Elyon060602Fixation_Machiventa_ProgressReport

North Idaho Teaching Mission Group

Teachers:

Machiventa,

Elyon

Topics:

Progress Report,

Choice (Fixation, Firmness, Freedom)

June 6, 2002

* Machiventa (Mark TR): This is Machiventa. I would take this opportunity to address you and bring you confirmation that the lesson plans we have long formulated for your benefit have been delivered in the most acceptable fashion by your teacher assistants on our side. We observe of you that you have retained a level of understanding of these lessons which we deem to fall within the acceptable level, and we are pleased to acknowledge that real progress has been made in this aspect of the Correcting Time.

Many of the lessons have found root deep within your beings, and these sprouts are the promise of the future developments. While the learning process is certainly in no way completed or fulfilled, we see that significant progress has been made. I, being of an order desiring to implement action, urge you to reside with the aspects of our lesson plans which you now possess as part of your own being, and to look for opportunities wherein these well-seeded beds may be fruitful. I urge you to hold fast to these truths and realities as we proceed forward on a larger scale. By holding onto these broader perspectives and universal truths, individuals such as yourselves should not be caught quite so unaware or off guard when future events on your world provide the stimulus for much needed growth.

As you have become aware, growth happens in many fashions: the slow steady plodding, the foundation building, the sudden realizations, the epochal changes; all are varying levels employed to achieve the overall desired growth. Therefore, be not afraid if in your near future changes of a larger magnitude are fostered so as to create mood shifts we have discussed before, and these shifts provide those who are alert with the conditions right to be of great assistance and of great service to those who are caught off guard, those who are uncertain of these deeper principles and universe realities, those with both feet firmly planted on the ever-shifting sands of time. Those individuals will be shaken and stirred while those of you who are centered in your spiritual progression and spiritual growth will be stimulated and called to minister to those around you. In a way I would classify this as an acknowledgment of your progress; a quarterly exam has proved fruitful, and you each have gained mastery and recall of much that has been delivered to you.

Now you will begin to see that as these principles are indeed your principles, you may find yourselves in a position to be immanently helpful to another around you during times of tribulation. Be prepared, alert, aware, and sensitive to the issues of those around you so that you may find yourself in instant ministry at any time. This does not mean that one forsakes one's own individual studies, because in the final analysis, the most important good you can do while walking this earth is to be faithful and true to your own spiritual progression and growth. Your service and your ministry are outworkings of this very same growth, and this personal growth is paramount to all other concerns in this short life of yours.

As observed from my side, I say well done so far. There is much before us. You are each one thoroughly enlisted on the team, valued team members who we will utilize as the occasions arise. Your opportunities will come, and I am certain you are prepared for them. This is gratifying to me and to others who have invested ourselves in your spiritual maturation. Well done, all. Thank you. I welcome you into our future together.

That is all.

* Elyon (Jonathan): Greetings, friends. I am your teacher Elyon, happy once again to be in your presence to share in your fellowship.

It is a favorite topic of mine to address, that being choice, for it is of supreme importance throughout the evolutionary ascent. The Supreme is a vast ocean of potential time/space experience. It is alive, ever moving. The tides ebb and flow and create the energies wherein you may derive growth, while at the same time your ascent contributes to the dynamics of the Supreme currents.

There are three elements to choice that I will focus upon today. The first is freedom, the second firmness, and the third fixation.

 Perhaps it is easiest to address fixation from the standpoint of stagnation, choice which has eliminated future potential. Let us consider ourselves each as a boat upon this ocean of the Supreme. You, as a vehicle, may choose your course of journey. If you fix your choice negatively, it is as if you had dropped your anchor and you are unable to sail forward. However, if you allow freedom in your volition you can roll with the tides; you can adjust your tack to achieve your destination.

But freedom must be accompanied with a firm hand at the helm, and that is your strength of conviction, your determination to reach your destiny, come what may, whether your journey is extended, having to adjust to the fluctuations of time, or whether your course is as direct as you first perceived. Firmness guarantees your arrival. Freedom allows you to adjust so that you attain your goal.

Fixation provides a temporary harbor wherein you feel secure, but it must not substitute for firmness. Ever be ready to drop anchor, to cut anchor, and to sail forward.

You know of the most important choice of your mortal career: the Supreme decision to survive the temporal life and to enter upon the eternal career of finding God, becoming like Him, and revealing your Supreme origins to all creatures throughout eternity. This is a choice of firmness. It is not a choice that is fixed. It has permanent repercussions, but you today are at the beginning of your journey, such a decision will meet with constant fluctuations, and you will choose forever firmly the same goal, all the while freely adjusting and projecting your course.

I have spoken in the past of the levels of choice and decision. Choice is a power of personality; decision is an act of mind. Understanding this mechanism will greatly aid you in the quandaries you face, the dilemmas of discernment. Decisions can be likened to tossing your sail from one side of the ship to the other in order to pursue that which you have chosen. Fret not over a decision, for they can be remade, and they can be altered. Be ever safeguarding of your choice, for that will bring you to your destiny.

Friends, I am overjoyed to be on board this ship, to be one of your shipmates. I will take your questions if you have some to express.

Jada: Is fixation a sense of taking a rest from progression?

* Elyon: I have attempted to illustrate that a decision that is firm allows flexibility where a decision that is fixed removes the potential for adjustment. A decision may be permanent but it must not fix. It ought to be firm and accommodating to the variabilities that face you in life. Does this clarify?

Jada: Yes.

Mark: Would I be off base to say that is the resolve of a person, that you are resolved to a mission wherever it may take you?

* Elyon: Good observation. Your resolution will accommodate adjustment. Your eyes are on the other shore, though you may have to make your way around islands to reach that goal. Your determination to make your journey will not change, though your course may have to adjust.

Mark: That determination often comes from our faith that, even though there are stormy seas requiring adjustments, the storm will pass and we will make it. That gives the strength to face the storm head on and do what needs to be done to make it to still waters again.

* Elyon: Indeed. The fundamental of evolutionary life is constant change, dynamic interchange. The only thing constant is your ability to continually choose. Without change choice is irrelevant. It is not the Supreme purpose of the Father in this universe age to eliminate change; that has preceded the Supreme experience. Now the currents flow; personalities evolve, and, as you say, the storms will rise and fall. The days will be clear and stormy. This is a dynamic universe.

Mark: I get the sense from the teachers, even Machiventa this morning, that the potential for great change may be upon us. I want to tell all of you that I feel prepared for major changes as a result of your lessons. Thank you. Bring it on. We are equipped even for rough seas. Thank you for preparing us for sea-worthiness.

* Elyon: I acknowledge your feelings, and I discern that your sails are in good order, that your ropes are wound appropriately. You are ready to take on the seas.

Mary: Machiventa, I thank you for your many years of service and devotion to Urantia. You were here in the times of Abraham. We see Mother Teresa working in the gutters of India and what a blessed soul she is. I think you qualify for that, Machiventa. Urantia must be the lower end of the universe as far as desirable places. You have certainly been putting in your time. I appreciate you.

* Machiventa (Mark): I accept your vocalizations of gratitude. I state that as a matter of course all glory and goodness are attributed to the Father, that you may have some difficulty in your perspective understanding such long term devotion to patiently wait out this master plan. But I tell you that as impressive as that may be to you, one of the Father's creations, I am equally impressed by your having come from your station in life of a created being to the embrace of the Father and the wisdom that is inherent with that embrace. In one short lifetime it is exceedingly rare to witness such spiritual progression, and I am often in awe of the steps you each have taken to be at this place with me here and now. We each have a great deal to learn one from the other and we each have a great deal to share with the other in our understanding of the greatness and the glory that is the Father. I recognize you as well.

Evelyn: Could you say more about fixation? You are always so positive and not likely to point out our faults, and each of us can imagine our own fixations, but can you point out perhaps a group fixation? Something more specific.

Firmly being directed toward the Supreme is a bit lofty. What fixations are impeding us today?

* Elyon (Jonathan): The purpose of my focus upon these words "fixation" and "firmness" was to underline the importance of flexibility. A boat will take on water if it is not allowed to sail freely. However, a directionless vessel will likewise lose its course and be blown afar. I would ask you to make this a test as you face decisions. Are you reacting in a static, stubborn way to conditions that confront you? Or are you holding firm, able to adjust and yet stay the course dynamically? I do not perceive a serious flaw with any one of you. I desire only to provide you with a technique that will help you during the difficult times of choice. It is good to be firm in resolve. It is not good to be fixed and stagnant. The only thing in all the universe that is unmoving is the Paradise Abode. All else is dynamic.

One of the more difficult decisions to be made is that which entails the leaving behind of something once cherished. It brings a sense of potential loss and, if not appropriately addressed, can make some feel that perhaps what they were leaving was once wrong to have held on to. You know through the course of your growth that every stage is a stepping stone to another level of attainment and valid. Walk firmly. Do not become fixed at any step. Step strongly at each point. Be who you are as you are today, each day. And ever be ready to roll forward.

Again I have no specific item to address. My desire is simply to offer a technique that will help you at any time.

Mary: We don't realize how often we make choices. A lot of choices are reflexive. We could be more conscious of choosing, that things aren't inevitable, like the choices of how to react in a situation. We think of choosing to act, but we also choose our attitudes. It would help to be more aware of our choosing when they aren't momentous choices.

* Elyon: Good point, and I would draw upon a word you said, "reflexive" and compare it to "repetitive" and parallel those with "fixation" and "firmness". Reflexive can occur almost without your ability to control. Repetitive is a decision to choose once again the same choice you made beforehand. That you have control over and can alter if the need arises.

Mary: Choice can interrupt a habit we may have seen as reflexive. By engaging consciously we can interrupt a cycle in need of change. Now may be the time to interject choice and make it current and appropriate.

* Machiventa (Mark): Machiventa here again. I would offer you what may be a helpful, quick, flashcard type examination, when one is interested in discerning what one's fixation point may be in a given situation or what the anchor may be. One might simply ask yourself the following; "I would do great things if it were not for ____." That is, "I would do lofty things; I would be idealistic; I would follow my visions if it were not for ____". Therein you will find your tether; you will find what binds you to your fixation point. It could be a variety of things, but the urge to follow your loftiest ideal may be reined in, may be anchored, at a specific point. If you follow that back to the anchor you will find the source of your fixation. So, next time inspiration comes to you, say to yourself, "That is a great idea. I would do that except for ____", and then you have something for you to work on.

Jonathan: We can be firm in saying, "I would (such and such)" and notice where we fix it, and then address those two points, what is desired to be accomplished and what we are using to thwart the purpose.

* Machiventa: Even to take it one step further, rather than, "I would, if it were not for ____", "I will even if I have to overcome ____". That is the difference between the long range, "I will conquer" and the short range, "I would if it were not for ____". One denotes determination to conquer, the other denotes defeat at your anchor cable point.

Tom: That's where we find our freedom.

* Machiventa: Well said. Cut the tether if it does not serve you. You are entitled to cut the anchor cable.

Thank you, class.

* Elyon (Jonathan): This is Elyon. I would draw a close to our meeting by saying let's pull into port and take shore leave.

END