People

In my life I live in a downtown area and walk as well as take a short bus ride to wherever I need to go.  While on the bus today and making a joke with the bus driver, a sudden realization dawned on me.  So much of my energies are concerned on writing about, reading about, and thinking about the human condition, where so little of my energies are devoted to writing about, reading about, or thinking about people.  It might seem a given than when making a life study of the human condition, the study of the person is necessarily complicit, but this is not the case.  I found myself realizing today that I need to pause for a moment and consider the reality of the person, speaking existentially, and then we will find the two subjects complimentary, but not complicit.  I do not know if I am capable of touching the capstone of this weighty subject, but I think one such as I, who has devoted his life to art, spirituality, philosophy, and to people, is as worthy a candidate as any, so here goes.

We are still speaking the language of the Mormon Existentialist so I will not wax secular and atheist, those things that I am not, but address the person as who each one is to the very fiber of each being, prior to earthy mortality.  This of course, is the inheritance of a body in the form of God the Father of whom each individual is a child of.  Each of us, like Christ, was born to an earthly parent, but in reality, is truly the son or daughter of God, and in that are a part of a very special and holy progeny.  In this regard, each person in this mortality has been called to a very exalted position to serve God.  We have the living manifestation of Christ as an example as to what that is in essence and how God’s children can begin a life connected to their heavenly parent, as Christ was connected to his.  We can know through Christ’s example, and with his sublime guidance, can walk the road of life, not alone, but with him, our Savior, and can know, as he did, well in advance of reaching the final stages of this life, just how this life is to be lived.  Accordingly one may fill ones place best in this holy progeny and find one’s place eternally as their own propagators of their own within the vastness of this holy progeny.

Unlike Adam and Eve, the human person was born with a human consciousness.  The essential qualifier of this human consciousness, is to know and feel when one is doing right and when one is doing wrong.  This makes the person very aware of the self.  The person can live a life and try to hide this consciousness and over the years succeed in this and essentially live in a false state of denial, or, the person may live, from the youngest years, in full recognition and awareness of this consciousness, and allow this consciousness to “be their guide.”  If one is to do this, this is to live authentically; this is essentially, to “be real.”  There is no human faculty of its condition greater and more acute than the consciousness and if one has covered it up with utter falseness one is themselves false but if one has been true to that consciousness and authentic, that person is in tune with their reality and “is real.”

To fully engage in the consciousness as commanded by he who imbued it with us, it can only be strengthened and secured with a greater sense of self and a greater understanding of the human and eternal conditions by prayer, by healthy living, by good works, by honesty and integrity in all things, a life of honor, a life of service, by living the gifts that he whom imbued us with them gave us, a life of worshipping the Savior by acknowledging all things that lead to him, by loving each of one’s fellow men on a level through the greatest gift of charity.  Through an awareness one can only go so far but with an awareness grounded and then built upon such commandments given to each person for their greatest good and happiness, will only lead to each person’s greatest good and happiness.

If one is to be the truly ideal human being as the father of all intended each to be, each in their very special and individual ways, with specific gifts and specific personal purposes as well as the ultimate Plan of Salvation, obeying the commandments of God is the only means to effectuate this.  Most will say, “We were born into life without a manual,” or “there is no set path to life,” this kind of talk is unenlightened.  For the commandments of God that we learn in the Gospel of Jesus Christ, although tarnished with a “can’t do this” reputation, is actually that very manual of life people are looking for and the path to happiness, fully realized success, and an entryway into the eternities that is magnificently prepared to be on a level where one might think to be able to hold one’s head up to the light of Christ and the Eminency of God.

Prayer will give each person personal revelation and a sure path to truth.  Healthy living by abstinence in some areas and promotion in others will aid in a healthy body able to produce more, and a healthy mind more secure to effectuate the being of that body.  Good works are the stuff that makes this life a beautiful one and often good works are the small things one does and not on a grand scale but by touching the life of another without realizing the joy one is instilling.  Without honesty, integrity and the steadfastness of honor, the world could not function and the human spirit could not dwell in this mortality.  As faulty as the world is, it is held together in function and as a stable place for God’s children to dwell, only because of honesty and the integrity of human kind and the vestiges of honor that remain in the hearts of mankind.  A life of service is one where those who have more give their resources and energies to those who have less and this only prepares each person to how the eternities will function.  To live a life in accordance with the gifts our Father gave us only enhances our true selves and is a sure way to happiness and success in life with the authentic being of humility.  Keeping a focus on the Savior keeps one focused in life and keeps all things true and in place.  It keeps us firmly, “grounded.”  And if we are focused on the Savior and realize that all things lead to him, as he is the source of all things, our sense and the power of charity in our hearts will grow and become a stronger reality within us.  With this, the greatest of all gifts, each person can look at the other, no respecters of persons on any level but each as the son or daughter of God and act and communicate accordingly.  It makes life only so much easier.

Thus the person is ready to keep moving forward, building their life in great works, establishing the authenticity in their relationships, and the first people in that list should be God and the self.  If each person makes it a real commitment to develop their relationship with themselves, they will become “more real” and others can see this and slowly this will grow as more and more see this and people become in tune with who they really are and “the natural man” will become not such a bad thing.  If as well, that authentic person is in tune with their Celestial Father, they will only be more ready for that day that can be tremblingly terrifying or cataclysmically catalytic for the eternities, because this WILL happen, and each person is free to choose.