1995-07-07-Recycling Old Lessons

Session

Opening

Group Prayer

DANIEL(TR #4) "Greetings, friends. I am Daniel. I am most pleased to welcome you all back together again into this time of community, this time of sharing, this time of recommitting oneself, one's will to a path of spiritual growth, to coming into higher understandings of the nature of God and the workings of the universe. We recognize that summer is a time of transition, a time of breaking of routines which can leave some individuals feeling somewhat unsettled, at the same time that there is additional energy imbued from this very same shift in routine. And so this is another paradox, the breaking of routine allows for greater energy, greater opportunity but at the same time can cause unsettling and disharmony. Learning to balance these offsetting effects is the point of our lesson tonight.

Tonight's lesson is another lesson on balance. Tonight we are recycling again, but we are recycling old lessons rather than individuals; however, in the recycling of the lessons, indeed, are individuals recycled.

Lesson

Balance, Stillness

Balance, my friends, is crucial in all things as you know, . And the way one comes into that balance is always first and foremost by taking that time to sit in stillness, to sit in quiet with the First Source and Center. But as was shared earlier this evening, the quality of that time is most important. It is necessary that you bring all of your selves, all of your thoughts, all of your concerns, all of your joys to this communion with God, the Father/Mother, the Comforter, the Best Friend.

I remind you, my dear friends, my associates, that your Indwelling Spirit, God, is the best friend that you could ever have, ever hope for. This Divine Fragment of the First Source who is at the Center of All is outside the limits of time and space and has perfect knowledge of the consequences and outworkings of every decision, every action. Who better to bring your concerns to? Who better to share yourself with? Who better to spend your time with?

However, one cannot approach this same God if one is not in understanding of the loving nature, the bounteous outpouring, the essential goodness, of this God. If one approaches God with concepts of a being who plays tricks, who is devious, who only pretends to care about the individual who is praying, then no real connection is easily available for one's own fear and suspicion blocks the essential goodness, the parental outpouring and the Divine affection of this beloved Parent.

And so, my dear friends, when you approach your quiet, come into this time with full understanding of the goodness of God and the need to be totally real in God's presence, for this allows for tremendous growth and allows for that balance.

Tomas, my TR is somewhat blocked this evening. Would you, dear friend, be willing to take over this lesson?"

TOMAS:(TR #2) "I am Tomas. I am most honored to assist you, Daniel, and you, my beloved fellows.

The message has been conveyed. The thrust of the relationship between the mortal and the Infinite Creator has been established, at least in-so-far as our expression is concerned.

Attunement

This relationship, this conjoining of your will with the will of your First Source and Center is the adventure of the ages, is your challenge and chief delight once the practice has been established, once the fears of fraternity have been overcome and once the mortal allows the soul's hunger to be satisfied by the breadth and depth of that nourishment which comes from communion with the personal God.

I have listened well to Daniel's words, as have you, and in the recesses of my consciousness I have also been playing with the aspect of paradox, for the paradox of knowing your relationship with your Indwelling God Fragment, your own Nurturing Reality, is the greatest joy that can be known.

There is a reference in various tomes having to do with your being sought as you have wisdom to impart, that indeed as you gain in depth and breadth through your interrelationship with Reality, you are sought for your wisdom in words, of your attitudes and responses, and that the measure of your quality relationship with this God-fragment is in effect directly proportional to those you serve, that if you need go looking for those to teach and foster, then to that measure you have failed to impart the power of prayer and meditation.

Let me touch lightly upon false humility, for much has been said about false pride. This condition of being in total compatibility with the Source of All is that which you know to be true, to have value, that is value. That which you value is that which you seek to impart to others.

Those of you who are blessed with parenting experiences know how zealously you aspire to pass your wisdom and experience, your culture and your traditions, your educational standards and values, onto your progeny. Also, those of you who are mechanical whizzes are confident in fixing your gears and machinery to the satisfaction of those who are ignorant yet earnest in seeking your knowledge. This font of experience which you have in your innermost self is to a great extent who you are and this is what you share with others. This gives you great satisfaction and a sense of worth in and among your peers.

By the same token then, class, dear students of truth, that knowingness of the reality of indwelling life, love and divinity, and that confidence of your connectedness, your alignment with that reality, your assurance of your place in those loving arms, in that eternal embrace, is the chief delight which you then are pleased to share. There is no purpose in denying that which you know. Those instances of complete surrender to God and the subsequent refreshment of your souls is sufficient to assure you that what you perceive is real, is true. There is no false humility or false pride involved.

I tell you this, dear ones, because we ask you to ponder throughout the upcoming season that in you which you would share which is of the Father, of the Mother, of the Creator and in harmony with yourself. These ponderings will formulate into lessons this fall when summer's diversion has come and gone and when you, in company with millions of students worldwide, return to your more focused and substantial determination to capture your spiritual career.

Might I conclude my words this evening with a greeting to you all in the flesh and in the celestial realms. How heart-warmed we feel when we experience these comings together, the focus of your soul. The receptivity of your most deep and eternal needs is that which we aspire to embrace in assistance and in conjunction with the plan of Christ Michael. Daniel?"

DANIEL: "Thank you, Tomas. The floor is now open for comments and/or questions and/or discussion among yourselves as well as with us."

Dialogue

JANE: "Tomas and Daniel, I would like you to meet my friend, D. R.. Of course her real name is D., and I'm very happy to have her here this evening."

DANIEL: "Yes, Jane. Thank you for introducing D. to us. We are familiar with you, D., and we extend to you a very warm welcome to our community. We hope and pray that your soul growth may be nurtured in this forum, that we may assist with your material life as well as with your spiritual life as we do with our other students through their increasing strength in the knowledge of who they are as precious beloved children of a most loving, most beneficent, most just God/Parent. We pray and hope that with us you will come to know the tender love of this most merciful Parent. We say to you Welcome, dear D. We know you very well as we know your teacher. Tomas?"

TOMAS: "How pleased I am at this bevy of daughters! And how honored we are to conjoin with you, D. Your presence is fragrant and we look forward to developing an on-going friendship as we all grow together. Welcome, my dear."

Teacher Contact

Luke: "Thank you very much, Daniel and Tomas, for the nice welcome you give D, and indeed we live in a world of paradox and that keeps everybody on their toes, on this side as well as on your side. And whoever would have thought that Melchizedek would have taken over the reins from everybody else? And that brings me to my real question. This morning I had a conversation with Rondolyn as well as with Gretta and I just wonder if it was for real or if it was just part of my imagination. Now, if you don't have the answer quite ready, I'd be happy to wait for the answer later on. So, good evening and good-bye."

DANIEL: "Thank you for your words, Luke. This is one I can answer quickly for you, for indeed are your teachers here and they would be able to fill me in quickly if I did not know the answer already; however, not only were Gretta and Rondolyn present at the time of your discussion, but I was as well as Tomas, and so we both can concur that indeed did this conversation take place.

My son, I would ask you to allow the knowledge of your own abilities into your heart. You do know that you know, however we are willing to validate you for a time. The day will come when we will push you from the nest and validations will be less frequent."

Luke: "Okay. I accept it quite well and I believe I made the statement that that would be the last question for validation, so from now on it's . .. go and solve it as fast as you can. Thank you very much."

DANIEL: "You are welcome."

Meditation

Beverly: "Good evening, Daniel and Tomas. This is Beverly. I had a question because I had two places to go tonight. On the 7th of every month there is a meditation group that meets and I enjoy it quite a bit, so I was torn. But I was just wondering, are they doing as much good as I think? Are you aware of the group that meets at Hartland?"

TOMAS: "I, Tomas, am not aware of a Hartland group. However, my inclination is to be at least initially supportive, for the process of meditation is one of those practices which will contribute to the evolution of spiritual reality on Urantia and more specifically to the fragrance of Pocatello. Your involvement, dear one, with these contemporary configurations is adventurous. I would suggest, if you were to ask, that you take with you your own understanding of your personal meditation techniques and contribute your energy to the augmentation of those energies in force and in this grouping.

There are some groups who are so elementary in their process of introducing meditation techniques I find them rather worthless, however, even rudimentary lessons in terms of training the body to sit still, to quiet the mind, to learn to focus on the light, these are commendable. To the extent that you find satisfaction and to the extent that you can serve, be generous with your spirit. By the same token, my daughter, we would miss you.

The seventh of the month seems to have rather mystical connotations. Perhaps you should have gone." (Laughter)

Beverly: "They are also studying the book by Deepak Chopra, Seven Spiritual Laws of Success. That's why they chose the 7th also."

DANIEL: "Yes, Beverly, and there is much good in this book. I, Daniel, am familiar with it. What I will ask you to hold in mind is the personal nature of a personally loving God. It seems to me that it is this concept as a concept that is missing in this particular group. Indeed do many of the participants know a loving God and do they worship this God; however, this concept of a Parent that cares enormously for Her/His children is not there and this is indeed the distinction between meditation that is life-transforming and meditation that is calming only.

To meditate with the purpose of coming into greater understanding of God and of oneself and of the relationship between God and self will change ones life. To meditate with the purpose of finding inner peace is calming, is soothing, but it is not life-transforming. Do you see?"

Beverly: "Yes, thank you. That helps me a lot."

DANIEL: "You are most welcome."

Jane: "All right, guys. Let's get specific. If I am going to increase the quality of my meditation, if I am in fact going to do what you suggested, how do I go about it? What do I do differently than I do now? What are the steps?"

DANIEL: "My dear friend Jane. There is nothing that you need to do differently because indeed do you follow the steps, indeed do you stand before God revealed, willing to share with God your anger, your torment, your upset, your gratitude, your love. It is by being real with yourself and by being real with God that life transformations take place. My dear, I in no way meant to suggest that you personally were not taking these steps. My words are both general and specific. And yes, you cannot know the loving nature of God until you have tested that, until you have found that it is safe to be angry with God, that it is safe to tell God exactly what you think about the state of the world and what you think about the state of your life and the state of the lives of those people who are dearest and closes to you and you find in response time after time that you are met with nurturance, love and acceptance.

Jane, I know you are in the midst of a very trying transition. You are in the midst of an enormous growth step. This is very difficult. But, my dear, you are sincere. You are sincerely seeking to know God. You have sought for years and years to be about God's will. You are firmly aligned. You are taking the steps. You are praying for the willingness to forgive. You are praying for greater understanding into situations. You are praying for greater understanding into the nature of God, and this is all that you can do at this time. There, unfortunately, must be the elapse of time for things to fall into place, for prayer to be answered, for greater understandings to be reached.

I am very sorry, my dear, for the difficulties through which you are passing now. However, I do know that you will reach your goal for your heart is there. Your sincerity is there. Your will is aligned. It is simply a matter of time and I am sorry if I cannot be of greater help to you right now other than to let you know that you are in process. The process is well under way and you will come out the other side. I wish I could speed it up for you."

Jane: "Daniel, I didn't really take it personally what you said about meditation. I simply thought that maybe you had a technique that was better than the one I was using and I wanted the steps if you had one. Thank you for your remarks."

DANIEL: "Yes. Your statement is understood. I was referring to the quality of quiet time, and as I had access to this TR's mind and to this TR's sharing, I was drawing upon her earlier sharing of perfunctory quiet time and heart-and-guts quiet time. And what I was desiring to communicate is that it is heart-and-guts quiet time that makes the difference; however she was unwilling to put it out that way because she was afraid that that was part of her own mind or that it would be assessed in that way and so we were blocked in the full range of what I desired to share. Thank you for giving me the platform to get her moving and get my message out."

TOMAS: "I would like to add a couple remarks if I might. The first being that this particular TR, by comparison, had some aversion to "guts" today; I think it had something to do with the yard sale. [Ed. note: Response to earlier sharing.] But, as to meditation techniques, it has proven successful to establish a time and adhere to it religiously. A regimen, if you will, a date with divinity, if you prefer, established at a time when the external world is not invading. Establish for yourself half an hour uninterrupted. Allow yourself twenty minutes of stillness and prayer and then allow yourself ten minutes to receive.

This date needs to occur more often than on Friday nights. It is a practice which indeed will establish a hunger and eagerness to endure the trifles necessary in experiencing those life-altering adjustments which will bring fruit to your hungering soul. The date with divinity needs to be approached as eagerly as you would approach a mortal assignation, for this is a most intimate encounter. Bedeck yourself if you choose. Cleanse yourself. Sanctify your environment. Soothe your environment and set up your lighting to be romantic, for this all contributes to your poise, your coming together with the object of your adoration.

The only thing is that you have not discovered that yet. The anticipation of this relationship can be augmented by your own creative imagination.

Meditation, you see, is not a technique, ideally, for remembering items on your grocery list or other such mental disciplines. This is the love affair that will carry you to Paradise! You will find in the loving embrace of your First Source and Center in meditation that you would rather be there than anywhere. In fact, your loving Parent will nurture and comfort you to the extent that you now need to learn how to go play, to avail yourself of the wonders of life, and to receive the gifts of life. This meditation time is the roadmap for your future relationship with your Eternal Guide.

If any of my remarks have been helpful in augmenting your technique, I am grateful."

Signs

Rutha: "Tomas, this is Rutha. I have a curiosity question. At what position are you around Gerdean?"

TOMAS: "Are you speaking metaphorically or physically?"

Rutha: "Physically."

TOMAS: "I am, shall we say, focused to the northwest of her Thought Adjuster."

Rutha: "That doesn't help me."

TOMAS: "Actually, it does. I am perceived by Gerdean as being to her left front, and this is the angle that we have established as my entry point into her circuit."

Rutha: "Thank you. As the song goes these days, 'I've seen the sign'."

TOMAS: "You are welcome. I have a curiosity question now for you. The sign. Does it say, 'Slow?' 'Stop?' 'Railroad Crossing?' 'Peaches for Sale?' (Laughter) Why do you ask?"

Rutha: "I asked because I have been--while Gerdean has been talking--I have been seeing what I thought might have been you and then when she was not talking there was nothing there, and I have been in such a lull that I asked that I could have another candle, so to speak. Verification of that. So I thank you."

TOMAS: "I am somewhat troubled but I also understand your mortal condition as I, too, have needed and need assurances that I am real, that my perceptions are real, that how I am perceived by others is real. This, too, is our discussion for this evening. We are beginning to see with a different set of eyes, you see."

Human Condition

Rutha: "I have a kind of another question and I'm not really sure how to formulate it to you but when I was talking to my dear friend Frosty earlier this week she said, 'sometimes it just feels good getting back into being animalistic, being human and not being spiritual at all'. Is that being real?"

DANIEL: "Tomas, do you mind if I address that question?"

TOMAS: "I shall be entertained." (Laughter)

DANIEL: "That, my dear, is being very real, for being animal is one half of your nature and to deny or ignore or pretend away or desire to not be animal is not real. You do indeed have instinctual functioning; you do indeed have emotional responses that are primarily grounded in material reality; and although the material passes on and only the morontial soul continues, the morontial soul has within it the material experiences. Material life is considered very necessary to the ascendent career or this would not be the beginning. And so to try to not be animal is indeed to not be real at this time. Do you see?"

Rutha: "Yes, I see, and I concur with Frosty that sometimes it just feels good to just be animal and forget about everything for a time."

DANIEL: "Yes, indeed, and this is part of balance. Everyone needs a vacation."

Midwayers, Teacher Contact

Francyl: "I have a curiosity question. I've been going through some old books lately and found a bunch of books by Seth and could you tell me anything about him?

DANIEL: "I am sorry, my dear friend Francyl. That belongs in the realm of topics we are not free to discuss. If you find truth there, then indeed follow it and pursue it. Take everything to your Indwelling Spirit for validation and let your Indwelling Spirit and the Spirit of Truth be your guides in discerning what is true and what is not."

Francul: "Thank you."

DANIEL: "You are welcome."

TOMAS: "I would comment.

You realize that you have not been alone on Urantia all this time, that the United Midwayers have been active. Without the activities of the midwayers, we would not have come as far as we have come, although I realize that to you we have not come far enough. Even so, in perspective, the midwayers have not been idle. They have through the course of time made certain contacts and there have been manifestations of their activities.

I am not validating nor denying the personality of Seth, nor the activities behind his words; however, en route to a plateau of evolution there are efforts made. Even we are making efforts today. Abide by your own understanding through the Spirit of Truth and I will henceforth cease my chatter."

Francyl: "Thank you."

Closing

DANIEL: "Have we no further comments or questions or discussion for one another this evening? Then, my friends, I suggest we draw this time together to a close. Make seven dates with divinity this week. Keep them. Bring your love and adoration; bring your emotions; bring your questions. Allow this budding relationship to flower.

Tomas and I wish you a week of greater insight, of heightened awareness, a week of greater balance. Go in peace. Farewell."