The Master Key System by Charles F. Haanel --- 15 CHAPTER FIFTEEN

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

Experiments with parasites found on plants indicate that even the lowest order of
life is enabled to take advantage of natural law. This experiment was made by Jacques
Loch, M.D., Ph. D., a member of the Rockefeller Institute.
"In order to obtain the material, potted rose bushes are brought into a room and
placed in front of a closed window. If the plants are allowed to dry out, the aphids
(parasites), previously wingless, change to winged insects. After the metamorphosis, the
animals leave the plants, fly to the window and then creep upward on the glass."
It is evident that these tiny insects found that the plants on which they had been thriving
were dead, and that they could therefore secure nothing more to eat and drink from this
source. The only method by which they could save themselves from starvation was to
grow temporary wings and fly, which they did.
Experiments such as these indicate that Omniscience as well as Omnipotence is
omnipresent and that the tiniest living thing can take advantage of it in an emergency.
Part Fifteen will tell you more about the law under which we live. It will explain that
these laws operate to our advantage; that all conditions and experiences that come to us
are for our benefit; that we gain strength in proportion to the effort expended, and that
our happiness is best attained through a conscious cooperation with natural laws.

PART FIFTEEN

1. The laws under which we live are designed solely for our advantage. These laws
are immutable and we cannot escape from their operation.
2. All the great eternal forces act in solemn silence, but it is in our power to place
ourselves in harmony with them and thus express a life of comparative peace and
happiness.
3. Difficulties, in harmonies, and obstacles, indicate that we are either refusing to
give out what we no longer need, or refusing to accept what we require.
4. Growth is attained through an exchange of the old for the new, of the good for the
better; it is a conditional or reciprocal action, for each of us is a complete thought entity
and this completeness makes it possible for us to receive only as we give.
5. We cannot obtain what we lack if we tenaciously cling to what we have. We are
able to consciously control our conditions as we come to sense the purpose of what we
attract, and are able to extract from each experience only what we require for our further growth. Our ability to do this determines the degree of harmony or happiness we attain.
6. The ability to appropriate what we require for our growth, continually increases as
we reach higher planes and broader visions, and the greater our abilities to know what
we require, the more certain we shall be to discern its presence, to attract it and to absorb
it. Nothing may reach us except what is necessary for our growth.
7. All conditions and experiences that come to us do so for our benefit. Difficulties
and obstacles will continue to come until we absorb their wisdom and gather from them
the essentials of further growth.
8. That we reap what we sow is mathematically exact. We gain permanent strength
exactly to the extent of the effort required to overcome difficulties.
9. The inexorable requirements of growth demand that we exert the greatest degree of
attraction for what is perfectly in accord with us. Our highest happiness will be best
attained through our understanding of, and conscious cooperation with natural laws.
10. In order to possess vitality thought must be impregnated with love. Love is a
product of the emotions. It is therefore essential that the emotions be controlled and
guided by the intellect and reason.
11. It is love which imparts vitality to thought and thus enables it to germinate. The
law of attraction, or the law of love, for they are one and the same, will bring to it the
necessary material for its growth and maturity.
12. The first form which thought will find is language, or words; this determines the
importance of words; they are the first manifestation of thought -- the vessels in which
thought is carried. They take hold of the ether and by setting it in motion reproduce the
thought to others in the form of sound.
13. Thought may lead to action of any kind, but whatever the action, it is simply the
thought attempting to express itself in visible form. It is evident, therefore, that if we
wish desirable conditions, we can afford to entertain only desirable thoughts.

14. This leads to the inevitable conclusion that if we wish to express abundance in our
lives, we can afford to think abundance only, and as words are only thoughts taking
form, we must be especially careful to use nothing but constructive and harmonious
language, which when finally crystallized into objective forms, will prove to our
advantage.

15. We cannot escape from the pictures we incessantly photograph on the mind, and
this photography of erroneous conceptions is exactly what is being done by the use of
words, when we use any form of language which is not identified with our welfare.

16. We manifest more and more life as our thought becomes clarified and takes higher
planes. This is obtained with greater facility as we use word pictures that are clearly
defined, and relieved of the conceptions attached to them on lower planes of thought.

17. It is with words that we must express our thoughts, and if we are to make use of
higher forms of truth, we may use only such material as has been carefully and
intelligently selected with this purpose in view.

18. This wonderful power of clothing thoughts in the form of words is what
differentiates man from the rest of the animal kingdom; by the use of the written word
he has been enabled to look back over the centuries and see the stirring scenes by which he has come into his present inheritance.

19. He has been enabled to come into communion with the greatest writers and
thinkers of all time, and the combined record which we possess today is therefore the
expression of Universal Thought as it has been seeking to take form in the mind of Man.

20. We know that the Universal Thought has for its goal the creation of form, and we
know that the individual thought is likewise forever attempting to express itself in form,
and we know that the word is a thought form, and a sentence is a combination of thought
forms, therefore, if we wish our ideal to be beautiful or strong, we must see that the
words out of which this temple will eventually be created are exact, that they are put
together carefully, because accuracy in building words and sentences is the highest form
of architecture in civilization and is a passport to success.

21. Words are thoughts and are therefore an invisible and invincible power which will
finally objectify themselves in the form they are given. Words may become mental
places that will live forever, or they may become shacks which the first breeze will carry
away. They may delight the eye as well as the ear; they may contain all knowledge; in
them we find the history of the past as well as the hope of the future; they are living
messengers from which every human and superhuman activity is born.

23. The beauty of the word consists in the beauty of the thought; the power of the
word consists in the power of the thought, and the power of the thought consists in its
vitality. How shall we identify a vital thought? What are its distinguishing characteristics? It must have principle. How shall we identify principle?

24. There is a principle of Mathematics, but none of error; there is a principle of
health, but none of disease; there is a principle of truth, but none of dishonesty; there is a
principle of light, but none of darkness, and there is a principle of abundance, but none
of poverty.

25. How shall we know that this is true? Because if we apply the principle of
Mathematics correctly we shall be certain of our results. Where there is health there will
be no disease. If we know the Truth we cannot be deceived by error. If we let in light
there can be no darkness, and where there is abundance there can be no poverty.

26. These are self-evident facts, but the all-important truth that a thought containing
principle is vital and therefore contains life and consequently takes root, and eventually
but surely and certainly displaces the negative thoughts, which by their very nature can
contain no vitality, is one which seems to have been overlooked.

27. But this is a fact which will enable you to destroy every manner of discord, lack
and limitation.

28. There can be no question but that he who "is wise enough to understand" will
readily recognize that the creative power of thought places an invincible weapon in his
hands and makes him a master of destiny.

29. In the physical world there is a law of compensation which is that "the appearance
of a given amount of energy anywhere means the disappearance of the same amount
somewhere else," and so we find that we can get only what we give; if we pledge
ourselves to a certain action we must be prepared to assume the responsibility for the
development of that action. The subconscious cannot reason. It takes us at our word; we
have asked for something; we are now to receive it; we have made our bed, we are now
to lie in it; the die has been cast; the threads will carry out the pattern we have made.

30. For this reason Insight must be exercised so that the thought which we entertain
contains no mental, moral or physical germ which we do not wish objectified in our
lives.

31. Insight is a faculty of the mind whereby we are enabled to examine facts and
conditions at long range, a kind of human telescope; it enables us to understand the
difficulties, as well as the possibilities, in any undertaking.

32. Insight enables us to be prepared for the obstacles which we shall meet; we can therefore overcome them before they have any opportunity of causing difficulty.

33. Insight enables us to plan to advantage and turn our thought and attention in the
right direction, instead of into channels which can yield no possible return.

34. Insight is therefore absolutely essential for the development of any great
achievement, but with it we may enter, explore and possess any mental field.

35. Insight is a product of the world within and is developed in the Silence, by
concentration.

36. For your exercise this week, concentrate on Insight; take your accustomed position and focus the thought on the fact that to have a knowledge of the creative power of thought does not mean to possess the art of thinking. Let the thought dwell on the fact
that knowledge does not apply itself. That our actions are not governed by knowledge,
but by custom, precedent and habit. That the only way we can get ourselves to apply
knowledge is by a determined conscious effort. Call to mind the fact that knowledge
unused passes from the mind, that the value of the information is in the application of
the principle; continue this line of thought until you gain sufficient insight to formulate a
definite program for applying this principle to your own particular problem.

Part Fifteen - Study Questions

141. What determines the degree of harmony which we attain?
142. What do difficulties and obstacles indicate?
143. How may these difficulties be avoided?
144. What is the principle by which thought manifests itself in form?
145. How is the necessary material secured by which the growth, development and
maturity of the idea take form?
146. How are desirable conditions secured?
147. How are undesirable conditions brought about?
148. How can we overcome every kind of fear, lack, limitation, poverty and discord?
149. How may we recognize principle?
150. What is the value of Insight?