Menticulture; or, the A-B-C of True Living — John Shaqi
Menticulture; or, the A-B-C of True LivingFletcher, Horace
Religion
Menticulture; or, the A-B-C of True Living
Fletcher, Horace
Anger; Conduct of life; Worry
I was startled at the suggestion of the possibility of the entire
repression of anger and worry. I knew that their repression was
counselled by Christianity and Buddhism, and presumably by all codes of
religion and ethics; but I had never considered getting rid of them as
a human possibility, except under conditions of health and wealth and
ease, to which few, if any, ever attain.
[Sidenote: Get rid of Anger and Worry]
On my walk back to the Parker House, a distance of fully two miles, I
could not think of anything else but the words, "_get rid_," "_get
rid_;" and the idea must have continued to possess me during my
sleeping hours, for the first consciousness in the morning brought back
the same thought, with the revelation of a discovery, which framed
itself into the reasoning, "If it is possible to get rid of anger and
worry, why is it necessary to have them at all?" I felt the strength of
the argument and at once accepted the reasoning. The baby had
discovered that it could walk. It would scorn to creep any longer.
[Sidenote: Anger and Worry Instantly Removed]
From the instant I realized that these cancer spots of worry and anger
were removable, they left me. With the discovery of their weakness they
were exorcised. From that time life has had an entirely changed aspect.
Although from that moment the possibility and desirability of freedom
from the depressing passions has been a reality to me, it took me some
months to feel absolute security in my new position; but, as the usual
occasions for worry and anger have presented themselves over and over
again, and I have been unable to feel them in the slightest degree, I
no longer dread or guard against them, and I am amazed at my increased
energy and vigor of mind;--at my strength to meet situations of all
kinds, and at my disposition to love and appreciate everything.
[Sidenote: Wonderful Photographic Films]
[Sidenote: Sensitive only to Good]
I have had occasion to travel more than ten thousand miles by rail
since that morning; North, South, East and West, with the varying
comforts and discomforts, as they used to be. The same Pullman porter,
conductor, hotel waiter, peddler, book-agent, cabman, and others, who
were formerly a source of annoyance and irritation have been met, but I
am not conscious of a single incivility. All at once the whole world
has turned good to me. I am sure the change is not so much in the world
as in me. I have become, as it were, sensitive only to the rays of
good, as some photographic films of recent invention are sensitive only
to certain single colored rays of light.
If we are wise we never leave school. When the academy and the college
have put us through their curriculum, we have still before us the
example of Nature, and the walks of Science, and Art, and Brotherhood,
in which to search for suggestions to be applied in menticulture. May
we not learn a lesson from the newly discovered film?
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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