[Tarkas121892FirstMeeting_IntroToThe_TM]

The Cincinnati Urantia Book/Teaching Mission Study Group

First Meeting -- 12/18/92                   Transmitted through: Michael Painter

Including . ....

• Introduction to the Teaching Mission

• Daily Worship, Prayer, Forgiveness, Service

• Seeking Truth/The Urantia Book, A Course in Miracles

• Adjudication of the Lucifer Rebellion

• Nature and effectiveness of prayer, worship

• Seeking the stillness, transmitting

• Definitions of Faith

• ‟Devil” worship

• The Nature of the Heavenly Father

TARKAS: Greetings to all of you. My name is Tarkas. I am a part of this Teaching Mission that has been commissioned by Michael and the Father Himself to help bring spiritual peace, spiritual solace to your troubled planet.

If you could see all of the beings, all of the help, that is coming to your world and all of the worlds that were a part of the rebellion . .. you would not believe how immense, how much of an effort is being brought to your planet to help heal all of the problems that you have had.

I understand that this may seem somewhat strange to most of you. I ask only that you listen and that you ask within your own heart and minds to ask your own divine guidance. If what you hear is true, if you believe that it is, then I encourage you to come to continuing sessions. If you believe that it is not true, in the long run, in the eternal sense, it makes no difference. The Father's love for you is as great no matter what you might decide. I simply ask that you keep an open mind and that you listen for our Father's guidance.

I will leave much time this evening for your questions. But I would first like to talk about the nature of this mission and what it is that we are trying to accomplish. Our purpose is not to take the place of our Father within your life. The Father is your ultimate guide. We would never be so presumptuous to do that. Our purpose rather is to help you grow in your understanding and your contact with the Father. No matter what it is that you do, there is a learning process, there is a growth process, and you must learn to develop and to grow spiritually, just as you do mentally and physically.

What we are here to do is to provide some help for you. We are your teachers. As you struggle and you have questions, we are your tutors, your counselors, your teachers. We believe that by doing this we can help you in your spiritual growth. The more you grow spiritually, the more you are able to allow our Father's love to flow through you so that others may see His love within you, the sooner the benign virus of love can spread to all of this planet.

We do not have enough people involved in this mission to work with every single individual on this planet, so our goal is to teach and help you, in hopes that you, in turn, will be of service to your brothers and sisters, and again show forth our Father's love so that they might be attracted to you, they might come to groups such as this. Can you imagine for a moment if every human on this planet were meeting in a group such as this to discuss spiritual growth and progress once a week or once every two weeks? Can you imagine how quickly things would change on this planet? Now things are accelerating, but there is much, much work to do, and there seems to be sometimes so few laborers.

I would suggest that this is an opportunity for you, an opportunity to grow, and an opportunity to serve your brothers and sisters as you grow. In the universe, whatever you learn, you must turn and teach it to others. This is the way of growth. We are here to help the spiritual growth on this planet, but we may not interfere with your human will. We can help you, we can guide you, we can teach you techniques and methods that will bring you closer to the Father, but we cannot do it for you. You must do it. You must make the choices. But again, we can help you grow more quickly.

In all that you do, I wish to assure you that, despite the difficulties and the problems on your world, our Father and this entire universe of universes is truly dominated by love. You simply have no idea of the love and the beauty that awaits you. We hope that, with our help, we can bring you, in this lifetime, closer to our Father's love, to help you feel His love more deeply in your life. If you seek inner peace, and if you seek true happiness; this is the path. There is no other.

I wish to thank you for coming this evening. I wish to thank you for giving me this opportunity to speak with you. I hope that we will have many future opportunities. I will stop now with my words and I will entertain your questions.

QUESTION: Tarkas, this is Jack. I would like to know about you. If you will tell us a little bit more about yourself before we start asking about ourselves.

TARKAS: It is not our purpose for me to reveal much about myself, and it has little to do with our mission. However, having been a human at one point, and having worked on several missions with humans on worlds such as yours, I understand your natural curiosity, and I appreciate your sentiment of friendship, and wanting to know something more about me personally. I am from what your text describes as this local universe. On my world, I was a teacher of children of an adolescent age. I was married and I had three children of my own.

The world where I came from, as with most of the teachers involved in this mission, was already settled in light and life. It is very difficult for you to imagine a world like this. I had so many opportunities that are not so prevalent on your world. On my world it was natural to grow up with everyone wanting to love you and to do what was best for you. The knowledge of our Father and our universe was assumed and understood. There were no wars; we had evolved beyond these types of problems.

I know this sounds somewhat utopian to you, and in a relative sense it is, but yet I also want to assure you that many of us in a sense envy, in the best sense of the word, you and your opportunity to be on this planet. As you progress through the universe, you will find that people will continue to grow and continue to develop, but their needs are not so great. There are not so many who need such dramatic help. You here have the opportunity to help someone every day of your life, even if it is a kind smile, a kind word. These are things that mean something to the people that you meet each day, let alone the opportunity to bring them into meetings or to discuss with them the opportunity for them to grow more spiritually and grow closer to our Father.

On our worlds, the needs were not so great, and so the opportunities to be of service to each other, while always there, were not so dramatic. So, in one sense, your lives are more difficult, but at the same time your opportunities are so great. That is all of the information that I wish to reveal about myself at this time.

QUESTION: Many of us, Tarkas, have been studying The Urantia Book, and also A Course in Miracles, and we find that many of the points that you listed in your introduction that we wish to obtain and gain in spiritual growth are contained in these books also. Do you have anything in particular that you would like to tell us this evening about either one of these two revelations?

TARKAS: What is important is that you are a seeker of truth. I will say the text of The Urantia Book is the most advanced teaching that you have on this planet and is the most complete teaching, but yet, how could the truth all be contained in one book? There is truth in The Course. There is truth in many books. There is truth in many people. Everyday is an opportunity to seek a greater understanding of truth.

There is little value in worrying about the source or what particular avenue the truth comes from., whether it is from The Urantis Book or The Course, or the Bible, or whatever source. What is important is that you seek to understand what is true. What is also important is that you do not limit yourselves in your opportunities to seek truth. If someone were to think that all truth were contained in The Urantia Book, they would be very limited in their understanding. And so it is with The Course, and so it is with any book or any person.

You may meet a stranger tomorrow, and if you engage in conversation, you might find that person says something that rings very true to your heart and your soul. My point is -- never put any boundaries or any limitations, open yourself always to truth, no matter where it might come from. If you find some differences in some of the ideas, put them on a shelf in your mind, and do not let them become barriers, for you will find that the truth, the real truth, will be the same, no matter what source you find it.

QUESTION: I want to thank you for being with us here in Cincinnati this evening. In your opening remarks, Tarkas, you said something about the rebellion. Urantia is very needy. I have not studied The Urantia Book, although I am becoming very much drawn to it, and I would like to know if you can say more about this planet and the rebellion.

TARKAS: I will address your question, but very briefly, since our time is limited tonight. There are many here who could discuss in great detail with you the meaning and understanding of the rebellion, but in essence, you must understand that our Father has created a vast universe. There are many types of spiritual beings that do exist in this universe. There were some who lost their faith in our Father, and to promote their own individual ends, they created what your Bible refers to as the War in Heaven.

Many spiritual beings became involved in a great debate as to whether the Father existed, as to whether his plan for you to grow and progress through the universe was truly real. Your planet was unfortunately led by its planetary leader who, along with some other leaders of other planets, decided to secede or rebel from the great plan that our Father has laid forth. As a result, it was necessary to somewhat isolate your and the other planets until the outcome of this rebellion could be determined. Yet, at the same time, our Father's individual contact with each human, and the overall outworking of things was carried on in a loving and caring way. You were never abandoned in any way whatsoever.

Again, these are some general comments to just help you understand that, as a result of this, the evolutionary process on your planet has not progressed as rapidly and as well as it would on a normal world. I would encourage you to read these sections in the text, and to discuss them with your brothers and sisters.

QUESTION: Thank you, Tarkas for coming to be with us. Did you choose our group here because you see that we have some potential to do something special for the Father?

TARKAS: Every individual in every group has something special for the Father. We volunteer to come to this world to participate in this mission. It is well-known among the worlds of this universe, and many seek this as an opportunity to greatly enhance their own growth and to fulfill their desire to serve. When we arrive, with our advisers, we discern what groups are available, and which ones that we feel we would be the best matched in helping to teach and guide them. For me, my assignment and my choice was your group.

QUESTION: Tarkas, we have heard a lot about the blessed mother and her appearances at Majadoria, Fatima, and Lourdes, and she always emphasizes prayer, love, sacrifice. Could you elaborate on the sacrifice? Are we interpreting her meaning correctly?

TARKAS: First, I cannot comment on these appearances. There are many things that must be decided by humans, and we are not permitted to reveal or to comment upon them. Therefore, I cannot specifically address your question. I could address, however, a concept of sacrifice in general.

Sacrifice is to do something which you hope will have a pleasing effect, but it is usually done to give up something else. Would you say that the concept of sacrifice would be to motivate someone more in a negative way?

HUMAN: I do not see anything negative about sacrificing myself. I think it is good. I could be wrong, but my feeling is that sacrifice is good.

TARKAS: What is important is that we learn to do the right thing for the right reason.

HUMAN: I agree with that.

TARKAS: Therefore, it is not necessary that you sacrifice. Sometimes, there are different meanings, and to serve your fellows and your brothers and sisters, to give of your love and your time, would you call this sacrifice?

HUMAN: Yes.

TARKAS: Then if you understand sacrifice in that way I would say that is all right. But I would think that is not the way that everyone understands sacrifice. My point is simply that to love and serve your fellows is not really a sacrifice in the sense of something negative or having to give up something. When you give of yourself, you will truly be rewarded many times over. The more love you give, the more love you will receive, and so the reason to help is not to give up something, but share your love, and to be filled more with our Father's love.

QUESTION: Tarkas, there are so many people with Alzheimer’s Disease. Is there anything that I can do that will help with a problem like this?

TARKAS: You cannot know how it saddens us when we come to this world and we see the disease, and the famine, and the suffering that exist on this world. It is, no matter how much we think we were prepared for it, beyond what we could understand until we actually see it.

I can only comment in a general way. I and my associates are here as part of this Teaching Mission. There are others who have been sent who will help with your planet of disease, who will help in other political and social arenas. But I am not permitted to discuss with you the nature of their work or how they go about it. I can only reassure you that much help in all areas is being brought to your world.

It is difficult in a situation with such a disease to know about the clarity of a person’s mind. If you feel that there are times when you are speaking to your mother and her mind is clear, I would say that you must tell her how much you love her, and that you know that, in time, when she awakens on the next level, or on the mansion worlds, that her mind will be normal, and that you will awaken there with her, and that she has a beautiful life ahead of her, and reassure her how much God our Father loves her. Whether or not you will see cures for such diseases in your lifetime I cannot say. I can only say that, in time, it will happen.

QUESTION: Tarkas, we here in Cincinnati, this group, is very much interested and would love to have you or one of your associates come to us on a regular basis, and I am wondering if you could tell us when we could begin hearing from you regularly, and if there is someone in our group that can receive and transmit what you are saying.

TARKAS: Thank you for asking that question. As you might imagine, I am anxious to begin my work. I wish to say several things. I have been and will continue to work with different individuals to help prepare them to perform the function of the transmitter/receiver that Michael is now performing. If any of you feel that this is something that you would wish to do, let me say these things. First, you must understand that there is no special spiritual status associated with this. It is really based only upon your willingness to fulfill this function to help your brothers and sisters. All of those who perform this function must continue to grow at this and develop as everyone else. You must want this. You must make a certain level of commitment to do this. If this is your desire, then I would suggest that you pray, and that you seek guidance about this.

Learn to seek our Father in worship. When you worship, give thanksgiving to our Father, talk with Him, and try to feel His love flow through you. If, at that time, you feel that this is your desire to help in this mission, then ask for contact with myself or a teacher, and after you ask this question, pause, and try to still your mind and listen. If you feel that you have some contact, if you begin to feel that you hear my words in your mind, then I would encourage you to have a tape recorder nearby and simply speak whatever comes into your mind.

Do not engage your mind. Do not worry. Do not be fearful. Simply allow yourself to vocalize the words that flow into your mind. Afterwards, you can then play back this tape, and then you can make your assessment; if you believe it is your own mind, or you believe it is true, and has truth content to it. It is a growing process. It takes a while to become comfortable with this process. But that is what is required. Everyone here has that potential; it is a matter of your learning to still your mind, and the matter of your willingness to perform this function for the group. Are there further questions about this?

QUESTION: Is there a need for us to protect ourselves in some way?

TARKAS: And what would you be protecting yourself from?

HUMAN: Negative spirits.

TARKAS: I will say that the planetary rebellion has ended. All of the beings who participated in the rebellion have made their choice. The adjudication of the rebellion is over. I can assure you that there are no evil spirits associated with this mission. There is nothing to be protected from. However, you must make this decision within yourself, and by seeking your own guidance.

QUESTION: Tarkas, when you said that you have helped work with people, did you mean people in this room or just people in general? Because I have been calling you, but I must admit I have not been in very deep mediation, and I wondered if you have come to me, because I had an experience of something very loving, it felt wonderful

.

TARKAS: I would prefer not to make specific comments relating to an individual's experience at this meeting. However, I would encourage you to continue in these efforts, and that if you feel that contact is being made, that you seek out Michael, or perhaps Linda, if she is coming to this area to visit family and have a personal session with myself. In this way we could discuss this more in detail, and help you come to a better understanding.

Let me say to the entire group that what I wish you to begin this evening to work on, is to begin seeking the stillness, to worship daily. I know that you read this in books, and I know that you all say, yes, that is important. But I cannot tell you how important it truly is. If you want to feel the presence of God, if you want to feel at peace within yourself, you must learn to practice worship on a daily basis. You must seek to see our Father as the most loving, the most wonderful being you can possibly imagine.

He knows you intimately. He knows everything about you. There is no one who could understand you more. There is no one who could be more loving and understanding and merciful towards you. Each day talk with the Father about your life, your hopes, your concerns, but also listen for His response. Thank Him each day. Try to feel His love in your life more each day.

The second thing that I will ask you to do is to begin to pray each day. We will learn much about prayer over time. But for now I will simply say, pray for others. The Father knows your needs. As you talk over your concerns with Him, you are in a sense praying to Him. When I suggest prayer, I mean prayer for others. Pray for them in a specific way. Think of many spirit beings all waiting to answer prayers. If you are to say "God bless America," envision yourself as a spirit being waiting to be assigned and wanting to help. If someone said to you "God bless America,"where would you begin?

But if there is someone that you know who is having a problem learning to forgive themselves or others, and who carries much anger and hate with them because they do not understand others; then you ask for specific guidance for them to receive the understanding or insight to help them resolve a specific problem, or you could ask that they meet someone who could help them.

Pray for specific outcomes and specific situations and I think that you might find that you see more answers to your prayers. Understand again that all sincere prayers are answered in time. But it may be in your lifetime and it may not. Much depends on the nature of your prayer.

The third thing that you must begin to work on is forgiveness. How can you turn to our Father and ask to receive his love if, at the same time, you feel hatred, or anger, or resentments? You must let go of these things. None of you are perfect. None of the other beings that you know are perfect. You must develop a more loving attitude.

When you see a young child make a mistake, do you stop loving that child? You grow frustrated, perhaps, but what do you say to yourself? It is a young child. I love them. I hope that I can guide them and help them to correct a particular behavior. I would suggest to you that you are all still young children. Whether you are three or eighty, in the universe scheme of things, you are all young children.

Did any of you grow up with perfect parents who know how to guide you in every single way, in the best possible way? I would think not, and so would it not be true that for every individual there are areas of their character or personality that they have not been guided in properly? And so, when you look at others, learn to love them, even if you dislike a particular behavior of theirs. Learn to separate that behavior from that person. Want the best for them and do not be so disappointed when they do not respond to you in such perfect ways, and do not be so disappointed with yourself when you do not respond in perfect ways.

There is nothing that our Father would not forgive you for. If you turn to the Father with the intent to say, "I will try harder, I know I might have made a mistake," I can assure you that you are already forgiven. But when you turn to our Father, when you ask for His love and His guidance, do not bring malice, do not bring hate, do not bring anger and resentment towards your brothers and sisters with you. You must learn to let go of these things.

The final point that I would say to you is that each day, try to look at someone and imagine that there is a most loving and wonderful spirit fragment of our Father residing within them. If you were talking to Michael right now, how do you think you would act?

And so why do you not do that with each of your brothers and sisters? I know that this seems difficult, but what I am suggesting to you is that as you grow, and as you develop, and as you feel our Father's love, in fact, you will learn more and more how you can see your brothers and sisters in this way. You will see them with a loving parental attitude, just as Jesus had that attitude towards the apostles, towards all of the humans that he came in contact with.

If you seek love, if you seek happiness, if you seek peace, these are the things that you must do. Everything is a matter of practice if you desire. Just try each day to make some progress, and in time you will find that others are responding to you differently. You will find that you have a different attitude and feeling about yourself. I know this seems easy to say. I know that it must be a decision on your part to pursue these things, but I tell you, this is the way of the universe. The universe is filled with love and goodness, and as you grow in this universe, these are the things that you must do to promote that growth.

As we begin our sessions, over time we will explore each of these more thoroughly. We will have sessions on each of these and we will go much more deeply into the understanding and practice of each of these. But I want you to understand that this is what this mission is about. We are here to help you grow spiritually. If that is not your desire, if that is not your intent, then I would suggest that these meetings will not be interesting to you. I say that as a matter of theory, but I know by the very fact that you are here, that you have this desire to want to grow, to want to come to understand and grow closer to our Father, feel His love more in your life each day, and to learn to serve your brothers and sisters in a more loving way.

QUESTION: Would you comment on light and life that is referred to by Welmek occasionally, that we are being prepared for that purpose?

TARKAS: Again I would say this is discussed in the text of The Urantia Book, and there are those here who could discuss this with you. I will say only briefly that all worlds of time and space where there are mortals growing like yourselves, evolve. The end product of their evolution is to reach what is called a stage of light and life. In your minds, in your imagination, it would be, in a sense, a heaven on earth so to speak.

As I mentioned earlier, I grew up on a planet already in this state. To see a world such as this in comparison to your own is a huge contrast, almost between night and day. This is the goal. We are here to help move your planet and all of the planets that were a part of the rebellion toward light and life.

Eventually the planet would arrive there, but in a sense our Father has been stirred by the pleas of the suffering on this planet and the others, and he has asked that this mission be initiated to help accelerate, to help give you more help than what a normal world in a normal process of its evolution might receive. That is our goal, to help bring you closer to the Father so that this love may spread over this planet, so that it may be brought to an era of light and life more quickly.

QUESTION: Tarkas, in some of the earlier papers that I have been reading, mention was made of individual assignments, that we should be thinking of our roles that we would like to take on in helping within this mission as individuals down here. Can you address that?\

TARKAS: First, I would say that your primary assignment will be to grow by working in the four areas that I have suggested. In time, as this mission unfolds, you will see most of the functions fall within certain areas. There are areas of administration, there will be the area of teaching, the area of ministry, and others. It would not be useful to elaborate too much on these areas at this time, for we have much to learn and much growing to do together before the time for looking for specific assignments within these areas will come.

I would say this . .. no matter what you do, your first goal is to be as well prepared as you possibly can to carry out whatever assignment you might be given. And so, first, the goal of everybody in this mission must be to grow closer to the Father, because this is what will make you successful, no matter what future assignments you might have.

QUESTION: Can you comment at all about the second coming?

TARKAS: We will discuss this more in time. I know you have been aware of other transcripts and aware of other teachings about this. There are plans for the Melchizedeks to eventually materialize. At first they will materialize in what your text refers to as a morontia form. As more and more and more beings grow and evolve, our Master will come back, and will again materialize, also in this morontia form. I cannot say when this will be. I can only say that Michael is fully cognizant, has initiated this mission, and that He is very active, and will sometimes send messages and greetings to groups involved in this mission. But when He would choose to come I cannot say.

QUESTION: Can you tell us something about how we can become more healthy individuals?

TARKAS: Think of the areas of spiritual, mental and physical growth. I am not here to prescribe diets or other such things. I believe in your literature there is much written on this., but I would say that for you to grow, you need to be balanced. You need daily worship, you need physical exercise and you need proper diet. All of these things will contribute to your health.

QUESTION: Tarkas, you mentioned in the beginning in your talk about laborers, and that word keeps coming to my mind. You said that there were very few laborers, and I felt a sadness about that. What were you talking about?

TARKAS: I am talking about those who have the desire and the courage to grow spiritually, to come closer to our Father, and who will then reveal this love to their brothers and sisters.

QUESTION: Tarkas, (difficult to hear question concerning how person could better help physical abuse trauma patients)

TARKAS: It is difficult on your planet. You have counseling and yet your counseling is devoid of the Father's love. The Father's love is the most healing thing imaginable, and yet your psychologists, your counselors must attempt to heal without this base. It is a very difficult process. Of the four things that I mentioned earlier that you should work on, do you see any of those that you feel would be very important to those with whom you work?

HUMAN: I believe that they need to forgive, but the victims do not want to forgive. They tell me they don't want to forgive, and my supervisor says it is not necessary, and it is very difficult for me, because I believe it is very important. I am torn between what my supervisor tells me, and what I believe it to be.

TARKAS: I would say that your own inner guidance is truth. Unfortunately, you find yourself in a difficult situation because your relationship to those with whom you work may be evaluated by those who do not have a similar perspective. It is a difficult problem to resolve, but I would suggest that you continue to seek ways to impress upon them the importance of forgiveness. Resentment and hate and anger are spirit poisons. There is little that can be healed while such attitudes remain dominate.

You and I know that this person and the person that has hurt them will someday meet on the mansion worlds, and that the person who has done this hurt to them will be very apologetic because by that time they will have realized what they have done and they will truly want that person's forgiveness. However, it is difficult to say these things and to teach in this way for those who do not have this perspective. But I will say that love and forgiveness are the main keys to helping them heal, and if they refuse to pursue this, if they truly wish to hold on to their anger and their resentment, then there really is little that we can do for them.

QUESTION: Tarkas, I assume that you choose some students of The Urantia Book and others with a seeking mind . .. (words lost due to changing tape) The organized religions are more rigid, less open. Will you be able to work with those people?

TARKAS: There are those who are making great efforts to work within what you call the organized churches. But we must be realistic. Do the organized churches tell you that you are guided by a fragment of our Father, and that his guidance is the only true guidance that you really need?

HUMAN: No

TARKAS: Would this be, in a sense, as they perceive it, in their best interests?

HUMAN: Probably, no.

TARKAS: Do they often not feel that they are the ones who should judge the truth of your personal religious experience?

HUMAN: I think so. I think some of them have actually unconsciously changed the worship of our Heavenly Father to the worship of the Bible itself. I think they are being misled.

TARKAS: It is unfortunate, but it is difficult even among many who read The Urantia text. This mission is frowned upon. They are critical and some even suggest that it is propagated by evil spirits, or what the text refers to as Caligastia. With such attitudes, it is difficult.

In time, the truth will win out. In time, all things will be judged by the fruits of the spirit. But for now you must concentrate your own growth. As you grow and develop, we can lead others who are seekers to you. But we cannot lead them to you if you cannot show them the light. And so, let us not be concerned with tackling things on such a broad level. Let us work now to develop and grow, and you will find that in your lifetime, you will help others, and those others will help others, and, in this way, it will not matter what the leaders of these organized religions think or do, because the love that will grow among the people of this planet will determine what will happen to the churches, and not the leaders themselves.

QUESTION: Tarkas, what is the special lesson of this manner of communication? Why aren't you here as your own kind?

TARKAS: We have discussed, we meaning those involved in this Teaching Mission, what are the best ways to go about our mission. And many options have been brought up. In time it may happen that I and other teachers will in fact be made visible, but at this time, we do not feel that this would be wise or appropriate. It is much to ask for you to come and entertain such a phenomenon, such an experience. We believe that it is better to progress a step at a time, and, in time, you may find that the contact grows more clear, and as I said, even more visible. But in the meantime, you must rely upon your inner guidance and upon your faith, and focus upon the content of what is being said, and trust that our Father and Michael and the various beings involved in this mission know the best way to proceed.

QUESTION: Can you see us physically or do you just see the thought energy that we emanate?

TARKAS: I see you physically as you see each other.

QUESTION: Tarkas, is there any special things that we need to be doing?

TARKAS: The four things that I mentioned earlier are what you must begin to do. Again, you hear the words but you do not truly understand the importance of what I say. Take time each day to find some quiet and seek our Father. Seek His company; seek His love. Pray for others each day. Pray for healing specific situations that they are in. Learn to understand one of your brothers and sisters a little more each day, so that you can forgive them and forgive yourself more easily, and learn to look at others, and see the presence of God within them, and treat them as if you know that the Father is there.

I can assure you that this is not an easy assignment, that you will not accomplish it in one day. But if you try, and if you practice these things each day, I can assure you that it will bring more peace and happiness to you than anything else you can possibly imagine.

QUESTION: When you say pray for these people, in what way? Do we pray just by mentioning their names and their needs?

TARKAS: When you think of someone that you wish to pray for, I want you to think of specifically what it is that you wish for them. Say that in your mind, and while you say it, picture them in your mind and picture our Father's love flowing through you and surrounding them. Picture them being healed as you pray for them.

If you are sincere, and what you pray for is positive and beneficial for that person, and you pray with the feeling of the Father’s love, this is effective prayer. This creates certain energies that we are able to work with and respond to in helping this person.

I cannot explain to you exactly how this works but I can assure you that it does work. Any time that you pray in this way, your prayer is registered in this universe. Some one, some being will be charged with doing what they can to help bring about a solution, an answer to your prayer. You may or may not see an immediate answer, but I will say that, once you pray for an individual or a situation, it does not help to pray over and over. A sincere and effective prayer is registered, and it must be responded to. However, if many individuals pray for the same thing, this does create more energy, and this does create a stronger effect.

QUESTION: (inaudible)

TARKAS: You must think specifically what you wish to pray for. Again, if you say "I will pray that there will no longer be world hunger, "it is difficult to respond, there are so many things that might happen. But let us suppose that you say, "I pray that the troops who have been sent to Somalia will be able to safely reach their destination and provide the food to those that are starving, and that whatever help and guidance they need to reach this destination safely, be given." That is something that is somewhat more specific, and can be addressed in an easier way. Do you see the distinction I have been trying to make?

QUESTION: Tarkas, I have a question concerning some of us having barriers to feeling closer to God. Some of us think it unimaginable that there could be a love so deep because we have never known that before on earth, and some us don't know that experience at all, and find it difficult to accept that this could be real, not that we doubt that it could be real, but that we just don't know how to accept that. Can you give us some directions in how we cannot feel unworthy?

TARKAS: It is difficult on your world. I would hope that in your lifetime, you have known some love. I can assure you that as you grow in this universe you will know more love and more love and more love. If whatever taste of love you have had has been positive in your life, is it not something that you would like to have more of?

HUMAN: Yes.

TARKAS: Then I am here to help you find more love. I am here to help you find the greatest love that you can imagine, and I understand what you say, that you feel as though you can only glimpse with us that love now. But if you practice, and if you follow the things I am saying, you will feel and you will come to know that love more deeply in your life. And, after awhile, you will be able to look back, and you will know that you have grown, and that you appreciate and understand love more fully.

But until you grow and have these experiences, you cannot look back and have something to compare it to. So, for now, you must make a decision. I am here and I say that I can help you grow in this love. You must decide,, "Is this what you desire?" Secondly, you must decide, "Are you willing to give me and this group a chance to help you grow in that love.?"

Those are the decisions that each of you at this moment must make. It is difficult, you are taking much on faith, but if you were to go to someone to learn to play a musical instrument, let's say a violin; if the teacher handed you a violin and said play, what do you think would happen?

HUMAN: Nothing. (laughter) I would not know what to do.

TARKAS: And yet, have you ever heard violin music?

HUMAN: Yes, many times.

TARKAS: And you know that you have some sense of its beauty, and some appreciation for it. And so, if you go to learn how to play this instrument, is your desire not to be able to produce the same beauty from this instrument? And so it is the same. I am the teacher. I know of the love. I am handing you the instruments, the tools, the methods to learn to understand and become a master, a teacher yourself of this love. It is up to you, if you want to take these lessons.

HUMAN: And they start with the four things that you told us about?

TARKAS: These are the four most important things. Many things, as we progress will be added. Many of you who have read some of the transcripts, and you see the different things that are discussed and talked about. There will be many areas that we will discuss, and that we will help you in your growth. It is hard now for you to imagine because we have not begun this process . ... Perhaps, talking to others who have experienced this would be helpful to you.

QUESTION: We are told in The Urantia Book that the biological situation on this planet is much less than desired. Are there plans in the future to address these problems?

TARKAS: There are plans. I am not permitted to discuss them with you, but I can assure you that, despite the problems that you see, things are well in hand. This mission will not fail. The upliftment of your planet will not fail.

QUESTION: I have a question in reference to the word ‟worship.” When I go down to the park, and I look at the trees and the flowers, and I admire the beauty of nature, or maybe I take a deep breath and say, "I drink of you with every breath I take. Thank you God for all this." . .. Is that worship?

TARKAS: Yes. Worship is thanking God for the beauty and the love that He has given. It is communion, talking things over with Him. Do not think of God as an abstract thing that exists somewhere. Think of God as the most loving wonderful being that you can imagine. He is your friend, your parent. He is there to help you and guide you through every situation. He will never let you down. He will always be there with you.

Life for you can become too complex. You should, as you say, smell the roses. You must sort out your priorities. If you know that worship, and prayer, and the things that I have told you will bring you better peace, but yet your life is scheduled in a way that you say: "Well I would like to do that; I just do not have the time." What does that tell you about what your priorities are?

What is more important than that? I know that you must all earn a living, but is there anyone here who can honestly say that they could not find an hour each day for some worship, some prayer, some reading and studying of text to expand your awareness and your knowledge? Are the TV programs you watch really so good? (loud laughter)

There is nothing in your life that will come without effort. If you make the effort, there are so many beings who are there to assist you, not always in ways that you can see or understand, though in time you will. But they are there, they are simply waiting for you to turn to them and ask for their guidance. Think of a young child who is having problems, and you are that child's parents. What is your desire as a loving parent?

HUMAN: To help them.

TARKAS: Exactly. Do you not wish the child to come to you, as a loving parent, and say to you, "I am troubled and I need your help"? So it is with our Father. He is there with you always, and yet you seek help in every direction except from Him. Who are these other humans, regardless of their knowledge or academic degrees, who have a better understanding of you and who have greater wisdom and insight than the Spirit Fragment that indwells you? There is so much love, there is so much there for you, but you must turn to that guidance. You must seek it, and it is there for you.

QUESTION: I am thinking it has a lot to do with trusting your own ear, knowing that it is God-knowing, that it is not your own ego. I know that this is a difficult process to separate this out . ... Can this be done very easily all the time, like when I am driving my car?

TARKAS: There are many aspects to your question. In the text of The Urantia Book, you will find that there are what are called circles of development. As you progress, there will come a time when you will have direct communication with your Indwelling Spirit. There will even come a time when you will fuse with this spirit and become as one. I have already done this, and I tell you that you just cannot imagine the love and the beauty that you will feel when this occurs.

But in your situation it is difficult for the Adjuster to communicate to you. There are levels of your mind, and when the Adjuster tries to communicate, His thoughts enter a level of your mind, but it may take some time for these thoughts to filter down to your level of consciousness. When you pray, or you seek guidance, you may not hear his words. You may not hear an answer immediately. You might be walking, you might be driving in your car an hour, or a day, or a week later. Sometimes you will hear, or you will sense an answer to your question. These things do happen.

As you grow, and as you progress, it is possible, eventually, to hear the voice of the Adjuster in your mind., and believe me, there will be no doubt in your mind when this occurs. To help you grow towards this, we are here to help. We can make some contact with your mind. We can help give you some guidance along the way until you reach that point, when you have that contact more directly with the Adjuster.

We are not here to substitute for that contact with the Adjuster, as some have suggested. We are really here to aid you in reaching that contact yourself. That is our goal, not that you learn to rely upon us, only that you learn to rely upon our Father.

QUESTION: Tarkas, you mentioned The Urantia Book now, and to communicate with the spirit beings, angels that are around about, helping us, leading us, and basically helping us here in time and space. I used to do that years ago. I mean I would pray and worship audibly to God, and even to the angels and spirit beings around about me, and I got into some trouble. I had some bad experiences with some spirits, that I believe are not of the Father's kingdom, but of the rebellion. So my friends told me to stop seeking spirits.

This was a few years ago, and I did exactly that. I stopped worshipping in that way. I have a question about that possibly happening again, and towards what you said about the spirits of the rebellion not having access to our planet. I don't understand how they don't have access to our planet, when everything is in chaos still. I know I am rambling, and I have many questions, but I would appreciate it if you could just mention something about this.

TARKAS: Your question is a very good question. It is something that troubles many people. Our Father gave you free will, but part of the result of that is that you will experience many things, and you choose, and decide what seems real.

Secondly, your minds are capable of many imaginings, and so it is a difficult process to discern what is true. First, I will again say that those rebel spirits who participated in the rebellion are no longer on this world, but even if they were, with the Father fragment, and with the angels, and the other spirit guidance that you have, there is no being that could enter your mind or have any influence upon you unless you actively sought that.

Therefore, you must learn to seek this guidance. But let us discuss the real nature of your question, which is, "How do you truly know if something is true." Who has some suggestions as to how you judge what is true?

HUMAN: I think that the spirit of truth that Jesus gave us after he ascended back to His Father will convince us of the truth.

TARKAS: How do you experience this being evidence of the truth? How would you describe how you know when something is true?

HUMAN: You have peace.

HUMAN: It fits, and it also gives you great joy. There is a certain joy that comes with it, and it just fits into everything else that you believe, and feel, and know.

HUMAN: There is no fear and no doubt.

HUMAN: Yes, all fear and doubt are just gone.

HUMAN: And although this may not come quickly, if you desire the truth, you will receive it.

HUMAN: We feel it reverberate in our bodies.

TARKAS: I would say those are all excellent answers. I will say this to you, as I earlier said, I asked that you give this mission and my teaching a chance. There will be times when you feel some doubt, some uncertainty as you do in all areas of your lives. But in time, if you do not sense that what I say is true, if practicing the things that I am saying and your participation in this do not bring you a greater feeling of love and peace within your hearts, then I would say "Abandon this mission and seek elsewhere." What you say is true. Those are the ways in which you will know. But in order to know, you must give Him a chance, and you must see if it feels the way you know that it must feel.

QUESTION: In reference to Jan's question about chaos, even if the devil issue is settled on a planetary level, it seems like there must be aftereffects of these people. What is all this? It does not seem as though it is over yet.

TARKAS: It is essentially the lack of spiritual growth on your planet, the lack of being dominated by love, and by the desire to serve others. As we come to this planet, and as we look down, we see leaders of countries who are not led by a love for our Father. They are dominated by greed and self interest. They are sometimes filled with fear and hatred. How can a planet evolve when it is dominated by such motivation?

So many people think only of themselves. So many people look out for themselves and do not care what happens to others. So many people pursue only material growth instead of spiritual growth. You and I together can reprioritize what is important. We can help you grow in this love, and others, I assure you, will be attracted to this love, and they will want to know how it is that you feel more loving, and you have found more inner peace.

It will be by your efforts and your willingness to share this with your brothers and sisters, that eventually this planet will be changed. It will not happen tomorrow. It will not happen totally in your lifetime, or even your children's or their children's lifetimes. You will see a growing desire on this planet to seek our Father, to be more loving to each other, but along the way there are many problems that will still be there. There is much evil that still exists, but we can in time overcome this.

QUESTION: Tarkas, if I understood you correctly, the devil and evil spirits are out of this world. Yet we read and we hear so much about groups involved in worshipping the devil. Can you explain this? Are they really worshipping the devil?

TARKAS: There is no devil participating. They are simply very misguided. They are lost in a sense. There are many reasons I suppose why they might get to this point, but I would say primarily the lack of loving parents, proper guidance, would be the primary cause of individuals becoming so misguided that they would choose to seek out such a thing as a devil. As you say, there are many reports, but I would say you must look and think about these things very carefully. Just because someone says it is so does not mean it is really true. Most humans do not clearly understand our universe, how it is governed, and so the conclusions that they reach are based upon a very limited understanding.

Many are still brought up in the knowledge of a wrathful and angry God, and the fact that there are such evil spirits roaming the world just waiting to corrupt someone. I would suggest to you that it is not really like that, and so you must make these decisions and choices. I can tell you what I know, but again, in time, by your own growth, and by your own decisions, you will come to see all these things in a much broader perspective and you will better understand how individuals become misguided.

QUESTION: Since our minds are a gift of the Holy Spirit, and one mind is improved in truth and peace, does that in some superconscious way help other minds, or does it have to come directly by our acts of love in the way we treat them with acceptance, respect and help, that they are helped to improve, or is there some supermind, or way that when one mind has been improved that it helps other minds?

TARKAS: It is primarily why each mind increasing its enlightenment that overall the universe, the universal mind is improved. If you become more enlightened, yes, that contributes to the overall enlightenment, but how will your brother or sister be helped to be more enlightened? It will not just happen. You must share your enlightenment with them and help them become more enlightened.

QUESTION: Do the spirits of some individuals in time, do they stay on the earth, and attach themselves to people sometimes, and not go to Heaven.

TARKAS: No, this is not true. If a person develops in their spiritual growth to where they have an assignment of a personal angel, they will proceed to the mansion worlds upon their physical death, and they will resume their lives there on these worlds. If they did not progress that far spiritually, they will stay in a sleep, as many are awakened in mass, and they all progress to the next level together, but they are not permitted to stay behind in any conscious way, nor are they permitted to make contact with humans.

QUESTION: Sometimes I see, out of the side of my eye, white flashes of light. Is there any meaning to that?

TARKAS: There can be various natural phenomena that are associated with your growth. You must remember that you are energy, that others here are energy, that there are forms, while out of your visual range, that are still there, and can be perceived by those of us at our vibrational level. So it is difficult to say, but I would say that most of the time such things are not important. They are more byproducts of your growth and what is happening. They should not be pursued as an end in themselves.

As you grow, and if some experience becomes more pronounced, then we could discuss that perhaps in a private session. But for now, I would say, that while these things are interesting, and it arouses your curiosity, they are a side issue. The main focus is to grow spiritually.

I think we have come to a point where it would be wise to stop. You have much food for thought. You each have some decisions to think about, to pray about, and to seek guidance about. Whatever you choose, I again assure you that our Father loves you more than you can possibly imagine. There is so much love for you in this universe. I only wish that you could understand and appreciate it more, because it would dissolve your worries and your cares. I know that some of us will meet again. I encourage all of you to think about my earlier words concerning your desire to perform the function that Michael is now performing for this group. I will be observing, and I will be attempting to make contact. Until that time I wish you peace, and I wish you to know our Father's love more deeply every day.

(Numerous expressions of thanks.)