life, of penury and restricted means.

The same rule applies, no matter what the limitations of one's life
may be. Freedom can be gained only by realizing the truth about life
and being. When we realize the truth, live in the consciousness of
it, and become obedient to the laws of life and being, the life
becomes increasingly free. This does not mean that if we are plain
of feature, and of a stumpy figure, that we shall become beautiful
and graceful; but it does mean that these so-called drawbacks will
no longer fetter us, and that others will see in us something far
better than mere regularity of feature and beauty of form. When the
soul is _alive_ and the life filled with love, the homeliest face
becomes attractive. Neither does it mean that we shall not suffer
bereavements and sorrows, difficulties and adversities, but it does
mean that we shall cease intensifying these things and creating
further troubles by taking life's discipline in the wrong spirit.
It also means that we shall be able to overcome all life's
difficulties and trials, become a conqueror in the strife, and, in
so doing, build up character. Thus the storms of life, instead of
destroying us, can succeed only in _making us stronger_. Thus our
fate depends not on the storms of life, but upon how we meet them.
If we give in to them, or, thinking that they are evil and not a
necessary discipline, rebel against them and resist them, then we
become shipwrecked on a desolate shore. If, however, we are armed
with the knowledge of truth we can set our sails in such a way as
to compel the storms of life actually to help us towards the desired
haven.

The first step in the direction of knowledge of the truth is right
thinking. Every negative thought must be transmuted into its positive
opposite, [12] for instance, hate and dislike into love and goodwill,
fear into confident trust, poverty into abundance, evil into absolute
good, and so on. This will be found to be not easy, but it is
possible, and the power to control one's thoughts increases if one
perseveres continually, with the passing of the years. A beginner