Joy and happiness come through determination and the practice of carrying on under all conditions. Legends make reality, and become more useful than the facts. We have to see to restore the ontological weight to human experience so that we will have an assurance of fulfillment which is part of faith’s apprehension of God as Absolute Presence. Otherwise people will experience complicated situations in which persons find themselves trapped, challenged, and confused; and thus indirectly they explore the nature of the exile into which the soul enters as it becomes alienated from itself, from those it loves, and from God. When we have faith, one finds a foretaste or presentient of the perfect harmony and communion toward which all authentic human existence strives. In our efforts to teach our generation how to use the wisdom in ancient myths to change our lives for the better, it becomes clear that all heroes experience trauma so that they themselves can be reborn and so that they can serve as icons of strength and perseverance in the global society for the continuum necessary to redeem the society and bring it to a higher level of functioning. Reality shares both in the tension that is the essence of drama and in the harmony which is the essence of faith. Its starting point is a metaphysical “dis-ease” like that of a person in a fever who shifts around searching for a comfortable position. This search for a home in the wilderness, a harmony in disharmony, a transcendent source of assurance in a transient life takes place through a reflective process called secondary reflection. #RandolphHarris 1 of 11

Problem and mystery brings to light two different kinds of thinking or reflection. Primary reflection examines its object by abstraction, by analytically breaking it down into its constituent parts. It is concerned with definitions, essences, and technical solutions to problems. Primary reflection, as exemplified in scientific and technical thought, has allowed us to possess and manipulate our World more completely and is therefore indispensable to human culture. However, intellectual and more confusion results when primary reflection becomes imperialistic and claims the right to judge all knowledge and truth by criteria appropriate only to the realm of the objective and the problematic. When this happens, abstraction gives way to the spirit of abstraction, the use of techniques gives way to technocracy, and the inexhaustible riches of a kaleidoscope World are forced to conform to a black-and-white logic. The complexity of human character, dynamically moved in al directions, very rarely accommodates itself to the arbitrament of a simple alternative, as out antiquated primary reflection would have it. Secondary reflection is concrete, individual, heuristic, and open. Strictly speaking, it is concerned not with objects but with presences. It contemplation beings not with curiosity or doubt but with wonder and astonishment. Hence, it is humble in its willingness to be confronted to categories created by that on which it is focused. #RandolphHarris 2 of 11

Salvation and exaltation are here emphasized as being based primarily upon commitment and enduring. Secondary reflection remains open to its object as a love does to his beloved—not as a specimen of class but a unique being. This openness is not a methodological principle as in scientific thought but arises from the possibility of something new being created in the relationship. Secondary reflection is dialogical, not dialectical. Rather than searching for information about the other and dealing with it abstractly, secondary reflection seeks the revelation of total presence, whether the presence be that f my body, the World, the other person, or God. Thus, secondary reflection is brought to bear on data or questions from which the thinker as existing person cannot legitimately abstract himself or herself: “Am I free?” “Is there meaning and value in life?” “Can I commit myself to this person?” In other words, secondary reflection is concerned not with problems but with mystery. A mystery initially appears to be merely a problem that is difficult to solve. Reflection, shows, however, that in dealing with a genuine mystery the distinction between the subject and object, between what is in me and what is before me, breaks down. Faced with questions about freedom, the meaning of life, the existence of God, and so forth, no objective standpoint can be found from which a universally valid answer may be discovered. #RandolphHarris 3 of 11

This does not mean that mystery is unknown nor unknowable and lies in a realm of vague feelings over which thought has no grasp. Rather, knowledge of mystery presupposed an immediate participation, or a blinded intuition, but this participation is understood only with the assistance of a conceptual process. Unassisted intuition is not an adequate philosophical instrument. However, secondary reflection penetrates into the mystery of existence and being only when it works in conjunction with love, fidelity, faith, and other concrete approached. It yields a kind of knowledge and illuminates our lives. Two foci of mystery may be distinguished, although never separated. The mystery of existence is dealt with in concrete ontology. Concrete philosophy is with the existing subject, the incarnate being who is already in the World. The experience of the inexhaustible concreteness of the existing World can be neither deduced, doubted, not demonstrated. Existence is not a thing, a quality, nor a discrete content of thought which can be isolated and pointed out; rather it is that which the subject participates from which thought beings its quest for meaning. The assurance of existence which we have is not of the intellectual order but is an outcome of our direct participation in the World by the way of (via) sensation and feeling. Because sensation and feeling are inseparable from the body, our knowledge of existence is tied up with our being incarnate. “And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make your free,” reports John 8.31-32. #RandolphHarris 4 of 11

The basic truths about life before we came to Earth bless us with wonderful insights. “How old are you?” is easy to answer. Birthdays measure the age of our physical body. However really, we are much older than that. Each of us is a beloved spirit son or daughter of Heavenly parents with a divine nature and destiny. Before our spirit bodies were created, we each existed as intelligence, which had no beginning, neither will it have an end. Knowing that we are eternal beings with Heavenly Parents changes out lives by helping us see ourselves and our lives from a truly eternal perspective. In our premortal life, we were taught lesson that prepared us to assist our Heavenly Father in bringing about the salvation of his children. We also had the agency to follow and obey God. Some of Father’s children distinguished themselves thought their exceeding faith and good works and were foreordained, or given assignments, to serve in specific ways on Earth. While in our premortal state, we were all present when God the Father explained his plan for the salvation of his children. We learned that a Savior would be needed to overcome the problems brought on by the conditions of mortal life. Incarnation is the central given of metaphysics, the absolute starting point for an external philosophy, because it is on the analogy of my experience of my body that the World is understood. I project into the World the sense of destiny and presence that I experience when I become aware of my own body. The World exists for me only in the way in which I am related to my own body. #RandolphHarris 5 of 11

As I am not even ideally separable from my body, I am likewise inseparable from my situation. When we pass through the veil to the other side, nothing is going to startle us more than to realize how well we know our Father and how familiar his face is to us. Knowing that Heavenly Father knew and loved us changes our lives by making our prayers more personal and intimate. Those habitual surroundings and historical conditions which shape my life enter into the very fiber of what I am. Insofar as I recognize that my situation enters into the constitution of my own being, and hence that I am not able to abstract myself from it completely and view it with objective detachment of a spectator, I may speak of the family which nurtured me or of an infirmary that shaped me as having a mysterious character. There is no way to make sense out of life without a knowledge of the doctrine of premortal life. When we understand the doctrine of premortal life, then things fit together and make sense. “The righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. For they that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh; but they that are after the Spirit the things of the Spirit. For to be carnally minded is death; but to be spiritually minded is life and peace. Because the carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be. So then they that are in the flesh cannot please God,” reports Romans 8.5-9. #RandolphHarris 6 of 11

The range of meanings borne by the term flesh in the Bible starts from the literal use denoting the material of which the human body is chiefly constructed but takes on others senses. The basic reference is to the human body, as distinguished from the soul. A concrete philosophy must also affirm the immediacy of our being with others. The principle of the intentionality of consciousness applies in our relations both to persons and to the World. Philosophy beings not with I am but with we are. The significance of this intersubjectivity will be determined by the type of relations which characterize one’s life. The self who treats other persons as objects to be manipulated and used is condemned because of its conflict between our primitive self and our ethical self, between what Dr. Freud calls the Id and the Ego. To make ourselves more explicit, it will be necessary to say something about the elements of the psychic apparatus. According to Dr. Freud’s formulation the child brings into the World an unorganized chaotic mentality called the Id, the sole aim of which is the gratification of all needs, the alleviation of hunger, self-preservation, and love, the preservation of the species. However, as the child grows older, that part of the id which comes in contact with the environment through the sense learns to know the inexorable reality of the outer World and becomes modified into what Dr. Freud calls the ego. This ego, possessing awareness of the environment, henceforth strives to curb the lawless id tendencies whenever they attempt to assert themselves incompatibly. #RandolphHarris 7 of 11

The neurosis, as we see it here, is, therefore, a conflict between the ego and the id. The ego, aware of the forces of civilization, religion and ethics, refuses to allow motor discharge to the powerful sexual (flesh) impulses emanating from the lawless id, and thus block them from attainment of the object toward which they aimed. The ego then defends itself against these impulses by repressing them. If people cannot control their id, the repressed material will struggle against fate, finally break through as a substitutive formation on paths over which the ego has no control, and obtrude itself on the ego as symptoms. As a result of this process, the ego finds itself more or less impoverished, its integrity is threatened and hurt, living in a World lacking in ontological depth, and hence it will be prey to despair when the thrill of possession wears thin. To endeavor to allow the other person to become present as a thou is to enter into a relationship within which the assurance of fulfillment is received. “The Spirit itself bears witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God: And if children, then heirs: heirs of God, and joint heirs with Christ; if so be that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified together,” reports Romans 8.16 and 17. No word is more difficult to define or richer in meaning than “being.” It refers neither to the sum total of all objects that exit nor to some universal substratum underlying all particulars. Being is eternal and inexhaustible. It is that which does not allow itself to be dissolved by the dialectics of experience. #RandolphHarris 8 of 11

Only by participation in being can isolation, despair, and tragedy be overcome. The quest for being is thus identical with the quest for salvation. To deny being is to say that all is vanity, that nothing has intrinsic worth. To affirm being is to declare that corresponding to the deepest exigency of the human spirit is a fulfillment of which an earnest is given in experiences of creativity, joy, and love. Thanks to our diligent journey of being, we have won the power to see with newfound wisdom to listen with newfound compassion, and to act with newfound purpose and integrity. We can reenter the World as a more powerful and more effective being than we were when we left. Our renewed self, no longer lacking the courage and confidence, finally has the strength and vision to tackle all worthwhile goals that plagued us so long ago, back before we were able to do anything about them. Our journey of being is not complete until our new beings step back into the World with the intent of learning to answer the Earth’s needs, just as we have learned to answer our own. The question of being cannot be approached objectively and problematically. Being can be affirmed only if I can discover within experience some presence which testifies to being. Two elements in human experience seem to offer such testimony. First, at the heart of the human condition is an ontological exigence, an impulse to transcendence which is present in all authentic human life, the exigence to penetrate to a level of experience saturated with meaning and value. #RandolphHarris 9 of 11

The mere existence of such an exigence is no guarantee in itself that a corresponding satisfaction exists. It could be the case that human beings are a useless passion. However, by way of a phenomenological analysis, certain experiences of love, joy, hope, and faith, as understood from within, present beneficial testimony to the existence of an inexhaustible presence. This assuring presence, which might be called the immanence of being in human experience, is never a possession but is constantly created anew as an I enters into relations with an empirical thou or the Absolute Thou (God). Although the assurance of being never becomes conceptually clear, it prides the illumination making creative, open existence possible. Never allow tribulations nor the cares of this World to separate you from remembering that God loves you. The concrete approaches to being are identical with the approaches to others persons and to God. To enter into a loving relationship requires that a person exorcise the spirit of selfishness and possession and become spiritually available (disponible) to others. If the unconditional demands of love are to be satisfied, a vow of creative fidelity is likewise necessary. In approaching God, fidelity becomes faith and disponibilite becomes hope. In love, fidelity, hope, and faith human approaches the mystery of being and is overtaken with the assurance that one is accompanied by the eternal fulfilling Presence that seeks to know. #RandolphHarris 10 of 11

As we have experiences harassment, destruction, vandalism, and even the loss of lives, the attitude of children of God is not one of being afraid but of marching forward in a spirit of carry on. Even when the winds of fire, destruction, and danger have blown into our paths, we stand firm as the mountains around us. God will continue you help us to carry on, and our work will not be thwarted but will be enhanced and prosperous. God has saved for the final inning some of his strongest children, who will help bear off the Kingdom triumphantly. And that is where we come it, for we are the generation that must be prepared to meet our God. Make no mistake about it—we are a marked generation. There has never been more expected of the faithful in such a short period of time as there is of us. Each day we personally make many decisions that show where our support will go. The final outcome is certain—the forces of righteousness will finally win. What remains to be seen is where each of us personally, now and in the future will stand in this fight—and how tall we will stand. Will we be true to our last-days, foreordained mission? God does not keep his children immune from trouble. It does not matter how real nor intense the adversities may be; nothing can ever separate us from our relationship to God. Tribulation is never a grand, highly welcomed event; but whatever it may be—whether exhausting, irritating, or simply causing some weakness—it is not able to separate us from the love of God. #RandolphHarris 11 of 11