Jungle of Life - Napoleon Hill

As revealed to Napoleon Hill by the Master:

"You have earned the right to reveal a Supreme Secret to others.  In the journey through life there is a Jungle of Life, a Black Forest through which every individual must pass alone. In the Black Forest he overcomes enemies and his own inner opposition and turmoil. The Black Forest helps to give refinement to the soul of man through sturggle and resistance, so that the soul may return to the Great Eternal Reservoir from whence it emerged and become a part of Infinite Intelligence.

"And now I shall name the enemies who must be met and conquered in the journey.

The foremost is FEAR.  The expression of fear denies man the use of his true power of thought - a power which can enable each individual to acquire all of his physical needs and control his earthly destiny.

The next great enemy is GREED for the possession of material things and for power to control others for selfish ends. No person who is filled with greed and avarice can pass through the Jungle of Life and successfully attain and use the Supreme Secret, for he affronts the Creator when he violates the rights of others.

INTOLERANCE is third on the list of enemies.  Intolerance is the evil partner of selfishness and ignorance.  It closes the mind and shuts out facts. It deprives a person of valuable friendships he will need in his journey through life and repels the co-operation of others.

EGOTISM is the fourth great enemy of man. Self-repect is a most desirable quality, but self-love is self-deceit and causes a man to lose respect for others.

LUST is the fifth enemy.  It prevents sex emotion from bewing properly transmuted and properly directed.  It leaads to excessive sexual expressions which dissipate the vital creative forces of mind and body.

ANGER, the sixth enemy, is a form of temporary insanity.  Righteous indignation that is controlled and directed toward the correction of a cause is occasionally necessary, but those who live with rage cannot truly know the Supreme Secret.

HATRED, the seventh enemy, is anger which has been allowed to dwell in the mind until it has hardened like so much cement. It is a mind-posion which erroneously twists the individual's thinking. One who harbors hate cannot control and direct his power of thought toward constructive ends and thus he is denied this one and only outright prerogative with which man has been blessed by the Creator.

The enemy of JEALOUSLY, that mixture of covetousness and fear.

IMPATIENCE, which prevents cause from bearing its fruit in effect.

DECEIT, which in the end deceives the deceiver.

FALSEHOOD, which weaves a noose with which the liar spiritually hangs himself.

The related enemy of INSINCERITY and VANITY, which makes men vulgar and forms a repulsive force.

CRUELTY, which attracts all the other enemies like a pack of wolves.

MERCILESSNESS, which turns its back on those in need and makes the soul shrivel.

INJUSTICE, SLANDER, and GOSSIP; one may know the Supreme Secret in words but can never use it if he ever attempts to destroy others.

The Black Forest closes in for a lifetime upon those who do not vanquish the enemies of UNDEPENDABILITY, DISHONESTY, DISLOYALTY and REVENGE.

"Four more enemies fully as important in their menace as any of the others; WORRY, which reveals that a man is no bigger than that which he allows to worry him; ENVY, a form of jealousy which most particularly destoys initiative and self-discipline; HYPOCHONDRIA, which prevents the mind from conceiving the continued good health of its bodily temple and so gives ill health its first foothold, which often is in the mind; and INDECISION, which grows stonger the more it is indulged until it rides one's back and one can fall and lie lost in the Black Forest.

"There are other enemies of man, but who conquers these twenty-six will conquer all the others. Know that one who seeks earnestly to conquer these twenty-six lurking enemies becames an Initiate of the Great School. We know him and he has access to the mind of a Master.  The means of communication is telepathy.  The Initiate may at times convey his need for instuction through what is commonly known as prayer.