Tomas Vol II - Pocatello, Idaho - Sep 01, 1995  thru  Nov 10, 1995 - Part 6 of 6

POCATELLO, IDAHO

VOLUME II, Part 6 of 6

September 1, 1995 - November 10, 1995

C O N T E N T S

This Volume covers Tomas' two-year Internship with Daniel and dates from the time he was invited to come to Southeast Idaho to co-teach with Daniel until he was assigned by Rayson to his own teacher base; that sojourn will be presented in Volume III.

Rutha is TR#1, Gerdean is TR#2, Isaac is TR#3 and PamElla is TR#4 except when otherwise indicated.  Every session opens and closes with a prayer, not included. 

 
POCATELLO, IDAHO
VOLUME II, Part 6 of 6

*****

DATE:  September 1, 1995
TEACHERS:  DANIEL, TOMAS
TOPIC:  Appreciation in Life

Daniel (TR #1):  Greetings my friends, I am Daniel, your guide and teacher. Tomas and I welcome you on this evening. We have thoroughly enjoyed your thoughts and your companionship.

The mode for continual growth is very much the workings of your Indwelling Spirit and your willingness to allow the growth to continue. You have demonstrated time and again your wanting and desiring to know, your wanting and desiring to ascertain greater knowledge and through this you have been at that place where you must look at your own nature, your own ways. You must take stock of your values, your morals, your actions.

When one continues to be in the framework of God-consciousness one naturally displays those attributes which are righteous, which are growth promoting. You have all been participants in this growth. It has been a challenge for many even more so. Each of you have been placed in that situation where you have, through your desire to continue to allow the will of the Father to lead you, been forced to lay aside, to strive to change a personal trait, characteristic, behavior or habit.

For this striving, this work, you have realized a change in relationships in all areas: work, recreation, spiritual outlets, in your relations with peoples you come in contact with, in all phases of your life. You have grown into a person who is most appreciative of the understanding gleaned and you are at that point where this appreciation is bringing you into a level that will put you in closer contact with others, that is, by your actions you will be a harbinger of love. Tomas, and I wish to address you this evening regarding that aspect of appreciation.

Appreciation is not an innate characteristic but is one that develops and is progressive. It is one that not all mortals are able to fully develop during their lifetimes. Certainly you understand that the infant is aware of caretakers, that the infant and the toddler go to these caretakers to have their needs met. But it is only as the child grows in their understanding that they develop a sense of appreciation for what has been given by the caretaker. This is the method by which humans grow in appreciation, by steadily becoming more self aware.

As you become knowledgeable about who you are you instinctively realize the importance of others around you and through this realization there develops a greater sense of appreciating each individual for who and what they are and you begin to appreciate all the understandings that arise in a relationship. You furthermore begin to appreciate people and things for the benefit that you derive from them.

There is a real dividing line between appreciation and genuine gratitude and that of the ego wanting and desiring only those things that benefit him. Appreciation is underlined and supported by the essence of love. For those of you who genuinely appreciate something feels inwardly a connection to that which is appreciated. You appreciate because it is a gift not because you demand. Because you are given something you genuinely come from an inner space that transcends the gift itself. This is appreciation on a human level.

It is much the same on a spiritual level. Think back, if you will, to your younger days, to the times when you thanked God, but did it out of fear of what the repercussions could be if you did not give thanks. Those who are in the ascending career of God-consciousness thank God from a genuine appreciation for what they have been given.

And so the point of this lesson is to ask you to look into your lives and realize what appreciation means to you for you will undoubtedly know that you are moving into a higher realm in your understanding of the overcare and generosity of the First Source and Center. Spiritually you will grow in a mode of such appreciation as it is one aspect that is a part of worship. And with these remarks Tomas is ready to speak.

TOMAS (TR #2):   Good evening friends and companions. I am glad to once again be in this company and to participate in the format which has been given to us. I have appreciated Daniel's wisdom in his presentation this evening and I would ask you now to appreciate your status as caretakers of those who are now responding to your light.

Your light burns steadily and is no longer hidden under a bushel. Your efforts have contributed to this steady illumination in our venture into social fragrance. Always appreciate that your status is as a result of your efforts as Daniel has stated, but now your growth asks you to appreciate the growth of those who have not been benefited by your steady ascension.

There is a responsibility in radiating light. It is not wise to blind your fellows and expect your light to shine steadily as they enter into these realms of soul searching and development. Appreciate the level of understanding of your friends and appreciate that it takes time to develop what you have attained. Never overlook your responsibility to your younger siblings. One moment, I am going to cut this TR loose.  [Pause]

DANIEL (TR #1):   My friends, I am Daniel. The ability to maintain focus is difficult for the TR’s this evening. Please bear with us.

It is always important that you help your brothers and sisters on their pathway by shouldering them through your example. When you are ever vigilant about being thankful and expressing thanks and gratitude your brothers and sisters will take note, and in this process you plant seeds that will in time help them to appreciate, love and be grateful in the higher sense, not just out of niceness or manners but out of genuine love coming from within. As was stated earlier, this aspect of knowing how to appreciate must be developmental and requires practice in many areas. For in the practicing, at some point, the individual will come to terms in the reality of knowing what they are saying. There will come the time when they say, `thank you' and they truly come from within. At that point their appreciation and thankfulness goes from a lower level to a higher level where their further appreciation in life will take on greater and greater depth. They will not be shallow meaningless words but will be something that comes from the depths of what they are feeling and what they know.

As you continue to appreciate each individual you meet you will grow to love them more. It is not conceivable that you can at this point in time appreciate everyone on this planet except in a global consciousness of them being a part of the creation of the First Source and Center and that by being such a creation they are endowed, as you are, with that Spark from our Parent. And so while you, yourselves, are continuing to grow in appreciation while you cannot encompass all do strive to meet those whom you come into contact with on a level that transcends mere politeness, on a level which invites you to look into their eyes and understand and realize that the First Source and Center is working, is a part of their being. In this manner you can then appreciate them for where they are. And with that as your second assignment this forum is now open for questions.

Isaac:   Daniel and Tomas, this is Isaac. I want to thank you for your words tonight. In particular what you have discussed is something that I realize has been my experience to a greater and greater extent, that my life in the last few years has been characterized by more and more appreciation of all the goodness that comes forth from God the Father, from Michael's creation, from companionship with you teachers, from the ever expanding knowledge of the overcare of everything and our place as brothers and sisters and sons and daughters in this wonderful universe. And this morning as I was driving along the road I was aware that I really am more and more beginning to realize that people are my brothers and sisters. Even though I get lost in the details of the time press whenever I am able to reflect for a moment or can expand my horizons I snap back into that awareness. So what you said has proven true for me, certainly. I like also the fact that you said that appreciation and gratitude is part of worship. So that is very encouraging. Worship is difficult to get a handle on for me.

And the last thing I want to comment on and maybe there is a question has to do with this sharing with our brothers and sisters. Tomas, you said not to blind them. Sometimes when I am in other social contexts where I have a chance to share things, sometimes at a formal meeting or sometimes at my job I struggle with this. Am I dumping too much? Am I being understood? It's a difficult thing to know how to share that. As I was joking earlier this evening it is difficult to talk about hearing things in your head and talking with invisible people because this is regarded by most people as sure evidence of insanity. You know all these issues. My question is, beyond seeking inner guidance and using the best judgement you can is there anything else that I don't know about that I could be advised on that would assist in this business of sharing the reality that I know and experience? I guess that's it. Thank you.

TOMAS (TR #1):   Yes, Isaac, I will be glad to address that for you.

The aspect of knowing when and how to present truth is always one that has been predominant for all missionaries, all apostles. The correct thing must be this. You must live what you believe and in living what you believe you are then planting those seeds. If you will strive each day to work more towards this end you will be able to reach more than you realize. It may be subtle, but that is what I have spoken about. Those who are overzealous tend to turn people away. It is the unsung hero, so to speak, the person who is always there when a friend is needed, and the person who gives joy, who has a positive remark to make. It is the person who sees a job and does it without being asked. These are the ways that the Spirit moves to help you bring forth that which is good, that which is truth, that which is beauty. It is through your actions, then, that you will reach the most.

However there are also times when it is necessary for you to verbalize. This is where that Inner Guide and that constant inner action through the stillness between you and the Source will guide you the most. And the words that you so know and so believe will come easily.

The other aspect that I would state is that you need to have some knowledge and some understanding of the person with whom you are talking. Sometimes you can only say one sentence, for to say more would be too much. Other times you could go on for an hour and the receiver would still be open and inviting and ready to hear more. So use caution as to whom you speak, how long, and what you say. Sometimes your words do not need to be in the context of, 'This is what I read in the Urantia Book', or, 'This is what I believe about God', but rather it might be in helping someone to become or to see with a little more tolerance or a little more compassion. Are you understanding those words?

Isaac:   Yes, I am. That is a terrific summary of what I asked you to talk about. I am thinking that you have spoken on all of these things probably in the past but that is a beautiful compacting of all that truth, Daniel. I will, of course, think on this more. You have also comforted me a great deal and challenged me at the same time. So thank you. It was a very complete answer.

TOMAS:  Exactly, Isaac, not that it makes any difference to Daniel and myself, but I have been Tomas speaking, for you asked the question of Tomas.

Isaac:   Thank you, Tomas.

Gerdean:  This is Gerdean. Daniel, thank you for that lesson. As sometimes is the case I get so embroiled in your words I get off track. And when I was trying to transmit Tomas I just kept thinking, `Daniel already said that'. And I was not responding well to Tomas. Nonetheless, I do appreciate your lesson and I was wondering if, in fact, this might not be a better manifestation of what we would call `love' than we are accustomed to, to encounter people in the mode of appreciating them rather than `loving' them because `love' is such a bizarre word in our culture. And I am speaking as a missionary, as an evangelist that when I go out to manifest, share, and spread the Father's love I don't, certainly, feel the Father's love all the time because I have to deal with these human beings. But I can really appreciate a lot of these human qualities of my fellows. I can appreciate why they do what they do; why they think the way they think; why they have this fear; why they have this perception. It helps me to have more compassion and understanding then if I were to just set out to `love' them. So the concept of appreciating is somehow to me a lot richer and warmer and more well rounded than the word `love'. Am I totally off base here?

Daniel:   What you are saying is correct but it needs to be expanded upon. All of you need to understand that, indeed, the word `love' does have such a broad and varied understanding. It is seen from many, many different layers. Even in my ascension am I still not fully cognizant of what it means to be loved by the First Source and Center in all its totality. I have, because of my ascension, grown in that understanding far beyond what you now know. But this love is greater than all of your definitions put together. So while it is important to be able to express love to all you must understand that love, too, is something that must grow and is progressive. You don't usually love someone or something at first sight. You love or like one aspect at first sight. But real love requires going through all of the growth stages. Real love means encompassing and knowing the individual. And from that aspect, then, your statement is more accurate in the context of being able to appreciate your brothers and sisters. For in appreciating them you are validating them. Anytime you can validate someone you are opening many doors. You are meeting them on their level. You may not agree with them about everything but if you can appreciate certain qualities and you validate this to them then you are open to them and they are more receptive to your being and to your words. It is in those first moments of appreciation that you are sowing the seeds for yourself to come to know and to eventually love them. Does this help?

Gerdean:  Yes. A valuable lesson. I appreciate your further remarks. As one learns to appreciate one's fellows that is the beginning of being able to love them. And, of course, they should be able to sense that and to some extent love you back, or at least be willing to play those social intercourses that open up more doors for further communication and ideally further understanding of deeper love and more appreciation. A good lesson. I really enjoyed that and will enjoy reflecting on that throughout the week. So, thank you.

DANIEL: Thank you, Gerdean. I appreciate your paraphrasing. Your words have a `ring', so to speak, to them.

Leetah:   Daniel and Tomas, first of all, thank you so much for that lesson. I have a lot of images going through my mind right now. I think in terms of a summary of everything that you have said tonight. In a sermon I heard a long time ago by Isaac. The title of it was, `The Grateful Give'. And I have never forgotten that sermon. Tonight it is saying the same thing that we must become grateful for all. It makes me cry whenever I think in terms of God's love being for everyone. It's an overwhelming thought that the God who made the universes really cares and cares enough to indwell each of us! I guess that is the part that overwhelms me, the love of God.

But then I had a red flag so I mentioned the good first. One of the wonderful things that have come to me as a result of reading the Urantia Book is that God indwells every human being so that I don't have to `be the missionary' I once thought I had to be to change the world, but rather as tonight's lesson very plainly said, I have to be grateful and appreciate the other person and look in the eyes and know that they are indwelt by the same God that indwells me. It is a tremendous relief to know that God is at work if I fail. So I have all this baggage in this lesson tonight. I just thank you for it.

DANIEL:   Thank you, Leetah, for your words. Let me emphasize here that neither Tomas nor myself have asked any of you to become `missionaries' who go door to door.

Leetah:   Thank you.

DANIEL:   It is important for all of you to realize that the ministry for which you are preparing is that of your own growth. And through that growth will you be ministering and be missionaries to others. You can't help but overflow that which you are and what you are becoming. To that end we will continue our mission. The idea of being `missionaries' is never intended as you take it, rather because of your greater awareness and God-consciousness you become `missionaries' just by your own life. You are like ambassadors out among your brothers and sisters.

Leetah: Thank you, Daniel. Of course the red flag is the result of many years ago when I felt compelled to pass out tracts and try and convert people so that they could be loved by God. A dreadful situation and such a narrow concept of the God that loves all and indwells us all. So I thank you for that clarification. I know that it is our lives that speak and not the tracts that we gave out, as I once thought.

DANIEL:   Thank you, Leetah. I would like to add something to your first discourse regarding this aspect of not needing to convert all or to be responsible for all.

It is important that you realize and know that each individual enters this life with their own free will. They have that ability to choose. As children become aware of themselves their ego is the first aspect to react. They realize that they can manipulate those big people around themselves, those caretakers by crying, by being stubborn, by throwing fits, by refusing to eat, etc. And so this is that part of the growing infant and toddler, their ego coming into understanding of who they are.

It is really along this line that you as caretakers and teachers that you do have a responsibility to these children in helping them to grow in an understanding of themselves that is positive, that their self esteem and their understanding of themselves is above that of their ego. For if more and more of the majority of people raise their children in this fashion then the aspect of needing dogma and having to be a savior for the masses would die out. Because as people grow from infancy in this understanding of their good nature then the negative cannot take over and the religions that grow and feed upon fear will die away.

Leetah: Thank you very much, Daniel. That was another thought that had come to me from your lesson, when either you or Tomas spoke, on the gift of free will. I was one of those in the past who railed against God because He didn't make a perfect world. Of course he has already done that in the Havona universe. But the gift of free will and that we can choose to respond to that Indwelling Spirit and God's overcare is truly a gift; we are not forced. And that is a very wonderful thing. Thank you of reminding me of the responsibility we have to children. Of course, in my role I am especially conscious of that.

DANIEL:   Yes. And you do well in that area. Thank you for your words.

Gerdean:   Earlier you were talking about being busy, involved and active. Somehow I perceived you saying that, and that reminded me of a phrase in the Urantia Book about `messianic zeal'. I guess that came up when people were talking about `missionary'. But missionary and messianic aren't necessarily the same thing. But I have a lot of zeal and I think that is a result of appreciation and gratitude as well as a sense of urgency that really we need to get on with it here! I have always had an awful sense of urgency. We really just need to get it together! And I don't know. That might undermine a lot.

Address for me, if you would, Daniel, this sense of urgency that I get. And I know there is an emergency status that helped bring about the Correcting Time. Every once in a while I will watch a negative thing on TV and it just gives me this tremendous urgency that we really need to shake these people up so that they know what's going on, so they know that God is wonderful -- and I have to smack you to get the point!!! It's a point of frustration, I am sure. I have great zeal. I love feeling zealous and I love being active in the field! But it sometimes can get really squirrelly out there! Thank you, Daniel and Tomas.

DANIEL:   Thank you, Gerdean. Indeed, there are many ways that you as individuals go about your seed planting. Some, like you, are enthusiastically zealous, ready, wanting, and willing to stand on the mount and preach. Others are more withdrawn, shyer and would prefer to plant seeds in less defined ways. Is one better than the other? That is not the question for it takes all kinds and many roads in order for there to be a balance. What is important and is the underlying aspect is that in order for the world to change it must first start with the individual. As that individual grows and changes they bring about change in their life, in their relationship and in the things they do. It is like a chain reaction.

What is going obviously through many minds when one thinks of this is who has the bigger chain? Who is going to trample the other, the bad or the good? And while there are many instances on your planet where the evil aspect of mortal life seems to have the upper hand, seems to hold the bigger club and have the bigger chain, the reality is that there is far greater good that is going on in many minuscule and unnoticed ways.

Certainly you are going to be shocked by the murder of some individual. But do you even pay attention when a mother lovingly smiles at her child? That is the good. Good will continue to overcome. It is necessary, therefore, for all of you to continually take the time to commune daily. For in that communion you will find that the doors that are ready to be opened will be opened for you. The talents and the contributions that you can make will be welcome.

And so, my dear, while you may be more ready and willing to be vocal or to go out into the jungle, so to speak, others will do as much good as you do in other areas. It is all part of the weaving of the tapestry of life. You have the threads going both ways. Does this help in your understanding?

Gerdean:   Not only does it help with my understanding, it helps with my keynote address notes. Thank you.

DANIEL:   Precisely. (Laughing) Your door has been opened and you will, because of your nature, be able to reach many. Have faith in that, my dear, for your willingness has not gone unnoticed.

Gerdean:   Thank you.

Leetah:   Daniel and Tomas, I would just like to say that you are such good models of showing us how to appreciate one another. Thank you very much.

DANIEL:   Both Tomas and I have grown truly beyond appreciation for you. We have a great understanding of you that is transcending. While we genuinely do appreciate your beingness this appreciation is in an aspect that is befitting of divine love. We are able to grasp this love and it is something that we have grown in, in loving you, in appreciating you, in being thankful for each of you in your own unique ways, in realizing the difficulties and trials that the rigors of life presents.

And yet through your many hours of doubting and reaffirming and wondering and searching you are all growing in so many wonderful and beautiful ways. Your lights grow in intensity as you continue to search and commune with the First Source and Center.

At this point I will draw this meeting to a close. Tomas and I send you our love. We appreciate your endeavors and your coming here weekly to listen to our ramblings. We appreciate your thoughts and questions. We acknowledge your growth.

This week you are asked to look into your own lives and decide at what place of appreciation you are with yourself and with those around you. We ask you to secondly begin seeing others from the standpoint of validating them and appreciating them. In this appreciation recall that they will, likewise, learn to appreciate.

Go in peace this week and appreciate not only the splendors of nature on this planet but also the marvelous creation that is in your brothers and sisters. Good evening.

*****

DATE:  September 8, 1995
TEACHERS:  DANIEL, TOMAS, ABRAHAM
TOPIC:  Consulting the Adjuster

DANIEL (TR #1): Greetings my friends, I am Daniel, your guide and teacher. Tomas and I welcome you all here on this occasion. As always we have been every watchful and have enjoyed listening to your dialogue.

It is beginning to thoroughly become a part of your being, this understanding that is imparted from the Indwelling Spirit into your minds, and that is the fact that whenever you can remain within the awareness of divinity you will be taken care of, answers will be given, solutions will be understood. While this is in reality a simple idea, it is most difficult to implement for the electro-chemical makeup of your system floods you with many emotions, many ideas and thoughts that curtail your ability to remain totally in contact with that awareness as well as with your humanity. And it is important that you continue to put forth the effort to maintain this degree of awareness. The effort resides in that act of daily stillness and turning over in gratitude to the First Source and Center.

We are pleased that you are continually uplifting and displaying higher realms of consciousness. As you continue to absorb these ideas regarding the First Source and Center you are putting forth these seeds for your brothers and sisters. As you change you bring about a gradual changing in societal thought, in family thought, in thought around the workplace, etc.

The world is a wonderful and happy place, however many of the inhabitants have lost focus or have never allowed themselves to become focused on the aspects of life's purpose. Your pathways have generated for you a lifestyle now that is comforting despite the daily maneuverings and the daily pathways of living. To this end we ask you to continue. One moment please.

TOMAS (TR #1):   Greetings, I am Tomas. As Daniel has said we are pleased at your growth and your continual strivings. This week we wish to set the mood, the atmosphere, for your upcoming gathering. It is appropriate for you as part of hosting to be willing and ready to serve, and so we ask that during the course of this week you sit in silence with the Indwelling Spirit and during this time seek guidance for your weekend, that you can be given the understanding and the necessary wisdom to derive the best benefit you can from this meeting.

During this week, if it is your desire, we would suggest that you ask your Indwelling Spirit to be that guide and leader for you, that through the interactions with others, through the messages and words spoken you can gain and become more intuitive to the ongoings of Spirit. The benefits that one gains from gathering with those of like minds is a strengthening of heart, a strengthening of the bonding between peoples and groups, and strengthening of collective consciousness that will benefit the greater whole. It has been stated, as you well know, by the Master Himself that whenever two or more are gathered in His name He will be there. You can be certain that Michael's presence will be felt and will be known. One moment, please.

ABRAHAM (TR #1):  Greetings, I am Abraham. I will address this group this evening as part of a preliminary avenue for next week's conference.

It is through the strength of those who continue to pursue the Father's will that the changes that are necessary will be possible. To you and many others across this planet, across this Local Universe, can there be given credit to wondrous changes. The air is astir with the hope and with the joy of those happenings. It is not fully evident to all of you as you live your daily lives to understand that there is stirring within the hearts and souls of human beings, this desire to break the bonds and chains of old thought patterns.

During a time of change as is known now there will be many times when the clouds upon the earth will seem very dark. But in reality this is only the last hurrah of the previous storms of the past dying out and gathering what strength is left to dissuade and to gather like believers. However these old ideas and ways will fade if man and woman are to survive, if this planet is to survive. And you of faith must know that God's works are always mysterious and not always understood. But yet you will and do, see that when the spiritual pressure is applied the synchronicities and the interlacing will, in fact, come together. Change is the byproduct. Change occurs slowly within the hearts of human beings and must come from within. You can never expect it to be external.

During this week realize that it must be the inner workings and preparation that dislodge the chaos in the outer world. As part of your newly founded consciousness you will find yourself more empathetic with those of lesser understanding. You will find yourself desiring to become a better farmer in that you will desire to scatter more seeds. What is important to remember, however, is that it is not the number of seeds that are scattered but the quality of the seeds that are scattered. So during this week we ask that you consider that aspect. How do you present yourself? How do you come across to others? How loving, patient, and compassionate are you? For these are the characteristics which in the end plant many seeds. As you have often realized in your own life, whenever you have remained in that alignment with what is right and good, the outcome, that which is left from the situation is a seed well produced, well founded and formed, one that can be open to further nourishment. During the next few days realize that when you work with the Spirit you will be given many joyful happenings; many glad events will take place. Many joyful things will work to a better end. With that I will take my leave. Shalom.

DANIEL (TR #1):  I am Daniel. We are pleased to have Abraham in our midst this evening. As last week we spoke about the aspect of appreciation and this led to your greater understanding, that appreciation also houses in its meanings the concept of gratefulness, one continually finds that when you open the door in one area another one in another area opens down the line. This is a natural occurrence. Whenever you can appreciate something, whenever you can be grateful for something then you are given greater insight, you dig beneath and begin to sense a greater picture than what was the original intent. Let me give an analogy.

All of you enjoy thoroughly and appreciate greatly seeing a sunset. Many times as you glance at the sun setting you find yourself saying, 'isn’t that a beautiful sunset!' And you are filled with a sense of gratitude and happiness. Yet this is only a surface appearance. If you look closely at the sunset you can differentiate the different tones and hues of color which are reflected from your atmosphere. You can appreciate the shadows that are falling from the trees, homes, and mountains. You can appreciate the temperature of the air. You acknowledge any noticeable fragrance in the air. All of these things can become a part of this one picture of a sunset. You see, it becomes much greater and more in depth when you can allow your whole being to appreciate that which your senses are picking up. It becomes not a mere sunset but a sunset that leaves a lasting impression on you.

In all people and relationships there is more than just the mere exclaiming, 'Oh, you look nice today.' When you really sense and allow your whole being, your whole sensory perception, your intuitive sense, your love to penetrate this relationship your appreciation becomes greater, the picture broadens, the bond grows tighter. This is part of a growing awareness of a greater consciousness. As you continue on this path you will find more and more instances where the superficial appreciation of something becomes much greater than your first reaction or your initial impression. This is part of growth. This is part of the morontial awakening coming into your lives.

So this week let us continue with this theme of appreciation and gratitude. Look and sense in more depth that which is on the surface. It can be very rewarding to you and it can give you an inner pathway to working with individuals when you can truly appreciate them from your whole being. And with that this forum is open for questions.

Gerdean:   Good evening, Daniel, other teachers and other beings. I was thinking about this morontial reality that we are developing and recognizing and fostering. When we truly embrace one another as it speaks of in Corinthians, that we greet each other with a holy kiss so we are absorbing one another, feeling the essence of one another not just the clothing, the hairdo, the superficial, and the activity but the true being and we feel or sense that our brother/sister is not giving forth with all that you know that they have (because you have experienced more reality from them before) is it appropriate to say, 'What's the matter? I sense something is going on. Maybe you would like to talk about it.' When is it politically correct and not meddling in the minds and souls of our fellows while you still want to remind them of their deepest reality, that they are our brothers and sisters in Christ, that they can trust us and their own being? How would you suggest when we sense that embrace and they are holding back that we can draw them out, if, indeed, that is our work?

DANIEL:   One cannot give a definite formula for this for each situation, of course, is different. Each relationship is on different levels. It is a known fact that some people are more approachable, more open, more able to accept and offer from you than are others. And so all of these factors play a definitive role in this question.

However you as loving and growing individuals are, after all, human and it is through your humanness that you will be able to reach out to individuals. When you realize that someone is down and is not fully, then, alive it certainly can be appropriate to inquire and to offer to help, to listen, etc. It is not always necessary to approach each situation as such with the spiritual jargon, so to speak, of ascension or of brotherhood/sisterhood on a cosmic basis. Often in these situations it is more conducive to be willing to listen and to give validation when it is appropriate and honest. It is in your giving forth of your human willingness to be there for this individual that brings great morontial reality to the situation. For you are the vehicle through which love, patience, tolerance, and compassion can be given. Do not feel that you must aggressively bring up the Urantia Book and its concept in your direct language but from your actions and through the way you conduct yourself, live those concepts and these will be the keys to help those people who are often holding back. Does this help?

Gerdean:   Yes. And specifically what helps is perceiving wisdom, patience, compassion, love, and all those adjectives that you suggest that we'll be able to apply and how well you apply them. I have deep affection for you teachers and always like seeing how I can learn from you, not just in what you say but in how you say it. I can certainly see that it's not necessary to probe deeper than another's free will is willing to reveal about their morontial soul at any given moment. And that includes their emotional well being or makeup or mental state of mind. It is truly respect for the individual; and that by simply loving this person, appreciating this person or accepting this person, that, in and of itself, assures the person that they are accepted, appreciated, not judged and they will let you know when they want to open up. So, yes, your words have helped, Daniel.

DANIEL:   Very nice critique, Gerdean. One must remember it often takes a good deal of time for God's work to come about. Truly those of you who can just love and be giving and understanding of one another will help in process of bringing others into a higher level.

PamElla:   Daniel, it is kind of interesting as Gerdean was beginning her question I was on the opposite side of Gerdean thinking of what you had just asked us to do and how truly difficult on some days that is to do. Some days it is easy, it's automatic. But other days to really allow ourselves to sense and appreciate with all of our sensory perception including our intuition that other person in their essence brought up fear in me. And I am not quite sure what that fear is about except to reach out in that way also exposes oneself to being appreciated and known to the same degree by the other. I would like you to discuss that fear and give me some help and understanding with that.

And second I wanted to comment, although it is probably beating a dead horse at this point, to Gerdean's question which was that if someone approaches me with the expectation that I should go deeper than where I want to be right then I tend to react with rebellion and totally withdraw. So what would bring me out if I had stuff going on that I had maybe a desire to share, maybe not? Sometimes I just like to sit with things for a while before I am willing to talk about them with anyone. It is just simply total acceptance and total love of where I am with whatever I am with is perfectly acceptable, and that I don't need to expose myself any more than I want to at that moment. So, Gerdean, that information is to you because of the interesting synchronicity about what I was thinking as you were asking.

And now to you, Daniel, I was wondering if you could address those fear aspects of being known?

DANIEL:   What must be understood and known by all of you is this. When Tomas or I speak to you regarding your growth, your coming to greater understanding it must be understood that just because you have reached a higher level does not mean that you are fully cognizant of all aspects of that level. It does not mean that you are totally immersed in that level yet. What it means is that through steady progress you have been given a glimpse of a greater reality. The reality for you, however, is that as a human you are still basically on this mortal level. As a morontial being you would be on a different level, etc. And for you to only glimpse this higher level does not mean that you must work out of that higher level or that you can work out of that higher level at all times. What it means is that given circumstances, given proper timing, proper conditions, there will be instances where you will work from a higher level, and yet come back and be at the level you are at now.

When you continue to grow in more God-consciousness and spiritual awareness the fears that you have currently will dissipate. During your lifetime as a mortal being there will always be some level of fear for the general populace. There are few that can eliminate fear altogether. Christ Michael was an example of a mortal living without fear. Has this helped in your understanding?

PamElla: Yes, Daniel, it has. It reminded me of a sermon that I heard years ago. I didn't like the political structure. It was in the Catholic Church where the priest was talking about the role of the Pope and the role of the priest. The role of the Pope was to set the ideal. The role of the priest was to nurture the parish along. And I hear that as being a similar thing, that you give us the ideals to work towards but recognizing that we are human and we are not going to achieve those at all times, only when the best of conditions all come together do we have those morontial types of experiences.

The other part that I heard you say was that I need to go back to foundation building because it's in spending the time in the stillness with my Indwelling Spirit that fear is alleviated. Is that accurate?

DANIEL:   Fear diminishes, indeed, as you continue to be more in that alignment with the First Source and Center, in that God-conscious awareness. Yet you must realize that fear is a natural emotion, a natural thing that you have as a mortal. If you will look at the life of Christ Michael you will find that many times He had human fears. Spiritually he was fearless, but humanly He was like you. Even in His last hours in the garden as He prayed, He prayed as a man fearing and knowing that no good was to come of that night for Him as a human. For Him as a spiritual being He understood that there would be a greater picture that from that evening and the next day there would be much hope generated from His ending. And so you must realize that part of your lives, all of you, is built upon emotion. Emotions are not spiritual. Those of you who understand the spiritual aspect as being different from the mortal know intuitively that whatever happens on this plane, while it has potential for human tragedy, can, on the spiritual plane, be overcome and seen differently. So this aspect of fear that you addressed is natural.

Yet, my dear, I am certain that as you have overcome and grown in many ways this particular fear will persist but become fainter, diminished, less able to tyrannize you. Relationships are not the easiest things in the world to deal with, yet they are the most important things to have. As each of you work toward understanding more deeply your relationships to one another and to others you develop a greater insight and a lessening of vulnerability and fearfulness. It is not something that can happen overnight nor is it something that happens with every relationship. What is important to remember is that in opening yourself to embracing one with all of your being and embracing their essence that you can, if necessary, wait and hold back when you begin to realize that the time is not right. It is not advisable that you open yourself so that every -- Perhaps an analogy here would be easier.

When you go on a picnic and you have your basket of food and containers. Once you open the lid on the fried chicken the flies are readily attracted and you are quick to cover it as you take your piece out. You as individuals must learn to cover and protect yourself from the flies that would be attracted. You cannot be a sounding board for everyone. But you certainly love everyone and strive for understanding and compassion for them. But to become the sounding board for everyone is not practical and is not desirable. Remember that your ability to discern the flies from those that are seeking true nurturing from the food will become evident. Many are attracted just to hear themselves babble or to be able to sound off at the moment. You will begin to discern those that are in this category as opposed to those who are ready and willing to relate on a deeper level. Are you seeing?

PamElla: Yes, Daniel. That was a beautiful answer, very thorough. What really touched me that I appreciate is you talking about Christ Michael fearing on a human level but not on a spiritual level and my mind said, 'I don't get it. Give me an example'. And then you gave a most profound example that really touched me and helped me understand the difference between spiritual security and human fearing. I also appreciated about timing being right and the comment about discerning the flies from truly seeking, thus maintaining healthy boundaries. So, yes, in all aspects that answered my question and went beyond and fed me well. Thank you.

DANIEL:   Thank you PamElla for your presence and your question. My students you help feed many often, far more than you realize.

Paula:   Daniel you were speaking with PamElla on one of the insights which I sort of intuitively knew and it was very helpful in the way that you said it; let me articulate. I think one of the most important things about our emotions regardless, whether it be love or fear or anxiety is that they really can lead us into that deeper spiritual place which is another way of saying that with the fear, when we center ourselves and put ourselves in God's protection and presence then that alleviates that particular dimension of that emotion. That's helpful for me. I have often thought that fear is an important alarm system that we need to take notice of. I had not necessarily thought that the emotion was an alarm system for us to go deeper spiritually, but I can add that to another level of what I understand emotions to be. Thank you.

DANIEL:   Thank you Paula, for, indeed, your whole being evolves on many, many levels. As you progress to the higher ones that which at one point seemed base often takes on greater insight and meaning and is able to work in your betterment through this extended and broader meaning. It is so important for you all to realize that just because you are growing in morontial understanding that you can still be human. For it is only through your humanness that you can manifest and bring out morontial qualities.

Paula:   Daniel, was that not what the life of Jesus was about? Only as Jesus was truly human could the divine part of Him be made real to us as He realized that?

DANIEL:   Exactly, and as Michael has said, what He has done so can you.
Paula:   I want to say, 'Amen!' Thank you.

TOMAS:   At this point this meeting will be drawn to a close. I am Tomas. I have been afforded the opportunity to sign off and to remind each of you of the love, the appreciation, and the gratitude we have for each of you, and to ask you to receive this from us that you can turn around and pass it on to your brothers and sisters. Go now in love and peace that you may grow in that next understanding that will bring you into a new reality of being and a new reality of action. Good evening.

*****

DATE:  September 22, 1995
TEACHERS:  DANIEL, TOMAS
TOPIC:  Respect

DANIEL (TR #2):   Happy are we to hear your elation, you enlightened spirit, your jubilant attitude and happy are we to share this atmosphere with you this evening. I am Daniel and also here is Tomas. Also here is your support system and cheering section.
We reflect with affection on your responses and your verbal sharing following up on the Northwest Teaching Mission conference just held. Our chortle is that our lessons on social fragrance have fallen on very fertile soil for your soulful and heartfelt impressions, your laughter, your acceptance, and your twirling in this dance of community has set all our souls on fire with shared enthusiasm. Those of you who follow Michael in the sense that He intended create the swirling ascendant eddy which is helping to pull up the depressed state of affairs on Urantia. The spiritual awakening is becoming more and more apparent to Christendom and Christianity alike. Your work in the forefront in your abject devotion, your growing confidence of greater morontia realities possible here and now have contributed mightily to the Correcting Time. We are thankful to you, dear coworkers.

We now return our focus to our formal lesson plan. Although it is certainly not cast in stone we are mindful of a certain continuity which exists which is part of your evolutionary development. These lessons have been overseen and approved, so I offer as a subject this evening a facet, again, of social fragrance, yet having some rather personal and meaningful substance, that being the matter of individual respect. I preface this as individual respect rather than self respect for individual respect also incorporates the respect of others. As any well-balanced exchange the value is equally shared in yourself as well as in your counterpart.

Respect stems from your respect for your First Source and Center, your Thought Adjuster, your relationship thereto and spreads from there. Without respect for the authority of Deity there can be no true self respect in the individual. When you ponder your own reality consider that you have given yourself to the care of your Creator. Your humility in acknowledging the greatness of the First Source and Center allows you the comfort of humility, the joy of acknowledging that you are not the ultimate administrator of the universe. This perspective affording you your own sense of smallness now is the seed which will grow into your comprehension of your actual and potential greatness. It is common practice for individuals to admire the accomplishments of others and to revere the unknown but respect is truly rare in the deeper sense for so few individuals truly acknowledge their own deepest reality.

As you know, self respect is a gift from Michael. But what does that mean? Is it a word which you acknowledge and say thank you and have no knowledge what this gift can be to you?

The correlated elements of self respect and ego are confusing and ill defined but distinctly different. Self respect, when considered for yourself and for each other individual you encounter, relates back to that aspect of reality which you bow before, which you worship and whose authority you honor. Abraham has spoken of the soldier who follows instructions from his/her leader and in this you soldiers of the circles honor the authority of your relationship to Michael. His instructions to you are uniquely yours. Your perception of His instructions to you are uniquely yours. This is true for each individual, of course.

Thus when you emerge from your stillness, from your sanctified bastion of strength and enter the arena to face your protagonists in the business of living this life on this planet, respect that in your encounters, which are also respected by our Father, that view is eliminative of much that is congesting of the Spirit, that is superficial, that is illusory.

In respecting that which has eternal value you are addressing potential. You are inviting potential to become actual. You have whet the appetite of the Indwelling Adjuster. You may not have coincidentally frightened the human ego including your own but you have none the less activated that Spark of Divinity which seeks fulfillment and greater growth. Much of your lives have been consumed by unreality or relative reality based upon your recognition of your purpose or need to have purpose. Now your purpose is coming into fruition and you are beginning to not only take delight in who you are becoming but you are beginning to truly respect what you are becoming and what is becoming of those around you, those who support that in you which they also respect. This nurturance of respect has substance and from this substance of character all delight takes on the aspect of praise, thanksgiving, and also worship. There are many, many too numerous to mention here, side effects of having a cognizant understanding of respect and in particular self respect for it then enters into realms of spirit in which the Conjoint Actor plays a significant part.

I would now share this platform with Tomas who is eager to also contribute to this lesson on respect. Tomas?

TOMAS (TR #3):   This is your teacher, Tomas. Greetings to you all. I am happy to share this teaching platform with my brother Daniel and to augment and elaborate some additional thoughts which hopefully will blend as one fabric of truth.

The gift of personality from the First Source and Center is a great basis for individual respect as there is no other personality in all of creation, in all the vast universes of time and space that can replace or duplicate any individual's personality configuration. The uniqueness of the Father's work is astounding on many levels when considered on the physical plane but perhaps there is no higher level of wonder than to behold the manifold diverse beauty of an individual child of our God.

Even Thought Adjusters deign to honor this gift of the selfsame Universal Father by patiently awaiting their completion in personal expression, each uniquely given to each of us. Consider this amazing thing, that the God of all, the I AM desires to experience personality of His own making and sends this individual spark and fragment to seize the totality of personal experience from you and me. As Daniel has said, respect is based on the full development of potential, and each of us has the potential of a Paradise Finaliter, a destiny which even the highest created beings cannot fully predict or comprehend.

Because you yet remain in mortal limitations your conscious history can only be that of the time that has elapsed since your conception and birth. Thus it is easy to fall prey to the limits of smallness inherent in mortality and to therefore ascribe very limited value to your personhood. But, as you know, you have just begun this incredible experience of sharing sonship and daughtership with each other and your future, our future, is so great that it can not be comprehended by the most advanced mortal, not even by morontial beings of my current experience status. (pause) Isaac is struggling to convey the meaning of the visual images he sees. Please bear with him. One moment. (pause) Respect for individuals, yourselves included, therefore requires the larger perspective that is beyond your mortal grasp at this time to even approximate its true reality.

I am aware that there has been discussion among many readers of the Urantia Book that the status of mortality appears to be diminished and denigrated by some of the writers or at least this interpretation has been put forth by some readers. Keep in mind, my friends, that while we have started at the bottom of the experiential levels our destinies are the envy of other created beings for we encompass the entire breadth and depth of creature finite experience.

And so when you consider your lives to this point you may be tempted to evaluate your worth in terms of your performance. This is a natural human propensity. It has been a chief function of our mission to change your perspective from that which you have inherited by culture and to see yourselves and others in a totally larger, grander and truer dimension.

I will conclude my remarks with a statement that has been made frequently but always bears repeating. Because you are starting at the beginning of creature experience do not fail to fully engage in it. Do not set your mind in the future to the detriment of the present while I suggest you not limit your appraisal of all things to your past. Enjoy your morality, in other words. Be glad you are human. It is a unique, one time only, experience! Live it to the fullest.

Thank you for your gracious ears. I remain your friend, brother, and teacher, Tomas. And now, Daniel, I will return the platform to you.

DANIEL:  Thank you, my brother. And thank you for your skillful cross stitch.
Be alert to the respect that you pay your teachers that when we speak you bear with us. You wait those long pauses and allow those moments to pass without despair that we shall not return. In like manner it is our hope that you will respect your fellow human beings, that in the course of time you will neither rush people through their appointed personality expression, nor your own. The hungry soul is responsive to spiritual food, to your experience, strength, and hope, is responsive to your expression of your God Fragment. Honor yourself and your fellows by favoring that reality and do this in awareness of the Element in each that is deserving of respect for its own sake.

We embrace you and invite you to converse, express, explore, inquire and ask questions. The floor is open.

Kent:    Greetings, my friends. You have given us lessons in social fragrance, appreciation, respect, and many others. My appreciation I have expressed in our social time, in our share time, for all those that were with me and helped me in our recent conference. I would like to express my appreciation and my love for you and all that were involved behind the scenes. Without you we would have no social fragrance and it was very evident at our gathering in Boise. It was beautiful and appreciated by everybody.

DANIEL:   Dear brother, you are, of course, welcome for our assistance, cooperation, and attendance. But as Tomas has indicated do not denigrate your own efforts and your gift of personality. For although we are luring you into greater acceptance of your personhood, in your morontial realm of reality expression, your inherent gift of personality has not been idle or without guidance. Your contributions to our work are part of our team. You are fond of acronyms and we have created some. But your TeaM [Teaching Mission acronym] goes a long way in expressing that we are, indeed, a team and you are a vital member. So, of course, we thank you also.

TOMAS:   Of course my brother I speak for myself and our part of this team when I say that it was our great pleasure to participate in this conference, to observe the bonding, the truly ascending level of human fellowship which is developing in the Teaching Mission. We are also, as you know, learning from our experiences with you all. We are learning what great progress can be made by people who in responding to this spiritual pressure are allowing themselves to grow and experiencing opportunities which are truly, truly unique. And so is this paradox the case: this planet with all its handicaps provides the most advantageous environment to spiritual growth that we have observed in our lifetimes. This plane and the others. This is a new thing, this correction experience and I, Tomas, am amazed to see what progress you are all making, not just you individuals present in this group tonight but throughout this time. Our hats are off to you.

DANIEL:   Each time you take off your socks or your shirt and turn them right side out remember correcting time, for this inside out process is very similar. Not long ago despair and discouragement were the predominant atmosphere. Only were there occasional white lights on a black background. Within a very short period of time the salt and pepper, black and white is turning. In your lifetime it is possible that we will have turned it completely inside out, that the inside, the Indwelling Adjuster will outwardly manifest to the extent that your realm will appear to be a white background with occasional dark spots.

Kent:    You raise many thoughts in my mind as you speak, as you all speak. Thank you for being with me today. Thank you all for being with me always. Your lesson, your words I respect this evening. As I reflect back to last weekend the thirty four personalities that were there in the mortal realm, and their personalities, to see how they have grown in the year since we saw them last. One stands in awe and respects the growth. The term that I used was a showcase. And, indeed, it was a showcase of your teachings to us that we can not only participate in daily but we can get together at gatherings and compound our love upon itself manyfold. Thank you my friends.

DANIEL:   And you.

TOMAS:   This is Tomas. I would add one more comment. You see, your culture, your world is invested in fault finding, is impressed with violence, is looking for greater errors to occur in others so that by comparison individuals won't feel quite as bad. That is the black background. That is the consequence of the Lucifer rebellion and to some extent the shortage due to the Adamic default.

But that picture, while it appears black, is a false picture; for it only looks at those things which are clearly negative. You come here partly to hear the good news which you won't read about often in your papers or hear about often on your televisions. We tell you the truth, my friends, we do not lie to you. Good news is greater than bad news. The reality, the respect for each individual is far greater than the disrespect which has been the focus of your culture. That's all.

Leetah: Good evening. I am not sure it is synchronicity or not but today in my class meeting the thing that we were dealing with was keeping our word and keeping our agreements so that we had self respect and self love, so that we could let love into our lives, so that we could have a happy, peaceful school. As I look at that sequence it seems to me that the commitment, the agreement that the First Source and Center has made with each of us, with the Indwelling Spirit, (and I am just kind of thinking out loud) is our responsibility to keep our word in responding to that Guide so that we can have self respect, self love, so that we can let the world and God love us, so that we present that peaceful, happy person to the world. That just kind of flowed out, .I am not sure..!

DANIEL:   Another aspect of Urantia life has been this terrible hurry to cover the fear. This is not a condemnation of the conditioning which all mortals have known, certainly in your culture. When you take time to savor your moment, your mortal existence, the gifts of today, you also have time to stop and respect your brothers and sisters in their life. You may be instrumental in allowing them to stop for a moment and savor their own peace. Give them a glimpse of their own worth and their own value. In time, hopefully a short time, the tremendous pace of your cultures will slow down sufficiently that your expressions will be more gracious and more serving of one another. It is very difficult to walk in grace when one is stumbling.

I am not saying that all things must come to a standstill or that there is no value in robust physical activity, indeed, there are some rather titillating dances. But in making real contact with your peers, your charges, your associates allow time to envelope you and highlight the moments. Whether much is said or not stand in harmonious appreciation and mutual respect of the encounter. Eventually people will begin to recognize the presence of God within each other. I have finished.

Leetah: Thank you, Daniel.

TOMAS:   Tomas here. Because you, Leetah, are engaged in teaching development of character to your charges, those children in your care, your discussions of responsibility and truthfulness which you have described as keeping agreements, keeping one's word, has great value.

First of all these are essential characteristics of mortal character, and not just mortal character but true eternal character. Second, because these little ones grow up in a world which announces in many ways that the dependability of other people is questionable, at best, that the promises made to them by those they trusted can be and often are broken, they look to you as a person with great influence. So to hear words of comfort and challenge is a great service.

Because Lucifer and the others taught that God was a lie, that Christ Michael was a liar, that the whole system was a sham, that it was not true, so did this great tragic lie foist itself upon ensuing generations. Its effects, you see, are still here. But, as we have said, we are all in this together to bring about change. My commendation to you on your good work. 

Leetah:   Thank you, Tomas.

PamElla:   Greetings teachers. I have, I guess, sort of a devil's advocate comment. I haven't had one of those for a while. I am thinking about the busyness of our culture. Everybody I talk to seems to think things are getting busier and busier. It is hard to remember the days when people had time to sit on the porch and rock and talk with one another. And I certainly think that part of it is the change in our economic situation and with women entering the labor market but still as many chores to be done. Now parts of the couple are trying to pick up those chores. That is a lot of the reason for the additional stress that we experience.

As a small group here I am thinking about the amount of time we have dedicated to this mission as creating additional stresses and time pressures that we didn't have before, when we count the hours. So I definitely am a devil's advocate because I do so appreciate the lessons on balance and the lessons on slowing down. I clearly did hear you, Daniel, as saying that a lot of that slowing down is in our beingness when we are being with people to get in touch with God and shine that out. In that there is slowing down. And you have given us lessons on ranking of priorities. I feel like I am stripped down to the basics now. There is nothing left to get rid of other than Teaching Mission aspects which I like to do! So I know that my comments are kind of convoluted here. I don't know if you want to address them or not. But if you have words of wisdom and solace, I would appreciate them.

DANIEL:   My dear friend and precious child, you are, indeed, in a mood and I would not take it too seriously that you might be siding with the devil here. But I do hear your outpouring and will spend a moment rocking on the front porch with you, for in this high tech world outside the walls of these gatherings many are quite caught up. And if we were not of a mind, in a mood to stop with good justification and spend time on our own spiritual development, then we would be completely whisked into a world of fast paced unreality and would be again lost.

The pace of today has disallowed much of the grace of yesteryears but has taken away much of the labor and drudgery of times past also. In your evolutionary steps forward this fervor pitch will calm down in the general sense. You will be afforded more time in which to savor graciousness, good health, good productivity, good creativity, good relationships and good worship without worrying about your priorities. They will all unfold as part of the dance. Today there is insidious stress. We know you find comfort in your teachers, in both a personal study and in a group/social setting.

Perhaps you would like me to comment on how lengthy our teaching sessions have gotten over the course of time? I will take this opportunity to say that the lessons themselves have great merit for they are to some extent encapsulated topics that you can use as reminders or brochures to your friends of what the teachers are about. But the further extended period of somewhat leisurely pondered question and answer, thinking out loud, expressing a mood or a reaction is the real arena wherein the growth actualizes. So we are reluctant to cut short that which benefits you the greatest. Also in time as you begin to teach what you have learned, as you cultivate those social situations which foster the same values as you hold dear and we perpetuate the imbalance will feel less and the need for re-establishing priorities will dissipate. I have many words I could say but I will cease my rambling and hold you in my arms, daughter and beg your compassion for those who yearn for yet more and greater than even we can take to generate.

PamElla: Daniel, thank you. I don't want these sessions shortened. I was not implying that. It is sort of the whole overall. I think part of it is still being in that practicing stage where we have so many lessons and I have so many lessons in the back of my mind that I am constantly chewing on them to bring into play in different situations or just forgetting about them. There is sort of a pressure there to be learning and growing into a whole new area of experience. So I don't think it is just about time. A lot of the time stuff is choices I make like sending e-mail messages. I have been reducing my responsibilities. I am not participating in TR practice or doing that transcript. But it still seems like there are things every week that are there. Then, in addition, there is all this weight of the lessons. I mean, the lessons are wonderful and they are uplifting, but at the same time they are a responsibility to learn them and apply the knowledge and not just allow this time with you to go in one ear and out the other, and out we go, like some people in church who put in their time, listen to the sermons, do their religious thing in the religious context, and when they are outside of the religious context they let it go. I think that this is part of it. I think that I am learning new skills and when they become automatic it will become easier. [Pause]

DANIEL:   I am fully expecting Tomas to say something.
Group: So is everybody else.  [Laughter]

TOMAS:   Isaac is resisting me for he is thinking of the length of the transcript, [Group comments and laughter] and at times he grows weary of that task, which he has fully taken upon himself to do. I only remind you of something which you already know -- which is this: The weight of learning all these great lessons which you allude to, that you have heard from us and others, and the other tasks which you have set yourself to do, if grouped into one huge mountain becomes an enormous and intimidating project. My advice, which you already know, is to invest some energy into breaking up that mountain into -- no, let me change the analogy -- in ascending that mountain step by step. Take that task and take that lesson and simplify or break it down to something that is manageable. Otherwise one can become frozen, paralyzed, overwhelmed with the enormity of the project. And that, of course, is also why your comments regarding balance are entirely correct.

If at all possible when you rest, rest! When you work, work! When you play, play! Don't collapse the borders between these activities too much or there is no sense of distinction and that overwhelming feeling can persist. I think Isaac has put into words fairly well what I am trying to say. Is that helpful?

DANIEL:   Also remember that much of your growth is unconscious. All your real growth takes place through no power of your own except being willing. You will assimilate that which you are able to assimilate as you are able. You are not superwoman. All of these words which pour forth are not for your gestation all at once. But they filter out and through and certain seeds are planted. Do not feel that you need to be more than is necessary to simply be you. Enjoy being you and trust that you will grow by osmosis for your spirit is willing. Enjoy your associations with the teachers and your material and mortal friends and associates to the extent that you find them valuable to your perceived dietary needs in terms of physical, emotional, intellectual, spiritual and morontial. Only you can make that determination. Your peers will respect your assessment of your capacities. Have we helped?

PamElla:  Yes. Thank you both.

DANIEL:   In view of all of the above it is deemed advisable that we curtail our lesson about now. If there is one yearning to be put forth we will allow that extra moment in time and eternity for your and our satisfaction. Any other questions? [Pause]

It is, then, with a great deal of gratitude and a certain amount of sadness that we draw the evening to a close. As you are aware we are with you still observing, monitoring, guiding, encouraging, assisting, and, yes, respecting you and your efforts, even your errors as they incline to invest you with an even greater understanding of your true identity and reality. Go this week in appreciation of one another and in respect for one another's lives, but most importantly respect your own budding morontial soul, the material and spiritual, the human and divine, the unified personality, the balanced human being who walks upon Urantia. Good evening.

*****

DATE:  September 29, 1995
TEACHER:  DANIEL
TOPIC:  Truth and Loyalty

DANIEL:   Greetings, my friends. I am Daniel, your guide and teacher. As always I am most pleased to be here with you this evening and I would also welcome my friend as well.

This is a time for all who choose to follow to follow in a state of progress that will enrich not only your lives but the lives of those you touch. The truths of the ages are there for those who seek. Truth is known and understood as you are ready to accept, as you are prepared to understand, as you are willing to embrace. As you have witnessed in your lives, the immature, childlike understandings of your past are certainly lessened in comparison to the perspective and understanding that you now possess. Truth is now revealed always in the arena of righteousness tempered with the understanding that there is a divine law that upholds the universes.

This evening I would ask each of you to contemplate your lives and enjoy your journey into seeing this unravelling of truth. It will be a comforting and joyous time. For while each of you have had to go through times of growth, of change, which often causes much pain, in retrospect you are able to understand the good that comes from struggle, from growth, from the willingness to risk. Progress requires courage and asks each individual to trust and maintain faith despite the immediate circumstances.

Tonight I will speak with you about loyalty. Loyalty is a gift that comes often through work and through experience. In the basic form loyalty is seen as that bond between creatures that is formed out of necessity. All of you have understood the aspect of loyalty that you enjoy between yourselves and a pet. This is a basic form of loyalty. Loyalty grows in greatness and is a part of the gift of the Spirit when loyalty changes from being ego centered to that of being altruistic, that desiring and wanting to uphold another whether it be a person or some idea.

The apostles were loyal to Christ Michael, however even in their love and loyalty they were human with weaknesses as witnessed by Peter in his denial of Michael on the night before His crucifixion. Yet after the Spirit of Truth came these men and women were enhanced greatly and went out and lived according to the truth given. They were loyal to Michael and His teachings. As ascending beings it is understandable when weaknesses disconnect loyalty bonds. However once a bond has been founded, has been cemented, the overriding desire to maintain that bond generally circumvents the momentary weakness. Loyalty is that gift in which you work to maintain something that is good, something that is wholesome, something that brings forth a progressive movement along both of your pathways. When you are feeling emotions and feelings that you cannot always identify but you feel the urge to do, often this stems from this gift of loyalty, of putting aside your own problems or matters at the time to support another, to support an ideal. Loyalty is a gift that calls you forth, that pulls you onward, that often prompts you to act on behalf of another or in conjunction with another.

And so why are we looking at loyalty this evening? It is our hope that in isolating certain concepts you will begin to see the love of the First Source and Center at work in even the most mundane experiences of life's activities. When you can become more aware of these types of bondings, when you can understand loyalties from a God-consciousness approach and understanding you will be ever more attentive to the needs of your brothers and sisters. You will be ever more willing to serve, to work, to help, to laugh, and to enjoy your brothers and sisters. Loyalty is that framework in which you can begin to follow the Father's wishes to love one another, to break down barriers that are there, that are caused from childhood experiences and/or culture upbringing and schooling. When you are able to connect and enjoy a measure of loyalty, friendship between others, you broaden your horizons, your perspectives. You are able to understand from not only a gut feeling but also intellectually.

These types of understandings are the framework from which the ills of society can and will break down. It is most difficult to remain loyal to the idea of human rights and to go out and violate these rights yourself. This is generally looked upon as a collective idea. However, how can you remain loyal to this in your own life if you walk by your brother and sister in need, if you cannot find a smile for those whom you meet and greet, if your words are tempered with anger or hostility?

This week you are not asked to look at all of your weaknesses. Instead look upon this gift of loyalty as that aspect which will help you to grow and will help you to lay down those weaknesses which prevent you from being the example of Michael Himself. In your stillness be thankful for the gift of loyalty. All of you are beginning to understand, feel, and to know that loyalty of the Indwelling Spirit. As this bond between you and your own Father Fragment becomes fully known to you the expression and your demeanor will reflect that also on the outside. Human weakness pale in light of the love and the generosity of the First Source and Center. Be ever vigilant and prepare to accept the gift of loyalty that you may continue to bond with more and more of your brothers and sisters that you may be able to embrace more openly the opportunities that come into your life

And so this week consider this gift of loyalty. Consider how it has enhanced your life. Work to develop stronger, greater, and more supportive loyalties as you walk life's path. And now this forum is open for questions.

PamElla:  Daniel, since nobody seems to be jumping right in I'll say something. Loyalty is a concept that I have difficulties with. In the past when you have talked on this I have tuned them out and I can't even remember what you have said in the past. I tried to listen more attentively tonight. My difficulty with loyalty is perhaps a false loyalty or an overgrown sense of loyalty or something. When I first attended a meeting for Adult Children of Alcoholic and other dysfunctional families and as they read the stuff that they read at the beginning, there was something in there about loyalty in situations where it wasn't deserved and shouldn't be. I remember crying because it seems that some of my past patterns were to be loyal to people and situations which are actually destructive to me. And I heard you say something about that loyalty was being loyal to --  heard you define it and I am trying to hold on to your definition that loyalty is that which leads to progress for both parties.

It is really difficult in relationships to know just what is, particularly in love relationships, to know what is loyalty to oneself. What is loyalty to God? What is loyalty to another individual? Sometimes it feels like loyalties compete with one another, and learning to sort that out can be difficult. I think I am still stuck in the old understandings of loyalty. It is a real red flag word to me. I think of loyalty to country and loyalty to things -- not that there is a problem with loyalty to country but it sometimes interferes with loyalty to all of our brothers and sisters. So anyway I have talked enough. Perhaps you can address that, please?

DANIEL:   Certainly, my dear. In your discourse you stated that your loyalties often led to destruction and this often appears to be the case as far as your understanding and perception are able to see at this time. Remember also that I implied that true loyalty beyond that which is the base loyalty is one which strives to devoid itself of ego, to strive to be loyal from a perspective of being able to move beyond that which is in it for oneself. In many instances the loyalty you feel between people, especially in love situations, is one that initially begins as base loyalty.

As the relationship grows and cements loyalty becomes a real bonding, and when the relationship decays it is most difficult for the one who stills feels the loyalty to see where any good has ensued. Yet it is, if you will recall, necessary for you to have many relationships on many different levels with people and situations for it is out of these relationships that the Supreme grows and garnishes understanding. Toward this end, then, many loyalty situations are progressive spiritually. Mortally these relationships are often times where there is hurt and emotional upheaval.

Loyalty to country and ideals is also progressive if it is kept within bounds. Ideals often fall by the wayside and that which is the ideal is left behind where the framework or skeleton of what the ideal initially was is all that is glorified. Indeed loyalty is a gift but it is a gift that is not given fully developed. It is one in which you grow and you develop as you walk life's path. Indeed the loyalty between individuals is often the hardest to understand when there is disharmony or a break off of that relationship. However, as I have already stated, even in that break off there is still a sense of bonding. And for most people, those with normal reasoning, those that are in control of their emotions, feelings and understanding, those who know who they are, then this bonding will be one that, even though the friendship has disintegrated, will still be maintained. There will still be a certain amount of loyalty to that friendship, to the good that was in it, the times of struggle and work, the times of being together. Is there further discourse that you would like for me to provide?

PamElla: Um. Not right now, Daniel. I think I am just going to have to work through my feelings about loyalty. I just feel like I have seen loyalty cause more harm than good! So I suppose I need to begin looking from a different perspective or a new understanding of loyalty. Apparently I miss true loyalty or I see this gift in its very unevolved state and I don't like it. Thank you.

DANIEL:   Each individual is bestowed with gifts and each individual is open and able to work upon these gifts in degrees. Therefore, like spiritual growth, the growth in utilizing the gifts are likewise uneven between individuals. No two are alike. Your understanding is not immature but rather needs refocusing and reconditioning to see that the idea of loyalty is essential. I ask you, in your lifetime, my dear, you have many friends, many whom you feel loyal to. Is this not correct?

PamElla: Yes, but I'd never use that word!  (Outburst of laughter)

DANIEL:   And yet those friendships that continue and are growing are not those that you are objecting to, rather it is the ones that are broken or have met with disharmony that have caused you to blanket the word loyalty with disdain?

PamElla: Yes.

DANIEL:   And so concentrate, then, on bringing this understanding of loyalty to a higher level, realizing that even though there have been broken relationships there has been some good or you would not have pursued it even to this point. I would advise you to sit with this concept for a while. Let it work on you that through this you will begin to understand that loyalty really is a gift and not the wrapping that is thrown out when the gift is opened.

PamElla: Thank you Daniel. I will spend time with loyalty. I obviously need to.

Isaac:  Daniel this is Isaac. I was observing that probably half of the people in this group have officially been divorced and the rest of us, speaking of myself, have contemplated it or have experiences akin to divorce, divorce being a legal term anyway. So I am really wanting to talk about a bigger issue than the legal aspects.

I want to relate my reaction as a 17-year-old to my own parents' divorce. I remember that the first thing I felt was extreme anger because I felt that a loyalty bond had been broken. That was a childish reaction as I was only seventeen. And I had witnessed years of fighting and pretty scary stuff. And yet when it came to the actual break I was angry and felt betrayed. I felt that the family had been shattered. And so I use this to illustrate what I think has been my experience and I presume other peoples, that when you have a bond that breaks, whether a marriage or love affair or a friendship or a business agreement, what ever that is, that when there is that break, at least for myself, there seems to be an issue of disloyalty there. And I heard you say a minute ago that there can be this break and loyalty remains. I am just remembering that that feeling was so strong in myself as a kid that there was a break in loyalty. I have never had a relationship break that I was part of that ever felt good. I have always wanted to see it repaired. And I am wondering how anybody feels good about the breakup of something if there is a feeling that loyalty has been broken as well. I am not sure I want you to discourse on all this but I wanted to put in my two cents.

DANIEL:   Thank you, Isaac, for your comments. Certainly whenever there is a break there are the natural emotional feelings and all the ramifications regarding that. However, as you have also stated, whenever there has a been a break you have wanted it repaired. And you have wanted to repair it for exactly what I have been talking about regarding loyalty. You are still loyal to a certain part of that person, an ideal, a feeling, etc. Those who do not wish to see these bonds repaired generally, as I have said, if they are in stable mindal condition, do maintain a certain sense of identity with that one. That identity is the loyalty that has been built. My lesson was not to focus on a break but to understand the overall idea of bonding and loyalty.
Leetah:   Daniel, this is Leetah. I am thinking of something P. S. had said some time ago about her own relationship with various people, not her husband, but people in value situations. She said that as she grew and changed these people fell by the wayside because they no longer held the same values. They were not necessarily wrong values but not the same values. So she went in a different direction than they did, so the loyalty was no longer needed.

I am sitting here listening to all the debate and the fact that you said loyalty was to an ideal and so I am thinking that each of us must be loyal to the ideal guidance of the Indwelling Spirit. For each one of us this has got to be a very personal thing. I hear the pain and certainly I have not been absent from that pain that we as human beings experience when loyalty is betrayed. That is a good word that Isaac used. However, the ideal, the Indwelling Spirit does not betray us. It leads us on. And I think you kind of alluded to that, I am not sure.

DANIEL:   Certainly I did bring up the fact that the loyalty to the Father Fragment within the individual is a loyal bonding which you will begin to understand more fully as you grow in your ability to feel, understand and allow the Father Fragment to lead you. This is a great bonding. Of course the Indwelling Spirit is ever loyal to you no matter what you choose. This bonding becomes permanent with fusion when you are as loyal to the Indwelling Spirit as the Indwelling Spirit is to you.

Leetah: Thank you, Daniel. I can't wait.

PamElla: Daniel, that's about the place where I can accept the concept of loyalty with the Indwelling Spirit and about nowhere else. I guess that is where the idea of competing loyalties comes in. To me that is the only thing/person/ideal, whatever, that I can be loyal to because I think sometimes to me loyalties in other directions are not consistent and not in alignment with God's will and not loyal to the Indwelling Spirit and they are not loyal to myself. My feeling for clarification purposes is the opposite of Isaac's. My feeling is not that when a breakup occurs that loyalty is broken. My feeling is that loyalty holds people together that should be out of there for their own growth and progression. That's what I am not liking in the idea of loyalty, that loyalty somehow forces you to stay in situations that are destructive! Of course that is the opposite of how you define loyalty. I understand, I will meditate on this. To me the only place I am comfortable with the word loyalty is with the Indwelling Spirit and through that to my higher and better self!!

DANIEL:   Thank you PamElla. Let me remind all of you that the loyalty between you and the Indwelling Spirit is one that is divine in nature. It is spiritual. It is not founded in human experiences or mortal life. Hence the bonding between you and your Indwelling Spirit is on a different level. The loyalty between the Indwelling Spirit and you is totally devoid of ego. As you are able to divest yourself of ego you are able to bond spiritually and fusion occurs. Is that understood?

PamElla:   I think so, Daniel, yes.

DANIEL:   The loyalty about which I have spoken this evening is that loyalty which you as ascending beings, we as ascending beings must work through to bring forth these highest ideals. It was not stated by me this evening that just because you are loyal to someone that necessarily means that you must stay in a situation. In fact you may be truer and more loyal to that person if you maintain a distance.

Isaac:  Yes, and it was probably stated by me implicitly in my childhood example. I want to make clear that I, also, as an adult do not approve necessarily of my parent's marriage continuing when it was, in effect, gone, years before. And I am hearing as we are discussing this that the only pure loyalty, the only 100% loyalty is the divine loyalty and that human loyalties are imperfect. I want to clarify that.

And I believe I did understand what you were saying, Daniel, in terms of there being a certain value that you had in a relationship that even if you can't stay, can't live in the same house, be officially boyfriend/girlfriend, husband/wife, or business associates that you still had good times, you still shared things, you still had some value there. And you have a loyalty to the value that was there. And maybe you have a different kind of friendship that is at a different level. Do I understand that correctly?

DANIEL:   Indeed. Or there may not be any friendship. There may be complete severance of the relationship as far as you are consciously aware. However you must be mindful of the fact that whatever you have done in the past influences what you are doing today. Therefore any situation you are in, any relationship will have bearing on what you are doing today. And so that loyalty bond is still a part of your framework even though it is not on a conscious level.

My discourse was not intended to get into these kinds of relationships which have broken, which go beyond your conscious awareness. My intent was to direct your energies to the understanding that loyalty is a gift that is given with the intent of being able to bring forth more love into this world, to create bondings and understandings between people and ideals.

The homework, so to speak, is to look at your growth in your ability to reach out to others, to feel a link between your brothers and sisters, if only by the understanding of their Indwelling Fragment, to understand that loyalty is a calling which when it progresses from the base animal to a higher level supports the idea that you give willingly, you support willingly the relationship or the situation. Does this help clarify?

PamElla: It does for me Daniel. And thank you for letting me run my course on loyalty. Now I can listen to you and hear what you are actually saying. Another thing I think I heard you say in terms of ideals, that loyalty needs consistency all the way through. If we are loyal to an ideal we need to be consistent in our actions all the way down.

DANIEL:   Exactly.

Isaac:   And, Daniel, I am thinking of the Thought Adjuster's loyalty to us. If our Thought Adjusters had a conditional attitude toward us like, 'Well, I'll hang in there with this guy (gal) as long as he is only a moderate jerk, but when he gets to be a total goof-up then I'm going to split the scene', I don't think any of us would ever achieve fusion. [Much laughter]

PamElla: You don't think??

Isaac:  I know we wouldn't (laughter continuing from before). And it’s our part if that loyalty bond is forever broken. It's my understanding from the book that it is only the mortal who can make that decision to hang it up, to kiss the Thought Adjuster goodbye. So that sure involves an awful lot of patience.

I guess a part of me wants to say, and I may be taking issue with PamElla's thinking and others that she may represent, although I have had that feeling many times, that sometimes we give up too quickly. We are 'out of there' too fast. We aren't patient enough. We don't hang in there long enough. That's just my opinion.

DANIEL:   There are many approaches to each question. There are many ways to choose. Indeed is that Indwelling Fragment within the highest ideal of what true loyalty is all about. Even if everything on this planet were to collapse, all relationships, everything, there would still be the loyalty of the Indwelling Spirit available and consistently there for you.

Loyalty is not just a matter of standing by a person, a situation or and idea. Loyalty cannot only be approached intellectually. It must also be approached emotionally and spiritually. It is a gift that you must develop. It is a gift that even when the immediate understanding is not there it is still given, underlying your pathway. Those instances in which loyalty brought forth good will continue to be part of your ascension career. So those bonds that you create now will forever be a part of your ascension career.

I ask that you look with a little more clarity, a little deeper understanding regarding this gift. Cherish it. Do not take it lightly. Understand that through this gift are you able to open up and bond more deeply. Go this week, my loyal students, spend time with your Indwelling Spirit. Give thanks for that loyalty within. Tomas sends his love this evening. Good evening.

*****

DATE:  October 6, 1995
TEACHERS:  DANIEL, TOMAS
TOPIC:  Mediocrity

DANIEL:   Greetings, I am Daniel, your guide, teacher and friend. I am pleased, as is Tomas, to be with you this evening to be a part of your evening and a part of your thoughts. The week that has transpired has been one of many diverse actions, activities, and thoughts for all of you. It has been a time, again, of growth, of reaching higher and taking another step forward.

The hurdles of life are often very short and easy to maneuver while others have more height and require more skill, energy, and more focusing in order to fly over. Those of you who strive to know the Father can more easily follow through when you fly across the hurdles. It is not as devastating. The landing is more secure and you still have the momentum to keep going. All those who work to know themselves, to know God, understand that the vicissitudes of life are there because life must be led. It is understanding and realizing that each experience affords some aspect of opportunity. While it may not be recognizable at the moment, in perspective it is. And so I encourage each of you to meet life joyously, courageously, despite the hurdles of the moment.

Tomas is here and will be speaking and giving our lesson. Tomas and I feel very fortunate that the students we have are growing into super athletes and are able to fly across ever higher hurdles with less anxiety, more surety, and a deeper sense of purpose. This has not come through laying back and watching life go by. It has come from your work and desire to move forward, to touch and understand your divine nature. We are fondly appreciative of you all. And now, Tomas, my friend is on.

TOMAS:   Indeed I am here and I greet you. I am Tomas, my faithful friends. Your energies this evening bring gladness for there is fertility here. The young and eager energies in these young personalities are, indeed, soul food for us all. How ghoulish, you may say, and yet it is true that your clean slates are an embodiment of how we hope to proceed.

As you know, your exposures in your life have colored your attitudes and approaches, often in ways which force your true and inner recognition of your own value reality to be submerged to the point where you doubt you know who you are. What I would like to speak about this evening is for the young and the old and it is in regard to that 'you' that resides deep within you, your own personality, and how you may bring it forth and wear it in your society with honor, dignity, and lightheartedness.

Mediocrity is a vicious game which has been played upon personalities. Much of this has to do with the desire to belong, to fit in, to become one with others so as not to feel the sting of isolation, independence or uniqueness. How often we behold brilliant insights, true reflections of love, potential intimate sharings and gems of wit lost out of fear that your true self will be disdained, laughed at, or worse, ignored! It takes courage, yes, to look for your true self, to develop that which is most sublimely yours. It takes time to discover what your own personality brings and it takes strength of character to acknowledge your integrity and to stand by it.

But there is no greater triumph, no purer thrill, no deeper acknowledgment of divinity than to find your self in harmony with that great First Source and Center which has given you being. How challenging the concept! The analogy of hurdles is totally apt for each understanding of yourself requires another hurdle in your ascension, your spiritual climb to knowingness. These hurdles are lessons of relative degrees and may present you with a totally new perspective upon their accomplishment. Ultimately you not only fly over these barriers in understanding with more buoyancy but in time they are no longer barriers or hurdles compared to the perspective you began with.

In your race to the finish it truly matters little if there are spectators cheering on the sidelines or if there is a trophy at the end. For the awareness of your accomplishment in finding yourself and showing your best stuff is the race itself! To step out from the common understanding may be frightening and many times you may deny that you are reaching. Remember Peter and his experience for the price was high, the hurdle was high. As you proceed in your self discovery remember that your true self is a gift of the Father, the Mother, that They have for you DNA exclusively designed for you. There is a life to unfold before you more astounding than even that which you might imagine for yourself in your more pleasant musings.

Hang tight with your coach and your teammates but be prepared to go the distance often alone with blisters, without water, without succor. And to refer again to that 'cup', some days are like this one; the day is not adequately long to run the distance in such sheer physical perfection. Indeed, most of your growth will be endured in days of joy, quiet delight, harmonious introspection and joyful socializing. So fear not this process of becoming. Fear not this spiritual unfolding which is occurring as you put one foot in front of the other, as you seek the Source of your being. For even though you balk, even though you resist there is within you, your true self which longs to be joined with its Source; and we hope to encourage and assist you on your journey. It is our journey also.
Again it is a delight to experience this configuration of young energy and I include you all in that assessment.

DANIEL:   Thank you Tomas for your words; words to be contemplated, words that can give strength to those weary travelers, words that bring joy to the experienced traveler. This discourse is appropriate for tonight. During the following weeks be kind to yourself by making the time to sit with that Indwelling Spirit. It is, after all, one thing to know about God. It is another thing to know God. That can only be accomplished through silence and the journey inward for it, like the journey outward, has hurdles as well. This forum is open for questions.

PamElla: Daniel and Tomas thank you both for your words tonight. I felt them very loaded and there is lots to think about and contemplate. I will be doing that.

Tonight it is my extreme pleasure to introduce two people that I know you already know quite well, two good friends of mine: Kathy who is here visiting me from Boise this weekend; and Jackie who is here tonight. We finally connected and I am very pleased to have them both here.

DANIEL:   Indeed, we are most pleased as well. Welcome Kathy. Welcome Jackie to our gathering here this evening. As PamElla has already stated you are known to us.

The pathway of life leads in many directions. There are many zigzags, side roads and alleys you may take. Often the darkest alley, the most fearsome alley is one which if taken turns out to be the alley that leads to a boulevard filled with wonder, excitement, joy, and higher understanding. It is most difficult and takes a lot of courage to take that first step down that unknown alley. But once the process has begun you immediately feel a desire to continue, to proceed, to explore, to understand what this alley is about. The road inward, the road to self discovery is the road that leads home, but it can often be the most forbidding from an outside standpoint.

I welcome both of you knowing that the pathways you have come are ones that have led you to this point. The search for God, for knowledge, for truth is not just a bitter cup but rather a cup that is mixed with love and all the fruits of the Spirit. Often it appears bitter because of human weakness and lack of knowledge. It is the bitterness in the semi-sweet chocolate that is so tantalizing for those who love chocolate. Those who know they are never alone, those who continue to search look past the bitterness and enjoy the tantalizing sweetness of the love of the First Source and Center. My love to both of you. Welcome and may peace be a part of your journey for the First Source and Center is always there for those who will listen. Welcome.

TOMAS:   Allow me also to remark and I will lapse somewhat and acknowledge that this TR has thought about the analogy of the FBI where two officers are involved. And these two officers, 'Daniel and Tomas' are taking you down dark alleys. But I am reminded to caution you that the path you engage upon in your spiritual search will, in fact and in deed, alter your life. And if you seek comfort and freedom of ease we are not those that you would seek for our function is to teach; and therefore we attempt to stimulate your minds that you may make those decisions which will bring you to those crossroads in life which are more, perhaps, in the line of the path that diverged into a wood and a dark enveloping forest it may be. But like the wondrous boulevard, the dark path into soul searching will lead to the sunny meadow on the other side.

The struggles that are born by those who seek to find Godlikeness within their own being are an adventure, the most supernal adventure. We invite you to share that adventure and we request that you share your adventure with us, for we are family here. We grow together. We welcome you not only with your social graces but with your soul and ours. We touch hearts, minds, and deep feelings. These are wondrous opportunities for us all and we say welcome.

PamElla:   Thank you teachers for that eloquent and lengthy response to my friends. Tomas may I get some clarification on your response a little bit more? You are saying as our teachers you push us to know ourselves better and that isn't always comfortable. And you push us toward those aspects of the divine, learning to forgive, etc. and that often forgiveness is more difficult and that unconditional love is more difficult than say stewing in our resentments and so forth. Is that what you were saying?

TOMAS:   In a part, of course, for we have dealt with forgiveness as a topic and we have experienced forgiveness in our lives. We have sought deep recesses in order that we might understand the true nature of forgiveness that we might be more graciously forgiving, and that we might understand that we are forgiven. And certainly these qualities of living a righteous life are effort. But what is it that is said? There is no happiness without intelligent effort. And although you may be simpleminded and happy you may also be complicated and happy.

I am perhaps not answering your question. I feel that your words were rather an inducement to further illustration of our purpose as teachers.

PamElla: Yes, thank you for catching me in my indirectness.

TOMAS:   You may waver and meander, for in this process we see a fuller, wider range, more variation, greater scope of personality and more opportunity for discourse. It is our hope that you think, yes, and feel and respond and etc. But I did not come with a curriculum vitae and our lessons, although serious, are not overly and troublesomely cerebral. We like to laugh. We enjoy repartee. And the left field question is always welcome. Therefore daughter, engage yourself as you will as my companion and coworker Daniel has advised. This forum is open.

Tonya: This is Tonya. I am still kind of working on the unconditional love thing that I asked about quite some while ago. What I'm wondering is in trying to love others unconditionally I am finding myself being afraid to get close to them. I guess I'm wondering if this is a natural step or if I am going in the wrong direction, or what?

DANIEL:   I will begin this answering. Unconditional love is something that is very difficult and, at times, impossible for all who are not already perfect. To assume that you can love everyone unconditionally is not practical, is self deceiving. As you continue to grow within yourself, to understand your own motives, thought processes, actions, emotions, etc., then you become more secure. You become more confident. You become more independent of the outside world, depending instead on spiritual attributes. This is a transforming process.

Unconditional love is also a process in that you will be able to embrace and love others for who they are and what they are when you can love and embrace yourself. Unconditional love is what Christ Michael was for all of us. As He walked among the people, as He dealt with everyone He did so on that premise of divine understanding, of looking past the individual as they appear, react, and are mortally, to their divine nature. And yet because He could love unconditionally He could also leave the individual and go on with His own life.

Often there is a misconception for humans in thinking that because love is unconditional there must be always a relationship going on. And this is not necessarily true. When you can love unconditionally you do not need to depend on another to receive love back, but rather you may continue to move onward and still love without strings attached.

In your evolution in loving unconditionally there will often be initial judgements formed for that is part of your intelligence, your thinking, to put things in perspective. The judgement may not be bad; it is just your understanding of an individual. But since you are working from a lifelong history there are often feelings and thoughts that arise that can color your love for another. As you continue to build your own foundation you will be able to let go of those things that hold you in fear, that prevent you from loving unconditionally.

It is hoped that at some point in your life all of you will realize that the First Source and Center works through everyone and that no one is any better, no one is higher or lower. It does not matter if you are the head of a corporation or the custodian that cleans the office of the CEO. That is immaterial. Loving one another is seeing past all of the facades that one builds that they think are needed to protect themselves. Trying always to be better is not the purpose of life. It is in this context of striving to be better that unconditional love cannot be met. When you can understand when ego is involved and can work to get beyond the ego then you can embrace and love genuinely, less intrusively and without attachment. My friend has this helped in any way?

Tonya:   What I'm wondering is, the love that needs to come from within us spiritually, how do I build that up, how do I develop the spiritual love within me.

DANIEL:   Indeed. Let me make a distinction here for you. It is most important that you realize human love, the love that a parent has for their child, the love that a spouse has for their mate, that love that friends have for one another. That is a genuine and real love. However, a love that is real, this real love becomes great and flourishes and grows enormously when it is not only conditioned through the human element but also from the divine. To reach the state of loving not only humanly but divinely comes about through quiet inner workings, self discovery, learning to get a hold of who and what you are, learning your own emotions, feelings, thoughts, working through those aspects that hold you back: fear, intolerance, not being able to forgive, not being able to be in control or have will power. These things often contribute to one's inability to love unconditionally.

As you strive daily to know the Father the gift of understanding and knowing who you are, a child of the First Source and Center is an outcome. When you sit with the Father you are nourished and are led in various ways and in these leadings you discover more insights into your nature and into the nature of God. To think that you can have it all in one sitting is foolhardy. Life is an experience of unfolding, of looking into each opportunity, of grasping another aspect. Your spiritual life is just beginning. You will spend many aeons in perfecting the spiritual life.

And so all of you do not feel guilt or worry that you are not perfect yet, for that only hinders the present and the now. That only hinders you learning from this moment and gleaning some aspect from it. The greatest advice is to spend time in prayer, thanksgiving, and thought with the First Source and Center. It is the inner work that really lays open the door for growing immensely in your human life. Does this help?

Tonya:   Yes, thank you.

DANIEL:  Tomas and I will now take our leave. During our absence this week work on silence, on letting go of some aspect that is personally bothering you. When you sit in silence allow God's love and support to take your burden and to provide you with the necessary understanding to carry on. Our love and peace go with you. May your path be joyful and bright. May the hurdles be small and the fragrance of spirituality be high. Our love. Good evening.

*****

DATE:  October 13, 1995
TEACHER:   DANIEL
TOPIC:  The Greater Family

DANIEL:   Greetings. I am pleased to be part of your reality. The companionship and friendship which has developed over time has strengthened me and has obviously succeeded in strengthening you as well. I am proud to be your teacher. Tomas is here also and shares my greetings, my sentiments and frankly based on your sharing this evening I would like to stress the importance of your association, not only the association of you here present, but those throughout your world who have committed themselves to true fraternity.

In Michael's work here with His select few pupils and apostles of that time He mentioned that although they were few in number they were even so creating the Kingdom as they worked and lived and played together in the spirit of love which He taught them. There is reference to the goal of ultimate Light and Life, to the Kingdom being manifested on earth as it is in heaven in small but stable increments, that when partnerships are formed in devotion to ideals this augmented energy produces the rippling effect that brings into its sphere of influence those others who appreciate those ideals, thus families are brought into being.

I do not limit the use of the words 'families' to cultural norms but the spiritual family. You here gathered represent well a family and even a community. As you reach out and connect with other small groups of people who are formulating their own community of committed souls the Kingdom grows.

There is one benefit immediately apparent when we consider the advantage of the greater family and that is that none are set apart from the others. All are vital elements of this family, and as your traditional family mores have evidenced. The strength of family support has been able to endure great hardships and create empires because of the loyalty and strength of association. The Fatherhood of God, the inclusion of the Infinite Spirit, your Mother God, and you and we as offspring, are bringing about this greater family. Through this greater family you will and we have endured hardship and are creating a new empire, the Kingdom of which Michael spoke and which He lived.

When you are assured of this cemented fealty you are emboldened then to venture forth into your arenas having been made confident by the loving arms of your family. For no matter how far or near you may venture, no matter how deeply embroiled you may become in the machinations of your temporal arena, you know the warmth and security of your spiritual hearth awaits you at home in your very real, very literal and very human spiritual family.

This confidence and assurance of being loved and accepted and encouraged has been the source of many great and admirable deeds and adventures in taking the message into new places, new places in the physical plane and in the mental realms as well. The apostles went hither and yon into neighboring countries, into foreign realms in order to spread the gospel which they had learned from Michael and which they had experienced during that impressive time they shared with Him the intimacy of a spiritual family life.

Yes, there is the constant and coveted relationship between you and your Indwelling God Fragment. The relationship which you are developing with your soul is paramount and will sustain you. But the visible evidence of your true family, the truths which you have learned, the miracles which you have seen, the extraordinary events which you have witnessed, the healings which you have experienced as a result of your association with other believers puts your personality into relationship mode with other beings and this ultimately will alter the face of Urantia, will change the ways of this world from dark to light, from segregation to reunion and from isolation to community.

My friends, I am inclined to remark that in this lesson this evening I have not brought any revelation that has not been presented before by and through the teachers or your own mind. But on occasion it is well to reiterate those basic truths and values which uphold you, encourage you and lend visible credibility to our forum here in this community in Pocatello and environs. Yes, long ago it was said that Correcting Time is connecting time and you are connecting with one another in new and magnificent ways. This inter-working is clearly up-stepped spiritual circuitry and your dedication to attaining these hungers of the heart are what make us so proud to be here and to be regarded as your teachers. We are truly your friends with perhaps more experience, but our goal remains the same. As our younger brothers and sisters, Tomas and I are truly fortunate. It is with delight now that we open the floor for discourse or questions.

Rutha:   Daniel, I have kind of a question. I appreciate your talk on family. In our society it appears that the family is breaking down. We have a lot of problems with what is happening in this regard. Is there anything that we can do as individuals other than doing what we can in our own families to bridge gaps and make amends and to keep the lines of communication open, is there anything we can do to help society in general in strengthening family (and not just the political stuff of family values that we hear all the time), but to make the family like it should be in Light and Life where the spiritual values become part of it?

DANIEL:   My response is no surprise when you reflect that we are all family members by being all offspring of our Parents, our Divine Creative Parents. The family unit has radically changed recently and has, yes, undergone much turmoil and, perhaps, fortunately will never return to what it was before this human liberation and spiritual craving set in.

Your conditioning has been to regard the family as a sacred unit, to uphold its communal values, to stand by that which has been brought into being by the wisdom and the culture of the participating parties. Yet when there is trouble, when a family unit is in disrepair, when elements of the family launch out in search of their own values, or lash out at the superimposed values presented to them by their heritage, the tactic of honoring the sanctity of that family unit cannot hold up when it is thus. The courageous approach is to launch upon a recognition of the birth pangs of a spiritually hungry soul seeking light.

This is somewhat delicate for the mores are strong and still it's regarded as impolite to meddle into family affairs yet what would your response be to seeing a child being abused in a public place? Would you, as most, avoid confrontation by assuming that that was a family matter and none of your business? Or, on the other hand to the farthest extreme, would you assume a cloak of divinity such as Michael wore and seek divine guidance to intercede in the situation to the betterment of all parties? To the extent that you impose your faith and conviction upon troubled waters is the extent that you deem yourself capable. For wondrous things can be done for those who hurt, those who are lost, those who struggle to seek their way, whether it be through anger or defiance or through naiveté and unwarranted trust. They are your brothers and sisters.

As you dwell upon an individual or a situation first trust in the Father, not to avoid the situation or what you can do, but trust that the Father is your strength and from Him and Her you gain the wisdom to know how to deal rightly with that individual or situation, even if it is only prayer. For prayer releases love energies and service direction that other entities can work with. But since you are here, since you see, and since it affects your world and it is happening to your brother or sister it is, perhaps, your assignment to follow through with your love deed.

Rutha: That's a pretty heavy assignment, Daniel! I have been sitting here thinking while you have been talking how would you, besides prayer? Because whenever you see something like that I usually do say a prayer for the parent and then ultimately for the child. But I am just wondering, you know, and every situation is different. I think there are some you could probably approach more readily then you would some others. But I don't know! How would you do it? I would think you would have to speak with the parent from the standpoint of some psychological term like, 'It looks like you are having a bad day today' or something like that to divert their attention from the child to speaking with you. I really have been trying to figure out what would be a good way to approach what you said.

DANIEL:   So I have made a monster?
Rutha: Yes.

Isaac:   Well, Jesus did, in fact, intervene in a domestic violence situation according to the Urantia Book and He took the perpetrator, touched him gently and said, I can see in your face you are not an unreasonable person. What would provoke you to do this sort of thing?' (paraphrased). But as Daniel said a minute ago that we could cloak ourselves in the divinity of Michael and that would be one extreme. He did do that. And I do agree that it would be hard to do.

PamElla:   And the other thing I was going to say, Isaac, when you said Michael touched him is that this tape I have been listening to talks about the power of touch. She is talking about with teenage children and how we all need to be touched. Sometimes if you just touch a person it makes that connection and it soothes them down and things become reasonable. So that was interesting. I just now heard you, although I'm sure I have read, but I just put those two things together. Fascinating. And the other thing is that Daniel said that in the situation we would need to pray about it and ask if there was anything that we could do in that situation. So I would think that we couldn't have a preset plan of any type but rather it’s the quiet time that we spend daily.

Rutha: I agree that we can't have a preset thing but I think you need to think about it in order to approach it so that when something like this comes up you aren't just speechless. Like we did in Transition Training we could have role playing where you would work it out so that you would have some sort of an idea of what kind of words to use.

Leetah:  I'm sitting here thinking in terms of what might be acceptable to the parent. I think it is the child that we see that is abused. The thought that came into my mind is if we could offer to watch the child while the parent goes ahead and does whatever he needs to do, she needs to do, that usually it is the child interfering with that program. But then the first thought that comes up to me is time! What about the deadlines that we set? Maybe we need to be less busy so that we have time to put on this cloak, not of divinity, but of guidance, maybe, where we could help in an abusive situation -- I don't know??

Isaac:   And, Daniel, I don't mean to change the subject but I got from what you said, and of course it will be more clear when I can read it in print, and correct me now if I don't have this right, but I had the impression that you were implying that family structures as we have them in our culture are held together by forces which are not necessarily spiritual, and that there needs to be an evolving understanding of family where the spiritual dimension has more cohesiveness.

According to the UB, families were originally held together by purely monetary concerns. It was an institution of economics. And now it has moved into a kind of romantic thing, and that families that are going to hold together, (you didn't say this, I will just offer it up) are going to have to have these spiritual bonds.

Sharon:   How do you get a spiritual bond in a family that doesn't want to have a spiritual bond?

Isaac:   And also this thing that Jesus said, you know, where He said, 'Who are my mother and my brothers and sisters? Everyone who does the will of God is my mother, brother, and sisters'. Were you implying any of that or do you want to comment on that as well as whatever else we said?

DANIEL:   I would like to say something before I completely lose track of where we are going! I have enjoyed the barrage of commentary and I encourage this kind of discourse. I might add that the Morontia Companions are quite stimulated.

However it is not my intention to get caught up in that specific example that I penciled in, but it does give rise to that quandary. I believe that the first step you might want to consider in approaching this service decision is how much are you willing to stick your neck out. And that decision is to be made today. For if you make the decision in your heart to allow yourself to be used, to be available for service work of this sort chances are fairly great that such an opportunity will be presented to you; and you will go into it with the guidance that you need for you have already conversed with your First Source and Center as to how you may best serve. Until such time as you have weighed within yourself the extent to which you are willing to serve, until you have counted the cost, all these quandaries are only philosophic musings and are often fear fed fantasies. (chuckles) And so it is your decision once again as to how you may serve in total cooperation with the universe.

And, Isaac, I reflect that family secrets have held many in bondage out of loyalty to a system which even though it benefited and does benefit also causes pain, shame, and retardation. A true family, a family in the Kingdom, the family to which you belong and to which you aspire is based on the Fatherhood of God. I am also reminded, reverting a moment to the 'child abuse' situation and also relating to the family unit as it has evolved, that the power of the paternal influence and the influence of the material caregiver are roles which have been assigned for centuries and which are deeply rooted in the subconscious realms of Urantians.

These will not dissolve and evolve overnight and in some cases they are best left alone. But when you find an individual who lets you know by longing looks or by gestures or by behavior that you see with your eyes to see, that is a call for intervention and your actions then are dependent upon the decision you have made in your heart. I encourage you to look at this decision, this potential consciousness, in your meditations in direct communion with God lest you become a meddler or an enabler or a statistic.

PamElla: Well, Daniel, that was quite a response. This path of inward knowing, as you said last week, knowing ourselves is a big undertaking. That puts in on the line for me to know just where my commitments lie and just how far I am willing to stick my neck out. And I don't want to become a meddler, an enabler, or a statistic.

There are aspects of tonight's discussion that are reminding me of conversation that's been on the TML list week and not so much that there are truly parallels as that I am just mulling over a lot of what is there and am somewhat bothered by it. I guess this last statement of not being a meddler and an enabler or statistic requires discernment. That has certainly been an issue on the list this week as has been a discussion of Thought Adjusters and whether they are present or not in individuals. A comment you said I know wasn't directed that way but my mind jumped on it because of this discussion. You said, 'all humans'. (PamElla and Daniel spoke in unison) Thank you Daniel.

I know you are aware of what's in my mind. All humans are our brothers and sisters. You have told us before that all life is of worth. And it seems to me that our human brothers and sisters, whether they have a Thought Adjuster present or not remain our brother and sister. There were also quotes this week from the UB where Ganid was asking Michael why He wouldn't defend Himself and Michael said something about discerning whether they were truly a Son of God or not. And if they weren't, then, yes, He would defend himself, otherwise He would find another way around it.

I am just really in conflict right now about this whole discussion. I don't feel like it is my place to even try and discern whether there is a Thought Adjuster present in another individual. I feel like I ought to just assume that this is so. But I suppose that discernment is appropriate at times because I don't want to become a meddler, well, in this case, a statistic or an enabler. So if you would address that topic I would really appreciate it.

DANIEL:   I would be glad to daughter. I chose those words, all humans, fully understanding that there were exceptions to the rule. And yet I present the plural for that is the best approach in your service ideals. Certainly there are those who are not indwelt, but in the main they are not ferocious killer animals but docile beings. This, too, is a question of discernment. For in your approach to your brothers and sisters it is best to err in believing that they are indwelt. Even if they present themselves as pitiful remember the adage that it is wise to be kind to dumb animals. In the instance of aggression even an aggressive 'killer animal' may be indwelt by a Thought Adjuster. And so the limited vantage point of your growth status best assumes the best, that all are indwelt. That way you are acting in good faith at all times. In time you may begin to perceive the presence or absence of Spirit so keenly that you will have no problem discerning in which human God is active and in which human God is vacant. This may or may not have to do with passive or aggressive social behavior. Have I addressed your point?

PamElla:   Yes, Daniel. Here is an additional problem for me. My background, as you know, prior to the Urantia Book was coming from a more Native American approach. That is the stuff that I have been reading in which case all life is precious and you don't take a plant without asking first and showing gratitude. And the same with animal life. And so I still hold dearly to that point of view of life. I guess I really don't like the distinction made between whether there is a Thought Adjuster present or not only because I know there is not a Thought Adjuster present in animals and plants or in our environment that we are killing off but we are all part of the I AM. I wonder why this distinction is made about whether a Thought Adjuster is present or not? And I am wondering what is appropriate behavior toward animals and plants if it is not to treat them with the same love and respect that we would indwelt human beings?

DANIEL:   You are certainly correct that it is best to treat all creation with respect. And I know you understand that there is a difference between the physical realms and the spiritual realms and that whether or not an individual is indwelt by God should have be no deciding factor in your regard for and appreciation of that life as it is presented. The only differentiation I make in referencing the individual who is indwelt and is active, or for that matter, dormant is in terms of potential. Otherwise mortals, animals, flora, all are part of the physical kingdom, all are in balance and depending upon the individual attitude, all is sacred. The concept of the Great Spirit has sustained people for a long time and even today it is regarded as a refreshing, simple and pure approach to life on a troubled planet. I would take no exception to that background which you bring. Are you troubled?

PamElla: No, I am not troubled. But I think my difficulty here has to do with levels of reality because that is the difference between potential in the physical realms. The physical realms are said to not be real. That which is not indwelt, those human beings that are not indwelt never become real except that they become part of the Supreme. So I have problems with the different levels of reality, the concept of the I AM, the concept of what has reality, what doesn't have reality. I am sure I need to study the book more because this is something I really have not had in mind in approaching the book. And I realize that is not something you can answer now, and I am not asking you to even address it. I am just saying that I think that is where some of this difficulty is coming from, is understanding levels of reality.

DANIEL:   Yes. And what you have shared with me or what I am perceiving is that much of your service motive is directed toward the pain and abuse of Mother Earth. Your approach to counting the cost may have to do with generating your creative service energies on environmental matters or ecological matters more than the social ills of the various cultural structures.

PamElla: Yes, Daniel. And for everybody else I decided that when I grow up I am going to be an environmental lawyer. (laughter). I decided that today. I knew it would cause looks (more laughter) on people's faces. But I plan to get my degree done and I plan to raise the money. (laughter).

Isaac:  You will have to live to be a hundred now.

PamElla:   I was planning on living until 127, now I will have to stretch it out to 250. [More laughter]

DANIEL:   We will all call you grandmother [Much more laughter] we see how industrious we can become and how effective and successful it is possible to be when such commitments are made in the spirit of true family. So many times the words lose color and vibrancy but the reality of what we have been creating in our friendship, in our sessions, in our working, in our mission is right, true, beautiful, and good and lives in spite of all the efforts to make it appear to be fantasy or fiction. It is a joy to observe this true flowering of your community personality.

As you go about your week look to what your eyes find to see and take that into your secret place, your heart of hearts and ask Father how you may help, if He would have you help. And then decide and be. Go in peace and in faith and in trust that your path is guided and your efforts are blessed as are we and ours. Good evening.

*****

DATE:  October 20, 1995
TEACHERS:  DANIEL, RAYSON, TOMAS
TOPIC:  Reflectivation

DANIEL (TR #1):   Good evening my friends. I am Daniel, your guide and teacher. It is a joyous occasion, indeed, this evening to have amongst us not only all of you and our friends from Utah and California, but Tomas and I are delighted to have Rayson here with you this evening.

The understanding of networking, of bonding with many is one which we ask you to always hold open. For the possibilities are endless when like minds, like hearts, and like souls work in unity despite differences. In the framework of the Teaching Mission it is and has always been our desire that there would be intermingling in order to strengthen not just the Teaching Mission itself but to strengthen you the individuals that make up this mission. It is through the individual and their commitment to following the will of the First Source and Center that world changes can take place, that Light and Life can be a reality.

Whenever the Indwelling Spirit is able to reach a certain level within the individual that individual begins to question, to wonder, and to open to many opportunities up to that time not recognized. Through inner work and soul searching the individual grows. That growth has a powerful effect upon society. And so through connectedness with other groups and through your own inner work you are building that framework through which the concepts of Light and Life can be planted.

I am thankful that Joe and Joan have made this trip, for Tomas and I have worked together in planning for this day. Tomas has a few words to speak at this time.

TOMAS (TR #2):   Good evening children, friends, and siblings in the Spirit. We are quite stimulated this evening, quite joyous as we see the effects of our labors come into fruition for you and for Michael on many ranges of reality level. Although there are the dips in the waves there are also crests; and we are asking that the view be for the overall life of the living water rather than the individual ups and downs and relative heights and depths of temporary events.

And speaking of events, indeed, we greet teacher Rayson this evening. He is eager to speak to us all. I am pleased to give this platform to him for his words this evening.

RAYSON (TR #2 Of Malibu):  Greetings, this is Rayson. I am honored and pleased to be with you here tonight, my dear friends. This evening has been many days and years in the planning, as you have heard from Daniel and Tomas. I and the celestial hosts here tonight heard you express sadness upon hearing of Tomas' pending assignment to another group, however, you have progressed quite well under Tomas and Daniel and because you have worked so hard and diligently it has been decided that you are now ready for a new and higher level of instruction and dialogue.

One of your group shall in the near future begin to offer lessons from a Melchizadek of the region. These lessons at first may seem simple and may be rather difficult for the TR to present. However, the messages will come through with regularity and will be coming for quite some time. In addition, I, myself, will be available to this group as needed. Father Melchizadek looks forward to working with you. He has watched you for quite some time and has been very satisfied with your growth and your eagerness to serve Father above. He also sends a message to you regarding the earth changes which have been a subject of your discussions. It is this:

Doubt not that your spiritual luminosity is easily perceived by the celestial host which is present on Urantia in great numbers now for you have worked hard and progressed well. As you continue your studies and more importantly the application of those studies in terms of action, living out the golden rule moment to moment, your brightness increases and this enables you to be even more clearly discerned by the celestials who are here not only to guide you but also to protect you. Do not misinterpret this protection as a sign of favoritism for, as you well know, all men on this planet are equally loved by God. Rather this mission shall not fail. Its proven workers shall be encouraged and sheltered in all permissible ways once they are marked by luminosity as you are, dear friends.

Heed well Melchizadek's message and his future lessons for you. Although I believe it is unlikely that you will be given specific instructions regarding geologic changes in the near future, the pace of your spiritual instruction will be accelerated, never more than you are able to withstand, for you shall determine the pace. But you can be certain that you will have progressed sufficiently by the time any real jeopardy to your physical person presents. You are much loved, much respected and held in some awe by the perfect celestials among you who are continually surprised and delighted by your actions which demonstrate such deep and abiding faith. So be of good cheer, my friends.

Yes, the bitter cup awaits but loving hands shall guide it to your lips and loving arms shall carry you from the worst consequences of man's animal condition: fear, greed, rage, pride. Though you imbibe the bitterness you shall find the animal self falling away from you as a cloak untied and you shall proceed with courage, strength, mercy, humility, humor, kindness, truth, beauty, goodness, and love! I am here not only to bring you these glad tidings but also to answer any questions that you may have.

Isaac:   Rayson, this is Isaac. I want to welcome you personally and thank you for the news. I must say it is exciting. It is totally unexpected to me personally that we should have a new teacher through another TR. But I do want to ask if I understood correctly. Did you say the Father Melchizedek would be our teacher or did I misunderstand that?

RAYSON:   One of the Melchizedeks. It is sometimes said that all Melchizedeks are fathers and so then we refer to any or all as Father Melchizedek .

Isaac:  Thank you for that clarification. I know there is The Father Melchizedek, the first Melchizedek of Nebadon. I wasn't sure if that is what you meant. Well, I personally am excited. Thank you for your presence and this announcement.

RAYSON:   You are most welcome. I would also like to share with you some information regarding the phenomenon of reflectivation if you are interested in hearing this.

Isaac:  Please .

RAYSON:   As you may know, by means of reflectivity great distances can be easily traversed by what you might call information, including what you would call material substance, although not exclusively that material. For example, it is by means of a permutation of reflectivity that this transmission is occurring now although it is not strictly reflectivity for the human mind of Urantia, although it is capable of reflectivation, has great difficulty in translating reflectivated material to communicable forms such as speech, writing, art and so on. None the less as you hear, then all become more adept as transmitter/receivers, and that part of you which is capable of transmission receiving becomes more and more developed, you might say like a muscle that is conditioned carefully and well. As this occurs you become increasingly capable of receiving by the phenomenon of reflectivation a universe circuit message which is streaming into this planet steadily.

One of the purposes of this mission, in fact, is for there to be cultivated a core of persons such as yourselves who are desirous and willing to offer themselves as blinded reflectivators of a universe circuit message. By blinded I mean that although you will receive and transmit a universe circuit message you shall not do so consciously. This has been arranged as what you might call a 'fail safe' mechanism, for, my friends, while you are not savages, you are semi-savages at this time (laughter) and because of this it has been determined that it would be in the best interests of this mission to protect you and the purposes of the mission by making the reflectivation activity tamper proof, unlike your transmission/receiving which is very much tamperable as all of you have experienced at one time or another. In fact it is hoped that the TR will leave their imprint on the messages that come forth and that, in fact, that all who listen to such messages or read such messages or admire such messages in the form of art or music or other display will learn to discern between information which comes from the teacher and contamination from the mind of man. We do not say that this contamination is necessarily a bad thing. However, as you learn to discern the difference between man's mind and teacher's information it will strengthen you spiritually for it will improve your skill at discerning spiritual reality as opposed to material reality. Being material creatures it is unavoidable that you must reside in material reality and until the moment of translation or material death you shall never be free of material reality. However, this most certainly does not mean that you cannot learn to perceive spiritual reality and become increasingly a participant in spiritual reality for; after all, this is much of what is involved in the movement toward Light and Life establishment on this planet. But until that moment of translation or material death it is likely that any transmission receiving done shall bear the definite material imprint of the person who does this work.

Isaac:  I know others are eager to get this mike so this will be my last two questions. For clarification purposes do I understand you to say that you are non morontially present with us but you are coming through a reflectivation phenomenon, Rayson?

RAYSON:   Yes. I am present by that means, although there are a great many celestials present now.

Isaac:  Good. We have been told that we hear teachers over the circuits. Is this a synonymous term to reflectivation, over the circuits?

RAYSON:   Sometimes. Not always. I am not within access of a circuit at this particular time, although sometimes I am, indeed, as you state.

Isaac:  Thank you for answering my questions. I am going to put this mike down so that others may use it.

Leetah:  Good evening Daniel, Tomas, and Rayson. Thank you, each of you, for being here tonight. Obviously Tomas has a new assignment and we are going to have a new teacher in the person of a Melchizedek. I am assuming that Daniel will stay with us as our group teacher along with the new one that is coming. Is this correct?

RAYSON:   It would be better to ask Daniel, than to ask me.
Leetah: I would ask anyone who would answer that.

DANIEL:   My dear students, have no fear that I will abandon you at this point. It is my delight that even though we will be under a much higher and spiritualized tutelage I will not leave. I have, like you, committed to doing the Father's will.

Leetah: Thank you very much, Daniel. I am glad to hear that. And we look forward to newness and change, but it's always nice to have Daniel as a security blanket, too.

RAYSON:   Do not be surprised if Tomas comes back on occasion.
Leetah: We would hope for that. We will look forward to his return.

PamElla: Good evening teachers. I am so blown away that I am not quite sure what I want to say or ask. Thank you, Rayson, for bringing us this news. Thank you, Joan and Joe, for coming here to speak with us, to deliver this information. The timing with Tomas is pretty amazing, the synchronicity. Rayson, I would like some further clarification on the intamperable technique of which you spoke. Is this something else that is involved with the 'earth changes' that is separate from the coming of the Melchizedek teacher, that if any of us wanted to offer ourselves for this kind of information, we could?

RAYSON:   Yes.

PamElla: I offer myself now. I like the idea of intamperability. I have another question that relates indirectly to your message tonight. I think I will wait and see if there are other questions more directly related and see how our time goes.

Jeremiah:   Good evening teachers, this is Jeremiah. I enjoyed this very lovely discussion tonight. In times of transition it's mixed emotions. Sometimes it's sad, at other times it is exciting, the new teacher coming but Tomas and Gerdean will be reassigned. I would just like to ask if there is anything we can do to help Gerdean and teacher Tomas. I guess I direct this to whoever wants to answer it. What we can do in the intermediate to help and what we can do to establish in a new location, anything we can do to help?

DANIEL:   As always, my friends, it is important to hold individuals in prayer, and to that spiritual end you are beckoned. As physical beings you are beckoned to aid in various ways to lend support, encouragement, an ear, a shoulder, a physical hand, etc. You are able to wisely discern and know when a fellow being is in need. So to answer that question is to say to open yourselves that you may be of service. Tomas has no need, but Gerdean certainly does.

RAYSON:   Additionally, although the opera house in Pittsburgh may be very alluring it is likely that there are those in that city who would be very excited to know that an adept TR is about to arrive with teacher. This news may encourage an outpouring of assistance which is probably going to be very useful to the TR. However, it is her decision whether she wishes to disseminate this information or not.

TOMAS:  Certainly my primary TR would request regular receipt of what is transpiring in this teaching mission base which will continue to encourage and sustain her in her new location. It is most difficult for me to communicate when my vehicle is so emotional. I will therefore excuse us from the balance of the proceedings but not before making witness to the supreme delight we have in this assemblage and our honored guest. For myself, I will speak with you again and anon. Good evening.

Group:   Good evening Tomas.

PamElla: Daniel, Rayson, this question is for either or both of you. I have been, as I think you are both aware, thinking about ego this week. I am desiring further information on what it is and its purpose and how it is so awry on this planet. I have a feeling that my ego voice is very similar to many people's and I am wondering if the ego voice is so vicious in planets that are not of rebellion status. And with that information in mind do either of you have more specific instructions on how to integrate my true personality, my true self with that ego self?

DANIEL:   My dear PamElla. We have spoken of ego on numerous occasions within our group. It would behoove you to locate that material and reread it. It is important for all of you to understand that because you are a mortal being it is necessary for you to have an ego. For the ego is what initially defines you. It is through the ego that you are able to begin as an infant and work through the various stages of growth. While the ego often is accorded as the demon it is not always that menacing.

Ego is an aspect of your being which through spiritual inner work you are able to rise above, control, and are able to fully integrate as a spiritual and human being, one where the dual natures are in synchronicity and that alignment that is necessary in order to truly work within the parameter of God-consciousness. That is not to say that all God-conscious individuals are not at times motivated by the ego for the ego is a part of your human existence and will always remain in a coexistence with the higher motive. While ego is often considered a dark side to personality one must realize that it does support you in helping you in working through various levels of progress. If the ego did not spur you on at times you would often become lazy. If you were not prompted by the ego then your material existence could become compromised, could be in jeopardy. It is, however, through the work of daily stillness, of searching for own understanding of who you are that you are able to keep in check the ego, so to speak, that it does not dominate the personality.

You, my dear, have done much in the way of working to dissolve those issues that have permeated your existence, and the ego which you are seeing manifested these last few weeks is but a lesson for you to realize how fine the line is between that which is high and that which is low. All individuals can choose within the flick of an eye to turn and go a different route. Those who work to maintain a daily communication with the First Source and Center are less likely to choose a darker path. The darker path is one which when chosen after being on a spiritual climb is one that feels wrong, one that does not work with the values, with the understanding to which you have risen.

Be mindful when you work with your brothers and sisters that ego often can control a personality that is not in touch with the inner. To you, I would say that you have and are fully working toward integration. It is nearly complete. Continue, for once you have reached that point then the merging self of the future will have less trouble in keeping integration. For you see, my friends, integration is on a daily basis, that once you have reached this plateau this does not mean you will remain there. There is always change as your path goes forward. You will meet circumstances, opportunities, all of which will call upon you to keep in touch with the inner. You can incorporate it with the outer and the two will be as one, the dual nature of your being will work together. Has this helped?

PamElla: Yes, Daniel, thank you. That has helped very much. I have one further brief question. Is the ego of our animal nature and is the basis of our dual nature, or is it something that continues beyond the physical body? Or is that an inappropriate question because I have only given a couple categories and it is too complex because we don't have the language and understanding to approach?

DANIEL:   It is complex. However, ego most certainly is more involved with the animalistic aspects of your being. It is your experiences compiled together, your understanding, your level of spiritual maturity that aids you in the long run on your ascension career. The more that you can learn, understand, process, integrate and put into action in this life, the easier it will be in ascension. Ego is, as I have said, basically of animal origin.

PamElla: Thank you Daniel. That's very helpful. Now I remember why I thought it was indirectly related to Rayson's statement about the things that I associate with the animal; the rage falling away, and truth, beauty, goodness and that whole list. I did think it was a related question somehow.

RAYSON:   I have a comment if you would care to hear it.

Daniel's answer was masterful. I have little to add except to remind you that ego provides much entertaining material for the Reversion Directors. (Hearty laughter) As many ascendant mortals have said, 'Take my ego, please!' (More laughter) Yes it is true that man is that paradoxical mix of material and spiritual, the material comprising the physical body and the mind, with ego being a part of the mind, somewhat enmeshed with intellect, which is why you meet so many egotistic intellectuals. (Laughter) But humor aside, you also have a spiritual part with a potential for eternal existence, fusion and communion with God the Supreme. This includes your personality and other spiritual components.

Which shall determine the course of your actions, my dear? Shall it be your spiritual component or shall it be your material component? Shall your life be guided by your physical prowess, your reproductive capability, your desire for trophies, your urge to display, the normal human hunger for prestige, power, and money? Or shall your every moment and every effort be guided by the golden rule, the paramount expression of your spiritual self on Urantia? If you take the spiritual decision then you will easily be able to hear the ego voice with ironic detachment and amusement as do the Reversion Directors. The choice is yours.

PamElla: Thank you Rayson. I have had some experience laughing at my ego self this week.

RAYSON:   They did call Urantia the 'funny planet'.

Isaac:   Rayson, this is Isaac again. I just want to clarify as the one who types the transcript. This is kind of an important night and an important announcement. It may be very clear when I read it back but it is not clear to my mind so I am asking this question about what you have already told us. This new teacher, this Father Melchizedek is going to be TRing through a different TR than our standard TRs we have here?

RAYSON:   It shall be one of your regular participants.

Isaac:  Now the promise about foolproof, tamperproof, was this a reference to the lessons of the Melchizedek coming through a TR? You were talking about developing another kind of unconscious ability to receive messages. I was confused about that could you elaborate please?

RAYSON:  In order to reach the billions of hungry and thirsty persons on Urantia eagerly awaiting spiritual sustenance we must do with a relatively small number of participants in this Teaching Mission to minister to the many. Although personal contact is highly desirable it is not practical for many reasons to rely on this mode alone at this point in the history of Urantia. Therefore a mechanism has been conceived and used for many purposes in the cosmos whereby each willing participant in the Teaching Mission who has achieved the required level of proficiency as a transmission/receiver will be, in fact, able to unconsciously reflectivate universe circuit message to any and all who are hungry and thirsty for this information. It is said that you cannot entice a person to drink when he is not thirsty. But if he is thirsty he will drink all that you offer and more. It is your job, if you elect to be a reflectivator in the Teaching Mission, to tend the well, to care for your physical/mindal body, to sustain your personality with proper spiritual input including most importantly as you live your life on this planet as a perfectly imperfect being.

It may seem amazing to you, even perhaps preposterous that you, yourself, will act as a conduit of complex information that can reach as many as a billion people at a time. And yet this is so. In fact, this Teaching Mission has been many hundreds of years in the preparation. And although it was not until the time of the adjudication of the Lucifer Rebellion that mission participants actually started to coalesce in group form. You can be assured that isolated individuals did, in fact, function as transmitter/receivers and beyond that, as unconscious reflectivators. One of your philosophers has said, ‘If I see very far it is because I stand on the shoulders of giants.’

Isaac:   Thank you. So this person in our group, one of our regular TRs who is going to be receiving Melchizedek messages, those messages will not be reflectivations. Those will be regular TRing. Is that correct?

RAYSON:   Depending on where the Melchizedek is located. In any case the exact mechanism is less important than the information received and the interaction with the group, is it not?

Isaac:  Yes but I am concerned about the possibility that somebody's going to announce that they are reflectivating and therefore whatever they say is infallible and can't be challenged in a TR situation. I am sure that can't happen if there is a fool proof...

RAYSON:   Ah, but true reflectivation, per se, is not something that any person on Urantia at this time is capable of uttering or displaying in any other form. However, in some cases what you hear from the mouth of the TR does come to the TR in a form employing some of the styles of reflectivation, but it is not pure and simple reflectivation as I have described for the universe circuit message. Does this help to clarify or does it only confuse matters more?

Isaac:   When you said that reflectivation is unconscious I flashed in my mind someone in a trance state or what has been regarded as channeling. Am I right about that or am I off completely?

RAYSON:   True reflectivation might be compared to the ancient practice on this planet of two men on mountains separated by many, many miles of valley. At noontime one man holds in his hand a mirror by means of which he reflects the light of the sun overhead to his comrade on the far distant mountain. His comrade, in turn, also possesses a mirror by means of which he as well may not only reflect the light of the sun to the first man but also may reflect the first man's reflection to yet a third man on another mountain. Do you understand this analogy?

Isaac:   Yeah, it sounds to me similar or identical to reflectivity that is described in the Urantia Book.

RAYSON:   This is correct.

Isaac:   Okay. I think I have asked enough technical questions. Thank you Rayson. I am sure this will unfold and become clear to us as we move forward in our mission experience.

RAYSON:   However, you are blinded to this. It is an unconscious effort because, as I have said, man is sufficiently savage that there is unfortunately a high degree of possibility for contamination. As the present TR reminds me it would be most distressing if junk mail were reflectivated to the multitudes. If you think ego is bad imagine that! (laughter).

PamElla: Rayson, I'm not done with technical questions. I am wondering about this unconscious reflectivity that can reach billions. I'm wondering if the person who is willing to do this is aware that this happens or could this happen while they are asleep? And how can it be that it reaches billions? And this relates to Isaac's question, Are they in a trance state and information is coming out of their mouth? Or are they receiving it mindally, for lack of a better word, and sending it out to our brothers and sisters over the circuits or something in such a way that the reflectivator is unaware of doing this?

RAYSON:   Once you are properly prepared and have sincerely taken the decision to do this it may occur at any time of the day or night, in any geographic location, in any state of mind, wakefulness, sleep, it matter not.

PamElla: The reason I am asking the question is because it reminds me of the gentleman whose name I cannot remember who was involved with the electronics industry in Washington. He said he was picked. They showed pictures of him on TV in which all of a sudden he would go into a trance any time of the day and all this geological information would start coming about. I'm wondering if that the same process that you are discussing?

RAYSON:   Please describe with more detail the geological information. 

PamElla: This was on a show I was watching called 'Ancient Prophecies' This man was, I believe, an electronics engineer or something. He was giving a talk. They thought he was having a heart attack or something and they took him to the hospital. He thought he saw an apparition in white that gave him instructions. After that he would go into trances and information about the earth changes would come through, similar to what I brought to read and didn't read, giving the exact latitude and longitude of the earthquakes and their magnitude in different areas so that he was remapping what the world might look like when the earth changes were complete. He was not negative and fearful about this but felt like he had been chosen because he would give information out that could be helpful to people. Anyway the geological information is about earth changes, earthquakes, etc.

RAYSON:   Midwayer contact is not the same as reflectivity.
PamElla: So you are saying this is Midwayer contact?

RAYSON:   Most likely. Since the adjudication it has been possible for certain select midwayers to make such contact as you described. It is likely that as this dawn era of Light and Life progresses on Urantia one shall hear of more such incidents.

PamElla: Thank you Rayson. I have one final question. Could you tell us which of our members will be transmitting the Melchizadek teacher?

RAYSON:   You really wish for me to ruin your surprise?
PamElla: I have mixed emotions about that.

RAYSON:   I am certain that your ego is highly desirous (Laughter), but I believe that your personality might be rather disappointed to know in advance, rather than being able to receive the spiritual growth and progress that will accrue as a result of the adversity of frustrating indecision and lack of knowledge.

DANIEL:   Well put my dear Rayson, for you see we must be like the TV show, a cliffhanger. (More laughter).

Gerdean:   What my ego wants to know, teachers, is how come now that Tomas and I are leaving town after busting our butts all this time, you guys are going to get a Melchizedek here!! (Laughter)

RAYSON:   I refer you to the previous answer. (More laughter)
Gerdean: Well taken.

RAYSON:   If you think some of my commentary is humorous then you shall greatly
enjoy your Melchizedek dialogue.

DANIEL:   My friend, while this has been a grand night indeed, I must bring you back to reality in this aspect. Last week your assignment was to think about your willingness to really step out and go on the line for what is right. What are you going to do? How far are you willing to go?

And it has come to my attention that many of you have avoided deep searching of this question. And so, while you are in eager waiting of teacher transmissions let us remember that life does not really beget life if you are just in a waiting mode. Life is real when you are ready to live it and put forth action. Part of the reason that this group is being raised to a higher level has been because of your commitment and willingness to look at the lessons, to absorb them, to take them in and to strive to live by what you know to be right. And so I must continue to be your taskmaster again this week. Please take the time, search inward, and come to some understanding of this aspect, this part of yourself. For truly the ego can overcome what you know is right because you are afraid of what the consequences and the cost may be.

Tomas and I are grateful to you all and to our guests in both the physical and in the spiritual realms. And to my friend Rayson I say thank you for coming to this group this night to bring them such joyous news. We ask that you take this news with the understanding that it is not going to be a free ride but a time when you will be committed to yet another degree of work. Our love and our peace be upon you.

Strive this week to get to know that part of you that says, 'No. I don't want to go that far' and with the part of you that says, 'Yes, I want to go another step farther'. In God's love go now and joyously embrace one another. Good evening.

*****

DATE:  October 27, 1995
TEACHERS:  DANIEL, TOMAS
TOPIC:  Fear and Faith

DANIEL:  Greetings my friends. I am Daniel, your guide and teacher. Tomas and I are joyful to be here with this gathering this evening. We have heard your pleas; we have felt your tensions over the week. We have known your thoughts. It is natural and affirmed by the psychologists of your realm that change is difficult. And so as we continue to progress and move along there will always be changes, for progress is founded upon change.

Fear of the unknown is normal. Fear to the point of back-stepping can be detrimental. Intelligent fear, however, is part of the aspect of change. By intelligent fear I mean that while you are hesitant, while you are anticipating you are at the same time intellectualizing and emotionally coming to terms with the aspect of change. Through normal and researched understanding you will be able to accept and move into change more readily. Tonight Tomas and I will help to lay down this foundation for you in helping you to bridge what you are now considering to be a big step, a big ravine, so to speak. However, as I have said many times in the past, progress is developmental. Human stages of growth are developmental. And so you will not be asked to walk before you can stand. You will be allowed the time, the comfort to be able to stand, to get your bearings, to know your environment before you are asked to walk.

This is not a time to be fearful out of ignorance. Cautious, yes, for it is unwise for any mortal to blindly walk into any situation without some comfort zone, some assurance that all is in God's care, God's plan. Rest assured that while some of you are able to embrace wholeheartedly with open arms and with less struggle, some of you will approach this new time with apprehension, maybe even with screaming and shouting. But this does not matter. What is important is that you know intellectually and inwardly within your emotional barriers that what will be transpiring is and will be essential to your ascension. There are, of course, other pathways. This ascension pathway you are working toward calls upon you to accept and embrace those not in your sensory perception.

Have no misunderstanding regarding my beingness as your teacher. These lessons will only become more enhanced through our Melchizedek teacher. This is not scheduled for the immediate future but fairly soon. I will relinquish now to Tomas.

TOMAS:   I will continue now to discuss change. You are accustomed to the density of Urantia; the density of your material existence is comfortable to you. The structure of your intellectual approaches also provide you comfort and solidarity. Now enters faith which is the answer to change and the fear which comes along with it. May I have this dance? In your realizing your own divinity nature through your stillness in your relationship with your Thought Adjuster the reality comes that you are something more than material and intellectual, that you are potential spirit. This reality strikes a harmonious chord in your soul and you begin the evolution of your soul.

As you continue your steps your soul begins to grow of its own accord. It dances in the light of the Spirit. In your growth, as your faith grows, you begin to pirouette, you begin to know where your feet should go and in knowing where your feet should go you lose the fear that you will trip or that you will step on the foot of your partner. Indeed, in these early days of dancing you may well be dancing solo and learning to love the movement of your faith. As your faith grows you may overlook the density entirely and lose yourself to the swirling, whirling harmonies of the universe. As you have taken this path, as you have gone from a mortal with feet of clay into the awareness of your association with Spirit and beyond into the acceptance of your soul and its association with the Grand Universe, the Divine Plan, you have risen out of density into freedom. No longer are you curtailed by that which bothered you in the beginning and from your lofty experiential plane you can see how those who sit on the sidelines longing to experience the dance need to be evolved in their own light of faith.

In light of my above paragraphs I ask you who have danced to pretend for a moment that you have not, and look at the process you now see through intellectual cognizant eyes. Barring faith are we not peculiar? Barring trust have we not all been fooled into believing something that will pacify our craving for comprehension, that will appease our clamoring ego need for acceptance and our social desire to be upheld and reinforced by other folk who share a common belief? Truly you may understand that one who has not tapped into his/her own divinity aspects cannot bathe fully in this Spirit potential, cannot appreciate the depths one will go to find further truths which will reveal God as a personal part of our life. Only when the individual is willing to experience the ego death and the rebirth of which we have spoken, which is the actualizing onset of your personality manifestation, are you able to consider the value of the dance; and to appreciate that as you fear less the changes that bring you to greater sweeping movement, less dense, can you then crave a larger ballroom, a grander universe, lighter air, less restrictions, greater faith, more freedom.

This ascension goes on beyond your imagination. Your natural constraints concede that you have come far, that you will concede thus much farther and then that's it. But the lure of the freedom and the excitement and the romance of the dance of ascension, of spiritual growth, is such that you may always look at yourself and realize that you have only learned to walk. The greatness of your potential is ever there as a lure to bring you up. And if changes are necessary then bring it on, for this is your delight, your ambition, and the destiny of your soul!

In your evening's discourse a remark was made regarding perception of reality and that if we grasp a reality what happens if it changes?

We will change. The way we react to change is a matter of how we respond. Shall we shatter and break and stop the dance of faith or shall we pick up our skirts and step to the music of the next tune which presents itself for our practice, for our next experiential growth step? These are matters of faith, and faith is a personal matter, excepting when it becomes activated. Then you affect the universe by even your smallest reaction. As I said earlier, your soul begins to grow of its own accord. And as your soul becomes established, as your faith in your belief system, in your sonship/daughtership, becomes more and more of a living reality and a cognizant reality your reactions to life's circumstances are impressed upon the universe pattern. You ring out truth. You resist evil.

This slightest nuance of your response and reaction to life is that pebble in the lake which once plopped, once resounded, turns around and feeds your reality into the cosmos, into the evolving Supreme which takes your response to life and applies it. There is not one thing a God knowing son or daughter does or does not do that does not affect the destiny of everyone. All action then is relative to your own destiny path, your own perception, your own capacities, your own decisions.

We, yes, are attempting to help you through fears, through fears of growth and fears of feeling insignificant and incapable. The animal fears which are part and parcel of the human experience are no longer demanding of you what they once did because of your faith. But there are still subtle fears, still many nuances which you would do well to acquaint yourself with so that you can saran wrap your apple against the bruised apples in the barrel of your society.

How I have gone on! Daniel, I think you should interrupt me when I carry on so. But do understand that I am gearing up for a new dance floor and I want to make sure my dancing shoes are well polished. I want to be spiffy for the companions who await my persona. I will not be maudlin, but I have truly enjoyed our association and we have certainly all grown in this process. I know we all look forward to the next lively tune that is played. I will now cease my rambling and give this dais back to teacher Daniel for his direction.

DANIEL:   Thank you very much, Tomas, for the very poignant and thorough discussion/lesson this evening! My friends, we all agree, I am sure, that no rambling was felt. And we all will agree, I'm sure as well, that your dancing shoes could not be any more mirror like or spiffy. You are indeed ready and fine tuned. Our association with you here will be dearly missed. However, spiritually, there is no distance. You will be allowed this platform for several more weeks. I, as you know, will be on assignment elsewhere. And so upon my closing this evening I will be away.

Tomas' words will afford you much comfort in the realization that faith is that next step again to open up trust and allow. This floor is now open for questions or discussions.

Leetah: Daniel and Tomas, thank you for these words on change. I guess I need some clarification. Daniel you just mentioned that you are going to be on assignment elsewhere and that Tomas would be here for a few more weeks. Are we to assume that while Tomas is here you are going to be on assignment and you will be coming back at the time that he goes East with Gerdean?

DANIEL:   At or about that time. It is not to be feared by you that I am vacating this group, only going for further instruction and committee work. In your language, teacher jargon, I will be at a Teacher’s Conference.

Leetah: Thank you, Daniel. I appreciate those words and when I go on a teaching conference my mode is always to get a shot in the arm so I can teach my students better. So thank you. We will be looking forward to your return.

DANIEL:   Thank you. And I will be glad to be back in this room to which I have grown so accustomed..

Leetah: Thank you, Daniel.

PamElla: While there is a lull, just let me say that I am excited for you Daniel. Have a great trip. Tomas, I am glad you are here and that we will hear more lessons from you before we have to say goodbye.

TOMAS:   How literal you mortals are! (Loud laughter) I am not addressing you exclusively, my child. I have heard it said many times this evening in your discourse among yourselves how you stumble upon the more literal aspects of life, the wonderment of where the book came from; how did it get here? Why did this teacher say that? Is it reliable through that transmitter/receiver? How you question so much of what goes on! How you dramatize life! Please believe me when I say that my remarks are given in affection and understanding for this is part of the human condition. After all, Daniel and I and other teachers with our vestiges of human behavior in our attempts to pique your minds often create pictures which will, in fact, literalize the point we would like to make. Our bringing things into visualizations is very much like your technique of interpreting one thing for another.

I am not going away. I am only going to be busying myself with a new bunch of mortals. As Rayson spoke last week, this assignment is a reflectivating technique – correction -- well, 'technique' will have to do. But as some have said it is not necessary for us to leave the dinner table to check in with the various groups. And so I will be watching you and you will not be rid of me. I intend to be part of your growth, your evolution, and your spiritual family for aeons. And so you may be glad to send me off on occasion to give yourself some variety in your experiential adventures in spiritual learning.

Leetah: Thank you, Tomas. I appreciate the dedication.

PamElla: Yes, thank you, Tomas. And I do have another question. You talked about the death of the ego in order to have the rebirth of personality. Could you talk a little bit more about what you mean by the 'death of ego' in order to have rebirth of personality or correct me if I am wrong?

TOMAS:   No, you are not wrong. I will discuss it further and I will stick to my guns on that word 'death' of the ego, at that point. For although the ego is required to enable the mortal to do those things that must be done in life to break through to being reborn, born of the Spirit, the ego must understand that it is not God, it is not the be/all and end/all of creation, it is not a walnut that can sustain itself in its own limited existence, its own reality bubble. In order to be part of the living stream of life, divinity, consciousness, etc., that walnut needs to be opened to the light and energy of the Living God. And so that instant is necessary, that moment in time is required that the ego die in order that the birth of the soul may take place.

This is truth. The soul, of course, is developing unconsciously from life's experiences, but the intellect has managed to retain for itself all those soulful aspects. Somehow the ego feels that the soul is its own creation, that as a result of its experiences and decisions its reality is dependent upon it and it alone. When, however, it realizes that it is not God, it dies, and God lives in it. Then it (the ego) can be reformed, remade. The soul can then be freed to worship its creator and thus the mortal has become a new being, a potential morontial personality. Is that clear?

PamElla: That was very helpful, Tomas, thank you.

TOMAS:   You are welcome. It is tempting when one sees all these walnuts lying around, being round and brown and hard and handsome, not to want to crack them open with a rock in order to savor the sweet meat which is inside. But only when the walnut offers itself is it truly given.

PamElla: Thank you Tomas. That also was a beautiful analogy. And I will try and focus on my own right now. (Laughter)

Isaac:   As you both know we have a request from Iruka's TR, P.S., that there be a confirmation of their experience of transmitting Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. The request says specifically, 'Before I open myself and this group up to public scrutiny I would request you to get a confirmation from Daniel at your next meeting.' So I pass this request on to you, Daniel.

DANIEL:   My regards to my friend P.S. and, of course, teacher Iruka with whom I have most recently spoken.

It is, indeed, frightful, scary, overwhelming, stressful, and anxiety-provoking to hear from such personalities as P.S. has. It is important to have sincere, beloved, intelligent, progressive and God serving individuals as role models, for it is alignment with like minds, like understandings, and like heritage that enables those that are on the fence, so to speak, to jump into the boat and float the riverway to higher and greater understanding.

Assure P. S. that this was, indeed, from Dr. King. His services did and do continue to benefit Urantia. His messages are clear. There shall be understanding. There shall not be disharmony between races. His words are meant to inspire a country now, again, in the depths of racial tension, economic tension and spiritual misunderstanding. Dr King's words are to confer unity and understanding among all men, all women, no matter the heritage, cultural background, political boundaries or global boundaries.

In God's viewpoint all are created with the same love and understanding. All are seen as one. No difference is distinguishable in makeup or status. All are sons or daughters. All are cosmic citizens. All are part of ascension. All are loved.

Isaac:    Thank you Daniel for your confirmation and your encapsulation of the very thoughts of Dr. Martin Luther King in what you just said. Of course you said it because it is truth as he said it because it is the truth. I personally am excited to think that he is going to be involved with us again. We certainly need his kind of perspective, as you just pointed out, in these days of separatism and disintegration of our society. So I will assure P.S. She will be most excited, I am sure, as will everyone who reads our transcript.

PamElla: I am thrilled! I still remember the day when he was shot and I was a child. So I am very touched, too.

DANIEL:   It is time for closure this evening. As you stroll through your pathway this week recall those times in your life when you accepted in faith and through that acceptance growth and upliftment followed. Allow the transition from the slow waltz to a faster tango to not be fearful. You have been shown the steps. You are following the steps. The new dance is but a variation of the old.

Tomas and I send you our love and peace. Good evening.

*****

DATE:  November 3, 1995
TEACHERS:  DANIEL, TOMAS, ABRAHAM
TOPIC:  Welcome to Change

TOMAS:   Good evening our friends, I am Tomas, your friend in the Teacher Corps. We assemble here this evening to resonate the good news. We assemble in great numbers to announce the support and ongoing encouragement of your faith/growth and the faith/growth of Urantia.

Dear friends, loyal students, intimate companions, how happy I am to be with you this evening to persist in our sessions of enlightenment and upliftment of the mortal condition. Your discourse this evening has been heralded as profound application of your faith in your lives. In the heights and depths of your experiences from the most temporal to the most spiritual you have all persevered in your faith while you each have known poignant fear. Not one of you here present has escaped fear. And I am here today to commend your strength to persevere in the face of this underlying animal pull toward debilitating non-growth.

Misery loves company, it is true; and you are learning that happiness is contagious and also experienced in company with others. In your innermost recesses, however, the battle which rages between fear and faith is most profound. I would like to spend a moment this evening discussing the qualitative fear of the collective consciousness, the collective unconsciousness, and how to make your lives easier as you encounter this pull in yourself and in your society.

Surely you understand that you have taken major strides up and out of the paralysis of fear. In your grappling with your soul growth this week, in reflecting life and death, illness and health, these poignant crises of faith are always accompanied by an equal amount of fear. It is easy to follow fear when it leads and often you are not aware that you are following fear for so is everyone else. And this blanket of existence is actually comfortable because you have not had to step out in faith from where you lie in comfort with your sleeping fearful peers.

The sleeping giant of fear, however, awakens in times of crises and any growth step is a potential time of crisis. It is said that there are crises junkies who crave this excitement of living on the edge between faith and fear. I am not addressing that aberrated a condition but rather the normal development of souls in their decision making process having to do with their eternal life and the eternal life of loved ones also.

Death is a natural part of life. Even your own death is a natural part of life. Your fear of death is largely hinging on the ignorance which surrounds the collective consciousness regarding the end of life as it is known in the flesh. As you proceed in faith to acknowledge and rely upon this higher reality, this morontial existence, the more celebration and confidence that emerges in progressing forward in your assent. Pressing forward in your ascent against such great odds is exhausting, is, indeed, requiring the development of stamina and spiritual muscle. It is requiring the development of living faith and acknowledgement of the works of faith.

As you have all testified this evening, you have all stood firmly by that which you are realizing is the true reality, and in your confirmation of your reality to others you thus confirm the collective consciousness of the new age of Light and Life. Although it may seem that this group is a microcosm, hardly a speck in terms of the greater whole, the tremendous effort that is necessary for this process of correction to take place, the truth remains that once this reality becomes imbued in you to the extent that you no longer succumb to the downpull of the fears of the old way, the growth is rapid like fire, will spread and touch every living thing, creating new ground for a new world.

I am reminded of the prayer of St. Francis that once was a part of your preamble in this group and call to your mind the value of the attitude which chooses to understand rather than to be understood, that chooses to love than to be loved, and that chooses to serve than be served. For in the attitude of giving out you avail yourselves of that font of life, power, strength, and energy which truly does do for you what you as an animal cannot do for yourself. Destiny goals accelerate one another by the faith which you have as individuals. And so you find yourself opening your mouth and pearls are strewing in front of you in spite of yourself and to your own amazement.

This is your faith! This group and other groups like this as we work toward our destiny goal accelerate one another by the faith which we have as individuals. You are no longer isolated. You are no longer alone in the universe. There is nothing to fear. All is well and love is the answer.

ABRAHAM:   Greetings. I am Abraham. I am here this evening to support Tomas and to thank him for his fine words. It is our joy that Tomas will be speaking among other truth seekers, other students. This change of events appears rapid in your context of time, but you must realize that we are extremely grateful for Gerdean's intuitive nature and willingness to follow and serve. It has been a strange pathway for you, Gerdean, however it is part of the ongoing development and steps necessary to bring forth a more solid and firmer foundation for the Teaching Mission itself.

We are thankful you have willingly risked the comfort of knowing, the security of knowing, for the adventure of serving. While you are not going to be physically present, that which Tomas has spoken of this evening, you will be connected through spiritual understanding and through the collective consciousness. Your thoughts will be understood by those here. This idea of the consciousness is something that pervades your system while you are not aware. Yet in the depths of soul growth and experience, you are aware.

I ask all of you to heed Tomas' words. Let not the fear of change halt any of your growth. Rather seek to be open for in openness wisdom, understanding, a growing sense of God-consciousness can take root.

Gerdean, my words of gratitude are from all of the Teaching Mission staff, Machiventa, Christ Michael and father Ham. We are pleased and Tomas is delighted to be able to fulfill this aspect of service. Our love my dear, and to all of you as you are now preparing for new horizons, all of you in many ways. Shalom.

Gerdean:   Thank you Abraham.

TOMAS:   I feel inclined to joke now and say that Abraham is really not as frightening as we once thought. It is always a delightful surprise and I speak frankly from the perception of this transmitter/receiver that the awesome and gaunt personage of Abraham, once one realizes the love and, indeed, of any powerful and strange being, once the love is accepted and understood and made part of one's being, the barriers are dissolved in the understanding that all of us are God's children and one delightful, happy family. So my siblings, let us cavort. The floor is open for questions or commentary at this point. (Long pause) I will then add a paragraph as you prepare your thoughts.

My paragraph has to do with fear and how to withstand the assault of fear in your environment, for it is great. How do you not succumb to the fear of others? Perhaps you can tell me, Isaac?

Isaac:   You are reading my mind, Tomas, for that was exactly my experience this week. I came across an old fear, a fear I associate with the days of active alcoholism, of being influenced or possessed by some evil influence. My problem was I read the book, The Exorcist, and it was a terrifying experience as it has been for many people. It presents the idea that something evil could take you over against your will. There has been discussion on Urantial of the danger or TRing. One of the TRs from the Teaching Mission List (TML) talked about a channeler who got 'possessed', you might say, by a dragon spirit in Japan and was really harassed by that spirit. And this particular TR claimed that there are still these kinds of spirits hanging out on this planet, that the Urantia Book wasn't clear about it. It was quite a frightening idea. Intellectually I didn't buy it but my old tape recording of fear from reading the horror story came on.

What did I do about it? I struggled for a few minutes (I don't think it even went into hours) to intellectualize. I did read from the Urantia Book again to make sure I remembered correctly what it said about the rebel midwayers. I heard from my teachers and I heard from my Thought Adjuster, I believe, as I hear through my mind, that being a mixed bag, that the only reality to this stuff anymore is what you would term the collective consciousness, those thoughts are still there. They have no power over anyone necessarily.

I was quite amazed to experience that old fear. It has been years. It was quite frightening but it didn't overwhelm me. I let it go shortly. I also feel that it happened to me because I was physically weak with this flu that I had when I read that posting. It was like remembering a trauma. There was a certain amount of fear in remembering the trauma but it wasn't the same thing. And now as I am talking about it I am not experiencing any fright for I do not believe there really are these things. I do believe and trust the Fifth Epochal Revelation and do trust my Thought Adjuster and I do trust the teachers. So my faith conquered my fear.

TOMAS:   My son, you have answered the question poignantly, that is to say, as you expose a fear to the light of day you rob it of its power. As you encounter individuals in your path that are struggling in the grips of fear, who are essentially possessed by the power of fear, you may relieve the situation as required by drawing out the individual to know his or her fears, to put them on the table and dissect them as necessary to discover what the core fear is. By this time the fear will lose its power by the love and compassion which transpires in the love you bring to the individual who fears.

Lest you think I make light of this as a simple game of checkers, I am quick to understand with you that facing fear is hard work and the deeply recessed fears of long standing that are wedged in the memory, that are deep seated in your conditioning are even more difficult to bring forth for you have consciously long forgotten that the fear existed. Excuse my reiteration that we are Correcting Time and that even these experiences which trouble your psyche and soul are on the index of subjects that may be addressed as Correcting Time work.

Just because something is submerged and is not obvious does not mean that it is not profoundly affecting you, your behaviors, your environment, your universe, your life and the lives of others. [Ed. note: Freud's theory of repression and neurosis to a tee!] You recall the parable of the princess and the pea and recall, too, the power of the mustard seed. Deeply inlaid are these matters which we willingly, eagerly bring to light; and you may help resolve the darkness by gently bringing to the surface those terrors which are part of the historicity of humanity on this planet.

The idea of being 'taken over' of 'losing control', of course is terrifying to an intelligent mind. I ask you to reflect on our lesson on sincerity for when you are sincere you may even be wrong and you are still well loved.

Isaac:   I think it's a very dangerous thing in our culture that so many people expose themselves to very scary ideas because it can cause a classical conditioning known as a phobic reaction. And even though you have an intellectual understanding that something is not fearful, because of the cellular level of conditioning you can experience the phobia, the fear. And that was what partly amazed me was that I had intellectually swept this away long ago. There was a classical trigger (conditioned stimulus) in this report of this channeler being harassed by this dragon thing, it was so similar to the demon in the exorcist that it was like facing a nightmare and experiencing it over again.
If you are willing to tell me, Tomas, how did you know about this? I didn't talk to you about it. And if you don't want to say, that's okay, too. I wasn't planning on discussing this tonight.

TOMAS:   I will respond, my friend, but I will not lay our secrets on the internet. (Laughter) I am going to simply respond that we are an intelligent universe and the lesson which are prepared for you each week in this classic university are a result of a great deal of cosmic input.

Isaac:   Excellent answer. I was about to say that there is no privacy anymore but I am joking. I will cease my commentary here and let someone else talk.

Leetah: Tomas, it is very interesting that the lesson again has been on fear. It is something that you have certainly heard me talk about many times. This morning in this small little devotional I read the very first sentence said, 'Fear begets fear, begets fear, begets fear.' And I thought in terms of how much I fear certain people and what is it that I fear about other people. And I had decided that it was ridicule, that the ridicule of other people is really something that bothers me.

Today I saw it demonstrated beautifully by a peer of mine. One of the women said that her child was having a really tough year in school to which I said, 'I am sorry. I know what it means when your children are not happy in school'. And another peer starting laughing and said, 'Ha, you are trying to blame the teacher when it is really probably your fault and he can't stand you! -- And just laughed and giggled. This was happening as I was leaving the supply room and my stomach just reacted with anguish for this other person. And I realize that's what I fear, the ridicule of people that would put down the feelings that were expressed there. So it has been a day of talking about the experience of fear.

TOMAS:   My precious daughter, you have expressed a classic sore spot on this fragile world for you will recall that when we set out in this Teaching Mission exercise we began by confirming your worth and our undiminished devotion to your welfare. We have spent much time discussing the emotional condition and the development of healthy ego. It is no wonder that you fear being ridiculed. Many, if not, most of the children of your culture, certainly, are not elevated, are not validated, are not believed, but are 'only children' and therefore have nothing of value to say.

Of course I report that terrible fallacy with tongue in cheek for children are really close to the Father in that they are less scarred and sullied than adults. They are also benefited by the induction of the Thought Adjuster at that tender time. Were grownups to appreciate the marvel of that time in their child's life their own understanding of family life would be massively improved by listening to the words which proceeds out of their mouths? The tender spot, therefore, for your experience, which is certainly not an isolated experience, is that when you perceive this ridicule occurring in interactions around you, you are twice as sensitive as, perhaps, the recipient, since it is a pea in your mattress.

But others have or may have different frailties, for instance, being criticized. This is a sore spot with many who feel that criticism reflects on whether they are accepted without judgement. There are many of these little vegetables [germs?] running around on Urantia which would do well to be exposed to the light of the sun, for the growth garnered from the enlightenment of these emotional/attitude nightmares is enough to uncover much of the unconscious fears which hold back the growth of the collective unconscious.

Leetah: Tomas, you had a phrase there about exposing them to the light of the sun. Did you have in mind there exposing your own fear to the light of the sun which obviously has certainly been done for me today? I do have that second pea under my mattress, too, which is being criticized. Probably there are many more peas that I am not aware of, or that I am aware of but just can't name right now. Or were you saying there was something I could have said at that point? I would have had to turn around and go back into the supply room. Was there something I could have said that would have revealed the unnecessary ridicule that was going on? Should I have just left it alone, which I did, since it wasn't directed toward me?

TOMAS:   It was certainly a challenge for you, was it not?
Leetah: Yes.

TOMAS:   For you are still ruminating the homework assignment. And I would say that, yes, there are things you can do although it is not always possible to know what to say on the spot. As you learn about these things in yourself you assimilate them. The nasty aspects subside and the wisdom and compassion which result then can be utilized by your enlightened tongue to spread your pearls in such situations. These things take practice. It is marvelous that you are aware that this an instance where you are able to recognize a potential service area in your life that you may develop. I am not saying you need to make a life career of exposing ridicule, but as you give your focused attention to the situation in prayer and asking for guidance from your Indwelling God Fragment, perhaps you will be advised how to melt that ice and contribute the growth of that situation.

Leetah: Thank you Tomas.

Isaac:  We had an incident occur at school today that so pertains to this that I want to just briefly mention it and then make a commentary. One of our new teachers who is a member of a minority race was called the most vile name that anyone can call a member of that race by a student. And this individual was shattered. This adult male was brought to tears to the point where he had to leave the classroom and someone else had to take over. I don't know what went on inside his mind but my commentary is that this twelve-year-old child did not have any physical or personal power over this older adult. But something happened inside of his mind that caused him that tremendous distress. I really don't know because I wasn't him.

I am thinking that -- and you alluded to this, Tomas, by starting off telling us how valuable we are. I know in my own case that the reason name calling and criticism hurts me is because that's what I heard as a child. I was called some pretty bad names and I believed them. And I think that the problem is that we have been believing this stuff ever since the Lucifer Rebellion. So when somebody else says it about us we believe it is or might be true so that it hurts and frightens us. So thank you all and especially the First Source and Center for the validation that we really are valuable as His/Her children.

TOMAS:   I would like to remark that I, also, recently experienced by observation such a moment and am often exposed to such instances on this planet. This is one of the reasons why we say to you that your planetary situation is so full of opportunities. As you begin to see these instances in love for your fellows you will begin to perceive the tremendous opportunity availed to you as assaults and insults occur to the core of human beings. The psyche is bruised, the soul is shriveled, and the body is brutalized.

These cruel blows from ignorance and fear have, indeed, created such conditions as has contributed to the Mission of Michael which we now are sharing. The damage done in many of these instances is very apparent to those with eyes to see. You have all seen this kind of thing happen and have all not known what to do and perhaps felt somewhat shamefaced that you did not follow through with your own outrage at the attack on your brother and sister. It is, again, a field of opportunity. It is a suggestion that as you behold this kind of situation you immediately pray for the quick rallying of the mortal who has been so woefully abused. It also is not discouraged for you to accept what you see as grievous enough that you would go to the individual wounded and in a brotherly/sisterly fashion acknowledge the error in support of the soul and psyche of the individual so wounded.

Isaac:  That is exactly what I did do. I think part of his pain was that he thought he was in a community where this would not occur. It was perhaps like a resurrection of a nightmare. I am guessing, I don't know. Thank you, Tomas, because I felt it was the right thing to do.

TOMAS:   As a flip side, there is also an opportunity in the soul of the one who inflicts such distress. The assault by the boy is something that is a learned behavior and that is best brought up short before it becomes even more deeply ingrained. A twelve year old has fair reasoning power and in this case, a Thought Adjuster. It is another challenge, another opportunity, another 'boy who was afraid', and this, too, is a soul and a psyche hungering for belonging to the spiritual family to which he belongs. The field of opportunities in the realm of fear is a large field, much like Idaho potatoes. Lovely on the surface and lumpy underneath. Watch for those opportunities to bring fears to the light of day for they are damaging, they are not supportive of faith. These kinds of fears which permeate so deeply and so needlessly are that which we fight against in the good fight of faith.

LARENZO:   Greetings, I am Larenzo. I am honored in being able to close this meeting today, but not without exercising my time here with thanks to Tomas from all of the teachers of these students here. Your lessons have, indeed, inspired our charges and in our watchcare we have seen struggle through the broad aspects down to the fine tuning of the minute nuances of understanding of the lessons. Each has, through many different degrees, grown and have much to thank you for in bringing to their conscious awareness aspects that need healing, need work, need thought applied.

I would also like to speak with Beth and Kent for a moment to encourage them in this regard. Your mother was, indeed, a beautiful soul, a character on earth and a beautiful personality among those spiritually aware. Her ascension is continuing as we speak here this evening. She is comprehending and feeling a greater awareness and a greater understanding of love. Her job ahead is that of mota awakening. She held much love for her family here and is growing in awareness of even a greater universal cosmic family. My love to both of you.

To all of you in this group love is given. Tomas and I will now bid you good evening.

*****

DATE:  November 10, 1995
TEACHERS:  DANIEL, TOMAS, MINARISA
TOPIC:  Farewell To Tomas

DANIEL:   Greetings, my friends, I am Daniel, your guide and teacher. I am rejoicing tonight in being amongst you and feeling your camaraderie and love for one another. It has been a short reprieve from my teaching for you but I have gleaned a lot from my visitation away. [Ed note: Daniel has been away attending a teacher's conference for two weeks.]

This evening I will be saying goodbye to my friend and co-teacher here, Tomas, but the goodbye is not permanent and is only temporary, as you all know, in the ascension scheme. Many things, many occurrences take place, yet those who are spiritually bonded are never separated in spiritual connectedness. And so while it has been a delight having Tomas here as an added teacher for this great group it will be wonderful for Tomas and other students to grow from his wise wisdom and loving presence. Indeed, Tomas is embedded in all of your hearts, a part of all of your experience, and his teachings will resonate for many aeons as you work to displace the peas you have all been speaking so freely about.

We teachers fully understand the human quality of sorrow at the departure of a loved one. You will undoubtedly feel this sorrow but we encourage you to look upon this departure as that which will generate greater good, that which will perpetuate greater thought. So rather than feeling sorrow, understand and feel the joy that this departure holds for the greater good of Urantia and the unfolding of Michael's plan.

To you, Tomas, my sincere love and gratitude for your companionship. While it will be temporarily disjointed we have, and shall continue to be of great closeness. I will now turn this forum over to Tomas for his words to you this evening.

TOMAS:   Good evening, faithful flock and loyal students. Indeed, we are radiant in our joy this evening in many ways, for many reasons, and on many counts. It is with happiness that we receive the renewed Daniel into this community prior to my departure for the continuity provided by your association with your teachers is part of that which enables us all to bond as a living community. It would grieve me to have been whisked away without this opportunity to cement again the rapport which we have developed in these past many productive and fruitful months as co-teachers of you, and, indeed, of each other and the greater community.

I initially want to thank Daniel for his graciousness in allowing me the honor and privilege of sharing his teacher base platform, for enabling my transmitter/receiver and I to develop the working of teamwork concepts, of being a willing participant of the plan of Michael in instigating this teacher corps and inaugurating this Correcting Time. In no uncertain terms I am indebted to Daniel and to you here assembled for my hands on experience as a teacher in this great mission. I am addressing now the subject which I have chosen to represent my 'swan song'. I have, as you well know, worked hard with you on numbers of matters requiring deep seated effort to uncover and discover deeper realms within yourselves, within your potentials. Many of these have brought about distress and subsequent progress. But I have not spent overmuch time on focusing on what surely for all of us is a favorite subject. I have saved the best for last, if you will, so that I would like to discuss briefly love.

Fear not love. Love is a mustard seed and fear is a pea. Do not confuse these two. For love, although humbler than fear, is far greater and will multiply much farther than the pea plant. When you love in the triumphant spirit of the Creator, when you embrace this living reality and experience the glowing, growing reality from within yourself and out, through, toward, around and with your brothers and sisters in this living flower, you are enriched and made real. Your hopes are made real and your disappointments are lessened.

There is no recipe as great as love for cooking up a good life, yet the fear of love has constrained love in its own existence. In this instance of the departure of your friend, Gerdean, from this group you will know sadness as will she. Yet had you not opened your hearts in love and learned to love one another what legacy would you have of each other? The temporary sorrow which exists when love changes is a small shadow in comparison to the radiance, the illumination, and the triumph of the love that you know, remember, and anticipate. And so of all the fears that you grapple with in your learning to become your greater reality the fear of love is the most heinous sin, unworthy of believers in the love of God.

With courage and gusto I leave you, my loyal friends, for I am filled with the love which we have shared. I am enriched as a result of my experience here with you and you are greater because of knowing me. We are family and our source is the Source of light, life, and love. God is love. I love you. That is all.

DANIEL:   Thank you, my friend. This forum is open for questions.

Leetah: Tomas, thank you. I would just like to say I wish you well in Butler. I know you will be traveling along with Gerdean on her trip. Thank you for being here and thank you for the excellent modeling you did as you said that we were better off because you had been here. I would certainly agree with that and thank you because it is so difficult for me to acknowledge a job well done by me. We appreciate the modeling of the teachers and what we can be as we extend our love to others. 

TOMAS:   Thank you, daughter. Take it upon yourself to live up to the faith which you have and to the love which you have also within you. It is self limiting to negate your own good. It is not grandiose to acknowledge that you make a difference for this is why we live.

Leetah:  Thank you Tomas. That reminds me of a bookmark that I have that I look at occasionally in the morning. It says: 'Here is the test to find whether your mission on earth is finished: if you're alive, it isn't'. [Ed. note: author is Richard Bach] Thank you.

PamElla:  Tomas, I want to offer you my love and my thanks for the lessons that I have learned directly from you and the lessons I have learned in adapting to the changes in our group when you and Gerdean joined us. All of those lessons have been incredibly valuable. I know, indeed, that I am much better off for having you in my life and Gerdean, in my life as well.

I am thinking about your swan song that you saved for the end, fear of love and the description of it as being the most heinous sin. I think your timing is more than just your swan song for this certainly is what I am realizing in myself one more time around on this cycle, how frightening it is to truly love and even more so to allow myself to be loved. I guess I don't really have a question. I just wanted to offer you my love. I know that you are still just a thought away by the circuits so I think it is Gerdean that I will miss even more, although I will miss the dynamic of the group and I will miss the 'dynamic duo' as D. S. so beautifully put it, the interplay between you and Daniel and the two TRs. It is just beautiful! So, anyway, thank you and I am sure I will be speaking with you again.

TOMAS:   Thank you, my daughter, for your words, your sentiments and your very evident growth, which is perhaps prompted and urged by the teachers but which is ultimately your own doing, your own application, your own desire for growth and your own aspiration to attain perfection. Your work has been exemplary and even though the status of 'dynamic duo' may be off into the sunset the next cinema which we have planned will also satisfy and entertain your evolving growth needs.

I, too, will miss you as will my friend and yours, Gerdean. But the work which is tantamount in our life is ongoing. It is true that we are intending to succeed in this phase of Urantia's development. It is urgent that we forge ahead, that we not falter in fear, that we diligently apply our best efforts toward bringing about the circuitry which will most benefit that apex of enlightenment that will alter the course of Urantia unconditionally toward Light and Life.

The times are exciting! Time is of the essence. And although it would be foolhardy to push beyond the parameters of proper growth pace, it is truly appreciated when those of you and those of us who are willing to, take direction from our Planetary Prince and allow his will to unfold on Urantia according to divine plan, finally and unqualifiedly.

PamElla: Thank you very much, Tomas.

Isaac:  Tomas, this is Isaac. What am I going to do without those paragraph-long sentences to figure out how to punctuate with you gone?

TOMAS:   That is a rhetorical question. (Much laughter)

Isaac:  And I am joking, of course, not necessarily about the length of some of your sentences because they are very complex as your thoughts have been. As one who has typed your words for the time that you have been here and also TR’d a few times for you, I want to say that you have been a very great source of inspiration to me. I realize that our association will not end with this but you will be sorely missed. I thought you were going to come back with something like, 'Just wait until you get the next teacher if you think that I have long stuff'. But you didn't say that. My love will go with you and of course with Gerdean.

TOMAS:   And our love stays here with you. I will comment briefly as to our association, for, my son, how I have enjoyed our association, your honesty and eagerness to please and to share while you probingly, sensitively and intelligently investigate, do honor to the role of a student. You are an inspiration to your classmates and a true colleague of fellow believers everywhere. I expect to continue our association long in eternity.

Isaac:   Thank you very much for those kind words.

Paula:   Tomas, this is Paula. As Isaac was talking about your long sentences it struck me that your TR gets the long sentences to transmit from you and she has typed long sentences which I have given to her as she has served as my secretary at the church. I like the way she has taken those long sentences from me and I have appreciated the way she has transmitted yours. Thank you for the times we have had together, for the times we have discussed sometimes rather urgently and always authentically. I have learned much from you and I have appreciated your listening to me. I, too, will miss Gerdean and I will miss you. And I also know that certainly we are beyond time and space in our journey. So, of course, this is just a temporary space or hiccup or whatever we want to call it. Thank you.

TOMAS:   Thank you daughter. Yes, may I say to you that the combined association of the energies that we have each presented around your human association with Gerdean and your combined associations with your spirit companions has made for a very productive and effective dynamic in this community. In the overview there is obviously more in it than you two vital women. The angels, the midwayers, the celestial artisans, many have a hand in the work which you two have touched upon in your association together. Indeed, this gives rise to a mini-lesson.

For whereas we know the effect of one individual sending out ripples on the quiet lake, when two pebbles fall in synchronicity the effects are more than doubled. And in any active association, such as has been known by all of you here today, the dynamics of our work has been powerful! Hear me, powerful! Only in time will you truly begin to discern how much is being accomplished in these humble gatherings which contribute so much to your own personal growth and satisfaction as mortal associates. We are utilizing all your energies in conjunction with our energies, as only the Master and his consort can do, in stirring this creation to the ends which He intends.

Paula:   Thank you Tomas.

Leetah:   Tomas, I know that you are well aware of our visitor tonight who has been with Gerdean for these many weeks. I know also that in due respect to Lynn and to Daniel who has been away, we would like to introduce you to Lynn formally. I would like to acknowledge her in your presence, Daniel.

DANIEL:   Thank you. Indeed, the presence of Lynn has not gone past me. In fact the presence of Lynn has aided and enhanced the flow through which Gerdean and Tomas can take leave.

To you, Lynn, I open my heart and my words that through your willingness to grow will you find the needed nourishment and support which is gleaned from within and from the willingness to continue working and growing toward a greater enlargement of vision. Your presence here is very much welcome. Your presence has not gone unheeded across the universe, across this planet. Your presence is an added dimension to a growing commitment to higher ideals and greater, much greater understanding of the life of Christ Michael. Lynn, Tomas and I love you and welcome you to our growing family of united souls in the service of Christ Michael. Welcome, my dear.

PamElla: Tomas, I know you are aware of the scientific approach that is being taken toward the discussion of earth changes. It was asked that we ask our teachers through transmitter/receivers who were willing three questions. Is it okay if I ask you those three questions at this time?

TOMAS:   It is always okay for anyone to ask me questions.

PamElla: Thank you, Tomas. The first question is, what is the nature of these earth changes? The second question is, why are we being told about this? And the third question is, what can we do about this?

TOMAS:   Let me first say that my transmitter/receiver has a tremendous block against speculation. Her faith is strong but her control is also great and is unwilling to submit her teacher to criticism. In light of the coloration which is inherent I am willing to attempt a response if this 'compromise' response would be applicable to the specifications set out in the 'scientific' inquiry.

PamElla: Tomas, I am not sure how to respond to that because my guess is that this is the case with many transmitter/receivers and this is the problem. I admire Gerdean for even being willing to be the transmitter for such a question. I know that my control is so strong that I could not even allow that to come through me at this point. If it is not completely inappropriate for the theme this evening I think we would like to hear whoever's perspective we could get on this, recognizing that it is compromised.

TOMAS:   I will chat, then, for it is truly a chat and not a pronouncement or a prediction. I will not bore you also with a detailed discussion of the nature of your planet as a yet unsettled and turbulent young planet undergoing the natural course of earth changes for that is assumed to be understood by anyone who has read the textbook.

The earth changes are imminent, of course, for this planet is still cooling. That many predictions have been made, i.e. Nostradamus, the pyramids, Edgar Casey, etc., has given rise to tremendous titillation and speculation as to the exact dates of certain pitfalls, tragedies, and crises. We teachers are not in the business of predicting the downfall of Urantia even in its most physical terms. I do not decry your question for certainly it is uppermost in many minds since the time is upon us that these predictions are supposed to begin to unfurl.

Many changes will take place simply because, as was said, the planet is cooling. There is certainly no indication that the earth is going to go through some tumultuous shaking up period in order to set aright the evils and errors of humanity. Our Father does not shake up Mother Earth to make His point. However, in light of certain inevitable geologic/physiological changes on the face of Urantia and, indeed, from beneath the surface or Urantia, and, of course, from the outer atmospheres of Urantia, you will all be affected. Remember we are here to address correcting including the condition of the world as a physical plane, the ecological situation, as well as other and different realms of interest.

But inasmuch as earth changes will certainly bring about that crisis of individuals wherein they grapple again with their mortality/immortality, there will be an activation of spiritual interest. It is herein that we teachers are preparing ourselves and you who are participants in this growth movement to abate the terrors and access the yearnings of those who will be brought to a point of asking 'who am I, really? Why am I here? What can I do! God, do you hear me? Am I alone in the universe? Are we just going to die and that's it?' These are questions which people ask daily, but in times of great tumult or crisis they become pivotal, repeat, pivotal!

PamElla: Tomas, I sincerely thank you for your chat. I know that those on the Teaching Mission list thank you for your chat, and those who have been following this, like myself, sincerely can thank you for your chat. You did answer the three questions that were asked in your chat. Again, I very much appreciate it. And thank you, Gerdean, for your willingness and your courage in letting Tomas' words come through.

TOMAS:   I always urge students to ask questions. It is never foolish to ask questions of we teachers. We try to prompt your thoughts toward wanting to enlarge your understanding. So thank you for presenting these thoughtful quandaries to this forum.

Beth:    Thomas I would just like to extend my thanks to you for your commitment to us and for your patience. I have enjoyed your sense of humor and your thought provoking lessons. And to you and Gerdean I say, 'thank you for the dance'. (chuckling)

Kent:    I, too, dear friends Daniel and Tomas, thank you very much. I first became acquainted with you, Tomas, when Gerdean moved into town and asked me to edit your previous lessons. I don't know how long you have known me. I have seen your love in those lessons and the lessons you give today, and as my wife just said, your support. I also see the teamwork between you and Daniel. I also see the hidden lessons that evolve between you two that you don't speak of.  For that I am grateful and hope that I have learned. From this evolving soul at this level I give to you my love and my peace. Thank you.

TOMAS:   Thank you my son and daughter. I would like to also thank you for being my friends and confidants and for providing for each other those strengths and consignments which enrich not only your life with each other but which reflect to your arena that tenderness and sensitivity which is born in the fond embrace of matrimony. The several exemplary examples in this community are upstanding, but like the nuances which are a part of the foundation of the relationship between myself and Daniel, your foundation of love for one another is firmly laid. You have been a joy, individually and united, for me to associate with.

Francyl: Thank you Tomas and Daniel for your many lessons. They have meant a great deal to me. And Gerdean and Tomas, you surely will be missed, but I know that we will be talking to you over the circuits. Thank you again.

TOMAS:   Thank you.

Sharon:   I just want to say thanks for your encouragement on my own spiritual path. You will certainly be missed. But we will keep in touch.

TOMAS:   We certainly will.

DANIEL:   My friends, as this evening is brought to a close let it be known that there is no closure in spiritual awareness and in spiritual joy. It is most difficult for me to say goodbye to this co-anchor, for Tomas has not only brought great stability, great learning, a great unifying factor, but through Tomas' lessons and the work that we have done together, this group has reached a state of living example throughout all Teaching Mission communities, an example of the diversity of individuals, yet the collective unity that those so truly inspired by the Indwelling Spirit can put forth.

Gerdean, as you travel the road of life, remain faithful always to your commitment to serve. Always be open to the guidance from within and from the celestial teachers. It is not goodbye but rather a change of programming. [One moment please].

MINERSIA:  Greetings. I am your latest edition to, shall we say, our version of the evening news. I am your newest anchor, your new friend, teacher, and guide. This TR has yet to clearly discern my name.

DANIEL:    The name is Minersia.

MINERSIA:    Yes. I am Minersia. The name does begin with an M and end with an A. It is my great delight to be among you this evening. I have prepared for this moment for a long, long time as you would measure it. I have followed your paths for many years. We have been awaiting these times of upliftment and correction with anticipation and with planning. We have charted the changes to occur geologically. We have tracked genetic strains. This has been a part of our preparation in the culmination of this time of correction and our association with each of you.

You are chosen because you have chosen. And yet, so too, were you pre-chosen. This you know in your studies of the Corps of Destiny and in your study of the planning of Christ Michael's final bestowal. You, my friends, are indeed part of the core of lights that will burn ever brighter until the world is fully illuminated in the brilliance of the love of the First Source and Center. Know this! For, indeed, will God have His way with this planet!

It is my thrill to make your acquaintance this evening. We have many good times ahead. We have much learning and growing ahead. Welcome to change. This is, indeed, the way of life. I will be speaking with you in the near future. Farewell.

Paula:   Minersia, before you go may I ask you a question? This is Paula. (Pause) Did your name come to me last week at my conference in Minneapolis? The name Minersia or something came and I didn't know what it was. And then the word that came to me was 'luminous'. This seemed to be a strange connection.

MINERSIA:  One moment. I will see if I can access the other TR. This one is not ready for such questions. (Switching TR hookup) Certainly, Paula, I, Minersia was with you, calling upon you to fill the light of completeness, the light of the new dawning, the light that will bring forth change. Minersia is my name. I have come here today, back with Daniel. Our teachings will be coordinated. Good day.

Paula:   Thank you!
Isaac:  Please spell your name so I may type it correctly in the transcript.

MINERSIA:   M..I..N..E..R..S..I..A  [Ed. note: The pronunciation is min er' zee ah]

Isaac:  Thank you very much and welcome.
MINERSIA:   Thank you.

DANIEL:   And now I, Daniel, will end this great evening. I have been asked by this TR to convey to Gerdean and to Tomas great love and the understanding of a bond that goes beyond understanding. Rutha asks you, Gerdean, to understand the depth of this bonding so deeply tied in material and spiritual realms, so deeply interwoven are the many intricacies, not always consciously known. And to this end I, Daniel, say this.

Love is that aspect which cannot be fully described, fully intellectualized, fully emotionally understood. Rather it is the integration of all aspects of life that seek to bring forth the greater good. And so our love from the teachers, especially Tomas, Daniel, and Minersia to you this evening. We deeply feel your love as well.

All of you, go now to travel on life's path this week opening up yourself to a greater
integration and understanding of love. Good evening.

*****

[End of Internship, Volume II Part 2]