Friday, October 17, 2014
Saturday, October 15, 2011
OMR Suggested Literature: "As a Man Thinketh" by James Allen
As a Man Thinketh, by James Allen
Recently, I read James Allen’s 1903 classic essay, “As a Man Thinketh”. My copy is broken down into 72 short pages, stands barely over 6 inches tall, and is easy to read in about an hour. Many of you will recognize the title from The Bible, taken from the Book of Proverbs (23:07): “As a man thinketh in his heart, so is he (KJV).”
“As a Man Thinketh” was first published in 1903, in England, and has since been published time and time again, in several languages and countries all across the globe. The essay helped shape the coming “Self Help” genre of literature, and has therefore since become public domain (adding significantly to its exposure and availability world-wide).
The author, James Allen (1864-1912), was born in Leicester, England, under difficult circumstances. His mother was an illiterate homemaker, his father a poor manual laborer in a local textile factory. In 1879, Allen’s father moved to the United States, in search of work, with hopes of starting a new home for his family back in England. Within a matter of days, he was robbed and murdered, leaving fifteen year old James, his mother, and younger brother in a state of abandonment.
In the spirit of One More Round, Allen kept his chin down and hands high, fighting his way through the tragedies hamstringing him and his family. In 1989, Allen started his writing career, penning articles for the magazine The Herald of the Golden Age. After four years of writing, which eventually included his own books (giving him opportunities to communicate his own natural sense of spirituality and philosophy), the young and now fairly established author started his own magazine.
“As a Man Thinketh”, by far Allen’s most famous and acclaimed work, brought him no real financial riches in his lifetime, but did afford opportunity enough to realize his dream of being a full-time thinker and writer. He authored 19 pieces, outside of the work on his magazine, over the course of his 9 year publishing career.
Over a century later, Allen’s essay sat in my bookcase, in the same place it had been resting, nearly forgotten, for over a year and a half. As fate would mandate (or as Allen would soon explain, “as my own thoughts would finally manifest“) “As a Man Thinketh" at last leapt off the shelf and into my curious grasp.
I had been mulling over a few things that night, as we tend to find ourselves doing during those lonesome moon-lit times of gripping solitude, during those late hours between working and working again. Too restless to sleep, I dragged myself to my collection of books. Most of the material there I’ve read and re-read countless times, and so I insisted to myself that I find something of interest that would be both new and pleasantly verbose. I plucked Ernest Hemingway’s “The Old Man and the Sea” (yes, I know…I haven’t read this yet. Forgive me.) and Allen’s “As a Man Thinketh” from amongst the dusty and smoke-stained hodgepodge of Pahlaniuk, Poe, and political commentary.
Initially, I was excited to climb back into bed and read Hemingway’s classic novella, one that frankly I’d forgotten I even owned. And as I cracked it’s Barnes and Noble Paperback Classics binder, I couldn’t help but feel a funny sense of attraction toward the out-dated yellow dust-jacket wrapped around the small essay that lay beside me. The edition of “As a Man Thinketh” that I own is a hardback published by Putnam in 1987, and features a sketch of a peaceful man on the cover, in a nature setting, looking appropriately Christ-like and enlightened. I suppose it must be this illustration that had always intrigued me, knowing that this “self help” book has some roots in the Christian Ideology I am more accustomed to. I decided to open it at random and read the first passage my eyes stumbled upon, as is my habit with books that I feel oddly drawn to. The passage read:
“A man’s mind may be likened to a garden, which may be intelligently cultivated or allowed to run wild; but whether cultivated or neglected, it must, and will, bring forth. If no useful seeds are put into it, then an abundance of useless weed seeds will fall therein, and will continue to produce their kind.”
I’ve come to find that this is one of several relatively famous passages from this book, but at the time it was (and to a degree still remains) entirely new to me. The philosophical principle he introduces here is certainly not without its numerous counterparts in religious and self-help texts. The idea of Man or The Mind being “A Garden” is one that goes back through antiquity to The Gospels of the New Testament, and indeed even further still. But the assembly of words and the point blank approach to what is still a metaphor proved a perfect combination for my admittedly mediocre reading comprehension, and suddenly classic parables like “the faith of a mustard seed” tumbled into my grasp with wilting patience and eager acceptance of my stubborn and pain-soaked sub-conscious.
I’ve found myself prone to epiphanies lately, and so may have been a prime target for the philosophy of Responsibility Assumption found among the pages I held in my hands. Needless to say, after soaking in these words, I was hooked. I flipped back to the beginning, and read the entire essay cover to cover, as quick as I could drink it in. At times I was forced to go back several pages and start a section over, having in my excitement gulped down the author’s thoughts until they overflowed my mind and spilt out everywhere. In those moments, unable to collect Allen’s momentum again, or reassemble the ideas in the appropriate order, I simply started again with a fresh glass from which to drink in his insights.
The Book went on to be exactly what I was searching for amongst the other items on my shelves, and when I was finished, I felt inspired and hopeful. It would be most poetic if I could say that I closed the book and, having found a new sense of peace, drifted away into a deep and soothing slumber. This is never the case. Instead, I felt energized and full of excitement. I was anxious to put into practice the ideas and philosophies that Allen communicates in such a casual and comfortable way, and was nearly inclined to re-read the entire work, this time with highlighter and notepad by my side. I fixed my thoughts on the renewal I felt, and after several bouts of anxious giggling, which no-doubt to a silent observer would have made me look completely mad, I found the repose I’d been hoping for. The following morning, I awoke refreshed, hours earlier than my typical sluggish routine, with my mind clear and my body starving for a workout. It was the best waking hours I’ve had in years.
As a short and painless read, “As a Man Thinketh” may be of great help to those of us with the grit to every day go One More Round, but who struggle on how to get through the dense forest of our own minds. It is for those of us who are too-often frustrated with the circumstances of our lives, who feel pangs of bitterness toward the “hand that life has dealt us”. It can offer a sense of valuable control over what has always seemed out of the span of our ability to manipulate, and shed light on just what it is we manifest. Those of you who know me personally can attest to the fact that I am in no way New Age, nor am I often a big promoter of self-help literature. I must admit, however, that this essay may have changed my outlook on such things. My cynicism towards self-help suddenly seems like an obvious impediment towards actually helping myself, and James Allen’s “As a Man Thinketh” has acted as a guide, allowing me to see how hilariously, if otherwise tragically, obvious that should have always been. My opinion of the self-help genre may not have changed entirely, but my opinion of myself surely has, and it took a pioneer of that genre to get me to this point.
Go figure.
So a special thanks to James Allen. You, sir, have helped me to today go One More Round.
Thanks for listening.
Recently, I read James Allen’s 1903 classic essay, “As a Man Thinketh”. My copy is broken down into 72 short pages, stands barely over 6 inches tall, and is easy to read in about an hour. Many of you will recognize the title from The Bible, taken from the Book of Proverbs (23:07): “As a man thinketh in his heart, so is he (KJV).”
“As a Man Thinketh” was first published in 1903, in England, and has since been published time and time again, in several languages and countries all across the globe. The essay helped shape the coming “Self Help” genre of literature, and has therefore since become public domain (adding significantly to its exposure and availability world-wide).
The author, James Allen (1864-1912), was born in Leicester, England, under difficult circumstances. His mother was an illiterate homemaker, his father a poor manual laborer in a local textile factory. In 1879, Allen’s father moved to the United States, in search of work, with hopes of starting a new home for his family back in England. Within a matter of days, he was robbed and murdered, leaving fifteen year old James, his mother, and younger brother in a state of abandonment.
In the spirit of One More Round, Allen kept his chin down and hands high, fighting his way through the tragedies hamstringing him and his family. In 1989, Allen started his writing career, penning articles for the magazine The Herald of the Golden Age. After four years of writing, which eventually included his own books (giving him opportunities to communicate his own natural sense of spirituality and philosophy), the young and now fairly established author started his own magazine.
“As a Man Thinketh”, by far Allen’s most famous and acclaimed work, brought him no real financial riches in his lifetime, but did afford opportunity enough to realize his dream of being a full-time thinker and writer. He authored 19 pieces, outside of the work on his magazine, over the course of his 9 year publishing career.
Over a century later, Allen’s essay sat in my bookcase, in the same place it had been resting, nearly forgotten, for over a year and a half. As fate would mandate (or as Allen would soon explain, “as my own thoughts would finally manifest“) “As a Man Thinketh" at last leapt off the shelf and into my curious grasp.
I had been mulling over a few things that night, as we tend to find ourselves doing during those lonesome moon-lit times of gripping solitude, during those late hours between working and working again. Too restless to sleep, I dragged myself to my collection of books. Most of the material there I’ve read and re-read countless times, and so I insisted to myself that I find something of interest that would be both new and pleasantly verbose. I plucked Ernest Hemingway’s “The Old Man and the Sea” (yes, I know…I haven’t read this yet. Forgive me.) and Allen’s “As a Man Thinketh” from amongst the dusty and smoke-stained hodgepodge of Pahlaniuk, Poe, and political commentary.
Initially, I was excited to climb back into bed and read Hemingway’s classic novella, one that frankly I’d forgotten I even owned. And as I cracked it’s Barnes and Noble Paperback Classics binder, I couldn’t help but feel a funny sense of attraction toward the out-dated yellow dust-jacket wrapped around the small essay that lay beside me. The edition of “As a Man Thinketh” that I own is a hardback published by Putnam in 1987, and features a sketch of a peaceful man on the cover, in a nature setting, looking appropriately Christ-like and enlightened. I suppose it must be this illustration that had always intrigued me, knowing that this “self help” book has some roots in the Christian Ideology I am more accustomed to. I decided to open it at random and read the first passage my eyes stumbled upon, as is my habit with books that I feel oddly drawn to. The passage read:
“A man’s mind may be likened to a garden, which may be intelligently cultivated or allowed to run wild; but whether cultivated or neglected, it must, and will, bring forth. If no useful seeds are put into it, then an abundance of useless weed seeds will fall therein, and will continue to produce their kind.”
I’ve come to find that this is one of several relatively famous passages from this book, but at the time it was (and to a degree still remains) entirely new to me. The philosophical principle he introduces here is certainly not without its numerous counterparts in religious and self-help texts. The idea of Man or The Mind being “A Garden” is one that goes back through antiquity to The Gospels of the New Testament, and indeed even further still. But the assembly of words and the point blank approach to what is still a metaphor proved a perfect combination for my admittedly mediocre reading comprehension, and suddenly classic parables like “the faith of a mustard seed” tumbled into my grasp with wilting patience and eager acceptance of my stubborn and pain-soaked sub-conscious.
I’ve found myself prone to epiphanies lately, and so may have been a prime target for the philosophy of Responsibility Assumption found among the pages I held in my hands. Needless to say, after soaking in these words, I was hooked. I flipped back to the beginning, and read the entire essay cover to cover, as quick as I could drink it in. At times I was forced to go back several pages and start a section over, having in my excitement gulped down the author’s thoughts until they overflowed my mind and spilt out everywhere. In those moments, unable to collect Allen’s momentum again, or reassemble the ideas in the appropriate order, I simply started again with a fresh glass from which to drink in his insights.
The Book went on to be exactly what I was searching for amongst the other items on my shelves, and when I was finished, I felt inspired and hopeful. It would be most poetic if I could say that I closed the book and, having found a new sense of peace, drifted away into a deep and soothing slumber. This is never the case. Instead, I felt energized and full of excitement. I was anxious to put into practice the ideas and philosophies that Allen communicates in such a casual and comfortable way, and was nearly inclined to re-read the entire work, this time with highlighter and notepad by my side. I fixed my thoughts on the renewal I felt, and after several bouts of anxious giggling, which no-doubt to a silent observer would have made me look completely mad, I found the repose I’d been hoping for. The following morning, I awoke refreshed, hours earlier than my typical sluggish routine, with my mind clear and my body starving for a workout. It was the best waking hours I’ve had in years.
As a short and painless read, “As a Man Thinketh” may be of great help to those of us with the grit to every day go One More Round, but who struggle on how to get through the dense forest of our own minds. It is for those of us who are too-often frustrated with the circumstances of our lives, who feel pangs of bitterness toward the “hand that life has dealt us”. It can offer a sense of valuable control over what has always seemed out of the span of our ability to manipulate, and shed light on just what it is we manifest. Those of you who know me personally can attest to the fact that I am in no way New Age, nor am I often a big promoter of self-help literature. I must admit, however, that this essay may have changed my outlook on such things. My cynicism towards self-help suddenly seems like an obvious impediment towards actually helping myself, and James Allen’s “As a Man Thinketh” has acted as a guide, allowing me to see how hilariously, if otherwise tragically, obvious that should have always been. My opinion of the self-help genre may not have changed entirely, but my opinion of myself surely has, and it took a pioneer of that genre to get me to this point.
Go figure.
So a special thanks to James Allen. You, sir, have helped me to today go One More Round.
Thanks for listening.
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