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Good Things Often Happen to Bad People!
We are the people of this generation, bred in at least modest comfort, housed now in universities, looking uncomfortably to the World we inherit. Loneliness is a discrepancy between a person’s desired and achieved relationships with other people. Depression and loneliness are two psychological problems that are strongly associated. There are a great number of interpersonal, as well as psychological, similarities between the two problems. Problems with social skills are equally evident among depressed persons and lonely individuals. Difficulties in establishing and maintaining rewarding and intimate relationships are also very prevalent in loneliness. Both depressed and lonely people have a difficult time making friends, communicate poorly with family members, and experience low social integration. As in the case of people with depression, there is reason to suspect the family relationships of people who are lonely. Children’s loneliness tends to be positively correlated with that of their parents, just as in depression. What the lonely person appears to long for are meaningful and intimate friendships. Relationships with family members, on the other hand, do little to prevent or ameliorate the experience of loneliness. In fact, the more social support students have from their family, the more lonely they are. Although the increased family support may have been a result of the students’ loneliness, it is clear that these types of relationships do little to help a lonely person’s situation. In fact, very close family relationships may set up people for future loneliness. Retrospective reports of early childhood experiences indicate that children who had an excessively close, warm, and nurturing relationship with at least one parent were significantly more lonely as elderly adults than a group of controls. #RandolphHarris 1 of 16
When it comes to producing lonely children, the effects of overinvolvement from parents can be as noxious as underinvolvement or neglect. This is due in part to the fact that parental overinvolvement can create a sense of narcissism in the child. It has also been suggested that extremely close parent-children build great expectations that other relationships chronically fail to meet, and that such relationships may displace the interactions that children would have with peers. Given the extent of problems with social skills, personal relationships, and family relationships in both depression and loneliness, the exceptionally high rate of comorbidity between these two problems is understandable. Why is it that these two pervasive problems should coexist with such regularity? Well, in addition to sharing common interpersonal and psychological antecedents, problems such as depression and loneliness are causally related to each other. From an interpersonal standpoint, there are several plausible versions of such relationships. Firs, people who are depressed often infect others with their negative mood and elicit interpersonal rejection. As this rejection accumulates and personal relationships become scarce, depressed persons would be expected to experience loneliness. If we look at these variables in reverse order, depression may be a more generalized reaction to prolonged loneliness. Momentary or state loneliness may be a painful experience that many can endure without global distress. However, as loneliness persists, people may become emotionally worn down, resulting in a major depressive episode. Human beings are inherently predisposed to find rewards in social relationships. #RandolphHarris 2 of 16
For people who become chronically dissatisfied with the quality of such relationships, depression may be viewed as the inevitable consequence of this extinction of social rewards. Finally, depression and loneliness may each be associated with common interpersonal and psychological variables that contribute to each condition. One such interpersonal variable may be shyness. People who are characteristically shy, and lacking social support, are particularly vulnerable to developing depression. However, this relationship is partially mediated by the experience of loneliness, which is itself predicted by the interaction of shyness and low social support. Loneliness is conceptualized as a proximal contributor to depression, which indicates that its presence is a sign of impending depression. Presently, there is at least some support for the view of loneliness as a casual factor in depression. Ultimately, depression and loneliness may share a common causal origin, one of which may be shyness. Both depression and loneliness have clear links to problems with interpersonal communication and relationships. These include deficits in social skills, and problems with general personal as well as family relationships. Such problems, when sufficiently severe and chronic, surely have the potential to precipitate episodes of either state. However, interpersonal communication problems are certainly not the cause of all cases of depression or loneliness. Depression is one of the most common mental problems. Depression is highly comorbid with loneliness and has a very powerful relationship with disrupted communication behaviour and troubled interpersonal relationships. #RandolphHarris 3 of 16
Racism is a mental health issue because racism causes trauma. And trauma can lead to mental illnesses, which need to be taken seriously. Systemic racism (also called structural or institutional racism) is racism that exists across society within, and between institutions/organizations across society. It refers to the complex interactions of large scale societal systems, practices, ideologies, and programs that produce and perpetuate inequalities for marginalized groups. The key aspect of structural or systematic racism is that these marco-level mechanisms operate independent of the intentions and actions of individuals, so that even if individual racism is not present, the adverse conditions and inequalities for marginalized racial groups will continue to exists. Examples are housing discrimination, government surveillance, social segregation, racial profiling, predatory banking, access to healthcare, hiring/promotion practices, and mandatory minimum sentences. God loves all His children and makes salvation available to all. God created he many diverse races and ethnicities and esteems them all equally. As the Book of Mormon puts it, “all are alike unto God.” “Throw off your old evil nature and your former way of life, which is rotten through and through, full of lust and deception. Instead, there must be a spiritual renewal of your thoughts and attitudes,” report Ephesians 4.22-23. You may not realize it, but you can choose your thoughts. Nobody can make you dwell on something. One decides what one will entertain in one’s mind. One’s mind is similar to a giant computer in that one’s brain stores every thought one has ever had. When can one stare at the Sun without a parasol, that is to say, contemplate God’s clarity without blinking an eye? #RandolphHarris 4 of 16
The fact that our brains are supercomputers is encouraging when one is trying to find one’s car keys, but it is not such good news when one considers the amount of smut, foul language, ungodly concepts, and other negative input with which we are inundated every day of our lives. Nevertheless, simply because a destructive thought is stored in one’s mental computer does no mean one has to pull it up and run it on the main screen of one’s mind. Only when one’s senses the desire of Eternal Beatitude rising in one’s soul is when we can fully understand the Word of God. Only when one thinks one’s soul is about to make the Grand Exit. To hasten that time, open your heart, spread wide your desire, and accept this holy inspiration. Return the fullest thanks to Supernal Goodness; she has dealt so decently with you, visited you so thoughtfully, grabbed hold of you so powerfully, before your own fat self fell to the Earth. Just do not think you had anything to do with any of this. You did not think it up, and you did not sweat it out! However, it had everything to do with Supernal Grace and Divine Kindness. However, if you make the mistake and start dwelling on the negative aspects of life, those thoughts will affect your emotions, your attitudes, and—if you continue to give it free rein in your mind—it will inevitably affect your actions. You will be much more prone to discouragement and depression, and if you continue pondering those negative thoughts, they hold the potential to sap the energy and strength right out of you. You will lose your motivation to move forward in a positive direction. The more we dwell on the enemy’s lies, the more garbage we willingly allow one to dump into out minds. It is also as though we have flung the door wide open and put up a sign that reads: “Trash goes here!” #RandolphHarris 5 of 16
What are you allowing your mind to dwell on? Are you constantly contemplating negative things? How you view life makes all the difference in the World—especially for you! It is unrealistic to ignore problems and live in denial, pretending that nothing bad ever happens to us. Bad things do sometimes happen to good people, just as good things often happen to bad people. Pretense is not the answer; nor is playing semantic games to make yourself sound more spiritual. If you are sick, it is okay to admit it; but keep your thoughts on your Saviour. If your body is tried, your spirit is weary, sometimes the most rational and spiritual thing to do is to get some res. However, focus your thoughts on the Saviour who has promised, “Those who wait on the LORD shall renew their strength,” reports Isaiah 40.31. Tough times come to all of us. Jesus Christ said, “In this life you will have trouble, but be of good cheer, for I have overcome the World,” reports John 16.33. He was saying that when troublesome times come, we can choose our attitudes. We can choose to believe that Jesus Christ is greater than our problems; we can choose the right thoughts. Today, if you will dwell on the promises of God’s Word, you will be filled with hope and grace. You will develop a successful and faithful attitude. Like bees to flowers, you will draw the sweetness of God. Many people want to wait until their situation improves before they have an attitude of gratitude. Unfortunately, that is not going to happen. One has the lexical order wrong. One must show an attitude of gratitude first, and then God will turn your situation around. As long as you harbour that poor, defeated foolish and ghoulish outlooks, one will continue to live in doom and gloom. “Strip off that old nature and put on the new man. Be constantly renewed in the spirit of your mind, having a fresh mental and spiritual attitude,” reports Ephesians 4.22-24. #RandolphHarris 6 of 16
You cannot sit back passively and expect this new person to suddenly appear, much like a baby cannot sit there with a poopy diaper and expect it to magically become fresh and clean without any effort. The baby has to cry and scream until he gets a clean diaper. “As a person thinks in one’s heart, so one will become,” reports Proverbs 23.7. Wen one thinks thoughts of failure, one is destined to fail. You will be stuck in the poopy pamper. When one thinks thoughts of mediocrity, one is destined to live an average life. However, when one aligns one’s thoughts with God’s thoughts and one starts dwelling on the promises of His Word, when one constantly dwells on His success, favour, faith, power, and strength, nothing can hold one back. Make up your mind today to think optimistically, excellent thoughts, and one will be propelled toward greatness, inevitably bound for increase, promotion, and God’s supernatural blessings. As you stockpile your virtues and increase your holdings in humility, you will be preparing to battle for God, and eventually to buttle for God, as is the duty of a fervent servant soul. Flame glows, as you have no doubt noticed, but without smoke it does not ascend. So as the desires for Celestials on your part flame up, they do not smoke; that is to say, they are not free from the temptation of carnal affection. You do the right things for the honour of God—that is to say, pray desiringly to Him—but all is not right with you. Why? More soot than wisp. Is that not the case with your own desire? You have clouded your own mind into thinking that your desire was perfectly suitable. However, it was not. It was not white smoke rising; it was just black soot falling. How to put time to good effect. Do not go looking for delectables for yourself. Do find what is acceptable and honourific to God. #RandolphHarris 7 of 16
If you can make this midlife correction, then you will prefer God’s regulations to every desideratum of yours, whether in the past or the future, and follow it cheerfully. I know your desire, and many of the times God has heard you lusting for it in the night. You would like to be cavorting around the playing fields of the Lord with the children of God; Paul would have it that way, that is what he wrote to the Romans (8.21). That will be then, but here is now. The thought of the Eternal Home and Celestial Homeland delights you. Alas, that hour has yet to come. Yours is another clock, ticking another time. The time for war, the time for labour, the time for temptation. Replenish your depleted soul with the Summum Bonum—that should be your wish. However, alas, the time is not ripe. God is the One. Look for God, until the Kingdom of God comes; Luke has quoted Him on this already (22.18). Today, I chose to dwell on good thoughts, thoughts that based on the truths of Your Word, Father; thoughts that will build me up rather than tear me down. Thank You for renewing my mind and giving me a fresh new attitude of hope. Up to this point, My dear friend, you had to be put to the test and exercised in many different situations. For these, intermediate consolations have been issued to you, but the Final Lump Sum is not due jus yet. Therefore, stay cheery and keep in fighting trim. Especially when it comes to fighting against, as well as to just enduring, the contraries of nature. “Rejoice in the Lord always [delight, gladden yourselves in Him]; again I say, Rejoice. Let all humans know and perceive and recognize your unselfishness (your considerateness, your forbearing spirit). The Lord is near [He s coming soon]. #RandolphHarris 8 of 16
“Do not fret or have any anxiety about anything, but in every circumstance and in everything, by prayer and petition (definite requests), with thanksgiving, continue to make your wants known to God. And God’s peace [shall be yours, that tranquil state of a soul assured of its salvation through Christ, and so fearing nothing from God and being content with its Earthly lot of whatever sort that is, that peace] which transcends all understanding shall garrison and mount guard over your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. For the rest, brethren, whatever is true, whatever is worthy of reverence and is honourable and seemly, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely and loveable, whatever is kind and winsome and gracious, if there is any virtue and excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think on and weigh and take account of these things [fix your mins on them], reports Philippians 4.4-8. Often you have to do what you do not want to do; and it is important to leave behind what you truly hold dear. That will forward others’ interests, but it will not necessarily promote yours. What some will say will be heard, but there is no guarantee that what you will say will be worth hearing. Some will beg on the streets, and their pockets will be filled; you will hold your hand out on the corner, and no one will look your way. Some will develop a large following, but you will remain a comparative unknown. Bits and bobs will be done by others, but your immense contributions will go unnoticed. Because of experiences like these, your nature will always be thrown into a hissing fit. However, if you can manage to hang on to your tongue, you will take a giant stride along the path of spiritual progress. In these and many similars, the faithful servant of the Lord usually has to be proved; that is to say, to bring oneself low and to snap one’s attachment to all things. #RandolphHarris 9 of 16
Die you must to the things of this World, as you already know. However, there is scarcely somesuch in which you need to die more than this; namely, to endure, to suffer what makes your will scream, what does against your grain, what makes you wince at the mere scrape of it. That is especially so when disconveniences are the order of the day. Why? They just do not make sense to you. Even so, because you do not dare resist the Higher Power, you insinuate yourself into an already existing line of authority. Now that must seem hard to you, My dear friend—to walk around awaiting the nod from another Devout who is no worthier than yourself. It is like looking into a mirror and trying not to see yourself. However, think of the fruit of these labours, My dear Devout, the swiftly approaching End and the extravagantly large Reward. Do that, and you will lose your grounds for complaint, but you will surely have the strongest possible ground for patience. From just a small investment in Free Will Limited here on Earth, you will be able to trade up to Free Will Forever in Heaven. There is where you will find everything you want, everything you can possibly desire. You will have the faculty of doing nothing but good, without fear of losing a thing. Yours will be always one with Mine—no secrecies, no privacies. There, nobody will cross you; nobody will complain about you. Nobody will trip you up. No one will go around you. All your desiderata will be present to you at once and the same time, and each and every one will entertain your whole spirit, filling you with refreshment and continuing to top you off. In Heaven, God will match Celestial Comelies—that is to say, glories—with each of the Earthly Uncomelies—that is to say, contumelies—you have had to endure; the woolly white pallium of distinction, as Prophet Isaiah might have put it (6.13), in place of the rough bronze monk’s cloth of sorrow; a seat in the Kingdom of the Ages in place of your stool of ignorance. #RandolphHarris 10 of 16
In Heaven, making special guest appearances will be two fruits of Obedience. Labour of Penitence will rejoice, and Humble Subjection will be crowed with glorious fanfare. That will be then, but this is now. Incline yourself humbly under than hands of Humankind. Do not let yourself get hot and bothered about what someone may have said about your or another may have ordered you to do. However, take great care that whether a Prelate, a Priest, or a Devout demand something of you, you do it whole and entire for the good of the situation and to fulfill all expectations. Odd thing, though! One person asks for a tit; another, for a tat; both become celebrities and are praised to the skies. However, when you do the very same thing, no joy or glory attaches to you. Why? It is that your only joy, if I may say it, My dear Devout, will be found in contempt of self. Which may not be so bad if it means in the Long Run that you will become My pride and joy. One desire, and one alone is all you need, this side of death or that side of life: that God will always be glorified in you. “And my God will liberally supply (fill to full) your every need according to His riches in glory in Christ Jesus. To our God and Father be glory forever and ever (though the endless eternities of the eternities). Amen (so be it),” reports Philippians 4.19-20. Lord, do not fully understand the meaning of this experience. I am filled with awe. Your love goes beyond anything I could ever have imagined. I know that someday I will trust you so much that I will not feel afraid; I will not draw back when you express your love to me. Thank you for being so patient. I have much to learn. Good night. Many Christian readers think that psychology undermines faith. #RandolphHarris 11 of 16
However, if your faith is built on the foundation that learning to love God with your whole being, and learning to love others as yourself is the highest priority of the Christian life, then our message will affirm your faith. A psychological understanding of personality can contribute to the effectiveness with which Christians seek to live out their faith. We are also concerned with relationships between person and between a person and God. How can anyone, including a growing Christian, get the most out of life? We have coined a term—“the actualizing Christian”—to describe an approach to living a Christian life based on awareness, honesty, and trust. We believe this lifestyle leads to the graced fulfillment of one’s God-given potentials in life. It results in the full development of one’s personality and the increased capacity to have intimate and enduring relationships with others and God. Actualizing is a lifelong process, not a final state or a rigid ideal of perfectionism. It is a vision of how we can grow throughout the stages of life. The journey of actualizing is an opening of new doors, a becoming, a probing, a going inwards to one’s center, a developing of relationships. Every arrival is a new beginning! We believe that the growth of many people, especially those raised in the New World culture, has been limited by a lack of trust of their whole being—intellectual, emotional, physical, and spiritual. For many people, “head knowledge” is the stuff of life. If it is not logical, rational, and objective, then it is not so important. So these individuals have great difficulty experiencing their intuition or expressing their feelings. For others, emotionality is overemphasized at the expense of clear thinking and responsible planning. Yet others have difficulty when it comes to the body. They consider the body as somehow evil or at least neutral and fail to recognize the importance of the physical realm of human existence. #RandolphHarris 12 of 16
One of the awesome affirmations of the Christian faith is that Jesus, the Son of God, expressed His deity through a human body. He clearly demonstrated that the physical realm is important and, beyond that, that it is to be valued positively. Actualizing Christians rely upon important information derived from their entire natural and supernatural beings. The growing Christian learns to listen carefully to the messages of the body. A headache may mean we are too tense about life. A backache may mean we have chronically overextended ourselves. An ulcer may mean that we hate someone. In actualizing, we learn to respect the wisdom of our own feeling and inner intuition. This this is called the wisdom organism. Time and again in my clients, I have seen simple people become significant and creative in their own spheres, as they have developed more trust of the process going on within themselves, and have dared to feel their own feelings and express themselves in their own unique ways. The actualizing Christian learns throughout life by continually exploring, expanding, and revising the meaning of one’s beliefs and values. In this open-ended approach, there is a desire to always grow beyond one’s prejudices and premature conclusions about life. In psychological terms, one has an open perceptual field in which new configurations of meaning constantly emerge. In religions terms, one tends to be sensitive to the heart and mind of Christ—one is easily moved by the spirit of God. Everything in the World is moving dynamically in the direction of completion, fulfillment, and actualization. Through the process, there is a vital link between the person’s or thing’s actual characteristics at a given moment and what will characterize it as a fully developed entity. #RandolphHarris 13 of 16
For instance, the acorn has within it the potential of becoming an oak tree. However, it is only through the process of growth over time that the tiny acorn experiences transformation and actualization. The idea behind entelechy is that the ultimate end or purpose toward which the acorn is developing is embedded in the acorn itself. The internal blueprint pushes, energizes, and guides the acorn in fulfilling its project of becoming a mature oak. In much the same way the person who is rooted in God is being transformed over time into the unique individual that one was created to be. Although the actualizing process is pleasurable, it is not simply a hedonistic pursuit of fun or happiness. There will be real travail for anyone who desires to become a genuinely actualizing person. However, there will be real joy too—the joy of being what one is and becoming more of what one can be. This involves risk, faith, vulnerability, and adventure. We need to learn to place a high priority on our growth toward authentic personhood. It will not happen automatically. Even if we want to, we cannot change ourselves suddenly and drastically. Rather, real and enduring change is a gradual, steady process of becoming. It is nurtured by the courageous acceptance of our whole being—strengths and weaknesses, virtues and vices, talents and deficits. And, if we take it for granted, it may never occur. Just as the athlete trains and warms up before the beginning of the hundred-yard dash, we must learn how to warm ourselves up to the process of actualizing. It does not happen all at once. We need to discover our energies; heighten our awareness of the challenges for meaning that life is inviting us to embrace; and gain access to the spiritual resources of the core of our being. Only then will we be able to live life with sensitivity, wisdom, and vitality that is possible for us. #RandolphHarris 14 of 16
Learning to live such a life requires concrete and specific guidelines. First of all, the spiritual core, the center of the personality, provides the function of lending stability to the always-evolving nature of the person. The physical appearance of the person changes throughout life in definite ways. The emotional responses change through a single day. The values and attitudes are altered over the course of weeks, months, and years. However, the core self, the center of spiritual identity, remain the same. Recognize and affirm that you are a Center of pure self-consciousness and self-realization. This is the permanent factor in every varying flow of your personal life. It is this which gives one the sense of being, or permanence, of inner security. You are a center of awareness and power. The spiritual core is an individual’s God-given personhood, one’s “God within.” The Holy Spirit dwells here. The core reflects the fact that one is made in the image of God, and shares with God the capacity for awareness, choice, and intimacy. Whether that potential is fully realized during the course of a person’s lifetime depends on one’s responsiveness to the wisdom of the core. The fact remains that the awakening to the Overself leaves great witness and striking testimony that it has passed over a humans’ head. It brings new and subtle powers, an altered outlook upon people and events, and a deep calm in the very center of one’s being. When one is given one’s primal glimpse of the spiritual possibilities of humans, one is immeasurably exalted. When one discovers the dynamic power of the Overself for the first and hears the beautiful hidden rhythm of its life, one’s heart becomes as the heart of Hercules and for hours, days, or weeks one walks on air. #RandolphHarris 15 of 16
One begins to price is fleshly desires at their true worth and treads them under foot. One has been permitted to taste of the spirit’s fruits, and one knows that they alone are good. A sense of being lifted up from all Worldly cares will pervade one for some time as an afterglow of this experience. The gracious feeling swims away again and leaves one not forlorn but forsworn. One will never gain be alone. The remembrance of what happened is by itself enough to be company for one the rest of one’s life. Through our blessings and invocations, we acknowledge this network of forces that flows through the World, awakening the deeper levels of our consciousness to effect these patterns of change. Deep peace of the running wave to you, of water flowing, rising, and falling, sometimes advancing, sometimes receding. May the stream of your life flow unimpeded! Deep peace of the running wave to you! O look down upon us from Thy dwelling place on high and forgive Thy servant who now worships before Thee, so that Thou wilt prolong one’s days and pardon one’s sins, iniquities, and transgression. Extend Thy right hand to receive one in perfect repentance, and open Thy good treasure to satisfy thirsting creatures, as it is written in the Scripture: The Lord shall open unto thee His good treasure, the Heaven, to give the rain unto your land in its season and to bless all the work of your hand. Amen. Praised art Thou, O Lord our God and God of our fathers, God of Abraham, God of Isaac, and God of Jacob, mighty, revered and exalted God. Thou bestowest lovingkindness and possesses all things. Mindful of the patriarchs’ love for Thee, Thou wilt in Thy love bring a redeemer to their children’s children for the sake of Thy name. O King, Thou Helper, Redeemer and Shield, be Thou praised, O Lord, Shield of Abraham. Thou, O Lord, art mighty forever. Thou callest the dead to immortal life for Thou art mighty in deliverance. #RandolphHarris 16 of 16
CRESLEIGH HAVENWOOD
Lincoln, CA | from the mid $600s
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The Dead and the Living Can Never be One—God Has Forbidden it!
Life is richest when you realize that we are all snowflakes. Each of us is absolutely beautiful and unique. And we are here for a very short time. Mrs. Winchester was a pretty little brunette, rather pale, with dark hair, brilliant brown eyes, a resolute mouth and a bright, intelligent expression. She was orderly, trim and feverishly energetic, and seemed to live every moment of her life. The Winchester mansion was like a paradise on Earth; and in this light I still regarded it, until a great change came over the temperature, and the month of April introduced me to red-hot winds, sleepless nights, and the intolerable “brain fever” bird. The next morning, rested and invigorated, we set out on a tour of inspection; and it is almost worthwhile to undergo a certain amount of baking on the sweltering heat of the plains, in order to enjoy those deep first draughts of cool hill air, instead of a stifling, dust-laden atmosphere, and to appreciate the green valleys and blue hills by force of contrast to the far-stretching, eye-smarting, white glaring roads that intersect the burnt-up plains—roads and plains that even the pariah abandon, salamander though he be! No doubt the work of some extremely roughish-looking and grotesque imps and demons, who were inflicting various torments. However, to our delight and surprise, Mrs. Winchester had by no means overdraw the advantages of her new estate. The Grand Queen Anne Victorian mansion was solidly built of wood, brick, and stone, nine storied, and ample in size. It stood on kind of a shelf cut out of the hill side, and was surrounded by a pretty flower garden, full of roses, fuchsias, carnations. There was also a fruit orchard, many exotic trees and plants, and an avenue of palm trees. #RandolphHarris 1 of 10
There was a delightful, flagged verandah. The stairs were very steep. At the head of them, the passage and rooms were repeated. There were very small nooks, a switchback staircase, which has seven flights with forty-four steps, rising only about nine feet, since each step was just two inches. Miles of twisting hallways, secret passageways in the walls, a labyrinth of rooms, and dressing-rooms, 13 bathrooms, and plenty of good water. From the fourth-floor balcony, there was a glorious view, across a valley, far away, to the snowy range. As we looked around the drawing-room, here were carpets, curtains, solid, very solid chairs, and Berlin wool worked screens, a card-table, and any quantity of pictures. All the rooms were well, almost handsomely, furnished, in an old-fashioned style. There was no scarcity of wardrobes, looking-glasses, or even armchairs, in the bedrooms, and they pantry was fitted out—a most singular circumstance—with a large supply of handsome glass and china, lamps, old moderators, coffee and tea pots, plated side dishes, and candlesticks, cooking utensils and spoons and forks, wine coasters, and a cake-backet. The chins was Spoke, the plate old family heirlooms, with a crest—a winged horse—on everything, down to the very mustard spoons. There were gold- and silverplated chandeliers, imported Tiffany art glass windows, German silver and bronze inlaid doors, Swiss molded bathtubs, rare precious woods like mahogany and rosewood. Handsome Dresden china vases, nice boxes of firewood in every room, clocks, real hair mattresses—in short, it was a treasure trove. It was well built with some peculiar effects such as stairs that lead to the ceiling, doors that go nowhere and that opened onto walls, and chimneys that stop just short of the roof. #RandolphHarris 2 of 10
It is estimated that there were some 500 to 600 rooms in the house. However, it is haunted! According to a Boston medium, Mrs. Winchester and her family and her fortune were being haunted by spirits. Supposedly the untimely deaths of her daughter and husband were caused by these spirits, and it was implied that Mrs. Winchester would be the next victim. We soon forget about the dismal prophecy, being too gay and too busy to give her, or it a thought. We had so many engagements—tennis parties and tournaments, picnics, concerts, dances and little dinners. We ourselves gave occasional afternoon teas in the verandah, using the best Spode cups and saucers and the old silver cake-basket, and were warmly complimented on our good fortune in being guests in such a charming house and garden. Mrs. Winchester also had an African grey parrot—a rare bird indeed—and a cute little dog named Zip. Later that night, we had dinner in a handsome and somewhat antique-looking room. A cheerful wood-fire blazed in the capacious hearth; a little at one side an old-fashioned table, with richly-carved legs, was placed—destined, no doubt, to receive the supper, for which preparations were going forward; and ranged with exam regularity stood the tall-backed chairs whose ungracefulness was more than counterbalanced by their comfort. A stranger stopped at the door of the room, and displayed his form and face completely. He wore a dark coloured cloth cloak, which was short and full, not falling quite to the knees; his legs were cased in dark purple silk stockings, and his shoes were adorned with roses of the same colour. The opening of the cloak in front showed the undersuit to consist of some very dark, perhaps sable material, and his hands were enclosed in a pair of heavy leather gloves which ran up considerably above the wrist, in the manner of a gauntlet. #RandolphHarris 3 of 10
In one hand he carried his walking-stick and his hat, which he had removed, and the other hung heavily by his side. A quantity of grizzled hair descended in long tresses from his head, and its fold rested upon plaits of a stiff ruff, which effectually concealed his neck. So far all was well; but the face!—all the flesh of the face was coloured with the bluish leaden hue which is sometimes produced by the operation of metallic medicines administered in excessive quantities; the eyes were enormous, and the white appeared both above and below the iris, which gave to them the impression of insanity, which was heightened by their glassy redness; the nose was well enough, but the mouth was writhed considerably to one side, where it opened in order to give egress to two long, discoloured fangs, which projected from the upper jaw, far blow the lower lip; the hue of the lips themselves bore the usual relation to that of the face, and was consequently nearly black. The character of the face was malignant, even satanic, to the last degree; and, indeed, such a combination of horror could hardly be accounted for, except by supposing the corpse of some atrocious malefactor, which had long hung blackening upon the gibbet, to have at length become the habitation of a demon—the frightful sport of satanic possession. It was remarkable that the worshipful stranger suffered as little as possible of his flesh to appear, and that during his visit he did not once remove his gloves. There was something indescribably odd, even horrible about all his motions, something undefinable, something unnatural, unhuman—it was as if the limbs were guided and directed by a spirit unused to the management of bodily machinery. #RandolphHarris 4 of 10
The stranger said hardly anything during his visit, which did not exceed half an hour; and the host himself could scarcely muster courage enough to utter the few necessary salutations and courtesies; and, indeed, such was the nervous terror which the presence of Theophilus Dunn inspired, that very little would have made all his entertainers fly bellowing from the room. During his stay he did not once suffer his eyelids to close, nor even to move in the slightest degree; and further, there was a death-like stillness in his whole person, owing to the total absence of the heaving motion of the chest caused by the process of respiration. These two peculiarities, though when told they may appear trifling, produced a very striking and unpleasant effect when seen and observed. He saw a shadowy and ill-defined form gliding into the apartment. Sharp guests of wind and warning rumblings of thunder that seemed to shake the mountains, blew away the table cloth. As it was whirling into space, Dunn drew his sword, and raising the candle as o throw its light with increased distinctness upon the objects in the room, he entered the chamber into which the figure had glided. No figure was there—nothing but the furniture which had belonged to the room, and yet he could not be deceived as to the fact that something had moved before them into the chamber. A sickening dread came upon him, and the cold perspiration broke out in heavy drops upon his forehead; nor was he more composed when he heard the increased urgency, they agony of entreaty, which Mrs. Winchester implored him not to leave for a moment. “I saw him,” she said. “He is there! I cannot be deceived—I know him. He is by me—he is with me—he is in the room. Then, for God’s sake, as you would save me, do no stir from beside me!” #RandolphHarris 5 of 10
Mrs. Winchester had it prevailed upon her to lie down upon the bed, where she continued to urger everyone to stay by her. She frequently uttered incoherent sentences, repeating again and again, “The dead and the living cannot be one—God has forbidden it!” and then again, “Rest to the wakeful—sleep to the sleep-walkers.” There was a Greek curse inscribed on a lead tablet in the drawing room from the city of Selinus in Sicily. Mrs. Winchester used it to communicate with gods and spirits. A spirit had been summoned and bound to the tablet to make sure the curse was effective. Souls after death do as yet love their body which they left, as those souls do whose bodies want due burial or have left their bodies by violent death, and as yet wander about their carcasses in a troubled and moist spirit, being, as it were, allured by something that hath an affinity with them. Many spirits had been invoked that night, this one had been brought out and seated on a sixteen-sided stand (an improvement on the double pentacle called Solomon’s seat). Mrs. Winchester lay in the inner chamber, the door of which was open; and by the side of the bed, at her urgent desire, stood her niece Marion “Daisey” Marriam Marriott; a candle burned in the bedchamber, and three were lighted in the outer apartment. Sir Lancelot Charles Lee Brenton arrived, and cleared his voice, as if about to commence a prayer; but before he had time to begin, a sudden gust of air blew out the candle which served to illuminate the room in which Mrs. Winchester lay, and she with hurried alarm, explained: “Sir Lancelot, bring in another candle; the darkness is unsafe.” Sir Lancelot stepped from the bedchamber into the other, in order to supply what she desired. “O God! do not go, Sir Lancelot!” shrieked the unhappy Mrs. Winchester; and at the same time she sprang from the bed and darted after him, in order, by her grasp, to detain him. #RandolphHarris 6 of 10
However, the warning came too late, for scarcely had he passed the threshold, and hardly had Mrs. Winchester has time to utter the startling explanation, when the door which divided the two rooms closed violently after him, as if swung to by a strong blast of wind. Sir Lancelot and Dunn both rushed to the door, but their united and desperate efforts could not avail so much as to sake it. Shriek after shriek burst from the inner chamber, with all the piercing loudness of despairing terror. Sir Lancelot and Dunn applied every energy and strained every nerve to force open the door; but all in vain. There was no sound of struggling from within, but the screams seemed to increase in loudness, and at the same time they heard the bolts of the latticed window withdrawn, and the window itself grated upon the sill as if thrown open. One last shriek, so long and piercing and agonized as to be scarcely human, swelled from the room, and suddenly there followed a death-like silence. A light step was heard crossing the floor, as if from the bed to the window; and almost at the same instant the door gave way, and yielding to the pressure of the external applicants, they were nearly precipitated into the room. It was empty. The window was open, and Sir Lancelot sprang to the chair and gazed out upon the fruit orchard and the lake below. He saw no form, but he beheld, or thought he beheld, the waters of the broad lake beneath settling ring after ring in heavy circular ripples, as if a moment before disturbed by the immersion of some large and heavy mass. No trace of Mrs. Winchester was ever after discovered, nor was anything certain respecting her mysterious wooer detected or even suspected; no clue whereby to trace the intricacies of the labyrinth, and to arrive at a distinct conclusion was to be found. #RandolphHarris 7 of 10
However, an incident occurred, which, though it will not be received by our rational readers as at all approaching to evidence upon the matter, nevertheless produced a strong and a lasting impression upon the mind of Sir Lancelot. Many years after the events at the Winchester Mansion, which we have detailed, Sir Lancelot, then remotely situated, received an intimation of his father’s death, and of his intended burial upon a fixed day in an independent chapel in Bath late in the day upon which the funeral was appointed to take place. The procession had not then arrived. Evening closed in, and still it did not appear. Sir Lancelot strolled down to the church—he found it open; notice of the arrival of the funeral had been given, and the vault in which the body was to be laid had been opened. The official who corresponds to our sexton, on seeing a well-dressed gentleman, whose object was to attend the expected funeral, pacing the aisle of the chapel, hospitably invited him to share with him the comforts of a blazing wood fire, which as was his custom in winter time upon such occasions, he had kindled on the hearth of a chamber which communicated by a flight of steps with the vault below. In this chamber Sir Lancelot and his entertainer seated themselves; and the sexton, after some fruitless attempts to engage his guest in conversation, was obliged to apply himself to his tobacco-pipe and can to solace his solitude. In spite of his grief and cares, the fatigues of a rapid journey of nearly forty hours gradually overcame the mind and body of Sir Lancelot Charles Lee Brenton, and he sank into a deep sleep, from which he was awakened by someone shaking him gently by the shoulder. He first thought that the old sexton had called him, but he was no longer in the room. #RandolphHarris 8 of 10
There was a kind of ghostly twilight. The ghostly lights passed and disappeared in the gathering darkness. He roused himself, and as soon as he could clearly see what was around him, he perceived a female form, clothed in a kind of black robe of muslin, part of which was so disposed as to act as a veil, and in her hand she carried a lamp. She was moving rather away from him, and towards the flight of steps which conducted towards the vaults. Sir Lancelot felt a vague alarm at the sight of this figure, and at the same time an irresistible impulse to follow his guidance. He followed it towards the vaults, but when it reached the head of the stairs, he paused; the figure paused also, and turning gently round, displayed, by the light of the lamp it carried, the face and features of the beloved, Sarah Winchesters. There was nothing horrible, or even sad, in the countenance. On the contrary, it wore the same arch smile which used to enchant him long before in his happy days. A feeling of awe and interest, too intense to be resisted, prompted him to follow the specter, if specter it were. She descended the stairs—he followed; and, turning to the left through a narrow passage she led him, to his infinite surprise, through the door to nowhere, into what appeared to be an old-fashioned Victorian apartment. Abundance of costly antique furniture was disposed about the room, and in one corner stood a four-post bed, with heavy black cloth curtains, and by the light of the lamp which she held towards its contents, she disclosed to the horror stricken clergyman, sitting bolt upright in the bed, the livid and demoniac form of Theophilus Dunn. Sir Lancelottt had hardly seen him when he fell senseless upon the floor, where he lay until discovered, on the next morning, by persons employed in closing the passages into the vaults. He was laying in a cell of considerable size, which had not been disturbed for a long time, and had fallen beside a large coffin which was supported upon small stone pillars, a security against the attacks of vermin. #RandolphHarris 9 of 10
To his dying day Sir Lancelot was satisfied of the reality of the vision which he had witnessed, and he has left behind him curious evidence of the impression which it wrought upon his fancy, in a painting executed shortly after the event we have narrated, and which is valuable as exhibiting not only the peculiarities which have made the Winchester Mansion sought after, but even more so as presenting occurrences in Mrs. Winchester’s interviews and journals that defy explanation. However, Mrs. Winchester’s mysterious fate must ever remain a matter of speculation. Yes; sometimes at night the most terrible weeping and sobbing can be heard coming from the “Daisy bedroom,” and a phantom horse can be heard plunging in the carriage house, and the wild, unearthly and utterly appalling shriek. The scene of horrible dinner parities has even been seen in the dining room. A party of ghouls meets there a few times of year, after midnight, and are assembled with the spoils of the graves they have violated, and are feasting on the flesh of long-buried corpses. One of the servants even saw his own wife, who, by the way, never touched supper at home, playing no inconsiderable part in the hideous banquet. Hundreds of wild stories have appeared about this mysterious mansion. It seems odd that none of her relatives or former employees ever came forward to contradict these stories, despite the fact that many of them lived for forty years after the estate was opened for tours. For some reason, did they feel threatened by talking—or did they continue to guard Mrs. Winchesters privacy? At the Winchester Mystery House, we may never be able to separate fact from legend—so here are some stories that have been told since the late 1800s and early 1900s. We leave it to guests and readers to decide for themselves why Mrs. Winchester really built the house the way she did, or what is it really? A portal or just a museum? #RandolphHarris 10 of 10
Winchester Mystery House is an extravagant maze of Victorian craftmanship—marvelous, baffling, and eerily eccentric, to say the least. Tour guides must warn people not to stray from the group or they could be lost for hours. Countless questions come to mind as you wander through the mansion—such as, what was Mrs. Winchester thinking when she had a staircase built the descends seven steps and then rises eleven? By the way, Harry Houdini, an occultist, was attracted to the Winchester and tried to escape from the mansiin blindfolded; he also died Halloween 1926.
Winchester Mystery House
What it feels like walking through a microscopic spiderweb….🕷🕸
All Hallows’ Eve, Lost in the House tour tickets are still available for tonight. Hurry and purchase before they sell out!
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To be Driven by Appetite Alone is Slavery!
The questions are brutal because the truth is kind of a surgery. The passage from the state of nature to the civil state produces quite a remarkable change in humans, for it substitutes justice for instinct in one’s behaviour and gives one’s actions a moral quality they previously lacked. Only then, when the voice of duty replaces physical impulse and right replaces appetite, do humans, who had hitherto taken only oneself into account, find oneself forced to act upon other principles and to consult one’s reason before listening to one’s inclinations. Although in this state one deprives oneself of several of the advantages belonging to one in the state of nature, one regains such great ones. One’s faculties are exercised and developed, one’s ideas are broadened, one’s feelings are ennobled, one’s entire soul is elevated to such a height that, if the abuse of this new condition did not often lower one’s status to beneath the level one left, one ought constantly to bless the happy moment that pulled one away from it forever and which transformed one from a stupid, limited animal into an intelligent being and a human. What humans lose through social contract is their natural liberty and an unlimited right to everything that tempts one and that one can acquire. What one gains is civil liberty and the proprietary ownership of all one possesses. So as not to be in error in these compensations, it is necessary to draw a careful distinction between natural liberty (which is limited solely by the force of the individual involved) and civil liberty (which is limited by the general will), and between possession (which is merely the effect of the force or the right of the first occupant) and proprietary ownership (which is based solely on a positive title). #RandolphHarris 1 of 20
To the preceding acquisitions could be added the acquisition in the civil state of moral liberty, which alone makes humans truly the master of oneself. For to be driven by appetite alone is slavery, and obedience to the law one has prescribed for oneself is liberty. However, I have already said too much on this subject, and the philosophical meanings of the word liberty is not my subject here. Each member of the community gives oneself to it at the instant of its constitution, just as one actually is, oneself and all one’s forces, including all the goods in one’s possession. This is not to say that by this act possession changes its nature as it changes hands and becomes property in the hands of the sovereign. Rather, since the forces of the city are incomparably greater than those of a private individual, public possession is by that very fact stronger and more irrevocable, without being more legitimate, at least to strangers. For with regard to its members, the state is master of all their good virtue of the social contract, which serves in the state as the basis of all rights. However, with regard to other powers, the state is master only in virtue of the right of the first occupant, which is derives from private individuals. The right of first occupant, though more real than the right of the strongest, does not become a true right until after the establishment of the right property. Every human by nature has a right to everything one needs; however, the positive act whereby one becomes a proprietor of some goods excludes one from all the rest. Once one’s lot has been determined, one should limit oneself thereto, no longer having any right against the community. #RandolphHarris 2 of 20
This is the reason why the right of the first occupant, so weak in the state of nature, is able to command the respect of every human living in the civil state. In this right, one respects not so much what belongs to others as what does not belong to oneself. In general, the following rules must obtain in order to authorize the right of the first occupant on any land. First, this land may not already be occupied by anyone. Second, no one may occupy more than the amount needed to subsist. Third, one is to take possession of it not by an empty ceremony, but by working and cultivating it—the only sign of property that ought, in the absence of legal titles, to be respected by others. In fact, by according to need and work the right of the first occupant, is it not extended as far as it can go? Is it possible to avoid setting limits to this right? Will setting one’s foot on a piece of common land be sufficient to claim it at once as one’s own? Will having the force for a moment to drive off other humans or people seize a vast amount of territory and deprive the entire human race of it except by a punishable usurpation, since this seizure deprives all other humans of the shelter and sustenance that nature gives them in common? When Nunez Balboa stood on the shoreline and took possession of the South Sea and all of South America in the name of crown of Castille, was this enough to dispossess all the inhabitants and to exclude all the princes of the World? On that basis, those ceremonies would be multiplied quite in vain. All the Catholic King had to do was to take possession of the Universe all at once from one’s private room, excepting afterwards from one’s empire only what already belonged to other princes. #RandolphHarris 3 of 20
One can imagine how the combined and contiguous lands of private individuals became public territory; and how the right of sovereignty, extending from subjects to the land they occupied, becomes at once real and personal. This places its owners in a greater dependence, turning their very own forces into guarantees of their loyalty. This advantage does not seem to have been fully appreciated by the ancient monarchs, who, calling themselves merely King of the Persians, the Scythians, and the Macedonians, appeared to regard themselves merely as the leaders of humans rather than the masters of the country. Today’s monarchs more shrewdly call themselves King of France, Spain, England, and so on. In holding the land thus, they are quite sure of holding the inhabitants. What is remarkable about this alienation is that, in accepting the goods of private individuals, the community is far from despoiling them; rather, in so doing, it merely assures them of legitimate possession, changing usurpation into a true right, and enjoyment into proprietary ownership. In that case, since owners are considered trustees of the public good, and since their rights are respected by all members of the state and maintained with all its force against foreigners, through an advantageous surrender to the public and still more so to themselves, they have, so to speak, acquired all they have given. This paradox is easily explained by the distinction between the rights of the sovereign and those of the proprietor to the same store, as will be seen later. It can also happen, as humans begin to unite before possessing anything and later appropriate a piece of land sufficient for everyone, that they enjoy it in common or divide it among themselves either in equal shares or according to proportions laid down by the sovereign. #RandolphHarris 4 of 20
In whatever way this acquisition is accomplished, each private individual’s right to one’s very own store is always subordinate to the community’s right to all, without which there could be neither solidity in the social fabric nor real force in the exercise of sovereignty. Instead of destroying natural equality, the fundamental compact, on the contrary, substitutes a moral and legitimate equality to whatever physical inequality nature may have been able to impose upon humans, and, however, unequal in force or intelligence they may be, humans all becomes equal by convention and by right. We are only just beginning to feel the social consequences of this restructuring of time. For example, while increasing individualization of time patterns certainly makes work less onerous, it also can intensify loneliness and social isolation. If friends, lovers, and family all work at different hours, and new services are not laid in place to help them coordinate their person schedules, it becomes increasingly difficult for them to arrange face-to-face social contact. The old social centers—the neighbourhood pub, the church clambake, the school prom—are losing their traditional significance. In the place, new Third Wave institutions must be invented to facilitate social life. One can, for example, easily imagine a new computerized service—called it “Pres-Sched” or “Friend-Sched”—that not only reminds you of your own appointment but stores the schedules of various friends and family members so that each person in the social network can, by pushing a button, find out where and when one’s friends and acquaintances will be, and can make arrangements accordingly. However, far more significant social facilitators will be needed. #RandolphHarris 5 of 20
The de-massification of time has other consequences, too. Thus we can already begin to see its effects in transportation. The Second Wave insistence on rigid, mass work schedules brought with it the characteristic rush-hour crush. The de-massification of time redistributes traffic flows in both space and time. In fact, one crude way to judge just how far the Third Wave have advanced in any community is to look at the traffic flows. If the peak hours are still heavily accented, and if all the traffic moves one way in the morning and reverses itself in the evening, Second Wave synchronization still prevails. If traffic flows all day long, as it does in an increasing number of cities, and moves in all directions, rather than merely back and forth, it is safe to assumes that Third Wave industries have taken root, that service workers far outnumber manufacturing workers, that flextime has begun to spread, that part-time and night work are prevalent, and that all-night services—superettes, banks, gas stations, and restaurants—will not be far behind. The shift toward more flexible and personalized schedules also reduces energy costs and pollution by leveling out peak loads. Electric utilities in a dozen states are not using “time-of-day” pricing for industrial and residential customers to discourage energy use during traditional peak hours, while Connecticut’s Department of Environmental Protection has urged companies to institute flextime as a means of complying with federal environmental requirements. These are among the most obvious implications of the time shift. As the process continues to unfold in the years and decades ahead, we will see far more powerful and as yet unimagined consequences. The new time patterns will affect our daily rhythms in the home. They will affect our art. They will affect our biology. For when we touch on time, we touch on all of human experience. #RandolphHarris 6 of 20
Everyone feels down sometimes. However, some people have a more serious difficulty to deal with. Depression is a medical condition that affects millions of people of all ages and situations. Depressed persons experience as many problems in their parental role as they do in their spousal role. In numerous investigations, depression has been linked to disrupted and dysfunctional parenting behaviour. Depression interferes with parenting skills by corrupting the patients’ capacity to relate to their children. In general, the parenting behaviour of depressives is characterized by much the same negativity, hostility, complaining, and poor interpersonal problem solving that are associated with their other relationships. Apparently as a consequence of this disrupted parenting behaviour, the children of depressed parents are at a much higher risk for behavioural, cognitive, and emotional dysfunctions than are those of nondepressed parents. Among the problems experienced by children of depressed mothers is depression itself. Although the effects of maternal depressed have received much attention in the literature, evidence suggests that paternal depression also has ill effect on children. Children of depressed mothers typically exhibit a behaviour pattern indicative of rejection. During mother-child interaction, children of depressed mothers express negative affect, are generally tense and irritable, spend less time looking at their mothers, and appear less content than children who interact with their nondepressed mothers. It is apparent that many depressed people experienced difficulties in their families when they are growing up. People who are depressed typically describe their families of origin as rejecting, uncaring. #RandolphHarris 7 of 20
In a study of psychiatric patients with depression, feelings of being rejected by parents were significant and linearly associated with symptoms of depression at the time of admission, discharge, and 3 months’ follow-up. Among some individuals with depression, reports of low parental care coupled with overprotection are common. Depression has been found to be 3.5 times more likely than matched control subjects to have at least one parent who exhibited low care coupled with high protection, or so called “affectionless control.” Tenants of attachment theory can be used to explain these findings; parents who are uncaring tend to create anxious attachment in the child. This predisposes the child to overdependency and insecurity, which culminates in depression when stressed. Are memories of dysfunctional parenting merely an artifact of being in a state of depression? Subjects with current depression and those with remitted depression recalled greater parental overprotectiveness than a group of nondepressed subjects. Documented evidence displays similarly consistent perceptions of parental rejection after symptoms of depression lifted. On the other hand, memories of parental rejection in subjects with remitted depression can sometimes be similar to never-depressed controls. Only subjects with current depression in this other study recalled rejecting parental behaviours. A clever study of students with depression and their sibling suggest that perceptions of dysfunctional parenting are not a state-dependent phenomenon. In this investigation, students with depression and their nondepressed siblings reported significantly lower family cohesion, expressiveness, and higher conflict than nondepressed student-nondepressed sibling pairs. These collateral data provide compelling evidence of parenting practices that are awry in the family backgrounds of people with depression—a view corroborated by their nondepressed siblings. #RandolphHarris 8 of 20
In addition to the ill effects of maladaptive parenting, it is also evident that the experience of abuse as a child makes a persona likely to experience persistent depression as an adult. As in so many other psychological problems, accounts of physical and other types of abuse and neglect are relatively common in the childhood backgrounds of people with depression. Childhood maltreatment (id est, physical abuse, other forms of abuse, or neglect) increases the odds of having a depressive disorder by as much as 5 times. A recent survey of low-income women revealed a 46 percent rate of depression among those with a history of sexual abuse, compared to 17 percent among those without a history of abuse. In a clinical setting, about half of the children referred for behavioural problems following abuse (physical, sexual, or neglect) exhibited symptoms suggestive of major depression or dysthymia; this is approximately four times the incidence of depression of emotional abuse (exempla gratia, repeat name calling, overt rejection, family violence, abandonment of parental responsibilities to relatives outside the home) on depression were stronger than those for physical and sexual abuse. Considerable attention had been paid to examining the family environments in which children experience abuse. Families in which children are abused, or who permit abuse to occur to their children, often have problems above and beyond the abusive episodes. Could it be the troubled family environment rather than the actual abuse that explains the elevated risk for subsequent depression? Although these family environments surely contribute to depression in their offspring, abuse appears to predict this depression above and beyond the effects attributable to the general atmosphere in the family. #RandolphHarris 9 of 20
Even after controlling for the quality of the parent-child relationship, as assessed from the child’s perspective sexual assault and parental violence were longitudinally predictive of depression in boys and girls following a period of 15 months. Similar effects have been found in a sample of low-income adult mothers, even after controlling for whether the women lived with her biological mothers through age 16, whether her mother was depressed, whether her mother died, history of foster care, availability of social support while growing up, and her history of receiving verbal abuse. Some interpersonal factors both within and beyond the family of origin may significantly mitigate the deleterious effects of abuse and neglect. On the downside, a child is at greatest risk for depression when experiencing sexual abuse in a family environment that is high in conflict and cohesiveness, and low in control. Those familiar with the family functioning literature will immediately recognize this as an extremely volatile and caustic combination of family characteristics, that is almost certain to yield distressed offspring. On a more positive note, the effect of childhood sexual abuse and later depression are substantially minimized when individuals manage to establish and maintain highly intimate relationships as adults. An intriguing implication of the investigation is that childhood sexual abuse may cause later depression because it sets people up for interpersonal difficulties that interfere with establishing intimacy with others. This is consistent with an attachment theory explanation of the childhood abuse-depression relationship. For those who manage to develop rewarding intimate relationships, despite a history of maltreatment, depression need not be an inevitable consequence of these aversive childhood experiences. #RandolphHarris 10 of 20
Family-of-origin experience often portend the psychological distress experienced by people with depression. Parental rejection, overprotectiveness, and emotional unavailability while growing up significantly increase the likelihood of subsequent depression. More caustic behaviours such as physical and sexual abuse, along with neglect, also predispose children to develop depressive disorders that persist into adulthood. Even when such episodes of abuse do not occur in the actual context of the family of origin, there is often something suspect about the qualities of those families whose children incur repeated abuse. In all of the above instances, aversive interpersonal experiences in and around the family of origin appear to set the stage for psychological distress that is often evident many years into the child’s future. Therefore, set your mind on the right course. Do not ever start your day in neutral. Do not wait to see what kind of day it is going to be before you decide whether you are going to be happy. DO not wait till you read the newspaper or check the weather forecast. Do not wait till you determine what sort of mood your boss is in. No, right at the beginning of your day, set your mind in a direction of success. Agree with the psalmist, “This is the day the Lord has made and I am going to be happy. I am going to enjoy this day. I am going to go out and be productive. I am going to be a blessing to someone, and this is going to be a great day in my life. My every breath is for You, my Loyal Lord and Friend. Hence, make my exile happier by lessening my pain. After all, the World is not slow to come; it wants to lighten the load, but succeeds only in making it heavier. #RandolphHarris 11 of 20
I desire to enjoy Your friendship. I stretch out my hand, but it cannot reach Your grasp. I do opt to stay on the celestial path, but Earthly affairs often command my attention. And my passions, which I thought were long ago dead—they cling to me for dear life. Mentally, I want to be on top of everything; however, my flesh is so unwilling, I am really at the bottom of the well. Unhappy creature that I am, I fight with myself, and, as Job put it so well about himself (7.20), I have made my self into a fool, an idiot; that is to say, my spirit soars, but my flesh takes a nosedive. Whenever I try to delve into celestial consideration, I drain my brain. Whenever I try to pray, the Carnals gather round me and fill me with pretty pictures! My God, do not distance Yourself from me! That was always the Psalmist’s fear (71.12). Do not make me say what You forced the Psalmist to say (26.9): “Do not be angry with me and turn Your face in the other direction.” Waggle You lightning bolts, my Bravo if Bravado Friend, and send these distractions packing. Release Your Celestial Arrows, and all the Enemy’s phantasms will quickly fade. Plaints from the Psalmist (144.6). Gather my far-flung sense back to Yourself, my Friend. Make me forget all these Worldly things, and condemn all those ghastly if ghostly manifestations of Vices. Succor me, Eternal Truth, that Vanity may never be my motivation. Approach, Celestial Suavity, and spritz the schmutz from the face of my soul. Be merciful to me, my Merciful Friend, whenever I have a distraction in prayer. It seems I just cannot help it. So many times, whether I stand or sit, I am just not there. Where am I? I am with my thoughts, and they have sailed away. Where to? Is it so surprising that my thoughts are where my loves are, where I find some natural delight and pleasure? #RandolphHarris 12 of 20
Whence you, my Verity, have only said as, Matthew has said before you (6.21): “Herz und Geld, Heart and Gold—fraternal twins! Trashy treasures both!” Loving Heaven as I do, I frequently ponder Heavenly things. Loving the World as I have done, I rejoice at its felicities and mourn for tis adversities. Loving the Flesh more than I should, I cannot prevent my imagination from parading naughty images past my eyes. Loving the Spirit as I have been slow to learn, I like to think of spiritual things and bandy them about in spiritual conversations. All these pictures are, for better or worse, part of my permanent collection. One who is blessed who has taken Your hint and given all creatures permission to retire; that is to say, to bow themselves backward out of the room. Happy also is one who holds the whip hand over one’s nature and in a spiritual fury nails one’s fleshly concupiscences to the cross. Harsh sentiments from Paul to the Galatians (5.24). That is the sort of person who can pray without distraction and with a clear conscience. One has suspended all animation from within and without. And, though never entirely conscious of this, one is thought worthy to mingle with the Angelic Choirs. I want to align my thoughts with Your Word, Father. Please help me to reject any though that would lead me away from the truth, and all that You have for me. Today, I will let my mind dwell on the good things of God. When something proceeds from a principle of the same nature, then both the one proceeding and the source of procession, agree in the same order; and then they have real relations to each other. Therefore as the divine processions are in the identity of the same nature, these relations, according to the divine procession, are necessarily real relations. #RandolphHarris 13 of 20
Relationship is not predicated of God according to its proper and formal meaning, that is to say, in so far as its proper meaning denotes comparison to that in which relation is inherent, but only as denoting regard to another. Nevertheless Boethius did not wish to exclude relation in God; but he wished to show that it was not to be predicated of Him as regards the mode of inherence in Himself in the strict meaning of relation; but rather by way of relation to another. The relation signified by the term “the same” is a logical relation only, if in regard to absolutely the same thing; because such a relation can exist only in a certain order observed by reason as regards the order of anything to itself, according to some two aspects thereof. The case is otherwise, however, when things are called the same, not numerically, but generically or specifically. Thus Boethius likens the divine relations to a relation of identity, not in every respect, but only as regards the fact that the substance is not diversified by these relations, as neither is it by relation of identity. As the creature proceeds from God in diversity of nature, God is outside the order of the whole creation, nor does any relation to the creature arise from His nature; for He does not produce the creature by necessity of His nature, but by His intellect and will. Therefore there is no real relation in God to the creature; whereas in creatures there is a real relation to God; because creatures are contained under the divine order, and their very nature entails dependence on God. On the other hand, the divine processions are in one and the same nature. Hence no parallel exits. Relations which result from the mental operation alone in the objects understood are logical relations, inasmuch as reason observes them as existing between two objects perceived by the mind. #RandolphHarris 14 of 20
Those relations, however, which follow the operation of the intellect, and which exist between the word intellectually proceeding and the source whence it proceeds, are not logical relations only, but are real relations; inasmuch as the intellect and the reason are real things, and are really related to that which proceeds from them intelligibly; as a corporal thing is related to that which proceeds from it corporeally. Thus paternity and filiation are real relations in God. As the conference held in Fayette, New York, January 2, 1831, God directed his people to move to Ohio because their enemies were plotting to destroy the church. This revelation contained the following instructions: “Thus saith the Lord you God, even Jesus Christ, I am in your midst and ye can not see me, but the day soon cometh that ye shall see me and know that I am. I hold forth and deign to give unto you greater riches, even a land of promise. A land flowing with milk and honey, upon which there shall be no curse when the Lord cometh; and I will give it unto your for the land of your inheritance, if you seek it with all your hearts. However, verily I say unto you, that, in time, ye shall have no king nor ruler, for I will be your kind and watch over you. Wherefore, hear my voice and follow me, and you shall be a free people. Teach one another according to the office wherewith I have appointed you, and let every human esteem one’s sibling as one self, and practice virtue and holiness before me. And that ye might escape the power of the enemy, and be gathered unto me a righteous people, without spot and blameless: wherefore, for this cause I gave unto you the commandment, that you should to the Ohio; and there I will give unto you my law. #RandolphHarris 15 of 20
“And there you shall be endowed with power from on high, and from thence, whosoever I will, shall go forth among all nations, and it shall be told them what they shall do; for I have a great work laid up in store. And now I give unto the church in these parts, a commandment, that certain humans among them shall be appointed, and they shall be appointed by the voice of the church. And they shall look to the poor and the needy, and administer to their relief, that they shall not suffer. And if ye seek the riches which it is the will of the Father to give unto you, ye shall be the richest of all people; for ye shall have the riches of eternity. And it must needs be that the riches of the Earth are mine to give: but beware of pride. Go ye out from among the wicked. Save yourselves. Be ye clean that bear the vessels of the Lord. Even so. Amen.” The Lord made these wonderful promises of the kingdom to his people, if they would be faithful and keep his commandments. However, not all who received God’s words were willing to obey. James Covill, a Baptist preacher, asked Joseph to pray so he might know God’s will concerning him. Joseph did so, and the Lord, Jesus Christ, said to James Covill: “Arise and be baptized, and wash away thy sins, calling on my name, and thou shalt receive my Spirit, and a blessing so great as thou hast ever known. And if thou does this, I have prepare thee for a greater work. Thou shalt preach the fullness of my gospel which I have sent forth in these last days.” However, James Covill was not baptized and Joseph wondered why. By revelation the Lord made it known to him why this minister had not been obedient and why, therefore, God’s promises were not for him. The reason was: “He received the word with gladness, but straightway Satan tempted him; and the fear of persecution, and the cares of the World, caused him to reject the word; wherefore he broke my covenant.” #RandolphHarris 16 of 20
Joseph, Emma, Sidney Rigdon, and Edward Partridge left New York for Kirtland, arriving there February 1. Three days after their arrival Joseph received a revelation commanding that the elders of the church meet together to agree upon God’s word, and to pray in faith that they would know how to govern the church. The Lord say: “He that receiveth my law and doeth it, the same is my disciple; and he that said he received it and doeth it not, the same is not y disciple, and shall be cast out from among you. I have called my servant Edward Partridge, and give a commandment, that he should be appointed by the voice of the church, and ordained a bishop unto the church, and spend all his time in the labours of the church.” In this revelation the Lord promised that at a later date his laws would be given by which His people were to be governed. Few persons have either the capacity or the wish to stand back sufficiently far from themselves to see what it is they are really doing and where it is they are really going. We play different roles in the cosmic drama at different levels, and this is true of all humans. We all have to rise from the lower levels to the highest levels of human self-actualization, from the human to the divine. The ego is there, but consciousness can either use it as free being or get stuck in it and be used by it. When consciousness is free that means it is free of all the negatives too and especially free of all those identification with undesirable conditions of the ego and unworthy manifestations of it. Wide travels among all kinds have shown me more and more than the endless wars and strifes between races, nations, classes, tribes, and individual persons must be met on two levels if they are to be brought to any end. #RandolphHarris 17 of 20
It is not sufficient to meet them on the level of their outward visible causes; that one has to be done, of course, but it is even more important to get out of the seethting cauldron of hates and wraths, resentments and egostims and greeds, for here are the unseen causes of the visible ones. This calls for a leap: the recognition that one’s real enemy is not so much the person outside as the person inside oneself. The inner life is the root of the outer one. What is created there, is eventually expressed here. Out of the immense and varied past, in previous births humans have transmitted to one and accumulated in one the tendencies which today obscure one’s inner light and drive one toward evil acts. Post-war clash, hatred, greed, and tension are rife, between nations or between different groups in a single nation. At the bottom of it all lies a selfishness which always places its own gain above justice or above mercy and sometimes even seeks that gain at the unwarrantable expense of others. The ego-worship which fills many tyrants is their “I” is only a monstrously swollen form of the same idolatry as it existed in other people all over the World. Instead of trying to curtail their inflated ego, deluded groups and leaders yield to it and enlarge it still more. The meaning of spirituality has ceased to register with million of such people. Where the ego rules in the business World, it is trying to get more than it gives. This is an offense against the law of justice, an attempt to get what is not its fair due. The dark karma of such an attempt may be seen in the strife and conflict and clash of interests and lack of peaceful harmony which sounds as discords in politico-economy relationships today. #RandolphHarris 18 of 20
The ego hates another and sorrows over its troubles: these are negative feelings. Despite all the talk about love and charity, service and selflessness, it still remains that most people serve other only because consciously or unconsciously they are serving their own interests. The problems raised in connection with the metaphysical and psychic aspects of crime, we would find ourselves in a deep abyss. For instance there is there is the Catholic Christian doctrine that sin is the consequence of yielding to the inner promptings of Satan. My own view is that, speaking generally and with due allowance for special cases, the practical responsibility for a person’s crime must lie within oneself—even though one be a spiritualist medium who has been led step by step to perform crimes from which one would have shrunk at the beginning of one’s downward path. There are some who are so insane as to proclaim evil to be their food and Satan to be their worshipped God. However, most humans have to justify evil by disguising it as good. They do so either consciously or unconsciously, either to others or to themselves, or to both. They never hear the voice of conscious, never feel any sense of what is right or wrong. The only moral code which exists for them is that of success or failure. Anything that assists them to get what they want is ethically good; anything that hinder them from doing so is ethically evil! How can humans be saved who are not aware that they need salvation, not awake to their predicament, not able to come away from the distraction of personal affairs or the stuperfaction of sensual pleasure? Those who are enemies to their own real good and so to their own selves, will necessarily be enemies to one another. #RandolphHarris 19 of 20
Humans upheld by the divine, depending on one’s own human efforts, must fail. If a human could keep oneself out of one’s thinking and feeling, one would more easily arrive at truth. If one could believe one’s personal views to be nothing, but truth everything, one would sooner receive its grace. More things are wrought by prayer than this World dreams of. Every prayer carries a quality of engagement within it. It is a means of acting upon ourselves; of brining ourselves into alignment with the rest of creation. Prayers of invocation and blessing seem particularly suited to this purpose. They directly express our intention and are uttered in order that some effect may be achieved. Our ability to offer an invocation or a blessing is equated with inner wisdom and power, for through their words and in their resonance, we become mindful co-creators in this unfolding Universe. This is what I want to happen: that our Earth mother may be clothed in ground corn four times over. In order that the country may be this way I have made my prayer stick into something alive. May it be Thy will, O Lord our God and God of our fathers, who choosest good prophets and their god teachings, to receive in mercy and favour our prayer and our processions. Remember unto us the merit of Thy sincere servants and remove the iniquities which separate us from Thee. Give ear to our cry and do well with us to the end of our days for the sake of Thy covenant which Thou didst make with our ancestors. Do Thou seal us in the book of happy life. We beseech Thee, supreme King of kings, great, mighty and revered God, that it be in Thy grace to comfort us and to purify us of all our transgressions and sins. #RandolphHarris 20 of 20
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Life Experiences Become Acting Experiences!
Life experiences become acting experience which in turn become life experience. Even if I were to grant all that I have thus far refuted, the supports of despotism would no be any better off. There will always be a great difference between subduing a multitude and ruling a society. If scattered humans, however many they may be, were successively enslaved by a single individual, I see nothing there but a master and slaves; I do not see a people and its leader. It is, if you will, an aggregation, but not an association. There is neither public good nor a body politic there. Even if that man had enslaved half the World, one is always a private individual. One’s interest, separated from that of others, is never anything but a private interest. If this same man is about to die, after one’s passing one’s empire remains scattered and disunited, just as an oak tree dissolves and falls into a pile of ashes after fire has consumed it. A people, say, Grotius, can give itself to a king. According to Grotius, therefore, a people is a people before it gives itself to a king. This gift itself is a civil act; it presupposed a public deliberation. Thus, before examining the act whereby a people is a people. For since this act is necessarily prior to the other, it is the true foundation of society. In fact, if there were no prior convention, then, unless the vote were unanimous, what would become of the minority’s obligation to submit to the majority’s choice, and where do one hundred who want a master get the right to vote for ten who do not? The law of majority rule is itself an established convention, and presupposes unanimity on at least one occasion. #RandolphHarris 1 of 18
I suppose that humans have reached the point where obstacles that are harmful to their maintenance in the state of nature gain the upper hand by their resistance to the forces that each individual can bring to bear to maintain oneself in that state. Such being the case, that original state cannot subsist any longer, and the human race would perish if it did not alter its mode of existence. For since humans cannot engender new forces, but merely unite and direct existing ones, they have no other means of maintaining themselves but o form by aggregation a sum of forces that could gain the upper hand over the resistance, so that their forces are directed by means of a single moving power and made to act in concert. This sum of forces cannot come into being without the cooperation of many. However, since each human’s force and liberty are the primary instruments of one’s maintenance, how is one going to engage them without hurting oneself and without neglecting the care that one owes oneself? This difficulty, seen in terms of my subject, can be stated in the following terms: “Find a form of association which defends and protects with all common forces the person and goods of each associate, and by means of which each one, while uniting with all, nevertheless obeys only oneself and remains as free as before.” This is the fundamental problem for which the social contract provides the solution. The clauses of this contract are so determined by the nature of the act that the least modification renders them vain and ineffectual, that, although perhaps they have never been formally promulgated, they are everywhere the same, and everywhere tacitly accepted and acknowledged. #RandolphHarris 2 of 18
Once the social compact is violated, each person then regains one’s first rights and resumes one’s natural liberty, while losing the conventional liberty for which one renounced it. These clauses, properly understood, are all reducible to a single one, namely the total alienation of each associate, together with all of one’s rights, to the entire community. For first of all, since each person gives oneself whole and entire, the condition is equal for everyone; and since the condition is equal for everyone, no one has an interest in making it burdensome for the others. Moreover, since the alienation is made without reservation, the union is as perfect as possible, and no associate has anything further to demand. For if some rights remained with private individuals, in the absence of any common superior who could decide between them and the public, each person would eventually claim to be one’s own judge in all things, since one is on some point one’s own judge. The state of nature would subsist and the association would necessarily become tyrannical or hollow. Finally, in giving oneself to all, each person gives oneself to no one. And since there is no associate over whom one does not acquire the same right that one would grant others over oneself, one gains the equivalent of everything one loses, along with a greater amount of force to preserve what one has. If, therefore, one eliminates from the social compact whatever is no essential to it, one will find that it is reducible to the following terms. Each of us places one’s person and all one’s power in common under the supreme direction of the general will; and as one we receive each member as an indivisible part of the whole. #RandolphHarris 3 of 18
At once, in place of the individual person of each contracting party, this act of association produces a moral and collective body composed of as many members as there are voices in the assembly, which receives from this same act its unity, its common self, its life and its will. This public person, formed thus by union of all the others formerly took the name city, and at present takes the name republic or body politic, which is called state by its members when it is passive, sovereign when it is active, power when compared to others like itself. The true meaning of the word city is almost entirely lost on modern humans. Most of them mistake a town for a city and a townsman for a citizen. They do not know that houses make a town but citizens make a city. Once this mistake cost the Carthaginians dearly. I have not found in my reading that the title of citizen has ever been given to the subjects of a prince, not even in ancient times to the Macedonians or in our own time to the English, although they are closer to liberty than all the others. Only the French adopt this name citizen with complete familiarity, since they have no true idea of its meaning, as can be seen from their dictionaries. If this were not the case, they would become guilty of treason for using it. For them, this name expresses a virtue and not a right. When Bodin wanted to speak about our citizens and townsmen, he committed a terrible blunder when he mistook the one group for the other. M. d’Alembert was not in error, and in his article entitles Geneva he has carefully distinguished the four orders of humans (even five, counting ordinary foreigners) who are in our owns, and of whom only two make up the republic. No other French author I am aware of has grasped the true meaning of the word citizen. #RandolphHarris 4 of 18
As to the associates, they collectively take the name people; individually they are called citizens, insofar as participants in the sovereign authority, and subjects, insofar as they are subjected to the laws of the state. However, these terms are often confused and mistaken for one another. It is enough to know how to distinguish them when they are used with absolute precision. This formula shows that the act of association includes a reciprocal commitment between the public and private individuals, and that each individual, contracting, as it were, with oneself, finds oneself under a twofold commitment: namely as a member of the sovereign. However, the maxim of civil law that no one is held to commitments made to oneself cannot be applied here, for there is a considerable difference between being obligated to oneself, or to a whole of which one is a part. It must be further noted that the public deliberation that can obligate all the subjects to the sovereign, owing to the two different relationships in which each of them is viewed, cannot, for the opposite reason, obligate the sovereign to itself, and that consequently it is contrary to the nature of the body politic that the sovereign impose upon itself a law it could not break. Since the sovereign can be considered under but one single relationship, it is then in the position of a private individual contracting with oneself. Whence it is apparent that there neither is nor can be any type of fundamental law that is obligatory for the people as a body, not even the social contract. This does not mean that the whole body cannot perfectly well commit itself to another body with respect to things that do not infringe on this contract. For in regard to the foreigner, it becomes a simple being, an individual. #RandolphHarris 5 of 18
However, since the body politic or the sovereign derives its being exclusively from the sanctity of the contract, it can never obligate itself, not even to another power, to do anything that derogates from the original act, such as alienating some portion of itself or submitting to another sovereign. Violation of the act whereby it exists would be self-annihilation, and whatever is nothing produces nothing. As soon as this multitude is thus united in a body, once cannot hard one of the members without attacking the whole body. It is even less likely that the body can be harmed without the members feeling it. Thus duty and interest equally obligate the two parties to come to one another’s assistance, and the same humans should seek to combine in this two-fold relationship all the advantages that result from it. For since the sovereign is formed entirely from the private individuals who make it up, it neither has nor could have an interest contrary to theirs. Hence, the sovereign power has no need to offer a guarantee to its subjects, since it is impossible for a body to want to harm all of its members, and, as we will see later, it cannot harm any one of them in particular. The sovereign, by the mere fact that it exists, is always all that it should be. However, the same thing cannot be said of the subjects in relation to the sovereign, for which, despite their common interest, their commitments would be without substance if it did not find ways of being assured of their fidelity. In fact, each individual can, as a human, have a private will contrary to or different from the general will that one has as a citizen. One’s private interest can speak to one in an entirely different manner than the common interest. #RandolphHarris 6 of 18
Once’s absolute and naturally independent existence can cause one to envisage what one owes the common cause as a gratuitous contribution, the loss of which will be less harmful to others than its payment is burdensome to one. And in viewing the moral person which constitutes the state as a being of reason because it is not a man, one would enjoy the rights of a citizen without wanting to fulfill the duties of a subject, an injustice whose growth would bring about the ruin of the body politic. Thus, in order for the social compact to avoid being an empty formula, it tacitly entails the commitment—which alone can give force to others—that whoever refuses to obey the general will will be forced to do so by the entire body. This means merely that one will be forced to be free. For this is the sort of condition that, by giving each citizen to the homeland, guarantees one against all personal dependence—a condition that produces the skill and the performance of the political machine, and which alone bestows legitimacy upon civil commitments. Without it such commitments would be absurd, tyrannical and subject to the worst abuses. The general personal relationships of depressed people are characterized by dissatisfaction, lower influence and intimacy, and reduced activity and involvement. Some evidence indicates that the quality of social interaction with other is more strongly associated with depression than the sheer quantity. As might be expected, the availability of a confidant with whom one can self-disclose and engage in rewarding conversation is negatively associated with depression. #RandolphHarris 7 of 18
It is the case, however, that many depressed people lack an intimate relationship altogether. This finding is particularly important, in that the lack of a close and confiding relationship appears to create a heightened vulnerability to experiencing depression. Research on the personal relationship of depressed persons leads one to question he worth of their relational partners. For instance depressed participants complain of dissatisfaction and anger with their dating/romantic partners, as well as increased quarreling relative to nondepressed participants. These same respondents reported being hurt or upset by their romantic partners more frequently than did nondepressed controls, despite (or perhaps as a cause of) their greater desire for more love in the relationship. Depressed people also perceive their intimae partners as more hostile than nondepressed persons do. One recently studied group of depressed women reported that they received less social support from heir confidants than did a group of nondepressed controls. The confidants of these depressed women exhibited more depressogenic speech (exempli gratia, “I cannot do anything right anymore,” “I am never going to find a job”) than confidants of either nondepressed or psychiatric controls. One might speculate that these friends may actually contribute to the depressed person’s aversive psychological experience. Findings such as these are one illustration of how being in dysfunctional, hostile, and unsupportive relationships that are wanting in intimacy may precipitate depression and other undesirable affective states. #RandolphHarris 8 of 18
If it is the case that depressed persons typically find themselves in low-quality interpersonal relationships, it is necessary at least to contemplate the extent to which the relationship may actually be better than the depressed persons make them out to be. Depressed people have a tendency to be overly negative in evaluating their interpersonal relationships and in estimating the frequency with which negative interpersonal events occur. In addition, depression is associated with perfectionist standards. Both self-oriented perfectionism (excessive motivation to attain perfection) and socially prescribed perfectionism (the belief that others expect perfection from the self) are positively correlated with symptoms of depression. Depressed people may therefore hold negative views of personal relationships either because they may fall short of unrealistically high self-oriented perfectionist standards of their relational partners. Undoubtedly, many depressed people are in truly dysfunctional or dissatisfying interpersonal relationships. However, there is reason to suspect that at least some of the variance in these reports of aversive and dissatisfying interpersonal relationships is due to the depressed person’s general tendency toward negatively biased assessments of such relationships, and the tendency to hold perfectionist standards. In addition to the experience of disrupted personal relationships, depression is also associated with problems in marital interactions and relationships. Repeatedly, this research has shown that depression and marital distress go hand in hand. For instance, estimates indicate that 50 percent of all women in distressed marriages are depressed, and 50 percent of all depressed women are in distressed marriages. As depressive symptoms worsen or improve, so too does relationship quality with the spouse. #RandolphHarris 9 of 18
The communication between depressed people and their spouses is often negative in tone and tends to generate more negative affect in each spouse than the communication of nondepressed could does. This negative affect often takes the form of anger and hostility. Depressed persons and their spouses often find themselves in dysfunctional vicious cycles of interaction. Their findings indicate that depressed persons are often “rewarded” by their spouses for emitting depressive behaviours, in that the depressive behaviours tend to inhibit the spouses’ hostile and irritable behaviours. Over the course of a marital interaction, the verbal behaviour of depressed wives become increasingly negative. It is therefore not surprising that this study demonstrates the depressed persons and their spouses viewed their marital interactions as more hostile and less friendly than did the nondepressed couples. Investigations reveal that depressed persons exhibit distorted patterns of responsiveness, such that there is a lack of synchrony between them and their spouses. This is evident through increased self-focus and decreased responsiveness to the nondepressed spouses’ states and opinions. In addition, depressed people tend to be most expressive with their spouses when they are discussing issues that are negative in nature. It is interesting to note that in one study, acute depression in one spouse was associated with a tendency to control and influence the other spouse. Findings such as these indicate that the marital interactions of depressed persons are not always withdrawn and avoidant; they can take on a hostile and manipulative tone as well. #RandolphHarris 10 of 18
A recent sequential analysis of depressive marital communication has documented a number of caustic communication processes that unfold over time in such marriages. For both husbands and wives, a history of depression is associated with less positive reciprocity in martial interaction. In other words, depressed spouses are less likely to follow their partners’ positive communication with positive messages of their own. Depressed husbands’ positive contribution to conversations actually suppressed their wives’ positivity and increased their wives’ negativity. That is, when depressed husbands make positive contributions to conversations, their wives respond with negativity. Consistent with the assumptions of systems theory, this pattern illustrates how all members of an interpersonal system may contribute to and maintain a member’s depression. There are two potential explanations for these differential husband-wife effects. First, it is possible that depressed men may make their positive comments with less conviction than depressed wives do. The men may have a difficult time making positive comments clearly and convincingly. Second, wives may be less responsive to their depressed husbands’ efforts to create positivity in the interaction. Wives may get exhausted by their husbands’ depression, and after repeated interactions, they may be more guarded in their reactions to the husbands’ positivity. If they doubt positive comments, or are simply overwhelmed and exhausted by their husbands’ depression, they may not respond with positive remarks. This may be a long-terms relationship patterns for some couples with depressed husbands. #RandolphHarris 11 of 18
Other investigations of marital interaction find depression to be associated with poor communication during problem-solving interactions, negative self-evaluations and statements of negative well-being, verbal aggressiveness, and problems in establishing intimacy. Given all of these negative communication behaviours and marital problems, it is easy to understand why depression and martial distress are so powerfully related. Some evidence indicates that these communication problems may be more the results of marital distress than of depression per se. However, the similarity of these findings to those on depressed persons’ other personal relationships points to obvious and pervasive interpersonal problems across a variety of different relational contexts. In addition to the problems with social skills and negative reactions from others discussed earlier, another factor that may link depression with poor marital adjustment is the haste with which young depressed people marry. Results from this extensive longitudinal investigation reveal that depression among adolescents predicts higher rates of marriage among younger women, diminished material satisfaction, and increased marital disagreements. It is possible that depression may motivate young people to seek out marriage, perhaps indiscriminately, as a solution to problems. Not surprisingly, such marriages are often doomed to failure. The strong and well-documented association between depression and marital distress has led many to ask, “Which comes first: depression or marital distress?” The answer appears to depend on the gender of the married partner. In a longitudinal study of newlywed couples, wives’ depression appeared to follow a decrease in their marital satisfaction, whereas husbands’ initial levels of depression led to decreases in their marital satisfaction over time. #RandolphHarris 12 of 18
Thus women appear more vulnerable than men to symptoms of depression following declines in marital satisfaction. This pattern of findings is consistent with a recent meta-analysis showing that the association between depression and marital distress is stronger for women than it is for men. This suggests that wives’ psychological well-being may be more closely tied to the perceived quality of their marriages than their husbands’ well-being is. In newly weds once every 6 months for 4 years, it was found that trajectories from depression to declines in satisfaction are as strong as trajectories from low satisfaction to increases in depression. Again, these associations are slightly more powerful for wives than for husbands. The findings from both cross-sectional and longitudinal studies generally suggest that depression and marital dysfunction are reciprocal processes that unfold in parallel over time. Spouses of depressed persons experience significant burden, and often experience clinical levels of depression themselves. There is reason to believe that spouses’ distress may be manifested through expressed emotion (exempli gratia, intrusiveness, negative attitudes toward the illness, low tolerance) that could further perpetuate strained relations with their depressed partners. Living with a depressed person leads to profound family transformations, as spouses and other family members attempt to cope with and understand the symptoms of the disorder. A family systems perspective suggests that the effects of depression on spouses are no unidirectional. Rather, spouses may introduce issues of their own into the marriage that agitate or maintain the depression. #RandolphHarris 13 of 18
Family systems associated with depression can be characterized by a lock of coherence and agency and a general emotional dysregulation so that negative interactions are not repaired, disagreements are not resolved, negative affect becomes contagious, and there is little chance for negative affect to be transformed into positive affect. From this perspective, both depressed individual and one’s spouse are seen as active participants in creating a dysfunctional marriage, each acting on and reacting to the other. The faith of the lower ego in itself and the strength with which it clings to its own standpoint are almost terrifying to contemplate. The aspirant is often unconscious of its selfishness. However, if one can desert its standpoint, one shall then be in a position to perceive how large an element it has contributed in the making of one’s own troubles, how heavy is its responsibility for unpleasant evens which one has hitherto ascribed to outside sources. One shall see that one’s miserable fate derives large maladjustments. So suffering comes to open one’s eyes for one, to shock and shame one into belated awareness and eventual amendment. However, quite apart from its unfortunate results in personal fortunes, whenever the aspirant persists in taking the lower ego’s side and justifying its action, one merely displays a stupid resolve to hinder one’s own spiritual advancement. Behind a self-deceiving façade to pretexts, excuses, alibis, and rationalizations, the ego is forever seeking to gratify its unworthy feelings or to defend them. On the same principle as the pseudo-patriotism which prompted the Italians to follow Mussolini blindly throughout his Ethiopian adventure to its final disaster, the principle of “My country! right or wrong,” he follows the ego through all its operations just as blindly and as perversely, justifying its standpoints merely because they happen to be his own. #RandolphHarris 14 of 18
However, the higher self accepts no rivals. The aspirant must choose between denying one’s ego’s aggressiveness or asserting it. The distance to be mentally travelled between these two steps is so long and so painful that it is understandable why few will ever finish it. It is only the exceptional student who will frankly admit one’s faults and earnestly work to correct them. It is only one whose self-criticizing detachment can gain the upper hand, who can also gain philosophy’s highest prize. To live in intellect and passion alone, unguided and unvivified by higher ideals, is to be unregenerate. How often in history there is a record of fierce, blind, and fanatic hatred directed against those of marked difference in race, caste, religion, class, custom, or habit. With time and strength it explodes into persecution, violence, or war. The root of his evil may be fear, suspicion, envy, greed, or unbalance; but all these find their roots in the ego, and can only be radically removed by transcending egoism. The root of all the trouble is not human’s wickedness or animality or cunning greedy mind. It is one’s very I-ness, for all those other evils grow out of it. It is one’s own ego. Here is the extraordinary and baffling self-contradiction of the human situation. It is human’s individual existence which brings one suffering and yet it is this very existence which one holds as dear as life to one! Either humans do not hear the interior message or else one does not want to hear it. That which causes one to be so deaf may be mere heedlessness, but it is more likely to be Worldly desire and personal conceit. What are the blockages which prevent the soul’s light, grace, peace, love, and healing from reaching us? There are many different kinds, but they are resolvable into the following: first, all negative; second, all egoistic; and third, all aggressive. #RandolphHarris 15 of 18
By “aggressive” I mean that we are intruding our personality and imposing our ideas all the time. If we would stop his endless aggression and be inwardly still for a while, we would be able to hear and receive what the Soul has to say and to give us. These are some of the negative traits of erring human character—undesirable for their own sake, as well as for the sake of their bad effects—hatred, irritability, jealousy, maliciousness, excessive criticism and suspicion, destructiveness and cruelty. It is not that they lack intelligence, but that they let their intelligence be guided by their baser qualities. When the results are pleasant for the moment, we like to deceive ourselves. We like to put a pretty makes on an ugly passion, for instance, or wear a magnificent cloak around a wretchedly selfish act. However, karma cannot so easily be deceived and works out its own results with time. And these depend not only on the appearance of what we are and do but also on the real character and hidden nature behind it. So what are depressions and sadness but the ego pitying itself, shedding silent tears over itself, loving itself, looking at itself and enwrapped in itself? What is a happy clam but a killing of such egoism? The complacence with which humans view themselves, the satisfaction with which they fit into their ego, acts as a barrier to the influx of spiritual influence and understanding. Identically the same facts will be used by different groups, parties, and persons to support widely or quite divergently varying conclusions! The ego, with its prejudices, passions, selfish motives, or desires, is the real cause of these difference. #RandolphHarris 16 of 18
Everything is used by the ego to affirm itself. Even the aspirations and practices and experiences of a quester are used to one’s own deception and to its profit. Many people are not reaching their full potential because their thinking patterns are defective. One cannot think negative thoughts and expect to live a beneficial life. One cannot think thoughts of failure and expect to succeed. Your life will follow your thoughts. If one is constantly seeing the worst in every situation, one may not realize it, but one’s own thinking is drawing in more negative input. Just like a magnet, one will attract what one continually thinks about. One will draw in negative friends and negative circumstances. Unfortunately, people tend to get exactly what they expect. Your life is not going to change until you first change your thinking. You may be in negative circumstances today; you may have unfair things happening to you. However, do not make the mistake of dwelling on those things. That sprawling mansion in the Supernatural City—it is quite a handsome structure really! Where every day is clear, and everyone can see forever! Where night is not dark, and the beacon of Truth burns with steady flame. Everybody is joyful and without a care in the World. And never ever again will anybody worry about having the Contraries to tea. Oh, how I wish that day had dawned already and all the peoples of the Earth had arrived at that Happy End! For the Saints that splendid day has already begun with clarity that never ends. As for us poor pilgrims, set your minds and keep them set on the higher things. The citizens of Heaven know how joyful it is there. However, we exiles of the children of Even, as the Marian prayer has it, and denizens of the Earth, know how mournful it can be here. #RandolphHarris 17 of 18
Days are fast and foul, full of sore spots and tight spots. Sin strolls the streets of Humankind. That is to say, the good are snared by passions, strung out by fears, distended by cares, distracted by curiosities, surrounded by errors, bruised by labours, flustered by temptations, enervated by delicacies, tortured by want. Every day, when you first get up, set your mind for success, set your mind for happiness, set your mind so you can enjoy that day. If you do not set your mind in the right direction, your mind will be full of discouragement. Dear Lord in Heaven, I want to align my thoughts with Your Word. Please help me to reject any thought that would lead me away from the truth, and all that You have for me. Today, I will let my mind dwell on the good things of God. Standing up on lifted, folded rock, looking out and down—the creek falls to a far valley. Hills beyond that facing, half-forested, dry—clear sky, strong wind in the stiff glittering needle clusters of the pine—their brown round trunk bodies straight, still; rustling, trembling limbs and twigs listen. This living flowing land is all there is, forever. We are it. It sings through us—we could live on this Earth without clothes or tools! The willow twigs are stuck three times, and through the leaves fall, nature will renew itself in the spring. So it is our confident hope that the stock of America will ever remain as the holy seed blessed by the Lord. Save Thy people, and bless Thine inheritance; nourish and sustain them forever. And may my words of supplication before the Lord, be nigh unto the Lord our God, day and night, that He maintain the cause of His servant and the cause of His people America, as every day shall require; that all the people of the Earth may know that the Lord is God; there is none else. May it be Thy will, O Lord our God and God of our Fathers, who choosest prophets and their good teachings, to receive in mercy and favour our prayers and our processions. #RandolphHarris 18 of 18
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The Thoughts from Many Hearts Might be Revealed!
The strongest is never enough to be master of all the time, unless one transforms force into right and obedience into duty. Hence the right of the strongest, a right that seems like something intended ironically and is actually established as a basic principle. However, will no one explain this word to me? Force is a physical power; I fail to see what morality can result from its effects. To give in to force is an act of necessity, not of will. At most, it is an act of prudence. In what sense could it be a duty? Let us suppose for a moment that there is such a thing as this alleged right. I maintain that all the results from it is an inexplicable mish-match. For once force produces the right, the effect changes places with the cause. Every force that is superior to the first succeeds to its right. As soon as one can disobey with impunity, one can do so legitimately; and since the strongest is always right, the only thing to do is to make oneself the strongest. For what kind of right is it that perishes when the force on which it is based ceases? If one must obey because of force, one need not do so out of duty; and if one is no longer forced to obey one is no longer obliged. Clearly then, this word “right” adds nothing to force. It is utterly meaningless here. Obey the powers that be. If that means giving in to force, the precept is sound, but superfluous. I reply it will never be violated. All power comes from God—I admit it—but so does every disease. Does this mean that calling in a physician is prohibited? If a brigand takes me by surprise at the edge of a wooded area, is it not only that case that I must surrender my purse, but even that I am in good conscious bound to surrender it, if I were able to withhold it? After all, the pistol he holds is also a power. #RandolphHarris 1 of 18
Let us then agree that force does not bring about right, and that one is obliged to obey only legitimate powers. Studies of speech content and depression have generally focused on topics and themes that emerge in the discourse of people with depression. A married couple with a depressed partner is more likely than a nondepressed couple to express dysphoric feelings and negative well-being verbally, to talk more about well-being, to ask questions about well-being, and (in the case of the depressed partner) to engage in negative self-evaluation. Depressed spouses have also reported being more verbally aggressive and less constructive in problem solving—a view corroborated by their nondepressed spouses—when engaged in marital interaction. When depressed students were asked to get acquainted with another student, they emitted fewer statements that reflected an optimistic appraisal of their partners, and made more directly negative statements than their nondepressed peers. Similar findings of negative verbal content among depressed speakers were obtained in studies of interactions with strangers, unstructured interviews, 10-minute monologues, telephone conversations with confidants, and psychotherapy sessions. Likewise, depressed individuals communicate self-devaluation, sadness, and general negativity to their interpersonal partners. It now appears that negative verbal content is especially pronounced in interactions between depressed people and intimate others. In addition, depressed subjects are more inclined to emit unsolicited self-disclosures, and are more like to disclose following a partner self-disclosure, then were the nondepressed subjects. #RandolphHarris 2 of 18
This indicates not only that depressed subjects self-disclose more than their nondepressed counterparts do, but that their timing of these disclosures is often inappropriate and the content is often negative. The timing of disclosures tend to be inappropriate because they are often provided in the absence of any utterance from the partner that solicits such information (exempli gratia, “How have you been?”). This finding is noteworthy, in that self-disclosures have been shown to be a key ingredient in the rejection of depressed persons by others. As might be expected, the depressed subjects rated the negative topics as more appropriate for discussion than the nondepressed subjects did. Human beings use facial expressions, both consciously and unconsciously, to send information to others about their emotional states and attitudes. Most available evidence indicates that depressed people are less facially animated than nondepressed people, except when it comes to conveying sadness through the face. This trend is very evident. However, both depressed subjects and nondepressed subjects controls evidence similar abilities to self-regulate a happy facial state when requested to do so; however, when no instructions were offered, the controls spontaneously assumed a happy expression, whole the depressed subjects showed no evidence of a happy expression. Depressed people also have higher incidence of corrugated brow, squinting or closed eyes, and turned-down mouth, and were more frequently judged as looking “depressed.” People who are unaware of negative affective states in others may continue to engage in aversive behaviours, such as excessive reassurance seeking. This may serve only to further produce rejection from others, making the reassurance increasingly difficult to obtain, and thereby perpetuating depressive symptoms. #RandolphHarris 3 of 18
Furthermore, hyposensitive may be a consequence of protracted depression. If depressed people elicit rejection from others over a period of time, some may develop hyposensitive as a means of preserving social interaction and avoiding social isolation. Thus some depressed people may learn to ignore signs of negative affect in others. These may be the cases of depression that are the most intractable. Because looking while speaking is a behaviour associated with confidence and status, it is likely that depressed people’s negative feelings about themselves precipitate this gaze avoidance. Undoubtedly, this lack of eye contact does not give other people a good impression. Depressed individuals are also more likely to hold their head in a downward position than nondepressed persons. Many of the things that people normally do to indicate interest, attention, and enthusiasm in conversation, such as smiling, making eye contact, speaking in an animated tone, and using gestures, are often lacking in the interpersonal communication of depressed people. The inhibited use of these behaviours, which are often treated as microindicators of social skills, is consistent with the self-reports and observer ratings of depressed people’s social skills. The extent to which the inhibited interpersonal behaviour of depressed people reflects true skills deficits (id est, inability to use these skills) or a lack of motivation has yet to be precisely determined. It is clear that people with depression are less motivated to communicate with other people. This may at least partially explain why depression is associated with restricted communication behaviour. #RandolphHarris 4 of 18
Evidence from vastly divergent sources converges to suggest that many people with depression have documentable problems with social skills. However, there is at least some evidence to support three different potential relationships between social skills and depression. First, social skills deficits may be a causal antecedent to depression. Poor social skills make it difficult to secure beneficial reinforcement through social interaction, and equally difficult to avoid punishing responses in social contexts. People with poor social skills have a difficult time making a good impression on others, and instead often come across as inept, uninterested, and dull. The resultant abundance of punishing social response and absence of beneficial social reinforcement are thought to contribute to eventual depression. Lower social skill scores are predicted in worsening of depressive symptoms. Yet, the covariation between poos social skills and depression may be explained by other possible relationships. A second possibility is that poor social skills are a consequence of depression. Many of the symptoms of depression have implications for inhibited production of skilled social behaviour. For example, depression is generally accompanied by a number of psychomotor symptoms that entail slowed and delayed motor behaviours. These psychomotor tendencies include slowed speech, long response latencies, diminished eye contact, and increased nervous gesturing (id est, adaptors of body-focused gestures). These are the same behaviours that are considered indicative of poor social skills. Still, not all evidence conclusively supports the hypothesis that poor social skills follow depression, but enough evidence exists to suggest that it is a likely explanation for at least some cases. #RandolphHarris 5 of 18
Only those people who have poor social skills, and who experience events and outcomes that they perceive as stressful, are predicted to develop depressive symptoms. It is therefore the combination of poor social skills and negative life events that is thought to produce depressive distress. The reasoning behind this model is that people with good social skills can marshal the kind and quantity of social support that will be effective for coping with stressful event. On the other hand people with poor social skills are expected to experience more stressors, and be less able to secure assistance and social support for dealing with those stressors when they do occur. There is also an indication that the relationship between stressful life events and depression is strongest amongst those with the poorest social skills. On the other hand, those with high social skills scores exhibit a relationship near zero between stressful life events and depression. In other words, poor social skills make people vulnerable to the development of depression when faced with stressors, whereas good social skills produced a prophylactic effect in the face of stressors. A diverse collection of research findings shows that people with depression often have concomitant problems with social skills. Three theoretical explanations for this association have been offered: Poor social skills are a causal antecedent to depression, depression leads to a deterioration of social skills and/or poor social skills create a vulnerability to depression. The evidence associated with these hypotheses is just beginning to emerge, and thus far there is at least some supportive evidence for each. These findings highlight the complexity of the relationship between social skills and depression. There is every reason to believe that the nature of this relationship is not the same for all people with depression. #RandolphHarris 6 of 18
Being happy is not the result of a carefree life, but of a careful effort to recognize the Lord’s hand in our lives. When we do so, we cannot help but feel the love God had for us. Expressing daily gratitude will allow one to enjoy one’s own bouquet of Heavenly blessings. “Let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith,” reports Hebrews 12.1-2. God has an individual plan for each of our lives. Just because something works for someone else does not necessarily mean it will work for everyone. If one makes a mistake of trying to copy others, one may become frustrated, depressed, and will waste a lot of time and energy. In addition, one may also miss the things God has in store for one to do. The most important thing in life is to do the best you can. Stand firm, and hope in God. Words are just words. They fly through the air, airy aerialists that they are. However, if they are harsh words, they land on one’s head with a thud. No, no lumps, but yes, lot of pain. If one deserved the lumps for something one did, think how willingly one would reform in order that the pain would stop. However, if you are not conscious of having done a wrong, then think how one can turn the pain to one’s spiritual advantage. Even if one could not survive an all-out war of words, one could put up with a few verbal volleys for a while without making a big deal out of it. However, how can these little darts pierce you to the heart unless you are a carnal human who pays more attention to what the carny human says about one. That is because one is afraid of being despised; one does not want to be reprehended for one’s excesses, and so one seeks refuge under an arbour of excuses. #RandolphHarris 7 of 18
Granted, you will face enormous pressure to do what everyone else is doing, to try to please everybody and meet all their expectations. If you are not careful, though, your life can become a blur, a pale imitation rather than an original. However, you do not have to please everyone else; you need to please only God. The truth is, if you are going to live life at your pace and become successful, you may not be able to mee other people’s expectations. Spend more time on introspection, and you will find—surprise!—that even now, after some years away from the World, the World is still very much alive in you; in fact, you are still doing what Humankind thinks quite fashionable. You cannot be everything to everybody. You will have to accept the fact that some people may not like you. Everybody is not going to agree with every decision you make. You probably will not be able to keep every person in your life happy. However, you cannot let the demands, pressures, and expectation from others stop you from doing what you know God wants you to do. Why do you refuse to come down from your marble pedestal and be confronted with your faults? It just stands to reason that you are not a truly humble Devout, nor from the look of you a Devout truly silenced to the World, nor does the World appear crucified to you—I can tell by your eyes. There are the characteristics that Paul stressed to the Galatians 6.14. “But far be if from me to glory [in anything or anyone] except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ (the Messiah), through Whom the World has been crucified to me, and I to the World!,” reports Galatians 6.14. When you face difficult decisions or uncertain choices, it helps to seek counsel from someone you respect. Certainly, as the Bible says, “there is safety in a multitude of counselors,” reports Proverbs 24.6, and we should not be stubborn. #RandolphHarris 8 of 18
We should always stay open and be willing to take advice. However, after you have prayed about something and looked at all the options, be bold enough to make a decision that is right for you. If you are trying to please everybody else by doing things you do not really want to do, so you will not hurt someone’s feelings or because you are trying to keep everybody happy, you will be cheating yourself and everyone around you. You can run yourself in circles trying to be something that you are not, and you will run the risk of missing out on God’s best for your own life. “Nevertheless, in public worship, I would rather say five words with my understanding and intelligently in order to instruct others, than ten thousand word in a [strange] tongue (language),” reports 1 Corinthians 14.19. Look here now, my dear friend, gather the most malicious words in the dictionary, then imagine they all apply to you. How would you react? You could scream! You could howl! Or you could think, What harm can they do? Especially if I shrug them off. After all, they weigh as little as a tittle and have not enough pluck to pluck a hair from your head. And no one has a more accurate hair count than God. “But not a hair of your heard shall perish,” reports Luke 21.18. A Devout whose heart is not in the monastery and does not have God in one’s sights is an easy target for a vituperous word. On the other hand, the Devout who had shared confidence with God and has no appetite to be one’s own human will be able to stand down all verbal abuse. God is the Judge, Knower of All Secrets. God knows all the ins and outs of every human act. God knows the wrongdoer as well as the wrong done. #RandolphHarris 9 of 18
The wrong itself comes by way of God, and God permit it to happen. Why? “The thoughts from many hearts might be revealed,” reports Luke 2.35. God will sentence the guilt and the innocent in public; God have tried them already in His chambers. The testimony of Humankind often falls short of the truth. God’s judgement, on the other hand, is always true. It will stand and will not be reversed on appeal. The record is not available to the general public; only a few have access. The transcripts have been read for errors, omissions, emendations, and so on. None found; none needed. When the foolish among us hear this, they get that milky, faraway look in their eyes as if to say that Truth, whatever else she may be, just is not fair. Therefore, whenever you need a quick decision, come to God. In no instance rely on your own judgement. As the Book of Proverbs put it (12.21), the just person will not be confused or confounded because “whatever happens to one will come from God.” Even though some unjust charge is brought against you, you should not pay much attention to it. Best thing to do is to shrug it off. If a charge against you is resolved when someone believable witnesses come forward, you should not throw a victory part for a hundred of your closet friends. “I read the hearts and loins of Humankind,” rightly said God’s John in the book of Revelation (2.23), and God does not pass judgement the way Humankind does; John put down these words when God was in the temple (7.24). Sometimes on Earth, one can get too much advice. Conflicting opinions can cause confusion. People often reflect on their own lives and what they have and will do, so their opinion may not even reflect you. Often someone found guilty in an Earthly court is praised for one’s conduct by the Celestial Court. #RandolphHarris 10 of 18
Follow your own heart in light of God’s Word and do what you feel is right and good for you. Father, thank You, for giving me the interpersonal confidence to be me. Please help me to run my race and to not be concerned about what other people expect of me. As long as You are pleased with me, I am happy! O Lord God, Just Judge, strong and patient, You know the fragility and depravity of Humankind Hence, be my strength and my total trust. Conscience is not enough for me. You know what I do not know. And so I ought to humbly accept Your penance for my eyer transgression. Act forgivingly toward me every time I commit a sin of omission, and yet again please grant me more and more grace of sufferance. Your copious mercy is better for my obtaining indulgence than Your justice against my defending my conscious. “I am not conscious of anything bad I have done,” as Paul wrote in First Corinthians 4.4; nevertheless I cannot justify my behaviour in this. The reason? Remove mercy from the equation, as the Psalmist once said (143.2), and no living creature will every be justified in Your sight. The divine procession can be derived only from the actions which remain within the agent. In a nature which is intellectual, and in the divine nature these actions are two, the acts of intelligence and of will. The act of sensation, which also appears to be an operation within the agent, takes places outside the intellectual nature, nor can it be reckoned as wholly removed from the sphere of external actions; for the act of sensations is perfected by the action of the sensible object upon sense. It follows that no other procession is possible in God but the procession of the Word, and of Love. #RandolphHarris 11 of 18
Power is the principle whereby one thing acts on another. Hence it is that external action points to power. Thus the divine power does not imply the procession of a divine person; but is indicated by the procession therefrom of creatures. As Boethius says (De Hebdom.), goodness belongs to the essence and not to the operation, unless considered as the object of the will. Thus, as the divine procession must be denominated from certain actions; no other processions can be understood in God according to goodness and the like attributes except those of the Word and of love, according as God understands and loves His own essence, truth and goodness. God understands all things by one simple act; and by one act also He wills all things. Hence there cannot exist in Him a procession of Word from Word, nor of Love from Love; for there is in Him only one perfect Word, one perfect Love; thereby being manifested His perfect fecundity. Most questers experience this momentary elation, this cosmic paean of exultation, at some time. In some the wish to re-experience it becomes a craving which cases them to lose their balance, to be repeatedly depressed and unhappy at its loss. Thus what was intended to increase their happiness becomes a source of further misery! If one is young in the life of the Spirit, ignorant of its laws and inexperienced in its ways, one may take the fading of the Glimpse amiss. One may complain too long or bemoan too much, thus inviting that dread experience, the dark night of the soul. One’s own great joy in the glimpse is natural and inevitable, but if one clings to it to the point where it is succeeded by great disappointment when the glimpse disappears, then it is merely another mood of the personal ego. #RandolphHarris 12 of 18
In that case one will certainly be left feeling empty when it leaves one, and one probably be troubled by the thought that something has gone wrong. It is a common mistake among those who have this glimpse for the first tie, and even for the second time, to expect it to last forever. However, when they find that it has no more immortality than the other experiences of the human mind, they suffer needlessly, not understanding, bewildered. To bestow this glimpse upon someone with no previous preparation of it, with an undeveloped psyche and an imperfect character, someone too backward spiritually to profit properly by it, may be to bestow a dangerous gift. It is likely to be misused as it is certain to be misconceived. If the experience is not fully understood, or if it comes to one quite unprepared for it, or if it comes too prematurely, it may be half-misunderstood and its teaching half-misconceived. In that case the will to act may become paralysed, the mind over-conscious of futility and evanescence. These holy visitations ought not to make one conceited or proud or fatten one’s ego or make one lose one’s wits. If they do, one is in spiritual danger so that what ought to be a blessing becomes a curse. These visitations of higher presence may deceive one into thinking that one has reached a higher degree than one really has. If so, one may expect their light and strength to abide permanently with one. In that case one may plunge into emotional reactions of gloom and disappointment when they ebb. It would be better for one to receive them gratefully as well as to regard their passing as tests of one’s resignation to the higher self and of one’s trust that its inner working is not mistaken. It knows quite well what It is doing in and for one. #RandolphHarris 13 of 18
To have had the glimpse and yet to ignore it in subsequent life, or to utilize it only for the purpose of exalting the ego, s deliberately to tell a lie to oneself, consciously to be unfaithful to truth. When a person gets this experience without guidelines and in total surprise, within a family living in the common ignorance of such matters, one may let bewilderment come to destroy the new lucidity. After the glimpse has passes away—and a warning that it usually odes so is needed by beginners—either thankfulness for the visitation or discouragement by its loss may set in. One waits for an inner event that shall be thrilling and spectacular. One does not wait for one that shall be as gentle, as silent, as the fall of dew, so of course one is disappointed and falls into some kind of negative thoughts. Such moments are so precious that, when they are found to be irretrievable, a deep melancholy often settles on a human. Since people are not accustomed to these glimpses, they are easily swept off by the first few into emotional extravagances. One approaches these moods with delight but remembers them with despair. They are cored with happiness yet one feels frustrated by their evanescence. A wiser attitude understands that there is no need to grieve because the flash has gone, the ecstasy faded, the light shut out again. It knows that the Overself is still within one, even though these emotional or egoistic reactions try to trick one into believing otherwise. The Lord declares the purpose and contributions of one’s labours are “to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of humans,” reports Moses 1.39. If the contributions that you can make in a career are negligible or dishonourable, then the career itself is in question. #RandolphHarris 14 of 18
Employment is a necessary part of our lives on Earth; it gives us the means to provide for our families. Work is also an important gospel principle. It fosters growth and develops us. God condemns idleness and encourages us to “do many good things of our own free will,” reports Doctrines and Covenants 58.27. The Lord not only wants us to provide for our families but to be “anxiously engaged in a good cause,” Doctrine and Covenants 58.27. Good employment is important for us to better provide for our families and to serve faithfully in the Church. But flextime, while widely publicized, is only a small part of the general restricting of time that the Third Wave carries with it. We are also seeing a powerful shift toward increasing night work. This is occurring not so much in the traditional manufacturing centers like Akron or Baltimore, which have always had a lot of workers on night shifts, but in the rapidly expanding services and in the advanced, computer-based industries. The modern city, is a Gorgon that never sleeps and in which a growing proportion of citizens work outside the [normal] diurnal rhythms. Across the board in the technological nations the number of night workers now runs between 15 to 25 percent of all employees. Even more dramatic has been the spread of part-time work—and the active preference for it expressed by large numbers of people. Approximately 33 percent of Americans work part-time. For Walmart, more than 500,000 workers are part-time hourly associates. In all, there are nearly one voluntary worker for every three full-time workers in the United States of America, and part-time work force has been growing rapidly. So far has this process advances that a study by researchers at Georgetown University suggested that in the future almost all job could be part-time. #RandolphHarris 15 of 18
Entitled Permanent Part-Time Employment: The Manager’s Perspective, the study covered 68 corporations, more than half of which already used part-timers. Even more noteworthy is the fact that the percentage of unemployed workers who want only part-time work has doubled in the past twenty years. This opening up of part-time jobs is particularly welcomed by women, by the elderly and semi-retired, and by many young people who are willing to settle for a smaller paycheck in return for time to pursue their own hobbies, sports, or religious, artistic, or political interests. What we see, therefore, is a fundamental break with Second Wave synchronization. The combination of flextime, part-time, and night work means that more and more people are working outside the nine-to-five (or any fixed schedule) system, and that entire society is shifting to round-the-clock operations. New consumer patterns, meanwhile, directly parallel changes in the time structure of production. Note, for instance, the proliferation of all-night supermarkets. “Will the 4 A.M. shopper, long considered a hallmark of California kookiness, become a regular feature of life in the less flamboyant East?” ask The New York Times. The answer is a resounding “Yes!” A spokesman for a supermarket chain in the eastern United States of America says his company will keep its stores open all night because “people are staying up later than they used to.” The Times feature writer spends a night at a typical store and reports on the varied customers who take advantage of the late hours: a truck driver whose wife is ill shops for one’s family of six, a young woman on her way to a postmidnight date pops by to purchase a greeting card, a man up late with a sick daughter rushes in to buy her a toy banjo and stops to pick up a hibachi as well, a woman drops by after her ceramics class to do the week’s shopping, a motorcyclist roars up at 3.00 A.M. to buy a deck of cards, two men straggle in at dawn on their way to go fishing. #RandolphHarris 16 of 18
Mealtimes are also affected by these changes and are similarly desynchronized. People do not all eat at the same time, as most of them once did. The rigid three-meal-a-day pattern is broken as more and more fast-food shops spring up, serving billions of meals at all hours. Television watching changes, too, as programmers devise shows specifically aimed at “urban adults, night workers, and just plain insomniacs.” Banks, meanwhile, give up their celebrated “bankers’ hours.” Manhattan’s giant Citibank runs television commercials for its new automated banking system: “You are about to witness the dawn of a revolution in banking. This is Citibank’s new twenty-four-hour service…where you can do most of everyday banking anytime you want. So if Dean Winchester wants to check his balance at the crack of dawn, he can do it. And Sam Winchester can transfer money from saving into checking anytime he wants to…You know and I know that life does not stop at three P.M. Monday to Friday. The Citi never sleeps.” If, therefore, we look across the board at the way our society now treats time, we find a subtle but powerful shift away from the rhythms of the Second Wave and toward a new temporal structure in our lives. In fact, what is happening is a de-massification of time that precisely parallels the de-massification of other features of social life as the Third Wave is in effect. What a thing it is to sit absolutely alone, in the forest, at night, cherished by this wonderful, unintelligible, perfectly innocent speech, the most comforting speech in the World, the talk that rain makes by itself all over the ridges, and the talk of the watercourses everywhere in the hollows! Nobody started it, nobody is going to stop it. It will talk as long as it wants, this rain. As long as it talks, I am going to listen. #RandolphHarris 17 of 18
We need not deny the presence of evil in the World in order to deny its permanence. It is here, but it is only a transient thing. moreover, it exists not as a personified power like Satan, nor as a subtle unseen opponent of everything divine, but only as a condition of ignorance in the human mind and as a passing phase of its evolution. In short, it is merely a way of human thinking and it will disappear when deeper thinking reveals the why and wherefore of things. It lasts only as long as the dominance of the ego lasts. The prehistoric animals are now totally gone and the only monster to be found on Earth today is MAN. His history is splashed with war and hate and crime. There would appear to be little of the angel in him so far. Prayer is the ultimate way to awaken the God-Power. It also cancels evil karma of the past and allows the consciousness to dwell only in the immediate moment. This is something like The Eternal Now sensed by the philosopher and gives the self-actualized a kind of peace, a freedom from cares and fears. O hear to the herald of sure salvation, I hear my Beloved, His voice is nigh, He comes with his myriads of hovering angels, on the Mount of Olives to stand and cry. The herald comes—be the trumpet sounded, beneath His tread He knocks—at His radiant glance the hill-side shall half from the eastward be rent and reft. Fulfilled is His ancient prophetic saying, the herald is come with saints around; by all upon Earth shall a still small voice to the uttermost islands be heard resound. The seed He begot and the seed He reared hath been born as a child from its mother’s womb. However, then hath travailed and who brought forth, and a similar thing hath been told to whom? The perfectly Pure hath achieved this marvel, what mortal hath seen such a wondrous way? Salvation, Redemption in one united, the Earth bringing forth in a single day! #RandolphHarris 18 of 18
Cresleigh Homes
Welcome home. 🥰 Could this exterior be your view each day? We think so!
Appearances are deceiving; it’s actually one of our larger floorplans! You’ll see 3 bedrooms and 2.5 baths once you cross that threshold. The Meadows Residence 1 is a great example of thoughtfully designed, single story living.
Residence One at Cresleigh Meadows holds 2,054 square feet of single story living. The open concept design includes three bedrooms, two bathrooms and a two car garage plus workshop. Through the charming front porch enter into the foyer, where two secondary bedrooms lead off to a Jack and Jill bathroom.
The kitchen comes fully equipped with a large eat-in island, stainless steel appliances, and quartz counters. The great room is spacious and full of natural light. The Owner’s suite is nestled in the rear of the home separate from the secondary bedrooms, providing maximum privacy. Enjoy a spa like experience in the Owner’s bathroom with a large walk in shower and large soaking tub.
Best of all, each Cresleigh home comes fully equipped with an All Ready connected home! This smart home package comes included with your home and features great tools including: video door bell and digital deadbolt for the front door, connect home hub so you can set scenes and routines to make life just a little easier. Two smart switches and USB outlets are also included, plus we’ll gift you a Google Home Hub and Google Mini to help connect everything together!
Who Can Read the Future?
Even if we do have a whiff of what is to come, the future can still hurt and maim. However, if we do no prepare for what many happen, then we will all suffer the gravest consequences. Wherefore, why have I not, a Devout who has firsthand knowledge of one’s own wretchedness, prepared better? Why have I relied so heavily on others more than I? Often times, Devouts are thought of as, or declared to be, Angels. In reality, we are only humans, and all too fragile humans at that. Problems such as martial distress, depression, anxiety, alcoholism, and loneliness are all understood within this paradigm as they by-products of maladaptive cognitive patterns. These cognitions include attributions for various events, memories of past situations and encounters, and expectations for the future. Adherents of the cognitive paradigm treat psychological problems with psychotherapy that attempts to challenge and correct maladaptive cognitions, in order to help a client see the self and World in a more realistic (and, ideally, more beneficial) light. Cognitive approaches still figure very prominently in our understanding of many mental health problems and in the ways they are treated. Attributional accounts of loneliness argue that lonely people often blame themselves for interpersonal failures, thus reducing their motivation to remedy their undesirable interpersonal situations. This attributional tendency, combined with negative expectations and evaluations of other people, serves to maintain an unfortunate interpersonal life for a lonely person. Furthermore, for others, exposure to an individual who models the problematic behaviour, and is rewarded for doing so, can lead to the acquisition of the problem behaviour by an observer (exempli gratia, the child or parent with the problematic behaviour). #RandolphHarris 1 of 19
The observer is thought to hold cognitive representations of the behaviour in one’s mind, which then becomes the eventual stimulus for producing the behaviour in the absence of the model. A hypothesis such as this clearly draws on cognitive-behavioural therapy for psychological problems draws on principles of both cognitive and behavioural therapies—focusing on cognitive patterns, attributional styles, and maladaptive expectations, along with engaging in pleasant activities and learning to disassociate punishing responses with otherwise functional behaviours (exempli gratia, experiencing extreme nervousness when going to a party). Advocates of the biological paradigm explain mental health problems with an appeal to such factors as depletion or excesses of various neurotransmitters, genetic predispositions and vulnerabilities, disturbed endocrine functioning, and irregular anatomical structures of function in the brain. The causes and consequences of mental illness is often due to the misfortunes of life from which arise deprivation of love, poverty, family quarrels, ill-judged choice of a partner in marriage, [and] unfavourable social circumstances. Psychological problems are patterns of inadequate and inappropriate action in interpersonal relations. Depression, for example, is a chiefly destructive process. It cuts off impulses to integrate constructive situations with others. Only destructive situations are maintained, and these are extremely stereotyped. What a person does in any social situations is a function of at least two factors: First of all, one’s multilevel personality structure; and the activities and effect of the other one, the person with whom one in interacting. #RandolphHarris 2 of 19
Students of interpersonal communication will immediately recognize the transactional and dyadic conceptualization inherent in the explanation of behaviour in social context. This conceptualization moves the locus of attention from purely internal psychological structures to the intersection of the self and the other. Social-interaction and interpersonal school tells of that among those seeking psychological treatment, the underlying problems usually turn out to be interpersonal in nature—frequently having the form, “I cannot (do something interpersonal).” Distressed and dysfunctional interpersonal relations are inextricably entwined with psychological distress. Because the World population has nearly tripled and many more people are being born with psychological problems and their parents do not see the need to have these problems addressed, it may be the group, and not the individual who has interpersonal problems. The majority group may have a deviant mental condition. Also, with religion being removed from government institutions and society, and declining church attendance, many people are not longer taught the Ten Commandments, so they have no guidelines as to how to behave. Therefore, the interpersonal approach suggests that treatment of psychological problems will be most effective when the social context is examined and modified. The focus of therapy is not on the individual, but on one’s important relationships with other people. Thus interpersonal therapy may involve the spouse, friends, and family members, in addition to the person who presents with the problem. Sometimes clients need to be taught how to improve the communication with other people, with the goal of building more desirable relationships. This can be achieved through social skills training. #RandolphHarris 3 of 19
Interpersonal psychotherapy is a very well-developed and useful technique for treating psychological problems. Scientists have discovered that people often react in consistent and predictable patterns to a person with certain psychological problems. In such cases, it is impossible to overlook the powerful effect of such wide spread reactions on the mentally distressed individual. It is most intriguing to learn that other people often exhibit behaviour toward the ill individual that is itself sometimes reflective of psychosocial disturbances. Such observations inevitably lead to the question of which came firs: the psychopathology, or the harsh, odd, or ambiguous behaviours of others in the social environment? Another area of attention in the interpersonal paradigm is the architecture of current and past interpersonal relationships with significant others. There is almost always trouble to be found in the terrain of interpersonal relationships with people who are or will become psychologically distressed. There is clear support for the notion that these troubled relationships somehow contribute to the development and course of the psychopathology. What a tragedy it would be to go through life as a child of the King in God’s eyes, yet as a lowly peasant in our own eyes. “Whatever you ask in My name, that will I do, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If you ask Me anything in My name, I will do it,” John 14.13-14. Although interpersonal problems conceptually and empirically distinct, these disorders have a common correlate: disturbed and dysfunctional relationship with other people. Perhaps as a function of their inherently social nature, the well-being of most humans is inextricably entwined with the well-being of their interpersonal relations. #RandolphHarris 4 of 19
When interpersonal relationships sour, when the ability (and/or motivation) to communicate and interact with others fails to develop or deteriorates, and when behavioural reactions from other people stressful, mental health begins to break down. Is something similar going on in your life? Is your self-image so contrary to the way God sees you that you are missing out on God’s best? God sees you as successful. However, you may see yourself as a failure. Family-of-origin experiences play a powerful role in creating and/or maintaining psychological problems. Looking back at the childhoods of people with psychological problems, one often finds poor family cohesion, neglect, abuse, parental overinvolvement or overprotection, hostility and criticism, and even parental modeling of dysfunctional behaviour and attitudes. Most of these family processes have been implicated in multiple psychological problems. For example, parental abuse and neglect appear to be relatively childhood experiences for people who later go on to develop depression, social anxiety, personality disorders, and substance use disorders. Similarly, excessive family cohesion (either too high or too low) can be found in the families of people with social anxiety, eating disorders, and substance use disorders. Obviously, the social environment in which a child develops a sense of self and relation to other people has an immense impact on not just current, but future, psychological well-being. When these family relations decompose into neglect, abuse, overprotectiveness, and excessive hostility and criticism, the probability of a child’s developing psychological problems increase dramatically. Psychological problems invariably damage the happiness of the marriage. Symptoms of these problems are very taxing for spouses—often to such an extent that spouses exhibit psychological problems of their own. #RandolphHarris 5 of 19
At the same time, the deterioration of a marriage can precipitate a number of psychological problems, such as depression, alcoholism, and loneliness. Findings on family-of-orientation experiences again reinforce the notion that psychological problems spill over into immediate family relationships, and appear to be yoked to the quality of these relationships. Often times friendships and or intimate partner relationships are quite simply lacking for people afflicted with depression, social anxiety, personality disorders, and eating disorders. One interpersonal phenomenon that may inhibit the development of such relationships is rejection. Numerous studies show that people with psychological problems such as schizophrenia, eating disorders, depression, and social anxiety incite rejection from others. Even when personal relationships are available to an individual with a psychological problem, they are often characterized by turbulence and conflict. Findings on general personal relationships bring badly needed attention beyond past and present family issues. The most fundamental building blocks of personal relationships, verbal and nonverbal communication behaviours, are seriously alerted by psychological distress. In the case of problems such as depression, social anxiety, schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, eating disorders, and substance use disorders, these communication problems are often studies under the rubric of “social skill deficits.” Social skills involve the ability to communicate with other people in ways that are appropriate and effective. The involve the knowledge of what behaviours are appropriate, the capability to exhibit these behaviours, and the motivation to mobilize and apply that knowledge and behavioural repertoire. You may have been hurt in your life, or maybe made wrong choices. However, if you have honestly repented and done your best to do right since then, you no longer have to live with guilt and shame. #RandolphHarris 6 of 19
You may not have achieved the pinnacle of success, but do not let the physically, mentally or spiritually cripple you. You standing in life does not change God’s covenant with you. You are still the child of the Most High. God still has great things in store for you. Be bold and claim what belongs to you. “Search me [thoroughly], O God, and know my heart! Try me and know my thoughts! And see if there is any wicked or hurtful way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting,” reports Psalm 139.23-24. I know it is not because of my goodness that Your kindness is extended, O God, but because of the covenant relationship I have been blessed to inherit. Please help me to better understand Your grace and Your goodness as I take my place at You table. Thank You, Father, for making a place for me! “Do not copy the behaviour and customs of this World, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will know what God want you to do, and you will know how good and pleasing and perfect His will really is,” reports Romans 12.2. Many social, physical, and emotional problems stem from the fact that people do not like themselves. They are uncomfortable with how they look, how they talk, or how they act. They do not like their personality. They are always comparing themselves with other people, wishing they were something different. Major depressive disorder is a pervasive illness with a lifetime risk of 10-25 percent for women and 5-12 percent of men. Among certain segments of society, such socially disadvantaged women, lifetime prevalence can be as high as 33 percent. In any given year 5 percent of the population, or approximately 15.5 million people, will be afflicted with major depression. This disorder is associated with a dangerously high mortality rate, as 4-6 percent of its victims die by suicide. #RandolphHarris 7 of 19
Major depressive episodes are marked by the following symptoms: severely depressed mood, diminished interest in any activities, significant weight loss or gain, sleep disturbance, psychomotor agitation, intellectual disability, fatigue, feelings of worthlessness, and guilt, difficulty concentrating, and recurrent thoughts of death or suicidal ideation. For a formal diagnosis, these symptoms must be evident for a period of at least 2 weeks, but for many people with depression they may last months or even years. The interpersonal context of depression has drawn a great deal of empirical that excessive reassurance seeking is an issues that elicits feelings of interpersonal rejection, perhaps because of emotional contagion (id est, they make other people feel sad, depress, and hostile). The general personal relationships of people with depression are often lacking or distressed, contributing to a high comorbidity with loneliness. The family-of-origin experiences of people with depression are marked by relatively high rates of neglect, abuse, low parental care, and even signs of rejection from parents. The family-of-orientation experiences associated with depression are characterized by very high rates of material distress and parenting problems. Again, there is remarkable comorbidity between depression and loneliness. However, you can be happy with who God made you to be, and quit wishing you were someone or something different. If God wanted you to look like anyone else, He would have made you look like them. If God had wanted you to have a different personality, He would have given you that personality. Do not compare yourself to other people; learn to be happy with who God made you to be. #RandolphHarris 8 of 19
People with depression consistently evaluate their own social skills on such inventories more negatively than nondepressed people do. Consequently, it has been suggested that depressed people’s negative views of their social skills may be part of a more generalized negative self-evaluation bias. For instance, depressed people hold negative views of themselves and distort feedback from the environment in ways that are unfavourable. Although self-rating of social skills are undoubtedly contaminated by this bias, depressed people’s general tendency to evaluate themselves negatively does not fully account for the self-report social skills deficits often noted to be associated with the disorder. However, God does not want a bunch of clones. He likes a variety, and one should not let people pressure one or make one feel badly about oneself because one does not fit their image of who one should be. Be an original, not a version of someone else. Dare today to accept the person God made you to be and then go out and be the best you that you can be. God has given us all different gifts, talents, and personality for a reason. One only needs God’s approval. However, certainly, one should always be open to wise counsel. Do not be foolish and rebellious. Nor will you lose your liberty by focusing more on your spiritual life. Yet, we never have permission to live an ungodly life. However, we do have God’s permission to be successful, confident, and not allow outside pressure to mould us into something or someone we are not. Be secure in who you are. People with depression do not use paralinguistic behaviours with the same degree of “skill” as nondepressed people. Studies of the temporal aspects of paralanguage indicate that people who are depressed speak more slowly than nondepressed people do. #RandolphHarris 9 of 19
In fact, pause and duration is so powerfully linked to depression that many have argued for it as an indicator of an individual’s degree of depression. Investigation of speech production indicates that people with depression generally speak more quietly, and with more silences, and hesitancies, than nondepressed persons. When prompted by a topic, people with depression have more difficulty producing speech than nondepressed control do. There is evidence to suggest that people with depression speak in a monotonous tone and with lower pitch than nondepressed persons do. Depressed people are very skilled at communicating sadness and despair paralinguistically. However, they may be less concerned about cultural display rules that often proscribe the outward display of such emotional states. Alternatively, depressed people may be unable to mask their negative affects paralinguistically, since vocal cues such as pitch, speech rate, and intonation are difficult to control. “Deliver me, O Lord, from evil men; preserve me from violent men; they devise mischiefs in their heart; continually they gather together and stir up wars,” reports Psalms 140.1-2. God does not want us to be depressed. He wants us to enjoy life. God went to great lengths to make sure that each of us is an original. We should not feel badly because our personalities, tastes, hobbies, or even spiritual proclivities are not the same as another person’s. Some people are outgoing and energetic; others are timid and more laid-back. Some people like to wear suits and ties; other people like to wear jeans and a tee shirt. The only person that has to accept you for who you are is God. Have an attitude that you are going to enjoy the person God made you to be. #RandolphHarris 10 of 19
Humankind’s worst enemy is itself. The enemies of Humankind are the members of its own household. Nor is there necessarily any truth in the Devout who finds a prophet, a messiah, behind every shadow. “Look, here He is! Oops! Where the devil did He go? He is over there now!” Matthew on You in Your last discourse (24.23). I learned this lesson to my loss. Would that I be goose in the future, and not just a gull for every bit of juicy gossip! Watch it, watch it, watch it. That is what someone says to me as one entrusts a secret. Keep to yourself what I am about to tell you. And so I do, but while I keep my lips sealed and believe I am keeping a secret, one does not hold one’s tongue. One wags it all over the house, betraying oneself and me, and then, before I can berate one, one is off to another monastery. From cautionary tales like this and the incautious people who tell them, protect me, O Lord. Do not let me fall into their hands, and do not let me repeat such a gaff ever again. Grant that I may speak in a straightforward manner, not with a forked tongue. What ai am unwilling to put up with others, I should avoid at all costs myself. A tangle of “not’s.” Not to say bad things about good people. Not to believe bad things about these very same people. Not to spread a shaggy story about someone else. Not to reveal my inmost secrets to anyone else but You, O Lord, now and always the Inspector General of Hearts. Not to be swept away by every barrage of verbiage, but simply to desire all esoterica and exoterica to be regulated according to the Divine Pleasure! #RandolphHarris 11 of 19
How can Devouts and Celestial Grace enjoy safe conduct? They must flee human contact. They must avoid the winsome things of this World. However, they should always be on the lookout for the things that will bring them closer to the next World. Many a humble soul has died the death when someone’s outdated their virtuous life and held it up for public praise! Grace grows best under a bridge where it is dank and dark. On the bridge itself, it would be tromped by every itinerant temptation, tramped by very mercenary troop. Take the case of the frustrated parents. Second Wave civilization, as we saw, synchronized daily life, trying the rhythms of sleep and wakefulness, of work and play, to the underlying throb of machines. Raised in this civilization, the parents take for granted that work must be synchronized, that everyone must arrive at work at the same time, that rush-hour traffic is unavoidable, that meal times must be fixed, and that children must, at an early age, be indoctrinated with time-consciousness and punctuality. They cannot understand why their offspring seem so annoyingly causal about keeping appointments and why, if the nine-to-five job (or other fixed-schedule job) was good enough in the past, it should suddenly be regarded as intolerable by their children. The reason is that the Third Wave, as it sweeps in, carries with it a completely different sense of time. If the Second Wave tied life to the tempo of the machine, the Third Wave challenges this mechanical synchronization, alters our most basic social rhythms, and in so doing frees us from the machine. Once we understand this, it comes as no surprise that one of the fastest-spreading innovations in industry during the 1970’s was “flextime”—an arrangement that permits workers, within predetermined limits, to choose their own working hours. #RandolphHarris 12 of 19
Instead of requiring everyone to arrive at the factory gate or the office at the same time, or even at pre-fixed staggered times, the company operating on flextime typically sets certain core hours when everyone is expected to show up, an specifics other hours as flexible. Each employee may choose which of the flexible hours one wishes to spend working. This means that a “day person”—person whose biological rhythms routinely awakens one early in the morning—can choose to arrive at work at, say, 8.00 A.M., while a “night person,” whose metabolism is different, can choose to start working at 10.00 A.M. or 10.30 A.M. It means that an employee can take time off for household chores, or to shop, or take a child to the doctor. Groups of workers who wish to go bowling together early in the morning or late in the afternoon can jointly set their schedules to make it possible. In short, time itself is being de-massified. The flextime movement began in 1965 when a woman economist in Germany, Mrs. Christel Kammerer, recommended it was a way to bring more others into the job market. In 1967 Messerschmitt-Bolkow-Blohm, the “Deutsche Boeing,” discovered that many of its workers were arriving at work worn out from fighting rush-hour traffic. Management gingerly experimented by allowing 2,000 workers to go off the ridge eight-to-five schedule and to choose their own hours. Within two years all 12,000 of its employees were on flextime and some departments had even given up the requirement for everyone to be there during core times. In some 2,000 German firms, the national concept of rigid punctuality had vanished beyond recall. #RandolphHarris 13 of 19
The reason was the introduction of Gleitzeit; id est, sliding or flexible hours. At one time, more than 5,000,000 employees in Germany were on one or another form of flextime, and the system was being used by 22,000 companies with an estimated 4,000,000 workers in France, Finland, Denmark, Sweden, Italy, and Great Britain. In Switzerland, 15 to 20 percent of all industrial firms had switched to the new system for all or part of their work force. Multinational firms (a major force for cultural diffusion in today’s work), exported the system from Europe. Nestle and Lufthansa, for example, introduced it to their operations in the United States of America. According to a report by the American Management Association, 74 percent of all U.S. companies use flextime. Within a few years, it is projected that number will be 90 percent due to the pandemic. Among the American firms using flextime systems are such giants as Scott Paper, Bank of California, General Motors, Bristol Myers, and Equitable Life. Some of the more moss-backed trade unions—preservers of the Second Wave status quo—have hesitated. However, individual workers, by and large, see flextime as a liberating influence. Says the manager of the London-based insurance firm: “The young married women were absolutely rapturous about change-over.” A Swiss survey found that fully 95 percent of affected workers approve. Thirty-five percent men—more than women—say they now spend more time with the family. One mother working for Boston banks was on the verge of being fired because—although a good worker in other respects—she was continually turning up late. Her poor attendance record reinforced racist stereotypes. However, when her office went on flextime she was no longer considered late. #RandolphHarris 14 of 19
It also turned out, reported sociologist Allan R. Cohen, “that she had been late because she had to drop her son in a day-care center and could just never get to the office by starting time. Employers, for their part, report higher productivity, reduced absenteeism, and other benefits. There are, of course, problems with any innovation, but according to the American Management Association, survey only 2 percent of the companies trying it have gone back to the old rigid time structure. One Lufthansa manager summed it up succinctly: “There’s no such thing now as a punctuality problem.” Humans are born free, and everywhere they are in chains. One who believes oneself the master of others does not escape being more of a slave than they. How did this change take place? I do no know. What can render it legitimate? Were I to consider only force and the effect that flows from it, I would say that so long as a people is constrained to obey and does obey, it does well. As soon as it can shake off the yoke and does shake it off, it does even better. For by recovering its liberty by means of the same right that stole it, either the populace is justified in getting it back or else those who took it away were not justified in their actions. However, the social order is a scared right which serves as a foundation for all other right. Nevertheless, this right does not come from nature. It is therefore founded upon convention. The most ancient of all societies and the only natural one, is that of the family. Even so children remain bound to their father only so long as they need him to take care of them. As soon as the need ceases, the natural bond is dissolved. #RandolphHarris 15 of 19
Once the children are freed from the obedience they owed the father and their father is freed from the care he owned his children, all return equally to independence. If they continue to remain united, this no longer takes place naturally but voluntarily, and the family maintains itself only by means of convention. This common liberty is one consequence of the nature of humans. Its first law is to see to one’s maintenance; its first concerns are those one owes oneself; and, as soon as one reaches the age of reason, since one alone is the judge of the proper means of taking care of oneself, one thereby becomes one’s own master. The family therefore is, so to speak, the prototype of political societies; the leader is the image of the father, the populace is the image of the children, and, since all are born equal and free, none give up their liberty except for their utility. The entire difference consists in the fact that in the family the love of the father for his children repays him for the care he takes for them, while in the state, where the leaders does not have love for his peoples, the pleasure of commanding takes the place of this feeling. Grotius denies that all human power is established for the benefit of the governed, citing slavery as an example. His usual method of reasoning is always to present fact as a proof of right. Learned research on public right is often nothing more than the history of ancient abuses, and taking a lot of trouble to study the too closely get one nowhere. A more logical method could be used, but no one more favourable to tyrants. According to Grotius, it is therefore doubtful whether the human race belongs to a hundred humans, or whether these hundred humans belong to the human race. This is Hobbes’ position as well. On this telling, the human race is divided into herds of cattle, each one having its own leader who guards it in order to devour it. #RandolohHarris 16 of 19
Just as a herdsman possesses a nature superior to that of one’s herd, the herdsmen of men who are the leaders, also have a nature superior to that of their peoples. According to Philo, Caligula reasoned thus, concluding quite properly this analogy that kings were gods, or that peoples were beasts. Caligula’s reasoning coincides with that of Hobbes and Grotius. Aristotle, before all the others, had also said that he took the effect for the cause. Every human born in slavery is born for slavery; nothing is more certain. In their chains slaves lose everything, even the desire to escape. They love their servitude the way the companions of Ulysses loved their degradation. If there are slaves by nature, it is because there have been salves against nature. Force has produced the first slaves; their cowardice has perpetuated them. I have nothing about King Adam or Emperor Noah, father of three great monarchs who partitioned the Universe, as did the children of Saturn, whom sone have believed they recognize in them. I hope I will be appreciated for this moderation, for since I am a direct descent of these princes, and perhaps of the eldest branch, how am I to know where, after the verification of titles, I might not find myself the legitimate king of the human race? Be that as it may, we cannot deny that Adam was the sovereign of the World, just as Robinson Crusoe was sovereign of his island, so long as he was its sole inhabitant. And the advantage this empire had was that the monarch, securely on his throne, had no rebellions, wars, or conspirators to fear. The evolution of each ego, of each entity conscious of a personal “I,” passes through three stages through immense periods of time. In the first and earliest stage, it unfolds its distinct physical selfhood, acquires more and more conscious of the person “I,” and hence divides and isolates itself from other egos. #RandolphHarris 17 of 19
The ego is seeking to differentiate itself from them. It feels the need to asset itself and its interests. This lead inevitably to antagonism towards them. Its movement towards externality, a movement which must inevitably end in its taking the surface or appearance of things for reality, that is, in materialism. Here it is acquisitive. In its second and intermediate stage, it unfolds its mental selfhood and hence adds cunning to its separative and grasping tendencies, with intellect expanding to its extreme point. Here it is inquisitive. However, midway in this stage, its descent comes to an end with a turning point where it halts, turns around, and begins to travel backward to its original source. In the third stage, the return towards its divine source continues. Its movement is now toward internality and—through meditation, investigation, and reflection—it ultimately achieves knowledge of its true being: its source, the Overself. And as all egos arise out of the Overself, the end of such a movement is one and the same for all—a common center. Conflicts between them cease; mutual understanding, cooperation, and compassion spread. Hence, this stage is unitive. The central point of the entire evolution is about where we now stand. Human attitudes and relations have reached their extreme degree of selfishness, separateness, struggle, and division, have experience the resulting exhaustion of an unheard-of World crisis, but are beginning to reorient themselves towards an acknowledgement of the fundamental unity of the second stage and then abruptly begins to vanish from human life altogether. The separatist outlook must cease. Most of our troubles have arisen because we have continued beyond the point where it was either useful or needful. The unequal state of evolution of all these egos, when thrown together into a conglomerate group on a single planet, is also responsible for the conflicts which have marked humankind’s own history. #RandolphHarris 18 of 19
These egos stand on different steps of the ladder all the way from savagery to maturity. The backward ego naturally attacks or preys on the advanced one. This, the purely self-regarding ego, which was once an essential pattern of the evolutionary scheme—a necessary goal in the movement of life—becomes with time a discordant ingredient of that scheme, an obstructive impediment on that movement. If humanity is to travel upward and fulfill its higher destiny, it can do so only by enlarging its area of interest and extending its field of consciousness. It must, in short, seek to realize the Overself on the one hand, to feel its oneness on the other. The ego’s misapprehension of its own nature and misuse of its own capacities, create one form of evil. There are other forms. O Lord, one tiny bity of water rests on the palm of my hand. I bring it to you and with it I bring the whole ocean. This tiny drop has the power to ease the burning thirst of humans; when spread on the Earth, to give life to the seed and the future harvest; when poured on the fire to quench the blaze. A tiny drop of water can cleanse the whole of my impurity when blessed by your forgiveness. However, O Lord, more than all this, tiny drop of water passed over my head is the symbol of my birth in You. Thou Worker of deliverance alone! Turn to them, hear the words that mount to Thee; God of salvation, justify Thine own. O God of salvation, save Thou us! List to the surging voices of Thy throng, open the Earth, let help spring forth, O Thou delighting not in evil; Saviour strong! O God of our salvation, save Thou us! Open for us the gates of Heaven, we crave: open for us Thy goodly treasure now; ah! strife prolong not endlessly, but save! O God of our salvation, save Thou us! #RandolphHarris 19 of 19
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When are You Going to Face the Real World?
The good and the bad are all part of the World-picture, although their proportions vary as the time-wheel turns around. It is the function of such opposing forces, environments, or persons to compel one to negotiate them properly, or suffer the consequences. Often what manages to get the public eye ends up with little or no spiritual profit. However, just as often what the public eye fails to notice is of the greatest possible spiritual importance. It would be a totally unobservant or totally theoretic person who denied the presence of evil, but it would be an ill-informed one who did not perceive that its life and power are circumscribed. I hope I shall not be misunderstood for saying that I saw clearly how the physical expression of evil is a necessary prerequisite to the spiritual redemption from evil. For what the sinner does is after all only an outcome of what one thinks. If the doing of wrong actions will, by the higher law of recompense, bring one ultimately the physical punitive consequences of those actions, they will also bring one—and again ultimately—the thought that the two are inseparably connected together. This is a step—admittedly only a first step—toward that repentance and that purification which make redemption possible. The notion that the God-Power is engaged in a desperate struggle with an evil power, that God calls on humans to give His help and that the outcome of this warfare depends to any extent on such help—this notion is a ridiculous one. My experience of life and observation of others have taught me that there is no situation in which you will find good alone present without some concomitant evil. To look for undiluted good is utopian, unrealistic, and self-deceptive. #RandolphHarris 1 of 22
The procession of love in God ought not to be called generation. In evidence whereof we must consider that the intellect and the will differ in this respect, that the intellect is made actual by the object understood residing according to its own likeness in the intellect; whereas the will is made actual, not by any similitude of the object willed within it, but by its having a certain inclination to the thing willed. Thus the procession of the intellect is by way of similitude, and is called generation, because every generator begets its own like; whereas the procession of the will is not by way of similitude of the object willed within it, but by its having a certain inclination to the thing willed. Thus the procession of the intellect is by way of similitude, and is called generation, because every generator begets its own like; whereas the procession of the will is not by way of similitude, but rather by way of impulse and movement towards an object. So what proceeds in God by way of love, does not proceed as begotten, or as son, but proceeds rather as spirit; which name expresses a certain vital movement and impulse, accordingly as anyone is described as moved or impelled by love to perform an action. All that exists in God is one with the divine nature. Hence the proper notion of this or that procession, by which one procession is distinguished from another, cannot be on the part of this unity: but the proper notion of this or that procession must be taken from the order of one procession in God takes its name from the proper notion of will and intellect; the name being imposed to signify what its nature really is; and so it is that the Person proceeding as love receives the divine nature, but is not said to be born. #RandolphHarris 2 of 22
Likeness belongs in a different way to the word and to love. It belongs to the word as being the likeness of the object understood, as the thing generated is the likeness of the generator; but it belongs to love, not as though love itself were a likeness, but because likeness is the principle of love. Thus it does not follow that love is begotten, but that the one begotten is the principle of love. We can name God only from creatures. As creatures generation is the only principle of communication of nature, procession in God has no proper or special name, expect that of generation. Hence the procession which is not generation has remained without a special name; but it can be called spiration, as it is the procession of the Spirit. The awful fact of innate evil, the hideous mystery of innate sin, must be recognized and faced. We cannot make bad humans into good humans; but Nature, Life, with millions of years at her disposal, can. Evil arises where the good is still undeveloped from its latency, but sometimes it is the distortion of the good. We will understand this problem better when we understand that the presence of good and evil in the Universe does not signify a division of power but a division of thought. Thought is the cause; thought is the cure. Satan can pretend to be an Angel of Light. There are adepts in evil who hide their real aim behind an outward show of altruistic purpose. These secret purposes disguise themselves in a convenient form, and if no other is convenient they will even use some open purpose which stands in total opposition to them. They emerge in the most unlikely and unlooked-for places. The evil in human relations springs from the ignorance in human beings. #RandolphHarris 3 of 22
As each one brings the principle of truth into one’s own consciousness, one brings it into one’s relations with others as a result. The love which accompanies it denies birth to cruelty, anger, and lust or dissolves any which already exist. Although it is perfectly true that divine goodness is at the heart of things, it is no less true that demonic evil is on the surface of things. The followers of simple cults which stubbornly try to see only the goodness and not the evil, which deny things as they are and indulged wishful thinking, have themselves and their leaders to blame when disaster awakens them to the errors in the map they are following. They would do better to arouse themselves, while there is yet time, to keep a soundly balanced attitude, neither falling over to one side or the other overmuch, yet always remembering that superphysical experience between the incarnations is disproportionately good and free from evil, by contrast with physical plane experience. Let us not insult human reason by denying human evil. In any universal arrangement or personal situation, there is either gross disorder, with its consequent turmoil trouble and suffering, or there is real order, with its harmonious co-operation with the divine will working outward from the divine center—be it humans’ heart or the sun’s rays. The great ills (miscalled evils) of bodily life, such as disease and poverty, are often forced upon one by an implacable fate. However, it would be a delusion to class them always with the great evils of mental life, such as hate and cruelty. For their control is frequently beyond one’s power, and their course may have to be endured, whereas sinful thoughts and their resultant deeds are not independent of one’s control and may be avoided. #RandolphHarris 4 of 22
Why is it that people are dazzled with this-Worldly thingamajigs? Well, unless they come to their right minds soon, they will amuse themselves to death. When right principles, theories, or concepts are taken up by the wrong persons, they become wrong themselves—because misused, falsified, prevented. Suffering is not always an evil. It is often educative. All evil is then seen to spring from separativeness, which is a stage inevitable to all creatures as they follow the line of unfoldment. Evil therefore is the adverse element in Nature. Humans can conquer it in one’s mind by conquering separativeness and realizing the All as oneself. At the same time one discovers that the whole creation is really a mental one, hence like but not the same as a dream; and if one keeps awake to the Static Reality whilst in the midst of the Earthly dream, the whole World becomes merely a school for educating consciousness. The suffering, evil, and the like are transient aspects leaving permanent results. The wedding of Heaven and Earth can never be brought about, since the Perfect and the Imperfect are incompatibles. However, they can be brought into some sort of equilibrium, into better balance, so that life in the World would not be as bad as it is. Those who ignorantly believe that God needs their help to ensure His triumph over evil in the World, have yet to learn that this triumph has been eternally accomplished already. The human being who can affect this situation either by helping or hindering does not exist. It is a disturbing concept which holds that man’s goodness seldom becomes actualized without the presence of, and struggle against man’s evil. If men engaged themselves more in asking not “What is good and what is evil?” but rather “What is the Highest Good?” the first question would get itself answered automatically and peace would then follow anyway. #RandolphHarris 5 of 22
When the evil in humans is washed out, one will find in all its goodness the original stuff of which one is made—beneficent to all, a joy to oneself. However, because we affirm that the powers of evil will destroy themselves in the end, this must not be mistaken to mean that we may all sit down in smug complacency. We ought not to make this an excuse for inaction. On the contrary, it should inspire us to stronger efforts to preserve the noblest things in life from their attack. All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good humans do nothing. The night’s darkness shelters the evil forces, the sun’s brightness tells us where the divine ones are centralized. “My God will supply all your needs according to His riches in glory in Christ Jesus,” Philippians 4.19. As God’s children, we are able to live an abundant life. That is acceptable. In fact, we should even expect to be blessed. Indeed, it is as important to learn how to receive a blessing as it is to be willing to give one. If you come from a poor environment, or do not have a lot of material possession, that is fine. God has many blessings in store for you. However, all the good things in life are not material. Yet it is nice to also have material comforts. Therefore, do not allow the image of lack and limitation become the motion picture you constantly play in your head. It is good to be humble, but seeing yourself prospering is also healthy. One should seek to rise to new levels of success. Start looking through the eyes of faith and keep that image of happiness and success in your heart and mind. You may not be as affluent as you like, at the moment, but with hard work, dedication, education, and payer, anything is possible. #RandolphHarris 6 of 22
God has called for human help, and no one is coming. We are his last resort! How often on Earth has God put His trust in a human being, even in a Devout, and yet been disappointed! However, then again how often has God found a helping hand where He had no reason to expect one? The conclusion? Vain is the hope for consistency in human behaviour. However, God is always consistent; if the Psalmist has it right (37.39), then the Just are always saved. Only God can find the good in everything that happens to us. Left to ourselves, we are infirm and unstable, falliable and fallable. The Christ Holy Bible and Book of Mormon clearly shows that God takes pleasure in prospering His children. As His children prosper spiritually, physically, and materially, their increase brings God a sense of satisfaction that we can only imagine. If I introduced Leo and Annie to you, and they went to school with no shoes on, had holds in their clothes, and dirt under their fingernails, you would probably say, “That man is not a god father. He does not take good care of his children.” Indeed, my children’s poverty would be a direct reflection on me as their day. Just like a governor who brags about having the 5th largest economy in the World and over a twenty-five-billion-dollar surplus, but has the highest homeless population in the developed World. Perhaps, taxes are so high people cannot afford to live? Perhaps the people need a rebate of some of their money? Perhaps there should be a record number of affordable housing units going up on undeveloped land? Perhaps taxpayer funded sports arenas could be converted into affordable lofts? #RandolphHarris 7 of 22
Nonetheless, when we go through life with a poverty mentality, it is not glorifying to God. It does not honour His great name. No, God is honoured and pleased when we develop a prosperous mindset. God wants to supply every need you have, and He will! With that being said, do not expect much from your politicians. Do not turn to the news for answers. Pick up the Bible, go to church and pray to God for all that you seek. God, I thank You that You have better things in store for me than I would even choose for myself, that Your dream for me is even grander than my dream for myself, and Your resources are inexhaustible! Devouts like me keep a good monastic muzzle on ourselves in everything we say or do. However, will that caution and circumspection really prevent us from being axed and battleaxed? All I know, O Lord, is that whoever confides in You and “speaks from a simple heart”—a characteristic much favoured in the Wisdom of Solomon (1.1)—does not fall so easily. Oh, he will slip—he is bound to—but God will come to his rescue or, at the very least, God will offer one some help. That is because God does not desert whoever has put one’s hope in Him for the Long Haul. A rare find is the faithful friend who preserves through all the ups and downs of friendship. God is the most faithful of friends, O Lord, and without You there is no such thing as Friendships. “For God so greatly loved and dearly prized the World that He [even] gave up His only begotten (unique) Son, so that whoever believes in (trusts in, clings to, relies on) Him shall not perish (come to destruction, not be lost) but have eternal (everlasting) life,” reports John 3.16. The spiritual event, the mystical experience, is there but its presentation to the conscious mind—manipulated by one’s personal tendencies to an extent which exaggerates their importance—creates a mixed result. #RandolphHarris 8 of 22
However, the glow of this transcendence lingers in the heart for long after its actual manifestation. It suffuses one with unearthly happiness and fills one with solemn reverence. When this mood is fully upon one, one may find it hard to talk to anyone for some time afterward. One emerges from the experience feeling surrounded by peace and protected by supernormal powers. The glimpse vanishes, slowly with a few, quickly with most, leaving its effects in one’s recognition of greater possibilities in life and grander ones in oneself. One comes back from the glimpse not only renewed in grace but purged in character, not only less egoistic but more detached, hence calmer. It is only a mood, of course, and may vanish in a few minutes, hours, or days. However, whereas most other moods pass from memory and are unrecallable, this kind is unforgettable. This wonderful and memorable experience, call it Void or call it God, will for some time afterwards become a kind of background to the events of one’s life and to one, oneself. Illumination arising from suffering seems to last longer than that arising from happiness because the latter is easier to lose. One is likely to become careless with that which comes from happiness. Whatever the height reached, the glory felt during the glimpse, one still lives on as a human being after it has passed. Thoughts reappear, ordinary emotions are felt again. The uplifted consciousness falls back, the rapturous moments pass away. One must then revert to the ordinary animal-intellectual life of everyday, to all the human implications of one’s existence. Why try, vainly, to deny them? #RandolphHarris 9 of 22
One has seen some truth and may want to share it. However, in what manner can one communicate that which is not intellectually measurable? If the glimpse does not last, is a human discovers, or rather comes back to find, that one still is human, one should be pleased that it came at all. It is not easy and it may need a long period of practice and remembrance, but something of this afterglow may be kept and retained even amid the turmoil of the World’s work. In those glorious enchanted moments which immediately succeed the glimpse, almost anything seems possible. The glimpse comes to be treasured in memory as something very precious and quite unique, most intimate and not freely talked about with others. Slowly and dimply one will become aware of one’s surroundings and one’s body. Little by little one will struggle back to them as if from some far planet. The recovery of consciousness will be only intermittent at first, only in brief snatches achieved with difficulty. However, later it will be heled and kept for longer periods until it remains altogether. The afterglow of this experience may be a sensation of its curative power, leaving nerves and heart healed of their troubled negative conditions, or of it purifying power, leaving the mind freed of its undesired and undesirable thoughts. The glimpse leaves an afterglow of truth, a reassurance of support. One’s heart will be warmed and one’s will moved as a consequence of this experience. The test will come when one has to descend from the mountain-peck of mediation into the valleys of prosaic everyday living. Can one adjust the greatness one has seen and felt to this smaller narrower World or will one lose it therein? #RandolphHarris 10 of 22
The closer one comes to the Overself the more reticent one becomes about it. Even though the glimpse is so impressive, the subsequent activities of the day put it out of one’s mind until one is able to relax, perhaps at bedtime. When the spark of inspiration fades out, new ideas often go with it, of if they come, the power to utilize them escapes one. If the glimpse slips away from the greater calm, where does it go? Into the ever-active outward-turned thinking movement. From this inner World of Essence we descend to the outer World of Experience. “For every wrongdoer hates (loathes, detests) the Light, and will not come out into the Light, but shrinks from it, least one’s work (one’s deeds, one’s activities, one’s conduct) be exposed and reproved. However, one who practices truth [who does what is right] comes out into the Light; so that ones works may be plainly shown to be what they are—wrought with God [divinely prompted, sone with God’s help, in dependence upon Him],” reports John 3.20-21. Once there was a holy soul, St. Agatha, a wealthy girl who had vowed her virginity to Christ in the third century. As the official record of her martyrdom showed, she was brutally tortured and died in prison, but not before dropping this pearl of spiritual wisdom: “My mind is grounded and founded in Christ.” If only that were your sentiment also, then your every fear would not sting so, nor every unkind word stab. While the missionaries were on their trip westward, Joseph and his friends were busy in New York doing the Lord’s work. Parley Pratt’s nineteen-year-old brother, Orson, was much interested in Christ’s work in the latter day and went to Joseph requesting that he seek the Lord to know what his work would be. Joseph prayed earnestly in behalf of this young man. #RandolphHarris 11 of 22
By revelation given in November, Jesus Christ said: “My son Orson, hearken and hear and behold what I, the Lord God, shall say unto you. Blessed are you because you have believed, and more blessed are you because you are called of me to preach my gospel; to lift up your voice as with the sound of a trump, both long and loud, and cry repentance unto a crooked and perverse generation; preparing the way of the Lord for His second coming. The time is soon at hand, that I shall come in a cloud with power and great glory, and it shall be a great day at the time of my coming. Therefore prophesy and it shall be given by the power of the Holy Ghost; and if you are faithful, behold, I am with you until I come.” In December Sidney Rigdon and his friend, Edward Partridge, traveled from Kirtland to New York to visit Joseph Smith and to learn more about the church. Joseph prayed to know in what manner they might serve. After much prayer, the Son of God said: “Listen to the voice of the Lord your God…I am Jesus Christ, the Son of God, who was crucified for the sins of the World. Behold, verily, verily I say unto my servant Sidney, I have looked upon thee and thy works. I have heard thy prayers and prepared thee for a great work. I have heard thy prayers and prepared thee for a greater work. Thou art blessed, for thou shalt do great things. And it shall come to pass, that there shall be a great work in the land…and I will show miracles, signs and wonders, unto all those who believe on my name. And whoso shall ask it in my name, in faith, they shall cast our devils; they shall heal the sick; they shall cause the blind to receive their sight, and the deaf to hear, and the dumb to speak, and the lame to walk. #RandolphHarris 12 of 22
“And the time speedily cometh that great things are to be shown forth unto the children of humans; but without faith shall not anything be shown. I haven sent forth the fullness of my gospel by the hand of my servant Joseph. Wherefore watch over one that one’s faith fail not, and it shall be given by the Comforter, the Holy Ghost, that knoweth all things; and a commandment I give unto thee, that thou shalt write for him. And the Scriptures shall be given even as they are in mine own bosom, to the salvation of mine own elect; for they will hear my voice, and shall see me. Lift up your hearts and be glad; your redemption draweth nigh. Fear not, little flock, the kingdom is yours until I come.” At about the same time this revelation came for Sidney Rigdon, a revelation was received directed to Edward Partridge, in which the Christ said: “I say unto you, my servant Edward, that you are blessed, and your sins are forgiven you, and you are called to preach my gospel. You shall receive my Spirit, the Holy Ghost, even the Comforter, which shall teach you he peaceable things of the kingdom. And you shall declare it with a loud voice, saying, Hosanna, blessed be the name of the most high God.” In a revelation given to Joseph in June, 1830 (Doctrine and Covenants 22), the Lord had explained that Moses had been told that men would one day take away many of the words which Moses and others had written, but that God would raise up another man who would give the words back to the people. By this God meant that parts of the Bible which Moses and others had written would be left out of the Scriptures or be lost, and another man would be inspired by God’s Spirit to know what had been omitted or lost and put them back in the Bible. This man was to be Joseph Smith, Jr., and Sidney Rigdon was to help him. #RandolphHarris 13 of 22
Sidney Rigdon was a student of the of the Bible, having spent years in its study. He had an unusual understanding of the Scriptures and at one time had resigned as minister because the church of which he was pastor did not teach according to the Bible. Truly the Lord had prepared him for a greater work. As Joseph and Sidney Rigdon worked together, God inspired them by his Holy Spirit that they might understand the things they read in the Bible. When two or more Scripture passages conflicted, God helped them to know what was right. The prophecy of Enoch is one book which is mentioned in the Bible but which had been omitted, apparently having been lost. Enoch was the righteous human who built the perfect city of Zion which was taken to Heaven. Enoch lived many hundreds of years before Jesus’ time. God made it known to Joseph Smith by his Holy Spirit what the prophecy of Enoch contained, and as God inspired his mind, he wrote about it. Joseph Learned that Enoch built the city of Zion where all were of one heart and mind and lived in righteousness. Enoch had been shown a vision in which he saw everything that was to happen to the World in the future. He saw Noah who built an ark to save the few righteous people from the flood which destroyed the wicked ones. He saw the coming of Jesus, the Son of God, who was born in a manger, and who came to show people the right way to live. He saw this Son of God crucified on a cross, and a great storm. He saw him raised from the dead and ascend into Heaven. In his visions Enoch saw the time when Jesus’ gospel would again return to the Earth. He saw the righteous gathered from all over the Earth to place called Zion, and to this place Enoch saw the Son of God come to live for a thousand year. The Lord has shown Enoch all things, even to the end of the World. Enoch saw the righteous people receive great joy, and the wicked ones fear God’s judgment against them. #RandolphHarris 14 of 22
God directed Joseph to put this lost book—the prophecy of Enoch—into the Holy Scriptures so it might be of help to those who study it to understand about God and his purpose. If they understood, they might become better people than they could otherwise be. This prophecy has also been included in the Doctrine and Covenants as Section 36. Joseph and Sidney Rigdon were working hard on the Inspired Version of the Scriptures when they received instructions by revelation in which the Lord said: “Behold, I say unto you, that it is not expedient in me that ye should translate any more until ye shall go to the Ohio. Ans again a commandment I give unto the church, that it is expedient in me that they should assemble together at the Ohio, against the time that my servant Oliver Cowdery shall return unto them. So Joseph and Sidney Rigdon laid aside their work on the Inspired Version of the Scriptures to preach and strengthen the church, and to prepare for an assembly of the Saints at Kirtland. The wonder of the human soul which, even surrounded by the depravity and folly of today, can still aspire nobly and think loftily, would be quite puzzling did we not know the dual nature of the human entity and the divine nature of the laws which govern it. So long as separate egos exist—separate from the cosmic ego in their own view, that is—so long will their ignorance produce what we call evil. The ego, let loose upon the World, uninstructed and unbridled, cannot in the final reckoning benefit the World. To talk of service, without wisdom or character, may squander its goodwill in egoistic mire. Note too that the resources of commerce and industry, far from making the tax more endurable through an abundance of money, only make it more burdensome. #RandolphHarris 15 of 22
I will not dwell upon a very obvious point, namely that, although a greater or lesser quantity of money in a state can give it more or less credit outside the state, it in no way alters the real fortune of the citizens and does not make them any more or less comfortable. However, I must make two important remarks. First, unless the state has extra commodities and the abundance of money comes from export trade, only the commercial towns are aware of this abundance, and the peasant only become relatively poorer. Second, since the price of everything increases with the increase in money, taxes must be increased proportionately, so that the famer finds oneself under a great burden without having greater resources. It should be noted that the tax on lands is actually a tax on its product. While everyone agrees that nothing is so dangerous as a tax on grain paid by the buyer, how is it we do not see that it is a hundred times worse if this tax is paid by the farmer oneself. Is it not the most direct method possible of depopulating the homeland, and thus in the long run of ruining it? For there is no worse scarcity for a nation than that of humans. Only the true statesman can rise one’s sights above the financial objectives of imposing greater taxes. Only one can transform onerous burdens into useful regulations of public administration. Only one can make the people wonder whether such establishments have for their purpose the good of the nation rather than the production of taxes. Duties on the importation of foreign merchandise which the local people are eager to have but which the homeland does not need; on the exportation of domestically produced merchandise of which the homeland has none to spare and which foreigners cannot do without; on the product of useless and excessively lucrative arts; on the entry into towns of pure luxuries, and in general on all luxury items will all achieve this twofold purpose. #RandolphHarris 16 of 22
It is by means of such taxes, which ease the burden of poverty and place the onus on wealth, that one must prevent the continual increase in the inequality of fortunes, the subjection of a multitude of workers and useless servants to the rich, the multiplication of idle people in the cities, and the desertion of rural areas. It is important to place a proportion between the price of thing and the duties imposed on them such that the greediness of private individuals is not too strongly tempted by the size of the profits to commit fraud. Moreover, smuggling must be made difficult by singling out merchandise that is more difficult to conceal. Finally, it is appropriate for the tax to be paid by the one who uses the thing taxed rather than the one who sells it, to whom the quantity of the duties with which one is charged would provide greater temptations and means of committing fraud. This is the usual practice in countries where the taxes are the heaviest and the best paid in the World. The merchant pays nothing. Only the buyer pays the duty, without any murmuring or sedition resulting, for since the provisions necessary for life, such as rice and grain, are completely exempt, the people are not oppressed and the tax falls only on the wealth. Moreover, all these precautions ought to be dictated not so much by the fear of smuggling as by the attention the government ought to pay to protecting private individuals from the seduction of illegitimate profits, which, after having turned them into bad citizens, would waste no time turning them into dishonest people. Let heavy taxes be levied on livery servants, carriages, mirrors, chandeliers and furnishings, on fabric and gilding, on the courtyards and the gardens of law makers, on public entertainment of all kinds, and on the idle processions, such as those of buffoons. #RandolphHarris 17 of 22
In sort, on that group of objects of luxury, amusement and idleness that catch everyone’s eye and that can scarcely be hidden, since their whole purpose is to be on display, and they would be useless if they should fail to be seen. There is no cause for fear that the proceeds of such taxes would be arbitrary, since they are imposed only on things that are not absolutely necessary. It shows a poor knowledge of humans to believe that human who have once been seduced by luxury can ever renounce it. They would a hundred times rather renounce necessities, preferring to die of hunger than of shame. The increase in their expense is only a new reason for sustaining it, when the vanity of displaying oneself as wealthy will reap its reward from the price of the things as well as the expanse of the tax. As long as there are rich people, and the state cannot contrive a revenue less onerous and more secure than one based on this distinction. Would you rather have the state getting revenue only by taxing them life out of its citizens, or allow them to compete on a limited basis with private industry, which may result in them becoming more economical? For some reason, industry would have nothing to suffer from an economic order that enriched the public finances, revitalized agriculture by relieving the farmer, and imperceptibly brought all fortunes close to that intermediate level of wealth which constitutes the true force of a state. I confess it could happen that these taxes might contribute to making some fashions come and go more quickly; but it would never happen without substituting others on which the worker would earn a profit without the public treasury taking a loss. In short, suppose the spirit of the government was constantly to levy all taxes on the superfluities of the rich, one of two things might happen. #RandolphHarris 18 of 22
Either the rich would remove their superfluities to turn them into something useful, which would redound to the profit of the state, in which case, the imposition of taxes would have produced the effect of the best sumptuary laws. The expenses of the state will of necessity have diminished with those of private individuals; and the public treasury in this way would not receive less than it would thereby gain for having to pay out less. Or, if the rich do not cut back on any of their extravagances, the public treasury would have, in tax proceeds on these extravagances, the resources it was seeking in order to provide for the real needs of the state. In the first case, the public treasury is enriched by reducing expenditures. In the second case, it is enriched by the useless expenditures of private individuals. Let us add to all this an important distinction in the matter of political right, and to which governments, jealous of doing everything by themselves, should pay great attention. I have said that since personal taxes and taxes on absolute necessities attack the right to property and consequently the true foundation of public society, they are always subject to dangerous consequences, if they are not established with the express consent of the people or its representatives. It is not the same for duties on things whose use can be forbidden. For then, since the private individual is absolutely constrained to pay, one’s contributions can be reckoned as voluntary. Thus the individual consent of each of the contributions takes the place of the general consent, and even presupposes it in a certain way. For why would the people be opposed to any tax levy that falls only on whoever wants to pay it? It would appear to me certain that whatever is not prescribed by the laws or not contrary to mores and that the government can forbid, it can permit a payment of a duty. #RandolphHarris 19 of 22
If, for example, the government can forbid the use of carriages, a fortiori it can impose a tax on carriages, a wise and useful way to blame their use without terminating it. Then one can view the tax as a type of fine, whose proceeds compensate for the abuse it punishes. Someone may perhaps object that since those called impostors, that is, those who impose or invent the taxes, are in the class of the rich, they will not take care to spare others at their own expense and to burden themselves in order to relieve the poor. However, such ideas must be rejected. If in each nation those to whom the sovereign commits the government of the peoples were, in virtue of their position, the enemies of the state, it would not be worth the trouble to inquire what they should do to make people happy. In millions of middle-class homes a ritual drama is enacted: the recently graduated son or daughter arrives late for dinner, snarls, flings down the wants ads, and proclaims the nine-to-five jobs, and the mother, exhausted and depressed from paying the latest batch of bills, are outraged. They have been through this before. Having seen good times and bad, they suggest a secure job with a big corporation. They young person sneers. Small companies are better. No company is best of all. An advanced degree? What for? It is all a terrible waste! Aghast, the parents see their suggestions dismissed one after another. Their frustration mounts until, at last, they utter the ultimate parental cry: “When are you going to face the real World?” Such scenes are not limited to affluent homes in the United States of America or even Europe. Japanese corporate moguls mutter in their sake about the swift decline of the work ethic and corporate loyalty, of industrial punctuality and discipline among the young. Even in Russia middle-class parents face similar challenges form youth. #RandolphHarris 20 of 22
Is this just another case of epater les parents—the traditional generational conflict? Or is there something new here? Can it be that young people and their parents are simply not talking about the same “real World”? The fact is that what we are seeing is not merely the classical confrontation of romantic youth and realistic elders. Indeed, what was once realistic may no longer be. For the basic code of behaviour, containing the ground rules of social life, is changing rapidly as the onrushing Third Wave. We saw earlier how the Second Wave brought with it a “code book” of principles or rules that governed everyday behaviour. Such principles as synchronization, standardization, or maximization were applied in business, in government, and in a daily life obsessed with punctuality and schedules. Today a countercode book is emerging—new ground rules for the new life we are building on a de-massified economy, on de-massified media, on new family and corporate structures. Many of the seemingly senseless battles between young and old, as well as other conflicts in our classrooms, boardrooms, and political backrooms are, in fact, nothing more than clashes over which code book to apply. The new code book directly attacks much of what the Second Wave person has been taught to believe in—from the importance of punctuality and synchronization to the need for conformity and standardization. It challenges the presumed efficiency of centralization and professionalization. It compels us to reconsider our conviction that bigger is better and our nations of “concentration.” To understand this new code, and how it contrasts with the old one, is to understand instantly many of otherwise confusing conflicts that swirl around us, exhausting our energies and threatening our personal power, prestige, or paycheck. #RandolphHarris 21 of 22
Prayer and focus on God is important for Spirit-Energy. This also helps the concentration of thoughts. The refusal to study the Bible or pray is short-sighted, narrow-minded, and unjustified, for this lays some foundation for the mental and higher planes of existence. Devotion to God is not concerned only with gaining abnormal physical power as the opponents seem to believe, but also with gaining physical health, freedom from sickness, abundant vitality, and especially a purified nervous system and disciplined instincts. God can bestow youthful elasticity to the body, and He will give deeper, more refreshing sleep; also, one passes into sleep more quickly. The steadiness which prayer provides has an effect on the consciousness, to, and it is an indirect means of attaining the requisite concentration, and ultimately, because of the effect on the interaction of heart and brain, the requiste inhibition of thiking. Thus, the art of prayer for self-healing and self-control has come to be traditionally handed down to the present day. Bakerman God, I am your living bread, strong, Bakerman God. I am your low, soft, and being-shaped loaf. I am your rising bread, well-kneaded by some divine and knotty pair of knuckles, by your warm Earth hands. I am bread well-kneaded. Put me in fire, Bakerman God, put me in your own bright fire. I am warm, warm as you from fire. I am white and gold, soft and hard, brown and round. I am so warm from the fire. Break me, Bakerman God. I am broken under your caring Word. Drop me in your special grace. The while for water we entreat Thee now, athirst as willows by the waterside, the pouring forth of old, remember Thou! O God of our salvation, save Thou us! These bearings boughs held upward in the way they sprout from Earth; these burdened by their plea, O answer, when in sudden need they pray. O God of our salvation, save Thou us! #RandolphHarris 22 of 22
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Has the Language of Accountability Yet Been Developed?
The idea of freedom is born with every generation. Only one generation create the Constitution of the United States of American. Do not be swayed by the well-oiled, smoothly reasoned words of human wisdom. As the Great Paul wrote in First Corinthians, “Virtual words will not get you into the Kingdom of God; only virtuous acts will do that,” reports 1 Corinthians 4.20. Pay attention to what God says. Let its warm your hearts and illumine your mind. It will loosen your conscience and infuse—who knows?—a little consolation. “O taste and see that the LORD is good; how blessed is the human who takes refuge in Him!” reports Psalm 34.8. Many people are missing out on God’s best because they do not realize that the good things in life have already been paid for. They may be on their way to Heaven, but they do not realize what has been included in the price of their quest. God has made more available to people than they can imagine. Never say a word that will make you seem better educated than another. Instead, stive to mortify your verbal vices. Why? Because spiritual progress, though sometimes painful, does you more good than any amount of philosophical knowledge, which often enough can be quite pleasant, or so I have been told. When someone reads from a random pile of books, one often increases one’s learning; but just as often one strays from the One True Principle. At once one must return to the One True Book. Why? God is the One who has given adults what little knowledge they find in their petty encyclopedias; and God is the One who has given the children their pretty abecedaries. “In Whom, because of our faith in Him, we dare to have the boldness (courage and confidence) of free access (an unreserved approach to God with freedom and without fear). So I ask you not to lose heart [not to faint or become despondent through fear] at what I am suffering in your behalf. [Rather glory in it] for it is an honour to you,” reports Ephesians 3.12-13. #RandolphHarris 1 of 18
Whoever hears God’s word will quickly become wise and make much progress in virtue. Woe to those who are out whiling away their time in flea markets and curiosity shoppes when they could be at home strenuously serving the Lord! God has everything we need—joy, forgiveness, restoration, peace, healing—anything we need to live at our full potential. It is all waiting for us by God’s grace. We must remember that we are the children of the Most High God, and He wants to enjoy what He has prepared for us. Just because something did no work out our way or someone disappointed us, that does not change who we are. “May He grant you out of the rich treasury of His glory to be strengthened and reinforced with mighty power in the inner man by the [Holy] Spirit [Himself indwelling your innermost being and personality]. May Christ through your faith [actually] dwell (settle down, abide, make His permanent home) in your hearts! May you be rooted deep in love and founded securely on love, that you may have the power and be strong to apprehend and grasp with all the saints [God’s devoted people, the experience of that love] what is he breadth and length and heigh and depth [of it]; [That you may really come] to know [practically, through experience for yourselves] the love of Christ, which far surpasses mere knowledge [without experience]; that you may be filled [through all your being] unto all the fullness of God [may have the richest measure of the divine Presence and become a body wholly filled and flooded with God Himself]!” reports Ephesians 3.16-19. #RandolphHarris 2 of 18
Philosophy does not agree with the doctrine that humans can sink into oblivion permanently. If a humans’ fundamental nature, however hidden it be, is essentially immaterial and of the same stuff as divinity, where can one sink back to except to that self-same divinity? The mystery of evil is perhaps the profoundest of all but it cannot be understood through surface views. Evil is closely connected with suffering and the latter in its turn with Universal Laws, which again is itself an expression of the fundamental self. It is all an educative process from which nobody can escape—not even Satan himself were there such a personal devil, which philosophy does not admit, although there are evil spirits, evil beings, and evil humans. All will be saved because when seen from the timeless viewpoint they are already saved. The great mass of humanity are moving in the right direction, despite appearances to he contrary, and they shall enter the kingdom of Heaven one day. Do not doubt that; the guarantee is that they are in their hidden selves already divine. No human is beyond redemption for no human is utterly evil. The problem of evil must be considered in the light of various factors. One of these is standpoint; one human’s evil is another human’s good. Another is Universal Law; the individual has enough latitude to go to the dogs but has to suffer from the consequences of one’s acts. Then there is the question of rebirth. It seems impossible for human beings o be reborn as animals but Nature has made some provision for it. Then the ethical value of suffering must be considered. However, most important of all are the questions of the nature of God, His relation to the Universe and to humanity, and the purpose, if any, which is being worked out. #RandolphHarris 3 of 18
When a human commits an act of violence and destruction against other humans, one is denounced and punished as a criminal. However, when Nature commits such an act and maims or kills a mass of people, God is not denounced. Instead, poet and priest search for some excuse, find some hidden good intention, for God’s reputation for goodness must be saved. If the forces of evolution or laws of nature, as the expression of the World-Mind, have evoked the World-Idea and with it the possibilities of evil, we must unflinchingly accept the logical conclusion. This is that the World-Mind certainly permits the presence of Evil, allows and does not hinger its actuality. Nevertheless, we should always couple with this admission the equal and attendant truth that there is a higher outcome from the working of evil, a nobler purpose in its actuality. Through the operations of the laws of recompense and the pressures of divine evolution it is transmuted into good. Evil has nowhere else to turn in the end expect to turn itself into good! To accept God as the source of this Universe but to reject God as the source of those things contained in the Universe which we dislike, is to deny God. Because we humans dislike evil and suffering, we separate them from God. However, when we do that, we separate ourselves from God. Father, I now realize that I have been existing on little faith, while You have many blessings You want to bestow on me the moment I learn how to have faith for extraordinary things, and the price has already been paid. Thank You, Father, for blessing me today. When these rare glimpses are granted, take from them as they leave all that you can get—all the strength, the wisdom, the support, and the goodwill that they can hold. One has had the glimpse. The after-period is important. For as one returns to one’s ordinary self and to the ordinary persons around one, the opportunity is offered to make an adjustment, adjustment, a fresh start by the light of what the experience revealed. #RandolphHarris 4 of 18
The great experience is soon over; the released insight lasts but a few minutes or hours, but its memory last long. It is a delectable foretaste and warming anticipation of what one’s continued spiritual development may bring to humans. It lifts one far above oneself and out of one’s ordinary state of consciousness, yielding sharper understandings and creating deeper sympathies. One returns from one’s first initiation into the egoless life with a rich cargo. One carries the stability of peace. A strange feeling of safety takes possession of one at that time. One knows neither care for the uncertain future nor regret for the unpleasant past. One knows that henceforth the life of one’s being is in the hands of the higher self, and with this one is quite content. Once one has attained this inner realization, the student should cling persistently to it, for the World’s multifarious forces will come to hear of it and seek to drag one away. “Now to Him Who, by (in consequence of) the [action of His] power that is at work within us, is able to [carry out His purpose and] do superabundantly, far over and above all that we [dare] ask or think [infinitely beyond our highest prayers, desires, thoughts, hopes, or dreams]—to Him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations forever and ever. Amen (so be it),” reports Ephesians 3.20-12. To get up and move too soon after the glimpse has come to an end is to lose some of its Heavenly afterglow. To refrain from any movement, keeping sill and being patient, is to enjoy that glow till its last flickering moments as one may enjoy the last moments of sunset. One’s first need is to immerse oneself in the feeling, to preserve as much as one can of the glimpse. Print every detail of the Glimpse on your mind. It is a useful practice to write down every detail of the experience while it is still fresh in the mind. The record will still be there when the joy is gone. #RandolphHarris 5 of 18
The fragrance of this peace lingers on long after the glimpse itself is over. “His intention was the perfecting and the full equipping of the saints (His consecrated people), [that they should do] the work of ministering toward building up Christ’s body (the church), [That it might develop] until we all attain oneness in the faith and in the comprehension of the [full and accurate] knowledge of the Son of God, that [we might arrive] at really mature manhood (the completeness of personality which is nothing less than the standard height of Christ’s own perfection), the measure of the stature of the fullness of the Christ and the completeness found in Him. So then, we may no longer be children, tossed [like ships] to and fro between chance gusts of teaching and wavering with every changing wind of doctrine, [the prey of] the cunning and cleverness of unscrupulous humans, [gamblers engaged] in every shifting form of trickery in inventing errors to mislead,” Ephesians 4.12-14. The holy feelings generated by the Glimpse ought to be protected against the World’s disintegrating power and shielded against your own tendency to dissipate them by hasty violent movements or needless irrelevant chatter. Immediately after the glimpse no word should be spoken or it may be lost the more quickly. After such a glimpse there is enchantment in the air. The annoying or disagreeable happenings of the day fail to remove it. When the inspiration derived from the glimpse is upon one, the unexpected and the unpredictable may happen for one’s benefit; but when it is gone, one is no more fortunate than one’s neighbour. The glimpse goes and the habitual daily self returns. The single and simple largeness of the one is lost in the innumerable trivialities of the other. As the glimpse fades away, one takes the ego back into consciousness again. #RandolphHarris 6 of 18
However, the glimpse may not stand alone in its full purity: one may put one’s own ideas into it as an accompaniment without knowing that one has done so. The time will come when the Teacher of teachers, the Christ of christs, the Lord of Angels, will appear; God’s Paul promised that to the Colossians (3.4). Yes, God will, come to audit all the lectures, examine all the students. That is to say, “Jerusalem will be searched by lamp light,” as the Prophet Zephaniah has said (1.12) and “all the errors will spring out of the darkness,” as Paul in First Corinthians has said (4.5). That should quiet the querulous once and for all! Case in point: two humble Devouts. The University takes ten years to educate the first. As for the second, God can raise one’s mind to where one can grapple equally well with the rationalizations and ratiocinations expected of any university graduate—and God can do it in a trice! God’s pedagogy? Well, God is the Logos, and so He does no need a lot of logorrhea to make His points. Philosophers and Theologians like to entertain other opinions; God does not. Academic pride, intellectual arrogance, public disputation whose only aim is to have the upper hand, not that the Truth may appear—all these are nice, but they are certainly not God’s style. His thesis is simply put: Despite this life. Shrink from the present. Seek the next life. Look forward to that happy time. Flee honours. Endure scandals. Hope is in God. Desire nothing but God. Love God ardently above all things. About the last, loving God ardently. If you do this, you will learn what the University has promised but failed to deliver; that is to say, the secrecies and prophecies of the Divine. That is to say, you make more spiritual progress when you leave the public disputation before it is over than when you linger to make yet another distinctio rationis ratiocnatae minor. #RandolphHarris 7 of 18
Sometimes God lectures in halls; sometimes God tutors in rooms. Occasionally God makes a personal impression by a miracle or a verbal expression by a metaphour. Once in a while God even takes the drape off a mystery. A book has once voice, but its many and varied readers do not necessarily come away from it with the same message. In the University Within, however, God’s is the only voice, and One is the only message. God is Lecturer, Examiner Invigilator. God interprets all thoughts, prompts all actions. All of which is another way of saying, and perhaps another way of rendering a passage in Paul’s First Letter to the Corinthians (12.11), He marks each examination with alpha, beta, or gamma, enhanced or diminished by pluses or minuses. Wow to the Alphas! Woe to the Gammas! A relationship that is never taken into account, although it always ought to be reckoned the chief concern is that of utility each person derives from the social confederation which provides powerful protection for the immense possession of the rich and hardly allows a poor wretch to enjoy the cottage one built with one’s own hands. Are not the advantages of society for the powerful and the rich? Are not all the lucrative posts filled by them alone? Are not all the privileges and exemptions reserved for them alone? And is not the public authority entirely in their favour? When a human of high standing steals from one’s creditors or commits other acts of knavery, is one not always certain of impunity? Are not the assaults, the acts of violence one commits, even the murders and assassination one is guilty of, are not these things hushed up and after six months not given a thought? If this is same human were robbed, the entire police force is immediately put in motion, and woe to the innocent persons one suspects. #RandolphHarris 8 of 18
Does one have to pass through a dangerous area? One has escourts in rural areas. Is the axle of one’s chaise about to break? Everyone flies to one’s assistance. Is there a noisy disturbance outside one’s door? One says one word and everyone is silent. Does a crowd aggravate one? One makes a gesture and everyone steps aside from one. And better that fifty honest pedestrians going about their business should be crushed than that some lazy scoundrel’s coach should be delayed. All this respect costs one not a penny; it is the right of a rich human, not the price of riches. How different a picture is to be painted of the poor man! The more humanity owes one, the more society refuses one. All doors are closed to one, even when one has a right to open them. And if sometimes one obtains justice, it is with greater difficulty than the rich human would have obtaining a pardon. If there is an unpleasant job to do or troops to be raised, one is given preference. Besides one’s own burden, one always bears the one from which one’s more wealthy neighbour has the influence to get oneself exempted. At the least accident that happens to one, everyone avoids one. If one’s humble cart tips over, far from being helped by anyone, I count one lucky if one avoids the insults of the smart-aleck servants of some young duke who is passing by. In short, any free assistance escapes one when one needs it, precisely because one has nothing which to pay for it. However, if one has the misfortune of having and honest soul, a beautiful daughter, and a powerful neighbour, I take one for a lost human. Another no less important point to make is that the losses of poor humans are much more difficult to recoup than those of the rich, and that the difficulty of acquiring always grows in proportion to need. Nothing comes from nothing: it is just as true in business as it is in physics. #RandolphHarris 9 of 18
Money breeds money, and the first pistole is sometimes harder to earn than the second million. However, there is still more. Everything the poor human pays for is forever lost to one, and remains in or returns to the hands of the rich. And since the proceeds of the taxes sooner or later pass only to those humans who take part in the government or who are closely connected with it, they have, even in paying their hare, a clear interest in increasing taxes. The social part of the two estates: You need me, for I am rich and you are poor. Let us come to an agreement between ourselves. I will permit you to have the honour of serving me, provided you give me what little you have for the trouble I will be taking to command you. If all these things are carefully combined, we will find that in order to levy taxes in an equitable and truly proportionate way, the imposition should not be made merely in proportion to the goods belonging to the contributors, but in a proportion consisting in the differences of their conditions and of the superfluity of their goods. This terribly important and difficult operation is accomplished everyday by multitudes of honest clerks who know their arithmetic; but a Plato or a Montesquieu would not have dared to undertake such a task without trembling and imploring Heaven for enlightenment and integrity. Another disadvantage of the personal tax is that it makes itself felt too much and s levied with too much severity. This does not prevent its being subject to many instances of nonpayment, since it is much easier to hide one’s head than one’s possessions from the tax rolls and prosecution. #RandolphHarris 10 of 18
Of all other kinds of tax assessments, the land tax or real tax has always passed for the most advantageous in countries where more thought is given to both the quantity of the proceeds and the certainty of recovering the funds, than to causing the least annoyance to the people. Some people have even dared to say that the peasant must be burdened in order to rouse one from one’s idleness, and that one would do nothing if one did not have to pay anything. However, among all the peoples of the World experience contradicts this ridiculous maxim. It is in Holland and England, where the farmer pays very little, and above all in China, where one pays nothing, that the land is best cultivated. On the other hand, wherever the worker finds oneself taxed in proportion to the product of one’s fields, one lets them lie fallow or else reaps just as much from them as one needs in order to live. For to one who loses the fruit of one’s labours gaining means of doing nothing. Imposing a fine on work is a rather unusual method of abolishing idleness. Taxes on land or on grain, especially when they are excessive, result in two disadvantages that are so terrible that they cannot in the long run avoid depopulating and ruining every country where they are established. The first comes from the lack of circulation of currency, for commerce and industry draw all the money from the rural areas into the capitols; and because the tax destroys the proportion that might still obtain between the needs of farmers and the price of one’s grain, money constantly leaves and never returns. The richer the city, the more miserable the rural areas. The proceeds from the tax pass from the hands of the prince of the financier into those of artists and merchants. #RandolphHarris 11 of 18
And for the farmer, who never receives anything more than the smallest part of the proceedings, is eventually exhausted by always paying the same amount and always receiving less. How can a human live if one had veins and no arteries, or if the arteries carried blood only to within four inches of one’s heart? Chardin says that in Persia the king’s duties on commodities are also paid in commodities. This custom, which, Herodotus tells us, was practiced previously in the same country until the time of Darius, could prevent the evil of which I have been speaking. However, unless the intendents, directors, commissioners and where else, I am hard pressed to believe that the smallest part of all these products reaches the king, that grain does not in the granaries, and that fire does not consume the greater part of the warehouses. The second disadvantage comes form an apparent advantage, which lets the problems become aggravated before they are noticed: namely that grain remains cheap, and the farmer is the only one to bear the burden of the tax, which one has been unable to recoup in one’s selling price. It must be noted that one should not reason about a real tax the way one would about duties on all merchandise which in turn raise the price on all these goods and which are paid not so much by the sellers as by the buyers. For these duties on all merchandise which in urn raise the price on all these goods and which are paid not so much by the sellers as by the buyers. For these duties, however heavy they may be, are still voluntary and are paid by the seller only in proportion to one’s sales, one applies the law to private individuals. However, the farmer, who is required to pay, whether one sells or not, at a fixed rate for the land one cultivates, is not in a position to wait until one gets the price one wants for one’s produce. And even if one were not to sell it to support oneself, one would be forced to sell it to be able to pay the tax, so that sometimes it is the enormity of the assessment that keeps the produce at a low price. #RandolphHarris 12 of 18
The multipurpose corporation that has emerged demands, among other things, smarter executives. It implies a management capable of specifying multiple goals, weighting them, interrelating them, and finding synergetic policies that accomplish more than a single goal at a time. It requires policies that optimize not for one, but for several variables simultaneously. Nothing could be further from the single-minded styles of the traditional Second Wave manager. Moreover, once the need for multiple goals is accepted we are compelled to invent new measures of performance. Instead of the single “bottom line” on which most executives have been taught to fixate, the Third Wave corporation requires attention to multiple bottom lines—social, environmental, informational, political, and ethical bottom lines—all of them interconnected. Faced with this new complexity, many of today’s managers are taken aback. They lack the intellectual tools necessary for Third Wave management. We know how to measure the profitability of a corporation, but how do we measure or evaluate the achievement of non-economic goals? Managers are being asked to account for corporate behaviour in areas where no real standards of accountability have been established—where even the language of accountability has yet to be developed. This explains today’s efforts to develop a new language of accountability. Indeed, accounting itself is on the edge of revolution and is about to explode out of is narrowly economic terms of reference. The American Accounting Association, for example, has issued reports of a “Committee on Non-Financial Measures of Effectiveness” and of a “Committee on Measures of Effectiveness for Social Programs.” So much work is being done along these lines that each of these reports lists nearly 250 papers, monographs, and documents in its bibliography. #RandolphHarris 13 of 18
Many companies are working with consulting firms to develop methods for specifying what might be called the “trans-economic” goals of the corporation. The objective is to integrate these goals into corporate planning and to find ways of measuring the company’s trans-economic performance. In Washington, it has been suggested that the government itself should prepare a “Social Performance Index,” which would be a mechanism companies could use to assess their performance and its social consequences. Many large and medium-sized companies in Europe have been experimenting with [the social report] concept. In the Federal Republic of Germany, for example, about 20 of the larges firms now publish social reports regularly. In addition, more than a hundred others draw up social reports for internal management purposes. Some of these reports are no more than puff—accounts of the corporation’s “good works,” carefully overlooking controversial problems like pollution. However, others are remarkably open, objective, and tough. Thus a social report issued by the giant Swiss food firm, Migros-Genossenschafts-Bund self-critically confess that it pays women less than men, that many of its jobs are “extremely boring,” and that its nitrous dioxide emissions have risen over a four-years period. Says the company’s managing director, Pierre Arnold, “It takes courage for an enterprise to point out the differences between its goals and its actual results.” Companies like STEAG and the Saarbergwerke AG have pioneered the effort to relate company expenditures to specific social benefits. Less formally, companies like Bertelsmann AG, the publisher; Rank Xerox GmbH, the copier firm; and Hoechst AG, the chemical manufacturer, have radically broadened the kind of social data they make available to the public. #RandolphHarris 14 of 18
A much more advanced system is employed by companies in Sweden and Switzerland and by Deutsche Shell AG in Germany. The latter, instead of publishing an annual report, now issues what it calls an Annual and Social Report in which both economic and trans-economic data are interrelated. The method used by Shell, termed “goal accounting and reporting” by Dierkes and Coppock, stipulates concrete economic, environmental, and social goals for the corporation, spells out the actions taken to achieve them, and reports the expenditures allocated to them. Shell also lists five overall corporate goals—only one of which is to achieve a “reasonable return on investment”—and specifically “carry the same weight” in corporate decision-making. The goal accounting methods force companies to make their trans-economic objectives explicit, to specify time periods for their attainment, and to open this up to public review. On a broader theoretical level, Trevor Gambling, professor of accounting at the University of Birmingham in the United Kingdom, in a book called Societal Accounting has called for a radical reformulation of accounting that begins to integrate the work of economists and accountants with that of the social scientists who have developed social indictors and methods of social accounting. In Holland the Dean of the Graduate School of Management in Delft, Cornelius Brevoord, had designed a set of multidimensional criteria for monitoring corporate behaviour. This is made necessary, he suggests, by deep value changes in the society, among them the change from “an economic production orientation” in society to “a total well-being orientation.” Similarly, he notes a shift from “functional specialization to an interdisciplinary approach.” Both these changes strengthen the need for a more rounded concept of the corporation. #RandolphHarris 15 of 18
Brevoord lists 32 different criteria by which a corporation must measure its effectiveness. These range over its relationships with consumers, shareholders, and unions to those with ecology organizations and its own management. However, he points out, even these 32 are only “a few” of the parameters along which the emerging corporation of the future will test itself. With the Second Wave economic infrastructure in a shambles, with change accelerating as de-massification spreads, with the biosphere sending danger signals, with the level of organization in society rising, and the informational, political, and ethical conditions of production changing, the Second Wave corporations is obsolete. What is happening, therefore, is a thoroughgoing reconceptualization of the meaning of production and of the institution that, until now, has been charged with organizing it. The result is a complex shift to a new-style corporation of tomorrow. In the words of William Halal, professor of management at American University, “Just as the feudal manor was replaced by the business corporation when agrarian societies were transformed into industrial societies, so too should the older model of the firm be replaced by a new form of economic institution.” This new institution will combine economic and trans-economic objectives. It will have multiple bottom lines. The transformation of the corporation is part of the larger transformation of the socio-sphere as a whole, and this in turn parallels the dramatic changes in the techno-sphere and info-sphere. Taken together, they add up to a massive historical shift. However, we are not merely altering these giant structures. We are also changing the way ordinary people, in their daily lives, behave. For when we change the deep structure of civilization, we simultaneously rewrite all the codes by which we live. #RandolphHarris 16 of 18
Important changes have developed in the nerve-structure and brain-formations of the human species. Body purification and strengthening are prerequisites and preparations for spiritual awakening and development. They allow the soul to awaken. The artist, the thinker, or the mystic must not neglect the muscular vigour and health of body that can be obtained through prayer and exercise. This would include deep breathing, stretching exercises, and a diet of light and easily digested foods which will not dull inspiration. Philosophical training puts must value on the quality of mental calmness, emotional composure, and on its reflected state in the body—physical stillness. The more a person’s mind is self-composed, the more will one’s whole personality be self-possessed. The passions of hatred, greed, lust, and anger cannot then bling one to the truth about one’s human situation or about the World’s nature. “In their spiritual apathy they have become callous and past feeling and reckless and have abandoned themselves [a prey] to unbridled sensuality, eager and greedy to indulge in every form of impurity [that their depraved desires may suggest and demand],” reports Ephesians 4. 19. Be grateful for all the things you do not need to know about life on this Earth. Consider yourself, though you are still alive and kicking, not part of the World. As far as you are concerned, as Galatians would put it (6.14), you are already hanging on the cross. Yes, you have to pass through many noisy patches as though you were deaf, and yes, you should open your ears to the things that bring you spiritual peace. Sometimes it is better not to meet the gaze of a troubled soul. One wants to talk, yes, but does one want to listen? #RandolphHarris 17 of 18
If you do stop to talk and the phlegm begins to fly, you are not the less pleasing to God. That is to say, if you are worsted in a hostile exchange and could have come to blows but did not, then at least your worsted’s still intact, and so is your virtue. O Lord, how long it has taken us to travel such a short distance! Look how a temporal loss sets the eyes to weeping! Even for a modest profit, we have to labour and lumber. As for a spiritual loss, it is scarcely noticed, let alone repented or retrieved. Beseeching the breath of the divine one, His life-giving breath, Hs breath of old age, His breath of waters, His breath of seeds, His breath of riches, His breath of fecundity, His breath of power, Hs breath of all good fortune, asking for His breath, and into my warm soul drawing in His grace, I add to Your grace that happily you may always live. O pity America’s host, I pray to Thee; forgive them, pardon their iniquity. O God of our salvation, save Thou us! As slaves, with eyes beseeching, seek their Lord, we came before Thee stricken, and implored: O God of our salvation, save Thou us! Triumphant Lord of lords, to Thee we pray; strife like a whirlwind scattered us, and we Thy sons lay crushed beneath the tyrant’s sway. O God of our salvation, save Thou us! Behold! with supplication how we throng—O Lord of grace and mercy,–unto Thee; Thy wondrous deeds, our never-ceasing song. O God of our salvation, save Thou us! “Flowing with milk and honey”: this Thy land spare Thou from drought. O stay her tears of woe; bind up her torrents with Thy healing hand. O God of our salvation, save Thou us! Plant us, we pray, upon a fruitful sod; send as old defenders from the foe, Thou just and righteous One! Thou faithful God! O God of our salvation, save Thou us! Recall Thy covenant with the Earth of yore, Thy sign, that while the Earth doth yet abide, Thine anger break and rend it never more. O God of our salvation, save Thou us! #RandolphHarris 18 of 18
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The Awareness of Human Destructiveness Bursts!
Many humans, at one time, were primarily isolated, but enter relationships with members of the human family in order to satisfy their striving for please. Many of the relationships were sought after and conceived in a way that resemble relations in the marketplace. Each was only concerned with the satisfaction of one’s needs, but it is precisely for the sake of this satisfaction that one had entered into relations with others who offer what one needs, and need what one offers. Each living cell is supposed to be endowed with the two basic qualities of living matter, Eros (love) and the striving for death. We are struck by the significance of the possibility that the aggressiveness may not be able to find satisfaction in the external World because it comes up against real obstacles. If this happens, it will perhaps retreat and increase the amount of self-destructiveness holding sway in the interior. Impeded aggressiveness seems to involve a grave injury. It really seems as though it is necessary for us to destroy some other thing or person in order not to destroy ourselves, in order to guard against the impulsion to self-destruction. A sad disclosure indeed for the moralist! However, the most powerful impeding factor of all and one totally beyond any possibility of control is the death instinct. In theory of death instinct, the awareness of human destructiveness bursts forth in full strength, and destructiveness becomes the one pole of existence which, fighting with the other pole, Eros, forms they very essence of life. Destructiveness becomes a primary phenomenon of life. It is true that evil forces do exist but not true that they exist on the highest level. Insight into the ultimate sees the not. Evil is certainly present, plain to sight and unpleasant to experience, but it is not altogether, nor only what it seems. It is really an appearance, and reconcilable with the benign source of good. #RandolphHarris 1 of 20
Eros, present in every cell of living substance, has as its aim the unification and integration of smaller units into the unity of humankind. This is love that does not involve pleasures of the flesh, also known as the “love instinct”; love is identified with life and growth, and—fighting with the death instinct—it determines human existence. Humans are no longer conceived of as primarily isolated and egotistical, as l’homme machine, but as being primarily related to others, impelled by the life instincts which make one need union with others. Life, love, and growth are one and the same, more deeply rooted and fundamental then pleasures of the flesh and other pleasures. The change is vision shows clearly in this new evaluation of the Christian biblical commandment, “Though shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.” Anything that encouraged the growth of emotional ties between humans must operate against war. These ties may be of two kinds. In the first place they may be relations resembling those toward a loved object, though without having an aim for pleasures of the flesh. There is no need for psychoanalysis to be ashamed to speak of love in this connection, for religion itself uses the same words: “Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.” This, however, is more easily said than done. The second kind of emotional tie is by means of identification. Whatever leads humans to share important interests produces this community of feeling, these identifications. And the structure of human society is to a large extent based on them. Why is history such a record of wars, oppressions, exploitations, invasions, and persecutions? Why have all the saviours, avatars, prophet, and saints succeeded only with individual humans here and there, not with the mass of humankind? #RandolphHarris 2 of 20
Is the religious dream of universal goodness nothing more than a dream? It is not a help but a self-deception to ignore the double polarity of existence, the yin-and-yang in the Universe, the shadow-self in humans. Only outside of religion, in the philosophic realm of the ultimate being, the Unique, the Real, where the entire World itself is cast out, can we talk of friction-free consciousness, and only in the deepest meditation can we share it. Although the experience is a temporary one, the peace in it so passes the understanding that “the Kingdom of Heaven” is its fit name. Here indeed is the Good raised to its highest degree. Here is a demonstration that human evil is but privation of good. What may be true on the ultimate level—the non-existence of evil, the reality of the Good, the True, the Beautiful—becomes false on the level of duality. Here the twofold powers, the opposites, do not exist, do hold the World in their sway. To deny relative evil here is to confuse different planes of being. The human who would deliberately harm one’s fellows for one’s own ends is a sinner. Evil arises only when an entity goes astray into the delusions of separateness and materialism, and thence into conflict with other entities. There is no ultimate and eternal principle of evil, but there are forces of evil, unseen entities who have gone so far astray and are so powerful in themselves that they work against goodness, truth, and justice. However, by their very nature such entities are doomed to eventual destruction, and even their work of opposition is utilized for good in the end and becomes the resistance against which evolution tests its own achievements, the grindstone against which is sharpens humans’ intelligence, the mirror in which its shows one one’s flaws. #RandolphHarris 3 of 20
The lower nature in incurably hostile to the higher one. It prefers its fleeting joys with their attendant miseries, its ugly sins wit their painful consequences, because this spells life to it. Everything and everyone has a negative side. One could fill up a lifetime looking for and finding it. One could go on grumbling, criticizing, ranting, and hating. However, there is also the beneficial side of it. The philosophical attitudes seeks deeper, keeps calmer, for it finds equilibrium on another plane. The descent from faith in Holy Spirit to faith in unholy spirits happens to those who are either too weak to remain at such a high altitude or too incapable of rising from a sensate view of existence. Evil can take every form, even that of the guru, the quest, and the leaner. Some yeas ago someone asked me, “What about absolute evil?” The answer is this: with Confucius we say that sin is due to ignorance, and with Pythagoras that evil is due to the absence of good. Ignorance leads to selfishness and extreme ignorance leads to extreme selfishness, which in turn leads to extreme evil. Now, all these are relative conditions and pass away in time as the person leans one’s lessons though the series of experience and corrects one’s mistake during reincarnations. There cannot be an absolute evil because there is only one Absolute Power, one God, one Supreme Being; and it is this which inspires the highest goodness know to humans when one discovers its presence, through the Overself, in one’s heart. In that sense only I said there was an absolute good. The pairs of opposites exist only in the finite, relative, and limited World. #RandolphHarris 4 of 20
There is no opposite to the Supreme Power in the timeless and infinite World, no Satan with whom God is in everlasting conflict. However, on its own level, Mind knows neither good nor bad. There is only IS-ness. It seems that there is evil in the World, but why? What bad humans have done is to let their evil grow like a noxious weed too large and their good too little, whereas good humans have cultivated a high proportion of goodness. There is no absolute evil. It is truer to talk of absolute god for that is there first. Why? Because God is there first. Humans came later and broke the divine laws little by little. They created their own evil consequences. Or for different reasons they harm others and have later to suffer for it. Humans were once looked at as machines driven by chemical processes: feelings, affects and emotions were explained as being caused by specific and identifiable physiological processes. Most of hormonology and of the neurophysiological findings of the last decades were unknown to these humans, yet with daring and ingenuity they insisted on the correctness of their approach. Needs and interests for which no somatic sources could be found were ignored, and the understanding of those processes which were not neglected followed the principles of mechanistic thinking. The model of human behaviour could be repeated today in a properly programmed computer. One develops a certain amount of tension which at a certain threshold has to be relieved and reduced, while this realization is checked by another part, the ego, which observes reality and inhibits relief when it conflicts with the needs for survival. This Freudian robot would be similar to Isaac Asimov’s science-fiction robot, but the programming would be different. Its first law would be not to hurt human beings, but to avoid self-damage or self-destruction. #RandolphHarris 5 of 20
However, the new theory does not follow this mechanistic “physiologizing” model. It is centered on a biological orientation in which fundamental forces of life (and its opposite: death) become the primal forces of motivating humans. The nature of the cell—that is, of all living substance—becomes the theoretical basis for a theory of motivation, not a physiological process that goes on in certain organs of the body. The new theory was perhaps closer to a vitalistic philosophy than to the concept of the German mechanistic materialists. What motivated Dr. Freud to postulate the death instinct? One factor was probably the impact of the First World War. He, like many other humans of his time and age, had shred the optimistic vision so characteristic of the European middle class, and saw oneself suddenly confronted with a fury of hate and destruction hardly believable before August 1, 1914. From there, Dr. Freud became a man preoccupied with death. He thought of dying every day, after he was forty; he had attacks of Todesangst (“fear of death”), and sometimes he would add to his “goodbye”: “You might never see me again.” One might surmise that Dr. Freud’s disposition would have impressed him as a confirmation of his fear of death, and thus contributed to the formulation of death instinct. This preoccupation with death grew in intensity and led him to a concept in which the conflict between life and death was at the center of human experience, rather than the conflict between the two life-affirmative drives, pleasures of the flesh and ego drives. To assume that humans need to die because death is the hidden goal of one’s life might be considered a kind of comfort destined to alleviate one’s fear of death. And it is true, when people’s lives are in danger and they lack security that they learn not to fear death. #RandolphHarris 6 of 20
It seems likely that many hearts in American society have waxed cold since September 11, 2001, when there was an attack on American soil that claimed the lives of over 3,500 people. Many people were too young to realize how devastating it was at the moment, but I believe the tragedy affected everyone much like Dr. Freud was confronted with the fury of hate and destruction from August 1, 1914. Acts on war in your homeland make people realize that life is not promised and it can have a psychological impact. “What is faith? It is the confident assurance that what we hope for is going to happen. It is the evidence of things we cannot yet see,” reports Hebrews 11.1. Begin today to believe that what you have hoped for is going to happen, that good things are on their way. Notice, faith has to do with the unseen World. You may not be able to perceive anything beneficial happening in your life with your natural eyes today. In fact, everything may be falling apart—your finances, your health, your business, your relationships with your family and friend. All kind of problems may be on the horizon. However, do not be discoursed, turn your focus to the supernatural World, look to God and Jesus Christ for solutions and know that your harmony and peace will be restored. The World tells you that you need to live out loud and seeing is believing. However, God says seek ye the Kingdom of Heave first, and all these things will be added to you. Look through your Heavenly eyes of faith, and once you confirm something by faith, it will manifest in the physical World. What do you do when you see others being honored or elevated? You could feel bad about their feeling good. Or you could consider these as occasions for your feeling good about feeling bad. Why? #RandolphHarris 7 of 20
If only you knew it, the contempt of humans on Earth should not cause you to shed a single tear. What should you do? Direct your heart toward God in Heaven. In the past, many men did not view woman as equals with men, but some did. Overall, there was a patriarchal bias. However, the very essence of the Platonic myth is that male and female were once one and were then divided into halves, which implies, of course, that the two halves are equals, that they form a polarity endowed with the tendency to unite. Eros (love) aims at complicating life and preserving it, and hence is also conservative, because with the emergence of life an instinct is born which is to preserve it. However, we must ask, if it is the nature of the instinct to re-establish the earliest state of existence, inorganic matter, how can it at the same time tend to re-establish a later form of existence, namely life? Well, according to Plato’s report in the Symposium concerning the original unity of man who was then divided into halves by Zeus, after this division, each desiring his other half, they came together and threw their arms about one another eager to grow into one. The living substance at the same time of its coming to life was torn apart into small particles, which have ever since endeavoured to reunite through martial union and procreation. These instincts, in which the chemical affinity of inanimate matter persisted, gradually succeeded, as they developed through the kingdom of the protists, in overcoming the difficulties put in the way of that endeavour by an environment charged with dangerous stimuli—stimuli which compelled them to form a protective cortical layer. These splintered fragments of living substance in this way attained a multicellular condition and finally transferred the instinct for reuniting, in the most highly concentrated form, to the combination of two souls. #RandolphHarris 8 of 20
So it is no wonder so many people feel so fractured and incomplete. Their living substance was torn apart. Do you see things getting better in your life? Or are you just drifting along, accepting whatever comes your way? “I know I was not going to get that Cresleigh Havenwood House Residence 4. Noting good ever happens to me.” “This is just my lot in life. I knew I would never get that BMW 750Li with Xdrive.” “I knew I would never be blessed.” In the face of God’s blinding glory, many of us have to be blinkered. Perhaps that is why, without our peripheral vision, we are so easily hoodwinked by Vanity. If I assess myself correctly, never has an injury been done to me by another creature, and hence I have no right, at least not yet, to make a ruckus against God, my Righteous if Riotous Lord. Why? Because I have sinned against God frequently and gravely. Deservedly, therefore, should every creature pick up one’s pike against me. So it is only reasonable to conclude that confusion and contempt are my just due. Yours, however, is praise, honour, and glory. And in the light of these considerations, unless I prepare myself—by being looked down upon by every giraffe, outsped by every gazelle, overlooked by every gryphon—I can be neither pacified and stabilized interiorly, spiritually illuminated, nor fully one with God. Do not limit God with your small thinking. Have extraordinary vision for your life and live with faith and expectancy. You will be surprised that you will become what you believe. Some of the reasons are blessings are delayed in the fulfillment of the promise for year after year, is simply the fact that we cannot see it through our eyes of faith. #RandolphHarris 9 of 20
Is God trying to do something out of the ordinary in your life? Be sure to get into agreement with God. Do not tell God the reasons why things cannot happen. All the time God is trying to plant new seed of success inside of us. He is showing us that if we do not conceive in our hearts through faith, it will never come to pass. “The things which are impossible with humans are possible with God,” reports Luke 18.27. Let that word plant faith inside of your heart. You do not have to figure out how God is going to solve your problems, but turn the situation over to God. God can do what human beings cannot or will not do. God is supernatural. If you can put your trust and confidence in the Lord, God will surely bring it to pass. If you can see the invisible, God will do the impossible. In God, the love of a friend should stand. God is Ever-living, Everlasting Truth, your friend will not shed a tear if you live of die. It is because of God that love of a friend should stand. It is because of God that one should be loved, that is to say, everyone who is seemed good to you and who is very dear in this life. Without God the love of friendship will not have the strength to last. Nor is the love of friendship true and clear unless God is an integral part of it; that is as His Augustine described it in his Confessions (4.4). Which is another way of saying, you ought to be dead to two-person friendships, especially when the other person is another creature. However, when the other person is God, then something odd happens. The closer you approach God, the farther you recede from every friendly solace. Also the higher you ascend to God, the deeper you descend into yourself and the viler you appear to yourself. I want to get a grander vision for my life, Father, and then live it out with faith and expectancy, knowing that I will become what I believe. Today, I will focus on You, who You are and what You can do in and through me. #RandolphHarris 10 of 20
Whoever attributes good to oneself only makes it more difficult for oneself to receive the grace of God. Why? Because, as the spiritual wisdom echoing Proverbs (3.34), Psalms (55.22), and First Peter (5.5) has it, the grace of the Holy Spirit always seeks the humble heart. To annihilate yourself, to empty yourself of all created love—that is what you ought to do. And what I ought to do is fill that very same space with a very great grace. When you warm to the wonderfulness of the created World, the Creator’s respect for you begins to cool. Because of the Creator, if for no other reason, learn how to conquer yourself in all things. Do that, and you will have the strength to reach out to Divine Knowledge. However slight it may be, unruly love and irregular respect delay, even detour, your spiritual progress. The anal libido has a deep affinity to the death instinct. Now, controlling and possessing are certainly tendencies opposite of loving, furthering, liberating, which form a syndrome among themselves. However, “possession” and “control” do not contain the very essence of destructiveness, the wish to destroy, and hostility toward life. No doubt, the anal character has a deep interest in and affinity to feces as part of their general affinity to all that is not alive. Feces are the product finally eliminated by the body, being of no further use to it. The anal character is attracted by feces as one is attracted by everything that is useless for life, such as dirt, death, decay. We can say that the tendency to control and possess is only one aspect of the anal character, but milder and less malignant than hatred of life. Eros (love), therefore is looked upon as the biologically normal aim of development, while the death instinct is seen to be based on a failure of normal development and in this sense a pathological, though deeply rooted striving. #RandolphHarris 11 of 20
If one wants to entertain a biological speculation one might relate anality to the fact that orientation by smell is characteristic of all four-legged mammals, and that the erect posture implies the change from orientation by smell to orientation by sight. The change in function of the old olfactory brain would correspond to the same transformation of orientation. In view of this, one might consider that the anal character constitutes a regressive phase of biological development for which there might even be a constitutional-genetic basis. The anality of the individual could be considered as representing an evolutionary repetition of a biological human functioning. The theoretician arrives at the conclusion that humans have only the alternative between destroying oneself (slowly, by illness) or destroying others; or—putting it in other words—between causing suffering either to oneself or to others. The humanist rebels against the idea of this tragic alternative that would make war a rational solution of this aspect of human existence. An alternate is repression of the instinctual demands, which are the development of culture and civilization. Some people say the Europeans created such a successful society because they learned the art of self-control. The repressed instinctual drive was “sublimated” into valuable cultural channels, but still at the expense of full human happiness. On the other hand, repression led not only to increasing civilization but also to the development of neurosis among the many in whom the repressive process did not work successfully. Lack of civilization combined with full happiness or civilization combined with neurosis and diminished happiness seemed to be the alternative. #RandolphHarris 12 of 20
The contradiction between the death instinct and Eros confronts humans with a real and truly tragic alternative, a real alternative because one can decide to attack and wage war, to be aggressive, and to express one’s hostility because one prefers to do this rather than to be sick. That this alternative is a tragic one hardly needs to be proven. Something very remarkable, which we should never have guessed and which is nevertheless quite obvious. What happens to the aggressor when one renders one’s desire for aggression innocuous? One’s aggressiveness is introjected, internalized; it is, in point of fact, sent back to where it came from—that is, it is directed toward one’s own ego. There it is take over by a portion of the ego as super-ego, and which now, in the form of “conscience,” is ready to put into action against the ego the same harsh aggressiveness that the ego would have liked to satisfy upon other, extraneous individuals. The tension between the harsh super-ego and the ego that is subjected to it, is called by us the sense of guilt; it expresses itself as a need for punishment. Civilization, therefore, obtains mastery over the individual’s dangerous desire for aggression by weakening and disarming it and by setting up an agency within one to watch over it, like a garrison in a conquered city. The transformation of destructiveness into a self-punishing conscience does not seem to be as much as an advantage as it may seem to imply. According to this theory of conscience, it would have to be as cruel as the death instinct, since it is charged with its energies, and no reason is given why the death instinct should be “wakened” and “disarmed.” #RandolphHarris 13 of 20
Rather, it would see that the following analogy expresses the real consequences of this thought more logically: a city that has been ruled by a cruel enemy defeats one with the help of a dictator who then sets up a system that is just as cruel as that of the defeated enemy; and this, what is gained? The instinct of destruction, moderated and tamed, and, as it were, inhibited in its aim, must, when it is directed toward objects, provide the ego with the satisfaction of its vital needs and with control over nature. This is a good example of sublimation; the aim of the instinct is not weakened, but it is directed toward other socially valuable aims, in this case the “control over nature.” This sounds, indeed, like a perfect solution. Humans are freed from the tragic choice of destroying either others or themselves, because the energy of the destructive instinct is used for the control over nature. However, we must ask, can this really be so? Can it be true that destructiveness becomes transformed into constructiveness? What can “control over nature” mean? Taming and breeding animals, gathering and cultivating planets, weaving cloth, building Cresleigh Homes, manufacturing pottery and many more activities including the construction of Ultimate Driving Machines, railroads, airplanes, skyscraper: al these are acts of constructing, building, unifying, synthesizing, and, indeed, if one wanted to attribute them to one of the two basic instincts, they might be considered as being motivated by Eros rather then the death instinct. With the possible exception of killing animals for their consumption and killing humans in war, both of which could be considered as rooted in destructiveness, material production is not destructive but constructive. #RandolphHarris 14 of 20
As a result of a little speculation, we have come to suppose that this instinct is at work in every living creature and is striving to bring it to ruin and to reduce life to its original condition of inanimate matter. Thus is quite seriously deserved to be called a death instinct, while procreation is the instinct represented by the effort to live. The death instinct turns into the destructive instinct when, with the help of social organs, it is directed outwards, on to objects. The organism preserves its own life, so to day, by destroying an extraneous one. Some portion of the death instinct, however, remain operative within the organism, and we have sought to trace quite a number of normal and pathological phenomena to this internalization of the destructive instinct. We have even been guilty of the heresy of attributing the origin of conscience to the diversion inwards of aggressiveness. If this process is carried too far, you will notice that it is by no means a trivial matter; it is possibly unhealthy. On the other hand if these forces are turned to destruction of the external World, the organism will be relieved and the effect must be beneficial. This would serve as a biological justification for all the ugly and dangerous impulses against which we are struggling. It must be admitted that they stand nearer to Nature than does our resistance to them for which an explanation also needs to be found. When the good is absent, the evil is present. The cynic who denies the existence of the good, the dreamer who denies the existence of the evil—each ignores the other half of life as evidence in history and in the World around one. When we go to the roots—that is what “radically” literally means—and discover that a great deal of our conscious thinking only veils our real thoughts and feelings and hides the truth; most of our conscious thought is a sham, a mere rationalization of thoughts and desires which we prefer not to be aware of. #RandolphHarris 15 of 20
This is revolutionary because it leads people to open their eyes to the reality of the structure of the society they live in and hence to the wish to change it in accordance with the interests and desires of the vast majority. Much of the liberal middle class was suspected of being neurotic because their liberation of pleasures of the flesh is largely part of the ever-increasing consumerism. If people are taught to spend and spend, rather than, as in the nineteenth century, to save and save, if they were transformed into “consumers,” one had not only to permit but encourage consumption of pleasures of the flesh. It is after all the most simple and the cheapest of all consumption. Conservatives used to have a strict code of chastity and liberty of pleasures of the flesh lead to an anticonservative revolutionary attitude. If anything, historical development has shown that liberation of pleasures of the flesh has served the development of consumerism and weakened political radicalism. What more people really want is not to become more human, more free, more independent—that would mean more critical and revolutionary-minded—but they want to suffer no more than the average member of their class. They hardly see a really happy person, only a few people who have succeeded in being relatively satisfied with their lot, especially if they are successful and admired by others. Naturally, quite a few people, having a sympathetic listener to talk to, feel better, aside from the fact that as years go by experience in living makes the average person improve one’s lot, except those who are too sick to learn from experience. The contemporary capitalist society is considered to be the highest, most developed form of social structure. It is because all other social structures are more primitive or utopian, and not really successful. #RandolphHarris 16 of 20
An ever-growing number of people have become aware that capitalist society is just one of innumerable social structures and is neither more nor less “real” than the societies of Central African tribes. The invention of artillery and fortifications has in our times forces the sovereigns of Europe to reestablish the use of regular standing troops to guard their fortresses. Yet however, legitimate the motives, there is reason to fear that the effect will be no less fatal. It will be no less necessary to depopulate the rural areas in order to raise armies and garrisons. To maintain them it will be no less necessary to oppress the peoples. And these dangerous establishments have in recent times been growing so rapidly in all of our part of the World, that no one can foresee anything but the imminent depopulation of Europe, and sooner, or later, the ruin of the people who inhabit it. Be that as it may, it should be noted that such institutions necessarily subvert the public domain, leaving only the wearisome resources of subsidies and taxes, which remain for me to discuss. It would be remembered here that the foundation of the social compact is property, together with its first condition that each person should be maintained in the peaceful enjoyment of what belongs to one. It is true that by the same treaty each person at least tacitly obliges oneself to be assessed for public needs. However, since this commitment cannot hard the fundamental law and presumes that contributors acknowledge the evidence of need, it is clear that to be legitimate, this assessment should be voluntary. It is not based on a private will, as if it were necessary to have the consent of each citizen, who should pay only as much as one pleases. This would be directly contrary to the spirit of the confederation. #RandolphHarris 17 of 20
Rather, it should be through the general will, by majority vote, and on the basis of proportional rates that leave no room for an arbitrary imposition of taxes. This truth (that taxes can be legitimately established only by the general consent of the people or its representatives) had generally been recognized by all the philosophers and jurists who have any reputation in matters of political right. While some of them have established maxims that appear contrary, it is easy to see the private motives that moved them to do so. They stipulate so many conditions and restrictions that it all boils down to exactly the same thing. For whether the people can reuse it or whether the sovereign should not demand it, is a matter of indifference as far as right is concerned. And if it is only a question of force, it is utterly pointless to inquire what is or is not legitimate. The contributions levied on the people are of two kinds: real taxes (levied on things) and personal taxes (paid by the head). Both are called taxes or subsidies. When the people sets the amount it pays, it is called a subsidy; when it grants the entire proceeds of an assessment, it is a tax. In The Spirit of the Laws we find that a head tax is more in keeping with servitude, while a real tax is more suited to liberty. This would be incontestable, were everyone’s head share equal. For nothing would be more disproportionate than such a tax. It is especially in an exacting observance of proportions that the spirit of liberty consists. However, if a head tax is exactly proportioned to the means of private individuals and is thus at once both and personal, it is the most equitable and, as a result, the one best suited to free humans. At first these proportions appear quite easy to observe, because, being relative to each person’s position, the indications are always public. #RandolphHarris 18 of 20
However, besides the fact that greed, influence-peddling, and fraud know how to leave no evidence behind, it is rare that an account is taken of all the elements that should enter into these calculations. First, one ought to consider the relationship of quantities according to which, all things being equal, someone who has ten times more goods than someone else should pay ten times more. Second, one ought to consider the relationship of use, that is, the distinction between what is necessary and what is superfluous. Someone who has only the bare necessities of life should not pay anything at all. Taxing someone who has superfluities can, in time of need, be extended to everything over and above the necessities of life. To this one will declare that, given one’s rank, what would be superfluous for a human of inferior standing is necessary for one. However, that is a lie. For humans of superior standing have two legs, just like a cowherd, and, like the cowherd, has only one stomach. Moreover, this alleged necessity of life is so little necessary to one’s standing that, if one knew how to renounce these things for some worthy cause, one could only be respected more. The people would prostrate themselves before a minister who would go on foot to the council because one had sold one’s Ultimate Driving Machines when the state had a pressing need. Finally, the law does not demand magnificence of anyone, and propriety is never reason against right. A cultivated human of taste and feeling can find much that is beautiful in nature and art; and if one is also a moral idealist, one will find much that is good and virtuous in human life and experience. However, it would be incomplete to stop there and ignore the fact that there is also around us much that is base, dark, and even evil. #RandolphHarris 19 of 20
The two sides put together form a complete observation. However, it is only the mystics and philosopher who can see—because it requires a deeper penetration than the intellect and the sense can give—that the dark side deals with the World of appearances, a World which is fleeting and ephemeral, whereas the good side and the beautiful side is merely a hint of that other World closer to Reality. Evil is a very real problem in this World of time and space. Evil forces exist and must be fought with all our strength. Nevetheless the Power out of which all things and all entities come is a beneficent one. Love is its radiation. There is no evil and no pain in it. They begin only on the lower level of separation and differentiation. Wild air, World-mothering air, nestling me everywhere, that each eyelash or hair girdles; goes home betwixt the fleeciest, frilest-flixed snowflake; that is fairly mixed with riddles, and is rife in every least thing is life; this needful, never spent, and nursing element; my more than meat and drink, my meal at every wink; their air, which, by life’s law, my lung must draw and draw now but to breathe its praise. Please give rain. We are the pure who camped by water. For Jacob’s sake who set the rods in water, O speed us! He strained and rolled the stone from off the water. Please give rain! Blest heirs to Torah’s quickening water, O save us! To win for them and for their offspring water. Please give rain! Today as then we cry for water. For Moses’ sake who found his people water, O speed us! He smote the rock and lo! out gushed the water. O save us, mighty God! Please give us rain! Our sires sang round the well of water. O save us! Because of Moses at Meribah’s water, O speed us! At Thy command he gave the thirsting water. O save us, mighty God! please give rain! Thy holy servants poured Thee water. O save us! For Thy chief minstrel’s sake who longed for water, O speed us! Yet turned and made libation with the water, O save us, mighty God! Please give rain! Four plants we wave that love the water, O save us! For American’s sake, the home of living water, O speed us! The parched Earth open to the Heavens’ water, O save us, mighty God! #RandolphHarris 20 of 20
Cresleigh Homes
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If God Gets Up and Leaves Forever, Why Should We Shed a Tear?
When we call something “Supernatural,” we mean that it is something which invades, or is added to, the great interlocked event in space and time, instead of merely arising from it. On the other hand this “Supernatural” part is itself a created being—a thing called into existence by the Absolute Being and given by Him a certain character or “nature.” We could therefore say that while “supernatural” in relation to this Nature (this complex event in space and time) it is, in another sense, “natural”—id est, it is a specimen of a class of things which God normally creates after a stable pattern. There is, however, a sense in which the life of this part can become absolutely Supernatural, id est, not beyond this Nature but beyond any and every Nature, in the sense that it can achieve a kind of life which could never have been given to any created being in its mere creation. If we consider it in relation not to humans, but to angels, the distinction will, perhaps, become clearer. (It does not matter, here, whether the reader believes in angels or not. I am using them only to make the point clearer.) All angels, both the “good” ones and the bad or “fallen” ones which we call devils, are equally “Supernatural” in relation to this spatio-temporal Nature: id est, they are outside it and have powers and a mode of existence which it could not provide. However, the good angels lead a life which is Supernatural in another sense as well. That is to say, they have, of their own free will, offered back to God in love the “natures” He gave them at their creation. All creatures of course live from God in the sense that He made them and at every moment maintains them in existence. #RandolphHarris 1 of 18
However, there is a further and higher kind of “life from God” which can be given only to a creature who voluntarily surrenders oneself to it. This life the good angels have and the bad angels have not: and it is absolutely Supernatural because no creature in any World can have it by the mere fact of being the sort of creature it is. As with angels, so with us. The rational par of every human is supernatural in the relative sense—the sense in which both angels and devils are supernatural. However, if it is, as the theologians say, “born again,” if it surrenders itself back to God in Christ, it will then have a life which is absolutely Supernatural, which is not created at all but begotten, for the creature is then sharing the begotten life of the Second Person of the Deity. Christian writers use “spirit” and “spiritual” to mean the life which arises in such rational beings when they voluntarily surrender to Divine grace and become children of the Heavenly Father in Christ. It is in this sense, and in this sense alone, that the “spiritual” is always good. A regenerate human will find one’s soul eventually harmonized with one’s spirit by the life of Christ that is in one. Hence Christians believe in the resurrection of the body, whereas the ancient philosophers regard the body as a mere encumbrance. And this perhaps is a universal law, that he higher you rise the lower you can descend. Humans are a tower in which the different floors can hardly be reached from one another but all can be reached from the top floor. You are probably quite right in thinking that you will never see a miracle done: you are probably equally right in thinking that there was a natural explanation of anything in your past life which seemed, at the first glance, to be “rum” or “odd.” #RandolphHarris 2 of 18
God does not sake miracles into Nature at random as if from a pepper-caser. They come on great occasions: they are found at the great ganglions of history—not of political or social history, but of that spiritual history which cannot be fully known by humans. If your own life does not happen to be near one of those great ganglions, how should you expect to see one? If we were heroic missionaries, apostles, or martyrs, it would be a different matter. However, why you or I? Unless you live near a railway, you will not see trains go past your windows. How likely is it that you or I will be present when a peace-treaty is signed, when a great scientific discovery is made, when a dictator commits suicide? That we should see a miracle is even less likely. Nor, if we understand, shall we be anxious to do so. Nothing almost sees miracles but misery. Miracles and martyrdoms tend to bunch about the same areas of history—areas we have naturally no wish to frequent. Do not, I earnestly advise you, demand an ocular proof unless you are already perfectly certain that it is not forthcoming. Religious ideas are illusions, fulfillments of the oldest, strongest and most urgent wishes of humankind. The secret of their strength lies in the strength of those wishes. As we already know, the terrifying impression of helplessness in childhood aroused the need for protection—for protection through love—which was provided by the father; and the recognition that this helplessness lasts throughout life made it necessary to cling to the existence of a father, but this time a more powerful one. #RandolphHarris 3 of 18
Thus the benevolent rule of a divine Providence allays our fear of the danger of life; the establishment of a moral World-order ensures that fulfillment of the demands of justice, which have so often remained unfulfilled in human civilization; and the prolongation of Earthly existence in a future life provides the local and temporal framework in which these wish-fulfillments shall take place. Karl Marx, viewed religion in socioeconomic terms—as an opiate for the oppressed masses, who without the hope of a pie-in-the-sky-by-and-by would despair of compensation for their suffering. Some even explain religion in evolutionary terms; sociobiologist E. O. Wilson boasts, “We have come to the crucial stage in the history of biology when religion itself is subject to the explanations of the natural sciences. Theology is not likely to survive as an independent intellectual discipline.” Psychology has made great strides in understanding many other important aspects of human experience—sleep, pleasures of the flesh, and hunger—so why not investigate religious behaviour as well? What psychological function does religion serve? Imagine that God’s activity is not merely an occasional intervention in a Universe from which God is otherwise remote, but rather something more basic. Imagine that falling in love, having a child, or achieving good fortune could simultaneously be understood as entirely the outcome of natural processes and also as God’s loving handiwork. Explaining a belief does not explain it away. The truth of a belief is logically distinct from its psychological function. To see why, imagine at some point in the future we were to achieve a complete understanding of why some people are believers in God. #RandolphHarris 4 of 18
The psychology of religion has finished its business and is ready to close up shop. Imagine also that we have by that time come to a full understanding of why some people are atheists. It is no chore at all to imagine explanations of atheism that parallel those proposed to explain them. Perhaps, for example, atheism is psychological wish fulfillment by prideful humans who lack the intellectual humility necessary to acknowledge a being infinitely greater than themselves. Perhaps for others atheism has socioeconomic motivations—a resistance to believing religion’s teachings regarding the value of all human life and the claims of the poor upon one’s material possession, which are then, a busy cluster of research studying “the psychology of unbelief” (the actual title of a book published some years ago). One can even envision a day when someone might say that atheism itself is subject to the explanations of the natural sciences and is therefore not likely to survive as a credible intellectual idea. However, hold it (here we rise to the defense of atheism as well as theism): if both belief systems are explained, as would happen if psychology had answered all its questions, that cannot mean they are both false. Either God exists or God does not exist, so one of these beliefs must be true. The point can be extended to any other belief or attitude: knowing why you believe something says nothing about its truth or falsity. To know why someone does or does not believe in extraterrestrial beings does not tell us whether such beings exist. To know how someone has been persuaded that a vegetarian diet is healthiest and how someone else has been persuaded that a nonvegetarian diet is healthiest does not decide which diet is, in fact, healthiest. To know the biological, psychological, social, and economic factors that lead one person to become a devout believer and another a nonbeliever does not tell us whether God, in fact, exists. #RandolphHarris 5 of 18
The refusal to modify people’s behaviour by a planned use of reinforcers does not really increase people’s freedom and dignity; rather, it abandons them to the whims of other controls, for better or, more often, for worse. Likewise, parents who are reluctant to impose their values on their children are in effect conceding their children, for better or for worse, to competing influences—television, music, and peers. In truth, however, few parents retreat from persuasive efforts on matter they really care about. We do not leave it to our children to decide for themselves (or under the influence of other persuasive forces) whether it is better to be honest or deceitful, kind or cruel, helpful or hostile. On such matters we all, unapologetically is sometimes ineffectively, do everything we can to socialize our children into what we believe to be right. It is primarily on matters that we ourselves do not really care that much about that we leave our children to work things out for themselves. Nevertheless, we welcome every advance toward truth, every refutation of falsehood, every approximation of reality that is more faithful to the known data. We do so believing that all truth is God’s truth and that our ultimate allegiance is to God alone rather than to the dictates of tradition or human authority. Neurotheology offers an interesting exploration of brain activity associated with spirituality, but no evidence regarding God’s existence. However, as you know, for instances, houses do not just manifest themselves, they need a creator and raw materials. Let us therefore submit ourselves to the incoming tide of science, and welcome it. Indeed, to all of God’s revelation, in whatever forms it comes. Let us be assured that God is the author of whatever truth is revealed, however surprising or unsettling it might be. Let us remember that it is therefore not just our right to freely pursue truth, but our religious duty. #RandolphHarris 6 of 18
It is, indeed, part of what it means to worship God not only with our hearts, but with our minds. Many are those who have committed their hearts to Jesus; fewer are those who have also committed—through disciplined study and inquiry—their minds. “For since we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so God will also bring with Him through Jesus those who have fallen asleep [in death]. For this we declare to you by the Lord’s [own] word, that we who are alive and remain until the coming of the Lord shall in no way precede [into His presence] or have any advantage at all over those who have previously fallen asleep [in Him in death]. For the Lord Himself will descend from Heaven with a loud cry of summons, with the shout of an archangel, and with the blast of the trumpet of God. And those who have departed this life in Christ will rise first. Then we, the living ones who remain [on the Earth], shall simultaneously be caught up along with [the resurrected dead] in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air; and so always (through the eternity of the eternities) we shall be with the Lord! Therefore comfort and encourage one another with these words,” reports 1 Thessalonians 4.13-18. Independently of the public domain, which remits to the state in proportion to the probity of those who supervise it, were on one to have had sufficient knowledge of the whole force of the general administration, especially when it is limited to legitimate means, one would be astonished at the resources leaders have for anticipating all the public needs without touching the goods of private individuals. Since they are the masters of the state’s entire commerce, nothing is easier for them than to direct it in a manner that provides for everything, often without them appearing to have been involved. #RandolphHarris 7 of 18
The distribution of commodities, money and merchandise in just proportions according to time and place is the true secret of finances, and the source of their riches, provided those who administer them know how to be far-sighted enough and on occasion to take an apparent present loss so as really to obtain immense profits at some time in the distant future. When one sees a government paying duties instead of receiving them for the export of grain in years of plenty and for its import in years of scarcity, one needs to have such facts before one’s eyes to think them true; and if they had happened long ago, they would have merited being classed with novels. Suppose that, to prevent scarcity in bad years ne were to propose the establishment of public warehouses. In many countries, would not the maintenance of so useful an establishment serve as a pretext for new taxes? In Geneva, such granaries, established and maintained by a wise administration, are a public resource in bad years and the state’s chief revenue at all times. Alit et ditat [it nourishes and enriches] is the fine and just inscription one reads on the façade of the building. To show here the economic system of a good government, I have often turned my eyes toward the wisdom and happiness I would like to see reign in every country. If one examines how the needs of a state grow, one will find that this often arises in the same way as do those of private individuals: less by a true necessity than by an increase in useless desires, and that expenditures are increased for the sole reason of having a pretext for increasing income. Thus, the state would occasionally gain from not being rich, and such apparent wealth is essentially more burdensome than poverty itself. #RandolphHarris 8 of 18
It is true one can hope to hold peoples in a stricter dependence by giving them with one hand what one has taken away from them with the other, and this was the style of politics Joseph used with the Egyptians. However, this vain sophism is all the more fatal to the state in that the money does not return to the same hands it left. Such maxims only serve to enrich the idle with spoils taken from useful humans. The taste for conquests is one of those most obvious and dangerous causes of this increase. This taste, often engendered by another sort of ambition than the one it seems to proclaim, is not always what it appears to be, and its true motive is not the seeming desire to increase the nation but rather the hidden desire to increase the authority of the leaders at home, with the help of the increase in size of the troops and under the cover of the diversion created in the minds of citizens by wartime objectives. What is at least very certain is that nothing is as oppressed or as miserable as conquering peoples, and even their successes serve only to increase their miseries. Even if history did not teach us this, reason would suffice to show us that the larger a state is, the heavier and more burdensome will its expenditures become. For all the provinces are required to furnish their share of the expenses of the general administration, and, in addition, each province is required to spend the same amount for its own particular administration that it would if it were independent. Add to this the fact that all fortunes are made in one place and consumed in another. This eventually upsets the equilibrium of production and consumption, impoverishing a great deal of the country to enrich a single town. #RandolphHarris 9 of 18
Another source of the increase in public needs is linked to the preceding one. There may come a time when the citizens, no longer considering themselves interested in the common cause, would cease to be the defenders of the homeland, and when the magistrates would prefer to command mercenaries rather than free humans, if only to use the former at a sustainable time and place to subjugate the latter more effectively. Such was the state of Rome at the end of the Republic and under the emperors. For all the victories of the first Romans, just like those of Alexander, had been won by brave citizens who knew how to give their blood to their country in time of need, but never sold it. Marius was the first who, in the Jugurthine War, dishonoured the legions by introducing free humans, vagabonds and other mercenaries. Having become enemies of the peoples who they were assigned to make happy, the tyrants established regular standing armies, in appearance to contain foreigners and in actual fact to oppress the inhabitants. To raise these troops, farmers had to be taken away from their land; the lack of their services decreased the quality of the provisions, and maintaining these troops required the imposition of taxes which in turn increased food prices. The first disorder caused the people to murmur. Repressing them required the troops to be multiplied, and consequently the misery. And the more despair increased, the more one was constrained to increase it again to prevent its effects. On the other hand, these mercenaries, whose value could be determined on the basis of the price at which they sold themselves, were proud of their debasement, held in contempt the laws by which they were protected, as well as their comrades whose bread they ate, and believed it a greater honour to be Caesar’s satellites then Rome’s defenders. #RandolphHarris 10 of 18
And given as they were to blind obedience, their task was to have their swords raised against their fellow citizens, ready to slaughter them all at the first signal. It would not be difficult to show that this was one of the principal causes of the ruin of the Roman Empire. “Thank [God] in everything [no matter what the circumstances may be, be thankful and give thanks], for this is the will of God for you [who are] in Christ Jesus [the Revealer and Mediator of that will],” reports 1 Thessalonians 5.18. Those brought up in the Second Wave civilization have a difficult time thinking of institutions as good corporate citizens. We find it hard to think of a hospital as having economic as well as medical functions, a school as having political as well as educational functions—or a corporation as having powerful non-economic or “trans-economic” functions. That recently retired exemplar of Second Wave thinking, Henry Ford II, insists that the corporation “is a specialized instrument designed to serve the economic needs of society and is not well equipped to serve social needs unrelated to its business operations.” However, while Ford and other defenders of the Second Wave resist the redefinition of the production organization, many firms are, in fact, altering both their words and their policies. Lip service and public relations rhetoric often substitute for real change. Fancy promotional brochures proclaiming a new era of social responsibility very often camouflage a robber-baron rapacity. Nevertheless, a fundamental “paradigm shift”—a reconceptualization—of the structure, goals, and responsibilities of the corporation is taking place in response to new pressures brought by the Third Wave. The signs of this change are numerous. #RandolphHarris 11 of 18
Amoco has had 150 years of keeping America moving and helping to drive the U.S. economy. This leading oil company states, that “it is the policy of our company, with respect to plant locations, to supplement the routine economic evaluation with a detailed exploration of the social consequences. We look at many factors, among them the impact on the physical environment, the impact on public facilities, and the impact on local employment conditions, particularly with respect to minorities.” Amoco continues to weight economic considerations most heavily, but it assigns importance to other factors as well. And where alternative locations are similar in economic terms but “different in terms of social impact,” these social factors can prove decisive. In the event of a merger proposal, the directors of Control Data operates. And while other companies have been racing into the suburbs, Control Data has deliberately built plants in inner city areas of Washington, St Paul, and Minneapolis, to help provide employment for marginalized members of the community and to help revive urban centers. The corporation states its mission as “improving the quality, equality, and potential of people’s lives”—equality being an unorthodox goal for a corporation. In the United States of America, the advancement of women and people who are non-European American has become a long overdue matter of national policy, and some companies go as far as to reward their managers financially for meeting “affirmative action” targets. At Pillsbury, a leading food company, each of its three product groups, at one time, had to present not only a sales plan for the following year but a plan relating to the hiring, training, and promotion of women and minority group members. #RandolphHarris 12 of 18
Executive incentives are linked to the attainment of these social goals. At AT&T all managers are evaluated annually. Fulfillment of affirmative actions objectives counts as part of a positive appraisal. At Chemical Bank in New York, 10 to 15 percent of a branch manager’s job performance appraisal is based on her or his social performance-sitting on community agency boards, making loans to not-for-profit organizations, hiring and upgrading marginalized groups. And the Gannet chain of newspapers, chief executive Allen Neuharth brusquely tells editors and local publishers that “a major portion” of their bonuses will “be determined on the basis of progress in these…programs.” Similarly, in many top corporations we see a distinct upgrading of the states and influence of executives concerned with the environmental consequences of corporate behaviour. Some now report directly to the president. Other companies have set up special committees on the board of directors to define the new corporate responsibilities. This social responsiveness of the corporation is not all substance. Some of this is pure public relations, of course. Some is self-serving. However, much of it actually does reflect a changed perception of corporate functions. Grudgingly, therefore, driven by protests, lawsuits, and fear of government actions as well as by more laudable motives, managers are beginning to adapt to the new conditions of production and are accepting the idea that the corporation has multiple purposes. “For you are all sons of the light and sons of the day; we do not belong either to the night or darkness,” reports 1 Thessalonians 5. 5. #RandolphHarris 13 of 18
When times get tough—as they often do—or things do not go your way—as they sometimes do not—please keep on believing in God. What has Humankind done that God should respond with His grace? Reward us for not doing a thing, and we will see no reason to change. We are a hopeless lot. So, if God gets up and leaves forever, why should we shed a tear? But we will. If God does not give us what we want or ask for, who else will? Certainly I can think about this in verity and come up with a few mouthings. O Lord, I am nothing. O Lord, I can do nothing. O Lord, I find no good in myself. O Lord, there is nothing I do not need. O Lord, I am headed nowhere. Odd but true. And unless God gives us a helping hand and prop up our sagging spirits, we will just end up feeble, faltering wrecks. “You, however,” God, O Lord, “are always Yourself, and You remain as such for eternity,” said the Psalmist (102.27). That is to say, You are good, You are just, according to the standards of both spiritual and Earthly wisdom. However, I, who am proner to regress than progress, find it hard to stay long in one state of soul. As the Prophet Daniel saw in one of his visions (4.16), so I see myself passing from one stage to another in my life, and I am never in one phase long enough to establish a firm hold. “I am confident of this very thing, that He who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus,” reports Philippians 1.6. When discouragements come or when people tell you that your dreams are never going to come to pass, you are never going to be happy, and you can never change, boldly remind yourself who is at work in your life. God is turning things around in your favour. God is opening doors of opportunity for you. He is restoring relationships; He is softening people’s hearts toward you. God is completing what He started. You may not see anything happening with your natural eyes, but you must believe that in the unseen World, God is at work on your behalf. #RandolphHarris 14 of 18
One thing I have noticed. My spiritual condition quickly improves when God stretched His hand to help. Be a believer, but be careful what you believe. If you go around with a victim mentality, thinking that you do not deserve the blessings of God, only focused on what is going wrong, you perceived faults, and always sad and blue and hurting, you are setting yourself up to live a dismal life. Society may in fact be doing you wrong, there may be nothing wrong with you. Others may just be jealous of who you are. Therefore, start seeing yourself as more than a conqueror, well able to succeed, strong in the Lord, the head not the tail, the successful self-actualizer, not the victim and you will reach a new level of fulfillment. Another thing I noticed is that sometimes God comes to the help of us human beings even without our having to ask. However, where I ask. Stop moving! Stand still! I am turning my head every which way, and I still cannot catch a sight of God. Only in God alone will my heart find conversion and quiescence. And may my face brighten up like Hannah’s after a prayer! A tender moment in First Samuel (1.18). Dare today to start believing in God for greater things. God does not want you to drag through life, barely making it. He does not want you to have to dig through the sofa cushions looking for change, trying to come up with enough money to pay for food and shelter, transportation, to pay your bills, or to worry about how you are going to send your children to school today and college in the future. God does not want you to be unhappy in your marriage. It is not His preference for you to live in perpetual pain. #RandolphHarris 15 of 18
When, if follows, if one knows well enough to dump every consolation known to Humankind in our continuous pursuit of devotion and the Devotions of devotion, why do we have to ask, as Jeremiah did right at the beginning of his Lamentations (1.2), “Is there no one who can console me?” That being said, we must have high hopes for God’s grace and will exult when it comes. God wants us to have a good life, a life filled with love, joy, peace, and fulfillment. That does not mean it will always be easy, but it does mean it will always be good. God causes all things to work together for good to those who love Him. You can dare to believe Him for a better marriage. Start believing Him for better health. Believe for joy and peace and happiness. Start believing for increase and abundance. As often as good stuff happens to me, I give my thanks to God, whence everything comes. I, however, am vanity and “nothingness before God,” if I may echo the Psalmist (39.5), a quack, a quondam, a quisling. I would like to boast, but I do not have anything to boast about. Whence can I find something to boast about? Why do I seek to be thought well of? Are not my desires just droppings? And is not all this World Vanity gone mad? Maybe you have endured terrible disappointments. Unspeakable negative things may have happened to you, to the point that you have ceased believing for anything good to occur in your life. You have lost your dreams. You are drifting through life, taking whatever comes your way. You may be tempted to tell yourself, “I have been living this way too long.” I am never going to get any better. I have prayed, I have believed, I have done everything I know how to do. Nothing has changed. Nothing is working I might as well give up. My life is over.” #RandolphHarris 16 of 18
Glory at its emptiest is disease at its sickest, Vanity at its noisiest. That is because it draws a Devout’s attention away from the One True Glory and denudes one of Heavenly Grace. Here is an example of what can happen. A Devout is quite pleased with oneself for what one has been able to accomplish outside the monastery walls; that is to say, one has made so many friends among the rich and famous. Now I know that makes God nervous, my Joyful if sometimes Jealous Friend, and I do not want God to think I do not know why. Why? Because one spends one’s time in the unhappy pursuit of false celebrity instead of the happy pursuit of True Virtue. However, there is True Glory and Holy Exaltation to boast in You and not in oneself, to rejoice in You name, not in one’s own virtue, and certainly not to take delight in any creature, except insofar as it has something to do with You. No matter how many setbacks we have suffered, or how rich and famous we become, God still has a great plan for our lives. We must get our hopes up. If we do not have hope, we will not have faith. And if we do not have faith, you cannot please God, and you will not see His power revealed in your life. Keep hope alive in your hearts. Never give up on your dreams. Do not allow discouragement or another setback to keep you from believing what God says about you. You are never too far gone with God. Some people say, “It is too late. My life is in too big of a mess; you cannot put Humpty Dumpty back together again.” However, God can take a mess of stones and make the most magnificent statue. There is True Glory and Holy Exaltation to boast in You and not in oneself, to rejoice in God’s name, not in one’s own virtue, and certainly not to take delight in any creature, except insofar as it has something to do with God. #RandolphHarris 17 of 18
May God’s name be praised, not mine. May God’s work be magnified, not mine. May God’s Holy Name be blessed, and may no praise from human mouths be attributed to me. God is my glory, God is the exultation of my heart. In God I shall exult all day long; Psalmist again (89.16). As Paul wrote in Second Corinthians, “All I have are my infirmities—precious possessions of all” (12.5). The Jews people hoped to find glory from among their tribes. However, the sort of glory I require “comes from God alone”; that is as God said on a Sabbath in Jerusalem, and as John wrote it down (5.44). Every alp, every medal, every decoration, when compared to God’s eternal glory, is mean, not to say meaningless. My Truth, my Mercy, my God—Blessed Trinity! To You alone be braised, honour, virtue, and glory forever and ever. “Father, I close to be a believer rather than a doubter. Today, I will live with faith, trusting You for everything I need, knowing that even when tough times come, You will see me through. Now this day, my Sun Father, now that you have come out standing to your sacred place that from which we draw the water of life prayer meal—here I give unto you. Your long life, your old age, your waters, your seeds, your riches, your power, your strong spirit, of all these, to me may you grant. O God, save, yea, save, we beseech Thee. O save, O forgive, O send prosperity; yea, please save us, God of our stronghold. Please give rain. Thy lieges pour their hearts as water, O please save us! For Abram’s sake who went through fire and water, O please speed us! In courtesy he gave the angels water, O please save us, mighty God! Please give rain! For us to pass was cleft the water. O please save us! For Isaac’s sake on mountain bound for slaughter, O please speed us! He turned and digged his people wells of water. O Please save us, mighty God. Please give rain! We are the pure who camped by water. O please save us! #RandolphHarris 18 of 18
Cresleigh Homes
We’re hosting Thanksgiving this year! 🍂Can’t pass up the opportunity to fill our gorgeous island at the Brighton Station Residence 3 home with turkey, stuffing, and mashed potatoes. Gotta get moving on our fall decor; pumpkin carving is on the agenda this week! 🎃
Residence Three at Brighton Station boasts 2,757 square feet in this expansive two story home. There are four bedrooms, three and a half bathrooms, and a three car garage!
The kitchen comes fully equipped with a large eat-in island, stainless steel appliances, quartz counters, and large walk in pantry. The openness in the design allows the Great Room and kitchen to interact with each other seamlessly.
This home comes with an en suite bedroom on the first floor making it ideal for guests, or multi-generational living. https://cresleigh.com/brighton-station/residence-3/
Randolph Harris II International Institute 