What your thoughts are, that is your real self.

What your thoughts are, that is your real self.
 
THE world around, both
animate and inanimate, wears the aspect with which your thoughts clothe it. 
"All that we are is the result of what we have thought; it is founded on our
thoughts; it is made up of our thoughts."  Thus said Buddha, and it therefore
follows that if a man is happy, it is because he dwells in happy thoughts; if
miserable,because he dwells in despondent and debilitating thoughts.  Whether
one be fearful or fearless, foolish or wise, troubled or serene, within that
soul lies the cause of its own state or states, and never without.  And now I
seem to hear a chorus of voices exclaim, "But do you really mean to say that
outward circumstances do not affect our mind?"  I do not say that, but I say
this, and know it to be an infallible truth, that circumstances can only affect
you in so far as you allow them to do so.
 
You are swayed by
circumstances because you have not a right understanding of the nature, use, and
power of thought.     
 
James Allen