The reason to let go of selfishness is not because of guilt. Not because it is a “sin.” Not because it is “wrong.” All such motivation come from lower consciousness and self-judgment. Rather, the reason to let go of selfishness is simply because it is impractical. It does not work. It is too costly. It consumes too much energy. It delays the accomplishment of our goals and the realization of our wants. Because of its very nature, the small self is the creator of guilt and its self-perpetuator; that is, out of guilt we strove to accomplish and achieve success. Then, when we achieve success, we feel guilty because we have it. There is no winning of the guilt game. The only solution is to give up, to let it go. Our mind would like to make us think that guilt is laudatory, and the guilt-mongers of the World love to make an idol of it. Which is more important: to feel guilty or to change for the better? If somebody owes us money, would we rather they feel guilty about it or pay us the money? If we intend to feel guilty, we should at least consciously choose it instead of being unwittingly run by it. #RandolphHarris 1 of 5

Everything that is true of a person is part of that person’s essence, and everything that happens to an individual follows from that individual’s nature. This is, in effect, to say that nothing simply happens to a person; there is no real contingency. Because of our finitude and consequent ignorance, we can know only that is a proposition is true, it is necessarily true; we cannot tell with certainty which propositions are true. Contingency is preserved by the fact that God has to choose, out of all possible Worlds, that World, that arrangement of essences, which is the best. The notion of an essence is a complete concepts or concepts of individuals. This metaphysical view fits very uneasily with the distinction between truths of reason and truths of fact, or the necessary and the contingent in more or less the contemporary sense. Instead of the motivation of selfishness and desire, we can much more effortlessly bring into our life that which we want by envisioning what we wish to have happen. We do this by declaration of our intention, by acceptance, by decision, and by the act of consciously choosing. #RandolphHarris 2 of 5

I remember one time we talked about a newspaper clipping reporting a black baby had been bitten by a rat. Now, just think about that, think about that for a minute.  Suppose it was your child! Where is that slum lord—on some beach in Miami! Behind the reporter, a male voice spoke up, “Kill the bastard, kill them all.” The young man, in his unease, smiled nervously. We looked at him laughing. However, he was not really laughing, he was just laughing with his teeth. An ugly tension curled the edges of the atmosphere. Grim soulless mortals do not know how to laugh. They just show their teeth and grin like the Cheshire Cat. Truths of reason are such that their denial involves a contradiction, which is not so of truths of fact. While truths of reason depend on the principle of contradiction, truths of fact depend on something less, the principle of sufficient reason. Truth of reason are reducible to identical propositions via chains of definition of the terms involved. If this is so, their basis can also be seen in another of the so called laws of thought: the principle of identity. RandolphHarris 3 of 5

Anger may vary all the way from rage to mild resentment. In personal relationships, anger can be utilized to inspire us to improve our communication skills, take a course on interpersonal relationships, or enroll in a self-improvement program. There are many sources of anger. Another source of anger is that of pride, and especially that aspect of pride called vanity. We have a certain secret vanity about what we are doing for others and our pride of achievement makes us vulnerable to anger when our sacrifice is not recognized. The way to offset this anger is to acknowledge and relinquish the pride, surrender our desire for the pleasure of self-pity and, instead, view our efforts on behalf of others as gifts. We can experience the joy of being generous with others as its own rewards. One of the great secrets of relationship is acknowledgement. The behavior of others toward us always includes a hidden gift. Even if that behavior appears negative, there something in it for us. #RandolphHarris 4 of 5

Because of the picture of wrongness, the situation becomes intolerable, and we are forced to change it. How much easier it would have been had we just simply chosen to move on to a better situation. Nonetheless, because of our sense of obligation, guilt is very often the block to this simpler way. It can be scarcely maintained that by a necessary proposition is meant one whose denial results in a contradiction, for it is at the best theory that all necessary truths fit this description. Still, it is certainly not true of merely relatively necessary truths. Even it if it denied that there are any essential truths in this sense, like the alcoholic, the junkie can never start to cure himself or herself until he or she recognizes and accepts their true condition. They stick like a leech to their old ways, and it might take months before the addict some to grips with this. The theory is not psychologically simpler than competing systems. A moving Earth and a Sun and Stars that do not “rise” and “circle” us, seemed contrary to experience. The cure phase is the addict’s realization of why he or she takes dope. #RandolphHarris 5 of 5