2003-05-18-Looking at Time

Session

Opening

Prayer: (Matthew) Let us place ourselves in the presence of Jesus, the Christ.

Master Teacher, we come to you today with a reduced work force, but all of us are truly here in Spirit. We represent a lot more than are showing in the room. We take safety and security in knowing that we place ourselves in your care and custody and in that of our Heavenly Father and the Infinite Spirit and the Eternal Son. The Trinity -- vast, awesome and beyond our comprehension -- is such that it could make us feel like specs and unworthy and insignificant; but on the other hand we know we are part of the vastness that gives us our identity, our meaning and our future.

So for that which you brought into our reality and made us aware, we are forever grateful. We ask for the teachers who are here today, that they will bring further understanding to our hearts and our minds as we continue on our path to be all that we are made to be, here and now and forever. Amen.

TOMAS: I am Tomas. I will join you now. How are you this afternoon?

Group: “ - great – very good – thank you…”

TOMAS: It is almost a rhetorical question, for I have been here all this time, enjoying your picnic and your dialog with one another. Therefore, I am well aware of how you are -- at least insofar as how you purport yourself to be among your peers. But now let’s find out how you Really are, in the depth of your being, as we once again gather around the campfire and ponder the Truths of Life as compared to the Truths of Being.

(At this time Matthew is whispering to Esmarelda that he turned the light off … )

TOMAS: You turned the light off?!?!?!?!

Matthew: (laughing)…in the kitchen. Sorry. (group laughing) I had left the light on when I left the room.

TOMAS: If there is one thing we don’t need is someone of your stature going around turning lights off! (laughter) It is sometimes so dark on your world, an artificial light is preferred!

You are all full, I know, and in the afterglow of the afternoon respite from routine, your molecules cry out for a nap. And yet, I would not be worthy of my hire if I were not to take advantage of the momentum of your discourse to reveal yet another lesson in the curriculum of the Melchizedek University that we enjoy.

Lesson

Well before I heard your dialog today, I was intending to discuss with you today the word, the attitude, and the relative value of Rationalization. If you appreciate what I am saying, you will agree that Man can rationalize and justify anything. Indeed, all the vagaries of existence are brought into being because someone was able to think of an idea, rationalize its existence, justify its being. This is the part of Free Will that allows you the option to do such things whether or not they are to your advantage or the advantage of your peers.

I am speaking to you, as always, as if you were in Apostolic Allegiance with those who would bring the Light of Truth to your world. In order to bring Truth to your world, it must be brought one-at-a-time, and so your intercourse with your fellows -- men and women in the field -- is the essential part of the work upon which we are engaged. It is in this context that your work is important. Each time you Turn on the Light, each time you enable another individual to Turn on the Light of his own Spirit Illumination, you have contributed to the Light of Truth on Urantia.

And you who are aware of the possibility of such Illumination are the New Apostles. Whether you choose to have a ‘spiritual’ mantle such as that is irrelevant. In fact, in some cases it is better if you do not think of yourselves as New Apostles, for this perception may lead you to become vulnerable to religious ego and to act as if you are someone you are not, but as someone you believe you must become in order to behave in a certain way.

What has all this got to do with ‘rationalization?’ you ask. Would it be redundant for me then to answer and say that when your life is built upon Reality, Rationalization becomes an unnecessary appendage. It becomes time-consuming scaffolding to an unnecessary structure. And those who have not the perception of Spirit Illumination as you have, are a part of the World and its Un-Reality in a drama that is given structure through the Art of Rationalization.

Rational thought is the gift of Thinking Man. ‘Reason’ is a gift given to Homo sapiens. Rational thinking is a way to enable those who are not deep thinkers to understand the necessity for certain acts – or failures to act – based on Human comprehension. And the comprehension of these Humans are, generally speaking, comprehensions which are born of Man and not born of the Spirit.

Thus, centuries of behaviors have been brought about because of the Fine Art and Skill of Rationalizing, not only behaviors but Belief Systems and Governments. The scaffolding of such Systems of Belief and Government constitute the Ways of the World you know, and without which, the Systems, the Governments, would crumble. They are as a House of Sticks / a House of Straw that will be blown away by a goodly gust of strong wind. What you have, my loyal students, is the ability to blow wind on the shaky structures in which people reside.

I hear your Soul inquire about the wisdom of blowing away someone’s Reality such that they stood naked, alone and fearful. What kind of ‘Graciousness’ is this, you might ask. What kind of ‘Christ-like behavior’ would that be for me to destroy the structure that provides the Security for my fellow creatures? What kind of ‘Loving Kindness’ would that be? And I tell you, you have Rationalized your own Religion by such a question. Would you not rather, as Jesus did, apply with spittle and mud the cake upon the eyes of your brothers and sisters to call them forth from the darkness? Would they not in truth rather resound to the Reality of Life as it is lived in the Spirit as compared to the hovel of life as it is lived in the Flesh? Who are you being loyal to when you rationalize your reluctance to act upon your own Light of Truth?

“Man can rationalize and justify anything.”

You, too, are capable of justifying how you perceive; whether or not you will serve; the extent to which you will walk a second mile. And you will justify these behaviors, or not, depending upon your own Light of Truth. And the extent to which your Light of Truth shines is dependent upon your own ability to rationalize your own responses to stimuli you’ve been given -- the stimuli on one hand of God Himself and the stimuli of Man (Mammon) on the other.

It is important for you to understand your fellow human beings. It is important for you to understand them in order to love them. But it is not necessary for you to join them in their foolishness simply because it is the predominant reality, because, in the Light of Truth, it is an insufficient reality to alter the course of destiny. And if the course of destiny is not altered on Urantia – if the Spirit is not allowed to prevail as the predominant reality – the people of your world will continue to find myriad ways of engaging itself in destructive behaviors – UN-real behaviors. Un-realities.

In order for you to understand and appreciate the full extent of how humanity tends to rationalize and justify the State of Affairs on your World, it is necessary for you to understand them, to-wit: put yourself in the position of empathizing with their point-of-view. Consider their motive. And in the fear-ridden, their motive may not be to ‘take over power’ but merely to Survive. And, as an animal who has survived, you can certainly empathize with that quality in them, and thus in your empathy and sympathy go no farther than to provide Comfort by your Presence. But is your Presence – your Comforting Presence – a Fruit of the Spirit? Or is it another degree of Rationalization that keeps you from being about the Father’s business?

Look around you this week at the myriad ways in which Humanity Rationalizes its very existence. How it measures its choices – based NOT on a Divine Perspective – but on an animal perspective that seeks creature comfort and passive acquiescence to the Powers-that-be, and observe the skills with which the Powers-that-be utilize their sway over these sheep. Rationalization is a dangerous thing.

Witness Jesus’ life and cite me one example – if you can find one – where he ‘Rationalized’ anything. He understood and could empathize, yes. But it was not in him to leave the situation as he found it, but always to give Spirit Illumination to the Moment – to the Human Condition – in such a way as to bring the Light of Truth to that man, that woman, or that child – such that their life was enhanced and in that, Planetary Life was advanced.

Yes, I am finished with my little diatribe. But now that I have you where I want you, I will give the microphone to my co-worker.

Matthew: Anatolia is here.

ANATOLIA: Good afternoon, this fine day in May in your calendar, 2003 years from the beginning of your ‘calendar time.’ This is an arbitrary indication of the passage of time and it is truly artificial, for your knowledge of your physical world, as you understand it, is millions upon billions of years old. This (2003 years), in the Large Picture, is just a ‘blink’ of existence and not even to referred to as ‘time’ – so to speak.

My lesson today is not on the passage of time or the demarcation of this quantity and quality that you know in your world. But rather it is to mark time by your thoughts, your movements of expression and your quality of being.

I would like to present a concept that could bring new meaning to what you know. Consider the ‘passage of time’ and the development of Man – or Humankind’s – Rationalization, if you will. That is, I am speaking of the Eras or Decades that you can mark as eras in time, as passage of particular styles, ways of doing things, manners, popular thought, colloquialisms, trends, and historic actions that are the culmination of the collective unconscious, as well as conscious, to produce and to accommodate and even Rationalize, that which is the Group Consciousness or Group Will. This is something that is consciously - as well as unconsciously - agreed to, inasmuch as trends or cycles of productivity and unproductivity amass to result in great accomplishment or tremendous horror at what Humanity can produce.

This is my introduction to you in terms of the Untime in your thinking and being. For in your Untime – which is NOT measuring of time as it is happening, but is looking back and seeing those eras or phases that you can clearly indicate as movements along the way on the time spectrum. You can see what has transpired to be an ‘expression’ of the current trends or thoughts.

So what I’m leading up to is yet another opportunity to present to you another way of looking at things – from a 3rd dimensional point of view and from an Ultra-dimensional point of view. Meaning that in your current status as 3rd dimension creatures you can only see things in the pre and post (as well as, to some extent, the current) accumulation and passage of time. However, from a Spiritual point of view, these things are relevant only to the individual and collective expression of Free Will demonstration.

In other words – this is somewhat difficult to explain, but I’m trying to get the point across that these two functions operate simultaneously just as you operate as Spirit and Matter simultaneously. What you do, perform and act on a daily basis would be considered your ‘animal tendencies’ or ‘animal life’ being performed on a daily basis. How you approach this from your attitude and point of view is your Spiritual Faculty that determines your otherwise animalistic-functioning on a daily basis.

If you can see, then, what I am speaking of, is that it is possible to conceptually rise above the everyday and the functional – the animalistic expression of your life – to have it be expressed. Despite its animal nature, it can be expressed in a Cosmic Spiritual Ultra-dimensional point of view, so that you can make the reality of Heaven on earth become Real - so that Time no longer has a function or a purpose. For what you can define by Time in a post-mortem perspective – in looking back – you can also define as Time from an Eternal point of view - so that my depiction of the individual experience of viewing a life as purely animalistic or as a Will creature - with the ability to decide how that animalistic function will be expressed – this too exists on the Grand Scale as Humanities’ co-existence with the physical and the Spiritual so that the Collective Unconscious does have a real theater in which to present its production.

Your ability to influence this is as significant as each and every other individual’s opportunity to affect the world stage.

What I encourage you to do is to view your role as an Actor. And you are to look at this as a demonstration of parts in a play or a movie. You might imagine your parts as being, certainly, on the set as ‘extras.’ Your particular role is not especially meaningful or necessary in the production as it is building in its notoriety to those ‘key’ individuals that are playing the most ‘meaningful roles.’ Yet without the ‘extras’ the “significant” roles would have no theater in which to play.

So your particular role can be that of a crowd in a mob scene with harangues, such as “give us Barabbas!” Or it can be in a scene feeding, clothing, and healing those castaways – the lost ones – the untouchables that no one else wants to engage with. It is always your choice and always your perspective that makes all of the difference.

So I wish for you to consider the Untime that was spoken of earlier and what your role will be in the functionality of Untime in your world. It has been known that so-and-so ‘passed in an untimely manner.’ I would suggest to you, how will you fulfill the rest of your Untime in your world as you know it? It is your choice and your destiny that will be fulfilled as the result of your conscious decisions in this regard.

I wish you the ultimate of Life’s expressions both here and throughout the Grand Universe – to know on all levels of expression – in the multi-level dimensions of Life – that what you are now is what you are in all of those other dimensions - both here as we speak as well as what you are becoming will exist in all of those dimensions as we go forward. So my future as a co-inhabiter in the Life we express is as dependent on you as you are upon me. My wish for you is no less than it is a wish for me – to experience all of the Love that can be encountered and expressed by One Life.

I share that wish and that destiny with you and urge you to join with me to make our collective futures that which can be only dreamed of in the here and now. For surely as I speak there is no future that is dreamed of if it is not dreamed right now. For there is nothing that has existed that has not be forethought and planned as a positive expression. These dimensions and opportunities for expression are not accidents but are forethoughts and statements of purpose as they develop.

Peace be with you, and know that all is well and all is one as has been intended from the beginning of time. Peace be with you.

TOMAS: Amen. And thank you, Anatolia.

I am willing to engage in questions, answers if you are awake. I say this in appreciation for the pleasing, lethargic peace prevailing in your midst. Anyone? Gerdean?

Dialogue

Gerdean: Thank you, Tomas. I was listening to Anatolia’s discourse with your words fresh in my mind and was wondering if it could be said that Rationalization is something that is a product of time and space and that as we perceive Reality as being Outside of the restraints of time and space that, that’s where Truth is, rather than Rationalization.

Is that a fair perception?

TOMAS: It is, because of the fact that all the worlds of time and space are arenas wherein Rationalization and Justification seems to find its necessity. God has no need to rationalize or justify his actions. Nor do the higher beings – those who are transcendent or Havona bound. There is no rebellion in Paradise. The rebellion of Lucifer was born from his Rational belief (his Rational mind) -- in his belief that creatures of time were unduly burdened by the process of evolving. If he were not invested in the System of his assignment he would not have thought about going against God. It was only because he was enabled the opportunity to develop his own will choices, and did so based on the Material Reality, that he was found to be in opposition to the Divine Will.

When one is in concert with the Divine Will, there is no need for Rationalization. Thus you will be able to tell much about yourself and your fellows if you find yourself, or them, going to great lengths to explain the Material situation without regard to the Divine Perspective. You’ll find the same Unreal propensity in those who cling to the concept of their own Divinity without real appreciation for their connection to the Material world.

When you encounter the common practice of Rationalization in your fellows, or in yourself (which is basically someone or yourself trying to talk you into some point of view) allow yourself the luxury of consulting first with the Divine, with the Spirit of Truth. This way you can appreciate the point-of-view of your fellow and understand him better without having to subscribe to his philosophies. This might give you an opportunity to, at some point in the discourse or the relationship, Illuminate the Moment in Time by the Reality of the Transcendent point-of-view which requires no justification for Being.

Perhaps you will find some merit to the 28th Mota here. Look it up.

(The search begins and it is found in the Urantia Papers)

Gerdean: Okay, Tomas, we have it here. Morontia Mota #28 says: “The argumentative defense of any proposition is equally proportional to the truth contained.”

Matthew: Wow. (as rest of group ponders the mota)

TOMAS: Did you want to make a remark? (no one responded)

Well, it ought to speak for itself then. … and to some degree underscore the answer to your question posed above. The More you need to Rationalize and Justify your position, the Less Truth it contains, inasmuch as Truth needs no explanation if you have the Divine Perspective. And thus if the Divine Perspective is not available, a lot of Time and Space and Energy will be devoted to Explaining, Rationalizing or Justifying the Facts of the matter – rather than the Truth contained therein. Anything else this afternoon?

Matthew: Just curious about this topic. Why did you bring up “Rationalization” today? From what we were talking about earlier?

TOMAS: Actually, it was on the Agenda prior to coming here and hearing your discourses. It is one of those situations wherein the Topic was determined in advance and turned into the appropriate field of study, inasmuch as it was a facet of all your minds today: The discussion on your Planetary State of Political Affairs, the necessity for Rationalization amid the angers and the paradigm of life as it has evolved based on the factors of life which has been your lot. It is also because the prevailing reality is based on Rationalization of Reality. Everyone does what they do because someone has presented the Option in such a way as to incline Humanity toward following certain directives. The Rationalization of Reality is hard to buck – hard to resist.

In addition to your political conversations, Gerdean and Thoroah were having an interesting and lively discussion en route to the Lakes along these same lines, in terms of family loyalty and employment situations, such that the paradigm of Temporal Reality – the dominant reality – prevails more often than not, even when the Spirit of Truth would have you go in another direction. Resisting the common paradigm is a job for superhumans and most of you are reluctant to consider yourself in anyway a superhuman because you have a False Humility that aligns you with the ‘common man’ and which, in many ways, undermines your ability to perform as a New Apostle.

The prevailing atmosphere on Urantia must be awakened in order for a higher and more Divine Light to shine upon the lives of Humanity. Your political discourse simply upheld what you already understand. My point this afternoon was to elucidate your under-standing to the extent that you would be able to ‘conscious-ize’ your understanding so that your innate Adjutant Mind Spirit of Understanding would take on the dimension of ‘cognizance’ – even of Wisdom – so that you would be able to cut through the paradigm of existing Reality to reveal the Reality which we struggle for in our Mission together.

It is an ideal time, as I see it, to help you become aware of the insidious nature of Rationalization and begin to perceive how the skillful application of Rationalization and Justification have you eating out of its hand – buying into its Lesser Reality – conforming to its ways and aspiring to its goals rather than the goals, plans, ideas, hopes you foster through your Spirit Life.

It is difficult to curtail the demand of mammon and to resist its charms and expectations. But without the ability to sidestep that lure – that Lesser Lure – in favor of the Lure of Eternity – you will contribute to the retardation of this world which we are attempting to edify. We are attempting to Turn On the Lights. We need you to Turn On the Light Switch. Do not apply the dimmer switch just because everyone is walking around in the dark and they feel more comfortable when you also are darkened. Do not diminish yourselves by conforming to the status quo.

This is my admonition to for you this afternoon. And once again the invitation is to study the total qualities of Rationalization so that you are able to recognize it. Recognize it in the tone of voice of those who speak to you. Those who would coerce you into doing their bidding – whether that is your spouse, your parent, your child, your church, your employer, your employee, your counselor, your teacher, your preacher, your politician, your public servant – whomever! Even yourself.

Learn to recognize the ‘sound’ of Rationalization and its co-worker Justification which sets paucity into movement.

I know you are sluggish and enjoying the mellow afternoon but I have had the good fortune of being in your midst and given the opportunity to speak to your Deep Mind. Thus while you have languished in your stupor of creature comfort, I have planted the seed in your mind that will give rise to your thoughts gravitating toward the words which I have implanted in your mind.

And thus I have done my job. And without adieu, I am prepared to depart. However as always Anatolia and I are at our service and eager to be of assistance in your minds and lives. What can we do for before we go?

Matthew: I just wanted to mention quickly – and I know this has nothing to do with you – but I saw on a PBS show the other day about an author of a book - excerpts of the Dead Sea Scrolls called “The Secrets of the Book of Thomas” – presumably the Apostle Thomas – of sayings that Jesus had expressed. Ironically many of them – the nature of them was shared by the author in this interview – and the tone of them, she said, were admonitions from Jesus to recognize the Power Within and the Direct Relationship that individuals had with their Creator God and not anything like the 4-books that were chosen as the Gospels. So it just reinforced to me the message that was presented in the Urantia Book and it was thrilling to hear it come from another source - that she found just totally valid – sufficient enough to write a book about it.

TOMAS: It would be in keeping, would it not, with the political flavor of that day and age, to banish such invitations that were presented in the Book of Thomas – “Doubting Thomas” – to look Within to find the answer, to search the Spirit Within for Divine Guidance. This puts the onus on the Individual and off the Priesthood, an idea which was antithetical to the development of the Mother Church, which has kept the concept of Jesus alive but has not, as Doubting Thomas would have it, given Individual Minds and Souls an opportunity to grow and flourish in the Light of their own Truth through their Indwelling Adjuster.

Someone – back there and then – employed the skills of Rationalization to pick-and-choose which books would be selected and chosen for the ‘Holy Text’ – those words which would operate on their behalf. They opted to think for the people and choose for the people how they would think rather than allowing the individuals to become Enlightened by their own Free Will Choice and advance themselves.

But they had also the wisdom to know that by-and-large the multitudes are not ‘thinking’ people and that they would just as soon someone else did their thinking for them.

But this is how the Art of Rationalization becomes the Voice that leads the people and it may, or may not, be in accord with the Voice of God. Therefor these matters are indeed worth discussing and reflecting upon, wouldn’t you say?

Matthew: Definitely.

Closing

TOMAS: Yes, there are a lot of interesting things coming to light. The burial box of the brother of Jesus being another recent discovery that has brought a shiver to the Organization of Religion since it casts New Light on the Greatest Story Ever Told.

And this is your task, as well, children - to shine New Light on the Greatest Story Ever Told - making it even Greater. And giving the children of this great man an opportunity to share his life and reality in light, and not in shadow; to enhance their existence – not to overlook it.

What opportunities you have! I can only hope that one or two of the seeds we implant in your mind will grow, in order for you to take root and give forth the fruit of your efforts. This way you will have a consciousness of your contribution to humanity. You will not wake up in the mansion worlds and look back and realize how much of you was wasted. I encourage your investment in yourself and in your future as well as the future of your progeny by listening to the Spirit of Truth and recognizing the words of Rationalization for what they are: Lesser teachings. Even as my words are Lesser teachings to that which dwells within you. Peace by upon you beautiful children and we will see you where and when next week.