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With its theme that “Mind is the master weaver,” creating our inner character and outer circumstances, the book As a Man Thinking by James Allen is an in-depth exploration of the central idea of self-help writing。

(46) Allen’s contribution was to take an assumption we all share--that because we are not robots we therefore control our thoughts-and reveal its erroneous nature. 我們每個人都認為：自己不是機器人，因此能夠控制自己的思想；愛倫的貢獻在于他研究了這一假說，并揭示其錯誤的本質。Because most of us believe that mind is separate from matter, we think that thoughts can be hidden and made powerless; this allows us to think one way and act another. However, Allen believed that the unconscious mind generates as much action as the conscious mind, and (47) while we may be able to sustain the illusion of control through the conscious mind alone, in reality we are continually faced with a question: “Why cannot I make myself do this or achieve that? ”

我們或許只通過意識就能維持這種控制的幻覺，但事實上，我們卻總是面臨一個問題：我們為什么不能讓自己去做這件事情，實現那個目標呢？

Since desire and will are damaged by the presence of thoughts that do not accord with desire, Allen concluded : “ We do not attract what we want, but what we are。” Achievement happens because you as a person embody the external achievement; you don’t “ get” success but become it. There is no gap between mind and matter。

Part of the fame of Allen’s book is its contention that “Circumstances do not make a person, they reveal him。” (48) This seems a justification for neglect of those in need, and a rationalization of exploitation, of the superiority of those at the top and the inferiority of those at the bottom。

這種說法似乎為忽視需要幫助的人找到了借口，使剝削合理化，令上層人優越，底層人卑微。

This, however, would be a knee-jerk reaction to a subtle argument. Each set of circumstances, however bad, offers a unique opportunity for growth. If circumstances always determined the life and prospects of people, then humanity would never have progressed. In fat, (49)circumstances seem to be designed to bring out the best in us and if we feel that we have been “wronged” then we are unlikely to begin a conscious effort to escape from our situation. 環境似乎旨在激發我們的最大潛能，如果我們總感覺“上天不公”，那么不太可能會自覺地努力脫離現狀。Nevertheless, as any biographer knows, a person’s early life and its conditions are often the greatest gift to an individual。

The sobering aspect of Allen’s book is that we have no one else to blame for our present condition except ourselves. (50) The upside is the possibilities contained in knowing that everything is up to us; where before we were experts in the of limitations, now we become authorities of what is possible。

積極的一面是，既然萬事都取決于我們，那么就有無限可能。以前，我們能夠熟練應對種種局限；現在，我們把握著未來的可能。