2002-01-19-Dreams of Tomorrow-Live Today

Session

Opening

Music: "Abide With Me" - Pianist: Dorenda (Elena)

Prayer: (Matthew) Let us place ourselves in the presence of Jesus, the Christ. Master Teacher, we come to you as we are: unadorned, simply who and what we are -- as we're becoming more fully aware; as time, experience and grace enables us to become unabashedly who you made us to be. The Spirit that we are is becoming. The Soul that we have is growing. And the Life that you have promised is for sure.

We are grateful, and pray that the teachings we receive today strike a chord within us that enables us to be ever more assured of our eternal home, which is here and now, as we continue our eternal path.

For all those we know and love that are in need of special attention -- whether it be healing physically, emotionally or spiritually -- we place their needs before you now, and ask for the teachings that you endorse as those that will enrich us and all that we know and love.

In appreciation for all that is and ever will be, we are forever grateful. Amen.

TOMAS: Listen to the tinkle of the music-maker as the wind weaves its way through, creating beauty and abiding with you; it is as the Master. (Pause - the T/R has a serious frog in her throat) The equipment is faulty. Thus my address is short-circuited. Perhaps we can prevail upon Matthew to precede me. [There commences a sharing of throat lozenges.]

Lesson

Catastrophism

ANATOLIA: I am with you today in, perhaps, an unparalleled capacity. Only because my spirits are high, my energy vital and my aspirations for myself and yourselves have never been higher. I say this only because you will be increasingly more aware of the spiritual energies, which will be compounding your world and your lives more abundantly in the heretofore future.

It is a time of great opportunity to grow spiritually as the forces which are becoming more and more evident in your world, (the forces which are playing havoc, if you will, with the 'powers that be,') are more increasingly and dramatically showing the contrasts that are present in your world, both here and beyond. For the 'powers that be' in your Worldly systems are at odds, are pushing the envelop well past the edge of the table, and are consequently forcing issues that otherwise would still be theoretical and subject to academic pursuits and studies of, if ever, what would happen.

Now the academics are becoming evident. The reality that is being impressed upon everyone from high to low is becoming all the more clear. Now is the time to know who and what you are in the world that you share and in the beliefs to which you are committed. Now is the time to become one of those that you have studied in ages past.

You may have thought, upon occasion, "If I had been alive at the time of the pilgrims' passage, what would have been my aspiration, my goal, my reason for leaving my homeland to come to a new?" Seeing all of the evident nature, in terms of the uncertainty of the seas, what lies beyond that was even a greater impediment to successful completion of one's goal than what already met the eye.

If you had lived in a time of great turbulence, during the time of the great plague, for example, and faced odds such as that, what would have kept you going in hope and anticipation that you, too, would survive that devastation of virtually world-wide sickness? These kinds of conditions that are legendary and hallmark events are none the less more dramatic or important than those you currently face, for those who are in control of the world's stage have the opportunity to predetermine the outcome of those who share life on your planet.

Faith

This is something that is a vast and important challenge for humankind to recognize and not take lightly. Now is not a time to simply place your faith and fate in humankind. Now is the time to take your rightful position among the living, to express that which you consider both Ideal and Idealized, to put into practice that which you believe, and to act as spiritual soldiers -- here, now, during this time, and during these events.

For if you truly believe, what you project will become your reality. To escape the envelop of fear, which can encompass or enwrap those who allow it to take place, will be kept from our door, from your attitude and from your experience, if you practice your true belief.

I entrust your beliefs are those that include eternity as the reality for us all. For in my vision of who and what you are, and as replicas of our heavenly presence in your world, as you know it, you have the opportunity to engrace and to change the atmosphere and the attitudes of those whom you share its company.

I encourage each of you to adopt an attitude of living faith, that enables you to practice who and what you are in your truest reality, here in this life as if you were living it elsewhere. Meaning that as you aspire and imagine that your life will be, and how it will be shaped when you no longer have a body, I encourage you to picture and adopt that same plan of implementation here and now. For Heaven can be greater than the spiritual reality that you envision for yourself. You cannot live a life of desperation and fear-ridden pain in this world and expect heavenly bliss in the next, for your attitude, which creates your current reality, is that which will be your reality in consciousness beyond your current experience.

To say more is to perhaps to elaborate beyond necessity. I encourage you to share our view of the hope that you have for being a segment of humanity that has risen to the occasion to become true believers in faith, to reflect that which you know to be real, alive and forever, within yourselves.

May peace abide within you as wonderful, ingratiated individuals and as the group that you are, that receives and sends forth Light, not just beyond these walls but beyond your immediate environment to the entire universe, your Light reaches. Peace be with you and may our Heavenly Father know your every thought and express your every wish as it is in integrity and forever. Peace be with you.

GROUP: Thank you, Anatolia.

TOMAS: Indeed, thank you for your spin at the lectern. It is a pleasure for me, too, to hear my comrades expound upon their purpose, that being what we are aiming to instill in you, each, in enthusiastic and vital expression of that which completes you, and which gives glory to the Greater Reality. But that is not, as Anatolia said, to put off your efforts to another life, but rather to live your dream in your world today, in the world you abide in with the Master, commencing from your soul and its attitude as it enjoys the presence, the living presence, of within you.

Let us celebrate with Martin Luther King, Jr, the values of his ministry and uphold the dream of Light and Life for this world, wherein we live in Peace. In this way we have vanquished fear and exalted the Prince of Peace.

Inasmuch as it appears there is a mild pestilence among you today, let us keep our agenda within the bounds of good health. I'd like to open the floor, however, to you for your participation. We have many visitors and we are eager to be with you where you are and so we invite you to be yourselves. Any questions, or commentary?

Dialogue

Matthew: I have a concern.... Who was the Native American spirit that has spoken to us?

GROUP: Onamonalonton.

Sustainability

MATTHEW: I'm not saying this facetiously at all. Among other concerns . .. more recently I'm concerned -- as is everyone else who is here, who lives in this state (New Mexico) -- about there being no rain. What can be done to shift the weather patterns so that the southwest gets its share of reasonable wetness because it's a life issue. Is there any advice from anyone?

TOMAS: This is not a curse of the Gods. It is, as usual, an inharmony - disharmony - between . .. cause and effect, supply and demand. Civilization is encroaching on the Land of Enchantment. Granted, this drought effects the outer areas as well, but the use of natural water supply is being dried up by values that are not compatible with those who need it. When you've become accustomed to a way of life, you think it is essential. You think it is not a luxury but a necessity. This is the animal nature.

(The question has come up in my realm here, that perhaps you had anticipated Onamonalonton would respond but I am sorry, he is not in attendance this afternoon. I am forced to respond. And I have not the native affinity for your world, as does he, but I have my own scholastic bank to draw upon.) If water were, or had been, appropriately conserved in advance, and if it, as a Source of Life, were valued more for its Essential Good, its Intrinsic Good, rather than 'what it can do,' we would not be experiencing this problem. Greed is the short answer. Respect for Mother Earth and the balance of nature is the rest of the story.

I don't know how to describe this to you, but perhaps you will understand a parallel example of a toddler, who is taken from its natural environment and placed securely and happily in an environment which is over-stimulated by sights and sounds, tastes and sensations, in which it is not usually subjected to such stimuli. The toddler has a marvelous time responding to all these sentient impressions, but when it has reached a certain point of saturation, the child cannot hold anymore, and so it has two choices. One is to become very cranky until such time as it is removed from the environment, or it simply collapses, exhausted from the effort of keeping up with all the artificial inspiration it has known.

Civilization is much like that. This civilization is like the toddler that has discovered a lot of stimuli and is running out of energy. The point of crankiness is past and it's about to collapse. The effect is that the demand on water will have to be alleviated. It will have to collapse in order for the natural flow to resume, to find its balance.

There is a saying in your text that over-rapid growth is suicidal. There are long-term effects as well as immediate effects on the environment, that come about as a result of your actions. And yet is so difficult for you to see the effects of your actions, individually, and as a group and even as a nation, because of your relative youth. The resolution is in maturity, and maturity is a hard-fought, hard-earned commodity.

Many times the lesson is not learned until the experience is personalized. Those of you who are aware of the need for water are personalizing it, but perhaps a little less loudly than those whose business it is to make the wheels of progress continue to move by-and-through the use of water, the power it holds. The imbalance is in the element of the living water, the spirit itself, of which water is such a great example.

You would have us do a 'rain dance,' perhaps, and call for the Power Directors to generate a storm that would bring the torrential rains that would fill your water table. But this is like an addict asking to have his drug replenished rather than withdrawing from the disabling practice and turning, rather, to the font of Living Water that will provide the basis of new life, new growth, new shoots of Truth, Beauty and Goodness and develop a new paradigm of living.

This is not to say there is 'fault' on your behalf. It's mere ignorance, for the most part. And so again we commend you to be brave enough to speak from your passion - not simply your opinions, which everyone has, and can outshine you in argument and intellect, but through the passion that comes from the Spirit that you abide with and in.

Does this response resonate with you, Matthew?

Matthew: Yes, it does. Thank you.

TOMAS: As Anatolia suggested, 'get involved.' You are all encouraged to get involved in your realm, in the politics and in the mechanics of your material existence. This is how the arms of God will embrace humanity, through you who dare to challenge the ways of fact in loyalty to the field of truth.

You will find your environment maintaining a strident aspect in its fiber this next week. It is rather militant, in fact. But remember the army in which you serve, the banner under which you march, that power is surely greater than the sovereignties of man. While you may indeed, identify with and even sympathize with the human condition, remain true to your leaders, your spirit mentors, your Prince, your King.

While you are in the arena, and aware of the tenacity with which your worldly warriors hold on to their shields and their swords, amuse yourself with the recollection of the chimes which gently blow in the wind of change and bring sweetness to those who hear the Master's voice in peace and in stillness.

About face. Are there any questions?

Esmarelda: Well I found myself squirming a little over your talk about the water because I have all this grass and it has to be watered if I am to maintain it. So that's given me something to think about - but it's not that I haven't thought about it in the past.

TOMAS: Well, of course, you are a conscientious citizen. You have, also, a responsibility to your cultural environment and its value for beauty - its standard of value for beauty.

Esmarelda: That was the main reason I haven't zero-scaped -- besides being very expensive . .. But there is so little grass in yards anymore, and so many people mention to me how they enjoy seeing the grass as they go by that I am actually known as 'the lady on the corner with the grass.' (group chuckles) But they do enjoy it. So many tell me what a pleasure it is to see. So that kind of helps with the beauty - we do need beauty no matter what the conditions are. (group has a short discussion on the effects of water usage bans and how desolate brown lawns appear)

TOMAS: Esmarelda is holding out for faith that there needs to be those who represent the ideal. Beauty is certainly an ideal and one individual representing their Ideal is the legislator of personal sovereignty. For each of you to create your own realm of Light and Life is an entitlement, indeed.

And yet, however, as members of a larger community, a world, it will be necessary for the general perspective to be elevated high enough that the sovereignty of the World is factored in. It will come to pass. You will be forced to recognize the ways in which you are connected. Esmarelda is a fortress because of her desire to manifest beauty. But those who are unconscious of their impact on the rest of the world are going to need to take heed and become accountable, even as all of you become accountable for the fact of your very physical being. You cannot, like the two year old toddler, continue to soak up all the stimuli a world has to offer - all of its resources, all of its pleasures, all of its sentient aspects, and overlook the foundation of reality upon which you must stand in order to persist and continue and maintain your involvement.

And there is a great deal truth in this parallel that the world is collapsing. There are many values which are impossible to uphold as others are at the opposite end of the spectrum. There cannot be fields of destruction for some people and Elysian Fields for others. This is a matter of maturity - maturity of the race.

Thus, what you can do to help mature the race will be a testimony to your own maturity and sense of responsibility to, not only your corner of the world and your rightful realm of Light and Life, but for the responsibility of that which is your world and those in it who also are privileged to enjoy the experience of life and who ought to also have each's own approach to Light and Life as a way in which to live and move and have their being.

Not everyone wants a lawn, you see. There are some who have desert sand. Some who have beaches. Some who have rolling hills. Some are in the swamp land. Some in the tundra. Some on the ice. There are many environments, each appropriate to itself. As your world evolves it will become clear how adaptable it is and where its limitations are. But until you have raised your perspective to a global perspective, you won't see clearly. And until you can all see clearly, you will not have yet attained that pinnacle of accomplishment which will result in the Morontia Temple being lowered to you for your worship of that which will be there for eternity for those with whom you live and love, you worlds of time and space.

It is an on-going effort. It's easy to become complacent. But being conscious and aware and conscientious and being willing to walk the second mile will go far toward our goal, our mutual goal of happiness, productivity, joy, maintenance and management of our lives, individually and collectively, fostering those ideals of our parents, Michael and Nebadonia, and honoring our eternal parents in Paradise.

I wax philosophic and perhaps political, but these are the days in which we live.

Anything else for our "short" session this afternoon?

Paula: (Paula reflects living back east and hearing about the Dust Bowl days of 1930's in Oklahoma, Texas and so forth, and a discussion ensues of the seriousness of that drought and how the current drought has not come close to the seriousness of the Dust Bowl drought)

TOMAS: Be aware too, that your planet is still a young planet. It is still cooling and going through its own geologic upheaval. You share this experience with your planet. It too, will one day become physically settled in Light and Life. It will have perfected itself - as you will have, as a race of people.

Again, this is a point that Onamonalonton might make -- that you are a part of the earth as long as you live on it and have affinity with it. It will nurture you as you nurture it. When it seems 'hostile', it is because it is growing, going through growing pains, just as you sometimes become 'hostile' when you are confused or angry and growing.

Closing

I will leave you. Anatolia and I, as always, have had a marvelous time in your presence and only close the door knowing it is necessary for you to proceed with your lives, for we would enjoy spending time with you into infinity. And so we shall, but we are constrained by your limits, and so we bid you, "Adios, Amigos!" See you next week.

Group: Adios, Tomas! And Anatolia! See you next week! Thank you.