Success on any major scale requires one to accept responsibility. When we were made in the image of God, we were given a mind, but we are not equal to God. No human will make a great leader who wants to do it all oneself or to get all the credit for doing it. The moment Adam ate, sin and death came on the human race. His cells were being destroyed faster than they can be replaced, his nature became a sin nature, and it took him nearly one thousand years to die. His soul gave up its eternal life when he ate. It is not because of what you are I do that we are born sinners. We have inherited sin because of our first father, Adam. However, we have been given free choice. Therefore, we are responsible for our behavior and can choose to be good. We are controlled by the Holy Spirit to the measure that we yield ourselves to God, and He empowers us to resist Satan effectively. In addition, God has outfitted us with a full panoply of armor by which we can both defend ourselves from the attacks of the forces of evil and take the offensive against them. The apostle Paul, using the figure of a warrior prepared for battle. “Wherefore, take unto you the whole armor of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand. Stand, therefore, having your loins girded about with truth, and having on the breastplate of righteousness, and your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace; above all, taking the shield of faith, with which ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked. And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God,” reports Ephesians 6.13-17. Paul exhorts us to have our “loins girded about with truth.” This belt refers to our sincerity, our honesty. If one is hypocritical and dishonest, one will not successfully resist and overcome evil influence of Satan and his armies. Remember the devil is the father of lies. The child of God must not merely say that he desires victory over sin, but must truly long for it. One is to hate sin and manifest genuine earnestness. One’s vows and public statements must always be sincerely spoken, for the devil has no difficulty in defeating the hypocritical and half-hearted. #RandolphHarris 1 of 20
The breastplate of righteousness represents the believer’s way of living. The Christian who desires to ward off the attacks of Satan and evil spirits must consciously choose a life of obedience, moral rectitude, and devout holiness. How is this life that pleases God to be attained? Largely by a humble determination to obey the exhortations of the Scriptures. The obedient believer’s life is characterized by righteousness, and one’s testimony is effective to the winning of the lost and the crippling of Satan’s power. The devil trembles at the sight of a truly Godly person. The Christian also is to have one’s “feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace. This means that one is to bear God’s good news. One is to be a witness to others of the peace and joy that came to one when one placed one’s trust in Christ. The believer who does not bear a testimony loses spiritual keenness and becomes vulnerable to Satan’s attacks. The “shield of faith” speaks of strong belief nourished through our daily prayer, Christian Bible study, and spiritual activity. True faith accepts God’s forgiveness with thankfulness, and exercises implicit trust in every time of trial and temptation. Without this confidence in the Lord we would be spiritual weaklings, but with it we are the victors. John said, “and this is the victory that overcometh the World, even our faith,” reports 1 John 5.4. the “helmet of Salvation” describes the believer’s knowledge of one’s redemption. God’s child should rejoice in the assurance of a real, present, and personal salvation. One should remind oneself daily that one has been redeemed, that one has passed from death to life, and that one is no longer under condemnation. The devil cannot effectively tempt a Christian who is actively living a joyful Christian life. The child of God also must wield a weapon of offense: the sword of the spirit, the Word of God. Through the use of the Scriptures, one can resist Satan’s onslaughts successfully. Child of God, you are on the winning side. You have become “a partaker of the divine nature,” reports 2 Peter 1.4. Through the new birth, and your body has become the “temple of the Holy Spirit,” reports 1 Corinthians 6.19. #RandolphHarris 2 of 20
Virginity, Chastity, Celibacy—the holy trinity at the core of many cultures. God has given you all you need for a happy and victorious Christian life now. He has explicitly declared that the power of the devil already has been broken,” reports Hebrews 2.14-15, and that someday you will be delivered from the presence of sin and the possibility of temptation. Remember, “greater is one that is in you, than one that is in the World,” reports 1 John 4.4. Chastity belts are deplorable, but they can be unlocked or hacked off, and the woman imprisoned inside them healed and perhaps restored. In many countries, female chastity represents the family’s honor, and women even suspected of having contaminated themselves are several punished. The apostle John, speaking of God’s eternal city, assures us, “And there shall in no way enter into it anything that defileth, neither one that worketh abomination, or maketh a lie,” reports Revelation 21.27. What a wonderful prospect. In ancient times, many of the devices used to keep women chaste were often times doomed women to unimaginable pain, permanent loss of independence, and unnatural confinement. As chastity in women dominated the social agenda, women’s circulation, flesh, and health was sacrificed, and some of the faced a slow death. Still, even in modern times, chastity remains a cultural imperative, but one that requires enforcement through indoctrination and other social pressures. Remember, one of two destinations awaits you—Heaven or Hell. To ignore Jesus Christ is to make impossible your entrance into Heaven. To receive Him as a Savior is to guarantee a safe and successful journey into everlasting bliss. Jesus Christ Himself declared, “I am the door; by me if any human enter in, one shall be saved,” reports John 10.9. Why not bow your head in prayer right now and settle this matter of salvation? Here is a suggested prayer you might offer: “Lord Jesus, I know I am a sinner and can never save myself. I realize that my own evil nature and the power of Satan and his forces are too much for me to handle in my own strength. I believe that You died for me and that You arose again from the dead. I am now receiving You as my Savior, my Lord, my only hope of salvation. Amen.” #RandolphHarris 3 of 20
If you prayed this and really meant it, you are now a child of God. Your life will change, as you receive strength to do the will of God. The Christian Bible assures you, “For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved,” reports Romans 10.13. Abstinence—voluntary restraint—is celibacy’s simplest manifestation, and it practiced Worldwide for a multitude of reasons. The most common is as a surefire and free method of contraception, which is the only kind of contraception the Catholic church approves of. Abstinence may also have political roots, as was the case in the Voluntary Motherhood Movement, whose adherents wished to control their husband’s access to their body by agreeing to pleasures of the flesh only for procreation. The Catholic Church believes in celibacy because humanmade contraception is consider sinful due to the fact that the male vital force is redirected into a latex or poly urethane sleeve that is wrapped around the male organ or diaphragms of killed by foam or chemical washes and that is no better than Onan’s sinful casting his seed upon the ground. There are many cultures, like the Dani of Irian Jaya, Indonesia, for example, who do not appear unhappy or stressed about lengthy periods of celibacy. Most intriguingly, Dani society does not preach abstinence or have sanctions in place to punish transgression. Apparently the culture simply does not focus on pleasures of the flesh, either to encourage or discourage it. People like the Cheyenne people of North American plains and they Dani people clearly understood between-child celibacy as their people’s form of birth control. Both cultures would wait a few years after marriage to have a child, and then up to a decade of no activities involving pleasures of the flesh before they had their second child. This was also their people’s way to give the first child a chance. As a Cheyenne named Angel put it, “If I were to have had too many children, I’d be whipping first one, then the other.” Because the Cheyenne hated any punishment, they considered it wiser to let the first child grow up before there were others. #RandolphHarris 4 of 20
The reason women were considered taboo in some cultures like the Sambia of the New Guinea Eastern Highlands is not only because they considered women’s fluids contaminating, but also because the male vital force is essential to manhood, and it is equally crucial for women, who need to draw it up inside themselves for strength, mother’s milk, and to create babies. This means that, for men, pleasures of the flesh are as much a debilitating drain as a pleasure. Celibacy is an excellent practice for an environment or an economic situation, that cannot sustain much population increase. However, in many cultures, children are in many ways their families’ chief assets, and parents strive to produce as many as possible. Even when they are quite small, children make useful economic contributions to their households. More importantly, in culture without government and retirement pensions, children are their parents’ main security against unforeseen financial or medical crises and to ensure a comfortable old age. When they marry, they extend and reinforce connections between their birth and in-law families. Children are crucial in maintaining the intergenerational links that underpin many social systems. However, there are also many compelling reasons for wanting to ensure that a sufficiently long period elapses between births. Infant and child mortality is closely related to inadequate nutrition and maternal debility, which are in turn related to too little time between births. Child spacing, therefore, has developed as the great if unarticulated foal of these societies. Postpartum abstinence, in conjunction with lengthy terms of feeding a baby mother’s milk, is one of the prime instruments to achieve birth spacing that will keep massive child mortality in check, improve survivors’ health, and—as a byproduct—increase parents’ fertility. Through celibacy, married couples are able to better nurture and protect their planned children. This also prevents such diseases as kwashiorkor, which turns its little victims’ hair reddish and bulges out the bellies on their skinny, protein-deprived bodies. For generation is the process of the divine person into the divine nature, and passive spiration is the process of the subsisting love. #RandolphHarris 5 of 20
“Mission” and “giving” have only a temporal significance in God; but “generation” and “spiration” are exclusively eternal; where as “procession” and “giving,” in God, have both an eternal and a temporal significance: for the Son may proceed eternally as God; but temporally, by becoming a man, according to His visible mission, or likewise by dwelling in man according to His invisible mission. Joseph, Oliver, and Sidney Rigdon were on a mission. They reached Kirtland in August, about three weeks after leaving Independence. Many things happened on their journey to strengthen their faith in the Lord’s work and to help them to see that Satan was blinding people so they could not see the truth. Joseph was concerned about the “Land of Zion” and prayed for more information about the gathering of the Saints to Zion and the purchase of land. The word of the Lord came to him that many people were seeking signs that they might have faith: Faith cometh not by signs, but signs follow those that believe. Yea, signs come by faith, not by the will of men, nor as they please, but by the will of God. Yea, signs come by faith, unto mighty works, for without faith no human pleaseth God. Wherefore, I, the Lord, am not pleased with those among you, who have sought after signs and wonders for faith, and not for the good of humans unto my glory.” God called upon those who had sinned to repent lest they fall. He promised that those who were faithful and did His will should overcome their temptations and receive an inheritance on the Earth when Jesus comes. The Lord said that those who were to gather to Zion should not go in haste, which would cause confusion and trouble. They should purchase the lands from those who owned them. Then the Saints would have a just claim upon the land and others would not be angry, for Satan was stirring them up to anger against God’s people. The Saints were admonished: The land of Zion shall not be obtained but by purchase, or by blood, otherwise there is none inheritance for you. An if by purchase, behold, you are blessed; and if by blood, as you are forbidden to shed blood, lo, your enemies are upon you, and ye shall be courage from city to city, and from synagogue to synagogue, and but few shall stand to receive an inheritance.” #RandolphHarris 6 of 20
Men were called upon to repent of their wickedness, even of that wickedness which was only in their hearts. In September, 1831, at Kirtland, a revelation was given to the elders of the church encouraging them to forgive one another that they might work together in unity. The Lord’s instructions at this time were: “I, the Lord, forgiveth sins unto those who confess their sins before me, and ask forgiveness. Wherefore I say unto you, that ye ought to forgive one another, for one that forgiveth not one’s brother one’s trespasses, standeth condemned before the Lord, for there remaineth in one the greater sin. I, the Lord, will forgive whom I will forgive, but of you it is required to forgive all humans.” God revealed the duties of certain men. Some were to go to Zion and others were to remain in Kirtland. All Satins were told to use their money for the purchase of land: “Behold, now it is called to-day…and verily it is a day of sacrifice, and a day for the tithing of my people. Behold, it is said in my laws, or forbidden, to get in debt to thine enemies. Be not weary in well-doing, for ye are laying the foundation of a great work. And out of small things proceedeth that which is great. Behold, the Lord requireth the heart and a willing mind; and the willing and obedient shall eat the good of the land of Zion in these days. And the rebellious shall be cut off out of the land of Zion, and shall be sent away, and shall not inherit the land. Behold, I say unto you that Zion shall flourish, and the glory of the Lord shall be upon her, and she shall be an ensign unto the people, and there shall come unto her out of every nation under Heaven.” In a revelation given in October, 1831, which Joseph Smith has called a “Revelation on Prayer,” the Lord said: “Hearken, and lo, a voice as of one sent down from on high, yea, whose voice is unto humans, Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make his paths straight. Yea, a voice crying, Prepare ye the way of the Lord. Pray unto the Lord; call upon His holy name; make known His wonderful works among the people, call upon the Lord, that His kingdom may go forth upon the Earth; that the inhabitants thereof may receive it, and be prepared for the days to come, in which the Son of Man shall come down in Heaven…to meet the kingdom of God which is set on the Earth. #RandolphHarris 7 of 20
“Wherefore, may the kingdom of God go forth, that the kingdom of Heaven may come, that thou, O God, may be glorified in Heaven, so on Earth. For thine is the honor, power, and glory, for ever and ever. Amen.” In another revelation given at about this time the Lord said to the elders: “Lay your hands upon the sick and they shall recover. Be patient in affliction. Ask and ye shall receive. Knock and it shall be opened unto you. Seek not to be cumbered. Forsake all unrighteousness. Keep these sayings for they are true and faithful, and thou shalt magnify thine office, and push many people to Zion, with songs of everlasting joy upon their heads. Continue in these things, even unto the end, and you shall have a crown of eternal life at the right hand of my Father.” If they were to establish Zion on Earth in the latter days, these revelations indicated that the Lord had set up very high standards of righteousness for His people. Many had been attracted to the church by signs and miracles. To some it was disappointing to learn that faith, humility, patience, and tribulation were requirements which preceded blessings. Some of the members rebelled and left the church when they realized the high standard of excellency that was expected of them. Of these, some expressed their rebellion in retaliation, and tried to overthrow the work of the Lord. If, as we believe, it be true that history moves in cycles, the World is not entering a new cycle. The ancient Chinese culture featured this theory of collective fortunes moving through a series of phases, whilst a similar doctrine has long been held in India. We well remember one evening many years ago listening at riverside village near Gaya, where Buddha attained Nirvana, to one of those melancholy Hindu melodies whose monotonous repetition of the same low wailing notes depresses most Westerners. We complained about this to our cultured companion. He was an extremely old man who sat twice a day in the yogi posture of intertwined ankles—so pleasing to behold, so difficult to perform—with his gaze fixed into space and the fading sunlight playing in quivering undulating waves around his figure. The sacred cord of the twice-born, the white triple thread of the Brahmin, hung around his neck. He did not answer for a full two minutes, for he had been wedded by long habit to silence. #RandolphHarris 8 of 20
Then, without turning his head, he said slowly: “My son, among our people it is otherwise. We are not, like the Westerners, afraid of truth’s sadness, while welcoming its joy. We know that the scenes of this World come and pass like a dream of the night. And this is true of all the events and fortunes of a people’s life also—more especially now that we live in the Iron Age, which is ruled by frequent death and covered by spiritual darkness. You know that we measure the World’s history in great epochs, each divided into four successive lesser epochs and each endlessly departing and returning on itself like a wheel. Do not blame us, then, if our minds fall quickly into despondency and if our music reflects this sadness. We accept it resignedly, and through such resignation find contentment. We know that karma is always active and we try to accommodate ourselves to it. Once I brooded for long over the strange prophecies to be found in an ancient Sanskrit book, a Purana. In it I found this passage: ‘When the Earth is bound by iron chains (are they not railways?), when men speak to each other across immense spaces (is this not your telephone without wires?), and when materialism rules supreme (has history shown a less spiritual age than ours?), in that time there will incarnate Kalki, the Slayer of Men, who (it is written symbolically) will carry a flaming sword in his hand.’” The negative and undesirable traits of character will tend to reproduce themselves in undesirable and inharmonious forms of experience. The rule of casting out all negative thoughts, and keeping them out, is an absolute one. There are no exceptions and no deviations. Such negatives as hate, irritability, and fault-finding make poison in the body and neuroses in the mind. They irritate the nerves, disturb the proper movement of the blood, distort the internal secretions, and destructively affect the chemical composition of tissue cells. Nor is this the end. They provoke like emotions in other people with whom we are constantly thrown in contact. As if they were echoes of our own making, we then have to suffer the effects. Thus the discords inside oneself throw up disturbances outside oneself. One’s anger provokes the other person’s anger, for instance. #RandolphHarris 9 of 20
Negative emotions and memories hold accumulations of worthless, even self-harming materials, useless debris that serve only to hinger progress. Fierce intense hate blinds the eyes of reason, hurts the hater, and creates delusion. Whoever hold fiercely to one’s hatreds not only can never enter the kingdom of Heaven, but will certainly never enter the kingdom of truth. The human who is when one hates will one day be tutored by having to experience the results of one’s own destructive feelings. One who slanders others attracts slander to oneself. If these negative traits are too strong, they may not only hinder the appearance of “the flash” but also the progress in meditation. This is one of the reasons why the medieval mystical authorities laid down a ruling that cleansing of the heart, purification of the mind, must precede or at least accompany the practice of meditation. That they often carried this process too far and enjoined a rigid extreme asceticism does not invalidate the excellence of their ruling. Arrogance and pride not only prepare the way for a fall, as history so often tells us, but also makes a human stick more stubbornly to one’s deviation from the correct way. “Then I will thrust you down with those who descend into the pit (the place of the dead) to the people of olden times, and I will make you [Tyre] to dwell in the lower World like the places that were desolate of old, with those who go down to the pit, that you be not inhabited or shed forth you glory and renown in the land of the living. I will make you a terror [bring you to a dreadful end] and you shall be no more. Though you be sought, yet you shall never be found again, says the Lord,” reports Ezekiel 26.20-21. Conceive that the humanmade environment is now out of human scale. Business, government, and real property have closed up all the space there is. There is no behavior unregulated by the firm or the police. Unless the entire economic machine is operating, it is impossible to produce and buy bread. Public speech quite disregards human facts. There is a rigid caste system in which every one has a slot and the upper group stands for nothing culturally. #RandolphHarris 10 of 20
The university has become merely a training ground for technicians and applied-anthropologists. Gender is divorced from manly independence and achievement. The FBI has a file card of all the lies and truths about everybody. And so forth. If we sum up these imagined conditions, there would arise a formidable question: It is possible, being a human being, to exist? Is it possible, having a human nature, to grow up? There would be a kind of metaphysical crisis. Or put it another way. These conditions are absurd, they do not make sense; and yet millions, who to all appearances are human beings, behave as though they were the normal course of things. For instance, we encourage economic lunacy by watching TV; we gossip about the new BMWs, and how they will make our cities more livable with all their new technology; we attend conventions, listen to public spokesmen, and smile a lot and shake hands. A man is put into doubt about his own sanity. Do they have the right of it, that there is nothing absurd? Then what kind of animal is oneself? Automatically one begins to use their words and think their thoughts, although one knows that they are absurd. One feel depersonalized. It then becomes necessary to stop short and make a choice: Either/Or. Either one drifts with their absurd system of ideas, believing that this is the human community. Or one dissent totally from their system of ideas and stands as a lonely human being. (But luckily one notices that others are in the same crisis and making the same choice.) The picture may be a bit of an exaggeration. In important ways the American system is not inhuman but human-all-too-human. The tone of dependency, for instance, is not servile but, like the diet of hamburgers and malted milk, a regression to childhood. The Americans can make fun of themselves. To top managers and the president are not calculating monsters, but sometimes ignorant and willful human beings. Sympathy with suffering and the feeling for social justice are quite genuine in our country. We are empirical and experimental. #RandolphHarris 11 of 20
Although the official spokesmen and the mass media present an impenetrable front, the speakers are confused persons and quickly betray it under personal questioning. For all the foolishness we are bombarded with, the Americans are not foolish and ghoulish; we have a saving sense built in, just like other peoples. And there are carelessly swept corners full of Long-haired Professors, Hipster Generations, Winos, and other assorted fry who are officially conceded to exist. This does not add up to a metaphysical crisis. It is not even hard to see the economic and psychological causes of many of the existing absurdities and to think up expedients. However, the difficulties are arduous; to persist as a human does require unusual moral character, intellect, or animal spirits. For many young people, however, the difficulties of growing up have been so great that they do think that they are faced with critical choice: Either/Or. They have this picture of themselves and of the World. And then unfortunately, whichever way they choose tends to create in fact the very metaphysical crisis that they have imagined. If they choose to conform to the organized system, reaping its rewards, they do so with a crash, working at it, marrying it. Raising their standard of living, and feeling cynical about what they are doing. If they choose totally to dissent, they do not work at changing the institutions as radical youth used to, but they stop washing their faces, take to drugs, and become punch-drunk or slap-happy. Either way they lose the objective changeable World. They have early resigned. People with borderline personality disorder display great instability, including major shifts in mood, an unstable self-image, and impulsivity. These characteristics combine to make their relationships very unstable as well. Some of Ellen Farber’s difficulties are typical: “Ellen Farber, a 21-year-old, single insurance company executive, came to a psychiatric emergency room of a university hospital with complaints of depression and the thought of driving her car off a cliff…Ms. Farber appeared to be in considerable distress. She reported a 6-month period of increasingly persistent dysphoria and lack of energy and pleasure. #RandolphHarris 12 of 20
Feeling as if she were “made of lead,” Ms. Farber had recently been spending 15-20 hours a day in her bed. She also reported daily episodes of binge eating, when she would consumer “anything I can find,” including entire chocolate cakes of boxes of cookies. She reported problems with intermittent binge eating since adolescence, but these had recently increased in frequency. She attributed her increasing symptoms to financial difficulties. Ms. Farber had been fired from her job two weeks before coming to the emergency room. She claimed it was because she “owed a small amount of money.” When asked to be more specific, she reported owning $150,000 to her former employers and another $100,000 to various local banks. From age 20 to 23, she had used her employer’s credit cards to finance weekly “buying binges,” accumulating the $150,000 debt. [To relieve feelings of distress,] every few days she would impulsively buy expensive jewelry, watches, or multiple pairs of the same shoes. In addition to lifelong feelings of emptiness, Ms. Farber described chronic uncertainty about what she wanted to do in life and with whom she wanted to be friends. She had many brief, intense relationships with both men and women, but her quick temper led to frequent arguments and even physical fights. Although she had always thought of her childhood as happy and carefree, when she became depressed, she began to recall [being abused verbally by an employer]. Like Ellen Farber, people with borderline personality disorder swing in and out of very depressive, anxious, and irritable states that last anywhere from a few hours to a few days or more. Their emotions seem to be always in conflict with the World around them. They are prone to bouts of anger, which sometimes result in physical aggression and violence. Just as often, however, they direct their impulsive anger inward and inflict bodily harm on themselves. Many seen troubled by deep feelings of emptiness. Only 23 percent of adults in the United States of America reported openly expressing their anger. Around 39 percent say that they hide or contain their anger, and 23 percent walk away to try to collect themselves. #RandolphHarris 13 of 20
Contrary to the notion that “letting off steam” reduces anger, angry subject in one study acted much more aggressively after hitting a punching bad than did angry subject who first sat quietly for a while. Many of the patients who come to mental health emergency rooms are individuals with borderline personality disorder who have intentionally hurt themselves. Their impulsive, self-destructive activities may range from alcohol and substance abuse to delinquency, unsafe pleasures of the flesh, reckless driving, and cutting themselves. Suicidal threats and actions are also common. Studies suggest that 70 percent of the people with this disorder attempt suicide at least once in their lives; around 6 to 9 percent actually commit suicide. Many, like Ellen, try to hurt themselves as a way of dealing with their chronic feeling of emptiness, boredom, and identity confusion. A common pattern is for people with the disorder to enter clinical treatment by the way of the emergency room, after a suicide attempt or episode of self-mutilation. People with borderline personality disorder frequently form intense, conflict-ridden relationships in which their feelings are not necessarily shared by the other person. They often violate the boundaries of relationships. Thinking in dichotomous (black-and-white) terms, they quickly become furious when their expectations are not met; yet they remain very attached to the relationships, paralyzed by a fear of being left along. Sometimes they cut themselves or carry out other self-destructive acts to prevent partners from leaving. Around 1.5 percent of the general population are thought to suffer from borderline personality disorder. The course of the disorder varies from person to person. In the most common pattern, the instability and risk of suicide reach a peak during young adulthood and then gradually with advancing age. Borderline personality disorder usually starts in childhood from having an unstable household, divorce of parents, death, multiple patent substitutes, or trauma. In fact, some theorists believe that the disorder may be an extended form of posttraumatic stress disorder, triggered by early horrors. #RandolphHarris 14 of 20
Some features of borderline personality disorder have also been linked to biological abnormalities. Sufferers who are particularly impulsive, as demonstrated by a suicide attempt or aggression against others, apparently have lower brain serotonin activity. People with the disorder also experience abnormalities in sleep that are similar to those of depressed person. In accord with these biological findings, close relatives of those with borderline personality disorder are five times more likely than the general population to have the disorder. Some sociocultural theorists suggest that cases of borderline personality disorder are particularly likely to emerge in cultures that change rapidly. As a culture loses its stability, they argue, it inevitably leaves many of its members with problems of identity, a sense of emptiness, heightened anxiety, and fears of abandonment. Family units may come apart, leaving people with little sense of belonging. Change of this kind in society today may explain growing reports of the disorder. Yet, there is some optimism. It appears that psychotherapy can eventually lead to some degree of improvement with borderline personality disorder. It is not easy, however, for a therapist to strike a balance between empathizing with the patient’s dependency and anger and challenging one’s way of thinking. Furthermore, when such a person does make progress in treatment, termination is sometimes difficult because of the patient’s remaining problems with relationships and abandonment. Psychodynamic therapy has been somewhat effective when it focuses on the patient’s central relationship disturbance, poor sense of self, and pervasive loneliness and emptiness. During the past few decades, this treatment has often been combined with cognitive-behavioral interventions designed to help people recognize and address the perspectives of others. For example, the therapist may model alternative ways of interpreting and reacting to situations and also arrange for clients to receive social skills training. #RandolphHarris 15 of 20
A few communications and sociology class dealing with “Marriage and the Family” may help. In addition with a psychology class in “Human Sexuality.” One will learn how to speak to others and do detailed reports. Learn gender differences and the dynamics of the family and what is and is not acceptable. And one will also learn about gender roles and how to care for babies, which will help one understand them better and that should make life a little easier in a household that has to deal with child. This combination treatment, called dialectical behavioral therapy, has received growing research support and is now considered the treatment of choice in many clinical circles. Group therapy has also been of help to some people with borderline personality disorder. It offers them an opportunity to form close attachments to a number of persons rather than focusing all their emotions and hopes on just one or two “chosen” relationships. Although, if you look at the overall picture, mental health problems are not as rampant as people think, for 26 percent of Americans ages 18 and older suffers from one, but there seems to be a pretty fine line between raising a psychopath and a well-adjusted adult. Finally, antidepressant, antibipolar, antianxiety, and antipsychotic drugs have helped some individuals to calm their emotional and aggressive storms. Given the high risk of suicide attempts by these patients, however, their use of drugs on an outpatient basis is controversial. Some individuals have benefited from a combination of drug therapy and psychotherapy. In one study of persons who admitted to regularly cutting, burning, or otherwise mutilating themselves, the individual said that they performed such acts to see whether they were still alive or real; to quiet negative feelings such as anger, fear, or guilt; to block painful memories; or to cry out for help. The compromise with evil leads in the end to confusion and weakness, a gradual decline of standards, a wavering fealty to opportunism, and a fatal contradiction of principles. If a negative emotion is strong enough, it may not only color one’s reasoning faculty, but even preclude its use altogether. It is hard for a human who is filled with bitterness about a situation in which one is involved to be strictly objective toward it. #RandolphHarris 16 of 20
We are weakened every time we give harbourage to snarling thoughts about other people and whimpering ones about ourselves. The negative person too frequently expresses criticism, disapproval, or anger. This contributes to one’s own bad health. When the lower passions of violence, aggression, and greed are more developed than reason, they enslave reason and put it to their own selfish service. Excessive greed and unscrupulous ambition easily distort the straight shapes of rational truth and put plausible disguises on ancient errors. The defect in all such thinking is that it has not been pushed far enough. It stops too short and too soon. It stops working when confronted by ethical considerations and it will not go on to reckon with the existence of retributive karma. The defeat and failure of its wrong-doers illustrates the eventual defeat and failure which always overtake wrong-doing in the end. In World affairs, new strategies are needed because new economic realities no longer necessarily align with old borders and existing power relationships. In many parts of the World there are “region-states,” some brilliant people consider them “engines of prosperity.” In China, the centralized Communist government, whether deliberately or not,” is reorganizing itself along corporate lines. Like many corporations, China is moving most decision-making to the business unit level—semi-autonomous, self-governing economic region-states that compete fiercely against each other for capital, technology, and human resources. Dalian, China, along with a dozen other regions in China, has become a de facto regional-state, setting its own economic agenda. While still part of China and, in theory, subject to the rule of Beijing, it is largely autonomous. The reality is that it ties with Beijing are weaker than those with business centers throughout the World. Many emerging economic zones spill across existing nation-state boundaries. Thus parts of Texas and southern California are merging with stretches of northern Mexico into two big bi-national economic regions, each of which could, in the decades to come, develop its own distinctive bi-national culture—and cross-border political structure as well. #RandolphHarris 17 of 20
Elsewhere, Jussi Jauhiainen, professor of geography at the University of Helsinki, describes a region that embraces Helsinkl in Finland and spills over into Tallinn in Estonia; another that exists on both sides of the border between Finland and Russian Karelia; and a third that includes Narva in Estonia and Ivangorod in Russia. The United Nations has proposed developing a portion of the Tumen River region, which is a river that is over 521 kilometre long, bordering Russia, China, and North Korea in Northeast Asia. There are move being made towards regional cooperation. The development is aimed at turning the Tumen River delta region into a hub for international transport—between Japan and South Korea on one side and Northeast China, Russia and Mongolia (and via rail way ultimately Europe) on the other- and also around the vast natural resource reserves in Mongolia, Russia, China and North Korea. Ice-free ports are also a matter of special interest, as Northeast China lacks access to the coastline by a mere 12 kilometers and functioning links by train, ship, and roads would significantly lower transportation costs. In December of 1991, the DPRK government designated the Rajin-Sonbong area adjacent to the mouth of the Tumen River as a free economic and trade zone, in an attempt to introduce a market economy to the country. This is a special economic zone where various preferential measures have been introduced in order to try to attract foreign capital; this area is said to have been selected in line with the policy of the former leader of the DPRK. After UNDP announced its support for the development of the Tumen River area at the Northeast Asia, the UNDP presented its Vision for the Development of the Tumen River Area. This was a colossal vision for undertaking infrastructure development over 20 years using $30 billion, in order to turn the region into the Hong Kong of the Northeast Asia. The Tumen River Economic Development Area liking the large triangular area (10,000 km^2) of Yanji, Chongjin and Vladivostok be established in order to support the TREZ. This area is expected to become a Pacific powerhouse. Here we are again altering the maps of the past and our various relationships to the deep fundamental of space. #RandolphHarris 18 of 20
The acceleration of change implies, however, that the new maps will be increasingly temporary, always ready for on-the-ground reversals or relocation. For little is permanent in the revolutionary wealth system. Inevitably in every life there comes a time of waiting. In the fields the grain is ripe but not yet harvested. We have worked hard to bring things to fruition, but reward is not yet certain. The days shorten. We remember that to harvest we must sacrifice the warmth and light of summer and pass into autumn. This is the time of harvest, of thanksgiving and of leavetaking and gathered. The end of a cycle has come. We enter our resting season. It is our quiet time. We do not speak, because the voices are within us. It is our quiet time. We do not walk, because the Earth is all within us. It is our quiet time. Gain control of the mind, to lessen and quieten the activity of thinking, to bring a settled calm into the entire consciousness, and to soothe and pacify the emotions, the primary means used to establish a rhythm by breathing at a measured rate. Why do people sigh agitatedly or catch their breath when hearing unexpected news about a relative’s death? Is this not a sign that breath is the brother of thoughts? Because breathing then becomes converted temporarily from an unconscious into a conscious process, and mentally also the calm strength, the renewal of poise which you need most of the time. This is so supposed to attune one with high spiritual aspirations. It gives a momentum to the optimistic and ennobling forces of the whole being. The state of one’s breathing shows also the state of one’s feelings, one’s mind, and even one’s will. The relaxed tension-free life brings with it a loss of nervousness, and this in turn a loss of the desire for deviant behaviour. This World is more frequently subject to the power of humans than the love of God. Its power is revealed when humans are able to exercise defiance in the face of adversity. Our task is to act, not only to enjoy; to change, not only to accept; to segment, not only to discover the glory of God. If not our compassion and ability to help, what is it that makes us worthy of life. #RandolphHarris 19 of 20
We do not exist for our own sake. If not the love it confers, life would be preposterous. Love cleanses the emotional nature and purifies the nervous system. Love and faith in God will bring a tingling sensation of Divine Life to every cell in the body. By faithful concentration we eventually learn to focus the mind and its power on any desired line of thought and hold it there, free of distinction. This enables us to rightfully seek a solution for every problem, and bit by bit opens up for us a greater and more fascinating spiritual horizon. Faith is a dynamic, personal act, flowing between the heart of humans and the love of God. The human of faith will know when to consent and when to defy. It is faith from which we draw the sweetness of life, the taste of the sacred, the joy of the imperishably dear. It is faith that offers us a share in eternity. Faith is the insight that life is not a self-maintaining, private affair, not a chaos of whims and instincts, but an aspiration, a way, not a refuge. Faith is real only when it is not one-sided but reciprocal. If God can rely on humans, humans can rely on God by the symmetric property of congruence. We may trust in Him because He trusts in us. Our trustworthiness for God is the measure of the integrity of our faith. We cannot make God visible to us, but we can make ourselves visible to Him. So we open out thoughts to Him. To pray is to take notice of the wonder, to regain the sense of the mystery that animates all beings. Prayer is our humble answer to the inconceivable surprise of living. It is all we can offer in return for the mystery by which we live. It is gratefulness which makes the soul great. As a tree torn from the soil, as a river separated from its source, the human soul wanes when detached from what is greater than itself. Without the ideal, the real turns chaotic; without the universal, the individual becomes accidental. Unless we aspire to the utmost, we shrink to inferiority. Prayer is our attachment to the utmost. Without God in sight, we are like the scattered rungs of a broken ladder. “Can anyone hide oneself in secret places so that I cannot see one? says the Lord. Do not I fill Heaven and Earth? says the Lord,” reports Jeremiah 23.24. #RandolphHarris 20 of 20
Sometimes we pretend we’re living in a resort. 😉 This single story home at #Havenwood (Model 1 to be exact) offers HUGE amenities when it comes to finishes.
Rather if you are working from home, entertaining guests, enjoying family time, this home offers spaces for everyone to cherish. https://cresleigh.com/havenwood/residence-one/
All the sunny windows will allow you the rest and relaxation you need. We especially love the All Ready connected home smart package!
Randolph Harris II International 