Tomas Vol III - Pittsburgh, PA - Feb 17, 1996 thru Jun 21, 1996 - Part 2 of 13

This is a record of Tomas' first teacher base assignment: Pittsburgh, PA. Occasionally, Tomas would venture into Ohio or New York or Canada to extend the Teaching Mission.  Occasionally, too, other T/R's would venture into the Pittsburgh Teacher Base to share teachings from their celestial helpers, as depicted in this section.

*****

PITTSBURGH, PA, USA

VOLUME III, Part 2 of 13

February 17, 1996 - June 21, 1996

C O N T E N T S

PITTSBURGH, PA, USA
VOLUME III, Part 2 of 13

*****

DATE:    February 17, 1996
LOCATION:   Pittsburgh, PA USA
T/R:     Gerdean

TEXTUAL STUDY: The Urantia Book
Paper 103: The Reality of Religious Experience
6. Philosophic Co-Ordination
7. Science and Religion
8. Philosophy and Religion
9. The Essence of Religion

TEACHER SESSION
THE CONATION CONCEPT

TOMAS:   Good afternoon.
Group:   Good afternoon, Tomas.

TOMAS:  It is a pleasure to be here with you this afternoon as always and I appreciate your devoted attendance to this forum of communication, which is a time-consuming and energy-capturing event in your otherwise flowing lives. The fact that you set aside a portion of your time and energy to greet one another in your aspiration to attain greater levels of psychic peace and spiritual abundance gives us in the unseen realms an opportunity to bring to you those orts of mota which might contribute to that end.
Peace prevails and in this stillness you avail yourself of those energies that are engaged in lifting you up in your capacities to begin to perceive the more dynamic and organized structures of the administration of your local universe and beyond. It is truly an organized organism you are facing and embarking upon and in order for you individually and as a unit, a group, to partake of those facets of universe management which you profess to ordain for yourselves, it is necessary that you become sensitive to the harmonics of interdependence.

I am going to break from my lecture format today to include you in my program. I am going to pause and release even the T/R while you go get a dictionary and look up a new word. This word, along with an old word, will be our topic today. Those words are "strive" and "conation" (c-o-n-a-t-i-o-n) . We are now in recess.

Leah:   Strive vi. strove, strived, striven. Strive. 1. to try hard, work hard, to strive for self-control, strive to succeed, syn. endeavor. 2. to struggle with or fight against, the swimmer strove against the stream, syn. contend or battle. 3 (obs. ) to compete.

Mrs. P:   Conation n. (from Philosophy and Psychology) 1. The mental faculty or power of striving or effort, whether or not consciously toward an end, and including desire and volition, (distinguished from cognition, knowing an affection, feeling). L. from conatio, an attempt.

Mrs. M:     So strive and conation are the same thing.
Mrs. H:  To strive affectionately toward a goal.
Mrs. P:   It's a mental striving.
Mrs. Ml:       With affection.
Leah:   Yeah. Conate is with affection and feeling and desire and knowing.
Mrs. M:    Well, there's more of this.  Conative and conatus with, again into the philosophy, and says, "having to do with conation or striving and, in grammar, is expressing endeavor." And then the next one goes on: "effort, endeavor, striving. A conatus that can find no distinct object to rest upon. And, 2. a force impulse tendency stimulating a human effort." And that's it.

Mrs. P:   A human effort, I think, is what we're getting at.
Mrs. M:   Read the first definition of conation again.
Mrs. P:    From philosophy or psychology, the mental faculty or power of striving or effort, whether or not consciously, toward an end and including desire and volition (distinguished from cognition, knowing an affection, feeling).
Mrs. Ml:   So, an unconscious striving.  An affection.
Mrs. M:   An endeavor towards an end. That end is probably important in there. You're going on to a certain goal there.

Mrs. P:   With feeling.
Mrs. Ml:   So, we're ready to go back now?
Mrs. H:    We're ready.
Mrs. M:   Thank you.
TOMAS:  On the record, once again. I appreciate your taking that time to investigate the definitions of strive and conate as there is a subtle difference, which I will address in my lesson this afternoon. The first half of my coin will be about striving and I wish to first eliminate the aspect of striving which has to do with competing or doing battle, as in "do not strive with men," but will focus instead on striving which means for you to attain in your world, in your arena, that which you would accomplish and even into your spiritual realms in terms of striving to be perfect, to be happy, to be of service, to have God-consciousness, and so forth.
The other side of this coin, in effect, is conate, which has not the clear-cut end result that striving might indicate, and indeed this element within you which is undeveloped as yet, as a concept and as a practice, is a bridge upon which we may set foot and trek across to some new ways of life for you and for your planet.

Conation relates more to that element wherein you are given the gift of life and sonship and what you give in return is your gift to the evolving Supreme, your gift back to God, in devotion to and response to those riches which you have received as a result of your personal spiritual relationship with divinity.

Indeed many of you know well that welling-up within the heart and soul and mind which cries out to do something. "What can I do to help?" "How can I best serve?" You see situations in the world which torment your peace of mind and wonder what can you do. "What can we do?" "What can the teacher group do or the Teaching Mission, as a whole?" Many discourses have taken place regarding the fact that the human being, the God-conscious human being wants to do something, not only in the spiritual realms, but in the actual material realms in which he/she lives, and I now draw your attention to the two words: striving and conation, for the striving is that which the human being might do, while conation is something that the being might do under the guidance and influence of divinity, and yet each could bring about positive effects.

The reason I have introduced both of those words into this concept is because your world, as it is today, has been founded on striving at the cost of beating out the competition or surpassing one another in accomplishment, and this is not a modus operandi which we would foster for our future of Urantia. The facility of conating, however, while also in terms of attaining and putting into effect, relates to a more ethereal source of stimuli, for it comes back to that aspect within the evolved mind which seeks to serve and seeks to better not only the spiritual realms and mental realms but the physical/material realms as well, and this would include your systems and your organizational aspects.

It is set out in your text that the individual, when well-versed and well-motivated, may take upon him/herself those projects deemed desirable in terms of involvement with government or civil affairs and the like, while the church is misdirected in becoming involved in realms of politics and finances. What of a group such as a Teacher Base? What, in view of the philosophy purported in the Urantia Book, may a group of Urantia Book readers, indeed a group of faithers/ Jesusonians/ disciples/ apostles, what reign do they have in terms of what they can do as a group?

And I tell you that as a group, if you can learn some degree of mature and sensitive inter-dependence, you can take upon yourselves/yourself as a group, untold and impressive projects. This is needed, yes, but is not commanded of you. This is something which evolves out of a heart-felt desire to do something based upon your spiritual resolve and desire to assist in the evolution of your realm.

It (whatever you would take upon yourselves), therefore, is contingent upon what you as a group could agree upon as a group and then be willing to abide by the guidance of our Creator Son and his administrative staff to counsel with you and you with them in the unfolding of your mortal project toward light and life in your material realms.
I am bringing this up today because it would seem that the timing is good, for there is an event coming up in which you as a community will be interwoven in a communal attempt to promulgate the value of the fifth epochal revelation to the inhabitants of Pittsburgh and you will be in the mainstream of your culture here, buffeted by the excitement and super-glory of many egos, many energies, many metaphysical maelstroms -- in a word, a very dynamic environment. It is an opportunity for you to practice your capacities to not strive with men.

It is not required that you compete with the other exhibitors for attention. Your devotion to the Urantia Book, if indeed you have such devotion, your appreciation for its truths, stands on your expression. If you are careless, you can be swept downstream, but if you are a tree which has its roots well anchored, you can stand nobly by and watch the emotional excitement of the arena create powerful energy fields which are unfocused and divergent. It is a good practice run for you as a group to determine your potential for future works as a group in terms of conation building.

Also, I am mindful of the synchronicity that, in your lesson next week you have scheduled Paper 72, Government on a Neighboring Planet, and as the season progresses wherein you are promoting your devotion to this epochal tome -- in the EXPO and in subsequent gatherings in your community -- you will have as a background, as an underlying understanding, of where your planet may evolve in terms of its actualization of advanced life styles and policies for a new age. Look in your Paper of next week with a mind to how you might begin to conate Urantia into a planet settled in light in life in its material aspects, beginning in your western Pennsylvania district.

I have challenged you, I know, for even though you come to this table, this format, for spiritual encouragement and love sustenance, I offer you also a reflection of your love and that is your desire to work in the field, not only in terms of prayer and forgiveness and social service, but in terms of assisting the unseen realms in assisting the future of Urantia in ways which can alter its course as a civilization. 

I am now receptive to your questions or your responses or your discourse.

Mrs. M:  Tomas, are you saying that if we were to work together, this unfocused energy that the masses will create down there, if we were to focus together as a group being down there, that we could help build the spiritual forms which the angelic realms or the spiritual realms could work with this energy and focus it to a good conclusion? If we strive in conation together as one group at that event?
TOMAS:  You have summarized my words, but simplistically, and I appreciate your understanding that energy needs to be focused, but I do not want you to run too far afield with that invitation.
Mrs. M:  Well, how could we... We would need help from your side in order to comprehend how to focus that type energy.
Mrs. Ml: Are we speaking of projects in the community, for instance, helping as a group to help some of the children in the InnerCity read? or do you want us to help the children of the women who are being battered? There's a battered women's shelter here and I'm sure those women need help with their children occasionally. Should we go to the Salvation Army and tell them that we are a unit and that we can work together and that we can do some service? I mean, is that what you're talking about? I'm really confused.

TOMAS:  I am sorry. I have no desire to instill confusion in your mind.
Mrs. Ml: Oh, no!
TOMAS:  But I am interested in all of these responses and reactions, so let us be patient with one another and let me respond to you somewhat before I go back to the earlier reference to the energy at the EXPO.

I will say that I am not commending you to a specific United Way project. I understand that there are social services required thick and thin. Big Brothers and all, ad infinitum, are seeking volunteer help and all are to some degree worthy service outlets. And, as individuals, if you have a personal vigilance in that area, it is encouraged that you serve in that capacity individually.

As a group I am not suggesting that you go down en masse to the Salvation Army or the battered women's center or the hospitals. I am not recommending that at this point for it is premature, and I will not tell you where to go at any rate. I am offering to assist the evolution of your group to contribute to the evolution of your planet, and I am offering the opportunity to observe how you work together and how you can effect and impact energies by your upcoming Expo where you may practice being maturely focused on your purpose.

I am going to….  Indeed, I am whetting your appetite for future works, literal works, but I am, for now, only planting the seed that you begin to think as a group in terms of your individual strengths and gifts that can contribute in whatever way you determine down the road you are going to go, for the diversity in your group cannot be ignored, the various qualities of your expression are there for a purpose, and your desire to grow in love and in spirit reality is touchingly apparent.
I am suggesting that in the face of the diversity, with the appropriate unity, it is possible for the group to undertake a significant project which will contribute to the evolving face of Urantia. And as these few upcoming weeks take place, you will be given the opportunity to consciously be aware that your teachers are observing how you are working together in a community project and, with the foundation of the Paper on the advanced neighboring planet which you will read soon, putting these things together is a timely experiential undertaking for which you seem to be ready.  [Tape turned] I have finished my sentence and my response. I would like to hear more from you.
Leah:   I would like to know what you meant when you wished us psychic peace. What does that mean?
TOMAS:   Psychic peace?
Leah:     Yes.

TOMAS:  The psyche, the mind, knows great agitation and confusion without its on-going spirit connection, the living reality, the living waters.  Psychic disturbance comes from grasping at unreality, from holding on to old reality or refusing to attempt evolved reality as you are ready. Psychic peace comes from knowing you are a child of God and that your condition as an evolving son or daughter is predicated on your immortality because of your commitment to eternal values. When you resist these values you experience psychic disturbance.

When you are in a period of growth, of flux, of development, you may experience some psychic upheaval; but ultimately the child of faith rests again on a calm sea of psychic peace. Knowing that its mind is aligned with the mind of the Great Source and Center, that its ideals and intentions and motivations are in alignment with Deity, brings psychic repose. I do not know if I have answered your question but I have responded regarding psychic peace.

Leah:   So, essentially, when you wished us psychic peace you wished us peace of mind?
TOMAS:   Indeed.
Mrs. McD:   Then could I ask you also to make some comments of discernment between psychic and spiritual?
TOMAS:  Unless I am mistaken, I believe we are splitting hairs about psychism.
Mrs. McD:    Well, I don't know if we're splitting hairs. I just would like to have a clearer definition within my mind between the adjective psychic and the adjective spiritual.
TOMAS:  Psychic as I have been addressing it, having to do with your psyche, your mind?
Mrs. McD: All right, how about psychic powers and spiritual power. I'm very pleased with your answer, I'm just curious about this because I've heard it in a lot different frame of reference.

TOMAS:  In terms of power, I prefer to leave power in the realms of the spirit, for that gives full authority to those beings who are greater and wiser than you or I, and I have seen great misuse of power and so I am not altogether supportive of psychic power for psychic power can be used to coerce a fragile mind or soul down paths which lead to nowhere. I do not encourage psychic power, but adore spiritual power and it is not mine to wield. All power is from the Source and if by chance I am an instrument of the Source and certain power is emitted from my essence, I am honored to serve, but I take not credit for the power itself. As you say in your prayer, "for Thine is the power". It is a perspective on humility.

Mrs. H:   I have a question, and I'm supposed to speak up. I'm not sure what my question is, but in our mental imagery (I think "in our mental imagery" but at least in mine) there is an expression called psychic power and when -- in this gathering that we're going to, that's coming up … I was looking in the brochure and there was only one booth, to my knowledge -- there were two before, but -- there's only one to my knowledge that is at all like ours and to the best of my gathering it, … I can't see that it really belongs there because these booths that are there are all expressing a talent for the development and expansion of awareness for various parts of our being, whether it's our physical or external or our alimentary canal or our emotional turmoil dealing with other people -- there's toning.  I have a daughter that's going to be there expressing her "gift" -- and I'm surprised that the subject has come up because I've always felt that we would just be ourselves, and if we would happen to meet with someone, through proper timing, then the resonance of who we are versus who they are, becomes like two gathered together … and what I'm aiming at here is that it's a matter of oneness, and by your addressing "other energies" …

I may have missed something before I came in. … Oh, I did. The heads are going up and down like that. You can scratch this whole thing from that transcript thing. If you have already taken care of this then never mind and you can delete it when it's typed up, but what I see here is a concern on the part of our wisdom through you for something that we are apparently going to face that can affect us or this "mission". I may have ... I'm sorry if I misinterpreted. Have I? Or have I just said too much? Perhaps there's someone else here that understood what I said. Did I make sense to you?
Mrs. Ml:  I think it's an honor that we were invited last year and I think it is part of our mission.  If you're going to be missionaries, you have to go out into the world. You have to be out where they are.
Mrs. M:  As I understand it from talking with Paula in the last few weeks, she came to Pittsburgh because of this group, to bring Urantia more into the public eye, and I feel those of us who worked last year, I gathered a great deal of response to us from people and we have no way of knowing how much of an effect we made on people. It's just that if the Urantia Books are sold, then somebody is doing something.
Mrs. H:    I'm sorry.  I was premature.

TOMAS:  I have two comments to make from what I have gleaned. One has to do with wondering why the Urantia booth is even there, and indeed it does stand out for it is in a class of its own.  And yet, as has also been contributed - it is as Michael when he was here and went into the lands and visited with the people and worked on the caravans and in the boat-building shops. As you say, when you have a mission, you take it into the arena and this is why this booth is there. In fact, it is a result of the conation of the Jesusonian branch of the Urantia movement, which has, in fact, brought about a material manifestation of their aspiration to bring the Urantia Book to the people.

My second remark relates to the sale of the Book, and that, although it is desirable that the Book be disseminated and people have access to an edition of their own, it is important for me, as a teacher, to point out that it is not how many books are sold that determines whether or not this is a "successful event."
This is also why I spoke to you about your attitude while you are there, that you are a reflection of the values and standards of Urantia Book. Indeed, you who are students of the Book are, in the ideal, walking copies of the Book, and so it would do as well to also sell your own personality as a copy of the tome itself, and in selling your personality, who you are, how you present yourself is what will have the immediate and profound effect upon the attendees at the EXPO.
If these individuals who are there behold you bickering or mis-communicating or acting in ungracious ways, it is a testimony to your mortality, certainly, but with the heightened sensitivity, it would speak well of your revelation if the clarity and divinity of you each and all were to establish an oasis of light and life which would stand out in the crowd as a place of psychic calm and spiritual sublimity, of poise and graciousness and love.

This is you manifesting what you believe in -- not to sell products, but to live what the product purports. And this successful endeavor -- (and I am trusting that you will be successful in being all that you can be) -- will be good practice for us as a group later in the season when we return again to the idea of what can we as a group conate, that we can harmonize in bringing about in our faith desire to serve and in our refining and developing interdependence as apostolic essences of the love of Michael of Nebadon.
Mrs. Ml:     Thank you.
Mrs. M:     So we are on the brink of an opportunity to work together to serve at the moment. Is that what you're saying to us, Tomas?
TOMAS:   Yes.
Mrs. M:    We can look at it now before it starts and think about what it really means?

TOMAS:  Yes, individually. If you are committed to your God, your Thought Adjuster; if you are committed also to it's (The Urantia Book's) origin; if you believe that it is what it says it is, if you are a student of Tomas a teacher in the Teaching Corps of the Correcting Time of Urantia, then you have certain reality which you bring and certain earnestness of soul which you wear within you.
I assume that each of you have some portion of commitment. It would be desirable that you have that commitment, for you will be promoting that commitment as you profess your belief to others in this upcoming environment.
Mrs. M:    Perhaps we ought to have a practice session in which we practice with each other talking about the Book. Last year we just did it by the seat of our pants, but maybe we can help each other to clarify our ideas and to help each other be aware of others peoples' reactions. Perhaps we can have a little practice session if Sue and Noel deem it helpful, to make the best use of this opportunity. Is this possible?
TOMAS:   Possible, not necessarily beneficial.
Mrs. M:     Okay.

TOMAS:    As I indicated earlier, each of you has your own unique aspects. Some of you are not even fully cognizant of what the Urantia Book is, but you are excited to be in the on-going, forward-moving surge toward enlightenment, which Urantia is experiencing, and your joy in that is as electric and elucidating as an intellectual dissertation on what the five epochal revelations are and what the Book might stand for in terms of science, history, cosmology and so forth. 
It is [desired] that you understand your strength, that you recognize the strength of your fellows here and accept their gift, their frame of reference, so that when someone comes upon your booth you will not have to give them a sales pitch, but you will respond to that individual, where they are in their spiritual growth at that time.
Perhaps they would like to hear about color and energy, and so where would you refer them to?  Perhaps they would like to hear the history of the Papers themselves, and where would you refer them to? For each of you has an understanding and a value which, when coordinated and as appreciatively interdependent, can represent the unity in diversity that churches yearn for, that is necessary in order to live and teach the gospel as Michael has authorized.
Loreenia:      That's a difficult thing to do when you go to be yourself and someone tells you to kindly get up and leave, that you're not welcome. It's very difficult to be a part of that in a public situation and the people see that I'm one of the group. I have personally experienced that, and if I'm going to be that kind of a catalyst, I'd just as soon stay away and let the rest of the group to do the work without creating that kind of energy, as much as I would love to go and be a part of the public teachings.

TOMAS:  I put myself here in Michael's shoes and ask you all to do the same and consider the little children, and would He banish one little kid because his nose was running, his knee was skinned, or because he was pudgy, or for any reason whatsoever? This is certainly an element of what I mean when I speak of interdependence. It has been said that God and man need each other. And it is also true that you here need one another and, although there may be certain facets of each other that are not your favorite, that is your personal problem, for each one here is your brother and sister in Christ, in the holy family. And if the truths that you have garnered and taken as a reinforcement of your own beliefs in a divine parent who is loving and accepting and merciful, then you must in good faith accept each other in that same spirit.
Also, those of you who experience the imperfect and ignorant manifestations of your fellow beings, in your heart of hearts [I encourage you to] remain true to your personal calling that God is your Father/ Mother, that Their pleasure is what motivates you, [and] to continue to press yourself into those realms which may not be receptive but which you are called upon to enter in grace that your light may shine in your eyes, that the love of the Father may shine through you and touch those as you pass by.
Getting along in this kingdom is an exercise, which has only begun. All throughout eternity you will be adapting to other personalities, and now is as good a time as any to begin. Love is more contagious than hate and, in essence, it would benefit everyone if the differences could be appreciated and transcended rather than earmarked as a problem, for we are embarked on this journey together, and in order to get things accomplished for the new era, we must learn to maintain a happy family one way or another.

Love, obviously, is the answer, the bottom line, but even there, you understand, there are many interpretations of love, and so we must learn to get along that we might work together. The work is what is important.

My friends, I am going to take my leave for this afternoon. I realize I came in with a different toolbox than I normally do, but I understand that when children are unoccupied for any ungainly length of time they run into mischief and this is an opportune time for us to apply ourselves to the work at hand, not so much on the inside job, although that continues continually, but on the social and more public aspects of your individual faith and your collective body of faithers.

My beloved children, my precious friends, be tolerant of me as I do my Father's will. Be patient with me as I attempt to perceive how to address your growth needs and your hearts' desires. Pray with me that we will learn how to focus our energies in such a way as to direct our entire being to the overcontrol of our First Source and Center, that He then, through His infinite wisdom, can and will direct/redirect those energies back out and through the proper channels into our realms that we might become a grand circle of light which encompasses this emerald isle of Urantia and bring it forward into the bosom of light and life, all toward the emancipation of the Evolving Supreme and to the glory of the one true God.

Until we speak again, I am your devoted friend, companion and teacher Tomas. Amen and farewell.

Group:    Thank you
Mrs. Ml:  Farewell.

*****

DATE:    February 24, 1996
LOCATION:  Pittsburgh, PA, USA
T/R:     Gerdean

TEXTUAL STUDY:  Urantia Paper 72
Government on a Neighboring Planet
1. The Continental Nation
2.  Political Organization
3. The Home Life
4. The Educational System

TEACHER SESSION
GRACE;
CHARACTER TRANSFORMATION

TOMAS:   Good afternoon, my friends.
STUDENTS:   Good afternoon, dear Tomas.
TOMAS:  How glad I am to be once again in your presence to feel the radiation of your love and desire for infinite companionship. I would like to begin today's session with a moment of quiet discourse with the Master as a Friend.

Our brother, Christ Michael, you who have known mortal ascension, have known the human condition, we come to you and bring to you our human condition and beseech your grace. The grace which you bestow in your nature is that umbrella which holds us secure under the pelting rains of darkness and that, even though we walk through the darkness, we are in your care and protection. Be with us now, Creator Companion, as we attempt to assimilate your truths and realities into our limited understanding and framework. Give us vision to see beyond those limitations to the greater good, the greater purpose, and abide with us and bring us peace.
As I spend time in conversation and prayer with Michael, I am almost always reminded of His grace and that in your reference He was "never in a hurry" and I observe your arena here on Urantia as a very industrious site wherein the energies of the mortal existence are helter-skelter, willy-nilly, running hither and yon in various degrees of activity with only relative degrees of harmony. But that you are all so busy gives you all the idea that you are being somehow purposeful or productive, and when I observe the almost incessant activity of all mortality, I appreciate more and more that Michael was never in a hurry.
For only when you experience the stillness are you in complete knowledge of His presence and only as you carry your understanding of grace with you into your arena are you capable of maintaining that quality which allows you to prevail with men in such a way as to maintain your own sense of balance and solidarity -- that is to say: your head in the clouds and your feet on the ground -- and this condition is evidence of a well-unified personality operating in the fullest capacity known to him at that time.
In grace there is no undue stress, no haste, but you may certainly be aware of urgency, for as you stand quietly by and behold the pace at which your fellows embark pell mell upon activities and industrial pursuits, you may see what energy is being utilized to little avail.

If you see, for instance, a small child in a public place with freedom to ramble, you will discover this toddler is a bundle of energy - which will exhaust the adult. Even observing a child's energy is tiring to the individual whose energies are no longer as exuberant, or unfounded. And so it is to the grounded religionist that so many energies are blown in a reckless pursuit of activity for activity's sake when in truth, in grace more can be accomplished for your focus is such that you become more efficient in action.
Grace is a state wherein we may find harmony among other enlightened and edified individuals, at peace with themselves, in harmony with the universe, and prepared to act in service at the drop of a hat.
Well, my compatriots, how are you this week? Have you met with grace in your walk since we last met? Have you questions of me today?
Mrs. M:   Well, Tomas, I do have a question. I have this question about this passage that I would very much like you to enlarge upon and I -- we were reading it before you came, but it was so interesting to me because it has something about permanent results of a character transformation. We were talking about character transformation so much and I was interested in it and then I was led to this so beautifully by some guiding hand this week. I don't think I could have found it on my own, so whoever that was, thank you, but I would appreciate so much your enlarging on this passage because I find it so interesting.
TOMAS:   Read me the passage for the record.
Mrs. M:    "Jesus taught the appeal to the emotions as the technique of arresting and focusing the intellectual attention. He designated the mind thus aroused and quickened as the gateway to the soul, where there resides that spiritual nature of man which must recognize truth and respond to the spiritual appeal of the gospel in order to afford the permanent results of true character transformations." (Page 1705d)
So if that could be a permanent result of character transformation it certainly did appeal to me as a possible technique.
TOMAS:   I will discuss this, and I am glad to see that grace has, indeed, touched your life this week as you have found ~ through your intense application and devotion ~ that excerpt which you had sought to find, and so ~ in company with faith ~ you have knocked and the door was opened. I am also happy that your persistence in the study of character is paying off, and I appreciate your question for it challenges my ability to teach.

Indeed, one might be confused by the apparent paradox, for often was the Master known to say, and your text purports, that the appeal to the emotional realms yields no lasting impression and likewise, the appeal to the intellect has only some results, but that the appeal to the Indwelling Adjuster, to the True Core of the human being, the Spirit Indwelling, is that which is eternal and which will carry eternal value forward.  And now we have this reference that, on its face, would appear to be to the contrary but it is not, for in your own social context you all readily appeal to the emotional aspects of each other in order to get to the underlying value/ understanding of that individual with whom you are expressing your emotional reactions to and with.

Let me call to your attention first the technique of discourse which in your culture would be loosely called gossip, and that interchange of emotional information is done in such a way as to elicit information and to reinforce your own understanding of your own perceptions, and this is in many ways a valuable cultural exchange but it has no permanent value (aside from a continuation of the mores), nor does it alter or change your character for the better (or even for the worse).
Let me now address another aspect of this quality of utilizing emotional content for a purpose, and this is in a way that will affect character, albeit negatively.  For instance, you are early conditioned through a malfunctioning family unit to behave in certain ways; your character will be developed in a lesser standard than if your original conditioning were based on more enlightened or superior values. Herein is the value of evolution and education.

It is the case of most of you, for example, that you have been programmed by negative emotional impact reactions, and so it is hard to ascertain what genuine character is. You may be taught not to steal but, by the same token, you may be encouraged to justify putting aside egg money or rationalizing certain entries on your income tax because 'everyone does it.' This is an influence which will affect your character but not necessarily positively or eternally, but potentially lastingly.

When you finally have discovered that you are in need of true character development, and you open those doors within which allows you to see the difference between character and true character, your experiences may be such that you experience a betrayal by a friend or what you thought was a friend and your entire emotional content is focused on that incident, and although you may rail against the injustice and grieve the broken loyalty, you will come to the point of understanding that the highest Friend, the greatest loyalty, is to spirit reality and not mortal, and in this way your character is developed permanently.

I brought up earlier (perhaps it was not well expressed, but it was brought up) some earlier negative conditioning, for this is Correcting Time and although you have all had conditioning which has resulted in character and in some cases quality character, in this realm at this time there is ample opportunity to develop even greater character, and so I stress the third type of character development as the superior, and which will have a lasting impression on you for it is that which occurs in your deep heart, in your deep soul, after you have already realized that your mortal environment and associations will often not give you that which you can always depend upon if you go first to the spirit.

And so even though character twists, those ... (I hesitate to use the word "perversions" lest it be misunderstood) ... those twists of character which are part of your mores and would seem permanent (but which are only permanent from a mortal point of view), -- those twists can be ironed out to give you permanent character when you learn to depend solely upon the Father.

Well, I have responded. I do not know if I have answered your question. Tell me.

Mrs. M:  I think I'll probably study your answer a little bit. I would like to do that, and yet if I might, I would like to pose a situation and ask you if you might comment. For instance, when one feels a tremendous emotion of joy, when you look at the face of a child, and then you think of the Father and what Jesus said about children and how we come to the Father that way, then I feel that that would be an example for me of possible upgrading of a degree or so of one's character, and maybe that isn't really what this paragraph is talking about, but....

I know I'm a very emotional person and I feel that a lot of my faith is depending upon my emotion. My emotion in art, for instance, my emotional response to beauty has been an important part of my faith. But would you comment on that, please?

TOMAS:  I would like to respond to your initial outpouring about the infant which brings about such great delight as a facet of character and, yes, this is true, but let me now take that same concept and enlarge it so that the object of your joy is, rather, a misguided, young adult male who has not had a bath, who has not shaved, who appears to have nowhere to go, and have you as much joy upon seeing this child of God as you have upon beholding this other innocent lamb?
The difference is a measure of character, for whereas that which is emotionally appealing as being the preferred character trait to the child who is adulterated will reflect character, that would be understood by your supernal peers but not particularly by your human associates.

Mrs. M:  Well, I have to start somewhere. I'll start with the beautiful child. I'll move, hopefully, into a deeper appreciation of even some very (perhaps in some ways) unappealing person. I think that because of our faith in Christ we do find joy and pleasure even in the faces of those with whom we have little connection socially. I can stop and look at a beggar and say a prayer and it's because of my understanding of Jesus' words that I can do it even for a minute, so I might give myself a little breadth there to say that I am moving perhaps in the right direction and I think that's what the Book says, you might go off the path sometimes but if you're basically on the path, then you can feel that things are going in the right direction.

Dr. B:    I'm getting a little confused with following all this but I'm getting the feeling of what's trying to be explained. Maybe it's being explained in different words than ... like, I don't think necessarily emotion ... it may feel like emotion, but recognizing beauty -- which is something like, I think, you were saying ...
Mrs. M:    Uh-huh, yeah.
Dr. B:   ... whether it's in a child or beauty in art. You might be calling that emotion, but I would call that something else. I would call that recognition of some direct ... that somehow beauty takes you in some direct relationship right to something which is very spiritual and which is an avenue, and it might have a feeling but I don't think that's the emotion they're talking about in the Book. I mean, that's where I'm getting mixed up.
Mrs. P:    There's different emotions.  There's spiritual emotions -

Dr. B:    I was still confused even when I read that. I thought that paragraph was saying somehow that you could use . . . where is that page again? That you could use emotion, which in itself is not going to lead anywhere, in other words if you're totally emotional about things.  And neither would mental.  But if the emotional connects then to the mental, that there is an opening made that can take you to the spiritual avenue, and in that way it was good, but see, I just got this perky reading of this because he designated in the second sentence there, "the mind thus aroused." Aroused after the emotional. And "quickened", like the emotional is the one arousing and quickening and then that mind is the gateway to the soul where resides the spiritual nature.

Mrs. H:   I had an experience this past week with a young man- or actually two weeks ago; it seems like yesterday -- where I'd asked him to help me do some unblocking with energies.  And the first thing out of his mouth was, "Oh," he said, "that would be cruel!" And then he went on with it; he said, "You're just too fat!" or something like that. Well, that sort of stuck in my head, but the thing of it was this young man was a very good teacher because I've been having difficulty seeing, reaching -- I know there's a Thought Adjuster in everyone, but sometimes it's difficult to talk to the Thought Adjuster and, by contemplating this, I experienced the fact that I am not the body; I am living inside this body. And so each and every individual, they are the I AM living inside the body.  So this young man, by hitting an emotional chord, focussed my mind on that by the teaching on the inner self of myself has been received that I have to turn that around now that there is an I AM living in each of these. It's not the body.

Mrs. Ml:   So you were asking him to unblock you. He was blocked; he was not seeing beauty first.
Mrs. H:   Yes, but at the same time, you see, I see the I AM that was teaching me, even though he was saying the cruel part and he chose to go ahead and speak the cruel, but in a manner, it was the God in him that was teaching me and all I had to do was go ahead and mull over it for two weeks to get the picture reversed. But I was having trouble seeing the I AM in each individual, but I had to see it from my own perspective first.
Mrs. P:   What about this? Uncontrolled emotion is really deadly. But controlled emotion, via the mind, like you said, can be very effective.
Mrs. M:   Well, if there's a way of effecting a permanent result of true character transformation, if there's something hidden in this paragraph, then I would certainly hope to come to understand it and, Tomas, I will study your answer and see if I can understand what you're saying, and I think I'll ask my good friend to talk about emotions after we're through with this session because this has to be printed and I don't think we should go on with it.

TOMAS:  Let me not discourage your very valuable discourse and sharing, but let me insert that as a standard of understanding high character, review the fruits of the spirit to determine what it is that we are aspiring to develop here. As I have indicated, there are many negative ways which will produce character, often negative character, but in the instance you related, daughter, your own aspiration for communion with the Heavenly Parent and understanding of your spiritual nature has enabled you to take the experience and add it to your curriculum of character aspects toward enlightenment and this is the way, unfortunately, most seekers and soul-searchers have had to wend their way on Urantia.

We are working diligently to instill ways in which you may begin to develop character in yourselves and in one another by an affirmative approach rather than a negative approach for whereas a parent can secure a child's attention by yelling at them, they can also get their attention by addressing them in a loving way and with respect.  But it takes more patience, perhaps, for the growing child is often willful in stretching its boundaries and this is true also of adults. And so when you have been captured, captivated by a positive emotion, it is more likely an aspect of truth, beauty and goodness, i.e., divinity, and therefor not so much a teaching tool as an affirming tool.
Mrs. M:   Thank you for your help on this section.
Mrs. P:   Tomas, could I put forth a question that I've been dealing with for some, some time. It seems that I have a track to take. The Constitution of the United States absolutely denies and forbids the government of the United States the right to levy income tax on citizenry. Have you any suggestion to offer us, any help to get this misuse of government on the right track?

TOMAS:  One moment.  (long pause)  I am not to become embroiled in your political institutions and so I will not discuss it from this focus.  But, as it pertains to your own spiritual growth and development, I am authorized to help you in your feelings and reactions about such things.

Remember that we are delighted you are reading about the Government of a Neighboring Planet, for in it you will find many items of interest to which your world might aspire to become or certainly for inspiration, and I and we are fascinated to hear from you in these contexts, not so much that we can tell you what to do but we await your involvement in your affairs of government and insurance and so forth. And so perhaps at some time in the future, when it becomes a focus of interest for the spiritual focus of your evolving community and subsequently your governmental influences, we might take it up again. I am sorry if I have disappointed you in my response.
Mrs. P:   Is that likely to happen in our lifetime or should we plant seeds in the children? They can see farther than we can.
TOMAS:  The children are doing well, I see. I have been encouraged by the impression the adjudication has made on the youth, but do not leave too much to your children to work on, for you have your own wisdom and experience. Indeed, you are becoming the elder statesmen, and it is your wisdom which will help guide the youngsters, but do not leave it to them, but forge ahead as you see fit to govern your selves.

Mrs. P:   It's frustrating to look at our government and see where we can make any dent in it.
Mrs. M:   Well, you see it that way. I was talking to a young man from the Middle East and he is deeply appreciative of the government that we have, such as it is, and I just want to say that because he came from a country where the government was totally and completely unreliable.
Dr. B:   In certain ways it's good for us -- and I know we all do say, "Thank you, God, for what we have and what we received from our illustrious fore fathers in this country."  I think that we sitting here are aware of it but it doesn't hurt to mention it again, does it, Tomas?

TOMAS:  Certainly not. Affirmations of confidence in that which has gone before, that which is your heritage, is worthy of note and acclaim, and, much as we have been discussing, it is a technique of arresting the development of true character when your approach is loving and gracious, which will certainly capture the attention of those who are used to being yelled at, so if you can approach what is good in your government, or your arena at large, and put praise and commendation and gratitude where it is deserving, and having thus focussed the intellect thus, you may plant seeds for further evolution. These are ways in which mores change, new laws are written, and new values are brought into being.

It is encouraged that as you encounter John and Jane Doe in dialogue about the ethics or morals of a situation, whether it be a traffic accident, an argument of a domestic nature, or the term of service of your legislators, that you avail yourself of the opportunity to also express your views, for this is involvement. It is not social to stand back and observe the Republicans and Democrats "duke it out" or the gender difficulties "men vs. women" situation and so forth but to help bring good material to the front lines because of your conviction of its worth.

Remember, however, to not strive with men or compete with them, but rather contribute your ideologies as having at least as much merit as the next guy's.
Mrs. M:   Tomas, I was interested in having you comment about the upcoming EXPO. This is our last chance to talk with you until two weeks will elapse (as far as I know) with the group and thought you might say a thing or two about our group and everybody plunging into this experience.

TOMAS:  I have already spoken at length regarding your involvement in the EXPO, on the record, and have spent additional quality time individually with you as to your own personal convictions and doubts and growth in this public forum, and as I indicated, we are watching, and when I say "we are watching" I do not mean that we are casually observing a re-run of an old movie, but are quite enrapt and in many ways involved in your participation in this EXPO, for as you can well imagine, we are interested in positive effects from it also, not only in terms of the booth and its "success" as we discussed last week, but in your ministry and in the seeds which will be planted in those who attend not only your booth but the energies of the EXPO at large.
I indicated earlier and will reiterate that of keynote importance and interest to us is how you are learning to work as a group and this is what one of our focuses is (and certainly I will discuss our findings with you later and as time goes by), but I will use this to stress once again, and you may take it emotionally if you like and thus I will get your attention better, that you are being monitored, you are being closely observed as to your strengths and your liabilities in your dealings with one another, for this will influence our course as we proceed in our teaching sessions. If this group can coagulate, we might undertake some significant project; if it is not ready, we will spend more time involving growth as entities in flux.
Mrs. Ml:   I didn't really have a question. I wasn't here last week but I heard something about grace, and I really have to tell you that I have had a lot of grace lately and I feel like I'm walking around real ... light as a feather.

TOMAS:   Bless you.
Mrs. Ml:   Thank you.
Mrs. P:   Grace is something wonderful. I -- years ago, you know, I kept hearing "grace. Grace and Mary" and that's as far as it went. I knew there was this special transcendency and I just spent a few weeks just saying, "Okay, God, let me have it. Let me have it," and all of a sudden Boom! one day...
Dr. B:   When I was little I thought of it as this yellow stuff, because we always talked about it in Catholic school. I had it pictured some way.
Mrs. Ml:   It's when the light illuminates the darkness for me. That's how grace... how I understand Grace.
TOMAS:   Anything further?
Mrs. H:   To me grace is when you're in that energy so much that you don't even think. Your mind doesn't do much good. A state of love.

TOMAS:  I would like to briefly differentiate between grace and transcendence, although it is a fine line. Grace is not being so removed from your material life that your feet do not touch ground, no. It is walking in the dirt, sometimes with mud up to your knees, but still in a sublime condition of peace and radiating the love which is your Source.
Group:    True.
Loreenia:   Could I give you a brief graphic description of that? I was scrubbing out the urinals in the bathrooms the other day and the boss walks up behind me and I was in such a peaceful state he almost scared me. I looked at him as if I hadn't been doing anything unusual. It was phenomenal. I just looked into his eyes and it was just as loving and calm and peaceful and I don't know how long he had been standing there and I was just scrubbing away.
Dr. B:   One of my examples of where I've been experiencing or where my one side of me that really wants to get aggravated with these [professional situations], which I think is like the grace, is like forcing you ... to get corrected and you can't bear to keep doing the other thing that you would normally do. You get turned over without it really being something you're doing. It's grace coming over you and giving you something that you couldn't really do naturally yourself.
TOMAS:  This is true and grace is not dependent upon the intellect. Your earlier anecdote reminds me of the Alpheus twins who served with Michael. They slept through many of his moving lectures and returned to their original lives when he left, as if they had been unaffected by the time they spent with him, and yet they were an integral part of his intimate circle of vital apostles, and thus it is true that the simple-minded are at peace in their souls and in grace not because of their intellect but in spite of it, and so it is that you can humbly work on your knees and sing songs of praise and allow the grace to envelop you even while undergoing the trench work of kingdom-building.
And so that leaves me to wish you well in your trench work of the upcoming exhibit. It will not be long before we are reunited, and this brief respite from our formal format will give us all an opportunity to shuffle the deck and experience a modicum of repose before the clamors of our hungry conation sets in again to seek for greater spiritual truths and stimuli of the heart, mind, soul and body. Trusting that all those areas are safely wrapped up in your aura, I will bid you adieu for this afternoon. In love, in grace, in peace and in joy, I am your friend, Tomas. Farewell.
Group:   Farewell, Tomas.  Thank you very much.
*****
DATE:    April 17, 1996
LOCATION:   Pittsburgh, PA, USA
T/R:    Gerdean

TEXTUAL STUDY:  Urantia Paper 72
5. Industrial Organization
6. Old-Age Insurance
7. Taxation
8. The Special Colleges
9. The Plan of Universal Suffrage
10. Dealing With Crime

TEACHER SESSION:
The Practice of Stillness
Living with Revelation
Reflectivity/Reflectivation 

TOMAS:   Greetings, my friends.
Mrs. M:    Greetings, Tomas.  Good to have you back.

TOMAS:  I applaud your perseverance in accomplishing the task of studying the Paper which has occupied you now for many weeks and it was good to observe the disciplinary techniques which were necessary in order for this feat to be accomplished. And while I am strewing bouquets, let me say that some of your more rousing discourse on political and social and so forth issues was, as you would equate, a football game, for we were cheering for our various supporters. I say "we" because as you understand, we in the celestial realms also speculate among ourselves as to the possible best way to go about matters and you, in like kind, have not disappointed us.
So whereas you may have felt that your discourses this evening were far afield of the spiritual study which you are accustomed to, or which you seek, your format was invigorating not only to us but to yourselves, for many times we find in formal settings and traditional environments, if you will, that certain modes of gentility spring into being forthwith and thus the spontaneity of personality expression becomes stilted by convention, and so it was eagerly observed, and we also feel that the overall intent of installing that Paper in the Book and into your lesson plan was well met.

My friends, I suspect that (and I say this tongue in cheek) I shall need one of those questionnaires that you are passing out, for it is now late and we have just commenced, and so, having offered you my congratulations on your substantial accomplishment, and having greeted you once again in this configuration, I will defer a lesson of my selection and, rather, open the platform to your questions in the event that your eagerness to learn and share your spiritual life--
Mrs. M:    I have a question, Tomas.  Were you finished?

TOMAS: I was on a comma, but I will forego the straggling tail end of my sentence in light of the late hour. Please proceed.
Mrs. M:   My question to you is: if you had a preference, a priority, or a selection of ways in which we can focus more efficiently for the enhancement of the ... for the purpose of the Mission, what form would you suggest? I hope I made myself clear. I can rephrase it if you wish.

TOMAS:  I would suggest, first and foremost and consistently and forevermore, that you engage in the practice of stillness, that you sit quietly in the presence of the First Source and Center, that you engage in this practice consistently and regularly, daily; that you set aside time to spend with God, consciously and conscientiously, for nothing will replace your relationship with Him; and in order for you to get to know Him better, you must spend time with Him. You cannot make a friend if you are constantly saying, "Good-to-see-ya-see-ya-later." You must spend time talking over things with your God. You must sit in faith and patience and allow Him to answer your prayers and enlighten you in your mysteries of life.

The stillness -- silence, meditation -- this is initial and important. It is also delightfully habit-forming! At first, as I believe I have mentioned, you may find it an inconvenience, but as you begin to reap the benefits of this practice of communion with Infinity, you will soon develop an appetite for more and you will not be disappointed, and in this state of being (as compared to "doing"), your life will be enriched in ways that you can only truly appreciate by experiencing.
One of the evident side-effects of sitting in the presence of God and developing the sensitivities to hear Him speak to you, is that you will begin to perceive Him when you hear Him speak through others, and so I lead into your question regarding "listening". The art of hearing with ears to hear stems from your relationship with Divinity. As you understand the nature of God (for it has vibrated in residence in yourself), you understand the call of other souls for presence with that Great Reality also. This is hearing with ears to hear, not the words which pass for communication, but the true voice of the soul which is the inner life of that other being that you recognize because of your inner life with the Father also.

That is where to start: in stillness. Have I addressed your question?

Mrs. M:   Yes, you have. Very well, thank you, and one of the reasons I asked it was because I wanted to have it in print. Also I have another question, if I may, if another is not pressing. What about affiliated modalities that are compatible with the Mission? There are many groups that are seeking light and revelation. Do you encourage our group to also partake in them?
TOMAS:  You have given me a double-barreled question. I will address first things first. The Spirit of Truth has reigned here [on this world] for some time, and all individuals are still guided and directed by that same Spirit of Truth, and so each of you need to look within your own heart to determine what methods of ministry you might pursue as a result of being a God-knowing individual.

Additionally, with the circuits having opened, with various individuals tapping into spiritual availability, many sensitive beings, human beings, are being impressed by various celestial hosts, spiritual energies and entities, and just because they have not been introduced to The Urantia Book, to the fifth epochal revelation to mankind, does not mean that their truths and their quest is not valid and worthy. They are also beloved sons and daughters of the Eternal Parent.

And so it does not behoove those of you who appreciate the import of this Book to look askance, or down, at anyone who has not yet encountered it's epochal truths, but, rather, if you formulate yourself such that you are learning and growing within your own community those truths and aspirations which have been introduced to you already, you will be able to act occasionally as a beacon to those who might seek you out and you might act as elder brothers and sisters in the spiritual ascent.

Spiritual superiority is not something that we foster. Indeed, we have spoken many times about the "chosen people" concept, and those of you who have made the decision to find God and to be more like Him are no more the selected than your neighbor or your 'enemy' who has also found God and seeks to be more like Him, even if their understanding is not what yours is. In your heart of hearts you know that you are a son or daughter of the living God if you know that you know, you feel chosen, you feel special, you feel selected because you have a personal relationship with the living God, but each individual is special.

I would not ask you to set yourself above your brothers and sisters, no, but I would ask you to recognize in context of what it is, precisely, what you study. What has impressed you? What has rung the spirit of truth within you when you have read these words, when you have pondered in your heart these concepts, when you have known in your deep soul, "I have known that to be true and it has now been confirmed."  It is in some ways, my friend, as if we sat in the presence of Christ Michael, as if we sat in the presence of Adam and Eve, or Machiventa when he was here teaching Abraham and Abraham's children.

It is an honor to be part of this Mission. It is a privilege for me to be selected to attempt to teach, which is to say, to help you attain that within you which you yourself aspire to reach --Godlikeness and peace that passes all understanding. If this is so, as this is accomplished, you will become closer, for you will grow together and you will understand that that which is in you is also in your peer, and that is truth, beauty and goodness. The human foibles will take their place like little wooden soldiers and march into history while your own radiant and victorious soul marches forward toward Havona.

If others are impressed by your own quiet dignity and your own radiation of the exuberance of the love of the Creator, if this is seen by others, you will become teachers yourselves in drawing out that in them which is also of eternal destiny and they, too, will be chosen for they have chosen to follow Him. Yes.  Another question?

Mrs. Ml:    Thank you. (Pause)  I'll make a comment about introducing the Urantia Book to people. I have not -- it is not there often. Perhaps it is my own inability to introduce the subject and I have a block within myself that ... I would say to a person, "I read a good novel!" and I wouldn't hesitate to say, "Ah, you've just got to see this movie!" but I never say, "You just must read this book! It will enhance your understanding of what you've already known." It would be nice if this could be ignited in all of us, that we could release this effortless witness, or effortless advertising, or something that has caused us to come together in love, and it is not the first time that we have been told that we have been given healings and feelings of empowerment and I hope that, for the sake of the Mission program, that this can happen because ... it just seems that we need to have a spring go off in us to allow this to happen. Or maybe instead of that, it's just by our example. Of living love.

TOMAS:   Indeed, the Kingdom of Heaven is within you. And it is that which will touch your neighbors more quickly than referring them to a book, particularly to a book with large words and over 2,000 pages. There are many who would appreciate such a volume of wisdom but how often do you find yourself engaged with such individuals as would help you determine the depth of their intellectual tolerance? Normally, in your culture, in your experience, people chat about movies or novels on the best selling list or the classics, and even so, if you say to someone, "Have you seen thus-and-such?" and they respond, you can tell immediately by their response if you have anything in common in terms of what interests you.

If your enthusiasm is met with cynicism or boredom or disgust or any other emotional reaction of a negative nature, you are not inclined to say, "Well how about this one? Did you like that one?" because you have already been affronted. The same holds true with intellectual knowledge, and people do not normally stand around in a supermarket sharing deep intellectual knowledge such as cosmologies.
But in knowing the history of your world, your planet, you can whet the appetites of your associates by titillating them with an occasional fact which they may not know but which they might pass on in conversation; you might whet their appetite by mentioning what Jesus said to such-and-such a character, if you were in a situation of a similar flavor yourself.

There are ways that you can bring the truths of the actual book into people's lives and on rare occasion you can comfortably find yourself strewing your admiration for it and its contents to a total stranger, understanding that it is being perfectly well received, and lo and behold, that person will never be a stranger again for they have validated you by hearing you profess your understanding of what is important to you and to the universe, and therefore to them as well.
But the single most best way in which to introduce the Urantia Book is to live a unified personality, harmoniously, with good character, walking, talking, singing fruits of the spirit … a love-saturated soul as much is as possible at any given time … for as you all well know love is more contagious than hate. And how can you uphold yourself, you say, when you are being brought down in your idealism constantly?

And this is why I say the power of the group here, your family of fellow believers, your brothers and sisters in the spirit and in truth, will uphold you again and again as to the important reality, for although you may disagree regarding political appointments or military procedures or economic undertakings, and so forth, the important thing is your spiritual reality and that, my friends, one would hope, we would always support. That is my purpose and your purpose also.

Mrs. Ml:   Thank you.
TOMAS:   You are welcome.
Mrs. M:   Would you care to say anything about the process that you were describing last week called reflectivation? Can you talk again about that subject? And perhaps even explain it a little further for us, Tomas?
TOMAS:  One moment. (Pause)
Reflectivity is when you look at each other and see God within each other reflecting back to you. This is fraternity; it is also a reflecting. Reflectivity also is a process of reflecting upon your experiences, your perceptions. Additionally, reflectivity extends into the outer realms, technically probably to the Eternal Son.
Reflectivation, then, is when you reflect outward; it is received by universe intelligence and returned by way of reflectivation as a response to your output, or input, shall we say.  Reflectivation is not necessarily done with the intellect. It is done with the soul.
Mrs. M:   That rings a lot with me, that comment.
Mrs. P:   It reminds me of that "God will do the work".  Is that …?
Mrs. H:  It's not a conscious thing.

TOMAS:  Let me suggest an idea, an example, and I will use this transmitter as a vague example. There was a time when she was outraged at the conditions prevalent in the prison system in this country. The matter of inhumanity was so striking and offensive to her sense of brotherhood that much soul-searching went into the matter of criminology, psychology, behavior modification and so forth. Quite a study was done, and much reflection was engaged in, in the intellect.

But the overall and compelling aspect was how beings, who were indwelt by God, were being treated as worse than animals in a zoo, and this ate at her soul. That aspect, which her soul called for resolution, was that which went forth by way of reflectivation.  For she did not pray for the prisoners or the prison conditions particularly, but it was a matter of reflectivation. And so, in her experience, within twenty years, the entire system was changed so that now, at that time, there were many alternatives to imprisonment. Many counseling avenues had opened up and a much more humane approach was brought into being.

I am not saying that this one individual affected the entire prison system of your country, no, but this is an example of how reflectivation can be used to bring about works.
She did not discuss this with anyone in any position to make these changes; it was done without her direct input. But surely the reflectivation, which her soul sent up and out, was partially responsible for a forward movement in evolution, and that is an example of reflectivation as I am able to portray it through this mind.
Mrs. M:   That's an excellent, helpful description because it's getting into something very specific and I was enjoying that description. Thank you very much. We'll think about that one.

TOMAS: It is particularly encouraging, my friends, in the face of, if you will, the Paper that you have recently accomplished, for as some of your societal foibles rankle you, and not only rankle you intellectually but rankle your soul, reflectivate on the subject, if you will, in terms of humanity and compassion for the Supreme itself in order to help bring about some of the changes which will ease the distress in your world.
Mrs. M:   On another occasion I think I am going to pursue the concept of compassion for the Supreme for that is something that is extremely interesting and I've never entertained that too much, but thank you for the beginning of that concept  It'll be fun to think about it.

TOMAS:   I am eager also to commence many conversations, many lessons, many interchanges between and among us, but I now must remind you again of your human condition, and I understand that as your heart and soul hunger for quality time in these realms, your body, indeed your psyche also, requires patient attendance. As we begin again in our camaraderie, I give thanks to you again for your presence, for your willingness, for your acknowledgement of your soul's needs, in company with your peers in the spirit and in the flesh.
Courageous ones, this week as you set about doing your daily duties, look to your Inner Guide for companionship. Make a date to spend ten minutes in solitude in appreciation of Its existence in your life. Take that simple rest on a daily basis and see how it will affect you and give you impetus in all areas of your life. Such an experiment! Such an adventure! Bon appetite. Farewell.
*****

DATE:    April 24, 1996
LOCATION:   Pittsburgh, PA, USA
T/R:     Gerdean

TEXTUAL STUDY:  Urantia Paper 91
The Evolution of Prayer
1. Primitive Prayer
2. Evolving Prayer
3. Prayer and the Alter Ego
4. Ethical Praying

TEACHER SESSION
Good Fortune (Pearl of Great Price)
Righteous Indignation (Judgment/Assessment)
Learn How to Pray

TOMAS:   Good evening.
Group:   Good evening, Tomas.
TOMAS:   I ask you:  How did you know it was me?

I am glad to be here with you, and glad, too, that you continue to manifest an interest in matters of the spiritual realms and that you, in your altruism, grant that we possibly might expand our understanding of our own place in the universe in terms of our spiritual evolution and ascension with and through our association and under the guidance of our Creator Michael.

How fascinating your discourses have been this evening! I am certain we will refer to them again before the evening is out, but I would like to first take a moment to discuss with you a thing or two, which I have saved up for such a moment as this. I would like to discuss with you Good Fortune.
In bringing up the phrase "good fortune" it is necessary, certainly, to take a look at what is fortune, and in a material realm, the reference immediately falls upon the material abundance available to humankind, the "fortune" as is indicated in your economic system and your arts and so forth, but I am not focusing on that fortune. I am focusing on the good fortune of fellowship and sonship, which indeed is the gospel.

How is it that some of you have had the good fortune to have come upon such concepts as we share, the good fortune of seeking and finding those who would share with you such philosophies and ideologies as have been presented in your social aspects this evening, such as the Hispanic guru, the Miracles maverick and others? The good fortune of sharing the inner life is a fortune which is the pearl of great price, for which a man will sell all that he has in order to acquire this great treasure.

This treasure is where your heart is, and where is your heart in this good fortune? There are many who are aware of the advanced times and would capitalize on the advanced movement of spiritual awakening (and to them there is good fortune, indeed!), but the good fortune of sonship is a treasure which comes to you not by your intellectual understanding of a philosophy or even of certain social resonance of acceptance, but that which you hold in your heart as divine and worthy of the greatest respect, the highest esteem, indeed, the highest price.

I ask you to examine your good fortune to determine if it is a fortune which is worth selling everything for its acquisition, or is it a manifestation of a social more, a social movement? There are many movements afoot which would capitalize on the aspiring spirit-bound personality. Do not allow yourself to lead these infants astray by the dazzle of diadems that fall short of the light of truth.   Are there questions of me this evening?

Mrs. M:   Well, I'm confused quite a bit by this lesson. My particular involvement with the Urantia Book is not, certainly, an easy thing, because I've chosen to be part of the organized church, and so I can't quite put it together with the fact that -- I thought I understood you to say, Tomas, that some people are going to capitalize on our good fortune of having the Book. But nobody that I know is, frankly, interested! Unfortunately!
Mrs. P:   You interpreted that wrong.
Mrs. M:   Then please explain it, Tomas.
TOMAS:  Your good fortune, daughter, is that which dwells within you, which has given you life and given it more abundantly. It is that spark of divinity which is that which you would not forfeit, which you would not trade, which you would not sell for it is your own reality. I am speaking beyond books and philosophies and movements to that Treasure within. Has this helped clarify?
Mrs. M:   Yes.  Yes, thank you.
Mrs. Ml:    I know I wouldn't want to return to my fear-filled consciousness that I have had companioning me for so long that  it's -- because it is, I would say, the last ten years that I feel that I have been able to experience some of the meaning of the answers to questions that I had, and I would never want to go back. It is really the pearl of great price. And uh … that doesn't mean that anybody knows that we feel we found it. There are many people who are not interested in knowing what makes me smile. It's your personal ... if we care to tell someone that we think it's a treasure, then it still doesn't make that much difference externally except, really, to you. Others benefit from your behavioral change, but it is, indeed, a pearl of great price.
What about price? Price paid for? I hadn't thought of that pearl of great price. I don't think I've paid a price. I feel just like it was kind of a box that I could open and a present was there. I don't feel that I was "paying the price" to obtain it. Unless you look at it from the consciousness of the journey of all mankind and someone came to you with great experience and wanted to give you enlightenment.

TOMAS:  I will grasp that and run with it, for indeed, what do you give up in order to have this pearl, this gem, this diadem of sonship? What have you got to give before you have It? You have fear and pride and ego and consciousness of death and prejudice and want.  You have all those things which you suffered before giving your life and will to the Father, the great First Source and Center.

Having attained sonship and awareness of your connection with divinity, you then weigh moment by moment the temptations which come your way and pay the price of each moment's decisions, either in assuming your path as before or in falling prey to a lesser fortune. Many of these lesser fortunes are experientially valuable, indeed, and you may rest assured that once you have set upon your path you will be reminded of it and given opportunity to return to it, and when you have ventured away to the experiential depths and have judged and found yourself wanting and have returned again to your Source, your fortune is renewed and you bestow then your wealth of joy and eventual wisdom as you go, as you pass by, as you learn.

There is an interesting lesson in your text about counting the cost, the cost of being a disciple, an apostle, or whatever capacity feel you have to offer. Assuredly, your spiritual reward is in your level of commitment. If you have committed to the values of family life, you will appreciate and defend and honor and enjoy those values. If you commit yourself to a cause with your whole heart and your whole mind and believe that this is your calling, then this is your treasure and you will give and garner the results of your devotion to this cause.  Questions?

Mrs. M:   I have a question about righteous judgment.
Before you came, Tomas, we used to invite Nero to our readings. Maybe some evening you'd like to do that. In the course of conversation of our reading we would ask Nero a question. He was a philosopher, wasn't he? As I recall. Wasn't he a philosopher? Nero? Anyway, he would assist us with the -- whatever it was we were reading in the book and if we got to going we would stop everything and ask Nero to join us and he would comment.
I was talking about righteous judgment this evening and wondered if you would be … or is it too large a subject to make a comment about it?

TOMAS:  Judgement is not a good path. There is no righteousness in judgment. Assessment is one thing, but reserve your judgments, for they have no place in the Kingdom.  How did you intend to be righteous in judging? Are you talking about righteous indignation?
Mrs. M:   I think "righteous indignation" possibly would have been a very good phrase to use, because we were talking about a human social situation that was repugnant and "righteous indignation" would be a justifiable response, but, dwelling upon it and letting your energies stay with it very long, unless you, like you pointed out, are devoted to a cause of justice or some such version of that -- I thought that that was a Biblical quote that Jesus was using when he was teaching. He says, "Judge not ...." and you've just corrected us right there. He went on to say use righteous judgment, and that was a good reminder what you just said was to "judge not" but to be sensitive enough and discerning enough that you might come to a point of understanding of what would be appropriate behavior when these things come up.

TOMAS:  You described a discourse you had earlier this evening in discussing an individual who was repugnant, and it is not for individuals to determine the repugnancy of other individuals. If his acts are repugnant, they may be discussed and judged according to the dictates of the sovereignty of your government or your mores -- and I believe the instance you discussed was an example of your mass consciousness investigating its own mores.

As a follower of Jesus, we are not in a position to judge any individual. It is wise to assess, but judgment casts a pall upon the accused and causes separation and boundary. In a discussion such as you referenced, there is no call for righteous indignation in searching for the motives/intents of your fellow beings.
This is a very distorted world. I realize that it is tedious, time-consuming and bothersome to look into the souls of the many, and these individuals who are on your media whose souls are on parade for the masses to dissect and condemn -- and judge -- are resultant from the evolution as it is at this time.

There are many evolutionary steps coming into being, and the study of the personality is certainly one of them. As has been said earlier in your discourse, there will be those who will need to officially take the time, and study each nuance, in order to render a decision, a law, an action affecting lives, affecting families, affecting your society, and it is no longer as cut and dried as it was in the more materialistic age.

Entering a new age, which involves more thinking, more feeling, more rationalizing, more justifying, more discovery of the human condition, motivations and so forth, is time-consuming. It is not necessary that everyone become involved in this on every level, but it is a part of communication as it is becoming. It is a method of communication that can be turned into prayer.

Mrs. P:   Tomas, you were mentioning that we should be very cognizant of the fact that the effect that we will be having on other people ... something about the dazzle or something? Could you enlarge on that for us just a little bit?
TOMAS:  I would like to remark to the effect that impressionable young aspiring newborns are tantalized by glamour, for they are still impressed by the ways of immaturity, and whereas more spiritualized beings have within them something which the fledgling may not yet be aware, it is cruel to bedazzle them with personal inflections of some radiant glory to come. It is hard to express. It is better, shall we say, to impress a fledgling soul with your confidence, deep awareness and satisfaction, by your calm and sober demeanor than by the bedazzling flashing eyes of one "who really knows the truth." Beware of those who flash their insights around like gold sheckles. The pearl of great price has a deep lustrous sheen that endures. I am having a hard time conveying what I would like to convey.
Mrs. Ml:   Would you be speaking about people who are talking about their faith, how people are going to go to heaven or something?
TOMAS:   No, but that does tie in. You have broadened the palette for me, but I do not mean to focus on Christianity exclusively. Anyone who professes to "know" is suspect, and so I say to you to consider your good fortune and appreciate this pearl of great price rather than bedazzle your children, do you see?
Leah:   When you're speaking of children, do you mean actual physical children?
TOMAS:  I am speaking of fledgling souls who will be coming forth. The harvest is great. And as you have within you, each and all, great reservoirs of strength, inspiration and guidance, in your attempts to proselytize your values, your truths, you will be more effective if you work quietly and surely than if you try to promote.
Dr. B:   What I perceive that you were saying was this treasure ... that one can actually stop and accept lesser than the highest.
TOMAS:   Indeed.
Dr. B:   And that wherever one's energy goes, that that's where somehow you get caught in the glamour which may be okay because later you might get other chances to return to the highest treasure or to examine where exactly you were placing your highest treasure. And within the possibility of that ("where your intent goes or your energy goes"), you can just fall off sometimes; it's not the highest treasure -- which I thought you were saying is a more subtle thing.

And you asked a question: how did we get here tonight and that more subtle treasure is this direct relationship with the Father, and to stop off at some other, whether it's another movement ... you can get off on some other path. Is that . . .?
TOMAS:   Very well said. And many of these experiential adventures are necessary for your own growth and delightful for your partaking and necessary too for the maintenance of civilization. In this discussion of good fortune, no matter what approach you take to your spiritual life, it is your spiritual life and that is your good fortune. As a promoter of your spiritual life, your spiritual reality, it is wiser to quietly promote your own values by living and enjoying them than by selling them.
Mrs. L:   Does this fit into the part where Jesus said don't force by dramatic pronouncements, that is to believe, that you should not try to convince them, which is a part of the book that surprised me when I read it since the church that I was in was always trying to be very forceful in its presentation and I always had wondered about that, so is that part of what you are referring to?
TOMAS:   Yes; I am not singling out, as you well know, the churches.
Mrs. L:   It was a style that I learned in the church. I mean I was presented with dramatic ideas about God and Jesus when I was growing up and I -- that was the style that I was accustomed to, so I was quite surprised when I --

TOMAS:  Perhaps they were followers of John the Baptist rather than Jesus, for John was quite vociferous, but Michael was well-balanced and soft-spoken and his calm understanding of his relationship with his Father enabled him to walk calmly through great trials and difficulties, enabled him to bring great comfort and good cheer to multitudes, enabled him to impact and affect adequate numbers of peoples who kept his message alive for over 2,000 years.
As followers of Jesus, in your attempts to also affect the lives of your brethren on Urantia and subsequently the evolution of Urantia, I point out these things that you yourselves may become better teachers and more sincere believers.
I will share/impart one thing further with you this evening and that is in my assignment to you, my friends. I want you to begin to pray aloud and conscientiously. I would like for you to take the plunge and hear your own voice address Our Father. I would like to hear this in your group session and in your private lives. Begin to ring out your association with divinity. Allow yourself to hear your own voice address your God. Acknowledge to others in your society (in this intimate society of fellow-believers) that you are in communication with the First Source and Center.  It will add tremendously to your strength.  Trust me. We may have time for one further question.
Mrs. H:   I'd like to make a comment. I've been sitting here thinking about a line of scripture and I was seriously thinking about speaking up about it and decided not to and you came around and gave it a definition, and the line of scripture coming to my mind was, "make a joyful noise unto the Lord," and I was going to ask you to speak about that and you did. And speaking up, perhaps we should use a tape recorder to get over the shock of trying this. This is a giant step that you've asked us to take. And I suppose it could be rehearsed in private and then, spontaneously, it could take place at some other point. Thank you.

TOMAS: First, daughter, pray alone aloud, perhaps in the back yard, perhaps in the car, perhaps in the laundry room. Become accustomed to discussing things with God. Eventually and in time you will feel comfortable enough with this process of sharing your inner life with God that you will be able to then pray and offer thanksgiving in a group setting. It is not a command performance. It is a gradual growth. But it will impact you. It is not a performance, my dear. It is a vital life-line of reality for you with your Father.
Mrs. H:    Doesn't it take the same type of surrender to do that, what you've described, as it would of willingness to learn to tone? When I first heard myself tone I was very uncomfortable with the ugly sound that came out of myself, but I was judging myself. What it was, was a rehearsal. It was something new so it couldn't come out in its projected -- or I should say anticipated, future sound, because that would come with rehearsal. There are some people who don't speak up. This would be a good time to practice.

TOMAS:  Let me say that toning is a prayer, an attitude but without the words and, although it is perfectly acceptable to the Father to receive prayer without words - indeed he hears the souls attitude -it is important for you, the mortal, to utilize words, for as you read this evening, it is a communication, and you think, at this point, in terms of words and so I will ask you to not bypass the communication by going directly to toning but to sit down and talk to your Father who loves you.
As if you were his daughter and he were your earthly father, sit on his lap and talk to him about your day or your problem or your joy or whatever comes to mind, for he earnestly seeks to hear you address him. Why else has he splintered himself into so many personalities and characteristics except to hear the reflection back to himself of your adoration for him?

Mrs. L:   Tomas, this just really amazes me. I don't know when this happened. It must have been within the last month, but I had this exact idea, that I should say ... I got the idea that I had to say it out loud. I was in my car. I mean, I did it, and it was really a weird thing to do. In the car. And now hearing this ... it amazes me that we're now being told to do this.
TOMAS:   The self-consciousness will pass.
Mrs. L:   I'm excited about the fact that this will be on paper and it will go out to people who need to see it, who will appreciate seeing it in words, transcribed.
Mrs. P:   I didn't know we were going to have THAT part of it done.
Mrs. H:   My mother's going through this right now. She's been asked to describe Reiki to a hospice group. She's ... and she ... it says we are given the words, and so if we're given the words, then we are being encouraged to open our mouth.
Mrs. M:   Tomas, is this for everyone? Or is this just for our group?
TOMAS:   I am not much in a position to instruct the world, but if you are my students and you honor your teacher and your own spiritual development, then you will experiment with my words by abiding with my suggestion. I am not ordering you, any of you. I am asking you to allow yourself to grow through your own faith by learning how to pray.
Mrs. M:   Were you also suggesting that we tape this and have it written up? I thought that's what you were saying.
Mrs. P:   No, no.

TOMAS:  I can see that my suggestion has dazzled you (group laughter), so I will take my quiet dusty pearl back with me to my own realms and leave you to your own realms for now but I will not go before conveying to you how much entertainment I receive from my position here with you in your community.  Fascinating, stimulating, challenging, and all the positive adjectives I dare muster -- as I could not possibly revert to other judgment.
Blessed be art thou, my friends.  Good evening.
*****

DATE:    May 2, 1996
LOCATION:   Pittsburgh, PA, USA
T/R:     Gerdean

TEXTUAL STUDY: Urantia Paper 92
"Later Evolution of Religion"
5. The Great Religious Leaders
6. The Composite Religions
7. The Further Evolution of Religion

TEACHER SESSION
COSMIC STAMINA

TOMAS:   I am Tomas.
Group:   Good evening, Tomas.  Welcome back.
TOMAS:  Good evening and also welcome to you, faithful friends, students and companions in our Mission work.
As I greet you this evening I would like to confirm for you that your work in prayer has been a delight for us to behold, and your steady application to the efficacy of prayer has joined today with the millions who have engaged in prayer for the sole purpose of expressing their belief in the First Source and Center, no matter what He is called, no matter how He is regarded. Your planet today has stirred in recognition of its association with spirit reality.

I might equate a picture for you in the very early morning hours when the earth is dark and slowly yet surely the lights begin to come on in the windows throughout the city and the country, until the lights are all lit in readiness for the day. Such was our vision today of you who prayed and will continue to let your vigil shine.

The analogy also holds true for the dark winter of soul growth which has been taking part in the evolution of this group of which I am a part and of which you are integrally related to one another and to me and to our celestial peers and supervisors. The radiance of spring is upon us in many ways, my children. I am heartened and gladdened this evening to partake of your childlike enthusiasm and your willingness to open yourselves to one another, in that, you will all have a renewed understanding of your own right as a son or daughter of the living God to be here and to express yourself in prayer with one another as you live your lives.

Indeed, our entire session, our formal session here, is a form of prayer for we have opened our hearts and minds to the influence of greater spiritual truth, beauty and goodness, and we will assuredly grow in facets unfamiliar to you as yet, but in living faith we will even thrive. Steadfast friends and loyal companions, I am proud to be among you.

I will return in a moment. I am consulting as to my lesson for this evening. (I will parenthetically state that there are so many lessons I am eager to devote time to, that I am a kid in a candy store and have opted to consult with my support group for their input.)

It has been determined that the topic of prayer is worthy of further consideration, and I am reminded of a phrase used in this evening's lesson, to-wit: cosmic stamina, for I see that you have great stamina in many concerns and I see now, too, that you are embarked on a path of effective prayer, and so, in order that your enthusiasm may continue and your prayers may long be effective, I will spend a moment discussing this thing called cosmic stamina.

Consider the spirit as an organ, one which you will become. It is like any organ when new and unused: weak. As an infant has muscles undirected, in learning to walk those muscles are developed and built sufficiently that once the child is coordinated and encouraged, it can stand on the muscles of its legs to toddle and walk and run, and the same is true in the organ of your spiritual becoming. As a beginner, starting out on any new regime, practice develops strength.

I have myself witnessed that over the course of weeks that we have met together, your stamina has increased. Your aptitude toward our process has developed and allowed you to begin to perceive that you might gain greatly from the resonance of certain inflections or phrases or concepts which are brought to the fore, and so your muscles are developing, your disciplines are taking shape, your stamina is becoming inclusive of the steadfastness required to take the time to relish and savor and ponder and chew that food, taking in that nourishment, which will feed your muscles which will give fuel to that in you which craves to be strong and unswerving in its attempts to attain spiritual communion and effectiveness in your ministries .

Cosmic stamina, my friends, is superior to physical stamina, in that you will not always be physical, but you will always be part of the cosmic neighborhood, and if you are to emerge into the morontia realms intact, aware of your departure from here and your arrival there, you would do well to develop that cosmic stamina which will aid you in the process of translating from a being of the flesh to a being of morontial substance.
(Long pause) I have alarmed my transmitter. It is not to worry, but I will cut my lesson short. We are well. All is well. Have you questions or commentary to present?

Student:   Can we just take a break and maybe it'll come around?
TOMAS :   Worthy of experience.  We will be in recess.

[Recess]

TOMAS:  That was a prime example of a cosmic collapse. (Hearty group laughter) I will, indeed, incorporate this into the lesson, as the spirit was willing but the faith, i.e., the stamina of the transmitter faltered, and so there was a breakdown. And this is precisely what I refer to when I refer to cosmic stamina.  And when you in your life are moving along, all is clicking, and suddenly there is a flat tire or a disagreement or an overdue notice you had overlooked, there seems to be a deflation, a weakening of the circuits so to speak, which will cut in on and take away from your cosmic stamina.

As you will recall in those last instructions of that Paper, once you have wholeheartedly consecrated yourself to the doing of the will of the First Source and Center, you have no longer those extraneous concerns and ego trappings which will pull from you the energy necessary to sustain your association with divinity.
When you hold fast to your spirit reality, you are developing cosmic stamina. The vicissitudes of life no longer debilitate you or, certainly, do not distract and distress you as they once did. And so this quality of cosmic stamina is effectual in the most rudimentary living experiences all the way to the sublime experience of Paradise ascension. It is developed by consecration and by faith.

I understand that we are somewhat hard-pressed for time among you this evening and so I will open the floor for sharing as it may occur. My friends, the floor is yours.
Student:  Well, when we were praying out loud, I really enjoyed it tremendously! It was a wonderful experience, and yet I wanted to feel that I was sitting in my Father's lap, as you had suggested, and I was never quite able to pull that off myself. I think some of the other people here were able to do that.

TOMAS:   Are you asking for volunteers?
Student:  I don't know what I'm asking for. I'm just making a comment that I was kind of disappointed in myself, I guess. I thought, "why can't I get into that visualization more?"

TOMAS:  I will suggest to you, my dignified daughter, that you were not feeling weak and needy. When you are addressing Our Father from a point of confidence and strength and joy and radiance of spirit, it is more shoulder-to-shoulder in the work or face-to-face in the faith, but when you are curled up on your Father's lap, it is as a needy child. I do not disparage either approach to contact with divinity, but that may be an answer to your query.  It is ...
Student:  I'm really glad I asked that question. It turned out to have a lot of nice benefits for me at the moment. My friend Mrs. Ml got such a great thing and I'm so happy that she told me because, … and I did use what she told me and it turned out to be great and I really enjoyed it.

TOMAS:  It is pleasing to hear that you enjoyed this fundamental spiritual experience, for we will encourage you to continue and develop your communication with your Universal Upholder amid other aspects of divinity which will guide and direct and protect your very being. That you are a member of the cosmic citizenry, a fledgling soul in the greater scheme of things, puts you in a position to belong to that massive realm of spiritual persons and powers which will be influencing you and supporting you for eons to come.

It would do you well to become comfortable and joyous in your communications with all of your spirit relations, beginning with the Father and your own Thought Adjuster and reaching across to the God Fragments of your brothers and sisters here in the flesh. It is a wonderful world to be explored and divine encounters will be forthcoming, so continue in your practice, for as you have heard, "practice makes perfect."

Student:  Well, I have something; I hope you will forgive me for even thinking about that, but I couldn't help myself. You told us, dear Tomas, that you don't get into our mind. I previously thought you knew everything I was thinking, and then you said, no, that wasn't the case, and so I thought, "well maybe you are listening when we're talking, and so you can get a better fix on what we are thinking," but maybe that's just a very stupid idea of mine,
TOMAS:  Oh, and so you think I ask you to pray out loud so that I can hear what you're thinking! (Group laughter) Very clever.
Student:   Well, there might have been some element of it, I thought. But I knew there were other elements. I hope you will forgive me.
TOMAS:  Not only do I forgive you, I will ask you to forgive me also, for I tell you I find your minds so fascinating it is hard for me to ignore much of what is so apparent to me even when you are silent, for your expressions of your inner life, your confusions, your biases, your ignorance, your delightful fantasies --all are on display regardless of how you choose to think about it. (Group laughter)

Student:   Tomas, may I ask a question?
TOMAS:   Yes, daughter.

Student:   This subject was brought up three or four months ago when you first came, and my question is about reincarnation.  Is a soul reincarnated to the same earth, the same planet that it was born on, or does it always go to a different planet?
TOMAS:  Neither is correct. A soul is born in its nativity realm and ascends upward, assuming it is an ascending son or daughter. We are discussing ascending sons and daughters, are we not?
Student: Yes.
TOMAS:  They ascend. They do not return to other worlds of space, such as inhabited planets, for continued experience. When your soul is adequately developed, it is embarked to the translation worlds and the mansion worlds and then is mustered up through the ranks of the Melchizedek Order of instruction until a full-fledged spirit being is sent out into another yet realm of learning and service, and this ascension rises all the way until the ascending being meets with the Eternal Source. There is no reincarnation aspects under consideration, for why repeat a world when there are billions of worlds to come?
Student:  Well, then I won't worry about that any more.
Student: That's about the ascending sons and daughters. Now, what about the others?
TOMAS:  The orders of descending sons are not concerned with souls. They are perfect beings who descend in service. Your perfection is in process of becoming; theirs already is. These are two variations of Paradise expression. Many, many ways are there to experience life in the universe, but your experience is yours alone. Your order, your destiny is perfect for you; it is custom made for you, and you will learn to love it and appreciate it more and more as you develop cosmic stamina.
Student: Are there now descending sons in the physical body on Urantia at present?
TOMAS:   Not that I am personally aware.
Student: Have you received instructions on this type ...?
TOMAS:  I am not authorized to open certain files. I am a teacher, and my curriculum is somewhat circumscribed, and I am an obedient servant. I will confess that we, as you, enjoy speculation but I have learned to bridle my tongue and gird up the loins of my mind as a teacher for it is too easy to plant seeds of bad weeds, and I am of a mind, as the Master has sought, to prune those weary branches and minister to you as you bring forth new fruit.
Student:  I have a question -- I'm a little confused here. When you answered Mrs. K. on a question she had asked and you were ascertaining if we were talking about a particular order, are there other orders on this earth plane that we are not discussing?
TOMAS:  No. We are interested in the inhabitants of this planet, all of whom (excluding the midwayers) are human mortal beings who are experiencing evolution and to some extent revelation in our ascent to divinity attainment.
Student: So am I to understand that everyone at this table -- their birthing, as a soul, occurred on this planet earth?

TOMAS:   This is where it will occur...
Student:   It "will"?

TOMAS:  ... for many. If it does not occur here, it may occur in the Resurrection Hall. If a being is not cognizant of his soul when he or she leaves Urantia, it is not a condemnation of the potential of that soul, you see. This is, however, the birthplace of many morontia souls. Many human beings here, including you, hope to develop this relationship with the spirit that will contribute to the growth and foundation of the soul. It is the ambition and great delight of many followers of Jesus that the soul becomes afire with love. This is a radiant and wondrous thing when this occurs.
Many will not allow this experience in this lifetime, but those of you who opt to work toward the development and betterment and maturation of your soul, are of tremendous help to your indwelling Thought Adjuster, therefore to God and to the Supreme and certainly to your fellows, your peers in growth in ascension, and not to be overlooked, the many that you will affect by your own being as you pass by or as you serve. And so those who choose to help develop their soul, there are many rewards, many commendations, many riches. Yes.
Student:  This is a discussion I would like to continue but some of us are really pressed for time, but I know that we don't earn merit badges. We do what we do because we are alive.

TOMAS:  Let me bring to your mind that, indeed, sonship, daughtership is a gift, but once you have received this gift, it is incumbent upon you that you begin to work with and for the spirit; otherwise, like houseguests, you know, they lose their savor after several days. (Group laughter)
Student:  I've heard that adage. Well, thank you, and I hope that we can continue this discussion at another time.
TOMAS:  Indeed, my daughter, I look forward to our next encounter, and I embrace you.
Student:   Thank you.
Student: While we were talking about cosmic stamina, I assumed that it helps you to develop this even before you make a transition. You mentioned it as being an important factor when we make the transition, but I assumed that it's a very helpful thing to develop even before that.
TOMAS:   Indeed.
Student:  I believe that what that means is that we have to pray more and help others and serve, and in that way we build it up.

TOMAS:  Indeed, it boils down to that. It does, however, require some consciousness on the part of the mortal. It is an act of the human will that wills that the Father's will will be done, and so it is not a passive walk in the park with God, but rather a vigilant observation and involvement with humankind so that he/she may serve, may be there for God as God's representative on earth, if you will, and without ego involvement. How's that for a dichotomy and a challenge?

And so to waft and drift through life complacently, assuming that God is in his heaven, all is right with the world, is perhaps fine for those who remain ignorant of his infinity presence and power and presence in your life, but for those of you who have consecrated your will to the doing of His will, it requires conscientiousness and conscientiousness requires stamina, for at first it may seem that you have been royally bestowed great blessings and you want the world to know what a wonderful God you have and of course you meet with skeptics and cynics and the like and so your methodology changes and you become a little more brooding, a little more philosophic, a little more selective in how it is that you present your truths, and it is possible to become elitist in your spiritual attitudes.

And all manner of vagaries can affect you because of your imperfection and, particularly, because of the many influences in existence which are left over from the rebellion and the default, and so it is an honorable career and not a life of ease.
It is effortful but invigorating and satisfying once you get the hang of it, once you have developed those muscles, once you have gotten your stride, and the marvelous thing about developing cosmic stamina is that when your legs have lost their strength to hold you up, your spiritual legs can carry you on into eternity.
Student:   Hurray!

TOMAS:  I will offer you now an assignment for your next leg of the journey, having to do in part with our exercise from last week of praying aloud, (and I realize I am shoveling this to you rather heavily, but since you are on a roll I will take advantage) and I will suggest that as you can and as you will, be about the Father's business early in your day. Many, many times we have encouraged you believers and workers to rise before the pressures of the day to devote some time and energy on your spiritual condition.

It is often the more peaceful time, and the more acceptable time, to go into stillness and prayer in the evening when the family is at rest and the duties of the day are past, but by the same token, your earthly vessels are also wearied by the end of the day, and if you were to devote yourself in prayer early in your day by getting up just a little earlier than your regular routine to renew your vow to follow the Master where he will take you, I again guarantee that your life will be altered toward the positive, toward the better, and it will enrich you and those you love and those with whom you come in contact, for you have established your soul's identity for the day before the pressures of the outside world have come to pass and recall to you your conditioning of the ages.
And so as the day begins, as the lights begin to come on in the windows, your light will be shining and you will be awake to greet the Son.
My friends, it is truly an honor for me to be your friend. The joint hosts who attend with me, your friends in the unseen realms, and I are heartened by your beatific repose. This peace: let it remain with you as you go through your days. Let it sustain you and nourish you and nurture your cosmic stamina.
Go in peace.  Farewell.
*****

DATE:    May 9, 1996
LOCATION:   Pittsburgh, PA, USA
T/R:     Gerdean

TEXTUAL STUDY:  Paper 20
The Paradise Sons of God
1. The Descending Sons of God
2. The Magisterial Sons
3. Judicial Actions
4. Magisterial Missions
5. Bestowal of the Paradise Sons of God

TEACHER SESSION
AUTHORITY OF FREE WILL
TOMAS:   I am Tomas, your teacher, guide, companion and friend and it gives me great pleasure to once again be in your midst. It affords us all an opportunity to behold your evolving natures and your configuration of personalities as you individually strive for personality attainment, self-mastery and congenial expression of your heart's delights.
I am going to say at the outset that I appreciate the ministrations of your coordinator here, our hostess, who has developed a fine-tuned gift for coordinating your myriad differences in interest, time and priorities in the general interest of her devotion to Michael and His work on Urantia. We all owe her a great round of applause and vote of confidence that she, like Van, has been able to carry on in the face of isolation and adversity to the great gain of all here in attendance.
And in deference to her guidance earlier, I will now ask that we devote our customary time to stillness and prayer, that your souls may be properly aerated, that the seeds of truth, beauty and goodness which may prevail will fall on fertile soil -- ready, eager and willing to receive those orts of teacher wisdom which will help to bring us together in the spirit. I will recess while we venture now into stillness.
* * *
... and the angels sing.
Perfect and righteous Heavenly Father, we come to you in humble obedience to your word and your will this day. We seek your guidance and your blessing on our growing understanding of your nature and your purpose. We come together as your children in supplication of your nurturance. We look to you for those guidelines to know how to be effective. We look to you for the source of our happiness and our contentment. We ask your compassion upon us as we err, as we struggle to comprehend the vastness of your divine nature. Allow us, Heavenly Father, through your infinite mercy, to lapse into smallness, to accept our humble orb as our realm in the vast greatness of your domain. We trust that you are supreme and we do your bidding. Even so, not our will but your will be done.
TOMAS: My friends, I am eager to share with you this evening about "authority."

I am glad that we have had this moment in time to share with our divine nature that we may be reminded of the ultimate authority and the goodness which comes from this font of life and love, for love, indeed, is the highest, most compelling authority.

Your world, Urantia, has suffered from a default and a rebellion of the authority of the Creator and the Creator's Creators. That misadministration has cast its gray pall upon your realm and the authority prevalent on Urantia is a false and ignoble authority indeed. The game seems to be that there are those who find their way into positions of authority, and those over whom they wield their influence are subjected to the authority reigned upon them. As such, most mortals carry on a living existence of paying lip service to an authority for which they have little regard, little respect and truly little authority. As time goes by, as mankind evolves in a spiritual way, the authority of times past will need to evolve also in order for more honesty to come into being.

The great fact is that you have the final authority over your own destiny. It is you, through your free will, who make those decisions which will determine what and who has authority over you and to what extent you will honor that power which you invest in others.  Everyone is "guilty" of this condition. Anyone can tell you, if they are honest, to what they have given authority.  Most of the time it is unconscious, it is a way of life, it is a result of decisions made long ago -- oftentimes by peer pressure or parental influence or other traditional belief systems of social mores -- which led you to believe that you have no authority over the way you think, or the way you feel, or the way you react to life and its circumstances.

And I say to you that this deserves a fresh look, for you give authority to all that you are and all that you do by the doing and the being of it. As long as you give your authority to others, you are not empowered with the authority of your own integrity, your own appreciation for your relationship with the God, which you have professed to be your highest authority. Think not that the great God of us all is unaware of the games that are played; we say we give him authority over our lives and then go on acting as we always have, as we have for generations. You will notice I include myself in this discourse for I too am "guilty" of carrying around with me much baggage from my evolutionary upward trek.

It is a gratifying reminder of the mercy of God that we are given time in which to make those adjustments that will give love the greatest authority, for in allowing love to be your author, in allowing love to authorize you your being, you are paying homage to the greatest authority, for God is love.

I would like to also state this evening that it is the authority of the Mother which is what keeps you together, in your mind.  As you grow from one awareness to another, it is the Mother who holds your hand and holds you up when you stagger and stumble in your transitions from one realm of reality to the next; it is She who holds you together in your mind as it crumbles and dissolves an old belief in the wake of the birth of the new and better belief. And so this matter of authority reaches to the Eternal
Parents. Not only to Michael and his Consort, but to the Sources and Centers on Paradise, from whence this great authority hails.
We do not honor our Father because he requires it. We do not respect our Father because he has willed it. We do not obey our Father because he demands it. We honor, respect and obey Our Father because we love him and choose to please him, not out of fear of reprisal or punishment or alienation but out of a deep desire to please Him … and Her … and to do Their perfect bidding in our lives.

Much distortion of value has come from one being attempting to wield authority over another, and the simple truth is that the effects of the authority of love will garner eternal results. To put it in simple jargon: you can catch more flies with honey than with vinegar.

I have concluded my more formal lesson for this evening. I do want to reiterate, particularly in view of the proximity to your Mother's Day holiday, that Our Mother is the eternal partner of the Universal Father, that without one there is not the other, and that although we often make reference to the Father and take the Mother for granted with our words, it is not so in our hearts or in our actualities, for all our thoughts and all our growth and all of our healing is indissolubly linked to the Mother.
Happy Mother's Day to all of you mothers in attendance -- from this humble table, all the way to Paradise. And so I open this humble table to your participation.
Mrs. M:  Speaking as a mother, thank you, Tomas.
Mrs. Ml:  The children are a blessing and a frustration rolled into one.

TOMAS:  Although I am not a mother, I have total sympathy and empathy with your sentiments. I behold this raucous bunch of children of my own and commiserate in the frustration, and yet I find such delight and amusement and true heartfelt appreciation for your courageous struggles and essays at being spiritually grown-up, my heart outpours upon you. I am certain we understand each other in that parental configuration.

Mrs. L:   Well, Tomas, I so much wanted to tell you about an experience that I have had. I'd like to handle it better. I'm always thinking about how Jesus came and he knew so much and he didn't tell everybody all that he knew. He didn't even change the way they did the Passover in his own home; he didn't change it until he went to Bethany where Lazarus and Mary and Martha were. He knew so much, and he didn't burden everybody around him with it.

I'm always trying to remember that because I am always driving myself a little crazy by thinking how I know these beautiful things and I'm looking around and I know that the church is great but it's having these horrible misconceptions ... and I know that you're looking at me and I know that you're aware of any horrible misconceptions that I have as an evolutionary creature, but ... nevertheless I feel I waste a lot of time thinking about it. I don't know if I'm wasting time or not.

I'm so happy that Ms. S is putting these beautiful concepts into poetry for the children. Maybe she'll be able to get some of this across. I'm always tempted to say something to some of my friends but I restrain myself, because I have always found out it doesn't turn out well. I thought maybe you had some comments about this problem. I think everybody around here has that problem! I know Mr. L does.
Mrs. Ml:  I think we all do.
TOMAS:   You would like for me to comment.
Mrs. L: I would. You're aware of this, and have probably gotten some ideas about it.

TOMAS:  My only recommendation would be to plant one seed at a time.  And for you to take on the church is perhaps a large field (-- the north 40, in fact!). It is not required that you revamp the traditions and customs of the ways that are; they do well. They, even with their imperfections, are also evolving and are guided by many angelic orders that protect their worth, their value, their rich inheritance for those who opt to follow the beautiful, although imperfect, religions of authority.
The antithesis are such poems, as you referenced, by our friend Ms. S, those delightful poems/prayers which are simple and compatible to your pure and simple minds, such as children of all ages. The key here is to find that simple soul who is open to those truths that are not complicated by dogma and cosmology and tenets and creeds and the like. The spirit crosses all barriers and the most accessible/vulnerable are the children. As you yourself remain a child in your heart, you too will continue to grow, for you will be open to those words and seeds and concepts which will feed your growth bit by bit as you are able to assimilate that nourishment into your growing being.

Those who have all the answers are not interested in your wisdom, so graciously take your seeds to those fertile flowerbeds where you might have more luck. That is all.
Group:   Thank you.
Mrs. M:  I have a question left over from last week. We talked about ... does anybody remember?
Mrs. H:  "Intact?"
Mrs. M:  "Intact." Exactly. We weren't clear what that meant, if "intact" meant a state of consciousness.
TOMAS:  We had, in an earlier session, discussed fusion and I did not want to confuse the concept with fusion but rather, if you do not fuse and you make the transition from this realm to the other realm, it would be better/easier for you, perhaps, if you were to be aware of your transition; that is, if you were aware of your ascension experience. It was a differentiation between being aware of making that step as compared to fusion. Do you see my differentiation?
Mrs. M:   Yes.  I thought it must be consciousness.
TOMAS:  Yes. For if you fuse it is done in a blinking of an eye, but if you are going through a process of dying, you can do that with your eyes open, so to speak, and greet your next level of existence with open arms and open heart, rather than fear or with your eyes closed to the experience.
Mrs. P:  Thank you.
Loreenia:  Tomas, I experienced something entirely different from what you were talking about today. I experienced something I would like to share with you and all the people at this table. This week -- I've seen on this planet many times when people were injured or hurt and people just walked by and don't pay attention, as if it's not going on. This week there was a young girl who passed out on one of our lines which is extremely dangerous. And there's a signal that goes off, in fact, where everybody knows that either somebody is caught in the machinery or there is a fire.
Well, it went off this week at work, and I was standing where I could observe the whole floor, and all the people from all the other machines ran to help this individual, and I was very moved by it, especially later when I had opportunity to observe in my mind how it happened. It's like the whole factory shut down to come to her aid, which in previous times, I've seldom seen that. I thought it was an extremely beautiful thing that happened.

She had just fainted; she wasn't caught in the machinery, but she could have been caught in the machinery. I just wanted to share that with you and everybody else. Everybody on the floor ran to help, and it wasn't ignored. That was very beautiful.
TOMAS:   Your interpretation of it is very beautiful.
Loreenia:  It shows to me that many things are happening on this planet that previously had not happened.
Mrs. M: Tomas, I wasn't here but I wondered if you had commented on that news that we got about the Magisterial Son being on the planet. Did you have any comments about that? I wasn't here.

TOMAS:   I did not make any comments, no.  You missed nothing.
Mrs. M: Do you have any comments to make about it?
Mrs. Ml:  We would like that knowledge, if it's allowed.
TOMAS:   One moment.  (Long pause)
TOMAS:  I will withhold comment. It is by the
T/R:  I'm not getting anything.
Mrs. M: It's not that important.
TOMAS: I will withhold comment.  It is by the authority of this human vessel through whom I operate that I am not at liberty to discuss our Magisterial Son. (We have discussed this before.)
Mrs. P: Uh-huh.
Mrs. McD:  Gerdean, there are many people on the planet, hundreds of thousands at least, that believe there is a real teacher at this time, incarnated, in the flesh, and they call him the Maitreya, the teacher, and the belief is that he will make a general appearance to the planet, by mass communication, and they call it "the day of discovery," I think, and when he makes this mass appearance, that all men will see him and will have to make a judgment as to whether he is a true teacher or not, and I just wonder if you know about this, how this world teacher called the Maitreya would fit into the scheme of things with a Magisterial ... with what we were talking about before.
TOMAS:  I will respond. I do not see the word Maitreya in Gerdean's mind bank, and so she is unaware of this being. I will remark, however, that the concept is valid in that in all contexts each individual must make that determination as to the viability of any teacher. Indeed, is it not necessary that each of you, for instance, must determine the viability of my own existence with you, my role as a teacher?

Is it not also, going beyond that, required of you who think that you must make determinations as to the viability, indeed, the authority of any teacher or belief system or energy pattern?  It is by your own authority that it is made real. There could be, in fact has been, a Creator Son himself who visited your world but few indeed recognized him when he came, and this will be the case on Urantia when Michael returns. There will be many who will refuse to see him, to acknowledge his authority as the supreme ruler of this universe.

It is often the case that the mass mind makes those decisions which become acceptable for the throngs to follow. This is one of the responsibilities of forerunners. It is going to influence the destiny of your world by what you accept, by what you give authority to, by what you believe and then pass on by your acquiescence or your acceptance.

The genuine truth is something that lies too deep for words. The true reality is something you already know in your heart and no amount of political hubbub or social swarming will alter your commitment to that which you know to be true for you, even though myriad may be diametrically opposite your stance.

It is indeed dangerous to grasp even an important concept or leader or teacher because everyone else is. This is part of the human condition of wanting to belong, the need to find acceptance and, ultimately, the importance of having a conviction that what you believe in is correct, is divinely authorized.

Only you can make this decision. Otherwise you have given yourself away to yet another false authority, and you are only playing the game of giving obeisance to that authority when you actually opt to let your own free will go its merry way anyway.
I am sorry that I have not, perhaps, answered your question in the way that you would have preferred. I do not know. Perhaps I answered it even more to your satisfaction than you initially craved, but I have spoken my piece.

Mrs. M:  Well, this week we have Time Magazine and his Franklin on the front cover, and he got a medal in Washington, and so I listened to him and, again, I was in my miserable usual dilemma because he was talking about "you've got to do these things if you want to go to heaven." That representation was on a national level of our supposed faith and it is a disappointment to me. It is. It just is.
Mrs. Ml: It is.

Mrs. L:  What I could say to you about that is, whenever you are speaking to the masses, whoever it is, you have to realize that who Billy Graham speaks to, that doesn't mean that if you speak to him yourself you wouldn't get a different -- at least that's what I find out in the Catholic church. That they teach and then what they . . . when politically things are presented at a level that isn't exactly correct and the same thing in religion when people are talking to the masses.
Mrs. M:  I guess so.

TOMAS:  I would like to say that we are seeing the authority of fear. Many individuals give fear highest authority, and without fear they have no direction. They do not know how to be brave of heart and forge into those unknown realms of faith that is the hallmark of others. Yes, there are sad commentaries to tell regarding how it is that great religious leaders teach undignified untruths. This has been the way since the beginning of ghost cults on your planet, and do not spend overmuch time watching programming to that effect for it only frustrates you. There is no way that you can fight City Hall and the Pentagon and Vatican City and still have energy left over to read poems and prayers to your grandchildren. Get your authority in order and your priorities in order. I will also say that Time Magazine is one of the false authorities which wields great power.
Mrs. M:  Yes. You know, I understand that those people who look for the Maitreya actually think it is Jesus Christ.
Mrs. McD:  Yes, you know this all comes from Benjamin Creme and they say Christians will view him as Christ, Jews will view him as the Messiah, Muslims will view him as Mohammed, Buddhists will view him as Buddha. Everyone will see him as their "savior" -- whatever they're looking for when he appears. It's supposed to be a mass communication, around the world, and when he appears and speaks his peace, the teaching is that anyone who sees him will instantly recognize him as the one they have waited for.
Mrs. L: But isn't that the Michael they talk about in the Urantia Book?
Mrs. McD: That is why I was asking Tomas. Was there a connection? Could this person be? But he's supposed to be in the flesh; he's supposed to have been on the planet for some time, and he is simply waiting for the time to be right to make his appearance worldwide. In the meantime, so the teaching goes, he has appeared to small groups. What I mean by small … 300, 400, 500 people … all around the planet. He's appeared to fundamental Christians, fundamental Muslim's, he's appeared to people on every continent. He's appeared in the United States because he's appeared in Virginia, in Texas, and this is his teaching that many, many people are teaching and following and I don't know if there's any validity to it or not or whether it is a product of this Benjamin Creme's mind. Whether there's truth or isn't truth.
I will tell one thing, that the tradition that this is in, is it would be the White Brotherhood, the hierarchy, Alice Bailey, Madame Blavatsky, the people that follow that tradition is how its coming through, and its being disseminated on our own planet, so I know people who are totally into this and I'm never sure if it's the man that's channeling this, if it's his aberration, or if it's really valid. And, Tomas, I thought you might have some knowledge of it.

TOMAS:  Let me speak with authority. It is a great curiosity, a great diversion, a great lure, and a great anticipation of all mortals to look for a hero, someone who will cure the ills under which you suffer. There was a time, not long ago, when there were some who were that excited about us teachers who were going to change the world. There are also reports and rumors of a Melchizedek appearance which we eagerly anticipate, as do you, and yet, in keeping with some of the more stable minds of the times, it is only speculation to ponder the arrival, the appearance, the itinerary, the retinue, etc., of any visitor.

The Urantia Book is our most recent material visitor, and you see it is not in human form. It is in the form like A Course in Miracles, which enables you to sit in stillness and ponder and read and weigh and experience through the authority of your own mind, in conjunction with your own indwelling God fragment, those truths which will carry you from today into tomorrow, which will, in the course of application of its principles, change the planet Urantia from a dark sphere to a planet settled in light and life, and so the ultimate authority, again, returns to you.

It is how you live your life, as if each individual you met were an Ambassador of the heavenly Kingdom. Each individual, with their own authority, is a pronouncement to you for you to make your determination as to whether they are part of the solution or part of the problem. The true test of your truth and your faith is in your heart, not in your mind, and so even if you were to see a being -- unless you were to spend some time, or unless your Thought Adjuster gave you such a responsive thrill that it left little doubt -- all of these are external manifestations of potential reality, both good and evil.

You are your own authority. It is you who must determine your actions, your faith, your belief, your devotion, your commitment to your God on a moment to moment basis. It is your authority, dear, and only yours that counts.

Mrs. McD:   I wasn't thinking of this appearance in relation to myself so much because I know what I know, but he's supposed to awaken the masses. The masses are supposed to be awakened.

TOMAS:   Indeed!
Mrs. McD:   ... by this appearance.
TOMAS:  By you, in fact. By each of you here. We all have that authority to manifest our Loving Parent in our lives so as to positively impact on Urantia those truths, beauties and goodnesses which Michael brought and personified when he lived here.
Mrs. McD: This is true, but our influence doesn't cover the whole sphere of the globe. The unusual thing about this appearance was that he was to be visible by every soul on the planet.
Mrs. H: May I?  Remember, we have other dimensions out there, and where we resonate -- kind of where we are, we can't really understand -- we're just one of many, many, many groups involved in the preparation.
Mrs. McD:   Well, I -- one of the reasons we're so bedazzled by this and tempted by this, is that now we know we can watch a tennis game and everybody in the world is watching it, and they taught us that! They say, okay, ... they give us numbers in the millions of people who are watching and, of course, as people say we are, we can't help but think, "If one of our beings could just get on television ..."
TOMAS:   [Four students all talking at once.]  Excuse me. In the interest of the transcriber, it is very hard to transcribe three or four voices at once.
Mrs. H: You've got the floor.
Mrs. McD: I forgot what I was talking about. (Group laughter)
Mrs. L: The way I understand it, we are all of One Mind, so when one of us changes our mind about what authority is, or beyond authority, it affects the whole world.
Mrs. McD:  That's true. The Whole Mind affects everybody, but it's at an unconscious level.  What this experience was to do was to bring it to the conscious level of mind.
Mrs. H: Television brought that about.
Mrs. McD: Well, it's a confrontation between each soul in this message.
Mrs. M: External things never change internal....
Mrs. McD: Except that this message was supposed to have made each man....

Mrs. C: You know A Course in Miracles. You know the aspirin doesn't cure the headache.
Mrs. McD: Yeah, I know.  But this man …
Mrs. C: It's the belief in the aspirin that cures it.
Mrs. McD:  ... was to awaken the consciousness of mankind and what a lot of people know on a deep unconscious level hasn't surfaced yet, but this event is supposed to have this …
Mrs. C: The event will occur when the mind gets there instead of the other way around.
Mrs. McD: But we are a global village, now, and what goes on, the whole world can see it. That might -- just from the perspective of a divine being, a divine teacher -- that might have been slowly evolved because it's going to be used in this way, too. That's a possibility. That's the way communications have evolved, is for a purpose and it is -- we are all one group now, most definitely.
Mrs. M: It's my opinion that it's the other way around. When the internal consciousness reaches that point, then it will manifest in the external.
Mrs. Ml: The Son of God is calling forth consciously and I believe now we are the tennis match, and the universe is watching us.
TOMAS:  It is my personal opinion (Tomas speaking) that we are to create an environment which is more suitable to a king instead of waiting for him to fix it for us.
Mrs. McD: To go back to what you were saying, when Christ Michael bestowed ... here on the earth, when did he do it? At the time of the Roman Empire, when communication, caravans, commerce, everything. It was the best time. And here again we have a time where we have total new methods of communication, like satellites, for mass communication. Now is the time to do it.
Mrs. M: Why can't it all be correct? Everything we are saying. United in united input?

Mrs. Ml:  Because I have followed this a little bit from Mrs. McD, and right here, tonight, I got the distinction that no, that is what, you know, we're always looking for this outer thing, and of course we always wish for this, that somebody is going to come out and present it. And it's really what Tomas told us. It's so difficult for us to realize that ... it's much more subtle. It's the moment-to-moment thing. And this other thing, as of right now, I'd just dismiss it. I'm thinking, oh no! It's so subtle, we just don't want to accept it. We want it to be some dramatic, you know, appearance or something, and when you see the life of Christ, it's not that way at all.
Mrs. P:  You know, I was reading the statistics and something like 80% of the people in this country believe in God, 72% of the people in this country believe that they had prayers answered. This is powerful!
TOMAS:  What they are looking for is people who will stand up for what they believe in without the trappings of fear and false authority. To stand in the light of the Son and have love as your witness. To be gracious, compassionate, kind, merciful, far-reaching, all embracing, non-judgmental, all those assets of character which we have far to discuss.
Mrs. L: I just think of Mother Theresa. She is the only universal symbol that I can think of that is like that.
TOMAS:   Truly.
Mrs. C: And exists right now on the planet.
Mrs. L: But she doesn't seek the recognition. I'm sure there are many souls like her, but she is the one who is known.
Mrs. H: And that Ching Hai that I talk about.
Mrs. L: But Mother Theresa, having won the Nobel Peace Prize, is the one who is highly acclaimed.

TOMAS:  You will notice that she has been sanctioned again by your material authorities. What gives her true authority is her devotion and her selflessness. She is not in it for recognition, but for true service. She is presented as a saint and this makes it difficult for people to see her true godlikeness, which is that she forgets herself in the interest of helping others.

It is very difficult in this day and age of the media and Time Magazine and Internet and so forth, to forget the self. Very difficult, indeed, for the self has a history of clamoring for attention.

When you are in the embrace of the Eternal Parents, when your existence is not only authorized by them but is embraced, accepted, validated, consecrated, sent out to play in harmony, you may do this with self-forgetfulness for you are secure. When you are secure in your place in the universe, it doesn't matter if you are memorialized in the eyes of mortality or not. This is hard work. This is attaining God-consciousness -- constantly to be turning aside that which calls attention to yourself to the greater glory of calling attention to that which is the destiny of us all.

I could go on and give an entire lesson on this but I will not for the hour grows late. I will afford us another moment or two but then we must conclude for the day. Are there any further discourses awaiting our attention?
Mrs. M:  Thank you very much, Tomas.

TOMAS:  My humble pupils, you feed my heart. You cause my heart to swell with love. My affection for you grows daily as I watch you try to overcome your patterns and aspire to be bigger, better, more adult, more mature, more loving, more childlike. How you try! And how your attempts please us who observe. I do not tell you this as if you were puppets on a string at the whims of a bored and mischievous universe, but because you are eager to grow in the spirit. Because the efforts you make have yielded certain results and harmonies in your life, you are willing to make those attempts at molding your minds so that you are at greatest happiness for yourself and for your relationship with divinity.
It is truly a struggle; it is truly an honorable vocation. Your efforts are duly, honorably noted, and you are encouraged and appreciated for those acts, those thoughts, those motives which yield to you that peace which passes all understanding.
My beloved flock, I bid you farewell until we meet again. Good evening.
Group:  Good night, Tomas.
*****

DATE:  May 16, 1996
LOCATION:  Pittsburgh, PA, USA
T/R:   Gerdean

TEXTUAL STUDY:  Urantia Paper 20
"Paradise Sons of God"
6. The Mortal-Bestowal Careers
7. The Trinity Teacher Sons
8. Local Universe Ministry of the Daynals
9. Planetary Service of the Daynals
10. United Ministry of the Paradise Sons

TEACHER SESSION
THE AUTHORITY OF LOVE

TOMAS:   Good evening, my friends.
Group: Good evening, Tomas.
TOMAS:  Once again I am glad to be with you, to feel your presence, to anticipate the union of spirit which will eventuate as we focus our goals and motives and intents toward our Divine Source and Center. (Brief stillness) Having attained this degree of trancendency, it pleases me greatly to greet you on behalf of the many throngs who attend and also enjoy your presence, your flickering illuminations, for we are legion, indeed, and we find our hearts' satisfaction in your ascension into realms of spirit light and life.

I encourage you, my friends, in your progress, for I have found great growth among you individually and as a group, and this growth which has come about by your own thought adjustments and subsequent behaviors are my reward, for your strengths, your growing faith, is that foundation which will anchor your community light that will enflame your part of the cosmic neighborhood with a steady burning bright light of reality as the millions of flickering lights around you struggle to maintain that solidarity of spirit reality which will see them through their growth experiences and their struggles in the good fight of faith.

How fortunate you are here to have each other, to have a common cosmology, a common understanding of the nature of the bestowal of the Creator Son, Christ Michael, on your realm. How fortunate for you to be able to so closely identify with the ways in which enlightened beings become aware of their true nature and then take their truth, beauty and goodness into the outerlying wilderness, the villages, the wastelands, indeed, your realm, in order to foster that reality which you know to be true in yourself as a result of your kindled and confirmed faith in true reality, and thus you bring affirmation and confirmation to the faith of others, to those who have not yet seen the spirit reflected back to them in eyes to see with the infinite love of the Indwelling Father Fragment.

Last week I spoke with you regarding authority, regarding the integral authority invested in you by your own will, your free will which chooses which reality will be your reality, and this evening I would like to expand that concept of authority to include the authority of Love as it is invested in us by the Father and as it is invested by you to your realm. For this authority, this living love, goes far beyond the realms of theology, cosmology, philosophy and other "ologies" and "isms."

This Ultimate Authority is a living truth, a living love, which will radiate in spite of the various nametags you apply to it.  The truth is from your eternal Source, and It knows whereof It speaks, even when you feel you can contribute to its wisdom by your own interpretations of cosmic understanding. It is as in the case of not allowing the right hand to know what the left hand is doing, for when you set out to indoctrinate or proselytize a truth, when you set out to plant a seed, you have already colored the planting of it by this conscious intention of service.

Rather, this intention to serve our eternal Source is an ability which is given through you by your willingness to remain impartial and open to allow your Adjuster, indeed, to direct your personality such as it may express Its divine love and wisdom. This is no small order for humankind, and no small assignment for yourselves, for as we all well know, we all have, each have, our own authority and, indeed, the strength and authority of each of you in this group is stalwart and individualized indeed.

Many souls could be won through argument, but it is understood that coercion is not advisable, for in order for young seedlings to come to their own fruition, they must grow their own spiritual experience, and this is based in their own Font of reality, their own appreciation for the authority of Divine Love. I would like to thank you, as a group of individuals, for your growth.

It may not be readily apparent to you as I say these words that you have grown, but most affirmatively you have learned deep lessons. You have "behavior modified" as a result of paying heed to your own soul's needs. As you continue to acknowledge the aspect of your identity that is your evolving soul, your becoming-reality, you may then begin to see in reflection your growth, for growth is unconscious and even as we speak, this moment, I can feel the earth move around you as your souls expand into becoming. Have you questions this evening?
Mrs. M:   Do you think anybody's making any progress about getting up? In those early hours? Tomas, have you noticed anything?

TOMAS:  I feel rather like I ought not expand overmuch on that assignment, and that is because all the term papers are not in yet. It is, as I have said before, not expected that you immediately modify your entire life's pattern as a result of hearing a lesson or taking one of my assignments to heart. I can say that your acceptance levels have improved considerably since we discussed Acceptance months ago, but I do not sense an overwhelming urge to get up at the crack of dawn to pray just yet, but this is a seed planted and in time it may grow fruit.
Mrs. M:  We have some questions that we keep aside and we haven't used them much and I thought maybe we could use one or two and then if other people have questions they can pop right in.
Mrs. H: Before we do that, I'd just like to give the group and Tomas some feedback and, depending on the busyness in your house, I found that I could do the assignment on my way to work because I was in my car, with the talking out loud, and so I do it then and I really feel just an unbelievable difference.

TOMAS:  I appreciate your feedback and will respond to commend this process given the certain constraints of your overriding lifestyle, for as you set out on your path each day in the context of you as an individual, as a working woman, as an embodiment of your free will, you take this time to set your purpose in order. And this is adequate for its purpose; it is not as though you do not take the time to consider your motives for the day and you will certainly be beneficial in your progress and in your exposure with other people because you have taken this conscientious time, and so I commend this for you.
I will, however, persist in the desirability of taking your bull by the horns before any circumscribed configuration sets itself in motion, for even in the routines of breakfasting and brushing teeth and so forth, you are all such creatures of habit, even your thought processes begin to formulate a reality of mere conditioning and by the time you have got your shoes on, your umbrella out the door, you have already set tremendous portions of unreality into existence.
I certainly qualify that as being relative degrees of "unreality", for to the extent it has been working for years, it obviously is functionally successful, but I am always inclined to ask people to look at their habits, for even good habits can be traps and snares against the adventure of this life and against the challenge of new approaches to life, new thoughts about life. Not only in terms of the brand of toothpaste and the wallpaper around the mirror, but those realities which go on deep within you that are seeking expression on a more transcendental level.
Mrs. M:  Well, for some reason or other, I guess I -- does it help if you move your morning stillness closer to an early hour? I mean, I did think that dawn sounded pretty nice but I didn't think I was going to be able to achieve it, but does it help? I imagine it would help, if you move stillness time into as early time as you can in the morning. Is that what you were saying to us?

TOMAS:  I had suggested that you set aside time for contact with spirit early in the day, before your day gets underway in its customary fashion, so that your approach to your day is well anchored in your spiritual purpose. If you do not get up until noon for purposes of employment or whatever, then upon rising at noon, that is first thing in the morning, you see.
Mrs. M:  Well, thank you for that. If no one else has a question for the moment I have these lovely questions that we've been saving. "Dear Tomas. Did we choose to come here to this planet Urantia?"

TOMAS:   I have already answered that question.
Mrs. M: "Did we come here for the challenge to our spirituality?"

TOMAS:  I will address a response to the question. The challenge of a spiritual life is indeed the great adventure, the great challenge. Unless and until you understand that this is your origin here as a being of personality potential, my words will make little sense or have little impact upon you, for if you persist in believing that you are already a spirit being, then indeed, this experience makes little sense at all -- except as you might come to be of service, which, parenthetically, is one of your purposes, but service is a natural consequence of serving God; it is something you do as a result of who you are, not necessarily because you set out to be of service.

And so, if we may think in terms of your having begun here, in this existence, we think first that you have been born into the flesh, through the ways in which all life is born here, and you, being of normal mind, are indwelt with a fragment of God upon your first moral choice. That instant your potential [soul] has come into being. As you grow, as you grow up, as a mortal of the realm and indeed as a spirit-person-in-becoming, you make decisions, you develop ethics, morals, etc. As you choose consciously to align yourself more and more with spirit, your potential becomes actualized and this is who you are, this is who you have become as a result of your decisions.

This is co-creation. This is the ascension plan. For as you continue to make those decisions which will align you with divinity, you become more and more real. That way, when you leave this sphere, when you leave the mortal way of life, and leave your tabernacle of flesh behind, you will have developed a true reality, your morontial soul, which is thriving and flourishing because you have already contributed to its development by the decisions you have made. This is truth.

It is also truth that many individuals in the course of a life, avoid making those decisions that will enable them to develop a strong and robust spiritized identity. This does not mean that when their flesh is left behind that they will die along with their body because they have not developed their Self consciously, but they will remain in a sleep and waken with the dispensation. [Ed. note: dispensational roll call]. The Creator is merciful and time is allowed for those decisions to be made.

If, on the other hand, individuals here in this life make those decisions which are most obstreperous to spirit, which are embracing evil, which constitute sin and which border on iniquity, it is possible for such a human being to deny him or herself the opportunity of continued ascension by the continuing denial of its true reality.

The choice is yours in many ways, and your sincerity contributes greatly to your own evolution, your own becoming, for as you choose in sincerity to align yourself with spirit, you become yourself more like spirit, and you may ignore this and coast through life and waft along being buffeted here and there by other peoples' interpretation of reality, and you may give away your own authority over your own identity and destiny because of fear or because of laziness, and you will still be loved, but you will have robbed yourself of the opportunity, the enthralling adventure, of contributing not only to your own perfection, but to the development of the Supreme.

These things we do because we love the Life. Not the life that we have wrested by way of self-will and evil, but because we love the Life which has been invested in us by and through our Divine Parentage. Truly, it is a challenge, but remember that the real fight is the good fight of faith. As long as you have faith, living faith, you will prevail. You will be aided and assisted in those decisions which will align you with spirit, which will align you also with fellow believers. I have addressed the question.
Loreenia:   Tomas, this past week, or more, the little things in life have been able to bother me more than normal. To the unusual actually, because it seems like that -- I can only say energies. I don't know what else -- but it seems like I'm more sensitive than I was. Can you explain anything about that?

TOMAS:  My dear child, I do not know if I can explain, but please let me spend a moment talking with you about your concern. You have professed to have perhaps keener sensitivities than heretofore and I say to you, no, your sensitivity has always been. But you are developing a keener understanding of these energies in terms of their configuration as impersonal or personal energy. Whereas at one time they were simply feelings, now they are becoming identifiable to some extent, and indeed there are human will decisions behind many of these energy patterns, and this is what is new to you.

It is difficult to find that you are experiencing feelings of distress because of another individual's energy outpourings. May I suggest that our lesson on "Cosmic Stamina" is applicable here for you are obviously developing sufficient cosmic stamina that your vision is being enlarged to behold some aspects of energy which are not necessarily pleasant, but which obviously you can use to grow, either in your own development or in the development of the source of those energies.
The experience of life as a human being on any material world is fraught with setbacks and difficulties and vicissitudes of life. The natural pangs of birth and death and parting, the skills of developing communication and teamwork, all these things of growth are difficult at best and decidedly more difficult when born alone. It is perhaps a testimony to your reality as part of this fast-congealing family of spirit friends here in this room that has given you the support and reflection of your own reality that now enables you to bear these burdens of existence with good cheer.

I sense you react to my phrase 'good cheer' for they have not been pleasing experiences, but in truth some of them have been, for I recall your sharing with us the example of a woman who passed out on the line and the masses flocked to her aid. That was your positive interpretation of life as you found it. As you see positive manifestations of life, you will naturally find negative representations of life as well. It is in how you react to these interpretations of energy configuration that determines your foundations.
Are your roots buried deeply in that crevice in the earth? Are your roots of faith firmly planted, that these experiences may come and go and help enrich you and nurture your spirit reality, or are they winds and gales that will beat upon you to no purpose?

Be steadfast, daughter, for your reality is becoming and these are part of your birth pangs. You are beginning to see with eyes to see in your arena, and it is true that it is hard to love unlovely mankind, and yet this indeed is the great challenge: to discover the God who dwells within each human being and to bring them to an understanding of their Divine Source by reflecting back to them Infinite Love. Yes. That is all.

Loreenia:  Thank you, Tomas.
Leah:  I'd like to ask about irritability. Is it just making room for the new? Is it just a physical thing? Or is it energies that are just generally around us?

TOMAS:  Irritability is a physical manifestation of an emotional condition resultant from a mental point of mind, point of view, which may be based on something inside yourself or outside yourself which you find intolerable and how can you end the intolerable situation. This results in irritability, for you cannot direct any concrete action in any direction until you have ascertained what it is that needs clarified. Once it is clarified, it then affects the emotions and then alleviates the physical so that it is gone.
Irritability is a complex condition arid certainly indicates an impasse in the mind for the mind is not at rest, it has not peace of mind. The answer, as always, is wrapped up in spiritual communion, for in the lap of God you may discuss these intimate details of your understanding of who you are and how you are relating yourself to your life circumstances, including other individuals, and make those internal adjustments, those thought adjustments which are necessary in order for the mind to make a sincere spiritual appeal and decision, whether it be to act, to forgive, or whatever, to then allow your emotional systems to settle and your physical system also to iron itself out. Do you have a better understanding of irritability?

Leah:  The only reason I brought it up was because it seemed to pop up out of nowhere. It just seemed to come from the idea that something was taking up space and something had to go. (Not clear) and surely other people are dealing with it, too. Unless it's something fear-based. I appreciate your attempt to address it.

TOMAS:  It is certainly a matter of re-establishing priorities, an instruction you recently were given to establish your priorities and your authorities, and as you have been fertile soil, as you have pondered that challenge and invitation, it is highly possible that your processes, spiritual mental and physical, are now reacting to that fertilization of the seed which will cause some irritation and irritability as the priorities fall in new alignment .

It is certainly nothing to get alarmed about. There is always certain agitation in the mind when faced with growth but you see it need not be fatal, it need not be painful. It may well be just an irritability, and I will encourage you this way, that as indeed you proceed down the road of spiritual evolution, or shall I say up the road of spiritual ascension, these growth experiences become easier and easier to endure, for you will have already taught yourself by your own experience, that the results of your own growth, the effects of your decisions, yield such results as would make the experience of birth pangs hardly worthy of note.
Any pain is difficult and I am not in any sense decrying the value of your experiences, I am only encouraging you that as time goes by, you will find that the experience itself is so valuable for the truth that results, for the strength that you gain for the expansion of your soul that you acquire, that you will be willing to run the risk of discomfort in order that you will know more of your own eternal reality and take part in the actualization of that which was once only potential. Yes.
Mrs. H: We're all sitting here with elevated blood sugars.

TOMAS:  You may all very well have elevated blood sugars for I understood the angel food cake was divine, but I want to also express that the circuitry is quite keen this evening. Your largess in terms of numbers and in quality of attendance here this evening has given quite a lift to those of the celestial hosts who frequent your neighborhood and observe the development of your community.

The circuitry has been activated greatly by the combined energies, too, of two experienced transmitter/receivers. It is yet another circuitry that adds a degree, a measurable degree of energy to your configuration. It is our thought that perhaps it may come to pass that these transmitter/receivers will be able to work in harmony with myself and Andrew or another teacher who may opt to utilize this platform of teaching as an experiential base for him or herself as well as the augmented energy of your group, not, of course, to eliminate the added aspect and attraction of the incredible observation of a "dynamic duo" of teachers in action. This is yet to be revealed in fact, but our appetites are whet.

Mrs. M: Possibly Andrew might come back as a teacher?

TOMAS:  Inasmuch as I am a friend of Andrew, I will advise you that I am in frequent contact with him and that whereas many reports have indicated that he has gone hence, most assuredly he has been known to stop by and compare notes with me. Indeed, he has been an inspiration to me in my work here as has Marius and Nero. I have not had the pleasure, however, of working with Caroline.
Ms. S:  I have a question about what I've been hearing from other study groups which was that a couple of study groups seem to be losing the freshness that used to come through in their transmissions and they are feeling that there is a loss of something going on and I thought ... They were making some guesses about it. They said that motives for possible transmitters were to become famous. That's what one of the transmitters had said, that she would like to become famous in the movement. Could that cause a loss of freshness in the transmitting?  We can't figure out why the transmissions are sort of dull in this one study group and so we thought perhaps it was a motivation that was less than ... great. Does that affect transmissions?

TOMAS:  Of course, it would affect a transmission, depending upon the transmitter/ receiver. And none of the transmitter/receivers that I have witnessed or worked with are immune to their own ego, for you are all at only a certain level of evolution and all of you are subject to the delights of grandiosity. It is a human condition.
It is also why, by and large, the transmitter/receivers have received personal instructions from the teachers as to how to comport themselves as a transmitter/receiver, why I, for example, spent months with Gerdean in her own development prior to becoming more public, if you will.  I have addressed her regarding certain dangers and it is not applauded by her or by us that the transmitter/receivers are elevated to a position greater than a simple acknowledgement of the service they perform.
It is a history on your world to allow self-will to become supreme, and so as self-will becomes involved, the coloration of the transmitter becomes greater and the truths of the spirit will become lesser. This, of course, will cloud the clarity of the sessions since spirituality has taken a back seat to ambition.
Let me say, too, that it is not to castigate an individual for their humanness, for anyone who puts forth their spiritual beliefs is subject to crucifixion or persecution of some sort from some one. It requires tremendous courage to stand up for what you believe to be true, beautiful and good. And many times, as I have said earlier this evening, in the growth process it is difficult and painful, but the value of the experience, after you come out after the wash, is so valuable that it made the experience worthwhile, and so, consider that the growth, the spiritual development of this transmitter/receiver, or these individuals, or in this situation, is a growth experience which will better that individual's connection to and appreciation for true spirit or a greater interpretation of spirit.

And so be merciful, be compassionate, be fraternal, and keep to your own authority as to those things which relate to your relationship between you and your God and which has to do with your destiny and your work in the field. The transmitter/receivers are fallible, but it is our job as teachers to remind you of that, and to always keep your own counsel with your own indwelling God Fragment, your own understanding of the Spirit of Truth, that the truth be kept alive.
Ms. S:   Well, it is important, as you have reminded us, to be merciful, of course, and we definitely will do that, but one of the problems they say that arises is that the person goes on and on with their transmitting and they are becoming very dry because of -- probably because of this reason, as you indicated, that that could be a possible reason. Then somebody probably has to take steps to remove themselves to being close to this that goes on and on. That is permissible, I assume.
TOMAS:   You may fire me at any time.
Mrs. M: Oh, no! (Group laughter) We're not talking about you, Tomas .
Mrs. H: I was going to say, isn't this like consulting our Source about something that's going on in someone else's yard? This is really none of our business.

Ms. S:  It is.  It is our business because ...
Mrs. H: It's their problem.
Ms. S:  ... it's a problem in the Mission as a whole. It happens over and over again and so, you know, nobody ever expected it to be that way and nobody really has solved the problem. There are murmurings, but ....
Mrs. Ml: Well, that's something you take up in prayer, and apply some of the things that Tomas has expressed.
Mrs. H: I think so.
Mrs. M: We could even send a copy of this transcript to that group and let them see for themselves that it's just like when you're in the family, there's a problem, you can take it into prayer, you can release it, you can expand your expression of life. They go into meltdown, you could say; they get uncomfortable and leave. Where someone in the group develops their own ability to be a T/R, and it's a shared thing.
Loreenia: Part of the problem is that sometimes the transmitters are put on a pedestal and they leave the consciousness to their own self gain, then they cut themselves off from clear transmission and the people that are in the group help that individual do that for the very simple reason that they keep supporting that behavior.
Mrs. Ml: It sounds like some simple behavior modification could be applied.
Mrs. H:  Well, there may be a lesson in that for them that they have to experience it.
TOMAS:  Various groups go through various growth pangs. It is part of, again, the human condition; it is part of learning how to work together; it is part of standing behind your brother even when he makes a fool of himself; it is standing behind and beside each other in the good fight of faith.  For what are our underlying motives? Only we can ascertain our own motives and I am not really in a position to ascertain yours except in how you present yourself. The fruits of the spirit are the way in which I shall recognize you, and vice versa.
To say that the T/Rs do not grapple with these things in their own minds would be foolish, and with that note I will invite you all, now, to participate in the practice of transmitting/receiving the energies alive and well on your circuit board which is accessible to you now that we have opened up the channels of communication again between isolated Urantia and the greater cosmic system of things.

The experience of connecting with spirit life and, indeed, its helpers is not something that is instantly apparent, is not like a thunderstorm where you hear thunder and see lightning; it is something you learn as you focus and apply yourself to that reality which is greater than the material reality with which you are most familiar, the emotional realms in which you spend most of your energy, or the mental realms where you have such fun and wage such wars, but in the spiritual realms which is a wide open playground for your future adventurous spirits.
Think not that anyone here or anyone in the ranks of ascending sons are going to do this perfectly. Every being in my social circle is subject to error.   I err and you err, but we love. We learn to love ourselves in spite of the fact that we are not always as correct as we would hope; we forgive others for that same aspect of imperfection.
Lest I go on now and be accused of draining all the spiritual energy from the room, I will begin to wind up my rather lengthy session this evening, but not before I thank you for your involvement and your appreciation for the growth which you are indeed obtaining as a result of your application. It is a matter of encouragement and acknowledgement of your true identity as a beautiful and precious child of God that seeks to play and grow and embrace its own kind in the family of man under God that we succeed in anything at all.
It is because of our love for and need for our perfect and glorious Creator, Who gives us those flickers of reality which lure us ever onward, ever forward, to find even greater and more soul-satisfying slices of life, greater than we knew was possible, that we continue on this path, that we struggle, that we meet the challenges and that we succeed.
My succeeding flock, my dear friends, farewell.

*****

DATE:    May 30, 1996
LOCATION:  Pittsburgh, PA, USA
T/R:   Gerdean

TEXTUAL STUDY:  Urantia Paper 38
Ministering Spirits of the Local Universe
1. Origin of Seraphim
2. Angelic Natures
3. Unrevealed Angels
4. The Seraphic Worlds
5. Seraphic Training

TEACHING SESSION
"Appreciation" and "Humor"
A Visiting Morontia Companion

TOMAS:   Good evening, my friends.
Group:   Good evening, Tomas.
TOMAS:  Tender hearts, rejoice with me in the abundance of our gathering here this evening, for indeed we are many, not only in your material ranks, but in potential, as well. The armies have been acknowledged and indeed are in readiness to serve.
My loyal friends, how glad I am to be among you. I say this almost as a mantra, but I say this as a heartfelt expression of my appreciation for your willingness to avail yourself of these processes by which we may elevate our understanding of spirit reality in each individual heart and as it then relates to the heart which is beside you.
Perhaps I will speak a moment regarding "appreciation."  Appreciation is a facet of love, which is understood in a context enjoyed by any who has discernment. To appreciate a good meal, a full repast, is to savor not only the taste and feeling of fullness but to appreciate what has gone into the preparation of the feast, in other words, the efforts of many unseen helpers who have enabled the meal to be presented and consumed with delight.
The same is true for a well-appointed home, such as you enjoy this evening, for such fineness is available for your aesthetic appreciation and it is not only understood for its immediate delight, but for the historicity and continuity which has been your cultural inheritance and the efforts of those owners who have devoted untiring energies into appreciation of fine things in life.
And so an appreciation is not a singularly selfish experience when it is taken in fullness, for you understand the full ramifications (wrong word) … for you to understand what has gone into bringing about the desired effect. 
And so we have come to appreciating one another. And as you behold each other it is easy to perceive in a fleeting glance the obvious, and yet in appreciation, you need to see what has gone before, what efforts have conspired to contribute to the range of color and tone and timber of each individual -- their cultural heritage, their racial composites, their socioeconomic understandings, their intellectualizations, their emotional backdrops and so forth, that the full picture may be presented for your enjoyment.

It is, therefore, with great joy that we join with you in these select evenings when we can sit in harmonious reflection of the full range of reality presented.  Not only do we see your aspiring and radiating personalities, but we also see the background and the potential, and this, indeed, creates great wealth, a great tapestry of texture in each of you to contribute to that wondrous blanket of believers which will warm the cool nights of the soul of Urantia.
Appreciation also for yourself, and for your understanding of your place in the universe, is worthy of note in this conversation, in this topic, for it is too easy to gloss over your own worth, your own tremendous textile, and see only threads. Consider your wealth of experience and your triumphs and your lessons learned in your losses and failures. Consider the experiences that have been yours, the friends you have known, the secrets you have harbored and the release you have acknowledged upon expressing your innermost needs and desires to an intimate companion.
Consider how you got to be where you are today in terms of your own spiritual growth, your own development as a human being and as a soul, and appreciate your contribution to this process, for you have allowed it to happen, you have enabled it to happen, and more and more you are encouraging it to happen, that you experience life and that you learn from it and that you willingly and happily teach from your own personal experience of finding God and seeking to be like Him.
I will ask you a question. In company with the Master, he was known to suggest that in future times the world would know of our good humor. Why do you suppose he said "in future times"? Has anyone thought of that? Has anyone ... Yes.
Student:  It comes to my attention that we are taught about life everlasting, so it would be a natural acceptance. I hope I understood you.

TOMAS:  It is possible you did not understand my question.
Student:   Would you rephrase it please?
TOMAS:   In Jesus time ...
Student:   Oh, "in Jesus' time."
TOMAS:  … he said, "In future times men will know of our good humor." Do you suppose they were a somber lot?
Student:   They were.
Student:   I would say so.
Student:   To a degree, yes.
Student:  It'd have to be evolution in a fashion of comprehension … and the gene pool, as well to ....
Student:  And the violet race wasn't mixed with everybody at the time.
Student:   Yeah, to learn the comprehension of humor.
TOMAS:  This is well, for you have taken into consideration the evolutionary aspects in terms of genetics and in terms of accessability of spirit, for the Spirit of Truth had not yet been poured out upon all flesh at that time either. And so I am bringing that question forward today into this arena for you students and teachers who ponder and consider and ask, "How long shall we say 'in future times they will know of our good cheer and good humor'?" What, my friends, do you suppose is holding back greater good humor and good cheer these days?

Student:   Fear.
Student:   Habit.
TOMAS:   Two good students.
Student:  What about the type of humor that people are accustomed to today? It's rather cynical and it can be very painful in certain social situations. It's a form of defense. But in a sense, if we are evolving, there's a lightness and a naturalness. It's kind.
TOMAS:  The humor of today is spoiled wine and the ... I hear a remark which could be inclusive. Would you repeat your remark, sister?
Student:  I said .... I think you said something about that all of the humor is, well, tainted, and I said, "but not all of it." Because there are some, well, I -- this week I really have been blessed, because I've had a tremendously hard week and I keep running into little squibs of phrases or sentences that people have printed in this, that and the other, and it's all good! Thank God! Because we're getting to where we're calling things bad and what we give we get, returns to us. So if we want good, we've got to see good.
TOMAS:   You are correct to save and set aside and savor those bits of insight and humor which are a delight to your sensibilities and I am not excluding happiness by a long shot, but in reference to the remarks earlier from my friend, Hunnah, regarding cynical humor, I reiterate that that is tainted, sour, spoiled and not nourishing, not tasty or savory.
Although humor is a divine antidote to the exaltation of the ego among appreciative friends, it is not born well when it comes from an attempt to destroy or belittle a personality.
Student:  In my childhood in our family, humor was given and received both in love and I never experienced harsh tones in any of the humor, but with someone intending to strike out, the tones are so harsh and so rough that you instantly know that it's an attack instead of fun or given with love, or just laughter.

TOMAS:  And since the conditions on your world on the dark side of the moon are such that fear and bad habit prevail, it is difficult then to allow yourself the freedom to feel good humor and good cheer. Indeed, to weep is more in keeping, and prayer is more appropriate. I bring this to your attention because the desire to be lighthearted and joyous can come when you are associated and surrounded with individuals for whom you have developed an understanding, an affection, and have learned to appreciate, and who have come to appreciate you.

It is a way, in a way, of loving an individual (without getting jangled up in the semantics of that word for now).  But you here, for instance, have some idea of the particular personality quirks and foibles of one another inasmuch as you have been companions of long standing. It is easy now for you to believe that you are loved by one another in the spirit and appreciated by each other in the human sense. And no one will take serious offense at what the other may do, for your appreciation and devotion to higher beauties, truths and goodness have given you the appreciation that each of you are imperfect and that you can withstand the vagaries of human existence among fellows who know you and love you in spite of yourself and your own quirks.

It is an uphill evolutionary struggle to attain that point of appreciation for your humanness that you may begin to feel light and joyous among each other, that your ego defenses have been abridged, that your worth is firmly understood, and you are appreciated. And you can appreciate what I am saying, each of you. I appreciate each and every one (of you) and as such I am not alone, for you are part of me and I am part of you.
Do you think that Jesus, when he spent time with the apostles, did not appreciate each of them? Understanding the personality strengths and weaknesses of each of his intimate companions?  Surely you who have admired and followed the Master in his dealings with his apostles, understand how well loved he was by the Alpheus twins who were not commanded to give more than they were able, or those who doubted, or those who were firebrands.

The gift of personality among God-knowing human beings is truly worth sharing, and as your understanding of your spiritual nature gives way for your acceptance of your human nature, your human happiness will be greatly expanded. You may be happy with one another far more readily than you would be invited to express in that realm of the shadows that would destroy your happiness for the sake of misery in company. And so my children, my friends, I say to you to laugh and be of good cheer.  Are there questions this evening?
Student:   Was the "impetuous apostle" Peter?

TOMAS:  He was one of the impetuous apostles. It is true that any vibrant personality has impetuous thoughts and impetuous moments, some more so than others. It is also possible to bridle impetuousness that is bordering on problematic and it is a fine source of humor coming from one who is rarely so spontaneous. The study of human character and personality aspects reveals so many facets of potential for your own growth and delight, it could take a millennia to discuss the millions of nuances of personality which are available.

Student:   May I ask you a question?
TOMAS:   You may ask.
Student:  I would like some assistance with the correct use of my time. Sometimes we commit ourselves to things that are really no longer appropriate, or we get stuck in the lull of inappropriate activity, procrastination or whatever, and I would like to be able to connect with a proper use of that time. You said to ask, so I'm asking.
TOMAS:   Indeed.
Student:  Even though the day was very beautiful, I felt like I was caught up in an inappropriate use of time today, and I ... it's been on my mind.
TOMAS:  I would suggest that you are looking at quality of time and what pleases you now which may not please you tomorrow. Appropriateness is a peculiar word, for I must ask you "appropriate to whom?"

Student:  Well, I'd like to have more time than seems to be available. I would like to ... I guess there is no limit on the ways to celebrate life and therefor, perhaps, I would just like to, no matter what I'm doing, like to be able to celebrate more consistently, but there are old habits that seem to be hard. Feet of clay. I don't know. I really don't know quite how to specifically answer that.
TOMAS:  I appreciate your struggle. I would suggest that you read in the text, in the Urantia Book, about "The Adjuster's Problem" and perhaps you will not feel so disheartened when you realize you are not alone in wanting to celebrate more often and more fully. The matter of prioritizing your time again goes back to stillness and, again, I would encourage you to process your spiritual approach to life early in the day. It will set a different tone; it will establish your priorities and open the path and the pace, which will be easy for you to follow if you will.
The difficulty is that, on one hand, you have ideals, aspirations and noble intentions, but on the other hand, you are a human being, you are distracted, you get carried downstream.  You get busy with other busyness, and although it may be a pleasant or meaningful or serviceable distraction, it somehow has not allowed you to attain and sustain your original desired delights. Try to fully appreciate what it is that you find yourself doing. If you find that what you are doing cannot be appreciated, stop doing it and go on to something with which you can devote your heart.
Remember that whatever you do for Jesus is an honorable avocation. If it is something that neither he nor you are interested in, perhaps you might be able to teach someone by merely following through with your desire to follow where your Master leads.  Have my words been helpful?

Student:   Yes.  That certainly takes me out of myself.
TOMAS:   Perhaps we have time for a short visit.  One moment.
MORONTIA COMPANION:  My friends, how are you this evening? I am a Morontia Companion, unnamed. I am pleased to be among you and to sense your graciousness and your anticipation. I am not a teacher. I am not one to whom a scholastic attitude would be appropriate. I am a Companion, and perhaps Tomas was being companionable in inviting me to sit with you to feel your graces, your ease.

Student:   Are you assigned to any one of us?
COMPANION:   I am unassigned.
Student:   It's good to meet you.
COMPANION:    Likewise.
Student:   Is this your first visit?
COMPANION:  I have attended individuals here and there. I have observed your numbers here but I have not been given the opportunity to speak in such a way. It is an infrequent pleasure.
Student:   You don't have a name?
COMPANION:  That is correct. I can have one if you like. It is not uncommon for the midwayers, who are designated numerically, to attach themselves with a handle that you might feel more humanly associated, and I have observed they have a tendency to call themselves Bill and Joe and Bob and Sam and Mary and Pat, so that you feel they are like the boy or girl next door.

Student:   Are you then one of the unnamed and unnumbered ones? I forget the right name for them.

Student:   One Without Name or Number.
Student:   Yes, that's the way.
COMPANION:  I am not. I am designated, but I am not known by a name that would interest you.
Student:  Are you capable of going out with one of us? Would you like to go to work with me tomorrow? (Group chuckle) We're allowed to take someone with us who is interested in the work I do. Would you like a field trip?
COMPANION:  I would rise to the occasion but the idea is abominable to me. (Group laughter) How delighted I am to hear your laughter. I must confess that I am an individual of fairly refined tastes and I am highly selective about a working environment, if you will.
Student:   What kind of work do you do?
COMPANION:   I am a companion.  I communicate.
Student:  I need a communicator. I'm having problems with communications and I need to be a communicator.
Student:  Do you mean that you help -- at our level, can you help us to express ourselves more fully? Or are you saying that you do that elsewhere?

COMPANION:  I do this throughout the local universe, throughout the Mansion Worlds. All of your teachers have spent and do spend time with us. You, as you ascend, also will enjoy the company of the Morontia Companions, and you will indeed learn through association with us, but as I say, it is not in the manner of your teachers.  And, I confess, you likely will learn by way of association, for it is true, you know, that when you are in the company of one who is pleasing to be around, who indicates interest in you, who delights your sensibilities and your mind, you are inclined to put forth your better aspirations toward meeting that being where you have rapport, and so as I approach you, you approach me and we are given the exercise of finding one another and this is a learning process.

Student:   What are the best steps to take to learn such ...?
COMPANION:   You must know yourself and you must listen.
Student:   May I ask ...? I'm not too familiar with what a Morontia Companion is, other than the descriptiveness in the two words itself. Are you a Morontia Companion as a result of the ascending career or are you designated as a Morontia Companion?
COMPANION:  I have been and will be a Companion. It is my destiny.
Student:   So you have not been a mortal?
COMPANION:   That is correct.
Student:  Is this something new for you? To come to the planet and actually contact people before we reach the morontia level?
COMPANION:   It is not as unusual as you might think. It is rare on Urantia, but in other worlds, more evolved, less dense, we have been known to carry on extensive soirees, many tea parties, and so it is an evolutionary process for this jumbled child/planet Urantia to come into as you, my students, are coming into awareness of your own morontia selves.
Student:  So are you saying we are coming into a new phase where we're going to be having more contact with beings like yourself?

COMPANION:  Much of it, of course, depends upon you, for we are companionable and are always in readiness to avail ourselves of the opportunity. The opportunity, however, is often not forthcoming. I will tell you one reason why. Even in evolved beings such as yourselves, it is often the case that you are so busy doing and striving that you have no time to sit and be merely companionable.  But the wealth of existence in such a pastime as we master in, is obviously worth investigating since almost everyone on the way up stops at our floor often, you see.

Student:  Is there any advice you would like to give us? I mean, I know you just gave us advice about going into stillness. Well, in reference to communicating. I know I'm asking a lot of questions but I was wondering, and communication is your forte. Is there any possibility you could help us with whether Mrs. P. here is ... She believes she is starting to hear. Is there any way you could help us with confirmation on that?

COMPANION:  Let me suggest something here in reference to communications, not only communications between mortals and morontia beings, but between any kinds of beings, between individuals even such as yourselves. The art of communion is a full-range experience. It is not a simple matter of exchanging words and hoping that the word given is the word received is the word given. This is a very sketchy and iffy kind of communication. True communication compasses far more. It encompasses infinite degrees and variety of energies: personal and impersonal; physical, morontial and spiritual. It is colored by color, by music, by sound, by subliminal activity, by extraneous energies that abut and attack, that bounce around having no purpose but to get in the way of communication it would seem.

Full-flavored communication requires devotion, requires the kind of gracious attention that a mother gives her child, that a father gives his son, that lovers give to each other. Each communication that you have is the potential for a spiritual experience that would "knock your socks off" if you only knew how to develop it, if you would allow it, if you would encourage it in each other. But alas, I do not hold out extreme hope, for I see how busy you all are, how much importance is given to true communication. It is more observable that you each have something to say to the other as a method of defense. This is an old habit pattern, boys and girls. In time, with practice, if you find -- indeed IF you find -- that this is a practice that you would enjoy with your spouse, with your neighbor, with each other, with your Morontia Companions, with your midwayer companions, anyone throughout eternity, it will wait for you.
Student:   Please don't give up hope.  For us.
Student:   You have enriched upon a subject that was greatly needed here. We're all in the business of communicating and you helped us to define or expand our comprehension of what it means that will in the days to come amplify itself and make itself be known in us? Is that correct? Is that the purpose of your being here?

COMPANION:   I am here to be companionable.
Student:   Umm, good.
Student:   You are.
COMPANION:  If you like me, if you like how I am, if you appreciate that I am of the Father and that I have my being because of him and therefore am a reflection of him, if you see in me something Godlike that you yourself would like to have, to emulate, to experience, to bestow, to share, then you will see to it that you expose yourself more and more to those experiences, those challenges, those opportunities which will bring (it) about in your 1ives.
I will leave in a moment but I would like, before I go, to say that it is very scary to stand up and be your true self. It is so easy for you fledgling souls to go along with the gist. It is so difficult to stand alone in your faith, in your belief, in your confidence. It is so difficult. This is understood. And what we would also like for you to understand is that there are legions of helpers. Farewell.
Student:   Before you go.  You've been with me?
TOMAS:  My friend, I am sorry. Our Companion has relinquished the floor.
Student:   Well, you can communicate.
TOMAS:  I can certainly communicate, yes, and I cannot speak for him but it is in all probability guaranteed that you have spent time with a Companion, for you have been companionable and you have not been alone.
Student: The energies.   The energies this one brought are so familiar! All Morontia Companions have the same energy pattern as this one? The sensitivities ...
TOMAS: I am certain. I have met many, and I have found, (and you can read about them in your text) that they have an ebb and flow, and given the constraints of ebbing and flowing, they are the same.
Student:  I've found that different beings have different energy patterns. I've recognized their -- it's like a signature? Would all Morontia Companions have the same feeling? As energy signature?
TOMAS:  I believe so. Your perception of them may be different from mine, but I have found them all to be companionably thus.

Student:   Well, I enjoyed it.
Student:  I was wondering if I could plug in a suggestion here, since we talked about appreciation and we were talking about the possibilities of what to read next week and I was going to suggest that we could read about the personalities of the apostles and there's a paper that talks about their idiosyncrasies and their positive qualities. I just thought I'd put that in.
Student:   I'd like to read about Morontia Companions! But I won't make it 'til next week. I'll be reading about them throughout.
TOMAS:  I was going to say that as a teacher, I am getting rather excited with this class, that it is taking on extracurricular assignments and reading book reviews without them being assigned. I, of course, am not in the business of assigning you your various Papers and studies, for I will use whatever material is available to work with, as any decent teacher will do. I can see merit to almost any game plan that is presented. Indeed, even the Alpheus twins have something I can work with, and I will work with this: that it is time to call our evening to a close.
It has been an enchanted evening. I have appreciated the graciousness of our acting hostess and the environs as well as the company. How I miss you when we are not all together, for even though I admire you and appreciate you individually, it is always such an orchestration when we all come together; I eagerly look forward to the next tune.
My friends, Sing! Dance! Be Merry! Make Music! And I will see you soon. Farewell!
Group:   Farewell.  Thank you.
*****

DATE:     June 6, 1996
LOCATION:   Pittsburgh, PA, USA
T/R:    Gerdean

TEXTUAL STUDY:  Urantia Paper 38
Ministering Spirits of the Local Universe
6. Seraphic Organization
7. Cherubim and Sanobim
8. Evolution of Cherubim and Sanobim
9. The Midway Creatures

TEACHER SESSION:
Dominion; Heaven on Earth
Visitor: Social Architect, Damalia
Radio Broadcasting

TOMAS:   Good evening, my friends.
Group:    Good evening, Tomas.
TOMAS:  My friends, I am here this evening with you to honor your being, to acknowledge your aspiration to ascend to greater depths of perception, to learn of your teacher and your spirit guides and from one another the arts involved in living a spiritual life, a life which is rich in spirit as well as emotional range, mental stimuli, psychic peace and material pleasure, for the experience of becoming more Godlike is not to deny your material actuality but to incorporate your material reality into your spirit realm of reality.

Many on Urantia have taught that the earmark of spiritual life is to denounce the realms of the flesh, to set aside interest in secular things, to bridle your desires and ambitions in the material realms, testifying that such activity is unbridled lasciviousness and disdainful materialism that will destroy your connection and association and usefulness as an aspiring spiritual being. Such is not the case, or such is not the theory that 1 purport in my teaching platform, for the material realm is your arena and as the Master said in his prayer, "Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven," it is to the end that the spirit will reign on Urantia in and through your lives down to and including your material plane of existence.
As the animal creatures of your realm fall under your dominion, so do you follow under the dominion of the angels and other orders of celestial helpers. Above the orders of seraphim are yet greater and superlative guides and spirit companions. Each realm of existence is a creation born of perfection and in its natural state carries a harmony and repleteness which only serves to testify to the perfection of the grand scheme.
I will draw a picture for you of your environment, as was observed by Gerdean moments ago, as she entered the arena of the outdoors to squat as a reptile in the dense green of your planet Urantia in this geographic arena on this moist and green spring evening. The comparison to a reptile of our friend here is only to bring to your attention that from the perspective of a frog, all is well in the universe. The water droplets are friendly and (they) moisten the soil, which causes life to grow, which nurtures food, which creates fertilization and humidity to support the balance of life in the arena of the reptile. It is perfect. It is appropriate, as is your arena for you perfect and appropriate.

If indeed you were to have the faith which is inherent in you by and through your connection to divinity through your Indwelling God Fragment, if you were to adhere to that faith which lives deep within you, even in your environment, in your arena outwardly and not just inwardly, you would carry forth faith in your environment and in your fellow beings, and you would find that your environment is perfect, that all your needs are met, that only as a result of your fears and your refusing to live up to the faith which you really have, do you lose track of the perfection that is, and hope to secure some contrived version of perfection which is illusion.
As a result of the cause and effect of Urantia, it is necessary that much of the existing energy patterns be altered, be bridled, be reconfigured, but until and as that occurs, each of you in your own way, in your own existential bubble, has the aura of perfection at hand. When the admonishment came about to be perfect even as He is perfect, it was not intended that you compare yourself to the First Source and Center who resides in Paradise, but that as you manifest, identify with, promulgate, belong to, abide in and bestow yourself upon the will of God in your realm, you are to that extent perfect in the framework of a mortal being on your planet of origin with all of its faults and failings.
You may stand assured of the status of sonship/daughtership in perfection as has been commanded. To deny your material aspects, your physical aspects, is to deny much of who and what your are. Only here and now can you experience the perfection inherent in this world on this level of being, and so do not yearn for some heavenly kingdom in the future and thus deprive yourself of the glory of today. Rather, radiate your understanding of yourself as a child of God in his perfect creation, this home which has been provided to you by those who know every hair on your head and who will and do provide for your every need as you surround yourself with the awareness of the Living Reality.
There is nothing shameful or debased about being of animal origin. It is a noble beginning and through your evolution as a race, you have attained and acquired God-consciousness, among other gifts and acquisitions. I invited you last week to sing and dance and be merry and this week I will again ask you to be joyful and I will ask you to incorporate your immediate soul environment into your joy. Do not hold your joy quietly within; allow it to manifest on your face, in your hair, in your walk, in your step, in your song.
My lovely friends, how good it is to be with you again. How have you been?

Student:   Busy.  Busy, busy.
TOMAS:  We discussed busyness, did we not? Has your busyness been necessary? Has it. been appropriate? Or have we just been busy?

Student:   Busy making a living.
Student:   A little bit of both.

TOMAS:   Are there questions?  (Silence) Comments?  (Silence) Complaints? (Laughter)
Student:  Yeah, a complaint. I took a day off and I enjoyed it so much I wanted to take the next one off and couldn't.
TOMAS:  Perhaps you can arrange your life so that you could take off two days in a row. I am not going to feel responsible for this complaint. I do understand.
Student:  Don't worry. I am my own grandma. (Chuckles)  But I am going to take off three days the Fourth of July.
TOMAS:   Well done.  Independent, indeed.  (Group laughter)
Student:  I had a question about the Morontia Companions and the legions of angels, of beings to help in our growth. What would be some appropriate requests to help in the immediate future of spiritual growth, to ask the legions that are there to help us? Could you help me and us?
TOMAS:  Let us generate an example. You are an imaginative young woman and have an abundant love for many individuals. Find in your mind's eye an individual whose understanding of her life or his life does not incorporate the concept of perfection. Find an individual who is in the darkness, in the despair of not living the life of light and life which is possible for each individual to do today, Visualize one individual. Take this individual in love to the Father.
"How," you say, "do I take this individual to the Father when it is that individual's free will that will open the door for the Father to come in?" You may assist by loving the individual with the Father's love and focusing and directing the Father's love from Him through you to her, to her face, to her heart, to her very being. Wash her, or him, in the love of the Divine. Allow the Divine to encompass the individual that you see.
Those are prayerful energies. The visualization has embraced a personality in the universe. If the angels know every hair on the head of every individual, surely they know the face you have presented to the Father for His love. As this is a well-governed universe, as this hierarchy of divine countenance is in existence to glorify the Source of love itself, all beings who are on hand to help the creation of ultimate perfection work together in their prescribed roles to bring about extension and reflection of perfection, and so it is understood throughout the working universe, that this individual has been prayed for.
It is helpful, as you already know, when the individual that you pray for is aware that they are being prayed for, for that sets up an awareness, a sensitivity, a reaction within them that a Thought Adjuster can work with, and although the mortal may in fear recoil or in anger resist, the Indwelling Spirit is ever ready to lure the individual into greater happiness and greater awareness of its destiny, of its own path to perfection.
That, is one example I would suggest in your prayerful practice for it does indeed activate other energies and personalities in bringing about more and greater spirit reality through consecration of choice, consecration of will to do the Father's will. The same method can be utilized in praying for institutions and governments.

Student:   Well, how do we tell them that they are being prayed for?
TOMAS:   No doubt there is a Republican or Democratic headquarters.
Student:   Oh, yeah.
TOMAS:   Also, you can attain a list of your legislators.
Student:   Um-hum.

Student:   While you're speaking, would you include Elaine Farmer, who has just been put to the task of overcoming cancer and wants to do it?
TOMAS:   Let us then all exercise the option of devoting a moment to caress the human being and potential immortal soul of this individual. Embrace her in the light of love. Call upon the Father. Immerse yourself in the Living Water, and focus now the Living Water upon this woman and let the Water wash over her, washing her clean of stress and fear and infirmity, giving her, through your prayer, divine peace, cleanliness, health, happiness, wholeness and hope. Embrace her in the Father's love, in the name of Michael, who has said that you have the power to do this as he has done this, if you but have faith.  And in the exercise of group prayer, your energies are magnified, your spiritual realities are amplified and confirmed and energized by the glue which holds you together as fellow-religionists and faithers together.
Prayer is very powerful. It is helpful, when you pray, to be specific. What else?
Student:   Hold me in your prayers, Tomas, in this physical body, that I may be physically well and continue the work until it's time for me to leave.
TOMAS:  Child, you are in my prayers on a daily basis, and yet I will honor your request by even now calling forth Our Infinite Parents' merciful ministry to your being, to envelop you in that divine love which you know to be whole and pure and of which you are a part. In your association with spirit you are strengthened and it is through your reliance upon spirit that your patterns are brought into alignment, that your molecular structure is put to peace arid wholeness. It is in the divine love and healing grace of the Mother and her ministers that these vicissitudes of the mortal existence are found to be a radiant testimony to the living love of the Universal Father. Rest in peace of divine overcare, infinite and eternal.
Student:   We were reading about the supernaphim and I had a book called "The Kingdom of the Gods" and I figure you probably read it because I understand that you can read very fast, and I thought perhaps you could say -- was there any truth in the presentations in that book of the angelic spirits?
TOMAS:  You have put me to the test for I have not read the book. It is very possible that the angels are familiar with it; they have not discussed it with me. What is it particularly that they have purported that you would like confirmed?

Student:   Well, there are pictures throughout the book and Jeffrey Hodgeson, I think, says that he was allowed to, basically, "see" angels, so that he might describe them to a painter and she painted them, and I thought that they were quite lovely and I thought that it seemed very true to me that they would be that way in their appearance to us - after we can visualize them, or as we can see them - and so it seemed to me ... and it was so very long ago! … but it made a very deep impression on me, because I felt that it was quite well done. I just thought perhaps you could give us your point of view. Perhaps not tonight, but perhaps some other evening when we get together, I'd be so pleased and would like to get out the book and have everyone enjoy those pictures. I think they're enjoyable and beautiful.
TOMAS:  It is difficult for me to respond to your question without inadvertently inducing disappointment, but you see, angels are yes beautiful, but the actual representation of an angel must be reduced to your understanding of what is beautiful.
Student:   Oh, yes.
TOMAS:  And so the angels, as they have been portrayed and conveyed -- having beatific attitudes and strength in delicacy, physical beauty, radiance, flowing lines, magnificent wings, halos -- these are representations which satisfy your emotional appreciation of what it surely must be like to be an angel. This is not to say that the interpretations are incorrect, you see.
Student:   Um-hum.
TOMAS:   Because they do speak to your aesthetic appreciation.
Student:   This is shown in the various descriptive angels of various artists.  They differ materially.
TOMAS:   Indeed.
Student:   Tomas, I'd like to express gratitude for your attendance and patience and love and lessons and messages, and also to extend an invitation to you. The western New York group, especially the Buffalo group, would like you to come and visit with them. They have enjoyed your words.
TOMAS:  Thank you, my daughter, for your kind words. It is a deep pleasure and privilege for me to be given this opportunity to teach and to become your friend and associate. I am quite honored by your presence here as well, and I am delighted to have been invited to speak with your friends, our associates in ascension, and I eagerly look forward to that occasion and will speak to my principals as to getting there. Thank you. 
Student:   Thank you. (Long pause)
TOMAS:  I think I have already detected a new trick you have learned, and that is that if I do not receive questions or comments within a certain length of time, you will expect that I will turn the platform over to a visitor. Have I guessed you right?
Students:   No, but that would be a delight.  (Titillated laughter) It's a thought!  We've enjoyed this.

TOMAS:  I hesitate to bring another on-line as we have been chatting already for some time. How are your time constraints?
Student:   Our time constraints are fine. 
TOMAS:  I have a friend who would like to meet you. You have read of his order in your lesson recently. This is Damalia, a social architect. Let me see if I can get him to make his presence known to this group. One moment.
DAMALIA:   Greetings.
Group:   Greetings, Damalia.
DAMALIA:  Not to be confused with "demolish". (Laughter)  No. I build, I construct, and, like you, I aspire to ascend. I work in building things but it is not uncommon that certain scaffolding needs to be torn down at a certain time. Let me not get too far afield with my "shop talk."  I am glad to be here. I have spoken to mortals before. I am not important but I am helpful, and so I greet you.
Student:  Well, we're so happy that you came. It's going to be exciting to enlarge our understanding by our chance to know you. Have you been on the planet for just this recent Correcting Time or were you here before that time?
DAMALIA:  I have been busy since perhaps 1948 or so. But I am only speaking for myself here.  I have been active as a seraphim for much longer than these past few decades. It has been interesting, however, watching the development of the new dispensation coming on, the many preparations that have come to pass in readiness for what you experience now in many ways, many ways, many ways which are not familiar to you yet, but the teachers, the Correcting Time is one of the things we worked toward, as you can imagine.
Student:   Yes.
DAMALIA:  Social architects work with groupings with individuals and it was quite a challenge bringing together and holding together the configuration of individuals that could sustain the work without becoming unbalanced or fanatical, that could represent the importance of the Fifth Epochal Revelation without bringing it down into the common realms of psychism and so forth. Indeed, some of the prospective configurations met and fell on their own accord. All the many adventures in preparing for Correcting Time have been in some ways similar to how it must have been on Urantia when they were preparing for the arrival of Adam and Eve, another Epochal Revelation which involved tremendous preparation prior to the actual event.

Yes, it has been interesting working here at this time. Our work is not completed at all. We are only beginning now to truly stack up those potential groupings of individuals that will wheel and deal most effectively in whatever project they undertake. As you read this evening and as you can understand, two is a pair or a partnership and three is a problem and we deal almost entirely with problem areas, for it is the social grouping that can bring about great change, great growth. You have heard it said that ten individuals working together can accomplish ten times ten times as much.
Student:  Yes, we remember that from the book, Damalia. Thank you for reminding us of that, so that our group here which is …
Student:   Ten.
Student:   .. ten times ten.  Has that much power.  Is that correct?
DAMALIA:  At this point, my friend, it has that much potential. It is, I will say, one of the reasons that Tomas is always trying to whip you into shape in terms of being a working community, for .it is only as you can work together that we have created an effective architectural sphere that can be the scaffolding for yet another bridge into the future for Urantia and into light and life for your souls.
Student:   Well, Damalia, the network that we have been able to be part of, which is the Teaching Mission, has a tremendously wonderful feel, for me, that we share our transcripts, we share our events, we share our problems throughout the country and we're looking forward to being in Arizona in that very high place as a group and I just had the feeling that you'll be there and you're very definitely preparing that then, is that correct?
DAMALIA:  Oh, yes. We are engaged in all these building blocks. We are actively involved in your efforts as a community at large and also in other individual ideational situations which constitute working formulas of individuals for forward-moving actions and ideals. We are not exclusively devoted, you understand, to the Teaching Mission. Correcting Time extends planet-wide.
Student:   Yes.  Yes.
DAMALIA:  Many -- most of whom are not even aware of the Urantia. Book -- many that are not even aware that a spiritual renaissance is taking place except in their own auto-revelations or configurations of individuals that spark and do certain exciting things.
Student:   Well, certainly when I listen to some of the spiritual messages that are on the radio now, and on our television, I am thinking that would be a powerful tool for bringing about the consciousness of the changing spiritual atmosphere on the planet. It's been an amazing thing since talk radio was brought about. Would you comment?
DAMALIA:  I will comment, though I daresay this entire subject of broadcasting might be more appropriately addressed by yet a different seraphim who specializes in such, but, since it is indeed part of the scaffolding and communication and bringing of like minds together for activity, it could present a challenge for even this group or any other group of beings, for communications are as you understand the key word in our work, and broadcasting is of course a front runner, radio being effective in that it is more directly addressing the ear of the individual, more subliminal as well as direct, as compared to the television which creates a competition with the visual.
What I am saying, I think is that the radio could be used to much better purpose than it is used, particularly with the talk shows as they are. I have not yet heard a talk show where individuals called up to talk about the Urantia Book, followed by another individual who called to say, "Yes, I read that book; I agree with you," and yet another individual to call to say, "And what about this that it says on such-and-such a page?" and incorporate your belief system into the standard, common routine of talk radio as Christianity as done, as capitalism has done, as atheism has done. Are you afraid of your own work?
Student:   No .
DAMALIA:   It was only a suggestion but it well might build some contacts and some interest in finding out more about this Book which certainly more than one individual, now they know, has heard about.
Student:  Well, there are these people who are now militantly seeking to find any religious philosophy that differs from something that's traditionally accepted, and they spend a lot of time on the radio talking about heresies and I am always somewhat concerned that the Book will be discounted before it is given a chance. That was my impression years ago; now I know that there seems to be a change that's taken place.
Student:  The Book is making its way around without benefit of the television or radio.

DAMALIA:   This is true.
Student:   And it's going solidly, whereas it's very possible with radio and television, both of them, to mess up a good thing.
DAMALIA:   I will defer remarks, understanding that I am in the midst of a very conservative community. (Group laughter)
Student:   This Pittsburgh community is indeed that. I was just back from Colorado and I can tell you, Damalia, that is a whole different world of youth and acceptance and flexibility and so on.
DAMALIA:  Truly, daughter, it is the same world there as it is here.
Student:   Oh, is it?
DAMALIA:  The only difference is in perception, and you may contribute to the density of the perception of your neighborhood in comfort for as long as you like, but in time, those forward-moving steps will come here also.

Student:   Um-hum.  I certainly hope so.
Student:   But they have to take their path.
Student:   When one steps out in faith, an entire universe is there to help.

DAMALIA:  Have we not discussed this, indeed, earlier in the session this evening?
Student:   Yes, we have.
DAMALIA:  I feel as though I have gotten sawdust all over the dining room table (Group laughter) and I am eager to return to visit you again for the subject of social architecture, the bringing together of certain individuals to benefit our spiritual program is my work, my love, my joy.  And I enjoy sharing it with others, particularly when they are also workers and find that we can bounce ideas off of one another. I have enjoyed my brief visit. I thank Tomas for the opportunity. I wish you well in your days to come with your building blocks of spirit and soul and heart and mind and truth.
Students:   Thank you for coming, Damalia. We're glad we met you and enjoyed knowing you.

TOMAS:  And I am Tomas, your teacher, to wind it up.  Were there any dangling participles? (Group giggle)
Student:   Well, I wanted to ask how Damalia -- can you give us an example of how Damalia brings groups together? I don't know. I know there's a restraint on the beings to not interfere, but they evidently do, although ... I think -- so could you give us a homemade example? These examples don't exist in the book. We have wonderful descriptions, job descriptions, but home-made examples would help me, anyway.
Student:  I could say something, just a feeling I got when you brought up the talk radio, when we have, you know, bringing groups together, it crossed my mind that I listen a lot to talk radio and find that it is really directed to a very kind of juvenile, immature type of mind and it's like, "We're a teen-age gang; let's get on (the radio)" and the words and the things that the person running the show, they direct it in such a way to make it antagonistic and aggravating.
And a lot of times I always hold back and, like tonight in hearing this idea of, not so much that we could get on there and have our own group, but I'm thinking there are probably a lot of people like myself that maybe is out there in some invisible way that, you know, you don't bother calling because it's so ridiculous to get into that level, but maybe you should call because then other people will hear and you will have some kind of a connection, even if you don't physically come together as a group, just to show that there's another kind of a mindset listening out there, but is maybe not heard. Now, I don't know if they'd let you through.
Student:   That's a big question.
Student:  I don't know, but on the other hand, maybe that's where the spiritual helpers would come in.

TOMAS:  It is in the individuals' combined desires to affect a cause and effect that is the earmark of the work of a social architect. Bringing these individuals together is their challenge. Availing yourself, investigating where you may be of service, networking, if you will, to find out who else is stimulated by what you are stimulated by, can help bring about the kinds of teams that can accomplish things. It is like a quilting bee. When you know who the nimble fingers are and you provide the cider and cookies and gossip, everyone will show up to create this quilt. And when you have workers who are activated and stimulated by the same sorts of social service or merciful ministry or political activation or whatever, you will be drawn to one another and herein the social architects work to bring this about.
So in the broader sense, do keep your radio dialed to those communications (over and above the regular radio communications) that will direct you or clue you as to who may be working on something in which you would like to become involved. There are many interest groups formulating, even within the Mission, and this is an invitation to become involved, not in a competitive fashion of course, but in a contributory way in terms of scaffolding for the Mission, that as we all begin to work together as a community, with branches in Pittsburgh or Pocatello or wherever, then we are working as a united network toward light and life.  I am not excluding anyone or any other interest group, I am addressing those of you who understand the common language of revelation.  Well, I have given you more than enough of an assignment.
 
Student:   We will think about that and try to act on it somehow.
TOMAS:  I will refer you back to our earlier discussion on conation, that rather than attempting to strive to do something, allow yourself rather to conate and allow your divine Director to guide your path, for in the end it is our Father who knows the way, the path. He has created you. He knows your capacities and has a destiny plan for you, each one splayed out like a field in the summer sun.  My friends, my loyal students, my companions in the spirit, good evening.
Group:   Good evening, Tomas.  Thank you.
*****

DATE:    June 13, 1996
LOCATION:   Pittsburgh, PA, USA
T/R:    Gerdean

TEXTUAL STUDY:
Urantia Paper 39: The Seraphic Hosts
1. Supreme Seraphim
2. Superior Seraphim
3. Supervisor Seraphim
4. Administrator Seraphim
5. Planetary Helpers
6. Transition Ministers
7. Seraphim of the Future
8. Seraphic Destiny
9. The Corps of Seraphic Completion

TEACHER SESSION
More About Perfection
Rebirth is Required

TOMAS:   I am Tomas.  Good evening.
Group:   Good evening, Tomas.

TOMAS:  I am glad to be with you this evening. I have much to share and many salutations to bring to you from your helpers in attendance here this evening and many who are attached to the circuitry in anticipation of your furtherance.
I would like to commend the efforts of Mrs. and Mrs. L in ministering the great harvest [Ed: a new UB reading group formed as a result of the post-Expo workshop] I would also like to commend the group at large for its growth, individually and as a group, as you understand it is not always known to you how you have grown, but from our perspective it is clear.  And lest you have doubt, I commend your growth.
I would like this evening to address further some more about perfection. It is a stream of consciousness, if you will, from our recent lesson wherein I discussed with you and you savored the concept of perfection in each realm of creation. In a lesson earlier I had impressed upon you your imperfection and relative value inherent in the discussion of perfection.

Lest you think that I do not know my own mind regarding perfection, or that I would give you mixed messages regarding such an important subject, I would like to further extend the discussion regarding perfection, for now we have a range within which to work.  And as we experienced last week in prayer and in private communion with the Indwelling Spirit, that aspect of perfection which resides within you, herein is your initial origin and fundamental base of operations as an aspiring soul, as a future morontial being.

In this understanding of the perfection of your Indwelling Guide and the citadel of spirit which you can go to and thus enjoy the perfection of savoring your association with Divinity, (understanding, too, that your environment is perfect for you and that what you are experiencing today is precisely what you ought to be experiencing) we may look far now and see on the other end of that spectrum the many imperfections.
How can you carry your Divine Association into an imperfect arena? For in spite of its perfection from a divinity standpoint, from a human standpoint it is far from perfect.
Earlier in your discussions as you paused in your reading regarding the Quickeners of Morality, you became heated and agitated in terms of the morality prevalent on Urantia today and, as was evidenced by your commentary, it is not the ideal and is very imperfect indeed. "Here I am, Lord." How can I teach and love Your people?
This practice is best done by holding close to that Aspect of Perfection within you that is of the Father. That is your only true perfection, for even you as mortal beings are the products of a less than perfect world, not only because of its unfortunate historicity with your Material Son and Daughter and with your Planetary Prince, but because you are evolving from animal to divine and this growth in itself creates conflict, confusion and any number of aberrated ideas which separate you from your peers.

It is in the separation that you individually are alone in the universe. As you associate with and through the Divine Aspects, with the Eternal Parent, the First Source and Center, and with that Divinity Aspect of your brothers and sisters, the separation then is dissolved. This is an on-going process and one which is not done by a mere act of the will. When you set out to serve and foster Light and Life in your arena, in your realm, what ammunition do you take with you? What resources are at your disposal?
What you have, aside from your association with Divinity, is your conditioning, your cultural heritage, the implanted impressions of your parents and peers, your moral stances resultant from your society and your religious backgrounds, all of which are colored and clouded with the values of millions of individuals that may or may not be acting in your best interests or the best interests of the First Source and Center. And so, in order for you to go forth and serve, you must initially ascertain who you are, what you believe and how you may best present that which you are in the best light to serve others.
You say, "Tomas, I know who I am. I'm an adult. I have been making my way in this world for 40, 50, 60 years. Do you suggest that I do not know who I am?" And I say,
"Yes." I suggest that you do not know who you are. I suggest that unless and as you are identified wholly with spirit, you are not yourself; you have not learned yet how you are to be. "How then," you ask, "can I learn to be who I am?" And I say, by asking for your Creator to reveal to you your true nature, and your true nature is sonship/ daughtership of the Living God. Not of your mortal parents or institutions or belief systems, but from the Divine Source of all perfection.
This is why rebirth is required and continual reflection on rebirth at any given moment is advised, for you are all creatures of habit and your responses are conditioned by what you have learned prior to committing yourself to the spirit. This is a condition under which every mortal labors.  As you interact with other individuals, you encounter your differences, and depending upon how deeply ingrained your conditioning is, your responses will provoke separation or alienation or pacification rather than genuine reality.

This week, as you go about your work in your arenas, I would ask you to be aware of your standard responses, not only verbally but emotionally. How long, for example, have you been reacting in a certain way to a certain set of circumstances? How much energy are you going to deplete yourself of by continuing to hold onto that habit pattern?

My comments this evening regarding your ascension into perfection are largely colored by my understanding of you as individuals, having observed you in your private lives and in your association here, and so my words are in keeping with your souls' hunger this day. You have told me you are ready to look at this, even though you may not be aware that you have told me. And inasmuch as I believe you to be sincere in your requesting this assignment, I lovingly present it to you for your understanding that we are truly concerned and interested in every aspect of your life, in every reaction and response that you have to this life's experience, for each reaction and response will affect you and your universe far and away beyond what you have been aware your actions do, your words create.

This is not an ominous assignment. It is amusing and adventurous as well as potentially insightful and growth-promoting. It is a very private and quiet assignment, but look at the words you say, at the responses you have, and see where they have come from. Where have you learned this reaction? How deeply ingrained is this habit? And how does it affect the universe?

My children, my friends, the hour is late and life is, as usual, full and busy. We will not go long but I am grateful for this opportunity to spend a few quality moments with you and to feel your presence, to acknowledge your glowing realities. Are there questions or comments for the table this evening?
Student:  Well, we were reading about the seraphim tonight and it's such a beautiful story. Can you tell us if there would be any seraphim present with you tonight, Tomas?

TOMAS:  The truth of the seraphim is not a story; it is a fact, and there are roughly 18,000 in the immediate neighborhood and an additional million or so on the circuitry -- as you might say "watching the television" observing our interaction.
Student:   In one of the things we learned it said that character determines how beautiful a being is as you go up the worlds and so, of course, I began to think about it and to imagine that they are incredibly beautiful, Tomas. Physical beauty is interesting to us because we enjoy the physical beauty that Jesus Christ Michael gave us on this planet to enjoy and I just think how much we would enjoy just seeing them if my logic proves to be based on fact. Would you comment on that?
TOMAS:  Briefly. Certainly all orders of seraphim are a delight to behold, are pleasing to the eye, but I will stress that they are most pleasing to the spiritual eye, to the true view, which is what a reflection of character would portray. You are mortal.  Your understanding of beauty is conditioned by your physical sight. Expand your understanding even among your friends as to their beauty by observing their character, their spiritual nature. It is also true that as a being is loved, they are beautified. A stranger may appear homely or uncomely until such time as you have seen their Inner Light, whereupon their character and grace present their beings with a new dimension. Have you not found this to be so?
Student:   Very much so. Can you give us an example of what some seraphim might have done to help somebody on the planet? I'm trying to get a sense of -- I know they're limited in their ability to interfere with us, and yet they evidently are here because they can help us, so can you give us some description of practical ways or spiritual ways they help us, please?

TOMAS:  The records are filled with examples. I will bring this to your understanding by providing the example of Loreenia's transmission and referring a temporary solution to a midwayer. In the event that her life was in danger, the guardian seraphim would have seen to it that the car would not start until such time as the connection could be made to have the transmission fixed.
The workings of seraphim are quite specific on occasion. How many times have you lost an item and having lost the item, your schedule was altered until you found the item in question? I am not connoting that the midwayers are mischievous, but they have been known to tamper with your material realms, not to be ornery but to bring about certain effects.
Student:   Do you think it's interesting that considered now one of the most popular programs on television is called "Touched by an Angel"? Would you care to comment on that?

TOMAS: It is a beginning. There are other programs also on your media, but generally they appeal only to the sentimental; and, although they are inducing of warm feelings, they have very little impact on an individual's actual decisions in their life. As most
people do, they set reality aside in lieu of entertainment or letting someone else do it.
"Here I am, Lord." How may I serve? Where may I grow? How can I be made aware of my blocks and imperfections that I might be able to grow beyond my ignorance and prejudice to understanding and wisdom? The angel program might help, but by and large, they are entertainment for those who are already believers and they do not challenge the cynical or the weary.
Student:   I saw a part of a program the other night where a child had been -- I don't know what had happened to her -- but she was gifted where the light would come from her fingers and she was playing with light amongst the stars and people were seeing it and this little fellow that was with her was seeing it. I was thinking of this so consciously, this helping the masses accept something in the future that they might come into comprehension of.  Subconsciously they're seeing the light from the hands and the things that can be done with the hands. And at the same time they're thinking that this is entertainment, but there will be a time when the mind will open up and allow the comprehension of something because of this little subconscious -- sliding in the back door, I believe? Isn't that the way it will work?

TOMAS:  Shall we call it a seed planted? Many seeds are being planted. Many seeds that were planted long ago have been germinating and are beginning to sprout. You are beginning to see the effects of much effort.
Student:   That's spread all through entertainment and television, almost any cartoon you see.
Student:   Tomas, I have a question about something I was thinking about buying, so ... I'm sure you know about it. It's this wonderful clock that they sell at Jesusonian, and it has these bongs so that it wakens you so that you can sort of catch up with your dreams. It's rather expensive but . . . Do you have any comment to make about that? Because dreams sometimes do help us, I guess. C_ would know more about this than I, but this sounds like a wonderful clock. I know Edison had a way of wakening himself so that he could get marvelous ideas. Do you have any comments on that?
TOMAS:   I have nothing to contribute on that.
Student:   Could you check with maybe somebody and see what somebody thinks? One of your friends? One of your pals?
Student:   Why can't you set your own clock and ask yourself to wake up?

Student:   Because this rings more times than one. You know, well ... we'll get into that later. I'll work it out. Thank you.

TOMAS:   Thank you for your question.
Student:   I'd like to ask for some help with patience and tolerance and staying awake tonight on my long car trip I'm going to make and the difficulties that I hope I won't encounter on this trip to the surgeon tomorrow at 8:30 in the morning. It's getting close to 11 now. So I would like to ask, since there are so many seraphim around, if they could help me, I would appreciate it.
Student:    And for Ch__'s feet. The circulation, if that's the true and proper thing for Ch__ and her physical body.
TOMAS:  The mission at hand here is Leah's motives to serve Ch__. The timing is unfortunate on more counts than one; however, be assured your journey is overseen. Your awareness of the potential dangers of being on the highway without sleep is a circumstance which, by now, is quite familiar to you. (Group laughter) You may begin your assignment by assessing your agenda and how many adventures you have taken as a response or reaction without advance conscious consideration of your motives and intentions to serve. Did that get through to you, Leah?
Leah:  (Chuckling) I'm getting this mental picture of all these millions of people watching me on TV and I want to get the proper response … (Group laughter)  … and I'm too tired to even think about it. I think when I read this over it will definitely get through to me. It will certainly give me something to meditate on, on the way there. Yes, I'm hearing portions of that message.
TOMAS:  You will be watched over, but it is also your responsibility to use a modicum of wisdom in your choices. Having experienced numerous road trips, I am sure you know what it takes to stay awake.
Leah:   That's why I'm asking for help.  I do hear you.  Thank you.
Student:  I was going to say, do they serve popcorn while they are watching? (Group laughter) I'm being bad.
TOMAS:   You are not being bad; you are being literal.
My friends, as I mentioned earlier, I am aware of the hour. It is unfortunate that it takes so long for us to reach this point of communion only to be cut short because of such constraints; however, I reiterate how pleased I am that we are coming together so well and I am confident our evolution will resolve some of our communal concerns.

Be of good cheer. Be aware of the many activities which are ongoing on that broad circuit. You are not alone. As you grow here, millions of others are lighting the light switch to spiritual awareness, toward God-consciousness, toward service. It is an exciting time on Urantia. The fruits of many labors are beginning to flower and bring forth fruit.

The conferences are being planned and anticipated with great delight by mortal, morontial and spiritual alike. We expect this upward trend to persist for some time, and so consider yourselves part of the on-going saga of spiritual enlightenment for Urantia as an extension of the arrival of the Fifth Epochal Revelation to this planet. It is a fascinating sojourn we are on.
My children, I will be with you throughout the week as you are made aware by your own choosing and cooperation of your imperfections. In love I embrace you and in trust of Michael's mercy and in loving kindness I will greet you again next week. Farewell.
Group:  Farewell.  Thank you, Tomas.

*****

DATE:    June 17, 1996
LOCATION:   Buffalo, New York, USA
T/R:    Gerdean

TEXTUAL STUDY: Urantia Paper 118
Supreme and Ultimate - Time and Space
1. Time and Eternity
2. Omnipresence and Ubiquity
3. Time-Space Relationships
4. Primary and Secondary Causation
5. Omnipotence and Compossibility
6. Omnipotence and Omnificence
7. Omniscience and Predestination
8. Control and Overcontrol
9. Universe Mechanisms
10. Functions of Providence

TEACHER SESSION
SHARING THE INNER LIFE
Greeting the Buffalo Group
As to Spiritual Names
ANDREA Greets Students
Channeling v. T/R'ing
T/R'ing as an art form
It is Life that Teachers

TOMAS:  Good evening, my friends. How glad I am to be here with you. I would like to introduce myself as a teacher in the Mission of Michael to bring forward Urantia into an enlivened and enlightened state of being. I, Tomas, am a teacher as you are teachers; I am a student as you are students; and as my friends and comrades in our evolutionary ascent, I am glad to be among you to share your inner life, your aspirations.

I am grateful for your invitation to me to attend your gathering this evening. I have been apprised of your group for some time. I have observed your glowing lights and not always from afar, for we extend our interest deep into the arenas as we are unlimited in many respects. Your former/prior exposure to teachers has whet your appetites and I am humbled to bring to you a feast of plenty provided by our Master Michael through the gifts which he has bestowed and has allowed us all to partake.
Your reading this evening was packed with potent information relating to the relationship of mortal man and divine entities coordinated in partnership. This attainment is a great thrust of the teachers. A large portion of our efforts is invested in you that you might realize your own divinity aspects without disturbing the natural balance.
It is understood that you have hungered for connection, that you have sought connection to bridge the dark chasm of isolation.  The bridge is being crossed, but it is not entirely the job of the teachers to carry you nor to play a flute and lead you like pied pipers to distant shores, no, but to instill in you an awareness of your sonship realities, including responsibilities, in order that your sojourn is fruitful and also to encourage fraternity among believers that you will have mortal companionship/sustenance en route. It may be that the teachers will come and go.

It is an odd co-dependency, if you will, to approach you through a transmitter/receiver, and often a transmitter/receiver is unavailable. When one is, we are delighted to utilize that servant as we may, as we can, and yet when one is unavailable, it is also true that the Father's will will prevail in God-seeking believers, and so we have every confidence in you as a group of individuals through the guidance of your celestial hosts and the Spirit of Truth and your understanding of the many facets of divinity that will lead you forward.

But it is with tremendous gratitude and humility that we, in the fashion for it does stimulate your understanding of the assistance you may anticipate and indeed do utilize as you ascend, The stimuli which is granted to you and to me in this process calls to mind Rodan's remarks about creative imagination stimulated by and through human associations. This creative imagining augments a creative life and creative friendships, expanding how you have perceived life all along until such time as you are challenged to take a different view, to approach it from a different perspective.

As you begin to trust one another and to understand that in your differences you are each devoted to the living God none-the-less, you are given the opportunity to see through your brother's/sister's eyes and your world is enlarged and you have incorporated another slice of reality in teamwork with your peer. In short, my friends, we are happy to be here and happy that you have received us into your hearts and lives.

Having now introduced myself as one of these beings assigned to Urantia to help bring about the era of light and life, and through the auspices of Michael of Nebadon, I bring greetings from other teachers and former teachers, as well as future teachers. Dear ones, I will not steal the entire platform. Our community is one of sharing. I invite you to share with me also in whatever format you should choose. I am your guest. I am eager to serve. How may I serve this extension of our community? (Extended silence)

My friends, are you here? (Group chortle) I will not bite. You will find me companionable. I understand you are familiar with my words, lessons, and personality from having perused the lessons hailing out of Pittsburgh. Have you been acquainted long with others?  (Silence)

Tell me, if you like, of what you know and what we have in common. I am eager to break the ice with you, to hear you, to sense you more loudly. I am chatting on fairly external issues here, more sociable than substantial, but often that is the way in social discourse, that we first touch upon the weather before we get into deeper waters. If you would rather launch right into trauma, psychosis and so forth (group giggle), I am certainly adaptable, but I do clearly reiterate I am not a lecturer. I am your friend.

Norita:  Well, I would just like to say that we have enjoyed the papers from Pittsburgh very much.

TOMAS:   Thank you, my dear.

Norita:  We are trying very hard to get our own group enlarged. Do you think we are going to be successful?

TOMAS:  I am certain. Your group is successful already, and yet the potential is even greater and the diversity is even broader when the authority of a teacher is introduced. I understand that a transmitter was active here and your teacher graced you for some time. Tell me about your Teaching Mission activities in this community.
Norita:   Well, we had a transmitter and we had Andrea for a teacher, but our transmitter was told by Andrea that she would not be coming through anymore, and nobody else has come to the fore as a transmitter. Nobody has been -- has had this grace extended to them.
Evangel:   Actually, Andrea said nobody would transmit her. Well, M__ refused to transmit her. For awhile, she said, she was going to take leave but later on she ...
Norita:   She wanted to come through but M__ didn't want to transmit anymore and nobody else has been given the gift. We would hope for another transmitter.
Carol:   My name is Carol.  Do you see me as a transmitter/receiver?
TOMAS:   My child, I can see you in a servant capacity, indeed. The ability to hear/ sense/ perceive the words/ concepts/ energies/ personality/ impressions of higher reality is not a rare gift. It is like the gift of air. It is available to anyone. The willingness to step out in faith to where you may be led is a challenge and opportunity presented to everyone. It is not necessarily that you will be tapped on the shoulder. It is a matter, rather, of finding a need to be filled and saying, "Here am I, Lord. Send me."

Of course, this is a supermortal decision. It requires great stamina, great ambition of the spirit to sense the urgency, to accept the importance, to realize the ultimate responsibilities of such devotion, but it is desired none-the-less that you all step forth at one time or another in some capacity or another to serve, for he who would be greatest among you, is he who would serve in a most humble fashion.
As you avail yourself of the living water, as you seek to be pleasing in the eyes of our Lord, as you sense a frustration, a hunger, a darkness, a need in your fellowman, and yearn for their release from pain, from sorrow, from loneliness, from anger, from despair, from jealousy, from rage, as you yearn to help and as you then respond, you are working in the field. We are working together. And so, as you work in your arenas now and today, as I know you all do, this you may share and do share with one another. It is an aspect of the gift of sonship/daughtership to serve.

To serve in the capacity of a transmitter/receiver of a teacher is simply responding to a need in the same way that you would respond to the need of a child who had fallen, skinned its knee, and couldn't find its mother. You allow the God within you to do for you what you cannot do for yourself. You allow the Spirit to operate through you. You allow your spirit and the Spirit of the Father to become one. You set aside your ego. You allow yourself to be led. You allow yourself to be a channel of his peace, of his love. You nurture the child, you show the child love and you point out that the mother is there. The Mother is not lost; the child is not lost.

All of these truths can be done in your lives individually and they are needed, and they are appreciated.  Being a transmitter/receiver does not make you a more special person. It does not give you special standing in the universe any more than someone who can plant rutabagas and farm them successfully is any more or less than someone who deals with alpaca wool. It is what you feel you can do, love to do, want to do, would do, and so I respond to you, at last, that as you desire to serve, you will most readily, joyously, graciously, yieldingly serve.  It is always and ever true, we need more workers in the field.

Evangel:  Tomas, is Andrea present or conscious of what's going on here tonight?

TOMAS:   Yes.

Evangel:  Well, it might sound a little bit weird, but -- I'm sure I'm speaking for the group -- I'd just like to let her know that we still appreciate and love her. And maybe some of these people might want to know their spiritual names. Would you want to do that, if they're interested?

TOMAS:  One moment. My son you have introduced two major subjects and I am willing to deal with the perpetual and eternal now but I must deal with it one at a time, only because I am dealing through a mortal vessel who has, as she jokingly says, only one brain cell to rub against the other (group giggle). I was going to see if there was a possibility that Andrea and Gerdean might make a liaison so that Andrea could speak to her own children, her own students, in person and before I could make that conversation reality, I was diverted into another facet of mental life that is the interpretation of spirit names.
Let me take care of that latter one first for I am going to make excuses for myself here and state that my practice in divulging spiritual names is to allow them to unfurl before me. I have been known to (how shall I convey to you?) ascertain a spirit name, potential name, through the records, convey the information and not have the emotional, content, the spiritual awareness (words fail me) and so the mortal is not ready for the information, I am not ready to impart the true breadth and depth of such a. transfer of information as assigning or identifying a spiritual name for an individual.

You see, a personal name is an intensely personal experience.  In the first place, it puts tremendous pressure on my mortal associate to get it right, for she understands how important it is. (It was very moving and important when she first learned her spiritual name and if she were to misunderstand the impression and give a wrong name, she believes it would be most unfortunate. She would rather not be responsible. I respect that.) Not only do I respect giving accurate information in such a personal realm, but it is my contention that as you grow into your spirit personality, as your soul is born and begins to flourish, begins to manifest itself, begins to make it known to me and to others, it is no longer a name, it is an identification. It is a personality. Then, you see, the name graces the individual as naturally as a color tone or a music tone. It is a natural consequence of the individual as compared to a handle or a contrivance.
I do not know if I am being clear. I know that many teachers before me have assigned spiritual names freely and successfully, as far as I can ascertain, but I am becoming "an old hand at this Teaching Mission stuff" and I am becoming reluctant to reveal the names of individuals until such time as they reveal their true self to me, if that makes any sense to you, my son.
Evangel:   Yes, that makes sense.
TOMAS:  Let me now see if I can step aside and allow Andrea to utilize this vehicle. One moment, please.
ANDREA:  I am moved, my lovelies, to be here again in this way. Be assured of my untiring devotion. I have not been away. I have only been without words for you.  I have missed you in this way, my dear ones. I long for our association to be congealed, to be continued. Do not ever assume that I have forsaken you.
My friends, I hope you appreciate that I am a relative foreigner to Gerdean and she is watching me, so I am not as free to be myself as I am known by our earlier and more familiar M__. It is a conditional thing, that when one becomes close friends, fast friends, it is easier to communicate. And although I know that I will be close with Gerdean one day, it is still new to both she and I. But I am hoping to resume my days and quality moments with you, I will not promise nor predict, but I yearn to be back with you in time.
Thank you for your love for me, for your remembrance of our ways together. In anticipation of our work together and our reunion as a team, I am yours faithfully, Andrea.
TOMAS:   I am Tomas.
Leah:  Hi.
TOMAS:   Hi, yourself.
Leah:    Thank you for coming here.
TOMAS:  It has assuredly been my pleasure. I am not accustomed, however, to such a quiet group. It is true that each configuration of students is a new presentation indeed, but I must say your constraints are polished. I will elaborate somewhat for you. I perceive that you are not revealing yourself to me.  I perceive that this lotus blossom of a community would burst forth in brilliant blossom were it to be only slightly motivated, but your containment is prominent. Perhaps I make these remarks because I am inviting you to express your soul's attitudes more, for there is nothing a teacher, or for that matter a companion, can do unless you express your inner life.
I know you all have a very active inner life. I can feel them and sense them very plainly, very clearly. I know that your spiritual natures are acute, alive, alert, I know, too, that your loyalties are well imbedded. I know these things about you by being with you, by sensing your Selves. You are gracious, but you are so well behaved, my children, that I cannot help you. Perhaps you are being on your best behavior because I am company.
Student:   Channel, I am a new needle of the branch of Urantia. I'd ask you allow your indulgence as far as assigning names. I'd like one. Is that out of place?
TOMAS:  No, it is not out of place, and I am so glad for your approach to me, my son, my friend. I feel your advancement to meet me. I honor your presence. I want to clarify, however, that the name is not an assigned name. It is who you are,
Student:   You are channeling, so ...  Is that right?
TOMAS:   In the vernacular of the Teaching Mission, we do not subscribe to the term "channeling." We subscribe to the phrase "transmitting/receiving" which we have, on occasion distinguished one from the other. I would be happy to make that distinction again if you like, but it is not channeling that is taking place as channeling has been understood,
Evangel:   Can you tell me what the difference is?

TOMAS:  I can address the difference for you, yes. In channeling the mortal vehicle is made fully absentee. Its will becomes void and inert in order that the "entity" might utilize the vehicle, the human vehicle. As such, a certain cause and effect is effectuated.  In this process of transmitting/receiving, the individual who is in the position of the transmitter/receiver, the T/R, they are aware.  Inasmuch as we are utilizing their language center, their vocal chords, their vocabulary with their full permission, their free will is intact. Their awareness is adequate that, if a Teacher were to opt to transmit a concept which the mortal T/R did not subscribe to or believe in, the mortal has the free will choice to stop the teacher from transmitting.
It is rather an honorarium arrangement.  The free will of the individual is sacrosanct. It remains sacrosanct in this transmitting/receiving process. In channeling, it is given up, you see.
Evangel:  Is there something wrong with channeling? If the human is willing?
TOMAS:  The good fortune in reference to channeling is that the Lucifer rebellion has been adjudicated and the rebel midwayers and other rebel spirit personalities have been subdued and/or rehabilitated, and so the danger is not today what it was when the individual who allowed itself to be a channel for any energy which came along actually availed itself of potential evil influences. It is not that big of a problem today, but we still prefer1 to differentiate because of the conditioning of your understanding of the word channeling,
Student:   You are a T/R, is that correct?
TOMAS:   I am transmitting. I, Tomas, the teacher, am transmitting concepts. Often these concepts are broken down word by word. When I transmit this concept, these words, to this mortal sitting here through whom I speak, she receives what I have transmitted to her and, through her willingness, allows me to utilize her mind and voice. Our spirits are in conjunction. Her Thought Adjuster has not been discarded that I may come through. I am not in her. I am only utilizing her faculties, so to speak, (her voice, her intellect) to plant concepts to put forth for your reception also. No one is living within her.

Student:   So, Tom, you are -- (long pause)
TOMAS:   You are on a comma?
Student:   Space.  The relay of your information is welcome.  And thank you.
TOMAS:  I thank you for your willingness to believe, for your willingness to investigate.
Student:   I need to reach beyond. That's where my true patience... I need to be better tuned in.

TOMAS:   What is it that you aspire for here, my son?
Student:   I need to read better.  That's what I need to do for better understanding.
TOMAS:  Your mind is good. You are exposing yourself to good teachings, good practices, good habits, good associations. You are being led by the Spirit. You are also opening yourself up to the Spirit. You will go far.  Do not attempt to go too quickly, for growth is a gradual process, and although you are invigorated and industrious, allow your soul to establish its own pace. It is not necessary to become perfect at once; it is only necessary that you constantly try.
Student:   Perfection in love and those things, are all part of the static in my life, so this is a great addition.
TOMAS:   And you are a great addition to this group.  Welcome.
Hostess:   I guess I want to interject something here. This is Ch__.  I don't know what I'm going to say, but, um, we have, in the past, had many transmissions and Andrea expressed many times that we were a quiet group, just like you have stated. And I'm wondering why we have this constraint. Why are we embarrassed to come forth and express our inner feelings among others? We haven't done this in a long time and all of a sudden I feel this compulsion to do so, and even though we haven't had transmissions, I have found internal growth, but yet not being able to transmit, so I don't know what I'm saying here. I'm just letting these words come out as I feel them.

TOMAS:  I have heard you, my daughter. I have heard you speak of three separate things at least. I will not go on forever, but I thank you for expressing your soul's needs and your heart's desires.

It is difficult for people to share their inner life, and you have presented your inner life to this feast of plenty for our nourishment. This is part of sharing your relationship with God. when you express yourself in such a soulful manner, not only to God himself but to your peers who are also sons and daughters of the living God.
Your expression of wondering why it is that individuals are disinclined to share is twofold and in this case I would say it is because it is not encouraged, it is not fostered. It is fundamentally a lost if not unfound art, for individuals in their social arenas share and jabber much but are reluctant to share in such a. sincere and heartfelt way as to actually allow your soul to be presented. Intellectual intercourse is acceptable, of course, and superficial dialog is common. Gossip is a method of communication and conveys information but does not dignify the sons and daughters of God.

Sharing the inner life is an art form. And thus, as an art form, it must be developed. It must first be appreciated. A need must first be recognized. As long as you are animals living an animal existence, it is not necessary to go beyond grunts and groans to convey certain information, but as you are evolving (and you are) your needs become greater. As the life within you begins to expand and you need to expound, you need then to develop an appreciation for the new level of the art of communication. This communication is sharing of your inner life, not only of your emotional aches and pains or your intellectual grievances, but your spiritual hungers, thirsts, distresses, confusions, appreciations and joys.

This is launching into a new realm of being. And so it is no wonder you do not know how. This is one of the advantages, you see, of having a teacher to visit with you, for you are automatically geared in your mind that you are not dealing with Nellie next door or Fred at the Post Office. You are expected-- You put yourself in a position to expect more from yourself, of yourself. You have opted to rise above the common, mundane, thought processes and to launch into spiritual expansion and soul breadth of expression, and so a teacher is a good facilitator for you in your learning these new arts and gifts.

Hostess:   That was a remarkable explanation.

Elenu:   Tomas, I hesitated in speaking before because I wasn't sure what kind of questions we were to ask. Whether they were to pertain to the Urantia Book -- which I know nothing about, really. I found out I'm pretty ignorant when it comes to reading it but hopefully I'll learn.  But if it's okay to ask a personal question, I'd like to know about whatever it was that was given to me when I was in Pittsburgh last time when I happened to be sleeping at Leah's home.  By the way, I should introduce myself; I'm … Elanu would be my spiritual name, I believe.  While I was at Leah's home in bed I felt a presence that blended with my body but I had no idea what took place. Would you be able to explain that to me?

TOMAS:  My twinkling light, I cannot. It may have been any number of experiences. I am not immediately apprised. I have not looked at the records. I cannot crystal ball gaze your experiences without some background information. I understand it was a profound experience for you and, as I interpret your words, I hear that you were ministered to in some fashion. As to what adjunct of the (there is no word here. No word exists in your language) as to what it was without research I cannot say. I would not do you the disservice of guessing.
Elenu:   Well, thank you. I'll search further. I'm sure that will come to me somewhere along the way.

TOMAS:   Let me ask you.
Elenu:    Yes.
TOMAS:   Were there results from this experience?
Elenu:   In my growth, possibly, yes, in getting myself more in a group, opening up a bit more in discussions, I'm not sure. That is the reason ... I mean, I know that these things are happening but I don't know why they are happening. Yes! I'm probably seeing a little more in my third eye, and that could have taken place since then. I'm not sure. That took place back in January, but the growth is a gradual process, I know that.

TOMAS:  As you go inward and upward, ascending the circles, you pass through various layers of quickening reality. Your spirit has attained a new realm of freedom in functioning, of reality. These occur during a life of one who seeks to be spiritually alive. Any time you/one attains a new level in these circles, changes will take place and a wash/rush/resonance kind of impression (this is too hard to describe) but sometimes, and I am not certain this was your case without researching your case, but sometimes its like the veil will be lifted and the body will be lightened and you find yourself "whooshed" -- into another realm almost, for an instant. This occurs suddenly. You go back to normal, to all intents and purposes, but in a subtle way everything now is different. It is not then that a specific entity was with you, but that you have grown in a very real sense. As you have stated, you have begun to express yourself more openly.

Let me now confirm for you that it is not so much our concern ("our" being the teachers in the teaching mission) not so concerned about the academics of your study, but about the actualities of your studies: your personal growth, your spiritual development as a young soul, as a developing morontial soul. We are interested in the personality; in your happiness as a personality. We are interested in a well-balanced, well-unified personality; in your teaching techniques as you minister to your fellow beings; in your soul growth.  In your social growth, as a group of individuals and fellow believers; how you work as a team; how you are as an individual that affects your team. These are our study realms that will last an eternity through you.

The academics of the book are important for it gives a perspective and a framework that cannot be gotten from another source. I say, too, that it is not the intellectual information, the academic information from any book, from any text that will make the difference. It is in the life of you as individuals, the living sons and daughters of the living God that is the real thing here.

So continue to read. Continue to study. Continue to investigate. Delight your mind. Expand your mind in whatever fantasies and sciences and arts and so forth that continue to intrigue you, but ever honor the growth of your own soul which is not a mental process so much as an inside job in conjunction with the spirit.

Elenu:   Thank you.  From the heart, right?

TOMAS:  From the heart. And while we are on the heart (and I apologize for being so wordy, but when I get rolling I have such a good time), I will talk just briefly on this issue of the heart, for there are many who are confused in this context. Many romantic natures have been devastated by following their heart. And even the Urantia Book will indicate that the heart can be deceptive. And so I will not sanction "following the heart" blindly, but as the heart is betrothed to the Beloved, that heart I can condone.
The human heart is fallible, but how else do we learn those lessons, those experiential value lessons unless we follow the heart? But do not despair if the heart leads you into experiences that are difficult and cause pain. They will ultimately lead you to the Bridegroom wherein your heart will burst with joy.

Dear ones, I am so thankful that you have invited me into your lives. I am your neighbor now, you know. Perhaps we will come to know one another closely. I am hopeful that that can be the case. At any rate, I am most delighted to have made your acquaintances. I will be in touch through our friends in the spirit and in the flesh and I shall return to visit at another time. I urge you to continue in your good works and in your adoration of our Father/Brother Michael, as he is our inspiration also.
His peace I leave with you.  Farewell.
*****

DATE:    June 21, 1996
LOCATION:   Pittsburgh, PA, USA
T/Rs:     Gerdean O. and Linda B.

A SPECIAL EVENT, FEATURING
TEACHERS TOMAS AND WELMEK

OUR MUTUAL ADMIRATION SOCIETY
TOMAS :  Good evening, my friends. I am Tomas. I am your acting host on behalf of the celestial hosts who are in attendance and who bring great joyous tidings to you in your gathering here this evening. It is a celebration indeed, for once again we have made that connection which is part of Correcting Time, introducing one to the other, bringing from far and wide the sons and daughters of God, Michael's ambassadors and workers among workers.
It is a great honor for me as your resident teacher to welcome our esteemed co-worker, Welmek, here this evening. My own humility is apparent to my transmitter/receiver if not to you all, but as we become acquainted and begin to recognize the gift of personality and the wisdom which emits, the humor which prevails, the heartfelt love which pronounces itself into your arena, the spirit is exalted and the ego is humbled.
We have enjoyed your discourse this evening, have found great delight in your burgeoning social fragrance. Many will benefit from the graciousness which you have bestowed upon one another this evening. It is a joy for us to observe your developing experience of sharing your inner life in company with each other. Your conversations have sparked many potential lessons. I will not embark on a formal lesson, however, for I am eager to also hear from our visitor and I will step aside myself in abeyance of our guest, brother Welmek.
WELMEK:  Good evening, my dear friends. And I do call you friends for I know all of you. I have been in attendance at your meetings from time to time and I feel that we are already friends. Your sharing of experiences this evening has been an enrichment, both for you and for us as, we listen to your spiritual journey. I will not give a formal lesson either, but I would like to make a comment about something that was said during your discussion, to the effect that you are so many different types of personalities and you come from so many different beliefs.
There are several ways of looking at this. Of course, one is to recognize that we are all One, but I tell you in so recognizing the oneness of purpose, revel in the variety of expression. Do you have any idea how wonderful it is for us to observe the variety of thought and of personal expression in each of your lives of these truths that we attempt to impart to you? This is not something to be regarded with suspicion or a sense of distance from each other. I urge you to, as I say, revel in it. Enjoy each other as you are.

It is so important that you learn to enjoy diversity, for it is in this that you learn, that you see another face of the Father. The Father's expressions are infinite, and each face into which you peer, each mind into which you look, and each personality that you experience is another expression of the Father. Find Him in each other.  And now,  friend Tomas, if that sounded like a formal lesson, I am sorry. This is meant to be a social occasion.
TOMAS:  I shan't accept your apology. I am guilty of the same tactic. In fact, I would add to your remarks, which is indeed how this format of communication fosters further communication and hopefully leads to understanding and enlightenment, for another observation that was noted was the aspect of how much of your social intercourse in your lives today is spent on emotional matters and troublesome situations.
This is a statement of your development from the animal realm toward more morontial methods of communication. It is better than grunts and groans and yet not quite "Hail to the Chief!" but human beings, as they emerge from the animal levels of existence, become aware of their feelings. It is not for us or for you to disdain feelings. The emotional states of being are, in the ideal, experiential and purposeful, and so, to disdain an individual's emotional condition is to deny the experiential motion of the individual.
It would be better that the individual learn from the emotional experience than to stay static and revert to croaking and groaning. Of course, as we progress in our spiritual program of discovery and ascension into more Godlike aspects, we learn to refine our emotional reactions to life. They are not as raw and rugged as they once were. Refinements of emotions are one of the results of a spirit-led life. Be therefore patient and forbearing of one another in your understanding of the emotional range/realm of your peers.
As you well know, the work of your realm is important. To a worker there is nothing more important than the work of the realm.  And oftentimes the work at hand involves an individual who is caught, lost, enamored and confused by an emotional condition. By your patience, loving kindness, merciful ministry, and by your understanding of your emotional self, you will be able to greet your brother, your sister, and help lead them forward out of a potential emotional morass into the aerie of spirit.
And lest you think we would squelch all emotions, be assured that we are very keen on joy and celebration, on happiness, companionship and camaraderie, for these emotions are shared by the angelic hosts and your affectionate midwayer cousins. We have had tremendous joy in this cosmic neighborhood this evening in your company.  I will again subside and again step aside for any further remarks from our guest.

WELMEK:   In my own group I have made a distinction, for our reference, between feelings and emotions. Feelings are those that arise from the presence of the love of the Father Fragment within. Emotions tend to be a reaction to the outer influences upon the person. The way you view the world, the way you feel about the world, can be positive in a way that you have not yet dreamed if you rely on the inner guidance of your Father Fragment, for there is no negativity there. There is no fear; there is no hate.

When you see yourself reacting in a way that is negative, go within and remove yourself to that positive Core of your very being. In meeting those fellows who are undergoing great trauma in their reactions to life, the greatest service you can do for them is to help them find that Inner Core of love and peace and joy. Each has their own access and their own means, both of finding this and of expressing this, and it is perhaps made easier for them when they feel love radiating from you. You see, they have a living example to experience how they, too, may transform their lives in this respect.
There is so very much that you can do for each other, that you must do for each other and with each other, for you have ways of reaching each other that we do not. There is some way that you have of communicating with each other that we are not privy to, in the sense that your experience on this world is unique. While we have been mortal, we have not been mortal here. We have not resided in the physical bodies that you inhabit with your electrochemical disturbances, with your particular racial characteristics for this world.

This Mission must be done by you acting between and among each other and for each other. In showing respect for the feelings of another, you recognize the potential within them that you also possess. I am sure you remember from your text that you cannot respect another more than you respect yourself. They are equal. If you can find the Core that is in you, then it must be in your brother, and it is for you to find it and to help him find it.  Back to you, Tomas.

TOMAS:  What a lovely tennis game we have here. I have not enjoyed myself as much since I was volleying with Teacher Daniel and I thank you, Welmek, for your addition of personality and energy, ad infinitum, to this group this evening and on many other occasions.

We who have been around for awhile (and I refer also to you mortal beings), clearly understand that we are a mutual admiration society, that we are unabashed in professing our love for one another and appreciation for each other. Long has your planet been suffering from a drought of affirmations of affection and we have still not quenched that thirst, nor do we hope to completely, for as each day is new, a new opportunity has arisen to express love, which has been freely given, to those to whom we might freely give.

Such an opportunity! And in keeping with Welmek's words to you, the opportunities that you have are even more abundant than that of our opportunities in our realm for, you see, we already know that we are from Love and return to Love and many on your world have not yet tasted this sweet fruit.  In-as-much as I will see you soon, I am going to say my temporary farewell to Welmek and dismantle, allowing Welmek then to aloha you in his own fashion.
Welmek, again, on behalf of this group, including my transmitter/receiver, we appreciate your attendance here this evening in this way. You have been a gracious, generous, colorful, inspirational teacher of uncommon depth of perception. The lesson that we evolved this evening on emotion and feeling is along the lines of one of our favorite of your products. Thank you for being here to share with this group.
Mrs. M:   Tomas, before you leave, would you mind if I asked for a few comments of my particular interest? Would you mind if I did that?
TOMAS:   Have I ever minded a question?
Mrs. M:   No, you haven't, but this is sort of a different occasion, and I think you're a very gracious host in your stepping aside, but -- possibly both you and Welmek would comment.  But I just feel this deep desire, this deep wish for you to talk about Christ Michael because when you do it is so very special to me and I think there are some others who might react in that same way. When you talk about Christ Michael there's something so very wonderful about it to me and I often find myself smiling and meditating on those words from the transcripts.
TOMAS:  I am calling to mind an occasion where I walked with Michael outside the congregation hall where we teachers were in training. I recall quite clearly the experience of the proximity of Michael as we walked side-by-side in deep conversation … rather, deep communion, for it was He who was conveying to me that which I needed to know and learn. It was He who rested his arm across my shoulder, who instilled in me through His love, an understanding of how it was on His world of nativity, as you here have the uniqueness to which Welmek alluded. It was Michael's in-depth perception of you and your uniqueness, your particular flavor, and your curious needs that He sought to convey to my being. Not to my mind or my heart, but to the whole of me, that I might better understand you, and I do not pretend to understand you as he does, and so as you ask me to speak of him,...
Mrs. M:   Thank you very much. That's very special to me. Your words have been very, very ....
TOMAS:  Understand that I, like you, seek His counsel for He is the only one, truly, who understands you, His creation -- your Elder Brother in truth.
WELMEK:  I could speak of my personal meetings with Michael. They are beyond description, really, for your understanding, and instead I would like to suggest that each of you dwell on those personal moments that you have experienced when you have felt His presence beside you, because I tell you that that is quite literally where He is at this moment. He is with each one of us. He is aware of each of us personally. And even you in the mortal lifetime can develop a personal relationship with Him that is unique and wonderful to yourselves.
Spend time each day consciously in His company. He will never deny you His presence, His love and His support. Always is His hand in yours if that is what you wish. Talk to Him, walk with Him and share your joys and sorrows with Him. Each of us will enjoy a very unique and beautiful relationship with Him and you can begin yours now.
Good night.

*****

[End of Vol. III, Part 2 of 13]