Your Life. Bruce McArthur

everyone with love. That’s the ideal. You thereby apply “like begets like” in the highest way. Then, by that law only the highest and best will come back to you.

TO ACHIEVE THE IDEAL

      So that we can achieve the ideal, all of us need some way to check up on ourselves to determine (1) how we are using this law and (2) whether or not we are improving. To do this checkup, the readings often suggested an interesting process: Stand aside and watch yourself pass by; that is, stop and review what you have been saying, doing, and thinking. Review your last contact with someone—why did you say what you did? How did you feel about it? Would you do it the same way again if you had the chance? Does it measure up to what you feel would be the ideal way to act?

      Such an analysis of your actions provides a foundation to use in making changes and improvements. By such evaluation you are able to discern how you are unknowingly applying the law. You, then, are able to make any changes required to act more nearly in accord with the ideal.

      These steps of analysis, evaluation, discernment, and comparison with the ideal are vital to your growth and to your transformation. The steps do not and should not include at any point a judgment, conclusion, or decision that says you are wrong or deficient or a failure, or suggest anything that implies guilt or a put-down of self or a need for fear or condemnation. It is such criticism or judging that is an unwise use of the law. Don’t do it to yourself or to others.¹⁷

      From long experience, I can tell you that the process of standing aside and watching yourself go by is one of the simplest and most effective tools for personal growth I have ever found. The first time I tried it I was appalled at what I saw! As I sat down for lunch that day, I was feeling very stressed and dissatisfied. I began to stand aside and look back at myself as I had lived that morning. I watched myself severely criticize the hotel clerk when I checked out. I felt my anger as I condemned the manager of the repair shop for not having my car ready when promised. I saw myself in the meeting I had attended expressing very judgmental opinions of two of my associates. Then to top it off, I realized I had just been rude to the waitress who was serving me! I found myself trying to rationalize all this, but there was no denying that the picture was not a pleasant one. As a result of this process, I began to try to make changes in the way I dealt with others. I began to watch myself even as I interacted with others. It is a powerful way to begin to know yourself. As you look at what you are actually doing and compare it with your ideal, you have clear and direct evidence of how you need to change.

      Opportunities to misuse the law of “like begets like” come by the trainloads—opportunities to judge, gossip, criticize, resent, hate, condemn, be jealous or envious, angry, vicious, contentious, grudging, speak harshly, etc. If we can be alert when these opportunities come, we can tell ourselves, “No, that’s not my train. Mine is the train carrying hope, joy, peace, cooperation, understanding, forgiveness, love, confidence, trust, and peace—and that’s where I’m going!”

LIKE BEGETS LIKE IN OUR RELATIONSHIP WITH THE FATHER

      Edgar Cayce once gave a reading at the request of the daughter of a man who had disappeared, leaving a suicide note. One of the reassurances Cayce’s source gave to her was that if she would put her trust in the Higher Power, she would find that:

      … the love of the Father will sustain you; and that love, as it will be manifested in the lives, the activities, the hearts, the presence of your fellow man, will bear you up. For, like begets like. (378-29)AR

      This case shows us that the law is so important it even operates in our relationship with the Father. It also presents us with a startling requirement: we need to first trust Spirit if we are going to have a relationship with Spirit and derive the benefits of it. This is not to say that at any time God does not trust us. But if we are to be aware of that trust and to bring the fruits of that into our lives, we first need to set the law to work for us by trusting God.

      The fact that we must take the first steps in our relationship with our Creator explains why those who follow the intellectual approach alone can’t make the breakthrough to understanding the spiritual. “Like begets like” means we must take the first step in spirit if we wish to know, experience, or manifest the spiritual.

THE CHOICE IS YOURS

      In using this law, we can dispense love and cooperation and friendliness or faultfinding or judgment or hate. We have the choice. There are many ways in which we apply this law. Which do you choose to create in your life:

      tolerance or intolerance

      courage or fear

      gossip or support

      open-mindedness or narrow-mindedness

      faith or fear

      patience or impatience

      joy or sorrow

      peace or contention

      forgiveness or grudges

      condemnation or acceptance

      While there are apparently many choices, there is only one fundamental decision required of you about how you apply this law: Will I choose the high road, living in accord with the flow of peace, love, and joy of the Universe? Or will I choose the low road of faultfinding, judgment, condemnation, and selfishness? Whichever road you choose becomes a part of your life and your destiny.

      SOME HIGHLIGHTS OF THIS CHAPTER

      The law:

       LIKE BEGETS LIKE

      is irrefutable, unchangeable, immutable, and cannot be avoided.

      It operates whether we are aware of it or not.

      The law applies in our lives as well as in nature.

      It assures that whatever we hold as an attitude or emotion in any situation will at some later time come back to us.

      It operates impartially, working for both positive or negative, constructive or destructive, spirit, thoughts, words, or actions.

      “Like begets like” puts us in charge. As we use it for good or for ill each day, we are indeed the pilots, the directors of our lives.¹⁸

      Chapter 3

      Laws of Increase

      The laws that are the topic of this chapter deal with greatly multiplying a particular condition. For that reason I have termed these the laws of increase. They are extremely important and basic to our lives. The first law is:

      … AS YOU SOW, SO SHALL YOU REAP.

      (1529-1)AR (cf. Galatians 6:7)

      This is one of the most understandable of the laws because we have clear examples of it in nature. Each time we plant a garden or see new growth from what were barren fields, we see this law in operation. More important, as we work with nature through this law by planting and harvesting, we experience—in the physical realm—the contributions of the Creative Force that enable us to accomplish our goals. As we study and observe what takes place in this growth process, we gain a deeper understanding of how the law works in our lives and how we can best work in accord with it and with the Creative Forces.

THE INCREASE

      My wife has a greenhouse and a green thumb.

      She plants several tiny seeds.

      In a few months we are eating huge, delicious, fresh ripe tomatoes.

      She sowed only several tiny seeds.

      She was patient.

      She gave love, care, consideration, food, water.

      She reaps not just a few seeds—but wonderful, nourishing, beautiful fruit and hundreds of new seeds.

      The miracle in this law is one of abundance and joy and beauty, wherein you reap not only what you sow, but far, far more—multiplied many times—when the right kind of seed is nurtured with the spirit of love