Influence and Karma

It seems like everyone wants to influence someone else.  Why?  Well ideally it's because we have found something amazing to share with someone else.  It made us happy and we want to make others happy. 

Not so ideally, we sometimes may influence others in order to indirectly validate our own beliefs.  When someone does what we're doing it gives us a sense of confidence.  We're not alone.  The more people who do what we're doing, the better we feel about ourselves.  And let's be honest, it is a good feeling when we're part of a group or when we are the ones to set a trend.  But if we rely on the validation of those we are trying to influence, anyone who won't do what we're doing or who even dares speak out against it becomes our sudden mortal enemy.  In fact we can't seem to rest easy because that person disagrees with us.  We may even choose to start picking that person apart, searching for some kind of flaw to prove s/he is dead wrong.

This happens in the story of Mordecai and Haman.  Haman is one of the main princes under King Ahasuerus.  King Ahasuerus is the one who chooses Esther to be his queen.  (This story is found in the Bible in the Book of Esther.)  But there is another story that unfolds right around this one between the afore mentioned men. 

Mordecai is Esther's older cousin.  He takes her as his own daughter when her parents die.  After Esther is chosen to be the new queen, Mordecai hangs out by the gate of the palace.  While he is there he hears two men conspiring against the king.  They want to take him out.  Mordecai reports this to Esther.  And Esther reports it to the king.  When an inquisition is made, the two men are found guilty and are both hanged. 

This opens up a spot for Haman to ascend to the main prince role.  He's not a son of the king.  He is an adviser.  So when he walks outside of the palace it's a rule that all the city of Shushan reverence him.  But when Haman passes by Mordecai, he doesn't.  And this is because he's Jewish and has covenanted not to bow down to anyone but his God.  Everyone else is bowing down to Haman.  Is that not enough?  Apparently not because when he notices that Mordecai isn't bowing down he's as mad as all get out. 

So what does he do?  He proceeds to find a way to ELIMINATE HIM.  But not just him.  His ENTIRE RACE.  Prejudice is born.  He knows Mordecai is Jewish so he gets the king to sign a decree that all Jewish people will be destroyed on a certain day.  Just wipe 'em all out and that will take care of the problem.

But before that time comes to pass, Haman still has to walk by Mordecai.  Again everyone else is reverencing him.  Just one person isn't.   He talks to his family and friends about what he should do because it grates on him day in and day out.  They tell him to construct a gallows to hang him on.  What a great idea!  And he commands his servants to do it.  The next morning he goes into the king to get his seal of approval for this plan. 

But the night before the king hadn't been able to sleep.  So he gets up and started reading the palace records.  He stumbles across the incident where Mordecai discovered the conspiracy against the king.  He asks  his servants what has been done to honor this man.  They tell him that nothing has been done.  So he asks who of his princes-advisers are in the court this morning.  They tell him that Haman is out there waiting to talk to him.  Send him in!

And the king says to Haaman, "What shall be done unto the man whom the king desires to honor?"

Haman thinks, well if there's anyone who the king desires to honor, it's me!  So he says, "Get some of the kings royal wardrobe and dress him in it.  Then put him on a horse and lead him through the city crying, 'Thus shall it be done to the man whom the king delighteth to honour!'"

The king then replies to Haman, "Make haste, and take the apparel and the horse, as thou hast said, and do even so to Mordecai the Jew, that sitteth at the king’s gate: let nothing fail of all that thou hast spoken."

There was no getting out of it.  Haman had to do it!  Haha.  So he took "the apparel and the horse, and arrayed Mordecai, and brought him on horseback through the street of the city, and proclaimed before him, Thus shall it be done unto the man whom the king delighteth to honour."

And after the whole episode was over Haman "hasted to his house mourning, and having his head covered."  That's when his family and friends predict that he's a goner.  This same day he had been invited to a feast with the king and queen Esther.  He had gloried in being personally singled out like this.  But at this banquet, Esther tells the king about how Haman plans to kill her and all of her people.  The king can't believe it.  He is so mad!  When he also hears that Haman had constructed a gallows to hang the very man that saved the king's life, that's the end of it.  "Then the king said, Hang him thereon."

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Karma.

There are no good endings to trying to influence others in order to receive validation, glory, confirmation for ourselves.  We have to do it for the real reasons.  A tell-tale sign that we are doing it for the wrong reasons is that we can barely stand it when someone disagrees with us.  It hurts our pride.  We can't let them have their own opinion.  It somehow negates the rightness of our own actions in our minds.  When we influence others for the right reasons, we stand in confidence.  Yes, there will still be those who disagree with us and we may struggle with it.  But the way to obtain validation is to hope for the joy, happiness, and success of others.  That has to be the reason we want to influence them. 

When I'm genuinely unsure of the value of what I'm advocating, I have learned through much error of my own that I need to take some more time studying it, experimenting upon it and then listening to my heart.  I know when something is of value when the Joy I experience is Sustainable.  And that means I can't know it over night.  It takes time.  And most of the time it takes me making mistakes as I experiment upon it.  Yet I've learned my attitude can't be to convince others that it is right.  It needs to be a teachable--I'm trying to figure this out--attitude.

Do unto others as you would have done unto you because it will be done unto you.

 I believe in this with all my heart. It most likely will not be as immediate or even as apparent as Mordecai and Haman's story but it will eventually come to pass.  It's the way the pendulum swings.

The end.

Eternity Is Being Constructed Now

"And I wonder why would I wait 'till I die to come alive...I'm [getting] ready now..." Listen:  "Afterlife" by Switchfoot

Each of the systems in our body are equipped with what I call Effect Sensors.The eyes have photoreceptors. The ears have sound receptors. The nose has olfactory receptors. The type of Energy each system receives is specific to that system. The eyes receive Energy in the form of light. The ears receive it in the form of sound. The nose receives it in the form of smells. Each system also contains a taskforce of Energy Converters. These convert the specific form of Energy to electrical signals that communicate something to the brain.  The brain then interprets these signals and converts them into meaning.  And meaning is spiritual.

When these two Processes of receiving and converting Energy are in Balance, that body system is Balanced and Healthy.

I love to compare the physical to the spiritual.  I believe everything that is physical also exists spiritually in a similar order.  So the spirit has systems similar to the body.  We have Spiritual eyes, ears, noses, and so forth.

Our Spiritual Effect Sensors also receive Energy but in the form of meaning, truth, and light.  Our spiritual eyes have the capacity to see the light of truth (D&C 93:36). 

Listen:  "I Am The Light" by Maxine Soakai (feat. David Osmond)

Our spiritual ears receive personal revelation, inspiration, or a good idea that seems to come out of nowhere.

The smells that the physical nose senses are actually airborne molecular matter.   So picture someone is cooking something downstairs.  You don’t know what it is but its scent makes its way upstairs and into your nostrils.  You haven’t touched it, seen it, or tasted its immediate physical matter.  Yet because the matter expands into the air in the form of microscopic molecules past its physical borders, we are able to have a small “taste” of what it is that is cooking downstairs.  Our Spiritual nose discerns things before we actually see or touch them.  This is the power of Discernment.

 

Our Spiritual Energy Converters represent how we interpret meaning.  Meaning, truth, and light exist independently.  We just describe what we see.  When our eyes, ears, and noses see, read, hear, or detect things our Spiritual Energy Converters determine what is Truth and what is False similar to how our physical eyes phototransduct light from darkness.  They do this to identify general truth as well as how it specifically applies to us and our individual story.

 It is during this conversion Process that our individuality appears.  How each of us evaluates the world around us is unique.  What are we looking for?  What are we paying attention to?  What do we spend our time focusing on?  Through this evaluation Process, we demonstrate who we are.

We receive clues before actual discernment takes place.  When the physical systems of the body send the converted electrical signals to the brain, the brain matches or Summarizes these signals with what has been previously experienced.  When we receive clues about someone or something that we are seeking to gain a greater knowledge of, our mind matches these up with what is previously known.  When we add all of these clues up we can discern who someone is who we have not yet physically seen or touched.

If all the systems of our body and spirit are receiving and converting Energy in Balance then we exist at our Optimum Level.  And that’s where we experience Sustainable Joy as well as Health.

Listne:  "I Nee You Now (How Many Times) by Plumb

What usually trips us up is that we start relying too much on physical Energy and don’t even realize how much our spirits need spiritual Energy.  If we don't take the time and focus to really digest meaning, truth, and light both generally and SPECIFICALLY as it applies to our personal story we will feel starved and no amount of physical Energy will ever be enough.  But usually, in order to resolve that conflict, we increase the consumption of physical Energy and it's like we gulp down our food without ever really tasting it, savoring it, enjoying it, and being grateful for it.

When we over-consume physical Energy in any of our body systems, that system becomes numb not only to the physical Energy but also the spiritual.  If we don’t know what’s going on and are truly tenacious then we will up the dose of physical Energy.  That just creates a more severe numbness, a state that is even harder to get out of.  In the scriptures some of the words used to describe Numbness are Past Feeling and Hardened Heart.  Check it out:

Ephesians 4:19
1 Nephi 17:43
Moroni 9:20
Alma 12:13-14
Mark 6:52

Exodus 9:34
Ether 11:13

left:  Healthy Effect Sensors.  right: Numbed Effect Sensors 

If we want to increase our ability to experience Energy, indulging in too much physical Energy is not going to work.  It will only leave us numb, forever desiring yet never able to obtain.  That's hell (John 4:13; Isaiah 29:8).

Listen:  "Stronger" by Nashville Tribute Band

There is a pathway inherent to the Desire to increase our ability to experience Energy.  This pathway doesn’t end in numbness but in the Sustainability of exactly what we want to feel.  This pathway is the Strengthening Process.  If we desire to increase the intensity of the physical Effects we experience then we need to challenge our bodies at regular intervals and within our own personal Threshold. 

Listen:  "He Said" by Group 1 Crew (feat. Chris August)

If we go beyond our Threshold we promote injury and illness and we have to stop and recuperate.  If we do this enough times, we will lose hope and motivation to continue because it doesn't seem like we’re getting anywhere.  

If we don’t take advantage of the Strengthening Process to our capacity, we promote atrophy in our body.  That means we get weaker which subsequently promotes injury and illness even with our day to day tasks.

Finding that personal Threshold is key to our success.  And that’s where the spiritual Effect Sensors come into play.  They can help us detect where that is for us.  We don’t have to progress to injury before we know we’ve gone too far.  If we have already numbed our Effect Sensors then our first goal is to eliminate the excess Energy we have been continuously partaking of.  The scriptures refer to this process as Repentance. 

So answer these questions:

Are you satisfied with the level of Energy you feel on a daily basis?

Do you have to consume Pseudo Effects to get you through the day?

If you eliminate all Pseudo Effects (excess physical Energy), how would you feel? (Note that this is how we’re going to feel after we die or when our Effect Sensors get numb enough.  At that point we can no longer be sustained by Pseudo Effects so we might as well start weaning ourselves off them now and work to develop our Effect Sensors to the level we need to be happy.)  Listen:  "Wasted" by Carrie Underwood

Do you understand that you only need to work within your own personal Threshold to start, not to the woman’s on TV or to the next door neighbor’s?

Check out the following:

D&C 93:33-36

1 Corinthians 9:27

1 Corinthians 15:44

Moses 3:5