Michael - Democracy; Boston Bombing; Empathy; Balance - Apr 18, 2013 - Jerry Lane, Lightline
Michael Lightline - April 18, 2013.
Topics:
Dear Michael and Mother Spirit, welcome. Well—come along. Come be with us. Give us the view of things from your perspective. This is what we enjoy most of all, your giving us this opportunity to see things how you see them. It’s the wonderful thing of being open to what we can’t anticipate on our own, or what we can’t come up with on our own. It’s reassuring to know that you are part of us, right inside us along with our mutual Father. If we are open enough to it, the next step, the next action, the next thing to do will be there. Then it’s up to us to do it, and be open to the results. So we thank you very much. Amen.
Michael: Good evening, this is Michael. Mother Spirit and I are glad to be with you. It fills our hearts to feel yours opening to us, to feel that wonderful gift of God’s—your curiosity--aimed our way. It’s such a blessing, the great hunger that you have as part of you, to experience your lives, to add to your souls. In this the most precious thing you encounter are each other. The greatest gift of all is the ability you have to share your lives with each other, to open yourselves to each other and take in this other unique person. For what you have to give each other is your very uniqueness, your very differences and worldly experience coming from sometimes really opposite extremes of social and personal activities. The ability to open yourselves to what is unforeseeable is the adventure that you are in the middle of.
(Bubbles of familiarity)
As we said, it’s very unfortunate when folks use all their creative abilities to build a little bubble of familiarity around themselves, for then their poor souls are starving in this bubble that was deliberately created so nothing happens--or nothing scary happens. Yet there are definitely scary things in your world. Think of all the time you were a very small child, then all the time you were growing up and that big world out there--that you neither understood nor had much power to confront--all those years of being so dependent on others: this is why it takes courage to be open. It takes courage to accept your own limitations with a measure of grace, with a measure of thankfulness to our Father for your being the kind of being that you are--with all your limitations. Because, definitely, power is something that is always in limited supply no matter where you are in your social or political life, or in your own personal life. That’s why we say: More power to you.
You have that rather cynical political and social statement that power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely. But think of your great spiritual leaders. Think of those neighbors and all those folks you’ve known who, with such warmth and graciousness, gave you a hug and welcomed you into their life with laughter and great times. In the spiritual realm, this kind of really absolute power, this power that creates things that last even beyond this lifetime; this kind of power of real value corrupts absolutely no one.
It takes courage to accept limitations for yourself, all that your dearest, beloved folks give you as a kind of a feedback to let you know that you too are only human. Then to accept that all those around you are only human, for they too are limited in terms of what their imaginations can soar and come up with. To accept this in your political and social life; this takes courage.
(Democracy)
It takes courage to found and then evolve a true democracy where people can relate this way, accepting their self-limitations. For in this, my children, you are approaching what the whole spiritual community is involved in. All the extra-human personal beings, all the genuinely spiritual beings, all gladly accept self-imposed limitations. That’s why only rebel spirits resort to means of intimidation and manipulation towards others. To deny these means yourself, to deny this unlawful kind of power and not accept it in social and political realms; this leads you to do your best to promulgate a genuine democracy of open and valid elections. Then every person can have assurance that their views are being heard, and that the elections are fair and open so they can in good conscience accept the results--whether the election goes their way or not.
All this calls for a kind of self-discipline of standing outside of yourself and associating yourself with the larger group. It means wearing your heart on your sleeve by being open and, as you say, up-front with who you are inside. It’s evolving the kind of societies where this honesty is taught at a very early age. Then everybody glories in this fact that they can share with others who they truly are.
(Boston bombing)
This is all an evolution that your world is involved in and, as recent events a couple of days ago showed you, not everyone buys into this self-discipline, this self-limitation. Individuals can break the social contract and do some truly obscene, hideous things to others, deliberately randomly.
This, my dears, this is where your world still is. Unfortunately, as you know this is an inconceivably common occurrence in certain societies in the world where it happens almost daily. It comes from those who will not submit themselves to a loving social contract. They refuse to do their best only in terms of an up-front, open kind of competition for ideas. There are even cultures still on the earth that teach God actually wants you to go out and murder other folks for the pure intimidation factor.
Yet it’s with a supreme kind of irony, a terrible kind of irony, that it doesn’t work. What you call terrorism does not induce terror but, on the contrary all through human history, these attempts at intimidation have fallen flat and have actually produced the exact opposite reaction. First it’s righteous anger; but then the determination not be swayed by such acts triumphs and always has. This too is a glory of the human spirit--that it refuses to be intimidated; and that individuals refuse themselves to respond in kind. That too takes courage--not to do what was done unto you but even provide those who do such things with legal remedies. All these, my dears, are the glories of self-discipline, self-limitation, and opening yourself to identifying with the larger group--the whole world’s society—everyone; holding yourself accountable to the golden rule of what you want others in society to do.
This is the slow evolution occurring, but it is inexorable. The soul wealth of sharing with each other, loving each other, supporting and caring for each other? From Mother Spirit’s and my viewpoint, from our standpoint, the love so totally--a thousand to one!-- outshines all the cruelty, all the lack of self-discipline, all the indulgence in hatred.
(Imagination and its limits)
In one way cruelty is a lack of the imagination; but beyond that, beyond imagination, it’s not acknowledging that there are things you cannot imagine in the suffering of another. You can’t pretend to imagine what it is that occurred to those individuals who were injured. That is their burden to bear, and it is truly beyond anyone else’s imagination--just because it is real; just because it did happen. Those who are suffering because of it are not only those injured, but also their families, and then the whole community where this obscene act occurred, because it challenges the very love and cohesiveness and enjoyment of tens of thousands of people at such an event.
The attack was trying to turn that joyfulness around, but instead you saw those individuals closest by rushing towards an explosion to help other folks. This is the triumph of the human spirit. This is the ground--you might say--of the planetary, human-race evolution. This is what it’s based on, this solid ground of caring and love.
So be not daunted nor feel that you are helpless insofar as you refuse to respond to acts of cruelty in kind. This is your spiritual triumph, even in your day-to-day life coming face to face with cruelty, or even petty crime. This is your triumph, my dear ones, your self-discipline, your empathy for another. Now, if you have any questions or comments this evening, bring them forth.
Student: Yes. This is Lee. I have a question about the Correction Time. Are we through the Correcting Time, or are we still going through it?
(The Correcting Time)
Michael: Oh yes, my dear, sad to say you’re still going through it. That underlines everything I said this evening, that all over the world and right in your own society here, there are individuals who will not accept a kind of correction, a kind of self-discipline, but insist upon expressing their hatred. We see it as an indulgence, a kind of egomaniacal indulgence to hurt so many people in such a totally/deliberately random fashion. So definitely the world still is in need of correction.
Student: Okay. Okay. Thank you.
Student: That reminds me, Michael--this is G.--about, you know, how many of us are in recovery from one thing or another. I think perhaps we’re all in recovery from the Lucifer Rebellion and the Adamic Default, and the vagaries of such a life on such a planet. But I seem to notice that there are some people who generate chaos. It’s as if they are not happy unless they are surrounded by total chaos, and making chaos for other people as well. I guess that’s probably just a side effect from feeling turmoil in themselves. Part of our task would be to try to encourage people to find the peace that passes all understanding. But it’s kind-of hard to deal with someone who does not want to end their own addiction to chaos. I don’t know what to do about it, except to stay out of their way--not that I want to isolate myself from areas where I might be of service. But nor do I want to invite chaos into my environment. Just a little commentary there, thank you.
(Uses of chaos—its intrinsic fearful quality)
Michael: Well, yes, my daughter. It’s a complex psychological thing because most of these folks who introduce chaos into a situation do not see themselves as enjoying chaos in themselves. They see themselves as the manipulators of chaos. In other words, they are the ones who have The Truth. They are the ones who know what is the “best thing” to do next; so they’ll introduce chaos to gain control. They themselves generally have some kind of twisted personal motivation.
And as I said, there are cultures still on your world in almost every society that, in a sense, deeply believe in what they’re doing. The very things that I suggested tonight--the love and caring, opening yourself, enjoying self-discipline and not going to obscenely violent acts: to them this is only weakness. They don’t see that this is some kind of spiritual triumph. To them genuinely spiritual folks are simply too weak to hurt others in order to get their own way.
That’s the real difficulty you are facing in converting these folks. It’s where it takes courage to set the example and deny yourselves responding in kind. This does slowly get through, but it takes time. And it’s still taking time. The Correcting Time is still in full sway. As you say, there are cultural leftovers that go way, way back to the Lucifer Rebellion, and to the lack of total success with Adam’s and Eve’s mission. These cultures are still persisting right up into your current days now. A lot of it is still tribal--a kind of tribal affiliation and identification with a very small, closed-in group, and not with humanity itself.
This is where your worldwide telecommunications--all the emails in all the Internet--is making great headway because people can have some contact outside their own little group. Their spirits can be appealed to: to go the more courageous way of self-denial of violence.
(Empathy)
So the choice is still up in the air; it is still continuing; but from our point of view, personal and social evolution is inexorable. The love and the sharing so totally outweigh any kind of reward people get from their most vicious acts. These are intrinsically hollow, and it simply brings that fearful chaos into their own lives that they’re trying to inflict on others. To repeat: none of these folks have any idea of enjoying chaos in their own lives. Rather, they think they’re taking control by causing it for others. Don’t forget your Nuremburg trials defined evil as a lack of empathy. That’s what I meant tonight, that no one can really imagine what other folks are now suffering, because that is real for them. And it is something that was deliberately caused.
Student: Yes. Michael, I have a question about that. This is G. again. There are so many radicals. You have that radical part of the Muslim religion that, you know, believes in jihad and killing as many other people that aren’t part of their religion, or their sect. And it’s not just that one religion. There’s so many of them that think they can establish reaching God themselves by killing all these other people. Is it going to take some kind of divine intervention for these people, since they’ve been living this life for thousands of years? It doesn’t seem there’s any end to it. Then you have the wacko’s in North Korea now with access to so many nuclear weapons. If they starting setting off any one of those, I’d hate to see what will happen to the planet.
(Tribal thinking)
Michael: Well, yes, my son. This is where Mother Spirit and I do try to assure you that this kind of human behavior--let’s just put it that way--is definitely on the wane. You have to keep in mind you’re sitting on almost a million years of tribal warfare. As your Urantia Book correctly puts it, there’s a kind of warfare thousands and thousands and thousands of years old, where people identify with a very small in-group. Then anybody outside that group is okay to kill; it’s okay to steal and rob from them. This is why the history on this planet has been one of almost incessant warfare, escalating right up to your Second World War where literally tens of millions of people suffered and died in that conflagration. It only ended by bringing the surface of the sun right down on the earth and incinerating thousands of folks.
So yes, that’s why I say there’s still a lot up in the air. Most of these violent folks--these cultures, I call it--thrive in isolation, which is how they see themselves. They see themselves surrounded by “the enemy”—right--and do not deny themselves any means of coping with the enemy. Sometimes progress is only by the youngsters being raised in a more open kind of society, because these ideas thrive on isolation. They thrive in societies where all the means of communication are rigidly controlled, and anybody who goes against them is immediately silenced. You can only imagine what it is like to live under that kind of intimidation, and have such a mind control aiming you at these truly obscene acts, this kind of violence. It’s not senseless violence. It’s very meaningful violence. It’s deliberately done for a deliberate purpose.
But it is waning. It is waning mainly in terms of the communications you have now that are breaking down these walls of isolation. Ironically, this communication has a kind of indirect effect on what you might say is the larger society of the world--the increasing amount of democracy, the increasing amount of individual freedom and authority. We see--from our point of view--there is a slow dissemination of authority, going away from a tribal type of society where everybody identifies with certain leaders and follows them blindly. In some of your religions it’s the same way; especially when folks are bereft of their own inner authority, their own connection with spirit. They’re relying upon someone else to tell them ultimately what’s good or evil. The only way to break that tribal mentality down is for more and more individuals to accept this responsibility for themselves.
(Dissemination of authority)
This is coming about because there’s a deep--not only a human need, but a human glory in having control over your own life and not needing any outside authority. We say you have right within you that which supersedes all ecclesiastical authority. It takes courage to live by this, but we see this as happening. We say it’s inexorable because it’s part of the human spirit to want to have authority over one’s own life. It’s just a slow process of growing up, of maturation. Like every child who wants to grow into their own and escape their parent’s authority, it’s something they must at some time then accept responsibility for what they are doing.
Student: For their own actions. Exactly.
Michael: But you are right, my son. That’s why I say there are what I call “cultures,” because there are whole system of values wrapped up in their preaching and inculcating the youth that certain kinds of really terribly, terribly obscene acts of violence are what God wants you to do.
Student: Well I know there’s cataclysmic stuff about to happen to the planet, just through it’s own, I guess, natural formation, or through time with expected earthquakes. We’re seeing more and more earthquakes, and I think maybe that’s probably what it’s going to take to wake up the whole world population--maybe more and more of those natural things happening. And like they say, there’s so many billion--you know--seven plus billion people, yet they keep talking that maybe three and half billion should be the maximum. I don’t know if there’s any truth to that, but it sure seems logical.
(Planetary physical events)
Michael: My son, I taught one time--when that enormous tsunami killed so many folks--that was nothing to do with human activity whatsoever. You’re still living on a relatively unstable planet and these are geologic forces that totally put all the amount of energy released—even by your atomic weapons, to shame. These people-type things have nothing to do with earthquakes, and that sort of thing. Plate tectonics has very little to do with these tiny, tiny little human beings living on the surface. Earthquakes have their origin deep within the mantel; and the world is still cooling. The world is still shrinking and you’re still going to have these shifts for a long, long time to come.
Student: Okay. Well, thank you, Father. That answers some of my questions.
Michael: Right. As you mentioned “the planet:” Whether you consider it fortunate or unfortunate, even the release of a few atomic weapons before heads cool off--and how many souls are killed or terribly, terribly maimed by such an exchange: still--in terms of the planet--that is not going to effect things. That is going to have an enormous effect on those directly involved, but in terms of the planet itself? Meditate deeply on this and consider what Mother Spirit and I see. The amount of love, and caring, and sacrifice, and sharing that is going on in the world between people is a thousand times greater than all the crime and warfare put together. It’s literally what’s holding things together, and it is growing. There are forces of good, if you will, in every single individual.
(Waning isolation and thought control)
You have to realize that those who depend upon isolation and a kind of thought control in raising their children; that is breaking down. That is why these very individuals have in their heart the fear of losing the next generation, because they are. And so this is why you to have to approach even them with love and openness, and welcome them into the greater love and sharing--because their way of life is dying out. In a way, they know that and that’s why they feel driven to such extremes. That’s why it’s ultimately an act of cowardice, and not of courage, to do these kinds of especially anonymous things.
Student: Random acts [inaudible] of the worst . . .
Michael: Yes--deliberately random.
Student: We always hear the bad news. We never hear the good news. The bad news always seems to make all the headlines, I guess, Father, so . . .
Michael: Well, it’s interesting that in this latest thing that happened a few days ago, people are noticing the amount of love and even courage there. Think of all those pictures of folks running towards an explosion to help those who are injured--taking that kind of risk. Think of people running into fires to rescue people, people going in and pulling folks out of a burning car that might explode at any second. This is the true glory of the human spirit. It is so much more basically creative than these other acts.
This is why over a period of time the good does always, always, win out. That’s why we in the spiritual family do not step in and immediately quash certain kinds of rebellion. We have faith, and we also have experience over long periods of time, of how God’s will is inexorable in the long run; if not in every human soul, then in the total. There is a cosmic-wide evolution/progression happening, for in happens in every single human or personal heart. That’s where it exists.
Student: The good will triumphs, Father. I hope so. I try my best, anyway.
Michael: That’s why it’s up to each one of us to do all we can, because that’s what it depends upon. It is no other than this: slowly welcoming and embracing and reassuring these folks that, even though a certain viewpoint of theirs is dying out, it’s because it’s an exclusive kind of thing. We ourselves must be inclusive to show that there is this other way. This is the courage it takes to open your arms and welcome everyone.
Thank you, my son. And be in my peace.
Student: Okay. Thank you, Father.
(What is the balance)
Michael: My children, thank you for joining me tonight and letting me express myself on the way we see things. It’s not by some kind of Polly-Anna looking at the world through rose-colored glasses. Even we see poor, torn Urantia with its checkered history. Yet even through all that, even through the tragedy of tribal warfare of thousands and tens of thousands of years; still--what people have shared with open hearts and with courage, what they have of each other and all their experiences together in their souls--they carry with them on into eternity. This has always, always outweighed that deliberate suffering people have inflicted on each other. As your Urantia Book states, the idea of “the devil” gets credit for an awful lot that is merely weakness and lack of courage, sometimes deliberate indoctrination into evil ways. As was noted, this is still happening on your world.
There are still very dictatorial societies where a small group in power is willing to kill their own citizens by the tens of thousands in a civil war, or to starve an enormous percentage of the population to keep a military clique in power. See these dictators as poor, bereft individuals, bereft of real power, real spiritual power. Yet at the same time they are extremely dangerous. You do have to respect and acknowledge what they are capable of doing.
This also takes courage, but this is the courage that triumphs over its mere negative absence. This is the glory of the individual free will to choose to self-limit what you yourself will do. As I said before, this is where you are closest to the spiritual community that has so much greater power, and yet refuses to use it for self-aggrandizement, or to manipulate or intimidate others.
(All the interplay, and the trust in it)
So in your mediations, in your prayers, feel for this. Look around you. Think of all of the interplay, all the exchanges in your whole society that do keep things happening. And this is worldwide--all the trade, all the trust in all this exchange. This too is literally what’s tying everyone together throughout the world.
It will eventually triumph--this peace that goes beyond understanding. This is the courage, finally, to stand in awe of this that goes beyond your understanding. For this is our Father himself. This is the need for faith and trust in him and in his will. And then you do your own best to see that it will prevail.
So, my dear ones, I bid you good evening. Be of good heart and good cheer. This is the task, if you will, laid before you. And this is the glory you righteously earn by being a good person. Thank you for being with me this evening. Mother Spirit sends her love, and I bid you be in my peace.
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