"Behold these thy brethren; they are the workmanship of mine own hands, and I gave unto them their knowledge, in the day I created them; and in the Garden of Eden, gave I unto man his agency;" (Moses 7:32)God made us and gave us knowledge (how this works is a whole other topic), and in the Garden of Eden (the beginning, or creation of life) He gave us a choice. We were able to choose between good and evil. The trees of the Garden represent the choices we were able to make. They were limited, according to our knowledge. Since we were innocent, they were simple and straightforward, "Do this, and don't do that." The choice was as simple as an innocent two-year-old being told not to eat the cookies in the cookie jar. However, that simple choice made all the difference in the world! It is choice that brings life, as Lehi explained to his son, Jacob.
"And if ye shall say there is no law, ye shall also say there is no sin. If ye shall say there is no sin, ye shall also say there is no righteousness. And if there be no righteousness there be no happiness. And if there be no righteousness nor happiness there be no punishment nor misery. And if these things are not there is no God. And if there is no God we are not, neither the earth; for there could have been no creation of things, neither to act nor to be acted upon; wherefore, all things must have vanished away." (2 Nephi 2:13)Freedom is the ability to choose. Without freedom there is no difference. It is both the existence of agency, or freedom, and the presence of a choice that makes life possible.
There must be a choice
Without choice there is no life. Agency, or the ability to choose is the essence of life. If there are no options, then there is no choice, and everything is the same, and nothing exists. Again, Lehi explains:
"For it must needs be, that there is an opposition in all things. If not so, my first-born in the wilderness, righteousness could not be brought to pass, neither wickedness, neither holiness nor misery, neither good nor bad. Wherefore, all things must needs be a compound in one; wherefore, if it should be one body it must needs remain as dead, having no life neither death, nor corruption nor incorruption, happiness nor misery, neither sense nor insensibility." (2 Nephi 2:11)It is contrast that makes everything exist. Without opposition, nothing exists. All power is found in opposition. All life is found in opposition. All of existence is contrast.
- Electric power is found in the contrast between poles.
- Magnetic power is found in the contrast between charges.
- Light, or vision, is the contrast of hue, gradient, and colors.
- Muscle movement depends on the opposition between calcium and magnesium ions in the cell.
- Nerve conduction is found in the contrast between intracellular and extracellular ion concentrations of sodium and potassium.
- The power to hear is found in the contrast of sound waves.
All that is power, all that is movement, all that is change, indeed, all that makes life possible is found in contrast, or opposition.
Opposition of good and evil
Ultimately, our choice is between good and evil.
"men are free according to the flesh; and all things are given them which are expedient unto man. And they are free to choose liberty and eternal life, through the great Mediator of all men, or to choose captivity and death, according to the captivity and power of the devil;" (2 Nephi 2:27)This freedom is based on the existence of a choice, and the ability to act for ourselves, being free agents. If we are free to choose, there must be a choice to make. Moreover, this choice must be between equals.
"the Lord God gave unto man that he should act for himself. Wherefore, man could not act for himself save it should be that he was enticed by the one or the other." (2 Nephi 2:16)In order to for choice to exist, there must be a reason to choose, or we must be enticed to choose one or the other. If I am given the choice of sitting in a prison cell or having all the power and money I want, that's not a choice. If I have a choice between a penny and a million dollars, that's not a choice. Each must have a draw of some type that makes them equal. Each must be enticing in some way.
Life is suffering
The Buddha reminds us that "Life is suffering." He is saying that part of the contrast that makes life possible is suffering. We must have joy, happiness, peace, and love -- but on the other hand, we must also have pain, discomfort, and misery. Without the contrast, there is no life. We cannot know joy without misery.
"if Adam had not transgressed he would not have fallen, but he would have remained in the garden of Eden. And all things which were created must have remained in the same state in which they were after they were created; and they must have remained forever, and had no end. And they would have had no children; wherefore they would have remained in a state of innocence, having no joy, for they knew no misery; doing no good, for they knew no sin." (2 Nephi 2:22-23)People think that the choice between good and evil is simple, and everyone knows that evil is bad, and nobody would choose it. This is not the case, in reality. The choice we make, on one level, is to suffer. If we choose to suffer, then we are choosing good. If we choose to avoid, or put off suffering, pain, or discomfort, then we are choosing evil. We must suffer. Good is choosing our suffering, evil is trying to avoid suffering, and having it forced upon us.
My business is to try to help people avoid the suffering of illness. However, the way I was taught in medical school is evil. We were told that we could relieve suffering and allow people to continue their bad habits. This is not avoiding suffering, it is creating more suffering in the future. The amount of disability, pain, and death from this program is tremendous!
Now, I have an entirely different practice -- I make people suffer now, so they won't have to suffer later. By choosing to suffer now, they are doing good. They will be hungry. Their muscles will hurt. They will give up their favorite foods and activities now so that they can know joy in the future. People finish our program and begin, sometimes for the first time, to enjoy life. The contrast is amazing!
This opposition is inescapable; we must have both ends of the spectrum in order to live. Good is the choice to go into pain so that we can receive joy, happiness, and love. Evil is the choice to have our cake now and try to avoid future suffering that will inevitably result.
To act, or to be acted upon
Choice is the ability to act, and not to be acted upon. There is a continuum, or scale upon which all good and evil is based. The scale is choice. The higher on the scale, the more freedom we have. There is a bottom where there is no choice at all, we are chained, ignorant, and lost completely. There is also a top where we have all things before us, all knowledge, and infinite choices with the freedom to choose anything.
If we choose evil, we are choosing bondage. We will be ignorant, or unable to choose. We relinquish choice if we try to avoid life, including suffering, and receive death. Death is not to cease to exist, but rather to remove the freedom to choose life. If a mother chooses to abort a baby she is carrying, she no longer has a baby, choices end, life ends. If, on the other hand, she chooses to suffer the pain of childbirth, and problems of raising her child, life goes on with an infinite number of choices.
If we choose to suffer, we are choosing to act against our wants, needs, and desires. We are going against our natural tendency of laziness. We are not being carried downstream, but swimming upstream. It is active, requiring effort on our part -- constant effort. This effort yields rewards that bring pleasure to us. If, on the other hand, we choose not to act, we are lazy and choose to float downstream, we will end up in the sea of misery. We then have lost all choice. We are acted upon. We are able to either choose our misery, or have it forced upon us.
Evil removes choice
There are two ways evil removes choice:
1. Not offering options
2. Binding, blocking, decreasing power to choose
This is a result of making short-term choices in a selfish manner. When I choose what I like, or what I want, then pain will be the result. We find addictions to all sorts of desires because we choose them, and lose the ability to not choose them. We suffer pain, and we lose options, or the power to choose. For example, we like to rest, and not work hard so we don't exercise. Over time, we then lose the ability to work or use our muscles. Our freedom is lost, and we only have misery. Or, if we don't take care of our brains, we get dementia or memory loss, being unable to make choices. Evil is being on the wrong side of contrast -- choosing comfort now so we will have misery forced upon us later.
Good increases choice
There are two ways that good gives more choice:
1. Giving more options
2. Increasing power, or control
This is a result of choosing to put off what we desire now so that we can achieve a higher goal. The ability to sacrifice gives us power over ourselves. We learn self-control. Also, we have more knowledge as we suffer through our pain, loss, and discomfort. We learn the lessons of life. We are enabled to feel joy and happiness because we know the contrast of sorrow and misery. We can choose our misery, or it will choose us. We must go through it, either way. It is part of life. Good is being on the right side of contrast, choosing suffering now so we can experience joy forever.
The ways we choose to suffer are important. Whipping ourselves, cutting, or causing illness doesn't bring the greatest benefit. It does help with self-control, but isn't part of a program that brings permanent joy. This comes by:
1. Submission to the will of God
2. Making Eternal choices
3. Allowing suffering, pain, discomfort
4. Learning self-control
Submission means giving up our own will, or the things that we want, and doing God's will instead. We are generally filled with desires for wealth, ease, comfort and pleasure of all kinds. We have a broken heart when we give up all the desires of our heart and submit to all the will of the Lord. His will brings the exact suffering we need in order to learn peace, love and joy.
When we make short-term choices, the consequences are generally suffering of some kind. We may want that chocolate bar now, but we will pay for it later. Eternal choices are always difficult. We will suffer to have children and raise them. It is hard to be married forever. Keeping our body fit, and choosing to eat only things that build and nourish the body is eternal. All of the things that are good are forever, increasing our choices.
While we don't necessarily create our own suffering, we do allow it as the will of God. Life will bring its own suffering, and we need to accept it, and allow it, rather than fight against it. Perish the thought that we shouldn't suffer. "Life is suffering." We need to suffer in order to live and have life. As we fast, for example, we allow the body to feel hungry. As we exercise, we allow the body to feel fatigue, or pain.
Self-mastery is the process of unifying the body and spirit. Giving our spirit executive power over the body requires huge effort. The more we have indulged the whims of the body, the more power the body has to control. Giving the spirit control means allowing the body to suffer deprivation of desires. This is usually a lifetime effort. It doesn't happen in a day, or a year. Once the spirit has full control, we are unified, and we have repented of all our sins.
Choice is life
Without choice there is no life. There must be contrast. There must be a choice. There must be a devil in contrast to God. We must choose sides. That is life; indeed, it is our very purpose. If we choose life we go on to increase in our power to make more choices. If we choose death, we are given boundaries, and we lose our ability to choose.
Cecile B. DeMille made the following observation.
"We cannot break the Ten Commandments. We can only break ourselves against them—or else, by keeping them, rise through them to the fullness of freedom under God. God means us to be free. With divine daring, he gave us the power of choice." (Commencement Address, Brigham Young University, May 31, 1957) (CR, Oct. 1959, 127)
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