|
|
Report
4
Psychology 459, Spring 2008,
Generation 27
By: Steven
Clarke
Praew
O’connell, Brilliant
Gomez, Yuriko
Watenabe
Dr. Leon James
Instructor,
Link to Class
Home Page
Section 1: Lecture Content
By:
Brilliant Gomez.
Section 8 and 9 (The
Immense Value of Virtues, Spiritual
Combat)
Section 8 (The Immense Value of Virtues) of the lecture notes by stating that we are naturally drawn to hate our virtues. Dr. James posits, “We do not value human virtues as highly as we do other things we are fond of. Many times we even dislike or hate virtues.” Many of the things that we do on a daily basis are at time injurious to ourselves and of no benefit to us physically, mentally, spiritually, and relationally. This is due to the fact that we are utilizing our layer 9 (natural-corporeal) mind. Our natural tendency is to act out the things that give us physical and selfish enjoyment. If we are not careful we risk of spending eternity in hell. Therefore we must change our way of thinking and save ourselves from this predicament. Dr. James states that we “have virtuous habits of self-betterment that are also going on in our natural-corporeal mind (layer 9) that will promote our heavenly life in eternity, like exercising, eating healthy, protecting our belongings and our family, doing laundry, running errands for self and others, succeeding after hard work, helping someone, maintaining a goal orientation, avoiding risks, being prudent, obeying laws and regulations, excelling at something useful, learning new truths, etc. These are heavenly virtues…”
I agree that we are naturally drawn to what is most injurious to ourselves. Why not? Many of life’s pleasures are of no benefit to our health. A fine Cuban cigar, a bottle of the finest wine, a properly cooked medium-rare filet mignon (the extravagance of it anyway) are in no way if consumed in mass quantities, are injurious to our health. I doubt though that they are in any way disastrous enough to affect our eternal life.
Similarly, one can act out their lives virtuously and seemingly perfect and still not affect his or her eternal life – neither going to heaven nor being sent to hell. I do not see the justice in the theistic model. How are past wrongs dealt with? In the Theistic Psychology Model our past wrongs are not dealt with in any way. It is like Hitler, if was still alive, after killing 60 million Jews then finds and accepts the principles of Theistic Psychology, because he has changed his ways and now lives virtuously, is entitled to a life in heaven – just because he changed his ways. I cannot see the justice in that.
Section 9 (Spiritual Combat) can be summarized as Dr. James states, “boils down to the necessity of undergoing spiritual combat to regenerate our inherited evil enjoyments. When we face a spiritual temptation we have the freedom to resist or to give in.” This is the natural progression one must endure to be regenerated and to ensure a life in heaven and performing functions in the heavenly layers of the mind. “Spiritual combat is brought to us by the Divine Psychologist at moments when there is a good opportunity for us to catch our ruling love in the act, to become aware of what that love is” states Dr. James.
This can be as innocent as desiring to eat a piece of cake before bed when the doctor has advised you not to eat cake as it will affect your blood sugar level and increase your risk for diabetes. It cans also be much more sinister. But, we need not worry, as the Divine Psychologist never puts us in a situation that we cannot overcome.
I am very much aware of this
concept. I notice myself going through
these combats on a daily basis. I know I
should keep up with my fitness because I am in the Army Reserves. I have a physical fitness test this month and
I need to improve my two mile run time – but I also crave a burger. Thank God, more often than not, I choose to
go running to the gym rather than running to Jack in the Box. The one area that I am losing the battle is
at home. At night when my son cries,
honestly I cannot hear him, often times my wife always wakes ups care for
him. I know I should do more, I know I
should keep my ears open so I can help out.
More often than not though, I fall into a deep slumber and be well
rested in the morning compared to my wife.
Section 2: Presentation on
By: Praew
O’connell
(1) Explain what is spiritual
combat.
To face our spiritual combat, we need to rearrange our natural mind and prepare ourselves to face the spiritual temptation. Divine psychologists challenge us with temptation, but he does not force us to fight the spiritual combat. It depends on our willingness whether we want to fight our temptation and successfully regenerate.
Virtue is a moral excellence of a person or a trait as being good. The values of virtues help us fighting with spiritual combat. Before we undergo our reformation process, we do not value human virtues that much because virtues go against our loves (affective operation of layer 7A, 8A, 9A). We do things that harmful to our health such as overeating or lack of exercise but we still do that because it gives temporary pleasure and we do not think about later consequence. This is called a natural temptation. Once we know that those things are bad and we still continues doing that, it is selfish and unloving.
First, these are vicious habits of self-destruction (layer 9) and affect our heavenly life in eternity. We are not only going to spend hellish life in eternity but also we can experience hellish life in our physical world. For example, if you drink a lot of alcohol although we know that it is bad for your health but you still keep doing that. Later on you have health problem. Moreover, we think bad of others, we feel dreadful and anxious. You become so stressful and affect your health. This hellish life in physical is already painful enough as you can feel from being sick or injury. In mental world, the intensity of the feeling is much greater than how we feel in physical world.
Second, we also have virtuous habits of self-battlement. This is opposite from self-destruction because if we learn to do good things to ourselves and people around us, we will a heavenly life in both physical and mental world but in mental world of eternity is much happier and better than physical world.
When we generate
in the natural mind, it also open our spiritual mind. We can either progress
our regeneration or fall back and shut down our spiritual mind.
Therefore, our future is a function of our past and how we can fight with our
spiritual temptation through our spiritual combat.
(2) Explain the Laws of Divine
Divine Psychologist is the one who put us through spiritual temptation. He manages the universe through two Divine management laws. These laws are the law of Divine Providence and the law of Divine Permissions.
God
uses the law of
We have a freedom to choose what we want or what we think. Divine Psychologist only manages our thought and feeling but it depends on us whether we are going to choose to between good or bad, right or wrong. He does not force us to choose because it does not call freedom. Instead, God presents us with temptation and we are free to choose what we want to do with that.
What we choose is depended on our ruling love. It can be either heavenly ruling love or hellish ruling love. Before regeneration, our ruling love is hidden from our conscious awareness. After, regeneration, we become conscious in our heavenly ruling love.
Divine Psychologist brought us the spiritual combat when he thinks it is a good opportunity for us to think about what kind of ruling love we want to choose or act in certain situation. We have to face many spiritual combat in our everyday activities and it is our choice to choose what we want to do. We might struggle and fall back during regeneration and then go back up again. Some people might fall back and never move back up. As the result, after resuscitation, they have to live their life in hellish eternity. People who successfully regenerate they will love happily in heavenly eternity.
(3) Discuss sexual behavior in
terms of regeneration.
Our sexual interests are in the natural layer (layer 8 and 9) that makes us unable to resist that. Sexual interests are natural for human beings but uncontrollable sexual behavior can lead to many problems that can destroy our relationship or society such as conflicts or diseases. These are the hellish traits.
Some people might think that there is nothing wrong with sexual fantasizing as long as they do not go out and hurt anyone. They might think that thinking about sex is not same as actually doing it. However, in terms of regeneration, thinking is as bad as doing. By thinking this way, we are thinking in layer 8C (the sensual-scientific mind) because we think in the way that as long as we just think in our mind, it will not become real until we actually do it.
Sexual behavior is one of our spiritual combat. In unity model of marriage, husband and wife has to totally conjoint to each other. If one partner fantasizes having sexual relationship with somebody else, it can hurt their relationship and it is disjunctive to their relationship. Also, it can slow down or make fall back from our regeneration.
The highest and most pleasurable sexual sensation for humans is in the layer 4 or third heaven. We can have this sensation until we resuscitate. In order to reach the highest level of sexual sensation we have to fight our spiritual combat and be successful in regeneration when we are still living in the physical world.
My Opinion
Before I learn about Divine psychologist and how he tries to challenge us with temptation, I know sometimes when I am in situation that I have to choose between right and wrong, I have to fight with my own conscious what I should do. After I learn about Divine Psychologist and spiritual combat, I realize it might be him that tries to guide me to do what is right for others and myself.
When I am mad with someone, I used to have a crazy imagination what I should do to that person. I thought that it would not hurt anybody else because it is just my thought and I know that I will never do that for real so I did not think there is anything wrong with that. However, when I learn about spiritual combat, I realize that thinking is as bad as doing and if I continue to think like, it will hurt me in the afterlife.
For me to fight with spiritual combat, I have to begin with my natural temptation first and then move one to spiritual temptation. For example, when I have a thought of hurting someone, I remind myself that if I do that I might get into trouble or even go jail. Then I move on further to think about that hurting someone is bad and I should not do or think about that.
Section 3 Team Presentation on
Exercises
By: Steven Clarke
Lecture 7:
Section
8 and 9
(A)Summarize
the main ideas presented by the team.
The team that presented the exercises on the content of lecture 7 consisted of
students Charyse Iseri, Paula Macormac, and Angela Washington. The exercises the team covered were based on
material from sections 8 and 9 of lecture 7. The main focus of the team’s
presentation was to reflect on the values of virtues and spiritual combat, and
create a series of skits to present to the class. They took turns switching roles between
playing the characters of an angel, a devil and a person facing spiritual
combat and regenerating. Charyse focused
on a natural temptation in layer 8 or 9 an described the temptation of choosing
to eat healthy. Paula did a natural temptation in layer 7, and described the
temptation of responding appropriately in a road rage situation. Angela did a spiritual temptation in layer 7,
and described how to act when getting ready to go out to be with a man. In the presentation the person facing the
spiritual combat spoke through the situation, while the angle and devil chimed
in with their perspective of how the person should act in the situation and the
speaker ultimately choose to regenerate and overcome temptation. Through the presentations of the skits by
this team, they accurately reflected what spiritual combat is and how it takes
place. They showed that the situations
the divine psychologist presents to us are presented for us to choose if we
want to regenerate or not.
The skits this team presented showed that acting accordingly in such situations depends on whether or not we will or desire to regenerate our heavenly layers and open up them up creating the possibility for a mental eternity in heaven.
(B)
Describe what they did and how they interpreted it.
The first skit involved describing a person in spiritual combat facing a natural
temptation in layer 8 or 9. The scenario
had a person who was deciding whether or not eating healthy and exercising was
a better choice than eating poorly, particularly before heading to work. The second skit described a person in
spiritual combat facing a natural temptation in layer 7. The scene depicted a person who was cut off
on the highway and how the better choice was to not react in a dangerous or
hellish manner. The third skit was a
person facing a spiritual temptation in layer 7, in which they were getting
dressed and ready to be with a man. The
spiritual combat involved whether or not the person should dress a certain way
or act in a certain manner so as to get what they want out of the other person. The first skit was resolved with the person
choosing to successfully avoid the temptation of eating unhealthy, while
considering her self and others. The
person realized the impact it would have on her health and how her work
performance would also suffer. Being
unable to work hard would effect her coworkers and the people taking part in
the business. The second skit was
resolved with the person successfully choosing to avoid the natural temptation
in layer 7, because they realized the impact that chasing down another reckless
driver could have in the lives of others on the road and her self. The third skit was resolved with the person
choosing to successfully avoid the spiritual temptation in layer 7 because the
realized that vanity and want to use people was wrong.
(C)
Describe some of the ideas that needed a better justification or greater
amplification.
I felt that the skits the team presented overall worked well to describe
the temptations that can be faced in spiritual combat, but that they could have
focused more on the reality that spiritual combat is the only way to be
regenerated and that we must freely choose to do so. It seemed like they were just following the
rubric for answering the questions, when they could have showed that a person
engaged in spiritual combat must desire to resist temptations in order to be
regenerated. The way it was presented
seemed to lack explanation as to why they should even care, and that they were
just choosing the right thing to choose it.
Also I felt that the strength of the spiritual temptation was
understated and that the teams could have represented a more accurate view of
the kinds of excuses that bombard the mind when facing spiritual
temptations. Also I felt the skits
didn’t really reflect why the people would want to regenerate and spend an
eternity in heaven, instead it seemed simply t just be the correct answer.
(D)
What was the success of the approach they used?
I felt the biggest success of the approach they used was the everyday examples
that illustrated real life situations the speakers could relate to and that the
audience would easily be able to relate to also. The use of these examples made me be able to
better understand and grasp the concepts of what it is to recognize virtues and
also understand what types of things can be categorized as natural temptations
in layers of 9,8,and 7 and the spiritual temptations in layer of 7. The explanations they gave after their skits
as to how their topics pertained to the lecture material was also very helpful
relate the main concepts they were presenting.
(E)
What improvements are needed in the procedures or in the instructions?
I felt that the procedure and instructions for the exercises were straight
forward and don’t really need any improvements.
However if I was to list one, then perhaps the teams could try and
relate the presentation of the exercises more to concepts that have encompassed
all of the previous lectures and tie them into the content of this lecture.
(F)
What are the limitations of these types of exercises?
The limitations of these exercise depends on how well a group can work together
to try and combine all parts of their skits to work as one, so that each person
fills their role and is able to accurately convey the underlying messages of
what the lecture content covered. When
given the freedom to create an entire skit from the imagination, the author
must try to focus on specific aspects from the lecture content in order to make
sense of the scenario presented, and how it relates to the material being
covered. If a skit is invented in which
nobody has ever experienced, it may be harder for the audience to understand
the concepts and ideas that the speaker is trying to present.
(G)
Describe what happened when you did some of the steps of the exercises. Unfortunately, I was unable to find three friends
that were willing to review the lecture material enough so that they could
create their own scenarios as the team that presented these exercises had. However, I was able to come up with a
scenario of my own and get a friend to play the angle and devil on my shoulder
without even knowing that they were. It
worked out quite well because the situation was actually taking place in real
time. The friend was trying to get me to
skip out on doing homework, and instead go to the beach. Without realizing it they were playing the
role of the devil while they tied to get me to go to the beach, and the role of
the angle when seeing the situation from my point of view. I
faced spiritual combat when rationalizing whether or not to going to the
beach was more important than doing homework.
I ultimately decided to not go, realizing that I would be not only
depriving myself of getting good grades, but I would also be letting do the
people who were depending on me to do my portion of school work.
My
Opinion
I felt that the lecture content represented in sections 8 and 9 was helpful in opening up my greater understanding of what spiritual combat is, and how to better understand virtues. I experience on a daily basis spiritual combat, and having studied these sections has offered me a new perspective about how I can confront those situations and act heavenly instead of hellishly. I felt that the skits that the teams presented were a good exercise to get the whole class thinking about the presence of spiritual temptations in our everyday lives, and hoe to confront them through spiritual combat.
Section 4: Annotated Web links
By:
Yuriko Watenabe
1. Sathya Sai: Education in Human Values
Sathya Sai site describes an introduction into the outstanding character development program of Education in Human Values established by Sathya Sai Baba, the great contemporary world educator. It says the five universal human values are Truth, Right Action, Peace, Love and Nonviolence.
2. How does one gain victory over temptation?
http://www.christiananswers.net/q-eden/edn-g005.html
This site offers no promise of help in overcoming temptation for those who are unsaved. People who are saved may appropriate the power and wisdom of the Word, relying upon God’s grace, and can therefore have victory, even over Satan’s most subtle and compelling temptations.
3. How to Resist Temptation
http://aquestionoffaith.org/lit/disc/temptatn.htm
This site
tells you how to resist the temptation.
People often eat, say, or do too much until we recognize that are
sin. They recommend the strategies such
as staying out of trouble, avoiding danger/ pride, and getting help. Those ways are for struggling against our
sin.
4. Fighting Spiritual Battles
http://www.newchurch.org/sermons/text/pdf/FightingSpiritualBattles.pdf
This site tells
that if we have some big issue to deal with, how to manage bad things in our
every day lives. It tells us “Life is
difficult.” However, when a bad thing
happens, there is a lesson to be learned, a victory to be won. According to this site, the pain and the
anxiety of spiritual temptation is also part of our spiritual growth.
5. How Good People Make Tough Choices
http://www.globalethics.org/pub/toughchoices.html
This site for people who want to address and resolve the though choices through energetic self-reflection. Those people are we often think of as “good” people because they seem to have some conscious sense of vision, some deep core of ethical values, that gives them the courage to stand up to the tough choices. This site offers many cases that we can make the tough choices.
6. The Origin of Social Morality
http://www.globusz.com/ebooks/Conduct/00000014.htm
This site
comments how early was social morality developed, how have morality been
fostered by the tribe, and by what means was social morality produced. It descries what is the social morality.
7. Social Morality and Law
http://www.hinau.co.nz/About%20Social%20Morality%20and%20Law.htm
This site
tells that morality is an ethic expresses a value-set and rule-set which
structures a larger integrity. A moral sociality
could give us a healing bridge between selves.
It says that “society” relating only two human persons, but it will not
matter to the morality whether the society involves two persons or millions.
8. Justice as a Virtue
http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/justice-virtue/
This site reflects and explores that ambiguity, though the principal focus will understandably be on he justice of individuals. They regard justice as “the first virtue of social institutions”, so “justice as a virtue” is actually ambiguous as between individual and social applications. This site discusses justice as individual virtue standard centers on questions, therefore, about property and other distributable goods.
9. The Meaning of Loyalty
http://www.kriyayoga.com/wap/ml/ml74.html
This site
describes what a loyalty means is such as “it is one of our highest
achievements in our earthly and eternal spiritual personality.” Also there is several meaning of loyalty from
the family and religion, especially Christianity perspective.
10. A Divine Love: Radha
Krishna
http://www.dollsofindia.com/radhakrishna.htm
This site
offers to teach us the Indian God described always about love.
|
|
