2001-02-09-More On Mistakes

Session

Opening

Prayer by Andronason (Bill): I am Andronason. I will lead in prayer.

Great God of all creation, who sits on the throne of justice and glory, may we, your children, satisfy your mercy and your justice in our treatment of others and in our emulation of Michael. Bless this meeting this evening that it may produce spiritual growth in the hearts of these, your children, and my beloved brothers and sisters. I ask this in the name of Christ Michael, our Sovereign. Amen.

Daniel (Bill): Greetings, I am Daniel, your guide, your teacher, your servant as a fellow brother, and your great admirer.

Lesson

Error

Tonight we will continue our discussion on making mistakes having introduced the proper understanding of the difference between error and sin with mistakes being associated with the former. I wish to assure you that your understanding of these things is growing and your willingness to listen to new perspectives is benefiting you and changing your lives. I can see, in the 10 years that we have been together, enormous improvement in your awareness of universe reality, appropriate humility, the willingness and the ability to forgive yourselves and each other, a new perspective on the essential oneness of all humanity based upon spiritual unity, and the importance of providing service to others. Of course, this progress has been accomplished on each person's territory because of your willingness to engage yourself with your mighty Indweller, your Mystery Monitor fragment. We teachers will admit that the plan of the Teaching Mission to introduce you to spiritual contact has been greatly successful.

Now, having shown you the great distance you have traversed, I wish to continue to focus on how you can learn from mistakes, for this the only appropriate reaction to them. The first thing that you need to do when you have made an error is to determine what the antecedents were that were associated with that erroneous decision. What was the nature and source of the information that you were acting upon which resulted in a less than satisfying decision-response on your part? Remember I am not referring here to conscious choice of error with knowledge of forethought. That would be a sinful choice! Erroneous choices, mistakes, in the first place are the result of misinformation, of incomplete knowledge, etc. The first thing, then, that you need to do is to take a look at the patterns of information that you were privy to. The purpose of this is to see where you can discern the deficiencies of your sources. See where prejudices that you hold have limited your willingness to hear conflicting or dissatisfying information which could have prevented your erroneous choice from occurring. Examine the filters of your mind and look at the presuppositions that you hold regarding truth and regarding reality. Ask yourself, as you look at each of these presuppositions, if they have any weaknesses, any holes in logic, any immoralities in ethical consideration, any self-centeredness which over-rules the justice motives for others. These sorts of questions are important.

Next, look at steps that could have been taken to prevent some of your electro-chemical automatic reaction from occurring, for some of the mistakes that most plague you are the result of automatic neurological events, the ‘fight-flight' mechanism of the brain, which over-rides conscious control when there is interpreted in the mind a situation sufficiently dangerous that the body turns off higher reason in over-ride configuration. It is this hair trigger, neuronal connection, programmed by Life Carriers and carried out by evolution, which is often the cause of later grief. Your world with its focus upon danger has heightened the arousal mechanism to the point where many things that are not actually harmful or threatening can trigger the over-ride mechanism so that people do things that they later regret, and wonder why it is that their best intentions were not fulfilled. Again, what has to be done in order to prevent this kind of automatic triggering is with great diligence and effort to reinterpret the signals which in the past have been termed to be dangerous and threatening, and truly examine whether or not all of these things rate such a high priority rating of danger. In this regard one's trust in God is paramount. Recall if you will that often the Master was cautioned by his Apostles against certain activities, for instance, appearing in Jerusalem, because they feared he would be apprehended and murdered.

Of course their apprehensions were finally fulfilled, but before that event Jesus told them repeatedly that he did not allow that kind of fear to interfere with his trust in the Father's love and care. He told them he was confident that nothing could harm him unless the Father willed it. Therefor, if you hold as intimate a fellowship with God dwelling within you as did Jesus did with his Thought Adjuster, you may be assured the same confidence. It is not necessary for you to live as a mere animal, constantly on the lookout for danger. This is one of the great spiritual inadequacies of life on Urantia at this time.

Now to the last of this discussion, which has to do with having examined the antecedents of the information you made the poor choice upon, and having examined the interpretations of danger you have allowed your mind to ruminate on and cause you to over-react, what can you do to act differently the next time? [Whimpers of laughter.] I must back up and say one more time if you do not do these things I have just talked about, the next time will be no different than the last times. There needs to be an intervention in your thinking in order for you to profit fully from the errors and mistakes that you have made. Many people when they make mistakes become stymied by the fact of making the mistake because they are still back there with the guilt and shame syndrome. However, when you have passed that point, that mistakes are inevitable, then you have made great progress. What do you do when you stumble and fall down in order to continue walking? You do not lie on the ground and kick you feet and cry because you have stumbled. You put your feet underneath your body, lift yourself to your knees, and then to the full standing position, put one foot in front of another, and resume your journey. The longer you lay on the ground feeling sorry for yourself the more difficult it is to get up.

In this case you have one additional source of strength. You may lift you head and ask for help from God, from Christ Michael, from all spiritual sources, and with the effort from pulling on their firm grip, you will find yourself lifted even more easily. Life is a wonderful adventure, my friends. By this I am referring to eternal life, but it begins now, as you know. In the future, turn your fear of change into a lust for adventure. Know that nothing can harm your soul, that you are in the full, complete, abiding protection of the Universal Father whose fragment lies within your mind.

I have completed my scheduled talk this evening, and now I would be willing to hear from you. Please share your questions, your concerns, or your comments.

Dialogue

Expectations

Virginia: Daniel, as you know, I feel that I have made a colossal mistake this week. And as you talked about antecedents, it dawned on me that perhaps an antecedent of mine was my expectations in that particular situation. And certainly the Urantia book says that if we didn't have any expectations, we wouldn't have any disappointments. [Laughter.] But I think that in this situation I expected so much more, and feel that I definitely made a mistake. I have been trying to pull myself up with God's promise that even mistakes can be used for good, and sometimes truth said in a harsh way can bring about good results. So I thank you for what you said, Daniel, and maybe I need to change and not have any expectations in a given situation.

Daniel (Bill): Thank you, Virginia, for sharing your insight. The Urantia book does say that if you reduce your expectations, you will also reduce your disappointments in other people's behavior; but I would not suggest that you have no expectations. Rather than throwing away all expectations, perhaps it would be the better choice to trust that all spiritual help is available to you and to these children that you minister to. You must, of course, realize that freewill makes it difficult to predict an outcome with any degree of certainty, but if you maintain a positive, hopeful, uplifting attitude when you interact with these students--you will communicate this and it will enhance the outcomes. Remember, as a teacher, and this applies to everyone in this room for you are all teachers, that you are limited on what you can accomplish when you seek to influence others, as every teacher seeks to do. You can plant the seeds. You can offer them to the minds of the hearers, but you cannot guarantee what, or how, or to what extent, those seeds will take root. The reason that Jesus offered the ‘parable of the sower' to his apostles was precisely for this reason. He did not want them to be thrown off center when their efforts met with mixed success, or outright failure on the surface of it.

As to making judgements about mistakes, remember I said that they are inevitable. They are not disgraceful. There should be no shame or guilt attached. The only time that shame and guilt are appropriate is when you consciously choose the wrong thing, when you, with knowledge of forethought, make a bad choice. Then guilt and shame should occur, until forgiveness is accepted. Have I addressed your comments, my dear?

Virginia: Yes, Daniel.

Daniel (Bill): Do you have further questions or comments?

Virginia: No. I'm just fine.

Daniel (Bill): Any others? [Pause.] Then I have an assignment for you. This will not require sharing with the group, unless you wish. My assignment to all of you is to pick a recent experience with making a mistake and go through the process that I have given you for examining the antecedents or the interpretation that led to an automatic overload of fight or flight. I would ask you to consciously analyze this and write it down, and then take it into your stillness and talk to God about it. If you trust each other enough, and you can choose one that isn't of such a nature that it leaves you unwilling to share, then bring and share it with the other members of this group. Any questions on this assignment?

[Pause.]

Midwayers

Virginia: Daniel, if there are no other questions, I would ask about the midwayers and their relationship to each of us as we try to serve?

Daniel (Bill): What is it you want to ask about them?

Virginia: Anything you want to tell me. Anything you want to share. (Laughter.)

Daniel (Bill/Isaac): By that if you mean . ..are they really there, and are they really contacting you?... I would simply say they are as real and as in contact with you as we teachers are. In fact midwayers are used in the contact that is occurring right now with Isaac, for the midwayers are contact personalities. They are good at altering electrical currents so as to turn on candles, turn on lights and turn them off, turn on streetlights and turn them off, and other ways as well. They do these things for various reasons, depending upon instructions of their supervisors; but I know for sure that often this is just a way of saying "Hello, my friend, I am here to assist you. I am your cousin who loves you, and I am here also to protect you." Is this what you had in mind?

Virginia: I am not sure what I had in mind, Daniel, but thank you for that. I think that confirms some of my own personal thoughts. Thank you.

Daniel (Bill): I have a word for you, Letah/Virginia, regarding your grief over your sister. Do not stress overly much for she is greatly loved and cared for. Her guardians are present, and all possible help that can be given, is being given. Continue to pray, but surrender anxiety. It will ease your burden, and make your days that remain with her more bountiful.

Virginia: Thank you.

Closing

Daniel (Bill): You are welcome. Are there any other concerns? [Pause.] Very well, let us gather together again holding hands, and we will conclude our meeting. Klarixiska wishes to close in prayer.

Klarixiska (Bill): I am Klarixiska. Let us pray.

May the beauty, the serenity, the purity of divine love pour forth from God onto each one of you, my dear friends, so that your lives are upheld and sustained from this night until we meet again. Walk in the light so that you do not stumble. Let it illuminate your path. Be of good cheer. Even so, may it be. Amen.