1999-03-26-Need For Humor

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Topic: Need for Humor

Group: Pocatello TeaM

Facilitators

Teacher: Daniel, Alexsus, Klarixiska, Minearsia

TR: Bill K., Cathy

Session

Opening

Daniel (Bill): My friends, this is Daniel your guide, teacher, friend, and colleague. I must comment on the spirit of your camaraderie this evening, for, indeed, it is characteristic of the true harmony which you exhibit and experience with each other as you are coming more and more into recognition of your true family status.

Lesson

We who are unseen to your mortal eyes, but yet present to you by your spiritual intuition, have also mingled and shared our observations and our interactions as celestial beings. We have had our family get-together as well. In some sense, our joining with you in your family reunion experience puts us in the role of older aunts and uncles, grandparents, perhaps. However, we are not like some stereotypes of elderly people who cannot remember and experience their ever-present child within, for it is one of the beauties of ascension that everything that has been experienced of value, is forever retained. So we, too, enjoy your childlike humor and comfort in interacting and teasing and playing with each other.

We desire that you understand this clearly... Religious experience is not pious. It is not morbid. It is not mystical or sacred. It is, rather, characterized by joy and freedom. The aspect of humor that is lacking on your planet at this time in its development is the over-reliance upon the put-down aspect...laughing at the expense of another's folly. As you mature you will find this kind of humor to be progressively unsatisfactory. You will find it demeaning and it will no longer bring you pleasure.

I have concluded my comments and I will now step aside so that others may make their commentary as well. One moment.

Jesus

Klarixiska (Bill): Excuse the delay. I am Klarixiska. I wanted to greet you all, my delightful younger brothers and sisters, and tell you how charming you are and how much I am enjoying observing you letting down your hair and letting go of the tensions of your everyday lives.

As is often the case, our commentary to you is the result of your prior interactions. We had thought in terms of addressing some of the meanings that are pregnant in the forthcoming Holy Week, as it is termed in Christianity. Therefore we have allowed you your play time without casting a wet blanket on it..

But if you will, my dear friends, I would have you think about what this time in the life of our Master Son entailed. He had learned fully by the time of his baptism that every decision had to be brought into the presence of God, our Father. He had made the supreme dedication in a gradually increasing commitment to submit every decision to the guidance of his indwelling Adjuster. He knew that his life was about to end as a mortal, for he had seen in that pre-knowledge that he had as a combined divine Son and Son of Man that his public ministry had virtually ended. As he turned his face to Jerusalem he experienced the range of human emotion: anticipating the anguish, the shame, the betrayal, and even the inevitable crucifixion. He attempted a few times to forewarn his apostles but they were virtually clueless as to the meaning of the events that were to come to pass.

You know the story, how he rode into Jerusalem apparently as a conquering and yet humble King of the Jews. The events of those days are clearly spelled out to you in the papers of the midwayers as they are preserved in the Urantia papers. I tell you all this because I wish to bring you all into a consciousness that you are those same apostles, not literally reliving their experiences, but literally representing, associating with, speaking for this same Jesus Christ Michael of Nebadon!

Even when he was tempted to use his power( which was legitimately his to use) to control events so that he would not have to endure the anguish and shame, the torturous death of crucifixion, he never wavered in his determination to leave it all in the hands of his Heavenly Father. His human nature triumphed for he withstood the great temptation to take control of those things which he could give over to his indwelling guidance from his Father. By perfectly submitting his will to God he achieved the completion of his perfected humanity and in that submission he fully triumphed. As a result of his living this human life to its fullest he presented to God the Father and to the evolving God the Supreme a matchless piece of humanity and human experience, fully embracing all aspects including the shame of a wrongful death. Consequently, Christ Michael of Nebadon knows every nook and cranny of mortal experience. There is no essential definitive experience that he is not personally acquainted with!

You are still mortals; you are not Creator Sons. You do not have the same inheritance that Jesus did. Yes, this is true. But remember my friends, he made all those decisions and achieved all that revelation of perfect humanity in his human nature and by the choice of his human mind. He voluntarily set aside his divinity in order to be fully human. His achievements stand for all time as the perfect ideal of mortal existence. Therefore can we all, not only mortals but all orders of intelligence, learn from him what it means to pray that prayer and truly mean it, "It is my will that your will be done." In this prayer is the meaning of human life. He has revealed it clearly. All other lesser meanings pale in comparison.

But at the same time, this does not mean that you all become droll, sad, or miserable in your discipleship or your apostleship, for he was not a man of sorrows, characteristically. He was a man of joy and great confidence, and his habitual character stood him in perfect stead during this time of his greatest trial. It revealed, of course, the steadfast rock on which he stood, that it was his will to do the will of the God in heaven, his Father. True joy comes from letting God be God and letting go of that delusion that you or I know best what is best for us.

Thank you so much for listening to me this evening. I am honored to be given this place in the agenda as we once again think about the last days of our beloved Sovereign as he completed his humanity in perfection.

Daniel has indicated that he would open this to any questions for a limited amount of time due to your time frame. And there are others here that can reply: your usual teachers who are in our teaching staff including Minearisa, Aaron, Daniel, and the rest of us who are deemed to be personal teachers.

Alexsus (Cathy): This is Alexsus. Before the floor is opened, I would ask your patience in trying a brief exercise. Imagine in your left hand a perfect white egg symbolic of the season. Now please close your eyes and decorate that egg in whatever manner you deem reflective of your being.

And now in your right hand, is a gift from God. It also has the shape of an egg. But observe it in your mind. How does it differ from the one you have created. And if you bring them together to make a single egg, observe the effect.

My point here is two-fold. First, the egg that you created is symbolic of your hopes, your potential, your creativity, your pregnancy, if you will. And please take a moment to answer the question, "Was the egg that you created of your own design? Or was it what you were taught to believe your egg should look like, what mother told you an Easter egg should be, what father told you an Easter egg should look like?" You have, each of you, the power to create your own reality. Please do not let others do it for you. Make it your own unique creation. Shine in your own unique pattern of light and color.

My second point is that when you take what you have created and merge it with the creative power of the all powerful, what you merge together, becomes so much more powerful, so much more beautiful than what you have created alone. The floor is open.

Dialogue

Value

Roxy: The Urantia book encourages us to distinguish between that which is value and that which has value. (100:3.3) Can you help me distinguish between these two?

Minearisa (Bill): My name is Minearisa. I will attempt to respond to your question. My understanding of this differentiation is one of qualitative differentiation.

It can be stated that every aspect of creation has some value. There is nothing in the universe which exists that is valueless, that has no value. The time-space level of finitude is an attempt in process to replicate the perfection of the Central Universe, but with an additional aspect of freewill participation by nearly infinite orders of intelligent will creatures in that completed perfection. Every aspect of this evolving finitude, this growing finite, God the Supreme, has relative degrees of value.

The statement, "That which has value is differentiated from that which is value," (100:3.3) in my understanding means that ultimately that which is value is none other than the First Source and Center of all things and beings. It is my understanding that it was this ability to differentiate between that which is value and that which has value, on the part of Jesus and along with his commitment to that difference, that allowed the Master to achieve human perfection; to live a perfected human life. For while he recognized relative value in family, in recreation, in work, in good health, in interpersonal relationships, he knew that value itself was God and that his relationship as a mortal man to that Source of all relative values would put his life in the proper perspective.

[Editor's note: I have edited some of the words in the following sentences because the meaning conveyed by what words I used as a TR resulted in a logical confusion. With permission I have done this. The confusion was over whether personal relationships were of relative or absolute value. Relationships, the UB tells us, are never means to an end; they are an end in themselves. (112:2.8) But relationships between people, if they do not recognize the family of God, i.e. brotherhood/sisterhood status of the individuals and their relationship as sons and daughters to the Divine Parent, can become idolatrous. In that case they only have relative value. But the relationships between personalities which recognize the Divine Family approach absolute value]

There is also potential value in itself in personal relationships because personality is a gift/reality of God, God being triune in relationship. Therefore value in itself may also embrace relationships between personalities when these relationships recognize their true relationship to each other as sons and daughters of God. These relationships, then, become value in themselves. They are not of relative value; they approach absolute value. That is why, from your mortal career, what really will last and which is counterparted by your Thought Adjuster are those things which are value, your personal relationships with each other and with your indwelling Monitor. Other things that have value will fall away in the ascension career. You will gradually let go of those things which have lessor value as you achieve the journey to Value Itself.

Does this clarify or suggest something of value to you my friend? Would you like to interact about this?

Roxy: I need to think about it some more because I've just been stumped. So I appreciate your insight.

Alexsus (Cathy): This is Alexsus. An example which may help clarify would be a rose. Anything which embodies truth, beauty, and goodness are value. The rose indeed embodies beauty. It is value. The thorns which upon the stem of a rose are of value because they serve to protect that which is value. I am finished.

Minearisa (Bill): Roxy, my friend, would you share your thoughts on this subject with us please?

Roxy: I really couldn't draw a distinction. I was baffled at the distinction and it seemed important to be able to tell the difference.

Minearisa(Bill): Isaac is aware of the conversation you had with him although he cannot remember what he thought he understood at the time. The statements that I made were mine and not his. He will also be interested to see this in black and white. Are there other comments, questions, contributions?

Virginia: I am sitting here frankly trying to understand myself what all that has been said. But as I am thinking about this, could it be said that, that which has value is the only thing that will lead us to that which is value. And that's why, am I summing up what you said, Minearisa, and that value is only found in relationships that reflect honesty, goodness, and beauty?

Minearisa(Bill): Sometimes the appreciation of that which has value acts as a lure to bring people to an awareness of Value itself, God, the author of truth, beauty, and goodness, and of personality and hence of personal interactions and relationships.

But sometimes that which has value becomes idolized and takes the place of that which is value. Many examples are obvious. Your culture has, in fact, made an idol of wealth, power, knowledge, self-sufficiency, egoism, and the list could continue. By themselves, all these things have relative value, but they are not God. They are not of spirit essence, but are combinations of material and mindal reality.

Worship

To know and worship God is the greatest experience that any of His creation can enjoy. To do this is to fully experience absolute value. When this experience has become a part of you its essence is so clearly "value itself" that it puts all the other things into a relative cast. The striving for honor among peers, the competition for glory and power, all of these things are seen to be in a different league. (It is hard to put this into words, for my TR, for he is seeing pictures that are hard to express.) The reason for differentiating what is value from what has value is to make clear the nature of idolatry, to say you have not experienced value itself until you have fallen in adoration and worship at the feet of God and experienced the thrill of your existence as His child and the wonder of your brotherhood/sisterhood with all other intelligent beings. This is value itself. The color of your clothing, the makeup on your face, the size of your muscles, the achievements of your mind, the esteem of your peers, these are of value but they are not value itself. Have I clarified for you?

Virginia: Yes, I think so too. Yeah. Your last statement kind of threw me for a loop because I didn't expect you to end it with saying these are of value. Because those are the things I am trying hard not to be a part of because I want to dismiss myself from that focus.

Minearisa (Bill): But, you see, they are of relative value. They are not equal. There is a place for these things in an earlier part of your life. They are natural human desires. There is nothing wrong with them in themselves until they assume the idolatrous role of value itself, which they are not. So, as you progress, and esteem them as less worthy of your energy and devotion so do you move in ascension toward the Source.

Remember the book teaches the greatest joy on Paradise is worship. So powerful is this experience that is requires the Conductors of Worship to control it. It is, for you mortals, a rare experience to worship, although you attempt it. I recommend that you take the time to spend in contemplation of God, the Trinity, whose purpose you are a part of.

Closing

I will cease the discussion now, my friends, for this TR is weary and your plates are full. Jesus knew where value lay. He knew what value was and is. (Mechanical owl hoots.) The hoot of an owl has value for it produces fright in its prey and they move so the owl can obtain its dinner.

What is value is this mighty creation and plan in the mind of God which is unfolding as you participate by your free will choice in His family and embrace all your brothers and sisters as His children. I leave you with these thoughts. Good evening.

Ken: Thank you Minearisa. Thank you Mr. Owl.