If we want Sunshine, step out into the Sunshine. A deepening of consciousness sometimes requires a strong move in life. Sometimes living on our own could be a way of getting to know more precisely what our souls are searching form. Love finds its soul in its feelings of incompleteness, impossibility, and imperfection. There was once an Angel who came to visit Earth. He found himself in the usual stream of human activities and found himself fascinated with the television. As he watched the news for the first time, he heard negative comments. Some of these news anchors who were supposed to be an authority called religion a mental illness and said that there might be a way and human life would be destroyed. The news reporters also went on to say that there would be a great epidemic of illness, and that financial hardships were certain to limit us all. He heard that there was not enough food, water, and housing to go around, and that people were going to die as a result. He felt like he needed to take a bath in holy water to rid himself of the negativity from the news. The Angel began to wonder if these things might not be true, and even as he entertained the thoughts of negation to which he was listening, the brightness of his angelic presence faded into dark shadows. His form seemed to shrivel, and looking at himself he saw that he was dressed as a human being, walking the Earth in fear, doubt, and uncertainty. #RandolphHarris 1 of 7
And so the weary years went by, years of unhappiness and impoverishment and dread, years so filled with stress that he wished her were dead, and that some oblivion might forever swallow him up. And yet, even in the midst of all this, something within him remembered that he was once an Angel of God, living in a Heaven of beauty and a place of peace and joy, living in a garden of Eden which God has provided for him. And, remembering, a determination arose within him to somehow or other find his way back to this lost paradise. Hunger and love are two things that motivate the World. Hunger could be taken to represent the instincts which aim at preserving the individual; while love strives after objects, and its chief function, favoured in every way by nature, is the preservation of the species. This situation shows that there is something about him that is superior to the experience he is having. This determination grew into a great faith, and as his faith was renewed, a light seemed to shine in the distance; and he had the courage to travel toward the light. As he did, a miracle gradually took place. The Angel found that the shadows were being cast behind him, until finally he so completely entered into the light that no shadows were cast at all, and he started to awaken to the reality of God. #RandolphHarris 2 of 7
We must undergo whatever fate is asking of the soul. We think we know what love is about, both theoretically and in an episode of life, but love sometimes leans toward the mysterious dark niches of the soul’s underworld. Life takes us to the edge of what we know and have experienced, and this we are willing to assent to love and freely awaken out of sleep. So let us wake up, and let us be certain that we no longer drug ourselves with the sleeping potion of fear and uncertainty and doubt, but awake into faith and confidence, into peace and joy, into love and happiness. For there is something in us too, like the Angel in the fable, that have never forgotten. There is a silent witness at the center of every human’s being which evermore proclaims: One of the strongest needs of the soul is for community. The Soul yearns for attachment, for variety in personality, for intimacy and particularity. So these qualities in community that the soul seeks out. “Pray unto the Father in Heaven with all the energy of heart, that you may be filled with this love, which he has bestowed upon all (Moroni 7.48).” We must be with others, enjoy them and act with them, without in any way seeking to control their actions. #RandolphHarris 3 of 7
There are many signs in our society that we lack a sufficiently deep experience in community. There is the energetic search for a community. No one can live to oneself alone. Other people are so much a part of our lives that we cannot think of living without them. People who feel themselves excluded from society may just need a little encouragement and support. Loneliness is a major complaint and is responsible for deep-seated emotional pain that leads to despair and a consideration of not wanting to live. It is wonderful to be around people and it is a pleasure to be surrounded by friends. Community is a group pf people held together by feelings of belonging, and those feelings are the attitude of the well-adjusted person, one who has been permitted to be an individual, but who has also learned to cooperate with others. It is a fortunate child who is born into a community that understand this and that gives the child as much freedom as possible, while at the same time teaching the individual to cooperate with others who are good and trustworthy. We must succeed in obtaining the clearest insight into God’s nature and relation to us, as the one guardian of life is love, but to be loved we must love. This is the new birth that comes through a new outlook on life, a new way of thinking, a new sense of our relationship to our environment, to the people around us, to ourselves, and to God. #RandolphHarris 4 of 7
However, a person oppressed by loneliness can go out into the World and simply start belonging to it, not by joining organizations, but by living through feelings of relatedness—to other people, to nature, to society, to the World as a whole. Relatedness is a signal of soul. By allowing the sometimes vulnerable feelings of relatedness, soul pours into life and does not have to insist on itself symptomatically. We know that the psychological, emotional, and mental readjustments which are necessary to our well-being will be made if we experience this firm faith that all people live in God, and we must have a deep realization that we are all one in this Universal spirit which is God. If we have ourselves locked away in a dark closet, why not come out into the light? If we really have been feeling that everything is against us and no one really cares for us, know that God is in everyone, and meet the God in others and see what happens. I can love anyone I meet and be loved in return. The foundation of community is immeasurably deep, and the process of belonging, dealing actively with loneliness, begins in the depths of the soul. Love keeps the soul on the track of its fate and keeps consciousness at the edge of the abyss of the infinity that is the range of the soul. Forgive yourself and everyone else for everything that has ever happened. Try to feel that everyone is doing the best they can. #RandolphHarris 5 of 7
Some people do not like their jobs because there never seems to be completion and satisfaction, but they keep going to fulfill those aspirations. Find God in yourself because blessed are they that do hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled. Knock, and it shall be opened unto you. Seek, and you shall find. Love must go forth and meet love. All people are rooted in God, and it is the only being as we go down to the roots of our beings that we unify with others in spirit and truth. Manifestation of God is the force of life itself and is the fountain of love that keeps the soul alive and full. There is no way toward divine love expect through the discovery of human intimacy and community. One feeds the other. Care of the soul, then requires an openness to love’s many forms. Because we are one with God, we are one with all people, and that allows us to feel our union with people and nature. We feel that we belong to life, love life, and into the joy of living. We enter into companionship and cooperation with them. And there is something within us that reaches out and embraces the whole World. Something within the core of our being blesses everything we touch, brings life and happiness and joy to everyone. #RandolphHarris 6 of 7
Do not let your life be full of regrets of the past. As our trust in God grows, we open our hearts, seeking to do his will, and waiting for answers that will help us understand. Know that we have something inside of us that acts as a healing force, restoring everything to its natural and native perfection. In time and by degrees, we receive God’s gracious strength and direction. As we silently listen to the spirit within us and think of its perfection, we know that we are born again—born into joy and hope and gladness, born into love and faith and assurance. Silently, release every negative thought from your mind. With a growing understanding of the Lord’s grace and mercy, we will find that our self-willed hearts begin to accept gratitude. We will receive new hope and fresh guidance through the Holy Ghost. God’s way is the path that leads to happiness in this life and eternal life in the World to come. Some may thing they have failed too many times and feel too weak to change sinful acts or Worldly desires of the heart. However, if we earnestly appeal to God, he takes us as we are—and makes us more than we ever imagined. Truly dedicated to the Savior, we can say with confidence that it will work out. I pray that we will focus on the simplicity that is in Christ and allow his grace to lift and carry us. #RandolphHarris 7 of 7
If thou gaze long enough into an abyss, the abyss will also gaze into thee. That absorption in oneself that is soulless and loveless, turns gradually into a deeper version of itself. It becomes a true stillness, a wonder about oneself, a contemplation of one’s own nature. It is almost like the first time we reflect on our own story and who we are. This contemplation was once empty, but now it stirs wonder. We undergo a transformation into a deeper version of ourselves, take on more substance, and we enjoy a deeper, inner reflection. We see a new something we have never seen before, something that we are mesmerized by, something we find charming. This appreciation cannot be found intentionally, as we come upon it unexpectedly as we peel away suppression, and repression of our powerful instincts. We may characterize this process with reference to the changes which it brings about in the familiar instinctual dispositions of human beings, to satisfy which is, after all, the economic takes of our lives. This readiness for a Universal love of humankind and the World represents the highest standpoint which one can reach. When God leads people to respond to this revelation with faith, then human beings again knows God. In the World dialogue, we are acknowledging its soul. #RandolphHarris 1 of 8
Since we do not have unlimited quantities of physical energy at our disposal, we have to accomplish our tasks by making an expedient distribution of our time. We must retain some sense of laws that must be obeyed if human society is to be preserved. Humans tend through natural instinct to foster and preserve society. Consequently, we observe that there exist in all human minds a Universal impression of a certain civic fair dealing and order and this is ample proof that in the arrangement of this life no person is without the light of reason. However, although human’s abilities concerning Earthly things have not been destroyed, they have been profoundly corrupted. There is never a contrast between faith in God and knowledge of God available to us. Faith is never understood in scholastic fashion as an assent to divinely revealed propositions. Rather, the object of faith is God as revealed in Christ. The self-acceptance we crave cannot be forced nor manufactured. It has to be discovered, in a place more introverted than the shallow expectations of the material World. We must reflect directly from our soul: Do I have depth? Do my feelings and thoughts pool somewhere so off the beaten path that it is utterly still and untouched. Is there someplace within me far from human influence? #RandolphHarris 2 of 8
God’s mind is the only mind there is and God is eternal. When soul is present, nature is alive. We live because God lives in us, and we are able to think because the mind of God is in us. Our trouble is that we have thought of ourselves as separate from God, and in doing this we have stored up a burden of care and worry in our minds. We love the surface image we identify as ourselves, but we must also discover that there are other images just as lovable. There are in the pool, at the very source of identity. The cure is we must learn to care for our souls, and realize that it is divine intelligence that works for us and gives us health and comfort. The one mind, which is God, is capable of running the factory of the human body in perfect order. The human body would work much better if we did not throw wrenches of fear and doubt into the machinery, and if we would not throw wrenches of fear and doubt into the machinery, and if we would not overload the communication system and the transformation systems with the burdens of grief and worry. This is what repentance means. It means to think another way. It means a new birth in the mind of life that comes fresh and new every moment of existence. #RandolphHarris 3 of 8
Every day is a fresh beginning, every day is the World made new. So let us consider a youthful and pure mental attitude of a God if we would recapture the dream we seem to have lost. When we were young, we have so much to look forward to. The days were full of happiness and fulfillment. We could hardly wait to get up in the morning to begin over again, because we had such enthusiastic expectation. A person’s life was spent in the enjoyment of the day in which one lived, always with something more ahead. We were learning, studying, finding out how to do things, getting ready to live in a larger way. We had the security of home and parents. We were not afraid. We may continually make soul out of life by preserving and tending to the images that have come to us throughout our lives. By being the curator of our own images, we care for our souls. As we reach maturity, the World is still ahead of us. We fall in love, get married, have children, and the cycle repeats itself—we live in our family, and all the things that we have done for ourselves, we now do for them, only in a grander capacity. People do not grow old when they are busy with the pleasure of living, the enjoyment, the expectation, the enthusiasm, and the thought that more is to come. #RandolphHarris 4 of 8
When we find tolerance in ourselves for the competing demands of the soul, life becomes more complicated, but also more interesting. Sometimes we have to allow the time needed to stop, reflect, and see the many emotions, memories, wishes, fantasies, desires, and gears that make up the materials of the soul. It requires acceptance and prayer and close embrace, so that it can turn naturally from hard ivory expectations to soft, beautiful, Earthly life. That allows us to discover by our own experience that we are lovable. We know our habits, our weaknesses, our strengths, and our quirks. Looking at them with interest and love does not have to be narcissistic. In fact, awareness of the qualities of soul may help transform narcissism into genuine love. All human symptoms and problems, when they are taken to their depth and realized in a soulful way, find their ultimate solution in a religious sensibility. Roots are deep and those whose indulgent beauty is grounded, enjoying the honest humility of nature. It is clear that love is never simple, that is brings with it struggles of the past and hopes of the future, and that it is loaded with material that may be remotely—if at all—connected to the person who is the apparent object of love. We sometimes talk about love lightly, not acknowledging how powerful and lasting it can be. #RandolphHarris 5 of 8
We always expect love to be healing and whole, and then are astonished to find that it can create hollow gaps and empty failures. Going through a divorce is often a long and painful process that never truly ends. Often we never know completely if we have done the right thing, and even if we enjoy some peace of mind about the decision, memory and attachment continue to persist, if only in dreams. People are also tortured emotionally about love that was never expressed. Our love of love and high expectations that it will somehow make life complete seem to be an integral part of the experience. Love sees to promise that life’s gaping wounds will close up and heal. It makes little difference that in the past love has shown itself to be painful and disturbing. However, there is also something self-renewing in love. It may correspondingly be useful to consider love less as an aspect of relationship and more as an event of the soul. We should not force relationships, but enjoy the celebration of friendship and intimacy. The emphasis should be on what love does to the soul. #RandolphHarris 6 of 8
Love should bring a broader vision, initiate the soul in some way, and carry the lover away from Earth to an awareness of divine things. The purpose of love is the desire for union with a beautiful object in order to make eternity available to mortal life. What appears to be an Earthly relationship between two human individuals is at the same time a path toward far deeper experiences of the soul. There is something about being in love that wishes for nonjudgment, pure absorption and freedom of complexity. Love releases us into the realm of divine imagination, were the soul is expanded and reminded of its Heavenly cravings and needs. Love allows a person to see the true angelic nature of another person, the halo, the aureole of divinity. Let us make up our minds that yesterday is gone. Tomorrow has not yet arrived. However, today can be filled with wonder if we know that we stand on the threshold of that which is wonderful and new. I have never yet met a single individual who maintained this attitude n the last part of life unless one had faith. A faith in a power greater than we are, and a complete assurance that we are going to love forever, somewhere. Love brings consciousness closer to the dream state. #RandolphHarris 7 of 8
Our Heavenly Father loved us before we came to this Earth. It is love that finds in the body and in human relationships a route toward eternity. The soul is partly in eternity and partly in time. Love straggles these two dimensions, opening a way to live in both simultaneously. The door that you can start to open alone by looking into your own soul and bringing out the Godlike qualities. This allows of to discover secrets of secrets, which is a knowledge of the spiritual truth about our own being. The temple which is the self, by reflecting on our souls, we find an entrance to the secret place of the Most High within us, which is the holy of truth, who is our own spiritual being or the incarnation of God within us. The door to the temple must be opened by the self. You are the only person who can open this door for yourself. We have the great honor to be invited to be such instruments of love. The royal law of love is of sacred significance in the Lord’s program for his people—an element as vital as the air we breathe and the water we drink. We have the honor to belong and celebrate for knowing and acting upon it on occasions of great need across the Earth. We are eternally circled in the Love of God and Christ. That love will never change—it is constant. We can rely on it, we can trust it. We must believe that the love of Christ will never fail us. #RandolphHarris 8 of 8
Honesty is a very important part of character. Humans are a composite of three substances, body, spirit, and mind or mens. The spirit or sensitive soul is the corporeal principle that animates the body and serves as a link between body and mind. The mind or intellective soul is created and infused by God into the body already organized by the spirit; it is a spiritual substance and the form of the whole human. Freedom already exists, but your freedom is in your own thought. The freedom of God is our freedom, the power of God is our power, the presence of God is in us. The mind of God is our mind, the strength of God is our strength, and the joy of God is our joy. People are the most interesting things in the World. While it is true that we do not always get along with the as well as we might, it is also certain that we could not get along without them. We have all seen people who think they are not accountable for the human laws or law of God. They seem to feel that the rules of human conduct do not apply to them. We need each other more than we realize. The World is made up of people, and human relationships are merely reactions of people to each other. Many firms maintain human-relations departments for the purpose of helping their employees to appreciate each other and get along together in their work. #RandolphHarris 1 of 6
Our honor should make us honest in all we do. The two things that people are most interested in are love and personality. This is not strange, because everyone wants to love and be loved; everyone wants to feel needed. Many individuals wish to feel he or she possess an important role in life. All are attracted to the person who has a charismatic personality. We have all been richly blessed with faith, hope, and perseverance by our Heavenly Father to strengthen us and enhance our abilities and opportunities. There is a spirit in us, and God himself is incarnated in every living soul. This spirit within us is the gift of Heaven, and without it we would not be alive. It is a recognition of this spirit within us that is the true starting point for the development of personality. We often think we have to pattern our lives after the lives of others. However, our personality, no matter how winsome it may be, or how convincing, or how dominant, is more than a mask we wear; it is a manifestation of an inner, hidden principle, a divine spark within us which uses both the mind and the body for its own self-expression. We do not seek a veneer painted on by a Worldly brush but the pure, innate beauty that God has painted in our souls. We should seek after those things that endow higher thoughts and finer impulses. #RandolphHarris 2 of 6
When we are narcissistic, we are not on solid ground (Earth) or thinking clearly (air) or caught up in passion (fire). Before people have attained spiritual knowledge, they present an image of narcissism that has not yet found its mystery. Here, we see the symptom: a self-absorption and containment that allows no connections of the heart. It is hard as a rock and repels all approaches of love. Obsessive, but not genuine, self-love of this kind leaves no room for intimacy with another. The echoing aspect of narcissism—the feeling that everything in the World is only a reflection of oneself—does not want to give away power. To respond to another or to an object outside World would endanger the fragile sense of power which that tight, defensive insistence on oneself maintains. Like all symptomatic behavior, narcissism reveals, in the very thing it insists on, exactly what it lacks. The narcissistic person asks over and over, “Am I doing all right?” The message is, “No matter what I do, or how much I try to force it, I cannot get to the place where I feel that I am doing okay,” In other words, the narcissist’s display of self-love is in itself a sign that he cannot find a way adequately to love him or herself. #RandolphHarris 3 of 6
We can recognize the deviance of the narcissistic person—distant, cold, and self-contained. The echo is the anima, the soul in desperate need of attachment to the to the deviant beauty. However, in the presence of a narcissistic person, the soul shrivels into an echoing voice. Narcissism has no soul. In narcissism we take away the soul’s substance, its weight and importance, and reduces it to an echo of our own thoughts. There is no such thing as the soul. It is like only the brain going through its electrical and chemical changes. Or it is only behavior. Or it is only memory and conditioning. In our social narcissism, we also dismiss the soul as irrelevant. We can prepare a city or national budget, but leave the needs of the soul untended. This is a curse we might well utter under our breath when we feel that cold haughtiness of narcissism around us. However, people are always speculating—why am I as I am? To understand that of any person, one’s whole life, from birth, must be reviewed. All of our experiences fuse into our personality. Everything that ever happened to us is an ingredient. I hope one day you never find out what it is like to love someone and not have it returned. There is a sense of chill in the soullessness and utter curse, which sometimes can be a blessing in disguise. If the curse works, the person might be changed. #RandolphHarris 4 of 6
We could think up all the beautiful things to say and the most wonderful and best methods of approaching people, and study all the arts of personality development that have ever been taught, and still fall flat on our faces as far as the real personality is concerned. For personality is not the clothes we wear, nor is it our physical appearance alone. It is not just a dominant or domineering something so powerful that it brushes everything aside. Personality is the flowering of spirit within us, the coming forth of a secret relationship that we all hold to God. The people who have most completely influenced the human race throughout the ages are those who have known this, and who have made but little effort to influence others. They are the ones who have had the deepest feeling of the divine presence within them. Those who win their way through life by force eventually become weary with the struggle, the purpose of which never reaches its final goal. Personality is not an external thing, for everything we do and say and think, and everything that we appear to be outwardly, is always the result of some hidden fire burning at the center of out being, some divine reality which we did not create but which we may discover. #RandolphHarris 5 of 6
The person who finds oneself in God will discover at the center of one’s own being something which dominates without effect, something which does not have to influence a false front. When we discover our soul, purpose, and God, we realize that our true nature is both human and divine. God ha placed a unique soul on everyone. We should not study to be alike, but rather to develop what we really are. Unity does not mean uniformity. Our unity with other people does not mean that we must think and act as they do. All it means is that we should get along with them. We should unify with everything, while at the same time keeping intact and whole that God-given something at the center of our being. We hope that people be gentle and kind, modest and truthful, full of faith and integrity for goodness sheds a halo of loveliness around every person who possesses it, making their countenances beam with light, and their society desirable because of its excellency. God has infinite wisdom, since the beginning of the Earth, God has led his people and is the only one who can exercise all the keys of authority at one time. We all pray that God will continue to strengthen us and magnify us in every way. This divine person within us has, in a sense, one hand placed in the hand of God and other outstretched to humanity, for the person who finds oneself in God will discover God in other. We will draw strength and inspiration from life itself, for no one can live without God and be whole. #RandolphHarris 6 of 6
Nearly all the wisdom we possess consists of two parts: the knowledge of God and of ourselves. Without this realization of our misery and dependence—especially of our misery—none of us comes, or even tries to come, to a knowledge of God. Without a standard by which to measure ourselves, we invariably yield to pride, overestimating the worth of our natural gifts and overlooking the corruption that has resulted from the exercise of those gifts. In spiritual mind practice evil is never treated as an entity, but as an operation of thought. The righteous never deals with evil as though it were big or little, and one must be careful not to locate it anywhere, in any person, or any groups of persons. It is easy enough to see that the mentality of people who love God must be kept free from the belief in evil, which unfortunately obsesses most persons’ thoughts much of the time. Insanity is a disease rather than an act of God or Satan. Crime and insanity can be dealt with as mundane difficulties capable of empirical solutions. Limitation is not a thing of itself; it is a way of belief. Unhappiness is a condition, but it is not something of itself. Every person has an identity in spirit, and this idea will eternally unfold; it will never grow but will always be more of itself. #RandolphHarris 1 of 6
What we know about God, the Universal Truth, constitutes one’s real spiritual being, constitutes one’s personification of the infinite; therefore, the more completely conscious one is of God, spirit, truth, beauty, the more perfectly one will evolve. We can come to know ourselves and God, and it is very important to under what is meant by knowing God. Knowing God is equated with knowing truths about God. God’s attitude towards us is one of benevolence and love. Since truth is infinite, there is room for eternal expansion, so that humans pass from glory to glory, from one plane to another. There are times when words cannot express what we feel. I pray that the spirit will witness to our hearts our divine identity and our eternal responsibility. We are the elect and royal children of our loving Heavenly Father. Our Heavenly Father loves us and wants us to be happy. The way to do this is to walk in the paths of virtue and cleave unto our covenants. Virtue is a pattern of thought and behavior based on high moral standards. It includes chastity and moral purity. A guardian is someone who protects, shields, and defends. Thus, as a guardian of virtue, we must protect, shield, and defend moral purity because the power to create mortal life is a sacred and exalted power and must be safeguarded. #RandolphHarris 2 of 6
The spiritual identity itself remains individual and unique though forever expanding. We cannot now visualize what the future development may be, but it is inevitable that we shall pass from this state of being into ever-ascending states forever. Virtue is a requirement to have the companionship and guidance in order to successfully navigate the World in which we love. Being virtuous is a requirement to enter the temple. And it is a requirement to be worthy to stand in the Savior’s presence. We are not preparing for that time. It does not seem at all necessary or advisable that we spend much time wondering what is going to happen hereafter, since our evolution will take care of all those things as we come to them. What seems most important is that we be happy, well, and prosperous here and now, and that we maintain our spiritual identity wherever we go and whatever we do. Believe that you can make a difference. Obey the word of wisdom and pray daily. Understand that you possess a sacred power that involves the holy responsibility of bringing other spirits to Earth to receive a body in which to house their eternal spirit. This power involves another sacred soul. We are guardians of something more precious than diamonds. #RandolphHarris 3 of 6
Be faithful. Be obedient. Prepare now so that you may qualify to receive all the blessings that await you in the Lord’s holy temples. Our consciousness of God is the law of elimination to every discord. Our treatment enforces the law and is the activity of its power. We must be sure we do not deny our own understanding. We have the power to heal, the consciousness to heal, and the spiritual capacity to heal. The truth frees the consciousness. If we heal our thoughts, the law of perfection will establish harmony in our lives. It does this immediately. Every treatment must incorporate within it the consciousness of completion, of perfection in the here and now. We are royal children of God and our value is not based on our physical appearance nor sensual appeal. We must let other see our belief modeled correctly and consistently in our own personal attitude and appearance. We are also guardians of virtue. We must use optimistic statements to declare that the divine power which we use frees us from the hypnotic belief that would deny us the privilege of helping ourselves. We must continuously be conscious of all the good there is and know that it is always present and always responds to us. #RandolphHarris 4 of 6
That inward law written, even engraved, upon the hearts of all, in a sense asserts the very same things that are to be learned from the virtue of conscience. It requires a perfect love of God and of our neighbor. The subjective awareness of divinity and of its will can be supplemented by reflecting on the structure of the external World and the pattern of history. God has not only sowed in people’s minds that seed of religion of which we have spoken but revealed himself and daily discloses himself in the whole creation of the Universe. As a consequence, we cannot open our eyes without being compelled to see God. The Universe is a large book, a mirror, and a theater for the display of God’s attributes—preeminently for the display of his goodness to us but also for his glory, wisdom, power, and justice. God can be known through his works. God can be known by speculation concerning his essence. It is by nourishing our sense of divinity and our conscience, with the contemplations of God’s works, that we can in principle arrive at knowledge of God. However, human’s proud refusal to worship and obey God lead us to resist acknowledging the truth about God. Sin, although primarily a matter of the will, infects human’s reason as well. Perversity leans to blindness and distortion. #RandolphHarris 5 of 6
Some people see things that do not direct them to the truth, much less enable them to attain it. Thus, the consequence of human’s willful alienation from God is not merely that they do not know God but also that their views about God are not so incomplete and distorted that nothing at all can be built on them. And the effects of sin are far more pervasive than have yet been indicated. Not only does it disrupt human’s relation to God; it thereby spreads corruption throughout the whole of human life. We believe in God. When it comes to God, we believe all things, we hope all things, we have endured many things, and hope to be able to endure all things. We must live for that beautiful day spoken in the book of Revelation when we walk in white because we are worthy. With an understanding of this science, fear should disappear. And with direct application to this principle to our problems we will discover that they will begin to seem less insistent. Declare the truth by saying there is nothing to be afraid of; that you no longer entertain any images of fear; that God is the only power there is; that this God is the only power there is, is now operating in your affairs. #RandolphHarris 6 of 6
There are seeds of greatness waiting to take root and flourish in your life. The real creative power of the mind is deeper than the intellect. While we admire the intellect, we must realize that the mind is not the creative factor in the Universe, rather it is the feeling that is creative. When the imagination and the will are in conflict, the imagination invariably wins. God speaks to the heart through language of feelings, a sensation which is affirmative. There are many people who have splendid intellects, whose logic is almost perfect, but who seem never to penetrate the deeper mind where the creativity resides. To all treatments, no matter how intellectually or analytically correct they may be, there must be added this deep feeling and faith that enable one to commune with God. God is the First Cause or sustaining power of the World. Love demands society and community, but the divine society of the Trinity is itself thought of as supplying this scope from love, from eternity. It is possible, therefore, to see the creation of the World as a wholly gratuitous exercise of love. It is an inward emotion of the mind which reaches out until it strikes some corresponding chord emanating from the Universe itself. God revealed himself through the specific events of history and in no less historical life. #RandolphHarris 1 of 6
The conception of God is very different from the conception of a mere timeless something beyond the World, upon which the World depends. Since God created the World and time together, his creative and sustaining act must fall outside the temporal dimension, and likewise his purposing and willing. This is what an artist feels. In a sense he or she weds oneself to the essence of beauty and draws it into one’s own being until beauty becomes diffused through his or her technique and makes an imprint that the intellect cannot analyze. Then intellect stands in awe before the supreme reality, yet still knowing that it is the essence of its true being waiting to become articulate. Perhaps this is the real and true meaning of communion, which cannot be described but can be felt. As human beings reason downward from the knowledge of the attributes of God to knowledge of oneself, the religion of nature, including all the moral precepts requisite for leading the life of virtue and achieving ultimate salvation, then follows. God does speak to the heart more than to the intellect, and this is why it is that often we will find people who operate based on faith. They know that God is all there is and there is nothing else. God specializes in using people to show us that we are his ideal showcases for his greatness and glory. #RandolphHarris 2 of 6
By this inward faith, our intellect has surrendered to that which is greater than we are, and the miracle takes place. We are permitted, encouraged, even commanded to assist in bringing to pass the eternal life of human beings, which is, of course, part of our great mission. God promised us things which we cannot do, and greater things than we can do. And God does great unto us according to our desire. If the desire is strong enough, performance is assured. Look to the Lord for your blessings. There is a law, irrevocably decreed in Heaven before the foundations of this World, upon which all blessings are predicated—and when we obtain any blessing from God, it is by obedience to that law upon which it is established. The purpose for looking to the Lord for our blessings is because, among other reasons, he owns everything—the World and everything and everybody in it. “Ask me, and I will make the nations your inheritance, the ends of the Earth your possession (Psalm 2.8).” Future ages will bring with them new and probably unimaginably great advances in this World of civilization and will increase human’s likeness to God still more. We require civilized people to reverence beauty wherever one sees it in nature and to create it in the objects of one’s handiwork so far as one is able. #RandolphHarris 3 of 6
In scanning the Heavens with a telescope, we may find the beauty of God. Beauty can be expected to arouse the appropriate response, which is referred to briefly and loosely as pleasure and delight. We expect besides to see the signs of cleanliness and order. We do not think highly of the cultural level of there were towns with big dung-heaps in front of houses and in the street. Dirtiness of any kind seems to us incompatible with civilization. We extend our demand for cleanliness to the human body, too. Beauty, cleanliness and order obviously occupy a special position among the requirements of civilization. We have to find ways to unlearn those things that screen us from the perception of profound truth. It is also important to make sure that we do not become a society that finds it difficult to discover the exuberant joy and spontaneity of youth so we do not spend great sums of money on electronic entertainment centers that do not speak to the soul’s need for human contact and the pleasure that comes from nature. There is a river of life, clear as crystal, flowing through the body of humanity, uniting every part into one great being in God. When we drink from this well of water, we will never thirst again. The simile of water symbolized the flowing power of pure spirit. The spirit is always thought of as something fluid. #RandolphHarris 4 of 6
Modern physics has theoretically resolved all physical forms into lines of energy, and these lines of energy must be directed by some intelligence or they would never take definite form. All the faculties and feelings of our minds and bodies have their appropriate objects; and the possession of the faculties supposes the existence of those objects. Thus the eye, in its very structure, supposes that there is light to be seen, and the ear would be unaccountable and inconceivable without the existence of sound. In like manner, our religious feelings and aspirations necessitate the existence of God. The yearning for some kind of God does point toward an in-built hunger in each of us—a hunger for something greater than we are. A person may be said to believe in God if one believes in a Supreme Being, personal and intelligent, to whom we own honor and reverence. The human mind was made by God, who would not deceive his children. It is fortunate, indeed, that this is true because we are still being carried forward on the spirit of this infinite stream to a harbor of perfect safety. We may rest in absolute assurance that good is the final goal of all things. We can hasten the advent of God by definitely clarifying our thoughts and by daily praying to God, the wellspring of life within each one of us. #RandolphHarris 5 of 6
Surely, in the work of the Lord, it is what we do after we think we have done enough that really counts with him, for that is when the blessings flow. Expect a miracle. All too often we really do not expect a miracle. We are not looking for it, and so do not recognize it when it comes. We pray for the Lord to cause a miracle which will remove those barriers the prohibit us from entering the nations where we are presently excluded. When God said, “Lengthen your stride, quicken your pace, heighten your reach, widen your vision, and stretch your capacity,” he was in reality saying expect a miracle for these are the actions from which miracles are made. Receive the miracles with great modesty. Know that you did not do it. It was done by God and the glory will be yours forever. Success this month is not a justification to stop and glory in our record, but should merely serve as an impetus to greater and more noble accomplishments next month in the Lord’s name. For, we know that is by grace that we are saved, after all we can do. So, believe that you can do it and look to the Lord for your blessings. Know that miracles are coming your way. The forces in you are far grater than the forces trying to contain you. #RandolphHarris 6 of 6
Motherhood is a mystery of the soul, represented in the relation between a mother and child but signifying, too, something even more fundamental. There is a spirit of reverence. Who can probe a mother’s love? Who can comprehend in its entirety the lofty role of a mother? With her perfect trust in God, she welcomes gladly the smile of her son, and the hug of a daughter. Regardless of culture or country, all people make mistakes in mothering. However, by continually communicating God’s love, miracles can happen, wrongs can be righted. Never give up. Never let your spirit be downtrodden. There are women raising their children alone, and they must remember that she and the Lord constitute a majority. As your arms encircle your little ones, God’s arms are there, too. Feel secure, for God’s arms are lengthened out toward everyone eternally. Let your arms be an extension of the Savior’s, in providing love, and security for all his children. Put your trust in God and teach your children to do the same. Allow God’s loving arms to provide an enchanting lure when yours are not around. For children have depth and soul, teach your children to walk toward God’s arms, and they always have a sense of being at home wherever they are. God’s love is profoundly alluring. #RandolphHarris 1 of 5
Parents know how easy it is for their children to be attracted to people and activities that are dangerous and that threaten to lead their children into dark places. To the child, antisocial behavior can be fascinating, while to the parent such a thing could destroy all their efforts to give the child a sense of values and a decent path in life. The child’s susceptibility to negative people and places may be a dangerous but sometimes unavoidable way of soul-making. However, people can turn from evil and yield to their better natures when mother is remembered. Mothers produce power, tenderness, compassion, and generate exemplar. We, too, can be blessed if we follow this example. Children must remain loyal to their mother, while at the same time going through a transformative experience. The mother’s love for her children demands a deep compassion, which allows her to protect her children whom she knows might be exposed to unfortunate circumstances, and how much is expected from each of us whose soul, tempted by dangerous lures, will need our own maternal attachment and caring. The mother’s soul demonstrates genuine love and she lives up to the truths so patiently taught. #RandolphHarris 2 of 5
All mothering, whether in a family or within an individual, is made up of both affectionate caring and sometimes bitter emotional pain. In both emotions, the mother is close to the child, allowing the child, even as she feels her pain and anger, to become an individual through exposure to experience and to fate. Miraculous strength, mighty power—mother’s love and love for mother will be met and triumph. Understand that sometimes things that look dangerous from a mortal point of view may be beneficial from a greater perspective. Motherhood is about nurturing not only in human ways, but also in divine ways. Immortality is part of the soul’s ever-present depth. Mothering involves not only physical survival and achievement—it is also concerned with guiding a child to his or her unknown depths and the mystery of fate. Our emotions are this original feeling flowing through us as the Universe individualizes itself in us. Emotions and feelings are things of thought because they cannot function without consciousness, and the movement of consciousness is thought. The emotions affect the physical body, and the mind can be destructive or constructive according to the way it is used. Mothering can be greater in scope than any human maternal care could ever be. Without mother’s the human race would be threatened by extinction. #RandolphHarris 3 of 5
Mother Nature is also important because she gives us food and the materials for clothing; she is the goddess of survival needs and of pleasures of the natural World. Mother’s can provide for their children a beauty beyond what is natural, as they teach us what we might accomplish in our lives and what they are expressing. However, common issues with mothers can be that they may be so concerned with the welfare of their children, or so completely taken up by the role of mother, that they find it difficult to allow their children to become individuals, different from themselves. Nonetheless, we all need to find a way to become individuals, by finding our own depths and even our own darkness, without cutting ourselves off from the maternal guidance within ourselves that keeps us in life and in community because it concerns our very survival, both physical and psychological. The mother has an eternal place of honor with their children. May each of us treasure this truth; one cannot forget mother and remember God. One cannot remember mother and forget God. Why? Because thee two are sacred persons, God and mother, partners in creation, in love, in sacrifice, in service, are as one. There is a feeling of the divine presence and the emotion of infinite love. #RandolphHarris 4 of 5
What would happen if we could convert the energy of fear to faith, the energy of doubt and uncertainty into a feeling of belonging to the Universe and being safe in it? Would not the original artist himself go forth into a new creation through us? Wise counseling from a mother leads from mother to the child, and brings an individual self-awareness. It can take us back through all our emotions to the place where we were when we were an infant before any Worldly troubles started. A profound notion of motherhood embraces the great capacity to love her children and still honor God, who has his own designs and requirements. God gave us all moral agency and the opportunity to learn while on Earth, and he has work for us to do. To accomplish this work, we have an individual responsibility to seek learning. They key to our future; our bright ray of hope can be found in education. Education will open doors of opportunity. As we follow the Lord’s admonition to seek and learn, even by study and also by faith, we gain not only knowledge from our study, but added light as we learn by faith. We desire to prosper not only in wealth, but also in all aspects of our lives. God answers all prayers that come from a place of spiritual purity. “Honor your father and your mother, so that you may live long in the land the Lord, your God, is giving you (Exodus 20.12).” #RandolphHarris 5 of 5
The opportunity to be a blessing in the life of another comes unexpectedly. If the father seems absent in families today, that may be because he is absent as a soul figure in the society at large. We always tend to consider people’s distress objectively—that is, to place ourselves, with our own wants and sensibilities, in their conditions, and then to examine what occasions we should find in them for experiencing happiness or unhappiness. This method of looking at things, which seems objective because it ignores the variation in subjective sensibility, is, of course, the most personal possible, since it puts one’s own mental states in the place of any others, unknown though they may be. What is good to us is a long life if it is difficult and barren of joys, and if it is so full of misery that we can only welcome death as a deliverer? “The Lord has given his people strength that they might be means of saving one’s soul (Alma 31.38).”Experience, even when forgotten beyond recall, leaves its deposit, and where this is the deposit of long trial and error, of much reflection, and of wide exposure in fact or imagination to the human lot, the judgment based on it may be more significant than any or all of the reasons that the judge could adduce for it. This is why age is credited with wisdom; years supply a means to it whether or not the means is consciously used. #RandolphHarris 1 of 5
Again, the individual may similarly profit from the increasing age of the race; since knowledge is cumulative, one can stand on the shoulders of one’s predecessors. Whether individual wisdom is on the average increasing is debatable, but clearly the opportunity for it is. In many traditional cultures a person becomes an adult by hearing the secret stores of the community that have been handed down over generations. Elders give instructions, teaching the elements of ritual and art. Sometimes people have to endure ordeals deigned to draw out the adult. The point is to stir the young person so deeply that he or she experiences a major transformation of character. True fatherhood is evoked not by a flexing of muscle but by initiation into family and culture in a profound, transformative way. It may also require a visit to our own depths and a conversing with figure of memory both personal and cultural. Education in history and literature, when done with sufficient depth, can make good fathers. Many people have had their father pass away, but you notice that they have such an essence of manhood in them that they feel sustained. I personally feel my father with me all the time and am receptive of his guidance. And he taught me that I can get through anything. He is a veteran for God’s sake. #RandolphHarris 2 of 5
In modern society, we have replaced secret wisdom with information. Information does not evoke fatherhood. If we are to link up with the spirit that is becoming father, we have to dare to experience the unknown, to open ourselves to unexpected influences on the soul. One psychologist may say that people need to be empowered—that is his or her definition of healthy. However, there are also times when we may need to be weak and powerless, vulnerable and open to experience. Another psychologist says people need to be capable of intimacy—relations is the ultimate goal. However, the soul also requires solitude and individuality. By focusing on a single value, we close ourselves off to many other possibilities that may seem contrary to the to the chosen one. In this sense, the image of humanity serves the many-faceted soul. It offers an openness to discovery and a trust in movements that are not intended or even expected. This is a fate the World is born into. It is unique and individual, always uncharted, teeming with its own dangers, pleasures, and opportunities. One becomes a father to one’s own life by becoming intimately acquainted with it and by daring to traverse its waters. #RandolphHarris 3 of 5
It takes genuine wisdom to be a mentor, the pleasure of which comes from instilling fatherhood rather than embodying. With maturity comes a deep father figure that settles into the soul to provide a sense of authority, the feeling that you are the author of your own life, that you are the head of the household in your own affairs. I sometimes feel like a father and when I write, I try to communicate things that I would want my kids to incorporate in their lives. Sometimes, I know no one wants to listen to their father and all of his protective advice, but it would be nice to read letters from one’s father in times of need. We need father figures badly, people who can keep us in touch with or stimulate within us that profound principle in the soul that provides guidance and wisdom. Every man, at some point, feels confident in their own manhood and know who to handle life from experience and that is when people are ready to start their own families and homes. If you constantly remind someone of how their father passed away, it may no longer have any effect, but a slight annoyance. After a while, people realize some people in society are mentally and love inflicting pain on others, and because of our maturity, we learn to accept it. #RandolphHarris 4 of 5
It is a challenge to evoke the deep father and not to be satisfied with substitutes and empty roles. There is no easy route to soul and no simple way of establishing fatherhood. And yet, without the guidance and authority of God, we are left disoriented and out of control. In times of chaos, especially, we might intensify and expand our prayer, speaking it from the heart. Our Father, who art in Heaven and who art on the sea, hallowed be thy name, sometimes our World feels like a battle zone, where missiles are falling too close to home. Other times we are caught in an endless storm, with situations that are out o control. Confusion reigns, and defeat may creep in to steal our joy. God, we need your peace—the deep-down-in-your heart kind that stays with us eternally and speaks to us confidently. Calm our souls, God. It is a prayer that we will never forget, not because the floor is hard, but because the spirit melted their heart. The Heart of the Universe, the essence of reality or God, the living spirit, is the essence of pure feeling. That feeling is back of every creative impulse, whether in God or a human being. Our Heavenly Father is aware of our needs and will help us as we call upon him for assistance. No concern of ours is too small or insignificant. The Lord is the details of our lives. #RandolphHarris 5 of 5
People age, some trees regularly shed their leaves, ice melts with the coming of Spring, and wood, when burned, gives way to fire and ash. The World seems to be in perpetual flux, undergoing ceaseless transformation. Yet in spite of the alterations we notice, we want to say that this is the same tree which shed its leaves last month, that this adult is the same person we knew as a child, and that this water is made up of the same stuff as the piece of ice which melted there. Philosophical reflection about the nature of change, about the problem of identifying or reidentifying something or someone gives rise to a set of issues which cluster under the problem of identity. Our enquiry concerning happiness has not so far taught us much that is not already common knowledge. And even if we proceed from it to the problem of why is can be so hard for people to be happy, there seems no greater prospect of learning anything new. We know that there are three sources from which our suffering comes: the superior power of nature, the feebleness of our own bodies, and the inadequacy of the regulations which adjust the mutual relationships of human beings in the family, the state, and society. #RandolphHarris 1 of 10
We are forced to acknowledge the sources of suffering and we must overcome them or learn to adapt. Of course, we shall never completely master nature; our bodies are part of nature and we can do certain things to make sure they are well protected and keep them safe, in much the same way we can learn to work with the environment to make sure resources are properly distributed. If the Earth is 90 percent water, it makes no sense that we should ever have a drought, or drain rivers to ship water to other regions. The rational solution, with such great technology that we can ship cars into outer space, would be to learn to filter more sea water to make sure we have enough to drink. The fact of the matter is the World is changing, seasons are changing, the population is growing, technology is increasing, but we are still waiting on diminishing snow packs to supply the state with water, which is in short supply. Since we have so much technology, we should not be focusing on fees and taxes as a way to control our resources. Why is it we do not know how to clean our air? Why is it Los Angeles has so many oceans, but they need billion-dollar tunnels to funnel the water from the Sierra and America River? #RandolphHarris 2 of 10
The word “idea” is a translation of a Greek word which the root meaning is “see.” In classical Greek it never lost the possible meaning “visual aspect.” The more technical use of the word idea is always spoken of as the objects of intelligence, in contrast with the objects of perception; things which truly are, in contrast with changing objects of perception, which are in a state of becoming; eternal, in contrast with the perishable World of change. If we cannot remove all suffering, we can remove some, and we can mitigate some: the experience of many thousands of years has convinced us of that. However, we do not see why the regulations made by ourselves should not be a protection and a benefit for every one of us. And yet, when we consider how unsuccessful we have been in precisely this field of prevention of suffering, a suspicion dawns on us that here, too, a piece of unconquerable nature may lie behind—this time a piece of our own physical constitution. When we start considering this possibility, we come upon a contention which is so astonishing that we must dwell upon it. This contention holds that what we call our civilization is largely responsible for our misery, and that we should be much happier if we gave it up and returned to primitive conditions. #RandolphHarris 3 of 10
However, in whatever way we may define the concept of civilization it is a certain idea or fact that all the things with which we seek to protect ourselves against are the threats that emanate from the sources of suffering, and are the very reason why we formed a civilized society. Therefore, how has it happened that so many people have come to take up this strange attitude of hostility to civilization? The word “civilization” was derived from an actual social condition, that of the citizen (Latin, civis). The word “culture” in its social, intellectual, and artistic sense is a metaphorical term derived from the act of cultivating the soul. In the case of civilization there was an apparently simple contrast with barbarism, another social condition, which was originally a description of the life of a foreign group. The culture of the mind was seen as a process comparable to the cultivation of the soil; hence, the early meanings of culture, in this metaphorical sense, centered on a process, the culture of the mind, rather than on an achieved state. The first important development from this metaphorical use of culture was a description of certain people as cultivated and then as those who are cultivated. In this use the meaning is very closed to civilized. Culture came to mean a general state or habit of the mind, with close relation to the idea of human perfection. #RandolphHarris 4 of 10
Culture also came to mean a general state of intellectual and moral development in a society as a whole. It also means the general body of the arts and intellectual work and culture also means the whole way of life, material, intellectual, and spiritual, of a given society. So why is it in modern times that people are so upset with civilization? Why have the minds of many people not evolved to me more reasonable, sane, and peaceful? There are still people on this Earth that believe their perception of your conditions or the look in your eyes hold more truth than your words. And that is why so many people have to speak up and explain that no means no. Some people think that they are so desirable that their desires overrule whatever you think or feel and are more powerful than the laws. This complex development represents an attempt to think in new ways about the human social, moral, and intellectual life at a time of profound and many-sided change. It is an unconscious prejudice. The prejudice was correctly diagnosed as ethnocentrism. It is evidently wrong to interpret all cultural phenomena in terms applicable to one’s own beliefs and societies, and it is arbitrary and dangerous to attempt to evaluate very diverse cultures by references to a fixed value system that was likewise derived from a barbaric society of heathens. #RandolphHarris 5 of 10
Human beings in industrial societies no longer live in caves and compete with dogs for food. Most people are now literate and verbal and for the most part, many can articulate their feelings and desires verbally. However, it has never been wholly possible to separate such interests from the primitivism that has taken many forms in modern industrial societies. It also seems to be the case that the demonstration of relativity, not so much as a method of study but as a conclusion about human nature, is directly related to a liberal ideology that also taken very varied forms in modern industrial societies. In any case the fundamental disputes about social evolution and about the determinative effect of different elements within a culture reflect, more or less directly, contemporary arguments about the nature, control, and development of our own societies. It is thus always possible that an ethnographic prejudice has been replaced by an ideological prejudice that in its turn requires cultural analysis. Dr. Sigmund Freud pointed out that many psychological dysfunctions and addictions can be traced back to childhood. And I did some research and it seems in most cases it is true. People who have unresolved or repressed issues in childhood tend to take their issues out on innocent people. #RandolphHarris 6 of 10
It has been discovered that a person becomes neurotic because he or she cannot tolerate the amount of frustration which society imposes on that individual in the service of its cultural ideas, and it is inferred from this that the abolition or reduction of those demands would result in a return to possibilities of happiness. That is why many people go to therapy and are deeply religious. The World has changed and they are finding healthy ways of adapting, until they are in a place that is to their liking. Another reason people are so unhappy with civilization is because of a deep and long-standing dissatisfaction with the then existing state of civilization and on that basis a condemnation if it was built up, and perpetuated by certain specific historical events, public figures, and families. Later experiences and education has corrected some of those judgments. However, prejudice and fear still exist. People fear certain towns and certain cultures because they do not know how the people will respond to them. However, people also fear immigrants because they can sometimes bring negatives ideas and behaviors to an area that has not seen those kinds of behaviors in centuries. #RandolphHarris 7 of 10
Because of ethnocentrism, when a group of new people come to a region, who are not from that particular area, mass migrate, they may think their customs and traditions are normal. And because they are trying to take over and not integrate, they may not notice that they stand out. It is the same kind of thing like sometimes when people from underprivileged neighborhoods move to a privileged community, they will often times bring their culture with them and it may not blend with the norms for the community. And that can threaten to undermine the modicum of happiness enjoyed by civilized people. Besides ethnocentrism, there is also an added factor of disappointment. During the last few generations humankind has made an extraordinary advance in the natural sciences and their technical applications and has established human control over nature in a way never before imagines. The single steps of this advance are common knowledge and it is unnecessary to enumerate them. People are proud of those achievements, and have a right to be. However, they seem to have observed that this newly-won power over space and time, this subjugation of the forces of nature, which is the fulfillment of a longing that goes back thousands of years, has not increased the amount of pleasurable satisfaction which they may expect from life and has not made them feel happier. #RandolphHarris 8 of 10
There are other fixed limitations in life that technology cannot yet cure or care for. For instance, some have allotments including physical, mental, or geographic constraints. There are those who are unmarried, through no fault of their own, or yearning but childless couples. Still others face persistent and unreconciled relationships within their circles of loved ones, including offspring who have [become] for themselves, resistant to parental counsel. In such and similar situations, there are so many prickly and daily reminders. Being content means acceptance without self-pity. Meekly borne, however, deprivation such as these can end up being like excavations that make room for greatly enlarged souls. Suffice it to say, such mortal allotments will be changed in the World to come. The exception is unrepented sin that shapes our status in the next World. Thus, developing greater contentment within certain of our existing constraints and opportunities is one of our challenges. Otherwise, we may feel underused, underwhelmed, and underappreciated—while, ironically, within our givens are unused opportunities for service all about us. No matter how varied as our allotted circumstances may be, we can still keep the commandments of God! #RandolphHarris 9 of 10
As I look out into my World I see that there is nothing to fear. And as I look back into my own mind I know there is noting in me that is afraid. My thought is filled with confidence, with hope, with trust, and with the acceptance of God. I expect the mirror of my experience to be filled with joy, and as I turn the magic lantern of my mind into the great mind and spirit of the Universe in which all things exist, I know that I am one with all peace, all power, and God. However, I would also like to point out that while it is good to be uplifted in faith, we also have to be reasonable. Some of us grew up in really good neighborhoods where we can trust people, and most people have never been a victim of crime. Therefore, it is good to be reasonable and obey the rules you grew up with, like, get home before the street lights come on, if you are out at night be with a group of people you can trust, look both ways before crossing the street, never accept a drink from someone you do not know and obey the laws of the land. Although the presence of God is with us in all we do, we also have to do what we can to make sure we stay safe. It is just that not everyone is as kind as the people you grew up with and the community has changed. Still, do not be fearful and know that strength, enthusiasm, love, and vitality are forever with you. #RandolphHarris 10 of 10
There is an integrity to the soul, a reality to the spirit. It makes no difference abroad, the seasons fit the same, the mornings blossom into noons, and split their pods of flame. We may need simply to recover soul by reflecting deeply on the soul events such as our moralism and sentimentality. When should not rejoice when our enemy falls, and our hearts should not be glad when they stumble. For if we rejoice at the destruction of one that hated us, or lift ourselves up when evil finds them, we have denied the God that is above. We know many wounds are self-inflicted and could have been avoided simply by obeying gospel principles. However, to shrug it off as their problem is not acceptable to the Lord. God said, “Come unto me, all that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest (Matthew 11.28).” Although God does not condone sin, his arms are always open to the repentant sinner. In modern revelation the Lord has asked us to go one step further, the Lord will forgive whom he will forgive, but he requires us to forgive all people. Worldly wisdom advises us not to look for the whole of our satisfaction from a single aspiration. Its success is never certain. The person who sees one’s pursuit of happiness come to nothing in later years can still find consolation in the yield of pleasure of chronic intoxication; or one can embark on the desperate attempt at rebellion seen in a psychosis. #RandolphHarris 1 of 9
Religion restricts the play of transgression. Heavenly hurt it gives us; we find no scar, but internal difference where the meanings are. Choice and adaptation imposes equally on everyone its own path to the acquisition of happiness and protection from suffering. Its technique consists in depressing the values of life and distorting the picture of the real World in a delusional manner—which presupposes an intimidation of the intelligence. At this price, by forcibly fixing them in a state of physical infantilism and by drawing them into a mass-delusion, religion succeeds in sparing many people an individual neurosis. There are many paths which may lead to such happiness as is attainable by people, but there is none which does so for certain. Our forgiveness must be manifest by reaching out to help mend wounds even when they are the result of transgression. Whether the pain has come to someone who is completely innocent or is something of one’s own making is irrelevant. While some of the World’s suffering can be traced to an individual’s disobedience or lack of judgment, there is wholesale suffering taking place that is not the result of anyone’s own mistakes. Life tells stories of happy times and tragedies. It has moments of pride and skeletons in its closets. It has professed values and its carefully constructed image, as well as its secret transgressions and follies. #RandolphHarris 2 of 9
To hang our head ostensibly, and subsequent to find that such was not the posture of our immortal mind. Recovery of soul begins when we can take to heart our own family fate and find in it the raw material for our own soul work. Healing the soul is not about understanding, figuring out, and making better; rather, it resuscitates images of life as an enrichment of identity. It takes extreme diligence and concentration to think differently about life: to appreciate its shadow as well as its virtue and simply to allow stories to be told without slipping into interpretations, analysis, and conclusions. Professionals think it is their job to understand and correct people without allowing themselves to be introduced fully to the individual and their genius—their unique formative spirit. It we are to observe the soul in each individual by honoring our history and by not running away from our shadow, then we might not feel so inescapably determined by Worldly influences. Strongly influenced by developmental psychology, we assume we are ineluctably who we are because of our family, friends, career, or other experiences. However, what if we thought of these aspects as less the determining influences by which we are formed and more as the raw material from which we can make a life? #RandolphHarris 3 of 9
How wonderful would it be if we were never afraid of anything! We fear people because we think that in some way they can harm us. Change fear into faith and antagonism into love, and we shall have reversed the whole process. When we make the resolution to not become like people that we despise or do not respect, the avoidance of these influences and identification is a sure way to become a carbon copy of them—the return of the repressed. Repression tends to make a wise swath; it is not very precise in its work of ridding the personality of some unwanted quality. By not wanting to be like people who raise us, or grew up with, we may also miss out on some of their good qualities and also block them out of our lives. Whether we like it our not, their spirits are in us. Out of these spirts we can make a life. It is usually best, when healing the soul, to sit with what is there and let our own imagination move, instead of making empty wishes or attempting heroic changes. The imagination can deepen and change over a period of time and unleash some of the soul that has been bound up in resentment and rigidity. We can learn to reconnect with our family, friends, and the World in ways that we have not known before. Our resources are limited, and the needs of the World are vast. #RandolphHarris 4 of 9
We cannot do everything, but we must do everything we can. “I hid not my face from the shame and spitting. For the Lord God will help me, therefore shall I not be confounded. Therefore, have I set my face like a flint, and I know that I shall not be ashamed (2 Nephi 7.6-7).” The silent influence we exercise on others is something that takes place automatically. Friendship attracts friends, while antagonism not only repels people, it actually awakens a feeling of distrust and dislike within them. The keys to successful living and right relationships among people entail us being whole within ourselves, that is when we can help others. It is only when we have faith that we can instill faith. It is only when we have hope and enthusiasm that others respond to us with an equal hope and enthusiasm. Have you notice that when you spend considerable time with people who are depressed and afraid, you feel as through the weight of the Universe is on your shoulders, as through everything is hopeless? On the other hand, in company with those who are buoyant and confident, you feel a lightness, a sense of joy, a feeling of enthusiasm. That is one of the reasons people in the suburbs generally try to be pleasant when greeting people and they like to keep conversations shallow. They want people to feel good around them and have a good reputation with others. #RandolphHarris 5 of 9
When people feel that everyone is against them, they always seem to be at a cross-purpose with people and with events. This has gone on until people avoid them, because when around intensively negative people, others can feel the resentment in their mind, and it arouses an equal antagonism in their thoughts about that individual. Let us make believe that we are teaching this person what is actually taking place, and that the person is accepting our explanation. We understand what is wrong with the individual. We know that their suffering is self-imposed and we wish to help that person. So, our explanation will have to be very kind and considerate. It will have to be like leading a child or helping an invalid, for that individual drenched in negativity is really a sick person. We are acting as a doctor to his or her mind, and doctors should not harshly judge their patients. They should try to help and encourage them to the place where the great restoring power of nature can resume its natural function. Deep inside people soaked in negativity is a lot of fear, they are scared to death, and unconsciously acting in self-defense. This we must explain to them. They are encircled by pain of Hell, and God has the power to loosen them from pain of Hell. #RandolphHarris 7 of 9
If we had not seen things of God in vision, we would not have known goodness of God. Many people are longing for love and friendship. They would rather have it than anything else in the World. A lot of people want others to like them, but some are afraid of others. So, we must tell others have the mind works and how it is that they must come to have faith in something bigger than we are. Religion helps so many people because some are looking for strength; people long for happiness even as those who cannot see long for light. One day the light will come through and gradually a transformation will take place in our lives. It is important for humans to feel they have a partner, someone who understands them. God can be our partner and fill us with love and protection, as long as we have faith in him. And it will not be long before others will be working with us with an enthusiasm equal to our own. Our mirror will begin to change its reflection. We will have hope, and greater faith. Through this experience, we shall learn the great lesson of life, that the good we have must be shared with others if it is to be increased. For when we have made a friend of a person who is friendless, and have made it possible for them to acquire friends, we have multiplied our own friendship by the number of persons. #RandolphHarris 8 of 9
Remorse is memory awake. It’s past set down before the soul. Remorse is cureless—the disease not even God can heal. We have brought good to some person, and have shown others how to extend that good in one’s own experience, we have brought that much more good into our own life. God wants us to be anxiously engaged in a good cause, and do many things of our own free will. However, we have to be careful about helping others, especially people we do not know because it could leave us vulnerable and make us targets of individuals and groups. Above all, trust your instincts, and feelings. It is not always good to even smile at people you do not know. Do not ever go anywhere with someone you do not know, even if they seem nice. Cities in New York are full of people, and some are nice, some are not. The people that live there know this and that is why they seem cold. They know it is important not to seem weak because that is how people become victims. Helping others is sometimes best left to professional who get paid for it because they know the risks and have resources to protect them. As an individual, your number one goal is to stay safe. And above all, keep your faith in God and know that he will protect us, but we also have to look out for ourselves. #RandolphHarris 9 of 9
