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The Game of Life and How to Play It, by Florence Scovel Shinn, [1925], at sacred-texts.com
"Resist not evil. Be not overcome of evil,
but overcome evil with good."
Nothing on earth can resist an absolutely nonresistant person.
The Chinese say that water is the most powerful element, because it is perfectly nonresistant. It can wear away a rock, and sweep all before it.
Jesus Christ said, "Resist not evil," for He knew in reality, there is no evil, therefore nothing to resist. Evil has come of man's "vain imagination," or a belief in two powers, good and evil.
There is an old legend, that Adam and Eve ate of "Maya the Tree of Illusion," and saw two powers instead of one power, God.
Therefore, evil is a false law man has made for himself, through psychoma or soul sleep. Soul sleep means, that man's soul has been hypnotized by the race belief (of sin, sickness and death, etc.) which is carnal or mortal thought, and his affairs have out-pictured his illusions.
We have read in a preceding chapter, that man's soul is his subconscious mind, and whatever he feels deeply, good or bad, is outpictured by that faithful servant. His body and affairs show forth what he has been picturing. The sick man has pictured sickness, the poor man, poverty, the rich man, wealth.
People often say, "why does a little child attract illness, when it is too young even to know what it means?"
I answer that children are sensitive and receptive to the thoughts of others about them, and often outpicture the fears of their parents.
I heard a metaphysician once say, "If you do not run your subconscious mind yourself, someone else will run it for you."
Mothers often, unconsciously, attract illness and disaster to their children, by continually holding them in thoughts of fear, and watching for symptoms.
For example: A friend asked a woman if her little girl had had the measles. She replied promptly, "not yet!" This implied that she was expecting the illness, and, therefore, preparing the way for what she did not want for herself and child.
However, the man who is centered and established in right thinking, the man who sends out only good-will to his fellow-man, and who is without fear, cannot be touched or influenced by the negative thoughts of others. In fact, he could then receive only good thoughts, as he himself, sends forth only good thoughts.
Resistance is Hell, for it places man in a "state of torment."
A metaphysician once gave me a wonderful recipe for taking every trick in the game of life, it is the acme of nonresistance. He gave it in this way; "At one time in my life, I baptized children, and of course, they had many names. Now I no longer baptize children, but I baptize events, but I give every event the same name. If I have a failure I baptize it success, in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost!"
In this, we see the great law of transmutation, founded on nonresistance. Through his spoken word, every failure was transmuted into success.
For example: A woman who required money, and who knew the spiritual law of opulence, was thrown continually in a business-way, with a man who made her feel very poor. He talked lack and limitation and she commenced to catch his poverty thoughts, so she disliked him, and blamed him for her failure. She knew in order to demonstrate her supply, she must first feel that she had received—a feeling of opulence must precede its manifestation.
It dawned upon her, one day, that she was resisting the situation, and seeing two powers instead of one. So she blessed the man and baptized the situation "Success"! She affirmed, "As there is only one power, God, this man is here for my good and my prosperity" (just what he did not seem to be there for). Soon after that she met, through this man, a woman who gave her for a service rendered, several thousand dollars, and the man moved to a distant city, and faded harmoniously from her life. Make the statement, "Every man is a golden link in the chain of my good," for all men are God in manifestation, awaiting the opportunity given by man, himself, to serve the divine plan of his life.
"Bless your enemy, and you rob him of his ammunition." His arrows will be transmuted into blessings.
This law is true of nations as well as individuals. Bless a nation, send love and good-will to every inhabitant, and it is robbed of its power to harm.
Man can only get the right idea of nonresistance, through spiritual understanding. My students have often said: "I don't want to be a door-mat." I reply "when you use nonresistance with wisdom, no one will ever be able to walk over you."
Another example: One day I was impatiently awaiting an important telephone call. I resisted every call that came in and made no out-going calls myself, reasoning that it might interfere with the one I was awaiting.
Instead of saying, "Divine ideas never conflict, the call will come at the right time," leaving it to Infinite Intelligence to arrange, I commenced to manage things myself—I made the battle mine, not God's and remained tense and anxious. The bell did not ring for about an hour, and I glanced at the ’phone and found the receiver had been off that length of time, and the ’phone was disconnected. My anxiety, fear and belief in interference, had brought on a total eclipse of the telephone. Realizing what I had done, I commenced blessing the situation at once; I baptized it "success," and affirmed, "I cannot lose any call that belongs to me by divine right; I am under grace, and not under law."
A friend rushed out to the nearest telephone, to notify the Company to reconnect.
She entered a crowded grocery, but the proprietor left his customers and attended to the call himself. My ’phone was connected at once, and two minutes later, I received a very important call, and about an hour afterward, the one I had been awaiting.
One's ships come in over a calm sea.
So long as man resists a situation, he will have it with him. If he runs away from it, it will run after him.
For example: I repeated this to a woman one day, and she replied, "How true that is! I was unhappy at home, I disliked my mother, who was critical and domineering; so I ran away and was married—but I married my mother, for my husband was exactly like my mother, and I had the same situation to face again." "Agree with thine adversary quickly."
That means, agree that the adverse situation is good, be undisturbed by it, and it falls away of its own weight. "None of these things move me," is a wonderful affirmation.
The inharmonious situation comes from some inharmony within man himself.
When there is, in him, no emotional response to an inharmonious situation, it fades away forever, from his pathway.
So we see man's work is ever with himself.
People have said to me, "Give treatments to change my husband, or my brother." I reply, "No, I will give treatments to change you; when you change, your husband and your brother will change."
One of my students was in the habit of lying. I told her it was a failure method and if she lied, she would be lied to. She replied, "I don't care, I can't possibly get along without lying."
One day she was speaking on the ’phone to a man with whom she was very much in love. She turned to me and said, "I don't trust him, I know he's lying to me." I replied, "Well, you lie yourself, so someone has to lie to you, and you will be sure it will be just the person you want the truth from." Some time after that, I saw her, and she said, "I'm cured of lying."
I questioned: "What cured you?"
She replied: "I have been living with a woman who lied worse than I did!"
One is often cured of his faults by seeing them in others.
Life is a mirror, and we find only ourselves reflected in our associates.
Living in the past is a failure method and a violation of spiritual law.
Jesus Christ said, "Behold, now is the accepted time." "Now is the day of Salvation."
Lot's wife looked back and was turned into a pillar of salt.
The robbers of time are the past and the future. Man should bless the past, and forget it, if it keeps him in bondage, and bless the future, knowing it has in store for him endless joys, but live fully in the now.
For example: A woman came to me, complaining that she had no money with which to buy Christmas gifts. She said, "Last year was so different; I had plenty of money and gave lovely presents, and this year I have scarcely a cent."
I replied, "You will never demonstrate money while you are pathetic and live in the past. Live fully in the now, and get ready to give Christmas presents. Dig your ditches, and the money will come." She exclaimed, "I know what to do! I will buy some tinsel twine, Christmas seals and wrapping paper." I replied, "Do that, and the presents will come and stick themselves to the Christmas seals."
This too, was showing financial fearlessness and faith in God, as the reasoning mind said, "Keep every cent you have, as you are not sure you will get any more."
She bought the seals, paper and twine, and a few days before Christmas, received a gift of several hundred dollars. Buying the seals and twine had impressed the subconscious with expectancy, and opened the way for the manifestation of the money. She purchased all the presents in plenty of time.
Man must live suspended in the moment.
"Look well, therefore, to this Day! Such is the salutation of the Dawn."
He must be spiritually alert, ever awaiting his leads, taking advantage of every opportunity.
One day, I said continually (silently), "Infinite Spirit, don't let me miss a trick," and something very important was told to me that evening. It is most necessary to begin the day with right words.
Make an affirmation immediately upon waking.
For example:
"Thy will be done this day! Today is a day of completion; I give thanks for this perfect day, miracle shall follow miracle and wonders shall never cease."
Make this a habit, and one will see wonders and miracles come into his life.
One morning I picked up a book and read, "Look with wonder at that which is before you!" It seemed to be my message for the day, so I repeated again and again, "Look with wonder at that which is before you."
At about noon, a large sum of money, was given me, which I had been desiring for a certain purpose.
In a following chapter, I will give affirmations that I have found most effective. However, one should never use an affirmation unless it is absolutely satisfying and convincing to his own consciousness, and often an affirmative is changed to suit different people.
For example: The following has brought success to many:
"I have a wonderful work, in a wonderful way, I give wonderful service, for wonderful pay!"
I gave the first two lines to one of my students, and she added the last two.
It made a most powerful statement, as there should always be perfect payment for perfect service, and a rhyme sinks easily into the subconscious. She went about singing it aloud and soon did receive wonderful work in a wonderful way, and gave wonderful service for wonderful pay.
Another student, a business man, took it, and changed the word work to business.
He repeated, "I have a wonderful business, in a wonderful way, and I give wonderful service for wonderful pay." That afternoon he made a forty-one-thousand dollar deal, though there had been no activity in his affairs for months.
Every affirmation must be carefully worded and completely "cover the ground."
For example: I knew a woman, who was in great need, and made a demand for work. She received a great deal of work, but was never paid anything. She now knows to add, "wonderful service for wonderful pay."
It is man's divine right to have plenty! More than enough!
"His barns should be full, and his cup should flow over!" This is God's idea for man, and when man breaks down the barriers of lack in his own consciousness, the Golden Age will be his, and every righteous desire of his heart fulfilled!