There was a short discussion concerning the different perspectives on ego in some of the newer "revealed texts" including a passage in the Urantia Book mentioning the "praying ego."

Monjoronson: [Cathy] I am glad to speak about the ego and prayer. As I mentioned before, the ego is essential to the functioning in the mortal realm. The problem presents itself when the mortal becomes focused on ego to the exclusion of guidance by others and the Adjuster. The action of the ego is important in the intention to initiate prayer and worship. The conflict exists when the ego overrides the impulse of the personality to proceed to a higher level of spiritual contact. The one thing you are able to do to facilitate the move to spiritual action is to spend time in stillness contacting your Adjuster and the Father. Regular time spent in stillness with the Father is still the key to enhancing your abilities and increasing your capacities. Help is always available to you.

[2009-09-20]
Prayer: [Cathy] I'd like to take a minute to send healing thoughts to our world and light to those dark places in conflict.

Elyon: [Mark] Greetings my friends, I am Elyon here with you once again and in this moment joining with you to send my intention and energy out with you for the healing of this world and for the illumination in the areas of darkness. I would like to discuss with you this morning or rather extend the discussion you have been having on this aspect of apples and oranges. In the discussion prior to this recorded discussion it was noted that in observation and interaction with your fellows out there in the real world you have noticed that there are distinct and different approaches that individuals utilize in determining their reality and what is truth for them, what is good to them and even what is beautiful to them.

As has been noted many times before, you are a being of multi-dimensions. You know most commonly of your triad configurations - of your mind, your body and your spirit and you are aware that each of these aspects of your being has a different mode of operation and that these different modes may support each other but they are not necessarily utilized from time to time to cross-fertilize each other: that is, many times it is observed that one of these legs of your stool is relied heavily upon and perhaps overdeveloped while other of these legs of your tripod do not receive the same attention or consideration as do the others. In these cases it is fairly easy to observe that there is an imbalance. Whenever you have legs of varying lengths and degrees you end up with a lopsided tripod and if this is too lopsided it is very difficult to stand upright by yourself. Therefore it should be observed that the most well balanced and well positioned individuals have some awareness of the three different aspects of their being and some consideration for the health and welfare of each of these three aspects in some moderate amounts of balance.

There are those who are drawn to their physical component and find their most peaceful state to be had while climbing the highest peaks or running the longest marathon. There are others who find their comfort zone in the linear thinking described earlier and grow so accustomed to the use of mind in determining reality that they lean on this aspect so heavily as to disregard input from any other aspects. Then you may have all observed those who are so spiritually connected that they seem not to have firm footing in the "reality" of linear thinking and are referred to as "space cadets" or "airy" thinkers. These examples all illustrate the emphasis on one of the three legs of the triad that compose the human ascender in this dimension of material reality.

Having observed this multi-faceted nature of the human, it would be wise to broaden your scope of perspective to include not only the necessity of all three aspects of your being but the value inherent within these aspects. There are a great many values that may be harvested from the experience of a material being and a mortal existence. As well there are a great many values inherent in your process of assembling wisdom through the linear process that your mind provides for you and as well there are great values to be harvested by exercising your spiritual component, also referred to as your "heart" approach to gain the experience which is only attained through this avenue of your being.

The goal in this life, obviously, is to strike a balance and to reach a harmony between all three aspects of your being. It is not healthy for you to forsake your mortal and material complement for it is your temporary address and necessary for your hand to be played in this game. Likewise it is not striking a balance to not use the powers of your mind to construct to the best of your ability, pieces of the puzzle fit together to bring about a picture for you to utilize as to what reality is.

Likewise you would be greatly shortchanging yourself in this life if you were to never access that spiritual component of yourself which is able to know by experience without being encumbered with rationale or proof of any kind. The combination of these aspects of yourself is what it is to be human and striking the balance of mind, body, spirit is the greatest attainment a human can make; to not only realize that there are these different aspects of self, but to value them and be in awareness of the need for balance and the growth that may be attained in utilizing all aspects of your being.

In this way I refer to this discussion of apples, oranges and plums, they are all distinctly different. They are not directly transferrable the one to the other for they are a different mode but all are fruit and all when combined together will make a lovely combination and it is never to be thought that one is of more value than the others, rather they are all equally valued and cherished for the different dimension that they offer. If life were all oranges, one would tire easily and be disinclined to eat their fruit. With the options available, one can enjoy the freshness of encountering the different types of fruit and appreciating the differences that they offer.

Realizing that there are these differences, it is perhaps easier to determine where your fellows are when you are in discussion about life's basic issues. You  may determine that they are a person of linear thought whose thought construct does not permit or allow for the knowing of spirit. Likewise you may discern that they are spiritually fixed and do not allow for honest and sincere thought to cloud their experience of spirit. Then you will discover that there are those who would rather approach life through the physical manifestation of life and the opportunities for service as their best means to approach reality. All of these approaches are valid and real and purposeful, they all simply are part of the whole and can be combined by those who have sufficient wisdom to accept that there is truth and reality and beauty and goodness contained within all these distinctly different aspects of the human state.

I hope these words have brought some of the strands of this discussion together and perhaps woven them into a cord of understanding which may cross the line between this experience in the moment of spiritual awareness and the truth that the mind may grab and find and hold to as well; thus we have cross-fertilized two of the components that we have been discussing. I would point out as well, that your positioning your physical vehicles to be in a quiet state, one approaching stillness and prayer and worship brings the third leg of your triangle into a unified purpose. Now you have mind, body and spirit acting for a common purpose - growth and increased awareness, expanded capacity and appreciation for your connection to the whole. All of this brings together the apples, oranges and plums to become a glorious fruit salad to be enjoyed. Thank you for the opportunity to share these thoughts, word forms and images with you at this time. I will now allow this platform for others.   

Monjoronson:  Hello my friends, I am Monjoronson to pick up the ball and run a little further down the field with a concept I will refer to as a "rose by any other name." It was offered in the prior discussion, the observation that some acts of human desire such as the willingness to worship or even honor some figure is the same act whether it is done under one religion or another faith or even a faithless act. When an individual positions them-self in this attitude of gratitude and worship, they may pray to the God of their choice, to the politician of their choice, to the leader that they envision holds authority and sway over the condition they choose to influence; all of these acts are the same "rose" and they certainly carry the same fragrance of worship and gratitude. One cannot blame the kindergartner for being in awe and reverence of his teacher and so there may be an attitude of great reverence bordering on worship by this kindergartner for this authority figure and that is not held against the kindergartner that they see this authority figure as worthy of worship for they are just observing their world and who is in charge and in turning their thoughts of gratitude or their petition for consideration towards this individual they are in fact instigating the same universal pattern and technique as are those who are highly aware of who they are praying to and worshiping.

As was mentioned, the tribes which believe in their witch doctors have no less faith and are no less sincere in their intention than are the ones who are privileged enough to have a personal relationship with their Creator Father Michael. In fact, these are all the same children, they merely may be misguided as to who to direct their petition to or their gratitude to. But this is never held against the individual for not knowing or for partially knowing. There is great latitude given to all the mortals of the realm to have plenty of time to discover and embrace who the real authorities are and what the proper relationship to them might be.

If they are misguided by their tribal leaders or church leaders or government leaders, then this is not held as a charge against them individually. They are as the kindergartner who believes what they are told and who acts accordingly. Some day the kindergartner grows up to determine that there is a principal, one greater than his teacher. He grows up further to understand that there are school boards and administrators even greater than the principal and grows further to determine that there are governments in charge of the entire educational program who are greater than the administrators. Likewise at each turn there is this expansion of awareness which creates greater opportunity for appreciation of grander and grander authority.

So it is with mortals of the realm about this practice they refer to as religion, this coming together under a common desire to find this relationship of the part to the whole and define it in terms that their linear thinking pattern can embrace and in so doing they are dutifully following and doing as they are told. Many times these clubs, these religions that they join turn out to be limiting factors in their experience. They find that their desire to seek and find may outpace the answers provided in any given context and they may grow to be disillusioned at being a member of this or that club, organization or religion. But to the degree that it serves them and brings them the peace of mind that they seek and the feeling of connection, then they will utilize the construct of understanding to its maximum benefit. Then many will find themselves growing beyond a given construct and looking for more answers and more experience that brings them closer to what they are seeking and they may finally learn that all they seek may be found individually by themselves and they may be shocked to find that they are not dependent on a group, an organization, a set of teachings or a well worn path to get them to where they would like to be.

But all this is part of the learning process and it is easy to observe there are individuals positioned at all these stations along the way. They are there for good reason, there is something where they are that is designed for them and so they are tarrying at these stations while they glean the values and the lessons that are inherent at that station. But all of the entire process is the same process, this process of growth, this journey of ascension and that journey of ascension may be seen to be a myriad of colors of the same "rose," all to be enjoyed for what they offer and bring to the bouquet before you but all are part of the gigantic gardener's plan that has been thoughtfully and carefully nurtured and placed there to be harvested when you arrive, to be enjoyed for its fragrance, appreciated for its beauty, tolerated for its distinction and celebrated for its unique contribution and yet so many different colors are what makes the garden so beautiful to behold. Which one is truth? They all are truth. Which one is beauty? Every single one. Which one is goodness? Each and every one and altogether they are goodness. In this way we are privileged to stop and smell the roses at whatever station we may find ourselves.

Thank you for providing this thought stream which I have taken advantage of in this hour to bring you even more images to contemplate as you experience the sense and as your mind assembles the truths. It has been a pleasure to serve up this bouquet this morning. Thank you.

Mark: In this discussion of roses it floods into my mind the third leg of the triangle. Without our body, we cannot smell the roses, we cannot truly appreciate the manifestation of truth, beauty and goodness fully and completely in this life without the beautiful contribution that our vehicle makes to the equation. I am grateful as I am for the other two legs, for this leg of the triangle.

Mary: I pause in a prayer for the increase in the capacity for our people to enjoy the experience of diversity and to increase our insight and understanding into the beauty and truth that resides in anothers position and grateful to all of the pieces of the puzzle, all of the personalities in this group, all of the books that cross each and every one of our paths, the words in print, in transcripts, how those fertilize our seedbed of thoughts and ideas and there it fruits to spark our imagination of the meaning and value of all of these positions. So, just a moment of gratitude and inspiration and love for the process with all of you.