Sanity is expensive. Imperfection action is better than perfect inaction. There is no immediate guarantee that the good human may not become a vicious one. The evolutionary arc does not rise with utter smoothness; there are strayings aside, fallings down, and erratic jags. However, there is an ultimate guarantee that the experiences of life are so ordained as to open the eyes and direct the will of every human at some point, and to repeat this process at intervals until one does so of one’s own spontaneous accord. Easy hops about perpetual progress and shallow optimism about scientific improvement are alike going to be frustrated so long as the higher development of a human oneself is less valued. Things and information are accumulated. This is naively called progress, although the human who uses them is as bad as before—as one’s inability to stop warring clearly shows. The mere movement in time does not automatically bring progress. If left to their own capacity, many would fall back and fail to grow. However, life or Nature does not have them unassisted like that. For there is the World-Idea, the vital spark, the germ born of World-Mind, the mental picture held by the higher power, which pushes each living cell to fulfill itself. #RandolphHarris 1 of 20

However, there is also ignorance, opposition, and deterioration. Humans must make their contribution and, in the end, does so. One has to. As the World-Idea unfolds, one gets more self-control and gains self-knowledge until one discovers God. There is no choice in the matter, ultimately, although there is immediately. The entire human race will have to traverse the course chalked out for it, will have to develop the finer feelings the concrete intellect, the abstract intellect, the balance between the different sides. If humans do not seek to do so now, it is only a question of time before they will be forced to do so later. Humans will be redeemed and saved. This is not mere pious wishful thinking but ineluctable destiny. If this redemption and this salvation were not eventually possible and inescapably certain, the divine World-Idea could not be realized. It is easier to transform a wilderness into a garden flourishing with plant and flowers than to transform humanity into a special race. I may seem a very extravagant attempt to the sceptics to destroy reason by argument and ratiocination; yet is this the grace scope of all their enquiries and disputes. They endeavour to find objections, both to our abstract reasonings, and to those which regard matter of fact existence. #RandolphHarris 2 of 20

The chief objection against all abstract reasoning is derived from the ideas of space and time; ideas, which, in common life and to a careless view, are very clear and intelligible, but when they pass through the scrutiny of the profound sciences (and they are the chief object of these sciences) afford principles, which seem full of absurdity and contradiction. No priestly doctrines and covenants, invented on purpose to tame and subdue the rebellious reason of humankind, ever shocked commonsense more than the doctrine of the infinite divisibility of extension, with its consequences; as they are pompously displayed by all geometricians and metaphysicians, with a kind of triumph and exultation. A real quantity, infinitely less than any finite quantity, containing quantities infinitely less than itself, and so on in infinitum; this is an edifice so bold and prodigious, that it is too weighty for any pretended demonstration to support, because it shocks the clearest and most natural principles of human reason. However, time and life, evolution and experience will all combine to transform humanity int a spiritual race. The movement up to higher levels will be slow and painful, the maturation of human character retarded and halting, but they will be sure because they are written in the fate of humans. #RandolphHarris 3 of 20

Set, in the Egyptian religion, was the Destroyer, the leader of the powers of darkness, the opposer of Life and the adversary of aspiring humans; hence he was turned into Satan by the Christians, into Shai’tan by the Israelites. However, just as Set was defeated in the end, his power broken and his submission as a penitent accepted, so humans, the prodigal son, will return and will be saved, despite one’s sins. The covenant has been made: there is ultimate hope for all. The World-Idea is operative on ever level. It invites savage humans to outwit their fellow animals by beginning to use brain-power through arrows, slings, and primitive traps; at a higher level to compete with fellow humans and rise economically and socially by using the same power; at a still higher level to reduce sufferings and self-made miseries by practising control over self and avoidance of injury to others; then, at a still higher level, to discover and nurture their spiritual nature. Humans are what they are. We have only to look around and see how the great Avatars have not much saved the human species. It is still more or les what it was a thousand years ago. If those humans of light and power could not change the masses, how can others do so? Is this a doctrine of hopelessness? No! #RandolphHarris 4 of 20

Despite themselves, humans will have to change, but it will be under the inexorable pressure of the World-Idea, which will be their teacher, their guide, and their enlightener, because it is the expression of the World-Mind. As the two interact—the human purpose and the World-Idea—each human slowly unfolds one’s intelligence, which is the fusion of intellect with intuition, and this culminates in Enlightenment, the ultimate and revelatory Insight. The movement upward from the ego’s “me” to the real “I” consciousness is as sure as the movement of the planets themselves. Human life does not escape the working of divine law. Human though, feeling, and actin all fall within its circle. The law is unalterable and absolute, universal and sure. Even when its operation is quite unseen and unknown, it always operates because the development of human entities is a part of its own reason for existence. In the end, and whatever one’s heredity or environment may predetermine and irrespective of one’s own free choices, the development as well as the history of humans must move in obedience to the World-Idea. What that is is known in its completeness only to the World-Mind, but sudden or fleeting glimpses of some tiny part of it have come to a few seers. Yet these perceptions have been received, recorded, and handed down as tremendous revelations—and quite rightly. The affections are movers of the will as well as of the appetite. #RandolphHarris 5 of 20

Indeed, their influence is at times so direct and so great as to overpower the will. This happens whenever the appetite wins imagination away from reason. Affective and emotional states furnish the materials for striking, irresistible images of desirable action. A human stirred up beyond reason is clearly “perturbed;” and the perturbations and distempers of the affections are regarded as the diseases and infirmities of the mind. It may be fitly said that if the affection, as winds, do not put it into tumult and perturbation, the mind in its own nature will be temperate and staid. If any, the affections, then, would seem to play a minor role in the life of the temperate, rational, and philosophic person. It is clear, however, that the affections play an essential role in the life of the human of action. They can be called upon to move the will quite properly and legitimately. For educated humans in the Elizabethan and Jacobean times, this point is well illustrated by Thomas Vicary: “acts of loving, fearing, et cetera, commonly called by the name of affections (I speak with submission to better Judgments) are only the motion [movers] of the will, by which it gorth forth to the embracing of its object which is good, which considers in the general nature is loved, considered as in the fruition is delighted in; considered in the future as attainable, if with ease is desired; if with difficulty, is hoped for; if the will or these affections be fixed on their proper object, there is no danger in the excesse. #RandolphHarris 6 of 20

Whenever reason has had its chance to decide what is the right thing to do, when deliberation has taken place and the will must say yes or no, the affections may well unite with the imagination to urge the course of right reason, thus bringing to bear the full resources of the human being for the moving of the will. In fact, in the lives of practical humans the dry light of reason alone does not usually secure action, country to what Stoic disciples believe. When relied upon solely as an agent of action, for that matter, nor does virtue secure good conduct. In reality, their virtues are moderators: they restrain it, they limit it, they govern it, they amplify it not. They give excellent form to the mind, but they take away much of its natural vigour. However, the affections make the mind heroical, give it power to exceed itself, and fascinate and bind others. The affections are the motions [movers] of the mind, and the virtues need them. A rational prudence takes its vigour from fear and wonder; it finds temperance in modesty, fortitude in indignation. In general, all virtues take measure, power, and strength from the affections. It is probably that the affections, on their part, exert their influence through the spirits. #RandolphHarris 7 of 20

The affections (no doubt) do make the spirits more powerful and active; and especially those affections which draw the spirits into the eyes: which are two, love and envy. The general physiological principle is that the spirits, in all passions, resort most to the parts that labour most, or are most affected. The physiological evidences of the passions, for example, fear causes paleness, trembling, the standing of the hair upright, starting, screeching. Joy, sorrow (grief and sadness), fear, anger, envy, compassion, shame, love, and hope are all emotions. However, fear and hope are the predominant affections. Laughter is intellectual, not emotional; it is scarce (properly) a passion, but hath one’s source from the intellect; for in laughing there ever precedeth a conceit of somewhat ridiculous; and therefore it is proper to humans. The impact of the affections upon the will—and upon human’s conduct—produce more good than harm. If a human could recognize the, know their natures, and learn their proper uses, the affections would become the servant of reason, not the master of reason. The compulsion exercised by the World-Idea is a secret obscure one, but it may become clearer and plainer as events unfold and experience increases. #RandolphHarris 8 of 20

The achievement of these goals is not left to the effects of chance or the whims of humans. It is the half-hidden, half-declared purpose of Nature, and as such is quite compulsive. The mass of people are like blind worms wriggling through the Earth. They toil but do not know the real value of their labours is not in the passages they make for air and moisture or in the fertile mould they carry to the soil’s surface. No!—it is in the evolutionary consequences within themselves. They have tried and tried to find their own substitute for the higher-than-animal life, but it is ordained that satisfaction of the physical needs of the human species is not enough to give them fulfilment, and not that not even the satisfaction of their cultural needs can do so. They are forced in the end to push onward and upward. Life is governed by its own mysterious laws, driven in certain directions by it own mysterious momentum, conformed to a hidden scheme by its own mysterious quality. Nature is significant. The human entity is not just drifting. It will certainly arrive somewhere. Human beings are not only what their past births have made them but also, in the most popular and least accurate language, what God has made them. #RandolphHarris 9 of 20

We have to pass from prattling about human’s long-past Fall to declaring their newly possible Rise. It is time to take a better view of humans, and certainly of their prospects. All good tings that exist, God wills to be. If therefore God’s will imposes necessity on things willed, it follows that all good happens of necessity; and this there is an end of free will, counsel, and all other such things. The divine will imposes necessity on some things willed but not on all. The reason of this some have chosen to assign to intermediate causes, holding that what God produces by necessary causes is necessary; and what God produces by contingent causes contingent. This does not seem to be a sufficient explanation, for two reasons. First, because the effect of a first cause is contingent on account of a second cause, from the fact that the effect of the first cause is hindered by deficiency in the second cause, as the sun’s power is hindered by a defect in the planet. However, no effect of a secondary cause can hinder God’s will from producing its effect. Secondly, because if the distinction between the contingent and the necessary is to be referred only to secondary causes, this must be independent of the divine intention and will; which is inadmissible. #RandolphHarris 10 of 20

It is better therefore to say that this happens on account of the efficacy of the divine will. For when a cause is efficacious to act, the effect follows upon the cause, not only as to the thing done, but also as to its manner of being done or of being. Thus from defect of active power in the seed it may happen that a child is born unlike its father in accidental points, that belong to its manner of being. Since then the divine will is perfectly efficacious, it follows not only that thing are done, which God wills to be done, but also that they are done in the way the He wills. Now God wills some things to be done necessarily, some contingently, to the right ordering of things, for the building up of the Universe. Therefore to some effect God has attached necessary causes, that cannot fail; but to others defectible and contingent causes, from which arise contingent effects. Hence it is not because the proximate causes are contingent that the effects willed by God happen contingently, but because God prepared contingent causes for them, it being His will that they should happen contingently. By the words of Augustine we must understand a necessity in things willed by God that is not absolute, but conditional. #RandolphHarris 11 of 20

For the conditional statement that is God wills a thing, it must necessarily be, is true. From the very fact that nothing resists the divine will, it follows that no only those things happen that God wills to happen, but that they happen necessarily or contingently according to His will. Consequents have necessity from their antecedents according to the mode of the antecedents. Hence things effected by the divine will have that kind of necessity that God wills them to have, either absolute or conditional. Not all things, therefore, are absolute necessities. Recognizing this, humanity will within a certain time—not in our time—humbly submit as it once did in prehistoric times to rulers guided by true self-actualized and adopt the higher forms of government inspired by the true facts of life. Philosophers will then not be merely the witnesses of their age but also its activators. Then only will humanity at last prevent outer war, even through its own moral nature will still need much more growth. With that recognition, Nature herself will grow kindlier and the area of other forms of human suffering will diminish noticeably. Even though we will reach a higher kind of civilization one day, human differences will continue to express themselves. #RandolphHarris 12 of 20

Nobler and wiser types of humanity, standing at loftier altitudes of consciousness, will begin to emerge from the mass. If they are all too few today they will be more numerous tomorrow. We are very far from the true humans which are destined to become, the evolved masterpieces of Nature. We possess only rare inklings of the say when the ego’s “I” will be transformed into God’s I-ness. The waves of life have moved across other planets before arriving on this Earth and, when this has outserved its usefulness, will move on again. The inhabitants of each planet belong to different stages of evolution: some higher and some lower. This applies not only to the human inhabitants but also to the animal and even the plant inhabitants. They pass in great waves from one planet to another at certain stages of this evolution, going where they can find the most appropriate conditions either for expression of their present stage or for the stimulation of their next immediate stage. Consequently the stragglers and the laggards who fall behind pass to a planet where the conditions are of a lower nature, for there they are more at home. On the other hand, the pioneers who have outstripped the mass and can find no conditions suitable for their further development pass to a planet in a higher stage. #RandolphHarris 13 of 20

Where life meaning is lacking, performance is at a premium. If it is successful, “performance”—in art or sports, for example—creates the illusion of meaning for a magical moment. Performance presupposes an artificial context in which some portions of life, action, or experience is present as a whole, meaningful, unique, flowing—transcendent to ordinary existence. This may be in some area of art, or in sports, or in politics. Unfortunately, it may also be in religion, or in the intimate relations of life. However, in these latter areas, performance is not really valued unless it deals effectively with life and reality as a whole and does not presuppose an artificial context. Otherwise the performance is a shame. Here performance really must mean competence and must eliminate illusion. Mere “acting” will not do. If we see how fanaticism comes in, it will further help us to understand the reality of soul in life. Fanaticism—in art, politics, sports, or religion, to names some of the main kinds—is the result of inherently meaningless lines becoming obsessed with performance and then trying to take all of their existence into it. Being a fan of…is treated as something deep and important. #RandolphHarris 14 of 20

 Because those of us who do this do not have a whole soul directing their lives toward good, rooted in God, they allow a “flow” they find outside themselves to take over their thoughts, feelings, behaviour, and social relations. That flow intoxicates them. They absolutize the flow and no longer subject it to ordinary tests of truth, reality, and tried-and true human values. Thus winning of a championship by a city team can lead to looting, burning, and death. Romantic/pleasures of the flesh relationships can play the same obsessing role, as can “success,” leading to workaholic absorption. All of these are reflections of a nonfunctional or broken or recessive soul with inadequate resources to deal with the whole human life. The nonfunctioning soul falls easy pray to the mob and to pressures from others. It is the source of the “other-directed person” and “the lonely crowd” that are so prominent today. So it really does not matter what our theories are, or how “modern” we may be. If only by the shambles left behind when it departs, Soul will always reassert itself as a reality. What tyrants prey upon is the soul, as have all the great twenty-first century destroyers—or rather upon the loss of soul and the revenge that loss take upon the masses. Similarly for those who produce the wasteland of contemporary pop culture, for the local news to Jerry Springer. #RandolphHarris 15 of 20

Those who deny the soul, perhaps for what they regard as the most overwhelming of scientific and philosophical reasonings, still have to live a life, and they need to find the resources for it. If they cannot deal with that need in terms of a healthy soul, they still have to deal with it in some terms. What shall those terms be? They have to find them in one way or another, and not always are equal. The soul will strike back. Our life is eternal, and this knowledge helps us to make correct choices and comforts us in times of mourning. That eternity does not begin after this life but mortality is a crucial part of eternity. When they seem to be at the crossroads, uncertain as to which way they wanted to go, I sometimes have said to my friends that “Today is the beginning of eternal happiness or eternal disappointment for you.” To know that life is eternal is a wonderful blessing. We have lived as spirits before we came to Earth, and our spirits will continue living after we die. Our comprehension of this life is that it is eternal life—that we are living in eternity today as much as we ever will live in eternity. Our belief is that we lived before we came here; that which is intelligence, that which is spirit, did not have its beginning in this life. #RandolphHarris 16 of 20

We believe that we received a spiritual tabernacle before we came into this World. That spiritual body was sent to this World, and here it received a physical tabernacle, the body which we see. The physical portion that we see is of Earth, Earthly. “The first human is of the Earth, Earthly: the second human is the Lord from Heaven,” reports 1 Corinthians 15.47. When our lives go out, that portion which leaves the body, is spiritual, and it never dies. The physical tabernacle lies in the tomb—it is a portion of the Earth—but the intelligence that God has placed within it, that which has power to reason and to think, that which has power to ding and to speak, knowns no death; it simply passes from this sphere of eternal life, and awaits there the physical purification of the physical tabernacle, until the time it will be reunited with this tabernacle, which will be glorified, even as the body of our risen Lord was glorified, if we have lived to be worthy of it. Life is real, Life is earnest, and the gave is not the goal. The spirit that inhabits the tabernacle is immortal. It lives beyond the grave. The body decays and returns to Earth but the spirit lives on. I am thankful that there has been revealed to us and made pain in this latter-day that this life is not the end, this is but a part of eternity. #RandolphHarris 17 of 20

If we take advantages of our privileged in this mortal life and do not abuse them, we will eventually come to know that this is but a stepping stone to a greater and more desirable condition. Our purpose here on Earth is to prepare ourselves to live with our Heavenly Father. This lifetime is not given to us as a pastime. There is a solemn purpose in our creation, in the life that God has given to us. Let us study what that purposes is, that we may progress and obtain eternal life. We believe that we are on Earth because we kept our first estate and earned the privilege of coming to this Earth. We believe that our very existence is a reward for our faithfulness before we came here, and that we are enjoying on Earth the fruits of our efforts in the spirit World. We also believe that we are sowing the seed today of a harvest that we will reap when we go from here. Eternal life is to us the sum of pre-existence, present existence, and the continuation of life in immortality, holding out to us the power of endless progression and increase. With that feeling and that assurance, we believe that as humans are, God once was, and as God is, humans may become. #RandolphHarris 18 of 20

Being created in the image of God, we believe that it is not improper, that it is not unrighteous, for us to hope that we may be permitted to part take of the attributes of deity and, if we are faithful, to become like unto God; for as we receive of and obey the natural laws of our Father that govern this life, we become more like Him; and as we take advantage of the opportunities placed within our reach, we prepare to receive greater opportunities in this life and in the life that is to come. What a happy people we should be with the knowledge we have that this probation is not to prepare us to die, but to live; that our Father’s desire for us is that we may avoid every error and receive every truth, and by applying truth in our lives become more like God, and become worthy to dwell with Him. Prayers are an important introduction to our religion. They contain principles of belief and guides for conduct, and provide a healthy example of the proper relationship between God and people. Through them, children and adults may first come to experience the sacred, something that will sustain them through their whole life. Do not just pray for your children; then pray with them. #RandolphHarris 19 of 20

May God walk besides me and my loved once through their lives, guiding our steps into the way proper to us, guiding our us along the sacred path. Dwelling in the shelter of the Most High, abiding under the protection the Almighty, I say of the Lord: “He is my refuge and my fortress, my God, in whom I trust.” He will deliver you from the snare of the fowler, and from the destructive pestilence. He will cover you with his pinions, and under His wings shall you take refuge; His truth is a shield and armour. You shall not be afraid of the terror by night, nor of the arrow that flied by day; of the pestilence that stalks in darkness, nor of the destruction that ravages at noonday. A thousand may fall at your side, and ten thousand at your right hand; but it shall not come near you. You shall behold with your eyes, and see the recompense of the wicked. Because you have made the Lord your fortress, and the Most High your refuge, no evil shall befall you, neither shall any plague come near your home. For God will give His Angels charge over you, to guard you in all your ways. They shall bear you upon their hands, lest you strike your foot against a stone. You shall tread upon the lion and asp, you shall trample on the young lion and serpent. #RandolphHarris 20 of 20

Cresleigh Homes

This year, let’s hit ‘reset’ on décor we aren’t satisfied with anymore and brighten up our spaces! Learn all about it in today’s blog. Link in bio. 🙌 https://cresleigh.com/blog/

Cresleigh Meadows is now selling! Found just north of Feather River Boulevard, Cresleigh Meadows is home of the largest neighborhood in Plumas Ranch as well as the popular Bear River Park. With four floor plans available, ranging from approximately 2,000 – 3,500 square feet offering, three to five bedrooms, we are certain you will find the home that fits your needs and lifestyle.

Popular design elements include open floor plans, large kitchen islands, and flex spaces are staples in Cresleigh homes. Additional game rooms, bedroom space and three-car garages provide other custom possibilities.

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Cresleigh offers award-winning, single-family homes, built with Cresleigh’s commitment to quality, value and craftsmanship. Enjoy a warm and welcoming neighbourhoods, perfect for families of all ages. #CresleighHomes

Baseball is beautiful…the supreme performing art. It combines in perfect harmony the magnificent features of ballet, drama, art, and ingenuity. The World-Idea contains from the beginning to the end each individual life in its picture. How much freedom that life really contains is a matter for seers to say, not for intellectual to debate. How old is the series of experiences through which we moved unknowingly towards our present evolutionary position! How lofty is the level toward which we have yet to climb! How ironic is the discovery that what we thought was being done by free person choice was merely blind obedience to universal force; that where we believed free will was exercised, there we merely conformed to the World-Idea! The World-Idea is the ordained will of the World-Mind. Within its large outlines, change is impossible. All its parts serve them. However, it would not be correct to assert that we humans are slaves of that Idea. Somewhere within each part some sort of freedom is possible. That in the end nothing that the human will can do can sway human life into divergence from the World-Idea, that All is fixed by it, is not quite correct. #RandolphHarris 1 of 21

The main outlines of World-Idea can certainly not be affected, however, for they are inherent in the nature of things. Every human is offered a chance to live again, not once but as many times as will bring one to one’s diviner being and establish one in that. Human existence is a kind of bewitchment; we experience what we are made to experience. All is simply the expression of the World-Idea—that is, of God’s will—but we share in the making, participate in the divine ideation. In the end the World-Idea triumphs as, in reality and actuality, it is doing at every moment. Even human’s own personal will unwittingly prepares itself for such eventual conformity. The pressure of the World-Idea shapes one’s tendencies and one’s circumstances, denies one any other freedom than the mental position which one finally takes up, than the alliance with or rejection of moral conscience. The World-Idea’s end is foreordained from the beginning. This leaves no ultimate personal choice. However, there is a measure of free will in a single direction—how soon or how late that divine end is accomplished. The time element has not been ordered, the direction has. #RandolphHarris 2 of 21

Both the ordinary human and the enlightened human are playing the role allotted to them in the divine World-Idea. Neither could change that part of the planetary fate. However, whereas the first is doing it unwittingly, blindly, and at times rebelliously, the second is doing it knowingly, perceptively, and submissively. There are no mistakes anywhere in the World-Idea, nor even accidents. However, there is enough flexibility in its human part, enough freedom there, to make it seem as if there were some mistakes and some accidents. The meteor which moves across the Earther’s orbit is as much beyond human’s control as is one’s larger part in the World-Idea. Is the human race nothing else than God acting out a multitude of different parts in a tremendous play? If this were so, all humans would be no different than the mere figment of imagination of authors creating characters in novels. However, living humans are different. If they were just as illusory as those creations there would be something wrong with philosophy, with mind, and, let it be said, with God. It is needful to penetrate reflectively more deeply to bring light upon this point. #RandolphHarris 3 of 21

When one is allowed a glimpse of the World-Idea, one feels that one understands at last why one came here, what one has to do, and where one’s place is. It is like an immense enlargement of the mind, an escape from the littleness of the ego, and a finding-out of a long-hidden secret. When the fact of the World-Idea flashes into one’s mind, one stand like Aaliyah on Mount Everest. At last this bewildering enigma which surrounds and entraps everyone everywhere assumes pattern, the countless events and things and processes leave their isolation, their useless chaos, and fit together. One has come to the inner sight of the World-Idea’s meaning for one: that one is to use the human self to lift one’s nature up from the animal one, and that one is to put oneself at the service of one’s angelic, one’s best, self, to lift one’s nature up from the ordinary human. In this way one co-operates with the World-Idea. This is the use one is to make of one’s life on Earth: one’s personal life, one’s family relations, one’s professional career—all must become subject to the higher purpose. The resolve made, the matter of success of failure is no longer urgent, for every subsequent embodiment will point in this direction. #RandolphHarris 4 of 21

Philosophy has instructed one in the unreality of time and has revealed to one one’s indissoluble connection with God. All this was seen by the self-actualized long ago and symbolized by them in the Sphinx and the Pyramid. One sees that life is encircled by a great Being, that the Mind behind the Universe—although so still and uncommunicative and, apparently, unconcerned—is in reality sending its messages in varied ways all the time. The World is no longer merely itself. Henceforth it is the expression of a divine Idea. It is then that the awareness of the World-Idea comes to one, explaining one’s planetary surroundings and enlightening one’s situation therein. Every relationship and every event is then sent to be significant, falling into place in this amazing pattern. One sees the World forever changing its forms, forever in process, and one oneself as part of it under the same doom. All is appearance, not reality. However, one sees also the Essence. This is the World as my experience showed it to be, the World as it is revealed to me by God. One of the first and most powerful rituals any American citizen can perform is the Pledge of Allegiance. We all memorized the pledge in grade school, and have held in proud in our minds ever since. Remember the ritual–standing proud, slauting the flag with our right hand over our heart, every morning when we got to schhol. #RandolphHarris 5 of 21

Keep in mind that this is still one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all, and this truth is important because or freedom does not come from the government. Our freedom comes from God, and the government was established to protect that God-given freedom. That was their justification for the American Revolution as stated in the Declaration of Independence. Thomas Jefferson wrote: “We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all humans are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness; that to secure these rights, governments are instituted among humans, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed; that whenever any form of government becomes destructive of these end, it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new government laying its foundations on such principles.” No king or emperor, no president or congress, no court or crowd gives us our right. They come from God Himself and are unalienable. And the Founder built America’s foundation on such principles. #RandolphHarris 6 of 21

Our nation’s unity and freedom depend upon being one nation under God, and we highly resolve that people who put their lives on the line for this country and anyone else shall not die in vain; this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom, and a government that protects and the people and their land, and this kingdom of God shall not perish from the Earth. When we pledge alliance to the flag of the United States of America, we are acknowledging the Founder’s declaration that our freedom comes from God, not the state. The American people’s freedom—the freedom of your neighbour’s, your colleagues, your children, their teachers, are because we are one nation under God. Take that principle away, remove it from our national consciousness, and we will lose the very basis for the freedoms we so easily take for granted. God gave us liberty. When we have removed a conviction that these liberties are the gift of God, can the liberties of a nation be secure? Agency makes our life on Earth a period of testing. When planning the mortal creation of His children, God said, “We will prove [test] them herewith, to see if they will do all thing whatsoever the Lord their God shall command them,” reports Abraham 3.35. #RandolphHarris 7 of 21

Without the gift of agency, we would have been unable to show our Heavenly Father whether we would obey his commandments. Because we are able to choose we are also responsible for our actions. When we choose to live according to God’s plan for us, our agency is strengthened. Right choices increase our power to make more right choices. As we obey each of our Father’s commandments, we grow in wisdom and strength of character. Our faith increases. We find it easier to make right choices. We began to makes choices as spirit children in our Heavenly Father’s presence. Our choices there made us worthy to come to Earth. Our Heavenly Father wants us to grow in faith, power, knowledge, wisdom, and all other good things. If we keep His commandments and makes right choices, we will learn and understand. We will become like God. “One that keepth his commandments receiveth truth and light, until one is glorified in truth and knoweth all things,” Doctrine and Covenants 93.28. In those divinely captured moments when ego is loosened and God is present in awareness, the amazing pattern of the World-Idea shines clearly. One becomes awed, though such Heavenly glimpses, by the tremendous intelligence behind and within the Cosmos. #RandolphHarris 8 of 21

One will begin to see an intelligence moving in and through the Universe which one had not seen before. The Universe will no longer be a strange symbol without any meaning. There is a wisdom within the cosmos beyond our telling or knowing, but if we turn in reverence to it or in remembrance of it, we may feel its presence in tranquil movements. To feel the divine presence is much more common an experience hen to perceive the divine purpose. The World-Idea authentically exists but not in the way that physical things exist. No human mind can receive and hold it in the same definite way it can receive and hold all other idea. Even in those exalted psychological states or mystical experiences when the World’s meaning is perceived, its inner drama understood during a brief glimpse, the seer gets only the fragment which one’s mind can take in, limited and conditioned as one is. The vast coverage of the World-Idea, coupled with the microscopic spaces in which it is equally manifest, transcends human grasp. A few have lifted themselves to receive the Cosmic Vision for historic purposes. #RandolphHarris 9 of 21

Other receive glimpses, at best, of part only of the Cosmic vision, but even those are awe-inspiring. What they may expect to find with intellect is at most the slow uncovering of little fragments of the World-Idea: but with intuition the subtler meanings and larger patterns are possible. These include but also transcend the physical plane. A few fated persons, whose mission is revelation, are granted once in a lifetime Cosmic Vision. No human mind is capable of ultimate knowledge of all the Universe’s secrets, nor of absolute comprehension of what is in the World-Mind, no matter what anyone claims. “Only give heed to yourself and keep your soul diligently, lest you forget the things which your eyes have seen,” reports Deuteronomy 4.9. Wise people co-operate voluntarily with the World-Mind before they are forced into going along with it and its expression, the World-Idea. “Take My yoke upon you, and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart; and you shall find rest for your souls,” Matthew 11.29. Only to the extend that one unites one’s own little purpose with the Universal purpose can one find harmony and happiness. Its strength will support one firmly in adversity and misfortune, as it will carry one triumphantly through misery and hostility. #RandolphHarris 10 of 21

What is running your life at any given moment is your soul. Not external circumstances, or your thoughts, or your intentions, or even your feelings, but your soul. The soul is that aspect of your whole being that correlates, integrates, and enlivens everything going on in the various dimensions of the self. It is the life-center of the human being. It regulates whatever is occurring in each of those dimensions and how they interact with each other and respond to surrounding events in the overall governance of your life. The soul is “deep” in the sense of being basic or foundational and also in the sense that it lies almost totally beyond conscious awareness. In the person with the “well-kept heart,” the soul will be itself properly ordered under God and in harmony with reality. The outcome will be, as we have said, a person who is prepared for and capable of responding to the situations of life in ways that are good and right. For such a person, the human spirit will be in correct relationship to God. With one’s assisting grace, it will bring the soul into subjection to God and the mind (thoughts, feelings) into subjection to the soul. The social context and the body will then come into subjection to thoughts and feelings that are in agreement with truth and with God’s intent and purpose for us. #RandolphHarris 11 of 21

Any given event in our life would then proceed as it should, because our soul is functioning properly under God. The more one learns about the World-Idea, the more one wonders at it. To go father and co-operate with it is to find peace. To bring oneself consciously and deliberately within the World-Idea is a holy act. One is within it anyway, but without the consciousness. One’s personal share in the World-Idea is limited to reception of it in every corner of one’s conscious being. If Nature keeps her lips inexorably shut to the questions of those who abuse her, she graciously opens them in perfect response to those who ask wit quieted, co-operative and harmonious ego. If you live within only human wisdom, you can find it constantly necessary to do what is wrong. And in that case, you will become an authority on what is right and wrong—because, after all, you will have to manage right and wrong. You will have to have ready explanations of why, though you do wrong things, you are still a good person, and why those who do not do as you do are fools. You will become an expert scorner, able to put everyone in their place with appropriate doses of contempt, which is an essential element of scorn. #RandolphHarris 12 of 21

We are supposed to delight in the law that God has given. We are to delight in it. We are to love it, be thrilled by it, and we cannot keep our minds off of it because it is so exciting. The law of Gd is beautiful, strong, wise, an incredible gift of God’s mercy and grace. Therefore we must dwell upon it day and night, turning it over and over in our mind and speaking it to ourselves. One does not do this to please God, but because the law pleases one. It is where one’s whole being is oriented. The result is a flourishing life. The image used here is that of a tree planted by water canals. No matter what the weather or the surface condition of the ground, its roots go down into the water sources and bring up life. As a result, it bears fruit when it is supposed to, and its foliage is always bright with life. It prospers in what it does. And likewise the human who is rooted in God through his law: “in whatever one does, one prospers” reports Psalm 1.3. We must come back to the absolutely vital relationship between the law and the soul later. We can be co-workers with the World-Mind only to the extent that we withdraw from our ego. Then only are we able to receive correctly the wonderful revelation of the World’s meaning and laws, so that we can participate intelligently and lovingly. #RandolphHarris 13 of 21

When one sees the meaning of life, one cannot help but give it one’s acceptance. Circumstances previously rebelled against now fit into a reasonable place in the patterns of things. Nature gives her message to humans, and gives it all the time all at once. However, humans hear it only in bits and pieces, even when and if one hears it at all. How to live well while in this World does not only mean how to live comfortably, nor even morally, but also how to live in harmony with the World-Idea. To be unaware that there is any such meanings to existence is to be unable to live really well and truly wisely as a human being. Bring in a single light and there follows recognition of several objects in a room; there is knowledge of their existence, their form, and often their function. In the same way, some knowledge of the World-Idea makes possible the clearer comprehension of human existence, its hidden purposes, goals, and enigmas. I have only a very partial knowledge of the World-Idea but it is enough to throw a practical working light upon our business here on Earth. Only when one finds out one’s correct relation to the Universe and to one’s fellow creatures will one find one’s own well-being. #RandolphHarris 14 of 21

We too are elements of the World like the mountains and flowers around us and need to understand it in co-operation with the need to understand ourselves. The two cannot be separated without loss to our own fullness of understanding and practicality. One who knows not the World-Order, know not one’s own place in it. As is apparent, little could be said about will in its aspect as mover or impeller, though the power of choosing to act or not to act is sufficiently different from other features of human life to warrant a name. Much more could be said abut the kinds of things, values, and forces that move the will and influenced human’s conduct. Much was written—and has always been written—under the general heads of ethics, morals, moral philosophy, and politics. The main movers of the will have been traditionally regarded as the good (apparent good and real good), virtue, duty, and felicity. These terms and things are too vauge to permit close analysis and study of conduct. Yet, one may subscribe to the classic generalization that apparent good is the mother of desire and real good the mother of virtue. #RandolphHarris 15 of 21

The classes of good are the self-good, the Good of Communion or duty, and certain practical categories that relate to the mind’s culture. The fresh approach to self-good and good of communion are to be based on the belief that there is formed and imprinted in everything an appetite toward two natures of good: the one as everything is a total or substantive in itself, the other as it is a part or member of a greater body. Self-good—sometimes called individual good—seems to reveal a triple appetite, that of preserving and protecting self, of perfecting self, and of multiplying self. Self-preservation is good because it brings pleasure in its must pure and naturel form—this kind of pleasure is the softest and lowest. A high and more active form of individual good is the appetite to perfect one’s self. Even higher and still more dynamic in the scale of self-goods is the urge to extend and multiply the human species. In all manifestations of the good, the final end is the perfection of form; the mechanism or agent is that of instinct. Human’s desire is to perfect oneself and one’s own kind reflects a profound and eternal sensitivity to form. First, humans seem to have an instinct of an advancement formal and essential. #RandolphHarris 16 of 21

Since one’s form and essence is one’s rationality, one will be most strong when one shows a mind well formed and composed in itself. The idea of virtue refers to just such a state in humans. Duty, on the other hand, refers to a mind well formed and disposed towards others. Second, a human’s striving to perfect oneself reflects the appetite in all things to approach the form next above them…there are some nobler natures to the dignity and excellence whereof inferior natures aspire as to their sources and origins. In the case of humans, the perfection of one’s form is one’s assumption or approach to the Divine or Angelic nature. The affection of humans for one’s higher nature maybe an affection that is inseparable from human nature. This alludes, also, to the vestige of goodness that God vouchsafed Adam when he was banished from the Garden of Eden. The will, then, is moved by considerations of self-good and community good or duty. It is also influenced by those conditions that relate culture or training to the mind. These are the dispositions and characters of humans. They are inclination to virtue and vices and to passions and perturbations. The conditions are grouped under two principal divisions: those that the individual that the individual has no control over, and those that one can command. #RandolphHarris 17 of 21

In the first division are characters that are profound and radical dispositions that seem to fit one human for business, another for art, one for the contemplative life, another for practical affairs, one for love, another for war, and the like. In the second division is placed a number of things that mold manners and affect both will and appetite. I come now to those points where are within our own command, and have operation on the mind to affect and influence the will and appetite, and so have great power in altering manners; wherein philosophers ought carefully and actively to have inquired of the strength and energy of custom, exercise, habit, education, imitation, emulation, company, friendship, praise, reproof, exhortation, fame, laws, books, studies, and the like. For these are things that rule in morals; these the agents by which the mind is affected and disposed; and the ingredients of which are compounded the medicines to preserve or recover the health of the mind, as far as it can be done by human remedies. Some virtues are habits and can be learned, they too are among the moral conditions that influence the will. #RandolphHarris 18 of 21

Yet virtue, in influencing the will, does not function quite like an agent; rather it is a guide, a goal, or an object; and in this respect it is in the family of good, duty, and felicity. These are quite rightly the true objects and scopes of human’s will and desires. In fact, one function of ethical studies is how to make the will of human conformable to the pursuit of those object. Since the human being is one among many other creates existent in the cosmos, if one is to know oneself properly one must know enough cosmology to enable one to do so. Because the World-Mind is there the cosmos is there. Because the cosmos is there you are there. Such knowledge will enable one to make the best use of oneself and one’s environment, for its beneficial influence will pervade one’s general life and work. To what ideal ought young advance? This is where foreknowledge of the World-Idea is helpful to them. The values of a knowledge of cosmology is that it makes a human feel, intellectually at least, that one is part of something immensely great and immensely significant. The highest mystical teachings end, and can only end, in proclamation of the One Reality or, more properly, the Ineffable, the One-without-a-Second. Nothing much can really be affirmed about It other than that It IS. #RandolphHarris 19 of 21

However, revelation cannot end with this affirmation. For humans find themselves subject to the necessities of a physical body living in a physical environment. The higher laws governing such Earthly existence affect one vitally. If one is to live in harmony, not conflict of these laws, one ought not to remain unaware of them. If one ignores the fact, truths, laws, and principles of cosmogony, all spiritual study is incomplete. To attempt to justify this neglect with accusation that they belong to the World of illusion is silly and useless. For the accuser must still continue to live in an illusory body and use an illusory self governed by those laws. After every such attempt and for each violation of those laws—upon which the order and harmony of the Universe depend—which one’s neglect brings about, one must pay the penalty in suffering.  As knowledge of the true facts about the World in which we live become available (and I mean knowledge not only scientific knowledge, but also spiritual knowledge and physical knowledge), more and more the human race will discover that it has obligations to the cosmos, and that they cannot be ignored without retribution. “Therefore rejoice, you Heavens and you who dwell in them! But woe to the Earth and the sea, because the devil has gone down to you! He is filled with fury, because he knows that his time is short,” reports Revelation 12.12. #RandolphHarris 20 of 21

Never will I say, King of the Earth, that your power has ever been diminished. Today, I saw leaves flying in the wind and they told me not to doubt. Though the strong guests strip the trees of their the summertime finery and empty branches reach black against the twilight sky, my heart will not shudder, nor my spirits fail. You are the guide to whom the events of the World look and they do not stray from the path you are continually laying down: this Winter that transforms the World is a return to Winter’s past. Standing among the fallen leave, I praise you, I prey to you, I bring to mind your glory. Depart from evil, and do good; seek peace, and pursue it. The face of the Lord is against then that do evil, to cut ff their memory from the Earth. The eyes of the Lord are toward the righteous, and His ears are open unto their cry. They cried, and the Lord heard them, and delivered them out of all their troubles. The Lord is nigh unto that that are of a broken heart, and saveth such as are a contrite spirit. Many are the misfortunes of he righteous, but the Lord delivereth one out of them all. #RandolphHarris 21 of 21

Cresleigh Homes

Mills Station Residence 4 Walkthrough: https://youtu.be/Y7YTiF0JjQg

The biggest home at #MillsStation is Residence 4 at almost 2700 sq. ft. With 4 bedrooms, 3 & 1/2 bathrooms, and multiple customization options, we know that you’ll find your home here!

Check out the interactive floor plan on our website. Link in bio. https://cresleigh.com/mills-station/residence-4/

Mills Station is an intimate enclave of luxury single-family homes within the master plan community of Cresleigh Ranch. Mills Station offers a variety of stunning architectural features and generous open floor plans, including single-story and two-story home designs with up to 5 bedrooms, 3.5 baths, 2- to 3-car garages and approximately 2,000 to 2,700 square feet.

You will also love the award-winning and well-respected Elk Grove Unified School District. The established master planned community of Mills Station offers intimate neighborhood parks for all ages and a large community park with various recreation fields.

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