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Let Us Inspect the Lyre, and Weigh the Stress of Every Chord, and See what May be Gained!
Future freedom has no reality; it is only an idea. Reality is what is. 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. The large clear cosmological vistas of philosophy reveal the unflattering return of the evolutionary spiral upon itself and help us to appreciate the superb harmony of the World-Idea. With every finished cycle the evolutionary lines moves up higher and thus becomes a spiral. The evolutionary movement moves through a series of advances and retrogressions, and through slow steps broken periodically by violent spurts. Evolution threads its way spiral-fashion, mostly by slow, unhurried inches but at critical periods by mounting leaps. Nor is it seen aright unless its complement and corollary, involution, is seen along with it. All things and all beings, all events and all phenomena are interrelated in an endless chain. In this way evolution circles the Universe again and again, spiral-like. #RandolphHarris 1 of 22
Evolution is not only accomplished by a series of rising and falling arcs but also across long flat plains. There is a pool where we begin to live, a harmonious interpenetrating mix-up, a womb, an ocean. There is a deluge, an unorganized sensory flowing. Then new features begin to appear: volcanoes and lava flows of anger, pits of despair, rocks of detachment. The oceans are bounded and contained by shores. If the shores are calm and sweet, we find ourselves as homebodies. If the shores have breakers and rocks, we turn away oceanwards and become spacebats. Near the shores may be breakers and rollers—but also harbours, reefs and tiny islands, and sandbanks. Islands form in the limitless expanses of the sea, and in the lee of the shore. The islands will form clusters of islands, and eventually landmasses. Each island starts as a cluster of tinier islands. Each landmass starts as a collection of clusters. From all this, something like a personality emerges, and we can begin to consider its structure. Memory-traces, introjections, and internalizations are processes which happen as a result of external stimuli, and they are also structures, that is to say they endure after the stimuli have ceased. #RandolphHarris 2 of 22
An introjection is both a process of the psychic apparatus, and, as a result of that process, a structure. This way of thinking is very much in line with the structure-building connection-strengthening ideas advocated. There are no static structures, only dynamic processes moving at different speeds so that they seem relatively enduring or relatively fleeting. It is a way of thinking which allows us to regard all experiences as processes which in turn start off other processes which make it possible to retain memories of what is happening now so that these experiences can be recalled or built on at a late date. It allows also for the possibility that the memories of our experiences are not static and unalterable but continually subject to further changes with further experiences. Thus we can think of early introjections as contributing to the first outline of a “map” in Dr. Hayek’s sense, and of internalization in general as contributing to map and working model in the continuous monitoring self-steering way which Dr. Hayek postulates. One of Dr. Kernberg’s most useful contributions to developmental theory is his acceptance of the unitary nature of experience. #RandolphHarris 3 of 22
Almost without exception, Western psychological theories have tended to cut experiences into different and separate and often contrasting basics: thinking or feeling or acting; conation or cognition or affect; will or emotion or thought or perception. Since Old Testament times, since Plato and Aristotle, we have tended to believe that thought somehow happens in one part of a person, feeing in another, will and action in another. For Dr. Kernberg, experience comes in wholes: any encounter provides an experience which has unity and leaves an integrated memory behind, though of course some parts of the experience may remain unconscious or preconscious or get repressed or remain unnoticed because the culture does not provide a word—a concept-label—for it. Although experience comes in wholes, an observer, or a very self-aware person, might abstract from the experience afterwards. “Abstract” would be precisely the right word for that, for it would be like considering the colour of a flower abstracted from its other qualities, such as shape or scent, each of which could also be abstracted. #RandolphHarris 4 of 22
What is so interesting about Dr. Kernberg is that, while granting that the mature person can split experiences in these abstract ways, one maintains that the newly born infant cannot, and will not do so for a while. The fact that we adults can do it, can analyse and abstract and split our experiences, makes it difficult for some of us to imagine a kind basic unit of experience in which this split does not exist. In trying to imagine what it might be like to be a baby having basic units of experience, we are limited additionally by the fact that the baby has not yet clearly differentiated “self” from what is “not self” so that we cannot use the word “I” to describe the experience. We are of course also limited by the fact that we have to use words to describe the experience while the baby has no language as yet and is not having an experience with words in it! However, the idea of a basic unit of experience is so essential to what we are trying to think about in this essay, that it is worth trying for an imaginative reconstruction even though it is bound to fail. Imagine a tiny baby being lifted up: There is a great whoosh which is frightening or thrilling or both. There is a sense of very powerful things going on. There is either a sense of sharing in that power (being it) or a sense of being at the mercy of it. #RandolphHarris 5 of 22
That experience, just described, has made a difference to that baby, in that there are now memory-traces. There is not yet an “I” with a memory of that experience, but the memory-trace is there and will affect the next experience because there is now already something established with which the next experience will be met, and which forms part of its context. And the whoosh is there forever, still going on now, in the reverberating memory-traces. And meaning depends on context. And meaning depends on context. So these memory-traces—primitive introjections—can function as an organizing principle for what happens next: the next experience, which is affected by what has gone before, assimilated into it, and so confused. Taking our imaginative reconstruction a bit further, suppose that the baby’s feeling is of fright and not of thrill (and perhaps anger and distress at the nasty sensation), and that the next thing to happen is a bowel movement. Something unaccountable is felt to be happening and is felt to be part of the general discomfort of things. If nothing happens to allay this feeling, then, the original feeling of fright, and perhaps distress and anger, is likely to be confirmed by a bowel movement. #RandolphHarris 6 of 22
In contrast, suppose that the feeling is of thrill and not of fright; then there is now, not a feeling of powerlessness, but rather a sense of glory. And suppose that there is a bowel movement next, then this might be experienced as part of a general splendidness, thrill, powerfulness. If the baby could speak, it might say: Either “Oh! that was nasty, I did not like that and now something else I do not like is happening to me.” Or “Oh! I like that, it is thrilling, I feel grand and do wonderful things.” Something like that is what is meant by the introjection is the earliest, most primitive and basic level in the organization process. It is the reproduction and fixation of an interaction with the environment by means of an organized cluster of memory-traces. A person is not born with an original ego, psyche, self, core, or anything of that sort. The sense of self, of being a person, of identity comes from a gradual emergence of a set of experiences. This set of experiences does not spring from an individual core-self but involves other people from the start. However, the potential person-in-relationship-with-other is there from the start. There is an experience of an event, typically an encounter with someone or something, often called an “object.” #RandolphHarris 7 of 22
This basic unit of experience is called an internalized object. Internalized reminds us that it is learnt and also that it is all happening inside the head of one person: the experience is not what an observer might see while watching a human talking to one’s dog, for instance, but what it is for the human. The simplest internalized object-relation consists of: Some memory-traces which will eventually become organized into structures (processes) which will contribute mainly to a sense of self; some memory-traces getting organized into that will eventually contribute mainly to structures (processes) which build up our images and representations of “objects” (that is of other people and things); some memory traces of the feelings or relationships or transactions implicit in the experience—these can be said to connect with both the above. This sense that experience comes in a harmonious interpenetrating mix-up of self and other is not easily arrived at by introspection. In our culture, just as we abstract from our experiences in terms of feelings versus thoughts, so we also abstract in terms of self versus others. #RandolphHarris 8 of 22
Culture goes deep, which is what makes it hard for us to accept that way of thinking about our experiences is not the only way, not necessarily even a good way. In the unconscious of every man there is hidden a feminine personality, and in that of every woman a masculine personality. It is a well-known fact that gender is determined by a majority of male or female genes, as the case may be. However, the minority of genes belonging to the other gender does not simply disappear. A human therefore has in one a feminine side, an unconscious feminine figure—a fact which one is generally quite unaware. I may take it as known that I have called this figure the “anima,” and its counterpart in a woman the “animus.” This figure frequently appears in dreams, where one can observe all the attributes I have mentioned. Another, no less important and clearly defined figure is that “shadow.” Like the anima, it appears either in projection on suitable persons, or personified as such in dreams. The shadow coincides with the “personal” unconscious (which corresponds to Dr. Freud’s conception of the unconscious). Again like the anima, this figure has often been portrayed by poets and writers. #RandolphHarris 9 of 22
I would like to mention the 2002 Warner Brother’s film, Queen of the Damned, by Anne Rice, as an example. Queen Akasha represents is Prince Lestat’s shadow and personifies everything that he refuses to acknowledge about himself and yet, throughout the film, he is always thrusting her domineering and controlling characteristics upon himself directly or indirectly—for instance when he claims an entire band as his children, or feeds upon a young unsuspecting woman after his concert and other incompatible tendencies. The fact that the unconscious spontaneously personifies certain affectively toned contents in dreams is the reason why I have taken over these personifications in my terminology and formulated them as names. Besides these figures there are still a few others, less frequent and less striking, which have likewise undergone poetic as well as mythological formulation. I would mention, for instance, the figure of the hero and of the wise old man, to name only two of the best known. Reason, memory, and imagination are powers of an encompassing soul. When one ponders on the provinces of memory and imagination, they both partake of rationality. #RandolphHarris 10 of 22
The human body is a manifestation of the soul. It is possible to entertain a soulless notion of the body, but that is considered an aberration. By nature and function, memory and imagination are more rational than sensory, no matter whether they are regarded as aspects of an understanding, or a rational soul, or of mind. The term faculty, accordingly, referred to a dominant feature or characteristic mode of human behaviour. It refers to a kind of movement, to a species of movement of which motion itself is the genus. We do not need to chop up intellect into an active, a passive, and a possible intellect. The movement of the mind is abstracted, apprehended, and reasoned. It lies at the root of all natural actions, subject to the configurations of matter. Among the motions is the motion of Signature or Impression; that is, operation without the communication of substances. Here is the suggestion that the shape or form of motions and their amount (their “how much or dose in nature”) are among the effective conditions to be looked for. One of the effective conditions to be measure is the influence of the stimulus of surrounding things. Voluntary motion in animal and human behaviour cannot be described entirely in terms of quantitative variations. #RandolphHarris 11 of 22
Furthermore, the actions of the senses, motion of imagination, appetite, and will; motion of the mind, determination, and intellectual faculties—these are not entirely physical motions; and although their material and efficient causes should not be disregarded, their formal and final causes must receive prime attention. We are dealing with whole humans. Even when we concentrate on things intellectual, we are mindful of human’s other parts and powers. Of all living and breathing substances human are the most susceptible of education, and not only in their body, but in their mind and spirit, and there again not only in one’s appetite and affection, but in one’s power of wit and reason. Development is not continuous. It moves forward through alternations of lulls and renewals, peaks and valleys and plateaus, in rhythmic fluctuation. The course taken by the universal movement may be upward in spiral evolution or downward in spiral retrogression. The materialist who assets humans to be wholly the product of environment is half right. The immaterialist who assets the opposite is likewise half right. This is because development moves alternately in two opposed directions, never stays in a single one. #RandolphHarris 12 of 22
The course taken by each life-entity in it slow development is neither straight nor direct, but a winding one, going forward and backward upward and downward, curved like a series of interwoven spirals. Why should the waves of life-entities take this spiral-like two-way course? Why do they not go along a direct single one? The answer is that they have to gather experience to grow; if this experience includes totally opposed conditions, all the parts of each entity can grow, all its latent qualities can be stirred into unfoldment. In the opposition of birth and death, growth and decay, in-breathing and exhaling, youth and age, joy and suffering, introversion and extroversion, spirit-form and body-form, it fulfills itself. If these alternating sequences through which every entity has to pass were subject to endless repetition, we would be entitles to criticize the absurdity and uselessness of it all. However, they are not. If the repetitions do occur, they do so on a higher level each time. The net result is genuine evolution of the entity. The cosmic movement traces a circular path, which is why the evolving entity has to pass through opposite extremes and why it is guaranteed a fullness of experience. #RandolphHarris 13 of 22
In no other way could the entity progress toward a higher level be made sure by the periodic arrest of it downward courses. Contrast and difference are innate in the divine World-Idea to control and adjust the conflicting and opposing forces. Life subjects humans to the pairs of opposites, throws them into the conditions one needs to balance one’s experience. In undergoing this reversal of patter, one is compelled to draw upon all one’s latent resources, not merely upon one of them. The movement along a turning spiral road through one birth after another, will in time pass through seemingly unrelated extremes and unfriendly opposites. We see a perpetual struggle going on in the cosmos between two contrary forces. It appears not only in Nature’s operations but also in a human’s inner being. Thus there is no continuous upward movement but rather an alternation, which is of cyclic and spiral kind. Repulsion follows attraction in the human mind, decay contradicts growth in the universal life. The ensouled body is in communion with the body of the World and finds its health in that intimacy. When we relate to our bodies as having a soul, we attend to their beauty and expressiveness. #RandolphHarris 14 of 22
The soul wants more intimacy between consciousness and the soul, between our body and the World’s body, and between ourselves and our fellow human being. The spiritual malformation of children is the inevitable result of not developing the soul. What can inhibit soul development? If children live in an environment where their parents or other adults are constantly engaged conflict habitual, the children and their precious souls, bodies, and minds cannot but absorb the reality of assault and withdrawal in such a climate, and even as infants, it leaves memory traces engrained in their being. As a result, the children feel as if they are being attacked and frozen out and it becomes part of their consciousness. In such a context, you can almost see the children shrivel. Their only hope of survival is to become hardened. This amounts to a constant posture of withdrawal, even from oneself. It is a defensive posture, which, incidentally, makes attack (on others and on oneself) easy and inevitable. Hardened, lonely little souls, ready for addiction, aggression, isolation, self-destructive behaviour, and for some, even extreme violence, go out to mingle their madness with other another in nightmarish school grounds and “communities.” #RandolphHarris 15 of 22
As a result of the chaos and destruction engrained in these children, they turn to their bodies for self-gratification and to control others, or for isolation and self-destruction. The wonder is not that they sometimes destroy one another, but that the adults who produced them and live with them can, with apparent sincerity ask “Why?” Do they really not know? Can they really not see the poison in the social realm? It is another profound case of the blind leading the blind and both falling into a pit. “Every plant that my Heavenly Father has not planted will be pulled up by the roots. Leave them; they are blind guides. If a blind man lead a blind man, both will fall into a pit,” reports Matthew 15.13-14. Marching onward in life, these little people become big people and move on with their malfunctioning souls into workplace, profession, citizenship, and leadership. From them proceeds the next generation of wounded souls. Many of these now “big people,” perhaps “the best and brightest,” try hard to rectify the situation. They sponsor sickeningly shallow solutions to the human problem, such as “education” or “diversity” or “tolerance.” #RandolphHarris 16 of 22
Not that these are not good things in themselves. They are. However, they do not come close to the root of the human problem. They are superficial. The deep root is not ignorance (at least not ignorance of the things you learn getting an “education”) not prejudice, and not intolerance. A very small percentage of human evil comes from them, everything considered; and almost none of that does which affects our most intimate relations and turns us into the kind of people we are. Ignorance, prejudice, and intolerance, far from being the primary sources of evil draw upon the still deeper-lying soul structures of assault and withdrawal, without which they would have little effect. “Difference” only serves as one occasion of assault and withdrawal. Unless the sources deeper than it are effectively dealt with, education, diversity, and “tolerance” will only yield another version of secular self-righteousness and legalism. They will further crush the already famished human frame, being just the opposite of “connecting.” Instead of healing relationships, they will only establish a somewhat more socially stable context within which people shrivel and die. #RandolphHarris 17 of 22
The soul has a vernacular life and has a relationship to the local place and culture. It has a preference for details and particulars, intimacy and involvement, attachment and rootedness. The soul feeds on whatever life grows in its immediate environment. To the soul, the ordinary is sacred and the everyday is the primary source of religion. The soul also needs spirituality. “My beloved son, I write unto you again that ye may know that I am yet alive; but I write somewhat of that which is grievous. For behold, I have had a sore battle with the Lamanites, in which we did not conquer; and Archeantus has fallen by they sword, and also Luram and Emron; yea, and we have lost a great number of our choice humans. And now behold, my son, I fear lest the Lamanites shalls destroy this people; for they do not repent, and Satan stirreth them up continually to anger one with another. Behold, I am labouring with them continually; and when I speak the word of God with sharpness they tremble and anger against me; and when I speak the word of God with sharpness they tremble and anger against me; and when I use no sharpness they harden their hearts against it; wherefore, I fear lest the Spirit of the Lord hath ceased striving with them. #RandolphHarris 18 of 22
“For so exceedingly do they anger that is seemeth me that they have no dear of death; and they have lost their love, one towards another; and they thirst after blood and revenge continually. And now, my beloved son, notwithstanding their hardness, let us labour diligently; for if we should cease to labour, we should be brought under condemnation; for we have a labour to perform whilst in this tabernacle of clay, that we may conquer the enemy of all righteousness, and rests our souls in the kingdom of God. And now I write somewhat concerning the sufferings of this people. For according to the knowledge which I have received from Amoron, behold, behold, the Lamanites have many prisoners, which they took from the tower of Sherrizah; and there were men, women, and children. And the husbands and fathers of these women and children they have slain; and they feed the women upon the flesh of their husbands, and the children upon the flesh of their fathers; and no water, save a little, do they give unto them. And notwithstanding this great abomination of the Lamanites, it doth not exceed that of our people in Moriantum. #RandolphHarris 19 of 22
“For behold, many of the daughters of the Lamanites have they taken prisoners; and after depriving them of that which was most dear and precious above all things, which is chastity and virtue—and after they had done this thing, they did murder them in the most cruel manner, torturing their bodies even unto death; and after they have done this, they devour their flesh like unto wild beasts, because of the hardness of their hearts; and they do it for a token of bravery. O my beloved son, how can a people like this, that are without civilization—(And only a few years have passed away, and they were a civil and a delightsome people) but O my son, how can a people like this, whose delight is in so much abomination—how can we expect that Gd will stay his hand in judgment against us? Behold, my heart cries: Wo unto this people. Come out in judgment, O God, and hide their sins, and wickedness, and abominations from before thy face! And again, my son, there are many widows and their daughters who remain in Sherrizah; and that part of the provisions which the Lamanites did not carry away, behold, the army of Zenephi has carried away, and left them to wander withersoever they can for food; and many old women do faint by the way and die. #RandolphHarris 20 of 22
“And the army which is with me is weak; and the armies of the Lamanites are betwixt Sherrizah and me; and as many as have fled to the army of Aaron has fallen victims to their awful brutality. O the depravity of my people! They are without order and without mercy. Behold, I am but a man, and I have but the strength of a man, and I cannot any longer enforce my commands. And they have become strong in their perversion; and they are alike brutal, sparing none, neither old nor young; and they delight in everything save that which is good; and the suffering of our women and our children upon all the face of this land doth exceed everything; yea, tongue cannot tell, neither can it be written. And now, my son, I dwell no longer upon this horrible scene. Behold, thou knowest the wickedness of this people; thou knowest that they are without principle, and past feeling; and their wickedness doth exceed that of the Lamanites. Behold, my son, I cannot recommend them unto God lest he should smite me. However, behold, my son, I recommend thee unto God, and I trust in Christ that thou wilt be saved; and I pray unto God that he will spare thy life, to witness the return of his people unto him, or their utter destruction; for I know that they must perish except they repent and return unto him. #RandolphHarris 21 of 22
“Ad if they perish it will be like unto the Jaredites, because of the willfulness of their hearts, seeking for blood and revenge. And if it so be that they perish, we know that many of our brethren have deserted over unto the Lamanites, and many more will also desert over unto them; wherefore, write somewhat a few things, if thou art spared and I shall perish and not see thee; but I trust that I may see thee soon; for I have sacred records that I would deliver up unto thee. My son, be faithful in Christ; and may not the things which I have written grieve thee, to weigh thee down unto death; but may Christ lift thee up, and may his sufferings and death, and the showing his body unto our fathers, and his mercy and long-suffering, and the hope of his glory and of eternal life, rest in your mind forever. And may the grace of God the Father, whose throne is high in the Heavens, and our Lord Jesus Christ, who sitteth on the right hand of his power, until all things shall become subject unto him, be, and abide with your forever. Amen,” reports Moroni 9.1-26. God is awe-inspiring in your holy places; the God of America giveth strength and power unto the people; blessed be God. O Lord of retribution, O Lord of retribution, please reveal Thyself! #RandolphHarris 22 of 22
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This is the Soul-Searching Fact at the Heart of Our Modern Sadness!
Outside the kingdom of the Lord there is no nation which is greater than any other. God and history will remember your judgment. A time comes when one must weary of one’s paradise, when a desire appears for the conditions which ne was formerly glad to leave behind but now would be glad to take up again. Thus it is that humans shuttle through this Universe of opposites. We find a certain phenomena in nature. We seek a cause or author. We imagine that we have found Him. We afterwards become so enamoured of this offspring of our brain, that we imagine it impossible, but He must produce something greater and more perfect than the present scene of things, which are so full of ill disorder. In a since, God has allowed humans to be the authors of their existence or order it the Universe; it follows, that they possess that precise degree of power, intelligence, and benevolence, which appears in their craft. They have assisted the ascent of reason by the wings of imagination; otherwise humans could not change their manner of inference, and argue from causes to effects; presuming, that a more perfect production than the present World would be more suitable to such perfect beings as the gods, and forgetting that they have no reason to ascribe to these beings any perfection or any attribute, but what can be found in the present World. #RandolphHarris 1 of 31
Hence all the fruitless industry to account for the ill appearances of nature, and save the honour of the gods; while we must acknowledge the reality of that evil and disorder, with which the World so much abounds. Physics finds that nothing is ultimately permanent, that everything moves from its present condition to its opposite. Need we be surprised that history finds somewhat the same cyclic movement in the activities of humankind, that deterioration of even the best comes with time, that improvement of even the worst follows too? It is as true in the domain of inner life as in the outer one that Nature must restore equilibrium when it is lacking, must compensate opposing forces by balancing them. If it were not continuously being equilibrated in some of its parts, there could not be any stable Universe. This is happening by obedience to law, not by chance. It is happening wherever the movement or development of human and Nature reaches an extreme, when it forces a reversal of direction of the movement backward toward the other and totally dissimilar extreme. The pattern followed is therefore a rhythmic one, shuttling between one pole and its opposite. #RandolphHarris 2 of 31
In this history of humans, when the point of fullness in any particular development is approached, a contradictory movement begins to come into play and, at first gradually but later suddenly, reverses the direction of one’s tendencies. In this way not only are neglected potentialities activated but also some sort of an equilibrium is maintained. These critical turning points are always marked by great and violent upheavals. The Universe is not only constructed by divine intelligence no a two-way oscillating rhythm, but also on a balancing force between both movements. If humans upset Nature’s equilibrium by excess, she sets up a reversal in compensation, a movement toward lack, restraint. This is the endless oscillation of things, history. There is a threefold movement in nature and life—forward, backward, and neutralizing. There is an Old World theory that everything that has been will be again, repeating itself by a precise mathematical law when the same particles of matter are brought together again. And that there is a perpetual alternation between change and changelessness, of endless rhythm and periodicity which provides no evolutionary goal but makes life an end in itself. #RandolphHarris 3 of 31
Why take these attributes for granted, or why ascribe to the cause any qualities but what actually appear in the effect? Why torture your brain to justify the course of nature upon suppositions, which, for aught you know, may be entirely imaginary, and of which there are to be found no traces in the course of nature? It is useless; because our knowledge of this cause being derived entirely from the course of nature, we can never, according to the rules of reasoning, return back from the cause with any new inference, or making additions to the common and experienced course of nature, establish any new principles of conduct and behaviour. Eternal Recurrence is the eternal law, that perpetual repetitive movement is the universal condition, is questionable at the very least, unjustifiable at the very most. If the human race, for example, were doomed to repeat all its mistakes and misdeeds again and again, its life would be senseless. Such an outlook is not far from the merely materialistic one. The idea of recurring historic cycles is well established in the Old World. If you saw, for instance, a half-finished building, surrounded with heaps of brick and stone and mortar, and all the instruments of masonry; could you not infer from the effect, that it was a work of design and contrivance? #RandolphHarris 4 of 31
And could you not return again, from this inferred cause, to infer new additions to the effect, and conclude, that the mansion would soon be finished, and receive all the further improvements, which art could bestow upon it? If you saw upon the sea-shore the print of one human foot, you would conclude, that a man had passed that way, and that he had also left the traces of the other foot, though effaced by the rolling of the sands or inundation of the waters. Why then do you refuse to admit the same method of reasoning with regard to the order of nature? Consider the World and the present life only as an imperfect Victorian mansion, from which you can infer a superior intelligence; and arguing from that superior intelligence, which can leave nothing imperfect; why may you not infer a more finished scheme or plan, which will receive its completion in some distant point of space of time? Are not these methods of reasoning exactly similar? And under what pretence can you embrace that one, while you respect the other? All things move forward, stop, and wheel back on themselves. They increase and strengthen but also bend and submit. This advance and retreat is both a cycle and a spiral. It is not blind, for thus it established equilibrium and obeys law, that is, it gives meaning. #RandolphHarris 5 of 31
Nowhere in Nature does a situation, a circumstance, a creature, or a person recur exactly as before. It is that Nature repeats herself, but during the interval the spiral has wound its way onward. In the spiral’s form we see the coming together of that which is the hidden being and that which is the visible one, so the full truth is revealed. It is true f a creature or a globe. Whenever you see a spiral form in nature, you will find it stands for a form which is developing, growing, changing, or moving. The infinite difference of the subjects is a sufficient foundation for this difference in my conclusions. In works of human art and contrivance, it is allowable to advance from the effect to the cause, and returning back from the cause, to form new inferences concerning the effect, and examine the alterations, which it has probably undergone, or may still undergo. However, what is the foundation of this method of reasoning? Plainly this; that humans are beings, whom we know by experience, whose motives and designs we are acquainted with, and whose projects and inclinations have a certain connexion and coherence, according to the laws which nature has established for the government of such a creature. #RandolphHarris 6 of 31
When, therefore, we find, that any work has proceeded from the skill and industry of humans; as we are otherwise acquainted with the nature of the animal, we can draw a hundred inference concerning what may be expected from one; and these inferences will all be founded in experience and observation. However, did we know humans only from the single work or production which we examine, it were impossible for us to argue in this manner; because our knowledge of all the production, it is impossible they could point to any thing farther, or be the foundation of any new inference. When considered alone, the print of a foot in the sand can only prove that there was some figure adapted to it, by which it was produced: However, the print of a human foot proves likewise, from our other experience, that there was probably another foot, which also left its impression, though effaced by time or other accidents. Here we mount from the effect to the cause; and descending again from the cause, infer alterations in the effect; but this is not a continuation of the same simple chain of reasoning. #RandolphHarris 7 of 31
We comprehend in this case a hundred other experiences and observations, concerning the usual figure and members of that species of animal, without which this method of argument must be considered as fallacious and sophistical. The case is not the same with our reasonings from the works of nature. The Deity is known to us only by one’s productions, and is a single being in the Universe, not comprehended under any species or genus, from whose experienced attributes or qualities, we can, by analogy, infer any attribute or quality in one. As the Universe shows wisdom and goodness, we infer wisdom and goodness. As it shows a particular degree of these perfections, we infer a particular degree of them, precisely adapted to the effect which we examine. However, father attributes or father degrees of the same attributes, we can never be authorized to infer or suppose, by any rules of just reasoning. Now, without some such licence of supposition, it is impossible for us to argue from the cause, or infer any alteration in effect, beyond what has immediately fallen under our observation. Greater good produced by this Being must still prove a greater degree of goodness: A more impartial distribution of reward and punishments must proceed from a greater regard to justice and equity. #RandolphHarris 8 of 31
Every supposed addition to the works of nature makes an addition to the attributes of the Author of nature; and consequently, being entirely unsupported by any reason or argument, can never be admitted but as mere conjecture and hypothesis. I tried to reason my way to the truth, but that only got me through the door. From there I had to learn faith. We were raised to be loyal to our faith, to believe in God, to attend church, and to obey the commandments—and we saw no need to change. We paid little attention to the criticism of our faith. In some of the classes I was taking, the professors taught that the purposes and object of laws is to maintain peace, structure, safety, and stability in a community. It struck me then that this was the purpose of God’s laws. Obeying them created peace and harmony within the community. If God has laws (and he must), and if He has a proper interpretation of them (which He must), a community that followed those laws would be God’s perfect community, one of peace and order—pure peace and order. #RandolphHarris 9 of 31
A community where the people of God could live together in peace and harmony. A kingdom where God could dwell. Through studying the teachings of humans and the teachings of God, I found that some arguments against the true gospel seem, at times, more convincing than arguments for it. Not only are the philosophies of humans very persuasive and usually easier to live, but reason alone is in most cases sufficient to the convincing of natural humans. The gospel of Jesus Christ, however, is not always persuasive to the natural human, entrapped as one is in the entanglements of logic and reason. Sometimes, somewhere, that person who would be truly converted to the Church, be one member or not, must be humble and submissive enough to have an overwhelming desire to know the truth. Not just to continue the aimless, well-worn path from philosophy to philosophy to mythology, but to seek to actually know God’s absolute truths and to live them. If it were not for the witness of the Spirit to confirm truth to us, we would be as confused and perplexed as the philosophies themselves. Through keeping baptismal covenants, we lay aside the natural human. #RandolphHarris 10 of 31
As a result, we create the void which necessitates a spiritual witness; reason alone is no longer sufficient. However, besides that ordinary course of nature may convince us, that almost everything is regulated by principles and maxims very different from ours; Besides this, I say, it must evidently appear contrary to all rules of analogy to reason, from the intentions and projects of humans, to those of a Being so different, and so much superior. In human nature, there is a certain experienced coherence of designs and inclinations; so that when, from any fact, we have discovered one intention of any human, it may often be reasonable, from experience, to infer another, and draw a long chain of conclusions concerning one’s past or future conduct. However, this method of reasoning can never have place with regard to a Being, so remote and incomprehensible, who bears much less analogy to any other being in the Universe than the sun to a waxed taper, and who discovers oneself only by some faint traces or outlines, beyond which we have no authority to ascribe to Him any attribute or perfect. What we imagine to be a superior perfection, may really be a defect. #RandolphHarris 11 of 31
Or were it ever so much a perfection the ascribing of it to the Supreme Being, where it appears not to have been really exerted, to the full, in His works, savours more of flattery and panegyric, than of just reasoning and sound philosophy. All the philosophy, therefore, in the World, and all the religion, which is nothing but a species of philosophy, will never be able to carry us beyond the usual course of experience, or give us measures of conduct and behaviour differ from those which are furnished by reflections on common life. No new fact can ever be inferred from the religious hypothesis; no event foreseen or foretold; no reward or punishment expected or dreaded, beyond what is already know by practice and observation. Yet, if there is your stance on God and religion, there is still one circumstance, which you seem to have overlooked. This seems to fulfill the words of Moroni: “Dispute not because ye see not, for ye receive no witness until after the trial of your faith,” reports Ether 12.6. By obeying the commandments, we become worthy of further witness. The Saviour said: “If any human will do God’s will, one shall know of the doctrine, whether it be of God, or whether I speak of myself,” reports John 7.17. #RandolphHarris 12 of 31
God lives and He is speaking to us in these last days. As witnesses we know this. God has been seen, heard, and felt. With the declaration that the gospel has been restored is the promise that the Holy Ghost will also witness the fact to you, and then you will know. God is trying to straighten out all of our concerns, and only when one has enough faith will one be able to hear his message. God went to quite a bit of trouble so that we could have the gospel, and now the prophet is telling us that we had better pay attention because these things are for our happiness and that the “rebellious shall be pierced with much sorrow,” reports Doctrine and Covenants 1.3. Today there is about a fifty-percent divorce rate in America, and the rate is not much lower for professing Christians. However, the problem is not divorce—though divorce generates a set of problems all its own. The problem is that people do not know how to be married. They do not actually get married in many cases, though they go through a legal and possibly a religious ceremony. They are, sad to say, incapable of marriage—the kind of constant mutual blessing that can make two people in conjugal relation literally one whole person. “Wives, submit to your husbands as to the Lord. #RandolphHarris 13 of 31
“For the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church, his body, of which he is the Saviour. Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit to their husbands in everything. Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word, and to present her to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless. In this same way, husbands ought to love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. After all, no one ever hated his own body, but he feeds and cares for it, just as Christ does the church—for we are members of his body. ‘For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh.’ This is a profound mystery—but I am talking about Christ and the church. However, each one of you also must love his wife as he loves himself, and the wife must respect her husband,” reports Ephesians 5.22-33. It is not their fault that so many marriages end in divorce. In their World, how could they know? Who would teach them? This is the soul-searing fact at the heart of our modern sadness. #RandolphHarris 14 of 31
To be married to give oneself to another person in the most intimate and inclusive of human relationships, to support one for good in every way possible—physically, emotionally, and spiritually, of course, but in every way conceivable dimension of one’s being. Nothing ever given to humanity more adequately portrays what marriage is than the “traditional service,” the “Form of Solemnization of Matrimony,” in the old Book of Common Prayer of the Church of England. Just consider some of its wording. Anyone who wished the situation with divorce and family breakup today should begin with careful study of the giving of oneself and the receiving of another that is manifested in the vows of this traditional service: “I…take thee…to have and to hold from this day forward, for better for worse, for richer for poorer, in sickness and in health, to love and to cherish, till death do us part…” Insight into the meaning of the vows will clearly bring out why the ideal intent of marriage is one man, one woman for life (or whatever newer forms may be considered). The “mutual submission to each other in awe of the Lord,” which is the vision of marriage in Christ, eliminates both assault and withdrawal from this most basic of human relationships. #RandolphHarris 15 of 31
Thereby marriage provides the matrix of womb from which (in God’s plan) whole human being can emerge to form whole and human communities, under God. This “womb” is then, of course, the overall home life of the child, not just a particular part of the woman’s body. Birth should only be a move from one part to a larger part of the same home. This home is as much or more the man’s responsibility as the woman’s for it is the man’s role to make it possible for the woman to do what she alone can do for the child—and for him. And for her part, then, she is to help in making it possible for him to do what he alone can do for her and the child—and this in the midst of constant sacrificial submission on the part of each to overall good of the other. In case there are no children involved, they still “lay down their life” for each other. That is what marriage involves. “Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this right. ‘Honour your father and mother’—which is the first commandment wit a promise—‘that it may go well with you and that you may enjoy long life on the Earth.’ Fathers, do not exasperate your children; instead, bring them up in the training and instruction of the Lord,” reports Ephesians 6.1-4. #RandolphHarris 16 of 31
The human who wisely disciplines oneself for godliness understand the necessity of prioritizing and realism and prayer and accountability and that failure is part of success, but one’s greatest wisdom and impetus comes from one’s understanding of grace. Everything in one’s life comes from God’s grace—sola gratia—grace alone! Salvation itself is by grace alone. We were dead in our transgressions and sins, captive to dark powers, no more capable of effecting our own salvation than a corpse. “But…God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgression—it is by grace you have been saved…For it is by grace you have been saved through faith—and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—not by works, so that no one can boast,” reports Ephesians 2.4, 8, 9. We are saved by God’s grace, His unmerited favour. Even the smallest percentage of works debases saving grace, as Paul made so pointedly clear: “And if by grace, then it is no longer by works; if it were, grace would no longer be grace,” reports Romans 11.6. Sola gratia. Salvation is by grace alone, and living the Christian life is by grace alone also. James makes this stunning declaration regarding the believer’s universal experience in this World: “But he gives us more grace,” reports James 4.6. #RandolphHarris 17 of 31
This is not saving grace, but grace to live our lives as we ought in this fallen World—literally, “greater grace.” There is always “more grace.” An artist once submitted a painting of Niagara Falls to an exhibition, but neglected to give it a title. The gallery, faced with the need to supply one, came up with these words: “More to Follow.” Old Niagara Falls, spilling over billions of gallons per year for thousands of years, has more than met the needs of those below and is a fit emblem of the floods of God’s grace He showers upon us. There is always more to follow! The Apostle John referred to this reality, saying, “For of His fulness we have all received, and grace upon grace,” reports John 1.16—literally, “grace instead of grace,” or as others have rendered it, “grace following grace” or “grace heaped upon grace.” “For daily need there is daily grace; for sudden need, sudden grace; for overwhelming need, overwhelming grace, proclaims John Blanchard. As we tackle the disciplines of a Godly human, we must remember it is a matter of grace from beginning to end. #RandolphHarris 18 of 31
Consider slowly and carefully Paul’s words, “But by the grace of God I am what I am, and His grace to me was not without effect. No, I worked harder than all of them—yet not I, but the grace of God that was with me,” reports 1 Corinthians 15.10. You see there is no contradiction between grace and hard work. In fact, grace produces spiritual sweat! It is God’s grace that energizes us to live out the disciplines of a Godly human. There is always more grace. Grace of Purity, Grace for Marriage, Grace for Fatherhood, Grace for Motherhood, Grace for Friendship, Grace for Mind, Grace for Devotion, Grace for Prayer, Grace for Worship, Grace for Integrity, Grace for Tongue, Grace for Work, Grace for Church, Grace for Leadership, Grace for Giving, Grace for Witness, Grace for Ministry. Brothers and Sister, when we attempt to do God’s will, God always gives more grace. When we have exhausted our store of endurance, when our strength has failed ere the day is half done; when we reach the end of our hoarded resources, our Father’s full giving is only begun. God’s love has no limits, His grace has no measure. #RandolphHarris 19 of 31
God’s power has no boundary know unto humans; for out of His infinite riches in Jesus, God giveth, and giveth, and giveth. Make a complete listen of all the areas of your life in which you need greater discipline. Then, for each, write down what you can do to experience increased discipline. Since you cannot accomplish this in your own strength and must have God’s help, your answers should include ways you can receive divine assistance and enabling. During my junior-high years, in the midst of a time of uncertainty and insecurity, I remember having a keen interest in spiritual matters. I felt a strong desire to go to church, but could find no answers. I recall a stained-glass window in our church depicting an Angel kneeling with its wings outstretched. How I yearned to crawl under those wings for security, protection, and peace. I wanted to know what I believed. I was searching for meaning in my life. The people in the church seemed to sincerely care about each other. There was not the superficiality I had encountered at so many other social and business groups. During the holidays, a family with adult children, three boys, two of them twins, and an adult daughter really impressed me. #RandolphHarris 20 of 31
They hungout in their living room, and the dad read stories from a book, and his wife and kids all laughed, and they really liked each other and enjoyed being together. I was overcome with emotions of joy, awe, and thankfulness. This magnificent moment this family shared with me tugged at my spiritual chords within me. They were generous, living, gracious, compassionate, kind, and humble. I admired this family’s strength of character that I sensed was lacking in myself. They trusted Christ to rule their lives instead of themselves. That was so contrary to the way I was living my life. It was during this time that I received another invitation to a dinner being held at a country club by a business acquaintance. It was to feature a testimony by a business executive and his wife on what their relationship with Christ has meant in their lives. Out of respect for my friend, I went. Here I heard what I had been hearing at Bible study but from a business executive, someone who had been struggling with many of the things that I was struggling with. I could definitely identify with him. I realized that Revelations 3.20 was speaking to me: “Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with one, and one with me.” #RandolphHarris 21 of 31
A new relationship was deepening within me—one with Christ. My desire to follow, serve, and obey Christ had become first in my life. With that decision I wanted to spend my time differently. Lifestyle preferences changed. The power of Scripture was beginning to take root for the first time in my life. I was stronger, more forgiving, more independent, and less argumentative. I began to trust God in daily decisions and realized that God is sovereign and in control of my life. God had done what He promised, “I will give them an undivided heart and put a new spirit in them; I will remove from them their heart of stone and give them a heart of flesh. Then they will follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws. They will be my people, and I will be their God,” reports Ezekiel 11.19-20. God’s forgiveness and grace makes people feel free and alive in a new way. God will fill a person with a new power and a totally new sense of self-worth. By trusting in God, things will workout better. Trying to please Him instead of oneself somehow takes the pressure off and makes one feel better about life. #RandolphHarris 22 of 31
Jesus Christ can make all this difference in our lives. Our lives are a living testimony of His power. Through countless trials, struggles, and everyday events Christ has guided our path. He has blessed us beyond our hopes. We are grateful to the many who pray for, nurture, and bless us. As most business people know, by profession a healthy skepticism comes naturally. However, once one discovered the Way, the Truth, and the Life—the Lord Jesus Christ—we learn where to put our trust. God is faithful. He loves you, and He loves me. Trust in Him. “And now I, Moroni, write a few of the words of my father Mormon, which he spake concerning faith, hope, and charity; for after this manner did he speak unto the people, as he taught them in the synagogue which they have built for the place of worship. And now I, Mormon, speak uno you, my beloved brethren; and it is by the grace of God the Father, and our Lord Jesus Christ, and his holy will, because of the gift of his calling unto me, that I am permitted to speak unto you at this time. Wherefore, I would speak unto you that you are of the church, that are the peaceable followers of Christ, and that have obtained a sufficient hope by which ye can enter into the rest of the Lord, from this time henceforth until ye shall rest with him in Heaven. #RandolphHarris 23 of 31
“And now my brethren, I judge these things of you because of your peaceable walk with the children of men. For I remember the word of God which saith by their works ye shall know them; for if their works be good, then they are good also. For behold, God hah said a man being evil cannot do what which is good; for if one offereth a gift, or prayeth unto God, except one shall do it with real intent it profiteth one nothing. For behold it is not counted unto one for righteousness. For behold, if a human being evil giveth a gift, one doeth it grudgingly; wherefore it is counted evil before God. And likewise also is it counted evil unto a human, if one shall pray and not with real intent of heart; yea, and it profiteth one nothing for God recieveth none such. Wherefore, a human being evil cannot do what which is good; neither will one give a good gift. For behold, a bitter fountain cannot bring forth good water; neither can a good fountain bring forth bitter water; wherefore, a human being a servant of the devil cannot follow Christ; and if one follow Christ one cannot be a servant of the devil. Wherefore, all things which are good cometh of God; and that which is evil cometh of the devil; for the devil is an enemy unto God. #RandolphHarris 24 of 31
“Being an enemy unto God the devil fighteth against him continually, and inviteth and enticeth to sin, and to do that which is evil continually. However, behold, that which is of God inviteth and enticeth to do good continually; wherefore, every thing which inviteth and enticeth to do good, and to love God, and to serve him, is inspired of God. Wherefore, take heed, my beloved brethren, that ye do not judge that which is evil to be of God, or that which is good and of God to be of the devil. For behold, my brethren, it is given unto you to judge, that ye may know good from evil; and the ways to judge is as plain, that ye may know with a perfect knowledge, as the daylight is from the dark night. For behold, the Spirit of Christ is given to every human, that one may know good from evil; wherefore, I show unto you the way to judge; for every thing which inviteth to do good, and to persuade to believe in Christ, is sent forth by the power and gift of Christ; wherefore ye may know with a perfect knowledge it is God. However, whatsoever thing persuadeth humans to do evil, and believe not in Christ, and deny him, and serve not God, then ye may know with a perfect knowledge it is of the devil; for after this manner doth the devil work, for he persuadeth no human to do good, no, not one. #RandolphHarris 25 of 31
“Neither do the devil’s angels; neither do they who subject themselves unto the devil. And now, my brethren, seeing that ye know the light by which ye may judge, which light is the light of Christ, see that ye do not judge wrongfully; for with that same judgment which ye judge ye shall also be judged. Wherefore, I beseech of you, brethren, that ye should search diligently in the light of Christ that ye may know good from evil; and if ye will lay hold upon every good thing, and condemn it not, ye certainly be a child of Christ. And now, my brethren, how is it possible that ye can lay hold upon every good thing? And now I come to that faith, of which I said I would speak; and I will tell you the way whereby ye may law hold on every good thing. For behold, God knowing all things, being from everlasting to everlasting, behold, he sent Angels to minister unto the children of men, to make manifest concerning the coming of Christ; and in Christ there should come every good thing. And God also declared unto prophets, by his own mouth, that Christ should come. And behold, there were divers ways that he did manifest thing unto the children of men, which were good; and all things which are good cometh of Christ. #RandolphHerris 26 of 31
“Otherwise humans were fallen, and there could be no good come unto them. Wherefore, by the ministering of Angels, and by every word which proceeded forth out of the mouth of God, men began to exercise faith in Christ; and thus by faith, they did lay hold upon every good thing; and thus it was until the coming of Christ. And after that he same unto men also were saved by faith in his name; and by faith, they become the sons of God. And as surely as Christ liveth he spake these words unto our fathers, saying: Whatsoever thing ye shall ask the Father in my name, which is good, in faith believing that ye shall receive, behold, it shall be done unto you. Wherefore, my beloved brethren, have miracles ceased because Christ hath ascended into Heaven, and hath sat down on the right hand of God, to claim of the Father his rights of mercy which he hath upon the children of men? For he hath answered the ends of the law, and he clamieth all those who have faith in him; and they who have faith in him will cleave unto every good thing; wherefore he advocated the cause of the children of men; and he dwelleth eternally in the Heaven. #RandolphHarris 27 of 31
“And because he hath done this, my beloved brethren, have miracles ceased? Behold I say unto you, Nay; neither have Angels ceased to minister unto the children of men. For behold, they are subject unto him, to minister according to the word of his command, showing themselves unto them of strong faith and firm mind in every form and Godliness. And the office of their ministry is to call humans unto repentance, and to fulfill and to do the work of the covenants of the Father, which he hath made unto the children of men, to prepare the way among the children of men, by declaring the word of Christ unto the chosen vessels of the Lord, that they may bear testimony of him. And by so doing, the Lord God prepareth the way that the residue of men may have faith in Christ, that the Holy Ghost may have place in their hearts, according to the power thereof; and after this manner bringeth to pass the Father, the covenants which he hath made unto the children of men. And Christ hath said: If ye will have faith in me ye shall have power to do whatsoever thing is expedient in me. And he hath said: Repent all ye ends of the Earth, and come unto me, and be baptized in my name, and have faith in me, that ye may be saved. #RandolphHarris 28 of 31
“And now, my beloved brethren, if this be the case that these things are true which I have spoken unto you, and God will show unto you, with power and great glory at the last day, that they are true, and if they are true as the day of miracles ceased? Or have Angels ceased to appear unto the children of men? Or has he withheld the power of the Holy Ghost from them? Or will he, so long as time shall last, or the Earth shall stand, or there shall be one man upon the face thereof to be saved? Behold I say unto you, Nay; for it is by faith that miracles are wrought; and it is by faith that Angels appear and minister unto humans; wherefore, if these things have ceased wo be unto the children of men, for it is because of unbelief, and all is vain. For no man can be saved, according to the words of Christ, save they shall have faith in his name; wherefore, if these things have ceased, then has faith ceased also; and awful is the state of man, for they are as though there had been no redemption made. However, behold, my beloved brethren, I judge better things for you, for I judge that ye have faith in Christ because of your meekness; for if ye have not faith in him then ye are not fit to be numbered among the people of his church. #RandolphHarris 29 of 31
“And again, my beloved brethren, I would speak unto you concerning hope. How is it that ye can attain unto faith, save ye shall have hope? And what is it that ye shall hope for? Behold I say unto you that ye shall have hope through the atonement of Christ and the power of his resurrection, to be raised unto life eternal, and this because of your faith in him according to the promise. Wherefore, if a human have faith one must needs have hope; for without faith there cannot be any hope. And again, behold I say unto you that one cannot have faith and hope, save one shall be meek, and lowly of heart. If so, one’s faith and hope is vain, for none is acceptable before God, save the meek and lowly in heart; and if a human be meek and lowly in heart, and confesses by the power of the Holy Ghost that Jesus is the Christ, one must needs have charity; for if one have not charity one is nothing; wherefore one must needs have charity. And charity suffereth long, and is kind, and envieth not, and is not puffed up, seeketh not one’s own , is not easily provoke, thinketh no evil, and rejoice not in iniquity but rejoiceth in the truth, beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things. #RandolphHarris 30 of 31
“Wherefore, my beloved brethren, if ye have not charity, ye are nothing, for charity never faileth. Wherefore, cleave unto charity, which is the greatest of all, for all things must fail—but charity is the pure love of Christ, and it endureth forever; and whoso is fund possessed of it at the last day, it shall be well with one. Wherefore, my beloved brethren, pray unto the Father with all the energy of heart, that ye may be filled with this love, which he hath bestowed upon all who are true followers of his Son, Jesus Christ; that ye may become the sons of God; that when he shall appear we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is; that we may have this hope; that we may be purified even as he is pure. Amen,” reports Moroni 7.1-48. For all this, Thy name, O our King, shall be blessed and exalted for ever and ever. May all the living do homage unto Thee forever and praise Thy name in truth, O God, who art our salvation and our help. Blessed be Thou, O, Lord, Beneficent One, unto whom our thanks are due. Our God and God of our fathers, bless us. #RandolphHarris 31 of 31
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And Now the Purple Dusk of Twilight Time Steals Across the Meadows of My Heart!
Civilization beings with order, grows with liberty, and dies with chaos. If one is always a little hungry, never quite warm enough, and never falling prey to the dangers of the soft life of self-gratification, a person can think and meditate better. Meditation is just oiling the machinery and making the unused parts come into use. You have not done enough, you have never done enough, so long as it is possible that you have something of value to contribute. Let us now consider whether justice requires the toleration of the intolerant, and if so under what conditions. There are a variety of situations in which this question arises. Some political parties in democratic states hold doctrines that commit them to suppress the constitutional liberties whenever they have power. Again, there are those who reject intellectual freedom but who nevertheless hold positions in the university. It may appear that toleration in these cases is inconsistent with the principles of justice, or at any rate not required by them. I shall discuss the matter in connection with religious toleration. With appropriate alterations the argument can be extended to these other instances. #RandolphHarris 1 of 20
Several questions should be distinguished. First, there is the question whether an intolerant sect has any title to complain if it is not tolerated; second, under what conditions tolerant sects have a right not to tolerate those which are intolerant; and last, when they have the right not to tolerate them, for what ends it should be exercised. Beginning with the first question, it seems that an intolerant sect has no title to complain when it is denied an equal liberty. At least this follows if it is assumed that one has no title to object to the conduct of others that is in accordance with principles one would use in similar circumstance to justify one’s action toward them. A person’s right to complain is limited to violations of principles one acknowledges oneself. A complaint is a protest addressed to another in good faith. It claims a violation of a principle that both parties accept. Now, to be sure, an intolerant human will say that one acts in good faith and that one does not ask anything for oneself that one denies to others. One’s view, let us suppose, is that one is acting on the principle that God is to be obeyed and the truth accepted by all. #RandolphHarris 2 of 20
This principle is absolute authority is perfectly general and by acting on it one is not making an exception in one’s own case. As one sees that matter, one is following the correct principle others reject. The reply to this defense is that, from the standpoint of the original position (designed to be a fair and impartial point of view that is to be adopted in our reasoning about fundamental principles of justice), no particular interpretation of religious truth can be acknowledged as binding upon citizens generally; nor can it be agreed that there should be one authority with the right to settle questions of theological doctrine. Each person must insist upon an equal right t decide what one’s religious obligations are. One cannot give up this right to another person or institutional authority. In fact, a human exercises one’s liberty in deciding to accept anther as an authority even when one regards this authority as infallible, since in doing this one in no way abandons one’s equal liberty of conscience as a matter of constitutional law. For this liberty as secured by justice is imprescriptible: a person is always free to change one’s faith and this right does not depend upon one’s having exercised one’s powers of choice regularly or intelligently. #RandolphHarris 3 of 20
We may observe that human beings having an equal liberty of conscience is consistent with the idea that all humans ought to obey God and accept the truth. The problem of liberty is that of choosing a principle by which the claims humans make on one another in the name of their religion are to be regulated. Granting that God’s will should be followed and the truth recognized does not as yet define a principle of adjudication. From the fact that God’s intention is to be complied with, it does follow that any person or institution has authority to interfere with another’s interpretation of one’s religious obligations. This religious principle justifies no one in demanding in law or politics a greater liberty for oneself. The only principles which authorize claims on institutions are those that would be chosen in the original position. Let us suppose, then, that an intolerant sect has no title to complain of intolerance. We still cannot say that tolerant sects have the right to suppress them. For one thing, others may have a right to complain. They may have this right not as a right to complain on behalf of the intolerant, but simply as a right to object whenever a principle of justice is violated. For justice is infringed whenever equal liberty is denied without sufficient reason. #RandolphHarris 4 of 20
The question, then, is whether being intolerant of another in grounds enough for limiting someone’s liberty. To simplify things, assumes that the tolerant sects have the right not to tolerate the intolerant in at least one circumstances, namely, when they sincerely and with reason believe that intolerance is necessary for their own security. This right follows readily enough since, as the original position is defined, each would agree to the right of self-preservation. Justice does not require that humans must stand idly by while others destroy the basis of their existence. Since it can never be to human’s advantage, from a general point of view, to forgo the right of self-protection, the only question, then, is whether the tolerant have a right to curb the intolerant when they are of no immediate danger to the equal liberties of others. Suppose that, in some way or other, an intolerant sect comes to exist within a well-ordered society accepting the two principles of justice. How are the citizens of this society to act in regard to it? Now certainly they would not suppress it simply because the members of the intolerant sect could not complain were they to do so. #RandolphHarris 5 of 20
Rather, since a just constitution exists, all citizens have a natural duty of justice to uphold it. We are not released from this duty whenever others are disposed to act unjustly. A more stringent condition is required: there must be some considerable risks to our own legitimate interests. Thus just citizens should strive to preserve the constitution with all its equal liberties as long as liberty itself and their own freedom are not in danger. They can properly force the intolerant to respect the liberty of others, since a person can be required to respect the rights established by principles that one would acknowledge in the original position. However, when the constitution itself is secure, there is no reason to deny freedom to the intolerant. The question of tolerating the intolerant is directly related to that of the stability of a well-ordered society regulated by the two principles. We can see this as follows. It is from the position of equal citizenship that persons join the various religious associations, and it is from this position that they should conduct their discussions with one another. Citizens in a free society should not think one another incapable of a sense of justice unless this is necessary for the sake of liberty itself. #RandolphHarris 6 of 20
If an intolerant sect appears in a well-ordered society, the others should keep in mind the inherent stability of their institutions. The liberties of the intolerant may persuade them to a belief in freedom. This persuasion works on the psychological principle that those whose liberties are protected by and who benefit from a just constitution will, ceteris paribus (other things equal), acquire an allegiance to it over a period of times. So even if an intolerant sect should arise, provided that it is not so strong initially that it can impose its will straightway, or does not grow so rapidly that the psychological principle has no time to take hold, it will tend to lose its intolerance and accept liberty of conscience. This is the consequence of the stability of just institutions, for stability means that when tendencies to injustice arise other forces will be called into play that work to preserve the justice of the whole arrangement. Of course, the intolerant sect may be so strong initially or growing so fast that the forces making for stability cannot convert it to liberty. This situation presents a practical dilemma which philosophy alone cannot resolve it. #RandolphHarris 7 of 20
Whether the liberty of the intolerant should be limited to preserve freedom under a just constitution depends on the circumstances. The theory of justice only characterizes the just constitution, the end of political action by reference to which practical decisions are to be made. In pursuing this end the natural strength of free institutions must not be forgotten, nor should it be supposed that tendencies to depart from them go unchecked and always win out. Knowing the inherent stability of a just constitution, members of a well-ordered society have the confidence to limit the freedom of the intolerant only in the special cases when it is necessary for preserving equal liberty itself. Therefore, while an intolerant sect does not itself have title to complain of intolerance, its freedom should be restricted only when the tolerant sincerely and with reason believe that their own security and that of the institutions of liberty are in danger. The tolerant should curb the intolerant only in this case. The leading principle is to establish a justice constitution with the liberties of equal citizenship. The just should be guided by the principles of justice and not the fact that the unjust cannot complain. #RandolphHarris 8 of 20
It should be noted that even when the freedom of the intolerant is limited to safeguard a just constitution, this is not done in the name of maximizing liberty. The liberties of some are not suppressed simply to make possible a greater liberty for others. Justice forbids this sort of reasoning in connection with liberty as much as it does in regard to the sum of advantages. It is only the liberty of the intolerant which is to be limited, and this is done for the sake of equal liberty under a just constitution the principles of which the intolerant themselves would acknowledge in the original position. The argument in this and in the preceding sections suggests that the adoption of the principle of equal liberty can be viewed as a limiting case. Even though their differences are profound and no one knows how to reconcile them by reason, humans can, from the standpoint of the original position, still agree on this principle if they can agree on any principle at all. This idea which arose historically with religious toleration can be extended to other instances. Thus we can suppose that the persons in the original position know that they have moral convictions although, as the veil of ignorance requires, they do not know what these convictions are. #RandolphHarris 9 of 20
They understand that the principles they acknowledge are to override these beliefs when there is a conflict; but otherwise they need not revise their opinions nor give them up when these principles do not uphold them. In this way the principles of justice can adjudicate between opposing moralities just as they regular the claims of rival religions. Within the framework that justice established, moral conceptions with different principles, or conceptions representing a different balancing of the same principles, may be adopted by various parts of society. What is essential is that when persons with different convictions make conflicting demands on the basic structure as a matter of political principle, they are to judge these claims by the principles of justice. The principles that would be chosen in the original position are the kernel of political morality. They not only specify the terms of cooperation between persons but they define a pact of reconciliation between diverse religions and moral beliefs, and the forms of culture to which they belong. If this conception of justice now seems largely negative, we shall see that it has a happier side. #RandolphHarris 10 of 20
When we overcome our own selfish desires and put God first in our lives and covenant to serve God regardless of the cost, we are then living the law of sacrifice. One of the best ways to be sure we are keeping the first great commandment is to keep the second. “I am the Lord thy God, thou shalt not have any strange god before me. Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain.” The faithful are required to honour the name of God. If we are to love God with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength, it makes sense that we are naturally to respect the name of God with equal passion and vigour. The law of sacrifice provides an opportunity for us to prove to the Lord that we love Him more than any other thing. As a result the course sometimes becomes difficult since this process of perfection that prepares us for the celestial kingdom to “dwell in the presence of God and His Christ forever and ever,” reports Doctrine and Covenants 76.62. The sacred mission of the Church is to “invite all to come unto Christ,” reports Doctrine and Covenants 20.59. Come unto Christ and be perfected in Him. In that light, the law of sacrifice has always been a means for God’s children to come unto the Lord Jesus Christ. #RandolphHarris 11 of 20
Let us here observe, that a religion that does not require the sacrifice of all things never has power sufficient to produce the faith necessary unto life and salvation; it is though the medium of the sacrifice of all Earthly things that humans do actually know that they are doing the things that are well pleasing in the sight of God. When a human has offered in sacrifice all that one has for the truth’s sake, not even withholding one’s life, and believing before God that one has been called to make this sacrifice because one seeks to do one’s will, one does know, most assuredly, that God does and will accept one’s sacrifice and offering, and that one has not, nor will seek one’s face in vain. Under these circumstances, then one can obtain the faith necessary for one to lay hold on eternal life. We know what we do is pleasing before God and understand that this knowledge comes to us through sacrifice and obedience. Those who come unto Christ in this way receive a confidence that whispers peace to their souls and that will eventually enable them to lay hold upon eternal life. Sacrifice allows us to learn something about ourselves—what we are willing to offer the Lord through our obedience. #RandolphHarris 12 of 20
Through sacrifice and service, one comes to know the Lord. As we sacrifice our selfish desires, serve our God and others, we become more like Him. We do this by our obedience to the commandments of God. Thus, the laws of obedience and sacrifice are indelibly intertwined. As we comply with these and other commandments, something wonderful happens to us. We become more sacred and holy—more like our Lord! In fact, the word sacrifice means literally “to make scared,” or “to render sacred.” Our first lessons about the law of sacrifice, as well as other gospel principles, began in our premotal life. We were taught the fulness of the gospel and the plan of salvation. We knew of the Saviour’s mission and of His futre atoning sacrifice, and we willingly sustained Christ as our Saviour and our Redeemer. In fact, we learn from Revelation 12.9, 11 that it is by “the blood of the Lamb” (Christ’s atoning sacrifice) and our testimony that we are able to overcome Satan. The Lord designed in the beginning to place before humans the knowledge of good and evil, and gave one a commandment to cleave to good and abstain from evil. #RandolphHarris 13 of 20
However, if one should fail, God would give unto one the law of sacrifice and provide a Saviour for one, that one might be brought back again into the presence and favour of God and partake of eternal life with God. This is the plan of redemption chosen and instituted by the Alight before human was placed on Earth. Adam and Eve were taught the law of sacrifice and were commanded to practice it by giving offerings. These included two emblems: the firstlings of the flock and the first fruits of the field. They obeyed without questioning. The effect of this law was that the best of the Earth produced, the best specimen in the flock or heard should not be sued for self, but for God. At a time in history when it was a struggle to make sure the family had food, those who sought to worship the Lord were asked to sacrifice the best part of their source of life. It was the real test of Adam and Eve’s faith, and they obeyed. “And now I speak concerning baptism. Behold, elders, priests, and teachers were baptized; and they were not baptized save they brought forth fruit meet that they were worthy of it. Neither did they receive any unto baptism save they came forth with a broken heart and a contrite spirit, and witnessed unto the church that they truly repented of all their sins. #RandolphHarris 14 of 20
“And none were received unto baptism save they took upon them the name of Christ, having a determination to serve him to the end. And after they had been received unto baptism, and were wrought upon and cleansed by the power of the Holy Ghost, they were numbered among the people of the church of Christ; and their names were taken that they might be remembered and nourished by the good word of God, to keep them in the right way, to keep them continually watchful unto prayer, relying alone upon the merits of Christ, who was the author and the finisher of their faith. And the church did meet together oft, to fast and to pray, and to speak one with another concerning the welfare of their souls. And hey did meet together oft to partake of bread and wine, in remembrance of the Lord Jesus. And they were strict to observe that there should be no iniquity among them; and whoso was found to commit iniquity, and three witnesses of the church did condemn them before the elders, and if they repented not and confessed not, their names were blotted out, and they were not numbered among the people of Christ. #RandolphHarris 15 of 20
“However, as oft as they repented and sought forgiveness, with real intent, they were forgiven. And their meetings were conducted by the church after the manner of the workings of the Spirit, and by the power of the Holy Ghost; for as the power of the Holy Ghost led them whether to preach, or to exhort, or to pray, or to supplicate, or to sing, even so it was done,” reports Moroni 6.1-9. It is especially in our families and similarly close associations that we must identify the elements of assault and withdrawal that defeat love and right relation to others. By insight and practice we must break away from them and reserve them, first by learning a calm but firm non-cooperation with those poisonous elements, and then by initiatives of goodwill and blessing in the midst of them. What we do in our meetings as Christians should be focused on enabling us to do this effectively wherever we are. Those meetings should and could be centers from which powerfully redemptive community spreads. Where to start? In various parts of the United States of America, publicly owned vehicles (police, street maintenance, schools) wear a bumper sticker that proclaims, “There is No Excuse for Domestic Violence.” It is a wonderful idea. #RandolphHarris 16 of 20
However, we need to go deeper, of course. We need to become the kind of people whom domestic violence is unthinkable and never an option. We must be transformed in such a way that our minds and bodies—our very souls—simply do not have the makeup for it. This is the work of the Christian spiritual formations. We must begin in the family. Now the slogan must be, “There is No Excuse for Assault or Withdrawal in the Home.” Do you think that would take care of intimate partner violence? Of course it would. However, the reserve is not true: merely avoiding the subject of intimate partner violence, domestic violence or assault can still leave the home a hell of cutting remarks, contempt, coldness, and withdrawal or noninvolvement. Such a hell is often found in the homes of Christians and even of Christian leaders. Frequently they seem to honestly think that such a condition is normal, and they have no knowledge of any other way. Their very theology may strengthen this tragically false outlook. If I were married, I would seek the help of my spouse in this matter. If not, then a trusted friend who is spiritually mature and not abusive. #RandolphHarris 17 of 20
I would then number my areas of need in order of importance, say: Purity, Mind, Prayer, Witness, Giving, Work, Friendship, and Leadership. Then, beginning with the first need, Purity, I would look over the suggested sub-disciplines and choose one to three things which I think would best help me improve. In doing this, I would resist the temptation to commit myself to too many disciplines. Better to succeed in a few than to assure failure by overcommitment. Perhaps, regarding the discipline of Purity I would choose to commit myself, first, to memorizing Scripture which help steel me to temptations, and second, to not watching anything sensual on TV or at the movies. Perhaps under Witness, I would make commitments to pray that God would give me someone to share Christ with and to join an interest club to meet unchurched people. After going through my life I would have perhaps twenty specific things which I could do to improve my eight weakest areas. However, before commitment to the specifics, I would look at the whole list with honest realism, asking, “Are the things which I am about to commit to really within my reach with the help of God?” #RandolphHarris 18 of 20
Perhaps, regarding the discipline of Mind, I have become so convicted that I am considering committing myself to reading the Old Testament once and the New Testament twice, plus reading The Book of Mormon. Make sure your commitments make you sweat, but also make sure that taken together they are manageable. It is better to increase your commitments as you succeed than to bite off more than you can do. Success begets success. Before setting your commitments in concrete, give yourself a week to think about them and pray over them. Seek the Holy Spirit’s guidance for other ways of personal discipline not mentioned in this essay. Ask your spouse of friend to hold you accountable for your disciplines. Even if it has to be over the phone, make sure you regularly confer and pray. Be honest about your success and failures. And be willing to take advice and make adjustments. You may have some complications, no doubt, and may not succeed at time. When this happens, wounded pride and embarrassment can make you want to take your marbles and go home. We do not like to do things which we fail. #RandolphHarris 19 of 20
However, we must realize that failure is a part of succeeding, provided we admit our failures and go at it again. Moreover, we are not under Law but grace. God is not counting our failure against us, and we are not building a treasure of merit with our success. We are simply trying to live a disciplined life which pleases our loving Father—and He understands our failures better than we understand our own children’s. When the movement in one direction has exhausted itself, there is a pause, and then a reversal directs the movement into the opposite direction. The flow of Nature follows the course indicated by the Principle of Reversion, which throws it back after a time in the opposite direction. When the point of farthest travel is reached, the forces reverse themselves. In this way, excess disciplines and even defeats itself. In this way too the Universe and all the different kinds of existence in it are kept in equilibrium. In the to-and-fro movement of human breathing, we have a kay to human development. Study it well with this assistance and you will discern a forward and backward movement, a pendulum-like swing, here too. Everything in the Universe is subject to a pendulum-like movement. It shuttles to and from with a coming-to-be and a ceasing-to-be effect. #RandolphHarris 20 of 20
Winchester Mystery House
Sarah Winchester had multiple rooms dedicated to plants and flowers. This room, her South Conservatory, contains over 200 panes of glass to allow for natural light. How would you spend a day alone in this room?
Explore the house from the comfort of your own home!
Learn More Link in bio. winchestermysteryhouse.com
A 160-room mansion built to appease the spirits who died at the hands of the Winchester Rifle 👻
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The Unconscious Thinks and Lives in Terms of Millennia–for that We Require the Help of the Black Magician!
People who take an optimum amount of vitamin C will experience only a quarter as much illness as those who do not. Through proper use, we could raise the average life expectancy by eight years. We have certain ideas as to how a civilized or educated or moral being should live, and we occasionally do our best to fulfill these ambitious expectations. Vegetables are interesting but lack a sense of purpose when unaccompanied by a good cut of meat. We call the unconscious “nothing,” and yet it is a reality in poetentia. The thought we shall think, the deed we shall do, even the fate we shall lament tomorrow, all lie unconscious in our today. The unknown is us which the affect uncovers was always there and sooner or later would have presented itself to the conscious. Sarah Winchester’s mansion has hosted many glittering, star studded parties and was regarded as the place to see and been seen. Conrad Nicholson Hilton, Constance Hilton, Zsa Zsa Gabor, William Randolph Heart, Phoebe Apperson, Vivien Leigh, Hattie McDaniel, and Sidney Howard are said to have visited. As often happens, the intensity of emotion experienced over the years by those anxious to be recognized at the mysterious mansion has left the grand Queen Anne, Eastlake, Gothic mansion uniquely stocked with echoes from the past. #RandolphHarris 1 of 28
The only slightly surprising element to this haunted house is that ghosts were apparently not officially acknowledged until 1985, just prior to the mansion’s $40-million renovation. During mid-December in 1985, everyone at the Winchester mansion was busy preparing for the upcoming day when the mansion would once again receive guests. No matter what their usual duties or job titles, all employees were directly involved with the last-minute details—secretaries were sweeping, butlers were dusting, waitresses were helping make up guest rooms. The place was a veritable model of industry. Mr. Jim was in the Grand Ballroom, which some consider the most beautiful room in the house, in anticipation of the new carpet being installed. Like many of those on the staff, Mr. Jim was a part-time Hollywood actor; given the star-studded history of the mansion, the “day job” was very much a labour of love. Being able to devote some of himself this gorgeous room that had been so important to the history of movie-making felt more like a privilege than a chore. It was also a perfect time, he thought, to commune with the spirits of those who came to the mansion to celebrate receiving Academy Awards here. As Mr. Jim’s experience unfolded, it became a far closer encounter than he anticipated. #RandolphHarris 2 of 28
The Grand Ballroom is large and the job had to be done thoroughly, so Mr. Jim was taking his time and making sure he did not miss any part of the floor. After repeatedly going back over to a certain area in the Grand Ballroom, he realized that while the rest of the room was kept at a very comfortable temperature, the air in that particular spot was incredibly chilly. More puzzled than concerned Mr. Jim wanted to determine what was causing this draft. The temperature was an inexplicably 20 degrees Fahrenheit cooler in this circle which was about 45 inches in diameter near a wall, mahogany framed mirror. As Mr. Jim wiped his cloth over the reflective glass, he was astonished to see the face a young man, with slick dark hair, smoking a cigarette staring back at him. Mr. Jim was alone in the room, so he quickly turned around to see who had joined him. There was no one else in the room, and that was not his face in the mirror. He turned back to the mirror. The image was still there. That was enough for Mr. Jim. He took it as a sign to remove the carpet he had just installed. #RandolphHarris 3 of 28
According to information released by the mansion, the mirror was gifted to the mansion by Boris Karloff with a note saying, “A warm private friendship has subsisted between us for half our lives, interrupted by no untoward occurrence, and never for a moment cooling into indifference. Of this friendship, the source of so much happiness to me, I wish to leave, if not an enduring memorial, at least an affectionate and grateful acknowledgment. I inscribe this mirror to you.” One night, I was in the Winchester mansion, standing in the presence of a sublime hieratic figured we now called the “Warlock” who was clothed in a long black robe reflecting from the mirror. This warlock was Boris Karloff, and he had just ended a lengthy discourse with the words, “And for that we require the help of black magician.” Then the door suddenly opened and an old man came in, the “black magician,” who however was dressed in a white rob. He too looked noble and sublime. The black magician evidently wanted to speak with the warlock, but he hesitated to do so in my presence. As that the warlock, point to me, said, “Speak, only an innocent is here.” So the black magician began to relate a strange story of how he had found the lost keys of Paradise and did not know how to use them. #RandolphHarris 4 of 28
The black magician told the warlock (Boris) that the king of the country in which he lived was seeking a suitable tomb for himself. The king’s subjects had chanced to dig up an old sarcophagus, threw away the bones, and had the empty sarcophagus buried again for later use on the spot that this sprawling mansion now occupies. However, no sooner had the bones seen the light of day than the being to whom they once had belonged—the virgin—changed into a black horse that galloped off into the desert. The black magician pursued it across the sandy coast and beyond, and there after many vicissitudes and difficulties he found the lost keys of Paradise. That was the end of history, and also, unfortunately, of the warlock and his mirror. It supposedly shattered into pieces, was sent out to San Francisco for repair and never returned. This haunting did not fall out as we had wished, no one understand what the warlock, the black magician, and the king were trying to tell us. The meaning of the story died with the disappearance of the haunted mirror. We were confronted with a problem and one which life is always brining us up against: namely, the uncertainty of all moral valuation, the bewildering interplay of good and evil, and the remorseless concatenation of guilt, suffering, and redemption. #RandolphHarris 5 of 28
This path to the primordial religious experience is the right one, but how many recognize it? It is like a still small voice, and it sounds from afar. It is ambiguous, questionable, dark, presaging danger and hazardous adventure; a razor-egged path, to be trodden for God’s sake only, without assurance and without sanction. Hence we must always reckon with the presence of things not yet discovered. These, as I have said, may be unknow quirks of character. However, the possibilities of future development may also come to light in this way, perhaps in just such an outburst of affect which sometimes radically alters the whole situation. The unconscious has a Janus-face: on one side its contents point back to a preconscious, prehistoric World of instinct, while on the other side it potentially anticipates the future—precisely because of the instinctive readiness for action of the factors that determine human’s fate. If we had complete knowledge of the ground plan lying dormant in an individual from the beginning, one’s fate would be in large measure predictable. #RandolphHarris 6 of 28
Now, to the extent that unconscious tendencies—by they backward-looking images or forward-looking anticipations—appear in visions, vision have been regarded, in all previous ages less as historical regression than as anticipations of the future, and rightly so. For everything that will be happens on the basis of what has been, and of what—consciously or unconsciously—still exists as a memory-trace. In s far as no human is born totally new, but continually repeats the stage of development last reached by the species, one contains unconsciously, as an a priori datum, the entire psychic structure developed both upwards and downwards by one’s ancestors in the course of the ages. That is what gives the unconscious its characteristic “historical” aspect, but it is at the same time the sine qua non for shaping the future. For this reason it is often very difficult to decide whether an autonomous manifestation of the unconscious should be interpreted as an effect (and therefore historical) or as an aim (and therefore teleological and anticipatory). The conscious mind thinks as a rule without regard to ancestral preconditions and without taking into account the influence this a priori factor has on the shaping of the individual’s fate. #RandolphHarris 7 of 28
Whereas we think in periods of years, the unconscious thinks and lives in terms of millennia. So when something happens that seems to us an unexampled novelty, it is generally a very old story indeed. We still forget, like children, what happened yesterday. We are still living in a wonderful new World where humans think themselves astonishingly new and “modern.” This is unmistakable proof of the youthfulness of human consciousness, which has not yet grown aware of its historical antecedents. As a matter of fact, the “normal” person convinces me far more of the autonomy of the unconscious than does the insane person. Psychiatric theory can always take refuge behind real or alleged organic disorders of the brain and thus detract from the importance of the unconscious. However, when it comes to normal humanity, such a view is no longer applicable. What one sees happening in the World is no just a shadowy vestige of activities that were once conscious, but expression of a living psychic condition that still exists and always will exist. Were that not so, one might well be astonished. However, it is precisely those who give least credence to the autonomy of the unconscious who are the most surprised by it. #RandolphHarris 8 of 28
Because of its youthfulness and vulnerability, our consciousness tends to make light of the unconscious. This is understandable each, for if one wants to start something on one’s own account. a young person should not let oneself be overawed by the authority of one’s parents. Historically as well as individually, our consciousness has developed out of the darkness and somnolence of primordial unconsciousness. There were psychic processes and functions long before any ego-consciousness existed. Thinking existed long before humans were able to say: “I am conscious of thinking.” The primitive “perils of the soul” consist mainly of dangers to consciousness. Fascination, bewitchment, “loss of soul,” possession, et cetera are obviously phenomena of the dissociation and suppression of consciousness caused by unconscious contents. Even civilized humans are not yet entirely free of the darkness of primeval times. The unconscious is the mother of consciousness. Where there is a mother there is also a father, yet one seems to be unknown. #RandolphHarris 9 of 28
Consciousness in the pride of its youth, may deny its father, but it cannot deny its mother. That would be too unnatural, for one can see in every child how hesitantly and slowly its ego-consciousness evolves out of a fragmentary consciousness lasting for single moments only, and how these islands gradually emerge from the total darkness of mere instinctuality. Consciousness grows out of an unconscious psyche which is older than it, and which goes on functioning together with it or even in spite of it. Although there are numerous cases of conscious contents becoming unconscious again (through being repressed, for instance), the unconscious as a whole is far from being a mere remnant of consciousness. Or are the psychic functions of animals remnants of consciousness? There is little hope of our finding in the unconscious an order equivalent to that of the ego. It certainly does not look as if we were likely to discover an unconscious ego-personality, something in the nature of a Pythagorean “counter-Earth.” And this of course means “miraculous” interposition, but not necessarily of the gross sort our fathers took such delight in representing, and which has so lost is magic for us. #RandolphHarris 10 of 28
If evil were really one under the same sun, the sky would incontinently shrivel to a snakeskin and cast it out in spasms. However, the spasms of Nature are years and centuries; and it will tax human’s patience to wait so long. We may think of the reserved possibilities God keeps in his own hand, under as invisible and molecular slowly self-summating a form as we please. We may think of them as counteracting human agencies which God inspires ad hoc. In short, signs and wonders and convulsions of the Earth and sky are not the only neutralizers of obstruction to God’s plans of which it is possible to think. As long as languages contain a future perfect tense, determinists, following the bent of laziness or passion, the lines of least resistance, can reply in that tense, saying, “It will have been fated,” to the still small voice which urges an opposite course; and thus excuse themselves from effort in a quiet unanswerable way. Vampires, Ghost, and Demons—God Himself, you think, can have no use for them. An immortality of every separate specimen must be to Him and to the Universe as indigestible a load to carry as it is to you. #RandolphHarris 11 of 28
So, engulfing the whole subject in a sort of mental giddiness and nausea, you drift along, first doubting that the mass can be immortal, then losing all assurance in the immortality of a particular person, precious as you all the while feel and realize the latter to be. This, I am sure, is the attitude of mind of some of you before me. However, is not such an attitude due to the verist lack and dearth of your imagination? You take these swarms of alien kinsmen as they are for you: an external picture painted on your retina, representing a crowd oppressive by tis vastness and confusion. As they are for you, so you think they positively and absolutely are. I feel no call for them, you say; therefore there is no call for them. However, all the while, beyond this externality which is your way of realizing them, they realize themselves with the acutest internality, with the most violent thrills of life. It is you who are dead, stone-dead and blind and senseless, in your way of looking. You open your eyes upon a scene of which you miss the whole significance. Each of these grotesque or even repulsive aliens is animated by an inner joy of living as hot or hotter than that which you feel beating in your private breast. #RandolphHarris 12 of 28
The sun rises and beauty beams to light his path. To miss the inner joy of him is to miss the whole of him. Not a being of the countless throng is there whose continued life is not called for, and called for intensely, by the consciousness that animates the being’s form. That you neither realize nor understand nor call for it, that you have no use for it, is an absolutely irrelevant circumstance. That you have a saturation-point of interest tells us nothing of the interest that absolutely are. The Universe, with every living entity which her resources create, creates at the same time a call for that entity, and an appetite for its continuance—creates it, if nowhere else, at least within the heart of the entity itself. It is absurd to suppose, simply because our private power of sympathetic vibration wit other lives gives out so soon, that in the heart of infinite being itself there can be such a thing as plethora, or glut, or supersaturation. It is not as if there were a bounded room where the minds in possession had to move up or make place and crowd together to accommodate new occupants. Each new mind brings its own edition of the Universe of space along with it, its own room to inhabit; and these spaces never crowd each other—the space of my imagination, for example, in no way interferes with yours. #RandolphHarris 13 of 28
The amount of possible consciousness seems to be governed by no law analogous to that of the so-called conservation of energy in the material World. When one human wakes up, or is born, another does not have to go to sleep, or die, in order to keep the consciousness of the Universe a constant quantity. There is a law of the Universe called the Law of Increase of Spiritual energy, by Dr. Wundt, which expressly oppose the law of conservation of energy in physical things. There seems no formal limit to the positive increase of being in spiritual respects; and since spiritual being, whenever it conies, affirms itself, expands and craves continuance, we may justly and literally say, regardless of the defect of our own private sympathy, that the supply of the individual life in the Universe can never possibly, however immeasurable it may become, exceed the demand. The demand for that supply is there the moment the supply itself comes into being, for the beings supplied demand their own continuance. Through many diversified channels of expression, the eternal Spirit of the Universe affirms and realizes its own infinite life. However, if we are theists, we can go no farther without altering the result. #RandolphHarris 14 of 28
God, we can then say, has so inexhaustible a capacity for love that His call and need is for literally endless accumulation of created lives. God can never faint or grow weary, as we should, under the increasing supply. God’s scale is infinite in all things. His sympathy can never know satiety or glut. Furthermore, consciousness in this process does not have to be generated de novo in a vast number of places. It exists already, behind the scenes, coeval with the World. The condition of consciousness is a certain kind of psychophysical movement. Before consciousness can come, a certain degree of activity in the movement must be reached. This requisite degree is called the threshold; but the height of the threshold varies under different circumstances: it may rise of fall. When it falls, as in states of great lucidity, we grow conscious of things of which we should be unconscious at other times; when it rises, as in drowsiness, consciousness sinks in amount. This rising and lowering of a psychophysical threshold exactly conforms to our notion of a permanent obstruction to the transmission of consciousness, which obstruction may, in our brains, grow alternately greater or less. #RandolphHarris 15 of 28
The transmission-theory also puts itself in touch with a whole class of experiences that are with difficulty explained by the production-theory. I refer to those obscure and exceptional phenomena reported at all times throughout human history which the psychical-researchers are doing to much to rehabilitate; such phenomena, namely, as religious conversions, providential leadings in answers to prayer, instantaneous healings, premonitions, apparitions at time of death, clairvoyant visions or impressions, and the whole range of mediumistic capacities, to say nothing of still more exceptional and incomprehensible things. If all our human thought be a function of the brain, then of course, if any of these things are fact—and to my own mind some of them are fact—we may not suppose that they can occur without preliminary brain-action. However, the ordinary production-theory of consciousness is knit up with a peculiar notion of how brain-action can occur—that notion being that all brain-action, without exception, is due to a prior action, immediate or remote, of the bodily sense-organs on the brain. #RandolphHarris 16 of 28
Such action makes the brain produce sensations and mental images, and out of the sensations and images the higher forms of thought and knowledge in their turn are framed. As transmissionists, we also must admit this to the condition of all our usual thought. Sense-action is what lowers the brain-barrier. My voice and aspect, for instance strike upon your ears and eyes; your brain thereupon becomes more previous, and an awareness on your part of what I say and who I am slips into this World from the World behind the veil. However, in the mysterious phenomena to which I allude, it is often hard to see where the sense-organs can come in. A medium, for example, will show knowledge of his sitter’s private affairs which it seems impossible he should have acquired through sight or hearing, or inference therefrom. Or you will have an apparition of some one who is now dying hundreds of miles away. We need only suppose the continuity of our consciousness with a mother sea, to allow for exceptional waves occasionally pouring over the dam. Of course the causes of these odd lowerings of the brain’s threshold still remain a mystery on any terms with its grouping of Heavenly and Hellish forces upon a common center. #RandolphHarris 17 of 28
If it were the dark nor even if all were in the light, we could see no form of anything at all. The contrast of shadow and light is needed to define the form. Opposites are always necessary to each other. This is why they are present throughout the Universe and moreover present in all possible combinations and proportions in all possible rhythms and patterns. It is present in life, in all things, in planets and seasons. It is the eternal and invariable law of manifested existence. For anything to exist for us at all, it needs an opposite to compare it with, or it will remain non-existent to our consciousness. Unless it recognizes the pairs of opposites, thinking cannot come into existence at all. If we had not experienced Evil, we could not appreciate Good. If we had not become lost in Appearance, we could not appreciate Reality. It may be that for us humans, the ultimate meaning of the cosmos lies implicit in this truth. The acting self needs an outer World and an inner one—both. All things in human’s experience can be classified into pairs of opposites—that which experiences and that which is experienced. In each pair the first member itself becomes, on analysis, the second member of another pair. #RandolphHarris 18 of 28
Whatever we look at, we see only in a relationship of contrast to something else. It is a mistake to consider this opposition to be antagonistic. On the contrary, if our perception is to be true and our judgment correct, each should be considered a part of the other. This teaches us to synthesize, to look at both sides of a thing, to include both points of view in an argument, and to add the similarities also instead of nothing the differences alone. It may be unusual, inconsistent, startling, to propose that we think in terms of opposing ideas, of conflicting statements, and find identity in variety, but this is Nature’s own way—her balance. Balance is a teaching which plays on contradictions and finds room for opposites. It seems them both in the structure of the Universe and in the movement of evolution. It puts them in its approach to human problems. Each to view of a thing or idea implies the existence of the contrary view. To understand that the universal evolution depends upon a two-way interconnected movement, and that its comprehension requires us to think about it in oppositional terms, is to be liberated from the narrow, one sided, incomplete, and intolerant thinking which is responsible for so many absurdities and miseries in human history. #RandolphHarris 19 of 28
When both ignore the two-face character of fortune and Nature, optimism becomes unreasonable pessimism. The life of the human being is one of relating to others. We reemphasize: The life of the human beings is one of relating to others. Though many are cursed to live and die alone, we are born of relations and into relations. One of the heart-rending stories found in Sarah Winchester’s diary is of a broken human being living on the streets. He was dying, and Mrs. Winchester took him in and had her staff care for him. When he recovered, she gave him a job and a place to stay on her estate. To merely welcome another, to provide for one, to make a place, is one of the most life-giving and life-receiving things a human being can do. They are the basic, universal acts of love. Our lives were meant to be full of such acts, drawing on the abundance of God, and they achieve their greatest fulfillment precisely when, like Jesus, we “lay down our lives for the brethren.” This “relating” quality reaches into every dimension of human existence. It characterizes the basic nature of all thought and feeling, which is always thought of or feeling something other than itself. #RandolphHarris 20 of 28
The way relate to others pervades the deepest reaches of our body, soul, and World, where our very identity—who we really are—is always intermingled (if sometimes negatively, by reaction) with others who have given us life, sustained us, or walked with us—or perhaps have deeply injured us. The call of “the other” on our lives is a constant for everyone. It is the basic reality of a moral existence, which we retreat from only into a living death of isolation. If we make our purpose to save our life by withdrawal, we lost it. So Jesus said. However, this is not only a revealed truth, it is also a testable fact of life. If you would live, then give—and receive. Now you understand why Sarah Winchester, even though she withdrew, created a microcosm in her own mansion, and kept people employed for 38 years of nonstop construction. “And it came to pass when Corintumr had recovered of his wounds, he began to remember the words which Ether had spoken unto him. He saw that there had been slain by the sword already nearly two millions of his people, and he began to sorrow in his heart; yea, there had been slain two millions of mighty men, and also their wives and the children. #RandolphHarris 21 of 28
“He began to repent of evil which he had done; he began to remember the words which had been spoken by the mouth of all the prophets, and he saw them that they were fulfilled thus far, every whit; and his soul mourned and refused to be comforted. And it came to pass that he write an epistle unto Shiz, desiring him that he would spare the people, and he would give up the kingdom for the sake of their lives of the people. And it came to pass that when Shiz had received his epistle he wrote an epistle unto Coriantumr, that is he would give himself up, that he might slay him with his own sword, that he would spare the lives of the people. And it came to pass that the people repented not of their iniquity; and the people of Coriantumr were stirred up to anger against the people of Shiz; and the people of Shiz were stirred up to anger against the people of Coriantumr; wherefore, the people of Shi did give battle unto the people of Coriantumr. And when Coriantumr saw that he was about to fall he fled again before the people of Shiz. And it came to pass that he came to the waters of Ripliancum, which, by interpretation, is large, or to exceed all; wherefore, when they came to these waters they pitched their tents. #RandolphHarris 22 of 28
“And Shiz also pitched his tents near unto them; and therefore on the morrow they did come to battle. And it came to pass that they fought and exceedingly sore battle, in which Coriantumr was wounded again, and he fainted with the loss of blood. And it came to pass that the armies of Coriantumr did press upon the armies of Shiz that they beat them, that they caused them to flee before them; and they did flee southward, and did pitch their tents in a place which was called Ogath. And it came to pass that they army of Coriantumr did pitch their tents by the hill Ramah; and it was that same hill where my father Mormon did hide up the records unto the Lord, which were sacred. And it came to pass that they did gather together all the people upon all the face of the land, who had not been slain, save it was Ether. And it came to pass that Ether did behold all the doings of the people; and he beheld that the people who were for Coriantumr were gathered together to the army of Coriantumr; and the people who were for Shiz were gathered together to the army of Shiz. Wherefore, they were for the space of four years gathering together the people, that they might get all who were upon the face of the land, and that they might receive all the strength which it was possible that they could receive. #RandolphHarris 23 of 28
“And it came to pass that when they were all gathered together, every one to the army which he would, with their wives and their children—both men, women, and children being armed with weapons of war, having shields, and breastplates, and head-plates, and being clothed after the manner of war—they did march forth one against another to battle; and they fought all that day, and conquered not. And it came to pass that when it was night they were weary, and retired to their camps; and after they had retired to their camps they took up a howling and a lamentation for the loss of the slain of their people; and so great were their cries, their howling and a lamentation for the loss of the slain of their people; and so great were their cries, that they did rend the air exceedingly. And it came to pass that on the morrow they did go again to battle, and great and terrible was that day; nevertheless, they conquered not, and when the night came again they did rend the air with their cries, and their howlings, and their mournings, for the loss of the slain of their people. And it came to pass that Coriantumr wrote again an epistle unto Shiz, desiring that he would not come again to battle, but that he would take the kingdom, and spare the lives of the people. #RandolphHarris 24 of 28
“However, behold, the Spirit of the Lord had ceased striving with them, and Satan had full power over the hearts of the people; for they were given up unto the hardness of their hearts, and the blindness of their minds that they might be destroyed; wherefore they went again to battle. And it came to pass that they fought all that day, and when the night came they slept upon their swords. And on the morrow they fought even until the night came. And when the night came they were drunken with anger, even as a man who is drunken with wine; and they slept again upon their swords. And on the morrow they fought again; and when the night came they had fallen by the sword save it were fifty and two of the people of Coriantumr, and sixty nine of the people of Shiz. And it came to pass that they slept upon their swords that night, and on the morrow they fought again, and they contended in their might with their swords and with their shields, all that day. And when the night came there were thirty and two of the people of Shiz, and twenty and seven of the people of Coriantumr. And it came to pass that they ate and slept, and prepared for death on the morrow. And they were large and mighty men as to the strength of men. #RandolphHarris 25 of 28
“And it came to pass that they fought for the space of three hours, and they fainted with the loss of blood. And it came to pass that when the men of Coriantumr had received sufficient strength that they could walk, they were about to flee for their lives; but behold, Shiz arose, and also his men, and he swore in his wrath that he would slay Coriantumr or he would perish by the sword. Wherefore, he did pursue them, and on the morrow he did overtake them; and they fought again with the sword. And it came to pass that when they had all fallen by the sword, save it were Coriantumr and Shiz, behold Shiz had fainted with the loss of blood. And it came to pass that when Croiantumr had leaned upon his sword, that he rested a little, he smote off the head of Shiz. And it came to pass that after he had smitten off the head of Shiz, that Shiz raised up on his hands and fell; and after that he had struggled for breath, he died. And it came to pass that Coriantumr fell to the Earth, and became as if he had no life. And the Lord spake unto Ether, and said unto him: Go forth. And he went forth, and beheld that the words of the Lord has all been fulfilled; and he finished his record; (and the hundredth part I have not written) and he hid them in a manner that the people of Limhi did find them. #RandolphHarris 26 of 28
“Now the last words which are written by Ether are these: Whether the Lord will that I be translated, or that I suffer the will of the Lord in the flesh, it mattereth not, if it so be that I am saved in the kingdom of God. Amen,” reports Ether 15.1-34. “But the LORD said to him, ‘Not so; if anyone kills Cain, one will suffer vengeance seven times over.’ Then the LORD put a mark on Cain so that no one who found him would kill him. So Cain went out from the LORD’s presence and lived in the land of Nod, east of Eden,” reports Genesis 4.15-16. A view of the World which fails or refuses to recognize that the opposites are essential to it, which accepts its beauty but not its ugliness, is not complete and only a half truth. If there is suffering as well as sweetness in life, that is not accident, nor is it brought into the scheme of things by human evil alone: nothing exists without its contrary. In the end, a human must recognize that there are two forces a work in Nature—and therefore in one’s own life—the ne benign, the other hostile. The cold time is here: time to work and time to rest, time to celebrate inside, time to enjoy the harvest. All about us, the Land of Spirits are singing. All about us, the deities are speaking. Please help me listen, all you divine beings. May I hear your voices. #RandolphHarris 27 of 28
I need much help in cooling my Earth. I cannot do it alone I ask for help from the Sky: please give rise to your cloud with plentiful moisture and ice so the Earth can cool and have water. I ask for help from the rain: please give your moisture to be the plants’ own blood. I ask for help from the soil: please give your minerals from which the plants will form their bodies. I will give my time, I will give my care, I will give my loving stewardship. All these will I give my garden and I ask for your others to give what the garden of Eden will need as well. We will do it together and I will not forget your contribution. Glory His holy name; may your heart rejoice, ye who seek the Lord. Seek the Lord and His strength; seek His presence continually. Remember the marvellous works that He hath done, His wonders, and the judgments He decreed, O seed of Israel, His servant, Children of Jacob, His beloved ones. He is the Lord our God; His judgments are throughout the Earth. Remember His covenant forever, the word which He commanded to a thousand generations. In Luke 18.1-8, Jesus told a parable about an unfair, unjust judge who finally was willing to listen to a woman’s case because of her continual persistence. When it comes to God, that is the way we need to be of what he said. What promises or promises from God are you bringing to His constant remembrance? #RandolphHarris 28 of 28
Winchester Mystery House
WMH 13 Days of Christmas #7
Sarah Winchester’s innovations for water conservation was far ahead of her time. She had multiple rooms dedicated for plants, each with a complex drainage system that allowed for the reuse of water. On today’s episode of the Winchester Mystery House 13 Days of Christmas, explore Sarah’s North Conservatory and learn more about her magnificent innovations.
Winchester Mystery House
A 160-room mansion built to appease the spirits who died at the hands of the Winchester Rifle 👻
🗝 winchestermysteryhouse.com
Where Forces Rules, there is No Love, and where Love Reigns Force Does Not Count!
When the satisfaction or the security of another person becomes as significant to one as one’s own satisfaction or security, then the state of loves exists…Under no other circumstances is a state of love present, regardless of the popular usage of the word. But what has the individual personality to do with the plight of the many? In the first place one is part of the people as a whole, and is as much at the mercy of the power that moves the wholes as anybody else. The only thing that distinguishes one from all the others is one’s vocation. One has been called by that all-powerful, all-tyrannizing psychic necessity that is one’s own and one’s people’s affliction. If one hearkens to the voice, one is not once set apart and isolated as one has resolved to obey the law that commands one from within. “One’s own law!” everybody will cry. However, one knows better: it is the law, the vocation for which one is destined, no more “one’s own” than the lion that fells one, although it is undoubtedly this particular lion that kills one and not any other lion. Only in this sense is one entitled to speak of “one’s” vocation, “one’s” law. With the decision to put one’s way above all other possible ways one has already fulfilled the greater part of one’s vocation as a redeemer. #RandolphHarris 1 of 21
One has invalidated all other ways for oneself, exalting one’s law above convention and thus making a clean sweep of all those things that not only failed to prevent the great danger but actually accelerated it. For conventions in themselves are soulless mechanisms that can never understand more than the mere routine of life. Creative life always stands outside convention. That is why, when the mere routine of life predominated in the form of convention and tradition, there is bound to be a destructive outbreak of creative energy. Only when it is a mass phenomenon, is this outbreak is a catastrophe, but never in the individual who consciously submits to these higher powers and serves them with all one’s strength. The mechanism of convention keeps people unconscious, for in that state they can follow their accustomed tracks like blind brutes, without the need for conscious decision. This unintended result of even the best conventions is unavoidable but is no less a terrible danger for that. For when new conditions arise that are not provided for under the old conventions, then, just as with animals, panic is liable to break out among human beings kept unconscious by routine, and with equally unpredictable results. #RandolphHarris 2 of 21
Personality, however, does not allow itself to be seized by the panic terror of those who are just waking to consciousness, for it has put all its terrors behind it. It is able to cope with the changing times, and has unknowingly and involuntarily become a leader. All human beings are much alike, otherwise they could not succumb to the same delusion, and the psychic substratum upon which the individual consciousness is based is universally the same, otherwise people could never reach a common understanding. So, in this sense, personality and its peculiar psychic make-up are not something absolutely unique. The uniqueness holds only for the individual nature of the personality, as it does for every individual. To become a personality is not the absolute prerogative of the genius, for a human may be a genius without being a personality. In so far as every individual has the law of one’s life inborn in one, it is theoretically possible for any human to follow this law and so become a personality, that is, to achieve wholeness. However, since life only exists in the form of living unite, id est, individuals, the law of life always tends towards a life individual lived. #RandolphHarris 3 of 21
So although the objective psyche can only be conceived as a universal and uniform datum, which means that all humans share the same primary, psychic condition, this objective psyche must nevertheless individuate itself if it is to become actualized, for there is other way in which it could express itself except through the individual human being. When the psyche seizes hold of a group, in which case it must, of its own nature, precipitate a catastrophe, because it can only operate unconsciously and is not assimilated by any consciousness or assigned its place among the existing conditions of life, this is the only exception. Only the human who can consciously assent to the power of the inner voice becomes a personality; but if one succumbs to it one will be swept away by the blind flux of psychic events and destroyed. That is the great and liberating thing about any genuine personality: If it were lived unconsciously by the group, one voluntarily sacrifices oneself to one’s vocation, and consciously translates into one’s own individual reality what would only lead to ruin. One of the most shining examples of the meaning of personality that history has preserved for us is the life of Christ. #RandolphHarris 4 of 21
In Christianity, which, be it mentioned in passing, was the only religion really persecuted by the Romans, there rose up a direct opponent of the Caesarean madness that afflicted not only the emperor, but every Roman as well: civis Rmanus sum. The opposition showed itself wherever the worship of Caesar clashed with Christianity. However, as we know from what the evangelists tell us about the psychic development of Christ’s personality, this opposition was fought out just as decisively in the soul of its funder. The story of the Temptation clearly reveals the nature of the psychic power with which Jesus came into collision: it was the power-intoxicated devil of the prevailing Caesarean psychology that led him into dire temptation in the wilderness. As if it were trying to make a Caesar of him, this devil was the objective psyche that held all the peoples of the Roman Empire under its sway, and that is why it promised Jesus all the kingdoms of the Earth. Obeying the inner call of his vocation, Jesus voluntarily exposed himself to the assaults of the imperialistic madness that filled everyone, conqueror and conquered alike. #RandolphHarris 5 of 21
In this way, by exposing himself to the World’s suffering, Christ recognized the nature of the objective psyche which had plunged the whole World into misery and had begotten a yearning for salvation that found expression even in the pagan poets. Far from suppressing or allowing oneself to be suppressed by this psychic onslaught, Christ let it act on him consciously, and assimilated it. Thus was World-conquering Caesarism transformed into spiritual kingship, and the Roman Empire into the universal kingdom of God that was not of this World. While the whole Jewish nation was expecting an imperialistically minded and politically active hero as a Messiah, Jesus fulfilled the Messianic mission not so much for one’s own nation as for the whole Roman World, and pointed out to humanity the ancient truth that where force rules there is no love, and where love reigns force does not count. The religion of love was the exact psychological counterpart to the Roman devil-worship of power. This Roman devil-worship of force and power has its grip on Americans, especially those in California. #RandolphHarris 6 of 21
However, the example of Christianity is perhaps the best illustration of the previous abstraction argument. This apparently unique life became a sacred symbol because it is the psychological prototype of the only meaningful life, that is, of a life that strives for the individual realization—absolute and unconditional—of its own particular law. Well may we exclaim with Tertullian: anima naturaliter christiana! (A natural Christian soul.) The deification of Jesus, as also of the Buddha, is not surprising, for it affords a striking example of the enormous valuation that humanity places upon the ideal of personality. Though it seems at present as if the blind and destructive dominance of meaningless collective forces would thrust the ideal of personality into the background, yet this is only a passing revolt against the dead weight of history. Once the revolutionary, unhistorical, and therefore uneducated inclinations of the rising generation have had their fill of tearing down tradition, new heroes will be sought and found. Even the Bolseviks, whose radicalism leaves nothing to be desired, have embalmed Lenin and made a saviour Karl Marx. #RandolphHarris 7 of 21
The ideal of personality is one of the ineradicable needs of the human soul, and the more unsuitable it is the more fanatically it is defended. Indeed, the worship of Caesar was itself a misconceived cult of personality, and modern Protestantism, whose critical theology has reduced the divinity of Christ to vanishing point, has found its last refuge in the personality of Jesus. Yes, this thing we call personality is a great and mysterious problem. Everything that can be said about it is curiously unsatisfactory and inadequate, and there is always a danger of the discussion losing itself in pomposity and empty chatter. They very idea of personality is, in common usage, so vague and ill-defined that one hardly ever finds two people who take the word in the same sense. If I put forward a more definite conception of it, I do not imagine that I have uttered the last word. I should like to regard all I say here only as a tentative attempt to approach the problem of personality without making any claim to solve it. Or rather, I should like my attempt to be regarded as a description of the psychological problems raised by personality. #RandolphHarris 8 of 21
All the usual explanations and nostrums of psychology are apt to fall short here, just as they do with the human of genius or the creative artist. Inferences from heredity or from environment do not quite come off; inventing fictions about childhood, so popular today, ends—to put it mildly—in unreality; explanations from necessity—“he had no money,” “he was a sick man,” et cetera—remain caught in externals. There is always something irrational to be added, something that simply cannot be explained, a deus ex machina or an asylum ignorantiae, that well-known sobriquet for God. The problem thus seems to border on the extrahuman realm, which always been known by a divine name. Wherever we look or search, probe or analyse in this Universe, we find nothing that is permanent. Everything is moving slowly or swiftly to change of condition, whether this be growth or deterioration, and moves in the end to complete disintegration. There is no stability anywhere but only the show of it. Whether it be human’s fortunes or a mountain’s surface, everything is evanescent. Only the rate of this evanescence differs but the fact of it does not. #RandolphHarris 9 of 21
Throughout all things in the Universe and not only in the plant and animal kingdoms, we find the presence of growth and decay, and ripe and rot. There are no golden ages, no utopias, no Heavens on Earth. This World is a scene of continuous process, or diversification—which means it is an ever-changing scene. Sometimes it is better, sometimes it is worse—if looked at from a human standpoint—but none these two conditions remains forever fixed. Only romantic dreamers or pious, wishful thinkers look or wait for one that is. If fortunate, what we may reasonably look for and, hope to find, is an inner equilibrium within ourselves which will yield a peace or a presence. Let us not lessen what we are by refusing to accept the responsibility, by practising self-pity, or by blaming environments. They have their place and may make their contribution, but in the end it is our own ignorance of our own possibilities which is the basic cause. Whatever is done to improve human affairs and arrangements will not last. When it will need to be improved again, the time will come. In just the same way even the planet itself changes its features, turns tropical zones to temperate ones and great seas to sandy deserts. Only in the Void is there no activity, no change. #RandolphHarris 10 of 21
If anything is perfect it cannot be improved. Whoever therefore demands perfection must understand that one is demanding finality. Perhaps that is why, even at an approximate 24,000 square feet (which is at least ten times larger than most homes), Sarah Winchester’s Mansion was never completed, even though it is one of the largest and most unique estates in the World! Could there be such a thing in this ever-changing World as perfection? There are no permanent solutions because there are no permanent problems. Millions of animal and human bodies have entered the Earth’s composition through drowning in vast floods or dying in droughts, famines, and epidemics, through earthquakes and eruptions. It has been an immense graveyard and crematorium. Yet equally it has brought into living existence millions of new beings. Men and women terrify themselves with mental pictures of age, of its diseases and infirmities, its growing cancers and shrinking arteries. Yet they seldom relate their personal experience to the wider scheme of things, to the Universe as a whole. If they did, they would soon see that not only are decay and disintegration everywhere in nature, but brutality and murder are there also on an appalling scale. #RandolphHarris 11 of 21
Millions of animals, insects, birds, fish, and sometimes humans, attack, deform, mutilate or kill other creatures. Civilizations do not progress; they grow, but they crumble by their own weight, or, rather, overweight. If anything every impressed me with the truth of civilization’s transformatory nature it was my reading of the Frenchman Volney’s book The Ruins of Empires, together with my visit to the remains of two cities. One, Anuradhapura in Ceylon, sixteen miles long and sixteen miles wife stretching in the sunshine with thousands of golden and sliver pillars, was eaten up by jungle growth or dissolved into dust! The other, Angkor in Cambodia, displayed huge temples rising out of the thick clogging undergrowth and broken, weather-beaten states of Buddhas tangled with, root-bound in, gnarled wrinkled trees. If it was in Beijing or Shanghai, maybe X’ian, possibly Hangzhou, I cannot recall. However, something else I found fascinating was in China, they have statues of God carved into the mountain and they must be 100 feet tall, and one of them even had brown skin. #RandolphHarris 12 of 21
Despite the ever-confronting evidence that change is ceaseless throughout the Universe and throughout human experience, we persistently get the feeling of solidity in the Universe and permanency in experience. Is this only an illusion and the World merely a phantasm? The answer that there IS something unending behind both. There is no stability anywhere in the Universe, given enough time, and there is none in human life. Yet the craving for it exists. That there is a metaphysical meaning behind this phenomenon. It exists because THAT which is being the craving person is the only stable thing there is, or rather no-thing, because IT has no shape, no colour, is soundless and invisible and beyond the grasp of ordinary thoughts. It is this hidden contact, or connection, which keeps humans seeking for what one never finds, hoping for what one never attains, refusing to accept the message of ceaseless change which Nature and Life continue to utter in one’s ears, and opposing the adjustments that experience and events demand periodically from one. #RandolphHarris 13 of 21
There is no permanency anywhere except in ourselves. And even there it is so deep down, and so hard to find, that most people accept the mistaken idea that their ego’s ever-changing existence is the only real existence. The communities of God, to which Christ has become teacher and guide, are, in comparison with communities of the pagan people among whom they live as strangers, like Heavenly lights in the World. “We know that we have passed out of death into life, because we love the brethren. One who does not love abides in death,” reports 1 John 3.14. Now, if we are to be spiritually formed in Christlikeness, we must find out what our relationships to others must be like. The natural condition of life for human beings is one of reciprocal rootedness in others. As firmness of footing is a condition of walking and secure movement, so assurance of others being for us is the condition of stable, healthy living. There are many ways this can be present in individual cases, but it must be there. If it is not, we are but walking wounded, our life more or less a shambles until we die. When the required type of “for-ness” is adequately present, human “circles of sufficiency” emerge. #RandolphHarris 14 of 21
The most fundamental form of a circle of sufficiency is that of a mother and child (the Virgin Mary and Jesus). Then perhaps mother and child and father. (What some more modern spiritualist consider the “Holy Trinity.”) Then there are young lovers, reciprocally absorbed, as well as mature mates. Of course numerous forms of human association can take on some degree of this “sufficiency,” and always with a distinctive character arising out of the precise nature of the relationships involved. These circles of sufficiency, natural and essential to the human condition and so profoundly beautiful to behold, are always illusory at the merely human level, and even the illusion itself is terrifyingly fragile. To assure an anxious child we may say, “Everything is okay now.” However, it never is. In this World it is never true that everything is okay, and perhaps it is least true in those very situations where we feel the need to say it. Every human circle presupposes for its “really being okay” a larger context or circle that supports it. The mother and child, for example, presuppose the larger family that cares for and sustains them, making it possible for them to be absorbed in one another as they need to be, ignoring all else. #RandolphHarris 15 of 21
These larger circles also depend upon yet larger circles, which, while ever less intimate, are still crucial to making the inner circles possible. That is just how human life is. The togetherness of the mother and child may be drastically affected by economic conditions on the other side of the Earth. Ultimately, if it is not caught up in the life of the only genuinely self-sufficient circle of sufficiency, that the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, every human circle is doomed to dissolution. Only when rooted in that divine Trinitarian circle can the broken individuals from the broken circles recover from the wounds received in their circles of origin and find wholeness on their long journey from the womb to the eternal City of God. Of course it was never God’s intention that the natural human circles of sufficiency, or reciprocal rootedness, would be illusory, fragile, and eventually broken; and if they were lived within his kingdom, they would not be. “And there came also in the days of Com many prophets, and prophesied of the destruction of the great people except they should repent, and turn unto the Lord, and forsake their murders and wickedness. #RandolphHarris 16 of 21
“And it came to pass that the prophets were rejected by the people, and they fled unto Com for protection, for the people sought to destroy them. And they prophesied unto Com many things; and he was blessed in all the remainders of his days. And he lived to a good old age, and begat Shiblom; and Shiblom reigned in his stead. And the brother of Shiblom rebelled against him, and there began to be an exceedingly great war in all the land. And it came to pass that the brother of Shiblom caused that all the prophets who prophesied of the destruction of the people should be put to death; And there was great calamity in all the land, for they had testified that a great curse should come upon the land, and also upon the people, and that there should be a great destruction among them, such an one as never had been upon the face of the Earth, and their bones should become as heaps of Earth upon the face of the land except they should repent of their wickedness. And they hearkened not unto the voice of the Lord, because of their wicked combinations; wherefore, there began to be wars and contentions in all the land, and also many famines and pestilences, insomuch that there was a great destruction. #RandolphHarris 17 of 21
“The destruction was so great that is was such an one as never had been known upon the face of the Earth; and all this came to pass in the days of Shiblom. And the people began to repent of their iniquity; and inasmuch as they did the Lord did have mercy on them. And it came to pass that Shiblom was slain, and Seth was brought into captivity, and did dwell in captivity all his days. And it came to pass that Ahah, his son, did obtain the kingdom; and he did reign over the people all his days. And he did do all manner f iniquity in his days, by which he did cause the shedding of much blood; and few were his days. And Ethem, being a descendant of Ahah, did obtain the kingdom; and he also did do that which was wicked in his days. And it came to pass that in the days of Ethem there came many prophets, and prophesied again unto the people; yea, they did prophesy that the Lord would utterly destroy them from off the face of the Earth except they repented of their iniquities. And it came to pass that the people hardened their hearts, and would not hearken unto their words; and the prophets mourned withdrew from among the people. #RandolphHarris 18 of 21
“And it came to pass that Ethem did execute judgment in wickedness all his days; and he begat Moron. And it came to pass that Moron did reign in his stead; and Moron did that which was wicked before the Lord. And it came to pass that there arose another mighty man; and he was a descendant of the brother of Jared. And it came to pass that he did overthrow Moron and obtain the kingdom; wherefore, Moron dwelt in captivity all the remainder of his days; and he begat Coriantor. And it came to pass that Coriantor dwelt in captivity all his days. And in the days of Coriantor there also came many prophets, and prophesied of great and marvelous things, and cried repentance unto the people, and except they should repent the Lord God would execute judgment against them to their utter destruction; and that the Lord God would send or bring forth another people to possess the land, by his power, after the manner by which be brought their fathers. #RandolphHarris 19 of 21
“And they did reject all the words of the prophets, because of their secret society and wicked abominations. And it came to pass that Coriantor begat Ether, and he died, having dwelt in captivity all his days,” reports Ether 11.1-23. Lord, our hearth, God who guards the heart of our home, threefold flame who shines in the center: we honour and praise you, we offer you our words of worship. King of Poets, may our lives be creative. King of Smithers, may our lives be useful. King of healers, may our lives be healthy. Your family is standing before you here, confident you will do what is right. May the snow start falling to create the waters of the Earth, so it can soak deep into the Earth, and conceive a healthy environment. Being to birth the cold and rainy days. And be God’s treasured people in His hand, a diadem His kingly brow to band. By God, we were uplifted, carried, crowned, thus honoured inasmuch as precious found. God’s glory is on me, and mine on Him. And when I call God is not far or dim. God loves His folks; the meek will glorify, and, shrined in prayer, draw their rapt reply. #RandolphHarris 20 of 21
Truth is Thy primal word; at Thy behest the generations pass—O assist our quest for Thee, and set my host of song on high, and let my psalmody come very nigh. My praises as a coronal account, and let my prayer as Thine incense mount. Deem precious unto Thee the poor man’s song, as those that to Thine altar did belong. Rise, O my blessing, to the lord of birth, the breeding, quickening, righteous force of Earth. Do Thou receive it with acceptant nod, my choicest incense offered to my God. And let my meditation grateful be, for all my being is athirst for Thee. Thine, O Lord, is the greatness and the power, the glory and victory and the majesty; for all that is in the Heaven and on the Earth is Thine. Thine is the kingdom, O Lord, and Thou art exalted supreme above all. Who can recount the mighty acts of the Lord? Who can proclaim all His full praise? I will extol Thee, O Lord, for Thou hast raised me up, and hast not allowed mine enemies to rejoice in triumph over me. O Lord, my God, I cried unto Thee, and Thou didst heal me; O Lord, Thou savest me from the peril of death; Thou didst keep me alive, that I should not go down to the grave. #RandolphHarris 21 of 21
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Let Go of the Past, but Keep the Lessons it Taught!
Life is what happens to you when you are making other plans. The use of dream-analysis in psychotherapy is still a much debated question. Many practitioners find it indispensable in the treatment of neuroses, and consider that the dream is a function whose psychic importance is equal to that of the conscious mind itself. Others, on the contrary, dispute the value of dream-analysis and regard dreams as a negligible by-product of the psyche. Obviously, if s person holds the view that the unconscious plays a decisive part in the aetiology of neuroses, one will attribute a high practical importance to dreams as direct expressions of the unconscious. Equally obviously, if one denies the unconscious or at least thinks it aetiologically insignificant, one will minimize the importance of dream-analysis. Although the unconscious, as some say is unjustly, controversial, we are going to deal exclusively with a few practical questions. Without it, the dream is a mere freak of nature, a meaningless conglomeration of fragment left over from the day. Were that really so, there would be no excuse for the present discussion. The attempt at analyzing and interpreting dreams is theoretically justified from a scientific standpoint point. #RandolphHarris 1 of 24
If we are successful at analyzing and interpreting the dream, we may expect this attempt to give us scientific insight into the structure of psychic causality, quite apart from any therapeutic results that may be gained. The practitioner may believe that the explanatory insight so gained is of therapeutic value, in which case one will elevate dream-analysis to a professional duty. It is well known that the Freudian school is of the firm opinion that very valuable therapeutic results are achieved by throwing light upon the unconscious causal factors—that is, by explaining them to the patient and thus making one fully conscious of the sources of one’s trouble. When one is projecting one’s intimate feelings and the caring of their cultural tradition onto the symbols of one’s dream, one is able to integrate cognitively and affectively one’s tribal moral tradition as it was expressed in the dream. Dreams can make a person aware that the choices one was making had been taking one away from one’s “path of life,” causing one to be psychologically and spiritually out of balance. Sometimes an individua may use alcohol and drugs to mask the pain of one’s feelings of disharmony, discomfort, and suffering. #RandolphHarris 2 of 24
I was consulted by a man who held a prominent position in the World. He was afflicted with a sense of anxiety and insecurity, and complained of dizziness sometimes resulting in nausea, heaviness in the head, and constriction of breath—a state that might easily be confused with mountain sickness. One had had an extraordinarily successful career, and had risen, by dint of ambition, industry, and native talent, from one’s humble origins as the son of a poor peasant. Step by step one had climbed, attaining at last a leading position which held every prospect of further social advancement. One has now in fact reached the spring-board from which one could have commenced one’s flight into the empyrean, had not his neurosis suddenly intervened. At this point in his story the patient could not refrain from that familiar exclamation which begins with the stereotyped words: “And just now, when…” The fact that one had all the symptoms of mountain sickness seemed highly appropriate as a drastic illustration of is peculiar impasse. #RandolphHarris 3 of 24
He had also brought to the consultation two dreams from the preceding night. The first dream was as follows: “I am back again in the small village where I was born. Some peasant lads who went to school with me are standing together in the street. I walk past, pretending not to know them. Then I hear one of the say, pointing at me: ‘He does not often come back to our village.’” It requires no feat of interpretation to see in this dream a reference to the humble beginnings of the dreamer’s career and to understand what this reference means. The dream says quite clearly: “You forgot how far down you began.” Here is the second dream: “I am in a great hurry because I want to go on a journey. I keep on looking for things to pack, but can find nothing. Time flies, and the train will soon be leaving. Having finally succeeded in getting all my things together, I hurry along the street, only to discover that I have forgotten a brief-case containing important papers. I dash back all out of breath, find it at last, then race to the station, but I make hardly any headway. With a final effort I rush on to the platform only to see the train just steaming out of the station yard. #RandolphHarris 4 of 24
“It is very long, and it runs in a curious S-shaped curve, and it occurs to me that if the engine-driver does not look out, and put on steam when he comes int the straight, the rear coaches will still be on the curve and will be thrown off the rails by the gathering speed. And this is just what happens: the engine-driver puts on steam, I try to cry out, the rear coaches give a frightful lurch and are thrown off the rails. There is a terrible catastrophe. I wake up in terror.” Here again no effort is needed to understand the message of the dream. It describes the patient’s frantic haste to advance oneself still further. However, since the engine-driver in front steams relentlessly ahead, the neurosis happens at the back: the coaches rock and the train is derailed. It is obvious that, at the present phase of his life, that patient has reached the highest point of his career; the strain of the long ascent from his lowly origin has exhausted his strength. He should have rested content with his achievements, but instead of that his ambition drives him on and one, and up and up into an atmosphere that is too thin for him and to which he is not accustomed. Therefore his neurosis comes upon him as a warning. #RandolphHarris 5 of 24
Circumstances prevented me from treating the patient further, nor did my view of the case satisfy him. The upshot was that the fate depicted in the dream ran its course. He tried to exploit the professional openings that tempted his ambition, and ran so violently off the rails that the catastrophe was realized in actual life. Thus, what could only be inferred from the conscious anamnesis—namely that the mountain sickness was a symbolic representation of the patient’s inability to climb any further—was confirmed by the dreams as a fact. Here we come upon something of the utmost importance for the applicability of dream-analysis: the dream describes the inner situation of the dreamer, but the conscious mind denies its truth and reality, or admits it only grudgingly. Consciously the dreamer could not see the slightest reason why he should not go steadily forward; on the contrary, he continued his ambitions climbing and refused to admit his own inability which subsequent events made all too plain. So long as we move in the conscious sphere, we are always unsure in such cases. The anamnesis can be interpreted in various ways. #RandolphHarris 6 of 24
After all, the common soldier carries the marshal’s baton in his knapsack, and many a son of poor parents has achieved the highest success. Why should it not be the case here? Since my judgment is fallible, why should my conjecture be better than his? At this point the dream comes in as the expression of an involuntary, unconscious psychic process beyond the control of the conscious mind. It shows the inner truth and reality of the patient as it really is: not as I conjecture it to be, and not as he would like it to be, but as it is. I have therefore made it a rule to regard dreams as I regard physiological facts: if sugar appears in the urine, then the urine contains sugar, and not albumen or urobilin or something else that might fit in better with my expectations. That is to say, I take dreams as diagnostically valuable facts. As is the way of all dreams, my little dream example gives us rather more than we expected. It gives us not only the aetiology of the neurosis but a prognosis as well. What is more, we even know exactly where the treatment should begin: we must prevent the patient from going full steam ahead. This is just what he tells himself in the dream. #RandolphHarris 7 of 24
As one’s story unfold and the healing process beings, one should find expressed the feelings of safety, security, belonging, and love the one receives from the experience of being known by the Creator. Being known by the Creator allows a unity of consciousness and a peak experience for one in the concrete reality of life. Of course we are all aware that we have certain boundaries. The Creator sometimes reminds us of these boundaries to keep us in touch within the sacred cathedral of our path. The symbols can bring about a psychological transformation of our attitude from one of the depression, constriction, and limitedness to one of joyfulness, expansiveness, and freedom. Dreams can sometimes tell us that we are losing our sense of being and our sense of identity. When we see out limitedness within our dreams, we should also be inspired and excited about claiming our freedom by not feeling driven down to conform to standards that are not within our realm of possibility. Whereas before one may have felt driven to contract or enlarge, inhibit or stand out, one will learn that is it okay to be more flexible about our capacities—more deliberate. An individual’s life is a rich tapestry of experience. #RandolphHarris 8 of 24
Some of the experiences that make up our tapestry of life are composed of threads that we weave with our own hands, and some that the hands of fate weave for us. One needs to grow up to this truth, and in that way it will reach one’s heart, and the appeal goes deeper and works more powerfully. God, the infinite power, is everywhere present and always active. All beings draw their little power for the purposes of their transient self-centered lives from it. In the same way the infinite Mind provides the mainspring for the activity of each little egotistic mind. The smallest one-celled creature is alive with an energy which comes from the universal energy that is the expression of the World-Mind. The same energy which runs in waves or flows in streams of particles through the Universe’s atoms courses through human beings. In both cases it issues forth from a center which is divine. There is no moment when the unseen divine activity is not present in the Universe. Everything is being carried on by the divine Power and divine Wisdom. The secret stream of a diviner life flows ceaselessly beneath our blessed existence. It is a process that requires the individual to face one’s problems and that taxes one’s powers of conscious judgement and decision. #RandolphHarris 9 of 24
Coming to understand our place in the Universe is nothing less than a direct challenge to one’s ethical sense, a call to arms that must be answered by the whole personality. As regards the maturation of the personality, therefore, the analytical approach is of a higher order than suggestion, which is a species of magic that works in the dark and makes no ethical demands upon the personality. The view that dreams are merely repressed wishes is hopelessly out of date. There are, it is true, dreams which manifestly represent wishes or fears, but what about all other things? Dreams may contain ineluctable truths, philosophical pronouncements, illusions, wild fantasies, memories, plans, anticipations, irrational experiences, even telepathic visions, and Heaven knows what besides. One thing we ought never to forget: almost half our life is passed in a more or less unconscious. Just as the psyche has a diurnal side which we call consciousness, so also it has a nocturnal side: the unconscious psychic activity which we apprehend as dreamlike fantasy. The cosmic order is divine intelligence expressed, equilibrium sought through contrast and complementaries. #RandolphHarris 10 of 24
It is certain that the conscious mind consists not only in wishes and fears, but of vastly more besides; and it is highly probable that our dream psyche possesses a wealth of contents and living forms equal to or even greater than those of the conscious mind, which is characterized by concentration, limitation, and exclusion. God multiplies Himself in countless forms, the Supreme will establish according to higher laws. The World-Mind is hidden deep within our individual minds. The World-Idea begets all our knowledge. Whoever seeks aright finds the sacred stillness inside and the sacred activity in the Universe. It is not only humans that are made in the image of God: the whole Universe likewise is also an image of God. It is not only by coming to know oneself that human beings discover the divine life hidden deep in one’s heart: it is also by listening in the stillness of Nature to what she is forever declaring, that one discovers the presence of an infinite World-Mind. One comes to see the whole cosmos as a manifestation of the Supreme Being. It follows that involuntarily, spontaneously, one brings oneself—mind and body, heart and will—into harmony with this view. #RandolphHarris 11 of 24
Each individual center of life and intelligence is a replica in minuscule of the World-Mind itself. Humans and nature are metaphysically an appearance, physically an expression, and religiously a creative projection of God. The World-Idea is slowly but rhythmically unfolded from the Infinite Mind. Yet if we could speak in spatial terms of what transcends space, we could say that the Idea and its process of unfoldment occupy no more than a single point in that vast Mind. Although the Universe expressed Mind, it does not exhaust it. The Universe is not the entire God-Consciousness. If the Infinite Being is represented by an infinite number of atoms, ways, creatures, and relationships, both harmonies and oppositions, this is only to be expected. If it is itself inexhaustible, its manifestations must be the same. The Universe only partially expresses the characteristics of the World-Mind. Its own tremendous spaciousness strives—but of course always strives in vain—to unfold the infinite of World-Mind. Not only were humans made in the image of God, but also the Universe. It is as geometrically infinite as God is absolutely infinite. #RandolphHarris 12 of 24
There is no limit to the number of things in the Universe, no limit to the differences among those things, and no limit to the space it occupies. The number of objects and creatures, stars and suns is by a natural necessity infinite. Infinite being can only express itself infinitely. The Worlds cannot be counted; the space which contains them cannot be measured. No one doubts the importance of the conscious experience; why then should we doubt the significance of our psychic existence of the unconscious which overshadows our daily lives? They are also part of our life, and sometimes more truly a part of it for weal or woe than any happenings of the day. Compensation is not as a rule merely an illusory wish-fulfilment, but an actual fact that becomes still more actual the more we repress it. We do not stop feeling thirsty by repressing our thirst. In the same way, the dream-content is to be regarded with due seriousness as an actuality that has to be fitted into the conscious attitude as a codetermining fact. If we fail to do this, we merely persist in that eccentric frame of mind which evoked the unconscious compensation in the first place. It is then difficult to see how we can arrive at a sane judgment of ourselves or at a balanced way of living. #RandolphHarris 13 of 24
The unconscious does not harbour in itself any explosive materials unless an overweening or cowardly conscious attitude has secretly laid up stores of explosives there. All the more reason, then, for watching our step. This gives expression to the view that the ultimate aim and strongest desire of all humankind is to develop that fulness of life which is called personality. Nowadays, “personality training” has become an educational ideal that turns its back upon the standardized, mass-produced, “normal” human being demanded by the machine age. It thus pays tribute to this historical fact that the great liberating deeds of World history have sprung from leading personalities and never from the inert mass, which is at all times secondary and can only be prodded into activity by the demagogue. Much of the vastness of humanity lies dormant, like a Sleeping Beauty, in our brains. Obviously, this is why there are half-baked educators who are not human beings at all, but walking personifications of method. Anyone who wants to educate must oneself be educated. However, the parrot-like fake news and book learning and mechanical use of methods that is still practiced today is no education either for the child or for the educator. #RandolphHarris 14 of 24
People are everlastingly saying that the child’s personality must be trained, but so must the adult’s personality. What are some things that can be done to place our body and is parts full at the disposal of the redeeming power that God intends to live in them? It is extremely helpful in thinking about our body and our spiritual life. We must actually release our body to God. That is what Paul means when he tells us “to present our body to God as a living sacrifice,” reports Romans 12.1. It needs to be a definite action, renewed as appropriate, perhaps on a yearly basis. You will not drift into this position before God, and you will not, without decisive action, stay there. Perhaps you could do like this. Decide to give your body to God on the basis of understanding how important it is and the scriptural teachings requires it. Know, therefore, that it is a good and indispensable thing to do. Then take a day in silent and solitary retreat. Quiet your soul and your body, and let them get clear of the fog of your daily burdens and preoccupations. Meditatively pray some central Scriptures before the Lord, especially those dealing directly with the body. What you want to do is ask God to take charge of your body and each part, to fill it with his life and use it for his purposes. #RandolphHarris 15 of 24
Accentuate the good; do not just think of not sinning with your body. You will find this following naturally from active consecration of it to God’s power and his purposes. Remember, a sacrifice is something to be take up in God. No longer idolize your body. Do not worry what will happen to it—sickness, repulsiveness, aging, death—for you have placed God in charge of all that, and any issues that arise in this area you freely take up with him in prayer. You take good care of your body, but only within the framework of values clearly laid down by God and exemplified in Jesus Christ. You do not live in fear of your body and what it might “do to you.” Closely allied with the above is that you do not misuse your body. This means primarily two things: First, you do not use it as a source of sensual gratification, and you do not use it to dominate or manipulate others. Addictions of various kinds are cases where sensual gratification is accepted as a necessity. Theses are, whatever else must be said about them, misuses of the body. Bodily pleasure is not in itself a bad thing. However, when it is exalted to a necessity and we become dependent upon it, then we are slaves of our body and its feelings. #RandolphHarris 16 of 24
Also, do not overwork your body. In our current World this is a primary misuse of the body. It is now said that work is the new “drug of choice. Other this is associated with excessive competition and trying to beat others out in some area of our common life. Sometimes this is just a matter of wearing our body out in order to succeed—often in circumstances that we regard (perhaps rightly) as imposed upon us by others. It is still a misuse of the body and a failure to work things out with God. God never gives us too much to do. He long ago gave us these words: “It is vain for you to rise early, to sit up late, to eat the bread of sorrows: for so he giveth his beloved sleep,” reports Psalm 127.2. The body is to be properly honoured and care for. That is, the body is to be regarded as holy, because it is owned and inhabited by God. We live in a Universe which is only one amid an infinity of other Universes whose patterns, as we find with individual living things, show infinite difference of detail while sharing certain basic general forms. If there is infinite variety in the teeming life of the Universe, this arises partly because of the need to satisfy the infinite number of possibilities through which the infinite life can alone express itself. #RandolphHarris 17 of 24
In the World’s life there is every kind of joy and every kind of suffering, because there is every kind of creature. If it had not manifested infinite variety as an expression of infinitude of the divine power behind it, the World could not have been manifested at all. Surely this is what Plato saw when he described tie as the moving image of eternity. “And it came to pass that Shule begat Omer, and Omer reigned in his stead. And Omer begat Jared; and Jared begat sons and daughters. And Jared rebelled against his father, and came and dwelt in the land of Heth. And it came to pass that he did flatter many people, because of his cunning words, until he had gained the half of the kingdom. And wen he had gained the half of the kingdom he gave battle unto his father, and he did carry away his father into captivity, and did make him serve in captivity; and now, in the days of the reign of Omer he was in captivity the half of his days. And it came to pass that he begat sons and daughters, among whom were Esrom and Coriantumer; and they were exceedingly angry because of the doings of Jared their brother, insomuch that they did raise an army and gave battle unto Jared. #RandolphHarris 18 of 24
“And it came to pass that they did give battle unto Jared by night. And it came to pass that then they had slain the army of Jared they were about to slay him also; and he pled with them that they would not slay him, and he would give up the kingdom unto his father. And it came to pass that they did grant unto him his life. And now Jared became exceedingly sorrowful because of the loss of the kingdom, for he had set his heart upon the kingdom and upon the glory of the World. Now the daughter of Jared being exceedingly expert, and seeing the sorrows of her father, thought to devise a plan whereby she could redeem the kingdom unto her father. Now the daughter of Jared was exceedingly fair. And it came to pass that she did talk with her father, and said unto him: Whereby hath my father so much sorrow? Hath he not read the record which our fathers brought across the great deep? Behold, is there not an account concerning them of old, that they by their secret plans did obtain kingdoms and great glory? And now, therefore, let my father send for Akish, the son of Kimnor; and behold, I am faire, and I will dance before him, and I will please him, that he will desire me to wife; wherefore if he shall desire of thee that ye shall give unto him me to wife, then shall ye say: I will give her if ye will bring unto me the head of my father, the king. #RandolphHarris 19 of 24
“And now Omer was a friend to Akish; wherefore, when Jared had sent for Akish, the daughter of Jared danced before him that she pleased him, insomuch that he desired her to wide. And it came to pass that he said unto Jared: Give her unto me to wife. And Jared said unto him: I will give her unto you, if ye will bring unto me the head of my father, the king. And it came to pass that Akish gathered in unto the house of Jared all his kinsfolk, and said unto them: Will ye swear unto me that ye will be faithful unto me in the thing which I shall desire of you? And it came to pass that they all sware unto him, by the God of Heaven, and also by the Heavens, and also by the Earth, and by their heads, that whoso should vary from the assistance which Akish desired should lose his head; and whoso should divulge whatsoever thing Akish made known unto them, the same should lose one’s life. And it came to pass that thus they did agree with Akish. And Akish did administer unto them the oaths which were given by them of old who also sought power, which had been handed down even from Cain, who was a murderer from the beginning. #RandolphHarris 20 of 24
And they were kept up by the power of the devil to administer these oaths unto the people, to keep them in darkness, to help such as sought power to gain power, and to murder, and to plunder, and to life, and to commit all manner of wickedness and whoredoms. And it was the daughter of Jared who put it into the heart of Akish; wherefore, Akish administered it unto his kindred and friends, leading them away by fair promises to do whatsoever thing he desired. And it came to past that they formed a secret combination, even as they of old; which combination is most abominable and wicked above all, in the sight of God; for the Lord worketh not in secret combinations, neither doth he will that man should shed blood, but in all things hath forbidden it, from the beginning of man. And now I, Moroni, do not write the manner of their oaths and combinations, for it hath been made known unto me that they are had among people, and they are had among the Lamanites. And they have caused the destruction of this people of whom I am now speaking, and also the destruction of the people of Nephi. #RnadolphHarris 21 of 24
“And whatsoever nation shall uphold such secret combinations, to get power and gain, until they shall spread over the nation, behold, they shall be destroyed; for the Lord will not suffer that the blood of his saints, which shall be shed by them, shall always cry unto him from the ground for vengeance upon them and yet he avenge them not. Wherefore, O ye Gentiles, it is wisdom is God that these things should be shown unto you, that thereby ye may repent of your sins, and suffer not that these murderous combinations shall get above you, which are built up to get power and gain—and the work, yea, even the work of destruction come upon you, yea, even the sword of the justice of the Eternal God shall fall upon you, to your overthrow and destruction if ye shall suffer these things to be. Wherefore, the Lord commandeth you, when ye shall see these things come among you that ye shall awake to a sense of your awful situation, because of this secret combination which shall be among you; or wo be unto it, because of the blood of them who have been slain; for they cry from the dust for vengeance upon it, and also upon those who built it up. #RandolphHarris 22 of 24
“For it cometh to pass that whoso buildeth it up seeketh to overthrow the freedom of all lands, nations, and countries; and it bringeth to pass the destruction of all people, for it is built up by the devil, who is the father of all lies; even that same liar who beguile our first parents, yea, even that same lair who hath caused man to commit murder from the beginning; who hath hardened the hearts of humans that they have murdered the prophets, and stoned them, and cast them out from the beginning. Wherefore, I, Moroni, am commanded to write these things that evil may be done away, and that the time may come that Satan may have no power upon the hearts of the children of humans, but that they may be persuaded to do good continually, that they may come unto the fountain of all righteousness and be saved,” reports Ether 8.1-26. Lord, please open our hearts and keep them aware of you. Please change in us what changes in you. Bring us through dark times. Bring rebirth. During our dark ours, may we glimpse the mystery and see ahead of the newly rising light. From this dark time, please bring light to our World. It is good to give thanks unto the Lord, and to sing praises unto Thy name, O Most High. #RandolphHarris 23 of 24
To declare Thy lovingkindness each morning, and Thy faithfulness every night, with an instrument of ten strings and the lute, with sacred music upon the harp. For Thou, O Lord, hast made me rejoice in Thy work; I will glory in the works of Thy hands. How great are Thy deeds, O Lord! Thy thoughts are very deep. The ignorant human does not know, nor does the fool understand this—the wicked may spring up as the grass, and the workers of iniquity may flourish, only to be destroyed forever. However, Thou, O Lord, shalt be exalted forever. For lo, Thine enemies, O Lord, for lo, Thine enemies shall perish; all the workers of iniquity shall be scattered. However, Thou, doest raise me to high honour; I am anointed with fragrant oil. Mine eyes have seen the defeat of my foes, mine ears have heard the doom of evil doers that rise up against me. The righteous shall flourish like the palm tree, and grown might like a cedar in the forest of the Eternal Trees. Planted in the house of the Lord, they shall flourish in the courts of our God. Even in old age they shall bring forth fruit, they shall be full of vigour and strength, declaring that the Lord is just, my Rock in whom there is no unrighteousness. #RandolphHarris 24 of 24
BRIGHTON STATION AT CRESLEIGH RANCH
Rancho Cordova, CA |
Now Selling!
Residence Three at Brighton Station boasts 2,757 square feet in this expansive two story home. There are four bedrooms, three and a half bathrooms, and a three car garage!
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Cresleigh features exquisitely designed homes in peaceful communities that help residents relax, and enjoy the perfect combination of luxury and nature that make living here so special. https://cresleigh.com/blog/
The Best Humans Cannot Suspend their Fate: The Good Die Early, and the Bad Die Late!
Love at eighteen is largely an attempt to find out who we are by listening to our echoes in the words of another, and it means always apologizing first, even when you think you did nothing wrong. The phenomena of the World-form tyrannously and completely masks its reality, so completely that only a dwindling number of people even suspect there is any reality behind it. Spiritual intuition has never been so dormant among the race as during the past hundred and fifty years. Form, which should have been a wicket-gate giving entry to its diviner significance, has become a prison in which they are held captive by their own obtuseness. There is great beauty in the silent Universe. There is an intrinsic principle in created things which is not expressed. The self-actualized looks back to the beauty of the Universe and penetrates into this principle. These seeming shadows of the spiritual domain are more real than the tangible things which are everywhere taken for reality. The question, “Are inanimate things included in the infinite life?” must answer itself, if you take one of the meanings of this term as being the Great, the All. #RandolphHarris 1 of 24
As a matter of fact, however, science now knows that there are no inanimate things. Its high-power microscopes reveal the presence of minute living cells in materials and substances and liquids which are seemingly dead, and its sensitive electrical instruments reveal the presence of energies in others, such as steel. In the end we have to come back to the basic idea that the Universal existence is like (but is not actually) a dream inasmuch as it is all a series of mental experiences projected from one’s own mind. And because even the inanimate things such as tables and houses which a dreamer sees are really one’s ideas—that is, reflections of one’s own mind and therefore of one’s own life-energy—consequently they are no really dead things. So too for the mountains and rivers in God’s dream. From this standpoint there is no such thing as death, only life. However, of course, when compared to the life of the divine World, the life of a limited World is poetically like death. There is a marked intelligence within every atom of the cosmos and within every living creature within the cosmos. So far as the human mind shows forth its own native intelligence it reveals, however faintly, the presence of that master-intelligence out of which it spends itself. #RandolphHarris 2 of 24
The circling Earth makes its way through space just as a human makes one’s way through city streets. It is an intelligent living entity. If there is life in the plant kingdom, there must be consciousness also. What, then, is this consciousness? It is like that of a deep sleep. Nay, we may even go back further and assert of the mineral kingdom that there is life in it, too. For the cells of plants are built up out of the molecules. It is impossible for the human mind to conceive of what the mineral consciousness is like, but the closet description would be that of the deepest trance. Whether in the fragile China Doll tree or the sturdy redwood three there is life, intelligence, and being. They are fellow dwellers on this curious planet just like all of us. American-Indian ceremonies emphasize the sacredness of the human personality. The Hupa Boat Dance ritual creates sacred space for a community mysticism that revitalized the community and makes the trial members feel special in the perceptions of the Creator. This is a spirituality in which the tribal members “know” they are recognized by the Creator. #RandolphHarris 3 of 24
The Boat Dance honours the dead and helps their spirits to make the crossing into the Great Mystery. It is also a ritual for reminding the living that they are sacred and that every individual is important in this communitarian Worldview. The archetypal sounds from the dance and the archetypal experiences of the observer/participants allow this serious ontological enactment of death to become an experience of beauty. In certain communities it is a cultural norm not to talk about the deceased for the death experience is supposed to be settled in ritual ceremony. However, the emotional trauma of a death can lead to substance abuse problems due to the emotional trauma surrounding a death; and the therapist unfamiliar with the culture will label the nondisclosing, nonverbal youth as untreatable. Often in such a case, the district attorney will recommend that the youth be placed in a residential treatment facility or in the state’s youth prison. These placements are usually far from the youth’s home, separating one from the healing, cultural matrix of family, tribe, landscape, and associates. This separation further aggravates the grief process, and for most youth, superimposes post-traumatic stress symptoms upon the death and grief trauma. #RandolphHarris 4 of 24
The psychology and Worldview of some American cultures, especially those connected to the Old World, holds that it is in the solitude of the mind and heart, along with the ceremonial way, that one understands one’s “limitations and freedoms.” When these youth are pressured by the dominant culture’s mental health professionals to speak about a death in the family, one becomes painfully caught in a clash of cultural values. The cultural conflict over how to process the experience of death brings about feelings of dread, despair, anxiety, isolation, and limitedness. Certain Old World cultures have norms he prescribe that one can only speak with respect for the dead; and it is better not to speak at all than to risk drawing the spirit of the deceased back into the World. The therapist’s unenlightened disposition of the silence, words, rituals, and ancestors disrupts the dialogical healing process in the meeting of client and therapist. The family tradition is a stronger determinant of what the youth will share with the psychotherapist than is the court’s intimidation. There are many highest principles both of life and of philosophy, and accordingly there are just as many different forms of compensation by opposition. #RandolphHarris 5 of 24
It has come to light that on closer investigation that different types of personalities have a predilection to marry its opposite, each being unconsciously complementary to the other. So, that is something to keep in mind with any kind of relationship one is trying to establish with an individual. Nonetheless, the reflective nature of the introvert causes one always to think and consider before acting. This naturally makes one slow to act. One’s shyness and distrust of things induces hesitation, and so one always has difficulty in adapting to the external World. Conversely the extravert has a positive relation to things. One is, so to speak attracted by them. New, unknown situations fascinate one. In order to make closer acquaintance with the unknown one will jump into it with both feet. As a rule one acts first and thinks afterwards. Thus one’s action is swift, subject to no misgivings and hesitations. The two types therefore seem created for a symbiosis. The ne takes care of reflection and the other sees to the initiative and practical action. When the two types marry, they may effect an ideal union. #RandolphHarris 6 of 24
So long as they are fully occupied with their adaptation to the manifold external needs of life they fit together admirably. However, when the dominant person in the relationship as made enough money, or if a fine legacy should drop from the skies and external necessity no longer presses, then they have time to occupy themselves with one another. Hitherto they stood back to back an defended themselves against necessity. However, now they turn face to face and look for understanding—only to discover that they have never understood one another. Each speaks a different language. Then the conflict between the two types begins. This struggle is envenomed, brutal, full of mutual depreciation, even when conducted quietly and in the greatest intimacy. For the value of the one is the negation of value for the other. It might reasonably be supposed that each, conscious of one’s own value, could peaceably recognize the other’s value, and that in this way any conflict would be superfluous. I have seen a good number of cases where this line of argument was adopted, without, however, arriving at a satisfactory goal. Where it is a question of normal people, such critical periods of transition will be overcome fairly smoothly. #RandolphHarris 7 of 24
By “normal” I mean a person who can somehow exist under all circumstances which afford one the minimum needs of life. However, many people cannot do this; therefore not so very many people are normal. What we commonly mean by a “normal person” is actually an ideal person whose happy blend of character is a rare occurrence. By far the greater number of more or less differentiated persons demand conditions of life which afford considerably more than the certainty of food and sleep. For these the ending of a symbiotic relationship comes as a severe shock. It is not easy to understand why this should be so. Yet if we consider that no human is simply introverted or simply extraverted, but has both attitudes potentially in one—although one has developed only one of them as a function of adaption—we shall immediately conjecture that with the introvert extraversion lies dormant and undeveloped somewhere in the background, and that introversion leads a similar shadowy existence in the extravert. And this is indeed the case. The introvert does possess an extraverted attitude, but it is unconscious, because one’s conscious gaze is always turned to the subject. #RandolphHarris 8 of 24
In the introvert the influence of the object produces an inferior extraversion, while in the extravert an inferior introversion takes the place of one’s social attitude. And so we come back to the proposition from which we stared: “The value of the one is the negation of value for the other.” Positive as well as negative occurrences can constellate the inferior counter-function. When this happens, sensitiveness appears. Sensitiveness is a sure sign of the presence of inferiority. This provides the psychological basis for discord and misunderstanding, not only as between two people, but also in ourselves. The essence of the inferior function is autonomy: it is independent, it attacks, it fascinates and so spins us about that we are no longer master of ourselves and can no longer rightly distinguish between ourselves and others. And yet it is necessary for the development of character that we should allow the other side, the inferior function, to find expression. We cannot in the long run allow one part of our personality to be care for symbiotically by another; for the moment when we have a need of the other function may come at any time and find us unprepared. #RandolphHarris 9 of 24
And the consequences maybe bad: the extravert loses one’s indispensable relation to the object, and the introvert loses one’s to the subject. Conversely, it is equally indispensable for the introvert to arrive at some form of action not constantly bedeviled by doubts and hesitations, and for the extravert to reflect upon oneself, yet without endangering one’s relationships. In extraversion and introversion it is clearly a matter of two antithetical, natural attitudes or trends, which Goethe once referred to as diastole and systole. They ought, in their harmonious alternation, to give life a rhythm, but it seems to require a high degree of art to achieve such a rhythm. Either one must do it quite unconsciously, so that the natural law is not disturbed by any conscious act, or one must be conscious in a much higher sense, to be capable of willing and carrying out the antithetical movements. Since we cannot develop backwards into animal unconsciousness, there remains only the more strenuous way forwards into higher consciousness. Certainly that consciousness, which would enable us to live the great Yea and Nay of our own free will and purpose, is an altogether superhuman ideal. #RandolphHarris 10 of 24
Still this superhuman ideal is the goal. Perhaps our present mentality only allows us consciously to will the Yea and to bear with the Nay. When that is the case, much is already achieved. The problem of opposites, as an inherent principle of human nature, forms a further stage in our process of realization. As a rule it is one of the problems of maturity. The practical treatment of a patient will hardly ever begin with this problem, especially not in the case of young people. The neuroses of the young generally come from a collision between the forces of reality and an inadequate, infantile attitude, which from the causal point of view is characterized by an abnormal dependence on the real or imaginary parents, and from the teleological point of view by unrealizable fictions, plans, and aspirations. Here the reductive methods of Dr. Freud and Dr. Adler are entirely in place. However, there are many neuroses which either appear only at maturity or else deteriorate to such a degree that the patients become incapable of work. Naturally one can point out in these cases that an unusual dependence on the parents existed even in youth, and that all kinds of illusions were present. #RandolphHarris 11 of 24
However, all that did not prevent them from taking up a profession, from practising it successfully, from keeping a marriage of sorts until that moment in riper years when the previous attitude suddenly failed. In such cases it is of little help to make them conscious of their childhood fantasies, dependence on the parents, et cetera, although this is a necessary part of the procedure and often has a not unfavourable result. However, the real therapy only begins when the patient sees that it is no longer father and mother who are standing in one’s way, but oneself—id est, an unconscious part of one’s personality which carries on the role of father and mother. Even this realization, helpful as it is, is still negative; it simply says, “I realize that it is not father and mother who are against me, but I myself.” However, who is it in one that is against one? What is this mysterious part of one’s personality that hides under the father- and mother-imagoes, making one believe for years that the cause of one’s trouble must somehow have got into one from outside? This part is the counterpart to one’s conscious attitude; and it will leave one no peace and will plague one until it has been accepted. #RandolphHarris 12 of 24
For young people a liberation from the past may be enough: a beckoning future lies ahead, rich in possibilities. It is sufficient to break a few bonds; the life-urge will do the rest. However, we are faced wit another task in the cause of people who have left a large part of their life behind them, for whom the future no longer beckons with marvelous possibilities, and nothing is to be expected but the endless round of familiar duties and the doubtful pleasures of old age. If ever we succeed in liberating young people from the past, we see that they always transfer the imagos of their parents to more suitable substitute figures. For instance, the feeling that clung to the mother now passes to the wife, and the father’s authority passes to respected teachers and superiors or to institutions. Although this is not a fundamental solution, it is yet a practical road which the normal human treads unconsciously and therefore with no notable inhibitions and resistances. The problem for the adult is very different. One has put this part of the road behind one with or without difficulty. One has cut loose from one’s parents, long since dead perhaps, and has sought and found the mother in the wife, or, in the case of a woman, the father in the husband. #RandolphHarris 13 of 24
One has duly honoured one’s fathers and their institutions, has oneself become a father, and, with all this in the past, has possibly come to realize that what originally meant advancement and satisfaction has now become a boring mistake, part of the illusion of youth, upon which one looks back with mingled regret and envy, because nothing now awaits one but old age and the end of illusions. Here there are no more fathers and mothers; all the illusions one projected upon the World and upon this gradually come home to one, jaded and way-worn. The energy streaming back from these manifold relationships falls into the unconscious and activates all the things one had neglected to develop. In a young man, the instinctual forces tied up in the neurosis give him, when released, buoyance and hope and the chance to extend the scope of one’s life. To the human in the second half of life the development of the function of opposites lying formant in the unconscious means a renewal; but this development no longer proceeds via the solution of infantile ties, the destruction of infantile illusions and the transference of old imagos to new figures: it proceeds via the problem of opposites. #RandolphHarris 14 of 24
There is no balance, no system of self-regulation, without opposition. The psyche is just such a self-regulating system. If the psyche is regarded as a self-regulating system, it follows that the attitude of consciousness is compensated by the attitude of the unconscious. In Jungian analysis, the principal, though not the only, way of discovering the attitude of the unconscious is through the study and interpretation of the patient’s dream. Neurotic symptoms, also, can be compensatory to a distorted, one-sided conscious attitude, and may this be valuable pointers toward a new adaptation rather than being simply disagreeable. I am not altogether pessimistic about neurosis. In many cases we have to say: “Thank Heaven he could make up his mind to be neurotic.” Neurosis is really an attempt at self-cure, just as any physical disease is in part an attempt at self-cure. We cannot understand a disease as an ens per se any more, as something detached which not so long ago it was believed to be. Modern medicine—internal medicine, for instance—conceives of disease as a system composed of a harmful factor and a healing factor. #RandolphHarris 15 of 24
It is exactly the same with neurosis. It is an attempt of the self-regulating psychic system to restore the balance, in no way different from the function of dreams—only rather more forceful and drastic. When we gaze observantly and reflectively around an object—whether it be a microscope—revealed cell or a telescope—revealed star—it inescapably imposes upon us the comprehension that an infinite intelligence rules this wonderful cosmos. The purposive way in which the Universe is organized betrays, if it be anything at all, the working of a Mind which understands. God’s immanence is reflected throughout the whole Universe. God’s reality is indicated by the very existence of the Universe. God’s intelligence is revealed by the intelligence of the creatures in the Universe. To recognize that the order of the cosmos is superbly intelligent beyond human invention, mysterious beyond human understanding, and even divinely holy is not to lapse into being sentimental. It is to accept the transcendence and self-sufficiency of THAT WHICH IS. Thought is the spirit of the Universe, thoughts are the forms of the Universe. #RandolphHarris 16 of 24
Everything in the Universe testifies to a super-intelligent power being behind it. We live in a Universe that is spun out of the divine intelligence and sustained by the divine energy. At the center of each human, each animal, each plant, each cell, and each atom, there is complete stillness. A seemingly empty stillness, yet it holds the divine energies and the divine Idea for that thing. For many of us today, our body is in a constant state of agitation and discomfort. That is the contemporary condition and explains our astonishing degree of dependence on prescription and drugs and vaccines. In some cases, of course, this may be due to strictly physical conditions. However, more often, it is not so, but is due to tendencies of the self that have settled into our body’s parts and put it at war with itself. Wounds, fears, unsatisfied desires, shames, losses, and unhealthy ambitions and images of the self sink beneath the horizon of our awareness. We may even deny them. However, they continue to disrupt our body and can even take over our life through the body’s “automatic” responses. #RandolphHarris 17 of 24
Frank Laubach—partly because, to be “noble,” he had voted for the other candidate—was denied a position as president of a college in the Philippines, where he had been serving as a missionary. He lost by one vote. He was frustrated and bitter, and for two years was almost continuously ill. A biographer writes, “He suffered from flu, appendicitis, paratyphoid, a strained leg muscle, an ulcerated eye, and shingles! In a sate of bitter self-pity, he hobbled around, work inefficiently, and wore a patch over one eye much of the time. His failure to accept the defeat was costing him his health. The fact that his desire to exercise Christian principles resulting in him hurting himself increased the inner tension and conflict These were years of despondency and aimlessness. He was fighting the battle of his soul. In fact, what we see in such a cast is soul disruption manifesting itself in disorders of the body, which in turn threaten to take over life as a while and could even lead to physical death. Thank God, Laubach in time found the spiritual key to turning all this around and bringing one’s body into the health of a person radiant with the presence of Christ. #RandolphHarris 18 of 24
The Void which humans find at the center—whether of one’s own being or of the Universe’s—is divine. It holds both godlike Mind and godlike Energy. It is still and silent, yet it is the source of all the dynamic energies, human and universal. “And it came to pass that Orihan did execute judgment upon the land in righteousness all one’s days, whose days were exceedingly many. And he begat sons and daughters; yea, he begat thirty and one, among whom were twenty and three sons. And it came to pass that ne also begat Kib in his old age. And it came to pass that Kib reigned in his stead; and Kib begat Corihor. And when Corihor as thirty and two years old he rebelled against his father, and went over and dwelt in the land of Nehor; and he begat sons and daughters, and they become exceedingly fair; wherefore Corihor drew away many people after him. And when he had gathered together an army he came up unto the land of Moron where the king dwelt, and took him captive, which brought to pass the saying of the brother of Jared that they would be brought into captivity. #RandolphHarris 19 of 24
“Now the land of Mormon, where the kind dwelt, was near the land which is called Desolation by the Nephites. And it came to pass that Kib dwelt in captivity, and his people under Corihor his son, until he became exceedingly old; nevertheless Kib begat Shule in his old age, while he was yet in captivity. And it came to pass that Shule was angry with his brother; and Shule waxed strong, and become mighty as to the strength of a human; and he was also mighty in judgment. Wherefore, he came to the hill Ephraim, and he did molten out of the hill, and made swords out of steel for those whom he had drawn away with him; and after he had armed them with swords he returned to the city Nehor, and gave battle unto his brother Corihor, by which means he obtained the kingdom and restored it unto his father Kid. And now because of the thing which Shule had done, his father bestowed upon him the kingdom; therefore he began to reign in the stead of his father Kib. And now because of the thing which Shule had done, his father bestowed upon him the kingdom; therefore he began to reign in the stead of his father. #RandolphHarris 20 of 24
“And it came to pass that he did execute judgment in righteousness; and he did spread his kingdom upon all the face of the land, for the people had become exceedingly numerous. And it came to pass that Shule also begat many sons and daughters. And Cori repented of the many evils which he had done; wherefore Shule have him power in his kingdom. And it came to pass that Corihor had many sons and daughters. And among the sons of Corihor there was one whose name was Noah. And it came to pass that Noah rebelled against Shule, the king, and also his father Corihor, and drew away Cohor his brother, and also all his brethren and many of the people. And he gave battle unto Shule, the kind, in which he did obtain the land of their first inheritance; and he became king over that part of the land. And it came to pass that he gave battle again unto Shule, the king; and he took Shule, the king, and carried him away captive into Moron. And it came to pass as he was about to put him to death, the sons of Shule crept into the house of Noah by night and slew him, and broke down the door of the prison and brought out their father, and placed him upon his throne in his own kingdom. #RandolpHarris 21 of 24
“Wherefore the son of Noah did build up his kingdom in his stead; nevertheless they did not gain power any more over Shule the king, and the people who were under the reign of Shule the king did prosper exceedingly and wax great. And the country was divided; and there were two kingdoms, the kingdom of Shule, and the kingdom of Cohor, the son of Noah. And Cohor, the son of Noah, caused that his people should give battle unto Shule, in which Shule did beat them and did slay Cohor. And now Cohor had a son who was called Nimrod; and Nimrod gave up the kingdom of Cohor unto Shule, and did gain favour in the eyes of Shule; wherefore Shule did bestow great favours upon him, and he did do in the kingdom of Shule according to his desires. And also the reign of Shule there came prophets among the people, who were sent from the Lord, prophesying that the wickedness and idolatry of the people was bring a curse upon the land, and they should be destroyed if they did not repent. #RandolphHarris 22 of 24
“And it came to pass that the people did revile against the prophets, and did mock them. And it came to pass that king Sule did execute judgment against all those who did revile against the prophets. And he did execute a law throughout all the land, which gave power unto the prophets that they should go whithersoever they would; and by this cause the people were brought unto repentance. And become the people did repent of their iniquities and idolatries the Lord did spare them, and they began to prosper again in the land. And it came to pass that Shule begat sons and daughters in his old age. And there were no more wars in the days of Shule; and he remembered the great things of the Lord had done for his fathers in brining them across the great deep into the promised land; wherefore he did execute judgment in righteousness all his days,” reports Ether 7.1-27. It will be a dark night indeed, for, even though the stars give what light they can, it comes from far away, and is scattered and spent when it falls on the Earth. Where is the light that comes from nearer, from our own World’s companion, our own World’s sister? She hides from us tonight. Tonight there will be no Moon. Tonight we will have no companion to guide us through the darkness. #RandolphHarris 23 of 24
However, though we cannot see you, you live in our hearts. Strengthen us in the darkness: is that not what darkness is for? Raised against the empty Winter sky, the barren limbs of trees and my hands reach out in prayer. I ask from the gods of Winter the strength I will need to endure until spring and the wisdom I require to learn from the dark and the cold the lessons they will teach. May I receive them without flinching. With silent steps you come, snow spirits, silently descending, silently landing. You who silence the World with your falling, silence it so I can hear from you: I hear silence. Please drop welcome tears upon the Earth, fertile sky. Awaken it to new life, please feed its thirsty mouth. The Lord reigneth; He is robed in majesty; the Lord is robed, He hath girded Himself with strength. Now is the Earth firmly established; it shall not be moved. Thy throne is established of old; thou art from everlasting. The waters lift up their voices, O Lord, the water lift up their roaring; yet above the voices of many waters, above the breakers of the sea, Thou, O Lord, art mighty. Thy law is true and unfailing; holiness is becoming to Thy house, O Lord, forevermore. #RandolphHarris 24 of 24
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With Every Morn their Love Grew Tender, with Every Eve Deeper and Tenderer Still!
We take a handful of sand from the endless landscape of awareness around us and call that handful of sand the World. Time is not the fourth dimension, and should not be so identified. Time is only a relative observation. Existentialism of Personalism embraces interconnected attitudes of aesthetic, sacred consciousness with social, political awareness. Transpersonal and existential realities are captured in the sacred and profane events of life. The ecstasy and numinous awesomeness of an I-and-Thou encounter with the Supreme Personality can be experienced in any time and in any place and through any object, person, or event. It is not limited to an inner, individualistic mysticality, nor is it particular to community worship and ceremony. The personal relationship with Supreme Personality creates a “sense of being” and “becoming” that is spontaneous and goes on ceaselessly in a constant dialogue with self, other, and nature. It is contained in form and is experienced in existential, concrete, everyday life. Flora Jones, Wintu medicine woman, speaks about the spirits like they are living personalities in a partnership of existence with human beings. #RandolphHarris 1 of 27
Witness the following statement from Flora Jones: “This is what the spirit tells me—get my people together. Whoever has sacred places must wake them up, the same as I am doing here—to keep my old World within my heart and with the spiritual. For them to help me and for me to help my people.” The personalism expressed by Flora Jones is the basis of most Victorian, African-American and American-Indian traditions. All of these cultures have a dual theme of Being-in-the World and Being-beyond-the-World. The Supreme Personality is experienced as an integrated intelligence and love that is expressed through the archetypes of mythologies, rituals, worship, dreams, and visions. The archetypal spirituality of the meeting in the Between confirms that the Supreme Personality lies within the human personality and in the meeting as he Ground of Being. The Supreme Personality, as a living personality, offers love, knowledge, mystery, gift giving, and sharing in relationship with the human person. The I-and-Thou encounter bring to “awareness” constellations of fascination and fear, destiny and freedom, death and life, anxiety and joy, interest and surprise, love and shame, and guilt and excitement. #RandolphHarris 2 of 27
Existentialism of Personalism came out of my practice and theory in a circle of understanding and interpretation through dialogue with American Indians, Victorian people, and African-Americans. Alex Haley in his book Roots (1976) describes how the father of Kunta Kinte presented his infant son to the Universe. He writes, “Carrying little Kunta in his strong arms, he walked to the edge of the village, lifted his baby up with his face to the Heavens, and said softly….Behold—the only thing greater than yourself” (p.13). Haley is showing that the living Universe is the father/mother of Kunta Kinte and that the child’s personality is sacred. In the Navajo tradition, the man who holds his infant up to Father Sun and says, “Father Sun, this is your child,” is expressing that the Universe is personal and loving. The Navajo infant is a direct descendant of the living Universe, and, therefore, its personality is sacred. American-American, Victorian, and American Indian traditions demonstrate a continual dialogue between the human personality and the Supreme Personality that reveals the sacred and the profane as not separated but forming an interconnected metaphysical reality that is remythologized in every I-and-Thou meeting. #RandolphHarris 3 of 27
However, philosophy does not accept the Semitic belief in a World created for the first time by a personal creator, and this is as true of the highest Greek philosophy as expressed, for instance, in Aristotle’s work on metaphysics as in the highest Asiatic philosophy associated with Buddhism and Hinduism. The word “creation” is inadmissible here for it signifies producing something out of nothing. No one, not even God himself, can produce something out of nothing. Therefore, the orthodox Christian idea of a mysterious creation is completely untenable. That the existence of manufactured things indicates a manufacturer is sound logic, but to apply the same analogy to the World is not. For the World is something quite other than them; it is in a category not only altogether apart from them but altogether by itself. There was never a time when the Universe was created or fabricated by a Creator or Maker. This is a case of man making God in his own image. Through successive cycles of the Universe comes and goes, is born and dies, as the World-Mind rethinks the World-Idea or lets it lapse. #RandolphHarris 4 of 27
The Universe was never created for the first time for it has always and incessantly appeared and disappeared, activated and rested, come forth, evolved, and retreated into latency. There has never been a time when there was not a Universe, by which I do not mean our own. There is nothing arbitrary in this “creation.” It is really self-determined. Everything brings itself into existence under the necessity of its own being and the laws of its own possibilities. Where a circle begins it also ends; the Universe is like that: it has n real beginning or ending. It is not a creation in the Biblical sense but an intermittent continuation. Aristotle: “The Universe unfolds out of its own essence, not being made.” We could add that its pattern unfolds too out of the World-Idea. The Universe has never had a beginning, and cannot have an end, but its forms and states may change and therefore must have a beginning and end. It is more correct to speak of the Universe’s birth, not of its creation. The Universe was not made, in a workshop sense; it was emanated. It flowed out of the Original Source and it will flow back there at the appointed time. The cosmos is neither a phantom to be disdained nor an illusion to be dismissed. #RandolphHarris 5 of 27
The cosmos is more of a remote expression in time and space and individuality of that which is timeless, spaceless, and infinite. If it is not the it is not the Reality in its ultimate sense, it is an emanation of the Reality. Hence it shares in some way the life of its source. To find that point of sharing is the true object of incarnation for all creates within the cosmos. The World of external Nature, being eternal, is not brought into existence by an act of sudden creation out of nothing. Furthermore, this World is rooted in the divine substance and is consequently not an empty illusion but an indirect manifestation of divine reality. A thought exists in intimate relation with the World-Mind, God. The World is not bereft of reality although it does not possess ultimate reality. The World is neither a trap nor an illusion, neither a degradation of the divine essence nor an indication of the divine absence. What is the meaning of the World? If it is nothing more than an illusion, it can have no real meaning at all. However, if it is an expression of the infinite intelligence it must everywhere pervaded by immense meaning. #RandolphHarris 6 of 27
The truth is ever here, whether unwritten and bodiless or scripted and described. The image of it can be looked at by other generations long afterwards, but the reality of it remains always in the World-Idea and is never lost. If the World is sheer illusion, how could man—himself a part of this illusion—ever know the Real? Were humans merely an illusion man and woman could see only further illusions. Were one part of the Real one could see only further reality. Since our experience of illusion is itself in accordance with the World-idea, why should we be afraid of admitting its existence? What we should be afraid of is letting it blot out Reality. The whole Universe is a symbol, whose meaning can be read only when we have learned the alphabet of philosophic laws and experiences. Our World is but a fleeting symbol, yet we may not disdain it. For it is the arched entrance under which we must pass through to the infinite life. The World is a spectacle presented for our meditation in depth. It is a clue, a pointing sign, and even a mystery play. What is the Universe but a gigantic symbol of God? Its infinite variety hints at the infinite endless of the Absolute itself. #RandolphHarris 7 of 27
The World stands for something else: it is, first, a token that God exists, second, an image of God’s being. The Universe is a cipher which needs to be decoded. The scientist does this on one level of investigation, the metaphysician on a different level; the religionist does not attempt the effort but reveres the cipher’s Author. Was it not Goethe who wrote: “Everything which happens is only a symbol”? Is not the whole gigantic cosmic effect in the end only a symbolic expression indicating that paradoxically it is and is not? The more we learn about the Universe, the more mysterious it becomes. Once, in America, I was consulted by a business man about twenty-five, whose case is a good illustration of the sublimation of free energies. He was a typical American self-made man who had worked his way up from a novice to an expert. He had been very successful and had founded an immense business. He has also succeeded in organizing it in such a way that he was able to think of retiring. Two years before I saw him, he had in fact taken his farewell. #RandolphHarris 8 of 27
Until then he had lived entirely for his business and concentrated all his energies on it with the incredible intensity and one-sidedness peculiar to successful American business men. He had purchased a splendid estate where he thought of “living,” by which he meant horse, BMW, Mercedes-Benz, Rolls Royce, Bentley, Porsche, golf, tennis, parties and what not. However, he had reckoned without his host. The energy which should have been at his disposal would not enter into these alluring prospects, but went capering off in quite another direction. A few weeks after the initiation of the longed-for life of bliss, he began brooding over peculiar, vague sensations in his body, and a few weeks more sufficed to plunge him into a state of extreme hypochondria. He had a complete nervous collapse. From a healthy man, of uncommon physical strength and abounding energy, he became a peevish child. That was the end of all his glories. He fell from one state of anxiety to the next and worried himself almost to death with hypochondriacal mopings. He then consulted a famous specialist, who recognized at once that there was nothing wrong with the man but lack of work. The patient saw the sense of this, and returned to his former work. #RandolphHarris 9 of 27
However, to his immense disappointment, no interest in the business could be aroused. Neither patience nor resolution was of any use. His energy could not by any means be forced back into the business. His condition naturally became worse than before. All that had formerly been living, creative energy in him now turned against him with terrible destroying force. His creative genius rose up, as it were, in revolt against him; and just as before he had built up great organizations in the World, so now his daemon spun equally subtle systems of hypochondriacal delusion that completely annihilated him. When I saw him, he was already a hopeless moral ruin. Nevertheless I tried to make clear to him that though such a gigantic energy might be withdrawn from the business, the question remained, were should I go? The finest horses, Porches, Mercedes and farms, even the most amusing parties may very likely fail to allure the energy, although it would be rational enough to think that a man who had devoted his whole life to serious work had a sort of natural right to enjoy himself. Yes, if fate behaved in a humanly rational way, it would certainly be so: first work, then well-earned rest. #RandolphHarris 10 of 27
However, fate behaves irrationally, and the energy of life inconveniently demands a gradient agreeable to itself; otherwise it simply gets dammed up and turns destructive. It regresses to former situations—in the case of this man, to the memory of an internal inflammatory condition of the medical nature. Yet even this was only a stage on the way to the resuscitation of infantile reminiscences which had all but vanished in the meantime. It was the original relation to his mother that mapped the course of his symptoms: there were an “arrangement” whose purpose it was to compel the attention and interest of is long-dead mother. Nor was this stage the last; for the ultimate goal was to drive him back, as it were, into his own body, after he had lived since his youth only in his head. He had differentiated one side of his being; the other side remained in an inert physical state. He would have needed this other side in order to “live.” The hypochondriacal “depression” pushed him down into the body he had always overlooked. Had he been able to follow the direction indicated by his depression and hypochondriacal illusion, and make himself conscious of the fantasies which proceed from such a condition, that would have been the road to my salvation. #RandolphHarris 11 of 27
My argument naturally met with no response, as was to be expected. A case so far advanced can only be cared for until death; it can hardly be cured. This example clearly shows that it does not lie in our power to transfer “disposable” energy at will to a rationally chosen object. The same is true in general of the apparently disposable energy which is disengaged when we have destroyed its unserviceable forms through the corrosive of reductive analysis. This energy, as we have said, can at best be applied voluntarily for a short time. However, in most cases it refuses to seize hold, for any length of time, of the possibilities rationally presented to it. Psychic energy is a very fastidious thing which insists on fulfillment of its own conditions. However much energy may be present, we cannot make it serviceable until we have succeeded in finding the right gradient. The question of the gradient is an eminently practical problem which crops up in most analyses. For instance, when in a favourable case the disposable energy, the so-called libido (psychic energy, which is equivalent to the intensity with which psychic contents are charged), does seize hold of a rational object, we think we have brought about the transformation through conscious exertion of the will. #RandolphHarris 12 of 27
However, we are deluded, because even the most strenuous exertions would not have sufficed had there not been present at the same time a gradient in that direction. How important the gradient is can be seen in the cases when, despite the most desperate exertions, and despite the fact that the object chosen or the form desired impresses everybody with its reasonableness, then transformation still refuses to take place, and all that happens is a new repression. It has become abundantly clear to me that life can flow forward only along the path of the gradient. However, there is no energy unless there is tension of opposites; hence it is necessary to discover the opposite to the attitude of the conscious mind. It is interesting to see how this compensation by opposites also plays its part in the historical theories of neurosis: Dr. Freud’s theory espoused Eros, Dr. Adler’s the will to power. Logically, the opposite of love is hate, and of Eros, Phobos (fear); but psychologically it is the will to power. Where love reigns, there is no will to power; and where the will to power is paramount, love is lacking. The one is but the shadow of the other: the human who adopts the standpoint of Eros finds one’s compensator opposite in the will to power, and that of the human who puts the accent on power is Eros. #RandolphHarris 13 of 27
Seen from the one-sided point of view the conscious attitude, the shadow is an inferior component of the personality and is consequently repressed through intensive resistance. However, the repressed content must be made conscious so as to produce a tension of opposites, without which no forward moment is possible. The conscious mind is on top, the shadow underneath, and just as high always longs for low and hot for cold, so all consciousness, perhaps without being aware of it, seeks its unconscious opposite, lacking which it is domed to stagnation, congestion, and ossification. Life is born only of the spark of opposites. It was a concession to intellectual logic on the one had and to psychological prejudice on the other that impelled Dr. Freud to name the opposite of Eros the destructive or death instinct. For in the first place, Eros is not equivalent to life; but for anyone who thinks it is, the opposite of Eros will naturally appear to be death. And in the second place, we all feel that the opposite of our own highest principle must be purely destructive, deadly, and evil. We refuse to endow it with any beneficial life-force; hence we avoid and fear it. #RandolphHarris 14 of 27
Before there are any outward disciplines of giving, there must be a disciplined understanding of giving. First, you must bear in mind that giving is not a meritorious work which will enhance your position before God. Similarly, giving will not make you better than other Christians. Second, you need to understand that while giving will not gain favour with God, giving does bring blessing! Jesus said: “Give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over, will be poured into your lap. For with the measure you use, it will be measured to you,” reports Luke 6.38. Correspondingly, Paul wrote: “Remember this: Whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows generously will also reap generously,” reports 2 Corinthians 9.6. Admittedly these blessings are essentially spiritual. However, which would you rather have—a spiritual blessing or a bigger bank and bigger Benz (The bigger the bank, the bigger the Benz, the better the chance I have to get close to his rich friends, bank accounts in the Philippines, blank note to take everything! )—inner contentment or a new yacht? Third, you must keep in mind that giving which pleases God is generous and sacrificial. As we have seen, the Macedonians gave out of their deep poverty. #RandolphHarris 15 of 27
We can also profitably reflect on what Jesus said about the poor widow who humbly gave only a fraction of a penny: “I tell you the truth, this poor widow has put more into the treasury than all the others,” reports Mark 12.43. Fourth, you must understand that what you give is to be determined between you and God. Giving should never be decided casually or flippantly, but through serious prayer—asking God what He wants you to give. With the mental disciplines of giving firmly in mind, the way is ready for the act of giving. To begin with, the act of giving should be accompanied by offering oneself to the Lord, just as did the Macedonians who “gave themselves first to the Lord,” reports 2 Corinthians 8.5. This should be done silently, not so someone will see out pious act of worship. And giving oneself to God is need worship. “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,” reports Romans 12.1. Second, it is strongly recommended, in light of the great giving requirements imposed on God’s ancient people Israel, that everyone should at least consider the first 10 percent as a starting point in giving—a minimum. #RandolphHarris 16 of 27
And in the case of the Macedonians’ grace giving, the amount must have been way over 10 percent because a tenth of their “extreme poverty” (1 Corinthians 8.2) would not have helped anyone. Third, your giving ought to be regular. Paul advised this same Corinthians church on another occasion, “On the first day of every week, each one of your should set aside a sum of money in keeping with one’s income, saving it up, so that when I come no collections will have to be made,” report 1 Corinthians 16.2. The apostle knew that regular, systematic giving would help the people meet their regular obligations and most emergencies. Fourth, you must begin giving now. The natural tendency is to put giving off until you feel able to give. Such thinking keeps many from ever giving. A preacher came to see a farmer and asked him, “If you had $2,00.00, would you give $1,000.00 or it to the Lord?” “I would.” “If you have two Ultimate Driving Machines, would you give one of them to the Lord?” “Sure.” “If you had two Cresleigh Homes, would you give one of them to the Lord?” The farmer said, “Now that is not fair! You know I have two Cresleigh Homes.” #RandolphHarris 17 of 27
Giving should not only be regular, but responsive to need, spontaneous, like that of the Macedonians and Mary of Bethany who in anointing Jesus so lavishly poured out her resources. High Heaven rejects the lore of nicely calculated les and more. Finally, your giving should be joyous—“for God loves a cheerful giver,” reports 2 Corinthians 9.7. As we have been so often reminded, “cheerful” can be translated “hilarious,” suggesting a joy which leaps over all restraints. The act of giving is a blessed state. We do well to remember that our Lord Jesus Himself said, “It is more blessed to give then to receive,” reports Acts 20.35. May we be faithful and disciplined in giving ourselves and all we have to God! What does the phrase “grace giving” mean to you? What does grace have to do with giving? When you give to the church or various Christian ministries, do you generally do so out of obligation or willingness? How much of your income do you believe God wants you to give to Him? Support your answers with Scripture; then ask God in prayer whether He agrees. “Will a human rob god? Yet you rob me. But you ask, ‘How do we rob you?’ In tithes and offerings. You are under a curse—the whole nation of you—because you are robbing me. #RandolphHarris 18 of 27
“Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. Test me in this,” says the LORD Almighty, “and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of Heaven and pour out so much blessing that you will not have room enough for it. I will present pests from devouring your crops, and the vines in your fields will not cause their fruit,” says the LORD Almighty. “Then all the nations will call you blessed, for yours will be a delightful land,” says the LORD Almighty,” reports Malachi 3.8-12. What did God speak to you about most specifically, most powerfully in this essay? Talk to Him about it right now! The World-idea has been represented by Churches and statues, and stained-glass windows. They are seen as places and refuge and the images tell a story. There are pictorial stories because people could not always read and also because they wanted the stories to pass on for generations. The statues also serve a purpose. The World-Mind has been embodied in images and idols. These things can be and are used in religious worship and mystic meditation. The idols act as reminders to its devotees; one is not a fool to confuse a piece of stone with the power of God. #RandolphHarris 19 of 27
We live in what appears as a multiverse, a timed and spaced existence—in a short, a finite one. However, those who can pierce through to its secret—and some have done so—find that it is actually the Unconditioned revealing itself as if it were the Conditioned. This Universe appearing in time and space under innumerable forms, its particles and planets ever in motion, hides as its supreme secret THAT which is timeless and placeless, without shape, intangible and immobile. Is this not the greatest paradox, this solid something whose essence is Nothing? Few humans know God even when they see Him, as they are unrealizingly do when they look around at the World or even when they merely look at it. “And now I, Moroni, proceed to give the record of Jared and his brother. For it came to pass after the Lord had prepared the stones which the brother of Jared had carried up into the mount, the brother of Jared came down out of the mount, and e did put forth the stones into the vessels which were prepared, one in each end thereof; and behold, they did give light unto the vessels. And thus the Lord caused stones to shine in darkness, to give light unto men, women, and children, that they might not cross the great waters in darkness. #RandolphHarris 20 of 27
“And it came to pass that when they had prepared all manner of food, that thereby they might subsist upon the water, and also food for their flocks and herds, and whatsoever beast or animal or fowl that they should carry with them—and it came to pass that when they had done all these things they got aboard of their vessels or barges, and set forth into the sea, commending themselves unto the Lord their God. And it came to pass that the Lord God caused that there should be a furious wind blow upon the face of the waters, towards the promised land; and this they were tossed upon the waves of the seas before the wind. And it came to pass that they were many times buried in the depths of the sea, because of the mountain waves which broke upon them, and also the great and terrible tempests which were caused by the fierceness of the wind. And it came to pass that when they were buried in the deep there was no water that could hurt them, their vessels being tight like unto a dish, and also they were tight like unto the ask of Noah; therefore when they were encompassed about by many waters they did cry unto the Lord, and he did bring them forth again upon the top of the waters. #RandolphHarris 21 of 27
“And it came to pass that the wind did never cease to blow towards the promised land while they were upon the waters; and thus they were driven forth before the wind. And they did sing praises unto the Lord; yea, the brother of Jared did sing praises unto the Lord, and he did thank and praise the Lord all the day long; and when the night came, they did not cease to praise the Lord. And thus they were driven forth; and no monster of the sea could break them, neither whale that could mar them; and they did have light continually, whether it was above the water or under the water. And thus they were driven forth, three hundred and forty and four days upon the water. And they did land upon the shore of the promised land. And when they had set their feet upon the shores of the promised land they bowed themselves down upon the face of the land, and did humble themselves before the Lord, and did shed tears of joy before the Lord, because of the multitude of his tender mercies over them. And it came to pass that they went forth upon the face of the land, and began to till the Earth. #RandolphHarris 22 of 27
“And Jared had four sons; and they were called Jacom, and Gilgah, and Maha, and Orihah. And the brother of Jared also begat sons and daughters. And the friends of Jared and his brothers were in number about twenty and two souls; and they also begat sons and daughters before they came to the promised land; and therefore they began to be many. And they were taught to walk humbly before the Lord; and they were also taught from on high. And it came to pass that they began to spread upon the face of the land, and to multiply and to till the Earth; and they did wax strong in the land. And the brother of Jared began to be old, and saw that he must soon go down to the grave; wherefore he said unto Jared: Let us gather together our people that we may number them, that we may know of them what they will desire of us before we go down to our graves. And accordingly the people were gathered together. Now the number of the sons and daughters of the brothers of Jared were twenty and two souls; and the number of sons and daughters of Jared were twelve, he having four sons. And it came to pass that they did number their people; and after that they had numbered them, they did desire of them the things which they would that they should do before they went down to their graves. #RandolphHarris 23 of 27
“And it came to pass that the people desired of them that they should anoint one of their sons to be a king over them. And now behold, this was grievous unto them. And the brother of Jared said unto them: Surely this thing leadeth into captivity. However, Jared said unto his brother: Suffer them that they may have a king. And therefore he said unto them: Choose ye out from among our sons a king, even whom ye will. And it came to pass that they chose even the firstborn of the brother of Jared; and has name was Pagag. And it came to pass that he refused and would not be their kind. And the people would that his father should constrain him, but his father would not; and he commanded them that they should constrain no human to be their king. And it came to pass that they chose all the brothers of Pagag, and they would not. And it came to pass that neither would the sons of Jared, even all save it were one; and Orihah was anointed to be king over the people. And he began to reign, and the people began to prosper; and they became exceedingly rich. And it came to pass that Jared died, and his brother also. #RandolphHarris 24 of 27
“And it came to pass that Orihah did walk humbly before the Lord, and did remember how great things the Lord had done for his father, and also taught his own people how great things the Lord had done for their fathers,” reports Ether 6.1-30. Winter is not just a single day. It takes time. Pay attention to its different stages, and adjust your prayers accordingly. As the cold time begins, I turn toward it with courage, knowing I do not face it alone. All the Holy Ones are with me; we will face it together. The leaves may fall, the grass may die, but the Land Spirits live, and to them I pray. Though some may sleep, others awake to face the cold, to bless the Earth with the gifts only they can give. Spirit of rock and tree, Spirits of running and still water, Spirits of Earth and sky: to the ones who now go to sleep, farewell until the warm time. To those who now awake, once again I greet you, as the Earth once again enters Winter. Cry the Winter rains to prepare the way, to mourn the darkness now enfolding. Cry the Winter rains to prepare the way, to wash pure the World as it lies here waiting. Cry the Winter rains, sky overarching, but soon the sorrows’ tears will turn to joy. Light will return to the covered Earth. #RandolphHarris 25 of 27
Cry, rain spirits, as this time demands. The sickle of reaping is low in the sky in the period just before down. The Sun’s halo soon will hide it, but it will be there, at the back of my mind, at the bottom my heart, poised to perform its acts of loving mercy. Waning Moon, passes over me, and pass on by. Please grant me your wisdom, but withhold your power. Sing joyously unto God our strength; sing along unto the God of Jacob. Take up the melody, and sound the timbrel, the sweet harp with the psaltery. Blow the Shofar at the New Moon, at the full Moon for our festival. For it is a statute for Israel, an ordinance of the God of Jacob, when God made a testimony for Joseph, when Her went forth against the land of Egypt. I hear a mysterious voice: “I, the Lord, removed the burden from your shoulder; your hands were freed from the heavy hod. O Israel, you called, and I delivered you; I answered you in the thunder; I tested you are the waters of Meribah, saying: ‘Hear, O My people, and I will admonish you; O America, if you would only Hearken unto Me! There shall be no strange god in your midst; nor shall you worship any foreign god. I am the Lord your God, Who brought you up out of the land of Egypt; open you mouth, and I will grant you of My bounty.’ #RandolphHarris 26 of 27
“But my people hearkened not to My Voice; and American would not obey. So I let them go after the stubbornness of their heart. Let them walk in their own evil counsels! Oh that My people would hearken unto Me, that America would walk in My ways! I would soon subdue their enemies, and place My hand upon their adversaries. The enemies of the Lord would cringe before Him, and their doom would be everlasting. However, you would I feed with the fat of wheat; and with the honey out of the rock would I satisfy you.” So the two brothers and their murdered man rode past fair Florence, to where Arno’s stream gurgles through straitened banks, and still doth fan itself with dancing bulrush, and the bream keeps head against the freshest. Sick and wan the brothers’ faces in the ford did seem, Lorenzo’s flush with love. They passed the water into a forest quiet for the slaughter. There was Lorenzo slain and buried in, there in that forest did his great love cease; ah! when a soul doth thus its freedom win, it aches in loneliness—is ill at peace as the break-covert blood-hounds od such sin: They dipped their swords in the water, and did tease their horses homeward, with convulsed spur, each richer by his being a murderer. #RandolphHarris 27 of 27
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The Events of this Wide World I Would Seize Like a Strong Giant and My Spirit Tease!
Once you think that your own mind is not your friend anymore, you are on your way to insanity. In 1923 a very significant meeting was held at the Edgewater Beach Hotel in Chicago. Attending that famous gathering were nine of the World’s most successful financiers. The president of the largest independent steel company, the president of the largest utility company, the president of the New York Stock Exchange, a member of the President’s Cabinet, the greatest bear on Wall Street, the head of the World’s greatest monopoly, and finally the president of the Bank of International Settlement were all present. If there ever was one, a high-powered group was for sure present. These humans were supreme masters of the finance World! Twenty-five years later, in 1948 the picture was much different. After living on borrowed money for the last five years of his life, Charles Schwab had died bankrupt. A fugitive from justice, penniless in a foreign land is how Samuel Insull died. Howard Hopson was insance. Arthur Critten died abroad, insolvent. Richard Whitney has just been released from Sing Sing. Being pardoned from prison so he could die at home was the fate of Albert Fall. Death by suicide was the date with destiny for Leon Fraser and Ivar Kreuger. #RandolphHarris 1 of 26
All those men, master of finance, were mastered by wealth! The extraordinary sameness of the hellish gravity of their famous lives is a divine warning, for God set the ghost of these financial giants as spectral, mid-century witnesses to a nation about to run amok in materialism. Today their ghost have faded, and a new gallery of forlorn spirits is assembling, with names like Ivan Boesky, Michael Milken, Bill Gates, Warren Buffet, Jeff Bezos, Amancio Ortega, and Elon Musk. Yet few take serious notice. Perhaps it is because most, especially if they are Christians, do not aspire to be the head of the World’s greatest monopoly or to the vulgar display of the lifestyles of the rich and famous. Instead they are quite content to cultivate a less encumbering level of wealth—not realizing that the dangers for themselves are the same for the super rich: a growing delusion that this World is everything that someday they will be content, the “providing for one’s family” means being able to give them more and better, that relationships will be enriched by wealth, that wealth will make them better people. Clearly, the abiding reality is that wealth presents substantial dangers for all, and especially for today’s increasingly prosperous Christian population. #RandolphHarris 2 of 26
However, what can we do to escape the power of materialism? Step out of the competitive World? Abandon Wall Street? Avoid the professions? Join a commune? Some think so, despite Christ’s firm admonitions against isolation. We all need stuff—stuff to wear, stuff to eat, stuff for home, stuff for school. And, of course, beyond the necessities there is also the stuff we want but do not really need, as well as the stuff we dream about but may not be able to obtain at the moment. If we are not careful, we can have a hard tie seeing past all that stuff. Material possession (both those we have and those we want) can obstruct our view of who we really are and what life is really about. There is a better way, actually, and it is taught repeatedly in God’s World. In fact, Scripture presents it as a grace—the grace of giving. The most explicit teaching on this subject is 2 Corinthians 8, where the Apostle Paul deftly instructs the Corinthian church regarding giving by citing the beautiful example of the Macedonian church’s giving. He begins: “And now, brothers, we want you to know about the grace [meaning the grace of giving] that God have given the Macedonian churches,” reports 2 Corinthians 8.1. #RandolphHarris 3 of 26
For Paul, giving is so much a grace that he uses the Greek word five times in this short text: verse 1, “the grace” (charin); verse 4, “the privilege” (charas); verse 6, “this act of grace” (charin); verse 7, “this grace of giving” (charity); and verse 9, “the grace” (charin). Giving is a matter of grace from beginning to end, as we shall see. Grace is the divine help or strength extended to us through the Atonement of the Lord Jesus Christ. Through the grace of God, everyone who has lived will be resurrected—our spirits will be reunited with our bodies, never again to be separated. Through His grace, the Lord also enables those who live His gospel to repent and be forgiven. Grace is a gift from Heavenly Father given through His Son, Jesus Christ. The word grace, as used in the scriptures, refers primarily to enabling power and spiritual healing offered through the mercy and love of Jesus Christ. The grace of giving has nothing to do with being well-off. It is not dictated by ability. It is a willingness to give. Giving is viewed as a privilege. It is joyously enthusiastic and pleads for the opportunity to give more. What else produces such giving? Paul gives the answer in verse 5 as he relates the vertical and horizontal angles of the Macedonians’ commitment. #RandolphHarris 4 of 26
Yes, we will often feel inadequate, but fortunately God knows us far better than we know ourselves. “And they exceeded our expectations: They gave themselves first of all to the Lord, and then by the will of God also to us keeping with God’s will,” reports 2 Corinthians 8.5. Their remarkable giving was the result of their first giving themselves to God. It is so simple: when all one has is given to God, giving to others becomes the natural reflex of the soul. When we have already given the whole, it is easy to surrender part. This was shown in the life of a young Norwegian named Peter Torjesen when at the age of seventeen his heart was so stirred by a challenge to missionary giving that he opened his wallet and poured all his money into the offering. As an afterthought he also included a scrap of paper on which he wrote “Og mit liv” (“And my life”). Significantly, young Torjesen went on to lead a fruitful life as a missionary in China. The Macedonians did things right away: they gave their hearts to God, then they gave themselves to their fellow believers, which in turn resulted in their giving what they had to the work of Christ. #RandolphHarris 5 of 26
This is where grace giving must begin—given ourselves completely to God. Grace giving cannot exist without this. “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,” reports Romans 12.1. A selfless person is one who is more concerned about the happiness and well-being of another than about one’s own convenience or comfort, one who is willing to serve another when it is neither sought for nor appreciated, or one who is willing to serve even those whom one dislikes. A selfless person displays a willingness to sacrifice, a willingness to purge from one’s mind and heart personal want, and needs, and feelings. Instead of reaching for and requiring praise and recognition for oneself, or gratification of one’s own wants, the selfless person will meet these very human needs for others. Remember the words of the Saviour as he taught his disciples on an occasion when personal recognition was being sought: “But Jesus called them to him, and saith unto them, Ye know they which are accounted to rule over the Gentiles exercise lordship over them; and their great ones exercise authority upon them. #RandolphHarris 6 of 26
“But so shall it not be among you: but whosoever will be great among you, shall be your minister: And whosoever of you will be the chiefest, shall be servant of all. For even the Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give his life a ransom for many,” reports Mark 10.42-45. There is another word that sound almost like the one we have been using. However, it is an ugly word. It describes a characteristic of satanic proportions. We will not say much of this word, for it is not pleasant to think about, as we do not like to use it. The word is selfish. The dictionary describes a selfish person as ne who is “concerned excessively or exclusively with oneself: seeking pleasure of well-being without regards for others.” May we add, a selfish person is often who refers to “I,” “me,” and “mine” rather than to “we,” “ours,” “yours,” or “theirs.” This person is anxious to be in the limelight, to be on center stage in life’s little dramas. One may not be a good listener, or a conversation monopolizer. Selfishness is the great unknown sin. No selfish person ever thought oneself to be selfish. The shinning example of the Macedonians’ giving was held high by the apostle Paul so as to convict and motivate the Corinthian church. #RandolphHarris 7 of 26
Now Paul left no doubt as to what we hoped would happen: “So we urged Titus, just as he had earlier made a beginning, to bring also to completion this act of grace on your part. However, just as you excel in everything—in faith, in speech, in knowledge, in complete earnestness and in your love for us—see that you also excel in this giving grace,” reports 2 Corinthians 8.6-7. The Corinthians were a gifted group who excelled in many commendable things other than giving. However, Paul knew that despite all their excellences they would never become what they could and should be until they learned the grace of giving. The abiding spiritual fact is, there is no way to grow into spiritual maturity without committing one’s giving to the Lord. God can have our money and not have our hearts, but He cannot have our hearts without having all our money. Jesus said, “For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also,” reports Matthew 6.21. The specters of the fallen Wall Street giants are not the only ones to announce the dangers of money. The entire New Testament is full of repeated warnings, many of which are from the lips of Jesus Himself, who informed His listeners about money than about Heaven and Hell, immorality involving pleasures of the flesh, or violence. #RandolphHarris 8 of 26
After the rich young ruler turned away sorrowing because Jesus told him to sell all, Jesus told the disciples, “It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God,” reports Mark 10.25—His point being that it is impossible for a human who trusts in riches to get into Heaven. “The disciples were even more amazed, and said to each other, ‘Who then can be saved?’ Jesus looked at them and said, “With man this is impossible, but not with God; all things are possible with God,’” reports Mark 10.26-27. Indeed, if we depend on wealth rather than on God, we can understand why Jesus consistently presented Wealth as a spiritual obstruction. At the end of the Sermon on the mount He recommended: “Do not store up for yourselves treasures on Earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. However, store up for yourselves treasures in Heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal,” reports Matthew 6.19-20. #RandolphHarris 9 of 26
A little later Jesus warned, “No one can serve two masters. Either one will hate the one and love the other, or one will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and Money,” Matthew 6.4. And to a human grabbing for an inheritance Christ shouted, “Watch out! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed: a human’s life does not consist in the abundance of one’s possessions,” reports Luke 12.15. Then He related the story of the rich man who built bigger barns only to die that night, ending His parable with a solemn pronouncement: “This is how it will be with anyone who stores up things for oneself but is not rich toward God,” reports Luke 12.21. Humans, the “rich toward God” are those who give not only themselves, but also their riches—thus laying up their treasures in Heaven. The key to liberation from the power of materialism is not an exodus from culture—abandoning Wall Street or leaving the wealth of the nation to others—but the grace of giving. Grace giving goes beyond a mere tithe, but rather giving till it hurts. Grace giving affects one’s lifestyle. When one indulges in grace giving, there are things one cannot have and things foregone. #RandolphHarris 10 of 26
If our expenditure on comforts, luxuries, amusements, et cetera, is up to the standard common among those with the same income as our own, we are probably giving too little. If our charities do not at all pinch or hamper us, I should say they are too small. There ought to be things we should like to do and cannot do because our charitable expenditure excludes them. Givers for God disarm the power of money. They invite God’s grace to flow through them. “Silver and gold. Silver and gold. I’d rather have Jesus than silver and gold. No fame or fortune, no riches untold, I’d rather have Jesus than silver and gold. Don’t give me a mansion on top of the hill. Don’t give me the World with a shallow thrill, but just give me a Saviour my life He can hold. I’d rather have Jesus than silver and gold,” (Silver and Gold, by Kirk Franklin). It is possible you have reached a sticking point in your spiritual development and are perplexed. After all, you are attending church regularly, you enjoy the fellowship of Christians, you even read your Bible and pray regularly. The problem may be that you are not giving—the God simply does not have that part of you. If so, what you seen is the grace of giving. #RandolphHarris 11 of 26
The firstfruits giving is when one gives to God one’s best up-front, trusting that He will provide the rest; joyous freewill giving such as the Israelites experienced when Moses had to say “stop!”; the grace giving of the Macedonians whose liberality overflowed as they begged for the opportunity to give more. The apostle has made his point convincingly, but he caps it with a supreme illustration: “For you know the face of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, so that you through his poverty might become rich,” reports 2 Corinthians 8.9. Though Jesus could put His finger on every star, He emptied Himself and became a poor Earthly servant for us. That is Heaven’s “stewardship” program, and it is the pattern for us. The Corinthians were not clubbed into giving by fear or some gimmicky financial appeal. Rather, it was the ultimate example of giving—“the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ”—that produced the grace of giving in their lives. It was simply because of Jesus. We must understand that God’s grace in our lives demands discipline. This is why the great apostle of grace says, “discipline yourself for the purpose of godliness,” reports 1 Timothy 4.7. #RandolphHarris 12 of 26
And in this manner of the grace of giving, there must be the discipline of giving as well. Because of personal choices, everyone also experiences effects of sin. “Thus all humankind were lost; and behold, they would have been endlessly lost were it not that God redeemed his people from their lost and fallen state,” reports Mosiah 16.4. These effects are called spiritual death. No one can return to the divine grace. Through the Atonement, we all can be forgiven of our sins; we can become clean before God. To receive this enabling power, we must obey the gospel of Jesus Christ, which includes having faith in Him, repenting of our sins, being baptized, receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost, and trying to follow the teachings of Jesus Christ for the rest of our lives. The grace of God helps us every day. It strengthens us to do good works we could not do on our own. The Lord promised that if we humble ourselves before Him and have faith in Him, His grace will help us overcome all our personal weaknesses. “And if humans come unto me I will show unto them their weakness. I give unto humans weakness that they may be humble; and my grace is sufficient for all humans that humble themselves before me, and have faith in me, then will I make weak things become strong unto them,” reports Ether 12.27. #RandolphHarris 13 of 26
Christ delivers from body hatred. A burning sese of these powers of evil actually inhabiting our body and specific parts thereof is one of the reasons body hatred, throughout the ages and across cultures, has been such a dreadful fact. Sincere people really do find evil in their body and wrongly blame the body for it. This misguided and terribly harmful attitude toward the body correctly sees the power of sin that really is in the actual body and its parts, and does not know how to think about the readiness to sin, the sinful meanings and intentions, that have come to possess those parts through their habituation in a World of sin. In this respect Paul’s teaching, explained above, that we are to “present our bodily parts as servants to righteousness for sanctification,” as reported in Romans 6.19, stand in shocking opposition to the assumptions of the classical thought of his day, as well as to those of most human thinking up to now. The same is true for his teaching that the body of the redeemed is a shrine of the Holy Spirit, and that therefore “the body is meant not meant for fornication but for the Lord, and the Lord for the body,” reports 1 Corinthians 6.16. “Do you now know,” he continues to say, “that your bodies are members [mela] of Christ?” (1 Corinthians 6.16). #RandolphHarris 14 of 26
Our bodies are the tabernacles of our spirits. He who is the Father of those spirits would have us build strength and virtue into these personal tabernacles. Dressing in neat, modest clothing invites the Spirit into our lives because it shows respect for our bodies and helps us to be an example for others. Satan is jealous of everyone who has a body, because he cannot have one. He tempts us to ruin our body’s purity by wearing inappropriate clothing or taking harmful substances. He even tempts us to be ashamed of our bodies—to think that they are not good enough, tall enough, strong enough, or pretty enough. If we follow the Spirit, we will be able to build strength and virtue into our bodies, and we will not believe the devils lies about them. Heavenly Father is pleased with the Earthly temples created for our spirits. We must show reverence for our bodies and treat them as holy temples. Well, they did not know, we can be sure, and could hardly think or imagine such a thing. We today do little better. In the past, theirs was the same understanding of the body that led Paul’s hearers in Athens to scoff at the idea of resurrection of the body. #RandolphHarris 15 of 26
A holy temple is considered the house of the Lord. Your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost. However, “When they heard about the resurrection of the dead, some of them sneered, but others said, ‘We want to hear you again on this subject,’” reports Acts 17.32. Yet, some still thought, “Who wants that thing back?” It was inconceivable to them that the physical body and its parts should be honoured and treasured as the habitation of God in redeemed human personality. And the same is true for most people today—and indeed for most professing Christians. For usual human beings in the usual circumstances, their body runs their life. “Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more important than food, and the body more important than clothes?” reports Matthew 6.25. Contrary to the words of Jesus in Matthew 6.25, life is, for them, not more than food, nor the body more than clothing. As a matter of simple fact, their time and energy is almost wholly, if not entirely, devoted to how their body looks, smells, and feel, and to how it can be secured and used to meet ego needs such as admiration, gratification in pleasures of the flesh, and power over others. #RandolphHarris 16 of 26
It is this bodily orientation of the self that runs the human cosmos, as the elderly apostle John pointed out: “For all that is in the World, the lost of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the boastful pride of life, is not from the Father, but is from the World,” report 1 John 2.16. This is “the mind of the flesh” discussed earlier from Paul, which is in opposition to “the mind of the spirit,” reports Romans 8.4-11. And John saw exactly the same outcomes for these two human options that Paul and all of the biblical writers knew: “The World is passing away, and also its lusts; but the one who does the will of God abides forever,” reports 1 John 2.17. By keeping the commandments and living righteously, you invite the Holy Ghost to be your constant companion. “Let thy bowels also be full of charity towards all humans, and to the house of faith and let virtue garnish thy thoughts unceasingly; then shall thy confidence wax strong in the presence of God; and the doctrine of the priesthood shall distil upon thy soul as the dews from Heaven. The Holy Ghost shall be thy constant companion, and thy scepter an unchanging scepter of righteousness and truth; and thy dominion shall be an everlasting dominion, and without compulsory means it shall flow unto thee forever and ever,” reports Doctrine and Covenants 121.45-46. #RandolphHarris 17 of 26
Nothing can come to pass that is contray to the will of the World-Mind, or that is not already mysteriously present in the World-Idea. All is formed according to the World-Idea, shaped and permeated by its expression of the Divine Will. All things which exist and all events which happen fulfill the World-Idea and are necessary to it. In the ultimate sense, all history—whether planetary or racial or personal—is pre-ordained. No chance event, no human planning can defeat the divine World-Idea. The Universe takes the pattern it does out of realization of its own inherent and latent possibilities. The Divine prevails everywhere within it, from atom to planet. The World-Idea must subsist through all the spectacles of history, must remain the beginning, the middle, and the end of it all, must operate and dominate inside and outside human’s will. The World-Idea is what is ordained for the Universe, its divine prescription. In the end the World-Idea must triumph. Nature, whose guests we all are, issues her dictates and executes them by her own power. #RandolphHarris 18 of 26
All things must in the end as in the beginning conform to the World-Idea or there would be no order in the Universe. Universal laws will not suffer defeat. All is known to the World-Mind—not only as it was in the past but also as it will be in the future. If it were otherwise then the World-Mind would not be able to maintain the Universe in complete function and all its parts in complete relation, nor would it be able to move all the planets in rhythmic revolution. If everything were not exactly knowable and every consequence predictable in advance, God could not be God. However, that in its turn could not be unless everything were predeterminable too. This is contrary to common modern and Western belief that it is what we, as human beings, freely choose and do, and what we try to get in satisfaction of our desires, which determines what course the future takes. If we all lived in a chaos and not in a cosmos, then it could be said that human’s will was completely free. However, in that case the Sun’s will, the stars’ wills and the moon’s will, would also have to be completely free. All things and all lives would then be subject to caprice, chance, and disorder. #RandolphHarris 19 of 26
The World-Idea is perfect. Since it is God’s Idea, how could it be otherwise? If we fail to become a co-worker with it, nothing of this perfection will be lost. If we do, we add nothing to it. No human can do anything to alter the World-Idea. It is God’s Will in every possible meaning of the word. The World-Idea will be realized anyhow, whatever human beings do or fail to do. “And it came to pass that the brother of Jared, (now the number of the vessels which had been prepared was eight) went forth unto the mount, which they called the mount Shelem, because of its exceeding height, and did molten out of rock sixteen small stones; and they were white and clear, even as transparent glass; and he did carry them in his hands upon the top of the mount, and cried again unto the Lord, saying: O Lord, thou hast said that we must be encompassed about by the floods. Now behold, O Lord, and do not be angry with thy servant because of his weakness before thee; for we know that thou art holy and dwellest in the Heavens, and that we are unworthy before three; because of the fall our natures have become evil continually; nevertheless, O Lord, thou hast given us a commandment that we must call upon thee, that from thee we may receive according to our desires. #RandolphHarris 20 of 26
“Behold, O Lord, thou hast driven us forth, and for these many years we have been in the wilderness; nevertheless, thou hast been merciful unto us. O Lord, look upon me in pity, and turn away thine anger from this thy people, and suffer not that they shall go forth across this ranging deep in darkness; but behold these things which I have molten out of the rock. And I know, O Lord, that thou hast all power, and can do whatsoever thou wilt for the benefit of man; therefore touch these stones, O Lord, with thy finger, and prepare them that they may shine forth in darkness; and they shall shine forth unto us in the vessels which we have prepared, that we may have light while we shall cross the sea. Behold, O Lord, thou canst do this. We know that thou art able to show forth great power, which looks so small unto the understanding of humans. And it came to pass that when the brother of Jared had said these words, behold, the Lord stretched forth his hand and touched the stones one by one with his finger. And the veil was taken from off the eyes of the brother of Jared, and he saw the finger of the Lord. #RandolphHarris 21 of 26
“And the finer of the Lord was like the finger of a man like unto flesh and blood; and the brother of Jared fell down before the Lord for he was stuck with fear. And the Lord saw that the brother of Jared has fallen to the Earth; and the Lord said unto him: Arise, why hast thou fallen? And he saith unto the Lord: I saw the finger of the Lord, and I feared lest he should smite me; for I knew not that the Lord had flesh and blood. And the Lord said unto him: Because of thy faith thou fast seen that I shall take upon me flesh and blood; and never has man come before me with such exceeding faith as thou hast; for were it not so ye could not have seen by finger. Sawest thou more than this? And he answered: Nay; Lord, show thyself unto me. And the Lord said unto him: Believest thou the words which I shall speak? And he answered: Yea, Lord, I know that thou speakest the truth, for thou art a God of truth, and canst not lie. And when he had said these words, behold, the Lord showed himself unto him, and said: Because thou knowest these things ye are redeemed from the fall; therefore ye are brought back into my presence; therefore I show myself unto you. #RandolphHarris 22 of 26
“Behold, I am he who was prepared from the foundation of the World to redeem my people. Behold, I am Jesus Christ. I am the Father and the Son. In me shall humankind have life, and that eternally, even they who shall believe on my name; and they shall become my sons and my daughters. And never have I showed myself unto humans whom I have created, for never has humans believed in me as thou hast. Seest thou that ye are created after mine own image? Yea, even all humans were crated in the beginning after mine own image. Behold, this body, which ye now behold, is the body of my spirit; and man have I created after the body of my spirit; and even as I appear unto thee to be in the spirit will I appear unto my people in the flesh. And now, as I, Moroni, said I could not make a full account of these things which are written, therefore it sufficeth me to say that Jesus showed himself unto this man in the spirit, even after the manner and in the likeness of the same body even as he showed himself unto the Nephites. And he ministered unto him even as he minister unto the Nephites; and all this, that this man might know that he was God, because of the many great works which the Lord had showed unto him. #RandolphHarris 23 of 26
“And because of the knowledge of this man he could not be kept from beholding within the veil; and he saw the finger of Jesus, which when he saw, he fell with fear; for he knew that it was the finger of the Lord; and he had faith no longer, for he knew, nothing doubting. Wherefore, having this perfect knowledge of God, he could not be kept from within the veil; therefore he saw Jesus; and he did minister unto him. And it came to pass that the Lord said unto the brother of Jared: Behold, thou shalt not suffer these things which ye have seen and heard to go forth unto the World, until the time cometh that I shall glorify my name in the flesh; wherefore, ye shall treasure up the things which ye have seen and heard, and show it to no man. And behold, when ye shall come unto me, ye shall write them and shall seal them up, that no one can interpret them; for ye shall write them in a language that they cannot be read. And behold, these two stones will I give unto thee, and ye shall seal them up also with the things which ye shall write. For behold, the language which ye shall write I have confounded; wherefore I will cause in my own due time that these stones shall magnify to the eyes of humans these things which ye shall write. #RandolphHarris 24 of 26
“And when the Lord had said these words, he showed unto the brother of Jared all the inhabitants of the Earth which had been, and also all that would be; and he withheld them not from his sight, even unto the ends of the Earth. For he had said unto him in times before, that if he would believe in him that he could show unto him in times before, that if he would believe in hm that he could show into him all things—it should be shown unto him; therefore the Lord could not withhold anything from him, for he knew that the Lord could show him all things. And the Lord said unto him: Write these things and seal them up; and I will show them in mine own due time unto the children of humans. And it came to pass that the Lord commanded him that he should seal up the two stones which he had received, and show them not until the Lord should show them unto the children of men,” reports Ether 3.1-28. Your silver disk will light the entire night; none of the night will be turned over to the dark. Even as your soft light guides my path tonight, may your gentile influence spread softly through my life. Father, please look down on me in blessing; please light my way through the darkness. #RandolphHarris 25 of 26
With such brilliant light, to rival the Sun, can you be said to move in darkness? A light for the shadows, a lantern for those abroad, a guide for travelers: throughout the night you continue to bless us. However, they neither know nor understand; they walk about in darkness, so that the foundations of the land are shaken. I formerly thought ye were like angels, that ye were all like sons of the Most High. Verily ye shall die like mere mortals, ye shall fall like one of the princes. Arise, O God, judge Thou the Earth; for Thou shalt have dominion over all the nations. O Lord of retribution, O Lord of retribution, reveal Thyself! Rise up, Thou judge of the Earth; render to the arrogant their recompense. Lord, how long shall the wicked, how long shall the wicked exult? Loudly they vaunt their arrogance; all the workers of iniquity bear themselves haughtily. They crush Thy people, O Lord. And afflict Thy Heritage. They slay the widow and the stranger, and murder the fatherless. And they say: “The Lord will not see, the God of Jacob will give no heed.” Consider, ye brutish among the peoples; and ye fools, when will ye understand? Doth not He that formed the eye, see? Shall not He that instructeth the nations, and teacheth man knowledge, reprove them? The Lord knoweth the thoughts of man, that they are mere vanity. #RandolphHarris 26 of 26
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Everybody else is talking about how hard life is, and here I am singing about how good it is to be alive. You can destroy your now by worrying about tomorrow. If the Universe were obviously based on mere chance, if it were in a state of complete disorder, if the Moon, the Sun, and the Earth wandered about at their individual will, and if no sign of organization appeared anywhere in it, then we might justly assert that there was no Mind behind it. However, because we see the very contrary of these things all around us, because the energy out of which the Universe is made is everywhere inseparable from thought, we can definitely assert that a World-Mind must exist. Events may seem to happen at random, but it is not really so. They are connected with our own thinking and doing, with the pattern of the World-Idea and with the activity of the World-Mind. Whatever we call it, most people feel it in their heart and soul—whether vaguely or strongly—that there must be a God and that there must be something which God has in view in letting the Universe come into existence. This purposed is called the World-Idea, because God is the World’s Mind. This is a thrilling conception. It is an ancient revelation. #RandolphHarris 1 of 26
This ancient revelation came to the first cultures, the first civilizations, of any importance, as it has come to all others which have appeared, and it is still coming today to our own. With this knowledge, deeply absorbed and properly applied, humans come into harmonious alignment with their Source. If it ignores the facts, truths, laws, and principles of cosmogony, all spiritual study is incomplete. To attempt to justify this neglect with the accusation that they belong to the World of illusion is an unenlightened disposition. For the accuser must still continue to live in an illusory body and use an illusory self governed by those laws. After every such attempt and for each violation of those laws—upon which the order and harmony of the Universe depend—which one’s neglect brings about, one must pay the penalty in suffering. “For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves, teachers to suit their own passions, and they will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths,” 2 Timothy 4.3-4. Everything around us and every event that happens to us is an expression of God’s will. #RandolphHarris 2 of 26
The forces in the Universe and the figures on the Universal scene are all connected with each other and are all related with the World-Mind. Nothing stands alone except in its illusory belief. In living things, to live is to be. Our intellect, which takes cognizance of the essence of a thing as its proper object, gains knowledge from sense, of which the proper objects are external accidents. Hence from external appearances we come to the knowledge of the essence of things. And because we name a thing in accordance with our knowledge of it, as it is clear from what has already been said, so from external properties names are often imposed to signify essences. Hence such names are sometime taken strictly to denote the essence itself, the signification of which is their principal object; but sometimes, and less strictly, to denote the properties by reason of which they are imposed. And so we see that the word “body” is used to denote a genus of substances from the fact of their possessing three dimensions: and is sometimes taken to denote the dimensions themselves; in which sense body is said to be a species of quantity. The same must be said of life. #RandolphHarris 3 of 26
The name is given from a certain external appearance, namely, self-movement, yet not precisely to signify this, but rather a substance to which self-movement and the application of itself to any kind of operation, belong naturally. To live, accordingly, is nothing else than to exist in this or that nature; and life signifies this, though in the abstract, just as the word “running” denotes “to run” is the abstract. Hence “living” is not an accidental but an essential predicate. Sometimes, however, life is used less properly for the operations from which its name is taken, and thus the Philosopher says (Ethic. ix, 9) that to lice is principally to sense or to understand. The Philosopher here takes “to live” to means an operation of life. Or it would be better to say that sensation and intelligence and the like, are sometimes taken for the operations, sometimes for the existence itself of the operator. For one says (Ethic. ix, 9) that to live is to sense or to understand—in other words, to have a nature capable of sensation or understanding. Thus, then, one distinguishes life by the four operations mentioned. For in this lower World there are four kinds of living. #RandolphHarris 4 of 26
It is the nature of some to be capable of nothing more than taking nourishment, and, as a consequence, of growing and generating. Others are able, in addition, to sense, as we see in the case of shellfish and other animals without movement. Others have the further power of moving from place to place, as perfect animals, such as quadrupeds, and birds, and so on. Others, as humans, have the still higher faculty of understanding. By vital operations are meant those whose principles are within the operator, and in virtue of which the operator produces such operations of itself. It happens that there exist in humans not merely such natural principles of certain operations as are their natural powers, but something over and above these, such as habits inclining them like a second nature to particular kinds of work in which a human takes delight, so that one is bent is towards it, one’s time is spent in it, and one’s whole life ordered with a view to it, is said to be the life of that human. Hence some are said to lead to life of self-indulgence, others a life of virtue. In this way the contemplative life is distinguished from the active, and thus to know God is said to be life eternal. #RandolphHarris 5 of 26
If God expresses His will through, and in, the Universe then why are the horrors we find there unbeatable by any of the tortures perpetrated by humans? The wanton malignancy of certain parasites, ants, worms; the poisonous bites and stings of certain insects and reptiles; the dreadful fish like piranhas which strip unfortunate wretches to a skeleton in a few minutes; the infectious germs in jungle and city alike; the intimidating hordes of vermin which threaten to multiply and destroy other forms—are they all God’s goodness? Even believers may sometimes ask themselves the question: “Is God blind and unseeing to human suffering—so small an item in the vastness of His Universe—or callous and indifferent to it?” Those who see no sign of God in the Universe, and leave it at that, are at least in a better position than those who think they can detect an underlying hostility in the Universe. The absurdity of life and the insanity of humans cast doubt upon the sanity of their Source. However, this is a surface point of view. The order which has been established throughout the cosmos is a perfect one. #RandolphHarris 6 of 26
If the human mind fails to see this fact, it is partly because human feelings, prejudices, aversions, and attractions sway it and partly because the World-Idea unveils itself only to those who are ready. The Universe is perfect because God is perfect. However, for each human to find and see this perfection for oneself otherwise the trouble and tragedy in life may obstruct one’s vision and obscure one’s path. If the Mind behind the Universe is perfect, then the pattern of the Universe itself must be perfect too. And if we muster up the heroism needed to cast out our feeble, sentimental and emotional way of looking at things, if we put aside for a few minutes our personal and human demands that the Universe shall conform to our wishes, so it will show itself to be perfect. The more intellectual they are, the more they feel that God has somehow blundered, that they could have made a better or kindlier job of the Universe than one has, and that too much unnecessary suffering falls upon his creatures. The self-actualized, however, with one’s deeper insight and one’s serener mentality, finds the contrary to be the cause and is set free from such bitter thoughts. It is preposterous presumption to look in the divine Intelligence for what can only be found in the limited and little human one. #RandolphHarris 7 of 26
Humans judge the World without knowing the World-Idea, certainly without conscious contact with the World-Mind. The moment we establish a right relation with the Mind behind the Universe, in that moment we begin to see as ultimately good certain experiences which we formerly thought to be evil, and we begin to see as dreamlike many sufferings which we formerly saw as real. The answer to this enigma but simple religious trust for the shallow multitude and movement to another level by mystical experience for the serious seekers. In the first case there is the hope that in a God-governed World all is arranged for the best, while in the second there is the overwhelming feeling that it is so. The philosopher is also a possessed of hope and feeling but, venturing int a wider area, adds knowledge. We see the underside of the pattern only—and merely a par of it at that—and inevitably judge Nature to be cruel, “red in tooth and claw.” If we could see the upper side and the whole of it, the pattern would show itself perfect. From this ultimate point of view there are no sins, only ignorance; there are no clumsy falls, only steps forward to heart’s wiser levels; there are no misfortunes, only lessons in the art of disentanglement. #RandolphHarris 8 of 26
Pain and suffering belong only to this physical World and its shadow-spheres. There is a higher World, where joy and happiness alone are human’s experience. The structure and working of the Universe may not be stamped with “goodness” as we understand it, nor with “perfection” as we envisage it. Consider them from all aspects, however, in a philosophical manner and you will find the essentially “right.” Because there is a Divine Mind back of the Universe, there are Divine Wisdom and Goodness in the Universe. The Universe of our experience is governed by justice and wisdom, by ultimate goodness and infinite power. The Universe has infinitely more intelligence behind it than the humans who live in it. This remains true even though there is much that seems unnecessarily brutal and unacceptable to compassionate believers in a divine order. Let evil appearances be what they are, the revelation of insight contradicts them and shows the divine presence throughout the whole Universe and behind all happenings. Even the violent, sudden, and unwanted deceased of such a multitude of persons in war, pestilence, famine, epidemic, pandemic, or eruption has beneficial meaning in the divine World-Idea and is not at all vain or useless. #RandolphHarris 9 of 26
The truth about cosmic laws is sometimes terrifying to our human fears, sometimes repulsive to our human feeling. It may fitly be called ugly at such times. However, the infinite power behind those laws is always beautiful. In spite of contrary appearances this is still God’s World. We live in an orderly World but not in a humane one. We must find faith and some of us even the certitude that if it has been possible to think a better cosmos into being, the World-Mind’s infinite wisdom would have done so. We cannot believe in God without accepting God’s Universe also. We must accept and submit to the World-Idea with its ascending hierarchy of creatures and pre-established order of things. If we do not know why we are here, the Universal Mind does. We may and must trust it. The Supreme Essence nurtures all things with care and love. There is an infinite number of possibilities in the evolution of humans and the Universe. If only certain ones out of them are actually realized, this is because both follow a pattern—the World Idea. All the activity of this entire Universe is God’s activity. Everything is being carried on according to the pattern and the rhythm set by the divine World-Idea. #RandolphHarris 10 of 26
All the forms and developments, the creatures and objects which make the never-ending picture of the cosmos derived from the World-Idea; everything conforms to it. But often the parts or members that “are upon the Earth” are also very nice. This is generally true among religious people, and it is a deadly trap. When Paul explained to the Philippians what “flesh” he could have confidence in he lists: “Circumcised the eighth day, of the nation of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; as to the Law, a Pharisee; as to zeal, a persecutor of the church; as to righteousness which is in the Law, found blameless,” reports Philippians 3.5-6. One can easily translate this into modern-day terms by listing the things religious people are apt to present as “good qualifications.” However, Paul actually regarded all this “nice flesh” as loss, and even as feces, compared to the real treasure of the resurrection life of Christ moving in him. “For it is we who are the circumcision, we who worship by the spirit of God, who glory in Christ Jesus, and who put no confidence in the flesh—though I myself have reasons for such confidence. #RandolphHarris 11 of 26
“If anyone else thinks one has reasons to put confidence in the flesh, I have more: circumcised on the eighth day, of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; in regard to the law, a Pharisee; as for zeal, persecuting the church; as for legalistic righteousness, faultless. However, whatever was to my profit I now consider loss of the sake of Christ. What is more, I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them rubbish, that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ—righteousness that comes from God and is by faith. I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, and so, somehow, to attain to the resurrection from the dead,” reports Philippians 3.3-11. That is why he said to the Colossians: “Therefore kill off your parts (members) that are of the Earth.” The “therefore” refers back to the fact he had just cited in this passage, that Christ’s people have received a different life, one not “of Earth” but of Christ himself, raised up beyond natural death. “You have died,” he said, “and your real life is now concealed along with Christ in God,” reports Colossians 3.1-3. #RandolphHarris 12 of 26
This, as is well known, is a theme developed at many other points in Paul’s writings, but at greatest lengths in Romans chapter 5 through 8. There Paul had been describing how sin (and therefore death) has reigned over (governed) human life. However, now as he comes toward the end of chapter 5, a new kind of “reign” emerges. Death had reigned because of sin, which came into the human World by one man and one woman (Adam and Eve). Yes, but “much more those who receive the abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness will reign [govern] in life through the One, Jesus Christ,” reports Romans 5.17. Sin indeed has flourished. However, grace (life from above) has and will flourish all the more, “that, as sin reigned in death, even so grace might reign through righteousness into eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord,” reports Romans 5.21. Now we must emphasize that the grace in question is not merely a judicial action, though it involves that too. It is above all a presence and power in life, which provides an alternative to the merely natural forces (flesh) accessible to the individual in and through the body without any specific divine intervention from above. #RandolphHarris 13 of 26
So now Paul lays out the alternative open to the one already born from above and therefore experiencing a life that is not of the flesh. Such a one is given the option of walking in the new, different life that is already “doing things,” in them. “Just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father,” Paul said, “so we too might walk in newness of life,” reports Romans 6.4. Walk in it, as a steadily moving force, not just feel it in spurts and starts! However, because we are now in the grip of grace it is up to us—though never on our own—to “not let sin have dominion in our death-bound (mortal) body to obey Sin’s desires,” reports Romans 6.12. And this we do by refusing to surrender our body parts to sin as weapons of wickedness. Instead, having been invaded by a life beyond death, and hence by one that is not of the body or flesh, we “present our body parts (members) to Christ as weapons of righteousness,” reports Romans 6.13. Because we are in the grip of grace, sin does not exercise control over us except insofar as we allow it. And, with divine assistance provided, we can break whatever strict control remains to it in every aspect of our life,” reports Romans 6.14. #RandolphHarris 14 of 26
So, just as once—while “dead in…trespass and sins,” reports Ephesians 2.1—we surrendered our body parts to be servants of impurity, and to lawlessness leading to more lawlessness, so now we are to “present our body parts to be servants of righteousness leading to sanctification,” reports Romans 6.19. Now, these words of Paul refer precisely to the process and outcome of spiritual formation, of which we have spoken. “Now that you have been released from slavery to sin and enslaved to God by your dependence on him for your new kind of life, the benefit you get is sanctification, and the outcome is eternal life,” Romans 6.22, “the life that really is life,” reports 1 Timothy 6.19. The parts of our death-bound body are not mere physical things, but now carry in them a life that is not of them. He who raised Jesus from the dead now dwells in us and “will give life to your mortal bodies also through his Spirit that dwells in you,” reports Romans 8.11. After the forty years of wandering, it came about on the plains of Moab that, according to Numbers 26.65, “not one of them was left except Caleb son of Jephunneth and Joshua son of Nun.” #RandolphHarris 15 of 26
It was time for Joshua’s commissioning: “So the Lord said to Moses, ‘Take Joshua the son of Nun, a man in whom is the Spirit, and lay your hand on him; and have him stand before Eleazar the priest and before all the congregation; and commission him in their sight,” reports Numbers 27.18-19. Notice that the Spirit, capital S—that is, the Holy Spirit—was upon and in Joshua. He had the indispensable qualification for all spiritual leadership. Spiritual leadership is not a matter of superior spiritual power, and it can never be self-generated. There is no such thing as a self-made spiritual leader. The New Testament agrees: “Brothers, choose seven people from among you who are known to be full of the Spirit and wisdom. We will turn this responsibility over to them and will give our attention to prayer and the ministry of the word.” They chose Stephan, a mand full of faith and of the Holy Spirit (Acts 6.3,5). There is no spiritual leadership apart from the fullness of the Holy Spirit. Therefore, it follows that is we aspire to leadership in the Church, we must be full of the Holy Spirit. #RandolphHarris 16 of 26
Practically, this means that we must continually confess our sins, keep ourselves in God’s Word, and continually submit to God, asking the Spirit to fill us. The telltale sign of this will be that we effervesce Christ. “Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the Lord’s will is. Do not get inebriated on wine, which leads to debauchery. Instead, be filled with the Spirit. Speak to one another with psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs. Sing and make music in your heart to the Lord, always giving thanks to God the Father for everything, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. Submit to one another out of reverence for Christ,” reports Ephesians 5.17-21. As we walk and serve in the Spirit, the Spirit will ordain us to specific tasks in the Church, and these will be tasks of leadership at all levels, be it waiting tables or heralding the gospel. “The coming of the lawless one is by the activity of Satan with all power and false signs and wonders, and with all wicked deception for those who are perishing, because they refused t love the truth and so be saved,” report 2 Thessalonians 2.9-10. “So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ,” reports Romans 10.17. #RandolphHarris 17 of 26
Each individual is a Spirit child of Heavenly Father and existed as a spirit before this life on Earth. During this life, the spirit of the individual is housed in a physical body, which was born of mortal parents. The scriptures teach that at the time of physical death, the Spirit does not die. It separates from the body and lives in the postmortal Spirit World. At the time of resurrection, the spirit is reunited with the body, “never to be divided; thus the whole becoming spiritual and immortal,” reports Alma 11.45. The Scriptures also teach about the nature of spirits. Through the Prophet Joseph Smith, the Lord revealed that “all spirit is matter, but it is more fine or pure, and can only be discerned by purer eyes,” reports Doctrine and Covenants 131.7. The Lord also revealed that “the spirit of Humans is in the likeness of one’s person, as also the spirit of the beast, and every other creature which God has created,” reports Doctrine and Covenants 77.2. Just as the World-Idea is both the expression of the World-Mind and one with it, so the Word (Logos) mentioned in the New Testament as being with God is another way of saying the same thing. #RandolphHarris 18 of 26
The World with its form and history is the embodiment of the Word and the Word is the World-Idea. “Behold I, Moroni, do finish the record of my father, Mormon. Behold, I have but few things to write, which things I have been commanded by my father. And now it came to pass that after the great and tremendous battle at Cumorah, behold, the Nephites who had escaped into the country southward were hunted by the Lamanites, until they were all destroyed. And my father also was killed by them, and I even remain alone to write the sad tale of the destruction of my people. However, behold, they are gone, and I fulfill the commandment of my father. And whether they will slay me, I know not. Therefore I will write and hide up the records in the Earth; and whither I go it mattereth not. Behold, my father hath made this record, and he hath written the intent thereof. And behold, if I had room, I would write it also upon the plates, but I have not; and ore I have none, for I am alone. My father hath been slain in battle and all my kinsfolk, and I have not friend nor wither to go; and how long the Lord will suffer that I may live I know not. #RandolphHarris 19 of 26
“Behold, four hundred years have passed away since the coming of our Lord. And behold, the Lamanites have hunted my people, the Nephites, down from city to city and from place to place, even until they are no more; and great has been their fall; yea, great and marvelous is the destruction of my people, the Nephites. And behold, it is the hand of the Lord which hath done it. And behold also, the Lamanites are at war one with another; and the whole face of this land is one continual round of murder and bloodshed; and no one knoweth the end of the war. And now, behold, I say no more concerning them, for there are none save it be the Lamanites and robbers that do exist upon the face of the land. And there are none that do know the true God save it be the disciples of Jesus, who did tarry in the land until the wickedness of the people was so great that the Lord would not suffer them to remain with the people; and whether they be upon the face of the land no human knoweth. However, behold, my father and I have seen them, and they have ministered unto us. And whoso receiveth this record, and shall not condemn it because of the imperfections which are in it, the same shall know of greater things than these. #RandolphHarris 20 of 26
“Behold, I am Moroni; and were it possible, I would make all things known unto you. Behold, I make an end of speaking concerning this people. I am the son of Mormon, and my father was a descendent of Nephi. And I am the same who hideth up this record unto the Lord; the plates thereof are of no worth, because of the commandment of the Lord. For he truly saith that no one shall have them to get gain; but the record thereof is of great worth; and whoso shall bring it to light, one will the Lord bless. For none can have power to bring it to light save it be given one of God; for God wills that it shall be done with an eye single to his glory, or the welfare of the ancient and long dispersed covenant people of the Lord. And blessed be one that shall bring this thing to light; for it shall be brought out of darkness unto light, according to the word of God; yea, it shall be brought out of the Earth, and it shall shine forth out of darkness, and come unto the knowledge of the people; and it shall be done by the power of God. And if there be faults they be the faults of a human. However, behold, we know no fault; nevertheless God knoweth all things; therefore, one that condemneth, let one be aware lest one shall be in danger of hell fire. #RandolphHarris 21 of 26
“And one that saith: Show unto me, or ye shall be smitten—let one beware lest one commandeth that which is forbidden of the Lord. For behold, the same that judgeth rashly shall be judged rashly again; for according to one’s works shall one’s wages be; therefore, one that smiteth shall be smitten again of the Lord. Behold what the scripture says—humans shall not smite, neither shall one judge; for judgment is mine, saith the Lord, and vengeance is mine also, and I will repay. And one that shall breathe out wrath and strifes against the work of the Lord, and against the covenant people of the Lord who are the house of Israel, and shall say: We will destroy the work of the Lord, and the Lord will not remember his covenant which he hath made unto the house of Israel—the same is in danger to be hewn down and cast into the fire; for the eternal purposes of the Lord shall roll on, until all his promises shall be fulfilled. Search the prophecies of Isaiah. Behold, I cannot write them. #RandolphHarris 22 of 26
“Yea, behold I say unto you, that those saints who have gone before me, who have possessed this land, shall cry, yea, even from the dust will they cry unto the Lord; and as the Lord liveth he will remember the covenant which he hath made with them. And he knoweth their prayers, that they were in behalf of their faith, for in his name could they remove mountains; and in his name could they cause the Earth to shake; and by the power of his word did they cause prisons to tumble to the Earth; yes, even the fiery furnace could not harm them, neither wild beasts nor poisonous serpents, because of the power of his word. And behold, their prayers were also in behalf of him that the Lord should suffer to bring these things forth. And no one need say they shall not come, for they surely shall, for the Lord hath spoken it; for out of the Earth shall they come, by the hand of the Lord, and none can stay it; and it shall come in a day when it shall be said that miracles are done away; and it shall come even as if one should speak from the dead. And it shall come in a day when the blood of saints shall cry unto the Lord, because of secret combinations and the works of darkness. #RandolphHarris 23 of 26
“Yea, it shall come in a day when the power of God shall be denied, and churches become defiled and be lifted up in the pride of their hearts, even to the envying of them who belong to their churches. Yea, it shall come in a day when there shall be heard of fires, and tempests, and vapours of smoke in foreign lands; and there shall also be heard of wars, rumors of wars, and Earthquakes in divers places. Yes, it shall come in a day when there shall be great pollutions upon the face of the Earth; there shall be murders, and robbing, and lying, and deceivings, and whoredoms, and all manner of abominations; when there shall be many who will say, Do this, or do that, and it mattereth not, for the Lord will uphold such at the last day. However, wo unto such, for they are in the gall of bitterness and in the bonds of iniquity. Yea, it shall come in a day when there shall be churches built up that shall say: Come unto me, and for your money you shall be forgiven of your sins. O ye wicked and perverse stiffnecked people, why have ye built up churches unto yourselves to get gain? Why have ye transfigured the holy word of God, that ye might being damnation upon your souls? #RandolphHarris 24 of 26
“Behold, look ye unto the revelations of God; for behold, the time cometh at that day when all these things must be fulfilled. Behold, the Lord hath shown unto me great and marvelous things concerning that which must shortly come, at that day when these things shall come forth among you. Behold, I speak unto you as if ye were present, and yet ye are not. However, behold, Jesus Christ hath shown you unto me, and I know your doing. And I know that ye do walk in the pride of your hearts; and there are none save a few only who do not lift themselves up in the pride of their hearts, unto the wearing of very fine apparel, unto envying, and strifes, and malice and persecutions, and all manner of iniquities; and your churches, yea, even every one, have become polluted because of the pride of your hearts. For behold, ye do love money, and your substance, and your fine apparel, and the adorning of your churches, more than ye love the poor and the needy, the sick and the afflicted. O ye pollutions, ye hypocrites, ye teachers, who sell yourselves that which will canker, why have ye polluted the holy church of God? #RandolphHarris 25 of 26
“Why are ye ashamed to take upon you the name of Christ? Why do ye not think that greater is the value of an endless happiness than that misery which never dies—because of the praise of the World? Why do ye adorn yourselves with that which hath no life, and yet suffer the hungry, and the needy and the naked, and the sick and the afflicted to pass by you, and notice them not? Yea, why do ye build up your secret adominations to get gain, and cause the windows should mourn before the Lord, and also orphans to mourn before the Lord, and also the blood of their fathers and their husbands to cry unto the Lord from the ground, for vengeance upon your heads? Behold, the sword of vengeance hangeth over you; and the time soon cometh that he avengeth the blood of the saints upon you, for he will not suffer their cries any longer,” reports Mormon 8.1-41. From out of the brightness, God who marks the passing of the days, with your sharp edges, cut out this month from the time before and the time after. Measure it out to fit the pattern laid out for you. Great is the Lord, and highly to be praised, in the city of our God, His holy mountain; beautiful in elevation, the Earth’s joy is Mount Zion in the far north, the city of great King. #RandolphHarris 26 of 26
Cresleigh Homes
A large family brings liveliness and joy, and an endless creative to the home. We cannot explain it, but the decor and openness in this #BrightonStation residence 4 greatroom is ideal for a growing family.
Watch a walkthrough of this floor plan on our website. Link in bio. https://youtu.be/TikCeN8MlLA
Cresleigh offers a vision of luxury, functionality and comfort; your home will be a work of excellence because you deserve the very best!
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Randolph Harris II International Institute 