SUMMARY OF THE GAME OF LIFE AND HOW TO PLAY IT
By FLORENCE SCOVEL SHINN
#1 Life is a game governed by Spiritual Law
Most people consider Life a battle, but it is a Game
(Florence Scovel Shinn)
We all play the game, but understanding rules makes a difference. We suffer because we violate Spiritual Law.
So instead of asking why this is happening to me, we should wonder: what Law am I violating?
Because Life is not happening to us, Life is responding to us.
She gives the example of a woman who struggled financially, but when she let go of all her fear and resentment, her situation changed.
Quotes from the Game of Life:
Giving opens the way for receiving–Florence Shovel Shinn.
Although some people think that life is a battle, it is actually a game of giving and receiving–Florence Shovel Shinn.
One’s ships come in over a calm sea–Florence Shovel Shinn.
The simple rules are fearless faith, nonresistance and love –Florence Scovel Shinn.
Consciousness comes first, experience follows–Florence Scovel Shinn.
If ye be willing and obedient, you shall eat the good of the land (Isaiah 1:19)
The game of life is a game of boomerangs. Our thoughts, deeds and words return to us sooner or later with astounding accuracy –Florence Scovel Shinn.
Unforgiveness is the most prolific cause of disease. It will harden arteries or liver, and affect the eye-sight. In its train are endless ills
Whatsoever a man soweth that shall he also reap. This means that whatever man sends out in word or deed, will return to him; what he gives, he will receive
–Florence Scovel Shinn–
We must stop planning, plotting and scheming, and let Infinite Intelligence solve the problem in its own way–Florence Scovel Shinn.
#2 Your word is your wand
Your speech is not simply describing your Life, your speech is participating in the creation of your life –Florence Scovel Shinn.
Words evidence your internal state of consciousness, beliefs and thought processes. Complaining, criticizing, declaring lack are only mirroring a feeling of void, which generate more void.
But words can also imprint form into reality and determine the direction of consciousness and crystallization of thoughts.
The man who says he can’t do something is actually the man who can’t do something.
Quotes from the Game of Life:
The word became flesh (John 1)
Your word is your wand. The words you speak create your own destiny
–Florence Scovel Shinn.
A man can change his conditions by changing his words. Any man who does not know the power of the word is behind the times–Florence Scovel Shinn.
The miracle that someone is often looking for often begins when someone changes the way they speak –Florence Scovel Shinn.
Words and thoughts are a tremendous vibratory force ever molding man’s body and affairs–Florence Scovel Shinn.
Death and life are in the power of the tongue, And those who love it and indulge it will eat its fruit and bear the consequences of their words. (Proverbs 18:21)
By thy words shall you be justified and by your words you will be condemned (Matthew 12:37)
#3 Nonresistance is the key to creation
The more you resist something, the more it persists and gets strengthened.
Agree with thine adversary quickly…Resist no evil (Matthew 5:39)
Emotional Resistance binds consciousness to unwanted conditions
–Florence Scovel Shinn–
Fear keeps fear alive.
Conflict perpetuates conflict.
Violence attracts more violence.
Resentment keeps the past alive.
Focusing on problems perpetuates more problems.
So accepting and letting go is not losing or giving up but rather allowing a higher frequency reality to enter ours.
Quotes from the Game of Life:
No man is your enemy, no man is your friend, every man is your teacher
–Florence Scovel Shinn–
Bless your enemy and you will rob him of his ammunition. His arrows will be transmuted into blessings. This law is true of nations as well as individuals. Bless a nation, send love and good-will to every inhabitant, and it is robbed of its power to harm–Florence Scovel Shinn.
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.
–Florence Scovel Shinn–
#4 Imagination precedes manifestation
The vision comes first, crystallization follows. The external world is the manifestation of conditions that start in the inner world of consciousness.
Living in anticipation, living what you desire, assuming your future self, sets the conditions for it to appear.
Florence Scovel Shinn tells the story of a woman who sets her table every night in anticipation of her estranged husband coming back, and after two months of repeating that act of loyalty, her husband appeared.
Shinn also wrote about a man who constantly read and worried about a very rare, hard-to-get disease. He kept a vivid picture of it in his mind and feared it deeply. Because his imagination was glued to the negative image, he manifested the disease in his physical body and passed away.
She taught that looking at fear is just using your imagination backward against yourself.
Quotes from the Game of Life:
I give thanks for my whirlwind success–Florence Scovel Shinn.
Make an affirmation immediately upon waking. For example: “Thy will be done this day! Today is a day of completion, I give thanks for this perfect day, miracle shall follow miracle and wonders shall never cease.” Make this a habit, and one will see wonders and miracles come into his life
–Florence Scovel Shinn–
Man must prepare for the thing he has asked for, when there isn’t the slightest sign of it in sight –Florence Scovel Shinn.
You will be a failure, until you impress the subconscious with the conviction you are a success. This is done by making an affirmation which clicks
–Florence Scovel Shinn–
Every great work, every big accomplishment, has been brought into manifestation through holding to the vision, and often just before the big achievement, come apparent failure and discouragement
–Florence Scovel Shinn–
#5 Faith is not religious but Acceptance
Unconditional acceptance is the essence of true Faith. Believing with fear is assuming a dark future and therefore a lack of Faith.
You receive in the same measure as you believe, as it happened.
Shinn recounts the story from the Bible (2 Kings 3) involving three kings who were marching through the desert with their armies and horses. They completely ran out of water and faced certain death. In desperation, they consulted the prophet Elisha, who receive the order to dig ditches.
No trait of water not rain was a threat against their lives, yet they digged up the ditches and the following day they got a rain pour that saved their lives.
Then he touched their eyes and said, “According to your faith let it be done to you”; and their sight was restored. (Matthew 29)
Quotes from the Game of Life:
Dig your ditches first, and then expect the water
–Florence Scovel Shinn–
Man's supply is inexhaustible and unfailing when fully trusted, but faith or trust must precede the demonstration
Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen—” for faith holds the vision steady, and the adverse pictures are dissolved and dissipated, and in due season we shall reap, if we faint not.
Jesus Christ brought the Good News (the Gospel) that there was a higher law than the law of Karma—-and that that law transcends the law of Karma. It is the law of grace, or forgiveness. It is the law which frees man from the law of cause and effect—the law of consequence. “Under grace, and not under law.
Man’s word is his wand filled with magic and power! Man comes into the world financed by God, with all that he desires or requires already on his pathway. This supply is released through faith and the Spoken Word. If thou canst believe, all things are possible.
Gratitude is the law of increase, and complaint is the law of decrease.
You must live fully in the now to make your dreams come true.
