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Redemption Sparkles and Will Mingle Kindly with the Meadow Air!
When a person points a finger at someone else, one should remember that four of one’s fingers are pointing at oneself. I have never met anyone who believed in democracy. I have met many who prefer it to any other form of government and who are willing to die for it. I have met many who are willing to abide by majority opinion, but I have never met anyone who believed in mass judgment. That is what democracy is. Also, it seems, indeed, that there are two behaviour patterns that might have been genetically programmed through hunting behaviour: cooperation and sharing. Cooperation between members of the same band was a practical necessity for most hunting societies; so was the sharing of food. Since meat is perishable in most climates except that of the Arctic, it could not be preserved. Luck in hunting was not equally divided among all hunters; hence the practical outcome was that those who had luck today would share their food with those who would be lucky tomorrow. Assuming hunting behaviour led to genetic changes, the conclusions would be that modern humans have an innate impulse for cooperation and sharing, rather than for killing and cruelty. #RandolphHarris 1 of 26
Unfortunately, humanity’s record of cooperation and sharing is rather spotty, as the history of civilization shows. One might explain this by the fact that hunting life did not produce genetic changes, or that the impulses for sharing and cooperation have become deeply repressed in cultures whose organization discouraged these virtues and instead encourages ruthless egotism. Nevertheless, one might still speculate whether the tendency to cooperate and to share which we find in many societies today outside of the modern industrialized World do not point to the innate character of these impulses. In fact, even in modern warfare, in which the soldier by and large does not feel much hate against one’s enemy, and only exceptionally indulges in cruelty, we find a remarkable degree of cooperation and sharing. While in civilian life most people do not risk their lives to save another human’s life or share their food with others, in war this is a daily occurrence. Perhaps one might even go further and suggest that one of the factors which make war attractive is precisely the possibility of practising deeply buried human impulses which our society when at peace, considering—in fact, although not ideologically—to be foolish. #RandolphHarris 2 of 26
Modern society, with its almost limitless readiness for destruction of human lives for political and economic ends, can best defend itself against the elementary human question of its right to do so by the assumption that destructiveness and cruelty are not engendered by our social system, but are innate qualities in humans. Fortunately, our knowledge of hunting behaviour is not restricted to speculations; there is a considerable body of information about still existing primitive hunters and food gatherers to demonstrate that hunting is not conducive to destructiveness and cruelty, and that primitive hunters are relatively unaggressive when compared to their civilized brothers. There are certain direct data on the life of the prehistoric hunter to be found in animal cults which point to the fact that they lacked the alleged innate destructiveness. The cave paintings associated with the life of prehistoric hunters did not exhibit any fighting between humans. Colin Turnbull, a specialist in this study, has reported: “In the two groups known to me, there is almost total lack of aggression, emotional or physical, and this is borne out by the lack of warfare, feuding, witchcraft, and sorcery. #RandolphHarris 3 of 26
“I am also not convinced that hunting is itself an aggressive activity. This is something that one must see in order to realize; the act of hunting is not carried out in an aggressive spirit at all. Due to the consciousness of depleting natural resources, there is actually a regret at killing life. In some cases, this killing may even bear an element of compassion. My experience with hunters has shown them to be very gentle people, and while it is certainly true that they lead extremely hard lives, this is not the same thing as being aggressive.” The most obvious and probably most crucial characteristic of the hunting-gathering societies is their nomadism, required by the foraging economy which leads to loose integration of families into a “band” society. As for their needs—in contrast to modern humans who require a house, an automobile, clothing, electricity, and so on—for the primitive hunter food, and the few devices employed by obtaining it, is the focus of economic life…in a more fundamental sense than it is in more complicated economies. Anything we are capable of experiencing cannot, in and of itself, be pathogenic. #RandolphHarris 4 of 26
Rather, it is the suppression of the experience that gives rise to distortions in consciousness that we associate with psychopathology. Hence anything that we are called upon to experience must have a purpose. We are accustomed, because of the nature of our own economy, to think that human beings have a natural propensity to truck and bater, and that economic relations among individuals or groups are characterized by economizing, by maximizing the result of effort or by selling dear and buying cheap. Primitive peoples do none of these things, however; in fact, most of the time it would seem that they do the opposite. They give things away, they admire generosity, they expect hospitality, they punish thrift as selfishness. And the strangest of all, the more dire the circumstances, the more scarce (or valuable) the goods, the less “economically” will they behave and the more generous do they seem to be. We are considering, of course, the form of exchange among persons within a society and these persons are, in band society, all kinsmen of some sort contrasts directly with the principles ascribed to the formal economy. We “give” food, do we not, to our children? We “help” our brothers and “provide for” aged parents. Others do, or have done, or will do, the same for us. #RandolphHarris 5 of 26
At the generalized pole, because close social relations prevail, the emotions of love, the etiquette of family life, the morality of generosity all together condition the ways goods are handled, and in such a way that the economic attitude toward the goods is diminished. Anthropologists have sometime attempted to characterize the actual transaction with words like “pure gift” or “free gift” in order to point up the fact that this is not trade, but barter, and that the sentiment involved in the transaction is not one of a balanced exchange. However, these words are not quite evocative of the actual nature of the act; they are even somewhat misleading. Once Peter Freuchen was handed some meat by an Eskimo hunter and responded by gratefully thanking him. The hunter was cast down, and Freuchen was quickly corrected by an old man: “You must not thank for your meat: it is your right to get parts. In this country, nobody who gives or gets gifts, for thereby you become dependent. With gifts you make slaves just as with whips you make dogs.” #RandolphHarris 6 of 26
The word “gift” has overtones of charity, not of reciprocity. In no hunting-gathering society is gratitude expressed, and, as a matter of fact, it would be wrong even to praise a human as “generous” when one shares one’s game with one’s campmates. On another occasion one could be said to be generous, but not in response to a particular incident of sharing, for then the statement would have the same implications as an expression of gratitude: that the sharing was unexpected, that the giver was not generous simply as a matter of course. It would be right to praise a human for one’s hunting prowess on such an occasion, but not for one’s generosity. Of particular importance, both economically and psychologically is the question of property. One of the most widespread cliches today is that the love for property is an innate trait in humans. Usually the confusion is made between property in instruments one needs for one’s work and in certain private items like ornaments, et cetera, and property in the sense exclusive possession other people can be made to work for oneself. Such means of production in the industrial society are essentially machines or capital to be invested in machine production. In primitive society the means of production are land and hunting areas. #RandolphHarris 7 of 26
In no primitive band in anyone denied access to the resources of nature—no individual owned these resources. The natural resources on which the bands depend are collective, or communal, property, in the sense that the territory might be defended by the whole band against encroachment by strangers. Within the band, all families have equal right to acquire these resources. Moreover, kinsmen in neighbouring bands are allowed to hunt and gather at will, at least on request. The most common instance of apparent restriction in rights to resources occurs with respect to nut or fruit-bearing trees. In some instances, particular trees or clumps of trees are allocated to individual families of the band. This practice is more a division of labour, however, then a division of property, for its purpose seems to be to prevent the waste of time and effort that would occur if several scattered families headed for the same area. It is simply to conventionalize that allotted use of the several groves, inasmuch as trees are much more permanently located than game or even wild vegetables and grasses. At any rate, even if one family acquired many nuts or fruits and another failed, the rules of sharing would apply so that no one would go hungry. #RandolphHarris 8 of 26
Things that seem most like private property in prehistoric society are those that are made and used by individual persons. Weapons, knives and scrapers, clothing, ornaments, amulets, and the like, are frequently regarded as private property among hunters and gathers. However, it could be argued that in primitive society even these personal items are not private property in the true sense. Inasmuch as the possession of which things is dictated by their use, they are functions of the division of labour rather than an ownership of the means of production. Private ownership of such things is meaningful only if some people possess them and others do not—when, so to speak, an exploitative situation becomes possible. However, it is hard to imaging (and impossible to find in ethnographic accounts) a case of some person or persons who, though some accident, owned no weapons or clothing and could not borrow or receive such things from more fortunate kinsmen. A true guide wills surely serve one’s disciples, sometimes without the title of teacher, certainly without the pay for one’s work for self. One will teach a small number so that, after attaining a certain degree of mystical understanding and practical achievement, they in turn may become helpful guides of others. #RandolphHarris 9 of 26
In modern times, neurosis is the consequence extremely personal secrets that we somehow hide from ourselves. These secrets are repressed from consciousness because they concern terrible disappointments we experienced early in our development. Suppressing our knowledge of these experiences by “forgetting” them temporarily relives the anguish and frustration they originally elicited. So, yes, you can forget a person whom caused a painful situation and/or memory. The suppression of painful experiences produces psychical conflicts which, in turn, may give rise to psychopathology, symptomatic expressions of pain that was being denied. That is why it is important to be completely candid with one’s therapist during the analytic hour. If carried out sincerely, the exercise of candour should reverse the conflicts that have been caused by repression. Our tendency to conceal painful experiences from ourselves could be compounded by families who keep secrets from each other: I know what you are thinking, but you deny it and pretend to think the opposite; or I know how I feel, but you insist that I really believe the opposite. This kind of mystification can become so extreme that a child does not know what one thinks. #RandolphHarris 10 of 26
One’s sense of reality becomes so compromised that one seeks refuge in a psychotic—rather than merely neurotic—withdrawal from an intolerable situation. However, experience cannot be reduced simply to one’s subjective awareness of or involvement in an event, in the sense that I have an experience of writing this sentence. When I truly experience something, I am affected by it. It comes as a shock. It changes everything. My experience of something confronts me with the unexpected. It violates my familiar view of things by forcing something new into consciousness. Due to its intrinsically unsettling nature, experience elicits despair because it disturbs my cozy accommodation to reality. On the other hand, despair lead so to something new because experience always occasions a transformation of some kind. In other words, since experience displaces what is familiar to me, it does not simply cause change: It is change. Experience is not simply subjective. It is also transcendental because it takes me outside myself and places me inside a situation that alters my perspective. The effect that my experience has over me changes, to some degree, who I am. #RandolphHarris 11 of 26
This dialectical process which consciousness executes on itself—n its knowledge as well as on its object—in the sense that out of it the new and true object arises, is precisely what is termed Experience. There are revelatory aspects of experience as well as transformative ones. In other words, experience does not merely change the World inhabit, it also reveals things to me that I had not known. Consequently, experience elicits truth. One’s experience could be nudged in a certain direction for a specific purpose so long as one prepared oneself for it. In other words, by anticipating my experiences purposefully, deliberately, and thoughtfully, I can make use of experience to gain knowledge about myself. There are degrees to which I experience things; it is not all or nothing. Experiences do not just fall on me whether I want them to our not. I am capable of resisting experience. In turn, the degree to which I am able to experience something is determined by how willing I am to submit to whatever it is that I was to experience. To undergo an experience with something—be it a thing, a person, or a god—means that this something befalls us, strikes us, overcomes us, overwhelms and transforms us. #RandolphHarris 12 of 26
When we talk of “undergoing” an experience, we mean specifically that the experience is not of our own making; to undergo here means that we endure it, suffer it, receive it as it strikes us and submit to it. It is this something itself that comes about, comes to pass, happens. The extent to which I am able or willing to listen to what my experience tells me will determine how fully I experience that I am doing, whether I am eating a meal, solving a problem, or undergoing psychoanalysis. Because experience is transformative, I am afraid of it and resist it by holding it back. I am perfectly capable of suppressing my experiences (if they happen to be painful) and even repressing the significance or memory of experiences I have had in order to “forget” them. In other words, I can resist change by suppressing experience, just as I can elicit change by being open to it. Sometimes, however, when one attempts both to escape the experience of an unlivable situation and hold on to that which one is escaping this is what is known as a “psychotic breakdown.” In other words, the psychotic individual is simply trying to be true to one’s experience. Because of the opposition that one encounters in one’s environment, one is compelled to withdraw from the reality that one is in order to protect what experience tells one. #RandolphHarris 13 of 26
This “compromise” comprises one’s psychosis. The psychotic gets stuck in one’s psychosis and cannot find one’s way out of it. “Are you unaware that your body is a shrine to the Holy Spirit from God, Who is within you? And that you are not your own property? A price has been paid for you. So make your body a showplace of God’s grace,” reports 1 Corinthians 6.19-20. “No longer present the parts of your body to sin as weapons of wickedness, but present yourselves to God like people, who coming out of death, have eternal life; and present your bodily part to him as weapons of righteousness,” reports Romans 6.13. Although it is seen as just a mental process the mind is the brain, and the brain is physical. Therefore, it is also part of our body and it is important are our brains are functioning at their best. There are so many problems in society today because people lack mental fitness. Mental health challenges can impact anyone, regardless of education, geography, faith, calling, or family. They are nothing to be ashamed of and should be met with love. Spiritual transformation into Christlikeness is the process of forming the inner World of the human self in such a way that it takes on the character of the inner being of Jesus himself. #RandolphHarris 14 of 26
The result is that the “outer” life of the individual increasingly becomes a natural expression of the inner reality of Jesus and of his teachings. Doing what he said and did increasingly becomes a part of who we are. However, for this to happen our body and mind must increasingly be poised to do what is good and refrain from what is evil. The inclinations to wrongdoing that literally inhabit its parts must be eliminated. The body must come to serve us as a primary ally in Christlikeness. For good or for evil, the body lies right at the center of the spiritual life—a strange combination of words to most people. One can immediately see all around us that the human body is a (perhaps in some cases even the) primary barrier to conformity to Christ. However, this certainly was not God’s intent for the body and mind. It is not in the nature of our being as such. (The being is not inherently evil.) Nor is it caused by the body or mind. However, still it is a fact that the body and mind usually hinders people in doing what they know to be good and right. Being formed in evil it, in turn, fosters evil and constantly runs ahead of our good intentions—but in the opposite direction. #RandolphHarris 15 of 26
Still our total being is a good thing. God made if for good. That is why the way of Jesus Christ is so relentlessly incarnational. The complete being should be cherished and properly cared for, not as our master, however, but as a servant of God. For most people, on the other hand, their body governs their live and they ignore their conscience. And that is the problem. Even professing Christians, by and large, devote to their spiritual growth and well-being a tiny fraction of the time they devote to their body, and If we include what one worries about, it is an even tinier fraction. What is going on here? Can our holistic being truly become our ally in Christlikeness? It can and it must, but its essential role in spirituality is the one thing most likely to be overlooked in understanding and practicing growth in grace. We find an aspect of Joshua’s preparation for leadership in Exodus 33, where we glimpse his growing devotion to God. He was serving in the Tabernacle with Moses while the pillar of the cloud towered above the tent. Verse 11 tells us: “The Lord would speak to Moses face to face, as a man speaks with his friends. Then Moses would return to the camp, but his young assistant Joshua son of Nun did not leave the tent.” #RandolphHarris 16 of 26
Though he was not privileged, like Moses, to speak with God face to face, Joshua was so overcome by God’s presence that he would not leave the Tabernacle! There is such passion in this picture. “Lord, You are so wonderful, I cannot leave this room. I beg You, let me stay.” Joshua’s New Testament counterpart is Mary of Bethany, who would not leave the room where Jesus was as she sat enraptured at His feet despite her sister’s scolding. And she was so right! As we have it from the Lips of our Lord, “Mary has chosen what is better, and it will not be taken away from her,” reports Luke 10.42. It was this same Mary who poured a year’s fortune on Jesus and wiped His feet with her hair and of whom Jesus said, “She has done a beautiful thing to me,” report Mark 14.6. True spiritual leadership is born for devotion and demands to be closeted with God. We cannot name one great leader in the Church who has not made personal worship a top priority. Such were the lives of Luther, Bunyan, Edwards, Wesley, Muller, Lloyd-Jones, and every other truly spiritual leader. There is no spiritual leadership apart from passionate devotion. Such is the grace of God that it inspires humans of the most different types to arise and help their fellow. #RandolphHarris 17 of 26
One hundred years ago the great C.J. Vaughn said, “If I wished to humble anyone, I should question one about one’s prayers. I know nothing to compare with the topic for its sorrowful confessions.” Humans, leaders, how would you answer such a question? Humans as widely apart as General Booth, who founded the Salvation Army, and the late Lord Haldane, who sought to translate his philosophical vision into unselfish public service were inspired by the grace of God. Thus, even in the darkest epochs someone eventually appears to help the most unenlightened, the most sinful, and the most illiterate, even as someone eventually appears to guide the virtuous, educated, and intellectual. Inability to comprehend the highest truth or inability to live up to the loftiest ethics is not made by true self-actualized beings a bar to bestowing help. They assist the undeveloped from where they now stand. And such is the wisdom of the self-actualized that they know just how much to give and in what form it can best be assimilated, even as they know when it is better to convey material assistance only and when ethical, religious, mystical, or philosophical instruction should also be given. #RandolphHarris 18 of 26
Human ruin comes from placing oneself at the center of one’s Universe, in place of God. If not inevitable, this naturally leads to worship of the body and to the life of sensuality that results. If not the only instrument, the body becomes our primary source of gratification and the chief for getting what we want. That is perversion of the role of the body in life as God intended it; and it results in “death,” in alienation from God and the loss of all we will have invested our lives in. “Do not be deceived: God cannot be mocked. A human reaps what one sows. The one who sows to please one’s sinful nature, from that nature will reap destruction; the one who sows to please the Spirit, from the Spirit will reap eternal life. Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up. Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us do good to tall people, especially to those who belong to the family of believers,” reports Galatians 6.7-10. The capacity to receive truth is limited by the moral, intellectual, and intuitional limitations of the receiver. The first work of the self-actualized is to plow up the field of one’s pupil’s mind, to make it fit to receive fresh seed. One has no desire to get humans interested in one’s own personality, to have them turn to, and rely on, oneself but would rather turn them toward their own higher nature. #RandolphHarris 19 of 26
The master who gives truth is a greater creator of values and contributor to humanity than the greatest music composer. When eloquence is untied with enlightenment, we may expect sentences which pierce us with their rightness, which are rich in truth and stimulating to goodness. One’s statements make truth clearer; one’s declarations are like a sparkling glass of eternal water. “And it came to pass in that same year there began to be a war again between the Nephites and the Lamanites. And notwithstanding I being young, was large in stature; therefore the people of Nephi appointed me that I should be their leader, or the leader of their armies. Therefore it came to pass that in my sixteenth year I did go forth at the head of an army of the Nephites, against the Lamanites; therefore three hundred and twenty and six years passed away. And it came to pass that in the three hundred and twenty and seventh year the Lamanites did come upon us with exceedingly great power, insomuch that they did frighten my armies; therefore they would not fight, and they began to retreat toward the norther countries. And it came to pass that we did come to the city of Angola, and we did take possession of the city, and make preparations to defend ourselves against the Lamanites. #RandolphHarris 20 of 26
“And it came to pass that we did fortify the city with our might; but notwithstanding all our fortification the Lamanites did come upon us and did drive us out of the city. And they did also drive us forth out of the land of David. And we marched forth and came to the land of Joshua, which was in the borders west by the seashore. And it came to pass that we did gather in our people as fast as it were possible, that we might get them together in one body. However, behold, the land was filled with robbers and with Lamanites; and notwithstanding the great destruction which hung over my people, they did not repent of their evil doings; therefore there was blood and carnage spread throughout all the face of the land, both n the part of the Nephites and also on the part of the Lamanites; and it was one complete revolution throughout all the face of the land. And now, the Lamanites had a kind, and his name was Aaron; and he came against us with an army of forty and four thousand. And behold, I withstood him with forty and two thousand. And it came to pass that I beat him with my army that he fled before me. And behold, all this was done, and three hundred and thirty years had passed away. #RandolphHarris 21 of 26
“And it came to pass that the Nephites began to repent of their iniquity, and began to cry even as had been prophesied by Samuel the prophet; for behold no man could keep that which was his own, for the thieves, and the robbers, and the murderers, and the magic art, and the witchcraft which was in the land. Thus there began to be a mourning and a lamentation in all the land because of these things, and more especially among the people of Nephi. And it came to pass that when I, Mormon, saw their lamentation and their mourning and their sorrow before the Lord, my heart did begin to rejoice within me, knowing the mercies and the long-suffering of the Lord, therefore supposing that he would be merciful unto them that they would again become a righteous people. However, behold, this my joy was vain, for their sorrowing was not unto repentance, because of the goodness of God; but it was rather the sorrowing of the damned, because the Lord would not always duffer them to take happiness in sin. And they did not come unto Jesus with broken hearts and contrite spirits, but they did curse God, and wish to die. Nevertheless they would struggle with the sword for their lives. #Randolphharris 22 of 26
“And it came to that my sorrow did return unto me again, and I saw that the day of grace was passed with them, both temporally and spiritually; for I saw thousands of them hewn down in open rebellion against their God, and heaped up as dung upon the face of the land. And this three hundred and forty and four years had passed away. And it came to pass that in the three hundred and forty and fifth year the Nephites did begin to flee before the Lamanites; and they were pursued until they came even to the land of Jashon, before it was possible to stop them in their retreat. And now, the city of Jashon was near the land where Ammaron had deposited the records unto the Lord, that they might not be destroyed. And behold I have gone according to the word of Ammaron, and take the plated of Nephi and did make a record according to the words of Ammaron. And upon the plates of Nephi I did make a full account of all the wickedness and abominations; but upon these plated I did forbear to make a full account of their wickedness and abominations, for behold, a continual scene of wickedness and abominations has been before mine eyes ever since I have been sufficient to behold the ways of man. #RandolphHarris 23 of 26
“And wo is me because of their wickedness; for my heart has been filled with sorrow because of their wickedness, all my days; nevertheless, I know that I shall be lifted up at the last day. And it came to pass that in this year the people of Nephi again were hunted and driven. And it came to pas that we were driven forth until we had come northward to the land which was called Shem. And it came to pass that we did fortify the city of Shem, and we did gather in our people as much as it were possible, that perhaps we might save them from destruction. And it came to pass in the three hundred and forty and sixth year they began to come upon us again. And it came to pass that I did speak unto my people, and did urge them with great energy, that they would stand boldly before the Lamanites and fight for their wives and children, and their houses, and their homes. And my words did arouse them somewhat vigour, insomuch that they did not flee from before the Lamanites, but did stand with boldness against them. And it came to pass that we did contend with an army of fifty thousand. And it came to pass that we did stand before the with such fairness that they did flee from us. And it came to pass that when they had fled we did pursue them with our armies, and did meet them again, and did beat them. #Randolphharris 24 of 26
“Nevertheless the strength of the Lord was not with us; yea, we were left to ourselves, that the Spirit of the Lord did not abide in us; therefore we had become weak like unto our brethren. And my heart did sorrow because of this great calamity of my people, because of their wickedness and their abominations. However, behold, we did go forth against the Lamanites and the robbers of Gadianton, until we had again taken possession of the lands of our inheritance. And the three hundred and forty and ninth year had passed away. And in the three hundred and fiftieth year we made a treaty with the Lamanites and the robbers of the Gadianton, in which we did get the lands of our inheritance divided. And the Lamanites dud give unto us the land northward yea, even to the narrow passage which led into the land southward. And we did give unto the Lamanites all the land southward,” reports Mormon 2.1-29. When the proper time has passed, the womb of night will give birth to day. Though I long for day, in my heart I know that the way things are is done rightly. Here in the dark, I remember this and rest in the sure concern of the Holy Ones. O Lord our God, please grant that we all and Thy people, the house of Israel, find delight in the study of the Scripture. #RandolphHarris 25 of 26
May we and our children and all the future generations of the house of Israel know Thy name and learn Thy Scripture for its own sake. Blessed art Thou, O Lord, who Teachest the Scripture to Thy people Israel. Blessed art Thou, O Lord our God, King of Universe, who hast chosen us from among all peoples by giving us Thy Scripture. Blessed art Thou, O Lord, Giver of the Scripture. The Lord bless thee and keep thee. The Lord make His countenance shine up thee and be gracious unto thee. The Lord turn His countenance unto thee, and grant thee peace. May the gifts of your fruits guide you on your pilgrimage, offering sanctuary, and deeds of lovingkindness. May you enjoy your fruits while in this life, and may the principal remain for you to all eternity. Be sure to honour your mother and father, and perform deeds of lovingkindness towards them. May God make peace between all humans. God’s spirit will guide us through the darkness and stand as a wall, and protect us from all terrors. The soul which God has blessed you with is pure and will bring peace into the lives of others. “Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see. This is what the ancients were commanded,” reports Hebrews 11.1-2. #RandolphHarris 26 of 26
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Would Come No Mystery? For Me, Dark, Dark, and Painful Vile Oblivion Seals My Eyes!
Truth is where the truth is, and it is sometimes in the candy store. You are THAT reality which you seek: give up the ego and know it. The easiest way to get into the meditative state is to begin by listening. If you simply close your eyes and allow yourself to hear all the sounds that are going on around you, just listen to the general hum and buzz of the World, as if you were listening to music. Allow them to play with your eardrums, it is all just sound. You do not have to try to understand anything, just listen to the sound. Look at your own thoughts as just noises, and soon you will find that the so called outside World and to so called inside World come together. They are happening, and everything is simply a happening, and all you are doing is watching it. It is so easy to forget who you are. Just take a shovel and go bury your hears. Why did you hold on to all of the hate? Be believing. Be happy. Do not get discouraged. Things will work out. Cynics do not contribute, skeptics do not create, doubters do not achieve. Do not waste time pondering the past or fretting about the future. And preserve in spite of adversity. Even when many people are negative and pessimistic, we can cultivate a spirit of happiness and optimism. #RandolphHarris 1 of 26
There is a terrible ailment of pessimism in the land. It is almost an endemic. We are constantly fed a steady and sour diet of character assassination, faultfinding, evil speaking of one another. We must stop seeking out storms and enjoy more fully the sunlight. It is important that we accentuate the optimistic. Look a little deeper for the good, still that voice of insult and sarcasm, and more generously compliment virtue and effort. While we must never ignore all criticism, since growth comes with correction, strength comes with repentance. Wise is the one who, committing mistakes pointed out by others, changes one’s course. One who is to direct the steps of others along this path needs not only to be high in character and consciousness and teaching ability, but also to be learned in the comparative history and comparative doctrines of Christianity. It is true that nobody can get sufficient data to determine the solutions of the riddle of a single person’s status, nobody can penetrate fully into any other person’s motives. I do not judge anyone and I ought not to judge. Nevertheless, one’s teaching alone is insufficient to testify to the true worth of a human; one oneself is a testimony of equal value. If one has nth inspiration and technique one’s message will carry authority, power, enlightenment, and hope to those who can receive it. #RandolphHarris 2 of 26
The teacher’s work will have to endure the malice of satanic human instruments and the misunderstanding of the superficial and ignorant. If parties wish to express this notion visibly in the basic structure of their society in order to secure each human’s rational interest in one’s self-respect, which principles should they choose? Now it seems that the two principles of justice achieve this aim: for all have an equal liberty and the difference principle explicates the distinction between treating humans as a means only and treating them also as ends in themselves. To regard persons as ends in themselves in the basic design of society is to agree to forgo those gains which do not contribute to their representative expectations. By contrast, to regard persons as a means is to be prepared to impose upon them lower prospects of life for the sake of the higher expectations of others. Thus we see that the difference principle, which at first appears rather extreme, has a reasonable interpretation. If we further suppose that social cooperation among those who respect each other and themselves as manifest in their institutions is likely to be more effective and harmonious, the general level of expectations, assuming we could estimate it, may be higher when the two principles of justice are satisfied than one might otherwise have thought. The advantage of the principle of utility in this respect is no longer so clear. #RandolphHarris 3 of 26
The principle of utility presumably requires some to forgo greater life prospects for the sake of others. To be sure, it is not necessary that those having to make such sacrifices rationalize this demand by having a lesser appreciation of their own worth. It does not follow from the utilitarian doctrine that it is because their aims are trivial or unimportant that some individuals’ expectations are less. Yet this may often be the case, and there is a sense, as we have just noted, in which utilitarianism does not regard persons as ends in themselves. And in any event, the parties must consider the general facts of moral psychology. When we must accept a lesser prospect of life for the sake of others, surely it is natural to experience a loss of self-esteem, a weakening of our sense of the value of accomplishing our aims. When social cooperation is arranged for the good of individual, this is particularly likely to be so. That is, those with greater advantages do not claim that they are necessary to preserve certain religious or cultural values which everyone has a duty to maintain. We are not here considering a doctrine of traditional order nor the principle of perfectionism, but rather the principle of utility. #RandolphHarris 4 of 26
In this instance, then, human’s self-esteem hinges on how they regard one another. If the parties accept the utility criterion, they will lack the support to their self-respect provided by the public commitment of others to arrange inequalities to everyone’s advantage and to guarantee an equal liberty for all. In a public utilitarian society humans will find it more difficult to be confident of their own worth. The utilitarian may answer that in maximizing the average utility these matters are already taken into account. If, for example, the equal liberties are necessary for human’s self-respect and the average utility is higher when they are affirmed, then of course they should be established. So far so good. However, the point is that we must not lose sight of the publicity condition. This requires that in maximizing the average utility we do so subject to the constraint that the utilitarian principle is publicly accepted and followed as the fundamental character of society. What we cannot do is to raise the average utility by encouraging humans to adopt and apply non-utilitarian principles of justice. If, for whatever reasons, the public recognition of utilitarianism entails some loss of self-esteem, there is no way around this drawback. #RandolphHarris 5 of 26
It is an unavoidable cost of the utilitarian scheme given our stipulations. Thus suppose that the average utility is actually greater should the two principles of justice be publicly affirmed and realized as the basis of the social structure. For the reasons mentioned, this may conceivably be the case. These principles would then represent the most attractive prospects, and on both lines of reasoning just examined, the two principles would be accepted. The utilitarian cannot reply that one is now really maximizing the average utility. In fact, the parties would have chosen the two principles of justice. We should note, then, that unilateralism, as I have defined it, is the view that the principle of utility is the correct principle for society’s public conception of justice. And to show this one must argue that this criterion would be chosen in the original position. If we like, we can define a different variation of the initial situation in which the motivation assumption is that the parties want to adopt those principles that maximize average utility. The preceding remarks indicate that the two principles of justice may still be chosen. #RandolphHarris 6 of 26
However, if so, it is a mistake to call these principles—and the theory in which they appear—utilitarian. The motivation assumption by itself does not determine the character of the whole theory. In fact, if they would be chosen under different motivation assumptions, the case for the principles of justice is strengthened. This indicates that the theory of justice is firmly grounded and not sensitive to slight changes in this condition. What we want to know is which conception of justice characterizes our considered judgments in reflective equilibrium and best serves as the public moral basis of society. Unless one maintains that this conception is given by the principle of utility, one is not a utilitarian. The advocate of utility can maintain, however, that this principle also gives sense to the Kantian idea, namely, the sense provided by Bentham’s formula “everybody to count for one, nobody for more than one.” This means that one person’s happiness assumed to be equal in degree to another person’s is to be counted exactly the same. The weight in the additive function that represent the utility principle are identical for all individuals, and it is natural to take them as one. #RandolphHarris 7 of 26
The principle of utility, one might say, treats persons both as ends and as means. It treats them as end by assigning the same (positive) weight to the welfare of each; it treats them as means by allowing higher life prospects for some to counterbalance lower life prospects for others who are already less favourably situated. The two principles of justice give a stronger and more characteristic interpretation to Kant’s idea. They rule out even the tendency to regard humans as means to one another’s welfare. In the design of the social system we must treat persons solely as ends and not in any way as means. The preceding arguments draw upon this more stringent interpretation. The conditions of generality of principle, universality of application, and limited information as to natural and social status are not enough by themselves to characterize the original position of justice as fairness. The reasoning for the average principle of utility shows this. These conditions are necessary but not sufficient. The original position requires the parties to make a collective agreement, and therefore the restrictions on valid undertakings as well as the publicity and finality conditions are an essential part of the argument for the two principles. #RandolphHarris 8 of 26
I have discussed the role of these constraints in connection with the strains of commitment and the problem of stability. Once these considerations are established the doubts about the reasoning for the average principle become more serious. The tentative conclusion, then, is that the balance of reasons clearly favours the two principles of justice over the principle of average utility, and assuming transitivity, over the classical doctrine as well. Insofar as the conception of the original position is used in the justification of principles in everyday life, the claim that one would agree to the two principles in everyday life, the claim that one would agree to the two principles of justice is perfectly credible. There is no reason offhand to think that it is not sincere. In order for this profession to be convincing, it is not necessary that one should have actually given and honoured this undertaking. Thus it is able to serve as a conception of justice in the public acceptance of which persons can recognize one another’s good faith. #RandolphHarris 9 of 26
If the predatory quality of human’s hominid ancestors cannot be made responsible for their aggressiveness, can there be a human ancestor, a prehistorical Adam who is responsible for human’s “fall”? This “Adam” may be man, the hunter. Humans have lived during 99 percent of their history as hunters, we owe our biology, psychology, and customs to the hunters of the time past: In a very real sense our intellect, interest, emotions, and basic social life—all are evolutionary products of the success of the hunting adaption. When anthropologist speak of the unity of humankind, they are stating that the selection pressures of the hunting and gathering way of life were so similar and the result so successful that populations of Homo sapiens are still fundamentally the same everywhere. The crucial question, then, is: What is this psychology of the hunter? It struck me that a certain kind of father-complex has a spiritual character, so to speak, in the sense that the father-image gives rise to statements, actions, tendencies, impulses, opinion, et etcetera, to which one could hardly deny the attribute spiritual. In men, a positive father-complex very often produces a certain credulity with regard to authority and a distinct willingness to bow down before all spiritual doctrines and covenants. #RandolphHarris 10 of 26
While in women, the father-complex induces the liveliest spiritual aspirations and interests. The invisibility of this source is frequently emphasized by the fact that it consists simply of an authoritative voice which passes final judgements. Mostly, therefore, it is the figure of a “wise old man” who symbolizes the spiritual factor. Sometimes the part is played by a “real” spirit, namely the ghost of one dead, or, more rarely, by grotesque gnomelike figures or talking animals. The dwarf forms are found, at last in my experience, mainly in women; hence it seems to me logical that in Ernst Barlach’s play Der tote Tag (1912), the gnomelike figure of Steissbart (“Rumpbeard”) is associated with the mother, just as Bes is associated with the mother-goodness at Karnak. In both genders the spirit can also take the form of a boy or a youth. In women he corresponds to the so-called “positive” animus who indicates the possibility of conscious spiritual effort. In men his meaning is not so simple. He can be positive, in which case he signifies the “higher” personality, the self or filius regius as conceived by the alchemists. However, he can also be negative, and then he signifies the infantile shadow. #RandolphHarris 11 of 26
In both cases the boy means some form of spirit. Graybeard and boy belong together. The pair of them play a considerable role in alchemy as symbols of Mercurius. Mercurius is a major god in Roman religion and mythology, being one of the 12 Dii Consentes (a list of twelve major deities, six gods and six goddesses) within the ancient Roman pantheon. He is the god of financial gain, commerce, eloquence, messages, communication (including divination), travelers, boundaries, luck, trickery and thieves; he also serve as the guide of souls. It can never be established with one-hundred-percent certainty whether the spirit-figures in dreams are morally good. If not of outright malice, very often they show all the signs of duplicity. I must emphasize, however, that the grand plan on which the unconscious life of the psyche is constructed is so inaccessible to our understanding that we can never know what evil may not be necessary in order to produce good by enantiodromia (the tendency of thing to change into their opposites, especially as a supposed governing principle of natural cycles and of psychological development), and what good may very possible lead to evil. #RandolphHarris 12 of 26
Sometimes the probate spiritus with the best will in the World, be anything other than a cautious and patient waiting to see how things will finally turn out. Humans have a carnivorous psychology fully developed by the Middle Pleistocene, around 500, 000 years ago or even earlier. The World view of the early human carnivore must have been very different from that of their vegetarian cousins. Some scientists believe that the carnivorous psychology is because humans have a drive for and pleasure in killing. It is believed that humans take pleasure in hunting other animals. Unless careful training has hidden the natural drives, humans enjoy the chase and the kill. In most cultures torture and suffering are made public spectacles for the enjoyment of all. Humas have a carnivorous psychology. It is easy to teach people to kill, and it is hard to develop customs which avoid killing. Many human beings enjoy seeing other human beings suffer or enjoy the killing of animals…public beatings and torture are common in many cultures. What are the arguments in favour of this alleged innate joy in killing and cruelty? One argument is killing as a sport. #RandolphHarris 13 of 26
Perhaps this is most easily shown by the extent of the efforts devoted to maintain killing as a sport. In former times royalty and nobility maintained parks where they could enjoy the sport of killing, and today the United States government spends many millions of dollars to supply game for hunters. Some people even use the lightest fishing tackle to prolong the fish’s futile struggle, in order to maximize the personal sense of mastery and skill. And until recently war was viewed in much the same way as hunting. Other human beings were simply the most dangerous game. War has been far too important in human history for it to be other than pleasurable for the people involved. It is only recently with the entire change in the nature and conditions of war, that this institution has been challenged, that the wisdom of war as a normal part of national policy or as an approved road to personal social glory has been questioned. The extent to which the biological bases for killing have been incorporated into human psychology may be measures by the ease with which boys and modern girls, in many cases, can be interested in hunting, fishing, fighting, and games of war. #RandolphHarris 14 of 26
It is not that these behaviours are inevitable, but they are learned, satisfying, and have been socially rewarded in most cultures. The skills for killing and the pleasures of killing are normally developed in play, and the patterns of play prepare the children for their adult roles. Many people enjoy killing and cruelty is true as far as it goes, but all it means is that there are sadistic individuals and sadistic cultures; but there are others that are not sadistic. One will find, for instance, that sadism is much more frequently to be found among frustrated individuals and social classes who feel powerless and have little pleasure in life, for example the lower class in Rome who were compensated for their material poverty and social impotence by sadistic spectacles, or the lower middle class in Germany from whose ranks Hitler recruited his most fanatical following; it is also to be found in ruling classes that feel threatened in their dominant position and the property or in suppressed groups that thirst for revenge. However, idea that may hunting produce pleasure in torture is an unsubstantiated and most implausible statement to apply to all human beings. All hunters as a rule do not enjoy the suffering of the animal, and in fact a sadist who enjoys torture would make a poor hunter; nor do all people who fish like to see the fish suffer. #RandolphHarris 15 of 26
There also may not be real evidence that primitive hunters were motivated by sadistic or destructive impulses. On the contrary, there is some evidence to show that they had an affectionate feeling for the killed animals and possibly a feeling of guilt for the kill. Among the Paleolithic hunters, the bear was often addressed as “grandfather” or was looked upon as the mythical ancestor of humans. When the bear was killed, apologies were offered; before he or she was eaten, a sacred meal took place with the bear as an “honoured guest,” before whom were placed the best dishes; finally the bear was ceremoniously buried. The psychology of hunting, including that of the contemporary hunter, calls for extensive study, but a few observations can be made even in this context. First of all, one must distinguish between hunting as a sport of ruling elites (for instance, the nobility in a feudal system) and all other forms of hunting, such as that of primitive hunters, farmers, protecting their crop or chickens, and individuals who love to hunt. “Elite hunting” seems to satisfy the wish for power and control, including a certain amount of sadism, character of power elites. It tells us more about feudal psychology than about the psychology of hunting. #RandolphHarris 16 of 26
Among the motivations of the primitive professional and the modern passionate hunter, at least two kinds must be distinguished. The first have their roots in the depth of human experience. In the act of hunting, a human becomes, however briefly, part of nature again. One returns to the natural state, becomes one with the animal, and is freed from the burden of the existential split: to be part of nature and to transcend it by virtue of one’s consciousness. In stalking the animal one and the animal become equals, even though humans eventually show their superiority by the use of their weapons. In primitive humans this experience is quite conscious. Through disguising oneself as an animal, and considering an animal as one’s ancestor, one makes this identification explicit. For modern humans, with their cerebral orientation, this experience of oneness with nature is difficult to verbalize and to be aware of, but it is still alive in many beings. Of at least equal importance for the passionate hunter is an entirely different motivation, that of enjoyment in one’s skill. It is amazing how many modern authors neglect this element of skill in hunting, and focus their attention on the act of killing. #RandolphHarris 17 of 26
After all, hunting requires a combination of many skills and wide knowledge beyond that of handling a weapon. Hunting has placed a premium upon inventiveness, upon problem solving, and has imposed a real penalty for failure to solve the problem. Therefore it has contributed as much to advancing the human species as to holding it together within the confines of a single variable species. Hunting is obviously an instrumental system in the real sense that something gets done, several ordered behaviours are preformed with a crucial result. The technological aspects, the spears, clubs, hand axes, and all other objects suitable for museum display, are essentially meaningless apart from the context in which they are used. They do not represent a suitable place to begin analysis because their position in the sequence is remote from the several preceding complexes. The efficiency of hunting is to be understood not on the basis of the advancement of its technical bases, but by the increasing skill of the hunter: There is ample documentation, though surprisingly few systematic studies, for the postulate that primitive humans are sophisticated in their knowledge of the natural World. #RandolphHarris 18 of 26
This sophistication encompasses the entire macroscopic zoological World of mammals, marsupials, reptiles, birds, fish, insects, and plants. Knowledge of tides, meteorological phenomena generally, astronomy, and other aspects of the natural World are also well developed among some variations between groups with reference to the sophistication and extent of their knowledge, and to the areas in which they have concentrated. Humans, the hunters are learning animal behaviour and anatomy, including their own. They domesticated themselves first and then turned to other animals to plants. In this sense, hunting is the school of learning that made the human species self-taught. In short, the motivation of the primitive hunter was not pleasure in killing, but the learning and optimal performance of various skills, id est, the development of humans themselves. Today, when almost everything is made by machines, we notice little pleasure in skill except perhaps the pleasure people experience with hobbies like carpentry of the fascination of the average person when one can watch a goldsmith or weaver at one’s work; perhaps the fascination with a performing violinist is not only caused by the beauty of the music one produces but by the display of one’s skill. #RandolphHarris 19 of 26
In cultures where most of the production is by hand and rests on skill, it is unmistakably clear that work is enjoyable because of the skill involved in it, and to the degree to which this skill is involved. The interpretation of the pleasure in hunting as pleasure in killing, rather than in skill, is indicative of the person of our time for whom the only thing that counts is the result of an effort, in this case killing, rather than the process itself. Boys can be easily induced to any kind of pattern that is culturally accepted. Furthermore, it should be noted that there are a number of sports—from Zen sword fighting to fencing, judo, and karate—in which it is quite obvious that their fascination does not lie in the pleasure to kill, but in the skill they allow to be displayed. We will continual exploring humans as hunters, but perhaps some humans are learning primitive ways and do not truly understand what they are doing. That is why so many people are encouraging others to use the skill of discovering God. Cultivate a spirit of optimism. Walk with faith, rejoicing in the beauties of nature, in the goodness of those you love, in the testimony which you carry in your heart concerning things divine. #RandolphHarris 20 of 26
The Lord’s plan is a plan of happiness. If we cultivate a spirit of happiness, the way will be lighter, the worries will be fewer, the confrontations will be less difficult. How magnificently we are blessed! How thankful we ought to be! Cultivate a spirit of thanksgiving for the blessing of life and for the marvelous gifts and privileges each of us enjoy. The Lord has said that the meek shall inherit the Earth. (See Matthew 5.5.) I cannot escape the interpretation that meekness implies a spirit of gratitude as opposed to an attitude of self-sufficiency, an acknowledgment of a greater power beyond oneself, a recognition of God, and an acceptance of His commandments. This is the beginning of wisdom. Walk with gratitude before Him who is the giver of life and every good gift. “And now I, Mormon, make a record of the things which I have both seen and heard, and call it the Book of Mormon. And about the time that Ammaron hid up the records unto the Lord, he came unto me, (I being about ten years of age, and I began to be learned somewhat after the manner of the learning of my people) and Ammaron said unto me: I perceive that thou art a sober child, and art quicky to observe. #RandolphHarris 21 of 26
“Therefore, when ye are about twenty and four years old I would that ye should remember the things that ye have observed concerning this people; and when ye are of that age go to the land Antum, unto a hill which shall be called Shim; and there have I deposited unto the Lord all the sacred engravings concerning this people. And behold, ye shall take the plates of Nephi unto yourself, and the remainder shall ye leave in the place where they are; and ye shall engrave on the plates of Nephi all the things ye have observed concerning this people. And I, Mormon, being a descendant of Nephi, (and my father’s name was Mormon) I remembered the things which Ammaron commanded me. And it came to pass that I, being eleven years old, was carried by my father into the land southward, even to the land of Zarahemla. The whole face of the land had become covered with buildings, and the people were as numerous almost, as it were the sand of the sea. And it came to pass in this year there began to be a war between the Nephites, who consisted of the Nephites, who consisted of the Nephites and the Jacobites and the Josephites and the Zoramites; and this war was between the Nephites, and the Lamanites and the Lemuelites and the Ishmaelites. #RandolphHarris 22 of 26
“Now the Lamanites and the Lemuelites and the Ishmaelites were called Lamanites, and the two parties were Nephites and Lamanites. And it came to pass that the war began to be among them in the borders of Zarahemla, by the waters of Sidon. And it came to pass that the Nephites had gathered together a great number of men, even to exceed the number of thirty thousand. It is came to pass that they did have in this same year a number of battles, in which the Nephites did beat the Lamanites and did slay many of them. And it came to pass that the Lamanites withdrew their design, and there was peace settled in the land; and peace did remain for the space of about four years, that there was no bloodshed. However, wickedness did prevail upon the face of the whole land, insomuch that the Lord did take away his beloved disciples, and the work of miracles and of healing did cease because of the iniquity of the people. And there were no gifts from the Lord, and the Holy Ghost did not come upon any, because of their wickedness and unbelief. And I, being fifteen years of age and being somewhat of a sober mind, therefore I was visited of the Lord, and tasted and knew of the goodness of Jesus. #RandolphHarris 23 of 26
“And I did endeavour to preach unto this people, but my mouth was shit, and I was forbidden that I should preach unto them; for behold they had willfully rebelled against their God; and beloved disciples were taken away out of the land, because of their iniquity. However, I did remain among them, but I was forbidden to preach unto them, because of the hardness of their hearts; and because of the hardness of their hearts the land was cursed for their sake. And these Gadinaton robbers, who were among the Lamanites, did infest the land, insomuch that the inhabitants thereof began to hide up their treasures in the Earth; and they became slippery, because the Lord had cursed the land, that they could not hold them, nor retain them again. And it came to pass that there were sorceries, and witchcrafts, and magics; and the power of the evil one was wrought upon all the face of the land, even unto the fulfilling of all the words of Abinadi, and also Samuel the Lamanite,” reports Mormon 1.1.19. I speak of darkness from out of darkness, of night from out of night. Night I praise, the first of all things, the blackness within which World are formed. #RandolphHarris 24 of 26
In the encompassing embrace of the arms of night, everything was held that has existence. From under the blanket that God lays over us, everything came forth that has existence. Birthplace of all, to you I pray: Worthy are you to be praised. The living God O magnify and bless, transcending time and here eternally. One Being, yet unique in unity; a mystery of Oneness, measureless. Lo! form or body He has none, and man no semblance of His holiness can frame. Before Creation’s dawn He was the same; the first to be, though never He began. He is the World’s and every creature’s Lord; His rule and majesty are manifest, and through His chosen, glorious sons expressed in prophecies that their lips are poured. Yet never like to Moses rose a seer, permitted glimpse behind the veil divine. This faithful prince of God’s prophetic line received the Law of Truth for Israel’s ear. The Law God gave, He never will amend, nor ever by another Law replace. Our secret things are spread before His face; in all beginnings He beholds the end. The saint’s reward He measures to his meed; the sinner reaps the harvest of his ways. Messiah He will send at end of days, and all the faithful to salvation lead. #RandolphHarris 25 of 26
God will the dead again to life restore in His abundance of almighty love. Then blessed be His name, all names above, and let His praise resound forevermore. Judaism teaches us that even the routine functions of life reveal the wisdom and goodness of the Creator. Hence were introduced the following blessings which were originally not part of the public Synagogue service. Blessed art Thou, O Lord our God, King of the Universe, who hast sanctified us with Thy precepts and enjoined on us the washing of the hands. Blessed art Thou, O Lord our God, King of the Universe, who hast fashioned humans in wisdom, and hast created within them life-sustaining organs. If but one of these function improperly, it is revealed and known before Thy glorious throne that it would be impossible for humans to survive before Thee. Blessed art Thou, O Lord, who endowest humans with health and doest wonders. Blessed art Thou, O Lord our God, King of the Universe, who hast sanctified us with Thy precepts and enjoined on us to occupy ourselves with the study of the Torah. Even if it is scattered to a few, such a concept of life is too precious to die out. Be assured that they will take the greatest care to preserver its existence within the mind and memory of the race. #RandolphHarris 26 of 26
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I Might Lose Myself in Bottomless Abysses of Ignorance—Cleanse the Horrible Darknesses of Our Mind!
The only people for me are the mad ones, the ones who are mad to live, mad to talk, mad to be saved…the ones who…are passionate, compassionate, enthusiastic. In order to seize hold of the fantasies, I frequently imagined a steep descent. I even made several attempts to get to the very bottom. The very first time I reached, as it were, a depth of about a thousand feet; the next time I found myself at the edge of a cosmic abyss. It was like a voyage to the mon, or a descent into empty space. First came the image of a crater, and I had the feeling that I was in the land of the dead. The atmosphere was that of the other World. Near the steep slope of a rock I caught sight of two figures, an old mand with a white beard and a beautiful young lady. I summoned up my courage and approached them as though they were real people, and listened attentively to what they told me. The old man explained that he was Elijah, and that gave me a shock. However, the young lady staggered me even more, for she called herself Salome! She was blind. What a strange couple: Salome and Elijah. However, Elijah assured me that he and Salome had belonged together from all eternity, which completely astounded me. They have a black serpent living with them which displayed an unmistakable fondness for me. #RandolphHarris 1 of 27
I stuck close to Elijah because he seemed to be the most reasonable of the three, and to have a clear intelligence. Of Salome I was distinctly suspicious. Elijah and I had a long conversation which, however, I did not understand. Naturally I tried to find a plausible explanation for the appearance of Biblical figures in my fantasy by reminding myself that my father had been a clergyman. However, that really explained nothing at all. For what did the old man signify? What did Salome signify? Why were they together? Only man years later, when I knew a great deal more then I knew then, did the connection between the old man and the young lady appear perfectly natural to me. In such dream wanderings one frequently encounters an old man who is accompanied by a young girl, and examples of such couples are to be found in many mythic tales. Thus, according to Gnostic tradition, Simon Magus went about with a young lady whom he had picked up in a brothel. Her name was Helen, and she was regarded as the reincarnation of the Trojan Helen. Klingsor and Kundry, Lao-tzu and the dancing girl, likewise belong to this category. I have mentioned that there was a third figure in my fantasy besides Elijah and Salome: the large black snake. #RandolphHarris 2 of 27
In myths the snake is frequently counterpart of the hero. There are numerous accounts of their affinity. For example, the hero has eyes like a snake, or after his death he is changed into a snake and revered as such, or the snake is his mother, et cetera. In my fantasy, therefore, the presence of the snake was an indication of a hero-myth. Salome is an anima figure. She is blind because she does not see the meaning of things. Elijah is the figure of the wise old prophet and represents the factor of intelligence and knowledge; Salome, the erotic element. One might say that the two figures are personifications of Logos and Eros. However, such a definition would be excessively intellectual. It is more meaningful to let the figures be what they were for me at the time—videlicet, events and experiences. Soon after this fantasy another figure rose out of the unconscious. He developed out of the Elijah figure. I called him Philemon. Philemon was a pagan and brought with him an Egypto-Hellenistic atmosphere with a Gnostic colouration. His figure first appeared to me in the following dream. #RandolphHarris 3 of 27
The sky was blue, like the sea, covered not by clouds but by flat brown clods of Earth. It looked as if the clods were breaking apart and the blue water of the sea were becoming visible between them. However, the water was blue sky. Suddenly there appeared from the right a winged being sailing across the sky. I saw that it was an old man with the horns of a bull. He held a bunch of four keys, one of which he clutched as if here were about to open a lock. He had the winds of the kingfisher with it characteristic colours. Since I did not understand this dream-image, I painted it in order to impress it upon my memory. During the days when I was occupied with the painting, I found in my garden, by the lake shore, a dead kingfisher! I was thunderstruck, for kingfishers are quite rare in the vicinity of Zurich and I have never since found a dead one. The body was recently dead—at the most, two or three days—and showed no external injuries. Philemon and other figures of my fantasies brought home to me the crucial insight that there are things in the psyche which I do not produce, but which produce themselves and have their own life. Philemon represented a force which was not myself. #RandolphHarris 4 of 27
In my fantasies I held conversations with him, and he said things which I had not consciously thought. For I observed clearly that it was he who spoke, not I. He said I treated thoughts as if I generated them myself, but in his view thoughts were like animals in the forest, or people in a room, or birds in the air, and added, “If you should see people in a room, you would not think that you had made those people, or that you were responsible for them.” It was he who taught me psychic objectivity, the reality of the psyche. Through hum the distinction was clarified between myself and the object of my thought. He confronted me in an objective manner, and I understood that there is something in me which can say things that I do not know and do not intend, things which may even be directed against me. Psychologically, Philemon represented superior insight. He was a mysterious figure to me. As if here were a living personality, at times, he seemed to me quite real. I went walking up and down the garden with him, and to me he was what the Indians called a guru. Whenever the outlines of a new personification appeared, I felt it almost as a personal defeat. It meant: “Here is something else you did not know until now!” #RandolphHarris 5 of 27
Fear crept over me that the succession of such figures might be endless, that I might lose myself in the bottomless abysses of ignorance. My ego felt devalued—although the success I had been having in Worldly affairs might have reassured me. In my darknesses (horridas nostrae mentis purge tenebras— “cleanse the horrible darkness out of our mind” – the Aurora Consurgens* says) I could have wished for nothing better than a real, live guru, someone possessing superior knowledge and ability, who would have disentangled for me the involuntary creations of my imagination. This task was undertaken by the figure of Philemon, whom in this respect I had willy-nilly to recognize as my psychagogue. And the fact was the he conveyed to me many an illuminating idea. More than fifteen years later a highly cultivated elderly Indian visited me, a friend of Gandhi’s, and we talked about Indian education—in particular, about the relationship between guru and chela. I hesitantly asked him whether he could tell me anything about the person and character of one’s own guru, whereupon he replied in a matter-of-fact tone, “Oh yes, he was Shankaracharya.” #RandolphHarris 6 of 27
“You do not mean the commentor on the Vedas who died centuries ago?” I asked.
“Yes, I mean him,” he said, to my amazement.
“Then you are referring to a spirit?” I asked.
“Of course it was his spirit,” he agreed.
At that moment I thought of Philemon.
“There are ghostly gurus too,” he added. “Most people have living gurus. However, there are always some who have a spirit for teacher.” #RandolphHarris 7 of 27
This information was both illuminating and reassuring to me. Evidently, then, I had not plummeted right out of the human World, but had only experienced the sort of thing that could happen to others who made similar efforts. Later, Philemon became relativized by the emergence of yet another figure, whom I called Ka. In ancient Egypt the “king’s ka” was his Earthly form, the embodied soul. In my fantasy, as if out of a deep shaft, the ka-soul came from below, out of the Earth. I did a painting of him, showing him in his Earth-bound form, as a herm with base of stone and upper part of bronze. High up in the painting appears a kingfisher’s wing, and between it and the head of Ka floats a round, glowing nebula of stars. Ka’s expression has something demonic about it—one might also say, Mephistophelian. In one had he holds something like a coloured pagoda, or a reliquary, and in the other a stylus with which he was working on the reliquary. He is saying, “I am he who buries the gods in gold and gems.” Philemon had a lame foot, but was a winged spirit, where as Ka represented a kind of Earth demon or mental demon. Philemon was the spiritual aspects, or “meaning.” #RandolphHarris 8 of 27
Ka, on the other hand, was a spirit like the Anthroparion of Greek alchemy—with which at the time I was still unfamiliar. [The Anthroparion is a tiny man, a kind of homunculus. He is found, for example, in the visions of Zosimos of Panopolis, an important alchemist of the third century. To the group which includes the Anthroparion belong the gnomes, the Dactyls of classical antiquity, and the homunculi of the alchemists. As the spirit of quicksilver, the alchemical Mercurius was also an Anthroparion.] Ka was he who made everything real, but who also obscured the halcyon spirit, Meaning, or replaced it by beauty, the “eternal reflection.” In time I was able to integrate both figures through the study of alchemy. The archetype of the wise old man, also called the “Mana-personality,” tend to be projected upon human beings who set themselves up as leaders, secular or spiritual. This may have disastrous results, as when religious sects or political movements are led by charlatans or madmen. Alternatively, the subject may identify oneself with the archetype, believing that one oneself has superior wisdom. Analysts and priests, as well as politicians, sometimes succumb to this danger, referred to as “inflation.” #RandolphHarris 9 of 27
I have frequently considered, what could possibly be the reason, why all humankind, though they have ever, without hesitation, acknowledged the necessity, in their whole practice and reasoning, have yet discovered such a reluctance to acknowledge it in words, and have rather shown a propensity, in all ages, to profess the contrary opinion. The matter, I think, may be accounted for, after the following manner. If we examine the operations of body, and the production of effects from their causes, we shall find, that all our faculties can never carry us farther in our knowledge of this relation, than barely to observe, that particular objects are constantly transition, from the appearance of one to the belief of the other. However, though this conclusions concerning human ignorance be the result of the strictest scrutiny of this subject, human still entertain a strong propensity to believe, that they penetrate farther into the powers of nature, and perceive something like a necessary connexion between the cause and the effect. When again they turn their reflections towards the operations of their own minds, and feel no such connexion of the motive and the action; they are thence apt to suppose, that there is a difference between the effects, which result from material force, and those which arise from thought and intelligence. #RandolphHarris 10 of 27
However, being once convinced, that we know nothing father of causation of any kind, than merely the constant conjunction of objects, and the consequent inference of the mind from one to another, and finding, that these two circumstances are universally allowed to have a place in voluntary actions; we may be more easily led to own the same necessity common to all causes. And though this reasoning may contradict the systems of many philosophers, in ascribing necessity to the determination of the will, we shall find, upon reflection, that they dissent from it in words only, not in their real sentiment. Necessity, according to the sense, in which it is here taken, has never yet been rejected, nor can ever, I think, be rejected by any philosopher. It may only, perhaps, be pretended, that the mind can perceive, in the operations of matter, some farther connexion between the cause and effect; and a connexion that has not place in the voluntary actions of intelligent beings. Now whether it be so or not, can only appear upon examination; and it is incumbent on these philosophers to make good their assertion, by defining or describing that necessity, and pointing it out to us in the operations of material causes. #RandolphHarris 11 of 27
When they enter upon it by examining the faculties of the soul, the influence of the understanding, and operations of the will, it would seem, indeed, that humans begin at the wrong end of this question concerning liberty and necessity. Let them first discuss a more simple question, namely, the operations of body and of brute unintelligent matter; and try whether they can there form any idea of causation and necessity, except that of a constant conjunction of objects, and subsequent inference of the mind from one to another. If these circumstances form, in reality, the whole of that necessity, which we conceive in matter, and if these circumstances be also universally acknowledged to take place in the operations of the mind, the dispute is at an end; at least, must be owned to be thenceforth merely verbal. However, as long as we will rashly suppose, that we have some farther idea of necessity and causation in the operations of external objects; at the same time, that we can find nothing farther, in the voluntary actions of the mind; there is no possibility of bringing the question to any determinate issues, while we proceed upon so erroneous a supposition. #RandolphHarris 12 of 27
The only method of undeceiving us, is, to mount up higher; to examine the narrow extent of science when applied to material causes; and to convince ourselves, that all we know of them, is, the constant conjunction and inference above mentioned. We may, perhaps, find, that it is with difficulty we are induced to fix such narrow limits to human understanding: But we can afterwards find no difficulty when we come to apply this doctrine to the actions of the will. For as it is evident, that these have a regular conjunction with motives and circumstances and character, and as we always draw inferences from one to the other, we must be obliged to acknowledge in words, that necessity, which we have already avowed, in every deliberation of our lives, and in every step of our conduct and behaviour. The prevalence of the doctrine of liberty may be accounted for, from another cause, namely, a false sensation or seeming experience which we have, or may have, of liberty or indifference, in may of our actions. The necessity of any action, whether of matter or of mind, is not, properly speaking, a quality in the agent, but in any thinking or intelligent being, who many consider the action. #RandolphHarris 13 of 27
And it consists chiefly in the determination of one’s thoughts to infer the existence of that action from some preceding objects; as liberty, when opposed to necessity, is nothing but the want of that determination, and a certain looseness or indifference, which we feel, in passing, or not passing, from the idea of one object to that of any succeeding one. Now we may observe, that, though, in reflecting on human actions, we seldom feel such a looseness or indifference, but are commonly able to infer them with considerable certainty from their motives, and from the dispositions of the agent; yet if frequently happens, that, in performing the actions themselves, we are sensible of something like it: And as all resembling objects are readily taken for each other, this has been employed as a demonstrative and even intuitive proof of human liberty. We feel, that our actions are subject to our will, on most occasions; and imagine we feel, that the will itself is subject to nothing, because, when by a denial of it we are provoked to try, we feel, that it moves easily every way, and produces an image of itself (or a Velleity, as it is called in the schools) even n that side, on which it did not settle. #RandolphHarris 14 of 27
This image, of faint motion, we persuade ourselves, could, at that time, have been completed into the things itself; because, should that be denied, we find, upon a second trial, that, at present, it can. We consider not, that the fantastical desire of showing liberty, is here the motive of our actions. And it seems certain, that, however we may imagine we feel a liberty within ourselves, a spectator can commonly infer our actions from our motives and character; and even where one cannot, one concludes in general, that one might, were one perfectly acquainted with every circumstance of our situation and temper, and the most secret springs of our complexion and disposition. Now this is the very essence of necessity, according to the foregoing doctrine. However, to proceed in this reconciling project with regard to the question of liberty and necessity; the most contentious question, of metaphysics, the most contentious science; it will not require many words to prove, that all humankind have ever agreed in the doctrine of liberty as well as in that of necessity, and that the whole dispute, in this respect also, have been hitherto merely verbal. For, when applied to voluntary actions, what is meant by liberty? #RandolphHarris 15 of 27
We cannot surely mean, that actions have so little connexion with motives, inclinations, and circumstances, that one does not follow with a certain degree of uniformity from the other, and that one affords no inference by which we can conclude the existence of the other. For these are plain and acknowledged matters of fact. By liberty, then we can only mean a power of acting or not acting, according to the determinations of the will; that is, if we choose to remain at rest, we may; if we choose to move, we also may. Now this hypothetical liberty is universally allowed to belong to every one, who is not a prisoner and in chains. Here then is no subject of dispute. Whatever definition we may give of liberty, we should be careful to observe two requisite circumstances; first, that it be consistent with plain matter of fact; secondly, that it be consistent with itself. If we observe these circumstances, and render our definition intelligible, I am persuaded that all humankind will be found of one opinion with regard to it. It is universally allowed, that nothing exists without a cause of its existence, and that chance, when strictly examined, is a mere negative word, and means not any real power, which has any where, a being in nature. #RandolphHarris 16 of 27
However, it is pretended, that some causes are necessary, some not necessary. Here then is the advantage of definitions. Let any one define a cause, without comprehending, as a part of the definition, a necessary connexin with its effect; and let one show distinctly the origin of the idea, expressed by the definition; and I shall readily give up the whole controversy. However, if the foregoing explication f the matter be received, this must be absolutely impracticable. Had not objects regular conjunction with each other, we should never have entertained any notion of cause and effect; and this regular conjunction produces that inference of the understanding, which is the only connexion, that we can have any comprehension of. Whoever attempts a definition of cause, exclusive of these circumstances, will be obliged, either to employ unintelligible terms, or such as are synonymous to the term, which one endeavours to define. Thus, if a cause be defined, that which produces any thing; it is easy to observe, that producing is synonymous to causing. In like manner, if a cause be defined, that by which anything exists; this is liable to the same objection. For what is meant by these words by which? #RandolphHarris 17 of 27
Had it been said that a cause is that after which anything constantly exists; we should have understood the terms. For this is, indeed, all we know of the matter. And this constancy forms the very essence of necessity, nor have we any other idea of it. And if the definition above mentioned by admitted; liberty, when opposed to necessity, not to constraint, is the same thing with chance; which is universally allowed to have no existence. “And it came to pass that the thirty and fourth year passed away, and also the thirty and fifth, and behold the disciples of Jesus had formed a church of Christ in all the lands round about. And as many as did come unto them, and did truly repent of their sins, were baptized in the name of Jesus; and they did also receive the Holy Ghost. And it came to pass in the thirty and sixth year, the people were all converted unto the Lord, upon all the face of the land, both Nephites and Lamanites, and there were no contentions and disputations among them, and every human did deal justly one with another. And they had all things common among them; therefore there were not rich and poor, bond and free, but they were all made free, and partakers of the heavenly gift. And it came to pass that the thirty and seventh year passed away also, and there still continued to be peace in the land. #RandolphHarris 18 of 27
“And there were great and marvelous works wrought by the disciples of Jesus, insomuch that they did heal the sick, and raise the dead, and cause the lame to walk, and the blind to receive their sight, and the deaf to hear; and all manner of miracles did they work among the children of men; and in nothing did they work miracles save it were in the name of Jesus. And thus did the thirty and eighth year pass away, and also the thirty and ninth, and forty and first, and the forty and second, yea, even until forty and nine years had passed away, and also the fifty and first, and the fifty and second; year, and even until fifty and nine year has passed away. And the Lord did prosper them exceedingly in the land; yea, insomuch that they did build cities again where there had been cities burned. Yea, even that great city of Zarahemla did they cause to be built again. However, there were many cities which had been sunk, and waters came up in the stead thereof; therefore these cities could not be renewed. And now, behold, it came to pass that the people of Nephi did wax strong, and did multiply exceedingly fast, and become an exceedingly fair and delightsome people. And they were married, and given in marriage, and were blessed according to the multitude of the promises which the Lord had made unto them. #RandolphHarris 19 of 27
“And they did not walk any more after the performances and ordinances of the law of Moses; but they did walk after the commandments which they had received from their Lord and their God, continuing in fasting and prayer, and in meeting together oft both to pray and to hear the word of the Lord. And it came to pass that there was no contention among all the people, in all the land; but there were mighty miracles wrought among the disciples of Jesus. And it came to pass that the seventy and first year passed away, and also the seventy and second year, yea, and in fine, till the seventy and ninth year had passes away; yea, even an hundred years had passed away, and the disciples of Jesus, whom he had chosen, had all gone to the paradise of God, save it were the three who should tarry; and there were other disciples ordained in their stead; and also many of that generation had passed away. And it came to pass that there was no contention in the land, because of the love of God which did dwell in the hearts of the people. And there were no envyings, nor strifes, nor tumults, nor whoredoms, nor lyings, nor murders, nor any manner of lasciviousness; and surely there could not be a happier people among al the people who has been created by the hand of God. #RandolphHarris 20 of 27
“There were no robbers, nor murderers, neither were there Lamanites, nor any manner of -ites; but there were in one, the children of Christ, and heirs to the kingdom of God. And how blessed were they! For the Lord did bless them in all their doings; yea, even they were blessed and prospered until an hundred and ten years had passed away; and the first generation from Christ had passes away, and there was no contention in all the land. And it came to pass that Nephi, he that kept this last record, (and he kept it upon the plates of Nephi) died, and his son Amon kept it in his stead; and he kept it upon the plates of Nephi also. And he kept it eighty and four years, and there was still peace in the land, save it were a small part of the people who had revolted from the church and taken upon them the name of Lamanites; therefore there began to be Lamanites again in the land. And it came to pass that Amos died also, (and it was an hundred and ninety and four years from the coming of Christ) and his son Amos kept the record in his stead; and he also kept it upon the plates of Nephi; and it was also written in he book of Nephi, which is this book. And it came to pass that two hundred years had passed away; and the second generation had all passed away save it were a few. #RandolphHarris 21 of 27
“And now I, Mormon, would that ye should know that the people had multiplied, insomuch that they were spread upon all the face of the land, and that they had become exceedingly rich, because of their prosperity in Christ. And now, in this two hundred and first year there began to be among them those who were lifted up in pride, such as the wearing of costly apparel, and all manner of fine pearls, and of the fine things of the World. And from that time forth they did have their goods and their substance no more common among them. And they began to be divided into classes; and they began to build up churches unto themselves to get gain, and began to deny the true church of Christ. And it came to pass that when two hundred and ten years had passes away there were many churches in the land; yea, there were many churches which professed to know the Christ, and yet they did deny the more parts of his gospel, insomuch that they did receive all manner of wickedness, and did administer that which was sacred unto him to whim it had been forbidden because of unworthiness. And this church did multiply exceedingly because of iniquity, and because of the power of Satan who did get hold upon their hearts. #RandolphHarris 22 of 27
“And again, there was another church of Christ, because of their humility and their belief in Christ; and they did despise them because of the many miracles which were wrought among them. Therefore they did exercise power and authority over the disciples of Jesus who did tarry with them, and they did cast them into prison; but by the power of the word of God, which was in them, the prisoners were rent in twain, and they went forth doing mighty miracles among them. Nevertheless, and notwithstanding all these miracles, the people did harden their hearts, and did seek to kill them, even as the Jews at Jerusalem sought to kill Jesus, according to his word. And they did cast them into furnaces of fire, and they came forth receiving no harm. And they also cast them into dens of wild beasts, and they did play with the wild beasts even as a child with a lamb; and they did come forth from among them, receiving no harm. Nevertheless, the people did harden their hearts, for they were led by many priests and false prophets to build up many churches, and to do all manners of iniquity. And they did smite upon the people of Jesus; but the people of Jesus did not smite again. And they thus did dwindle in unbelief and wickedness from year to year, even until two hundred and thirty years had passed away. #RandolphHarris 23 of 27
“And now it came to pass in this year, yea, in the two hundred and thirty and first year, there was a great division among the people. And it came to pass that in this year there arose a people who were called the Nephites, and they were true believers in Christ; and among them there were those who were called by the Lamanites—Jacobites, and Josephites, and Zoramites; therefore the true believers in Christ, and the true worshipers of Christ, (among whom were the three disciples of Jesus who should tarry) were called Nephites, and Jacobites, and Josephites, and Zoramites. And it came to pass that they who rejected the gospel were called Lamanites, and Lemuelites, and Ishmaelites; and they did not dwindle in unbelief, but they did willfully rebel against the gospel of Christ; and they did teach their children that they should not believe, even as their fathers, from the beginning, did dwindle. And it was because of the wickedness and abomination of their fathers, even as it was in the beginning. And they were taught to hate the children of God, even as the Lamanites were taught to hate the children of Nephi from the beginning. #RandolphHarris 24 of 27
“And it came to pass that two hundred and forty and four years had passed away, and thus were the affairs of the people. And the more wicked part of the people did wax strong, and became exceedingly more numerous than were the people of God. And they did still continue to build up churches unto themselves, and adorn them with all manner of precious things. And thus did two hundred and fifty years pass away, and also two hundred and sixty years. And it came to pass that the wicked part of the people began again to build up the secret oaths and combinations of Gadianton. And also the people who were called the people of Nephi began to be proud in their hearts, because of their exceeding riches, and become vain like unto their brethren, the Lamanites. And from this time the disciples began to sorrow for the sins of the World. And it came to pass that when three hundred years had passes away, both the people of Nephi and the Lamanites had become exceedingly wicked one like unto another. And it came to pass that the robbers of Gadinaton did spread over all the face of the land; and there were none that were righteous save it were the disciples of Jesus. And gold and silver did they lay up in store in abundance, and did traffic in all manner of traffic. #RandolphHarris 25 of 27
“And it came to pass that after three hundred and five years had passed away, (and the people did still remain in wickedness) Amos died; and his brother, Ammaron, did keep the record in his stead. And it came to pass that when three hundred and twenty years had passed away, Ammaron, being constrained by the Holy Ghost, did hide up the records which were sacred—yea, even all the sacred records which had been handed down from generation to generation, which were sacred—even until the three hundred and twentieth year from the coming of Christ. And he did hide them up unto the Lord, that they might come again unto the remnant of the house of Jacob, according to the prophecies and the promises of the Lord. And thus is the end of the record of Ammaron,” reports 4 Nephi 1.1-49. Night is called the first of all things because of the common belief that the World came out of darkness. In part, this reflects the obvious truth that before something there was nothing, and that “nothing” is equated with darkness. The connection between these two is not so subtle, however. For, after all, if light (and everything else) was born out of darkness be thought of as nothing? It is a creative force in itself. #RandolphHarris 26 of 27
Thus, among the Celts and Germans, the day began with night, and the year with Winter. To this day, our day begins in the middle of night and our year in the middle of Winter. The World rests beneath night’s blanket and I sit quietly, finally myself at rest. All day, I have been the one talking; my time for silence has arrived. Speak to me, Holy Ones, and I will listen. Here I am, waiting to hear your words. Lord of the World, the King supreme, ere aught was formed, He reigned alone. When by His will all things were wrought, then was His sovereign name made known. And when in time all things shall cease, He still shall reign in majesty. He was, He is, He shall remain all-glorious eternally. Incomparable, unique is He, no other can His Oneness share. Without beginning, without end, Dominion’s might is His to bear. He is my living God who saves, my Rock when grief or trials befall, my Banner and my Refuge strong, my bounteous Portion when I call. My soul I give unto His care, asleep, awake, for He is near, and with my soul, my body, too; God is with me, I have no fear. #RandolphHarris 27 of 27
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Only when truth already exists in the mind of the teacher can one convey it in one’s teaching. If it does not, then one is merely indulging in a piece of pantomime. It has been my feeling that we are not as innocent as we said, or as guilty as they said. For an agreement to be valid, the parties must be able to honour it under all relevant and foreseeable circumstances. There must be a rational assurance that one can carry through. The two principles of justice are the Principle of Equal Liberty and Difference Principle. The Principle of Equal Liberty states that each person has an equal right to the most extensive liberties of all. Difference Principle states that social and economic inequalities should be arranged so that they are both (a) to the greatest benefit of the least advantaged persons, and (b) attached to offices and positions open to all under conditions of equality of opportunity. The arguments adduced fit under the heuristic schema suggested by the reasons for following the maximin rule. The maximin rule states that we should compare alternatives by the worst possible outcomes under each alternative, and we should choose one which maximize the utility of the worst outcome. That is, they help to show that the two principles are an adequate minimum conception of justice in a situation of great uncertainty. #RandolphHarris 1 of 22
Any further advantages that might be won by the principle of utility, or whatever, are highly problematical, whereas the hardship if things turn out badly are intolerable. It is at this point that the concept of a contract has a definite role: it suggests the condition of publicity and sets limits upon what can be agreed to. Thus justice as fairness uses the concept of contract to a greater extent than the discussion so far might suggest. The first confirming ground for the two principles can be explained in terms of what I earlier referred to as the strains of commitment. I said that the parties have a capacity for justice in the sense that they can be assured that their undertaking is not in vain. Assuming that they have taken everything into account, including the general facts of moral psychology, they can rely on one another to adhere to the principles adopted. Thus they consider the strains of commitment. They cannot enter int agreements that may have consequences they cannot accept. They will still avoid those that they can adhere to only with great difficulty. Since the original agreement is final and made in perpetuity, there is no second chance. In view of the serious nature of the possible consequences, the question of the burden of commitment is especially acute. #RandolphHarris 2 of 22
A person is choosing once and for all the standards which are to govern one’s life prospects. Moreover, when we enter an agreement we must be able to honour it even should the worst possibilities prove to be the case. Otherwise we have not acted in good faith. The Duty of Good Faith and Fair Dealing—in general, every contract contains an implied duty of good faith and fair dealing. This duty requires that neither party will do anything that will destroy or injure the right of the other part to receive the benefits of the contract. The doctrine of utmost good faith is a principle used in contract, legally obliging all parties to act honestly and not mislead or withhold critical information from one another. Violations of the doctrine of good faith can result in contracts being voided and sometimes even legal action. Thus the parties must weigh with care whether they will be able to stick by their commitment in all circumstances. Of course, in answering this question they have only a general knowledge of the human psychology to go on. However, this information is enough to tell which conception of justice involves the greater stress. #RandolphHarris 3 of 22
In this respect the two principles of justice have a definite advantage. Not only do the parties protect their basic rights but they insure themselves against the worst eventualities. They run no chance of having to acquiesce in a loss of freedom over the course of their life for the sake of a greater good enjoyed by other, an undertaking that in actual circumstances they might not be able to keep. Indeed, we might wonder whether such an agreement can be made in good faith at all. Compacts of this sort exceed the capacity of human nature. How can the parities possibly know, or be sufficiently sure, that they can keep such an agreement? Certainly they cannot base their confidence on a general knowledge of moral psychology. To be sure, any principle chosen in the original position may require a large sacrifice for some. The beneficiaries of clearly unjust institutions (those founded on principles which have no claim to acceptance) may find it hard to reconcile themselves to the changes that will have to be made. However, in this case they will know that they could not have maintained their position anyway. Yet should a person gamble with one’s liberties and substantive interests hoping that the application of the principle of utility might secure one a greater well-being, one may have a difficulty abiding by one’s undertaking. #RandolphHarris 4 of 22
A second consideration invokes the condition of publicity as well as that of the constraints on agreements. When the basic structure of society is publicly known to satisfy its principles for an extended period of time, those subject to these arrangements tend to develop a desire to act in accordance with these principles and to do their part in institutions which exemplify them. When the public recognition of its realization by the social system tends to bring about the corresponding sense of justice, a conception is stable. Now whether this happens depends, of course, on the laws of moral psychology and the availability of human motives. We may observe that the principle of utility seems to require a greater identification with the interests of others than the two principles of justice. Thus the later will be a more stable conception to the extent that this identification is difficult to achieve. When the two principles are satisfied, each person’s liberties are secured and there is a sense defined by the difference principle in which everyone is benefited by social cooperation. Therefore we can explain the acceptance of the social system and the principles it satisfies by the psychological law that persons tend to love, cherish, and support whatever affirms their own good. #RandolphHarris 5 of 22
Since everyone’s good is affirmed, all acquire inclinations to uphold the scheme. When the principle of utility is satisfied, however, there is no such assurance that everyone benefits. Allegiance to the social system may demand that some should forgo advantages for the sake of the greater good of the whole. Thus the scheme will not be stable unless those who must make sacrifices strongly identify with interests broader than their own. However, this is not easy to bring about. When all or some must pitch in for the common good, the sacrifices in question are not those asked in times of social emergency. The principles of justice apply to the basic structure of the social system and to the determination of life prospect. What the principle of utility asks is precisely a sacrifice of these prospects. We are to accept the greater advantages of others as a sufficient reason for lower expectations over the whole course of our life. This is surely an extreme demand. In fact, when society is conceived as a system of cooperation designed to advance the good of its members, it seems quite incredible that some citizens should be expected, on the basis of political principles, to accept lower prospects of life for the sake of others. #RandolphHarris 6 of 22
It is evident then why utilitarians should stress the role of sympathy in moral learning and the central place of benevolence among the moral virtue. Their conception of justice is threatened with instability unless sympathy and benevolence can be widely and intensely cultivated. Looking at the question from the standpoint of the original position, the parties recognize that is would be highly unwise if not irrational to choose principles which may have consequences so extreme that they cud not accept them in practice. They would reject the principle of utility and adopt the more realistic idea of designing the social order on a principle of reciprocal advantage. We need not suppose, of course, that persons never make substantial sacrifices for one another, since moved by affection and bonds of sentiment they often do. However, such actions are not demanded as a matter of justice by the basic structure of society. Furthermore, the public recognition of the two principles gives greater support to human’s self-respect and this in turn increases the effectiveness of social cooperation. Both effects are reasons for choosing these principles. It is clearly rational for humans to secure their self-respect. #RandolphHarris 7 of 22
If they are to pursue their conception of good wit zest and to delight in its fulfillment, a sense of their own worth is necessary. Self-respect is not so much a part of any rational plan of life as the sense that one’s pan is worth carrying out. Now our self-respect normally depends upon the respect of others. If not impossible, unless we feel that our endeavours are honoured by them, it is difficult for us to maintain the conviction that our ends are worth advancing. Hence for this reason, especially when the claims of others are overruled, the parties would accept the natural duty of mutual respect which asks them to treat one another civilly and to be willing to explain the grounds of their actions. Moreover, one may assume that those who respect themselves are more likely to respect each other and threatens their good as much as envy does. Self-respect is reciprocally self-supporting. Thus a desirable feature of a conception of justice is that it should publicly express human’s respect for one another. In this way they insure a sense of their own value. Now the two principles achieve this end. For when society follows these principles, everyone’s good is included in a scheme of mutual benefit and this pubic affirmation in institutions of each human’s endeavours supports human’s self-esteem. #RandolphHarris 8 of 22
The establishment of equal liberty and the operation of the difference principle are bound to have this effect. The two principles are equivalent, as I have remarked, to an undertaking to regard the distribution of natural abilities as a collective asset so that the more fortunate are to benefit only in ways that help those who have lost out. I do not say that the parties are moved by the ethical propriety of this idea. However, there are reasons for them to accept this principle. For by arranging inequalities for reciprocal advantage and by abstaining from the exploitation of the contingencies of nature and social circumstances within a framework of equal liberty, persons express their respect for one another in the very constitution of their society. In this way they insure their self-esteem as it is rational for them to do. Another way of putting this is to say that the principles of justice manifest in the basic structure of society human’s desire to treat one another as means only but as ends in themselves. The notion of treating humans as ends in themselves and never as only a means obviously needs an explanation. There is even a question whether it is possible to realize. #RandolphHarris 9 of 22
How can we always treat everyone as an end and never as a means only? Certainly we cannot say that it comes to treating everyone by the same general principles, since this interpretation makes the concept equivalent to formal justice. On the contract interpretation of treating humans as ends in themselves implies at the very least treating them in accordance with the principle to which they would consent in an original position of equality. For in this situation humans have equal representations as moral persons who regard themselves as ends and the principles they accept will be rationally designed to protect the claims of their person. The contract view as such defines a sense in which humans are treated as ends and not as means only. Whoever has attained this stage can pass on to the proper persons both a foretaste of mystical experiences which lie beyond them and an impetus to their quicker self-development. If one is only a mystic one may do so quite unconsciously, but if one is a philosopher one will give this wordless instruction quite consciously. The enlightened human who has to deal with those who are not sensitive enough to receive clearly in the silence that which is one’s best communication, meaning most people, must then give it in a more familiar and easier form—words! #RandolphHarris 10 of 22
However, here the illuminate may oneself be at a disadvantage. One may lack fluency and have a limited vocabulary—be inarticulate. If the illuminate has a wide command of good language, if one can teach in sentences that are clear, beautiful, powerful; if one is eloquent, here others will be served better. One whose course embraces a mission of spiritual service to others is invested with a greater power and enlightenment than ne has actually earned. This does not make one greater than one is. However, as the excess of inspiration gradually uses one as its channel, it becomes gradually integrated into one’s own character little by little over a period of several years. We may sit before the saintly phenomenon and enjoy the peace issuing from one. However, when we leave one, the peace leaves us, too. When working with a Master, we may have no such dramatic experience. However, one will guide our feet each step of the way; one will listen to our difficulties, problems, or questions and give us one’s wise counsel. That is the wide difference between these two types of illuminated humans. It is true that many of those who attained enlightenment gave some of their wisdom or counsel to others but did so only incidentally or occasionally and to a limited extent. #RandolphHarris 11 of 22
Ohers made it their chief and whole-time mission in life to teach others and preach truth. Those who did so had better capacities for teaching and preaching than those who did not. Moreover, they had to leave an example of conduct in their own lives worthy of being imitated—a duty which was no incumbent upon the non-teachers and was sometimes disregarded by them. There has occasionally been a human who entered into awareness of God without the help of the teacher and without the laboured struggles of most other humans. One is like a horse which has crossed the river by swimming around without touching the ground. Such a human does not usually go out of one’s way to teach the path to others nor try to help them individually, or even to announce the truth to the World. One is satisfied with one’s own place and with the knowledge that “God is in His Heaven, all is well with the World.” One is an inward-looking mystic who has a perfect right to enjoy one’s attainment. There are two types of illumined human, of those who have attained spiritual perfection. The first have sought the goal of their own sake alone and are satisfied to rest on their labours with the attainments. The second type does not accept this rest, for their very search was made with the intention to share with others. #RandolphHarris 12 of 22
The first type have been called, in the scholastic, intellectual, business and religions centers. The second type have been called preachers, teachers, and compassion consolers. In the case of the first type, the renunciation of the World is usually abrupt and sudden, though the period spent between renunciation and the attainment of Enlightenment may be long and weary. It is possible for one to become a Silent Master while yet a lay person, but, in the case, the marks of lay persons, such as the clothes one wears, immediately disappear. The spiritual attainment of a Preaching Master and those of a Silent Master are alike; but in the case of the latter, though one attains to supreme and perfect insight, yet one’s enlightenment is individual. One’s enlightenment is of benefit to oneself alone; one does not proclaim to the World the great Truths discovered by one. One cannot instruct others “effectively”; one’s realization of the Truth is “like a dream seen by a deaf-mute.” “Silent” is unsatisfactory because they do preach to those who come to them, though their preaching is restricted to admonitions regarding good, righteous, and proper conduct. They even have personal attendants whom the World may regard as disciples, but they give no instruction other than ethical instruction. #RandolphHarris 13 of 22
There are humans of enlightenment who cannot down a bridge from where they are to where they once were, so that others too can cross over. They do not know or cannot describe in detail the way which others must follow to reach the goal. Such humans are not the teaching-masters, and should not be mistaken for them. The human of enlightenment who have never been a learner, who suddenly gained one’s state by the overwhelming good spiritual blessings of God’s grace, is less able to teach others than the ones who slowly and laboriously worked one’s way into the state—who remembers the trials, pitfalls, and difficulties one had to overcome. The Master has fund one’s way to God; one daily enjoys the blessing of God’s presence; one has passed from mere existence into significant living, and one knows there is peace and love at the heart of the Universe. One wants now to help other share in the fruits of one’s discoveries. The Master, who is a dedicated teacher also, wishes ardently for others on the Path to attain the goal and share its bliss. Do we then lose ourselves? To succeed in identifying our will with God’s will is not, as is often mistakenly said, to have no will of our own. Far from it. To have no will is impossible. It would be to not even be a person. #RandolphHarris 14 of 22
Rather, it is for the first time to have a will that is fully functional, not at war with itself, and capable of directing all of the parts of the self in harmony with one another under the direction of God. Now we do not hesitate to do what is right; and to do wrong would have to work against ourselves. A person with a well-kept heart is a person who is prepared and capable of responding to the situations of life in ways that are good and right. When through spiritual transformation we have in some measure come to know the well-kept heart in real life, we experience it as a gift of grace, no matter how hard we may have had to struggle in the process of growing into it. And it is a gift in which we find, precisely, ourselves as Jesus taught: “One who has lost one’s life for My sake shall find it,” reports Matthew 10.39. For the first time we not only have a fully functional will, but we also have a clear identity in the eternal kingdom of God and can day by day translate out time into an eternity embedded in our own life and in the lives of those near us. The will of God is not foreign to our will. Our heart sings, sweet will of God, oh, hold me closer, util I am wholly lost in Thee. #RandolphHarris 15 of 22
If in the moment of choice we are always dependent upon the thoughts and feelings we have at the moment, how can we be responsible for our character? How can we purposively set about to change our own character (with God’s assistance of course)? What kind of person is God actively seeking? What is the condition of the will in a “lost” person (one who is lost in one’s Worldly ways)? How do duplicity, deception, and darkness descend upon those who would be their own God? What would it be like for you to be wholly lost in the will of God? We can gather to what things life belongs, and to what it does not, from such things as manifestly possess life. Now life manifestly belongs to animals, for that in animal’s life is manifest. We must, therefore, distinguish living from lifeless things, by comparing them to that by reason of which animals are said to live; and this it is in which life is manifested first and remains last. We say then that animals are said to live: and this it is in which life is manifested first and remains last. We say then that an animal begins to live when it begins to move of itself: and as long as such movement appears in it, so long as it is considered to be alive. When it no longer has any movement of itself, but is only moved by another power, then its life is said to fail, and the animal to be dead. #RandolphHarris 16 of 22
Whereby it is clear that those things are properly called living that move themselves by some kind of movement, whether it be movement properly so called, as the act of an imperfect being, id est, of a thing in potentiality is called movement; or movement in a more general sense, as when said the act of a perfect thing, as understanding and feeling are called movement. Accordingly all things are said to be alive that determine themselves to movement or operation of any kind: whereas those things that cannot by their nature do so, cannot be called living, unless by a similitude. These words of the Philosopher may be understood either of the first movement, namely, that of the celestial bodies, or of the movement in its general sense. In either way is movement called the life, as it were, of natural bodies, speaking by a similitude, and not attributing it to them as their property. The movement of the Heavens is in the Universe of corporeal natures as the movement of the heart, whereby life is preserved, is in animals. Similarly also every natural movement in respect to natural things has a certain similitude to the operations of life. Hence, if the whole corporeal Universe were one animal, so that its movement came from an “intrinsic moving force,” as some in fact have held, in that case movement would really be the life of all natural bodies. #RandolphHarris 17 of 22
To bodies, whether heavy or light, movement does not belong, expect in so far as they are displaces from their natural conditions, and are out of their proper place; for when they are in the place that is proper and natural to them, then they are at rest. Plants and other living things more with vital movement, in accordance with the disposition of their nature, but not by approaching thereto, or by receding from it, for in so far as they recede from such movement, so far do they recede from their natural disposition. Heavy and light bodies are moved by an extrinsic force, either generating them and giving them form, or removing obstacles from their way. They do not therefore move themselves, as do living bodies. Waters are called living that have a continuous current: for standing waters, that are not connected with a continually flowing source, are called dead, as in cisterns and ponds. This is merely a similitude, inasmuch as the movement they are seen to possess makes them look as if they were alive. Yet this is not life in them in its real sense, since this movement of theirs is not from themselves but from the cause that generates them. The same is the case with the movement of other heavy and light bodies. #RandolphHarris 18 of 22
Were a person, whom I know to be honest and opulent, and with whom I live in intimate friendship, to come into my house, where I am surrounded with my servants, I rest assured, that one would not stab me before one leaves it, in order to rob me of my silver standish; and I no more suspect this event, than the falling of the house itself which is new, and solidly built and founded. However, one may have been seized with a sudden and unknown frenzy. Do you know anyone who cannot tell the difference between desire and will, and hence does not know how to oppose one’s own desires? Because a man who at noon leaves his purse full of gold on the pavement at Charing-Cross, may as well expect that it will fly away like a feather, as that he will find it untouched an hour after. Above one half of human reasonings contain inferences of a similar nature, attended with more or less degrees of certainty, proportioned to our experience of the usual conduct of humankind in such particular situations. Does it make sense to you that spiritual disciplines could retrain the will and reform character? “And now behold, I say unto you that when the Lord shall see fit, in his wisdom, that these sayings shall come unto the Gentiles according to this word, then ye may know that the covenant which the Father hath made with the children of Israel, concerning their restoration to the lands of their inheritance, is already beginning to be fulfilled. #RandolphHarris 19 of 22
“And ye may know that the words of the Lord, which have been spoken by the holy prophets, shall all be fulfilled; and ye need not say that the Lord delays his coming unto the children of Israel. And ye need not imagine in your hearts that the words which have been spoken are vain, for behold, the Lord will remember his covenant which he hath made unto his people of the house of Israel. And when ye shall see these sayings coming forth among you, then ye need not any longer spurn at the doings of the Lord, for the word of his justice is in his right hand; and behold, at that day, if ye shall spurn at his doing he will cause that it shall soon overtake you. Wo unto him that spurneth at the doings of the Lord; yea, wo unto one that shall deny the Christ and his works! Yea, wo unto one that shall deny the revelations of the Lord, and that shall say the Lord no longer worketh by revelation, or by prophecy, or by gifts, or by tongues, or by healings, or by the power of the Holy Ghost! Yea, and wo unto one that shall say at that day, to get gain, that there can be n miracle wrought by Jesus Christ; for one that doeth this shall become like unto the son of perdition, for whom there was no mercy, according to the word of Christ. #RandolphHarris 20 of 22
“Yea, and ye need not any longer hiss, nor spurn, nor make game of the Jews, nor any of the remnant of the house of Israel; for behold, the Lord remembereth his covenant unto them, and he will do unto them according to that which he hath sworn. Therefore ye need not suppose that ye can turn the right hand of the Lord unto the left, that he may not execute judgment unto the fulfilling of the covenant which he hath made unto the house of Israel,” reports 3 Nephi 29.1-9. “Hearken, O ye Gentiles, and hear the words of Jesus Christ, the Son of the living God, which he hath commanded me that I should speak concerning you, for, behold he commandeth me that I should write saying: Turn, all ye Gentiles, from your wicked ways; and repent of your evil doings, of your lyings and deceivings, and of your secret abominations, and your idolatries, and of your murders, and your priestcrafts, and your envyings, an your strifes, and from all your wickedness and abominations, and come unto me, and be baptized in my name, that ye may receive a remission of your sins, and be filled with the Holy Ghost, that ye may be numbered with my people who are of the house of Israel,” reports 3 Nephi 30.1-2. Welcome sleep, I spread my arms in response to your ever-open ones. #RandolphHarris 21 of 22
Please take me to yourself softly, as a knitter returns a scattered skein to order, rolling it into a ball; even so, draw me in, restore me, please open the door to your World that I might enter, my Lord and Saviour. The living God O magnify and bless, transcending time and here eternally. One Being, yet unique in unity; a mystery of Oneness, measureless. Lo! form or body He has one, and humans no semblance of His holiness can frame. Before Creation’s dawn He was the same; the first to be, though never He began. He is the World’s and every creature’s Lord; His rule and majesty are manifest, and through His chosen, glorious sons exprest in prophecies that through their lips are poured. Yet never like to Moses rose a seer, permitted glimpse behind the veil divine. This faithful prince of God’s prophetic line received the Law of Truth for Israel’s ear. The Law God gave, He never will amend, nor ever by another Law replace. Our secret things are spread before His face; in all beginnings He beholds the end. The saint’s reward He measures to one’s meed; the sinner reaps the harvest of one’s ways. Messiah He will send at end of days, and all the faithful to salvation lead. God will the dead again to life restore in His abundance of almighty love. Then blessed be His name, all names above, and let His praise resound forevermore. #RandolphHarris 22 of 22
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Ye Shall be Changed in the Twinkling of an Eye from Mortality to Immortality!
To understand a society it is essential to understand how people climb. If there are more than two people together, if there are three, one of them is climbing. Where do ideas come from? To a considerable extent they come from other ideas picked up during our learning years, from teachers and from books. They also come from our experience of life. In addition, writers on psycho-analytically based theories draw on their experiences with their patients. Typically they use a kind of backward reasoning which asks, “If people can talk to me, a psychotherapist (or psycho-analyst), in this way, what does this tell us about their mental processes?” “What kind of experiences of life must this person have had, particularly at the time when the personality was being formed, for one to be relating to me in this way?” They feel justified in this kind of theory—building because of particular assumptions: That people related to others on the basis both of their past experience (Hayek’s map) and of present perceptions of their situation (Hayek’s working model); that people at times experience the psychotherapist or psycho-analyst in terms of the past (map) more than in terms of the present (model). #RandolphHarris 1 of 26
In psycho-analytic language, a transference can be observed; that people can at times experience the therapist or analyst in terms of quite early maps. In psycho-analytic language, regression can be observed. What happens in regression and transference provides the material from which theories of personality-development can be constructed. Classical psycho-analysis concerns itself with experiences which, though perhaps repressed, come from a time of life when words are already available, and when people are recognized as whole persons and are not just fragments of experience which come and go. The very complex process of ambivalence belongs to this period of life—quite a late and sophisticated stage of development, relative to the very early processes we have been considering. When a person is barely barely capable of experiencing self and others as differentiated, this is the narcissistic level of experiences. The other is not exactly a person at this stage, but more like an environment, a not-self. This level of experience is pre-verbal and patients can at first convey it to their therapist only by action, analogy, and implication; the phenomena belonging to this level have to be interpreted in the context of what the patient is actually doing in the relationship with the therapist—in the transference. #RandolphHarris 2 of 26
The next level is called the “area of creation,” in which there are as yet no distinctions between self and other. Coming from a very different starting point. According to this theory, the individual is born in a state of intense relatedness to one’s environment, both biologically and libidinally. Prior to birth, self and environment are harmoniously “mixed up,” in fact they interpenetrate each other. In this World there are as yet no objects, only limitless substances and expanses. Here are no persons, no words, and no boundaries: to talk to a person in this state is to remove them from that state. If that is thought undesirable, the person must not be addressed until one is out of it and ready to talk. Being allowed to be in that regressed limitless state of mind is sometimes exactly what people need in order to get better. The important thing will have been that they got to feel like that and were allowed to be like that, not that it was discussed with the therapist and interpreted. People who have seen deeply into the hidden meaning of life are the one’s best qualified to guide us in matters of conduct and motive. #RandolphHarris 3 of 26
The infant’s first experiences are at this deepest level, where what is called Primary Love is to be found, a term preferred on humane and theoretical grounds to the more generally used “narcissism”—Primary Love, the first rudimentary experience of relationship with others. The harmonious interpenetrating mix-up is what comes across in various contexts, called by such terms as merging, symbiosis, primary narcissism, facilitating environment, self-object states, oceanic feelings, the pure sense of being; and so on. These words attempt to describe a state of mind in which self and other merge and drift apart like seaweeds in the sea, as it may be at the very start of the e-merging of self from mother. If we consider how this might be experienced by the foetus in the womb, it seems that it is an existence with hardly any structure, in particular with no sharp boundaries. Environment and individual penetrate into each other, they exist together in a “harmonious mix-up.” An important example of this harmonious interpenetrating mix-up is the fish in the sea (one of the most archaic and most widely occurring symbols). It is an idle question to ask whether the water in the gills or in the mouth is part of the sea or of the fish. #RandolphHarris 4 of 26
Exactly the same holds true of the foetus. Foetus, amniotic fluid, and placenta are such a complicated interpenetrating mix-up of foetus and environment-mother, that its histology and physiology are among the most dreaded questions in medical examinations. It is worth remembering that our relationship to the air surrounding us has exactly the same pattern. We use the air, in fact we cannot live without it. We inhale it in order to take parts our of it and we use the as we want. Then, after putting substances into it that we want to get rid of, we exhale it—without paying the slightest attention to it. In fact, the air must be there for us, and as long as it is there insufficient supply and quality, we do not take any notice of it. This kind of environment must simply be there, and as long as it is there—we take its existence for granted, we do not consider it as an object, that is, separate from us; we just use it. If the environment is altered—if the supply of air is interfered with for instance; then the apparently negligible environment assumes immense importance. All this is relevant to our interest in the question: Where is the boundary between self and other? How does the infant come to experience some things as “me” and others as “nor me”? Consequently, when that life flowers into bloom, one becomes its fullest embodiment. #RandolphHarris 5 of 26
When dealing with “Object and Subject,” note that first the “object has two different meanings, more of less according to whether the word is being used as noun or verb. It can mean “objective” as in “target” (and the Hungarian word for object is targy). When Dr. Freud chose the word for his instinct-based theory, where the object is the body-area to which the instinctive drive is directed, this is the meaning which he had in mind. The other meaning has to do with “objecting to” something, experiencing something as having to be pushed away. The other meaning of “object” seems to be “obstacle in the way of action,” in fact a resistant obstacle that has to be negotiated…our very first perceptions about objects may be those of resistance, id est something firm against which we may pitch our strength…This conception is certainly in harmony, with the cluster of associations surrounding the word “object.” For quite a time, nature—or life—was conceived as a collection of solid, separate, clearly defined and sharply contoured entities called “objects.” If one had not oneself done so, one could not tell others how to struggle out of the depths, or how to realize the soul. One has cultivated the special virtue of compassion for others throughout the whole course of one’s mystical life. #RandolphHarris 6 of 26
Parts of the external World which are felt to be firm, resistant, and sharply contoured are called by a special somewhat aggressive name—“object”—which suggests both resistance against our wishes and aim or target for our strivings. Other parts of the same World, which are not solid, do not resist much, and have no real contours, are called by non-aggressive names, such as substance, substrate, both showing similarity to “subject,” denoting ourselves. A third very generally used word—matter—describing these not so sharply contoured less resistant parts of the World, derives from a root denoting mother. The inescapable inference is that at ne time there must have been a harmonious mix-up in our mind between ourselves and the World around us, and that our “mother” was involved in it. Though this mix-up strikes us as childish and primitive, we must admit that it preceded our “modern,” “adult” or “scientific” picture of the World which, so to speak, grew out of it. This touches on the possibility that we may experience some stimuli as intrusive and lumpy—impinging. There is something that comes to mind, like the frightened reason of some children to lumps in their food—it may be remembered that autistic children might be experiencing these as scary not-self intrusions into the smooth evenness of life which they wanted so much. #RandolphHarris 7 of 26
In psycho-analytic theory we are wont to classify mother’s milk among the earliest objects, but it is arguable whether milk, a liquid, is ever considered to be an object by an unprejudiced common-sense human. One cannot reject out of hand the suspicion that the idea of milk as an object emerged in the mind of sophisticated analysts and not necessarily in the mind of infants. If I am right, milk would be another instance of the friendly expanses with no objects in it, a matter, a substance. If we accept this then the widespread inexplicable fads in many people about the skin in milk might be understood. The skin is hazardous object appearing in the substance “milk,” painfully disturbing the primitive harmony. From the view of reason and for further insight into the nature of understanding, one must see rational activities as they were supposed to function. This is to view them with reference to their uses and objects. This is handled under the notion of logic, which we offer under the caption Artes Logicae, or Logical Arts. The logical arts are four in number: the art of invention in which humans systematizes ways of finding or discovering that which one seeks. All qualified teachers are illumined but not all illumined people are teachers. #RandolphHarris 8 of 26
The art of judgment, in which humans arrange and dispose what one has found so as to weigh its relevance and consistency with respect to the requirements of truth; the art of memory, in which humans train oneself to retain what one has learned; and the art of transmission or communication, in which human discourses for and with others. Discourse requires an organ of thought, id est, speech sounds, words, and their management in grammatical forms; requires methods of structuring discourse in unified wholes that all may be clear and appropriate to the many purposes of communication; and finally, calls for ways of illustrating discourses, in which imagination is applied to ideas that they may be rendered vivid and acceptable. In brief, when they are dominated by certain ends: invention, judgment, remembrance, and communication, there are ways in which understanding, reason, memory, and imagination behave. The logical arts were so maned because first, they were methodological in nature. When it was directed to useful tasks, they engage the mind. Some have greater powers to inquire; they can show the goal but not the path to it; others have a greater capacity to lead aspirants step by step along the path. #RandolphHarris 9 of 26
Second, they involved a number of faculties working in close concert or sequence, the dominant ones being understanding and reason. The terms “Intellectual Arts,” and “Arts of Reason,” can be defined as a primary source of Advancement. Thus suggestive to the fact that methodical and purposive behaviour of the mind involves more than one faculty. Memory is recognized because the mind must draw upon its past experience Imagination is mentioned because in discourse and communication that thought of a speaker is made tangible to others as words and speech sounds, which are images of thought. In communication, also, imagination joins with reason in producing images whose meanings are fitting and appropriate to the audience addressed. When it is said to “exercise,” the conception of the logical arts is derived from traditional analyses of the mind. When it works, or is “in act,” it is inventing, judging, remembering, or interpreting Interpretatio, id est, the transmission or communication of ideas to others, referred to excogitation, the physical basis, the events or carriers, necessary for the transmission of thought, and to signification, the sign of thought associated with codes and symbols and affording meanings for one who listens. #RandolphHarris 10 of 26
It is immediately apparent that the vocabulary of logical arts directly reflects the vocabulary customarily employed to describe the mind at work. The analysis of mind transmitting its experience, however, seems to be a refinement upon tradition. When it is engaged in invention, the understanding searches around in available materials and in likely “places.” From them it abstract and apprehends and comes up with ideas. If they reach the level of imagery and logical scrutiny, as we have indicated, ideas are revealed in phrasal terms and statements. In a desire to improve the ways of interpreting nature, we lay great emphasis on two modes of searching. One is labeled, “Remembrance or Suggestion, with an application,” where the end is to find arguments for speeches and popular discourse. The sources of search lay in one’s own experience and in books and literature. Guides for rousing expectancy and directing attention to likely places of search were the topics and categories of invention that had been built up for centuries by rhetoricians and logicians. This mode of search amounts to a systematic prodding of memory, heightened by some expectation that would find what one was looking for. #RandolphHarris 11 of 26
Not all those who attain enlightenment necessarily become teachers in the personal sense. Such a one is entitled to choose anonymity. Unknown to the World at large, one still by virtue of that very attainment is a benignant presence mentally. The mind ranged comfortably over materials that the understanding itself has made and that imagination presents to it. They were the material of every person’s reason. What was sought was in a sense familiar, and direct experience with nature is easily ignored. In fact, literary materials were once or twice removed from natural phenomena. As “letters” they were but a degree and rudiment of nature. So traditional guides and habits of invention are useless in discovering truths of nature. The nature of the inventive process does not—and cannot—yield new knowledge and this reminds one of Descartes’ belief that when reason and imagination team up in creative endeavour, their product is not really new. Since images by their nature involve shape and magnitude, and compared with apprehensions are concrete, the understanding is being assisted by the species [of things] depicted in the phantasy; and…nothing can be asserted of magnitudes in general save what can be found to hold true of some magnitude in specie. #RandolphHarris 12 of 26
Again: When something hitherto unknown is deduced from something previously known, we are not thereby discovering some new kind of entity: all we are doing is to extend our total knowledge in such a way that we are enabled to see that the thing sought participates in this or that way in the nature of the data being provided in the question which is being asked. What is discovered is a sort of equality of ratios. The complaint that syllogistic reasoning is useless in scientific discovery rests on the perception that the minor premise reveals psychologically two ratios which are identified in accord with the context, or concrete question, which prompted them. Is Socrates mortal? He is, because he is a man. The rations involved are: Men: individual man:: men: Socrates. Men in general are related to man in particular in the same way that men in general are related to Socrates. To see these ratios is to allow the possibility of transferring whatever is familiar and known about all humans, or about most humans, to the object posed by the question, namely Socrates. The operation thus has had so much of the old and familiar imbedded in it that one cannot regard the product—the conclusion—as being new in the same ways that the product of scientific thinking was new. #RandolphHarris 13 of 26
When one is looking for something, inventive activity of the understanding is marked by searching movements, by a flitting to and fro of the spirit stuff. The materials explored are the materials of memory; hence whatever is found always feels familiar. The second mode of search is called “new logic” or new induction. We deliberately try to hook the understanding directly to sensory data, and to control and restrict the abstracting process, to sharpen and make accurate the apprehending of comparable qualities of experience, and to discipline such conceptualization as went on in the production of an axiom. Thus the mind is to discover what no human has known before. Either mode of invention is the ordinary use of the understanding in inquiring and discovering. Just as a think has being by its proper form, so the knowing faculty has knowledge by the likeness of the thing known. Hence, as natural things cannot fall short of the being that belongs to them by their form, but may fall short of accidental or consequent qualities, even as a human may fail to possess two feet, but not fail to be a human; so the faculty of knowing cannot fail in knowledge of the thing with the likeness of which it is informed; but may fail with regard to something consequent upon that form, or accidental thereto. #RandolphHarris 14 of 26
For it has been said that sight is not deceived in its proper sensible, but about common sensibles that are consequent to that object; or about accidental objects of sense. Now as the sense is directly informed by the likeness of its proper object, so is the intellect by the likeness of the essence of a thing. Hence the intellect is not deceived abut the essence of a thing, as neither the sense about is proper object. However, in affirming and denying, the intellect may be deceived, by attributing to the thing of which it understands the essence, something which is not consequent upon it, or is opposed to it. For the intellect is in the same position as regards judging of such things, as sense is as to judging of common, or accidental, sensible objects. There is, however, this difference, as before mentioned regarding truth, that falsity can exist in the intellect not only because the intellect is conscious of that knowledge, as it is conscious of truth; whereas in sense falsity does not exist as known. However, because falsity of the intellect is concerned essentially only with the composition of the intellect, falsity occurs also accidentally in that operation of the intellect whereby it knows the essence of at thing, in so far as composition of the intellect is mixed up in it. #RandolphHarris 15 of 26
This can take place in two way. In one way, by the intellect applying to one thing the definition of proper to another; as that of a circle to a human. Wherefore the definition of one thing is false of another. In another way, by composing a definition of parts which are mutually exclusive. For thus the definition is not only false of the thing, but false in itself. A definition such as “a reasonable four-footed animal” would be of this kind, and the intellect false in making it; for such a statement as “some reasonable animals are four-footed” is false itself. For this reason the intellect cannot be false in tis knowledge of simple essences; but it is either true, or it understands nothing at all. Because the essence of a thing is the proper object of the intellect, we are properly said to understand a thing when we reduce it to its essence, and judge of it thereby; as taken place in demonstrations, in which there is n falsity. In this sense Augustine’s words must be understood, “that one who is deceived, understands not that wherein one is deceived;” and not in the sense that no one is ever deceived in any operation of the intellect. The intellect is always right as regards first principles; since it is not deceived about them for the same reason that it is not deceived about that a thing is. #RandolphHarris 16 of 26
For self-known principles are such as are known as soon as the terms are understood, from the fact that the predicate is contained in the definition of the subject. There is a widespread belief among questers that a human who becomes enlightened automatically becomes a teacher and attaches followers to oneself for instruction. This is not inexorably so. One may, or may not. Few have penetrated the secrets of being, fewer still have revealed them to others. Not everyone who is illumined becomes a spiritual teacher of humanity. Only one whose previous tendency, genera character, constant aspiration, allotted destiny, or personal capacity fits one for that function becomes a teacher. It is not every spiritually enlightened human who is called to hold one’s chandelier in humankind’s darkness, or is required to be a teacher of others. This is a special art and requires special gifts. Those who attain enlightenment fall into two grades: the first, mystics who are possessed by God but who can neither show others the way to this state nor expound in detail the truth they have realized; the second, self-actualized beings who can do both these things. To be a teacher, to be able to educate others in philosophic doctrines, to prepare pupils for the wise life, requires qualities which knowledge alone does not necessarily confer. #RandolphHarris 17 of 26
Every self-actualized being must be a teacher because every self-actualized being must wish to promote the enlightenment of humankind. A major service of spiritual disciplines—such as solitude (being alone with God for long periods of time), fasting (learning freedom from food and how God directly nourishes us), worship (adoration of God), and service (doing good for others with no thought of ourselves)—is to cause the duplicity and malice that is buried in our will and character to surface and be dealt with. Those disciplines make room for the Word and the Spirit to work in us, and they permit destructive feelings—feelings that are usually veiled by standard practices and circumstances and by long accepted rationalizations—to be perceived and dealt with for what they are: our will and not God’s will. Those feelings are normally clothed in layer upon layer of habitual self-deception and rationalization. Typically, they will have enslaved the will, and it in turn will have coerced the mind to conceal or rationalize what is really going on. When you begin to deny fulfillment to your desires, your mind will really “talk to you,” and you will find how subtle and shameless it is. I know this from experience. #RandolphHarris 18 of 26
For example, our “righteous judgments” on others may, as we practice solitude or service, be recognized as ways of putting them down and us up. Our extreme busyness may be revealed as inability to trust God or unwillingness to give others a chance to contribute. Our readiness to give our opinions may turn out to be contempt for the thoughts and words of others or simply a willingness to shut them up. Truly becoming one who wills above all to act with the kingdom of God and to have one’s kind of goodness (Matthew 6.33) will not happen overnight. However, upon a path of clear intention and decision, with appropriate spiritual disciplines and accompanying grace to illumine and correct us when we fail, it is not as far away as many would suppose. The duplicities, entanglements, and evil intents that infect our will can be clarified and eliminated as we keep our eyes on Jesus, who initiated and perfects our faith, and “who for the joy set before Him endured the cross despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God,” reports Hebrews 12.2. “And it came to pass when Jesus had said these words, he spake unto his disciples, one by one, saying unto them; What is it that ye desire of me, after that I am gone to the Father? #RandolphHarris 19 of 26
“And they all spake, save it were three, saying: We desire that after we have lived unto the age of man, that our ministry, wherein thou hast called us, many have an end, that we may speedily come unto thee in thy kingdom. And he said unto them: Blessed are ye because ye desired this thing of me; therefore, after that ye are seventy and two years old ye shall come unto me in my kingdom; and with me ye shall find rest. And when he had spoken unto them, he turned himself unto the three, and said unto them: What will ye that I should do unto you, when I am gone unto the Father? And they sorrowed in their hearts, for they durst not speak unto him the thing which they desired. And he said unto them: Behold, I know your thoughts, and ye have desired the thing which John, my beloved, who was with me in my ministry, before that I was lifted up by the Jews desire of me. Therefore, more blessed are ye, for ye shall never taste of death; but ye shall live to behold all the doings of the Father unto the children of men, even until all things shall be fulfilled according to the will of the Father, when I shall come in my glory with the powers of Heaven. #RandolphHarris 20 of 26
“And ye shall never endure the pains of death; but when I shall come in my glory ye shall be changed in the twinkling of an eye from mortality to immortality; and then shall ye be blessed in the kingdom of my Father. And again, ye shall not have pain while ye shall dwell in the flesh, neither sorrow save it be for the sins of the World; and all this will I do because of the thing which ye have desired of me, for ye have desired that ye might bring the souls of humans unto me, while the World shall stand. And for this cause ye shall have fulness of joy; and ye shall sit down in the kingdom of my Father; yea, your joy shall be full, even as the Father hath given me fulness of joy; and ye shall be even as I am, and I am even as the Father; and the Father and I are one. And the Holy Ghost beareth record of the Father and me; and the Father giveth the Holy Ghost unto the children of humans, because of me. And it came to pass that when Jesus had spoken these words, he touched every one of them with his finger save it were the three who were to tarry, and then he departed. And behold, the Heavens were opened, and they were caught up into Heaven, and saw and heard unspeakable things. #RandolphHarris 21 of 26
“And behold, the Heavens were opened, and they were caught up into Heaven, and saw and heard unspeakable things. And it was forbidden them that they should utter; neither was it given unto them power that they could utter the things which they saw and heard; and whether they were in the body or out of the body, they could not tell; for it did seem unto them like a transfiguration of them, that they were changed from this body of flesh into an immortal state, that they could behold the things of God. However, it came to pass that they did again minister upon the face of the Earth; nevertheless they did not minister of the things which they had heard and seen, because of the commandment which was given them in Heaven. And now, whether they were mortal or immortal, from the day of their transfiguration, I know not; but this much I know, according to the record which hath been given—they did go forth upon the face of the land, and did minister unto all the people, uniting as many to the church as would believe in their preaching; baptizing them, and as many as were baptized did receive the Holy Ghost. And they were cast into prison by them who did not belong to the church. And the prisons could not hold them, for they were rent in twain. #RandolphHarris 22 of 26
“And they were cast down into the Earth; but they did smite the Earth with the word of God, insomuch that by his power they were delivered out of the depths of the Earth; and therefore they could not dig pits sufficient to hold them. And thrice they were cast into a den of wild beasts; and behold they did play with the beasts as a child with a suckling lamb, and received no harm. And it came to pass that thus they did go forth among all the people of Nephi, and did preach the gospel of Nephi, and did preach the gospel of Christ unto all people upon the face of the land; and they were converted unto the Lord, and were untied unto the church of Christ, and thus the people of that generation were blessed, according to the word of Jesus. And now, I Mormon, make an end of speaking concerning these things for a time. Behold, I was about to write the names of those who were never to taste of death, but the Lord forbade; therefore I write them not, for they are hid from the World. However, behold, I have seem them, and they have ministered unto me. And behold they will be among the Gentiles, and the Gentiles shall know them not. They will also be among the Jews, and the Jews shall know them not. #RandolphHarris 23 of 26
“And it shall come to pass, when the Lord seeth fit in his wisdom that they shall minister unto all the scattered tribes of Israel, and unto all nations, kindreds, tongues and people, and shall bring out of them unto Jesus many souls, that their desire may be fulfilled, and also because of the convincing power of God which is in them. And they are as the angels of God, and if they shall pray unto the Father in the name of Jesus they can show themselves unto whatsoever man it seemeth them good. Therefore, great and marvelous works shall be wrought by them, before the great and coming day when all people must surely stand before the judgment-seat of Christ; yea even among the Gentiles shall there be a great and marvelous work wrought by them, before that judgment day. And if ye had all the scriptures which give an account of the marvelous works of Christ, ye would, according to these things must surely come. And wo be unto one that will not hearken unto the words of Jesus, and also to them whom he hath chosen and sent among them; for whoso recieveth not the words of Jesus and the words of those whom he hath sent recieveth not him; and therefore he will not receive them at the last day. #RandolphHarris 24 of 26
“And if they had not been born, it would be better for them. For do ye suppose that ye can get rid of the justice of an offended God, who hath been trampled under feet of men, that thereby salvation might come? And now behold, as I spake concerning those whom the Lord hath chosen, yea, even three who were caught up into the Heavens, that I knew not whether they were cleansed from mortality to immortality—but behold, since I wrote, I have inquired of the Lord, and he hath made it manifest unto me that there must needs be a change wrought upon their bodies, or else it needs be that they must taste death; therefore, that they might not taste of death there was a change wrought upon their bodies, that they might not suffer pain nor sorrow save it were for the sins of the World. Now this change was not equal to that which shall take place at the last day; but there was a change wrought upon them, insomuch that Satan could have no power over them, that he could not tempt them; and they were sanctified in the flesh, that they were holy, and that the powers of the Earth could not him them. And in this state they were to remain until the judgment day of Christ. #RandolphHarris 25 of 26
“And at that day they were to receive a greater change, and to be received into the kingdom of the Father to go no more out, but to dwell with God eternally in the Heavens,” reports 3 Nephi 28.1-40. Sleep, little one, in the comforting night that spreads like a blanket over your bed. Goddess is waiting to guide you to sleep in His arms that are ready to rock you so gently. The God stands by, watching to keep you from harm, to lay His cool hand on your head as you sleep. Sleep, little one, in the gathering dark, wrapped in the love of your Mother and Father, wrapped in the love of your mother and father. Magnified and sanctified be the name of God throughout the World which He hath created according to His will. May He establish His kingdom during the days of your life and during the life of all the house of Israel, speedily, yea, soon; and say ye, Amen. May His great name be blessed for ever and ever. Exalted and honoured be the name of the Holy One, blessed be He, whose glory transcends, yea, is beyond all praises, hymns and blessings that humans can render unto Him; and say ye, Amen. May there be abundant peace from Heaven, and life for us and for all Israel; and say ye, Amen. May He who establisheth peace in the Heavens, grant peace unto us and unto all Israel; and say ye, Amen. #RandolphHarris 26 of 26
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Adults All Too Easily Engage in these Conspiracies of Silence!
Do not wait for the last judgement. It takes place everyday. Anger is often felt during bereavement and is then a part of separation anxiety. At first sight, it appears to serve no useful function. The reason that is occurs so often nonetheless, even after a death, is that during the early phases of grieving a bereaved person usually does not believe that the loss can really be permanent; one therefore continues to act as though it were still possible not only to find and recover the lost person but to reproach one for one’s actions. For the lost person is not infrequently held to be at least in part responsible for what has happened, in fact to have deserted. As a result, anger comes to be directed against the lost person, as well as, of course, against others thought to have played a part in the loss or in some way to be obstructing reunion. Grief is the emotional, and often physical response we have when we experience loss. The more profound the loss, the more profound the grief will be. Grief can involve virtually every emotion or can leave us feeling numb and disconnected from the World around us. Manifestations of grief may include hopelessness, anxiety, anger, denial, guilt, incapacitating fatigue, difficulty in controlling emotions, lack of concentration, loss of interest in people or activities, and feelings of being overwhelmed. #RandolphHarris 1 of 23
Anxiety is a species’ reaction to the absence of the attachment figure when one is still needed for the well-being of the infant (or of the infant in us all). The protest which follows such an absence is meant t bring the needed person back (or at least bring someone) so that there may be some protection from the threat of predators or whatever is experienced as threatening by the infant. What happens when the needed person never comes back? Anxiety eventually ceases, and is replaced by pain, grief, and mourning, and perhaps despair. We may never get over the pain of the loss. Worse, sometimes a loss leads to an apparently lasting inability to make any new relationship in which another person could become an important attachment figure. Others do find the concept of successful, healthy, mourning. The successful effort is depicted by the individual’s effort to accept both that a change has occurred in their external World and that they are required to make corresponding changes in their internal World, and to recognize and perhaps re-orient their attachment behaviour accordingly. If they persisted, in the course of this effort, there may be reactions which seem neurotic and in which certainly would not lead to well-being. #RandolphHarris 2 of 23
Some behaviours that we want to avoid so we do not become neurotic are: persistent disbelief that the loss is permanent, a repeated urge to call for, search for, and recover the lost person, prolonged yearning for the lost person, a sense of reproach against the lost person, combined with unremitting self-reproach, and compulsive caring for other people. Any of these reactions may be conscious or unconscious. If unconscious, the consequent behaviour, feelings, and mood swings may seem very puzzling both to the mourners and to their friends, thus adding the pain. The irrationality of some reactions may be obvious, and yet the feelings are sincerely felt; for “healthy mourning,” they need to be expressed and recognized, understood and accepted by those around, as part of the process of accepting the loss. It is because of this that we warn against the dangers of preventing people from expressing the anguish they feel. Particularly, in the present context, children should not be prevented from doing so: they should not be told that they should not cry, or need not cry, or are silly to cry, or that they will be “if they do not stop crying, they will given something to cry about.” #RandolphHarris 3 of 23
We also must not tell youth that they should not cry in order to spare other people’s feelings. If they have been made to deny their own fears and griefs, adults all too easily engage in these conspiracies of silence. Denial and detachment are characteristics of a badly mourned loss. These reactions are comparable to scar-tissues which prevents and distorts the development of later healthy growth. The detachment consequent upon badly mourned losses does seem very like what some autistic children do when they turn away from people. It is as though the autistic child is experiencing a loss—actually called a hole—where it should (constitutionally) experience an attachment figure. The anxiety is traced back to the unattached infant’s fear of predators and has real echoes. The unsuccessfully mourning person is left with a deep sense of helplessness and vulnerability. Small wonder. In most forms of depressive disorder, including that of chronic mourning, the main issue about which a person feels so terrible is the impossibility (as it seems) of ever again finding someone to love who will love them and make them feel safe, when the most important one has slipped from their grasp without their having been able to prevent it. #RandolphHarris 4 of 23
Some people may question their Heavenly Father because the pain is so overwhelming. They find it difficult to recognize the help the Lord is extending. Reassuring is the promise from Isaiah: “Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows,” reports Isaiah 53.4. Sometimes the hardest part about grief is simply not understanding what is happening. Knowing a few principles can help us successfully make our own journey through grief. Grief hurts, but when it is allowed to do its work appropriately, grief can be the salve that helps us heal. The first step in handling grief is to recognize that the pain is a normal part of the process. It needs to be acknowledged, not avoided. Grieving is not a brief process. Be patient with it and give it time. As with a physical wound, the pain of losing a loved one requires time to heal. The Saviour has said, “Thou shalt live together in love, insomuch that thou shalt weep for the loss of them that die,” reports Doctrine and Covenants. When a loved one passes from this side of the veil to the other, they continue to be just as important to us as when they were with us. Because we really love them, we cannot really expect to completely “get over” losing them. #RandolphHarris 5 of 23
Sometimes the veil between this life and the life beyond becomes very thin. Our loved ones who have passed on are not far from us. “Is any one of you in trouble? One should pray. Is any one happy? Let one sing songs of praise. Is any one of you sick? One should call the elders of the church to pray over one and anoint one with oil in the name of the Lord. And the prayer offered in faith will make the sick person well; the Lord will raise one up. If one has sinned, one will be forgiven. Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective,” reports James 5.13-16. Now, the primary source of our entanglement is our desires—really, not just our desires themselves, but our enslavement to them and confusion about them. Temptation to sin always originates in desire. “What causes fights and quarrels among you? Do not they come from your desires that battle within you? You want something but do not get it. You will and covet, but you cannot have what you want. You quarrel and fight. You do not have, because you do not ask God. When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures,” reports John 4.1-3. #RandolphHarris 6 of 23
We have set our hearts on too many different things, some of which are wrong or evil, and wall of which are in conflict with some other. “Blessed is the one who preserves under trial, because when one has stood the test, one will receive the crown of life that God has promised to those who love him. When tempted, no one should say, “God is tempting me.” For God cannot be temped by evil, nor does he tempt anyone; but each one is tempted when, by one’s own evil desire, one is dragged away and enticed. Then, after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, gives birth to death. Do not be deceived, my dear brothers. Every good and perfect gift from above, coming down from the Father of the Heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows. He chose to give us birth through the word of truth, that we might be a kind of first-fruits of all he created,” reports James 1.12-18. Here, perhaps, we need to add that habitual following of a desire leads to strengthening like the power of inertia in the physical realm. It is easier to do what you have done. You tend to keep on doing what you have done; and the more so, the more you have done it. That is spiritual inertia. #RandolphHarris 7 of 23
We may come to identify our will with our desire, and a powerful desire may throw us into something like a hypnotic state in order to achieve its satisfaction—often in horrible deeds. In addition when the will is enslaved to a desire, it will in turn enslave the mind. To justify itself in satisfying the desire, the will enlists the intellect to provide rationalizations, frequently so bizarre that they amount to selective insanity. Then of course the individual in question does and says things that make no sense to anyone. They are hypnotized by their evil desires. That is where the entanglements of the will with desire can lead and do lead. The “news” and the media keep cases of this constantly before us, and we need to understand what we are looking at. Otherwise we too will stand at a loss with those who say, “How could people do such things?” We need to realize that the less sensational entanglements of ordinary lives—perhaps Christian lives—are precisely what keep well-intentioned people from following Christ into the depths and heights of spiritual transformation. Our primary, practical aim in stepping free from “entanglements” must be to overcome duplicity. And to overcome it we must become conscious of it, confront it, and take appropriate steps to forsake it. #RandolphHarris 8 of 23
The point of reference in all of this is the explicit teaching of the Bible concerning the will of God. He that “has my commandments and keeps them, he it is that loves me,” reports Jesus in John 14.21. The person who intends to will what God wills—to identify one’s will with God’s—begins with what God has said he wills. And we do not need to know all he has said, though under New Testament teaching that is not as difficult as it sounds. “If it is serving, let one serve; if it is teaching, let one teach; if it is encouraging, let one encourage; if it is contributing to the needs of others, let one give generously; if it is leadership, let one govern diligently; if it is showing mercy, let one do it cheerfully. Love must be sincere. Hate what is evil; cling to what is good. Be devoted to one another in brotherly love. Honour one another above yourselves,” reports Romans 12.8-10. “Let no debt remain outstanding, except the continuing debt to love one another, for one who loves one’s fellow human has fulfilled the law. The commandments, “Do not commit adultery,” “Do not murder,” “Do not steal,” “Do not covert,” and whatever the other commandments there may be, are summed up in this one rule: “Love your neighbour as yourself. Love does no harm to its neighbour. Therefore love is the fulfillment of the law,” reports Romans 13.8-10. We can begin with what we know he has said. Let us firmly decide to do that. This will quickly lead us into the depth of spiritual transformation, including adequate knowledge of all of his will for us. #RandolphHarris 9 of 23
Who does not know, for example, that it is God’s will we should be without guile and malice? Then let us decide never to mislead people and never to do or say things merely to cause pain or harm. Let us decide that today, right now, we will not do such things. One might think that this is a very small part of identifying with God’s will. However, in fact lying and malice are foundational sins. They make possible and actual many other sins. If one removed them, the structure of evil in the individual and in society would be very largely eliminated. From family fights and breakups to warfare, the human landscape would be transformed beyond recognition. Of course when we begin to implement our decision, we discover that it is no simple task. We discover what a grip duplicity and malice have on us in every dimension of our being. Our thoughts and feelings and our usual routines of action, and perhaps even forces beyond our conscious grasp or understanding, have an influence over our choices that is much more powerful and complicated than we ever imagined while we simply went along with them. We can never sufficiently emphasize the fact that spiritual formation cannot be a matter of just changing the will itself. That is central, of course, but it cannot be accomplished except by transformation of the other dimensions of the self. #RandolphHarris 10 of 23
We discover that mere intention or effort of will is not enough to bring about the change in us that we have hoped for and to free us from duplicity and malice. Still, we must hold to that intention and sincerely make the effort, and then we will find that help is available. In Exodus 24, in the midst of the account which describes Moses’ ascent of Mount Sinai to receive the Law. That chapter tells us that Moses, Aaron, Nadab, Abihu, and seventy elders of Israel (of whom Joshua was one) were called up the mountain. After climbing some distance and seeing a far-off vision of God’s glory, the seventy remained behind, and Joshua and Moses went further up (v.13). Here Joshua was with Moses six days when the glorious cloud covered Sinai (v.16). However, on the seventh day Moses went on alone, leaving Joshua alone on Sinai for forty days (v.18). The Sinai experience left its mark on Joshua. His initial vision of God majestically standing over a pavement of sapphire (v.10), and his subsequent forty days of solitary meditation—while Moses, up the glowing, thundering cloud of Sinai, received the Law—branded his heart with a deep sense of God’s glory, holiness, and power. The Christian leader’s vision of God makes all the difference in one’s life. #RandolphHarris 11 of 23
There is a grand visionary chain which links the great leaders in God’s work Consider Moses amidst the thunderings and lightnings of Sinai as God hides him in the cleft of a rock and makes His glory pass by him (Exodus 33.21-23). Joshua not only sat below Moses on Sinai viewing God’s glory, but later, on the eve of the battle for Jericho, he met God—“the captain of the Lord’s hosts”—as a warrior in full battle dress, his sword bare and gleaming in the moonlight—and Joshua worshipped (Joshua 5.13-15). Young David’s vision of God grew so great as he shepherded under the stars and contemplated God’s vastness that when he saw Goliath challenging leaderless Israel he cried, “Who is this uncircumcised Philistine that he should defy the armies of the living God?” (1 Samuel 17.26) and charged headlong into battle. Isaiah “saw the Lord seated on a throne, high and exalted, and the train of his robe filled the temple,” and this immense vision launched him into spectacular leadership and service—“Here am I. Send me!” (Isaiah 6.1, 8). Peter, James, and John saw Jesus transfigure, so that His glory shone as the sun—and they went forward as key leaders in the apostolic Church (Mark 9.2-8). #RandolphHarris 12 of 23
Paul, who was not a part of the apostolic band, became the missionary leader of the Church, fueled by being caught up to the third Heaven and hearing and seeing things e could not describe (2 Corinthians 12.1-6). An immense, growing vision of God is the sine qua non, the grand distinction, the continental divide of spiritual leadership. It is said that Robert Dick Wilson, the celebrated Old Testament scholar who served at Princeton Seminary at the beginning of this century, upon hearing that an alumnus was returning to preach would slip into the back of Miller Chapel and listen only once saying, “When my boys come back, I come to see if they are big godders or little godders and then I know what their ministry will be.” One’s vision of God, his visio Dei, is everything! However, at the same time do not put putt off or sell your leadership potential short because you have had no beatific vision. You do not need such a vision because you have two great books of vision, the book of Scripture which repeatedly reveals God’s glory—and the book of creation, which continuously witnesses to God’s greatness. Take for example, the stars—“Day after day they pour forth speech; night after night they display knowledge. There is no speech or language where their voice is not heard,” reports Psalm 19.2, 3. #RandolphHarris 13 of 23
The massive vision is always before you—if you will just look. Read the great Bible passages to enlarge your vision of God’s greatness. Look up at the stars and around at creation. Pray for a growing revelation of God’s vastness and for the grace to believe what you read and see. The affection of the sense is its sensation itself. Hence, from the fact that sense reports as it is affected, it follows that we are not deceived in the judgment by which we judge that we experience sensation. Since, however, sense is sometimes affected erroneously of that object, it follows that it sometimes reports erroneously of that object; and thus we are deceived by sense about the object, but not about the fact of sensation. Falsity is said not to be proper to sense, since sense is not deceived as to its proper object. Hence in another translation it is said more plainly, “Sense, about its proper object, is never false.” Falsity is attributed to the imagination, as it represents the likeness of something even in its absence. Hence, when anyone perceives the likeness of a thing as if it were the thing itself, falsity results from such an apprehension; and for this reason the Philosopher says (Metaph. v, 34) that shadows, pictures, and dreams are said to be false inasmuch as they convey the likeness of things that are not present in substance. #RanolphHarris 14 of 23
This argument proves that the false is not in the sense, as in that which knows the true and false. The persuasive influence of an enlightened person’s mind and the pellucid truth of one’s sentences do not register with many people. Nor is one going to reveal everything one knows at the first few meetings even with those who want to find the truth. Unlike insane self-titled “Messiahs,” the enlightened individual has no program of saving the whole World from its sinfulness, for the chances of such an enterprise are microscopic; but one has a program of finding one’s own kindred—those whose aspiration thought and prenatal relationship with one make them one’s natural followers. Such a person may have many acquaintances, may make a modest number of friends, but one is unlikely to find more than a few intimates. One sees that there is nothing one can do for people whose point of view is so undeveloped, so materialistic, so concerned with surfaces and appearances. One does not engage in the futile task of meddling with their lives. One does not attempt the impossible task of changing them suddenly. One leaves them to the natural process of growth and to the cosmical forces responsible for their past and future course. #RandolphHarris 15 of 23
One is the silent background counsellor for a few humans who have the opportunity and capacity to serve humankind. These adepts help the few who are in a position and attitude to help a multitude. One seeks no personal devotees but is glad over each person who becomes a follower of impersonal Truth. The illumined human becomes a channel of the Holy Ghost, a chalice of the Prophet’s Wine. Yet even one cannot turn the absolute mystical silence into finite comprehensible speech for more than a sensitive few. With most people one finds oneself utterly dumb because they are themselves utterly deaf. This is the tragic pity of it, that just because one’s words have a value far beyond that of other human’s there is no audience for them, so few ears to receive them. “And it came to pass that as the disciples of Jesus were journeying and were preaching the things which they had both heard and seen, and were baptizing in the name of Jesus, it came to pass that the disciples were gathered together and were united in mighty prayer and fasting. And Jesus again showed himself unto the, for they were praying unto the Father in his name; and Jesus came and stood in the midst of them, and said unto them: What will ye that I shall give unto you? #RandolphHarris 16 of 23
“And they said unto him: Lord, we will that thou wouldst tell us the name whereby we shall call this church; for there are disputations among the people concerning this matter. And the Lord said unto them: Verily, verily, I say unto you, why is it that people should murmur and dispute because of this thing? Have they not read the scriptures, which say ye must take upon you the name of Christ, which is my name? For by this name shall ye be called at the last day; and whoso taketh upon him in my name, and endureth to the end, the same shall be saved at the last day. Therefore, whatsoever ye shall do, ye shall do it in my name; therefore ye shall call the church in my name; therefore ye shall call the church in my name; and ye shall call upon the Father in my name that he will bless the church for my sake. And how be it my church save it be called in my name? For if a church be called in Moses’ name then it be Moses’ church; for if it be called in my name then it is my church, if it so be that they are built upon my gospel. Verily I say unto you, that ye are built upon my gospel; therefore ye shall call whatsoever things ye do call, in my name; therefore if ye call upon the Father, for the church, if it be in my name the Father will hear you. #RandolphHarris 17 of 23
“And if it so be that the church is built upon my gospel then will the Father show forth his own works in it. However, if it be not built upon my gospel, and is built upon the works of human, or upon the works of the devil, verily I say unto you they have joy in their works for a season, and by and by the end cometh, and they are hewn down and cast into the fire, from whence there is no return. For their words do follow them, for it is because of their works that they are hewn down; therefore remember the things that I have told you. Behold I have given unto you my gospel, and this is the gospel which I have given unto you—that I came into the World to do the will of my Father, because my Father sent me. And my Father sent me that I might be lifted up upon the cross; and after that I had been lifted up upon the cross, that I might draw all humans unto me, that as I have been lifted up by humans even so should humans be lifted up by the Father, to stand before me, to be judged of their works, whether they be good or whether they be evil—and for this cause have I been lifted up; therefore, according to the power of the Father I will draw all humans unto me, that they may be judged according to their works. #RandolphHarris 18 of 23
“And it shall come to pass, that whoso repenteth and is baptized in my name shall be filled; and if he endureth to the end, behold, him will I hold guiltless before my Father at that day when I shall stand to judge the World. And one that endureth not unto the end, the same is one that also hewn down and cast into the fire, from whence they can no more return, because of the justice of the Father. And this is the words which he hath given, and he lieth not, but fulfilleth all his words. And no unclean thing can enter into his kingdom; therefore nothing entereth into his rest save it be those who have washed their garments in my blood, because of their faith, and the repentance of all their sins, and their faithfulness unto the end. Now this is the commandment: Repent, all ye ends of the Earth, and come unto me and be baptized in my name, that ye may be sanctified by the reception of the Holy Ghost, that ye may stand spotless before me at the last day. Verily, verily, I say unto you, this is my gospel; and ye know the things that ye must do in my church; for the words which ye have seen me do that shall ye also do; for that which ye have seen me do even that shall ye do; therefore, if ye do these things blessed are ye, for ye shall be lifted up at the last day. #RandolphHarris 19 of 23
“Write the things which ye have seen and heard, save it be those which are forbidden. Write the works of this people, which shall be, even as hath been written, of that which hath been written, of that which hath been. For behold, out of the books which have been written, shall this people be judged, for by them shall their works be known unto humans. And behold, all things are written by the Father; therefore out of the books which shall be written shall the World be judged. And know ye that ye shall be judges of this people, according to the judgment which I shall give unto you, which shall be just. Therefore, what manner of humans ought ye to be? Verily I say unto you, even as I am. And now I go unto the Father. And verily I say unto you, whatsoever things ye shall ask the Father in my name shall be given unto you. Therefore, ask, and ye shall receive; knock, and it shall be opened unto you; for one that asketh, recieveth; and unto one that knocketh, it shall be opened. And now, behold, my joy is great, even unto fullness because of you, and also this generation; yea, and even the Father rejoiceth, and also all the holy angels, because of you and this generation; for none of them are lost. #RandolphHarris 20 of 23
“Behold, I would that ye should understand; for I mean them who are now alive of this generation; and none of them are lost; and in them I have fulness of joy. However, behold, it sorroweth me because of the fourth generation from this generation, for they are led away captive by him even as was the son of perdition; for they will sell me for silver and for gold, and for that which moth doth corrupt and which thieves can break through and steal. And in that day will I visit them, even in turning their works upon their own heads. And it came to pass that when Jesus had ended these sayings he said unto his disciples: Enter ye in at the strait gate; for the strait is the gate, and narrow is the way that leads to life, and few there be that find it; but wide is the gate, and broad the way which leads to death, and many there be that travel therein until the night cometh, wherein no human can work,” reports 3 Nephi 27.1-33. As I go to bed, I pray to the High God. I offer you my worship, and ask you to bless my family. I ask if I have done anything today to offend you. If I have, I ask for forgiveness and for guidance, that I might walk the sacred path in peace and in beauty. As I go to bed, I pray to God of my household. I offer you my worship and ask you to bless my family. #RandolphHarris 21 of 23
I ask if I have done anything today to offend you. If I have, I ask for forgiveness and for guidance, that I might walk the sacred path in peace and in beauty. As I go to bed, I pray t the Ancestors. I do you honour and ask you to please bless my family. I ask if I have done anything today to offend you. If I have, I ask for forgiveness and guidance, that I might walk the sacred path in peace and in beauty. As I go to bed, I pray to the Land Spirits. I do you honour and ask you to bless my family. I ask if I have done anything today to offend you. If I have, I ask for forgiveness and for guidance, that I might walk the sacred path in peace and in beauty. As I go to bed, I pray to all numinous being. I do you honour and ask that you please extend your blessings over me and mine. Before I go to sleep, I extend my thoughts to all in my house and ask that we might live together in peace. Before I go to sleep, I extend my thoughts to the human community, and ask that we might live together in peace. Before I go to sleep, I extend my thoughts to all living creatures, and ask that we might live together in peace. Before I go to sleep, I extend my thoughts to all living creatures, and ask that we might live together in peace. #RandolphHarris 22 of 23
Before I go to sleep, I extend my thoughts to the Holy Ones, and ask that we might live together in peace. Shining ones, whose care extends over the whole World, bless the World with peace. May the Lord and Holy Ghost protect me as I lie in the bed. May they bring me dreams of pleasure and guidance. May they wake me in the morning rested and refreshed. Almighty and eternal Father, in adversity as in joy, Thou, our source of life, art ever with us. As we recall with affection those whom Thou hast summoned unto Thee, we thank Thee for the example of their lives, for our sweet companionship with them, for the cherished memories and the undying inspiration they leave behind. In tribute to our departed who are bound with Thee in the bond of everlasting life, may our lives be consecrated to Thy service. Comfort, we pray Thee, all who mourn. Though they may not comprehend Thy purpose, keep steadfast their trust in Thy wisdom. Do Thou, O God, give them strength in their sorrow, and sustain their faith in Thee as they rise to sanctify Thy name. “Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me. Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in Heaven, for in the same way they persecute the prophets who were before you,” reports Matthew 5.11-12. #RandolphHarris 23 of 23
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When the Morning Blesses Thee for Enlivening All the Cheerful Eyes the Heart Upsprings!
Change is the biggest story in the World today, and we are not covering it adequately. Leadership is a work one everyone’s lips. The young attack it and police seek it. Experts claim it and artists spurn it, while scholars want it…bureaucrats pretend they have it, politicians wish they did. Everybody agrees that there is less of it than there used to be. The pessimistic consensus and longing for leadership extends to the Church, which many today believe suffers from an alarming lack of leadership when compared to history as recent as the decades between the forties and seventies (decades which produces leaders of the stature of Harold John Ockenga, Billy Graham, Carl F.H. Henry and Francis Schaeffer, as well as dynamic local church and layleaders). Is there really less leadership than there used to be? It appears so, but objective analysis is difficult. Statistics do indicate this, however: male leadership in the Church is on the decline as women outnumber men, for men comprise only 41 percent of adult church attenders, and some smaller churches cannot find even one man to fill the office of elder. More and more men are content to let others shoulder the heavy responsibilities while they go along for the ride. #RandolphHarris 1 of 25
It is certainly true that leadership is more difficult today due to the sheer complexity of life and the size of today’s institutions, and because of the contemporary confusion as to what leadership is. Secular analysis has produced more than 350 definitions of leadership. Leadership, to some, is like the Abominable Snowman, whose footprints are everywhere but he is nowhere to be seen. However, none of this excuses today’s Church—or today’s Christian humans. Unlike our culture, the Bible provides clear instruction regarding leadership through the lives of its great leaders and through specific teachings regarding the character, qualifications, and commitment of spiritual leaders. In addition to this, amidst our culture’s confusion about leadership there are some astute analysts who have pinpointed the essentials of leadership and are providing information which has immense benefits for the general culture, including the Church. As we tackle the topic of the discipline of leadership, we will draw from both sources, with the greatest reliance being upon God’s word. When the Saviour was on the Earth, He taught His Apostles about leadership service: “Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you, and ordained you, that ye should go and bring forth fruit, and that your fruit should remain: that whatsoever ye shall ask of the Father in my name, he may give it to you. #RandolphHarris 2 of 25
“These things I command you, that ye love one another,” reports John 15.16-17. After His ascension into Heaven, His disciples became greater leaders and built up the Church in their day. The first mention of Joshua comes in Exodus 17.8, 9 after the Amalekites’ attack upon the stragglers at Israel’s rear: “Moses said to Joshua, ‘Choose some of our men and go out to fight the Amalekites. Tomorrow I will stand on top of the hill with the staff of God in my hands.’” Moses, then in his eighties, took the rod of God with which he had parted the Red Sea and ascended a nearby hill. Joshua, in his fighting prime, took charge of the army below. In the ensuing battle, when Moses lifted his hands in intercessory prayer, Israel prevailed. However, as Moses wearied and began to lower his arms, the tide of battle turned to the Amalekites. Then again, as Moses mustered all his power and elevated his hands, the advantage returned to Israel. Israel’s fate ebbed and flowed with Moses’ aged hands. Soon Aaron and Hur were called to assist Moses, seating him on a stone and standing at his sides to hold his hands Heavenward. When sunset came, Moses’ hands were still reaching upward to God, and Israel had carried the day. #RandolphHarris 3 of 25
The lessons for Joshua were clearly manifest. He learned that the real power was not in his sword, but in God. The victory undoubtedly tempted him to forget that. He was an instant hero, and that night all the campfires sang the name of Joshua. However, fixed in Joshua’s mind was the image of Aaron and Hur coming to Moses’ side and lifting his hands up to God. No one attains true spiritual leadership who thinks one’s power is one’s own or the past victories are due to one’s own genius. The overriding lesson Joshua learned that day was the backbone of any work done for God is prayer. Those who have effective leadership are not leaders because of brilliancy, but because, by the power of prayer, they could command the power of God. How contrary this is to conventional thinking on leadership. The first thing the World (and all too often the Church!) considers is a leader’s magnetism and elan—does one have the charisma to magnetize people? But the Holy Spirit places prayer first. In our day we are called on to be leaders and to beckon others to follow Jesus’s teachings. You may be a leader in your ward or branch or among your group of friends. Young people in the Church are learning. “I learned not to just pay attention to how things are done, but to go to individuals and help them in whatever way they need,” said Leo. #RandolphHarris 4 of 25
There may be time when we do not know what to do and that is when one should recall to open up the scriptures. Also, keep in mind that Christian leadership includes helping everyone feel welcome. Now, when we set out on the path of the surrendered will we find we must come to grips with our fallen character. This character will have taken over our habitual or “automatic” ways of thinking and feeling, shaped our social World past and present, permeated our body and its responses, and even sunk down into the unconscious depths of our soul. In their fallen character thoughts, feelings, social interactions, body, character, will, and the soul will usually not be in accordance with the genuine intentions of our reborn spirit or will. The fallen character in fact poises every element of our being against God. When we are subjected to environments where people may or may not have willfully, knowingly and enthusiastically submitted to the influence of Satan and are attacking us, we must remember to seek spiritual counsel even more, and commit to more Bible study so our souls do not become sucked into their blackhole of evil. #RandolphHarris 5 of 25
We do not want to end up in the adversary’s web because we want to go to Heaven and not suffer any legal consequences while on Earth either because the bad people are going to get themselves in trouble with God and human’s laws. The condition we find ourselves in can best be described as one of entanglement. By contrast, the condition we must move to is that of single-minded focus upon doing the will of God in everything, distracted by nothing. Do not care about anything but Christ. Make sure your intention is that you and your team care for nothing before Christ, which means the ways of the Lord must come first. Nothing should be allowed to detract from that or conflict with it. All lesser desires have to be done away with (hence they are macabre baggage!). Some people, of course, are more concerned about language they think is wrong than about hearts not set wholly on Christ. In our fallen World very few people live with a focused will, even a will focused on an evil. The best lack all conviction, while the worst are full of passionate intensity. #RandolphHarris 6 of 25
However, in fact—and we can be thankful for this—even “the worst” rarely have much intensity about them. There are always hecklers in this World, however. Evil people who are genuinely focused can gain the great power they do over others because of the fact that good people and evil people alike are, for the most part, simply drifting through life. The “Chief Executive Officer” of the self has abandoned its post to other dimensions of the self and is dragged hither and thither by them. If it is recognized at all, in our culture today the direction of the self is usually left to feelings; and the will is either identified with feelings or else regarded as helpless in the face of feelings. The cognitive aide of the mind is hijacked to renationalize it all by producing or borrowing suitable “insights,” usually lying ready to hand in surrounding culture. David Hume’s eighteenth-century claim that “reason is and ought only to be the slave of the passions” was prophetic of a World to come—our present World—to the existence of which e significantly contributed: a World of perpetual drift in which manipulation and entanglement of the will is simply unavoidable. Purity of heart is to will one thing. #RandolphHarris 7 of 25
Before we can come to rest in such single-mindedness as the habitual orientation of all dimensions of our being, to allow it and to sustain it, a serious battle is required. However, the call of grace and wisdom is nonetheless to “lay aside every encumbrance, and the sin which so easily entangles us, and run with endurance the race that is set before us, fixing our eyes on Jesus,” reports Hebrews 12.1-2. “No soldier in active service entangles oneself in the affairs of everyday life,” Paul reminded Timothy, “so that one may please the one who enlisted one as a soldier,” reports 2 Timothy 2.4. Dear Martha was “worried and bothered about so many things,” as Jesus pointed out, while only a few things are necessary, really only one, “Many has chosen the good part, which shall not be taken away from her,” reports Luke 10.41-42. And Paul’s own testimony was that he really did only one thing, which was to “press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus,” reports Philippians 3.13-14. According to the classical principle of utility, the best actions produce the greatest amount of utility for the greatest number of individuals, and the best actions maximize the average utility which may be enjoyed by each individual. Now it is tempting to argue against the principle that it presupposed a real and equal acceptance of risk by all members of society. #RandolphHarris 8 of 25
At some time, one wants to say, everyone must actually have agreed to take the same chances. Since clearly there was n such occasion, the principle is unsound. Consider an extreme case: when confronted by his slaves, a slaveholder, in his attempts to justify his position to them by claiming that, first of all, given the circumstances of their society, the institution of slavery is in fact necessary to produce the greatest average happiness; and secondly, that in the initial contractual situation he would choose the average principle even at the risk of its subsequently happening that he is justifiably held a slave. Now offhand we are inclined to reject the slaveholder’s argument as beside the point, if not outrageous. One may think that it makes no difference what one would choose. Unless individuals have actually agreed to a conception of justice subject to real risk, no one is bound by its requirements. On the contract view, however, the general form of the slaveholder’s argument is correct. It would be a mistake for the slaves to retort that his contentions are irrelevant since there has been no actual occasion of choice, no equal sharing of risk as to how things would turn out. #RandolphHarris 9 of 25
The contract doctrine is purely hypothetical: if a conception of justice would be agreed to in the original position, its principles are the right ones to apply. It is no objection that such an understanding has never been nor ever will be entered into. We cannot have it both ways: we cannot interpret the theory of justice hypothetically when the appropriate occasions of consent cannot be found to explain individuals’ duties and obligations, and then insist upon real situations of risk-bearing to throw out principles of justice that we do not want. Thus in justice as fairness the way to refute the slaveholder’s argument is to show that the principle one invokes would be rejected in the original position. We have no alternative but to exploit the various aspects of this initial situation (on the favoured interpretation) to establish that the balance of reasons favours the two principles of justice. People can often say that everyone makes choices and decisions and because they have a troubled life that you should also have to suffer a life of hardships and they may manufacture a situation to make sure that you do. The issues here is, while what they are saying is true, there life turned out bad because of the probability of the choices and decisions they made. Usually people are not victims of a conspiracy. #RandolphHarris 10 of 25
In many cases the lot of evidence shows that a particular coin is unbiased, but when a group of people plot to ruin a person and no one step in to help, even after the situations are reported, not only is that biased, but it is illegal, unconstitutional and unfair. What is distinctive about the use of the principle is that it enables one to incorporate different kinds of information within one strictly probabilistic framework and to draw inferences about probabilities even in the absence of knowledge. Prior probabilities however arrived at are part of one theory along with estimates of chances based on random sampling. The limiting case of no information does not pose a theoretical problem. As evidence accumulates the prior probabilities are revised anyway and the principle of insufficient reason at least insures that no possibilities are excluded from the outset. Now I shall assume that the parties discount likelihoods arrived at solely on the basis of this principle. This supposition is plausible in view of the fundamental importance of the original agreement and the desire to have one’s decision appear responsible to one’s descendants who will be affected by it. #RandolphHarris 11 of 25
We are more reluctant to take great risks for our descendants than for ourselves; and we are willing to do so only when there is no way to avoid these uncertainties of the original position. Recall that the original position is an elegant thought experiment. It asks one to imagine that they are temporarily ignorant (veil of ignorance) about certain things, including important facts about themselves, such as how well off they are especially talented, and what their core personal values—religious or otherwise—are. One is then to ask oneself: If I did not know these things, what principle of justice would I choose to regulate the basic institutions of society? To be a little more precise, we are employing a vision of the familiar idea of a social contract. The parties to the contract are choosing basic principles of justice for their society. However, they are behind what is referred to as the veil of ignorance: they do not know how well off they are especially talented, and what their core personal values are. In such a situation, given certain additional stipulations, it would be rational for the parties to choose the following two principles of justice. First, a principle that guaranteed each citizen a robust package of liberal rights to such things as freedom of conscience, freedom to vote and stand in elections, and rights to due process in law. #RandolphHarris 12 of 25
Second, a principle that ensured fair equality of economic opportunity as well as shares of income and wealth that were maximally beneficial to people with the least amount of income and wealth. So the people in our scenario can guarantee the protection of their liberties and a reasonably satisfactory standard of life as the conditions of their society permit. In fact, it is questionable whether the choice of the average principle really offers a better prospect anyway, waiving the fact that it is based on the principle of insufficient reason. It seems, then, that the effect of the veil of ignorance is to favour the two principles. This conception of justice is better suited to the situation of complete ignorance. If they were sound, there are, to be sure, assumptions about society that would allow parities to arrive at objective estimates of equality. The idea is to formulate certain reasonable assumptions under which it would be rational for self-interested parties to agree to the standard of utility as a political principle to assess social policies. The necessity for such a principle arises because the political process is not a competitive one and these decisions cannot be left to the market. Some other method must be found to reconcile divergent interests. #RandolphHarris 13 of 25
The principle of utility would be agreed to by self-interested parties as the desired criterion. Over the long run of many occasions, the policy of maximizing utility on each occasion is most likely to give the greatest utility for any person individually. Consistent application of this standard to taxation and property legislation, and so on, is calculated to give the best results from any one human’s point of view. Therefore by adopting this principle self-interested parties have reasonable assurance that they will not lose out in the end, in fact, will best improve their prospects. However, there are some flaws in these positions, especially the basic structure. For one, people who move from one social position to another in random fashion must live long enough for gains and losses to average out, or else there is some mechanism which insures that legislation guided by the principle of utility distributes its favours evenly over one time. However, clearly society is not a stochastic process of this type; and some questions of social policy are much more vital than others, often causing large and enduring shifts in the institutional distribution of advantage. Therefore, we must not be enticed by mathematically attractive assumptions into pretending that the contingencies of human’s social positions and the asymmetries of their situations somehow even out in the end. #RandolphHarris 14 of 25
Rather, we must choose our conceptions of justice fully recognizing that this is not and cannot be the case. From our point of view it is often easy enough to appraise another individual’s situation as specified say by one’s social position, wealth, and the like, or by one’s prospects in terms of primary goods. We put ourselves in one’s shoes, complete with our character and preferences (not the individual’s), and take account of how our plans would be affected. We can go much further. We can assess the worth to us being in another’s place with at least some of one’s traits and aims. Knowing our plan of life, we can decide whether it would be rational for us to have those traits and aims, and therefore advisable for us to develop and encourage them if we can. It suffices to observe here that what we cannot do is to evaluate another person’s total circumstances, one’s objective situation plus one’s character and system of ends, without any reference to the details of our conception of our good. If we are to judge these things from our standpoint at all, we must know what our plan of life is. The worth to us of the circumstances of others is not, as the constructed expectation assumes, its value them. #RandolphHarris 15 of 25
Furthermore, as we have seen, the clearest basis for interpersonal comparisons is in terms of primary goods, things that every rational person is presumed to want whatever else one wants. The more we ascend to the higher aims and aspects of the person and try to assess their worth to us, the more tenuous the procedure becomes. The reason for this is that these evaluations contemplate more fundamental changes in our way of life, more far-reaching revisions in our plans. Indeed, it seems pointless to try to define a measure between persons which includes the full range of final ends. The problem is similar to comparing different styles of art. There are simply many things in which human beings become engaged and find fully worthwhile depending upon their inclinations. The expectation finally arrived at in the reasoning for the average principle seems spurious for two reasons: it is not, as expectations should be, founded on one system of aims; and since the veil of ignorance excludes the knowledge of the parties’ conception of their good, the worth to a person of the circumstances of others simply cannot be assessed. The argument ends up with a purely formal expression for an expectation that is without meaning. #RandolphHarris 16 of 25
This difficult about expectations is analogous to that concerning the knowledge of probabilities. In both instances the reasoning carries on with these notions aster the basis for their legitimate use has been ruled out by the conditions of the original position. Anger at the absence of an attachment figure is not like the anger that is felt when an instinctual drive is frustrated (unless we take attachment to be the frustrated instinct) and it is not like the anger felt during an experience of deprivation or persecution—two frequent sources of anger mentioned in psycho-analytic literature. Whenever separation is only temporary, which in the large majority of cases it is, anger has two functions: first, it may assist in overcoming such obstacles as there may be to reunion; second, it may discourage the loved person from going away again. This is coercive anger, and is thought of as the anger of hope. Angry coercive behaviour, acting in the service of an affectional bond, is not uncommon. It is seen when a mother, whose child has run foolishly across the road, berated and punishes it with an anger born of fear. It is seen whenever one berates one’s partner for being or seeming to be disloyal. #RandolphHarris 17 of 25
Dysfunctional anger, on the other hand, occurs whenever a person becomes so intensely or persistently angry that the bond of affection is weakened instead of strengthened. Clinical experience suggests that the situations of separation and loss with which this work is concerned are especially liable to result in anger that crosses the threshold of intensity and becomes dysfunctional. Separations, especially when prolonged or repeated, have a double effect. On the one hand, anger is aroused; on the other, love is attenuated. Thus not only many angry discontented behaviour alienate the attachment figure but, within the attached, a shift can occur in the balance of feeling. Instead of a strongly rooted affection laced occasionally with “hot displeasure,” such as develops in a child brough up by affectionate parents, there grows a deep-running resentment, held in check only partially by an anxious uncertain affection. “And now it came to pass that when Jesus had told these things he expounded them unto the multitude; and he did expound all things unto them, both great and small. And he saith: These scriptures, which ye had not with you, the Father commanded that I should give unto you; for it was wisdom in him that they should be given unto future generations. #RandolphHarris 18 of 25
“And he did expound all things, even from the beginning until time that he should come in his glory—yea, even all things which should come upon the face of the Earth, even until the elements should melt with fervent heat, and the Earth should be wrapt together as a scroll, and the Heavens and the Earth should pass away; and even unto the great and last day, when all people, and all kindreds, and all nations and tongues shall stand before God, to be judged of their works, whether they be good or whether they be evil—if they be good, to the resurrection of everlasting life; and if they be evil, to the resurrection of damnation; being on a parallel, the one on the one hand and the other on the other hand, according to the mercy, and the justice, and the holiness which is in Christ, who was before the World began. And now cannot be written in this book even a hundredth part of the things which Jesus did truly teach unto the people; however, behold the plated of Nephi do contain the more part of the things which he taught the people. And thee things have I written, which he taught the people; and I have written them to the intent that they may be brought again unto this people, from the Gentiles, according to the words which Jesus hath spoken. #RandolphHarris 19 of 25
“And when they shall have received this, which is expedient that they should have first, to try their faith, and if it shall so be that they shall believe thee things then shall the greater things be made manifest unto them. And if it is so be that they will not believe these things, then shall the greater things be made manifest unto them. And if it so be that they will not believe these things, then shall the greater things be withheld from them, unto their condemnation. Behold, I was about to write them, all which were engraven upon the plates of Nephi, but the Lord forbade it, saying: I will try the faith of my people. Therefore I, Mormon, do write the things which have been commanded me of the Lord. And now I, Mormon, make an end of my sayings, and proceed to write the things which have been commanded me. Therefore, I would that ye should behold that the Lord truly did teach the people, for the space of three days; and after that he did show himself unto them oft, and did break bread oft, and bless it, and give it unto them. And it came to pass that he did teach and minister unto the children and multitude of whom hath been spoken, and he did loose their tongues, and they did speak unto their fathers great and marvelous things, even greater than he had revealed unto the people; and he loosed their tongues that they could utter. #RandolphHarris 20 of 25
“And it came to pass that after he had ascended into Heaven—the second time that he showed himself unto them, and had gone unto the Father, after having healed all their sick, and their lame, and opened the eyes of their blind and unstopped the ears of the deaf, and even had done all manner of cures among them, and raised a man from the dead, and had shown forth his power unto them, and had ascended unto the Father—behold, it came to pass on the morrow that the multitude gathered themselves together, and they both saw and heard these children; yea, even babes did open their mouths and utter marvelous things; and the things which they did utter were forbidden that there should not any human write them. And it came to pass that the disciples whom Jesus had chosen began from that time forth to baptize and to teach as many as did come unto them; and as many as were baptized in the name of Jesus were filled with the Holy Ghost. And many of them saw and heard unspeakable things, which are not lawful to be written. #RandolphHarris 21 of 25
“And they taught, and did minister one to another; and they had all things common among them, every human dealing justly, one with another. And it came to pass that they do all things even as Jesus had commanded them. And they who were baptized in the name of Jesus were called the church of Christ,” reports 3 Nephi 26.1-21. If one can look back and reflect that a hundred people have firmly grounded their minds in truth and planted their feet on the road to eternal liberation through the word done by this transitory body, one will count the years gloriously spent. For those who welcome the Truth-bringer must needs be few, those who want the truth must be fewer still, and of these again those who can endure it when brought face to face with it are rare. The sages of old deliberately restricted the public from their full knowledge so that their immediate following was always numerically insignificant. Yet the paradox was that they excised an indirect influence disproportion to their small numbers. This was achieved by a concentrating their tuition on humans in positions of high authority or leadership, and establishing popular religions and cults suited to the capacity of the multitude. #RandolphHarris 22 of 25
For a religious leader to try to convince others of the truth would require that they are seeking the truth. However, how many are consciously and deliberately doing so? Falsity is not to be sought in the senses except as truth is in them. Now truth is not in them in such a way that the senses know truth, but in so far as they apprehend sensible things truly. And this takes place through the senses apprehending things as they are, and hence it happens that falsity exists in the sense through their apprehending or judging things to be otherwise. The knowledge of things by the senses is in proportion to the existence of their likeness in the senses; and the likeness of a thing can exist in the senses in three ways. In the first way, primarily and of its own nature, as in sight there is the likeness of colours, and of other sensible objects proper to it. Secondly, of its own nature, though not primarily; as in sight there is the likeness of shape, size, and of other sensible objects common to more than one sense. Thirdly, neither primarily nor of its own nature, but accidentally, as in sight, there is the likeness of a human, not as a human, but in so far as it is accidental to the coloured object to be a human. #RandolphHarris 23 of 25
Sense, then, as no false knowledge about its proper objects, expect accidentally and rarely, and then, because of the unsound organ it does receive the sensible form rightly; just as other passive subjects because of their indisposition receive defectively the impressions of the agent. Hence, for instance, it happens that on account of an unhealthy tongue sweet seems bitter to a sick person. However, as to common objects of sense, and accidental objects, even a rightly disposed sense may have a false judgment, because it is referred to them not directly, but accidentally, or as a consequence of being directed to other things. Our Holy King lowers Himself to bed to rest for tomorrow’s travel. I, too, will soon go to my bed, resting with the dreams of the Holy Ones send. Eternal God, who sendest consolation unto all sorrowing hearts, we turn to Thee for solace in this, our trying hour. Though bowed in grief at the passing of our loved ones, we affirm our faith in Thee, our Father, who art just and merciful, who healest broken hearts and art ever near to those who are afflicted. #RandolphHarris 24 of 25
Israel’s hope for Thy true kingdom here on Earth, impel us to help speed that day when peace shall be established through justice, and all humans recognize their brotherhood in Thee. With trust in Thy great goodness, we who mourn, rise to sanctify Thy name. Life is good and life’s tasks must be performed. Help us, O Lord, to rise above our sorrow and face the trials of life with courage in our hearts. Please give us insight in this hour of grief, that from the depths of suffering may come a deepened sympathy for all who are bereaved, that we may feel the heartbreak of our fellow beings and find our strength in helping them. Heartened by this hymn of praise to Thee, we bear our sorrow with trustful hearts, and knowing Thou art near, shall not despair. With faith in Thine eternal wisdom, we who mourn, rise to sanctify Thy name. As around our home the darkness grows, I light the evening lights. As the daytime spirits depart, I say my goodbyes: you will stay in our hearts the whole night through. As the nighttime spirits gather about, I give greetings to them: may these lights honour you who come with the darkness. Where there is shadow, there is light. #RandolphHarris 25 of 25
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Full Golden—In Her Eyes a Brighter Day Dawned Blue and Full of Love!
If you wander around in enough confusion, you will soon find enlightenment. Life is an unanswered question, but let us believe in the dignity and importance of questions. When one finds one’s life unlivable, a person needs a place to go. When you want to be offstage, free from your usual roles, free to discover and define your being-for-yourself, society seems to conspire such that there is nowhere to go. Judges, critics, and commissars are omnipresent. If a human steps out of line and departs from one’s usual roles, someone is there to remind one of who one is, to define one, and to punish one for daring to define oneself. The upshot is many wives and mothers find they cannot face their families another moment without shrieking in protest against the sameness of their unappreciated daily grind. However, they stifle the shriek and carry on. Fathers and husbands become bored with the wives, infuriated by their children, and worn out by the work that lacks joy—continued only because there is no other work to do, and the bills fall due each day, week, month, quarterly, semi-annually, and annually. The children, in turn, cannot get along with each other, or with their parents. Grandparents, aunts, and uncles live a thousand miles away and cannot take the youngsters in for a day, week, or a month of respite. #RandolphHarris 1 of 20
Without anyone to help with housing, new employment opportunities, bills, nor child care, the trapped ones persist on their joyless, desperate treadmills until physical illness grants them a ticket admission to a hospital emergency room. Or they “blow up,” suffer from a case of neurosis, and are treated as “not in their right minds.” They may manifest a physical condition that takes years to recover from, or could lead to permeant disability, where they truly are unable to work. Or they many enter a mental hospital, there to be placed in storage until the regime of shock, tranquilizers, and periodic consultations with an overworked psychiatrist bring them “to their senses.” However, even in the hospital, there in no respite from roles; patients are cast into new ones and lack the freedom to choose their being. They return to the way of life they lived before, perhaps with the protest in them electroshocked or drugged out of existence. If new alternatives could be provided, before this drama reached its climax in the sickroom or the sanitarium, it would be helpful. If we had acceptable “checkout places,” what would life in our society be like? In moments of reverie, I have invented some. Let me describe one such, a healing-house that appeals to me. It is probably healing only for middle-class people. #RandolphHarris 2 of 20
It is a place where one can enter and find confirmation for any way one has chosen to be, or any way that circumstances have brought to one. If a human wises solitude, one can find it there; and if one wishes to remain silent, no one will speak to one. If one wishes congenial and enlivening body-contact, a masseur or masseuse (one can choose which) is available to provide the physical therapy. If a housewife or househusband wants to paint, listen to music, or just sit and have intercessory prayer, there is a room for one to do so. The place would be like a brand-new mansion in the suburbs, with all the amenities one could imagine, and close to shopping centers. It would be like an upscale bed and breakfast, a social club, where people could check-in, their medical insurance, employer, or government subsidy would pay for the cost of the vacation to help reduce the strain on health care system. Each person would be entitled to a rom with inviolate privacy. There one could go, and stay for a day, a week, a month, or years. It would be like an extended family with people who actually like each other and can respect others. #RandolphHarris 3 of 20
In this home, no one would enter your room without your invitation; and once a person closed the door, no one else could enter. There would be dinner, breakfast and lunch served as a group, or one could eat their mean in a private area of the house. Otherwise, the pantry would be always available, with abundant supplies of milk and honey, fruit, bread, raw vegetables, various kinds of meats, juice, water, and similar snacks. A resident could come and go, nibbling as one wished. If one wised conversation, one could go to the great room, where one could sit; and one’s presence alone would signify that one would be willing to talk. Or if one wished to enter into uninterrupted dialogue, one could invite someone to the privacy of the upstairs lobby, or home hub. The rule of the house would be freedom for the self, with respect for the freedom of the other. People who entered would leave their roles at the doorstep. No status, no rank, would interpose itself between the guests—who would have a first name, or surname, or no name, or a pseudonym, if that is what they chose. This would be a place where people could quite freely go out of their minds and roles, as these were known outside. All the paperwork would be handled by a confidential office before anyone reached the house so no one would know what anyone’s status and rank in society is, and all people would be screened to make sure they are safe. Also, office stand would be required to be bonded. #RandolphHarris 4 of 20
It would be a place for people to unwind, relax, and get cozy before they had a nervous breakdown. Kind of like going home to your mother’s house and knowing you are safe and welcomed as long as you want to stay. It would also be a place where creative people—writers, painters, dancers, architects, lawyers, cooks, poet, et cetera—could go to live awhile and present their more tender creations in an accepting, or better, honest milieu, where commercial criteria for judging art and ideas are irrelevant. This would be a place where one could go to redefine oneself, apart from the people “back home,” who have a vested interest in keeping the person in the roles by which they knew one, but which were sickening to one. It would be a place where people could reach their ideal body image. The tense and nervous could find surcease and relaxation; the aimless might meet people with aims that could inspire and redirect their lives. These houses would be the place for one went for recreation. The directors would eschew drugs and medicines. They would heal by letting healing take place. The houses would be places where joy could be experienced, and peace. The staff of permanent residents, which would be the goal because people like stable communities, could include professional psychotherapists, resident artists, playwrights, dancers, masseurs, writers and teachers, and musicians. #RandolphHarris 5 of 20
Some of these residents might come and go; but all would provide seekers with an atmosphere of spiritual freedom, and examples of the quest for new avenues of being and expression. A working persons, professional person, wife or mothers, or lonely person could come daily for an hour or so, or weekly, and find relaxation, edification, or companionship. Much like a house-church, there could be a book club or house-coffee shop for friends. If they were on a private, pay-as-you-go basis, I have little doubt that such houses would pay for themselves. And I suspect that is they were underwritten by some grant, or by public-health moneys—but with their operation strictly in the hands of the director of each house—they would more than pay for themselves, in the for of physical breakdown that did not happen and a mental breakdown that would not materialize. I suspect that for the people who patronized such a house, intake of drugs and medicines would diminish radically. The mass invasion of physicians’ clinics and waiting-rooms would be reduced to manageable dimensions. And the waiting lists of practicing psychotherapists would doubtless be less packed with names. #RandolphHarris 6 of 20
Such houses of retreat and healing will, alas, not become part of every village, town, or city neighbourhood. However, sensible people will find ways to pool resources so that they can organize them by themselves. Or if they can afford it, they will buy or rent a “pad” on the other side of town, away from family and friends. Perhaps some organizational genius will find the necessary staff, and the capital to invest; and one will become a millionaire by providing what everyone needs, at a price all can afford to pay. If such places came into being as a normal part of society, I suspect psychotherapists would lose some of their present raison d’etre, and would have to apply their knowledge of how people sicken and become whole to teaching, and to living fulfilled lives themselves, so that by their being, they would represent viable ways. And I suspect that physicians would find their practices confined to delivering babies, setting broken bones, and stanching the flow of blood. Sales of drugs would diminish, and people could return to work or home refreshed. Transcendent-behaviour has been shown to occur most usually in persons who are committed to some goal to which they assign high value. Commitment implies price. The more fully a person is committed to some project, problem, or outcome, the more of one’s time, energy, and personal resources one freely devotes to the quest on which one is launched. #RandolphHarris 7 of 20
The conditions under which people are able to become strongly committed to their work, or to truth, justice, beauty, or goodness, are not as yet fully understood. When there have been leaders or predecessors who provide an inspiring example to imitate, since values are created by humans, it is most likely that an individual will become committed to some goal, achievement. Another factor which seems to promote commitment is the promise of large rewards, whether immediate or remote, concrete or symbolic. The persons who become committed to some unpopular cause—who have to fight public opinion, poverty, and even danger to life without support—are more difficult to explain. People in whom transcendent behaviour is relatively frequent occurrence likely are persons who trust themselves and have developed some measure of confidence in their powers to themselves. Self-confidence seems to derive both from history of graduated successes in coping with increasingly difficult and complex problems, and from the experience of being seen by other people as competent and trustworthy. Lack of self-doubt, is often characteristic of explorers, daredevils, and others whose achievements transcend their own previous exploits, as well as the achievements of many of their fellow humans. #RandolphHarris 8 of 20
Any experiences which permit average people to diminish their distrust of their own capacities and their own worth, and which permit them to attribute power to themselves, probably would contribute to the frequency with which they transcend their own usual levels of functioning. The self-concept, which, as we have seen, is a limiting factor in behaviour, can also be a freeing factor for transcendent achievement. If it is true, as existential thinkers insist, that human cannot define oneself in any fixed way, but is always in process of creating and then re-creating oneself, then it follows that the most accurate self-concept is one which permits a human to see oneself as a being with relatively unplumed capacities for all modes of function. Humans have powers of survival and adaptation which they have never imagined. It seems likely that any person who formulates a fixed concept of oneself, including a concept of one’s powers to cope, is doing oneself an injustice. Since humans tend to behave in accordance with their concepts of themselves, then they will not rise to meet a challenge that calls for behaviour in conflict with one’s present self-concept. #RandolphHarris 9 of 20
If a human sees oneself as weak, one will not take challenges posed by life, but will instead avoid them. If a human sees oneself as always in process of being challenged and “tested” by life, and one’s capacities as always in process of unfolding, one probably has a self-concept more closely in tune with reality. Transcendent-behaviour has been portrayed as the release of modes of behaviour that ordinarily are suppressed by habit. Challenges can release transcendent behaviour in a person, but so also can symbols like mandalas, cameos, metaphors such as the flag, the Star of David, the name God, or the image of a loved person to whose well-being one has pledged oneself. When he was in the army, my father said that a few of the things that inspired him to actions which kept him alive where thinking about God, his family, and house. Deeply religious people report that they experience God as a Being who perpetually challenges them; and under the instigation of this challenge, they continually bring forth from themselves achievements and feats of endurance which might be impossible for persons less challenged. It may be proposed as a hypothesis that challenge, however brought about, is a highly important condition for some types of transcendent behaviour. #RandolphHarris 10 of 20
One of the aims of the field of personality hygiene, beyond that of preventing mental illness, should be to understand and master the conditions for transcendent-behaviour, so that, ultimately, the average person will not be a mere non-candidate for a psychiatric hospital, but instead a being who can release one’s capacities for transcendent functioning as needed. Therapists of personality then would not be experts at restoring those with neurosis or psychosis to “normal” levels of function; rather, they would be more like those few inspired and inspiring teachers who are able to elicit transcendent performance from their students, to the surprise and delight of all. I suspect that our heroes of the playing field, of the cultural arena, of the study, or of the laboratory are persons whose fulfillment is a proof or pledge of hidden potentiality in the broad mass of the population. Too few people have any idea of their latent possibilities. Perhaps their concepts of their powers are false, and perhaps they are false because our educational procedures and fake news media indoctrinate people with a view of themselves as beings with sclerosed possibility. However, we can, indeed, seek to learn more about helping humans to experience their will and to eschew resignation to the thrust of determining forces. #RandolphHarris 11 of 20
If it is possible for multibillion-dollar education program to train people to see themselves as limited beings, it should be also possible for that program to encourage people to see themselves as embodiments of the capacity to transcend their present concepts of themselves and their powers. They can explore the path to those possibilities for optimal functioning that lie buried beneath habit and socialized being, so that more can realize the experience of liberation, satori, awakening, or the attainment of selfhood. I would like to see more psychotherapists functioning as gurus and as protectors of human freedom and enlightenment, as disclosers of humans to themselves, to balance the efforts of those of us whose work has served as guidance for industrial, business, political, and institutional leaders in ways to direct masses of little humans. I would like to see psychology leading psychiatry in the arts of evoking potentials for health and full functioning, rather than following psychiatry in its search for pockets of pathology. I think the concern for human possibilities that marks a humanistic psychologist makes one an important resource person to such agencies as the Office of Education, offering guidance and suggestions as to means for enriching our present institutions. #RandolphHarris 12 of 20
We need to have teachers who can guide, educate, and liberate people as well as presently they indoctrinate and socialize them. We are on the brink of new leaps in the evolution of humans—because of the fantastic development of technology. We must welcome this possibility, and those of us who study humans can help our fellows and ourselves to find our ways and our possibilities in an unprecedented era. It is either that, or be grim, soulless mortals, furiously busy with irrelevant issues in the backwaters of the swamp, not the crisp, clean, waters of the mainstream, of the human course. A person’s experience with one’s attachment figures during the years of immaturity—infancy, childhood, and adolescence—are the principal determinants of the pathway along which that person’s attachment develops. When things go wrong this is due to the psychological development having somehow followed a deviant pathway. It is not due to a fixation at, or a regression to, some earlier stage of development. Disturbed patterns of attachment behaviour can be present at any age, due to a deviant development. When attachment behaviour is overreadily called forth, resulting in over-anxious attachments, a common form of disturbance occurs. Another common form is the partial or total de-activation of attachment behaviour. #RandolphHarris 13 of 20
However, children do suffer when removed from their parents, and this must be taken seriously. Even now, as those know who have been an inkling of what goes on in some nursery schools, day-centers and creches, there are many misconceptions about the norms of behaviour to be expected of young children when left, even briefly, in a strange place with strange people. Misconceptions persist, especially among professional people. Again and again it is implied that a healthy normal child should not make a fuss when mother leaves, and that is one does so it is an indication either that mother spoils one or that one is suffering from some pathological anxiety. When the natural history and function of attachment-behaviour are understood, it is hoped that such reactions will be seen in a new and more realistic light. When no special effort has been made to prepare and cushion the child: yearning and searching for the missing mother, sadness, increasing protest at her absence and growing anger with her for staying away, increase ambivalence on return home and evident fear of being separated again become ingrained in the child’s consciousness. #RandolphHarris 14 of 20
Whenever young children who have had an opportunity to develop an attachment to a mother-figure are separated from her unwillingly, they show distress: and should they also be placed in a strange environment and cared for by strange people such distress is likely to be intense. The way they behave follows a typical sequence. At first they protest vigorously and try by all the means available to recover the mother. Later they seem to despair of recovering her but nonetheless remain preoccupied with her and vigilant for her return. Later they seem to lose interest in the mother and to become emotionally detached from her. Each of the three main phases of the response of a young child to separation is related to one or another of the central issues of psycho-analytic theory. Thus the phase of protest is found to raise the problem of separation anxiety; despair that of grief and mourning; detachment that of defence. In view of the damage done by this early separation is totally reparable, and always leaves some mark on the adult personality, in severe cases having so strong an effect as to be the main determinant of the adult’s thought and feeling. #RandolphHarris 15 of 20
Attachment behavior has deep biological roots, and therefore the anxieties which attend separation from an attachment figure must also have deep biological roots. The deepest anxieties with the currently more widely held view that the deepest anxieties concern the fear that the organized self may be disrupted when the nervous system has to handle more stimulus than it can manage at a time, so that the emerging neural structuring disintegrates. In that view, the mother’s function is to take the overload and prevent disintegration. (There is, of course, no reason why there should be just one basic anxiety: it can certainly be argued that both may be aspects of the same anxiety.) Many take for granted the stimulus-situations that arouse fear can be regarded as naturally occurring clues to events that constitute a potential danger to the species in question. This applies especially to situations that arouse fear on the first occasion that an individual encounters them. A number of these are strangeness, being unsupported on a height, being alone, having something zoom rapidly into view, and other such. None of these is intrinsically dangerous, but to the being they indicate the possibility of an increased risk of danger. #RandolphHarris 16 of 20
A natural clue is associated as a rule with a raised degree of risk, and this can make a child’s behaviour appear phobic when it occurs in situations which appear incomprehensible to the adult World. Anxiety has a survival function for the species. Anxiety motivated action to remove the painful stimulus. The person would prefer less and less stimulation till the peace of death overs all. The human being is naturally equipped to relate, indeed, to cling, and naturally equipped to move about and explore and seek stimulus, always providing that there was a person or a place of safety to move back to. However, we are not done yet! Beyond contentment lies intelligent, energetic participation in accomplishing God’s will in our World. We are no longer spectators, but are caught up in a vivid and eternal drama in which we play an essential part. We embrace our imposed circumstances, no matter how tragic they seem, and act for the good in a power beyond ourselves. “We are reigning—exercising dominion—in life by One, Christ Jesus,” reports Romans 5.17. We are “looking toward an eternity of reigning with God through ages of ages,” reports Revelation 22.5. We take action to accomplish the will of God in his power. Our tiny “willpower” is not the source of our strength. #RandolphHarris 17 of 20
We hardly notice any exercise of our willpower, though it is fully dedicated to carrying out God’s purposes in every respect. However, we are carried along by the power of the divine drama within which we live actively engaged. So far from struggling to resist sin, we are devoted to realization of righteousness all around us. This is the real meaning of “Yet not I, but Christ liveth in me.” The strongest human will is always the one that is surrendered to God’s will and acts with it. This progress toward full identification of our will with God’s will is one that, perhaps for most people, may not be fully realized in this life. However, that does not really matter. It is a progression that tis there for us to enter into now, through the power at work within us as disciples of Jesus Christ. It may be that at present we cannot even imagine what it would be like for us to have a will significantly identified with God’s will as just described. However, we must never forget that He “is able to do exceeding abundantly beyond all that we ask or think, in terms of the power that is working within us,” reports Ephesians 3.20. Our part is to begin as best we can. “Since ancient times no one has heard, no ear has perceived, no eye has seen any God besides you, who acts on behalf of those who wait for him” reports Isaiah 64.4. #RandolphHarris 18 of 20
At any given time there are several spiritual shepherds in the World, each with one’s own distinct and separate flock. It is inevitable and right that one should sieve humanity for those alone who need one or who were born to follow one or who seek the kind of guidance which one especially can give. One’s compassion is broad-based; it is for all. However, one’s personal work is extremely narrow for it is only for the few who will receive it most readily. This implies that one works among the sympathetic and mature, not among the hostile and immature. The reason for this is the need to practise economy of time and energy that one may not waste one’s arrows of effort on the vacant air. For a similar reason one prefers to enlighten the leaders, and let the flocks alone. “For behold, the day cometh that shall burn as an oven; and all the proud, yea, and all that do wickedly, shall be stubble; and the day that cometh shall burn them up, saith the Lord of Hosts, that it shall leave them neither root nor branch. However, unto you that fear my name, shall the Son of Righteousness arise with healing in his wings; and ye shall go forth and grow up as calves in the stall. And ye shall tread down the wicked; for they shall be ashes under the soles of your feet in the day that I shall do this, saith the Lord of Hosts. #RandolphHarris 19 of 20
“Remember ye the law of Moses, my servant, which I commanded unto him in Horeb for all Israel, with that statues and judgments. Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord; and he shall turn the heart of the fathers to the children, and the heart of the children to their father, les I come and smite the Earth with a curse,” reports 3 Nephi 25.1-6. Darkness descends, as the Sun lowers itself behind the horizon and I stand facing the last light, with my shadow at my back. Farewell to you, Lord of Light, as you go to your rest. I turn to face the darkness and greet it without fear. O Lord and King who art full of compassion, in whose hand is the soul or every living thing and the breath of all flesh, to Thine all-wise care do we commit the souls of our dear ones, who have departed from this Earth. Teach all who mourn to accept the judgment of Thine inscrutable will and cause them to know the sweetness of Thy consolation. Quicken by Thy holy words those bowed in sorrow, that like all the faithful in Israel who have gone before, they too may be faithful to Thy Torah and thus advance the reign of Thy Kingdom upon Earth. In solemn testimony to that unbroken faith which links the generations to one another, let those who mourn now rise to magnify and sanctify Thy holy name. I bow to the setting Sun, lowering myself as it descends over the World’s edge. #RandolphHarris 20 of 20
Cresleigh Homes
All homes are beautiful, but there is just something about the blank canvas of a new #MillsStation Residence 1 home that takes our breath away! 😍
Explore this and other #CresleighRanch homes on our website. Link in bio. https://cresleigh.com/mills-station/residence-1/
The kitchen comes fully equipped with a large eat-in island, stainless steel appliances, and quartz counters. The great room is spacious and full of natural light with a covered patio! The Owner’s suite is nestled in the rear of the home separate from the secondary bedrooms, providing maximum privacy. Enjoy a spa like experience in the Owner’s bathroom with a large walk in shower, dual vanities, and makeup counter.
This suburban sanctuary is thoughtfully designed with luxury and sophistication in mind to keep spirits high and good energy flowing through the carefully curated interiors, inspired by the neigbourhood’s culture and creativity with a holistic focus on living well. #CresleighHomes
O, thus be it ever when free humans shall stand, between their loved homes and the war’s desolation; blest with victory and peace, may the heaven-rescued land. Praise the Power that hath made and preserved us a nation!
Then conquer we must, when our cause is just, and this be our motto: “In God is our trust.” And the star-spangled banner in triumph shall wave over the land of the free and the home of the brave!
When there are No Dinosaurs to be Caught and Cooked, a Dinosaur-Hunting School Loses Relevance!
Like a magic show, speak your dreams into existence. Abra kadabra, alakazam! A person is not finished when one is defeated; one is finished when one quits. The World goes on—reality is like a projective test. Humans can construe it in myriad ways. The World discloses itself ceaselessly to human consciousness, which refract it, and attach meaning to this disclosure in ways that vary from time to time, and place to place. A given World view gains dominance in each society. This is a way to structure the World, to attach value and meaning to it. “Worlds” are structure by projects, or goals, and values. Change these and “Worlds” collapse, to be replaced by new ones. All this is elementary existential phenomenology. The “World” most us of us in America share is a World that once was haunted by European memories of poverty and material scarcity. The aim was to get rich, and we actually have the productive means available whereby everyone can be rich, at least in a material sense. As automation, powered with nuclear and natural sources of energy proceeds, we can in principle feed, clothe and shelter the World, even a World with a more fully exploded population than the one Malthusians prophets of doom say we have now. Our past and current patterns of childrearing, our aims and methods of schooling, even our ways of playing in leisure hours all gain their relevance and intelligibility from the fact of scarcity—scarcity that long since has ceased to exist. #RandolphHarris 1 of 18
In a way, as we socialize and train to a nonexistent reality, we can say that our very socialization and training is mad. It is akin to training people in the art of stalking, capturing and cooking dinosaurs. When there are no dinosaurs to be caught and cooked, the values, skills, ways of relating to others that make up the curriculum of a dinosaur-hunting school somehow loses relevance. However, “Worlds” die hard. Each of us lives in a World that I can best liken to an envelope, capsule, or bubble with semi-permeable walls. These walls screen off much of what is, and admit to our consciousness only as much of being as is relevant to our projects. The World beyond the capsule is filled, according to folklore and popular imagination with bogeymen, snakes, slime, and everything hideous. Shatter the membrane, and let this World in, and people become terrified. Rather than face the prospect of posing new projects and values, in order to construct new “Worlds,” people patch the rents in walls of their present “World.” Seeing becomes a way of being, blind, blind to other possibilities that the World embodies. In American, young people, mature women, and marginalized men all are in process of awakening—some with delight, but more with anger, and rage at the dirty joke that has been played upon them. They are breaking out of their capsules. #RandolphHarris 2 of 18
The World is not necessarily what humans have told them it is. It has not been ordained by God that people should be uneducated, employed in menial tasks, and housed in bedbug infested slums with portly people who otherwise look like members of a death camp. Nor did God necessarily demand that women should die of boredom and overeating in automated households. And young people—below the age of 18—are wondering if Go want them to put on gray flannel suits to become professional consumers, or to go into the army. Young people especially, as I encounter them in the halls of training and learning, are beginning to demand inspiration and enlightenment, not stupefaction at the feet of their instructors. They are beginning to look at instructors as entire humans, not solely as repositories of alienated skill or knowledge, and they are wondering if they are to become like these humans. Increasing numbers of young men and women are dropping out. They are finding that schools and colleges, instead of enlightening them as to how things are now, or turning them on to challenging new projects and possibilities are training them for a slot in professions or corporate enterprise, which support a way of life and experience they find meaningless. And so they turn to the Internet and start blogging to obtain sponsorships so they can promote products and live free and happy. #RandolphHarris 3 of 18
Nonetheless, I still believe a college education and corporate job is the best way to freedom and to overcome poverty. Humans can dissect nature in order the better to control it. They can build machines to work for them. They extend their sense organs and muscles with machinery—but then lose their capacity to see, hear, smell, and move. All these things are done for them, in the name of efficiency, by the very machines they have created. Not only are the various media—extensions of humans leaching humans of their power; but in order that humans might not notice the loss of their wholeness and their creative possibilities, they are stupefied more deliberately. Radio, television, social media, movies, books all help keep people in a stupor. If a person begins to sicken, and suffer boredom, pain, or anxiety—those signs that all is not well in the way one is living one’s life—the medical profession then steps in with some pharmaceutical product that enables the person to continue living the meaningless life, but without feeling the pain and suffering. We effect those praxes upon our own consciousness which constrict our World. We repress, distort, close off entire sensory channels, banalize our imaginations, and end up helpless to live in a social and material World we made ourselves and helpless to change it. We only endure it with the help of religion, therapy, and medication. #RandolphHarris 4 of 18
The institutions of education are becoming increasingly automated. “Teaching machines” are being incorporated into more schools, as a desperate response to overcrowding and an insufficiency of instructors. Indeed, desperate instructors try to program themselves—their lectures and demonstrations—so that students will be able to blacken the correct spaces on an IBM sheet at the end of a term. However, this is not education and it is not desirable. Automation will release human energy from the necessity to spend it making goods essential to life. However, it will not thereby make life more livable, challenging, and rich in experience. Education must be the liberation of human consciousness in its various modes (especially imagination) from the bonds imposed by simply training. The salvation of humans, with the hope one will invent better forms of economic, social, political and interpersonal existence, is education, not training. And education requires teachers, people who awaken and enliven consciousness, not constrain it, like trainers do. Teachers are hard to find. They are as scarce as white whales. Teachers illuminate what is; they are existential explorers, groping for new meaning as they challenge old ones. They are not solely repositories of skill or corpus of information. #RandolphHarris 5 of 18
Teachers are people who have been awakened from the illusion that there is only one sane, right and legal way to experience the World and behave in it. One has become turned on such that one’s imagination is vivid. One can perceive the World as others see it, and more: liberated from convention as one is, one sees what others are blind to. The walls of one’s capsule have been shattered, and rebuilt so that more World is included in one’s consciousness. One feels, thinks, imagines, and remembers more fully than the average human. One can, perhaps, dance, feel one’s body, move it and live in it. If such a human, a teacher, discloses the wonder of life as it is for one to pupils, some will indeed flip. They will be turned on. Their old “World” will explode, or better, implode, when more being is admitted, under the guidance of the teacher. If this teacher is oneself committed to responsibility for some corner of the World—not for money and fame, but for authentic concern and love—then one’s pupils may be ready to take over when one dies, or extend one’s vision and responsibility while one still lives. Where do we find such teachers? How can we disseminate their expanded consciousness of some aspect of the World? It is for the lack of such teachers that young people turn to drugs and liquor. #RandolphHarris 6 of 18
By being what one is, there is nothing to impede the flow of pure consciousness from one to those the teacher contacts. The ego does not intervene, the lower nature does not interrupt, and without one’s making any deliberate effort something passes through and from one to benefit them. Without one’s trying to influence others, one’s influence will still appear whether they know its true source or not, and whether it is after the lapse of many years or not. Nor does one ask any credit for this result for one gives that to the World-Mind whose World-Idea is being realized in this and many other ways. Quite often one does not need to do anything; it is enough if one beneficently remembers the person before emerging from one’s own periods of contemplation. Sometimes, even merely being present may act as a catalyst for remedial forces. If however one goes father than this, and performs a specific act, the result must come. Such a power is like a catalyst in chemistry. Itself invisible, it inspires others to visible deeds. As the light of truth passes into one, one in turn refracts it to others, although only some will let the enlightenment in. Grace flows from such a being as light flows from the Sun; one does no have to give it. It will suffice for one to be what one is and thirty seekers will draw from one in a mysterious, silent way what they need of one’s power and wisdom, one’s love and serenity. #RandolphHarris 7 of 18
It is the lives like the stars, which simply pour down on us the calm light of their bright and faithful being, up to which we look, and out of which we gather the deepest calm and courage. One can take no credit of one’s own for the service rendered, and calls no attention to oneself. How could the teacher honestly do so when one is fully aware that it is only be ceasing from one’s own activities, by being inwardly still, and by abandoning one’s own ego that the power which really renders the service manifests itself? Where do these phenomena originate? Not always from oneself, but more often from out outside oneself, from the mysterious and unknown mind which is the soul of the Universe and the ground in which all individual minds are rooted. Teachers of this kind are needed more, today, than anther cadre of astronauts, or more riot police, psychiatrists, narcotics agents or school counselors. Society has this great ability and so many facilitators in place at training, mystifying, and stupefying masses of people. This possibility is made possible through TV, social media, news, and other media, of getting even better at it. However, we also have the possibility of turning on and awakening more people to expanded perspectives on the World, new challenges, possible ways to experience the World and our own embodied being than ever has been possible before. #RandolphHarris 8 of 18
I do not believe that there is an insoluble educational crisis before us. I believe rather that we need to sort out our values, to see if we are as serious about educating our population as we have been about training them for the status quo. We equate training with education, and mistakenly assume that we are giving the people public education when we are really giving them public training. When consuming more goods, getting richer, or getting ahead in the corporation cease to be viable goals, what will be the point of much of our child-training practices—which inspire children to be greedy and bottomless consumers, competitive, false, role dominated, and upwardly mobile? And what will we do wit out time? Watch TV? We will have to learn to enter into dialogue with one another—but there is nobody there. Our dilemma is unparalleled in human history. If we are not to die of boredom, or of invasion by the envious, we have two tasks—first, to help the rest of the World solve its material problems, and then to explore how to live, learn and find meaning when there is no work to be done. If colleges and universities are to fulfill their function of education and enlightenment as effectively as they train people into unquestioning conformity, they must encourage teachers to stand forth, and declare themselves in any ways that time, money, versatility, and electronic hardware have made possible. #RandolphHarris 9 of 18
Let teachers disclose, not just the techniques for chemical analysis, or the rules for declining verbs—but also what all this means, how it challenges them in the meaningful pursuit of their lives. Let education approximate to dialogue, and not shaping. Let a college community of fellow seekers, not a place where we, the faculty, train them, the students. Let the students have contact with heroes with a small “h”—humans who are truly seeking enlightenment and wholeness, finding challenges and new values when old ones have worn out. Training will never become obsolete, and we can always find trainers. The social system at large is well protected with safeguards to insure that any change in the fabric of society will be orderly, and not violent or arbitrary. If the is true, and I believe it is, then schools from kindergarten up through university can be places where explorers and trainers cohabit and coexist, where there is a place for learning necessary roles and skills and knowledge, and a place for enlivening and embodying the creative imagination. It is of first importance to recognize that God’s very nature is that of spiritual beings. God is an immaterial, spiritual being, not a material object. Since material objects like idols are located at specific places, it makes sense to localize worship where those idols are. #RandolphHarris 10 of 18
However, since God is an omnipresent spirit, He is not confined to one place and, thus, geographical location is not crucial for worship, given God’s spiritual nature. As David reminds us in Psalm 139.7-12, there is nowhere we can go where God is not present. Another meaning of spirit is more relevant to our topic. Throughout the Old Testament, when God is referred to as spirit it is often to emphasize that He is a living, active being who initiates towards His creatures and gives them life. Thus, in Genesis 1.2 it is the Spirit of God who hovers over the waters. In John’s writings, this same meaning is frequently associated with God as a spirit. For example, in John 6.63 it is the Spirit who gives life, and in John 7.37-39 it is the Spirit who produces rivers living water in the lives of God’s children. What does this have to do with worship? Simply this: Worship is not under the control of human beings, nor is the form it takes up to their whims. Rather, worship is a response to a God who initiates toward His people, give them life, and shows Himself active on their behalf. We should use our minds more carefully in supplication before God. In supplication we strengthen prayer and make it effectively by a certain form of persuasion. #RandolphHarris 11 of 18
Supplication is a form of reasoning with God. The Scriptures regularly depict supplication as a way of approaching God in which the worshiper brings one’s “case” before God (Jeremiah 12.1, 20.12). The Hebrew word for “case” is rib, and it means a reasoned legal case brought before a judge and the reasons for them before we approach God. We then reason that case before His throne and truth the He will take our case into consideration. Individual devotion, adoration, and praise are enriched by intellectual engagement no less than is corporate worship. Much could be said about the development of intellectual engagement in personal worship. It is therefore, important to learn how to read well. There are two different types of reading, each with its own style and characteristic effects: devotional and intellectual reading. The distinction between these is not one of different types of books rad, but of different ways of reading. In devotional reading, one reads quietly, slowly, and with a sense of spiritual attentiveness and openness to God. The goals of devotional reading is not so much gathering new information or mastering content, though that may indeed happen. The goal is to deepen and nourish the soul by entering into the passage and allowing it to be assimilated into one’s whole personality. #RandolphHarris 12 of 18
Certain steps are required in order to enter correctly into the process of devotional reading. First, one must get int a position of being ready to listen with the heart to the Holy Spirit as His quiet voice speaks to you about what you are reading. Sit quietly, confess any sin that comes to mind (and promise to make reconciliation if that is needed), and express tender devotion to God with whatever sincerity you can muster at this stage of the process. Then invite God to speak to your heart about what you are reading. Secondly with a spirit of expectancy and an attitude of openness and vulnerability, read the selected text slowly, calmly, and with an open, vulnerable heart. The goal here is not to read a lot of material, but to enter into a small portion of a boo or of the Scripture. While reading, seek to monitor what is happening inside your own soul. Do not try to master the passage, but allow the passage to master you. Third, throughout the process of reading, you may sense the need to stop, to meditate and contemplate a specific meaning in the text, and to enter into a dialogue with God about that meaning. Finally, it is important to recognize that this type of slow, contemplative reading will frequently be met with hindrances that distraction or discourage. Especially discouraging is the sense that the text is not as moving as you have hoped. #RandolphHarris 13 of 18
The proper response to deal with text when it is not meeting your expectations is to stop reading, allow yourself to feel whatever is going on inside, offer the situation to God, and rededicate yourself to continuing to learn how to get better at this type of reading. With practice and persevering dedication, one will benefit deeply from such contemplative openness before God. Often, it takes several chapters for an idea to be developed with sufficient care and depth to offer something to apply to one’s life and thought. Sometimes you need to be patient and stay with a line of thought for several weeks before things get clear to you. Intellectual reading is never a quick fix, and its value is measures in the long-term maturity that comes from practicing this type of reading. Also, get into the habit of reading books that are somewhat beyond your ability too grasp. If you spend all of your time reading material that requires little intellectual effort, you will not stretch your mind and grow appreciably. Furthermore, when you undertake to read a book seriously, you cannot treat that book as a novel to be read for recreation. #RandolphHarris 14 of 18
Compared to intellectual reading, recreational reading is fairly passive, can be done quickly, and does not require a great deal of work or engagement on the part of the reader. In intellectual reading, you simply must have a better grasp of the flow of argument in what has been read, or you have not practiced intellectual reading successfully. God is constantly seeking and always monitoring hearts. And as for those whose heart is at its core completely given to him, who completely relies on and hopes in him, “The eyes of the LORD move to and fro throughout the Earth that He may strongly support” them (2 Chronicles 16.9). And “the eyes of the LORD are toward the righteous, and His ears are open to their cry,” reports Psalm 34.15. Little children, whose hearts are not fully formed are especially cared for by God. “Their Angels in Heaven are always in direct contact with my Father in the Heavens,” reports Matthew 18.10. Knowing what happens to little children in this World, how could one keep their sanity without such an assurance? Jesus assure us that children are cared for by God, no matter how things appear to our senses. “And now, behold, I say unto you, that ye ought to search these things. Yea, a commandment I give unto you that ye search these things diligently; for great are the words of Isaiah. #RandolphHarris 15 of 18
“For surely he spake as touching all things concerning my people which are of the house of Israel; therefore it must needs be that he must speak also to the Gentiles. And all things that he spake have been and shall be, even according to the words which he spake. Therefore give heed to my words; write the things which I have told you; and according to the time and the will of the Father they shall go forth unto the Gentiles. And whosoever will hearken unto my words and repenteth and is baptized, the same shall be saved. Search the prophets, for many there be that testify of these things. And now it came to pass that when Jesus had said these words he said unto them again, after he had expounded all the scriptures unto them which they had received, he said unto them: Behold, other scriptures I would that ye should write, that ye have not. And it came to pass that he said unto Nephi: Bring forth the record which ye have kept. And when Nephi had brought forth the records, and laid them before him, he cast his eyes upon them and said: Verily I say unto you, I commanded my servant Samuel, the Lamanite, that he should testify unto this people, that at the day that the Father should glorify his name in me that there were many saints who should rise from the dead, and should appear unto many, and should minister unto them. And he said unto them: Was it not so? #RandolphHarris 16 of 18
“And his disciples answered him and said: Yea, Lord, Samuel did prophesy according to thy words, and they were all fulfilled. And Jesus said unto them: How be it that ye have not written this thing, that any saints did arise and appear unto many and did minster unto them? And it came to pass that Nephi remembered that this thing had not been written. And it came to pass that Jesus commanded that it should be written; therefore it was written according as he commanded. And now it came to pass that when Jesus had expounded all the scriptures in one, which they had written, he commanded them that they should teach the things which he had expounded unto them,” reports 3 Nephi 23.1-14. The eagle ends his flight and goes to his well-earned sleep in one’s western aerie. So too will I go to mine when the time is right, that I mist rise again tomorrow and take flight with God. We therefore hope in Thee, O Lord our God, that we may soon behold the glory of Thy might, when Thou wilt remove the abominations from the Earth and when all idolatry will be abolished. We hope for the day when the World will be perfected under the kingdom of the Almighty, and all humankind will call upon Thy name; when Thou wilt turn unto Thyself all the wicked of the Earth. #RandolphHarris 17 of 18
May all the inhabitants of the World perceive and know that unto Thee every knee must bend, every tongue vow loyalty. Before Thee, O Lord our God, may they bow in worship, giving honour unto Thy glorious name. May they all accept the yoke of Thy kingdom and do Thou rule over them speedily and forevermore. For the kingdom is Thine and to all eternity Thou wilt reign in glory; as it is written in Thy Torah: The Lord shall reign for ever and ever. And it has been foretold: The Lord shall be King over all the Earth; on that day the Lord shall be One, and His name One. The Lord is the spirit of the imperishable in humans, because He is eternal, He refuses to acknowledge death as triumphant, because He permits the withered blossom, fallen from the tree of humankind to flower and develop again in the human heart, the Lord possesses sanctifying power. To know that when one dies there will remain those who wherever they may be on this wide Earth, whether they be affluent of unaffluent, will send prayers after you, to know that they will cherish your memory as their dearest inheritance—what more satisfying or sanctifying knowledge can you ever hope for? And such is the knowledge bequeathed to us by the Scripture. “Everyone must submit oneself to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except that which God has established. The authorities that exist have been established by God,” reports Romans 13.1. #RandolphHarris 18 of 18
Cresleigh Homes
When entering this expansive home, take note of the two story ceiling height at the entry. There is a bedroom on the first floor, located off the entry, with its own bathroom making it ideal for a guest suite or multigenerational living. The formal dining room provides ample space for entertaining and has convenient access to the kitchen via Butler’s Pantry.
The kitchen comes fully equipped with a large eat-in island, stainless steel appliances, and quartz counters and opens onto the spacious great room. Upstairs you’ll find the Owner’s retreat, two bedrooms, and the loft perfect for a game room or TV lounge. The Owner’s retreat is spacious and inviting with a large bedroom and spa like bathroom featuring a large soaking tub, walk-in shower, dual vanities, and two walk-in closets.
Already feeling the desire to relax in a cozy home for the holidays? Check out today’s blog post to learn all about how to “quiet” your home. Link in bio! https://cresleigh.com/blog/
Best of all, each Cresleigh home comes fully equipped with an All Ready connected home! This smart home package comes included with your home and features great tools including: video door bell and digital deadbolt for the front door, connect home hub so you can set scenes and routines to make life just a little easier. Two smart switches and USB outlets are also included, plus we’ll gift you a Google Home Hub and Go.
For the Greeks “Original Sin” was Lack of Knowledge, Not Eating from the Tree of Knowledge!
You should not have to buy a marriage off the rack; it should conform exactly to the contours of those who chose to clothe themselves in it. Friendship is everything. Friendship is more than talent. It is more than government. It is almost the equal of family. It is the hardest thing in the World to explain. It is not something you can learn in school. However, if you have not learned the meaning of friendship, you really have not learned anything. Yet, not matter what you have learned, much like family, real friendship should not be a “Door Way to Hell.” True friendship is based on love of God and sharing that love with others. Think for a minute what it means to know you have someone standing right by you, someone you can trust to be your friend on good days and bad, someone who values you and supports you even when the two of you are apart. Our most prized friend is Jesus Christ Himself. Is there any greater assurance than His commitment, “I will be on your right hand and on your left, and mine Angels are round about you, to bear you up,” reports Doctrines and Covenants 84.88? So often those “angels round about” are our friends. Therefore choose good friend. In today’s World so many people willingly sell their souls for money, gifts, video games, car, cosmetic procedures, video games, text messages, jobs, and even houses. #RandolphHarris 1 of 24
These individuals spend their time identifying with the television personalities who for them are not only faces on the screen, but people they imagine the friends, family, neighbours and coworkers to be. As a result of television intoxication, people can become insane. What people see on television affects viewers behaviour, attitudes, and values. Generally, research has demonstrated 3 main effect of watching television too frequently: Aggression, desensitization, and fear. Humans are the only being for whom life poses the existential question most starkly: “What shall I do and be?” So long as one answered, “Live!,” for millennia the questioned was settled; because securing the means for living always commanded the greater part of every person’s time and energy. The biblical injunction to observe the Sabbath was epochal because it enjoined humans to pause, so that one might realize there are other things to do besides work to stay alive, amass power, and indulge senses. However, what will happen when every day could be a Sabbath, when work is obsolete, and the prospect of leisure, that abyss of freedom, confronts us? This is a freedom at its most dizzying. #RandolphHarris 2 of 24
It is at once a horrifying and challenging future horrifying because few are ready for leisure and freedom and challenge because of the promise imminent of a bold leap into as yet unfathomed possibilities of being. The horror is warranted. Society condemns our “senior citizens” to a residual life sentence of “leisure” as soon as they are about seventy-years old. This liberation from work operates as a rapid death sentence for many. And for sill more, release from the experience of feeling useful brings on either the living death of boredom, or the rapid encroachment of gibbering senility in hitherto vigorous humans. A friend of mine, a survivor of a death-camp, once visited a community and he saw the people shuffling or siting about, drinking and partying and arguing and fighting like street dogs. They were fatter than the people in the death camps, to be sure; but the aimless and lifeless expressions of the faces were the same. Next to our prisons and mental hospitals, the retirement centers for those awaiting death are surely American equivalents of concentration camps. #RandolphHarris 3 of 24
About twenty five hundred years ago, the Greeks lived in nearly automated society—their work-producing “machines” were slaves and women—and the men produced a flowering of consciousness such as has not existed since. Liberated as they were from the menial cores of producing and distributing goods, humans were free to think, imagine and explore, to perfect themselves in their World. For the Greeks “original sin” was lack of knowledge, not eating from the tree of knowledge. We still have not, today, exhausted all the beginnings they laid down. Right now, our technology advances inexorably toward near-total automation, and we have responded, not by flights of creative imagination, not by liberation of our spirits to soar to new heights of possibility, as was true in ancient Greece. We have instead responded by becoming increasingly like our slaves, the machines. We have mechanized more and more of our relationships with each other; these become role-bound, boring, far departures from the “swing” of true dialogue. We manipulate ourselves in order to present attractive packages to others. We allow ourselves to be manipulated by the news, politicians, sales people, moviemakers. #RandolphHarris 4 of 24
We routinize our daily round of existence so we will the better fit into timetables for transportation from suburb to place of body-work. We eat, not to nourish and perfect our bodies, but to keep up with the Hiltons, to consume the overproduction of our farms, or to palliate nagging feelings of loneliness. We do not embrace one another in love, despite the liberation permitted by the courts and church—rather many fornicate in order to feel, or to feel alive, or to reassure themselves that they are attractive and desirable. Every aspect of our loves aims at turning us off, numbing us, so that we will keep our once-born, programmed status in the social system, and not rock boat. The other mornings, I found myself wondering why did God just not make us robots because that is what we are trying to become. A pill to sleep, a shot of espresso to wake up, medication to help with digestion—at some point the human body needs to rest and relax and function naturally before it drowns. Many people think a pill or a drink or an injection can save them from anything, but God is our Saviour and we need to listen to our bodies and not abuse them. Often after a banana is bruised, one cannot reverse the damage. If you can so much about how your fruit looks, think about your internal organs and live right. #RandolphHarris 5 of 24
From my earliest days of growing up, friends have been special blessing to me. The closet friends made in my youth remain my friends to this day. We have always been there for each other. And I have been grateful to make new friends who have been a strength and a blessing to me as well. Friends hep to determine your future. You will tend to be like them and to be found where they choose to go. Remember, the path we follow in this life leads to the path we follow in the next. The friends you choose will either help or hinder your success. These are sobering words. I even wish I could live next door to a prophet because I know we would learn to become good friends. It is difficult to exaggerate the importance of being good friends. Becoming such friends is not always easy. The only way to have a friend is to be one. To have friends who live high standards, who stand for virtue and goodness, who are faithful and true to their covenants, you must be such a person to them. In this World where people are addicted to sleaze, permissiveness, and immorality, having good friends will go a long way in ensuring our ability to withstand the evils of society. #RandolphHarris 6 of 24
Having good friends will put us in a position to attract the kind of eternal companion one will hope to find. It was the Saviour who proclaimed to His disciples, “Ye are my friends,” reports Doctrine and Covenants 84.63. It was the Saviour who taught, “Great love hath no one than this, that one lay down one’s life for one’s friends,” reports John 15.13. It was the Saviour who beckoned, “Come unto me,” Matthew 11.28. When you accept the Saviour as your friend, you will always be in favour with Him and His Father, so it does not matter who likes you. You have already won the popularity contest with the Divine Source, and is all that matters. In friendship, as in every other principle of the gospel, Jesus Christ is our Exemplar. Modern science, in all its specializations, aims at understanding Nature in order to manipulate and control her. This may be fine, for botany, zoology, climatology, physics and chemistry. However, the same definition of science, with the same aims, has been extended to the human sciences—especially psychology, but also pedagogy, sociology, political science, economic, and psychiatry. Now no human will consent to be understood, in order to be manipulated and controlled by someone, unless one is mystified and stupefied, so that one does not know what is going on. #RandolphHarris 7 of 24
Yet people are being manipulated and controlled daily, and seem unaware that it is going on. Somebody or some institution is playing games with human consciousness, seeking to control it, so that behaviour will thereby be controlled, and fit into systems. When humans are thus controlled, one has changed in ontological status from person to thing. I submit that this transmutation of humans into things has been going on for a few centuries of western history, but it is continuing today at an accelerated pace. I will even indulge a taste for prophecy, and predict that in the next few years, in American, we will witness a struggle between those who would keep human’s consciousness and action to limits that fit a status quo, and those who see in automation the signal for inventing new Worlds, for the flowering once again of human potentialities comparable to the fantastic creativity of ancient Greece. The struggle, as a matter of fact, may be bloody. I hope the champions of human growth in diversity win. I am on that side. What light might psychology shed on this matter? And what role might schools and universities play in increasing the odds that we will enter a magnificent age of enlightenment rather than an age where each human is even more stringently shaped to roles and statuses that makes one useful to the State, but not potentiating of oneself in one’s personal life. #RandolphHarris 8 of 24
Frist, a perspective on social systems. These come into being because humans cannot live alone. Originally, they are instituted because they seem efficient ways to divide labour, and maximize freedom from want and danger. However, then, a struggle for control over goods, wealth, and power takes place and some few gain control over the many, by gaining control over wealth and hence the means of socialization. The major institutions of society are a means for maintaining the status quo. The aim of socialization practices, beginning in the rearing of infants, but extending to formal schooling, is so to train people that they will habitually experience and behave in the ways they must behave or so they will be afraid to behave in any way other than those ways which maintain the status quo. Mass media, religion, the law, custom, public opinion, even the healing professions all collude to keep people behaving, and what is even more insidious, experiencing the World in the ways that keep the present social structure intact. Human’s highest purpose and duty in America, so it would seem, is to consume, so factories will not close down. Advertising inusres that one will: more money is spent on that means of “shaping” than is spent on education. #RandolphHarris 9 of 24
If anyone misses being so brainwashed, one is invalidated—encountered with threats and actualities of imprisonment, ostracism, poverty, or hospitalization—unless one is very enlightened, or very cunning. This is the way societies maintain themselves. This is the way they resist change, whether it be change in national purpose, change in means of production, or changes in class structure. However, when change in the productive base takes place, as is occurring with expanding automation, these ways have become irrelevant and obsolete. A “World” (the term “World (in quotes) refers to the World as experience by humans or by a particular human) has truly come to an end, though few realize it. However, what is it that we know? This is a question about the specific items of knowledge we possess and about the extent or limits of our knowledge. And second: How do we decide in any given case whether or not we have knowledge in that case? What are the criteria for knowledge? This is a question about our criteria for knowledge. Now suppose we wan to sort all of our beliefs into two groups—the true of justified ones and the false or unjustified ones—in order to retain the former and dispose of the latter in our entire set of beliefs. Such a sorting would allow us to improve our rational situation and grow in knowledge and justify belief. #RandolphHarris 10 of 24
However, now a problem arises regarding how we are to proceed in this sorting activity. It would seem that we would first need an answer to at least one of our two questions. Yet, before we can answer our first question about the extent of our knowledge, we would seem to need to answer our second question about our criteria for knowledge. Still, before we can answer the second question, we seem to require an answer for our first question. This is the problem of the criterion. If we do not know how we know things, how can we know anything at all or draw limits to human knowledge? However, if we do not know some things before we ask ourselves how can we have knowledge in the first place, on what basis will we answer that question? There are no truths apart from scientific truths, and even if there were, there would be no reason to believe them is how many people think. However, advocates of weak scientism allow for the existence of truth apart from science and are even willing to grant that they can have some minimal, positive rationality status without the support of science. Nonetheless, advocates of weak scientism still hold that science is the most valuable, most serious, and most authoritative sector of human learning. Every other intellectual activity is inferior science. #RandolphHarris 11 of 24
Further, there are virtually no limits to science. There is no field upon which scientific research cannot shed light. To the degree that some issues or belief outside science can be given scientific support or can be reduced to science to that degree the issue or belief becomes rationally acceptable. Thus we have an intellectual, and perhaps, even a moral obligation to try to use science to solve problems in fields heretofore untouched by scientific method. For example, we should try to solve problems about the mind by the methods of neurophysiology and computer science. Since true and false are opposed, and since opposites stand in relation to the same thing, we must needs seek falsity, where primarily we find truth; that is to say, in the intellect. Now, in things, neither true nor falsity exists, expect in relation to the intellect. And since every thing is denominated simply by what belongs to it per se, but is denominated relatively by what belongs to it accidentally; a thing indeed may be called false simply when compared with the intellect on which it depends, and to which it is compared per se, but may be called false relatively as directed to another intellect, to which it is compared accidentally. Now natural things depend on the divine intellect, as artificial things on the human. Wherefore artificial things are said to be false simply and in themselves in so far as they fall short of the form of art; whence if it falls short of the proper operation of one’s art a craftsman is said to produce a false work. #RandolphHarris 12 of 24
In things that depend on God, falseness cannot be found, in so far as they are compared with the divine intellect; since whatever takes place in things proceeds from the ordinance of that intellect, unless perhaps in the case of voluntary agents only, who have it in their power to withdraw themselves from what is so ordained; where in consists the evil of sin. Thus sins themselves are called untruths and lies in the Scriptures, according to the words of the text, “Why do you love vanity, and seek after lying?” (Ps. 4.3): as on the other hand virtuous deeds are called “truth of life” as being obedient to the order of the divine intellect. Thus it is said, “One that doth truth, cometh to the light,” reports John 3.21. However, in relation to our intellect, natural things which are compared thereto accidentally, can be called false; not simply, but relatively; and that in two ways. In one way according to the thing signified, and thus a thing is said to be false as being signified or represented by word or thought that is false. In this respect anything can be said to be false as regards any qualitied not possessed by it; as if we should say that a diameter is false commensurable thing, as the Philosopher. So, too Augustine says (Soliloq. Ii, 10): “The true tragedian is a false Hector”: even as, on the contrary, anything can be called true, in regard to that which is becoming to it. In another way a thing can be called false, by way of cause—and this a thing is said to be false that naturally begets a false opinion. #RandolphHarris 13 of 24
And whereas it is innate in us to judge things by external appearances, since our knowledge takes its rise from sense, which principally and naturally deals with external accidents, therefore those external accidents, which resemble things other than themselves, are said to be dales with respect to those things; this gall is falsely honey; and tin, false gold. Regarding this, Augustine says (Soliloq. ii 6): “We call those things false that appear to our apprehension like true:” and the Philosopher says (Metaph v, 34): “Things are called false that are naturally apt to appear such as they are not, or what they are not.” In this way a human is called false as delighting in false opinions or words, and not because one can invent them; for in this way many wise and learned persons might be called false, as stated in Metaph. V 34. A thing compared with the intellect is said to be true in respect to what it is, and false in respect to what it is not. Hence, “The true tragedian is a false Hector,” as stated in Soliloq. ii, 6. As therefore, in things that are is found a certain non-being, so in things that are is found a degree of falseness. Things do not deceive by their own nature, but by accident. For they give occasion to falsity, by the likeness they bear to things which they actually are not. Things are said to be false, not as compared with the divine intellect, in which case they would be false simply, but as compared with our intellect; and thus they are false only relatively. #RandolphHarris 14 of 24
Likeness or defective representation does not involve the idea of falsity except in so far as it gives occasion to false opinion. Hence a thing is not always said to be false, because it resembles another thing; but only when the resemblance is such as naturally to produce a false opinion, not in any one case, but in the majority of instances. Moral reformers are members of a society who stand outside that society’s code and pronounce a need for reform and change in that code. However, if an act is right is and only if it is in keeping with a given society’s code, then the moral reformer oneself is by definition an immoral person, for one’s views are at odds with those of one’s society. Moral reformers must always be wrong because they go against the code of their society. However, any view that implies that moral reformers are impossible is defective because we all know that moral reformers have actually existed. Put differently, moral relativism implies that neither cultures (if conventionalism is in view) nor individuals (if subjectivism is in view) can improve their moral code. The only thing they can do is change it. Why consider any change in a code from believing, say, racism is right to racism is wrong. How should we evaluate this change? #RandolphHarris 15 of 24
All the moral relativist can say is that, from the perspective of the earlier code, the new principle is wrong, and from the perspective of the new code, the old principle is wrong. In short, here has merely been a change in perspective. No sense can be given to the idea that a new code reflects an improvement on an old code because this idea requires a vantage point outside of and above the society’s (or individual’s) code from which to make that judgment. And it is precisely such a vantage point that moral relativism disallows. Some relativists respond to this claiming that moral reformers are allowed in their view because all moral reformers do is make explicit what was already implicit but overlooked in the society’s code. Thus, if a society already has a principle that persons ought to be treated equally, then this implicitly contains a prohibition against racism even though it may not be explicitly noted. The moral reformer merely makes this explicit be calling people to think more carefully about their code. Unfortunately, this claim is simply false. Many more reformers do in fact call people to alter their codes. They do not merely make clear what was already contained in preexisting codes. Every powerful movement has had its philosophy which has gripped the mind, fired the imagination and captured the devotion of its adherents. #RandolphHarris 16 of 24
Lord and Saviour, true and kind be the master of my mind; bless and guide and strengthen still all my powers of thought and will. While I play the scholar’s task, Jesus Christ please be near, I ask; please help the memory, clear the brain, knowledge still to seek gain. Please take my intellect, and use every power as Thou shalt choose. If there is a religion in the World which exalts the office of teaching, it is safe to say that it is the religion of Jesus Christ. A religion divorced from earnest and lofty thought has always, down the whole history of the Church, tended to become weak, jejune and unwholesome, while the intellect, deprived of its rights within religion, has sought its satisfaction without, and developed into a godless rationalism. Unbelievers watch us while we are at work and they notice the forms that our worship and fellowship take. If unbelievers do not see a vibrant intellectual life when they observe Christians at work, or engaged in fellowship and worship, are they to be blamed if they conclude that truth and rationality do not matter much to us? God created us to be rational creatures. We have a religious duty to think and to think well. #RandolphHarris 17 of 24
The essence of worship is the intentional ascription of worth, service, and reverence to the Lord. Worship can take place in public or private, individual or corporate ways. In fact, for the integrated believer, in one way or another, everything in life can be understood as an act of worship. In this sense, worship is expressed in one’s overall approach to life and every area of life. “Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God—this is your spiritual act of worship. Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this World, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will. For by the grace given me I say to every one of you: Do not thing yourself more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober judgment, in accordance with the measure of faith God has given you. Just as each one of us has one body with many members, and these members do not all have the same function, so in Christ we who are many form one body, and each member belongs to all others. We have different gifts, according to the grace given us. If one man’s gift is prophesying, let him use it in proportion to his faith. #RandolphHarris 18 of 24
“If it is serving, let one serve; if it is teaching let one teach; if it is encouraging, let one encourage; if it is contributing to the needs of others, let one give generously; if it is leadership, let one govern diligently; if it is showing mercy, let one do it cheerfully,” reports Romans 12.1-8. Worship creates a home for the soul as it learns to rest in God. A more specific form of worship occurs in specific acts of praise and exultation, especially in the assembly with the people of God. Of special importance to this later understanding is the conscious expression of worship in the very act of study in high school or college or in and through the vocation a believer selects. God is a maximally perfect being. This means that God is not merely the greatest, most perfect being who happens to exist. He is the greatest being that could possibly exist. I bear witness that a very important element of your experience in the gospel is the friends you make and the mentors you follow, just as I was promised. I pray that each of us will have the privilege of enjoying righteous friendships and mentoring relationships as we grow together in the gospel of Jesus Christ. “Love must be sincere. Hate what is evil; cling to what is good. Be devoted to one another in brotherly love. Honour one another above yourselves. Never be lacking in zeal, but keep your spiritual fervour, serving the Lord. #RandolphHarris 19 of 24
“Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer. Share with God’s people who are in need. Practice hospitality,” reports Romans 12.9-13. In these cases, our degree of worship ought to increase and, therefore, a God who just happened to be the greatest being around (and who could be surpassed in excellence) would not be a worthy object of total worship. Fortunately, the God of the Bible is a maximally perfect being; that is, He is the greatest being that could possibly exist. It is impossible for a greater being to supersede God or for God Himself to improve Himself in any way. Thus, God is owed our supreme, total worship. This is why Scripture calls idolatry the activity of giving more dedication to something finite than to God. God is worthy of the very best efforts we can give Him in offering our respect and service through the cultivation of our total personality, including our mins. Seen in this light, dedicated to intellectual growth is not merely to be done for the edification of the worshipper, but as an act of service rendered to God. Halfhearted study in high school or college represents a failure to grasp the fact that loving God with the mind is part of worship. Such halfhearted study is an unworthy offering to the Lord. #RandolphHarris 20 of 24
With this as a background, let us look at how we can better bring our minds into our corporate and individual acts of adoration and praise. Worship should never be reduced to an act of intellect—it involves all that we are—but the intellect is more central to worship than we often realize. “And then shall that which is written come to pass: Sing, O barren, thou that didst not bear; break forth into singing, and cry aloud, thou that didst not travail with child; for more are the children of the desolate than the children of the married wife, saith the Lord. Enlarge the place of thy tent, and let them stretch forth the curtains of thy habitations; spare not, lengthen thy cords and strengthen thy stakes; for thou shalt break forth on the right hand and on the left, and thy seed shall inherit the Gentiles and make the desolate cities to be inhabited. Fear not, for thou shalt not be ashamed; neither be thou confounded, for thou shalt not be put to shame; for thou shalt forget the shame of thy youth, and shalt not remember the reproach of thy youth, and shalt not remember the reproach of thy widowhood any mire. For they maker, thy husband, the Lord of Hosts is his name; and thy Redeemer, the Holy one if Israel—the God of the whole Earth shall he be called. For the Lord hath called thee as a woman forsaken and grieved in spirit, and a wife of youth, when thou wast refused, saith thy God. #RandolphHarris 21 of 24
“For a small moment have I forsaken thee, but with great mercies will I gather thee. In a little wrath I hid my face from thee for a moment, but with everlasting kindness will I have mercy on thee, saith the Lord thy Redeemer. For this, the waters of Noah unto me, for as I have sworn that the waters of Noah should no more go over the Earth, so I have sworn that I would not be wroth with thee. For the mountains shall depart and the hills be removed, but my kindness shall not depart from thee, neither shall the covenant of my peace be removed, saith the Lord that hath mercy on thee. O thou afflicted, tossed with tempest, and not comforted! Behold, I will lay thy foundations with sapphires. And I will make thy windows of agates, and thy gates of carbuncles, and all thy borders of pleasant stones. And all thy children shall be taught of the Lord; and great shall be the peace of thy children. In righteousness shalt thou be established; thou shalt be far from oppression for thou shalt not fear, and form terror for it shall not come near thee. Behold, they shall surely gather together against thee, not by me; whosoever shall gather together against thee shall fall for thy sake. Behold, I have created the smith that bloweth the coals in fire, and that bringeth forth an instrument for his work; and I have created the waster to destroy. #RandolphHarris 22 of 24
“No weapon that is formed against thee shall prosper; and every tongue that shall revile against thee in judgment thou shalt condemn. This is the heritage of the servants of the Lord, and their righteousness is of me, saith the Lord,” reports 3 Nephi 22.1-17. Far too often, when we come to worship God in the assembly of His people, we are allowed to leave our minds at the door. This is simply unacceptable and beneath God’s dignity as a maximally perfect being. What we need to do is plan more carefully and think harder about how we can engage the intellects of our brothers and sisters as part of our collective offerings of praise to our Father. “God is spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth,” reports John 4.24. This verse is well known. Worship is to be rooted in the inner being; it should be sincere and earnest; and it ought to be in accordance with the true nature of God, His revelation, and His acts. At the close of the day, I face the west, the direction of rest, and raise my hands in prayer to the Sun. Great shining one, may I go to rest with your regards as you go to yours with mine. As you lower yourself through the Sky toward the horizon, I hold your red disk between my hands. #RandolphHarris 23 of 24
You who fill my hands, fill my heart and stay with me through the dark time, until morning comes again. Blessed art Thou, O Lord our God, King of the Universe, who hast sanctified us with Thy precepts and commanded us to dwell in the Sukkah. It is for us to praise the Lord of all, to proclaim the greatness of the Creator of the Universe for He hath not made us like the unbelievers of the World, nor placed us like heathen tribes of the Earth; God hath not made our destiny as theirs, nor cast our lot with all their multitude. We bend the knee, worship and give thanks unto the King of kings, the Holy One, blessed be He. God stretched forth the Heavens and laid the foundations of the Earth. His glory is revealed in the Heavens above, and His might is manifest in the loftiest heights. God is our God; there is none else. In truth He is our King; there is none besides Him; as it is written in His Torah: Know this day, and consider it in thy hear that the Lord is God in the Heavens above and on Earth beneath; there is none else. God will illuminate and exert His influence upon His children consistently and effortlessly. His power and light will radiate naturally from Him. It is not by our heart, but by our faith and devotion that we receive help and healing. God has thought about us and remembers us for we are all held within His Mind. #RandolphHarris 24 of 24
Cresleigh Homes
The kitchen comes fully equipped with a large island, stainless steel appliances, and quartz counters with a butler’s pantry to provide easy access to the dining room. The great room is spacious and its open floor plan allows all parts of the home to flow. The Owner’s suite nestled away from the secondary bedrooms allowing for maximum privacy, yet still accessible.
The Great Room in this #Meadows Residence 2 home at #PlumasRanch is looking mighty comfy right now… 😍 And the green mid-mod dining chairs are just the pièce de résistance!
Utilize the interactive floor plan for this Residence on our website to plan where your furniture will go! Link in bio. https://cresleigh.com/cresleigh-meadows-at-plumas-ranch/residence-2/
Randolph Harris II International 