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Silence Teaches Better than Words—Outer Life Suffers without Inner Life
Society need to have boundaries. As an interesting part of each human personality, each individual person has been endowed by creation with a collector’s instinct. We collect attitudes, skills, habits, and personality traits. “If, to please the people, we offer what we ourselves disapprove, how can we afterwards defend our work? Let us raise a standard to which the wise and the honest can repair. The event is in the hand of God,” reports President George Washington. Aristotle (384-322 B.C.) and the Greeks were the first to articulate the notion of natural law, the doctrine that human affairs should be governed by certain ethical principles. Being nothing more nor less than the nature of things, the principles of natural law can be understood by reason. Later, in the thirteenth century, the Italian priest and philosopher Thomas Aquinas (1225-1274) gave the idea of natural law a new, Christian framework. He reported that natural law and Christianity were compatible because God created the natural law that established individual rights to life and liberty. We want to live the full and abundant life that God has promised us. Most people are serious about fulfilling their destiny and daily take steps of faith to put actions behind what we believe. We want our faith to active God’s favor and goodness. Through God, we will find the power to do what we once thought was impossible and know that extraordinary things are going to happen. Only then can we derive some perspective and clarity. We are expecting our miracle. #RandolphHarris 1 of 6
However, our culture is becoming a mass of wannabe rebels who live in a society dangerously without limits. The West is no longer, vast, untamed, an expanse to be explored and defined by cowboys and cowgirls, pilgrims, free people, spiritualists, gold seekers, hippies, artist, and unique characters. It has become a state of rustlers, hustler, revolutionaries, and outlaws. Manifest destiny and the myth of expansion, so intertwined with our conceptions the American Dream and prosperity, is at an end. Without a way for us to restore order, we have no way to of challenge the accepted order or rebellion and chaos. McDonald’s burns, the Starbucks window is shattered, and the people who are supposed to benefit from this wait for their lives to get better, work for pennies a day, and dream of signature crafted fresh beef, made when you order, Quarter Pounder Burgers, with cheese. As a result of taxation without representation and price gauging, one million people have moved out of California because crime is high and housing is too expensive. Laws are passed without voter consent and the gas tax and half a dollar per gallon. The result is exhaustion, stagnation, erosion, decline, and hopelessness. People feel displaced from their true time, and those old souls feel the urge to be recognized, to be known for who they are. Theirs is the anger not of the usurped but of the redundant. #RandolphHarris 2 of 6
There seems to be little left for traditional Americans to do but disappear. The kids are taking their cue from the adults and they are infused with ideas around rebellion and dissent. The old ways of life are gone. However, we are still trying to define ourselves using old precepts, antiquated ideas. We need a new way of understand what law and order is. Trapped between the extremes, we long for escape, a place where we are not constantly turn between unstable leadership and unaffordable lawless living. Our society is changing, as we do not necessarily have the tools to evolve with it. We seek to evoke the traditional ways and understandings, where Americans have priority and one could get a job at the supermarket and afford a house, even as we lapse into recession resulting from inconsequence, from our difficulty accessing what we have been told is our inalienable right: Justice, domestic tranquility, common defence, the general welfare, and the secure blessing of liberty to ourselves and posterity, as established by the United States Constitution. Still, we are concerned about the decline of real community and the rise of false individuality. Individuals are, essentially, powerless. Only communities can truly effect change in society. #RandolphHarris 3 of 6
The more division that infiltrates our behavior and lifestyle, the less we are able to band together and reform an ineffective government, support businesses the are good for the people and the planet, or start schools that are based on creativity, achievement, and foster a commitment to learning. We are alone together, reduced to endlessly trying to replicate the feeling of community that individuals once took for granted. So what went wrong? Many have perhaps underestimated the allure, power, and sheer intoxication of blood money and the idea of becoming famous in the age of enforced individuality and collapsing community. Only when we recognize the trap we are in can we even begin to start figuring out how to get free ourselves. We need more people willing to fight the injustices and inequalities, even if it is only affecting one individual and depriving that person of their constitutional and human rights. Ultimately, what we need is a conceptual methodology that will allow us to balance happiness with duty, the need for recognition with the need for self-recognized limits on the efficacies of egotism. We need a new way to understand the self within the context of our new global system of mass production and increasing opportunities for individual creativity played out in the endless beautiful suburban communities. The future depends not on what we can do to make ourselves feel momentarily better, but on going beyond temporary happiness. #RandolphHarris 4 of 6
We must learn to take an active role in our own sublimated desires. We can no longer afford to settle for anything less than what we have been promised. It is not to awaken consciousness that we struggle, but to sap power, to take power. We are different in many ways, but at our core we want similar things: a society of honesty, creativity, individuality, and communality. Because of our many differences lead to such core similarity, and at the heart of humanity is this urge for new experiences new patterns, and expanded truths, it is better to fail in an attempt to exercise faith than to let it lie dormant and fruitless. God never belittles those who attempt to follow him, but he does chasten those who refuse to attempt anything for him. Lying alone in bed, we should not see destruction, but opportunity—to start our lives anew, to fix behavior and patters of self-destruction that have shackled us. The gentle excavation of our pasts can ultimately shake us free from certain unreasonable situations and them finally, set into motion a series of promising life events. If we are caring, if we are charitable, if we are obedient to God and follow his teachings, our sacrifices will bring forth the blessings of Heaven. We have to find a personal well-spring of power to overcome self-indulgence and selfishness. Remind yourself that once you weather an unusually devastating storm, all other storms are easier to bear. You will most likely recover more quickly from each of the squall that follow. #RandolphHarris 5 of 6
When we remind ourselves of the truths that our suffering has revealed, we can empty ourselves of the disillusionment that weighs us down and fill ourselves instead with the wonderful experiences and insights that life has to offer. Some may ask why we as a people and church quietly and constantly seek to change individual while there are such large problems about us. However, decaying cities are simply a delayed reflection of decaying individuals. The commandments of God give emphasis to improvement of the individual as the only real way to being about real improvement of society. The Lord works from the inside out. The World works from the outside in. The World would take people out of the slums. God takes the slums out of the people, and then they take themselves out of the slums. God changes people, who then change their environment. The World would shape behavior, but God can change human nature. Although suffering is always painful, it really is easier to take if you think of it as the key to emptiness, and emptiness as the key to spiritual growth. Stop struggling with life. We receive blessings from keeping all of God’s commandments, and we will be closer to the peace and happiness we once thought our illusions would bring. #RandolphHarris 6 of 6
Love is the Most Powerful Force in the Galaxy
Life is good—though not for the wicked one; returning to our Father in Heaven is good, because it will permit the soul to live an unhampered life. You can do so much good that it will astound you as you are changed and as you see other changed. The Lord wants you to have the greatest experiences as you make this journey on Earth. This can be a magnificent journey filled with literally thousands of tremendous experiences and spiritual confirmations if you will find your way through the many choices that will be yours along the way. When we harness the power of prayer, we wrap our wishes and dream with possibilities. Instead of limiting ourselves and cutting off our access to what we cannot necessarily anticipate, we maintain open minds and hearts. However, that is not always so easy, especially if the results you were hoping for are not forthcoming. Prayer is not about asking for certain results. Prayer helps us embrace the outcomes whether it is good or bad. We pray for strength, understanding, patience, and whatever else we need to pursue our dreams. Prayer clears away the debris that often prevent us from recognizing opportunities. The private conversations with God seem to underscore enduring faith in the World. The road given by our Father in Heaven is clearly marked, but the patterns and ways of the World can deceive you. Of all the paradoxes that help us detach from the ordinary plane of existence and connect with the spiritual plane, suffering that breeds a greater engagement in life is perhaps the most intriguing. #RandolphHarris 1 of 6
Life is eternal. The World that we live in provides us with the journey that will guide us back to God’s presence in Heaven to live eternally. However, while on Earth we all experience pain. How on Earth can a profoundly hurtful experience make anyone live life more fully? That any pleasure, or good, can come from pain seems impossible for anyone to believe. Yet suffering can be redemptive for all of us. The ability to turn suffering to our own advantage, not just at work, but in life allows one to approach painful experiences with an open mind, to make the best of them, learn from them, and get beyond them. Suffering leaves us open to whatever gifts may be available to us as we endure the loss of something we cherish, be it an object, a person, a belief, or a dream. Our suffering is nothing compared to the glory that is coming. If we stay moldable, pliable, and willing to change, we will not be as this same place next year. God will take every irritation and turn it into a blessing. If we want to receive the true benefits of our life experience, we must empty ourselves of expectations. To be filled with the gifts of life, we must first make room for them. God never promised that life would be fair. God did, however, promise that if you stay in faith, he would take what is meant for your harm and use it to your advantage. Nothing that happens to you is a surprise to God. That is why he arranged a comeback for every setback, a vindication for every wrong, and a new beginning for every disappointment. #RandolphHarris 2 of 6
Few of us open ourselves to redemptive suffering before we reach maturity. The first half of life does not typically present us with the kinds of grave losses that provoke the profound suffering most of us must experience before we open ourselves to events beyond those we wish and plan for. At a certain point in our adulthood, however, the truth behind illusions such as “I am in control,” “If I work hard, I will succeed,” “Life is fair,” and “If I am a good person, nothing bad will happen to me,” confronts us very directly. As much as we would like to hold on to these beliefs, it becomes increasingly hard to do as we experience serious career disappointments, problems with our loved ones, financial difficulties, the deaths of people we love. Just as a raging forest fire can level everything that stands in its way, consistent deep inner suffering can obliterate the very illusions that fanned the flames of suffering in the first place. If you will get over it, God will still get you to where you are supposed to be. Stop reliving all the hurt, and move forward, then you will come to the new beginning God has in store. Through redemptive suffering, we can survive the loss of these illusions, discover important truths, even experience spiritual growth. #RandolphHarris 3 of 6
Even one episode of deep suffering can destroy our damaging illusions. Fortunately, the deeper the pain, the greater the potential for growth. Changing the way we view suffering and learning to put its lessons to good use are two of the best ways to get the most our of our adult adventure. A true fall of humanity has never taken place. Actually, even when in a body, the soul still lives its original celestial life and remains unseparated from intelligence. Only we are not away of this hidden life of the soul; on other words, we are partly unconscious of what happens in our minds. What is true of the soul in relation to intelligence is even truer of the relation between our embodied selves and intelligence. Not even when present in us does intelligence discontinue its activity. With this knowledge and love, we can help transform hopes and dreams and help others find eternal truths and inward peace and security that it brings. To know the One means to become one with it, which the soul can accomplish only by becoming s simple or as along as the One. In the moment of such union the souls has become God or, rather, is God; the souls has reascended to its original source. This condition is described as ecstasy, simplicity, self-surrender, touching, and flight of the alone to the alone. This ecstasy is undoubtedly the climatic moment of a person’s life. It is not expressible in words; only one who has experienced it knows what it means to be ravished away and full of God. #RandolphHarris 4 of 6
For this renascent one prepares oneself by acquisition of all the perfections (virtues, aretai). However, each of these perfections acquires different meanings according to the level on which one’s spiritual life takes place—thus, there is a social fairness, above it another kind of fairness, and so on. One prepares oneself by the exercise of dialectics. The preliminary stages of achievement is becoming Godlike. The truly infinite is a thing which has no limits imposed on it from without but only from within. We should obey the divine command and “Know thyself.” Our true happiness consists and of the concept of self-knowledge. Spiritual substances and material can interact because God represents both and connect them. Human perceptions are an effect of God’s real vision. Spiritual and material things are both real because God represents them; material things are real in a further sense, as phaenomena substantiata, in so far as God represents them as real. This divine representation is the cause of the real existence of things; but we perceive only an appearance of this real existence. The logical difficulties of the concept of infinity, that space and time cannot exist outside of human representation. The soul, properly nurtured and purified, may escape from the changing World of appearance to a higher World that is eternal and divine. The soul that departs early from the Earth does not become warped and cramped by the body but returns to the other World unimpaired. #RandolphHarris 5 of 6
It is no secret what God can do. Here is the answer to one of life’s greatest questions, “Who am I?” I am a child of God with a spirit lineage to Heavenly parents. That parentage defines our eternal potential. That powerful idea is a potent antidepressant. It can strengthen each of us to make righteous choices and to seek the best that is within us. Establish in the mind of a young person the powerful idea that he or she is a child of God and you have given self-respect and motivation to move against the problems of life. When we understand our relationship to God, we also understand our relationship to one another. All men and women on this Earth are the offspring of God, spirit brothers and sisters. What a powerful truth! Love is the most powerful force in the World. Love is not just an ecstasy, not just an intense feeling. It is a driving force. It is something that carries us through our life of joyful duty. The idea of eternal progress is one of the most powerful ideas in our theology. It gives us hope that when we falter and challenge is when we soar. And we can pray to our Heavenly Father, and he will hear our prayers and help us in the way that is best for us. We can always be in touch with a powerful friend who loves us and helps us, in his own time and in his own way. Life on Earth is more good than evil. The human enjoys pleasures that outweigh one’s pains. The greatest pleasures come from intellectual pursuits and virtuous actions; a life so spent brings happiness in this World and leads to eternal felicity in the next. #RandolphHarris 6 of 6
Blaming is an Unrighteous Form of Communication
It has been from the beginning and it will be till the end of time that people will have a tendency to rationalize and blame their behavior on other or certain circumstances. The growth of the mind is the widening of consciousness, each step forward has been a most painful and laborious achievement. Even tenacious individualists are eventually consumed by what is going on around them, the necessary constraints of socialization in a World where solitary physical and mental spaces are increasingly difficult to come by. There is an urge to escape, to find a spot where no one knows or cares who you are, and disappear so you can focus on this idea of remaining true to yourself at all costs. Against the suffering which may come upon one from human relationships the readiest safeguard is voluntary isolation, keeping oneself aloof from other people. The happiness which can be achieved along this path is, as we see, the happiness of quietness. Against the dreaded external World, one can only defend oneself by some kind of turning away from it, if one intends to solve the task by oneself. We are motivated by the goal of self-preservation, and we know that we are mortal. This is why many people invest in a supernatural belief system that paves the way for immortality. As human beings, we are capable of reflecting on the mysteries of life and celebrating the magnificence we find. Humans are religious in part because religious faith helps alleviate the fear of death by offering a means to transcend mortality, to achieve some kind of perception of eternal life. #RandolphHarris 1 of 8
Studies show that people reminded of their mortality subsequently report greater levels of religiosity as well as belief in afterlife. When we are actively able to replay our sacred moments at will, one will find that a connection to the deeper, more meaningful side of life becomes part of our daily existence rather than a once-in-a-blue-moon stroke of luck. When we discover the power of our divine moments, we will discover a well that will renew the spirit and keep us fully alive. It is important to devour these divine moments, no matter where we are; they are one of the best ways to nourish the soul. These things of ordinary life that enchant us toward eternity appears to be a fully Earthly relationship reminding us that human love is not as simple as it appears. Love releases us into the realm of divine imagination, where the soul is expanded and reminded of its unearthly cravings and needs. Love allows one to see the true angelic nature of the environment and people around us. Charity is everlasting love. Faith is belief in revealed truths. It is an energy field created by all living things. It surrounds us and penetrates us. It binds the galaxy together—something that connects all life but is also eternal. Ultimately the object of faith is God himself, who is not, however, known by the human mind in his divine simplicity but only discursively and by means of propositions. #RandolphHarris 2 of 8
We are instructed to let all bitterness, and anger, and evil speaking be put away. However, at some point, the trap of fatalism is quite compelling. Many men and women have seen in their companies and communities, a full range of self-serving, power hungry, unethical, and immoral behavior undertaken in the name of the organization, the city, the state, and the nation. They have witnessed the destructive power of human frailty. It is natural for people to become numb, disenfranchised, or themselves corrupted, or even operate morally in, a system so pervasively warped by evil. Some people voice hopelessness over the way their children are growing up in a World that suddenly seems filled with drugs, alcohol, violence, and life-threatening infirmaries. Those conditions make a lot of people feel that the very survival of an entire generation of children is threatened. A wave of destruction puts our planet at risk. The global economy is failing us, too; we seem unable to stem the tide of money flowing away from those who need it and into the pockets of those who merely want more of it. Everywhere we look we find a mind-boggling number of ethical questions about how we should be using our resources and time. #RandolphHarris 3 of 8
We have the power to control carnal communication. However, with so much hate, violence, greed, and wrongdoing around us, it can be difficult to see much good in the World. Dispirited, too many of us simply throw our hands up in defeat. We do not necessarily give ourselves over to evil, we begin to feel it is futile to fight it. We begin t expect nothing will ever improve. However, what is important is that we recognize that our attitudes—including our fatalism—are at the crux of the World’s problem. Imagine an Earth without evil, a planet is that holy good. Being human would have no particular meaning. Since the dawn of complex human consciousness, humankind has believed that our freedom is based on the principal that we get to make our own choices. Choosing to be good would have no value unless goodness existed in opposition with its polar conflicting agenda: evil. Every situation, every institution, and every person has the conscious decision to choose evil or good. What makes good and evil is what we choose to do with our lives. Your intent, rather than the action itself, is paramount. Yet keep in mind, behavior undertake for good does not always bear the product of its intent, any more than evil motives always bring evil outcomes. All reason knows is that God is the eternal, ever-present, and creative source of anything that does (or can) exist. Creation and preservation are identical. #RandolphHarris 4 of 8
These paradoxical expressions are required in order to affirm the truth that while creatures own their being to God as their first cause, they also act according to secondary cause that are appropriate to their natures. And sometimes what people mean to harm us, God turns it around and makes a situation that benefits us. Also, some people may be offended by events are meant for their well-being, even if there was no bad intent. God, as first cause, can suspend or transform secondary causes in order to perform his will. When he does so, his action is called a miracle. A miracle does not violate nature. It is a case of nature behaving in an abnormal way through a special act of the same creative power which is at work in the normal processes that can be subsumed under scientific laws. Miraculous acts are not less natural than nonmiraculous ones. However, while the abnormal character of an event is empirically verifiable, its miraculous character as an act of God can be discerned by faith alone. A wide range of schools of psychology also recommend owning up to one’s tendencies toward good and evil, in the belief that coming to terms with both inclinations is a means to healthy emotional, social, and spiritual development in adulthood. Many of our evil tendencies remain hidden, even from ourselves, until maturity provides us with the imperative to confront them. #RandolphHarris 5 of 8
There may be hearts that are suffering in silence. The individual struggle to prevail over the feelings of evil powers that invade each of us produces the tension that gives birth to both moral action and creativity. This inner struggle is at the heart of our sense of personal freedom. Quantum physics indicates that the power of expectation can change the behavior of subatomic particles and energy waves. Energy is momentum (the product of mass and velocity) or vis viva. In all the Universe the same quantity of living force is always conserved. The apparent loss of living force in inelastic collisions is usually explained away by the hypothesis that the invisible small parts of matter gain energy just as much as the macroscopic bodies seem to lose. This is extended into a belief that what you think is what you get, literally. That is why people believe we are actually bringing more of that evil on ourselves by focusing on negative thoughts, negative news, or the evil in others. From a religious, psychological, and practical standpoint, it stands to reason that we have a vested interest in changing our attitudes, even if evil seems too powerful to oppose. Before we can hope to conquer the evil that is out there, we must face the part of us that gives in to these vices, that allows us to lose hope in the face of negativity. #RandolphHarris 6 of 8
The real challenge that we face in our communications with others is to condition our hearts to have Godlike feelings for all of Heavenly Father’s children. Many people have never missed a meal, been cold, slept on the ground, never had any real-life experiences, never bled. So how can you expect them to have any real material? Still, that does not make them bad people nor mean that one should go out of their way to make them experience hardship and pain just because you have. Meeting our own shadow can be a painful and frightening experience. Our shadows represent the unknown parts of ourselves that are too reprehensible, incongruent, or forbidding to incorporate into our conscious personality. Typically, those of us afraid of evil within project those traits onto others in the World. Projection is the easiest way to avoid dealing with our own darker traits, impulses, and actions. Projection is a way of blaming others so we do not have a guilty conscious. Spiritual growth requires the acknowledgment of one’s own imperfection. The destructive power of evil is linked to the inability to admit personal sinfulness, and the corresponding tendency to see others as bad instead. Fortunately, inner exploration means more than facing personal weakness. Looking closely at oneself also allows for rediscovery of spiritual strengths. True individuality is all about an ability to shift and change and take advantage of circumstances without abandoning a core truth and confidence. #RandolphHarris 7 of 8
Heavenly Father has given us a priceless gift in our capacity to communicate with each other. Our communications are at the core of our relationships with others. If we are to return home safely to Heavenly Father, we must develop righteous relationships with His children here in mortality. Our communications reflect in our countenance. Therefore, we must be careful not only what we communicate, but also how we do so. Souls can be strengthened or shattered by the messages and the manner in which we communicate. Integrity is the core of our character. Without integrity we have a weak foundation upon which to build righteous character. Negative criticism is intended to hurt and often defame and to destroy. Even if you are under attack by a lot of people, at some point it is just best to ignore what they say and do because you do not want to become like them. This caustic communication is cruel, and it tends to crush the character of all those about whom it is directed. We should not have a mind to injure one another, but to live peaceably. May we be found communicating with each other in a manner in which the Savior would communicate. Godlike communications are expressed in tones of love rather than loudness. They are intended to be helpful rather than hurtful. They tend to bind us together rather than to drive us apart. They are tools to build relationships rather than to belittle. “God knows thoughts and intent of heart,” reports Alma 18.32. #RandolphHarris 8 of 8
Soon Goes to Rest in Paradise of God—The Voice of God is in the Heart
The Universe works in mysterious ways. The voice of God is in the human heart. To rest in God means we take refuge in his protective care. Sometimes blessing take a little while because God is creating a harvest beyond your wildest dreams. The mind of the individuating person should remain contemplative as the spirit converses and assimilates with the unconscious. God, who is the creator of the World, is fully in harmony with the laws of nature, which God himself has implanted in the World for its governance. By the grace of God some exceptional persons may be born with a thoroughly sinless nature. Respect the voice of conscience as the voice of God in the soul of human beings and be encouraged to develop a spirit free of inquiry in all directions. When your decisions are always full of fear, you deny the best that is in you. That is a sin against yourself and probably the biggest sin of all. Traveling the road of exceptional competence will spur your mental mastery, your physical vigor, and your emotional vitality. With your roles in synchronous flow with your values, everything you do has greater meaning. It will give birth to an inner voice that awakens the soul. It is not necessary to dwell on the past. Make room in your mind for the new things God wants to do. Do not let these temporary provisions become permanent. If we can learn this principle of having faith and not settling, then we will see the fullness of what God has in store and make it all the way to the promised land. “Only those who repent and harden not their hearts shall enter the Lord’s rest,” reports Alma 12.34-37. #RandolphHarris 1 of 6
Care of the soul means respecting its emotions and fantasies however objectionable. Great miracles have taken place. All kind of good thing have happened. We cannot be contained. Just as researcher has charted the course of healthy mental, physical, emotional, and social development across the life span, contemporary scientists and theologians have recently attempted to map out how human beings grow spiritually. God put this dream in our hearts, and as long as we stay in faith, nothing can shut in down. When God created us, he put a spirit of increase on the inside. We were never made to reach one level and stop. We were created to grow, to move forward, and to prosper. We should be constantly surpassing the barriers of the past, taking new ground for our families and advancing in God’s kingdom. However, throughout life there will always be forces trying to deprive us. When we reflect on the tragedies of our own loves, when we slowly find our way through their miseries, we are being initiated into the mysterious ways of the soul. They cannot stop the progress we have made, but they will do their best to contain us, to keep us isolated, alienated, and struggling as a method of limiting our influence. Yet, keep in mind, the force of God is in you and it is greater than anything that has ever existed. Keep increasing your faith, look for new opportunities, new idea, and new ways to expand your influence. “Have love of God always in your hearts, that you may enter into his rest,” reports Alma 13.29. #RandolphHarris 2 of 6
God made you for more, to influence more, to accomplish more, to love more, to give more, and to have more. Love is the means of entry and our guide. God will take you places you never dreamed us and provide opportunities that will establish amazing influence. As individual belief is tested in the real World, young adults reconsider and redefine spirituality, often relinquishing the narrow views they were taught as youngsters and embracing the universality of spiritual principles and practices; this expansion of spiritual viewpoint may allow them to find spiritual meaning in art, architecture, automobiles, nature, and more. If we can honor love as it presents itself, taking shapes and directions we would never have predicted or desired, then we will enter a deeper sense of awe and mystery of life; a wise understanding of the collective legends, religions, and traditions; and the potential to be a spiritual leader. Still, love asks many things of us, including actions that seem to be utterly counter to feelings of attachment and loyalty. That is why the signs we are ready to grow in spirit sometimes appear in the form of both curses and blessings. We may experience severe episodes of disillusionment with life, or periods of profound awe and reverence for the miracle of existence—or both at once. “Obtain sufficient hope by which you can enter into rest of the Lord,” reports Moroni 7.3. #RandolphHarris 3 of 6
The fluctuations in the rhythms of life calling us to spiritual serenity will continue as we walk along our path, which can be frustrating and fulfilling. Nelson Mandela was put in prison because he opposed the government of apartheid. Apartheid is an official policy of racial segregation promulgated in the Republic of South Africa. He could have thought that he did his best, gave it his all and supposed it was not meant for him to be successful. However, Mr. Mandela knew God intended to increase his influence is use that source of discrimination and human rights violations to increase his influence and give him a testimony of how his faith in God and perseverance increased his power and influence. After twenty-seven years in prison, Mr. Mandela walked out of prison a free man. He eventually became the president of South Africa and won a Nobel Peace Prize. What God has destined for your life will come to fulfillment. Even to define God generally as a superhuman or supernatural being that controls the World is inadequate. God is unquestionable transcendent. God is the pure and unsullied Ming of the Universe, transcending virtue, transcending knowledge, transcending good itself. No one has ever seen God and our knowledge of him is like a confused reflection in a mirror. The divine substance exceeds by its immensity every form which our intellect attains, so while we know that God is (quod sit) we cannot know his essence or what he is (quid sit). “We have labor to perform, that we may conquer enemy and rest our souls in kingdom of God,” reports Moroni 9.6. #RandolphHarris 4 of 6
God moves the World in the sense that he endues form from its material structure by inspiring it, through a series of subordinate movers or intelligences, to love him as its end or goal. Being wholly good, and therefore free from jealousy, he wished everything to be like himself. Since an intelligent being is superior to an unintelligent one, and since intelligence cannot be present in anything that is devoid of soul, he put intelligence in soul, and soul in body, that he might be the creator of a work which was by nature best. When the Apostle Paul was imprisoned for spreading the good news, his captors thought they were containing him. Paul could have become discouraged and given up. Instead, he proceeded to draft much of the New Testament from a prison cell and is still profoundly influencing us today. What does it mean to you that God has made you uncontainable? What charity of greatness are waiting to forge a foundation and flourish in your life? Take more time in your day to reflect on the meaning of events. If we do not struggle to find more satisfying answers to these fundamental questions during our life journeys, later in life we risk facing fear and anger as our main companions. However, if we can begin to ponder these questions, we open ourselves to a spiritual awakening that makes the rest of our lives a deeper, richer experience than we imagined possible. There is no limit to the methods by which one can access peace and meaning. Truth is where you find it. “May God’s mercy and long-suffering rest in your mind forever,” reports Moroni 9.25. #RandolphHarris 5 of 6
The spiritual journey has many rewards independent of the answers that are sought. Through spirituality, one can make leaps of understanding that defy the limits of the mind; connect with others, and the World around, at levels never before experienced; and eliminate much of the fear and doubt that often plagues the emotional life. Nothing is ever wasted in the Kingdom of God. Not one tear, not all our pain, not the unanswered question nor the seemingly unanswered prayers. If we give our lives to God, nothing will be wasted. And if we are willing to be patient until the grace of God is made manifest, whether it takes a day, a month, a week, or a decade, it will be worth the wait. Take your tie on this pathway—there are people who dedicate their whole lives to the important pursuit you are about to undertake. Although you may find you can share with and learn from other spiritual journeyers, the answers you find are meant for you. Feel the experience fully, and live what answers are offered. Ultimately, your connections with your values will allow you to regulate your emotions in order to avoid giving into temptation and acting impulsively. It is important that we are able to control our emotions instead of being controlled by them. “Spirit and body shall reunite in perfect form,” reports Alma 11.43. Of all the dispositions and habits which lead to political prosperity, religion and morality are indispensable supports. In vain would a person claim the tribute of patriotism, who should labor to subvert these great pillars of human happiness, these firmest props of the duties of humans and citizens. #RandolphHarris 6 of 6
Our Wishes and Dreams Fare Better When We Have a Little Courage
Our wishes and dreams fare so much better when we have a little courage—courage to stand up for our beliefs, courage to face the unknown, courage to be successful. In our confusing, constantly shifting age, more and more of us long for the traditions of a supposedly simpler time. Though we many not join fundamentalist religions, trade in our cars for horses and buggies, or set off to foreign lands, we cannot help but occasionally think that times were better when our values and our lifestyles were protected by restrictive codes governing behavior. Being bridled, or yielding obediently to restraint, is necessary for our personal growth and progression. There was a prison program where wild horses were being tamed by people who were serving time in prison. As the inmates formed friendships with the horses, they learned or reaffirmed patience, controlling tempers, respect for others, and the value of working within a system. As they watched the horses learn to be obedient to their commands and guidance, the inmates realized how they could have avoided terrible mistakes that had put them in prison. Obedience to righteous principles and learning who is trustworthy would have offered the inmates freedom from social infirmary, shame, degradation, and feelings of guilt and regret. Some people took the view—if you want to treat us differently, we will act differently. However, like the horses, the people serving time can still learn, progress, and achieve. #RandolphHarris 1 of 7
When you wish, dream, and so, a successful outcome is directly related to your willingness to take a risk. We hear many persuasive voices demanding freedom from restrictions, particularly from moral restraints. However, we learn from the history of the Earth that any successful society has had boundaries. There is an unsettling yearning for the past simplicity many experience when confronted by the vagaries and complexities of the new conformity. Here, the small town looms large as the bastion of a simpler, better time when values were shared and people worked together to uphold the sanctity of family and community. In the Heavenly small town, no one was out of place, no one was taking Prozac, everyone had a role and a purpose. The ideal town provided a dream like relief from freedom through effortless recognition. It is hardly surprising that the simple life of the small town looms so large in our imagination. Currently, in our free society, it seems to have become daunting. People are actually begging the government to take away their rights and do away with laws. They want the government to dictate every aspect of their lives because the more freedom we have, the more troublesome and threatening it seems. People today are not so much concerned with the need to belong to a community as with the liberation from the compulsion of constantly having to choose and decide. Where freedom becomes a cage, many chose the freedom of a cage. #RandolphHarris 2 of 7
The meaning of the word liberty is difficult to circumscribe. The World has never had a good definition of the term. We all declare for liberty, but in using the same word we do not mean the same thing. With some, the word liberty may mean for each person to do as he or she pleases with oneself and the product of one’s labor. While with others liberty may mean for some people to do as the please with other people and the product of other people’s labor. Yet, the sweets of liberty about which we usually speak may be classified as political independence, economic freedom, and free agency. We should also strive for a freedom of the soul. “Let virtue garnish thy thoughts unceasingly; then shall thy confidence wax strong in the presence of God,” reports Doctrines and Covenants 121.45. One who enjoys such liberty is free indeed. One is possessed of perfect liberty. Some people are seeking an escape from a society that compels loneliness by placing the highest values on individual achievement. They seek to be born again into yesterday, stripped of their fears and uncertainties, protected from the ravages and confusions of the shape-shifting present. We get so tired of having the same problems over and over that we finally admit there may be other ways of solving the problems. #RandolphHarris 3 of 7
Until we mature, most of us remain entrenched in our own behavior patterns, likely, as the saying goes, to try harder instead of smarter. In fact, studies have shown that adult humans are the only creatures that will stick to a problem-solving technique that has lost its effectiveness. In contrast, countless animal-conditioning experiments with chickens and elephants show that after a certain number of attempts to jump a barrier, escape confinement, even avoid a painful electrical shock, the animals will give up trying. We humans do get credit for persistence, if not for hardheadedness. Our problem is that we are going about it wrong. Our animal friends, on the other hand, are often completely incapacitated by failure. If the experimenter removes the barrier, boundaries, or electrical field, for example, animals still make no effort to achieve their original goal, even though goal attainment is now possible. Waiting for circumstances to change, however, is not usually a good option for humans seeking conflict resolution. It is not likely that some “experimenter” will magically render our previously unsuccessful communication efforts suddenly effective. Think of it as buying the lottery tickets of human interaction; it is possible, but highly unlikely, that you will resolve anything without changing your approach. #RandolphHarris 4 of 7
Frankly, if we do not take a fresh look at communications problems as we mature, there is a good chance we never will: although senior adults can learn new communications skills, the prognosis for achieving great strides in interpersonal effectiveness diminishes significantly after a certain age. Researcher who study relationship trends among older adults often cite age-related declines in physical ability, which may hinder motivation, as well as deeply ingrained communication habits, as the major deterrents to improving relationships in later stages of adulthood. Many people tend to adopt a relating style that worked for them as children, and stay with it forever. Naturally, this creates a strong desire to escape the pressures of constantly creating individuality. The trend whereby people abandon high stress lifestyles in favor of lives centered on family and community provides a sense of enlightenment, freedom, maturity, and individuality. Downshifting is happening because millions of Americans are recognizing that, in fact, their lives are no longer in sync with their values. The money and the consumption-identity line has started to seem meaningless. In wake of the dot-com bubble burst, many people who would have been millionaires from their experience in computer science technology sought simpler lives by moving to a quiet town, opening a business and taking on new careers is an example of downshifting. #RandolphHarris 5 of 7
Inspired by great food and New York Culture, one post-dot-com Columbia University MBA holder decided to open a hot-dog stand in Brooklyn, New York USA. The idea was created to give a classic New York staple the quality and love it deserves. Using fresh ingredients, organic meats, freshly baked buns, and fancy mustards to produce a hot dog people could feel good about eating. Similarly, Assaf Tarnopolsky, a Wharton Business School graduate who took his post-dot-com career in the direction of crepes initially sweated and encountered some setbacks that were part of any start up, but he and his partner always reminded themselves that they have a great concept and an incredible product. And that without taking risks, success would be out of reach instead of around the corner. They have since expanded and are now known as the “West Coast Crepe King.” Still risk can produce so much anxiety that you begin to wonder why you are pursuing a passion in the first place. Anxiety is a natural, deeply felt response to being emotionally or physically separated from things or people we have learned to count on. You will not always be able to explain your courage—to others or to yourself. And after overcoming a significant trial, someone might ask you, “How on Earth did you accomplish that?” You might not know yourself, but deep inside you know it was by the grace of God. God did not bring you this far to let you go. #RandolphHarris 6 of 7
Because you are an adult, sometimes it is important to be meticulous. Instead of trying to do too much at once, think of the strides you will make by sampling a little courage one until you get comfortable because when you deny your dreams a voice, you quell any hope for turning what you want into what is yours. Once you decide that your wishes and dreams should come out to play, you are likely to make some discoveries. Some will be stunning, others puzzling, but all will intrigue. Some people take time off from work after they realize they are work obsessed city types who have become battered down by stress and obligation and are so focused on the money they make that it starts to deteriorate their bodies. Deblekha Guin took a temporary time out on a small island. She bought a nice house with cathedral ceilings. She knew moving to a small rural community was the smartest thing she had ever done because she had the opportunity to articulate what she felt and how she felt. Deblekha feel a sense of belonging in this community. She felt something and felt a part of something. It was the type of place if you had a cold someone would take care of you and everyone blended in. There is a close connection between the ability to feel and tolerate anxiety and the ability to enter mutually gratifying relationships. Pour out your soul in thanksgiving. #RandolphHarris 7 of 7
God is Up in His Ivory Shower!
When people are talking to people, it is important that one darn sure understands what is going on. Cultural legacies matter—they are powerful and pervasive and they persist, long after their original usefulness has passed. However, do not assume that legacies are an indelible part of who we are. “Let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth, but only that which is good and edifying, that it may minister grace unto the hearers,” reports Ephesians 4.29. If we are honest about where we come from and are willing to confront those aspects of our heritage that do not suit the professional World, we can change. We can and should participate in continuing civil dialogue, especially when we view the World from differing perspectives. When we understand what it really means to be a good person—when we understand how much culture and history and the World outside of the individual matter to professional success—then we do not have to throw up our hands in despair at other people when they make mistakes. We have a way to make success out of the unsuccessful. “A soft answer turns away wrath: but grievous words stir up anger,” reports Proverbs 15.1. Although it is important to be frank about a subject we would all too often rather ignore, a soft answer consists of a reasoned response—disciplined words from a humble heart. Words that may be firm in information can be soft in spirit. #RandolphHarris 1 of 7
Why are we so squeamish? Why is the fact that each of us comes from a culture with its own distinctive mix of strength and weaknesses, tendencies and predispositions, so difficult to acknowledge? Who we are cannot be separated from where we are from—and when we ignore that fact, accidents happen. You can imagine how frustrating it can be when people are all thinking furiously, trying to square their assumptions about a person or situation they know nothing about. There exists today a great need for people to cultivate respect for each other across wide distances of belief and behavior and across deep canyons of conflicting agendas. It is impossible to know all that informs our minds and hearts or even to fully understand the context for the trials and choices we each face. Even intelligent individuals have trouble with the group mentality trap. In order to avoid the hazards of hardheadedness and self-interest in a group setting where the issues at hand may appear to be impossible to solve, we need to understand a genuine dialogue that will free individuals to do their best thinking. When each person feels that his or her opinions and emotions are taken seriously, the intelligence of a group or community can move beyond the intelligence quotient of any of the individuals, into the collective genius. Learning to relate to the person behind the opinions by shifting to a more beneficial point of view is the most effective way of ending the conflict. #RandolphHarris 2 of 7
When a person is trying to express to you what is going on, it is never a good idea to compare and contrast their situation with someone you think who has a more difficult time. Whatever the person talking to you is going through has nothing to do with comparing their situation to someone else’s. They are trying to explain what is going on with them and get some kind of empathy or advice. Sometimes we need to fully own the limits of our own imperfections and rough edges in communicating with others, and practice with tender regard for another’s experience what we are thinking. Hearing someone who has it harder does not and should not make us feel better. It would be like a struggling adult talking about their situation and someone saying, “Well, when your father was twenty-one he has a successful career, a house in the hills, and a brand-new car.” And it is like, that is nice, but there may be something someone is trying to express about their situation that has nothing to do with a comparison. They may be looking for help on how to deal with something they think is personal. Rising above our own feelings requires an unselfish generosity, the kind of generosity that contributes to happiness. Everyone has a different lifestyle and other people’s failures of successes have nothing to do with one’s situation. #RandolphHarris 3 of 7
It is sometimes like because people, even if they are older, get together in groups and because they have had a hard life, they want to take it out on someone who was rising above the doom and gloom and mistakes others made with their life. And when they finally bring that person down and that person is suffering, they want that individual to know that they have had a hard life and why should you have it any different. It is like seeing you suffer makes them feel better, and they want to blame you for their problems. Typically as we age, empathy for another person’s perspective comes easier than it does during earlier periods, but not always for some. Research on healthy adult development reveals that one key characteristic of maturity is the increased capacity to respect and even embrace another person’s point of view. Vast improvements in relationships are made when we can move beyond our rigid ideas and attempt to encounter others as people, not positions. Perhaps most exciting are the community—even global—implications of simply getting to know each other before we attempt to “solve” problems. “For the Lord sees not as people see; people look at the outside appearance, but God look at the heart,” reports 1 Samuel 16.7. It does not matter who is more right. What matters is listening to each other an understanding the other’s perspective. The willingness to see through each other’s eyes will transform corrupt communication in ministering grace. #RandolphHarris 4 of 7
Western communication has what linguists call a transmitter orientation—that is, it is considered the responsibility of the speaker to communicate ideas clearly and unambiguously. However, there is something beautiful in the subtlety of the exchange in Eastern culture, in the attention that each party must pay to the motivations and desires of the other. It is civilized, in the truest sense of that word: it does not permit insensitivity or insensitivity or indifference. However, high-power distance communication works only when the listener is capable of paying close attention, and it only works if the two parties in a conversation have the luxury of time, in order to unwind each other’s meanings. It does not work in high finance when time is an issue and people are exhausted and trying to get a situation taken care of before a deadline. Speaking through grace and compassionate language when the cultivated gift of the Holy Ghost pierces our hearts with empathy for the feelings and context of others. It enables us to transform hazardous situations into holy places. God looks upon our hearts and cares what we are thinking. It is also important to understand that sometimes people have had discussions in the past, and they only reason they may revisit them is because some third-party steps in with their opinions. So people who have had a discussion in the past understand what the other is saying and does not have to go into much detail. #RandolphHarris 5 of 7
And, frankly, sometimes people just need to mind their own business and keep their opinions to themselves, especially if you start trying to power force in a situation that has nothing to do with you and there is clear evidence that your influence has made the situation much worse. No one asked for your opinion, no one asked for your help and if you had followed the law all the pain and suffer and decades of corrective action and millions of dollars would not have been spent trying to correct a problem you created by trying to force your influence over a situation that was under control. People are not here to have their faith questioned and challenged. We are here to remind ourselves that we are not alone, to reaffirm centuries-old traditions with like-minded souls from around the World. We are not brainwashed, we are not being forced, we are all confirmed, we are doing this on our own. The Church does not make mistakes. We are all sinners, we are not perfect, we cannot expect anyone to be perfect like God, but it is important to show respect and not try to force your situations or ways onto others, especially when they can have fatal and lifelong impacts. Sometimes when people are watching you, they cannot help but feel jealous because you believe in something; it is more than they can say. #RandolphHarris 6 of 7
When you follow a leader, a code, a God, and it give your life meaning not by seeking to attain control of someone else’s narrative and reshaping, but through the opposite: by relinquishing it; we shall go one pursuing the path which the Lord has marked out before us. We have the right to influence who gets elected, what gets taught in schools, what gets sold in stores, and what rights we have in order to make decisions about our own bodies in lives. You cannot own a person and try to control their lives by using political forces. You cannot assume you know more than a person does about their products when you are not an expect. America is a law of lands and we have a capitalistic system because other systems can be very dangerous and deadly, as they do not respect human lives nor freedom of choice. America used to be a different World, where slavery was legal and everyone can see how deadly and dangerous it is when people do not have the freedom to make choices about their own lives, bodies, health and occupations. “Teach ye diligently and my grace shall attend you, that you may be instructed more perfectly in theory, in principle, in doctrine, in law of the gospel, in all things that pertain unto the kingdom of God, that are expedient for you to understand; of both in Heaven and in the Earth, and under the Earth; things which must shortly come to pass; thing which are at home; things which are abroad; the wars and the perplexities of the nations,” reports Doctrines and Covenants 88.78-80. #RandolphHarris 7 of 7
He Opened the Door, Your Honor
There are many currents in this Earthly life—some are safe and others are not. The current that is good for the soul encourages reflection and reverie. There are rich prospects for revival in the privileges granted the golden years of life that allow people to live out their existence with a far greater purpose in mind. The golden years are about more than accumulating comforts. It is for resuming activities that we gave up during the commotion of our earlier years, which may renew our spirit for life. Physical problems may have reduced our choices and stripped away previously dominant aspects of our identity, but it is also important to remember that many seniors are actually much more active and stronger than some people who are younger than they are. Maturing is not always a life sentence to pain and suffering, it all depends on how well a person takes care of themselves. However, throughout life, our bodies tend to get banged up, even young people suffer debilitating pains, and this requires them to slow down. Yet, injuries and age are not reason for anyone to give up on their dreams. If a person has one hour to live and discovers oneself and one’s life in that hour, is not this a valid and important growth? There are no deadlines on living, none on what one may do or feel so long as one is alive. People have to resolve to invest themselves in the sacrifice of love and mature with Godly zeal. #RandolphHarris 1 of 10
Infirmaries or age may disrupt so many of the patterns that previously constrained us that we may at least attain the freedom to be fully ourselves. The powerful forces in our lives surface as we age, allowing one to discover previously untapped abilities, and pursue their development. These forces are real. We should never ignore them. Their development may inspire us with fresh purposes. We do not take well to uselessness. Many become painfully aware that absence does not make the heart grow founder. Retirement and indisposition challenge us to redefine what it means to be of use and to have purpose. Outside of making a living, raising a family, or practicing the trade or profession around which we have built our identity, most of us would be hard-pressed to designate other aims. One does not incorporate a professional self for some forty years only to cast it off suddenly as a worn outer garment. It is our flesh and blood, giving meaning and purpose to our lives. Our lives are structured such that grappling with emptiness is usually concentrated at the end. In youth, our time is filled with schooling. Middle age is consumed with work, and the last third of life is left to leisure. Younger people crave work and free time, middle-aged people long for leisure and opportunities to learn, and older people wish above all for useful activity and new knowledge. #RandolphHarris 2 of 10
We could wipe out ninety percent of senior’s woes at a stroke by finding them suitable work. Real work and real education, that is the open secret of satisfaction from birth to passing. Some people cherish the opportunity to hang clothes on a line outdoors. The fresh smell, the wet fabrics, the blowing wind, and the drying Sun go together to make an experience of nature and culture that is unique and particularly pleasurable for its simplicity and the good memories it brings of youth. Clothes tossed on a line by the wind arouse a pleasurable scent and touch upon the vitality, the deep pleasures of ordinary life, and unseen forces of nature. The Sun kills germs and therefore the clothes smell so much better. If you are old enough to recall, you could smell the Sunshine in lined dried clothes and with the mixture of fabric softener, they smelled like Heaven. As keepers of home and gardens the spirit still move and speak but if we attend. They found in the unplanned sproutings in the flower beds, and sudden moments of blinding beauty, as where Sunlight glances across a newly-waxed table or the wind stirring clean laundry into fresh choreography. Many of the arts practiced at home are especially nourishing to the soul because they foster contemplation and demand a degree of skill and artfulness, such as changing a lock, arranging flowers, cooking and making repairs. #RandolphHarris 3 of 10
What counts as real work is an individual question. Activities such as teaching, creating things of beauty, or helping other people are highly esteemed by some. I have a friend who is taking time over several months to paint a garden scene on a low panel of her dining room wall. Sometimes these extraordinary arts bring out the individual, so that when you go into a home you can see the special character of your hosts in a particular aspect of their home. Attending to the soul in these ordinary things usually leads to a more individual life, if not to an eccentric style. However, those accustomed to more traditional careers may not be satisfied with the kinds of work they are able to do within their reduced physical capacities, or around the house. What is sometimes needed during retirement is a willingness to accept a kind of excommunication from the things from which one formerly derived satisfaction. A stumbling-block for many is that the work available to them is unpaid. Many believe that the labourer is worthy of one’s hire, that you get what you pay for. It is very hard for a lot of people to believe that their work is valued when they do it for nothing. Assigning worth to a task according to the amount of money received is an attitude not easily discarded, no matter how vehemently reassurances are offered that one’s unpaid work is valued. #RandolphHarris 4 of 10
We each employ personal constructs, customary channels through which our thoughts reach conclusions, and that these constructs limit what we are able to perceive. When a person is under pressure one is not likely to develop new channels; instead one will tend to reverse oneself along the dimensional lines which have already been established. A man who had been a successful packing designer had a stroke in which he lost the use of his right hand. He recounts a painful moment of reckoning that occurred soon after his return home from the hospital: I was home alone. I cannot recall the exact circumstances but I suspect I must have tried to do something with my right arm and failed. Then it hit me—the realization I had been trying to deny since I had my stroke. I was going to be crippled for the rest of my life. They say that your past life flashes before you when you are drowning. I do not know about that, but it certainly happened to me with this realization. “Now when our hearts are depressed, and we are about to turn back, behold, the Lord comforted us and said: Go amongst your brethren, and bear with patience thine afflictions, and I will give onto you success,” reports Alma 26.27. Seeing his situation in such dire terms left this man choiceless and bereft. However, reading the scriptures is supposed to remind God of his promises, and he is more likely to fulfill them. #RandolphHarris 5 of 10
Contained in the designs he had rendered with his right hand had been all he knew of his talents and all he has surmised about making a meaningful life. The mysteries of God are unfolded unto us only according to his will and by the power of the Holy Ghost. Eventually, the man realized that there was more to him and to life than had emerged in his previous career, but much time and struggle elapsed before he was able to widen his views to this extent. Once the initial pressures of disability or idleness abate, our former ways of perceiving may gradually fall away. “God will not give you any more than you can handle,” reports 1 Corinthians 10.13. A woman who was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis (MS) at the young age of thirty-seven states, “The knowledge that I have MS has made me want to be even more clear about exactly what life is and to be direct in my response. Tamia, a successful and absolutely gorgeous singer with one of the most beautiful voices many have ever hears was also diagnosed with MS, at the tender age of twenty-eight. It was difficult for her to deal with the symptoms and attacks while trying to keep up her successful career. “God the Father of all compassion and the God of all comfort, who consoles us in all our troubles, so that we can alleviate those in any trouble with the solace we ourselves receive from God,” reports 2 Corinthians 1.4. #RandolphHarris 6 of 10
Some people find that they are satisfied by their sheer pleasure of being in the midst of activity. It fills a person with soul, reflects their love of nature, and irrepressible eccentricity of the imagination. When imagination is allowed to move to deep places, the sacred is reveled. The more different kinds of thoughts we experience around a thing and the deeper our reflections go by its artfulness, the more fully its sacredness can emerge. To feel their lives are worthwhile, others need to participate in something larger than themselves. They need to know that somewhere, at least for a few hours a week, their presence is expected and their efforts make a difference. It gives people a feeling of being alive again. Many feels like they have a new lease on life. There is no reason why one should sit back and vegetate because one has reached a certain age or suffers from injuries. There has to be meaning in what we do. It follows, then, that living artfully can be a tonic for the secularization of life that characterizes our time. We can, of course, bring religion more closely in tune with ordinary life by immersing ourselves in formal rituals and traditional teachings; but we can also serve religion’s soul by discovering the natural religion in all things. The route to this discovery is art, both the fine arts and those of everyday life. #RandolphHarris 7 of 10
If we could loosen our grip on the functionality of life and let ourselves be arrested by the imaginal richness that surrounds all objects, natural and human-made, we might ground our secular attitudes in a religious sensibility and give ordinary life soul. Until we manage to redefine our purposes in this way, our days may lose their momentum and our spirits may yield to lassitude. When a fifty-three-year-old man was forced to retire from his position as a corporate executive due to worsening osteoporosis from vertebral compressions fractures, which caused pain that got worse when he would stand or walk, trouble bending and twisting his body, he spent the next several months dreaming all night long that he was at work. He even felt envious and degraded each morning as he watched his wife leave for her job. After struggling through the chasm of having nothing to do, he eventually emerged with another view of his circumstances. An elderly neighbor asked him for help doing her taxes. He had been feeling so worthless that he was surprised that she thought of him. Then another neighbor needed help doing her budget. She had gotten into bad debt with credit cards, so she started coming over once a month to figure out how to match her income with her expenses. Then a friend asked his advice in managing his stock. It kept building like that. #RandolphHarris 8 of 10
We can approach the depth that is the domain of our soul when we find the essential passion, that solid, palpable, and intellectually satisfying appreciation of life beyond our perceived limitations. After a while, he started seeing ten or fifteen regular clients. Because he cannot go to them, they come right to his living room. He would do everything from balance checkbooks to manage stock portfolios. He does it for free because they are so kind to him and acting as their accountant and investment manager gives him the chance to use his education and experience. This man was finally able to relinquish his previous notions of a useful life and replace them with ideas that fit his circumstances. Many of the crises of the latter half of life or by an on-set disability, is marked by desperate bids to retain old channels of satisfaction and fulfillment. It is only when we let go of the familiar that fresh life can come in and revive us by imagination with exceptional range and depth. God is the minimum as well as the maximum. The small things in everyday life are no less sacred than the great issues of human existence. “Behold, my beloved brethren, we came into the wilderness not with the intent to destroy our brethren, but with the intent that perhaps we might save some few of their souls,” reports Alma 26.26. #RandolphHarris 9 of 10
Treatment deals with thoughts rather than with people. We must be careful never to associate a negative condition with the person who suffers from it. It does not belong to you nor anyone else. Perfection is already accomplished; it was and is and will remain. There is a perfect idea back of every organ and there is a perfect actor back of all life. The more completely you realize this the more effective will be your psychological treatment, because this treatment is a conscious pronouncement about the spiritual self and its relationship to the Universe or God. Faith and trust in the Lord requires us to acknowledge that his wisdom is superior to our own. We must also acknowledge that his plan provides the greatest potential for spiritual development and learning. Through their age and disability, some people are able to speak up for others and share in their suffering and let them know someone understands. Some are able to help save lives and help others prosper with their career and knowledge. If these people had not matured or suffered from a loss of ability, they would have never been able to reach the millions and give them hope, or simply help their neighbors avoid financial ruin and homelessness. “God is mindful of every people, whatsoever land they may be in; he numbers his people, and his bowels of mercy are over all the Earth. Now, this is our joy, and we will give thanks unto God forever. Amen,” reports Alma 26.37. #RandolphHarris 10 of 10
There is Power in Being an Understander and Listener
Pure mind is in a state of harmony. We want to be encircled in the arms of our Heavenly Father’s love and guidance. At different times in our history we have denied soul to classes of beings we have wanted to control. Certain groups of people, at one time, had been deprived of having the ability to possess a soul. In our day, we assume that things have no soul, and thus we can do to them what we will. If we knew in our hearts that all beings and all things have a soul, we could not govern them as conscious subject over inert objects. Instead, we would have a mutual relationship of affection, respect, and care. We would be less lonely in a World that is alive with its own kind of soul than we are in a mechanical World we think we need to sustain with our technological efforts. Collectively we are like the burdened individual who thinks he or she has to get up early every morning in order to help sun rise. This is not all that uncommon a neurotic conception, and it reflects an attitude we all share, in part, as participants in the spirit of the times. If there is such a thing as mental healing it must be based on the supposition that all form is a manifestation of mind and that mind controls its manifestation. If God is all, there is nothing of which to be afraid, for perfect love casts out fear; where love is, fear cannot enter. #RandolphHarris 1 of 8
There once was a boy who used to put all of his stuff animals on his bed in alphabetical order. Bear, cat, dog, elephant and so on. One day, his mother realized that they were in a different order and she asked why? The boy responded, “I put them in the order that I love them. Please do not tell them, I do not want to hurt anyone’s feelings.” In all of us there is a profound longing for friendship, a deep yearning for the satisfaction and security that close and lasting relationships can give. Much conspires against friendship in later life. Retirement removes the context from which work friendship may have drawn their momentum. Physical problems may interfere with the nature of our activities and the frequency of our contacts with others. Above all, the passing of old friends may rob us of the will for friendship. When new friends beckon, we are reluctant to put heart and the energy into making news ones. Many people will limit themselves to superficial friendships. They insist that nothing further is possible, staying within safe conversational topics, such as the doings of family members and the trivialities of work. They then point to these dull friendships as proof of their initial belief. Some believe that the new friendships have no place to grow together and that they have heard it all before, and there is nothing left to say. #RandolphHarris 2 of 8
Simple love, honestly expressed, gives hope and value to others. We tend to shun in others what we fear in ourselves. Yet mustering our willingness to look beneath the surface of other people’s dispositions if the only way to counter this fear with hope. If instead we keep averting our eyes and refusing to make accommodations, our intolerance will fill us with dread as our own surfaces deteriorates. We may leave ourselves stranded when we disallow soul to simple things around us because we lose that important source of soul for ourselves. Concretely, a tree can tell us much in the language of its form, texture, age, and colour and in the way in presents itself as an individual. However, in this expression of itself, it is also showing us the secretes of our own souls, for there is no absolute separation between the World’s soul and our own. We are truly the World, and the World is us. When we are satisfied that we know all that is worth knowing about ourselves, or when we accept that there is nothing more to day or to learn from others, we close off our curiosity. We tell ourselves, “I have had enough,” and we stay sad and exhausted. Some people would rather have dinner in complete silence instead of talking about the same problems over and over and so they push themselves to find new ideas and concepts to discuss to keep life interesting. Like the fact that we can clone or pets and buy land on the Moon. #RandolphHarris 3 of 8
Perhaps our life in a loving premortal World set up our yearning for true, lasting love here on Earth. Taking an interest is half of inspiration. There is power in being an understander and listener. As life gets physically more difficult, we need commitments to others to bind us to life. Those who stay insular find that their spirit for life dwindles along with their physical powers. Gift have to move from one person or another, or they lose their values. Anything contained within a boundary must contain as well its own exhaustion. The gift that is not used will be lost, while the one that is passed along remains abundant. The gift of continuing to be alive, when passed on to others through friendship, makes the spirit abundant every as the body wanes. Many people surprise themselves with the quality of the friendships they are able to form, once they put aside their biases. Most people want sibling-like equality and reciprocity in their friendships. Individuals who are open to their needs and back up the relationships. We need to cultivate our relationships to the ensouled World through simple daily mindfulness and imaginative practices. We must carefully expose ourselves to art, architecture, food, landscapes, cultures, and climate. Life is rich in what it can offer the soul, but in order to receive that richness we must learn to enjoy things in moderation and use them with great discernment. #RandolphHarris 4 of 8
We are divinely designed to give love and be loved, and the deepest love comes when we are one with God. The soul straddles the eternal and the temporal and the full blend of these two dimensions gives life depth and vitality. The body of God is perfect, including every manifestation of itself. Humans are the body of God. Turn things into thoughts and heal the thought. Spiritual enlightenment in the mind heals the body because the body is mind in form and because spiritual enlightenment changes the form of thought in mind. Religion and theology show us the mysteries and the rites that inform every piece of ordinary modern life. To care for the soul we will need to give up our limited ideas of what psychology is, our attempts to gain rational control over our moods and emotions, our illusion that our consciousness is the only sign of soul in Universe, and our desire for dominance over nature and fabricated things. We will have to expose ourselves to beauty, risking the irrationality it stirs up and the interference it can pace in the way of our march toward technological progress. We may have to give up many projects that seem important to modern life, in the name of sacred nature and the need for beautiful things. And we may have to do these things both communally and individually, as part of our effort finally to care for the soul. #RandolphHarris 5 of 8
Healing emotional distance between each other will require our acceptance of God’s love, coupled with a sacrifice of our natural selfish and fearful tendencies. There is no necessary enmity between technology and beauty, or between care of the soul and development of culture. Science has as much capacity for soulfulness as do art and religion. However, in all these areas we have lived for a long time now as though soul were not a factor and consequently encounter soul only in intractable problems and deep-seated neuroses. For instance, we have amazingly efficient cars, but marriage is becoming impossible to sustain. We produce movies and television programs without end, but we have little imagination about living in a peaceful international community. We have many instruments for medicine, but we do not understand except on the most rudimentary ways the relationship between life and ailments. We do not have to lose pleasure and fun in order to give the soul what it needs, but we do have to give it attention and articulation. As long as we leave care of the soul out of our daily lives we will suffer the loneliness of living in a dead, cold, unrelated World. We can improve ourselves to the maximum, and yet we will still feel the alienation inherent in a divided existence. #RandolphHarris 6 of 8
We will continue to exploit nature and our capacity to invent new things, but both will continue to overpower us, if we do not approach them with enough depth and imagination. The way out of this neurosis is to leave our modern divisions behind and learn from other cultures, from art and religion, and from new movements in philosophy that there is another way to perceive the World. We can replace our modernist psychology with care of the soul, and we can begin building a culture that is sensitivity to matters of the heart. As the physical Universe has been linked to prayer to God, so our individual experiences may be linked to our spirituality. Spirituality forms our awareness, our realization—an inner feeling and conviction which transcends the experience taking place in an objective World. Take a definite time at least twice each day to be alone, sit down, compose your mind, and think about God. Try to arrive at a deep sense of peace and calm. Then assume an attitude of faith in a power greater than you are. We need to continually deepen our knowledge of and obedience to Heavenly Father. Our relationship with God is eternal. We are his beloved children, and that will not change. How are we going to wholeheartedly accept his invitation to draw near to God and this enjoy the blessing he longs to give us in this life and in the World to come? #RandolphHarris 7 of 8
We are here on this Earth to learn and grow, and the most important learning and growing will come from our covenant connection to Heavenly Father. From our faithful relationship with God comes superior knowledge, love, power, and capacity to serve. We are duty-bound to learn all that God has revealed about himself. We need to know that Heavenly Father’s plan of salvation is that we obey the laws and ordinances of the gospel and gain eternal life and thus become as God is. This is the true and lasting happiness Heavenly Father offers us. There is no other true and lasting happiness. Our challenges can pull us off this course of happiness. We can lose our trusting connection to God if trials drive us to distraction instead of sending us to our knees. A matter of lasting value to the Father is that we learn of him, humble ourselves, and grow in obedience to him through Earthly experiences. God wants us to change our selfishness into service, our fears into faith. These lasting matters can test us to our core. It is now, with our mortal limitations, that the Father asks us to love when loving is most difficult, to serve when serving is inconvenient, to forgive when forgiving is soul stretching. Sacrifice of our personal agendas is required to make room for the eternal plans of God. To live with high degree of prophetic counsel means attending to the small things that keep the soul engaged in whatever we are doing, and it is the very heart of soul-making. #RandolphHarris 8 of 8
Our Degree of Gratitude is a Means of Love for God
Think of our physical sustenance. It is truly Heaven sent. We are at home here on Earth. So many people who come here seem lost and emotionally or spiritually homeless. They keep moving, but they never really live anywhere. To get to Heaven, we need to focus less on saving our own soul and more time loving all souls. Loyalty is a reward for remembered generosity. Community, friendship, and generosity are three aspects of life that we may squander until we fully admit to our dependence on one another. Throughout history we find certain schools of thought, such as the Renaissance Platonists and the Romantic poets, that have focused on the soul. It is interesting to note that these soul-minded writers have emphasized certain common themes. Relatedness, particularity, imagination, mortality, and pleasure are among them; another is beauty. In a World where soul is neglected, beauty is placed last on its list of priorities. There are moments in life when our true dependence on one another breaks through. Loyalty is the attribute we most value in our relatives and celebrate in our friends. If we conducted the middle of our lives with an eye to the end of our lives, we would choose a place to live and we would stay. Residing near others with whom we establish a history of reciprocity is the best hope for our future stability, whether we manage to live near blood relations or choose to develop family-like bonds with others. #RandolphHarris 1 of 6
No amount of self-reliance can match the confidence derived from years of faithfulness and accumulated gratitude. The assumption that beauty is an accessory, and dispensable, show that some may not understand the importance of giving the soul what it needs. The soul is nurtured by beauty. Many people like to keep close contact with good people they have known since their youth. Some of our friends have been part of the landscape of our lives as far back as we can remember. Having someone to talk to at the end of the day does people a World of good, even just for a few minutes. They know someone is thinking of them, and they can say a thing or two about how their day was. Most people look forward to a short conversation at the end of the day. This is food to the body and pleasing to the soul. If we have lack of beauty in our lives, we will probably suffer familiar disturbances in the soul—depression, paranoia, meaninglessness, and addiction. The soul craves beauty and, in its absence, suffers beauty neurosis. Beauty neurosis is a hyperactive lifestyle that confuses intense activity for the ability to engage with the World. It is not the threat of death, illness, hardship, or poverty that crushes the human spirit; it is the fear of being alone and unloved in the Universe. #RandolphHarris 2 of 6
The process that drives creativity has been so mysterious to us throughout human history. The problem with our modern networks is that they become useless once physical frailty catapults our mobility back into the nineteenth century. When our face-to-face contact is cut off, we may as well be three thousand miles away. Prior to reaching our time of frailty, we are wise to survey our lives for pockets of loyalty worth preserving. Starting over is strenuous at any age, but especially when we are emotionally vulnerable or physically fragile. Divine inspiration and reciprocation keeps relationships alive. Bonds with friends and neighbors may mean more than blood oaths, especially if a recent history of giving and receiving animates thee other relationship. Such discoveries contradict what we prefer to believe about the strength of family bonds and our ability to overcome the effects of geographical separation. Scattering across the country causes family members to become strangers to each other, no matter how often they write or call. Verbal contact is not the same as meshing the routines of daily life: going shopping together, exchanging help back and forth, and witnessing each other’s victories and sorrows first-hand. #RandolphHarris 3 of 6
Our bonds remain strongest when they are sustained by both proximity and mutual need. Beauty assists the soul in its own peculiar ways of being. For the soul, it is important to be taken out of the rush of practical life for the contemplation of timeless and eternal realities. Beauty is arresting. You may find yourself driving along a highway when you suddenly pass a vista that catches your breath. You stop the car, get out for just a few minutes, and behold the grandeur of nature. This is the arresting power of beauty and giving in to that sudden longing of the soul is a way of giving it what it needs. Discussion of beauty can sometimes sound ethereal and philosophical, but from the soul viewpoint, beauty is a necessary part of ordinary life. If only passing a store window and stopping for a second to notice a beautiful ring or amazing car, every day we will find moments when the soul glimpses an occasion for beauty. We know that the objective person, place, and condition are all effects following the causation, which is the mind. And we know that thought is the instrument of mind. The arrow of desire and attachment stops us in our tracks—we are taken by the beauty and feel its pleasure. The point of the momentary seizure is simply to feel the soul with its preferred diet—a sight that invites contemplation. #RandolphHarris 4 of 6
From this viewpoint, the word does not have to reach any objective place; it merely describes the place. Identifying itself in mind with the place, it is instantly at that place. For the soul, then, beauty is not defined as pleasantness of form but rather as the quality in things that invites absorption and contemplation. Beauty is something that unlimited gives scope to the imagination; beauty is a source of imagination, and it never dries up. A thing so attractive and absorbing may seize the soul in a special sense. Some of the ancients has reported that the truth is that whose center is everywhere and whose circumference is nowhere. It will help us to have a complete conviction that our word will always reach the desired condition; it will never fail to objectify where it should, when it should, and in the right way. Nothing but the absolute faith in the Law of Cause and Effect can give us this confidence. If we are going to care for the soul, and if we know that the soul is nurtured by beauty, then we will have to understand beauty more deeply and give it more prominent place in life. It is self-evident that all things come from the invisible, are projected by it, and remain with it. Religion has always understood the value of beauty, as we can see in churches and temples, which are never built for purely practical considerations, but always for the imagination. #RandolphHarris 5 of 6
A tall steeple or a rose window are not designed to allow additional seating or better light for reading. They speak to the soul’s need for beauty, for love of the building itself as well as its use, for a special opportunity for sacred imagination. Our thought is an activity of this invisible causation, and when we say, “This word shall manifest in this place,” we may be and we must be certain that it will do so. How much better it would be if all could be more aware of God’s providence and love and express that gratitude to him. Could we not learn from our churches and Victorian homes and temples, to give attention and funding to this same need in our modern homes, our commercial buildings, our highways, and our schools? An appreciation for beauty is simply an openness to the power of things to stir the soul. If we can be affected by beauty, then soul is alive and well in us, because the soul’s great talent is for being affected. The word passion means basically to be affected, and passion is the essential energy of the soul. Let us give thanks to God, for he does work righteousness forever. Our degree of gratitude is a means of love for him. God is the Father of our spirits. He has glorified, perfected body of flesh and bone. We have lived with him in Heaven before we were born. And when he created us physically, we were created in the image of God each with a personal body. #RandolphHarris 6 of 6
The Demands of Divine Justice Awaken the Immortal Soul
Pondering takes our thoughts from the trivial things of this World and brings us closer to the gentle, guiding hand of our Maker as we heed the still small voice. We decorate our homes with antiques as a way of capturing soul, and museums are a focal point in our cities because people want to remember vitality. We try to make things and people last forever, but we know that everything has a definite lifespan. That is why opposite tendencies can coexist in us, feelings coexist in us, feelings contradicting each other live together, and what is true and what false can be confused. So much lives in us—wishes and their denials, faith and mistrust, appetites and distastes. They change places so frequently that what is fair becomes foul and what is foul, fair. The more independence we lose, the more torn we become by contradictory urges. Outbursts of anger at family, friends, colleagues, and assistants can take places as some people may resent being rescued as success at ordinary tasks become elusive. However, at the same times they desperately want to be spared their frustrations at not being able to accomplish a project on their own. For many people, to accept help is to miss a chance to prevail, and to go on struggling is taxing and upsetting. We do not want things to die, we do not want life to end, and we are angry if they do—if things no longer function as intended it is an inescapable reminder that everything in the material World is finite. #RandolphHarris 1 of 6
No matter how dark the moment, love and hope are always possible. The programming of human concerns as a legitimate scientific endeavor represents the central hope in society. The fundamental principle in care of the soul is that soul needs tending. If we do not tend to things in their erosion of independence, we will take that suffering upon ourselves. Asking for assistance is more complicated than it seems, often evoking a host of conflicted emotions. Some dependent people find the mere act of calling attention to themselves abhorrent. Others can bear this indignity but dislike having to spell out exactly what has to be done on their behalf. Almost all tire of explaining, revealing, and excusing themselves, wish that people would just know what to do and would simply do it without having to be asked or reminded. The best assistance is that which is unobtrusive. Helpers who quietly get things done, rather than announcing their efforts, leave a dependent person’s pride intact. The indebted position is not emphasized, and no mention is made of special accommodations. The fact of vulnerability then recedes into the background, where it can reside without hammering the person’s self-esteem. Thus, we have seen how the emergence of how teaching humans how to once again get in touch with one other is helpful and a necessity. Our Savior knows the heart of each of us. He knows the pains of our hearts. #RandolphHarris 2 of 6
Repeatedly needing to ask for rides, favors, and special adaptations causes many vulnerable people to feel they must ask for nothing on other levels. Some try to compensate by extending themselves in every other way. For example, an attractive housewife had recently moved into a new neighborhood and was desperately anxious to meet her new neighbors because her husband worked all the time. Finally, someone rings the doorbell; it is the next-door neighbor. She thought to herself, “Thank God I just happened to be brewing coffee, because if I were not, the neighbor just might go away and never come back.” For this woman, the coffee helped to fill the void of loneliness, as it was a tool to use to get her neighbors to sit down and chit chat. This woman survives by remaining attuned to what her friends expect in return for their kindness. She carefully maintains the exchanging, watching to see that each of her acquaintances leaves satisfied. She derives pride and security from accurately detecting what each is getting out of helping her and making sure that these rewards continue to satisfy them. Soul is then revealed, as though it had been hidden for years. #RandolphHarris 3 of 6
Concealment, whether physical or emotional, only produces a lonely form of dignity. The exercise of influence is essential to retaining both vibrancy and self-respect. Unless we exert control over some aspect of our lives, no matter how mundane or seemingly inconsequential, a significant part of our spirit dies. In situations of dependence, power can be reclaimed through many routes. Any strategy that lessens ambiguity restores authority to dependent people. Insisting that people function accord to a schedule is better for their endurance than putting up with long hours of waiting, especially when they are not feeling well. Just as waiting reminds them minute-by-minute of their helplessness, firm plans convey a semblance of their former control over their lives. When dependent people can count on events taking place at a set time, they can anticipate them almost as if autonomy were still in their possession. There is no waiting, no asking, and no infuriating uncertainty. Until they arrive at compromises that allow for both self-assertion and collaboration, dependent people are often drawn back and forth on a confusing pendulum of contradictions. They are never sure how much leaning on others is acceptable and how much effort they should exert in their attempts to overcome obstacles and frustrations. #RandolphHarris 4 of 6
When they are reduced to their function, things and people suffer. Asking for help has always been difficult for a young woman who has mobility issue. She still feels vivacious, but some mornings can hardly walk across the room—even though she wakes up raring to go. What helps her is, “I remember that I’m a gorgeous dame. This is the price I pay to be alive!” Soul is not about the function, it is about the beauty and form and memory. Care of the World soul, therefore, requires that we see things less for what they can do and more for what they are. If we seek the truth, develop faith in Him, and sincerely repent, we will receive a spiritual change of heart which only comes from our Savior. Our hearts will become new again. If we dwell only on our pain, it will inhibit the healing process. Pondering on things that bring us joy and happiness are very important elements in the healing process for the body and soul. We need to spend our time and energy building our faith by turning to the Lord and asking for strength to overcome the pains and trails of this World and to endure to the end for greater understanding. As we ponder the path of life, we can focus our path on righteousness and feel the spirit direct us. “Then the land will yield its harvest, and God, our God, will bless us. God will bless us, and all the ends of the Earth will honor him,” reports Psalm 67.6-7. #RandolphHarris 5 of 6
Out of the abundance of the heart and the mouth speak. Today we are keeping careful watch that we think and speak only those things that we wish to broadcast from our minds and returned to us. We desire that everything we think shall be from the hearts as well as from the head. We wish to broadcast kindness and love, and sympathy and understanding, peace and joy. No condemnation, judgment, or fear shall go from us to anyone nor anything. Turning our minds to the divine, we draw into our own souls the essence of everything that is good, true, and beautiful. We draw into our own minds the realization of God and the power of God until our whole beings responds. And this is all we wish to broadcast to the World—something that will help and heal and bless, something that will cause everyone we meet to feel a new strength, a new faith, a new hope. Desiring to receive the divine blessing into our own lives, we wish to broadcast it to the whole Word. Lord, bless and keep us. Make your face to shine up the beautiful World you created. Please be gracious to all of your children. God, lift up your countenance upon the people of this World, and give your faithful peace, both now and forevermore. Resurrection assures us that we will be reunited with our loved ones in the not-too-distant future. #RandolphHarris 6 of 6
Randolph Harris II International Institute 