2006-05-27-What Stillness Emcompasses

Session

Opening

Dear Mother Spirit and Michael, Once again we welcome You with open arms and open hearts and open minds, as You have taught us how to do--how to stand naked before our Celestial Family and be comfortable, realizing this is our home. We’ve especially welcomed your lessons and assurance on the nature of our souls, the spiritual records of our lives authored by the presence of God himself in our minds. And so we know these souls of ours are so much more enormous than what we think of simply as our memories. For these truths of our very nature, we are so thankful. Amen.

Lesson

• Stillness (What stillness encompasses)

Good evening, boys, this is your mother, Nebadonia. I’m always so glad to be with you. I notice your lively conversations on spiritual matters before we begin have the seemingly paradoxical effect of settling you down, and so it pays to broaden your notions of what stillness encompasses. It is why We have so often mentioned that to be at peace deep within yourselves, to have this home base of spiritual reality from which you operate, is not only consistent with the most vigorous activities of body and mind, but augments the clarity with which you can not only think, but do things. It’s so rewarding for Michael and I to have you realize this in your day to day lives, in how you focus on your activities, your work, your relationships with all your friends and fellows. Because isn’t this the purpose of spirit?

As Michael reminded you last week, to have life and have it more abundantly, means transforming your everyday lives into something exciting and reflective of a growing enthusiasm for all the seemingly mundane facts. This is that marvelous transforming the everyday prose of your life into poetry. With it comes an increase of energy because you open yourselves to welcoming the feedback you get from your so-called nitty-gritty--the hard, undeniable aspects of your life. As you welcome this feedback beyond any notions of negative reaction, beyond judgments this way, you are enabled to realize and transcend many kinds of denial you may have previously had, based on these cultural, or family, or social judgments.

This is the way you evolve. This is the way you open yourself to facets of reality that were always there just waiting for you to notice them. Isn’t this the glory of understanding? Isn’t this the purpose of understanding? Isn’t this a greater reflection of My Mind/Spirit Adjutants of Knowledge and Understanding?--first to perceive this depth in your everyday lives, then welcome the reward it gives you for being open? This is the immediate assurance that faith works. As you extend yourself out into new territory of perception and experience by your faith, you are able to realize these new realms in a way that is so immediate, faith is no longer required; it moves forward again.

As an extension of faith becomes fact, these physical facts lead to ever greater mental meanings and relationships, and you are able to perceive and enjoy the value of spirit suffusing all these dimensions. You understand how, once you acquire this new territory, your reassurance in the value of faith and the purposes of faith allows you to reach out and extend yourself once again to encompass more, to wonder what else might be out there.

• Faith, Experience (How faith becomes experience)

Your delight in this is Our delight. Your extension of faith, your encompassing greater realms of reality is also Ours. As you live in Us and in our Father, so We and our Father enjoy a greater life through you. This is your gift to us, My children, and as you open yourselves more and more to your vast Celestial Family, your life is your gift to Them as well. We marvel at these physical/material lives you are living, especially the unique challenges you face on Urantia because of its very tumultuous past. It has departed so far from the normal trend of planetary evolution that has been the course for literally millions of inhabited worlds around you. We too can thrill to the courage you show in keeping the faith--keeping your faith in Us and our Father, keeping your faith in yourselves and, most trying at times for you, keeping your faith in each other.

You call this, very rightfully, giving each other the benefit of the doubt. When you are uncertain as to another’s intentions, you exercise the courage it takes to place yourself in your fellow human being’s hands, knowing deeply within you this extension of trust, this extension of love can literally create the chance for a good outcome which would not be there if doubt overwhelmed you.

This is the deep realization that people are, to a large degree, what you make of them; and this takes pure, raw nerve. This is assuming the best, crediting people with a maturity that they may have only in potential until you come along and put yourself in their hands. This is especially critical with your children, or with those who are less mature than you--that you trust them, that you give them power, even as Michael and I, and our Father encourage you to develop your own power for good. So you encourage those who may be less mature than you to use their power for good. Encourage them to feel for the greater context of everyone concerned in a situation. For this is how you escape the limits of identifying solely with your own perception of yourself, your egos.

This is the way the world will transform. It is the only way it will transform, yet it is the only way needed. This is that better future, that more wonderful world you all look towards. It is certainly not only material. As We have pointed out, all throughout human history you’ve had not only enough food and shelter to sustain life, you’ve had empires come and go, built walls that can be seen from outer space, even evolved a material science that got you standing on the moon. Yet in spite of this material wealth the human race as a whole has always enjoyed--even to the point where some primitive societies sought ways of appeasing the gods by deliberately destroying vast amounts of material wealth--still after all these years there are people dying of starvation and exposure.

• Renaissance (Spiritual Renaissance)

This was the basic flaw in the study of dialectical materialism. Yes, the material aspect of your lives is important, and with some folks critical. Yet it has always been overshadowed by the mental meanings and the spiritual values of whatever culture and society found itself in its own unique historical situation. This is why We look for a Spiritual Renaissance, a wonderful rebirth of wonder and value. We are delighted to experience, Michael and I, it is well underway. So keep the faith, My children, even as you are enjoying the fruits of your labors and your faith so far. Dedicate yourself to this ongoing planetary evolution and be not afraid to let your faith go out ahead, ever pointing the way. If you have any questions or comments this evening, let’s see what we can do with them.

Dialogue

Student: Mother, thank You for the support You and Michael have given me over the past week and a half or so, when I was with my friend who had an operation. I appreciate the support and the love and the understanding. The question I have is one I’ve asked before, and I still don’t quite understand what’s going on.

From time to time I have this feeling I’ve been to a place before, only for a few seconds. But I’ve never been there before, yet I feel I have; and I wonder what is this phenomenon?

• Deja-vu (Deja-vu—again)

NEBADONIA: Yes, C, I remember well our discussions before, not only on deja-vu, which means to see-again--being in a new situation yet feeling you’ve been there before, and are seeing it again; I even mentioned the exact opposite, jamais-vu, or never-seen--in which you are in a very familiar situation, and yet are seeing it as if you’ve never seen it before, as if you are seeing it for the first time. I mentioned both of these experiences have such a delightful charm to them, and I think this is because they get you to wondering, and this wondering itself augments the spiritual dimension or evaluation with which you embrace reality.

Just the fact this is so very startling calls your attention to the amount you find yourself in your exterior world. All of a sudden something seems to be happening again--you have a quality of recognition as if you know what someone is going to say before they say it. You perceive this as if it is happening outside you, yet at the same time you know inside this is a new situation. Because this is a temporary splitting or duality of consciousness, you are momentarily aware of your own process of recognition.

We’ve pointed out that you’re constantly recognizing, re-cognizing your reality by a process of comparing it to everything you’ve experienced before. This is so instantaneous, so one-thousandth of a second at a time, you only notice it when it malfunctions. We gave the example of a cat lover seeing a cat out in an open field, whereupon at a second glance they see it’s just an odd arrangement of sticks and weeds.

This process of your mind is so instantaneous you’re rarely aware of it--except when your mind is temporarily acting on two parallel levels and you become aware of your own recognizing. Then in a new situation it seems as if you are recognizing something that happened before. Yet the charm of it is, you simultaneously know this really is a new situation. The moment you notice this is happening, the moment your mind, in a sense, realizes it is malfunctioning, it stops. You swing back immediately into proper functioning in which this enormous process of recognition becomes, once again, unconscious.

You can think: well, it would be nice to have this continue so I could actually test it to see if this person is going to say exactly what I think they’re going to. But the very fact it does not persist means it is just a temporary, however curious, illusion.

Student: I have had times when my mind is a little quiet, that I know what a person is going to say, and they usually say pretty close to what I’m thinking they are going to say. Not very often, but often enough to remember. The other part is, I don’t quite understand what You’re saying again, but I’ll give it some thought. I’ve also been in places I’ve never been before, and for a few seconds, sometimes not all the time, just every once a while, I have this strange feeling I’ve been here before. And I’ve never been there before. Is that what You’re talking about with respect to the mind malfunctioning, or the illusion?

NEBADONIA: Yes. Even in a new situation, let’s say a building you’ve never gone into before, your mind obviously has to recognize walls, ceilings, windows, doors, in order for you to experience these exterior objects. If your mind is operating on two levels, you temporarily become conscious of this unconscious process; you are simultaneously experiencing your reality and your own ability to recognize it, and so it seems as if you’ve been there before.

Student: Ah, I see.

NEBADONIA: This normally unconscious process is only for a few moments separate and conscious, because as soon as you experience: Well, I’m recognizing this, I must have been here before--very much like other visual illusions, your mind realizes what it’s doing and stops the illusion instantly. It’s the mind’s ability to correct itself like this that has helped lead evolution through these millions of years. Persisting illusions can be fatal, especially now in your highly mechanical society.

Also consider that so many times when you know what a person is going to say, you are just in the presence of a very repetitious person. (laughter) Beyond this, you often know how each other think, not necessarily through some means of telepathy, but just being able to just correctly anticipate how another person will react. Again, I’m sorry to deprive your charming moments of any great spiritual significance, but these are just ways your mind corrects itself when it is temporarily operating, shall we say, abnormally.

Student: I’m very much willing to give up the illusion for the reality. I was just wondering if this consciousness and this anticipation that You mentioned is worth developing, or it is just part of the illusion?

NEBADONIA: Consciousness is definitely worth developing, My son, and it is exactly what We have been calling in Our lessons, being open. The more open you are to stepping outside your bubble of familiarity, the more you will encounter and begin to experience that which cannot be anticipated. We’ve pointed out this is a whole half of your reality, something new constantly bursting into existence by way of God’s pure creativity. Every moment is fresh and new and only in the more cyclical aspects of day and night, the coming and going of seasons, and so forth, is reality repeating itself.

• Law (The limits of natural law)

Consider for a moment that all of what you call natural law, from the nigh infinite cosmos all the way down into the infinitesimal, all this natural law you have struggled so hard for so long to discover and share with each other, this all pertains to the continuity of reality, that which does repeat itself and can be counted upon. But every moment there is, as you say--coming down, an aspect of reality that has never happened before, and is unique to each moment. This too is happening. It disturbs some people to perceive it. It shakes up their notions of having a closed loop around reality itself. For these folks especially, God has a few surprises in store, if you will, to save them from themselves. We all are blessed He has a sense of humor.

Student: Thank You, Mother, it makes a great deal more sense this time. I look forward to becoming more conscious of reality. My bubble of familiarity isn’t comfortable any more, but it’s still there.

NEBADONIA: My son, I honor the courage it takes for you to welcome the discomfort, trusting this is the door to greater life. So be in My love, and rest deeply in Michael’s peace.

Student: Yes, Mother, a mantra has been going through my head the past couple of weeks when there’s been so many changes in my life, and it kind-of helps me get through what I’m going through. I say these words to my daughter, and that is: my life is unfolding at its own pace--naturally and perfectly—as things are shifting in my life. It’s interesting to note the differences in my place. It’s quite light, not only in the exterior places, but in myself. My daughter is very happy. So I’ve just been experiencing all the different emotions and feelings of what’s transpired, at the same time being available to (Name) to help her in any way I can, and see what happens. But I keep saying to myself, because there’s so much to do, that things are unfolding naturally and perfectly and harmoniously. I have faith my soul is being nurtured and awakened to its own expression. It’s only a matter of time before I can experience my own fullness. I guess this is what You were talking about, about growing in faith, and then going even beyond that.

• Growth (The pace of your life)

NEBADONIA: I’m delighted that you are able to feel within yourself this process of how your faith transforms into real fact and meaning, for this how you know it is working. This is that transformation from belief into actual experience. The critical thing here, that you put your finger on, is the whole concept and understanding of pace, or the rate at which things happen. To feel yourself being driven along by exterior forces is probably the most common source of stress among folks in your modern society.

It was a mixed blessing when those town halls or churches, centuries ago, started chiming out the hours of the day. On the one hand it enabled the whole community to get in sync, long before pocket watches or wrist watches, and organize their activities such as had never been possible before. But then as the centuries passed and almost everyone became harnessed to this mechanically delineated time, for so many there was an attendant loss of feeling biological time—the time measured by the beating of your heart, the coming and going of your breath; the time measured by your own personal life’s goals and ambitions and successes. So it is important that We offer this as a useful tool in your stillness, just to initially watch your breath for awhile, see if your can delicately just notice your breath without affecting it—which you can do. T

hen as you settle down even more, tune in to your heart beating. Re-establish your life in a very single-knit way with your biological sequences. One breath follows another: one heartbeat follows another. You can at least temporarily detach yourself from the inexorable ticking of the clock. Take a break from this mechanically precise chopping up your biological moments into minutes and seconds.

Re-evaluate the usefulness of this way of measuring time so you can make conscious decisions as to how much you want to plug into it, now you’ve detached yourself from it. In other words, go along with this mechanical time only insofar as it really suits your needs—to organize your life, to space your work and your leisure, to meet folks. Then throw the rest away.

Throw away the incessant, needling demand that society can instill in you, those feelings of never having enough time, of being driven along by a mercilessly impersonal device that is literally killing so many folks with the stress it induces. So I congratulate you on welcoming this inner mantra, feeling its value, and holding it close to your heart through this time of transition. For though it speeds up and slows down, all your life is a transition. You want to stay close to the organic center.

Student: There is always home base. (heavy sigh) I remember speaking with J and C last time, after Michael spoke with us, about how I feel comforted by the impermanence of things, how sometimes when I look around, everything looks like a dream state; but I know things are always changing. Like this group some day will not be a group any more; this apartment will not be, or someone else will be living in it. Things are always changing. My daughter will one day be forty, then sixty, a hundred years old. I’ll be elsewhere. But there’s always home base. For me there is a comfort in knowing that I can puncture that bubble of familiarity we talk about, and not hold on, or become too attached to the external and the material--if at all possible.

NEBADONIA: This is the blessing that relies on a lot of trust and faith that this changing reality is truly home. If you just get over some well-meant but illusory cultural conditioning based on the simple immaturity of your predecessors--to expect everything to be unchanging and permanent, you discover what a blessing it is that God’s creativity is so great, every moment can be new. Eternity is not some endlessly repeating cycle in terms of all the personal experience of the all the personal beings who exist. Isn’t it nice to see this?

Student: There are even times where I feel timeless, that there is no past or future, just here, and that’s all that matters.

• Eternity (The experience of timelessness)

NEBADONIA: There, My son, you are touching, however briefly, on the essence of your personality. It is at these rare moments your personality can realize its true nature outside of time and space, and for a few moments it is as if you were God himself at the very center of creation, perfectly still, watching it all swirl around an eternal moment. This is really being home! It’s even a blessing not to have to cling to these moments, but just let them be, and ever so lightly step back into time again.

Student: Is this where Jesus, and some of the ascendant masters dwell from though? Is this where they are 24/7? Or do they fluctuate?

NEBADONIA: Well, as Michael invited you to realize last time: all of the above. All personality exists outside of change. All personality is part of what We call the personality circuit of God; and yet there truly is something happening here. The universe is not an illusion. Matter and energy are also created by God, and are more than just relatively true. So you are your transcendent personality, yet your personality was created an experiential being for the very purpose of experiencing your unique life. Though you may feel yourself coming and going in your perceptions of reality, your openness to what is, the presence of God that lives within you is absolute, without limit of dimension. This is truly the presence of God, and you have the ultimate gift—your life—that you give to this Father Fragment so that the two of you create your soul, a possession you both share, a reality that will lead you to becoming one some day. This is the unfathomable potential you have, My son--that you will join with your Father Fragment, with this presence of God, and become a transformed eternal being. When you experience these moments of timelessness, these are moments when you are, in a sense, anticipating that union, and briefly touching the eternal.

Student: This is the kingdom of heaven… (long pause, much sighing…) Thank You.

NEBADONIA: You are very welcome. You are not able to live in bliss--quite yet…

Student: Oh why not! (laughter)

NEBADONIA: . ..but isn’t it reassuring to touch upon it from time to time. As to why not, this is another matter of faith, My son, that too much of it—as you know it—would not be good for you at all. You still have many adventures to experience, and the very nature of them is to let go the assurance that you know now, and let the unknown swell forth, even though it may threaten to overwhelm you. This is—true—adventure, in which you risk everything.

Student: Hmmm… What is…everything?

NEBADONIA: This is what you have yet to encounter. This is what it takes eternity to discover.

Student: But if it is to return home, to be at one with the Father, there is no risk in that. Right?

• Progress (The way to greater life)

NEBADONIA: But you must first leave home in order to rediscover it. Home in this sense is what you have known, and what you know momentarily, or moment to moment—now. But there is an unfathomable universe out there yet to embrace, and here you are, still a tadpole, swimming around in the first phase of your life. This is just to say: it is a big universe, My son, that you are headed for. (much laughter) This is giving up all you know for greater knowing, giving up the life you have for greater life. And to deny it is a bit scary would be to miss the essence of it—at times. This is why it takes courage. This is the value, then, of courage.

Student: I understand… I do understand. Coupled with that fear is the kindness, and knowing what I alluded to earlier—the fullness of my soul.

NEBADONIA: So rest in My love, My son. Treasure home base when you are in it, but take care not to cling to even it. Let it go ever so lightly, and step off again. (long pause…)

Closing

What a wonderful space this is! And we create it for each other. It is a marvelously alive pure presence. This is where we can not only say within ourselves, but feel: Thank You, Father, for being with us. Thank You--for helping us find You, one more time. Be in My love. Good Evening.