The Law of Affirmation and Denial - by Dr James Porter Mills - read by Dr Ian Ellis-Jones скачать в хорошем качестве

The Law of Affirmation and Denial - by Dr James Porter Mills - read by Dr Ian Ellis-Jones

“The Law of Affirmation and Denial.” Written by Dr James Porter Mills and read by Dr Ian Ellis-Jones. This piece comes from Dr Mills’ book From Existence to Life: The Science of Self-Consciousness (New York: Edward J. Clode, 1916). All rights reserved. Here is a link to an online copy of the book: https://archive.org/details/fromexist.... The American metaphysicians James Porter Mills M.D. (1847–1926) and his wife Anna W. Mills, formerly of Chicago but later based in New York and London, are generally seen as the pioneers of the New Thought teaching in Australia. They gave public lectures in Australian capital cities and elsewhere in Australia in 1897-98. Dr Mills was a physician but had given up his medical practice to promote Christian metaphysics. He developed a system of thinking called “the Teaching.” Around 1899 Mills and his wife visited India where, at the request of the famous Hindu monk and spiritual teacher Swami Vivekananda (1863–1902), regarded as a modern saint of India, Dr Mills gave a course of lectures in Vivekananda's monastery near Calcutta, which was eagerly received by Vivekananda's disciples. Further travels brought Dr and Mrs Mills finally to England in mid-1899 where for nearly a year they taught and practised with much success in London. Divine Science minister Dr Emmet Fox once studied under Dr Mills. Mills introduced Fox to certain techniques of meditation and silence. From that time on, scientific prayer became for Fox “The Golden Key” or what he called "practical work on your own consciousness." Dr Mills and his wife briefly revisited Australia in 1900, lecturing in Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide, Perth and Hobart, before departing for California. James Porter Mills was the celebrated author of many early New Thought and metaphysical books. ----------------------- THE LAW OF AFFIRMATION AND DENIAL by Dr James Porter Mills Now there is a law by which we can progress, if we use it intelligently; the law of affirmation and denial. What is to be denied? Jesus said, "If any man would come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily and follow me." "Let him deny himself." What shall he deny himself? Some pleasure? This is how we have understood it There are those who think that they are denying themselves by refraining from special foods on one day in the week; there are others who think that they deny them- selves by going to church ; perhaps they want to be at a tea-party or at a horse-race; nevertheless, they go to church looking the other way, with tears in their eyes over it They have done it so faithfully! But what Jesus said was, “let a man deny himself.” That which man has thought to be himself is not his true self. It is but his personality, the sum of his experiences. This is the self that has to be denied. We have to get control of ourselves; how are we to do it? The answer is, that we are to deny ourselves. We are to deny that which we have heretofore considered to be ourselves, that is, we are to deny that our personality, the sum of our experiences, constitutes the self. We are also to deny belief in all sorts of outside influences having power over us; that objects, circumstances, and people can make us either happy or miserable. Here, for instance, is someone whom we like, and we are happy: here is one whom we do not like, and we are miserable. It is a seesawing all the time. We have to deny that all this has any power over us; all our experiences in the world on that basis have been false, built up from the premise that our origin was Adam, and that/ from him we inherited original sin.” Now we must turn round and act from the other standpoint. Why not say that we have inherited Original Holiness, and thus deny the influence that before led us astray? All this fabric of consciousness, that has been built up by the race and by our- selves, and is recorded in the soul, has to be denied, together with all temptation to live the old life as we have lived it hitherto. Let the mind affirm and hold fast to an idea which it perceives to be right — right, not as between man and man, but as to Principle — with every intention of enlisting the feeling on the side of that idea; and let it declare to the feeling-nature, “You have no power over me to v allure me into these thoughts which are pressing on me; I am spirit and not matter, good and not evil, for God made me, and what God made is good; even though the race has been allured by you, or I have been allured by you in the past, I will not bow down to you nor serve you, thoughts of my heart; I will have no more to do with you!” Such a denial tends to destroy the power that the mind has heretofore looked upon as inherent in the habits of the past.