chapter-09-the-game-of-life-and-how-to-play-it-florence-scovel-shinn

In Chapter 9 of The Game of Life and How to Play It, Florence Scovel Shinn says, "There is, for each man, perfect self-expression. There is a place which he is to fill, and no one else can fill, something which he is to do, which no one else can do. It's his destiny."

There you have it. Florence believes in destiny. Do you? Or maybe you think man creates his own destiny based on the choices he makes instead of following some pre-determined game plan.

My question is, where’s the fun in playing a rigged game? You might as well quit making any effort. Just sit there and let destiny unfold. It's kind of like being forced to play a game you've never played before. No one tells you the rules. No one tells you how the score is calculated or even how to score points. You don't know who you're playing against or what you're playing for. Yet somehow you're expected to win, and punished for playing poorly. 

Anyway, that's just how I feel on the question of destiny and fate. 

Florence, however, offers the following affirmation to help you figure out your purpose in life: 

"Infinite Spirit, open the way for the Divine Design of my life to manifest. Let the genius within me now be released. Let me see clearly the perfect plan."

She gives what I think is a way to calculate the score. She calls it the square of life. This perfect plan or square of life includes health, wealth, love and perfect self-expression. I guess if you're not ranking highly on all four fronts you're losing at this game called life. 

Florence makes a daring claim, saying, "The 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. The battles described are pictures of man waging war against mortal thoughts. Every man is Jehoshaphat, and everyman is David, who slays Goliath (mortal thinking) with the little white stone (faith)."

She says there is a terrible penalty to be paid for not using one's ability, just like the servant who buried his talent instead of multiplying it. 

She advises that you practice the presence of God in everything, no matter how big or small. Never rely upon your own brilliance, but call upon the divine guidance from within.  Fear is the biggest killer. And it can easily be defeated by the spoken word or affirmations.

Do not dictate the way your desires must unfold. Follow the divine design.  

She goes on to define sin as follows: "Whatsoever is not of faith is sin." 

Finish what you start. If you leave things unfinished, infinite intelligence will also deliver unfinished manifestations to you. As within, so without. 

In as much as giving opens up the doorways for you to receive, do not neglect receiving as well when a gift is given to you. Receiving completes the cycle. If you refuse to receive, you may be blocking your blessings. 

Venturing into the even more controversial, Florence says that people are born poor and sick because of the law or reincarnation. She says, "Where there is an effect there is always a cause. There is no such thing as chance. Man goes through many births and deaths, until he knows the truth which sets him free. He is drawn back to the earth plane through unsatisfied desire, to pay his karmic debts, or to fulfill his destiny." 

She says man manifests the sum total of his subconscious beliefs. 

Christians will have a fit about the next line: 

"Birth and death are man-made laws, 'for the wages of sin is death', the Adamic fall in consciousness through the belief in two powers. The real man, spiritual man, is birthless and deathless. He never was born and has never died - as he was in the beginning, he is now, and ever shall be." 

This now makes me wonder how the law of reincarnation works for twins and triplets. Were they twins in previous lives as well? 

Guess we'll never know.