1993-01-26-Tolerance

Session

Opening

GROUP PRAYER: Dear Michael, this evening our main prayer is for the young people of our country, those without direction in their lives and finding themselves in a state of confusion, lacking the ability to make moral decisions. We ask that a corps of individuals with love in their hearts and minds be sent out into the cities, towns and rural counties across the 50 states of this country to work with and help these [[young people]] find love and understanding so great they may begin to build their lives on this foundation. We ask that this education program vary from group to group to truly meet their needs, emotionally and physically, to help them to prepare themselves to live productive lives, living with respect for themselves and their fellow Urantians.

We ask that these teachers be sent by whatever vehicle you have at your disposal, our new presidential administration, churches, schools, for profit and non-profit companies as well as other branches of government and organizations. Also Michael, it is our deepest hope they will become God-knowing and God-loving.

In follow-up to two past prayers, please help clean water to flow through the Somalian countryside, water for medical needs and water needed to sustain life, whether it go the way of water trucks..but please help the water reach individuals who need it so amputations do not have to be done for individuals who are suffering from infections. Also, in the land formerly known as Yugoslavia, please impress upon the minds of the soldiers, military officers and leaders that rape is not an acceptable way to fight a war and bring about ethnic cleansing. Please help the United Nations to broker a peace treaty that will last.

And above all, Michael, we ask that your Father's will be done above our will in all these prayers and all these things that we ask. It is our deepest hope that these things that we have asked for will be able to come about through love and through your will, Michael. Thank you for listening to our prayers.

WELMEK: Greetings everyone, this is Welmek. It is always a pleasure to be in association with you. It pleases us to hear your effective prayers. Each time you attempt to communicate in such a way, you do yourself as well as your brothers and sisters a great service.

Your prayer for the youth is wholly consistent with the activity that is currently going on amongst ourselves. There is a team called the New Generation Team. It is a specific corps of instructors that have been designed to implement programs that will do almost exactly what you have asked. We are wholly aware of the need for future generations follow- through with what we have started here over the past few years. It is truly deplorable to see so many of the youth of your world in such a plight, not knowing who to love, not knowing about the Father, unsure of themselves and unsure of a secure future.

These things, my friends, will take time to change. They take effort on all of our parts. However, by such effective praying, you will help to facilitate the outworking of this mission. As I have told you before and will reiterate tonight, nothing will stop the plan of Michael. But it does help that you think about these things and do what you can to see the fruition thereof.

Let us take a moment of silent worship for our Father before we begin tonight's meeting.

Lesson

Tolerance

Let us begin. There are many gathered here this evening, as has become customary. Your subject matter tonight, while not necessarily more important than other topics that we have discussed, nevertheless it is most important that you take heed to how you feel and what you think in regards to this matter. I debated whether or not I wanted to share with you our thoughts and feelings to the extent possible on this topic before we had the group participation. I decided to implement part of the characteristic of tolerance and allow you to express yourself first.

There is much I wish to discuss, so why don't we begin with your comments; and hopefully, time will allow us to engage further. Thank you Dennis for your preparation and please initiate your discussion.

D: Thank you Welmek. This week has been an eventful week with Thurgood Marshall graduating, one of the most eloquent and indomitable voices for freedom of education for all Americans. Just recently another area where tolerance is a consideration is being voiced regarding gays in the military, which is a topic we may get to yet this evening.

I would like to begin, of course, with a definition of what tolerance is. There are a number of factors involved in how we would choose to use the term. Welmek emphasized it's one of the primary aspects of character a few weeks ago, so I would encourage someone to start the ball rolling with how they understand tolerance.

M: I thought about it, and I think to me tolerance, if I had to define it with other words, would be understanding, compassion, and humility. I think many times when we're tolerant of something, it's something that we consider to be negative or un-Godlike; and whether it's a person's attitude, behavior. And so I find it much more difficult to be tolerant than I do to be patient. For a long time I thought the two were similar, but I don't think they're similar at all. I think with tolerance you have to be more understanding of whatever actions you're being patient with. I think that's understanding; and after reading the Jesus papers when I was younger for the first time, it's amazing to me how tolerant Jesus was with those he came in contact with. I think he was a perfect example of tolerance, but understanding I think is what tolerance is about.

J: Tolerance, to me, has something to do with not being judgmental of others; and that's one thing I always remember that Jesus always said, not to judge others and to be tolerant of that. That's a real high order, but I think it has a lot to do with not judging others.

S: I think that it goes along with understanding no matter who it is, that people are doing the best they can. Even if their best is nowhere close to our bottom, they're still doing the best they can.

D: I was wondering when we talk about how tolerant one should be, to make a distinction between being tolerant for the individual and what their actions are. Do we want to draw the line somewhere as far as what we accept in terms of action. Does anybody have any thoughts on that line?

M: Are you suggesting that there's a distinction to be made between the identity of a person and their behavior?

D: Yes.

M: That is, tolerant of an individual but not necessarily are tolerant of their behavior.

D: Where does justice come in. At what point should we seek justice? And how would we express tolerance for that individual and yet not necessarily sanction the behavior.

S: Separate the action from the actor. You love the person but you hate what they do.

D: It's a difficult . ..

K: You could also try to understand motivation. People have a lifetime of problems. Maybe in their lives the abuser is many times abused; and that doesn't condone the action, but it helps you to understand where they are and it brings in a little bit more of a sympathetic justice. They should be punished for what they did, but at the same time let's try to help them sort out what started the problem to begin with and let's try to end the cycle. Rather than just punishing and punishing, let's do something constructive and end that cycle.

S: Isn't tolerance more or less an automatic response to understanding? When we don't understand someone, their behavior for example, it might be more difficult for us to be tolerant of something. But if they're giving us a negative response because they don't feel good, but we don't understand that, and when we do find out that they don't feel good, then we seem to automatically be more tolerant because we understand their position, what's eating them.

M: Compassion fits in there somewhere. To even have the ability to be tolerant, you have to be compassionate to some degree.

D: What about a stranger? When we encounter a stranger that we don't really know anything about, we have established friendship where we have some knowledge and the bonds that develop through knowledge and understanding, but..

S: That would take a degree of faith I guess in saying to yourself, "Well, that person's got a legitimate reason for behaving that way." You just don't know.

K: And also to remember that there's a fragment of God in each of us; and if you treat people with that in mind, then it's much easier to tolerate whatever they're doing. You're not condoning their actions, but you do realize that God loves that person just as much as He loves you, so it clears the picture a little bit I think.

M: It's definitely a different kind of tolerance when it's someone you know versus someone that you don't. There's a difference there.

S: It's open-mindedness too.

M: There's a difference when you encounter someone that's from another country and doesn't speak English. You're more tolerant of their behavior and their (?) than you are of someone that you love.

D: So there's still some distance when we use the word tolerance in which you don't necessarily in an intimate relationship say, "I tolerate you." (laughter)

A: I think you can tolerate certain behaviors in intimate relationships, and maybe that's a real test of love too because we expect so much more from that person because we do love them. To me, tolerance is, I think of it as patience and then I think of tolerance as a step that goes beyond patience. It's like the ideal of patience comes first and tolerance is more of what Mark and Steve and Jill said all rolled into that.

L: I think what Mark said was interesting because that's how I feel about it too. I can be patient in an impersonal situation, but tolerance to me indicates that interaction with a personality; and it has love added to patience. You can have love with patience, but you don't always; and tolerance always has love. I guess compassion would come under that, understanding, kindness or whatever.

To me, too, it's kind of recognizing universe reality that every one of us is different and that having that respect for that difference in another person, it's not just "putting up" with that person, it's realizing that maybe some of the things you don't especially find very endearing about that person are still an expression of the Father. And this is reality. All through our universe career we're going to meet individuals that are very, very different from us.

This is an ongoing thing. As tolerant as we may become on this planet, we've got a lot more to do in the future.

M: I would follow that. It seemed to me in thinking about this over the week that I drew the conclusion, and I went through all the thinking about understanding, etc., and I came up with that very conclusion, that tolerance was a genuine appreciation for diversity. If you really appreciate diversity and how wonderful this universe is in all of its diverse manifestations and personality, then that recognition in an everyday sense will necessarily result in being tolerant of people. I'm thinking back about my life and when I was a hippie weirdo and had long hair (laughter) and we all fancied ourselves very tolerant. We couldn't stand people who were intolerant. (laughter)

Remember those days? People who weren't tolerant, you couldn't stand them?

A: They had short hair.

M: They had short hair. (laughter) It's funny how that happens, but that people are different than you and have different views than you and how distasteful they might be at some level, still there's a purpose for that; and if we only had the ability to appreciate that...

K: You can flip a coin too, Marty, and someone looked at you with your long hair and thought "That hippie, he'll never amount to anything." And now you're an attorney.

M: They were right. (laughter)

K: But they made judgments about you. You had long hair, you were no good.

M: I like what Jill said. I think the beginning, to even begin tolerance, you have to not judge because I think most people who are intolerant the first thing they do is judge. You immediately judge and then criticize or create a negative concept or view of what they're saying. That's very important.

K: And people have a tendency to do that upon first introduction anyway. You size somebody up immediately, from the very beginning; you have to try to stay a little bit more open or you won't get any farther to find out what that person's really like.

M: I find that it's not really different from what everybody is saying, but I'm trying to boil it down. To me, it's an attitude of loving open-mindedness. I think the open-mindedness is crucial; it tied into being judgmental. Every situation we look at we build an image based upon our own framework of experience; and we have certain expectations, certain beliefs, maybe certain stereotypes, whatever it is, and then when things don't fit that, that causes a reaction. So being able to be open-minded and realize that there's much beyond our level of experience that we don't really understand yet will tend to suspend that judgment and that's where the loving part comes in. You try to remain a little more open so you can understand them better.

There may come a time, because of certain actions, you might have to make a judgment on the actions, but you still can't judge their soul or spirit. You can't truly know those things. It's just that shattering. Our world is so small. We build these images, all of these concepts; and we think we understand so much, but we truly understand almost nothing.

B: I think that intolerance begins with people because we're so isolated from each other. We can't get inside of each other's heads or thoughts. We can't see so that we can relate on a superficial level, but we can't get inside. People have like a religious experience or something that causes them to know a great joy, and they think, oh, this is wonderful. I have this personal pipeline to God and they think it's the only one and they don't think anyone else has one. And so they begin to feel superior, and I think this is what causes intolerance, our inability to really truly know another human being.

So tolerance begins when we realize that everyone has their own personal pipeline to God and everyone's pipeline is just as valid as anyone else's and that we know that everyone has their personal relationship with God, and they have also the God-given right to work out that relationship with God. We have no right to judge what goes on with them or what happens in their life or how they've worked it out because then we're playing God. True tolerance is when you realize that everyone has that relationship with God and everyone has the right to that relationship with God and that we have no right to judge that or to play God.

G: But I don't think when things happen you would think about religion and this, that and the other. I'm a person that when I first meet you, I usually like or dislike you. If I dislike you, usually something comes across that there is reason for that. But if you happen to be in a place where I need to tolerate you, I'm very good at tolerating. There's times we have to tolerate, especially for family members. It's like in-laws and out-laws in your family. We tolerate those because you have to.

D: I'd like to bring this point. We're talking about this problem. Another champion of Mahatma Ghandi has this quote I'd like to have Gina and Amber share with us. He championed the rights of the untouchables in India and gave them political (?)

G:

"I am a man of peace. I believe in peace. But I do not want peace at any price. I do not want peace that you find in stone. I do not want the peace that you find in the grave. But I do want that peace which you find embedded in the human breast which is exposed to the whole world, but which is protected from all harm by the power of the Almighty God."

A:

"Let then our first act every morning be to make the following resolve for the day. I shall not fear anyone on earth. I shall fear only God. I shall not feel ill-will towards anyone. I shall not submit to injustice for anyone. I shall conquer untruth by truth, and in resisting untruth, I shall endure all suffering."

D: Thank you Gina and Amber. Ghandi mentioned fear; and I think a lot of the intolerance that we feel is generated on fear of the unknown factors in an encounter, the assumptions we may make start with those patterns that are ingrained in our outlook that we carry around unconsciously for the most part.

Maybe we could look at other triggers that bring on intolerance at this point. We've mentioned lack of understanding and fear.

A: I have one thought I'd like to add. When Brenda used your description, I was thinking of the opposite, a person who has a sin of pride, that lack of tolerance and that ideal of being a person who has their own private pipeline.

D: Mark mentioned humility as being the other side of the coin, right?

B: We're talking about things that go against the grain, like jealousy?

M: I think one of the things when we become intolerant is because we are not confident in our own feelings about that issue.

B: I think a lot of times insecurity is intolerance. You meet people who are almost hyper-critical and they can't do anything, but they criticize everything. That's because of an insecurity, they have a real inferiority complex.

L: I think it's from what perspective you relate to another or think of them. It's a real critical factor. I think if you relate only from your own life experience and try to apply your circumstances to another, I think that's where we get into the greatest problem. That causes all the other reactions that we just talked about. I think having a broader perspective which would allow people to have the option of having more cosmic perspective, you could have a broader perspective even without that, just having a more world perspective, a perspective that's beyond your own immediate environment. That's where it's hard for people who don't interact with others who are different to any great degree to have that experience because they aren't prompted by the environment to do so. It takes a greater will determination to have that attitude.

I think it's representative of how other countries judge our population when we visit their countries. There's a mixing of people in some areas and some areas are more separate. But as far as dealing with other languages and other cultures we don't have as much of that to deal with as many countries do. We don't get the opportunity to practice it as much I think.

S: It almost sounds like bigotry. That's what came to mind.

B: I think too, that people who don't relate well to other people or to situations around them sometimes try to control other people because it gives them a sense of power and a sense of controlling their own lives when they feel they have no control. That's very intolerant because they're totally blind to the fact that that other person has the right to be themselves, to live their own lives.

L: I think tolerance takes time too. I had a rare opportunity of learning. The high school that I went to was a real cross-section of our type city, race, religion, social economics situation. And we were a class during a pretty troublesome time. I never saw us as a very united class; but there were a lot of bonds and love formed there. And at our 20-year reunion it was really amazing with the maturity of time how many people came back and talked about how important that was to them; and it was so difficult for them to duplicate what we had in high school in the world when we went out as adults, how all of us in many ways tried to do that, which was kind of exciting.

M: Immaturity, then, plays a big factor.

B: And so does lack of love. A lack of love for oneself and for people and the world in general.

D: So another source of tolerance is beyond understanding and humility, and more of a spiritual standpoint, what would you say, Brenda, is a way of achieving a proper attitude of tolerance?

B: It starts with realizing if you do it consciously and make yourself think that this person is a child of God. He has a Father fragment within. It's like when you look at someone and you think I am you and you are me, to make yourself see this as a reality until it becomes a reality so that you can love that person, love yourself and love that person and have an appreciation for what I call the myriad faces of God.

D: What are some techniques we can use to achieve that? What comes to mind?

M: I think of the one where we're supposed to perceive each person as though they were Michael. Can you imagine being intolerant of Michael?

S: I think that perceiving those that you meet that perhaps you might find some immaturity, think of them as a little child because lack of knowledge tends to create fear and anger and intolerance. If you think of them kind of like this little child, then those things that you have trouble with then you can be more compassionate with and tolerant.

D: Would you say a family is helpful in learning tolerance in family situations? (laughter) Anyone want to share some experiences along that line?

S: In-laws and out-laws come to mind real quick. (laughter)

D: So a family is kind of a nucleus of the whole world. As we reach further into our family lineage...

A: Welmek said to me one time that even though they are in adult bodies you have to look at them as young children sometimes with their behavior. I was reading through that morontia world paper, at the very beginning it was very comforting to me. It said if God wanted to create a perfect being, He would do it and does so. That was comforting to me because that is so frustrating to try to live up to your ideals that it's kind of nice to know that you weren't created to be perfect and that there is no way you can get totally perfect in this lifetime. It helped me to lighten up a little bit. (laughter)

M: One of my favorite quotes from the book is don't be discouraged when you realize you're human. (laughter)

S: I love that one also. You weren't made perfect, perfection is your goal. I don't remember the exact quote.

L: I think recognizing that everyone has the gift of free will from the Father is an important factor too. Sometimes we want to assert our will on others.

B: Along with that also, is the fact that we have to realize that people have the right to their sorrows as well as their joys.

B: I know for me, when I had my first session with Welmek, he pinpointed tolerance for me to work on. I don't know why...(laughter)..so I set out to work on tolerance. Over the period of weeks I discovered myself catching myself, I'm talking mainly at work here, with people that I work with, and I'm sure we're all in a situation where you have bosses and you have associates. Over a period of weeks even, I discovered that people who were like me, that's being intolerant, and they were looking at me kind of strange-like. (laughter) But that was only an outer manifestation because inwardly I was still

    churning. It's just that I wasn't expressing it outwardly.

    Welmek suggested that we look at a person as if they were Jesus, and

    I had a difficult time with that. I practiced that and I practiced

    that and it did not work because every time I looked at a person that

    I was getting intolerant for obviously there was a reason why I was

    becoming intolerant. I mean there's an action here that I did not

    approve of to begin with, and I felt like shaking them..(laughter)

    That's what was going through my mind, so I looked at it a little

    differently. Instead of looking at it as if he were Jesus, look at

    it through the eyes of Jesus. In other words, put me in that and how

    would he act; and obviously Jesus wouldn't act that way. That was

    much better for me. You can't look at somebody and say that this

    is Jesus Christ, at least for me, because you know damn well he

    wouldn't act that way. (laughter) You have to turn it around. For

    me that was better because I could not get through that barrier, and

    that was a barrier.

M: I think we have similar, I think we're both working on a similar

    problem with ourself. I think you realize as I do that the first

    thing you have to do is realize that you're being intolerant and stop

    and think about how you're reacting. I mean that's how I did it.

    Like you said, then all of a sudden I'm realizing that hey, they're

    like I used to be, kind of like the pot calling the kettle black kind

    of a thing? Now when you're more tolerant and you're trying to

    explain to them why they should be tolerant then they start the pot

    calling the kettle black routine on you because "Oh you're telling me

    this."

    So it's more of a realization at first, you have to realize yourself,

    that you're doing it. You have to become conscious that you're being

    intolerant or impatient or however many of those other emotions that

    we go through with these people and then deal with it at that moment.

M: And those people feel that way about you.

M: Oh, I'm sure.

K: But you also have to realize that when you become frustrated with a

    person's actions or whatever, you're harming no one but yourself

    because those feelings are brewing up inside of you and it certainly

    doesn't hurt the person that you're being intolerant with. It's

    hurting you because you're then taking it home, you're getting the

    headache, you're getting the ulcer or whatever it may be. So it's

    really hurting you and not that other person.

M: It's funny. They say you have opportunities each day, and boy, do I

    have a bunch.

D: Is Christ totally out of the equation? He's really present with

    that individual so he's a factor in that individual's consciousness,

    which obviously some way or another he's out of contact with, but is

    there some way we can act that will bring that connection a little

    more to the foreground?

L: I noticed that in my reading on this subject, one definition that was

    a little different I thought, for me at least, was to show an

    interest in and a general concern for other people's ideas and

    opinions and their different way of a lifestyle, whatever it might be

    I think this is something that Jesus did throughout his life: he

    found opportunities to get to know people better in that aspect.

    This is something that kind of opens the door to opportunities to get

    to know people better.

D: He wanted to learn the minds of men. He went down into the war

    lines, I guess, to get to know them.

M: I'd like to follow up on something that Karla said that struck me.

    She was talking about how intolerance interferes with, well, emotion

    arises and I was struck by that. We would all agree, would we not,

    that if we were conscious of God's love, perfectly conscious of God's

    love then we'd be tolerant.

S: Naturally.

M: What interferes with our consciousness of God's love? Remember that

    we learned that emotions, reactions to external events, interferes

    with that, all the things we've talked about. So by being intolerant

    that interferes with our consciousness of God's love.

L: It's like closing a door and trying to go through yourself.

M: It makes it very difficult to be tolerant, by allowing those emotions

    like those emotions you expressed a while ago, Bob, by reacting and

    making a choice to permit those emotions to come up, that interferes

    with our consciousness of God's love. It makes it real hard to be

    tolerant.

L: Something Karla said about what you do to yourself when you're not,

    Jesus said the same thing to the apostles essentially. He was

    talking about tact and tolerance and he said if you possess these

    rare and charming gifts, you will avoid many of the problems relating

    to social adjustment, etc., and he went through a list of things. So

    Karla was right. If you can develop tolerance, you'll save yourself

    a lot of problems.

K: Just think. Michael had the opportunity to be intolerant every day

    of his life. He was a human being.

A: People say you are what you eat, but you are also what you think.

M: If we remember that we can work through feeling the Father's love in

    dealing with other individuals, trying to be tolerant, it would

    follow then that we can remember that the Father is the one who has

    the last word on an individual and behavior. And if we can take the

    time to think long enough and remember where the Father fits in in

    all of this equation, then our tolerance would manifest itself

    because we're able to see that in the long run, God's going to

    straighten this person out anyway.

    We're all children, truly we're all children, even compared to Welmek

    or Machiventa or anyone. If we can look at that person that way and

    remember that our siblings have just as long a way to go as we do,

    then it's easier to be tolerant. But we have to do that through

    feeling the Father's love and I think through faith that He is the

    one who is going to handle the situation if we can't because of

    circumstances or whatever.

L: It's kind of like we could help create an environment or a soil to

    help people grow and be more God-conscious and practice all the

    things that we're learning by allowing people some of those freedoms

    and support that doesn't exist in our world already, that cause all

    of us to develop some confusion and doubt and fears that we have

    developed.

K: Also, I think another thing that hasn't been pointed out is those

    that we have problems with and we have difficulty tolerating who are

    so unlike us, we simply do not have to be around them. The times

    that we are we should practice the Father's love, feeling the

    Father's love and not judging and so on and so forth; but at the same

    time, there are people on this planet that we're not going to get

    along with, that our ideas are going to be so different, and we can

    choose not to be a part of that person's life. That's something too,

    that you don't have to keep setting yourself up for situations that

    would cause intolerance.

D: What would be a way we could direct love toward that individual to

    maybe increase their tolerance?

K: I think the simple act of listening sometimes helps. You may

    disagree with everything that that person says, but simply listening

    lets them hear themselves and kind of analyze their own problem. I

    think that's something that we all can do whether we agree with them

    or not.

L: It lets them truly understand who they are and where they come from,

    what their experience has been.

A: I think also too, that when they react with anger to us if we can

    stop ourselves from getting into that cycle and reacting angrily with

    them and if we can go one step beyond and send love back to them..I

    know I've been in situations with people and it's been kind of

    amazing because it's turned the whole thing around when I do that,

    into a positive situation.

M: Are you suggesting there's an aspect of self-control?

B: Prayer is another way. Pray for that person. Pray for yourself to

    understand.

S: I've felt that when I've had an occasional situation where it was

    difficult for me to be tolerant at first, that when I prayed for that

    person, my tolerance grew.

M: Just the fact that you prayed for them shows that you care, that you

    love them. Obviously, to even make that effort is genuinely

    benefitting you; rather than just turning them off, you're trying to

    help.

P: I've seen one thing that struck me as far as how to deal with...I saw

    Sesame Street this afternoon, watching it with Patrick. They had a

    skit where they said that we all need to realize that there's a

    monster in everybody's mind. He's in the mirror every morning when

    we get up; and if we can learn how to deal with that monster, can't

    we learn how to deal with everybody else's monster.

A: It seems to me faith is a real active force in tolerance because when

    we can find our faith in God, then we can truly be tolerant. Without

    that, tolerance is almost impossible it seems to me.

D: What about the situation where you run into two warring factions,

    turf wars or something, and you get into mediating a situation many

    times. What comes to mind as far as reducing the tension? I've

    been in the middle of this this past week myself, so I'll just say

    for my own part that both sides really did not know the full story of

    where the other person was coming from and didn't really bother to

    even break ground as far as that other person. Just going and

    listening to each individual they're more than willing to share their

    point of view; but when they start barking at each other there's not

    much of that information that gets shared.

M: Having had a lot of direct experience in so many conflicts (laughter)

    a technique that I find that works is to first of all to validate

    people's feelings. I understand what you're feeling. I understand

    what you're saying. You don't have to say I agree with you. When

    you say I understand what you're saying they always think you're

    agreeing with them; and all you're saying is I hear what you're

    saying.

    Then pick out the little pieces that will fit with what the other

    side said. And you can build 3 or 4 things that they agree with,

    then you start isolating the areas of major disagreement. It seems

    you can get some movement on each one of the little areas of

    disagreement till you start building some consensus. If you can

    build enough consensus then at some point in time you're hopeful that

    there will be some kind of a leap by one side or the other to bridge

    the gap. But it starts by finding agreement, little bit by little

    bit.

    I'm amazed at people who are good mediators. My profession now has

    moved in a major way towards that as a means for resolving conflicts

    rather than going to court because of all the money associated with

    it. People who are good mediators are amazing. As soon as they see

    a hot issue, they're right off it. They're moving around, where can

    we agree until they just develop consensus.

K: On another side too, not dealing with it professionally, just with

    friends, is to try to help each side understand the motivation. That

    person is hurt, trying to help them with motivation, telling them

    just enough. You don't have to betray a trust that person has had in

    you, but you can tell the other side maybe just enough so that they

    understand the motivation and look at it in a little bit different

    light.

M: That's the key we keep going back to, trying to look at it from the

    standpoint of why they did what they did. I've found that when you

    hear a bunch of people saying something about someone and you just

    interject the idea of well, maybe they did it for this reason, and

    then people think, well, maybe that's...it kind of defuses them. It

    makes them take a second look at things, again, a sort of

    illustration of the snarling cave man. When you see the saber-

    toothed tiger and the wife and child on the other side, when you open

    up that view to really understand why, then that gives it a whole new

    perspective. Most of the time we just make our judgments and we

    never really make an effort to, either ourselves say "What would I

    do in that situation?" or maybe we don't even know enough about the

    other person to appreciate how they might think. And seldom do we

    really go ask them this, "you know I don't really understand why you

    did what you did."

    That can be kind of tough to do with a lot of people, but on the

    other hand I would say probably most people, if we could understand

    them within their frame of mind and their frame of reference, they

    probably did do what they thought was the right thing. There are

    those that might not, but I would say most people would.

    It's just that all of our frameworks are so limited. We're just not

    very experienced yet. We don't always know the right way and we

    react in all these different ways.

K: But can't you even take that in your own life and look back and see

    different things that you've done in your own life. Hindsight is

    always 20/20, but you can say it was because of this, this and this

    that I did that stupid thing. If you can do it in your own life, of

    course you can't see the all the truths and all the actual things

    that person went through, but simply to have that frame of mind to

    begin with.

D: So forgiveness ties right in.

L: I think having the willingness to step aside from your own

    perceptions and look at it in large perceptions is really important

    because so many times problems are perpetuated because people work

    very hard to validate their perception of a problem, even when there

    are reasons to move away from that. That's where that pride comes

    in, or whatever other aspects of self that...

D: The pace of change is so great in our society that to try to validate

    a fixed position is troublesome.

M: Do you all agree that everyone does about as well as they can, given

    their situations and circumstances?

B: I believe that's true. I believe everyone does the best they know

    how.

L: We all have the ability to grow and to love.

A: I think most negative things are motivated by fear.

M: The problem is, when you see somebody who's really negative, or has

    an awful lot of problems, it's really pretty hard to figure that out;

    but I suppose as she was saying, if you realize that's all they've

    learned, if they don't really know any better behavior patterns, in a

    certain sense, they're making the most with what will they have.

    They don't know how to deal with the problem probably any better than

    to deal with it by fear or in other ways. That's kind of a shame;

    it's kind of sad to think that that's the kind of people that are

    growing up on this planet. In effect, I guess that's kind of where

    we're at.

L: If we can understand what causes the fears in people and try to

    alleviate those, we can build some bridges that way.

M: I don't disagree that everyone is not doing their best. But there's

    also a lot of decisions being made that they know in their own minds

    are wrong. People are out there acting against what they know is

    wrong. I can't totally agree with that statement because I find that

    anytime you have the choice of free will and even when a person knows

    what is morally right, many people are out there acting against those

    realizations.

B: I don't think we are capable of making that decision.

S: They're doing the best they can with the situation they have.

M: When they make some kind of a conscious decision to do something that

    they know is wrong, you can't say they're doing the best they can.

B: You see, you're making a judgment call there.

S: What if they're doing the best they can in their circumstances.

M: You don't think there are any situations where people know what they

    are doing is wrong and are doing it anyway?

B: They do it for the best reasons.

M: They don't have the level of comprehension that allows them to make a

    better choice.

B: Are there situations that become involved to the point where their

    judgment is clouded and they can't see?

M: It's just hard for me to believe that everyone is doing the best they

    can.

D: There's something that probably motivates them to do what they're

    doing. It's not necessarily that they're going off in a mindless

    way; but their faith is not burning strongly enough in their mind to

    be part of the equation.

B: But there are also those who are incapable of making that kind of

    decision and they come up maybe in a good family and good schools and

    have a religious background and everything but still are mentally and

    emotionally incapable of making that kind of decision. And if you

    judge them, then that's what you're doing, you're judging. You don't

    have the right to do that.

M: The thing that makes me look back at tolerance is the fact that our

    Adjusters stay with us through thick and thin. Now there's

    tolerance for you. (laughter) Knowing what they know, and knowing

    where they come from, they stay with individuals who perpetuate the

    most heinous crimes to humanity and each other; and if they can do

    that, that gives you food for thought as far as what tolerance really

    means and where we're going. We want the world to change and we want

    individuals to come closer to God. If they're that patient and

    tolerant, then who are we to judge?

M: You could follow up on that. What did Jesus say as he died on the

    cross? Forgive them, Father, for they know not what they do. I

    know what you're saying, Mark, in a certain sense; yet on the other

    hand you have to look at it with a certain compassion because if you

    really understood the Father's love, you wouldn't murder or rape or

    do those kinds of things. If you really understood that and then did

    it, I can hardly imagine that really. You'd almost have to be out of

    your mind.

    So it doesn't mean we don't have to judge their actions, put them in

    jail and all that kind of stuff. We can't tolerate those behaviors

    as a society; but as far as what goes on inside them, sometimes I

    look at them and think how would you like to be someone who had that

    kind of limited understanding and felt no love. It must feel awful

    inside to be able to do such things.

S: They wouldn't know any better. They wouldn't know there was

    something better.

B: There are people who are morally insane. On the surface, they're

    very normal people; and you may think that usually they have good

    judgment like that. But that's a learned reaction, it's

    intellectual. They are morally insane. They have absolutely no

    comprehension of right or wrong, what's good or bad; and they do

    things that make you think that person is like this or that. But

    you're the one that's being intolerant in judging.

S: Jesus was saying that individuals should never make a judgment

    against a man, only society, because we tend to be biased in our

    opinions due to the experience that we've uniquely had in our own

    lives. But as far as judging whether a person has done all he could

    or not, I think only the Father knows.

T: I think that tolerance is (words lost) your character. It's kind of

    like panning for gold. If you let all the sand and water and dirt

    run off, you've got gold. I think that the rewards of that are well

    worth instilling tolerance in yourself.

D: Having an expectation for the good and then bringing it forward.

G: Everybody has good in them, everybody, no matter who you are. My

    husband's people were on the outs over an inheritance thing; and they

    didn't speak with or have anything to do with one of them for almost

    l2 years. That hurts me. I don't like people mad at one another.

    So it took me a long, long time, l2 years, of finally getting these

    fences mended. But I'm glad I did. Without the prayer and God's

    help, it would never have happened. And now and then they still want

    to bicker. Forget it, that person is responsible and has to pay for

    that themselves. And you don't want to bring up all this old stuff

    because it causes more hate and contempt.

D: Like what Marty was saying, avoid those hot issues. Work on the

    edges.

M: So you think of someone on their universe career. You know there

    are those personalities who end up being extinguished because they

    choose not to go the way of the Father. Are you saying that all of

    those people or personalities, when they approach that point in time,

    it's simply because they don't understand?

M: I don't think you have enough awareness.

M: My point is, there is that side of that issue. So maybe I was

    thinking of it in a broader perspective and not necessarily here

    isolated.

M: I think you've got an interesting point that I'd like to explore a

    little bit. It brought up the idea of the distinctions between

    evil, sin and iniquity. Anybody know those distinctions?

M: Evil, according to the book, is basically a mistake that you make.

L: A lack of knowledge and understanding.

M: Sin is deliberate wrong-doing, even though you may or may not know

    the consequences.

M: That would be like what you're talking about, Mark, deliberate

    wrong-doing?

M: Are we saying that that doesn't happen on this planet?

L: It's a frame of reference. They may know that they're doing

    something that isn't right, but they probably don't have the full

    comprehension that Mike's talking about in terms of who they are and

    who the people are they're relating to. They're dealing with it from

    a materialistic world; and a lot of what they have been taught in

    that perspective and how to get ahead and deal with it properly, you

    know, and fight for their space instead of treating each other as if

    they understood their role as a brother or sister. That's the

    knowledge they lack to truly make a wilful decision to sin. So is it

    a sin? We can't judge that I don't think. Is that a sin that you're

    talking about or is it an evil, a wrong act.

K: Everybody knows that it's a sin to take a life, that it's not right

    to take a life; so everyone that kills someone knows that they are

    sinning because it's not right to take a life.

M: What about war? What about in fits of emotion or anger?

K: It's still wrong. We could go on about war forever, but even in a

    fit of rage or emotion, it's still wrong. The fit of rage or emotion

    is the reason behind it. Somebody's been abused for long periods of

    time. So we do understand certain times when people have killed

    other people; but it's still wrong to take another one's life.

M: Some people don't really understand that that's wrong. That's the

    whole point of war and everything else. There are people who..that's

    their lifestyle. So I still think that falls in the category of sin

    over iniquity. I don't know where all of this fits in with

    tolerance; except that cosmically speaking, none of us really

    comprehend experientially what it is like to avoid, and keep from

    making those kinds of mistakes.

M: I think the point that has to do with tolerance is that there are

    certain magnitudes of evil and sin or iniquity that it becomes, at

    least for me, impossible to tolerate.

M: I understand where you are. Is there a distinction between the act

    and person?

M: Obviously.

M: Can you tolerate the person but be intolerant of the sin?

M: That's a good point that he's bringing up though. Because we're

    faced with that every day. And it doesn't even have to be murder or

    incest or anything like that. It's hard for us to really stop and

    back up far enough to see a person as a person and separate that

    person from what they do, to avoid making a judgment on them.

M: Isn't that the difficulty, being able to separate the person from

    the act?

L: I think the difficulty sometimes is how to safeguard yourself and

    others from the behavior that is inappropriate and still be loving.

    How to act out your love for that person at the same time is

    difficult in our world. It's hard to know how to draw those lines.

D: There's a quote on page l579 of the Urantia Book that I'd like to

    share with you on this topic. I'm paraphrasing somewhat. Jesus

    taught not to resist evil, not to combat injustice or injury, but he

    did not teach passive tolerance of wrong-doing. He approved of

    social punishment with evildoers, that civil government must

    sometimes apply force to maintain and order in the execution of

    justice. From the tradition we've received, it doesn't give much

    emphasis to that side of the issue. I think taking the law into our

    own hands is where we're taught to restrain ourselves.

S: I think what it means too, is that we as individuals should try not

    to judge someone; but as a society, that function is necessary.

M: The other thing too, is that the judgments are always given to a

    group and never to an individual because one individual's experience

    is always way too limited to be able to appreciate why that person

    might have done what they did. But a group could put many

    perspectives together for a fair decision.

A: I'd like to ask Welmek's opinion of our assumption when humans on

    this planet knowingly do wrong that (?)

W: There are times when humans commit sin. There are those whose level

    of understanding of the spiritual status is such that in the

    decision-making process they elect to choose self-assertion rather

    than self-less decisions. Sin is not something which is as you might

    consider it in some religions, and immortal act that can never be

    overcome. But, if pursued to the point of consistency, it then

    translates into iniquitous action and the termination of that is

    self-evident.

    Therefore, I would, to some extent, caution you in your thinking that

    there is no one capable of committing sin. Most of the time, you are

    correct in your assessment. It is simply a lack of understanding and

    inability to feel the Father's love that creates the evil or error in

    decisions. But there are those who consciously and whole-heartedly

    do go against the inner leadings. These people are not made as

          though they were not on your world, for their level of understanding

    is not mature. They are given more options.

    If we may, I wish to have an associate give you a few thoughts on

    subject.

FELICIA: Greetings brothers and sisters. My name is Felicia. I have

been permitted to visit to awhile and to speak to your group. To me,

tolerance is applied faith, motivated by love, dominated by mercy,

conditioned by patience and perceived and graciousness.

GROUP: That's good...(laughter).

F: As expressed in cosmic reality, genuine tolerance translates from the

    human experience into the supreme as divine love. Each time you

    express genuine tolerance, you add to the collectiveness of the

    Supreme and the outworking of the love. This is most important for

    you to realize, for every time you do that which is consistent with

    the will of God, you contribute something of value to the God of

    experience. You are an active part.

    Why don't you engage in questions for me?

B: Speaking on the subject of tolerance only?

F: Not necessarily.

M: As you look down and you view humans, what is it that you see that

    makes us most intolerant of each other?

F: One's assertion of their own ego without recognition of the

    individuality of the other, without conscious acceptance of the

    citizenship of the other individual, without respect for that

    individual's right to exist, or I should say, co-exist with you.

M: And what would you say is the most important thing we could do to

    overcome that?

F: Learn to love yourself more fully. Learn to feel the Father's love

    flow through you more fully. Learn to become aware of the reality of

    that which you participate in even here tonight.

L: How can we better learn to deal with that issue we mentioned in

    dealing with an act that is harmful to ourselves or others around us

    and yet be able to associate and be loving with those individuals?

    I think that's something that I can think of some specifics in my

    life that I've struggled with for a long time. I think to avoid that

    person altogether is not always the right answer because we would be

    avoiding everybody if you really took it to the extreme; and we don't

    have the opportunity then to learn. I understand that time is a big

    factor on occasions that I haven't had before, but beyond that can

    you add any comments?

F: I believe you have some information provided for you in your text on

    this matter. When you are confronted with this situation that you

    find yourself feeling intolerable, ask yourself a few questions.

    First of all, what is my motivation? Why do I feel this way?

    Secondly, if you have determined that you are justified in your

    feelings, then ask another person to share with you feedback as to

    your feelings. If the other individual validates your feelings, then

    I would suggest that you confront that individual if you feel it

    necessary because of circumstances that must require your presence

    with this person. Confront them in such a way as to want

    clarification as to their motives. If you understand their motives,

    you learn much about that person and your intolerance may dissipate

    quickly.

    If, after this attempt, you still feel that your intolerance is

    justified, then I suggest that, if the other person is willing, a

    third or fourth person be brought in to help, if you will, arbitrate

    or give objective opinions as to the differences of yourself and this

    individual. In conjunction with all of this, of course, prayer is

    most effective. Communicate through your spirit fragment to their

    spirit fragment so that there may be an opening of mind, a better

    understanding.

    Always, my friends, express love. Never be afraid to show forth that

    love which now resides within you. Even though it may be

    misinterpreted now, that is not for you to concern yourself with.

    Even though they may shun you now, remember, you have an eternity of

    experience to look forward to and in time, they will come to you.

    They will literally seek you out, for it will be something that they

    must resolve within themselves. They must come to an understanding

    that if they were wrong and somehow caused harm to you, they will

    want to make that right.

L: I think where I have difficulty is, having taken some of those steps,

    being patient and still finding myself associating with some of these

    people, I guess I haven't grown enough in myself to not feel hurt or

    I don't even know the words to put on the feelings or emotions I

    have, but I think that I don't have enough strength in myself

    sometimes to withstand that situation; and I allow that to become a

    negative in my life. It's destructive. I guess that's just a matter

    of dealing with more patience.

F: That is of course part of it. However, you have assessed yourself

    correctly if you feel that you have allowed this situation to

    generate within yourself and it has become a negative, a block of the

    Father's love is what I would perceive it as. This only creates

    disharmony, discordance within yourself. This condition leads to a

    multiple of conditions that manifest itself in attitude, in spiritual

    insight, in emotional, mental and physical well-being. These things

    you should try to eliminate as quickly as possible from yourself.

    There will be those situations in your life that you will not be able

    to take yourself out of and do seem to be conducive to a lack of

    spiritual development. I would suggest to you that you look at those

    individuals as your Master did while he walked your planet; and

    knowing that these individuals are truly mentally and spiritually a

    child, receive them as such, show forth your patience and your

    tolerance of their lack of understanding. This will not necessarily

    cause them to change their behavior toward you; but it will do much

    to heal the inner turmoil within yourself.

    For when you boil it down, what is most important to you during the

    life in the flesh? It is, I would hope, first and foremost, an

    understanding of the love and the will of God. Anything that blocks

    that for you should be eradicated.

S: Does the level of our desire to feel the Father's love and to grow

    spiritually directly affect that?

F: Please be more specific.

S: When the more a person desires to be spiritual, to feel the Father's

    love, to do the will of the Father, that desire, does that have a

    direct effect upon their spiritual growth?

F: As long as the desire leads to action, yes. Desire alone is not

    enough.

L: In those situations I'm beginning to feel the presence of the Father

    more and letting that wash some of those things away. I feel in a

    way I'm able to do that in a crisis moment, I guess. I have more

    difficulty in what I would term endurance or the long haul, the

    repeated constant behavior. I can feel that and keep myself where I

    need to with that up to a point; and then I find it hard to

    discipline myself. I'm sure that partly as I grow to feel the

    Father's love more and be more God-conscious, it will become easier I

    assume.

F: You do not need to assume that. It is literally true. You recognize

    your shortcomings. I believe one earlier quoted "Don't be

    discouraged when you realize you are human." This is what is partly

    meant by that statement. There are those times when you recognize

    the limits of your achievements at the given point in time. You see

    more beyond yet you have not actualized that in daily living. That

    does create a tension, does it not?

    Yet, here is where this evening's topic becomes most important,

    especially that aspect which conditions tolerance, being patience.

    Through patience, as your teacher has explained to you, you realize

    what you can and cannot control, what you understand about the

    situation and the time it will take in order for these things to come

    to be. There is nothing which will short-circuit the events of time.

    Things must, so to speak, play themselves out.

    Your daily decisions will do much to facilitate the outworking; but

    when you are involved with another individual, there is not much you

    can do to accelerate the events. This is partly the reason why when

    you ask for assistance in anything in your life that may change your

    life standing, those who are in the position of responsibility of

    responding to that are limited as to how quickly they can help that

    petition or request come to be. Do you understand what I am saying?

L: Yes.

M: So we should practice not only tolerance for others but for

    ourselves.

F: I believe it starts with yourself first and then will by nature, as

    the seed starts with itself, blossom into the flower or be shared

    with others. You must learn to love yourself fully before you can

    love another completely. This is a universe reality for all of us to

    learn as we grow. You are mightily challenged on such a planet as

    this, but this challenge is also a mighty stimulus for growth.

D: Felicia, could you distinguish between loving yourself and egoism?

F: Self-love is the recognition of the God within. Egoism is the

    recognition of the self without God. That is somewhat black and

    white...(laughter) but I was counseled to try and be somewhat

    specific but yet not too conclusive. (laughter) How is that?

M: Were you also counseled to be humorous?

F: It is something that we are all witnessing and those who wish have

    volunteered to engage in actual training. (laughter)

L: Who are the teachers in this training?

F: For the most part, the humans. (laughter)

S: How many groups are on line now?

F: How many groups are on line is the question. Please define "on

    line."

S: As I understand it, the groups that are in the process of getting

    their own spiritual teachers throughout the world.

F: Groups that are in the process of getting teachers is somewhat vague

    for there are levels of this process.

M: How about actual communication with the teachers? Is that specific

    enough?

F: There are at present 48 groups who are actively receiving

    communication at varying degrees. As far as the process, this has

    become literally a planetary process. Many people are responding to

    the spiritual gravity that has been increased upon your planet. You

    will see somewhat of a geometric proportion in spiritual receptivity

    among the humans as time progresses. This is the only thing in my

    perception that will keep your planet from disintegratng.

B: Literally?

F: It is the only thing that will keep the humans from destroying each

    other.

B: Are there those who are reacting negatively to the spiritual impulse?

F: There are those whose self-assertion is certainly contradictory to

    the spiritual pressure being applied and are reluctant to give up the

    power that they now maintain, yes. And you see part of our

    difficulty is we cannot send in that soldier with one bullet. I am

    stimulated by this discussion. Please continue. (laughter)

L: Since we're talking about groups that are on line, is there a teacher

    that's been assigned in Columbus, Ohio yet?

F: I am unaware of this. If you wish confirmation, I will have Welmek

    address this issue at another time.

M: We're intrigued by what you said about we cannot send in a soldier

    with one bullet. Is that a suggestion that that is an appropriate

    action for a human to take when faced with a person who is unwilling,

    as you say, to give up power, who is exercising power in an

    iniquitous way?

F: It is not our prerogative to make such decisions. All that I mean

    by that reference is we cannot eliminate these difficulties in such

    ways. We must work through the human will.

B: But the suggestion of a particular human to do such an act like you

    just stated, can that be made by one of you?

F: No.

D: Felicia, in what way is spiritual pressure being increased, by the

    numbers of helpers on your side, or is it by an increase in the

    spiritual energy that you're manipulating? What exactly do you mean

    by that?

F: This would be most difficult for you to understand. You do not have

    concepts which would grasp the idea of spiritual gravity as it

    emanates from the Isle of Paradise itself. However, there are

    channels that this energy flows throughout the universe; and there

    are, with Creator Son prerogatives, those opportunities in which this

    gravity may be enhanced in conjunction with this. Your Spirit of

    Truth is also enhanced.

    The presence of so many varied personalities who are so close to

    humans also increases the human receptivity or sensitivity to

    something which is beyond themselves. This recognition causes one

    sometimes in silent reflection, to think about those things other

    than just themselves. Obviously, when you are in silent

    reflectivity and you allow thoughts to come non-self-centered, open

    the floodgate for Adjuster communication.

    Does not anyone have a comment about my definition of tolerance?

M: I was going to ask what your opinion is on the difference between

    tolerance and patience.

F: Patience is a component of tolerance. In order to be tolerant, you

    must recognize the true cosmic citizenship of individuals. To be

    patient you must recognize certain factors, but you do not

    necessarily have to tolerate a human or any being, for that matter.

    Tolerance, if you were to put it on a scale, would be above or

    greater than patience. But there is no tolerance without patience.

    But there can be patience without tolerance.

L: How would you define the difference between tolerance and

    forbearance?

F: If I may use this same scale, forbearance is a time extension of

    tolerance. For Linda's example of seeing her limitations with the

    individual she associates with, in order for her to grasp deeper

    spiritual significance within her reality now, it is time to practice

    forbearance. Forbearance is the recognition of the time that it must

    take for another person to become more God-conscious and for you to

    maintain your own self-identity as a child of God. You can be

    tolerant with an individual today; but forbearance extends for

    eternity. Does that help you?

L: Yes, thank you.

F: I have noticed something about humans that I wish to get feedback on.

    When I ask this question, does that help you? I have seemed to notice

    at times, not with this group of course because we have not had the

    pleasure of interaction, but I have noticed where the individual

    says "Yes, that does help." but that does not seem to be the case, or

    at least their behavior certainly doesn't indicate such. Can you

    help me understand why you would respond in a positive, when in

    apparent reality, it is not positive?

B: We don't want to show our ignorance. (laughter)

M: The other reason is that we have to sit down and digest what you've

    said; and then if we could come back and talk with you again, I bet

    we'd have l0 other questions on that same subject.

F: I see. So when you say that it helps what you are saying is "Let me

    think about it."

GROUP: Yes, that's right....exactly.

F: So it does not necessarily help.

K: It might have helped for the moment, but it doesn't mean you totally

    understand the concept. But it suffices for the moment.

L: It opens the door.

F: But in your language, why do you not express yourself more

    accurately? (laughter)

M: It may have to do with the way in which the question is posed. If

    you're posing a question that requires either a yes or no answer,

    then you don't give somebody very much of an opportunity to respond.

F: But one has the choice or option to respond in any manner that they

    so desire, irregardless of the nature of my formulation of the

    question.

M: That's correct; but if the person responds no to the question "Does

    that help?" and they say "no", that may not be an accurate response

    either because it may not be a yes or no. It may be that the

    information was partly helpful, but it wasn't completely helpful.

    And it was already said that the person may have to think more about

    it before it's more helpful.

F: This I understand. I suppose my point is that if it requires more

    thought, why not respond with "Let me think about it before I answer

    your question?"

L: Do you think sometimes we've been taught and trained to respond as

    we do partly out of acknowledgment for the person who is teaching

    us, especially if it is somebody we feel is superior or having more

    knowledge than ourselves? Sometimes it's viewed as respectful not to

    respond in that way unless there were something very specific to come

    back with and say "I don't understand this one aspect."

F: This seems to be more to the point; and I appreciate your comments my

    sister. But I will tell you that as you graduate into the schools of

    mansion worlds, you will learn very quickly that it is best to

    respond as accurately as you possibly can so that those who are

    trying to give you instruction do not have to read between the lines.

    They will know exactly how your are feeling and what you are

    thinking.

    We are all dominated by love. We understand more fully than you how

    our universe works and the love that is shared within it. Do not

    feel that you hurt our feelings or even out of courtesy, show respect

    by responding in a way that is not truly reflective of how you think

    or feel.

L: I think I've come to understand that relationship to the teachers

    now, but I think how we are taught to deal with others within our own

    society, we're carrying those teachings over into how we begin to

    relate to you before we really understood some things. I think

    that's still what you see in us.

F: I perceive this is true, and I also perceive this as a reason why

    there is conflict on your world; for there is a lack of sincere,

    direct, honest communication. Please don't misunderstand my

    motivation here. I truly wish to know Urantians as fully as I can so

    that I am most effective in my role as teacher for my group. I ask

    these questions out of sincere love and appreciation of your

    feedback.

L: I think that is where what is now available in training, listening

    skills are so valuable, is exactly what you're saying, to be able to

    reflect back to ask questions to clarify. I don't think the average

    person is using those yet. Even those of us who have tried to train

    in that don't (?) but at least it's a beginning.

    I have a question about communication. Are we capable, by just

    improving our verbal communication, to arrive at that level of

    communication that will allow us to find more common ground...But it

    seems to me from what I was reading, that there is actually a process

    of almost reading another mind that allows more perfect

    communication. Short of that, what's the best that you think we could

    strive to achieve just by improving verbally what we do in

    communication in that regard?

F: Are you asking me how you can improve your level of communication

    while in the flesh?

L: Maybe to what extent we can expect to be successful is my question.

F: The extent you can be successful is directly related to the energy

    you put forth. There is no real limitation in my opinion as to the

    extent in which you can improve your communication. However, you

    must remember that communication is more than an exchange of thought

    It is also coupled with exchange of feeling.

L: It also takes an attempt from two sides for there to be good

    communication.

F: For there to be complete communication, yes. For there to be

    accurate communication, some of my colleagues would question my

    answer, but I believe that accuracy in communication on your part if

    properly motivated inasmuch as the spirit fragment in the other

    individual has heard what has been expressed and therefore will be

    able in time to relate this information to the individual's mind that

    you are speaking to.

L: I always thought of it as if I've spoken and it's not been received,

    then I'm not truly communicating; but you're adding a dimension that

    I've not given a thought to, that the Thought Adjuster hears it and

    continues to work with that.

F: Understand the subtleties of what I am saying. I said that I did not

    perceive it to be complete because there was no receptivity on the

    other side. But accurate, yes, because if motivated properly, and if

    what you are communicating is indeed true, it is accurate inasmuch as

    that spirit fragment has received the information and there has been

    a connection, if you will.

M: Can you tell us where you're teaching?

F: I am with the group in Arizona. Most interesting experience.

    (laughter) There is a wide variety of individuals who are beginning

    to attune themselves with our teachings, but not from an intellectual

    point of reference, more from a vibratory point of reference. It

    allows me a range of expression that many teachers do not get to

    engage in.

L: Can you explain "vibratory frame of reference"?

F: Have you not in your experience felt a attunement with another

    individual, and yet you did not intellectually understand why you

    were drawn to that person?

L: Yes.

F: I don't know how else to relate this to you in terms that you can

    understand, but my expression has been made known to many and there

    are those who are responding, not due to the intellectual concepts

    but more to the fact that it seems to "feel" right. They are drawn

    to this feeling, they sense an awakening within themselves beyond

    that which they have perceived. Some understand it, some do not.

    But the fact is, when you have these feelings, you cannot deny the

    reality of them, can you?

L: How would this group be judged? Are we proceeding more on an

    intellectual frame of reference than a vibratory?

F: Now you make me walk the hot coals..(laughter)

B: I guess you're not going to answer that.

M: She's probably trying to figure out how to straddle the line.

F: I'm looking at your teacher and I'm not getting help. (laughter)

    It is that look of "You've got yourself out there, now figure it

    out". (laughter)

L: He's walked the hot coals many times himself.

F: Which must explain the smile on his face. (laughter) Could I get

    away with saying I'm not familiar enough with your group? (laughter)

    I would say, based on a relatively short time of association, that

    your group tends to function on a harmonic vibratory level more of a

    intellectual basis.

M: Define "harmonic vibratory".

F: You are in tune with each other more on a conceptual basis. Does that

    help you? This does not say there is no feeling, for there certainly

    is; but your minds seem to come together and blend well. That seems

    to be more of the focus if I understand your question correctly.

B: Could this group venture into the vibratory harmonics as your group

    in Sedona?

F: Venture in...(laughter)

B: Be instructed in...experience.

F: I believe that anyone who is of sound mind can learn techniques of

    attuning themselves with the feeling of love or the feelings of

    vibrations of energy with the universe. How is that for an answer?

    I do not mean to avoid your question, but you must understand that

    those individuals that I reference in Arizona are individuals who

    simply feel more intensely than, as a whole, this group does.

L: Is there one method that is preferred over the other by the teaching

    mission?

F: As long as the individual is willing to seek the will of the Father,

    it matters not.

M: Ultimately, your goal must be to get us balanced in both of those

    areas.

F: It is as you say.

J: Felicia, I know when I was brought into the group it was on an

    intellectual level, but my confirmation of what is being said is

    right has always been through vibratory level in my meditations and

    in what's being said.

F: And this is good. This is as we have just said, our goal, to help

    each of you realize the God within yourself. It is both

    intellectual and feeling. Your career goal in this area is to learn

    this balance, to achieve the harmonics of love. Love rings

    beautifully throughout the universe. It is expressed by the artisans

    in art. It is expressed by celestial musicians in their music. It

    expressed by the reversion directors in their humor and I could go on

    for quite a while.

M: And so as Welmek assesses this group, he would want to bring and use

    teaching methods and techniques or ideas that would help us bring our

    feeling level up and so for you one of your difficult tasks is how to

    find intellectual or bring about intellectual harmony among the

    group that you're now dealing with. Is that accurate?

F: Take out the word "difficult" please.

M: Okay. (laughter)

F: My attempt at humor. (laughter) But that is what I must do. I must

    be able to first, as your Master, our Master, did so eloquently,

    reach to the individual and find grounds of commonality, find out

    what you can share with that person that will help them to understand

    the fact that you do care for them, that you do love them. Just to

    say the words does not hold much water. It is when that person feels

    and knows that you understand them, that then they can accept the

    words that you love them. Once you can communicate at that level,

    then you will be able to build upon their foundation with the

    concepts, the building blocks, of truth. My job, at this point in

    time, is to take their understanding of cosmic harmonics and be able

    to blend that in with the spiritual truth.

M: Are you anticipating making Urantia Books appear in each of their

    homes?

F: I do not necessarily feel that the Urantia Book is important for them

    at this point in time. In my attempt right now, my first priority is

    to unify them as a group. We are very young. We have only spent a

    few weeks together, and there are many people whom we are trying to

    encourage to participate. Once we get this feeling of uniformity,

    this feeling of cohesiveness, then I can pursue more of the

    intellectual levels of understanding universe reality and will, of

    course, encourage all to take an active and aggressive approach to

    not only reading, but understanding and applying those principles

    within the text.

L: As I am meeting more people who are being drawn to these different

    groups, I am meeting more individuals who feel they have had

    communication with other spirit beings previously. I understand

    that that can be true at times, but there also might be some

    situations where it might be all in their mind or some other

    situation. Can you give us any insight into how to look at

    situations and have some sense of which may be the case, or how those

    individuals can for themselves?

F: It is difficult for me to counsel you as to what individuals have

    outside communication and what individuals do not. Your meter, your

    measuring stick, is what, again, our Master has said succinctly. "By

    their fruits you shall know them."

D: When there is information that is shared that is perhaps not of a

    spiritual nature and there seems to be some communication, is there a

    guideline to look at to judge the authenticity of that communication

    as well?

F: You must look at how it makes you think, how it makes you feel. You

     must try to be as objective as you can in relationship to the

     information you have perceived forthcoming from a source outside

     your own mind.

     Never assume anything. This is a principle which you are all aware

     of. I would encourage you to practice. Always look for the truth

     in everything that you do.

     There are times in communication of this nature where the expression

     of the individual transmitter, human transmitter, is permissible.

     The transmission of the human information may be colored by emotion

     or intellectual input. As you know from previous statements by

     your teacher, these things may or may not be corrected at any given

     point in time if they are not of a spiritual nature.

     This form of communication, my friends, is not complete. It is not

     perfect. Do not assume that it is. By the fruits you shall know

     them. Always adhere to the spiritual philosophies presented. Apply

     them. If they make you whole, if they make you happy, if they make

     you more complete within yourself, then continue. If you find that

     something does not seem to mesh with your personality, then question

     it.

     So far, it is my opinion that 97% of those people who engage in the

     process of trying to transmit our messages are as sincere and

     accurate as they can be. There are again, however, those times when

     self-expression is permitted, even at times encouraged. Yet at the

     same time confusion may arise from this information; and each of you

     must assess the validity of that which you have received, how it is

     applied to your daily living and whether or not it has merit.

     Do any of you deny the spiritual significance of the messages that

     you have read or heard during the time you have been involved with

     this mission.

GROUP: No...absolutely not...

F: Confusion then arises in more factual information.

GROUP: Yes...I don't think that's wrong either because it encourages us

to think harder and to try to raise our own level of intelligence so that

we can understand what you're saying.

F: Your thought is consistent with ours in this regard.

D: What measures are being taken to enhance the distribution of the

    Urantia Book on this planet at this time?

F: I am not as familiar with this as others would be. I am fairly new

    to your world. If you like, I will disengage and have another

    answer your question.

M: Oh heavens no. You're giving us too many answers. (laughter)

D: Felicia, what order of being are you?

F: I am an ascending mortal.

D: Do you hail from Nebadon?

F: Yes.

M: Could you be a little more descriptive about it?

F: I am trying not to. (laughter)

L: Can you tell us how old you are?

F: I can, but there are so many more important questions I wish to

    answer.

D: How is your group able to attain this vibratory level of feeling so

    effectively?

F: They for the most part, as individuals, already had achieved this

    before they came to the group.

D: Through their practice of the worship, meditation and prayer?

F: Among other things, yes.

D: Can you tell us what those other things are?

F: Healing techniques is one specific.

M: Anything else?

F: For the most part, these are all.

J: Does the geographic location help as far as the energy level?

F: No.

L: The environment?

F: Do you mean physical?

L: I guess that would be conducive to a better mental environment in

    some respects for certain people.

F: Indeed. There are many aspects to consider. The physical

    environment really has little to do with the energy now present on

    this planet. All of you are able to partake of such phenomenal

    amounts of energy if you, through practice, learn to attune yourself

    to it

L: How does learning healing techniques help increase this vibratory

    awareness?

F: The primary function of a human healer is one which simply channels

    the energy through their system to help intensify the flow through

    the receiver. If you are successful at this, you will have learned

    the technique of freeing your mind and your heart to allow the love

    to more completely flow through you. The more one is filled with

    God's love, the more accelerated the energy, the more in tune is the

    harmonic vibration of the dense physical mechanism. Unfortunately,

    given your structure, your material structure, your bodies, there is

    a limit as to the amount of feeling you can derive from this love,

    this energy flowing through you. Once you are given your morontial

    forms, it is quite substantially increased, almost exponentially.

    So you see there is no secret to being a healer. It is a matter of

    faith. It is a matter of worship. It is a matter of living, making

    those decisions which will lead you to do the Father's will in all

    that you do. The more completely you achieve this, the more benefit

    you are to those that you try to help.

M: You must, as teachers, have an awful lot more questions about us

    humans as the one stated earlier. Who do you get these answers from?

F: We have instructors who have spent time on your world, some in the

    flesh, some not. There are the midway associates who have spent many

    years in close association with humans and have many delightful

    stories to share with us. (laughter) There are times like I tonight

    that simply ask the questions to get your immediate response as to

    why you behave in the some of the patterns that you do. But I must

    admit that I, too, like so many of my associates, have some need for

    further understanding in regards to the human nature as expressed on

    this planet.

M: As do we. (laughter)

L: Would you like to ask us any more questions?

M: I see you definitely don't like that word "difficult". (laughter)

F: Precisely. (laughter) Actually, I have many questions that I would

    like to ask you, but I am being told that my time is over.

M: Tell him "No, no."

GROUP: We appreciate you being with us...come again sometime. Yes.

Please come back.

F: I appreciate you accepting me into your minds and your hearts. I pray

    for you that you will be able to achieve the level of God-

    consciousness that will enhance your ability to feel this love and

    share it with others. Go in peace.

WELMEK: This is Welmek. Once again, my floor has been taken from me.

(Laughter) But I believe it was well worth the time.

I will respond to any general questions if you have them for me.

Otherwise we will discuss next week's meeting and adjourn for the

evening.

M: Welmek, I have one. I have someone that's in another city who has

    just had surgery and cannot attend these meetings as she would like

    to. She has requested a personal teacher. I don't know whether

    that's a possibility or not.

W: As a rule, one does not get a teacher assigned specifically.

    However, it is permissible to assign a guide to that individual. I

    know you may not see the difference, but to me there is. Tell that

    person to pray to their angels for assistance in this area; and I

    believe that she will find the help that she seeks.

M: Thank you.

D: What is the distinction between guides and teachers?

W: I call myself your teacher and guide. I am your guide inasmuch as I

    spend time with you and encourage you to think about things in

    different ways. I encourage you as your guide to love more than you

    do now, and I also am permitted, as your guide, to help you in your

    decision-making process.

    As your teacher, I am permitted to bring to you concepts that perhaps

    you have not considered before. I can help you arrange them in

    thought patterns that may shed more light on the issue. As a

    teacher, I do not spend the individual time with you that as a guide

    I can. As a teacher, I will not be with you as long as your guide

    has been assigned to you.

D: Will the guide also try to develop thought patterns as you do as our

    teacher?

W: Not to the extent that I as your teacher will. You see, my job right

    now is to help you attune yourself to your real teacher.

D: The Thought Adjuster.

W: Yes. Your guide is simply there really more for support than the

    instruction we receive together in these types of meetings.

D: Welmek, what is the relationship of our guide with our attending

    angels? Would the angels serve as our guide in some cases?

W: Yes. This would be more or less accurate to say. The association

    between the angels and the guide is most cohesive, most

    complementary, most loving and most selfless serving to you. Your

    guides hopefully will be able to facilitate communication with you

    sooner than perhaps you would be able to achieve with your angels.

    This is part of Michael's plan.

D: How are they able to better achieve communication? Is it their

    mortal experience?

W: Not necessarily, for not all guides are mortal. They are more

    closely associated with your minds.

    If there are no further questions?....Do you feel that this evening's

    discussion on tolerance is sufficient?

M: Are you going to give us your explanation of what tolerance is before

    you go?

W: I do not believe it is necessary. I believe that Felicia adequately

    expressed for all of us what tolerance consists of and the importance

    of its expression in your daily life. Do you remember how she

    described it? Can anyone repeat it? (laughter)

M: She was going too fast for me.

W: Tolerance is applied faith, motivated by love, dominated by mercy,

    conditioned by patience and perceived as graciousness.

    We could spend time discussing each aspect more fully.

K: We could do that next week.

W: Machiventa and I and Ham and a few of my other associates have

    discussed this group and its format on the next few weeks. Our

    conclusion is to allow you to be involved continually in the

    direction. We are here to serve you as long as you more or less do

    what we want. (laughter) I think Andrew would enjoy that comment.

M: Is that a weighted voting system? We each have one vote and you have

    50 votes?

W: As the teacher, do not I get that prerogative? Well, what do you

    think we should discuss next week? Is there a topic other than what

    we have discussed tonight that you feel would be important in your

    development and in your preparation for the imminent events that will

    take place?

D: I think maybe courage and steadfastness are something we might want

    to focus on because I think we're going to be put on the hot seat.

    (words lost)

W: Courage, a most honorable characteristic.

L: I've begun to realize that there's a difference between courage and

    confidence. I don't know if that could be part of the discussion.

W: It sounds like you would make a good moderator. (laughter)

L: I will.

M: Courage and confidence.

M: Well, courage is the real topic. Confidence.. Courage was one of his

    top 5 characteristics.

W: Also, I want to encourage you all in preparation for future meetings

    to ask as specific questions as you can. It will allow me to respond

    as specifically as I can.

M: Welmek, is there going to be a meeting before April that all of us

    can ask questions about what's coming up and our feelings?

W: Do you have something that you wish to express now?

M: Well, if I did it would take an hour and I don't think that's right.

    It's too late. Can we all hold a meeting maybe in March and bring up

    questions we have on it?

W: You may ask questions at any time when the floor is open. If this

    group wishes a meeting devoted to this, then I will certainly

    entertain this idea. Do you all feel apprehensive?

GROUP: No...no.

M: I don't think it's apprehension. I'll just ask five questions. We

    were wondering how much time Machiventa will spend with us.

W: Undetermined.

M: Are we going to be able to touch him or will he not be touchable?

W: Doubtful that you will be able to touch him. This is under

    discussion. In my opinion there is no reason why we should not allow

    this.

GROUP: All right...I like that one...should we take snips of his garment

and have them sold for autographs? (laughter)

W: If you wish to show your associates pictures of a being who has

    appeared in front of you to validate in their mind your probable

    insanity... (laughter)

M: But would his appearance be photographable? Would it be possible to

    videotape it?

W: Based on the density level of manifestation, I believe so.

L: Will he be able to speak directly to us, or will he need a

    transmitter/receiver?

W: He will be able to speak on his own.

GROUP: Wow...cool...

M: Are we going to be able to get a hug...

W: I do not believe this will be permissible.

D: Will that be because this will be a morontia presentation?

W: Yes.

M: When Machiventa comes back here permanently to set up the schools and

    whatever else he's going to be doing, is it going to be on a

    permanent basis, or is he going to be able to..I don't know what the

    word is..go from planet to planet like he does now or is he going to

    be basically stuck here?

W: He will be "stationed" here. (laughter)

M: I was going back to the way he had 90-some odd years here before and

    then he had to go back. I was wondering whether it would be the same

    way or not.

W: I'll let Machiventa respond to the word "stuck". (laughter) Do you

    have other inquiries?

G: Do you have any idea how long it will be before they establish the

    schools?

W: I am not permitted to divulge that information. We have an agenda,

    but there are certain events that have not taken place yet that are

    directly related to the establishment of the schools. Therefore,

    since some things are not in our control, I should say many things

    are not in our control, it is difficult for me to know myself exactly

    when this will happen. Therefore, it is advisable not to give you

    that information.

L: I have a question regarding some statements you made some months ago.

    You said that the teachers were considering a petition for

    visualization. It had to be approved by Machiventa and then go to

    Michael himself; and if Michael approved it, watch out. At what

    stage in the negotiations are you now on this matter?

W: We have already received our approval necessary.

D: So it's in the "watch out" stage? (laughter)

M: Will the session with Machiventa be an address by him, or will there

    be time for questions and answers?

W: Undetermined. If I have my way, there will be questions and answers.

    However, the difficulty is, as you can imagine, once the initial

    shock wave has settled, who will not want to ask questions? We are

    uncertain as to the exact nature of this event, as far as these types

    of details. The general agenda as it stands now is for a

    presentation by one of the Melchizideks, a lesson and salutation. I

    do not know if there will be questions and answers. I do not know,

    as I indicated earlier, how long this will last.

D: That may be about all we can handle.

W: That is certainly a consideration of ours. But that may be

    determined on the response at that point in time. Therefore, it is

    difficult for me to sometimes give you the specific answers you seek.

J: Are we supposed to be getting a more exact schedule later?

W: Exact schedule as to when this will occur?

J: Yes.

W: I believe we have given that, perhaps not to all. It is established

    now that this event will take place on Saturday, approximately in the

    noontime hour.

M: Does the materialization of the teachers hinge upon this event? In

    other words, once Melchizidek makes this appearance, will that then

    open the door for other teachers to materialize or is that decision

    independent of Machiventa's materialization?

W: As it stands right now, our manifestation to you visibly is directly

    related to the Melchizidek appearance.

M: With that in mind, are we going to be able to, if we can handle

    Machiventa and we can handle seeing you, will we eventually see our

    own guides?

W: I do not know.

M: Could you put it up for discussion with Machiventa and Ham and the

    rest of them?

W: Yes.

M: Thank you.

M: We keep talking about the materialization of Machiventa. You keep

    saying Melchizidek. Is the materialization going to be of Machiventa

    or will it be of another Melchizidek?

W: Undetermined.

M: Has a decision about simultaneous materializations been determined?

    Or is that still under discussion?

W: That will not take place.

M: So there will only be the one in the outskirts of Chicago.

W: On that day at that time.

M: But there are other days that have been confirmed?

W: There are other days that are being discussed. We may not make our

    decision until we have the first one, as you say, under our belts.

M: Have you planned for a lot of smelling salts to be available?

    (laughter) Just joking.

K: You're in charge of that, Mike.

W: I wish to thank all of you for your whole-hearted participation in

    tonight's meeting. It pleases me to see you in the group as a whole.

    I must admit that several of us discussed whether or not this group

    would remain united, given the new format. You have once again shown

    us that the human will is very strong, the desire to know the Father

    is even stronger. Always learn more about each other. Do not do

    anything if you can to cause disharmony within the unit, within the

    group. You all express your own personalities and this is the way it

    should be; but your first real test is to learn to understand your

    differences, accept them and live above them.

    Go in peace. Always seek God's love and we will speak again next

    week.

GROUP: Thanks...good night.