READ AND REFLECT: Page 17

Books contain thoughts. If these thoughts are clean, pure, uplifting, stimulating, and instructive in nature, we should pause upon them and such all the life out of them. Let a student sit down to read. Let him read a sentence slowly; then let him try to grasp the thought, and think it over intently. One thought suggests other thoughts. Thus let him think; stretch his imagination in connection with that thought as far as possible, and drop it only when he has found a clear-cut, distinct conclusion. Let him thus continue for fifteen minutes. He will possibly feel quite tired at the end. But as he continues the practice of deliberate thinking, he will feel a new assurance of power awakening in his mind. "Bead for five minutes; think for ten"-there you have the whole secret. . The above practice is very easy, yet most valuable. It will expand your brain and unfold your Higher Consciousness. The fact is there is too little manhood in men. Earnestness of the right sort is conspicuous by its absence. Such things as spiritual Unfoldment - the conquest of self, are striven after by but few men. Hence when they resolve upon achieving these, the initial difficulties quench their ardour. First of all we must idealise these Higher Teachings, if we have not done so in the past. We must love them as the only things worthy of achievement. It is not the passion of selfish growth that should grip us, but the