One of those most baffling aspects of the behavior of men and women in highly-responsible positions in some segments of our society, is their comparative lack of concern for—perhaps it is lack of awareness of—the factor of communication, as such, in the problems and situations in which they have to deal. It is communication that makes human society possible. While waiting for a Moses to lead us into the promised land, we have forgotten how to walk. Our own personal lives are in need of development just as much as our social lives. If privacy is eliminated, what happens to the interior World of each of us? What happen to meditation, introspection, self-study, to contact with oneself? These must not be lost in the patterns of growth and ever-increasing interinvolvment. Each of us must somehow find ways of developing one’s own life, gaining personal growth and depth, reaping advantages for oneself—while still cultivating a healthy, outgoing, cooperative, and caring relationship with other people. This is almost as difficult as running in two directions at the same time! However, the loss of privacy leaves one’s autonomy and sense of oneself as a person vulnerable, violating one’s human dignity and moral personality. The common conceptual thread linking diverse privacy cases prohibiting dissemination of confidential information, eavesdropping, surveillance, and wiretapping, to name a few, is the value of protection against injury to individual freedom and human dignity. #RandolphHarris 1 of 10

Intimacy and privacy are deeply related. On one account, privacy is valuable because intimacy would be impossible without it. Privacy is defined narrowly as control over information about oneself. Privacy has intrinsic value, and is necessarily related to and fundamental for one’s development as an individual with a moral and social personality able to form intimate relationships involving respect, love, friendship, and trust. . If a person’s assumptions about an individual are incorrect, they will continue to perceive that person in incorrect or incomplete ways. Through education, we are trying to bring about awareness of such problems. We become self-estranged from nature and society as a consequence of being when we cannot control our legal rights to secure our personal information, which is protected by law, which forces us to become a mechanistic part of a social class. This is the condition of which estranges a person from their humanity. Estrangement is rooted not only in the loss of the privacy of communication, but also in the loss of identity. Strained and broken relationships are also old as humankind itself. Ancient Cain was the first who allowed the cancer of bitterness and malice to canker his heart. He tilled the ground of his soul with envy and hatred and allowed these feelings to ripen until he did the unthinkable—murdering his own brother and becoming, in the process the father the adversary’s lies. #RandolphHarris 2 of 10

Since those first days, the spirit of envy and hatred has led to some of the most tragic stories in history.  A lack of personal concern and will ultimately leads to alienation and can cause an individual to look down upon people violating their personal information, until the point that they want nothing to do with people who behave like rogue savages. For communication to take place, the receiver must also be receptive. That means more than just having one’s ears clean. One must also want or need to get the message and be willing to decode and fit in into one’s existing pattern of ideas or associations. However, when as a community, you violate a person’s right to privacy, they may want absolutely nothing to do with anyone in the community because they feel betrayed. Individual responsibility is the key. If I get ahead at the expense of another individual—or whole groups of people—that inequality pollutes society of which both you and I are a part, and I cannot be surprised at the violence that results. It is, in fact, partly my fault. Some violence is created by mental and emotional disorders, for which successful treatment is sometimes available. However, society needs to create and improved climate of acceptance for these programs of help and therapy that are available. Every person on Earth has been affected in some way by the destructive spirit of contention, resentment, and revenge. Perhaps there are even times when we recognize this spirit in ourselves. #RandolphHarris 3 of 10

When we feel hurt, angry, or envious, it is quite easy to judge other people, often assigning dark motives to their actions in order to justify our own feelings of resentment. The stigma attached to mental illness must be eradicated, and so must be the feeling of shame or weakness that keeps many people from seeking available professional help when they need it. We still believe that people are really good at heart. We simply cannot build up our hopes on a foundation consisting of confusion, misery, and death. We see the World around us gradually being turned into a wilderness. We think that it will all come right, that this cruelty too will end, and that peace and tranquility will return again. We all depend on the Savior; none of us can be saved without the Lord. The Atonement is infinite and eternal. Forgiveness for our sins comes with conditions. We must repent, and we must be willing to forgive others. We can so clearly see the harmful results that come when others judge and hold grudges. The problem of wars between nations is similar to, but different from that of person fighting person. Some of the same psychological principles that apply to interpersonal squabbling also fit international warfare, but of course the scale is fantastically enlarged. Humanity may not be terribly affected if you and I fight and hurt each other, but it is certainly harmed if huge groups go to war, especially in this nuclear age. #RandolphHarris 4 of 10

What is learned about human behavior and aggression needs to be effectively shared with those who shape the international policies of nations. In the past, psychologists have often been drafted into devising new and more effective ways of demoralizing and punishing others humans. However, they have seldom been asked to help nations promote peace and understanding instead. And that, in fact, could be their most effective use. When it comes to our own prejudices and grievances, we too often justify our anger as righteous and our judgment as reliable and only appropriate. Though we cannot look into another’s heart, we assume that we know a bad motive or even a bad person when we see one. We make exceptions when it comes to our own bitterness because we feel that, in our case, we have all the information we need to hold someone else in contempt and sentence them to life in prison without a jury trial. However, the moment we judge someone else, we condemn ourselves, for none with out sin. Sometimes, of all the people in the World, the one who is the hardest to forgive—as well as perhaps the one who is most in need of our forgiveness—is the person looking back at us in the mirror. Time’s up! When it comes to hating, gossiping, ignoring, ridiculing, holding grudges, or wanting to cause harm, please apply the following: Stop it! It is that simple. #RandolphHarris 5 of 10

Racism, sexism, elitism—all of these are increasingly bring brought to our collective attention. This is the era of consciousness-raising, when we are seeking to awaken our community members to the abuses of technology, government resources, and when women are trying to draw the attention of other women and men to the problem of sexual harassment and stereotyping and discrimination. However, raising consciousness within the oppressed group is one thing, and raising consciousness among the oppressors is quite another. It is an essential characteristic of finite mind to produce things, to express itself in objects, to objectify itself in physical things, social institutions, and cultural products; and every objectification is, of necessity, and instance of alienation: the produced objects become alien to the producer. Influence through mass communication need not be blatant—it can be very subtle indeed. Even when communicators are not making a direct attempt to sell us something, they can succeed in influencing the way we look at the World. Many people are all up in the personal lives of others because they are afraid to look at themselves and see what is going on inside of them. When the community begins not only to take note of the complaints of the oppressed, they will also see they, too, can benefit by making equality a fact rather than simply a phrase. This allows for the development of self-knowledge, and the finite mind becomes self-aware and returns to oneself from one’s self-alienation. #RandolphHarris 6 of 10

In the process of violating another individual’s rights to privacy and legal protection, not only are you alienating them from the community, but you are also creating self-estrangement. Because when you are breaking the laws and speaking badly about others, people are not going to want to do business with you, they will not want to be your friend, nor will they want you in their community because they fear that you may hurt them, and they know how it feels to be ostracized. Many individuals can empathize with the people you are hurting for entertainment. This is a problem that faces not only psychologists, but every human being everywhere. We, as a society, need to demonstrate ways in which aggression can be controlled and eliminated, and replaced by cooperation. Communication is about being brave enough to speak up even if the other person may get upset, controlling one’s temper so that the other person is not always feeling intimidated, and staying sane, keeping the conversation moving forwards towards a mutually agreeable situation. Cooperation, respect, appreciation, mutual interaction, and selflessness are often taught ineffectively, irrelevantly, or too late! Too, talking peace is not enough. Much violence is spawned by frustration. Frustration will always be found where people’s basic needs go unsatisfied. It is organized violence on top which creates individual violence at the bottom. It is accumulated indignation against organized wrong, organized crime, organized injustice, which drives the political offender to act. #RandolphHarris 7 of 10

Before we can forgive one another, we have to understand one another. The most violent element in society is ignorance.  Alienation can be overcome only in the sense of being adequately known as a child of God. If love does no know how to give and take without restrictions, it is not love, but a transaction that never fails to lay stress on a person. Again, it is the vocation of the human as human to serve as the organon of the self-knowledge of the Absolute. To the extent that one does not perform this function, one does not fulfill one’s human essence and is merely a self-alienated individual. We become self-alienated from ourselves when we create and put ourselves above God, our Father in Heaven. People have only as much liberty as they have the intelligence to want and the courage to take. We are a part of Nature, not apart from Nature.  It is not about who is right it is about healing your wounds and becoming less sensitive to these feelings by choosing a different response. When our hearts are filled with the love of God, we become kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving. The virtue of the word of God has more powerful effect upon the minds of the people than anything else. Because we are all depend on the mercy of God, how can we deny to others any measure of the grace we so desperately desire for ourselves? My beloved brothers and sisters, and cousins, should we not forgive as we wish to be forgiven? #RandolphHarris 8 of 10

Just as every part of your body is interrelated with every other part, so each of us is interrelated and integrated into the larger human system, the society of which we are a part. And, by extension, each society is directly related to every other one, as nation is to nation, continent to continent. The entire planet can be seen ultimately as a gigantic network or web of interwoven parts. One thing you learn when you study your first spider web is that a slight pressure on any single strand of that web is felt everywhere on it. That is how the spider uses his or her web: when a bit of food lands there and becomes stuck in the sticky coatings, vibrations travel all along the network, and wherever the spider lies in watchful waiting, he or she pick up these vibrations and gets the message. So it is in the network of human experiences: pressure on any part of it affect the rest of the wend. This network ties each particle of humankind to every other particle. There are virtually no dark or hidden groups of life on the globe, except in the Congo Basin, located in Africa, which covers 700 square miles (25 percent of Earth’s rainforest). The forest is so dense that much of it remains uncharted and, in some parts, only 1 percent of the Sunlight reaches ground. Other than that, the web ff interrelatedness has advantages and disadvantages. However, when our hearts are filled with the love of God, something good and pure happens to us. #RandolphHarris 9 of 10

 When we keep God’s commandments: and his commandments are not grievous, nothing in us gets left out—it is all part of our relationship. This is more than possible when—through our work on ourselves—our relationship with God and humanity becomes both sanctuary and crucible, a place of deep healing, care, life-enhancing challenge, and a love that pervades all that we are. The deepest growth, healing, and awakening we will ever experience is in our relationship with God. Hence, we must wholeheartedly do whatever it takes to move into or to deepen our intimate relationship with God for whatsoever is born of God overcomes the World. The more we allow the love of God to govern our minds and emotions—the more we allow our love of our Heavenly Father to swell within our hearts—the easier it is to love others with the pure love of the Savior. As we open our hearts to the glowing dawn of the love of God, the darkness and cold of animosity and envy will eventually fade. When our hearts are filled with the love of God, we become kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving. The pure love of God can remove the scales of resentment and wrath from our eyes, allowing us to see others the way our Heavenly Father sees us. Because God loves us so much, we too must love and forgive each other. #RandolphHarris 10 of 10

To confuse our own constructions and inventions with eternal laws or divine decrees is one of the most fatal delusions of humanity. The systematic examination of the relations of human beings to one another, the conceptions, interests and ideals from which human ways of treating one another, and the systems of value on which such ends of life are based, spring from beliefs about how life should be lived, what men and women should be and do. The fundamental sense of freedom is liberty from chains, from imprisonment, from enslavement by others. The rest is extension of this sense, or else metaphor. Those who have ever valued liberty for its own sake believed that to be free to choose, and not to be chosen for, is an inalienable ingredient in what makes human beings human. Bringing to pass immortality is essentially a work of creation. God speaks, and Worlds are formed. We are already immortal because of our souls. However, at this time, the body is finite. Eternal life is something altogether different. Immortality is about quantity. Eternal life is about quality. Immortality is how long dinner lasts. Eternal life is what is on the menu and who is with us at the table. Eternal life is the great of all the gifts of God. Those, no doubt, who understand this doctrine, obey some ultimate principle before the bar of which all problems can be brought and solved. Single minded individuals, ruthless fanatics, people possessed by an all-embracing coherent vision do not know the doubts and agonies of those who cannot wholly blind themselves to reality. Eternal life is about the culmination of existence. #RandolphHarris 1 of 7

Injustice, poverty, slavery, ignorance—these may be cured by reform or revolution. However, people do not live only be fighting evils. They live by optimistic goals, individual and collective, a vast variety of them, seldom predictable, at times incompatible. They can only be realized through faith. As spiritual children of God, we are heirs and heiresses to this priceless fortune, benefactors to a glorious future, recipients of grace. If immortality is God’s work, then eternal life is God’s glory. However, eternal life does not come automatically. We must purge our hearts of evil and fill them with the desire to do good continually. Our Heavenly Father, with love that is scarcely within our power to comprehend, desires more than just our immortality. God desires each of us to partake of this greatest of all gifts: eternal life. The light of the Savior is available to everyone who will follow him. This divine light, through repentance, will remove darkness and sin from the soul. We can attain perfection by knowing and loving God with all our heart, soul, and mind. Perfection comes by seeking first the kingdom of God and his righteousness. Everything is what it is: liberty is freedom, not equality or fairness or justice or culture, or human happiness or a quiet conscience. However, to manipulate people, to propel them towards goals which you—the social reformer—see, but they may not, is to deny their human essence, to treat them as objects without wills of their own, and therefore to degrade them. #RandolphHarris 2 of 7

The structure of reality that parallels the order of thought: being is the first created and the first known. Being is first created in the sense that it is the proper effect of divine causality, an effect that, in the concrete, is determined by distinct intrinsic principles forming a composition in all created entities. Being is first known in the sense f the simplest concept from which no further abstraction can be made. The analyzing intellect (intellectus resolvens) stops at the notion of being because a nation of being only, not of this or that being, represents the limit of abstraction. However, this abstraction, because it concerns created being, still involves a twofold composition: being plus relation to creator; being plus relations of further determination to particular beings. Hence the only truly and purely simple notion of being lies beyond this abstraction being as its cause: the First Being, God. In God there is no composition, and that which is, essence, and whatever else may be said of God is identified within the Lord. Faith tells us, in the fullness of the reality of the Universe, things are sensible; there is order and not chaos in God is working out a deep purpose that we can only dimly perceived—a purpose that is healing the pain and bringing renewal and re-creation out of the eternity and into the portion of the Universe where there is time and in which we are born and live a finite life. #RandolphHarris 3 of 7

We have to always remember that God does not see us as a process that is unfolding, but God sees us as what we will become and what we once were. The distinction of agent and possible intellectual powers are not one for all people, but each has one’s own powers of one’s own soul; the effect is the only true separate agent intellect is God, whose light of understanding fortifies the human agent brainpower. Thus, intelligible species are the species of things that are the effects of Divine Ideas. There is a reason and purpose for everything that God does. However, it may be impossible to explain it to beings who cannot perceive the full reality and live within a shadow portion of the whole. God hides the truth from us and expects us to use our minds, the reason that God gifted us at our birth to uncover truth. We are confined to a store of conceptual tools that may be inadequate to the task of eternal comprehension, but we may even forge new conceptual tools and see the World in quite a different way—indeed, the World may be quite different. We have this desire within us to make sense of what is probably, ultimately, un-sensible. It is the pilgrimage, it is the struggled to understand, that transforms us. The whole Universe represents an ordered and hierarchical procession from God. The World is not eternal cannot be proven but is accepted as reveled by God in Genesis. #RandolphHarris 4 of 7

God is incorporeal, divine, supreme, infinite Mind, Spirit, Soul, Principle, Life, Truth, Love and this is the foundation of the new system of reference which will enable us to comprehend the nature and essence of spiritual reality. We do not have to understand an all-seeing God with the creation of life and matter to suspect something wonderfully miraculous is going on in the dimension we call reality. Most of us living in it feel invested in a sense of purpose. God in reality responds redemptively to changing human needs and predicaments. Although the human body owes its production, ultimately, to the same universal causes operative in the whole of the Universe, the human soul is directly created by God. Essentially, the soul is an incorporeal substance: operationally, however, the soul function as the vivifying form of the body, which is accidental to that essence. Since the soul is a substance in itself, it is immortal, surviving the body because it is not dependent upon it. Rather than saying that the soul is in the body, we should say that the body is in (that is, participates in the existence of) the soul. Faith is not about the observation, explanation and prediction of reality. Faith is about vision, orientation and commitment. Faith is not about what once happened, what has now become, or what is going to become, but about what ought to become. Faith is the great nevertheless that flies in the face of experienced reality. #RandolphHarris 5 of 7

Faith is trust in the face of disappointment, hope against hope, a rebellious attitude, a defiant protest against the reality we experience and that the sciences explore, in the name of a God with benevolent intentions. God is love; God is light. The World we know is wonderful beyond measure. Life is great. Life is a most unlikely reality, the most unbelievable experience, the most precious gift. There is always a future ahead of us. And our mortal limitations are not the limitation of God. Faith enjoys the wonderful life in a brilliant World, a commitment that is capable of suffering and sacrifice, just as the God it believes in, is characterized by suffering and sacrifice. The fact that the World we know is constrained and that these limitations are built into the fabric of the creation of God does not discourage, but emboldens us to keep trying to open our minds and tap into ultimate reality. We live in a World that is open to growth and transformation, a World that we can impact with our visions, intentions, decisions and actions. Faith is commitment to God’s vision, a commitment that is entirely realistic concerning the ambiguous character and final outcome of the World process, yet it does not give in. With God, faith throws in its weight in the struggle of life against death, justice against injustice, loving concern against indifference and callousness. This is how the true future of faith moves against the real future predicted by science. #RandolphHarris 6 of 7

Every human being yearns for meaning, orientation, belonging, participation and ultimate fulfilment. Reality, as we know it, is a relentless struggle against futility, suffering and death. It runs against a barrage of fateful casual networks. It may be tragic to its core, but that is the reality we have, and f which we are part of. However, God’s vision functions like a shifting horizon that constantly reveals new deficiencies in our thinking and concepts of life and reality. God opens up new vistas, challenges and opportunities. God’s perspective on life alerts us, involves us, enlightens us, empowers us and motivates us to reach beyond our World and grasp such concepts as the speed of light, soul, love, and eternity. This is the way God acts creatively and redemptively within a reality that is in flux. A reality in flux has not arrived. It is still on its way to being manifested. It has not yet reached perfection. Heaven is the self-made eternal bliss of realizing oneness with God. When our deepest desire is eternal life with Heavenly Father, we will achieve it by following his commandments and through the grace of our Savior. Only be losing ourselves in this kind of service of the Lord will we learn to know the love of God in its most exalted form. Knowing God means understanding the Lord as he is, his desires and his will and what he expects of us individual and as his covenant people. The very desire for guarantees that our values are eternal and secure in some objective Heaven is perhaps only a craving for the certainties of childhood or the absolute values of our primitive past. #RandolphHarris 7 of 7

The human body is the best picture of the human soul. If there is one common across all cultures, it is the search for a meaningful life—to be able to feel like who we are and what we do matters. “Language skills are the keys to accessing foreign societies, understanding their governments, and decoding their secrets. Stronger language skills will give our officers enhanced access to the information our policy makers need to protect our nation,” reports Director of the Central Intelligence Agency Leon E. Panetta. Many people find solace in creating private languages. The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) actually hires people and has a hiring bonus program of up to $35,000.00 per individual and that money is paid in a one-time, lump sum payment. The CIA also offers language incentive payments for people with superior language skills, and they are encouraged to maintain and use their proficiency in support of the mission. Some are successful, but it requires concrete definitions and for many users to understand the language. For example, most people cannot read computer coding, but a set group of computer science engineers are able to read it, like many of us read our native language. However, to the vast majority of us, computer coding is still a secrete language, and trying to read computer codes, for us who are illiterate in the code, would be like reading Colloquial Chinese. (Ta zhidao wo wanquan bu dong diannao, jui yong zui jiandain de shuxue gen wo jieshi diannao shi zenme yi hui shi, keshi ta shuo-le yi ge duo xiaoshi, chule ling gen yi yiwai, wo haishi shenme dou by dong, zuihou wo zhihao gen ta shuo: ) #RandolphHarris 1 of 9

The limits of our language means the limits of our World.  For the most part, the idea of private language has multiple problems. It is impossible for a person to use a word with a meaning that nobody else could, even in principle, understand. It is impossible for people to use words which refer to private objects, that is, objects which nobody else could—even in principle—know. It is impossible for a person who has always lived in isolation to possess a language, even if one’s sounds are understandable by another person. Private language allows that a person to refer to objects which, in fact, that individual alone knows, but again others must be capable of knowing them in appropriate circumstances. Some communities in America also speaking private languages. For instance, a person might say, “You was cookin’ fish last night and we wanted a sample plate. Matter fact, I want the recipe. That exact one.” That may have nothing to do with actually preparing a traditional meal for dinner. However, when you ask them about their private language, they may deny that they were using one, and that they were, in fact, speaking about the actual subject, but that may not be the case. When you ask questions about their private language, they know it may confuse you and so they will deny using it so they can run games on you. It is something people do in primitive societies. Another thing they do is mumble and speak under their breathe so they can get away with saying vulgar things. Then if you respond, they can say you have a problem. #RandolphHarris 2 of 9

Philosophy is a battle against the bewitchment of our intelligence by means of language. Sometimes large groups of people who may not be native to America, move to a region and start to dominate that area, and they many want to find a target to harass. So, they use these secret tactics to gang up on people and harass them day in and day out. It can be so subtle or so outrageous that no one believes what is going on until it becomes abundantly obvious that there is some kind of unusual cell in the community causing problems.  Private language allows a person, like Robinson Cursoe, to keep possession of a language he learned previously while living in a community of speakers. Many philosophers assume that it is conceptually impossible for two people to share one and the same immediate sensation. Many also hold that, in a strict sense of “know,” others do not really know whether one has certain immediate sensation or not, precisely because they cannot share it. A word might have a meaning understandable to only one person because the word itself is a private object in the sense that it is impossible for a person to use words which refer to private objects, which no one else could even know. For example, the words of a person’s language might all be mental images of German written words, so that all one’s thinking would be a sort of mental reading of German. In this case, the referents of the words would be public, but the words themselves would be private and hence unintelligible to others. All the World is a stage, but not for playacting!  #RandolphHarris 3 of 9

If people never did silly things nothing intelligent would ever get done. All my life I struggled to stretch my mind to the breaking point until it began to creak, in order to create a great thought which might be able to give a new meaning to life, a new meaning to death, and to console humankind. Supported by the holy scriptures, we are all in very deed brothers and sisters, children of the same Heavenly Father in the spirit. (Ta dui zhei ge gongzuo feichang you xingqu, yijng gan-le liu-qi nian le.) We are eternal beings. We lived as intelligent spirits before this mortal life. We are now living part of our eternity. Like everything metaphysical the harmony between thought and reality is to be found in the grammar of the language. We must free ourselves from the terror of the heart that seeks and hopes to find the essence of things. Our mortal birth was not the beginning; death, which faces all of us, is not the end. Our birth is but a sleep a forgetting; the soul that rises with us, our life’s star, has had elsewhere its setting. And comes from afar; not in entire forgetfulness, and not in utter nakedness, but trailing clouds of glory so we come from God, who is our home. Conquer the last, the greatest temptation of all; hope. As eternal beings, we each have in us a spark of divinity. And, as people who have traveled over much of this World, we should be convinced that our Father’s children are essentially good. #RandolphHarris 4 of 9

We want to live in peace, be good neighbors, love our home and families, and we want to improve our standards of living, and we want to do this right. We are essentially good. And we know that God loves us. Where are we going? Do not ask! Ascend, descend. There is no beginning and no end. Only this present moment exists, full of bitterness, full of sweetness, and we should rejoice in it all. We feel love, we feel pain, we struggle. The World seems to be wider than the mind, and our hearts are a dark and almighty mystery. May God bless us wherever we are and be close to us, as he can and will through his spirit. Gratitude for the assurance we have that life is eternal. Yes, life is eternal. We live on and on after Earth-life, even though we oftentimes lose sight of that great basic truth. The spirit World is not far away. Sometimes the veil between this life and the life beyond comes very thin. Our loved ones who have passed on are not far from us. They are brought forth upon this Earth, for the express purpose of inhabiting it to all eternity. When the spirits leave their bodies, they are in the presence of God; they are prepared then to see, hear, and understand spiritual things. If the Lord would permit it, and it was God’s will that is should be done, we could see the spirits that have departed from this World, as plainly as we now see living people with our natural eyes. #RandolphHarris 5 of 9

Some people erroneously think if they receive all the ordinances of the gospel, regardless of their transgressions, they will inherit the celestial mansions of our God. What a rude awakening awaits such false-thinking individuals. “For the Lord cannot look upon sin with the lest degree of allowance,” reports Alma 45.16. We must not fall to the misleading precepts of popular culture and foolishly break God’s laws and thus lose our opportunity for exaltation. The Constitution of the United States of America secures to every citizen the sacred right to worship God according to the dictates of their own conscience. A person earnestly seeking eternal life must avoid the traps of temptation and sin. We are never safe from committing sin unless we have fully prepared ourselves and decided on the course we will take before the temptation comes into our lives. Behind all appearances, is divine a struggling essence. We want to merge with it. We feel that behind appearances this struggling essence is also striving to merge with our hearts. However, the body stands between us separates us. The mind stands between us and separates us. Yet, everything is overflowing with God. We cannot accept boundaries; appearances cannot contain us. We choke! To bleed in this agony, and to live it profoundly, is the second duty. #RandolphHarris 6 of 9

The mind is patient and adjusts itself, it likes to play; but the heart grows savage and will not condescend to play; it stifles and rushes to tear apart the net of necessity. God is the force and power to do good; to live righteously, to enjoy freedom of choice, and to be courageous and faithful. Life is a real challenge, but blessed with God-given powers, we can overcome every stratagem and obstacle placed in our paths. The path to eternal life may not be an easy one to follow with all the popular culture enticements about us, but when we consider the rewards and blessings we gather if we travel the narrow way, it is worth every sacrifice we make. Thus, even when we truly learn to love God, we must humbly acknowledge that the Lord loved us first. Longing for a Heavenly home is real, especially in view of how this life is designed. When we rejoice in beautiful scenery, great art, and fine music, it is but the flexing of instincts acquired in another place and another time. It is possible to live as if everything is changed with eternity. We as believers have the calling to being eternity into time, of bringing the reality of Heaven down to Earth. Time was created along with the Heavens—meaning that at least that time is the measure of change, and perhaps that it is identical with the movement of the Heavenly bodies. Therefore, eternity is a timeless duration. Time is the moving image of eternity. (Nin bu duo zuo yihuir le ma? Zai he bei kafei ba.) #RandolphHarris 7 of 9

God, being necessary, is everlasting. It may be reported that the everlasting is not bound by time. The timeless eternity of God follows from God’s being that which nothing greater can be conceived. Grammar of the divine powers, which determines what it makes sense to say of the most perfect being, including that being’s timelessness. God’s timeless eternity is unending, lacking both beginning and end, and an instantaneous whole lacking succession. It is incapable of being defined or fully grasped by a human. Timeless eternity constitutes part of the grammar of talking about God. Since God is timelessly eternal it does not make any sense to ask how many years God has existed, or whether he is growing old, or what will he be doing later on in the year. God could be eternal, with a life that is not marked by temporal succession, while being located at every spacetime point. Conversely, God could be everlasting while not located in physical spacetime at all. Eternity is the whole, simultaneous, and perfect possession of boundless life. Or again, eternity is the complete possession all at once of illimitable life. The life of a timeless being (of a non-biological kind) is alive. Therefore, God involves a special sort of, atemporal, duration. A timeless being possess its life all at once, completely. That is, it does not experience succession. That is what makes a timeless being outside of time.  #RandolphHarris 8 of 9

By contrast, a living biological being in time experiences succession, only ever possessing one moment of its life at a time. Not only does a timeless being not experience succession, but its life’s events do not involve succession. Since change requires succession, a timeless being does not change. However, a timeless being is still presently alive in some sense of presently. Moreover, the events in that being’s life are simultaneous in some sense, both with each other and with temporal items. An eternal present is infinitely extended, pastless, futureless duration (strictly speaking, on the terminology used here, it would be timeless present). When physicists announced that they had detected subatomic particles, called neutrinos, that appeared to be traveling faster than the speed of light (the speed of light travels 300 million meter per second or 186,000 miles per second), this was an exception to a cosmic speed limit set by Dr. Albert Einstein’s special theory of relativity. And God said, “Let there be light,” reports Genesis 1.3. This proves that God is not controlled by laws. The temporal present is represented by light that moves steadily along the lower lines, while the eternal present is represented by the upper line being lit all at once. An infinite stretch or extension of some kind. “The Lord will be our light in the Wilderness,” reports 2 Nephi 10.14. #RandolphHarris 9 of 9

Reality is not fundamentally material but mental, or the substance of consciousness; thus everything is ultimately a thought, and every thought is somehow real. And since even the distinction between anything and my thinking of it is also mental, not bodily, the process of knowing is practically identical with whatever is known. The universal consciousness is independent of any mind knowing it and human consciousness, therefore, is a separate reality moving from one thought to another with the existing totality. This doctrine of universal consciousness—reality existing apart from any single mind is the greatest possible identity or measure of that which is actual or true—beyond our culture or environment. It is God, and everything unseen that generates from God—as opposed to the physical World in which we live. Eternal reality, includes all that comes from and is defined by God, and is the supreme invisible ramification of everything spiritual, psychological and emotional. There is only one true Reality; it is the One, beyond all possible description because it is the most fundamental through conceivable (like consciousness itself). The One already contains the whole Universe, absolutely unified, within itself, leaving its oneness uninfected with plurality. Consequently, all other things, considered by themselves as if independent of the One, cannot be truly real but only more or less apparently real or less real. #RandolphHarris 1 of 13

The eternal One seemingly declines into increasing plurality until it reaches our daily consciousness, the endless succession of only vaguely meaningful experiences, and, conversely, to explain how our ordinary consciousness can increasingly succeed in grasping the ultimate meaning of everything. The inconsistency is this: although the One is the only Reality, it is described as apparent decline into plurality with highly detailed attention, thereby turning the focus away from the One to the neatly arranged successive states of lesser realities (increasing appearances), which are then carefully analyzed as if independent entities. This therefore is a doctrine of emanation according to which the single Reality radiates from itself innumerable lesser yet independent realities. The doctrine stems from the objective—idealistic approach which, although it treats the substance of the Universe as consciousness, regards the Universe as existing apart from any knowing mind. All things are in all proper manner. Accordingly, every reality or consciousness is mirrored in and therefore appropriately colored by every other consciousness. For example, the One is known by the human mind but in a human manner, whereas the human appearance exists within the One Reality in its one real nature. #RandolphHarris 2 of 13

The One becomes treated as disintegrating gradually, flowing into its many appearances, and the Universe becomes a single organization of consciousness, an eternal movement of thought from higher to lower and back again. We have an organically interacting Universe of consciousness. The One reality and the many appearances of daily consciousness are chosen by two standards: first, deduction from ontological principles and second, the voice of Platonic tradition. The Church comes across as a good cause, which is in danger of collapsing for a lack of support in its efforts to act as the gateway to eternal reality. The kingdom of God is challenged by popular culture and the establishment of norms of these days. We are called to be the vanguard of the Kingdom of God—an eternal realm and rule that is breaking into this World with a different view of what it is to be human, and what it is to be eternal. The depth and validity of our identity is demonstrated by our commitment to God. We cannot let Western society become an increasingly unchurched culture. In the south people get dressed on go to church on their day of worship and it is one of the main social gatherings of the town. A correct understanding of our Heavenly heritage is essential to exaltation. #RandolphHarris 3 of 13

We are not simple people who believe in happiness; nor weaklings who crumple to the ground in distress at the first reverse; nor skeptics observing the bloody effort of marching humanity from the lofty heights of a mocking, sterile wit. Believing in the fight, though we entertain no illusions about it, we are armed against every disappointment.  Every reality has its own power, meaning primarily the authority to imply or cause that which is derived from it (for example, the eternal concept of Identity, implying all particular cases of identity in the World, has the power to indicate or produce them), and meaning also the power to be implied by, or the Effect of, that from which it is itself derived and, metaphorically, the power to return to this cause (for example, any two identical terms have the power to be identical, and by expressing identity, they point or return to the eternal Identity as their source). “We believe in God, the Eternal Father,” reports Articles of Faith 1.1. We understand that God the Father is the Supreme President of the Universe, the Power that gave us spiritual being, and the Author of the plan that gives us hope and potential. He is our Heavenly Father, and we lived in the Lord’s presence as part of his family in the premortal life. There we learned lesson and prepared for mortality. We came from our Heavenly Father, and our goal is to return to him. #RandolphHarris 4 of 13

Our most fundamental doctrine includes the knowledge that we are children of a living God. That is why one of the Lord’s most sacred names is Father—Heavenly Father. In reality this doctrine is among the most extraordinary knowledge we can obtain. It is foundational to comprehending the glorious plan of salvation and to nurturing faith. Further, it provides continual motivation for us to make and keep our indispensable eternal covenants. Between every reality and the one(s) derived from it there is a third, connecting reality called the activity of the first, or the process by which the first implies the second, and this activity has its own power. For example, the eternal Identity uses its power to make all particular cases of identity possible, and this possibility, in turn, has the power to make them actual. It is called the cause’s activity. The complete series becomes the first reality, or cause; its power to imply the second; it activity, the process of implication, or the possibility of the second; the power of this process actually to result in the second; the second reality, or effect; and, less important, the power of the second reality to be the effect on the first. Here on Earth, we identify ourselves in many different ways, including our place of birth, our nationality, and our language. Some even identify themselves by their occupation or their hobby. These Earthly identities are not wrong unless they supersede or interfere with our eternal identity—that of being a son or a daughter of God. #RandolphHarris 5 of 13

In answering the problem of how something can be something else—that is, how it can possess a characteristic or quality outside itself—every characteristic first exists in a perfect form, a reality prior to and the cause of all the many imperfect instances or examples of that characteristic, and each of these individual, imperfect characteristics is in turn prior to and the cause of whatever thing happens to possess it. For example, the Perfect Unity produces the class of all the imperfect unities possessed by things, although the unity possessed by, say, a person is regarded as being his of her direct cause. Only imperfect characteristics are possessed by things; the original perfect form is not possessed by anything and is called the unpossessed. Since the One is the cause of all everything else, it should have the supremacy to imply all its effects; but if the One were a reality having a power, it would acquire a particular description, whereas it must be absolutely universal and beyond all descriptions. The One’s reality is distinct from the One itself and, its power. These concepts are respectively called definiteness and infinity. Among all doctrines, beliefs, and principles revealed to the Lord’s children, the truths are related to God’s being and nature should stand as the preeminent focus. We acknowledge God’s existence and true nature in order to join with ancient believers and prophets in true worship. #RandolphHarris 6 of 13

As the First Cause, the One has its own activity, the process by which it implies everything else and within which the rest of the Universe is already potentially contained. And the power of this activity. The One’s first effect is the vast class of the oneness or unities. The purpose of all that the Father has revealed, commanded, and initiated for the inhabitants of Earth is to help us come to know the Lord, emulate the Lord, and become like the Lord so we can return to God’s holy presence. Eternal life is to know the Father and the Savior. Here the One is considered the unpossessed, perfect form of unity, the most fundamental characteristic conceivable (like the possibility of being conscious), which must therefore be possessed by everything in the Universe, so that all possessed, imperfect instances of unity are collectively the One’s first effect. Each unity, in turn, is a cause having its own power, activity, and the power of this activity; the unity’s own effect is that individual thing which possessed it. Hence, the Universe, or the class of all things possessing the characteristic of unity, including the World’s appearances, is the One’s final effect. Central to knowing the Father is understanding the revealed pattern of family. The family is the most important unity in time and in eternity, and is ordained by God. #RandolphHarris 7 of 13

Living in loving family relationships not only brings us great happiness, but is also helps us learn correct principles and prepares us for eternal life. In addition, family relationships help us know, love, and understand the Father. This is why we have always emphasized the importance of marriage and family both in the Church and in society. God’s plan provides a way for family relationships to extend beyond the grave. We can return to the presence of God, eternally united with our families. There are five levels of reality. There is a realm of Ideas; each Idea is the one eternal, perfect from all examples of any one kind, but each Idea coexists with all the many other Ideas in one realm, a logical bridge between the absolute One and the infinitely varied, fleeting appearances of daily consciousness. Between these Ideas and the appearances, there is a bridging concept—a World Soul, or energy moving through the World, copying the Ideas in the material of appearances, thus transforming an unchanging, perfect Idea into its many changing, imperfect examples. With clarity and quiet, look upon the World and say: All that I see hear, taste, smell, and touch are the creations of my mind. #RandolphHarris 8 of 13

The five levels of reality in the Universe are highly integrated with one another because they are parts of a single cause-and-effect system. They are called: Being, the cause; Power, the power of this cause; Mind, the activity of the cause, in which all the effects are potentially contained and part of which is identified with the realm of Ideas; Soul and/or Nature, the power of this activity, one function of which is identified with the World Soul; and Becoming, or the World of appearances, which are the effects. The great variety of fleeting appearances descend into a series of increasingly weaker, more dependent but therefore simpler and eternal concepts (such as quantity, negation, and so on), which mirror in reverse the ascending series of stronger, clearer, and thus also simpler, eternal realities. The absolutely lowest concept of reality is matter, which is merely the power of everything to be caused by the One. Our Heavenly Father has chosen not to reveal many details of our premortal life we had when we lived with him to us. Perhaps this is because we can learn many things simply by observing the pattern for righteous families he established on the Earth. Carefully observing and conscientiously living in accordance with righteous family patterns on Earth is at the core of our quest to know the Father. #RandolphHarris 9 of 13

Because of these two hierarchies, the premortal World and the material World, ascending and descending, the World picture becomes diamond shaped: the highest eternal causes and the lowest yet also eternal effects are few in number, whereas the greatest variety occurs in the World of appearances. Thus, there is a previously unsuspected close relationship between the so-called highest and lowest realities. Heavenly Father and family are inseparably connected. Sometimes I stop in think, is Earth really all that bad, and how much better could Heaven be? Maybe it is all a state of mind. After all, my grandfather once said this is Heaven. Although somethings bother me, I actually like it. For instance, the ability to buy a car and drive it, and the dream of owning a physical mansion with the steeply pitched roof, with so many halls and rooms that it seems like walking through a maze. Metaphysical language constantly alternates with a religious, theological vocabulary. When we understand the many dimensions of this connection, we can begin to comprehend more completely how personal and individual are Heavenly Father’s love for and relationship to each of us. The basis of this correlation between philosophy and theology is that the One is God or the Godhead. Understanding how he feels about us gives us the power to love the Lord more purely and fully. #RandolphHarris 10 of 13

 Thus, all the eternal unities produced by the One become gods, and all other eternal realities, which must possess these characteristics of unity, become equated with particular divine beings of the Greek pantheon, their relationships being described in terms borrowed from Greek mythology, including the Orphic Pythagorean tradition, or even the myths in Plato’s dialogues. In using religious language, our intentions are basically sincere. It has been the rule rather than the exception for idealists to identify the ultimate Reality with God, the object of worshipful and spirit-exalting attitudes. I said to the almond tree: “Speak to me of God,” and the almond tree blossomed. Personally feeling the reality, love, and power of that relationship is the source of the deepest and sweetest emotions and desires that can come to a man or women in mortality. These deep emotions of love can motivate us and give us power in times of difficulty and trail to draw closer to our Father. Every human being and everything on Earth is a begotten spirit or atom of our Heavenly Father. Begotten is an adjectival form of the verb beget and means brought into being. Beget is the expression used in the scriptures to describe the process of giving life. #RandolphHarris 11 of 13

For some, religious performing involves daily devotions to the Sun and Moon and celebrating not only the Greek but also the Egyptian and other Near Eastern religious holidays. And divine beings are simply names associated with the existing concepts of their metaphysics and are described by means of these concepts. Ethics are founded upon the statement that the One is also the Good—that is, the final goal of life’s efforts. This means not only that we should consciously strive to reach the One but also that essentially we are always seeking it, even if subconsciously and, thus, randomly. For everything that is the effect of some cause is said automatically to return to that cause. Consequently, for some philosophers, ethics is almost nothing but their metaphysics in reverse—a retracing from the lowest human level to the highest Reality of the stages through which the highest originally declined into that lowest. Thus, we are urged to renounce the appearances of the body, meaning unnecessary physical desires, social relationships, and political interest—indeed, all the misleading appearances of the senses, imaginations, and mere opinions. Conversely, we are urged to concentrate on rational knowledge, which prepares the individual mind for intuitive knowing, or the ability to grasp such eternal Ideal realities as Mind, Power, Being. #RandolphHarris 12 of 13

However, how can human consciousness rise from particular realities, which are still objects of knowledge separate from the knower, to the One Reality itself, which is an all-inclusive unity? Between this unity and human consciousness the most direct links are the many unities, since each consciousness has its own unity; and that internal method by which each consciousness perceives its own unity or divinity called faith. We use the traditional term, but define it as a higher kind of intuition for which certain persons have an innate predisposition and which in others can be stimulated, but are not actually taught. Perceiving its own unity, consciousness can mystically jump, in a fit of divine madness, into the unity of all things (the One), making contact with it, then approaching it, then uniting with it—the absolutely final goal of all life’s previous efforts. Without the great Plan of Eternal God, humanity would unavoidably perish. “The Spirit of revelation must be in each and every individual, to know the plan of salvation and keep in the path that leads us to the presence of God,” reports Journal of Discourses 9.279. So vital is this framework that is one strays or strays outside it, one risks provinciality and misery. In fact, most human misery represents ignorance of or noncompliance with the plan. A cessation of such mortal suffering will not come without compliance to it. Hence, the Lord, who has freely shared this vital knowledge with us, has urged us to teach the fundamentals of this plan freely. #RandolphHarris 13 of 13

We come from a dark abyss, we end in a dark abyss, and we call the luminous interval life. We cannot know the Universe as we can know its individual parts; only God can do this. Rather, the ultimate harmony may justifiably be spoken of as an object of faith—something which we are constrained to believe, even though we do not fully see it as of yet. The individual is merged in the universal, and the uniqueness of the individual person is an important kaleidoscopic of religious, moral, intellectual and social demands of the contemporary soul. It is only as knower that the self is a unifying principle. If individuality has no play, society does not advance; if individuality breaks out of all bounds, society perishes. As real beings, each of us must find some way not only of meeting our own personal needs, but also of helping to meet the larger (though not necessarily more important) needs of other people. It is sometimes tricky to find solutions that accomplish all this. Most of us run into issues every day: our needs versus their needs, or those of the family, club, career, or nation. Few problems occupy a more central spot in our scale of human values. In many ways, it is the job of our personalities to figure out answers to this dilemma—to mediate between society’s push and pull and the insistent demands of the self. We can be separate and distinct, impervious to other selves. We all have a center of our own—a will of our own—a center which we maintain even in our dealings with God. #RandolphHarris 1 of 8

 A person is worthwhile just because he or she is human. One does not have to earn that worth. We feel this to be so; it neither needs to nor can be established by argument. However, God too is a Person; we cannot deny him self-consciousness, because this is the highest source of worth in ourselves. The individual within the individual—those memories, thoughts, and feelings which make each of us a separate soul is part of our nature. Our physiological needs are very powerful because survival depends on their satisfaction. Religion and poetry are rich parts of our heritage and they go as far and deep as philosophy. The experiences these tools provide all communicate something and we can only begin to speculate as to the hidden depths, heights, and reaches of the mind. However, we know that these vocations are often times spiritual in nature and teach people intelligence and concern and respect for humanity, as they summon all our humanistic skills to prevent us from becoming a society of oppression, and control, without individual rights. As our World was never meant to resemble a gigantic Skinner box (an operant conditioning chamber used as a laboratory apparatus to study behavior), in which we all functions like well-conditioned pigeons. Each of us has a definite stake in ensuring that freedom of individual and social existence will spread and become the norm everywhere. However, that will not happen automatically. #RandolphHarris 2 of 8

We can encourage the existence of freedom, individual dignity, and many other cherished human values to become more real and more universal. If this is to be the pattern of the future, we need to ensure that humanistic persons are among those selected to set society’s goals, to establish the norms, to program the activities, and to produce the learning. To believe in the human condition might be regarded as the attitude of a fool, but to despair of it is the act of a coward. We cannot give up our human responsibilities nor forget the essential lessons of the word ecology: that we are all part of each other, and what affects one of us affect us all. There is no way in which we can overemphasize this idea. It represents to us the ultimate striving of the species we call the Human Being. “For everything that was written in the past was written to teach us, so that through endurance and the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope. May the God who gives endurance and encouragement give us a spirit of unity,” reports Romans 15.4-5. Our knowledge of the Absolute starts from experience—our experience of the concrete Worlds of morality, of beauty, of love or the passion of the intellectual life. It is, however, a postulate of reason that the World is a cosmos, not a chaos, which we can gradually explore, but never grasp in its entirety. #RandolphHarris 3 of 8

There are also other miracles, which we only have debate to guide us in trying to understand our place in the cosmos. Because of our large idealism, as human beings, we reconcile the dictates of morality and religion with the findings of science, with the purpose being to surpass our finite limits in the search of the supreme category—the infinite. Through history, humans have never been content with the limits imposed on us, and through sheer determination have done things which seemed impossible at some point. Modern marvels like invention of cars, airplanes, the Internet, skyscrapers, and space travel are truly miracles. It is through the exercise of the powers of the soul that human progress is achieved. The soul can discover the realities of things, comprehend the peculiarities of beings, and penetrate the mysteries of existence. All sciences, knowledge, arts, wonders, institutions, discoveries and enterprises come from the exercised intelligence of the rational soul. There was a time when such realities were unknown, preserved mysteries and hidden secrets; the rational soul gradually discovered them and brought them out from the plane of the invisible and the hidden into the realm of the visible. The nature of the soul is such that it is reasonable to entertain the hypothesis of its survival, and since human spirits must be values for God they were surely not made to be constantly destroyed and replaced by others. Yet, if there is personal immortality, it is not the inherent possession of every human soul, but must be won by the continuous effort needed to develop a coherent self. #RandolphHarris 4 of 8

 Mortality does not depend on personal immortality, nor need immortality be the central article of philosophy or religion. Yet, as much as we are open to philosophical debate, our personal mystery of the soul is ultimately determined by our own unquantifiable choice (belief). In the apprehension of Truth, Beauty, and Goodness—eternal realities—some believe that humans have already tasted eternal life and so should not be much concerned about personal survival.  The soul is the energetic nature of our being. It allows for the notion of reincarnation, and also the controlling beliefs of Heaven and Hell to try to impose some form of control on the human will. “Do you not know that you yourselves are God’s temple and that God’s spirit lives in you? If anyone destroys God’s temple, God will destroy that person; for God’s temple is sacred, and you together are that temple. Do not deceive yourselves. If any of you think you are wise by the standards of that age, one should become a fool so that one may become wise. For the wisdom of this World is foolishness in God’s sight,” reports 1 Corinthians 3.16-19. Our soul is a continuum which connects, records, and informs us eternally. It is the life of the Universe. “God catches the wise in their craftiness. The Lord knows that the thoughts of the wise are futile,” reports 1 Corinthians 3.19-20. The soul is interpreted as God, the power, the creator. It is the “demonstration of the Spirit’s power, so that our faith might not rest on human’s wisdom, but on God’s power,” reports 1 Corinthians 2.5. #RandolphHarris 5 of 8

When we have the required age and maturity through the exercise of our faith, it is important to never do anything that would make us unworthy of it. If we have lost the vision of eternal life, we have to rekindle it. If our dreams require patience, we must give it. Never become overanxious. We have to do the best we can. We cannot say whether that blessing will be obtained on this side of the veil or beyond it, but the Lord will keep his promises. In God’s infinite wisdom, the Lord will make possible for all of us to qualify in worthiness to receive eternal life. Do not be discouraged. Living a pattern of life as close as possible to the ideal will provide much happiness, great satisfaction, and impressive growth while here on Earth regardless of our current life circumstances. The great wicked one and his hosts will do all in their power to keep us from obtaining the ordinances required for the ideal family. They will attempt to distract us from centering our mind and heart on raising a strong family, but by nurturing our kinship as the Lord requires, we still are electives for eternal life. Are there so many fascinating, exciting things to or so many challenges pressing down upon us that it is hard to keep focused on that which is essential? When things of the in crowd, all too often the wrong things take priority, then it is easy to forget the fundamental purpose of life. #RandolphHarris 6 of 8

The adversary has a powerful tool to use against good people. It is a distraction. He or she would have good people fill life with good things so there is no room for essential one. Have some of us unconsciously been caught in that trap? “People are free according to the flesh; and all things are given them which are expedient unto humans. And they are free to choose liberty and eternal life, through the great Mediator of all people, or to choose captivity and death, for the wicked adversary seeks that all people might be miserable like unto himself,” reports 2 Nephi 2.27. Why has our moral agency been given to us? Only to live a pleasurable life and to make choices to do the things we want to do? Or is there a more fundamental reason—to be able to make choices that will lead us to fully implement our purpose for being here on Earth and to establish priorities in our lives that will assure the development and happiness the Lord wants us to receive. We must try with every capacity to embrace the truth. We are led by the Spirit to understand our purpose for being on Earth, which is to achieve eternal life, and how to accomplish it. We must pray that the Lord will help us choose the right priorities. Otherwise, we will fail in life’s purpose. Some of our parents have taught us from infancy to unwaveringly life the commandments of God. By example and precept, they nurtured us in truth. They encouraged the development of discipline and sacrifice to obtain worthy goals. #RandolphHarris 7 of 8

Over the years, the consistent pattern of righteous living—woven from hundreds of correct decisions, some in the face of great challenge—will develop a character of strength and capacity. Sometimes we see people become successful and they stray from the teachings of God, and it is noticeable that they become increasingly more wicked. When you talk to them, they even start to sound evil. As we watch them sinking from the Lord, like the Titanic, all we can do is pray for them. However, some successful people stay in the Lord and live righteously, and those are the type of people we want to be around. It is never too late for a person to turn their life around and do the right thing. While wholesome pleasure results from much of what we do that is good, it is not our prime purpose for being on Earth. We must seek to know and do the will of the Lord, not just what is convenient or what makes life easy. We have God’s plan of eternal life and happiness. We know what to do, or can find out through study and prayer. We should be anxiously engaged in a good cause, and do many things of our free will, and bring to pass much righteousness. For the power is in us, wherein we are agents unto ourselves. And inasmuch as we do good, we shall in no way lose our reward. The goal of ephemeral life is immortality!  #RandolphHarris 8 of 8

True strength resides in the soul of someone who faces adversity and does not run away. Life can be hard and requires courage of wise people. Courage is a mental quality. We all have it, even if it is not obvious at first. Psychological courage can set the foundation for the rest of our lives. God gives us the ability to possess an uncommonly potent soul and gain highly formidable abilities as a result of the soul’s power. Prayer gives of the equivalent to the power of many souls which comes in handy in situations that test one’s spiritual fortitude and grants spiritual abilities. When we place our faith in God, our soul is unable to be bound by anything and lives free without being held by back another force on Earth. When we increase our faith it God, this strengthens our soul and gives us the power to possess massive levels of life energy. Growth allows us to become stronger and also allows us to become more aware of our abilities, wisdom, and intuition. When we become more aware of our beneficial characteristics, we create mentally strong habits that allow us to view life with more optimism, grace, and thoughtfulness. Our greatness resides within our ability to recover. Now the strong soul, having adjusted itself in these hours of patience, may use its meticulously garnered power to build assets, which include a healthier body and mind, more accomplishments to our names, self-reliance, and more credibility. There will be reward given by God for our efforts of enduring and being faithful. #RandolphHarris 1 of 7

Those who never give up on God and keep in mind God will never gave up  on them, the Lord will help them in their time of need. Spiritual substances and material things can interact because God represents both and connects them. Human perceptions are an effect of God’s real vision. Spiritual and material things are both real because God represents them; material things are real in a further sense, as phaenomena substantiata, insofar as God represents them as real. This divine representation is the cause of the real existence.  The soul knows more than the person knows, and is wiser than the individual. Becoming truly self-aware and conscious is dependent upon our ability to listen and to gain the intelligent wisdom of our own body, mind, and soul. They will help to inform us about our true nature, so that we can consistently improve our internal coherence and strengthen our moral character. One may elect to be a useful soul, a strong soul, a good soul, a beautiful one, a truthful soul. To occupy all the chambers is to be well balanced and fitted to love. Authentic spirituality empowers us to bring the light of the Spirit into darkness and retain direction and truth in the face of confusion. “Let the light so shine that they see good works and God your father,” reports 3 Nephi 12.16. Spiritual power emerges from embracing our soul and taking ownership of its power. However, we live at a time when people do not know, let alone nurture, their spiritual life and nature, but also remain unaware of their soul or deny its existence entirely. #RandolphHarris 2 of 7

Many people who do not know their spirit, may attend and be absorbed by their intellectual purists, their emotional life, or basic survival drives. They may not recognize the blessings  God has in store for them. Our spirit enables us to acquire inner peace, genuine love, and real meaning—as well the gifts of the spirit. Spirituality transforms us by allowing us to participate in that which is sacred—that which is holy. We are designed to experience the divine. “Course of the Lord is one eternal round,” reports 1 Nephi 10.19. All of humanities powers are derived directly from God. We are not incurably maimed by sin. Our nature is perfected, not taken away by the grace of God (gratia non tollit naturam, sed perfecit). When we connect to God, the growth of our soul leads us to fulfillment through awareness and conviction. In holiness we participate in the good, the truth, the absolute; we take part in the awesome mystery of God’s force. Holiness is distinct from simple good feelings and virtues; in holiness, as a contract with God, we are transformed by participation in the Lord’s presence. “And it is requisite with the justice of God that people should be judged according to their works; and if their works were good in this life, and the desires of their hearts were good, they should also, at the last day, be restored unto that which is good,” reports Alma 31.3. #RandolphHarris 3 of 7

The cause of fear is a lack of knowledge. Therefore, knowledge is the antidote to fear. God is the direct source of all knowledge. The stars, the cosmos, our solar system and all the planets, nature, the human soul, all come from the divine. In 2015, a study was published that found 58 percent of patients reported significant interest in discussion spirituality with their clinicians. Such discussion can be medically useful, as they help patients to engage more in the treatment process. Further, in another reports, belief in God was associated with a significant reduction in depressive symptoms during treatment. Sometimes stresses and life bring us closer to God because it seems that no one can help. When we focus on God, daily, our stresses slowly decline, and with more of a focus, we may manifest God in our lives and be delivered from the situations that we consider unpleasant. Sometimes it seems some people do not have support and ask for help, and do not get it or it is very slow coming, so they turn to God to give them the patience to endure the situation and look forward to it being resolved. Many people think that society is so open and that people are so willing to help, but that is not always true. That is why religion teaches us that we need to depend on God, and not people. The idea with manifestation is that we attract what we focus on, so if we focus on God everyday and do our best to be righteous, our situations should totally improve. #RandolphHarris 4 of 7

Patience may be exercised as a virtue, and is then the result of will, and not an emotion. As such it is an ornament of the Christian, and assumes the character of an entire resignation of our own will in misfortune, and a readiness to leave all with God; or it is the resignation we feel, when we must suffer wrong, and cannot obtain justice; we then prefer suffer to doing wrong. A different species of resignation, not in any way a virtue, is sometimes manifested by warriors, who seeing themselves surrounded by a host of enemies, throw away their weapons, speak not, move not, ask for no favor, but suffer themselves to be hewn down, or take captive. “We know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose,” reports Romans 8.28. Such resignation is an expression of pride, a Godly fortitude. This is an emotion, that arises either from our relation to the supernatural or to the natural. “If we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently. The Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groans that words cannot express. And he who searches our hearts know the mind of Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints in accordance with God’s will,” reports Romans 8.25-27. If we are faithful, the same sociality which we enjoy here in this life will be forever with us in the World to come, in eternal glory. #RandolphHarris 5 of 7

When we believe that God is just and holy, that nothing sinful can endure his presence, the feeling connected with this belief will be a religious awe; when we are convinced that the divine will is sacred and inviolable and that all duties are impose upon us by it, the feeling will be a moral one. To set before human’s eyes the mutual relation between protection and obedience, of which the condition of human nature, and the laws of the divine require an inviolable observation. This relation requires the absolute submission of each individual to the dictates of an arbitrary sovereign, of that great Leviathan, or rather (to speak more reverently) of that Immortal God, to which we owe our peace and defense. “And those he predestined, he also called; those he called, he also justified; those he justified, he also glorified. What, then, shall we say in response to this? If God is for us, who can be against us? (Romans 8.30-31).” The soul enters the World in a state of involution, and its destiny is to unfold and manifest what it contains. Whenever one great manifestation has been made we learn good works, and to be meek and gentle in heart; for this allows us to find rest in our souls. We are given to understand that there will be no disobedience in the celestial kingdom. It is therefore vitally important that we keep the commandments with exactness and not just almost. #RandolphHarris 6 of 7

Being led by the Spirit is vitally important because this is the Lord’s World and he runs it. We must have the Spirit of the Lord or we will not know how to perform. Therefore, faith in a real sense is power—power to act and perform without actual knowledge. The Lord’s formula for receiving the Spirit, then, is to get on our knees and communicate with him. Tell the Lord what we are going to do—make commitments with him—outline our program—and then get up off our knees and go and do precisely what we have told God we would do. In the doing, the Spirit comes. Surely, in action, the Spirit comes as the Lord has promised. The Lord knows we will make mistakes. That is why Savior suffered for our sins. The Lord wants us to get back on our feet and strive to do better. There is joy in the presence of the Angels of God over one sinner who repents. To all who inhabit this beautiful Earth, God lives. The ordinances which are in the scriptures posses the blessings of the sealing power’s reach into the spirit World. It is the sealing power and our knowledge of it which changes and transforms our family life here and our expectations for the joy of family life in the World to come. The thought and the hope that we can have eternal relationships carries us through the trials of separation and the loneliness which are part of mortal existence. That assurance changes forever and for the better of all our associations in families. #RandolphHarris 7 of 7