2001-10-13-Oasphe Discussions

Session

Opening

PAULO: Give yourselves some slack! Paulo here. Good to be back. I've missed a few chapters in your saga; however, these life lessons can be picked up where we left off, as truth is ever revealing, ever unfolding, ever constant, alive and growing. It's therefore virtually impossible to get a fix on anything for very long, and anything you do manage to get a fix on, instantly is out-dated because of its very crystallization, but you can't blame a guy for trying, especially in these provocative times when war and peace are so visible as potential realities, and when religion is a part of the political and sociological scene, such as it is in your arenas today. You can't ask for better than this: to have far-reaching perspective. Here's the value of knowing your history, for even though you gain much by your existence in the eternal NOW, you gain perspective when you see the farther view, from whence you've come and thus you can conjecture at length on how you feel you'll go as an advancing race. Historically speaking we are at another revolution.

Lesson

Peace, War

I was going to talk about being rebellious as a response to what's going on in your world, but rebellion is not necessarily the same as agitation, even though in the immature, agitation often leads to rebellion. It's as if you must do something, even if it's wrong. And religionists have been doing this for ages. Killing each other in the name of goodness. In a way it's a symbol of the conflict of evolutionary growth, for there is no growth without conflict. That doesn't necessarily mean war, and armaments, but it does imply conflict and resolution. And so these times are a time of mental stimuli. Many thoughts and philosophies are being pushed around and played with, weighed, evaluated, assimilated, discarded, as if a discussion of the many factors involved in the world situation as you perceive it, is going to give you the all-knowing perspective that will allow you to resolve the matter for your own peace of mind, if not for peace on earth.

How does that happen? "Peace on earth." How does it happen over an entire globe? It begins in your own heart when you cease to be in conflict with yourself, when you have aligned yourself appropriately. Appropriate to whom ?

Aye, there's the rub. Appropriate to the whole. But the whole has to be adequate in order for that kind of commitment to take place, and at this point, we haven't begun to garner the unity that yields the loyalty that transcends the separation that allows the whole to be. This is the stress, of course, on why it is that everyone become God-conscious, spirit-led. Even though intellectually it may be perceived different with each individual, in the essence of the spirit, harmony is the net result. Even today if you were to all set aside your intellectual differences, we would have peace on earth. But since none of you are willing to set aside your opinions, it's necessary for us to have this growth, this conflict that can resolve values such as we are grappling with in order to have a greater appreciation for what it is we truly aspire for. This is a sociology matter. It's the brotherhood of man. It's Human Associations. It's about how people get along. It's about the fruits of the spirit ("And by your fruits you shall be known") even while your philosophies may vary greatly and your theologies be at complete odds. It is said that if you are to have faith, then have it to yourself. In this way you aren't arguing your ideas, you are living your beliefs - and those are values, meanings and ethics - not tenets. If you want to argue tenets, you're talking politics.

There are no two of you alike, and thus no two of you share precisely the same thoughts. Each of your perceptions has your personal slant. It's not possible for all of you to have the same theology because it is so personal. It is intensely personal, inasmuch as it is the umbilical cord of your identity with reality, however those are perceived. This is why people die for their faith and what they believe in. It has reached the point of that is who they are; they live it so completely.

If you understand your fellows, you will eventually find their motives and this will lead to an appreciation of their humanity such that your heart will be open to embrace the similarities you share, the values that are at the heart of you each, even as you differ in philosophy and approach. \ Education is extremely important, but education is as much of a weapon as is religion. You can browbeat a people with knowledge and only alienate their affections. Knowledge is living and needs to be shared, socialized. Socially speaking it's a long process, and spirit can accelerate the process considerably by allowing for sudden leaps of faith and insight into situations that result in understanding and thus resolve.

All of us want to know resolve, and have peace of mind. It's difficult enough, ascending these planes of existence, without battling everyone along the way. That we all battle inside ourselves in the good fight of faith is adequate struggle, but as long as humanity prefers to reach for reality outside himself, and project his own conflicts onto others, are we inconvenienced by these revolutions of conflict as we are viewing in your world today. What can I do to help? Any questions? What are your concerns ?

Dialogue

THOROAH: Peace on earth must, relatively speaking, almost be like heaven on earth, to get to the point where a peaceful earth will take a giant transformation.

PAULO: Well, isn't it a matter of surpassing your animal nature and isn't that a fair parallel of the ascension plan, to make the spread between life implantation and the attainment of light and life, thus the goal of the inhabited worlds? So to the extent that you continue to experience war, that is the extent to which you have attained mastery, as a race of people. Some worlds, some races on some worlds, have established a policy of segregation from the more warlike in an attempt to differentiate themselves.

THOROAH: How do you separate yourself from warlike people? They have a tendency to invade you.

PAULO: It must be done early on. It's referenced in the text

(Page 804. "The ‘golden rulers’ may establish a progressive society in which they live according to their ideals while maintaining an adequate defense against their benighted fellows who might seek either to exploit their pacific predilections or to destroy their advancing civilization. [1])

where it talks about those who would choose to live a peaceful life, have a right to separate themselves from those who would take advantage of their natures, and this is where defense is appropriate as compared to offense, which continues the cycle, but it's rare that you find a people who are willing to "turn the other cheek."

United States

THOROAH: Historically, the United States has been on the perceived side of justice, freedom, human rights, etc. We seem to have taken the defense initiative to a certain level and then pulled back, sometimes maybe criticized for holding back, in that we have allowed the problem to remain by pulling back. How do you look at the United States as peace maker? Are they a peace maker or are they part of the problem?

PAULO: I don't want to give an "either/or". I don't want to say the United States is bad or good. For it has its strengths and its weaknesses. It is known throughout the world for its involvement in global affairs, but not always is its involvement favored. Sometimes it's regarded as an intrusion, an invasion. If you were to personalize the United States, give it a personality, and picture it being a grand manor at home but hob-nobbing throughout the neighborhood much of the time; there are those who say she should go home and mind her own business and quit meddling in the affairs of the neighborhood, while there are those who truly appreciate the services an d the invigoration that comes from her visits.

It's a matter of personality presentation. What would compel you to go to your neighbors house and offer your assistance or defend your property against their aggressions? Where does one draw the line in terms of social justice? The answer is premature inasmuch as it is difficult if not impossible for you to rightfully judge your neighbor's behavior in and through your own view, but as a civilization, if you have a band of people who share your views and this band of people has power in the civilization, then as a civilization it may choose to act on behalf of its citizenry whereas individuals are unable to do so.

World Government, Urantia

So your conflict is unfinished growth. You haven't become a world society of people with a world government that can keep the peace by global law. You don't know each other well enough as nations to understand each other. Your cultures and religions are so different as to set each other up as if you were enemies, in a situation where fisticuffs is the only resolution. You would have far more power to act if you were acting as global citizens. But to the extent that religious differences, political differences, national differences, economic differences, language differences, etc, etc, continue to render you strangers to each other, your attempts at human brotherhood are aborted.

Again, education is a viable answer. Ignorance and prejudice stand in the way of growth. As prejudice dissolves because ignorance is enlightened, peace can prevail because understanding is possible. So we're in the realm of the mind. And all of your minds are in a tailspin, working overtime, so I say "Give me some slack. Give yourself some slack." There's a lot to think about, a lot banking on this episode in Urantia history, and the spiritual climate is as electrically charged as it has ever been, while the danger of physical annihilation is running high temperatures also.

No wonder we are here to teach you to be teachers. There is so much to be learned. So much reality to be impressed upon the people of Urantia. So much reality needed to compensate for the centuries of unreality, which have held you in its grasp. What we can be glad of, however, is the quality of the Universal Father that allows its children to allow divinity to work in the lives of men and women even unconsciously, so that the reality of God is alive and well, even when the people themselves remain in ignorance.

All this worry leads to tension and sometimes good arguments are ways of filing down the rough edges of a tense situation so that you can let go a little and laugh a bit, as a safety valve against destruction, but it takes a God-knowing constitution to keep a conversation in the bounds of good grace, not forgetting that you are fellows, not enemies. So when you see someone having a heated conversation, don't assume it's going to erupt. Be at peace . Have your own resolve. Maintain your own faith. Know who you are, and know what time it is in terms of your personal frame of reference for reality. I f you can keep that focus, you can help bring about peace on earth faster by merely being anchored in the living water.

Well, I have been all over this planet in all kinds of situations and conferences. I have the advantage of not having to use your transportation system. Anything else I can do for you here while I'm in the neighborhood? I haven't been around for awhile. I know some of you were wondering if I'd gone home.

THOROAH: I'm glad you're back.

PAULO: I've just been very busy.

Oahspe, Revelation

THOROAH: I'm sure. I have a question about something I was reading today, having to do with perhaps an intended revelatory work that didn't quite make it, called "Oasphe"?

PAULO: Yes.

THOROAH: I haven't seen it. Actually maybe I've only heard of it once before. It had been intended - from what I read - to be a teaching tool, sort of complementary with the Urantia Book for a stage in our evolution, but something evidently happened to the Oasphe. It never had its intended impact.

PAULO: I was not familiar with that tome. It wasn't part of the briefing I got. But I have heard of it and I know for a fact there are a few copies left in existence. I haven't got, therefore, a response for you. Perhaps I could find someone in the wings. Wait a moment.

THOROAH: Thank you.

RECORDER: This is a recorder. I will record for your information the tome entitled "Oasphe" was intended to startle humanity into an awareness of what work was required, as if it were a depiction of the worst case as compared to the Urantia Book best case scenario. It was entirely too negative. It attracted only those who found pleasure in perverting the accidents of time into an indictment against free will and, again, our Father's ascension plan . If the rebellion had not taken place, if the Adamic default had not occurred, the Oasphe would not have come into existence, but a fifth epochal revelation to humanity would have, regardless. Fortunately, humanity truly is quick to discard its recollection of pain. In the attempt to malign the Creator, their instilled hatred for divine goodness persisted such until recently. Today there is some residue vicarious thrill in viewing the grotesque, bloody, deformed results of tragedy, but for the most part that appetite has gone the way of things long since past and no longer holds quite the lure it once did. In the mind of those who compare the Urantia Book and Oasphe in the main, they are discerning the old polarity of good and evil as a natural part of the whole, whereas it is commonly understood in more advanced circles that this is erroneous. It is all light, and the light will vanquish the darkness.

THOROAH: Does that explain the comparison of the two as male-female counterparts, good and evil counterpart thing?

RECORDER: Inasmuch as it is based on an old yin yang paradigm, yes, very likely, but it is conjecture only that would allow for that conclusion, for I am not personally cognizant of that source, that perspective.

THOROAH: Then that perspective that I read today was talking about the fact that there are indeed perspectives that come to us from the spirit side. I think maybe we as humans think that because you are a spirit that you know everything, and sometimes we're surprised when we find out that you don't. We also think that you have instant contact and can find out anything and that isn't necessarily the case and that you and he have a perspective on the universe which might not be the same as another spirit.

RECORDER: Indeed, it depends upon who we are talking about. There are those who do know virtually everything, and there are those who have only their area of technical expertise to concern themselves about. There are messengers who convey information and yet don't retain it for themselves. There are living libraries. There are circuits and personalities of an infinite variety. And yet, in the caliber of an epochal revelation to your world, every concern is factored in as you have seen by your appreciation of what was involved in selecting the lineage of Jesus of Nazareth to be the stage upon which he lived out his seventh and final bestowal. The same is true for your fifth revelation, the information pertinent to your spiritual comprehension of your place in the universe, geographically as well as cosmically, is intact and complete. In time, of course, you will discover the many related threads that help tie in this revelation to the evolving comprehension of world history, including its cosmic side. In this way you will learn to appreciate the revelation even more as time goes by for its contribution to your comprehension of you and your world when it was given. It does not make the revelation less because more has been revealed, just as Jesus' revelation to Urantia is made less by his ascension to Salvington and the effects of his life and bestowal here only now coming into play as part of the unfolding pattern of perfection for your world.

THOROAH: I read someone say today that the helpers, our spirit helpers have moved into a new phase so that they are here to ratify things that we are discovering for ourselves, rather than to (?) for awhile there it was not necessarily the case, but now if we know how to ask questions it w as emphasized knowing how to formulate good questions, will get us good answers . Not necessarily the crystal ball gazing thing, but if we know how to formulate questions, I know our teachers have been saying that for a long time. Is that the case?

RECORDER: Yes. It's otherwise as situation of whetting your appetite, and when you develop a hunger, you will voice what it is you hunger for. Then the real meal begins. I will return you to Paulo.

PAULO: Yes, of course, Thoroah. The teachers come in and teach, as if they were lectures or approved curriculum, and in time, as your understanding begins to formulate into a reality, you want to expand that perception of reality. But it takes a mental exercise in order for you to wrap appropriate words around the concepts you seek to have elucidated. It's an education. (Yes.) And when you begin to ask specifically, you are revealing how your mind is operating. You are revealing that your mind is operating! And then we can begin to co-operate. It puts it in a more participatory partnership frame of reference than a passive absorbing of values, as a dry sponge absorbs water. And learning how to formulate questions is like finding the prince. Sometimes you have to kiss a lot of frogs and ask a lot of dumb questions before you begin to feel the results of your efforts, not in warts , but in substantive morontial reality.

One of the most irritating things to new students is the assurance of a teacher who smiles a lot and giggles in delight of being, for no apparent reason. In this, the student is stimulated to fight for this kind of self-awareness that would give him so much inherent glee. I'll come with you, Gerdean, to the Psychic Fair. I'll bring some of my rookie students. We'll exercise our skills as you present yourself in service to the Metaphysical Research Society. We are sure to have fun and sure to plant a seed now and again. That's a fair day's work.

GERDEAN: Thank you, Paulo.

THOROAH: That's good news.

PAULO: Well, it's part of my assignment here, to venture out into the greater arena and bring home some truths. Anything else?

Closing

THOROAH: That's enough for this week. Thank you, Paulo.

PAULO: Yes, perhaps you've had your appetite whet once more. We'll see you around.

Farewell.