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==Heading==
===Topic: ''Reevaluating Physical Life''===
===Group: [[Marin TeaM]]===
==Facilitators==
===Teacher: [[Nebadonia]]===
===TR: [[JL]]===
==Session==
===Opening===
Dear Mother Spirit and Michael, Welcome. We open our [[hearts]] and our [[minds]] and ask, dear [[parents]], that you help us be [[aware]] of your [[presence]] here. We know you are always with us, but our own awareness of that [[fact]] does, all too humanly, come and go. And so we invite you to remind us of your presence, any time the two of you see fit. We especially [[welcome]] this in our [[moments]] of [[meditation]] and, frankly, our moments of being stumped when we just can’t see the way ahead. Help us [[remember]] the [[prayer]] you offered us: Dear God, what do I do next?--and then listen. Listen within where the answer can come with our very next [[thought]].
I have a special request tonight and that is if you could expand on what Michael brought up last time. Help us [[understand]] these [[physical]] [[bodies]] we have. Help us see and accept what you mean by the misuse and the disrespect we often have for this part of our [[being]]. Help us extend our [[creative]] [[spirit]] into our bodies and into our [[minds]] so we can stay [[present|here and now]], and keep up with these marvelous and ever-changing gifts of [[the Father]]. [[Amen]].
NEBADONIA: Good evening, my children, this is Nebadonia, your [[spirit]] [[mother]]. I want to welcome the newcomers to this tried and true group. Michael and I welcome you and yes, by all means, open your hearts, open your minds, open your [[souls]] so you can best use this [[time]].
===='''''[[Body]]'''''====
(Reevaluating your physical life)
Yes, I will do what you request. I will give you as best I can certain [[viewpoints]] of Michael’s and mine as we look upon the [[human condition]]. The order of [[human being]]s on the [http://nordan.daynal.org/wiki/index.php?title=Paper_49 evolutionary planets] are [[unique]] among all [[personal]] beings in that you have a [[physical]] [[body]] that even the [http://nordan.daynal.org/wiki/index.php?title=Paper_39 lower angelic forms] do not have. This physical body of yours, starting out as a [[dual]] [[origin]]--two-[[parent]]--one-[[cell]]ed living [[organism]], recapitulates the [[evolution]] of Urantian [[animal]] life before you are born. Shortly after [[birth]] you begin, in a sense, to recapitulate the [[evolution]] of the particular [[civilization]] into which you were born: your three-year-olds walking around like little [[Primitive|cavemen or cavewomen]]; coming up to your high school years and all the [http://www.wikipedia.org/wiki/Middle Ages Medieval gangs] and [[groups]]; how, hopefully, as you reach [[maturity]] in your late twenties, early thirties--these days, hopefully each [[generation]] takes one further step beyond what they got from their parents’ generation.
So there is evolution involved here in each [[individual]], both [[physically]] and [[culturally]] and, as Michael said, in spite of all of the millions of [[books]] you have now on [[http://www.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_Physiology human physiology], hundreds of thousands of books, shall we say, on blood [[chemistry]] alone, in spite of all of this, your own [[personal]] [[body]] is to each of you an [[infinity]]. For all the specialization of your [[technical]] [[knowledge]] about human physiology, no one person can begin to [[comprehend]] even one hundredth of one percent of all of that. Your physical bodies, my children, are this partial [[mystery]] to you, [[moment]] to moment. And so we would have you stop from time to time and just [http://nordan.daynal.org/wiki/index.php?title=Book_of_Psalms#Psalm_46 be still] in spite of all the [[busyness]] and the demands of your life. Pay some [[respect]] to this living, [[breathing]] part of you. Feel yourself breathing and see--as we’ve teased you before into trying: see if you can just feel your body breathing, which is very tricky because it’s something you [[immediately]] affect. Yet if you get this detachment from your own physical body and approach it with newness and [[wonder]] and [[curiosity]], you can get still enough to begin to feel your own [[heart]] beating. And what is this? What is this activity going on inside you over which you have so little [[control]]? What is it keeping your heart beating? Or is it Who?
We ask you to approach this [[physical]] part of your [[being]] with freshness, my [[children]], because as a [[developed]], industrialized [[culture]] now, you’re facing some [[supreme]] [[ironies]] compared to the [http://nordan.daynal.org/wiki/index.php?title=The_Urantia_Text_-_Contents#Part_III._The_History_of_Urantia whole history of mankind]--[[literally]] the nearly one million years that people have been on the [[earth]] evolving their civilizations up to the present day. Up until very recent times--only your last few centuries of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Industrial_revolution industrialization]--[[everything]] not of wind and water was done with [[animal]] muscle and bone, either [[human]] or your draft [[animals]]. Then came [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steam_engine steam power] and a little gizmo that could sit there merrily percolating along indefinitely as long as you feed it a little water and fuel. With this [[power]] you began to [[change]] the face of the [[earth]] itself, and everything of your lives along with it.
But these [[bodies]] of yours, my [[children]], they still [[remember]]--if you’ll allow me to use that [[concept]], they still remember, and were shaped for and by, those million years of effort and struggle and [[work]]. And so when Michael mentioned last time that you are literally perishing for lack of good [[nutrition]] and adequate [[exercise]], that are available to you, this is what that one little word “[[exercise]]” means.
===='''''[[Exercise]]'''''====
(Sufficient exercise for optimum [[health]]: the challenge)
Considering this, think not so much of the extreme [[limits]] of what the [[human]] [[body]] can do, shall we say, in some of your younger [[athlete]]s who train for years and years in [[intense]] [[competition]] to present you with those [[spectacles]] you see every four years in your [http://www.wikipedia.org/wiki/Olympics Olympics]. It’s not so much what the human body is capable of doing on these competitive extremes. Rather I would have you go through the years and think of the folks in their seventies and eighties who’ve lived very full physical lives and are still so strong and [[flexible]] and supple. Think of some of the great [[dance]]rs who, clear into their nineties, are marvels of strength and [[grace]]. Think of the craftsman, the [[men]] and [[women]], whether in their [[work]] or their hobbies, who have found something infinitely physically rewarding and [[creative]] and new all through their lives. Think of the enormous [[soul]] [[wealth]] of [[experience]] they have because their bodies and their minds have been actively engaged in real physical effort, real rewarding effort for a whole lifetime.
Now I think you can see the problem facing you as the [[culture]] we are [[Frame of reference|framing]] here. From the time you are very small children the human body needs great exercise for the [[muscles]] to [[develop]]; needs it throughout life for the very [[stress]] on your bones, my children, makes and keeps them strong. Think of a schoolyard of youngsters playing and yelling and running about. Think of the enormous amount of [[physical]] effort that the human body thrives on. I know it [[sounds]] like some kind of [[Future|futuristic]] [[science fiction]], but think of a [[society]] in which all the individuals of all ages [[love]] and cherish engaging this [[physical]]-ness of theirs so much. From childhood clear to the onset of extreme old age and decrepitude, through their entire lifetime they’re interested and delight in real physical activity.
You can see the [[challenge]] facing you as a [[culture]], especially now in your current [[economic]] downturn where the question becomes over and over again: where do you find the good [[work]]? Where do you find this physical work to engage everyone? Especially: where do you find this work when so many in your culture have come to denigrate and look down upon [[physical]] [[activity]], look down upon craftsmanship--working with your hands in combination with your [[brain]]?
As Michael said, your current [[health]] care [[debate]] is almost beside the point if your [[society]]’s basic health itself is deteriorating. No amount of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allopathic after-the-fact care] with, as he said, however heroic [[measures]] or amazing [[technology]], can make up for this lack of physical [[exercise]] that the body really thrives on. And so you can see this requires an enormous turning of a very [[existential]] corner. The great excitement of your [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Industrial_revolution Industrial Revolution] was that it freed [[mankind]] from its whole [[history]] of back-breaking, health-destroying labor. How do you get the developed cultures to turn that corner and, not go back but go forward to [[welcome]] that very [[thing]] it cost them so much on a primal level to escape?--especially in a world situation where still a great part of mankind is involved in terrible, life destroying toil under the most appalling conditions.
How do you get a whole [[culture]] and the societies within it to turn that corner and, as [[individuals]], [[welcome]] this need to be more [[physical]]? Where do you find the work for everyone? Think how much of your crime results from this lack of [[good]], genuine accomplishment day to day. Think of how many of your youngsters, caught up in a life of crime, would welcome with delight having good, rewarding work to do. There is just no way of denying this [[challenge]], and so tonight I wanted to lay it very squarely and [[honestly]] before you. The physical part of being human and the delight your body feels when it is fully engaged, wonderfully used, and then delightfully tired: how else can you know the sweetness of [[rest]] and the miracle of how your body [[heals]] and strengthens and refreshes itself?
This is something that faces each of you [[individually]], and Michael and I are [[determined]] to [[share]] this with you. Believe me, my [[children]], as we are your [[spiritual]] [[parents]], we can feel with you what it takes sometimes to swing your legs out of bed in the morning and get up and go about your daily requirements of those [[things]] you have to do. We know how [[busy]] you get, how exhausted you get, and here we come suggesting that what you need is some good hard exercise for your bodies. You can call it some kind of tough-love, but we are determined to help you face this challenge even though it does mean to once again [[value]] good hard [[work]]. And so we ask you do not belittle but you [[embrace]] all those things that keep you [[healthy]] and fit. If your work does not require it, consider all those interesting hobbies and social activities where you can share this great need to get out and move around, and delight in each other.
We [[encourage]] you to read that part of your [[Urantia book]] that talks about [http://nordan.daynal.org/wiki/index.php?title=Paper_72 life on a neighboring but more highly developed planet]. You’ll see that they too have gone through a similar kind of a super-industrialized age as you are in now, yet there has been a further decentralization of [[power]] and [[authority]] and a greater blossoming of individual [[creativity]] that leads people to voluntarily [[embrace]] and enjoy things such as growing much of their own food, doing those [[creative]] [[physical]] [[things]] you’re now overly specialized in eliminating. For example, think of how your do-it-yourself projects have given such enjoyment and appreciation to folks, just to be able to be their own handymen and handywomen.
Thank you for [[entertaining]] these notions this evening. In some of our [[future]] lessons we will make other suggestions about what you need to do as a whole [[society]] to find that good rewarding [[physical]] [[work]] and [[play]] for everyone. It’s one of the greatest challenges facing you to become more healthy, and this is a [[spiritual]] [[Work|task]], my children, because it involves [[value]]. What do you value, and how, as a [[culture]], do these [[values]] need to be re[[examine]]d to once again to find [[love]] and [[respect]] in those [[things]] you can do with these [[marvelous]] [[bodies]] of yours?
(Contemplating enormous necessary changes)
So you’ll forgive me for teasing you once again into contemplating something enormous. But I’m sure you are used to this stretch by now, and you’ll [[welcome]] the [[challenge]] both [[individually]] and [[collective]]ly. As we’ve been saying lately, when you look at any social, [[economic]], [[political]] or religious [[system]], ask yourselves: what is it doing to encourage individuals to be more free, more [[creative]], and more [[responsible]]? This is the way forward to a kind of decentralization of authority, encouraging each individual to live up to their potential. Tonight I emphasize the physical glory you are all capable of if you put your hearts and minds to it. What a wonderful reward of a lifetime of strength, agility, and flexibility--all these good things you enjoy of body, mind, spirit, and soul.
If you have any questions this evening, Michael and I and always happy to respond.
===Dialogue===
Student: I suffer from lack of energy and vitality, and quite a few physical ailments that go along with that--especially recently. I’d like to know why and how to resolve that.
(Addressing specific challenges with spirit)
NEBADINUIA: Yes, my daughter, could you be a little more specific?
Student: I have what’s called [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chronic_fatigue_syndrome Chronic Fatigue Syndrome]. I’ve had it for about twenty years. I’ve extremely, extremely low vitality, and [[memory]] loss--fatigue, and recently I had a very severe kidney infection that really damaged my kidneys and my body a lot. My vitality seems to be getting worse and worse as does my [[health]].
NEBADONIA: Let me ask what you’ve done so far, who you’ve seen, who you’ve talked with about this.
Student: Over the years I’ve seen many, many doctors. At the [[moment]] I’m taking antibiotics for the infection--that helps the infection. I’m getting acupuncture; energetic [[healing]] work; Netri (Sp?) energetic systems, which is a great new medical system which is helping a lot, Bobbi-Field medicine (Sp?). I’m taking a lot of supplements which are supporting the regeneration of the kidneys.
NEBADONIA: Are you talking about vitamin supplements? (Yes) How about your diet, meaning everything you put into your body which gives you [[energy]].
Student: My diet is pretty good; a lot of greens, soups. I don’t drink coffee that much. I drink a lot of water. My diet is pretty good.
NEBADONIA: Have you considered any kind of [[heredity]] implications--your [[parents]] or your [[siblings]]?
Student: No, I’m the only one in my [[family]] to have it.
NEBADONIA: It seems you’ve pretty well looked at the different aspects of it. Let me ask if you’ve--and this may seem very far a field--but let me ask about your [[spiritual]] [[activities]] which you talked about earlier this evening. We consider that the [[creative]] part of your [[personality]] and it’s something you’re using every [[moment]] of your life. You’re trying to creatively [[understand]] yourself, and so what is your contact with this creative spirit of yours? How do you do [[tune]] in and come up with your own evaluations and answers to these [[problems]]?
Student: I meditate daily.
NEBADONIA: What kind of [[meditation]]?
Student: It’s a meditation where I become very present, and still in the moment, and from that sense of [[presence]] I can consciously connect with my own higher self--however you want to name it. Then I’m sensing that higher [[vibration]].
NEBDONIA: Does this seem to give you energy?
Student: When I’m able to sustain a very high level of vibration I’m aware of my physical body but I’m no longer aware of the ailments in this physical body. It’s like I’ve [[transcend]]ed that [[state]].
NEBADONIA: Are you then able to go out and be more [[physical]]?
Student: Once the vibration level goes down again the physical ailments are very much present again.
NEBADONIA: You have tried then to be more physical, to [[develop]] your body. But you are, in a sense, just hitting a wall? (Yes)
Nebadonia: My daughter, this is not to suggest anything you are trying is wrong, but so far you have not received any kind of diagnosis as to what is causing this?
Student: The diagnosis is Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, many, many years ago, but that is a very broad thing.
NEBVADONIA: Yes, but no one has been able to pin it down as to some specific cause, in spite of all the things you’ve tried like supplements for your body, the exercises you’ve tried, the good rest and meditation? The condition still seems to get worse?
Student: Yes.
===='''''[[Acceptance]]'''''====
(Acceptance of the [[totality]] of oneself)
NEBADONIA: I suggest a deeper sense of [[acceptance]] and contact with these ailments to bathe them in your [[mind]] and [[spirit]]. Don’t abandon any part of yourself. It’s good, this deeper sense of, as you say, when you contact this [[Thought Adjuster|higher spirit], this higher self of yours, it does this give you a stronger [[feeling]] for what we call your [[personality]] and your [[soul]]--this deepest [[continuity]] of who you’ve been. It’s the true story of your life, and it is actually [[co-created]] by a [[fragment]] of [[God]] within you. When you contact this higher self, it can give you an [[assurance]] of who you’ve been all along. Does this [[resonate]] within you? (Yes)
This is where you derive your strength, by an acceptance, a contact, a feeling of who you are--especially physically, and including [[everything]]. As you put it, you feel more present. This is, in a sense, my daughter, all you can do. You are putting your whole [[heart]], and now your [[soul]] into this staying present and accepting your situation, learning from it, because you have to keep learning as it [[changes]]. You have to keep trying things in a very [[scientific]] way, being of a [[Clarity|clear]] mind of what you are trying, and then whether it works or not in your human [[complexity]] of having a [[body]] and [[mind]] and [[spirit]] and [[personality]] and [[soul]]. It’s a true exploration. I sense you are learning this.
But if you have a general [[system]]’s failure, a kind of continuing malady like this, you have to [[work]] with it. You have to [[honor]] it. I can offer no specific cure for you except that you continue this very [[spiritual]] evaluation you are involved in. Know that it is your [[spirit]], your [[creative]] spirit that you are using to feel your way along. It may seem at times as if you are in a very [[dark]] room and you are [[literally]] feeling your way along minute by minute, day by day, to see what works and what doesn’t--using your [[analytical]] ability to see what leads to what.
Because, my daughter, as a [[free-will]]ed being, you are inside there. You are in the cockpit flying your own airplane, and all we can do is be here at your wingtip offering our [[presence]]--along, of course, with the dedicated [[presence]] of [[the Father]] and His [[thoughts]] for you. Michael’s [[Spirit of Truth]] is this open-minded [[orientation]] toward what works, toward what is all-inclusively true here. And that is the best and [[necessary]] thing to commit to. Now does this make sense?
Student: Yes, but I want some answer.
NEBADONIA: And yes, my daughter, I know, but I cannot directly or [[immediately]] [[diagnose]] what is wrong. This is something you, with the strength of your [[personality]], have to find out for yourself. You have to try [[things]] and see if they work or not. If you have a general, systemic condition that has not responded to what you’ve tried so far, that is the [[truth]] of your situation. Yet it is also true that you’ve learned a lot about yourself through all this.
Student: Thank you.
NEBADONIA: You’re welcome, my dear. Be in my [[love]].
Student: Do you think her going to see [http://www.healingquests.com/pages/about1.htm John of God] would be a [[good]] [[idea]]?
NEBADONIA: I’m not familiar with that [[person]], but I can’t see any harm in being truly open-minded and [[entertaining]] any thought whatsoever. Be systematic and take notes, if you will, in your meditation. Don’t be afraid to entertain any [[theory]] whatsoever. Don’t be afraid to go to anyone. I’m just emphasizing she is this [[free-will]]ed creature, and this is what gives her the [[dignity]] of being a human being. Each person has to make the [[ultimate]] decisions for them, and try their best to live by these [[decisions]]; and this personal/spiritual [[realization]] is the basis for their strength.
By being open to [[alternative]] suggestions, and entertaining them, this occasions the [[possibility]] to use your now hard-earned self-[[understanding]] and [[wisdom]] that you’ve acquired. No genuine self-understanding based on personal [[experience]] is irrelevant; it’s the basis for your wisdom and provides the background by which you can make better decisions in the [[future]]. It’s the [[analytical]] part of wisdom that sometimes takes time to work itself out and emerge in discrete thought as the causes for whatever it is disturbing you.
What kind of healer is this John of God?--there are so many kinds. Do you mean a kind of faith or spiritual healer?
1St Student again: He’s a spiritual healer who has higher spiritual beings work through him, and there are many, many miraculous healings in and around his center, even many, many miraculous assistants. He’s pretty amazing.
===='''''[[Healing]]'''''====
(Spiritual healing)
NEBADONIA: These things can be true in general; these [[things]] do happen. As [[Jesus]] said on occasion: it is your [[faith]] that heals you. As long as you approach this with your eyes wide open, and deep down inside yourself you [[accept]] the [[responsibility]] for what you’re trying, by all means go ahead. What you are doing is what we recommend--[[tune]] in to your [[Thought Adjuster|spiritual self]] and use your [[meditation]] and [[prayer]] to understand what’s happening to you. Then if you want to, in all [[humility]] and [[acceptance]], go and see this man; see what he can do for you. This is just part of being open-minded, is it not?
Next student: I don’t have any questions, only a comment: thank you again, Mother.
NEBADONIA: Well, you’re welcome, my son. I know that this evening I set out a lot of things to consider and entertain. There are some [[supreme]] historical [[ironies]] coming down like a driving rain, ways in which whole societies, whole-cultural [[Perspective|ways of looking]] at things, whole directions built up over centuries, have to turn a subtle kind of corner. The physical hardships of backbreaking labor that people have struggled so long and hard to escape--to turn that orientation around and actively, joyfully, willfully [[embrace]] a large amount of physical activity for optimum [[health]]: what an enormous [[challenge]] to [[free will]], [[individually]] and [[collectively]]. This is especially true now your societies are running out of ways to gainfully employ folks in this economic downturn. You are at a loss as to how to put so much of your society to work: what are the good jobs now?--especially for the young folks who need some good hard work to strengthen their [[souls]] with the feedback of engaging [[material]] [[reality]]. Can you en[[vision]] how tapping and beneficially releasing the physical [[energy]] of nearly everyone would utterly [[transform]] your [[society]] in terms of general [[health]], aging, and eliminating crime?
Thank you, my son, for entertaining these things and appreciating the challenges. Be in my love.
Student: Yes, Mother, isn’t it time we open up to a new standard of connection with the Source and Creative Intelligence of all of this? Isn’t it time that we affirm in our own lives the natural order and perfection that exists within all of us? Isn’t it time to raise our awareness of what it is to be truly human, as Jesus, and Buddha, and Lao-Tzu, and a million others, have shown?
===='''''[[Culture]]''''', '''''[[Obesity]]'''''====
(A question of culture)
NEBADONIA: Yes, my son, I had hoped to put some physical-aspect framework around that [[standard]], and point out some of the [[profound]] ironies that make it so difficult for people to envision and accept at this point in your [[history]]. With the success of your industrialization, compared to the million years of [[humanity]] that came before it, you have another [[irony]] that in the developed countries the people with their [[Mechanism|machinery]] and [[technology]] are so [[productive]] they can provide an enormous amount of [[leisure]] for so many others, compared to any time before: ironic if your very productivity is robbing folks of [[opportunity]]--the way you have [[things]] set up. Folks are literally dying or living stunted lives through, as Michael said, lack of good [[nutrition]] and [[exercise]], even when they are available. In the developed countries it’s more a [[Culture|cultural]] question than a strictly [[economic]] one.
Your society is facing a challenge even now of what you call childhood [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Obesity obesity], where if those young little bodies fail to develop the right [[proportion]] of muscle and bone through good diet and exercise, they’re also missing out on strength, [[flexibility]], [[endurance]], becoming, rather, susceptible to disease and stunted [[minds]] by way of constricted life experience. Obesity not only shortens life, it limits its physical [[expression]] throughout.
Student: How about the notion of [[simplifying]] ones life by letting go the perceived need for material possessions? Obviously we need certain basics to live, but, especially in this country, we’ve been so materially oriented over the past twenty or thirty years, at the top of the people living on this [[planet]], at the cost of their leisure.
NEBADONIA: My son, it’s: how do you find something better to replace that reliance on [[material]] [[things]] to [[measure]] ones [[growth]] in life? This is what I’m suggesting. Envision everyone living much more physical lives right when your [[machine]]ry and [[technology]] is rendering this unnecessary for so many. In so many ways you are turning that subtle corner. Michael and I delight that so many are discovering real [[soul]]-fulfilling fun in doing their own do-it-yourself projects, walking and hiking and bicycling, growing some food, evolving their craftsmanship, helping out in their own hard-hit families and communities with genuine, loving [[service]].
Student: That’s what I’m saying--redefining what it truly means to be a [[human being]]. That’s the question being asked. I noticed there’re these small [[groups]] of people in this world, even in the [[San Francisco|Bay Area]], who are trying to take things up and look at the [[good]] things, the good news, look at the other alternatives rather than big [[government]] or what’s going on in the [[status quo]]. I’ve noticed there’re hundreds of these grass-roots groups all over the world who are cracking these old ways of living. It’s happening some places fast, and some places slow. I know I get a little frustrated with how human beings are treating other human beings, and I know people are suffering out there.
Oh!--I do know of John of God! I met a group in the City (Ed: [[San Francisco]]) who had gone to Brazil and his sanctuary, and some were healed, and some got better. So I’m aware of him. He’s got a book as well. I’m going tomorrow to a bookstore here where they’re showing a [[healing]] modality called [www.quantumtouch.com/ Quantum Touch]; because I’ve been interested in looking into [[healing]] and alleviating the [[Pain|suffering]] of others. I came across this on the [[internet]]. It’s just like the laying on of hands if you can feel the [[vibrations]]. It just kind-of piqued my interest. Apparently their use of divine energy can heal others--according to their website.
I have a sense, Mother, that this [[body]] that you talked about tonight has in our [[DNA]] the idea of wholeness and wellbeing. That’s always there: it’s why we can heal. We have that capacity, that innate [[potential]]. It’s just accepting that this is already true. So…
===='''''[[Inner Life]]'''''====
(Having a full inner life)
NEBADONIA: Yes, my son, I couldn’t be more in agreement. This innate ability exists even in those with rather extensive bad [[habits]] and [[health]]; they would have died long ago if their bodies hadn’t been continually [[healing]]. Think of the [[allure]] every [[culture]] puts out through its [[media]] of what is important in life. As long as you are [[focused]] upon so much, shall we say, [[abstract]] [[measurement]] for your own [[worth]] through material possessions--keeping up with the Joneses--you have a lot of [[expressions]] for it; as long as what is being successfully advertised as the cost for all your [[entertainment]], you’re faced with the enormity of folks spending so much of their time being entertained, rather than creatively entertaining themselves. Think of all those thousand and one products designed just to soothe or exalt your [[ego]]. All these things can stand in the way and get between you and your own healing spiritual growth. As Michael says, you can totally disregard and abuse your body following some notion. You’re sacrificing your body for some object of [[mind]] alone, some hollow excitement.
But yes, we do see the corner being turned by more and more folks who are aware of these ironies, and who have a life of their own based upon contact with their own growing [[soul]], and what has made and kept them strong and free throughout. This is your [[unique]] [[inner life]] shared with us and [[our Father]]. But you have to choose to treasure your inner life and your own [[thoughts]]. Now, with your ingenious [www.apple.com/ipodclassic/ i-pods], you never have to hear your [[thoughts]], even on a [[solitary]] walk. Now you can live your life with constant [[music]], even videos, on the go; and some do. This is far, far beyond the most fantastic [[dreams]] of the ages simply because it was never envisioned as possible until very recently. And this is your own [[personal]] choice of the whole world’s [[history]] of [[music]], millions of tracks available over the [[internet]]. But when is more of a good thing too much? What does it displace of your own inner you?
Yes, the [[evolution]] is [http://nordan.daynal.org/wiki/index.php?title=Inexorable_Evolution-2006-03-06 inexorable]. We just hope to lessen the human [[suffering]] along the way.
Student: Thank you.
===='''''[[Reflection]]'''''====
(No substitute for reflection)
NEBADONIA: This is why, my [[children]], there is no substitute for [[reflection]], for [[thinking]] [[Profound|deeply]] and [[spiritually]] about your life and what is of [[value]] to you. To be truly open-minded, to be here and now, [[present]] and open to that natural [[healing]], that natural [[goodness]] that is your birthright: you have to appreciate it. Without [[appreciation]] there is nothing, because, my children, you are creatures of [[will]]-[[dignity]]. It depends upon your will, what you choose to value. We only [[hope]] to increase your [[awareness]] of these choices you are constantly making, either consciously or higgly-piggly simply because you were raised/trained/educated that way. It is all up to you. [[God]] has put so much of your life in your hands. Sure enough, you are involved in a whole [[universe]] and every [[personal]] [[being]] is caught up in the [[evolution]] of [http://nordan.daynal.org/wiki/index.php?title=Paper_12#12:7._THE_PART_AND_THE_WHOLE the whole], but in your life these are your choices. Your [[personal]] [[freedom]] depends upon them.
There is no substitute for this [[reflection]]: what am I doing? And that is good. What a gift this ability is. To dare to bring yourself to a stop in [[stillness]] and [[wonder]], alone with us and [[our Father]], alone with your [[breath]]ing and heartbeat, alone with this [[body]] that needs your [[attention]] and [[love]] and [[respect]]. Even though you will, someday, let it go, you will be leaving it with a full [[soul]].
===Closing===
Come [[home]] to your all-inclusive [[spiritual]] [[Foundation|base]]. Feel this marvelous body you have. It wants to live! Do your best to help it.
Good evening, my children. Be in my love.
[[Category: The Teaching Mission: Dialogues]]
[[Category: Marin TeaM]]
[[Category: Nebadonia]]
[[Category: JL]]
[[Category: Body]]
[[Category: Exercise]]
[[Category: Healing]]
[[Category: Culture]]
[[Category: Obesity]]
[[Category: Inner Life]]
[[Category: Reflection]]
[[Category: 2010]]
[[File:Teaching_buddha_small.jpg|right|frame]]
==Heading==
===Topic: ''Reevaluating Physical Life''===
===Group: [[Marin TeaM]]===
==Facilitators==
===Teacher: [[Nebadonia]]===
===TR: [[JL]]===
==Session==
===Opening===
Dear Mother Spirit and Michael, Welcome. We open our [[hearts]] and our [[minds]] and ask, dear [[parents]], that you help us be [[aware]] of your [[presence]] here. We know you are always with us, but our own awareness of that [[fact]] does, all too humanly, come and go. And so we invite you to remind us of your presence, any time the two of you see fit. We especially [[welcome]] this in our [[moments]] of [[meditation]] and, frankly, our moments of being stumped when we just can’t see the way ahead. Help us [[remember]] the [[prayer]] you offered us: Dear God, what do I do next?--and then listen. Listen within where the answer can come with our very next [[thought]].
I have a special request tonight and that is if you could expand on what Michael brought up last time. Help us [[understand]] these [[physical]] [[bodies]] we have. Help us see and accept what you mean by the misuse and the disrespect we often have for this part of our [[being]]. Help us extend our [[creative]] [[spirit]] into our bodies and into our [[minds]] so we can stay [[present|here and now]], and keep up with these marvelous and ever-changing gifts of [[the Father]]. [[Amen]].
NEBADONIA: Good evening, my children, this is Nebadonia, your [[spirit]] [[mother]]. I want to welcome the newcomers to this tried and true group. Michael and I welcome you and yes, by all means, open your hearts, open your minds, open your [[souls]] so you can best use this [[time]].
===='''''[[Body]]'''''====
(Reevaluating your physical life)
Yes, I will do what you request. I will give you as best I can certain [[viewpoints]] of Michael’s and mine as we look upon the [[human condition]]. The order of [[human being]]s on the [http://nordan.daynal.org/wiki/index.php?title=Paper_49 evolutionary planets] are [[unique]] among all [[personal]] beings in that you have a [[physical]] [[body]] that even the [http://nordan.daynal.org/wiki/index.php?title=Paper_39 lower angelic forms] do not have. This physical body of yours, starting out as a [[dual]] [[origin]]--two-[[parent]]--one-[[cell]]ed living [[organism]], recapitulates the [[evolution]] of Urantian [[animal]] life before you are born. Shortly after [[birth]] you begin, in a sense, to recapitulate the [[evolution]] of the particular [[civilization]] into which you were born: your three-year-olds walking around like little [[Primitive|cavemen or cavewomen]]; coming up to your high school years and all the [http://www.wikipedia.org/wiki/Middle Ages Medieval gangs] and [[groups]]; how, hopefully, as you reach [[maturity]] in your late twenties, early thirties--these days, hopefully each [[generation]] takes one further step beyond what they got from their parents’ generation.
So there is evolution involved here in each [[individual]], both [[physically]] and [[culturally]] and, as Michael said, in spite of all of the millions of [[books]] you have now on [[http://www.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_Physiology human physiology], hundreds of thousands of books, shall we say, on blood [[chemistry]] alone, in spite of all of this, your own [[personal]] [[body]] is to each of you an [[infinity]]. For all the specialization of your [[technical]] [[knowledge]] about human physiology, no one person can begin to [[comprehend]] even one hundredth of one percent of all of that. Your physical bodies, my children, are this partial [[mystery]] to you, [[moment]] to moment. And so we would have you stop from time to time and just [http://nordan.daynal.org/wiki/index.php?title=Book_of_Psalms#Psalm_46 be still] in spite of all the [[busyness]] and the demands of your life. Pay some [[respect]] to this living, [[breathing]] part of you. Feel yourself breathing and see--as we’ve teased you before into trying: see if you can just feel your body breathing, which is very tricky because it’s something you [[immediately]] affect. Yet if you get this detachment from your own physical body and approach it with newness and [[wonder]] and [[curiosity]], you can get still enough to begin to feel your own [[heart]] beating. And what is this? What is this activity going on inside you over which you have so little [[control]]? What is it keeping your heart beating? Or is it Who?
We ask you to approach this [[physical]] part of your [[being]] with freshness, my [[children]], because as a [[developed]], industrialized [[culture]] now, you’re facing some [[supreme]] [[ironies]] compared to the [http://nordan.daynal.org/wiki/index.php?title=The_Urantia_Text_-_Contents#Part_III._The_History_of_Urantia whole history of mankind]--[[literally]] the nearly one million years that people have been on the [[earth]] evolving their civilizations up to the present day. Up until very recent times--only your last few centuries of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Industrial_revolution industrialization]--[[everything]] not of wind and water was done with [[animal]] muscle and bone, either [[human]] or your draft [[animals]]. Then came [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steam_engine steam power] and a little gizmo that could sit there merrily percolating along indefinitely as long as you feed it a little water and fuel. With this [[power]] you began to [[change]] the face of the [[earth]] itself, and everything of your lives along with it.
But these [[bodies]] of yours, my [[children]], they still [[remember]]--if you’ll allow me to use that [[concept]], they still remember, and were shaped for and by, those million years of effort and struggle and [[work]]. And so when Michael mentioned last time that you are literally perishing for lack of good [[nutrition]] and adequate [[exercise]], that are available to you, this is what that one little word “[[exercise]]” means.
===='''''[[Exercise]]'''''====
(Sufficient exercise for optimum [[health]]: the challenge)
Considering this, think not so much of the extreme [[limits]] of what the [[human]] [[body]] can do, shall we say, in some of your younger [[athlete]]s who train for years and years in [[intense]] [[competition]] to present you with those [[spectacles]] you see every four years in your [http://www.wikipedia.org/wiki/Olympics Olympics]. It’s not so much what the human body is capable of doing on these competitive extremes. Rather I would have you go through the years and think of the folks in their seventies and eighties who’ve lived very full physical lives and are still so strong and [[flexible]] and supple. Think of some of the great [[dance]]rs who, clear into their nineties, are marvels of strength and [[grace]]. Think of the craftsman, the [[men]] and [[women]], whether in their [[work]] or their hobbies, who have found something infinitely physically rewarding and [[creative]] and new all through their lives. Think of the enormous [[soul]] [[wealth]] of [[experience]] they have because their bodies and their minds have been actively engaged in real physical effort, real rewarding effort for a whole lifetime.
Now I think you can see the problem facing you as the [[culture]] we are [[Frame of reference|framing]] here. From the time you are very small children the human body needs great exercise for the [[muscles]] to [[develop]]; needs it throughout life for the very [[stress]] on your bones, my children, makes and keeps them strong. Think of a schoolyard of youngsters playing and yelling and running about. Think of the enormous amount of [[physical]] effort that the human body thrives on. I know it [[sounds]] like some kind of [[Future|futuristic]] [[science fiction]], but think of a [[society]] in which all the individuals of all ages [[love]] and cherish engaging this [[physical]]-ness of theirs so much. From childhood clear to the onset of extreme old age and decrepitude, through their entire lifetime they’re interested and delight in real physical activity.
You can see the [[challenge]] facing you as a [[culture]], especially now in your current [[economic]] downturn where the question becomes over and over again: where do you find the good [[work]]? Where do you find this physical work to engage everyone? Especially: where do you find this work when so many in your culture have come to denigrate and look down upon [[physical]] [[activity]], look down upon craftsmanship--working with your hands in combination with your [[brain]]?
As Michael said, your current [[health]] care [[debate]] is almost beside the point if your [[society]]’s basic health itself is deteriorating. No amount of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allopathic after-the-fact care] with, as he said, however heroic [[measures]] or amazing [[technology]], can make up for this lack of physical [[exercise]] that the body really thrives on. And so you can see this requires an enormous turning of a very [[existential]] corner. The great excitement of your [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Industrial_revolution Industrial Revolution] was that it freed [[mankind]] from its whole [[history]] of back-breaking, health-destroying labor. How do you get the developed cultures to turn that corner and, not go back but go forward to [[welcome]] that very [[thing]] it cost them so much on a primal level to escape?--especially in a world situation where still a great part of mankind is involved in terrible, life destroying toil under the most appalling conditions.
How do you get a whole [[culture]] and the societies within it to turn that corner and, as [[individuals]], [[welcome]] this need to be more [[physical]]? Where do you find the work for everyone? Think how much of your crime results from this lack of [[good]], genuine accomplishment day to day. Think of how many of your youngsters, caught up in a life of crime, would welcome with delight having good, rewarding work to do. There is just no way of denying this [[challenge]], and so tonight I wanted to lay it very squarely and [[honestly]] before you. The physical part of being human and the delight your body feels when it is fully engaged, wonderfully used, and then delightfully tired: how else can you know the sweetness of [[rest]] and the miracle of how your body [[heals]] and strengthens and refreshes itself?
This is something that faces each of you [[individually]], and Michael and I are [[determined]] to [[share]] this with you. Believe me, my [[children]], as we are your [[spiritual]] [[parents]], we can feel with you what it takes sometimes to swing your legs out of bed in the morning and get up and go about your daily requirements of those [[things]] you have to do. We know how [[busy]] you get, how exhausted you get, and here we come suggesting that what you need is some good hard exercise for your bodies. You can call it some kind of tough-love, but we are determined to help you face this challenge even though it does mean to once again [[value]] good hard [[work]]. And so we ask you do not belittle but you [[embrace]] all those things that keep you [[healthy]] and fit. If your work does not require it, consider all those interesting hobbies and social activities where you can share this great need to get out and move around, and delight in each other.
We [[encourage]] you to read that part of your [[Urantia book]] that talks about [http://nordan.daynal.org/wiki/index.php?title=Paper_72 life on a neighboring but more highly developed planet]. You’ll see that they too have gone through a similar kind of a super-industrialized age as you are in now, yet there has been a further decentralization of [[power]] and [[authority]] and a greater blossoming of individual [[creativity]] that leads people to voluntarily [[embrace]] and enjoy things such as growing much of their own food, doing those [[creative]] [[physical]] [[things]] you’re now overly specialized in eliminating. For example, think of how your do-it-yourself projects have given such enjoyment and appreciation to folks, just to be able to be their own handymen and handywomen.
Thank you for [[entertaining]] these notions this evening. In some of our [[future]] lessons we will make other suggestions about what you need to do as a whole [[society]] to find that good rewarding [[physical]] [[work]] and [[play]] for everyone. It’s one of the greatest challenges facing you to become more healthy, and this is a [[spiritual]] [[Work|task]], my children, because it involves [[value]]. What do you value, and how, as a [[culture]], do these [[values]] need to be re[[examine]]d to once again to find [[love]] and [[respect]] in those [[things]] you can do with these [[marvelous]] [[bodies]] of yours?
(Contemplating enormous necessary changes)
So you’ll forgive me for teasing you once again into contemplating something enormous. But I’m sure you are used to this stretch by now, and you’ll [[welcome]] the [[challenge]] both [[individually]] and [[collective]]ly. As we’ve been saying lately, when you look at any social, [[economic]], [[political]] or religious [[system]], ask yourselves: what is it doing to encourage individuals to be more free, more [[creative]], and more [[responsible]]? This is the way forward to a kind of decentralization of authority, encouraging each individual to live up to their potential. Tonight I emphasize the physical glory you are all capable of if you put your hearts and minds to it. What a wonderful reward of a lifetime of strength, agility, and flexibility--all these good things you enjoy of body, mind, spirit, and soul.
If you have any questions this evening, Michael and I and always happy to respond.
===Dialogue===
Student: I suffer from lack of energy and vitality, and quite a few physical ailments that go along with that--especially recently. I’d like to know why and how to resolve that.
(Addressing specific challenges with spirit)
NEBADINUIA: Yes, my daughter, could you be a little more specific?
Student: I have what’s called [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chronic_fatigue_syndrome Chronic Fatigue Syndrome]. I’ve had it for about twenty years. I’ve extremely, extremely low vitality, and [[memory]] loss--fatigue, and recently I had a very severe kidney infection that really damaged my kidneys and my body a lot. My vitality seems to be getting worse and worse as does my [[health]].
NEBADONIA: Let me ask what you’ve done so far, who you’ve seen, who you’ve talked with about this.
Student: Over the years I’ve seen many, many doctors. At the [[moment]] I’m taking antibiotics for the infection--that helps the infection. I’m getting acupuncture; energetic [[healing]] work; Netri (Sp?) energetic systems, which is a great new medical system which is helping a lot, Bobbi-Field medicine (Sp?). I’m taking a lot of supplements which are supporting the regeneration of the kidneys.
NEBADONIA: Are you talking about vitamin supplements? (Yes) How about your diet, meaning everything you put into your body which gives you [[energy]].
Student: My diet is pretty good; a lot of greens, soups. I don’t drink coffee that much. I drink a lot of water. My diet is pretty good.
NEBADONIA: Have you considered any kind of [[heredity]] implications--your [[parents]] or your [[siblings]]?
Student: No, I’m the only one in my [[family]] to have it.
NEBADONIA: It seems you’ve pretty well looked at the different aspects of it. Let me ask if you’ve--and this may seem very far a field--but let me ask about your [[spiritual]] [[activities]] which you talked about earlier this evening. We consider that the [[creative]] part of your [[personality]] and it’s something you’re using every [[moment]] of your life. You’re trying to creatively [[understand]] yourself, and so what is your contact with this creative spirit of yours? How do you do [[tune]] in and come up with your own evaluations and answers to these [[problems]]?
Student: I meditate daily.
NEBADONIA: What kind of [[meditation]]?
Student: It’s a meditation where I become very present, and still in the moment, and from that sense of [[presence]] I can consciously connect with my own higher self--however you want to name it. Then I’m sensing that higher [[vibration]].
NEBDONIA: Does this seem to give you energy?
Student: When I’m able to sustain a very high level of vibration I’m aware of my physical body but I’m no longer aware of the ailments in this physical body. It’s like I’ve [[transcend]]ed that [[state]].
NEBADONIA: Are you then able to go out and be more [[physical]]?
Student: Once the vibration level goes down again the physical ailments are very much present again.
NEBADONIA: You have tried then to be more physical, to [[develop]] your body. But you are, in a sense, just hitting a wall? (Yes)
Nebadonia: My daughter, this is not to suggest anything you are trying is wrong, but so far you have not received any kind of diagnosis as to what is causing this?
Student: The diagnosis is Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, many, many years ago, but that is a very broad thing.
NEBVADONIA: Yes, but no one has been able to pin it down as to some specific cause, in spite of all the things you’ve tried like supplements for your body, the exercises you’ve tried, the good rest and meditation? The condition still seems to get worse?
Student: Yes.
===='''''[[Acceptance]]'''''====
(Acceptance of the [[totality]] of oneself)
NEBADONIA: I suggest a deeper sense of [[acceptance]] and contact with these ailments to bathe them in your [[mind]] and [[spirit]]. Don’t abandon any part of yourself. It’s good, this deeper sense of, as you say, when you contact this [[Thought Adjuster|higher spirit], this higher self of yours, it does this give you a stronger [[feeling]] for what we call your [[personality]] and your [[soul]]--this deepest [[continuity]] of who you’ve been. It’s the true story of your life, and it is actually [[co-created]] by a [[fragment]] of [[God]] within you. When you contact this higher self, it can give you an [[assurance]] of who you’ve been all along. Does this [[resonate]] within you? (Yes)
This is where you derive your strength, by an acceptance, a contact, a feeling of who you are--especially physically, and including [[everything]]. As you put it, you feel more present. This is, in a sense, my daughter, all you can do. You are putting your whole [[heart]], and now your [[soul]] into this staying present and accepting your situation, learning from it, because you have to keep learning as it [[changes]]. You have to keep trying things in a very [[scientific]] way, being of a [[Clarity|clear]] mind of what you are trying, and then whether it works or not in your human [[complexity]] of having a [[body]] and [[mind]] and [[spirit]] and [[personality]] and [[soul]]. It’s a true exploration. I sense you are learning this.
But if you have a general [[system]]’s failure, a kind of continuing malady like this, you have to [[work]] with it. You have to [[honor]] it. I can offer no specific cure for you except that you continue this very [[spiritual]] evaluation you are involved in. Know that it is your [[spirit]], your [[creative]] spirit that you are using to feel your way along. It may seem at times as if you are in a very [[dark]] room and you are [[literally]] feeling your way along minute by minute, day by day, to see what works and what doesn’t--using your [[analytical]] ability to see what leads to what.
Because, my daughter, as a [[free-will]]ed being, you are inside there. You are in the cockpit flying your own airplane, and all we can do is be here at your wingtip offering our [[presence]]--along, of course, with the dedicated [[presence]] of [[the Father]] and His [[thoughts]] for you. Michael’s [[Spirit of Truth]] is this open-minded [[orientation]] toward what works, toward what is all-inclusively true here. And that is the best and [[necessary]] thing to commit to. Now does this make sense?
Student: Yes, but I want some answer.
NEBADONIA: And yes, my daughter, I know, but I cannot directly or [[immediately]] [[diagnose]] what is wrong. This is something you, with the strength of your [[personality]], have to find out for yourself. You have to try [[things]] and see if they work or not. If you have a general, systemic condition that has not responded to what you’ve tried so far, that is the [[truth]] of your situation. Yet it is also true that you’ve learned a lot about yourself through all this.
Student: Thank you.
NEBADONIA: You’re welcome, my dear. Be in my [[love]].
Student: Do you think her going to see [http://www.healingquests.com/pages/about1.htm John of God] would be a [[good]] [[idea]]?
NEBADONIA: I’m not familiar with that [[person]], but I can’t see any harm in being truly open-minded and [[entertaining]] any thought whatsoever. Be systematic and take notes, if you will, in your meditation. Don’t be afraid to entertain any [[theory]] whatsoever. Don’t be afraid to go to anyone. I’m just emphasizing she is this [[free-will]]ed creature, and this is what gives her the [[dignity]] of being a human being. Each person has to make the [[ultimate]] decisions for them, and try their best to live by these [[decisions]]; and this personal/spiritual [[realization]] is the basis for their strength.
By being open to [[alternative]] suggestions, and entertaining them, this occasions the [[possibility]] to use your now hard-earned self-[[understanding]] and [[wisdom]] that you’ve acquired. No genuine self-understanding based on personal [[experience]] is irrelevant; it’s the basis for your wisdom and provides the background by which you can make better decisions in the [[future]]. It’s the [[analytical]] part of wisdom that sometimes takes time to work itself out and emerge in discrete thought as the causes for whatever it is disturbing you.
What kind of healer is this John of God?--there are so many kinds. Do you mean a kind of faith or spiritual healer?
1St Student again: He’s a spiritual healer who has higher spiritual beings work through him, and there are many, many miraculous healings in and around his center, even many, many miraculous assistants. He’s pretty amazing.
===='''''[[Healing]]'''''====
(Spiritual healing)
NEBADONIA: These things can be true in general; these [[things]] do happen. As [[Jesus]] said on occasion: it is your [[faith]] that heals you. As long as you approach this with your eyes wide open, and deep down inside yourself you [[accept]] the [[responsibility]] for what you’re trying, by all means go ahead. What you are doing is what we recommend--[[tune]] in to your [[Thought Adjuster|spiritual self]] and use your [[meditation]] and [[prayer]] to understand what’s happening to you. Then if you want to, in all [[humility]] and [[acceptance]], go and see this man; see what he can do for you. This is just part of being open-minded, is it not?
Next student: I don’t have any questions, only a comment: thank you again, Mother.
NEBADONIA: Well, you’re welcome, my son. I know that this evening I set out a lot of things to consider and entertain. There are some [[supreme]] historical [[ironies]] coming down like a driving rain, ways in which whole societies, whole-cultural [[Perspective|ways of looking]] at things, whole directions built up over centuries, have to turn a subtle kind of corner. The physical hardships of backbreaking labor that people have struggled so long and hard to escape--to turn that orientation around and actively, joyfully, willfully [[embrace]] a large amount of physical activity for optimum [[health]]: what an enormous [[challenge]] to [[free will]], [[individually]] and [[collectively]]. This is especially true now your societies are running out of ways to gainfully employ folks in this economic downturn. You are at a loss as to how to put so much of your society to work: what are the good jobs now?--especially for the young folks who need some good hard work to strengthen their [[souls]] with the feedback of engaging [[material]] [[reality]]. Can you en[[vision]] how tapping and beneficially releasing the physical [[energy]] of nearly everyone would utterly [[transform]] your [[society]] in terms of general [[health]], aging, and eliminating crime?
Thank you, my son, for entertaining these things and appreciating the challenges. Be in my love.
Student: Yes, Mother, isn’t it time we open up to a new standard of connection with the Source and Creative Intelligence of all of this? Isn’t it time that we affirm in our own lives the natural order and perfection that exists within all of us? Isn’t it time to raise our awareness of what it is to be truly human, as Jesus, and Buddha, and Lao-Tzu, and a million others, have shown?
===='''''[[Culture]]''''', '''''[[Obesity]]'''''====
(A question of culture)
NEBADONIA: Yes, my son, I had hoped to put some physical-aspect framework around that [[standard]], and point out some of the [[profound]] ironies that make it so difficult for people to envision and accept at this point in your [[history]]. With the success of your industrialization, compared to the million years of [[humanity]] that came before it, you have another [[irony]] that in the developed countries the people with their [[Mechanism|machinery]] and [[technology]] are so [[productive]] they can provide an enormous amount of [[leisure]] for so many others, compared to any time before: ironic if your very productivity is robbing folks of [[opportunity]]--the way you have [[things]] set up. Folks are literally dying or living stunted lives through, as Michael said, lack of good [[nutrition]] and [[exercise]], even when they are available. In the developed countries it’s more a [[Culture|cultural]] question than a strictly [[economic]] one.
Your society is facing a challenge even now of what you call childhood [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Obesity obesity], where if those young little bodies fail to develop the right [[proportion]] of muscle and bone through good diet and exercise, they’re also missing out on strength, [[flexibility]], [[endurance]], becoming, rather, susceptible to disease and stunted [[minds]] by way of constricted life experience. Obesity not only shortens life, it limits its physical [[expression]] throughout.
Student: How about the notion of [[simplifying]] ones life by letting go the perceived need for material possessions? Obviously we need certain basics to live, but, especially in this country, we’ve been so materially oriented over the past twenty or thirty years, at the top of the people living on this [[planet]], at the cost of their leisure.
NEBADONIA: My son, it’s: how do you find something better to replace that reliance on [[material]] [[things]] to [[measure]] ones [[growth]] in life? This is what I’m suggesting. Envision everyone living much more physical lives right when your [[machine]]ry and [[technology]] is rendering this unnecessary for so many. In so many ways you are turning that subtle corner. Michael and I delight that so many are discovering real [[soul]]-fulfilling fun in doing their own do-it-yourself projects, walking and hiking and bicycling, growing some food, evolving their craftsmanship, helping out in their own hard-hit families and communities with genuine, loving [[service]].
Student: That’s what I’m saying--redefining what it truly means to be a [[human being]]. That’s the question being asked. I noticed there’re these small [[groups]] of people in this world, even in the [[San Francisco|Bay Area]], who are trying to take things up and look at the [[good]] things, the good news, look at the other alternatives rather than big [[government]] or what’s going on in the [[status quo]]. I’ve noticed there’re hundreds of these grass-roots groups all over the world who are cracking these old ways of living. It’s happening some places fast, and some places slow. I know I get a little frustrated with how human beings are treating other human beings, and I know people are suffering out there.
Oh!--I do know of John of God! I met a group in the City (Ed: [[San Francisco]]) who had gone to Brazil and his sanctuary, and some were healed, and some got better. So I’m aware of him. He’s got a book as well. I’m going tomorrow to a bookstore here where they’re showing a [[healing]] modality called [www.quantumtouch.com/ Quantum Touch]; because I’ve been interested in looking into [[healing]] and alleviating the [[Pain|suffering]] of others. I came across this on the [[internet]]. It’s just like the laying on of hands if you can feel the [[vibrations]]. It just kind-of piqued my interest. Apparently their use of divine energy can heal others--according to their website.
I have a sense, Mother, that this [[body]] that you talked about tonight has in our [[DNA]] the idea of wholeness and wellbeing. That’s always there: it’s why we can heal. We have that capacity, that innate [[potential]]. It’s just accepting that this is already true. So…
===='''''[[Inner Life]]'''''====
(Having a full inner life)
NEBADONIA: Yes, my son, I couldn’t be more in agreement. This innate ability exists even in those with rather extensive bad [[habits]] and [[health]]; they would have died long ago if their bodies hadn’t been continually [[healing]]. Think of the [[allure]] every [[culture]] puts out through its [[media]] of what is important in life. As long as you are [[focused]] upon so much, shall we say, [[abstract]] [[measurement]] for your own [[worth]] through material possessions--keeping up with the Joneses--you have a lot of [[expressions]] for it; as long as what is being successfully advertised as the cost for all your [[entertainment]], you’re faced with the enormity of folks spending so much of their time being entertained, rather than creatively entertaining themselves. Think of all those thousand and one products designed just to soothe or exalt your [[ego]]. All these things can stand in the way and get between you and your own healing spiritual growth. As Michael says, you can totally disregard and abuse your body following some notion. You’re sacrificing your body for some object of [[mind]] alone, some hollow excitement.
But yes, we do see the corner being turned by more and more folks who are aware of these ironies, and who have a life of their own based upon contact with their own growing [[soul]], and what has made and kept them strong and free throughout. This is your [[unique]] [[inner life]] shared with us and [[our Father]]. But you have to choose to treasure your inner life and your own [[thoughts]]. Now, with your ingenious [www.apple.com/ipodclassic/ i-pods], you never have to hear your [[thoughts]], even on a [[solitary]] walk. Now you can live your life with constant [[music]], even videos, on the go; and some do. This is far, far beyond the most fantastic [[dreams]] of the ages simply because it was never envisioned as possible until very recently. And this is your own [[personal]] choice of the whole world’s [[history]] of [[music]], millions of tracks available over the [[internet]]. But when is more of a good thing too much? What does it displace of your own inner you?
Yes, the [[evolution]] is [http://nordan.daynal.org/wiki/index.php?title=Inexorable_Evolution-2006-03-06 inexorable]. We just hope to lessen the human [[suffering]] along the way.
Student: Thank you.
===='''''[[Reflection]]'''''====
(No substitute for reflection)
NEBADONIA: This is why, my [[children]], there is no substitute for [[reflection]], for [[thinking]] [[Profound|deeply]] and [[spiritually]] about your life and what is of [[value]] to you. To be truly open-minded, to be here and now, [[present]] and open to that natural [[healing]], that natural [[goodness]] that is your birthright: you have to appreciate it. Without [[appreciation]] there is nothing, because, my children, you are creatures of [[will]]-[[dignity]]. It depends upon your will, what you choose to value. We only [[hope]] to increase your [[awareness]] of these choices you are constantly making, either consciously or higgly-piggly simply because you were raised/trained/educated that way. It is all up to you. [[God]] has put so much of your life in your hands. Sure enough, you are involved in a whole [[universe]] and every [[personal]] [[being]] is caught up in the [[evolution]] of [http://nordan.daynal.org/wiki/index.php?title=Paper_12#12:7._THE_PART_AND_THE_WHOLE the whole], but in your life these are your choices. Your [[personal]] [[freedom]] depends upon them.
There is no substitute for this [[reflection]]: what am I doing? And that is good. What a gift this ability is. To dare to bring yourself to a stop in [[stillness]] and [[wonder]], alone with us and [[our Father]], alone with your [[breath]]ing and heartbeat, alone with this [[body]] that needs your [[attention]] and [[love]] and [[respect]]. Even though you will, someday, let it go, you will be leaving it with a full [[soul]].
===Closing===
Come [[home]] to your all-inclusive [[spiritual]] [[Foundation|base]]. Feel this marvelous body you have. It wants to live! Do your best to help it.
Good evening, my children. Be in my love.
[[Category: The Teaching Mission: Dialogues]]
[[Category: Marin TeaM]]
[[Category: Nebadonia]]
[[Category: JL]]
[[Category: Body]]
[[Category: Exercise]]
[[Category: Healing]]
[[Category: Culture]]
[[Category: Obesity]]
[[Category: Inner Life]]
[[Category: Reflection]]
[[Category: 2010]]
