According to Charles Fillmore, denial is "the mental process of erasing from consciousness the falce beliefs of the sense mind". There is a wide variety of opinions among spiritual seekers concerning using of denials. Some people think that they aren't necessary, because they involve concentration on negativity. According to them, denial is a misuse of our mental energy, which should be better directed to positive affirmations.

My opinion is that both denials and affirmations are but tools which we can freely use in building of our consciousness. As we said before, denial is not something totally strange to us. In our regular thinking, we always deny certain things and affirm other things. We reject certain thoughts and choose others. When it is necessary, we may give more attention to this processes. But at last we should come to the point where we are so concious of God's presence, so immersed into the Universal Life, that both denials and affirmations won't be a matter of great importance.

In the process of denial, we don't have to deny anything which is real. There is no need to deny people, things, and ideas, even if they do not serve our highest good anymore. In the course of events, they will easily move out of life, for "there is time for all things under the sun". When their time is over, they leave us without our efforts.

We deny that which is not real - phantoms, illusions, errors, unrealities. Among them there are fear, guilt, and limitations.

Fear is one of the most destructive errors. It paralyzes us, not allowing to use our potential and find out the way out of difficulties. A fearful person is full of negative expectations, often without valid reasons. What is much worse, he or she is either ignorant of God's power within, or does not believe that it will be demonstrated when it will be necessary. For our successful unfoldment, we need to deny fear.

Guilt makes us feel bad about ourselves when we make a mistake. But these feelings cannot be justified. If we are aware of our mistakes, it is quite a good thing. Yes, we stumbled and even failed, but now we can get up and continue to move forward with greater wisdom and confidence. Our ability to learn from mistakes, and therefore use them for our benefit, should leave no room for guilt in our consciousness.

What about denial of limitations? Does it mean that we should be unrealistic about who we are and what we can do? Of course no. It could be a fact that we don't have certain skills or conscious knowledge at this moment. But we make a choice to look beyond that fact, to the untapped potential within. We deny that our life is fixed.

For real progress in our life to happen, we need to rise above our experiences, realizing that they cannot limit us. For this purpose we deny limitations and affirm that growth and unfoldment are possible.

"But I am honest about who I am and what I can do", someone may proudly say. It is good to have honesty as the starting point, but not as the end of our journey. Being honest, we can map our course and move on faster and easier. But we've got to move, not to stay where we are.

Truth about us is infinitely higher than all the facts about us, no matter how honestly we admit these facts.

We deny fear and make room for courage.
We deny guilt and make room for self-reliance.
We deny our limitations and make room for greater unfoldment.
Through denial, we let go our shallow concepts of life and put ourselves into the flow of the Universal Life which exceeds our best expectations.

(to be continued)