Difference between revisions of "2003-01-12-Changing World, Individual Significance"

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[[Image:lighterstill.jpg]]
 
 
North Idaho Teaching Mission Group
 
 
 
Machiventa Melchizedek
 
 
 
Topics:
 
 
 
Changing World,
 
 
 
Individual Significance
 
 
 
January 12, 2003
 
 
 
* Machiventa (Jonathan TR): Greetings to you, this is Machiventa. I salute you all in your efforts to foster the method and messages of our Michael Son. He who came to this world does give light, does reveal the love of the heavenly and most high and holy Father.
 
  
 +
==Heading==
 +
===Topic: ''Changing World, Individual Significance''===
 +
===Group: [[N. Idaho TeaM]]===
 +
==Facilitators==
 +
===Teacher: [[Machiventa]]===
 +
===TR: [[Jonathan]]===
 +
==Session==
 +
===Opening===
 +
Machiventa (Jonathan TR): Greetings to you, this is Machiventa. I salute you all in your efforts to foster the method and messages of our Michael Son. He who came to this world does give light, does reveal the love of the heavenly and most high and holy Father.
 +
===Lesson===
 
It has been one short decade that you have been engaged in our Correcting Time mission. Though the years have passed you are only beginning to come into the realization of the significance of your engagement. You know from your studies that I significantly altered the course of my future when I became as you, embodied, and walked upon this planet of yours.
 
It has been one short decade that you have been engaged in our Correcting Time mission. Though the years have passed you are only beginning to come into the realization of the significance of your engagement. You know from your studies that I significantly altered the course of my future when I became as you, embodied, and walked upon this planet of yours.
  
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Realize at this hour, at each hour, your contribution is the broadening of your grasp of universe reality, your comprehension of your individual significance in this totality of Supremacy, and your faith understanding that each individual experiential lesson you acquire is part of the mosaic that you are building now that you will not see until then when you are a full stature finaliter. This attention to your personal growth leaves upon Urantia an impact, and this impact is significant, for it adds to the accumulation of wisdom shared by many over the centuries. We who govern this planet are very patient. We do not count our progress in lifetimes; we count our progress in universe cycles. Be assured that you do leave your fingerprint, that you are illuminating the lives of those you come in contact with. I am confident that your reflection upon this past decade will reveal to you how you have improved your skills, how you have broadened your understanding, how you have deepened your faith. With this I declare you prepared, but I also tell you that this preparation will continue to mature, to cure, to ripen as we proceed. Again I salute you and I withdraw.
 
Realize at this hour, at each hour, your contribution is the broadening of your grasp of universe reality, your comprehension of your individual significance in this totality of Supremacy, and your faith understanding that each individual experiential lesson you acquire is part of the mosaic that you are building now that you will not see until then when you are a full stature finaliter. This attention to your personal growth leaves upon Urantia an impact, and this impact is significant, for it adds to the accumulation of wisdom shared by many over the centuries. We who govern this planet are very patient. We do not count our progress in lifetimes; we count our progress in universe cycles. Be assured that you do leave your fingerprint, that you are illuminating the lives of those you come in contact with. I am confident that your reflection upon this past decade will reveal to you how you have improved your skills, how you have broadened your understanding, how you have deepened your faith. With this I declare you prepared, but I also tell you that this preparation will continue to mature, to cure, to ripen as we proceed. Again I salute you and I withdraw.
 
+
===Dialogue===
 
Mark: I've been grappling recently with how to implement this training process you speak of. I find myself contrasted with those alarmed by current social examples. I seek ideals over current principles and to align on the side of spiritual idealism for our world. My conflict is that in manifesting these higher properties I may be seen as disconnected from my surroundings, in a world of my own, sticking my head in the sand. To ponder excessively and emotionally about apparent error breathes life into that error I want to be removed from. I want to stake new ground, often alone in my perspective of these events. Please shed some light on my removing myself from the details of the political and social structure and attaching to the spiritual ideals.
 
Mark: I've been grappling recently with how to implement this training process you speak of. I find myself contrasted with those alarmed by current social examples. I seek ideals over current principles and to align on the side of spiritual idealism for our world. My conflict is that in manifesting these higher properties I may be seen as disconnected from my surroundings, in a world of my own, sticking my head in the sand. To ponder excessively and emotionally about apparent error breathes life into that error I want to be removed from. I want to stake new ground, often alone in my perspective of these events. Please shed some light on my removing myself from the details of the political and social structure and attaching to the spiritual ideals.
  
* Machiventa: I will first address your comment regarding the metaphorical image of sticking your head in the sand. Let me assure you that the terrestrially bound, spiritually detached, materially oriented ideologies of this world are the ones with the heads in the sand. You, my fellow servant of Michael, are amphibious, if I may shift our orientation. You are developing the ability to change mediums, to fly in the air, to swim in the sea. It is as you transition from fins to feet, from feet to wings that you will feel uncertainty regarding how well you are going about this process and whether or not you are taking the proper direction. Every fish will tell you that to stick your head above the water is certain suffocation. Every land mammal will also tell you the sea is a certain drowning experience. But as you grow more comfortable with traversing each level you will be better assured of the appropriateness of your actions and the loftiness of your ideal.
+
Machiventa: I will first address your comment regarding the metaphorical image of sticking your head in the sand. Let me assure you that the terrestrially bound, spiritually detached, materially oriented ideologies of this world are the ones with the heads in the sand. You, my fellow servant of Michael, are amphibious, if I may shift our orientation. You are developing the ability to change mediums, to fly in the air, to swim in the sea. It is as you transition from fins to feet, from feet to wings that you will feel uncertainty regarding how well you are going about this process and whether or not you are taking the proper direction. Every fish will tell you that to stick your head above the water is certain suffocation. Every land mammal will also tell you the sea is a certain drowning experience. But as you grow more comfortable with traversing each level you will be better assured of the appropriateness of your actions and the loftiness of your ideal.
  
The commonplace problems of this world are not solved with commonplace solutions. They are solved with the overlay of cosmic understanding. This is not found by only running in the marketplace.
+
The commonplace problems of this world are not solved with commonplace solutions. They are solved with the overlay of cosmic understanding. This is not found by only running in the marketplace. You do have to pause; you do have to remove yourself to the mountain top so you may see the entire marketplace and gain an overview. But I admonish you not to leave your fellows behind.
 
 
You do have to pause; you do have to remove yourself to the mountain top so you may see the entire marketplace and gain an overview. But I admonish you not to leave your fellows behind.
 
  
 
Do take that mountain back down to the marketplace; do jump into that stream; swim with the others; you will affect them. It may not cause a change in behavior regarding the structures of society that you speak of, but it will begin the transformation of that individual. This is the increment of progress only that I care about, for it is cumulative. Soon many more will pull their heads out of the sand and reach for that higher view. They too will actually question whether they are putting their heads in the sand and hiding from their worldly problems. Assure them this is not the case, that it is true in reverse. At no time does the expansion of soul awareness limit you or inhibit you.
 
Do take that mountain back down to the marketplace; do jump into that stream; swim with the others; you will affect them. It may not cause a change in behavior regarding the structures of society that you speak of, but it will begin the transformation of that individual. This is the increment of progress only that I care about, for it is cumulative. Soon many more will pull their heads out of the sand and reach for that higher view. They too will actually question whether they are putting their heads in the sand and hiding from their worldly problems. Assure them this is not the case, that it is true in reverse. At no time does the expansion of soul awareness limit you or inhibit you.
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Mark: Immensely. I am eternally grateful that we may share these words and to consider you my friend in this journey. I thank you deeply.
 
Mark: Immensely. I am eternally grateful that we may share these words and to consider you my friend in this journey. I thank you deeply.
  
* Machiventa: You are welcome and the affection is mutual.
+
Machiventa: You are welcome and the affection is mutual.
  
 
Harold: Is it a common trait among all mortals to seek the path of least resistance? Or is that something characteristic of this, a decimal planet? It seems a design flaw that people want to take the easy way out.
 
Harold: Is it a common trait among all mortals to seek the path of least resistance? Or is that something characteristic of this, a decimal planet? It seems a design flaw that people want to take the easy way out.
  
* Machiventa: This tendency, while it does have an adverse effect of ease seeking, also is significant in contributing to development on this world. Every innovation, every new application of knowledge, is often motivated by the desire to make things easier. Once you dug for roots with your fingers, then with shovels, and soon with giant machinery. The ease of the harvest increased. Yet in the interim vast amounts of energy, capital, and thinking were applied to attain the new ease. This propels mankind forward. It is good for the whole. Therefore it is a tendency within all the races.
+
Machiventa: This tendency, while it does have an adverse effect of ease seeking, also is significant in contributing to development on this world. Every innovation, every new application of knowledge, is often motivated by the desire to make things easier. Once you dug for roots with your fingers, then with shovels, and soon with giant machinery. The ease of the harvest increased. Yet in the interim vast amounts of energy, capital, and thinking were applied to attain the new ease. This propels mankind forward. It is good for the whole. Therefore it is a tendency within all the races.
  
 
I will speak now to the individual, for herein is where the difficulty lies that you address. Rather than applying the desire for ease in the form of improving one's quality of life, the mistake is made that draws stagnation, and that is the desire to not make an effort at all. Unfortunately this impulse remains to improve, and when there is no ideal to lure the individual to improvement, substitutes are adopted which thwart the desire to grow. Herein enters substance abuse problems, family conflicts, even wars. So I conclude by saying that the desire for an easier life is good if it is coupled with the desire to improve and advance upon the way of life and not destroyed through impulse gratification and not numbed by ignoring lofty goals and ideals.
 
I will speak now to the individual, for herein is where the difficulty lies that you address. Rather than applying the desire for ease in the form of improving one's quality of life, the mistake is made that draws stagnation, and that is the desire to not make an effort at all. Unfortunately this impulse remains to improve, and when there is no ideal to lure the individual to improvement, substitutes are adopted which thwart the desire to grow. Herein enters substance abuse problems, family conflicts, even wars. So I conclude by saying that the desire for an easier life is good if it is coupled with the desire to improve and advance upon the way of life and not destroyed through impulse gratification and not numbed by ignoring lofty goals and ideals.
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Harold: Yes. Could you comment on the relationship to spiritual growth? People are inclined to follow someone because it is easier. They don't have to think about what they believe; it's handed to them on a platter. What would motivate people to take a harder path, their own path in spiritual progress?
 
Harold: Yes. Could you comment on the relationship to spiritual growth? People are inclined to follow someone because it is easier. They don't have to think about what they believe; it's handed to them on a platter. What would motivate people to take a harder path, their own path in spiritual progress?
  
* Machiventa: You mention this being a decimal world. While this has significance upon the manner of life forms, their behavior and tendencies, what you speak of now points more to the absence of a planetary headquarters and the Adamic regime wherein representatives of high spiritual standing dwell upon a world. These representatives of spirit on high fulfill that function of providing on a platter the nourishment that the races seek. This world does not have these functions in place physically and tangibly to human beings. So, you as a whole have compensated; you have substituted canon and doctrine and ecclesiastical hierarchy to provide that need, the need being the desire for assurance that what you grasp for spiritually is true and valid. Adam and Eve and the planetary staff would not make it easier for you; they would provide continual challenges to your experiential unfoldment, and this does lack in your religious traditions, but for a few.
+
Machiventa: You mention this being a decimal world. While this has significance upon the manner of life forms, their behavior and tendencies, what you speak of now points more to the absence of a planetary headquarters and the Adamic regime wherein representatives of high spiritual standing dwell upon a world. These representatives of spirit on high fulfill that function of providing on a platter the nourishment that the races seek. This world does not have these functions in place physically and tangibly to human beings. So, you as a whole have compensated; you have substituted canon and doctrine and ecclesiastical hierarchy to provide that need, the need being the desire for assurance that what you grasp for spiritually is true and valid. Adam and Eve and the planetary staff would not make it easier for you; they would provide continual challenges to your experiential unfoldment, and this does lack in your religious traditions, but for a few.
  
 
What will motivate individuals to take the uncharted course of personal attainment of God may require a disillusionment with those traditional authorities. Some abandon these structures; others take it upon themselves to transform themselves within the structure in hopes of elevating that structure to a new level of presentation. The apostles early on attempted this in their own native religion. What the world needs now are brave souls, people who will stand and say, "I am a child of the Father of All. My doctrine is truth," not that my truth is doctrine; that "my divine Parent is good", and that "I am assured of my sonship, daughtership", and that "I am willing to adopt wholesome religious concepts if they provide a stepping stone towards closer association with the Father. I am willing to discard those that will retard my progress or stall me." This will be unnerving to many who do wish for a say-all and end-all for their conflicts of life. Your example will be encouraging even if unnerving. It is the very trait that is admired in the master. While he worked within a social, religious, paradigm his message broke through to effect an entire world. What needs to be done is the redefinition of faith from one that passively accepts the guidance of another to one that depends solely on the presence of the divine within and the recognition of the divine in others. This is the certainty one seeks by the adoption of a religious teaching.
 
What will motivate individuals to take the uncharted course of personal attainment of God may require a disillusionment with those traditional authorities. Some abandon these structures; others take it upon themselves to transform themselves within the structure in hopes of elevating that structure to a new level of presentation. The apostles early on attempted this in their own native religion. What the world needs now are brave souls, people who will stand and say, "I am a child of the Father of All. My doctrine is truth," not that my truth is doctrine; that "my divine Parent is good", and that "I am assured of my sonship, daughtership", and that "I am willing to adopt wholesome religious concepts if they provide a stepping stone towards closer association with the Father. I am willing to discard those that will retard my progress or stall me." This will be unnerving to many who do wish for a say-all and end-all for their conflicts of life. Your example will be encouraging even if unnerving. It is the very trait that is admired in the master. While he worked within a social, religious, paradigm his message broke through to effect an entire world. What needs to be done is the redefinition of faith from one that passively accepts the guidance of another to one that depends solely on the presence of the divine within and the recognition of the divine in others. This is the certainty one seeks by the adoption of a religious teaching.
Line 67: Line 61:
 
Mark: The ease that you bring us I perceive is in an enlarged perspective of where we are and where we are going. The tribulations we encounter we now see as stepping stones, which brings peace and ease into the equation. Thank you for that.
 
Mark: The ease that you bring us I perceive is in an enlarged perspective of where we are and where we are going. The tribulations we encounter we now see as stepping stones, which brings peace and ease into the equation. Thank you for that.
  
* Machiventa: Well said, friend. Let me remind you of your past lesson of the jigsaw puzzle. Putting together the puzzle without the box cover picture to help you is difficult. What you speak of is having that broader perspective wherein you actually do view the box cover and understand the picture that will result from all your struggle and effort. What you have today inquired about regarding seeking of ease through religious authority is the attempt to have someone else put that puzzle together for you. As you reflect that is not the most enjoyable way to put together a puzzle. Therefore struggle brings pleasure and accomplishment and attainment, not in adoption and adapting to another's actions.
+
Machiventa: Well said, friend. Let me remind you of your past lesson of the jigsaw puzzle. Putting together the puzzle without the box cover picture to help you is difficult. What you speak of is having that broader perspective wherein you actually do view the box cover and understand the picture that will result from all your struggle and effort. What you have today inquired about regarding seeking of ease through religious authority is the attempt to have someone else put that puzzle together for you. As you reflect that is not the most enjoyable way to put together a puzzle. Therefore struggle brings pleasure and accomplishment and attainment, not in adoption and adapting to another's actions.
  
 
Mark: You mentioned that at some far distant point we will barely remember this encounter with you. I can't imagine such a time because I cherish these relationships and these lessons so much. I appreciate your words and thank you for them.
 
Mark: You mentioned that at some far distant point we will barely remember this encounter with you. I can't imagine such a time because I cherish these relationships and these lessons so much. I appreciate your words and thank you for them.
 +
===Closing===
 +
Machiventa: I assure you that we, being personalities, will never forget one another. We who acquire spiritual wisdom will never forget our lessons. But the events that provided the context will become less significant than the acquirements of friendship and enlightenment. So, yes, our love will remain forever. The Father being one of mercy and love has actually bestowed upon you a narrow time frame in which to function. So, within this small context you this day may cherish forever these engagements of ours. When that time spectrum enlarges, you will gain a different perspective. Our love remains, our learning remains, but the incident will shrink in proportion to the vastness of the new view. I will make my second attempt to withdraw. Elyon is still on winter break and will be back with you at a subsequent time. Let love be your guiding force. Be assured of Michael's approval of your efforts. Be ever willing to receive his guidance and correction. Farewell.
  
* Machiventa: I assure you that we, being personalities, will never forget one another. We who acquire spiritual wisdom will never forget our lessons. But the events that provided the context will become less significant than the acquirements of friendship and enlightenment. So, yes, our love will remain forever. The Father being one of mercy and love has actually bestowed upon you a narrow time frame in which to function. So, within this small context you this day may cherish forever these engagements of ours. When that time spectrum enlarges, you will gain a different perspective. Our love remains, our learning remains, but the incident will shrink in proportion to the vastness of the new view. I will make my second attempt to withdraw. Elyon is still on winter break and will be back with you at a subsequent time. Let love be your guiding force. Be assured of Michael's approval of your efforts. Be ever willing to receive his guidance and correction. Farewell.
+
[[Category: The Teaching Mission: Dialogues]]
 
+
[[Category: N. Idaho TeaM]]
END
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[[Category: Machiventa]]
 +
[[Category: Jonathan]]
 +
[[Category: 2003]]

Revision as of 18:02, 31 July 2008

Lighterstill.jpg

Heading

Topic: Changing World, Individual Significance

Group: N. Idaho TeaM

Facilitators

Teacher: Machiventa

TR: Jonathan

Session

Opening

Machiventa (Jonathan TR): Greetings to you, this is Machiventa. I salute you all in your efforts to foster the method and messages of our Michael Son. He who came to this world does give light, does reveal the love of the heavenly and most high and holy Father.

Lesson

It has been one short decade that you have been engaged in our Correcting Time mission. Though the years have passed you are only beginning to come into the realization of the significance of your engagement. You know from your studies that I significantly altered the course of my future when I became as you, embodied, and walked upon this planet of yours.

Now 4000 years later I am thoroughly involved in the affairs of this planet, acting in the role of Planetary Prince. I now realize how much significance lay in store for me those many years back when I accepted the assignment to dwell on earth. You too are making decisions each day, and these decisions trim your course, adjust your position. Today we begin another cycle of insight training and soul motivation. What you encounter as these experiences unfold for you, each one in its own way specific to your needs, will have an impact of eternal significance to each personality.

I am honored to have you as my friends and fellow light workers in the advancement of this planet. It is an honor because it requires the actions of humanity to advance this world, and you are willing, and I accept your volunteering. But I am also honored to have the privilege of having an impact on your eternal destiny. You with but a few short years of life have not the legacy of time behind you to clarify the impact of events upon your future. Today I dwell with you. Today we hold the concerns of a world that is, though slowly, definitely progressing toward Light and Life. One time you will be in sectors of the universe that will take you far from my company. Michael will ever dwell with me and you. Your spirit and family bonding with him and Nebadonia will go on for eternity. I know our love, mine with yours, will also linger. But I will become to you as one of your early grade school teachers who you remember fondly, who taught you much, yet you have not the opportunity to revisit.

That is why it is an honor to me to have a hand in the course of your ascension. These are the founding days of your soul unfoldment. Just as a child significantly establishes his character patterns in the first several years, likewise are you doing so in the full spectrum of time. Heed well those lessons given you by your teachers. Study and assimilate. Apply, practice, and even fail, for every effort cements within your determination the desire to attain God, the impulse it improve your personality manifestation. It nourishes the unfoldment and growth of your soul.

Change is coming upon this world, change that is not to be read in the headlines. It is a change that is emerging from within many alert individuals. Celestial troops have been amassed and distributed around this globe. They are equipped to address, to remedy or prevent dangerous decisions by governments upon your world in order to preserve the future of this planetary project Urantia. I assure you you are in good hands. There appears to be a nearness of a time of tantrum-throwing by a few who hold power on this world. I assure you it will not leave the nursery. All efforts will be taken to further enlighten the minds of the willing toward the fostering of peace, honest facing of truth, and the realization of the significance of the genuine spiritual brotherhood. You are enlisted in this campaign of the promotion of light. Friends, you may, as did Abraham millennia ago, wonder, "how may I have any significance in helping this world?".

Realize at this hour, at each hour, your contribution is the broadening of your grasp of universe reality, your comprehension of your individual significance in this totality of Supremacy, and your faith understanding that each individual experiential lesson you acquire is part of the mosaic that you are building now that you will not see until then when you are a full stature finaliter. This attention to your personal growth leaves upon Urantia an impact, and this impact is significant, for it adds to the accumulation of wisdom shared by many over the centuries. We who govern this planet are very patient. We do not count our progress in lifetimes; we count our progress in universe cycles. Be assured that you do leave your fingerprint, that you are illuminating the lives of those you come in contact with. I am confident that your reflection upon this past decade will reveal to you how you have improved your skills, how you have broadened your understanding, how you have deepened your faith. With this I declare you prepared, but I also tell you that this preparation will continue to mature, to cure, to ripen as we proceed. Again I salute you and I withdraw.

Dialogue

Mark: I've been grappling recently with how to implement this training process you speak of. I find myself contrasted with those alarmed by current social examples. I seek ideals over current principles and to align on the side of spiritual idealism for our world. My conflict is that in manifesting these higher properties I may be seen as disconnected from my surroundings, in a world of my own, sticking my head in the sand. To ponder excessively and emotionally about apparent error breathes life into that error I want to be removed from. I want to stake new ground, often alone in my perspective of these events. Please shed some light on my removing myself from the details of the political and social structure and attaching to the spiritual ideals.

Machiventa: I will first address your comment regarding the metaphorical image of sticking your head in the sand. Let me assure you that the terrestrially bound, spiritually detached, materially oriented ideologies of this world are the ones with the heads in the sand. You, my fellow servant of Michael, are amphibious, if I may shift our orientation. You are developing the ability to change mediums, to fly in the air, to swim in the sea. It is as you transition from fins to feet, from feet to wings that you will feel uncertainty regarding how well you are going about this process and whether or not you are taking the proper direction. Every fish will tell you that to stick your head above the water is certain suffocation. Every land mammal will also tell you the sea is a certain drowning experience. But as you grow more comfortable with traversing each level you will be better assured of the appropriateness of your actions and the loftiness of your ideal.

The commonplace problems of this world are not solved with commonplace solutions. They are solved with the overlay of cosmic understanding. This is not found by only running in the marketplace. You do have to pause; you do have to remove yourself to the mountain top so you may see the entire marketplace and gain an overview. But I admonish you not to leave your fellows behind.

Do take that mountain back down to the marketplace; do jump into that stream; swim with the others; you will affect them. It may not cause a change in behavior regarding the structures of society that you speak of, but it will begin the transformation of that individual. This is the increment of progress only that I care about, for it is cumulative. Soon many more will pull their heads out of the sand and reach for that higher view. They too will actually question whether they are putting their heads in the sand and hiding from their worldly problems. Assure them this is not the case, that it is true in reverse. At no time does the expansion of soul awareness limit you or inhibit you.

Structures require support, and when these structures are invested in by individuals, there is a great desire to maintain support. You have been told that a house built upon sand cannot stand. It is an act of compassion for you to point out to any builder the frailty of that soil so that they may not waste their time building and supporting a structure that will fail. To those who are so deeply entrenched that they cannot see you need not spend your time. Find those who are breaking ground. Reveal to them the ideal foundations upon which the new structures may be built. It is only through example and illustration that another may break free from a narrow focus. It is difficult when attention is keen upon events and processes immediately before one. When you step back, when you rise from the table and look about the room, you better understand the work you are undertaking and its significance to a greater whole.

If you receive a criticism that you are apparently attempting to withdraw and are therefore part of the problem, not the solution, make every effort to assure one that your withdrawal is not a removal but an elevation to a higher vantage, and it's not exclusively yours, that it is to be had by all, freely received when rigorously sought.

Does this help your orientation?

Mark: Immensely. I am eternally grateful that we may share these words and to consider you my friend in this journey. I thank you deeply.

Machiventa: You are welcome and the affection is mutual.

Harold: Is it a common trait among all mortals to seek the path of least resistance? Or is that something characteristic of this, a decimal planet? It seems a design flaw that people want to take the easy way out.

Machiventa: This tendency, while it does have an adverse effect of ease seeking, also is significant in contributing to development on this world. Every innovation, every new application of knowledge, is often motivated by the desire to make things easier. Once you dug for roots with your fingers, then with shovels, and soon with giant machinery. The ease of the harvest increased. Yet in the interim vast amounts of energy, capital, and thinking were applied to attain the new ease. This propels mankind forward. It is good for the whole. Therefore it is a tendency within all the races.

I will speak now to the individual, for herein is where the difficulty lies that you address. Rather than applying the desire for ease in the form of improving one's quality of life, the mistake is made that draws stagnation, and that is the desire to not make an effort at all. Unfortunately this impulse remains to improve, and when there is no ideal to lure the individual to improvement, substitutes are adopted which thwart the desire to grow. Herein enters substance abuse problems, family conflicts, even wars. So I conclude by saying that the desire for an easier life is good if it is coupled with the desire to improve and advance upon the way of life and not destroyed through impulse gratification and not numbed by ignoring lofty goals and ideals.

Has this helped?

Harold: Yes. Could you comment on the relationship to spiritual growth? People are inclined to follow someone because it is easier. They don't have to think about what they believe; it's handed to them on a platter. What would motivate people to take a harder path, their own path in spiritual progress?

Machiventa: You mention this being a decimal world. While this has significance upon the manner of life forms, their behavior and tendencies, what you speak of now points more to the absence of a planetary headquarters and the Adamic regime wherein representatives of high spiritual standing dwell upon a world. These representatives of spirit on high fulfill that function of providing on a platter the nourishment that the races seek. This world does not have these functions in place physically and tangibly to human beings. So, you as a whole have compensated; you have substituted canon and doctrine and ecclesiastical hierarchy to provide that need, the need being the desire for assurance that what you grasp for spiritually is true and valid. Adam and Eve and the planetary staff would not make it easier for you; they would provide continual challenges to your experiential unfoldment, and this does lack in your religious traditions, but for a few.

What will motivate individuals to take the uncharted course of personal attainment of God may require a disillusionment with those traditional authorities. Some abandon these structures; others take it upon themselves to transform themselves within the structure in hopes of elevating that structure to a new level of presentation. The apostles early on attempted this in their own native religion. What the world needs now are brave souls, people who will stand and say, "I am a child of the Father of All. My doctrine is truth," not that my truth is doctrine; that "my divine Parent is good", and that "I am assured of my sonship, daughtership", and that "I am willing to adopt wholesome religious concepts if they provide a stepping stone towards closer association with the Father. I am willing to discard those that will retard my progress or stall me." This will be unnerving to many who do wish for a say-all and end-all for their conflicts of life. Your example will be encouraging even if unnerving. It is the very trait that is admired in the master. While he worked within a social, religious, paradigm his message broke through to effect an entire world. What needs to be done is the redefinition of faith from one that passively accepts the guidance of another to one that depends solely on the presence of the divine within and the recognition of the divine in others. This is the certainty one seeks by the adoption of a religious teaching.

I might caution each of you here and those who will read the transcript of this session not to rely upon myself or any of your other teachers for any ease in your spiritual life. We endeavor to be kind and compassionate, but we will not allow you to flounder or stagnate. That is, unless you demand that. But we will be creative in unsettling such demands and rekindling your desire to progress. I wish your response.

Harold: Very eloquently put.

Mark: The ease that you bring us I perceive is in an enlarged perspective of where we are and where we are going. The tribulations we encounter we now see as stepping stones, which brings peace and ease into the equation. Thank you for that.

Machiventa: Well said, friend. Let me remind you of your past lesson of the jigsaw puzzle. Putting together the puzzle without the box cover picture to help you is difficult. What you speak of is having that broader perspective wherein you actually do view the box cover and understand the picture that will result from all your struggle and effort. What you have today inquired about regarding seeking of ease through religious authority is the attempt to have someone else put that puzzle together for you. As you reflect that is not the most enjoyable way to put together a puzzle. Therefore struggle brings pleasure and accomplishment and attainment, not in adoption and adapting to another's actions.

Mark: You mentioned that at some far distant point we will barely remember this encounter with you. I can't imagine such a time because I cherish these relationships and these lessons so much. I appreciate your words and thank you for them.

Closing

Machiventa: I assure you that we, being personalities, will never forget one another. We who acquire spiritual wisdom will never forget our lessons. But the events that provided the context will become less significant than the acquirements of friendship and enlightenment. So, yes, our love will remain forever. The Father being one of mercy and love has actually bestowed upon you a narrow time frame in which to function. So, within this small context you this day may cherish forever these engagements of ours. When that time spectrum enlarges, you will gain a different perspective. Our love remains, our learning remains, but the incident will shrink in proportion to the vastness of the new view. I will make my second attempt to withdraw. Elyon is still on winter break and will be back with you at a subsequent time. Let love be your guiding force. Be assured of Michael's approval of your efforts. Be ever willing to receive his guidance and correction. Farewell.