Tomas Vol VI 2004-5 - Rio Rancho, NM - July 25, 2004 thru May 15. 2005 - Part 3 of 4

This season marked a turning point in the Rio Rancho TeaM. Matthew's desire to pursue the ministry removed him and Anatolia from our group, a blow from which we never fully recovered. The result of the political election this year was also a terrible disappointment to the Rio Rancho TeaM members. Health issues and family strife added substance to our sorrows. At the end of 2004, we were staggering, barely upright, but the Teachers kept coming, encouraging us, and infusing us with spiritual relevance.

The New Year began well enough, with a group project: a TeaM Retreat at the charming Canossian Spirituality Center, which was a resounding success, but the group - and it's component parts - continued to suffer from the "slings and arrows of outrageous fortune" -- only slowly regaining trust in the spirit, the teachers and themselves.

July 25, 2004 - May 15, 2005

DATE: July 25, 2004

LOCATION: Rio Rancho, NM, USA

TOMAS: The Only Thing Worth Pursuing

T/R’s: Gerdean and Matthew

Music: Elena on Piano: "His Eye is on the Sparrow"

Prayer:

Matthew: Let us place ourselves in the presence of Jesus, the Christ.

"Master Teacher,

"We come to you today with beloved and dedicated hearts to your purpose and your being and as soldiers of Christ, we may be called upon to witness to your purposes and your singularity of focus upon the father and the oneness of all that is, which makes us all more than related, but actual kin, true family, and extensions of the one true Source and center of all that is.

"And for your courage and strength and all of the marvelous things that it took and continues to take for you to visit this world as a messenger of that and much more, we continue with the rest of our lives to show gratitude and commitment to that message and the broader message of the singularity of creation.

"For the teachers that visit us today, we are already grateful and are especially appreciative of this teaching mission and the opportunity to learn directly from the spirit world and to reinforce our connection as part of that unity.

"For all the intentions that you know, within our hearts and minds, we place before you now and ask for healing, unity and resurrection or restoration of faith for those who are weary and teetering in despair.

"For all else we are grateful for our role in eternity. Amen."

Group: Amen.

TOMAS: The true son of God feasts upon the presence of God, craves divine companionship, is bereft when deprived of that sustenance. The spirit life is not a theory, but millions theorize upon what it would be if it were. Spirit life is an actuality as it applies to each of you individually. It is what you are becoming, day by day, by your craving to know God and to be more like Him.

This is Tomas, your stalwart companion in the task at hand, of bringing light of truth to your world. You are the mouthpieces of the good news, the prophets of the day to come in which our God reigns supreme on earth as he does in heaven.

How is it that so many people can believe that the natural estate of man is violent, aggressive, ugly, selfish and horrible? [Because] without God, they revert to the animal kingdom in its many ways of manifesting its needs being met. So, too is the spirit a matter of needs being met, but they are a higher standard of needs than is seen by those who see Him not, need Him not, because they are convinced they have found Him already. And that applies to you, as well, my children -- you who have experienced God, who follow Him, for there is so much more to this magnificent God than your minds have yet perceived. Why limit your perception of God to what it is today, when tomorrow can reveal to you an infinity of new meanings and values, which you then are called to share, pass on, in your service to others.

Beliefs (that which you have been taught by others) may be what you have been taught by others, but you confirm those beliefs by your own will. You find within your belief system the satisfaction that it should provide. If your belief does not provide you soul satisfaction, then it is a mere theory. And people who theorize religion have a tendency to place God outside themselves, look for value in realities outside themselves, follow voices outside their own circumference, when in fact this is a process of further searching, winnowing through the chaff to find the wheat, of what real spiritual experience is.

By believing fiercely in your beliefs, you follow up to prove or disprove the reality of your beliefs. You test them, those of you who are not content to save yourself at the expense of knowing yourself. For only by needing will your soul call out for more. If you are replete and content with your attainment, so you shall remain.

Through needing, you admit poverty of spirit such that you need yet more of divine understanding, or that peace which passes all understanding. Following that need leads you then to lay hold of meaning, including beliefs, that ultimately leads to value, which transcends belief. And yet again, like the Phoenix, you rise from the ashes of the old flame to yearn for yet more from the divine source and center of your being.

There is nothing else on earth worth pursuing. There is nothing else anywhere that rises to the need of knowing God -- the indwelling God fragment that patiently and expertly maneuvers your minds to appreciate the God which surrounds you, embraces you, indwells you.

It is that marriage of your yearning and its providing that garners you at-one-ment. Atonement. And absolves you of all sense of separation from the divine. Worship such as this is the pinnacle of your creation. For now, it is a goal; and yet in time, it will be a practice so favorable to you, you will need to be sent forth from your desire to remain in a state of worship, in order to be about the Father’s business in the arena, inviting you to serve.

There comes a time in my chats with you that I can almost feel that point where your attention slips from the superconscious past the conscious and into the subconscious where you burrow, waiting comfortably and contentedly until the atmospheric closure overcomes us all. And I have met that point today. Therefore, I will leave it to my associate Anatolia to awaken you from your slumber and revive in you a sense of enspiritedness that will return you to your conscious state of functionality and care, that we might thus be about the Father’s business in the world. Thank you.

Matthew: Thank you, Tomas. That was kind of him. He could have been really bent out of shape!

Gerdean: He gave you the job of waking us all up.

Elena: I got what I needed that worked. You need to need something before you ask for assistance. How’s that? Ask and you shall receive. How was that?

Gerdean: It was definitely a place to go.

ANATOLIA: Welcome, friends and family members of our group here in Albuquerque area. All are welcome, but you participate! And for this we give you credit and points for being dedicated to this mission. And as Tomas may have indicated, the level at which you participate is the level at which your receptors are alert and able to comprehend. The unfortunate part of this process is that it does tend to put one into a deep, virtual slumber that is difficult to snap out of. It is not of the caliber that will threaten our continual return to be of good cheer and constructive in our sharing with you; it is nevertheless a challenge for both you and us to find a receptive audience.

This is something that, while not a major issue as you might imagine, if we repeatedly spoke to a group that is not awake, it would be almost a work of futility, even though you are perceiving at the highest (or lowest, depending on how you look at it) levels of consciousness, it is our regard that your attentiveness would be as great as if Jesus himself were speaking to you. That may be a bold and radical statement. Nevertheless, for representatives of our Master do request your time and attention for the times that we take to share our thoughts, cares and concerns for your growth and development. After all, we as teachers do not need to sit in the chairs as pupils, but have our turn as well when we are instructed, so we know what it is like. And as our Master speaks, we do pay attention. Enough for any time of a scolding lesson, but one in which you are reminded that your attention is encouraged, your participation is suggested, and your willingness to be in union with the others is of the utmost importance.

So continue to be loyal and avid students, for there is much to learn and much to share in your pursuits, both individually and as a group. One of the strong points that I wish to share with you is that you, as a group, are both well intentioned and learning significantly about yourselves as spiritual beings. It never was the intent nor our desire to wow you with the amazement of speaking to disembodied beings of outer world relevance, but rather our extraordinary ability to communicate with you to enable you to realize that this is, after all, what life is – a continual learning experience and evidence that, in fact, you are spirit being and have the capability to be as insightful as we are and certainly as full of potential as you can imagine. So we encourage you to continue your inner work within yourselves, with you Thought Adjuster, and with the example and teachings of your Master Teacher and Sovereign as an example of the type of life that is possible and expected.

After all, among the many roles that one can lay claim to or designate, Jesus as having fulfilled both prophetic and cosmic in intent, the simplest of these if nothing else is communicated, is to realize that he is and was a living example of what each of us is called to as a child of God, that it is not simply to follow the routine of any one denomination or belief pattern, but rather to know that we are individuals identified in the spirit of creation that have conscience, consciousness, and love ability that is as our Father is and that unites all that is as part of the whole.

This, as an example of the relationship that was non-severable by Jesus established presence in this world. We each have the responsibility to continue our role in expanding our consciousness and that of others, to be aware that life is interconnected. It has no one part that is severable and can be extracted as weeds could be extracted from a yard, but that each and every blade, regardless of shape, size or color, is part of the macrocosm of life and your role in it is especially meaningful and purposeful, for it … all there was was such a lawn with all of the various plants that existed, surely one type or species of plant would become a focal piece, a source of expressing that which is internal and true to itself and all of its related parts.

For creation cannot remain silent. It needs a voice and an expression, for which you lend to your heart of reality in this, as you know as your world. For that we continue to encourage and strengthen you in your efforts to become your true selves, and it is in that respect that we continue to teach, encourage, and to share our love for your role in this, "the world of the cross." So be strong and true to know your true purpose as voices for the Godhead that is part of all of us, that has voice and being through your presence.

Act as if you were the only voice that God had and you will encourage choirs of unity among you. So be true tot hat which is eternal within your being, which needs and has voice within your being, and you, too, will hear choirs within and without.

Are there are any questions that you may have today as we visit with you? Any, all or none?

Myra: A question for Tomas. And, um, perhaps insight into a way to prepare for His visit, to keep us in the consciousness instead of going into subconscious?

TOMAS: It is strictly a matter of developing your spiritual muscle, which is unused to the extension of your consciousness into that higher plane that allows you to remain so focused. The pull of the physical existence is constantly a part of your experience in living and many of you succumb completely to its lures and urges. As you learn to "gird up the loins of your mind" you begin to utilize that degree of spiritual muscle that will allow you to stride naturally in the presence of spirit, even as you live a mortal life and engage in those organic behaviors of creature existence.

Essentially, it is exercising your own capacity to stretch beyond the comfort zones of your common existence in order to elevate your reality into a new dimension of awareness that in time becomes not only second nature to you but essential to your survival, as you would feel if you were not getting enough food or water. Is this helpful?

Myra: Yes, it is. Do you suppose it’s seasonal?

TOMAS: Seasonal?

Myra: Um-hum. Are we on vacation?

TOMAS: I certainly have noticed a cultural tendency for mortals to become almost entirely embroiled in the cultural events of Christmas, New Years, Easter, holidays of that sort. And, of course weather would factor in largely for, again, the creature has developed certain habits and behaviors that support and surround his physical existence, such as bracing against the cold or seeking relief in summer, and as that comprises the consciousness of most individuals, it is a largely physical way of life you live.

And so, of course, the material bears witness to your tendency to retreat from the rigors of the spirit, even as the energy required in winter to stay warm, can, intellectually speaking, consume your every interest. It is, even so, possible for you to extend far beyond your limitations of creature existence to find great scope of function within the spirit reality, even fully comprehending the lure of physical existence and those tricks or techniques of survival that you long-ago learned. In other words, you do not have to forfeit being human to be divine. It is merely progressive.

Strive to attain greater spirit consciousness. You grow soft, shallow and pretend to be interested but you really aren’t. You are following the status quo and paying lip service to your religious life. While millions of people do this, people who have tasted the spirit will be reminded by the spirit of those delights as well as meaningful responsibilities inherent in the spirit, which, when the soul has become sufficiently well-formulated as to develop a mind of its own, will see to it that, in fact, the spirit life is held in high regard even as Jesus did, exclusively, for this is the path to take to perfection.

You therefore are at the helm of your own spiritual growth, and while it is not wise to attempt to grow too quickly, if you can keep from dragging your feet too slowly as well, it will provide you a comfortable balance in which to approach God and your fellows and this healthy stride is part of your training in this classroom, to find that appropriate balance between the human and the divine that will enhance Urantia and give you growth in your evolving soul, as well. In this way you will have represented the greater reality when here, instead of waiting until some future time to devote yourself to the discovery of the only thing worth working toward.

Indeed, there is nothing more important to you as individuals than to develop your own spirit consciousness, for this is what we mean when we speak of your immortal soul. It is your duty to yourself to advance that awareness and to reap the rewards and assume the responsibilities inherent within that consciousness. I will let you discern your own degree of need for that reality, for that is the impetus and stimuli for your own ascension and your own growth.

It is why I mentioned recently that your decisions are the stimulus, which activates the universe. We recognize that not making decisions is another way of affecting life. Are there other questions?

Matthew: Kiddingly, maybe it would help if we stood up or knelt during the presentation, to keep from falling asleep. Obviously that won’t, but…

TOMAS: I should take lessons from Abraham and learn how to be brief in my lessons. I am a philosopher, however, and have no skill in putting forth truisms without flourish.

Paula: They are interesting that way.

TOMAS: I am glad you think so, child. I know there are others as well who enjoy my method.

Paula: Your homilies?

TOMAS: Homilies? Understood.

Maria: I think it is a good idea to practice trying to stay conscious in the higher energy field. It’s something that I had thought about before but hadn’t really considered in the circumstances, so that—

TOMAS: In other words, you enjoyed it but did not know if it was okay to do so.

Maria: I have some Menorah tapes that said that as you spend more time with them, you will be able to get into a deeper and deeper state of consciousness while staying conscious, and that’s the comparison I was making.

TOMAS: Yes.

Maria: A better trance.

TOMAS: We have no need for you to go in a trance or become unconscious, no. We seek for your awareness, acute awareness, in fact. This is where the effort is required. And this is why so many fail to find results from meditation -- they succumb too readily to the subconscious pull and sink into the quagmire of their unconscious.

The effort is to maintain your consciousness, albeit a superconsciousness, a heightened awareness, such that you are able to be mindful of your environment and the personalities within it – human and divine – instead of closing yourself off from consciousness of all that is, in order to submerge yourself into a bath of infinity. That is simply a visceral or sensual state of being. This may serve to lower one’s blood pressure and invest a sense of well-being and relaxation, but it is not conducive to sustaining high levels of investments of energy in the higher realms of the mind where your intelligence abuts spirit intelligence. And this is true whether you are sitting in a state of meditation or if you are involved in socializing at a cocktail party.

There is no separation of you from the spirit if you are cognizant of the spirit such that your being cries out for its strength to carry you into the field where you are more than you could be without it, and without Him. I must find many more ways of saying the same thing, for some of you require a new interpretation each time you hear it, in order to trigger those connections with your own indwelling spirit that will foster your yearning to be so involved with the spirit, engaged with the spirit, that you feel at one with the spirit, even as you are able to fully enjoy being your own personality self.

This is a state of being that requires your full consciousness and which also provides you your deep contentment, for you have within your own framework the consciousness of your connection to the Source and Center of the universe. In this way, you are able to be at home in your own skin. You are able to ground yourself in the vortex of your own reality. You are able to sustain your strengths consciously and willfully for God and for the divine purpose of revealing Him to others. Are you more clear on the concept?

Maria: Yes.

TOMAS: These sessions we enjoy engage your deep mind. The shallow aspects of your mind and the curious part of you that yearns to know more -- but that is more of an adjutant spirit of knowledge -- is different from this that we enjoy together. It is indeed an exercise and we have done a lot of work this afternoon.

We have plowed a lot of field. Fertilized each other’s spirit. The Son (sic) has shined on us and the Father has bestowed upon us His living waters. Thus, as we take these seeds to heart and nurture them within the mind, they will hopefully eventually sprout into shoots of growth for you, such that your soul will soar in new recognition of reality which sustains you and indeed all of life, and yet of which we get so few really pure glimpses.

Even so, those glimpses of divine reality and infinity perfection are worth remembering, even if the color fades, for they are certificates of commendation of your own growth in deity attainment, there on your mental wall to remember and remind yourself that your life has been a full and meaningful experience, as through it, you have learned to know yourself, you have learned to love God and you have seen how it is that He can utilize you to spread his good cheer within and throughout the realm.

While this can be done mindlessly, as simple folk, it can also be done with consciousness and intent. I appeal to your ambition. Any other questions? (None)

I and we are honored to be called to be your teachers. We are challenged daily in our attempts to work with and through the spirit to help you appreciate the beneficial effects of these, your efforts in attainment. I know our Master Teacher is proud of us all, and pleased with our commitments to our individual assignments, to our own state of growth, and our own humble reckoning of what it is to do his will in our lives.

Even so, it is my will that His will be done. And so, in that conscious awareness of my own humility, and yours, I leave you for the afternoon in anticipation of our next gathering. If, as you know, you choose to call upon us individually and independently and in your own time, it is our privilege to attend to you and to your spirit in any way possible that will help you understand better the connection you have with you and God. Amen and farewell.

*****

DATE: August 8, 2004

LOCATION: Rio Rancho, New Mexico

TOPICS: If God were to search you, what would He find?

Invitation to Work with Personal Teachers

End of this "Anatolia and Tomas Era"

T/Rs: Gerdean and Matthew

MUSIC: Elena on Piano: "Oh, God, You Search Me"

PRAYER:

Matthew: Let us place ourselves in the presence of Jesus, the Christ.

"Master Teacher,

"We come to you today with a full room of participants who are willing and able and desire to be taught, as well as to teach, for we can only teach what we know and as we become more fully aware and more incorporated into the responsibility that we have to be and to share love as we acquire its meaning, then we can be truly more like you. We can never be you, but only become more perfect as you have encouraged us to be – more perfect like our Father in Heaven is perfect.

"We ask for the teachings that are made possible today through you and are grateful for this gift of T/R and for the group that shares its worth and receives its value. We place all of our needs before you, each and all, as you know them to be, and we entrust their care and just resolution to you. For this and all else, we are eternally grateful. Amen."

TOMAS: We are eternally grateful to be your mentors and teachers, we in the unseen realm. Eternally grateful that you are reaching up to Our Father to seek His counsel and guidance on all things, for Him to make you malleable to His will by and through your heartfelt yearning to please Him who is great beyond compare.

This is Tomas, and I am here this joyous afternoon with my associate Anatolia and your personal teachers, as well as student visitors, the loyal midwayers, several seraphim, and may we become mindful of the overcare of the Melchizedeks and Michael himself, who is always with us. And so we are, indeed, in a holy place -- this place where we meet -- beyond the material covenants, to engage in the new covenant with divinity. "Righteous Parent, it is our will that Your will be done. Send us forth to be Your ambassadors, to bring peace in the face of strife, and joy to overcome the sorrow."

The path to your effectiveness in your ministry has a great deal to do with your own maintenance of a clean heart and a clear mind. Here is where your personal teachers are most effective, and here is where, today, I would like to focus, in order for you to have a feeling for how these beings impact on you personally.

How can you sit down and attempt to engage someone you do not know without motive? Perhaps today in this exercise I will be able to lead you into a new understanding of what service your personal teacher can provide, in order for you to determine for yourself how it is that this teacher can and will, has and does, help you in your own awakening to spirit reality.

I am not going to call on you individually or go around the room so as to provide pressure for you in this exercise, but those of you who would like to invest yourself in this exercise are surely welcome to do so and appreciated for the examples you can provide for your fellows here in this group as well as in the points of light beyond where you serve, and so, share your inner life and your correcting time experience with your family.

I am going to ask you to abide by the reflections in the music played, "Oh, God, You Search Me." If God were to search you, what would He find? What do you know of yourself that is in you that is effective or ineffective?

Yes, we reach within to find that we are beautiful beyond compare by those standards which hold us harmless (blameless) as we believe the Ancients of Days will do, but the exercise includes also an appreciation of those personality defects or shortcomings that you engage in, or bad habits that you have been intending to do something about that may be impinging upon the better way for you to go.

Let me ask you to ponder in your mind if you have an imperfection that you would like to work on with your personal teacher. In this way you have invested yourself. You are committing yourself to pruning your own dead branches so that you may bring forth abundant fruit. Have you a dead branch in your composition that you would be willing to present today that your personal teacher can help you with, or that you would hope they can help you with? Is the exercise understood?

Group: Yes.

TOMAS: Are there questions about the exercise at this point?

Group: No.

TOMAS: I will disconnect from the T/R so that all of you may engage in this mortal appreciation together. And I will insert myself at the appropriate time. Take a moment and think about your configuration, what you will share, and do this one at a time, soulfully, meaningfully, and I will ask you if you would rather turn off the tape or would you rather let it run?

Group: It can run, as far as I’m concerned. It doesn’t matter.

TOMAS: We will let it run, and as you suggest, Thoroah, if someone wants to go off the record, we can do that. Very well. Take a moment to center yourself and so be it.

Men-O-Pah: I suppose that, like most folks, I have some dead wood that I would like to be rid of. When I’m really very tired, I’ve worked hard, and I’m tired and I’m hungry at the same time, my temper is very short. We are always, you know, praying that we will be ready for our spirit to depart this body at any time, that we will have clean hands and straight eyes. And also, under those circumstances, my language is sometimes not very pure, and so I should like to be rid of those things.

Paula: Don’t forget, we’re aiming for 100. I’m not in any hurry to die.

Men-O-Pah: Well, of course you aren’t. But we don’t have an awful lot to say about that, and it may be later than you think.

Paula: Don’t say that!

Esmeralda: Well, the dead wood that needs pruning in my case is -- I don’t know whether you’d call it lazy or inert, with too much inertia. I’m not good with Stillness and I don’t persist in it. So I think it’s not something that needs to be cut off, but it needs to be cultivated. I need to be more diligent, more persistent, and try to contact Celene more. I know she is there; I just don’t know how to get through to her, but it’s probably that I’m not trying as much as I should. So that needs to be cultivated, I think. Probably cultivation rather than pruning.

Elena: The one I would like to look at, to develop, is -- I have a driving force, and it could be pushy, wanting to get things done and keep things on track. There must be a better way, not only for myself but for those that know me. So it would be better if I were not so driven.

Renault: I need help with procrastination. I am always putting off things. Putting off doing things, putting off writing letters, putting off filling out forms, putting off, putting off, putting off, until later and later, sometimes. I would like to be able to get things done without conflict.

Myra: I suppose the dead wood that I would be working on would be the act of remaining with my inner thoughts and trusting that other people could help me with that. I think that I just prefer to tune [indistinguishable].

Thoroah: I think I have problems with being hungry and cranky; I have problems with inertia, and procrastination. (Group chuckles) The dead wood that kills me, I think, is the curse of self-consciousness. I feel like I’m watching me watching me watching me watching everybody else watch me, and wondering, assuming what they’re thinking, and all this kind of stuff, and it’s a whole bunch of stupid baggage to deal with. I know there’s a positive way to approach that; I need to be aware of how I come across, but I would like to get control of that.

Renault: When I’m hungry and tired, I just cry.

Thoroah: Men would too but they’re not supposed to.

Matthew: I have to admit to the same thing, although they usually don’t occur at the same time, being hungry and tired; it’s one or the other. I’ve made many changes already and quit smoking and a number of things. I’m as human as anybody else and the list of things aren’t occurring to me at the moment, so if you know of some that I don’t, go ahead and speak up now! (Group laughter) Hearing none, … (Group: uproarious laughter) I’ve been sitting here the whole time plotting that one.

Thoroah: And they’ll probably help you get over that! (Group laughter)

Matthew: I have a mental block. But as the prayer that I started with, to become more perfect like our Father in heaven is perfect, I remember several years ago thinking, now isn’t that a little bit too much? Aren’t you asking a little bit too much of us? But the more I thought about it or felt about it, after a while I thought, "I could see that" because I believe the Urantia Book, as Jesus had admonished, to become perfect in our realm as our Father in heaven is in His. So from that perspective, it is a lot more doable, only because we can perfect our own reactions through our emotions as we grow with it.

One thing that I am becoming more aware of, and I’m trying to understand, is: I get upset – (as I think every one of us do) over politics, as we see things that occur to us are just outrageously unjust, and the other list of descriptions, and how it is upsetting and disturbing. And then, at the same time, try to understand the motivations of others that would motivate them to do the things that they are doing, that seem in actuality totally destructive. And then to try to realize that God loves them at the same time that he loves us. So I don’t know that my perspective or motivation is that I am better or more pure in heart; it’s just that I cannot imagine doing that in a million years, but have already done wrong and will probably in the future, and my motivations in doing wrong weren’t evil or ill intended; they were just plain wrong.

So perhaps the dead wood needs to make room for other people to be human, even gargantuanly human, to the detriment of others’ lives and livelihoods, and to allow room that somehow they – I mean, they too are children of God, but to allow for that pruning or correcting to occur in their individual lives and that I am not a judge nor jury of theirs, so that is what I think about that.

Gerdean: And I have the same old retinue of co-dependence issues, which are that others’ people’s happiness means more to me than my own does, to my own detriment. People-pleasing and listening to other people’s opinions as if they knew more than I do instead of trusting myself to know that I know what I’m talking about. I want so much to be taken seriously and yet I don’t know how to give myself that self-esteem that I crave, as a result of being whole, which I feel I would be more perfect if I didn’t have these emotional shortcomings. I’m not saying I don’t want to be supportive or gracious or any of those wonderful qualities, but I am sure there are negative side-effects from my pattern, and if they are detrimental, then they need to go. If they are dead wood, they just don’t need to be here, so, help me be all that I can be and trust that that’s good. That’s what my potential and my right is, to be the best that I can be, and just accept that. And then I would probably realize that other people are probably being the best that they can be, too, so that is something I could probably use some help with.

Paula: Well, it isn’t always easy to see somebody else’s viewpoint when you have your own ideas, and I can remember when I was a little kid my cousins lived across the street from me and he was a little monster. He was always trying to get me in trouble and a lot of times he did. I got a few spankings I wouldn’t’ve gotten otherwise if he hadn’t opened his big mouth. And this one day we were quarreling about something and of course he knew my folks at the time always voted the Republican ticket. So he said, "Well, you’re nothing but a nasty little Protestant Republican!" and that was about as mean as he could get. And I couldn’t think of an answer. That was my trouble!

Gerdean: What’s wrong with that?

Paula: I wish I couldn’t come back with something really smart.

TOMAS: Are we concluded with this soul-searching exercise?

Group: Um-hum.

TOMAS: Well done. Each of you have reached into your basket of personality patterns and found one, like a rotten apple, worthy to hold up so as not to ruin the rest of the apples. It is most gracious of you all in recognizing the qualities within that you are eager to expose to the light of the sun so as to clarify and heal that imperfection en route to greater perfection -- yes, Matthew, here in your realm, which is all you can do anyway.

However, if you live each day loyally as a tadpole, you will become, eventually, a frog and you will eventually attain Paradise. In fact, you will stand before the Father and be one with him for that eternal priceless moment. That will alter your course forever, enlisting you in the Corps of Finality of those who have attained perfection, even unto the Father, and thereby set out upon a career unending and untold.

Your efforts in this undertaking are not immaterial. They are an essential part of the cultivation of the spirit, which is the only solution, not only to your personal conundrums but the political picture as well. As you have all heard from the Teachers many times, love is the answer to all the questions. It is simply how the questions are interpreted and responded to that reveals the kind of love that will be necessary in order to heal the wounds and advance this great state of being.

These now are on record and testified to in the presence of witnesses and your work with your personal teacher may now commence in full understanding of how this process works. You have acknowledged a need and they have committed themselves to your adjustments of personality that will render you perfect. Follow their guidance. Bring to them your lamentations. Accept from them their praises. Allow them, in conjunction with your divine indwelling Adjuster, that shard of infinite perfection which indwells you, to provide to you the divine perspective that is enshrouded in love that will see you reach for that which you may will is the higher path, the better way. Even so, it will in time become your pattern of behavior, the modus operandi of your existence, and in this process, your perfecting renders you fragrant in ways which are conducive to the work of the spirit. You will find yourself of value not only for your material realm but for the spiritual reality which depends on you to nurture and foster these realities, even as you tread the material soil of existence.

Now whenever these thoughts come to mind, recognize the work of your helper. You are not alone in the process of perfecting yourself. Your personal teacher is your guide and counselor in the process of weaning yourself from that which does not serve so as to be more aware of, appreciative of and focused on that which matters, in truth. I am finished. If you are still with us.

Group: We’re with you!

TOMAS: Anatolia, would you like to engage?

ANATOLIA: Welcome, friends and family. It is my pleasure to be with you again in this fine land of enchantment. It is a pleasure to be with you, both in person and in the presence of your teachers as we continue on the topic of personal teachers and the need for personal effectiveness. You know that so long as (the old saying goes) "where there is a will there is a way", provided you have a will to desire more for yourself, there is a way to accomplish it. It is not material desires that I speak of, but desires for yourself to know more, do more, be more.

These are not goals that are even accomplishment-oriented, for one who is a wretched individual inside where he or she truly lives. If you desire to have more, be more, do more, then it is truly possible that your inner world may become a Shangri la. Not out of delusion or escapism, but rather true knowledge of who you are, for there are many ways to approach this. As it has been said, there are many paths to the Father and each will lead there. All one needs is the desire to find one's way on that path. It is only he or she who is recalcitrant or ambivalent, or simply does not care, who is in danger of losing themselves - not in a judgmental or ‘fire and brimstone’ perspective, but losing him or herself in terms of the internal will.

The will to survive is primary. The will to thrive is your choice. It is my desire for each of you to acquire the development of an internal Shangri la, a chamber or temple that you could live in for all eternity. For it is in this internal working that you are building your future, for your consciousness is where you will perceive your future. It is your consciousness that enables whatever you desire to become reality. For surely you could not disbelieve that you will do something and yet do it unless it is through change of heart and your will, for seeing is believing, doing is creating -- as the reverse is true, creating is doing. I believe you get the picture that it is entirely up to you.

Now for the topic of the disengaged, those who have quit, surrendered, given up - these are the individuals to be pitied, for they have relinquished their will to that of the four winds, who lie subject, waiting to be tossed or turned as if an object in the seas. This is, effectively, a living hell, for without the desire to create a perfect will, a perfect world, one that is full of righteousness, justice -- what is good for you is good for me and what is right for you is right for me - these things they will not know until their consciousness is perked and reminded that they sit wasting under a tree, for fruit that is not picked up and utilized, simply lies rotting, waiting to be buried.

I wish to bring you good news today instead of the contrary, for my purpose in presenting today is to reinforce within you that everything is based upon your willingness and your desire to see it through. The old saying, too, "God helps those who help themselves" was not a discussion of petty thievery, but rather one that places faith where it truly belongs, for so long as there is a desire to go forward and walk straight and to move calmly with your God, it is up to the individual to do so.

The Father could have avoided the inconvenience of creation had it been his choice to share parts of himself that were already perfect, that had no choice but perfection, for in reality no choice but perfection is no choice at all, so you have the ultimate in opportunity, the ultimate choice of whether to become your true selves and to reunite with your Creator in eternity, or to simply lie dormant, as fruit, to be buried at the bottom of the tree.

I place this with you not as a burden but as a reminder that it is up to each of us to choose life, to choose light, and to choose the life that we are entrusted with and born to live. Are there any questions this afternoon?

Elena: Well, yeah, because I'm trying to think of all the people I know and I think that most of them are in one shape or another trying to see the light. I mean, I can even think of some people that I would put in the category of having to go light years before they could even get a glimmer of light, but I think they might even be fine to do that, so, what's an example of somebody who is not choosing the light? I mean, everybody thinks that they are trying, I think. So I don't get that part.

ANATOLIA: It is primarily those that are not trying, who are simply waiting for the light to be turned on as if they are going to receive motivation, ambition, desire, win the lottery, whatever it may be that may be a ready-made program for them that they will only have to choose between, rather than those who are engaged in life (whether they are fully conscious of it or not). In effect, one who is engaged in life and who is not full of vehemence, ill-intention and otherwise what you would perceive of as evil in their purposes, are engaged or are doing the best that they can and, after all, what else can they do but to do the best they can?

It is those who are not engaged, not participating, and waiting to have the answers provided them that are in the truest of need, for this is the purpose of my presentation today, to remind you that it is all within yourselves and the purpose of growth and perfection is a matter of choice; it is not a matter of "becoming" through some dispensation that enables you to become perfect. It is always a choice, for the saints, as you refer to them, were not born as saints, but acquired within themselves the ability to rise above, become greater than their emotions allowed, and even enter into the shared responsibility of light and life of the spirit that enabled them to do super human things. It is this internal consciousness that I am speaking to. Does this help any?

Elena: I think so, yes.

Renault: And then there are those who are truly seeking, but don't know they are seeking and seek in all the wrong places and directions. And - I'm talking about the drugs and alcohol, where they - I feel they are just lost; somewhere along the line got on the wrong train and couldn't get off. But still, if they had been given proper guidance or choices would not have chosen those directions, but don't know any other way to go. And so many of them I find are desperate, way lost, not because they are evil but because of circumstances, you know? And so those people, I think, really need - really are seeking the light. They just kind of lost any direction of where it is or how to get it. Is there a reply to that? Though it's too late sometimes.

ANATOLIA: I was speaking in generalities, of course. Whenever light is discussed, it does not preclude that there are shades of light within the darkness. I will not nor do not, generally, speak in terms of total darkness, but have often spoken in terms of wherever a ray of light meets the darkness, the darkness is no longer, so that darkness is no longer as dark as it was, nor light as light as it could be. So this did not include the realms in which you presented, so it is appreciated that it is not black and white.

Certainly those who are seeking within their own lives, given the social or other conditions that they are living within, are not lost, are not forlorn and unforgiven. It is a realm that is frequently fraught with very difficult circumstances, for which those who are unable to escape or overcome, are not thrown away or wasted. I was speaking of simple terms in order to reinforce your understanding within yourselves as to your ability and responsibility, knowing what you know and being able to help where you can help, that it is up to each individual, for those that you can inform, who are caught in a world of vicious cycles, that knowing there is a better way, one that is not subject to addiction and being caught in a dark vicious cycle, that you may be able to share with them where it is at all possible that their decision to change the hellishness that they experience is up to them, as it is up to you, as well. Does this make any sense? (Yes) Anyone else?

Thoroah: I have a question about something that seems to affect us as humans. You talked about it earlier, about being tired. It doesn't matter whether you are doing physical labor or mental or emotional labor, there is a fatigue factor to life that is sometimes able to color everything and color it darkly. Fatigue is a killer. I think it ruins us, hurts our relationship with each other and with life in general. I am wondering what we can equate the fatigue factor of life with, in a spiritual analogy, so maybe we could be better able to handle fatigue.

ANATOLIA: It could be likened to "the poor in spirit" for the poor in spirit has been discussed from many perspectives, but my perspective offered for the moment is those who are fatigued, those who do not have a sense of who they are, who are simply vestiges of their former selves, who need to be reminded that they live and, therefore, have opportunity to rejoice. It is those who need to rest and to become reacquainted with who they truly are who have been discouraged or led astray, for lack of another term -- dissuaded, duped, misdirected -- in terms of what their time, talents and worries ought to be about, for the effort to live and do more than survive (which is sometimes all that some can do, given their circumstances).

There is more to life than simple living or surviving; there is true living, which can be done in poverty and in squalor if one is rich from within. I am not an advocate of that, mind you, it is just that it can be done. The secret is to be able to know who one is, to rest, to get things into perspective, and to know that reality is beyond the four walls or the physical world that one may experience, that after rest, replenishment can enable one to once again carry on with their inner knowledge intact and their recommitment to living life fully may be regained. Is this helpful or does this sound more pious than time and reality permits?

Thoroah: I guess I can become fatigued from being happy! I can be exuberant to the point of fatigue in this life. It's hard to get away from being fatigued because of the many demands in the physical sense of we have to sleep, we have to get our rest, we have to take care of ourselves, and we have to do all these things that we are trying to cram into a 24-hour a day -- which I know is not 24 hours anymore. I'm getting older and slower and time is going faster!

So, it makes me wonder. It's just a matter of trying to equate the fatigue thing and the age-old thing that you've got to take care of yourself. I think I would like to get a perspective on fatigue. It's like gravity, but gravity is more obvious than fatigue. There is just something about it and we can't escape it. Whether we are positive people or lost people, it doesn't really matter. Fatigue is just a matter of life in the physical world.

ANATOLIA: It is a diagnosis for depression, as well, so that it need not be purely a physical experience, but can speak to the inner life, or soul, as well, and therefore I invite you to consider the nature of the discussion today, which is to help you realize and to help you help others realize, that their inner life is a matter of choice and to entertain the possibilities that encouragement and achievement of progress is a matter of desire and work, but that it need not be stressful and burdensome. The things that are achievable in life far outweigh the objects or millstones that can detain but not defeat accomplishments.

Thoroah: So we create a lot of our own fatigue by going about things in the most indirect manner.

ANATOLIA: Or, perhaps, what is the motivation? What is one working for?

Thoroah: Yeah.

ANATOLIA: If you are on a treadmill and are working for "the man" then not having your own life and being a slave to your environment or society is truly an invasion and a war with yourself against those outside influences that keep you from being the inner being that you are entitled to appreciate and to live. Therefore, your Shangri la is a shambles and it is up to you to regain the focus, that you may rebuild.

That really is the good news, in terms of what I alluded to earlier, in that, one's life is not limited to the opportunity in the physical, and, therefore, if not perfected is therefore unacceptable. It is not up to me to say what is unacceptable anyway, mind you. It is a matter of statement that the opportunity for further development and growth lies before you. Nevertheless, it is as if you were attending a sporting event that is your life. Why not play the game when the time is presented for it, rather than get suited up, go to the event, and decide to not participate? Now is the time to learn the plays and to play for fun, unlike any other time that may be. Does this help any?

Thoroah: Yes. Thank you.

ANATOLIA: Hearing no further concern, I hope that you may be able to celebrate with me the idea that God is within and waits for your care and your concern and to know that you care for his or her spirit as much as he or she cares for you. This will keep you going for awhile, if nothing else will, knowing that your Creator waits for your loving touch, your care, your concern, as if everything waited on it, as it does. But, perfection being what it is, is already. Welcome to your share of it. Peace be with you, and know that all is well.

Group: Thank you, Anatolia.

TOMAS: Tomas returning to ground us all again in the configuration of our comings and goings. I understand, speaking of comings and goings, there are innumerable highways and byways ahead for our group and its members. In terms of your calendar, is there yet one more occasion for Anatolia to conjoin with you here?

Group: [Discussion] Probably not.

TOMAS: Then we are entitled to a celebration -- not of closure, but of accomplishment, for we have entrusted to ourselves and each other and to God this portion of our lives which we have known as the "Anatolia and Tomas Era." It well may return. It is a magnificent future ahead of us all, and when we have occasion to, most assuredly my companion and I will re-engage in our co-creative effort as colleagues in this Teaching Mission to further the light of truth, as is our injunction by Machiventa Melchizedek.

Also, are summer celebrations for the Master's birthday as Jesus; and the culmination of the season of singing hymns, psalms and praises to the Lord. It is the celebration of the Urantia Book and Teaching Mission annual conference at Bogus Basin, second time around. It is a second honeymoon cruise for the honeymooners who, even now, are on the eve of their second annual celebration of lovers, as Mr. and Mrs. B. will also celebrate their fifth anniversary this month. (Group applause)

We thus have much ahead of us to celebrate and rejoice in -- not to overlook the triumphant accession by my friend and helper Matthew, who departs from our presence to attend to his advanced studies in the seminary, in order to prepare himself to better serve in the realm of Christianity, in order to bring together the many concepts that precede us in this effort, as well as those which now are being woven into the fabric of Urantia consciousness, those being the precepts put forth through the epochal revelation in the Urantia Papers.

We do indeed celebrate the progress all of you have experienced in our work together. As we now have a break in our formal activity, let me commend you all to a high-falutin’ time of it, in whatever the manner of your engagement, and I will welcome you back to our humble and happy family grouping again at the close of these weeks, in order to be again grounded in the process of returning to school, to returning to the application of the mind and spirit consciousness -- as we have, as we do and as we will, in fostering this mighty effort: Michael's mission for Urantia.

Blessed be art thou, beautiful students and friends. Rejoice in the spirit. Be of good cheer. Peace be upon you. Amen and farewell.

Group: Thank you, Tomas. Thank you, Anatolia.

*****

DATE: September 19, 2004

LOCATION: Rio Rancho, NM

TEACHERS: Machiventa Melchizedek; Persephone

MUSIC: Elena on Piano: "Jerusalem the Golden"

MACHIVENTA: Pensive, gentle children. I come to you this afternoon as a representative of our Michael Son, who seeks to uplift and embrace his children all in one fond embrace. The work at hand is engaging me and my associates, my Teacher Corps, and my many helpers throughout the sphere of Urantia, as well as the region which was isolated from universe commerce to protect the universe from the nefarious Lucifer. I tend you now to engage in the process of re-encircuiting the isolated sphere of which I speak, into the whole, into the fold of universe reality. For this, we come to engage your aid.

Yes, it is true that evolution will naturally evolve to a recognition of the divinity you aspire to attain. While revelation will accelerate that process immeasurably. We thus are here to enhance revelation. And while it is true that the Urantia text provides great cosmology, history, and philosophy for your ever-expanding philosophical and speculative appreciation, it is also true that each one of you individually has an extension of the divine family are able to bring forth, through self-revelation, those truths which you share with universe reality.

Thus, we are engaged upon a very real program of reclaiming for God that which is his. And in the process of re-encircuiting the living light of love into the mainstream of your planetary existence, it will fall upon you then to weigh and adjudge for yourself to what extent you are willing to participate in this monumental undertaking.

I will not dwell long with you today, for there is a teacher here who will spend some time with you on your personal development, but before I go, I, as administrator of the Teacher Corps to which Tomas is attached, will be utilizing him in more far-reaching efforts. Experience requires this. As you are advised, you will be adapting to other personalities throughout the universe career, and the same is true for us. It is required that we adapt to the vagaries of will choice. Only the Father knows the end from the beginning, and while we are assured His will will be done and His mission will prevail, we are only able to effectively work in spurts of time, since it is a living, growing universe, and adaptations are always an appropriate part of growth. Therefore, Tomas will attend to you in a reduced capacity. Not that he will be reduced in his capacity, nor you in yours, but in the context of the evolution of this group itself.

I am personally pleased with the effect of his work on you as of the inception of his teachings, and especially proud of the liaison that quickly formed between Anatolia and Tomas that engaged you so effectively for that period of time. They benefited immensely from the experience, as did you, and this is appropriate.

Trust in the unfolding of Michael’s plan for Urantia and for all of Nebadon. While you can only concern yourself with your limited sphere of existence, that is indeed the essential work – the work of your realm – and only you are able to perceive that range of operation as you allow your divine Adjuster to provide the enhanced spectrum of its perspective. And now, without further ado, I say farewell and keep up the good work.

Group: Thank you.

PERSEPHONE: Good afternoon, friends and co-workers in advancing reality. I am adopting a nomenclature for our efforts this afternoon. You may call me Persephone.

Group: Welcome.

PERSEPHONE: Thank you for your welcome. It is a pleasure and privilege for me to be here and to be given this opportunity to help you induce your own self to know itself more and better, that you may find more contentment within yourself and more potential for joyous service.

Recognize the limitations of the human language. I implore you to not be limited by the limitations of the English alphabet, but to see beyond the literal into the ethereal or figurative arena of imagination and freedom to explore the universe, even that universe which resides within you and your consciousness.

Your gathering today is evidence of your longing to enjoy your association in spirit family with others. The spirit is alive and well within you each; and in and through your appreciation of the spirit you connect with the spirit of others, and that includes the engagements you enjoy with and through the organized religions of your world. "The church" – evidentiary of Christ -- is undergoing tremendous change, as are you and as is Urantia altogether, thus the light of truth will be found to shine there as well as in many other formats of reunion you can find to enjoin with spirit.

In part, your sharing represents the concept of the confession, which has been utilized in the church for centuries as a method of unburdening yourselves of those unwanted tendencies that flesh is heir to, which, when confessed, will only render you capable of meeting more intimately with the members of the human race. For the saying goes, "Who among you convicts me of sin?"

What I would like to do this afternoon is invite you to get to know yourself – your inner self – in such a way as to accept yourself, wholly and completely, including the parts of you which you have been reluctant to let be known to others as adjudged by you as being unworthy of the son or daughter of God that you perceive yourself to be. This is unconditional love. This is the divine love that the Father holds for you. It is also the divine love that your Adjuster has for you. Thus, if you can perceive this for yourself, through your own will choice, you will then begin to see yourself as your Adjuster sees you. And that is with love in all circumstances, in all cases, in all conditions. And will work with you from where you are, in order that you may learn to love more yourself and thus others.

You cannot transmit what you do not have, and so have what you are. In acknowledging all that you are to yourself, you can more readily honor that flawed specimen as a work-in-progress, worthy, none-the-less, of respect and consideration, even in those times when you are not putting forth your best foot or [when] your views are reflecting your ignorance and the wheel marks of experience when life has run over you. Only by understanding that this is the scaffolding upon which you have been raised, can you then begin to replace that scaffolding with the scaffolding that will be provided by the Adjuster when you let go of that which no longer serves.

The real flaw is to assume these do not happen, or to demand perfection from your fellows when that is not humanly possible. The point of time for you is to live each moment loyally as a tadpole and when you find yourself having a momentary frog experience, you will recognize the sound of your own croak as a rightful, joyous noise unto the Lord – even if it is only seen as a prayer for continued growth and understanding.

You must be patient with yourself in order for you to be patient with others. And the only way that you can get to know yourself in this right, in this perspective, is to spend time with yourself -- to spend time inside with your Adjuster, reflecting on those elements of life that get in your way of being all that you could be. If you are too busy, if you are too engaged – as so many are in this day and age – you will not have time to process your experiences and reflect upon your choices, including your attitudes, as you engage with others, as you have thoughts.

The goal for you now is to connect with your indwelling God-fragment, that adjuster of your attitudes that puts you in constant contact with your dual nature and that harmonizes the human and the divine in such a way as to provide for you that sense of wholeness and well-being which will result in your joyous acceptance of yourself as you are and in the unconditional acceptance of those around you as they are -- able to love even unlovely mankind as a result of knowing the human condition so well and appreciating and enjoying the saving grace of that divine hand which reaches to you perpetually for you to hold, so that it may lead you through the maze of mortal existence.

Make friends with that which lays within you, trusting that you will be led even closer into that divine sanctuary of engagement where you may reflect upon your being and receive the embrace of that which loves you with an infinite love. Once you have given yourself up to the embrace of the divine, you learn to trust its will such that you yield your own will to its leading. In this way, you embark upon the road to fusion. It is our ambition to assist you in this process so that you will know greater happiness, for happiness is indissolubly bound up with spiritual progress. And so that your sphere may be benefited by your having been here.

We and our Father invests all that we are and all that He is in the unfolding of this reality, and you are invited to conjoin with us in the divine conspiracy to lead all of humanity into a conscious acceptance and awareness of the living water of God in all things and beings.

This has been a satisfying experience, being with you this afternoon. I have felt you individually recede to a place within you that has given you respite from the maelstrom of the animal existence. As you become strengthened in this consciousness, you are better able to discern appropriate priorities and you will gain the courage to stand by the commitments you make, recognizing that the strength to do all these things comes from the Source.

I am not authorized to answer questions, only to walk you through the experience you had in our session today. In closing I would like to pray to our Universal Father and ask Him to deliver to us those impulses of a divine nature that will compel us to draw ourselves nearer to Him, that we may increase our faith and augment our usefulness, that we may wrap our arms around humanity in such a way as to extend the reign of our Sovereign Son and Divine Minister into the very elements and molecules of existence throughout and beyond the borders of inhabited space. So be it.

*****

DATE: October 17, 2004

LOCATION: Rio Rancho NM TeaM

T/R: Gerdean

TOPIC: Loyalty

Q & A: Polemics of Political Perspective

Is a Department of Peace viable?

Are Bush’s Ideologies viable?

Are more earth changes immanent?

A status report on our Progess

Music: Elena on piano: "Faith is the Victory"

TOMAS: Greetings, loyal students, friends, family, I am Tomas, your teacher.

Group: (Welcome. We’ve missed you.)

TOMAS: I have observed you, have missed our gathering, but have not been without occupation, for, as all of you have similarly been involved/engaged, life has abundant opportunities for experiential living, learning, loving and leaving.

Let us discuss loyalty today, for awhile. The end result of loyalty being the commitment to the Father, to that divine reality that you call God, to be the faith, provide the faith, reveal the faith that your music befriended today. It is necessary for you to develop courageous loyalty in order for you to stand by your faith no matter what, and no matter whom, and the circumstances of each instance at any given moment in time are always changing, always reformulating as evolution rolls on and as revelation reveals the truth and then the beauty, ultimately the goodness of all creation, for it is all a viable reality that God oversees. The lure that you are given to become one with Him in eternity, is the one loyalty that will result in your ability to hold fast to his garment through all your experiences, through all that life has to offer.

What we discover through experiential wisdom is that many loyalties are temporary and that the paradigm of any current mode of existence is but scaffolding on the rungs of your ascent. Therefore many situations are but fleeting instances and many institutions are but sandcastles, even many cultures are but grains of sand that rise and fall with the winds of change. Thus, all things return to dust except for that living legacy that you find in the spirit that endures, lasts forever.

All of this is a process. All of the pages in the book of life are experiential moments to be perceived one after the other. There is divine purpose to this long, extended program of evolution, and while each experiential adventure allows for the breadth and depth of your capacity, it is also true that as advancing and conscious human beings, you are becoming more aware of your immortal soul because of your consciousness of the divine infiltrating every aspect of your being as we are discussing and learning to live and prove by our very existence in our lives and exemplified in this configuration we refer to affectionately as "the teaching mission",

And the evolutionary growth for you as a movement is no different than that which is required of its individual followers, as any civilization is evolved because of the times in which it emerges and for the social reasons for which it rises and falls. For civilizations and cultures, as well as movements and certainly, individuals, do rise and fall. They come into vogue and they become passe. They reach their prime and they retire. There is ebb and flow in all things. This is a part of the heartbeat of evolution.

And so, when there is change, social change in a group of people, it is because of the growth and the development of the participants in that movement. This is what makes it alive and vital. If there were not these changes, it would not be a real and viable reality that you are involved in; it would be entirely mechanistic and altogether lacking in adventure, such that lured you further into the experience of somehow seeking to know God and by degrees, finding Him, and ultimately, leveling the playing field such that your focus, commitment, loyalty and devotion is to Him completely. For in Him you live and breathe and have your very being.

This ultimate goal is an aspiration that is appreciated in increments, and I want you to know, Beloved Students, how appreciative I am of the growth that you have -–all of you have experienced in the short time that you have been my students … not necessarily because of me but because I have been aware of you and affectionate toward you and invested in your, your growth has been more meaningful to me and I want to thank you for giving so much to your own lives, to your own individual integrity, as caring individuals, such that our group has, itself, been able to grow by and as a reflection of your individual growth. This group, which has only been meeting for a short time (all things considered), is indeed a young community, but it is on the map and I could not ask for or expect more of you than you are able to produce or elicit.

I look at the civilization of this configuration and see a lesson I myself have learned that I will share with you. In my tenure with this mission, as a teacher in this Teacher Corps, I was assigned at one time in my past to preside over the Pittsburgh Teacher Base, which group had had prior teachers, but it was my first assignment as an individual independent and not as personal ministry or as an intern, as I was with Teacher Daniel. But in my enthusiasm to develop a rapport with my students and pupils, I became enmeshed in the culture that prevailed in that community and which had prevailed for many years. It was ingrained behavior, and I accommodated the reality that existed by learning the culture of the group I taught. Thus, I became conditioned.

And so, when I arrived at these shores of the Rio Rancho platform, I was well familiar with the merits and demerits of that civility which prevails in Urantia/American polite society. It is no wonder that Jesus admonished that his apostles and devotees not become overly engaged in meaningless social intercourse. Whereas one’s society is the platform on which one functions, the search for truth has to lead beyond the existing paradigm in order for truth to enter therein.

And so while we have derived much from the socializing process, and while it also provides immeasurable opportunities for socializing one’s belief, it also is and remains true that overmuch socializing detracts from the business of the spirit and the engagement with the spirit that will enhance the process of attaining prayer and worship, which connects you to the divine power that will enable you to live that consecrated life that is loyal only to Him and divine reality far circumventing and superceding the mere pleasantries of social intercourse.

This truth has become evident in the last two years with our configuration here. If you all will make a note of it, we will have a new level, a new plateau of operation on which to operate and accomplishment through living experience, which we may celebrate, yes.

Dear ones, are there questions?

Esmeralda: Well, Tomas, several of the questions that I had arising from a conversation I had yesterday you have answered. You have made me feel that our group has not been abandoned, and that we are not a totally selfish "all about self" group, which I didn’t think we were. So you’ve answered some of the questions that I needed to know. One of the subjects was about, are the topics of discussion where we needed to ask for guidance on our present world situation. And I think all of us are concerned about it and all of us seem to have our own opinions and our own beliefs, but it has been said that we are wrong. Could you help us in any way on that?

TOMAS: I would like to help you on that; however, whether I can or not is more on your shoulders than on mine. Nevertheless, I will discuss it. This has to do with your perceiving what you want to perceive, seeing what it is you want to see, hearing what it is you want to hear, whether I or someone else has said it, or not. The mind is a mysterious commodity. It is able to deny that which stares you in the face; it is able to remain loyal to precepts that are destroying you; it is able to embrace toxins that are killing you, and does all the time, because of your will, but even more because of your conditioning.

Remember I spoke to you earlier about institutions and civilizations. The same thing can be said for ideologies, even ideals. And this situation that you are witnessing and indeed experiencing, as a nation, as citizens of this nation of what would appear to be fairly equally distributed Republicans and Democrats, running neck and neck for the position of leadership of this country, with days to go before the votes are cast and results will then be forthcoming from that day. It is no wonder that your community is conflicted about the candidates, because there is division in the ideologies that support the candidates.

I will go so far as to say that with them split so closely, or at least as it is revealed in the press, the paradigm appears very much like the yin and yang, the male and female, the black and white, so far opposite are the approaches. But if you look closely, you will see that each represents one half of the other half of the predominant posture of the present mental outlook of the people they are vying to represent. Thus, you are fighting over an ideology over which we teachers have no control. It is not within our realm of influence. It is a strictly political field, and yet it represents the energy values that you are all immersed in, those of you who are paying attention to the political climate. The greater percentage of citizens do not pay that much attention to politics, at least not a sufficient amount as to do anything about it. For that reason, I am not telling you who to vote for.

Esmeralda: I really didn’t think you would, Tomas.

TOMAS: Free will being as it is, also counts for your vote. I have no authority to tell you who to vote for; however, if you tell me what your loyalty is, I will acknowledge it; I will recognize it; and, if it has value, I will support it. I am not in the business of mud-slinging; therefore, I will not be a detractor of the opponent you denounce. I will not play politics according to the rules of the game as it is played in your political arena as mortals of the realm, but I am certainly cognizant of the impact they have on you, and that you who have strong opinions one way or the other are embroiled in that dynamic. Since it is a part of your legacy, since you are citizens of this realm, is not inappropriate.

Esmeralda: Did you want me to, or others to … what did you want, Tomas? Me to do? What to tell you? The things that I believe in, or why I believe as I believe?

TOMAS: I know, more or less, how you believe.

Esmeralda: Thank you. I thought you probably would.

Renault: Tomas, those of us that value the ideal of something like a Department of Peace, to help lead our national government -- to some people that seems like just such a childlike concept that it has nothing to do with modern reality. I would like to know, to be encouraged, that those people on this planet that are -- let’s say working hard for peace … advocating that, vocalizing that -- are being helped along, so that more and more people support that kind of thinking. Do you think that will– Is that a reality to come any time soon? Or is that something for way out in the far futures.

TOMAS: No, certainly not, for recall the Garden was established to represent the needs of that time. And the initial Dalamatian civilization was also set up to incorporate those values that need to be encouraged. Peace is something that needs to be encouraged, particularly in an aggressive area, and when you have those who are incessantly antagonistic toward peace, those who see peace as having more merit than war (and this often reflects financially).

Elena: You were talking about scaffolding, whether it was nations or whatever … each institution or ideal, building on from one to another, and the requirements for change. Whether it’s the State government administration right now that’s going through a lot of change and the mechanics of change forcing some things to be done in ways that you would not have them to be done, but somehow it seems to require chaos or lack of method, lack of forethought, insensitivity, trauma, all of these things as part of change, if you think about that, and then look at some of the people -- Republicans, I mean, maybe. Is there validity in Bush being how he is in order to get to our next level of development? I don’t think so.

TOMAS: Of course!

Elena: Oh.

TOMAS: Of course he has value. He has as much value as the other candidate. Their points of view are both very viable and very representative of this time in your civilization’s advancement -- just as in a marriage, both the male and the female have a viable position. But the unfortunate thing is that the mindset of this day and age for you, as an evolving race, is incessantly antagonistic. It has learned so little of active cooperation, much less coordination. This idea is so antithetical to anything outside its own perspective, and this poison is infecting all of you.

Even though you had this less-than-divine virus before, you are now living as if in an epidemic. Everyone is infected with this virus, this virus of fear, distress, hostility, anxiety and some of it, of course, is exacerbated by the fact of terror. There is a definite perspective that Mr. Bush represents -- the one which speaks of tough love, that cannot tolerate idleness and rebellion against uprightness and civility. He represents a civilization, an ideal, and his ambition is extending it globally, as if in his eyes (and this is supported by a great many people) he is being called upon to be the hero and savior of the world. Since no one else is acting, he will act.

This is "messianic zeal" and many religionists recognize messianic zeal when they see it. And while there are 48% (loosely speaking) who are distrustful and disrespectful of such an approach, on the other hand there are those who follow it blindly and say, "Hail to the chief!" Thus, it depends on what side of the fence you are sitting as to which side has the greater reality. The other side has its perspective as well. But to think that one side is all right and the other is all wrong, is another one of those evils based on ignorance and on loyalty to lesser realities than the divine connection that begins and ends with you in your personal relationship with your indwelling God Fragment, which will go far beyond the political play being enacted.

Those of you who choose to be involved, and who take your passion into that arena, will not be reprimanded for your actions, because the maintenance of civilization requires servants to the cause. The fact that there are different perspectives on how to go about this cause creates, inevitably, the situation that you, Esmeralda, experienced yesterday, with one side opposed to the others’beliefs and, in their passion, extending it even to the prejudicial opinion that those who hold the belief have no value either, and this is error, of course. Both sides have merit and both sides are a balanced representation of the times in which you live, as well as the nature of your human condition at this time in your evolution.

Thus, the more you understand about the human condition, added to the perspective of all of creation from the vantage point of the divine, the more you can see the way the world operates, why it behaves the way it does, how it is playing out the requirements of evolution to civilize a barbaric mentality.

Whether it is engaged in actual war is something that will be seen for centuries to come, for even after men stop killing each other with weapons, they will continue to beat upon each other’s shoulders with ideas, beset by their ideals. And thus the human condition continues to forge a new and higher civilization, based upon a new and higher perspective, based upon advancement of spirit reality in the individual and then, as it shows, in its society.

And this is on going on all seven super universes, at all times, in varying stages of growth. Yours is complicated by the default and rebellion, but all the worlds go through something very similar to this in one way or another. All of you are doing just as you should be doing – representing the values that contribute to the overall destiny of an evolving world. That you can do this in love for each other, that you are not killing each other in your conversations, is in fact a testimony to the reality of God that is indwelling you. Even as you browbeat each other about your ideologies, you maintain a certain respect for one another, at least as a child of God or as someone having, more or less, a right to be here.

I can certainly understand why Jesus did not become embroiled in the political machinations of his day and age. He would never have gotten anything accomplished in terms of what he came here to do and to teach! And this will be a good lesson when you have all learned it through your own experience, then we will be able to effect more growth in those realms of faith which will enlarge your capacity to have faith, and manifest it in such a way as to develop that in you which will be immortal and eternal, and not merely a tool for the evolving material universe.

Yes, we are very interested in the evolution of the material world. But we are far more interested in the evolution of your soul. And though the political arena seems to overpower you on occasion, and infiltrate your mind more than it needs, we also allow for the fact that the spirit persists and prevails within you, even when it is cast aside for the evolving participation you offer life in your passion and your choices to give your attention to the realities of the world in which you live, over and above your relationship with God.

Yes, that is a fine line. There are advantages to involving God consciously in all you do, and this is something that Mr. Bush and his followers are professing. This gives them a fervor on which they are capitalizing which gives their movement the appearance of having religious zeal, even divine sanction. When the segment in the Urantia Papers discusses "Why do the Heathen Rage?" you can see why those who have ideologies unlike your own are looked at as evil imposters; they know what they want. They put their sights on it and go for it. The nebulous idea of peace is difficult to fight for, for the concept itself is an oxymoron or a dichotomy.

Renault: Because you cannot have peace without war.

TOMAS: You do not acquire peace through war.

Renault: Right.

TOMAS: But such dedication is needed, without being warlike. Also remember that not all groups are as politically invested as this one seems to be, as well as several others that seem to have taken on the characteristics of the candidate they support. {Group giggle} This has created division even among the Teaching Mission groups. This is proof positive that the prevailing reality will usurp you from the path of pursuing the divine, providing instead justifiable diversion into the realms of the mortal human condition. And how can we say you are wrong to go there, when we know full well, that is where the experiential learning is?

Our hope, however, for you would be that when you enter into the arena, you are teaching friendship with God in such a way as to incorporate the loving elements of all of humanity, and not merely those of your political persuasion. Being a religionist transcends being a politician, even while politicians persist, and religionists may or may not be political for a party but reserve their loyalty to the one supreme God who reigns over all, the greater government of the universe. In other words, one of these days we will have a chance to get back to our spiritual lessons. {Group chuckle}

Myra: So we should give to Caesar what is Caesar’s and to God what is God’s.

TOMAS: Well, the thing is, my dear, everything is God’s. Even Caesar. But this must be held in appropriate perspective, for you can be a better servant of Caesar in an appropriate regard for humanity’s welfare if you continue to allow God to rule in your heart. You can be a better neighbor, a better public servant, a better spouse, a better tax payer, a better contributor to a better society and a greater civilization if God is at the ultimate helm. But not through the political structure, no. Rather, through the hearts of its denizens.

In this way, Mr. Bush has been aggressive. And although might does not necessarily make right, it is what is. And what you are seeing is a reflection of the consciousness of humanity at this time. You are often too close to the forest to see the trees, to see that you are one of the trees, standing there in the forest – dense as a post sometimes! – but loyal, nonetheless, to that reality which surrounds you. This is part of that which we have come to try to help you see you clear of. Not to avoid the political arena, but to be more adept within it in terms of what can be done for advancing civilization. Are there questions other than politics?

Renault: On the news lately, there has been a number of volcanoes and things that are churning and burning and bubbling, in Mexico and up in Washington, in that fiery circle there. Are we on the verge of a natural disaster, similar to the hurricanes that ran through Florida in the south? We’ve been warned, earlier in the Teaching Mission, of "earth changes". I’m wondering if these volcanoes are immanent and earth changes?

TOMAS: Of course they are, in that your planet has not yet stabilized, and they will continue to be immanent. I am not saying that there are more now as "signs of the times" because God is angry and …

Renault: No, of course not.

TOMAS: … Armageddon is immanent. I am not saying that. But again, since people see what they want to see, it is very easy to take these natural disasters and configure them to somehow support the ideology that you support.

Renault: Well, …

TOMAS: The tendency is when you see a disaster happen, a part of your mind says, "They had it coming!"

Renault: No.

TOMAS: This is not necessarily true for you as an individual, Renault, but it is often true of the collective unconscious, because it is interested in surviving and it has no time for sympathy or compassion. Anything interested strictly in survival has no time for sentiment or religion. And so, such an attitude would be credible. But it tends also to lend itself to the theory that God has sanctioned such a thing. Therefore, not only did they have it coming, God willed it on them because they were evil people, and so God willed that the entire race be eradicated.

This is how God got such a terrible reputation of bringing plagues upon the people. This is a demonstration of man’s mind perceiving what it wants to perceive and making it the predominant consciousness, whether it is error or not. And the people go on thinking this way and believing this way for centuries, until someone begins to question and another cycle starts afresh.

We are at the beginning of a new cycle, a new dispensation. I am not going to say it happened on Thursday, August the 31^st, 1987 or something to that effect, as you humans love to do, for we are not married to that calendar in this cosmos. But that, again, is another example of the frustrations we deal with in our students who continually bring the greater reality down to something they can manage. In this way they think they have mastered the universe, and their own place within it, rather than allowing themselves to surrender to the power of the universe in such a way that they can be utilized fully, consciously, and supremely by the divine hand itself.

That is the way this world will change, and not by political elections.

This is why I am here with you, sons and daughters of the living God. To remind you of your reality in the ultimate sense, that you will embrace that reality as the One worthy of your highest loyalty, and thus put into perspective all these lesser loyalties that comprise your existence -- the temporary, albeit valuable, loyalties of the temporal life. Families, civilizations, cultures, economic systems, political parties – all of these are temporary in the advancing of the greater reality, which is the more thrilling and enduring of them all. Let us be on our way.

Elena: Tomas, you mentioned, in your opening discussion, where you were talking about loyalty, and then of taking this group to a new level. Can you give us an idea of what you have… how you would like to have that happen? Or… what you see?

TOMAS: I have worked with you to some extent during this transition period, to learn to work within yourself, to access your own divine Source, and the extensions of that Source which seek to serve your comprehension of the connection you enjoy with the greater universe, and not merely the segment of sentient reality you have held as a frame of reference from the outset of your mortal existence. In other words, if you can begin to see yourself as a citizen of the universe, rather than as merely a citizen of this planet, your perspective will be enhanced and your soul capacity will grow accordingly. And going back even farther, to your (piano) selection, my dear, your Faith will be a greater victory, and your relationship with your Adjuster will be even more triumphant.

This is my goal for you and each of you, that you walk more fully in consciousness of the divine Presence beside you and within you. In this aura of reality, you cannot fail. You will always know what to say, how to be the most adept, acute and incisive when that is required, the most merciful, compassionate and sympathetic when that is required, and the resultant effect is serenity, peace and tranquillity within your own heart, mind, and soul.

This is my work with you. This is what we mean when we say we want you to be all that you can be. For you can be so much more than your political party would tell you that you are. You are so much more than your family insists that you are. You are so much more than you yourself realize. And this is our quest, our commission, our assignment, and our goal, that all of us be revealed as the triumph of perfection that we each are, in and of our self at this moment in time, in and through the grace of God -- that invisible, omniscient, omnipresent all-purpose God that loves us all – all of his sons and daughters throughout the vast universes of time and space.

Elena: Thank you, Tomas.

TOMAS: I look forward to our next gathering, knowing that it will come about not because of a regimen which all of you follow so disciplinedly, but because your heart yearns for the fertilization that you receive in this field of the Lord which we are provided by our coming together in the desire to know God and to be of service to our fellows through doing His will. I await your signal. Adieu.

*****

DATE: October 31, 2004

LOCATION: Rio Rancho NM

T/R: Gerdean

TOPICS: Rejoice in the Harvest; Ministerial Carte Blanche; Utilizing Myths & Elves; The Art of Debate; Prioritizing Loyalties; Florescence of Believers; Immaculate Conception; New Teacher Coming

TOMAS: Good tidings we bring, we in the invisible realm who have come again at your bidding and because of your willingness to open to the broadcast from On High and important also is that you come to reconnect with that which is eternal and sacred to you and your highest aspirations.

I am Tomas. I embrace you all, you who are in this immediate arena, as well as those of you who are benefiting from the up-stepping of psychic and cosmic energy that is invested in this process of reconnecting your material world with the spirit circuits, and greater realities of life as are introduced and shown to you by Paradise itself.

I tell you this communication is blessed by our Master Son, Michael of Nebadon, and smiled upon by Nebadonia, your Mother Spirit and Divine Minister. Our Parents are overseeing all our efforts and, attentive as they are, they garner every fine point of value, which you envision and actualize.

This nurturing of children is like the Master Gardener who nurtures his crop, Who gives himself to the seasons and the process of life and death as it is known in nature, as one season gives way to the next. And thus there arrives, as we enjoy today, a harvest. The season of harvest is upon us. The fullness of summer has just passed, is in its decline, but in its passing, it shouts aloud to all who will hear of its perfection in its fullness of being.

Rejoice in the harvest, in that which is, in that which has been developed, that which has been mastered, that which has been undertaken and accomplished. Rejoice in the part you have played therein, in the planting of seeds, the hoeing away of weeds and distraction, feeding your soil, preparing the growth, directing its advancement into fruition and enjoying the product of your efforts.

How great God is! What a provider we have in our Creator, and what assistance we enjoy through the Mother -- and her wood nymphs, and elves, and fairies -- who contribute to the enchantment of your Garden.

Renault: Are you saying they are real?

TOMAS: No. I am saying they are a real perception. You must mark my words more poetically and less literally, for the garden and the spirit nymphs that grace your arena are all parables of a greater reality.

If you understand that these metaphors are representative of a common perception of what is generally perceived of as angelic life or spirit sprites such as have graced your superstitions and your literature for many generations, you will be able to capture the fancy of those who are attracted to the mystical and the mysterious. I remind you of the star of Bethlehem that many believe shone on the Christ Child, but this "fish story" is devised from what is truth, to conform to your imagination.

Remember, my child, I am a Teacher whose purpose is to teach you to become a teacher in your own right. You cannot catch all the fish in the sea by using one lure. Different schools of fish require different bait. You yourself are the arbiter of how you go about presenting the reality of the divine light to those you meet; therefore, I am giving you inspiration and permission to depend upon your own creative nature to find the ways and means to lure your fish into nibbling on your bait.

This is not a disreputable approach, for in truth it is wholesome, compared to the method that most of you are familiar with and which is expressed by God "hitting you upside the head with a two-by-four" to get your attention. It is not necessary to undergo a trauma or devastation to find God’s existence an integral and necessary part of your life experience. It can be gotten by simply inviting an enlarged concept of what God is, what the universe is all about, what relationship is, and how people get along. All of this is part of the work in the field. This dedication to duty and working in harmony with the laws of nature can provide the fruit of the spirit that will act as a lure to others.

I am in the situation here with you, in this configuration of students, to realize that most of you are associating with civilized, functional humanity who live a righteous life within the parameters of their own understanding. This might present an obstacle to the kingdom worker who perceives that there is nothing that can be added to these people. There is nothing you can contribute to their enhancement, for they already have matters well in hand.

I have a hunch this is the appropriate perspective from which to approach your work with these people. But there is still something that you bring to the paradigm of life as you live it that speaks uniquely of what you represent as you pass by. This is adding fertilizer to the soil, this adds nourishment to the field, this yields a better crop by its encouragement, by its acceptance of what already is, and by a thorough-going enjoyment of what humanity has already been able to harvest by and through its own efforts and evolutionary growth.

As you are in tune with the divine nature, and as you ask this greater consciousness to prevail with you in your comings and goings, it will then be able to perceive on behalf of the greater perspective, those new seeds of spirit consciousness which will be received in the hearts and minds of those with whom you have interacted in such a way as they feel opened to you and trusting of your qualities. Thereby you become more able to prevail with men, and it is essential that you develop the ability to prevail with others in order to get things done.

You are an industrious lot, products of an industrial time and place; you are ambitious for more, and you are willing to work for your ambitions to be realized. This alone allows you to have an impact on the world in which you live. The effectiveness of your desire to accomplish things that contribute to the advancement of humanity is not always something that can be done from the high art of divine communion because a pint cannot hold a quart.

If you can work with what is, you will be successful. This gives you virtual carte blanche. But giving you virtual carte blanche of the keys to the kingdom also gives you opportunity to learn how to manage this tremendous inheritance you have won from your ability to add to the truth, beauty and goodness of your fellows and their way of life.

You are very sociable. You are skilled, adept, adroit, sophisticated, sensitive, cunning and delightful in your accomplishments of these arts of civility and social intercourse. This is an attainment that others would enjoy more with the cosmic consciousness of divine reality added thereto.

How do you work in the field? How do you bring man to God? How do you bring yourself into a state of being that is love-saturated and desirous of ministering to the needs of your fellows in strength and faith of their desire to also be of service to you? Oft times a learned behavior can become an automatic behavior, a habitual way of life, a conditioned response, but without this morontial dimension, it is unfinished, not ripe for the harvest. Help the harvest along, but rejoice in that which you have already brought forth, and indeed, appreciate your place at the table where this abundance has been royally displayed.

Are there questions this afternoon from your perspective on life, regarding your efforts in the field, your encounters with humanity, your experiential learning or your metaphysical probing?

Elena: Tomas, the thing that you were talking about, I felt like you were talking to me and I am very appreciative. This past week was very frustrating at work, a very discouraging week. People at work seem to be so negative that it seems to be bring me down. Their life seems to be so . .. I don’t know. Your words are very encouraging to me. I find it very difficult to light my own light, much less let it shine through.

TOMAS: It is the last week before the elections and the moon has been full, and these have tremendous impact on humans. Your conditions here give rise to a great deal of conflict and turbulence. Your challenge is to be able to recognize many of these energies, identify their source, and put them in a category so that you can manage them and the personalities.

Paula: Don’t you think that a lot of people are kind of trying to force their views on you? And it’s ridiculous because probably everybody has made up your mind what you’re going to do, but some people make a big argument about it.

TOMAS: There are a lot of people who thrive on the art of debate, for it gives them an opportunity to hone their skills. They become more sharp in their ability to respond to others. They find self-esteem within that paradigm and thus become as if they were sharp knives, able to cut away anything.

This is an advancement from the barbaric practice of war, as is going on in Iraq today, and in many other hot spots of the globe, where violence is the response to frustration. The high art of debate, while cutting and incisive, is an intellectual response to the need to win, much as the Olympics represent a physical manifestation of this same need to surpass others, and be victor over those who are not as artful as he or she who triumphs overall.

These are efforts and exercises en route to civilizing the elements of mankind, which ultimately results in a state of light and life, that state we have mentioned many times, which even now to many of you may represent a vague and undefined future state of being, when in fact, as I have said many times, light and life is possible for each of you today, in your individual paradigm of reality.

And when you have wrapped yourself in this mantle of reality, you can walk through the lower and/or other paradigms of reality without losing your way, and without losing energy to the defense of your right to represent your reality in the world as does the sovereignty of every other individual. In a state of light and life, everyone does this. Until such a time as that is attained, the realities of the material life will prevail.

That is to say, the animal kingdom will take precedence over the divine kingdom ~ which is a natural evolutionary process, but stressful, nonetheless ~ and it will continue to be stressful for those of you who must, for one reason or another, have loyalties in both tracks ~ especially when those loyalties are in conflict ~ but this is the stuff of character growth and personality perfecting.

Elena: You mentioned loyalty to both tracks. I’m also thinking about what others have recommended before, of having an actual balance between the spiritual and the material worlds, and so I’m a little bit confused about having loyalties in track, and then about how -- going back to something you said earlier, about those two are alike, to the Father, so I’m confused there.

TOMAS: You have brought up wonderful material, fertile soil, indeed, for your own growth and the growth of humanity, with this important mota you approach. This indicates the crux of my message and the gospel of Jesus. The question is about the two worlds in which you live: the human and the divine. It is a part of your nature. You are of animal origin with a divine destiny, and as you become more and more familiar with that spirit aspect of yourself, as you succumb to the powers that have led you (and will continue to lead you) in divine awareness, you are naturally and inherently experiencing the cycles of rebirth from old perspectives to new, as are those around you who may or may not be as willing to open to such perspectives because of a lack of understanding of how God works in your life or in the lives of those who have been reborn of the spirit and who function as a herald of greater reality.

Many times those who are civil religionists ascribe all credit to behavior-- the paradigm of behavior that is socially acceptable, as you would say "politically correct". But this is not lasting value, as is inherent in the reborn child of God, such as you know as one who entertains within you the divine fragment of divinity into which you are investing yourself in an attempt to grow your own immortal soul.

Living in the material realm with many who are not cognizant of that other dimension – even while many do play it lip service because they have an intellectual comprehension of what that represents and what behaviors are necessary in order to survive – results in the conflict because the loyalties of the material realm are often more emotionally poignant and culturally important than spiritual loyalties, whereas, from the spirit frame of reference, from loyalty first to the spirit, the cultural realm and the emotional fields are all better managed and the loyalties will fall within their proper perspective because the spirit reigns over all.

You can investigate this yourself by ascertaining one of your mortal loyalties and then stepping outside of that relationship that you have understood requires your loyalty, to the perspective of the consciousness of God that will allow the greater pattern of Paradise reality the opportunity to arrange a place within it for the loyalty of your creation ~ between yourself and that which you give yourself to in the material sense.

Elena: I think that helps. Thanks, Tomas.

Thoroah: I just had a thought, an analogy of two different worlds and the intrinsic nature of using your ability to live in both, like an amphibian that can live on land or in the water, and when it’s in the water he adapts to the water; when he is on land, he adapts to the land. He can do both. He doesn’t forsake one for the other. But he has the ability to do both and so that ability works in both places. So it’s not as much of a conflict as it is just being aware of whether he’s in the water or on land.

TOMAS: Let me add to that perspective the dimension that I am told to stress. If your amphibian is phosphorescent, as are the grunion, then I will accede to your example completely, for in that case, the florescence of the amphibian is visible in either dimension.

Thoroah: Absolutely.

TOMAS: And it is the florescence that allows you to function wholly and fully within either realm as a God-knowing individual, able to surround yourself with the florescence of God-consciousness in either aspect of your existence. Accustom yourself, then, to realizing your florescence, and consider that as a part of the abundance and the harvest of that which you have already established, and to varying degrees, have mastered within yourself, so that your light shines true wherever you go and you are secure and replete within that consciousness. In this way you will never be brought down by the surroundings. They are simply exterior to you.

Renault: And this comes with this spiritual security and faith that you are protected, and that no matter what you do or what environment you are in, you do have that secure sense that you are safe and secure and protected. I think you actually don’t have to even like talk to people or try to convince them or anything, but you can still touch them just by . .. as you say . .. your ‘florescence’, your spiritual fragrance that you talk about. Just being you in your environment, and still being able to move through that magically because you have this innate security, right?

TOMAS: Yes. And you are able to draw out the florescence of others by encouraging them where they are, by speaking their language and encouraging them on their path.

Renault: Even if it had to be a different path.

Thoroah: Indeed.

TOMAS: If they are given a little illumination, they will see their own way home. They are indwelt. Draw upon their Adjuster to enliven them, in confidence of their ability to work with the stimulation you provide in your desire to light that flame of spirit reality within others. And respond to it affirmatively when you see it manifested. This will help uphold the greater reality.

This is not political, cultural, or social theories or systems I refer to, but the essence of the individual who yearns for that which is the ideal, that will reflect their appreciation for the best they have to offer at this point in time. That is all anyone can do. "The act is ours; the consequences God’s.) And I have come today to encourage you to use whatever creative methods you are innately familiar with and comfortable with to allow the light of truth and the love of God to shine.

Paula: You know, something? We’ve got an interesting Sunday school class. We talk about everything, and everybody has a chance to spout off and say what they think. And all of a sudden they’re reading something in the Bible, and they’re yakking about the Immaculate Conception and at that point I had it. I said, "Look. What in the dickens difference could it possibly make? It’s none of our business. If Mary and Joseph got fooling around and all of a sudden she said, "Oops, I’m pregnant," so he said, "Okay, so we’ll get married and make it okay." So they did and it didn’t take nine months for Jesus to get born. But what possible business is it of ours?

Renault: Because when the Bible was written, they were trying to show that he had a divine nature, from the very beginning. That’s because the Bible was written in retrospect, and so, therefor, if he was a wonderful, beautiful divine person, then he must have had a divine beginning, so there must have been angels singing at his birth because he as a super special person and we know that because as an adult he did all these wonderful divine things, therefor he must have had a divine beginning.

Thoroah: It was politically correct.

Renault: So to live that divine life, half divine and half human, so to speak, they wrote in this Immaculate Conception thing because . .. it’s partially true! You know, Gabriel came and talked to Mary and many of the Biblical people will have a special beginning. They’ll have a . .. like John the Baptist. Look how special he was! I mean, if Elizabeth hadn’t conceived in 180 years . ..

Paula: Yeah! I’d like to know how she did that!

Renault: And so it makes him a very special person, from the very beginning God has smiled on this person. And so whether or not there is an Immaculate Conception, like you say, we have no idea.

Paula: It isn’t our business! Why should we care?

TOMAS: I would recommend that you augment that story about your Sunday school discussion of the Immaculate Conception with the good news of the Resurrection, for that constancy is born into all of you regardless of your material parentage because you have divine parentage, as well, and what difference does it make, indeed, who your material father is, as long as you understand that your eternal life is dependent upon your eternal Father.

However, Paula, this is an indication that this myth was established and it represents even still how people think, and they do not think with the divine eye. They think in terms of social customs, as if that was the eternal quest.

I am going to wind this session down, for it seems we could lay here and watch the stars all night, but I do want to advise you that there will be a new teacher coming to this group to enhance the budding community of this area and hopefully we will be able to expand our palette to include some of the legends and mysteries that have been a part of the consciousness of the Age of Aquarius – that definition of the Correcting Time that is already understood and in existence today.

Paula: Well, who is coming? Will they be like you?

Thoroah: Stay tuned! This is the station to stay tuned.

Renault: Thank you, Tomas. We love you.

TOMAS: I am not leaving you. I am merely being accompanied in future by a companion I have yet to meet myself. The bleachers today have been filled with mentors – your and my mentors – Machiventa, Abraham and many others align with us in our steps we take toward growing in the spirit. I will grow with you in these next few weeks until we meet again in celebration, again, of the tremendous outpouring of life from God’s cornucopia.

Enjoy yourselves and be about the Father’s business in such a way as you can report to us and teach us as we pass by. Farewell.

Group: Thank you, Tomas.

*****

DATE: November 28, 2004

LOCATION: Rio Rancho, NM, USA

TEACHERS: TOMAS and MACHIVENTA

TOPICS: Scriptural Relevance We Are Here to Learn; Learn to Ask Questions

Q&A: "This is the Way?" Are you sure?; Who loves you?; What does it mean to "follow God’s will"? What does it mean to "lean upon the Lord"? What does it mean to "presume upon divine mercy"?

Assignment: Learn to wait upon the Lord.

Music: Elena on Piano: Andante Adagio Cantabule

Second Movement of a Beethoven Sonata

TOMAS: Dear friends, greetings, I am Tomas, your teacher.

Group: Greetings.

TOMAS: It gladdens me to be amidst you.

Thoroah: We missed you, too.

TOMAS: I am working on your language. I appreciate your working on mine.

Last time we met, I made reference to the fact that there would be a new development effective the next time we met, and one of which I was not yet aware. I am still somewhat in the dark about all the new developments, but it would seem there are indeed changes afoot in this (what you call) teaching mission. For you have advanced in your many years of application. This speaks to the subject of scriptures.

The scriptures are something wise men, prophets and elders have relied upon for centuries, for they, scriptures, represent the wisdom of those prophets, seers, believers and leaders who have gone before you, down the path of experiential advancement of spirit.

Jesus referred to the scriptures, often quoting them, and at the same time advising his followers to not depend upon the scriptures, but to develop a relationship with divinity itself, for the kingdom of heaven is within you – as us the Source and Center of all things.

But the hold scriptures have over so many religionists – not just biblical scriptures but the Torah, the Koran, the Bhagavad-Gita, and others – have tremendous impact and influence on their creedal followers and on the attitude these followers subsequently have with one another … inside their flock and outside.

Then we had the fifth epochal revelation in book form, which quickly (in some eyes) surpassed the importance of the Bible on the totem pole of religious advancement. And yet, it still stands as an icon of a belief system. To the extent that its followers and devotees regard it as the holy word and the last word, so too has this new generation, this new dispensation, become guilty of exalting scripture instead of the reality of God Himself.

As I speak, I am emitting also scripture. Every week we gather together you are hearing The Gospel According to Tomas (no "h"). Any time you become infused with the spirit and have the opportunity from your bully pulpit to give forth your truths, you are speaking your gospel truth, your scripture.

And this is a natural, normal and desirable aspect of the evolution of God on a world. For eventually the word of God will be in the mouth of every man, woman and child and each will be scripture according to that individual himself. However, all men will be speaking of the Father, and this will be the realization of the brotherhood of man. What we are instructed to do is be about the Father’s business in preparing these scriptures as another manifestation of truth, beauty and goodness to Urantia, and there will be lessons forthcoming to this effect.

The point I must make now is that it is time to recognize the fact of our format, which is about teaching. We are an element of the Melchizedek schools. We are a branch of the Melchizedek University, an institute of higher learning, a place where your minds are fed – the mind that is the key to opening the door of the spirit.

This is not the same as a house of worship or a church. It is a classroom, wherein we are all believers in a divine being. When we pray together and pause in worship for a moment in time, we are engaging in the active spiritual rights we have as sons and daughters of the living God, in whose house is this university, under Father Melchizedek.

The Universities of the Melchizedeks extend from universe to universe. On every universe throughout the spheres, the Melchizedek order of sonship is educating and advancing our progress toward ultimate perfection. It is also true that as you learn new cosmic truths, you will experientially know these in your daily life. The hope is that when we gather together in these formations, there will be a real exchange of information to feed this process. While we are indeed sociable and give ourselves wholly to the socializing aspects of fellowship, my role here with you has been and will continue to be as a Teacher. And so we Teachers are urging you to begin to appreciate the value of the inquiring mind, the mind that delves into this level of reality as something worthy of contemplation, consideration and eventual activation. This is a part of the advancement of your world.

There are times, I realize, that you are not interested in exhausting yourselves in study, that there are times when you want to play as children and be left alone to play as children do. These opportunities are periodically provided in order to allow levity to bond you in yet deeper folds of family love for, after all, laughter is a great release and humor is the antidote to an exalted ego. As I attempt to expand your sense of self, balance is necessary to remind you of smallness of self. As you are lifted up on one hand, it is natural to be let down on the other, in order for you to carry yourself forward in a steady gait rather than by fits and starts as the toddler who is only learning to walk.

We are called upon to grow up in spirit capacity, and without discussing various degrees of attainment, it is nonetheless important to recognize that we are right where we need to be at this time in order for us to go forward. And that is true in terms of individual experience, as well as our group experience, as well as the experience of those of us in this vanguard, those other light workers who are sharing with us the platform for advancement of humanity, and those within the body of humanity who are rallying to the herald, "Awake and rejoice, for the kingdom is at hand."

I want you to learn how to ask questions. I want you to learn to be good students. I know how well you socialize. I know how well you pray. I am here to help you learn. I am not an administrator, nor am I a Melchizedek, but I am assisted by those beings – Ham, Abraham, Machiventa and his receivers – by my fellow teachers in the Teacher Corps, and all the angelic hosts that seek to assist you in your spirit awakening, as well.

I believe Merium will be coming to companion you on occasion. She has been my sidekick before. She is not spiritually sophisticated in a philosophic or scholastic sense. She is a child, in many ways, and so for those occasions when you yearn to be childlike, I will invite her in and you can frolic to your hearts’ delight. But in the meantime, ponder these words for our future sessions. What is important today, to your way of thinking? Knowing what you know now, having been exposed to what you have been exposed to, what would you yearn to know and contribute to the next set of evolutionary scripture that will lead us into the next phase of growth?

It has been a long time since we gathered together and no doubt much of this time has been spent allowing the seeds of our earlier course of study to germinate in your mind, heart and soul. Have any of you reports of progress or questions about your growth?

Elena: I do. I feel kind of stumped. I feel like I’m in a process of transition and I really am frustrated. I don’t know … I feel a need to create a new dream and yet I seem, I’m finding that, even beginning to think about what that might be. And just have a real strong need or request for guidance here, and … I don’t know. Is that clear enough? Or do I need to elaborate?

The uncertainty, too. That’s another uncertainty, that the need to create my vision and to come up with a new idea, a new dream, a new direction, and I just am stimied.

TOMAS: There are different schools of thought for this juncture. There are those who would have you make up a list and notate all that you would like to have come to be. And this is certainly an experiential method of learning, for when you set our your expectation or your wish, you may get it. And this may be what your ego craves. It may be what is necessary to teach you certain lessons. But it may also be a waste of time for those of you who have already done enough of forcing your will on life in apposition to it forcing its will upon you.

The middle ground, center position, would wait upon the Lord for good orderly direction, although the human mind does not like to wait, and fear feels the pressure to act, even unwisely, in order to not sit there inert as if vulnerable to attack from any direction.

I propose another avenue of faith walking. You know you must do certain things in life. Most of them are going through the motions. You brush your teeth, you go to work. You service your automobile. You take care of personal hygiene and feed yourself. These comprise most of humanity’s major if not sole existence. There is nothing to consider there, except to do it, and do it in a detached manner, so that you are not swallowed up by it, and watch with the other part of your consciousness, your superconsciousness in faith that God will lead you to that which shows you the greater reality, the one which you yearn to have.

I taught this many years ago in terms of the swamp. The lesson of the swamp is about emotions, and that if you can learn to stand on one lily pad of faith, you are safe from the quicksand, the alligators, the mosquitoes and all the elements of the unknown, the bothersome, the titillating, the demanding and the distracting that surrounds you. And stay there until you know where you are, and when you know where you are, you can operate therefrom still without sinking into the quicksand, without being carried away. Until the next opportunity, the next lily pad, the next piece of divine guidance is presented before you.

Walk therein. This is how the Father leads you through your life’s journey. You do what you need to do and ask him to lead you. Not only into the swamp but beyond the swamp, beyond the dunes, beyond the world. In all ways, learn to follow.

Elena: Well, Tomas, that is very helpful. There is only one kind of other little part that I wanted to ask you, and that is that sometimes it seems like I doubt my perception of things and you think, "Okay, seek first the kingdom of god, and all else will be supplied to you." And sometimes I’m not sure if I am or not. Sometimes I think that that’s the thing that I want the most, and I think the story about the man who wanted to follow Jesus and Jesus said, "Well, come with me," and he said, "Oh, anything but that," or something to that effect, or leaving his possessions, or whatever. So there’s sometimes where you doubt. I guess I’m saying that I doubt if I’m doing the right thing. I want to do the right thing, but I’m not certain. That’s what I was talking about when I mentioned the word ‘uncertainty’.

The other things that you said are good and I will follow them, but is there something that you would say about this uncertainty of whether we are following the right way?

TOMAS: You who have one foot in the material world and one foot in the spiritual world are doomed to experience uncertainty. You must make a wholehearted commitment to live the spirit-led life in order to have certainty. And most of you are unable to live a completely spirit-led life because you have other loyalties. In your way of thinking, you need to have other loyalties in order to survive this existence. But the truth remains that if you depend solely on Jesus you will be provided for. You will be given the knowledge of how to turn. It is only when you hold back and waver in your commitment that these intersections are in front of you in which you must make a choice of how to go.

Not so much an intersection, as a "Y" in the road. (Yes, I see the poem, Gerdean, thank you. ‘two roads diverged into a wood’. Robert Frost.) This is not inappropriate, but it is not quite the same as a mortal choice of how to go about your life path. My message is how to make and when to make and if to make a whole-hearted decision. Until you make the supreme decision, all your decisions will lead to naught but greater experiential learning. Your effectiveness and your supreme happiness are only allocated in and through your relationship with your indwelling Adjuster … with that divine and eternal aspect of infinity whose job it is to secure your cooperation for its personality survival through you. Your Adjuster is fighting for its life. And yours. And as you dally and waver and hedge, you forestall this wondrous opportunity.

It is true, child, that you will be given every opportunity to make this choice. But I am urgent enough in my integrity to suggest you not overlong presume upon divine mercy to carry you when you know full well you are capable of standing erect as a Daughter of God in all things.

Elena: Well, I’ll sure try to think about that and re-read that when it comes out in written form. Thank you, Tomas.

TOMAS: Thank you, daughter, for your courage to face the challenge in front of you. There is no greater commitment, nothing more fulfilling or effective than the supreme commitment to do His will. This is not a nebulous outside your personal consciousness theory; this is a living way. As you advance, you automatically advance the collective consciousness. All of us are en route to greater perfection.

MACHIVENTA: This is Machiventa. I am coming here today to wrap my arms around you and remind you of the love we have for you, how much faith we have in your ability to be part of the reign of Michael. Your willingness to participate in this unfoldment of divine light is appreciated, and your yielding of your will to the divine will is something we are inspired by.

We are grateful for these small enclaves of mortal beings who seek to know more about the spirit that indwells them and that activates their lives, that upholds them and cradles them in infinity. We are glad, too, for the spirit helpers in the seraphic realms who look to you for enrollment in their realm of work for the mortals of the realm, and the midwayers who help bridge the gap between the veil that separates us to (from) the mortal consciousness.

All of this is set in motion by the Universal Father because of His love for His extended creation, for the potential inherent in the minds of all men and women, on all the worlds of space. Our Father loves us with an infinite and abiding love, and there is no part of His universe that is not swathed in His embrace.

Abide with our Teacher Tomas here in good cheer and enjoy the visitors who occasionally stop by to generate association for you in the spirit, the spirit that lives in both worlds – visible and invisible. Shalom.

TOMAS: This is Tomas. Are you asleep? Are you awake?

Group: No, we’re awake!

TOMAS: Do you want to ask questions? What would you like to do now?

Thoroah: Well, I had a thought on what you were talking with Elena about, and that longing that probably all of us have felt for some kind of direction in making our choices, and we’ve all heard that if we yield to the Father’s will, that is the key. And that is easy to say "yield to the Father’s will." It’s kind of confusing on this end, trying to figure out what that might be. How do you "yield to the Father’s will"? If you’re not supposed to sit and wait for it, what are you supposed to do? And I’m gathering from what you’re saying that assuming that we have committed to doing the Father’s will, that basically whatever we do, as long as we do something, is the best thing. Because we’re going to find out if we’re not doing the right thing by doing it and we can always sit back and guess if we’re not doing anything. I try to practice that myself. And also, to add some patience in there, because sometimes I think we look for answers, clues, hints in certain ways and we get clues and hints but we’re not necessarily looking in the right direction. And that probably ties back to seeking the Father’s will, but I think sometimes we super-impose what we expect, when we’re getting directions. And so, what I found is that if I’m going to do something, that’s usually the best way to find out if I’m on the right path or not, because I’ll soon know.

TOMAS: You have established a method, yes. It is a rather ‘hit and miss’ method, but in-as-much as your heart is in the right place, it is likely you win more than you lose and so it is not a bad method of advancement, but it is certainly an evolutionary way as compared to a revelatory way.

Thoroah: I’m sure it is.

TOMAS: There is this – they have said -- about the 10 Commandments, how can anyone follow a "thou shalt not" regime. Well, there is some merit to a "thou shalt not" regime for those who have not complete trust in the Lord, and that is to look at that which comes at you and, by process of what has gone before, eliminate them from your receptors.

I am trying to say, if you sit still, having no idea which way to turn, and opportunities are shown to you, that you do not know whether or not it is God’s will. If you have done it before and it did not work, do not do it again. Thereby, through a process of elimination, limit your choices until such time as there is no way to go but "up". That way will be the right way. Yet you can save yourself all that time by waiting until you see "what’s up" in the first place.

There are those who say that God will send you a message, and there is the story about the fellow on the roof in the flood. The boat came by, which he rejected; the helicopter came by, which he rejected; and when he drowned, he said, "you didn’t save me!" And God said, "I sent you a boat! I sent you a helicopter." But it’s "what’s up" that would save him. It well may have been time for him to drown. Allow yourself to drown on occasion and be reborn to the new situation.

You don’t have to constantly seek for your own survival, find your own way home, fix it. Allow yourself, in faith, to just believe that God knows what He is doing, and He will lead you home. Many of you have adventurous natures and sufficient health to experiment all along the way and say, "Whoops! That wasn’t the right way!" "Whoops! Better not do that again!" But there are also many of you who make major error simply because you can. This is what I mean about presuming upon divine mercy. This is sheer willfulness.

Because you have free will, and have been gifted with these options, does not mean you have to utilize them interminably. You could (and I speak to you as a Dutch Uncle here) get it into your heads that the Father loves you and knows what’s best for you. If you don’t want what’s best for you, but what you want, then follow what you want. Lean upon your own understanding, but as long as you lean upon your own understanding, you will discover what not to do. When you lean upon the Lord, He will show you the way.

Thoroah: What does that mean, Tomas? What does that mean, to "lean upon the Lord?" I mean, that whole thing to me, that is so confusing. I know what it means to be good and truthful and honest and loving, but to lean upon the Lord or to try to follow God’s will, just confuses me.

TOMAS: It is to live within Him.

Thoroah: I do, but I don’t know that I know what God’s will is for me, other than whatever it is that I intuit. I mean, it’s a teamwork effort. It’s not either/or. I’m not necessarily relying on my own resources and not relying on God. It’s a teamwork thing.

TOMAS: All right. I heard you use the word "intuit". Intuit is the initial impulse, the first adjutant mind spirit. It is perhaps the lowest of God’s nudges, but it is, even so, a reality. If you are intuiting something, you are having a response to God. Listen to it.

Thoroah: Of course.

TOMAS: Follow that until it is made clear. Until it is made clear, wait. That is what I mean. It sounds like that is our assignment for this next period of time.

Elena: To wait?

TOMAS: To learn to wait upon the Lord. To find that "Y" in the road, and to find out which way is God’s way for you to take.

Thoroah: We can do that and then on your end, you guys can figure out a better way to explain it to us.

TOMAS: No question about the fact that we will persevere.

Men-O-Pah: I’ve quoted from the poet Longfellow before. I know that I have read these lines over to you, Elena, at least once, that there – it’s at the end of one of his poems. It says, "Let us then be up and doing with a heart for anything, still believing, still pursuing, learn to labor and to wait."

We’re used to instant gratification these days, and we want it to happen right now. But that’s not God’s schedule. You know, his ways are so high above ours. That’s why we’re here, to try to find out. But, we need to be patient when we do it. As the poet said, "learn to labor and to wait." And I think perhaps that we will eventually understand it.

TOMAS: Thank you, Men-O-Pah.

Elena: This has been really helpful to me because – in the wait part – because I had -- (group chuckle) … No really, I’m serious! Actually that had even come to me, to "wait upon the Lord." I honestly had thought about that phrase, or scripture, and had written it down, I think, in my journal. But I was just concerned that I might be deluding myself somehow, and I didn’t want to be on the wrong path. I wanted to be on the right one. And I am content to wait, I really am, which is something that I do need to learn. I am not good at it at all. I mean, I’m horrible at it. So that’s something I’m certainly willing to try to look into.

But the other part … that I might be on the wrong path … that’s disturbing, I guess. That being the uncertainty that I was talking about.

TOMAS: No one wants to make a mistake and have to learn a lesson, but that is how it goes. Eventually, the mistakes are less noticeable, less problematic. More and more you will be able to see them coming and avert them. These are opportunities to mold your soul, as the apostles were often devastated by what Jesus said, only to, the next moment, be lifted up and exalted again before, once more, being crushed and then again lifted up. This process of molding you is a part of the humbling process, the taming of the shrew, the dis-empowering of those who have a sense of competence undeserved, and so forth, until such time as you begin to develop some substance.

Just like the teenage years are troubling for so many, so are these troublesome times when you are grappling with these momentous soul-making decisions. Spiritual growth can be turbulent and conflicting, but once resolved, you have peace, sublime peace.

Elena: But Tomas, when you were in your other answer, you said that I had relied on divine mercy too long or something like that. That was kind of disturbing to me in your answer. Because I feel like I try really hard! I don’t think that I—it doesn’t feel like I’m flying off—maybe I am, but … I don’t know. But I understand Ready To Stand Up As A Daughter of God. That, you know, that makes sense, and I can hear some truth, too, in kind of holding back from that. I can see that. I don’t know how I’m not to do it just yet, but I can see a glimmer of the truth in that, so I’m not saying what you were saying was incorrect. It’s just that it’s hard to, again, trying to figure out how to bridge the gulf.

But! I also heard what you said in "waiting" so I think you’ve given me the tool to find that out.

TOMAS: I know your indwelling Adjuster is ready to minister to you and help you direct your thoughts godward in that context, and I am glad to have been instructed to instruct you thusly.

This thing about presuming upon divine mercy is something everyone experiences to some extent or another, and, certainly, at some point or other. And residue effects will echo into the future, but the child who enthusiastically runs to do the Father’s bidding, even before Father has thought to ask, is the one who is cherished, as compared to the one who may try Mother’s patience with balking or sulking, and all of you know that you have all those elements of personality within you at some point and to some degree.

No one wants to be thought of as a shirker, of course, which is partly why you are all so industrious! By being very busy, you can prove that you are engaged in something and so how can you be presuming on anything or anyone? Sit in stillness. Call upon your guides. Call upon your Divine Minister and your Adjuster to align your thoughts and set you right within yourself, so that you are right with God, and then you will be right with all of humanity. It’s a simple program. Too simple for most people who want to make it complicated, sophisticated, complex, elite, and esoteric.

There will be more ahead. I look forward to seeing your agenda, so as to return to your embrace. I leave you for the afternoon, albeit reluctantly. I miss you when I am not part of you consciously. I do enjoy those times when you allow me into your consciousness when we are not in session, but more important is that which you keep with you at all times, and that is a consciousness of the divine and how you interrelate with that in your very being.

Beautiful friends and students, I will see you next time.

Group: Thank you, Tomas. Farewell.

*****

DATE: December 18, 2004

LOCATION: Central New Mexico

T/R: Gerdean

SEEK THE TRUTH; Second Revelatory Commission; Rapture Eludes Orphanhood; Truth of " The Good News"; Pursue Truth Through Love;

SPIRITUAL INVENTORY; Spiritual Captives Set Free; Truth is True as Well as Truth; Human Dependence v. Detachment;

EMOTIONS AND TRUTH; The Source of Suspicion; You Create You Via Thoughts; What Is Beyond Paradise?; We are Creating Perfection; Plod on With the Work at Hand; Set Spiritual Captives Free;

TRUTH GETS LOST IN DETAILS; Jesus Parable-ized Truth; Truth Transcends Methods; Changing Cause and Effect; Surrender to Evolution

Gerdean: As a T/R, I just want to tell you what an interesting experience it is, sometimes, at these events, to see the parade of personalities who are here. For instance, Machiventa stopped by, and Father Abraham also is present.

Renault: Welcome. We feel so privileged.

Gerdean: Michael is here peripherally. Tomas is here and there are a number of other entities that I have not seen before but who seem to be new somehow, like, perhaps, the Soul of Wisdom . .. those kinds of more morontial or ethereal values than our minds are accustomed to.

Renault: Welcome, and Merry Christmas to you all.

Gerdean: And Midwayer Jack is here as well, so it really does feel like a full house. And I’m feeling too emotional, so I’m going to go off-line for a minute.

Renault: Well, thanks for coming, you guys.

TOMAS: And we appreciate your attendance, as well. This is Tomas, your "handy man and celestial spokesman" as it were. It is an honor to be a part of this Association of Beings which seeks to embrace your consciousness and envelop you in the divine embrace, inculcating you, as it were, into the universe. This naturally requires that you occasionally dissociate yourself from the material in which you are housed, in order for you to perceive and embellish, through choices, that which will become enduring, lasting, eternal.

There is much afoot in the local universe and on your experimental life station, Urantia, of course, although not exclusively; there are other places in the universe also requiring a great deal of administrative and service help. Your sister planets in rebellion, for instance, are engaging in similar unique and augmented assistance -- even those which are not experimental life stations but which are controlled by pattern.

Another development is the news of the Second Revelatory Commission, the attempt now, at this point in your evolving consciousness, that will allow you and your fellow sojourners an opportunity to reach beyond your immediate and daily lives into the cosmic fold of understanding more about your place in the universe and, subsequently, how to convey that comfort and assurance to the fear-ridden populace of your world.

Rapture, you see, is a theory based on a need, a human need which arises as a result of the sense of cosmic orphan-hood, which Urantia experiences in the direct wake of rebellion and default, and we must deal now with the effect of that cause ~ and, for (your) assurance, it will be required that this echo of dissociation from divinity will continue diminishing, ever diminishing, in its animalistic and selfish presentation.

The opportunity has come for you to propose questions extending beyond your common sphere of interest into unseen realms, which may introduce to you ideas and ways and means which have been proven to be workable throughout the universe and which you might have the ability to employ if you have the conviction that what you hear is Truth. People are hungry for truth. While truth will frighten some people, it will also save others. For this reason, we are happy to be associated with this, a planet which is experimental in itself, yes, but which also provides opportunity for tremendous experimentation of your own.

And while some very clever public relations can affect millions ~ over a period of time, it is likewise true that appropriate ~ "good news" can be ignited by the right ~ winds of change and spark of inspiration ~ that will distribute a wild fire across the prairie of your lives ~ allowing all to see ~ your smoke signals of reality ~ that reality which satisfies the soul and quenches the thirst ~ quells the appetite, soothes the savage beast, and prevails with all mankind.

That is what we all seek for and yield to ~ that is what we are joined together in ~ that transcends all the differences: philosophies, theologies, even worlds. Seek Truth. Ask out of curiosity, but seek Truth. By pursuing new truths, you are given new obligations and responsibilities to apply yourself in promulgating such truth to others. Assume the source of your strength to be in the Spirit. Otherwise, this work cannot be done. You will burn out, like the prairie fire without wind.

What is most essential and yet what is hardest to convey is how this is entirely shrouded, upheld and expressed by and as and through Love. You must invite divine love into your heart. "Knock, and the door will open." "Seek and ye shall find." "Abide therein." "Be in the world but not of it." "Be of good cheer." Amen.

Renault: Amen.

Thoroah: Thank you, Tomas.

TOMAS: I am at your service. I am here to serve you in your ambassadorial efforts to bring light of understanding to your world. How have you been about the Father’s business? How have you seen the Father’s work working through you and with you? Have you seen the Father’s light come alive in the minds of others as a result of your efforts with Him? Has your consciousness of God indwelling others accelerated light and life for Urantia? Have you extended the embrace of the family of God into the arena where you work and play?

Will you have made a mark? What kind of mark will it be? What have you done for God today? What have you given to Him in creation of the Supreme? Has your intent been good? Is your righteousness based on what you know or what you are? How are you made more in conjunction with God? How have you been relating to/ in association with the God who dwells within you? Are you becoming more aware of Its presence … more mindful of Its guidance … more accepting of Its direction … more cautious of Its advisements … and more accepting of Its affection?

Are you becoming able to acknowledge your will, while it is engaged in divine co-creation? Are you able to see how God works through you, even when your own will is compelling you to act or react? Are you able to hold onto the hem of His garment in the face of fear, and thus refrain from panic? Are you then able to forge on ~ in faith of overcontrol and destination ahead ~ even while you remember to be still, and experience the oneness of perfection in the obliteration of the self into the full self of energy and might?

I recite poetry as your hungry hearts seek expression. How can I make up for my Self interjecting upon your Self? Come forth and be with me. Show your Self, that we may show others the truth of our being.

Renault: Thank you, Tomas. I had a feeling you wanted us to say something.

Do I know if I touch people everyday? Am I aware of God-consciousness all the time? I’m not sure. You just do what you think is best at the moment in time. Sometimes it turns out that it feels like it’s okay. You hope that you are. Your intent is always that you are. So… But-- being dramatic things, we have no idea. Not that we know of.

TOMAS: You are allowing God to operate through you, even unconsciously. Yes, it is often better that way, than those who take up the banner of Truth and clobber their following, beating them upon the head and shoulders about their inabilities and insignificance. This, of course, is anathema to the spirit, which seeks expression. Those are held captive. This is what is meant when it is said that Jesus came to set the spiritual captives free.

Renault: Well, sometimes you see spiritual captives, but you really can’t intrude upon their way of thinking -- and wanting to pray for their loved ones and expecting miracles where honestly there won’t be one because physical bodies give up, as they do. You know? You sort of want to try to correct them but without intruding upon their already established religious beliefs, et cetera.

TOMAS: There is always ‘undying hope.’

Renault: Yes, there is, and that’s what you don’t want to ever intrude upon that.

TOMAS: Although, as an ambassador of the living God, it is to everyone’s advantage when you can reassure everyone of the fact of everlastingness, which is potential within the hearts of all the King’s men.

Renault: That’s a touchy subject to—

Thoroah: You have more of an assurance of the safety of death, I guess.

Renault: I guess.

TOMAS: The problem seems to come from the fear of the unknown, as well as the sense of loss.

Renault: Um-hum.

TOMAS: This is an indication of how dependent mortals are on one another. This, too, is an effect of the Lucifer rebellion and Adamic default, for without the confidence instilled within you from before your inception of a space created for your safety and development, you will cringe at the apposite reflection of that promise, and thus cling to the other (lesser) representations of reality which present themselves. And when family does (cling to fear), when loved ones do (cling to lesser reality), we seek to enhance the value inherent in the association rather than the inherent weakness of the cloying, for it is understood that this is part of your conditioning. ("It’s only human!")

The antithesis of that, which is detachment, is often mistaken for not caring, as it is unemotional in its presentation. But there are ways to care for each other that have not been developed, not discovered, identified and developed in ways which would be helpful in the future toward creating light and life which you could do as a collective new consciousness, a superconsciousness, united in purpose, if all circumstances were held … auspiciously. And this is what will come about as a result of your seeking for Truth.

Truth is not cruel. It is elevating. Allow yourself to feel safe in the universe, even as you may become more and more mindful of how vulnerable you are in the material sense, for the fear-mongering of the current global paradigm will be presenting fear as something from which to hide, but the Father will not grow if He is hidden, if you encourage Him to hide. Rather, be of good cheer -- and not in the emotional sense so much as in the spiritual sense ~ that which you know to be true as well as Truth. It is the essential Truth.

Thoroah: Tomas, you mentioned earlier in your "way" moment of . .. ‘do we know the difference between what we know and who we are’ and just then you related to the truth ‘as we know to be the truth’ ~ and intermingled within that is the emotion aspect of everything. And you talked about the emotion as it relates to our feelings and emotions (or what we know), and our emotion as it relates to our spiritual nature.

I’m wondering about this emotion part, if emotions as we know them are part of the experiment. Is the spiritualizing of these emotions we have...? Because I take it [that] these emotions are one of the big challenges we have to deal with because everything in our whole life is based on our emotions. We do everything emotionally, and all of the depictions I have seen of creative, extra- terrestrial activity with us, our emotions are always a part of that equation, part of the curiosity of this particular race.

I’m wondering if other people in our [galactic] neighborhood have the same kind of emotional things to deal with as we do, or if it is something that is unique.

TOMAS: "Unique" is the quick answer, because your emotions are/fall under the mind’s authority. How you think is how you act; and, therefore, your thinking will reflect your responses to your experiences.

As I talked about in Fruits of the Spirit, in the nurturing of character, you can study yourself by observing your own emotional reaction to your environment. For example, when you reflect judgment through a reaction to an idea, through righteous indignation or intimate comprehension, you have assessed and reacted because of how you think, how you perceive the situation, [or] the information that came at you. Your mind, therefore, controls (to a great extent) what comes at you, in terms of ideas, as they are expressed through behaviors.

Here is the source of suspicion: when someone’s behaviors are unfamiliar or foreign to that which you have known; therefore, your mind essentially controls all of how you feel and emote about your existence, with the priceless potential expression of the spirit, which was seeded within you when you first responded to life’s situations from a moral standpoint -- that standpoint accounting you now as able to make those decisions which can and will enhance or retard your advancement into eternal realities.

Your consciousness sets out under your direction and you create that which will be known as you … in conjunction with your pre-personal spark of divinity … so that your efforts together will eventuate in an entity of survival status; thus, the value of true awareness. And this super-consciousness enables you to see how you handle your own awareness and how it -- being greater than your original and mortal animal self -- will become identifiable as that greater reality which will eventually learn to transcend the compelling energies of the material world in such a way as you will be able to align yourself more with the divine than you do with the human race, even while you are poignantly and painfully aware of what the human race does, individually and collectively, as it seeks to conform itself to its handicaps, so that it might re-program itself through a different decision, a different direction than it did the last time it made a decision.

Trust me when I tell you it is a very big undertaking. From the human perspective it is unimaginably complicated, and overwhelming perhaps, but it will be done because it is in the divine plan. It even transcends my comprehension and I have a far greater perspective than you do. And I tell you this not to indicate how much more I know than you do, or that you are inferior in any way, but rather to stand shoulder-to-shoulder with you in the realization that we do not know all the answers in the universe, but that we will advance together in the search for all that is to be revealed in the experiential adventure ahead, traversing the spheres and the universes into Paradise and then beyond.

Renault: What’s beyond Paradise?

TOMAS: Look at your environment, daughter, and tell me what is your idea of Paradise?

Renault: Actually, what you see right outside my front door there.

TOMAS: That is precisely what I hoped you would say, for that is what I wanted you to see. At one time you began with your own consciousness and a piece of real estate, but over time, you have developed and created paradise, even as we now are developing and creating Paradise in our efforts, on a daily basis -- to enhance the reality that is eternal. You add a room as we add a mansion world. You add a fence as we add a dimension. And ultimately you find yourself where there are few improvements to be made; it is complete. It is perfect. And that is how we advance, too, into Paradise.

We are creating perfection as we go ~ and as we stand in Paradise ~ knowing that we have done all that we have been required to do ~ in the creation of this sublime place ~ we rest therein ~ in full knowledge of the cyclical nature of divinity ~ and we consciously, deliberately and ultimately ~ set out upon a further extension of the original ~ striving for perfection ~ incorporating more and more of the greater universe in the process ~ ad infinitum ~ into eternity … new worlds, new extensions ~ unfolding and unfurling as the rose bud in spring ~ fullness being replaced by yet greater and more fullness – a constant cycle of relative perfection ~ advancing into more perfection.

Always ~ in the face of our aim ~ our eyes will be encountering ~ the imperfections of the process ~ but rather than that being fearsome or overwhelming ~ you need to develop the confidence of the Father ~ for that same power and authority of His might ~ is within your own grasp ~ and as you grasp ~ as you become ~ you will be steering the craft of your advancement ~ and those of your fellows ~ as they, too, navigate their craft ~ forward ~ into the unique and unending adventure ~ of the divine will.

Renault: Sounds pretty exciting. I think it is pretty exciting. Because I think whenever you do the Father’s will, whether you are conscious of it or not, there is a resultant good feeling that you have, like a positive thing that would make you want to do that again. It’s a positive feeling, or emotion.

TOMAS: This is the feeling that is a result of your association with the spirit, as compared to your emotions which are a result of your experience with the mind – the mind that has been loaned to you in your life here. When you resurrect with a new mind, your identification with emotions will be those feelings which are a result of the higher mind, the Universal Mind, with its utter cooperation with the Universal Father – that which indwells you – in the completion of your being.

Renault: Meanwhile, back at the ranch, in our day-to-day, mundane little life here, we plod along having to deal with …

TOMAS: … the work at hand.

Thoroah: It’s a process, isn’t it?

TOMAS: It certainly is.

Renault: A work in process.

TOMAS: A huge process. And that is why I ask about your results. If you are aware of the results of your efforts, you will be more confident of your ability to input those causes which will eventuate in the effects which will reveal the divine way, which will represent the Master’s methods that he chose for your world before it was taken from him. He will be setting it aright through you and through your conscious acknowledgement of your ability to orchestrate the symphony from your podium.

Renault (Chuckling): So to speak.

TOMAS: This is a natural dimensional uplift from being merely one instrument in the symphony. Now you are conducting a symphony that needs to find harmony with the other music-makers in your midst.

Renault: Um-hum.

TOMAS: Look for the Truth. Stand by the Truth. Represent the Truth. Encourage the Truth. Including its reflections of Beauty and Goodness -- in the spiritual sense, not merely the mindal/emotional sense. This will help take it to the next level.

Renault: I feel like I do reach out to people, to be nice to people, to help people, to – you know – do my work or extra bit of kindness or … I guess that’s all you can do from day-to-day or moment-to-moment, as it says the opportunity or occasion arises. They say we’re a world of great opportunity --

TOMAS: Yes.

Renault: -- for service, there, in that way.

TOMAS: Yes, you minister as you pass by.

Renault: Um-hum.

TOMAS: And you have that ministering spirit of the Mother, which is so recognizable and so appreciated by the human race, which longs for Her gentle touch and yearns for her warm embrace.

Renault: Um-hum. We hear a lot about the Father, maybe not enough about the Mother, huh?

TOMAS: The Mother has suffered from [mortal] thinking; however, there are improvements being made as she begins expressing herself through the new age monologues.

Renault: She is, after all, creator of and in charge of the angels, which do so much for us and constantly hovering around.

TOMAS: Yes, Her children, Her ministering spirits throughout the universe are under Her wing and jurisdiction.

Thoroah: When you talked about ‘knowing the truth’, Tomas, I reflected on a conversation Gerdean and I had, I believe [it was], earlier this week about how the Truth gets lost in details. That there are some general truths that this world needs to understand, and right now those general truths are all lost in the details. And expressing ourselves, other than in just passing by and being nice and all of those expectations, the thinking that Jesus had and the way he turned a situation into more than what it was rather than detracting from what it was with ‘the Truth’, he parable-ized everything, so that the detail was all smoothed over in a concept and I’m thinking that’s what we need to learn to do, is to take these very formatted and patterned beliefs and parable-ize them so that it opens it up more in the mind of the person that we’re talking to, a lot like humor can make somebody think newly about a situation.

TOMAS: You are talking about changing the way you think.

Thoroah: Yes.

TOMAS: And this truly is the method of changing cause and effect, for rather than the mind thinking methods, the Truth transcends methods to being what is. The difficulty then is to bridge the gap between that which is, in the sense of the Truth, to that which is perceived by and through the mind and through fact.

It is a major cosmic leap! Sometimes it can be made through a flash of revelation, but more often it is necessary that the masses be spoon fed, cajoled and parlayed into some kind of submission ~ rather than outright enthusiasm for that which is new.

Renault: (Guffaw/Chortle)

TOMAS: This is the creative part that you would enjoy doing together if you knew how to build a new paradigm of reality. As it is, your mind stumbles with nowhere to go and instead, focuses on the myriad details and facts of what is apparent, what is literal. While it does occupy your mind, it leads nowhere. Rather, when you wear yourself out, running around that treadmill like a rodent, you begin to surrender to the plan that is in existence and has been in existence for eternity already ~ and which you merely need to tap into as a being responsive to the divine will ~ as a far greater representation of what is Truth, beauty and goodness than any philosophy or theology or organization or movement than has so far existed.

It is in this way that the reality of God will keep advancing, even though you know it can only advance so far before it must bring everyone along with it, or die trying.

Thoroah: Thank you so much for your time today, Tomas.

Renault: And Gerdean.

TOMAS: We have all treasured our experience here today with you. We have all input our Selves into your psyche ~ through the avenue of your heart ~ into the consciousness of your being ~ for the Father to affect your desire to do His will ~ in such a way as it becomes a part of you ~ as his noble sons and daughters ~ alive and abroad on planet Urantia ~ and the worlds in association ~ with their place in the universe. Peace be upon you. Farewell.

Renault: May we all have a very Happy New Year coming up, then, peace be with us all. Thank you for coming.

*****

LOCATION: Rio Rancho NM TeaM

TOMAS: A New Season of Meeting the Challenges Ahead

MONJORONSON: Acknowledging Cultural Legacy

MICHAEL: Encouragement for Future Way-Showers

Q&A: On the Southeast Asian quake/tsunami Disaster

[Following extensive discussions on the upcoming Southwest Teaching Mission Retreat & Family Reunion]

MONJORONSON: I greet you this afternoon on behalf of all the powers of divinity that descend into your environment and bring light to your dark sphere. Reach up to the light. Walk in the light. Advance into the light. [Long pause] There is nothing I can say to you today that will contribute to your comprehension from the perspective I offer, although I anticipate in the future I will have opportunity again to be with you and present potential for your speculation. The truth is, I will probably work with the next generation. However, it is always a cultural legacy from wise ones like you that form the path for those young ones to follow; therefore, you are useful to this advancing mission. I leave you now to your capable comrades in the spirit.

MICHAEL: This is your Michael Son, the risen Christ, and the Good Shepherd. I am your elder Brother in the path to our Father. I am your Great Friend in your efforts to understand the life I lived and the work I did on behalf of the Father of us all, the Source of beauty, truth and goodness … and Love.

I observe your lights twinkle in the midst of my enemies, and call you forth to stir up a restlessness in the heart of your hearers that will yield a yearning for greater comprehension of what this divine Sonship means. Being a child of God is not a matter recorded on a page in a book, on a registry somewhere, but is written in your hearts. Bring this seed of truth to light and life within you, Yeomen of the Kingdom that you are.

I delight in seeing your efforts to proceed and find joy in the relationship that develops quietly and steadily between you as a result of the unceasing ministry of your Indwelling Adjusters. I bow to your Adjusters in faith of their ability to lead you into the light and to lead others. Thus we become Way-Showers, even as I am a Way-Shower, having come before you to show you the Way. As your luminarias bear witness, our path to the Father is well lit. All we need to do is walk therein. Peace be upon you.

TOMAS: And I am Tomas, your friend and companion from days of yore. It feels as if we are entering a new era in our community, as well as a new year, for this now is a season to look forward to another opportunity to rise to the occasion of meeting the challenges ahead, and of taking comfort in the knowledge that there are those among you who walk with you in this endeavor, both in the flesh and in the spirit.

We are very much looking forward to our work together with you individually and as a community. In the ways we work and play together, even as we worship and pray together, we cement the bond of divine connection that exists between us, and this offers an armature that will support the beings we are becoming as a result of our commitment to walk in the way our Father shows.

What have you to bring to the group, after this long absence? Let me hear your voices.

Esmeralda: It’s good to hear your voice, Tomas.

TOMAS: Esmeralda, Child, I embrace you and thank you for your attendance upon the needs of your flock. The Mother Spirit embodied in your ministry to this community is not unnoticed by all who observe your loyalties and rigors on behalf of that which is true, beautiful and good. I have and we have faith in you and what you do. Rise to the understanding of this gift, this ministry that you provide, and wear it as a diadem which reflects the light from On High.

Esmeralda: Thank you, Tomas. Those are good sounding words. They make me feel better.

TOMAS: They were intended to. Encouragement seems to be a lost commodity. In a world that is tumbling fast-forward, there is little need for encouragement, it would seem, for better to put on the brakes than to encourage full-speed ahead. However, the awareness of the moment and the clarity that resides within that eternal now is the state of mind and being that will allow you to know and feel the peace which passes all understanding at all times, even as you are drawn forward by the lure of the Master, instead of being pushed pell mell into the future by the driven.

Men-O-Pah: Tomas, I’d like for you to comment, if you would, on the recent catastrophe that has occurred in Southeast Asia. I’ve been witness to a good many natural catastrophes in my lifetime that are never understood. I know what makes these things, but I suppose the one that I’ve been witness to the last three weeks or so and the largest that I’ve ever been put through – and for me to say that I understand it, I don’t.

TOMAS: I will comment, Men-O-Pah. However, I am not sure that my remarks will give you the comfort that your soul longs for in the face of such devastation and seeming injustice for so many hapless mortals.

Be apprised of the overview, if you will, and my presentation to you will make sense, acknowledging the planet is not yet settled in light and life itself, physically; it is still a rugged and evolving mass of gasses and molecules which have not crystallized into perfection. Thus, physical, geologic changes will take place until such time as the planet is hardened from the inside out and becomes as if it were a bead of solid metal coursing in its orbit through space. As it is, it remains vulnerable to its material composition, including underground platelets that have not found their way to the hard core bottom of the heart of the world. This natural geologic change accorded a great catastrophe by the coastal destruction brought on by the tsunami, as you know.

If you were, as a man, able to perceive that as you trudged on a hike over the hillside, you inadvertently found your footing on an anthill, it would not cause you consternation to pass on by en route to your destiny, but imagine the devastation to the ant colony itself, having been trod upon by your boot as you went about your business. In many ways the universe is simply being about its business, and while it is in many ways an impersonal act of nature, it is naturally an important event in terms of a mass ascension and an adjustment to those who are left to clean up the mess, physically and psychically.

The horrors of material worlds are something that all evolving worlds go through. It is not unique to your planet. It is an indication of how young your world is, still. It may well be that even after your planet is settled in light and life socially and spiritually, it will still have difficulties due to inclement weather, because things happen to a world from the outside, not just from the inside of its being. But these are merely material manifestations of the on-going and perfecting panorama of your universe, as well as the Grand Universe, which ultimately and eventually will find itself beyond harm.

How can I further help you in your comprehension of such an event? In what way may I be of service?

Men-O-Pah: Well, I don’t know.

TOMAS: This is the only real question you can ask in such a case, such a situation, given that it occurred and there was evidently nothing anyone could do to stop it: What can we do now to make it better for those who remain?

Horrible devastation though it is, it is not any indication of God’s disfavor. It is no statement as to the lifestyle of those people who were uprooted, even eviscerated, by the calamity. The Father remains a loving and patient being who looks over all of his creation and knows the number of hairs on your head and your souls are safe in His hands. "From dust thou art and to dust thou shalt return."

The energy you expend now in grief or disheartenment ought to be regarded as a state of mourning for that which is lost, in order for you to come to grips with the actuality of the fact that what remains is where your opportunity reveals what is in your heart, in your effort and desire to be of assistance or service to those who have been affected by the tragedy.

And in truth, this is the case in all of life’s situations. Life happens, and all you can do is attempt to be useful in the process of life revealing itself, ever being mindful that even as that which is material falls a way, that which is enduring, lasting and eternal, is only now coming into view. That is the path to pursue, the one that is all merciful and all providing. Does this help?

Men-O-Pah: Yes. [Long pause]

TOMAS: Are there other questions or comments? [Long pause]

Given the nature of this afternoon, that you have had an opportunity as a community to discuss and anticipate our upcoming event in which our Teacher Corps will be hosts to our mortal associates in a real environment of camaraderie and community, we rejoice in the development and cut you loose with our blessings and our wishes for a happy day and a good time until we meet again.

I am always with you in terms of my commitment to your growth and your well being, in particular your spiritual and enduring value. And so, count on me as a companion in your advancing efforts to know God, to know his will for you, and your efforts to follow therein. I love you all. Amen and farewell.

Men-O-Pah: Thank you, Tomas.

*****

LOCATION: Rio Rancho, New Mexico

T/R: Gerdean

TEACHERS: TOMAS

TOMAS: Greetings. Good afternoon, faithful flock. I am Tomas, your teacher and old friend. It is good to be in your company once more and to observe your development and your steadfastness to your faith walk in the face of the many difficulties life presents and the many changes that come to pass in your daily lives. In all these things, be assured of the watch care of the Eternal Parents on high who, as you know, are mindful of your steps and tender of your feelings in your experiences.

Our Parents want you to grow up, to be spiritual adults, but are ever mindful of the fact that you are yet children. Many of you are even as spirit infants, only learning to seek understanding of your environment, responding to the stimuli of the colors and sounds that come into your consciousness, but always and ever are you assured of the protection of the Father and the ministry of the Mother -- the Spirit Parents that protect us in our path to grow up to be like Him.

What does that mean, "to be like Him"? What does that mean to be like Him, to want to be like God? God being so far-reaching and omniscient, it seems virtually impossible to think about wanting to be like Him. And yet we encourage you to learn about the God that dwells within you, in order for you to harness your will, engage yourself in harmony with His will, and thus begin the ascent into godlikeness and spirit identification such that you may develop the everlasting, immortal and eternal soul that will fuse with that God fragment within, rendering you thereby an eternal citizen of the Grand Universe.

Be patient with yourself and with others, for everyone has those days wherein they revert to their less than godlike qualities. The nature of God is inherent in you because of the indwelling Adjuster, and therefore you are like Him in your compassion and your creativity, in your desire to express yourself and to express his affections and give glory to that which serves to light the path and lead those who suffer out of pain and darkness. These are all godlike qualities which you share with the divine because you yourself are part divine.

Yet it is only part. For part of you is yet undeveloped and as the saying goes, you have feet of clay. Indeed, the dichotomy, the conflict for each mortal, is that while the spirit is a goal, the flesh is a fact, and the facts of life must be dealt with on their own terms. Even as you in your ideals seek to elevate those terms to reflect the tone of the divine as you understand it, to represent goodness, truth and beauty, harmony, love and progress, peace, safety and security in the spirit, all the while understanding that in the material sense there is change and danger and insecurity at every turn.

This is our goal for you, that you learn to conform your will to the Father’s will sufficient that even as you walk in danger, "yea, though I walk through the valley of death I will fear no evil for Thou art with me."

This simple scripture constitutes the bread, the substance of our work with you, our presence with you in your superconsciousness, even in your consciousness, for through your own will to follow the divine will, you will be able to master the mortal fears and mental patterns that presuppose the supremacy of the material over the spiritual, when we who are your teachers and mentors know full well and yearn for your understanding also that the supreme, the divine, the spirit is far more powerful and predominant than the material world would have you believe.

Rest in the spirit, not in the words, but in the spirit itself. Find that divine spark of life that resides within you and hold fast to it, allowing it to embrace you and uphold you, allowing it to confirm your perspective through its guidance, that it may help you grow to be more than you are, that you can learn to become more than mortal, more than spirit infants, but walk upright as dignified sons and daughters of the living God, which is your birthright.

Let not the world pull you down. Let it not rend you asunder, but fight the good fight of faith. Forge ahead in confidence of the supremacy of the spirit over all. [Long pause]

I and we are glad to have your association and your friendship. Are there questions of you in your faith path that you desire to share with your fellows, comments, questions, for your teacher or for yourself to hear, confirming your willingness to learn and grow in the spirit, in comprehension of that which is greater than we are?

Elena: Well, I would have a question. I have -- even from last fall or late fall or early winter, whatever, -- been feeling like, you know, I needed to pull back significantly and I don’t seem like I am very good at doing that. But I’ve been drawn to that a number of times and am still drawn to that. Would you comment on that, please?

TOMAS: Tell me what it is you are drawn to. You are drawn to withdraw?

Elena: I have a feeling that I need to pull back from a lot of things, and not set up such a huge task list, and busyness and things to do, and yet when I try to do that, it doesn’t seem to be very successful, so … and yet I still have the feeling that that’s what’s needed. But I don’t seem to be a whole lot closer to doing that at all.

TOMAS: You are undertaking a tremendous exercise in self-mastery. You have, like a willow branch grown in a certain manner all of your life, and now the circumstances are showing you that your branches have been crowded and are able to release their constraints on how they have grown to how they might grow were you to have the opportunity to embrace the freedom that would best serve your branches. I want to add that if you, as a willow tree, have been pressed against a building, your branches have been restricted because of that structure. And now you are feeling the need to allow that structure to be taken away in order for you to grow into your potential.

It is a trauma to anticipate that armature, that structure might be taken away, leaving you to stand alone in the elements. And yet, on the other hand, it is inhibiting your own growth. This sense of anxiety for the future is based on the security you have found in that support in the past, but your yearning does not abate; it continues to tell you that you do not need that structure to uphold you, that in fact, you would do well to do without it.

You must recognize where you are in your growth. Understand your point of development and decide, one day at a time if you must, how far you can go on your own without that structure. It is as if you were weaning yourself from a dependency. And you know you are getting to the point in your development as a spiritual child that you ought not have to depend upon that substance or structure any longer, and yet it is still unnerving to think of having to do without it.

On days when you are feeling weak, you will rush to that structure even though it holds you constricted from your potential. And when you are feeling strong, you will dash out, away from it, exhilarating in the sense of freedom you have from those constraints. Eventually, you will understand your own strength, your own ability to operate without that to uphold you. You will know that the spirit upholds you in and through all the vicissitudes that the structure had for those many years. In this way you are being given eyes to see the temporary nature of that scaffolding which has served, but which you are outgrowing, and which you will be able to eventually master through your decisions to depend more upon spirit and less upon the material.

It is as if you were to reach out your hand and say, "God, take my hand. Let me hold your hand. Uphold me in my path." And you begin to walk upright, as compared to he who has a stake in the ground upon which he leans, or a cane upon which you lean to support yourself. Eventually you know that by doing so, you are allowing yourself to continue to be weak and frail, when if you were to trust that hand that holds yours, you would be able to let go and thus spring out and away from a paradigm of reality that once served but which no longer serves your peace of mind. This is spiritual evolution. Does this help?

Elena: Yes. I’m not exactly on the initial steps or what next step to take, but it reinforces my general feeling or concept about what I am feeling pulled toward, I think. Does that make sense?

TOMAS: Yes. I am glad that you feel bolstered and reinforced in your own perceptions. Your spirit within will not mislead you. The divine guide within is looking out for your interests – your eternal interests. And, as I said, while the spirit is a goal the flesh is a fact. You may have felt that these material scaffoldings have been essential, and indeed they have been, but as the spirit conveys to you that you no longer need to depend so heavily upon that scaffolding, but that you are able to depend more and more upon your living faith. You are then giving yourself an opportunity to perceive as spirit perceives, to have that farther view which gives you a greater perspective. And while that is at first somewhat unnerving, not to say terrifying, you will gradually grow into the confidence of knowing what you know, based not on your human understanding, but upon your understanding as it comes from the Spirit of Truth.

Elena: Okay.

TOMAS: It’s a process. Be patient with yourself in the process. And do not allow others’ opinions or judgments of how you are carrying your pack influence how you walk the path. It is your choice to walk the faith path and to go the second mile.

Elena: Thank you.

Esmeralda: I hope, Tomas, that I’m not a part of that structure that is giving Elena a problem.

TOMAS: I cannot conceive that you are a problem, for you love Elena, and you love this entity who is your sister in ascension. You have provided structure, certainly, and value that has served and will continue to serve if it is a part of her value also. If, however, she lets go of any scaffolding which no longer serves, that is not a reflection of any lack on your part or any rejection of you, but rather, an acceptance of herself as her own entity, and this is the desire of any loving parent, that their child take the advantages the parents have lovingly given in order for them to grow up and develop their own wings to fly, their own tools to forge their way, their own heart to follow.

Certainly the human parental influence plays an important role in the development of their offspring, the primary gift, perhaps, being that of character. Elena’s character is of the utmost, and this integrity of hers, built upon that scaffolding you provided, is material that her divine guide can use to pick and choose now what can continue to serve and what can be given up as the scripture, again, conveys: "When I was a child, I thought as a child, and now as a woman, I put away my childish things."

And so this is possibly some of the construct that Elena grapples with because of its impressions and the conditioning that provides. Eventually we must all sacrifice the temporal conditioning to take with us into our spirit adulthood those values which serve not just in this world but in all the worlds to come.

Encourage the best in her and in all of your children – not only your biological offspring, but all those younger brothers and sisters who long to become all they can be in the spirit, not limited to the things of the flesh, for then when the flesh falls away and they stand alone in the resurrection hall, have they had enough opportunity in this life to develop the soul, such that it will be rejoined by the adjuster and the life can commence undisturbed.

Building souls for eternity is the job of the spirit, and as you in your own personal faith path align yourself with spirit, you will see the value of relinquishing your hold as well on the material life, so that you and those you mentor may begin to take those faith steps into the dimension of reality that will live and thrive beyond this mortal sphere.

The beautiful thing about the Family of God is that it so nobly incorporates the family of man. And in truth, you are sisters. More so now than mother and daughter. Even though you will admire each other anon for those gifts of personality that you have forged in your relationship together, you, Esmeralda, may permit yourself to be the child, that your daughter may teach you. And you, Elena, may feel privileged to be your mother’s parent, that you may teach her, now, those things which she had hoped that you would come to know.

And in this way, you continue to assist each other into the next world and many worlds to come, as sisters -- both daughters of our Eternal Parents – ever making life more beautiful and abundant for each other and for those you touch in your path as you pass by, as you serve and as you give glory to God on high.

Esmeralda: Thank you, Tomas.

TOMAS: It is a privilege for me to have a set such as yourselves in my class – a pair of biologically connected students. It gives me an opportunity to perceive the value inherent in the Father’s divine plan of allowing the Parent/Child relationship to glorify those values which He imposes in the scheme of ascension, that we can indeed parent each other and comfort each other, that we are indeed one large family – sisters and brothers connected by the human experience en route to the shores of Paradise.

It is a testimony to your strength of character, both of you, that you fear not the spirit, but that you rejoice in knowing your Universal Father and in your acknowledgement of our Father/Brother Michael and his consort, the Divine Minister, Mother Nebadonia. They are the mother and father we look to in this next phase of our development, to see how it is they would have their children raised, how they would us behave, and comport ourselves with each other in this large family. What a privilege we enjoy!

Elena: Amen!

Elena and Esmeralda: Thank you, Tomas.

TOMAS: It is my pleasure to observe your soul-searching and your yearning to be the best you can be in all things and on all counts, particularly to that aspect of divinity which is the thing that lures us forward. Even in the face of obstacles and difficulties and setbacks, we still seek to know the spirit and be more like it. Thank you, for your efforts in this regard.

Elena: It sure is nice to have—to be with you again, Tomas. Thank you.

TOMAS: I am heartened to hear your testimony, and gladdened to be back in your embrace. Change is inevitable on this path, and with change comes a certain amount of emotional and psychic upheaval, but having confidence in the spirit and trusting in the spirit of you each and all, I am able to bide my time and wait for those maelstroms to pass, for I know that the Father’s will will prevail, and the spirit which lives within you yearns to express itself, to know more about itself, to become more of what it is destined to become, and that it enjoys the association of other like-minded souls en route to the divine Father of all.

This is something I have learned over time. And it never ceases to gratify my soul when I see others grapple with this and come out spiritly triumphant. ["Spiritly." Is that a word?]

Elena: Huh-uh. We know what you mean anyway.

TOMAS: Spirit is not always personality, even though it is known through relationship. Spirit is also energy, and in those times when you are in conflict and have no sense of relationship with spirit, you are even so mindful of energy, and whether it is there for you or not, whether it is a valuable energy or an artificial energy, whether it is something that will see you through or if it is something that will burn out at day’s end, spirit is eternal.

Are there other questions or concerns? (silence) I am happy to see the progress being made in terms of the group coordinating a convention of souls in the near future, for this represents a triumph in spirit advancement for us. While I have been a faithful steward of this area for some time, even with my many travels, I have great joy in recognizing that my family of fellow workers in the Teacher Corps are being given another opportunity to shine, as it were, in presenting the reality of our mission for Michael on your world in this area.

We will be your hosts and hostesses. You are all our guests. This will take away the sense of responsibility for everyone’s well being. The midwayers have been working and will be happy to work through the weekend of having all these guests, as will the angels and all those who enjoy a coming together such as this to refuel their own sense of service in the invisible realms, for you see you are our proof that we are being effective and doing what we came here to do.

You are the living testimony that Michael is succeeding on his world. You are still our hands and feet, eyes and ears, and in many ways, the hope of future generations, just as any parent looks to their children as the hope for tomorrow. You are not alone in your efforts, and we aren’t either.

Elena: Tomas, I wanted to ask you something about that. Was it presumptuous of us to – in our planning, when we were talking about music, and to presume the participation of the artisans, or by selecting certain pieces to kind of plan on them kicking in at the right moment?

TOMAS: Let me assure you the presumption was appropriate. If you were a child at a birthday party, would you feel you had imposed upon your parents to provide napkins for the cake? (Group laughter)

Elena: How about the cake? I’m relying on you guys for the cake!

TOMAS: I am ice cream.

Group: (Laughter)

TOMAS: Michael is the cake, and our Father is the candles thereon that illuminate the room and your bright faces gathered around to celebrate birth in all its aspects, to celebrate life in each of its phases, and to honor growth, even growing pains, as we grow up to become that which is our destiny. (Pause) Anything else this afternoon?

Elena: I don’t think so. Anyway, that does it for me, thank you.

TOMAS: We very much appreciate your efforts. There is no effort to small or too great that can be done for the betterment of the human condition in terms of its place in the scheme of universe design, easing pain, easing stress, providing ministry, giving comfort, offering understanding, being tolerant, loving, merciful and hopeful, even in the slightest degree is a contribution to the whole. Let us rejoice and be glad in our place therein and give thanks to God on high for his acceptance of us as we are and his undying love for us in his patience as he awaits our fullness of purpose. Be of good cheer. Amen and farewell.

Group: Amen. Thank you, Tomas.

*****

DATE: March 6, 2005

TEACHERS: TOMAS and MERIUM

TOPICS: Pulled Through a Knothole

TOMAS: Tomas here, as is Merium and Anatolia. Ham is looking on, as is Abraham on his big computer in the sky that watches everything.

There is a great deal of freedom within the realm of the spirit for the amusement of those who will indulge in the fine art of cosmic speculation. There are certain fundamental laws of the universe that cannot be altered…(that will not be altered because it’s part of the foundation, and that’s all you need to know about that), but there are many variables. And, as any evolving reality -- that is to say: a reality that is not already perfect / existent in perfection – the relativity of this reality is able to be depicted in myriad ways, which run the gamut of imagination with the varying personal interests of each one, each participant.

In this way, all of life becomes a parable. Whereas it us understood by many to be an "illusion," another vantage point (the one I am offering at the moment) is the different perspective of "parable" … as symbolism for understanding the greater universe. This is essentially philosophy, children, elemental morontia philosophy.

The fact that you are an experimental planet lends itself well to your varied approaches. Because of this element of liberation, there will always be the risk-taker and high roller, if only to counter-balance the timid soul on the opposite end, and represent the full polarity. But my point here is that the idea that the one is advanced beyond the other to such an extent to be superior is often, if not 50% [of the time], incorrect, for it is merely the antithesis of the existent, in order to pull toward the "middle of the road" point of view.

But "middle of the road" does not need to mean the same as "mediocre," it does not need to mean "standardized," it could also mean, "united." And in the synergy of these united minds there is exponential power. If you look at any kind of power you will see it is greatly enhanced by the passion of its participants, and the more ingrained/ deep seated/ conditioned the value/ the mores, the harder it will be to break from it, and in that context, it operates as an essential control factor to those of the nature to push the envelope—to be the space cowboy, the cosmic explorer, devil worshiper or what have you.

We are speaking to you today as if we were like mind. We are like-minded today in our energy to delve into your consciousness, thereby hoping to, once inside, diffract and diffuse into those various elements of who we are so as to impress also your unconscious, subconscious, super-concious-ness-es. In this way you have a full consciousness experience. It enables you to be in your body but not of it. If and as you are in your body and it is responding to your mind’s commands, you are sharing this configuration of full consciousness with the driving power of the physical mechanism and those electro-chemical charges which detract from the focalized inner life.

TOMAS: Perhaps I, Tomas, now need to distinguish myself from my peers in concert with you this afternoon to inquire if in your own soul growth or consciousness-raising, you have any questions or comments as to what your current perception is.

Renault: Thanks, Tomas. On personal health issues, or global issues, or environmental issues …?

TOMAS: You are looking to guidelines to your inquiries?

Renault: Uh-huh.

TOMAS: Thoroah, what is your pleasure?

Thoroah: I’m trying to focus in on one particular thing and I … can’t get it.

TOMAS: Then any one of the above will suffice. The motor skills -- the body -- is a distraction. How you manage your body, your relationship with your material world (which is an extension of your body), is the way you invest most of your energy. Our constant exhortation has been for you to stop the constant physical momentum and accustom yourself to the other side of that spectrum so as to bring some balance between the spiritual and the physical, the ethereal and the finite, for you to find your center.

What throws you off center? That is what you should be asking. What throws you off-center that you become either (a) too spiritual, as in spiritually unbalanced, or (b) mentally obsessed and fixed on a point, or (c) emotionally invested in something beyond your own best interests, or (d) physically running the show. Look to where it is that your system leaks, or falls short, or disrupts the poise of your coordinated self and the integration of your full personality. This is what I would focus on if I were in your shoes.

"Why?" you ask, "would I want to look for my weaknesses or failings or handicaps or drawbacks?"

Renault: No. It’s not that I don’t want to look at my handicaps or shortcomings, because obviously we need to know what those are, and a lot of times I feel like it’s – "How do I know if I’m having a shortcoming when nobody tells me!" -- so sometimes that will help. Not basically so much my health or anybody’s health, (but) the mental health of the people on this planet also.

I am encouraged by stories that I hear from people that are engineering better ways to do things and lighter vehicles and less waste and more green things and lots of good ideas out there that are in spite of what seems to be happening. At least the good ideas are taking root and being developed and talked about and spread around and worked on, while some of these other, darker issues, would seem all the front page, they will eventually fall away, I am sure.

So it seems like kind of a doom and gloom out there, but on the other hand, I am very heartened by things that I read in here, about the good things that are going on. So, I think people are becoming more enlightened and speaking out more. It doesn’t seem like it, but ….

TOMAS: This is the point of your being advised to ask questions – not just of your Teachers, your elders, or your superiors … not just those who are in a position of authority, but those who are your underlings or those behind you, for in that way you find out "where they are coming from" so that your service motivation could then provide them (with) the next installment in their life’s journey.

But it is also essential that you ask questions of those with whom you have daily contact, for most of your lives are lived on automatic pilot. You go through the motions of taking care of the physical realm world. You put out the emotional fires or stoke them, according your mind’s peace. And the mind’s peace comes from the reflection that will be perfect as you seek the stillness. Therein are all the answers to all the questions. Thus we have enlightenment, nirvana. But it is alive, and will always advance a bucolic environment to an architectural sphere.

Putting things on the table so that they can be seen openly is simply sharing your inner life with God and your fellows. The difficulty has been and remains that the patterns that have been established as acceptable and unacceptable, appropriate and inappropriate are so varied, you spend most of your time trying to find where you belong in the relationship rather than freely bringing to it what you could if you were not so self-conscious about the consciousness of "most folk".

Therefore, education is the favored solution to all these ills, i.e., pollution, production, distribution, natural resources, global economy and so forth. When you can bond in the spirit and allow the subsequent configuration its own power, it will always show itself to be more than the sum of its parts. But, for many, that is a frightening prospect -- while there are many, too, who would be as frightened by the prospect of operating outside of a group consciousness, be that a team, a family, a corporation, a field of study or a gender.

We have others here today if you would like to call on someone for something specific to their field. I am here to serve you.

Renault: Merium is here, right?

TOMAS: Merium is here, yes.

Renault: She was introduced to my granddaughter, Persia, a couple of years ago and I just wondered if she has kept watch on her from time to time. We think she is just growing up fine and delightfully.

MERIUM: Such a fortunate child she is, yes! This is Merium, a child myself, and although I am not a frequent visitor to Persia Gray’s homestead, I am apprised of her the instant I am needful of such, and so I see how she is and she is doing well, indeed. Just because I personally do not knock on everyone’s door does not mean I don’t come to call.

There is this oversoul, to which I am a part, which often only allows me to see that which I need to see and not all that I want to see, for at this point in our upbringing, it would almost be ill-mannered of me to take off on my own initiative without regard to how my actions impacted those with whom I was connected.

It would be hard for you to comprehend, without perhaps showing you a picture of the television show Star Wars, that had a race of people who were all a part of the "Collective," an aggregation -- as interdependent and codependent and interconnected as is imaginable without being one cell.

These ideas about cellular structures – individuals who comprise a body (yes, like a church, which some regard as "the body of Christ") (or a student body, on campus) – although the idea of free will is such that it would not be possible for you to be swallowed up into a greater reality to your degradation and demise, it would not be possible because of the nature of God we call Love that draws all of his creation back to him. And while energetically this could be regarded as a mere agitation cycle on the washing machine, it is also your eternal life, and therefore, meaningful – at least to you, at least in potential, and at least once in awhile!

This is how government works On High. It is like descending perfection from the ultimate Paradise pattern, and as it goes out from the Isle of Paradise into the material realms … into the universes of time and space, into the superuniverses, and even beyond – into the outer rims …

Renault: Other worlds such as this one?

MERIUM: There are many worlds such as this one, yes. And thousands not unlike you at all.

Renault: I guess we’ll get a chance to see them all.

MERIUM: You won’t need to see them all in order to see the point.

Renault: Um-hum.

MERIUM: You will see what you need to see in order to make your decisions. The decisions are what make the difference, and naturally your decisions will reflect your consciousness at the time that the decision was made. And therefore "at this stage of the game" there are certain statistical odds that you will do this or that or a variation thereof. But the range which you do have, and which you do use, is of interest to us in and as it affects the growth of the whole.

Thoroah: I read something today about there is something missing in our individual awareness and it regards our conscious interconnection in our DNA that has been suppressed, for whatever reason – perhaps the rebellion, and all that – and if that were to be restored to our consciousness, we would have a much better apparatus for dealing with how our individuality impacts everyone else.

Renault: And feel a connection with people.

Thoroah: I’m wondering if that is possible. I know there’s a lot about the DNA we don’t know about, but is that something that is possibly on the list for reconnecting as this reconnecting time/ correcting time goes on?

MERIUM: This is on-going, even now, and you know this by the fact that you are discussing it -- (Chuckles) -- and others are, as well. Your question is HOW is it being up-stepped, so that you can anticipate how much it will affect your life, and how much you can expect it to affect the lives of others. Is this not your question?

Thoroah: Yes, because it would just open our awareness to each other.

MERIUM: It would tell you more about who you are and what to expect from yourself and, therefore, how you would effectively interrelate better with your fellows, if at all.

Thoroah: Yes.

MERIUM: Yes. Well, of course the Life Carriers implanted your pattern and it was not taken away. It is still implanted and in time it will return to pursue its course, but it is like you are going through a knothole in time. In time you will pass this knothole and continue to grow upright. Because imperfection has put you in a position of going through a knothole is not enough to keep you from growing into a full tree, if that parable helps.

If your plasma had been upstepped by Adam and Eve in the initial plan, it is true you would not be experiencing many of the diseases you experience today, but theirs was to augment your development, which is part of the challenge for the Gods – to see how long it takes to go from life-implantation to light and life on an inhabited world, and while there are many occasions for setbacks and knotholes abound, it is still possible to attain fullness of perfection through evolution.

Renault: Is that – our experimental planet, how long it will take us to evolve to light and life without the advantage of the upstepment that we coulda, shoulda, woulda had?

MERIUM: That certainly has become an added dimension to the initial experimental factors that were allowed as a part of the Rules of the Game, but the clever players in your past have made the game very complicated, complex, and so much of what must happen is those complexities, which are like a massive snarl or a knothole, can be put to rest and bypassed in the interest of advancement and return into perfection. But the process will involve taking with you the worlds of time and space. While you may not bring your physical address into infinity with you, you do, nonetheless, contribute to the perfection of the planet by your contribution to the planet in your life here.

Renault: So we all make a difference with what we do--

MERIUM: Yes.

Renault: -- in our own back yard.

MERIUM: Yes. And your actions in your back yard, if conscious, positively affect and impact that which you affect and impact in your life as you pass by. And so what you do either advances or hinders consciousness, and love is more contagious than hate, so even while you see a great deal of distortion, it is true also that there is overall, a pattern of growth that is more about the tree and the growth of the hole, while accepting that knotholes are a part of the growth process and, in fact, are a part of the beauty of the wood. Amen.

Thoroah: I loved the knothole parable, Merium.

MERIUM: So, one day your DNA will grow up after all. You will be all that you can be in spite of the difficulties you have had to go through.

Renault: But you mean our children’s children’s children’s DNA because we won’t be here. We’ll be off on morontia DNA.

MERIUM: Yes, you are part of the tree, ongoing through evolution. The point of revelation is to give it to you when you feel you can handle it.

Renault: So if I can become an enlightened human being and change my DNA – switch it on, so to speak – then can that be passed onto my generation and their DNA also switched on and … like that?

MERIUM: Their DNA is congenitally affected certainly, but more to the point perhaps is the paradigm of reality which changes your environment, and that more wholesome environment, more morontial in actuality, becomes the new fabric which holds you up, and which holds up the next generation and the next and the next, so that they need not devolve back into the knothole consciousness.

Renault: How does it keep up? Once we start enlightening and lifting, how the momentum there of spreading love to everybody, how does that keep up, generation after generation after generation, then?

MERIUM: It doesn’t always. Civilizations fall. Races of people are eradicated. Nationalities are rearranged.

Renault: Enlightenment fades.

MERIUM: Enlightenment is put on a back burner. We’ll not see the worlds of space snuffed out by neglect. This is the point of the epochal revelations. Something will happen to compel progress to continue. This is a part of what the Life Carriers implanted and which the Michael Son and Spirit created in their union, for their Kingdom. And this is true of all the Michael Sons and Divine Ministers throughout the seven superuniverses. This is their creative potential – creating creations that will continue to create the Creator.

In the antithesis, you could think of it as the "Alien" who creates eggs, and each egg becomes a replica of it, passing on another generation of alien beings. While they are portrayed as unfriendly in your movie, they are benign in reality, and this infinite perfect egg of perfection potential is hatched to produce more eggs in which willing souls contribute to the great mechanism of the universe, made more than mechanical by the infusion of divine love – which makes it a living thing, nonetheless.

And so much of it is in how you choose to look at it. Do you choose to see your glass half empty or half full? Do you choose to see the horror or the divine? Do you look at the potential as evil or as good? How do you allow yourself to be swayed when you see the collective consciousness luring you into a shared consciousness with their terror? How do you steer frightened hoards of consciousness away from the abyss of fear into the playing field of full consciousness of the glorious light of the sun in full flower of its potential – fruition.

Perhaps you will find it helpful when you read it. Let’s take a break. Perhaps we can come back. Perhaps you have something else you would like to do. Or perhaps you will garner something in the discussion that piques your curiosity. At any rate, it has been our pleasure. Adieu.

Renault: And ours! Thank you.

*****

DATE: March 20, 2005 – First Day of Spring – Palm Sunday

LOCATION: Rio Rancho NM TeaM - At the Bowen Townhouse

This is Tomas. Good afternoon. Many of us are here invisibly but energetically, adding to your gathering of light, and it impresses our "heart" that we are part of the pulse of eternity as we join together in trumpeting the good news of His arrival in the consciousness of all. Welcome, Miriam.

I would like to speak with you today of forgiveness, for it is a part of His coming. In anticipation of the celebration of the resurrection, immanent in your land – soon – it would behoove us to look at what that means to us, this resurrection wherewith so much importance is placed, and certainly not only upon death of the body but also death of those fallacies of the mind which hold captive those who have a mortal base.

Forgiveness is part of resurrection. Letting go of the hurts and ills of mortal existence allow you to be liberated therefrom. And thus you are risen. And in your resurrection, in these superconscious realms, you are the more likely to radiate the love of the divine Giver of all that is, including many of life’s vicissitudes, for they are a part of the experiential field in which you play, and work, and live.

A theory among you testifies to the position that there is nothing to forgive, that there is no offense taken, that misunderstandings are a matter of the mortal condition and not to be taken seriously. But there is also the position that judgment upon your fellows is based on a refusal to forgive qualities about your neighbor or yourself which are, to your programming, unacceptable.

Impatience also is a form of refusal to forgive, for impatience demands you behave rightly according to he or she who is manifesting impatience. Only through forgiveness of the human condition is this troublesome character defect appeased and put to rest.

Human preference is almost a right of passage into adulthood on this world. If you have no preference, you often get nothing, and so, in self interest, people adopt points of view and attitudes, tastes and opinions, which bespeak only that they have one, but not with any conviction of the Spirit of Truth behind these character colorations, and this is a part of the character of the drama you all face as actors on the stage of life itself.

If you had no frame of reference, you would find yourself quite at odds with your environment, and so the modifications of adaptation are a part of your make-up, as it is the part of the makeup of everyone else, whether they are across the continent, across the globe, across the valley, across the room or across the consciousness gap that resides between two separate and individual organisms, but which are bonded in intimate and fraternal community of spirit when abridged through the grace of forgiveness.

It could be said, then, if I forgive everything and everyone, even those little particularities of vocabulary or dialect which, even among like-minded people can be so troublesome, like nettles or briars that cling to your clothing, catching you up, as if you were the arbiter of all creation, one might ask: doesn’t this indicate a total lack of caring … about other people, about their attitudes, their speculations, their experiences, their conditioning or their frame of reference? Isn’t it so detached as to be completely removed from whether the person comes or goes, lives or dies, wins or loses?

When your heart is "in the right place," when it is nestled firmly in the Mother’s breast of compassion and care for all Her creation, what’s not to love? Every flaw can be overlooked, every maladjustment can be understood. Every willful act can be seen as a study in human character and every action can be seen as a method wherewith any individual may, through free will – the gift of the Father -- give according to his or her understanding.

Within this perspective of divine affection it is easier to forgive, not only others but yourself, for those quirks of character you are unable to see because you are too close to yourself but, through your interactions with others, are given a chance to see yourself reflected in their eyes and in their behaviors, [in] their adaptations to you, and their modifications to those circumstances which will render you willing to allow another greater than us to make those determinations and judge those behaviors as will be judged in terms of the eternal and not so limiting as the mortal perspective, which would just as soon slam the door on the offending view, blame it on the other guy, and go off in their self-imposed exile of isolation in common with most of humanity, without having to deal with the captivity that your spirit feels when it has to subserviently abide by your stubborn will choice to live without the light.

Jesus came to set the spiritual captives free. … not only from the fear of death, but from the fear of life. And therein is our work at hand – the embracing of the life, the light, the way, the truth and the love that is ours for the taking. Be about the Father’s business, then, of forgiveness, and learn godlikeness in this.

Thus ends my message for this afternoon. I am willing, of course, to entertain your questions as they relate to the lesson or to your confusion regarding your involvement in the process of forgiveness or in any of the many and myriad ways you like to divert yourself from the work of soul-making.

And that was not a judgment! That was a fact. All of us have necessary and delightful diversions and interactions that compel questions and deserve answers. (Pause) When you address the floor, my friends, in anticipation of the transcription of these words to your fellows beyond, I would request you direct your question not only to those of us who hear with ears to hear, but to the tape recorder, which has problems in discerning.

Esmeralda: Tomas, your lesson was simply beautiful today, and thank you for it. Tomas, today I was – while you were talking about forgiveness – I can’t think of a solitary person that I need to forgive anything for. This week I am flowing with love for everyone. It’s a wonderful place to be – on this earth and a part of your Kingdom.

I wanted to thank all the celestial beings who I feel were with me this week. Not to mention the mortals, who were my two daughters, our friends, good doctors, and I feel like a new person. I was thinking also about – to borrow a little phrase from Bill Clinton’s speech in John Kerry’s campaign. He was talking about Kerry and he said that Kerry always said, "Send me" and I feel like I have been given new time and new life and Send Me.

TOMAS: Bless you for your song, Daughter, that you sing, and whose Spirit is heard on high, harmonizing, no doubt, with the Divine will.

How poignant it is, this material life, when its fragility is shown to be in existence - in the face of its ability to have held up [for] so long and through so much. Life is in many ways very fragile, and when the mortal comes face-to-face with how fragile, in fact, it is (this life in the flesh) there is a new-found appreciation for life itself … that overreaches the limits of the mere mortal appreciation and embraces the greatness of life in the bigger picture, adding new dimension to your appreciation for life and new-found vigor.

This is why many experiences (many of which are a normal part of life) are often the trigger to the upreach of the mortal for the Divine Hand to downreach and give greater depth, breadth and glory to the reality that will let you be forever. Like many of life’s seeming difficulties and painful areas, such as in the marital relationship or in the birthing of children, perspective is greatly enlarged when the recognition comes that the flesh is in many ways a mere illustration of the reality which is your inheritance, a mere shadow of the reality that is potentially yours forever, a mere fleck of dust in the eye of the eternal.

And so, looking back on these seeming vicissitudes, and allowing the mind to reflect on the inherent value of the experience without the accompanying pain and distress, the greater picture is made more visible and the finite falls away in a ready embrace of the infinite.

In this way also, for those of you who take the time to reflect on your experiences, and find the value inherent therein, you have begun to learn the key to your own advancement and your own soul’s growth, for you begin to realize the value of striving for yet more of these experiences which may seem somewhat painful on the surface, but which hold such quality of divinity, the nourishment and substance derived from the experience, far over-shadows the mere inconvenience—

Esmeralda: They are blessings, Tomas.

TOMAS: -- of the interim pain. Just as Jesus willingly experienced the crucifixion in order to reap the reward of his experience and come into His own, allowing Him then to radiate the light there where it had not been, and which you enjoy in your lives today through the Spirit of Truth.

Yes, these experiences are indeed blessings. They are the opportunities to reach for. When they say you will fatten upon disappointment, and eagerly run to difficult growing experiences as if you knew what you were getting into – like marriage and childbearing – you will learn to love the effects of the cause as much or more than the cause itself.

As for myself, my dear, I am simply glad you are still with us, and with renewed application to your greater life’s purpose and the capacities inherent within you to deliver the goods as God would direct your will.

Esmeralda: Thank you, Tomas.

Miriam: Tomas, I loved your lesson. I’m… We’ve had an exceptional week and knowing that our birthright and Father’s love is with us at all times, and that we are provided for and care was given … if we did but reach for it, and we’re all quite happy with the – to the best of our ability tried to reach for – we were blessed with the abundance of Father’s love as He came to us in the doctors, the nurses and tests and people in the right place at the right time and it was great to have the strength of our love for each other and Father and Mother with us as much as we could use them. It was, you know, if you gotta go through a ride like that, it’s the only way to go. And mother’s childlike approach to life in Father and His blessings. It was an honor be witness to that. And, you know, we’ll forever be grateful to all of the celestials who were helping us this week.

But … so there’s that, but your lesson about forgiveness and this mortal striving really hit home to me because I’ve walked through fire before and I’m a good walker, but that doesn’t mean we do it gracefully at all times. And the brambles that you were talking about, I got caught up in some brambles this week that I wish I couldn’t not have gotten caught up in and forgiveness that my sister showed me when I wasn’t at my best a couple times, it’s so appreciated. And it just blew me away; I just felt like I don’t deserve this blessing of forgiveness, and it was given so freely. So it’s inspiring to me to be aware that I have growth to do, and I want to know more about it.

I’m glad I can do what I do as far as it went, but there were times when I just thought, "I don’t want to say this. This thing that I know I’m going to blurt out. I just don’t want to say it." You know. "Please?" I know. Just be quiet. Just don’t … and then out it would come. The toad would pop out, and it was received with love, but, you know, your lesson’s just right on the money. So thank you.

TOMAS: The outpouring you have shared with all of us is welcome to our ears. I heard you say you were forgiven and did not feel deserving of forgiveness. I point out to you that you are not qualified to judge and that you must relinquish your hold on mercy, that it may flow to you as well as from you, for this is a part of the song we seek to sing that allows harmony to reverberate all the way to paradise and then back to you and through you, out into the field where you have been diligently working. We regard you as a trooper.

Do remember, when toads emit from your mouth, you need but kiss them with the balm of forgiveness for them to reflect as the Prince of Peace. Let yourself be yourself. Allow your own childlike nature to run rampant through the fields of joy and toil provided for you. You have given yourself to God. Your heart is good. Condemn not your heart’s manifestation of itself, for as is said, in your axiom, "God isn’t finished with you yet."

And this is where we benefit from his not being finished with you yet, because you are still here, with your loved ones, and in our company. And if anyone has to have any review of what importance each other plays in each other’s lives, it ought not take but a moment’s reflection to know how cold and dark and lonely the world can be without love in it. Even relative love, relatively perfect and relatively imperfect, is far better than no love at all. And this is also true: "Love is more contageous than hate" or anger or resentment or reptiles.

Paula: You are all very lucky to have been born into a family where you had brothers and sisters. I was an only child and didn’t have that experience. I did have a lifelong best friend, but I lost her three years ago. And now Mary Jo and I have gotten to be very close. She is as close to a sister as I’ll ever have, so she means a lot to me. We talk on the phone very day. She’s one terrific lady.

Elena: Well, Tomas, I have to beg your forgiveness because I slept through the whole lesson. I’m really sorry. So I hope that forgiveness is extended – I’m assuming that that’s going to be extended to me, too.

TOMAS: I am not your spiritual captor, Elena. I hold you not as a prisoner to my ministrations, trusting that even in your sleep, in your rest, you are finding the necessary nourishment to survive and persist and progress. Our Eternal Parents are ever watchful, even when mortal men and women fall short of their ability to notice everything about everyone or occasionally anything or anyone. It is always a reminder to note that when you sleep, you are acting in trust that the world will be here when your eyes open, as the light will shine in the morning after the long night, and as the resurrection will occur after the death.

Unrelated to the lesson or the issue of forgiveness, Elena, have you a question or a concern?

Elena: Well, I’m just grateful for this week. And I really didn’t worry this week because I really knew that we were in God’s hands, so I didn’t worry about that. And if I really apply that to everything else, then I guess I really don’t have anything else to worry about either. I am concerned about energy levels and going back to work next week, but that if I really apply that same kind of thinking, then really, what do I have to worry about? So, I guess with that, that’s basically it. And grateful for that, too.

TOMAS: It always boils down to a question of intent and motivation. And I cannot see your heart; and you cannot see your heart. Only God can see your heart in the way that will assure your personal fusion, and not everyone opts to go that route, and so, yes, there is the element of essential reality that will assure that all things good will be assimilated into the Evolving Supreme, and thus the contribution to God has been made.

This, however, is not the same as paying passage; it is something the Supreme takes unto itself as freely as humans take what they need to survive.

A conscious commitment to survive involves the supreme decision, the consecrated choice. This is that which constitutes the lever by which you are able to turn on your own light and by which the Father knows you. The testimony that it is your will to do His will may be a commitment and it may be a diversion. But only the individual in still, quiet reflection with his or her inner life can discern the relative truth content of his or her reflections, and this is a lesson similar to that which comes when one ponders whether or not he is humble. It seems the more one wonders how humble he is, the less humble he appears.

To the extent that you forgive yourself, you must forgive others; and to the extent that you forgive others, you must forgive yourself.

Elena: I feel like I didn’t miss very much. I think you’ve caught me up on that very nicely. Thank you, Tomas.

TOMAS: This is what the Sabbath is created for, as I understand it, and so, then, there are matters of mortal concern to deal with having to do with resting and recreating as we did at the Retreat that was so enjoyed by all of us, mortal and divine and morontial. Let us recess, then, for you to have another taste of retreat from life in the joy of our association and fellowship in the spirit as siblings in the Family of God, the Father and Mother combined. I look forward to your next gathering. And in the interim, be of good cheer. Amen and farewell.

Group: Thank you. Tomas.

*****

TEACHER: Tomas

TOPIC: Teaching is a Hard Job

TOMAS: Good afternoon, precious friends. This is Tomas – companion, teacher, guide and friend. How are you this afternoon?

Renault: Hi, Tomas. Well, thank you. And yourself?

TOMAS: I am relatively well, thank you, for I am about the Father’s business and believe myself to be on the right track. For that, peace of mind plays greatly into my sense of wellbeing. This is a lesson I learned when I was mortal. Or, I began to learn it, anyway, and have added my collective consciousness to that construct along the way and, by the way, I have also let go of much of the constructs I have created, through my collective consciousness, in search of the pearl of great price, which is my soul.

Renault: What do you mean ‘collective consciousness’?

TOMAS: In this case, I am urging your consciousness toward your mind, your personal perspective on life, as it is a reflection of the collective consciousness of your experience ~ the collective memory of your interaction with all that you have gone through, all that has gone on before that has contributed to your current frame of mind.

Renault: That’s what I thought you meant. Could you answer my question about the awareness of consciousness beyond this life? Do we ever then experience a life on another planet where we are born as a babe and we don’t remember and live a life, such as we have done here, and we won’t remember until after we die then gone on to other lives? Is that part of the collective consciousness, too?

TOMAS: It would be in a very broad sense, but there are limitations within the divine structure that disallow your having another mortal experience on another material world, for you will leave here to become a morontia being. It is not possible for morontia beings, of your sort, to return or be returned to a former state.

Renault: Hmmm. We only advance.

TOMAS: Only are you advancing, yes. I realize there are theories abounding, postulation and speculation as to what variations on this theme may be allowed, for "there are always exceptions to the rule" you think. In your search for knowledge you have the right to investigate.

Renault: So could part of the collective consciousness be cellular memories somehow passed on through generations and remembered in a later generation, is that possible? Just like our immune system is handed down from our ancestors, our mothers?

TOMAS: It is not the right phrase to use: "cellular memory," although inherited biological defects or peculiarities are often genetically passed down. Yet more overbearing is the behavioral manifestations of other kinds of illness and imperfection and deficiency.

Renault: Biologically inherited?

TOMAS: Sociologically inherited and biologically reflected, for the mind is, in many instances, more powerful. However, it is also true there is inherent imperfection in evolution, as it reaches for its ultimate culminating state of being, as you do in your ascent toward perfection ~ this you share with all living things that grow ~ to fulfill your potential.

You are wondering about what you remember when you transfer over to the morontia state of mind and being, correct?

Renault: Yes. Does that collective consciousness continue?

TOMAS: Largely, no, for it is a function of the material mind. And the material mind is no longer accessible on high. Although memories of experientials are retained for as long as they serve to reflect for you those experiences which are contributing to your ultimacy in personality enhancement and advancement. Since personality is a part of what survives, it is what God has come to you for. He wants your personality with which to function, and thus you get to go along for the ride. Forever!

Renault: Whee-ha!

TOMAS: Better than failsafe.

But, do you remember in the same way that you can sit here remembering events from your life and sharing companionably with others that which you remember, such as, "I remember in high school we used to…" or "I remember my mother telling me . .." -- those are memories of this life which enrich this life, but the memories that are transferable and eternal are the experiential memories shared with others which reflect back God-enhancing messages.

"God-enhancing." Do you realize what this means? Can you take the concept of "God-enhancing" and apply it to yourself in terms of your own personality gifts, given over to Our Father and Infinite Mind, in order to reflect Paradise values in and through your personality techniques of dispersing love, mercy, goodness, wisdom and all those things that constitute the divine perspective?

This process entails the recognition of that which stands in the way. It would otherwise be all downhill, with no need for you to develop, through traction, in exercising yourself for the strength that is inherent in Sonship, as long as you stay in good spiritual shape. So to answer your question, yes, you will have memories, but they are not the memories you immediately think of from your mortal perspective.

You will not remember the negative emotions that are a part of the collective consciousness of this environment. You will no longer be influenced by the energy of this environment. And since you are moving into a new mind, you won’t be taking your mental environment with you. Therefore, you will be able to say goodbye to guilt and shame, grief, anger, envy and the like. They will not serve you in Mansonia.

Renault: So why not shuck them now?

TOMAS: It is a part of your animal nature to have them. And they continue to serve, but the challenge is to master them.

Renault: That’s what I mean by …

TOMAS: To ignore them, overlook them--

Renault: -- is just to repress them.

TOMAS: -- or be in denial of them. And they are valuable tools in the human experience, since many individuals are NOT God-conscious and are self-interested exclusively, and the intelligent human animal will use whatever it can in order to get its needs met. It’s "Survival of the fittest."

This is one of the reasons people don’t want to talk about religion, don’t want to know about God in your daily life and have their daily life disrupted by the presence of God, either in their environment or in their minds. This is foolishly suicidal behavior. But still you are charged to go into the arena fearlessly and in faith of being led, of being companioned, and of being assured of eternal survival. Even as you go through the valley of good and evil, all the more reason you should look to God for sustenance and seek to find Him in all living things.

Renault: He certainly is manifesting in a beautiful Spring.

TOMAS: Isn’t it a wonder, this creation of Theirs, which recycles beauty in such a harmonious fashion? It is dependable!

Renault: Thank God!

TOMAS: That is what we are doing: thanking God for the renewal of Spring, the sense of new beginning that comes each year with the thaw, having rested and survived the winter, coming through the hibernation and dormancy into the stirrings of hope.

Renault: Rebirth. That was uplifting, just like the plants coming up, it’s uplifting, coming out of the soil.

TOMAS: It is a gift from God and available to all. The sun rises every day, even though it is also true it does not always shine on that which is beautiful. The fact remains the child of God thanks God for each new day that dawns, in faith of its dawning.

Renault: Each day.

TOMAS: Each day.

Renault: It keeps us from taking ourselves so seriously. In spite of what we do or say or think, the sun comes up and the moon comes up and the sun sets and the moon goes around and…

TOMAS: It is necessary, however, for a people to understand the goodness of God in order for them to want to enhance that goodness. When God has never been good, when the only thing they have ever known is abuse, abuse is good.

Renault: But all those memories are left behind.

TOMAS: They will be left behind when you leave here and arrive on Mansonia, yes. One of our long-range goals is to attain a level of maturity of civilization on Urantia that will disallow this despair and darkness. I may ask to stop teaching.

Renault: Today?!?!

Gerdean: Why, Tomas?!?!

TOMAS: Because it’s hard to be a teacher. I don’t intend to be serious, but I am, and my work with you is serious, but I am incessantly causing conditions for growth that reflect in people being angry with me.

Renault: What people?

TOMAS: It doesn’t matter. Those who are growing … like yourself. You prompt my discourse by saying something about taking ourselves too seriously. I take myself and my work very seriously, and thus I feel--

Renault: And there are humans on the earth who take themselves too seriously.

TOMAS: Like whom?

Renault: People who feel, like, self-important; and that don’t have a sense of humor about things, that don’t see the humor and the love and the goodness flowing; that are too stern and take themselves and their cause or whatever too seriously, as if with no room for love or compassion in their ….

TOMAS: You mean they are ruthless?

Renault: Well, they take themselves too seriously, without seeing the love and compassion and mercy for other people and other circumstances than….

TOMAS: They are not my students.

Renault: No, huh-uh. I just meant people in general who take themselves too seriously, is what I meant, Tomas. It was one of those big, broad, generalized statements. The seriousness of these lessons, I find different. It’s a different – yes, indeed, we are very serious about this and I agree, and I love it! And I love you. And I, too, am very serious about these lessons and my spiritual life, and so I take that in generally seriously, not in general just myself. You know.

TOMAS: The concern I have is that in the due diligence to do Father’s will, there may be even well-intentioned good people being manipulative of the spirit in their ambition to advance their perception of God’s will. Much of this is ascertained according to the psychic circle, although I am not able to make accurate assessments of such a refined nature as to what psychic circle it is on which anyone operates. It will reflect, to a certain extent, in density, and by density I do not mean stupidity.

Renault: But density of matter.

TOMAS: And density of consciousness, as well. There are some that are so blind to the spirit that battalions of destiny guardians are assigned to watch over them until such time as they are able to arise to the occasion and take hold of His garment, so to speak, in order to begin making those soul-making decisions that will enable God to see his child -- if this makes sense to you. Or, as they might have said in biblical times, "He who has ears to hear, let him hear."

Renault: There seems to be a lot of people who are blind without knowing it, who are veiled without being aware that they don’t see and don’t hear, or they are just seeing and hearing in a different way that seems strange to us.

TOMAS: This is not strange at all, for ever and anon another is always exceeding your capacities one way or another. Always and infinitely. And yet few enjoy being reminded that they are not what they might be, unless it is delivered in a loving or encouraging way, yet that is not the mental approach of those who are in the darkness such that they cannot even see that there are others, much less how to concern themselves about their well-being.

Renault: I think it must be hard being a student, as well. I know I am not as diligent as I should be, although who knows what one should do or … it’s hard to know sometimes.

TOMAS: This is true particularly when you are not letting the right hand know what the left hand is doing, and this is how it is that you walk around in faith as a child of God, innocent and free. This is possible for anyone regardless of their beliefs unless, of course, their beliefs make them be in denial or unhappy – and there are plenty of those around.

Renault: They’ve given themselves permission to be unhappy.

TOMAS: Even my students are an assortment of maladjustments which I am commissioned to work with, but every time I mention something, your feelings are hurt. And so I cannot do a very good job with what I’ve been committed, myself, to do. It is not my job to be anyone other than who I am and do what I do perfectly (or as perfectly as I have learned how, thus far), but if I am ineffective and/or if I am so effective no one signs up for my class, what kind of instructor am I?

Renault: Dedicated.

TOMAS: I am a teacher. I am of the Teacher Corps. I am here to teach you to be teachers, as well. How you opt to become teachers is your personal interpretation of what these teachings are about.

Of course, I am concerned about you all as individuals, but that is only one phase of our work together. There are other phases as well, and they are not necessarily consecutive, they are concurrent, and I have an obligation to meet my obligations in both contexts, and even yet more that I have not revealed.

Renault: Because we wouldn’t understand it? Because we’re not ready for it?

TOMAS: Because your minds are already filled with too much of a selection of soul-making decisions. It is our goal at this point in the Correcting Time to continue to encourage you to learn to live as if the divine will was the will you choose. In other words, the spirit life has the highest priority.

"Seek ye first the Kingdom, and all things will be added unto you." The Kingdom is the key. What is the kingdom to you? The kingdom you are seeking may not be the same kingdom as is being sought by others, even your significant others. And imagine your surprise when you discover you are working against each other, in opposition to each other because your perspective on the Kingdom is not complimentary but counter-productive.

Well, in my opinion, it is the responsibility of the conscious being to find out the root of their aberrant behavior and correct it, but if there is no sense that their behavior is in any way aberrant, it is senseless to attempt to cooperate, for in the cooperation you are only feeding the illusion.

"Seek ye first the kingdom" is going to depend on what you regard as your kingdom. If it is your house, your business, your body, your job, your lifestyle, your political party, or your nation, you are doomed to have your reality shaken for it is not the ultimate and bottom line reality, it is only an illusion of reality based on your perception. And that is not necessarily synonymous with the will of God, no matter how well intentioned you may be.

And if and as your resistance to counsel is such that you reveal yourself as having no problems, or no questions, your illusion is complete and there is nothing I can do.

Renault: But if you believe the kingdom is within,…

TOMAS: Then we stand a chance of combining our resources as they are all from the same Source. That Source itself will begin to activate and actualize a greater reality that is more than the sum of your parts. And we are still teetering on the brink.

If you think this does not cause an atmospheric tension, that all earth is under the influence of, it is only because of the relative density of your perception. It is as the saying, "if you are not outraged, you’re not informed." If you are not agitated, if you are not stirred into some kind of action, it is because you are complacent or dense.

Renault: Or overwhelmed.

TOMAS: Overwhelmed is a state of mind brought about by attempting to assimilate too much, too quickly. Like the child who gulps its food, it does not take long for the child to learn to take smaller bites, but it is helpful when the adult teaches the child how to take small bites so that they don’t choke, how to chew the food they’ve been given, so that the body can digest it. It seems the hunger is so great, the food is consumed in such great gulps,…

Renault: And there is so much of it.

TOMAS: … it has become a habit to expect big bites, big helpings.

Renault: I meant "overwhelmed" in the context that it seems like there’s so much that seems to be going wrong with everything, and those … when you do try to keep informed, and … it’s just … the negativity is what’s overwhelming! And I wonder sometimes – we all know that negative vibrations affect us in a negative way, you know, make us upset or nauseous or whatever, but that if the negativity is also being broadcast through the air via satellite, radio waves and TV waves, is that a negative energy per se when it is being broadcast, versus something that is being broadcast of a good energy, of a peaceful news, of something good happening … is that a real thing, is, I guess, what I’m asking, that can permeate the world and their thinking and their attitude and their feeling? Not just if they have their television set on and they are watching it but streaming through the airwaves as it does, does it have a negative or positive effect on us?

TOMAS: Surely you jest.

Renault: I don’t know. I was just wondering. So you’d have to have your TV set on to watch it, in order to be influenced by its negative…?

TOMAS: No. It is in the ethers. There is tension in the ethers. You don’t need to watch TV to know there is stress in the world. It is reflected in the behavior of the culture. Mother Nature itself does not reveal this chaos, except as it has been damaged by it. But the physical reflection of the material world is only one dimension. There is another dimension that involves etheric energy.

Renault: That’s why it feels so good just sitting in the forest or in a quiet nature preserve place.

TOMAS: Where you are somewhat protected and buffered from the fumes of fear and hostility. But fear and hostility are polluting your environment, there is no question.

You have seen the studies of water that depict a droplet when it is polluted by chemicals, as compared to when it has been prayed over and saved from hostility by its surroundings of peace, greenery, and even classical music. This is how the material world you live in is connected with the self.

Sometimes the limitations of language are more apparent than others, but I err on the side of simplicity as often as possible, so that I don’t give misinformation, but don’t over-simplify my message, either, if you will, by using the terms that I use that are part of your phraseology, as my own. Or, you might say, I am asking you not to bring my messages down to a dead level, but allow them to live ~ in your consciousness ~ as a seed ~ that will help bring about an augmentation of your consciousness of yourself in such a way as it will help you, enable you, to become a better servant, a happier individual through righteous living ~ because of self-mastery and being able to respond in the spirit as compared to the common reflex. And this is what contributes to your sense of being overwhelmed. It is not me doing it to you, but you doing it to yourself!

Renault: After all, we are the ones that set our own schedules and timetables and work jobs and habits and hobbies, etc.

TOMAS: I love you very much. I feel for you when you are struggling, when you are involved in your conundrums of growth throes, as deeply as I do when you are na ve and innocent, brightly lit lamps of spirit luminosity.

It feels heavy in this (T/R’s) head today. It has been an effort to make my words convey the concepts I have in my mind to deliver to yours. But only time will tell whether or not I have met my obligation as a Teacher, and that is to have helped you plant within yourself those seeds which will germinate and sprout, which result in fruits of the spirit for you and from you, as the branches in his vineyard manufacture the wine that brings such joy to the many and serves as a sacrament as well.

We are immersed in the local universe broadcast surrounding the translation of Pope John Paul II. While he is not in the reserve corps as you are inclined to understand, it will come as no surprise to you to know that he has served Urantia well in his capacity as a Son of God in one of the reserve corps. We are enjoying what you might call "ceremony" – Pomp and Circumstance for his arrival – for we have been expecting him and will no doubt benefit from his experience after he has adjusted to his new assignment here and we have a chance to witness his humility in person.

A man of God (and I intend here to include daughters of God equally), is a pleasure to behold. Seeing you overcome the handicaps of time, watching your spirit push against the dark earth and reach up to the sun is always an inspiration. Those of you who grow under more difficult circumstances always have a cheering section on high, devoted to "the underdog" as you know here. And those who have walked the "straight and narrow" with dedicated resolve to follow Him, are righteously assigned those positions in the kingdom which will allow for services to be rendered on behalf of Him who sent you.

And we in the Teacher Corps, and those above us, and those below us, and those in concert with us, are most heartened by those of you who reach for the Father and find him ~ and then apply yourselves consciously into attempting to do that will ~ whether or not you build any empires or establish any institutions. But all efforts on behalf of the mortal estate are acknowledged. It’s just that I cannot judge them. Like God himself, I can only work with what I’ve got to work with. Show me what you want me to work with. You take the reigns of your own evolution. You take command of your own ship.

Don’t forget, however, how everything is connected. Isolation is ended. And so you reap what you sow ~ through cause and effect ~ and while you may win the battle, you may lose the war. Let us therefore rally behind the Prince of Peace and let His priorities be the inspiration for our own. Thus, I will be back if you will.

Renault: God willing and the creek don’t rise.

TOMAS: God willing and the creek don’t rise. Yes.

"Seek ye first the kingdom of heaven and all these things will be added unto you."

"The kingdom of heaven is within you." Amen. Farewell.

*****

DATE: April 24, 2005

LOCATION: Rio Rancho TeaM

TEACHERS: Unidentified; Demetrius, Tomas,

TOPIC: "Doing the same thing, expecting different results"

Gerdean (T/R): I think Tomas went to sleep.

UNIDENTIFIED TEACHER: [Without habit or familiar pattern on which to ride, our format] has to be reconstructed from the new paradigm of reality. And yet it is apparent that while we press you to assume a yearning for a cosmic association, a need for, a hunger, a reaching and striving for that new paradigm, you will remain where you are, even yet and as you loudly lament the stressors inherent therein.

There is a saying about … how does it go? You keep "doing the same thing, expecting different results," and it is not possible for different results to come about unless and until and as you change the way you go about doing things. You – I mean singularly, each one of you individually, as an agent of self will choice -- can appreciate what it is you stand for, and you stand down on it. In the jargon of the material world, it would be "the buck stops here" in this ascent pattern.

It might be "let there be peace on earth and let it begin with me." Where does one find that peace within? Where does one derive the strength to stand down? When does a world – when do you – stop? But you see, stopping a way of life, in particular this way of life that you lament is consuming you, you are taught that to stand down is to quit … is to be a quitter . .. a failure . .. and less than their standard of success. This is why it is said that some men are entirely too great to be merely successful.

The world needs greatness, such as you have, inherent within you as you are able to represent it, and in the representation of it, you represent what is most beneficial for yourself as well as others. For it is in genuinely caring for the human condition, for the effective harmony of the systems that are in existence to provide order and progress, not for control or greed, that you discern your will matters. You wait for others to show you how it’s done or what organization to join but you will not find it in these means and ways of yore. You cannot keep doing the same thing, expecting different results.

You are called upon to be a teacher of a greater truth. Your opportunities are indeed plentiful. However, you will not see them if you are not looking for them, if you are on such a treadmill that all you can do is keep putting one foot in front of the other in an increasingly faster pace. By this method you lose all that you are and all that you can become. You must remain conscious. Be superconscious! If you are super-conscious about your assignment, it will help you see your path more clearly, and you will see more clearly how you can avoid being absorbed into the cyclonic milieu of your world.

All this discourse about the Goddess re-entering as a way to bring balance is a means of correcting time from going too fast to be able to appreciate and enjoy and take care of yourselves, your relationships, your earth, your air, your cultures, minds and abilities. You (women) will need to learn to be your Divine Minister as the men are called upon to be Sons of God.

Stick to your work, womenfolk. Let the men do what they do. But you set the pace. You determine the pace. There is no justice and true satisfaction unless this balance is attained -- it is inevitable! And in turn, it brings about the new paradigm of reality which you seek: the easier, softer way … or a kinder, gentler means of being about the Father’s business of caring for each other as members of the divine family ~ whose family ideals are merely methods of demonstrating your own godliness, in godlikeness appropriate for you. Are there questions?

Elena: Well, tons! But one thing is your comment about letting men do what they do, and women doing what we do, it’s gotten to a point where I’m kind of confused about what that is. And then you went on to say that was to find the softer way or the kinder way, so that kind of helped elaborate on that, but part of the problem is that’s all just – it’s very unclear. It seems like women have to do Everything! So, "what we’re supposed to do best" … I’ve lost track of what that is! I guess that is one comment or question. In the time of changing, well, what is that? And how do we stick to that?

TEACHER: Women provide a station of stability and nurturance. I am not saying women are to stay in the kitchen or in the home, I am saying women are the home. Whether that has four walls really does not matter in the context I mean. The male is the adventurer, and the female is the anchor, and that’s about as simple as it gets … except, by determining the pace of the action, (which, you will recall, is woman’s realm – ‘action’), she controls how fast he can go. And the challenge then is to get him to slow down, to get off the treadmill, to get off the panic attack or the greed mobile and "be still!"

Elena: I suppose this would apply to elements within ourselves, rather than just applying it to the "male" and the "female" but one could apply it internally to those male and female parts within yourself, and apply it in that manner.

TEACHER: Oh, you are so right! Correct! 100%. Well done, to personalize the value lesson, as well as see it in the greater evolutionary context. And somewhere in the middle there is the social arena, where these dramas are played out, but the ideal and the concept is applicable inwardly as well as upwardly.

And this is indeed also a key to understanding the truth of the saying that ‘the path to perfection is inward and upward’ and yet the adventurous nature of the masculine energy if you will, that side of the yin/yang equation, is forever exploring deeper into the unknown.

Elena: Well, I feel totally surrounded by things that are unknown, that is for darned sure.

TEACHER: That is not for you to be intimidated by. That others don’t know and therefore that you don’t know is like the blind leading the blind. Eliminate all concern for that. Anxiety must be abandoned. Only focus on that which you know to be your responsibility, in being true to yourself, superconsciously.

Superconsciousness can frighten people. It can be seen as particularly intense and intimidating. Most people are tender, easily intimidated, frightened. As you learn how to be true to your nature, and bring that strength into the mix, that will garner you a sort of awe. If you are true to yourself, rather than affecting a stance that is expected of you by someone who has no idea of your capacities (which are much more than anyone bargained for – even you!) … if they are unleashed appropriately in due awe of this Divine Minister within (which is the Goddess, the Daughter of the Divine, just as surely as the men enjoy being Sons of God … or would if they knew how), it is the greatest gift.

"Father, forgive them they know not what they do!" [because] we haven’t shown them yet! We haven’t enough workers in the field to send in there and show them the way. They have not yet learned that God dwells within them in that real and personal way, which Jesus came to reveal when he taught that God is love and love is the desire to do good to others. The correcting time is this time wherein all things are turning inside out to reveal a new paradigm. All things are becoming new, but not altogether without a little help from you who are our co-workers in the flesh.

Elena: Well, how should we feel? I guess this is one of the things that might be good to have some feedback on. During this time of change, it’s very frustrating and one does get to feel like that - through all the difficulties - that one becomes a kind of complainer, or getting set up for-- I don’t want to go on and on about that, but I hope I’ve given you enough to kind of get the idea of what I’m saying. It’s that it is very frustrating, and yet that in itself is even frustrating, because I don’t like myself being disgruntled with everything.

TEACHER: This is where you need emotional support, where you can find common ground in the human condition - the vulnerable, feeling part of the human being; not the thinking, rational, reasoning, justifying person, but the reacting, responding, needing, feeling, weeping kind of person. This is also where you would do well to have instructors in your organizations, either a part of the staff or scheduled regularly throughout the year, that will provide retreats, where you can all step off that treadmill and throw it in reverse, to redirect and realign the system, to inject in it a farther, deeper need than merely rubbing brain cells in mutual company.

It has always been a practice in war to keep the enemy at arms length and impersonal, for when you begin to see the enemy as a human being, with the same kinds of needs as you have – wives, children, family problems and longings that are universal to all creation – you take away that impersonal, calculating ability to run ramrod over the tender feelings and sensibilities that would be construed as soft or weak. And while there are times when regimen needs improved and modified to meet current needs or systems need upgraded to keep up with the times, it is also important to balance that with the opposite end of the spectrum so that the pendulum keeps time with the universe, so that it does not become out of synch, crippled in some areas and steely-hard perfect in others.

Having the occasion to vent, fully and completely and regularly, is a healthy means of taking out the trash, whether it is in your digestive track, from what you take in, or from your psyche, from what you take in. Purging yourself daily as you intake all this psychic, physical, mental, emotional food and barrage of stimuli, commands and demands - noises, smells and so forth – compels you, even more than normal, to be sure and keep up with these essential elements of self-maintenance. It may be this is the reason you are obsessively attending to the bacteria in your environment, Elena.

Elena: Any advice in that area you could give me would be greatly appreciated.

TEACHER: If you quit depending upon your animals to provide for you the excuse to have a vested self-interest, they will quit responding to your dominion over them by becoming needy. You are creating many of the situations that come about because you are leaning on them to be something for you that you must learn to be for yourself. This is a common practice in humans, to use other people, places and things as an excuse to do things and to be someone that alleviates the necessity of being all that you can be.

Elena: So, stop worrying about it and it will be all right, basically, or what? I mean, I’m trying to understand that.

TEACHER: Shift your energy focus up so that they (the cat and dog) know you have it together. Not in a commanding way, but in a confident way, so that they can feel assured of your mental frame of mind, your emotional frame of being. Therein they will relax and find their way back to being their healthy selves. They will adjust and adapt to your growth. You may need to cosmetically counsel them as you change and grow.

Elena: Cosmetically?

TEACHER: All animal beings resist change, as when your boss or anyone who has any authority over you alters their behavior. It is the job of your survival instincts to ascertain what your standing is now, and so, you adapt. If you provide the attitude that you know who you are and they can find that solid nurturing base that you hold within your core, they will adjust, just as we all adjust to those who know better or have greater wisdom, as is a part of the healthy paradigm of the universe.

We learn to grow by following those we admire, those who want to teach us, those who want you to be the best you can be within the environment where you thrive. Thus, provide a place for your animals to thrive, within their own parameters of reality, and things will settle down, just as your life will settle down when you find yourself within your rightful paradigm of reality, and not feel the need to adapt constantly to the changing whims of those who supervise you or wield influence over you.

And that includes these of us, your supernal teachers. How we influence you is strictly as your greatest cheering section. You know how much cheer you need, and any more than that is energy that is being unnecessarily expended that could be directed elsewhere to better use. In this way you no longer have to concern yourself about whether or not you get enough credit or whether you work too hard. You will have found your niche, and within that you can function, at peace with yourself, and in this way you provide that cornucopia on top of the table that promises stability and nurturance, for all.

Elena: Wow. Thank you.

TEACHER: I embrace you in the fullest sense of the word, daughter, and give you Mother’s strength. I will leave now.

TOMAS: This is Tomas. That was not me. It was Demetrius [Elena’s personal teacher].

Group: Hello, Tomas!

TOMAS: I have been resting. I did not fall asleep. I merely subsided for another today and this has been good for us all. I didn’t have to prepare a lesson. It is always good to learn how to pass on the torch … or the baton … to the next generation, or the class just behind you. This way you can relinquish your claim to your place in carving out history, allowing and trusting that the youth who are being brought forward to relay your message to their children and the next class coming up, will be accomplished. This is a means of bringing continuity to change. Give the changes some kind of value, eternal value. If you just change for change sake, or exchange laterally, just to keep moving around, you are not progressing. You are not learning and you are not teaching. You are just indulging in an experiential orgy.

I’ve found that certain words I use cause a cool silence, such as the first time I used the word "intercourse" in Idaho Falls, Idaho, in 1994. It was as though intercourse was a word you did not use in polite company. We’ve come a long way since then in this Teaching Mission, even though there are thousands who are uninformed as to how it is that we are marching on. I find this, too, to be oddly comforting, for I don’t need to know everything that’s going on in the universe, as I know full well there are others competent to that task, and if that task is not met according to my expectations, it means nothing if in the end all is well.

I trust the comfort of the Divine Minister … the Universal Mind … our Mother in Paradise … the Eternal Son. All this gender matter will also soon be unimportant. Or it will take on a new importance and not be the simple dimensions your limited cultural exposure has represented to you. You will enjoy seeing and experiencing the concept of family as it is lived in the ideal and as it is taught on the first mansion world.

There is no hurry to reach Paradise, in particular since you carry a piece of it around with you and can visit it at will. But this urgency to evolve up through the mansion worlds and reach Paradise quickly, so that you can hurry up and go out (giggles) and create a new universe, that you can run and manage and organize and hire and fire, (laughter) is only a reproduction of the current treadmill of your existence.

Set the pace. Set the pace in such a way as it is gracious. Jesus was never in a hurry. Can you see the Divine Minister hustling Michael around the house in Salvington, telling him, "Hurry up, Mike. I told ya, I needed that done this morning!"? (Group laughter.) I think not. (Sustained giggles.)

Elena: Tomas, that is one of the funniest things you’ve said. (Cracking up again.) Ever.

TOMAS: I had the advantage of allowing another to teach for me. I can, like you, sit back and enjoy life. (Still a lot of chuckling going on.)

Thoroah: Whose idea was the "experiential orgy"? Because that really had me thinking about the fact that, you know, that we’re here to experience, but perhaps we just get caught up in the experience and it turns into an experiential orgy and we don’t necessarily gain any ground or something. But that was a very picturesque phrase.

Group: Rather than stop and learn from it. Yeah. That was good, too.

TOMAS: I am glad you enjoyed that.

Renault: And I liked your way of telling us how lateral moves are not necessarily progressive moves, because I know I’ve been … I want to change what I do, but I’ve been hesitant to just make any old change and just jump off the boat and go anywhere just to make a change. So I’m sort of like beyond that. It’s not the change I need; it’s what I do, and how I do it, rather than just going somewhere else and doing the same old thing, differently. You know.

TOMAS: Yes. This is wisdom.

Renault: Well, this is age. (Laughter)

TOMAS: Experiential wisdom only comes with age!

Renault: And so I know I’m not going to just jump off the boat to have another experience, but I do wish that change would kind of like hurry up and come! But I know in being patient with it, I see all these other opportunities that keep -- like flowers in the field -- cropping up, so … I don’t want to just go pick them all. I’m sure there’s a special job for me out there somewhere that will hopefully come my way. But I am sort of the kind of person that has to just like sit back and say, "Well, would you please do this for me? Because I’m not sure what I’m supposed to do in order to…"

TOMAS: Yes, well look at it this way: the answer is wrapped up in the parable of the seed sower. Some fall on fertile soil, some fall on barren ground, some are eaten by the birds or carried on the wind, far away, some become hybrid over time and some become extinct. You can sow your seeds from the table where you stand. Find the excitement within the seasons of growth. Not your own so much as others, for if you are the stable nurturer, the others will come to you to be still and to be fed. This is surely easier than chasing after those you would serve, saying, "Wait! Wait!"

Renault: "I’m here to help!"

TOMAS: "I won’t hurt you!"

Renault: "Gimme a job!"

TOMAS: Are we making ready, then, in the psychic realms? Are we preparing ourselves now by stepping outside our problems, as Jesus did, in going apart from his fellows to spend time with the Father taking in energy, as we have done this afternoon in stepping aside from the world as it is, in order to place our self in the direct line of Source, so that we are comforted, confirmed and counseled on our next approach into the arena? Daily. This is essential maintenance. Take care of yourself first, so that you can then take care of others. This is not a surface assignment. It is on a deep mind, soul level. It is your very being. It is our reality, in faith.

I am very heartened to hear the news of the Father entering into the American Medical Association.

Renault: Oh, good.

TOMAS: I am very heartened by many things the Father has been able to bring about through his agents, even as the headlines continue to point out the tragedies of life.

Renault: Is this part of the increasing awareness of people around the world -- of their own spirituality – this awakening that’s happening is now becoming more and more manifest? Is that why we’re seeing Father’s business in the AMA?

TOMAS: It is time.

Renault: Mm-hmm.

TOMAS: A new era is upon us, and it is time for new evolutionary changes to take place. It is as though these evolutionary changes were written into the original pattern and the time has come for them to be realized.

Renault: Sort of a biological turning on?

TOMAS: You could think of it as a biological turning on, and then utilize that example, such as a seed becoming a plant, producing a bud, flowering and ultimately losing its petals, yes, however, it is also an era of time – not limited to one year but to one age.

Renault: The Age of Aquarius, as a saying from the 60s.

TOMAS: In that context, yes. Just like the renaissance, culturally speaking.

Renault: Um-hum.

TOMAS: All right. I think I’ve almost outstayed my welcome. I am going to sign off here and take my entourage onto another architectural sphere for awhile. I’ll be back when you next agree to meet. I will watch you on the monitor.

Elena: It’s wonderful to be around you all. And thank you so much.

Esmeralda: Thank you for coming, Tomas.

Renault: And your entourage.

Elena: And Demetrius. Thank you, thank you.

TOMAS: Bye for now.

*****

DATE: May 15, 2005

LOCATION: Rio Rancho, NM

TOMAS: His will be done. I am Tomas, your Teacher. Good afternoon, dear flock.

Renault: Good afternoon.

TOMAS: You are not alone. You know you are not alone even when you are unaware of our attentions. You are watched over and looked after, guided and protected, directed and led, not only according to your conscious will to follow His will, but also because you are His and He cares for you. Not a hair on your head goes unnoticed, and the sun rises on the just and the unjust.

If you think it is somehow more special to be a believer than a non-believer, you are fooling yourself, because even in the unbeliever and the infidel there is the potential of divine light, activated and conscious enough to provide the stability of character and quality of being that would promote peace and other values accommodating of humanity’s best interests. It is that yearning for humanity’s best interests which you feel in your solar plexus -- "the yearning heart."

The yearning heart is the reflection of your motives and your intent. The yearning heart supplies the motivation needed to get things done. And so you do well to perceive what the heart is yearning for in order to then attempt to coalesce your will with those who also pursue their yearning heart to provide divine love for all, for all. Therein is perfection.

And while holding it within will certainly light your own path and shed light on the path for others to see by, if not to follow, we then have the parable of the city set upon a hill, and this New Jerusalem acts as a beacon for all to see and broadcast, like the harp of God, this divine illumination. The yearning heart seeks to extend this hope to all.

There are legions of angels who oversee the children of time. Those of you who minister to the ones right behind you may not be aware of what you are conscious of, but they will come to know that it resides within them as well as those who shine their light of truth, and this serves to provide their yearning heart with the truth of their own being and the belongingness, oneness, within the Family of God, divine sons and daughters by grace.

The yearning heart longs for grace. As the desert soaks up rain and your body soaks up lotion, to soothe and nurture through its life-giving qualities, you, too, can be this balm simply by being in the presence of God and acknowledging His personal presence in your life as a natural effect of the great and original cause, the original I AM.

The good news is that you yearn for others. Your yearning has been fulfilled! This is what leads to further service. What have you been doing to further serve, or to appease the yearning hearts of humanity? [Long pause] You see, by simply being, you radiate the harmony of the spheres. You infuse your physical environment with the peace which passes all understanding.

T/R: And when we are not being, but doing?

TOMAS: While it may appear to some that you are wielding weaponry, remember the analogy of the sword. Allow the power of God to prevail and dominate your swashbuckling. And put forth your style of Sonship manifestation in good cheer, good will and good humor.

Do you have questions? Do you want your fortunes told? Do you have complaints to register?

I will pause now in our engagement in order for you to ponder the yearning heart, differentiate that from the yearning stomach, and come back if you have questions or contributions to make to the community from this broadcast. So be it.

[Interim discussions]

Renault: Tomas, what’s the best way to deal with a teenage daughter who keeps running away from home? She is only 16 years old. How can her parents bring her back home … not that that’s the best place for her, either, but … what’s the best place for her?

TOMAS: Have you read Gibran? "Your children are not your children." Is she being controlled?

Renault: We think so -- by this other girl that she keeps running away with.

TOMAS: That’s an influence. Do you suppose she is being controlled at home and feeling freedom is necessary?

Renault: Oh, probably. Especially now that she has run away. Now that she has sort of tasted it. It’s a "no going back" now, actually.

TOMAS: It is not untypical for such creatures to extricate them from the nest. It is an attempt to emancipate herself. If there are no real hostilities to be overcome, it could be an exciting time in everyone’s lives as they testify to the first flights of the baby bird.

"Acting out" is, as I understand it from your hip culture, and though psychobabble, is a sociological product of evolution. Each generation expresses itself in its own due course and introduces a yet new layer of advancement in this process of the I AM extending itself into time and space creations.

The I AM is renewed and revisited each time a new flock of his children are born, each generation, and is expressed in a way that is best co-created and understood by those involved. And so to some degree, to fear the youth’s flight from the nest entails a number of psychological contributors that include the parents’ fear of the future-- not only the future of their offspring but the future of the world, and thus their own finite fears as well.

As parents allow themselves the luxury of personal relationship with divinity and understand the stillness principle, they grow in faith. This faith is fed to them through God’s love and extends out from them into their realm as the illumination we referenced earlier that will allow light to shine on the path of the child leaving home and thus the child’s growth is blessed, encouraged, and enhanced, allowing the child then to be more in grace about its leave-taking.

It may be likened to that formula if you love it, let it go. If it comes back, it was yours. But this must be done through as much conscious love as possible, not only instinctual or intuitive love, as in instinct for the arena ahead is social as well as physical. So for the child learning how to behave in the world, knowing how to fly, is as important as the fact of its ability to fly itself. For otherwise, it will simply fly into anything. Perhaps go to far or sit on a hot wire.

The fledgling will return to the nest if and as it knows it is always welcome to return to the nest, and this is the value of family, of the home, that cultivates civilization that fosters tomorrow while feeding the yearning heart today. And so I say have faith and have it more abundantly.

There was another question about prayer. The woman child asked about praying on her knees, "Grandmother used to pray on her knees several times a day, and she swore to it," and so the question is: what about that? Is that a more effective way to pray? And yes, you are right, child, your heart yearns for a deeper soulful connection with your own God fragment. "Just a closer walk with Thee" is what you seek, and you are addressing it as prayer, which is a rightful approach. But you are talking about form, style, function, even format or ritual and while many times these things can be effective in establishing appropriate and positive habit-forming behaviors that are conducive to the development of a divine perspective, they are only forms if the heart is not involved.

You are desirous of yielding up your heart to the closer embrace of the divine reality. Yes, it will help you to be on your knees, but only if you understand the symbolism of the gesture: to kneel, to supplicate, to diminish your importance in the face of infinite greatness, to surrender to the benign power of love, to wash yourself in the cleansing water of spirit and revitalize yourself in the presence of God.

This is done more effectively and provides more satisfaction if and as you genuinely give yourself up to the idea that it is a product of the material realm, for it is not. It is setting down the finite cares and casting your burden upon Him and resting at His feet in appreciation for the relief you have been given by not having to carry the weight of the world upon your shoulders a moment longer.

Run to the arms of the Master. Burrow in the breast of the Mother Spirit. Shield yourself in the arms of the Eternal Parents, who love you with an infinite love, and who will empower you in the end and you will rise up to meet the challenges of the day with renewed vigor and enthusiasm for the prospects ahead. This can be had only through kneeling within, and many times the demonstration of the inner life reinforces the mortal comprehension in the act of physically following through with the demonstration of the heart’s longings.

So I would say to you that indeed, if your knees are not inconvenienced or made uncomfortable by the act of kneeling, then humble yourself, by all means, and enjoy yourself in the sublime time you spend in conscious adoration of the sublime.

In this position, too, you are more likely to listen to what you might be told, rather than telling him what you want done about it. And that is often the case when people attempt to pray when they are in a hurry. It is as if they haven’t time to allow the divine will to work itself out naturally; they want divine intervention immediately, and this is simply typical of children of all ages.

Renault: They don’t realize that there is always divine intervention, at all times.

TOMAS: You are not alone. Indeed. You are watched over and carefully tended to as you allow yourself to be led. We will pause.

[Recess]

[Picking up on group dialog:]

Thoroah: Sometimes I think we need to ask God to know what to pray for!

Gerdean: "Teach me to pray." Um-hum.

Thoroah: Most people pray for themselves. They ask for themselves when real prayer is usually on behalf of the benefit of others. I don’t know that that’s true, but I know we need to get out of the way in order to allow Goodness to come through.

Gerdean: I think I heard it was okay to go swashbuckling, though.

Renault: A swashbuckling instrument?

Gerdean: Well, if you’re going to take the sword into the arena …

Renault: Oh, right.

Thoroah: But he was also talking about the light sword. The sword of light, that is depicted in the Star Wars? You have a light saber? And that light saber represents the Force, the truth, the power … and I think that was the analogy that he was trying to draw because he was talking about the light and I could see the saber. Which, maybe the swashbuckling has something to do with the jousting, too, I’m sure.

Gerdean: Sure. Dueling for God, for the principles. Fighting the good fight of faith and overcoming the demons and dragons, slaying the dragons.

Renault: On those kinds of things, Sean has recently quit smoking cigarettes. He’s using the patch, and he’s gone probably two weeks now. And we talked about it and I told him that when you actually do QUIT, when you say, "That’s it. No more. I don’t want any more. I give it up" that you start developing a spiritual courage. A strength, an inner strength, that says you have that strength and it is not going to overcome you. You can overcome it." And he really liked that idea. Because it does. It strikes a tone. It resonates you in that Yes, You Can do this. Yes, you are worthwhile. Yes you are strong.

Gerdean: Accomplishment. If I can do this, I can do anything.

Renault: I can be a really good dad to Persia. But it does give you that strength to know that you can face other challenging tasks.

Thoroah: The same thing with diet. I think any exhibit of self-control, self volution. Not necessarily just self-control but --

Renault: Determination.

Thoroah: Wise, intelligent self-control.

Gerdean: How about self-mastery?

Thoroah: Yeah. That’s what it is. It’s self-mastery. Exactly. Because, we are in control. Its those things we think we don’t have any control over that causes fear, and what we need to know … they’re not going to instantly say, "Here’s the answer. Here. Read this and you’ll cure yourself." You have to learn that. And then you cure yourself.

Renault: You have to listen to your body talk.

Gerdean: You have to be still and be on your knees ready to hear.

Thoroah: And day by day by day by day practice, and experience. It goes on for an eternity. So if you’re tired now, hang on.

Gerdean: Are we done?

Renault: Ask Tomas.

Thoroah: I’d like to thank Tomas and apologize for not being able to come up with any –

Renault: … good questions.

Thoroah: Real good questions.

TOMAS: Well, sometimes you play the role of messenger by bringing questions for other people. Since you have convenience of having your own T/R, so to speak, you can ask questions on behalf of others, and serve in that capacity, and act as a teacher’s assistant in cultivating the art of celestial communications. If your heart is full to over-flowing, you will be more mindful of that individual who cries in the wilderness and if you think to ask the Father within how you may serve that person better, or how you may shine the light of truth upon their path, you might formulate a question in that regard for your effort in the field and thus while you are not asking for your own yearning heart, you are asking for counsel in how to quench the thirst of others. It comes to that.

It simply means you keep your ear cocked for the wailing of the yearning heart and figure out what methodology it is utilizing to get the attention of the influences it needs in order to see what it is doing and where it needs to go for its own satisfaction, yes, but farther even than that, as I have seen relayed through the Master in his story, his parables.

Have fun, if you will.

Thoroah: If we must. Thank you.

TOMAS: Have fun figuring out what the quandary is so that you can ask intelligent questions and find spiritual answers that which will satisfy the deepest yearning, not just the superficial response. Those are Band-Aids that only serve to put off the supreme decision that is His will.

I leave you to your own company, your amusements and your refreshments in this superior atmosphere of early summer.

Renault: It is really gorgeous.

TOMAS: Be of good cheer.

Renault: Thank you, Tomas.

TOMAS: Farewell.

*****

[End of Vol. VI, 2004-5 Part 3 of 4]