Title: The Game of life and how to play it

Author: Florence Scovel Shinn

Published: 1925

Content

1. The game (1)

2. The law of Prosperity (9)

3. The power of the word (16)

4. The Law of non-resistance (31)

5. The law of Karma and The law of forgiveness (39)

6. Love (46)

7. Intuitions or Guidance (54)

8. Perfect Self-expression or the Divine Design (62)

9. Denials and Affirmations (71)

1. The Game

(1)Most people consider life a battle, but it is not a Battle, it is a game. It is a game however, which cannot be played
without spiritual law.

(1) Jesus thought it is a great game of giving and receiving.

(1) The imaging faculty plays a leading part in the Game of life. Proverb 4:24

(2) The imagination has been called “the scissors of the mind” and it is ever cutting day by a day the pictures the
man sees there sooner or later he meets his own creation in his outer world.

“Take care of each moment and you will take care of all time.” Buddha

(2) There are three department of life the subconscious, conscious and super conscious.
(2) The subconscious, is simply power, without direction. It is like steam or electricity, and it does what it is
directed to do; it has no power of induction. Whatever man feels deeply or images clearly, is impressed upon the
subconscious mind, and carried out in minutest detail.

(3) The conscious mind has been called mortal or carnal mind. It is the human mind and sees life as it appears to be.
It sees death, disaster, sickness, poverty and limitation of every kind, and it impresses the subconscious.

(3) The superconscious mind is the God Mind within each man, and is the realm of perfect ideas. In it, is the
“perfect pattern” spoken of by Plato, The Divine Design; for there is a Divine Design for each person. “There is a
place that you are to fill and no one else can fill, something you are to do, which no one else can do.” There is a
perfect picture of this in the superconscious mind. It usually flashes across the conscious as an unattainable ideal—
“something too good to be true.”

(3) In reality it is man’s true destiny (or destination) flashed to him from the Infinite Intelligence which is within
himself

(4) This shows the law of substitution. A right idea was substituted for a wrong one; therefore there was no loss or
sacrifice involved.

(5) Many people have brought disaster into their lives through idle words.

(5) The subconscious mind has no sense of humor and people often joke themselves into unhappy experiences.

(6) Intuition means, intuition, or to be taught from within. It is man’s unerring guide.

(6) “Desire is God tapping at the door of your mind, trying to give you greater good.”

Catherine Ponder

(7) There is always plenty on man’s pathway; but it can only be brought into manifestation through desire, faith or
the spoken word.

(7) Every desire, uttered or unexpressed, is a demand. We are often startled by having a wish suddenly fulfilled.

(8) Nothing stands between man and his highest ideals and every desire of his heart, but doubt and fear. When man
can “wish without worrying,” every desire will be instantly fulfilled.

(8) Every thought, every word is impressed upon it and carried out in amazing detail. It is like a singer making a
record on the sensitive disc of the phonographic plate. Every note and tone of the singer’s voice is registered. If he
coughs or hesitates, it is registered also.

(8) Let us break all the old bad records in the subconscious mind, the records of our lives which we do not wish to
keep, and make new and beautiful ones.
(9) “Death and Life are in the power of the tongue.” (Prov. 18:21.)

The Law of Prosperity

(11) One of the greatest messages given to the race through the scriptures is that God is man’s supply and that man
can release, through his spoken word, all that belongs to him by divine right.

(13) “Spirit is never too late. I give thanks she has received the money on the invisible plane and that it manifests on
time.”

(13) If one asks for success and prepares for failure, he will get the situation he has prepared for.

(14) “There are only two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle. The other is as though
everything is a miracle.”

Albert Einstein

(15) “Every good and perfect gift” is already man’s awaiting his recognition.

(15) Every great work, every big accomplishment, has been brought into manifestation through holding to the
vision, and often just before the big achievement, comes apparent failure and discouragement.

(17) You can control any situation if you first control yourself.”

(17) “The universe will reward you for taking risks on its behalf.”

Shakti Gawain

The Power of the Word

(21) Through his spoken word, man is continually making laws for himself.

(21) Each had made a separate law for himself, one of failure, one of success. This is the psychology of
superstitions.

(24) Someone has said that courage contains genius and magic. Face a situation fearlessly, and there is no situation
to face; it falls away of its own weight.
(24) “Clarity brings prosperity.” Joel Fotinos

(25) “In order to demonstrate true prosperity, you must get rid of what you do not want, to make way for what you
do want.” Catherine Ponder

(25) The soul is the subconscious mind, and it must be “saved” from wrong thinking.

(26) When the subconscious is flooded with the perfect ideas of the superconscious, God and man are one. “I and
the Father are one.” That is, he is one with the realm of perfect ideas; he is the man made in God’s likeness and
image (imagination) and is given power and dominion over all created things, his mind, body and affairs.

(27) “I would say to everyone who wishes to demonstrate prosperity: take God into partnership with you and you
will demonstrate abundance.”

Charles Fillmore

(27) Continual criticism produces rheumatism, as critical, inharmonious thoughts cause unnatural deposits in the
blood, which settle in the joints.

(27) False growths are caused by jealousy, hatred, unforgiveness, fear, etc.

(27) Un-forgiveness is the most prolific cause of disease. It will harden arteries or liver, and affect the eye-sight. In
its train are endless ills.

(27) Any in harmony on the external, indicates there is mental in harmony. “As the within, so the without.”

(28) Good-will produces a great aura of protection about the one who sends it, and “No weapon that is formed
against him shall prosper.” In other words, love and good-will destroy the enemies with one’s self, therefore, one
has no enemies on the external!

The Law of Nonresistance

“Resist not evil. Be not overcome of evil, but overcome evil with good.”

(31) Nothing on earth can resist an absolutely nonresistant person.

(31) The Chinese say that water is the most powerful element, because it is perfectly nonresistant. It can wear away
a rock, and sweep all before it

(32) I heard a metaphysician once say, “If you do not run your subconscious mind yourself, someone else will run it
for you.”
(32) Resistance is Hell, for it places man in a “state of torment.”

(33) “I expect everything I do to prosper. I enthusiastically expect success.”

Ernest Holmes

(34) “Bless your enemy, and you rob him of his ammunition.” His arrows will be transmuted into blessings.

(34) Man can only get the right idea of nonresistance, through spiritual understanding.

(35) “God doesn’t have what you need. God is what you need.” Eric Butterworth

(35) So long as man resists a situation, he will have it with him. If he runs away from it, it will run after him.

(36) “Go confidently in the direction of your dreams. Live the life you’ve imagined. As you simplify your life, the
laws of the universe will be simpler.” Henry David Thoreau

(37) Life is a mirror, and we find only ourselves reflected in our associates.

(37) Living in the past is a failure method and a violation of spiritual law.

(38) “Who looks outside, dreams; who looks inside, wakes.” C. G. Jung

(40) God’s idea for man, and when man breaks down the barriers of lack in his own consciousness, the Golden Age
will be his, and every righteous desire of his heart fulfilled!

5
The Law of Karma and the Law of Forgiveness
(43) Man receives only that which he gives. The Game of Life is a game of boomerangs. Man’s thoughts, deeds and
words, return to him sooner or later, with astounding accuracy.

(43) “A single day is enough to make us a little larger or, another time, a little smaller.” Paul Klee

(44) The more man knows, the more he is responsible for, and a person with a knowledge of Spiritual Law, which
he does not practice, suffers greatly, in consequence. “

(45) Obedience precedes authority, and the law obeys man when he obeys the law. The law of electricity must be
obeyed before it becomes man’s servant. When handled ignorantly, it becomes man’s deadly foe. So with the laws
of Mind!

(45) Desire is a tremendous force, and must be directed in the right channels, or chaos ensues.

(46) Man should always demand only that which is his by divine right.
(47) “You are not the past. You are the present becoming the future.” Raymond Charles Barker

(48) If he desires riches, he must be rich first in consciousness.

(49) If man ignores these leadings to spend or to give, the same amount of money will go in an uninteresting or
unhappy way.

(49) The law always stands back of the man who spends fearlessly, with wisdom.

(50) “Nothing great was ever achieved without enthusiasm.” Ralph Waldo Emerson

(50) The subconscious, being simply power without direction, carries out orders without questioning.

(50) Working under the direction of the superconscious (the Christ or God within man) the “resurrection of the
body” would be accomplished.

(50) Christianity is founded upon the forgiveness of sins and “an empty tomb.”

6
Casting the Burden Impressing the Subconscious

(53) When man knows his own powers and the workings of his mind, his great desire is to find an easy and quick
way to impress the subconscious with good, for simply an intellectual knowledge of the Truth will not bring results.

(54) Man violates law if he carries a burden, and a burden is an adverse thought or condition, and this thought or
condition has its root in the subconscious.

(56) “Casting the burden enables one to see in the dark.”

(56) Active faith is the bridge, over which man passes to his Promised Land.

(57) “I have come to see that my only business is to live as though there were none but God and I in the world.”
Brother Lawrence

(57) The subconscious is often impressed through music. Music has a fourth dimensional quality and releases the
soul from imprisonment.

(58) “Everyone thinks of changing the world, but no one thinks of changing himself.” Leo Tolstoy

(59) “Do not wait for a change of environment before you act; get a change of environment by action.”
Wallace D. Wattles
(59) There is no peace or happiness for man, until he has erased all fear from the subconscious.

(59) Fear is misdirected energy and must be redirected, or transmuted into Faith.

(61) “Life is either a daring adventure, or nothing at all.” Helen Keller

Love

(63) Real love is selfless and free from fear. It pours itself out upon the object of its affection, without demanding
any return. Its joy is in the joy of giving. Love is God in manifestation, and the strongest magnetic force in the
universe. Pure, unselfish love draws to itself its own; it does not need to seek or demand. Scarcely anyone has the
faintest conception of real love.

(63) Jealousy is the worst enemy of love, for the imagination runs riot, seeing the loved one attracted to another,
and invariably these fears objectify if they are not neutralized.

(64) “Success is getting what you want. Happiness is wanting what you get.” Dale Carnegie

(66) There is an old saying: “No man is your enemy, no man is your friend, every man is your teacher.”

(66) Suffering is not necessary for man’s development; it is the result of violation of spiritual law, but few people
seem able to rouse themselves from their “soul sleep” without it.

(67) “If we did all the things we were capable of doing, we would literally astound ourselves.” Thomas Edison

(67) No man can attract money if he despises it. Many people are kept in poverty by saying: “Money means nothing
to me, and I have a contempt for people who have it.”

(68) Money is God in manifestation, as freedom from want and limitation, but it must be always kept in circulation
and put to right uses. Hoarding and saving react with grim vengeance.

(68) Money in itself, is good and beneficial, but used for destructive purposes, hoarded and saved, or considered
more important than love, brings disease and disaster, and the loss of the money itself.

(69)Follow the path of love, and all things are added, for God is love, and God is supply; follow the path of
selfishness and greed, and the supply vanishes, or man is separated from it.

(69) Man, in ignorance of the law, brings about his own destruction. All disease, all unhappiness, come from the
violation of the law of love.
(70) “Here is the great secret . . . you will realize your ideal when you become exactly like your ideal, and . . . you
will realize as much of your ideal now as you develop in yourself now.”

Christian D. Larson

(72) Happy is the mother who can say sincerely, that she puts her child in God’s hands, and knows therefore, that he
is divinely protected.

(72) Man is his brother’s keeper (in thought) and every man should know that the thing he loves dwells in “the
secret place of the most high, and abides under the shadow of the Almighty.”

(72) “Perfect love casteth out fear. He that feareth is not made perfect in love,” and “Love is the fulfilling of the
Law.”

Intuition or Guidance

(75) “In all thy ways acknowledge Him and He shall direct thy paths.”

(76) Giving opens the way for receiving. In order to create activity in finances, one should give. Tithing or giving
one-tenth of one’s income, is an old Jewish custom, and is sure to bring increase. Many of the richest men in this
country have been tithers, and I have never known it to fail as an investment.

(78) “Better keep yourself clean and bright; you are the window through which you must see the world.”
George Bernard Shaw

(78) Intuition is a spiritual faculty and does not explain, but simply points the way.

(78) The idea that comes may seem quite irrelevant, but some of God’s leadings are “mysterious.”

(79) Man’s soul (or subconscious mind) must be washed whiter than snow, for permanent healing; and the
metaphysician is always delving deep for the “correspondence.”

(79) Many people have attracted disease and unhappiness through condemnation of others.

(80) “Old ideas will not create new conditions.” Raymond Charles Barker

(80) As man opens his mind to subjectivity, he becomes a target for destructive forces.

(80) “You will become as great as your dominant aspiration. If you cherish a vision, a lofty ideal in your heart, you
will realize it.” James Allen
(81) Man’s will should be used to back the universal will. “I will that the will of God be done.”

(81) Faith is an effort of the will.

(81) Wisdom’s ways are ways of pleasantness and all her paths are peace.

(84) “The key is to have a dream that inspires us to go beyond our limits.” Robert Kriegel

(84) “No man gives to himself but himself, and no man takes away from himself, but himself.

9
Perfect Self-Expression or the Divine Design
(87) “No wind can drive my bark astray nor change the tide of destiny.”

(87) a perfect idea in Divine Mind, awaiting man’s recognition. As the imaging faculty is the creative faculty, it is
necessary for man to see the idea, before it can manifest.

(88) Perfect self-expression will never be labor; but of such absorbing interest that it will seem almost like play.

(88) “Faith can move mountains. Doubt can create them.” Howard Wight

(90) Bible is a book dealing with the science of the mind. It is a book telling man how to release his soul (or
subconscious mind) from bondage.

(90) Man often receives a set-back when he is “too sure of himself,” which means he is trusting to his personality
and not the “Father within.”

(90) “Whether you think you can or think you can’t, you are right.” Henry Ford

(92) Anger blurs the visions, poisons the blood, is the root of many diseases, and causes wrong decision leading to
failure.

(92) Man can only vanquish fear by walking up to the thing he is afraid of. Eg Jehoshaphat

(94) “Take the first step in faith. You don’t have to see the whole staircase. Just take the first step.” Martin
Luther King, Jr.

(94) Man should receive gracefully the bread returning to him upon the water freely ye have given, freely ye shall
receive.

(95) There is always the perfect balance of giving and receiving, and though man should give without thinking of
returns, he violates law if he does not accept the returns which come to him; for all gifts are from God, man being
merely the channel.
(95) “I know for sure that what we dwell on is who we will become.” Oprah Winfrey

10

Denials and Affirmations

(100) it is impossible for man to release more than he thinks is possible, for one is bound by the limited expectancies
of the subconscious.

(101) continually affirming establishes the belief in the subconscious. It would not be necessary to make an
affirmation more than once if one had perfect faith!

(101) “Create your future from your future, not your past.” Werner Erhard

(104) “Success is a state of mind. If you want success, start thinking of yourself as a success.” Dr. Joyce Brothers

(105) Visualizing is a mental process governed by the reasoning or conscious mind; visioning is a spiritual process,
governed by intuition, or the superconscious mind.

(105) “You can do anything you wish to do, have anything you wish to have, be anything you wish to be.”
Robert Collier

(107) The Master Thinker is an artist and is careful to paint only the divine designs upon the canvas of his mind;

(107) All power is given man (through right thinking) to bring his heaven upon his earth, and this is the goal of the
“Game of Life.”