1997-09-28-Discussion of Comments on TM

Session

Opening

Relationship

Michael (Jonathan TR): I bring you my peace; I am Michael. I have chosen to open our meeting. I have my three close associates with me today who will be speaking as I have had my early and human associates, Peter, James, and John. And, yes, we have the young lad, Elyon.

My beloved, some of you have sought me because of a sense of duty, to find who I am and to fulfill the will of our Father as I have portrayed this to you. In the course of your sense of selfless obligation you have been richly rewarded with personal gifts and gains in wisdom and light and love. Others of you have approached me because of the hunger to know who you are, your place in life, to be fulfilled in the sense of belonging, and you have been richly rewarded with a relationship with the Father and with many other beings. This two-way avenue of seeking and receiving will always be the result even when you perchance are oriented with but a single intention. There will always be reflective ramifications that will not merely fulfill your needs but amply rebound to establishing in you abilities and further curiosity that will propel you into broader, deeper, and higher potentials for not only self growth, but for universe action.

I retreat now though I do not leave.

Lesson

Machiventa (Mark): Greetings, this is Machiventa. I return to the classroom today to keep our scheduled appointment, and I see bounty; I see much fruit that has ripened on the vine. I was observing during your earlier discussion, and I gained much insight into your personal perspectives. One objective we will further undertake is to further reduce any obstacle of dialogue between yourselves and ourselves so as to become instantly accessible to you in your everyday endeavors. I am aware of the compilation amongst the class, however I desire to offer this opportunity to each individual present, and, make no mistake, the size of today's classroom is no accident. [There were 8 of us, a few more than usual.] We desire to make available to everyone an opportunity to discourse directly with us. While we are able to listen in on your pertinent spiritual conversations, direct contact and exchange is a valuable aspect of our communion together. Therefore, I would open up the floor to you each. It is not necessary to reiterate a life story, rather perhaps a brief synopsis of the longings of your heart, the questions of your soul. These are not as lengthy as you may suspect. Feel free to simply state a position, ask a question, or in any other form dialogue with myself or any of the many other teachers who are present. We will, however, remain in strict observation unless engaged by an individual specifically. I would now open the floor for volunteers.

Dialogue

Stillness

Jonathan: You said many teachers are present. Should all our TRs be alerted to respond rather than the burden be on the TR functioning now?

Machiventa: So be it.

Jonathan: We discussed how stillness practice has brought in the dimension not only of my personal communion with the Father, peace, and insight, but I also sense that the discipline can be helpful to others. I struggle with a lack of enthusiasm to do so. I experience a contentment that borders on despair because of the contentment. Do you have a way of putting a fire under my kettle to further motivate me to pursue it?

Machiventa: It is your desire that shall make this come to pass. It is noted, and it shall be so. Each rises to a level of confidence then is propelled forward by desire and in faith. From time to time each in this group will feel a sense of stagnation at a given level. This sense will be duly alleviated and overcome by an alternate sense of dedication and motivation. It is a natural part of the cycle, and you should never fear that you will not be engaged in this forward momentum. As you have chosen this fully and completely as your destiny, so it will be.

Mary: I would like to make a statement of thanks. The best I can say is thank you for stirring the still waters of my soul creating a current which is able to flow. I perceive that this is pleasing to the Father as well as satisfying to me. Thank you for playing that part. I have never found my soul to be hungrier or thirstier for fulfillment, and at the same time I am finding more wonderful food and drink than ever before. I find myself believing there is plenty of food to satisfy any hunger I'll ever have, and my desire is to find more imaginative and serviceable ways to be pleasing to Michael so that he is satisfied that his effort with me is bearing fruit.

Tom: In the UB it says that of all the ways of contacting deity which include worship, meditation, and prayer the master chose for his apostles service contact with the multitudes. In a prior transmission you said attending these meetings is a service; meditating, stillness is service. Does this mean we can substitute for stillness? Or is that separate?

Elyon (Jonathan): This is Elyon. Stillness provides service in that it is a preparatory step toward ministry much like taking a breath of air is a necessary step to blow out a candle. Blowing out a candle will not substitute for breathing. Service will not substitute for your communion with the Father, but this very communion itself is service enhancing. The master emphasized service because, when one is full with spiritual food, it is important to take a walk, to digest and to transfer this nourishment into active energy. Service is the exercise of the soul after having been nourished through communion. Without such service one may become overly filled and improperly content.

Mark: Michael, Elyon, Machiventa, and the others in assistance, this Teaching Mission has had the greatest impact in my existence. Nothing has had such an effect as this living dialogue as we now share. Your attention to my and our development means everything to me, causing me to change everything to catch the currents you provide. It causes me to change my tack to fill my sails with your ever present energies. For your service I am eternally grateful.

I feel the many lessons have to varying degrees been beneficial, though I have not fully internalized all aspects of them. If I were to never hear from you again, I would carry the essence and sincerity and some of the meanings of the lessons. I share the desire of others to do more, to be more, be more effective. I share the frustration with this desire and what it imposes. I request that if there is a particular formula for allocating our limited time to have the most potent effect, I desire to solicit this from you. I hunger for our continued contact and hope to affect others likewise.

Sonia: Thank you to the teachers and this group for the dedication to spreading the lessons and helping those students who are absent a lot. Too many issues have been brought up today to go into, but possibly in the future you can address each of them. Thank you all.

Urantia Book

Gabriel (Jonathan): I am Gabriel. I assure you that I have been as keenly interested in this age's revelation to Urantia as I was during the last epoch. I have, as you would note in your papers, been involved in this local universe chapter of the Urantia revelation, and I report with great pleasure my sense of success in the overall outworking.

When the rulings were handed down granting permission to undertake the revelation contained in print, we did encounter hesitation, for print is static, and the danger remained that the words would fall flat, would merely satisfy your intellectual, theological, historical curiosity. We knew that around the globe there existed many who sought direct communicative contact with the host of spirit beings who attend this sphere. Acknowledging that all efforts have been sincere and much has been conveyed, the administrators of this world have longed greatly for a body of human beings who could, on their own, with their own conceptual abilities, grasp with more accuracy, with less interjection of humanly contrived understanding, what the import of our messages is. To behold this day such a body of followers of the papers for Urantia to be making such sincere efforts to be in our presence, is a joyful experience of which I find no English words to describe. Suffice it to say that, as thankful as you are for your teachers, we are quite thankful as well.

Leadership

Rantarason (Michael H.): I am Rantarason, and I am also pleased to address this group. If I might encapsulate our hopes for you as individuals, it might be something along the lines that we hope for you to become prototypes for individual light and life. You may understand that light and life on a global level functions in many diverse ways. As [ (931) 924-7400 your country] is also being developed as a prototype for social, economic, scientific, and all areas of progressive evolution, it is important to have a foundation of actual living beings to be the ideal, or at least striving to be close to the ideal.

This means for each of you a certain sense of responsibility. This means that you would take it upon yourself to uplift those smaller situations where you do have influence. If you look at your world today, it is obvious that the body of humanity has areas of distress along with its peaks of beauty, but this distressed situation pervades. There are focal points, but the problem runs throughout all areas. We would ask you to become as aware as possible when you perceive circumstances that could be better aligned towards the direction of light and life. This means that you must be strong enough to look at the sores of humanity, and infuse not only your compassion, but ask, "Is there an action that I can perform right here and right now that will reveal the path to light and life?". You will find all around you the need; you will find everywhere the outlet that you search for. As you become more developed in these areas, greater responsibilities will present themselves.

We are proud that our efforts are manifesting as beautifully as you are.

Teacher Contact

Evelyn: I am reminded of Margul's comments, if we want to work with the master seraphim, to pursue our various professions or areas of interest where we can work with them. Earlier some of us commented that we would be willing and would like to hear specifically how we can be more effective. You just mentioned that we be as effective as we can in small situations. I want to reiterate that we welcome your assistance in helping us see what ways we can help. I feel like Philip who always had to be shown. I know you would rather we discover that ourselves, but some of us are slower than others. Sometimes it's hard to know if we have chosen a good way, if what we do is effective. We don't always see the outcomes.

While I have the floor, you frequently say there are teachers waiting in the wings. I really enjoy hearing from a wide range of all of you. I don't mind hearing from just one, but I do enjoy the opportunity to get to know more of them. So maybe you can lean on the TRs to let more of them come forward.

Elyon (Jonathan): This is the young lad. Today you have heard from some rather heavy hitters. I would offer you an assignment not to be executed during the week but to be undertaken on Sunday. Many of those teachers who wait in the wings to converse with you are your personal teachers. It would please them to have the focus of your attention in an upcoming meeting so that you may develop a deeper relationship, so that you as a team may be better prepared to function as light and life initiators. The teachers you have heard from today with the exception of Michael are quite busy and often about business which is not of your concern. Michael however is always and everywhere present from the administration levels with Emmanuel on down to your personal difficulties. This I request of you.

Evelyn: You are asking us to engage our personal teachers during a Sunday group?

Elyon: Yes.

Evelyn: As to how we can better function as a team?

Elyon: Whatever the subject matter you choose to share with them is up to you. This is an opportunity we offer to you to, as a group, spend time in conversation with each of the teachers assigned to you individually.

Mark: Is it necessary, to engage the personal teachers, that they are invited by us? Are they waiting for our solicitation on their behalf?

Elyon: Your request is of great importance, for their role is different from your guardian angels and the Father's presence. Both the presence of the Father and your guardians are concerned with your eternal career and your safekeeping in the process of attaining the status of an eternal being. Their concern with your daily life is only in regard to the greater picture. Your personal teachers are here to help with you in a more temporal application of your spiritual attainment. Being such in focus they are keenly aware of the sanctity of your decision arena and will not invade. Though your adjuster and guardians are subservient to your will, their objectives are so much greater in scope that they have the ability to guide you even as you choose wrongly. Your personal teachers are specifically instructed to not manipulate you in any way. So it is of great importance for you to invite their participation.

As you know, many of these beings are but a small leap above you in attainment. Because of this their scope of understanding is not as comprehensive as the Father's. Thus they wait upon you to work with them.

Mark: Thank you.

Tom: Are they with us all day long and in the evening? Or are they there only during meetings and when we send out the call?

Elyon: These teachers do accept the office of personal teacher with the intent to be with you as much as they can. But they are not like the guardian who will be certain to have one present always. These are independent ascending citizens and require time for other endeavors, so they can often be absent, for their assignment to you is only one of their tasks. But when time permits and as they have accepted this title of personal teacher, they allocate as much time as is feasible to attending to you. Where you have no need of their assistance, they let you act freely, of your own accord. If you request them to be near at hand, they are honored and duly motivated to put aside their current activities and drop in. It would be quite similar to your medical profession being "on call".

Closing

[The TR thought this might be Nebadonia]: I would send you on your way today with a final thought, one that my son learned so well when he was in Michael's presence here on earth. That was the phrase, "My children, love one another."