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Keep A True Lent
Chapter 9
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[Keep A True Lent]
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The Philosophy of Denial
Chapter 9
A GREAT NUMBER of things that you look on as realities are
simply transient shadows that can be dissipated into
nothingness by your telling them the truth as to their
unreality.
The one cause, the unmanifest mind, from which springs all
manifestation, is Principle whose inherencies are
potentially perfect. Like the principle of mathematics or
of music, it enters not into error or discord. "Thou . . .
art of purer eyes than to behold evil." That is, Principle
is supreme good, absolute substance, mind, life, love,
intelligence. Its ideals are like it, perfect. The Christ
man or true man is the perfect ideal, and humanity is that
ideal on the way to realization. The ideal man, the perfect
man of Divine Mind thus appears in the process of
manifestation as subject to the conditions produced by his
conscious thinking.
Although potentially perfect and incapable of producing a
single condition of permanent consciousness out of harmony
with divine Principle, many persons are impregnated with a
belief of limitation, and they need the dissolving power of
denial to set them free. By and through the imaging power
of thought man can produce illusions that confuse him. This
occurs only when he fails to look to Divine Mind for the
source and nature of his ideals. Obviously,
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many are deceived into thinking that they are indeed bound,
and the unhappy conditions claimed do show forth in them.
This is only consciousness entangled in its own effects. We
know that pure mind cannot be subject to lack in any form,
and that which so appears must in some way be a departure
from creative Mind.
It is an axiom in physics that action and reaction are
equal. Thought is the working power of mind; it is mind in
action. Your ancestors thought that which was not in
harmony with the All-Good, and their thought showed forth
in their bodies and affairs. You have admitted the error,
and you must deny it in order that your consciousness may
be restored to its clear, spiritual perception.
Denials may be made in many ways. It is not always
necessary to say specifically, "I deny so and so." The
conscious acknowledgment that you have been incorrect in
your conclusion is denial. Refusing to entertain longer any
thoughts of a sensual nature is denial. Withdrawing mental
sustenance from low ideals is denial.
There is but one Mind, and we can deny away error
conditions for one another. For instance, you have a
patient who is in the consciousness of fever. You
acknowledge to the mind of perfect serenity that there has
been a departure therefrom, and that peace is now restored.
The acknowledgment by you that there is but one universal
Mind, and that your clear consciousness of this frees
everybody and
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everything from sin and sickness, will release you, or
another you hold in thought, from any belief you may have
reflected. Jesus said, "Father, forgive them; for they know
not what they do."
If you are not at all times conscious that God is the
source of your being, and that He is universal justice,
purity, peace, wisdom, and love, you wander from your
course and are aware of danger, you are dashed upon the
rock of selfish personality. Then you give way to a fit of
anger or jealousy; you lust after the flesh, or envy your
neighbor his possessions. "We have sinned [gone into error,
fallen short], because we have forsaken Jehovah."
You cannot have consciousness without thinking. It is the
nature of mind to think; your every thought, no matter how
trivial, causes vibrations in the universal ether that
ultimate in the forms of visibility. You know that the
working power of mind is thought and that through thought
all the conditions that seem to encompass you were formed.
If consciousness departed from Principle and formed images
that were manifested as disease, discord, any limitation of
the perfect, is it not possible for that same consciousness
to undo its faulty work and build anew according to
wisdom's plan? It certainly is, and we know by experience
that when guided by the Spirit of truth, or Christ within,
our consciousness rebuilds the weak and tottering
structures of materiality and vivifies them with an undying
energy and life.
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You have been deceived into believing that you were born of
fleshly parents, and that you are subject to the peculiar
mental and moral trials and physical ills of your
ancestors. The Spirit of truth, which is, yesterday, today,
and forever, pure perfection, and which is now present in
you, sets you free from this delusion.
You have been deceived into believing that mind is subject
to matter. You have been told that the brain produces
thought, and that mind is evolved from matter. You have not
taken these claims right home to your own innermost
intelligence and thought about them logically. Now that
your identity as mind, as invisible unconditioned spiritual
substance, is made clear to you, these surrounding
delusions are cleared away. You now say daily and hourly,
"All authority hath been given unto me in heaven and on
earth."
You have been deceived into believing that there are those
among your associates who are your mental, moral, or social
superiors; that they have by acquired or conferred
authority the right to dictate to and to influence you in
matters religious, social, or moral. But the meek and lowly
yet dignified and all-wise Spirit within you now burns with
its own clear light, and you henceforth understand that you
are one with the supreme mind that knows only original
thought--that is influenced by nothing outside of itself.
This is Truth, and the Spirit of truth in you now flames
forth in acknowledgment.
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You have been deceived into believing that you have certain
traits of character to which you are bound by nature, and
through them are confined or hampered in life. You may
suppose, for instance, that you are naturally timid and
fearful, therefore nervous and unfitted to face the world;
or that you are cold and unsympathetic; or that you lack
language or expression for your ideas; or that your memory
is poor; or that you lack perfection in some other way.
Now these illusions crumble into nothingness, and your
clear consciousness recognizes its own. At the center of
the mind of every man is the light, the white light of
Spirit. Fan to a flame this white light at the center of
your being by proclaiming your identity with Christ. The
salvation of the world rests with those who join Him and
thereby bring peace and good will to all men. When the
light of Christ comes to any man, it does not confine its
rays to his consciousness alone but those who sit in
darkness and negation see and feel its power.
You now know the law of righteous thinking that will bring
you into a consciousness of your perfect dominion. Life is
worth living because you can surround yourself with your
highest ideals. Henceforth you are to keep in mind the
consciousness of your spiritual origin. Now that you know
your being is pure transparent mind, you can intelligently
deny any undesirable trait and center your consciousness on
the perfect Spirit within.
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We have been burdened too long with the rubbish of
antiquity. Cast it out of your consciousness and assume the
mental dominion that was yours before the worlds were
formed and you were one with the consciousness of the
Father.
The same Holy Spirit that glorified Jesus, and through
which He overcame the world, is now right here with us. It
is here awaiting our recognition. It will cleanse our mind
of all beliefs of heredity if we acknowledge its presence
and power. Bathe yourself in this boundless ocean of
wisdom, love, and light by holding for a few moments in the
silence the thought:
"Thy Spirit sets me free:
Thou, only, healest me."
You are not afraid when your consciousness is centered in
the principle of good. You know that God is all; that there
can be no opposing power. The plague and pestilence do not
then reach you, for you have nothing in common with the
cause that brings them about.
Man ought never to show forth sickness, poverty, discord,
or death, and he never would have done so had his
consciousness remained in its primitive relation to cause.
It is now dawning on the consciousness of those who in
these latter days listen attentively to Spirit, that, when
understood in its right relation, even the form symbol or
body will take on the appearance of immortality.
Consciousness will become
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so intensely alive and so thoroughly at one with the
supreme life that the form idea, which is potential in
mind, will reflect bodies whose perfection will be divine.
Many are now coming into an understanding of the law that
will ultimate in their physical translation, like Elijah,
in chariots of fire. This does not come under the head of
the miraculous, for if history is to be credited, many in
the past went through this change; and as God is Principle
and "no respecter of persons," we should expect at any time
a recurrence of that which has been. Progressive men in the
ranks of physical science are being led by analogy to the
conclusion that this is a possibility. Edison said that his
investigations had convinced him that atoms are centers of
intelligence; that the human body being composed of atoms
(each of which is an intelligent entity), a man could, by
getting control of these atoms through the will, live
forever.
This is the legitimate outworking of perfect Principle--the
steady onward march of mind from stage to stage in the
unfoldment of its infinite possibilities. In the harmonious
working of life's problems according to Principle, there
are no backward steps.
"God is not the God of the dead, but of the living," said
the illumined Jesus. The God of the living is always
present with you, awaiting your conscious recognition. Let
the divine life substance flow into your mind, and it will
cleanse you of all
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false race beliefs. You will become renewed in thought and
in action; your face will again show forth the freshness of
youth, and immortal life will be written upon your brow.
When your consciousness rests in Spirit, your dominion is
sure and certain; then you do not come under the law of
denial. You can simply conform to the command, "Be still,
and know that I am God," and the work is done.
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