Excerpts of the book « The Game of life and how to play it » by Florence Scovel Shinn

Excerpts of the book « The Game of life and how to play it » by Florence Scovel Shinn

"Whatsoever a man soweth that shall he also reap." This means that whatever man sends out in word or deed, will return to him; what he gives, he will receive. If he gives hate, he will receive hate; if he gives love, he will receive love; if he gives criticism, he will receive criticism; if he lies he will be lied to; if he cheats he will be cheated. We are taught also, that the imaging faculty plays a leading part in the game of life.

Whatever man feels deeply or images clearly, is impressed upon the subconscious mind, and carried out in minutest detail.

The superconscious mind is the God Mind within each man, and is the realm of perfect ideas. In it, is the "perfect pattern" spoken of by Plato, The Divine Design; for there is a Divine Design for each person.

"There is a place that you are to fill and no one else can fill, something you are to do, which no one else can do."

There is a perfect picture of this in the superconscious mind. It usually flashes across the conscious as an unattainable ideal - "something too good to be true."

Jesus Christ said the Kingdom was within man. The Kingdom is the realm of right ideas, or the divine pattern.

Nothing stands between man and his highest ideals and every desire of his heart, but doubt and fear. When man can "wish without worrying," every desire will be instantly fulfilled.

It is man's only enemy - fear of lack, fear of failure, fear of sickness, fear of loss and a feeling of insecurity on some plane. So we can see we must substitute faith for fear, for fear is only inverted faith; it is faith in evil instead of good.

If one asks for success and prepares for failure, he will get the situation he has prepared for. For example: A man came to me asking me to speak the word that a certain debt would be wiped out. I found he spent his time planning what he would say to the man when he did not pay his bill, thereby neutralizing my words. He should have seen himself paying the debt.

Man must prepare for the thing he has asked for, when there isn't the slightest sign of it in sight.

Show you believe in only One Power, God, and that there is no power or reality in evil.

Someone has said that courage contains genius and magic. Face a situation fearlessly, and there is no situation to face; it falls away of its own weight.

Thus the invisible forces are ever working for man who is always "pulling the strings" himself, though he does not know it. Owing to the vibratory power of words, whatever man voices, he begins to attract. People who continually speak of disease, invariably attract it.

What man says of others will be said of him, and what he wishes for another, he is wishing for himself.

Continual criticism produces rheumatism, as critical, inharmonious thoughts cause unnatural deposits in the blood, which settle in the joints.

Unforgiveness is the most prolific cause of disease. It will harden arteries or liver, and affect the eye-sight. In its train are endless ills.

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.

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.

"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.

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."

So long as man resists a situation, he will have it with him. If he runs away from it, it will run after him.

This means, agree that the adverse situation is good, be undisturbed by it, and it falls away of its own weight.

When there is, in him, no emotional response to an inharmonious situation, it fades away forever, from his pathway.

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.

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.

Man receives only that which he gives. The Game of Life is a game of boomerangs. Man's thoughts, deeds and words, return to him sooner or later, with astounding accuracy.

This is the perfect idea of man, registered in Divine Mind, awaiting man's recognition; for man can only be what he sees himself to be, and only attain what he sees himself attaining.

Man sees first his failure or success, his joy or sorrow, before it swings into visibility from the scenes set in his own imagination.

Obedience precedes authority, and the law obeys man when he obeys the law. The law of electricity must be obeyed before it becomes man's servant. When handled ignorantly, it becomes man's deadly foe. So with the laws of Mind!

Christianity is founded upon the law of forgiveness – Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the Karmic law, and the Christ within each man is his Redeemer and Salvation from all inharmonious conditions.

So knowledge of the Law gives man power to "rub out his mistakes." Man cannot force the external to be what he is not.

Many people are in ignorance of the fact that gifts and things are investments, and that hoarding and saving invariably lead to loss.

If man ignores these leadings to spend or to give, the same amount of money will go in an uninteresting or unhappy way.

Man's supply is inexhaustible and unfailing when fully trusted, but faith or trust must precede the demonstration.

Jesus Christ brought the good news (the gospel) that there was a higher law than the law of Karma - and that that law transcends the law of Karma. It is the law of grace, or forgiveness. It is the law which frees man from the law of cause and effect - the law of consequence. "Under grace, and not under law."

We see, therefore, that man violates law if he carries a burden, and a burden is an adverse thought or condition, and this thought or condition has its root in the subconscious.

There is no peace or happiness for man, until he has erased all fear from the subconscious.
Fear is misdirected energy and must be redirected, or transmuted into Faith.

Man should watch himself hourly to detect if his motive for action is fear or faith.

Real love is selfless and free from fear. It pours itself out upon the object of its affection, without demanding any return. Its joy is in the joy of giving.

Man is selfish, tyrannical or fearful in his affections, thereby losing the thing he loves.

You can never receive what you have never given. Give a perfect love and you will receive a
perfect love.

Suffering is not necessary for man's development; it is the result of violation of spiritual law, but few people seem able to rouse themselves from their "soul sleep" without it. When people are happy, they usually become selfish, and automatically the law of Karma is set in action. Man often
suffers loss through lack of appreciation.

Money is God in manifestation, as freedom from want and limitation, but it must be always kept in circulation and put to right uses. Hoarding and saving react with grim vengeance.

In letting it go out fearlessly and cheerfully he opens the way for more to come in, for God is man's unfailing and inexhaustible supply.

All disease, all unhappiness, come from the violation of the law of love. Man's boomerangs of hate, resentment and criticism, come back laden with sickness and sorrow.

Infinite Spirit, open the way for my immediate supply, let all that is mine by divine right
now reach me, in great avalanches of abundance.

"Give me a difinite lead, let me know if there is anything for me to do."

Giving opens the way for receiving. In order to create activity in finances, one should give.

The tenth-part goes forth and returns blessed and multiplied. But the gift or tithe must be given with love and cheerfulness, for "God loveth a cheerful giver." Bills should be paid cheerfully, all money should be sent forth fearlessly and with a blessing.

This attitude of mind makes man master of money. It is his to obey, and his spoken word then opens vast reservoirs of wealth.

Many people have attracted disease and unhappiness through condemnation of others.
What man condemns in others, he attracts to himself.

Man picks up a live-wire whenever he criticises or condemns, and may expect a shock.

Indecision is a stumbling-block in many a pathway. In order to overcome it, make the statement repeatedly, "I am always under direct inspiration; I make right decisions, quickly."

As man becomes spiritually awakened he reconizes that any external inharmony is the correspondence of mental inharmony. If he stumbles or falls, he may know he is stumbling or falling in consciousness.

Man is here to prove God and "to bear witness to the truth," and he can only prove God by bringing plenty out of lack, and justice out of justice.

There is for each man, perfect self-expression. There is a place which he is to fill and no one else can fill, something which he is to do, which no one else can do; it is his destiny!

The perfect plan includes health, wealth, love and perfect self-expression. This is the square of life, which brings perfect happiness.

Many a genius has struggled for years with the problem of supply, when his spoken word, and faith, would have released quickly, the necessary funds.

One should not visualize or force a mental picture. When he demands the Divine Design to come into his conscious mind, he will receive flashes of inspiration, and begin to see himself making some great accomplishment. This is the picture, or idea, he must hold without wavering.

Man often receives a set-back when he is "too sure of himself," which means he is trusting to his personality and not the "Father within."

The student must form the habit of "practicing the Presence of God" every minute. "In all thy ways acknowledge him;" nothing is too small or too great.

The student's goal is Poise! Poise is Power, for it gives God-Power a chance to rush through man, to "will and todo Its good pleasure."

Anger blurs the visions, poisons the blood, is the root of many diseases, and causes wrong decision leading to failure.

He finds that fear and worry are deadly sins. The are inverted faith, and through distorted mental pictures, bring to pass the thing he fears. His work is to drive out these enemies (from the subconscious mind).

So as we read in the previous chapters; man can only vanquish fear by walking up to the thing he is afraid of.

"In Divine Mind there is only completion, therefore, my demonstration is completed. My perfect work, my perfect home, my perfect health."

When man ask, believing, he must receive, for God creates His own channels!

"Infinite Spirit, give me a definite lead, reveal to me my perfect self-expression, show me which talent I am to make use of now."

I have known people to suddently enter a new line of work, and be fully equipped, with little or no training. So make the statement: "I am fully equipped for the Divine Plan of my life," and be fearless in grasping opportunities.

Man should receive gracefully the bread returning to him upon the water - freely ye have given, freely ye shall receive. There is always the perfect balance of giving and receiving, and though man should give without thinking of returns, he violates law if he does not accept the returns which come to him; for all gifts are from God, man being merely the channel.

Where there is an effect there is always a cause; there is no such thing as chance.

All the good that is to be made manifest in man's life is already an accomplished fact in divine mind, and is released through man's recognition, or spoken word, so he must be careful to decree that only the Divine Idea be made manifest, for often, he decrees, through his "idle words," failure or misfortune.

"Infinite Spirit, open the way for my right home, my right friend, my right position. I give thanks it now manifests under grace in a perfect way."

"Infinite Spirit, I give thanks that the one thousand dollars, which is mine by divine right, is now released, and reaches me under grace in a perfect way."

It is impossible for man to release more than he thinks is possible, for one is bound by the limited expectancies of the subconscious. He must enlarge his expectancies in order to receive in a larger way.

Every man has within himself a gold nugget; it is his consciousness of gold, of opulence, which brings riches into his life. In making his demands, man begins at his journey's end, that is he declares he has already received. "Before ye call I shall answer."

Continually affirming establishes the belief in the subconscious. It would not be necessary to make an affirmation more than once if one had perfect faith! One should not plead or supplicate, but give thanks repeatedly, that he has received.

Two attitudes of mind cause loss: depreciation, or fear of loss, which makes a picture of loss in the subconscious.

I am asked so often the difference between visualizing and visioning. Visualizing is a mental process governed by the reasoning or conscious mind; visioning is a spiritual process, governed by intuition, or the superconscious mind. The student should train his mind to receive these flashes of inspiration, and work out the "divine pictures," through definite leads. When a man can say, "I desire only that which God desires for me," his new set of blueprints is given him by the Master Architect, the God within.

God's plan for each man transcends the limitation of the reasoning mind, and is always the square of life, containing health, wealth, love and perfect self-expression. Many a man is building for himself in imagination a bungalow when he should be building a palace.

There is a tremendous power alone in the name Jesus Christ. It stands for Truth Made Manifest. He said, "Whatsoever ye ask the Father, in my name, he will give it to you."

The power of this name raises the student into the fourth dimension, where he is freed from all astral and psychic influences, and he becomes "unconditioned and absolute, as God Himself is unconditioned and absolute."

All power is given man (through right thinking) to bring his heaven upon his earth, and this is the goal of the "Game of Life." The simple rules are fearless faith, nonresistance and love!