2012-12-06-The Upcoming Season

Session

Opening

0802AB-Jack here, your friendly secondary midwayer. I thought I’d have another go at being your host. The other midwayers don’t seem to mind. There are a couple nearby who would be happy to serve but it seems, in our milieu, we are quite generous in allowing others to enjoy themselves, so I will enjoy myself this evening in your company and in the company of a number of other entities who are joining with us. I jumped out here before Gerdean even had a chance to say a prayer or build a merkabah but I can bring you all into focus, and so that’s what I thought I’d do. Tomas would like to speak with you this evening, and I’ll be back. Meanwhile, just relax and listen to Tomas expound for a bit. (One moment)

TOMAS: Good evening, my friends, this is Tomas, your Teacher. It delights me to be here in your midst. I am soon to celebrate 20 years as your teacher, and while that only means something in your time frame, I acknowledge it as significant, for some of you are not much more than that age yourself. As time goes by and as we are a part of your ordinary and regular construct, we will be called upon more easily, more readily. We will become a household word, as it were, and that’s good because it is a new language that’s being introduced on an old theme.

Lesson

There are many things that are turning over a new leaf or putting on a new suit of clothes or a new face to meet the requirements of evolution. In particular, as you change from the inside out and the old formats, ways and means, and vernaculars are no longer appropriate or in vogue. Change often brings about changes,and it’s the changes that are difficult and time-consuming. Once the change itself is manifested, it’s ‘the adaptation to’ and ‘the catching up with’ that takes time.

I’m looking at this upcoming season you’ve got planned for yourselves and I am going to discuss it because I have my own perspective on what I and we observe going on in and around you, our students.

• Christmas, of course, is the overriding emphasis of December. Even those of you who do not celebrate Christmas, are aware of Christmas.
• There is also a Jewish holiday (Hanukkah) and an African-American holiday (Kwanzaa)
• And there is the much talked about and anticipated end of the Mayan calendar, the end of this system of things, the start of the new paradigm shift, and all, which is scheduled to occur December 21st.
• Let us not overlook the full moon on the 28th.
• And then there is talk, as well, about a new dispensation beginning December 30th.
• The next day is New Year’s Eve and that’s when 2012 comes to an exciting culmination, a true flourish, so as to be ready for January 1, 2013.

There will be, no doubt, many extravaganzas postulated and acted out into 2013, as well. But I’d like to stay, if we may, on this upcoming season and I speak to you of this because you have professed to want to be of service and there will be great need for sensitivity in your service work coming up over these next few weeks.

Almost all of what you are going to experience during this next period of time is emotional. It is feeling focused, rather than academic focus. It’s more right brain than left brain; it’s more heart than head. This is what is wonderful about the Christmas season and it is also what is feared and dreaded about the holiday season because, while everyone wants to feel the good feelings, no one wants to feel the bad feelings, the negative feelings, and yet they exist for everyone as you work out your destiny, as you correct your issues and iron out the wrinkles of your experiential living.

You present yourself. Sometimes you present yourself as having it all together and sometimes you present yourself as justifiably angry or naturally grieving or romantic or whatever life circumstances have given you to dramatize. When Christmas comes, everything is magnified 100%, so every little thing is bigger than it was. Everything seems more important than it did. You feel far more vulnerable and since it has no boundary, that is to say, the Christmas Spirit knows no bounds, it can affect the poor and the wealthy, it can touch the godless as well as the devout; it can satisfy the meek as well as the powerful -- provided that which you truly long for is touched, and many of the things that you touch cannot be had because of the circumstances that you in fact have participated in setting up, so there is, on top of everything else, a lot of self-loathing at this time of year, a sense of not being worthy, like the little drummer boy who doesn’t have gifts to bring, just his noise. And so people come beating their drum. It is often a cacophony of noise, but if you can appreciate what’s going on with these people, you will have so much more compassion and patience for them as they endure circumstances and look for solutions, even as they are emotionally riled up and not thinking clearly.

This is a great time of year for you to enter into a spiritual state, a sublime sense of peace. When you can and do this, you present yourself as a stabilizer. On one hand you may attract those who long to touch base with stability, but you may be avoided by those who don’t want to be stable for they are reacting and acting out and don’t want to be reminded of how disquieted they are in their soul. You can do nothing about their choices or their perspectives, but you can hold them in your mind in a sacred place. Allow the love of God as the Christmas Spirit to cover them and comfort them as only God knows how to do.

Those you can comfort and companion, do. Be our guest. Shed these positive feelings and indulge in the sentiments of giving and rejoicing and celebrating the birth of truth, beauty and goodness.

Christmas is often a crisis time for many and they will find their comfort one way or another, where they can get it, where they may. Many will be hungry and homeless and lonely, but they will find camaraderie because of the kindness of kindred spirits, whether they be religionists or fellow carousers, fellow creatures and party animals, fellow men of all sorts. They may not worship what and how you worship, but the spirit is freely given.

Enjoy these feelings and observe the dramas. You need not get caught up in the dramas. In fact, you may be able to see your way more clearly to teach and preach because of what you see in this season of raw emotionality… or, in contrast, those who have so well learned how to cover up their emotions; they are as plastic manikins … and to them send double care, for their heart needs softened and strengthened so that feelings can be felt and trained to serve and exalt the Creator of all these feelings, this tremendous emotional realm that is such a large part of the human condition.

What you do about gifts is your business: what you can afford – financially, socially, spiritually or otherwise. Just stay close to your Source and be guided in all things.

But now that you know how emotional it will be “out there,” brace yourself against getting swept away. A certain amount of detachment from the folderol allows for a sober perspective, one which runs through every event as a condition of safety and overcare. What would we do without the stability and sobriety of Deity, even as we rejoice and frolic in our Sonship?

Well, I have given my little timely lesson around the month of December. I like putting my teachings into a perspective that you can deal with. How does it affect you? How do my words and my lessons and the values that I call to your attention have to do with you, your life, and how you live it, since I require of you, my students, a focus that dwells on the growth of your own soul? I reciprocate by providing you a focus that supports the growth and the development of your soul as well, for this is where the satisfaction lay, where the opportunities are, the triumphs, the challenges, and the accomplishments.

I am willing to chat further about this topic or others if you are inclined to meander. There are others in the wings and Jack is still here. I will suggest you reconnect with the microphone by pressing star six, which will give you leave to speak, go on the record. I will invite you to do this now. Ask questions or make commentary as you will.

Dialogue

Dave: Hi Tomas. I just wanted to thank you for the book you wrote on the fruits of the spirit. I recently received it and I’m very much enjoying it.

TOMAS: I’m so glad you like it. I had a good time teaching the fruits to the Pittsburgh group; they were quite receptive. It took a few months, actually, to deliver all the lessons that were then edited into the format that you received as the book “Fruits of the Spirit.” I went away during preparation for publication so as to not micromanage the affair. Another midwayer was called in to oversee the editing and proofreading processes, the publication itself, and I was very glad to see how well everyone comported themselves and participated, for in truth, it is how well you work together that means as much if not more than the product itself.

We are also pleased that so many years later the product is still a quality book, a nice piece of merchandise, in spite of the fact that everyone had something to complain about. The formatting was not as they submitted it; the artwork had been modified from the artist’s rendition, and that sort of thing. But even with all those modifications, unauthorized modifications, it came out quite nice. I’m glad you like it.

Dave: I’m enjoying it very much. I’m finding it very helpful. Thanks again.

TOMAS: Thank you.

With all this going on, I know there are things that come to your mind. I know that you are not just accepting everything that comes along, but that you do ponder and reflect on things. Share with us what you reflect on. How can we help you grow, or how can your reflections bring growth to others?

Mark: Tomas, are you saying that this particular Christmas season will be more emotionally vulnerable than past Christmases?

TOMAS: Yes, I am.

Mark: Yeah.

TOMAS: There is always a tremendous lot going on. There is always Christmas and Kwanzaa and Hanukkah, but there is not always the end of the Mayan calendar, the end of a dispensation, and the full moon at once on top of that. It is also a particularly volatile powder keg emotionally because of many things – politics mostly, economics, war, etc.

Mark: Yes.

TOMAS: Why do you ask?

Mark: I just wanted to make sure I got what you were saying. So … the end of the Mayan calendar, the new dispensation, the full moon. These will all have their effects -- more than merely psychological effects – that these are going to deliver or …?

TOMAS: It is unlikely that the announcement regarding the dispensation is going to have that profound an effect on the world at large, and yet the other items are rather global. The 2012 end of the Mayan calendar may not be of particular interest toeveryone, but it is of acute interest to thousands of people across the world -- people you relate to and with in terms of the shift and so forth. And so your culture, as it were, is more than usually invested. It’s a tremendous growth opportunity, actually, and we are seeing signs of it already where people are beginning to realize that the largess of materialism is not satisfying their longing and that the unending shopping is becoming monotonous, that there has to be something greater in order for this holiday to have real meaning.

Now, you will notice that most of them are still overlooking the birth of the Christ child except as a formality, a traditional addition to a winter holiday. But it is still very difficult for people to openly address a soul perspective on faith, living faith.

Everyone knows whether everyone has a church, or not; who believes or doesn’t. Perhaps you know if your neighbor is a Methodist or an atheist, a Buddhist or Catholic. These things are part of the social scene; it may or may not permeate the environment, but you can have a sense, and we are going to be entering into a greater awareness of what sense there is about deity, living spirit. It will make people nervous. They long for God, but they are afraid to talk of it. They are afraid to be betrayed, they are afraid they will again be lied to, they fear having to be more responsible than they want to be. They just want to be safe. They want to be saved. They want that assurance of sonship that those who are born of the spirit feel without benefit of chapels, cathedrals, holy books, candles or any of that, any of those props to religion, just simple personal faith.

And so you will find, looking at people, they may feel somewhat exposed. They may prefer to be drunk, or high, so that they can glibly hide behind social festivities rather than expose their yearning for higher reality. You can be sensitive to that. If you are on the lookout for those kinds of circumstances -- souls who are yearning to know “what’s it all about Alfie” -- you can be sure that your Thought Adjuster will reach out and touch their Thought Adjuster, giving them an opportunity to pass you by, or not, so that your light can so shine, giving them a ray of hope or a glimmer of confidence without blinding them, without causing them to stagger by your glory.

Remember that it is the Father’s light we are privileged to carry; He is the Source and Center; He is that which we all worship. And so you become a likeable chap, a friend and a fellow, not a guru or a lord, or someone who would lord it over them. It’s just a matter of being friendly, you know, (of) spreading the Christmas spirit.

Be on the lookout also for hysteria. When you see someone laughing too loud or shopping too hard, perhaps they are manic so as not to be depressed. Have mercy, and do not let yourself be swept away by their emotional needs. Their emotional needs can be fed only by the Spirit; direct them to the First Source and Center in whatever possible way that might make sense to them. But you can tell them, “It ain’t me, babe!”

This is one of the troubles of this kind of work. People tend to exalt those who serve, and that is not at all appropriate. It makes it very difficult to be selfless when you are being applauded, put on a pedestal, given awards for your greatness or your cleverness or your skill. Defer such accolades.

Mark: Yes, I’ve read Lao-Tzu. “Do your work and step back. The only key is serenity.”

TOMAS: Serenity is certainly the peace that passes all understanding, and that is the starting place. From that citadel of the spirit where you are serene and at peace, you are guided and directed into service fields and opportunities. Or not. One must not become so habituated to service work it becomes another task. Must hang up Christmas lights, must buy Christmas goose, must maintain Christmas cheer. That’s not exactly the answer. Christmas cheer, in fact, comes in many colors, depending upon who you encounter, what they are used to, what they expect.

You remember you are to give people what they think they need, not what you think they need when you serve them, so although you may think they need something, it may be that they need something else completely. Let them tell you what they would like. Many times you wouldn’t think of it at all, it’s not your taste, it’s not what you would want, but it’s not about you. If they like super-heroes, then that is appropriate; if they prefer kitsch and gingham, that’s what they would like. Some folks like bling. And some would rather not bother at all. So you have your hands full looking at all the many things that life has to offer between now and then.

Remember to take a lot of time out, just to take time out. Just because the world is acting like a whirling dervish does not mean you have to try and keep up. In fact, being still is still the best service you can provide yourself and the universe. It will give you better perspective on your efforts, on your service field. And our wish for you – my wish for you this holiday season, is to feel all the feelings without getting lost in any of them, moving through to serenity – comfort and joy – in the knowledge that the Creator Son brought the Spirit of Truth to your world and opened the door for everyone to be indwelt with a piece of the Father. The Lord has come. Let him be born in you, this Christmas morning, and indeed in every morning.

Are there any further comments or questions before we wind it up for the day? Let me give this back to Jack for his final words. Farewell.

Closing

Group: Thank you.

JACK: Well, that was fun, having Tomas visit. He is such a philosopher. I have enjoyed my work with Tomas; he is a very capable teacher. Actually, I have not worked with a bad associate yet. Some of them have better connections that others but as long as the machines are kept well oiled, the show goes on. And so do we.

Thank you for coming this evening and we look forward to seeing you on our next occasion. Later!