Tomas Vol IV - Butler, PA - December 16, 1997 thru February 24, 1998 - Part 7 of 13

http://www.tmarchives.com/transcript_frames.php?tid=4839

No matter how many times I read these transcripts, they captivate me. Perhaps it is the intimacy of the sharing, which is not something one encounters in everyday situations, perhaps it is the trip down memory lane they bring, for I can see JoniEl and Hunnah and Erata as clearly as if they were in a photograph -- and Damien, the young man who came to visit and stayed for a season. The subject matter that poured from each of us and into the consciousness of everyone in the room is, yes, sometimes gibberish, but it is more often substantive and fulfilling, revealing and sustaining. Observing the spiritual hunger of these people, the yearning to love and be loved with divine affection, to be accepted, and the joy of sharing, the camaraderie, the grasp of concepts … well, it makes me proud to have participated in this search for truth, beauty and goodness.

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BUTLER, PA, USA

VOLUME IV, Part 7 of 13

December 16, 1997 - February 24, 1998

C O N T E N T S

BUTLER, PA, USA

VOLUME IV, Part 7 of 13

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DATE: March 3, 1998

LOCATION: Butler, PA, USA

T/R’s: Gerdean and Hunnah

TEACHERS: TOMAS and MERIUM

Group: Hunnah, Genesa, Liana, Joniel, Iyana, Gerdean, Leah and Erata

TOPIC:

Grateful Submission

TOMAS: Greetings, loyal students, wonderful friends and family. I am Tomas. I greet you this evening in great joy. Merium is with me as are many of your loyal overseers, companions and celestial helpers.

Group: Good evening.

TOMAS: We are glad to be with you and glad that you are here, assembled together in "grateful submission" to his will. I would like to speak briefly regarding submission. It is very difficult for the mortal to submit to any will. It is common practice, however, that you all submit to the will of the many who influence you. Submission is a complicated concept.

Culturally, as women you understand the heritage of submission. As parents you understand the rule of submission. But in the Kingdom of God, submission is a willingness to obey and avail oneself to the will of that which is in keeping with your highest good and your greatest joy. And so the concept of submission in a spiritual sense is far different from your understanding of submission in a material and human sense.

I want to, parenthetically, clarify that when it is suggested that you submit to the will of God, as your text will report, it is not required that you slavishly give up your will and blindly submit to a greater will, no, but that you willingly adopt His will as your will and therefore become co-workers in will unison.

Now, returning to this concept of submission, "in grateful submission to His will" implies that you are in complete and total trusting agreement with that will, that will that Michael has for His father and which He set as an example for you and us to follow, trusting His will also as children trust their parent.

You have seen, Merium tells me, puppy dogs who will lie belly-up as an indication of submission to the master or to the greater dog and so it is suggested that you conceive of yourself in submission as the puppy who wriggles in the grass belly-up, in grateful submission to the sunshine which warms its tummy, in total peace and delight of the butterflies that flit about its face. And this is the attitude of grateful submission that I approach you with today.

For it is apparent, daughters, in your congregation here this evening, that you each have come in grateful submission to the will of the Father Who has only good for you in mind and in store, and one adventurous evening outlined ahead for us all.

Are you with me, Merium?

MERIUM: Indeed I am, and it's always a favorite time for me to join you in this group, Tomas, because they are so willing to accept our dialog and our suggestions. As you talk about trust, I was envisioning the outcome of trust in the believer and that gives them confidence and trust in the submission that they have allowed to take place within themselves.

It is as if you found an opening for a supply to enter you and to buoy you up, to give you confidence to go ahead and give you certainty that you have done the right thing, that you had surrendered to your better judgment and as you do so, it seems to perpetuate and become stronger in you and become a muscle. As our friend was pointing out, you are all going to become muscle-bound if you follow our suggestions, and I am looking forward to you overflowing with the goodness of the events that are taking place in your lives, as you find that the ground that you are standing on is firm and is appropriately identified for you.

You had a combination of subjects flowing into you. We have had devotion; we have had new words to freshen information that has already been planted into you, as a form of cultivation for you. It too adds to your confidence. It too adds to your determination to submit yourself to greater tests of trust, and I'm hoping that you will submit yourself to developing the muscle of your quiet times, to be diligent.

Hunnah has not even been able to be true to this as she would like to be. There are no excuses for this, but there are opportunities for you to take advantage of when you know very well you have the time to just go right ahead and book yourself for quiet time, and allow this opening that you have found in your developing consciousness, to let in the flood of good will that is waiting to be released in you.

We have said many of these words before to you and we will not want to be repetitious, but I do embrace you all and am thrilled to have you here and I can feel your eagerness. It comes in waves. It can be out-shouted by a form of complacency, but in no time at all you will be uncomfortable and enhungered for a greater capacity to accommodate the Living Truth in your daily diet, so I'm going to come back to you, Tomas, and I understand that there are questions out there this evening. Were you going to add to our little discourse here?

TOMAS: I will not, only to say that, in the vernacular, have you questions to gratefully submit?

Iyana: I have a question.

TOMAS: Yes, my dear.

Iyana: We speak about the stillness, the quietness; meditation. There's been a lot of talk about if there've been any problems, to go into the stillness and that you'll get an answer. Well, if you go into the stillness, you're supposed to be still! And I understand meditation, like Yogananda taught, that you went in it and you really were very quiet and you went down real deep and had a successful meditation. So how are you going to go in and ask all kinds of questions unless you have a chat with God before you go into the stillness?

It confuses me, because when I go into the quietness, I can see all kinds of pictures go on before me. I take a trip or something, going down the road and all these things flash before me, and there really isn't any quietness to it at all and there are no answers to anything. In fact, I don't go in with any questions.

TOMAS: I am reminded of a little girl who has been instructed to go sit in the corner. And with her face to the corner she reads a book. She bounces a ball. She pets her puppy. She plays with the bows on her dress. And to all intents and purposes she is sitting in the corner but she is amusing herself at the same time.

Now I will discuss the technique of meditation in terms of approaching stillness, for they are in harmony. There are many who will approach meditation as this little girl and sit there and work through their grocery list and develop long dialogs with their spouse, who will dredge up memories and resentments and toy with them, who will fantasize and build castles in the air, and do all manner of things to amuse themselves and call it meditation and call it stillness, but they have missed the mark.

And so, that you are inquiring as to true purpose of stillness, I commend you, I applaud you, for you have peeled yet another layer of the onion toward reality. When you approach stillness, you have stilled your body first. Your mind, now, you know, is very active, and in your active mind, Iyana, here is a good time to have a conversation with Jesus.

Invite Him into your presence while your mind is active and chat with Him, the Great Friend, about these events of the day, about the conversations that you have had that have left you feeling unsettled, about the situations in your life or on your world that have given you grief and distress. Call to His attention also those insights and revelations that have given you happiness and wisdom, those social circumstances that you feel you have brought Him to bear upon the moment, and thank Him for being with you in your service fields.

Indeed, include Michael in your life and when you have discussed with the Master those things that you would discuss, ask Him to reveal to you then the presence of The Father, and allow yourself to sit in peace and total stillness in the presence of The Father. Allow the Father's presence to embrace you in stillness. Let your mind be still in this place as you feel the Living Love surround you, as you feel the trickle of the Living Water flow through you and over you.

This Living Love, this blessing from On High, is the presence of God and it will speak to you in its way. It will speak to you perhaps not in the moment, perhaps it will come to you a day later; perhaps it will come to you in a vivid impression in a dream; perhaps your answer will be revealed to you in a discourse with someone when something they say will come through very clearly as an answer to your prayer, your discourse with Jesus, your supplication to The Father for understanding and guidance and wisdom in this, your life, in this life that He is asking you to live in accordance with His will, and so He will be there with you as you live your life and He will guide you in your living of it. Do you have further questions in this context?

Iyana: No, He already does. I mean, you already answered it. I do talk to them and I do talk about the day and all that sort of thing, but what I want to know is the difference between meditation and the stillness and you've answered that. I feel that they know what I want and what I do and all about me anyway. And I don't have any questions for them to solve for me, really, because I have a wonderful life and I'm thankful.

TOMAS: I have a hunch, Iyana, that it is wonderful because you have practiced life and met its challenges sufficiently that you have learned how to live a rich life in accordance with His will. I do not for one moment think that it has been handed to you without your effort.

Iyana: Well, it's very mysterious and He works in wonderful ways, I know, and I'm thankful for everything, because I've had such good care. Thank you for answering my question.

TOMAS: Thank you, daughter. And it is wonderful to have you here with us, as always.

Iyana: I have another question which is off on a different tangent. I noticed that lately I've had a desire to paint pictures of angels or a scene of holy pictures or things like that, and I've asked for the artisans to help me, but I don't think they've given me very much help because I struggle quite a bit; but anyway, my question is:

As I look in my art books, I notice all these wonderful religious pictures that have been painted way before the Renaissance, that these artists were inspired to have haloes around the saints' heads and they have the cherubs and they had angels floating all around and that sort of thing. Where did they get the idea? Was that given to them as a revelation or what? Did they at that time believe in all these things? I mean, was that taught at that time? Are you allowed to answer that?

TOMAS: I am not constrained from answering, but you challenge my skills as a teacher in approaching your question. I am not able to see into their minds, you see. I am not able to reflect their soul's intent, and so I cannot address "they/them."

Iyana: Tomas, excuse me, look at Merium. She is sitting there with a grin on her face.

TOMAS: I should hope so! [Group laughter] Perhaps you are telling me, Iyana, that Merium would like to respond to this question.

Iyana: Yes. I didn't mean to be rude. Excuse me.

MERIUM: I am setting a virtuous example by waiting [group laughter] to be asked to speak. I would like to comment about imagery and you must remember that man is taught imagery that he can understand. The lesser evolved beings, or humans, sketched with a saw on cave surfaces; they had time on their hands you might say. And they often could boast or express their anxieties through their sketchings, and as the written word man continues to do the same.

He uses it to exercise his imagination or to express the discovery of the knowledge that he has had in his limited experience or in memory of those who have taught him, who have gone before, and in regard to your talking about painting and imagery, you must remember that fresh beginnings are often indicated with the youthful figure, that they drew through their configurations through the knowledge that they had on hand and they had their own interpretation.

History time would go by and someone else would come along and set a whole new set of rules and explanations for something that may have not had the meaning that the new discovery has decided to place upon the arts. When you ask these questions, you must also remember that man mimics himself, that he wants to be understood by the masses, or perhaps he has a personal set of values that he wants to put in place.

You have an artist by the name of Picasso who brought out a totally and yet shocking expression of art and for the conditioning of the society, it was in many instances rejected as considered very i distasteful, where another type of individual who had a different set of values and appreciation for configurations would sing praises, and think that you get too involved in judging art and must allow it to be understood as simply an expression of man's wonderment or his questions about life and remember that the angelic realms were not understood by all but a few had ascended into this lofty imagery and simply brought it into their artwork.

I hope I am not disappointing you, but I think that there is too much weight or value put upon the discernment of art. It has become a specialty of vanity. It is an emotional outlet frequently. It can be a tool for learning but that in your world it has been simply an outlet for the intelligent mind and heart rending of an evolving society.

You asked about the imagery that was used. I could say to you, "In what part of history are you referring?" but as you see, we borrow from others and add to it or we become renegades and go off into a totally new way of expressing wondrous reverence for life. If you took someone like Georgia O'Keeffe, you could very well say that looking into the flower could be a spiritual experience, and if you were to equate that value of that experience, it would be no less than someone who was doing something biblical, so it is quite a large arena of thought-provoking appreciation and I do feel that sometimes there is much ado about nothing.

If you were to just do finger painting and it gave you a great feeling of satisfaction and no one ever saw it, it would be of no less value than something that was stretched out on a canvas, shellacked and hung with a gold frame. It is the experience that is important, and if someone looks upon it and sees great beauty and a well-developed consciousness, then they too are uplifted and the applause goes on for the effort of the one who designed the pattern.

There is a great light in your world presently today by the name of Summa Ching Hai and she paints. Hunnah saw her paintings and was very disappointed because she thought they would appear to be something very special and they looked extremely childlike and primitive. And then she thought further about it and decided that the vibrational energy in that picture was the true painting, and it was not the form of which the painting was done.

So as you look at life, I want you to see it as simply man's opening up and expressing himself, and what you may think of as beautiful is beautiful in your standards, but to someone else it may not be. This is the same with all mediums of expression and depending where you are on your journey, depends on how much importance you give it.

I hope I haven't spoiled the subject because it gives great pleasure to you all and you have been taught that this is a very positive quality to embrace, but let me tell you anything that you do with a true heart and if you serve the highest good whether you are gardening or whether you are greeting your neighbor, it is an art form.

Iyana: Thank you.

TOMAS: I will follow up now with a remark or two regarding the assistance of the celestial artisans. Remember I spoke earlier about submission, and in your art you do not wait and submit yourself to the inspiration of angelic assistance, or even to God Himself, but you work toward developing an interest that inspires you and so let us say that you seek to depict a scene wherein the angels of the races are helping the freed slaves develop farmland. Herein you have a picture, and you may consider painting these angels as Negroid in order to identify the spiritual help with the mortal subjects, thereby creating a picture of truth that the spirit guides will help the mortals in their outworking of their destiny.

And in the depiction then of this picture of perhaps pitching hay or working in the fields or cooking or whatever, you have the angels and the mortals working together. And after you have established your theme, and after you have determined that this is the message that you want to state, this is the moment in time you want to capture for eternity, and after you have begun to apply yourself to the concept and to the canvas, perhaps then, perhaps then you can sense and define the assistance of the angels, the seraphim, the celestial artisans who would support your efforts.

I will compare these energies to morontia energies, to Reiki energies, to Olfana's personality even, for the spirit life is real, it has a life that's bigger and greater and better than material life, and so as you apply yourself materially to the task at hand, it is very possible that you can be aided by spiritual energies in the outworking of the task. It has now become a dance. It is now a celestial work of art. Even as you yourself trudge the field of earthly endeavor, it has been elevated and lifted up because of your association with the Greater Reality.

I have been given to understand there are other questions.

MERIUM: Before you take a question, what I have been also pointing out is that this is a point of evolution, that anything man does, he does at levels, and as he evolves, the quality of the work is naturally affected. Perhaps you have seen the works of someone who is just beginning their choice of expression; it can be woodworking, it could be singing or it could be a business. Whatever medium of expression the individual enters, it develops with practice.

When we get to deal with artisans, there is an uplifting within that individual, within the framework of their chosen expression, their gift, their talent; and indeed there is assistance, as Tomas has spoken, but I would like to have you look at your world in a new way -- and especially with the young people -- and know that they are beginning. Some of them have received in an hereditary way a natural gift for a particular ability, and with encouragement it can develop, but it is when you develop them inwardly that they can take their gift and do greater service with it.

As Tomas was speaking, I wanted to come back and add this so that you can appreciate more greatly the effort that it takes for many who are perhaps having their first experience in some area of life that has not been handed to them genetically, and therefore there is a certain amount of compassion and support that they will require, because in the future there is greater diversity in our people, and greater opportunity to develop it, so I hope as you are on this journey, in this teaching, this uplift, that you will be able to expand yourself even into being supported in these areas. Thank you.

TOMAS: Thank you, Merium.

Leah: I didn't hear that the question was answered. Forgive me, but I surmised that Iyana asked how it was that the pre-Renaissance artists had the awareness of definitions such as celestial helpers and haloes, and so I perceive she was asking, "Were they lifted to loftier heights? Or were these things transmitted to them? Or how is it that they got the idea?"

Iyana: Was it taught to them that these celestials . ..? Where did they get the idea to put the energy around their heads? The light?

TOMAS: Early Byzantine art depicts Jesus as having a light radiating from him, and it would be in keeping that his angels would also be illuminated by a divine light.

Iyana: That sounds reasonable. Thank you.

TOMAS: You are welcome.

Liana: Tomas, I don't know if it's really a question or if I just want to have a discussion, but . ..

TOMAS: It is good to hear your voice, Liana.

Liana: Thank you. A couple years ago I got this idea that there really were no truths, that there are universal laws, but there are no truths; and that there really are just stories. And I was reading here in The Urantia Book that... it says in here that "physical facts are fairly uniform, but truth is a living and flexible factor in the philosophy of the universe." So, I think this is substantiating what I had thought a couple of years ago. I wanted to know if I was correct or, not really correct but if I was, like, trying to make this truth when it really wasn't truth.

It seems to me we had the story, in the beginning, and in the beginning there was, and that's the reality that we have of life, and now I'm hearing that we need a larger story. And I just wonder if that's what they're saying here in the Book. Is that what they mean? That a universe is really a story... a truth that is living and flexible, but it's not immutable, like we think it is? Like it's never going to change? Like this is the way it is? You want to say anything about that, Tomas?

TOMAS: Yes, thank you. You fully understand, of course, that what is true is not necessarily what is truth. Truth is a quality of reality far transcending what is true. What is true today may not be true tomorrow and yet if it had truth yesterday, it will have truth tomorrow, and so there is a demarcation between what is true and what is truth.

Truth is an element of the I AM, that which has truth, beauty and goodness. In eternity, truth is unchanging. It is an immutable reality; and yet, in terms of time and space and your ability, your capacity to assimilate truth, it is changing, and so what was true yesterday may not be true today, but what had truth will continue to have truth. And so this provides a thread of reality, a True Reality for you throughout your career.

God is unchanging. Your personality is unchanging. Like truth, it is unchanging. But that surrounding it that is true changes constantly. Your character, for example, will develop. And so what is true of you yesterday may not be the same today. Yesterday you may have been lascivious and today you may be moral, you see, but regardless of that which is true, you yourself have truth; and that is unchanging.

I don't know if I have helped, but I have responded. Can we discuss it further?

Iyana: Is that mota? What you're saying?

TOMAS: I believe that this could be interpreted as mota, yes.

Iyana: I think I understand it.

Liana: Okay. So... so truth, the unchanging truth, would be I AM that I AM.

TOMAS: Exactly. Existential reality.

Liana: Okay. But story is true.

TOMAS: Correct.

Liana: [Giggling in delight] Good! [Group delight]

TOMAS: I am delighted with your delight. And my lovely Genesa, I understand you have brought questions.

Genesa: Hmmmmm.

TOMAS: I will say to you, dear, that we are glad to welcome you to this community. You are now an officially designated Butler Berry, and so we have yet another fruit of the spirit in our midst. As a newcomer in our midst, be advised of our informal status here and our willingness to vary our format in order to accommodate your needs in terms of your soul growth. It is not necessary for you to meet the needs of others, but that the Teachers meet the needs of you in terms of your development, and so there is nothing trivial about your reality.

There are no silly questions. If it is a question that cannot be answered, that is beyond our jurisdiction, we will tell you. If it is something that can be looked up in the text in order to save time, that is sometimes an option, but by and large we are willing to get to know you better and have you get to know us better, by way of our social intercourse here. Welcome to this format.

Genesa: Thank you, and I feel honored to be an official Butler Berry. Honestly, Tomas, I probably had -- between now and this past . .. beginning of the week -- 101 questions, but I've been researching and Gerdean has filled the gap many times for me and actually at this point I can't recall any of those questions. I only have one regarding this evening, so far as things discussed, and another that I really haven't formulated, but the one that I do have is:

When you were addressing Iyana in regard to answering her question, you mentioned possibly representing the angels as Negroid to depict truth, and I don't see either way how it depicts truth, I mean, as represented as Negroid or in the fashion that they are normally seen in part. Did I misunderstand your …?

TOMAS: Let me then paint a picture of Orientals working in the rice paddies, with yellow angels. Have I made the point? I am saying there is no limit, that angels are not necessarily white, Anglo-Saxon Protestant blondes, you see, as they are normally depicted in your culture. I would suggest that if an artist were going to present a picture -- and I only sited it as a creative example … perhaps you are not appreciating my creative example -- that if you are going to depict a point, a value lesson, involving angels (since Iyana was interested in painting angels), I thought perhaps if she was going to depict a truth lesson, she might receive some assistance . .. far more so than if she is just going to paint a pretty picture . ..

Genesa: Well then what, if I may, what is the truth lesson in your example of Oriental angels with Oriental people or Negro angels looking over slaves working in the fields? Why not have a Negroid angel and an Oriental angel, a purple angel, a blue one, looking over all of us?!

TOMAS: I gratefully submit to your wisdom, for this is entirely correct, and I did not mean to be limiting in my depiction. You are correct.

MERIUM: This rainbow effect, this angelic rainbow chorus that has been suggested here, is being discussed because of your state of consciousness. There was a time when such a configuration would not ever enter your mind, and for some reason or other you have taken a trip to historical art which does not really seem necessary because there are many parts of the world that are art form that are now on canvas and we are limiting ourselves when we talk about art in this sense.

I feel that Tomas is trying to say that man can put a scene together and it can be of such a nature that it is worthy of having the presence of angels in its interpretation and if you in each of your mind can picture something that is indicative of social justice or perhaps it can be a woman sewing or it can be industry, the quality of the art can express the presence of holy attention, and in the eye of the beholder this can be understood or it can be totally missed.

I think we have painted ourselves into a corner; never-the-less, when you read this lesson, you will have your own stimulating thoughts and even if this conversation has not come through clear, please take the nutmeat in it and enjoy it for what it is. We are not experts on art, but through divine intervention we simply want to tell you that it is available in every form of life expression that man can experience.

There is angelic assistance, whether you are at sea in a raft and there is invisible attention, and if the artist decides to know that you had invisible attention because of the story that you told and you lived through the experience, you may have the ability through artisans to put a special movement of your brush into that painting that will indicate that help is at hand, and I hope that with this little bit of extra comment here we can put this to rest.

Genesa: Thank you.

MERIUM: If we are going to talk about auto body mechanics next time, I am not going to attend the meeting.

Genesa: My second question really, I guess, isn't a question. It's only a concern. The teachers themselves. I know there are many books that are written by men. That's my particular problem, but at the end of this week I'm heading home to, say, face the music, which is, like, to try to repair a relationship, in hopes of there being a new beginning, a new humor, and I was just wondering if there's any words of wisdom that either of you would have for me in my situation.

MERIUM: I would like to share with you something that Hunnah experienced at a retreat. She has a very beautiful teacher who was talking about marriage, and she was considering separation or divorce from her husband, and in the meantime she had developed a very powerful and permanent devotion to her spiritual journey. (This fits because we were talking about that gulf, that distance, between where you seem to feel you are and where the other person seems to be.)

When she realized that he was as he always had been but she had changed, she felt in her particular case that she would be able to remain true to this union, that she had chosen this inner merge, this inner commitment and that she would not argue with the outer expression of her life, that she would remain steadfast in this permanent relationship that had been awakened within herself. Therefore she would be able to meet all of the relationships that had already established themselves in her community and in her home and that she would live out from this specter and it would take care of itself.

Your friend can only be the way he already is until he has his own personal awakening, and if you allow yourself to keep this development silent and secret within yourself, your trust will be expressing itself in an appropriate response and love will come forth through you and patience will come forth through you as you remain steadfast. And you must remember that you are not alone and neither is he, for he has a Thought Adjuster and he has teaching presence with him that he is not aware of, perhaps, and you do not know anything about his timing. Physical dependencies are very costly, and as you rise within this development of yourself, you will soon lose their grasp.

My comment here is -- it sounds like many words, but it is to cheer you on and thank you for the devotion and the choice of direction that you have embraced.

Iyana: That was beautiful.

Genesa: Thank you very much. Those words may be very helpful to me. I'm definitely going to get a copy of this transcript. Thank you.

TOMAS: I would like to also add that Michael has established the family as the fundamental unit. The father and child relationship in the flesh is representative of the divine relationship of the Father and child in the spirit. It is an aspiration, an ideal and a goal that has been sought by humankind since the beginning. In the face of today's new mores and women's liberation, as well as the on-set of Correcting Time, with all the spiritual pressures being applied, it might be helpful, from Uncle Tomas, to add that in your relationship no one has a right to monopolize another's personality or growth, and that each person's relationship with their own Father, that divine relationship, is personal indeed and viable and vital. And so you are encouraged to foster your own comprehension of family, that is the spirit family, and allow the representation of spirit family to fall in line with His will. His will be done.

Have we other questions? Erata, how come you are so quiet?

Erata: I'm thinking about whether I should ask these two questions. Well, two questions. I don't even know if you'll know this because it's just -- you know my husband just died last year? And my dad just died?

TOMAS: Yes.

Erata: And he died on the same day my husband died. Is there any significance to that? Or is it just the way it was? Same date.

MERIUM: What do you think?

Erata: I don't know. I don't know what to think. Same exact date. Because when you think about God having His own time. I remember the priest told me that the Lord must have thought that was a very special day.

MERIUM: You have a kindly priest.

Erata: I was too busy to dwell on that part that day. It seems that God always tries to take my attentions away from things that might be too sorrowful by making me do other things on days that are sad, and so I really didn't dwell on those things, even though I took my vacation to get away from those things -- my center was on my dad and his well-being, and my mother's too -- and . ...

TOMAS: It is a difficult question you ask, Erata, for your human condition would suspect some mysterious cosmic response and it is very difficult for a teacher to say that that fact is insignificant for it flies in the face of what must be to you extremely significant, and perhaps the significance is indeed only for you.

MERIUM: It is, in the human realm, very important to have anniversary dates, and it is understood that there are people who depart almost systematically at a year or six months after their partner has passed. This concept is in the consciousness of man. It has been fed and accepted. It would be very easy to assume that there was some relationship.

You have found great solace with understanding that your husband was allowed to remain with you and your sons for a period of mending time, healing time, and a strength that was beyond your wildest dreams was brought through your body and your mind and you were given resourcefulness to meet these needs, to carry a tremendous burden, and now you are looking at the loss of another loved one, a support system for you, but he had a personal standard and a personal physical limitation and he was gracefully released from his participation in your life.

He, too, was an extended gift for you, and you will be allowed to be comforted by that and you may join the worldly acceptance of anniversary configurations or you may just know that it just happened and that you were allowed to be with him. Had you been working it would have been much more stressful for you and you did manage to get away, and you have used your time wisely and generously, which is in accordance with your personality.

You have a wonderful life before you, dear. There may be another anniversary. You may have a grandchild arrive on that day and you will all throw your hands up in the air and say, "Oh, my gosh, what is it with this particular number? It is an in and out door," so please be comforted and know that you are allowed to use this information creatively and you may design it in a manner of embrace and not punishment at all. You above all would not be punished for you love your Lord so completely, and we are pleased that you soldiered up the courage to come this evening. We welcome you back and are looking forward to the sound of your laughter.

Erata: Thanks. You want my second question? I'd swear I wasn't going to cry, but that's okay. I love my dad. What to do, what to do. In my journal I wrote, "What am I to do?" and.... Well, first off, I saw writing and I asked if I would be able to read it soon and the answer was "Yes" and the other question was "What am I to do?" and finally I could actually read the words, "Go fishing!" so . .. explain that to me. Not that my husband and I didn't enjoy fishing, because it's a leisurely sport!

TOMAS: I will tell a tale now on Gerdean and it has to do with when she first approached the process of contacting celestial personalities. A word appeared before her that said, "Read" and so she sought the truth, the answer, the direction, in many books. She said, "Do you want me to read this? Shall I read that? What do you want me to read?" When, in fact, the truth was in her mind all the while, and now when I come on-line she sees the words: "Greetings, students. I am Tomas, your teacher," and so perhaps along the same lines you will "Go fishing" for souls, but it will happen not at the swimming hole but in your mind, which is where your new arena is, after all. We are venturing now into the morontia realms and so indeed put your feet up, throw your pole in and see what we catch!

Iyana: Tomas, when you first came into the group in Pittsburgh, I think we were at Beatrix' house, at least that's the first time I heard you speak, I think you said something about our Thought Adjusters would be fused with us because we were here in this Teaching Mission and advancing.

TOMAS: You will certainly fuse with your Thought Adjuster, daughter, and you are certainly advancing, and yes you are involved with the Teaching Mission, but one is not contingent upon the other.

Iyana: When we pass on, I thought that we would be fused then.

TOMAS: Indubitably, unless of course you are victorious and manage to pull it off while you are still in this existence. That is not impossible, and so I encourage you to focus on your spirit development, for would it not be an inspiration to us all if any one of us began fusing on the spot?

Student: Wow!

Liana: That would be like being Christ, would it not?

TOMAS: No, it would be like being Liana.

Liana: It would be like being Liana?

TOMAS: Your immortal soul being personalized. I suppose in an indirect way you could say "being like Christ" but only if we are understanding that his Thought Adjuster became personalized. It is artistically depicted as a dove, hovering over him at the moment of baptism, and so that Personalized Adjuster is a result of fusion, and so your fusion will result in a personality advancement for you, certainly.

You would lose your material body. This carcass would be immediately dissolved and you would take on as yours the power and energy of the spirit of love as embodied in the Thought Adjuster, and yet it would be shrouded by your personality. That will be a day of great victory; we eagerly anticipate your fusion in the future. How soon in the future is largely up to you.

Iyana: Another question. Will my personal angels go on with me?

TOMAS: Indeed they shall and they will be with you when you awaken in the Resurrection Hall to greet you and speak to you by name, introduce themselves to you so that you will be able to see at last those associates who have so faithfully tended to you in your mortal ascension.

Iyana: That will be wonderful.

TOMAS: Indeed.

Genesa: Tomas?

TOMAS: Yes, Genesa?

Genesa: Gerdean and I were having a conversation about should a Thought Adjuster fuse and if perfection was possible in human form, and you just gave the impression that should that happen, the body would be dematerialized instantly. Her words to me were that a person that had reached that state of advancement could choose to stay in a manner of service. Is -- Are both of you correct, in a way, and if so could you clarify how that happens?

TOMAS: What hath God wrought in sending this student into . ..! [Outrageous, uproarious laughter from the group]. There is no conflict. The focus of my response to this question had to do with the physical fact of fusion, and the response that Gerdean gave you regarding an option to stay and serve is also a viable truth option. If, however, an individual opted to defer fusion until a later date in order to serve, then it would be at that later date that the body would be instantly dissolved in the process.

Genesa: That clears it up. Thank you.

TOMAS: You are welcome. I appreciate your probing mind.

Liana: Tomas?

TOMAS: Yes.

Liana: What you're saying to her reminds me of a lot of things I have read where they call the Ascension? and . .. is it possible for this to happen for a group of people like they're saying? Like, a critical mass of people? That this could happen?

TOMAS: I hesitate to respond to your question without understanding further what it is you intend. I do not want to give the misguided impression that we are going to follow some comet, you see.

Liana: No, I don't mean a comet. I mean a group of people would be fusing with their Thought Adjusters at a relatively same time to create a -- I don't really know how it would work myself, but . ..

Iyana: To create a great uplifting?

Liana: Right. Something like that. I mean, this is what they're saying, and you were talking about when you fuse with the Thought Adjuster, the love that is created in that, it just sounded a lot like what I was reading in the Ascension material.

TOMAS: It is not so much that a great deal of love is created in that, for the love was inherent in the relationship even before the fusion occurs. The love is existent and the devotion is existent in the mortal toward the Father's will. This is the hallmark, the earmark of fusion: that your will is so closely aligned with the divine will, and therefore there is such great love and trust inherent in the association already.

Fusion, of course, is a victory over the flesh and a victory of merging of your personality with the Father, and so there is love in that also, yes, but it is a part of your personal spiritual development and is not necessarily a sociologic event to be shared with others, even for purposes of service.

I am not going to disagree with a group of sincere believers, you see, and so I am careful in my response.

Liana: Thank you, Tomas. I'm not going to pin you down on that.

TOMAS: Whew. [Group laughter] Merium, have you any summarizing comments for this evening's portrayal?

MERIUM: Well, I might comment about group consciousness, and it is just a natural outcome of a developing state of consciousness to affect everyone, and if you take this particular configuration of people and you continue to develop in the way that we have encouraged you to do so, you will affect the community, you will affect the personal surroundings, your own little individual islands of activity where you are located, and you multiply this and you get a greater area, and if you have these little satellite areas developing throughout the world, then you are raising the consciousness of the masses, and it is only natural that you're interested in fusion because it is your destiny, so please keep that uppermost in your mind that this is indeed conscious union with God, and that it is what this is all about, and that is how you've got in the door.

Others were doing their homework; the light was here, and you were fired and started to grow, and every session that takes place, when you are alone and you are aware, you come in and you are with each other, you are being cultivated -- as the Bible scripture says "pruned" -- and you have your tears wiped and your discomfiture released because you are experiencing something that you have not had before, and you are uncomfortable with the old way and anticipating a new one, and it creates many questions in you and it is good that you are able to come together to express them.

So remember that when you go into the quiet, that you go in, it seems, selfishly, but in a sense and in the most important sense, it is the most unselfish act of all to allow yourself to develop as an obedient child of the great creation of our universe and you have all of life to look forward to and you would want nothing less for those who you meet every day on the street, regardless of their appearance or their behavior.

So in the long run, all of our talk this evening is filled with many nuggets of truth . .. and a great deal of fertilizer has been spread this evening. [Group chuckle] So go home and if you feel stinky, rejoice in it because you have been in a growth state and it is a time to celebrate, and Spring is in sight and you will experience new shoots and a greater root base. Thank you.

Group: Thank you.

TOMAS: Thank you, Merium, for your wise words, your summary and for your assistance in managing this bunch of berries. Your ability to reach our students in realms that I am not, is a matter that puts me in awe of your capabilities. I am very pleased with our efforts and with the efforts of these young people who come to us for a developing repartee in reality, and so in grateful submission to Michael's plan of ascension for us all, I and we leave you for this evening. Farewell.

Group: Thank you. Farewell. Thank you for coming.

*****

DATE: March 4, 1998

LOCATION: Butler, PA, USA

T/R: Gerdean

TEACHERS: MERIUM, VERIDIAN, JAY-ORZH, ALKANON, TRIESTE

TOPIC:

Special Session

MERIUM: Hello, girls. I am your sister, Merium, and I am here in lieu of Tomas who is away, occupied elsewhere. Also it is appropriate for me to be with you. I am your teacher. I am a part of your arena, and part of your growth. I am glad to be here. It is not often that I have an uninterrupted opportunity to discourse with you. It is a great thrill indeed for me to be here.

My dears, I am your friend. I am glad that we can spend some time together. I enjoyed your compliment recently, Genesa, indicating that you would love to shop with me and so we shall. I have been observing your most productive period of time together. You three have been productive of social skills, psychic development, emotional stimuli, a great seed for you all, and the residue/ resulting satisfactions will carry you all far.

I guess we had fun observing you have fun, and didn't you have fun this evening! You know, I am not what you'd call a party hound, but I am really very keen on having a good time. It has been a distressing observation for me, coming here to Urantia, and seeing the pain and suffering of you all and even you who are more enlightened have such a burden of behavior about you and I realize this is a learned behavior and you are relieving yourselves of it, and thus we do rejoice when you lighten up;

But it is also understood and respected that you have a burden of existence on Urantia -- you, your spirits and your growth requires effort, and so now, my daughters, that you have manifested great effort and great celebration in your work and in your play, how grateful I am that you have come to sit with me for awhile and visit and be as friends with those of us in the spirit realm. You are enchanting and I am very pleased.

Leah, my dear, how wonderful it is to be with you and have an opportunity to greet you personally. I am very sympathetic with your situation and I am in close contact with your personal teachers, with Jay-Orzh particularly, and off and on also, of course, as I am very close to Trieste and also admire Adrian.

I will pause for Gerdean and admit also to my affection for you, child, and delight that we have one of our rare opportunities to engage in a conversation of an intimate nature. Do visit with me on occasion, Gerdean. You are able to access me, and yet you don't seem to take advantage of your own skill. I suppose I might sound like your mother. (I'm smiling.)

Leah: No, you don't!

MERIUM: For she also desires your attentions more often than you are willing to devote. I am not chiding you, but truly daughter, I choose to comfort you and befriend you. And now I am also -- I acknowledge Gerdean's thanks -- I also now am glad to embrace my new fledgling daughter, Genesa. How wonderful to again have an opportunity to be with you, dear one.

Genesa: I embrace you also. We asked your presence just for a friendly visit. I would like to ask you if . .. one thing, I know I am sometimes impatient, but I would like to know if there is any news you can give me regarding my personal teacher.

MERIUM: News, you say? You would like to know about your guides. I am always curious about your use of your language.

Genesa: Sometimes I may use a word that is inappropriate, only because of my lack of knowledge in recovery use of terminology.

MERIUM: You are gracious, and I will say to you that my comment was not in any way a reprimand, but an observation, and it further indicates to me, and can also to you, that a choice of words is important in determining our desire to communicate. If we did not care what we were projecting or seeking, we would be quite careless about our communication.

You, however, being a writer, are respectful of the art of communication and sensitive to the under-standing that each nuance is creative of yet another flavor of what you choose to convey, and so when I say I am intrigued by your words, you understand me, and you understand also what a joy it is to select the correct phraseology in order to get across your point and also the delight of finding words flowing together to witness to that harmony of spirit that is the ideal in communication.

You have now brought me to the joyous opportunity of attempting to introduce a concept in terms of your teacher, your personal teacher. I say "concept" because your approach to associations in these regards are perforce a little different than, your associations with your mortal friends and family, for their work is in the deep mind, and even your realization of their approach to you will not be in your cogent aspects but in your esoteric appreciation for a reality that is so close to you and personal to you, no one would know that you are in constant contact and communication with these intimate associates who accompany you, not only in your activities in your outward realm, but in your activities in your inner life as well.

Genesa: Do you know my personal teacher?

MERIUM: One moment. I am presented with an awareness of a being and this being is, to me, a vision of aquamarine. This indicates to me, to you, a fluid reality. I am coming to know your teacher now. All personalities in the universe are open to be known, but only as you encounter them are they made personal, and so [only] as I have this opportunity to embrace the personality of your associate do I know her. And I take this opportunity now to know her. I see her. I will spend a moment with her to ascertain the name by which she may be known to you. Can you be patient while I access her?

Genesa: Yes.

MERIUM: One moment, please. (Long pause) First I will tell you that your personal teacher has been a mortal before, long ago, and she was a water breather, and thus I see this very fluid presence. You are an air breather, and so her world has been different in that respect, but how fascinating for you to have a teacher who knows you so well and who shares with you so much understanding of personality identity and yet who comes from such a different background. Indeed it is a fascinating universe. (One moment please.)

VERIDIAN: Indeed. I offer you Veridian. Veridian is a name to bespeak who I am. And thus I surround you with my cool, quiet presence.

Genesa: I welcome you.

VERIDIAN: And I embrace you. My dear one, how pleased I am!

How awkward for me to resort to your language. It reduces the effect of our embrace, but it is necessary if we are to communicate in this way, if we are to know each other more consciously, that we abide by the limitations of the day and age we find ourselves in together.

I am delighted to report that we will one day relinquish our need for words and even for conscious communication as you know it, for we will begin to awaken in our communication an affinity that transcends a mere word or a mere thought.

I have been brought to you to assist you in your growth and in your relationship with yourself as you approach your relationship with Our Father, with the Source of us all. Your divine aspect will be made more readily apparent as your human aspects are put in perspective, understood, cherished and trained. I will help you here.

Genesa: I have a long way to go [weeping; indistinguishable].

VERIDIAN: You have not so far to go as you may think, for behold your heart, which has not forgotten how to reach for truth. And this is communication indeed! It is through the heart, through the divine love in you, the gift of love from Father, that allows us to share and know. It is the sharing, the embracing in the spirit of love that will pave the way for our communications.

Trust yourself and your desire to grow in faith. Your tenderhearted nature is precious. You are a loving child and you are sincere. How I love you. How I admire your enthusiasm as you approach your destiny. Fear not, little one. You are loved. You are cared for.

Genesa: Thank you. If I want to speak with you when I don't have the option of using a connection like my friend Gerdean is, can I speak out loud to you? Will you hear me? Or will it depend on whether you are present or not?

VERIDIAN: When you speak aloud, the universe hears you, and you yourself hear. And yet it is not required that you speak aloud in order to capture my attention. For I am an intimate associate.

Genesa: Do I need to do anything in order that I might be able to hear your responses?

VERIDIAN: Yes.

Genesa: What is it I need to do?

VERIDIAN: Trust. And apply yourself in faith to our relationship, to the process. You may begin to access me, indeed you have, through your journaling, your writing. As you allow yourself to express yourself and step aside, I can sometimes hold your pen for you, as it were. Begin this way, and you will begin to appreciate the otherness of my association.

As you begin to appreciate my reality, as you develop the sensitivity that is inherent in our friendship, as you trust me and know that I am love for you, you will come to me more readily and work with me more eagerly. In time, then, we will know each other, and as we come to know each other, we can access each other through the superconscious realms of your mind and we can forego the paper, even the tape recorder.

It is in your mind that our communications will take place, but not the conscious mind. Not the mind that you are familiar with. Nor is it the subconscious mind, that realm that meddles with your sleep, but the superconscious mind, which is a new arena for you to venture into. It is a realm of the mind that is the bridge to the spirit world. It is high mind and yet it is deep mind. Different. Not frightening, just different.

And so you must develop this gift, this art. Even without a transmitter you and I will be able to communicate, but you must spend time and attention to the process. I will help you in your growth and I will help you approach your God fragment within. I will help you develop your personality that you may enjoy it more fully and that the Father may utilize you more satisfactorily.

You will gain much from our association. You will allow yourself to be far more lovely even than you are now. You will indeed be radiant, and it will not take much, for already you are a beloved daughter of destiny. Already you have the aroma of perfection within you. We will become true friends.

Genesa: [Weeping]

VERIDIAN: You are not alone. It is important for you to realize this and before I go I want you to know that I am not away from you. When you return to your family, to your spouse and your children; when you return to the life that you have developed and that you enjoy -- your arena, your challenge, your opportunity -- you are not alone. Even as you find your challenges sometimes overwhelming, remember that I am with you and The Father is with you also.

Even Merium and Tomas are available to you, and always is Jesus your Friend and Companion. All you need to do is speak His name and His presence will be available to you. This is such a miracle. This is such a wonderful gift for us all, that we can call on Jesus, our Creator, and He will surround us by love and in love. Protect yourself by allowing Him to embrace you in His light.

I embrace you, daughter, in the spirit and in the heart. I look forward to our association and your growing awareness of my comradeship with you. Farewell.

Genesa: Farewell.

MERIUM: I am Merium and I am still here and now we all know her better. How wonderful she is! As are all of God's kids. It is such a joy for me, in this Mission, indeed, in efforts even before my assignment here, to discover how wonderful Our Father is that He has created so many incredible kinds of personalities and so many variations in personality. Each one, each one is a visible different facet of his . .. There is no word! There is no word to describe the artistry of Our Father! At any rate, are there any other questions? Anything I can do for you while I'm here?

Genesa: All I want to say is Thank you, Merium, for researching that for me. It just means so much to me. I'm just really moved. Thank you so much. [Weeping again]

MERIUM: Oh, my precious one. How sweet you are, and how much we appreciate when you are grateful to your gift-givers. It is so humbling and gratifying to those of us who attend to you, to see your gracious response to the universe, to the love and to the understanding that you are not alone. It is a great gift for me to be able to convey to you this truth, that you are not alone.

How difficult it has been here on Urantia! It has been so difficult and trying an experience our Father Michael has opted to alter the course and allow our presence here in order that you may be reassured of our eternal association. It is truly my humble pleasure to be afforded the opportunity to give you this good news and herein is where our rejoicing comes from. It is such a happy occasion .

Genesa: Happy, but I'm still in tears. But I'm happy.

MERIUM: It is because, my dear, these are truly tears of joy: deep, profound and satisfying tears of joy. Rejoice! And weep. These are also healing tears, and cleansing tears, and tears of release and, yea, tears of baptism. Remember your teacher. Her name is Veridian and she is fluid. Perhaps you can envision your teacher working with you, allowing you to shed these tears that you may then make room for yet greater joy.

How wonderful it is when we can have these more intimate tea parties. It is always a bounty when we have the group, the crowd, but how we enjoy the intimate association of two and three and four of you, for it does give us an opportunity to come closer, as it were, and to spend more private time in consultation and confirmation of our reality and our relationship.

Are you doing alright then, Leah?

Leah: No. I'm doing better than I was but I keep wanting to say that -- There was a statement that said that my husband had made up his mind. Sometimes I think he's going to change it, but . .. I know I can't ask you to be a crystal-ball gazer. There were two other things. They were curiosity, though. It was about Genesa's teacher was a water breather, but yet a mortal and that fascinates me, to a certain degree. I love the name Veridian! It's beautiful. Indicative of truth and greenery, but . .. I was just wondering if you could tell me anything about Alkanon. All I know really is his name! Or Jay-Orzh. All I know is she's got blonde hair. I don't know. And she's there. I don't know how she puts up with me. But anyway, I thank you and Tomas. I don't thank you enough.

MERIUM: It is not necessary to thank us enough, Leah. It is only that you thank Our Father by way of your expression of your appreciation and this is a natural outpouring of the love you feel. This is how it works. You feel love and gratitude, and in love and gratitude, you manifest these gifts of the spirit, and so you are manifesting your love for the Father not out of duty but out of appreciation for the wondrous gift of life and love and this is how we operate.

I would like to respond to your concern about your spouse and the situation, but I will allow your personal teachers to go into that if they should so choose, in-as-much as we are having a chance to meet with personal teachers. I will allow one or both of yours to come forth. Let us see who presents for companionship. I shall return. One moment.

ALKANON: I am Alkanon and I am coming in. I have been shown the way to you. I have been compared to a champion and I am honored that a heroic description such as champion has been given to me. It is possible, perhaps, that I am heroic and romantic and a champion, but I am not so much concerned with that aspect of my being. I am, however, amused by your distress in losing an associate who has not risen to the challenge of being your champion, your hero, and your romantic ideal. It is understood, of course, however, that you are a human being and the mortal part of you would like to grow old with someone and feel content and secure on the front porch of life.

How can I explain to you, daughter, that our destiny has gone beyond our swing on the front porch, and it is now our challenge to ride into the desert, into the arena, onto the highways and byways of life, in order to encounter and seek out and embellish the lives of those who perchance are lying by the side of the road, who are perhaps unguarded, who may have a flat tire, who may have been smitten by robbers and left and so, good Samaritan, we have wonderful adventures ahead.

It is unfortunate, of course, that your partner in the flesh is unwilling to associate with you on this highway of life, but you are not alone in your adventures. Indeed, you are in league with angels. Legions of angels! And other seraphic helpers. We are engaged in a great adventure, a romantic adventure, a heroic adventure. Indeed, you are a champion now for the Master Himself, and so I embrace you. I will be your companion. Together we will face tomorrow.

Allow for your successes of this life to comfort and sustain you. Allow for your mortal victories to be trophies in your life's experience. Your resolution to this union that you mourn is a joyous one, if you could but see that. Indeed, it is not even yet completed, for you will have eternity to run into each other, and to be friends, and to remember what you did accomplish together.

That he is unaware of your eternal status as brother and sister, indeed, in some respects as partners, is no denial of the truth, and so what a surprise when this awareness comes about. Won't it be joyous when you can embrace in spirit and love each other without marital expectations and role-playing complications and so forth.

You have succeeded as a spouse, Leah. You have been a good partner. You have been a good mother. You are a decent human being. You have had a difficult life under difficult circumstances as we have said many times. Be rejoicing now of its successes. In time, the sense of loss and failure will go away and it shan't take long for you will be busy, seeing how busy and effective and happy you have been as you turn it over and allow yourself to do what God has provided for you to do.

What a wonderful life! What a wonderful life, indeed, you have, and will continue to have and will become aware that you have, more and more. One moment.

JAY-ORZH: Hello. I'm Jay-Orzh. I am not far from you, little pet. I am close enough to cuddle you and comfort you as you observe your big brother Alkanon patting you on the back and on the head. I am with you always; you know that. I am glad to have an opportunity to speak with you face to face as it were and to encourage you. You have been doing very well, very well. I miss our chats. We were on a roll there for awhile, but I do not feel abandoned. I am glad to see you're being so effective.

You had wondered about your teachers. I will tell you about myself but I will describe to you somewhat our friend Alkanon, if I may, although I think you might have an understanding of his presence already. Indeed I will paint a picture for you to understand truly of a male hero with armor. Indeed, you may give him the flowing locks of your romantic hero with the great pectoral muscles. He has that kind of Herculean strength.

He would blush if he were human to hear me make these remarks, but you see I am female enough to know and appreciate what it is that we like, and you may think in these terms of your fellow. He is a big guy. A big man, in your terms, and quite capable of bear hugs. He is a real man's man. A real guy. Someone that any woman would be delighted to saunter down the highway with.

Now, as for myself, I know you have heard me described as blonde. I would like to tell you a little bit about myself. When I was a woman, I was a musician. I love music. I was an accomplished lyricist and a player of musical instruments. I spent a long time working with and being with the celestial artisans and expanding my ability to appreciate and make music, but I have not devoted my entire life to song. I have done lots of other things in my career. I was a mortal in the same sense as you, Leah. I was also a two-brained air-breather. I was married. I had two children, and when I was in the Mansion Worlds, I had another; that is to say, I experienced adequate parenting.

Leah: On the nurseries?

JAY-ORZH: Yes. Of course I didn't give birth to a child in the nurseries of Mansonia, but I was afforded the opportunity of working with a child to the point of it becoming mature enough to make its own decisions as regards his eternal destiny and I gave him some counsel and guidance and love and affection also, as you have done with your son here.

I see that you will have the same experience I had when you attend the nurseries in Mansonia. We have much in common. Much. You are also blonde. Is it not said that we have more fun?

Leah: Sometimes I think it's true.

JAY-ORZH: You are a woman after my own heart. You also enjoy a lyrical life. You are indeed, in many ways, music itself. You are very harmonious and you are a good composition, I may say. I am glad to be your friend.

Leah: I'm glad to be your friend, too. Can you tell me about your children? Did you have girls or boys or what?

JAY-ORZH: In my mortal life I had a red-haired daughter who looked much like her father; and I had a blonde boy who was like me, much like me. He was also musically inclined. He grew up to have four children of his own and my daughter provided me with two children to nurture as grandchildren, and so I had an abundant life in terms of family.

Leah: If you don't mind my asking, did you have anything like divorce where you lived?

JAY-ORZH: Yes.

Leah: Were you with a spouse?

JAY-ORZH: Yes. I enjoyed a lifetime with my spouse. We were not conjoined in our society quite like you are here. We spent over 20 years together, a comparative time I'd say, however, we were 27 years in association. His interests took him to another continent, much like in your life, and yet we were friends. We maintained good relations and we all were close with our children. More than once, when we went our different ways, we were brought back together through the ministrations of the spirit worlds, to enjoy each other's company, indeed, into our old age. We were together, in fact, shortly before he transpired. I lived longer than he did, and this is probably another similarity that I share with you for you will likely outlive . ... I have been admonished. . .

Leah: Yes, I understand.

JAY-ORZH: . .. in this only because it is a tendency on your world, a conjecture if I may.

Leah: Yes, I understand. Did you remarry?

JAY-ORZH: No, I never did. As I said, marriage was not quite like your marriage here.

Leah: But you were partners.

JAY-ORZH: Indeed. Indeed we were partners.

Leah: You said your husband moved to another continent, but did he have a spiritual . . . ?

JAY-ORZH: He did! And he had other interests as well. He was a very masculine fellow, a very adventurous guy, and he went in search of adventure. Not other women, particularly. That aspect of his aspect was always rather secondary. He was not driven in that way. He was, however, quite enthusiastic about physical activities such as mountain climbing and river rafting and that kind of activity, and so he was inclined to head toward wilderness areas, and I, in my love of music, was more inclined to associate with a civilized group of people. I liked cities and towns better.

Leah: Can you tell me the names of your children? Is that permissible?

JAY-ORZH: My daughter's name was Rachel and my son's name was Kevin. These are not a perfect analogy to your language but close.

Leah: What was your spouse's name?

JAY-ORZH: It would be similar to Geoffrey. And my name was not Jay-Orzh.

Leah: Was that your spiritual name?

JAY-ORZH: Yes. It is my name. When I was a mortal, however, I was a . .. like Jessica.

Leah: I really appreciate your speaking to me. In the mortal existence here when we go through all of this stuff, we just go through periods where you just go, "Oh, this is completely crazy," and it just does a lot to offer reassurance for me.

JAY-ORZH: It is understood that you like to know that those of us who associate with you, we in whom you put your trust, are close enough to you in experience and in emotional content that you would even want to talk to us and get to know us better. It is understood. It is also apparent, if not to you but to us, that our human life was so long ago, even so our experiences then and since have been sufficiently close to yours in value that we are able to be of assistance to you in your own growth and development. I trust that the universe supervisors know what they're doing.

Leah: This sounds like a silly question but -- I probably really know the answer to it -- but, what did you do before you were my teacher? Were you somebody else's teacher?

JAY-ORZH: I have not had this experience before. You know we are all volunteers.

Leah: Yes.

JAY-ORZH: I however was, as I said, occupied for quite a while with the artisans and I signed up for more than one stint with them. I have also of course gone through several of the mansion worlds and that takes some time. I have had the opportunity of visiting other systems and that has been quite wonderful and I have done some service work while I was away.

Leah: Can you tell me what -- are your musical instruments somewhat similar to ours or are they somewhat different?

JAY-ORZH: They are quite different, but they are akin to your stringed instruments.

Leah: This is very interesting, all of it, because I sometimes have a real appreciation for stringed instruments but I don't know how to read music, so....

JAY-ORZH: It may be that I am enjoying it for you and with you. I will leave you now, my love. I am being called apart, for Merium would like to come in and continue her repertoire.

Leah: I hope that, as awkward as it may be for Gerdean, that she could bring her teachers in because Gerdean mentioned that she would like that.

JAY-ORZH: Until we speak again, darling, farewell.

Leah: Thank you. Thank you so much. And Alkanon, too.

TRIESTE: I am Trieste and I am going to short-cut Merium. I have her permission, of course. Good evening, my friends. I am Trieste, Gerdean's personal teacher. I am glad to be here and glad to speak with you. I am going to address my remarks to Gerdean, much as your teachers have been able to speak with you. I will attempt first to assuage Gerdean of the anxiety of our association, for I will not usurp her free will nor will I invade her confidentiality. I embrace you, Gerdean, as you know, and allow for you to become accustomed to my presence in your space, as it were.

Hello, my lovely. Wonderful work is going on with you these days; however, you are still fearful. You are cautious to the max, girl. I wish you would lighten up even more. I wish you would be able to speak more intimately and meaningfully in some of your more strained relationships. I will commend you in your fellowships for they are rich in affection, but in your working arena, your associations are so defensive and distrustful, you have interfered with your own ability to allow for Father to come through. You do not need to defend the Father. He is perfectly able to defend Himself if necessary. You act as if He were wounded. He will not be wounded, my dear. He can handle the blows of ignorance and prejudice. Allow those blows to pass over you, to pass beside you. Do not accept them as your own.

You are doing well. Allow the judgment to dissolve, for that is what it is: is judgment of their intent and their motives. You cannot judge their motives except in reflection, and in reflecting time and time again you have understood that it is fear that makes them behave that way. Allow for their fear to vanish in the light. Be the light. Be of good cheer. Be love. You are capable. You can do it. Give yourself permission to smile in the face of their fear, their distress and their defenses. I urge you for you will be more joyous as will they when you allow these defenses to come down. Don't take it personally. You are lookin' good, girl. Go for it.

Gerdean: Thank you, Trieste.

MERIUM: Now, I am Merium. I am back and I am delighted with the engagements we have undertaken, entertained this evening. How wonderful. How wonderful indeed. I will not stay any longer. There are certainly others here. Adrian is in the wings. He has waved his "hello." I daresay he would be willing to pet the cat. Goodnight girls.

Gerdean, Leah and Genesa: Good night, Merium. Thank you.

*****

DATE: March 10, 1998

LOCATION: Butler, PA, USA

T/R’s: Gerdean, Hunnah

TEACHERS: TOMAS and MERIUM

Group: Hunnah, Leah, Gerdean, Liana, Erata and Joniel

TOPIC:

Humanly Sacred Relationships, etc.

TOMAS: Good evening, friends. I am Tomas, your teacher, your companion, your guide and your friend in these occasions of getting together to commune with each other and to aspire to commune with Father. It is, as always, a joy to be with you, to observe your countenances, and your social bearing. How interesting you are as creatures! Indeed, it is sometimes a clear definition of the orchestra learning a new tune.

I would like to call to your minds this evening a practice of organized religion in other realms and that practice calls for a setting aside of certain amounts of time at regularly scheduled time slots during the day every day. You have seen, for example, women who wake early and trudge down to the Catholic Church for a visit with Mary before the world awakens. You are familiar also with those religious practices of the Muslims which require attendance at a Mosque four times a day in order that they may touch down and contact humility.

How we regret that your culture has not begun to assimilate an awareness of divinity in its established patterns, that you are given then an opportunity to spend a moment with God as a part of your organized day and socially accepted. At one time your schools allowed for a moment of prayer. It is unfortunate that that is missing. It is a political discourse as to its current absence and I will not get into that, but it is, even so, unfortunate that your society does not provide for a moment of spiritual time.

It is so beneficial to the individual and will ultimately be of such benefit to the society as well. It is in keeping, however, with the Caligastian regime that awareness of God in the day-to-day life and in the market-place is entirely too threatening and time-consuming to foster.

And so it falls upon people like you to bring about these changes that are vitally necessary to a new order, and it does require courage and valor to stand up and require a moment of-time with Our Creator. Is it any wonder that you are being introduced to your teachers who will help you bring about a greater spirit reality?

It is amusing, actually, that there are so many who disbelieve the reality of this Mission, for it is significant that there are hundreds now, even thousands, of devotees of the Living Reality who will stand behind each other, beside each other, hand in hand with divinity, courageous and strong, and demand their rights on behalf of the Living God, and they would be upheld!

This is truly frightening for those of little faith. This is why we cultivate faith in you, and why we attempt to see to it that your roots of faith are grounded deep into the soil of your earthly experience and in your spiritual experience.

It is part of your evolution, your spiritual evolution, that you make these decisions that have brought you here today and that will indeed carry Urantia forward tomorrow. It is not an onerous responsibility, for you do not do it alone.

Erata, you have mentioned you have missed the association of your teachers. Think not that your teachers are avoiding you or missing you in any way. You have heard the poem entitled "Footsteps" and you are being carried. In time you will hear their whisper. You will be ready to hear their whisper in due course. In the interim, child, attend to your mechanical needs and when you are ready to embrace your emotional wounds, take them up in private with your teachers and they will embrace you and see you through to the other side to the rejoicing, to the triumph of celebration of your father's passage to the Mansion Worlds. You will then be able to administer to your sons in terms of their father's victory also.

I know that there are many dramas afoot here in this room, and we could spend an evening and then some in a review of your many commentaries during your social time, but there are official and formal questions that we are eager to address. There are also commentaries afoot and forthcoming from our colleague, Merium, and I then will step back and allow for her remarks.

MERIUM: Good evening.

Group: Good evening, Merium.

MERIUM: It is true that I did want to come in and greet you, but my microphone here was full of sugar and starting to doze away, so I'm glad that you disturbed her so that I could come in and have my two cents worth. I am pleased to see this group. It is intimate and I always like these sessions because we seem to accomplish a great deal, so I'm looking forward to questions and to assisting Tomas so that he can have a rest. Thank you.

Gerdean: Well, in that case then, I will present a question to you, Merium. Good evening, Merium.

MERIUM: Good evening.

Gerdean: [A question] from Genesa, who is with us in spirit this evening. She went home with The Urantia Book and under the circumstances she began her study of The Urantia Book in the marriage Papers, and she has discovered that it's different than the teachings in the Bible that she had been raised on. It expands the concepts of the Bible but she also noticed that there are some serious conflicts.

For one, there is a commandment "Thou shalt not commit adultery", which is God's command, according to the Bible, and yet The Urantia Book says that marriage is neither a sacrament nor is it sacred and should never have been called a sacrament. So, she wants to know: "Why would God make 'Thou shalt not commit adultery' a command if monogamy goes against our nature?" and then have Jesus reiterate it in the New Testament. He said something to the effect of, "The law has said, 'thou shalt not commit adultery, but' -- and she could not remember the rest of the quote nor can I, but I remember that he did say (this is my, Gerdean's, addendum commentary) that . .. Well, maybe he didn't. Maybe it was Rodan. So I won't add my two cents.

That's Genesa's question that she would like to present to you and so I have.

MERIUM: Well, you prepare yourself for a reply here that is not going to be scholarly but that will be heartfelt and it will have to do with ascension. If she reads all of the Papers she will find out the purpose of marriage and how it develops and ascends to a high commitment and a growing relationship and a relationship that has an ascending element in it.

Let me make reference to adultery. It's interesting that you ask that question because Hunnah found herself reading an article today written by a woman who was a professed born-again Christian who was dealing with adulterous thoughts and she was confessing that in spite of the fact that she was a devoted Christian she had wandered into a relationship through the Internet and found that it was becoming very intimate and that she was totally distracted by this relationship, this so-called friendship on the Internet, and that in her Christian teaching she was greatly burdened because she had entered the arena of adultery.

You are living in a sensual body and you are coming out of patterns of behavior in your evolutionary and your ascending state, and I might ask you to look upon this situation with compassion because it is an area that is addressing your sensuality, your human sexuality, your need for your ego attention, a distraction from everyday living pattern.

It is stimulating to be in the situation where you find yourselves in a lesser state responding in a normal state (if that can be understood correctly), so as the evolving, ascending being that you are at this time, I want you to see adultery in new eyes. You are reading the Book, The Urantia Book, showing you how necessary it was to protect a woman, especially if she had children, and to provide for her, so there were the marriage laws developed for this purpose.

When you are in an ascending mode, there is an integrity that develops with you and you outgrow, or you might say you become empowered into the higher -- you accommodate the refined expression that you are designed to be -- and you outgrow the undisciplined passions that in previous experiences are not necessarily needing to be controlled, because the experience does not require it. You are not living in your animal nature. You have gone from just physical to physical/mental and then as mental becomes the empowerment, the physical is brought into line.

I hope I am not traveling too far from this question regarding adultery, but it is in -- the arena isn't physical anymore, it's mental, where others can't see your behavior or your private thoughts, but if one enters a so-called adulterous thinking, it starts to penetrate their well-being and it can literally cause disease throughout the entire performance of the individual because they become burdened by it and it is a form of addiction.

There are many things to ponder regarding the management of the human facility, and as you go from your infant awakening to your student mode to the mature student to the empowered personage that is able to direct the human body and the human mind into an art form, into an obedient tool, or a machine, you might say, that is totally subservient to the high mind and the spiritual development and this wonderful blending.

In the scripture there is a statement, I believe by Paul, that states that where you are the new man is able to embrace the old man and keep him captive, meaning that you are indeed under new management, and that you are your own person and you are operating like one who is Christ-ed or empowered, both in body, mind and in spirit.

I need to have some assistance here to redirect me to this question again. She had asked about adultery and she was looking for technical references. Could you refresh me, please?

Gerdean: Yes. She says, "Why would God make 'Thou shalt not commit adultery' a commandment if monogamy goes against our nature?" and then have Jesus reiterate it. The Urantia Book says that we are not monogamous by nature; we play around, as a species, but within the context of the commitment of marriage, fidelity is highly desired, and this of course is supported by the commandment to not commit adultery.

MERIUM: Let us talk about focus. If you were having a choice of developing a project and you wanted to put your heart and soul into this project, would you stress yourself by extending yourself in many directions? Let us remember that polygamy and monogamy are not the same thing. A commitment is involved here. A monogamous nature creates a stage for a smoother situation for spiritual development.

You remember that when laws are made, it's because the community requires law; it has not yet become self-constrained. It is not able to function without its leash or its fence. It hasn't, learned to stay in its yard or to mind its business or to not steal from its neighbor. These laws are for the development of a wandering, undisciplined individual.

If you had a bright animal and you taught him well, he would (a) stay in the yard, (b) come when he's called, and (c) be loyal and fetch your slippers or whatever this animal was taught to do. In the human, we are taught to protect the family unit because there are those in the community who are of lesser development and there is this safety factor involved, so it is wise for a man and a woman to stay together so that their young can be brought up in safety, with love, and the necessary needs for their food and clothing, etc.

This seems almost too simple as I speak to it and it surprises me that this should have to be discussed. I do not feel that you gain very much when you take The Urantia Book and haul out a book, even as popular as a Bible, and start to burden your brain with having them spar with each other, so to speak, when you burden yourself with a comparison. You have to reach into your own inner development and your discernment to see that both books have been designed to help man find his way, and I do not encourage you to be distracted by the scholastic rigors of hair-splitting.

Tomas, would you like to rescue me?

TOMAS: I see no need to rescue you, Merium. You have indeed done a scholarly indeed job of addressing the subject that Genesa has presented. It is a subject that speaks to many, not just our new charge here.

MERIUM: I would like to speak to Genesa, and ask her to contemplate the wakening spirit that she has had for a long time, and ask her to graze upon the written word but to feed herself in spirit. The written word has its place, but what's written in-her heart and in her spirit's liberty to access all knowledge and bring forth that which is appropriate to her, is of great convenience, because we have been talking for some time about a yoke that is easy and a burden that is light.

Sometimes scholarly examination can be a substitute for pain. It is a divine distraction, you might say. Yes, it's true; it informs. Yes, too, it brings assurance. But it is a tampon for unresolved issues in ones life, so you seek to hide in it. I will suggest that she monitor herself for balance and that she allows herself plenty of fresh air and exercise as she ventures into this banquet of knowledge.

She has a bright mind and uses it well, but I want her to use it within the framework of balance so that she will not be -- I don't want to say "burned out" -- but that she can remain elastic and be able to meet the opportunities for spontaneous application of this wisdom that she has found so tasty (for the want of a word). Thank you.

Gerdean: Thank you, Merium. There are related questions. One of which is that there is a phrase in the marriage Papers, in The Urantia Book, that says something to the effect that, "after all, marriage is humanly sacred". Humanly is stressed. It may not be a sacrament, but it is humanly sacred.

I have spent a lot of that cerebral time that you just were discussing, mentioning, thinking about that academically: what does that mean? humanly sacred; because, God knows, we like to elevate our life to a standard that might attain to something greater than animalistic behavior, and/or even tribal behavior, so I would like -- not just for curiosity, but for the benefit of your wisdom -- I would like to hear what you feel is the meaning of that phrase that marriage is humanly sacred.

MERIUM: Well, first of all, let us talk about sacred. There are as many definitions for sacred as there are individuals, and there are as many definitions for humanly sacred as there are for those who are awakened enough to even consider having their human facility being sacred.

The human being (in a tribal sense, since that's the new popular word; but in a traditional sense, in a clan sense), has a value system and if it is maintained and it is honored, it can enter the arena of the word "sacred". And literally in tribes, as you see the word tribes, native tribes, there is a sacred ceremony that involves responsibility and unselfishness and role-playing. All of this goes into that agreement.

Nothing is sacred unless you have come to a point of development that you have decided to attach that title. Let me tell you something that happened to Hunnah. She was at a retreat one time and used the word Christ in conversation with an older woman and the woman said to Hunnah, who was much younger then, "Oh, you must not use that term! It is sacred!" and Hunnah, in her youthful innocence, said to the woman, with sincerity, "It cannot be sacred until I waken to it."

So this is something that applies to your religion, your relationships, your responsibilities, and it is up to you to decide what is sacred, and it is up to you to decide to respect what someone else terms as sacred so that you will not offend them out of ignorance and tramp on their grass, you might say. You honor their choice of definition. Does that help?

Gerdean: Yes, that was very interesting. I appreciate your commentary.

MERIUM: Have you seen someone who perhaps owns very little?

Gerdean: Oh, yes.

MERIUM: And they own something. There was an Indian woman of great wisdom named Sacajawea. She had one possession that she considered so important that it would enter the category of being sacred, and it was a blue turquoise stone that had traveled a great distance so that she might have it for her own, and she kept it with her for many, many years. For someone to come and take that stone would be heart-breaking because here was someone who had very little, and had honored this color and this stone with great significance and considered the possession a very precious commodity.

So we are entering the area called "respect for others" and in history bones of the beloved that have been buried are considered sacred. One would not consider walking and being disrespectful in a graveyard, so there are different areas in life where some things: some people's privacy is sacred; their time becomes sacred. So it is a definition that can be varied, has varying degrees of intelligent definition.

What is sacred to you? I think that would be a good subject for homework. You do not particularly have to come in with a report because it is something that no one could possibly challenge you on because it is too intimate, but it is a good question to ask yourself in introspection, as you get acquainted with the self that you have become. So I do encourage you to list the things in your experience that are sacred to you, that you might see what was sacred that you have outgrown, perhaps, or given a new definition to, and what is now sacred to you.

I heard Fraline say that it meant a great deal for her to come and be with this group. She was learning to step out and claim a particular period of time because she knew it nourished her. We miss her this evening and hope that she will develop the skill and the desire to build upon this meeting her inner needs and expressing them externally so that she will have time for herself to be nourished, and this is another reason we are so pleased to be with you because you are establishing your own sacredness by coming out of your daily community routines to develop and cultivate the new you. Tomas?

Gerdean: I'm sorry. Tomas is still on leave. I'm still pondering and taking full advantage of your guidance, Merium. I don't want to overtax Hunnah, so if at any point you perceive that she is tiring, let me know, but if she is able and you are willing, I have yet another question in this same category.

MERIUM: Go ahead.

Gerdean: This idea, this ideal, of men and women, is addressed again in the Paper of Rodan of Alexandria, where he says that "the most effective and ideal relationship calculated to develop character is the affectionate and understanding friendship of man and woman in the mutual embrace of intelligent wedlock". It says also that "such a matchless community of relationship, man and woman in the fond embrace of the highest ideals of time, is so valuable and satisfying an experience, that it is worth any price, any sacrifice requisite for its possession."

Now, as I ponder the concept of sacredness in these next few upcoming days, I feel what I'm going to have to ponder is whether or not this aspect of sacredness pertains to my case any longer. I know that in the morontia realms we are no longer married nor are we given in marriage, and I am beginning to feel, since my ideals are -- to me they're not that high; to me they're very simple, but they seem to be so hard to attain -- that I won't settle for less than at least a semblance of the ideal, and I don't see even a semblance of the ideal manifesting, and so I'm not going to bother. I'm going to become more like Mother Theresa or somebody else. Not that I'm going to be such a do-gooder, but perhaps my ideal of sacredness is not involving a partner in any classic sense.

Maybe I have just talked myself into a corner....

MERIUM: You have just thrown a very large ball, and you don't understand that this is my forte. There is a rush of reply here and I have to put the papers in order, so to speak. Once, in Hunnah's obedience, she recorded something to this . .. in this manner, that she was wed to the Christ, and here she is a married woman, but in her newly developing enlightened state she felt bonded to the Christ of her being. This was her true mate, inwardly, but externally she was allowed to experience (and we are once again remembering that we are living in human form), she was allowed to experience the pleasure of having a mate.

Now I am going to have to speak, because of my hostess here, in the feminine, but when you have this opportunity to be wed with appreciation that exceeds and excels that of human development and to the degree that you honor that relationship, your outward relationship will take on new form and meaning to you, whether it is in the form of tolerance and knowing that you have journeyed in the way that your mate has not, or it will take you in the form of fulfillment and companionship. If you do not have a mate, you do not have the physical attentions or opportunities if you are living alone.

But in essence, if you have made this step of commitment, you are indeed wed to the Christ. If you are a man you also are wed to the feminine aspect of this relationship in Christ. So that is one way of approaching your experience, by using this relationship to act like a lever and a sounding board, a comfort and a stimulus of fulfillment. It is indeed a sacred relationship, because let us return for a moment to the physicality of the male and the female.

It's almost like taking a positive and a negative, or two parts together, and making a whole and orchestrating a complete sound, if they are interacting in the highest manner. Now, of course, there was a time when in mating, the highest and best relationships did not contain the word Christ, but let us say there was a recognition that was in them that was not just a passionate movement in their bodies but in their psyche as well and that there was a harmonious decibel and activity which led to a full balanced relationship.

On earth, you here at this gathering are sitting with your history at your mental fingertips. Out in our realm, we are not interested in the layers, the tissue layers of your generations of experience. We see you as a one great movement and development of your on-going experience here; we see you globally and individually and when we speak of any type of activity that you have in all your races here, it's in a generalization because we could be sitting here in a group and you could be Asian but your needs would be the same, or we could be in Africa and your words would be the same.

Recently Hunnah was watching a movie about a tribe in Africa and she was very aware of the modern dialog in this movie but in essence there was great esteem for the leaders, great respect for the relationships within the marriage and the permission of the community to speak up, even to their leaders, and be heard with respect; and it was not abused in this story, and the way we see it today in this so-called civilized time.

So there is nothing new going on here, except that in review you are allowed to develop your appreciation, and in review, you are allowed to savor what has gone on before and what is developing now in your world community as well as in your private life. Have I strayed too far for you, Gerdean? Have I answered your question? Because you wanted to mention that, yes, you saw the importance as it was stated in the Book but you found it difficult on a daily basis.

Gerdean: I would be thrilled to carry on this conversation for hours more because I am enjoying everything you say, and I do feel that it relates greatly to humanity. What comes clearly to my mind is why it was that Jesus, when he was here, did not discuss these things; he would still be here talking to us if that were the case. And so it is really a joy for us, the students in the Teaching Mission, to have teachers here who will sit and discuss these value lessons with us, and not judge us, and have perspective, and it's just a wonder and a wonderful thing for us that you are here and willing to discuss these things.

So, no, Merium, I have more questions, but you have certainly answered the ones that I have asked.

MERIUM: I am going to interject something here. Regardless of your culture, the practices vary, but when you come to a certain point of awakening, you reach for this inner resourcefulness that brings character and helps you fulfil the role that you have been placed in. Right now I want to touch upon the culture where a man and a woman have been chosen for each other by their elders. Now, is that not a challenge? That there is no electricity; there isn't any finding each other or the convenience of shopping around. All of a sudden you're 14 and you're handed this, "This is your new husband."

This is something that, of course, is on its way out, but that same need that -- because of this structure, something happens. It can force you, that individual, to reach within themselves and call out to the Source of their sense of highest good, to help them, to develop and allow, because of their teachings in the physicality, to make it a successful union and to learn to respect, love, and perhaps enjoy that mate. You have gone beyond this and in many instances it would be good if it still continued because there are so many bad choices.

There is the movie, "Fiddler on the Roof". It is beautiful in the sense that it shows how a community is being forced to change and how painful it is to leave the cultural control that exists, but war and environment can put so much pressure on that community that it's forced to change its pattern and find its way. A couple can live 25 years before they ever decide that maybe they do love each other.

This is, indeed, still the Dark Ages that we're talking about with this review, but you have all seen hope of how things can go and these ideal patterns do exist, and in your own personal experience you have met people who have found each other and formed the "perfect union" and act as roll models for a community and for young people who think, "I hope if I'm ever married that I am as happy as so-and-so and enjoy my husband as much as so-and-so," so this is nothing new but it is good to reflect and if it helps to bring you into appreciation, it is worth it.

There are many challenges. There's the challenge of loss. There's the challenge of what might have been. But marriage is not an end in itself. It's good when it works, but it doesn't have to be. Marriage is a partnership. If two women live together and share a house, it is a partnership, and they both have to meet certain modes of behavior in order for them to make that arrangement to work out, just as two men, or an adult and a child, any combination of people, requires a certain amount of civility, consideration and, if you're fortunate, that magic ingredient called love, which brings security, and, like Erata was talking about, the thrill of coming home to where you know you are nourished, and that means everything, and back to this relationship with the Christ, the Christ of your being, of coming home to where you are nourished and refreshed and then you are booted and buoyant and ready for the world. You're ready to go back out and play, you might say, or work. It's like micro and macro cosmic, so yes, it would be easy to listen to me here go on and on, but please feel free to interrupt or challenge me.

If you are in a situation that's very uncomfortable, then you're in trouble in another way. It's called "fixing up the other person" and trying to redesign this relationship. If you fix yourself up and you are nourished by the Christ, then you will be on with your growth. If the one you live with is not wakened to this function, to this opportunity, to the reward of it, it is senseless to scold, as disappointing as it is, because they are asleep! And we know how much is lost when you can't shake someone awake. They can't play, they can't work next to you, they can't cooperate with you, can't communicate with you because they are asleep, and some more deeply than others.

Remember, too, that when you have made this commitment to the Christ, you can be dislodged from an ineffective environment, that it is not something that you escape from. It is an opportunity to show you where you are being invited. There is not any force involved. It is a release. Release to that which is responsive. That which is responsive benefits; that which resists continues to sleep. It can make life hell for those around them but this is the form that their experiences have brought about.

Once Hunnah saw a dried up branch at a retreat. She picked it up and she said to her friends, "Isn't it interesting? All the branches are to one side, the branchlets. It is because of the prevailing wind." If the prevailing wind in your life has been one of consternation, then the imbalance will show it in your development. If you have the strength of the Christ, it brings balance in your life. You will take a configuration which is complimentary to the Source which has brought it about.

TOMAS: I will pick up the baton, Merium, and I convey heartfelt gratitude to your transmitter/receiver for her fortitude. I only interject at this juncture for I understand there are yet other questions and perhaps an entire new realm of investigation. Erata?

Erata: Well, this is a religion question. You might have answered it at another time. In Catholicism, people get to heaven if they're free from mortal sin; and if you're a Bible Christian, if you get saved you get in; and I don't know about the Jews or the Hebrews or the Buddhists or the atheists, but, when they die, do they also go to the mansion worlds just as you and I will? Do you know what I am saying?

TOMAS: You must forgive me. I am wearing a Merium smile. I smile on my face but I weep in my heart, for it is true that much of Urantia suffers under the misconception of "chosen people" and that those outside (of that which they understand) are foreign to themselves, and even to God . .. that which has created them all! It is a limited perspective. I regret that it is entertained, but I understand it. I, in my earthly experience, my mortal experience indeed worked with such tribal mentality and therefore I realize it is a natural part of the evolutionary growth of life.

To answer your question succinctly, all of God's children ascend to Him through the same path, regardless, not only of their race or religion, but also of their planet of origin.

MERIUM: I would like to ask you to define heaven. Is heaven something hoped for? The hope for the freedom from fear or illness? Freedom? Is heaven freedom? Freedom from defeat? Poverty? Hunger? What is heaven? A mansion world? Money in your pocket? Once again, it's sort of like a lot of other words, it's an individual definition.

TOMAS: It is, however, one of the Master's greatest pronouncements that "the Kingdom of Heaven is within you" and so, as Merium has pointed out, it is not necessary to trudge on into some future state in order to attain heaven's bliss but to trudge rather inward and upward into stillness and contact with that divinity which resides within.

Thus we have light and life within and without, and we begin to create heaven on earth. This is another perspective that would benefit your peoples, one which will not advance until you advance the concept in and through your work in the realm.

Hunnah: The word heaven just triggered a question in myself. I was reading something in a Reiki journal, and a woman described being uplifted to the degree where she was body-less and in a state of ecstasy, and it just occurred to me, in my own personal experience, that I was bliss-oriented and that the mansion worlds, that that could possibly be one of the problems that I have had with The Urantia Book, was that I didn't have this focus visually within myself awakened as to what my tomorrow would bring after I left here.

My previous teaching simply indicated that I would live happily ever after, for want of a way of putting it, and I would be in spiritual bliss because of my previous conditioning, and I, just tonight, have put my finger on this. And I would like to ask for assistance in allowing myself to accept the embodiment of a configuration that would allow me to anticipate form with this experience, as indicated, as I have interpreted mansion worlds.

Because the Book is so oriented toward mansion worlds, I have sat like a stranger in this discussion for four years! And even though I have read this, there has been a part of me that has been unable to accept it because I have apparently invested into a -- how can I say? You know, like a parent would say to a child, "Everything will be fine when we get there!" as you would if you were getting ready for a trip, and a child trusts the parent and says, "Okay, Mum seems okay; Dad seems fine; they're happy about it, so I guess I am. "

So I am very surprised to be addressing this, this evening and it was just today that I was thinking to myself that I'm -- I feel like somebody who needs some meat, spiritual meat, and this would be probably a very good example of what I was trying to tell myself, that I was ready for another step that would help reveal not just the hierarchy, but where I fit in it, and the difference between talking about something and being able to really relate to it. So that's my monologue.

Leah: I missed it. What is your question?

Hunnah: My question was my wonderment about the word heaven. That was what started it. You know, Will I go to heaven? And in the Book we talk about the mansion worlds, which is an indication, but there is also this heaven which to me was indication of how I feel and relate. Kingdom on earth. I can handle the word, "heaven on earth" -- harmony in my lower regions, like Carolyn Myss talks about. Heaven meaning harmony, coming into my body and allowing me to be the bird that sings on key, living in contentment, but then when we talk about leaving here, this plane, I have trouble focusing on the promise. Beulah land they called it when they went out west. They were going to Beulah land. This mansion world. So how about that for an all-day lollypop? I'm really surprised. I feel like I've laid a large egg.

TOMAS: In my Father's house there are many mansions, and should you not experience bliss if you are in the Father's house? In fact there are treatises presented in the text that indicate the varying degrees of heaven and that the Isle of Paradise is only the last in a series of heavens that you may attain. Jesus himself spoke of the seven heavens when he was here. Mansion worlds are certainly a form of heaven, Jerusem being the capital of that heavenly realm.

Indeed, your heaven on earth here, in terms of your own paradise, your own spiritual bliss in your relationship with the Father, is extended and expanded throughout eternity and periodically you will attain a new level of heaven, and in this new level of heaven you will receive new wonders. Not exactly haloes and wings, perhaps, but new awareness and new levels of operation.

Your form, which you referenced, Hunnah, when you leave here, will be your morontia form, and that will be the form that will accommodate you throughout your morontial career, and eventually you will attain levels of pure spirit. Each of these levels: physical, morontial and spirit, have their own heaven, all of which are immediately tied to the Father of all heavens.

I am glad to see you carve off this large chunk of meat, this reality for the soul, for it will indeed expand your comprehension of ascension. Each realm of the mansion worlds provides new manna, new fodder for your growth and development; indeed, new learning, and this learning becomes invigorating as you ascend and develop a taste for what you are learning and why.

It is not an intellectual learning, you see, it is a soul learning, and this is what makes it real for you, and for me.

Erata: I have another question.

TOMAS: Yes.

Erata: So then if all God's people ascend, then there really is no hell?

TOMAS: There is really no hell. There is no configuration of burning fire at all. Indeed, what kind of God would banish his children to such a vile place? No loving God, certainly. No God that I would want to worship. No Father that would fit within my framework of a loving patriarch of the family to which I am comfortably associated.

The concept of hell is born of the fear of the more primitive man, the fear of punishment. It is part of your heritage as evolving beings to respect the concept of good and evil to such an extent that something dreadful would happen to you if you did not do good, but as you have evolved, as you have come to know the Father as a loving presence in your life, it is no longer necessary for you to be frightened into loving Him and obeying His admonitions and guidance.

And so the concept of hell is no longer necessary to you enlightened beings. However, it is, peculiarly, seemingly necessary for some fear-ridden mortals who cannot conceive of a God who does not provide for this heinous punishment, and so let it go. For those who insist on believing such a thing, let them pass from your sight, but rejoice in the knowledge that there is only advancing, only ascending. Our Father has only good for you, for all of His children.

Erata: One more comment. Are you familiar with Dear Abby?

TOMAS: I am aware of the column because of Gerdean's association with the newspaper, which is scant.

Erata: Well, perhaps you could give me a Dear Abby response to -- I have a brother who thinks I am going to hell because I do Reiki, and he has told my kids that I'm going to burn in hell, and if my brother ever says that to my face, I'd kind of like to have a nice comment prepared.

TOMAS: You are looking for a stand-up comedian.

Erata: You betcha.

TOMAS: You cannot educate him if he is hell bent on believing what he will believe, therefore you might as well humor him and ask if he would like to have his faith well done.

MERIUM: I would suggest that you reassure him and tell him that you really appreciate his care about you and you will understand that in his religion, his religious belief, that this is a responsibility on his part that he comes to you, his sister, and shows you what he feels is the truth. And tell him that you are glad that he has found something (if you feel this way) that is so fulfilling to him, and that this loving Christ that he knows so well, comes to you in another form, and that He has brought you great solace in your time of trouble -- in a way that the family could not meet your needs.

Give him a hug and reassure him that you are alright, and that you have prayed about all of his concerns, but I also would suggest that you ask him not to talk to the boys that way because it frightens them. This is a response: that you would rather have him pray for their welfare and not frighten them with words of condemnations.

Erata: Thank you.

TOMAS: Thank you, Merium.

Leah: Can I ask, Merium and Tomas, are you in morontial form or in spiritual form?

TOMAS: I am in advanced morontia form. I have not yet graduated to full-fledged spirit. You see I am a rookie after all.

Leah: Merium?

MERIUM: I am lovely. [Group laughter] And Hunnah is absolutely stiff, having this question presented, so if you don't mind, I will have to ask my friend Tomas to give you an answer.

TOMAS: Merium is my peer in every respect.

Leah: Well, I noticed when you responded this evening, you made some statement about the physical, morontial and spiritual. You go through a period of morontial and I was wondering at what point you go from morontial to spiritual.

TOMAS: It is common practice to graduate as a full-fledged spirit upon departing from the local universe. At any rate, it will occur at some time between there and the final sleep, and so for all intents and purposes, you may anticipate being in the morontia form for a long time, a delightful long time.

Leah: Are our teachers generally in the morontial form?

TOMAS: Yes. Your contacts are virtually all morontial, except in the context of your Indwelling Adjuster. It is pure spirit, of course.

Erata: What was . ..? Did you say "final sleep"?

TOMAS: Yes.

Erata: When does that happen? Where is that?

TOMAS: That is the traversal between the superuniverses and the Isle of Paradise. That would be compared to, perhaps, your sleep which occurs between your mortal life and your morontial life -- that sleep between here and waking up in the Resurrection Hall. There is yet another sleep that occurs upon leaving the super-universe and approaching Paradise.

Erata: How long does that last?

TOMAS: A long time, also. You will not be aware of it, however.

Erata: You mean you're just like out of commission during that time?

TOMAS: That is correct.

Erata: So where are you? Hanging around?

TOMAS: You are temporarily suspended, yes. It is certainly nothing to worry about. If you have managed to live that long, there's no getting rid of you at that point.

Hunnah: What is the purpose of the sleep?

TOMAS: It is a transition from one realm to another, a significant chasm.

Hunnah: Like across a large body of water?

TOMAS: Yes.

Erats: Are you with Christ now?

TOMAS: I am not with Christ, but He is with me.

Erata: So when you go to Paradise, does that reverse? You are with Him?

TOMAS: By the time we get to Paradise, perhaps Christ will have preceded us.

Hunnah: But in the meantime we can still manifest the living presence of Him. We can see Him?

TOMAS: Always.

Hunnah: Here in this room we have been given the ability to feel His presence. Or His divinity. Gerdean has said she has seen Him. How can she see Him if we can't see Him until we are in Paradise.

TOMAS: There is a difference between the risen Christ and the Father in heaven.

Hunnah: Oh, I'm sorry. I mis-understood. You're talking about . ..

TOMAS: Even though "I and the Father are one," Michael is the Sovereign ruler of Nebadon and He is representative of the Father to the worlds of time and space, to Urantia, to you, but He is His own person. He appeared and appears occasionally in the morontia form.

Erata: And mingles among you?

TOMAS: And mingles among you, yes.

Erata: Oh. Is Melchizedek in morontial form?

Hunnah: I thought we'd see more and hear more from him than we do. Mac.

TOMAS: Is he in morontia form? Yes.

Leah: I almost can't believe I'm asking this question, but . .. Jesus is spiritual form. I mean He went to morontial form at the resurrection, but He's spiritual form, isn't He?

TOMAS: As He attends conferences in Paradise He is spirit. He is capable of manifesting in the spirit, in the morontia form, and in the flesh, for He has experienced all facets of creation. He is unique in this regard, but in His local universe and in His seat of government, he is essentially morontial, for these are the universes of time and space. In Paradise He is freely spirit. He is also spirit in Nebadon and on Urantia, but we cannot see Him when He is spirit, and so when we see Him it is because He has modified Himself to be morontial.

Leah: So -- this is an oversimplification -- it's something like water, ice and steam?

TOMAS: Correct.

Hunnah: So when they say, "Jesus appeared to me" is that because it's a configuration that the person can agree with? Or did that actually happen?

TOMAS: It varies, depending upon the kind of experiences the individual has had. It may have been a morontia appearance, and yet it may have been a mental vision or a spiritual impression in the confines of the mind, even the upper mind. It depends.

Leah: Well, the reason I'm asking the question is previously -- (I'm like this. I hold people to what they say) -- you said your contacts are all morontial. Maybe I'm wrong about this. So that's the reason I asked about Jesus. So I'm just going with a little logic here. So therefore the Infinite Spirit, Mother Nebadonia, would just be the same instance, that she could manifest in either of the three . ..

TOMAS: Mother Nebadonia is not at large.

Leah: What does that mean?

TOMAS: It means that she has not come to Urantia in person. She is inclined to send adjuncts on her behalf, but in your vernacular she does not leave the kitchen.

Leah: I understand that. I've read that, but she speaks to us. Does she speak at a distance? Or . ..

TOMAS: Her spirit speaks. Her essence speaks, but in order for you to see her... wait. Yes, you are splitting hairs. The Spirit of Truth obviously is spirit. Nebadonia, as Michael's consort, shares equally his capacity to experience spirit life and/or morontia life, and yet she, unlike him, will not appear here. When you speak with your teachers, you are opening a vein of communication that is almost exclusively in the morontia realms because you yourselves are not capable of extending that far into spiritual reality.

It is similar to the concept of, "no man can see God and live," and so even the concepts that we deliver to you are perforce watered down in order for you to assimilate them, and the spirit realities that we are aware of are even made palatable for our ingesting. I don't know if we are running afield of the lesson here, but I do see what you're saying.

I stick to it, though, that your contacts are morontial. Morontia, after all, is a high degree of reality.

Leah: I appreciate that. I have one other follow-up question. I listened to Merium's answer this evening to Genesa who obviously has been on a spiritual path and was welcomed immediately with recognition, but I found it a little disturbing about what seemed to be an admonition about her concern of differences in the Bible and the Urantia Book. And while I do understand Merium's answer, not to let it upset her so much, I do understand from the human perspective how upsetting that can be. And so I can understand her saying don't let it upset you too much, or don't get into it too much, but when you first come to this Book, there are so many differences that . .. and your initial authoritarian training is so ingrained that you really have to pray for discernment, and perhaps it's like . .. page 51 in the Urantia Book about the vicissitudes of life and the comparisons and stuff like that, that you kind of have to see those discrepancies in order to make a decision. That's my comment.

TOMAS: Thank you for your commentary. I will take this opportunity to stand behind my colleague entirely and commend her wisdom in her remarks, and I agree also with you, Leah, that the process of setting aside previous teachings/learning for revealed truths is a process that requires contemplation and assimilation, and you understand that some of these create great agitation in the mind, turmoil indeed.

And so these growths are not easily assimilated at first, but in time you do develop a taste for truth and a trust in the Father, and you go more willingly into these realms of the unknown that before would have frightened you.

And I will now tie this in with our remarks about a morontial reality en route to a spiritual reality, and indicate that as you ascend you become less and less animal and more and more spiritual. This is the purpose of the morontial existence, the schools that you will attend.

You become more spiritual as you advance, and so at the top of the scale, where Michael and Nebadonia reside, you would expect and do find a spirit reality as compared to those of you on this realm of existence who are material, in fact.

As you awaken in the Resurrection Halls of Mansionia, you are very largely animal in your behavior and responses even there, and you begin rather much where you leave off here, and again, as you ascend become more spiritual and less animal.

Most of your associations in the Teaching Mission and in your spiritual social life, aside from the mortals, are morontial of one sort or another -- again with the exception of the Spirit of Truth who is not a personality, and the Father who is pre-personal.

Are there any other questions?

MERIUM: It's been a long evening and I suggest we close shop. I think our students are saturated.

TOMAS: As are, very likely, the teachers and the T/R's. Even so we have had a wonderful time, and we thank you again for inviting us into your life and for entertaining us so well. I do feel as though we have read a Harlequin Romance novel this evening. I can see the hearts and flowers on the front cover.

Come on, Merium, let's scuttle on out of here and let these girls get some well-deserved

rest.

MERIUM: Thank you.

TOMAS: See you soon. Good-night.

Group: Good-night. Thank you.

*****

DATE: March 17, 1998

LOCATION: Butler, PA, USA

T/R’s: Gerdean, Hunnah,

TEACHERS: TOMAS, MERIUM, MACHIVENTA

Group: Hunnah, Fraline, her daughter Gabriela, Joniel, Leah, Erata, Gerdean and Sadie Talking Circle, Song, and Stillness

TOPICS:

Take Loss In Stride

TOMAS: Good evening, my friends.

Group: Good evening.

TOMAS: Merium also is here this evening. Indeed there are many here in observance of you and in support of your strivings to grasp a greater reality and to incorporate that into your mortal existence. As I say to you "I am your friend" I would like for you to understand the full emotional impact of that word, for I will discuss with you a paradox involving your friendly relationships with those you love and with those who love you; and then seemingly the relationship ends.

However, before I embark upon the peculiar paradox of friendship and as it is related to how well you are loved and self-forgetfulness, I would like to greet you all and welcome you to this configuration.

I understand we have a new lady here this evening. How wonderful to see you, my dear. It is known to your peers here that your mortal nomenclature is Sadie so I will refer to you as Sadie. How lovely you are in spirit, dear. How wonderful to be in your close proximity. In due course this evening you will come to appreciate our individual personalities (Merium's, mine, and perhaps others) and even begin to like us as characters. For now it will suffice that you are here and willing to experience an exposure of this sort. A courageous girl you are, and that is apparent, and so we welcome you and your courage into our family arms.

Also Fraline, how lovely to have you back in our embrace and how gracious of you to bring your daughter. Lovely ones, welcome. Always it is with gratitude that we incorporate your personalities into our configuration, for without you we are ineffectual indeed. I know Merium is eager to greet you.

MERIUM: Merium is always glad to greet you, and it pleases me greatly to have this young one here because she is symbolic of meeting the need at the level of the need. It is a sad affair that the young ones in Gabriela's age group are not welcome into a group such as this. Perhaps this is a maiden voyage and that something like this can develop that it is what you might say is a model plan, a test, but it is true that the nurturing environment of such a gathering would be most beneficial to young women in pubescence, in these days of uncertainty as their bodies and emotions are developing.

It pleases me to be with you this evening and I'm hoping that you have brought an empty container within yourself that it might be filled to overflowing. As Tomas has pointed out, there is great attention here and an abundance of love, and the spirit is indeed upon you, as suggested in the words that you sang earlier, so I welcome you and I'm hoping with all my heart that you are being true to yourselves.

Hunnah has been reading about commitment and I hope that you will address this within yourself. Fraline has pointed out that she is doing this for herself, and this is something that must be understood. Someone cannot do certain responsibilities of taking action for you; this is something you have to do for yourself, and then in turn you will be able to meet the challenges and fulfill the dreams that you have in your heart of hearts.

Tomas, is there an agenda? Or are we going to let the group develop it this evening?

TOMAS: I would like to speak briefly (if that is possible) about loss, for lack of a better word, for it was apparent in your sharing time this evening that many of you are disturbed about the loss of a relationship. Not all of you. Some of you are greeting new relationships, but those of you who are not "busy being born are busy dying" (in the words of a contemporary singer).

On our last occasion, I spoke to you regarding expansion of your perceptions to stretch out beyond that of your mortal bearing, to begin to perceive of reality as extending far into new realities, that much of your conditioning is circumscribed because of your limited comprehension based upon your former learning.

Now that you are into a greater comprehension of the universe and your relationships with life in the universe, now that you can see that you come from a relatively young world, relatively semi-civilized indeed, and that your perspectives will advance readily upon availing yourself of spirit guidance and that farther view we speak of, you will begin beholding your life and the life around you with different eyes. This is all part, perhaps, of rebirth.

At any rate, you all have a limited appreciation for the constant changing aspects of life. You, in your insecurities and your humanness, clutch relationships to you as if they were pillows or security blankets, and when one leaves -- either by way of death or divorce or geographic location -- you experience a dreadful loss. I would like you to begin to perceive of this as not a loss.

How is this possible, you say, when you feel bereft? It can be done. I am not suggesting that you not know grief, that you not experience sadness upon a departure, a missing of an individual, for this is certainly a part of the human condition, a part of the emotional palette that makes the human life desirable, for even sadness has such richness, but you are so overwrought in your grief of your supposed loss, you lose perspective.

Perhaps it will only come with experience that you will be able to take the experiences in your stride, for you have come to realize that what has reality is not lost, and indeed it gives you something to look forward to, that in due course you will encounter again your loved one and you will remember the goodness; you will remember the personality; you will embrace in love of each other for that which was of value and by and large, that which has caused you pain or distress will have vanished in the course of time. And so these partings are experiential passages not designed to break your heart but to open new doors for yet new experiences, new relationships.

It is rather why we speak of a transition from this world to the next in terms of celebration. Your heritage here on your mortal, natal sphere, has allowed only for grief at the end. It is a large evolutionary step now for you to take, to begin to fully appreciate the celebration of one's passing from this vein of life into the next, a joyous step indeed, to graduate from the material to the morontial form.

I would ask for you to give this some thought, not only mental thought but soulful thought, for it will make your life richer and easier by far. You will grasp and embrace new relationships more readily, more easily, knowing that this which has value will be retained and that as the relationship comes to pass, as it changes form, it is not lost but has added richness to your life.

I will add one further concept to this theme, and that has to do with the idea of selflessness, and I am not saying that when you grieve the passing of a relationship that you are being selfish, no, but you can certainly appreciate that it is the self that is suffering. It is part here of the truth of your knowing and the benefit of your knowing that you are loved, that you are loved not only in a human sense but in a divine sense, for as you are loved in the divine sense, all of your facets of existence are embellished and enriched by this divine aspect, and so all of your relationships also are touched by this divine aspect, and in that divine aspect is eternal love. Eternal life. And so truly it is a way of surpassing the self's loss and accepting the grand plan, the divine path, that lets go of that which has served.

Erata, your recent experiences in the realms of hospice ought to be speaking clearly to you of your potential work in service to those who are passing over. You therefore can appreciate the need to take on new perspective of appreciation for the transition from this life to the next, and the victory inherent therein, the joyousness involved. It is important work when you can hold the hand of your brother or your sister in the spirit and assure them in complete authority of Michael that their arrival into the next realm of reality is assured, will be awaiting them if they but rest in the assurance of divine overcare.

I ask you not to think in these terms of only affording them words but in affording them reality. You are capable. All of you are capable of letting go, with grace, those situations and personalities, relationships and circumstances that need to change in order to bring about new growth. When you feel the change imminent, trust. Trust the Father and his divine overcare. Trust the eternal Mother and her nurturing power to care for you and to care for the situation in the most divine and perfect manner, as is Their way.

Selflessness allows the Eternal Parents to guide and direct your destiny and the destiny of those you love, in full and total assurance that you are loved as they are loved also. It is a universe of love.

And now my lovely friends, I have concluded my formal words for the evening and am willing to take questions. Merium and I are at your service.

Erata: Thank you, Tomas, for talking about the problems that I presented earlier. I guess it's sometimes easier to help other people, and then when it comes so close to you it's difficult. Something like that. Knowing that the outcome will be great. And then on the other hand, sometimes you like feel jealous because everyone else gets to enjoy that spirituality of crossing over and we're stuck here in this world with all the dissention and garbage and that kind of thing and I guess it's kind of difficult when I have someone die suddenly like they did last week, and then to know that your time can come at any time! And it reminds you also that things better be in order.

TOMAS: Is it not also true that death is part of life and life can happen at any time?

Erata: True. I guess it just emotionally drains you to the point that sometimes for a while you don't see the light.

TOMAS: I have discussed this. It is interesting that you have had this experience so often in your life of late, both near and far, that by now you should be able to have some perspective on it, that since you know how it feels personally, you are able to commiserate and feel compassion for those who are now enduring it, yes, but also as you are there for the process, you can feel their release!

You can feel the release of the Adjuster as it returns to Divinington, allowing for the dust to return to dust. It is a divine experience.

Erata: Yes, I understand.

TOMAS: I do hope that our guest, Sadie, does not think we are a morbid lot! [Group chuckle] We are not habitually focused on death and resurrection so specifically, although much of our discourse has to do with death and resurrection of concepts and perceptions. Have you any concepts or perceptions you would like to put forth?

Sadie: Earlier you were saying about God showing you a lesson of death. It's a lesson that we all have all around us all the time like moving on to another stage in our development, and when you get so close to making that transition, part of you goes with them, that's why it's draining. But it also helps to prepare you.

TOMAS: It is a method of gaining wisdom, yes, and it goes to the truth that many experiences are painful and yet wisdom is not gained without some degree of pain or turmoil. If you had not experienced difficulty, you would not learn, you would not gain wisdom, and so of course there are lessons learned in the experience of loss and it is of course draining because, as you say, part of you goes with them.

This is the emotional connection that has been a part of the mortal and now your extension into their reality is severed and/or extends into the vast realms of space, far beyond its natural environment. It is therefore even more poignantly necessary that you let them go, in order that this tension be released and you can get grounded again in your own reality, in your own configuration of reality, and hold on to not them, but your memory of your happy times, your joyous times, the loving aspects of your connection which indeed are eternal.

Sadie: May I redirect the question?

TOMAS: Yes.

Sadie: Is wisdom not gained through happiness and joy as well?

TOMAS: Wisdom can come from reflecting upon that which is joyous, but for the most part you will find that you do not gain wisdom from the high places of observation but from the low depths of experience. In the heights of reflection and perception you are afforded the opportunity to garner an appreciation for that wisdom which you gained in the experience itself. Are you following my differentiation?

Sadie: Ummm. Yes.

TOMAS: I don't want you to just back down, now. You are allowed to argue with me if you want to.

Sadie: Ummm. Well, I follow your line of reasoning.

TOMAS: Let me then do a very simplistic example of let us say a child who is learning to walk. No, that is too simplistic. Let us take the example of the young woman who is learning to love in a romantic sense, and in her high ideal, interprets a friendship as true love. She experiences the poignancy of this emotion and discovers next week that he has been kissing the girl next door. She now is completely flattened in her emotional state and yet from this bitter loss and suffering she can see, upon reflection, that perhaps he was not really so cute and that the boy down the way is really very interesting.

It is an extremely over-simplistic way of indicating that the experience itself may be difficult, but in reflecting the experience, the wisdom is gained. If she had not had the courage to investigate emotionally the boy, she would not have had the experience, she would not have had the learning, and she would not then have gained the wisdom. You see?

Sadie: So wisdom comes from experience.

TOMAS: Yes. There is an adage that says, "The greatest affliction in the universe is to never have been afflicted, for only in adversity do you learn wisdom."

Sadie: Is happiness and pleasure not an experience?

TOMAS: And a vital and necessary experience indeed it is! There is no happiness without intelligent effort, although effort does not always produce joy. Leah, you may want to discuss Page 51 with our friend, in terms of altruism. Is it desirable when circumstances are set up almost as if to pull the rug out from under you? Yes, it is still desirable, for it is a goal that, like hope, springs eternal.

Leah: I appreciate that comment. I'll share that page with her later. It just basically says that (it's kind of over-simplified) unless you experience the rain, you can't appreciate the sunshine. You have to experience either side of the center, or to have the potential to experience it, in order to appreciate it. Maybe I'm speaking incorrectly.

TOMAS: I would, however, like to say that in the experiencing of these things, by and large, suffering loses its sting when you have someone with whom to share the experience, and therefore the benefit of such configurations as these; such friendships are being born and fostered in groups like this, that you can be real and experience true growth and share your experiences with others, so as to reflect your own growing reality.

It is also very true that in the course of evolution, as you attain greater awareness of your true reality, you can experience emotional difficulties and not find them difficult at all! You can experience sadness and not be saddened by them, and work hard and not feel as if you have put forth effort. If this is too abstract, please forgive me, but I am saying that you can experience these down times and find them even enjoyable for they will not harm you.

Gerdean, my friend who is emitting my words for me this evening, has an analogy that we have used, having to do with seeds in the soil. If a seed is bursting forth from the soil, it may be carrying the weight of the earth above it, but it will reach the surface. It will reach for the sun. And when you feel that the sun is shining, you will not object to the weight of the earth upon you. You will indeed appreciate the comfort and the warmth of the darkness, for you know that it is necessary in order to bring about the full germination for the light of truth which follows.

I will pass the baton to my friend Merium who I know wants to participate.

MERIUM: Oh, I do indeed! All right, let's throw the windows open and let the air in here. We had some tending of personal need here. I can feel it very strongly. I would like to reply to the question about happiness, and believe me, dear, happiness will come in like fresh spring air into your heart when you do the will of the highest good, when you attend to your focus and you are not overly distracted by the despair of the living dead, of those who are walking around in their undeveloped state of consciousness, but you know in your heart that their day will come when they will have their wake-up call and become far more responsive.

There are many fresh ways to find answers to the questions that you hold in your heart, but I would like to bring you back to where I frequently am, and that is at the heart, and to keep the fire going under this, attending to your own inner dwelling before you try to attend to others. This has been a long journey for all of you, but there is fire in all of you now in a way that it never has been before, and you are allowing yourself a new perspective of what's going on in the world, but also do not be so distracted by the chicanery of the world. We've heard the song and read the paper, but what I really want to do is bring you home to yourself, to the personal attentions.

You know how to bathe yourself outwardly, and I am concerned about bathing yourself inwardly, because if you do your homework, you will be able to go out and enjoy your day and feel the fresh new interpretations of old manna coming into you and it will buoy you up, satisfy you. It will be, as Hunnah's friend says, "the meat the world knows not of." I continue to cheer you on to keep the vigil of silence, to nourish yourself, because that is truly the meat that will send you forth into the day of appropriate response.

When you are talking about people departing, there are people who are departing because of carelessness and if someone has evolved to the point where they have been living in their ascension state and they leave, it is frequently because there is an agreement within themselves that they may go, so it is really fruitless sometimes to draw too heavily on why someone leaves, because it is their affair.

What's really important is why you are staying! Do you have an agenda? Is it to serve the highest good? Is it to fertilize that burning desire to know God aright in you that keeps you here and fruitful? And so I am going to be forever drumming over here on this subject of come home within yourself, do your homework, and then go out and become a beholder of what your new vision allows you to harvest.

A day that appeared to be routine a week ago, if you have been doing your Stillness homework, will be filled with delight, so I do cheer you on and ask you to know that whatever it is that you desire, the answers are at hand and you do not have to suffer inappropriately as long as you allow whatever it is that is coming around you to be a teaching mode, a "please use this situation so that you may learn from it" attitude.

Preventative medicine, of course, is very important because if you don't follow the directions, you won't be able to reap the profits of your fulfillment. The humanness that you contain, to the degree of your humanness established in ruling within your being, will influence the degree of your sense of loss or confusion in your life. When you are companioned by the Christ spirit in you, it will help you to right yourself more quickly.

Recently Hunnah heard a speaker talking about miracles and she was saying that it is group consciousness that discerns whether a miracle should be a miracle or when a healing should be a healing, and we will use the subject of cancer since it is close to Hunnah's periphery, and the old school of thought is that it takes X amount of time to be free of a situation. There was a time when people lingered in bed for months when they had a common respiratory ailment and today, of course, this has changed; but when you are operating in this quickened timing, that is allowed through the Christ consciousness, you do not have to be measuring your life experience by the old standard.

It says, "behold I make all things new." You do not have to tarry with the symptoms or sciences written in stone documentation. You can decide "who do I serve this day? God or mammon?" So I hope that my statements here this evening, regarding what is life and what is joy and what is understanding and where does it come from, I hope my words have stimulated you so that you have something of quality to ponder and that you will be enriched and that you will be able to lead others to come and do likewise. Thank you.

TOMAS: The floor is open for questions. [Long silence]

MERIUM: Hunnah wishes to have Merium continue.

It is an interesting thought that has just drifted in. Today when a family gathers for meals, everyone sitting at the table has preferences. They like this; they don't like that. They like this; they don't like that. They will have this; they won't have that. And the person who is so fortunate as to cook for this group is greatly taxed and inconvenienced, and frequently the people sitting at the table are not feeling well in health because they have so many established preferences. And this is indeed the mode and the behavior of the willful human creature.

When you are embracing the Christ and you are developing the new life form expression within yourself, you gather to the table and you say to whomever is cooking or preparing and ladling forth the goodness that has come from their creative efforts, "I am enhungered; feed me." And when they have received their food, regardless of what food in this situation might be, they offer up praise and thanks. This praise and this gratitude resonates within their human condition and their body is able to assimilate the food more appropriately.

I am calling this to your attention because you are living in times of plenty, but you have become spoiled and callous, and are taking the fast way out. You pop food in your mouth and you continue to go. I have witnessed it in Hunnah's experience. I am encouraging you once again to become mindful, mindful of what you are doing, what you are saying, what you are eating, and most mindful of who you are addressing, because it is the living God's intent that is dwelling there before you. You sang of these words this evening about seeing and knowing who belongs to the face.

I am encouraging you this week to take another look and to pay attention in a way that you have not before. I am convinced; I am confident that you will find this most gratifying. You can apply it as a game. It can be filled with delight if you allow it, and allow yourself to live each day as a new discovery, for the wonderment of your new ability to interpret the generosity of a living God.

I am encouraging you to once again appreciate your neighborhood, your office, the faces that you see every day as a garden of goodness, of plenty, of abundance, of opportunity for you to celebrate and to live and be in a kingdom now and not to waste your time trying to change your lesser vision and to shine it up.

You will be allowed to have all of your heart's desires if you "come unto Me" and are filled. Please take this to heart. Allow these words to billow and stir the Joy that dwells in each of you. Allow yourselves to feels secure "in the presence of Mine enemies". These "enemies" are simply the part of you that has been conditioned improperly, that does not know "My voice".

Please, stretch. Step aside from that lesser way and say, "this is no longer appropriate. I am allowed to have a new definition."

Enjoy this opportunity that has come to you this evening to be reminded of the goodness that dwells in each of you, and do not carry your life as if it were a burden, but remember that "I have come that it might be lifted and be light, and that you will sing My words in your heart and feel them leave your lips so that others may be lifted and encouraged and awakened in My name." Thank you.

TOMAS: We will be in recess.

[Recess]

MACHIVENTA: Big Mac here. How peculiar that you should assign me this nickname when you are such "fast food junkies." [Group laughter] I will tell you now that I have come along with a litterbag, and you may put all of your junk in here and I'll take care of it for you.

I am coming by to say good evening on behalf of your teachers who have encouraged me many times to partake of your group, to see your progress, to encourage your efforts, and so I am here and have done so, but only cursorily. I would spend more time with you but you see it is the end of the program and now I will have to give a rain check and come back another time.

I assure you, my comrades, that although I am not here often in voice, I am here always in spirit, and I am fully aware of your growth struggles and your spirit victories. It is a joy to behold you unfolding in your very real states of mind and being. We admire you and encourage you. It is a joy to work with you.

And so with those words, you have your assignment and your thoughts for the day. Go in peace. Shalom.

*****

DATE: March 24, 1998

LOCATION: Butler, PA, USA

T/R's Hunnah and Gerdean

TEACHERS: TOMAS, MERIUM

Group: Hunnah, Erata, Leah, Joniel, Aren and Gerdean

TOPIC:

"Behold the Man! - and Woman!"

TOMAS: Greetings.

Group: Greetings.

TOMAS: Merium and I wish you well this evening. We welcome you with open arms to your informal gathering of berries. I am so pleased this evening to have with us a friend in the flesh that we have long watched over, we in the spirit realm, and now you perceive him among you. I speak of our long-lost, wayward youth and son and brother. Aren, my boy, how are you?

Aren: I'm doing okay, thanks.

TOMAS: Indeed you are doing well and perhaps even better than you realize. It is very, very good to feel your presence again. It has also been a bit of a reunion in our realm, assimilating your wonderful teacher and introducing him to our culture here; as you understand, it is significantly different than what we embraced in our earlier environs.

I am not going to get off-track and become nostalgic about our glory days in the Northwest, no, but will make a point of embracing you, my son, for I am glad to be in touch with you again and I also am gratified at the reward that Gerdean feels in your embrace. And so with this reunion, not to mention the fact of a male presence in our midst, I will extend my greetings to all of you at large and allow my colleague, Merium, to greet you as well. I will be back.

MERIUM: Greetings, all. I am pleased to be here with you this evening and I have enjoyed listening to your report of the week. I didn't hear any one phrase, make the statement, "I had the most wonderful experience witnessing one of the truths that I have learned in this group", but I did hear a lot of consternation and puzzlement, and also I heard some of the strains of contentment and relief, so I am glad to be here with you this evening.

Joniel, I'm glad you've got some wheels under you and it will be good for your spirits to have a change of scenery like you pointed out. Tomas, what will our talk be for this evening? Oh, I beg your pardon. Aren, welcome to this group, and I salute you for being willing sit in with the hens in the chicken coop here.

TOMAS: I am perhaps feeling the gusto of the macho, and so I would like to speak to you about a subject that is perhaps a little strong for the feminine taste, and that has to do with an aspect of Christ Michael that was a strength that is unfamiliar to your sensibilities. All of you have practiced this application to truth, but you are reluctant to acknowledge your responsibility and awareness of such philosophic behaviors, and it has rather to do with the attitude that Michael wore when he rabble-roused, instigating an upheaval of emotional loyalty among the Sanhedrin.

"Woe be unto you, scribes and Pharisees," he said, and proceeded then to outline their errors and how their traditional ways stood in the way of the Way of the Father. It has been said in your text, and rather glossed over in your socialization, that he, Michael, was ruthless, relentless, when it came to iniquity.

And I speak to those of you here this evening who acknowledge your divine connection and honor your relative maturity as a conscious spirit-led child of God in those situations where you see, sense, feel, perceive iniquity taking place and being glossed over.

Now, you referenced earlier a matter having to do with Reiki healing and how it was met unfavorably by the traditional facets of Christianity/Christendom. I am also aware, as are you, of an upcoming meeting here in your city, of the Ku Klux Klan, that has rather stirred up your citizenry. Also, there are in your various lives, those circumstances, individual to you each, that occasionally come by that disallow for compromise, that disallow for acquiescence, and I am encouraging you as maturing, ascension candidates, to observe these instances, and when you feel an uprising in your soul, when you feel this preponderance of the evidence weighed against truth, beauty and goodness, that you trust those instincts within you that would cause you to become alert to a malfunction of progress.

As Jesus traveled with his apostles, as he skirted the political arena cleverly in and out, up and down, in and away from trouble, as he planned his sojourns according to the flavor of the national fervors at the moment, as he avoided Jerusalem on occasion and yet brazenly arrived and spoke among the many, even in an hour of danger, gives testimony to his courage in and for the Father and for the Father's truths.

I am not suggesting that you all become political activists; this is not my point. My point is that it is inherent in you, as a child of God, to have a reaction when you feel blasphemy taking place. Your challenge is how to deal with that response wisely. I will remind you also, along these lines, that Michael encouraged his apostles, at the last, to seclude themselves away from the drama of his last hours, lest they, too, be caught up in the throes of the fury and be destroyed, for he needed them in-the field to work on behalf of that gospel which he taught them

And I will admonish you here the same: do not be foolish in your fight for faith, but by the same token, do not allow the fear-ridden tradition-bound sophistries of your realm to hide your light under its basket. Rather, let your light so shine as to illuminate the darkness, and if it should happen to catch fire now and then, assuredly, you are acting on behalf of truth, beauty and goodness.

Now this little lecture that I have given may give rise to speculation as to my motives, and I assure you, my students here and abroad, that I am a peace-monger at heart, as are we all who foster truth, beauty and goodness in its highest, most altruistic sense. But I thought, under the circumstances this evening, it would be a good opportunity to bring that to your attention once again. I have, therefore, finished my little lecture.

How we attend ourselves from here is up for grabs. I and Merium are certainly eager to take questions and to cavort with you in those realms which you have on display for us.

Leah: Could you be a little bit more specific about the phraseology "acquiescence and compromise"?

TOMAS: How so?

Leah: If I knew, I wouldn't be asking you. The words . . .

TOMAS: Passive acquiescence will allow for great danger to take place without your having the courage or the conviction to stand up and say, "Wait a minute here. Couldn't we take another look at this?" Passive acquiescence is allowing life, good and bad, to pass by in default of your involvement.

I have spoken, you have heard, of the adage that there are those who make things happen, those who watch things happen, and those who wonder what happened. An attitude of passive acquiescence is often the case in those who watch what happen. They are spectators in life, and one truth of a spiritual life is, if it is genuine, it is dynamic, and so in defending truth, beauty and goodness against iniquity, you will stand up for what you feel the Father would have you do under those circumstances. Has that been clarifying?

Leah: Yes, however, you used the frame of reference about the Ku Klux Klan coming to town. I'm getting a feeling that perhaps you are intimating that we should take some sort of a stand. On the other hand, I don't want to give this particular organization any energy, so it's . . . I'm stuck.

TOMAS: I see that you are, Leah, and it is because you think so literally. And I am asking you to not become political activists but to trust those feelings that you have as a child of God that would make you feel that an emotional response might be appropriate if it were handled with wisdom.

I do not want to make the mistake here of inferring that my lesson is intellectual, you see. And so I appreciate your bringing it up because it seems you are having an intellectual reaction to my words; I am not speaking politically but spiritually. Perhaps what I am suggesting is that you are unaccustomed to feeling confident about your feelings when you discover outrage or abuse and you speak up. You are accustomed to passivity, culturally, as women, and even some of you as men.

And yet Jesus himself, the father of peace, the Prince of Peace, spoke up loud and clear when he found there was iniquity in action, when it is going against the will of the Father, when it is flat-out wrong, and you cannot gloss over what is spiritually in error. If you are thinking in your intellect, you will make mistakes. If you are, however, following the leadings of the spirit, the spirit will know; the spirit will rise up against that which is inimical to the will of God.

Leah: I am probably still in my intellect in my reaction to you, but would the fact that this community is going to have this community picnic at the same time as this (KKK) meeting on the courthouse steps, would that be an example of a spiritual reaction to . . . ?

TOMAS: You are asking me to crystal-ball gaze the hearts and minds of its potential attendees.

Leah: No. I am not asking you that. I am asking you if the organizers of the . .. if that would be . .. if their action is an appropriate spiritual reaction. I have no idea what the intent is of the people who come. Maybe they're just coming out of curiosity, but obviously some of them organized this. I'm wondering if this is a better, a more appropriate response than a reaction to this situation?

TOMAS: It is an affirmative action, certainly.

Leah: It strikes me as a spiritually motivated -- It could be politically motivated, I don't know, but it almost -- like Ghandi, it just strikes me as a spiritually motivated response to this disturbing situation.

TOMAS: It is, and it is a community response. However, I am not addressing the community. I am addressing you as individuals.

Leah: I understand that, but I am just trying to ascertain, again, in my intellect, what a spiritual reaction would be.

TOMAS: You would know this in your spirit, in your integral reality. You -- setting aside that example that I gave, that we have touched upon -- if you realize that an iniquitous act is being perpetrated, you will sense it, for it will be counter to all that you hold dear. And I am not speaking intellectually or emotionally. It is an advanced concept, I agree, and one which we have not discussed in great detail in the mission that I am aware of personally, but it is none-the-less a reality issue. I know that all "God-fearing" and "Christian" people, even Jesusonians, enjoy manifesting a loving attitude and eschew anything having to do with counter-energies. And yet, oftentimes a mere avoidance of the issue does not help the situation, but allows the situation to exacerbate.

Yes, indeed, in due course it will become resolved. In time, indeed, the consequences are God's. I will also point out to you, however, that the same thing transpired in the Garden of Eden and in the days of the original Planetary Prince, and so -- not that you are necessarily going to counter another rebellion here, but it is always beneficial to you and your fellows when you do not tolerate that which is inimical to your best interests as a child of God, and so I am bringing it back to you again, to you personally, for it is only in the realm of your personal spiritual experience that you can deal with this reality and it is only in that reality that this entire subject makes any sense!

MERIUM: You just did beautifully.

TOMAS: I am glad you think so. Can you bail me out here?

MERIUM: No, I think you're doing fine, but I think that we can kind of move on and let that sit on the back burner, if you would, and I would like to move along into the "lighten up" mode, and I want you to ask yourself if you are laboring in your mind, wringing your hands and wondering if you have applied principles or if you are allowing yourself to…

Ah! Here is a fine example. In Hunnah's journal, there is a statement: "Trust goes before me and I glide in the easy space" and she uses the imagery of a boat and she is on water skis and she is gliding on the water in the prepared place. Now, I know enough about you people that that's too easy for you, those who are into water skiing, and that you prefer to do the tricks and the daredevil of being out on the rough. That prepared area with the wake is not as glamorous.

But in our situation, you are supposed to allow that which has prepared the way to go before you, that you may not have to labor in vain, and that you are able to demonstrate the fact that the principles that you have been learning and that you continue to learn can be applied effortlessly, that you can just go ahead and in hindsight, perhaps, you will say, "Oh! That went well!" and then you will realize that you have allowed these teachings to

become bone of your bone and flesh of your flesh.

When this happens, you do not have to allow yourself to be the hero and the heroine consciously. Unconsciously you are moved into that state. It becomes a conscious behavior but it is lifted up and it is a more effortless experience that you are having. You must, for some reason or other, insist upon having a good time that is brought to you by the spirit of the living truth in you, and bringing it back down and scolding yourself and saying, "Oh, that wasn't difficult enough!" You are missing the mark. Remember, you are allowed to witness joy.

You are allowed to experience drawing upon reasoning effortlessly, making the right choice. If you would allow yourself greater than you really are. But the density of your pattern in your human form is possibly X number of inches tall and weighing so much and that is the physicality, but in reality you are many, you are great, and you are becoming greater.

So let us approach life as if you were as large as the teaching and not the definition. The teaching is your reality. The definition is your ascending comprehension, and for one it would be much less dramatic than it would be in another. It depends on how committed you are to living and allowing yourself to be a new creature. Have I pushed us out of port far enough? Out of the harbor?

TOMAS: I feel experientially abob.

MERIUM: Are there any questions? [Long silence] Are you awake? That's a pun. Are you in the wake, are you in the prepared place, and are you awake? Or a wake? Think about it.

Now I want to remind you when we come together it does not have to be a ping-pong match with Tomas and Merium that I want you to participate or we'll have to go back to such and such a page, paragraph such and such and get back into the intellect and go by rote, cranking out the new life and the new definition. I was hoping we were starting to pass out, go beyond cranking it out.

TOMAS: I have an exercise for the group.

MERIUM: Very good.

TOMAS: I would like to hear from you each. Individually, ascertain and express what you feel it means to be a woman or a man, and I am speaking to you each individually and it has to do with your understanding of yourself as a whole person. I will give you a starting point and that is when Jesus appeared before Pilot and it was said, "Behold the man!" here was a man in a regal robe, bleeding. And I can see you all in your royal robes, bleeding, in that context.

I am interested to hear what you think you are in terms of your integrity as a whole person. It seems that the entire subject of gender needs a new definition. Are you interested in engaging in this exercise with me and, if so, who will begin?

Aren: I was wondering if you could give us a different starting point. I couldn't relate to where you were coming from.

TOMAS: All right then. You already understand that you are a dual nature creature, that is to say you are animal origin and you are indwelt by a God-fragment that will eventually allow you to manifest the Father's personality in and through your life, even here on Urantia, and so your full range of personality expression might include all facets of your reality, even at once.

And so I am interested in hearing your understanding of what it is that constitutes a gender understanding of yourself, your full persona. Not just the swain; not just the student; not just the adventurer; but what is the full person all about? Have we any takers? (No response) Perhaps I will put the shoe on the other foot and ask you to describe, then, the opposite sex. Is it easier for you to see outside of yourself?

Leah: I'm not sure what you're asking, again. Are you asking us to tell you what we perceive to be the ideal, holistic man or woman? Is that what you're asking? Or how we see our self?

TOMAS: Show me in your minds eye that which you believe a holistic human being to be, yes. What are their characteristics?

Hunnah: I think we could do this answer as a group, but wouldn't it come out of us pretty much the way we've been taught?

TOMAS: I believe that this is my point.

Hunnah: Oh, okay. Well, we got there fast, didn't we!

TOMAS: If you are going to give me what you've been taught, then you are not giving me your truth, your perception, your reality.

HUNNAH: How we feel. Is that word included? Feeling? Feminine? How do I feel about being feminine?

TOMAS: Certainly.

Hunnah: Well, frequently, inadequate.

TOMAS: I am not, however, limiting this to feminine. I am saying "woman" and "man". Perhaps the man is feminine; perhaps the woman is feminine, you see. I am asking you to tell me what you understand a woman to be.

Hunnah: Not ourself. Or himself. But generally. Objectively. I think of the female as being, well, I'll use the metaphor of a house. I feel, with me, the female goes on inside the house. It's the emotions. It's the environment.

TOMAS: I hear you speaking of the female.

Hunnah: Yes, and I think of the male as being the builder of the house.

TOMAS: I asked you, however, to not discuss male and female, but man and woman. Could you keep it in that context?

Hunnah: That's even easier. I think that the man is the builder, in this society. If I was from Africa, I would say that the woman is the builder and the man is free to be in the earth. Here, man is -- I see him as being pretty well tied down into a pattern that is weighted with responsibility.

TOMAS: I have made a note of your observations. Erata?

Erata: You must know I was sitting up here. You want to know what I feel about a man and a woman -- as I perceive myself to be both?

TOMAS: It is certainly an interpretation.

Erata: Okay. I can do that. I see myself, as the woman part, because I think about it a lot, as being at Christ's feet, serving him and always being there in serving others; and I see the man also as being the support person, but I can also see that I can also go into that role, as being a support person, as strong as "He is within me" kind of an idea.

I can also see gentleness and understanding on both parts. Of course, the love is equally shared. The counsel, objective . ...

Hunnah: Are you talking about the ideal?

TOMAS: Erata is.

Erata: Striving for that point as far as mine in my human right. As far as my interpretation in growing up, Hunnah was right as far as the woman keeping the house and the man building the house, but yet my perceptions is that that is done together. Once everything is -- the house is built, the home is made -- it's a union together.

I don't know if there's anything more coming from me or not. I'm talking from my spiritual attitude about those things. If I was going to go human, it would be different. Should I speak about that?

TOMAS: Yes.

Erata: Okay. Man being dominant; woman being dominant, to some degree. Not as submissive as maybe in the past, I think. I think in my terms of -- "partnership" would be a real good word to use between the two. I'm trying to think.

TOMAS: Rest your mind. Leah?

Leah: Well, we're talking about my perception of the ideal man or woman.

TOMAS: We are not necessarily. That was Erata's approach. I have asked you to describe "what is woman" in your understanding. Or, what is your gender opposite? Either/or.

Leah: I want all of the above. [Group laughter] I'm probably not answering the question in the perspective . .. but I can just tell you what is going through my mind right now. Male: there was an advertisement on TV a long time ago, and actually I got a lot of sexual connotations, however, I thought it was a really great and it said something to the effect of: Are you tough enough to be tender? And I think the ideal male would be tough enough to be tender. And caring. And interested in what his gender opposite has to say, not just exclusively in the camaraderie of his own gender.

But male, to me, on a physical level, or animalistic level . .. I just have a kind of mental picture as male being predatory and female as being . .. I don't really want to use the word victim, but . .. well, it just seems in nature . .. what is the word I want?

Gerdean: Vulnerable?

Leah: Vulnerable in a sense, but it's like -- men are hunters, to me, in their nature, and women are evasive and are . .. going back to the animal, flirtatious, even in nature, the dance, or …

Hunnah: The mating ritual.

Leah: The mating ritual, in a sense. But spiritually, I think that there's like an open mind, open heart to . .. spiritually and idealistically, being male or being female holistically would be just what we're doing in this room. Each one of us is speaking; each one of us is expressing our opinion and the rest of us are listening attentively (some of us), and caringly, and we are pursuing our spiritual growth and allowing each person in the room to pursue their spiritual growth and striving to become all that we can be.

I feel like a philosopher. I didn't mean to do that. I know that part of my problem is that the co-dependent thing about "I want to please you" and give you the proper answer and I don't know what the proper answer is and I wish I could just let that go, but . ...

TOMAS: I have heard you.

Leah: Okay.

TOMAS: Joniel?

Joniel: Well, pretty much what everybody else has been thinking about the ideal. As a woman, I feel my role would be nurturing and caring and the ideal man would be strong enough to be tender, and yet be the provider. That's a big assignment to put on a man's shoulder. But that's basically how I feel about it.

TOMAS: Thank you, Joniel. Aren?

Aren: Amongst the hens, I guess. Listening to you guys describe a man. He is beautiful, not in a physical sense, but describing him as being clumsy, a mule, somebody who would trip over his feet. Yet a strong, stalwart, gentleness that can be passive at times, for some reason, but usually is the opposite of this stalwart feeling, this dependability, this "wear the pants in the house" type feelings, plus passive. He can be passive. And I see it as very strong.

In the physical sense, back to the physical sense, I find beauty in the male body. The beauty is in that strength, the outline of the muscle tones, everything is there to see, it's toned, it's there . .. what is the word I'm looking for? It's visible! Wherein as in the woman I think of roundedness or curves. This is more bold. More intrusive. That's all I have to say.

TOMAS: Thank you, Aren.

Leah: Can I add something? As he was speaking, I just -- it occurred to me that, the way he was describing that -- if you asked the question and I only had two words to answer to those, I would answer to a man as "strong" and a woman as "soft."

TOMAS: I realize that you have already turned your tapes over, but we are in the middle of an exercise, and I would like to also ask Gerdean to participate; therefore, I am going off-line for a moment. Perhaps, Merium, you would like to help fulfil this circle or be in readiness.

Hunnah: Coming.

Gerdean: I don't really much care what either of them look like physically, because I have seen strong women and frail men and they can be equally lovely and appropriate to themselves. I'm not fond of certain characteristics, but I don't believe that's what constitutes a man and a woman. It's been really interesting listening to others' interpretations, what they think of when they think of a man and a woman, but I'm not here to involve myself with your opinions of them.

As a woman. I don't understand men at all. I don't know what they're here for. I don't know what they do. They're most charming. I cannot imagine life without them, but I cannot comprehend them, nor would I try to. Not seriously. Women, however, are so wonderful, if they only knew it. I think women spend so much time catering to someone they cannot understand that they waste much of their life that could be spent in appreciation with sisterhood. That's how I feel about it.

But, since I think that, really, women are wonderful, including physically and emotionally and spiritually, I assume that men are also. It's just that we probably don't know ourselves as well as we could if we were to give ourselves permission to be ourselves instead of trying to be what somebody else wants us to be or what culturally we have been for generations, or what our national culture tells us we should be doing. Which is hard to do, because we are subject to our culture.

MERIUM: The teacher is coming up to the platform here for a moment. All of you have described answers to this question with the influence of your culture. We could spend a lot of time here. If we moved you out of your culture and asked you the same question, you would definitely have different definitions. If you were a male you would have a different definition of a male and if you were put in a female role, you would have a different definition.

So can you think of yourself as being a life force that is influenced by your culture, that has "divine intelligence" available? All that will come out of here is a lot of words and perhaps a bit of empathy or appreciation for the fact that some people are living through an inherited form and an inherited culture and they squirm in it or brag in it or become vain within its limitations, depending upon the packaging.

It is part of the journey but it is not all of the journey. It is the distraction of the journey, if I might comment. Perhaps we could add to this, class, by saying: for one week, I want you to consciously and sincerely acknowledge the presence of the opposite sex whenever you have the opportunity. If you go to the garage to have your car looked at, I want you to ponder the male presence (if it is male) before you, whom you talk to, and think about the packaging -- mentally and physically -- and then allow yourself to wait and have a new definition well up in you and into your mind.

To enter your mind, I'd like to digress briefly. In Caroline Myss' teachings, she talks about the 8th chakra. Hunnah has decided that the 8th chakra is the pinnacle of transmitter/receiver information. In one of the gatherings, I described to you a radio tower, or telephone towers as you have in your community. Let us suppose that this beacon is your 8th chakra -- that point where I am able to speak and am able to express my intentions and Hunnah is able to receive it and deliver the goods.

I want you to be able to apply this, as well. I hope that I can help you take Tomas' challenge and stimulus and allow you to combine it with the feminine suggestion that you go out into the community and you allow yourself to think about how it would be to operate within the body of that person that you are talking to. Perhaps they would be ten years old, but let me tell you that unless you offer it up, you will still come out with an answer that is influenced by your preconditioning. Now, how's it going, Tomas?

TOMAS: Thank you, Merium, for the assignment. I appreciate and approve of it. I would like to round out our exercise by advising you that you, in your ascension, are (in perhaps the words of Ms. Myss) a being who is functioning fully with all chakras open, that is to say, full awareness of your seven adjutant mind spirits, and as a God-conscious human being, you have, ideally, your identity in array, your ducks in a row, sufficiently that you are functioning mind over matter, spirit over mind, and thus you can stand anywhere with anyone as a fully integrated personality and indeed perceive those around you who have perhaps not yet attained your degree of enlightenment, and with your enlightenment you are able to manifest the compassion that is inherent in a child of God, a dignified son or daughter of the living God.

This is the wonderful prospect for you as a woman and/or as a man, that you can rise above these difficulties of gender and ride in the wake of the boat that pulls you through the course of life on your skis of faith and trust. A full-blown, full-sized integrated son or daughter of the living God is capable of recognizing when it is encountering iniquity in others, is wise enough and is loving enough to direct the Spirit of Truth toward that issue if your will and His will are in accordance. It is also inherent in you as an aware being, that you can make that assertion and act or not act according to the wisdom in your seventh chakra, in your seventh adjutant mind spirit.

An interesting exercise indeed and one which I know you will enjoy, since human beings like nothing better than to think of themselves, and so we shall think of yourselves in terms of how you can know each other better and how you can learn to have a greater awareness and a greater capacity for compassion and teaching, for and to your fellow human beings. I am finished. I suspect we're out of time.

Leah: I need to say something in relation to the beginning of this discourse, and I would just like to have whoever cares to join me in praying for the outcome of the highest good for everyone who is involved in this seemingly confrontational situation that is forthcoming. I am in a quandary as to -- as if -- There's a portion of me that says: well, maybe what I'm supposed to do is to go over to this situation with some kind of a banner, stating my feelings, and then there is another portion of me that says: pray.

And all I can ask is that you join me in prayer for the highest good of all individuals who are involved in that confrontation. I know it needs to be voiced. I don't know how to formulate the prayer particularly, except for the idea of the highest good of everyone that is concerned in this, because I can't see myself going over there waving a flag.

Hunnah: It isn't necessary to go, is it?

Leah: No. It's like the passive glossing over is like ignoring the situation. I mean because I live "over there" I -- I just hadn't even thought about it that much, you know? So I would just like to pray.

Hunnah: I would think that's the best thing to do, but, how do you want to fuel it? Do you want to fuel it with anxiety? Do you want to fuel it with defiance? Do you want to fuel it by being passive? Or do you want to pass up deciding to do any of those things and releasing yourself to, like you said, to the most appropriate response.

Leah: Number four, whatever that was you said.

TOMAS: It is always appropriate to fuel your prayers with love and faith, indeed. I support your commendation, Leah. I will enjoy, as will Merium and your many, many celestial helpers here, enjoy seeing you all lift up your voices in support of the release of ignorance and the acceptance of each other as children of God in truth.

Leah: That was a very beautiful prayer and I thank you for formulating it for us.

TOMAS: Amen. Are we finished, Merium?

MERIUM: Yes, indeed.

TOMAS: Good night. You have your assignment. And farewell.

Group: Farewell.

*****

DATE: March 31, 1998

LOCATION: Butler, PA, USA

T/R: Gerdean

TEACHERS: TOMAS, MERIUM

Group: Erata, Aren, Leah, Joniel, M.M. and Gerdean

URANTIA BOOK STUDY:

Paper 159, The Decapolis Tour

#5. The Positive Nature of Jesus' Religion

TOPIC:

Worship

TOMAS: Good evening, my friends. I am Tomas.

Group: Good evening.

TOMAS: It is a special evening, as always, when we gather together and it is an oddly especial occasion indeed for Gerdean, and I speak to you all in this context, that we may get it out of the way so that we may all feel at ease and be at home with one another. A certain self-consciousness presumes itself in our configuration at the moment due to the emotional imbalance brought on by our new friend M.M. I will bear with Gerdean's anxiousness and in a moment it shall pass.

And in the interim, I would like to greet you all, to embrace you in the spirit of those of us who come to attend to your soul growth, your spiritual needs, and your divine associations, your companionship in the spirit, between each other and between yourselves and Our Father in Heaven. It is our supreme joy to be part of your life and to be participants in your eternal adventure.

Merium also is with me this evening, with us. There are in fact many on hand, as usual, who enjoy observing your proceedings, who observe your interactions and consult, ofttimes, with your Thought Adjusters and personal spirit associates. We are quite a gregarious group here in your neighborhood but outside your vision.

I enjoyed your consideration in terms of selecting a text excerpt, and what a propitious excerpt it was, in that, it discussed how it was that Jesus would take the best from what was offered and utilize that as part of his teaching ministry, indeed, the positive aspects of the Kingdom. You would all do well, indeed, to reflect on this basic lesson in your own lives, for you are all highly critical thinkers and you jump on every opportunity -- each of you -- to criticize that which you find negative, and thereby you expend much time and energy hashing over and re-hashing over that which has no value. You wonder, then, why you are exhausted!

Be prepared, then, to accept that which is positive and beneficial, to reap the good of that which has been sown so freely, and do not stumble on the tares that grow among the wheat. That is an adventurous assignment, but one which I encourage you to seriously look at. If you were to pay attention, you would discover that much of your daily discourse is founded on the negative aspects of your relationships.

Consider: if you did not fill much of your time with the negative aspects, what would be left? Positive aspects and free time! I daresay it is the "free time" part that makes you nervous, for you are all eager to fill your free time with something.

Well, I have gibbered enough for the moment. I am not going to speak formally any longer; I am going to involve you, my lovely friends, in an engaging discourse and Merium, of course, is eager also to make her presence known at some point. Are there questions?

Aren: What do we do with the spare time, Tomas?

TOMAS: I perceive, by your asking that question, that you are genuinely sincere in seeking an answer, and I will give you a response that I regard as a worthy one, and that would be to apply yourself, then, in worship. And I will throw it back to you, now, my friend, and ask you to tell me: what do you feel is worship?

Aren: I feel that worship, for me, is . .. Wow, that's a good question. I feel that worship is . .. Let me think on that one for awhile.

TOMAS: Of a certainty, for it is worthy of a moment's thought. Are there any other takers?

Leah: Well, in The Book it talks about worship being a recharging of your spiritual batteries.

TOMAS: How do you go about recharging your batteries, Leah?

Leah: [Laughing] I haven't figured that out yet! But I was just going to comment that the other night, the cat kind of made me realize the aspect of the embrace by God. I still haven't been able to figure out the worship part, aside from singing, but the embrace by God, I think . . . the cat comes in and just luxuriates in your being kind to it, and I felt like, Oh! This must be something like to have some realization of being embraced by God! I know that must sound very miniscule, but I tuned right into that. It seemed nice. But worship . .. even though I make an attempt to be still, I . ... Singing is the way that I kind of do it. I know that I should be still, but that's where I am right how. Singing in my mind or singing out loud.

TOMAS: Singing is a form of worship. It is praise and thanksgiving. It is an exaltation. It is an expression of gratitude. It is a psalm, a hosanna to the Creator. Think not that your song is unheard, for when your voice is lifted up in song on behalf of your relationship with that which is divine, you have touched the chords of heaven, you strike step with Paradise, you have allowed your consciousness to reverberate within the chimes of perfection, and you feel refreshed, you feel re-associated with that which is true, beautiful and good. Song therefore is certainly a form of worship.

And, by and large, it is a gift to your fellows, for it is almost always uplifting to hear song. Now, there are some who cannot hold a note, and perhaps their gift of song is one of humor, but those of you who enjoy carrying a tune to The Father, are also giving a gift to those who chance to hear upon your lovely notes.

If and when an individual thinks enough of the Father to spend some time in worship, in serenity, in gratitude, it is somehow refreshing to have this attitude augmented by the sound of someone else's song singing; it is a harmonious connection of fellowship. Even when you are not relating individually, you are relating in the spirit, and so unity prevails, and this expands, then, the worship experience, from your own personal moment with God to include another's personal moment with God, and thus your symphony expands, your music refines itself, and one day we will all sing to the Lord at once and what a joyous sound we shall make!

It is very difficult, however, to think in terms of our joint song to The Father when we are all so busy criticizing the minor matters of our material existence. Let me not end my conversation on that note; rather, let us return to something more edifying -- such as worship or thanksgiving, or are there other questions?

Aren: You know, I think the question was asked of me, so I will respond now.

TOMAS: Very well.

Aren: I'm looking here and the only thing I can relate to in worship is a sense of worthiness, that, in prayer or meditation, I gain or receive. Or I even idolize.

TOMAS: And so to you the concept of worship includes the connotation of worthiness?

Aren: Yeah!

TOMAS: I will respond to you, my son, but I find it interesting to note that you have gone to the text for a concept of worship rather than one within your own heart. I am not against such a practice. Leah also sought resolution in the text, and indeed the lesson this evening came from Jesus selecting from the scriptures those portions of truth that he would build his gospel on.

But your appreciation for worship being tied in with a sense of worthiness brings to my mind the truth that as a son of God you are infinitely worthy of association with that which has created you, for it is inherent in your sonship. Our Father has made you worthy by having creating you. It is only that you need acknowledge his existence! This is the concept of worthiness that matters. It has nothing to do with an understanding of self-esteem such as in your society and if you are worthy to be a Boy Scout or the like. By being a son of God you are already of worth. He has given you worth by giving you life!

Acknowledging that life and the Giver of that life is your acknowledgement of your relationship with this creator. Indeed, as you spend time in the embrace of The Father in stillness and in worship, in appreciation and in joyous song -- yea, in happiness -- you become even more and more associated with that which is Godlike, that which is good and beautiful and true.

And you develop in the fruits of the spirit, in those virtues that are a natural result of your affection for The Father. As he loves you and as you love Him, there is created a reality of love that cannot be contained, that must be given, that must be emitted. You cannot keep this greatness unto yourself. It is said you must give it away to keep it. It is also said, "Freely have you received, freely give" and this is a truth and a goodness and a beauty.

You have the understanding from your evolved religions that worship must be a solemn affair, often embellished with ceremony and ritual, and this is sometimes the case, and yet it is not required. It is possible to enjoy moments with Father in your most childlike nature, in the joyousness of laughter, in genuine childlikeness and trust and faith.

That you have faith, living faith, is an act of worship, is an act of acknowledging the greatness of God and your relationship with Him. Trust is worship in this context also. As you put your trust in the Father and in yourself, as his child, your esteem is bolstered, your identity is reinforced, your goodness is encouraged, your beauty is made radiant, and your truth speaks for you as you pass by, and thus your life becomes a worshipful session.

Much like Jesus taught prayer is a way of life, so is worship, and there is nothing onerous in this experience. It is not a ponderous, solemn and fearsome condition, but it is reverential, respectful, refreshingly simple, honorable, joyous and free. These things can be done, can be had, can be known, and can feed yourself and your environment by your will to do His will.

Leah: I'd like to ask you something, Tomas. You started your discourse talking about how we indulge in negative criticism, and I certainly came in speaking about an individual who I found offensive, and . .. so I spoke about this during our sharing time.

I was wondering. That particular instance did bother me, and I wanted to talk about it, and I wonder, is it like: if you don't have anything nice to say, don't say anything at all? Or do you just get this off your chest?

TOMAS: It depends upon the degree of iniquity involved, my child. It is true that much of life is a cacophony of noise, of awaiting the guidance of the Master Conductor, and this cacophony of sound, these instruments warming up, are best ignored.

However, when you find yourself in a position of being realistically in line with iniquity and you have the opportunity to bring truth to bear, ask for the Father to guide your words, your motives, your intent; ask Him to conduct your solo performance on His behalf and see if He will speak, in-as-much as you have volunteered to do His will and clarify the truth as you see it.

It is very difficult, as you understand, to try to correct someone else's belief system. The only time you are in a position to clarify and re-direct that belief system is when it is focused on you. And when you feel iniquity coming at you, you do have a responsibility to repel it and to set the record straight as to why you have repelled a non-truth.

Leah: I'm going to have to ponder what you just said to me. The individual that I was criticizing was presenting acceptable truths, but . .. speaking them in a loud (my opinion, of course), obnoxious voice, and yelling at people within a room, and to me it . .. his intonation . .. and there was nothing peaceful about it! Although he was speaking some spiritual truths, definitely.

To me, even though we're talking about negative criticism and stuff, I thought, "He provided an example of how I don't want to experience it." That's the only positive aspect I can ascertain in that situation.

TOMAS: I would like to provide for you a compassionate understanding of the scene as you have presented it, and one which provides, perhaps, yet another view -- and I am not saying it's a very highly evolved view, but I am saying it has a relative reality -- and that is that there are those who only can respect the authority of loudness. There are some who can only hear when they are yelled at.

There are some who find the voice of love, the voice of gentleness, so frightening they cannot sit still to endure it. There are many, indeed, who cannot worship for they cannot bear the peace of the embrace. They feel unworthy. And yet they, too, have a right to be taught; they, too, have a need to hear. And so there are teachers of the sort who can provide a certain truth for certain individuals who have not yet attained a sophistication in their seeking that would denounce such abuse (to your sensibilities).

Under the circumstances, you were probably right to not get involved, for if you had, it would have been an indication to you that you enjoyed being yelled at and that you understood that as a viable method of communication. As my close friend and associate in the loving embrace of Christ Michael, I cannot conceive that you would still identify yourself with that ilk that needed to feel abused in order to feel loved.

You may now pray for those who found value in the experience of being yelled at, and pray also for the young man who felt he had the authority within him to wield that voice and that message. Indeed, we shall evolve. Indeed, we are evolving. Has that been helpful?

Leah: Yeah. I want to clarify that I walked in on the situation. It was not one that I was expecting. And also, if I could paraphrase for myself, what you are saying is: there are many ways to climb the mountain and some of them like the real rough path, or something of that nature.

TOMAS: I will take your analogy and say that as you start out in your climb up the mountain, and before you have gotten your second wind, as you have set out from the comforts of your sofa and remote control and potato chips up the mountain of spiritual enlightenment, you are going to feel a certain mortal tug down. You are going to complain loudly and trip on a few rocks.

About here, you may have enough anger in you that you are remembering your own anger from childhood and your Dad yelling at you to "Hurry up!" and "Get a move on!" or something along these lines. Now, I realize my analogy may seem crass but it is also true, for as you begin your ascent, you begin at a rather primal lack of sophistication in the spirit, yet as you continue to ascend, and as you begin to get your stride, as you begin to work those muscles so that they enjoy the effort, you no longer are flagging, everything is working, and even your hard breathing and perspiring is contributing to the joy of the experience.

Now you are doing some serious mountain climbing! Now you can turn around and look at the view and appreciate your accomplishments and see below you that there are those who are still overweight and missing their potato chips and stumbling over the pebbles, you see. And so I ask you to put in perspective your spiritual growth and the spiritual growth of your brothers and sisters who follow.

Leah: As you are speaking I'm reminded of the individuals who get on a soap box downtown and start hollering the gospel or that type of discourse, and I'm hearing in my mind, it all comes down to motive.

TOMAS: Indeed, and many feel a calling. Many feel motivated to do something. And sometimes their church, their religion, provides an avenue of operation, and those you will see on the street corners or going from door to door or on the pulpit or in other public avenues of service, even televangelism. There are those who feel the call and, like Mother Theresa or Albert Schweitzer, work differently. There are myriad ways to serve. There are myriad capabilities of performance.

Leah: Well, I'd like to thank you for speaking about trust as being an expression of worshipfulness. I never really thought of it as that way. I just thought of it as something separate, and … thank you.

TOMAS: You are welcome. I would like to take a brief recess.

[Recess]

TOMAS: I will respond to your discourse regarding seeing words in your mind's eye and advise you that the word "applause" has been hovering in the mind's eye of Gerdean and so I will confess to you that those of us who observe your camaraderie are applauding you this evening. It is a delight to be here in your midst.

And so I understand, Erata, that you have a response also to our inquiry regarding the practice of worship.

Erata: Yes! My idea of worship -- as away from the church-like setting -- is very easy for me. I can do it even here. It is to be totally silent and then I tell the Lord how much I love Him as I know He loves me, and then I just let Him take me, and like, this Sunday I was out in my hammock, (because I've decided that Sunday is a total day of rest. I don't do anything but go to church or whatever, and I start blocking off time). All afternoon I laid on my hammock, out in the sunshine, in the middle of the woods where I live, and I could actually feel God's caressing me. You know, the sun's warmth, the smell, the sweet smell, since it's so Springlike now, and I just was constantly telling Him how much I love Him and I could just feel Him being enveloped around me and I just felt so content, so peaceful, so loved.

At night I will do that. I might read a little bit of the Bible or even our daily . .. "Upper Room" or something like that and I will just lay back and contemplate what I read but just submit myself to Him and generally I'll ask if there is anything I need to know. I'll ask Him to give it to me in a dream or by personal contact or whatever, and generally I just kind of like go into a peaceful sleep, but always telling him how much I love Him. That's my idea of worship, Tomas.

TOMAS: You have inspired many by your recitation of your joy in The Father's company. I will tell you that you are correct to find the conditions for worship most conducive in the natural environment. The idea of being in Mother Nature, in its most pristine and peaceful aspects, is very conducive to that appreciation which touches upon worship. The feel of the sun, the sound of the leaves, the warble of birds and the pounding of the surf -- these sounds are indeed the music of infinity, and automatically elevate the heart to a soulful appreciation of its place in the universe, its participation in the experience of life.

I will also remark, Erata, upon your wise practice of selecting a reading, and I will also encourage you all here to embark upon this practice of feeding your mind good stuff. Much of the distress of your life, much of your inability to let go of the niggardly negative qualities of your mortal existence are because of your incessant menu of negativity, and I do not lay this on you as a form of blame, but as a fact of life, for much of your life is involved in the un-evolved.

Indeed, you are inhabitants of a fear-dominated mortal existence, and it is no wonder you are brought down to meet it, even on its own terms, without the sustenance of spirit reinforcement and some spiritual stamina, gained by climbing that mountain of faith and experiential activity in faith, and part of your regimen ought to include a good diet of tasty morsels, nutritious and meaty to chew upon, much like that grain and fruit and nut mix, trail mix, that climbers use.

You, too, can seek out a worthy paragraph here and there from one set of scriptures or another, in order that you may give your mind fodder to chew upon. You all are getting so sophisticated in your daily reflections, you have gotten spoiled. These ponderings of the heart and mind are worthy of deep reflection, and yet you sometimes read them and gloss over them and get on with your day before you have given yourself the reward and the challenge of truly savoring a thought for its nourishment, that it can feed you throughout the day.

If you have a good thought on your mind before you fall asleep at night, your subconscious now has good food upon which to feast during the night; and then in the morning, yet another prayer of thanksgiving on your lips will bring you into an appreciation for the good life that will sustain you throughout the day. You must feed yourself good stuff. Good spiritual stuff.

I see you smiling, M.M., at the use of the word "stuff". I see this word has come to mean something to you. I will not be offended if you are not willing to accept me as a viable personality as yet. I however am quite convinced of your personality, and indeed your radiance and your worthiness. I have enjoyed your struggles with this most recent growth situation and have found you to be a most invigorating man and a challenge for us all, once you get rolling, and so welcome, my friend and comrade to these proceedings, and welcome again to you upon your return.

Merium also would like to say Hello. One moment.

MERIUM: Oh, dear! In order for me to smile through this one, I will have to ream out her sinus pockets! At any rate, I am smiling, you may be assured, and I am so glad to be here with you. Good evening, my lovely flock. I am already missing my Hunnah. I am missing her in this configuration only, for I am not unaware of her even now and assuredly she is here with you this evening in spirit, as are many.

I want you to know that we are becoming the social event of the season. There are many who have been impacted by your peculiar undertakings, and although there are those who would look with disdain upon your simple as 1-2-3 address, there are also those who find it simply marvelous that your community is expanding.

I, of course, am delighted to be taking part and to be one of the featured guests at these undertakings and entertainments. Of course, I am invisible, so it's no skin off my nose!

How is everybody?

Group: Just great. Good. Good.

MERIUM: Chatty bunch, aren't you?

Leah: Is there a midwayer with us, Merium?

MERIUM: We have a full committee of midwayers here this evening, which is perhaps why your light is shining so brightly. The countenance of the midwayer cotillion is sheer radiance. You have a Glee Club in attendance this evening.

Leah: What does "cotillion" mean?

MERIUM: A whole bunch. We try to get you to think, you know. One of our purposes is to encourage you to develop the muscle of your mind as well as the muscle of your spirit, for it is through your decisions that your spirit is expanded. And how can you make decisions if your mind is on perpetual vacation? It is sometimes a practice of the midwayers, when they make initial contact, to rattle your cage such that you begin to shake up your own thought processes.

There is considerable agitation in the mind, particularly in the first realms of spiritual development, primarily because you have not yet become accustomed to the fact of spiritual effort. It requires effort. And so we like to prompt you to think, so that you become accustomed to thinking, so that you enjoy using your mind, so that you can begin to use your mind as a tool for the Master, so that you can begin to stimulate the thinking of others, so that you can become fishers of men, so that we can go shopping!

Group: [Laughter]

MERIUM: What do you think we're shopping for, after all? New blue jeans?

I will not stay long this evening. It is very apparent that Gerdean is distressed of health, and although she is willing, I am not. I am going to bow out early this evening. I am delighted to be here. I am delighted to meet you, Bob. I've heard a lot about you and it is a pleasure now to make your acquaintance. I have every anticipation that we will become close friends in due time. Indeed, my son, you have no choice.

And so with those words I embrace you all. I fluff you up and pinch your cheeks in divine affection and encouragement for you lovely duckies. Nighty-night.

Group: 'Night, Merium. Thank you.

TOMAS: I am Uncle Tomas, returned. Are there questions?

Erata: Are the midwayers here to teach us something tonight or are they just watching us?

TOMAS: They are here in observation.

Leah: Could you say something about the midwayers for M.M.'s benefit?

TOMAS: The midwayers, yes, are much like your cousins, but they are cousins in the spirit. That is to say, they are invisible, but they are very closely related to you in terms of their capacities to feel and respond to life's situations.

The midwayers are an order of life that is a natural part of the evolving worlds, elucidated in the text. Primary and secondary midwayers abound on your world and on other evolving worlds as well. They will be here until such time as your evolution has attained a certain degree of spiritual functioning, whereupon they will be released to further service and, in essence, you will share ascension with them henceforth.

They share your emotional configuration greatly. They are affectionate and devoted companions, in-as-much as they are in constant contact with you in your lives here on your world of time and space. They are less than the angels, in terms of status, but a little higher than you, only in that they are not subject to the experience of mortal death (for they do not have a mortal body).

They, like all of God's conscious creations, desire to serve, and so they are in interest this evening of how they may be of service to you here and how you may be of service to them and to one another. Always is their work in alignment with the Father's will and in keeping with their capabilities.

I will point out to you that when the Lucifer Rebellion took place, the existing primary midwayers were influenced. The secondary midwayers were not brought into existence until much later, but again these details you can ascertain through a study of the text. Suffice it to say they are your spirit helpers and much like cousins. Very close friends, indeed. The Glee Club. They have come to applaud you and rejoice in your faith steps, to encourage you on the way.

I am going to side with Merium here and call it an early evening. It has been a pleasure. It has been, by divine right, an honor, as always to be in your company and to attempt to assimilate your minds with certain divine truths that will augment your reality and the reality of Our Father on earth.

I'll see you soon.

Leah: Thank you, Tomas.

TOMAS: Good night.

Group: Good night.

*****

DATE: April 7, 1998

LOCATION: Butler, PA, USA

T/R: Gerdean

TEACHER: TOMAS

Group: Aren, Leah, Liana, Evangel, Gerdean, Sadie and Erata

URANTIA BOOK STUDY:

Paper 101, The Real Nature of Religion, Page 1107-09

#3. The Characteristics of Religion

TOPIC:

Boundaries and Unity

TOMAS: Good evening to you, my special friends. I am Tomas, your teacher.

Group: Good evening.

TOMAS: I am intrigued by your selection, Gerdean, of reading material and by the subsequent discourse among you as to your understanding of genuine spiritual faith.

[Excerpted from Page 1108:

"Genuine spiritual faith (true moral consciousness) is revealed in that it:

1. Causes ethics and morals to progress despite inherent and adverse animalistic tendencies.

2. Produces a sublime trust in the goodness of God even in the face of bitter disappointment and crushing defeat.

3. Generates profound courage and confidence despite natural adversity and physical calamity.

4. Exhibits inexplicable poise and sustaining tranquillity notwithstanding baffling diseases and even acute physical suffering.

5. Maintains a mysterious poise and composure of personality in the face of maltreatment and the rankest injustice.

6. Maintains a divine trust in ultimate victory in spite of the cruelties of seemingly blind fate and the apparent utter indifference of natural forces to human welfare.

7. Persists in the unswerving belief in God despite all contrary demonstrations of logic and successfully withstands all other intellectual sophistries.

8. Continues to exhibit undaunted faith in the soul's survival regardless of the deceptive teachings of false science and the persuasive delusions of unsound philosophy.

9. Lives and triumphs irrespective of the crushing overload of the complex and partial civilizations of modern times.

10. Contributes to the continued survival of altruism in spite of human selfishness, social antagonisms, industrial greed, and political maladjustments.

11. Steadfastly adheres to a sublime belief in universe unity and divine guidance regardless of the perplexing presence of evil and sin.

12. Goes right on worshiping God in spite of anything and everything. Dares to declare, 'Even though he slay me, yet will I serve him.'"]

I would like to take you back, now, to our recent visit wherein I asked you to examine yourself as a man or as a woman in your purple robes bleeding.

You are going to think me a lunatic if you have not yet conceived of the connection, but I am now going to ask you to stand in the face of some of those experiences outlined in those 12 scenarios wherein your faith has been tried and tested, when you have stood bleeding, symbolically speaking, wounded, if you will, in your mortality, in order that your genuine spiritual faith might be improved, increased and strengthened in and through the experience.

It is a part of the development of your own soul that these things become a working reality for you. Indeed, as your text pointed out, it is the experiences of the above symbolism that enables you to claim your personal spiritual experience as having reality, and I am asking you to acknowledge -- openly, consciously, even socially, if you will -- your realization of this truth in your life.

Granted all of you, even myself, will have more and further opportunities to perfect our faith and develop our faith, but to the extent that we recognize that we are faith sons and that we have had a testing experience now and again, from which we have grown, can you not see how it is I am trying to bring to you a conscious awareness of your identity as a man, as a woman, a human being, in your purple robes, bleeding? Do you see? [Silence]

I will converse with you further in this context for it leads to an understanding not just of your psychological composition, but your actual composition in terms of your faith, your reality, and your genuine spiritual experience. And now we are indeed beginning to acknowledge, accept and associate with that in you which has lasting and eternal reality, that which not only is embodied in your spirit but which is also part of you as your personal experience, your personality, these experiences that you go through that add to your Self's realization.

I will relax and revert somewhat in our configuration this evening and greet you, embrace you, so to speak, and offer an opportunity for any of you to speak or ask questions.

It is not coincidentally wonderful to have you in this group, Evangel. It is, as you know, a joy for me to have you here. Now we have two young men in this group and at once and immediately there is a stronger power of those energies which are uniquely male, and I welcome them, and so, men and women of God, how are you this evening?

Group: Fine, thank you. Good, thanks. Great.

TOMAS: Indeed. You are fine. And I mean this in the Oxford sense of the word and not the recovery sense of the word. I realize that some of you are in the realm of sheer exhaustion, that your plates have been piled high with the food of experience, and it is an upcoming treat now for you to be able to lie back and savor some of your experiences and nourish yourself upon them. However, there are those among us (who are) alert and awake to yet new and invigorating discourses and concepts and sharings, and so I will not remain slowed for those of you who have "burned the candle at both ends", but will hold forth for the joint union of you all. Are there questions? Erata?

Erata: Well, when you were saying about the purple robe and the bleeding,... explain that, and then I'll . ..

TOMAS: Let me then take you into your personal experience as I might imagine it. I have not been where you just were particularly, but I can imagine it for your benefit, and let us take for example the death of your husband. A noble soul such as yourself is inclined to have, I am certain, certain ideals and standards of superiority in romantic union, and even though many of your romantic notions had been met, many of them had not -- perhaps due to the vagaries of your relationship, perhaps due to the untimely demise -- and even so, there was a part of you that yearned for a union with a mate, the kind of which one yearns for in terms of nobility and ideals and these kinds of words and attitudes.

The maintaining of such an attitude of ideal is a purple robe, for your ideal has come from you inner hope of a translation of mortal perfection. Do you see what I'm saying?

Erata: I think so. Continue.

TOMAS: As you, in your dreams, as a young woman, imagined your life would be, in the ideal, in the romantic sense, you attained to certain standards of perfection in your marriage. Your marriage was cut short by death. Therein your noble ideals were cut short and thus the human in you bled. You experienced pain, perhaps anger, perhaps disappointment. Is this registering as possibility with you, Erata?

Erata: Um-huh. Sure.

TOMAS: I want you then to take your noble self, your relationship with God, and consider the efforts involved in tending to this loved one in his illness -- the merciful ministry that you applied; the loving service; the confiding trust; the undying hope; enlightened honesty and all these fruits of the spirit that are inherent in you as a daughter of God, those qualities which contribute to your understanding of your divine nature (if you pause to think of it), and so you applied yourself in your purple robes to the ministrations of the circumstances at hand. Right?

Erata: Uh-huh.

TOMAS: And yet he died, and you grieved and your children grieved, and you bled. And so I had asked you to think in terms of you as a human being, a man, a woman, in your purple robes, bleeding, as Jesus stood before Pilot and Pilot said, "Behold the man!" I am asking you to thus identify yourself with that quality of selfhood that enables you to maintain your faith even in the face of pain and suffering, very much as it has been presented in the reading this evening. One moment please. (Arrival of Sadie)

I recall that when we brought up the subject in the first go-round, many of you, unclear on my assignment, came forth with a rendering of your approach to/ attitude toward/ and so forth, the composition of the various and/or individual genders, and I was not so much interested in your understanding of gender and/or gender behaviors as I was of you, an entity, a human being, in the human experience, with your divine component involved/ engaged.

It was perhaps even an invitation for you to share your frame of reference in this context. It is a step up and out of identifying with each other psychologically and/or emotionally. I am reminded of Caroline Myss^’ work which is fresh in many of your minds, having to do with the ability of many of you to relate in terms of your wound, and she urges you to move beyond "wound-ology" and in asking you to observe yourself as a man or a woman in purple robes bleeding, I too am asking you to go beyond wound-ology.

I am not saying to you, "extend to me the bleeding part," but "extend to me you in your purple robes bleeding." I am asking you to come forward, then, as a viable, active soul, experiencing the integrated reality of the divine self and the human self in conjunction with the personality. This is a challenge and an exercise only because I am asking you to be aware of it. And so it might give you an opportunity to look at yourself in a new light and to look at each other also in new light.

Again, I divert. I relate, as an aside, "How are you, Sadie? It is wonderful to have you with us once again."

Sadie: Good to be here. A little late. Here none-the-less.

TOMAS: Here indeed. All of you are here. And now I return my focus to our discourse. Yes, my friend.

Aren: I have a question. Will you give me a little bit of direction? Nine times out of ten I do not like to be in that position of being, as you say, in my purple robes bleeding, and I know it's a coping mechanism of sorts to get out of it, but it's an action of my God-self. I'm having problems relating to that. I can relate to it on an emotional level that it's sad, almost terrifying, but I -- it isn't going upstairs. You know what I'm saying? I can't identify it intellectually.

TOMAS: My child, let me give you guidance, if I may, in a name, for as you begin to perceive of yourself in and through your divine aspect, that which is in potential eternal, it may enable you to allow the weight to be carried on the side of He who stands, which is truly the full integrated personality.

I would like to call you Damien, and have you understand that your true reality, which is eternal, has a nobility about it, a quality of reality about it, that is able to go far beyond the vision of suffering inherent in wound-ology.

Indeed I am not asking you to remain bleeding, no. In fact, I encourage you to grasp your greater reality, your eternal aspect, and rejoice in that. Indeed that is the ideal, that is the faith son. It is only in-so-far as these experiences of life offend you, trip you up, annoy you, and cause your floundering faith to falter, that your relative status is called into question. Am I making sense to you, Damien?

Damien: Yeah.

TOMAS: As you identify more and more with who you are, you will more and more readily, happily relinquish the difficulties, but you will more and more readily appreciate the value of the difficulty for it will enable you to become stronger in who you truly are. And so you become more real. You also experience more joy. You have cause for overt celebration. You don't have to look so hard for a reason to be grateful when you have learned to dance the cosmic dance, when you have grown sufficiently in your appreciation of your own reality that you understand why you are experiencing what you are experiencing. Even if you cannot cognizantly understand the reason for it, you do soulfully understand that it is a value lesson you are learning. (Pause) Are you with me?

Damien: Yes. I'm here. I haven't left.

TOMAS: How are we doing? Liana?

Liana: I feel very quiet this evening. Nothing seems to be sinking in, that I'm hearing.

TOMAS: It is, even so, falling on fertile soil. I remember not long ago your brilliant question and your perfect response about reality and truth, and I daresay our topic this evening is more in the line of truth than in story, and I also will convey that we have told lots and lots of stories of late. It is a technique, you see, of some teachers and believers, to entertain you and beguile you into trusting, whereupon, once we have your attention, then we can slip you a goodie that causes you to have to chew, instead of sublimely enjoying the pudding. And so if this has not met with your conscious awareness, I am not alarmed. I am in fact quite pleased that I was able to convey these words through Gerdean whose brain is quite dead. [Group chuckle] I obviously don't mean that in a medical sense.

Erata: I hope not.

TOMAS: Fortunately. Are any of you in a mode other than quiet, still, and non-communicative this evening? It is very awkward for me to carry on a monologue. I know you don't believe that for a minute, [Group chuckle] but it's quite true. I only want to interrelate with you. I am not here for a solo performance. Even Merium who loves the floor only loves it as it enables you to relate with her in terms of those story-telling techniques that will bring to you sustenance and nourishment from the Divine Mother. There is purpose to our process. There is method to our madness.

Evangel: What is it? [Group laughter] I mean, what's the point coming to? I mean why are we supposed to think about the purple robe and the bleeding? What's it leading to?

TOMAS: It is leading to an acknowledgement of yourself in light of your reality above and beyond your human self by itself. It is a way of incorporating your divine self and your human self into a composite package personality, acknowledged by yourself and by others. You have a tendency to regard yourselves as humans in light of your animal heritage, and by allowing yourself to expand your perception of yourself, you ennoble your perception of yourself.

Liana: So if I were to say that I was a spirit having a human experience, would that be . ..?

TOMAS: You're getting warm. [Group chuckle]

Liana: What if I said I was an embodiment of spirit?

TOMAS: You are half way there. You are a human being indwelt by divinity, attaining reality. You cannot deny either facet of yourself, nor can you fully assimilate one side without the other. Your Thought Adjuster and your divine aspect may easily say "I am a spiritual being having a human experience," and for IT that would be true. For you, the animal, you can say, "I am an animal having a divine experience," and this would be partially true also. But what I am asking you to do is to incorporate those facets into the integrated personality.

Yes?

Sadie: So... the self and the spirit are symbiotic beings that incorporate one entity.

TOMAS: This is your eternal reality: the soul. The soul is born of and grows in that combination of divine reality which indwells you and your human will which chooses.

It is the development of the soul that gives you reality. It is your personality, Sadie's personality, in conjunction with the divine Fragment of God that resides with you and companions you, that, when working together, create another reality, that being who you will become for eternity.

Leah: So this is why you spoke to Aren and addressed him with a spiritual name? As an indication to him of these other aspects of -- I'm sure he's aware of it anyway, but . ..

TOMAS: Yes.

Leah: I think we're all still a little bit confused from the last discourse about the male and female where we got into gender differences, and as I'm looking at you I'm hearing you speak of "as a man or as a woman" as a more generic human being than as a man or as a woman. Is that what you are saying?

TOMAS: Yes. Even so, there are certain innate experiences that you have because you have your gender. It is obvious that the female has the babies [Laughter] for example, and I am not going to get into your sociology about who does the dishes, but there are certain human qualities that lead to human experiences, that give rise to tests of faith, that contribute to your soul's development and reality-izing.

I am asking you to look at that within you, spiritually, which leads you forward into and through these experiences -- not just to blunder into your life experiences wondering why this is happening, why am I being asked to do this -- but to realize that you are walking this path to learn from this experience, to contribute to the greater development and realization of that which you will be for eternity.

Leah: Okay, so what I'm perceiving . .. that you're talking about here is that we are constantly learning, and that we, when we're in the comfort zone, that we get stretched, and that we have to come to the realization of who we are in order to overcome the human aspects of the situation with which we are involved. Is that . ..? Am I getting anywhere close to what you're talking about?

TOMAS: It is not in the comfort zone that you are stretched.

Leah: No, out of the comfort zone. Stretched out of it. And when we feel like we're in the comfort zone, that's when . ... As you started this discourse, you stated that there were a few of us who were pretty well exhausted and I think there are three of us who definitely are, but I really want to hear this, and I know I'll be awake when I listen to the tape, so.... Have I said anything that made any sense here?

TOMAS: Yes, and I am particularly intrigued by the remark you made that indicated that there was a thread there that you were almost grasping, and I am very encouraged by your admission of a focus that would enable us to continue this discourse. However, I am also respectful of the human condition that allows for you to be weak in your mental functioning at this point.

Leah: I'm very appreciative of that.

TOMAS: You are a quiet group this evening, a most susceptible group, and I have discussed this with you on purpose, but remember it was several days ago that we first brought up this subject and we have now embellished it and in due course, when the seed has germinated, we will discuss it further.

The truth of the matter is we are going beyond the psychological realms and into the spiritual realm of understanding your life path, your divine nature in your human situation. You will be able to understand your spiritual experiences better when you have this framework under wraps. Are there other questions or topics this evening?

Sadie: Yeah.

TOMAS: Very well.

Sadie: In the process of being and moving forward, there's a journey of discovering what the self is, but what about the process on the journey of moving backwards to discover what the self was before we became?

TOMAS: The journey of moving backward to discover what one was before one became is the same as one moving forward to discover what one will become, for you will become one with spirit. In the beginning, all was spirit. In the interim, however, your precious person was born on this planet of mortal parentage and you began your career as an individual, a unique and priceless personality, a daughter of God. Your unfoldingment will be virtually eternal.

"Know thyself" is the "mode o day". As you go back now to discover who you were or how you have become who you are, you will not need to go back farther or probe deeper than will be revealed to you in your need to know as is shown to you by your Father/your Mother in heaven, in asking you to look at an experience that may have conditioned you to have a view of something that may have served temporarily but which is now modifiable in order that you may move forward.

It will be revealed, as needed, if you but have faith and trust the process. Has that answered? And if not, why not?

Sadie: This brings the discussion closer but it provides only more discussion.

TOMAS: This is philosophy. If I were God and you were God then we would not need to talk about it in the flesh and/or in the morontia form. We have a way to go before we attain fulfillment of our assignment.

Sadie: "Fulfillment of our assignment." Interesting phrase. I'm not sure I understand it.

TOMAS: It is entirely possible that at this very moment you may be regarded and you may consider yourself as perfect [Group laughter], but it is a relative perfection -- one which you are entitled to rest and enjoy, however, life has a way of coming up to bite you in such a way as you are forced to realize that you have yet another step to go toward attaining the next degree of relative perfection on our path to full perfection, as has been mandated:

"Be ye perfect in your realm, even as I am perfect in my realm," and so we can enjoy our life and our experience and we can even manifest the Father in and through our personality being now, but in due course we will be perfect in the face of the Father, the Mother, and that is what I refer to as our assignment, our eternal assignment, which is also our eternal career, unending adventure.

Sadie: Hmmm. Comprende. [I understand.]

TOMAS: Bueno. Bastante? [Good. Enough?]

Sadie: So the beginning is perfection and the end is perfection. What is the point in becoming?

TOMAS: Experience.

Sadie: And why is this necessary?

TOMAS: It's not necessary. If you don't want to do it, you don't have to go forward.

Sadie: Why was it necessary to move from perfection into imperfection, into experience?

TOMAS: Let me suggest to you that as you decide to, in a creator sense, rearrange furniture or remodel your living room, you tear down the light fixtures and the curtains and throw out the furniture. You bring in new colors; you hang new drapes. You invite company in to show it off and socialize in. It is similar to the creation of you. Let's bring her in and show her off. Let's allow her to be experienced.

Now this is a gross over-simplification, but it is part of the creative process. Actually the Original I AM in his infinite perfection opted for companionship, and so he began to create in order that He be acknowledged, and there is a certain truth resonant in this acknowledgement aspect, for why would you want to remodel your living room except for the acknowledgement of the experience, so that you can bring your friends in to let them know that you are able to create, and share with them your joy in this creation process.

Also, so that they can say to you, "You've done a great job! This is a lot of fun!" This is, again, a very over-simplified response, but it is along those lines. Why do it? Why shouldn't you just sit there in the gray room and watch the colors fade until its all oblivion? Well, that doesn't sound like fun! And our Father is fun. Our Mother is perfect. It's for the experience.

Liana: In the Kabalah there's . .. the essence is that all that is, is. There is no thing within no thing. All things were known, so, the thought and the desire which occurred simultaneously was to come to know yourself, speaking of all that is, thought and desire [indistinguishable] . .. so it was the thought and the desire at the same time in which creation was created.

Sadie: And the ability to manifest itself in all things.

Liana: The experience.

Sadie The experience.

TOMAS: And so you see herein the Father can experience your human existence through your being here. He can manifest his truth, beauty and goodness to others through your willingness to allow Him to be loving and creative, in and through yourself.

Sadie: The whole is the sum of its parts.

TOMAS: And more.

Liana: But we get stuck in the little stories we tell that aren't attributes of all that is. I think that's what the 12 things are that we read earlier. In our humanness. We have a tendency to get stuck in those kinds of stories, like we mentioned, in those twelve.

TOMAS: Yes. They become the reality rather than the learning experience in the greater reality.

Liana: That's like where I'm coming to now: letting go of all the ideas that I hold in my mind about what things should look like and letting spirit show me what they should look like. Like for instance what love looks like, what love really feels like, and just being open to a bigger and larger story than the one that's been told over and over and over again. The one about separation and limitation. So that's what I thought. That's what came to me when you were reading about that stuff. I just wanted to share that.

TOMAS: This is good. And this is a reflection of your growing spiritual experience, your reality-izing, for your comprehensions and your perceptions are enlarged from the small to the great as you advance in your own reality. It is the eternal career that you should ever be advancing and expanding, and breaking down the erroneous crystallized belief systems that have engaged you and acted as scaffolding for your next understanding of reality, the greater reality.

I am going to wind us up this evening. I am not meaning to cut our party short when it is just beginning to gain momentum, for I sense that there is indeed a swelling of truth, like a large wave, mounting and rising up to greet the shore, but I am going to subside for the evening in joyous appreciation of your attendance and your attention and your assimilation of the values in our experience together that will enrich your life and that will enable your reality to reflect itself outward and augment the growing reality of those who have yet to know the divine nature of the Father who dwells within.

Yes, Leah?

Leah: It feels to me that when you sign off we are all going to look at each other and wonder what this was all about. I'd like an intermission so we can discuss our understanding of what you've been telling us and maybe if we have questions either you or Merium can help us out after you've listened to our discourse, and if you'd like to make some commentary on the things that were said here after we sign off, that would be wonderful. If not, we'll just pick it up on Thursday.

TOMAS: I am not opposed to an intermission; however I want to reiterate that I am aware of a reality swell that is occurring in your comprehension, in your awareness. I would not want to abort that swell of truth, and so we will be in intermission.

[Intermission]

[Long, in-depth, stimulating conversations, including one on the merits of the emotional response of "outrage" to the crucifixion versus the more transcendental attitude of death being merely an illusion.]

MERIUM: I am Merium. Good evening,

Group: Good evening, Merium.

MERIUM: I almost felt a shudder run through Gerdean's torso here in anticipation of my, now, taking up where Tomas left off and extending our visit unto 3:00 a.m. I promise I will not do that. I am here, however, to participate in your evening and to acknowledge your exhilarating discourses in the philosophical realms of comprehension. If we were just to step it up one more notch or two we would be wafting in the breezes of divinity, but for now we shall relish the plodding in the realms of the understanding and enjoy the unfoldingment of these understandings.

I'm not going to give any lectures, I assure you. I am only glad to be here. I am not even going to stick around. If you want to ask a question, I will decide whether I even want to bother with it because I am an adjunct of the Mother and I will tell you that you are all up past your bedtime [Group laughter] so I will not indulge you little stinkers beyond a good-night bedtime story, but if you have a desperate need for a glass of water, let me hear it. That is to say, are there any questions? (None)

What darling little children you are! How readily you have scampered up into your cribs [Group giggles] and grasped your little pacifiers by the throat [More giggles].

I am your most favorite story-teller. I will tell you a story about a child who ventured into the forest and who followed the song of the bird into the deep, dark night, into the quietude of the undergrowth where he found a furry rabbit den and invited himself into their environment, where he curled up and rested himself in the comfort of the forest creatures. The deer protected him and the squirrels fanned the bugs from him while he lay and in the morning the sun came up, the butterflies came out, the wild flowers opened to smile upon him, and while he lay there in wonderment of the morning sun, he realized, like Alice in Wonderland, that he had merely gone to sleep and his nap was over.

Now that I have told you this ridiculous repast into fairytale-ville, I will wish you all a visit into the nest of the furry creatures where you may wake in the morning with the vision of butterflies and wildflowers dancing in your face, knowing that you are protected and cared for and that your life is a lovely illusion, a nap indeed, a dream state that will prepare you for your true awakening upon the shores of Mansonia.

My dear little ones, I adore you. Fond farewell. Goodnight.

Group: Thank you, Merium. Good night. Good night, John Boy.

*****

DATE: April 14, 1998

LOCATION: Pittsburgh, PA, USA

T/R’s: Gerdean and Hunnah

TEACHERS: TOMAS and MERIUM

Group: Hunnah, Damien, Erata, Gerdean and Sadie

Sharing & Stillness

TEACHER SESSION:

TOPIC:

Genuine Spiritual Faith

TOMAS: I am Tomas. Good evening, group. Good evening, Merium. It is good to be back with you all. I feel very much as if the alarm clock has gone off and I have to get up and go to work. I am, however, fortunate in that I enjoy my job. Even so, I have the distinct impression that it is a responsibility that is being asked of me this evening, and I am rising to the occasion for I know that we have much to cover and it is only as we take the plunge and allow the living water to immerse us, are we available then to those energies that will allow us to swim in the truth of our being.

I would like to warm you up this evening with a few words on the subject of boundaries, and I realize that some of you recognize this word as a term from your psycho-babble arenas, the concept of boundaries as in defense of your existence in terms of co-dependency and the like, and yet I can also perceive of the word, the idea, of boundaries as being a necessary definition of who you are -- the boundary being not so much to keep others out, but to keep yourself in. That is an understanding of identification that enables you to say I AM; I AM a son or daughter of I AM; I AM this individual with this personality, this taste, this belief system, this family, this configuration, this identity indeed.

I have been broaching the subject of boundaries, a familiar recovery term, in terms of identification of your own space and time, your own identity reality, and I bring this up as a way of whetting the whistle, for it is not only a psychological phraseology, it is a spiritual understanding, for it helps to identify your unique personality from the general at-one-ness of an all-encompassing, omnipresent God, the God that spreads himself thick and thin throughout the universes of time and space.

It is an idea of identifying your own soul that allows you to accept your Self within your own boundary. Within your own boundaries are your parameters of identification with your Self as you relate to your Self through your creator, the original I AM, your Source of being and your destiny. In and through this identity, this divinity identity, you then develop extended relationships into your arena, in and through your relationships with others.

As you carry on interrelationships with others, it behooves you to maintain a boundary that establishes your identity from the identity of your neighbor, even though you are both related immediately to each other as offspring of the same Eternal Parents, and so within a large family, a spiritual family, (and in some cases -- mortally speaking -- a dysfunctional family) once again bringing into play the word "boundaries" as being a healthy situation.

I realize and am willing to discuss the concept of separation. Indeed, the Course (in Miracles) discusses at great length the detriment of defining oneself as separate, the idea of separation from divinity being the point of departure from reality and association with all that is. And yet, in a functional situation, it is necessary that you establish boundaries around your own identity so that you do not leak into the universe.

Sadie: It sounds very much like the functioning of the body, in that, the skin creates a boundary for it, but inside it is all one entity, but within that body -- that body of the universe or that body of the human being -- there are systems within itself and if they don't work with other systems, then the whole body breaks down.

TOMAS: Indeed.

Sadie: But they still operate in and of themselves.

TOMAS: You have correctly analogized this as a working organism. Indeed, the universe is a living organism and you are a part of it, as an organ is a part of the living organism of the human body, and this is healthy and this is how it functions appropriately.

I am not intending, however, to carry on this discourse indefinitely. It is and was a way of awakening your faculties. I know now that all of you are mentally rambling and cavorting in various and sundry realms of interest, not all of which have to do with my topic of conversation, but I am convinced that you have all focused your capacities, your mental facilities, on a point of interest which is stimulative of thought and perhaps of growth, and so I will step back and allow for our next orchestration.

MERIUM: Is that my cue? Good evening, everyone.

Group: Good evening, Merium.

MERIUM: I am amused at Sadie's profound statement. She has a lovely mind and has a great deal to offer to the group.

It occurred to me while I was listening to Tomas talking about boundaries, that this is one of the consistent challenges of the human in a collective sense, is that they have these boundaries that they have designed and they have the responsibility of allowing them to resonate with others who have established their boundaries, and as in the conversation earlier, sometimes the philosophy within that boundary contradicts itself and creates a contribution of sorts as a challenge.

The human condition is most entertaining and puzzling, and it is awesome how you are able to commingle and unify and be productive. Unity is one of the subjects that I would like to talk about this evening, because if there were twelve of you here, there would be twelve different agendas on one level and on another level there would be unity.

I want you to all take a look at your own personal agenda and ask yourselves privately: What is it that I seek? In general, and as collectively, in this particular configuration, I would like to have you review why you come and what you hope to achieve/ contribute or whatever comes to you. That is your homework in my mind. I would like to see you not do housekeeping, but in a sense, root around within yourselves and have a fresh look at what your plans are -- how they fit into group plans and how they dovetail with a group such as we have here.

You have brought yourself here and the consequence of your coming will be that you will be expanding your boundaries, you will be altering the lines of your emotional and your physical and your spiritual capacity, and I hope that you will find this inventory very refreshing or alarming or a form of gratitude that you are finally getting around to if you have not, so I hope you will take stock in what it is you seek and pursue and carry it as far as you are able and offer it to those who are able to assist you to reach for that goal. Tomas?

TOMAS: Thank you, Merium. I would like to offer an opportunity for you all to ask questions or bring to the floor those matters that have occupied your focus of attention. The floor is open.

Erata, you have been seeing things again.

Erata: Yes, I have. A sphere at the top and two, side by side, connected by a lighted rod, all lit, with reflections off the two down to earth. That's one. Do you want to take one at a time to explain them to me?

TOMAS: You assume I'm going to interpret for you your visions.

Erata: Well, I'm hoping you would. You could give me some insight, perhaps, why I saw those. That's the first one. And the second one was a man with all these lumps and bumps, a grotesque-looking man, coming towards me (I'm looking as an observer), and a woman taking his face in her hands and kissing him and having him become whole.

And then, third, there's several people in a picture frame looking towards me and some of them were taking pictures of me.

TOMAS: Let me offer you a mini-lesson on reflection and/or reflectivity in response to your first vision. Reflectivity — Merium, would you like to do this?

MERIUM: I would like to assist. I would like to ask our friend Erata what her impression was with the first configuration because you probably have the answer within yourself, and sometimes having an opportunity to share it or to review it under these circumstances will help you release a fresh interpretation.

Earta: Well, I didn't know if it was something that had to do with the Trinity -- meaning the God-head and the Christ and the Holy Spirit -- and its influence on this earth, or whether it was something less spiritual. I don't know. I really don't know!

MERIUM: How did it make you feel?

Erata: Oh! It was peaceful. I felt a friendship kind of feeling. It was awesome, though, because I hadn't seen anything for awhile, since around the time my Dad died, so I was -- it kind of like just happened suddenly, and I was just taking your advice and going to a different area to meditate or contemplate and just be peaceful, so I was on my hammock, so that's peaceful . .. so I felt good after that. It was an awesome thing.

It kind of reminded me of the time, right after I took Reiki One that I saw the lighted rod with the picture of Christ on it. So I'm not really sure exactly what this meant.

TOMAS: Let me proceed with my recitation of reflectivation, and I will draw for you a picture of a mountaintop whereupon a human stands, and this human is reflecting the light of heaven outward and downward, and he reflects the light of heaven as if and through a mirror. The mirror, then, captures the light from above and is reflected to a distant mountain top, whereupon a human stands with yet another mirror, catching the light that was sent and shining it upon that which is below.

The reflection of the one sent to the other creates a shower of light, if you will, upon the land, and so the power of reflectivation here is emphasized, in-as-much as you understand innately that the original I AM is the uppermost circle of light. It is understood that you are a reflection of the original Source and Center, and yet in your connectedness with fellow believers, other lights, in reflecting your truth back and forth to each other, you affect those around you, those "below you" in terms of exposure to the light.

Your second picture is a Bruno Bettleheim fairy tale in its exposition, for have you not heard of "The Beauty and the Beast"? And what you have beheld is the beast of unlovely mankind who has approached you in your social arena, and this of course happens to you all, often, even on a daily basis, and yet as the love within you, the divine counterpart of you (shall we say your spirit companion? In your case: Wheat) reaches out and kisses this unlovely human and at once they are touched by the grace and beauty of spirit reality and they are made to appear in their true personage which is lovely to behold. And so the music of the spheres has soothed the savage beast.

Your third picturization is indeed open to interpretation, but how many times have you been advised to go look in the mirror and find a reflection of yourself in there, a reflection of that in you which is real, and not just what is depicted by your society? It is perhaps a subconscious reflection to you of how you are being perceived by those in the family of man. The portrait of humanity that you face, which in turn faces you, and how do you appear to them? For you are indeed being photographed by them.

Now, as Merium has said, Erata, you have been given impressions, indeed vivid impressions, all laden with messages, but my interpretation of these messages is not the message necessarily that you are being asked to perceive, for are they not your messages? These are your love-letters from heaven, and even though I may take your letters and read them to you, they are not necessarily going to have the same endearments, the same inflections, the same heartbeats, the same perfumed scent, as you would perceive in your understanding of them, in your interpretation of what it is that you believe your God is attempting to communicate to you.

Yet they are certainly socializing exercises in your living faith. Indeed, you have perhaps struck upon a parlor game that would educate and enliven an orderly procession of party guests, to offer them your visions from God and ask them for their interpretation. I convey this to you to indicate that it is not a cut and dried response. It is artistry, much as our discourse with you is artistry. It is an abstract art form of our attempting to make contact with your upper mind, in that, you can stretch your comprehensions to embrace a greater reality. How it - is that that can be done is part of the mystery, part of the artistry of Our Father, Our Mother.

Erata: Thank you. Merium, do you have anything to add to that?

MERIUM: I thought Tomas did a very nice job, and it is special that you allow yourself to share this in this particular gathering; it is part of your natural personality to joyously share your good news, and it does mean that you are loved and looked after indeed. There are not too many people who have received this type of communication. It is not common, but it will become more common. Hold them to your heart and let them nourish you.

Erata: Thank you.

MERIUM: There will be more. When you have gifts like this, know they are a responsibility to you. Allow yourself to understand that you do have gifts, (and I do not mean to imply that you are privileged). I mean that it is a natural development of your spiritual development to have this out-branching and this open area within you to allow a refined communication to come to you.

Hunnah has had and (it has been only a few times) she has seen what appears to be Sanskrit, embossed in gold, and it goes by like a ticker-tape. She did not have anyone to take her message to, to have it defined, but she told herself in her heart that if she could see it, then that meant that she received it on a higher level and it was understood. So in this case it also applies. She was correct and you can feel that if you found it, it is yours, and you, in your completeness understand it. Heath and Wheat also understand it, so the package has been delivered.

Damien: Merium?

MERIUM: Damien.

DAMIEN: You allude to the fact that what you see -- or what I felt that you said was, what you see is something that you believe in. And in your commentary to Erata's question, I've been raised to trust half of what you see and nothing you read, and so . .. where are you coming from in this question?

MERIUM: Know thyself. Some of those who have gathered with us have had many years of familiarizing themselves with an inner working and an inner communication, and some people here see within themselves. Some people see in their minds eye and some people see externally and are very perceptive. These are, what you might say, an outgrowth of one's development.

If you in your prayers ask to be guided, and you stipulate how you would like to receive your guidance, you may be disappointed, yet that decision has been made on a lesser level. When you ask to be guided spiritually for any inward private way, in that intelligence which understands and has received and helped designed this request, knows the manner in which it would be most appropriately delivered. Some people write. Some just get an impression, a total impact of knowledge, and are able to utter it in a simplified way with understanding. Some people can go to a movie, listen to a dialog in a story or in a book, and receive inner guidance because their attention has come almost as if there was a portion of words lifted up and set out for them to connect with, so there are many, many ways for you to receive what you in your heart of hearts want to know. Has that helped?

Damien: Yes, Yes, it does. I can relate with that. In the example, it feels foreign to me, let's put it that way, that I have an experience in mind and in my innermost self I have made this decision that I want this to happen, and it happens! And it seems so uncomfortable -- upstairs in my head -- it doesn't seem appropriate but it feels appropriate. Is that what you're trying to describe?

MERIUM: First of all this evening I suggested that you evaluate individually what you want and where you want to go for assistance. Or, I should say, companionship -- if you want it. Some people do very well alone, but if you want to participate in a group you will be affected in many ways by that group. It can jangle you or it can comfort. It can stimulate you mentally -- as Gerdean was describing the satisfaction that one feels when they meet somebody who is on their wavelength intellectually and also spiritually.

One of the wonderful things about gathering in a group is that we are fooled by appearances, and our group, when it originated in Pittsburgh -- we all looked very much as if we had come out of the same church, sitting in pews, and we were familiar, socially and intellectually -- and then some of us found out here in this group that they were geographically located closely and Hunnah was learning to transmit so that was a perfect opportunity to have her practice transmitting, and Gerdean was supportive and there was enough to develop the group here.

This group was sort of like a pilot group. It was going to overcome the barriers of sophistication, education, of geographical influence, of racial influence, of religious differences in a way which the Pittsburgh group was not; it was satisfied being more studious and more formally controlled. It serves its purpose; it is developing well, but this particular . .. what we described here as a pilot group, was joyously received on our side because we were able to help the people that attended to address issues within themselves that were blocking their spiritual development, so as you come here, if you come, you are in for some surprises.

My dear Erata over here is going to allow herself to take the class in initiation for Reiki Two this weekend coming up. The reason I am mentioning this is because, as she receives this energy configuration that she is accepting, it will disturb patterns within herself that have acted as limitations because she is allowing herself to become a conduit for the good will that this energy can bring, and it is the same here.

You will come into this group, into this configuration, with its un-established rules, its unwritten doctrine, in the sense that it is a coming together -- I would describe -- as an opportunity to release the binding that has developed in your psychological and your physical development here on earth. Your spirit is ready to pilot your ship, so to speak, and you think you have renewed your friendship with a friend here and you have given yourself a change of scenery, but it is far more than it appears, and her life and her trust are a fine example of what happens when you allow this allegiance of this higher guidance to take over your life.

And I'm hoping that my describing this history, this brief history of this group to you will benefit you and bring you up to date a bit. It has also helped Hunnah remember why she is here, so I appreciate your question, and you didn't think it was going to be such a loaded one, but . ..

Damien: Would you respond to my question?

MERIUM: I did.

Damien: You did?

MERIUM: Yes, I did. You even thanked me.

Gerdean: I would like to thank you, too, for what you said. I'm looking forward to reading it, but I appreciate your vocalizing the benefits of this group, the evolution of it, how it has contributed to the Teaching Mission, how it is it has helped its sister group the pumpkins, and also elucidating a reality of reality level of my friendship with my friend Aren, Damien, that is now on the record. I appreciate it. Thank you.

MERIUM: I would like to readdress Damien. I do not think he is quite satisfied but I heard something that is quite amusing because it happens to everyone here. When your teacher is speaking, the reply is sometimes so lengthy that you forget what you asked, so... It was well received, believe me. We can all relate to it and it's alright because when it's typed up, and in privacy when you have less distraction, especially if you are visual, you will find that the words will be far more powerful than what they appear to be here and that they are, in spite of things, resonating with you in your body and changing you at this very moment.

This is something that we have a great deal of difficulty with in this group adjusting to, and many of us have spoken in the group (and I sound like Hunnah/Merium right now, but it is hard to separate myself in this moment) that one of the statements that you all used to exclaim very often was, "How can we possibly be so casual in the midst of such awesome teachers who act as if they are one of us?" and that is the beauty of it.

We represent the Christ consciousness. The very fact that we represent the Christ consciousness means that you are being fed in a way that you cannot intellectually understand but in time you will and in a sense you already do because we do not come here with notes. I think I've said enough, Tomas.

Gerdean: Oh, Merium, I beg to differ. This is Gerdean again and I've put Tomas on hold because I'm so much enjoying your being back and Hunnah being here, and so I want to take advantage. There is something flashing in my brain I wanted to put out here. It's a thought more than a question, but I wanted to share it, and it's kind of like the accumulation of the spiritual value that is being assimilated in the Evolving Supreme, and its like this is a new (of course I don't understand the Evolving Supreme), but it's like a new spiritual collective consciousness that's actualizing in this Evolving Supreme, this evolving God.

And I was just thinking recently, it involves -- the last 50 years, at least, the last century, -- and all these incredible spiritual advances that have come down the pike and all those personalities that have contributed to it. Martin Luther King has contributed all these energies in there. Dr. Sadler; the individual who transmitted the Urantia Book; all these scientists who have brought in all these incredible new -- well, you know! The advances of the last 50 years have been huge!

We are in a spiritual flowering. We're in this great creative renaissance here, getting ready for the millennium, the turn of the century, the Urantia Book, and there's so much going on. Look at how much the Evolving Supreme has gotten of late, to help to -- I don't know. I perceive it as being an embodiment, almost, of richness. It keeps all the good of all the people who die or pass on or goes on to the Mansion Worlds. I mean, it assimilates all that has value. I mean, I'm not saying it lives right down the street, but it just seems to me that it's -- like a sponge -- sucked up a lot of good stuff from Urantia in the last 50 years. Surely we're going to feel some effects from that, reflected back to us, echoed back to us somehow.

I don't know. Maybe . ... Erata has her picturizations and that's kind of what one of mine looks like. It's not clear at all, but it's provocative, it's interesting, and I wanted to say something about it. Not that it requires a response, but if you have any I'd be fascinated.

MERIUM: I will not go into a long discourse but I am excited for you because you have started to do something right now that I would like to see more of, and it's a form of celebrating. I was going to address Erata and ask her to hear her own tone. You see, you are all singing the same song when you celebrate, only the configuration is slightly different, so it's very powerful. She has a tremendous spontaneous sincerity, and when she shares you cannot possibly doubt her sincerity. Go for it, Erata! I have seen her, though Hunnah, in action. Would you like to comment, dear?

Erata: I just say how it is! And I'm not really afraid to say it to just about anybody. I guess I, well, people think I'm nuts so it's just real easy to tell people. I've already told people about my different sightings or visions or whatever, and you know what? I haven't run across anyone who said I was nuts, you know what I mean? But it just seems like I am being sincere when I tell them and when the opportunity arises that I can share it, I do it! I know they probably cringed the first few times I started opening myself up to people, but I haven't thought that we've had any kind of negative backlash at the workplace, so I just think that part of my job is -- my mission, I'll call it. I like the word mission -- is to let people know there is more than what meets the eye, so much more.

And then when my patient, who is pushing 90, says to me some things that I thought only our generation knew about, it was kind of surprising, so, I think that perhaps it is coming around more, in this time, that it might be easier to share things.

Sadie: What is this generational . ...

Erata: I mean an 80 or 90 year old as compared to us.

Sadie: Well, what would be the difference?

Erata: My impression would be that as each generation passes they become wiser, but I found a little lady that was as wise or more knowledgeable than I would think she would be, -- as far as being "hep" maybe.

MERIUM: A new age girl?

Erata: Yeah! Because of tradition, religion, those kinds of things that are more regimented, because I know the lady's background and it was surprising how she shared things I already knew, because I knew of her background and she broke away from the traditional religious concepts when she said that everyone will go to heaven and that God is within. Now, some people on the street, if you said you were part of God they would think that you were nuts, and this lady said that yesterday and I said, "Go for it!" and so I was able to share with that. She offered it to me first!

TOMAS: Let me help you with your picture now. Are you not on a parallel? Is there not a rod connecting you and she? Is not this spirituality that you share a living reality and does it not cut through time and space and gender barriers? Is this not a living reality that is reflected from her and from you that enlightens all of your surroundings? Have you not witnessed in your association with her that very picture which was depicted to you as a reality?

Erata: Yeah! I see that now!

Sadie: As you are taking a picture of the people around you, they are also looking at you and taking a picture of you.

TOMAS: It is also beneficial to us when you proselytize and promote your impressions of a greater reality for it then allows us to be more assimilated into the awareness of your consciousness. In the beginning we were an oddity and elevated on a pedestal, and yet, as Merium has said, we are now associates and companions, allowing our gentle discourses to be filled with affection and humor of a nature that is a notch above the norm and yet comfortable for us in which to function, a family of believers in comfortable association, in praise and in understanding of the human condition.

In understanding of the human condition and the constraints upon your time, it is perhaps time for us to come to a close this evening. I will pause.

MERIUM: Tomas, I have really been enjoying this "make a joyful noise unto the Lord" as they say. "When two or three are gathered in my name, I am there". I am, of course, quoting scripture, precious gems. You may not be going to church anymore, but you collect the jewels and you have them at hand when you want to make reference to some of them.

We all express ourselves differently and I would like to ask Sadie, in her natural environment, what is her favorite way of allowing herself to be at her best? In what way do you express your joy?

Sadie: I talk. I love to communicate with others, above and beyond the two dimensional. That's what I love to do.

MERIUM: And you have found others who are in agreement?

Sadie: Sometimes you have to draw people out.

MERIUM: In other words you have the gift of allowing others to discover that they have it within themselves?

Sadie: Sometimes I hear it; sometimes I speak it.

MERIUM: And you are able to assist them discover their own divinity? For the want of a word.

Sadie: It's nice to be there when it happens. (Indistinguishable)

MERIUM: All right, my dear.

TOMAS: I will remind you all that which does not need reminding and that is, "He is risen", and so it is natural that we should celebrate. Indeed the rocks themselves shall sing.

I know you have your assignments. Are there any objections to us bowing out gracefully? [No] We will see you soon. Peace be upon you and be of good cheer. Good evening.

Group: Good evening.

*****

[End of Vol. IV, Part 7]