1. Thought which creates

Man’s life! On what or on whom does it depend? Why do some become emperors or regimental commanders, while others are obliged to fend for scraps at garbage dumps?

One opinion holds that each person’s fate is pre-deter- mined from birth. That would make Man nothing more than an insignificant cog in some mechanised system, and not the highly organised creation of God.

According to a different opinion, Man is a self-sufficient creation, including, without exception, all the diverse energies of the vast Universe.

But there is in Man an energy peculiar to him alone. It is known as the energy of thought. Once Man realises just what kind of energy is in his possession and learns to exploit it to the full, then he will be a ruler of the whole Universe.

Which of these two mutually exclusive definitions of Man is true?

Perhaps the following ancient parable — you could call it an anecdote — will help us arrive at the answer.

A man fed up with his life ran out into the woods at the edge of town, threw up his hands, clenched his fists and railed at God:

“I can’t go on with my life. Your earthly household is filled with nothing but injustice and chaos. Some people go gal-livanting ’round town in expensive cars and dine in fine res-taurants, while others fend for scraps at garbage dumps. Me, for instance — why, I ain’t got enough money to buy me a new pair o’ shoes. If You, God, are just — that is, if You exist at all — then make my lottery ticket hit the jackpot.”

At that moment the clouds parted in the heavens, a warm sunbeam caressed the complainant’s face and a calm, clear voice sounded from above:

“Do not worry, My son. I am prepared to fulfil your request.”

The man was overjoyed. He walked along the street with a smile on his face, happily peering into shop windows and im-agining what kind of goods his lottery winnings might buy

A year passed. The man won nothing. He concluded God had let him down.

Now the man, who by this time was really fed up, went back to the same place in the woods where he had heard God’s promise and cried:

“You didn’t keep your promise to me, God. You let me down. Here I’ve been waiting for a whole year now I’ve been dreaming about the things I’ll buy with the money I win. But a whole year’s gone by, and I ain’t got no winnings yet.”

“Oh, My dear son,” came the sad response from the heavens. “You wanted to win a lot of money in the lottery. So why over the whole year did you not buy a single lottery ticket?”

This little parable or anecdote has been making the rounds lately. People tend to laugh at the loser.

“How come he didn’t catch on that for his dream to come true he first had to buy at least one lottery ticket?” they ask. “But this chap didn’t even take the most obvious first step!”

It’s not the parable itself that’s important here, or whether this situation ever actually happened. What is important is how people relate to the chain of events recounted in this story.

The fact that people laugh at the unfortunate dimwit tells us that they intuitively, perhaps subconsciously, realise that

their own future life depends not only on some kind of Higher Power or Divine Design, but on themselves too.

And now everybody can try and analyse their own life situations. Have they done everything they possibly can on their own to make their dream come true?

I dare say, and not without some justification, that any dream — even one that seems to be unreal and utterly fan- tasaical — will come true if only the individual wanting it to come true takes simple and consistent actions toward his goal.

This statement could be illustrated with a whole range of examples. Here is one of them.

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