DENIALS

THIRD LESSON

All systems for spiritualizing the mind involve a great deal of denial. Every religion throughout the ages has had some form of denial as one of its foundations. We all know how the Puritans believed that the more strictly they denied themselves any comfort, the more they pleased God. This idea has taken such a strong hold on the human mind in some eras that devout souls have even tortured their bodies in various ways, believing they were making themselves more spiritual, or at least were somehow placating original: "placating"; soothing or attempting to win the favor of a person or deity. an angry God.

Even today, most people interpret the saying of Jesus mentioned above to mean: "If anyone wants to please God, they must give up almost all the enjoyment and comfort they have—all the things they like and want—and must take up the heavy cross of constantly doing things that are unpleasant to them in their daily lives." This is why many young people say, "When I am old I will be

a Christian, but not now, for I want to enjoy life for a while first."

I am certain that nothing could be further from the meaning of the Nazarene original: "the Nazarene"; a title for Jesus, referring to his hometown of Nazareth. than the interpretation above. In our ignorance of the nature of God, our Father, and of our relationship to him, we have believed that all our enjoyment came from external sources, usually from gaining possession of something we did not already have. The poor see enjoyment only in having an abundance of money. The rich—who are so stuffed with life's so-called pleasures that their lives have become like a person with an overloaded stomach forced to sit constantly at a well-stocked table—are often the most bitter in their complaints that life holds no happiness for them. The sick person believes that if they were healthy, they would be perfectly happy. The healthy but hard-working man or woman feels the need for days of rest and recreation so that the monotony of their life may be broken.

In this way, the mind has always turned toward some external change of condition or circumstance in pursuit of satisfaction and enjoyment. In later years, after people have tried everything—getting first one thing and then another which they thought would bring them happiness—and have been deeply disappointed, they in