Chapter II

MAN A FREE AGENT
N CONSIDERING man s actions as free or controlled, or as controllable or des' tined, the important point to be exam' ined is this: Are our acts the result of antecedent causes, or are we directed in aU of our affairs by external influences, such as the so'called Cosmic vibrations, mental impulses from without, or tendencies in and around us? In other words, are our lives as we live them generally an effect of our environment and invisible impulses and urges over which we have no control, and by which certain opportunities and temptations are brought before us and which we either accept and utili2;e or deny and cast aside?
Those who argue that man is a free agent and is not governed by any external influences, are begging the question and reaching no conclusion whatsoever. Man is a free agent in every sense
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that the most enthusiastic of the exponents of that doctrine would have us beheve; but that means that man is ever free to choose, to select, elect, and determine what he wills to do in each and every circumstance. It impHes that man is never forced against his will to do anything, or even think anything. Of course, the real intent of the doctrine of free agency as promulgated by many schools of philosophical thought is to decry the fact that man is affected in any way by the wishes of God, the autocracy of natural and spiritual law, and the inevitable workings of heredity. These things, however, do not affect man in the sense usually presented by these philc sophical schools, or by the fanatics who misun' derstood the real principles.
The wishes of God may truly be the dictates of an omnipotent being, and man is unquestionably affected by the will of God. The method whereby the will and desires of God are expressed and brought to the consciousness of man, however, is little understood by even those who devote their lives to the propounding of God's laws and His direction of the universe. The belief in a personal
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THE CYCLES OF LIFE
God who has destined and decreed for each indi' vidual before birth a course and a career which will inevitably become manifest in the life of each individual after birth, regardless of the will of man and his application of the divine power within him, which is his birthright, is a pagan belief, unsupported by the testimonies of hfe itself and by the revelations of spiritual and natural law when apphed understandingly. The Rosicrucians have through the present system to learn that the will and wishes of God are expressed to man in the form of inspirations, and these inspirations may be carried to man through tendencies, impulses, urges, and propitious presentations in the form of oppor" tunities and temptations. And, man is as often tempted to do good as to do evil. The same may be said of any of the true principles of planetary or other external Cosmic influences. In each case their effect upon man is in the form of these tendencies, without the power to enforce their acceptance by man. Therefore, we find that man is continuously and constantly affected by the opportune temptations to act or to think. Merciful indeed, and just, was God in giving to man the
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SELF MASTERY AHD FATE
power and the privilege to choose and to decide for himself when he finds himself tempted by opportunities, urged by inspirations, or led by impulses. And as a free agent to choose between one impulse and another, one inspiration and another, or one temptation and another, he must abide by his decision and assume the responsibiHty.
Agreeing, therefore, that man is a free agent and has the privilege and power to choose in all of his acts and in all of his thinking, we still have to consider the nature and the source of these impulses, urges, and inspirations that come before him, and which call for a choice or a choosing. If there were not diverse opportunities presenting themselves, and if there were not varying impulse-, urges, and inspirations occurring momentarily, hourly, daily throughout the life of man, there would be no reason for man to have the ability and the power to choose, and man would not have been given the ability to reason, to think, and to use his will power.
The unconscious machinery of the factory has neither the ability to analy2;e nor the power to act as a free agent. Of all living things, man alone is
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THE CYCLES OF LIFE
unique in possessing to the highest degree the ability to act freely and to choose of his own volition. And it may be no tribute to mankind in general to say that the majority has chosen most often unwisely, and that to the minority has been left the salvation and advancement of the race through the proper exercise of its great prerogative.
In the year 1918, I wrote a monograph on this subject, and I stated therein that this subject of impulses, inspirations, and tendencies continuously presented to man for his choice "in conjunction with the study of the law of compensation, is worthy of a complete book which I may prepare if I find a demand for it." I believe that the time has come for man, in the Occidental World, to know more about these laws, and to live in harmony with them as have the Masters of the Far East, and the highly developed and successful persons of the Orient.
The business man is constantly confronted, in the affairs of his daily life, with the necessity of deciding between two plans, two urges, two propO' sitions, two temptations, two "hunches." Or, there may be several distinctly different impulses and
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SELF MASTERr A^D FATE
plans before him calling for a choice. He is also confronted with the diverse tendencies of his af- fairs to choose between a greater development of some of them, or a curtailment of others. He is confronted yearly with the problem of expansion or retraction. He finds himself face to face with important decisions, which must be made, that affect the present and future standing of his busi- ness and the success of his personal or business career.
The woman in the home finds herself facing similar problems. From day to day there are two urges, impulses, and temptations presented by the affairs of the members of her family, the argu- ments of Solicitors and salesmen, the perplexities of her husband's personal affairs which bear upon the growth and development of the family and its best interests, and her own personal and intimate affairs. The woman in business and the young man in business just starting their careers, or trying to establish themselves in a selected field of effort, find themselves continuously called upon in the quiet of their personal examinations to make decisions that will unquestionably affect the re-
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THE CYCLES OF LIFE
mainder of their lives. To them come as to all others the urges and impulses, the opportunities and temptations, the desires and wishes, with both negative and positive phases to be considered, and a choice to be decided upon.
As these persons decide, so will they determine their fates, and establish their destinies. The fate of a day, Hke the fate of a year, may leave its fortunate or unfortunate results to affect the en' tire life and career of a person or a business.
Yielding to an urge or an inspiration, or sub' mitting to an impulse or temptation, or taking advantage of an opportunity with no other war' rant or reason than the judgment based upon analytical reasoning is equivalent in most cases to choosing between right and wrong by the toss of a coin. Man's reasoning cannot rise higher than the premises upon which it is based, and the premises of knowledge forming the founda' tion of man's analytical reasoning may be faulty because they may not include a knowledge of the external influences and the natural laws governing his life and his affairs.
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SELF MASTERY AHP FATE
As the system contained in this book will show, there is a periodicity or cycle of periods regulating unfortunate periods of the lives of each being, also the movement, progression, develops ment, and maturity of each thing in life which begins at a point and proceeds onward to a con- clusion, whether that thing is a business proposi' tion, a journey, the building of a house or factory, the buying and selling of merchandise, the diseases and illnesses of the flesh, the conception and development of an embryo, the movement of the tides, or anything that is created and brought into existence by natural laws through divine de' cree or man's volition.
By working in harmony with the periods of one's own personal Hfe and the periods of the business plan, proposition, or creature of man's thinking, the utmost success will be made and attained, while working out of harmony with these periods or in ignorance of them will bring frustration, failure, losses, and defeat.
Man is the free agent to choose whether he will work in harmony with the universal law of rhythm, whether he will choose rightly or wrongly
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THE CYCLES OF LIFE
But the result of his choice will automatically follow, and this inevitable result constitutes a manifestation of the law of compensation.
He who chooses rightly and works in harmony with the law becomes the master of his fate, while he who fails to choose rightly and works out of harmony with the law is a slave to fate and a victim of a destiny unconsciously created.
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