Michael101606MarinTM_TheTrinityWithin

1. (The Trinity Within)
2. (Your Own World—its Wonders and Limitations)
3. (Come Join the Cosmic Family)
4. (How Courage Changes Things)
5. (Anger)
6. (The Varieties of Love)
7. (Spiritual Living and Human Sexuality)
8. (Thoughts on Eternity)
9. (Relationship Considerations and Choices)
10. (Always Remember, Your Choices Keep You Free)

Dear Michael and Mother Spirit, We thank you for these last several lessons where you’ve encouraged us to seek deeper into the meaning of the words we use to understand reality, and examine afresh the concepts we’ve been handed. Then we can realize anew our own experiences directly, and not through just a reshuffling of an old deck of perhaps worn-out, no longer useful expressions. To do this we ask for your help in detecting and becoming one with your spirit. Help augment our own creative abilities to continue evolving, reformulating our philosophy of life. Amen.

MICHAEL: Good evening, my children, this is Michael, your father, your brother, your dear friend. You are very welcome. Mother Spirit and I appreciate your thanks, and your gratitude, and your faith--your trust in us, so that when we do want to go deeper into a subject to stretch your understanding, you are willing to suspend your disbelief and follow. Because of your ability to ignore us, to disbelieve us--one of the foundations of your free will--you do give us reality within yourselves by a profound act of recognition.

(The Trinity within)

For we are here within you, Mother Spirit’s Mind/Spirit Adjutants helping form your thinking, and my Spirit of Truth helping you sort out and understand what is happening as you go through your days. We are always with you whether you can consciously detect our presence or not, just as your Father Fragment is right within your thoughts making connections, tying those links, sometimes recognizable by the startlingly appropriate thoughts you have, as you say, "out of the blue."

And so you have right within you, my children, all the representatives of the Paradise Trinity for company, and very immediate company at that. I even joked about this last time, and teased you a bit by reassuring you that we are all subservient to your choices, to your free will within you, so you needn’t feel it’s too crowded in here.

One main theme we’ve been exploring/evolving these last few years, is to give you a handbook, an owners manual, if you will, on the kind of being you are. You weren’t given such a manual at birth, but if you think about it, you all were handed one piecemeal as you grew up, in your first few years by your family, and then the immediate neighborhood, the adults and children you encountered as a youngster. For whether they are aware of it or not, every person has a philosophy of life, including—what--they are. Every person has a human need to understand what is happening to them. Every person has a creative spirit that right from the very beginning begins to form a world view, their own personal world based upon their experiences.

(Your own world—its wonders and limitations)

This is a necessary and rather stupendous creation, from the point of view of a small child. You can all remember those times when you extended yourself as best you could in your understanding, but then some small disappointment would totally collapse your world and you could only sit there crying in the wreckage, until, ever so slowly with halting attempts to catch your breath, this last tidal wave of emotion that had utterly swept you away would subside and leave you somewhat dazed, but at peace. Then, of course, you would start out again.

Though ones world view is quite an accomplishment, and a necessary one, in very primitive tribal societies, bound about by other tribes curtailing travel and contact outside of ones immediate group, this world view would be almost identical with those around one. In more modern societies with a great degree of mobility, and mass media, a young child is exposed at a very early age to a much broader view, especially since the age of television.

Having your own world is quite an accomplishment, so much so there comes a stage when you identify with it just as a normal course of events. As it nears a kind of practical completion and seems to stick together for a while, you can mistakenly assume that this is Reality Itself. Mother Spirit said last week this was the fatal error of those who got caught up in the Lucifer Rebellion. It is also quite common among people as well. We’ve mentioned how people with a highly developed cynical, shared view of life can form a tight little group and politically take over a very large country through the use of terror, assassination, and all the other machinations of ruthless power.

But even on a much smaller scale you find petty tyrants within individual homes, different small communities, whose game is forcing their world view on everyone else. Seen from outside these are pathetic individuals clinging to a tiny speck of reality they mistakenly think is the whole show. Yet because they have such a small grasp of God’s true reality, this leads to their unconscious defensiveness, their desperate need to protect their little fiefdoms even within their own minds, quite willing to resort to the most horrible, unimaginable acts upon their fellows.

When Mother Spirit mentioned the need to turn about and actively seek God’s will, this is the turning about she was referring to. This is the enormous spiritual courage to let go clinging to your hard-earned view of the world, by recognizing that it is your own. You are a spiritual being, you have co-created along with general reality this world of your own, and you can be happy and proud that you are this kind of being with this kind of creativity. You can joyously welcome with a true humility all that other "out there"—God’s creation, his will and ways, and actively seek to know these. But this is precisely where many people fail in their growth. They are unwilling to let go their inner certainty that they’ve already got a hold on reality itself. For them humility means being humiliated, being made to feel small; and there is some truth in that. Each individuals’ co-creation--their own world, is small by comparison to God’s, as well as everyone else’s—in different combinations.

Here you run into some very deep ironies indeed. Not unfortunate, but fortunate is the individual who has at some time gone, or been thrust willy-nilly into a situation that utterly destroyed, momentarily anyway, his notions that he had completed his grasp of reality. Temporally overwhelmed with some new discovery, it is only after the fact, after he’s bobbed back to the surface of this tidal wave that swept over him, after he’s experienced this small ego-death, can he break out laughing in pure glee that he has survived. And look! Look what’s new, all around then. With this experience under his belt he can begin to wonder what else there might be out there, what other adventures might be in store. There may be more to reality than was dreamt of in his philosophy to date.

You are lucky indeed if your parents had this humility and you were raised with the notion that reality itself, the encompassing within which you find yourself, is infinite. This does not relieve you of the task of forming your own world view, understanding yourself and the world about you by forming a cohesive philosophy and articulating it to yourself, perhaps sharing it with others; but you never lose sight of the fact that it is your creation, and very finite compared to infinity.

Once you have crossed that threshold, once you as an adult have had your world blown asunder, then survived to an even larger reality you can creatively recognize, you may suspect that you yourself are a spiritual being. You are creative. With this glorious discovery you can set about to take response-ability for what you create. You can begin to respond by letting those others out there, your fellows human beings, be. You can recognize their freewill, their independence from you. You can drop your need to pre-judge them, and glory in the reward as they begin to emerge as individuals. And what a treasure that is, if overwhelming at first.

(Come join the cosmic family)

This is another proof of God’s creativity--all those unique individuals around you, no longer stereotyped with a patina of prejudice. This is the reward of the courage to let go, to relax, to open yourself to whatever you cannot anticipate. This is trusting in spontaneity and your own creativity. And so, my children, we welcome you; we even tease you a bit. Come join us. Recognize you are already part of the spiritual community, the cosmic family. Stretch yourselves and seek the cosmic view or, at least initially anyway, a Urantia view, a world-wide view of all your cultures, all your ethnic types, all your different histories. What a great adventure this is, and, like any adventure, it takes nerve. There is such a thing as courage, and it leads to the greatest rewards of all. So again: welcome, my children, come join us. We are already here, right within you. Come pay us a visit, won’t you?

If you have any questions or comments this evening, I certainly do welcome them.

Student: I thank you for the information and the talk on courage, Michael. It is something I have asked for, for many years on a daily basis, and I am starting to get it. The courage has to come before self-forgiveness and self love; and it’s time; and I thank you for touching on that. It’s helped me immensely to keep your courage--in the thought of your absolute love--as close to me as possible. Thank you so much.

(How courage changes things)

MICHAEL: You are very welcome, my daughter. Yes, courage is something real is it not, something you can feel. It’s a genuine experience and it changes things. It changes you. And in changing you, it changes all of that "out there." That’s how you know: that’s proof enough it’s working, and a not too subtle hint that all that out there--all that you know, all that you experience--your world--is partly you. There’s that wonderful oriental philosophical statement: Thou art That; and I think this is what they mean.

Student: I’m also understanding that I was my own obstacle to peace. I think I was visited by someone in a dream when I heard the words, hate is the enemy, not people. You are your own obstacle to peace with all the hatred you hold. When I awoke from that dream I knew…I knew--I could feel the courage changing me because I finally came to not judge people. I began to feel equal with people; and I’m so grateful for that…

MICHAEL: Well, my daughter give a big hug to your Thought Adjuster then. (group chuckles) Sounds like you had one of those very characteristic, delightfully undeniable insights.

Student: Yeah. I went to bed with ten years of hatred I always had for my brother-in-law, woke up from that dream, and it was gone. I finally called him, and I didn’t say, "I forgive you." I said I choose to let go of my resentments; and it astounded him. I astounded myself. I have no one that I hate right now, and it feels so great to get rid of my hated and my anger. But what kept me from the peace that I’m now feeling, and the hope you can spread that?

MICHAEL: This is your new-found philosophy, your changed understanding. So thank yourself too, for this was most probably--to you, to your consciousness--an underground development for many years. Thank your own soul for this need to know, this need to understand that would not let you rest until you got to this point. And welcome again: for you can extrapolate this movement on into the future and realize: you ain’t seen nothin’ yet! (students laugh along with Michael)

Student: I’m also understanding these anger emotions, as for the last few years I’ve had so much less of them. I think of all the time I wasted being angry, but I’ve forgiven myself--I got to that point--I can honestly say that. But my question is, as we grow in courage and the safety of your love, is it truly possible that we can, I mean, still be frustrated, or wanting? Or is it truly possible to never have to go under those levels with anger again, because I can completely see people know not what they do, so I mean I’m hoping that I never jump in and be the hothead I was--the fearful personality that was so attacked—my ego was so attacked… I hope that I’m approaching a level of my life where I will never have that kind of anger again. It’s not necessary.

(Anger)

MICHAEL: Yes, My daughter, this is something very devoutly to look forward to, for your courage and your self-confidence will keep growing if you stay on this path. You need to grow your faith in yourself and in us. Anger is a wonderful thing, a marvelous thing--when it is appropriate. Anger is the mobilization of energies, the release of stored energies to meet a threatening situation, and when it is just, when it is appropriate, it fulfills a valuable function. Yet so often, starting very early in life following an example set by one’s parents or associates, one’s anger becomes an indulgence, an inappropriate way of enjoying the sheer energy released. Then this inappropriate, unjust anger becomes hatred when it’s focused on a specific target. This continues until, as you just stated, you simultaneously realize the target is not threatening and the anger is inappropriate. It takes courage to recognize there is no appropriate threat and admit the anger is only a self-indulgence--for which you are righteously correct in forgiving yourself.

So I commend you, my daughter, on your comprehension, your understanding of this nearly universal human dilemma. For all those who achieve maturity do go through these stages. The problem is not that one has to go through them, but that one often gets stuck along the way. So, yes, by all means let me reassure you, you can keep going. This flower that’s blossoming has an eternity to go.

Student: I have a kind of a curiosity-question about dreams, if you could speak a little about something I read; somebody termed it remote-viewing. I found myself, through a dream, very conscious and awake, and I was seeing a murder scene--in 1991--and I never knew what I was supposed to do with that information. I didn’t ask for it; I had no connection to anyone that I know of that was murdered. Can You speak a little about something like that, that happened through a dream? Is there anything important I should b aware of, concerning it?

MICHAEL: My daughter, the true instances of what you would call clairvoyance through a dream state, brought about an Adjuster-to-Adjuster communication, are extraordinarily rare--on the order of less than one in a thousand of such dreams. Unfortunately there is no way for you to know, when a dream is so general as that, that it is not just the normal surreal landscape–dream scape, you might say. Dreams are such a total mishmash conglomeration of every level of your unconsciousness and super-consciousness mind that most of dream interpretation is only useful as a psychoanalytical tool, which at times can help people understand themselves. But only extremely rarely does it provide valid information about an event happening elsewhere. It is barely possible, but only so: and how can you tell?

So just think about this a while. Think about this particular dream compared to the thousands of others you’ve had. This is what you call lucid dreaming, where you are seemingly fully awake within a dream, and aware you are dreaming. These dreams are startlingly remarkable and very precious for that, but only rarely validly refer to anything beyond the dreamer.

Student: Is it possible in a lucid dream to thought-travel, to travel in the dream-body, or just…don’t go there, just try to go back to sleep?

MICHAEL: I would keep your adventuresome spirit at all times. Do what seems possible and appropriate within your dreams. But do not mistake this for some actual traveling. These are sometimes inputs from your Thought Adjuster and as such they can have great wisdom and insight in them you can feel. Your Thought Adjuster is trying to convey a message, and your mind will cast this in some form familiar to you, some symbolism. But it may be inexplicable or incomprehensible to your waking self. So while the Thought Adjuster’s wisdom is pure, it has to come through the mechanism of your mind to be expressed in your dream, and that expression is yours. The meaning is only symbolical, not literal.

This is why the Urantia book cautions you about taking these things literally. It mentions how many people do get carried away with their own vivid interpretation of their Thought Adjuster’s input.

Student: Thank you for your words on that. Thank you very much.

MICHAEL: You are very welcome, my daughter. Carry on: you‘re doing fine. Be in my peace.

Student: One more thing… When I first heard you at Bob Scagel’s in Sebastopol I didn’t know how to act. And now as I’ve grown and feel so…just more able to receive you, I don’t feel like a little nut running around wondering what I should do, but just to absorb you… (heavy sigh) your goodness. Thanks again.

Student: Yes Father, I’ve been focusing lately on love. I always wonder why I love certain people more than others, and why I feel a strong pull toward someone. There is one woman who I feel a lot of love for, but she’s married, has four kids, and a dog. But ever since I began working for her there’s been love. So obviously nothing can go forward with this relationship. And I don’t want that to happen. But then why do I need anything? Love does not need or want anything in return. Why can’t I just love the person without the need for all the other stuff—the intimacy, or sexuality, or wanting to be with that person? How do I portray love into the world—especially with respect to the opposite sex? How is this portrayal tinged with sexuality, or the need for intimacy, which can be intrusive? I no longer desire to be intrusive—whether I know it or not.

So I’ve been looking at this, and how I’ve been programmed since my birth on how to portray love, and experience love, and accept love. I look at Ala (sp?) who hugs and loves a thousand people a day. She doesn’t need anything; she just loves. I’m not saying I’m aspiring to be like her, because I want to be who I am. But I’m looking at a different conceptualization of love, where I just love the person without all the other…colorization (sic).

But since I’ve been thinking about this, I’ve been experiencing a lot of unsettlement in my stomach, because it’s like something really dark and deep within me just desires to be intimate, or something—I don’t know. I want to be a pure vessel of love—like you were. And like Buddha was; and Mohammed.

One thing before you say anything: I don’t want to be celibate! (much laughter) But at the same time, that is a possibility. I want love to be an inspiration, nothing else.

(The varieties of love)

MICHAEL: My son, you’ve just told a wonderful story of a person’s need to, first of all, understand himself, to sort through many different ways of loving, and understand each one. At the same time, you are expressing a genuine spiritual ambition to keep growing in your ability to love across this whole spectrum. Within this there is a growing maturity of recognizing the necessity for freedom, both in being free yourself from desires or impulses that might serve to limit your ability to love, shall we say, by indulging in a kind of smarmy, unwelcome sexuality; and at the same time, realizing the need to let other people be free: recognize their freedom—from you. This is because you now want a genuine response, not something coerced or seduced. You now want a wholeness to relationships that involves your whole personality, your whole being. You’re not quite sure how to do this, but you are reaching toward it. It involves meeting, and enjoying another person’s wholeness.

And this is great! It leads to a whole number of different kinds of relationships, rather than just being stuck with one or two. For I’m sure you are aware of those individuals who are so caught up in the chase, the sexual seduction scene, they have no true friends of the opposite sex—other than their current lover. Yet as soon as that relationship ends, they break off any kind of further contact, any friendship beyond their physical need.

So enjoy all these different relationships. Some people you will find are easy to love because they are simply, intrinsically lovely—they just fit your idea, your predisposition of what a lovely person is. But for the most part, you will find they are just loving, themselves—that is, a loving kind of person themselves, not someone who’s consumed with self-love. Out of a generosity and wealth of spirit, they love others.

So keep going! Keep stretching yourself toward what you are getting intimations are more full, and rewarding, and satisfying kinds of love that are truly gifts to others.

Student: Yes—that’s what it is. That is my vision, is for the love that I have to be a gift for others, for a person to feel…safe, in my presence, without any of that what you called unsavory-ness or smarmy-ness that takes away from the purity of what I have to offer. Because I can feel that unsavory-ness in my gut; when I‘m not honoring that person--I’m not honoring myself. So I am becoming clear about that. But at times—to be honest—the pull of sexuality is strong, and I know how coercive and manipulative it can be.

MICHAEL: Don’t forget, my son, advances are only smarmy when they are not welcomed… (much laughter all around)…

Student (much relieved): Yes—that is true! That is true; that is true…

MICHAEL: Were that not so the human race would die out in a short time.

Student: On that note too, I notice I do get projected on a lot from past relationships, and that gets in the way. From my part, that is something that is in their history, they perceive. And sometimes I’m totally innocent of anything, but because they see me as some mean father, or jilted lover, or…just being a man. Unfortunately there’s a lot of anger toward men these days. So, anyway… But thank you for that, because I do want to become all this love, without giving up sex; but at the same time I want the purity and integrity—for both people.

(Spiritual living and human sexuality)

MICHAEL: There is that wonderful statement in your Urantia book that human sexuality--which was, after all, created by our Father, and Mother Spirit and I--is fully compatible with genuine spiritual living—except in the minds of overly fastidious people.

First student again: Learning to give without the sense of having to get has been on my mind a lot during the past few weeks. I’m kind of a lone ranger and work at home, alone, a lot; which I enjoy. But it’s been on my mind—just the real art of giving without this expectation to get something. And also from the Urantia book, different from the way I was brought up—the love of right-doing as different from the fear of wrong-doing. I’ve learned that very valuable thing from the book—along with other things.

MICHAEL: Practical considerations, my children, point to sensitivity, being very open to the feedback, the response—letting other people feel free to respond to you. Sometimes this means pausing a lot, making some small statement then pausing to see what the response is. Pass the ball of conversation and contact back and forth lively, and don’t try to hog all the action. Be open to your partner and give them their share.

Student: In that context, the framework for the relationship is created, whether it will be a friendship, or one of intimacy, or…whatever form it takes. So thank you for all that.

MICHAEL: You are very welcome, my son. Good luck!

Student: Oh God!… (more laughter) Gee, I feel like I’m treading in deep waters here, trying to… because there are a lot of, unfortunately, angry and hurt women out there, and I am so tired of being projected upon. But I am willing to try again. (heavy sigh)

MICHAEL: Then remember: you are in my peace. Remember to feel it.

Student: Father Michael, we thank you for the reminder this life is really an adventure, and that we’re living in exciting times—with the possibility of living forever—eternity—which I really don’t understand yet. I can’t picture eternity. But I can picture one day at a time. And also: thank you for your love, and kindness, and support--both you and Mother Spirit, and all your children—Angels and such--that support us. Thank you very much.

(Thoughts on eternity)

MICHAEL: You are very welcome, my son. About eternity: you’re closer than you know. (much laughter) Eternity can’t be pictured. And it is always now. It is only: one more day. Be in my peace.

Student: Michael, tonight we’ve been discussing a lot about relationships, and that brings to mind mine with my wife. I feel if I were to be truly honest as to how I feel about the relationship, where I think it’s going, I would cause much hurt. And I do not wish to do that. But the dilemma I face is: am I hurting this person more by not expressing what I truly feel? And this problem is causing great distress within me, and has for many, many years. It continues to grow. At some point it is going to have to be faced, and honesty is going to have to surface. But there’s so much involved. There’s children; there’s family; there’s home—things I don’t wish destroyed. Perhaps you can give me some insight on how to bring honesty into a relationship—heart-to-heart honesty, even though it may cause great pain.

(Relationship considerations and choices)

MICHAEL: My son, I do sincerely acknowledge your dilemma, and I salute the courage it takes to acknowledge it to yourself, for you have opened yourself to the complexity involved. One way out of this dilemma is to re-examine your own anticipations, your own expectations about what a certain revelation or expressed need might bring about. I commend your sensitivity, your recognizing the need for tact in expressing what you feel needs to be expressed, but think about the other person in the sense of her creativity, her spontaneity, her ability to rise to the occasion. For in a way you are already evaluating this. It’s part of your tact: if I say this, how will it affect her?

But as necessary as this evaluation is, be careful you don’t slight her abilities to respond adequately. This could be another fear--that she might respond, in a way, too adequately, if you take my meaning. You are correct: once certain things are said, they cannot be taken back if your relationship to date has had a certain amount of honesty. As you know, some very intimate couples can say almost anything to each other, and do, but then with the necessary apologies later, really muddy the waters so badly that not much can really be exchanged; and I sense you want to stay out of that—very wisely so.

But if this has been building up for a number of years, and you fear a more thorough airing of the situation would really destroy the relationship, and hurt your children who are dependant upon it, there is little here I can help you with, my son, that you have not already considered. I truly commend your sensitivity, and this genuine love you have that comes out as not wanting to hurt another. But these are decisions you have to make, and there is no avoiding the need, sometimes, to experiment. This may sound rather callous, but I don’t mean it that way at all. I mean: when you are on the very edge of what you know, and what you cannot know until you try some small token, some way of approaching what you need to express, there is no way around the need to experiment, to try something--with all the tact and sensitivity you can muster, certainly. But give this other person a chance to respond. Don’t automatically assume you know what that response will be. For if you truly do know how she will respond to what you feel you need to say, you’ve already made your decision. You see what I mean?

Student: I’m afraid I’ve lost you right at the end there.

MICHAEL: If you are very sure how she will respond, then in a sense you already know the outcome, you’ve already decided what it will be; you’ve already made that decision. Not that you’ve discounted her response, but you’ve already decided what it will be. In a sense you’re saying you don’t need to bring this up; it would serve no purpose. You simply have the choice to continue living with the situation, or initiate whatever action you decide upon to change it. But in doing so you are taking her out of the equation—her creativity, her response-abilities.

Student: I hear what you’re saying, Michael. I feel the decisions I’ve made all these years are quite simple: I would rather absorb, myself, the pain, than watch another suffer because of what I say and do. I have seen my spouse’s response in the past when this subject was broached. I have seen the pain that is very deep inside her from her own upbringing, from her own father—how he left their family. And so I decided I did not wish to bring that pain to the surface, and destroy our family, for I guess this is what this would do. So I choose to just absorb this myself, but it’s becoming more and more almost unbearable. But thank you for listening.

MICHAEL: You’re very welcome, my son. I feel at a bit of a loss because you have so thoroughly thought it through, but I think we have arrived at the bedrock of decisions you have been making. I can only ask you to reexamine those and consider again whether your partner may have changed, or grown, so that her response might be different than what it was in the past. The situation could be mitigated somewhat by recognizing what estrangement you may be responsible for yourself. This just points to the maturity necessary for every person in a relationship, to accept their share of the pain of misunderstandings, or even insufficient love--as they might ideally want to see it. This is just a part of a good maturity—accepting your share of these disappointments.

(Always remember, your choices keep you free)

So be in my love and peace, my son. Try to remember in your regular stillness, in spite of how it feels at times, you are fundamentally free. Your are making a continuous choice, day by day, and it is your free will to do this. You are choosing to accept the pain involved because of a higher morality that is also your choice. In doing so you do keep in touch with Mother Spirit and I. You do keep in touch with your Father Fragment. And so I commend you for this once again, and ask you, my son, to accept my peace. Let it bathe you and heal you—as much as you can.

Student: Thank you.

MICHAEL: And so, my children, another evening draws to a close. Both Mother Spirit and I do commend you all for your striving to grow, your striving to know what you’re doing—especially as it impacts others. This taking responsibility, this accepting the need to respond to others, is the surest way to grow. For it is only incidentally, and after the fact, you reap the rewards of that effort.

This is one meaning of courage, that you must first extend yourself and open yourself just on general spiritual principles stemming from your own wisdom and desire to be a loving person. You extend yourself, you reach out, you stretch, and then the reward comes truly by the grace of God. So thank you, Father, for settling up our lives this way, for your absolute faith and trust in us.

Dear children, be in my peace—deep, deep within you. Relax into it; let it heal you. Good evening.

END