1993-06-20-Honesty

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Topic: Honesty

Group: Unknown

Facilitators

Teacher: Iruka

TR: Unknown

Session

Opening

Iruka:...God surrounds you, the light of God enfolds you, the power of God protects you, wherever you are He is. Good afternoon, I am Iruka, I am your friend and teacher. I have enjoyed seeing you all this last week as you go about your jobs and your life. You are indeed trying to show love, I have seen changes in your behavior and treatment of those around you. I see more compassion, and love. You are making great strides in attempting to understand those around you. You are beginning to identify with them and showing love. You are thinking twice about some of the words that you say, so that you will not come off as being insensitive. I am greatly inspired and pleased and I have much joy and excitement from your progress. I truly believe that you are listening more and more to the Father, receiving His love and in turn giving it away to everyone, to anyone. This is so exciting. This brings me much joy and happiness and I hope that you see this too, and that it gives you joy. Notice it in the faces of the people around you. Can you tell you are being more sensitive, more gentle, more kind. I hope so, because indeed you are.

Honesty

Today's lesson is concerning honesty. It is so important to see things the way they are. This is of course clouded by our perception, either positive or negatively perception can change the viewpoint. But perception can be changed, and loving the Father is what changes our perception. This week, I want you to pay attention to your honesty with yourself. How you interpret things to yourself, which in turn influences perception. When you learn to be honest with yourself then you can be honest with people around you. I will now answer questions.

Dialogue

S1: Hello Iruka, how are you doing?

Iruka: I am fine thank you, how are you.

S1: I'm OK, actually I'm pretty excited, a lot of good things happened this week. But in regard to your questions about honesty, are you referring to the concept of denial? People deny, aren't being honest with themselves as they analyze the situation and so they deny something is true or deny...no I'm not a drug abuser, I just need a little help every now and then when in fact they have a drug addiction. Is that what you are referring to.

Iruka: I am referring to many things, and it will apply differently in each of your lives. This is not a very easy assignment because you must ask yourself where you are not being honest with yourself. And it will be drug abuse in one person's life and something else in another person's life and I don't mean in this immediate group. But that is a problem in the general world, yes, and what you might find in your life would be different than someone sitting next to you would find in their life. So this has to be applied to the individual.

Confidence, Attention

S2: I have been reading the transcripts and it seems that a lot of the chaos there is associated with this whole concept that I am trying to verbalize as being special. Seems like the disciples of Jesus wanted to sit at His right hand and were always fighting over...or fighting this urge among themselves to be His special chosen disciple or where each of us is dreaming of being a famous person. And this group that Patije is in is interested in becoming a teaching center and the Sedona group..and I am just wondering how, what motivates this, is this the Thought Adjuster in us inspiring us to great things. Is this how we were raised to be, to be visible, is this the..how do you deal with that in a group, how do you understand it. I am just trying to grapple with it. I mean I find it inside myself too, this whole desire to be great, this desire to succeed, desire to be different, the desire to be on the right hand side of Jesus.

Iruka: Very thoughtful question and I will try my best to answer it. Everyone has...starts out with insecurities and the need for attention. So you feel you must be something special to deserve this attention, and so people go to great lengths to show they are good at this or that or different or special. It is meeting a need, but like many things, it doesn't meet the need in a healthy way. The first several months I taught and tried to get you to understand and feel how much the Father loves you, and to become whole. If you feel totally loved and balanced and in tune and in alignment with your Thought Adjuster, you know who you are and you know your job. So you approach your job with the eagerness and the excitement and with great energy, and it gives you the satisfaction of knowing you are right where the Father wants you. Now if you don't have this confidence of the Father's love and doing what you are supposed to be doing, you are still seeking in other ways to be special. So are you beginning to see how if you don't feel the Father's love you search for a way to become famous, to get feedback from others saying you are wonderful. But if you got it from the Father, then you are free to be who you are, you are free to pursue the talents that you have. Whether you become world famous or whether you would live quietly in your own home and in your job doesn't mean that you are not fulfilled through the Father. Does this explain some of this better?

S2: Yes, much better thanks. I wanted to say that I tried this morning in the fourth grade sunday school class that I teach to see if they had this burning desire to be special so I asked them to imagine if Jesus walked through the door what would He ask them to do, what would they hope He would ask them to do. They had none of this, collectively as a group, they had none of this 'I need to be special' and I'm wondering if this insecurity is something that happens to us, these needs happen to us later in life or are they part of that first five years of the molding that goes on when you are born.

Iruka: It can happen at any time. It depends on first of all the family of course, and how...if they are meeting the needs of unconditional love and showing that love. Then through school and then through life, life has a way of destroying your confidence and making you feel bad about yourself. So if these students, if these children, feel God's love they are going to feel OK and confident and not need special attention. So it depends on many things but as you look out and see the world you see more hurtful people and needy people than you do whole and confident people. This sounds like a truly unique group that you have.

S2: I feel so, the last group of fourth graders I didn't have..they would stand on chairs and demand to be moderator or narrator of a section of a play, and pound on their chests and demand all sorts of attention. There is no child in this group that really demands that. So maybe it is just a special group. Thanks.

Revelation

E1: Hi Iruka, I'd like to ask about Revelation. It came across my mind the other day about..something about 'a thousand days and then we will be released' [1] can you explain that?

Iruka: Revelation has been greatly muddled and distorted. You know that things happen not in accordance with days or years or an artificial time limit. They happen when things are ready, when certain other events have happened that prepare the way. A thousand is a nice round number that is easily understood and it is used much. I see no significance of this.

E1: Is there still to be a release, regardless of the time period.

Iruka: Repeat the whole question again please. I focused on the time frame.

E1: OK I am not exactly sure of the quote but it just indicates that in a 1000 years he shall be released, referring to I think it is Satan, or one of the three. But regardless of the time frame is there some being that will be released again.

Iruka: No. Satan and Lucifer as you know do not exist anymore so this does not apply.

E1: So is there some spiritual or metaphysical meaning behind that?

Iruka: No.

E1: Is there any metaphysical meaning behind the seven churches.

Iruka: When this was written it was symbolic, however, there is no correlation or parallel that I could draw on any longer.

E1: So in other words we can regard it as just simple history. Something that is a dream that can be rather, translated on paper in a confusing manner, and more or less lives out its life scaring people, because a lot of people are frightened by the last book of the Bible.

Iruka: Remember that religion started out using fear. And so yes this is a way to control people, to get them to conform and to submit to what the church or those in control want them to {do}. Religion started out as ghost fear, it was in very primitive terms 'I will make sacrifices so that you do not hurt me' and it is our attempt to evolve it to an understanding that the Father is love and that He wants you to follow Him. He is not behind you with a stick making you run, making you fearful, making you do things out of terror and fear. This is part of the old system. Can you see this?

E1: Oh yes, but I was just wondering would that book still be significant for us today and is it anything that we have to live up to in order to be 'saved'.

Iruka: Absolutely not.

E1: OK, thank you.

Judgment, Forgiveness

J1: Hi Iruka, in a previous lesson you were talking about forgiveness and you gave us a technique and some things to say when forgiving people that we were clearing pain from and then you asked us to work on forgiving ourselves. Do you have any techniques you could pass along in terms of self forgiveness when we are spending our quiet time with the Father.

Iruka: Yes, I think so. If there is something that you are criticizing yourself about, or beating yourself up over, if you could think..if you would say those words to your best friend and most of the time you would say 'no I would not say that to them, I would not hurt them like that' and if that is the case, then stop doing it to yourself. We all make mistakes, we all make poor judgements, we all see things one way at one moment, and then days later see them in a different way and say 'oh! I should have done such and such instead'. And this is only human and so if you do that, simply say 'I forgive myself with my will and I will try to do better next time' and move on. This can be garbage that you carry around and I was teaching a method to get rid of the garbage and to make your burden light. Does this help?

Teacher Contact

J1: Yes, thank you. You also mentioned a bit back, I am a little slow I think about the lessons two weeks behind. You also talked about reaching out. After spending quiet time with the Father in talking to W1 you said you should reach out in attempting to make contact with the teacher. What do you mean by reaching out?

Iruka: I am not sure what I meant at that time, but what I was saying was...after you spend time with the Father and that is ended then keep in the meditation attitude and listen and listen actively to see if his or whoever's teacher is trying to contact them. Does this help?

J1: Well we will see.

Iruka: If you could..I don't remember that conversation and I don't remember what I was trying to tell, I am sorry.

Correcting Time

J1: That is OK, I will find it and show it to you later. [OK] A final question, you mentioned that Satan and Lucifer were gone, where is Caligastia these days.

Iruka: He is also gone. He is also as if he never was. It was a very sad occasion. Does this answer? [yes]

E1: On the day that Satan, Lucifer, and Caligastia were annihilated was that a period for a dispensation to occur?

Iruka: It was very shortly after that, yes.

Thought Adjusters

S2: Iruka, I spent an hour with a New York cab driver friday night and got him to tell me his entire life story. He drives a cab at night, watches soap operas during the day and does not interact with anybody else except for the people in his cab. He does not go to church, but he hears the Lord speaking in his mind and the Lord has told him to behave this way, to protect himself so he doesn't get in fights. And I just sat and listened to him and I'm totally amazed, he doesn't go to church because the Lord told him not to go to church and it sounds to me like he is talking to his Thought Adjuster. Then last night the head pastor of my former church told me about a revelation he had, now the mechanics of how this was revealed to him I don't know.

Basically it was during the dedication of the Holocaust memorial and the revelation came to him that after we die we go through this process of forgiving our parents and meeting our parents and our parents seek us out and we learn to be whole people. So that the atrocities that occurred during the Holocaust don't injure personalities the rest of their existence. And this sounds exactly like what you have been teaching us and the Urantia Book says. And I have...I did not mention the Urantia Book or this teaching group in either of those conversations. And I am wondering should I be just listening to these and offering encouragement and enthusiasm, which is what I am doing, or should I be actually trying to wear the Urantia Book on my sleeve a little bit more and draw them into this group, or a group.

Iruka: You will have to listen to your Thought Adjuster during those particular times, whether or not to share the Urantia Book with them. As you know there is more spiritual power throughout the world, this is one thing that did happen in Naperville. Difficult to explain, but you have seen a result, that people are seeing and hearing the truth through their own minds and their own revelations to themselves. That the Urantia Book is not the only way. If this person is happy where he is, or any person you are talking to, if they are in a church where they are happy, where they are growing and where they are being fed, then leave them there. Only when there is an expressed frustration or unhappiness or a lack of their needs being met, then talk about the Urantia Book. This is going to happen more and more and more and throughout all of the churches, throughout the whole world. Don't be surprised, be joyful about this, this is going to be wonderful. But you will have to make a judgement with each person you meet on whether to introduce the Urantia Book or not, so I cannot give you a definite yes or a definite no. This would be a judgement call. Does this help?

S2: Yes, that is what I expected you to say, that is great.

Isolation

E1: The guy that S was mentioning about the taxi cab driver, is it correct to say that the Thought Adjuster can tell you to isolate yourself at some point in your lifetime? For some particular reason?

Iruka: First of all remember, with God anything is possible. And in this case, I do not know this taxi driver so I cannot make a judgment, so lets just talk about an individual on a theoretical basis. If this person is in a situation, if he lives in a bad neighborhood, if there are threats to him physically, this might indeed be what he is advised to do for his own safety. If he is in a threatening or lets say unhealthy group of friends, he might be guided for awhile to stay away from them. This individual may not be totally isolated, he does see people occasionally. It is hard to make a judgement without knowing all the facts. Of course using the fruit of the spirit, is this person better, is he experiencing more joy, more health this way. It is hard for anyone else to judge. Do you see where in some circumstances this may be exactly what he is hearing, and it is exactly right.

E1: OK, because I was thinking of Judas's experiences in terms of how he isolated himself to the point of flight and insanity. So I was just wondering....

Iruka: You are absolutely right about that. It is not good to be isolated, to be alone. But in the case of the taxi driver he does see people and he spent an hour talking. So he is getting some needs met and Father will see to it that the right people will talk to him and will listen to him.

S2: Iruka, the cab driver wasn't married, but he had four children by a previous wife and he had nine brothers and sisters in the New York area and he felt driving that cab was his mission in life. And I have often felt that to, I've in fact expressed this to my wife before we were married. And the ability to have people captured in a car and to try to carry on a conversation...he was a neat guy. I felt very comfortable..

Iruka: So his needs were being met and the first few remarks about isolation were not the whole picture. [no] Absolutely this could be exactly what his Thought Adjuster was guiding him for his situation in his life at this period of time, and in the next few months things might totally change. So remember that the Father will guide you to do what is best for you, but that can change over time.

Teaching Mission

S2: Iruka, this question might not have any bearing but is there anything you can tell us about the Teaching Mission, and what is happening in other groups.

Iruka: It is growing and expanding. New people are coming into groups all the time. Some are rejecting the teaching and walking away, but most of them are quite excited and are listening and are learning and growing. It is like strawberry plants, that sends a runner out, finds a base, and grows another strawberry plant. Does this answer your question?

S2: No, but I didn't think you would. [Did I understand the question right?] The question was more practical stuff like the Riverside group splintering and going off in pairs, you know stuff like that. I don't know what is going on...it is sort of hard. It seems the transcripts they are more focused on almost a competition among the groups, than inwardly focusing on their own selves or outwardly focusing on their relationships in life.

Iruka: We as teachers are assigned to groups and we get to know the groups and the personalities and the needs. And of course we as teachers have our own personalities, our own needs and our own growth opportunities for growth and needs for growth. So you have various personalities of teachers dealing with various personalities within a group and indeed the whole group has its own personality, and the lessons are geared to the individuals in each group, so they will be different. They will have their own strengths and their own weaknesses and indeed this group personality wise, and need wise is very different from say this group. You cannot compare them, they are like...it is like comparing two children. You cannot compare your children, they are different with different attitudes and needs. So you notice there are many differences and that is true and it seems strange and different to you because you are in this group, and this group is more suited to your personality, but that group is meeting their needs and that teacher is attempting to teach and have her students grow where they need their growth. Do you recognize this?

S2: Well, yes but you are bringing it to my conscious ability. I do love that group down in Florida, I mean I do have a hard time reading through all their transcripts but you can still see the sparkle of truth and you can still see the good, very much. And you can still see them struggling, but it is hard to understand what they are struggling with...because I am so far, so different. So you are right...

Iruka: That is true, you are different. It is always difficult to compare apples and oranges. So take what you can from those lessons, the parts that you can apply to your life and leave the rest.

Sleeping survivors

J1: Hello again. You mentioned the dispensation a little bit ago. Do you...are the sleepers or certain groups of sleepers awakened during these dispensations. Do you clear the decks or do you select certain groups of them, or do you wake any of them up during these dispensations.

Iruka: Usually every individual is awakened at these times. It was 1984 when this happened and all of the sleeping survivors were awakened and sent to one of the Morontia worlds where they are living and growing and learning. Does this answer your question? All are awakened.

J1: All are awakened, so now you have a backlog from '84. How long do you go before you clear it out again.

Iruka: There is no set time, but usually a major spiritual event. Of course the one in '84 was the adjudication of the rebellion, and I cannot predict when the next one will be. But at some time it will happen all over again and all the ones asleep now will be repersonalized and sent to a mansion world. Does this help? [yes, thank you]

E1: Can you name some of the previous spiritual events that occurred prior to '84?

Iruka: There was the resurrection of Christ Michael, your Easter.

E1: So you didn't have a dispensation since the resurrection of Christ between '84 and that period. I mean nothing spiritual occurred between that time?

Iruka: Nothing major on our side, on the spiritual side, no.

E1: So there could be according to us, long periods before you have something spiritual that would occur.

Iruka: Yes, certainly could be, however, with this mission and with the changes that have been made it may not be that long, it may be much sooner. It is nothing to worry about, to be concerned about. It is just..on our side a natural event and you forget that we are not tied to time the way you are. And so it does not seem nearly as long on this side as it does on your side.

Stillness, Inner Life

S2: When I first read the Urantia Book I was very much attracted to the born again Christians thinking that they had some special relationship with Jesus. And after about two years of trying to participate in their bible studies, their groups, I convinced myself that it was all a facade, a way of talking, a cultural thing. And I started going to the more main line churches that give you more freedom to believe what you want. And now it seems I am back to the whole struggle of trying to find a personal relationship. But this time its the silence and listening for someone to talk to me. Is this...and my question is did Jesus actually teach the disciples the disciplines you are teaching us, the silence and listening to the Thought Adjuster. Did He use the terminology, having a personal relationship with the Father or with Me. Did the disciples after He arose, did they actually talk to Jesus in their minds. Where did this terminology of having a personal relationship with Jesus arise?

Iruka: Christ Michael did teach His disciples to spend time with the Father and listen. They had a lot of trouble with this, in some ways more trouble than you today are having trouble. They at first were caught up in the idea that they were going to have a kingdom on the planet, on earth. And they listened to the lessons but they didn't ignore... but they just..they didn't feel it was important at first, because they were going to set up a kingdom. After the resurrection, and after Christ Michael left them physically, after they spent a long time in shock, and rethinking what happened, and resolving what happened in their minds, then they remembered the lessons and did start spending quiet time with the Father, and listening to their Thought Adjuster. But there was so much other excitement to them going on that this came a long time afterwards. And then the books of the New Testament were written by various disciples, and this was an inspiration, the Father helped them, inspired them to write these things. So yes, this is where they get a personal relationship. That Father can live inside of you. That Christ Michael can be at your side, that you don't have to do anything, you don't go through life alone. He is with you. Is this the question that you asked, am I answering the question you asked?

S2: I haven't the foggiest clue what question I asked. The people I've most admired in my life have all focused on an outward journey in the fruit, and learning to recognize the fruit. In terms of the inward journey, the people that I have most respected have been mystics, that haven't sought personality inside themselves and in their quiet time. But rather sought inspiration and feelings and what they described as coming from the heart. And my question is...I have spent a lot of my time, and my quiet time since reading the Urantia Book, doing that and not searching for a Thought Adjuster that spoke to me as a person, as another entity, but rather some force inside of me that influenced my feelings and my conscience. And am I correct in trying to seek a personal Thought Adjuster that talks to me. That is the real question.

Iruka: Either way will work. When you talk about feelings from the heart or somebody says 'my gut feeling tells me' your Thought Adjuster can communicate with you in different ways. It is true that you can verbally communicate after much work but if there is no verbal communication definitely trust the feelings.

Definitely go with what your insides are telling you. It can be both or either. They both will work, your Thought Adjuster will contact you. He is flexible and he will contact you in whatever way he thinks you might hear him. He will meet you, so you have already made contact with him, but since you were listening for a voice you may not have recognized it. It is different for everyone. You talk about being in different groups or in different churches, consider that your path, your path went to one church for a while and went to another church for a while. That is your path, and you have gotten something from each group, from many people that you have talked with. You take what applies to you, what causes you to grow, what speaks to you in your development, what you recognize as truth and you leave the rest. That is what everyone has to do. Because of your different needs and your different personalities, this will be different for everyone. So think about your feelings from the heart or your gut feelings or whatever you call it and think of this as being your Thought Adjuster trying to make contact. I think in many people, in maybe every person, has heard the Thought Adjuster but because someone didn't say to them this is the thought adjuster, this is what he is going to sound like and this is what it is going to feel like, they didn't recognize it. Does this help?

S2: Yes. When I was initiated into transcendental meditation I lost...the TM people that my parents associated with started trying to levitate and strapping pillows to their rear ends...because they would bounce when they were levitating. The whole objective of learning to levitate baffled me. It seemed to be a means without an end, it seemed to be a inward journey that had a lot of outward components to it that were more free will violating, more free will encroaching...and I am wondering if I am hearing you say that the fact that I should be listening for the thought adjuster to verbalize in my mind words and trying to distinguish those from my own thoughts is an effort that is better let go of and more fruitful time will be spent feeling the thought adjuster right now, for me? I am trying to equate the thought adjuster talking in my mind with those people strapping pillows to their rear ends.

Iruka: Well certainly that is not a fruit of the spirit is it. That is an outward sign to other people that perhaps gives them status, but does that make them more loving, or more gentle, or more forgiving. And certainly you can have fun with that but does it serve a spiritual purpose and inspire growth. Only you can answer the question of whether you want to hear your thought adjuster audibly or not. But know that you will get messages other ways, and the thought adjuster will give you guidance but he will not be as chatty say as I am. He will briefly answer a question, or briefly guide you or give you encouragement. But if you are looking to have a conversation, like you have with me, I think you will be disappointed. Do you understand this.

S2: Thanks, very much.

S1: Iruka, is there a reason why the thought adjuster will not be as, as you say, chatty or verbal as you are, or Curtis is, or any other teacher is.

Iruka: I cannot give a reason other than to say that is also my experience. That is the way He is. He will communicate but He also wants His children to love and communicate with each other. He would not want you to only talk with Him and ignore those around you. He wishes to encourage you to be with other people and have interaction, show love to them through Him. Can you see how you would make the Father your best friend and ignore everyone around you. That may be one reason, but other than that all I can say is that is the way it is. That is the way I have found it to be also at this level. Things may change later but right now we are to learn from each other and to give each other encouragement and find strength.

Health

S1: I think I can understand that rationale. Can I ask you a quick question, I don't know if you are qualified to answer this and you will understand why. I have begun a new regime of taking vitamins at the suggestion of someone I respect and I have been feeling sort of different, sort of sluggish after taking these. Can you tell me if this is actually good for me considering my situation.

Iruka: The best thing I think I can say is you can experiment with these vitamins, but don't replace a balanced diet with them. Keep the food, the balance, the vegetables, the fresh fruit, don't take the vitamins and think that you can let your diet become unbalanced and ignore your food. Again each body, each individual is a little bit different and that is something you will have to experiment with, but the biggest danger I see is to ignore your balanced diet. Does this help?

S1: Yes, that makes a lot of sense, thank you. One last question and this was asked of me by an acquaintance 'how do you know that God loves you'. Obviously he was struggling with this question. I didn't have an immediate answer, it was so general but pure of heart, in other words he was really, seriously asking. How do you know that God loves you. Do you have anything I could say, that I could tell him or anyone else that asks me a question like that.

Iruka: I am probably sounding like a broken record, but in your day to day life with the radio on and the TV set on and your headphones on you cannot know in a very good way. It is by silencing your world and sitting quietly and feeling His presence and His unconditional love. The world has so many noises, there are so many distractions, there are so many ways to deaden your senses. And I don't mean in negative ways like drugs, you can do it with food. You can take any activity, sports, and do it to such a degree that you are not feeling anything, you are not listening to yourself, much less quieting things down and listening to the Father. That is a good question, an excellent question, because so many have not felt His love. Is this an answer that you can explain easily? To those who ask it of you?

Names

S1: I think I can. Unfortunately it is kind of like the question one of the Apostles asked Jesus, and Jesus kinda got a little upset for asking such a simple minded question. I am finding in my reading is that..a lot of folks have been abused. They have never known God, they have never even known a father, or they have known a father they have known an abusive father. And the circumstances of their life is that God is so far away that He might as well not even exist, and trying to explain.. well look you know you just have to forget about all the hellish things that have happened to you in your life and seek this inward experience...and that is a tall order for people who are living with the sins of other people, and I understand that our whole planet is like that if I back up enough. So it is tough explaining that to someone who has been abused. Someone who has never known a father image, or a mother image and that is why it is hard, it is hard to explain it, may be it is not hard for you to understand it, it is hard to explain that to someone who has no concept of a loving father.

Iruka: Indeed I could suggest for you to call Him the Creator, the Creator and leave Father or Mother out of it if that is more comfortable. You could use the term Loving Power, Loving Force, Intelligent Power, find a name that you are comfortable with and perhaps that will help. But yes, there is much pain, much pain throughout your world and that is one reason we are working so hard to teach you how to feel this love. And think how long it took you to feel the love. So yes, it is not easy, it is difficult, but it is well worth the time and effort and it does change lives.

S1: Thank you very much.

Closing

Iruka: I enjoyed this afternoon very much. Your questions are very thoughtful and it shows that you have been learning and growing and questioning so that you can understand better and more fully. And I encourage you to do this. Have a good week, you make it a positive experience, show your love to others and we will meet again soon. Good afternoon.

Group: Good afternoon.