2009-04-23-One May Not Arm & Preach Peace

Session

Opening

Mark: Recently some customers came into my store and as well some people close to me caught me unaware with stories that they have been buying guns and ammunition in unheard of quantities to the point where stores are running out of same. My first reaction was that we're in Idaho, we're redneck up here and dismissed it. That very night it was on the news confirming that America itself was running out of ammunition. Some close to me suggested one should be armed to protect themselves and it could even be considered to be foolish to be unarmed for whatever might come.

I must admit I found myself as if living in a different universe because this thought train was so strange to me, this preparing for battle mindset, as I thought we had left this behind as a culture. This seemed to me a need in times past such as the war of independence or the civil war. I thought we were becoming enlightened beings and the need for such base reaction to conflict would be somehow softened if not transcended. I was quite shocked that this idea is quite prevalent, this idea that one should prepare for war while simultaneously trying to practice peace.

I did some stillness about this and what I got was that you can't really do both, it is not possible to preach and practice peace while at the same time arming yourself and preparing for war because we are creating the paradigm in which we are to function and if we create the paradigm that we are preparing to do battle, expecting it, fearing it, then we literally create the paradigm for it to exist. So, as Jesus said, "Those who live by the sword will die by the sword." That is the paradigm they have chosen to function in.

For some time I have realized that this is not my path. Therefore I have not prepared for war, I don't hoard guns and ammunition. People say I'm not prepared and I will get caught unaware when struggle comes. I took that into stillness and I got that we are creating our future by what we will allow in our paradigm and what we prepare for. If we prepare for peace and peace is all we allow in our own paradigm, then that is all we can have in our paradigm whereas if we hoard guns and ammunition we are inviting and creating the very scenario of having to use those guns and ammunition.

Last night I took the Urantia Book and it flopped open the way it does when in need, opened to the last Wednesday the Master has free in His life. He was about to be arrested but wanted to spend one final day on the mountain by himself. His apostles warned Him of the dangers and said to take them, "we are girded with swords and will defend you." He said, you still don't get it. I am in no need of defense. He said, if you pull your swords they will kill you all. Don't do that he said, but they were too used to the old ways and went ahead with the plans to arm themselves.

I realized that I can create my future by not bringing into my paradigm the need to draw my "sword." We can't outgun anybody, no one wins in that game. It is just an instinctual reaction from a million years of our ancestors fighting and fighting trying to deal with life's conflicts in a very violent and inefficient way. At some point that cycle has to stop, and so I decided it stops with me. I decided I will not take up arms and create the paradigm where arms will be part of the equation that happens in my life. I may suffer the consequences as a result but if someone is going to come out here and draw a weapon on me and demand food I will give them food and the next thing and there will be no conflict because I will not shoot my brother trying to defend my rice.

To me it seems so crystal clear but I realize it is a quantum leap for mankind to lay down their swords and not pick them up. But I have already projected myself into the future of that reality. I do it even now and invite you to see that is how we get to the change we can see in our minds eye. To see our ideal vision of self is to project ourselves there into a paradigm where violence won't be a part of it, where struggle will not be solved by furthering it. In the worst case scenario, if someone is going to come out here and kill someone who is going to offer them rice then so be it. I will go that way with honor but I will not take up arms and I will not kill desperate people.

I wanted to share that because this apparently is a profoundly different approach than I'm hearing. I just want to put that out there. Remember, thought, word and deed. I have had the thought, I expressed my words and intend to do the deed. Even if light and life and ideals are not present everywhere on the planet, they can be present in our immediate presence if we choose them. That is how we seed the waters, that is how we become the yeast in the loaf, is to live the reality we would choose even before it is here. Even before it exists on a wholesale level we can choose it, we can start it, we can begin it.

Thank you for allowing me to share that today.

Comment: Mark, not to be an adversary on this, but since this seems to be the tenor of tonight's lesson I would like to interject this and hopefully get an answer.

1. A few sentences from the Urantia Book......."all the early peace tribes were slaughtered".. 2. Michael's statement that if you determine that a mortal is not a brother you may use any force necessary to deter the aggressor regardless of the consequences to the offender ...or something like that...? 3. In our discussion the other day, you mentioned that you would lay down your life if anything threatened your family.

I see these as valid points and maybe we could add this to the mix and get an answer on that.

Mark: I did truthfully say that and will not hesitate to lay down my life for any member of my family who is in unnecessary jeopardy or harm. I guess my model is Jesus' refusal to defend Himself but others did not hesitate to jump in and defend Jesus. If I saw that someone was abusing my family then I would certainly do anything in my power to cease and desist that activity. As for myself I'm not willing to go to extreme lengths to prepare for such a battle. If death is the worst that could happen I would rather go out with the honor of trying to live an ideal life rather than (trying to) defend myself and go down in a hail of gunfire.

That said, it is a very idealistic thing to say with no threat in my face, I admit. It seems to be in direct conflict with my prior statements.

Comment: Self defense is something worth considering. If you have to defend a member of your family a son or daughter or a wife who is in danger, under threat or attack, what do you defend them with? I think the position you have taken is a noble one and I think there is no hard and fast rule to it. It depends on the spirit with which people take up arms. I have thought about it, going and getting a gun and take training classes. I spoke with a friend about it but I must consider that attitude or spirit behind the arming of myself.

Some people buy guns with hatred in mind, that is a different scenario. If you buy a gun for defensive purposes, that is a different intention and scenario.

Mark: I can't help but think that if you embrace the buying and training of the use of the sword, you are opening that paradigm into your life. Noble self-defense or righteous holy wars; you still embrace that same paradigm of the use of the sword as the way to resolve conflict. So the question might be : Is there a proper attitude to have when girding yourself with a sword? I suppose it is how and where you live. If you cannot survive in the culture you live in without the sword, well that is the case.

That is what we're trying to find out right now. Can we get along without war? Can we get along without armed conflict or are we always going to fall back into that as the ultimate resolution of all conflict. I am trying to construct light and life but maybe I'm too far "out there" because we're still surrounded by wars and folks with evil intentions towards each other. I realized I must be functioning on a different plane and we have a long way to go.

Please join me in focusing our collective intention which appears to be one of the most powerful forces in all the universe.

Prayer: Divine Parents, once again we come to fellowship with you in this hour. We thank you for the many gifts of grace which you have brought to us including the gift of Michael who has not only created us and the life that we live on this world, but arrived here to be one of us and to show us how human beings can choose ideals even when they are not present currently in his own life and circumstance. He provided us with such an incredible inspirational example to try to live by. He advised us of the way of choosing the higher and higher principles over the lower and baser aspects of this life. Even now these two thousand years later we still as a culture and as individuals are trying to follow in His footsteps and to simply do as He was able to do in one short lifetime. Let us all strive to be the lad John Mark who would hold on to the basket and would follow the Master wherever He would lead in innocence and in trust. Let us simply take the Master's word and follow Him regardless of the current condition we find ourselves in at any given time. Help us to hold steadfastly to the basket that the Master holds the other end of. Thank you.

Lesson

The Voice: It is my honor to greet you once again, I am this ones Inner Presence here to respect your invitation and to respond to your request to join you in conversation about some very basic principles which have been discussed. It takes a brave individual to stand firm in alignment with their ideals against the great tide of conventional wisdom, the "knowledge" of the times and the accepted approach of the family of man. Certain individuals have vision or insight as to a different way and they at first may stand alone in their conviction and many an individual who goes this route is derailed from this original intention by virtue of the overwhelming pressure from the other members of the tribe or family or country or planet.

If they are not [stolid] and brave to stand up against this strong tide, they are simply washed away with the swelling of the tone of collective awareness but deep down inside they may know of a certainty that their vision of an ideal state was in fact true and genuine albeit not present in their immediate experience. In a very real way, individuals transcend time when they consider a more ideal state, a better approach, a more loving and just process. They may project themselves down this timeline to a place where thought has evolved and consciousness has been raised and these ideal visions and principles may then exist.

But every now and then some brave individual stands firm against the tide and says, I see a new and different way and although it is not here, I can see it in my mind's eye. I can project myself to this place and I have this vision which I will not let go of. When enough people share such strength and vision they form great piers around which the tides may come and go but their ideals will remain firmly rooted in the dimension which the visionary resides in. And many times, time must pass before collectively mankind can look back and see that these states that were considered which were just visions and ideals are coming closer to reality and may even come to pass in their own lifetime experience.

It is so very easy to recoil from new thoughts and the expression of ideals as being too far afield or too unattainable and to simply drop them because they seem hard to uphold because you are upholding a dream, you are upholding a vision, but many times this is the only way that a vision or a dream can be brought into what you call the real world, your immediate environment. If there were no visionaries, if there were no dreamers, if there were no Einstein's, no Michaelangelo's, your race would indeed move forward at a much slower pace.

I encourage you all to consider the potential that within you lies a visionary, one who can travel out in front of where you reside currently and go ahead down the avenue of attainment and see what lies ahead and see what glorious achievements will be chosen in a time when it is more appropriate and seize on these visions and these ideals and realize that the only thing that stands between where you are right now and that state that you can foresee is your embrace of it for you need not wait for all your brothers and sisters on your world to catch up with you. You may be at any stage of evolution and development that you choose. It is not required for you to wait for the entire class to catch up with your vision. It is only required that you hold firmly to it.

Go out beyond your current dimension and see, visualize the reality that is higher and better, the one that you would choose if it only existed and then choose it, and it exists. It is truly that simple. It may exist at first only for you but if you choose it and you embrace it and you live it and you believe it, you have made it real even in your time on your world. Don't wait for another to bring you an ideal for you to collectively rally around. Be the one in the crowd who is the point person going out on the fringes and look for the new way. Find it, it is there, it is available to be chosen. Choose it and bring it back to the others in the form of your changed life and the conviction that you have about that which you have found. Your Inner Guide will help you to discern that what you find is appropriate for your path, for your state of ascension and then be fearless and grab that which you can foresee in this state of exploration.

When you seize this ideal and adopt it as your own, you transform potential into actual and as you have been told, like attracts like in this universe and more will be gathered unto what is good and is righteous. So when you choose the righteous ideal and you adopt it and you live it and you represent it then more will be gathered unto you and others will see that what you have done is to bring into this dimension something from a future state of awareness or consciousness, and they will respond to your vision as you are strong enough to stand firm and represent the ideal that you can discover, choose and manifest a state of being not yet represented in common experience by a shere act of your willful intention.

It may be a very small step that you take and just deciding you will change an action in your lives, a behavior, a thought pattern for the better and your decision to do that will have a ripple affect around you and eventually your deciding to make alternate choices will have a ripple effect and over time could become what you call "conventional wisdom" among all. You have a principle you discussed called the 100th monkey syndrome where at first concepts are unknown to any of the members and then slowly a few adopt certain concepts. These few gather more to themselves until many adopt these concepts and at a certain tipping point, a certain critical level, the concepts which were known to a single individual or a few individuals, become widely known to all.

This phenomenon may be used to offer your contribution to the thought stream of humanity and they will gather more who recognize the validity of this contribution and more and more will sign on to these concepts, this ideal until there will be a reaching of a tipping point and one day all will embrace the validity of what started out as a lone concept, even the identification of an as yet to be embraced ideal.

I would also speak to the thought stream of the value of choosing and therefore creating the paradigm in which you would function in this life. I call you to witness that individuals surround themselves with aspects in their environment and these aspects of their choosing are then continually represented in their life experience. If one has the mindset that they are the victim of constant illness then you will witness that they are continually a victim of constant illness. Likewise you have witnessed ones who are the pillars of health no matter what, even if they are affected by illness, it does not impinge on their life in anywhere near the same fashion because they have adopted a different paradigm which dictates to them that illness takes a different place in their set of circumstance and reality.

Likewise you see individuals who are constantly grappling with the same issues over and over again; people cannot find the right spouses or partners and continually choose the same wrong ones over and over again. They have created this paradigm and this belief system which then dictates the paradigm back to them as it is repeated over and over again. At some point most individuals on your world are so completely encapsulated in the paradigm that they have created that they can experience little else that is outside of this paradigm. They have conditioned their lives and their thought patterns to create and re-create over and over again very similar circumstance so that they literally expect that it will happen again and it is no surprise when it happens again.

If this phenomenon is true, and I call you to witness it is observable phenomenon, then it becomes very important to monitor and closely examine your choices and thought patterns that keep you fixed in your individual paradigm. As was mentioned earlier, if you bring the mindset of battle and war and struggle and strife as part of your paradigm, then you may expect to have, as part of your paradigm, battle and struggle and war and conflict. If you create for yourself an alternate paradigm where you do not embrace those aspects but rather replace them with a different set of your choosing, then you literally crowd out the potential for these things which are now outside of your new paradigm to influence you. There simply is no place for them in this new arena that you have created for yourself.

It is possible and it is encouraged for you to completely reorganize and restructure your parlor if you will, your arena of awareness where you will actively and with intention, clean house of things which you do not wish to be part of your paradigm which are not serviceable to you in your true goal of ascension, growth and increasing awareness. As you clean house you make room for things which are serviceable to you in the higher pursuit, thought patterns which are conducive to your goal of peace, love, truth, beauty and goodness. If you engage in this pursuit of redefining your arena, you can in fact change everything about your life because your outside life conforms to your internal arena, your paradigm of expectation becomes your experience. And so if you would like your experience to change, you must first go within and change your paradigm and your expectation and your thought pattern and then your life has no choice but to follow suit for you have left no room in your new arena for thought of the old ways, for circumstances which are outmoded or outdated you have grown to understand the higher ways.

But until you actively choose to restructure this inner environment you cannot hope to significantly alter or affect your external experiences which are simply a reflection of this internal environment. And so, if you do not approve of aspects of your life, then simply crowd them out. Make no room for them in your inner environment and they cannot exist. Replace them with higher thoughts and ideals, universe principles that are worthy of your consideration and in this way, with no struggle, with no conflict you simply crowd out that which you no longer will choose. It should not be a struggle, it should not be a conflict, it should simply be the making of a new choice which replaces an old choice, albeit an old choice which may very well be rather firmly entrenched.

But every day when you rise it is a new potential, every hour that you awake it is up to you to choose again. Just because something has been present in your lives, perhaps even for a very long time, perhaps even in the lives of many who came before you, does not mean that it is suitable and right in your life, in this hour, in this time, with the vision that you have, with the awareness that you possess. You must stand firm with your awareness. You must embrace your vision and your concepts, your glimpses of better and higher ways and bring them into this inner environment. Nurture them and just like when you enter the dark room without a single light, it changes everything. A single new awareness illuminates many a darkened misconception.

I thank you for this opportunity that you provide. I cherish the chance to commune with you in this way. Now I will honor this circumstance and step back and allow this cherished opportunity for others. Thank you.

Monjoronson: I greet you, I am Monjoronson here as well to accept your invitation to join you in some discussion. I think I have referred to you and the likes of you out there who will read these words at a later date as a scouting party, as ones who will muster of their courage and go out ahead of the group to see what is out there and to encounter things that the others have yet to encounter and then having the benefit of your courage and your strength you are willing and able to bring back your observation to the larger group and with the conviction that you have because you have encountered it first hand for yourselves, testify to the group that they have seen things that they have not and that you have encountered them yourselves and even embraced them into your lives so that you speak with some authority on these issues. You bring back your observations as one who knows.

So it is that you are continually going out ahead of the larger group and scouting out and finding and discovering new and at the time incredible things and it is not as though these things that you discover are not meant for all because you know they are. They exist for the benefit of all but they are not yet known by the group at large, they are not yet embraced as necessary by as many of your brothers and sisters as are necessary for the new idea or concept to become embraced by all with the 100th human concept.

But you are excited and inspired when you see new and incredible things that you are eager to bring back and share with the others. It is not uncommon for you to rush back in your enthusiasm and be thwarted in your efforts to share with the group because you discover they are not quite ready to embrace this new truth or this new principle. They have yet to ascend to the level where they can embrace this truth perhaps as readily as you can. Every human being on this planet is on their own path of ascension, at their own rate of ascension, and it is not until they are ready that it even becomes possible for them to expand their consciousness to include principles that are beyond their level of ascension.

Everyone must arrive at their own level of awareness and understanding in their own time and of their own choosing and then as they are ready, miraculously enough, the principles they are ready for are provided to them. It may be one such as yourselves who are privileged to be in a position to provide these principles that you have scouted out perhaps even years before but have laid in waiting for those who were not quite ready for them yet until they are and then they may be shared freely.

In the same way that you are not all collectively at the same place, ready to all collectively understand the principles of rocket science, you are not likewise all in the same place ready in awareness to embrace these loftier universe principles either. You must be patient, tolerant and forgiving of your sisters and brothers who are coming up to speed. Consider yourselves privileged to have had the opportunity to scout things out ahead of one and to know what lies out there to be discovered. Then you may use your enthusiasm to inspire them when they are ready. But do not be discouraged that you are all not on the same page at the same time for this is not how it works. This planet is a gigantic one room schoolhouse where we have all grades and all levels working together in one environment and there is no expectation that they are on equal footing with each other but rather they are where they need to be in their individual ascension careers.

In the one room schoolhouse it is quite common for the teachers to ask the accomplished students to help the ones who are trying to master what they have already mastered. This may be your privilege to be be able to minister to those who are taking some of the very same steps that you took earlier and accomplishing some of the very same achievements that you have mastered. So look at this experience with the awareness that all of these levels are necessary to be addressed and are quite appropriate for the individuals in these particular stations. It is not that they are behind or that you are ahead, you have simply mastered some level of achievement and they may be mastering theirs but a college graduate is no more perfect than a third grader. They are both exactly where they should be at their time in their learning career and they are equally cherished and loved by their parents and instructors.

I would draw my remarks to a close and would allow space for any contributions or questions that might be circulating in the consciousness of the participants.

Dialogue

Question: Good evening. [ Hello. ] On a somewhat different note, the prophet Daniel, a Jew that lived over 2,000 years ago narrated an experience that is recorded in the Bible, offered some prayers to God and he did not get the answers immediately as far as he was concerned. Twenty one days later he had an encounter with an angel or celestial who told him that the very moment he prayed his prayers were answered but on the way to deliver the answer a fallen angel of darkness, a rebellious angel hindered him or stopped him. However he had to get help and "Michael the Prince" came and helped him to overcome the fallen angel who was preventing him from delivering the message to Daniel.

1. Was this prince Christ Michael or an archangel Michael?

2. What power does a fallen angel have to hinder a godly, righteous true and noble angel of light in carrying out his function? I would appreciate your comments on these, thank you.

Monjoronson: My friend you refer to a time in your planetary history that was most tumultuous. You have heard that there was a great war in the universe between the forces of goodness and the forces of darkness. It is quite literally true that there was a great period in your worlds history that because of the underlying respect for the sovereignty of free will choice, much was allowed to transpire that eventuated the manifestation of large amounts of contrast. There were in fact, malevolent beings who were choosing to experiment and manifest in ways that were, as you refer to them, ungodly.

This was an act of supreme love. I understand that it may be very difficult for you to view that in the proper context but that is the paradigm that existed. Yes, Michael was aware and had ultimate ability to control any and all aspects of this rebellion and its manifestations but through a supreme act of love, He routinely chose to allow free will choice to remain sovereign and to not usurp the individuals right to make their own free will choices, even one that would be fairly easily considered ungodly.

I must make the point that such is not the case at this time, that it is no longer allowed that rebel forces may infringe their will upon individuals on this planet at this time. Michael did in fact put an end to these potentials and an age closed in which such potentials were present on this world. This will be seen in context as you ....this world to be the supreme gesture of love that it was but from the individuals perspective who lived in these times it seemed evil and cruel at times to allow these spiritual beings to manifest their choices in such a way.

But I assure you, Michael's plan encompassed all, the wrongdoers and the ones who were wronged and all will be turned to the right by maintaining His posture of unconditional supreme love. In a very real way, Michael was projecting His ideal that love would reign supreme, even in advance of its arrival in time and space. In a very real example as in the earlier discussion here, Michael held firm to His ideal that this posture of maintaining love even in the face of apparent wrongdoing and transgression, would in the end be the right thing to do.

In maintaining His posture He has set the supreme example for all of us and we will all grow to see that His commitment to this ideal, to this supreme principle, will in fact arrive one day, even in time and space. Although from any one individual perspective it may be claimed that it is not here, not now, Michael has chosen it and He is representing it and more and more of His children are choosing it and so one day there will be the same collective acceptance of this grand principle and He will have served as an example for all who come after Him.

"Fear not," is what the Master said and I promote this ideal even now in this moment. Fear not that you can go too wrong or be too far afield of where you should be. Only believe, trust and have faith and most certainly those things which may be only in your minds eye or in your spiritual awareness may be made real even in time and space if you will choose them and stand firm with your conviction. Thank you for your question.

Comment: I thank you for your response. The second question I had, was the prince Daniel referred to Michael or the archangel Michael?

Monjoronson: The Michael that I refer to is your Master Michael, your Father Michael, your brother Michael. This personality or presence has been referenced by many many names throughout history and in the stricktest analysis, it is not altogether important which name is used in the attempt to identify this overarching presence but I have referred to Him in this hour as your Master Michael, your Father, your Brother.

I would now like to take this opportunity to close this meeting with a contribution from another at this time. I thank you for your steadfast attention to my words and these lessons. I hope they are fruitful for you as you venture out and scout around for more to bring back into your consciousness. Thank you.

Light: Hello, I have been granted a seat at the table as well, I am Light. I come to offer a few more words on the character of light and its effect on the darkness. During much of the human life, it may seem as though you are fumbling around trying to find your way. You reach out in all directions and try to make sense of your experience and it may seem as though you are reaching out in darkness many times. Then comes along some glimmer of light, someone cracks the door open, someone lights the candle, someone flips the light switch and at once, everything that seemed so uncertain and unknown becomes illuminated, even by the smallest rays of light.

You will notice that your apprehension and uncertainty about being without the light is immediately dissipated and a sense of comfort and calm may wash over you because things have been illuminated for you and you are no longer groping in the darkness. Each one of you may be this turning on of the light in anothers room of darkness. They may be seeking and searching for the light switch or the matches or the door to crack open and you by your very presence may enter into their space and provide the soft glow of a nightlight. In so doing you bring them peace and calm and they may then relax into their experience.

Closing

The introduction of even the smallest light effortlessly and easily washes away the doubts and uncertainty and provides one with their bearings so that they can relax into their environment and be able to see their way to navigate through their experience. Bring them this light into their darkened world without struggle, without forcing but rather as a gentle gift that you are capable of providing. Allow them to navigate their own experience and come to you if they desire to know where you get your illumination. Let this be your privilege. Thank you and good night to all, farewell.