to do it. We
must often talk to our brains as if we were talking to another person
to eliminate the impressions from old associations. Tell your brain in
so many words, without emotion, that the place or the circumstance is
nothing, nothing whatever,--it is only your idea about it, and the
false association can be changed to a true one.

So must we yield our selfish resistances and be ready to accept every
opportunity for growth that circumstances offer; and, at the same time,
when the good result is gained, throw off the impression of the pain of
the process entirely and forever. Thus may we both live and observe for
our own good and that of others; and he who is practising this
principle in his daily life can say from his heart:--"Now shall my head
be lifted up above mine enemies round about me."

VIII

_Other People_

HOWEVER disagreeable other people may be,--however unjust they may be,
however true it may be that the wrong is all on their side and not at
all on ours,--whatever we may suffer at their hands,--we can only
remedy the difficulty by looking first solely to ourselves and our own
conduct; and, not until we are entirely free from resentment or
resistance of any kind, and not until we are quiet in our own minds
with regard to those who may be oppressing or annoying us, should we
make any effort to set them right.

This philosophy is sound and absolutely practical,--it never fails; any
apparent failure will be due to our own delinquency in applying it;
and, if the reader will think of this truth carefully until he feels
able to accept it, he will see what true freedom there is in
it,--although it may be a long time before he is fully able to carry it
out.

How can I remain in any slightest bondage to another when I feel sure
that, however wrong he may be, the true cause of my discomfort and
oppression is in myself? I am in bondage to myself, and it is to myself
that I must look to gain my freedom. If a friend is rude and unkind to
me, and I resent the rudeness and resist the unkindness, it is the
resentment and resistance that cause me to suffer. I am not suffering
for my friend, I am suffering for myself; and I can only gain my
freedom by shunning the resentment and resistance as sin against all
that is good and true in friendship. When I am free from these things
in myself,--when, as far as I am concerned, I am perfectly and entirely
willing that my friend should be rude or unjust, then only