(a) Both affirmations and denials have their place and usefulness. Philosophy, being integral, rejects neither. The first would seem illusory if they affirm what is true only on a higher level of being while the person himself is unable to rise above the lower one, as in the statement, "I am divine." But still, their concentrative and suggestive power may, given enough time, eventually help him to do so. The second would seem nonsensical at worst in dismissing what stubbornly remains all the time, or narcotic at best in lulling it into brief quietude, yet the Buddha did not hesitate to recommend denials to his disciples: "This is not mine; this am I not," was one formula which he gave them. For even the theoretical separation thus brought about between the man and the weakness or fault denied has some constructive value and is the beginning of a mental-emotional-physical series whose intuition-guided total effort leads to a successful result.
(b) The Declaration habitually repeated and faithfully applied continually renews the Ideal for him.
(c) It is a practice useful for filling unoccupied moments.
-- Notebooks Category 4: Elementary Meditation > Chapter 6 : Mantrams, Affirmations > # 102
