This same vein appeared in 1903 in the book by James Allen, "As a Man Thinketh." The title is influenced by a verse in the Bible from the Book of Proverbs, chapter 23, verse 7: "As a man thinketh in his heart, so is he".

Quotes from "As a Man Thinketh"

"Men do not attract what they want, but what they are."

"A man is literally what he thinks, his character being the complete sum of all his thoughts."

"Cherish your visions. Cherish your ideals. Cherish the music that stirs in your heart, the beauty that forms in your mind, the loveliness that drapes your purest thoughts, for out of them will grow all delightful conditions, all heavenly environment, of these, if you but remain true to them your world will at last be built."

"Men are anxious to improve their circumstances, but are unwilling to improve themselves, they therefore remain bound."

"Every action and feeling is preceded by a thought."

"Right thinking begins with the words we say to ourselves."

"Circumstance does not make the man, it reveals him to himself."

"Every man is where he is by the law of his being; the thoughts which he has built into his character have brought him there, and in the arrangement of his life there is no element of chance, but all is the result of a law which cannot err."

- Wikipedia article, "As a Man Thinketh."

In the forty-five years which passed since high school, I rarely gave thought to 'The Impersonal Life.' My younger brother Mark, with whom I was close, died in a car accident and I rebounded into a physical relationship and fundamentalist Christian outlook. The metaphysical books which had been most valued became the works of the devil to me. It took twenty-five years to free myself in 2000 from that self-made prison.

'The Impersonal Life' says that such 'detours' in a person's life are also guided by the True Self. I see the underlying purposes and agree. Still, in quickly passing thoughts it is painful to consider what might have been were it not for the 'lost' twenty-five years. However, I will not again put my power and authority outside myself, as when the Bible became to me the infallible word of God. 'The Impersonal Life' is also a book, also penned by a fallible human hand. It speaks certain truths, but ultimately the voice I must hear and discern speaks through the light-waves of the sun, the air currents of the wind, the inter-actions with a neighbor, and in the knowing that arises from within.

For sixteen years following my liberation, I was on a traveling spiritual adventure with my new life partner. We crisscrossed the States and crossed the oceans to live for times in Europe and Oceania. Life led me into working with vulnerable populations. Caring for the elderly, terminally ill, developmentally disabled and youth at-risk did much to soften my hardened insides. Writing was also part of my therapeutic journey.

By the time the thought came to read 'The Impersonal Life' again, a mental understanding — of the fluid actuality of existence and the one consciousness which is the Self of all — was engrained. I no longer need to be hammered to convince my illusionary persona of the truth of the one being. That truth pulses in my blood and bones and every cell of my body. However, automatic and reactive thinking still interfere with my experience.

My focus and inner work now is to embody the Truth through conscious actions which overpower the automatic and reactive and make living as the One Being the baseline of my reality.

From Chapter 4:

I AM You, the Real Self of you, All that you really are. That which you think you are, you are not.  That is only an illusion, a shadow of the Real You, which is I, your Immortal, Divine Self.

I AM that point of consciousness focalized in your human mind which calls itself 'I'. I AM that 'I', but that which you call your consciousness is in reality My Consciousness, thinned down to suit the capacity of your human mind. It is still My Consciousness, and when you can drive from your mind all its human misconceptions, ideas and opinions, and can cleanse and empty it utterly, so that My Consciousness can have a chance to express freely, then you will recognize Me and you will know that you are nothing—being only a focal center of My Consciousness, an avenue or medium through which I can express My meaning—in matter.

​The Impersonal Life, Chapter III
I, LIFE, GOD

Chapter Three is titled 'I, Life, God.' These three words speak to me of:

I - universal, self-knowing consciousness which pervades and unifies all that is, the One Being;

Life - forces of Nature set in motion by the 'I AM', including the animating principle. The instrument through which the One Being expresses itself;

God - Creative Source, expressing itself in and through the unfolding mystery of its creation of Life. The actions and qualities of the One Being. 

The will of the One Being is not will as humans understand, but the essential nature  of expressing itself in unendingly diverse dimensions and forms. Self-expression is not what it wills or does but what it is. The One Being has no law though it has set in motion natural laws to govern its expression.

'The Impersonal Life' claims that the person who questions the book's voice of Divine authority will receive no benefit from its words. From my perspective, within I, Life and God there is neither will nor authority but only the nature of self-expression. Authority is a fabrication of fragmented humanity and the phrase 'will receive no benefit' a fear tactic to control penned by a human, subject to the same fragmentation. 

The third chapter states, "Once you recognize My Authority, that moment the undermining of the authority of the personality has begun. The days of its dominion are numbered, and you will more and more turn to Me for help and guidance."

To clarify this, in Chapter Eight it is written, "When the time comes, as it inevitably will, that you become dissatisfied in your search among the teachings of the various religions, philosophies and cults that now are interesting you, and you grow discouraged at finding yourself no nearer the attainment of the powers and spiritual growth so authoritatively described and supposedly possessed by the writers of the books, the teachers of the philosophies and the promulgators of the religions,—then will I show you that while all these books, teachings and religions were originally inspired by Me, and have done and are still doing their part in quickening the hearts of many, yet for you it is now meant that you cease looking to any outer authority, and instead confine your study to My Book of Life, guided and instructed by Me within, by Me alone."

Yes! to 'cease looking to any outer authority' includes the teachings of 'The Impersonal Life.' It means to be guided by the One Being alone.

Chapter Three goes on to repeat the central theme of the book, “Be still!—and KNOW—I AM—God.” 

This sentence is from Psalm 46:10 which says, "Be still, and know that I am God: I will be exalted among the heathen, I will be exalted in the earth."

"Be still - The word used here - from רפה râphâh - means properly to cast down; to let fall; to let hang down; then, to be relaxed, slackened, especially the hands: It is also employed in the sense of not making an effort; not putting forth exertion; and then would express the idea of leaving matters with God, or of being without anxiety about the issue...."

"And know that I am God - See, in what I have done, the evidence that I am God."

— 'Barnes' Notes on the Bible', Bible Hub

'The Impersonal Life' re-interprets this verse (rightly, in my view) away from the literal sense of looking to God as an external power and authority who commands men, divides nations and cares to be exalted. It re-focuses the meaning to individual awareness of the One Being within as the true identity of the person and essential nature of all that is.

Chapter Three goes on to say, "Yes, I AM that innermost part of you that sits within, and calmly waits and watches, knowing neither time nor space; for I AM the Eternal and fill all space."

"....I AM that which animates your body, which causes your mind to think, your heart to beat. 

"I AM the Innermost, the Spirit, the animating Cause of your being, of all life, of all living things, both visible and invisible. There is nothing dead, for I, the Impersonal ONE, AM all that there is. I AM Infinite and wholly unconfined; the Universe is My Body, all the Intelligence there is, emanates from My Mind, all the Love there is, flows from My Heart, all the Power there is, is but My Will in action. 

"The threefold Force, manifesting as all Wisdom, all Love, all Power, or if you will, as Light, Heat, and Energy—that which holds together all forms and is back of and in all expressions and phases of life,—is but the manifestation of My Self in the act or state of Being. 

"Nothing can Be without manifesting and expressing some phase of Me, Who AM not only the Builder of all forms, but the Dweller in each.  In the heart of each I dwell; in the heart of the human, in the heart of the animal, in the heart of the flower, in the heart of the stone. In the heart of each I  live and move and have My Being, and from out the heart of each I send forth that phase of Me I desire to express, and which manifests in the outer world as a stone, a flower, an animal, a man...."

The Impersonal Life, Chapter II
BE STILL AND KNOW

Language uses words to capture and convey images and ideas. A butterfly captured and pinned under display glass is not the same as the butterfly that flits from flower to flower and dances in the air with others of it kind. As soon as the word is formed, the essence of the idea is deadened. The word and the idea cannot be the same.

'The Impersonal Life' is a book and for many a way of seeing and living. Some have dedicated their lives to its practice. I have read the book twice and am still contemplating its words but am not in a place to make informed comments on its application by others. Neither have I captured butterflies or pinned them. Still, it feels an apt metaphor.

What I can write from a place informed by a lifetime of spiritual adventures is my present feelings about 'The Impersonal Life' and such practices in general. Certainly I still resonate with the essence of its message, which I interpret and re-word. For example, whereas the book says, "Be still - and know - I am - God," I relate more to "Be still - and know - I am - One Being."

God is a charged word in my experience. My mind associates it with a superior being separated from humans. The word 'God' has a male energy to me. The One Being is gender-less, with qualities which humans attribute to male and female. When I think or say, "I am One Being," I feel the border-less, universal consciousness which inhabits and unifies all that is, including the human Gary through which the One Being seeks to express itself. I feel I am the One Being in Gary form.

The significance of the 'be still' sentence is found in its practical application which continues to challenge me. I am the One Being in human form but my daily actions and responses to life are not yet consistent with this truth. The realization has been stuck in my head for over forty-five years since first reading 'The Impersonal Life,' and hasn't yet made it to abide in my heart and cellular structure. That is my present work, moving the knowing from intellectual knowledge to embodied actuality. All the while being relaxed, playful and participating in the fullness of life.

Any over-emphasis on a single focus grows into an imbalance, whether it is the Christian life, the Catholic life, the Buddhist life, the Hindu life, the Sufi life, or the impersonal life. Life is too complex and dynamic to be captured and pinned to a single focus. How impersonal do I really want to be? 

Impersonal means not relating or responsive to individual persons such as "an impersonal corporation"; not influenced by, showing, or involving personal feelings, e.g., "the impersonal march of progress" and not existing as a person; having no personality as in "he gradually came to believe in an impersonal God." Its synonyms include neutral, unprejudiced, objective, detached, disinterested, dispassionate and without favoritism. I relate in the context of the impersonal life with neutral and objective. I can accept without favoritism as well as it recalls the definition of mindfulness as being without preference.

Of course, practitioners of the impersonal life do not necessarily aspire to have no personal feelings or personality or to be disinterested or dispassionate. For example, Sun Center "is a spiritual organization created ... by a group of dedicated students who have been silently practicing the Impersonal Life Teachings for years." The students have published two additional volumes of 'The Impersonal Life' book and are writing study courses. In a few brief e-mail exchanges, I found responses from the Sun Center to feel warm and personal in the common sense of the word personal. It never pays to get hung up on words. 

As a way of understanding and applying the impersonal life, I sometimes refer to it as the non-possessive life or the essential life. Those terms and my applications may or may not be aligned with the intentions of the teachings. But as the book says, the divine Self, the One Being, is the only true teacher. Listening to that voice within and acting in its flow is the whole of the practice. 

This practice of the impersonal life of course becomes more complicated in a group, where each person listens to God within and acts accordingly. Inevitably, personalities become involved. As 'God' I am border-less, as Gary I am defined. I have not found in sixty-three years an escape from my personal imprints. Perhaps those of the Sun Center are finding ways to proceed with living the impersonal life, harmoniously and without hierarchy. That would seem miraculous to me. 

Following is an excerpt  from Chapter Two of 'The Impersonal Life.'

The Impersonal Life, Chapter II
BE STILL AND KNOW

NOW, in order that you may learn to know Me, so that you can be sure it is I, your own True Self, Who speak these words, you must first learn to Be Still, to quiet your human mind and body and all their activities, so that you no longer are conscious of them.

...

The fact is, this “I” is yourself, your Real Self. Your human mind has heretofore  been so engrossed with the task of supplying its intellect and body with all manner  of selfish indulgences, that it has never had time to get acquainted with the Real You, its true Lord and Master. You have been so interested in and affected by the pleasures and sufferings of your body and intellect, that you have almost come to believe You are your intellect and body, and you have consequently nearly forgotten Me, your Divine Self.

I AM not your intellect and body, and this Message is to teach that You and I are One. The words I herein speak, and the main burden of these instructions, is to awaken your consciousness to this great fact.  
 
You cannot awaken to this fact until you can get away from the consciousness of this body and intellect, which so long have held you enslaved.  You must feel Me within, before you can know I AM there.

...

Sit quietly in a relaxed position, and, when wholly at ease, let your mind take in the significance of these words: 

“Be still!—And KNOW—I AM—God.”

The Impersonal Life, Chapter I
I AM

"What book has most influenced you?"

As a former editor and avid reader, I could choose from hundreds of titles. Yet, one book read in my youth stands out — "The Impersonal Life" by Anonymous.

Forty-five years and a lifetime of spiritual adventures later, I re-visited it. My memories of the little black hard-bound book are satisfied by the Fifty-Sixth Printing, still no bigger than my hand. Other than a Preface which reveals the identity of the author, the contents are the same.

In my teens, the book inspired me to "try" to live an impersonal life. For example, when writing prose, my personal pronoun "I" was a lower case "i" to reduce the size of my ego. Looking back on those years and the ones which followed, I see it now from another perspective.

The essence of the message still resonates for me. Yet questions come up which did not before. The one who penned the words, we are told now, was a humble and sincere man who lived from 1872 to 1938.

According to Wikipedia, Joseph Sieber Benner was an American author, Spiritual writer, and Representative of the Brotherhood of Christ who used the pen name "Anonymous." He was the first to introduce the Knowledge and Teachings of the Impersonal Life (also known as the "I AM" Teaching) to the world in his first book, "The Impersonal Life" published in 1914. 

Google Books say the book was originally published in 1926 and adds, "In order the better to comprehend the deep and vital truths contained in this Message, you are urged to approach each reading of it with quiet and open mind. Still the intellect and invite your Soul to do the teaching...."

The Amazon description states, "The Impersonal Life is one of the key books written on the topic of self-discovery and leading a spiritual life. Author Joseph Benner penned this book as Anonymous in the early 20th century, and it has been a popular title among millions of readers since. 'The Impersonal Life' is highly recommended for those who are interested in learning how to lead a spiritual life and are in the process of self-discovery."

In the first chapter, it is written,

"I have purposely led you through the Wilderness of books and teaching, of religions and philosophies, keeping ever before your Soul’s eye the vision of the Promised Land; feeding you with the manna of the Desert, that you might remember and value and long for the Bread of the Spirit. 

"Now I have brought you to the river Jordan that separates you from your Divine heritage. 

... the time has come for you to cross over into Canaan, the land of Milk and Honey. 

"Then follow this My Word, which is the Ark of My Covenant, and you shall go over dry shod."

By using this language, the one who penned the words reveals his personal imprints. The metaphors of Wilderness, Promised Land, manna of the Desert, Bread of the Spirit, river Jordan, Canaan, land of Milk and Honey and Ark of the Covenant are taken from a cultural text, the Torah. Later, 'The Impersonal Life' is steeped in language of the New Testament of the Bible. It has a cultural imprint. 'The Impersonal Life' could also have been written from the perspective of the Bhagavad Gita. For example,

"The senses are higher than the body, the mind higher than the senses; above the mind is the intellect, and above the intellect is the Atman. Thus, knowing that which is supreme, let the Atman rule the ego....

"My true being is unborn and changeless. I am the Lord who dwells in every creature. Through the power of my own maya, I manifest myself in a finite form.

"Those who know me as their own divine Self break through the belief that they are the body and are not reborn as separate creatures. Such a one, Arjuna, is united with me."

Looking more deeply than the personal imprint of Biblical language, which I can take neutrally, I appreciate that 'The Impersonal Life' encourages the reader to hear and follow the voice within above all books and teachers. Re-reading it sparked a new realization this week. It is not the impersonal life, but the non-possessive life, which nurtures and supports the unfolding of what truly I am.

An extraction from the first chapter of 'The Impersonal Life' follows with my notes. As always, feedback from readers is enjoyed.
​