Chapter 9
THE
PHILOSOPHY OF DENIAL
Charles Fillmore
Keep a
True Lent
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, 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 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.
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.
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.
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
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
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.
