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If there was More Rest for Souls in Our World, this Temple be as in the Hearts of the People for whom Saved the Union!
Perhaps no person can be a poet, or can even enjoy poetry, without a certain unsoundness of mind. In the case of the son, the projection-making factor is identical with the mother-imago, and this is consequently taken to be the real mother. The projection can only be dissolved when the son sees that in the realm of his psyche there is an imago not only of the mother but of the daughter, the sister, the beloved, the Heavenly goddess, and the chthonic Baubo. Every mother and every beloved is forced to become the carrier and embodiment of this omnipresent and ageless image, which corresponds to the deepest reality in a man. It belongs to him, this perilous image of Woman; she stands for the loyalty which is in the interests of life he must sometimes forgo; she is the much needed compensation for the risk, struggles, sacrifices that all end in disappointment; she is the solace for all the bitterness of life. And, at the same time, she is the great illusionist, the seductress, who draw him into life with her Maya—and not only into life’s reasonable and useful aspects, but into its frightful paradoxes and ambivalences where good and evil, success and ruin, hope and despair, counterbalance one another. Because she is his greatest danger she demands from a man his greatest, and if he has it in him she will receive it. #RandolphHarris 1 of 26
This image is “My Lady Soul,” as Spitteler called her. I have suggested instead of the term “anima,” as indicating something specific, for which the expression “soul” is too general and too vague. The empirical reality summed up under the concept of the anima forms and extremely dramatic content of the unconscious. It is possible to describe this content in rational, scientific language, but in this way one entirely fails to express its living character. Therefore, in describing the living processes of the psyche, I deliberately and consciously give preference to a dramatic, mythological way of thinking and speaking, because this is not only more expressive but also more exact than an abstract scientific terminology, which is wont to toy with the notion that its theoretic formulations may one fine day be resolved into algebraic equations. The projection-making factor is the anima, or rather the unconscious as represented by the anima. Whenever she appears, in dreams, visions, and fantasies, she takes on personified form, thus demonstrating that the factor she embodies possesses all the outstanding characteristics of a feminine being. She is not an invention of the conscious, but a spontaneous product of the unconscious. Nor is she a substitute figure for the mother. #RandolphHarris 2 of 26
On the contrary, there is every likelihood that the numinous qualities which make the mother-image so dangerously powerful derive from the collective archetype of the anima, which is incarnated anew in every male child. Since the anima is an archetype that is found in men, it is reasonable to suppose that an equivalent archetype must be present in women; for just as the man is compensated by a feminine element, so woman is compensated by a masculine one. I do not, however, wish this argument to give the impression that these compensatory relationships were arrived a by deduction. On the contrary, long and varied experience was needed in order to grasp the nature of anima and animus empirically. Whatever we have to say about these archetypes, therefore, is either directly verifiable or at least rendered probable by the facts. At the same time, I am fully aware that we are discussing pioneer work which by its very nature can only be provisional. Just as the mother seems to be the first carrier of the projection-making factor for the son, so is the father for the daughter. Practical experience of these relationships is made up of many individual cases presenting all kinds of variations on the same basic theme. A concise description of them can, therefore, be no more than schematic. #RandolphHarris 3 of 26
Woman is compensated by a masculine element and therefore her unconscious has, so to speak, a masculine imprint. This results in a considerable psychological difference between men and women, and accordingly I have called the projection-making factor in women the animus, which means mind or spirit. The animus corresponds to the paternal Logos just as the anima corresponds to the maternal Eros. However, I do not wish or intend to give these two intuitive concepts to specific a definition. I use Eros and Logos merely as conceptual assistants to describe the fact that women’s consciousness is characterized more by the connective quality of Eros than by the discrimination and cognition associates with Logos. In men, Eros, the function of relation, is usually less developed then Logos. In women, on the other hand, Eros is an expression of their true nature, while their Logos is often only a regrettable accident. It gives rise to misunderstandings and annoying interpretations in the family circle and among friends. This is because it consists of opinions instead of reflections, and by opinions I mean a priori assumptions that lay claim to absolute truth. Such assumptions, as everyone knows, can be extremely irritating. As the animus is partial to argument, one can best be seen a work in disputes were both parties know they are right. #RandolphHarris 4 of 26
Men can argue in a very womanish way, too, when they are anima-possessed and have thus been transformed into the animus of their own anima. With them the question becomes one of personal vanity and touchiness (as if they were females); with women it is a question of power, whether of truth or justice or some other “ism”—for the dressmaker and hairdresser have already taken care of their vanity. The “Father” (id est, the sum of conventional opinions) always plays a great role in female argumentation. No matter how friendly and obliging a woman’s Eros may be, no logic on Earth can shake her if she is ridden by the animus. Often the man has the feeling—and he is not altogether wrong—that he cannot use legal means of persuasion. He is unaware that this highly dramatic situation would instantly come to a banal and unexciting end if he were to quit the field and let a second woman carry on the battle (his wife, for instance, if she herself is not they fiery war horse). This sounds idea seldom or never occurs to him, because no man can converse with an animus for five minutes without becoming the victim of one’s own anima. Anyone who still had enough sense of humour to listen objectively to the ensuing dialogue would be staggered by the vast number of commonplaces, misapplied truisms, clichés from newspapers and novels, shop-soiled platitudes of every description interspersed with vulgar abuse and brain-splitting lack of logic. #RandolphHarris 5 of 26
It is a dialogue which, irrespective of its participants, is repeated millions and millions of times in all the languages of the World and always remains essentially the same. This singular fact is due to the following circumstances: when animus and anima meet, the animus draws his sword of power and the anima ejects her poison of illusion and seduction. The outcome need not always be negative, since the two are equally likely to fall in love (a special instance of love at first sight). The language of love is of astonishing uniformity, using the well-worn formulas with the utmost devotion and fidelity, so that once again the two partners find themselves in a banal collective situation. Yet they live in the illusion that they are related to one another in a most individual way. In bot its positive and its negative aspects the anima/animus relationship is always full of “animosity,” id est, it is emotional, and hence collective. Affects lower the level of the relationship and bring it closer to the common instinctual basis, which no longer has anything individual about it. Very often the relationship runs its course heedless of its human performers, who afterwards do not know what happened to them. Whereas the clouds of “animosity” surround the man is composed chiefly of sentimentality and resentment, in woman it expresses itself in the form of opinionated views, interpretations, insinuation, and misconstructions, which all have purpose (sometimes attained) of severing the relations between two human beings. #RandolphHarris 6 of 26
The woman, like the man, becomes wrapped in a veil of illusions by her demon-familiar, and, as the daughter who alone understands her father (that is, is eternally right in everything), she is translated to the land of sheep, where she is put to graze by the shepherd of her soul, the animus. In talking of imagination when it presents its images in the present, we may consider what the imagination is doing in parabolic poetry. It was seen at work in the fable, similitude, and parable. In these manifestations of inventive activity, the imagination seems to function for the human being in the same way it functions for the divine spirit. It makes tangible that which is intangible. This kind of operation gives to parabolic poetry a higher character, and an appearance of something sacred and venerable. This sort of poetry is thus coloured because religion itself commonly uses its assistance as a means of communication between divinity and humanity. Here, then, with the case of divine communication before us, we find imagination manifested in poetry in two ways. First, one duty of poetry is to teach. This is could do only if imagination illustrates the work of reason. In olden times, particularly, the inventions and conclusions of human reason (even those that are now common and trite) being then new and strange, the minds of humans were hardly subtle enough to conceive them, unless they are brought nearer to the sense by this kind of resemblances and examples. #RandolphHarris 7 of 26
And hence ancient times are full of all kinds of fables, parables, enigmas, and similitudes; as may appear by the numbers of Pythagoras the enigmas of the Sphinx, the fables of Plato, and the like. So parables are before arguments, and the force of them is still excellent because arguments cannot be made so perspicuous nor true examples so apt. So it is that the imagination translates the abstractions of understanding and reason into images. Not only does reason become palpable, but through the inventive activity of imagination it is made fitting for an audience. The second office of poetry was that of infoldment or all allusion, when the object is not to teach plainly but to teach darkly, when the secrets and mysteries of religion, policy, and philosophy are involved in fables or parables. Between 1605, the publication of The Advancement of Learning, and 1623, the appearance of De Augmentis Scientiarum, we acquired greater respect for mysteries than we had earlier. In 1609 we devoted great care to the explication of thirty-one fables of antiquity, and much later we greatly enlarged thee of them—Pan, Perseus, and Dionysius—which served us as illustrations of three of our major divisions of philosophy: natural philosophy, politics, and ethics. #RandolphHarris 8 of 26
Fables revealed the earliest of human mysteries, extending back in time far beyond their narrators—exempli gratia, Homer and Hesiod—and by implication they bodied forth the shadows of human’s primitive imagination. Indeed, in the parable here is invented the figure to shadow the meaning. Imagination also made absent things present at those times when it was allied with reason in a distinctly creative function. The unique cooperation with reason appears to have assigned only to the province of rhetoric as the practical art of communication via both speech and written word. It is true, as we have seen, that in poetry imagination joined with reason to produce inventions and that it gave substance to things abstract. However, in its poetic activity is could at times indulge in play; it could join and sever natural experience in unnatural ways, and escape the strictest rules of reason. In rhetoric, on the other hand, imagination worked with reason in strictly rational ways. It engaged in joint creation with reason yet it had to obey the dictates of reason. The duty and office of Rhetoric is to apply Reason to Imagination for the better moving of the Will. Rhetoric is one of the rational arts and imagination is to serve it. Rhetoric is subservient to the imagination, as Logic is to the understanding; and the duty and office of Rhetoric, if it be deeply looked into, is no other than to apply and recommend the dictates of reason to imagination, in order to excite the appetite and Will. #RandolphHarris 9 of 26
Accordingly, the subject of Rhetoric, is none other than the Imaginative or Insinuative Reason. Reason and imagination together created a credible object or an argument, and the effect was insinuative. In what manner there was insinuation we shall see later on. In the cooperation of imagination with reason, imagination was under the control of reason, and reason was not at the back and called of imagination. Such mastership was essential to rational life if reason through imagination were to command the will and affections: if the affections themselves were brought to order, and pliant and obedient to reason, it is true there would be no great use of persuasions and insinuation to give access to the mind, but naked and simple propositions would be enough. However, the affections do on the contrary make such secessions and raise such mutinies and seditions…that reasons would become captive and servile, if eloquence of persuasions did not win the imagination from the affections’ part, and contract a confederacy between the reason and imagination against them. Not only should the will and conduct be under a person’s voluntary control but the decisions and products of reason acting alone are ethereal abstractions, difficult or impossible for the common mind to cope with. #RandolphHarris 10 of 26
What is necessary, if reason is to prevail, is to transform the abstract into the concrete, the immaterial into the material, the nonsensory into the sensory: it is the business of rhetoric to make pictures of virtue and goodness, so that they may be seen. For since they cannot be showed to the sense in corporeal shape, the next degree is to show them to the imagination in as lively representations as possible, by ornament of words. The method of the Stoics, who thought to thrust virtue upon people by concise and sharp maxims and conclusions to shew Reason only in subtility of argument, which has little sympathy with the imagination and will of humans, has been justly ridiculed. In working creatively with reason, what was imagination supposed to do? Doubtless there is no way of describing what is going on when imagination is working with reason. One can only be sure of the result. The nature of the operation itself can only be hinted at. The religious law demands that one accepts ideas and strict and ridge doctrines, that are believed to be the doctrines of salvation and traditions, the acceptance of which is the condition of one’s salvation from anxiety, despair, and death. So we try to accept them, although they sometimes may become strange or doubtful to us. #RandolphHarris 11 of 26
We labour and toil under the religious demand to believe things we cannot believe. This sometimes results in us trying to escape the law of religion. We try to cast away the heavy yoke of the doctrinal law imposed on us by Church authorities, orthodox teachers, pious parents, and fixed traditions. We become critical and sceptical. We cast away the yoke; but none can live in the emptiness of mere scepticism, and so we return to the old yoke in a kind of self-torturing fanaticism and try to impose it on other people, on our children or pupils. We are driven by an unconscious desire for revenge, because of the burden we have taken upon ourselves. Many families are disrupted by painful tragedies and many minds are broken by this attitude of parents, teachers and priests. Others unable to stand the emptiness of scepticism, find new yokes outside the Church, new doctrinal laws under which they begin to labour: political ideologies which they propagate with religious fanaticism; scientific theories which they defend with strict religious doctrines and covenants; and utopian expectations they pronounce as the condition of salvation for the World, forcing whole nations under the yoke of their creeds which are religions, even while they pretend to destroy religion. #RandolphHarris 12 of 26
We are all labouring under the yoke of religion; we all, sometimes, try to throw away old or new doctrines or strict and rigid covenants, but after a little while we return, again enslaving ourselves and others in their servitude. The same is true of the practical laws of religion. They demand ritual activities, the participation in religious enterprises, and the study of religious traditions, prayer, sacraments, and meditations. They demand moral obedience, inhuman self-control and asceticism, devotion to humans and things beyond our possibilities, surrender to ideas and duties beyond our power, unlimited self-negation, and unlimited self-perfection: the religious law demands the perfect in all respects. And our conscience agrees with this demand. However, the split in our being is derived from just thus: that the perfect, although it is the truth, is beyond us, against us, judging and condemning us. So we try to throw away the ritual and moral demands. We neglect them, we hate them, we criticize them; some of us display a cynical indifference toward the religious and moral law. However, since mere cynicism is as impossible as mere scepticism, we return to old or new laws, becoming more fanatic than ever before, and take a yoke of the law upon us, which is more self-defying, more cruel against ourselves, and more willing to coerce other people under the same yoke in the name of the perfect. #RandolphHarris 13 of 26
Jesus Himself becomes for these perfectionists, puritans and moralists a teacher of the religious law putting upon us the heaviest of all burdens, the burden of His law. However, that is the greatest possible distortion of the mind of Jesus. This distortion can be found in the minds of those who crucified Him because He broke the religious law, not by fleeing from it like the cynical Sadducees, but by overcoming it. We are all permanently in danger of abusing Jesus by stating that e is the founder of a new religion, and bringer of another, more refined, and more enslaving law. And so we see in all Christian Churches the toiling and labouring of people who are called Christians, serious Christians, under innumerable laws which they cannot fulfill, from which they flee, to which they return, or which they replace by other laws. This is the yoke from which Jesus wants to liberate us. He is more than a priest or a prophet or a religious genius. These all subject us to religion. He frees us from religion. They all make new religious laws; He overcomes the religious law. “Take my yoke upon you and learn of me…for my yoke is easy and my burden is light.” This does not indicate a quantitative difference—a little easier, a little lighter. It indicates a contradiction! #RandolphHarris 14 of 26
The yoke of Jesus is easy in itself, because it is above law, and replaces the toiling and labouring with rest in our souls. The yoke of religion and law presupposes all those splits and gaps in our souls which drive us to the attempt to overcome them. The yoke of Jesus is above those splits and gaps. It has overcome them whenever it appears and is received. It is not a new demand, a new doctrine or new power of transforming life. He calls it a yoke, He means that is comes from above and grasps us with saving force; if He calls it easy, He means that it is given before anything we can do. It is being, power, reality, conquering the anxiety and despair, the fear and the restlessness of our existence. It is here, amongst us, in the midst of our personal tragedy, and the tragedy of history. Suddenly, within the hardest struggle, it appears as a victory, not attained by ourselves, but present beyond expectation and struggle. Suddenly we are grasped by a peace which is above reason, that is, above our practical striving for the good. The true—namely, the truth of our life and of our existence—has grasped us. We know that now, in the moment, we are in the truth, in spite of all our ignorance about ourselves and our World. We have not become wiser and more understanding in any ordinary sense; we are still children in knowledge. #RandolphHarris 15 of 26
However, the truth of life is in us, with an illuminating certainty, uniting us with ourselves, giving us great and restful happiness. And the good, the ultimate good, which is not good for something else, but good in itself, has grasped us. We know that now, in this moment, we are in the good, in spite of all our weakness an evil, in spite of the fragmentary and distorted character of our Self and the World. We have not become more moral or more saintly; we still belong to a World which is subject to evil and self-destruction. However, the good of life is in us, uniting us with the good of everything, giving us the blessed experience of universal love. If this should happen, and in such a measure, we should reach our eternity, the higher order and spiritual World to which we belong, and from which we are separated in our normal existence. We should be beyond ourselves. The new being would conquer us, although the old being would not disappear. Where can we feel his new reality? We cannot find it; but it can find us. It tries to find us during our whole life. It is in the World; it carries the World; and it is the cause of the fact that our Self and our World are not yet thrown into utter self-destruction. Although it is hidden under anxiety and despair, under finitude and tragedy, it is in everything, in souls and bodies, becomes everything derives life from it. #RandolphHarris 16 of 26
The new being means that the old being has not yet destroyed itself completely; that life is still possible; that our souls still gather force to go forward; and that the good and the true are not extinguished. It is present, and it will find us. Let us be found by it. It is stronger than the World, although it is quiet and meek and humble. That is the meaning of the call of Jesus, “Come unto Me.” For in Him this new being is present in such a way that it determines His life. That which is hidden in all things, that which appears to us sometimes in the great elevations of our soul, is the forming power of this life. It is the uniqueness and he mystery of His Being, the embodiment, the full appearance of the New Being. That is the reason that He can say words which no prophet or saint has ever said: that nobody knows God save Him and those who receive their knowledge through Him. These words certainly do not mean that He imposes a new theology or a new religious law upon us. They mean rather that He is the New Being in which everybody can participate, because it is universal and omnipresent. Why can He call Himself meek and lowly in heart after he has said words about His uniqueness, words that, in anyone else’s mouth, would be blasphemous arrogance? It is because the New Being that forms Him is not created by Him. He is created by it. It has found Him, as it must find us. #RandolphHarris 17 of 26
And since His Being is not the result of His striving and labouring, and since it is not servitude to the religious law but rather victory over religion and law that makes His uniqueness, He does not impose religion and law, burdens and yokes, upon humans. If He called us o the Christian religion or to the Christian doctrines or to the Christian morals, we would turn down His call with hatred. If He gave us new commands for thinking and acting, we would not accept His claim to be meek and humble and to give rest to our souls. Jesus is not the creator of another religion, but the victor over religion; He is not the maker of another law, but the conqueror of law. We, the ministers and teachers of Christianity, do not call you to Christianity but rather to the New Being to which Christianity should be a witness and nothing else, not confusing itself with that New Being. Forget all Christian doctrines; forget your own certainties and your own doubts, when you hear the call of Jesus. Forget all Christian morals, your achievements and your failures, when you come to Him. Nothing is demanded of you—no idea of God, and no goodness in yourselves, not your being religious, not your being Christian, not your being wise, and not your being moral. #RandolphHarris 18 of 26
However, what is demanded is only your being open and willing to accept what if given to you, the New Being, the being of love and justice and truth, as it is manifest in Him Whose yoke is easy and Whose burden is light. Let me close, as I began, with a personal word. Believe me, you who are religious and Christian. If it were for the sake of Christianity, it would be not worthwhile to teach Christianity. And believe me, when it comes, we interpret the call of Jesus for our time, you who are estranged from religion and far away from Christianity, it is not our purpose to make you religious and Christian. We call Jesus the Christ not because He brought a new religion, but because He is the end of religion, above religion and irreligion, above Christianity and non-Christianity. We spread His call because it is the call to every human in every period to receive the New Being, that hidden saving power in our existence, which takes from us labour and burden, and gives rest to our souls. Do not ask in this moment what we shall do or how action shall follow from the New Being, from the rest in our souls. Do not ask; for you do not ask how the good fruits follow from the goodness of a tree. They follow; action follows being, and new action, better action, stronger action, follows new being, better, truer, and more just, if there was more rest for our souls in our World. #RandolphHarris 19 of 26
If they grew out of a more profound level of our life, our actions would be more creative, more conquering, conquering the tragedy of our time. For our creative depth is the depth in which we are quiet. “Now these are the words which Amulek preached unto the people who were in the land of Ammonihah, saying: “I am Amulek; I am the son of Giddonah, who was the son of Ishmael, who was a descendant of Aminadi; and it was that same Aminadi who interpreted the writing which was upon the wall of the temple, which was written by the finger of God. An Aminadi was a descendant of Nephi, who was the son of Lehi, who came out of the land of Jerusalem, who was a descendent of Manasseh, who was the son of Joseph who was sold into Egypt by the hands of his brethren. And behold, I am also a man of no small reputation among all those who know me; yea, and behold, I have many kindreds and friends, and I have also acquired much richness by the hand of my industry. Nevertheless, after all this, I never have known much of the ways of the Lord, and his mysteries and marvelous power. I said I never had know much of thee things; but behold, I mistake, for I have seen much of his mysteries and his marvelous power; yea, even in the preservation of the lives of this people. #RandolphHarris 20 of 26
“Nevertheless, I did harden my heart, for I was called many times and I would not hear; therefore I knew concerning these things, yet I would not know; therefore I went on rebelling against God, in the wickedness of my heart, even until the fourth day of this seventh month, which is in the tenth years of e reign of the judges. As I was journeying to see a very near kindred, behold an angel of the Lord appeared unto me and said: Amulek, return to thine own house for thou shalt feed a prophet of the Lord; yea, a holy man, who is a chosen man of God; for he has fasted many days because of the sins of this people, and he is an hungered, and thou shalt receive him into thy house and feed him, and he shall bless thee and thy house; and the blessing of the Lord shall rest upon thee and thy house. And it came to pass that I obeyed the voice of the angel, and returned towards my house. And as I was going thither I found the man whom the angel said uno me: Thou shalt receive into thy house—and behold it was this same man who has been speaking unto you concerning the things of God. And the angel said uno me he is a holy man because it was said by an angel of God. And again, I know that the things whereof he hath testified are true; for behold I say unto you, that as the Lord liveth, even so has he sent his angel to make these things manifest unto me; and this he has done whole this Alma hath dwelt at my house. #RandolphHarris 21 of 26
“For behold, he hath blessed mine house, he hath blessed me, and my women, and my children, and my father and my kinsfolk; yea, even all my kindred hath he blessed, and the blessing of the Lord hath rested upon us according to the words which he spake. And now, when Amulek had spoken these words the people began to be astonished, seeing there was more than one witness who testified of the things whereof they were accused, and also of the things which were to come, according to the spirit of prophecy which was in them. Nevertheless, there were some among them who thought to question them, that by their cunning devices they might catch them in their words, that they might find witness against them, that they might deliver them to their judges that they might be judged according to the law, and that they might be slain or cast into prison, according to the crime which they could make appear or witness against them. Now it was those men who sought to destroy them, who were lawyers, who were hired or appointed by the people to administer the law at their times of trials, or at the trials of the crimes of the people before the judges. Now these lawyers were learned in all the arts and cunning of the people; and this was to enable them that they might be skillful in their profession. #RandolphHarris 22 of 26
“And it came to pass that they began to question Amulek, that thereby they might make him cross his words, or contradict the words which he should speak. Now they knew not that Amulek could know of their designs. However, it came to pass as they began to question him, he perceived their thoughts, and he said unto them: O ye wicked and perverse generation, ye lawyers and hypocrites, for ye are laying the foundations of the devil; for ye are laying traps and snares to catch the holy ones of God. Ye are laying traps and snares to catch the holy ones of God. Ye are laying plans to pervert the ways of the righteous, and to bring down the wrath of God upon your heads, even to the utter destruction of this people. Yea, well did Mosiah say, who was our last king, when we was about to deliver up the kingdom, having no one to confer it upon, causing that this people should be governed by their own voices—yea, well did he say that is the time should come that the voice of this people should choose iniquity, that is, if the time should come that this people should fall into transgression, they would be ripe for destruction. And now I say unto you that well doth the Lord judge of your iniquities; well doth he cry unto this people, by the voice of his angels: Repent ye, repent, for the kingdom of Heaven is at hand. #RandolphHarris 23 of 26
“Yea, well doth he cry, by the voice of his angels that: I will come down among my people, with equity and justice in my hands. Yea, and I say unto you that if it were no for the prayers of the righteous, who are now in the land, that ye would even now be visited with utter destruction; yet it would not be by flood, as were the people in the days of Noah, but it would be by famine, and by pestilence and the sword. However, it is by the prayers of the righteous that ye are spared; now therefore, if ye will cast out the righteous from among you then will not the Lord stay his hand; but in his fierce anger he will come out against you; then ye shall be smitten by famine, and by pestilence, and by the sword; and the time is soon at hand expect ye repent. And now it came to pass that the people were more angry with Amulek, and they cried out, saying: This man doth revile against our laws which are just, and our wise lawyers whom we have selected. However, Amulek stretched forth his hand, and cried the mightier unto them, saying: O ye wicked and perverse generation, why at Satan got such great hold upon your hearts? Why will ye yield yourselves unto him that he may have power over you, to blind your eyes, that ye will not understand the words which are spoken, according to their truth? #RandolphHarris 24 of 26
“For behold, have I testified against your law? Ye do not understand: ye say that I have spoken against your law; but I have not, but I have spoken in favour of your law, to your condemnation. And now behold, I say unto you, that the foundation of the destruction of this people is beginning to be laid by the unrighteousness of your lawyers and judges. And now it came to pass that when Amulek had spoken these words the people cried out against him, saying: Now we know that his human is a child of the devil, for he hath lied unto us; for he hath spoken against our law. And now he says that he has not spoken against it. And again, he has reviled against our lawyers, and our judges. And it came to pass that the lawyers put it into their hearts that they should remember these things against him. And there was one among them whose nae was Zeezrom. Now he was the foremost to accuse Amulek and Alma, he being one of the most expert among them, having much business to do among the people. Now the object of these lawyers was to get gain; and they got gain according to their employ,” reports Alma 10.1-32. O God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, we hope in Thy word. There we see Thee, not on a fearful throne of judgment, but on a throne of grace, waiting to be gracious, and exalted in mercy. #RandolphHarris 25 of 26
There we hear Thee saying, not “Depart ye cursed,” but “Look unto me and be ye saved, for I am God and there is none else.” They that know Thy name put their trust in Thee. How many now glorified in Heaven, and what numbers living on Earth, are Thy witnesses, O God, exemplifying in their recovery from the ruins of the Fall the freeness, riches and efficacy of Thy grace! All that were every saved were saved by Thee, and will through eternity, exclaim, “Not unto us, but uno Thy name give glory for Thy mercy and truth’s sake.” Thou hast chosen to transact all Thy concerns with us through a mediator in whom all fullness dwells and who is exalted to be prince and Saviour. To him we look, on him we depend, through him we are justified. May we derive relief from his sufferings without ceasing to abhour sin, or to long after holiness; feel the double efficacy of His blood, tranquillizing and cleansing out consciences; delight in His service as well as in His sacrifice; be constrained by His love to live not to ourselves but to Him; cherish a grateful and cheerful disposition, not murmuring and repining if our wishes are not indulged, or because some trials are blended with our enjoyments, but, sensible of our desert, and impressed with the number and greatness of Thy benefits, may we bless and praise Thee at all times. #RandolphHarris 26 of 26
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The World is so Full of a Number of things, I am Sure We Should All be as Happy as Kings and Queens!
Because we are part of Nature, we are evolutionary products of the Nature of which we are active participants; our minds are inseparably joined with the functioning of our brains; and as an inseparable unity of body and personhood, we can have no conscious (or “real”) survival after death. With courage, vision, and reliance on our own human resources, we can solve the problems we have created and which are imposed on us by natural circumstances or happenstance. Although most of us are conditioned by the past and even the present, we have genuine freedom of creative choice and action, withing certain objective limits. Not only is it your existential freedom, but also your responsibility in exercising that freedom. People need to engage in things that give them a chance to experience themselves as an entity separate from their environment, with the capacity to respond upon their own initiative rather than merely reacting. It is always good to address the overriding issue of racism and its concomitant effect (id est, feelings of inferiority, self-doubt, lack of self-worth, and so on). Some people possess the belief that they have to be better than the majority in order to be accepted as an equal or any progress that one has made in one’s career was due to them being marginalized rather than one’s abilities—both have an element of truth when viewed in a sociohistorical context. #RandolphHarris 1 of 20
To invalidate this experience with substitute psychospeck explanations (jargon of psychology and psychoanalysis, especially when regarded as trite or trivial, id est inferiority complex, paranoia, and so one) will only serve to mystify and do further violence to the experience. In other words, it is important for people to understand the sociohistorical precedence for the presents attitudes one feels victim to Whether one’s experience is valid in an objective sense is irrelevant. It is irrelevant because the sociohistorical context already provides for the possibility of the pervasiveness of these racist attitudes. However, it is equally important for one to realize one’s own responsibility in exercising one’s freedom to transcend the negative confines of the sociohistorical context. What one is to confront ultimately is not the inferiority and self-doubt imposed from without but inferiority that emerges from within when the choice is made to abandon, not only responsibility, but also the ability to respond. For many, the veil of inferiority and self-doubt can be lifted when one begins to experience oneself as a person apart from one’s race or gender or job; that is, as one who is free to choose, to act, and to be. While social constructions like race can be a source of identity, that which is invalid racial cultural heritage (id est, nonbeing, inferiority) and that which is valid immediate experience (id est, freedom, meaning, beings) are reconciled in an existential encounter that encompasses the sociohistorical context. #RandolphHarris 2 of 20
To dismiss the influence of either past or present social context would be delusional. However, freedom comes with the awareness that one’s persona and collective history does not determine present choice but rather acknowledges the past in order that one may fruitfully move beyond it to facilitate the cycle of freedom. One’s journey toward freedom begins with one’s recognition that the choices one made in the past could be made meaningful in the present when one recognizes one’s responsibility for those choices. Moreover, personal acknowledgment of one’s ability to respond opens one up to heretofore unrecognized potentialities. When seeking therapy, racial/ethnic heritage of your therapist is unimportant. What is important is that the therapist be grounded in a broad education that offers one the necessary sensitivity to the sociohistorical influences on the client. An existential framework can lend invaluable perspective to that understanding. Nowhere is the perception of being hyperconstricted, of being dismissed and wiped away, more acute than in the general American community today; and many people White, Black, Asian, Native American, Latino and Indian are a representative casualty. #RandolphHarris 3 of 20
The average aspirant does not find the true teachers because one would not behave oneself correctly if one did. Sooner or later one would abuse the lofty character of the relation of discipleship ad seek to force it to become a half-Worldly one. It is probably true to say that even imperfect teachers, who are all that the public is likely to know, often receive from their followers frantic appeals for this or that personal intervention or frenzied outpourings concerning this or that personal material problem for which immediate help is demanded. However, even when the aspirant has lined oneself up with an embodied master or invisible adept, a scriptural personage or one’s own higher self, one may start to assume that the higher power or person is henceforth going to settle all one’s personal troubles without one’s own higher self, one may start to assume that the higher power or person is henceforth going to settle all one’s personal troubles without one’s own exertions being called for. This is a piece of wishful thinking. The very purpose of evolution would be defeated if one were to be deprived of the opportunity of tackling one’s problems and troubles for oneself: it is only so that one’s capacities can stretch out and one’s understanding enlarge itself. We may sympathize with the need of troubled disciples, but a wrong notion of what constitutes the teacher-disciple relation would not help them. It will lead to false hopes and the anguish of subsequent disappointment. For what is it they are really trying to do? #RandolphHarris 4 of 20
From their first day in the real World, especially with lives being lost, cultures being degraded, businesses being forced to shut, people being made to stop working and stay home, land being taken away, foreclosures, evictions, and so forth, people are told to disparage themselves. Lacking their own cultural yardstick, many are squeezed into the yardstick of the majority and distance oneself from that which is dynamic in oneself. Becoming increasingly depersonalized, some may choose to drop out of college after two years, abandoning the idea of a degree. Surprisingly, however (or perhaps not so surprisingly, given one’s driven, overcompensatory needs), individuals often are then able to work their way into a management position. Yet, these positions resolve little in their lives—especially in their desolated cores. People are both attached to and reviled by their core. It keeps them safe, buffering them from the risks of success; but it also suffocates one and chokes off their developmental promise. Although many individuals are mostly depressed, therefore, they are also periodically grandiose—to counter their empty spirit. It is important to find a therapist who can help to break this debilitating cycle. It is helpful to pause over one’s expansive and constrictive fears, clarify them, and learn to become response-able toward them, turning them to one’s advantage. #RandolphHarris 5 of 20
Yet, before many can face this formidable task, one must deal with more immediate matters—such as their debts to their creditors. These can be dealt with at the social-advocacy level by finding someone to tangibly help one with one’s obligations. This kind of assistance, it should be noted, is extremely significant with the Existential-Integrative framework. Until people are both ready and capable of change, experiential inquiry is fruitless. It is highly important, therefore, to clear the space for such experiential inquiry if fruitless. It is highly important, therefore, to clear the space for such experiential inquiry by addressing the crises that prevent it. Once a person’s debts are alleviated, this will help to expand a person’s self-esteem. This can be facilitated at the cognitive-behavioural levels—reinforcing appropriate spending habits, rationally restricting one’s outlook on work, and so on. This reconditioning will help one feel more accomplished and will broaden one’s capacity for choice. The Adlerian concepts of inferiority-superiority (which refers to the practice and belief that people as individuals should be validated, connected, and made to feel significant) are helpful, but limited in their sphere of application. It must also be revealed to one how one keeps oneself from full presence and thus sets oneself up for dysfunction. #RandolphHarris 6 of 20
There are two exercises in combination—and the help from a sensitive doctor’s demystification of racism—will help one to see how one can empower one’s life and how one can productively respond to adverse conditions. They will take one out of the loop of extremism, moreover—where one was either too little or too much—and reveal to one the complexity (both freeing and limiting) of one’s liberation. In the final analysis, does one become successful? Yes, we are assured—but much in the manner of Sisyphus, who could ultimately respond to, and take responsibility for, one’s own destiny. In psychology, the Zeigarnik effect occurs when an activity that has been interrupted may be more readily recalled. It postulates that people remember unfinished or interrupted tasks better than completed tasks. There is an ingredient, the invitation to sickness or the invitation to wellness. I think it would manifest itself in a multilevel way, but as expression of a fundamental commitment. Let us take the witches first of all, those who want to send out sickness waves. They probably are operating on the following assumption: “Other people are no darn good. They are worthless, and life is not worth living anyway.” That is one way of trying to describe or infer their philosophy of life. This attitude permeates presumably all of their interpersonal transactions and their sickness-making manifests itself almost in operant conditioning in terms. #RandolphHarris 7 of 20
If every time the other person utters something that looks like joy or hope they say, “Nay,” they respond to joy or hope with negative reinforcement. And they disconfirm or punish any idiosyncratic expression from the other that reveals the other’s identity. The sick-maker is a genius for making others feel worthless, like nobody, as not worthy of attention. You see this in lots of mothers and fathers. And sometimes in those acquaintances that give you pain in the neck. The healers seem to operate on the philosophy that life is good. People are good. Individuality and self-disclosure are good. There is hope. In interpersonal transactions they welcome diversity, strength, self-confidence, groping, trying. They confirm the other. When somebody is trying to do something impossible, they do not say, “It is impossible, why waste the effort?” They say, “Good, good; try it.” If the person fails, rather than say, “I told you so,” they pick one up, and say, “Never mind. Dusty yourself off and try again, try again.” The healers and witches embody fundamental attitudes, what Dr. Freud termed Eros and Thanatos. This implies some people are destructive to health. If a person feels sick, hopeless, and worthless as long as one is involved with this person, and one feels better when the individual is away from one, what is to stop a therapist from saying, “Stay away from this person; one is a public-health menace to you”? #RandolphHarris 8 of 20
If the other person is a parent or a spouse, a neighbor, the mayor, governor, or fake news media, I do not know any magic solution. You and the individual wrestle with the dilemma. It is a conflict, but it is better to know what the conflict is and wrestle with it, than to deny it. Find out the cost of choosing this way or choosing that way. Then seek the guts to choose a way our or a way to live with the conflict. There is always the possibility, too, that somebody who lives with a lethal spouse, lethal parent, lethal fake news media, or lethal politicians may themselves have elicited this lethality. They may have invited the lethal one’s lethality. It is they themselves that changed their ways of being with that other person. For example, the individual may have repressed one’s anger and one’s strength. If one expressed them to spouse, parent, fake news media or politicians, this might have shut off the lethality of the other. I have seen it happen. A therapist can ask, “Why do you not tell your mayor or governor to go to hades?” The person says, “I could never say that.” However, one may be helped to express one’s anger and find one’s strength. One gets the message across, and the mayor and governor stops having a lethal effect on one. #RandolphHarris 9 of 20
It is a fascinating thought that just as there are bubonic-plague carries whom public-health official want to corral, and syphilis carriers, TB carries, COVID-19 carries—what about the “pain-in-the-neck-producers,” the “psychosis-producers,” the “disorganization-producers,” who are, in a sense, a public-health menace, who spread misery wherever they go? Should not these be identified and corralled? It is a possibility. What is to stop a teacher, at great risk, from saying to the parents of students who are in dysfunctional homes or apartments that, “I really believe your child is having difficulty in school because there is difficulty in the home”? I think they will get the message (if things do not improve and their health and grades keep declining, I am going to have to contact the proper authorities). Man, that is a rough problem, and you have to grope wit it. Grope that is my considered professional advice. Grope and do not give up. The main thing we can do is work with the child and hope that one can find oneself and muster up enough strength to go beyond one’s difficulties. Keep groping. That is a worthwhile motto for any person involved with the arts of counseling, therapy, or teaching—where no techniques yet invented can be guaranteed to bring about successful attainment of aims. #RandolphHarris 10 of 20
The therapist, like the artist, must continually grope for new ways to implement one’s objective, or bringing desirable human possibilities into being. Change is never easy. To pioneer is anxiety-arousing for the individual and threatening to colleagues. It seems it would be much simpler to go back to being the authority. It is hard being a person to people who depend on you. Many people have found the only way to handle the doubt of people who need them is to find ways of including them in the learning process. Individuals are finding that if they are to carry out a quiet revolution in the community and World, they definitely need a support group. This can be small, perhaps only two or three people, but a resource of persons where one does not need to defend one’s point of view, and can freely discuss the successes and failures, the problems faced, the difficulties unresolved. However, a facilitator is also taking the risk of threatening the administration. How is that dealt with? Many people are expected to write down behavioral objectives for each political representative or for each city and state, and later to give evidence that these objectives have been achieved. The anxiety that underlies these demands—sometimes encased in the law—is understandable. The public hopes that people are learning, and this has been the only way they can see of determining whether learning is taking place. #RandolphHarris 11 of 20
What is a revolution? A redefinition of the facts of life, such that the new definition and the old definition of the same facts cannot coexist. Clearly, to advance a revolution threatens the power of a conventional administration, and a consequent risk to the facilitator, who is radical in the true sense of going to the root of the problem. This risk cannot be ignored. Nature has placed humankind under the governance of two sovereign masters, pain and pleasures. It is for them alone to point out what we ought to do, as well as to determine what we shall do. On the one hand the standard of right and wrong, on the other the chain of cause and effects, are fastened to their throne. They govern us in all we do, in all we say, in all we think: every effort we can make to throw off our subjection, will serve but to demonstrate and confirm it. In words a human may pretend to abjure their empire: but in reality one will remain subject to it all the while. The principle of utility recognizes this subjection, and assumes it for the foundation of that system, the object of which is to rear the fabric of felicity by the hands of reason and law. Systems which attempt to question it, deal in sounds instead of sense, in caprice instead of reason, in darkness instead of light. However, enough of metaphor and declamation: it is not by such means that moral science is to be improved. #RandolphHarris 12 of 20
A day-by-day parceling out of grace—and only as much as we need—may seem inconsistent with the abundant generosity of God. This is not the case at all. Rather, as we say in the past, God continually works to keep us aware of our dependence on Him. We were created for a simple, childlike dependence on Him, but since the Fall we have tended to resist that dependence. God well knew this tendency when He gave this warning through Moses to the Israelites: “You may say to yourself, ‘My power and the strength of my hands have produced this wealth for me.’ However, remember the LORD your God, for it is He who gives you the ability to produce wealth, ad so confirms His covenant, which He swore to your forefathers, as it is today,” reports Deuteronomy 8.17-18. It is noteworthy that this warning occurs shortly after the reminder in verses 2-3. “Remember how the LORD your God led you all the way in the desert these forty years, to humble you and to test you in order to know what was in your heart, whether or not you would keep His commands. He humbled you, causing you to hunger and then feeding you with manna, which neither you nor your fathers had known, to teach you that humans do not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of the LORD,” Deuteronomy 8.2-3. #RandolphHarris 13 of 20
There the Israelites were reminded of their days of extremity and very obvious dependence on God for their daily food. However, God warned them that, even after forty years of such conscious dependence, the day would come when they would look around at their bountiful supply of food and say, “My power and the strength of my hands have produced this wealth for me.” Such a self-sufficient attitude is obviously detrimental to our relationship with God, so He works to keep that from happening. He allows our respective thorns in the flesh to remain, giving us grace sufficient to cope with them only day by day. From time to time He brings extraordinary crises into our lives, as He did when Paul was forced to say, “We were under great pressure, far beyond our ability to endure, so that we despaired even of life. Indeed, in our hearts we felt the sentence of death. However, this happened that we might not rely on ourselves but on God, who raises the dead,” reports 2 Corinthians 1.8-9. Despite his ever-present thorn, Paul was brought to a crisis extremity to learn anew to rely not on himself but on God. Whether it is the continuing thorn in the flesh or the extraordinary crisis that sometimes occurs, both are intended by God to keep us conscious of our human weakness and our dependence on Him, so that we might experience the sufficiency of His grace and the adequacy of His power. #RandolphHarris 14 of 20
Paul’s attitude towards his weakness was vastly different from our usual modern response. We abhor weakness and glory in self-sufficiency and humanmade accomplishment. Even Christians flock to hear the sports superstar or the popular entertainer give one’s testimony, simply because of that person’s fame and status. How many of us would make any effort to hear a person who said, “I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses. I delight in weaknesses. For wen I am weak, then I am strong”? I think of how I have struggled with my own weaknesses instead of delighting in them. I think of the disappointment of failing to reach important goals, of humiliations suffered that were too painful to ever share with anyone, of somewhat minor but very annoying lifetime physical infirmities. Only in the last few years, have I realized what a significant contribution those disappointments, heartaches, and frustrations—especially in their cumulative effect—have made on my walk with God and my service for Him. I think I am only beginning to understand a little bit the validity of Paul’s statement, “when I am weak, then I am strong.” Sometimes when I am introduced as a speaker, I cringe inwardly as the person introducing me waxes eloquent about my accomplishments. #RandolphHarris 15 of 20
I sit there and think, What if they knew the other side of the story? Would they all get up and leave? Yet ironically, it is the other side of the story, the humiliations and heartaches, the failures and frustrations—not the successes and accomplishments—that have qualified me to be there to speak. Those difficult times have driven me to the Lord. I will be honest. It was not that I wanted to lean of God; I had no other choice. However, I am finally learning that in weakness I find strength—His strength. Every believer must learn that human weakness and divine grace go hand in and together. Paul had learned that lesson well. He said, “Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weakness so that Christ’s power may rest on me,” reports 2 Corinthians 12.9. Paul had learned that God’s grace is indeed sufficient; His divine enabling through the power of the Holy Spirit would sustain him in the midst of the torments of his thorn, and in the depths of other weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and difficulties. “That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong,” reports 2 Corinthians 12.10. The anguish Paul experienced was real anguish, and the grace he received was real grace. It was not theoretical, nor make-believe, nor merely whistling in the dark to keep courage. #RandolphHarris 16 of 20
No, Paul’s experienced a very concrete expression of God’s love and power as the Holy Spirit ministered comfort and encouragement to him in the midst of affliction. Alma believers and write the words of Abinadi—Abinadi suffers death by fire—he prophesies disease and death by fire upon his murderers. About 148 Before Christ. “And now it came to pass that when Abinadi had finished these sayings, that the king commanded that the priests should take him and cause that he should be put to death. However, there was one among them whose name was Alma, he also being a descendant of Nephi. And he was a young man, and he believed the words which Abinadi had testified against them; therefore he began to plead with the kind that he would not be angry with Abinadi, but suffer that he might depart in peace. However, the kind was more wroth, and caused that Alma should be cast out from among them, and sent his servants after him that they might slay him. However, he fled from before them and hid himself that they found him not. And he being concealed for many days did write all the words which Abinadi had spoken. And it came to pass that the kind caused that his guards should surround Abinadi and take him; and they bound him and cast him into prison. And after three days, having counseled with his priests, he caused that he should again be brought before him. #RandolphHarris 17 of 20
“And he said unto him: Abinadi, we have found an accusation against thee, and thou art worthy of death. For thou hast said that God himself should come down among the children of humans; and now, for this cause thou shalt be put to death unless thou wilt recall all the words which thou hast spoken evil concerning me and my people. Now Abinadi said unto him: I say unto you, I will not recall the words which I have spoken unto you concerning this people, for they are true; and that ye may know of their surety I have suffered myself that I have fallen into your hands. Yea, and I will suffer even until death, and I will not recall my words, and they shall stand as a testimony against you at the last day. And now king Noah was about to release him, for he feared his word; for he feared that the judgments of God would come upon him. However, the priests lifted up their voices against him, and began to accuse him, saying: He has reviled the king. Therefore the king was stirred up in anger against him, and he delivered him up that he might be slain. And it came to pass that they took him and bound him, and scourged his skin with faggots (a bundle of sticks or twigs bound together as fuel, a fascine, a torch, excreta), yea, even to death. And now when the flames began to scorch him, he cried unto them saying: #RandolphHarris 18 of 20
“Behold, even as ye have done unto me, so shall it come to pass that thy seed shall cause that many shall suffer the pains that I do suffer, even the pains of death by fire; and this because they believe in the salvation of the Lord their God. And it will come to pass that ye shall be afflicted with all manner of diseases because of your iniquities. Yea, and ye shall be smitten on every hand, and shall be driven and scattered to and fro, even as a wild flock is driven by wild and ferocious beasts. And in that day ye shall be hunted, and ye shall be taken by the hand of your enemies, and then ye shall suffer, as I suffer, then pains of death by fire. Thus God executeth vengeance upon those that destroy his people. O God, receive my soul. And now, when Abinadi had said these words, he fell, having been put to death because he would not deny the commandments of God, having sealed the truth of his words by his death,” reports Mosiah 17.1-20. O Lord my Lord, this is Thy day, the Heavenly ordinance of rest, the open door of worship, the record of Jesus’ resurrection, the seal of the sabbath to come, the day when saints militant and triumphant unite in endless song. #RandolphHarris 19 of 20
I bless Thee for the throne of grace, that here free favour reigns; that open access to it is through the blood of Jesus; that they veil is torn aside and I can enter the holiest and find Thee ready to hear, waiting to be gracious, inviting me to pour out my needs, encouraging my desires, promising to give more than I ask or think. However, while I bless Thee, shame and confusion are mine: I remember my past misuse of sacred things, my irreverent worship, my base ingratitude, my cold, dull praise. Please sprinkle all my past sabbaths with the cleansing blood of Jesus, and may this day witness deep improvement in me. Give me in rich abundance the blessings the Lord’s Day was designed to impart; may my heart be fast bound against Worldly thoughts or cares; please flood my mind with peace beyond understanding’ may my meditations be sweet, my acts of worship life, liberty, joy, my drink the streams that flow from Thy throne, my food the precious word, my defence the shield of faith, and may my heart be more knit to Jesus. Almighty and merciful God, we beseech Thee to give us rest from the storm of war; for Thou wilt bestow on us all good things if Thou givest us peace both of soul and body; through Jesus Christ our Lord. #RandolphHarris 20 of 20
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Behold, O God our Defender, and please protect us from fear of the enemy; that all disturbance being removed, we may serve Thee with minds free from distraction; through Jesus Christ our Lord. #CresleighHomes
Remember that Time is Money—You Cannot Fight Against the Future for Time is on Our Side!
The only war I ever approved of was the Trojan war; it was fought over a woman and the men knew what they were fighting for. If one person is inadequate or poorly equipped in responding in a mature and authentic love relationship, the other person many find that one cannot continue giving. Mutuality, the giving-taking circle, replenishes and nourishes and assists the growth of each person in a relationship. Another aspect of a love relationship is respect. Not fear or awesome deference, but appreciation of the uniqueness and selfhood of another. In true respect there is no need to do anything to diminish or hurt the other person, to ridicule or damage another’s integrity. There is acceptance in the active, beneficial sense: “There you are. I see, take in, readily acknowledge you and what you are. I really dig you!” Respect also implies active concern. It means that if I respect you, I want the best for you: I want you to grow and become all that you are, and I do not want you to become anything for me! If you became what I wanted you to, then you would not be you; you would be come kind of me-shaped or me-coloured reflection. Then, I would not be acknowledging you as you. I would be saying I can only love the me I see in you. And this is narcissism, an exploitive form of conceit far removed from real other-love. In the Old World, people used to steam letters open to obtain tidbits of juicy information, but in the New World, we have new concerns. #RandolphHarris 1 of 20
E-mail can sometimes feel intimate in the same way a private conversation does, but the reality is that email is anything, but private. In fact, e-mails are one of the most easily intercepted and duplicated forms of communication, especially if they are unencrypted. The absolute bottom line: if you cannot post it on a bulletin board, then do not send it. Hackers are not the only threat to e-mail privacy in the workplace; employers, law enforcement officials and even internet service providers all have the ability to monitor and review e-mail communications. For businesses and organizations, this can easily become an issue, not least of all because it has the potential to violate key e-mail privacy laws, and regulations. The E-mail Privacy Act: This update to the Electronic Communications Privacy Act of 1986 prevents electronic and remote communication service providers from voluntarily disclosing the contents of e-mails, requires the government to obtain a warrant to compel the disclosure of email contents and revises the process for obtaining a delayed notification order. General Data Protection Rule (GDPR): stipulates that all personal data, including personal data contained in e-mail, must be processed lawfully and in a transparent manner, must be kept up to date and must be kept in a form which permits identification of data subject for no longer than is necessary. #RandolphHarris 2 of 20
All reasonings concerning matter of fact seem to be founded on the relation of Cause and Effect. By means of that relation alone we can go beyond the evidence of our memory and senses. If you were to ask a man, why he believers any matter of fact, which is absent; for instance, that his friend is in the country, or in CANADA; he would give you a reason; and this reason would be some other fact; as a letter received from hu, or the knowledge of his former resolutions and promises. A man, finding a watch or any other machines in a desert island, would conclude, that there had once been humans on in that island. All our reasonings concerning fact are of the same nature. And here it is constantly supposed, that there is a connexion between the present fact and that which is inferred from it. Were there nothing to bind them together, the inference would be entirely precarious. The hearing of an articulate voice and rational discourse in the dark assures us the presence of some person: Why? because these are the effects of the human make and fabric, and closely connected with it. If we anatomize all the other reasonings of this nature, we shall find, that they are founded on the relation of cause and effect, and that this relation is either near or remote, direct or collateral. #RandolphHarris 3 of 20
Heat and light are collateral effect of fire, and one effect may justly be inferred from the other. If we would satisfy ourselves, therefore, concerning the nature of that evidence, which assures us of matters of fact, we must enquire how we arrive at the knowledge of cause and effect. I shall venture to affirm, as a general proposition, which admits of no exception, that the knowledge of this relation is not, in any instance, attained by reasonings a priori; but arises entirely from experience, when we find, that any particular objects are constantly conjoined with each other. Let an object be presented to a person of ever so strong natural reason and abilities; if that object be entirely new to one, one will not be able, by the most accurate examination of its sensible qualities, to discover any of its cases. ADAM, though his rational faculties be supposed, at the very first, entirely perfect could not have inferred from the fluidity, and transparency of water, that it would suffocate him, or from the light and warmth of fire, that it would consume him. No object ever discovers, by the qualities which appear to the senses, either the causes which produce it, or the effects which will arise from it; nor can our reason, unassisted by experience, ever draw any inference concerning real existence and matter of fact. #RandolphHarris 4 of 20
This proposition, that causes and effects are discoverable, not by reason, but by experience, will readily be admitted with regard to such objects, as we remember to have once been altogether unknown to us; since we must be conscious of the utter inability, which we then lay under, of foretelling, what would arise from them. Present two smooth pieces of marble to a human, who had no tincture of natural philosophy; one will never discover, that they will adhere together, in such a manner as to require great force to separate them in a direct line, while they make so small a resistance to a lateral pressure. Such events, as bear little analogy to the common course of nature, are also readily confessed to be known only by experience; nor does any human imagine that explosion of gunpowder, or the attraction of a loadstone, could ever be discovered by arguments a priori. In like manner, when an effect is supposed to depend upon an intricate machinery or secret structure of part, we make no difficulty in attributing all our knowledge of it to experience. Who will assert, that one can give the ultimate reason, why milk or bread is proper nourishment for a human, not for a lion or a tiger, bird or dog? #RandolphHarris 5 of 20
However, the same truth may not appear, at first sight, to have the same evidence with regard to events, which have become familiar to us from our first appearance in the World, which bear a close analogy to the whole course of nature, and which are supposed to depend on the simple qualities of objects, without any secret structures of parts. We are apt to imagine, that we could discover these effects by the mere operation of our reason, without experience. We fancy, that were we brought, on a sudden, into this World, we could at first have inferred, that one Billiard-ball would communicate motion to another upon impulse; and that we needed not to have waited for the event, in order to pronounce with certainty concerning it. Such is the influence of custom, that, where it is strongest, it not only covers our natural ignorance, but even conceals itself, and seems not to take place, merely because it is found in the highest degree. However, to convince us, that all the laws of nature, and all the operations of bodies without exception, are known only by experience, the following reflections may, perhaps, suffice. Were any object presented to us, and were we required to pronounce concerning the effect, which will result from it, without consulting past observation; after what manner, I beseech you, mist the mind proceed in this operation? #RandolphHarris 6 of 20
It must invent or imagine some event, which it ascribes to the object as its effect; and it is plain that this invention must be entirely arbitrary. The mind can never possibly find the effect in the supposed cause, by the most accurate scrutiny and examination. For the effect is totally different from the cause, and consequently can never be discovered in it. Motion in the second Billiard-ball is a quite distinct event from motion in the first; nor is there any thing in the one to suggest the smallest hint of the other. A stone or piece of metal raised into the air, and left without any support, immediately falls: However, to consider the mater a priori, is there anything we discover in this situation, which can beget the idea of a downward, rather than an upward, or any other motion, in the stone or metal? And as the imagination or invention of a particular effect, in all natural operations, is arbitrary, where we consult not experience; so must we also esteem the supposed bond or connexion between the cause and effect, which binds them together, and renders it impossible, that any other defect could result from the operation of that cause. When I see, for instance, a Billiard-ball moving in a straight line towards another; even supposed motion in the second ball should by accident be suggested to me, as the result of their contact or impulse; may I not conceive, that a hundred different events might as well follow from that cause? #RandolphHarris 7 of 20
May not both these balls remain at absolute rest? May not the first ball return in a straight line, or leap off from the second in any line or direction? All these suppositions are consistent and conceivable. Why then should we give the preference to me, which is no more consistent or conceivable than the rest? All our reasonings a priori will never be able to show us any foundation for this preference. In a word, then, every effect is a distinct event from its cause. It could not, therefore, be discovered in the cause, and the first invention or conception of it, a priori, must be entirely arbitrary. And even after it is suggested, the conjunction of it with the cause must appear equally arbitrary; since there are always many other effects, which, to reason, must seem fully as consistent and natural. In vain, therefore, should we pretend to determine any single even, or infer any cause or effect, without the assistance of observation and experience. Hence we may discover the reason, why no philosopher, who is rational and modest, has ever pretended to assign the ultimate cause of any natural operation, or to show distinctly the action of that power, which produces any single effect in the Universe. #RandolphHarris 8 of 20
It is confessed, that the utmost effort of human reason is, to reduce the principles, productive of natural phenomena, to a greater simplicity, and to resolve the many particular effects into a few general causes, by means of reasonings from analogy, experience, and observation. However, as to the causes of these general causes, we should in vain attempt their discovery; nor shall we ever be able to satisfy ourselves, by any particular explication of them. These ultimate springs and principles are totally shut up from human curiosity and enquiry. Elasticity, gravity, cohesion of parts, communication of motion by impulse; these are probably the ultimate causes and principles which we shall ever discover in nature; and we may esteem ourselves sufficiently happy, if, by accurate enquiry and reasoning, we can trace up the particular phenomena to, nor near to, these general principles. The most perfect philosophy of the natural kind only staves off our ignorance a little longer: As perhaps the post perfect philosophy of the moral or metaphysical kind serves only to discover larger portions of it. Thus the observation of human blindness and weakness is the result of all philosophy, and meets us, at every turn, in spite of our endeavours to elude or avoid it. #RandolphHarris 9 of 20
Nor is geometry, when take into the assistance of natural philosophy, ever able to remedy this effect, or lead us into the knowledge of ultimate causes, by all that accuracy of reasoning, for which it is so justly celebrated. Every part of mixed mathematics (equivalent to what would today be called “applied mathematics,” or the application of mathematics or mathematical principles to the physical World and experience, as, for instance, in astronomy, surveying, or the calculation of empirical probabilities) proceeds upon the position, that certain laws are established by nature in her operations; and abstract reasonings are employed, either to assist experience in the discovery of these laws, or to determine their influence in particular instances, where it depends upon any precise degree of distance and quantity. Thus, it is a law of motion, discovered by experience, that the moment of force of any body in motion is in the compound ratio or proportion of its solid contents and its velocity; and consequently, that a small force may remove the greatest obstacle or raise the greatest weight, if, by any contrivance or machinery, we can increase the velocity of that force, so as to make it an overmatch for its antagonist. #RandolphHarris 10 of 20
Geometry assists us in the application of this law, by giving us the just dimensions of all the parts and figures, which can enter into any species of machine; but still the discovery of the law itself is owing merely to experience, and all the abstract reasonings in the World could never lead us one step towards the knowledge of it. When we reason a priori and consider merely any object or cause, as it appears to the mind, independent of all observation, it never could suggest to us the notion of any distinct object, such as its effect; much less, show us the inseparable and inviolable connection between them. A human must be very sagacious, who could discover by reasoning, that crystal is the effect of heat, and ice of cold, without being previously acquainted with the operation of these qualities. Among all possible spirits the spirits of the parents are in practice the most important; hence the universal incidence of the ancestor cult. In its original form it served to conciliate the revenants, but on a high level of culture it became an essentially moral and educational institution, as in China. For the child, the parents are one’s closet and most influential relations. In dealing with psychoanalysis, the imago is an unconscious idealized mental image of someone, especially a parent, which influences a person’s behaviour. #RandolphHarris 11 of 20
As one grows older this influence is split off; consequently the parental imagos become increasingly shut away from consciousness, and on account of the restrictive influence they sometimes continue to exert, they easily acquire a negative aspect. In this way the parental imagos remain as alien elements somewhere “outside” the psyche. In place of the parents, woman now takes up her position as the most immediate environmental influence in the life of the adult man. She becomes his companion, she belongs to him in so far as she shares his life and is more or less of the same age. She is not of a superior order, either by virtue of age, or authority, or physical strength. She is, however, a very influence factor and, like the parents, she produces an imago of a relatively autonomous nature—not an imago to be split off like that of the parents, but one that has to be kept associated with consciousness. Woman, with her very dissimilar psychology, is and always has been a source of information about things for which a man has no eyes. She can be his inspiration; her intuitive capacity, often superior to man’s, can give him timely warning, and her feeling, always directed towards the personal, can show him ways which is own less personally accepted feeling would never be discovered. Here, without a doubt, is one of the main sources for the feminine quality of the soul. However, it does not seem to be the only source. #RandolphHarris 12 of 20
No man is so entirely masculine that he has nothing feminine in him. The fact is, rather, that very masculine men have—carefully guarded and hidden—a very soft emotion life, often incorrectly described as “feminine.” A man counts it’s a virtue to repress his feminine traits as much as possible, just as a woman, at least until recently, considered it unbecoming to be “mannish.” The repression of feminine traits and inclinations naturally causes these constresexual demand to accumulate in the unconscious. No less naturally, the imago of woman (the soul-image) becomes a receptacle for these demands, which is why a man, in his love-choice, is strongly tempted to win the woman who best corresponds to his own unconscious femininity—a woman, in short, who can unhesitatingly receive the projection of his soul. Although such a choice is often regarded and felt as altogether ideal, it may turn out that the man has manifestly married his own worse weakness. This would explain some highly remarkable conjunctions. It seems to me, therefore, that a part from the influence of woman there is also the man’s own femininity to explain the feminine nature of the soul complex. There is no question here of any linguistic “accident,” of the kind that makes the Sun feminine in German and masculine in other languages. #RandolphHarris 13 of 20
Once more we are caught in the snare of ontology. If we do not grasp the glory of the cross, life is wasted. Cherish it for the treasure that it is, and cleave to it as the highest price of every pleasure and the deepest comfort in every pain. What was once imprudence to us—a crucified God-must become our wisdom and our power and our only boast in this World. We have ontologized the symbol of the Cross. The term sacrifice now means sacrifice of the individual Jesus to the ground of being in him. It is not the Father of the New Testament story that receives the sacrifice, but the power of being inside everyone of us. The God of the Old Testament is the God of Theism, a God of love and condescension who guides his people because he loves them. The God of Jesus, his Father, is likewise the God of a religion, to whom we have a relationship of reverence, adoration and even of friendship, but this is not the God of the Cross some think of. The symbol of the Cross reaches above the God for theism. For the Crucified…cried to God who remained his God after the God of confidence had left him in the darkness of doubt and meaninglessness. Taking its cut from this, the Church under the Cross, as now interpreted, raises itself in its message and its devotion to the God above the God of theism without sacrificing its concrete symbols. #RandolphHarris 14 of 20
The Church stand for the power of being-itself or for the God who transcends the God of all religions. In this view, the God of theism, the God who has been adored in all religions and who, as it was hitherto believed by Christians, revealed himself in Jesus the Christ, is only a convenient source of concrete symbols for a philosophical theory concerning the power to be. It itself is a symbol of the power to be, the fathomless abyss and ground of being on the surface of which our consciousness floats. The living God is not the God of the philosophers, but the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. However, they could not be more mistaken. The God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, the God of the prophets, the God of Jesus, the God of the Christian tradition, is a concrete but inadequate symbol for the God of the philosophers. That is probably because some of them were born prior to Christ and before the prophecies of him coming to be. The myth of the Cross is a convenient image for the death of the God of theism and his replacement by the power to be. Faith is simply a more or less confused awareness of being-itself, beneath all the concrete experiences of human’s existence. The Christ represents this ground of being when it is known in an intense intuition and feeling of regeneration. The Christ is thus the New Being, the New Creation. #RandolphHarris 15 of 20
The Christ is also the Word of God; for the New Being is identical with being-itself, the Ultimate, for which the word “God” provides a traditional symbol. He is the Word because he represents the ground of being in its second aspect, its life-containing capacity. He is crucified because the Cross is an adequate symbol of self-transcendence through self-sacrifice, of the subservience of conscious being to being-itself. The Christ is therefore not merely the God of Christianity; he is the Universal God for whom all have been seeking and whom all have obscurely perceived even in their ignorance and doubt. There are those who claim that truth may be held in error, light in blindness and knowledge in ignorance. While people have faith in the ground of being of philosophers above the concrete being of the Christian God we may say with them: “But it is a mockery to attribute the name of faith to pure obliviousness.” Some may take that view because they are objecting to the concept of implicit faith found in Roman Catholic theology. How much more to the point this protest is as we face the even more remotely implicit faith of some believers with their ontological transcendence of concrete symbols! Whoever knows a thing perfectly, must know all that can bad accidental to it. Now there are some good things to which corruption by evil may be accidental. Hence God would not know good things perfectly, unless He also knows evil things. #RandolphHarris 16 of 20
Now a thing is knowable in the degree in which it is; hence since this is the essence of evil that is the privation of good, by the fact that God knows good things, He knows evil things also; as by light is known darkness. God through Himself receives the vision of darkness, not otherwise seeing darkness expect through light. God redeems humans from their lost and fallen state—Those who are carnal remain as though there were no redemption—Christ brings to pass a resurrection to endless life or to endless damnation. About 148 Before Christ. “And now, it came to pass that after Abinadi had spoken these words he stretched forth his hand and said: The time shall come when all shall see the salvation of the Lord; when every nation, kindred, tongue, and people shall see eye to eye and shall confess before God that his judgments are just. And then shall the wicked be cast out, and they shall have cause to howl, and weep, and wail, and gnash their teeth; and this because they would not hearken unto the voice of the Lord; therefore the Lord redeemeth them not. For they are carnal and devilish, and the devil has power over them; yea, even that old serpent that did beguile our first parents, which was the cause of their fall; which was he cause of all humankind becoming carnal, sensual, devilish, knowing evil from good, subjecting themselves to the devil. #RandolphHarris 17 of 20
“Thus all humankind were lost; and behold, they would have been endlessly lost were it not that God redeemed his people from their lost and fallen state. However, remember that one tat persists in one’s own carnal nature, and goes on in the ways of sin and rebellion against God, remaineth in their fallen state and the devil hath all power over them. Therefore one is as though there was no redemption made, being an enemy to God; and also is the devil an enemy to God. And now if Christ had not come into the World, speaking of things to come as though they had already come, there could have been no redemption. And if Christ had not come into the World, speaking of tings to come as though they had already come, there could have been no redemption. And if Christ had not risen from the dead, or have broken the bands of death that the grave should have no victory, and that death should have no sting, there could have been no resurrection. However, there is a resurrection, therefore the grave hath no victory, and the sting of death is swallowed up in Christ. He is the light of life of the World; yea, a light that is endless that can never be darkened; yea, and also a life which is endless, that there can be no more death. #RandolphHarris 18 of 20
“Even this mortal shall put on immorality, and this corruption shall be put on incorruption, and shall be brought to stand before the car of God, to be judged of one according to their works whether they be good or whether they be evil—if they be god, to the resurrection of endless life and happiness; and if they be evil, to the resurrection of endless damnation, being delivered up to the devil, who hath subjected them, which is damnation—having gone according to their own carnal wills and desires; having never called upon the Lord while the arms of mercy were extended towards them; for the arms of mercy were extended towards them, and they would not; they being warned of their iniquities and yet they would not depart from them; and they were commanded to repent and yet they would not repent. And now, ought ye not to tremble and repent of your sins, and remember that only in and through Christ ye can be saved? Therefore, if ye teach the law of Moses, also teach that it is a shadow of those things which are to come—teach them that redemption cometh through Christ the Lord, who is the very Eternal Father. Amen,” reports Mosiah 16.1-15. God of the passing hour, another week has gone and I have been preserved in my going out, in my coming in. #RandolphHarris 19 of 20
Thine has been the vigilance that has turned threatened evils aside; thine the supplies that have nourished me; thine comforts that have indulged me; thine the relations and friends that have delighted me; thine the means of grace which have edified me; thine the Book, which, amidst all my enjoyments has told me that his is not my rest, that in all success one thing alone is needful, to love my Saviour. Nothing can equal the number of Thy mercies but my imperfections and sins. These, O God, I will neither conceal nor palliate, but confess with a broken heart. In what condition would secret reviews of my life leave me were it not for the assurance that with Thee there is plenteous redemption, that Thou art a forgiving God, that Thou be feared! While I hope for pardon through the blood of the cross, I pray to be clothed with humility, to be quickened in Thy way, to be more devoted to Thee, to keep the end of my life in view, to be cured of the folly of delay and indecision, to know how frail I am, to number my days and apply my heart unto wisdom. Grant, we beseech Thee, O Lord, to our prayers, that all we who enter this temple, (the dedication of which we celebrate on this anniversary,) may please Thee with full and perfect devotion of soul and body; that while we now render to Thee our prayers, we may by Thy help be enabled to attain Thine eternal rewards; through our Lord Jesus Christ. #RandolphHarris 20 of 20
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There is a Plea, a Tear in Your Eye and Both are Equally Beautiful—I Accept them Both With Equal Right!
An individual attains the “good life” by harmoniously combining personal satisfactions and continuous self-actualization with significant activities that contribute to the welfare of one’s human community. No human is an island, nor is one just part of the mob; one is both an individual and a member of one’s society and culture and World. It is remarkable concerning the operations of the mind, that, though most intimately present to us, yet, whenever they become a reflection, they seem involved in obscurity; nor can the eye readily find those lines and boundaries, which discriminate and distinguish them. The objects are too fine to remain long in the same aspect or situation; and must be apprehended in an instant, by a superior penetration, derive from nature, and improved by habit and reflection. It becomes, therefore, no inconsiderable part of science barely to know the differ operations of the mind, to separate them from each other, to class them under their proper heads, and to correct all that seeming disorder, in which they lie involved, when made the object of reflection and enquiry. This task of ordering and distinguishing, which has no merit, when performed with regard to external bodies, the objects of our senses, rise in its value, when directed towards the operations of the mind, in proportion to the difficulty and labour, which we meet with in performing it. #RandolphHarris 1 of 22
And if we can go no further than this mental geography, or delineation of the distinct parts and powers of the mind, it is at least a satisfaction to go so far; and the more obvious this science may appear (and it is by no means obvious) the more contemptible still must the ignorance of it be esteemed, in app pretenders to leaning and philosophy. Nor can there remain any suspicion, that this science is uncertain and chimerical; unless we should entertain such a scepticism as is entirely subversive of all speculation, and even action. It cannot be doubted, that the mind is endowed with several powers and faculties, that these powers are distinct from each other, that what is really distinct to the immediate perception may be distinguished by reflection; and consequently, that there is a truth and falsehood in all propositions on this subject, and a truth and falsehood, which lie not beyond the compass of human understanding. There are many obvious distinctions of this kind, such as those between the will and understanding, the imagination and passions, which fall within the comprehension of every human creature; and the finer and more philosophical distinctions are no less real and certain, though more difficult to be comprehended. #RandolphHarris 2 of 22
Some instances, especially late ones, of success in these enquiries, may give us a juster notion of the certainty and solidity of this branch of learning. And shall we esteem it worthy the labour of a philosopher to give us a true system of the planets, and adjust the position and order of those remote bodies; while we affect to overlook those, who, with so much success, delineate the parts of the mind, in which we are so intimately concerned? But may we not hope, that philosophy, if cultivated with care, and encouraged by the attention of the public, may carry its researches still father, and discover, at least in some degree, the secret springs and principles, by which the human mind is actuated in its operations? Imagination is that motion of the soul which actual sensation generates. It is the power which out of itself produces forms, a force related to all the powers. It fashions all the likenesses of things, and it is a faculty of assimilating all other things to itself. Imagination detects the species of things. It purifies the objects of sense. It prepares for reason the inferior nature and puts it in shape to be cognized. The bridges body and soul, and is a mean between the material object and the immaterial form thereof. #RandolphHarris 3 of 22
Astronomers had long contented themselves with proving, from the phenomena, the true motions, order, and magnitude of the Heavenly bodies: Cornelius Van Till a philosopher, at last, arose, who seems, from the happiest reasoning, to have also determined the laws and forces, by which the revolutions of the planets are governed and directed. The like has been performed with regard to other parts of nature. And if prosecuted with equal capacity and caution, there is no reason to despair of equal success in our enquiries concerning the mental powers and economy. It is probable, that one operation and principle of the mind depends on another; which, again, may be resolved into one more general and universal: And how far these researches may possibly be carried, it will be difficult for us, before, or even after, a careful trial, exactly to determine. This is certain, that attempts of this kind are every day made even by those who philosophize the most negligently: And nothing can be more requisite than to enter upon the enterprise with thorough care and attention; that, if it lie within the compass of human understanding, it may at last be happily achieved; if not, it may, however, be rejected with some confidence and security. #RandolphHarris 4 of 22
This last conclusion, surely, is not desirable; nor ought it to be embraced too rashly. For how much must we diminish from the beauty and value of this species of philosophy, upon such a supposition? Moralist have hitherto been accustomed, when they considered the vast multitude and diversity of those actions that excite our approbation or dislike, to search for some common principle, on which this variety of sentiments might depend. And though they have sometimes carried the matter too far, by their passion for some one general principle; it must, however, be confessed, that they re excusable in expecting o find some general principles, into which all the vices and virtues were justly be to resolved. The like had been the endeavour of critics, logicians, and even politicians: Nor have their attempts been wholly unsuccessful; though perhaps longer time, greater accuracy, and more ardent application may bring these sciences still nearer their perfection. To throw up at once all pretensions of this kind may justly be deemed more rash, precipitate, and more strict and rigid, than even the boldest and most affirmative philosophy, that had ever attempted to impose its crude dictates and principles on humankind. #RandolphHarris 5 of 22
What though these reasonings concerning human nature seem abstract, and of difficult comprehension? This affords no presumption of their falsehood. On the contrary, it seems impossible, that what has hitherto escaped so many wise and profound philosophers can be very obvious and easy. And whatever pains these researchers may cost us, we may think ourselves sufficiently rewarded, not only in point of profit but of pleasure, if, by that means, we can make any addition to our stock of knowledge, in subjects of such unspeakable importance. However as, after all, the abstractedness of these speculations is no recommendation, but rather a disadvantage to them, and as this difficulty may perhaps be surmounted by care and art, and the avoiding of all unnecessary detail. Phantasms decay in memory, and a human is said to have remembered only when one knows one has had the experience before. Behaviour of the imagination, both in its reproductive and creative roles, can be drawn from three kinds of imagination—imaginative activity that illuminates things past, present, and future. In linking imagination with the memory and with things past, we see the imaginations role in making past experience available to reason for deliberation and judgment, and available to the will for satisfaction and action. #RandolphHarris 6 of 22
Imagination takes images directly from the senses and helps resurrect them from memory and presents them to reason whenever they have become subject to analysis and judgment. To the senses and memory it is thus agent and messenger. To reason, on the other hand, it is like a lawyer who presents needed materials for judicial decision, and like a deputy who delivers reason’s degree to the will for execution. It is true that the Imagination functions as a go-between in both provinces, the judicial and the ministerial, assisting alike messenger, agent, and deputy, and attorney. For Sense gives up all kinds of idols [the forms and images it worships] to the Imagination for Reason to judge of; and Reason again when it has made its judgment and selection, sends them over to Imagination before the decree be put in executive. For voluntary motion is ever preceded and incited by imagination; so that imagination is as common instrument to both—both reason and will. Because of its association with reason when a prudential decision was at stake, the action of imagination could reveal qualities of truth and goodness. So the faculty could be Janus-like, showing two faces as sisters should, the face toward reason having the print of truth and the face toward action have the print of goodness. #RandolphHarris 7 of 22
It its role as messenger imagination is clearly subservient to sense, memory, and reason. It helps these faculties to communicate with each other; it works with them without participating in creation, simply presenting the record of things past and done. The power of an image to incite voluntary movement is also possible. Imagination is the first internal beginning of all voluntary motion. The imagination assists and understands principally in matter of invention. It supplies a variety of objects whereon to work. It assists the will by quickening, alluring, and sharpening its desire towards some convenient object, for some plausible fancy does more prevail with tender Wills, than a severe and sullen Argument, and hath more powerful insinuations to persuade, than the peremptoriness of Reason has to command. We should unfold some interpretations of Christian symbols. Christ and the New Being are no doubt fundamental, yet they are not alone. Other aspects have to be pointed to by means of other symbols. One of these brings us to the brink of the strict and rigid doctrine and cases of to question the divinity of Christ. It is the symbol of Christ as the Logos or Word of God. Jesus as the Christ is the Logos. However, that statement is paradoxical. #RandolphHarris 8 of 22
That is, it contradicts the doxa, the opinion derived from human’s existential predicament and all expectation imaginable on the basis of the predicament. This opinion formulates the universal fact of estrangement. The paradox is that a human being, living under the conditions of estrangement, nevertheless conquered and dominated them. One should not examine this from the standpoint of logic, but from that of experience: The paradox is a new reality and not a logical riddle. Statements concerning the Christ are not therefore to be justified on the level of philosophical logic. They stand or fall on the strength of the revelatory situation which imposes them, which is all the more remarkable since “logos” and “Word” are of philosophical origin and have philosophical connotations. The doctrine of the Word of God has been obscured by various meanings which Christianity has attributed to the expression. The first meaning is the closet to its philosophical origin. The Word, or Logos, is the first of all principle of the divine self-manifestation in the ground of being itself. The ground is not only an abyss in which every form disappears; it also is the source from which every form emerges. The ground of being has the character of self-manifestation; it has logos character. This is not something added to the divine life; it is the divine life itself. #RandolphHarris 9 of 22
Other meanings of the term Word are derivative. The Word is the medium of creation, the dynamic spiritual World which mediates between the silent mystery of the abyss of being and the fullness of concrete, individualized, self-related beings; the manifestation of the divine life in the history of revelation; the manifestation of divine life in the final revelation; the documentation of the final revelation; he message of the Church as proclaimed in her preaching and teaching. The important element in this Christology is that the first, second, third, and fourth meanings of the term Word all coincide in the event of Jesus as the Christ. This is to say that the Christ is the New Bring able to conquer the situation of estrangement because e is primordially the principle of the divine self-manifestation. That which appeared in the history of humankind in the shape of Jesus and which was recognized as the New Being by the Apostles in no other than the very abyss and ground of everything that is. The symbol of the Word, in itself, can be detached from a historical manifestation. It could be the self-manifestation of God, the demonstration of being-itself to being-itself, the infinite depth and wisdom of the divine. It is all this, and also something more: the manifestation of being-itself in one concrete human being, Jesus. This is borne out by applying the symbol of “the Word of God” to the Christ. #RandolphHarris 10 of 22
At this point, the symbol of the Word interlocks with Trinitarian thinking. The Word is the Word of God, the self-manifestation of the divine life, not an added achievement of it, but the divine life as such. That God may be called, not only God, but also Word, is one of the bases of Trinitarian theology. We should therefore examine the meaning of the Trinitarian symbols. The doctrine of the Christ dovetails into a doctrine of God and, more specifically, of God as Thee. The doctrine of revelation is based on a Trinitarian interpretation f the divine life and its self-manifestation. The problem of the Trinity as the divine life prior to a knowledge of the Christ is frequently discussed. The Trinity is a symbol which ontological reflection elaborates. It points toward a basic implication of being-itself, when being-itself is understood not as a static background to the Universe, but as the live ground from which all stems. Being-itself is life. It is pregnant with all the forms that have come out in time. However, since it is being-itself, the ground, the mothers or the womb of all it cannot be dependent on what will be born of it. Being-itself is living even before concrete forms have come to be. When we say “before,” we naturally speak symbolically. However, this symbol of anteriority is necessary. #RandolphHarris 11 of 22
The symbol of anteriority expresses the natural doctrine that God is Creator even before creation. His life does not depend on his works. He is life. Thus the idea of the living God requires a distinction between the abysmal element of the divine, the form element, and their spiritual unity. Since life is not static, we may establish a symbolic distinction between the divine abyss out of which the life of God manifests itself, the self-manifestation of this life and, thirdly, the unity of the two. The abyss is a pole of ultimacy; the form a pole of concreteness. And both are one. The Trinitarian problem is the problem of the unity between ultimacy and concreteness in the living God. Each type of monotheistic religion, since it has conceived of God as living, has developed a form of Trinitarian thinking. Monarchical monotheism saw life emanating from the highest God in a multitude of incarnations and demi-gods. Mystical monotheism was Trinitarian in developing the relation of Brahman-Atman, the absolute, to the concrete gods of Hindu piety. Finally, the exclusive monotheism of the Bible made room for the element of meditation in the divine life, and there arose mediating figures. First, hypostatized divine qualities like Wisdom, Word, Glory; second, divine messengers; third, the divine-human figure through whom God works the fulfilment of history, the Messiah. #RandolphHarris 12 of 22
In the fully developed Christian thinking, the three elements of life, fathomless abyss, sprouting ground, and the unity of the two, are called Father, So, Spirit. A beautiful page of Systematic Theology I shows that interrelatedness of the three. The first principle is that which makes God, God. It is the root of his majesty, the unapproachable intensity of his being, the inexhaustible ground of being. This is God in terms of power to be. The second principle of God’s self-objectivization; it opens the divine ground, its infinity and its darkness, and it makes its fullness distinguishable, definite, finite. This is God in terms of meaning and structure. Finally, the third principle of Spirit, is the actualization of the other two. It ensures that God remains God, in that the logos-process of definite structuring returns to its infinite ground: The finite is posited as finite within the process of divine life, but it is reunited with the infinite within the same process. In the Trinity, there is a numerical problem. The trinitarian problem has nothing to do with the trick questions how one can be three and three be one. If it is treated as a matter for abstract speculation, it becomes a meaningless juggling with words and numbers. Forgotten is the fact that Trinitarian terms like Father, Son, Spirit, or in the traditional nomenclature, persone, relations, processions, generation, spiration, are symbols pointing to aspects of being-itself as living. #RandolphHarris 13 of 22
Making them objects that somehow have to be reconciled in spite of the fact that they are contradictory misses the entire meaning of Trinitarian thinking. The theology of the life of God becomes an attempt to square the circle, to make one into three and three into one. Instead, Trinitarian theology must be dialectical. As such, it is not a speculation on the incomprehensible or the absurd, but on all life. Dialectics determine all life-processes and must be applied in biology, psychology, and sociology. The description of tensions in living organism, neurotic conflicts and class struggles, is a dialectical. Life itself is dialectical. From this existential basis, Trinitarian thought applies dialectics to the life of God and makes it a symbol of life. If applied symbolically to the divine life, God, as a living God must be described in dialectical statements. He has the character of all life, namely, to go beyond himself and to return to himself. The meaning of these symbols, therefore, does not derive from logical speculation on numbers or philosophical speculation on the categories. Their meaning arises out of the revelatory situation in which all life appears as partaking of the pattern of divine life; it is inseparable from the experience of life. The Trinitarian symbols become empty if they are separated from their two experiential roots—the experience of the living God and the experience of the New Being in Christ. #RandolphHarris 14 of 22
God sees Himself in Himself, because He sees Himself through His essence; and He sees other things not in themselves, but in Himself; inasmuch as His essence contains the similitude of things other than Himself. Abinadi is protected by divine power—he teaches the Ten Commandments—salvation does not come by the law of Moses alone—God Himself will make an atonement and redeem His people. About 148 Before Christ. “And now when the king had heard these words, he said unto his priests: Away with this fellow, and slay him; for what have we to do with him, for he is mad. And they stood forth and attempted to lay their hands on him; but he withstood them, and said unto them: Touch me not, for God shall smite you if ye lay your hands upon me, for I have not delivered the message which the Lord sent me to deliver; neither have I told you that which ye requested that I should tell; therefore, God will not suffer that I shall be destroyed at this time. However, I must fulfill the commandments wherewith God has commanded me; and because I have told you the truth ye are angry with me. And again, because I have spoken the word of God ye have judged me that I am mad. Now it came to pass after Abinadi had spoken these words that the people of the king Noah durst not lay their hands on him, for the Spirit of the Lord was upon him; and his face shone with exceeding luster, even as Moses’ did while in the mount of Sinai, while speaking with the Lord. #RandolphHarris 15 of 22
“And he spake with power and authority from God; and he continued his words saying: Ye see that ye have not power to slay me, therefore I finish my message. Yea, and I perceive that it cuts you to your hearts because I tell you the truth concerning your iniquities. Yea, and my words fill you with wonder and amazement, and with anger. However, I finish my message; and then it matters not whiter I go, if it so be that I am saves. However, this much I tell you, what you do with me, after this, shall be as a type and a shadow of things which are to come. And now I read unto you the remainder of the commandments of God, for I perceive that they are not written in your hearts; I perceive that ye have studied and taught iniquity the most part of your lives. And now, ye remember that I said unto you: Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven images, or any likeness of things which are in Heaven above, or which are in the water under the Earth. And again: Thou shat not bow down thyself unto them, nor severe them; for I the Lord thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquities of the fathers upon the children, unto the third and fourth generations of them that hate me; and showing my mercy unto thousands of them that love me and keep my commandments. Thou shalt not take the same of the Lord thy God in vain; for the Lord will not hold one guiltless that taketh His name in vain. #RandolphHarris 16 of 22
Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days shalt thou labour, and do all thy work; but the seventh day, the sabbath of the Lord thy God, thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy manservant, nor they maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates; for in six days the Lord made Heaven and Earth, and the sea, and all that in them is; wherefore the Lord blessed the sabbath day, and hallowed it. Honour thy father and thy mother, that thy days may be long upon the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee. Thou shall not kill. Thou shalt not commit adultery. Thou shalt not steal. Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbour. Thou shalt not cover thy neighbour’s house, thou shalt not covert thy neighbour’s wife, nor his manservant, nor his maidservant, nor his ox, nor his mule, not anything that is thy neighbour’s. And it came to pass that after Abinadi had made an end of these sayings that he said unto them: Have ye taught this people that they should observe to do all these things for to keep these commandments? I say unto you, Nay: for if ye had, the Lord would not have caused me to come forth and to prophesy evil concerning this people. And now ye have said that salvation cometh by the law of Moses. #RandolphHarris 17 of 22
“I say unto you that it is expedient that ye should keep the law of Moses as yet; but I say unto you, that the time shall come wen it shall no more be expedient to keep the law of Moses. And moreover, I say unto you that salvation doth not come by the law alone; and were it not for the atonement, which God Himself shall make for the sins and iniquities of His people, that they must unavoidably perish, notwithstanding the law of Moses. And now I say unto you that it was expedient that there should be a law given to the children of Israel, yea, even a very strict law; for they were a stiffnecked people, quick to do iniquity, and sow to remember the Lord their God; therefore there was a law given them, yea, a law of performances and of ordinances, a law which they were to observe strictly from day to day, to keep them in remembrance of God and their duty toward Him. However, behold, I say unto you, that all these things were types of things to come. And now, did they understand the law? I say unto you, Nay, they did not all understand the law; and this because of the hardness of their hearts; for they understood not that there could not any human be saved except it were through the redemption of God. For behold, did not Moses prophesy unto them concerning the coming of the Messiah, and that God should redeem His people? #RandolphHarris 18 of 22
“Yea, and even all the prophets who have prophesized ever since the World began—have they not spoken more or less concerning these things? Have they not said that God Himself should come down among the children of humans, and take upon Him the form of man, and go forth in mighty power upon the face of the Earth? Yes, and have they not said also that He should bring to pass the resurrection of the dead, and that He, Himself, should be oppressed and afflicted?,” reports Mosiah 13.1-35. So far, Trinitarian theology has been dealt with independently of Christology. Yet, in the history of Christianity, Christology was primary. The experience of the New Being in Christ prompted the definition of a Trinitarian doctrines. The revelatory constellation in which Jesus was know as the Christ coincided with the revelatory situation in which life is experienced as power, ground and unity. In an ecstasy which went deeper than ever into the event of the Christian revelation, Jesus as the Christ was identified with the second principle of divine life, with the pregnant womb of all forms, with the creative ground of the finite, who eternally produces the finite potentialities in Himself. Thus the experience of the New Being determined the form that Trinitarian thinking would take in Christianity. It prompted Christians to define the Christ as the Logos of Trinitarian theology. #RandolphHarris 19 of 22
The decisive element of the relation of the Christ to the Logos became part of Christology. The universal Trinitarian intuition encountered the experience of the New Being and furnished it with new symbols. The Christ was not only the Messiah, the Mediator, the Son of Humans; He was also the Son of God, the Word of God. The Trinity is a symbol of God’s life. That the Christ is one of the Trinity is a symbol. It means that the New Being which, in Christ, subjected itself to the conditions of existence without being destroyed by them, is being-itself, the ground of all. The event of Jesus as the Christ has universal significance, not because of any universal mission conferred on Him arbitrarily, but because the Christ is the rich, inexhaustible source of all life. He is Being as ever New. Beyond object and subject, beyond essence and existence, He breathes all the essences out of His infinite ground and He calls them back to Himself in their finite existential forms. Experiencing in the flesh the conditions of estrangement which are human’s daily bread, He overcomes and saves them by relating them to their eternal ground. He is the focal point of all existence and life, the Christ, the New-Being, the second principle of the divine Life. #RandolphHarris 20 of 22
O God of Truth, I thank Thee for the holy Scriptures, their precepts, promises, directions, light. In them may I learn more of Christ, be enabled to retain His truth and have grace to follow it. Please help me to lift up the gates of my soul that He may come in and show me Himself when I search the Scripture, for I have no lines to fathom its depths, no wings to soar to its heights. By his assistance my I be enabled to explore all its truth, love them with all my heart, embrace them with all my power, engraft them into my life. Bless to my soul all grains of truth garnered from Thy word; may they take deep root, be refreshed by Heavenly dew, be ripened by Heavenly rays, be harvested to my joy and Thy praise. Please help me to gain profit by what I read, as treasure beyond all treasure, a fountain which can replenish my dry heart, its waters flowing through me as a perennial river on-drawn by Thy Holy Spirit. Please enable me to distil from its pages faithful prayer that grasps the arm of Thy omnipotence, achieves wonders, obtains blessings, and draws down streams of mercy. From it please show me how my words have often been unfaithful to Thee, injurious to my fellow-humans, empty of grace, fully of folly, dishonouring to my calling. #RandolphHarris 21 of 22
The question of helping students more individually is a question of practical functioning. The teacher wishes to keep one’s own freedom and at the same time leave them free too. The aim of a teacher is not to create a philosophical elite for its own sake but for the larger sake of humankind. The starting of a cult to gain a personal following would be abhorrent to the spirit of any truly selfless spiritual guide, but the creation of a school for spiritual development and philosophical learning one might consider helpful to many earnest but bewildered students of life. The true master is to work for the few. There are several agencies who will spread their activities thinly on a wide surface but one’s will penetrate to a deeper level. Theirs will be more showy but one’s more effective. May Christ our Lord, Who is the Head of every beginning, please grant us so to pass through the coming year with faithful hearts, that we may be able in all things to please His ever loving eyes. O God, Who art the Self-same, Whose years shall not fail, please grant us to spend this year as Thy devoted servants, according to Thy pleasures. Please fill the Earth with fruit, please grant our bodies to be free from disease, or souls from offenses; please take away scandals, and please keep far from our borders all manner of calamitous events; through Jesus Christ Thy Son our Lord. #RandolphHarris 22 of 22
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Then please write Thy own words upon my heart and inscribe them on my lips; so shall all glory be to Thee in my reading of Thy Word! Him who hath put on Christ our God, do Thou preserve, as an invincible wrestler, against the vain assaults of his adversaries and ours; and please grant that all they who are adorned with the incorruptible crown may be victorious even unto the end;–for it is Thine to pity and to save, and to Thee we render glory, with Thine unbegotten Father, and Thy most holy, good, and life-giving Spirit, now and ever, and unto ages of ages. Amen. #CresleighHomes
Take Care, My Beautiful Stranger–Beauty in Distress is Much the Most Affecting Beauty!
With courage, vision and reliance on our own human resources, we can solve the problems we have created and which are imposed on us by natural circumstances or happenstance. Although most of us are conditioned by the past and even the present, we have genuine freedom of creative choice and action and within certain objective limits, are masters of our own destiny. We can, therefore, speak of an inner personality with as much justification as, on the grounds of daily experience, we speak of an outer personality. The inner personality is the way one behaves in relation to one’s inner psychic process; it is the inner attitude, the characteristic face, that is turned towards the unconscious. I call the outer attitude, the outward face, the persona; the inner attitude, the inward face, I call the anima. To the degree that an attitude is habitual, it is well-knit functional complex with which the ego can identify more or less. Common speech expresses this very graphically: when an individual has an habitual attitude to certain situations, an habitual way of doing things, we say one is quite another person when doing this or that. This is a practical demonstration of the habitual attitude: it is as though another personality had taken possession of the individual, as though “another spirit had gotten into him.” #RandolphHarris 1 of 24
The same autonomy that very often characterizes the outer attitude is also claimed by the inner attitude, the anima. It is one of the most difficult educational feats to change the persona, the outer attitude, and it is just as difficult to change the anima, since its structure is usually quite as well-knit as the persona’s. Just as the persona is an entity that often seems to constitute the whole character of humans, and may even accompany one unaltered throughout one’s entire life, the anima is a clearly defined entity with a character that, very often, is autonomous and immutable. It therefore lends itself very readily to characterization and description. As to the character of the anima, my experience confirms the rule that it is, by and large, complementary to the character of the persona. The anima usually contains all those common human qualities which the conscious attitude lacks. The tyrant tormented by bad dreams, gloomy forebodings, and inner fears is a typical figure. Outwardly ruthless, harsh, and unapproachable, one jumps inwardly at every shadow, is at the mercy of every mood, as though one were the feeblest and most impressionable of people. This one’s anima contains all those fallible human qualities one’s persona lacks. #RandolphHarris 2 of 24
If the persona is intellectual, the anima will quite certainly be sentimental. The complementary character of the anima also affects the sexual character. A very feminine woman has a masculine soul, and a very masculine man has a feminine soul. This contrast is due to the fact that a man is not in al tings wholly masculine, but also has certain feminine traits. The more masculine one’s outer attitude is, the more his feminine traits are obliterated: instead, they appear in his unconscious. This explains why it is just those very virile men who are most subject to characteristic weaknesses; their attitude to the unconscious has a womanish weakness and impressionability. Conversely, it is often just the most feminine women who, in their inner lives, display an intractability, and obstinacy, and a willfulness that are to be found with comparable intensity only in a man’s outer attitude. These are masculine traits which, excluded from the womanly outer attitude, have become qualities of her soul. If, therefore, we speak of the anima of a man, we must logically speak of the animus of a woman, if we are to give the soul of a woman its right name. Whereas logic and objectivity are usually the predominant features of a man’s out attitude, or are at least regarded as ideals, in the case of a women it is feeling. #RandolphHarris 3 of 24
However, in the soul it is the other way round: inwardly it is the man who feels, and the woman who reflects. Hence a man’s greater liability to total despair, while a woman can always find comfort and hope; accordingly a man is more likely to put an end to himself than a woman. However much a victim of social circumstances a woman may be, as a lady of the evening for instance, a man is no less a victim of impulses from the unconscious, taking the form of alcoholism and other vices. As to is common human qualities, the character of the anima can be deduced from that of the persona. Everything that should normally be in the outer attitude, but is conspicuously absent, will invariably be found in the inner attitude. This is a fundamental rule which my experience had borne out over and over again. However, as regards it individual qualities, nothing can be deduced about them in this way. We can only be certain that when a human is identical with one’s persona, one’s individual qualities will be associated with the anima. This association frequently gives rise in dreams to the symbol or psychic pregnancy, a symbol that goes back to the primordial image of the hero’s birth. The child that is to be born signifies the individuality, which, though present, is not yet conscious. #RandolphHarris 4 of 24
For in the same way as the persona, the instrument of adaptation to the environment, is strongly influenced by environmental conditions, the anima is shaped by the unconscious and its qualities. In a primitive milieu the persona necessarily takes on primitive features, and the anima similarly takes over the archaic features of the unconscious as well as its symbolic, prescient character. Hence the “pregnant,” “creative” qualities of the inner attitude. Identity with the persona automatically leads to an unconscious identity with the anima because, when the ego is not differentiated from the persona, it can have no conscious relation to the unconscious processes. Consequently, it is these processes, it is identical with them. Anyone who is oneself one’s outward role will infallibly succumb to the inner processes; one will either frustrate one’s outward role by absolute inner necessity or else reduce it to absurdity, by a process of enantiodromia. One can no loner keep to one’s individual way, and one’s life runs into one deadlock after another. Moreover, the anima is inevitably projected upon a real object, with which one gets into a relation of almost total dependence. Every reaction displayed by this object has an immediate, inwardly enervating effect on the subject. Tragic ties are often formed in this way. #RandolphHarris 5 of 24
The soul-image is a specific image among those produced by the unconscious. Just as the persona (Soul), or outer attitude, is represented in dreams by images of definite persons who possess the outstanding qualities of the persona in especially marked form, so in a human the soul, id est, anima, or inner attitude, is represented in the unconscious by definite persons with the corresponding qualities. Such an image is called a “soul-image.” Sometimes these images are of quite unknown or mythological figures. With men the anima is usually personified by the unconscious as a woman; with women the animus is personified as a man. In every case where the individuality is unconscious, and therefore associated with the soul, the soul-image has the character of the same sex. In all cases where there is an identity with the persona, and the soul accordingly is unconscious, the soul-image is transferred to a real person. This person is the object of intense love or equally intense hate (or fear). The influence of such a person is immediate and absolutely compelling, because it always provokes an affective response. The affect is due to the fact that a real, conscious adaptation to the person representing the soul-image is impossible. Because an objective relationship is non-existent and out of the question, the libido gets dammed up an explodes in an outburst of affect. #RandolphHarris 6 of 24
Affects always occur where there is a failure of adaptation. Conscious adaptation to the person representing the soul-image is impossible precisely because the subject is unconscious of the soul. Were one conscious of it, it could be distinguished from the object, whose immediate effects might then be mitigated, since the potency of the object depends on the projection of the soul image. For a man, a woman is best fitted to be the real bearer of his soul-image, because of the feminine quality of his soul; for a women it will be a man. Wherever an impassioned, almost magical, relationship exists between the sexes, it is invariably a question of a projected soul-image. Since these relationships are very common, the soul must be unconscious just as frequently—that is, vast numbers of people must be quite unaware of the way they are related to their inner psychic processes. Because this unconsciousness is always coupled with complete identification with the persona, it follows that this identification must be very frequent too. And in actual fact very many people who are wholly identified with their outer attitude and therefore have no conscious relation to their inner processes. Conversely, it may also happen that the soul-image is not projected but remains with the subject, and this results in an identification with the soul because the subject is then convinced that the way one relates to one’s inner process is one’s real character. #RandolphHarris 7 of 24
In that event the persona, being unconscious, will be projected on a person of the same gender, thus providing a foundation for many cases of open or latent homosexuality, and of father-transferences in men or mother-transferences in women. In such cases there is always a defective adaptation to external reality and a lack of relatedness, because identification with the soul produces an attitude predominately oriented to the perception of inner processes, and the object is deprived of its determining power. If the soul image-is projected, the result is an absolute affective bond to the object. If it is not projected, a relatively unadapted state develops, which Dr. Freud has described as narcissism. The projection of the soul-image offers a release from preoccupation with one’s inner processes so long as the behaviour of the object is in harmony with the soul-image. The subject is then in a position to live out one’s persona and develop it further. The object, however, will scarcely be able to meet the demands of the soul-image indefinitely, although there are many women who, by completely disregarding their own lives, succeed in representing their husband’s soul-image for a very long time. The biological feminine instinct assists them in this. A man many unconsciously do the same for his wife, though this will prompt him to deeds which finally exceed his capacities whether for good or evil. Here again the biological masculine instinct is a help. #RandolphHarris 8 of 24
If the soul-image is not projected, a thoroughly morbid relation to the unconscious gradually develops. The subject is increasingly overwhelmed by unconscious contents, which one’s inadequate relation to the object makes one powerless to assimilate or put to any kind of use, so that the whole subject-object relation only deteriorates further. Naturally these wo attitudes represent the two extremes between which the more normal attitudes lie. In a normal person the soul-image is not distinguished by any particular clarity, purity, or depth, but is apt to be rather blurred. In men with a good-natured and unaggressive persona, the soul-image has a rather malevolent character. A good literary example of this is the daemonic woman who is the companion of Zeus in Spitteler’s Olympian Spring. For an idealistic woman, a depraved man is often the bearer of the soul-image; hence the “saviour fantasy” so frequent in such cases. The same thing happens with men, when a woman of the evening is surrounded with the halo of a soul crying for succor. One should examine the implications of the symbols of Christ and of New Being as far as the formulation of faith is concerned. Certainly traditional Christology has not expressed the meaning of Christ as well as some may expect. Christ is the historical manifestation of Eternal Godmanhood, and is filled with implications. #RandolphHarris 9 of 24
All strict and rigid Christian doctrines, both in their Catholic form and in the form that was classical in Orthodox Protestantism, must be radically reinterpreted. Before we can learn the sufficiency of God’s grace, we must learn the insufficiency of ourselves. As I have said, the more we see our sinfulness, the more we appreciate the grace in its basic meaning of God’s undeserved favour. In a similar manner, the more we see our frailty, weakness, and dependence, the more we appreciate God’s grace in its dimension of His divine assistance. Just as grace shines more brilliantly against the dark background of our sin, so it also shines more brilliantly against the background of our human weakness. We have looked at Paul’s words in Romans 5.20: “But where sin increased, grace increased all the more.” He could have just as aptly said in 2 Corinthians 12, “But where human weakness increased, grace increased all the more.” That is essentially what he said in different words in verse 9: “But he said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.’ Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weakness, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. My power is made perfect in weakness. #RandolphHarris 10 of 24
Indeed, the abject weakness of the human instrument serves to magnify and throw into relief the perfection of the divine power in a way that any suggestion of human adequacy could never do. The greater the servant’s weakness, the more conscious is the power of one’s Master’s all-sufficient grace. In this passage, God equates His grace with His power as specifically displayed in our weakness. This power infusing our weakness is a concrete expression of His grace: His power comes to our assistance through the ministry of His Spirit in our lives. This is the mysterious operation of the Holy Spirit on our human spirit through which He strengthens us and enables us to meet in a Godly fashion whatever circumstances we encounter. Notice I said Holy Spirit strengthens us and enables us o meet in a Godly fashion whatever circumstances cross our paths. God’s grace is not given to make us feel better, but to glorify Him. Modern society’s subtle, underlying agenda is good feelings. We want the pain to go away. We want to feel better in difficult situations, but God wants us to glorify Him in those circumstances. Good feelings may come, or they may not, but that is not the issue. This issue is whether or not we honour God by the way we respond to our circumstances. God’s grace—that is, the enabling power of the Holy Spirit—is given to help us respond in such a way. #RandolphHarris 11 of 24
God’s grace is sufficient. The Greek verb translated “is sufficient” is the same one translated “will be content” in Timothy 6.8: “But if we have food and clothing, we will be content with that.” This helps us understand what sufficient means. Food and clothing refer to the necessities of life, not the luxuries. If we have the necessities we are to be content; that is, we are to realize they are sufficient. God may give us more from time to time, but we are to be content with the necessities. So it is with God’s grace in the spiritual realm. God always gives us what we need, perhaps sometimes more, but never less. The spiritual equivalent of food and clothing is simply the strength to endure in a way that honours God. Receiving that strength, we are to be content. We would like the “luxury” of having our particular thorn removed, but God says, “Be content wit the strength to endure that thorn.” We can be confident He always gives that. So God supplies perfectly measured grace to meet the needs of the Godly. For daily needs there is daily grace; for sudden needs, sudden grace; for overwhelming need, overwhelming grace. God’s grace is given wonderfully, but not wastefully; freely but not foolishly; bountifully but not blindly. #RandolphHarris 12 of 24
There is a lesson about grace in the way God distributed the manna to the Israelites in the desert. Exodus 16.16-21 says, “This is what the LORD has commanded: ‘Each one is to gather as much as one needs. Take an omer for each person you have in your tent.’” The Israelites did as they were told; some gathered much, some little. And when they measured it by the omer, one who gathered much did not have too much, and one who gathered little did not have too little. Each other gathered as much as one needed. Then Moses said to them, “No one is to keep any of it until morning.” However, some of them paid no attention to Moses; they kept part of it until morning, but it was full of maggots and began to smell. So Moses was angry with them. Each morning everyone gathered as much as one needed, and when the Sun grew hot, it melted away. Three times the text mentions that each person could gather “as much as one needed.” There was ample supply of manna for everyone. No one need go hungry because everyone could gather as much as one needed. Not only was there an ample supply, God in some mysterious way saw that no one had an overabundance, regardless of how much manna he gathered: “He who gathered much did not have too much, and he who gathered little did not have to little.” #RandolphHarris 13 of 24
Furthermore, the gathering was to be a day-to-day activity. They were to gather only what was needed each day–expect on the day before the Sabbath. They were not allowed to store up for the future. God’s distribution of the manna illustrates the way He distributes grace. There is always an ample supply; no one ever need go without. However, there is only as much as we need—and even that is on a day-to-day basis. God does not permit us to “store up” grace. We must look to Him anew each day for a new supply. Sometimes we must look for a new supply each hour! Day by day and with each passing moment, strength I find to meet my trials here; trusting in my Father’s wise bestowment, I have no cause for worry or for fear. He whose heart is kind beyond all measure gives unto each day what He deems best—lovingly, its part of pain and pleasure, mingling toil with peace and rest. Such a day-by-day parceling out of grace—and only as much as we need—may seem inconsistent with the abundant generosity of God. This is not the case at all. Rather, as we saw previously, God continually works to keep us aware of our dependence on Him. We are created for a simple, childlike dependence on Him, but since the Fall we have tended to resist that dependence. #RandolphHarris 14 of 24
God well knew this tendency when He gave this waning through Moses to the Israelites: You may say to yourself, “My power and strength of my hands have produced this wealth for me.” But remember the LORD your God, for it is he who gives you the ability to produce wealth, and so confirms his covenant, which he swore to your forefathers, as it is today as noted in Deuteronomy 8.17-18. It is noteworthy that this waning occurs shortly after the reminder in verses 2.3, “Be careful to follow every command I am giving you today, so that you may live and increase and may enter and posses the land that the LORD promised on oath to your forefathers. Remember how the LORD your God led you al the way in the desert these forty years, to humble you and to test you in order to know what was in your heart, whether or not you would keep his commands.” There the Israelites were reminded of their days of extremity and very obvious dependence on God for their daily good. However, God warned them that, even after forty years of such conscious dependence, the day would come when they would look around at their bountiful supply of food and say, “My power and the strength of my hands gave produced this wealth for me.” Such a self-sufficient attitude is obviously detrimental to our relationship with God, so He works to keep that from happening. #RandolphHarris 15 of 24
God allows our respective thorns in the flesh to remain, giving us grace sufficient to cope with them only day by day. From time to time God brings extraordinary crises into you lives, as He did when Paul was forces to say, “We were under great pressure, far beyond our ability to ensure, so that we despaired even of life. Indeed, in our hearts we felt the sentence of death. However, this happened that we might not rely on ourselves but on God who raises the dead,” reports 2 Corinthians 1.8-9. Despite his ever-present thorn, Paul was brought to a crisis extremity to learn anew way to rely not on himself but on God. Whether it is the continuing thorn in the flesh or the extraordinary crisis that sometimes occurs, both are intended by God to keep us conscious of our human weakness and our dependence on Him, so that we might experience the sufficiency of His grace and the adequacy of His power. For humans have no taste for it [God’s power] till they are convinced of their need of it and they immediately forget its values unless they are continually reminded by awareness of their own weakness. The humanist ethic or morality bases all human values in the experiences and relationship of this Earth and has as its highest goal the happiness, freedom, and progress (economic, cultural, persona and ethical) of all humankind in the World. #RandolphHarris 16 of 24
A fully appreciation of cultural values and contributions is also part of this morality. We must submit to this fatigue, in order to live at ease every after: And must cultivate true metaphysics with some care, in order to destroy the false and adulterate. Indolence, which, to some persons, affords a safeguard against deceitful philosophy, is, with others, overbalanced by curiosity; and despair, which, at some moments, prevails, may give place afterwards to sanguine hopes and expectations. Accurate and just reasoning is the only Christian remedy, fitted for all persons and all dispositions; and is alone able to subvert that abstruse philosophy and metaphysical jargon, which, being mixed up with popular superstition, renders it in a manner impenetrable to careless reasoners, and gives it the air of science and wisdom. Besides this advantage of rejecting, after deliberate enquiry, the most uncertain and disagreeable part of learning, there are many beneficial advantages, which result from an accurate scrutiny into the powers and faculties of human nature. “And it came to past that after the space of two years that Abinadi came among them in disguise, that they knew him not, and began to prophesy among them saying: Thus has the Lord commanded me, saying—Abinadi, go and prophesy unto this people, for they have hardened their hearts against my words. #RandolphHarris 17 of 24
“They have repented not of their evil doings; therefore, I will visit them in my anger, yea, in my fierce anger will I visit them in their iniquities and abominations. Yea, wo be unto this generation! And the Lord said unto me: Stretch forth thy hand and prophesy, saying: Thus saith the Lord, it shall come to pass that this generation, because of their iniquities, shall be brought into bondage, and shall be smitten on the cheek; yea, and shall be drive by humans, and shall be slain; and the vultures of the air, and the dogs, yes, and the wild bests, shall devour their flesh. And it shall come to pass that the life of king Noah shall be valued even as a garment in a hot furnace; for he shall know that I am the Lord. And it shall come to pass that I will smite this people with sore affliction, yea, with famine and with pestilence; and I will case that they shall howl all the day long. Yea, and I will cause that they have burdens lashed upon their backs; and they shall be driven before like a dumb mule. And it shall come to pass that I will send forth hail among them, and it shall smite them; and they shall also be smitten with the east wind; and insects shall pester their land also, and devour their grain. And they shall be smitten with a great pestilence—and all this will I do because of their iniquities and abomination. #RandolphHarris 18 of 24
“And it shall come to pass that except they repent I will utterly destroy them from off the face of the Earth; yet they shall leave a record behind them, and I will preserve them for other nations which shall possess the land; yea, even this will I do that I may discover the abominations of this people to other nations. And many things did Abinadi prophesy against this people. And it came to pass that they were angry with him; and they took him and carried him bound before the king , and said unto the king: Behold, we have brought a man before thee who has prophesized evil concerning the people, and saith that God will destroy them. And he also prophesieth evil concerning thy life, and saith that thy life shall be as a garment in furnace of fire. And again, he saith that thou shalt be as a stalk, eve as a dry stalk of the field, which is run over by beasts and trodden under foot. And again, he saith thou shalt be as the blossoms of a thistle, which, when it is fully ripe, if the wind bloweth, it is driven forth upon the face of the land. And he pretendeth the Lord hath spoken it. And he saith all this shall come upon thee except thou repent, and this because of thine iniquities. And now, O king, what great evil hast thou done, or what great sins have thy people committed, that we should be condemned of God or judged of this man? #RandolphHarris 19 of 24
“And now, O king, behold, we are guiltless, and thou, O king, hast not sinned; and therefore, this man has lied concerning you, and he has prophesied in vain. And behold, we are strong, we shall not come into bondage, or be taken captive by our enemies; yea, and thou hast prospered in the land, and thou shalt also prosper. Behold, there is the man, we deliver him into thy hands; thou mayest do with him as seemeth thee good. And it came to pass that kind Noah causes that Abinadi should be cast into prison; and he commanded that the priests should gather themselves together that he might hold a council with them what he should do with him. And it came to pass that they said unto the king: Bring him hither that we may question him; and the king commanded that he should be brought before him. And it came to pass that they said unto the king: Bring him hither that we may question him; and the king commanded the he should be brought before them. And they began to question him, that they might cross him, that thereby they might have wherewith to accuse him; but he answered them boldly, and withstood all their questions, yea, to their astonishment; for he did withstand them in all their questions, and did confound them in all their words. #RandolphHarris 20 of 24
“And it came to pass that one of them said unto him: What meaneth the words which are written, and which have been taught by our fathers, saying: How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him that bringeth food tidings; that publisheth peace; that bringeth good tidings of good; that publisheth salvation; that saith unto Zion, Thy God reigneth; thy watchmen shall lift up the voice; with the voice together shall they sing; for they shall see eye to eye when the Lord shall bring again Zion; Break forth into joy; sing together ye waste places of Jerusalem; for the Lord hath comforted his people, he hath redeemed Jerusalem; the Lord hath made bare his holy arm in the eyes of all the nations, and all the ends of the Earth shall see salvation of our God? And now Abinadi said unto them: Are you priests, and pretend to teach this people, and to understand the spirit of prophesying, and yet desire o know of me what these things mean? I say unto you, wo be unto you for perverting the ways of the Lord! For if ye understand these things ye have no taught them; therefore, ye have perverted the ways of the Lord. Ye have not applied your hearts to understanding; therefore, ye have not been wise. Therefore, what teach ye people? And they said: We teach them the law of Moses. #RandolphHarris 21 of 24
“And again he said unto them: if you teach the law of Moses why do ye not keep it? Why do ye set your hearts upon riches? Why do ye commit whoredoms and spend your strength with harlots, yea, and cause this people to commit sin, that the Lord has cause to send me to prophesy against this people, yea, even a great evil against this people? Know ye not that I speak the truth? Yea, ye know that I speak the truth; and you ought to tremble before Go. And it shall come to pass that ye shall be smitten for your iniquities, for ye have said that ye teach the law of Moses. And what ye concerning the law of Moses? Doth salvation come by the law of Moses? What say ye? And they answered and said that salvation did come by the law of Moses. But now Abinadi said unto them: I know if ye keep the commandments of God ye shall be saved; yea, if ye keep the commandments which the Lord delivered unto Moses in the mount of Sinai saying: I am the Lord thy God, who hath brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. Thou shalt have no other God before me. Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven images, or any likeness of anything in Heaven above, or things which are in the Earth beneath. #RandolphHarris 22 of 24
“Now Abinadi said unto them, Have ye done all this? I say unto you, Nay, ye have not. And have ye taught this people that they should do all these things? I say unto you, Nay, ye have not,” reports Mosiah 12.1-37. O God, my exceeding joy, singing Thy praises uplifts my heart, for thou art a fountain of delight, and dost bless the soul that joys in Thee. However, because of my heart’s rebellion I cannot always praise thee as I ought; yet I will at times rest myself in Thy excellences, goodness, and loving-kindness. Thou art in Jesus the object of inexpressible joy, and I take exceeding pleasure in the thought of thee. Though Thou hast renewed me, yet evil corruptions urge me still to oppose Thee. Please help me to extol Thee with entire heart-submission, to be diligent in self-examination to ask myself whether I am truly born again, whether my spirit is the spirit of Thy children, whether my griefs are those that tear repenting hearts, whether my joys are the joys of faith, whether my confidence in Christ works by love and purifies the soul. Please give me the sweet results of faith, in my secret character, and in my public life. Cast cords of love around my heart, then hold me and never let me go. May the Saviour’s wounds sway me more than the sceptre of princes. #RandolphHarris 23 of 24
Please let me love Thee in a love that overs and swallows up all, that I may not violate my caste union with the beloved; there is so much unconquered territory in my nature, scourge out the buyers and sellers of my soul’s temple, and give me in return pure desires, and longings after perfect holiness. O Lord God Almighty, Who hast commanded Thy servants to be born again of Water and the Holy Ghost, preserve in them the holy Baptism which they have received, and be pleased to perfect it unto the hallowing of Thy Name; that Thy grace may ever increase upon them, and that what they have already received by Thy gift, they may guard by integrity of life. O God, Who hast bestowed on Thy servant by holy Baptism redemption from one’s sins, and the life of regeneration; do Thou, O Lord God, grant the brightness of Thy face to shine for ever on one’s heart. Preserve the shield of his faith safe from the lying-in-wait of the adversaries; the robe of incorruption, which he has put on, clean the unpolluted; and the spiritual seal of grace untouched and inviolate; Thou being reconciled to one as us, according to the multitude of Thy mercies;–for blessed and glorified is Thy venerable and majestic Name of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, now and forever, and unto ages of ages. Amen. #RandolphHarris 24 of 24
What is your go-to decor item? We are suckers for succulents. 🌱 They are cute, colorful, and forgive us if we forget to water them for a week (or three). Plus, with plenty of windows in this #BrightonStation Residence 3 home they get plenty of indirect light to keep them happy! https://cresleigh.com/brighton-station/residence-3/
O Lord our God, our Master, Who by the font of Baptism dost illuminate the baptized with Heavenly radiance, Who hast vouchsafed to Thy servant, (recently illuminated,) by Water and the Spirit, remission of one’s sins, voluntary and incolunatry; lay Thy mighty hand upon one, and protect one with the power of Thy goodness; please preserve one from losing the earnest of glory, and be pleased to bring one to eternal life and to Thy good pleasure;–for Thou art our sanctification, and to Thee we render glory, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, now and ever, and unto ages of ages. Amen.
Women Swear and Men Gossip, Yet I Shall Attempt so Justice with Mercy!

At the beginning of the World Series, I experienced a completely new emotion, when the National Anthem was played. This time, I thought, it is being played for me, as much as for anyone else. This is organized major league baseball, and I am standing here with all the others; and everything that takes place includes me. Remember that day when you moved into the first place of your own? You were the king of your castle: nobody to answer to, nobody to share chores with. You could watch the TV shows you wanted to watch, eat the foods you wanted to eat, and clean up or not. What a great setup! It is also usually a very temporary state of affairs. One day—sooner than they might have imagined—most men wake up and find themselves married or living with a significant other or roommate. And whenever living space is shared, differences of opinion inevitably arise over the care and use of those spaces. If not handled thoughtfully, these differences can turn into conflicts. Fortunately, the complexities of thoughtful home sharing can be vastly simplified by thinking of your house as a series of discrete spaces—each with its own set of issues. Keep these key issues firmly in mind, and life will be blissfully peaceful on the homes front. The two rooms that have the most potential for conflicts are the kitchen and the bathroom. #RandolphHarris 1 of 20
When we asked women to identify the leading case of conflict in the kitchen, they gave one overwhelming answer: When it comes to cleaning up, especially after themselves, men do not do their share. If you go into the kitchen to make something to eat, clean up the mess before you start eating and do not leave any dishes in the sink because the kitchen is really the soul of Cresleigh Homes. It is where the family gathers and makes meals and often eats. It is the room that requires the most cooperation to keep it clean and functioning. Sincerity matters. If you say you will clean the dishes, then do it. Forgetting sets a pattern, and it established a precedent that your words is not good. In any relationship, the trust the grows out of keeping your promises is a cornerstone of its success. The bathroom is the one place where we all truly want to be private and comfortable. In an ideal World, everyone would have a bathroom that was theirs and theirs alone. In reality, however, most of us share a bathroom with a significant other, and perhaps with others family members or roommates. This overlap of personal space is where trouble starts. Women tend to be very particular about the bathroom. They do not like the toilet seat to be left up, no urine on the toilet seat, and no water or shaving stubble left on the counter. #RandolphHarris 2 of 20
Always makes sure you flush the toilet, and put the toilet seat back down. It is not sexist because we all have to sit down at sometime. In the middle of the night no one wants to fall in the toilet. If there is a fan in the bathroom, turn in on before you use the shower or the toilet and also makes sure to clean the bathtub out when you bathe. Try not to clean the bathroom with bleach because it could ruin someone’s clothes. When it comes to bathroom behaviour, it is almost always a good idea to be accommodating of your partner’s needs and desires. This delicate area is generally not the place to make a stand on some point of personal self-expression. And a closed door is an unspoken request for privacy, and it should be honoured at all times. There is no questions that I have got to be cleaned up: shaved, combed, dressed nicely, and smelling good by the time we leave the house or sit down at the dinner table. In the Middle Ages, knights in shining armour met each other encased from head to toe in metal. Often they simply could not be identified and had no idea if the other knight was friend or foe. So they took to lifting off their helmets to reveal their identities to each other. The servers at banquets in the Middle Ages were required to remove their hats as a mark of deference to the patrons. The removing of a head covering became a custom and evolved into the removal of a hat being a mark of respect. This action had remained a custom ever since. #RandolphHarris 3 of 20
When you enter a person’s home, removing your hat is a symbol of your respect for the owner. Likewise, as you enter a restaurant, taking off your cap is the right thing to do for the people you are with and for the other diners. Anytime you enter a place of worship, your baseball cap should come off. However, when you enter a store or other public space, you can keep your cap on. Each of us is responsible for the image we project. Taking that responsibility seriously is a clear signal of your respect for others. If you choose to go on a date without cleaning up first, you are responsible when your date decides she does not want to see you again. Pass gas, spitting, or let loose with a string of expletives when you are with a group of friends, and they may forgive one episode—but make it a habit, and you could quickly find yourself without friends. These are not random examples, many people responded that these are pet peeves. Failing to bathe, passing gas, and foul languages all emerged as major issues—as did smoking, chewing gum, and spitting. Clean hair and nails are a must; a well-groomed man is very attractive! Soap and water are affordable enough for everyone to be clean. Sometimes, especially when cigars are involved, men forget that their exhaled smoke is generally viewed as obnoxious, invasive, and annoying. #RandolphHarris 4 of 20
It is worth remembering that many people often have an especially visceral reaction to cigar smoke. If you choose to light up a stogie in a private home or a public place that allow it, check with everyone in your group first to make sure no one minds—then offer cigars to anyone who wants one, including women. However, do not forget that cigar smoke can linger in your clothes. Furthermore, people also have different opinions about what constitutes swearing. That is why I always try to keep colourful language out of my presentations; I do not want to risk offending any participants, and the use of swear words is not going to enhance my message one bit. Being careful to choose our words so we do not often our listeners is a lesson we all need to relearn periodically. Even when you are with a group of friends accustomed to using profanity, if you think that someone—anyone—in the group might be bothered by it, then be considerate and hold your tongue. And if you are not sure…hold it anyway. Just like we think men are the only gender that swears, we also think that women are the only gender that gossips. Well, it is not true. Women swear and men gossip. In fact, I am amazed how much some men gossip, even when live sports were being played, one can frequently hear men talking about other men more than anything else. #RandolphHarris 5 of 20
Unfortunately, gossip is insidious. Unlike a joke, which is a momentary thing, gossip lingers. It clouds our opinion of the people being gossiped about, but it also makes one thing less of the slanderer. So, whether it is on the golf course, at the water cooler, or over lunch, make the effort to put a stop to gossip when you hear it. At the very least do not contribute to it and do not repeat what you hear. A more proactive stance would include indicating you are uncomfortable with the conversation, offering a defense of the individual, and refusing to be part of gossip and make the proactive effort, women notice their willingness to stand up for another person, and they appreciate it. Also, when in your care, consciously work to be considerate of other people in your car and the cars around you. That is how to combat road rage. If you are upset, consider pulling off the road in a safe place. The prince Lestat in Anne Rice’s Queen of the Damned may have been a sadist, and he did not understand what it took to make a relationship work. Look at any relationship that is in trouble, and it is a good bet, if it is not because of money, a failure to communicate is the issue. Half of all communication is listening. So being a good listener is critical to the success of your communication with your wife, significant other, family, friends, strangers, and work colleagues. #RandolphHarris 6 of 20
Safe. That is what communication in a relationship needs to be. Out of that safety and sincerity grow trust, confidence, and a better, stronger relationship. Figure out how to focus on the other person. It is worth the effort for both of you and for your relationship. When you are trying to communicate, whether one on one or in a group setting, the skill of listening to others is just as important as your ability to express yourself. Besides paying close attention to what the other person is saying, make it clear that you are listening carefully by looking directly at the other person who is speaking. Do no interrupt until that person is done making his or her point. Then respond by asking questions and offering observations based on what is said. Make a habit of listening effectively, and you will find that your relationships will grow and deepen. Your voice communicates a lot about how you are really feeling. If your words indicate genuine interest but your voice is a monotone, what is the message you are sending? You really do not mean what you are saying: Tone. Anger, frustration, joy, concern. People react not only to your words but how they are said and the tone of your voice. When you were growing up, how often did you hear these words from your father or mother: “Do not take that tone of voice with me.” #RandolphHarris 7 of 20
Speed. Speed kills. In conversation, speed makes comprehension difficult, so slow down. The people or person you are talking with needs a little time to process what you are saying, especially if it is a serious, important subject. Speaking clearly. Mumbling, grunting—not only are you hard to understand, it sounds like you are trying not to be understood. Instead of contributing to the conversation you sound as if you are trying to avoid it. Accent. People come from different nationalities, even different areas of the United States of America. If you have an accent that is different from the person or people with whom you are talking, it may make it more difficult for them to understand you. In that case, speed is doubly problematic. And speaking clearly becomes even more important for you to be understood. Good listeners honour the person they are with by the way they focus on that person. Look them in the eyes. Eye contact is a key part of any interaction. Nod or say “Uh huh.” Simple nonverbal cues can demonstrate that your focus is squarely on the person and not somewhere else. Ask a question or repeat a point. Question and comments show you are really a part of the conversation and are hearing what the other person has to say. #RandolphHarris 8 of 20
Avoid nervous habits. Even if you are paying attention to what a person is saying, if you are playing with an object, it sends the message that you are distracted. Wait your turn. It is very annoying to be in midsentence and suddenly have the person you are talking to start talking right over you. A good listener waits for a natural break, that momentary pause before jumping in with a comment or question. The method of a philosophic teacher is not to make the decisions of the pupil for one but rather to lead one to make them for oneself. The teacher will outline the process of arriving at the correct conclusion, but one will not deprive the pupil of responsibility of trusting that process and accepting its outcome. The teacher may even make available information which will be helpful to the student in arriving at a decision, but beyond that one cannot go if the student is to arrive at a decision, but beyond that one cannot go if the student is to arrive at independence and maturity. The relationship which we find in mystical or the Old-World circles, which leaves the pupil completely or continuously dependent upon one’s guide and causes one to come constantly running hither and tither for advice as to what one should do next, will only increase the helplessness of the pupil. The philosophic way is to help one develop one’s own ability to dispose of problems and confront situations effectively. #RandolphHarris 9 of 20
The philosophic method is to lead one to a point where one requires no teacher. The mystical method is to lead one to the point where one cannot do without the teacher. The teacher who demands blind obedience from one’s pupil belongs to a vanishing age. The teacher who strives to make one’s pupil’s own mind understand each step of the way one travels belongs to the coming age. The first often ends by enslaving one’s followers, whereas the second ends by liberating them. The first is a dictator, the second a companion. The first creates nonentities, the second, humans. A wise teacher will no lecture to one’s students, will not try the superficial way of telling them every detail of truth. However, by discussion questioning and encouragement one will help them to elicit it for themselves and thus enable them to make it deeply and lastingly their own. The right way to teach humans is to propose truth, not impose it. A philosophic teacher often prefers to let the student make one’s own discoveries on the basis of clues provided rather than lead one into rigid imprisoning doctrines. The true teacher should stimulate thought and not stereotype it. If an aspirant is fortunate enough to get direct and personal guidance on this kind, one is fortunate indeed. The master gives a candidate the seeds and teaches one how to cultivate them: how to water, nourish, and tend the plants which sprout up from them. #RandolphHarris 10 of 20
The highest type of teacher does not want and will not encourage a blind unquestioning acceptance of one’s own views. The true teacher interprets the divine will for one’s disciple but does not impose it on one. Such a guidance may proffer advice and tender suggestions but one will never issue orders and dictate decisions. Instead of trying to deprive the student of one’s capacity to intuit truths for oneself, the disinterested teacher will try to create it. A genuine teacher will not seek to dominate the soul of a student, will not strive to impose one’s own will upon one. For the teacher desires to see a natural and not a forced artificial growth, to free humans and not to enslave them. The real master spiritualizes one’s disciple but does not debilitate one. The self-actualized who does not want to enslave disciples, will guide them to do what they themselves ought to be doing, but are weakly and foolishly expecting one to do for them. A prudent master prefers not to help people but to help them to help themselves. If you do not put into one’s hands the knowledge and equipment wherewith one can acquire strength, it is merely a mockery to admonish a weakling to become strong. It is the teacher’s duty to foster one’s disciple’s creativeness, not his imitativeness—to encourage the disciple to develop one’s own inspiration. #RandolphHarris 11 of 20
The average teacher takes from one’s own personal experience what helped one most or what one’s own teacher led one to, and passes it on to the student as being “the Path,” the only way to God, the sole method of arriving at truth—whether this particular way or method suits the individual type or one’s degree of development or not. One almost forces it on the student, even if it is contrary to the latter’s entire temperament or need. The poor student finds oneself imprisoned and locked up in one’s teacher’s personal opinions and practices, as if nothing good existed outside them. The wisest master lets the disciple develop in one’s own way, according to one’s own individuality. Such a teacher will be the student’s motivating influence while, paradoxically, encouraging one to preserve one’s independence. What the wise teacher does is to wait for the right situations to develop in which one’s own efforts can be most fruitful. One has waited for years, reserving the full expression of one’s powers until the crucial hour when the aspirant is ready to receive one. Until then, one must conceal one’s identity. One’s wisdom in refusing to influence the student’s decisions will not be apparent at first. Indeed it will be regarded as unwisdom—and one’s attitude will be felt as unsympathetic. #RandolphHarris 12 of 20
It is not the business of a master to save the disciple from suffering so much as to save one from the faults in oneself which create suffering. One may suggest and advise but never impose one’s will upon yours. One turns a lamp upon your problems but leaves you free to work the out for yourself. It seems that certain topics can dominate men’s conversations. The problem is some of those topics really are not particularly interesting to some people. What is inappropriate talk? Talk about pleasures of the flesh, bathroom business and finances. Jokes can be a great conversational gambit, but be careful about the kind of jokes you tell. Somewhat indecent or poor comments and jokes in poor taste may be funny when you are alone with your buddies, but they may be resented when in mixed company or in front of kids and may provoke an adverse and dangerous reaction. If you cannot be sure a joke or a question will be well received, then it is better to keep it to yourself. I was asked to give a seminar to the staff of a large ski area including the ski and snowboard instructors. One issue the company wanted to address was word choice. It turned out that some of the younger instructors were using a word that was actually costing the ski area business. Parents were writing comments indicating they were not going to purchase any more family lessons because they were fed up with hearing it. #RandolphHarris 13 of 20
The word: we cannot mention it. That word is extremely derogatory, and when said repeatedly over an hour it is awfully offensive to these parents. And that offensiveness was costing the company revenue. To the young instructors, the word was harmless—a normal part of their vocabulary and popular music—and they thought it was hip, witty, and trendy and should not elicit such a reaction. However, it did. Even though a particular word you use may be totally innocent or acceptable to you, if the person you are speaking to is offended by it, then perhaps you need to find an alternative. Also, nonverbal cues are important. When you are talking with someone face-to-face you are giving nonverbal cues that enhance what you are saying. Those cues can reinforce your words or belie them. When you are with another person, not only do the words you say matter, your image maters as well. You can roll your eyes and imply your disgust or frustration. You can purse your lips and suggest impatience or simmering anger. You can jiggle your foot or drum your fingers and communicate your nervousness. You can sit back, slouched, with your arms crossed and indicate your nonreceptiveness. When you say one thing and your body says another, you are not communicating effectively. #RandolphHarris 14 of 20
A master’s work is not to issue command which must be obeyed by enslaved disciples, but to formulate principles which must be understood by enlightened ones. It is not to create belief but to strengthen knowledge. King Laman dies—his people are wild and ferocious and believe in false traditions—Zeniff and his people prevail against them. About 187-160 Before Christ. And it came to pas that we again began to establish the kingdom and we gain began to possess the land in peace. And I caused that there should be weapons of war made of every kind, that thereby I might have weapons for my people against the time the Lamanites should come up again to war against me people. And I set guards round about the land, that the Lamanites might not come upon us again unawares and destroy us; and thus I did guard my people and my flocks, and keep them from falling into the hands of our enemies. And it came to pass that we did inherit the land of our fathers for many years, yea, for the space of twenty and two years. And I did cause that the men should till the ground, and raise all manner of grain and all manner of fruit of every kind. And I did cause that women should spin, and toil, and work, and work all manner of fine linen, yea, and cloth of every kind, that we might clothe our nakedness; and thus we did prosper in the land—thus we did have continual peace in the land for the space of twenty and two years. #RandolphHarris 15 of 20
And it came to pass that king Laman died, and his son began to stir his people up in rebellion against my people; therefore they began to prepare for war, and to come up to battle against my people. However, I had sent my spies out round about the land of Shemlon, that I might discover their preparations, that I might guard against them, that they might not come upon my people and destroy them. And it came to pass that they came up upon the north of the land of Shilom, with their numerous hosts, men armed with bows, and with arrows, and with swords, and with cimeters, and with stones, and with slings; and they had their heads shaved that they were naked; and they were girded with a leathern gridle about their loins. And it came to pass that I caused that the women and children of my people should be hid in the wilderness; and I also caused that all my old men that could bear arms, and also all my young men that were able to bear arms, should gather themselves together to go to battle against the Lamanites; and I did place them in their ranks, every man according to his age. And it came to pass that we did go up to battle against the Lamanites; and I, even I, in my old age, did go up to battle against the Lamanites. And it came to pass that we did go up in the strength of the Lord to battle. #RandolphHarris 16 of 20
Now, the Lamanites knew nothing concerning the Lord, nor the strength of the Lord, therefore they depended upon their own strength. Yet they were a strong people, as to the strength of humans. They were a wild, and ferocious, and blood thirsty people, believing in the tradition of their fathers, which is this—Believing that they were driven out of the land of Jerusalem because of the iniquities of their fathers, and that they were wronged in the wilderness by their brethren, and they were also wronged while crossing the sea; and again, that they were wronged while in the land of their first inheritance, after they had crossed the sea, and all this because that Nephi was more faithful in keeping the commandments of the Lord—therefore he was favored of the Lord, for the Lord heard his prayers and answered them, and he took the lead of their journey in the wilderness. And his brethren were wroth with hum because they understood not the dealings of the Lord; they were also wroth with him upon the waters because they hardened their hearts against the Lord. And again, they were wroth with him when they had arrived in the promised land, because they said that he had taken the ruling of the people out of their hands; and they sought to kill him. #RandolphHarris 17 of 20
And again, they were worth with him because he departed into the wilderness as the Lord had commanded him, and took the records which were engraven on the plates of brass, for they said that he robbed them. And thus they have taught their children that they should hate them, and that they should murder them, and that they should rob and plunder them, and do all they could to destroy them; therefore they have an eternal hatred towards the children of Nephi. For this very cause has king Laman, by his cunning, and lying craftiness, and his fair promises, deceived me, that I have brought this my people up into this land, that they may destroy them; yes, and we have suffered these many years in the land. And now I, Zeniff, after having told all these things unto my people concerning the Lamanites, I did stimulate them to go to battle with their might, putting their trust in the Lord; therefore, we did contend with them, face to face. And it came to pass that we did drive them again out of our land; and we slew them with a great slaughter, even so many that we did not number them. And it came to pass that we returned again to our own land, and my people again began to tend their flocks, and to till their ground. #RandolphHarris 18 of 20
And now I, being old, did confer the kingdom upon one of my sons; therefore, I say no more. And may the Lord bless my people. Amen. The philosophic teacher leaves to the individual pupil how one shall apply these principles to one’s own life, and does not try to chalk out precise details of such a practice for one. One’s unwillingness to give specific advice on practical personal matters should not be construed as unwillingness to help, or as lack of interest in them. It is only that one wants the solution to come straight out of the student’s own being, so that the growth will be the student’s too. O God, I know that I often do Thy work without Thy power, and sin by my cold, heartless, blind service, my lack of inward light, love, delight, my mind, heart, tongue moving without Thy help. I see sin in my heart in seeking the approbation of others; this is my vileness, to make human’s opinion my rule, whereas I should see what good I have done, and give Thee glory, consider what sin I have committed and mourn for that. It is my deceit to preach, and pray, and to stir up others’ spiritual affections in order to beget commendations, whereas my rule should be daily to consider myself more vile than any human in my own eyes. #RandolphHarris 19 of 20
However, Thou does show Thy power by my frailty, so that the more feeble I am, the more fit to be used, for Thou does pitch a tent of grace in my weakness. Please help me to rejoice in my infirmities and give Thee praise, to acknowledge my deficiencies before others and not be discouraged by them, that they may see Thy glory more clearly. Please teach me that I must act by a power supernatural, whereby I can attempt things above my strength, and bear evils beyond my strength, acting for Christ in all, and having His superior power to help me. Let me learn of Paul whose presence was mean, his weakness great, his utterance contemptible, yet Thou did account him faithful and blessed. Lord, let me lean on Thee as he did, and find my ministry thine. Almighty and everlasting God, please bring us to the fellowship of Heavenly joys; that Thou mayest vouchsafe an entrance into Thy kingdom to those that are born again of the Holy Ghost, and that the lowly flock may reach that place whither the mighty Shepherd had gone before; through the same Jesus Christ our Lord. Please hear us, O Almighty God; and as Thou hast bestowed on Thy family the perfect grace of Baptism, so do Thou dispose their hearts to the attainment of eternal bliss; though Jesus Christ our Lord. #RandolphHarris 20 of 20
In the #DIY mood? Learn how to create your own raised vegetable planters in this week’s blog post up now! Link in bio. 🍅🌽🥦 https://www.instagram.com/p/CB6fAsOpl1v/O God, Who by the Baptism of Thine Only-streams of water; grant that we who are born again of Water and the Spirit may attain an entrance into eternal joys; through the same Jesus Christ our Lord. #CresleighHomes
Nature is Subject to Vanity by the Curse that God Uttered–Make Sure You Get Control of Your Students the Very First Day!
Our senses do not always play fair, or so often it seems. Sometimes the strangest phenomena occur which cause us to doubt our sanity or the effectiveness of our sensory apparatus. When we consider how intricate our nervous system is and how complex our sensory equipment, it is small wonder that these is not a lot more confusion than there actual is. The educational system is probably the most influential of all institutions—outranking the family, the church, the police, and the government—in shaping the interpersonal politics of the growing person. Here is how the politics of the traditional school is experienced: The teacher is the possessor of knowledge, the student the recipient. There is a great difference in status between instructor and student. The lecture, as the means of pouring knowledge into the recipient, and the examination as the measure of the extent to which one has received it, are the central elements of this education. The teacher is the possessor of power, the student the one who obeys. The administrator is also the possessor of power, and both the teacher and the student are the ones who obey. Control is always exercised downward. Authoritarian rule is the accepted policy in the classroom. New teachers are often advised, “Make sure you get control of your students the very first day.” #RandolphHarris 1 of 23
Sometimes it is difficult for students to realize the joy and excitement that can found through learning. People will discover how many unnecessary limits they place on themselves by saying “I do not know.” Individuals must commit themselves to never again placing limits on the things they are willing to learn about their World or the people in it. Trust is at a minimum. Most notable is the teacher’s distrust of the student. The student cannot be expected to work satisfactorily without the teacher constantly supervising and checking on one. The student’s distrust of the teacher is more diffuse—a lack of trust in teacher’s motives, honesty, fairness, competence. There may be a real rapport between an entertaining lecturer and those who are being entertained. There may be admiration for the instructor, but mutual trust is not a noticeable ingredient. The subjects (the students) are best governed by being kept in an intermittent or constant state of fear. There is today not much physical punishment, but public criticism and ridicule, and a constant fear of failure, are even more potent. This state of fear appears it increase as we go up the hierarchy of the educational scheme, because the students have more to lose. In elementary school the individual may be an object of scorn, or scolded as stupid or bad. #RandolphHarris 2 of 23
In high school there is added to this fear the fear of failure to graduate, with its vocational, economic and educational disadvantages. In college all these consequences are magnified and intensified. In graduate school, sponsorship by one professor offer even greater opportunities for extreme punishment due to some autocratic whim. Many graduate students have failed to receive their degrees because they have refused to obey every wish of their major professor. They are like slaves, subject to the life and death power of a despot from the Old World. Democracy and its values are ignored and scorned in practice. The student does not participate in choosing one’s goals, one’s curriculum, one’s manner of working. They are chosen for one. One has no part in the choice of teaching personnel or in educational policy. Likewise the teachers have no choice in choosing their principal or other administrative officers. Often they, too, have no participation in forming educational policy. The political practices of the school are in striking contrast to what is taught about the virtues of democracy and the importance of freedom and responsibility. There is no place for the whole person in the educational system, only for the intellect. #RandolphHarris 3 of 23
In elementary school the bursting curiosity of the normal child and one’s excess of physical energy are curbed and, if possible, stifled. In secondary school the one overriding interest of all students—gender and the relationships between the genders—is almost totally ignored and certainly not regarded as a major area for learning. In college the situation is the same—it is only the mind that is welcomed. We believe there is knowledge that exists separate and apar from how a person feels…and that accumulated knowledge of humankind is cognitive. It can be transmitted, it can be taught and learned, and the pursuit of that kind of knowledge is academic research. It appears to us that some would like to abandon cognitive learning, or at least reduce its importance to a level unacceptable to scholars. However, I also believe that the affective, the emotional component is terribly important. Cognitive skills should be combined with better knowledge of self and of interpersonal behaviour. A leader or a person who is perceived as an authority figure in the situation is sufficiently secure within oneself and in one’s relationship to others that one experiences an essential trust in the capacity of others to think for themselves, to learn for themselves. If this precondition exists, then the following aspects become possible. #RandolphHarris 4 of 23
The facilitative person shares with the other—students and possibly also parents or community members—the responsibility for the learning process. Curricular planning, the mode of administration and operation, the funding, and the policy making are all the responsibility of the particular group involved. Thus a class may be responsible for its own curriculum, but the total group may be responsible for overall policy. The facilitator provides learning resources—from within oneself and one’s own experience, from books or materials or community experiences. One encourages the leaders to add resources of which they have knowledge, or in which they have experience. One opens doors to resources outside the experience of the group. The student develops one’s own program of learning, alone or in cooperation with others. Exploring one’s own interests, facing the wealth of resources, one makes choices as to one’s own learning direction and carries the responsibility for the consequences of those choices. A facilitative learning climate is provided. In meetings of the class or of the school as a whole, an atmosphere of realness, of caring, and of understanding listening is evident. This climate may spring initially from the person who is he perceived leader. As the learning process continues, it is more and more often provided by the learners for one another. #RandolphHarris 5 of 23
Learning from one another becomes as important as learning from books or films or community experiences, of from the facilitator. It can be seen that the focus is primarily on fostering the continuing process of learning. The content of the learning, while significant, falls into a secondary place. Thus a course of learning is successfully ended not when the student has “learned all one needs to know,” but when the student has made significant process in learning how to learn what one wants to know. The discipline necessary to reach the student’s goals is a self-discipline and is recognized and accepted by the learner as being one’s own responsibility. The evaluation of the extent and significance of the student’s learning is made primarily by the learner oneself, though one’s self-evaluation may be influenced and enriched by caring feedback from other members of the group and from the facilitator. In this growth-promoting climate, the learning is deeper, proceeds at a more rapid rate, and is more pervasive in life and behaviour of the student than learning acquired in the traditional classroom. This comes about because the direction is self-chosen, the learning is self-initiated, and the whole person, with feelings and passions as well as intellect, is invested in the process. #RandolphHarris 6 of 23
Spiritual education is also another form or learning we are supposed to partake in while on Earth. The kind of spiritual guide that most people want is one who pats them encouragingly on the shoulder, flatters them constantly in speech or writing, and habituates them to refer all their personal problems to one for solution. The kind of guide they really need is one who will critically point out their faults and weaknesses and who will unhesitatingly throw them back on their own resources. It is better to encourage humans in conduct than to pamper their neurotic religiosity. The aspirant comes to the philosophic teacher with a mind filled by error and ignorance. One comes to the philosophic life with a character filled by egoism and prejudice. Thus one is the largest stumbling block in one’s own path. One oneself prevents the spiritual consciousness from approaching one. So the firs duty of a teacher is to show one all this error, ignorance, egoism, and prejudice for the unbeautiful things they are and make them aware and ashamed of them. One must cast aside much of one’s carefully heaped-up pile of knowledge and begin afresh. To make a person teachable, one must first convince one of one’s own ignorance. And the master will show one that one really knows little of one’s own self. #RandolphHarris 7 of 23
It is an important part of one’s task to how humans what their personal lives look like from an impersonal standpoint. Hence one points out the fallacy of their egotistic actions and the foolishness of their egotistic purposes. Whatever one says or suggests to one’s disciples is said or suggested with a view to their ultimate good. Therefore one may sometimes recommend a course of action which brings immediate pain or self-denial or self-discipline. One may gently chide one person of errors of shortcomings, or firmly warn another person against sins and lapses. It is hard to bring a person from a wrong point of view to a right one, not only because one may not be intellectually or intuitively capable of making the transition, but also because one can make it only by losing some of one’s emotional egoistic self-esteem. This is true of general propaganda among the masses as it is of the preliminary correction of pupils by a master. “The voice of the Lord is powerful,” sings the poet of the 29th Psalm. “The voice of the Lord breaks the cedars…the voice of the Lord cleaves with flames of fire, the voice of the Lord shakes the wilderness…and strips the forests bare.” In the book of Job, we find a description of the terrible power of nature in the mythological symbols of Behemoth and Leviathan. #RandolphHarris 8 of 23
And a great recent poet, Rilke says: “For Beauty’s nothing but beginning of Terror we are still just able to bear, and why we adore it so is because it serenely disdains to destroy us. Each single Angel is terrible. The glory of nature is not shallow beauty.” And now let us listen once more to the words of the apostle about the tragedy of nature in their precise meaning.” Even the creation waits with eager longing for the sons of God to be revealed. For creation was not rendered futile by its own choice, but by the will of Him Who thus made it subject, the hope being that creation as well as humans would one day be freed from its thralldom to decay and gain the glorious freedom of God’s children. To this say, we know, the entire creation sighs and throbs with pain,” reports Romans 8.19-22. Nature is not only glorious; it is also tragic. It is subjected to the laws of finitude and destruction. It is suffering and sighing with us. No one who has ever listened to the sounds of nature with sympathy can forget their tragic melodies. The Greek word in Paul’s letter which we have translated as “creation” is especially used for the non-animate section of nature as Paul is alluding to the words of God to Adam after the Fall: “Cursed is the land for thy sake.” The sighing sound of the wind and the ever-restless, futile breaking of the waves may have inspired the poetic, melancholic verse about nature’s vanity. #RandolphHarris 9 of 23
However, the words of Paul refer also, and in a more direct way, to the sphere of living things. The melancholy of the leaves falling in Autumn, the end of the jubilant life of Spring and Summer, the quiet death of innumerable beings in the cold air of the approaching Winter—all this has grasped and always will grasp the hearts, not only of poets, but of every feeling man and woman. The song of transitoriness sounds through all the nations. Isaiah’s words, “The grass withereth, the flower fadeth, because the breath of the Lord bloweth upon it,” describe the shortness of the lives of individuals and nations. However, they could not have been written without a profound sympathy with the life of nature. And then Jesus speaks, praising the lilies of the field: “Even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.” In these two sayings about the flowers of the field we perceive both the glory and the tragedy of nature. Sympathy with nature in its tragedy is not a sentimental emotion; it is a true feeling of the reality of nature. Schelling justly says: “A veil of sadness is spread over all nature, a deep, unappeasable melancholy over all of life.” According to him this is “manifest through the traces of suffering in the face of all nature, especially in the faces of animals.” #RandolphHarris 10 of 23
The doctrine of suffering as the character of all life, taught by Buddha, has conquered in the ground of one’s own being with the ground of nature is able to see into its tragedy; as Schelling says, “The darkest and deepest ground in human nature is ‘Longing’…is melancholy. This, mainly, creates the sympathy of humans with nature. For in nature too the deepest ground is melancholy. Nature, also, urns for a lost good.” Can we still understand the meaning of such half-poetic, half-philosophic words? Or have we too much secluded ourselves in human superiority, in intellectual arrogance, in a domineering attitude toward nature? We have become incapable of perceiving the harmonious sounds of nature. Have we also become insensitive to the tragic sounds? Why is nature tragic? Who is responsible for the suffering of animals, for the ugliness of death and decay, for the universal dread of death? Many years ago I stood on a jetty with a well-known psychologist looking at the ocean. We saw innumerable small fish hurrying toward the beach. They were pursued by bigger ones, who, in turn, were chased by still bigger ones. Aggression, flight, and anxiety—a perfect illustration of the old, often used story of the big fish devouring the small ones, in nature as in history. #RandolphHarris 11 of 23
The scholar, who, in many discussions, had defended the harmonious structure of reality, burst into tears, saying, “Why are these beings created if they exist only to be swallowed by others?” In this moment the tragedy of nature forced itself upon his optimistic mind, and he asked, “Why?” Paul tries o penetrate the mystery of this question. And his surprising answer is: nature is subjected to vanity by the curse that God uttered because of the fall of Adam. The tragedy of nature is bound to the tragedy of humans, as the salvation of nature is dependent on the salvation of humans. What does this mean? Always humankind has dreamed of a time when harmony and joy filled all nature, and peace reigned between nature and human—Paradise, the Golden Age. However, humans, by violating the divine law, destroyed the harmony, and now here is enmity between humans and nature, between nature and nature. In Paul’s melancholic words this dream resounds. It is a dream, but it contains a profound truth: humans and nature belong together in their created glory, in their tragedy, and in their salvation. As nature, represented by the “Serpent,” leads humans into temptation, so humans, by their trespassing of the divine law, leads nature into tragedy. This did not happen once upon a time, as the story says; it happens within every time and space so long as there is time and space. #RandolphHarris 12 of 23
So long as there are the Old Heaven and the Old Earth, humans and nature will be subjected together to the law of vanity. Many profound thinkers within and without Christianity agree that humans are determined to fulfill the longing of nature. In so far as one has failed and still fails to come to one’s own fulfillment, one is unable to fulfill nature—one’s own bodily being and nature around one. Therefore, Jesus I called the Son of Man, the man from above, the true man, in whom the forces of separation and tragedy are overcome, not only in humankind but also in the Universe. For there is no salvation of humans if there is no salvation of nature, for humans are in nature and nature are in humans. Let us listen once more to the words of the prophet about salvation of nature. “Then I saw the new Heaven and the new Earth. For the first Heaven and the first Earth had passed away; and the sea was no more. Then he showed me the river of the water of life, bright as crystal on both sides of the river grew the tree of life, bearing twelve kinds of fruit, each month having its own fruit; and the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations,” reports Revelations 21.1, 22.2. In powerful images the last book of the Bible describes the salvation of humans and nature from the bondage of corruption: the city of God is built with the most precious materials of non-animated nature. #RandolphHarris 13 of 23
The ocean, the symbol of formless chaos, is excluded. The river is not polluted by any rot. The trees bear fruit without change and decay; the animals, together with the saints, adore the throne of glory. The daemonic forces are thrown into nothingness. There is no suffering nor death. Needless to say, this is not the description of a future state of our World. Like the Golden Age of the past, the Golden Age of the future is a symbol, pointing to something mysterious within our present World—namely, the forces of salvation. And one thing is made very clear in the visions of the prophet, that salvation means salvation of the World, and not of human beings alone. Lions and sheep, little children and snakes, will lie together in peace, says Isaiah. Angels and stars, humans and animals, adore the Children of Christmas legend. The Earth shakes when the Christ dies, and it shakes again when He is resurrected. The Sun loses its light when He closes His eyes, and it rises when He raises from the tomb. The resurrection of the body—not an immortal soul—is the symbol of the victory over death. The bodiless spirit (and this is the meaning of all these images) is not the aim of creation; the purpose of salvation is not the abstract intellect or a natureless moral personality. #RandolphHarris 14 of 23
Do we not see everywhere the estrangement of people from nature, from their own natural forces and from nature around them? And so they not become dry and uncreative in their mental life, hard and arrogant in their moral attitude, suppressed and poisoned in their vitality? They certainly are not the images of salvation. As one theologian has justly said, “Corporal being is the end of the ways of God.” This has always been known to creative painters and sculptors. A great picture or statue is an anticipation of the new Earth, a revelation of the mystery of nature. A picture of a statue is a plant or a stone transformed into a bearer of spiritual meaning It is nature elevated above itself, revealing its tragedy and, at the same tie, is victory over its tragedy. The picture of Jesus and the apostles and saints throughout the centuries of Christian art, in colour and stone—portraits of humans in whom humanity discovered its power and dignity—the incomparable expression of personality in the face of even the simplest individual, show that spirit becomes body, and that nature is not strange to personality. The system of cells functions, which we call “body,” is able to express the finest change of our spiritual being. Artists have often understood the eternal significance of nature, even when theologians have emphasized a bodiless spirituality, forgetting that the first thing by which Jesus revealed His Messianic vocation was His power to heal bodily and mental sickness. #RandolphHarris 15 of 23
Let me ask you a question: are we still able to understands what a sacrament means? The more we are estranged from nature, the less we can answer affirmatively. That is why, in our time, the sacraments have lost so much of their significance for individuals and Churches. For in the sacraments nature participates in the process of salvation. Bread and wine, water and light, and all the great elements of nature become the bearers of spiritual meaning and saving power. Natural and spiritual powers are united—reunited—in the sacrament. The word appeals to our intellect and may move our will. The sacrament, if its meaning is alive, grasps our unconscious as well as our conscious being. In grasps the creative ground of our being. It is the symbol of nature, and spirit, united in salvation. Therefore, commune with nature! Become reconciled with nature after your estrangement from it. Listen to nature in quietness, and you will find its heart. It will sound forth the glory of its divine ground. It will sign with us in the bondage of tragedy. It will speak of the indestructible hope of salvation! This is also justified because a relationship with God is a matter of the heart, not the head. To have faith in a statement means to let yourself be convinced of and, therefore, accept the statement me as true. To have faith in God means to firmly rely on Him. Either way, faith is relying on what you have reason to believe is true and trustworthy. #RandolphHarris 16 of 23
Faith involves the readiness to act as if something were so. Throughout church history, theologians have expressed three different aspects of biblical faith: notitia (knowledge), fiducia (trust), and assensus (assent). Notitia refers to the data or doctrinal content of the Christian faith. “Beloved, when I gave all diligence to write unto you of the common salvation, it was needful for me to write unto you, and exhort you that ye should earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints,” Jude 1.3. Assensus denotes the assent of the intellect to the truth of the content of Christian teaching. Note that each of these aspects of faith requires a careful exercise of reason, both in understanding what the teachings of Christianity are and in judging their truthfulness. In this way, reason is indispensable for the third aspect of faith—fiducia—which captures the personal application or trust involved in faith, an act that primarily involves the will but includes the affections and intellect too. What about being like a little child and the importance of the heart over the head in Christian life? In the context, Jesus’ teaching about becoming like a little child had nothing to do with the intellect. It was directed against being stiffnecked, self-sufficient and arrogant. To be a child in this sense is to be humble and willing to trust in or rely on others, especially God. #RandolphHarris 17 of 23
The opposite of the child is a proud stiffnecked person, not an intelligent, reasonable one. Further, the distinction between the head and the heart is very misleading. In Scripture, the term heart has several meanings. Most of the time it simply refers to the seat or center of the entire person, the total self, including, emotional, and will. Sometimes it simply refers to the emotions or affections. “Therefore God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to impurity of pleasures of the flesh for the degrading of their bodies with one another,” reports Romans 1.24. “For God is y record, how greatly I long after you all in the bowels of Jesus Christ,” reports Philippians 1.8. However, the term heart often actually refers to the mind itself. “For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to hum, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened,” reports Romans 1.24. “For God, who said, ‘Let light shine out of darkness,’ made his light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ,” reports 2 Corinthians 4.6. “Each human should give what one has decided in one’s heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver,” reports 2 Corinthians 9.7. #RandolphHarris 18 of 23
“I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in his holy power, and his incomparably great power for us who believe. That power is the same as the mighty strength,” reports Ephesians 1.18-19. Therefore, it is safe to say that when the term heart is used in a verse, it most likely includes or explicitly refers to our mental faculty unless the context shows otherwise. Let us not allow false teaching to distort our understanding of the critical nature of the heart and move on in our development of a Christian mind. A grotesque distortion: Our response to God’s way should be ignorance. Finally, I sometimes hear two claims that express the idea that it is futile to use your reason or to emphasize its important when it comes to the Christian way: God’s ways and thoughts are higher than ours. “As the Heavens are higher than the Earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts,” reports Isaiah 55.9. And knowledge puffs people up and makes them arrogant. “Now about food sacrifices to idols: We know that ‘We all possess knowledge.’ However, knowledge puffs up while love builds,” reports 1 Corinthians 8.1. It should be clear what is wrong with these claims. #RandolphHarris 19 of 23
The fact that God’s thoughts are higher than ours means that we will never be able to fully grasp God’s motives, purposes, or providential guidance in the World. Regarding the arrogance that comes from knowledge, we need to keep two things in mind. First, Paul’s statement is not against knowledge per se, but against a certain attitude toward it. The proper response to his warning is humility, not ignorance! Second, for every knowledgeable person who is arrogant, there is an unknowledgeable person who is defensive and proud as a cover-up for one’s lack of knowledge. Arrogance is not possessed solely by people who have developed their reasoning abilities. We Christians have a desire deep within us to be like God and to bring honour to His name. However, what are we to look like if we are o fulfill these desires? A growing, vibrant disciple will be someone who values one’s intellectual life and works at developing one’s mind clearly. We must dedicate our lives to a deep commitment to reason and the intellectual life. It bothers God that so many evangelicals seem to be theologically illiterate. It bothers God terribly, as much as anything he can think of. Do not neglect your critical faculties. Remember that God is a rational God, who has made us in His own image. #RandolphHarris 20 of 23
God invites and expects us to explore His double revelation, in nature and Scripture, with the minds He has given us, and to go on in the development of a Christian mind to apply His marvelous revealed truth to every aspect of the modern and post-modern World. We neglect these admonitions to our own peril. King Benjamin records the names of the people and appoints priests to teach them—Mosiah reigns as a righteous king. About 124-121 Before Christ. “And now, king Benjamin thought it was expedient, after having finished speaking to the people, that he would take the names of all those who had entered into a covenant with God to keep his commandments. And it came to pass that there was not one soul, except it were little children, but who had entered into the covenant and had taken upon them the name of Christ. And again, it came to pass that when king Benjamin had made an end of all these things, and had consecrated his son Mosiah to be a ruler and a king over his people, and have given him all the charges concerning the kingdom, and also had appointed priests to teach the people, that thereby they might hear and know the commandments of God, and to stir them up in remembrance of the oath which they had made, he dismissed the multitude, and they returned, every one, according to their families, to their own houses. And Mosiah began to reign in his father’s stead. And he began to reign in the thirtieth year of his age, making in the whole, about four hundred and seventy-six years from the time that Lehi left Jerusalem. #RandolphHarris 21 of 23
“And king Benjamin lived three years and he died. And it came to pass that king Mosiah did walk in the ways of the Lord, and did observe his judgments and his statutes, and did keep his commandments in all things whatsoever he commanded him. And king Mosiah did cause his people that they should till the Earth. And he also, himself, did till the Earth, that thereby he might not become burdensome to his people, that he might do according to that which his father had done in all things. And there was no contention among all his people for the space of three years,” reports Mosiah 6.1-7. I beseech Thee, O Lord, that his Holy Communion may be my guide, and my food for the journey, unto the Heaven of eternal salvation. May it be to me a consolation while I am harassed in thoughts, a source of sweetest love in the time of good purposes, patience in tribulation and distress, medicine in sickness. By these most sacred Mysteries which I have received, grant me right faith, firm hope, and perfect love, strength to renounce the world, purification of desires, inward sweetness, ardent love for Thee, a recollection and tender sympathy for the Passion of Thy beloved Son, and grace to keep my life full of virtue in the praise of Thee and in sincere faith. #RandolphHarris 22 of 23
And please grant me in the hour of my departure to receive the gif of so great a Mystery with true faith, certain hope, and sincere love, that I may see Thee without end. My dear Lord, I depend wholly upon Thee, please wean me from all other dependences. Thou art my all, Thou dost overrule all and delight in me. Thou art the foundation of goodness, how can I distrust Thee? how be anxious about what happens to me? In the light of Thy preciousness the World and all its enjoyments are infinitely poor: I value the favour of humans no more than pebbles. Amid the blessings I receive from Thee may I never lose the heart of a stranger. May I love Thee, my benefactor, in all my benefits, not forgetting that my greatest danger arises from my advantages. Produce in me self-despair that will make Jesus precious to me, delightful in all his offices, pleasurable in all his ways., and may I love His commands as well as his promises. Please help me to discern between true and false love, the one consisting of supreme love to Thee, the other not, the former uniting Thy glory and human’s happiness that they may become one common interest, the latter disjointing and separating them both, seeking the latter with neglect of the former. Please teach me that genuine love is different in kind from that wrought by rational arguments or the motive of self-interest, that such love is pleasing passion affording joy to the mind where it is. Please grant me grace to distinguish between the genuine and the false, and to rest in Thee who are all love. #RandolphHarris 23 of 23
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May the Sacrament, O Lord, which I have received, by my cleansing; and grant Thy servants to be delivered from all sin, that we may rejoice in the fullness of the Heavenly remedy; through Jesus Christ our Lord. #CresleighHomes