The Pathway of Roses/The Golden Path to Increase

by Christian D. Larson

CHAPTER XIV

THE GOLDEN PATH TO INCREASE

For whosoever hath, to him shall be given, and he shall have abundance, but whosoever hath not, from him shall be taken away even that which he hath.—Mat 13:12.

The real element of possession exists in consciousness. What we possess in consciousness we inevitably will gain in the personal life; and no matter how well secured our external possessions may be, the moment we begin to feel in conscious that we may lose them, our hold on those things will weaken, and external loss will shortly begin unless this adverse state of mind is immediately changed.

To consciously feel that everything that you need or desire is for you—in brief, actually belongs to you in the real, is to be among those that hath, even though you may, at present, be empty handed in the external world. To you shall be given, and you shall have abundance both in spiritual possessions and in visible possessions. But to consciously feel that you do not have real or permanent possession of anything, is to be among those that hath not, even though you may have visible wealth in great measure. From you shall be taken away, and those external possessions that you seem to have shall pass to other hands.

This law is universal in its application and holds true in all matters, be they physical, mental or spiritual. The secret of gaining more on any plane is to consciously feel that you have more. Enter into the hath state of mind. Whether you desire life, health, power, wisdom, spirituality or greater abundance in external things, train your consciousness to feel that you have the real substance of the thing desired. Do not judge according to appearances, but continue to inwardly feel the possession of that which you claim as your possession.

When the mind enters the feeling of conscious possession, the first gain is the fuller possession of yourself and your powers; you immediately begin to feel stronger; this will strengthen and enlarge your consciousness of gain, which in turn, will increase the power of accumulation that has begun in your system. You thus not only become larger and stronger in your own nature, but you gain a more powerful hold upon everything with which you may come in contact. You awaken greater and superior qualities in your own mind and soul, and you inspire faith and confidence in the minds of others. You thus create those advantages and essentials, both in the within and in the without, that are conducive to gain.

When the mind enters the fear of loss and begins to feel that there is going to be loss, the first loss is the loss of self-possession. You lose your hold upon your own powers, and, in consequence, begin to weaken. Your faculties fail to do their best, your work becomes inferior, your personality does not attract as it did, and your power to inspire confidence in others, is on the wane. You suffer loss in all things, physical, mental and spiritual, and you are daily losing ground. Finally, everything that you seemed to possess is taken away. But the loss began in your own consciousness, and you could have stopped it there if you had known how.

The losing tendency can be stopped at any stage, but the only place where it can be immediately stopped is at its first appearance in consciousness. When you begin to feel that there is danger of loss, or when the general indications seem to predict loss, remove that feeling at once. Refuse to think of loss; refuse to admit the possibility of loss; refuse to recognize loss in any form whatever. Proceed to claim your own; give all the power of mind and thought to the great truth that you do possess now, in the real, everything that you can possibly need or desire. Give full recognition to the boundlessness of your own spiritual riches, and live in the conviction that whatever you claim possession of in the within you will gain possession of in the without.

The tide will turn before any real loss takes place; and instead of falling back into the world of the ones that hath not, you will advance farther into the richness of that world where dwell the ones that hath. In consequence, to you will be given, and you will have more than you ever had before. This method should be used with faith and perseverance whenever there is the least indication of loss; negative conditions should be replaced with positive conditions, fear should be annihilated by faith, and every downward tendency should be converted into a strong ascending tendency.

To live in the "hath" state of mind and grow steadily in the conscious feeling of possession, continuous growth in spirituality will be required. It is only through spirituality that we can grasp the reality of the inner substance of things, and we must gain consciousness of the inner substance of life before we can master those forces that make for perpetual increase in life.

To live in the "hath" state of mind it is also necessary to advance constantly into a deeper and larger conscious possession of those things that we already possess in abundance. There can be no inaction in consciousness; if we are not going forward into the larger and the more perfect we are going back and down into the lesser. Therefore, no matter how much power we actually possess, we should daily claim conscious possession of more; no matter how perfect our health may be, we should daily enter into the consciousness of higher perfections of health. When we cease to grow in health we prepare the system for sickness, but so long as we grow in health, sickness will be impossible.

The same law is applicable both to external possessions and spiritual possessions. To retain what we have we must daily develop the consciousness of more. The moment we decide to be satisfied with what we have we will begin to lose what we have. There is no limit to the riches of the kingdom of life, and it is the will of God that man shall enjoy more and more of these riches, every day, so long as eternity shall continue to be. And to do the will of God is to bring the highest happiness to man.

That the love of money is the root of all evil is true, providing we give the statement its true and full significance. When we speak of money we do not mean those things simply that pass for money, but we mean all external possessions. When we love external possessions the heart is in the without and not in the spirit as it always should be to be in the truth. When the heart is in external things, we begin to live for things; the mind comes to the surface and consequently becomes shallow and material. The mind that lives on the surface is not in touch with the deep things of life, is not conscious of the inner light of truth, and is therefore in darkness. To be in darkness is to go wrong, and to go wrong is to create evil. Every mind that is not led by the inner light of the spirit will go wrong; in fact, every wrong act comes because the mind follows external darkness instead of internal light; and it is only the love of other things that draws the mind out into the darkness of things. So long as we love the spirit the mind is in touch with the spirit and is illumined by the light of the spirit. When we are in this light we will not go wrong, we will not commit evil, because we can see the right, and we can see that the right is the very thing we have desired, longed for, prayed for.

The more deeply we love the inner life and the riches of the spirit, the more spiritual and illumined we become; accordingly, we can see more and more clearly how to do all things as they should be done; our mistakes will decrease, and wrongs and evil will disappear. To love the life is to enter into the spirit of truth, and in the truth there is freedom—freedom from sickness, evil, weakness and want. Evil can grow only in materiality; and materiality is produced simply by our own confused thinking. But when we are in touch with the spiritual life within, our thinking is not confused; we are then in the light of truth, and we think the truth. In consequence, we no longer produce the darkness and discord of materiality; instead we produce the peace and the harmony of spirituality, and all is well.

When your treasure, that is, that which you love the best, is in the without, in the earth, earthy, your whole life will be in the earth, earthy. You will thus live continually in wrong thought because you do not see how to create right thought. All mental light, even the light of reason, comes from within; therefore, when the mind is so absorbed in outer things that it ignores completely the within, all thinking will be more or less at variance with truth, and evils must necessarily follow. But when your treasure is in the spirit, and you love the riches of the soul better than anything else, you will live on the mountain top. You will dwell in realms sublime, in the very light of His infinite wisdom; all your thinking will be illumined with that light; you will thus think only the truth, and he produces no evil who always thinks the truth.

To lay up treasures in heaven is not to prepare for a heaven in the future, but to accumulate greater and greater spiritual riches now. That soul that is attaining real spiritual wisdom, that is growing daily in the love that loves everything, that is living in the peace that passeth understanding, that is being filled more and more with life and power from on high, that is gaining conscious realization of all the divine elements of pure, spiritual being—that soul is laying up treasures in heaven. Such a soul is actually coming into possession of those superior riches now, and is learning to use them to-day for the glory of God and the emancipation of man.

To become a strong soul, to attain the mastery of the spirit, to become a living inspiration to all the world, to unfold all that is lofty and beautiful and sublime in the spiritual life, to realize the joy everlasting and draw nearer and nearer to the Christ state—that is the purpose of him who is laying up treasures in heaven. And when we possess spirituality with all its qualities of high worth, we have the riches of all riches; we have that something that can produce all riches, not only in the spirit, but also in mind and body. That person who has found the riches of the within need never have any fear of external loss. Though all might disappear in the without, still, being in touch with the source of all supply, he could at once begin to regain everything. When we are in the spirit we are upon the solid rock of all good; we possess the key to unbounded riches on all planes, and so long as we live in the spirit we shall not lose that key. When one door closes we can open another, sometimes several, and all that the heart can wish for shall always be ours to possess and enjoy. When we are in the spirit, we not only possess the riches of the spirit—those riches that actually make every moment of existence a full realization of the highest joys of life—but we also possess the power to supply the without abundantly, being in perfect touch with the Giver of all that is good in the world.

There is no truth in the belief that we must necessarily relinquish external possessions the moment we begin to lay up treasures in heaven. That power that produces the riches of the spirit, can, and will, produce abundance in the external world as well. All outer things will invariably be added when the kingdom within is sought—actually sought, and sought first, not only at first but always. So long as we seek only the treasures of earth we get but little of those treasures, while we get an overabundance of the suffering and pain of material existence. But when we begin to lay up treasures in heaven, we obtain the peace, the joy, the contentment, the health, the strength, the wisdom, the power and the life we so greatly desire; in addition, we obtain higher spiritual possessions without number, and an abundance of everything that is necessary to make the outer life full and complete.

Live eternally in conscious unity with the Infinite; have faith in God, have faith in humanity, have faith in yourself; then live, think and act according to principles only, and there is nothing you may not accomplish.

Great deeds in life are invariably brought about by higher power. And if we would be constantly in touch with higher power, we must live in the perfect faith and consciousness of the great spiritual within, where higher power has its center and throne. This, however, is not possible so long as we think more of the person than of the soul. To be centred in the spirit we must live in the spirit, and give the spirit our first thought at all times. Then we shall be filled with the supreme power of the spirit, and our strength, both in mind and body, shall be daily renewed from on high.

"Resist not him that is evil," The true path to emancipation is to give so much thought, life and attention to the building of the good that we have not the time to even think of evil. Then evil will die for want of nourishment. The mind that is absolutely full of a strong, spiritual building power, has no room whatever for evil conditions of any kind.