Friday, April 24, 2015

Always Let Your Conscience Be Your Guide!



In the past 8 blog posts the discussion has been about identifying our: 2015 New Year's Goal.  In regards to that goal, we have examined and hopefully answered for ourselves the following questions:



Cause 
Who have we chosen to guide us on the journey to achieve this goal?  Who's our exemplar, provider, trainer, evaluator?

Process 
What is the next step we need to be working on to achieve it?

Effects 
What feedback and guidance are we receiving from our chosen Cause?  What signals to us that we are on the right track?

Results 
How far have we come?  What steps have we already accomplished? What is being achieved?  Is it what we set out to achieve?

Our General Goal
The past 3 blog posts have been on the topic of evaluating our answers to the above question by our General Goal, our General Cause, and the General way we go about obtaining our goals.  

This blog post is on General vs. Specific Effects (see previous blog post on Effects).  General Effects are the feelings we experience in our heart that validate that we're on the right track to obtaining our general goal of Joy.  They mark the general pathway.  Specific Effects are the non-verbal and verbal communication we receive from Specific Causes in response to how we are journeying to obtain our goal.

Some have referred to the author of general effects as the Spirit of the Lord, angels, or the Holy Ghost (Luke 4:18, Matthew 13:11, 2 Nephi 32:2-3).  Others call it common sense, enlightenment, inspiration, awakening, or our conscience.  However we label it,  there have been millions of witnesses that these effects do indeed exist even though they are often personally and subjectively experienced as a still, small voice. 



Levels of Consciousness
What we each personally know about the general process to obtain Joy determines the level of our conscience.  If we take a pathway to obtain our specific goal that deviates from the general pathway to obtain Joy, we are saying that we’re okay with sacrificing Joy for whatever it is we’re trying to attain.  But like Martin Luther, I would respond, “...to go against conscience is neither right nor safe” (Brainy Quote).


The Function of Process and Effect
When we’re ON the pathway to obtaining our goal (Process), we sense a general confirming Effect.  I experience this effect as just a general feeling that everything is okay.  But when I am learning new things, need them verified, and strive to implement them into my goal achievement process (#growth), I experience waves of this amazingly beautiful energy flowing into my heart.  Sometimes when the feeling is intense the waves course throughout my whole body.  It seems both physical and spiritual at the same time.  They haven't always been that powerful.  In the beginning they were less intense.  There were occasions when they were powerful but both their intensity and frequency have increased the closer I have consistently reached to develop my relationship with my General Cause.  


We can rebuild her.
We have the technology.
#Atonement
From what I've studied about anatomy and physiology these last two semesters, energy does not flow unless there are reactants that begin catabolic and anabolic processes.  There has to be a Cause.  In younger years when I seemed to be drowning in anxiety and depression, I tried as hard as I could to think myself into happiness, make myself feel better, but couldn't do it.  
I actually have had to allow my Cause to reconstruct my spiritual DNA so that my habitual thoughts, words, and actions became more in alignment with his prescribed general process (#BornAgain).  That's when the the intensity and frequency of Joy steadily began to increase inside of me.  

Luis Pasteur's Experiment
disproving Spontaneous Generation
It is my conclusion from these studies that general effects originate from a separate source; I am not their source.  Like microbiologist Luis Pasteur, I do not believe in Spontaneous Generation.   

When we’re OFF the pathway to obtaining our goals, two things happen:  First, we sense a general warning effect.  This comes from our separation from the pathway that leads to our specific and/or general goals.  Second, specific Causes verbally warn us.  Specific Causes that are in alignment with our General Cause constantly try to teach us or warn us in ADVANCE so we don’t end up in bondage relationships.  The crucial conjunction is:  Do we listen?

Because I value my general effects so deeply, I am like the Princess and the Pea when it comes to sensing that something is slightly off.  This may seem like hypersensitivity but I have to defend that Princess.  It's not that a single event of a pea being under the mattress is irritating.  We can put up with quite a bit of discomfort as long as we have our general effects.  It's the long-term existence of it, the continuous conflict that seems to have no apparent source.  And the pea actually represents something that is preventing us from obtaining our confirming general effects (D&C 1:31)(#Good,Better,Best).  I pay attention to how I feel. I don't ignore what my heart's telling me.  Because I've had much experience with general effects I'm able to match up present effects with the past effects I have felt.  "Hmm...I've felt this way before.  I remember what the problem turned out to be back then.  How is that like the problem I'm having now?"  It's science.

When I feel warning Effects, they feel like a separation from Joy.  Sometimes they feel like fear--the beginnings of it.  Sometimes they feel like this sounds: 
 
The Nature of General Effects 
The fact of the matter is that general effects can be doubted.  Without that quality, there would be no need for faith.  And faith is what defines each and every one of us.  Without leaps of faith we cannot grow.  Because general effects are from a General Cause who knows the exact pathway to obtain both our general and specific goals, it is left for us to determine through acts of faith just how close to truth we want to come.  We experience censure to the same degree of intensity that we experience Joy.  If we want the benefits and privileges a company provides for us, we have to be willing to follow its rules. 

The General Process 
The general process and its application has been the study of all mankind since the beginning of time.  It’s what everyone’s talking about in blogs, websites, books, magazines, articles, movies, lectures, sermons, talks, speeches, classes, meetings, groups, music, art.  The general process should be the same for all of us, no matter who we are, what culture, or what religion we belong to.  It is our responsibility to share what we have found this to be through our own experience and studies.  It is also our responsibility to study what others have found it to be if we have a goal we want to achieve ("What more can be said than to you he hath said?").  We don’t force that upon others because of its impact upon conscience--censure.  But we do offer it because most of us are searching for it; its the key to obtaining our goals, both specific and general.  

I shared a summarized portion of my take of what I have found the general process to be in the last blog post (The Character of Christ).  I’m sharing a more expanded view of what that is in every blog post and in the Servant Program.  I derived my views from all the specific Causes I have studied over the years.  When I study them, I pay attention to my general effects to help me identify truth.  In doing so, I have developed my relationship with my General Cause so that I can have the capacity to be instructed by him directly.  My intention and hope is that my perspective of truth does not conflict with my Causes’ perspectives but only serves as another witness. 
 
Whenever we set our pen to paper, we are attempting to describe and answer what we see truth IS (Exodus 3:14, John 1:1).    

Each of us has a different perspective on how this general process can be explained.  We may use different words, examples, or organizational methods to convey the general point but the majority of different perspectives only serve to sustain or witness of one another (#Namaste).  So many of us are saying the same thing even though we don’t even know each other.  For example, when I named the program I was writing “the Servant,” I didn’t know about another book and program that had previously been written by Robert K. Greenleaf called Servant Leadership or a book written by James C. Hunter called, “The Servant” that both address similar concepts.  And since writing what I have written, I have read so many books, listened to so many songs, seen so many artistic masterpieces that discuss or portray the same principles I have found through my own personal studies, which have been independent to theirs.  (#Peer Review)

But sometimes our perspectives conflict.  How do we know which perspectives are in alignment and which ones conflict?  That’s where our general effects come into play.   They validate the general process to obtain a greater and more sustainable degree of Joy.


The Language of our General Cause 
I believe that becoming conversant with the language of our general effects is the most crucial skill to develop in order to obtain both our specific and general goals.

I ask myself the following questions and offer them to you in hopes that they may assist you in achieving your 2015 New Year's Goals.

How much time and focus do you give to developing your relationship with your General Cause on a daily basis?

Do you trust that your General Cause’s goal is for you to obtain both your general and specific goals?

How sensitive are you to your general effects?

Have you ignored them for so long that you are numb to them now?

What are the general effects you experience when you engage in the process to obtain the goal you are working on now?

What are the specific effects you experience?

Do your specific effects agree with or conflict with your general effects?

Which of your specific Causes have consistently witnessed to the general process to obtain Joy?  Which of them have not been paying too much attention to it?

How do you respond to conflicting specific effects?  How do you respond when your general effects conflict with your specific process?

If you have developed your relationship with your General Cause and developed your effect sensors to sense his Effects, describe the past steps you have taken to obtain your goal that have been confirmed by your general effects. 

What is the next step you need to take?

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