1998-05-10-Love and Gender

Session

Opening

Will (Jonathan TR): I greet you today, and I would address you on the topic of love.

Lesson

Love

The Father's love is transcendent of all conditions. It is so extensive in its embrace that it is nearly impossible to define it through descriptions. In order to understand this divine love, you are of necessity in the position of receiving love from those who are nearer your state of being. This is the initial experience into the dimension of love that is deep and results in the realization of the Father.

Love from God as it comes to you is reflected through your local universe rulers, Michael and Nebadonia. The experience you have of love, that flow of energy, is their variation of that divine and transcendent love. Even the glandular makeup of your bodies is designed with the understanding that your ability to sense love will have some physical ramifications. This has been designed such that you gain sensitivity to this higher spiritual love. It also makes apparent how important it is for you to demonstrate on all levels to your young ones...(brief interruption)

I speak on this topic of love today because I wish to convey two points: One, that the Father's love is so grand that it is almost impossible for a creature to comprehend the enormity of this expression, that your experience of this love has been forwarded to you through His Creator Son and the Creative Spirit so that you may begin to approach this love. In so doing they have provided you with a love that is reflective of their personal affection as well as the Father's. You, yourselves, experience this qualification.

The other point I wish to convey is that you desire to express spiritual love to one another, and you know that your ability to love is determined by your attainment spiritually as a creature of the Creator. When you open yourself to allow the love of the Father through you, it is recognizable how you provide your own flavor, your own coloration, of this divine and essential love. This is not a fault; this is not imperfection. This is merely another derivation of that pure essence. You are reflecting Michael's love from the Father. Every expression of love on your part and every expression of love through each one of you is a point wherein another may link to the great circuit of love that will ultimately draw you all into the Father's presence.

In order to better discover the love of the Father within you, ministers have been stationed around you who can reveal this love, as has been experienced by them, that you may recognize it when you encounter it within. Though you can never coerce or compel or require another to attain this experience of love within, you can demonstrate it such that it becomes recognizable.

The love of the Father is so expansive. I would crudely convey an inkling of this expansiveness by relaying to you that the very matter of the universe is because of love. All of finality, all relationship, all awareness is rooted in love to begin with. Mankind struggles with the acquirement of love, the need, the hunger to experience love received and to have an outlet for love expressed. Much of the time love is valued strictly from the emotional well-being and comfort it provides. Love is this and more. Love is an action; it is an emotion, and it is a state of mind.

Today you have designated as a day for honoring those who have brought you life and have nurtured you with love. It is a fitting example of love that goes beyond feeling into many elements of life. From this day of recognition of relationship of parent to child, you can better understand the love of the Father, that love which is present even when you are feeling disconnected, even rebellious.

I am Will, and I am one who loves you. I thank you and Elyon for letting me speak today. That is all.

Dialogue

Gender

Evelyn: Thank you, Will. It's good to hear from you. Since you have addressed Mother's Day and Nebadonia, it brings to mind gender and how it is used in connection with celestials. It's easy for us to make sweeping generalizations about other beings based on our experience. Angels are referred to as daughters of the Infinite Spirit, but I don't think that makes them similar to human females in outlook or nature. Could you tell us more about those in The Urantia Book who are designated "she"?

Will: This is difficult territory to wade into because of the dual nature of the human species. The manifestation of Son and Spirit within the Infinite I Am brings about the initial duality, in reality, a polarity, complementary and connected to one another. The gender terms of "he" and "she" have been applied in the text, for it is your beginning approach to understanding the essential, fundamental, and primal divisions of God. You are correct in your discernment that this does not mean that all beings from the Infinite Spirit are feminine, likewise those of the Son being solely masculine.

I am, myself, as you know, female due to my birth on a world in a form that is female in gender. In my morontia unfoldment I have come to understand that we all have both qualities within us, some more latent, others more active. I have discovered that love that is tender and love that is stern are not gender oriented. The idea of applying differentiation based on the physical qualities of one's body is similar to striving to understand the base of a tree by analyzing the minute fibrils at the end of a tiny branch. It does not reveal the nature of the trunk with enough breadth to truly understand. Nonetheless, qualities are resident at these extreme ends that originated from the divine source. They have become altered and adapted to become, in your realm, male and female. I might put it this way: The quarter is a coin, but all coins are not quarters. This is true with the designations "he" and "she" when applied to higher beings.

On Paradise you will better understand the unification of these seemingly different dimensions much as you will there understand the oneness of matter and spirit.

I hope I have been helpful.

Evelyn: Yes, particularly the idea of love, whether stern or tender, doesn't automatically make it male or female. We stereotype based somewhat on experience, but I don't want to do that with beings I'm not familiar with at all. Thank you. We will have to wait for Paradise for some of these things.

Elyon: I too greet you today; this is your good friend, Elyon. It is always a pleasure to have another provide the lesson for me and let me rest and enjoy being with you and observe more carefully your reactions.

There does come a time in a teacher's experience when the question arises, what may I do better to facilitate your growth? I have tried many approaches, and I have experienced the rewards of your progress. It is good to witness another teacher, to observe the emphasis made, for we are reflective of the Melchizedek lessons just like Michael is reflective of the Father's love. Each of us has a slant to the course to be taught. Each of you likewise has a variant to the essence that you have experienced, and, to repeat Will, it is to your benefit that you apply yourself to fully understanding your diversity.

Not one of you nor any one of us will ever fully be a representative of Michael in any of our actions. But we will be a representative for Michael as we are. This he acknowledges; this he expects. Michael has given full expression in human form what he would be. He has already been in your shoes. Now he wishes for you to be fully you in your shoes for him, not the denial of yourself, not the devaluation of your worth. He said he is the water of life. Each of you is a flavor in that water. You know that flavor brings variety and all flavors provide refreshment.

That being said, do you have any tasty tidbits to add?

(long pause)

Evelyn: We are a quiet group today.

Elyon: I have noticed. Reflectivity is as valuable as expressivity. I might interject that reflectivity and expressivity are two ends, two polarities, of a similar function.

Archives

Evelyn: I have been working on this project with Nolus. To the extent you are familiar with it, do you have any suggestions for things I should keep in mind in trying to come up with something coherent?

Elyon: In a general response I would offer that you reach consensus on focus, to what degree you are going to record the events of the Teaching Mission as it began, the scope of the project. In that light you could ask yourselves, to whom do we intend to make this information available? Is it for the reasons of historical record? Is it for the opportunity to witness to others who seek the group dynamics which this mission provides? Is it going to be a tool to help new arrivals to, in a sense, catch up, to come up to speed with what has transpired over these past seven years? This will help to determine what to include in the body of the work. My only advice that I would desire that you follow is that this be an expression of experiences by fellows within this mission and that it not be portrayed as a demonstration of proof that this experience is valid, only that it be a record of experiences. Beyond that, I am looking forward to what is compiled and how you go about providing your own variation and understanding of the events that transpired that brought about the dynamics throughout this country and the relationships that even now at this meeting you are experiencing.

Evelyn: Thank you, that is helpful.

Melchizedeks

Elyon: It may require a few centuries before the activities that the spirit ministers of this world are undertaking become obvious to you all; even in this age of rapid communication there are events unfolding on this world of which you know not. The Melchizedeks are quite active, and they will remain so until the planetary government has been fully reconstituted under normal procedures. Even then, Urantia, what it is and what it has gone through, they may be here all the way to the ages of Light and Life.

The Melchizedeks have a special function on this world. They even preceded the arrival of your Prince; they have interceded between all revelatory efforts on this world. They have partaken directly in revelation to this world. They run this Teaching Mission, and upon some reflection you will easily conclude that this mission could not be all that occupies the attention of a Melchizedek Son. Recording the events that have transpired with you human beings in this mission will be helpful years later when you or others encounter other records that help to clarify, that stand in comparison with one another to shine greater luminosity upon the entire series of events transpiring on this planet. A day will arrive for you all when you will be able to review the records of all thirty seven worlds.

Gender

Mary: Either for comment today or in the future relating to the topic we discussed about gender, I have been reflecting for some months on roles, trying to understand myself, my roles, and our planet's history of devaluating what it sees as female traits and overvaluating traditional male traits. I realize we each have the full spectrum of potentials, leaving it to us as to which we express. I'd like to hear more comment on the discovery of oneself. I'd like to not fall back solely on emulating those I admire, self-discovery without confusion with societal values or being overshadowed by others' personalities.

Elyon: I will make a comment today and will make effort to prepare lessons for the future on this topic as it is broad and quite involved, for to those of you who have yet to be released from your first form of life, your bodies, it can be emotional. Once you have been resurrected in a morontial form, some of the discussion about your gender will become unnecessary. But since you all lack this experience as yet, we must explain more. Reflect one moment on the fact that every one of you exists, though different in gender from the opposite sex, has each been created by both. You are the merger of these two forms of your species. You apparently express one of these two. However, you are in reality a combination of both. You might say it is like one who is right-handed and one who is left-handed. All the functions of handness are present no matter the configuration of the digits and the palm. Each of you can equally express the qualities of both sexes. Some of the transitions going on in your society today regarding sexual orientation is expressive of the reality that you all contain the qualities of your parental origin. On a world that is maternal in orientation wars are less prevalent. However, oftentimes the wars that have taken place are to eliminate or greatly reduce the numbers of the aggressive, lesser sex, the males, in order to attain peace. On this world aggression attains rulership; on other worlds aggression has been forcefully restrained. Yet, you see in both the application of a technique, that being war, in order to effect different ends.

I will pause in my comments here and return to this topic at another time.

Mary: Thank you for your efforts and attention to the topic. It's been ongoing on this planet since the times of Jesus when he tried to elevate women to equal status and society resisted. It's hard to identify the repercussions of those tendencies throughout history. We don't have to untangle all that if we can transcend the whole issue. It's confusing. It's an idea for something we can use some help with. Thank you.

Closing

Elyon: You are welcome. I leave you with one little expression. Since we are speaking of gender, I would like to mention DNA and its double helix quality. You expressed the untangling of confusion on this world regarding the sexes. It would be nice to come to an understanding of your mutual support for each other and from each other as this spiraling helix does for you all genetically. One without the other and there is no life; without each of you there is no life. You are to be seen as standing equal in a dynamic which will contribute to progress. It will never be static. Always will you culturally benefit from the oscillation back and forth with the traits that are more dominant in one and traits that are more dominant in the other. This provides movement. Perhaps we can take this conversation up again on Father's Day.

I now take my leave.

Mary: Thanks.