2003-12-14-Art of Keeping Silence

Session

Opening

Music: Elena on Piano: “Let all Mortal Flesh Keep Silence” Prayer: Matthew: Let us place ourselves in the presence of Jesus, the Christ.

Master Teacher, We come to you again today, mid-point of the Advent season, the anticipation of the celebration of your birth ~ when everything changed, when all was new and all is yet becoming in the aspiration of becoming like you in all ways, perfect like your Father in heaven and, fortunately, our Father in heaven.

And so this is what we strive to do and become as we were made to be – perfect in every way, but not to allow our intermittent imperfections to discourage and to thwart our enthusiasm for unity in You now and always. Through the examples of countless saints and other holy men and women, we find a plethora of examples of what it is we can become, but in our own unique way, so freedom is granted as well as opportunity.

We thank you and our Teachers for this weekly opportunity to be close to you, to worship together, and to celebrate that which each of us is but collectively all that is. We are forever grateful. Amen.

TOMAS: Amen.

I am Tomas. Good afternoon.

(Group): Hello, Tomas. Good afternoon.

TOMAS: I am always impressed with the orchestration of our Father’s creation when and as I and we are mindful of how He integrates every aspect of our lives in such a way as to yield harmony in thought, word and action. And when I perceive it from his perspective, I am overwhelmed with the simplicity and surety with which His will is made manifest.

But I will not be teaching the lesson today. I am inviting a guest in, a sanobim, an entity of the seraphic order. She is the companion of your friend and associate that you have met, who discussed the adjutant mind spirits, What-About-Bob. Let me introduce you now to Lady who will command your attention for my portion of the agenda.

Lesson

LADY: How thrilled I am to be invited to be your guest teacher this afternoon, and to be in a public forum such as you provide. What a unique opportunity for those of us who have volunteered to augment the Teacher Corps in its efforts to up-step humanity. But of course our approach will be somewhat different, if only because of our personal perspective.

The music arranged today for your listening pleasure is a testimony to the practice of Stillness that is such an important feature of your culture, for it is in the Stillness that the human is set aside and kept in silence to allow for the heart of man to mold itself to conform to the will of the Divine which resides within, in that silence where only the still, small voice of perfection is heard.

The message I bring today is from the Mother and through the Divine Minister circuits. It is a ministry to provide the needs of your fellows if and when as they are unable to absorb your spirit teachings, and for many reasons it is misunderstood what this ministry might involve. It would seem from our study of you terrestrial types that you have a comprehension of ministry in the physical sense to be related to … who is it? Florence Nightingale or Mother Theresa … ministry which is engaged in the life and death struggle with wounds and sores and bodily fluids that require the human touch.

Well, this is not appropriate for everyone, but, yet and still, the merciful ministry application is one thing you are encouraged to do as you await the opening of the opportunity in which to plant a spiritual seed or to fertilize the thought or harvest the satisfaction of the work in the field. And this procedure of ministry is seen from my vantage point as an opportunity to be of service to your body, mind and spirit by and through the practice of Stillness. And then, the ability to engage in Stillness practice with and for others.

The difficulty that seems to put so many of you at odds with the practice of keeping silence, is because when you sit quietly, your mind is at once barraged by thoughts, many of which you don’t want to think. Many voices scrambling for attention or vying for position in your mind. Memories which result in symbolism that arises from the murk of your subconscious to reveal itself in demons or distortions of perception which drive you relentlessly, and so you avoid even going to such a state of mind by avoiding the practice of Stillness altogether. Well, let me encourage you.

You here may not need this lesson. Perhaps you are all able to sit in the sanctuary of your own soul and bask in the light, to listen to the music of the spheres, to swim in the sea of tranquillity, to absorb the warmth and sustenance from the Source. But there many who know not this place or how to go about finding it, and this is an opportunity for those of you who are inclined or directed, to begin to help others find their way past the clamoring of the mortal mind into the Stillness where you are at one with God and All-That-Is.

The reasons for being able to do this are manifold. And the most obvious is the immediate result from having peace of mind, and that is the flourishing of the body and subsequently the psyche, such that you will nurture gratitude – which then begins the opening of the door of perception to the Divine light. Thus, training the mind becomes the exercise that enables you to heal the wounds of time and strengthen the timidity of fear.

In His majesty, God is gracious in providing you with all the help you need to find Him. And while you know that he is there within you, acceptable at any and all times, it is not unheard of that you might help others find this peace which passes all understanding, by and through the ministry of promoting Stillness practice. You can in this way promote at-one-ment with the Divine and give the spirit opportunity to make contact with the mortal without being culturally prejudiced or religiously oriented.

If you remember that you are not alone, and that Jesus will walk with you through all of your travels, then you will be able to get through the process of putting to rest those troublesome thoughts that may have been submerged way down deep in your subconscious mind, for fear of revealing your vulnerable nature. This vulnerability that you are protecting is your greatest strength, but how can you become strong if you have arranged for yourself to hide from that which you are by permitting these false thoughts, verily these false prophets, to interfere.

When we speak of the deep mind, we speak of these deep recesses which are not handicapped by inappropriate patterns of behavior which you have picked up from battling your way through life’s vicissitudes in such a way as to provide barriers to that which would bolster your reality if you were to reconsider why you have allowed yourself to be so trained and programmed and thus release that reason to choose again, this time in conformity to the will of the Divine, as compared to the will of the lesser gods which have ruled your consciousness for most of your lives.

The world is becoming smaller. The efforts of the Correcting Time and the years since the revelation began affecting your way of life, have contributed to a fertile field wherein souls are ready to reach for the stimulation of other souls in growth, in sharing, and in rejoicing for the path that has been prepared just for them, as you yourselves, in this room, have had a moment to rejoice in the spirit path that has been revealed to you as we approach now the reason for the season.

This is the time to be the minister to the souls of men and women – children of Urantia – for it is at this time of year that everyone … in your culture, at least … wants that security and deep joy of sitting around the hearth with those they love close at hand, secure, well-fed and loved, of like mind, in harmony and in peace on earth. That value is in the heart of all believers and unbelievers alike, and they reach for that reality in and as they are reaching for more toys with which to fill their stocking.

Give of your soul this season, and minister to the souls of those who you encounter by helping them recognize the birth of the spirit that lies within us each, that gives birth to the Christ child in everyone, and that allows us all to be a beloved son of God, indeed. This is what we all want for Christmas. This is the ministry that you can provide.

I have so enjoyed my opportunity to spend some time with you this afternoon and I only hope that those with ears to hear my message were able to set aside the clamoring of their human selves sufficiently long enough to hear the echo of the still, small voice within which longs to hold you and enfold you in the swadling clothes of Life.

I return you to your Teachers Tomas and Anatolia for the rest of your session.

Group: Thank you for being with us.

Dialogue

TOMAS: Yes, indeed. Thank you, Lady, for representing the Mother Spirit so effectively. I will come back when we open the floor to conversation. I relinquish the podium to you, Matthew.

Matthew: Thank you.

ANATOLIA: Welcome all, this 14th day of December in the year 2003, considered the Year of our Lord here on Planet Earth. I am Anatolia, happy to be in your company today, a fine day here in New Mexico.

It is my belief and practice that to celebrate a blessed occasion, one must be prepared in mind, body and spirit. The only preparation that I can recommend for you is to be of good cheer, for this is the reason that your culture has introduced the creations of Santa Clause, elves, reindeer and the like. Even though this is well-formed in terms of precedent, that Santa Clause is not simply a myth but the myth that has grown around the stature of a saintly being known as Nicholas, who was truly the spirit of giving and of Christchild good-news-bearing.

So in the essence of my predecessor, you may be of ministerial significance by being vessels of good tidings and good cheer. After all, if you have been a student of the story “The Christmas Carol,” you will know that Scrooge was the miserable individual that he was not by nature but by fear of greater disappointment and concern for there never being enough. Unfortunately, his concern for there not being enough kept him from living and created within him a small mind and a small spirit. Thus, “Humbug!” was his expression for, “Don’t bother me with hokum, hooey and the unseen as reason to rejoice.” Well, my friends, neither or none of you are bothered by this haunting spirit of Christmas past, present, or future, for I see not any of your souls shrinking to this extent.

This is not to say that your souls will shrink in any regard, but to say that your souls are to express the joy that you already know and to allow even further growth, for the growth that you are is unlimited beyond measure. It is this good cheer that is the mainstay and principle of your Master Teacher and God-bearing Savior who brought himself to your awareness some 2000 years ago for the purpose of sharing this inner presence which you know and can only know better.

The presence of your Teacher on this world is the finest and greatest presence that your world has experienced, and will experience. It is not to say that the best is in the past and that what lies ahead is only reenactment or restatement of what happened, for your belief systems and your religions are not merely historical celebrations but are ongoing truth-bearing and truth-giving occasions of celebration and on-going love creation. This is the essence of the season and the reason that I choose to leave you with this good news:

That each of you is considered an emissary of your Heavenly Father and the presence within you wishes to know your acknowledgment, to acknowledge your presence in the face of heavenly presence. So it is leading a horse to water, you are brought to the well within, and it is up to you to drink. Be of good cheer and know that there is no limit, there is no end to love as it will surely always be with you.

In passing, the poor will always be with you, in the sense of your transitory world; however, the hope is that through your presence that is made known wherever you go, that others will see that real wealth is eternal, whether experienced here in the worldly sense or in the spiritual sense. Love is forever.

I wish you well, and as we meet as we can during this holiday season, I wish each of you wreaths of joy in your hearts and brilliant colors to brighten your roads and lighten your loads, for this is the season of good cheer. Peace be with you and may Christ reign forever. Thank you.

Group: Thank you, Anatolia.

Paula: So then, is it alright to be excited about Christmas?

Elena: Yeah, they opened the stoppers!

Paula: Oh, the thinks I’m crazy because I get all charged up, excited about it. I think it’s fun. I always have.

TOMAS: I am Tomas, your guest and host, with you again and yes, you see that there is a variety of perspectives in the celestial realm as there are in the mortal realm. The fact is we do what’s necessary or what we can in order to help the process along in whatever way made available to us.

I am not and never have suggested that you not feel joy at Christmas. What I responded to was, Am I glad that Christmas is here? To which I said, I have no real opinion. That is to say, I have not been culturally conditioned to feel the same glee as is evident in certain personalities in your culture. We did not celebrate any kind of Christmas in my mortal life but I can certainly see how it has evolved and become a great part of your culture, even your spiritual life.

But inasmuch as all of us are always looking for opportunities to brighten the truth decibels, we are always looking for how you live your life so that we can make contact where you are and to whatever extent possible within the limitations of our instructions, with our relationship with our students, we strive to add to what reality you have and deflect the unreality that we see pirouetting and ricocheting around us.

Just as you recall from your cultural field of entertainment, “Accentuate the positive, eliminate the negative, don’t mess with Mr. In-between,” it seems the answer in many situations, if not most, on your world is to find the middle ground and conform to the status quo. We cannot conform to the status quo but we must accept that it exists and work within that appreciation, even while the appreciation may not be from our perspective but from the perspective of having respect for those we serve.

“Always respect the personality of man.”

When and as you engage with humanity, this factor may well be the pivotal point of the fulcrum of tact and tolerance. Teaching is essentially a fine art when it comes to opinions and beliefs, for they are, like free will, sacrosanct to the individual. But when the opinions and beliefs encroach upon others, it becomes a matter of cultural study, cultural anthropology, and that is my field. So I like to see how all these things affect others, how they impact on others, and how that impact (or lack of impact) is augmenting the Spirit of Truth, enhancing the light of truth on your world.

Yes, of course, you may enjoy Christmas, Paula. You are indeed a child and entitled to the delights of being one of God’s kids, with all the joy and palaver that includes – presents, suger plums, and all.

What else is going on in your lives that you are inclined to share? We did enjoy the movie review before the session.

Thoroah: I was intrigued by what Lady had to say about the image of being of service that we have, of being almost confined to the Mother Theresa mold, and I think that that’s partly because in our society we give credit to that kind of service. We don’t necessarily see the other subtle kinds of service, or soul service that goes on, and we’ve glorified the Florence Nightingale, Mother Theresa type of activity, and so other types of service seem to be maybe unnoticed. Definitely much more subtle, as far as the way we see things. And I think that that has culturally affected us in our sense of how we can be of service.

TOMAS: Well, you are absolutely correct, Thoroah. The movie review, in fact, reminds me that theater and cinema provide a ministry, for they enable the audience to experience the portrayal of the emotions that reveal the message of the movie that often being a morality play impacting the psyche mind and ultimately the soul of the observer. Even the most elemental western script can and does provide lasting value in the portrayal of loyalties and courage that is found in the human animal.

The sentimental is another ministry that movies provide, being a venue which allows otherwise callused souls to vent their feelings and weep for joy at the heart song of the human condition. And so the field of ministry extends, yes, far beyond the impressive work of those which very few want to do. But this is the art of ministry, you see.

When you look at the art of living, and the artists who live, the very fact of their existence is a ministry, for in truth, the Divine Indweller seeks to serve, seeks to enable life to fulfill itself, and for the Children of God to find relationship with the Creator and to know the joys of Family life through Sonship with the Divine. If you look closely, you can see God’s hand in everything.

In this merciful ministry that enables you, as a race of people, to feel good about yourselves and what you do for others, how you have been about the Father's business by being, many times, simply being of good cheer, but generally those who minister naturally as they pass by do not worry overmuch about what form their ministry takes for they are not concerned with the opinions and thoughts of others but are fixed on the Source of their being in such a way as to reflect the union of their personality and the love of the Divine at once. Which is good cheer, indeed! And which is self-forgetfulness.

Thus, simply thinking about others before and as you think of yourself, is a merciful ministry to those children who simply seek to be acknowledged as existing. “See me, feel me, touch me, heal me.” This is the human opera. This is a service. Acknowledging the souls of others. Seeing the Christ-child in each. (long silence)

We have become lost to the atmosphere itself, which is an extension of the sanctuary within. We join in the ballroom of the Divine and waltz around the room with style and grace.

Closing

We’ll be back when you reconvene. Farewell.

Group: Thank you.