysterious power
as it seems to elevate its favorites on
the one hand
and strike down its victims on the other
without reference to merit or demerit
the greatest poets especially the
dramatic poets
represent this power in their works as
they have observed it in nature
the greek and roman dramatists usually
depict their heroes as having
foreknowledge of their fate
and taking means to escape it but by so
doing
they blindly involve themselves in a
series of consequences
which bring about the doom they are
trying to avert
shakespeare's characters on the other
hand
are represented as in nature with no
foreknowledge
except in the form of presentment of
their particular destiny
thus according to the poets whether the
man knows his fate or not
he cannot avert it and every conscious
or unconscious act of his
is a step towards it omar kyam's
moving finger is a vivid expression of
this idea of fate
the moving finger writes and having writ
moves on nor all thy piety nor wit
shall lure it back to cancel half a line
nor all thy tears wash out a word of it
thus men in all nations and times have
experienced in their lives
the action of this invincible power or
law
and in our nation today this experience
has been crystallized in the terse
proverb
man proposes god disposes
but contradictory as it may appear there
is an equally widespread belief in man's
responsibility as a free agent
all moral teaching is an affirmation of
man's freedom
to choose his course and mold his
destiny
and man's patient and untiring efforts
in achieving his
ends are declarations of consciousness
of freedom and power this dual
experience of fate on the one hand
and freedom on the other has given rise
to the interminable controversy
between the believers in fatalism and
the upholders of free will
a controversy which was recently revived
under the term
determinism versus free will
between apparently conflicting extremes
there is always a middle way
of balance justice or compensation
which while it includes both extremes
cannot be said to be either one or the
other
and brings both into harmony and this
middle way
is the point of contact between two
extremes
truth cannot be a partisan but by its
nature
is the reconciler of extremes and so in
the matter which we are considering
there is a golden mean which brings fate
and free will
into close relationship wherein indeed
it is seen that these two indisputable
facts in human life
for such they are are but two aspects of
one central law
one unifying and all-embracing principle
namely the law of causation in its moral
aspect
moral causation necessitates both fate
and free will
both individual responsibility and
individual predestination
for the law of causes must also be the
law of effects
and cause and effect must always be
equal the train of causation
both in matter and mind must be
eternally balanced
therefore eternally just eternally
perfect
thus every effect may be said to be a
thing preordained
but the predetermining power is a cause
and not the fiat of an arbitrary will
man finds himself involved in the train
of causation
his life is made up of causes and
effects
it is both a sowing and a reaping each
act of his is a cause
which must be balanced by its effects
he chooses the cause this is free will
he cannot choose alter or avert the
effect
this is fate thus free will stands for
the power to initiate
causes and destiny is involvement and
effects
it is therefore true that man is
predestined to certain ends
but he himself has though he knows it
not
issued the mandate that good or evil
thing
from which there is no escape he has
by his own deeds brought about
it may here be urged that man is not
responsible for his deeds
that these are the effects of his
character and that he is not responsible
for the character
good or bad which was given him at his
birth
if character was given him at birth this
would be true
and there would then be no moral law and
no need for moral teaching
but characters are not given ready made
they are evolved
they are indeed effects the products of
the moral law itself
that is the products of deeds
character result of an accumulation of
deeds which have piled up
so to speak by the individual during his
life
man is the doer of his own deeds as such
he is the maker of his own character
and as the doer of his deeds and the
maker of his character
he is the moulder and shaper of his
destiny
he has the power to modify and alter his
deeds
and every time he acts he modifies his
character
and with the modification of his
character for good or evil
he is predetermining for himself new
destinies
destiny's disastrous or beneficent
in accordance with the nature of his
deeds
character is destiny itself as a fixed
combination of deeds
it bears within itself the results of
those deeds
these results lie hidden as moral seeds
in the dark recesses of the character
awaiting their season of germination
growth
and fruitage those things which befall a
man are the reflections of himself
that destiny which pursued him which he
was powerless to escape by effort
or avert by prayer was the relentless
ghoul
of his own wrong deeds demanding and
enforcing restitution
those blessings and curses which come to
him unbidden
are the reverberating echoes of the
sounds which he himself sent forth
it is this knowledge of the perfect law
working through and above all things
of the perfect justice operating in and
adjusting all human affairs
that enables the good man to love his
enemies
and to rise above all hatred resentment
and complaining for he knows that only
his own can come to him
and that though he be surrounded by
persecutors
his enemies are but the blind
instruments of a faultless retribution
and so he blames them not but calmly
receives his accounts
and patiently pays his moral debts
but this is not all he does not merely
pay his debts
he takes care not to contract any
further deaths
he watches himself and makes his deeds
faultless
while paying off evil accounts he is
laying up good accounts
by putting an end to his own sin he is
bringing
evil and suffering to an end and now let
us consider
how the law operates in particular
instances
in the outworking of destiny through
deeds and character
first we will look at this present life
for the present is a synthesis of the
entire past
the net result of all that a man has
ever thought and done
is contained within him it is noticeable
that sometimes the good man
fails and the unscrupulous man prospers
a fact which seems to put all moral
maxims
as to the good results of righteousness
out of account
and because of this many people deny the
operation of any just law and human life
and even declare that it is chiefly the
unjust that prosper
nevertheless the moral law exists and is
not altered or subverted
by shallow conclusions it should be
remembered that man is a changing
evolving being
the good man was not always good the bad
man was not always bad
even in this life there was a time in a
large number of instances
when the man who is now just was unjust
when he who is now kind was cruel
when he who is now pure was impure
conversely
there was a time in this life in a
number of instances
when he who is now unjust was just
when he who is now cruel was kind
when he who is now impure was pure
thus the good man who was overtaken with
calamity today
is reaping the result of his former evil
sowing
later he will reap the happy result of
his present good sowing
while the bad man is now reaping the
result of his former good sowing
later he will reap the result of his
present sowing of bad
characteristics are fixed habits of mind
the results of deeds
an act repeated a large number of times
becomes unconscious
or automatic that is it seems to repeat
itself without any effort on the part of
the doer
so that it seems to him almost
impossible not to do it
and then it has become a mental
characteristic
here is a poor man out of work he is
honest
and is not a shirker he wants work
and cannot get it he tries hard
and continues to fail where is the
justice in his lot
there was a time in this man's condition
when he had plenty of work
he felt burdened with it he shirked it
and longed for ease he thought how
delightful it would be to have nothing
to do
he did not appreciate the blessedness of
his lot
his desire for ease is now gratified but
the fruit for which he longed
and which he thought would taste so
sweet has turned to ashes in his mouth
the condition which he aimed for namely
to have nothing to do he has reached
and there he is compelled to remain till
his lesson is thoroughly learned
and he is surely learning that habitual
ease is degrading
that to have nothing to do is a
condition of wretchedness
and that work is a noble and blessed
thing
his former desires and deeds have
brought him where he is
and now his present desire for work his
ceaseless searching and asking for it
will just as surely bring about its own
beneficent result
no longer desiring idleness his present
condition
will as an effect the cause of which is
no longer propagated
soon pass away and he will obtain
employment
and if his whole mind is now set on work
and he desires it above all
else then when it comes he will be
overwhelmed with it
it will flow into him from all sides and
he will prosper in his industry
then if he does not understand the law
of cause and effect in human life
he will wonder why work comes to him
apparently unsought
while others who seek it strenuously
fail to obtain it
nothing comes unbidden where the shadow
is
there also is the substance that which
comes to the individual
is the product of his own deeds as
cheerful industry leads to greater
industry and increasing prosperity
and labor shirked or undertaken
discontentedly
leads to a lesser degree of labor and
decreasing prosperity
so with all the varied conditions of
life as we see them
they are the destinies wrought by the
thoughts and deeds of each particular
individual
so also with the vast variety of
characters
they are the ripening and ripened fruit
of the sowing of deeds
as the individual reaps what he sows so
the
nation being a community of individuals
reaps also what it sows
nations become great when their leaders
are just men
they fall and fade when their just men
pass away
those who are in power set an example
good or bad
for the entire nation great will be the
peace and prosperity of a nation
when there shall arise within it a line
of statesmen
who having first established themselves
in a lofty integrity of character
shall direct the energies of the nation
toward the culture of virtue and
development of character
knowing that only through personal
industry integrity
and nobility can national prosperity
proceed
still above all is the great law
calmly and with infallible justice
meeting out to morals their fleeting
destinies
tears stained or smiling the fabric of
their hands
life is a great school for the
development of character
and all through strife and struggle vice
and virtue
success and failure are slowly but
surely
learning the lessons of wisdom
end of chapter 1 recording by andrea
fiore
