Love alone can beget love. If we wish to have joy we must give it; it is a subtle pronouncement of the law of cause and effect. Separateness, mortality, and renewal have always been the friends of evolutionary progress.  The strong implication has to be that it is only in a World where it has been practicable for living things to maintain and defend the physical, temporal and spiritual boundaries of their minds and bodies, that all the beauty and variety of life and culture could have come into existence. It is not always easy to be an individual. There are probably times when every one of us finds it an absurdity that we do in fact have boundaries that we do: that we have been fated to live here rather than there, now rather than then, in this body rather than another. What we make of the World as it really exists, depends on how we look at it. We can be the optimist who brightly believes this is the best of all possible Worlds, or the pessimist who gloomily nods one’s head and says, “How true!” Freedom is the recognition of necessity. Our mental gaze should be upward and inward and not external, for this is the secret of the secret place of the Most High. We are still alive, awake, and aware. We are still conscious, and consciously conscious. We are not less but more ourselves. #RandolphHarris 1 of 7

The purpose of scripture or the doctrines of religion is to keep people from dwindling in unbelief and to ultimately help bring their souls into a state of cleanliness, that they may dwell with their Father in Heaven in the eternities. Of course, most of the gifts of life are not just handed to us; we have to work for them. We know instinctively that it takes more than cosmetic cures to be attractive, but many of us still search outside of ourselves for the fountain of youth because we are not sure what else to look for. The true source of attractiveness is actually found through inner exploration. In order to glow with life from the inside out, we have to learn to release untapped talents, banished longings, and passionate desires; expand our skills in solving complex problems; and attune ourselves to the secrets of our souls. We cannot grow without doing this work. Left to our own devices, most of us harvest only a small percentage of what can keep us feeling and looking alive. Even when we glimpse a pathway into our inner World (through flashes of insight, nightmares, episodes of depression or intense joy, spiritual awakenings, or encounters with intimacy), we fail to make the most of it, because no one every taught us how to cultivate those mysterious aspects of ourselves. It is important to understand that unless we are a truly unusual individual, we are likely to be completely clueless about how to handle challenges that we face. #RandolphHarris 2 of 7

Good is not withheld from anyone, but ignorance of the law excuses no one from its use or its abuse. Anything is good to have provided it harms no other person but helps our own self-expression. Whatsoever things we desire we are to receive. Suppose we had a friend who never refused our petitions, who always had the power to grant our requests; someone strong, affluent, and self-sufficient, who has at his or her disposal infinite resources so that he or she could honor our requests. And suppose this individual’s greatest desire was to benefit us. Should we not feel fortunate indeed? Further, let us suppose that the only condition this friend imposes on us is that everything one gives us is to be used for constructive purposes. And presume this friend promises us that if we use all these gifts for constructive purposes alone no harm should ever come to us. In addition, this friend guarantees us absolute protection. Should we not feel this person the most wonderful of all friends? This is exactly the principle which God laid before us in the scriptures.  However, Ezekiel 33.31 reports, “They sit before thee as my people, and they hear thy words, but they will not do them.” When we love the Lord, why do we still break his laws? #RandolphHarris 3 of 7

Full-scale rituals evolve when even more people need and use the methods. Rituals are formalized in words and in actions, the meaning and experience of the truth being represented. For example, many religious welcome new members into their ranks by performing a physical cleansing (with water) to symbolize spiritual cleansing. Rituals are powerful only so long as the people practicing them are aware of their underlying meaning. Certain natural and necessary restrictions are laid upon us. They are merely those restrictions that keep us from using the gift destructively. They are not restrictions of limitations or bondage. They are merely such restrictions as must necessarily be consistent with a Universe of Law, of Order, of Harmony, of Unity, and of Love. We cannot consider them as being restrictions, since we know that Peace, Joy, and Happiness go with the gift. Surely, if we had a friend who was such a giver we should think of that individual as being no less than Divine. Few people have good role models in their adult life and beyond. Some people cannot even name five people they know who have aged successfully (i.e., happily). They usually can only name one or two. So at this point in our society, and in our lives in particular, there are very few places to turn for information on facing the challenges of aging. #RandolphHarris 4 of 7

Up until we became adults, our growing process was easier. Our urges to develop were recognized and encouraged by our parents and our peers, and we had plenty of goals and rituals and experiences along the way to make sure we were on the right track (birthday parties, graduations, promotions, perhaps parenthood). During the first half of our lives, we learned to master the external World, and we developed self-esteem as a result. Any failure to mature internally was easily overshadowed by our success in the outside World. Now that we have reached adulthood, the time for exploring the inner World, we may find ourselves with less gratifying symbols that let us know we are on the right path. One of the reasons for that is because few of us have been taught even the basics of how to develop our inner selves. We are living in a time when the importance of spirituality, self-awareness, and emotional maturity are undervalued at best and devalued at worst. Getting on the right path takes knowledge and courage. We have to recognize that God is at the center of our lives, at the very center of our own thoughts and consciousness. We must realize that God is the very presence and intelligence by which we think, so we do not have to go out and find him; God is always at home and his home is within our own souls. #RandolphHarris 5 of 7

Should we not feel that we have the most wonderful companion imaginable? Should we not spend some time in daily communion with this companion? Leaving all external confusion and fear outside, should we not enter this sacredness and, meditating before the Ark of the Covenant, should we not each in, unroll the scroll, and dead from it the divine message: “Before they call, I will answer; and while they are yet speaking, I will hear,” reports Isaiah 65.24. As we grow older, prizes from the outer World often begin to hold less fascination. It becomes clear that growing up is a fallacy. We begin to feel in our hearts that we are not now, nor will ever be, grown-up. Adulthood is a phase of development like any other, fraught with ascents and descents into ever-changing arenas of human potential. Learning to conquer the challenges of our soul with as much strength as we mastered the trials of the World at large is the prime objective of adult life. Sometimes we might feel fragmented, with everyone and everything out there claiming a piece of us. At times we may feel burned out, restless, unsure of who we are, and stuck by the emptiness of externally defined success. This is the price of maturity, and a sign that now is the time to get back in touch with our innermost drives, talents, and desires. That sense that things are just not being right is nature’s way of telling us it is time to change. #RandolphHarris 6 of 7

Now, as you can tell, this is not a sugar-coated presentation, it is Clorox, and I hope you are not offended. We must no longer have just a light-wired job. We must have the conduit of all the powers of God upon us, and then when someone calls upon us to give a blessing of any kind, when they call upon us to speak, we will be as conduits and speak as God would have us speak. Now, the Lord bless you. It seems that there are many words of eternal life that have proceeded forth from the mouth of God to which we must give more diligent heed if we are to receive the promised blessings. However, if we have sought to do wickedly in the days of our mortal probation, then we will be found unclean before the judgment seat of God; and no unclean thing can dwell with God; wherefore, we must be cast off forever. The Kingdom of God is not filthy, and there cannot be any unclean thing enter into the Kingdom of God. Be clean and be the vessels of the Lord. Know that you are the temple of God. The wonderful gifts you will find on your journey will provide an inner resource you already have at your disposal in claiming the rewards nature intended you to have, and we will learn new strategies we can use to bring our extraordinary abilities to the surface until the sea itself flows in our veins, till we are clothes with the Heavens, and crowned with the stars: and perceive ourselves to be the sole heir of the whole World, and more than so, because people are in it who are every one sole heirs as well as we are. #RandolphHarris 7 of 7