IntroductionMichael - The Crucifixion - Stating What You Believe - Nov 03, 2008 - Marian TM
Michael--November 3, 2008
Marin T/M Group--Mill Valley, California--U.S.A.
MICHAEL--T/R-JL
MICHAEL: Good evening, this is Michael. Mother Spirit and I are happy to acknowledge your warm welcome and invitation to be with you. Though our spirits hover about you, keeping company with your Father Fragment, we do enjoy it so much when you turn your faces reflectively back toward us. Reach out your arms to feel our loving embrace. You are very dear to our hearts and, like parents everywhere, though we have our own independent existence, and we too--Mother Spirit and I--live for ourselves and are complete in ourselves, still you add so much to us. We are delighted to reflect back to you the fact you are spiritual, creative beings and each of you has your own unique center from which you extend yourselves out into this time and space realm of ours--and do things. It’s in that doing that you are most truly the sons and daughters of the Supreme Being, the God of time and space.
(Living for each other: social reality)
For just as you too live your own lives for yourselves, my children, you also live your lives for each other. Your souls are filled with your experiences of each other and this is what you most fondly carry on into eternity, the friends and associates you have known. All the other initially very strange beings you will encounter out in the Morontia realms--all the friends and acquaintances you will make from all the other worlds of our Local Universe--millions of worlds each with its own unique history, its own unique peoples; all these personal beings will fill your souls to overflowing. So if not yet, you will certainly come to treasure the social potential--the social life that is so much a part of God’s plans.
It is fitting that on this eve of your general elections you feel a sense of civic duty, a sense of social responsibility to play your part to bring all your accumulative soul-wisdom to bear on that moment when you express your wisdom in choices. Mother Spirit and I are delighted in this particular general election of yours, you have such a record turnout, such a larger percentage of all of you feeling not only a sense of duty but also a profound interest and curiosity about: what is this thing called government? What are these institutions established among peoples--as your own Declaration of Independence and Constitution state? It’s wonderful when you can approach these institutions you were born and raised with, with a fresh curiosity and see them anew as if for the first time.It’s in times like these when so many old, ingrained political habits can fall away and make room for those fresh, creative ideals that are so desperately needed to cope with the evermore accelerated changes on your planet. This larger turnout of interested voters is a direct representation of a new flexibility, not only in the most practical sense of getting out there and voting, but a willingness to look at things in a new light, a more present-day light. Mother Spirit spoke last time of being adaptable to changing circumstances, and all those who are unable to do this. One of these tragic ironies is not being able to keep up and adapt to the very success you enjoy on so many levels.Certain historical truisms of the impossibility of people knowing what government is doing because of the distances involved, or because of very rigid social hierarchies, your modern media now can cut through all of that and achieve the ideal you’ve only recently articulated--the ideal of transparency. This is the sheer ability of the electorate to know what’s happening so that they can hold their representatives responsible. For it has been ever the case, my children, right from the earliest stages of tribal elders, that there is a certain arrogance of power, a certain noblesse-oblige, a certain deliberate obfuscation, to hide what is essentially the personal greed that has always been with so many of your leaders. If you think about it, this has been a natural state of affairs when you consider what primitive origins you have.
Yet as we’ve said before, never regret that the human race has had to come up through these stages of social immaturity. The ideal is to learn from them and keep going, keep maturing, keep developing these principles of transparency and responsibility. And you are. In your country you only have to look back a few decades ago to when all the decisions were made in the so-called smoke-filled back rooms behind the great circus shows out front. Now just the need to fill the time of all the new cable television stations, and the internet and other sources, with news, means by comparison to any time in the past you are literally inundated with political rhetoric. But this is good. You can get your candidates out there in public and run them through their paces. You can have at least some small opportunity to probe their deeper feelings and understandings, even record their promises to play back at a later date to remind them just what it was they announced they could do.
(Living and loving to learn)
Welmek gave a wonderful series of lessons one time on learning and loving and living, and all their six combinations: learning to love; loving to learn; living to love; etc. Chalk this election up to the learning part of that invitation, the larger possibility you have now to learn about your candidates, and the form of government you have, and especially how it really works. For ultimately you are learning about yourselves and where as a society you stand along a whole continuum of cultural evolution. Read that chapter in your Urantia book about Life on a Neighboring Planet that is a little more advanced socially and politically than yourselves. Come up with your own ideas of where you would like to see the world’s political processes go next. Are you truly willing to see a genuine planetary democracy where all points of view have the ability to be expressed?We do congratulate you, my children, for making leaps and bounds along this social/political dimension, especially on the rather free-wheeling internet. It wasn’t too long ago no one knew what it was to have a small TV-and-typewriter sitting on a desk in their house where, for a few cents of electricity, they could bring in the world and literally thousands of points of view. In fact you can be so buffeted about by so much raw information that we like to remind you from time to time where to find peace and unification within yourselves, in stillness. Here you find not only your Father Fragment and the presences of Mother Spirit and myself, but even a sense of who you are purely in yourselves. With the great super-conscious mind you have comes the profound desire and ability of your transcendent personality to unite and make sense out of this sheer deluge of information.You are learning how to be open and take things in fearlessly and let them settle where they will with a profound, new-found objectivity. Pray and call upon my Spirit of Truth to help orient your own spirit towards truth, and the courage to follow where it leads, even if counter to your most cherished and long-held prejudices and opinions. Stay loose, be flexible. Be open to an evermore closely integrated, and therefore evermore delicately balanced, association of the major nation/state societies of the planet.
Your recent financial difficulties have been an enormous lesson for you to learn just how integrated and co-dependent the peoples of the world are becoming. You are fulfilling an ages-old dream of an emerging planetary consciousness. As we have said, the world soul has always been here. Also, the extra-human spiritual family of Urantia has been here for thousands of years doing their part to help you evolve your civilizations. But just so recently--in large part due to the Second World War and its immediate aftermath when the human race faced for the first time the possibility of annihilating large numbers of itself with your new-found atomic energy, these same circumstances and the need to meet them brought about the beginnings of a true world-wide communication system that keeps getting faster and more integrated.These are amazing, marvelous times in any planet’s development, and if it is any comfort to you, my children, know that all planets do come through similar stages even with loyal Planetary Princes and staff, loyal Material Sons and Daughters. In the day to day lives of their citizens there is and always will be those moral decisions to make to fulfill their social and civic responsibilities and duties. So go forward with light hearts and enjoy casting your votes; and keep a sharp eye on the continuing outcome.As we tease and remind you from time to time, for human beings life is much a great experiment. There is so much you can’t know until you try, and the bigger part of that is: always, when the dust has settled, stay open to the results. Stay loose; be flexible; be open. Meet tomorrow with cheerful souls, welcoming what the new day brings. We’re tickled to be sharing this adventure with you. We offer all the love and the support you can open your hearts to receive. Go forward with our blessings, my dear children.
If you have any questions or comments this evening, here I am.Student: Just a comment this evening, Father Michael. Thank you for all your support, and your love, and understanding and guidance.
(Independence, co-dependence, dependence)
MICHAEL: You are very welcome, my son. You do our hearts good when you respond to us. So keep in mind what I said tonight about all these social dimensions you can enjoy of independence, and co-dependence, and even the sheer dependence that we all know and share--in our Father. It’s a wonderful humility to be both aware of, and to feel at home in, such an enormous creation of personal beings, and I enjoyed tonight touching upon a few of those social/civic aspects that even Mother Spirit and I share with you in kind. We too have our own society, if you will, of Michael Creator Sons, and Mother Spirits, spread out across these galaxies of ours. We too have our duties and responsibilities, and we do enjoy them so. Keep realizing you are in my peace. (Thank you)
Student: Hello, Father/Brother Michael. I have at least one question. I got into a discussion with an old friend about Christianity, and in particular about martyrdom--the meaning of the phenomena of martyrs and people with martyr-complexes. He’s kind-of a psychologist who thinks that anything having to do with martyrdom is obviously pathological and needs to be analyzed and fixed. But I’m of the view that martyrdom has a double meaning, or maybe more.
I agreed there is a kind of a pathological version--somebody who is sacrificing way too much, in too much a co-dependent way--as we say; and you mentioned that relationship tonight. I agreed that could be the case. But in the Christian tradition martyrs are also saints, and that has a positive connotation as well in that you’re laying down your life for your friends and for humanity. As you said, there can be no greater love than to give your life for others, and that indeed, in fact, is martyrdom--is it not? And your life was concluded with what I believe could be properly considered martyrdom--in the positive sense. So I wonder if you have any comments about that word and how today, in modern times, we should regard martyrs, and martyrdom, and the psychology of that? Thanks.
(Martyrdom)
MICHAEL: Yes, my son, I congratulate you on your ability to see such a wide spectrum of usage with that word. I remember those times Mother Spirit and I have called such usage galloping generalities because they seek to cover so much ground and, as you are intimating, all the situations they seek to cover are sometimes at polar opposites to each other in essence. Also, there is the greatest difficulty for human beings to assess these distinctions in each other for it is literally impossible for you to see the complete, developing material, mental, and spiritual circumstances, let alone the souls of those who either call themselves, or are referred to by others, as martyrs.But let me point out one way, anyway, to assess these acts, and that is along the lines of your being what we call creatures of freewill dignity. So when you try to assess any particular act of martyrdom, use this as a tool. (Yes…) Try to determine as best you can how much of this action was the freewill choice of that individual, even though this opens up the psychological question of: can this giving up of one’s life for what one believes in, can this be a freewill choice; or is it always determined solely by the pressure of unavoidable circumstances along with varying degrees of mental pathology.
You may have to deny true martyrdom to those who are forced or coerced into their acts with no choice whatsoever. They are more like sacrificial lambs who are led to the slaughter for someone else’s purposes they perhaps neither understand nor feel they have any choice in the matter. Here I am pointing at the enormous psychological and cultural pressures that are brought upon individuals to become so-called martyrs for one cause or another. In this you would have to include all those who have given up their lives for their tribe, or city-state, or country, in all the wars that mankind has ever fought. (Right) You would have to include those who are still living who had to kill or horribly maim others, for that also has always been an intrinsic part of warfare, and leaves its own deep scars in the minds of the survivors.
On the other end of this spectrum from those so coerced and blindly being led to the slaughter are those individuals who, in full consciousness and however terrified devotion, in spite of trembling hands and minds and spirits, do commit themselves to what they feel in their deepest heart is some betterment, some advancement for their fellows. Here you are confronted with a question of judgment, for sometimes it is much more difficult or even painful to live for a cause than to die for one. This is a kind of commitment that is not often considered--the devotion and the giving of ones continuing living for a cause, because it calls not for one supreme act but for continuing, day by day acts upon awakening every morning. This is similar to what I faced in my life as Jesus--what to do every morning, especially when I--you might say--got the ball rolling, and would awaken to look out upon those crowds come for no other reason than to be with me and hear what I had to say, see what I would do. I can only say for myself that I never considered myself a martyr. But then I had--in my later stages after my baptism, and even before with my Thought Adjuster--a very rare and almost humanly inconceivable relationship with my Father. So that word martyrdom is, like many others, a large generality and it is used to cover the full spectrum from persons who acted with no freedom whatsoever--what you might call a cowardly acquiescence to social forces brought upon him or her. The other extreme are the clear-eyed and highly rational, devoted souls who willingly gave their lives to the betterment of their fellows--and all that implies--by either dying or continuing to live for others. Although, again only generally, those who chose to devote their lives and continue to live for others, you call saints. That does help clarify these different situations and choices?
Student: Yes, it does, especially that you did not consider yourself a martyr. But is there a sense in which martyrdom is considered a healthy thing--from the position of modern psychology?--if one is really choosing it?
MICHAEL: Definitely yes, going by the definition of a martyr as a truly free-willed person who is willing to die for a perceived good. In that sense, every culture which has ever existed on Urantia has called these people heroes, especially in warfare or life-and-death situations. That should be definition enough. Yes, it is possible for an individual to choose to go into a situation where death is almost assured. Whether or not that sacrifice is truly beneficial is, again, so difficult for another human being to assess in terms of the full causes and total consequences. This is left to higher spiritual beings to adjudge. Even in the beginning Morontia life it may still be difficult for that individual to realize for himself or herself the complete nature of their sacrifice, and whether it did any good or not. I’m sorry if that leaves the question so much up in the air, but that is where it is with each individual act. Student: We can leave it there. One more question: why, in your own life as Jesus, did you feel it was the Father’s will that you drink the cup--so to speak--to allow the Crucifixion to occur? Doesn’t that also mean--by your own definition of someone willing to give up their life--that you were a martyr at the end of your life?
(The Crucifixion)
MICHAEL: My son, I was a very unique case. There have been few human beings who had the power of choice I had--actually none as a self-conscious Creator Son of God. As I announced beforehand, I knew I had the power to lay down my life and pick it up again. My choice in following my Father’s will was so complete and unequivocal within myself that I didn’t consider myself a martyr. Also, consider how my death by crucifixion is so unusual among all my fellow Master Creator Sons, who finished their human type incarnations peacefully. In other words, it was not some universal requirement. It was my choice insofar as I had the power to do otherwise. In that choice I was going along with what my Father and I together determined was the best response to a unique and highly complex situation. It was a responsibility of mine to fulfill prophesy, to be--able--to choose to end my life in that way, and yet there was nothing for me of what you might call ordinary human vain-glory in martyrdom. I was truly humbled by the experience, and so it also demonstrated how humility is such a spiritual blessing. It was for me, and is for those who understand it, the final hallmark of my fully human nature then, and that within that nature I could still choose to do what I did. It became a living truth, for all our human children on all of our millions of worlds, that what you experience as a human being, as an experiential being, has no substitute in all reality. There is nothing you are required to do--even experience death--that is not--in some truly Supreme/Ultimate sense--necessary. We can trust that our Father is not playing games with us.
There is nothing required of us--that is, in our response to a situation, if not the situation itself--that is not His will. Our own devotion to Him can only begin to match His devotion to us; and yet that is our true devotion. I was, in a very humble sense, proud and fulfilled myself I could experience our devotion for each other. This eternal experience is fully equal to the price, my son, we pay for it. This is God’s greatest gift to us, that we can have such a freedom; we can have such a dignity of will and dedication. So be in my peace.
Student: Wow! Thank you. I will ponder your words.
Student: Good evening, Michael. As we discussed before, I wonder what to do when I bring the concepts of the Urantia book--your teachings and your life--to people, to help them escape spiritual bondage. I really like to give them the idea they’re spiritually free, they have freewill dignity. That seems to be the reality they don’t understand. Maybe I don’t understand it. In addition: not only that God creates our personality, but actually indwells us. It makes it so much more an exciting adventure--all the social interactions I’ve been having. There’s such a need to learn all I can about their spiritual ideas and concepts, and what part keeps them in spiritual bondage, what part lets them know they’re children of a loving God. Thank you.
(Evaluating another’s spiritual freedom)
MICHAEL: My daughter, the key word is action. Your relationship to the Supreme Being of time and space out here is one of doing. As your Urantia book puts it: religion acts. It may not always act wisely, but it acts. Religion--the fundamental relationship of you with the Supreme Being, and the dignity you have as a creation of His--only exists in freewill action. So even though thought is action, you need to be careful about getting too abstract in these things, and keep that relationship direct. When you are most humbly aware of your own inability to finally assess anyone, even yourself, keep in mind while you try to evaluate someone else’s free will, their spiritual freedom, it is more or less how they are acting, how they are manifesting themselves. From a purely spiritual point of view, just looking at their spirit and soul--both of which are somewhat unconditioned by time and space--you could say every person’s dignity is nearly certain. But in a social context of how you relate to each other, your dignity is very dependant upon how freely or personally-creative you can act and manifest your spirit-quality with them. And so it appears in many social situations you have a lot of very undignified behavior, to say the least. An extreme example of this is the willful criminal preying upon others stemming from a pure laziness and indifference of spirit. That is part and parcel of your societies and what you have to contend with, with your massive legal systems, prisons and jails. The only solution to all this criminality is indeed the more genuine spiritual dignity of a highly energetic and fully committed responsibility. Does this help answer your question, my daughter? I caught this in your wondering how to interpret these rather foreign ways--to you--in which other folks are expressing themselves.
Student: I guess it’s--on my part--a recognition of how people, myself included, don’t have free will, and self-awareness of spirit, and the ability to act. It’s all covered over and crusted over with all kinds of different self-conceptions and ideas, and that just keeps so many of us living a life that isn’t free. They constrict our ability to act creatively in cooperation with God.
MICHAEL: Exactly. That’s the conditioning we’ve talked so much about; and how to get out of it, how to get beyond it. You’re doing well, my daughter, in keeping open and taking these new folks in. You’re feeling the difference between being judgmental in some kind of total sense, and yet needing to make these spiritual evaluations as you go along. Be in my peace.
Student: Yes, Michael, I’ve been trying to impress upon my daughter that I do support her, if not in the way she wants. I support her growth, her soul, but I guess we see that differently at times. She’s all involved in getting married and moving into a new home, and I’d like to see them living for a while together--without me around to lean on--before they made the big decision. Because she does keep leaning more and more on me financially. I trying to rest and be still with all of this, and not be self-righteous, but be truly supportive. I say things but they’re not really heard. I hope I’m wrong about her and her boyfriend’s fundamental relationship, which doesn’t seem that healthy, but I’ve been seeing it for two years now. Regardless of this, I want to be in a place of peace and genuine helpfulness so they can experience the benefit of that too for themselves. I don’t want to be a martyr. (much laughter)
(Stating what you truly believe)
MICHAEL: Well, that’s very healthy. It’d be that kind of martyrdom forced upon you by circumstances. I applaud your willingness to talk these things out because life often presents you with a situation, with those you love, where there is some disagreement of ways and means, and even ends; and where, in addition, you are required to avoid all kinds of co-dependence or coercion. It may require you to state what you truly believe--your values, and that you cannot support that which goes totally against your own moral sense of what is right and wrong. I think it’s good you make this clear, and be open to hear her side of things as well. It’s really nice if the other person can realize you are being so honest and forthright out of a sense of love and a desire to keep the connection alive, even if you cannot support them as they would like. But this may not happen. You still need the courage to state you own case and be open to the other’s, and then be content to let them be. You help this way by being the good example of what is possible, even what is best in the situation. This holds the future open for two individuals--two unique beings to relate to each other very honestly and directly with a lot of respect and love. It seems you are achieving a large degree of this, even though there is some difference of maturity involved.
Student: The thing I question for myself is, is there something else going on that I’m not discerning? I’ve prayed upon this but I can’t find anything. I really do wish for them the best, and there is my little grand-daughter to consider. And I do see the wisdom of them being on their own. But it’s all these wedding plans that keep getting larger and larger, and all the expense--but she doesn’t want to hear about that.
MICHAEL: Again, it calls for what you call being up-front, and just, sometimes, saying No!--the money’s simply not there; or maybe, keep in mind that marriage is not so much about the ceremony and some huge, lavish party, but more about the spiritual bonding between two people. So many of these human ceremonies can get swamped in materialism.
Student: Well, I’ve already brought all of that up. (much laughter) I tried to impress upon her…but it’s like the wedding day is the only thing in her life, the most important day in her life. It seems like there‘s so much ego involved. And it’s only one day. I thought having a baby would be the most important day. But she has this whole fantasy of how her wedding should be--I sometimes think regardless of who she’s marrying! I don’t want to dampen her enthusiasm but…
MICHAEL: This was what I meant about having to declare there are things you simply cannot support due to your sense of values of what means what, what is worth what. Sometimes you almost have to demand respect. (My exact words…{more laughter}) Then I can only encourage you to keep up your positive attitude and your orientation of being open and reaching for that which you may not yet be aware of. That’s a good orientation.
Student: Have you ever had the Chinese water-torture of a relentless daughter? (now everyone broke up) It’s like on and on and on, from the moment I wake up to the moment I go to sleep. I am grateful that I can sense my own core, my own sense of who I am, and not allow myself--tempting as it is--to get caught up in her distractions.
MICHAEL: Mother Spirit and I do enjoy it when you come to visit us and take a deep rest in our presence. It’s why we’re here for you.
Student: I wish I could do that for my daughter; and for her boyfriend too.
MICHAEL: There’s the differential of maturity I mentioned. Keep in mind you’ve earned this deep soul-sanctuary within yourself, we once called Home Base, where you can be aware of our, and our Father’s presence, and your own soul. And so must they in their own lives. They too must earn this through living experience for which, as I said, there is no substitute. Sometimes people have to try to build their whole lives upon one day, and use that as a point upon which to pivot their entire world and future, to discover by its utter failure what an illusion it was. (Yep!...{and again--actually there was a lot of breaking up all through this section}) Carry on, and keep reaching for and finding my peace. We are here for you. Student: Thank you; and let the truth prevail in all of this--please!
(Truth does ultimately prevail)
MICHAEL: It really does. That is what prevails. But as we realize on our level, and you come to learn on your level, that while God’s will does prevail on the Supreme and Ultimate levels of cosmic reality--as well as the Absolute and Infinite--it does not always on the finite and material. That is the nitty-gritty at its grittiest; but that is the very essence of your free will, of the finite creature’s ability to--in the extreme--even choose to cease to exist. So God’s will does not always obtain in your finite, personal experience of life. That too is part of the necessity I talked about, the necessity on your part, my children, to realize this and hopefully, with all your heart and soul and will, and even joyful acceptance, glory in what might seem to be the hardest gift of our Father to you all. Call it: being human. This was something I too had to experience as the Supreme/Ultimate price to pay for my very status as a Master Creator Son of God. It became a bottomless font of appreciation for me. And both Mother Spirit and I are fulfilled that so many of our children--almost without exception--do earn on their own that selfsame realization and appreciation of--all--they’ve had to undergo. My peace be with you. Good evening.
END
Michael--November 3, 2008
Marin T/M Group--Mill Valley, California--U.S.A.
MICHAEL--T/R-JL
- (Living for Each Other: Social Reality)
- (Living and Loving to Learn)
- (Independence, Co-dependence, Dependence)
- (Martyrdom)
- (The Crucifixion)
- (Evaluating Another’s Spiritual Freedom)
- (Stating What You Truly Believe)
- (Truth Does Ultimately Prevail)
MICHAEL: Good evening, this is Michael. Mother Spirit and I are happy to acknowledge your warm welcome and invitation to be with you. Though our spirits hover about you, keeping company with your Father Fragment, we do enjoy it so much when you turn your faces reflectively back toward us. Reach out your arms to feel our loving embrace. You are very dear to our hearts and, like parents everywhere, though we have our own independent existence, and we too--Mother Spirit and I--live for ourselves and are complete in ourselves, still you add so much to us. We are delighted to reflect back to you the fact you are spiritual, creative beings and each of you has your own unique center from which you extend yourselves out into this time and space realm of ours--and do things. It’s in that doing that you are most truly the sons and daughters of the Supreme Being, the God of time and space.
(Living for each other: social reality)
For just as you too live your own lives for yourselves, my children, you also live your lives for each other. Your souls are filled with your experiences of each other and this is what you most fondly carry on into eternity, the friends and associates you have known. All the other initially very strange beings you will encounter out in the Morontia realms--all the friends and acquaintances you will make from all the other worlds of our Local Universe--millions of worlds each with its own unique history, its own unique peoples; all these personal beings will fill your souls to overflowing. So if not yet, you will certainly come to treasure the social potential--the social life that is so much a part of God’s plans.
It is fitting that on this eve of your general elections you feel a sense of civic duty, a sense of social responsibility to play your part to bring all your accumulative soul-wisdom to bear on that moment when you express your wisdom in choices. Mother Spirit and I are delighted in this particular general election of yours, you have such a record turnout, such a larger percentage of all of you feeling not only a sense of duty but also a profound interest and curiosity about: what is this thing called government? What are these institutions established among peoples--as your own Declaration of Independence and Constitution state? It’s wonderful when you can approach these institutions you were born and raised with, with a fresh curiosity and see them anew as if for the first time.It’s in times like these when so many old, ingrained political habits can fall away and make room for those fresh, creative ideals that are so desperately needed to cope with the evermore accelerated changes on your planet. This larger turnout of interested voters is a direct representation of a new flexibility, not only in the most practical sense of getting out there and voting, but a willingness to look at things in a new light, a more present-day light. Mother Spirit spoke last time of being adaptable to changing circumstances, and all those who are unable to do this. One of these tragic ironies is not being able to keep up and adapt to the very success you enjoy on so many levels.Certain historical truisms of the impossibility of people knowing what government is doing because of the distances involved, or because of very rigid social hierarchies, your modern media now can cut through all of that and achieve the ideal you’ve only recently articulated--the ideal of transparency. This is the sheer ability of the electorate to know what’s happening so that they can hold their representatives responsible. For it has been ever the case, my children, right from the earliest stages of tribal elders, that there is a certain arrogance of power, a certain noblesse-oblige, a certain deliberate obfuscation, to hide what is essentially the personal greed that has always been with so many of your leaders. If you think about it, this has been a natural state of affairs when you consider what primitive origins you have.
Yet as we’ve said before, never regret that the human race has had to come up through these stages of social immaturity. The ideal is to learn from them and keep going, keep maturing, keep developing these principles of transparency and responsibility. And you are. In your country you only have to look back a few decades ago to when all the decisions were made in the so-called smoke-filled back rooms behind the great circus shows out front. Now just the need to fill the time of all the new cable television stations, and the internet and other sources, with news, means by comparison to any time in the past you are literally inundated with political rhetoric. But this is good. You can get your candidates out there in public and run them through their paces. You can have at least some small opportunity to probe their deeper feelings and understandings, even record their promises to play back at a later date to remind them just what it was they announced they could do.
(Living and loving to learn)
Welmek gave a wonderful series of lessons one time on learning and loving and living, and all their six combinations: learning to love; loving to learn; living to love; etc. Chalk this election up to the learning part of that invitation, the larger possibility you have now to learn about your candidates, and the form of government you have, and especially how it really works. For ultimately you are learning about yourselves and where as a society you stand along a whole continuum of cultural evolution. Read that chapter in your Urantia book about Life on a Neighboring Planet that is a little more advanced socially and politically than yourselves. Come up with your own ideas of where you would like to see the world’s political processes go next. Are you truly willing to see a genuine planetary democracy where all points of view have the ability to be expressed?We do congratulate you, my children, for making leaps and bounds along this social/political dimension, especially on the rather free-wheeling internet. It wasn’t too long ago no one knew what it was to have a small TV-and-typewriter sitting on a desk in their house where, for a few cents of electricity, they could bring in the world and literally thousands of points of view. In fact you can be so buffeted about by so much raw information that we like to remind you from time to time where to find peace and unification within yourselves, in stillness. Here you find not only your Father Fragment and the presences of Mother Spirit and myself, but even a sense of who you are purely in yourselves. With the great super-conscious mind you have comes the profound desire and ability of your transcendent personality to unite and make sense out of this sheer deluge of information.You are learning how to be open and take things in fearlessly and let them settle where they will with a profound, new-found objectivity. Pray and call upon my Spirit of Truth to help orient your own spirit towards truth, and the courage to follow where it leads, even if counter to your most cherished and long-held prejudices and opinions. Stay loose, be flexible. Be open to an evermore closely integrated, and therefore evermore delicately balanced, association of the major nation/state societies of the planet.
Your recent financial difficulties have been an enormous lesson for you to learn just how integrated and co-dependent the peoples of the world are becoming. You are fulfilling an ages-old dream of an emerging planetary consciousness. As we have said, the world soul has always been here. Also, the extra-human spiritual family of Urantia has been here for thousands of years doing their part to help you evolve your civilizations. But just so recently--in large part due to the Second World War and its immediate aftermath when the human race faced for the first time the possibility of annihilating large numbers of itself with your new-found atomic energy, these same circumstances and the need to meet them brought about the beginnings of a true world-wide communication system that keeps getting faster and more integrated.These are amazing, marvelous times in any planet’s development, and if it is any comfort to you, my children, know that all planets do come through similar stages even with loyal Planetary Princes and staff, loyal Material Sons and Daughters. In the day to day lives of their citizens there is and always will be those moral decisions to make to fulfill their social and civic responsibilities and duties. So go forward with light hearts and enjoy casting your votes; and keep a sharp eye on the continuing outcome.As we tease and remind you from time to time, for human beings life is much a great experiment. There is so much you can’t know until you try, and the bigger part of that is: always, when the dust has settled, stay open to the results. Stay loose; be flexible; be open. Meet tomorrow with cheerful souls, welcoming what the new day brings. We’re tickled to be sharing this adventure with you. We offer all the love and the support you can open your hearts to receive. Go forward with our blessings, my dear children.
If you have any questions or comments this evening, here I am.Student: Just a comment this evening, Father Michael. Thank you for all your support, and your love, and understanding and guidance.
(Independence, co-dependence, dependence)
MICHAEL: You are very welcome, my son. You do our hearts good when you respond to us. So keep in mind what I said tonight about all these social dimensions you can enjoy of independence, and co-dependence, and even the sheer dependence that we all know and share--in our Father. It’s a wonderful humility to be both aware of, and to feel at home in, such an enormous creation of personal beings, and I enjoyed tonight touching upon a few of those social/civic aspects that even Mother Spirit and I share with you in kind. We too have our own society, if you will, of Michael Creator Sons, and Mother Spirits, spread out across these galaxies of ours. We too have our duties and responsibilities, and we do enjoy them so. Keep realizing you are in my peace. (Thank you)
Student: Hello, Father/Brother Michael. I have at least one question. I got into a discussion with an old friend about Christianity, and in particular about martyrdom--the meaning of the phenomena of martyrs and people with martyr-complexes. He’s kind-of a psychologist who thinks that anything having to do with martyrdom is obviously pathological and needs to be analyzed and fixed. But I’m of the view that martyrdom has a double meaning, or maybe more.
I agreed there is a kind of a pathological version--somebody who is sacrificing way too much, in too much a co-dependent way--as we say; and you mentioned that relationship tonight. I agreed that could be the case. But in the Christian tradition martyrs are also saints, and that has a positive connotation as well in that you’re laying down your life for your friends and for humanity. As you said, there can be no greater love than to give your life for others, and that indeed, in fact, is martyrdom--is it not? And your life was concluded with what I believe could be properly considered martyrdom--in the positive sense. So I wonder if you have any comments about that word and how today, in modern times, we should regard martyrs, and martyrdom, and the psychology of that? Thanks.
(Martyrdom)
MICHAEL: Yes, my son, I congratulate you on your ability to see such a wide spectrum of usage with that word. I remember those times Mother Spirit and I have called such usage galloping generalities because they seek to cover so much ground and, as you are intimating, all the situations they seek to cover are sometimes at polar opposites to each other in essence. Also, there is the greatest difficulty for human beings to assess these distinctions in each other for it is literally impossible for you to see the complete, developing material, mental, and spiritual circumstances, let alone the souls of those who either call themselves, or are referred to by others, as martyrs.But let me point out one way, anyway, to assess these acts, and that is along the lines of your being what we call creatures of freewill dignity. So when you try to assess any particular act of martyrdom, use this as a tool. (Yes…) Try to determine as best you can how much of this action was the freewill choice of that individual, even though this opens up the psychological question of: can this giving up of one’s life for what one believes in, can this be a freewill choice; or is it always determined solely by the pressure of unavoidable circumstances along with varying degrees of mental pathology.
You may have to deny true martyrdom to those who are forced or coerced into their acts with no choice whatsoever. They are more like sacrificial lambs who are led to the slaughter for someone else’s purposes they perhaps neither understand nor feel they have any choice in the matter. Here I am pointing at the enormous psychological and cultural pressures that are brought upon individuals to become so-called martyrs for one cause or another. In this you would have to include all those who have given up their lives for their tribe, or city-state, or country, in all the wars that mankind has ever fought. (Right) You would have to include those who are still living who had to kill or horribly maim others, for that also has always been an intrinsic part of warfare, and leaves its own deep scars in the minds of the survivors.
On the other end of this spectrum from those so coerced and blindly being led to the slaughter are those individuals who, in full consciousness and however terrified devotion, in spite of trembling hands and minds and spirits, do commit themselves to what they feel in their deepest heart is some betterment, some advancement for their fellows. Here you are confronted with a question of judgment, for sometimes it is much more difficult or even painful to live for a cause than to die for one. This is a kind of commitment that is not often considered--the devotion and the giving of ones continuing living for a cause, because it calls not for one supreme act but for continuing, day by day acts upon awakening every morning. This is similar to what I faced in my life as Jesus--what to do every morning, especially when I--you might say--got the ball rolling, and would awaken to look out upon those crowds come for no other reason than to be with me and hear what I had to say, see what I would do. I can only say for myself that I never considered myself a martyr. But then I had--in my later stages after my baptism, and even before with my Thought Adjuster--a very rare and almost humanly inconceivable relationship with my Father. So that word martyrdom is, like many others, a large generality and it is used to cover the full spectrum from persons who acted with no freedom whatsoever--what you might call a cowardly acquiescence to social forces brought upon him or her. The other extreme are the clear-eyed and highly rational, devoted souls who willingly gave their lives to the betterment of their fellows--and all that implies--by either dying or continuing to live for others. Although, again only generally, those who chose to devote their lives and continue to live for others, you call saints. That does help clarify these different situations and choices?
Student: Yes, it does, especially that you did not consider yourself a martyr. But is there a sense in which martyrdom is considered a healthy thing--from the position of modern psychology?--if one is really choosing it?
MICHAEL: Definitely yes, going by the definition of a martyr as a truly free-willed person who is willing to die for a perceived good. In that sense, every culture which has ever existed on Urantia has called these people heroes, especially in warfare or life-and-death situations. That should be definition enough. Yes, it is possible for an individual to choose to go into a situation where death is almost assured. Whether or not that sacrifice is truly beneficial is, again, so difficult for another human being to assess in terms of the full causes and total consequences. This is left to higher spiritual beings to adjudge. Even in the beginning Morontia life it may still be difficult for that individual to realize for himself or herself the complete nature of their sacrifice, and whether it did any good or not. I’m sorry if that leaves the question so much up in the air, but that is where it is with each individual act. Student: We can leave it there. One more question: why, in your own life as Jesus, did you feel it was the Father’s will that you drink the cup--so to speak--to allow the Crucifixion to occur? Doesn’t that also mean--by your own definition of someone willing to give up their life--that you were a martyr at the end of your life?
(The Crucifixion)
MICHAEL: My son, I was a very unique case. There have been few human beings who had the power of choice I had--actually none as a self-conscious Creator Son of God. As I announced beforehand, I knew I had the power to lay down my life and pick it up again. My choice in following my Father’s will was so complete and unequivocal within myself that I didn’t consider myself a martyr. Also, consider how my death by crucifixion is so unusual among all my fellow Master Creator Sons, who finished their human type incarnations peacefully. In other words, it was not some universal requirement. It was my choice insofar as I had the power to do otherwise. In that choice I was going along with what my Father and I together determined was the best response to a unique and highly complex situation. It was a responsibility of mine to fulfill prophesy, to be--able--to choose to end my life in that way, and yet there was nothing for me of what you might call ordinary human vain-glory in martyrdom. I was truly humbled by the experience, and so it also demonstrated how humility is such a spiritual blessing. It was for me, and is for those who understand it, the final hallmark of my fully human nature then, and that within that nature I could still choose to do what I did. It became a living truth, for all our human children on all of our millions of worlds, that what you experience as a human being, as an experiential being, has no substitute in all reality. There is nothing you are required to do--even experience death--that is not--in some truly Supreme/Ultimate sense--necessary. We can trust that our Father is not playing games with us.
There is nothing required of us--that is, in our response to a situation, if not the situation itself--that is not His will. Our own devotion to Him can only begin to match His devotion to us; and yet that is our true devotion. I was, in a very humble sense, proud and fulfilled myself I could experience our devotion for each other. This eternal experience is fully equal to the price, my son, we pay for it. This is God’s greatest gift to us, that we can have such a freedom; we can have such a dignity of will and dedication. So be in my peace.
Student: Wow! Thank you. I will ponder your words.
Student: Good evening, Michael. As we discussed before, I wonder what to do when I bring the concepts of the Urantia book--your teachings and your life--to people, to help them escape spiritual bondage. I really like to give them the idea they’re spiritually free, they have freewill dignity. That seems to be the reality they don’t understand. Maybe I don’t understand it. In addition: not only that God creates our personality, but actually indwells us. It makes it so much more an exciting adventure--all the social interactions I’ve been having. There’s such a need to learn all I can about their spiritual ideas and concepts, and what part keeps them in spiritual bondage, what part lets them know they’re children of a loving God. Thank you.
(Evaluating another’s spiritual freedom)
MICHAEL: My daughter, the key word is action. Your relationship to the Supreme Being of time and space out here is one of doing. As your Urantia book puts it: religion acts. It may not always act wisely, but it acts. Religion--the fundamental relationship of you with the Supreme Being, and the dignity you have as a creation of His--only exists in freewill action. So even though thought is action, you need to be careful about getting too abstract in these things, and keep that relationship direct. When you are most humbly aware of your own inability to finally assess anyone, even yourself, keep in mind while you try to evaluate someone else’s free will, their spiritual freedom, it is more or less how they are acting, how they are manifesting themselves. From a purely spiritual point of view, just looking at their spirit and soul--both of which are somewhat unconditioned by time and space--you could say every person’s dignity is nearly certain. But in a social context of how you relate to each other, your dignity is very dependant upon how freely or personally-creative you can act and manifest your spirit-quality with them. And so it appears in many social situations you have a lot of very undignified behavior, to say the least. An extreme example of this is the willful criminal preying upon others stemming from a pure laziness and indifference of spirit. That is part and parcel of your societies and what you have to contend with, with your massive legal systems, prisons and jails. The only solution to all this criminality is indeed the more genuine spiritual dignity of a highly energetic and fully committed responsibility. Does this help answer your question, my daughter? I caught this in your wondering how to interpret these rather foreign ways--to you--in which other folks are expressing themselves.
Student: I guess it’s--on my part--a recognition of how people, myself included, don’t have free will, and self-awareness of spirit, and the ability to act. It’s all covered over and crusted over with all kinds of different self-conceptions and ideas, and that just keeps so many of us living a life that isn’t free. They constrict our ability to act creatively in cooperation with God.
MICHAEL: Exactly. That’s the conditioning we’ve talked so much about; and how to get out of it, how to get beyond it. You’re doing well, my daughter, in keeping open and taking these new folks in. You’re feeling the difference between being judgmental in some kind of total sense, and yet needing to make these spiritual evaluations as you go along. Be in my peace.
Student: Yes, Michael, I’ve been trying to impress upon my daughter that I do support her, if not in the way she wants. I support her growth, her soul, but I guess we see that differently at times. She’s all involved in getting married and moving into a new home, and I’d like to see them living for a while together--without me around to lean on--before they made the big decision. Because she does keep leaning more and more on me financially. I trying to rest and be still with all of this, and not be self-righteous, but be truly supportive. I say things but they’re not really heard. I hope I’m wrong about her and her boyfriend’s fundamental relationship, which doesn’t seem that healthy, but I’ve been seeing it for two years now. Regardless of this, I want to be in a place of peace and genuine helpfulness so they can experience the benefit of that too for themselves. I don’t want to be a martyr. (much laughter)
(Stating what you truly believe)
MICHAEL: Well, that’s very healthy. It’d be that kind of martyrdom forced upon you by circumstances. I applaud your willingness to talk these things out because life often presents you with a situation, with those you love, where there is some disagreement of ways and means, and even ends; and where, in addition, you are required to avoid all kinds of co-dependence or coercion. It may require you to state what you truly believe--your values, and that you cannot support that which goes totally against your own moral sense of what is right and wrong. I think it’s good you make this clear, and be open to hear her side of things as well. It’s really nice if the other person can realize you are being so honest and forthright out of a sense of love and a desire to keep the connection alive, even if you cannot support them as they would like. But this may not happen. You still need the courage to state you own case and be open to the other’s, and then be content to let them be. You help this way by being the good example of what is possible, even what is best in the situation. This holds the future open for two individuals--two unique beings to relate to each other very honestly and directly with a lot of respect and love. It seems you are achieving a large degree of this, even though there is some difference of maturity involved.
Student: The thing I question for myself is, is there something else going on that I’m not discerning? I’ve prayed upon this but I can’t find anything. I really do wish for them the best, and there is my little grand-daughter to consider. And I do see the wisdom of them being on their own. But it’s all these wedding plans that keep getting larger and larger, and all the expense--but she doesn’t want to hear about that.
MICHAEL: Again, it calls for what you call being up-front, and just, sometimes, saying No!--the money’s simply not there; or maybe, keep in mind that marriage is not so much about the ceremony and some huge, lavish party, but more about the spiritual bonding between two people. So many of these human ceremonies can get swamped in materialism.
Student: Well, I’ve already brought all of that up. (much laughter) I tried to impress upon her…but it’s like the wedding day is the only thing in her life, the most important day in her life. It seems like there‘s so much ego involved. And it’s only one day. I thought having a baby would be the most important day. But she has this whole fantasy of how her wedding should be--I sometimes think regardless of who she’s marrying! I don’t want to dampen her enthusiasm but…
MICHAEL: This was what I meant about having to declare there are things you simply cannot support due to your sense of values of what means what, what is worth what. Sometimes you almost have to demand respect. (My exact words…{more laughter}) Then I can only encourage you to keep up your positive attitude and your orientation of being open and reaching for that which you may not yet be aware of. That’s a good orientation.
Student: Have you ever had the Chinese water-torture of a relentless daughter? (now everyone broke up) It’s like on and on and on, from the moment I wake up to the moment I go to sleep. I am grateful that I can sense my own core, my own sense of who I am, and not allow myself--tempting as it is--to get caught up in her distractions.
MICHAEL: Mother Spirit and I do enjoy it when you come to visit us and take a deep rest in our presence. It’s why we’re here for you.
Student: I wish I could do that for my daughter; and for her boyfriend too.
MICHAEL: There’s the differential of maturity I mentioned. Keep in mind you’ve earned this deep soul-sanctuary within yourself, we once called Home Base, where you can be aware of our, and our Father’s presence, and your own soul. And so must they in their own lives. They too must earn this through living experience for which, as I said, there is no substitute. Sometimes people have to try to build their whole lives upon one day, and use that as a point upon which to pivot their entire world and future, to discover by its utter failure what an illusion it was. (Yep!...{and again--actually there was a lot of breaking up all through this section}) Carry on, and keep reaching for and finding my peace. We are here for you. Student: Thank you; and let the truth prevail in all of this--please!
(Truth does ultimately prevail)
MICHAEL: It really does. That is what prevails. But as we realize on our level, and you come to learn on your level, that while God’s will does prevail on the Supreme and Ultimate levels of cosmic reality--as well as the Absolute and Infinite--it does not always on the finite and material. That is the nitty-gritty at its grittiest; but that is the very essence of your free will, of the finite creature’s ability to--in the extreme--even choose to cease to exist. So God’s will does not always obtain in your finite, personal experience of life. That too is part of the necessity I talked about, the necessity on your part, my children, to realize this and hopefully, with all your heart and soul and will, and even joyful acceptance, glory in what might seem to be the hardest gift of our Father to you all. Call it: being human. This was something I too had to experience as the Supreme/Ultimate price to pay for my very status as a Master Creator Son of God. It became a bottomless font of appreciation for me. And both Mother Spirit and I are fulfilled that so many of our children--almost without exception--do earn on their own that selfsame realization and appreciation of--all--they’ve had to undergo. My peace be with you. Good evening.
END