that the best way is to imitate nature and to gradually unfold
the desired characteristics by means of focusing the will-power and
attention upon them. The weeding out of undesirable characteristics is
accomplished by the pupil cultivating the characteristics directly
opposed to the undesirable ones. For instance, if the pupil desires to
overcome Fear, he is not instructed to concentrate on Fear with the idea
of killing it out, but, instead, is taught to mentally deny that he has
Fear, and then to concentrate his attention upon the ideal of Courage.
When Courage is developed, Fear is found to have faded away. The positive
always overpowers the negative.

In the word "ideal" is found the secret of the Yogi method of
sub-conscious character building. The teachings are to the effect that
"ideals" may be built up by the bestowal of attention upon them. The
student is given the example of a rose bush. He is taught that the plant
will grow and flourish in the measure that care and attention is bestowed
upon it and _vice versa_. He is taught that the ideal of some desired
characteristic is a mental rosebush, and that by careful attention it
will grow and put forth leaves and flowers. He is then given some minor
mental trait to develop, and is taught to dwell upon it in thought--to
exercise his imagination and to mentally "see" himself attaining the
desired quality. He is given mantrams or affirmation to repeat, for the
purpose of giving him a mental center around which to build an ideal.
There is a mighty power in words, used in this way, providing that the
user always thinks of the meaning of the words, and makes a mental
picture of the quality expressed by them, instead of merely repeating
them parrot fashion.

The Yogi student is trained gradually, until he acquires the power of
conscious direction of the sub-conscious mind in the building up process,
which power comes to anyone--Oriental or Occidental--who will take the
trouble to practice. In fact, nearly everyone possesses and actively uses
this power, although he may not be aware of it. One's character is
largely the result of the quality of thoughts held in the mind, and of
the mental pictures or ideals entertained by the person. The man who
constantly sees and thinks of himself as unsuccessful and down-trodden
is very apt to grow ideals of thought forms of these things until his
whole nature is dominated by them, and his every act works toward the
objectification of