1995-06-30-Recycling the Earth

Session

Opening

Opening Prayer

DANIEL: Good evening friends. I am Daniel, your guide, teacher and friend. How pleased I am to be with all of you this evening. I have missed being in your physical presence, although I was connected to each of you through the circuitry and through the auspices of your personal teachers. I traveled with the Roberts family to Southern California and so was not physically present.

Lesson

Change, Growth

This evening, friends, I would like to discuss this concept of recycling the earth. Thank you, Ken, for your earlier commentary. You were pounded upon to catch that phrase; no wonder it rang so true inside of you. And you see, my friend, you also hear your teachers and guides.

Recycling the earth one individual at a time. Indeed is this what we are about. We began with those of you devout souls who were willing to pledge themselves to this adventure not knowing where it would go or what it would entail, knowing only that it was new and having the faith that it would lead to an illustrious future. And so we began building the foundation, block by block. And as time progressed, we have asked you to examine more and more deeply buried aspects of your beings, of yourselves, and to some extent we did slip up on you in this manner. For were we to have asked you to examine such aspects "up front", immediately, you would not have had the internal resources to undergo such an examination. But, my friends, you have been strengthened through the time you spend in the quiet with our great Parent, our Father/Mother, First Source and Center. That time has been invaluable to you whether you recognize its effects or not. And then you have been strengthened by practicing the exercises, by allowing the fruits of the spirit to be manifest in your lives, by keeping the goal of God-consciousness ever in front of you. And you are becoming a recycled product.

My friends, I hope you see the humor in this imagery. It is not meant to be degrading or to be offensive in any way. The concept here is that God created good stuff, however, the realities of living on a planet of rebellion meant that the initial stuff was deformed from its original purpose, shape, size and beauty. The realities of this planet have tended to twist and mangle--to some extent--the original blueprint of which you are. And so the purpose of this phase of the Teaching Mission has been to assist in reshaping the original beauty of which you are, of allowing your true energies to fill out into the shape which is what God originally intended.

And, my friends, we are so pleased with your wholehearted embracing of this recycling project! Indeed, are your blossoms blooming!

Another image of our recycling project is that of a bud that has tried to bloom but the weather has remained cold and the bud is pinched and beaten with hail. But finally the warm weather comes, the sun is out, the rains become gentle, and the bud blossoms. And you, my friends, are the blossoms in this recycling project.

And now the next step is to expand this recycling project that the entire earth may be reached individual by individual. And this you are doing, my friends, whether you are consciously intending it or not. And of course I know that you do intend to assist in the upliftment of this planet, but what I am saying is that often you do this when you are not aware of it. It is your humor; it is your joy in living; it is your soft response to someone hot around the collar, etc. It is your shining example. Believe it or not people are taking note of you. They do see the difference. They do desire to know the peace they recognize while in your presence.

Do not be distressed when you are not perfectly peaceful at all times, when life is not rosy, when your emotions rage. You are mortal children. You are human beings. Perfection is not possible, expected, or even desired from you. And to try to be perfect and put yourself under such pressures and in such a box actually stunts growth; it doesn't allow for your reality. One grows by being real, by recognizing and experiencing and learning from and responding to one's raging emotions, one's imperfections, one's hormonal swings, etc. So, do not condemn yourselves when you are in the midst of such a process, and please do not hide this from others, for people grow from and respond to reality, to real struggles. Pious, phony okayness helps no one. It helps not you, and it helps not others.

And I realize that many of you, or some of you, feel that you have to be okay all the time in order to uphold the correctness and goodness of your spiritual path, but this is not the case. Allowing yourselves to be who you are, warts and all, is part of the spiritual path. Being willing to share this with your brothers and sisters is how we all grow, those of us on the morontial side as well as those of you on the material plane. So please, friends, assist in our recycling project by allowing your warts to show.

May I please make a distinction at this point. I am not saying rationalize disrespectful behavior toward other people. I am not saying it is okay to feel such and such a way and therefore act out. I am saying, rather, do not hide that you feel such and such a way. Share in your most rational, real and expressive way your feelings, the whole range of your feelings: your joys, your loves, your peace, your anger, your resentment, your jealousy, your distrust, your suspicion, your possessiveness, your envy, your greed, your acceptance, your tolerance. Be who you are. This will recycle the earth--one individual at a time.

My friends, you are doing a marvelous job recycling. We are pleased; we thank you, and we love you dearly. We are here to provide assistance in any way we can. Tomas?

TOMAS: Greetings, my friends. I am going to take you in a moment to a spiritual yard sale, however, in the meantime I call to your mind the young tree in need of pruning, that in order for new growth to effectively come onto the tree certain wilful branches need pruning that the tree will then grow in fullness and produce ample fruit. In your conditioning--in general as mortals and as consumers, and at this time in the development of your world--you have brought with you much refuse which can be disposed of. Much of your accumulated "stuff" is no longer necessary, is cumbersome, keeps you fettered. Certain belief systems, certain associations, certain habits, certain reactions, certain perceptions, certain procedures; these can be pruned at a spiritual yard sale.

In order to have an effective yard sale, you need to have the proper attitude that you don't need these any more. They no longer serve the purpose for which they were intended. Their value to you has long since vanished. The truth is, they may never serve anyone, yet they have to be gotten rid of.

In your ascent, dear friends, children, if you will, as you outgrow your old perceptions, you pass them down or burn them. All perceptions, modus operandi, procedures, habits, etc, are not bad, but in order for you to begin your constancy in your own recycling, you need to have a lively attitude as to whether or not this serves you. If it no longer serves you, be done with it or pass it along to someone who can make use of it.

This is good commerce and commerce makes for open avenues of communication; therefore, do not sell a bill of goods. If your concept has holes, be certain that when you pass it on, you admonish your recipient that there is a flaw here, but that they are welcome to use it if they find value, for your needs have been met by it, you have appreciated it, and it is no longer needful in your repertoire.

When you hang onto so much stuff that has been necessary for your survival, that has been loaded onto you by tradition or family admonitions, you carry much baggage which only holds you back. Putting it in a box, then, for safekeeping only then makes you have to provide a storage place, and it, as Daniel says, grows dank with disuse. How profitable for you then to engage in a hefty spiritual yard sale. Your remuneration will benefit you in terms of new experiences and lighter burdens and the opportunity to share your experiences.

Well, I believe I have spent myself, therefore I will take my leave of this subject and return the platform to Daniel and to you all for further engagement.

DANIEL: Thank you, Tomas. Your words have balanced mine. My friends, you now have two images of recycling: one of reshaping old material into new and one of getting rid of old concepts, old thought patterns, old structures, old perceptions and passing them on if they are useful to someone coming up behind you or discarding them completely.

We now invite commentary, questions, discussion, chattiness. The floor is open.

Dialogue

Rutha: Daniel and Tomas, thank you for the lessons tonight. They are thought provoking, and I'm sure we all have a lot of recycling and baggage to drop. I just wanted to introduce to you formally in this meeting--even though you have met Jan before--I just wanted to introduce you to Jane and to welcome her to our group.

Jane: You introduced me to Daniel in December!

Rutha: Well, I can't remember what I've done. (Laughter)

Daniel has a certain protocol.

Luke: Ai yi yi. Not another bureaucrat. (More laughter)

DANIEL: Thank you, Deborah. Yes, I know Jane very very well and am deeply pleased that she, you, are here this evening, Jane. And we look forward to spending more Fridays with you in addition to our Monday time. We hope that this can be arranged, and, Rutha, thank you for protocol.

Perfection

Luke, I am not a bureaucrat. However, I do like to have the opportunity to say some words to individuals when they join, and yes I did humorously chide Isaac in the past for not making an introduction. This was in part in jest and in humor and in part to allow me opportunity. And of course you ask, "well you could take it at anytime." And this is true, but very often to have a person introduced by one of you smoothes the tension and is not as startling as if I addressed them out of the blue. And so that is my reason.

Luke: Hello Daniel, Tomas. This is Luke. A quick word about perfection. I myself like to be perfect. And if I be miserable, I like to be perfectly miserable in all respects. Although, I'd rather not. I'd rather be perfectly good, perfectly correct. So perfection has its good sides as far as I'm concerned. So I try to be as perfect as possible, especially in the business I am in.

DANIEL: Yes, Luke, thank you for your words. I know you do desire to be perfect, my son, and that you do desire that everything be sunshine and roses; however that is not reality. Despite the best of intentions, despite the most disciplined of practice, you are human, and there are days when you do not come up to your high standards. And so what I was suggesting was to deal with yourself at the level at which you are actually functioning and not at the level at which you wish you were functioning. Because to get to where you desire to function, one has to take the intermediate steps. There is no magic wand, there is no wiggling nose. One does not go "boom" to perfection out of sheer will power.

Luke: Why not?

DANIEL: For two reasons. First, you are a human being. I realize you do not particularly like this, but as a human being, a mortal, you are on the bottom rung of the climb to perfection. You are in a material body; material bodies have hormonal swings and instinctual patterning that do not allow for spiritual perfection. Animals are purely material. They do not have the spirit of the divine. They run completely on instinct and feel very free to express their emotions.

Let us take the example of dogs, since this image is most closely associated at this time in this T/R's mind. The dog feels fear; it snarls; the hair on the back of its neck goes up; if it is pursued it will run or attack. Dogs feel jealousy; they will squeeze between the person of their adoration and another. They are possessive; they will protect their belongings, even belongings that are not theirs to protect, and so forth. And this is part of being animal. And sheer will power does not change reality.

However, in addition to being animal, you do have the Divine Fragment and you do have free will to align more and more fully with that Divine Fragment. But it takes time and it takes practice to develop that skill and to be in alignment, in fact it takes eons and eons and eons. Those of us on the morontia level are just a little bit ahead of you. Although it may appear to some of you at times that we are significantly further on, we still have eons and eons and eons to go before we are perfected. So that is the first reason why sheer will power does not make one behave and respond and feel like one might always desire to.

Second of all, you are from a planet of rebellion. And this heritage still carries a very heavy toll. And so not one individual has had the parenting they required; not one individual has had their emotional and spiritual needs fully met as children on this once-sorry planet. And, therefore, there are not the emotional resources to fall back on, and this emotional healing must take place in order to be able to align oneself. Sheer will power will never do it. Spending the time with the Father/Mother, taking the intermediate steps and being real will do it. Reporting how you truly are at the time, and not how you want to be will do it.

Luke, my guess is these are not words you desire to hear but they are the truth as I know it. And of course truth is relative and continues to be revealed to me more and more in my ascension as well. Is there more, my dear friend, Luke?

Luke: Well, yeah, there is. However, I pretty well understand what you are saying, and I become more and more realizing this is the way it is. However, I am proud to come from a rebellious planet because only through revolution do you make progress, and this brings you up to par, brings you up on your toes to get you moving. Because if everybody just goes blah-blah-blah, there's no challenge to living anymore. That's about all. And I think I'm rather proud to be here.

TOMAS: Your friend Tomas has some support for you, Luke. Early in the text of the Urantia Book there is quite a sterling discussion regarding the admonition to be perfect, even as our Father in Heaven is perfect. And although our eternal aim is to attain that oneness with divinity that we know absolute perfection, the truth remains that as you are today as an ascending son (or daughter) for those of you who are hearing this in general), as you regard yourself as an ascending child of God, you are indeed relatively perfect, for in your realm you are where you are through no fault of your own, and your aspirations are to attain that divinity to which your soul aspires.

The difficulty in maintaining a stance of perfection in a world such as this, and indeed in other worlds as well, is that when one feels there is perfection, there is no motivation to aspire further. And this belief of qualified perfection also puts your neighbor at a disadvantage and does not manifest the necessary humility which would engage you in communications which lead to service.

So my son, I do concur that you are perfect. The dog that was referenced is certainly a perfect specimen of animal, and even though it snarls and is possessive and manifests attitudes and emotions which might be unsightly in a finaliter, they are admirable and noble for a beast. And as you have the origins of an animal in addition to the Indwelling Spirit of perfection, there is a marvelous range of experience and growth.

Your perfection is relative. You may in fact, for your own self respect and esteem, regard yourself as perfect as long as you understand that there are eons to go before ultimate perfection is attained, for it is perhaps better to acknowledge your worth as a dignified budding morontial soul, as a noble human being, than to decry your heritage, to feel inferior, to feel insignificant, and those lesser emotions that only belong in the rubbish heap corner of the spiritual yard sale.

DANIEL: And I, too, have a comment to make in reply. Yes, dear son, feel proud to be from this planet. I apologize if I in any way suggested a put down to you that you were lesser for being from this planet, for certainly you are not! But all of you have missed some of the advantages that may have moved you up the ladder a little bit more easily. Much of the undoing process in which you are all currently involved could have been skipped by coming from other than this planet with its mixed history.

And indeed are you advantaged in other ways! However, these ways take longer in their unfolding, and so they are not as obvious at this point in time. It is like a bulb or a seed that is the offspring of plants that have come through drought, and flood, and heat, and freezing temperatures, and have survived. Those offspring, those bulbs, will grow extremely healthy plants through natural selection . And likewise is it so in coming from this planet as well as from the other planets of rebellion. (Remember that there were 50 in all.) You [from these planets of rebellion] are like the seeds of these hardy plants. You are like the seeds from the plants who have undergone much; you will grow into very sturdy, healthy, vigorous stock. Again, I apologize for any offense. None was intended.

Luke: Thank you. Of course it was not intended from you, and I understand that perfectly. But you do have to say something in order to get you back on-line. You are, after all, . .. we're living here on earth and we've got to make do with what we got. Thank you so much, Daniel, Tomas. I could keep on going but I would go too far then, would become a little bit of a jester, and I guess that I'll skip that. Thank you so much.

DANIEL: You are welcome, our dear friend.

Rutha: Daniel and Tomas, I don't know if this is so much a question as it is an observation or a comment, but my comment [is] regarding the lesson and what Luke has brought up--the fact that we are not perfect. But, yet, because we are becoming more aware and our consciousness is rising, it becomes more maddening for me when I have excess baggage that I need to drop and I can't drop it, or [when] I keep playing old tapes, or [when] I fail to do the recycling that is necessary. And I think that's how I took Luke's statement. Yeah, sure we're not perfect, and we know that, but gosh it gets maddening when we keep failing over and over. And that's just my comment. Thank you.

DANIEL: Thank you, Deborah. Yes, we understand your frustration, and you see that this is an example of exactly what I was asking you to do. When you are feeling frustrated, say so. Do not say it is sunshine and roses when it is frustration.

Kent: Greetings, my friend. Indeed did you pound on my head and I thank you for that. Please pound a little harder. We have covered recycling, spiritual garage sales and perfection. I guess if we were perfect, you would be out of a job. We would not have to be recycled. I take the lesson on recycling [to be] that as we become recycled, we become better. I would like to thank you for the lessons this evening. I had another question and it evaded me. Thank you.

TOMAS: Thank you, brother Kent.

DANIEL: Yes, and may I make a comment on your comment. Yes, as you become recycled, you become more in alignment with the original picture, the true essence of who you are.

Jane: Tomas, I have a problem with your garage sale. I don't want to find fault with you, but I just had a very hard, hard time, when you were talking, understanding in what way ideas, or habits, or thought patterns, or whatever, that I had that were not serving me, that would in fact keep me from spiritual growth, in understanding why I would want to pawn these off on my brothers and sisters. This evaded me and it really bothered me, and maybe I'm not understanding completely what you meant. Could you please help me with that? I thought everything ought to go into the trash if you want to know the truth.

TOMAS: How delighted I am with your question, my friend, for your earnestness is the stuff which teachers thrive upon. You are what makes a classroom an enjoyable experience. Allow me, then, to respond to your taking umbrage to my words, and I will select them carefully. I will suggest an instance.

It does not behoove you, as a learning, evolving being in contact with another learning evolving being to pull out from under him or her their belief system. And yet it is not gracious, either, to pummel him or her with loads of philosophy or wisdom. A compromise response may be the wisest response for that instance, you see.

For example, suppose someone (oh, dear) believes in astrological signs, and you know that astrological signs have no bearing on spiritual content and yet you are engaged in a rousing dialogue with this individual which could in fact lead to spiritual dialogue between you, yet you find this astrological sign subject far removed from where you'd like to go. You may engage in discourse regarding the various personalities, various personality traits, certain human characteristics which are generally ascribed to persons born in the spring or in the winter. Therefore (if I am making myself clear) you might see that whereas you know of a certainty the truth of a spiritual facet and that someone has a long way to go before accepting that, like Apostle Paul, a compromise might be in order. And thus I would say, if you have been holding onto your astrological horoscope books for a long time, you could sell them short but not burn them, for someone may still have need for a frame of reference.

And I may have, like Daniel, put my foot in it, but I am trying to convey the relativity of truth. Remember that a pint cannot hold a quart, that you cannot expect a fledgling soul to grasp gigantic concepts. Sometimes the student must be fed piecemeal, spoon by spoon, bit by bit, which is not to say they cannot digest a larger concept, but for now the smaller one will whet their appetite. And in this way I was attempting to picturize the merits of allowing some things to be dropped from your shoulders that you might then allow new light to come into your world. Do you see what I was attempting to do? Have I in fact answered your question?

Jane: I do understand your example. I was thinking more in terms of perhaps bad habits, and what I understand you to say is that although I may no longer need a concept, I can still use that concept, which I now understand and have moved beyond, as a tool in dealing with others who are still walking that same path.

TOMAS: Precisely.

Jane: Thank you.

TOMAS: A+.

Luke: Hello, Daniel and Tomas. A last quick remark. That is what you're saying here that life is not always roses, caviar and champagne, and sometimes we do have to have dandelions and beer. However, I'll take the first one: roses, caviar and champagne. It's more suiting to me than beer and dandelions. So therefore we're striving for perfection in any form of a way. And I've been enjoying myself to be on our troubled planet, . .. the things you said about it. Thank you very much.

DANIEL: Thank you for your commentary, Luke. You are a most beloved son.

Beverly: I'm having a garage sale tomorrow. (laughter)

DANIEL: Beverly, do you perhaps have more you would like to share with us concerning this garage sale?

Beverly: Quite truthfully I wish I could do it all myself, but I've put myself in a position this year where I'm living with my daughter, and we make wonderful discoveries about who is carrying the most baggage. It's been a very fruitful week in finding things for the garage sale. As Michelle changes, things change between us. As I change, then our relationship changes. And we've both done a lot of growing this year, and the house is getting pretty empty--I hope.

DANIEL: Well stated, my friend. Thank you.

TOMAS: Indeed it may be easier in concept at least to do it alone, for you have, as they say, one less egg to fry. However, as you can see, the commerce which takes place between yourself and your daughter regarding your "stuff" as it relates to your growth, you have commerce between you, you have true communication, or at least you have a viable bridge to cross over, and you are not alone. Indeed we teachers have found great pleasure in the commerce we engage in in crossing the bridge from here to there in our relationships with you mortals. It is not best to do it alone. It is troublesome to deal with others, but is more fruitful. You see how we have grown in our dealings here. Each of us has become a more rarified breed, a finer-tuned instrument, a more perfect specimen of reality, none of which could be done if we individually were left isolated in our own sphere, as you can plainly see the damage of prolonged isolation. Daniel?

DANIEL: Are there further questions or comments, dear friends?

Luke: Next week.

TOMAS: Yes?

Closing

Luke: I think we can wrap it up and say next week I will make another comment. It's getting late and the tape is running out.

DANIEL: Indeed, that will be fine. Friends, this week we would ask you to continue your recycling efforts. Continue to learn what being real is in the here and now. Continue to analyze concepts and perceptions that have served you in the past and decide whether they are serving you now and if they are truly needed. Continue to examine reactions to situations and if they are not useful, if they are old baggage, discard them.

Go in peace to love and serve. Farewell.