Quote: (04-30-2019 11:50 PM)worldwidetraveler Wrote:
I've dedicated some time to reading books on getting over the ego issue. I used to think the ego was a good thing but realized it leads us down a false path. We can't get rid of our ego's but we do have power over what thoughts take root and what thoughts we just allow to pass through.
One of the best books in this regard was written in 1903 and is entitled "As a Man Thinketh." The title is influenced by a verse in the Bible from the Book of Proverbs 23:7 -- "As a man thinketh in his heart, so is he." The full passage, taken from the King James Version, reads as follows:
Eat thou not the bread of him that hath an evil eye, neither desire thou his dainty meats:
For as he thinketh in his heart, so is he:
Eat and drink, saith he to thee; but his heart is not with thee.
The morsel which thou hast eaten shalt thou vomit up, and lose thy sweet words.
While the passage suggests that one should consider the true motivations of a person who is being uncharacteristically generous before accepting his generosity, the actual title and content of the book refers to the reader himself -- and how his thoughts will make him the man that he eventually becomes.
This book opens with this rather profound statement:
Mind is the Master power that moulds and makes,
And Man is Mind, and evermore he takes
The tool of Thought, and, shaping what he wills,
Brings forth a thousand joys, a thousand ills: —
He thinks in secret, and it comes to pass:
Environment is but his looking-glass.
The book is only about sixty pages long. You can buy the Kindle edition on Amazon for 49 cents:
https://www.amazon.com/As-Man-Thinketh-C...1523643536