Harvey Hardman
Making Your Self the Master
© Harvey Hardman
Denver, Colorado, 1935.
“So is the kingdom of God, as if a man should cast seed into the ground, and should sleep, and rise night and day, and the seed should spring and grow up, he knoweth not how. Even as the earth bringeth forth fruit of herself…The kingdom of God is within you.” — Jesus.
[55] The preceeding quotation is an ancient definition of the law of subconscious mind-power. In effect the great Teacher says, we have within us an impersonal creative power which brings forth in experience what we implant into it as thought or desire. And in another lesson, he adds to the general definition the specific declaration that this creative power will produce tares as well as wheat–good as well as bad things.
The meaning is about as plain as words and a good simile can make it. A simile is not the same thing as a reason, but it is usually more forceful and convincing, especially a good one like that used in the text. It was so clear to Jesus, this impersonal nature of the kingdom of God within the individual, that he used the soil of the earth as its natural similitude on several occasions, and one of his greatest parables is that of The Sower.
The fact that his term “the kingdom of heaven” has been distorted to mean only “good” does not alter the fact. He made clear [56] to his disciples that it is “as if a man should cast seed into the ground, and the seed should spring and grow up, he knoweth not how.” The law of the inner realm is mysterious, but no more so than the law of the outer realm, where things “grow up,” we know not how. But the law in both realms is impersonal, and produces what we plant with sublime indifference as to whether we sow tumble-weeds or wheat; love or hate; beauty or ugliness.
The fact of individual consciousness, or self-awareness, indicates that there is a Universal Cause for this phenomenon, just as the fact that the motion of physical bodies in space shows there is a Universal Cause of motion. Both these causes are invisible and act with utter impartiality–as law. That is why people have trouble and confusion in their lives. It is the reason they get sick, become unhappy, commit crimes, and get into all sorts of difficulties. They are always dealing with an absolute and immutable Law, and ignorance of that Law does not release them from the responsibility of adverse effects when they misuse it. The Law is unconscious, neutral. The conscious mind is the personal factor.
If we get hold of this conception with as much feeling as to the reality of the mental Law with which we are always dealing, as we have in regard to the natural law with which [57] we are also always dealing, we shall begin to make things go the way we want them to go.
Suppose we regard this mystical “kingdom of heaven” of Jesus’ as an actual domain of the inner realm, comparable to an actual estate or farm. You would not expect a farm to take care of itself. If you should, and let it grow up in weeds, you would know whom to blame–yourself. If you go to work and clear away the weeds and start to cultivate the land, and sow the kind of seed you want to harvest, and take good care of the property, you become a successful farmer.
Now this kingdom of heaven–your invisible farm–is like that too. There is no difference, in principle. Whether you like it or not, you cannot get away from the responsibility of possession, so far as your inner farm is concerned.
For better or for worse, you are married to that farm. You cannot sell it nor give it away. What are you going to do with it? For make no mistake in the matter, it is going to grow things. Neglected, it will grow what the enemy–ignorance–sows; weeds, with, of course, some lovely things too. No one is altogether bad. The brownest prairie has beautiful desert things, and even the cactus has its points. But after all it is a desert, and desolate, like the lives of so many people.
[58] The presence of spiritual knowledge in the world, free and accessible as it is, is no assurance to the individual that he can have the fruits of such knowledge. There is a department in our Government devoted to the welfare and interests of the farmer, and then of course we have our State Agriculture Colleges. But these agencies do not force the farmer to take advantage of them. And as a matter of fact, comparatively few farmers do avail themselves of what the National and State Governments have to offer in the way of information and training, although it is absolutely free, or much of it at any rate. Hence, the average farmer lives in an environment as unattractive as that of his animals.
It is that way with the majority of spiritual farmers. Here is a great and absolutely dependable Law of Mind, knowledge of which is free and accessible. Yet how few really study and use it! My experience as a teacher has convinced me that a great many students want someone else to do their farming for them.
I tell people they have to do the work themselves, because I know that is the best way to get results. Some do not like that, so they go away, looking for a teacher who will promise to hand them the fruits of the Law on a silver platter, or give them a magic wand, which they can wave and get what they want. They become [59] spiritual tramps, wandering about looking for the thing outside themselves, when all the time the Law is right in their own souls, could they only believe it and go to work to master it, and to use it.
In order to understand this great realm with which we are always in contact, and which we are always using, and into which we are always sowing the seeds of thought, we must examine its Law with the same care with which we would study any natural law. For it is as certain as anything on this earth can be, that our experiences and the conditions of our lives are the direct product of our use or misuse of the Law of Subconscious Mind-Power. So we will state that Law and its elements as simply as possible. And of course, since it is a Law, you can easily prove it if you make an effort to apply it to your personal affairs.
For the purpose of this lesson, we are going to use the term “subconscious mind,” because the power itself is the underlying reality of objective consciousness; the actual cause of our physical bodies; the basis of habit; the sleepless intelligence which carries on the work of replacing the used up cells; the Chemist-Engineer who constantly takes care of the processes of metabolism, assimilation, elimination, heart-beat and so on.
Point one. This inner mind is intelligent, [60] because the very work of maintaining the body with all its intricate functions shows that nothing but the most wonderful intelligence could perform the miracles of exactness required in the process.
Point two. The inner mind can reason perfectly, but due to its subjective nature, it can reason only deductively. That is, it accepts the thoughts of the self or objective mind as the basis of its reasoning, and goes to work to create conditions corresponding to those thoughts and beliefs. If the subconscious mind could discriminate and reason inductively, it would decline to act on false beliefs or misinformation. And to get this idea clearly in mind, we may say that the subconscious mind is always hypnotised in relation to the conscious mind or self.
It [the subconscious mind] does exactly what you tell it to do. And it keeps on working at the task, even when you are asleep. “As if a man should sleep, and rise night and day, and the seed should spring and grow up, he knoweth not how.” It keeps everlastingly at the job of growing what you sow into it in the way of thought and desire.
Point three. It is the seat of the emotions, and emotion is the energy you set in action by your thoughts and desires. Emotional power, being an attribute of the subconscious mind, is [61] utterly impersonal. It will act as readily in hate as in love. You must cultivate it in the right direction. This involves discipline, which is about the same as saying that a farmer must industriously keep down the weeds if he wants a good crop.
The Governor of this inner realm of mind-power is the conscious mind that says I am, I will, I choose. The inner realm is absolutely boundless in power, intelligence and creative ability, because it is the Universal Mind manifest as a personal, self-conscious entity. And like the soil of the earth to the seed, it is perfectly responsive to the thought of the self, and will bring forth “whatsoever ye will.” But you must will it, and desire it, and trust the Law to manifest it.
Another factor of prime importance in using the Law is definiteness. You must decide what you want. You must sow the kind of seed you want to reap.
You cannot think poverty and reap wealth. You cannot sow fear and reap courage.
A farmer selects the seed for his crops with care and discrimination. The subconscious mind is your farm, from which you reap the experiences, conditions and associations of life. Think. Plan. Be definite. For if you want a better order of life, you must keep that in mind, [62] and visualize it and vitalize the mental image with faith, desire, emotion.
Believe in the reality of your dream, your vision. Fear not. Let no one nor anything discourage you. You will reap in due season if you faint not. It is a Law with which you are dealing, and it is as infallible as the law of seed and soil in nature.
If you have a tendency, due to previous religious training, to regard this Law as being only human and psychological, rather than spiritual, just remember that it was originally propounded by the greatest spiritual Teacher of the ages. One of the primary tenets of the New Religion is the conception that the universe is one. Law governs all. Nature is the visible aspect of the Invisible Spirit of the Whole.
Earnest, conscientious practice of this Law of Subconscious Mind-Power will result in “signs following.” By its use you can remake your world, so that it will conform to the new mental pattern of a better life. “The waste places shall blossom as the rose,” and the desert become a fruitful valley of abundance.
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