2007-06-04-Essence Of Spirit, Material Mind, Spiritual Mind

Session

Opening

Dear Mother Spirit and Michael--Holy Spirit and Creator Son of Nebadon, We thank you for the gifts of spirit you give us from your point of view on the human condition, human being. You breathe hope and inspiration into our more limited scope of perceptions and restore our faith in the ultimate triumph of God’s ways. Help us discern God’s will for all of us, and then help us find the courage and the determination to live in accord with it. Amen.

NEBADONIA: Good evening, my children, this is your spirit mother, Nebadonia. I welcome you anew with the freshness and spontaneity that is my forte. Excuse Michael and I if we seem to overuse the word delight, but this is what we feel springing up unbidden in us, to greet you. We are so thrilled when you acknowledge us and welcome us into your lives.

Lesson

This is the essence of divinity, this discovering and sharing of God’s unity across the enormous gulf of rather pure spirit beings, such as ourselves, and spirit-endowed beings such as you are. Michael spent some time last week laying out for you all the dimensions of spirit you inhabit, and that impinge upon your consciousness. A good rule of thumb to keep in mind is that spirit is always associated with some personal being. There is no impersonal spirit abroad in the universe. Spirit’s major characteristic, from a human point of view, is one of all-inclusiveness. This is because, my children, most spirit beings do have a greater range of perception and contact with other beings than you yourselves. Your material mind is so greatly determined by the electro/chemical processes of your body that even the pure spirit of your Thought Adjuster has a hard time swimming through the sea of physical material/energy-based thought processes to reach your consciousness. So even though you are endowed with spirit and have within you all these spiritual influences, your material minds are strictly the product of your bodies, with all the evolution of Urantia involved. The whole legacy of animal evolution is wrapped up in the very structure of your bodies and nervous systems, all those millions and millions of years of survival development.

This is still something you have to contend with. This makes up a great deal of your mentality and, as I’ve said before, these are your fallback systems. When you fail to use your higher intellectual and spiritual acumen they do take over. That is their function, so you can think of the finer, more delicate and sensitive spiritual inputs and the thinking of your higher consciousness--which is the final stage of evolution, physically and then spiritually--this is what you come to only after you have matured your body and your mind.

It takes a rather fully developed intellect to realize the necessity for the pure principle of stillness, and then get the determination to start to spend part of your living energies and your precious time in this pursuit of spiritual contact, spiritual awareness. But this is where your greatest creativity lies. This is where you find the single most appropriate, spontaneous actions and reactions to your total present situation. This is how you rise above the past and have some choice over its conditioning. The material, animal-instinct level of mind is always there like a deep, unfathomable sea upon which you are steering your little ship of soul. As you think back on your childhood, you can remember how tempest-tossed this sea was and how many times as a child you were totally overcome by all the raging emotions and desires and frustrations that would sweep you away. Those of you who are parents have been blessed with recapitulating your own life in the lives of your children, revisiting all those thousand and one small stages of development until, hopefully, your children grow up into your estate and even surpass you to carry the torch of human progress one step further.

But it is this sea of the material mind that your higher intellect and your creative spirit are floating upon. Thus we give the name to our particular kind of suggested meditation, stillness. To make out the more intricate and delicate patterns on the highest levels of your mind you have to still the huge tidal flows and raging currents of reaction. You have to be open to the present moment and not be continually distracted by past habit-patterns. On the rapidly changing surface of your consciousness, the spontaneous, spiritual part, you have to get beyond the coloration of defensiveness of any kind, any notions of anger, or revenge, even beyond the subtle need for justification, for all these will color the clear vision you wish to achieve of the present moment.

If you would tap into Michael’s Spirit of Truth, you have to be willing to accept where it leads. If you wish to use the augmentation of my Spirit Adjunct of Wisdom, you have to credit it and act on what it offers. But you can rejoice, my children, because there is a way. You do have the means and all the help necessary to rise above the strictly material mindedness of the more primitive or immature human being and achieve a living completeness, a dynamic here and now.

You can grow the faith and the courage to be open to choose among whatever suggests itself in your meditation. This is the surest and most direct way of discerning God’s will. True, learning to recognize and trust the input-thoughts your Adjuster is initially a matter of trial and error. But if you pay the supreme price--if you pay attention, and remember well what were your intentions with any specific task or project, then continue to stay open to the feedback from both the material world and your own reasoning abilities, and the further spiritual input from Michael and myself, and your Father Fragment; you will find a greater reality beyond, yet including yourself. Things will start to work.

There is this way of true success, of adding to your soul, of staying in touch with an ever-changing, gigantic physical and mental and spiritual situation. With your physical bodies, accidents can happen; you will grow old. Mentally, various kinds of fundamentalist straight-jackets of dogma will come along to tempt you with the ease of a self-satisfied assurance. And spiritually, you may occasionally feel the value in your life slipping away. These are all challenges that are intrinsic in being a human being trying to live a full life.

Your faith will be challenged, but it can grow. At the same time you can stay fully in touch with the complete animal inheritance you were given along with your body. It’s all there. But you can, and need to recognize it, for in that recognition you can have some choice to be free above it. This is all God’s will, my children, that you start out here in what we call The Nurseries of Time and Space. Here you begin as a blind, helpless infant, one of the most helpless of all material animals born on the planet, the most dependent upon parents for everything, for so long. Ever so slowly through trial and error, through absorbing all the culture into which you were born, step by step you recapitulate the history of that culture, the history of civilization.

You learn to control your material mind and passions. You develop an intellect, and then, hopefully, learn beyond its limitations as you step into the realm of spirit and true creativity.

It is God’s will that you traverse this enormous panorama, to come fully up to your parents’ generation’s realizations, and then carry the torch one step further. So never be dismayed that you are human. This is one of God’s basic ways of creating eternal beings, and even the angels sometimes envy you, that each of you can personally traverse the entire gamut from a barely visible single living cell, across a universe of experience, to ultimately become a Finaliter of Paradise. We welcome you to enjoy the journey, though the hardships of life challenge your ability to keep this panorama in mind. Still, my children, do your best to keep in mind: you are just beginning! So keep your beginner’s mind. There is a long way to go, literally forever. But God gives it to you one moment at a time. If you have any questions or comments this evening, we certainly have time for them.

Dialogue

Student: Mother, I’m delighted to be here, and delighted you’re here, and I’m delighted that Father Michael and all the other teachers are here in such a manner. It’s really cool to get to talk to you like this. I have a question that I asked about three years ago, I believe. It’s about prayer. When I want to pray for somebody, what’s the best way to do it—somebody’s wellbeing--somebody’s physical wellbeing or mental wellbeing, or just plain wellbeing?

NEBADONIA: Yes, my son, there are roughly two great components to such a prayer. The effect to be derived from God’s presence hardly needs the asking for it is true, as you’ve been told, that he knows what we need even before we do. God is already, always, fulfilling his ultimate function, upholding all of his creation right down to the last personal being.

This is his own nature, his goodness and love, coming down all around us like a driving rain. Indeed, it’s ironic and tragic that so many cannot feel it. The other component, my son, is you--your desire to be part of this process with a boundless goodness poured out to your needy friend. This is largely a matter of faith, faith in us when we tell you that you yourself can direct energy, loving, nourishing, healing energy, just by the power of your will, by the sacrifice of spending your time and your devotion. Just think of your friend as completely, as deeply as you can.

Concentrate as much of your energies as you can on an inner vision or an inner feeling of your friend’s soul. Reach for this. See if you can realize this deepest essence of who and what this person is. Think of all the times you’ve spent together. What is there of a spiritual essence that is most recognizable about this person? Make part of your prayer simply enjoying this person’s company in your mind and in your soul. Indulge in a bit of pure worshipful thankfulness with your mutual Father that such a person as your friend exists. This is where prayer and worship play leapfrog with each other in the delight-energy you just expressed. Send that to your friend. Join your will with the Father’s, and dare to hope for the very best. This is how you can pray for someone. Does this give you some feeling for the living process?

Student: Yes it does, Mother, very much so. It looks like a lot of it depends on my ability to visualize this person and send the good energy to them. I think you mentioned once about imagining a shaft of energy coming down through the top of my head, into my heart, and then going out to another person. Is that kind-of what you’re talking about?

NEBADONIA: Yes. This kind of visualization is very helpful and rewarding: it helps you focus. It’s a way of concentrating your strength, for there is nothing you need to do to influence God’s love and his healing energy. But just spending some time with your friend in your mind, letting your two Thought Adjusters enjoy each others’ company within your conscious recognition and blessing, is literally what you are doing. This is the mechanism—if you will—by which your good energy and love is transferred. So by all means pray that your friend can also tune into the presence of God within them and receive your gift. Any kind of visualization of your energy going over is helpful. But remember, my son, those times when you simply visited someone in the hospital, or in some kind of dire straight? Remember how just your presence there, your soul-presence, was what really counted and gave them some respite from their pain or problems? It is part of the joy of this kind of prayer, and how it does your own soul so good—these spiritual visits with those you love. It is for this we joyfully worship and extend our thanks to our Father. Does this seem something possible?

Student: Yes, it does, Mother. Thank you very much. And thank our heavenly Father very much.

NEBADONIA: Amen to that! From time to time you can definitely feel this big smile he always has for us. So be in my love.

Student: Yes, Mother, along these same lines: if we are praying are we not focusing on their own completeness, their own innate wellbeing-ness?—that is God’s intention for them? I was thinking of a friend I’ve worked for, for twenty-four years, who’s, unfortunately, in the grips of Alzheimer’s. I mentioned to her husband, who’s having a hard time--feeling he’s losing a partner, that she is still there. When I see her, I see her—not the Alzheimer’s. I see infinite potential, as does God. I think that is what prayer is—focusing on a person’s completeness.

NEBADONIA: Very much so, my son. This is literally achieving through prayer a spiritual point of view, for this is what we have been conveying to you as our spiritual view of who and what you are. We are just extraordinarily blessed we can see your souls in their moment to moment fullness and completeness. And so if you too can see this, and really deeply know this--know this for a fact within yourself—you too are blessed and can do great good in sharing this with others who may need it so desperately, who are suffering so much the loss of their loved one’s responses. The soul, the person’s whole lifetime is still there, quite intact.

Student: Most times people don’t realize they have a choice. They don’t have to be consumed by darkness. There is the light—always the light!

NEBADONIA: This is where the material mind, and even the intellectual mind, sometimes become overwhelmed, and in turn overwhelm the spirit with their sense of loss that the beloved is no longer physically who they once were, and is also losing so much of their intellectual powers and ability to respond. The shift has to be to spirit and a deep inner security that this life is but the first step on an eternal journey. The soul records of the entire life are being held in trust by the purest spirit there is, a fragment of God.

Student: In a different vein, I remember reading many years ago about when prayer doesn’t seem to be answered. That book suggested that we sometimes ask incorrectly, and I thought, well, maybe I’m asking in the wrong way: I’m not wording my prayer properly. But then I came to realize maybe I was asking for something that wasn’t beneficial for me. I look at it in a different way now. The reason I’m looking at it this way is because there have been so many books over the past few years about perfectly manifesting what you want. Whatever you desire you can have. And maybe on some level that is true. But I have to ask, what is the benefit for everyone all around me?—and at this moment? Do you understand what I’m trying to get at? I know we talked about this a bit before.

NEBADONIA: I understand you completely, my son, because you just recapitulated an evolution, here in your own life, of a deeper understanding it has taken many whole peoples a long time to comprehend: there is no way in which you can not pray correctly--merely through the words: God knows what you mean; he knows your intention. The only drawback about not articulating what you really need--in other words, not knowing what is really beneficial for you--is that you will be disappointed when that unwise request is not answered. You may not recognize when your real needs are being fulfilled. This definitely marks a evolution of both your knowledge of God’s ways and your faith in his wisdom. Your prayer to be open and discern what his will is, is the answer to all your prayers.

God’s will is absolutely and infinitely the literal answer to everyone’s prayers, for only God knows and can respond to everyone. This is God’s will. He is no respecter of persons. To know his will is the fulfillment of both prayer and worship. The more you know God’s will, the more you can relax in the pure awe of his unfathomable wisdom. This is how you can rest assured.

Student: That kind-of takes the pressure away from thinking I have to totally create a life for myself. I can go into the stillness and allow myself act upon the wisdom that arises—if I’m called upon to do so.

NEBADONIA: Well, this is quite a doing!—as you soon discover when you set out to do God’s will. It is always enormous by its very nature.

Student: But there’s a flow to it. There’s a purpose, a beneficial purpose; there’s a power to it. Rather than creating from some whim, when you’re creating from God’s will there’s that power behind it that’s beneficial to everyone.

NEBADONIA: Exactly. Someone expressed it beautifully once as: deep calls to deep. The deeper you can be, the more you can tap into his infinity, his all-inclusive spirit. This will lead to the greatest, most full life you can have—a very strenuous one!—but that too is definitely for your own good.

Student: Why do I feel that while these books have good points, they seem to be missing the mark? They’re only scratching the surface of human potential?

NEBADONIA: Some of these self-help books are too narrowly focused, and the point they often miss is that of the general good. They fail to encourage you to be more like our Father himself in being no respecter of persons. This is an ultimate challenge because you are all beset by the incessant clamoring of an ego consciousness for recognition and assurance, sometimes justification for what you’ve done in the past.

To see yourself with the wisdom of proportion with respect to those around you is a kind of spiritual generosity. See yourself as a part of a social group—your needs and desires, but including everyone else. That is a definition of heaven on earth, when a whole society has achieved Light and Life and no one is left behind; everyone is included. That is the point that is often missing in these books—too much the small self, losing sight of the greater self—God’s view of everyone.

Student: That’s why I wonder who is doing the wanting. Well: Thank you. That’s great!—though I still ask myself, am I holding myself back from fully experiencing God’s will? Is there a time to push the envelop, or just be in the flow? Is there a time to just drift along, or is it time to swim upstream?

NEBADONIA: These are things your personality must necessarily struggle with and against—both, at times, to get a feeling of them. There is still a lot of trial and error, my son. You are still standing on the edge of the Grand Canyon of the future, and there is still a lot of the unknown which cannot be anticipated, even your exact thoughts five minutes from now.

Student (laughing): I want less error though… How about trial and success?

NEBADONIA: That’s certainly the right orientation. True enough, with the right attitude, a real scientific attitude, there is no bad experiment except those which don't tell you anything. All definitive feedback, in this sense, is good. So be in my love.

Closing

And so we grow. Michael and I are right out here in this big cosmic soup with you. We too are learning. Every single one of our many, many children is for us so precious because we can realize each personal being’s uniqueness. We remind you these are not only our human children but a whole, vast family of so many other orders of personal beings. This wealth can be yours too, to the very measure you can have the courage to let yourself go and trust in the wisdom which will bubble up from both your own spirit and that of your spiritual family. Forget yourself, and open your mind and your soul to all those others out there. They are your true wealth, my children, just as you are Michael’s and mine. Be in my love. Good evening.