How I Used Truth - Lesson 7 - Annotation 1
What is "negation" as used in this lesson?
1. "Negation" as the term is used here means a condition or state of mind, body, or affairs that is undesirable, such as fear, anxiety, sickness, poverty, inharmony. Webster's dictionary states that negation means the "act ... of denying; a refusal"; while the word deny means "to declare not to be true ... to refuse." Thus a condition that is undesirable is termed a negation because it denies or limits the expression of some good.
On pages 72-73 of the text we find a very simple definition of the word negation: "all that is not good, not light, not love, not health, not wholeness" (How I Used Truth 72). When we accept such conditions in our life as being real, we are actually denying God's presence for we are intimating that there is an absence of God. As long as we believe in the reality of negative conditions, they will manifest in our life.
"Thoughts, when accompanied by deep feeling, are like seeds of the things they call for" (Soul Power 34-35).
Through the process of denial, we are able to erase the negative beliefs that cause the undesirable conditions. Through the process of affirmation we decree light, love, health, plenty, incorporating these truths in our mind. Having planted the "seed in consciousness, these good conditions come forth in our human experience.
This lesson is titled "If Thou Knewest," and is taken from the incident in the life of Jesus when He spoke with the woman at the well. After Jesus had asked her for a drink, the woman wanted to know why He would request a drink of her, a Samaritan. "Jesus answered and said unto her, If thou knewest the gift of God, and who it is that saith to thee, Give me to drink; thou wouldst have asked of him, and he would have given thee living water" (John 4:10).
"If thou knewest the gift of God" -- herein lies our answer to any negation. It is through "knowing" ourselves as sons of God, and heirs to His good, that we are able to bring the desired good into mind, body, and affairs.
A negative condition makes its appearance in the manifest world because, unaware of the Truth, we have conceived in our imagination something contrary to God's will for us. Lack of knowledge of our inheritance, and of the omnipresence of God, has caused us to believe in lack in mind, body, affairs -- in the world about us. It has been emphasized over and over again in these lessons that our inheritance is all of the ideas of Divine Mind. When we forget this, or have not yet reached the full consciousness of this truth, we are likely to believe that some quality of Being (God) is missing. We may feel separated from the life that produces health, wholeness, vitality in the body. We may complain about lack of comfort, of the necessities of life. So long as belief in lack remains in our consciousness we will experience some form of negation in our life. We need to erase error beliefs and turn in prayer to God,, the Principle of all creation, to be reminded of the Truth.
"I turn away from the belief in negation, and my thinking changes. I rid my consciousness of limited thoughts that have encumbered and darkened my understanding . . . and ascend into a spiritual realm, the kingdom of the heavens" (Keep a True Lent 141-142).
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Preceding Entry: What blessings come to us when we consciously serve as "the hand of God"?
Following Entry: Where does the belief in the "absence of good" exist?
