2000-10-28-Rebellion

Session

Opening

PAULO: Good afternoon, good friends. This is Paulo. I am glad you are here to companion me. I have every confidence, however, that you will be mindful of my words for I am going to discuss elements of rebellion and what one of you would not be at least curious to know something about such a quirk of the psyche, the internal mechanism of the mind that might be considered trouble-making, scandal-mongering, disruptive or romantically heroic, and indeed rebellion has been and can be all of the above.

Lesson

I feel peculiar here, in some ways, for I have seen the lessons that have been presented by my fellow Teachers. Ham recently spoke on "harmony." Most of the lessons are designed to help you understand your divine nature, your kinship with divinity, the affirmative aspects of soul growth, and adapting to your ministry. Harmony is such a lesson, in that, it gives you the sense that all is well. In God's universe, all is well. There is harmony, peace, productivity, industry, affection, contentment - all the affirmative and positive attitudes.

Let's look at harmony in terms of the autumn leaves that you are all familiar with. Look out upon the autumn leaves and see the harmony of nature, even while you have evergreens standing next to the many, many colors of the deciduous leaves that will fall, leaving the stately pines to stand as sentinels throughout the winter as the oak and maple, birch and elm go through their seasonal adjustments of dormancy.

Do you think the elm would accuse the oak of rebellion? Or the oak would say the pine was rebelling because they were a different color? Because its leaves were not the same as pine needles? Or the leaves that turn gold are in opposition to those that turn red? No. They are harmonious. They all do what they do best and they harmonize. Look out across the hillside and the valleys and see how perfectly blended nature is, all of them doing what they do best and remaining true to their inherent purpose.

Remember the "unity in diversity" that is depicted as "harmony" as we proceed throughout our lessons on rebellion.

The toddler, as it begins to develop its own identity, will learn early on the word "no" and this is a form of rebellion. Do you want to eat strained carrots? "No! (Btthhhh)" This is a statement of purpose. "I am not here to eat strained carrots!"

And in learning to share, he will say, "Mine!" and refuse to acquiesce to learn the harmony inherent in a gracious social situation. This is what Lucifer did. He took a look at this young universe and said, "Mine!"

When you have situations in your social life (and I'm speaking very personally here), and you rise up in your heart and soul and say, "No, I don't want strained carrots!" you are rebelling against what someone else has offered; you are declining input. And this, in its elemental form, is rebellion. Anytime you disagree you are, in a sense, rebelling. Rebellion is a natural part, then, of developing selfhood, individuality, creativity and the inherent uniqueness that is yours. If you don't hold fast to that which is you, you will not develop to your capacity.

The goal, though, is like the trees envisioned in the idyllic image of the harmony of autumn leaves. The challenge is how to be yourself and blend naturally and inherently with that which is completely different, that stands right next to you. The problem is that everyone is afraid to be themselves. They want to be like everyone else; they want everyone else to be like them. In sameness, there is safety.

Sociologically, you discover, when you are growing up in your world, that your parents want you to date the same socioeconomic, intellectual, racial composition as your own clan, and if religion is a factor, it is important that you share those beliefs. These make for harmonious conditions, or at least they make for conditions that eliminate the need to bridge the gap between the differences, and it is considered that young people starting out need all the help they can get, so if they are marrying into a situation that allows for inherent harmonies, they stand a better chance of surviving the rigors of marriage and home life.

The success of the institution then becomes somewhat dependent upon the harmonious attitudes of the two having a purpose: home life, family, the basis of civilization, and the similarities, the safety, the routines and rules of conduct that oversee the lifestyle that affects the civilization aid this process. Anyone branching away from these fundamentals is regarded as rebellious; and this is true, they are rebelling from the status quo.

And look at Jesus. He has been called a rebel. And in the altruistic sense indeed he was, for he fought against the stultifying effects of religious tradition. He objected to those attitudes that depicted the Universal Father as destructive or punitive, angry, jealous or distanced. In fact, anyone who has a passionate feeling about a cause of any kind, and who supports his or her belief with fervor, while supportive on one hand, is rebelling against the opposite stance on the other hand.

And so rebellion is a natural part, a very natural part, of the evolutionary construct. It is both positive and negative. "And so what is the point then, Paulo," you say, "of wanting to discuss such a thing as stopping rebellion before it starts?"

There are things about rebellion that deserve greater understanding, but those of you who are tender-hearted, who like not to look at confrontational situations or arbitrariness, will not see the value of rebellion nor will you be able to uphold value in the face of immature rebellion.

Am I too early? Am I too early to discuss this with you? Are you too immature to grasp the concept that rebellion against the Father's will is detrimental? How can you see what is for or against the Father's will? How can you, with your limited vision, perceive what His will is and what it is not, and how it can be reflected in the lives of your fellows? Even Jesus, on the cross, acquiesced, and in saying, "Father, forgive them, they know not what they do," he took away the onerous of their rebellion against the Father.

And so the value of such a lesson such as Ham's on harmony is immediately apparent. How can I learn to stand next to my brother who is completely different, completely different, and blend in such that we create a brilliant and harmonious landscape; artistry in our diversity? We need to take a look at the farther view. Always will I be impressing upon you to take the farther view, for it is in the short-term viewpoint that you become myopic.

What are you rebelling against? And what are you rebelling for? Accept that you rebel as a natural part of your deciding who you are and what your opinions are in this world, in this existence. Do you say, "Oh, I never rebel against anything!" and regard that as a virtue? Or do you disdain others who take exception to your opinion and regard them as innately rebellious, as if they had a chip on their shoulder, or had something to prove? And thus, do you have an attitude about those who have an attitude?

Harmony. When you find a group of people who all have an attitude, you have a political faction. The opposite side of the coin presents another faction, those who are rebelling against your opinion. And I will remind you that "might is not necessarily right, but it is what is." If you want things to change, if you want more spiritual values to prevail, you yourself will need to rebel against passive acquiescence; you will have to stick your neck out. But again, what are you rebelling against? What are you fighting for?

Have you counted the cost? Have you looked to your motives? Are you motivated by anger? By fear? Or by love? Love of what? Fear of what? If you are able to do what Jesus did, and even more, then you must begin to accept that what you see is what you know and stand by that and not pretend to be a birch when you are an oak, not try to hide among the pine when you are maple, not disdain the trees that don't bring fruit that you understand. (Syrup is as much a fruit as an apple.)

I tell you there is not one of you that is not a rebel. If you are alive, if you have an opinion, if you have a response to a feeling, you have the potential of being rebellious and this is not necessarily bad. But unless you acknowledge these truths about yourself and everyone else, you will not have the foundation upon which to accept the individual rights to have attitudes and to follow through with behaviors that reflect their attitudes.

Look to yourself this week and make a note of how many times you rebel. How many times does your gut wrench, or your heart flutter, or your mind scream - even while you maintain your cultured demeanor. Know thyself. Know all of you - not just that which you want to see, but that which is. When you have the honesty to appraise yourself, you will have a better understanding of how effective or ineffective your rebelliousness is. And then, perhaps, we can discuss how insidious it can be, as well as how beneficial it can be.

I will split hairs with you. I will acknowledge your terms, your conditions, your definitions. I will haggle and intellectualize. I will not stand on a pedestal and assume I have all the answers, even though I am a Teacher. All of you are teachers. All of you, by your attitudes, are teaching something. I want you to know yourself. I want you to know what you are teaching. I want you to be able to look at yourself as clearly as someone else looks at you, and see, by your behavior, how you think, how you present your thoughts in action, how it is possible to look right through a person and see them — even when they say they are one thing and yet by their behavior they are indicating they are not. This is the kind of insight Jesus had, my friends. He was not naive. He was not gullible. When he turned his other cheek it was not because he was a wus!

We are developing a new social order based on our conscious recognition of sonship. This is going to be an invigorated society. It is based on reality, and that, in this realm, includes the material existence, the mental construct, and the spiritual ideal. These are your raw materials that you use to create your integrated personality. Let's find out about you, as you find out about yourself. Are there any questions?

Dialogue

Student: That's very thought provoking, what you said. It made me think that rebellion is as natural as two electrons, and that rebellion might represent that resistance that gives us our spark to live and we go in current flows, hither and thither as we progress. But what is the control of that hither and thither is what we're talking about.

PAULO: What is the effect of your rebellion, yes.

Student: Yes. There are two effects in my mind. There's the effect that is seen and felt by my actions and that rebellion that made me think that way in the first place. There's an internal rebellious reaction and there's an outward perception of that rebellion, and they're not necessarily the same thing.

PAULO: Correct. There are inherent deception possibilities. It's why I ask you to be honest about yourself, in order for you to recognize truth when you see it in others.

Student: That calls for a very keen sense of awareness.

PAULO: You who choose to remain blind may continue to follow the status quo and contribute to mediocrity through standardization. But if you're going to be enlightened, if you're going to ask for guidance and counsel, then open yourself to all that you can be, and that is not simply artificial.

I am finding a lot of resistance in the mind of the T/R. I can feel her resistance based upon her experience, the experience she has encountered in choosing certain words, and so she "takes them away from me" as I take them out of her brain. Is she rebelling against my use of those words? Or is she trying to save me the trouble of discovering for myself how those words are received by you? "Am I my brother's keeper?" Am I to protect him from his own experiential opportunity? But this is another interpretation of perception of another that is based upon what you know because of what you see, and when I say "what you see" I am speaking about your spiritual eye, not physical eye, for there is a great deal of difference.

When I talk to you next about rebellion, I will talk to you about rebellion insofar as Our Father is concerned, as if I had my own authority to speak for Our Father, and I tell you I do. I have the authority of my own perspective, just as you have the authority of your perspective. But how does it benefit Our Father is the question. "If you are not for me, you are against me." And this, too, opens up a sense of rebellion, as the trees, standing in harmony, even with their multi-colored leaves, might say.

Student: Before you explained that the T/R was having a hard time with your selection of words, it seemed you struggled to find the word "artificial." What do you mean by that?

PAULO: Open yourself to all that you can be, and that is not simply artificial, as in artificial sweetener. Your society, your culture, your Christian back-ground, something in you presents yourselves as turning the other cheek and behaving in such a way that would deny very real elements of your composition. The seven deadly sins have given the human condition a bad reputation. As a race, there was a time indeed when you behaved with more barbarism, but now you've become more sophisticated and thus more insidious. But that does not mean you have acquired any virtue.

I am hoping to be able to help you cut to the core of what is real. If you are afraid of what is real, you will continue to ingest "artificial sweeteners" instead of genuine milk and honey, as it were. Be aware of artificial sweeteners, and see if they are covering a rebellion, and if so, what is it a rebellion against, and if you are going to observe this in another, also observe it in yourself. You are no less interesting a test case and no less important in this study than those with whom you have dealings.

One day soon we will be able to discuss these things. It is necessary that we learn to be able to discuss these things. I say "we" and I mean "you" but I will help you. If we are to advance into a new social paradigm, we need to develop new and greater foundations upon which to build this social order, greater than the ones that went before in earlier times, in different days, with different values. Or you can ignore my lessons and remain standardized; I don't care.

As for me and my students, we will advance. Into truth, beauty, and goodness - in the individual, in the interpersonal relationships, and in the culture that we are hoping to develop as this mission proceeds. If there are 20 on the planet, that's a good start. If there are a hundred of you who are willing to investigate the reality of who you are -- not just your spiritual reality but your material/emotional reality also -- not even in terms of correcting, but in understanding, and knowing that within you which is good and true and beautiful, even while it is not in conformity with your nearest and dearest friends. Being original and unique involves being able to rebel against conformity, against acquiescing, against artificial sweeteners.

I will not carry on more today; I have already said enough, more than enough about the topic for now, but I am willing to engage in conversation if you have questions or commentary about the topic or any other. You are in charge now.

Dialogue

Student: Thank you, Paulo. That was excellent. It was really profound. I guess I just have to say that the more we can get into the truth of our behaviors that are often going to be, it's like being offered a quick course in self-understanding and I think I like that quick course. I might have to take it two or three times, but...

PAULO: Life is very vital. But it takes a courageous individual to live life to the fullest. I'm not talking about an Evil Knievel kind of personality who takes that kind of risks. I'm talking about an ordinary person, a regular person, who has the courage to look within and see in there all there is to see, even that which is not innately of the Indwelling Adjuster, There are heroic elements in the human, the animal who is the repository of the ages in terms of culture and contribution to evolution. All of that is in there, is a part of you.

Are you going to deny what hundreds and thousands of years of development has provided and say the only value, the only value is that which came from Divinington? What does that make you, then? That makes you nothing! How good is that for self-esteem? Not very good. And you need to have self-respect for your self. Tomas has talked about self-respect as a result of having an Adjuster indwell you, and this is virtual reality, because the subject would not even appeal to you if you were not interested in looking at your very real self. You can't look at your very real self until such time as you yourself are very real. And the spirit is the most real part of you, but it's not ALL of you. The rest of you is real also; very real.

Your human experience counts. That which you inherited from your parents, your grandparents, your great grandparents, from Adam and Eve, from Andon and Fonta, also is a part of you and counts very much as to who you are, how you perceive yourself, where your strengths are, where you're lazy, all of that. All of that is part of your originality, your uniqueness, human and divine.

When Jesus gave it up he said, "Father, unto you I commend my spirit." What about the human spirit, the human spirit that wants to live? Even though the Adjuster knows that it will survive death, the human wants to live. The human has integrity. The human has ambitions. That which is not merged yet with the Indwelling Adjuster has identity and purpose and will and integrity. The human animal is not a lesser being. It's a noble being. Set aside the idea that being human or being material is somehow insignificant or redundant. It is essential! If we didn't have YOU to make the decisions, the Adjuster wouldn't have a chance!

It is YOUR will that His will be done. It's THAT one we're going to study and discuss and get to know. Not the part that came from Divinington, but the part that starts out here, that has collected thousands and thousands of years of consciousness by being part of the material existence. This is the creature we're studying. This is the one we will live with throughout eternity -- if your rebellious nature rebels against the right stuff. You are not confused by that, are you?

Student: No. It just makes one think a little bit more about it. Well said.

PAULO: I will ask my comrades, Tomas and Aaron, if I am doing the right thing. (Pause) We would be delighted to take questions from the community at large. In fact, I anticipate we will be able to do that here in Spokane as you develop the outreach into your community, in the New Thought community. And insofar as that's concerned, the Teaching Mission proponents may also have questions that have not been presented to Teachers for one reason or another and I am offering myself as a respondent. In fact, Aaron and Tomas and I are all available and willing to assist in your questions.

As you say, there's much to this "conversations with celestials" that needs to be socialized in the greater community so that the world at large begins to understand that we are here to stay and that having conversations with God or angels or whomever in the spirit realm is not weird anymore but a part of the growing reality. If you can't ask God, who can you ask? Thank you Mr. Walsh for opening the door to "Conversations with God." Any time God is on the best seller list, it's a good sign, wouldn't you say?

Closing

I can see that this teaching business is stimulating, invigorating and habit forming. I will relinquish the podium, and relinquish you as well for the afternoon, with thanks to Machiventa, Abraham, Ham and all the other Teachers in this Mission for paving the way and opening the avenues for further learning, teaching and disseminating the New Thought, the new Social Order, the new way of Life and Light. Good afternoon.