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.You will thereby nip inthe bud many a threatening evil, and carry healing with you wherever you go.Character is developed by training all the forces and elements of life to act con-structively in those spheres for which they were created, and to express them-selves in those actions only that promote the original purpose of the being ofman.Every part of the human system has a purpose of its own -- a purpose that itwas created to fulfil.When those elements that belong to each part express them-selves in such a way that the purpose of that part is constantly promoted, all ac-tions are right; and it is character that causes those actions to be right.Characteris therefore indispensable, no matter what one s object in life may be.Characteris the proper direction of all things, and the proper use of all things in the humansystem.And the proper use of anything is that use that promotes the purpose forwhich that particular thing was created.To develop character it is therefore necessary to know what life is for, to knowwhat actions promote the purpose of that life, and to know what actions retardthat purpose.When the secret of right action is discovered, and every part of manis steadily trained in the expression of right action, character may be developed.But whatever is done, character must be applied in its fullest capacity.It is onlythrough this full use, right use and constant use that anything may be perpetuatedor developed.Character develops through a constant effort to cause every actionin the human system to be a right action; that is, a construetive action, or an ac-tion that promotes the purpose of that part of the system in which the action takesplace.This is natural because since character is the power of right action, everyeffort to extend the scope of right action will increase the power of character.99 CHRISTIAN LARSON YOUR FORCES AND HOW TO USE THEMTo have character is to have the power to promote what you know to be the pur-pose of life, and to be able to do the right when you know the right.To havecharacter is to know the right, and to be so well established in the doing of theright that nothing in the world can turn you into the wrong.The first essential istherefore to know the right; to be able to select the right; to have that understand-ing that can instinctively choose the proper course of action, and that knows howeach force and element of life is to be directed so that the original purpose of hu-man life will be fulfilled.The understanding of the laws of life will give this first essential in an intellectualsense, and this is necessary in the beginning; but when character develops, oneinwardly knows what is right without stopping to reason about it.The develop-ment of character enables one to feel what is right and what course to pursue re-gardless of exterior conditions or intellectual evidence.The intellect discerns thatthe right is that which promotes growth and development; character inwardlyfeels that the right leads to greater things and to better things, and that the wrongleads invariably to the inferior and the lesser.The presence of character produces a consciousness of growth throughout thesystem; and the stronger the character, the more keenly one can feel that eve-rything is being reconstructed, refined, perfected and developed into somethingsuperior, This is but natural because when the character is strong, everything inthe system is expressed in right action, and the right action of anything causesthe steady development of that particular thing.To distinguish between the rightand the wrong becomes simplicitv itself when one knows that the right promotesgrowth, while the wrong retards growth.Continuous advancement is the purposeof life; therefore, to live the right life is to live that life that promotes progressand growth, development and advancement in everything that pertains to life.For this reason, that action that promotes growth is in harmony with life itself,and must consequently be right.But that action that retards growth is at variancewith life; therefore it is wrong; and wrong for that reason alone.Everything thatpromotes human advancement is right.Everything that interferes with humanadvancement is wrong.Here we have the basis of a system of ethics that is thoroughly complete, and sosimple to live that nobody need err in the least.An intellectual understandingof the laws of life will enable anyone to know what action promotes growth andwhat action retards growth, but as character develops, one can feel the differencebetween right and wrong action in one s own system, because the consciousnessof right becomes so keen that anything that is not right is discerned at once.It istherefore evident that the power to distinguish the right from the wrong in everyinstance will come only through the development of character.No matter how100 CHRISTIAN LARSON YOUR FORCES AND HOW TO USE THEMbrilliant one may be intellectually, they cannot truly know the right until theyhave a strong character.The external understanding of the right can be misled,but the consciousness of the right is never mistaken; and this consciousness de-velops only as character develops.The second essential is to create a subconscious desire for the right -- a desireso deep and so strong that nothing can tempt the mind to enter into the wrong.When this desire is developed, one feels a natural preference for the right; to pre-fer the right, under all circumstances becomes second nature, while every desirefor the wrong will disappear completely.When every atom in one s being beginsto desire the right, the entire system will establish itself in the right attitude, andright action will become the normal action in every force, function and faculty.Inaddition, this same desire will produce mental tendencies that contain the powerof right action, which always means constructive action.It is a well known fact that all the forces and energies of the system, and all themovements of mind follow mental tendencies; therefore, when the mental ten-dencies are right actions, everything that takes place in the system will produceright action; and everything will be properly directed.The desire for the rightmay be developed by constantly thinking about the right with deep feeling.Everythought that has depth, therefore, will impress itself upon the subconscious, andwhen that thought is inspired with a strong desire for the right, the consciousimpression will convey the right to the subconscious.Every impression that en-ters the subconscious will cause the subconscious to bring forth a harvest of thatwhich the impression conveyed; therefore, when the right is constantly held inmind with deep feeling, the right thought will soon become the strongest in themind; and our desires are the results of our strongest thoughts.You always desirethat which is indicated in your strongest thought.You can therefore change thosedesires completely by thinking with deep feeling about that which you want todesire.No desire should be destroyed.All desires should be transmuted into thedesire for the right, and when you subconsciously desire the right, every action inyour being will be a right action.The two fundamental essentials, therefore, to the development of character areto know the right and to desire the right, but the term right as employed heremust not be confounded with that conception of right which includes only a fewof the moral laws.To be right according to the viewpoint of completeness, is tobe in harmony with all the principles of life, and all the laws of the present sphereof human existence
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