We are what we repeatedly do. How far you go in life depends on your being tender with excellence, and not making it an act, but a habit. A healthy knowledge and acceptance of the component of pleasures of the flesh in our life is also a valuable assistance to living our charism peacefully. Human pleasures of the flesh, as we now know, is not confined to procreation alone, but is reflected in the person in a vast range of potential expressions, some of which are fully valid also for celibates and virgins. Celibates and virgins have renounced the active taste of the poisoned paradise, not in sexuality itself. Certainly they have not gotten rid of it. It is still there, and it pervades practically every expression of the personality. A virgin man does not cease to be a man, nor a virgin woman to be a woman. This fact is also recognized by psychology, which admits the possibility of “sublimating” the instinct for pleasures of the flesh without destroying it, but spiritualizing it and making it serve ends that are equally worthy of humanity. If it is unconscious and directed towards the creation of substitutes, the sublimation process can be ambiguous, but it can also be beneficial and lived out in freedom. In this sense we can say that there is a dimension of pleasures of the flesh also experienced by celibates, and a dimension of celibacy that is often experienced by married men and women. A healthy knowledge of pleasures of the flesh helps us develop a clam, untroubled view—as far as this is still possible in our present situation, compromised as it is by sin—of the whole created reality, including the transmission of life. We must learn how to look at the opposite gender, at procreation, and at children, with pure eyes, in short, with eyes like those of Jesus Christ Who, as the Gospels show, was able to speak about these things in perfect freedom and even turned them into parables about spiritual reality. #RandolphHarris 1 of 23

A proper knowledge of the life of married people helps us to avoid wrong or simplistic ideas about marriage, trains us to be healthy realistic (so necessary for anyone who has to preach the word of God), opens our eyes to the many advantages we have compared to married people, and makes us more understanding and attentive to their problems. Finally, a certain lucidity in this area is useful so that we do not mistake the flesh for the spirit, or vice versa, the spirit for the flesh—either in ourselves or in those we are called upon to guide. In other words, it is useful for spiritual discernment. When we take as supernatural and divine love, or spiritual friendship, what in fact are only the beginnings of human love, we mistake the flesh for the spirit. Human and “carnal” love, in its initial stages, produces effects that are easily mistaken for the effects of grace and conversion of heart. The face lights up, the person become sweet-tempered and compliant, feels generous and helpful and experiences a new idealism and fervour. If it is not immediately recognized as such, it is easy to think one is dealing with conversion of the heart, when in fact it is only the beginning of a human falling in love which can have unfortunate consequences. A religious may believe that, as a result of meeting one, a certain person has been transformed. So the religious is pleased, and insists on seeing, writing or telephoning the person. They may even thank God for having been chosen as His instrument. The truth is that God has been at work, but in quite a different way. He allows all this to bring us out of delusion and presumption and to make us humbler and wiser for the experience. #RandolphHarris 2 of 23

Those who look for a magical release from their shortcomings and automatic victory over their weaknesses with the coming of the Glimpse, become disheartened at learning that this desirable result may happen only in a part of their nature, if at all, and is unlikely to happen in the totality of their nature. Others, governed by wishful thinking, even reject the teaching as untrue. That their own co-operative effort will still be needed is a reasonable demand. However, reason is what some of these people hope to transcend! The glimpse will be lengthened when one oneself develops: it will then no longer be abnormal, or supernormal, but a constant experience. Neither the movements of the Spirit-Energy nor then opening of the mind gives the ultimate enlightenment: usually a glimpse: that is discovered only in the Stillness of the Void. To go beyond the glimpse into the permanent condition of being established requires time to grow up, to develop, until the illusion of time is itself seen through. Although no act of thinking can take hold of That which is utterly beyond thinking—for it is the holy of holies—one may, by pushing attention deeply enough, stand as Moses stood and view the Promised Land as from afar. Or, by being still, in body and in mind, one may do the same. This effect is called a Glimpse. However, if the Grace is to wrap itself around one and end one’s quest then…alas! I may write no more. Why is the pen stopped? Because for each person the answer is different, personal, and to be given by God alone, for He is the real giver, not another human. A certain type of mystic experience represents a descent of Grace by the Overself. The results are transient, however, because such an experience is given merely as a glimpse of the goal yet to be achieved by one’s own personal effort. Through practice of the advanced meditation given in The Wisdom of the Overself such an experience may recur from time to time, although its emotional results may seem tamer after a while because they will lack the novelty which they first possessed. #RandolphHarris 3 of 23

The more one gives oneself up to the Overself as a consequence of these glimpses of what it requires of one, the sooner will their transience be transformed into permanence. “In carrying water and chopping wood—there is the wonderful Tao.” This ancient Chinese sentence is a subtle, clever way of saying that not only in meditation is the glimpse to be sought, but also in the World’s work and life it is to be found and kept. Such is the ultimate state, this emptiness of mind amid active body. It is possible only by knowledge, the unforgettable recognition and understanding that within this emptiness lies the Tao. It is the inward seeing in the sense of seeing beneath appearances what is under them. It does not refer to clairvoyance in the psychic sense, but rather to the metaphysical or mystical sense. It can be particularized as meaning entering into the witness state of consciousness. The ordinary person sees only the object; penetrating deeper, one enters the witness state which is an intermediate condition; going still deeper, one reaches the ultimate state of Reality when there is no subject or object, whereas in the witness there is still subject and object, but the subject no longer identifies oneself with the object as the ordinary human does. Sometimes the experience got in deep meditation verges on trance and abolishes the normal awareness of time and space. The sense of time may cease altogether so that there is so there is no succession from one moment to the next but an absolute stillness. The sense of space may be so enlarged that there is a feeling of being spread out to immense dimensions or a contrary feeling of being reduced to a single point. The whirling dervishes of the Near East by turning round and round and round for a long time also lose the sense of time and space. #RandolphHarris 4 of 23

However, we must remember that the experiences just described have a beginning and an ending, they are only mental conditions which change; they are not the authentic ultimate experience of enlightenment. This latter is called sahaja. It is the permanent awareness of the divine presence whether in the midst of activity of meditation. It is not the faint glimpse of truth which reveals all but the full and steady insight. The innate felicity of the one may—and often does—deceive a human into believing that one is experiencing the absolute uniqueness of the other. However, the philosophic student, trained to control one’s ego, is unlikely to mistake these passing phases of one’s inner life for what they are. On the other hand, we mistake the spirit for the flesh, that is, good for evil, when we do not know how to distinguish temptation from sin. Choosing virginity does not spare a person from temptations. In fact, as we see from the lives of the saints, it often increases them. The Desert Fathers used to say that no one should think they possess a certain virtue, until it has been tested in the fire of temptation. However, temptation in itself is not bad. It is for our good, since we know that “along with the temptation, God will also provide a way out, so you will be able to endure it,” reports 1 Corinthians 10.13. “It is better for many not to be altogether free of temptations, but to be often assailed, least they become too secure, and run the risk of pride, or take more liberty to seek after exterior consolations.” Temptation is the crucible in which chastity is purified, the cold bath in which it is toughened, as steel is tempered by contact with water. Once we have accepted this grace, then ancillary virtues follow. Such qualities as caring, respect, and responsibility flow from this fountainhead of life within. We can always receive a boundless affirmation of love from deep within. It is grace, which is given us by God and finds a regal home in our core, the kingdom of God within. God becomes to us a deep and ever-present Companion. #RandolphHarris 5 of 23

Virginity existed as a concept, though without the reverence devout Catholicism attached to it. Iroquois legends told of a society of virgins, but this was a long-ago phenomenon and Indian women were not tempted to replicate it. Celibacy, too, was an honoured tradition, an essential preparation for successful hunts or battles. However, it was for men, not women, and it was purely strategic and short-term. As a permanent condition—for example the Jesuits’ lifestyle—it was considered peculiar. When these men tried to impose celibacy on the natives they lived among, Iroquois reaction ranged from puzzled incredulity to ridicule and anger. For some, sworn celibacy had dual meanings and consequences. It was one’s personal declaration of ownership of one’s body and soul, which one withholds from their community and offers instead to God. However, some critics report that celibacy is a sham, and that many individuals slip off into the woods for sexual trysts with married men or women. Still, actualizing Christians see perpetual virginity and mystic marriage to Christ as being so thoroughly vindicating. Scandalmongers and angry relatives who plague the celibates in life, they are the best weapons in the holy war for allegiance. Celibate people must somehow embarrass others. However, ascetism, one’s celibacy, and the glory of one’s marriage to Jesus, makes one more willing to stand one’s ground against critics as one’s namesake. There is a difference between the ordinary glimpse and the philosophical way. Both come to an end; but the philosophical seeker incessantly returns to its remembrance, uses it to work continuously at the transformation of one’s self and never lets go of the vision. An elementary or obscure knowledge of reality is too often taken by the aspirant as the full knowledge. This is because it so dramatically transcends one’s ordinary condition. However, it is still not to be compared with the firm certitude of clear Insight. #RandolphHarris 6 of 23

It is possible to be open to one’s best inner self, aware of its presence, its beauty and peace. And this possibility can be not only realized but also naturalized. It can become one’s normal condition. More and more its light will enter one’s mind, its strength one’s heart, and its presence one’s meditative periods. On that day when the glimpse comes, the impact may be strong enough and the human’s ambition high enough to make one believe that this is ultimate salvation. Not so, alas! One sees that one’s quest will not end with the illuminative experience of this first contact with the higher self and that the processes so started must continue. Since it is a glimpse only, and not a completed experience, one ought not to expect one’s own person and personal life to be completely transformed. This is one’s further task, to infuse the beauty and tranquility, the unworldliness and immaterialism of the glimpse into one’s ordinary everyday life. This beautiful state of heart has yet to become natural and continuous. And that cannot happen until the personal ego is laid low and until the whole psyche of the human engages in the struggle for self-conquest. My dearest friend. No more smelts, no more mullets, no more herings! Just Act and Potency, Potency and Act—maybe the Schoolmen were on to something. Eternal and Immense God turns Infinite Potency into Great and Inscrutable Acts in Heaven and on Earth. Whatever, there just does not seem to be an intellectually satisfying way for you to study these Marvels; tht was Job’s conclusion too (5.9). If, therefore, there were a way to taxonomize and theologize the works of God, they would not be Marvels, would they? I expect the answer is no. Nor would there be words smart enough or tart enough to describe them, now would there? Again I expect the answer no. Again I say Amen. When Satan comes against you, use the name of Jesus, use the authority Jesus gave you. God is not going to do it for you. The power of binding and loosing is not in Heaven; it is on Earth—and it is yours. Jesus gave believers authority to preach the gospel, heal the sick, and cast out demons, and raise the dead. #RandolphHarris 7 of 23

The Angels cannot preach the gospel. In the tenth chapter of Acts when Cornelius prayed, God sent an angel to talk to him. In this essence, this is what the Angel said to him: “I cannot preach the gospel to you, but I can tell you where there is a man that can preach the gospel. He is staying with Simon the tanner by the seashore. Go call for Peter. He will come preach the gospel to you and tell you what to do.” Have you ever wondered why the Angel did not preach the gospel to him? Because, in this dispensation, they do not have that authority. The authority in this Earth has been delivered to believers. We have the authority, but we have been praying for God to do the things He has told us to do, such as heal the sick, cleanse the leper, cast out demons, and raise the dead. (Matthew 10.1-8.) These things are as mountains before us, but God’s ability can perform them. Learn to release God’s ability. Death darers experience mixed feelings, or ambivalence, in their intent to die even at the moment of their attempt, and they show this ambivalence in the act itself. Although to some degree they wish to die, and they often do die, their risk-taking behaviour does not guarantee death. The person who plays Russian roulette—that is, pulls the trigger of a revolver randomly loaded with one bullet—is a death darer. Many death darers are as interested in gaining attention, making someone feel guilty, or expressing anger as in dying per se. Margaret and Bob had been going together for a year. It was Margaret’s first serious relationship; it was her whole life. Thus when Bob told her that he no longer loved her and was leaving her for someone else, Margaret was shocked and shaken. As the weeks went by, Margaret was filled with two competing feelings—depression and anger. Several times she called Bob, begged him to reconsider, and pleaded for a chance to win him back. #RandolphHarris 8 of 23

At the same time, Margaret hated Bob for putting her though such misery. She did not deserve this treatment. Sometimes when she was talking to him, her pleas would change to demands, her cries to yells. Margaret’s friends became more and more worried about her. At first they sympathized with her pain, assuming it would soon lift. However, at time went on, her depression and anger worsened, and Margaret began to act strangely. She started to drink heavily and to mix her drinks with all kinds of pills. She seemed to be flirting with danger. One night Margaret went into her bathroom, reached for a bottle of sleeping pills, and much like Lily in then novel, The House of Mirth by Edith Wharton, and swallowed a handful of them. She wanted to make her pain go away, and she wanted Bob to know just how much pain he had caused her. She continued swallowing pill after pill, crying and swearing as she gulped them down. When she began to feel drowsy, she decided to call her close friend Cindy. She was not sure why she was calling, perhaps to say good-bye, to explain her actions, or to make sure that Bo was told; or perhaps to be talked out of it. Cindy pleased and reasoned with Margaret and tried to motivate her to live. Margaret was trying to listen, but she became less and less coherent. Cindy hung up the phone quickly and called Margaret’s neighbour and the police. When reached by her neighbour, Margaret was already in a coma. Seven hours later, while her friends and family waited for news in the hospital lounge, Margaret died. Margaret might be considered a death darer. Although her unhappiness and anger were great, she was not sure that she wanted to die. Even while taking pills, she called her friend, reported her actions, and listened to her friend’s pleas. When individuals play indirect, covert, partial, or unconscious roles in their own deaths, they are classified in a suicide-like category called subintentional death. #RandolphHarris 9 of 23

Seriously ill people who consistently mismanage their medications may belong in the subintentional death category. There is also a category called chronic suicide. These people behave in life-endangering ways over an extended period of time, perhaps consuming excessive alcohol, abusing drugs, or indulging in risky activities or occupations. Although their deaths may represent a form of suicide, their true intent in unclear. It is impossible to separate how we communicate with other people from how we experience our relationships with them. There is no such thing as a high-quality interpersonal relationship based on bad communication. Effective interpersonal communication allows people to achieve their goals, to share information with other people, and to feel understood. Without effective interpersonal communication, even the most simple interactions with other people become an exercise in frustration—for both parties. The importance of effective communication skills is underscored by the pervasiveness of social skills deficits in the literature on interpersonal relations and mental health. The impact of social skills on interpersonal relationships, and in turn on mental health, simply cannot be overstated. Some very well-developed interpersonal theories of mental health stress the role of poor social skills in contributing to the development and course of such problems as depression, social anxiety, schizophrenia, loneliness, eating disorders, alcoholism, and other substance use problems. At the same time, effective social skills may play a prophylactic role by reducing the likelihood of mental health problems when faced with other stressors in life. The relationship between social skills deficits and mental health problems is manifold. Some people fail to develop adequate social skills for a variety of reasons, ranging from social isolation and minimal opportunity for the practice and development of such skills, to exposure to poor role models. #RandolphHarris 10 of 23

Such individuals face an uphill struggle to develop rewarding interpersonal relationships, much less to execute successful interpersonal interactions. As a consequence, many of the issues already covered, such as interpersonal rejection, unavailability of personal relationships, loneliness, and perhaps even neglect from parents and others, follow. In this way, poor social skills can precipitate poor mental health. For such individuals, effective treatment of this condition will require at least some attention to their social skills. Alternatively, the symptoms of many different forms of psychopathology can interfere with effective social behaviour, corroding social skills. The psychotic symptoms schizophrenia or bipolar disorder can seriously damage one’s ability to communicate with others in a way that is appropriate and effective. Similarly, the difficulty in concentration, psychomotor delay, and sad affect of depression; the nervousness and preoccupation with failure in social anxiety; and the emotional liability and blunted cognition associated with substance dependence will all have deleterious effects on social communication skills. Even those with good premorbid social skills are prone to experiencing declines concomitant with episodes of psychopathology. As the symptoms of psychological problems continue to worsen, social skills will atrophy. In such cases, improvements in mental health are often accompanied by improvements in social skills. Many of the other, more specific problems with interpersonal communication that are evident in the mental health literature—such as excessive reassurance seeking, self-doubt about making a desired impression on others, attention seeking, and indirect attempts at communication—may all be secondary to social skills deficits, or circumscribed forms of such deficits. #RandolphHarris 11 of 23

Many of these interpersonal phenomena may reflect a deficit in motivation for deploying appropriate social behaviours. People may engage in these behaviours, or have these feelings, because they are otherwise unable to get what they are looking for from other people and from their relationships through more standard means of communication. Those with inadequate social skills may turn to more dramatic or histrionic forms of communication (such as excessive reassurance seeking on depression and attention seeking in personality disorders), or to more subtle means of expression (such as the indirect attempts at communication in somatoform disorders and perhaps eating disorders). Because they may lack the wherewithal for effective and direct interpersonal communication as a means of expressing their concerns, people with eating disorders and somatoform disorders use their symptoms to send “messages” or “signals” to other people. It is apparent that despite the ubiquity of this topic in the mental health literature, some people with psychological problems may have very well-developed social skills. In fact, their social skills may be so well developed and practiced that patients use them to manipulate and exploit other people. People with paranoid symptoms, certain personality disorders, bipolar disorder, and certain paraphilias often have very good social skills, especially perceptual skills. Such people may hone their social skills toward maladaptive and socially unacceptable ends. In such cases, the problem is not so much a social skills deficit as it is an irresponsible application and utilization of social skills. “Trust in the LORD with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths,” reports Proverbs 3.5-6. Things may not be perfect in your life, but if one hopes to get to where one wants to go, one must be happy right where one is. Many people assume that they are not going to be happy until their circumstances change—until their spouse changes, or until they get a bigger Cresleigh Home, or until they get rid of all their problems. #RandolphHarris 12 of 23

Do not make that mistake. Enjoy your life right now where you are. Maybe you have some major obstacles in your path, but being discouraged is not going to make anything better. You need to realize that God is in control of your life. He is directing your steeps, and He has you exactly where He wants you. The apostle Paul said, “I have learned how to be content in every situation whether I am abased or abounding; whether I have got a lot of whether I do not have too much,” reports Philippians 4.11-12. He was saying, “I have made a decision that I am going to live my life happy.” Now “content” does not mean we do not want to see change. It does not mean we simply sit bac in neutral and accept everything as it comes. No, I like the way The Amplified Bible states Philippians 4.11: “I have learned to be content (satisfied to the point where I am not disturbed or disquieted) in whatever state I am.” That is the key. One does not have to get upset because one’s circumstances are not exactly what one wants them to be. Keep in mind that God will not allow difficulty to come into your life, unless He has a purpose for it. You may not understand His purpose right now, but that is okay. God’s ways are not our ways. If you will keep the right attitude, God has promised He will turn that situation around in your favour, and you will come out better off than you were before. We all go through dry seasons in our lives, times when we do not see anything happening. Maybe you have been praying and believing, but your prayers are not being answered; or you are giving, but you do not seem to be getting anything in return. Maybe you are doing your best to treat people right; you are going the extra kilometer to help others, but nobody is going out of their way to help you. What is going on? Is God’s Word a lie? Do these principles not work? #RandolphHarris 13 of 23

No, these dry seasons are proving grounds. God wants to see how you are going to respond. What kind of attitude will you have when you are doing the right thing, but the wrong thing keeps happening to you? God is preparing you for greater things. If you remain faithful in tough times, God will promote you. When you go through a dry season, a long period of time when you do not see anything good happening, just stay faithful; keep a smile on your face, and keep doing what you know is right. God is preparing you for great things. Often times these very successful people have to slave for over a decade to reach great success and some even longer. And they had meager living conditions and working conditions, but now are extremely successful because they kept faith in God. The center of healthy psychological and spiritual growth is the core, or innermost being, of the person. The core is not the raw, chaotic power of the unconscious that Dr. Freud portrayed. Rather, it is an innate guidance system energized by the power of God’s love. It is out of our core that dignity, courage, and love emerge that we might live life to the fullest. The subtle nuances of guidance that flow from the core enable a person to become truly human, and to fulfill one’s unique mission in life. We might understand the core as the place of divine support within the personality. God is always there, always available, and for everyone, both small and great, unbelievers as well as believers, rebels as well as those who obey Him. Our spirituality is our movement from and into the core. The core is the involuntary energy center into which flows the love of God and from which flows love for oneself and others. As Paul says, “God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit,” reports Romans 5.5. Thus, love is expressed through the core, and love becomes central to our understanding of the core. #RandolphHarris 14 of 23

We see the see the verse “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy strength, and with all thy mind; and thy neighbour as thyself,” reports Luke 10.27 as the key to being an actualizing Christian. If we love God first, then God can work through us most profoundly at our cores to assist us in loving our neighbours as ourselves. The idea expressed in the verse is like a three-layer circle. The outside ring is G—for God. The second inner ring of O—for others, and at the core is D—for divine core of the personality. God, by His unmerited grace, expressed Himself to the Christian through the person’s core. One may then express what God is manifesting within oneself outward to others. We begin to understand the importance of the core, and why we call it a “divine core,” when we see it as our purest connection with God. The primary interpersonal method through which God expresses Himself is through the presence of the Holy Spirit. All the love our Father and Jesus Christ communicate to humanity is given through the Spirit. The Spirit is the Holy One in His infinite generosity, in His boundless self communication. He is divine sharing. Knowing Him is that quiet awareness of His touch, tender as the morning dew on the flowers opening up for the dawn. The will to power is that quality of a living thing that leads it to grab hold of its environment, to take in what nourishes it, as much as it can, to shoulder aside whoever is interested in the same thing, to trample whatever stands in its way, to grow, to become big and strong, and to multiply. There is no moderation; nothing is too much. The aim of the flower is to make more flowers, to transform the Universe into a flower. The drive is blind, knows no internal limit, will continue until stopped. For most of the duration of life on Earth, power was the ability to rend, to tear, to seize, to pin down, to destroy, to gobble up. Significant power in human affairs now, in essence unchanged, is in the form of money, property, position, acclaim, possessions, influence. #RandolphHarris 15 of 23

The guises of power are so various, so dissembled, that power ceases to be recognized as such. We would have it that human life is discontinuous with life in the tide pools, in the jungle, that mind or spirit, something far removed from power, has come to be the essence of human life. We delude ourselves. The holders of great power may be physically frail, gentle in manner, tender in sentiment, Christian by possession, to overwhelm. Whatever appears in human life that seems unrelated to power, or even—like love, like charity, like self-sacrifice—contrary to it, is if it endures, but another mask of power. Observe the single free-floating cell. It moves about, this way and that, exploring, seeking. What does it want? It wants to seize the nutrient environment, take it in, grow bigger, stronger. It has heard God’s voice: Be fruitful and multiply. It comes about in time, in our remote evolutionary past that a number of such cells associate themselves into a community. Something new. Are not these several cells hampered in their competition with other cells by virtue of, as it were holding hands? Why, yes, very likely. And whenever so hampered, they perish. However, it comes about eventually, by chance, that some such association is not hampered but advantaged, finds itself the possessor of superior strength, greater than the summation of its constituent strengths, whereupon the association endures. The will to power of the individual cell comes to be not power but cooperation, faithful service in its subordinate place and function in life of the organism. It has become servant to the will of power of the whole. Consider a likely useful job. A youth who is alert and willing but not “verbally intelligent”—perhaps he has quit high school at the eleventh grade (the median), as soon as he legally could—chooses for auto science engineer. That is a good job, familiar to him, he watched them as a kid. #RandolphHarris 16 of 23

It is careful and dirty at the same time to be an auto science engineer. In a small garage it is sociable; one can talk to the customers (women). You can please people in trouble by fixing their cars, and a man is proud to see rolling out of its own the car that limped in behind the tow truck. The pay is as good as the next fellow’s who is respected. So our young man takes this first-rate job. However, what when he learns that the transportation machines have a built-in obsolescence, that the manufacturers do not want them to be repaired or repairable? They have lobbied a law that requires them to provide spare parts for only five years (it used to be ten). Repairing the new cars is often a matter of cosmetics, not mechanics; and the repairs are pointlessly expensive—a tail fin might cost $3,000.00. The insurance rates therefore double and treble on old and new cars both. Gone are the says of keeping the jalopies in good shape, the artist-work of a proud mechanic. However, everybody is paying for foolishness, for in fact the new models are only trivially superior; the whole thing is a sell. It is hard for the young man now to maintain his feelings of justification, sociability, serviceability. If he quickly becomes cynical and time-serving, interested in a fast buck, it is not surprising. And so, on the notorious Reader’s Digest test, the investigators (coming in with a disconnected coil wire) found that 63 percent of auto science engineers charged for repairs they did not make, and if lucky they did not always take out the new fuel pump and replace it with a used one (65 percent of radio repair shops, but only 49 percent of watch repairmen “lied, overcharged, or gave false diagnoses”). There is an hypothesis that an important predisposition to juvenile delinquency is the combination of low verbal intelligence with high manual intelligence, delinquency giving a way of self-expression where other avenues are blocked by lack of schooling. A land so endowed might well apply himself to the useful trade of mechanical engineer. #RandolphHarris 17 of 23

Must we remain forever trapped between two obsolete visions? In real life, few governments can afford to follow abstract theories, and we find many attempts to combine elements of both strategies. Yet the rise of the Third Wave strongly suggest that we no longer need to Ping-Pong back and forth between these two formulas. For the Third Wave has drastically altered everything. And while no theory emanating from the high-technology World, whether capitalist or Marxist in bias, is going to solve the problems of the “developing World,: and no existing models are wholly transferable, a strange new relationship is spring up between Third Wave societies and the fast-forming Fourth Wave civilization. More than once we have seen naïve attempts to “develop” a basically First Wave country by imposing on it highly incongruous Second Wave forms—mass production, mass media, factory-style education, Westminster-style parliamentary government, and the nation-state, to name a few—without recognizing that for these to operate successfully, traditional family and marriage customs, religion, and role structures would all have to be crushed, the entire culture ripped up by its roots. By astonishing contrast, Fourth Wave civilization turns out to many features—decentralized production, appropriate scale, renewable energy, de-urbanization, work in the home, tyranny, high levels of prosumption, rebellion, to name just a few—that actually resemble those found in First Wave societies. We are seeing something that looks remarkably like a dialectical return. This is why so many of today’s most startling innovations arrive with a comet’s tail of trace memories. It is this eerie sense of déjà vu which accounts for the fascination with the rural past that we find in the most rapidly emergent Third Wave societies. The Fourth and First Wave civilizations are congruous. #RandolphHarris 18 of 23

Will this strange congruity make it possible for many of today’s First Wave countries to take on some of the features of Fourth Wave civilization-without swallowing the whole pill, without totally surrendering their culture or passing through the “stage” of Second and Third Wave development? Will it, in fact, be easier for some countries to introduce Fourth Wave structures than to industrialize in the classic manner? It is now possible, moreover, as it was not in the past, for a society to attain a high material standard living without obsessively focusing all its energies on production of exchange? Given the wider range of options brought by the Third Wave, cannot a people reduce infant mortality and improve life span, literacy, nutrition, and the general quality of life without surrendering its religion or values and necessarily embracing the New World materialism that accompanies the Second Wave civilization? Tomorrow’s “development” strategies will come not from Washington or Moscow or Paris or Geneva but from Africa, Asia, and Latin America. They will be indigenous, matched to actual local needs. They will not overemphasize economics at the expense of ecology, culture, religion, or family structure and the psychological dimensions of existence. They will not imitate any outside model, First Wave, Second Wave or, for that matter, Third. However, the ascent of the Third Wave places all our efforts in a new perspective. For it provides the World’s poorest nations, as well as the richest, with wholly new opportunities. The catch-up effect says, these poor nations may surpass the current World powers because our cities are archaic, while these developing nations will have to start from scratch, they have no infrastructure, no do they have the costs of coming up with the new technology. It is already there, all they need is the capital to make new and advanced cities, and their youth cherish education and are really striving to learn and overcome poverty, and they will create inventions many never dreamed of. #RandolphHarris 19 of 23

So long as several humans together consider themselves to be a single body, they have but a single will, which is concerned with their common preservation and the general well-being. Then all the energies of the state are vigorous and simple; its maxims are clear and luminous; there are no entangled, contradictory interests; the common good is clearly apparent everywhere, demanding only good sense in order to be perceived. Peace, union, equality are enemies of political subtleties. Upright and simple humans are difficult to deceive on account of their simplicity. Traps and clever pretexts do not fool them. They are not even clever enough to be duped. When, among the happiest people in the World, brands of peasants are seen regulating their affairs of state under an oak tree, and always acting wisely, can one help scoring the refinements of other nations, which make themselves illustrious and miserable with so much art and mystery? A state thus governed needs very few laws; and in proportion as it become necessary to promulgate new ones, this necessity is universally understood. The first to propose them merely says what everybody has already felt; and there is no question of either intrigues or eloquence to secure the passage into law of what each has already resolved to do, once one is sure the others will do likewise. What misleads argumentative types is the fact that, since they take into account only the states that were badly constituted from the beginning, they are struck by the impossibility of maintaining such an administration. They laugh when they imagine all the foolishness a clever knave or a sly orator could get the people of Paris or London to believe. They do not know that Cromwell would have been sentenced to hard labour by the people of Berne, and Duc de Beaufort imprisoned by the Genevans. #RandolphHarris 20 of 23

However, when the social bond begins to relax and the state to grow weak, when private interests begin to make themselves felt and small societies begin to influence the larger one, the common interest changes and find opponents. Unanimity no longer reigns in the votes; the general will is no longer the wall of all. Contradictions and debates arise, and the best advice does not pass without disputes. Finally, when the state, on the verge of ruin, subsists only in an illusory and vain form, when the social bond unit is broken in all the hearts, when the meanest interest brazenly appropriates the sacred name of the public good, then the general will becomes mute. Everyone, guided by secret motives, no more express their opinions as citizens than if the state had never existed; and iniquitous decrees having as their sole purpose the private interest are falsely passed under the name of laws. Does it follow from this that the general will is annihilated or corrupted? No, it is always constant, unalterable and pure; but it is subordinate to other wills that previa over it. Each human, in detaching ones interest from the common interest, clearly sees that one cannot totally separate oneself from it; but one’s share of the public misfortune seems insignificant to one compared to the exclusive good one intends to make one’s own. Apart from this private good, one wants the general good in one’s own interest, just as strongly as anyone else. Even in selling one’s vote for money one does not extinguish the general will in oneself; one evades it. The error one commits is that of changing the thrust of the question and answering a different question from the one one was. Thus, instead of saying through one’s vote it is advantageous to the state, one says it is advantageous to this person or that party that this or that view should pass. Thus the law of the public order in the assemblies is not so much to maintain the general will, as to bring it about that it is always questioned and that it always answers. #RandolphHarris 21 of 23

I could present here a number of reflections about the simple right to vote in every act of sovereignty, a right that nothing can take away from the citizens; and on the right to state an opinion, to offer proposals, to divide, to discuss, which the government always takes great care to allow only to its members. However, this important subject would require a separate treaties, and I cannot say everything in one. It is easy for those who are addicted to the worship of force and violence to misread history and fall into partial or complete error. They do not understand why an individual or a nation must become and stay strong if victories are not to turn into whips which one day lash back at the victor. The Roman Eagle flew high into the sky of power but in the end fell inglorious to Earth. The Indian Lotus flourished long before yet lives today still. Why? A civilization based on higher laws will always survive where on based on violence will not. The crushing of finer moral qualities like mercy, pity, calmness, and forgiveness, which war brings about, helps to inaugurate a more materialistic period after the war. War always beings about the brutalization of most humans who fight in it and yet, paradoxically, the spiritualization of a minority. The member of slain relatives and the sight of crippled ones teaches terrible lessons. Only the fanatic or the ruthless will refuse to absorb these lessons and will see in those very sufferings a stimulant to revenge, an inducement to plot for further war. Although war ennobles many people by providing them with larger motives and wider outlooks through the union of all individuals in a common aim, although it forces them to make persona aims secondary and subordinate to the common welfare, it still brutalizes them. It arouses bestial passions and forms evil character. It is still in evil and destructive enterprise which takes away more than it gives, lowers more than elevates. #RandolphHarris 22 of 23

The bitter lessons of war may be learned aright but they may also be soon forgotten. What humans, what country can feel safe so long as thermonuclear weapons remain in existence? However, if they are banned what of the lesser horrors which War Department have developed—germs, gases, rays, and other obscene nightmarish things? We give-away thanks to the Earth which gives us our home. We give-away our thanks to the rivers and lakes which give-away their water. We give-away our thanks to the trees which give-away fruit and nuts. We give-away our thanks to the wind which brings rain to water the plants. We give-away our thanks to the sun who gives-away warmth and light. All beings on Earth: the trees, the animals, the wind and the rivers give-away to one another so all is in balance. We give-away our promise to begin to learn how to stay in balance with all the Earth. Please remember us this day, O Lord our God, for our good, and be mindful of us for a life of blessing. With Thy promise of salvation and mercy, please deliver us and be gracious unto us, have compassion upon us and save us. Unto Thee do we lift our eyes for Thou are a gracious and merciful God and King. O may our eyes witness Thy return to America. Blessed art Thou, O Lord, who restorest Thy divine presence unto America. We thankfully acknowledge Thee, O Lord our God, our Fathers’ God to all eternity. Our Rock art Thou, our Shield that saves through every generation. We give Thee thanks and we declare Thy praise for all Thy tender care. Our lives we trust into Thy loving hand. Our souls are ever in Thy charge; Thy wonders and Thy miracles are daily with us, evening, morn and noon. O Thou who are all-good, whose mercies never fail us, Compassionate One, whose lovingkindness never ceases, we ever hope in Thee. We thank Thee also for the miraculous and mighty deeds of liberation wrought by Thee, and for Thy victories in the battles our forefathers fought in days of old, at this season of the year. Dear Lord in Heaven, it is relatively easy to be happy when everything is going well in our lives. Please help us to be just as happy and optimistic in our outlook when things are not going so well. Please bring us through the dry wilderness experiences having learn the lessons You want us to know. #RandolphHarris 23 of 23

Cresleigh Homes

It looks like love. It feels like love. There is a lot more I can tell you, but this Cresleigh Home takes my breath away. A view from above can make all the difference! 🙌

We’re so excited to watch our community at #Havenwood grow! With four distinct floorplans, it’s easy to find something that feels like a perfect fit for you and your family.

No appointment needed! Cresleigh Havenwood features four distinct floor plans ranging from 2,293 – 3,489 square feet and offering up to five bedrooms. 

Each plan has been thoughtfully designed and includes great features such as single story homes, guest suites, optional offices, garage workshops, and more! 

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