1997-04-15-Acknowledgment of Great Need

Session

Lesson

MERIUM: I am Merium and I would like to use the metaphor of a cup, briefly. It is bewildering to us sometimes why this richness that comes in doesn't linger long. It is because your cup is being enlarged. You will be able to have a greater capacity. Do not be hard on yourselves. The human condition is a whining child, a bewildered child. We come together to remind each other that we are becoming new in Christ. We are new, and you are allowed to be renewed. We bring you both comfort and good cheer. One moment, please.

Friendship

DANIEL: I am Daniel. I have been summoned and it gives me great pleasure to attend your meeting. I have good tidings to bring from your peers in the spirit realm. I will convey how heartfelt and eternal these relationships are. It is true that when you develop a loving friendship with a personality, you recognize that personality even after a long absence, and when you are away from someone that you love, do not grieve the absence, for assuredly you are not truly separated, but only in your limited understanding are you separated.

In truth there is no separation. And when you feel the embrace of your loved friend after a long absence, you will recognize that it [the friendship] is as alive and vital at that moment as it ever was in its previous configuration. This is a lesson that only comes through time, for often you are not aware, by the nature of your existences here in the flesh, that this is a truth. In coming to conjoin with your group this evening I will convey that Gerdean was not so much saddened [Ed: the T/R wept] but joyed to feel my presence, an old friend; although my arrival did bring to mind her undying love for my beloved charge Debbie.

It is hard to convey to those who do not appreciate this Teaching Mission or the truths of this spirit reality, but the friendships that you develop in spirit are vital and eternal, are more real, in truth, than the many, many acquaintances and fellows that you encounter in your short lifetime in the flesh. It is and has been an honor for me to share your world, to become part of your living reality, to help you step into the light of truth. I will return one day to visit you again. As I have indicated, our friendship is not lost, but is found and is eternal.

TOMAS: I am Tomas.

Group: Welcome, Tomas.

Assistance

TOMAS: I confess to having a fragile vehicle this evening, but she is stronger than she might appear, and much of her strength is due to her faith and her commitment to these higher truths and realities that we have mentioned and that Leah has approached in song.

My words to you this evening have to do with Band-Aides. It is well known to us who observe life on Urantia that there are any number of Band-aides that people apply to their situation in order to heal the wound, be it real or imagined, and it is equally possible for you to approach the teachers and the spirit realm as if it were yet another Band-aide that when you come and suffer, when you are in emotional distress, that your contact with us will provide you a Band-aide that will enable you to feel better and go out renewed.

I would like to stress to you, my friends and my children, that we are not a Band-aide, that the spirit life is not "the opiate of the masses," for as you are beginning to ascertain, being aware of spirit reality is not always easy. It is not easy to put these principles into effect in your life. "His yoke is easy and His burden is light," but it is also true that you have not all perfected yourselves, that as you learn and as you come into the light, as you indeed learn how to relinquish the old wounds and the old patterns, there is upheaval in the growth struggle.

We are not here to assuage your ills and soothe them to the extent that you no longer feel them, but we will comfort you as you learn and develop those internal lessons that will enable you to heal and grow, rise above, and walk through life's vicissitudes without them becoming an onerous burden of existence. We are not a perfume that you squirt over a foul smell in order that it should not disturb you, but we are a medicinal salve that will help the healing process.

Your pre-meeting discussions this evening testify to your sincere growth struggles. The fact that you, as a group of individuals, are able to objectively and yet with concern observe the ills of your society -- not in condemnation but in concern for correction -- is a vast step forward from where your concerns were a year ago. As you, to some extent, represent a fraction of the collective consciousness, you may feel hope that your concerns will be also the growing concerns of many others, and so the struggle is not on your shoulders without aide. Merium?

MERIUM: Aide. Good evening. Aide comes this evening as a warm embrace and it is certainly due and is welcome. We can certainly feel your appreciation and your colors are changing as your receptivity swells. The conversation this evening was enthusiastic with your effort to be non-judgmentally judging, and kindly self-disciplining. You were examining the programming of your lives, the conditions of the people around you, and it takes strength, it takes focus, in order to allow people who are not of the same ilk or have the same agenda to be very close to you. They are careless with you and they do not even understand themselves.

Your conversations were on target and I wish you well and all a speedy recovery in the new wave of what may seem an onslaught of misunderstanding. That is why it is so important that you take/grasp the reins when you feel a retort coming (because we know who is delivering the return, the reply that is not carrying love; we know that that messenger is a false one) and we encourage you to stop and not reply, but to cast it into the eternal fire.

It's as if it were some place that you could extinguish these things at hand, and you will find new techniques with which to do it. They will not appear as techniques so much as they will carry the power of defusing. I am reminding you that darkness cannot enter light, and when you find yourself vulnerable -- you were talking earlier about keeping a low profile -- this is the time for a low profile, when you do not feel at your best or your strongest. And there will be many days like that.

Recently my hostess here has been dealing with the pains of watching her friend live in a state of difficulty, of living between two worlds, and this is an art form that your new light self is allowed to maintain. You are a bridge between the new you and the world that knows not of the love of God. It is an art form and in your development you tire easily and need to retreat to the old way of being.

I am using Hunnah's reserves this evening. It seems as if the lessons repeat themselves again and again and you weary from it, but what you do not understand is that you are also being strengthened because you catch yourself now, whereas before you may not have. You will venture into the wrong area, yes, but you will not remain there as long.

Dialogue

TOMAS: It is time now that we ventured into your area. Have you questions to present for our discussion? Have you concerns that you would bring to your teachers and your peers for sharing?

Hunnah: Tell us... I'm stepping out of my Merium mode. This is Hunnah.

TOMAS: Yes, Hunnah.

Growth

Hunnah: There is a concern for our need to feel and measure progress all the time. You lavish your praise upon us. We are constantly faced by the challenges of the limitations of our material goods, and the basic needs. How do we keep from keeping ourselves in a state of need? It is so difficult. Can you take it from there?

TOMAS: I must take it the only place it can go, and that is in acknowledgement of your great need. It is innate, as you seek perfection, to strive even further for even greater perfection, and so there is a consistent and recurrent state of neediness. It is the uncomfortableness of that state of being that precludes many from consciously taking those steps that would bring them into a spiritual way of life.

The admonition "Be ye perfect" is highly fear-inducing, for it infers you must be willing to acknowledge that you are not already perfect. Granted, in your growth, in your relative perfection, you may enjoy and acknowledge the sublime peace which passes all understanding; you may know serenity; you may enjoy a certain aspect of personal light and life; and you may even glimpse moments in time and space wherein this light and life is extended to include others, and that is a joyous day indeed.

But as you assign yourself to ascend unto the Father, as you allow yourself to grow, you will recognize how far you have to go before ultimate perfection is attained. That recognition can cause discomfort. Your notion of failure is what disturbing. Not that you are needy, but that you have failed to attain perfection causes you grief.

If you were to appreciate your growth process, that it is not a matter of attaining and then having completed the task, but that with each new plateau of perfection comes another surge of yearning for that next understanding, that next piece of experiential wisdom, that puts you once again back into a situation of needing ~ the experience of needing, the support of needing, the encouragement ~ and as you have obviously set out with gusto, we have been sent to encourage your growth, to give you those necessary and requisite pats on the back that will allow you to continue the struggle, the good fight of faith.

Remember, too, that you are becoming more aware of what you are doing. When you walked in darkness, it was not necessary that you receive accolades and encouragement so much, for you found your value in other things, indeed, in things and in people. And now that you are finding your reality in higher avenues of reality, you need to yearn for this same encouragement and companionship as you once found in your material realm, and so we encourage your bonding, your camaraderie with each other, with fellow believers, for they can encourage you when you stumble, when you grow weary; they can understand your humanness when you become impatient or when you know anger. Also we are glad to provide counsel and encouragement and yet new fodder for your growth mill as you assimilate these lessons of time and eternity. Have I addressed your concern?

Hunnah: Yes, you have. But I would like to have you approach it from another direction, if you don't mind.

TOMAS: Proceed.

Experience, Wisdom

Hunnah: I have met people lately who have been bewildered by their inability to get "grounded." It is as if sometimes life is so painful you don't really want to -- they want to be in the lofty place all the time and being back on the ground in daily grind is just so traumatic for them they don't want to stay; they want to fly. And I was talking with someone today about the human condition reaction if a person is threatened, to either fight or flight, and so we have this paradox: we have the fighters and the ones that want to put their wings on and leave the situation, and here in this room we have three people who have experienced both conditions. But the ones who want to remain in the lofty realm, suffer just as greatly as those who can't seem to get up off the heaviness of human dependency.

TOMAS: There is a mota that I will call to your attention. You may look it up for the exact wording (48:7.15) but it refers to the fact that wisdom is not gained from the isolated mountain tops but from the depths of human experience, many of which involve anguish and suffering; that is where wisdom is learned. And it is easier to stay on the mountaintop of these sublime feelings, but eventually the sincere child will recognize its fantasy life and need to ground itself in order to serve that God which has given it existence, in order to serve its fellows that they too may rise, and rise together to those lofty heights of soul appreciation and spirit awareness.

Hunnah: Thank you. It reminds me of that line, "Don't worry, be happy," that all will be well and that this is the temporary situation.

TOMAS: Be prepared, when the friend falls from the lofty height and finds him or herself self knee-deep in mud, to be supportive, to not disdain the mess but to help them up, that you may trod the path together. Remember the boards that Merium spoke of? In your early ascension there are some rather murky pitfalls, but as you begin to develop your faith, as your roots are well grounded in the soil of spirit and in life itself, those lily pads are carefully placed such that you need not fall off into primitive planes of existence any longer.

It is necessary that the individual learn to love life, even that he learn to embrace disappointments and enjoy the sorrows of existence. These experiences are those which bring about wisdom. Remember that the greatest affliction is to have never been afflicted, for it is only in affliction that you learn wisdom, and so even the down times, even the dark nights of the soul, even the difficult passages of life, the sore disappointments and the tribulations of time, are a part of the divine plan. Even though it may not seem so in the experience, in reflection, after you have emerged and seen your growth, after you appreciate the lesson that you have learned, after you see the gift that you now have to give to those who follow behind you experientially, you will understand better the Father and his loving plan for you.

It is of course not fun to step off the pedestal and into the arena where there are wolves and bears, but it is being done all the time by courageous individuals, and these individuals are growing spirit muscle; they are developing, along with their sensitivity, thick skins that will enable them to work in the rough realms as well as in the sublime heights. This is cause celebrate; this is part of the full spectrum of your living experience -- the peculiar dichotomy of a full human being enjoying life in the spirit and in the flesh, a unified personality indeed.

MERIUM: Thank you, Tomas. While you were talking I was reminded that it is very easy to become self-absorbed in your spiritual journey, and that we must remember that everyone around us is in a different state of development and everyone will use the same situation differently. In Hunnah's background there is healthcare, and the person experiencing the problem is developing a tolerance and an attitude of cooperation perhaps in one way, as the person taking care of that individual is developing another aspect of him or herself.

Everyone is receiving their own assignment, and for those who lift the assignment up, they are the ones who will develop the benefit from it, those that count their blessings, watch for new opportunities and allow themselves to be strengthened by the great or the little amount of faith that they have. It is a time of growth, of expansion. It is to be used that way or it can be a time of heaping more burdens upon themselves and staying in the dark a little longer.

Service, Abuse

TOMAS: I have been as burgeoned with as much "stuff" as you have been and I would like to address some of your "stuff" with some of my "stuff," for that is what we do -- we share our inner life, and as you experience and express what you are going through, we express our part and we are family doing our part, as you said.

And now I would like to discuss that concept that was brought up recently, that being: presuming upon divine mercy. I bring it up because of the earlier sharing and also because of a question that was asked outside of session one day that we noted. Today, for example, it would appear as though Gerdean lost her temper and assaulted verbally a person that she had intended to provide service for, and before she or you think ill of her for her outrage, I will bring to your mind the truth about "presuming upon divine mercy."

It is not necessary for you to give and give and give until you are depleted. It is a fine line between serving and being used, and you need to determine that for yourself. The other question that was asked had to do with, when you are given an assignment, how long do you stay with the assignment? When does it become a matter of the assignment's needs versus the needs of the self?

I will bring in an analogy here of the child growing out of a pair of shoes. You know that it's time to buy new shoes when the shoes begin to pinch the feet and begin to cripple the child in his wearing of them. When the shoes begin to pinch, it is time to pick up your ears and observe where you are in your assignment, where you are in the service field, for it is not intended that your service be painful.

If you are allowing yourself to be unduly burdened by your concept of service, then perhaps you are allowing self-abuse. Do not be alarmed by that word. It is a human condition based on your need to help and not always understanding when it is appropriate to back off. You become invested in the situation and, if there is no one there to pick up the slack when you back off to nurture yourself or to take care of your next need or assignment, what's to prevent the situation that you have invested so much time and energy and love into, from falling on its face and all your efforts going for naught?

Any act of service has been beneficial and useful. Any excessive service is what we might call "enabling" and when you determine that you are enabling rather than serving, you are witnessing a situation that the recipient of your service is "presuming upon divine mercy." They have begun to feel comfortable with your desire to serve and they have gone beyond the requirement; they have gone beyond your ability to serve in the situation and pressed into usury.

At the point of your recognizing that … at the point when your toes begin to cramp in pain from the shoes you are wearing, from the moccasins in which you have been walking … that is the time to step out of those shoes and to step out of that assignment, for it does not serve to provide service where it is unjustified. Allow the Father to provide other avenues of assistance; allow the divine plan to unfold without you being on hand at every instant.

The truth remains that the self is not important, the work is important; but when the work has turned into a twisted excuse for service, it serves no one.

I know you have all "been there" so I will not linger on it unless any of you would like to delve into it, but it was something that was on the agenda to be addressed earlier and then it was compounded by your sharing this evening, and so it was a subject apparently that needed addressing, but I have finished my remarks.

What say ye now as to our agenda? Are there other questions or is there commentary?

Hunnah: I have a suggestion that we have numbers like at the bakery, or at the meat counter, and that will keep us from hogging each other's space, but there is something I've just got to talk about here and then, Leah, it'll be you. In my work it is very important to involve the recipient of the service into some independent action solving their problem.

Managed home care is absolutely the big gun right now, that is forcing people to say, "can I really afford the luxury of a long recovery?" and this luxury of being in a recuperative state, longer than what they consider necessary, is no longer in tempo now, and it is amazing, you will -- the shoe has gotten smaller in the sense that they are given an ultimatum: "you have X number of days in which to rally" and for some reason, this will kick in, and that person will find themselves healing in less time than they would have before. It will permit that person to involve him or herself in a positive way so that the task is accomplished (and for some reason or another, I'm not very good at applying that in my own personal life), but it is something will be happening in some aspects of our lives - not lounging in a particular mode, but that there will be action, especially for those who wish for divine assistance.

TOMAS: It is very true that as you have faith in someone, they are bolstered and they begin to perceive a certain amount of faith in his or herself. This provides a good support system; it is commendable and most often successful. Do we not encourage you? Do you not encourage each other? And, in truth, do you not ~ in your own privacy ~ encourage yourself? For there is faith, in fact, and it will motivate you to improve and succeed.

Many thrive on encouragement and praise, but when they presume to presume upon divine mercy, whether it be directly from the Father or through his various agencies, such as home health care, Hunnah, or any manner of personal service, then another tactic may be necessary. It is unfortunate, but it has been said and it is true that in certain individuals fear is a great motivator and that only as they discover that their support system will be ripped from under them do they begin to stand up and take notice that they had better do something toward making their next move in survival.

There are individuals indeed who cannot deal with the affirmative and positive aspect of growth but are still more comfortable with the pain and punishment kind of development. It is not a favorite of the Master or of the teachers or of any love-saturated soul, but you have heard the phrase "tough love" and unfortunately it must sometimes be rendered. It is my supreme hope however that as we cleverly and courageously look at these service situations, as we take them to the Father in prayer, as we glean guidance from our celestial helpers, the more evolved methods will be effective for your putting them to use.

As you grow in spirit, as you become more aware of your own contribution to your growth and the growth of others, your own dignity status of a self-respecting child of God comes into play and it is no longer appropriate that you be forced into growth for you have become willing and eager to grow, even when you know that it will be uncomfortable. You also have lived enough that you know that the discomfort will pass and that the effects of this growth passage will far outweigh any temporary discomfort in making those decisions and movements that will lend your path a further piece of ascension.

Those are the realms in which we work. Some are more amenable to growth changes than others. It is not always your opportunity to decide what service opportunity you will be given. If it were left up to you, you would quickly spoil yourself with only those experiences that were comfortable for you. In serving others you also learn, and so as you have mastered certain areas, you will be given opportunity for service in other areas that you might expand your palette and your resume of service qualities, that you may expand your own comprehension of the human condition in conjunction with spirit leading.

I tell you, when I am off-line, you chatter so fluidly! And then I come along and … I am beginning to feel as if I was ignorant of how to be a conversationalist. I make the suggestion that you provide commentary, and it sounds like a drill sergeant. I understand the method of transmitting sometimes lends itself to this staccato voice, but I am not staccato in my spirit or in my understanding appreciation of you, my fellows. Feel free to engage me. I enjoy our repartee. Leah, why are you so quiet this evening?

Leah: Well, it has something to do with the discourse you just gave and fear of rejection. I have a question on my mind, but there is the fear that it's going to be — it doesn't really concern you and it's a curiosity question, but it does concern me, it's weighing on my mind.

TOMAS: I would like to hear it if you would be willing to share.

Leah: My sister is going to have a party here on the Earth plane. When we reach a certain age ~ like 40 or 50 ~ we have big celebrations. She wishes to have a party for her husband. He plays in a band; he's a drummer in a band and the people in the band are artists and they tend to be temperamental, to a degree. She has asked two of the persons to come to the party and they have told her that if the third one was invited, they would not come; and she was incensed, and she was saying to me she couldn't believe that they wouldn't be appreciative of her husband's being there for them.

The reason they don't want to come to the party is because this other individual is alcoholic and has a reputation for ruining everything. And my sister said to me - in fact, he ruined a child's birthday party recently. He sings in the band with her husband and he's a very sensitive person, but he has a problem and these two have taken a stand that they will not come. It was her intention that they have an evening of singing and playing with the many people and many different bands he has played with for the last 15 years, and this alcoholic person is one of the most recent, and she is in a real dilemma.

She says that she knows that it's true that this alcoholic person will probably be disruptive, but she's annoyed. And she confided to me -- I feel like it's an annoyance, too, like you always should include someone -- but she says she knows this man's history and probably everything they have said about this man is so. So, I guess I'm just looking for an opinion.

TOMAS: I am going to grossly over-simplify the situation . ..

Leah: Thank you.

TOMAS: . .. and suggest that "two out of three ain't bad."

Leah: (Laughter)

MERIUM: This is so delicious. I would like to comment about this. First of all, I would like to ask Leah: are you carrying this?

Leah: I don't think I'm carrying it, but I'm entertaining it.

MERIUM: Are you simply wondering if your sister is of the same persuasion as you, if you went to her study group and talked about the things that we talk about, how would she handle it? Or how would Leah handle it? I would like to look at it from two points of view, if I may help you.

Leah: Leah would have a much harder time handling it. My sister has already made her decision, but I have a sense of inclusiveness that gets me in a lot of trouble.

MERIUM: It is an opportunity to share a lighter touch, a loftier view of the problem. You are dealing with social etiquette. You are dealing with people's feelings. You are dealing with someone who has a reputation. You are dealing with the way we weigh our friends with our own challenges, and we like to pass them on to someone else to tell us what to do with a situation because it makes us uncomfortable. I am commenting here not to answer your question, but to level it out and look at it from an aerial view.

If it were your party, I would ask you to remember that everyone has a Thought Adjuster, to wish them well, and pray for their higher demonstration of social graces. I will encourage you - because you consider it a problem to hear about your sister's dilemma and tell her that you are looking forward to finding out what's on the next paragraph and how she handled it - because technically, from our point of view to you, there is nothing to do. And this is frequently the case. There is nothing to do but to listen, to hope that she will have the poise and the maturity to handle whatever social situations come up. It is easy to develop the habit of carrying other's burdens. I feel you are unnecessarily weighted. This does not just apply to you, Leah; it applies to everyone. Watch for the excitement in someone else.

Hunnah has a friendship, and a lovely friend, who is continuously weighted with bricks of personal problems. The person enjoys solving them, sharing them with her, and she had to make sure that she eased herself from the role of having to participate. She was supportive and would watch her friend solve the problems herself. She cannot stop this behavior, but it has helped Hunnah not to carry on the relationship with the troubles that the friend has, being almost as important as the relationship itself.

I have traveled a ways from "to be or not to be well," to "to be or not to be rude and disruptive" to "to be or not to be tolerant enough to put up with one more bad show." The point that I am making here is a little more far-reaching than just this group, and I hope that the readers who read this talk will be able to glance at some of the relationships they had and see if they cannot apply some of the wisdom our brother Tomas has offered you.

I hope you will let us know if the party was a success. We have lifted it up, even unconsciously, and offered it a higher solution and I wish you well.

Leah: I wish you well.

• Benefits of Teaching A Man to Fish

TOMAS: I will follow up with a reference to our earlier conversation having to do with teaching a man to fish, that if he is taught to fish, that he can fish for himself rather than your providing him with fish on a regular basis and continuing to allow him to be dependent upon you for his very existence.

The similarities are inherent for your role as sister, is to teach your sibling how to fish and then you will not have to provide her with fish on a daily basis. I address you here to say that your inclination is to approach everyone equally as all being spirit indwelt and therefore all inclusive, and I would ask you to remember that this is not especially a spiritual occasion she is planning, but one which is inherently filled with merry making and revelry — surely a dangerous environment for one who is unsure of his footing in the realm of imbibing.

The success of the party may well hinge upon his not attending, and if he were indeed not invited, it may be a method that his friends and family in the spirit could let him know that he would no longer be enabled, that he had begun to presume upon the divine mercy of their good social graces, to the point where he himself could learn to begin to fish. That is all.

MERIUM: Tomas, thank you.

Leah: Thank you. As a matter of fact that's more or less what I did. I listened to what she had to say and I asked her if these other two individuals were accurate in what they had to say about the https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alcoholism alcoholic]'s behavior and she said indeed they were and that she knew that to be true. She seemed a little more annoyed about them telling her what to do.

TOMAS: It is certainly an affront to the ideals of your sibling, who has only the highest motive in having a celebration for her mate and for his beloved friends. It is irksome indeed that someone should say, by way of an ultimatum, what they will do that will impact on your ideals. It is indeed troublesome as a hostess to discover that two or three of your guests are so loathing of another that they would refuse to attend, that they could not transcend their personal difficulties to honor the host.

(It is, parenthetically, much the problem that Urantia has today, that the various sects cannot transcend their differences and give celebratory homage to the Father of us all rather than say that they will not attend if that other will be there; it is appalling indeed.)

But she cannot do much in this situation for it is not merely a psychological twist that she could cleverly and creatively and with spiritual guidance correct and therefore contribute to the growth of these individuals, because it involves a serious illness, and I would only ask that it be remembered that it is our Master's policy to love the sinner and hate the sin, and if the sin of alcoholism, in this case, has reached a point where it has rendered the sinner ineffectual or out of control, then it is the better part of valor to accept the situation as it is today in hope of a better tomorrow.

Leah: Thank you very much for your words of wisdom, both of you.

MERIUM: Thank you for being willing to share that. I might add that no question is a foolish question; no question should be regarded as too embarrassing for the group. Tomas is especially skilled at taking a question and lifting it up and making it a valid and useful tool, and we do encourage you to express it if you have something you would like to have discussed.

Anna: Tomas?

TOMAS: Yes.

Socialization

Anna: The last two days I've been in Advocacy for a Welfare Rights organization and something that I noticed about it is it removed me personally. I also receive welfare, and I found myself removed from my own problems more in the last two days than I have been in a long time, looking at it from another viewpoint. I don't consider it a problem, it's just an observation that I made. I think subconsciously I felt that I wasn't able to put it into words, and I don't know how long I'll be able to do that, this advocacy thing, because they are removing people from the roles, putting them in the work force. I think it's going to be challenging.

TOMAS: You have been challenged and true to form you have risen to the occasion. You have been able to take an objective point of view to what you have been subjectively experiencing and the new you is expansive and is benefiting of your understanding of the situation.

It is most unfortunate that the welfare system, as it is understood, was put into effect, for this kind of dependency is not healthy for individuals. It is a far greater benefit when the society will help an individual understand who he is and how he fits into society and then help him find his way in the society, again, teaching them how to fish and not merely casting them a fish on a regular basis for this does not solve the problem; it exacerbates the problem because it has now trained thousands of people to be dependent, and it is necessary, in order for the human race to evolve, that it begin to look NOT to the government for subsistence but to the Father and to its own innate resources.

Everyone who has a Thought Adjuster has the ability to find his or her way as is outlined in the divine plan. I realize that sounds vague and rhetorical, but it is a truth, and as your world can lift itself up from the quagmire of war and poverty and disease, it will begin to flourish, it will begin to brandish a self-sufficiency and self-respect that is powerful!

These individuals who cannot and will not end their regime of presuming upon mercy will be trodden underfoot. It is in many ways -- and do not marry me to this remark -- that the difference will be made clear between the animal and the human being. (One moment.)

I have been admonished that I have ventured far afield of my assignment by my sociologic diatribe. Remember that I was a sociologist in my human life. As a cultural anthropologist, these are some of the things that I dealt with and have found invigorating throughout my entire existence. Indeed, these concepts are exciting, but they are not necessarily what service I am here to perform.

I am, however, encouraged by your discourses and your thought processes along these lines, for as you individually begin to develop a social consciousness through true morality, then your spirit will have questions, your soul will ponder the latest developments, your heart will throb to the latest expansion, and this is where I may be of assistant, and NOT in criticizing your history, for, as we have often pointed out, it has been that way for a reason, but now we are into Correcting Time and it is exciting to see that these many ills are indeed coming to the forefront for correction.

The lesson herein for you, dear Anne, is the advantage of the objective point of view. The subjective point of view allows you to feel hopelessly enmeshed in an emotional quagmire wherein there is no relief, but as you can put an objectivity on your life and circumstances, and indeed on your emotional reactions to life's experiences, you can begin to see from the farther view. You can begin to expand your understanding of who you are and how you can be, even in this "vale of tears."

Well done, and keep up the good work.

Closing

One would not suspect from such a quiet Tuesday that so much truth could come to be placed upon the table. We have had some rotten lemons and we have had some sweet peaches, and it is coming time for us to close for the evening. Before Merium and I bid you a gentle good night, however, I will ask: are there any lingering concerns on your mind or heart?

Hunnah: I have a suggestion, Tomas. That we write down our homework from now on so that we can . .. I was going to suggest that we be allowed to lift up everything that makes us uncomfortable, hurry it to the alter, and ask for a new definition.

TOMAS: I find your suggestion very advantageous. Your intermissions have long provided us with fodder for our discussions, and as you express and reveal yourself to others, you also express and reveal yourself to yourself, thereby gaining greater insight. I like your suggestion, but I will remind you that when you allow yourself to be vulnerable and place your feelings and thoughts on the table, on display, you risk judgment from those who forget that they are not here to judge, and so let us timorously approach that enterprise and see if we can get into the swing of it. If these matters can be brought to the table in full understanding that there will not be judgment to bear, then we will have sincere sharing of the inner life, indeed, and we will have such a marvelous community of purpose.

Beloved flock, dear friends, and delightful children, we bid you a fond farewell until we meet again.

Note

Leah sang at the outset of the session