IntroductionTomas Vol III - Pittsburgh, PA - Apr 30, 1998 thru Aug 13, 1998 - Part 10 of 13
DATE: April 30, 1998
LOCATION: Pittsburgh, PA, USA
T/R’s Gerdean and Hunnah
TEACHERS: TOMAS, MERIUM, HAM, MICHAEL, MACHIVENTA
URANTIA BOOK STUDY:
Paper 25, THE MESSENGER HOSTS OF SPACE
#4. Technical Advisors
#5. The Custodians of Records on Paradise
#6. The Celestial Recorders
#7. The Morontia Companions
#8. The Paradise Companions Paper 153. THE CRISIS AT CAPERNAUM
#3. The After Meeting
#4. Last Words in the Synagogue
The boy possessed by the evil spirit "How can Satan cast out Satan?"
TEACHER SESSION:
TOPIC:
HUMAN ASSOCIATIONS
TOMAS: Good evening.
Group (Elyssia, Celeste, Rachel, Hunnah, Iyana, Liana, Aren, Gerdean and Hester): Good evening.
TOMAS: We have a busy evening in store. Indeed, your evening has already been quite full of physical, emotional, mental and spiritual stimuli. There are often more things on the agenda than we have time for but, as you now know, fortunately, we have a Technical Advisor on hand to prompt our speedy and efficient activity in terms of our teaching agenda.
It is a relief for Gerdean to realize that often when she goes on-line and I am barreling along at a breakneck speed and she wonders why I am in such a hurry, I will tell you it is because we are being orchestrated. Now, it is nothing for you or her to be alarmed about; it is simply a matter of, shall we say, spiritual economics.
As I indicated, there are many things on the menu for the evening, but before we commence with this smorgasbord, I would like to greet you all from the heart -- my heart to your heart -- embracing you in divine affection and in appreciation of your very being. It is a true celebration of love in this room this evening. It is an honor to be associated with you mortal beings as well as you supernal associates who are always welcome and who always contribute so much by way of your input and your energy.
In deference to our supernal helpers, I am going to introduce a visitor but I will not overlook my manners, Merium; I will merely convey that Teacher Ham would like to say "hello" and then we can resume our standard format. One moment, please.
HAM: Good evening, my pupils and friends. I am teacher Ham ...
Group: Good evening, Ham.
HAM: There is a smile on my face in response to your outpouring, your gush of recognition and affection for my personality. I also reward you with my embrace. You are a diligent lot, soon to be embarked upon a new plateau of spirit ingestion and function. Those rather large words are my way of congratulating you on your most profound spiritual development and your readiness to proceed into greater and deeper depths of personality awareness and manifestation.
When I speak of personality awareness and manifestation, of course, I speak of the Father-bestowed personality, that in you which is perfect and that in you which would speak to the issues of the day, that being an awareness of the Father and His methods of divine affection for His creation in accordance with the pattern of the Mother Spirit.
Michael has been proud to corral us together and convey .... One moment.
MICHAEL: I will speak for myself. I am Michael. I am glad to be at your table. I am glad that you have come to the banquet that I have prepared, and that your appetites are whetted, and that you feast upon that which has been presented. You delight me in your appreciation of the fruits of the spirit which are divinely yours by your rightful inheritance as sons and daughters of our Father and as conveyers of my love and mercy to my children here on Urantia, our abode. I am happy to be invited in and not feared.
I am glad of your eagerness to absorb my words and my messages. I am eager that you understand the message of the heart, and I will not stay, for there is a Teaching Corps that can provide these moments of quality edification and companionship that you so readily need, deserve and desire. I will then let them speak for me in my stead, for as you understand, they are under my banner, as are you, my students and my teachers also of truth, beauty and goodness.
And so let us commence our new plateau of learning, our new field of endeavor, this Melchizedek University-in-formulation. I observe you not from afar but at your right hand in effort of His bounty. Peace be upon you.
Group: Thank you. Can we tell you that we worship and adore you?
HAM: I am Ham and I am absorbing your pride and adulation for the Master and giving it to him. He absorbs it readily in full awareness of your appreciation for him, but we can certainly go on the record, as we say, to acknowledge your testimony of affection and adulation. It is the Father, of course, who is deserving of the worship, but your sentiments are understood.
I will remove myself. I understand the excitement of your gathering this evening, and the stimuli for Tomas and Merium, and we are eager and excited with you and for you. Our efforts in this Teaching Mission have met our expectations and exceeded same. It is glorious to behold the living truth become an actual reality, not just an intellectual concept, not just a metaphysical fantasy, but an actuality, and I tell you that if you were to reflect upon your association you would see that you are representatives of the Master. You are teaching and feeding his sheep, in that, you are teaching and feeding each other. Go now into the world and teach also that which we are teaching you today. I will see you again and speak with you soon and anon. Farewell.
Group: Thank you so much. Thank you, Ham.
TOMAS: Well, Merium, I suggest that we let the dust settle for a moment and then come out and I will help you straighten the pictures and the curtains.
MERIUM: You should see my hair! That was some hustle, wasn't it!
It is very nice to be able to be with you this evening, and what I have drawn from this configuration is the experience of some contentment and the sight of a coloration in your individual lives. It pleases me that you are able to witness this within yourself.
We have our own observations and it isn't so that you can sit back in complaisance, but it is very important that you sense that there is a change in your life and that you can credit your association with your heartfelt reaching for guidance and an empowerment to practice that which you have become more aware of and are able to demonstrate.
Are there questions this evening? It is going to be late and I would like to know, Tomas, if there is going to be an agenda or if there is going to be questions.
TOMAS: We are having smorgasbord this evening. There are many things on the table. There are tidbits hither and yon and they may come in the form of question, they may come in the form of impromptu sermonettes, but we will cover some ground assuredly.
I am reminded that the timing of the year is also contributory to this enthusiasm which is well met at the table this evening. Remember, it was not long ago that His resurrection was celebrated and now the grey of winter has passed and the resurrection of Spring is upon us. The blossoms are pouring forth, indeed the flowers which you mentioned in your sharing time are pronouncing the vibrancy of life, and so you come, each of you, bearing your own representation of this fresh start, this new beginning, this youthful enthusiasm, and this appreciation for the fragrance and the color of the presentation of the life you live.
It is opportune of us, shall we say, to take full advantage of the mood which you present, that faith which you bring to the table to contribute it to the feast of plenty that we have provided and that we have provided for us. It is part of the co-creation of divinity.
Think not that we, Merium and I, are doing this for you. Even though many of you feel that you come and observe, that you merely sit back and watch what happens, this is not the case. You are integrally involved. As you well know from other theologies, we are one in the spirit and what happens to one of you happens also to the other, and so as we elevate, you elevate; as we reach up, you are carried. We have discussed this before in many lessons.
We have a full course of lessons behind us, many of which have become second nature to you. The growth, the spiritual growth in this group and in many other groups, as well as individuals, throughout Urantia, has been impressive in the short time since the adjudication and the reopening of the circuits, as was hoped and anticipated, but the reception that you have given by being willing to take on responsibilities of awareness, as fledgling adults in the spiritual realm, is truly amazing.
It is no surprise that you enjoy the affection and the acknowledgement; these are understood and deserving. But that you have come forth so willingly and stuck your neck out in faith of your God and our Mission has been soul-satisfying for the teachers, for the cosmos indeed. I will not preach this evening. You have been encouraged, as have we. Let us embark now upon some questions and answers. I understand, my dear lyana, that you have brought a jewel with you.
Iyana: A month ago, I asked if you would help me. I was to have a lesson on the resurrection with the circle that I belong to at the church, and I wanted some help to know how to explain the morontia figure of Christ, and you suggested that I say "astral figure" or something like that, but I didn't really need any of that help at all because in the last chapter of Mark (I think it was Mark. Anyway), it said in there that Christ 'appeared in his "glorified form" so I used the word glorified.
But I want to tell you that I am very amused at the fact that I read from The Urantia Book. Now these people didn't know that I had The Urantia Book. It was the small book about the Teachings of Jesus, so I had already prepared what I was going to read and so I was reading about the five women that were there at the tomb, and in the Bible it doesn't mention that there were five and it doesn't mention who they were, so I read that, and then I sort of got my motor going and I said, "Well, if you don't mind, I'll read to you about Christ meeting with the disciples the first two times", and of course you know that The Urantia Book goes into more detail.
Anyhow, I read to them. I didn't want to read any more for fear that they wouldn't understand or that they'd be bored. I didn't know what their reaction would be -- I really didn't care -- but I was so amused to think that I had read from the Urantia Book and they didn't realize I was doing that.
Hester: They thought you were reading the Bible.
Iyana: Well, I said, "Jesus' Bible", but no one questioned me about the book at all.
TOMAS: You were in your own glorified form, were you not?
Iyana: Well, I was elated!
TOMAS: Indeed!
Celeste: It was the truth. When they heard it, they didn't have to question it.
Iyana: Well, I tell you, I did something that we had done at the Butler group. I was in charge of the meeting so I said, "It would be nice if each one of you would tell of your experiences with how you feel about Jesus," or something like that; and, you know, each person as they spoke, I complimented each one about something about themselves as they spoke, as I could say something nice about every one of them, and it worked out very nice and I actually got thanked by a couple of them, so it was very rewarding. I've been anxious to teach ever since.
TOMAS: I am proud to be your teacher, for I see you teaching and rejoicing in your gift of teaching. Like you read this evening in your text, it is a law that you pass on what you have learned, and you are following the laws of the universe, in that, you are conveying what you know to those who are just behind you. It is an interesting question for you to ask yourselves and perhaps even to ask each other, in sincerity. (Long pause)
Gerdean: There is no question there. I don't know. Maybe we'll all have to read it.
Hunnah: Merium is gone, too.
Gerdean: Maybe they are having a staff meeting.
Hunnah: Shall we sing?
TOMAS: Are there other questions? (Pause) One moment. (Pause)
MACHIVENTA: You may laugh. I am Machiventa Melchizedek. I knew you would be amused because we have had a "power house" here this evening -- your words -- and I am not to be left out. I am impressed by the actuality of the teaching format here.
I heard you, Iyana, discuss the lessons you learned in the Butler group. I yearned for your group here to also participate in some of these techniques and we have had some discussion as to the merits of promoting that, because it is very time-consuming. It lends itself very well to long evenings, and yet it is an important developmental situation that you learn how to be sociable and spiritual rather than just sociable.
I know you realize that we respect your sociability and allow for much latitude in your socialization because it is a part of your nature, and yet it is also important that your socialization include a part of your spiritual reality, and it is a large step now for you indeed to realize the responsibility of putting yourself out as a spiritual person, a spiritual personality.
Do not therefore pass judgment on yourself and your worth. Set aside your Christian concepts of worthiness and self-righteousness and get on with the truth of acknowledging your sonship/ daughter-ship, and begin to assimilate that reality into your social life. It will become a natural part of a new evolution of awareness of spiritual truth being brought to Urantia today. It is you who will bring this about.
We can no longer allow for our spirit life to be contained within certain circumstances, certain meeting times, or certain formats. It was indicated in your lesson this evening that you should spend your time now with each other in mutual stimulation of spirit reality. That is to say, let the blind lead the blind, and you be with each other in full light of day, full light of the Son, and so now it would benefit you as individuals, as a group, and as a faction of the Teaching Mission to begin to accept and assimilate your spiritual worth into the format.
The idea that Iyana brought up about expressing to each other what it is that you appreciate about each other is a worthy, fine start on this technique and we will not go into it, necessarily, this evening because of the time constraints, but you have not only our permission but our urging that you begin to assimilate your spiritual life into your socialization.
That is to say, make your spiritual observations known. Discuss these openly and without judgment. Begin to reveal to each other how it is that your soul feels, your Father Fragment feels. You have some idea of your true reality. Let that reality become socially fragrant.
Now that you have gotten your new assignment, I am going to give you one more lesson and that is in terms of your affection for one another. Even though it is evident, it is still in line for in-depth appreciation, and so you might, as lyana, again, has said, tell each other about how you appreciate each other. These are often assumed, and it is very good for all of you to hear from your friends as to how it is that you are valued in their eyes.
If you are sincere, you may even find your eyes watering over, and this is not to be eschewed. It is perfectly okay to be so sincere as to allow your heart and theirs to be touched by this experience of sharing your fraternity in the spirit. Comrades, good evening.
Group: Good evening. Thank you for coming.
Elyssia: I remember the first time you came.
TOMAS: I will tell you, that you had asked earlier in your readings as to what constituted an occasion worthy of note by the Celestial Recorders and these kinds of things are worthy of note: when you are in contact with your supernal teachers. They are indeed establishing a new file cabinet for the Teaching Mission. (Pause) That was a joke.
Group: [Laughter] That was a good one.
Elyssia: Is this just between us, Tomas, that we are so very open? Is that what you're saying this group should practice? [Tape turned, some lost]
TOMAS: ... becomes a natural part of your expansive personality, you will delicately, diplomatically, and yet robustly take it with you into the arena at large. There are others who are working on this same lesson. Remember, we are united. We teachers are in contact and in "staff meetings" constantly as to what you are yet unaware of and prepared for. Remember we too have to abide by that law, that we must pass on to you what we know, and so we discuss among ourselves what you know so that we can give you next what we perceive to be absorbable and realizable by you, that which will benefit you in your spiritual growth and therefore benefit Urantia at large.
Iyana: I explained to these ladies, in our society we more or less learn to keep things to ourselves, we figure it's nobody's business. And I said, "How are you going to know anyone unless you learn a little about them and share some interest?" and that sort of made everybody come a little closer and they were more expansive.
TOMAS: This is very good: an invitation to the dance. I would like to touch upon Iyana's contribution and tie it in with the text and that again has to do, again, with a reading this evening about the heart and about that which comes out of your mouth and how it is that it will reflect what is in your heart, and this relates to the experience Liana had in discovering that these exigencies of the heart are deeply rooted, and in getting to know your neighbor, it is not so much the superficial level that is at issue here, for all of you are well versed in social graces. It is being able to delve deeply for the Kingdom of heaven is within, and it is within that you experience the inner life.
I have spoken to you before regarding the "deep mind". The deep mind is an area that goes beyond the shallow, superfluous realm of functioning, the immediate response and stimuli of the external world, the quick-fix-thinking. The deep mind is the mind wherein you make these decisions which will build value and meaning, which will contribute to your eternal life and your eternal value. It is in here that you must relearn to think appropriately so that your heart will be released to love in such a fashion as will be reflective of the love that you have within you, within your Thought Adjuster, within your personality that is Father-bestowed.
As you can purify your heart from its thoughts and feelings that are incorrect or in error, it then leads into greater, deeper love and a compassion for and understanding of your fellow man that will bring about the brotherhood of man. Remember that example of: if you can understand your neighbor, then you can learn to love him, and this is the beginning of the brotherhood of man. We are not going to stop at having a successful teacher base. We will not stop until the entire planet of Urantia embraces, as children of the one, eternal, living, loving Creator.
We have a big job ahead, and you, as we have said before, are the vanguard, the leaders. The reality that you develop in your association with the Father and then as practiced in your association with yourselves, is bringing about the new reality. This is very important work.
Elyssia: And the way I understand it, we begin by trying to understand more completely, the people around us? Is that the beginning of this ...?
TOMAS: Indeed.
Liana: Tomas, this is interesting to me. As of late I've been thinking about approaching people without story or context. I was just reading from Tuesday's session, "When you encounter each other, are you aware that you are encountering, in the main, an entirely different configuration than you met yesterday?" and the idea of story has been coming to me quite a bit, and it seems to me we do a better job with our fellow man if we are free of story and free of context, if we give them an opportunity to be new to us every time that we meet them.
TOMAS: Yes. You realize that when you wake up in the morning, and call upon your habitual frame of reference of who you are, you approach your day through the story of your life rather than through your relationship with God. But if you ask him to go with you into your day, shaping your identity, and radiating from you and through you, you are fresh each day.
You are correct, Liana, it is the story that stands as a great barrier between you and reality. How can you get to know someone if you continually relate to that which is immaterial, that which is temporary? It is that in you who is eternal that is hungering for acknowledgement and development. It is the soul which seeks to grow and expand so that it can greet tomorrow in faith and with strength of yet more tomorrows.
Elyssia: I have a question. I was very interested and -- I love Hiakawa, and he had something wonderful to say, as far as I was concerned, which was that "talk is important; even small talk is important. It is a way of communicating. It's a way of starting a communication. It doesn't have to be anything important. The effort and the desire to communicate is the important thing" and so his point, I believe, was to get yourself started that way and then , I suppose you move on to something deeper, but I like what Hiakawa said and I'd like to hear your comments about that.
TOMAS: The point is that you be genuine. It is not necessary that you be constantly rummaging around in your closet, you see. It is not always time to clean house -- yours or theirs. It is a matter that you be genuine. If you are genuine with each other and you trust each other, if you understand each other's motives, then you will find things that you can do to make your life richer and more spiritual, even if it is in rejoicing and worshipping, singing song and praising. You can also, then, have a new approach as to how you relate to the world at large.
If you are standing side by side with a comrade, with a sister, and you have an understanding of your job in the Kingdom, then your approach to others outside of yourself will be as elder brothers and sisters, will be fatherly, will be motherly. It has a tendency then, to remove from relationships that petty gossip tendency of human beings. It elevates your understanding of each other and allows you to be the noble creatures that you are.
Elyssia: I'd just love to hear somebody give me an example. I would really enjoy that. I can't quite picture it. A Christian teaching, I think, is causing me problem here. I've been steeped in that for so many years, I suppose.
TOMAS: You must dig deeper and get to the reality.
Elyssia: Well, maybe we can help each other.
TOMAS: We shall.
Elyssia: Somebody has to help me.
TOMAS: We shall. Merium, do you think we have stepped into a large tar pit here?
Hunnah: Merium went to bed.
Hester: I would like to thank you, Michael, for answering a question I had written out here that I didn't want to read out loud and within two minutes after I wrote it, you answered it. Thank you.
TOMAS: We are very happy when we can answer your soul's needs. It is the privilege of spirit to be there for you. It is our joy when you open yourselves to these questions that promote your own spiritual growth, this pondering of meanings, this spirit problem solving. It is a wonderful opportunity for us to conjoin in the spirit and to come to know each other better, to know how fully you are loved and how deeply you are capable of loving, also. Love is the answer to every question.
Liana: Tomas, can I ask one more question?
TOMAS: Certainly.
Liana: I've been having a hard time communicating with my spirit companion. I don't know if you can help me with that.
TOMAS: It is perhaps that you have created a story, and perhaps you have an expectation as to what they are going to tell you. I have found it to be true that many times mortals will not discuss things with their spirit companion when they fear that they will be reprimanded, and so look closely to see if you are fearful of your guides. Remember that they are here to work with you and to love you. Fear not.
Liana: Thank you, Tomas. That's great.
Elyssia: Can you rephrase this new challenge again for us? I'd like to hear it again. This new challenge.
TOMAS: This is a new course. It is an advanced course in Human Associations. It is a course designed to spiritize your thinking, your feeling, and therefore your socialization. The laboratory for this new course of study will be your social arena, and your motivation will be the expansion of your heart, that heart which is the heart of the Kingdom.
I am going to sign off for the evening. Carry on. We will see you soon. Good night.
Group: Good night, Tomas.
*****
DATE: May 7, 1998
LOCATION: Pittsburgh, P.A. USA
T/R’s Gerdean
TEACHERS: TOMAS, MERIUM
URANTIA BOOK STUDY:
Paper 26, MINISTERING SPIRITS OF THE CENTRAL UNIVERSE
#1. The Ministering Spirits
#2. The Mighty Supernaphim
#3. The Tertiary Supernaphim
Paper 140, THE ORDINATION OF THE TWELVE f1.
Preliminary Instruction
TEACHER SESSION:
TOPIC:
SPIRITUAL REALITY; RE-THINK YOUR HABITUAL RESPONSES
TOMAS: I am Tomas. Good evening.
Group: Elyssia, Celeste, Aren, Liana, Gerdean and Hester: Good evening, Tomas.
MERIUM: And I am Merium. Hello!
Group: Merium! Hello to you!
MERIUM: We are delighted to be here with you this evening and to enjoy your camaraderie and your spiritual embrace. I was amused by your visit with the reversion director and I am still smiling in appreciation for your gift of song.
I have been brought up to date on Uncle Tomas' lectures regarding the fruits of the spirit and was touched to be reminded of how you absorbed his words and how these fruits of the spirit now mean more to you than they did, perhaps, before he dwelt with you on these lessons of such critical information and value.
I am going to be here in tandem with Tomas this evening. We are working closely, as are others, as you are guessing now from how it is that we have a full dance card of help. I will let Tomas speak for awhile.
TOMAS: I will speak awhile regarding spiritual reality. It is a subject that is not new for you, nor for us, and sometimes perhaps you may think, "Haven't you got something new to talk about, Tomas? You always talk about the same thing!" but I tell you, each time we get around to discussing spiritual reality, you have an expanded appreciation for the phrase, the term, and indeed your own soul is in acceptance of that more information as to the spiritual reality since you are becoming more real as your days go by.
I am a pupil in terms of your lessons from your text, and I enjoyed the excerpt about the preliminary remarks made by Jesus made at the time of the ordination, and in particular wherein he discussed the fact that the Kingdom is God within you and this, of course, is the opening page of the program that reads your spiritual experience here, your personal experience, since it is your relationship with the God within you that provides you that Kingdom which becomes your reality and as you manifest your reality/ your spiritual reality/ your life, in and with this Kingdom, this relationship with God in you, you are projecting your spiritual reality to those you meet.
It has been said that those you meet will know if you have been with the Master by the way you carry yourself, and I will ask you to look at your quirks and peculiarities of personality and character that allow for those in your arena to look upon you with ridicule or cynicism and understand that in the main you could not possibly have any comprehension of God-likeness because of your reactions to or the ways in which you respond to certain stimuli.
You know you are creatures of habit, and all of you have certain built-in reactions to certain stimuli. Perhaps you recoil in dismay or in disgust; perhaps you bark out loud your cynicism; perhaps you "tsc tsc" and shake your head in such a way as to indicate your disapproval or your understanding of the situation as being pathetic. There are many indications that you give off by way of habit that, were you to take another look at how it is that your habitual responses affect your arena, you might re-think your habitual responses.
I am going to allow here for a brief intermission wherein I would like for you all to, as in a classroom setting, select an example from your life, of an opportunity to share and show how you have reflected recently on what you might have said that could have been said better -- a simple passage in the marketplace or on the telephone that may have caused you to reflect, a reflection perhaps on a new and better way.
It is not necessary to be hard on yourself. Indeed, invite the reversion directors to join you and find delight in your growing phases. I will be back. We will be watching carefully. We are still in session; we are just "off line" and in a working intermission. Thank you.
[WORKING INTERMISSION]
TOMAS: Well done, class. I am pleased with the beginning exercise in conveying a frustration and being able to gain from the experience and to share your growth with your peers. I am intrigued by the examples set forth and indeed we are observing how far removed from the Indwelling God all of you are encountering in your daily life. I want you to realize that we are aware of the difficulty; indeed it is why we are here. We know the dilemma of your planet and the spiritual deprivations are of such a concern that we are here to help you. Do not give up your struggle, in particular, now that we are here to embark upon the program of reclamation with you!
It is very apparent that the (vocabulary fails me here) -- Adam and Eve's default has severely affected your genetics; not only Adam and Eve but many other considerations. You are indeed semi-civilized, and this is a concern. It, in your daily life, is a concern if you are aware of it; if you do not see it, it is easy to not be aware, and that in itself is a problem: "out of sight out of mind" is a clever technique of problem avoidance, and it is a human condition.
I will remark, however, on those individuals who are interested in attaining a degree of existence by and through alms seeking: they are by and large, in the examples you cited, insignificant to the more burdensome problem of those who are functioning but functioning on such a level as to be virtually impaired in terms of their soul growth and therefore a true drawback.
Now, let us go on from these miserable foundations into the realms of ignorance and prejudice which, you may recall from your text, are those two qualities which are uppermost in standing in the way of spiritual growth, even personal growth, in-as-much-as, from our standpoint, personal growth and spiritual growth are one and the same. In the case of ignorance and prejudice, you are challenged to stimulate new thought, and there are many creative avenues available.
It is our hope, of course, that you continue to maintain your own Core reality and not be overmuch besmirched by association with those who take pride in their ignorance and relish their prejudice, for they are not hungry for truth nor thirsty for righteousness and there is nothing you can do to prevent their decline into lethargy and non-existence unless and as you can pray for their Adjusters ability to cut through and affect some change within the mortal that would induce him or her to grasp for a higher reality.
Remember, many Adjusters must await the end of the mortal life span in order to be freed of the experience of indwelling the being for its own experience. The mortal has chosen not to survive in many cases, or there is nothing to show up at the roll call for nothing was developed, no decisions were made.
Your concern for your fellow man is inherent in your love for the Master who loves all of his children. Our hope is-that all God's children will turn to him in adoration of his creating them. Now, if their life is so dreadful they are not impressed, it will be very difficult, but not hopeless, to allow them to see your light of truth which is a radiant reflection of the value of the relationship between the mortal and the divine.
We are, again, fully appreciative of the work involved, but we are untiring in our efforts as are myriad of other helpers. We are encouraged by your presence here today in this Teaching Mission setting for it would indicate that you too would be inducted into an army of teachers and believers in Michael's ascension plan that will embrace all of creation into the Kingdom.
Elyssia: Tomas, what did you say about how people who seek alms? How can you handle that?
TOMAS: I believe I indicated that, in terms of those who are alms seekers, you are capable of dealing with that, in-as-much as they are not making great demands. You can well afford to accommodate a certain degree of poverty eccentricity if it is not a matter of complete and total shamming.
Aren: What is it you define as an alms seeker?
TOMAS: A beggar. One who would ask for financial or supplemental aide without contributing any exchange but his or her own existence; it is a total donation.
I will go on with my words to indicate that our assignment here, our request to look at these things, was to look at your own habitual reaction to life as you see it. As you have touched upon, there is a lengthy parade of personalities: many pathetic, many pitiful, some criminal, often ignorant, querulous, difficult and so forth, in your realm, and you would purport yourself as being a God-knowing, spirit-led individual.
It is very easy for you to discount and discard those who are not your social or intellectual equals, as being insignificant and unimportant in terms of your proselytizing that which has value. It is also possible for you to be in such disdain of certain attitudes and/or circumstances that you look upon your fellowman with disgust, revulsion, impatience, repugnance, anger and so forth, just by their very being and your habitual reaction to their being.
It is an exercise in discretion to ascertain how it is that you respond to your fellowman. Are you inconvenienced? If you are inconvenienced by the presence of your brother or your sister, imagine how they feel! How could they possibly put you in a position of having been with the Master if you look at them impatiently? Do you suppose the Master was impatient with his apostles or his followers? Do you suppose his attitude with them was, "Oh, hurry up! How long must I put up with you?!"
Now, I am smiling here because you have read -- in fact, He did say -- "How long must I bear with you!" on occasion, but it was not from impatience but from persistence and emphasis. There is a difference between that and generic impatience of your very being!
It is a simple reminder, my children, that as we take our God-led being into the outer arena to manifest that we are living sons and daughters of God, we stand honestly and admit all that that entails. It is not ignoring the unpleasant aspects of life. It is not being so far above the difficulties of existence that they are un-seeming, unheard of. It is not being self-righteous and pious in your spirituality, but being genuine.
That God that lives within you and me is truly real and truly loving. It is that God, through your Father-bestowed personality, that will speak to your fellows of your having been with the Master, of your having called upon God to hold your hand in this vale of tears and to bring a smile to your face. It is you who represent the Master to the masses, and how will you represent the Master in and through your attitudes? Consider this, my friends, as you go about your business this week. Are there any questions this evening? (Long pause)
MERIUM: I am Merium. I am here also, eager to hear from you. Do not think that we are going to be working in the coal mines. No. We can pick cherries if you like. Are there questions?
Tomas, we have dumbfounded them once more. [Group chuckles] Are we tired, children? (Assent) I rather hate to hang up the phone at this point in the conversation for you will think we are odious friends to bring such a deplorable topic to the feast of plenty and then not even allow for dessert! Surely there is some insignificant, trivial matter that you can bring to the table that we can sweeten ourselves upon, some reversion of some sort.
Celeste: I would like to ask about Dorian, who is supposed to be my friend.
MERIUM: Indeed.
Celeste: But I've never even sent a message! Maybe a little one. But I haven't involved myself with him at all! Does he still know that I'm alive?
MERIUM: Oh, you silly child! Your teacher has been aware of you before you were aware of yourself, and has not gone anywhere. I will suggest to you, since Dorian is such an androgenous chap, that you may want to think of him/her also as Dorcas. That way you have a female aspect of your personal teacher that you may also draw upon. It may be that you are thinking you have to talk to a male teacher in a certain frame of mind or with a certain attitude. Your teacher is very well balanced, is what we are trying to say. The complimentary aspects are very well blended. You are mature, dear. You are a harmonized personality, and your teacher reflects your spiritual composition in a peculiar way. Yes, of course Dorian/Dorcas is aware of you.
Oh here! Look! "Dor" — a door! Now haven't we found an avenue of interest to the intellect of the human!? What we are speaking to here, then, can be considered the door. When you speak to "the door," I am reminded of the picture in your art of Jesus who stands at the door and knocks. I remember, indeed, there is a door over your mantle piece. You may now consider your relationship with your personal teacher in a more intimate light, for when you knock, it enters through your door. Your personal teachers have helped to pave the way. They help whet your appetite to even knock. Has this been helpful?
Celeste: Well it's wonderful to hear about it!
MERIUM: But has it been helpful?
Celeste: Oh, it will be, yes, absolutely.
MERIUM: I feel you ought to know that all of these personal teachers are (tape turned, words lost). I will tell you one further thing and that is: you all have a tendency, more or less, to think intellectually in terms of your teachers, indeed, all of your spiritual life.
Tomas spoke to you this evening about the concept of spiritual reality, and your teachers are along the line of your spiritual reality. You are accustomed to contacting your friends and associates through the mortal appreciation of reality, through the mind and the emotions, through the telephone and letters, through communication and correspondence of a human nature; and your teachers are not in this category.
In order for you to make good contact with your teachers, you must realize that it will not be an intellectual experience; it is a morontial experience, and in terms of your growth, it may touch upon your emotions only in so far as your emotion needs to be realigned to the feeling that is fine-tuned to the feeling of the Father. And so, once your emotions have been realigned, you return again to that marvelous morontia sphere we are attaining to.
Remember that it is not an intellectual relationship; it is more spiritual. It is morontial. And this will help you in your understanding of your companions.
Celeste: That's beautiful. I'm so glad I asked.
MERIUM: I feel good about it too.
Celeste: Thank you very much.
Aren: I sense that what you are telling me is that I need to disassociate my bodily feelings, my mindal thoughts, from that of my own personal teacher. Now, it causes me to question. Well, like the other night, Tuesday night, I had a feeling in my right hemisphere, okay?
MERIUM: Yes.
Aren: So, is this misleading? To assume that is my teacher?
MERIUM: No. And I will tell you that having a feeling in the right hemisphere is not in contradiction to what I said because feelings are from the Father. The emotions are your feelings in action, and how they affect others are interwoven into your arena.
As you have lived your life and had emotional experiences, experiential experiences, you have certain impressions, some of which are incorrect; some of which have caused you difficulty or pain; and it is and will be necessary for those to be clearly understood and clarified so that your original feeling can be realigned to that feeling which the Father would have you have and know, represent and be.
And so, it is very true that your personal teachers work with you in those realms of your emotions, but for the purpose of allowing you to then be your morontia reality; and often this involves your intellect for it is how you think about your feelings that will allow for the emotional glitch, as you call it, to take place.
This inner work with your teacher is in the realms of the intellect and the emotion frequently because of the work that is required in order to bring you around to your more real and progressively real morontia self.
The impression in your mind of their prompts is not a physical reality so much as a spiritual reality because it takes place in the spiritual circuits, and yet, as your morontia reality is activated and you become aware of the morontia energies, you can tap into the morontia circuits and they can contact you in these realms, and herein you begin to have quite a busy dance card, indeed! Has that been helpful?
Aren: Urn-hum. Yeah. Yeah.
MERIUM: Think not that your personal teachers are here to be your group therapists. If you think that your teachers are here to work on your emotional pain and intellectual twists, you will never call them up! But if you realize that they are helping you to allow yourself to align yourself to the spirit of the Father, in order that your morontia reality may be revealed, you will allow yourself to be lured into reality, a greater reality, knowing that that which is passing by, falling away, is a mere shell, a mere scaffolding of the true reality.
And in time you will become so eager to grasp your greater self, and life will become so much less of a burden, you will look to them for their constant companionship, to the extent that you may even forget that they are there. That is an attainment. But they are always there, and can be called upon for counsel as necessary, and as desired. Oh, Tomas, I have begun to wax philosophic! I guess I've been hanging around you too much.
TOMAS: I am glad you hang around, Merium. I appreciate your work, as you well understand. Are there any other questions, now that we have had dessert?
Aren: I have a question. In our reading of the ordination I had a thought, or a reflection. I recognize certain spiritual ideals or goals, and which I recognize uppermost to be with the Father and then further down Christ and then we get into, in my mind, certain ... what is it I'm looking for? I lost my thought.
What I'm trying to diagram is that I see and I feel a goal and it's like: why is everybody focusing on the ideal when there are certain steps to be taken lower (I hate to say it) down the road. Like the thought that had come to mind was: in the Book (I can't remember the quote), "by their lives they shall be known", and I would like to know of their lives! So that would be of more immediate interest to me than God's will.
TOMAS: No, it would not.
Aren: Oh, okay.
TOMAS: For you are misconstruing this to say that the apostles' lives are those which you should learn from, and the actuality is that it is Jesus' life that you can learn from as an example of He who lived the perfect existence here, as your immediate example, for it is your life, Aren, that we will look to for the reality of one who has been with the Master, not the apostles. You, my son, are the new apostle, and it is your life that will be set up as an example of one who, as a professed religionist, will be the reflection of the Father for the new age. Has that been a clarification for you?
Aren: Yeah.
TOMAS: And so the ordination is not for the original twelve in your minds eye, except for a full appreciation of their understanding of the honor and the responsibility, but rather for you to identify with them and with Christ as another human being who would follow him.
Aren: So I sell myself short by looking for goodness in humans? Is that what you're saying?
TOMAS: No.
Aren: I'm like .... Wait a second here. The thought runs across my mind of blasphemy and cold-heartedness. In point of fact I can indeed learn something from my fellow men.
TOMAS: Indeed.
Aren: And it is good. It is that I look for them.
TOMAS: Yes.
Aren: I feel like you're discouraging me? From that?
TOMAS: I regret that you feel discouraged. I obviously have failed in my communication. My understanding is that you were perceiving the excerpt to indicate that it was by and through the lives of the twelve apostles that it would be known that these humans had been with the Master. Are we following each other so far? Is that correct?
Aren: Yeah, we're on the same brain wave.
TOMAS: Alright. I am suggesting to you now that you not especially look to the lives of the apostles to see how it was that he manifested his love and life through them, but that you regard yourself as one of his apostles, that you accept the ordination for yourself as an ambassador of His Kingdom, and then, you see, it would be through your life that it will be known that you have known the Master, by your attention to his invitation to "follow me".
Celeste: That's wonderful.
TOMAS: But do we understand each other at this point?
Aren: I am not confused.
TOMAS: I am glad.
I feel you should know that I am touched by your attendance in this class, my son. I am truly, deeply grateful for -your wonderful personality and your inquiring mind. I am in agreement with our friend Gerdean in indicating indeed you have tremendous potential and I am humbled now to be witness to the reality-izing of your potential, and so welcome to this ambassadorship, my lad. I am glad to have you as a comrade.
Aren: Thank you.
TOMAS: Ladies, let us rejoice! I do believe we may have succeeded in acquiring a male member of our community.
Celeste: And an apostle!
TOMAS: Indeed. Not only have we had dessert, I think we have had the toothpick. I am going to close our evening, unless our friend Liana would like to make a remark.
Liana: I have to apologize. I am just extremely tired this evening.
TOMAS: My daughter, I will not keep you up any longer. I embrace you. We are with you in fullness. Dear ones, until we see each other again soon, remember your mundane assignment and rejoice in the results. Amen and farewell.
Group: Thank you, Tomas. Good night, Merium.
*****
DATE: May 14, 1998
LOCATION: Pittsburgh, P.A. USA
T/R’s: Gerdean and Hunnah
TEACHERS: TOMAS, MERIUM
URANTIA BOOK STUDY:
Paper 26, MINISTERING SPIRITS OF THE CENTRAL UNIVERSE
#4. The Secondary Supernaphim
#5. The Pilgrim Helpers
#6. The Supremacy Guides
#7. The Trinity Guides
#8. The Son Finders Paper 140, THE ORDINATION OF THE TWELVE
#2. The Ordination
#3. The Ordination Sermon
Sharing/stillness
TEACHER SESSION:
TOPIC:
BAMBI OF URANTIA
TOMAS: Good evening, my loyal students. I am Tomas, your faithful teacher.
Group: Elyssia, Rachel, Liana, Hunnah, Aren, Gerdean and Hester: Good evening, Tomas.
Elyssia: I'm glad you came.
TOMAS: I have gratitude for your attitude, Elyssia, for I have been in the peculiar visualization of your Bambi, and I began to wonder, when I saw that it was time to come on-line, whether or not you are becoming bored with your teacher friends, for we come along so regularly, and in some lights, say the same thing over and over. I am aware of the human propensity for liking pizzazz and glamour and glitter, the twinkle of diamonds and the thrill of miracles. I am fully aware of the vibrancy of the spiritual life and the adventure of the human existence, but I sometimes reflect how good of you to be so companionable in these configurations and to be so welcoming of Merium and I in our loyal attendance to your peculiar needs as Bambi’s of Urantia.
Your truly innocent childlike natures, innocence in terms of your childlikeness not only in the spirit but in the flesh, is so vulnerable to the vagaries of the forest. "Having somehow lost your mother, what does one little fawn do to survive?" How frightening must be this great forest. How difficult it must be for you at times and how tenderly we appreciate the vulnerable aspects of you all that must observe the vicissitudes of life, the apparent cruelties and the blows of the material existence, not to mention the betrayals and deceits of those who will not see your light of truth and your simple essence of being.
In appreciation of your pure at heart quality, we join with you in order that you may know that you are on the right track, that as you allow your souls to open and to flower, you are indeed made stronger; as you are made stronger in understanding of your inherent strengths and your destiny, you are able to do wondrous things in good faith of a friendly forest and a flowerful companion.
I am not going to go into any heavy lesson this evening, my little fawn friends, for you have each brought with you your own battlefield and I will not add large words to your already battle weary minds and hearts. Like my sister Merium, I would cavort with you and play, if not in reversion, at least in a simple appreciation of your tender-heartedness, your true purity of heart, your simple goodness.
MERIUM: Good evening.
Group: Good evening.
MERIUM: That was very tender and sweet Tomas. That was almost like a bedtime story, and their tummies are full.
I will stir the waters a bit by taking advantage of the mention (in sharing) of a young one. There are old ones who behave like young ones, and compassion is few and far between, but when you get stuck at a particular stage of development and you refuse to grow or it's too painful to grow, then you do have double pain because no one is looking at your compassionately like a troubled teenager.
Elyssia, I think it's time for you to stand in your total morontia form and you will find that the barbs will fall at her feet. There will be a -- something about taking your weapon and turning it into a plowshare? -- That the radiance of compassion and understanding and intimacy will come forth and it will be understood that you are in her camp and she can trust and come to you for understanding and renewal. It may not happen immediately but you will be there for her, but in the meantime you will be able to allow your demeanor to speak words that your lips will not necessarily have to say, and that this too shall take on a new form.
This goes on in every aspect of your lives and it involves tolerance. Not the mental tolerance that is constantly being released through your mind, not the kind of tolerance that was taught to you through your social graces but a tolerance that just IS. It arrives without notice and comes in and makes itself known and there will be nothing for you to do except anticipate the fact that this quality can be released from you, and in the least expected way.
I would also like to address this evening, since you had such an interesting sharing, I'd like to approach Aren and ask him if he is ready to take upon himself the practices of knowing "who do you serve this day? God or mammon?" At some point in your life, you are going to have to redefine who the boss is. There will be many little ones, middle men, middle management, scattered throughout who carry the pompous title of "boss" but when you have in your heart established the fact that you know for whom you are employed, it helps you to keep your perspective and it helps you to respond to those who think that they are boss or who think that they are your teacher or who have allowed themselves to be, you might say, mesmerized by human worth and human titles.
So in your own personal inner journaling, you may go in and counsel and allow yourself to be employed in the true sense of the word and redefine the pecking order in your work day. It takes a lot of perseverance to hang in there when you work for someone and think you want to leave, but always, regardless of where you are, take time to decide why you want to leave and what is it about that particular situation, as you have all expressed, "what is it about this situation that I may gain in maturity and allow whoever is involved to receive the benefits of your learning?"
Now, that doesn't mean that you have to stay in every situation that you encounter, but it is possible to stay, even in an unpleasant situation. There is a rule of thumb: if the parties involved are not receptive to the Christ, then you will be led away, but if they are in the least way responsive to the highest Way, chances are it is safe to remain in that situation.
This is not original. Remember that when we talk to you we are using your software and we are allowed to use the wealth of your personal experience in this realm. Not everything we have to say has to be a sparkling diamond or a pearl. We are in the ditches with you, digging, plowing your way until you realize that you do not have to dig, but you do have to take your equipment and reconstruct it into something useful, into a new tool that will help you understand yourself and your purpose.
You are in the Teaching Corps but you do not feel like teachers. You are in the Teaching Corps but you are very well aware that you are a student. (Phone ringing; recess)
What I am planning to do is to let you know that I know that I am not alone this evening, and that my wonderful friend and companion Tomas is just beside himself because I have said enough to set him up for at least one hour, so I hope that I have stirred the waters as I have said and that you will take my conversations with you, as Carolyn Myss would say, "as your angel coach."
When you have an angel coach, when you are in your inner counsel mode, there is no one any better than you. It was like in your text this evening, there is an impersonalization that is such a relief; it is almost like an anesthetic, so Tomas, I have them all anesthetized, I think, so now you may perform the real surgery.
TOMAS: My gracious assistant, how I do appreciate you. Alas, I see no disease here to exorcise. I am, however, willing to entertain questions and engage in discourse. I know there are realms, philosophic realms that border upon the spirit worlds that provide fodder for the mind of many, hovering in the recesses of your gray matter.
I am aware of our many hours on "psycho-babble" and that is always interesting, but I am also aware of a more philosophic realm: I was engaging in preliminary discourse with Aren of late; I have heard the topic of forgiving tolerance touched upon; and there are many things; but, as I said, I am not going to give a lesson. I would like to include you with us. Sometimes we steal the podium and cannot let go for the need is great, but sometimes too you need to be heard, and so what have you to say this evening, loyal comrades?
Elyssia: I have a question from our assignment last week. I wondered if -- we're supposed to sort of change our habitual response, but are we trying to, for instance, raise the level of the moment or can we just try to change our responses to get a feel for being different in our reactions?
TOMAS: Let me suggest that as you allow yourself to be aware of yourself in your inner actions, and as you observe your responses and disapprove of them as a result of your observation of them, you can do nothing about it at the moment, for the damage is done, the milk is spilt, but you can be aware in your mind of what it is that you are doing when you do that.
If you have a habit, for example, of speaking down to public servants because they are "public servants," that will reflect upon your attitude as to the subject of master and servant, would it not? And would it not then also give rise to the potential meditation of the Master of "he who would be the master of all will be the servant of all" and to be a servant is in potential to be a dear friend, and so would you speak to your friend this way? No. A dear friend deserves your esteem and regard, and the person on the phone or in that position, then, in your mind's eye, has become expanded and you now have broken the habit because you are aware.
I will point out to you that I am knowledgeable that you, in your habit-breaking processes and the building of new habits, are much like, shall we say, a homemaker, a housekeeper, and it seems that you no sooner dust than you need to dust again, or every time you vacuum you need to turn around a vacuum again, and it seems that the job is never done, but that's not true because you learn to do it expeditiously.
It's the same way in learning new habits. If you don't want to vacuum all the time, you quit throwing things on the floor! And it's the same way in a habit of speaking down to public servants. If you don't want people talking down to you, don't do it to them!
It's a lesson in "karma" if you will, in cause and effect, for you are truly connected to everyone. There is such a powerful connection between you. You have no idea of the support that you can give each other and will give each other once you have learned who you are and what your relationship to the Infinite Spirit is, and how you are connected with those around you. And after they have come to realize their connection with the Spirit, you will not recognize Urantia, when that day comes.
In the meanwhile there is a lot of housekeeping to do, a lot of bad habits to break, a lot of new realities to bring into being, a lot of new awarenesses to adopt and instill into your universe. It may seem like a simple assignment, but it has long-range and lasting effects, and so to the extent that you apply yourself at all, we are appreciative.
Rachel: Tomas, then we should be sort of making daily affirmations of positive movement forward daily, to clean the crap out of the attic so to speak and replace it with new.
TOMAS: I will confirm that value lesson but I would like to take it one step further and this is in honor of Teacher Daniel that gave this lesson that I witnessed and it has to do with the fact that there are differing levels of reality, and affirmations are one, but when you bring in a morontia reality you have added a verve and a level of reality to your life that far supercedes a mere affirmation, a mere habitual recitation to put you in a positive self-hypnotic frame of mind. When you have invited the spirit to share with you your human experience, you have gone beyond a mere affirmation. You are literally actualized in faith. But, of course, you are correct. It is along that line, yes.
Rachel: So we're really actualizing more than affirming.
TOMAS: In the ideal, certainly. Indeed you are, for if you are merely affirming and changing a simple habit that remains a habit, you are not actualizing. It is in bringing in the spirit, making it real for you, making yourself part of this greater reality, that actualizes you. Affirmations are more mental and emotional than spiritual. You see the difference?
Rachel: Yes.
Liana: But I do think that affirmations -- these ideas that we hold in our minds that are so stuck there, that we have to start somewhere, that affirming a reality like "I AM" -- that's a way that you can get started.
TOMAS: Indeed. Can you imagine where one would go if you were to say, "I AM a daughter of I AM" or "It is my will that His will be done." These are powerful affirmations of a great spiritual reality.
Rachel: That become reality.
TOMAS: Yes.
MERIUM: You must allow yourself to take that affirmation into the quiet and release it in order to keep it fresh and alive or it will become vain words of repetition.
Hunnah had a card at one time that said, "I am whole, healthy, harmonious,..." many, many words. And she would look at the card and parrot the words but in her heart she knew that she did not believe what she was reading with her mind, so let me tell you that your affirmations may act as a cup of water into your dry well to lubricate or to assist you to drop your pail of receptivity into this well of knowledge that you carry with you at all times.
And when you go, you will go with the recognition, to be renewed and refreshed with living water that will sustain you, and then when you share the knowledge of the sum of this experience, you will have a fresh response to your world and you will see it with new purpose and surprise.
Liana: So when you do the affirmation, if you do the affirmation with a hearts desire, with an intention that's in your heart, then I would think that it would be more effective.
MERIUM: Yes. There will be a response, a recognition of the fact that this is the sort of the particular affirmation that you want to work with. I will give you an example: "Create in me, O Lord, a pure heart that I may come to know and love thee in light." That may not be in proper sequence but it is in the form of an affirmation and if you are not into the meat of it, let yourself read something else and then ....
In other words, there is a preparation to lift yourself out of your everyday state, bring you up a little higher, and then when you read that affirmation, if you are reading it or if you are remembering it, it's revitalized.
Rachel: Isn't it the desire, though, the true desire behind the affirmation that creates its reality? If you truly, truly desire it in your heart and soul.
TOMAS: Sincerity, yes. Your motives, yes. Remember we read this evening about false prophets who profess to have done many wonderful works in His name, but He says, "I know you not," and remember, too, the lesson on prayer, that God hears the soul's attitude, not the mouthed words; and so, yes, it is the soul's attitude that is meaningful.
It is sincerity that will advance you in spirit reality, although the words of an affirmation, in a sincere heart will help you put yourself into a frame of mind that provides a good platform for good practices of a spiritual nature. This too is a part of a good spiritual program, to put yourself in mind to grow. You provide yourself with good fuel.
MERIUM: There are those who have taken a short affirmation and stayed with it for a very long time and what happens is, it is as if they blend with it. Perhaps you can experiment with this. Choose an affirmation, perhaps one that someone else has written or make your own, and really make an effort, and all the further you can carry this effort is to the Father's feet. Take this and work with it and perhaps you will like it. Some people do very well with affirmations; they are like traffic signs to keep you on course.
Rachel: Well, besides affirmations, then, can you give us another exercise that would -- I mean, I personally have been trying to re-program my life. My mind here. About my thoughts and feelings about myself,
MERIUM: In Hunnah's background there is a book by Casey called "Search for God" and in each chapter there are affirmations that are listed that are not lengthy. They are still used like that cup of water in the pump. They are simply a hiking stick, a staff that companions you. "Create in me, O Lord, a pure heart." "Speak Lord, thy servant heareth." Words are tools, but you are still implying that it is something you have to do externally in order to do that which is internal. It is a trying element here and a mental strain. We are trying to bring you into a resting place. I would prefer, since you have such a literal mind, that you allow yourself to do very light visualization and let go and wait upon the Lord. "Wait upon the Lord."
Rachel: Oh, I like that one.
MERIUM: Very good.
Aren: Tomas?
TOMAS: Yes, Aren.
Aren: If "to err is human" and divine is not to err, how is it that we do develop trust in our fellow humans?
TOMAS: You trust the human as an act of faith. It is possible to develop faith in your fellow man by his worthiness to your trust. Remember, "by their fruits they shall be known" and as they have shown themselves trustworthy, then you may place your trust therein. Is that responsive?
Aren: Yeah.
MERIUM: Aren, we were talking about affirmations. Try this: "Thou knowest my every need." You say, "Thou knowest my every need." That will allow you to wear the harness, the yoke that is easy and the burden that is light.
If you work with man, you will indeed encounter man in all of his various performances. Remember, man is fear-based as you have pointed out, and they are, you might say, doing things by the skin of their teeth; they are in constant fear of losing their own job. They lie, they steal, they cheat, and they also wear suit and ties and look pretty innocent, but if you work for the Lord you do the best you can. I am sure that you will find that your situation will be defined and that the task at hand will be less difficult.
Remember we have taught at the meetings that we all have a Thought Adjuster? In your prayer, acknowledge the Thought Adjuster of the other individual and you will help that Thought Adjuster to have a better response from the other individual, and perhaps not necessarily in your situation and you encountering them, but in general.
Someone has to know the truth about the other fellow; someone knew the truth about you. There is a beginning platform for your awakening in every instance here. Perhaps you are going to be the one in this individual's life who will be the only one who really embraced the truth about God in man.
Aren: Thanks.
MERIUM: You're welcome.
The individual that complains -- and I'm not referring to anyone in particular; we could be talking about the one that is sitting in this chair .... There was a gathering at Gerdean's and Hunnah was transmitting and started to laugh, and the guest of the evening made a remark about human whining and could not let go of the word. He kept referring to the human "whining, and whining, and whining" but it is the nature of the human to be constantly hanging on to the situation so that they can be comfortable, and you are all in the process of singing and learning to sing and not whining or feeling inadequate.
When a person whines, they feel inadequate. They are saying, "I can't stand this because it isn't easy for me." but that humanness doesn't have place to go except more of the lesser level. But when you have embraced the light, you have the ability to be distracted and lured into singing and celebrating, and when you are doing this you cannot whine. It's sort of like the difference between saying the glass is half full and the glass is half empty, so it is indeed -- and I am going to sign off at this point, saying -- "Choose ye this day whom you shall serve: God or man?" Will you see a cup half full? Or a cup half empty?
And I think that Tomas and I have given you all something to think about, because you are learning how you respond, not the other fellow. Your project on the bench here is the development of what you are, your capacity to be the wonderful you, and not to patch up what you have been that you might be more serviceable and like yourself better. Tomas, I'll leave it with you. Thank you.
TOMAS: I have really nothing more to add. Are there any pressing matters?
Rachel: No, just life. [Laughter]
TOMAS: Indeed, life can be difficult, Bambi, but remember the forest is truly a friendly place.
RACHEL: Yes, I'm getting more of that.
TOMAS: I would suggest to you that you also, in attempting to find ways to bolster your faith and your spiritual reality, remember the value in association, and stay close to your spirit friends -- in the spirit and in the flesh. All of you, embrace one another in the love that He has shown us. Peace be upon you. Farewell.
Group: Thank you so much.
*****
DATE: May 21, 1998
LOCATION: Pittsburgh, P.A. USA
T/R’s: Hunnah
TEACHERS: TOMAS, MERIUM
URANTIA BOOK STUDY:
Paper 26, MINISTERING SPIRITS OF THE CENTRAL UNIVERSE
# 9. The Father Guides
#10. The Counselors and Advisers
#11. The Complements of Rest
Excerpts from the Jesus Papers:
Paper 130, ON THE WAY TO ROME
# 3. At Alexandria, 1433B —
".... The pride of unspiritualized learning is a treacherous thing in human experience. The true teacher maintains his intellectual integrity by ever remaining a learner. ..."
Paper 169, LAST TEACHING AT PELLA
# 2. Parable of the Shrewd Steward, 1584B —"... he who is faithful in little will also be faithful in much, while he who is unrighteous in little will also be unrighteous in much. ..."
TEACHER SESSION:
TOPIC:
TRUSTWORTHINESS
TOMAS (Hunnah): I do not have a special lesson planned this evening, but there is something that's been going on in my little friend's life that has given me an opportunity to have a discourse on our very favorite subject. Recently in her gathering there was a discussion of trust, in keeping one's word. Now, in Hunnah's repertoire there have been long lists of times where she failed to keep her word. When she was living total humanness, by mental strife and effort, and this is what you are dealing with in the public scene, but it is the Father's trust that has been given you that you might fulfill a new version of what trust is in your life.
I am hoping by bringing this subject up that you will be able to take stock in your own experience and look at your own commitments that you have made in a lesser way and lift them in scrutiny, bring them up on the alter and surrender them, because trust comes from a Source where trust is alive; it's like a pulsating energy that is allowed to dwell in you, so that when you make an honorable exchange with somebody, the words are ringing with life and they will bear fruit richly and bring honor to you and your sovereign ruler.
You are living in a day and age where words are free and easy and people tell each other what they want to hear or they will make statements that will simply form as a platform to get to the next stage for their ambitions. This is building a house of sticks.
I want you to be aware in your social experience, in your government, of the loss of trust; when you say that you will try to meet a responsibility and you have not been able to fulfill it, you will confer with the individual with whom you have made the agreement, draw up new plans, and step forward into your new opportunity and you will eventually be able to meet your commitments that you have made with this honor.
I feel that Hunnah is accusing me of being a male Merium this evening. I am bringing a very heavy subject in and putting an apron on it, she said, but it is something for you to ponder when keeping one's word is so important. Your forefathers who developed this government had to come together and make sacrifices, and at that time a word was all that was necessary. Historically the rising civilized individual was able to say, "You have my word on it" and this has been lost in this time of instant gratification, this bondage to the human senses.
Your challenge this evening regarding trust and keeping one's word is to allow this integrity that has seated itself so abundantly in you, to throw itself out like a ray. In Hunnah's yard there are renegade buttercups. Wait until Gerdean hears that I talked about buttercups! But the buttercup apparently spits its seed out a great distance and if there is some wind to help it, it will land strategically and surprisingly where it does not belong.
In this great seeding, this great wealth of integrity that is ready to be planted into the civilized world, I want you to go forth and allow yourself to release integrity into your work place, into your home. I want you to call your children's attention to keeping their word, but to know if it is a shallow promise of one who is living in the world, or if it is a thoughtful, considered agreement that has risen up inside of their developing state of consciousness.
Recently (and once again I am rooting around in Hunnah's cupboard) she found the paper that was filled with counsel regarding the voice of the one who has chosen to live in the Christ consciousness. When you live in the Christ consciousness, your words are empowered. They can fall and clot dead when they are misused but when they are used properly; they are full of energy that would cultivate the same quality in the others that you meet.
Elyssia: One of the things that happens in our society is that you often are asked to make commitments when the very lack of consideration of the possibility would be a not easy thing to do, either, so there is another side to it, too, isn't there, Tomas? There's that end of it.
TOMAS: That is why it is so important for you to be continuously remembering whom you serve. For as many are gathered here, there are examples of where you might feel that this cannot be applied, but it can because you will stand and represent integrity and when we are talking about "within reason" and who are they speaking to?
They are speaking to their own state of consciousness when they talk to you and ask you for less than they should. They can only be who they are. If they are of small-minded design, with shallow principles, and approach you with their shallow standards, you have the opportunity to gracefully bring them into another view, another way of looking at the situation.
You are diplomats. It does not matter if you live pretty much by yourself. This integrity is like a light ray and it will be "on" if you are consciously remaining connected.
Elyssia: In other words, we can find opportunities to prove our integrity much more often than we are actually aware of. Is that one of the points that you are making?
TOMAS: I want you to simply be aware that integrity is a part of the reflected quality of your being, and that in the course of your interaction with the public, that it should be the influencing standard and that you can raise every situation up where you are involved, that your ethics have been polished.
They are being brought forth into pristine proportions and that they will influence whatever negotiation or exchange you have, whether you are at the supermarket talking to someone who thinks they are or are acting like they were a hypochondriac that same resonation will be the dominant and it will lift them up. When someone approaches you with a lesser view, you will be able to bring it into another perspective and help that individual to meet a higher standard. We have to return to the time where you can say honestly and with integrity, to the degree that it is connected with the right Source, "You have my word." I would like to hear from you.
Celeste: While we walk with God, I would think integrity would be a very natural way to be.
TOMAS: That is it. That is what I am trying to say, thank you. You have released these words because this has been your demeanor, but when you are meeting those who are not able to meet this standard, your example is very readily needed.
Celeste: And that's another time when you could send out an awful lot of love to somebody and try to help them find the same thing that you're finding.
Hester: Love conquers all.
Elyssia: Well, I think that I can certainly, for sure, pass this along to my kids. I know that for a fact because ... I think they are open to that suggestion because, first of all, their father is a man of incredible integrity. I hope, certainly, that I have integrity but I have to say that he is a person of incredible integrity and so they are very open to suggestions that this is important and that the world can benefit from their use of integrity. I think that I can influence them slightly, possibly. It isn't common, probably, in this day and age for people to think about as much as they should.
TOMAS: Everyone is very busy. There isn't anyone sitting at this table who is too young or too old to remember in their background the various characters in their life and the different levels of integrity they have witnessed to this point in their experience, but what I am saying is that you will be given opportunities to help people to cultivate and to return to a different standard.
Elyssia: One of my concepts of integrity is consistency. To be there. To be there for friends who depend on you. That's kind of an integrity to me, and -- probably we have to think more and more about it -- being there for friends.
TOMAS: I would like to comment here about my transmitter this evening. She does not know what to do about sharing the program and I would like to allow her to invite Merium to come in. Shall we be quiet for a moment?
MERIUM: Good evening.
Group: Good evening, Merium.
MERIUM: Hunnah feels as if she had a great big pair of man's shoes on her feet and a big hat! [Group chuckle] That was something!
Elyssia: A big pair of shoes!
MERIUM: Yes. Do you remember playing dress-up when you were young? Well, that's what she said that she felt like. It was in (tape malfunction)
*****
DATE: May 28. 1988
LOCATION: Pittsburgh, P.A. USA
T/R: Gerdean and Hunnah
TEACHERS: TOMAS, MERIUM
URANTIA BOOK STUDY:
Paper 27, MINISTRY OF THE PRIMARY SUPERNAPHIM
#1. Instigators of Rest
#2. Chiefs of Assignment
#3. Interpreters of Ethics
#4. Directors of Conduct
#5. The Custodians of Knowledge
#6. Masters of Philosophy
#7. Conductors of Worship
Paper 143, GOING THROUGH SAMARIA
#7. Teachings About Prayer and Worship
TEACHER SESSION:
TOPIC:
REST IN WORSHIP
TOMAS : Good evening, everyone. I am Tomas, your teacher.
Group: Elyssia, Celeste, Hunnah, Aren, Gerdean, Hester and Rachel: Good evening, Tomas.
TOMAS: I am delighted to be with you again, as always. Merium and I are honored to be your companions, supernal helpers, seraphic guides and friends. We are eager again to engage with you and yet a cursory perusal would indicate an unfortunate exhaustion prevails in the transmitter here and Merium may encounter a similar case in her T/R. I will curtail, therefore, my engagement this evening, for when my T/R is weary, it affects her ability to let go and allow me free reign. She has a tendency to think she is working too hard and that I am not doing the job. So, I would have spoken this evening at length on a couple of my favorite topics, to-wit: love and worship and perhaps how they juxtapose but I will not because of the aforementioned reason. Merium?
MERIUM: Good evening, everyone.
Group: Good evening.
MERIUM: It is good to be with you and we're going to just have a little tete-te-tete and then I'm going to let you go. I want to tell you that this is one of the problems that we have to deal with on our side, is your full plate. You just have to be everywhere and do everything, eat everything, try everything? And you were talking this evening about having the experiences of the mundane. These things that you have done again and again and again and you are so inured with them and set such a groove in your record that you do not know how to not do them, so I am bringing this to your attention.
It is true that the social situations that you are in sometimes demand a great deal of you but even within that close framework, please step aside and look at what's going on. Tuck yourself in early. Take catnaps if you have to. Lighten up. Do not add anything extra if it isn't necessary. You have to leave space for the spontaneous response and if you do not and you cannot, allow yourself the indulgence and the pleasure of serving the Master on short notice. You are under heavy wraps.
I will tell you for Hunnah that she had the rewarding experience today of "mindfulness". She might be able to tell you about it herself, but she was able to take the energy that would normally be very annoying, that would fuel impatience, and utilize it in a better way; she was aware of this and it is very satisfying. I hope that you, too, will practice the art of mindfulness. Allow yourself to simplify your experience by paying attention to the activity that you are having in the moment.
When you have a full plate you can find some nuggets of pleasure, of enlightenment, awareness and your friends will wonder how you can keep a cheerful countenance when so many things are going wrong. It is possible when you allow the fresh definition to guide your life.
In your text this evening, they talked about worship, worship in a sense that you cannot possibly comprehend in your immediate experience. This is such a primer here; it can only tell you that we do learn literally how to worship in a way that you cannot possibly comprehend, but it is of paramount importance that even at the level that you are in, that you allow yourself to worship. It is truly your full time job, but you are so used to having to survive that you have forgotten that worship is your business, your only business.
I will tell you one other story, about shifting energy. I could release Hunnah to tell it off the tape, but we were very happy that her Teacher was able to shunt the overwhelming feeling of developing self-pity, perhaps, when she was full enough to want to cry. Her car hit a blackbird in the road that was scavenging, and the thought was allowed to come to her: "It was just trying to survive!" Those words catapulted her into a new definition of human life vs enlightened living.
You are truly leaving "just trying to survive", from the fear base of your human inheritance where everyone is just trying to survive, making ends meet, doing what has to be done, working in a few moments of human pleasure. You have moved on, away from that philosophy, and you are allowed to more than just try to survive. You are allowed to be one rocketing experience within the privacy of your inner self after another of new enlightened definitions that will utilize your energy instead of letting it leak out and creating intense fatigue within you.
You are leaking sieves, but when you allow yourselves to learn how your body works, and how it can become a beautiful cylinder that will hold this chalice of truth that you are, then you will find your life fulfilling, you will not be in the dregs of "just trying to survive" and being a slave to your senses, your physical limited senses. Life is not meant to be a scramble.
So I hope that you will all allow your teachers to send one line of definition in like a life-saving device that will help you suddenly come alive with an impersonal observation of a new truth, of a new awareness, and that is manna to you, that will strengthen you, that will keep oil in your cup, and then you will have something to offer someone when they come to you. You will never be bankrupt, emotionally, and your cup will never be empty.
This is a short story this evening and it has given me pleasure to tell it to you because we were so thrilled with Hunnah's response to the half-dead to suddenly alive, just by this miniscule movement of a few words to her receptive and ascending individual.
So blessings to you all. Take the challenges that are pressing you and embrace them. Hunnah had a teacher named Joel who said, "No problem ever leaves until it has served its purpose." If you are without a problem then shop for one because it is an opportunity; it is like play. You can design it. You can make it very useful.
If you were handed a cardboard box that was empty, one person would say, "I think I'll throw it away," another would say, "Oh, I just love boxes; I can put that to use somewhere," another would hand it to a child who would make it into a rowboat, so use this marvelous imagination that you have been given to be resilient, resourceful, and find great pleasure in solving the challenges of every day living.
Blessings are abundant this evening. We enjoyed your lesson and there is always that sweetness of camaraderie. Thank you for letting me tell my story this evening. Good night.
Group: Good night.
TOMAS: Thank you, Merium.
Elyssia: Merium, I want to tell you we very much enjoyed your lesson last week. I was using the examples of fluff the pillows and get two sets of car keys and I used it to get to an atheist in the midst of my family. I used that opportunity to tell her about the teachers, and what they do and say, and I was thinking about integrity that Tomas talked about, and last week I thought I had a lot of integrity, and today I thought I didn't have any integrity! So I went one complete rotation, a full garnet of this, but I wanted to say that I finally got what I thought was a voice that wasn't mine.
I was so desperate and so angry and upset about the thing we were talking about -- having too much to do -- and I began to complain to myself and then this voice came along and started asking questions of me about my condition and it was really quite funny and very helpful, so I didn't get a chance to finish this but I'm going to finish it because I really enjoyed it, which was a chance to complain. And then the voice started taking me though the steps, you know, "What's your problem? Well, now, what should you have done?"
This helpful voice was leading me along, so I felt that I got something out of this desperate ... I got something I've been wanting for a long time, which was a voice! A voice that wasn't preaching me.
MERIUM: A coach.
Elyssia: It came from last week.
MERIUM: You have allowed yourself to be "in touch". Tomas? Are you ready?
TOMAS: Tomas is ready. Gerdean is still wavering on a fence. However, I am glad to hear your testimony, Elyssia, regarding your contact with your guide. It is gratifying when you have these breakthroughs for it is testimony to you that indeed you are not alone and you do not have to live your life by your own wit and cunning. You can garner guidance from your helpers.
It is still regarded largely as a fantasy-land concept by mortals here, but more and more you will find the concept taking hold and as you yourself have these kinds of experiences, bringing God into your everyday existence, making life more intimately interesting by far, you will give credibility to the concept of angelic helpers and seraphic guides. Are there questions this evening?
Elyssia: Could you give us a little bit of a picture of worship beyond this planet? Because you people have taken us beyond the Book in so many other ways.
TOMAS: Yes, I can. I will tell you this about my own worship experience, for example, and relay it as through my original home environment, my mortal existence, and I remember telling you about my home life and my work life.
I was married and had four sons and my wife Janus and I, along with our sons, would engage in a family season of prayer and worship. Much as your Sunday dinner congregates around the table, we congregated around the spiritual table laid out for us by Father. It was a community occasion, and yet we all individually approached Our Father, yet in the individual energies engaged in communion, the -- shall we say "jubilee", Elyssia -- was even lighter and more poignant because of the contributed energies of the group of us.
This was something we engaged in with great delight. It was not an obligation but rather a true enjoyment and it gave rise to many, many creative approaches to our family life, for many times we would go into our worshipful sessions full of advisements from one another as to the best way to approach a certain situation, (and this is similar to how you are here,) but under the circumstances in-as-much as we took our situation to the Father, we were given such interesting feed-back, we could share this feed-back with each other at the conclusion of our worship session and we engaged then in wonderful works together as a family in service and in recreation as well as augmenting our individual life paths.
Indeed, the process of praying together and worshipping together is a very bonding experience, a very cementing (if you will) experience in the lives of believers. Once you have engaged in these quality sessions of acknowledged association with the Eternal Parent, the First Source and Center, you overcome the self-consciousness, you gain energy and enthusiasm for the process, you begin to make more dates with divinity and it begins to affect your life in such a way that you realize that you could not go on without these seasons of repose for they have made such a difference. And as you advance in your circles of attainment, as we too have advanced in our circles of attainment, these experiences are intensified and increased in such a way as to bring sheer delight.
Elyssia: Thank you. That's wonderful. May I ask you if you were able to hear your Thought Adjuster when you were in your material body? Did you make the first circle?
Tomas : I am pleased to say that I was indeed in contact with my Adjuster although it was (how shall I say?) somewhat muffled, for I was an ascending son like you and not that much more advanced, although somewhat. It is, as it says in your text, exceedingly difficult for the Thought Adjuster to make direct and constant communion with the mortal associate, but much of this has to do with the fact that you must continue to relate to others in your material environment and this requires a focused attention on the task at hand.
Remember, for example, I told you I went out into primitive cultures and studied the peoples and their ways of life. And although I was in contact with Our Father, I was not as readily accepting of the words of my Adjuster in those circumstances, as I was at home at the table with my companion. This is in part because of the increased spiritual energies of association.
Elyssia: But it makes me think that you might have been hearing teachers coming through. You must certainly have been doing that.
TOMAS: As long as you understand that this Teaching Mission is unique to this planet at this time, and teachers such as you know were not necessarily a part of our frame of reference. We were in fairly good contact with the midwayers as I have mentioned, and yes we were aware of Morontia Companions and many times we were aware of the guidance and ministration of angels and other seraphic helpers, but we did not have teachers in the same sense that you have because we were more advanced and we were not as troubled.
Now, I say "we" but it depends upon the background. Merium's background was not the same as mine, but they were similar enough that we both are benefiting through the tromp through the mud and learning things that we would not have learned otherwise, because of our more evolved native spheres.
Merium: There are flowers here.
Elyssia: I think it's the most marvelous thing to think of this family gathered around having this spiritual time together, and having increased their closeness to The Father that way. I want a chance.
TOMAS: I will honor Merium and her T/R as well as Gerdean and her condition. Indeed I will invite you all to again hold hands and I would like to engage us in prayer for the purpose of bonding this family at the table of Michael.
“Heavenly Father, we come before you this evening at your table in front of the cornucopia of the fruits that you have provided us, your children, your ascending sons and daughters en route to You. Feed us and nurture us with these fruits and enable us to help each other chew and digest these fruits that You have bestowed upon us, in us and through us through Your divine mercy, Your infinite presence in us.
In that context, dear Father, help us to realize not only Your presence within us ourselves, but within each other, and help us to realize that the presence of You within our Brethren is that quality which will enable us to rise up to great heights in honor of You, because we know You and we see You and Your love reflected back, encouraging us to go on with the many adventures of our eternal career.
Father, embrace us as we go forward into today and into tomorrow. In light of truth and in devotion to our Creator, Father/Brother Michael and his Divine Minister, we pay homage, we give thanks and we rejoice in the experience of knowing God. Amen."
*****
DATE: June 4, 1998
LOCATION: Pittsburgh, PA, USA
T/R: Gerdean
TEACHERS: TOMAS, MERIUM
Stillness & Prayer
URANTIA BOOK STUDY:
Paper 28, MINISTERING SPIRITS OF THE SUPERUNIVERSES
#1. Tertiaphim
#2. The Omniaphim
#3. The Seconaphim
#4. The Primary Seconaphim
#5. The Secondary Seconaphim
Paper 140, THE ORDINATION OF THE TWELVE
#4. You are the Salt of the Earth
TEACHER SESSION:
TOPIC:
MATURING IN GOD-CONSCIOUSNESS
TOMAS: Good evening, my friends. I am Tomas. I am here. I am here with Merium and we greet you in good cheer this evening and are in honor of your very being.
Elyssia: Thank you for coming.
Hester: Good evening, Tomas, and all the rest of you.
TOMAS: We have very much enjoyed your studies this evening and the wholesome aspect of your familiality. You have indeed come a long way. We have enjoyed observing your becoming adult in spirit. It is, of course, an on-going process and as you attain a certain level of perfection attainment, of personality realization, it is true you will be given yet new opportunities to begin again on another learning process, again proving to yourself that you are a child of God in need of His direction and strength.
But how wonderful, how marvelous when you attain these realizations of maturity that allow for you to advance in good faith of the process of maturation in God-consciousness. Your reading this evening regarding the many seraphic helpers throughout the cosmos has given you, subconsciously at least, a divine perception of your assistants in your ascension. Although it may not be clear to you for some time the strength of these reflective spirits, you will begin to realize glimpses of their work even in your own lives.
Let us take for example the Censors. The Censors are a highly advanced life form and yet you yourself are touched by these Censors for in due course they will work in and through your own mind, since your mind is a part of the Infinite Mind of the Third Source and Center. You will begin to realize, and perhaps some of you can now, in terms of your social graces, when to "bite your tongue" and censor your remarks, allowing instead the flow of the moment to proceed unchecked by your censor.
Your understanding of joy, also, is and will be augmented by the realization that there are entities throughout the universe who are working unceasingly to allow you to have the opportunity, the occasion, to realize joyousness, that not only is joy desired, it is encouraged, it is necessary. The ascent is sometimes regarded as a drudge, "trudging the path to happy destiny", and yet we speak of the joy. The joy is not always that deep, quiet font of faith within, but often erupts in joyous outpourings and childlike glee in your very midst. And when this occurs, allow for these joyous moments to refresh you. Consider that it is, perhaps, the result of the efforts of these spirits who promote joy within.
In due course you will begin to appreciate more and more these helpful ministering spirits. In due course you will begin to appreciate the extended help that you have, and I daresay you will seek more and more contact with this help as you discover the isolation of experiential depths in your arena. Remember you must take what you have learned into your universe and teach it to those who are below you, and when you yourselves are at the lowly level that you find yourself, it is perhaps discouraging to realize that you must work in these trenches in order to bring about the joy and the realization of the potential of the divinity within the lives of your brothers and sisters.
Call upon these helpers, these reflective spirits. Ask for greater wisdom, as has been suggested. Ask for greater faith. Ask for endurance and for the camaraderie of peers. As it is said in the scripture, "We need more workers in the field. Here am I, Lord. Send me," knowing now full well that you do not go alone into that good night. Merium is with me also this evening and would share a few words. One moment please.
MERIUM: Hello, my friends. I am Merium. I am also here and am in a bit of a straight-jacket, since Gerdean is not as light as my regular T/R and poor Gerdean has a head cold, so I probably will not stay long. I don't want to spread the germs. I do, however, want to come and say hello...
Elyssia: Hello.
Celeste: Hello.
MERIUM: … and enjoy your evening with you. Perhaps it would move things along if I sat back and said, "Are there questions?"
Elyssia: It was stated in the Book that we could be perfect and I did question that, and the group was helpful in discussing it, and yet I would appreciate perhaps some comments from you, Merium, or Tomas, on the subject of trying to be perfect.
MERIUM: Well, I don't know about you, darling, but I'm about as perfect as I can get! [Group laughter]
Hester: We all are.
MERIUM: Today is the day that I am most perfect. Today is -- what is it they say? "Life is but a day's work, do it well." and I am doing it admirably! Therefore, I am as perfect as is required of me. I am in perfect purpose. My sole purpose today is to serve the Master, to serve you, to serve the Father, to serve in love, to enjoy love, living love, loving service. Therefore I am virtually selfless except for my desire to do good to others, and so what could possible be hanging me up from perfection?
The antithesis of perfection, I suppose, if we must go there, would be stumbling around lamenting that things aren't going our way, in which case we are probably functioning a little less than perfectly. I know that there are schools of thought and philosophy that would deny that truth, but again, these are philosophies and in many ways they are exercises.
I am going to borrow on Gerdean's mind much as I borrow on Hunnah's. Gerdean lived for many years in a fear of the concept of perfection and she rather kept the door closed on the idea that she could be perfect even now. And this is based on, not only in her case but in all of you who have this as a problem, a simple matter of poor self-esteem and lack of confidence in yourself as a child of God. Even as you are a human being you are allowed to be relatively perfect. That is to say, you already know that you aren't ultimately perfect, but you can be as perfect as you can be.
Now, perhaps the real zinger here is when you realize that if you do not assume yourself to be perfect, relatively perfect, you are not assuming appropriate responsibility for what goes on in the universe. As long as you sit back and whine and deny your own perfection, you are saying, "God is going to have to wait for me," and that is a way of sustaining ego control over Our Father's universe. It is therefore helpful if you can bite the bullet and say, "I am perfect. I am as perfect as I can be at this moment. I am perfect because I am a child of God who smiles upon me, who loves me, who realizes my limitations and who is working with me in a gracious and merciful way to enable me to grow in grace and maturity.”
Elyssia: Oh, that sounds good.
MERIUM: Let me remind you that I love my little ones and I look at you often as if you were toddlers, you know, and I can see you each with your little curls and your ribbons, your knickers and your soft white-soled shoes, and I tell you each of you little darlings are utterly perfect even though, of course, you soil your drawers, you smear jam in your hair, you wake me at 2:00 a.m. to feed you and all manner of irksome behaviors.
I can say at any rate that you are perfect because you are doing what one does at that age! And so even now, even though you err, it is understood that you will err. In understanding, though, that you are perfect, relatively perfect for today, you can assume responsibility for yourself and you can reflect the light of truth and the love of God in your arena because you are not blinded by inadequacy and false humility.
Hester: Good.
Elyssia: Well, I have a question about visiting a friend, and I prayed, before I went into the hospital room, and I was hoping that I would have a lot of sense about how to talk with this friend, but it didn't happen. And I'm trying to think about it because I'm sure this type of thing will come up again. So, I know that she's very tired and that she would like to leave. Her struggle is very difficult, and that's what she was saying to me. She would like to -- I'm sure that if she could possibly end her life, she would.
It's just a great struggle. It's just heart-breaking, anyway, but she's so brave and she's so good that she wouldn't do that. She loves her family and she would never take it upon herself to end her life but her agony, her wish, her desire was very strongly there. She didn't put it in words, no. I would like to have gone after ten minutes. I felt that her struggle was too much, but then I thought it was wrong to leave so abruptly, and so I did stay, but in thinking about it later, if I could have just thought of some gracious way to leave.
MERIUM: Let me tell you how perfect you are, Elyssia, in your sincere response to the incident that you portray. Remember the Master when he was alone in the garden of Gethsemane and his chosen few friends who attended with him kept falling asleep, and he was going through an ordeal very similar to the one your friend is going through, and yet his associates kept nodding off on him, and he would come along and say, "Hey! Can't you see I need you with me? Can't you see I'm suffering here? I need your association. Be my friend. Stand with me. Sit with me. Don't advise me! You don't have to say anything! Just stay awake!"
And you did that, my dear. You sat with the woman." That private moment that she had been experiencing is her own private agony in her own Gethsemane, and as a friend, you did not pump her full of advisements or even social amenities, but you sat with her and comforted her with your presence.”
Do not be hard on yourself. You have asked the Father to guide and direct your words and your actions, and he will do that, dear. You must trust that you are acting in accordance with His Will. Trust your own divine understanding of your own integrity.
Elyssia: I think that -- I appreciate so much what you are saying. I think that I would like to -- perhaps the group will help me -- I'd like to bring this up sometime, maybe, to the group then, and have them give me some ideas about what you can talk about when you are with somebody who is in this state of mind, and I think that I'll probably get some good ideas from the people around me.
MERIUM: I remember when Jesus spoke to his apostles he told them not to worry about what to say, that when that moment came the words would be there for you. Open your mouth and let the words come forth, for your spirit is willing. It is a way of transmitting truth, beauty and goodness as appropriate to the moment, as given to you by the Spirit of Truth. Have faith, again, in yourself and in your co-working status with divinity.
Accept for yourself this knowledge and understanding of your part in the plan of divinity attainment. It is true that the recognition of your own inherent worth can help bring about that day wherein we can begin to behold fusion on Urantia. Accept this possibility for yourself and perhaps in due course those who suffer these demeaning deaths will be allowed to translate, but you must evolve your faith without fear.
Elyssia: Oh, I don't think this beautiful person has any fear. She is not afraid. She just -- she knows where she's going. She is just wonderful, but she is having to -- because of her faith she is going to stick it out. She is going to stick out whatever discomfort she is in. She is making that good decision.
MERIUM: Understood.
Elyssia: But you know that is one of the things that is happening on this plane. Modern medicine has made it possible for this dear person to have to live when she would not have lived before. And so modern medicine is making it possible to have to go on and on and on for, of course, your family ....
MERIUM: This is why it is important that we become aware of the spirit reality that extends into your very Core and on into eternity. This is just one life. This is but the cocoon to the existence that will unfold before you for an eternity. If you had, as a race, more faith, more living faith in these realms to come, you would not hold so fast to this life, even to endure observing/ experiencing pain, extended pain, beyond compassion.
Elyssia: And yet, if you give her a choice, without her family being involved, she would have not gone into all this treatment, but you know the family is doing the urging, urging. They are always urging.
MERIUM: Understood.
Elyssia: And so if it came to your own -- If you had a situation in your own life, could you, you know, tell your children, "I'm ready and I don't want to go through all this treatment."
MERIUM: I would certainly hope so.
Elyssia: Oh. Uh-huh.
MERIUM: Well, I didn't come in here necessarily to talk about funerals, but it's okay with me. You know I can talk about anything and find great joy in it. I can make music out of the most direful dirge.
Elyssia: I wanted to report that I was getting more good things going when I was just writing down -- not trying to be a goody-goody preachy person, but writing down, in a very angry way, some questions, and then I would get answers and it happened again this week and it was very satisfying. And it went on for 15 minutes. I didn't take an hour and I didn't meditate beforehand which is another thing. It's always been difficult, a long-drawn process to be still, and I always thought you had to meditate for a half an hour and you had to read your lesson for half an hour but I just sat down and scribbled some angry questions and I got some honest, sort of, seeming answers. It was a better way for me to reach out, possibly. At the moment.
MERIUM: Yea, Maugham.
Elyssia: Yea, Maugham is right. Very satisfying.
MERIUM: I am going to move over and let Tomas back in, just for balance sake.
TOMAS: Okay. Anything else? Take your time.
Elyssia: Well, I also found out something this week. I turned off my television set because I am a real television creature. I love to listen to all of the -- I mean, I listen to the mystery channel and all the other wonderful things that there are but I turned it off and I said, "I think it's too distracting." No matter how good the program, no matter how interesting, helpful, and I've been able to find some great programs, but I think it's too much noise, it's too distracting, and just to be in a lot of quiet was a good feeling and I felt that I had much more direction' to my day! I don't know where it's going.
TOMAS: I can tell you where it's going, Elyssia. It's going up! You've been talking more to your personal guide; you have been getting answers to your soul's questions; you have been having meaningful conversations with divinity; you are absolving yourself of some of your angers and you are trading in lesser stimuli for greater stimuli. This makes perfect sense from where I sit.
Elyssia: Well, thank you for that. I didn't think my good TV was really wrong. It was always the best -- it was not -- It was noise. Not quiet, I guess. Anybody else change their MO?
Liana: I've been doing a day of silence.
Elyssia: Oh, have you!?
Celeste: Of silence?
Liana: I've had a couple of opportunities to do a day. My husband wasn't home. I just don't put the TV on and don't make any phone calls.
Hester: I turned my TV off five times this week.
Liana: I do answer phone calls, but I got one phone call one time and the other day I didn't even get one phone call! (Giggle) It's amazing how you really can get off of it all, without any side effects. There's just sort of a dialog that ...
Elyssia: Develops.
Liana: ... develops. Not for just the quiet.
Celeste: Do you read at these times?
Liana: These two days I did not even read.
Elyssia: And do you feel any effects from these days that you could describe?
Liana: Maybe Tomas could help me with that, because when I do that, it's like time is different.
Elyssia: Yeah!
Liana: It's like I'm in a time state that I'm not normally in. I'm not really going anywhere, but it's like a change in consciousness. I'm not going anywhere really, but -- like the day goes by. It's not like you would think that "if I don't have anything to do time will just drag." It doesn't have that tone at all. It feels really good. Just being able to just BE. Be yourself, and you know, dialog with your higher self.
Elyssia: And you feel refreshed by this?
Liana: Right. Right.
Elyssia: And you want to go back to it again? I mean the day passes over and you actually -- are you anxious to get back into that kind of day?
Liana: No, I don't really have that, but the next day when I'm going to have to come out of that, sometimes it's a little difficult to get back into the swing of it, to be pleasant with the events going on.
Hester: It's like going from one dimension to another, isn't it?
Liana I don't know. Tomas, are you listening?
TOMAS: Oh, yes.
Liana: Do you have any comments to make?
TOMAS: Oh, certainly.
Liana: Okay.
TOMAS: I am reminded of your material environment and how dense it can be and as you live your life you are constantly reminding yourself of time and space so that you can be connected and feel a part of. It is part of the human nature to want to belong to, and so as you think of yourself as a mortal, a human being, you are very comfortable assigning yourself to dates and times and roles and commitments and schedules and personality dependencies and so forth so that you can feel at home in your human environment, and when you absent yourself from those self assigned roles and restriction, identifications with mortality, you are much more free to rove in the realms of the morontia existence and time and space have greater freedom.
It is indeed as you say, Hester, another dimension, and a dimension that Jesus sought often, for it is in this dimension that you may access your greater reality and receive good clear guidance. Indeed you may walk among the celestial hosts of space as you have elevated yourself above the clamor of the ego existence, and yet as it is your desire to live and to serve and to love life, you will eagerly appoint yourself into your arena to work and play in the field of the Lord of your assignment on the morrow, as Jesus would return refreshed from his quiet and solitude in the hills.
I will remind you only of one further thing and that is that to fast, which is not the same, is not advisable. Fasting from stimuli is a method of medicating the soul, but fasting from the spirit, from prayer, fasting from food, is quite different. Fasting, it could be said, is what you were doing; fasting from social consciousness, and yet it is not extended. It is not endangering. It is possible for you to find such pleasure in the company of spirit and in company with your own stimuli that you do not find joy in socializing in and with your peers and/or your students or your teachers, and this would not be advisable.
Enjoy your respites into solitude. It is a most wonderful thing when you can realize that you are your own best friend and that you are not alone. Even though you are alone physically, perhaps, you are not alone in the universe. It is very strengthening, very empowering to realize that you can never be lonely again.
Elyssia: I like that so much. I was thinking about a woman I knew who was very, very wonderful, but she was not a very social person. She only became social when someone called her and visited her. Other than that you had the feeling that she preferred a very quiet life, of that sort. And so I was thinking about her the other day but it would certainly be the farthest thing in the world from the way I live, but I was remembering all the peace that I thought she had. She had a tremendous amount of peace, inner peace. When one was with her, you could sense it.
TOMAS: You must realize that each path differs and temperaments differ also. Some are just naturally more gregarious and some are more reclusive in temperament. Writers and readers are more likely to be solitary and yet those who like to commingle in a more sociable arena are those who would be uncomfortable in extended quiet. It is not necessarily better that one be one way or the other, but there are differences.
It is not wrong to be selective in your associations, as long as you are able to be effective in some way as to promote or project the Father's reality through you into the world. I say this because of the Adjuster's desire for personality expression. If it is done through a creative work, then that is effective and appropriate, whereas others are more in the social arena and spreading their joy and good cheer in other ways, you see.
Elyssia: I see. It does tend to be debilitating, though, sometimes because sometimes a lot of it is just "What are you doing? What are you achieving?" You really question it.
TOMAS: What are you questioning?
Elyssia: Somewhere in the book it says -- excessive sociability is almost sinful, almost sin. That is a quote.
TOMAS: There is a phrase of "overmuch trivial socialization."
ELYSSIA: That's it, yeah.
Hester: "Trivial." That's the key word there.
TOMAS: It is important that you socialize your beliefs. Indeed as you socialize you get to learn to love more people, and if you can learn to love one more person each day, you are truly socializing your beliefs, but it is not possible to learn to love another person when you are functioning on a supercilious level of operation. It may not be possible, either, for you to learn to love another person each day if you are shut up in a room with a computer, writing stories, but you still may be affecting people.
Elyssia: I see. Very interesting.
TOMAS: All these are manifestations of personality and character, how it is that you do express for yourself the fruits of the spirit in your life.
Elyssia: I remember when I was a much, much more solitary person, that is one of the funny things I think I'm going to say, when I was much younger, when I was a child, I was a rather solitary child and I had a tremendous amount of happiness in that world. I'm sort of thinking about that at this point.
TOMAS: You are very fortunate!
Elyssia: Yes.
TOMAS: There are different seasons in a person's life and different influences as well. Times change, character changes, adjustments are a constant. You are growing. You are now learning to find joy and embrace it. You are now learning to feel, listen for, the discernment that would cause your unruly member to be stilled because of the Universal Censor. You are becoming aware of great influences in your mind and in your life that result from the Paradise Trinity and their incredible and magnificent universe creation of which you are a part. Infinitely connected. Connected.
It is not necessary for you to plug yourself in to your material world as ardently as you once did, for now your greater reality is the cosmos, a universal neighborhood wherein it is father friendly and this could be one reason why you find the stimuli of TV and overmuch trivial socializing a lesser reality, in the face of these vibrant potential realities of infinity.
Elyssia: Oh, thank you.
TOMAS: I will embrace you all for the evening. Merium and I have enjoyed our session with you. We are grateful to you for your devotion to your own evolution and your own recognition of your relationship with our Father and his relationship with you and therefore with your brothers and sisters in and through the worlds of time and space.
Blessings upon you and farewell.
Group: Thank you so much. We love you. Good night.
*****
DATE: June 25, 1998
LOCATION: Pittsburgh, PA, USA
T/R: Gerdean
TEACHERS: TOMAS, MERIUM
URANTIA BOOK STUDY:
Paper 29, UNIVERSE POWER DIRECTORS
#4. The Master Physical Controllers
#5. The Master Force Organizers Paper 140, ORDINATION OF THE TWELVE
More of #8. Afternoon on the Lake
TOPIC:
EXPERIENTIAL WISDOM
"Father Michael and Mother Nebadonia, we come to you at the close of a long and full day and ask for your succor and your comfort, for your pat on the back for a job well done. We have been admonished that life is but a day's work, to do it well, and we have done our day's work, Father/Brother, Mother.
"Be kind to us. Comfort us and give us renewed strength. Help us to come to you now refreshed, in confidence of your over-care, of the comfort of the bed in which we lie, thanks to you. Help us to lie down upon these blankets of truth, that we might find comfort in knowing this which you have provided for us.
"Be with us in our gathering this evening, Michael and Nebadonia, and remind us throughout that we are your infinite family, your many precious children. Help us to remember, too, that you are our parents, that we would seek to grow up to be like you in all important particulars and that we can praise and exalt you throughout the superuniverse.
"When we go to see the Father in Paradise, may we look with gladness upon our life experience here in your universe. May we be able to say with joy in our heart: we come from the universe of Michael of Nebadon.
"Thank you, Michael, for this truth and this experience. Amen."
TOMAS: Well, my little children, I am Tomas. I am glad to have had a moment of repose with you and to be with you now in our configuration, this wonderful family. You are growing so close to each other. You have long been close to us, for we have loved you in our heart before you even knew us, but as you work together and play together, as you sing together and study together, your hearts have been strengthened, your minds have quickened, and your souls have deepened into a greater appreciation and understanding of the living way.
We would be surpassing superhuman if we were to attempt to address all of the myriad topics which have paraded before us this evening in your most invigorated study. Your selections from your text have been full and complete feasts. You have even enjoyed the dessert of the sweetness of your own life's applications in your sharing time. What can we possibly offer you that you have not learned how to find within yourselves and for yourselves in your own spiritual awakening and your walk with our Father/Brother Michael?
Even so, Merium and I are your loyal teachers, companions and friends in this enterprise and so we are here to embrace you and companion you, even to further your minds into the next realm of comprehension and compassion and so are there questions, commentary, remarks, arguments, et cetera that we might engage in for a period of time as it is our practice to conjoin with you in this formal format of teaching engagement? (Long pause) You are spent.
Elyssia: Perhaps you would comment about the way Gerdean is looking at those years. We're looking at various kinds of lives somehow. It must be enriching to take time to do it. It must help us.
TOMAS: Have you not reviewed your own life in perspective? Can you not remember, Elyssia, when you were in college and the life you enjoyed while you were in this university mode? Can you not remember your associations with your girlfriends? Can you not remember the fashion of the time? The development of womanhood? The ambition of tomorrow? The flirtation of the sexes? Can you not remember the music of the day and the burden of the scholastic demands? Can you not, if you give yourself a moment, remember the configuration of campus, the climate on the grounds? Can you not remember a party or two or a learning experience that contributed to your value as a human being?
These moments in time and eternity are indeed glimpses of an, eternal life. As you add one chapter to the next, the unfoldingment is indeed your life's story and it does not end on Urantia. On the mansion worlds you will look back at your experience on Urantia and you will remember momentous times in your spiritual development. You will remember all of those things which have worth, meaning and importance to you as a soul, as an individual. You will have memories of the good times and the good friends. You will recall, even then, those times of value and infinite worth, even a difficult moment here and there if it gives rise to profound truths.
In the overall, then, you can anticipate that throughout eternity you can enjoy a parade of lifetimes. There are, of course, many who subscribe to the theory of reincarnation as a mental answer to the quandary of how it is that you can appreciate so many, many life experiences and even beyond this one short life in the flesh, and it is because you are ascending to the Father and in the Father's house there are many mansions. Even in this life you have known many mansions: the one in college, the one of childhood, perhaps several. The one from your marriage, perhaps several. The one as a parent. The one as a career person. The one as a minister, et cetera.
These are lives that contribute to your greater life. The accumulation of these experiences over time gives you substance as a personality. Indeed, your experience is the greatest, most wonderful gift of the Father. This is your life, indeed, and as you live it for yourself and for Him and for your fellows, your life is enriched and enhanced, entertained, even, as a result of your giving yourself fully to it.
Elyssia: Is this something like -- this life review -- that you presumably go through when you are making the transition ... not that I read about it in the Urantia Book, but I did read in other books about people who are making the transition, they say there is a life review.
TOMAS: I will take the drama out of that concept somewhat by giving you the ability to look at it even now, for many of you when you make a significant life choice, have the opportunity to put in perspective your history. Each of you may be able to consider, in making decisions today that affect your life tomorrow, the wisdom that you have brought with you from your earlier experiences. In this perspective, then, you have gained wisdom and you are looking at the wisdom of your experience.
If you have not garnered wisdom from your experience, you will feel the paucity; you will be eager now to live a more meaningful life. If you have had a rich and abundant life, perhaps you will not feel the lack; perhaps you will now feel more inclined to do good. It is possible even now to look back and ascertain the highlights of value lessons in your life. It is not necessary to wait until you stand at the threshold between here and Mansonia. It is one of those reviews when a profound threshold is presented. Of course.
You are familiar with the insight that the moment in and of itself can be exasperatingly trivial without a perspective on the past and an anticipation or expectation of the future. It is the full range perspective that gives the moment its pricelessness that gives it its great wealth, knowing that it has been in the making, and that it will carry you into tomorrow.
Elyssia: There is a figure in day-time television by the name of Oprah. She's been doing this thing, and my friend has adopted it, where she writes ten things to be grateful for every day, and she's having such a wonderful spiritual uplift from it. I thought -- not that I would do it, but I might nibble at it.
TOMAS: Oprah is a personal friend of mine... I think it's a great idea.
Elyssia: Oh! I often think she's incredibly spiritual but I hear her made fun of by a lot of the left-brain people in the world.
Hester: They're jealous.
Elyssia: They must be jealous. I can't believe ... you were talking about joy, and so ... even though she's only a person on television, she's a person I'm interested in and I'm fascinated by the fact that you're a friend of hers. I'd love to hear about the way she moved her way through these marvelous concepts. I saw her grow! I remember her. I think we all do.
TOMAS: She is taking the Kingdom by storm.
Hester: Right.
TOMAS: It is her invitation, in her portrayal of life, to join with her.
Hester: And she's becoming a better minister than most of the ministers who stand out there giving their ministerial pitch.
Elyssia: Can you tell us some of the things you remember about her development, because we all, perhaps, could enjoy it and could even perhaps think about them. You've known her, evidently, and I understand why.
TOMAS: I fully appreciate your human thinking processes, Elyssia, but I am not going to divulge the interpersonal workings between myself and Oprah, any more than I would tell Oprah about interpersonal things between you and me.
Elyssia: I don't mean the personal things. I mean the developmental aspects. I knew that she started out with a good mind set.
TOMAS: That has had to change many times. In the undertaking to grow, you must be willing to relinquish your mind set many times, for it becomes outgrown as you grow, much like your clothing becomes outgrown as you approach adulthood. And, by the way, her growth processes are really no different than the growth processes of anyone who has experienced life fully, including the difficult parts and the radiant parts. As you ascend, you feel what is necessary; you make those decisions; you take those growth strides; you become more real. These are within the grasp of everyone.
Elyssia: She seems to have gone so very quickly through some of these upliftments, that I am admiring her quite often.
TOMAS: She is a teacher and a believer and she has a great vehicle. She has very cleverly arranged her life that she can be effective. It would behoove all of you to arrange your personal lives so that you can be effective teachers and preachers.
You discussed earlier the aspect of creating a universe, a stage production, a theatrical situation, a life indeed, and Shakespeare was mentioned as having said that "all the world's a stage" and men and women are players; indeed, also, the remark that Jesus enacted the human life for Michael. These portrayals are what the stuff of life is. You can, as actors, create your own script in conjunction with the Master Scriptwriter. You can say, "God, I can do this. Let's do something about it," and begin to wheel and deal on His behalf, on the behalf of truth, beauty and goodness.
Your personality is available to create the flavor that would whet the appetite of your peers. You each have this ability and you each do it. You could all be more adept, and this is not a burden, not even a challenge, but an invitation, to have fun, to embellish the stage, to augment the script, to bring in better lighting, to jazz up the musical score, to change the costumes, to add characters and to augment the character of your players.
You are working with the Master Scriptwriter. You have at your disposal Life Carriers, Power Directors, Celestial Artisans, United Midwayers, personal teachers, the local universe Creator and his Divine Minister. There is virtually no limit on the creativity that you can employ to be a teacher and preacher of the living gospel.
And now that we have moved the object of our devotion from the pulpit into the theater of life, how much enjoyment we can anticipate in this theater, this theater of the absurd, this theater in the round, this theater of life, the experience of life eternal.
Do not limit your appreciation to the lives of others and how they have done it, even though it is good to admire the work of your peers and to commend the efforts of those who work for and with the Father, but rejoice also in your own options, those opportunities that are available on a daily basis for you to augment the living reality, and to, as they say in the vernacular, "get a life".
Elyssia: It is great to shake ourselves out of our little ...
Hester: Nests.
Elyssia: ... out of our habitual kind of settled ways, shake ourselves up a little bit in our service.
MERIUM: I am Merium and I agree entirely. Do I not come in regularly to fluff your pillows?
ELYSSIA: Oh, you do.
MERIUM: I come in and blow the air around, just to get a different smell on board, and you can do the same. I remember your reading this evening from your text book, something about if you let it lay around too long, we'll have to come in and mess it up for you so that you don't get too lazy! I can find that exact quote if necessary, but I'm not feeling very scholastic, as usual, and so I have come in to stir up the bathwater, so to speak, and to splash you in the face so that you don't go to sleep, although I will tell you it is probably a good idea for us to pull out of here so that you can hear your lullaby song and call it a day. It has been a full day. I am not going to let it pass without my presence being known and my affection being felt.
Elyssia: We feel your affection.
Hester: We're grateful. Every little bit helps.
MERIUM: Here is another opportunity for me to strut my stuff and it is stuff that you discussed earlier in the evening and it has to do with how it is that all of you yearn for the embrace of the Mother. All of you are looking to the Divine Minister in one way or another, even though you may be unaware of it. All of you look to the Mother for that nurturance and that tenderness that can be found only through divinity.
Our human mothers are and were only human. They, too, needed the divine touch. Each of us have to find the cuddly, nurturing, condolence, compassion and tenderness that only the Mother's Milk of infinity can provide, that complete and total solace and understanding of our tenderness, our human foibles. We are indeed little ones, and all of us need to be comforted and it is no shame, even for those of us who have long since grown up, to still yearn to feel the heartbeat of the Mother, to feel the warmth of her breast, to appreciate the caressing pat on the bottom that gives us the assurance that we are safe in her loving arms, that we can do no wrong, for the Mother can forgive our silly sins because we are her little ones indeed.
Be my sisters in this pact, that we will go regularly to the Mother for comfort and consolation in our childlike nature. Not only to the Father, but to the Mother as well, for those strengths and appreciations that we know that She can give.
Celeste: That was beautiful. Thank you.
Elyssia: We certainly noticed that the Roman Catholic world enjoys their vision of the mother part of God. They've enjoyed it and they love it and they seem to want to stay with that part of God, if it could be termed that.
MERIUM: We like to emphasize, to some extent, the Mother because she has been largely overlooked in Christianity; it is a predominantly male approach to religion. The mother has been relegated to the mother of Jesus, the human Mary, and this is fine because Mary was a good woman who provided a path for Jesus that was approved by the universe: she has served nobly and ably in providing life for the Creator Son in the material form. She loved her son as all women love their offspring, but the Infinite Spirit in Paradise and the Divine Minister in Salvington, are worthy of note and homage as well as the Universal Father, the Eternal Son, the Creator Son. It is important to acknowledge the balance in the universe.
You are gender creatures. You think in terms of male and female, and many times many of you are overly sensitive about the issue of gender, feeling that male authority has usurped women or that women's issues have usurped men, and so we try to stress a certain appreciation for balance.
I will say also that the Eastern religions are rather without gender. They regard the Holy One as an IT, by and large, as energy, a power, a genderless energy, a Oneness with reality that supercedes any gender identification, and this too has value because it elevates you up and out of an understanding of God that is constantly drawing Him down to your level of appreciation. I do not say that to be disparaging, but you do know that you have a tendency to create God in your image, and this is part of it and so this is why I discuss it.
Elyssia: Possibly we ought to return to reading about the Divine Minister Mother in the Book occasionally instead of maybe reading in Jesus life, which we all love so much, but maybe a few paragraphs to keep us learning and remembering and thinking about her because it's not the custom of us to do it, there's no doubt about that.
MERIUM: This is true. There's not much said, however, about the Divine Minister. Not as much as might be said, except as you see her stupendous, munificent family of adjuncts and assistants. Virtually all of the angelic corps are of the Mother and are designated feminine, and so she has quite an array of help and they are extensively described.
Elyssia: That's true. So that's a part of the feminine, then, that we can concentrate on from time to time.
MERIUM: But remember also that even though throughout eternity you will maintain your gender identity, you will become more and more non-sex based, and so your understanding of male and female is going to change over time, so allow yourself to remain open to these changes. Do not fear change when it comes in this context.
It can and will happen even now and in the future in regard to your understanding of sex rules, for even now indeed are women going into the military and men are staying home to take care of the baby, and so these realities are going though adjustments. Men are becoming more tender. They are, today, allowed to cry. And women are using jackhammers and fly rods.
Celeste: I just can't imagine myself not being totally feminine.
Hester: I'm looking forward to the day when there's no more feminine or male. We're just going to be aspects.
Elyssia: Oh, we retain a certain, somewhat ....
MERIUM: Let me entertain you with a concept you might find enjoyable, you might not. You realize that in Paradise there is no time or space as you know it here, right?
Group: Right.
MERIUM: In Paradise there is no gender, either.
Hester: Good.
MERIUM: And so there are times when you can transcend time and space and gender. As you sit in stillness with the Father, for example, it is said that you sit with the Father, but you sit with the eye of eternity upon you. You sit within your own microcosm of perfection, and this is all inclusive, and it also transcends time and space and gender. It is a bit of a holiday for you all to get out of that understanding of who you are and recall again that you are a child of God.
Celeste: That's very interesting.
MERIUM: Well, Tomas, I am going to bow out and let you wind up class for the evening. I am glad that I get to come along. It is great fun. I may be called upon to serve next week but I am also going to attend the Teaching Mission Conference as much as possible for I am a part of the Teaching Corps and I would not miss experiencing a bounty such as this. I am looking forward to the invigoration and the stories we can tell upon our mutual return. You are well loved and your pillows are duly fluffed. Sleep well.
Elyssia: Thank you very much.
Hester: Have a great trip.
Celeste: We love you too!
Elyssia: Quickly. Please.
TOMAS: I am Tomas and I am going to call it a day. Are there any last matters?
Elyssia: I think the next time we meet I think I am going to ask if you have a message for our friend D. S. because I am going to call her and I am going to tell her that you said hello or something of that nature because she feels as if she is a part of our group.
TOMAS: I tell you what, Elyssia.
Elyssia: Yes.
TOMAS: You can use me anytime you like. I am your friend and I will stand behind you. Anytime, in good faith, that you have the inspiration to share with your friend and mine a message that might come from the heart of you or me or Michael or any one of us in behalf of divinity, you have my full permission to convey to her what you would convey.
Elyssia: I see. Uh-huh.
TOMAS: We are united in purpose.
Elyssia: We are. Thank you.
Hester: We're only separated in our physical mind, not our spiritual mind.
Elyssia: I was sending her copies of the transcripts that I collected so, after this meeting is over....
TOMAS: Then she can read personally that I greet her as my friend, and thank you Elyssia, for your devotion to our friend and to the connection that we have built.
Elyssia: Thank you.
TOMAS: My children, I wish to embrace you deeply and dearly and to let you go for the evening. We have been up late. You have heard the prayer to Michael that was given, and each word is a dewdrop upon your brow that we leave with you to comfort you in our affection for you, our undying affection. Until we meet again, you may be assured of the divine overcare of those who watch over us all. Goodnight, amen and farewell.
Hester: God bless you both, all three of you. [Laughter]
*****
DATE: July 2, 1998
LOCATION: Pittsburgh, P.A. USA
T/R: Hunnah
TEACHERS: TOMAS, MERIUM
URANTIA BOOK STUDY:
Paper 30, PERSONALITIES OF THE GRAND UNIVERSE
#1 The Paradise Classification of Living Beings
#2 The Uversa Personality Register
TEACHER SESSION:
TOPIC:
MERIUM'S MANNA
MERIUM: I am Merium and I am with you. Hunnah is recalling a lesson that her teacher once said she refused to teach. She said, "Oh, I don't have anything that I can say!" and her teacher said to her, "Oh, you wouldn't say it anyway because it wouldn't be the lesson that is prepared, it is yesterday's manna," so I greet you this evening with the manna of the moment and it will be a fair exchange. There is no need to be apprehensive.
I am delighted to be allowed to finally speak. You have been very social in sharing your challenges. It pleases us that you realize that these are challenges and that you are not the great dynamos that you have in your fantasy thoughts, and that is alright because no one is keeping score. We simply want you to be able to hit the ball periodically, because we know where to send it, and I greet you, I greet you and bless you all.
Group: Thank you.
MERIUM: What shall we talk about this evening? Shall we talk about victimitis or Mary/Martha or what Michael . . . Give me a name to go with Michael, being the Mary who is the working Michael.
Elyssia: Martin.
MERIUM: Martin? That will do. Marty and Michael. Marty wants to go and ride his dirt bike and Michael wants to be at the foot of the master. It is equally a challenge, this dual personality that you are coping with. It seems that way, anyway. You have our support and our empathy. I, of my own self, can do nothing.
You all know. You know when you're stuck and you know what to do about it, but you're all in the habit of being a bug on its back with its feet flailing in all directions. You need to, like Elyssia said, make a call and one of your own will come and assist you. It's really quite simple. (A giggle) I feel very amused. All you bugs. Oh, my, the wailing. The wailing wall in Pittsburgh and in every community and in every home there is a wailing wall. That is a habit, you know. You go and you make this sound and after a while you find it comforting and you do it through the entire human experience. Even the dying make a noise to prove that they think that they're alive. It is a human configuration. We are encouraging you to discover the new equation and to be focused there. What can we do this evening? Who will volley?
Elyssia: Well, I like the question that Hunnah raised about being sort of like ... required to be in several different places when she'd really like to just have some fond reading or be creative in whatever way she is thinking about, and she has the constraints that are around her that she herself probably to a certain extent has set up.
MERIUM: This is an example we will use, this Hunnah volunteer. Indeed it is a set-up and in a sense it is a great opportunity to see the limitations where, as her teacher says, where do you break down?
ELYSSIA: I didn't understand that.
MERIUM: Where do you break down? In other words, if you were a figure skater and you could go out and do your number, then you find out that there is more to the configuration that you expected and you weren't able to physically due to muscle strength, mentally because you did not remember the lesson, and perhaps spiritually because you had not been listening to the coach and we are the coach. You each have a coach, and you know when you're listening to that still, small voice, and I'm not talking about the deep filling of meditation. I'm talking about the continuous thread of assistance. This continuous force. You have your own line, and you get so busy/distracted that you forget that it is allowed to be easier.
Elyssia: Oh.
MERIUM: This is the planet of pain and suffering and hard knocks, is it not?
Elyssia: Uh-huh.
MERIUM: And now you are told that there is a new and living way that does not particularly require pain unless you are continually setting up blocks or have developed such bad habits that you are like a car waiting for a huge flock of sheep to cross the road or a terrible storm. See in your own lives, do some inspection here. Perhaps your home is so congested that you cannot find anything. Hunnah has been looking for things lately, and is that not a clue?
Elyssia: Yeah.
MERIUM: And if you are preoccupied with having to tend to a backlog of neglect, then indeed you will not have the courage to approach this mammoth undertaking unless you prepare for it diligently, many times a day, and unless you were to keep your spirits up and the new ideas and new approaches flowing so that you may take this obstacle down one brick at a time, so to speak, but painlessly. You do not have to go at it with an ax and be angry with yourself because you let it happen. You have developed some very bad human habits; we are not a laser beam to make your life easier, but we do appreciate your efforts to put your house in order that you might be able to fit us in.
Hunnah has a friend who is so booked it's like a drive-through relationship. It is almost hilarious to watch this woman roar by, throwing kisses and saying she loves you, and she's just beaming off again. And these people think that all is well on heaven and earth but they will find out sooner or later when they break down. Thank goodness.
Rachel: Is that what's it's all about? When are we going to break down?
MERIUM: Yes. When are you going to have enough? It's sort of like: how long can you stay pre-occupied without making yourself sick so that you will slow down. Or remember we're talking about someone who has been awakened! We are not talking about those who are in a state of anesthesia. We're not talking about the living dead; we're talking about the ascending soul who is consciously aware and should be responsible to their higher source.
Rachel: How is the awareness coming along on Urantia these days? I don't see any hope in my arena! [Laughter]
MERIUM: I shall ask if I can lead you all with a fairy wand blessings upon your visions that you may be a beholder of what needs developing. Beauty. Beauty and goodness. It is there, and in your development you will be permitted, just as you described the rainbow, the dancing companions, you will be allowed to see the beauty and behold God in action where there are tears to be none.
When you look at the physical scene with physical eyes you will get that particular answer, but when you invite your enlightenment in to do the looking for you, you will see a different scenario altogether. It is quiet over here on the right side of my guest. Leah, dear, are you keeping company with Jay-Orzh?
Leah: No. But she's keeping company with me.
MERIUM: Well, then, I will send you home with homework. Where Do I break down?
Leah: With criticism, just like everybody else.
MERIUM: That's right. When you are in disagreeable company, and even if you call a friend who speaks the language, you are passing up your canteen, you might say, that you have with you. Your coaches want you to be acknowledged and you have read this great description of all the titles and the beings, the categories that fill the universe, and Hunnah was talking about the vast numbers of species and the breakdown within the species, the categories on your earth plane, and someone has introduced you to an invisible source that is teeming with life and intelligence that will never leave you, never, never leave you; you leave it.
Elyssia: That's true.
MERIUM: So, if I was a human coach I would come out here with a stick and slam it down and say, "Let's get it together," but I am not. I sit up here on my cloud and chuckle to myself and say; "Pretty soon they will break down, and they will have to pay attention, and then we can have a good time because some wonderful beholding will take place. They created pain there, but are unfortunately in the habit of watching out for it. Made it a duel."
Leah: Well, I broke down today, a couple of times, but I ... I even attempted to meditate, but I just don't seem to be dedicated to what I'm doing. I don't know what's wrong. I just leave too soon.
MERIUM: I have a suggestion. Let us describe meditation to sit next to the Christ and feel an arm around you. Would you be in a hurry to get out of a chair that was that accommodating?
Leah: Not at all.
MERIUM: And would there not be a great and tender osmosis taking place, of the good will?
Leah: Definitely.
MERIUM: And would that not be a sufficiency?
Leah: Yeah.
MERIUM: Then I suggest that you all travel 1-i-g-h-t-e-r . I just marvel at the way you human beings accept healings and become instantly ill again so that you can have another healing. [Group laughter] You like to rediscover, you love an adventure.
Rachel: Because we all want to go back to our Mommies and Daddies and be nurtured all over again.
MERIUM: When here you were designed to be the nurturer, in the true sense of the word. All of you. A timely sense of nurturing, not a career, not a sign: I am a nurturer. Now, let us discuss the dilemma of one Hunnah, this party that she lives with, the Hunnah/Beverly syndrome who has made a career of being a nurturer and finds out, when it comes very close to the heart (and it can be in mentally 24 hours) that the belligerence and balking can take place privately. There's spoiled children! And that creates a great disappointment in yourself because you have greater expectations. Being a good scout is the fashionable mode. (Pause) I feel like I'm sitting here talking to myself.
Elyssia: Oh, no, no, no, no! I'm listening. To every word!
MERIUM: In a sense, I feel as if we are all sort of at a pajama party.
Elyssia: Well, I was going to say something about this deep breathing, too. Are you talking about meditation? ... and we've done deep breathing in the past, several of us, and it does quiet one's physical self. It does create sort of a quiet moment, to feel the stillness, and perhaps you might make a comment about it.
Merium: I will not pass up the opportunity and I will be a little more serious right now. There is a tendency, a devoted tendency, for the human being to want to better itself, so therefore I will tell you that there are techniques and techniques, but if you are being a clever human being who wants to aerate its body so it will have a perfected form and it will have a keen mind, and you are going the round of vanity, in vain, you will undoubtedly produce a fine specimen.
If you wish to be athletic, by all means get out there and go, but when you are asking permission to have a fine-tuned facility in which to express the will of God, we have an entirely different situation. Right now their society is very busy swallowing things. [Good chuckle in the group]. It is good for the economy. Your body just goes about its business. If you hand it vitamin B, it will say, "Oh, Vitamin B!" and do its thing, but we are allowing you to be manifested by spiritual guidance, mental clarity, with physical celebrating, and with this physical celebrating, it is true.
The physical body deserves all the attention of a pampered garden. However, it does not need to be belabored. You need to drink the liquids; you need the balanced diet; and if you find that a breathing technique will service you well, that you might find that your body is more responsive and obedient to your spiritual coaching, by all means check it out. But there are many ways to make a cake, it is said. One is not particularly better than another in a sense. It depends on the individual who is applying it.
There are many new helpful solutions coming to you every day. You can look back in history and see that very clearly. Just feel the texture of your clothing and the warm running on your hands when at one time it had to be hauled in. It's the way of the land at this time, but if you accept this breathing technique, and offer it up and accept it as a gift, it will serve you well. Do your homework. (Pause) I must tell you a little secret.
Elyssia: Please do.
MERIUM: When Iyana wakes up in the morning, she calls to her dog in a melodious tone. She has always been sunny in the morning regardless of the weather. That is just the way she is. It is her nature. I am not telling you this to tell you that Iyana is any better than anyone else, but she knows how to be in her own way. Hunnah told you the story about the lady with the canary. If you speak to animals they bring out a sweetness in you if you permit yourself to use them that way.
I would suggest that you use any form of exercise, any form of food, or any form of meditation. Bring it close to you and talk to it and allow it to be as if it was affectionately appreciated, like a pet, and that agreement in your body will permit it to serve you well, but if you go at it like a business, with a long-term goal and you strive and suffer it out and make yourself suffer, you will find it sour the meal and the gift and it will not serve its purpose.
Hunnah had a nursing supervisor who said, "It's your attitude that counts." Such wise words. Hunnah has never forgotten them or the dear soul that spoke them, so, every day you have a right to choose: "Whom shall I serve? God or mammon?" That is not my original statement, but it is worth repeating.
I guess dubbing me as a story-teller was a good idea, because it is very quiet here, but I think that you can say that you can relate to this. When you treat yourself nice, you get good results. You should become your own pet. Stroke yourself. Encourage yourself. Greet yourself in the morning. Celebrate. And did I not hear the other night a suggestion to pray out loud? In the car! And hear the wonderful, wonderful prayers and celebrations that your coaches/ teachers will help you with. You will not have to think about it. It will come forth like bubbles. What is that man that had the bubble machine? Music?
Leah: Lawrence Welk.
MERIUM: You are a very happy creation, you know.
Rachel: We are?
MERIUM: Indeed. Yes, indeed. And my dear Rachel, when you are with a horse and when you are with the owners, I want you to feel this wonderful joyous warmth that you know the secrets of a horse. Why a horse. How a horse. And if you hold that and let it radiate from you, there will be something within them that will say, "She understands!" and that understanding will be better than any card or advertisement. You will find that there are those who love and respect animals.
You do not have to go on a pilgrimage of correction. You are here to celebrate life and the care of these beautiful creatures on earth, and that will radiate from you. That will be your advertisement, and that confidence will show from you, but most of all, you will not judge those who are greedy and inconsiderate and ignorant. You will not even waste your time. You will only know that you have a mercy mission and that you can bring your art form and show people, demonstrate, let them see the response.
If they do not respond immediately, you can even put your hand on their arm and show them, as if you were working on the horse, how important it is to allow it to be comforted, strengthened, detoxed. You will be more creative and eloquent in the future. Yes, you will. There will be a maturity that will be most becoming, and it will come very rapidly if you do not touch ignorance. It is called bringing in a new and living way. You are bringing in a new and living way. All of you, in every case, and in every way.
Elyssia: I had heard that there was a young woman who was transmitting beautifully with a great deal of ease and when I heard it I said, "Well,..." Let's see. I don't get the impression that these people meditate. They just sit down and transmit. That's my impression. I read it in one of the papers. The kid said, "I went out in my car and I stopped the car and I got my tape deck out and I started transmitting." He didn't struggle with it at all.
Rachel: He didn't do any homework.
Hester: I don't think it's necessary that you struggle unless you feel you need to struggle.
Elyssia: Well, no, I don't.
Hester: I don't mean you; I mean anybody.
Elyssia: I wonder if there's an answer that Merium has to my question, because--
MERIUM: Your question is that you're coming out of and into a new consciousness and the old consciousness was how to do it, and who wants to know how to do and how to fix, what to say and where to go and how much will it cost. I will tell you it is the insecure fearful human being that has not traveled to the point of insignificance. We have a new creature in Christ. You are being made new. And when you allow yourself to discover that technique is no longer of importance so much of timing to do something, but allowing something to happen, we have an altogether different situation.
This young woman who has surrendered herself so totally and completely, who has been radiantly obedient, just decided that she would try it. She did not put herself into a mental tizzy, and she just trusts. She has a wonderful example of trust being expressed in her life, in spite of hardships, and in this trust she just decided that she would be allowed to do this. It's as if someone said, "Would you like to try?" "Oh, yes!" Such sweet innocence. "I would like to try it!" and she did, and she is learning that the electrical circuitry in her body has been in need of adjustments and that, too, she decided, may take place, so once this line comes open and yours is open -- yours and yours and yours -- it's just a matter of throwing away the cookbook and saying, "I know how to cook!" and you do it. You just go ahead, just as Hunnah decided to allow herself to open her mouth and start to talk, and then knew, in her heart, that the words would be raised and expanded and used by the high purpose, and it has come about.
Celeste: Merium, did you say to let Jesus put his arm around you?
MERIUM: And hold my hand.
Celeste: Well, I did and it felt so good! I just decided ... now I'm going to ask for a hug!
MERIUM: That is very appropriate, and remember, if you get a hug, you give a hug.
Celeste: I'll give a hug! But the warmth of that will not take away the respect and love of him and you can get back to -- that hug felt very good.
MERIUM: Hunnah has had trouble accepting this possibility the way Elyssia has looked at the impossibility of transmitting, like it was just a feeling like an untouchable, and those days are gone, if you will let them. I am closer than breathing! I am here. And it is such a,-- Leah, it sounds like such a fantasy, but what we are talking about is: where I am, God is. We are not talking about a person separate and apart, thinking about God. We're talking about beauty. Something that is already established.
We're shedding this false reality, and you're allowed to have this intimacy and it won't go away. It's there for your renewal when you decide to break down. That title that the young woman gave her breathing course for losers is a very good title because it indicates that you have broken down and that you are allowed to lose your old habits and your old thinking and receive' that which is new and fresh.
Rachel: I was just reminded that Jesus said in one of the transcripts to not get embroiled in the chaos and confusion and to remember that you are the messengers of light and life here.
Hunnah: There are those who try too hard. It is another form of going to battle, and it can preoccupy and distract and keep a person from ever having the ease of a relationship, and it's just something that happens for you, like in the wink of an eye you decide to lay aside your diagnosis of terminal conditions and medical words and financial dogma and you turn your back on it and say, "I really have to walk in the meadow with the Master; I simply must! I cannot stand any more of this confusion and this head-lock." It is theirs, and you suffer so; and it is meant to be so gentle and easy and miraculously uplifting and fulfilling. You have called yourself in this evening. You sit and you read the book and it is a good discipline and you hear the awesome words and the universe is becoming more and more of a reality for you, but what is most important is that you come to the well of the living waters.
Celeste: You know, it's really interesting that with Jesus' arm around you, even so, when he stands away, he's even more beautiful, more radiant, more of everything than he ever was before. This is fantastic!
Hunnah: It is a holy wafer that you have spoken. That is manna. It is good that you should share this. You do it so effortlessly. Your trust and acceptance of your faith over the many years is so enriching, it deserves to be shared because it is so natural, and is that not what I have been talking about this evening, allowing you to be natural?
Since I have access to Hunnah's -- is this a plagiarism? -- I'm going to quote something. She read the friend's poetry and I should not have said that because I'm into her book right now. She said, in one of the lines, "Let me be natural. Let me be the me that we made." and that's what this is all about: being natural, being the wonderful creature, creation, that God made, and the young Erata, the young friend who spoke, brought through a wonderful and dynamic lesson called, "Doing the Will of God," and we assure you, you will see the copy, for it is ever so gentle, ever so relaxed and ever so natural, and you all do it. You all do it, but you're going to get better at it. Closer.
Dying for my sake. Turning your back on something that makes you uncomfortable in spite of appearances. I live yet not I; Christ liveth my life. That is what our mission is. Letting this happen in your life, and it will reflect further and further and more will come, and that's what the shepherd is in you, in a sense, is letting this reflection in you become more powerful.
This has been a warm and cozy evening, and I'm very pleased that you allowed me to come. I feel as if I'm sitting in a rocker and you're all sitting around my feet, and we have all had a wonderful exchange.
Elyssia: And you said we are all doing the will of God; we will do it more?
MERIUM: Absolutely. But it will become easier. Remember the plow-share? You take your sword and you bend it. You don't need a sword. You are builders of men, builders of healthy emotions, builders of love.
Elyssia: I don't think I have enough contact to make any difference. I mean, everybody I contact are wonderful people who are great and I can't think of anybody -- I feel like I have a very limited number of contacts. I mean, at the grocery store? At the parking lot? I mean, certainly I am aware of that.
MERIUM: Your vibration of a well maintained voice, the vibrational tones of a consciousness that is continuously tuning you is never wasted. You are communicating and donating and contributing to the whole. Even if you stayed in your home and you continued to honor your purpose it would go out into the ethers and nourish thousands.
Elyssia: Oh, goodness. I don't think I've heard that before.
MERIUM: It is true.
Elyssia: I'm going to read that over and over until it sticks in my mind.
MERIUM: But you will not be able to stay in your house and hide because the urge to go out and just walking out to get the mail you will be sharing with a part of what is already there.
There is nowhere to go to hide. If the phone rings, you may turn away solicitation a bit more graciously and in your heart you will know that person is working for a living. I just want to encourage you and tell you not to try so hard to meditate or scold yourself because you have not.
We are coming closer and closer and closer. Meditation at one time was like the first telegram and the first phone call, it seemed. We are very close. Am I not here with you? Is this room not filled? The amphitheater of light and life? There is no separation except in your minds, in your bad habits and the forgetfulness.
Elyssia: I got a letter in the mail today that said a lot of people are taking a film about Jesus and they were going all around the room and they were serving God and they were helping some people in Africa and maybe we can have this thing that you . . . (indistinguishable)
MERIUM: In a sense you are. It's all part of the whole and there are many to help, and there will be more. Be of good cheer.
Elyssia: I was going to give a pamphlet about the Urantia Book to the whole class about the movie [group laughter]. I saw my daughter looking at me very stirringly.
Hester: Give her no second thought.
Elyssia: So I gave up on my plan.
MERIUM: I must tell you something, and I sound very much like Hunnah how but years ago she watched the TV series, "The Forsythes" and in that series there was a woman who was very zealous and when she would come to the household entertainments, she would leave pamphlets around and it is another form of one more little tidbit.
I think that we have made a complete circle here this evening but I will tell you something quickly. Watch yourself. Wait before you speak. It is special timing. Flyers have their place. Advertisements have their place, but there are new ways to deliver them, to produce. It is nice to, after you have made a positive connection with someone, say to them, "Oh, I have a book I read and I belong to a group," etc. "I'll give you a brochure." But you will acknowledge your guidance before you lose that special opportunity and not go the old route, so to speak.
You have to know your opportunities or they will dig in and hide from you. "Here she comes." I think I have said much.
Elyssia: Thank you for your vivid picture.
MERIUM: And my friend here is getting antsy and is very appreciative that I have been able to come to you. How I embrace you all.
Celeste: We've had a lovely evening.
MERIUM: Thank you for making me so welcome.
Rachel: For your encouragement.
MERIUM: Enjoy the simplicity of tomorrow. Thank you. Good night.
Group: Good night. Thank you for coming.
*****
DATE: July 9, 1998
LOCATION: Pittsburgh, P.A. USA
T/R: Gerdean
TEACHERS: MICHAEL, TOMAS, MERIUM,
URANTIA BOOK STUDY:
Paper 30, PERSONALITIES OF THE GRAND UNIVERSE
#3, The Courtesy Colonies
#4. The Ascending Mortals Paper 159, THE DECAPOLIS TOUR
#3. Instruction for Teachers and Believers
TEACHER SESSION:
TOPIC:
ENDURANCE / PERSEVERANCE
MICHAEL: I am the essence of Michael. I am here with you this evening to greet you and to remind you of my constant presence in your life through the Spirit of Truth. When I was here before in the flesh, and I left, I promised and I sent the helper. The helper has been among you all this time, as well as has the Father in your indwelling Adjusters, but I speak to you this afternoon about the Spirit of Truth which can help you, which can provide you with an appreciation of my presence.
When you reach out to me and ask me to guide you, to hold your hand, to give you strength, to bring you clarity, to sustain you, it is through the Spirit of Truth that I am operable. On occasion I am actually with you, but often I am with you through the Spirit of Truth which is the equivalent of my being with you, if you could but understand that.
Suffice it to say, my beloved children, that you are not alone and that I am with you, as is the Father with you. And now you know that you have a host of other helpers, the ministering hosts, ministering spirits, angelic corps, teacher corps, midwayers. You cannot imagine the assistance available to you. I am very happy with the development among family of you my children, and you in your relationship with your extended family throughout the world.
Those of my children who pass by, who come into your arena, are coming to you because you have set yourself up as an example of my children. You have said, "I follow the Master. He is my guide." And so when you are sought, you are sought for that purpose and so I say to you to call upon me through the Spirit of Truth to minister as you pass by.
The Spirit of Truth will tell you, will help you, will show you, will guide you and say, "This is the way. This is the Way that Michael would have you do." I have spoken to you before regarding fatherly love and brotherly love, and it is fatherly love that I would have you learn and deliver to my children, you who are my co-workers, my co-creators in this avant garde advance corps to work with mortals in the Correcting Time.
We are joyed and encouraged by your profound efforts. There is indeed much work to be done. We need more workers in the field.
Therefore give by example your joy in knowing me that they will be enticed, lured, constrained to follow that same Spirit of Truth, that same spirit which is inherent in your Master Son. My peace I leave with you.
TOMAS: I am Tomas. I am glad to be here. Very glad to renew my connection with you, even though I have not been away. You have imagined that I have been away and so I say, "Hello, I am glad to be back." Merium also is jubilant to be in her favorite chair in these bleachers of this Teacher Base.
I am sometimes struck dumb by our Master's presence, by the counsel he imparts by his very being. In time you will learn the language of the universe. You will not be burdened by the mental configuration of words and concepts, but they will come to you as currents of air and refresh you in ways which you cannot now comprehend. It is in his simple being that I am sustained and I know that you can perceive this when you call upon him and you feel his presence, but you are teachers of time and space; you are perforce operating in and through your minds. Allow, even so, your heart to open and feel this wondrous presence and feel his supple love.
I would speak this evening to you for a moment about perseverance. There was a discourse recently in terms of endurance, perseverance, and I am reminded of the drop of water that consistently falls, creating a pool where once there was solid rock; how the river will flow in a canyon, creating a deep gorge where there was once flat land; a drop steadily dripping can create stalactites and stalagmites of mighty size and impact on your imagination and senses.
And so it is true that perseverance can create the same indelible mark. Consistency and perseverance can operate when all else fails. If you feel that sometimes life can get you down, that it can drum upon your head until you feel you have been defeated by the external forces, remember that you have within you the strength of the Paradise Trinity, and that through your own perseverance in that which you are led to be and know and do through your obedience to that divine will, will strengthen you and allow you to persevere in your steady drip, drip, drip of truth, beauty and goodness, and over the course of time we will prevail.
You, too, can "break them down." You can endure. You can indicate by your very being that you will not be blown away. You will not succumb. You will not be swept aside. Your purpose is firm and clear. You are to represent the Father in your life, in your very being. This is a job for the courageous. Our Master has been the essence of courage. He faced all of life courageously, even in his gentle ministries. I urge you to learn perseverance. How are you this evening? Are you inclined to make comment or ask questions? How good it is to have you here, this evening, my son, my brother, Evangel. We always enjoy your participation here with us and look with admiration on your many efforts in your own lonely outpost in the tropics. How fare thee?
Evangel: Well, it's good to hear from you, good to be here.
TOMAS: We embrace you fully.
Elyssia: We imagine that Celeste must be heading towards the Arctic Circle, which is intriguing, but I wanted to ask about a little problem and I really wondered what could be the most spiritual, kindly way to deal with this problem, and it's a problem in the family. My husband's relatives all came last Friday for a nice celebration and there was one who's always created tremendous havoc, but we have always somehow said, "Well come ahead anyway," and it goes back years and years.
But this time, I felt that he had hurt a very sweet person, a gentle young man who has no ax to grind, and he was saying something that on our planet is almost unacceptable. He was saying to him, "I'm glad your father is dead," and so I am not condemning the man who did it because he's a victim of his life, but I don't think I can permit him -- I can't invite friends here and then create a situation in which they would be hurt so terribly, so I felt that I was partly responsible for that because -- of course I didn't know they were coming anyway. I mean, that was a surprise, but …
I'm thinking about the future. I'm going to be very, very tough. I think! But I mean, I'm sort of trying to ask you, Tomas, but, you know, what's the right thing to do? I've already done some things and maybe they weren't right but, at the time, I called them -- when they got home; they live in another part of the country -- and told them that unless he gets help for his alcoholism, that we can't really have him here. So I'm wondering about this, Tomas.
People have said to me, "We don't know why you've allowed him to come back! Or be with you!" In other words, now your guests are being hurt! And to a certain extent -- maybe... They don't say that, but maybe "You're responsible!" So I just wondered if you might -- I'm trying to figure out how one thinks about that.
TOMAS: This is not a new subject. It has been brought to my attention before. Not this particular case but similar situations. It is, of course, a very serious concern, for when there is dementia of a sort, it indeed flows into the cultural arena and can sully the clear waters of your social fragrance, social graces.
It is not uncommon for a family to have this kind of stressor, and families deal with it in different ways. Do not feel that you have been hand-chosen to endure this particular kind of albatross; it is just one more indication of the Correcting that is on-going. In terms of acceptance of such difficult personalities in various throes of illness, it is a matter of group judgment.
Individually each of you must take the matter in prayer to our Father and ask for personal guidance and direction as to how you may help or if you are indeed manifesting indiscriminate kindness. You mentioned "tough love" and tough love is an important feature to be considered when "Enough is enough!"
I would not pass judgment on the discourse you mentioned between him and the young lad regarding the father's death, for I am not certain of his pain levels or his underlying motivation. Many times, you know, when an animal is wounded, he will lash out and harm those that come within his sweep, not to harm them but only because of his own awareness of his own painful wound.
And so compassion is indeed a matter to be considered, but as a group you may take it under advisement and judiciously advise the man that his behaviors are unacceptable for your social purpose. Remember the admonitions on justice, that you are entitled to maintain your civilization. This is a group calling, a group responsibility, but remember too that individually you, as a devotee of the Son of the Eternal Son, are a child of mercy and as you have received, so shall you give.
Elyssia: Well, it's a question, too, because it seems that if you exercise any compassion with this person, he uses it to sort of worm his way back into your social environment and there he is again, and there he is, he's hurting somebody that you have in your home and you're partly responsible for this person having this pain. And so, that's what's happened in the past. You say, you know, "those things happen," but then, you know, he comes back in to your life and then he uses that opportunity.
TOMAS: I am reluctant to delve too deeply, Elyssia, into the situation because it is such a huge cauldron of conversation. It is an issue of the day of a certainty. There are extensive helping aids that you would do well to familiarize yourself with. The fact that you indicate that you feel somewhat responsible for his condition indicates to me that you have issues of your own to investigate. Even though you cannot create alcoholism in another person, you can damage an individual through your own character defects, and if your character defects have become fuel for his ...
Elyssia: No, that's not the case. I never exacerbated the problem between him and me in any way.
TOMAS: Alright.
Elyssia: But, I am saying I know he was a victim. I know how his family was. He was completely deprived of the kind of love that a child needs. I know very much about that.
TOMAS: You might then remember my words about perseverance, that the steady drip-drip-drip of a raindrop can make a dent in a solid rock, and remind the man that help is available and that if his life has not gone the way he would like it to have gone, he can start again new as a child of God and he can be raised up again and better by and through the spirit.
This requires a rebirth. In program terms, it requires "surrender" which is the same thing. There is nothing you can do. It is a matter that lies between him and his Higher Power which hopefully will be our Father and in the meantime you are in the right to protect your home environment from disease, disruptive disease.
Elyssia: Okay. Thank you. I'll think about everything you say here. And I'll pray about it too.
TOMAS: Good.
Elyssia: Maybe I can even start to pray for him this week.
TOMAS: Good.
Elyssia: But that wasn't going to happen right away.
TOMAS: It is truly the solution. Rather than allowing yourself to get all up in arms about the offense that he brings, the difficulty, the inconvenience, the pain, the sorrow, the discomfort, the embarrassment, etc, etc, envelop him in prayer and help yourself to realize that this, too, is a child of God who is deserving of the Father's love and compassion.
Indeed, this life is difficult. We have been here for a very short time in our efforts to advance you, to work with you, to assure you of your place in the universe, to let you know that you are loved and that there are indeed matters in need of correction. This is not an excuse to stay victimized, but an opportunity to get on the band wagon and say, "Yes! Let's do something about it," and go forward from here.
Elyssia: Well, how can you talk to somebody like this and in those terms, when you feel he may even ... you know, "Who do you think you are? You're pretty preachy when you're on your ..." you know, "Who do you think you are, trying to minister to me!" and ... if I wrote to him and said any of these things, I wonder how I could say that.
TOMAS: I would suggest you not even try.
Elyssia: Okay. That's good.
TOMAS: Not at this point. You must be careful because of your role in society and in the family. You could be construed as a pompous matriarch and this would not do you any good nor would it do the Master any good, and so there are times to set aside your social standing, your family standing, and regard yourself as a humble servant of the Master and ask him to guide you in the way that he would have you go. He would have you pray, child, and let it go.
ELYSSIA: Okay. That's what I was sort of thinking it might be. Not very worth while to go tromping around mouthing platitudes. I'll do the thing you said. I'll get my family all to do it too because nobody knows how to handle this. My husband doesn't know and my daughters don't know and my son doesn't know, so I'll tell them what I'm doing, anyway.
TOMAS: There is a solution. Are there other issues at large? One moment. Other questions?
Elyssia: Are you going to go to the Teaching Mission?
TOMAS: I am IN the Teaching Mission. Where would I go?
Elyssia: Are you going to go to Nashville?
TOMAS: Of course! I have been there many times already.
Elyssia: Oh, have you!
Leah: He prepareth the way. [Group chuckle]
Actually, in relation to the question that Elyssia asked, I recall that I asked you on a similar situation involving a birthday party, as to whether to exclude an individual who was a troublemaker.
TOMAS: I recall.
Leah: And I know it's not really right to exclude people, but when they are so destructive ...
Hester: They exclude themselves.
Leah: That's a point. It was recommended at that time not to extend the invitation to that particular individual who had a reputation for ruining everything, all the time. I don't really know all of his circumstances totally so I'm probably way off base here, but it just reminded me of that situation.
Elyssia: Well, I have this problem because I said, "We'll just have him... We'll see him occasionally in a simple social arrangement, where it's just my husband and I and a couple of other people. Where he gets out of line we can simply just walk away, but when we do that, we begin to build a relationship again, and we're more vulnerable again.
TOMAS: Herein is where the Master is the best teacher. When you develop your family relationships, develop them in and through the spirit, for that is the relationship that you can do something with. Remember, your reading indicated that the earthly family is a cultural configuration which will not survive mortal death into your next life, your next arena. This is the true family. Otherwise, you are maintaining civilization.
Hold the loyalty to the Father, and if the Father cannot be seen in his children because they have opted to block his reality from their very existence, you do not owe a loyalty to that shell of a human being. Only as that human being seeks the Father can he be safe. Remember your true reality, Elyssia, and make it the forefront of your reality. Remember to distinguish between your social role and your social reality.
Elyssia: That's very helpful. Very helpful.
Leah: Very helpful to me, too.
Hester: No matter how we try, we can't save them all. Jesus proved that.
TOMAS: I hasten to remind you that in that remark I have not suggested that you judge, but that you assess and act according to your best assessment based upon your own wisdom as a result of your ability to recognize the fruits of the spirit and the presence of God in your fellows. Prayer is the most profound action you can engage in. Aren, are you alright this evening?
Aren: Yeah.
TOMAS: I am impressed with your inner growth, your awareness of your identity and your acceptance of these realities. You have been working very hard, my son. I have been with you, as you know, and many of your other kin in the spirit have been checking in on you. I hope we have not been invading your privacy overmuch. If we have, you may turn the volume down and we will come in at your request. It is indeed a cooperative that we are establishing; it is a co-creative effort, and we do not intend to dominate your life but to work with you as you will work with us. Have you understood my counsel here?
Aren: I understand. To find some balance between this reality and the other reality. Is that what you're counseling?
TOMAS: You are not to be under the impression that we would have you engage in sainthood or in incessant intercourse with the spirit realms. Your exuberance as a young male of the realm entitles you to experientially adventure into the arena of your nativity. Experiential growth is important to you. We can go with you into your arena. Take your joy and your wisdom and your exciting mind into the realms and spread seeds. Whet the appetites of your associates for truth. Titillate them with a thought here and there to get their minds activated. Plant those seeds and watch them sprout. They will soon be coming to you for fertilizer, and you've got plenty of that, too, to spread around.
Life can be such a joy, such a fulfilling experience. It is not all grim and grit your teeth. There are lots of wonderful things on Urantia to enjoy, to participate in and to appreciate. Our Father Michael has created a grand arena in which you may play at large. Wonderful personalities, wonderful days, cool nights. It's a good life.
Elyssia: I had an experience, too, that -- I won't take up too much time with this, but I was with this family and they all know that I read the Book and so we were talking about something and I used the occasion to say something that was probably recognizable from the Book and it was absolutely amazing and I was so glad I was able to notice it, that everybody around me evaporated. I was pretty much alone! They -- they were the more fundamentalist wing, anyway, but I said I'm glad I noticed it because I guess it was progress for me.
TOMAS: It is always progress when you are delighted with your reality and when you can be and be at peace and in joy of your being. Therein is strength. Therein is your reality. Do not allow yourselves to be swayed, to be blown away, to be diminished.
Elyssia: Well, thank you. I was actually glad as you indicated but it was interesting because then I was able to shift gears and say a lot of the things that are generally applicable in the spirit realm and philosophical in nature without being quite so easily identified as coming from the Book and it worked fine, it just worked fine.
TOMAS: Whereupon your friends materialized. Indeed, you must intermingle with the sheep. How can you feed the sheep if you are not in contact with them? This is your field, your ministry.
Elyssia: Well, it was a step forward anyway. But I guess I'm still hoping that I can serve the revelation, which I consider to be so incredibly wonderful.
Tomas: Indeed. Gerdean is inclined to sing a song which I will not help her with but it is related to the TeaM song, "We are one in the spirit, we are one in the Lord," and I will bring it into the record so that you may review the words and the spirit in which it is sung. The rejoicing of the real brotherhood/sisterhood, the real family -- wonderful it is. Indeed. It is possible because of the revelation: the text and the workbook.
It is possible because people like you have seen and heard and felt the reality, you have yearned, you have followed the leadings of your Thought Adjusters, and you have enabled it to lead you. You have hungered for and thirsted for truth and righteousness. You have sought, you have grown, you have gained, and you have been blessed. You seek now to share, to give what you have received.
This living reality will grow, will spread, and will alter the face of Urantia. This revelation indeed is a sacred gift to Urantia. You do well to rejoice in your understanding of it as of epochal import to your world.
Elyssia: Thank you for that word: a sacred gift. That is such a wonderful phrase! I'm wondering, Tomas. Evidently you see spiritual light, you sense the spirituality of the populace, so can you describe if you see much out there? What is the problem with having our Book more accepted. Is it too -- I mean, what is it? I don't understand it. I'm still struggling with that. All the time!
TOMAS: The Book is very responsible, Elyssia. It is not a glitzy book. It requires that your life be altered, and many are not interested in allowing their life to be altered. On the other hand, there are many who appreciate its intellectual explanations and do not get emotionally wrapped up or spiritually enlivened but are only intellectually satisfied. There are many who find it an exciting science fiction attitude and in this they are highly entertained but they do not regard it as a. personal religious experience. There are all manner of approaches to the Book itself and to the responses that it incurs in the mind.
Elyssia: Have you teachers talked about, what does it evoke in people that turns them off? I mean, have you talked about it among yourself? Can you help us?
TOMAS: We have talked about it among ourselves. I will give the question back to you and ask you to ascertain why they look at it and reject it, for that is your challenge, Elyssia, to help the seed be planted in the fertile soil that it will grow to assuage the fears. Now I do not give you this responsibility alone, but it is certainly an avenue of expansion for your social skills indirectly and directly as to when you place the Book into someone's hands. Have you furrowed the soil? Have you aerated and prepared the ground? Have you planted the seed that it will take hold? If the ground is barren, have you planted your seeds elsewhere that they may be falling on fertile soil? Really, in some ways, it's not so important that you follow up so don't worry too much how it affects people. If they're going to accept this, they will. Be prepared.
ELYSSIA: It's so strange where it takes hold. Celeste and I, for instance. She gave it to a good friend of ours and now she's reading it. She's tremendously excited about it, I think, but she'll never join our group because she's in the middle of a whole bunch of something in her family.
TOMAS: Never say never.
Hester: Never say never. Right. And remember Jesus had just as many put downs, if not more. And he succeeded, so just go for success.
TOMAS: Remember, it is how you live your life that will speak the speech most plainly.
Elyssia: Well, then I must not be doing a very good job.
Hester: No, no, no, no. You're doing alright.
TOMAS: I am going to prepare to withdraw for the evening. Are there any other matters that need attention?
MERIUM: Well, I am Merium and I guess I need some attention because I haven't had an opportunity to come in and say hello. I am going to remind you that God created the other Sources and Centers so that He could be acknowledged, and as his child, I remind you that I am part of this Teacher Base and I would be acknowledged, just as you each at this table enjoy being acknowledged. We could all stay home and live in the dark but for this wonderful family where we come to cuddle each other and pull each others braids and so "Yank, Yank".
Elyssia: We're so happy you came! It's not really complete without you.
MERIUM: It's very nice of you to say so, Elyssia, although I want you to know that I've been here all along and I've heard every word. I just like to have my personality manifested, like everyone. I am not mad at Tomas. He has been busy. We are all very busy. You know, even while we are at play we are active. Our lives are very full in the spirit. I believe your lessons talked to you about a dynamic life, and our life also is very dynamic. It is wonderful to have such a full and rich existence in the spirit, much as the one Tomas spoke of: the days and nights, the colors, the friends, the food, the pets, the smells, the music, the work and the play. What a glorious experience for you and what a wonderful summer season.
How lovely it is here in your environment. The comfortable wavy hills and fields. What a quilt. A textured quilt it is here in your neighborhood. How wonderful is Michael's planet Urantia. What a glorious creation it is. What glorious creations are each of you and how we look forward to your advancing perfection, your embellishment of personality, your enrichment of being.
Be yourselves most fully, my little ones. Remember your Source and seek sustenance from the greater reality that will help you grow up to be who you are intended to be. Most happy children, most delightful children of God, good night.
Group: Good night. Thank you for coming.
TOMAS: I am also signing off; I'll see you soon. Good night.
*****
DATE: July 16, 1998
LOCATION: Pittsburgh, P.A. USA
T/R’s: Gerdean
TEACHERS: TOMAS, MERIUM
URANTIA BOOK STUDY
Paper 31, THE CORPS OF THE FINALITY
#1. The Havona Natives
#2. Gravity Messengers
#3. Glorified Mortals
#4. Adopted Seraphim
#5. Glorified Material Sons
#6. Glorified Midway Creatures
#7. The Evangels of Light Paper 160, RODAN OF ALEXANDRIA
#1. Rodan's Greek Philosophy
TEACHER SESSION:
TOPIC:
COMPASSION
TOMAS: Good evening, my friends, I am Tomas . How are you this evening?
Group: Elyssia, Aren, Gerdean and Hester: Good evening, Tomas. Thank you for coming.
TOMAS: It is a wonderful and intimate group we have this evening. We had on Tuesday a very large group and it was wonderful, but now we have this very small group and it, too, is wonderful. Each configuration brings its own delight, its own challenges and its own possibilities. I and Merium, as well as many others, are intrigued with the possibilities of this evening.
Your studies have been admirable and your engagement with Rodan is provocative, for it borders on the realm of humanness that would put into practice these many studies of Jesus' behavior as a man among men. You have been reminded to prevail with men, to live among mortals as a mortal of the realm, not setting yourself above the milieu but as one with the many, mingling in the emotional, intellectual, economic and philosophic realms where you can meet and touch your fellow creatures, introducing them to the joy of being affiliated with the Father and his myriad helpers. But you recall it is said that it is difficult to love unlovely mankind. The study in Rodan is an overview of how you may approach your work in the field. He has a lot to offer and it. is always an interesting study.
I would like to speak briefly this evening about compassion. We have discussed compassion before, but I would particularly like to bring to your consciousness the concept of compassion as it relates to the suffering of your fellow human beings. There are those who suffer. Whether they have justifiable cause for their suffering is not your concern. Whether they feel that they are a victim is not your concern either. Recently you read about indiscriminate kindness. Indiscriminate kindness is not the same as compassion.
Jesus never allowed his exposure to suffering to take away from him the attitude of compassion. No healthy mind brings distress upon itself for attention. No one chooses to play the role of a victim because they enjoy the role. No one wallows in unhappiness because they thrive on unhappiness. These pitiful throes of the human condition are evocative of your compassion, for you can, much like Rodan suggests, transmute your initial reaction into a prayer, and perhaps an inspiration to allow Father to present words to you that will give encouragement to that one who suffers.
Compassion costs nothing, and yet it is a richness that gives substance to the thinnest opportunity to manifest fruits and loving kindness. I cannot stress to you enough the need for compassion in your most difficult world. Even the arrogant deserve a private and replete sense of compassion from you because they would not behave such if they knew the joys of sonship, if they understood humility.
Jesus' compassion for his fellowmen and women was superb. It gave him a graciousness that always allowed for a welcoming into his presence. You manifest compassion as you sit here even now in an attitude of abeyance to truth and understanding. Grant that I continue to manifest compassion in my efforts in this Mission. I understand, Elyssia, that you have "a real question".
Elyssia: I guess that I could even very easily tie it into compassion, which has been on my mind myself the last couple of weeks. My real question is that so much of my world was and is involved in the traditional Christian world, my church, and for years I enjoyed these programs, the 700 Club, and I was very confused about how to think about Pat Robertson because I really like the fact that some people all over the world can hear about Jesus.
I supported him financially, to a certain extent. I know Hester has a different point of view, but never-the-less, that's what I've been doing, and yet I'm very confused because I do feel so sad that he has not been able to give compassion to people like homosexuals. He says, "I love them." He says, "I Love all of you people; I just want you to change."
And yet I get really confused about that aspect and I feel that he has created, he largely has been the reason why this terrific dichotomy has been created between the Christian group of people and others like the groups of homosexuals who have become very angry, very hostile, very defensive about the way that they're being described as being sinful and so I get very confused because when I watched Pat Robertson this morning he had a lovely story on about a woman who was able to quit smoking.
I thought it would be fun to tell Gerdean this story. It was a beautiful story, and somebody else was healed, incredibly. The story was very amazing. But it isn't just Pat Robertson. It's all these other people that -- I really -- I get very confused. Now, for instance, we've been sending money to this little Christian group that works with young people and so it's a problem again. Always the same thing. They're teaching some things about Jesus but they're also teaching other things, and so -- I would really like to ask you, Tomas, about my state of confusion about this.
I could describe more of these incidents but I don't think I should. I think this should be more than enough. I've talked more than enough about it. Hoping that you can guide me along here a little bit.
TOMAS: (One moment.) It is a difficult scenario that you present, Elyssia, for you have, in a way, asked me to assess for you your investments, in particular your value support. I will not advise you on who to support financially. That is a tax matter for you and your spouse. Nor will I lambaste Mr. Robertson or other popular voices in/on the pulpit. To the extent that they promote truth beauty and goodness, they are my peers. To the extent that they go against the teachings that the Master espoused, I must convey my own sense of compassion toward them in their ignorance and compassion for those they damage in their naiveté and their judgment.
It is not for any of you, any of you, to condemn the Father's children because of their extraneities. How simple is it to understand that we are all children of God, we are all created by the Father and we all answer to Him in our relationship with Him? Our Master admonished us, particularly those of us who would follow after him, who have accepted the role of ambassador, who would deign to speak for him in the marketplace/from the pulpit, "feed my sheep;" "love my flock;" "take care of my flock."
He did not say to put his sheep on some sacrificial altar like in the days of Abraham, but "love my sheep" and "care for them". It is most unfortunate when any professed believer uses a book of knowledge as a weapon to wield against or for a belief, an espoused belief, in support of their interpretation of God. All we are to do, as children of God and followers of the Master, is to love one another as he has loved us.
He has not said, "I will love you if you cut your hair." "I will love you if you forego that diet." "I will love you if you are traditional in the sense that the Church has established the way you should come and the way you should go." He has said none of the above. He has not said how to wash your hands or how to sit at meat. He has said "love each other" as he has loved us and he did not discriminate. He loved and invited and admonished the rich and the poor, the Jew and the Gentile, male and female, homosexual and heterosexual, young and old. All men and women are his creation. Are we to passed judgment on Thalidomide babies as unlovely? Are we to tread upon women because they are not such good producers? All manner of unjust and unfair behaviors have come about in the name of God, in the name of justice, in the name of Solomonian wisdom that you have not.
"Love one another" is the commandment, and support one another in your belief of him who sent us. Now, what you should do as to your contributions is, as I said, your concern. If, however, he is teaching and preaching something that is in conflict with your understanding of the Master's path, then you might factor that in. Have I addressed your concern, Elyssia?
Elyssia: Yes, you have. I think they're trying to actually, you know, save these people, and they are -- they think they are being compassionate! -- which confuses the issue quite a bit. They think that they're going to save homosexuals.
TOMAS: From themselves?
Elyssia: From being burned in hell.
Hester: Who said they were going to be burning in hell?
Elyssia: Well, they believe that, you know that.
Hester: Yeah, I know, but it's not written in stone or in the Bible.
Elyssia: Oh, I know that! I am well aware of that. I am.
TOMAS: They are certainly free to pray.
Elyssia: Yes, they are certainly free to do that.
TOMAS: But "Judge not, lest ye be judged."
Elyssia: How true.
Aren: Tomas?
TOMAS: Yes Aren?
Aren: Getting back to the original lesson on compassion. From what I understand from compassion it is the ability to feel with or suffer with. This is a word on emotional realms. You spoke of a mental process. I think the lesson is, "What is the attitude of compassion?"
TOMAS: Yes, it is certainly an attitude. It is a result of an attitude, an approach, a thought processes, a value. It is a response to a value, and so it is not only emotional, not only intellectual. It is a reality. Based upon all of those factors, including the spirit. Compassion is the antithesis of cynicism. It is a method of incorporating concern and yet it is not so physical as to actually share the pain, the agony, the suffering. Indeed, it is not, but it is an attitude of prayer, and a touching concern for the individual who suffers, in such a way as to foster assistance rather than to undermine or deplete the reserves. Is this understood?
Aren: Edifying, yes. Thank you. When you speak of reserves, the feeling reserves, are you talking about energy?
TOMAS: Certainly.
Aren: Thank you.
TOMAS: Any number of kinds of energies comprising that which constitutes the reality of the individual.
Aren: Now at this point there is a certain level of assessment and delicacy of how to inhibit or show this concern with each personality being.
TOMAS: In each case, yes, this is true. For example, a toddler who falls, who scrapes his hands on the sidewalk, may be more alarmed or embarrassed than really hurt, and yet the child may in fact be hurt, and also alarmed, and so a compassionate response would be a concern for the child that showed support for the distress of the child rather than a more cynical or bullying remark to bolster the youngster, such as, "Oh, don't be such a baby!"
This does not give strength to the child, but, as you might say, contributes to a shaming, as if one who falls and hurts is not entitled to some discomfort, some healing, some acknowledgement. It is not to encourage the child to continue to fall in order to get attention, either. That could perhaps be construed as "indiscriminate kindness" but truly not kind at all in the long run, you see.
Yes, compassion requires a certain assessment, however it is born of the spirit, the human spirit, to be loving and supportive. It does not mean you give yourself 'into the situation, but that, yes, you assess and respond -- dare I use the word -- appropriately. I am not fond of that word "appropriate". It is always a question to me -- "appropriate to whom?" and "by whose standards?" and so I am reluctant to use that word: appropriate -- but I am never reluctant to use the word and stress the value of Compassion.
It is also not the same, if I may, as enabling, or people-pleasing. Compassion is a genuine fruit of the spirit. It is a high level response. [Tape malfunction; skipped]
MERIUM: This is a very clever universe. Our mother is magnificent in her many portrayals, as is the Father, but we have talked about the mind and the mind is very susceptible. It is not entirely psychic but interesting that on occasion information may be conveyed to alleviate anxiety in a human being as to their dearly departed in order that they can get on with their life with a forward-thinking attitude, but as I said, the instructions are quite clear: they cannot come back; and so I suppose you could say, "Merium said that they could send a message!" and we can take that with a grain of salt, but that is what I'll say anyway.
Elyssia: That was very helpful. Thank you for that.
MERIUM: You are welcome. It does help to be able to discuss a situation with those who are not students of the fifth epochal revelation. Those of you, however, who are, and who know the facts of the matter, are in a position to be very creative and educate through tact and tolerance and all those wonderful qualities these truths that will bring them forward into a greater consciousness of what really goes on and not what they want to go on. Does that make sense?
Elyssia: Yes, it really makes sense.
MERIUM: We really do need your help here.
Elyssia: We want to help.
MERIUM: It's on your shoulders. And the Spirit of Truth is in full support of your efforts. Now, did you notice that I said, "It is on your shoulders."
Elyssia and Hester: Yes, we noticed that.
MERIUM: Now I tell you why I come in here and fluff up your pillows and talk to you as if you were little children needing attention. If you have this onerous responsibility on you on one hand, you deserve the attention on the other, and who else is going to give it to you?
Hester: It's nice to get attention.
Elyssia: That's true.
Hester: It's loving and gracious.
Elyssia: We like that. We enjoy it.
MERIUM: I do, too. I am also going to add, and this is a left field parenthesis, that it gives Gerdean a great opportunity to feel feelings that she, as a human, refuses to allow herself. We are working on that. Close parentheses. Good night.
Hester: [Laughter] Look out, Gerdean, you're in for it.
TOMAS: I am Tomas and I hear hubbub in the hallway. Perhaps it is time for me to be compassionate and sign off for the evening. It has, as always, been a rich dessert.
Elyssia: Thank you for your help.
TOMAS: Good night. Farewell.
Hester: Farewell. Thank you.
*****
DATE: July 23, 1998
LOCATION: Pittsburgh, P.A. USA
T/R’s: Gerdean and Hunnah
TEACHERS: TOMAS, MERIUM
URANTIA BOOK STUDY
Paper 31, THE CORPS OF THE FINALITY
# 8. The Transcendentalers
# 9. Architects of the Master Universe
#10. The Ultimate Adventure Paper 160, RODAN OF ALEXANDRIA
# 1. Rodan's Greek Philosophy
TEACHER SESSION:
TOPIC:
GRATITUDE
TOMAS: Good evening, everyone. I am Tomas.
Group: Elyssia, Celeste, Leah, Evangel, Hunnah, Gerdean and Hester. Good evening. Thank you for coming.
TOMAS: It is our pleasure to be here. Merium and I have been discussing our format for the evening and it was thought for awhile that she might come out first, but I promised her I would be light-hearted and we would perhaps play a game or do something less onerous than a recent session or two has been. It is important that we learn how to be friends and have fun together.
It is sometimes extremely tedious in your lives that you are required to be serious about your spiritual application. Sometimes life gets heavy; sometimes your experiences are not fun, can be expensive, can be difficult and although we are not here to provide comic relief in your life, we are here to ease your burdens as well as to uplift your thought processes and your mental outlook.
In the Butler group we have engaged in many exercises designed to break down the social barriers that exist between people while this Pittsburgh group remains somewhat formal, but I have concluded it's because of the furniture. [Group laughter] Sitting at the desk, the table, has a tendency to lend a formality that is not present with the cats and the crickets.
I am not going into, therefore, any heavy, onerous discourses at the outset. I am always amenable to chewing on a gnarly old gristle if one comes up, but I will not introduce it. Merium, I am going to, in fact, assign you the delight of loosening up the limbs of class, that we might perhaps begin a new page -- and speaking of new pages, let me first congratulate you on your accomplishment of having succeeded in completing your scholastic studies of Part I of your text. I pat you all on the back, shake your hands, give you your cap and gown, and commend you on your noble accomplishment. Are you with me, Merium?
MERIUM: Oh, yes, I am. I'm having a laugh. First of all, let me tell you that I have been having fun in Hunnah's memory bank here. Our coming on-line is just as you describe, because Hunnah was anticipating opening her mouth and then she saw two comedians approaching an open door and trying to go in together and it was as if to say, "After you," "After you," and finally we did make up our mind.
The other thing is that Hunnah's sister has returned from Asia and she said she was very impressed with the politeness of everyone and she said even if they were having an outrageous thought about you, they maintained their demeanor and were extremely polite.
Well, you were talking about confident healing, conditioning and prejudice and you know I am like an airplane going through the sky with a sign that's behind it that says, "Release, release, release. There is nothing to conquer. There are no quarrels. There is nothing to wrestle with except memories and poor conditioning, and when you are wrestling, you are indeed making no progress at all, whether it is with you or with someone else.
So be still, be still. This is the sign I am flying behind the plane, reminding each of you in your own special way with your own special word, sleep, sleep, quiet, quiet, wait, wait, wait upon the Lord.
This is indeed a new era cadence that I am producing this evening, but I want you to develop your own scenario, whether it's Porky Pig or whatever to come out with a cue card to come out and say Take-a-Break, Take-a-Break, Stop-stop, because if you do not stop you will never get done with your reasoning’s, your quarrellings. I also am reminding you that the water will never be still unless you put down the oar.
You have to come up with some creative challenges and you do not come up with them, you open the window and let them come rolling in like they are on a wind and they come to the rescue and they help you to stop the compulsive conversations that you carry in your head, or the conversations with other people, "I said" "She said" "You said" and there we go again in the pitiful pit of human dilemma.
We are not doing that anymore! We are not entertaining anyone with our old stories. We must bring ourselves as our only audience, our only session within ourselves for correcting. There are many bad habits out there that develop and then take over. There is a quote from Kubler-Ross: “Get over it! Now!”
Now, the first time Hunnah heard that statement she was absolutely wild with it because she was complaining, and the office secretary approached her and looked right at her with the most comical expression on her face and said, "Get over it! Now!" Well, it was a bit of a shock, but after awhile it settled in and it became almost hilarious. It sounds very abrupt but it is absolutely true. Do you want to spin your wheels and go backwards? Or do you want to get on with it?
And just recently (I will steal again) there was an emergency phone call for Hunnah. She was laying face down on the chiropractor's cot. What to do? She answered the phone. She said to her daughter, "Are you bleeding?" No. She made her emergency call. I laughed right through this whiffing because she said to the chiropractor with words of wisdom that she was astonished. "I have a choice. This can upset me or I can just let it go," and that is all that was necessary. She did not even have to declare that she would let it go. Now. In the moment. Let's get on with it. And when it came again in a second rush, when her mental mechanism was working in better order, she did have a chance but did not spend much time.
How do you want to spend your time? What do you want to do? Create a vortex of energy that sucks the life out of you? Or do you want to build a spiral that will permit you to create a fragrant wind for someone else, something that will billow their sails and encourage them, something that will encourage others and as you say it and speak the words of fascination, as you hear these fresh words pouring from your mouth, it will billow your own sail, there will be oil left in your lamp.
I am on a roll, everyone. It has been going all day. I have been filling this great big Santa Claus bag and I have had it on Hunnah's back and she has been up in the air full of energy and getting it done, getting on with it, and it was this gratitude, this awareness of energy that filled her day with poise and industry and she came out of gratitude this evening to be with you and to celebrate, so that I might come and speak to you these words of encouragement.
It is true that they flow very rapidly and they are unstopping, but this is the shoe, wear it. These are the shoes, they are slippers, and I want you all to look down at your feet and know that there is an appropriate, lovely pair of shoes of understanding on your feet. They can be jeweled slippers, they can be comfortable sandals or they can be bare feet. Whatever's appropriate. Let yourself be filled with understanding, helping understanding, fresh, resilient understanding.
You do not have to fix, you do not have to repair, you are on the magic carpet, you are wearing the appropriate attire and you are headed in the right direction with your mission. You are not back there fixing up yesterday. Let me remind you again of another wonderful bit of imagery. Dismay and concern and then a flash in the mind and an understanding of seeing sand blowing on the dune where the footsteps have been.
It is true. That which you did yesterday, that which you regret, is allowed to be diminished by the divine winds upon the sands of your ever-receiving moments as you pass through them and learn to live within the now. The word "living in the now" sounded like a cliché, but it is true and you in this western world must learn to take a serious look at this word because you spend all your time looking over your shoulder or dreaming of the future. You are losing the moment.
On the way to the meeting this evening, Hunnah was blessed with some quick sights, like airwaves. She passed a house that had a great stump out front but there were flowers parked around this once-upon-a-time-tree and there were huge barnacles (you have a word but it passes me) that were beautiful to see. She saw a great blue ball that would draw the butterflies in someone's garden. There were many things, eye-catchers that would not be seen had her mind been broiling and gnawing on yesterday's experience, yesterday's braggadocio or disappointments.
I encourage you all, full-heartedly, with heart in my hand and a whip in the other if necessary, please pay attention. Become mindful of what you are doing. Not remembering what was said. Be mindful at what you are doing. Change your life! Redecorate it, freshen it, and enjoy the moment. I truly mean this with all sincerity that this is such a gift and joyful way to live, and I want you to all go forward and NOT meet the challenge but BE the supply in your own life and for others to envision.
They will wake up like a startling expression of your joyous experience, of the rhythms and of the cadence of your new being-ness. You will make a difference. Not with your head. Not with this intellectual crocheting that goes on constantly, but you are going to burst through the gate and be allowed to be poised and watch the peripheral supply as you journey throughout your day.
Now I have certainly enjoyed this magic carpet trip this evening. I feel like a Disney character. I hope I have titillated your thoughts, pressed all the right buttons, because all I have really ever said to you this evening is "Whaa, whaa, whaa, you are loved, joyfully, appreciatively, and you are going to go forward, whether you're kicking and screaming with a stiff neck looking back or with a smile on your face as you sail through the prepared place, the Red Sea, the parted area where the light has gone before you. All you have to do is venture there and be awestruck with joy. Thank you.
Group: Thank you, Merium. That was great.
TOMAS: Indeed, my partner. I am grateful for your words, your very free-flowing transmitter, and for your message. I am reminded of the marvelous summer storms that have been going on in your geographical area and we have had a torrent, a refreshing bath, and it has indeed washed us and prepared us for the growth of new flowers, a new crop.
Let me help you all play in the mud puddles now. If you could take one moment, I want you to each think of a gratitude that you can sincerely savor and share with your peers. Take that moment now and I'll be back in a minute.
Hester: Just as I crossed the river coming into 79, this wall of water that I could not see through, came down on my windshield in the front of my car, and it was like I'm driving, I can't turn, I dare not move from there. I have to keep going straight ahead, and for the first time in my life I let go of the car. I held the steering wheel, but I turned it totally over to God because I could not do anything but be grateful that I was inside the car and the wall of water was outside, and it took a good block or two before it opened up enough that I could see more than just a wall of water completely around me on Rt. 79 going to Pittsburgh, and I felt as though I were not in charge; I was being carried through, and at the time I thought about the flood, the various floods that have happened in the world, and how somehow or another you get through these, but it was a powerful, helpless experience.
Gerdean: I don't mean to revert; it was actually only this morning, but I am very grateful when I can see how much the universe truly cares for me, when I am able to experience my life in such a way that when it's necessary that I be upheld, God presents a friend to be there for me at just the right time, and that's been happening in the face of all that life has been offering. People have been there at just the right time. This morning I looked out the door and I could see some of those street people that I have fretted about, pacing out there as if they were sentinels on duty to see that I was okay. I can see these people differently. I can see them as part of the army of the Father. I'm very grateful for them and for the new view.
Celeste: I am very grateful for the joy in my heart. It's just so wonderful, all the time.
Liana: I am grateful for the communion with my spirit companion who teaches me in such a gentle way.
Leah: I'm grateful for everything in my life, including the things that really perplex me and I don't feel like being grateful for, because I know that they're to stimulate my spiritual growth, even though I don't feel like it at the time that it happens. And I'm especially grateful this week that Evangel was able to come to the conference and he was there, particularly, when I had this huge flat tire and no way to change it, and it just seemed like an impossible situation; but ... and he's a good friend and he's helped me a lot in the last couple of weeks and I'm very grateful that he's been here. And I'm grateful that his son called him today. I'm grateful for a lot of things, but ... I'm grateful to know that I'm a child of God. That you are all children of God.
Elyssia: I'm so grateful that we have this wonderful revelation, The Urantia Book, and I'm very grateful for these people to read with, so that we can look across the table and say, "Wasn't that a beautiful passage?"
And I'm so grateful for the papers that Gerdean types of the transmissions because I really look forward to jumping into bed and picking out a passage and feeling so good that that's what I can think about before I close my eyes. It's just something that I enjoy.
TOMAS: I am Tomas. I am grateful to you all for your friendship, your companionship, your student-ness and your teacher prospects. I am grateful to the Teaching Mission for the opportunity to experience this incredible and marvelous opportunity, unheard of in the universe. With you, I am grateful to the Master for his overcare, for his understanding, and for his hope for us in our future in the Father's universe. Tell me, Merium, what are you grateful for today?
MERIUM: Merium IS gratitude. Perhaps if I was to peek in Hunnah's portfolio she would be grateful for physical strength with the gift of the seamless garment, of impersonal effortless effort. She has had a full plate and was thinking about Mary and Martha and she didn't want to just be Mary and she didn't want to find herself abandoned and be just Martha, then she remembered that she had a new name and the permission that that name would bring which would be appropriate for the occasion, to do the will of God, being a being that guides the will of God, and that is what your meanings indicate -- freedom to not be one thing or another or a particular virtue, but to be feather-light and appropriate and accommodating and appreciative, versatile, whatever the moment requires.
Her friend Casey used to say, "you meet the need at the level of the need." When you have the good fortune of experiencing yourself moving into the slot, carrying the appropriate energy, stimulated to have the right idea, it becomes a seamless garment. You are appropriate if you are doing the will of God. You do not have to pull over to the side of the road and think about it. You just do it, and then later on, perhaps, you might discover that you did it for you had a joyous experience of sensing that you are appropriate. There is an energy, an impersonalization that moves in to fill in the developing doubt. It is a wonderful way to live.
It sounds as if we have traveled a great distance from this question, but you know I never want to miss an opportunity to present something in a new light, and this is what you are going to be very good at. You do not need to vocalize it; you will discover, in a personal way.
Once in Hunnah's book she wrote about something that had been taken care of, a behavior, perhaps, or something she had shed, that was outgrown, a useless bit of information at the time, and she was thinking about all the changes that had occurred in her life and it was a moment of gratitude, but the outstanding thing is that no one ever knew. There is so much liberation that takes place internally, privately, in secret, and no one ever knew. You do not need anyone's praise or opinion. I will repeat that because it is important. You will not be in need of praise or anyone's opinion.
There is also -- I am so full of simple stories. I am beside myself with this wonderful opportunity, for I am grateful when Hunnah is accommodating. It's almost as if we are baking a cake and we finally got the right kind of ingredients and this is one of those evenings.
She was thinking about competition and what a pity it was that man had to be baited, continually praised, and patted like a dog, in order to perform well, and that he had to put down another and push it aside, behind himself, so that he could feel better about himself. We have not done our young ones a favor these days to allow them to compete at such an early age.
That is another subject, but you will be able to see this in yourself. There will be so many things that you will do without needing a coupon, a free drink, or a wink from some meaningful relationship. You will not need it because you have new standards and you will be about this development of the seamless garment, this morontial wonderment that you are on your way to discover. I think that I have expressed my gratitude very well.
TOMAS: Here! Here! Are there questions this evening? (Silence) Perhaps the appropriate thing to do here is to be grateful that we have peace of mind and a full plate, that the rain has stopped, and the roads are clear, that the night is cool and that peace reigns in the kingdom of God and in your kingdoms as well.
Leah: Could you lead us in a prayer?
TOMAS: I will offer a prayer indeed for our brothers and sisters; for those of you who teach and preach, and those of you who listen and learn; those of you who are strong, those of you who are weak; those of you who are men and those of you who are women; those of you who are young and those of you who are old; strong and frail; of sound mind and simple:
“Father/Brother Michael, our Creator, we give thanks to you on behalf of your myriad creation, the thick and thin of your sphere. We give thanks, Father, for the unfolding of your will on Urantia, for the difficulties that it has experienced that we might learn from the mistakes of others as well as our own experiential adventures; that we may gain wisdom through adversity; that we may be reminded that in the long haul you have been with us through it all.
You and Nebadonia have always guided and nurtured our steps and have, at heart, an understanding of our dilemmas, our challenges, that they are indeed, ultimately, for a purpose; that the strengths they are gaining from these experiences in this life will create better citizens in this life and in the many lives to come throughout eternity.
The experience of life itself, dear Father, is a gift that we can do nothing but be grateful for. Even on the darkest days, we breathe in reality because of you. Whether it's a difficult pill to swallow or a breath of fresh air, let us always remember that you have given us life itself, that on every plateau of learning there is to be experienced that moment of perfect peace wherein we may feel your embrace, the commendation of your acknowledgement of our having done a day's work and having done it well.
Thank you, Jesus, for the experience of having lived your life on this planet whereon these children also experience the triumphs and tribulations of the mortal career.”
MERIUM: Tomas, thank you so much. I am quite convinced that this transcript this evening will travel very far. It will embrace the universal creation here on Urantia.
TOMAS: Thank you, Merium, my fine colleague and my wonderful flock. Amen and farewell.
*****
DATE: August 6, 1998
LOCATION: Pittsburgh, P.A. USA
T/R: Gerdean
TEACHERS: TOMAS, MERIUM
URANT.IA BOOK STUDY:
PAPER 33, ADMINISTRATION OF THE LOCAL UNIVERSE
#1. Michael of Nebadon
#2. The Sovereign of Nebadon
#3. The Universe Son and Spirit
#4. Gabriel — The Chief Executive PAPER 160, RODAN OF ALEXANDRIA
#3. The Lures of Maturity
Group: Elyssia, Celeste, Leah, Gerdean, Hester and Hunnah
TEACHER SESSION:
TOPIC:
AUTHORITY OVER YOURSELF
TOMAS: Good evening, family. I am Tomas. Merium and I are here in a fond embrace.
Group: Greetings, Tomas, and Merium. Thank you for coming. We're glad you are here.
TOMAS: It is sometimes overwhelming to come in the door. I am smiling, along with my colleague who indicated "I hear you knocking but you can't come in" [Group giggle] and sometimes when the door opens there is such melee [More giggles], we don't want to come in just yet, as it is also true that just because the door is there, you don't want to come in yet either.
Embracing each other in the spirit, nay, embracing yourself in the spirit is an accomplishment for the hale of heart indeed. It is not to be undertaken willy-nilly. Approaching yourself as a viable reality, above and beyond a bauble, an amenity, a social conditioning, an historic artifact, is indeed a gigantic undertaking, as Rodan infers, requires a degree of maturity, and so here we are.
We have settled down, the dust has settled, we have straightened the pictures on the wall and Merium has adjusted her coiffure. Now, let us adjust ourselves once more to the configuration of our Teacher Base and approach our lessons as if we knew what we were up to. I would like to discuss with you somewhat further, in a general context of where we have been going, having to do with upholding yourself as you see fit in your environment.
You are extremely pliant individuals. Indeed, adaptation has been necessary for you to survive. In political terms, it is necessary for you to be adaptable. No one wants to have such an arrogant personality as they are unwilling to be flexible and gracious, and yet there are times when you gracious yourself out of existence.
It is particularly difficult for women to hold their ground. In-as-much as I have here an assemblage of women, I would like to help you work on this aspect of yourself, if only to realize the truth of it.
I am going to pause in my presentation and go "on hold" while you reflect to yourself an incident or a tendency that you may have within yourself, not your neighbor, that is vacillating, that is able to tenaciously hold firm to the courage of its own conviction. Let's see if we are on the same track here. After we have had a moment of reflection, I would like to go round the room.
[REFLECTION AND SHARING]
Merium and I have been observing your industrious outpourings and it is an item for industry, in-as-much as it has caused you to see beyond the first layer to realize the fact of the truth of the practice of vacillation. It is a normal human pattern. It has evolved from a pattern of trial and error in order to come up with the best solution, and so that all of you vacillate is part of the process of determining your bottom line decision, one which has come from trial and error.
It is apparent that many of you do defer your authority to some one else and this, too, has been part of your evolution in ascertaining the smart way to go. You have all been successful survivors and thrivers in the methods of life. We are embarking now, as you know, on a new way of life, and so of course you bring with you all of your skills and add to these skills your new convictions and values, aspirations, goals and tools, and we will one day develop a new people, a new society, a new world.
I bring this up because it fits in with your framework of growth and because we have intellectually introduced the personality of Gabriel and the fact of administration. Recently in Butler we also touched on the administration of the spheres. We have been gearing up to this, you see, in terms of the actualities of your living experience. I am not going to refer to the men present in this group, you see; I am going to speak to you as individuals because you are all capable of making administrative decisions about your life and your position in your realm, for everyone has a realm of operation in the spirit -- and in the mortal realm you have your sphere of influence. You have your authority.
Months if not years ago I spoke to you about authority, your own authority, and we have spent a lot of time investigating your relationship with the Father, with the Mother, with Christ, with each other and with the self, and I bring to your attention again the word Authority, for in time you will be administrators in your own right, perhaps even tomorrow, in terms of determining whether or not to blow the whistle on a shoplifter or a litterbug or a tippler.
These are matters for you to determine because it affects your realm of authority, your world. How far does your world go and who is stepping on your toes in your world and how do you graciously and yet firmly determine that within your arena these are the ground rules? These are the gracious points of behavior that will be abided by; these are acceptable principles and these are not.
Administration is the key word. Administrating a realm of light and life. I will ask you then tomorrow and this week to be aware of your authority and your potential authority and pay attention to those realms of authority that you have down pat, that you hardly even think about, you have it so well under control; and think also about the areas that you very graciously and easily give up to someone else; and thirdly, I would ask you to look at the potential for divine authority in your realm that would affect the greater whole.
How can the authority invested in you as an Ambassador of the Kingdom, as an example of our own microcosm of perfection, penetrate and impact our earth?
I have finished my formal lesson for the evening and I am going to turn the mike over to Merium before we open up for questions. Merium?
MERIUM: Good evening, everyone. I wasn't sure I was going to get to speak to you this evening because Hunnah has decided she is going to go home, so I am glad to have a chance to have a few comments here. Be aware of your own behavior, and not with a clipboard on your arm, keeping track of yourself, but you are going to find, through your own guidance, the guidance of the teaching Source, that you are going to hear your words.
You are going to hear other words, and you are going to find it very fascinating to find out that this subject is indeed appropriate and I hope that you will go out in your day tomorrow with an attitude of expectation and isn't that a lovely way to be brought to task? Not criticized but allowed to see that this human conduct goes on and that you are perfectly normal in a human sense.
But we are in the business of rising above the human limitation. So indeed we want to groom you and help mold you into the configuration of the Father's choosing. Please enjoy your day.
My talk is brief. You have heard from me. My tongue has wagged and wagged. The other day I had such a good time and I hope that you will have a lovely experience and take your humor with you when you find yourself in the predicament and that you will write about it if it will help and see what your choices are. Be creative in your solutions and enjoy the adventure. Thank you.
Group: Thank you, Merium. Thank you for coming.
TOMAS: We are now open for questions and commentary.
Elyssia: Well, we're hearing about the Universe Mother Spirit and does Christ Michael and does the Mother Spirit retain anything of the --- are they in the morontia form? Because they are still in the universe and we don't give up -- we don't become true spirit until we leave the superuniverse. Do they have any relic or any remnant of the morontia body? I wouldn't think they would but then I'm confused about that.
TOMAS: The Divine Minister and Creator Son have their own form, of course, as they have their own domicile, and the Divine Minister is far less changing that the Creator Son who moves at large throughout the universe. When he is in the Isle of Paradise he is in spirit form and when he is in the realms of time and space he is more inclined to modify his form so as to be seen by those with whom he comes in contact. I will draw from the gross example of Star Trek and the changeling who can change forms to adapt to certain situations and perhaps that is a rude description but somewhat analogous.
Elyssia: Thank you. That does make it more clear to me. I was trying to figure that out. Well, now, recently I mentioned this book called "Domestic Tranquility -- A Case Against Feminism" which is just now being published and I think it's going to make a tremendous impact on the society because this woman is taking on Betty Freidan and nothing significant has been published since she published her book (The Feminine Mystique) to challenge her thesis, so I'm trying to figure out if this is a good step forward for us because what's happening in Sweden couldn't, couldn't be in the will of our Creator Son because he talked in favor of the marriage relationship.
Hester: He blessed marriage.
TOMAS: He has based the entire kingdom on the concept of the parent and the child. The two parents, in fact, are the primary relationship and the basis of the home. Even so, the form of marriage is undergoing major change. I am not a proponent of any "ism" in particular, for it is dogma, but the concept of women's lib has been necessary and is even still undergoing problematic adjustments.
It is mentioned in your text that if women demand every freedom, they will no longer be recipient of chivalry and this would be unfortunate, but in fairness, there are not that many chivalrous men anyway, and so it is an independent study. Each country, each nation, each geographic area is going to have to work it out independently. It will probably sell a lot of books. Everyone likes to see a good scramble between women fighting in the mud and so it wouldn't surprise me if it sold a lot of books, but I don't think it's going to do much toward establishing the new family structure.
Leah: I'd like to ask you in reference to what Hunnah was talking about (in her sharing regarding authority), I have the same thing: a very deep-felt resentment when I see people smoking and throw their butts on the ground and, as Hunnah says, she feels a rage rise within her and I feel as if I should say something but I know I'm so enraged it will not come out kindly, and so I was wondering what your reaction was to that? It almost feels like you want to demand respect but on the other hand you can't control other people, so I'm interested in what you have to say about that.
TOMAS: It is true that you cannot legislate morality and those who have no respect for Mother Earth or for aesthetic beauty are morally bankrupt, and so it is a job having to do with the maturity of the race and that comes after maturity of the individual. You cannot force someone to be sensitive when they are not.
I myself have always wondered why they do not ticket your citizens for some of their perilous practices. I believe in Singapore they ticket anyone chewing gum because gum on the sidewalk is such bad news, and your streets are littered with cigarette butts. Not so much aluminum cans, because they are collectable and profitable, but it is disgusting, particularly when they are not biodegradable.
You might begin to start a fad, although I don't know how effective it will be in terms of what is en temps. It is a pattern in your world to determine what is acceptable, what is fashionable. It used to be that smoking and drinking were fashionable, but they are fast becoming passé. Meat-eating is becoming passé as well. It is becoming fashionable to be into healing and holistic medicines. You can do the same thing, to some extent, with those who litter but it is really, again, a matter of spiritual awareness.
Really and truly the spirit is the answer to it all, for only as they become sensitive to the value of themselves and their environment will they begin to realize that they are hurting themselves and their environment by their sloppy behaviors and perhaps you will not see it come to pass in your lifetime.
Leah: What do you mean by en temps?
TOMAS: The mode o'day. Fashion. You set the tone. You determine what is acceptable and start a movement.
Rachel: Good luck!
Leah: Do you think I should distribute disposable ashtrays?
TOMAS: No, because they will litter the ashtrays. There are creative ways I suppose of going about it. I am not sure that it’s my job to suggest it, but you might approach the local police department with the idea to ticket those who throw their butts on the ground. They will laugh at you, but you can call it to their attention.
Elyssia: Tomas, I have a question. We're supposed to be getting into the morontia mode of thinking, feeling and acting.
TOMAS: Yes.
Elyssia: And I would like to ask you: Most of the people from our planet, when they make that transition, what's the most difficult thing they have to come to grips with as they make that transition. What personality problems or character problems do they usually have to wrestle with? Immediately. First of all, they find out they are really eternal beings.
TOMAS: It depends on so many things, Elyssia, it's hard to know even where to begin to respond. Remember that there are many different life forms arriving from many different strata of worlds.
Elyssia: Yes.
TOMAS: Some of these worlds are racially admixed and some are not; some are settled in light and life, some are not; some people die violent deaths and some fuse, or very nearly. There are so many variations on who arrives at the Resurrection Hall, there are that many various reactions to what happens when they get there.
Elyssia: Well, you've probably noticed people from our planet making the transition, since you have obviously familiarized yourself with a lot of things about our planet, and so before we even think about doing that morontia way of thinking, what would help us to get ready, and specifically, we don't exactly get ready. We try to live the way Christ Michael told us to live, but, just what would we try to take on in that and what DO we take on in our first morontia life?
First of all, we lack trust here, you mentioned. One of the biggest problems. If we were there, I would assume that one of the greatest problems would be that the promise of the eternal life is true and then we should have more trust immediately. Would that be the case?
TOMAS: You are simplistic but accurate. I am going to have to limit our approach here, at least to an understanding of those who are believers and those who are non-believers, in order to have any kind of viable and/or intelligent response to your inquiry.
Elyssia: Yes, of course.
TOMAS: I cannot speak too broadly. You yourself, Elyssia, already understand many of the morontia concepts and they have already impacted your life and your life then has impacted the life of many others and so you already have an understanding of cooperation and many of the values that are a part of the morontia way of life and way of thinking that will enable you to embrace your new home with aplomb.
Your most prominent initial reaction, I would suspect, would be two fold: one of which would be the dazzling array of sensations that you will encounter. The many, many more colors and sounds, the largess of the mansion world experience compared to the limited density of Urantia. And secondly, the heartfelt and doubtlessly profound impression of knowing your Adjuster face to face and your personal guides in particular, your guardian seraphim who have escorted you and accompanied you through the transition, from the mortal life to the morontia life. These two facts of existence will likely be your predominant first impressions.
Hester: Is it possible to shift to the spiritual, turn this body to spiritual right here on this planet?
Leah: Are you talking about fusing?
Hester: Well, I don't know that it's called fusing. I'm just wondering if we can eliminate the gross body. And become a spiritual body and still have our awareness connection with our divine self.
TOMAS: Yes, Hester, it is possible. However, if you were to become one with your Adjuster, if you were to suddenly become fused, your material body would be consumed in the energy implosion, inherent in the fusion act itself. Your mortal body would not be able to withstand the power of your fusion experience.
Hester: This is why people have on occasion literally burned on a chair. Their bodies have been consumed and just their ashes are left there. This must be what has happened.
TOMAS: It is referred to as spontaneous combustion. It is unconfirmed on your realm and yet you have on record examples of Enoch and Elijah who were early fusion examples, one of which was "raised up in a chariot of fire". It was the energy implosion inherent in the act itself.
Elyssia: And yet Tomas, I wanted to ask you about that because my sense of that was that they had a completely different set of genetics from us. They had a tremendous proportion of the Adamic infusion and they may have developed spiritually much more quickly than we could hope to. Am I wrong about that?
TOMAS: I am not going to give too much credibility to that theory, Elyssia, for the reason that it would give you an intellectual justification as to why you could not possibly attain fusion, and I will not undermine your Thought Adjuster and even your own faith levels to give you that shortcoming. It is indeed possible. And it is hoped that you continue to aspire toward that very thing.
It is one of the reasons, if you will, why I spoke to you earlier this evening about having your own authority. If you vacillate in order to accommodate humanity and social mores and relationship compromises and so on and so on, you are thwarting your own integral relationship with your own adjuster which is the true authority and relationship that is vitally necessary for you to get on with your spiritual path.
Granted you have a world to uphold, you have homes and families to tend to and these are, of course, exceptional responsibilities, but your primary responsibility is to your own relationship with Our Father and that is the goal of the ages. Indeed, it is the goal of today, that your relationship with Him is sure-footed and you must be able to stand firmly on your own authority in terms of what is acceptable to you and what is not, based on your understanding of what He wants for you and what you want for Him.
Elyssia: Thank you very much. I wonder what was your thinking when you arrived? Were you overwhelmed or were you not in that category? Do you remember? What would be -- it would be so neat to hear about your reactions and your feelings because we already feel that we know you.
TOMAS: I would have to ask permission for that and I will check. One moment please. I may touch base with my memory about that time but I am going to be restricted.
Be advised that I was from an advanced realm. Not completely, but my world was segregated such that I lived in an advanced society and it was in many ways spiritually advanced as well. I regret inferring we did not have Teachers. We did have teachers: the Trinity Teacher Sons. They were on schedule. Our planet was normal and so we had an understanding of what to expect.
I went directly to the Resurrection Hall. I did not sleep for an extended period of time. I was ushered into a battalion, a corps of workers almost at once. I was, of course, awarded a period of celebration and adjustment. I met with my friends and family who had preceded me, including my mate, and we were together assigned to work and serve in a number of service situations in our morontia experience. That is all.
Elyssia: It is wonderful to just be able to think about it and smile about it and we already feel such a connection with you and I can only assume if you were working, you would have been helping the individuals that would be coming from a less advanced state than your own. That would be my impression of what you would be doing in the way of work. I can't imagine any other kind of work that you would do, but I suppose my imagination doesn't carry me that far.
One of the people that was in our group and that has now gone on to the Lord said, "Don't forget, we've got to study the Book real well because we're going to help the souls that are coming across" so I didn't know if that was accurate for our plans or not.
TOMAS: You will be helping in many capacities. It is true that a way must be prepared and this includes, in your terms, housing accommodations and touring situations. You will be helping your seraphim and your angelic aides. There are many groups of workers that you will help, not necessarily directly with those who are arriving. There are specialists in the field. But once they have made the adjustment, you will be put to work doing what you can to help those who supervise and administer the morontia worlds and the satellite worlds.
Elyssia: Again, I suppose that if we have been able to develop compassion -- and that's what you were talking about recently -- that would be an extremely wonderful help if we could make some moves in that direction.
TOMAS: I am going to give you a very affectionate and intimate and compassionate piece of news, Elyssia, and that is, that in-as-much as you are from the planet Urantia, it is a rather fair bet that you will be regarded with intense compassion by all those who encounter you, in-as-much as they will realize at once that you have come from a planet long isolated and that your deficits are such that they will want to comfort you and console you as well as observe you with curiosity.
Elyssia: And if we could be compassionate here, ourselves, towards others, then we can probably, maybe even serve more effectively there, because it seems to me that you are saying that we should be developing these things here now.
TOMAS: Yes. And you can, when you are there, by manifesting compassion, indicate to your new peers there what you have learned here in terms of compassion, for was it not our Creator Son who was the epitome of compassion when he worked here on your native sphere? The fact that you are from Michael's home town is going to give you something to carry with you forever. You want to represent Michael.
Elyssia: That's a wonderful guide.
Hester: You made a statement a few sentences back, that your mate went... Did the two of you go to the other world together? Sooner or later? Or is that something that's completed here and then you go on.
TOMAS: It depends on the individuals involved. I am friends with my former spouse. We are on the ascent and she is my sister in terras of our spiritual relationship. We will know each other throughout eternity, and I am very pleased to have known her from my first existence, my mortal existence. It is not always the case. Many people do not have a mortal mate that advances or that advances at a similar pace. It is not uncommon in the universe for friends to begin at the beginning and to work all the way through, more or less, together.
Elyssia: Well, I told Celeste that we would see each other throughout eternity.
TOMAS: Yes.
Elyssia: And you have said that.
TOMAS: In addition, you are agondonters, and eternally you will belong to this same "glee club".
Hester: We're going to be together into eternity. How wonderful.
Elyssia: Thank you, Tomas.
TOMAS: Indeed. You have common knowledge. My family I am going to depart for the evening. Again it has been a pleasure and a privilege to be your guide and your companion in the ascent.
Group: What a wonderful night. Thank you so much. Helping us to stand our ground. I feel a lot better about the hereafter.
*****
DATE: August 13, 1998
LOCATION: Pittsburgh, P.A. USA
T/R’s Gerdean and Hunnah
TEACHERS: TOMAS, MERIUM
URANTIA BOOK STUDY:
Paper 33, ADMINISTRATION OF THE LOCAL UNIVERSE
#5. The Trinity Ambassadors
#6. General Administration
#7. The Courts of Nebadon
#8. The Legislative and Executive Functions Paper 160, RODAN OF ALEXANDRIA
#4. The Balance of Maturity
Group: Elyssia, Celeste, Leah, Evangel, Hunnah, Gerdean and Hester
TEACHER SESSION:
TOPIC:
ON AFFIRMATIONS
TOMAS: Good evening, everyone. I am Tomas. Merium and I are here together with you in joyous approach to your communion in truth. Your homage in stillness is endearing and would that we had many moments such as this in which to abide with Him. Indeed, let us raise our countenance to the Divine Minister and the Master Son in thanks of their glorious reign, their wondrous kingdom, of which we are a part, for the opportunity to enjoy the experience of life in the fullest, in order that we may know the Father and be of service to His many children; that we indeed may come to know each other in the spirit and enjoy the Father in and through each of his children thereby bringing about the perfection of the ages in light and life in our very lives.
"Grant us, Father and Mother, the patience and graciousness to deal with the vicissitudes of this existence and the challenges of the day. Grant that we may have the graciousness of spirit to be mindful of our status as sons and daughters of the living God, that we may be in understanding of our dignity and our humility. Open our minds, open our hearts. Rain upon us your divine love, your mercy, and teach us those things which you would have us know, to the honor and glory of your very being. Amen.”
I like to lift my voice in prayer and have a moment of praise and thanksgiving. I like these moments often, and I like it when you also stop in your tumultuous existence, to savor your connection with divinity. It is truly wonderful to realize that each of you are so growing in your awareness of your spirit association that you are acting in faith, conscious faith, most of the time, and that you assume the presence of God and the counsel of divinity in your daily doings. And yet, how we appreciate your conscious free will choice to put your life aside, even your service, in order to acknowledge the presence and overcare of our Divine Parents, just as your heart hungers for the upturned face of your children in acknowledgement of that which you have taught and bestowed upon them in your loving ministrations.
We have been discussing authority. And I ask you this evening to look to the authority of Michael and of Nebadonia, the authority of Salvington, which manifests to you in love and mercy, and when you are in your state of human authority over yourself and your domain, remember to take as an example the ruling fashion of Salvington and apply your life with liberal doses of the authority of love and of mercy, for those languages are the languages that speak even when words fail.
The divine love of the Father and the Mother, as manifested through your very being, as indicated by your moment of gracious appreciation for your connection with them, is the true, final authority -- that which is law: God is love.
We will speak more about this subject of authority and indeed the related concept of control, in-as-much as control is a human characteristic which has caused many relations to flounder and come to a screeching halt. Illusion of control is a distinct knot, a gnarl in the flow of love. I am not going to discuss that now. I am willing to be quiet so that we might hear from my sister and colleague, our beloved Merium.
MERIUM: That is my cue. Good evening, everyone.
Group: Good evening, Merium. Thank you for coming.
MERIUM: Hunnah likes to go into her so-called limbo who hears the voice, but I am the one that has the baton and I am the one that will prod her into keeping her head up while I talk to you because I need this facility this evening. Anytime any of you would like to demonstrate your ability of your effort to do so, it would be greatly appreciated. I don't want to be buzzed off the air.
In the meantime, we have been listening to you talk about your lives in a very special way this evening. It is good news, and I think the stillness preceding your talk was beneficial because it could help you articulate what you wanted to say and have a depth that it lacked previously, and I hope you will continue to follow this up. Hunnah had no idea she was going to say what she did, but when you take that part of yourself that does not live in this realm and on this level, it cannot come in. Darkness cannot enter light, and it is indeed a lovely light cloud that we have got together here in this configuration this evening.
Welcome, Evangel, our gardener. Our disappointed gardener? Inaudible response] You are having an on-going course of living between two worlds, and hopefully not being of it, the lesser way. It is indeed a stretch and it's a painful stretch at times, but the secret is to know that it is a stretch and you are where you want to be, that it is your choice. Sometimes it does feel good to sit down and howl, but not to be carrying on for very long is the secret because then you will not be able to find what awaits you, the strength that is in the wings, that will come to your aid.
I do not feel inspired tonight to have something particularly new. I am an arty gardener, in that I like to come in and pinch the little false starts that don't belong there, because we want that which we have planted to become strong and not waste it by inappropriate shoots of incomplete understanding; we want you to grow healthy and strong and in this cultivation we are one of the stakes that will help support the fruit of your consciousness as you pursue towards the goal of your new reality. Tomas?
TOMAS: What shall we undertake this evening, class? Are there questions or commentary?
Elyssia: Something came to my mind. A few years ago, friends of mine were talking about this individual named Claire Prophet and some of them became quite enamored of her and she had this system of decreeing and it reminds me a little bit of the idea of taking your ground, or something, because at the time I thought, "Isn't that an interesting thing to do? To decree thus and so?" and their idea was telling all her followers, "Just decree all things will be thus and so!" and it was quite an interesting departure. I hadn't heard anything like that up until the time I heard her and I wasn't interested in some of the other things she was saying, at all, but she was making quite a striking figure at the time that she was accumulating pupils.
TOMAS: It is a teaching technique used by many. Merium herself engages in this technique. I have heard fine teachers and preachers affirm and ask you to affirm. It is a positive approach. It is also, in the mind of this T/R, what Capt. Pickard asserts: "Make it so!" and his staff bring it into being, and so there is a certain authority there that will be effective, inasmuch as there are faces looking to the authority figure for guidance and direction, and when they receive an instruction, a decree, a command, they are happy to put it into effect because they are looking for growth, looking for change.
It is not an unjustified action. It is, however, encouraged that as you begin to realize that you have within you the ultimate authority in and through the First Source and Center, you will seek the counsel of perfection, that which resides within, and follow through then with that guidance that will speak to you through the Spirit of Truth, which will commend you and say, "This is the Way".
Elyssia: Now can you talk about affirming from the point of view of being kind of a way of authority? Is that what you were saying about affirming? I'd like to pursue that word. I really found that intriguing.
TOMAS: Affirming is an appropriate pastime for anyone in an ascension mode or in a process of reconditioning, reprogramming. Affirmations are positive brain-washing. Affirmations are these delightful things that you find on the refrigerator that remind you of something you want to be reminded of. They have a tendency to take your upside down smile and turn it right side up.
Affirmations are effective. They are effective, however, only up to a point. It is our aspiration that in due course you will have reached a point of spirit hunger that you will seek the morontia reality and the vitality of mota, rather than the affectation of affirmation, even though, at a certain point in your evolution, a constructive affirmation will go a long way toward bringing you up out of and away from a negative conditioning or point of view.
Elyssia: What happens if you make 100% affirmation and then, a teacher once told me that that's a perfect time for your ego to go Flip! On you, and for you to entertain the exact opposite of this affirmation. Would you explore that for a minute?
TOMAS: I can explore it; I can entertain it, inasmuch as an affirmation is an intellectual thing, a mental thing, and not really a spiritual thing, therefore the ego has full right to toy with it. When ....
Hester: Tomas, can I ask you, how does Unity come by all the affirmations and all the good that comes from these affirmations if affirmations are bad?
TOMAS: I don't remember saying that affirmations were bad. I do, however, remember saying that they are a way of programming unless and until you have added an element of spiritual reality. Perhaps it is that element of spiritual reality that Unity proposes which lifts an affirmation up into the realm of wisdom.
Hester: That's true.
Elyssia: How does an affirmation become wisdom? Can you repeat that please?
TOMAS: When it is infused with the life of the spirit, when it has launched from a conditioning to a reality, when it has gone from a memorized pattern for mental repetition to a true reality, when it has become saturated with spirit, when it has reached/attained the level of mota, when it has become morontia-ized.
Elyssia: Well, then, if you say that an affirmation is a mode of prayer, does it enhance it somewhat?
TOMAS: Considerably!
Elyssia: Okay, thank you.
Leah: I'd like to give an example of an affirmation.
TOMAS: Very good.
Leah: Certainly you can say: I am a child of God, I am a child of God, I am a child of God. And then there comes a day when you say: I AM a Child of GOD! And you KNOW that you are a Child of God.
MERIUM: Once again we are talking about focus, and like Hunnah commented this evening, there is this realm of awareness just so close it does not close up shop. It is seeing, hearing, cueing, discerning, prompting and practically helping you say the words. It is in your own scripture. I will find the words. You will find yourself in a conversation and you will hear the old words, words you've heard so many times that you're sick of them, and you won't even get through the paragraph and you will have a shift and you will lift that statement and it will climb and climb and behold, you will have a new structure, a new definition, and the attention of whomever you are talking with; and the person who has to hear that the most is you. It will be heard both internally and externally.
Does that help? Do you understand what I mean? Perhaps that has already started to happen to you. "He says, I said, she says, he says." It's like ping-pong. You've said it a thousand times but today, this day when you start this conversation, you may find yourself coming to a graceful halt and have nothing to say. That groove or that verbal exchange that has gone on so many times will not be there today. Perhaps another day and another day it will be altered, so that you can break that negative pattern.
Elyssia: Well if you say "I am a child of God" and you're in a purely intellectual mode, you could also -- the flip side of that would be, "I am not a child of God", so if you changed it into a prayer, does it not ... It's not an affirmation then. What if you say, "Father, help me to become a child of God."
MERIUM: You have rephrased it.
Elyssia: That would be spiritual but it wouldn't be an affirmation.
MERIUM: It would be preferred that you say, "Help me to be more aware that I am your child," and as you allow yourself to become more creative with this, because you might as well have prayer beads out and go through them by rote as to say many of the affirmations, unless you are stimulated with belief. When you do an affirmation it's sort of like priming the pump. I do suggest you pray out loud.
Elyssia: You mean that thinking of it, hearing it, saying it ...
MERIUM: Try this: "Father, tell me who I am."
Elyssia: That is certainly not an affirmation as I --
MERIUM: The human likes affirmation. It gives the human something to do.
TOMAS: It also gives the mind, the ego, a justification that it is doing something to assuage the Gods, but it does little towards actualizing your reality.
MERIUM: If another voice came, out of rote, as a way of getting started: "I am a child of God" (pause). And then the thought comes to mind. "Would you please repeat that? Would you please rephrase your statement? Who told you?" as the author said. "God or mammon?" Are you going to sustain yourself forever on someone else's manna? Someone else's revelation? Who told you so? Did you read it in a book? If you read it in a book, then you really need to have it become yours, personal. An affirmation will help you get toward the direction you want to go, but it is better for you to have the full tummy of contentment because you found a fresh way of saying it, bringing it alive.
TOMAS: Let me equate something for you to visualize. Give the thought the form of life. There is the material life. It is sometimes beautiful and it is sometimes unpleasant. This is just a fact. Then you come along with an affirmation and you say, "Life is good and I am pretty. Life is good and I am pretty." When you enter the spirit appreciation, you know that you are a child of God and that you are beautiful! And now you have a greater and higher understanding of this reality. It is similar to the material, morontial and spiritual. And so we are speaking of the evolution of the being. There is the dead level of materiality, stimulated by the affirmation, and glorified by the mota. We are speaking of degrees.
Leah: I am amused because several times during this discourse, the question was thrown out, "What if?" and a friend and I have identified the "What if" as the ego question.
MERIUM: It is fear-based, is it not?
Leah: I believe so.
MERIUM: That is something to keep handy. Let us imagine you have a magnifying glass and around the edge you could say, "Is this a fear-based statement or is this a freedom-based statement?" Hold up the magnifying glass and take a look again or take a look at the statement that has been made. Did you have to pounce on it and say, "Aha! I recognize the error!" but do not feel bad if it is incorrect. This is something that's going on in your private dialog and we still prefer that you get lost in the wonderment of the moment and in the wonderment of the moment you will be refreshed, feelings will come of new understanding and broadened comprehension. You are always stirring the ashes of the fire, trying to figure out what you have learned, or if it's still with you or if it's coming back to take over again.
Leah: Excuse me, Merium, but what is the "it"?
MERIUM: It? It is the false world that we continually live in out of habit.
Elyssia: When you stand your ground in your planning, you are planning to be effective or asking if you can be -- getting rather bold for a person who hasn't been bold before, so to speak. I would think that that's part of it.
MERIUM: We on our side are very much like someone who has had a human pet in captivity and we are very attached to you but we are anxious to see you spread your wings and to apply the teachings as we have brought them forth. Please keep this in mind. Call us Coach, if you would. How would the Coach want it done? Am I repeating a habit that doesn't need to stay? And I'm not talking about biting your nails. I'm talking about doing things the same way, the same way, the same way when you are so creative, you are allowed to make your lives the most enjoyable and entertaining experience all day long! Even if you wake up feeling like a slug, you are equipped now to know what to do about it.
You live in a material world that is so accommodating; there is really no excuse to stay a slug very long. It really isn't necessary. Hunnah has a grandmother who used to call it "crying with a loaf of bread under your arm" and her philosophy in the background was always, "your bed might not be the very best bed, it might not be the most perfect mattress, but oh, my, I have a bed" and I would like to have you celebrate a good deal more than you do.
I have noticed a change in our Leah. She makes reference to her home in a new way. She might not even be aware of it, but there is an element of recognition and comfort in knowing she has a home to go to. She is accepting something that she has not really thought much about, perhaps. All of you have something like that in your lives going on perhaps where there is an appreciation.
Elyssia: So you are saying, in a sense, that she has acquired something that she didn't have before.
MERIUM: You might say that it is being revealed.
TOMAS: And it is being affirmed by Merium.
MERIUM: Yes. We could go around the room and say, "Do you see?" You know you are always looking for signs of progress, and it is rarely in the obvious. It's all the thousand things that go on for you privately, that your friends don't have to know about, but they are these on-going acceptances and willingness to -- not even consciously -- walk away from something that you used to do. A lot of that backstage work, you might say, is underway all the time. "My yoke is easy. My burden is light." That is a destination of a way of life.
Elyssia: Can you describe some of the things that have been done by people in the movement? Who have been reaching out or growing or serving or something? Can you give us some examples?
MERIUM: I am so completely involved in the intimacy of the spiritual ascension experience in my line of service, I am -- did I not refer to myself as your interior decorator? In a sense we are reconditioning. It's almost like a form of energy work. You may find yourself rearranging the furniture in your room and not realize you are changing the energy in your home. You may get in contact with someone you have not seen in years. There are so many private things that are going on that are expressing the wonderment of your release that there would not be time to describe them all, and some of you are just beginning to see this going on in this introspection and others of you have been connected with this interior design.
What have you in your house? What you have in your interior, in your house, is all this wonderful willingness to continuously create new design, instead of being in a groove, and you are resourceful and creative by nature. And in your outer conditioning, you are in a harness. You are like a mule walking along pulling a canal boat. In a time where you are supposed to be releasing the new age, you might say, revelation of discovering that you are absolutely exquisitely designed and appropriately put to task to be supportive, connect appropriately, I could just go on and on, but do you see where I am going with each of you?
If you take a look at yourself and say, "What part of my life is a weighted canal boat with me as a mule lugging along all that stuff!" Carolyn Myss would say that is all root chakra, tribal concepts and living patterns when you are allowed to break away from it and be fresh.
Elyssia: Thank you.
MERIUM: I lose you often, and that is why this wonderful gift that Gerdean has given you of having the transcripts printed, because you are visual and your evening is auditory. We verbalize to you, "I want you to envision... whatever" but you do need, because of your culture, you seem to rally when you see it on a printed page and it helps you with your introspection, and then all of a sudden you break out in joy when you connect with it and you say, "Oh! I think I'm going to try to do something differently," and then you have a new idea that's popped into your head. So it's really a wonderful thing that you have. The best of two worlds you might say?
Elyssia: We really are so lucky.
MERIUM: Even if we passed out a cassette to each of you to take home, it would still not be as successful with you because you are visually -- not handicapped. It's just that that's the way it is. Tomas, here's the ball.
TOMAS: I've caught it. I have enjoyed the sportsmanship of the evening. I would like to tell you how much I have grown spiritually since I have been here. You see how readily I relinquish my authority to my co-worker who has her own authority and she speaks and teaches with words of wisdom that are uniquely hers. As I trust her intentions and her motives, as I subscribe to her aspirations and her sincerity, I am at ease in and with her authority in the situation for it is an example of a testimony of a relationship of a creature and the Creator, and this is a matter of faith. Indeed, all of our associations in this fellowship of believers, this sister and brotherhood, is faith-based relationship which is respectful of the authority of each other inasmuch as in faith we are each children of the living God.
It is always a pleasure to be with you. Each evening with you is unique and different. Each one is special, as each of you are unique and special, as is each individual relationship here. Always it is a different situation, circumstance, lesson and energy. Always is it unfolding and ascending and becoming ever more mindful of morontia mota. Ever more ready, willing and able to grasp the greater reality, ever more eager to apply these greater realities toward the life.
Have we concluded our session for the evening? Then let us go home and wake up refreshed in anticipation of yet another day in which to wield the love and mercy of the Father in our very lives. Peace be upon you. Farewell.
PITTSBURGH,
PA, USA
VOLUME III,
Part 10 of 13
April 30, 1998 - August 13, 1998
C O N T E N T S
|
Date |
Topic |
Page |
|
April
30, 1998 |
Human
Associations - MICHAEL,
HAM, MACHIVENTA |
1 |
|
May
7, 1998 |
Spiritual
Reality and Habitual Responses |
10 |
|
May
14, 1998 |
Bambi
of Urantia |
18 |
|
May
21, 1998 |
Trustworthiness |
26 |
|
May
28, 1998 |
Rest
in Worship |
29 |
|
June
4, 1998 |
Maturing
in God Consciousness |
35 |
|
June
25, 1998 |
Experiential
Wisdom |
44 |
|
July
2, 1998 |
Merium’s
Manna |
52 |
|
July
9, 1998 |
Endurance/
Perseverance; MICHAEL |
62 |
|
July
16, 1998 |
Compassion |
71 |
|
July
23, 1998 |
Gratitude |
77 |
|
August
6, 1998 |
Authority
Over Yourself |
84 |
|
August
13, 1998 |
On
Affirmations |
93 |
|
|
[End of Vol. III, Part 10 of 13] |
101 |
PITTSBURGH, PA, USA
VOLUME III, Part 10 of 13
*****
VOLUME III, Part 10 of 13
*****
DATE: April 30, 1998
LOCATION: Pittsburgh, PA, USA
T/R’s Gerdean and Hunnah
TEACHERS: TOMAS, MERIUM, HAM, MICHAEL, MACHIVENTA
URANTIA BOOK STUDY:
Paper 25, THE MESSENGER HOSTS OF SPACE
#4. Technical Advisors
#5. The Custodians of Records on Paradise
#6. The Celestial Recorders
#7. The Morontia Companions
#8. The Paradise Companions Paper 153. THE CRISIS AT CAPERNAUM
#3. The After Meeting
#4. Last Words in the Synagogue
The boy possessed by the evil spirit "How can Satan cast out Satan?"
TEACHER SESSION:
TOPIC:
HUMAN ASSOCIATIONS
TOMAS: Good evening.
Group (Elyssia, Celeste, Rachel, Hunnah, Iyana, Liana, Aren, Gerdean and Hester): Good evening.
TOMAS: We have a busy evening in store. Indeed, your evening has already been quite full of physical, emotional, mental and spiritual stimuli. There are often more things on the agenda than we have time for but, as you now know, fortunately, we have a Technical Advisor on hand to prompt our speedy and efficient activity in terms of our teaching agenda.
It is a relief for Gerdean to realize that often when she goes on-line and I am barreling along at a breakneck speed and she wonders why I am in such a hurry, I will tell you it is because we are being orchestrated. Now, it is nothing for you or her to be alarmed about; it is simply a matter of, shall we say, spiritual economics.
As I indicated, there are many things on the menu for the evening, but before we commence with this smorgasbord, I would like to greet you all from the heart -- my heart to your heart -- embracing you in divine affection and in appreciation of your very being. It is a true celebration of love in this room this evening. It is an honor to be associated with you mortal beings as well as you supernal associates who are always welcome and who always contribute so much by way of your input and your energy.
In deference to our supernal helpers, I am going to introduce a visitor but I will not overlook my manners, Merium; I will merely convey that Teacher Ham would like to say "hello" and then we can resume our standard format. One moment, please.
HAM: Good evening, my pupils and friends. I am teacher Ham ...
Group: Good evening, Ham.
HAM: There is a smile on my face in response to your outpouring, your gush of recognition and affection for my personality. I also reward you with my embrace. You are a diligent lot, soon to be embarked upon a new plateau of spirit ingestion and function. Those rather large words are my way of congratulating you on your most profound spiritual development and your readiness to proceed into greater and deeper depths of personality awareness and manifestation.
When I speak of personality awareness and manifestation, of course, I speak of the Father-bestowed personality, that in you which is perfect and that in you which would speak to the issues of the day, that being an awareness of the Father and His methods of divine affection for His creation in accordance with the pattern of the Mother Spirit.
Michael has been proud to corral us together and convey .... One moment.
MICHAEL: I will speak for myself. I am Michael. I am glad to be at your table. I am glad that you have come to the banquet that I have prepared, and that your appetites are whetted, and that you feast upon that which has been presented. You delight me in your appreciation of the fruits of the spirit which are divinely yours by your rightful inheritance as sons and daughters of our Father and as conveyers of my love and mercy to my children here on Urantia, our abode. I am happy to be invited in and not feared.
I am glad of your eagerness to absorb my words and my messages. I am eager that you understand the message of the heart, and I will not stay, for there is a Teaching Corps that can provide these moments of quality edification and companionship that you so readily need, deserve and desire. I will then let them speak for me in my stead, for as you understand, they are under my banner, as are you, my students and my teachers also of truth, beauty and goodness.
And so let us commence our new plateau of learning, our new field of endeavor, this Melchizedek University-in-formulation. I observe you not from afar but at your right hand in effort of His bounty. Peace be upon you.
Group: Thank you. Can we tell you that we worship and adore you?
HAM: I am Ham and I am absorbing your pride and adulation for the Master and giving it to him. He absorbs it readily in full awareness of your appreciation for him, but we can certainly go on the record, as we say, to acknowledge your testimony of affection and adulation. It is the Father, of course, who is deserving of the worship, but your sentiments are understood.
I will remove myself. I understand the excitement of your gathering this evening, and the stimuli for Tomas and Merium, and we are eager and excited with you and for you. Our efforts in this Teaching Mission have met our expectations and exceeded same. It is glorious to behold the living truth become an actual reality, not just an intellectual concept, not just a metaphysical fantasy, but an actuality, and I tell you that if you were to reflect upon your association you would see that you are representatives of the Master. You are teaching and feeding his sheep, in that, you are teaching and feeding each other. Go now into the world and teach also that which we are teaching you today. I will see you again and speak with you soon and anon. Farewell.
Group: Thank you so much. Thank you, Ham.
TOMAS: Well, Merium, I suggest that we let the dust settle for a moment and then come out and I will help you straighten the pictures and the curtains.
MERIUM: You should see my hair! That was some hustle, wasn't it!
It is very nice to be able to be with you this evening, and what I have drawn from this configuration is the experience of some contentment and the sight of a coloration in your individual lives. It pleases me that you are able to witness this within yourself.
We have our own observations and it isn't so that you can sit back in complaisance, but it is very important that you sense that there is a change in your life and that you can credit your association with your heartfelt reaching for guidance and an empowerment to practice that which you have become more aware of and are able to demonstrate.
Are there questions this evening? It is going to be late and I would like to know, Tomas, if there is going to be an agenda or if there is going to be questions.
TOMAS: We are having smorgasbord this evening. There are many things on the table. There are tidbits hither and yon and they may come in the form of question, they may come in the form of impromptu sermonettes, but we will cover some ground assuredly.
I am reminded that the timing of the year is also contributory to this enthusiasm which is well met at the table this evening. Remember, it was not long ago that His resurrection was celebrated and now the grey of winter has passed and the resurrection of Spring is upon us. The blossoms are pouring forth, indeed the flowers which you mentioned in your sharing time are pronouncing the vibrancy of life, and so you come, each of you, bearing your own representation of this fresh start, this new beginning, this youthful enthusiasm, and this appreciation for the fragrance and the color of the presentation of the life you live.
It is opportune of us, shall we say, to take full advantage of the mood which you present, that faith which you bring to the table to contribute it to the feast of plenty that we have provided and that we have provided for us. It is part of the co-creation of divinity.
Think not that we, Merium and I, are doing this for you. Even though many of you feel that you come and observe, that you merely sit back and watch what happens, this is not the case. You are integrally involved. As you well know from other theologies, we are one in the spirit and what happens to one of you happens also to the other, and so as we elevate, you elevate; as we reach up, you are carried. We have discussed this before in many lessons.
We have a full course of lessons behind us, many of which have become second nature to you. The growth, the spiritual growth in this group and in many other groups, as well as individuals, throughout Urantia, has been impressive in the short time since the adjudication and the reopening of the circuits, as was hoped and anticipated, but the reception that you have given by being willing to take on responsibilities of awareness, as fledgling adults in the spiritual realm, is truly amazing.
It is no surprise that you enjoy the affection and the acknowledgement; these are understood and deserving. But that you have come forth so willingly and stuck your neck out in faith of your God and our Mission has been soul-satisfying for the teachers, for the cosmos indeed. I will not preach this evening. You have been encouraged, as have we. Let us embark now upon some questions and answers. I understand, my dear lyana, that you have brought a jewel with you.
Iyana: A month ago, I asked if you would help me. I was to have a lesson on the resurrection with the circle that I belong to at the church, and I wanted some help to know how to explain the morontia figure of Christ, and you suggested that I say "astral figure" or something like that, but I didn't really need any of that help at all because in the last chapter of Mark (I think it was Mark. Anyway), it said in there that Christ 'appeared in his "glorified form" so I used the word glorified.
But I want to tell you that I am very amused at the fact that I read from The Urantia Book. Now these people didn't know that I had The Urantia Book. It was the small book about the Teachings of Jesus, so I had already prepared what I was going to read and so I was reading about the five women that were there at the tomb, and in the Bible it doesn't mention that there were five and it doesn't mention who they were, so I read that, and then I sort of got my motor going and I said, "Well, if you don't mind, I'll read to you about Christ meeting with the disciples the first two times", and of course you know that The Urantia Book goes into more detail.
Anyhow, I read to them. I didn't want to read any more for fear that they wouldn't understand or that they'd be bored. I didn't know what their reaction would be -- I really didn't care -- but I was so amused to think that I had read from the Urantia Book and they didn't realize I was doing that.
Hester: They thought you were reading the Bible.
Iyana: Well, I said, "Jesus' Bible", but no one questioned me about the book at all.
TOMAS: You were in your own glorified form, were you not?
Iyana: Well, I was elated!
TOMAS: Indeed!
Celeste: It was the truth. When they heard it, they didn't have to question it.
Iyana: Well, I tell you, I did something that we had done at the Butler group. I was in charge of the meeting so I said, "It would be nice if each one of you would tell of your experiences with how you feel about Jesus," or something like that; and, you know, each person as they spoke, I complimented each one about something about themselves as they spoke, as I could say something nice about every one of them, and it worked out very nice and I actually got thanked by a couple of them, so it was very rewarding. I've been anxious to teach ever since.
TOMAS: I am proud to be your teacher, for I see you teaching and rejoicing in your gift of teaching. Like you read this evening in your text, it is a law that you pass on what you have learned, and you are following the laws of the universe, in that, you are conveying what you know to those who are just behind you. It is an interesting question for you to ask yourselves and perhaps even to ask each other, in sincerity. (Long pause)
Gerdean: There is no question there. I don't know. Maybe we'll all have to read it.
Hunnah: Merium is gone, too.
Gerdean: Maybe they are having a staff meeting.
Hunnah: Shall we sing?
TOMAS: Are there other questions? (Pause) One moment. (Pause)
MACHIVENTA: You may laugh. I am Machiventa Melchizedek. I knew you would be amused because we have had a "power house" here this evening -- your words -- and I am not to be left out. I am impressed by the actuality of the teaching format here.
I heard you, Iyana, discuss the lessons you learned in the Butler group. I yearned for your group here to also participate in some of these techniques and we have had some discussion as to the merits of promoting that, because it is very time-consuming. It lends itself very well to long evenings, and yet it is an important developmental situation that you learn how to be sociable and spiritual rather than just sociable.
I know you realize that we respect your sociability and allow for much latitude in your socialization because it is a part of your nature, and yet it is also important that your socialization include a part of your spiritual reality, and it is a large step now for you indeed to realize the responsibility of putting yourself out as a spiritual person, a spiritual personality.
Do not therefore pass judgment on yourself and your worth. Set aside your Christian concepts of worthiness and self-righteousness and get on with the truth of acknowledging your sonship/ daughter-ship, and begin to assimilate that reality into your social life. It will become a natural part of a new evolution of awareness of spiritual truth being brought to Urantia today. It is you who will bring this about.
We can no longer allow for our spirit life to be contained within certain circumstances, certain meeting times, or certain formats. It was indicated in your lesson this evening that you should spend your time now with each other in mutual stimulation of spirit reality. That is to say, let the blind lead the blind, and you be with each other in full light of day, full light of the Son, and so now it would benefit you as individuals, as a group, and as a faction of the Teaching Mission to begin to accept and assimilate your spiritual worth into the format.
The idea that Iyana brought up about expressing to each other what it is that you appreciate about each other is a worthy, fine start on this technique and we will not go into it, necessarily, this evening because of the time constraints, but you have not only our permission but our urging that you begin to assimilate your spiritual life into your socialization.
That is to say, make your spiritual observations known. Discuss these openly and without judgment. Begin to reveal to each other how it is that your soul feels, your Father Fragment feels. You have some idea of your true reality. Let that reality become socially fragrant.
Now that you have gotten your new assignment, I am going to give you one more lesson and that is in terms of your affection for one another. Even though it is evident, it is still in line for in-depth appreciation, and so you might, as lyana, again, has said, tell each other about how you appreciate each other. These are often assumed, and it is very good for all of you to hear from your friends as to how it is that you are valued in their eyes.
If you are sincere, you may even find your eyes watering over, and this is not to be eschewed. It is perfectly okay to be so sincere as to allow your heart and theirs to be touched by this experience of sharing your fraternity in the spirit. Comrades, good evening.
Group: Good evening. Thank you for coming.
Elyssia: I remember the first time you came.
TOMAS: I will tell you, that you had asked earlier in your readings as to what constituted an occasion worthy of note by the Celestial Recorders and these kinds of things are worthy of note: when you are in contact with your supernal teachers. They are indeed establishing a new file cabinet for the Teaching Mission. (Pause) That was a joke.
Group: [Laughter] That was a good one.
Elyssia: Is this just between us, Tomas, that we are so very open? Is that what you're saying this group should practice? [Tape turned, some lost]
TOMAS: ... becomes a natural part of your expansive personality, you will delicately, diplomatically, and yet robustly take it with you into the arena at large. There are others who are working on this same lesson. Remember, we are united. We teachers are in contact and in "staff meetings" constantly as to what you are yet unaware of and prepared for. Remember we too have to abide by that law, that we must pass on to you what we know, and so we discuss among ourselves what you know so that we can give you next what we perceive to be absorbable and realizable by you, that which will benefit you in your spiritual growth and therefore benefit Urantia at large.
Iyana: I explained to these ladies, in our society we more or less learn to keep things to ourselves, we figure it's nobody's business. And I said, "How are you going to know anyone unless you learn a little about them and share some interest?" and that sort of made everybody come a little closer and they were more expansive.
TOMAS: This is very good: an invitation to the dance. I would like to touch upon Iyana's contribution and tie it in with the text and that again has to do, again, with a reading this evening about the heart and about that which comes out of your mouth and how it is that it will reflect what is in your heart, and this relates to the experience Liana had in discovering that these exigencies of the heart are deeply rooted, and in getting to know your neighbor, it is not so much the superficial level that is at issue here, for all of you are well versed in social graces. It is being able to delve deeply for the Kingdom of heaven is within, and it is within that you experience the inner life.
I have spoken to you before regarding the "deep mind". The deep mind is an area that goes beyond the shallow, superfluous realm of functioning, the immediate response and stimuli of the external world, the quick-fix-thinking. The deep mind is the mind wherein you make these decisions which will build value and meaning, which will contribute to your eternal life and your eternal value. It is in here that you must relearn to think appropriately so that your heart will be released to love in such a fashion as will be reflective of the love that you have within you, within your Thought Adjuster, within your personality that is Father-bestowed.
As you can purify your heart from its thoughts and feelings that are incorrect or in error, it then leads into greater, deeper love and a compassion for and understanding of your fellow man that will bring about the brotherhood of man. Remember that example of: if you can understand your neighbor, then you can learn to love him, and this is the beginning of the brotherhood of man. We are not going to stop at having a successful teacher base. We will not stop until the entire planet of Urantia embraces, as children of the one, eternal, living, loving Creator.
We have a big job ahead, and you, as we have said before, are the vanguard, the leaders. The reality that you develop in your association with the Father and then as practiced in your association with yourselves, is bringing about the new reality. This is very important work.
Elyssia: And the way I understand it, we begin by trying to understand more completely, the people around us? Is that the beginning of this ...?
TOMAS: Indeed.
Liana: Tomas, this is interesting to me. As of late I've been thinking about approaching people without story or context. I was just reading from Tuesday's session, "When you encounter each other, are you aware that you are encountering, in the main, an entirely different configuration than you met yesterday?" and the idea of story has been coming to me quite a bit, and it seems to me we do a better job with our fellow man if we are free of story and free of context, if we give them an opportunity to be new to us every time that we meet them.
TOMAS: Yes. You realize that when you wake up in the morning, and call upon your habitual frame of reference of who you are, you approach your day through the story of your life rather than through your relationship with God. But if you ask him to go with you into your day, shaping your identity, and radiating from you and through you, you are fresh each day.
You are correct, Liana, it is the story that stands as a great barrier between you and reality. How can you get to know someone if you continually relate to that which is immaterial, that which is temporary? It is that in you who is eternal that is hungering for acknowledgement and development. It is the soul which seeks to grow and expand so that it can greet tomorrow in faith and with strength of yet more tomorrows.
Elyssia: I have a question. I was very interested and -- I love Hiakawa, and he had something wonderful to say, as far as I was concerned, which was that "talk is important; even small talk is important. It is a way of communicating. It's a way of starting a communication. It doesn't have to be anything important. The effort and the desire to communicate is the important thing" and so his point, I believe, was to get yourself started that way and then , I suppose you move on to something deeper, but I like what Hiakawa said and I'd like to hear your comments about that.
TOMAS: The point is that you be genuine. It is not necessary that you be constantly rummaging around in your closet, you see. It is not always time to clean house -- yours or theirs. It is a matter that you be genuine. If you are genuine with each other and you trust each other, if you understand each other's motives, then you will find things that you can do to make your life richer and more spiritual, even if it is in rejoicing and worshipping, singing song and praising. You can also, then, have a new approach as to how you relate to the world at large.
If you are standing side by side with a comrade, with a sister, and you have an understanding of your job in the Kingdom, then your approach to others outside of yourself will be as elder brothers and sisters, will be fatherly, will be motherly. It has a tendency then, to remove from relationships that petty gossip tendency of human beings. It elevates your understanding of each other and allows you to be the noble creatures that you are.
Elyssia: I'd just love to hear somebody give me an example. I would really enjoy that. I can't quite picture it. A Christian teaching, I think, is causing me problem here. I've been steeped in that for so many years, I suppose.
TOMAS: You must dig deeper and get to the reality.
Elyssia: Well, maybe we can help each other.
TOMAS: We shall.
Elyssia: Somebody has to help me.
TOMAS: We shall. Merium, do you think we have stepped into a large tar pit here?
Hunnah: Merium went to bed.
Hester: I would like to thank you, Michael, for answering a question I had written out here that I didn't want to read out loud and within two minutes after I wrote it, you answered it. Thank you.
TOMAS: We are very happy when we can answer your soul's needs. It is the privilege of spirit to be there for you. It is our joy when you open yourselves to these questions that promote your own spiritual growth, this pondering of meanings, this spirit problem solving. It is a wonderful opportunity for us to conjoin in the spirit and to come to know each other better, to know how fully you are loved and how deeply you are capable of loving, also. Love is the answer to every question.
Liana: Tomas, can I ask one more question?
TOMAS: Certainly.
Liana: I've been having a hard time communicating with my spirit companion. I don't know if you can help me with that.
TOMAS: It is perhaps that you have created a story, and perhaps you have an expectation as to what they are going to tell you. I have found it to be true that many times mortals will not discuss things with their spirit companion when they fear that they will be reprimanded, and so look closely to see if you are fearful of your guides. Remember that they are here to work with you and to love you. Fear not.
Liana: Thank you, Tomas. That's great.
Elyssia: Can you rephrase this new challenge again for us? I'd like to hear it again. This new challenge.
TOMAS: This is a new course. It is an advanced course in Human Associations. It is a course designed to spiritize your thinking, your feeling, and therefore your socialization. The laboratory for this new course of study will be your social arena, and your motivation will be the expansion of your heart, that heart which is the heart of the Kingdom.
I am going to sign off for the evening. Carry on. We will see you soon. Good night.
Group: Good night, Tomas.
*****
DATE: May 7, 1998
LOCATION: Pittsburgh, P.A. USA
T/R’s Gerdean
TEACHERS: TOMAS, MERIUM
URANTIA BOOK STUDY:
Paper 26, MINISTERING SPIRITS OF THE CENTRAL UNIVERSE
#1. The Ministering Spirits
#2. The Mighty Supernaphim
#3. The Tertiary Supernaphim
Paper 140, THE ORDINATION OF THE TWELVE f1.
Preliminary Instruction
TEACHER SESSION:
TOPIC:
SPIRITUAL REALITY; RE-THINK YOUR HABITUAL RESPONSES
TOMAS: I am Tomas. Good evening.
Group: Elyssia, Celeste, Aren, Liana, Gerdean and Hester: Good evening, Tomas.
MERIUM: And I am Merium. Hello!
Group: Merium! Hello to you!
MERIUM: We are delighted to be here with you this evening and to enjoy your camaraderie and your spiritual embrace. I was amused by your visit with the reversion director and I am still smiling in appreciation for your gift of song.
I have been brought up to date on Uncle Tomas' lectures regarding the fruits of the spirit and was touched to be reminded of how you absorbed his words and how these fruits of the spirit now mean more to you than they did, perhaps, before he dwelt with you on these lessons of such critical information and value.
I am going to be here in tandem with Tomas this evening. We are working closely, as are others, as you are guessing now from how it is that we have a full dance card of help. I will let Tomas speak for awhile.
TOMAS: I will speak awhile regarding spiritual reality. It is a subject that is not new for you, nor for us, and sometimes perhaps you may think, "Haven't you got something new to talk about, Tomas? You always talk about the same thing!" but I tell you, each time we get around to discussing spiritual reality, you have an expanded appreciation for the phrase, the term, and indeed your own soul is in acceptance of that more information as to the spiritual reality since you are becoming more real as your days go by.
I am a pupil in terms of your lessons from your text, and I enjoyed the excerpt about the preliminary remarks made by Jesus made at the time of the ordination, and in particular wherein he discussed the fact that the Kingdom is God within you and this, of course, is the opening page of the program that reads your spiritual experience here, your personal experience, since it is your relationship with the God within you that provides you that Kingdom which becomes your reality and as you manifest your reality/ your spiritual reality/ your life, in and with this Kingdom, this relationship with God in you, you are projecting your spiritual reality to those you meet.
It has been said that those you meet will know if you have been with the Master by the way you carry yourself, and I will ask you to look at your quirks and peculiarities of personality and character that allow for those in your arena to look upon you with ridicule or cynicism and understand that in the main you could not possibly have any comprehension of God-likeness because of your reactions to or the ways in which you respond to certain stimuli.
You know you are creatures of habit, and all of you have certain built-in reactions to certain stimuli. Perhaps you recoil in dismay or in disgust; perhaps you bark out loud your cynicism; perhaps you "tsc tsc" and shake your head in such a way as to indicate your disapproval or your understanding of the situation as being pathetic. There are many indications that you give off by way of habit that, were you to take another look at how it is that your habitual responses affect your arena, you might re-think your habitual responses.
I am going to allow here for a brief intermission wherein I would like for you all to, as in a classroom setting, select an example from your life, of an opportunity to share and show how you have reflected recently on what you might have said that could have been said better -- a simple passage in the marketplace or on the telephone that may have caused you to reflect, a reflection perhaps on a new and better way.
It is not necessary to be hard on yourself. Indeed, invite the reversion directors to join you and find delight in your growing phases. I will be back. We will be watching carefully. We are still in session; we are just "off line" and in a working intermission. Thank you.
[WORKING INTERMISSION]
TOMAS: Well done, class. I am pleased with the beginning exercise in conveying a frustration and being able to gain from the experience and to share your growth with your peers. I am intrigued by the examples set forth and indeed we are observing how far removed from the Indwelling God all of you are encountering in your daily life. I want you to realize that we are aware of the difficulty; indeed it is why we are here. We know the dilemma of your planet and the spiritual deprivations are of such a concern that we are here to help you. Do not give up your struggle, in particular, now that we are here to embark upon the program of reclamation with you!
It is very apparent that the (vocabulary fails me here) -- Adam and Eve's default has severely affected your genetics; not only Adam and Eve but many other considerations. You are indeed semi-civilized, and this is a concern. It, in your daily life, is a concern if you are aware of it; if you do not see it, it is easy to not be aware, and that in itself is a problem: "out of sight out of mind" is a clever technique of problem avoidance, and it is a human condition.
I will remark, however, on those individuals who are interested in attaining a degree of existence by and through alms seeking: they are by and large, in the examples you cited, insignificant to the more burdensome problem of those who are functioning but functioning on such a level as to be virtually impaired in terms of their soul growth and therefore a true drawback.
Now, let us go on from these miserable foundations into the realms of ignorance and prejudice which, you may recall from your text, are those two qualities which are uppermost in standing in the way of spiritual growth, even personal growth, in-as-much-as, from our standpoint, personal growth and spiritual growth are one and the same. In the case of ignorance and prejudice, you are challenged to stimulate new thought, and there are many creative avenues available.
It is our hope, of course, that you continue to maintain your own Core reality and not be overmuch besmirched by association with those who take pride in their ignorance and relish their prejudice, for they are not hungry for truth nor thirsty for righteousness and there is nothing you can do to prevent their decline into lethargy and non-existence unless and as you can pray for their Adjusters ability to cut through and affect some change within the mortal that would induce him or her to grasp for a higher reality.
Remember, many Adjusters must await the end of the mortal life span in order to be freed of the experience of indwelling the being for its own experience. The mortal has chosen not to survive in many cases, or there is nothing to show up at the roll call for nothing was developed, no decisions were made.
Your concern for your fellow man is inherent in your love for the Master who loves all of his children. Our hope is-that all God's children will turn to him in adoration of his creating them. Now, if their life is so dreadful they are not impressed, it will be very difficult, but not hopeless, to allow them to see your light of truth which is a radiant reflection of the value of the relationship between the mortal and the divine.
We are, again, fully appreciative of the work involved, but we are untiring in our efforts as are myriad of other helpers. We are encouraged by your presence here today in this Teaching Mission setting for it would indicate that you too would be inducted into an army of teachers and believers in Michael's ascension plan that will embrace all of creation into the Kingdom.
Elyssia: Tomas, what did you say about how people who seek alms? How can you handle that?
TOMAS: I believe I indicated that, in terms of those who are alms seekers, you are capable of dealing with that, in-as-much as they are not making great demands. You can well afford to accommodate a certain degree of poverty eccentricity if it is not a matter of complete and total shamming.
Aren: What is it you define as an alms seeker?
TOMAS: A beggar. One who would ask for financial or supplemental aide without contributing any exchange but his or her own existence; it is a total donation.
I will go on with my words to indicate that our assignment here, our request to look at these things, was to look at your own habitual reaction to life as you see it. As you have touched upon, there is a lengthy parade of personalities: many pathetic, many pitiful, some criminal, often ignorant, querulous, difficult and so forth, in your realm, and you would purport yourself as being a God-knowing, spirit-led individual.
It is very easy for you to discount and discard those who are not your social or intellectual equals, as being insignificant and unimportant in terms of your proselytizing that which has value. It is also possible for you to be in such disdain of certain attitudes and/or circumstances that you look upon your fellowman with disgust, revulsion, impatience, repugnance, anger and so forth, just by their very being and your habitual reaction to their being.
It is an exercise in discretion to ascertain how it is that you respond to your fellowman. Are you inconvenienced? If you are inconvenienced by the presence of your brother or your sister, imagine how they feel! How could they possibly put you in a position of having been with the Master if you look at them impatiently? Do you suppose the Master was impatient with his apostles or his followers? Do you suppose his attitude with them was, "Oh, hurry up! How long must I put up with you?!"
Now, I am smiling here because you have read -- in fact, He did say -- "How long must I bear with you!" on occasion, but it was not from impatience but from persistence and emphasis. There is a difference between that and generic impatience of your very being!
It is a simple reminder, my children, that as we take our God-led being into the outer arena to manifest that we are living sons and daughters of God, we stand honestly and admit all that that entails. It is not ignoring the unpleasant aspects of life. It is not being so far above the difficulties of existence that they are un-seeming, unheard of. It is not being self-righteous and pious in your spirituality, but being genuine.
That God that lives within you and me is truly real and truly loving. It is that God, through your Father-bestowed personality, that will speak to your fellows of your having been with the Master, of your having called upon God to hold your hand in this vale of tears and to bring a smile to your face. It is you who represent the Master to the masses, and how will you represent the Master in and through your attitudes? Consider this, my friends, as you go about your business this week. Are there any questions this evening? (Long pause)
MERIUM: I am Merium. I am here also, eager to hear from you. Do not think that we are going to be working in the coal mines. No. We can pick cherries if you like. Are there questions?
Tomas, we have dumbfounded them once more. [Group chuckles] Are we tired, children? (Assent) I rather hate to hang up the phone at this point in the conversation for you will think we are odious friends to bring such a deplorable topic to the feast of plenty and then not even allow for dessert! Surely there is some insignificant, trivial matter that you can bring to the table that we can sweeten ourselves upon, some reversion of some sort.
Celeste: I would like to ask about Dorian, who is supposed to be my friend.
MERIUM: Indeed.
Celeste: But I've never even sent a message! Maybe a little one. But I haven't involved myself with him at all! Does he still know that I'm alive?
MERIUM: Oh, you silly child! Your teacher has been aware of you before you were aware of yourself, and has not gone anywhere. I will suggest to you, since Dorian is such an androgenous chap, that you may want to think of him/her also as Dorcas. That way you have a female aspect of your personal teacher that you may also draw upon. It may be that you are thinking you have to talk to a male teacher in a certain frame of mind or with a certain attitude. Your teacher is very well balanced, is what we are trying to say. The complimentary aspects are very well blended. You are mature, dear. You are a harmonized personality, and your teacher reflects your spiritual composition in a peculiar way. Yes, of course Dorian/Dorcas is aware of you.
Oh here! Look! "Dor" — a door! Now haven't we found an avenue of interest to the intellect of the human!? What we are speaking to here, then, can be considered the door. When you speak to "the door," I am reminded of the picture in your art of Jesus who stands at the door and knocks. I remember, indeed, there is a door over your mantle piece. You may now consider your relationship with your personal teacher in a more intimate light, for when you knock, it enters through your door. Your personal teachers have helped to pave the way. They help whet your appetite to even knock. Has this been helpful?
Celeste: Well it's wonderful to hear about it!
MERIUM: But has it been helpful?
Celeste: Oh, it will be, yes, absolutely.
MERIUM: I feel you ought to know that all of these personal teachers are (tape turned, words lost). I will tell you one further thing and that is: you all have a tendency, more or less, to think intellectually in terms of your teachers, indeed, all of your spiritual life.
Tomas spoke to you this evening about the concept of spiritual reality, and your teachers are along the line of your spiritual reality. You are accustomed to contacting your friends and associates through the mortal appreciation of reality, through the mind and the emotions, through the telephone and letters, through communication and correspondence of a human nature; and your teachers are not in this category.
In order for you to make good contact with your teachers, you must realize that it will not be an intellectual experience; it is a morontial experience, and in terms of your growth, it may touch upon your emotions only in so far as your emotion needs to be realigned to the feeling that is fine-tuned to the feeling of the Father. And so, once your emotions have been realigned, you return again to that marvelous morontia sphere we are attaining to.
Remember that it is not an intellectual relationship; it is more spiritual. It is morontial. And this will help you in your understanding of your companions.
Celeste: That's beautiful. I'm so glad I asked.
MERIUM: I feel good about it too.
Celeste: Thank you very much.
Aren: I sense that what you are telling me is that I need to disassociate my bodily feelings, my mindal thoughts, from that of my own personal teacher. Now, it causes me to question. Well, like the other night, Tuesday night, I had a feeling in my right hemisphere, okay?
MERIUM: Yes.
Aren: So, is this misleading? To assume that is my teacher?
MERIUM: No. And I will tell you that having a feeling in the right hemisphere is not in contradiction to what I said because feelings are from the Father. The emotions are your feelings in action, and how they affect others are interwoven into your arena.
As you have lived your life and had emotional experiences, experiential experiences, you have certain impressions, some of which are incorrect; some of which have caused you difficulty or pain; and it is and will be necessary for those to be clearly understood and clarified so that your original feeling can be realigned to that feeling which the Father would have you have and know, represent and be.
And so, it is very true that your personal teachers work with you in those realms of your emotions, but for the purpose of allowing you to then be your morontia reality; and often this involves your intellect for it is how you think about your feelings that will allow for the emotional glitch, as you call it, to take place.
This inner work with your teacher is in the realms of the intellect and the emotion frequently because of the work that is required in order to bring you around to your more real and progressively real morontia self.
The impression in your mind of their prompts is not a physical reality so much as a spiritual reality because it takes place in the spiritual circuits, and yet, as your morontia reality is activated and you become aware of the morontia energies, you can tap into the morontia circuits and they can contact you in these realms, and herein you begin to have quite a busy dance card, indeed! Has that been helpful?
Aren: Urn-hum. Yeah. Yeah.
MERIUM: Think not that your personal teachers are here to be your group therapists. If you think that your teachers are here to work on your emotional pain and intellectual twists, you will never call them up! But if you realize that they are helping you to allow yourself to align yourself to the spirit of the Father, in order that your morontia reality may be revealed, you will allow yourself to be lured into reality, a greater reality, knowing that that which is passing by, falling away, is a mere shell, a mere scaffolding of the true reality.
And in time you will become so eager to grasp your greater self, and life will become so much less of a burden, you will look to them for their constant companionship, to the extent that you may even forget that they are there. That is an attainment. But they are always there, and can be called upon for counsel as necessary, and as desired. Oh, Tomas, I have begun to wax philosophic! I guess I've been hanging around you too much.
TOMAS: I am glad you hang around, Merium. I appreciate your work, as you well understand. Are there any other questions, now that we have had dessert?
Aren: I have a question. In our reading of the ordination I had a thought, or a reflection. I recognize certain spiritual ideals or goals, and which I recognize uppermost to be with the Father and then further down Christ and then we get into, in my mind, certain ... what is it I'm looking for? I lost my thought.
What I'm trying to diagram is that I see and I feel a goal and it's like: why is everybody focusing on the ideal when there are certain steps to be taken lower (I hate to say it) down the road. Like the thought that had come to mind was: in the Book (I can't remember the quote), "by their lives they shall be known", and I would like to know of their lives! So that would be of more immediate interest to me than God's will.
TOMAS: No, it would not.
Aren: Oh, okay.
TOMAS: For you are misconstruing this to say that the apostles' lives are those which you should learn from, and the actuality is that it is Jesus' life that you can learn from as an example of He who lived the perfect existence here, as your immediate example, for it is your life, Aren, that we will look to for the reality of one who has been with the Master, not the apostles. You, my son, are the new apostle, and it is your life that will be set up as an example of one who, as a professed religionist, will be the reflection of the Father for the new age. Has that been a clarification for you?
Aren: Yeah.
TOMAS: And so the ordination is not for the original twelve in your minds eye, except for a full appreciation of their understanding of the honor and the responsibility, but rather for you to identify with them and with Christ as another human being who would follow him.
Aren: So I sell myself short by looking for goodness in humans? Is that what you're saying?
TOMAS: No.
Aren: I'm like .... Wait a second here. The thought runs across my mind of blasphemy and cold-heartedness. In point of fact I can indeed learn something from my fellow men.
TOMAS: Indeed.
Aren: And it is good. It is that I look for them.
TOMAS: Yes.
Aren: I feel like you're discouraging me? From that?
TOMAS: I regret that you feel discouraged. I obviously have failed in my communication. My understanding is that you were perceiving the excerpt to indicate that it was by and through the lives of the twelve apostles that it would be known that these humans had been with the Master. Are we following each other so far? Is that correct?
Aren: Yeah, we're on the same brain wave.
TOMAS: Alright. I am suggesting to you now that you not especially look to the lives of the apostles to see how it was that he manifested his love and life through them, but that you regard yourself as one of his apostles, that you accept the ordination for yourself as an ambassador of His Kingdom, and then, you see, it would be through your life that it will be known that you have known the Master, by your attention to his invitation to "follow me".
Celeste: That's wonderful.
TOMAS: But do we understand each other at this point?
Aren: I am not confused.
TOMAS: I am glad.
I feel you should know that I am touched by your attendance in this class, my son. I am truly, deeply grateful for -your wonderful personality and your inquiring mind. I am in agreement with our friend Gerdean in indicating indeed you have tremendous potential and I am humbled now to be witness to the reality-izing of your potential, and so welcome to this ambassadorship, my lad. I am glad to have you as a comrade.
Aren: Thank you.
TOMAS: Ladies, let us rejoice! I do believe we may have succeeded in acquiring a male member of our community.
Celeste: And an apostle!
TOMAS: Indeed. Not only have we had dessert, I think we have had the toothpick. I am going to close our evening, unless our friend Liana would like to make a remark.
Liana: I have to apologize. I am just extremely tired this evening.
TOMAS: My daughter, I will not keep you up any longer. I embrace you. We are with you in fullness. Dear ones, until we see each other again soon, remember your mundane assignment and rejoice in the results. Amen and farewell.
Group: Thank you, Tomas. Good night, Merium.
*****
DATE: May 14, 1998
LOCATION: Pittsburgh, P.A. USA
T/R’s: Gerdean and Hunnah
TEACHERS: TOMAS, MERIUM
URANTIA BOOK STUDY:
Paper 26, MINISTERING SPIRITS OF THE CENTRAL UNIVERSE
#4. The Secondary Supernaphim
#5. The Pilgrim Helpers
#6. The Supremacy Guides
#7. The Trinity Guides
#8. The Son Finders Paper 140, THE ORDINATION OF THE TWELVE
#2. The Ordination
#3. The Ordination Sermon
Sharing/stillness
TEACHER SESSION:
TOPIC:
BAMBI OF URANTIA
TOMAS: Good evening, my loyal students. I am Tomas, your faithful teacher.
Group: Elyssia, Rachel, Liana, Hunnah, Aren, Gerdean and Hester: Good evening, Tomas.
Elyssia: I'm glad you came.
TOMAS: I have gratitude for your attitude, Elyssia, for I have been in the peculiar visualization of your Bambi, and I began to wonder, when I saw that it was time to come on-line, whether or not you are becoming bored with your teacher friends, for we come along so regularly, and in some lights, say the same thing over and over. I am aware of the human propensity for liking pizzazz and glamour and glitter, the twinkle of diamonds and the thrill of miracles. I am fully aware of the vibrancy of the spiritual life and the adventure of the human existence, but I sometimes reflect how good of you to be so companionable in these configurations and to be so welcoming of Merium and I in our loyal attendance to your peculiar needs as Bambi’s of Urantia.
Your truly innocent childlike natures, innocence in terms of your childlikeness not only in the spirit but in the flesh, is so vulnerable to the vagaries of the forest. "Having somehow lost your mother, what does one little fawn do to survive?" How frightening must be this great forest. How difficult it must be for you at times and how tenderly we appreciate the vulnerable aspects of you all that must observe the vicissitudes of life, the apparent cruelties and the blows of the material existence, not to mention the betrayals and deceits of those who will not see your light of truth and your simple essence of being.
In appreciation of your pure at heart quality, we join with you in order that you may know that you are on the right track, that as you allow your souls to open and to flower, you are indeed made stronger; as you are made stronger in understanding of your inherent strengths and your destiny, you are able to do wondrous things in good faith of a friendly forest and a flowerful companion.
I am not going to go into any heavy lesson this evening, my little fawn friends, for you have each brought with you your own battlefield and I will not add large words to your already battle weary minds and hearts. Like my sister Merium, I would cavort with you and play, if not in reversion, at least in a simple appreciation of your tender-heartedness, your true purity of heart, your simple goodness.
MERIUM: Good evening.
Group: Good evening.
MERIUM: That was very tender and sweet Tomas. That was almost like a bedtime story, and their tummies are full.
I will stir the waters a bit by taking advantage of the mention (in sharing) of a young one. There are old ones who behave like young ones, and compassion is few and far between, but when you get stuck at a particular stage of development and you refuse to grow or it's too painful to grow, then you do have double pain because no one is looking at your compassionately like a troubled teenager.
Elyssia, I think it's time for you to stand in your total morontia form and you will find that the barbs will fall at her feet. There will be a -- something about taking your weapon and turning it into a plowshare? -- That the radiance of compassion and understanding and intimacy will come forth and it will be understood that you are in her camp and she can trust and come to you for understanding and renewal. It may not happen immediately but you will be there for her, but in the meantime you will be able to allow your demeanor to speak words that your lips will not necessarily have to say, and that this too shall take on a new form.
This goes on in every aspect of your lives and it involves tolerance. Not the mental tolerance that is constantly being released through your mind, not the kind of tolerance that was taught to you through your social graces but a tolerance that just IS. It arrives without notice and comes in and makes itself known and there will be nothing for you to do except anticipate the fact that this quality can be released from you, and in the least expected way.
I would also like to address this evening, since you had such an interesting sharing, I'd like to approach Aren and ask him if he is ready to take upon himself the practices of knowing "who do you serve this day? God or mammon?" At some point in your life, you are going to have to redefine who the boss is. There will be many little ones, middle men, middle management, scattered throughout who carry the pompous title of "boss" but when you have in your heart established the fact that you know for whom you are employed, it helps you to keep your perspective and it helps you to respond to those who think that they are boss or who think that they are your teacher or who have allowed themselves to be, you might say, mesmerized by human worth and human titles.
So in your own personal inner journaling, you may go in and counsel and allow yourself to be employed in the true sense of the word and redefine the pecking order in your work day. It takes a lot of perseverance to hang in there when you work for someone and think you want to leave, but always, regardless of where you are, take time to decide why you want to leave and what is it about that particular situation, as you have all expressed, "what is it about this situation that I may gain in maturity and allow whoever is involved to receive the benefits of your learning?"
Now, that doesn't mean that you have to stay in every situation that you encounter, but it is possible to stay, even in an unpleasant situation. There is a rule of thumb: if the parties involved are not receptive to the Christ, then you will be led away, but if they are in the least way responsive to the highest Way, chances are it is safe to remain in that situation.
This is not original. Remember that when we talk to you we are using your software and we are allowed to use the wealth of your personal experience in this realm. Not everything we have to say has to be a sparkling diamond or a pearl. We are in the ditches with you, digging, plowing your way until you realize that you do not have to dig, but you do have to take your equipment and reconstruct it into something useful, into a new tool that will help you understand yourself and your purpose.
You are in the Teaching Corps but you do not feel like teachers. You are in the Teaching Corps but you are very well aware that you are a student. (Phone ringing; recess)
What I am planning to do is to let you know that I know that I am not alone this evening, and that my wonderful friend and companion Tomas is just beside himself because I have said enough to set him up for at least one hour, so I hope that I have stirred the waters as I have said and that you will take my conversations with you, as Carolyn Myss would say, "as your angel coach."
When you have an angel coach, when you are in your inner counsel mode, there is no one any better than you. It was like in your text this evening, there is an impersonalization that is such a relief; it is almost like an anesthetic, so Tomas, I have them all anesthetized, I think, so now you may perform the real surgery.
TOMAS: My gracious assistant, how I do appreciate you. Alas, I see no disease here to exorcise. I am, however, willing to entertain questions and engage in discourse. I know there are realms, philosophic realms that border upon the spirit worlds that provide fodder for the mind of many, hovering in the recesses of your gray matter.
I am aware of our many hours on "psycho-babble" and that is always interesting, but I am also aware of a more philosophic realm: I was engaging in preliminary discourse with Aren of late; I have heard the topic of forgiving tolerance touched upon; and there are many things; but, as I said, I am not going to give a lesson. I would like to include you with us. Sometimes we steal the podium and cannot let go for the need is great, but sometimes too you need to be heard, and so what have you to say this evening, loyal comrades?
Elyssia: I have a question from our assignment last week. I wondered if -- we're supposed to sort of change our habitual response, but are we trying to, for instance, raise the level of the moment or can we just try to change our responses to get a feel for being different in our reactions?
TOMAS: Let me suggest that as you allow yourself to be aware of yourself in your inner actions, and as you observe your responses and disapprove of them as a result of your observation of them, you can do nothing about it at the moment, for the damage is done, the milk is spilt, but you can be aware in your mind of what it is that you are doing when you do that.
If you have a habit, for example, of speaking down to public servants because they are "public servants," that will reflect upon your attitude as to the subject of master and servant, would it not? And would it not then also give rise to the potential meditation of the Master of "he who would be the master of all will be the servant of all" and to be a servant is in potential to be a dear friend, and so would you speak to your friend this way? No. A dear friend deserves your esteem and regard, and the person on the phone or in that position, then, in your mind's eye, has become expanded and you now have broken the habit because you are aware.
I will point out to you that I am knowledgeable that you, in your habit-breaking processes and the building of new habits, are much like, shall we say, a homemaker, a housekeeper, and it seems that you no sooner dust than you need to dust again, or every time you vacuum you need to turn around a vacuum again, and it seems that the job is never done, but that's not true because you learn to do it expeditiously.
It's the same way in learning new habits. If you don't want to vacuum all the time, you quit throwing things on the floor! And it's the same way in a habit of speaking down to public servants. If you don't want people talking down to you, don't do it to them!
It's a lesson in "karma" if you will, in cause and effect, for you are truly connected to everyone. There is such a powerful connection between you. You have no idea of the support that you can give each other and will give each other once you have learned who you are and what your relationship to the Infinite Spirit is, and how you are connected with those around you. And after they have come to realize their connection with the Spirit, you will not recognize Urantia, when that day comes.
In the meanwhile there is a lot of housekeeping to do, a lot of bad habits to break, a lot of new realities to bring into being, a lot of new awarenesses to adopt and instill into your universe. It may seem like a simple assignment, but it has long-range and lasting effects, and so to the extent that you apply yourself at all, we are appreciative.
Rachel: Tomas, then we should be sort of making daily affirmations of positive movement forward daily, to clean the crap out of the attic so to speak and replace it with new.
TOMAS: I will confirm that value lesson but I would like to take it one step further and this is in honor of Teacher Daniel that gave this lesson that I witnessed and it has to do with the fact that there are differing levels of reality, and affirmations are one, but when you bring in a morontia reality you have added a verve and a level of reality to your life that far supercedes a mere affirmation, a mere habitual recitation to put you in a positive self-hypnotic frame of mind. When you have invited the spirit to share with you your human experience, you have gone beyond a mere affirmation. You are literally actualized in faith. But, of course, you are correct. It is along that line, yes.
Rachel: So we're really actualizing more than affirming.
TOMAS: In the ideal, certainly. Indeed you are, for if you are merely affirming and changing a simple habit that remains a habit, you are not actualizing. It is in bringing in the spirit, making it real for you, making yourself part of this greater reality, that actualizes you. Affirmations are more mental and emotional than spiritual. You see the difference?
Rachel: Yes.
Liana: But I do think that affirmations -- these ideas that we hold in our minds that are so stuck there, that we have to start somewhere, that affirming a reality like "I AM" -- that's a way that you can get started.
TOMAS: Indeed. Can you imagine where one would go if you were to say, "I AM a daughter of I AM" or "It is my will that His will be done." These are powerful affirmations of a great spiritual reality.
Rachel: That become reality.
TOMAS: Yes.
MERIUM: You must allow yourself to take that affirmation into the quiet and release it in order to keep it fresh and alive or it will become vain words of repetition.
Hunnah had a card at one time that said, "I am whole, healthy, harmonious,..." many, many words. And she would look at the card and parrot the words but in her heart she knew that she did not believe what she was reading with her mind, so let me tell you that your affirmations may act as a cup of water into your dry well to lubricate or to assist you to drop your pail of receptivity into this well of knowledge that you carry with you at all times.
And when you go, you will go with the recognition, to be renewed and refreshed with living water that will sustain you, and then when you share the knowledge of the sum of this experience, you will have a fresh response to your world and you will see it with new purpose and surprise.
Liana: So when you do the affirmation, if you do the affirmation with a hearts desire, with an intention that's in your heart, then I would think that it would be more effective.
MERIUM: Yes. There will be a response, a recognition of the fact that this is the sort of the particular affirmation that you want to work with. I will give you an example: "Create in me, O Lord, a pure heart that I may come to know and love thee in light." That may not be in proper sequence but it is in the form of an affirmation and if you are not into the meat of it, let yourself read something else and then ....
In other words, there is a preparation to lift yourself out of your everyday state, bring you up a little higher, and then when you read that affirmation, if you are reading it or if you are remembering it, it's revitalized.
Rachel: Isn't it the desire, though, the true desire behind the affirmation that creates its reality? If you truly, truly desire it in your heart and soul.
TOMAS: Sincerity, yes. Your motives, yes. Remember we read this evening about false prophets who profess to have done many wonderful works in His name, but He says, "I know you not," and remember, too, the lesson on prayer, that God hears the soul's attitude, not the mouthed words; and so, yes, it is the soul's attitude that is meaningful.
It is sincerity that will advance you in spirit reality, although the words of an affirmation, in a sincere heart will help you put yourself into a frame of mind that provides a good platform for good practices of a spiritual nature. This too is a part of a good spiritual program, to put yourself in mind to grow. You provide yourself with good fuel.
MERIUM: There are those who have taken a short affirmation and stayed with it for a very long time and what happens is, it is as if they blend with it. Perhaps you can experiment with this. Choose an affirmation, perhaps one that someone else has written or make your own, and really make an effort, and all the further you can carry this effort is to the Father's feet. Take this and work with it and perhaps you will like it. Some people do very well with affirmations; they are like traffic signs to keep you on course.
Rachel: Well, besides affirmations, then, can you give us another exercise that would -- I mean, I personally have been trying to re-program my life. My mind here. About my thoughts and feelings about myself,
MERIUM: In Hunnah's background there is a book by Casey called "Search for God" and in each chapter there are affirmations that are listed that are not lengthy. They are still used like that cup of water in the pump. They are simply a hiking stick, a staff that companions you. "Create in me, O Lord, a pure heart." "Speak Lord, thy servant heareth." Words are tools, but you are still implying that it is something you have to do externally in order to do that which is internal. It is a trying element here and a mental strain. We are trying to bring you into a resting place. I would prefer, since you have such a literal mind, that you allow yourself to do very light visualization and let go and wait upon the Lord. "Wait upon the Lord."
Rachel: Oh, I like that one.
MERIUM: Very good.
Aren: Tomas?
TOMAS: Yes, Aren.
Aren: If "to err is human" and divine is not to err, how is it that we do develop trust in our fellow humans?
TOMAS: You trust the human as an act of faith. It is possible to develop faith in your fellow man by his worthiness to your trust. Remember, "by their fruits they shall be known" and as they have shown themselves trustworthy, then you may place your trust therein. Is that responsive?
Aren: Yeah.
MERIUM: Aren, we were talking about affirmations. Try this: "Thou knowest my every need." You say, "Thou knowest my every need." That will allow you to wear the harness, the yoke that is easy and the burden that is light.
If you work with man, you will indeed encounter man in all of his various performances. Remember, man is fear-based as you have pointed out, and they are, you might say, doing things by the skin of their teeth; they are in constant fear of losing their own job. They lie, they steal, they cheat, and they also wear suit and ties and look pretty innocent, but if you work for the Lord you do the best you can. I am sure that you will find that your situation will be defined and that the task at hand will be less difficult.
Remember we have taught at the meetings that we all have a Thought Adjuster? In your prayer, acknowledge the Thought Adjuster of the other individual and you will help that Thought Adjuster to have a better response from the other individual, and perhaps not necessarily in your situation and you encountering them, but in general.
Someone has to know the truth about the other fellow; someone knew the truth about you. There is a beginning platform for your awakening in every instance here. Perhaps you are going to be the one in this individual's life who will be the only one who really embraced the truth about God in man.
Aren: Thanks.
MERIUM: You're welcome.
The individual that complains -- and I'm not referring to anyone in particular; we could be talking about the one that is sitting in this chair .... There was a gathering at Gerdean's and Hunnah was transmitting and started to laugh, and the guest of the evening made a remark about human whining and could not let go of the word. He kept referring to the human "whining, and whining, and whining" but it is the nature of the human to be constantly hanging on to the situation so that they can be comfortable, and you are all in the process of singing and learning to sing and not whining or feeling inadequate.
When a person whines, they feel inadequate. They are saying, "I can't stand this because it isn't easy for me." but that humanness doesn't have place to go except more of the lesser level. But when you have embraced the light, you have the ability to be distracted and lured into singing and celebrating, and when you are doing this you cannot whine. It's sort of like the difference between saying the glass is half full and the glass is half empty, so it is indeed -- and I am going to sign off at this point, saying -- "Choose ye this day whom you shall serve: God or man?" Will you see a cup half full? Or a cup half empty?
And I think that Tomas and I have given you all something to think about, because you are learning how you respond, not the other fellow. Your project on the bench here is the development of what you are, your capacity to be the wonderful you, and not to patch up what you have been that you might be more serviceable and like yourself better. Tomas, I'll leave it with you. Thank you.
TOMAS: I have really nothing more to add. Are there any pressing matters?
Rachel: No, just life. [Laughter]
TOMAS: Indeed, life can be difficult, Bambi, but remember the forest is truly a friendly place.
RACHEL: Yes, I'm getting more of that.
TOMAS: I would suggest to you that you also, in attempting to find ways to bolster your faith and your spiritual reality, remember the value in association, and stay close to your spirit friends -- in the spirit and in the flesh. All of you, embrace one another in the love that He has shown us. Peace be upon you. Farewell.
Group: Thank you so much.
*****
DATE: May 21, 1998
LOCATION: Pittsburgh, P.A. USA
T/R’s: Hunnah
TEACHERS: TOMAS, MERIUM
URANTIA BOOK STUDY:
Paper 26, MINISTERING SPIRITS OF THE CENTRAL UNIVERSE
# 9. The Father Guides
#10. The Counselors and Advisers
#11. The Complements of Rest
Excerpts from the Jesus Papers:
Paper 130, ON THE WAY TO ROME
# 3. At Alexandria, 1433B —
".... The pride of unspiritualized learning is a treacherous thing in human experience. The true teacher maintains his intellectual integrity by ever remaining a learner. ..."
Paper 169, LAST TEACHING AT PELLA
# 2. Parable of the Shrewd Steward, 1584B —"... he who is faithful in little will also be faithful in much, while he who is unrighteous in little will also be unrighteous in much. ..."
TEACHER SESSION:
TOPIC:
TRUSTWORTHINESS
TOMAS (Hunnah): I do not have a special lesson planned this evening, but there is something that's been going on in my little friend's life that has given me an opportunity to have a discourse on our very favorite subject. Recently in her gathering there was a discussion of trust, in keeping one's word. Now, in Hunnah's repertoire there have been long lists of times where she failed to keep her word. When she was living total humanness, by mental strife and effort, and this is what you are dealing with in the public scene, but it is the Father's trust that has been given you that you might fulfill a new version of what trust is in your life.
I am hoping by bringing this subject up that you will be able to take stock in your own experience and look at your own commitments that you have made in a lesser way and lift them in scrutiny, bring them up on the alter and surrender them, because trust comes from a Source where trust is alive; it's like a pulsating energy that is allowed to dwell in you, so that when you make an honorable exchange with somebody, the words are ringing with life and they will bear fruit richly and bring honor to you and your sovereign ruler.
You are living in a day and age where words are free and easy and people tell each other what they want to hear or they will make statements that will simply form as a platform to get to the next stage for their ambitions. This is building a house of sticks.
I want you to be aware in your social experience, in your government, of the loss of trust; when you say that you will try to meet a responsibility and you have not been able to fulfill it, you will confer with the individual with whom you have made the agreement, draw up new plans, and step forward into your new opportunity and you will eventually be able to meet your commitments that you have made with this honor.
I feel that Hunnah is accusing me of being a male Merium this evening. I am bringing a very heavy subject in and putting an apron on it, she said, but it is something for you to ponder when keeping one's word is so important. Your forefathers who developed this government had to come together and make sacrifices, and at that time a word was all that was necessary. Historically the rising civilized individual was able to say, "You have my word on it" and this has been lost in this time of instant gratification, this bondage to the human senses.
Your challenge this evening regarding trust and keeping one's word is to allow this integrity that has seated itself so abundantly in you, to throw itself out like a ray. In Hunnah's yard there are renegade buttercups. Wait until Gerdean hears that I talked about buttercups! But the buttercup apparently spits its seed out a great distance and if there is some wind to help it, it will land strategically and surprisingly where it does not belong.
In this great seeding, this great wealth of integrity that is ready to be planted into the civilized world, I want you to go forth and allow yourself to release integrity into your work place, into your home. I want you to call your children's attention to keeping their word, but to know if it is a shallow promise of one who is living in the world, or if it is a thoughtful, considered agreement that has risen up inside of their developing state of consciousness.
Recently (and once again I am rooting around in Hunnah's cupboard) she found the paper that was filled with counsel regarding the voice of the one who has chosen to live in the Christ consciousness. When you live in the Christ consciousness, your words are empowered. They can fall and clot dead when they are misused but when they are used properly; they are full of energy that would cultivate the same quality in the others that you meet.
Elyssia: One of the things that happens in our society is that you often are asked to make commitments when the very lack of consideration of the possibility would be a not easy thing to do, either, so there is another side to it, too, isn't there, Tomas? There's that end of it.
TOMAS: That is why it is so important for you to be continuously remembering whom you serve. For as many are gathered here, there are examples of where you might feel that this cannot be applied, but it can because you will stand and represent integrity and when we are talking about "within reason" and who are they speaking to?
They are speaking to their own state of consciousness when they talk to you and ask you for less than they should. They can only be who they are. If they are of small-minded design, with shallow principles, and approach you with their shallow standards, you have the opportunity to gracefully bring them into another view, another way of looking at the situation.
You are diplomats. It does not matter if you live pretty much by yourself. This integrity is like a light ray and it will be "on" if you are consciously remaining connected.
Elyssia: In other words, we can find opportunities to prove our integrity much more often than we are actually aware of. Is that one of the points that you are making?
TOMAS: I want you to simply be aware that integrity is a part of the reflected quality of your being, and that in the course of your interaction with the public, that it should be the influencing standard and that you can raise every situation up where you are involved, that your ethics have been polished.
They are being brought forth into pristine proportions and that they will influence whatever negotiation or exchange you have, whether you are at the supermarket talking to someone who thinks they are or are acting like they were a hypochondriac that same resonation will be the dominant and it will lift them up. When someone approaches you with a lesser view, you will be able to bring it into another perspective and help that individual to meet a higher standard. We have to return to the time where you can say honestly and with integrity, to the degree that it is connected with the right Source, "You have my word." I would like to hear from you.
Celeste: While we walk with God, I would think integrity would be a very natural way to be.
TOMAS: That is it. That is what I am trying to say, thank you. You have released these words because this has been your demeanor, but when you are meeting those who are not able to meet this standard, your example is very readily needed.
Celeste: And that's another time when you could send out an awful lot of love to somebody and try to help them find the same thing that you're finding.
Hester: Love conquers all.
Elyssia: Well, I think that I can certainly, for sure, pass this along to my kids. I know that for a fact because ... I think they are open to that suggestion because, first of all, their father is a man of incredible integrity. I hope, certainly, that I have integrity but I have to say that he is a person of incredible integrity and so they are very open to suggestions that this is important and that the world can benefit from their use of integrity. I think that I can influence them slightly, possibly. It isn't common, probably, in this day and age for people to think about as much as they should.
TOMAS: Everyone is very busy. There isn't anyone sitting at this table who is too young or too old to remember in their background the various characters in their life and the different levels of integrity they have witnessed to this point in their experience, but what I am saying is that you will be given opportunities to help people to cultivate and to return to a different standard.
Elyssia: One of my concepts of integrity is consistency. To be there. To be there for friends who depend on you. That's kind of an integrity to me, and -- probably we have to think more and more about it -- being there for friends.
TOMAS: I would like to comment here about my transmitter this evening. She does not know what to do about sharing the program and I would like to allow her to invite Merium to come in. Shall we be quiet for a moment?
MERIUM: Good evening.
Group: Good evening, Merium.
MERIUM: Hunnah feels as if she had a great big pair of man's shoes on her feet and a big hat! [Group chuckle] That was something!
Elyssia: A big pair of shoes!
MERIUM: Yes. Do you remember playing dress-up when you were young? Well, that's what she said that she felt like. It was in (tape malfunction)
*****
DATE: May 28. 1988
LOCATION: Pittsburgh, P.A. USA
T/R: Gerdean and Hunnah
TEACHERS: TOMAS, MERIUM
URANTIA BOOK STUDY:
Paper 27, MINISTRY OF THE PRIMARY SUPERNAPHIM
#1. Instigators of Rest
#2. Chiefs of Assignment
#3. Interpreters of Ethics
#4. Directors of Conduct
#5. The Custodians of Knowledge
#6. Masters of Philosophy
#7. Conductors of Worship
Paper 143, GOING THROUGH SAMARIA
#7. Teachings About Prayer and Worship
TEACHER SESSION:
TOPIC:
REST IN WORSHIP
TOMAS : Good evening, everyone. I am Tomas, your teacher.
Group: Elyssia, Celeste, Hunnah, Aren, Gerdean, Hester and Rachel: Good evening, Tomas.
TOMAS: I am delighted to be with you again, as always. Merium and I are honored to be your companions, supernal helpers, seraphic guides and friends. We are eager again to engage with you and yet a cursory perusal would indicate an unfortunate exhaustion prevails in the transmitter here and Merium may encounter a similar case in her T/R. I will curtail, therefore, my engagement this evening, for when my T/R is weary, it affects her ability to let go and allow me free reign. She has a tendency to think she is working too hard and that I am not doing the job. So, I would have spoken this evening at length on a couple of my favorite topics, to-wit: love and worship and perhaps how they juxtapose but I will not because of the aforementioned reason. Merium?
MERIUM: Good evening, everyone.
Group: Good evening.
MERIUM: It is good to be with you and we're going to just have a little tete-te-tete and then I'm going to let you go. I want to tell you that this is one of the problems that we have to deal with on our side, is your full plate. You just have to be everywhere and do everything, eat everything, try everything? And you were talking this evening about having the experiences of the mundane. These things that you have done again and again and again and you are so inured with them and set such a groove in your record that you do not know how to not do them, so I am bringing this to your attention.
It is true that the social situations that you are in sometimes demand a great deal of you but even within that close framework, please step aside and look at what's going on. Tuck yourself in early. Take catnaps if you have to. Lighten up. Do not add anything extra if it isn't necessary. You have to leave space for the spontaneous response and if you do not and you cannot, allow yourself the indulgence and the pleasure of serving the Master on short notice. You are under heavy wraps.
I will tell you for Hunnah that she had the rewarding experience today of "mindfulness". She might be able to tell you about it herself, but she was able to take the energy that would normally be very annoying, that would fuel impatience, and utilize it in a better way; she was aware of this and it is very satisfying. I hope that you, too, will practice the art of mindfulness. Allow yourself to simplify your experience by paying attention to the activity that you are having in the moment.
When you have a full plate you can find some nuggets of pleasure, of enlightenment, awareness and your friends will wonder how you can keep a cheerful countenance when so many things are going wrong. It is possible when you allow the fresh definition to guide your life.
In your text this evening, they talked about worship, worship in a sense that you cannot possibly comprehend in your immediate experience. This is such a primer here; it can only tell you that we do learn literally how to worship in a way that you cannot possibly comprehend, but it is of paramount importance that even at the level that you are in, that you allow yourself to worship. It is truly your full time job, but you are so used to having to survive that you have forgotten that worship is your business, your only business.
I will tell you one other story, about shifting energy. I could release Hunnah to tell it off the tape, but we were very happy that her Teacher was able to shunt the overwhelming feeling of developing self-pity, perhaps, when she was full enough to want to cry. Her car hit a blackbird in the road that was scavenging, and the thought was allowed to come to her: "It was just trying to survive!" Those words catapulted her into a new definition of human life vs enlightened living.
You are truly leaving "just trying to survive", from the fear base of your human inheritance where everyone is just trying to survive, making ends meet, doing what has to be done, working in a few moments of human pleasure. You have moved on, away from that philosophy, and you are allowed to more than just try to survive. You are allowed to be one rocketing experience within the privacy of your inner self after another of new enlightened definitions that will utilize your energy instead of letting it leak out and creating intense fatigue within you.
You are leaking sieves, but when you allow yourselves to learn how your body works, and how it can become a beautiful cylinder that will hold this chalice of truth that you are, then you will find your life fulfilling, you will not be in the dregs of "just trying to survive" and being a slave to your senses, your physical limited senses. Life is not meant to be a scramble.
So I hope that you will all allow your teachers to send one line of definition in like a life-saving device that will help you suddenly come alive with an impersonal observation of a new truth, of a new awareness, and that is manna to you, that will strengthen you, that will keep oil in your cup, and then you will have something to offer someone when they come to you. You will never be bankrupt, emotionally, and your cup will never be empty.
This is a short story this evening and it has given me pleasure to tell it to you because we were so thrilled with Hunnah's response to the half-dead to suddenly alive, just by this miniscule movement of a few words to her receptive and ascending individual.
So blessings to you all. Take the challenges that are pressing you and embrace them. Hunnah had a teacher named Joel who said, "No problem ever leaves until it has served its purpose." If you are without a problem then shop for one because it is an opportunity; it is like play. You can design it. You can make it very useful.
If you were handed a cardboard box that was empty, one person would say, "I think I'll throw it away," another would say, "Oh, I just love boxes; I can put that to use somewhere," another would hand it to a child who would make it into a rowboat, so use this marvelous imagination that you have been given to be resilient, resourceful, and find great pleasure in solving the challenges of every day living.
Blessings are abundant this evening. We enjoyed your lesson and there is always that sweetness of camaraderie. Thank you for letting me tell my story this evening. Good night.
Group: Good night.
TOMAS: Thank you, Merium.
Elyssia: Merium, I want to tell you we very much enjoyed your lesson last week. I was using the examples of fluff the pillows and get two sets of car keys and I used it to get to an atheist in the midst of my family. I used that opportunity to tell her about the teachers, and what they do and say, and I was thinking about integrity that Tomas talked about, and last week I thought I had a lot of integrity, and today I thought I didn't have any integrity! So I went one complete rotation, a full garnet of this, but I wanted to say that I finally got what I thought was a voice that wasn't mine.
I was so desperate and so angry and upset about the thing we were talking about -- having too much to do -- and I began to complain to myself and then this voice came along and started asking questions of me about my condition and it was really quite funny and very helpful, so I didn't get a chance to finish this but I'm going to finish it because I really enjoyed it, which was a chance to complain. And then the voice started taking me though the steps, you know, "What's your problem? Well, now, what should you have done?"
This helpful voice was leading me along, so I felt that I got something out of this desperate ... I got something I've been wanting for a long time, which was a voice! A voice that wasn't preaching me.
MERIUM: A coach.
Elyssia: It came from last week.
MERIUM: You have allowed yourself to be "in touch". Tomas? Are you ready?
TOMAS: Tomas is ready. Gerdean is still wavering on a fence. However, I am glad to hear your testimony, Elyssia, regarding your contact with your guide. It is gratifying when you have these breakthroughs for it is testimony to you that indeed you are not alone and you do not have to live your life by your own wit and cunning. You can garner guidance from your helpers.
It is still regarded largely as a fantasy-land concept by mortals here, but more and more you will find the concept taking hold and as you yourself have these kinds of experiences, bringing God into your everyday existence, making life more intimately interesting by far, you will give credibility to the concept of angelic helpers and seraphic guides. Are there questions this evening?
Elyssia: Could you give us a little bit of a picture of worship beyond this planet? Because you people have taken us beyond the Book in so many other ways.
TOMAS: Yes, I can. I will tell you this about my own worship experience, for example, and relay it as through my original home environment, my mortal existence, and I remember telling you about my home life and my work life.
I was married and had four sons and my wife Janus and I, along with our sons, would engage in a family season of prayer and worship. Much as your Sunday dinner congregates around the table, we congregated around the spiritual table laid out for us by Father. It was a community occasion, and yet we all individually approached Our Father, yet in the individual energies engaged in communion, the -- shall we say "jubilee", Elyssia -- was even lighter and more poignant because of the contributed energies of the group of us.
This was something we engaged in with great delight. It was not an obligation but rather a true enjoyment and it gave rise to many, many creative approaches to our family life, for many times we would go into our worshipful sessions full of advisements from one another as to the best way to approach a certain situation, (and this is similar to how you are here,) but under the circumstances in-as-much as we took our situation to the Father, we were given such interesting feed-back, we could share this feed-back with each other at the conclusion of our worship session and we engaged then in wonderful works together as a family in service and in recreation as well as augmenting our individual life paths.
Indeed, the process of praying together and worshipping together is a very bonding experience, a very cementing (if you will) experience in the lives of believers. Once you have engaged in these quality sessions of acknowledged association with the Eternal Parent, the First Source and Center, you overcome the self-consciousness, you gain energy and enthusiasm for the process, you begin to make more dates with divinity and it begins to affect your life in such a way that you realize that you could not go on without these seasons of repose for they have made such a difference. And as you advance in your circles of attainment, as we too have advanced in our circles of attainment, these experiences are intensified and increased in such a way as to bring sheer delight.
Elyssia: Thank you. That's wonderful. May I ask you if you were able to hear your Thought Adjuster when you were in your material body? Did you make the first circle?
Tomas : I am pleased to say that I was indeed in contact with my Adjuster although it was (how shall I say?) somewhat muffled, for I was an ascending son like you and not that much more advanced, although somewhat. It is, as it says in your text, exceedingly difficult for the Thought Adjuster to make direct and constant communion with the mortal associate, but much of this has to do with the fact that you must continue to relate to others in your material environment and this requires a focused attention on the task at hand.
Remember, for example, I told you I went out into primitive cultures and studied the peoples and their ways of life. And although I was in contact with Our Father, I was not as readily accepting of the words of my Adjuster in those circumstances, as I was at home at the table with my companion. This is in part because of the increased spiritual energies of association.
Elyssia: But it makes me think that you might have been hearing teachers coming through. You must certainly have been doing that.
TOMAS: As long as you understand that this Teaching Mission is unique to this planet at this time, and teachers such as you know were not necessarily a part of our frame of reference. We were in fairly good contact with the midwayers as I have mentioned, and yes we were aware of Morontia Companions and many times we were aware of the guidance and ministration of angels and other seraphic helpers, but we did not have teachers in the same sense that you have because we were more advanced and we were not as troubled.
Now, I say "we" but it depends upon the background. Merium's background was not the same as mine, but they were similar enough that we both are benefiting through the tromp through the mud and learning things that we would not have learned otherwise, because of our more evolved native spheres.
Merium: There are flowers here.
Elyssia: I think it's the most marvelous thing to think of this family gathered around having this spiritual time together, and having increased their closeness to The Father that way. I want a chance.
TOMAS: I will honor Merium and her T/R as well as Gerdean and her condition. Indeed I will invite you all to again hold hands and I would like to engage us in prayer for the purpose of bonding this family at the table of Michael.
“Heavenly Father, we come before you this evening at your table in front of the cornucopia of the fruits that you have provided us, your children, your ascending sons and daughters en route to You. Feed us and nurture us with these fruits and enable us to help each other chew and digest these fruits that You have bestowed upon us, in us and through us through Your divine mercy, Your infinite presence in us.
In that context, dear Father, help us to realize not only Your presence within us ourselves, but within each other, and help us to realize that the presence of You within our Brethren is that quality which will enable us to rise up to great heights in honor of You, because we know You and we see You and Your love reflected back, encouraging us to go on with the many adventures of our eternal career.
Father, embrace us as we go forward into today and into tomorrow. In light of truth and in devotion to our Creator, Father/Brother Michael and his Divine Minister, we pay homage, we give thanks and we rejoice in the experience of knowing God. Amen."
*****
DATE: June 4, 1998
LOCATION: Pittsburgh, PA, USA
T/R: Gerdean
TEACHERS: TOMAS, MERIUM
Stillness & Prayer
URANTIA BOOK STUDY:
Paper 28, MINISTERING SPIRITS OF THE SUPERUNIVERSES
#1. Tertiaphim
#2. The Omniaphim
#3. The Seconaphim
#4. The Primary Seconaphim
#5. The Secondary Seconaphim
Paper 140, THE ORDINATION OF THE TWELVE
#4. You are the Salt of the Earth
TEACHER SESSION:
TOPIC:
MATURING IN GOD-CONSCIOUSNESS
TOMAS: Good evening, my friends. I am Tomas. I am here. I am here with Merium and we greet you in good cheer this evening and are in honor of your very being.
Elyssia: Thank you for coming.
Hester: Good evening, Tomas, and all the rest of you.
TOMAS: We have very much enjoyed your studies this evening and the wholesome aspect of your familiality. You have indeed come a long way. We have enjoyed observing your becoming adult in spirit. It is, of course, an on-going process and as you attain a certain level of perfection attainment, of personality realization, it is true you will be given yet new opportunities to begin again on another learning process, again proving to yourself that you are a child of God in need of His direction and strength.
But how wonderful, how marvelous when you attain these realizations of maturity that allow for you to advance in good faith of the process of maturation in God-consciousness. Your reading this evening regarding the many seraphic helpers throughout the cosmos has given you, subconsciously at least, a divine perception of your assistants in your ascension. Although it may not be clear to you for some time the strength of these reflective spirits, you will begin to realize glimpses of their work even in your own lives.
Let us take for example the Censors. The Censors are a highly advanced life form and yet you yourself are touched by these Censors for in due course they will work in and through your own mind, since your mind is a part of the Infinite Mind of the Third Source and Center. You will begin to realize, and perhaps some of you can now, in terms of your social graces, when to "bite your tongue" and censor your remarks, allowing instead the flow of the moment to proceed unchecked by your censor.
Your understanding of joy, also, is and will be augmented by the realization that there are entities throughout the universe who are working unceasingly to allow you to have the opportunity, the occasion, to realize joyousness, that not only is joy desired, it is encouraged, it is necessary. The ascent is sometimes regarded as a drudge, "trudging the path to happy destiny", and yet we speak of the joy. The joy is not always that deep, quiet font of faith within, but often erupts in joyous outpourings and childlike glee in your very midst. And when this occurs, allow for these joyous moments to refresh you. Consider that it is, perhaps, the result of the efforts of these spirits who promote joy within.
In due course you will begin to appreciate more and more these helpful ministering spirits. In due course you will begin to appreciate the extended help that you have, and I daresay you will seek more and more contact with this help as you discover the isolation of experiential depths in your arena. Remember you must take what you have learned into your universe and teach it to those who are below you, and when you yourselves are at the lowly level that you find yourself, it is perhaps discouraging to realize that you must work in these trenches in order to bring about the joy and the realization of the potential of the divinity within the lives of your brothers and sisters.
Call upon these helpers, these reflective spirits. Ask for greater wisdom, as has been suggested. Ask for greater faith. Ask for endurance and for the camaraderie of peers. As it is said in the scripture, "We need more workers in the field. Here am I, Lord. Send me," knowing now full well that you do not go alone into that good night. Merium is with me also this evening and would share a few words. One moment please.
MERIUM: Hello, my friends. I am Merium. I am also here and am in a bit of a straight-jacket, since Gerdean is not as light as my regular T/R and poor Gerdean has a head cold, so I probably will not stay long. I don't want to spread the germs. I do, however, want to come and say hello...
Elyssia: Hello.
Celeste: Hello.
MERIUM: … and enjoy your evening with you. Perhaps it would move things along if I sat back and said, "Are there questions?"
Elyssia: It was stated in the Book that we could be perfect and I did question that, and the group was helpful in discussing it, and yet I would appreciate perhaps some comments from you, Merium, or Tomas, on the subject of trying to be perfect.
MERIUM: Well, I don't know about you, darling, but I'm about as perfect as I can get! [Group laughter]
Hester: We all are.
MERIUM: Today is the day that I am most perfect. Today is -- what is it they say? "Life is but a day's work, do it well." and I am doing it admirably! Therefore, I am as perfect as is required of me. I am in perfect purpose. My sole purpose today is to serve the Master, to serve you, to serve the Father, to serve in love, to enjoy love, living love, loving service. Therefore I am virtually selfless except for my desire to do good to others, and so what could possible be hanging me up from perfection?
The antithesis of perfection, I suppose, if we must go there, would be stumbling around lamenting that things aren't going our way, in which case we are probably functioning a little less than perfectly. I know that there are schools of thought and philosophy that would deny that truth, but again, these are philosophies and in many ways they are exercises.
I am going to borrow on Gerdean's mind much as I borrow on Hunnah's. Gerdean lived for many years in a fear of the concept of perfection and she rather kept the door closed on the idea that she could be perfect even now. And this is based on, not only in her case but in all of you who have this as a problem, a simple matter of poor self-esteem and lack of confidence in yourself as a child of God. Even as you are a human being you are allowed to be relatively perfect. That is to say, you already know that you aren't ultimately perfect, but you can be as perfect as you can be.
Now, perhaps the real zinger here is when you realize that if you do not assume yourself to be perfect, relatively perfect, you are not assuming appropriate responsibility for what goes on in the universe. As long as you sit back and whine and deny your own perfection, you are saying, "God is going to have to wait for me," and that is a way of sustaining ego control over Our Father's universe. It is therefore helpful if you can bite the bullet and say, "I am perfect. I am as perfect as I can be at this moment. I am perfect because I am a child of God who smiles upon me, who loves me, who realizes my limitations and who is working with me in a gracious and merciful way to enable me to grow in grace and maturity.”
Elyssia: Oh, that sounds good.
MERIUM: Let me remind you that I love my little ones and I look at you often as if you were toddlers, you know, and I can see you each with your little curls and your ribbons, your knickers and your soft white-soled shoes, and I tell you each of you little darlings are utterly perfect even though, of course, you soil your drawers, you smear jam in your hair, you wake me at 2:00 a.m. to feed you and all manner of irksome behaviors.
I can say at any rate that you are perfect because you are doing what one does at that age! And so even now, even though you err, it is understood that you will err. In understanding, though, that you are perfect, relatively perfect for today, you can assume responsibility for yourself and you can reflect the light of truth and the love of God in your arena because you are not blinded by inadequacy and false humility.
Hester: Good.
Elyssia: Well, I have a question about visiting a friend, and I prayed, before I went into the hospital room, and I was hoping that I would have a lot of sense about how to talk with this friend, but it didn't happen. And I'm trying to think about it because I'm sure this type of thing will come up again. So, I know that she's very tired and that she would like to leave. Her struggle is very difficult, and that's what she was saying to me. She would like to -- I'm sure that if she could possibly end her life, she would.
It's just a great struggle. It's just heart-breaking, anyway, but she's so brave and she's so good that she wouldn't do that. She loves her family and she would never take it upon herself to end her life but her agony, her wish, her desire was very strongly there. She didn't put it in words, no. I would like to have gone after ten minutes. I felt that her struggle was too much, but then I thought it was wrong to leave so abruptly, and so I did stay, but in thinking about it later, if I could have just thought of some gracious way to leave.
MERIUM: Let me tell you how perfect you are, Elyssia, in your sincere response to the incident that you portray. Remember the Master when he was alone in the garden of Gethsemane and his chosen few friends who attended with him kept falling asleep, and he was going through an ordeal very similar to the one your friend is going through, and yet his associates kept nodding off on him, and he would come along and say, "Hey! Can't you see I need you with me? Can't you see I'm suffering here? I need your association. Be my friend. Stand with me. Sit with me. Don't advise me! You don't have to say anything! Just stay awake!"
And you did that, my dear. You sat with the woman." That private moment that she had been experiencing is her own private agony in her own Gethsemane, and as a friend, you did not pump her full of advisements or even social amenities, but you sat with her and comforted her with your presence.”
Do not be hard on yourself. You have asked the Father to guide and direct your words and your actions, and he will do that, dear. You must trust that you are acting in accordance with His Will. Trust your own divine understanding of your own integrity.
Elyssia: I think that -- I appreciate so much what you are saying. I think that I would like to -- perhaps the group will help me -- I'd like to bring this up sometime, maybe, to the group then, and have them give me some ideas about what you can talk about when you are with somebody who is in this state of mind, and I think that I'll probably get some good ideas from the people around me.
MERIUM: I remember when Jesus spoke to his apostles he told them not to worry about what to say, that when that moment came the words would be there for you. Open your mouth and let the words come forth, for your spirit is willing. It is a way of transmitting truth, beauty and goodness as appropriate to the moment, as given to you by the Spirit of Truth. Have faith, again, in yourself and in your co-working status with divinity.
Accept for yourself this knowledge and understanding of your part in the plan of divinity attainment. It is true that the recognition of your own inherent worth can help bring about that day wherein we can begin to behold fusion on Urantia. Accept this possibility for yourself and perhaps in due course those who suffer these demeaning deaths will be allowed to translate, but you must evolve your faith without fear.
Elyssia: Oh, I don't think this beautiful person has any fear. She is not afraid. She just -- she knows where she's going. She is just wonderful, but she is having to -- because of her faith she is going to stick it out. She is going to stick out whatever discomfort she is in. She is making that good decision.
MERIUM: Understood.
Elyssia: But you know that is one of the things that is happening on this plane. Modern medicine has made it possible for this dear person to have to live when she would not have lived before. And so modern medicine is making it possible to have to go on and on and on for, of course, your family ....
MERIUM: This is why it is important that we become aware of the spirit reality that extends into your very Core and on into eternity. This is just one life. This is but the cocoon to the existence that will unfold before you for an eternity. If you had, as a race, more faith, more living faith in these realms to come, you would not hold so fast to this life, even to endure observing/ experiencing pain, extended pain, beyond compassion.
Elyssia: And yet, if you give her a choice, without her family being involved, she would have not gone into all this treatment, but you know the family is doing the urging, urging. They are always urging.
MERIUM: Understood.
Elyssia: And so if it came to your own -- If you had a situation in your own life, could you, you know, tell your children, "I'm ready and I don't want to go through all this treatment."
MERIUM: I would certainly hope so.
Elyssia: Oh. Uh-huh.
MERIUM: Well, I didn't come in here necessarily to talk about funerals, but it's okay with me. You know I can talk about anything and find great joy in it. I can make music out of the most direful dirge.
Elyssia: I wanted to report that I was getting more good things going when I was just writing down -- not trying to be a goody-goody preachy person, but writing down, in a very angry way, some questions, and then I would get answers and it happened again this week and it was very satisfying. And it went on for 15 minutes. I didn't take an hour and I didn't meditate beforehand which is another thing. It's always been difficult, a long-drawn process to be still, and I always thought you had to meditate for a half an hour and you had to read your lesson for half an hour but I just sat down and scribbled some angry questions and I got some honest, sort of, seeming answers. It was a better way for me to reach out, possibly. At the moment.
MERIUM: Yea, Maugham.
Elyssia: Yea, Maugham is right. Very satisfying.
MERIUM: I am going to move over and let Tomas back in, just for balance sake.
TOMAS: Okay. Anything else? Take your time.
Elyssia: Well, I also found out something this week. I turned off my television set because I am a real television creature. I love to listen to all of the -- I mean, I listen to the mystery channel and all the other wonderful things that there are but I turned it off and I said, "I think it's too distracting." No matter how good the program, no matter how interesting, helpful, and I've been able to find some great programs, but I think it's too much noise, it's too distracting, and just to be in a lot of quiet was a good feeling and I felt that I had much more direction' to my day! I don't know where it's going.
TOMAS: I can tell you where it's going, Elyssia. It's going up! You've been talking more to your personal guide; you have been getting answers to your soul's questions; you have been having meaningful conversations with divinity; you are absolving yourself of some of your angers and you are trading in lesser stimuli for greater stimuli. This makes perfect sense from where I sit.
Elyssia: Well, thank you for that. I didn't think my good TV was really wrong. It was always the best -- it was not -- It was noise. Not quiet, I guess. Anybody else change their MO?
Liana: I've been doing a day of silence.
Elyssia: Oh, have you!?
Celeste: Of silence?
Liana: I've had a couple of opportunities to do a day. My husband wasn't home. I just don't put the TV on and don't make any phone calls.
Hester: I turned my TV off five times this week.
Liana: I do answer phone calls, but I got one phone call one time and the other day I didn't even get one phone call! (Giggle) It's amazing how you really can get off of it all, without any side effects. There's just sort of a dialog that ...
Elyssia: Develops.
Liana: ... develops. Not for just the quiet.
Celeste: Do you read at these times?
Liana: These two days I did not even read.
Elyssia: And do you feel any effects from these days that you could describe?
Liana: Maybe Tomas could help me with that, because when I do that, it's like time is different.
Elyssia: Yeah!
Liana: It's like I'm in a time state that I'm not normally in. I'm not really going anywhere, but it's like a change in consciousness. I'm not going anywhere really, but -- like the day goes by. It's not like you would think that "if I don't have anything to do time will just drag." It doesn't have that tone at all. It feels really good. Just being able to just BE. Be yourself, and you know, dialog with your higher self.
Elyssia: And you feel refreshed by this?
Liana: Right. Right.
Elyssia: And you want to go back to it again? I mean the day passes over and you actually -- are you anxious to get back into that kind of day?
Liana: No, I don't really have that, but the next day when I'm going to have to come out of that, sometimes it's a little difficult to get back into the swing of it, to be pleasant with the events going on.
Hester: It's like going from one dimension to another, isn't it?
Liana I don't know. Tomas, are you listening?
TOMAS: Oh, yes.
Liana: Do you have any comments to make?
TOMAS: Oh, certainly.
Liana: Okay.
TOMAS: I am reminded of your material environment and how dense it can be and as you live your life you are constantly reminding yourself of time and space so that you can be connected and feel a part of. It is part of the human nature to want to belong to, and so as you think of yourself as a mortal, a human being, you are very comfortable assigning yourself to dates and times and roles and commitments and schedules and personality dependencies and so forth so that you can feel at home in your human environment, and when you absent yourself from those self assigned roles and restriction, identifications with mortality, you are much more free to rove in the realms of the morontia existence and time and space have greater freedom.
It is indeed as you say, Hester, another dimension, and a dimension that Jesus sought often, for it is in this dimension that you may access your greater reality and receive good clear guidance. Indeed you may walk among the celestial hosts of space as you have elevated yourself above the clamor of the ego existence, and yet as it is your desire to live and to serve and to love life, you will eagerly appoint yourself into your arena to work and play in the field of the Lord of your assignment on the morrow, as Jesus would return refreshed from his quiet and solitude in the hills.
I will remind you only of one further thing and that is that to fast, which is not the same, is not advisable. Fasting from stimuli is a method of medicating the soul, but fasting from the spirit, from prayer, fasting from food, is quite different. Fasting, it could be said, is what you were doing; fasting from social consciousness, and yet it is not extended. It is not endangering. It is possible for you to find such pleasure in the company of spirit and in company with your own stimuli that you do not find joy in socializing in and with your peers and/or your students or your teachers, and this would not be advisable.
Enjoy your respites into solitude. It is a most wonderful thing when you can realize that you are your own best friend and that you are not alone. Even though you are alone physically, perhaps, you are not alone in the universe. It is very strengthening, very empowering to realize that you can never be lonely again.
Elyssia: I like that so much. I was thinking about a woman I knew who was very, very wonderful, but she was not a very social person. She only became social when someone called her and visited her. Other than that you had the feeling that she preferred a very quiet life, of that sort. And so I was thinking about her the other day but it would certainly be the farthest thing in the world from the way I live, but I was remembering all the peace that I thought she had. She had a tremendous amount of peace, inner peace. When one was with her, you could sense it.
TOMAS: You must realize that each path differs and temperaments differ also. Some are just naturally more gregarious and some are more reclusive in temperament. Writers and readers are more likely to be solitary and yet those who like to commingle in a more sociable arena are those who would be uncomfortable in extended quiet. It is not necessarily better that one be one way or the other, but there are differences.
It is not wrong to be selective in your associations, as long as you are able to be effective in some way as to promote or project the Father's reality through you into the world. I say this because of the Adjuster's desire for personality expression. If it is done through a creative work, then that is effective and appropriate, whereas others are more in the social arena and spreading their joy and good cheer in other ways, you see.
Elyssia: I see. It does tend to be debilitating, though, sometimes because sometimes a lot of it is just "What are you doing? What are you achieving?" You really question it.
TOMAS: What are you questioning?
Elyssia: Somewhere in the book it says -- excessive sociability is almost sinful, almost sin. That is a quote.
TOMAS: There is a phrase of "overmuch trivial socialization."
ELYSSIA: That's it, yeah.
Hester: "Trivial." That's the key word there.
TOMAS: It is important that you socialize your beliefs. Indeed as you socialize you get to learn to love more people, and if you can learn to love one more person each day, you are truly socializing your beliefs, but it is not possible to learn to love another person when you are functioning on a supercilious level of operation. It may not be possible, either, for you to learn to love another person each day if you are shut up in a room with a computer, writing stories, but you still may be affecting people.
Elyssia: I see. Very interesting.
TOMAS: All these are manifestations of personality and character, how it is that you do express for yourself the fruits of the spirit in your life.
Elyssia: I remember when I was a much, much more solitary person, that is one of the funny things I think I'm going to say, when I was much younger, when I was a child, I was a rather solitary child and I had a tremendous amount of happiness in that world. I'm sort of thinking about that at this point.
TOMAS: You are very fortunate!
Elyssia: Yes.
TOMAS: There are different seasons in a person's life and different influences as well. Times change, character changes, adjustments are a constant. You are growing. You are now learning to find joy and embrace it. You are now learning to feel, listen for, the discernment that would cause your unruly member to be stilled because of the Universal Censor. You are becoming aware of great influences in your mind and in your life that result from the Paradise Trinity and their incredible and magnificent universe creation of which you are a part. Infinitely connected. Connected.
It is not necessary for you to plug yourself in to your material world as ardently as you once did, for now your greater reality is the cosmos, a universal neighborhood wherein it is father friendly and this could be one reason why you find the stimuli of TV and overmuch trivial socializing a lesser reality, in the face of these vibrant potential realities of infinity.
Elyssia: Oh, thank you.
TOMAS: I will embrace you all for the evening. Merium and I have enjoyed our session with you. We are grateful to you for your devotion to your own evolution and your own recognition of your relationship with our Father and his relationship with you and therefore with your brothers and sisters in and through the worlds of time and space.
Blessings upon you and farewell.
Group: Thank you so much. We love you. Good night.
*****
DATE: June 25, 1998
LOCATION: Pittsburgh, PA, USA
T/R: Gerdean
TEACHERS: TOMAS, MERIUM
URANTIA BOOK STUDY:
Paper 29, UNIVERSE POWER DIRECTORS
#4. The Master Physical Controllers
#5. The Master Force Organizers Paper 140, ORDINATION OF THE TWELVE
More of #8. Afternoon on the Lake
TOPIC:
EXPERIENTIAL WISDOM
"Father Michael and Mother Nebadonia, we come to you at the close of a long and full day and ask for your succor and your comfort, for your pat on the back for a job well done. We have been admonished that life is but a day's work, to do it well, and we have done our day's work, Father/Brother, Mother.
"Be kind to us. Comfort us and give us renewed strength. Help us to come to you now refreshed, in confidence of your over-care, of the comfort of the bed in which we lie, thanks to you. Help us to lie down upon these blankets of truth, that we might find comfort in knowing this which you have provided for us.
"Be with us in our gathering this evening, Michael and Nebadonia, and remind us throughout that we are your infinite family, your many precious children. Help us to remember, too, that you are our parents, that we would seek to grow up to be like you in all important particulars and that we can praise and exalt you throughout the superuniverse.
"When we go to see the Father in Paradise, may we look with gladness upon our life experience here in your universe. May we be able to say with joy in our heart: we come from the universe of Michael of Nebadon.
"Thank you, Michael, for this truth and this experience. Amen."
TOMAS: Well, my little children, I am Tomas. I am glad to have had a moment of repose with you and to be with you now in our configuration, this wonderful family. You are growing so close to each other. You have long been close to us, for we have loved you in our heart before you even knew us, but as you work together and play together, as you sing together and study together, your hearts have been strengthened, your minds have quickened, and your souls have deepened into a greater appreciation and understanding of the living way.
We would be surpassing superhuman if we were to attempt to address all of the myriad topics which have paraded before us this evening in your most invigorated study. Your selections from your text have been full and complete feasts. You have even enjoyed the dessert of the sweetness of your own life's applications in your sharing time. What can we possibly offer you that you have not learned how to find within yourselves and for yourselves in your own spiritual awakening and your walk with our Father/Brother Michael?
Even so, Merium and I are your loyal teachers, companions and friends in this enterprise and so we are here to embrace you and companion you, even to further your minds into the next realm of comprehension and compassion and so are there questions, commentary, remarks, arguments, et cetera that we might engage in for a period of time as it is our practice to conjoin with you in this formal format of teaching engagement? (Long pause) You are spent.
Elyssia: Perhaps you would comment about the way Gerdean is looking at those years. We're looking at various kinds of lives somehow. It must be enriching to take time to do it. It must help us.
TOMAS: Have you not reviewed your own life in perspective? Can you not remember, Elyssia, when you were in college and the life you enjoyed while you were in this university mode? Can you not remember your associations with your girlfriends? Can you not remember the fashion of the time? The development of womanhood? The ambition of tomorrow? The flirtation of the sexes? Can you not remember the music of the day and the burden of the scholastic demands? Can you not, if you give yourself a moment, remember the configuration of campus, the climate on the grounds? Can you not remember a party or two or a learning experience that contributed to your value as a human being?
These moments in time and eternity are indeed glimpses of an, eternal life. As you add one chapter to the next, the unfoldingment is indeed your life's story and it does not end on Urantia. On the mansion worlds you will look back at your experience on Urantia and you will remember momentous times in your spiritual development. You will remember all of those things which have worth, meaning and importance to you as a soul, as an individual. You will have memories of the good times and the good friends. You will recall, even then, those times of value and infinite worth, even a difficult moment here and there if it gives rise to profound truths.
In the overall, then, you can anticipate that throughout eternity you can enjoy a parade of lifetimes. There are, of course, many who subscribe to the theory of reincarnation as a mental answer to the quandary of how it is that you can appreciate so many, many life experiences and even beyond this one short life in the flesh, and it is because you are ascending to the Father and in the Father's house there are many mansions. Even in this life you have known many mansions: the one in college, the one of childhood, perhaps several. The one from your marriage, perhaps several. The one as a parent. The one as a career person. The one as a minister, et cetera.
These are lives that contribute to your greater life. The accumulation of these experiences over time gives you substance as a personality. Indeed, your experience is the greatest, most wonderful gift of the Father. This is your life, indeed, and as you live it for yourself and for Him and for your fellows, your life is enriched and enhanced, entertained, even, as a result of your giving yourself fully to it.
Elyssia: Is this something like -- this life review -- that you presumably go through when you are making the transition ... not that I read about it in the Urantia Book, but I did read in other books about people who are making the transition, they say there is a life review.
TOMAS: I will take the drama out of that concept somewhat by giving you the ability to look at it even now, for many of you when you make a significant life choice, have the opportunity to put in perspective your history. Each of you may be able to consider, in making decisions today that affect your life tomorrow, the wisdom that you have brought with you from your earlier experiences. In this perspective, then, you have gained wisdom and you are looking at the wisdom of your experience.
If you have not garnered wisdom from your experience, you will feel the paucity; you will be eager now to live a more meaningful life. If you have had a rich and abundant life, perhaps you will not feel the lack; perhaps you will now feel more inclined to do good. It is possible even now to look back and ascertain the highlights of value lessons in your life. It is not necessary to wait until you stand at the threshold between here and Mansonia. It is one of those reviews when a profound threshold is presented. Of course.
You are familiar with the insight that the moment in and of itself can be exasperatingly trivial without a perspective on the past and an anticipation or expectation of the future. It is the full range perspective that gives the moment its pricelessness that gives it its great wealth, knowing that it has been in the making, and that it will carry you into tomorrow.
Elyssia: There is a figure in day-time television by the name of Oprah. She's been doing this thing, and my friend has adopted it, where she writes ten things to be grateful for every day, and she's having such a wonderful spiritual uplift from it. I thought -- not that I would do it, but I might nibble at it.
TOMAS: Oprah is a personal friend of mine... I think it's a great idea.
Elyssia: Oh! I often think she's incredibly spiritual but I hear her made fun of by a lot of the left-brain people in the world.
Hester: They're jealous.
Elyssia: They must be jealous. I can't believe ... you were talking about joy, and so ... even though she's only a person on television, she's a person I'm interested in and I'm fascinated by the fact that you're a friend of hers. I'd love to hear about the way she moved her way through these marvelous concepts. I saw her grow! I remember her. I think we all do.
TOMAS: She is taking the Kingdom by storm.
Hester: Right.
TOMAS: It is her invitation, in her portrayal of life, to join with her.
Hester: And she's becoming a better minister than most of the ministers who stand out there giving their ministerial pitch.
Elyssia: Can you tell us some of the things you remember about her development, because we all, perhaps, could enjoy it and could even perhaps think about them. You've known her, evidently, and I understand why.
TOMAS: I fully appreciate your human thinking processes, Elyssia, but I am not going to divulge the interpersonal workings between myself and Oprah, any more than I would tell Oprah about interpersonal things between you and me.
Elyssia: I don't mean the personal things. I mean the developmental aspects. I knew that she started out with a good mind set.
TOMAS: That has had to change many times. In the undertaking to grow, you must be willing to relinquish your mind set many times, for it becomes outgrown as you grow, much like your clothing becomes outgrown as you approach adulthood. And, by the way, her growth processes are really no different than the growth processes of anyone who has experienced life fully, including the difficult parts and the radiant parts. As you ascend, you feel what is necessary; you make those decisions; you take those growth strides; you become more real. These are within the grasp of everyone.
Elyssia: She seems to have gone so very quickly through some of these upliftments, that I am admiring her quite often.
TOMAS: She is a teacher and a believer and she has a great vehicle. She has very cleverly arranged her life that she can be effective. It would behoove all of you to arrange your personal lives so that you can be effective teachers and preachers.
You discussed earlier the aspect of creating a universe, a stage production, a theatrical situation, a life indeed, and Shakespeare was mentioned as having said that "all the world's a stage" and men and women are players; indeed, also, the remark that Jesus enacted the human life for Michael. These portrayals are what the stuff of life is. You can, as actors, create your own script in conjunction with the Master Scriptwriter. You can say, "God, I can do this. Let's do something about it," and begin to wheel and deal on His behalf, on the behalf of truth, beauty and goodness.
Your personality is available to create the flavor that would whet the appetite of your peers. You each have this ability and you each do it. You could all be more adept, and this is not a burden, not even a challenge, but an invitation, to have fun, to embellish the stage, to augment the script, to bring in better lighting, to jazz up the musical score, to change the costumes, to add characters and to augment the character of your players.
You are working with the Master Scriptwriter. You have at your disposal Life Carriers, Power Directors, Celestial Artisans, United Midwayers, personal teachers, the local universe Creator and his Divine Minister. There is virtually no limit on the creativity that you can employ to be a teacher and preacher of the living gospel.
And now that we have moved the object of our devotion from the pulpit into the theater of life, how much enjoyment we can anticipate in this theater, this theater of the absurd, this theater in the round, this theater of life, the experience of life eternal.
Do not limit your appreciation to the lives of others and how they have done it, even though it is good to admire the work of your peers and to commend the efforts of those who work for and with the Father, but rejoice also in your own options, those opportunities that are available on a daily basis for you to augment the living reality, and to, as they say in the vernacular, "get a life".
Elyssia: It is great to shake ourselves out of our little ...
Hester: Nests.
Elyssia: ... out of our habitual kind of settled ways, shake ourselves up a little bit in our service.
MERIUM: I am Merium and I agree entirely. Do I not come in regularly to fluff your pillows?
ELYSSIA: Oh, you do.
MERIUM: I come in and blow the air around, just to get a different smell on board, and you can do the same. I remember your reading this evening from your text book, something about if you let it lay around too long, we'll have to come in and mess it up for you so that you don't get too lazy! I can find that exact quote if necessary, but I'm not feeling very scholastic, as usual, and so I have come in to stir up the bathwater, so to speak, and to splash you in the face so that you don't go to sleep, although I will tell you it is probably a good idea for us to pull out of here so that you can hear your lullaby song and call it a day. It has been a full day. I am not going to let it pass without my presence being known and my affection being felt.
Elyssia: We feel your affection.
Hester: We're grateful. Every little bit helps.
MERIUM: Here is another opportunity for me to strut my stuff and it is stuff that you discussed earlier in the evening and it has to do with how it is that all of you yearn for the embrace of the Mother. All of you are looking to the Divine Minister in one way or another, even though you may be unaware of it. All of you look to the Mother for that nurturance and that tenderness that can be found only through divinity.
Our human mothers are and were only human. They, too, needed the divine touch. Each of us have to find the cuddly, nurturing, condolence, compassion and tenderness that only the Mother's Milk of infinity can provide, that complete and total solace and understanding of our tenderness, our human foibles. We are indeed little ones, and all of us need to be comforted and it is no shame, even for those of us who have long since grown up, to still yearn to feel the heartbeat of the Mother, to feel the warmth of her breast, to appreciate the caressing pat on the bottom that gives us the assurance that we are safe in her loving arms, that we can do no wrong, for the Mother can forgive our silly sins because we are her little ones indeed.
Be my sisters in this pact, that we will go regularly to the Mother for comfort and consolation in our childlike nature. Not only to the Father, but to the Mother as well, for those strengths and appreciations that we know that She can give.
Celeste: That was beautiful. Thank you.
Elyssia: We certainly noticed that the Roman Catholic world enjoys their vision of the mother part of God. They've enjoyed it and they love it and they seem to want to stay with that part of God, if it could be termed that.
MERIUM: We like to emphasize, to some extent, the Mother because she has been largely overlooked in Christianity; it is a predominantly male approach to religion. The mother has been relegated to the mother of Jesus, the human Mary, and this is fine because Mary was a good woman who provided a path for Jesus that was approved by the universe: she has served nobly and ably in providing life for the Creator Son in the material form. She loved her son as all women love their offspring, but the Infinite Spirit in Paradise and the Divine Minister in Salvington, are worthy of note and homage as well as the Universal Father, the Eternal Son, the Creator Son. It is important to acknowledge the balance in the universe.
You are gender creatures. You think in terms of male and female, and many times many of you are overly sensitive about the issue of gender, feeling that male authority has usurped women or that women's issues have usurped men, and so we try to stress a certain appreciation for balance.
I will say also that the Eastern religions are rather without gender. They regard the Holy One as an IT, by and large, as energy, a power, a genderless energy, a Oneness with reality that supercedes any gender identification, and this too has value because it elevates you up and out of an understanding of God that is constantly drawing Him down to your level of appreciation. I do not say that to be disparaging, but you do know that you have a tendency to create God in your image, and this is part of it and so this is why I discuss it.
Elyssia: Possibly we ought to return to reading about the Divine Minister Mother in the Book occasionally instead of maybe reading in Jesus life, which we all love so much, but maybe a few paragraphs to keep us learning and remembering and thinking about her because it's not the custom of us to do it, there's no doubt about that.
MERIUM: This is true. There's not much said, however, about the Divine Minister. Not as much as might be said, except as you see her stupendous, munificent family of adjuncts and assistants. Virtually all of the angelic corps are of the Mother and are designated feminine, and so she has quite an array of help and they are extensively described.
Elyssia: That's true. So that's a part of the feminine, then, that we can concentrate on from time to time.
MERIUM: But remember also that even though throughout eternity you will maintain your gender identity, you will become more and more non-sex based, and so your understanding of male and female is going to change over time, so allow yourself to remain open to these changes. Do not fear change when it comes in this context.
It can and will happen even now and in the future in regard to your understanding of sex rules, for even now indeed are women going into the military and men are staying home to take care of the baby, and so these realities are going though adjustments. Men are becoming more tender. They are, today, allowed to cry. And women are using jackhammers and fly rods.
Celeste: I just can't imagine myself not being totally feminine.
Hester: I'm looking forward to the day when there's no more feminine or male. We're just going to be aspects.
Elyssia: Oh, we retain a certain, somewhat ....
MERIUM: Let me entertain you with a concept you might find enjoyable, you might not. You realize that in Paradise there is no time or space as you know it here, right?
Group: Right.
MERIUM: In Paradise there is no gender, either.
Hester: Good.
MERIUM: And so there are times when you can transcend time and space and gender. As you sit in stillness with the Father, for example, it is said that you sit with the Father, but you sit with the eye of eternity upon you. You sit within your own microcosm of perfection, and this is all inclusive, and it also transcends time and space and gender. It is a bit of a holiday for you all to get out of that understanding of who you are and recall again that you are a child of God.
Celeste: That's very interesting.
MERIUM: Well, Tomas, I am going to bow out and let you wind up class for the evening. I am glad that I get to come along. It is great fun. I may be called upon to serve next week but I am also going to attend the Teaching Mission Conference as much as possible for I am a part of the Teaching Corps and I would not miss experiencing a bounty such as this. I am looking forward to the invigoration and the stories we can tell upon our mutual return. You are well loved and your pillows are duly fluffed. Sleep well.
Elyssia: Thank you very much.
Hester: Have a great trip.
Celeste: We love you too!
Elyssia: Quickly. Please.
TOMAS: I am Tomas and I am going to call it a day. Are there any last matters?
Elyssia: I think the next time we meet I think I am going to ask if you have a message for our friend D. S. because I am going to call her and I am going to tell her that you said hello or something of that nature because she feels as if she is a part of our group.
TOMAS: I tell you what, Elyssia.
Elyssia: Yes.
TOMAS: You can use me anytime you like. I am your friend and I will stand behind you. Anytime, in good faith, that you have the inspiration to share with your friend and mine a message that might come from the heart of you or me or Michael or any one of us in behalf of divinity, you have my full permission to convey to her what you would convey.
Elyssia: I see. Uh-huh.
TOMAS: We are united in purpose.
Elyssia: We are. Thank you.
Hester: We're only separated in our physical mind, not our spiritual mind.
Elyssia: I was sending her copies of the transcripts that I collected so, after this meeting is over....
TOMAS: Then she can read personally that I greet her as my friend, and thank you Elyssia, for your devotion to our friend and to the connection that we have built.
Elyssia: Thank you.
TOMAS: My children, I wish to embrace you deeply and dearly and to let you go for the evening. We have been up late. You have heard the prayer to Michael that was given, and each word is a dewdrop upon your brow that we leave with you to comfort you in our affection for you, our undying affection. Until we meet again, you may be assured of the divine overcare of those who watch over us all. Goodnight, amen and farewell.
Hester: God bless you both, all three of you. [Laughter]
*****
DATE: July 2, 1998
LOCATION: Pittsburgh, P.A. USA
T/R: Hunnah
TEACHERS: TOMAS, MERIUM
URANTIA BOOK STUDY:
Paper 30, PERSONALITIES OF THE GRAND UNIVERSE
#1 The Paradise Classification of Living Beings
#2 The Uversa Personality Register
TEACHER SESSION:
TOPIC:
MERIUM'S MANNA
MERIUM: I am Merium and I am with you. Hunnah is recalling a lesson that her teacher once said she refused to teach. She said, "Oh, I don't have anything that I can say!" and her teacher said to her, "Oh, you wouldn't say it anyway because it wouldn't be the lesson that is prepared, it is yesterday's manna," so I greet you this evening with the manna of the moment and it will be a fair exchange. There is no need to be apprehensive.
I am delighted to be allowed to finally speak. You have been very social in sharing your challenges. It pleases us that you realize that these are challenges and that you are not the great dynamos that you have in your fantasy thoughts, and that is alright because no one is keeping score. We simply want you to be able to hit the ball periodically, because we know where to send it, and I greet you, I greet you and bless you all.
Group: Thank you.
MERIUM: What shall we talk about this evening? Shall we talk about victimitis or Mary/Martha or what Michael . . . Give me a name to go with Michael, being the Mary who is the working Michael.
Elyssia: Martin.
MERIUM: Martin? That will do. Marty and Michael. Marty wants to go and ride his dirt bike and Michael wants to be at the foot of the master. It is equally a challenge, this dual personality that you are coping with. It seems that way, anyway. You have our support and our empathy. I, of my own self, can do nothing.
You all know. You know when you're stuck and you know what to do about it, but you're all in the habit of being a bug on its back with its feet flailing in all directions. You need to, like Elyssia said, make a call and one of your own will come and assist you. It's really quite simple. (A giggle) I feel very amused. All you bugs. Oh, my, the wailing. The wailing wall in Pittsburgh and in every community and in every home there is a wailing wall. That is a habit, you know. You go and you make this sound and after a while you find it comforting and you do it through the entire human experience. Even the dying make a noise to prove that they think that they're alive. It is a human configuration. We are encouraging you to discover the new equation and to be focused there. What can we do this evening? Who will volley?
Elyssia: Well, I like the question that Hunnah raised about being sort of like ... required to be in several different places when she'd really like to just have some fond reading or be creative in whatever way she is thinking about, and she has the constraints that are around her that she herself probably to a certain extent has set up.
MERIUM: This is an example we will use, this Hunnah volunteer. Indeed it is a set-up and in a sense it is a great opportunity to see the limitations where, as her teacher says, where do you break down?
ELYSSIA: I didn't understand that.
MERIUM: Where do you break down? In other words, if you were a figure skater and you could go out and do your number, then you find out that there is more to the configuration that you expected and you weren't able to physically due to muscle strength, mentally because you did not remember the lesson, and perhaps spiritually because you had not been listening to the coach and we are the coach. You each have a coach, and you know when you're listening to that still, small voice, and I'm not talking about the deep filling of meditation. I'm talking about the continuous thread of assistance. This continuous force. You have your own line, and you get so busy/distracted that you forget that it is allowed to be easier.
Elyssia: Oh.
MERIUM: This is the planet of pain and suffering and hard knocks, is it not?
Elyssia: Uh-huh.
MERIUM: And now you are told that there is a new and living way that does not particularly require pain unless you are continually setting up blocks or have developed such bad habits that you are like a car waiting for a huge flock of sheep to cross the road or a terrible storm. See in your own lives, do some inspection here. Perhaps your home is so congested that you cannot find anything. Hunnah has been looking for things lately, and is that not a clue?
Elyssia: Yeah.
MERIUM: And if you are preoccupied with having to tend to a backlog of neglect, then indeed you will not have the courage to approach this mammoth undertaking unless you prepare for it diligently, many times a day, and unless you were to keep your spirits up and the new ideas and new approaches flowing so that you may take this obstacle down one brick at a time, so to speak, but painlessly. You do not have to go at it with an ax and be angry with yourself because you let it happen. You have developed some very bad human habits; we are not a laser beam to make your life easier, but we do appreciate your efforts to put your house in order that you might be able to fit us in.
Hunnah has a friend who is so booked it's like a drive-through relationship. It is almost hilarious to watch this woman roar by, throwing kisses and saying she loves you, and she's just beaming off again. And these people think that all is well on heaven and earth but they will find out sooner or later when they break down. Thank goodness.
Rachel: Is that what's it's all about? When are we going to break down?
MERIUM: Yes. When are you going to have enough? It's sort of like: how long can you stay pre-occupied without making yourself sick so that you will slow down. Or remember we're talking about someone who has been awakened! We are not talking about those who are in a state of anesthesia. We're not talking about the living dead; we're talking about the ascending soul who is consciously aware and should be responsible to their higher source.
Rachel: How is the awareness coming along on Urantia these days? I don't see any hope in my arena! [Laughter]
MERIUM: I shall ask if I can lead you all with a fairy wand blessings upon your visions that you may be a beholder of what needs developing. Beauty. Beauty and goodness. It is there, and in your development you will be permitted, just as you described the rainbow, the dancing companions, you will be allowed to see the beauty and behold God in action where there are tears to be none.
When you look at the physical scene with physical eyes you will get that particular answer, but when you invite your enlightenment in to do the looking for you, you will see a different scenario altogether. It is quiet over here on the right side of my guest. Leah, dear, are you keeping company with Jay-Orzh?
Leah: No. But she's keeping company with me.
MERIUM: Well, then, I will send you home with homework. Where Do I break down?
Leah: With criticism, just like everybody else.
MERIUM: That's right. When you are in disagreeable company, and even if you call a friend who speaks the language, you are passing up your canteen, you might say, that you have with you. Your coaches want you to be acknowledged and you have read this great description of all the titles and the beings, the categories that fill the universe, and Hunnah was talking about the vast numbers of species and the breakdown within the species, the categories on your earth plane, and someone has introduced you to an invisible source that is teeming with life and intelligence that will never leave you, never, never leave you; you leave it.
Elyssia: That's true.
MERIUM: So, if I was a human coach I would come out here with a stick and slam it down and say, "Let's get it together," but I am not. I sit up here on my cloud and chuckle to myself and say; "Pretty soon they will break down, and they will have to pay attention, and then we can have a good time because some wonderful beholding will take place. They created pain there, but are unfortunately in the habit of watching out for it. Made it a duel."
Leah: Well, I broke down today, a couple of times, but I ... I even attempted to meditate, but I just don't seem to be dedicated to what I'm doing. I don't know what's wrong. I just leave too soon.
MERIUM: I have a suggestion. Let us describe meditation to sit next to the Christ and feel an arm around you. Would you be in a hurry to get out of a chair that was that accommodating?
Leah: Not at all.
MERIUM: And would there not be a great and tender osmosis taking place, of the good will?
Leah: Definitely.
MERIUM: And would that not be a sufficiency?
Leah: Yeah.
MERIUM: Then I suggest that you all travel 1-i-g-h-t-e-r . I just marvel at the way you human beings accept healings and become instantly ill again so that you can have another healing. [Group laughter] You like to rediscover, you love an adventure.
Rachel: Because we all want to go back to our Mommies and Daddies and be nurtured all over again.
MERIUM: When here you were designed to be the nurturer, in the true sense of the word. All of you. A timely sense of nurturing, not a career, not a sign: I am a nurturer. Now, let us discuss the dilemma of one Hunnah, this party that she lives with, the Hunnah/Beverly syndrome who has made a career of being a nurturer and finds out, when it comes very close to the heart (and it can be in mentally 24 hours) that the belligerence and balking can take place privately. There's spoiled children! And that creates a great disappointment in yourself because you have greater expectations. Being a good scout is the fashionable mode. (Pause) I feel like I'm sitting here talking to myself.
Elyssia: Oh, no, no, no, no! I'm listening. To every word!
MERIUM: In a sense, I feel as if we are all sort of at a pajama party.
Elyssia: Well, I was going to say something about this deep breathing, too. Are you talking about meditation? ... and we've done deep breathing in the past, several of us, and it does quiet one's physical self. It does create sort of a quiet moment, to feel the stillness, and perhaps you might make a comment about it.
Merium: I will not pass up the opportunity and I will be a little more serious right now. There is a tendency, a devoted tendency, for the human being to want to better itself, so therefore I will tell you that there are techniques and techniques, but if you are being a clever human being who wants to aerate its body so it will have a perfected form and it will have a keen mind, and you are going the round of vanity, in vain, you will undoubtedly produce a fine specimen.
If you wish to be athletic, by all means get out there and go, but when you are asking permission to have a fine-tuned facility in which to express the will of God, we have an entirely different situation. Right now their society is very busy swallowing things. [Good chuckle in the group]. It is good for the economy. Your body just goes about its business. If you hand it vitamin B, it will say, "Oh, Vitamin B!" and do its thing, but we are allowing you to be manifested by spiritual guidance, mental clarity, with physical celebrating, and with this physical celebrating, it is true.
The physical body deserves all the attention of a pampered garden. However, it does not need to be belabored. You need to drink the liquids; you need the balanced diet; and if you find that a breathing technique will service you well, that you might find that your body is more responsive and obedient to your spiritual coaching, by all means check it out. But there are many ways to make a cake, it is said. One is not particularly better than another in a sense. It depends on the individual who is applying it.
There are many new helpful solutions coming to you every day. You can look back in history and see that very clearly. Just feel the texture of your clothing and the warm running on your hands when at one time it had to be hauled in. It's the way of the land at this time, but if you accept this breathing technique, and offer it up and accept it as a gift, it will serve you well. Do your homework. (Pause) I must tell you a little secret.
Elyssia: Please do.
MERIUM: When Iyana wakes up in the morning, she calls to her dog in a melodious tone. She has always been sunny in the morning regardless of the weather. That is just the way she is. It is her nature. I am not telling you this to tell you that Iyana is any better than anyone else, but she knows how to be in her own way. Hunnah told you the story about the lady with the canary. If you speak to animals they bring out a sweetness in you if you permit yourself to use them that way.
I would suggest that you use any form of exercise, any form of food, or any form of meditation. Bring it close to you and talk to it and allow it to be as if it was affectionately appreciated, like a pet, and that agreement in your body will permit it to serve you well, but if you go at it like a business, with a long-term goal and you strive and suffer it out and make yourself suffer, you will find it sour the meal and the gift and it will not serve its purpose.
Hunnah had a nursing supervisor who said, "It's your attitude that counts." Such wise words. Hunnah has never forgotten them or the dear soul that spoke them, so, every day you have a right to choose: "Whom shall I serve? God or mammon?" That is not my original statement, but it is worth repeating.
I guess dubbing me as a story-teller was a good idea, because it is very quiet here, but I think that you can say that you can relate to this. When you treat yourself nice, you get good results. You should become your own pet. Stroke yourself. Encourage yourself. Greet yourself in the morning. Celebrate. And did I not hear the other night a suggestion to pray out loud? In the car! And hear the wonderful, wonderful prayers and celebrations that your coaches/ teachers will help you with. You will not have to think about it. It will come forth like bubbles. What is that man that had the bubble machine? Music?
Leah: Lawrence Welk.
MERIUM: You are a very happy creation, you know.
Rachel: We are?
MERIUM: Indeed. Yes, indeed. And my dear Rachel, when you are with a horse and when you are with the owners, I want you to feel this wonderful joyous warmth that you know the secrets of a horse. Why a horse. How a horse. And if you hold that and let it radiate from you, there will be something within them that will say, "She understands!" and that understanding will be better than any card or advertisement. You will find that there are those who love and respect animals.
You do not have to go on a pilgrimage of correction. You are here to celebrate life and the care of these beautiful creatures on earth, and that will radiate from you. That will be your advertisement, and that confidence will show from you, but most of all, you will not judge those who are greedy and inconsiderate and ignorant. You will not even waste your time. You will only know that you have a mercy mission and that you can bring your art form and show people, demonstrate, let them see the response.
If they do not respond immediately, you can even put your hand on their arm and show them, as if you were working on the horse, how important it is to allow it to be comforted, strengthened, detoxed. You will be more creative and eloquent in the future. Yes, you will. There will be a maturity that will be most becoming, and it will come very rapidly if you do not touch ignorance. It is called bringing in a new and living way. You are bringing in a new and living way. All of you, in every case, and in every way.
Elyssia: I had heard that there was a young woman who was transmitting beautifully with a great deal of ease and when I heard it I said, "Well,..." Let's see. I don't get the impression that these people meditate. They just sit down and transmit. That's my impression. I read it in one of the papers. The kid said, "I went out in my car and I stopped the car and I got my tape deck out and I started transmitting." He didn't struggle with it at all.
Rachel: He didn't do any homework.
Hester: I don't think it's necessary that you struggle unless you feel you need to struggle.
Elyssia: Well, no, I don't.
Hester: I don't mean you; I mean anybody.
Elyssia: I wonder if there's an answer that Merium has to my question, because--
MERIUM: Your question is that you're coming out of and into a new consciousness and the old consciousness was how to do it, and who wants to know how to do and how to fix, what to say and where to go and how much will it cost. I will tell you it is the insecure fearful human being that has not traveled to the point of insignificance. We have a new creature in Christ. You are being made new. And when you allow yourself to discover that technique is no longer of importance so much of timing to do something, but allowing something to happen, we have an altogether different situation.
This young woman who has surrendered herself so totally and completely, who has been radiantly obedient, just decided that she would try it. She did not put herself into a mental tizzy, and she just trusts. She has a wonderful example of trust being expressed in her life, in spite of hardships, and in this trust she just decided that she would be allowed to do this. It's as if someone said, "Would you like to try?" "Oh, yes!" Such sweet innocence. "I would like to try it!" and she did, and she is learning that the electrical circuitry in her body has been in need of adjustments and that, too, she decided, may take place, so once this line comes open and yours is open -- yours and yours and yours -- it's just a matter of throwing away the cookbook and saying, "I know how to cook!" and you do it. You just go ahead, just as Hunnah decided to allow herself to open her mouth and start to talk, and then knew, in her heart, that the words would be raised and expanded and used by the high purpose, and it has come about.
Celeste: Merium, did you say to let Jesus put his arm around you?
MERIUM: And hold my hand.
Celeste: Well, I did and it felt so good! I just decided ... now I'm going to ask for a hug!
MERIUM: That is very appropriate, and remember, if you get a hug, you give a hug.
Celeste: I'll give a hug! But the warmth of that will not take away the respect and love of him and you can get back to -- that hug felt very good.
MERIUM: Hunnah has had trouble accepting this possibility the way Elyssia has looked at the impossibility of transmitting, like it was just a feeling like an untouchable, and those days are gone, if you will let them. I am closer than breathing! I am here. And it is such a,-- Leah, it sounds like such a fantasy, but what we are talking about is: where I am, God is. We are not talking about a person separate and apart, thinking about God. We're talking about beauty. Something that is already established.
We're shedding this false reality, and you're allowed to have this intimacy and it won't go away. It's there for your renewal when you decide to break down. That title that the young woman gave her breathing course for losers is a very good title because it indicates that you have broken down and that you are allowed to lose your old habits and your old thinking and receive' that which is new and fresh.
Rachel: I was just reminded that Jesus said in one of the transcripts to not get embroiled in the chaos and confusion and to remember that you are the messengers of light and life here.
Hunnah: There are those who try too hard. It is another form of going to battle, and it can preoccupy and distract and keep a person from ever having the ease of a relationship, and it's just something that happens for you, like in the wink of an eye you decide to lay aside your diagnosis of terminal conditions and medical words and financial dogma and you turn your back on it and say, "I really have to walk in the meadow with the Master; I simply must! I cannot stand any more of this confusion and this head-lock." It is theirs, and you suffer so; and it is meant to be so gentle and easy and miraculously uplifting and fulfilling. You have called yourself in this evening. You sit and you read the book and it is a good discipline and you hear the awesome words and the universe is becoming more and more of a reality for you, but what is most important is that you come to the well of the living waters.
Celeste: You know, it's really interesting that with Jesus' arm around you, even so, when he stands away, he's even more beautiful, more radiant, more of everything than he ever was before. This is fantastic!
Hunnah: It is a holy wafer that you have spoken. That is manna. It is good that you should share this. You do it so effortlessly. Your trust and acceptance of your faith over the many years is so enriching, it deserves to be shared because it is so natural, and is that not what I have been talking about this evening, allowing you to be natural?
Since I have access to Hunnah's -- is this a plagiarism? -- I'm going to quote something. She read the friend's poetry and I should not have said that because I'm into her book right now. She said, in one of the lines, "Let me be natural. Let me be the me that we made." and that's what this is all about: being natural, being the wonderful creature, creation, that God made, and the young Erata, the young friend who spoke, brought through a wonderful and dynamic lesson called, "Doing the Will of God," and we assure you, you will see the copy, for it is ever so gentle, ever so relaxed and ever so natural, and you all do it. You all do it, but you're going to get better at it. Closer.
Dying for my sake. Turning your back on something that makes you uncomfortable in spite of appearances. I live yet not I; Christ liveth my life. That is what our mission is. Letting this happen in your life, and it will reflect further and further and more will come, and that's what the shepherd is in you, in a sense, is letting this reflection in you become more powerful.
This has been a warm and cozy evening, and I'm very pleased that you allowed me to come. I feel as if I'm sitting in a rocker and you're all sitting around my feet, and we have all had a wonderful exchange.
Elyssia: And you said we are all doing the will of God; we will do it more?
MERIUM: Absolutely. But it will become easier. Remember the plow-share? You take your sword and you bend it. You don't need a sword. You are builders of men, builders of healthy emotions, builders of love.
Elyssia: I don't think I have enough contact to make any difference. I mean, everybody I contact are wonderful people who are great and I can't think of anybody -- I feel like I have a very limited number of contacts. I mean, at the grocery store? At the parking lot? I mean, certainly I am aware of that.
MERIUM: Your vibration of a well maintained voice, the vibrational tones of a consciousness that is continuously tuning you is never wasted. You are communicating and donating and contributing to the whole. Even if you stayed in your home and you continued to honor your purpose it would go out into the ethers and nourish thousands.
Elyssia: Oh, goodness. I don't think I've heard that before.
MERIUM: It is true.
Elyssia: I'm going to read that over and over until it sticks in my mind.
MERIUM: But you will not be able to stay in your house and hide because the urge to go out and just walking out to get the mail you will be sharing with a part of what is already there.
There is nowhere to go to hide. If the phone rings, you may turn away solicitation a bit more graciously and in your heart you will know that person is working for a living. I just want to encourage you and tell you not to try so hard to meditate or scold yourself because you have not.
We are coming closer and closer and closer. Meditation at one time was like the first telegram and the first phone call, it seemed. We are very close. Am I not here with you? Is this room not filled? The amphitheater of light and life? There is no separation except in your minds, in your bad habits and the forgetfulness.
Elyssia: I got a letter in the mail today that said a lot of people are taking a film about Jesus and they were going all around the room and they were serving God and they were helping some people in Africa and maybe we can have this thing that you . . . (indistinguishable)
MERIUM: In a sense you are. It's all part of the whole and there are many to help, and there will be more. Be of good cheer.
Elyssia: I was going to give a pamphlet about the Urantia Book to the whole class about the movie [group laughter]. I saw my daughter looking at me very stirringly.
Hester: Give her no second thought.
Elyssia: So I gave up on my plan.
MERIUM: I must tell you something, and I sound very much like Hunnah how but years ago she watched the TV series, "The Forsythes" and in that series there was a woman who was very zealous and when she would come to the household entertainments, she would leave pamphlets around and it is another form of one more little tidbit.
I think that we have made a complete circle here this evening but I will tell you something quickly. Watch yourself. Wait before you speak. It is special timing. Flyers have their place. Advertisements have their place, but there are new ways to deliver them, to produce. It is nice to, after you have made a positive connection with someone, say to them, "Oh, I have a book I read and I belong to a group," etc. "I'll give you a brochure." But you will acknowledge your guidance before you lose that special opportunity and not go the old route, so to speak.
You have to know your opportunities or they will dig in and hide from you. "Here she comes." I think I have said much.
Elyssia: Thank you for your vivid picture.
MERIUM: And my friend here is getting antsy and is very appreciative that I have been able to come to you. How I embrace you all.
Celeste: We've had a lovely evening.
MERIUM: Thank you for making me so welcome.
Rachel: For your encouragement.
MERIUM: Enjoy the simplicity of tomorrow. Thank you. Good night.
Group: Good night. Thank you for coming.
*****
DATE: July 9, 1998
LOCATION: Pittsburgh, P.A. USA
T/R: Gerdean
TEACHERS: MICHAEL, TOMAS, MERIUM,
URANTIA BOOK STUDY:
Paper 30, PERSONALITIES OF THE GRAND UNIVERSE
#3, The Courtesy Colonies
#4. The Ascending Mortals Paper 159, THE DECAPOLIS TOUR
#3. Instruction for Teachers and Believers
TEACHER SESSION:
TOPIC:
ENDURANCE / PERSEVERANCE
MICHAEL: I am the essence of Michael. I am here with you this evening to greet you and to remind you of my constant presence in your life through the Spirit of Truth. When I was here before in the flesh, and I left, I promised and I sent the helper. The helper has been among you all this time, as well as has the Father in your indwelling Adjusters, but I speak to you this afternoon about the Spirit of Truth which can help you, which can provide you with an appreciation of my presence.
When you reach out to me and ask me to guide you, to hold your hand, to give you strength, to bring you clarity, to sustain you, it is through the Spirit of Truth that I am operable. On occasion I am actually with you, but often I am with you through the Spirit of Truth which is the equivalent of my being with you, if you could but understand that.
Suffice it to say, my beloved children, that you are not alone and that I am with you, as is the Father with you. And now you know that you have a host of other helpers, the ministering hosts, ministering spirits, angelic corps, teacher corps, midwayers. You cannot imagine the assistance available to you. I am very happy with the development among family of you my children, and you in your relationship with your extended family throughout the world.
Those of my children who pass by, who come into your arena, are coming to you because you have set yourself up as an example of my children. You have said, "I follow the Master. He is my guide." And so when you are sought, you are sought for that purpose and so I say to you to call upon me through the Spirit of Truth to minister as you pass by.
The Spirit of Truth will tell you, will help you, will show you, will guide you and say, "This is the way. This is the Way that Michael would have you do." I have spoken to you before regarding fatherly love and brotherly love, and it is fatherly love that I would have you learn and deliver to my children, you who are my co-workers, my co-creators in this avant garde advance corps to work with mortals in the Correcting Time.
We are joyed and encouraged by your profound efforts. There is indeed much work to be done. We need more workers in the field.
Therefore give by example your joy in knowing me that they will be enticed, lured, constrained to follow that same Spirit of Truth, that same spirit which is inherent in your Master Son. My peace I leave with you.
TOMAS: I am Tomas. I am glad to be here. Very glad to renew my connection with you, even though I have not been away. You have imagined that I have been away and so I say, "Hello, I am glad to be back." Merium also is jubilant to be in her favorite chair in these bleachers of this Teacher Base.
I am sometimes struck dumb by our Master's presence, by the counsel he imparts by his very being. In time you will learn the language of the universe. You will not be burdened by the mental configuration of words and concepts, but they will come to you as currents of air and refresh you in ways which you cannot now comprehend. It is in his simple being that I am sustained and I know that you can perceive this when you call upon him and you feel his presence, but you are teachers of time and space; you are perforce operating in and through your minds. Allow, even so, your heart to open and feel this wondrous presence and feel his supple love.
I would speak this evening to you for a moment about perseverance. There was a discourse recently in terms of endurance, perseverance, and I am reminded of the drop of water that consistently falls, creating a pool where once there was solid rock; how the river will flow in a canyon, creating a deep gorge where there was once flat land; a drop steadily dripping can create stalactites and stalagmites of mighty size and impact on your imagination and senses.
And so it is true that perseverance can create the same indelible mark. Consistency and perseverance can operate when all else fails. If you feel that sometimes life can get you down, that it can drum upon your head until you feel you have been defeated by the external forces, remember that you have within you the strength of the Paradise Trinity, and that through your own perseverance in that which you are led to be and know and do through your obedience to that divine will, will strengthen you and allow you to persevere in your steady drip, drip, drip of truth, beauty and goodness, and over the course of time we will prevail.
You, too, can "break them down." You can endure. You can indicate by your very being that you will not be blown away. You will not succumb. You will not be swept aside. Your purpose is firm and clear. You are to represent the Father in your life, in your very being. This is a job for the courageous. Our Master has been the essence of courage. He faced all of life courageously, even in his gentle ministries. I urge you to learn perseverance. How are you this evening? Are you inclined to make comment or ask questions? How good it is to have you here, this evening, my son, my brother, Evangel. We always enjoy your participation here with us and look with admiration on your many efforts in your own lonely outpost in the tropics. How fare thee?
Evangel: Well, it's good to hear from you, good to be here.
TOMAS: We embrace you fully.
Elyssia: We imagine that Celeste must be heading towards the Arctic Circle, which is intriguing, but I wanted to ask about a little problem and I really wondered what could be the most spiritual, kindly way to deal with this problem, and it's a problem in the family. My husband's relatives all came last Friday for a nice celebration and there was one who's always created tremendous havoc, but we have always somehow said, "Well come ahead anyway," and it goes back years and years.
But this time, I felt that he had hurt a very sweet person, a gentle young man who has no ax to grind, and he was saying something that on our planet is almost unacceptable. He was saying to him, "I'm glad your father is dead," and so I am not condemning the man who did it because he's a victim of his life, but I don't think I can permit him -- I can't invite friends here and then create a situation in which they would be hurt so terribly, so I felt that I was partly responsible for that because -- of course I didn't know they were coming anyway. I mean, that was a surprise, but …
I'm thinking about the future. I'm going to be very, very tough. I think! But I mean, I'm sort of trying to ask you, Tomas, but, you know, what's the right thing to do? I've already done some things and maybe they weren't right but, at the time, I called them -- when they got home; they live in another part of the country -- and told them that unless he gets help for his alcoholism, that we can't really have him here. So I'm wondering about this, Tomas.
People have said to me, "We don't know why you've allowed him to come back! Or be with you!" In other words, now your guests are being hurt! And to a certain extent -- maybe... They don't say that, but maybe "You're responsible!" So I just wondered if you might -- I'm trying to figure out how one thinks about that.
TOMAS: This is not a new subject. It has been brought to my attention before. Not this particular case but similar situations. It is, of course, a very serious concern, for when there is dementia of a sort, it indeed flows into the cultural arena and can sully the clear waters of your social fragrance, social graces.
It is not uncommon for a family to have this kind of stressor, and families deal with it in different ways. Do not feel that you have been hand-chosen to endure this particular kind of albatross; it is just one more indication of the Correcting that is on-going. In terms of acceptance of such difficult personalities in various throes of illness, it is a matter of group judgment.
Individually each of you must take the matter in prayer to our Father and ask for personal guidance and direction as to how you may help or if you are indeed manifesting indiscriminate kindness. You mentioned "tough love" and tough love is an important feature to be considered when "Enough is enough!"
I would not pass judgment on the discourse you mentioned between him and the young lad regarding the father's death, for I am not certain of his pain levels or his underlying motivation. Many times, you know, when an animal is wounded, he will lash out and harm those that come within his sweep, not to harm them but only because of his own awareness of his own painful wound.
And so compassion is indeed a matter to be considered, but as a group you may take it under advisement and judiciously advise the man that his behaviors are unacceptable for your social purpose. Remember the admonitions on justice, that you are entitled to maintain your civilization. This is a group calling, a group responsibility, but remember too that individually you, as a devotee of the Son of the Eternal Son, are a child of mercy and as you have received, so shall you give.
Elyssia: Well, it's a question, too, because it seems that if you exercise any compassion with this person, he uses it to sort of worm his way back into your social environment and there he is again, and there he is, he's hurting somebody that you have in your home and you're partly responsible for this person having this pain. And so, that's what's happened in the past. You say, you know, "those things happen," but then, you know, he comes back in to your life and then he uses that opportunity.
TOMAS: I am reluctant to delve too deeply, Elyssia, into the situation because it is such a huge cauldron of conversation. It is an issue of the day of a certainty. There are extensive helping aids that you would do well to familiarize yourself with. The fact that you indicate that you feel somewhat responsible for his condition indicates to me that you have issues of your own to investigate. Even though you cannot create alcoholism in another person, you can damage an individual through your own character defects, and if your character defects have become fuel for his ...
Elyssia: No, that's not the case. I never exacerbated the problem between him and me in any way.
TOMAS: Alright.
Elyssia: But, I am saying I know he was a victim. I know how his family was. He was completely deprived of the kind of love that a child needs. I know very much about that.
TOMAS: You might then remember my words about perseverance, that the steady drip-drip-drip of a raindrop can make a dent in a solid rock, and remind the man that help is available and that if his life has not gone the way he would like it to have gone, he can start again new as a child of God and he can be raised up again and better by and through the spirit.
This requires a rebirth. In program terms, it requires "surrender" which is the same thing. There is nothing you can do. It is a matter that lies between him and his Higher Power which hopefully will be our Father and in the meantime you are in the right to protect your home environment from disease, disruptive disease.
Elyssia: Okay. Thank you. I'll think about everything you say here. And I'll pray about it too.
TOMAS: Good.
Elyssia: Maybe I can even start to pray for him this week.
TOMAS: Good.
Elyssia: But that wasn't going to happen right away.
TOMAS: It is truly the solution. Rather than allowing yourself to get all up in arms about the offense that he brings, the difficulty, the inconvenience, the pain, the sorrow, the discomfort, the embarrassment, etc, etc, envelop him in prayer and help yourself to realize that this, too, is a child of God who is deserving of the Father's love and compassion.
Indeed, this life is difficult. We have been here for a very short time in our efforts to advance you, to work with you, to assure you of your place in the universe, to let you know that you are loved and that there are indeed matters in need of correction. This is not an excuse to stay victimized, but an opportunity to get on the band wagon and say, "Yes! Let's do something about it," and go forward from here.
Elyssia: Well, how can you talk to somebody like this and in those terms, when you feel he may even ... you know, "Who do you think you are? You're pretty preachy when you're on your ..." you know, "Who do you think you are, trying to minister to me!" and ... if I wrote to him and said any of these things, I wonder how I could say that.
TOMAS: I would suggest you not even try.
Elyssia: Okay. That's good.
TOMAS: Not at this point. You must be careful because of your role in society and in the family. You could be construed as a pompous matriarch and this would not do you any good nor would it do the Master any good, and so there are times to set aside your social standing, your family standing, and regard yourself as a humble servant of the Master and ask him to guide you in the way that he would have you go. He would have you pray, child, and let it go.
ELYSSIA: Okay. That's what I was sort of thinking it might be. Not very worth while to go tromping around mouthing platitudes. I'll do the thing you said. I'll get my family all to do it too because nobody knows how to handle this. My husband doesn't know and my daughters don't know and my son doesn't know, so I'll tell them what I'm doing, anyway.
TOMAS: There is a solution. Are there other issues at large? One moment. Other questions?
Elyssia: Are you going to go to the Teaching Mission?
TOMAS: I am IN the Teaching Mission. Where would I go?
Elyssia: Are you going to go to Nashville?
TOMAS: Of course! I have been there many times already.
Elyssia: Oh, have you!
Leah: He prepareth the way. [Group chuckle]
Actually, in relation to the question that Elyssia asked, I recall that I asked you on a similar situation involving a birthday party, as to whether to exclude an individual who was a troublemaker.
TOMAS: I recall.
Leah: And I know it's not really right to exclude people, but when they are so destructive ...
Hester: They exclude themselves.
Leah: That's a point. It was recommended at that time not to extend the invitation to that particular individual who had a reputation for ruining everything, all the time. I don't really know all of his circumstances totally so I'm probably way off base here, but it just reminded me of that situation.
Elyssia: Well, I have this problem because I said, "We'll just have him... We'll see him occasionally in a simple social arrangement, where it's just my husband and I and a couple of other people. Where he gets out of line we can simply just walk away, but when we do that, we begin to build a relationship again, and we're more vulnerable again.
TOMAS: Herein is where the Master is the best teacher. When you develop your family relationships, develop them in and through the spirit, for that is the relationship that you can do something with. Remember, your reading indicated that the earthly family is a cultural configuration which will not survive mortal death into your next life, your next arena. This is the true family. Otherwise, you are maintaining civilization.
Hold the loyalty to the Father, and if the Father cannot be seen in his children because they have opted to block his reality from their very existence, you do not owe a loyalty to that shell of a human being. Only as that human being seeks the Father can he be safe. Remember your true reality, Elyssia, and make it the forefront of your reality. Remember to distinguish between your social role and your social reality.
Elyssia: That's very helpful. Very helpful.
Leah: Very helpful to me, too.
Hester: No matter how we try, we can't save them all. Jesus proved that.
TOMAS: I hasten to remind you that in that remark I have not suggested that you judge, but that you assess and act according to your best assessment based upon your own wisdom as a result of your ability to recognize the fruits of the spirit and the presence of God in your fellows. Prayer is the most profound action you can engage in. Aren, are you alright this evening?
Aren: Yeah.
TOMAS: I am impressed with your inner growth, your awareness of your identity and your acceptance of these realities. You have been working very hard, my son. I have been with you, as you know, and many of your other kin in the spirit have been checking in on you. I hope we have not been invading your privacy overmuch. If we have, you may turn the volume down and we will come in at your request. It is indeed a cooperative that we are establishing; it is a co-creative effort, and we do not intend to dominate your life but to work with you as you will work with us. Have you understood my counsel here?
Aren: I understand. To find some balance between this reality and the other reality. Is that what you're counseling?
TOMAS: You are not to be under the impression that we would have you engage in sainthood or in incessant intercourse with the spirit realms. Your exuberance as a young male of the realm entitles you to experientially adventure into the arena of your nativity. Experiential growth is important to you. We can go with you into your arena. Take your joy and your wisdom and your exciting mind into the realms and spread seeds. Whet the appetites of your associates for truth. Titillate them with a thought here and there to get their minds activated. Plant those seeds and watch them sprout. They will soon be coming to you for fertilizer, and you've got plenty of that, too, to spread around.
Life can be such a joy, such a fulfilling experience. It is not all grim and grit your teeth. There are lots of wonderful things on Urantia to enjoy, to participate in and to appreciate. Our Father Michael has created a grand arena in which you may play at large. Wonderful personalities, wonderful days, cool nights. It's a good life.
Elyssia: I had an experience, too, that -- I won't take up too much time with this, but I was with this family and they all know that I read the Book and so we were talking about something and I used the occasion to say something that was probably recognizable from the Book and it was absolutely amazing and I was so glad I was able to notice it, that everybody around me evaporated. I was pretty much alone! They -- they were the more fundamentalist wing, anyway, but I said I'm glad I noticed it because I guess it was progress for me.
TOMAS: It is always progress when you are delighted with your reality and when you can be and be at peace and in joy of your being. Therein is strength. Therein is your reality. Do not allow yourselves to be swayed, to be blown away, to be diminished.
Elyssia: Well, thank you. I was actually glad as you indicated but it was interesting because then I was able to shift gears and say a lot of the things that are generally applicable in the spirit realm and philosophical in nature without being quite so easily identified as coming from the Book and it worked fine, it just worked fine.
TOMAS: Whereupon your friends materialized. Indeed, you must intermingle with the sheep. How can you feed the sheep if you are not in contact with them? This is your field, your ministry.
Elyssia: Well, it was a step forward anyway. But I guess I'm still hoping that I can serve the revelation, which I consider to be so incredibly wonderful.
Tomas: Indeed. Gerdean is inclined to sing a song which I will not help her with but it is related to the TeaM song, "We are one in the spirit, we are one in the Lord," and I will bring it into the record so that you may review the words and the spirit in which it is sung. The rejoicing of the real brotherhood/sisterhood, the real family -- wonderful it is. Indeed. It is possible because of the revelation: the text and the workbook.
It is possible because people like you have seen and heard and felt the reality, you have yearned, you have followed the leadings of your Thought Adjusters, and you have enabled it to lead you. You have hungered for and thirsted for truth and righteousness. You have sought, you have grown, you have gained, and you have been blessed. You seek now to share, to give what you have received.
This living reality will grow, will spread, and will alter the face of Urantia. This revelation indeed is a sacred gift to Urantia. You do well to rejoice in your understanding of it as of epochal import to your world.
Elyssia: Thank you for that word: a sacred gift. That is such a wonderful phrase! I'm wondering, Tomas. Evidently you see spiritual light, you sense the spirituality of the populace, so can you describe if you see much out there? What is the problem with having our Book more accepted. Is it too -- I mean, what is it? I don't understand it. I'm still struggling with that. All the time!
TOMAS: The Book is very responsible, Elyssia. It is not a glitzy book. It requires that your life be altered, and many are not interested in allowing their life to be altered. On the other hand, there are many who appreciate its intellectual explanations and do not get emotionally wrapped up or spiritually enlivened but are only intellectually satisfied. There are many who find it an exciting science fiction attitude and in this they are highly entertained but they do not regard it as a. personal religious experience. There are all manner of approaches to the Book itself and to the responses that it incurs in the mind.
Elyssia: Have you teachers talked about, what does it evoke in people that turns them off? I mean, have you talked about it among yourself? Can you help us?
TOMAS: We have talked about it among ourselves. I will give the question back to you and ask you to ascertain why they look at it and reject it, for that is your challenge, Elyssia, to help the seed be planted in the fertile soil that it will grow to assuage the fears. Now I do not give you this responsibility alone, but it is certainly an avenue of expansion for your social skills indirectly and directly as to when you place the Book into someone's hands. Have you furrowed the soil? Have you aerated and prepared the ground? Have you planted the seed that it will take hold? If the ground is barren, have you planted your seeds elsewhere that they may be falling on fertile soil? Really, in some ways, it's not so important that you follow up so don't worry too much how it affects people. If they're going to accept this, they will. Be prepared.
ELYSSIA: It's so strange where it takes hold. Celeste and I, for instance. She gave it to a good friend of ours and now she's reading it. She's tremendously excited about it, I think, but she'll never join our group because she's in the middle of a whole bunch of something in her family.
TOMAS: Never say never.
Hester: Never say never. Right. And remember Jesus had just as many put downs, if not more. And he succeeded, so just go for success.
TOMAS: Remember, it is how you live your life that will speak the speech most plainly.
Elyssia: Well, then I must not be doing a very good job.
Hester: No, no, no, no. You're doing alright.
TOMAS: I am going to prepare to withdraw for the evening. Are there any other matters that need attention?
MERIUM: Well, I am Merium and I guess I need some attention because I haven't had an opportunity to come in and say hello. I am going to remind you that God created the other Sources and Centers so that He could be acknowledged, and as his child, I remind you that I am part of this Teacher Base and I would be acknowledged, just as you each at this table enjoy being acknowledged. We could all stay home and live in the dark but for this wonderful family where we come to cuddle each other and pull each others braids and so "Yank, Yank".
Elyssia: We're so happy you came! It's not really complete without you.
MERIUM: It's very nice of you to say so, Elyssia, although I want you to know that I've been here all along and I've heard every word. I just like to have my personality manifested, like everyone. I am not mad at Tomas. He has been busy. We are all very busy. You know, even while we are at play we are active. Our lives are very full in the spirit. I believe your lessons talked to you about a dynamic life, and our life also is very dynamic. It is wonderful to have such a full and rich existence in the spirit, much as the one Tomas spoke of: the days and nights, the colors, the friends, the food, the pets, the smells, the music, the work and the play. What a glorious experience for you and what a wonderful summer season.
How lovely it is here in your environment. The comfortable wavy hills and fields. What a quilt. A textured quilt it is here in your neighborhood. How wonderful is Michael's planet Urantia. What a glorious creation it is. What glorious creations are each of you and how we look forward to your advancing perfection, your embellishment of personality, your enrichment of being.
Be yourselves most fully, my little ones. Remember your Source and seek sustenance from the greater reality that will help you grow up to be who you are intended to be. Most happy children, most delightful children of God, good night.
Group: Good night. Thank you for coming.
TOMAS: I am also signing off; I'll see you soon. Good night.
*****
DATE: July 16, 1998
LOCATION: Pittsburgh, P.A. USA
T/R’s: Gerdean
TEACHERS: TOMAS, MERIUM
URANTIA BOOK STUDY
Paper 31, THE CORPS OF THE FINALITY
#1. The Havona Natives
#2. Gravity Messengers
#3. Glorified Mortals
#4. Adopted Seraphim
#5. Glorified Material Sons
#6. Glorified Midway Creatures
#7. The Evangels of Light Paper 160, RODAN OF ALEXANDRIA
#1. Rodan's Greek Philosophy
TEACHER SESSION:
TOPIC:
COMPASSION
TOMAS: Good evening, my friends, I am Tomas . How are you this evening?
Group: Elyssia, Aren, Gerdean and Hester: Good evening, Tomas. Thank you for coming.
TOMAS: It is a wonderful and intimate group we have this evening. We had on Tuesday a very large group and it was wonderful, but now we have this very small group and it, too, is wonderful. Each configuration brings its own delight, its own challenges and its own possibilities. I and Merium, as well as many others, are intrigued with the possibilities of this evening.
Your studies have been admirable and your engagement with Rodan is provocative, for it borders on the realm of humanness that would put into practice these many studies of Jesus' behavior as a man among men. You have been reminded to prevail with men, to live among mortals as a mortal of the realm, not setting yourself above the milieu but as one with the many, mingling in the emotional, intellectual, economic and philosophic realms where you can meet and touch your fellow creatures, introducing them to the joy of being affiliated with the Father and his myriad helpers. But you recall it is said that it is difficult to love unlovely mankind. The study in Rodan is an overview of how you may approach your work in the field. He has a lot to offer and it. is always an interesting study.
I would like to speak briefly this evening about compassion. We have discussed compassion before, but I would particularly like to bring to your consciousness the concept of compassion as it relates to the suffering of your fellow human beings. There are those who suffer. Whether they have justifiable cause for their suffering is not your concern. Whether they feel that they are a victim is not your concern either. Recently you read about indiscriminate kindness. Indiscriminate kindness is not the same as compassion.
Jesus never allowed his exposure to suffering to take away from him the attitude of compassion. No healthy mind brings distress upon itself for attention. No one chooses to play the role of a victim because they enjoy the role. No one wallows in unhappiness because they thrive on unhappiness. These pitiful throes of the human condition are evocative of your compassion, for you can, much like Rodan suggests, transmute your initial reaction into a prayer, and perhaps an inspiration to allow Father to present words to you that will give encouragement to that one who suffers.
Compassion costs nothing, and yet it is a richness that gives substance to the thinnest opportunity to manifest fruits and loving kindness. I cannot stress to you enough the need for compassion in your most difficult world. Even the arrogant deserve a private and replete sense of compassion from you because they would not behave such if they knew the joys of sonship, if they understood humility.
Jesus' compassion for his fellowmen and women was superb. It gave him a graciousness that always allowed for a welcoming into his presence. You manifest compassion as you sit here even now in an attitude of abeyance to truth and understanding. Grant that I continue to manifest compassion in my efforts in this Mission. I understand, Elyssia, that you have "a real question".
Elyssia: I guess that I could even very easily tie it into compassion, which has been on my mind myself the last couple of weeks. My real question is that so much of my world was and is involved in the traditional Christian world, my church, and for years I enjoyed these programs, the 700 Club, and I was very confused about how to think about Pat Robertson because I really like the fact that some people all over the world can hear about Jesus.
I supported him financially, to a certain extent. I know Hester has a different point of view, but never-the-less, that's what I've been doing, and yet I'm very confused because I do feel so sad that he has not been able to give compassion to people like homosexuals. He says, "I love them." He says, "I Love all of you people; I just want you to change."
And yet I get really confused about that aspect and I feel that he has created, he largely has been the reason why this terrific dichotomy has been created between the Christian group of people and others like the groups of homosexuals who have become very angry, very hostile, very defensive about the way that they're being described as being sinful and so I get very confused because when I watched Pat Robertson this morning he had a lovely story on about a woman who was able to quit smoking.
I thought it would be fun to tell Gerdean this story. It was a beautiful story, and somebody else was healed, incredibly. The story was very amazing. But it isn't just Pat Robertson. It's all these other people that -- I really -- I get very confused. Now, for instance, we've been sending money to this little Christian group that works with young people and so it's a problem again. Always the same thing. They're teaching some things about Jesus but they're also teaching other things, and so -- I would really like to ask you, Tomas, about my state of confusion about this.
I could describe more of these incidents but I don't think I should. I think this should be more than enough. I've talked more than enough about it. Hoping that you can guide me along here a little bit.
TOMAS: (One moment.) It is a difficult scenario that you present, Elyssia, for you have, in a way, asked me to assess for you your investments, in particular your value support. I will not advise you on who to support financially. That is a tax matter for you and your spouse. Nor will I lambaste Mr. Robertson or other popular voices in/on the pulpit. To the extent that they promote truth beauty and goodness, they are my peers. To the extent that they go against the teachings that the Master espoused, I must convey my own sense of compassion toward them in their ignorance and compassion for those they damage in their naiveté and their judgment.
It is not for any of you, any of you, to condemn the Father's children because of their extraneities. How simple is it to understand that we are all children of God, we are all created by the Father and we all answer to Him in our relationship with Him? Our Master admonished us, particularly those of us who would follow after him, who have accepted the role of ambassador, who would deign to speak for him in the marketplace/from the pulpit, "feed my sheep;" "love my flock;" "take care of my flock."
He did not say to put his sheep on some sacrificial altar like in the days of Abraham, but "love my sheep" and "care for them". It is most unfortunate when any professed believer uses a book of knowledge as a weapon to wield against or for a belief, an espoused belief, in support of their interpretation of God. All we are to do, as children of God and followers of the Master, is to love one another as he has loved us.
He has not said, "I will love you if you cut your hair." "I will love you if you forego that diet." "I will love you if you are traditional in the sense that the Church has established the way you should come and the way you should go." He has said none of the above. He has not said how to wash your hands or how to sit at meat. He has said "love each other" as he has loved us and he did not discriminate. He loved and invited and admonished the rich and the poor, the Jew and the Gentile, male and female, homosexual and heterosexual, young and old. All men and women are his creation. Are we to passed judgment on Thalidomide babies as unlovely? Are we to tread upon women because they are not such good producers? All manner of unjust and unfair behaviors have come about in the name of God, in the name of justice, in the name of Solomonian wisdom that you have not.
"Love one another" is the commandment, and support one another in your belief of him who sent us. Now, what you should do as to your contributions is, as I said, your concern. If, however, he is teaching and preaching something that is in conflict with your understanding of the Master's path, then you might factor that in. Have I addressed your concern, Elyssia?
Elyssia: Yes, you have. I think they're trying to actually, you know, save these people, and they are -- they think they are being compassionate! -- which confuses the issue quite a bit. They think that they're going to save homosexuals.
TOMAS: From themselves?
Elyssia: From being burned in hell.
Hester: Who said they were going to be burning in hell?
Elyssia: Well, they believe that, you know that.
Hester: Yeah, I know, but it's not written in stone or in the Bible.
Elyssia: Oh, I know that! I am well aware of that. I am.
TOMAS: They are certainly free to pray.
Elyssia: Yes, they are certainly free to do that.
TOMAS: But "Judge not, lest ye be judged."
Elyssia: How true.
Aren: Tomas?
TOMAS: Yes Aren?
Aren: Getting back to the original lesson on compassion. From what I understand from compassion it is the ability to feel with or suffer with. This is a word on emotional realms. You spoke of a mental process. I think the lesson is, "What is the attitude of compassion?"
TOMAS: Yes, it is certainly an attitude. It is a result of an attitude, an approach, a thought processes, a value. It is a response to a value, and so it is not only emotional, not only intellectual. It is a reality. Based upon all of those factors, including the spirit. Compassion is the antithesis of cynicism. It is a method of incorporating concern and yet it is not so physical as to actually share the pain, the agony, the suffering. Indeed, it is not, but it is an attitude of prayer, and a touching concern for the individual who suffers, in such a way as to foster assistance rather than to undermine or deplete the reserves. Is this understood?
Aren: Edifying, yes. Thank you. When you speak of reserves, the feeling reserves, are you talking about energy?
TOMAS: Certainly.
Aren: Thank you.
TOMAS: Any number of kinds of energies comprising that which constitutes the reality of the individual.
Aren: Now at this point there is a certain level of assessment and delicacy of how to inhibit or show this concern with each personality being.
TOMAS: In each case, yes, this is true. For example, a toddler who falls, who scrapes his hands on the sidewalk, may be more alarmed or embarrassed than really hurt, and yet the child may in fact be hurt, and also alarmed, and so a compassionate response would be a concern for the child that showed support for the distress of the child rather than a more cynical or bullying remark to bolster the youngster, such as, "Oh, don't be such a baby!"
This does not give strength to the child, but, as you might say, contributes to a shaming, as if one who falls and hurts is not entitled to some discomfort, some healing, some acknowledgement. It is not to encourage the child to continue to fall in order to get attention, either. That could perhaps be construed as "indiscriminate kindness" but truly not kind at all in the long run, you see.
Yes, compassion requires a certain assessment, however it is born of the spirit, the human spirit, to be loving and supportive. It does not mean you give yourself 'into the situation, but that, yes, you assess and respond -- dare I use the word -- appropriately. I am not fond of that word "appropriate". It is always a question to me -- "appropriate to whom?" and "by whose standards?" and so I am reluctant to use that word: appropriate -- but I am never reluctant to use the word and stress the value of Compassion.
It is also not the same, if I may, as enabling, or people-pleasing. Compassion is a genuine fruit of the spirit. It is a high level response. [Tape malfunction; skipped]
MERIUM: This is a very clever universe. Our mother is magnificent in her many portrayals, as is the Father, but we have talked about the mind and the mind is very susceptible. It is not entirely psychic but interesting that on occasion information may be conveyed to alleviate anxiety in a human being as to their dearly departed in order that they can get on with their life with a forward-thinking attitude, but as I said, the instructions are quite clear: they cannot come back; and so I suppose you could say, "Merium said that they could send a message!" and we can take that with a grain of salt, but that is what I'll say anyway.
Elyssia: That was very helpful. Thank you for that.
MERIUM: You are welcome. It does help to be able to discuss a situation with those who are not students of the fifth epochal revelation. Those of you, however, who are, and who know the facts of the matter, are in a position to be very creative and educate through tact and tolerance and all those wonderful qualities these truths that will bring them forward into a greater consciousness of what really goes on and not what they want to go on. Does that make sense?
Elyssia: Yes, it really makes sense.
MERIUM: We really do need your help here.
Elyssia: We want to help.
MERIUM: It's on your shoulders. And the Spirit of Truth is in full support of your efforts. Now, did you notice that I said, "It is on your shoulders."
Elyssia and Hester: Yes, we noticed that.
MERIUM: Now I tell you why I come in here and fluff up your pillows and talk to you as if you were little children needing attention. If you have this onerous responsibility on you on one hand, you deserve the attention on the other, and who else is going to give it to you?
Hester: It's nice to get attention.
Elyssia: That's true.
Hester: It's loving and gracious.
Elyssia: We like that. We enjoy it.
MERIUM: I do, too. I am also going to add, and this is a left field parenthesis, that it gives Gerdean a great opportunity to feel feelings that she, as a human, refuses to allow herself. We are working on that. Close parentheses. Good night.
Hester: [Laughter] Look out, Gerdean, you're in for it.
TOMAS: I am Tomas and I hear hubbub in the hallway. Perhaps it is time for me to be compassionate and sign off for the evening. It has, as always, been a rich dessert.
Elyssia: Thank you for your help.
TOMAS: Good night. Farewell.
Hester: Farewell. Thank you.
*****
DATE: July 23, 1998
LOCATION: Pittsburgh, P.A. USA
T/R’s: Gerdean and Hunnah
TEACHERS: TOMAS, MERIUM
URANTIA BOOK STUDY
Paper 31, THE CORPS OF THE FINALITY
# 8. The Transcendentalers
# 9. Architects of the Master Universe
#10. The Ultimate Adventure Paper 160, RODAN OF ALEXANDRIA
# 1. Rodan's Greek Philosophy
TEACHER SESSION:
TOPIC:
GRATITUDE
TOMAS: Good evening, everyone. I am Tomas.
Group: Elyssia, Celeste, Leah, Evangel, Hunnah, Gerdean and Hester. Good evening. Thank you for coming.
TOMAS: It is our pleasure to be here. Merium and I have been discussing our format for the evening and it was thought for awhile that she might come out first, but I promised her I would be light-hearted and we would perhaps play a game or do something less onerous than a recent session or two has been. It is important that we learn how to be friends and have fun together.
It is sometimes extremely tedious in your lives that you are required to be serious about your spiritual application. Sometimes life gets heavy; sometimes your experiences are not fun, can be expensive, can be difficult and although we are not here to provide comic relief in your life, we are here to ease your burdens as well as to uplift your thought processes and your mental outlook.
In the Butler group we have engaged in many exercises designed to break down the social barriers that exist between people while this Pittsburgh group remains somewhat formal, but I have concluded it's because of the furniture. [Group laughter] Sitting at the desk, the table, has a tendency to lend a formality that is not present with the cats and the crickets.
I am not going into, therefore, any heavy, onerous discourses at the outset. I am always amenable to chewing on a gnarly old gristle if one comes up, but I will not introduce it. Merium, I am going to, in fact, assign you the delight of loosening up the limbs of class, that we might perhaps begin a new page -- and speaking of new pages, let me first congratulate you on your accomplishment of having succeeded in completing your scholastic studies of Part I of your text. I pat you all on the back, shake your hands, give you your cap and gown, and commend you on your noble accomplishment. Are you with me, Merium?
MERIUM: Oh, yes, I am. I'm having a laugh. First of all, let me tell you that I have been having fun in Hunnah's memory bank here. Our coming on-line is just as you describe, because Hunnah was anticipating opening her mouth and then she saw two comedians approaching an open door and trying to go in together and it was as if to say, "After you," "After you," and finally we did make up our mind.
The other thing is that Hunnah's sister has returned from Asia and she said she was very impressed with the politeness of everyone and she said even if they were having an outrageous thought about you, they maintained their demeanor and were extremely polite.
Well, you were talking about confident healing, conditioning and prejudice and you know I am like an airplane going through the sky with a sign that's behind it that says, "Release, release, release. There is nothing to conquer. There are no quarrels. There is nothing to wrestle with except memories and poor conditioning, and when you are wrestling, you are indeed making no progress at all, whether it is with you or with someone else.
So be still, be still. This is the sign I am flying behind the plane, reminding each of you in your own special way with your own special word, sleep, sleep, quiet, quiet, wait, wait, wait upon the Lord.
This is indeed a new era cadence that I am producing this evening, but I want you to develop your own scenario, whether it's Porky Pig or whatever to come out with a cue card to come out and say Take-a-Break, Take-a-Break, Stop-stop, because if you do not stop you will never get done with your reasoning’s, your quarrellings. I also am reminding you that the water will never be still unless you put down the oar.
You have to come up with some creative challenges and you do not come up with them, you open the window and let them come rolling in like they are on a wind and they come to the rescue and they help you to stop the compulsive conversations that you carry in your head, or the conversations with other people, "I said" "She said" "You said" and there we go again in the pitiful pit of human dilemma.
We are not doing that anymore! We are not entertaining anyone with our old stories. We must bring ourselves as our only audience, our only session within ourselves for correcting. There are many bad habits out there that develop and then take over. There is a quote from Kubler-Ross: “Get over it! Now!”
Now, the first time Hunnah heard that statement she was absolutely wild with it because she was complaining, and the office secretary approached her and looked right at her with the most comical expression on her face and said, "Get over it! Now!" Well, it was a bit of a shock, but after awhile it settled in and it became almost hilarious. It sounds very abrupt but it is absolutely true. Do you want to spin your wheels and go backwards? Or do you want to get on with it?
And just recently (I will steal again) there was an emergency phone call for Hunnah. She was laying face down on the chiropractor's cot. What to do? She answered the phone. She said to her daughter, "Are you bleeding?" No. She made her emergency call. I laughed right through this whiffing because she said to the chiropractor with words of wisdom that she was astonished. "I have a choice. This can upset me or I can just let it go," and that is all that was necessary. She did not even have to declare that she would let it go. Now. In the moment. Let's get on with it. And when it came again in a second rush, when her mental mechanism was working in better order, she did have a chance but did not spend much time.
How do you want to spend your time? What do you want to do? Create a vortex of energy that sucks the life out of you? Or do you want to build a spiral that will permit you to create a fragrant wind for someone else, something that will billow their sails and encourage them, something that will encourage others and as you say it and speak the words of fascination, as you hear these fresh words pouring from your mouth, it will billow your own sail, there will be oil left in your lamp.
I am on a roll, everyone. It has been going all day. I have been filling this great big Santa Claus bag and I have had it on Hunnah's back and she has been up in the air full of energy and getting it done, getting on with it, and it was this gratitude, this awareness of energy that filled her day with poise and industry and she came out of gratitude this evening to be with you and to celebrate, so that I might come and speak to you these words of encouragement.
It is true that they flow very rapidly and they are unstopping, but this is the shoe, wear it. These are the shoes, they are slippers, and I want you all to look down at your feet and know that there is an appropriate, lovely pair of shoes of understanding on your feet. They can be jeweled slippers, they can be comfortable sandals or they can be bare feet. Whatever's appropriate. Let yourself be filled with understanding, helping understanding, fresh, resilient understanding.
You do not have to fix, you do not have to repair, you are on the magic carpet, you are wearing the appropriate attire and you are headed in the right direction with your mission. You are not back there fixing up yesterday. Let me remind you again of another wonderful bit of imagery. Dismay and concern and then a flash in the mind and an understanding of seeing sand blowing on the dune where the footsteps have been.
It is true. That which you did yesterday, that which you regret, is allowed to be diminished by the divine winds upon the sands of your ever-receiving moments as you pass through them and learn to live within the now. The word "living in the now" sounded like a cliché, but it is true and you in this western world must learn to take a serious look at this word because you spend all your time looking over your shoulder or dreaming of the future. You are losing the moment.
On the way to the meeting this evening, Hunnah was blessed with some quick sights, like airwaves. She passed a house that had a great stump out front but there were flowers parked around this once-upon-a-time-tree and there were huge barnacles (you have a word but it passes me) that were beautiful to see. She saw a great blue ball that would draw the butterflies in someone's garden. There were many things, eye-catchers that would not be seen had her mind been broiling and gnawing on yesterday's experience, yesterday's braggadocio or disappointments.
I encourage you all, full-heartedly, with heart in my hand and a whip in the other if necessary, please pay attention. Become mindful of what you are doing. Not remembering what was said. Be mindful at what you are doing. Change your life! Redecorate it, freshen it, and enjoy the moment. I truly mean this with all sincerity that this is such a gift and joyful way to live, and I want you to all go forward and NOT meet the challenge but BE the supply in your own life and for others to envision.
They will wake up like a startling expression of your joyous experience, of the rhythms and of the cadence of your new being-ness. You will make a difference. Not with your head. Not with this intellectual crocheting that goes on constantly, but you are going to burst through the gate and be allowed to be poised and watch the peripheral supply as you journey throughout your day.
Now I have certainly enjoyed this magic carpet trip this evening. I feel like a Disney character. I hope I have titillated your thoughts, pressed all the right buttons, because all I have really ever said to you this evening is "Whaa, whaa, whaa, you are loved, joyfully, appreciatively, and you are going to go forward, whether you're kicking and screaming with a stiff neck looking back or with a smile on your face as you sail through the prepared place, the Red Sea, the parted area where the light has gone before you. All you have to do is venture there and be awestruck with joy. Thank you.
Group: Thank you, Merium. That was great.
TOMAS: Indeed, my partner. I am grateful for your words, your very free-flowing transmitter, and for your message. I am reminded of the marvelous summer storms that have been going on in your geographical area and we have had a torrent, a refreshing bath, and it has indeed washed us and prepared us for the growth of new flowers, a new crop.
Let me help you all play in the mud puddles now. If you could take one moment, I want you to each think of a gratitude that you can sincerely savor and share with your peers. Take that moment now and I'll be back in a minute.
Hester: Just as I crossed the river coming into 79, this wall of water that I could not see through, came down on my windshield in the front of my car, and it was like I'm driving, I can't turn, I dare not move from there. I have to keep going straight ahead, and for the first time in my life I let go of the car. I held the steering wheel, but I turned it totally over to God because I could not do anything but be grateful that I was inside the car and the wall of water was outside, and it took a good block or two before it opened up enough that I could see more than just a wall of water completely around me on Rt. 79 going to Pittsburgh, and I felt as though I were not in charge; I was being carried through, and at the time I thought about the flood, the various floods that have happened in the world, and how somehow or another you get through these, but it was a powerful, helpless experience.
Gerdean: I don't mean to revert; it was actually only this morning, but I am very grateful when I can see how much the universe truly cares for me, when I am able to experience my life in such a way that when it's necessary that I be upheld, God presents a friend to be there for me at just the right time, and that's been happening in the face of all that life has been offering. People have been there at just the right time. This morning I looked out the door and I could see some of those street people that I have fretted about, pacing out there as if they were sentinels on duty to see that I was okay. I can see these people differently. I can see them as part of the army of the Father. I'm very grateful for them and for the new view.
Celeste: I am very grateful for the joy in my heart. It's just so wonderful, all the time.
Liana: I am grateful for the communion with my spirit companion who teaches me in such a gentle way.
Leah: I'm grateful for everything in my life, including the things that really perplex me and I don't feel like being grateful for, because I know that they're to stimulate my spiritual growth, even though I don't feel like it at the time that it happens. And I'm especially grateful this week that Evangel was able to come to the conference and he was there, particularly, when I had this huge flat tire and no way to change it, and it just seemed like an impossible situation; but ... and he's a good friend and he's helped me a lot in the last couple of weeks and I'm very grateful that he's been here. And I'm grateful that his son called him today. I'm grateful for a lot of things, but ... I'm grateful to know that I'm a child of God. That you are all children of God.
Elyssia: I'm so grateful that we have this wonderful revelation, The Urantia Book, and I'm very grateful for these people to read with, so that we can look across the table and say, "Wasn't that a beautiful passage?"
And I'm so grateful for the papers that Gerdean types of the transmissions because I really look forward to jumping into bed and picking out a passage and feeling so good that that's what I can think about before I close my eyes. It's just something that I enjoy.
TOMAS: I am Tomas. I am grateful to you all for your friendship, your companionship, your student-ness and your teacher prospects. I am grateful to the Teaching Mission for the opportunity to experience this incredible and marvelous opportunity, unheard of in the universe. With you, I am grateful to the Master for his overcare, for his understanding, and for his hope for us in our future in the Father's universe. Tell me, Merium, what are you grateful for today?
MERIUM: Merium IS gratitude. Perhaps if I was to peek in Hunnah's portfolio she would be grateful for physical strength with the gift of the seamless garment, of impersonal effortless effort. She has had a full plate and was thinking about Mary and Martha and she didn't want to just be Mary and she didn't want to find herself abandoned and be just Martha, then she remembered that she had a new name and the permission that that name would bring which would be appropriate for the occasion, to do the will of God, being a being that guides the will of God, and that is what your meanings indicate -- freedom to not be one thing or another or a particular virtue, but to be feather-light and appropriate and accommodating and appreciative, versatile, whatever the moment requires.
Her friend Casey used to say, "you meet the need at the level of the need." When you have the good fortune of experiencing yourself moving into the slot, carrying the appropriate energy, stimulated to have the right idea, it becomes a seamless garment. You are appropriate if you are doing the will of God. You do not have to pull over to the side of the road and think about it. You just do it, and then later on, perhaps, you might discover that you did it for you had a joyous experience of sensing that you are appropriate. There is an energy, an impersonalization that moves in to fill in the developing doubt. It is a wonderful way to live.
It sounds as if we have traveled a great distance from this question, but you know I never want to miss an opportunity to present something in a new light, and this is what you are going to be very good at. You do not need to vocalize it; you will discover, in a personal way.
Once in Hunnah's book she wrote about something that had been taken care of, a behavior, perhaps, or something she had shed, that was outgrown, a useless bit of information at the time, and she was thinking about all the changes that had occurred in her life and it was a moment of gratitude, but the outstanding thing is that no one ever knew. There is so much liberation that takes place internally, privately, in secret, and no one ever knew. You do not need anyone's praise or opinion. I will repeat that because it is important. You will not be in need of praise or anyone's opinion.
There is also -- I am so full of simple stories. I am beside myself with this wonderful opportunity, for I am grateful when Hunnah is accommodating. It's almost as if we are baking a cake and we finally got the right kind of ingredients and this is one of those evenings.
She was thinking about competition and what a pity it was that man had to be baited, continually praised, and patted like a dog, in order to perform well, and that he had to put down another and push it aside, behind himself, so that he could feel better about himself. We have not done our young ones a favor these days to allow them to compete at such an early age.
That is another subject, but you will be able to see this in yourself. There will be so many things that you will do without needing a coupon, a free drink, or a wink from some meaningful relationship. You will not need it because you have new standards and you will be about this development of the seamless garment, this morontial wonderment that you are on your way to discover. I think that I have expressed my gratitude very well.
TOMAS: Here! Here! Are there questions this evening? (Silence) Perhaps the appropriate thing to do here is to be grateful that we have peace of mind and a full plate, that the rain has stopped, and the roads are clear, that the night is cool and that peace reigns in the kingdom of God and in your kingdoms as well.
Leah: Could you lead us in a prayer?
TOMAS: I will offer a prayer indeed for our brothers and sisters; for those of you who teach and preach, and those of you who listen and learn; those of you who are strong, those of you who are weak; those of you who are men and those of you who are women; those of you who are young and those of you who are old; strong and frail; of sound mind and simple:
“Father/Brother Michael, our Creator, we give thanks to you on behalf of your myriad creation, the thick and thin of your sphere. We give thanks, Father, for the unfolding of your will on Urantia, for the difficulties that it has experienced that we might learn from the mistakes of others as well as our own experiential adventures; that we may gain wisdom through adversity; that we may be reminded that in the long haul you have been with us through it all.
You and Nebadonia have always guided and nurtured our steps and have, at heart, an understanding of our dilemmas, our challenges, that they are indeed, ultimately, for a purpose; that the strengths they are gaining from these experiences in this life will create better citizens in this life and in the many lives to come throughout eternity.
The experience of life itself, dear Father, is a gift that we can do nothing but be grateful for. Even on the darkest days, we breathe in reality because of you. Whether it's a difficult pill to swallow or a breath of fresh air, let us always remember that you have given us life itself, that on every plateau of learning there is to be experienced that moment of perfect peace wherein we may feel your embrace, the commendation of your acknowledgement of our having done a day's work and having done it well.
Thank you, Jesus, for the experience of having lived your life on this planet whereon these children also experience the triumphs and tribulations of the mortal career.”
MERIUM: Tomas, thank you so much. I am quite convinced that this transcript this evening will travel very far. It will embrace the universal creation here on Urantia.
TOMAS: Thank you, Merium, my fine colleague and my wonderful flock. Amen and farewell.
*****
DATE: August 6, 1998
LOCATION: Pittsburgh, P.A. USA
T/R: Gerdean
TEACHERS: TOMAS, MERIUM
URANT.IA BOOK STUDY:
PAPER 33, ADMINISTRATION OF THE LOCAL UNIVERSE
#1. Michael of Nebadon
#2. The Sovereign of Nebadon
#3. The Universe Son and Spirit
#4. Gabriel — The Chief Executive PAPER 160, RODAN OF ALEXANDRIA
#3. The Lures of Maturity
Group: Elyssia, Celeste, Leah, Gerdean, Hester and Hunnah
TEACHER SESSION:
TOPIC:
AUTHORITY OVER YOURSELF
TOMAS: Good evening, family. I am Tomas. Merium and I are here in a fond embrace.
Group: Greetings, Tomas, and Merium. Thank you for coming. We're glad you are here.
TOMAS: It is sometimes overwhelming to come in the door. I am smiling, along with my colleague who indicated "I hear you knocking but you can't come in" [Group giggle] and sometimes when the door opens there is such melee [More giggles], we don't want to come in just yet, as it is also true that just because the door is there, you don't want to come in yet either.
Embracing each other in the spirit, nay, embracing yourself in the spirit is an accomplishment for the hale of heart indeed. It is not to be undertaken willy-nilly. Approaching yourself as a viable reality, above and beyond a bauble, an amenity, a social conditioning, an historic artifact, is indeed a gigantic undertaking, as Rodan infers, requires a degree of maturity, and so here we are.
We have settled down, the dust has settled, we have straightened the pictures on the wall and Merium has adjusted her coiffure. Now, let us adjust ourselves once more to the configuration of our Teacher Base and approach our lessons as if we knew what we were up to. I would like to discuss with you somewhat further, in a general context of where we have been going, having to do with upholding yourself as you see fit in your environment.
You are extremely pliant individuals. Indeed, adaptation has been necessary for you to survive. In political terms, it is necessary for you to be adaptable. No one wants to have such an arrogant personality as they are unwilling to be flexible and gracious, and yet there are times when you gracious yourself out of existence.
It is particularly difficult for women to hold their ground. In-as-much as I have here an assemblage of women, I would like to help you work on this aspect of yourself, if only to realize the truth of it.
I am going to pause in my presentation and go "on hold" while you reflect to yourself an incident or a tendency that you may have within yourself, not your neighbor, that is vacillating, that is able to tenaciously hold firm to the courage of its own conviction. Let's see if we are on the same track here. After we have had a moment of reflection, I would like to go round the room.
[REFLECTION AND SHARING]
Merium and I have been observing your industrious outpourings and it is an item for industry, in-as-much as it has caused you to see beyond the first layer to realize the fact of the truth of the practice of vacillation. It is a normal human pattern. It has evolved from a pattern of trial and error in order to come up with the best solution, and so that all of you vacillate is part of the process of determining your bottom line decision, one which has come from trial and error.
It is apparent that many of you do defer your authority to some one else and this, too, has been part of your evolution in ascertaining the smart way to go. You have all been successful survivors and thrivers in the methods of life. We are embarking now, as you know, on a new way of life, and so of course you bring with you all of your skills and add to these skills your new convictions and values, aspirations, goals and tools, and we will one day develop a new people, a new society, a new world.
I bring this up because it fits in with your framework of growth and because we have intellectually introduced the personality of Gabriel and the fact of administration. Recently in Butler we also touched on the administration of the spheres. We have been gearing up to this, you see, in terms of the actualities of your living experience. I am not going to refer to the men present in this group, you see; I am going to speak to you as individuals because you are all capable of making administrative decisions about your life and your position in your realm, for everyone has a realm of operation in the spirit -- and in the mortal realm you have your sphere of influence. You have your authority.
Months if not years ago I spoke to you about authority, your own authority, and we have spent a lot of time investigating your relationship with the Father, with the Mother, with Christ, with each other and with the self, and I bring to your attention again the word Authority, for in time you will be administrators in your own right, perhaps even tomorrow, in terms of determining whether or not to blow the whistle on a shoplifter or a litterbug or a tippler.
These are matters for you to determine because it affects your realm of authority, your world. How far does your world go and who is stepping on your toes in your world and how do you graciously and yet firmly determine that within your arena these are the ground rules? These are the gracious points of behavior that will be abided by; these are acceptable principles and these are not.
Administration is the key word. Administrating a realm of light and life. I will ask you then tomorrow and this week to be aware of your authority and your potential authority and pay attention to those realms of authority that you have down pat, that you hardly even think about, you have it so well under control; and think also about the areas that you very graciously and easily give up to someone else; and thirdly, I would ask you to look at the potential for divine authority in your realm that would affect the greater whole.
How can the authority invested in you as an Ambassador of the Kingdom, as an example of our own microcosm of perfection, penetrate and impact our earth?
I have finished my formal lesson for the evening and I am going to turn the mike over to Merium before we open up for questions. Merium?
MERIUM: Good evening, everyone. I wasn't sure I was going to get to speak to you this evening because Hunnah has decided she is going to go home, so I am glad to have a chance to have a few comments here. Be aware of your own behavior, and not with a clipboard on your arm, keeping track of yourself, but you are going to find, through your own guidance, the guidance of the teaching Source, that you are going to hear your words.
You are going to hear other words, and you are going to find it very fascinating to find out that this subject is indeed appropriate and I hope that you will go out in your day tomorrow with an attitude of expectation and isn't that a lovely way to be brought to task? Not criticized but allowed to see that this human conduct goes on and that you are perfectly normal in a human sense.
But we are in the business of rising above the human limitation. So indeed we want to groom you and help mold you into the configuration of the Father's choosing. Please enjoy your day.
My talk is brief. You have heard from me. My tongue has wagged and wagged. The other day I had such a good time and I hope that you will have a lovely experience and take your humor with you when you find yourself in the predicament and that you will write about it if it will help and see what your choices are. Be creative in your solutions and enjoy the adventure. Thank you.
Group: Thank you, Merium. Thank you for coming.
TOMAS: We are now open for questions and commentary.
Elyssia: Well, we're hearing about the Universe Mother Spirit and does Christ Michael and does the Mother Spirit retain anything of the --- are they in the morontia form? Because they are still in the universe and we don't give up -- we don't become true spirit until we leave the superuniverse. Do they have any relic or any remnant of the morontia body? I wouldn't think they would but then I'm confused about that.
TOMAS: The Divine Minister and Creator Son have their own form, of course, as they have their own domicile, and the Divine Minister is far less changing that the Creator Son who moves at large throughout the universe. When he is in the Isle of Paradise he is in spirit form and when he is in the realms of time and space he is more inclined to modify his form so as to be seen by those with whom he comes in contact. I will draw from the gross example of Star Trek and the changeling who can change forms to adapt to certain situations and perhaps that is a rude description but somewhat analogous.
Elyssia: Thank you. That does make it more clear to me. I was trying to figure that out. Well, now, recently I mentioned this book called "Domestic Tranquility -- A Case Against Feminism" which is just now being published and I think it's going to make a tremendous impact on the society because this woman is taking on Betty Freidan and nothing significant has been published since she published her book (The Feminine Mystique) to challenge her thesis, so I'm trying to figure out if this is a good step forward for us because what's happening in Sweden couldn't, couldn't be in the will of our Creator Son because he talked in favor of the marriage relationship.
Hester: He blessed marriage.
TOMAS: He has based the entire kingdom on the concept of the parent and the child. The two parents, in fact, are the primary relationship and the basis of the home. Even so, the form of marriage is undergoing major change. I am not a proponent of any "ism" in particular, for it is dogma, but the concept of women's lib has been necessary and is even still undergoing problematic adjustments.
It is mentioned in your text that if women demand every freedom, they will no longer be recipient of chivalry and this would be unfortunate, but in fairness, there are not that many chivalrous men anyway, and so it is an independent study. Each country, each nation, each geographic area is going to have to work it out independently. It will probably sell a lot of books. Everyone likes to see a good scramble between women fighting in the mud and so it wouldn't surprise me if it sold a lot of books, but I don't think it's going to do much toward establishing the new family structure.
Leah: I'd like to ask you in reference to what Hunnah was talking about (in her sharing regarding authority), I have the same thing: a very deep-felt resentment when I see people smoking and throw their butts on the ground and, as Hunnah says, she feels a rage rise within her and I feel as if I should say something but I know I'm so enraged it will not come out kindly, and so I was wondering what your reaction was to that? It almost feels like you want to demand respect but on the other hand you can't control other people, so I'm interested in what you have to say about that.
TOMAS: It is true that you cannot legislate morality and those who have no respect for Mother Earth or for aesthetic beauty are morally bankrupt, and so it is a job having to do with the maturity of the race and that comes after maturity of the individual. You cannot force someone to be sensitive when they are not.
I myself have always wondered why they do not ticket your citizens for some of their perilous practices. I believe in Singapore they ticket anyone chewing gum because gum on the sidewalk is such bad news, and your streets are littered with cigarette butts. Not so much aluminum cans, because they are collectable and profitable, but it is disgusting, particularly when they are not biodegradable.
You might begin to start a fad, although I don't know how effective it will be in terms of what is en temps. It is a pattern in your world to determine what is acceptable, what is fashionable. It used to be that smoking and drinking were fashionable, but they are fast becoming passé. Meat-eating is becoming passé as well. It is becoming fashionable to be into healing and holistic medicines. You can do the same thing, to some extent, with those who litter but it is really, again, a matter of spiritual awareness.
Really and truly the spirit is the answer to it all, for only as they become sensitive to the value of themselves and their environment will they begin to realize that they are hurting themselves and their environment by their sloppy behaviors and perhaps you will not see it come to pass in your lifetime.
Leah: What do you mean by en temps?
TOMAS: The mode o'day. Fashion. You set the tone. You determine what is acceptable and start a movement.
Rachel: Good luck!
Leah: Do you think I should distribute disposable ashtrays?
TOMAS: No, because they will litter the ashtrays. There are creative ways I suppose of going about it. I am not sure that it’s my job to suggest it, but you might approach the local police department with the idea to ticket those who throw their butts on the ground. They will laugh at you, but you can call it to their attention.
Elyssia: Tomas, I have a question. We're supposed to be getting into the morontia mode of thinking, feeling and acting.
TOMAS: Yes.
Elyssia: And I would like to ask you: Most of the people from our planet, when they make that transition, what's the most difficult thing they have to come to grips with as they make that transition. What personality problems or character problems do they usually have to wrestle with? Immediately. First of all, they find out they are really eternal beings.
TOMAS: It depends on so many things, Elyssia, it's hard to know even where to begin to respond. Remember that there are many different life forms arriving from many different strata of worlds.
Elyssia: Yes.
TOMAS: Some of these worlds are racially admixed and some are not; some are settled in light and life, some are not; some people die violent deaths and some fuse, or very nearly. There are so many variations on who arrives at the Resurrection Hall, there are that many various reactions to what happens when they get there.
Elyssia: Well, you've probably noticed people from our planet making the transition, since you have obviously familiarized yourself with a lot of things about our planet, and so before we even think about doing that morontia way of thinking, what would help us to get ready, and specifically, we don't exactly get ready. We try to live the way Christ Michael told us to live, but, just what would we try to take on in that and what DO we take on in our first morontia life?
First of all, we lack trust here, you mentioned. One of the biggest problems. If we were there, I would assume that one of the greatest problems would be that the promise of the eternal life is true and then we should have more trust immediately. Would that be the case?
TOMAS: You are simplistic but accurate. I am going to have to limit our approach here, at least to an understanding of those who are believers and those who are non-believers, in order to have any kind of viable and/or intelligent response to your inquiry.
Elyssia: Yes, of course.
TOMAS: I cannot speak too broadly. You yourself, Elyssia, already understand many of the morontia concepts and they have already impacted your life and your life then has impacted the life of many others and so you already have an understanding of cooperation and many of the values that are a part of the morontia way of life and way of thinking that will enable you to embrace your new home with aplomb.
Your most prominent initial reaction, I would suspect, would be two fold: one of which would be the dazzling array of sensations that you will encounter. The many, many more colors and sounds, the largess of the mansion world experience compared to the limited density of Urantia. And secondly, the heartfelt and doubtlessly profound impression of knowing your Adjuster face to face and your personal guides in particular, your guardian seraphim who have escorted you and accompanied you through the transition, from the mortal life to the morontia life. These two facts of existence will likely be your predominant first impressions.
Hester: Is it possible to shift to the spiritual, turn this body to spiritual right here on this planet?
Leah: Are you talking about fusing?
Hester: Well, I don't know that it's called fusing. I'm just wondering if we can eliminate the gross body. And become a spiritual body and still have our awareness connection with our divine self.
TOMAS: Yes, Hester, it is possible. However, if you were to become one with your Adjuster, if you were to suddenly become fused, your material body would be consumed in the energy implosion, inherent in the fusion act itself. Your mortal body would not be able to withstand the power of your fusion experience.
Hester: This is why people have on occasion literally burned on a chair. Their bodies have been consumed and just their ashes are left there. This must be what has happened.
TOMAS: It is referred to as spontaneous combustion. It is unconfirmed on your realm and yet you have on record examples of Enoch and Elijah who were early fusion examples, one of which was "raised up in a chariot of fire". It was the energy implosion inherent in the act itself.
Elyssia: And yet Tomas, I wanted to ask you about that because my sense of that was that they had a completely different set of genetics from us. They had a tremendous proportion of the Adamic infusion and they may have developed spiritually much more quickly than we could hope to. Am I wrong about that?
TOMAS: I am not going to give too much credibility to that theory, Elyssia, for the reason that it would give you an intellectual justification as to why you could not possibly attain fusion, and I will not undermine your Thought Adjuster and even your own faith levels to give you that shortcoming. It is indeed possible. And it is hoped that you continue to aspire toward that very thing.
It is one of the reasons, if you will, why I spoke to you earlier this evening about having your own authority. If you vacillate in order to accommodate humanity and social mores and relationship compromises and so on and so on, you are thwarting your own integral relationship with your own adjuster which is the true authority and relationship that is vitally necessary for you to get on with your spiritual path.
Granted you have a world to uphold, you have homes and families to tend to and these are, of course, exceptional responsibilities, but your primary responsibility is to your own relationship with Our Father and that is the goal of the ages. Indeed, it is the goal of today, that your relationship with Him is sure-footed and you must be able to stand firmly on your own authority in terms of what is acceptable to you and what is not, based on your understanding of what He wants for you and what you want for Him.
Elyssia: Thank you very much. I wonder what was your thinking when you arrived? Were you overwhelmed or were you not in that category? Do you remember? What would be -- it would be so neat to hear about your reactions and your feelings because we already feel that we know you.
TOMAS: I would have to ask permission for that and I will check. One moment please. I may touch base with my memory about that time but I am going to be restricted.
Be advised that I was from an advanced realm. Not completely, but my world was segregated such that I lived in an advanced society and it was in many ways spiritually advanced as well. I regret inferring we did not have Teachers. We did have teachers: the Trinity Teacher Sons. They were on schedule. Our planet was normal and so we had an understanding of what to expect.
I went directly to the Resurrection Hall. I did not sleep for an extended period of time. I was ushered into a battalion, a corps of workers almost at once. I was, of course, awarded a period of celebration and adjustment. I met with my friends and family who had preceded me, including my mate, and we were together assigned to work and serve in a number of service situations in our morontia experience. That is all.
Elyssia: It is wonderful to just be able to think about it and smile about it and we already feel such a connection with you and I can only assume if you were working, you would have been helping the individuals that would be coming from a less advanced state than your own. That would be my impression of what you would be doing in the way of work. I can't imagine any other kind of work that you would do, but I suppose my imagination doesn't carry me that far.
One of the people that was in our group and that has now gone on to the Lord said, "Don't forget, we've got to study the Book real well because we're going to help the souls that are coming across" so I didn't know if that was accurate for our plans or not.
TOMAS: You will be helping in many capacities. It is true that a way must be prepared and this includes, in your terms, housing accommodations and touring situations. You will be helping your seraphim and your angelic aides. There are many groups of workers that you will help, not necessarily directly with those who are arriving. There are specialists in the field. But once they have made the adjustment, you will be put to work doing what you can to help those who supervise and administer the morontia worlds and the satellite worlds.
Elyssia: Again, I suppose that if we have been able to develop compassion -- and that's what you were talking about recently -- that would be an extremely wonderful help if we could make some moves in that direction.
TOMAS: I am going to give you a very affectionate and intimate and compassionate piece of news, Elyssia, and that is, that in-as-much as you are from the planet Urantia, it is a rather fair bet that you will be regarded with intense compassion by all those who encounter you, in-as-much as they will realize at once that you have come from a planet long isolated and that your deficits are such that they will want to comfort you and console you as well as observe you with curiosity.
Elyssia: And if we could be compassionate here, ourselves, towards others, then we can probably, maybe even serve more effectively there, because it seems to me that you are saying that we should be developing these things here now.
TOMAS: Yes. And you can, when you are there, by manifesting compassion, indicate to your new peers there what you have learned here in terms of compassion, for was it not our Creator Son who was the epitome of compassion when he worked here on your native sphere? The fact that you are from Michael's home town is going to give you something to carry with you forever. You want to represent Michael.
Elyssia: That's a wonderful guide.
Hester: You made a statement a few sentences back, that your mate went... Did the two of you go to the other world together? Sooner or later? Or is that something that's completed here and then you go on.
TOMAS: It depends on the individuals involved. I am friends with my former spouse. We are on the ascent and she is my sister in terras of our spiritual relationship. We will know each other throughout eternity, and I am very pleased to have known her from my first existence, my mortal existence. It is not always the case. Many people do not have a mortal mate that advances or that advances at a similar pace. It is not uncommon in the universe for friends to begin at the beginning and to work all the way through, more or less, together.
Elyssia: Well, I told Celeste that we would see each other throughout eternity.
TOMAS: Yes.
Elyssia: And you have said that.
TOMAS: In addition, you are agondonters, and eternally you will belong to this same "glee club".
Hester: We're going to be together into eternity. How wonderful.
Elyssia: Thank you, Tomas.
TOMAS: Indeed. You have common knowledge. My family I am going to depart for the evening. Again it has been a pleasure and a privilege to be your guide and your companion in the ascent.
Group: What a wonderful night. Thank you so much. Helping us to stand our ground. I feel a lot better about the hereafter.
*****
DATE: August 13, 1998
LOCATION: Pittsburgh, P.A. USA
T/R’s Gerdean and Hunnah
TEACHERS: TOMAS, MERIUM
URANTIA BOOK STUDY:
Paper 33, ADMINISTRATION OF THE LOCAL UNIVERSE
#5. The Trinity Ambassadors
#6. General Administration
#7. The Courts of Nebadon
#8. The Legislative and Executive Functions Paper 160, RODAN OF ALEXANDRIA
#4. The Balance of Maturity
Group: Elyssia, Celeste, Leah, Evangel, Hunnah, Gerdean and Hester
TEACHER SESSION:
TOPIC:
ON AFFIRMATIONS
TOMAS: Good evening, everyone. I am Tomas. Merium and I are here together with you in joyous approach to your communion in truth. Your homage in stillness is endearing and would that we had many moments such as this in which to abide with Him. Indeed, let us raise our countenance to the Divine Minister and the Master Son in thanks of their glorious reign, their wondrous kingdom, of which we are a part, for the opportunity to enjoy the experience of life in the fullest, in order that we may know the Father and be of service to His many children; that we indeed may come to know each other in the spirit and enjoy the Father in and through each of his children thereby bringing about the perfection of the ages in light and life in our very lives.
"Grant us, Father and Mother, the patience and graciousness to deal with the vicissitudes of this existence and the challenges of the day. Grant that we may have the graciousness of spirit to be mindful of our status as sons and daughters of the living God, that we may be in understanding of our dignity and our humility. Open our minds, open our hearts. Rain upon us your divine love, your mercy, and teach us those things which you would have us know, to the honor and glory of your very being. Amen.”
I like to lift my voice in prayer and have a moment of praise and thanksgiving. I like these moments often, and I like it when you also stop in your tumultuous existence, to savor your connection with divinity. It is truly wonderful to realize that each of you are so growing in your awareness of your spirit association that you are acting in faith, conscious faith, most of the time, and that you assume the presence of God and the counsel of divinity in your daily doings. And yet, how we appreciate your conscious free will choice to put your life aside, even your service, in order to acknowledge the presence and overcare of our Divine Parents, just as your heart hungers for the upturned face of your children in acknowledgement of that which you have taught and bestowed upon them in your loving ministrations.
We have been discussing authority. And I ask you this evening to look to the authority of Michael and of Nebadonia, the authority of Salvington, which manifests to you in love and mercy, and when you are in your state of human authority over yourself and your domain, remember to take as an example the ruling fashion of Salvington and apply your life with liberal doses of the authority of love and of mercy, for those languages are the languages that speak even when words fail.
The divine love of the Father and the Mother, as manifested through your very being, as indicated by your moment of gracious appreciation for your connection with them, is the true, final authority -- that which is law: God is love.
We will speak more about this subject of authority and indeed the related concept of control, in-as-much as control is a human characteristic which has caused many relations to flounder and come to a screeching halt. Illusion of control is a distinct knot, a gnarl in the flow of love. I am not going to discuss that now. I am willing to be quiet so that we might hear from my sister and colleague, our beloved Merium.
MERIUM: That is my cue. Good evening, everyone.
Group: Good evening, Merium. Thank you for coming.
MERIUM: Hunnah likes to go into her so-called limbo who hears the voice, but I am the one that has the baton and I am the one that will prod her into keeping her head up while I talk to you because I need this facility this evening. Anytime any of you would like to demonstrate your ability of your effort to do so, it would be greatly appreciated. I don't want to be buzzed off the air.
In the meantime, we have been listening to you talk about your lives in a very special way this evening. It is good news, and I think the stillness preceding your talk was beneficial because it could help you articulate what you wanted to say and have a depth that it lacked previously, and I hope you will continue to follow this up. Hunnah had no idea she was going to say what she did, but when you take that part of yourself that does not live in this realm and on this level, it cannot come in. Darkness cannot enter light, and it is indeed a lovely light cloud that we have got together here in this configuration this evening.
Welcome, Evangel, our gardener. Our disappointed gardener? Inaudible response] You are having an on-going course of living between two worlds, and hopefully not being of it, the lesser way. It is indeed a stretch and it's a painful stretch at times, but the secret is to know that it is a stretch and you are where you want to be, that it is your choice. Sometimes it does feel good to sit down and howl, but not to be carrying on for very long is the secret because then you will not be able to find what awaits you, the strength that is in the wings, that will come to your aid.
I do not feel inspired tonight to have something particularly new. I am an arty gardener, in that I like to come in and pinch the little false starts that don't belong there, because we want that which we have planted to become strong and not waste it by inappropriate shoots of incomplete understanding; we want you to grow healthy and strong and in this cultivation we are one of the stakes that will help support the fruit of your consciousness as you pursue towards the goal of your new reality. Tomas?
TOMAS: What shall we undertake this evening, class? Are there questions or commentary?
Elyssia: Something came to my mind. A few years ago, friends of mine were talking about this individual named Claire Prophet and some of them became quite enamored of her and she had this system of decreeing and it reminds me a little bit of the idea of taking your ground, or something, because at the time I thought, "Isn't that an interesting thing to do? To decree thus and so?" and their idea was telling all her followers, "Just decree all things will be thus and so!" and it was quite an interesting departure. I hadn't heard anything like that up until the time I heard her and I wasn't interested in some of the other things she was saying, at all, but she was making quite a striking figure at the time that she was accumulating pupils.
TOMAS: It is a teaching technique used by many. Merium herself engages in this technique. I have heard fine teachers and preachers affirm and ask you to affirm. It is a positive approach. It is also, in the mind of this T/R, what Capt. Pickard asserts: "Make it so!" and his staff bring it into being, and so there is a certain authority there that will be effective, inasmuch as there are faces looking to the authority figure for guidance and direction, and when they receive an instruction, a decree, a command, they are happy to put it into effect because they are looking for growth, looking for change.
It is not an unjustified action. It is, however, encouraged that as you begin to realize that you have within you the ultimate authority in and through the First Source and Center, you will seek the counsel of perfection, that which resides within, and follow through then with that guidance that will speak to you through the Spirit of Truth, which will commend you and say, "This is the Way".
Elyssia: Now can you talk about affirming from the point of view of being kind of a way of authority? Is that what you were saying about affirming? I'd like to pursue that word. I really found that intriguing.
TOMAS: Affirming is an appropriate pastime for anyone in an ascension mode or in a process of reconditioning, reprogramming. Affirmations are positive brain-washing. Affirmations are these delightful things that you find on the refrigerator that remind you of something you want to be reminded of. They have a tendency to take your upside down smile and turn it right side up.
Affirmations are effective. They are effective, however, only up to a point. It is our aspiration that in due course you will have reached a point of spirit hunger that you will seek the morontia reality and the vitality of mota, rather than the affectation of affirmation, even though, at a certain point in your evolution, a constructive affirmation will go a long way toward bringing you up out of and away from a negative conditioning or point of view.
Elyssia: What happens if you make 100% affirmation and then, a teacher once told me that that's a perfect time for your ego to go Flip! On you, and for you to entertain the exact opposite of this affirmation. Would you explore that for a minute?
TOMAS: I can explore it; I can entertain it, inasmuch as an affirmation is an intellectual thing, a mental thing, and not really a spiritual thing, therefore the ego has full right to toy with it. When ....
Hester: Tomas, can I ask you, how does Unity come by all the affirmations and all the good that comes from these affirmations if affirmations are bad?
TOMAS: I don't remember saying that affirmations were bad. I do, however, remember saying that they are a way of programming unless and until you have added an element of spiritual reality. Perhaps it is that element of spiritual reality that Unity proposes which lifts an affirmation up into the realm of wisdom.
Hester: That's true.
Elyssia: How does an affirmation become wisdom? Can you repeat that please?
TOMAS: When it is infused with the life of the spirit, when it has launched from a conditioning to a reality, when it has gone from a memorized pattern for mental repetition to a true reality, when it has become saturated with spirit, when it has reached/attained the level of mota, when it has become morontia-ized.
Elyssia: Well, then, if you say that an affirmation is a mode of prayer, does it enhance it somewhat?
TOMAS: Considerably!
Elyssia: Okay, thank you.
Leah: I'd like to give an example of an affirmation.
TOMAS: Very good.
Leah: Certainly you can say: I am a child of God, I am a child of God, I am a child of God. And then there comes a day when you say: I AM a Child of GOD! And you KNOW that you are a Child of God.
MERIUM: Once again we are talking about focus, and like Hunnah commented this evening, there is this realm of awareness just so close it does not close up shop. It is seeing, hearing, cueing, discerning, prompting and practically helping you say the words. It is in your own scripture. I will find the words. You will find yourself in a conversation and you will hear the old words, words you've heard so many times that you're sick of them, and you won't even get through the paragraph and you will have a shift and you will lift that statement and it will climb and climb and behold, you will have a new structure, a new definition, and the attention of whomever you are talking with; and the person who has to hear that the most is you. It will be heard both internally and externally.
Does that help? Do you understand what I mean? Perhaps that has already started to happen to you. "He says, I said, she says, he says." It's like ping-pong. You've said it a thousand times but today, this day when you start this conversation, you may find yourself coming to a graceful halt and have nothing to say. That groove or that verbal exchange that has gone on so many times will not be there today. Perhaps another day and another day it will be altered, so that you can break that negative pattern.
Elyssia: Well if you say "I am a child of God" and you're in a purely intellectual mode, you could also -- the flip side of that would be, "I am not a child of God", so if you changed it into a prayer, does it not ... It's not an affirmation then. What if you say, "Father, help me to become a child of God."
MERIUM: You have rephrased it.
Elyssia: That would be spiritual but it wouldn't be an affirmation.
MERIUM: It would be preferred that you say, "Help me to be more aware that I am your child," and as you allow yourself to become more creative with this, because you might as well have prayer beads out and go through them by rote as to say many of the affirmations, unless you are stimulated with belief. When you do an affirmation it's sort of like priming the pump. I do suggest you pray out loud.
Elyssia: You mean that thinking of it, hearing it, saying it ...
MERIUM: Try this: "Father, tell me who I am."
Elyssia: That is certainly not an affirmation as I --
MERIUM: The human likes affirmation. It gives the human something to do.
TOMAS: It also gives the mind, the ego, a justification that it is doing something to assuage the Gods, but it does little towards actualizing your reality.
MERIUM: If another voice came, out of rote, as a way of getting started: "I am a child of God" (pause). And then the thought comes to mind. "Would you please repeat that? Would you please rephrase your statement? Who told you?" as the author said. "God or mammon?" Are you going to sustain yourself forever on someone else's manna? Someone else's revelation? Who told you so? Did you read it in a book? If you read it in a book, then you really need to have it become yours, personal. An affirmation will help you get toward the direction you want to go, but it is better for you to have the full tummy of contentment because you found a fresh way of saying it, bringing it alive.
TOMAS: Let me equate something for you to visualize. Give the thought the form of life. There is the material life. It is sometimes beautiful and it is sometimes unpleasant. This is just a fact. Then you come along with an affirmation and you say, "Life is good and I am pretty. Life is good and I am pretty." When you enter the spirit appreciation, you know that you are a child of God and that you are beautiful! And now you have a greater and higher understanding of this reality. It is similar to the material, morontial and spiritual. And so we are speaking of the evolution of the being. There is the dead level of materiality, stimulated by the affirmation, and glorified by the mota. We are speaking of degrees.
Leah: I am amused because several times during this discourse, the question was thrown out, "What if?" and a friend and I have identified the "What if" as the ego question.
MERIUM: It is fear-based, is it not?
Leah: I believe so.
MERIUM: That is something to keep handy. Let us imagine you have a magnifying glass and around the edge you could say, "Is this a fear-based statement or is this a freedom-based statement?" Hold up the magnifying glass and take a look again or take a look at the statement that has been made. Did you have to pounce on it and say, "Aha! I recognize the error!" but do not feel bad if it is incorrect. This is something that's going on in your private dialog and we still prefer that you get lost in the wonderment of the moment and in the wonderment of the moment you will be refreshed, feelings will come of new understanding and broadened comprehension. You are always stirring the ashes of the fire, trying to figure out what you have learned, or if it's still with you or if it's coming back to take over again.
Leah: Excuse me, Merium, but what is the "it"?
MERIUM: It? It is the false world that we continually live in out of habit.
Elyssia: When you stand your ground in your planning, you are planning to be effective or asking if you can be -- getting rather bold for a person who hasn't been bold before, so to speak. I would think that that's part of it.
MERIUM: We on our side are very much like someone who has had a human pet in captivity and we are very attached to you but we are anxious to see you spread your wings and to apply the teachings as we have brought them forth. Please keep this in mind. Call us Coach, if you would. How would the Coach want it done? Am I repeating a habit that doesn't need to stay? And I'm not talking about biting your nails. I'm talking about doing things the same way, the same way, the same way when you are so creative, you are allowed to make your lives the most enjoyable and entertaining experience all day long! Even if you wake up feeling like a slug, you are equipped now to know what to do about it.
You live in a material world that is so accommodating; there is really no excuse to stay a slug very long. It really isn't necessary. Hunnah has a grandmother who used to call it "crying with a loaf of bread under your arm" and her philosophy in the background was always, "your bed might not be the very best bed, it might not be the most perfect mattress, but oh, my, I have a bed" and I would like to have you celebrate a good deal more than you do.
I have noticed a change in our Leah. She makes reference to her home in a new way. She might not even be aware of it, but there is an element of recognition and comfort in knowing she has a home to go to. She is accepting something that she has not really thought much about, perhaps. All of you have something like that in your lives going on perhaps where there is an appreciation.
Elyssia: So you are saying, in a sense, that she has acquired something that she didn't have before.
MERIUM: You might say that it is being revealed.
TOMAS: And it is being affirmed by Merium.
MERIUM: Yes. We could go around the room and say, "Do you see?" You know you are always looking for signs of progress, and it is rarely in the obvious. It's all the thousand things that go on for you privately, that your friends don't have to know about, but they are these on-going acceptances and willingness to -- not even consciously -- walk away from something that you used to do. A lot of that backstage work, you might say, is underway all the time. "My yoke is easy. My burden is light." That is a destination of a way of life.
Elyssia: Can you describe some of the things that have been done by people in the movement? Who have been reaching out or growing or serving or something? Can you give us some examples?
MERIUM: I am so completely involved in the intimacy of the spiritual ascension experience in my line of service, I am -- did I not refer to myself as your interior decorator? In a sense we are reconditioning. It's almost like a form of energy work. You may find yourself rearranging the furniture in your room and not realize you are changing the energy in your home. You may get in contact with someone you have not seen in years. There are so many private things that are going on that are expressing the wonderment of your release that there would not be time to describe them all, and some of you are just beginning to see this going on in this introspection and others of you have been connected with this interior design.
What have you in your house? What you have in your interior, in your house, is all this wonderful willingness to continuously create new design, instead of being in a groove, and you are resourceful and creative by nature. And in your outer conditioning, you are in a harness. You are like a mule walking along pulling a canal boat. In a time where you are supposed to be releasing the new age, you might say, revelation of discovering that you are absolutely exquisitely designed and appropriately put to task to be supportive, connect appropriately, I could just go on and on, but do you see where I am going with each of you?
If you take a look at yourself and say, "What part of my life is a weighted canal boat with me as a mule lugging along all that stuff!" Carolyn Myss would say that is all root chakra, tribal concepts and living patterns when you are allowed to break away from it and be fresh.
Elyssia: Thank you.
MERIUM: I lose you often, and that is why this wonderful gift that Gerdean has given you of having the transcripts printed, because you are visual and your evening is auditory. We verbalize to you, "I want you to envision... whatever" but you do need, because of your culture, you seem to rally when you see it on a printed page and it helps you with your introspection, and then all of a sudden you break out in joy when you connect with it and you say, "Oh! I think I'm going to try to do something differently," and then you have a new idea that's popped into your head. So it's really a wonderful thing that you have. The best of two worlds you might say?
Elyssia: We really are so lucky.
MERIUM: Even if we passed out a cassette to each of you to take home, it would still not be as successful with you because you are visually -- not handicapped. It's just that that's the way it is. Tomas, here's the ball.
TOMAS: I've caught it. I have enjoyed the sportsmanship of the evening. I would like to tell you how much I have grown spiritually since I have been here. You see how readily I relinquish my authority to my co-worker who has her own authority and she speaks and teaches with words of wisdom that are uniquely hers. As I trust her intentions and her motives, as I subscribe to her aspirations and her sincerity, I am at ease in and with her authority in the situation for it is an example of a testimony of a relationship of a creature and the Creator, and this is a matter of faith. Indeed, all of our associations in this fellowship of believers, this sister and brotherhood, is faith-based relationship which is respectful of the authority of each other inasmuch as in faith we are each children of the living God.
It is always a pleasure to be with you. Each evening with you is unique and different. Each one is special, as each of you are unique and special, as is each individual relationship here. Always it is a different situation, circumstance, lesson and energy. Always is it unfolding and ascending and becoming ever more mindful of morontia mota. Ever more ready, willing and able to grasp the greater reality, ever more eager to apply these greater realities toward the life.
Have we concluded our session for the evening? Then let us go home and wake up refreshed in anticipation of yet another day in which to wield the love and mercy of the Father in our very lives. Peace be upon you. Farewell.
*****
[End of Vol. III, Part 10 of 13]
[End of Vol. III, Part 10 of 13]