2019-02-28-Spirit Equals Creativity

Session

Opening

Nebadonia: Good Evening, my dear ones, this is your Mother Spirit. I always like to remind you that while I am delighted to have you as part of me, right within me: I am also yours. It even gives me greater joy to think that you are aware of me, and Michael, and our Father. We are a living part of your life and, hopefully, you can feel our influence, because as you do, it augments your own spirit so greatly.

Lesson

(Spirit = creativity)

Fundamentally, the one synonym for “spirit” would be “creativity.” All the spirit that is abroad in the universe is from and a part of personal beings. It is their creativity; and the fact that every single one of us is a unique being right from God. And just as God endows you with your unique personality, so the Eternal Son endows you with his dimension of creativity. This is especially true for a human being in the ongoing stream of time and space. Even your own physical bodies are living right within this continuity with all the creativity of all the other created beings, all the other personal beings all around you. With all these other human beings you encounter and deal with and enjoy every day, there is your own creativity constantly happening.

One of the supreme ironies, of course--a tragic irony--are those who feel so totally bound up in what has come before, even to the point of that greatest curse of all—boredom--wanting to “kill time” and just get through as much as possible. They do this by ignoring the Eternal Now they are living in, and the way reality is not repeating itself but is ever new, right from God’s creativity. It’s their not recognizing what they themselves are incessantly and unconsciously creating.

Part of that irony we have addressed before as kind of being stifled, is living in a “bubble of familiarity” where life is the same-old, same-old thing, not realizing it is their own most marvelous creative ability. Maybe it stems from a fear of change, or some challenge that so totally wiped them out in the past they are still recovering from it. It’s such a fear they are devoting all their creative abilities to at least the illusion--the feeling--the reassurance--the comfort that nothing is changing and they can count on the same-old, same-old day after day.

Yet that part of their personality that thrives on something new, something challenging, correctly feels a kind of death, a death right in life. One of your famous fictional characters in a widely enjoyed extensively created magical world; one of these beloved older characters correctly stated, “It is not your abilities that determine so much who you are, it is your choices!” (Ed: Dumbledore)

(Free will dignity)

It is your choices, your sense of being a free-will creature, a creature of free-will dignity, that determines how we designate you, at least in potential. You have the possible dignity of not being bound simply by what came before within this enormous stream of time and space, especially the material world you live in with your own living material bodies. Right within this ongoing continuity you yourself can initiate something new.

This is what really gives you a choice. You have something that is your own to choose. So of course your whole feeling of being free, of having free choice, depends upon your creativity being realized. So often someone can bring up this question, “How do I know I have free will?” You only know this by using it.

Each decision becomes a very distinct part of your soul--if you will, the spiritual record of your life that is counter-parted by the presence of God within you. Right in your own soul, my children, is the proof--or the lack—of your free will. These are those choices you made—or failed to make--that so clearly determined your life in the past. Take some comfort and reassurance in that, right in this living Now you find yourselves in, and have the faith to extend this realization on into your future.

(Your spiritual sense of value)

One great part of your freedom is in the plans you can make by taking some direction based on your spiritual sense of value. What do you want to happen? What do you want to do? And not only who, but what--what do you want to be? What kind of person? What kind of folks do you see yourself surrounded with, even in your most wildly wonderful fantasies?

All your imagination, all your creativity that taps into your past and those choices you made, only works by accepting that so much of what is happening to you now is a function of your own present creativity. Those past choices are determining, yet since this is a living Now, an Eternal Now you will always be in, the more creative you are now, the more you aren’t bound, even by your own past choices.

This is why part of your good meditation is a genuinely valuable review--to see again, to feel again, to experience again those choices you have made. Have some evaluation of them. What is their value to you now, and do you wish to continue? How much are you tying your own self down?--even to the point, as I said, of the supreme irony of feeling bored because you don’t want to perceive that not only you, but all the universe around you, is changing.

Surely there is that living material/energetic continuity you call Natural Law, yet within that, this moment has never happened before. There’s also a dimension of yourselves, the ever-new spiritual-creative-dimension of yourselves that gives you choice.

(Interpreting reality)

To extend this even further, consider your largely unconscious interpretation of reality. This is actually a creative act because it is not just automatically given to you. It comes from all your training and learning through education, especially in scientific and psychological realms of matter and mind that train and teach you how to interpret things. This too is a creative act moment to moment to moment.

By your own interpretations and projections, how you understand things somewhat determines how you perceive them. But then to consciously know that you are doing this, and have this as a living experience? It’s to realize, “Hey!--all that out there is coming from this unique viewpoint of my own. It’s not only where I am in space in the most simple way--no one else is where I am standing or sitting right now. But even my closest beloved siblings, my own brothers and sisters, don’t have quite my take on things, especially after we’ve left home.”

The other fallacy, of course, is to go far overboard the other way and hold a total subjective view, to believe everything is your own making, your own interpretation; which is just as much a fallacy as nothing is. There is another whole world, another whole universe out there, my children, for you to go out into and explore. And it is real. How do you choose to accept it, or not? How you choose to interpret your reality depends so much on your very awareness that you are doing this.

All this impacts your own feelings of freedom. If you are feeling rather pinned down by circumstances, how much of it is your own doing? How much of it can you control unless you are aware of it? How much of your time, and effort, and even your love of life are you devoting to this awareness?

(Being interested, and tickled, and swept away)

Do you really enjoy being interested in things? As your Urantia Book puts it, this is the relationship between your personality and all that is extra to you, even your own physical body, living and changing. If you have an open-minded, curious attitude towards things, you can let yourself be delighted and swept away with pure enjoyment, pure amazement. Does the very fact of God’s creativity tickle you in every possible way, that something simply doesn’t necessarily have to be here? How about the whole natural world? You can think: Who needs forty or fifty thousand varieties of spiders? But there they are.

The whole natural world, my dear ones, is so open to you now with your marvelous internet and computers. The very fact that your natural history programs exist is such a testament to, you might say, a “collective curiosity”--but it is actually all the separate individuals who are creating these programs, being led on by their interest and curiosity. They give you such mind-blowing examples of individuals choosing to pool their curiosity and interest to bring these programs to you.

So let yourselves be overwhelmed from time to time. Marvel at all there is, including this body of yours, this fantastic part of you that even all of your medical books can’t quite yet pin down--let alone what, in the next minute, or even an hour from now, you will be doing with it.

It is your very creativity, my dear ones, your very spirit that allows you to have a happy life in the midst of all this I have thrown at you tonight. This includes the millions of folks surrounding you in all their various societies, and politics, and organizations, and sometimes lack of any organization at all. Then to be overwhelmed, and yet fear not but have an inner trust in the kind of miracle that got you this far, sometimes in spite of yourselves? It’s to have an absolute trust in life itself, right from God, that is your eternal possession--if you so choose. Even this ultimate choice is not forced upon you. It is truly yours.

(The meaning and value of praise)

A question was asked earlier about any qualitatively positive meanings that could be given to the whole notion of “praise.” I would imagine most of you think of it immediately on very personal terms: who could you praise right now? Given the possibility of being face to face with someone else, who would you praise, and how? This could be extended to the spiritual realm as a form of worship, a way of praising God for his very creativity; especially praising him for yourself with the utmost sincerity: “Thank you, Father, for me--that I am!”

Here, to me, one of the greatest attributes of praise is your conscious acknowledgment and way of reminding and committing yourself, a way of expressing directly to someone all their wonderful qualities. Maybe it’s something they’ve done directly for you, so you’re praising their kindness and generosity of spirit. Or you’re praising God for his hand in creating this marvelous personality of theirs.

I suppose it could go too far. You have that expression “heaping praise on someone” that hints at a kind of insincerity. Praise could be, not a genuine spiritual generosity on your own part, but just a tool, a psychological bargaining tool to get something from someone else.

But just the simple acknowledgement, and thankfulness, in letting someone know you can see and reflect their super fine qualities? Maybe get them to blush a little? Praise can be a very positive personality-and-soul affirming thing if it really comes from your own heart, and is sincere. It’s wanting to reflect back some wonderful quality you’ve seen in someone, and encourage them to carry on.

(Mother Spirit’s praise)

And so, my dears, let me praise you--especially you as an individual, right from God. Let me praise your creativity and how you’re making your choices, sometimes moment-by-moment, to take control of and responsibility for your own lives. Then too, it’s your responsibility, by extension, to those around you and what you are doing to help them--your family members, then neighborhoods and societies, even the countries in which you are living. This is all worthy of praise, these good attributes that make life so well worth living.

Let me praise your ability to share yourselves with each other. You truly go beyond any kind of being rewarded, or finagling in any kind of subtle trading. Just out of a generosity of spirit you give of yourselves, because the reward of that knows no equal. These are those glowing stars in the firmament of your soul, that you were genuinely generous and oh!--what that felt like!--that reward to have really helped someone.

Let me close this part of our session tonight with all of us praising our Father for his sheer creativity. As your Urantia Book so loves to put it, he is the First Source and Center of All that Is. We thank you, Father. Thank you for us. Thank you for me. Thank you for all I am capable of experiencing.

Now if you have any questions or comments, they too can be praise-worthy.

Dialogue

Student: Mother, I have a question. It seemed to me--the implication was--whereas we children of God find value in praise because it is encouraging, and it motivates us to go on to create more and more; what does our Father, who is all things--does he really need praise? What does our Father do with praise? How does this impact him? It wouldn’t seem to have the same impact on the First Source and Center that praise has on us. We get motivated to go on and do more things, but does the First Source and Center have any use for praise? How could he/it--or however we refer to the First Source and Center--how could it be inspired to do any more than it already does? It wouldn’t seem that it could.

(Above all: God is not an It)

Nebadonia: Well yes, my son. I enjoy your points here very much because just wondering about the nature of God is a kind of praise for him. But one thing I would like to say right off the bat is: of all the things we can say about God, and still acknowledge his unfathomable mystery because of his very nature, even to Michael and myself: definitely God is not an “It.”

Since God is the source of all personalities, the only way he could be is to be a personal being himself. He is literally, in this sense, sharing himself and his nature with you. So keep in mind there is this link between you and him in terms of essential nature. This is why--one more time!--Michael and I will refer to that chapter in your Urantia Book called Personality Survival. It contains one of the most comprehensive definitions of what personality is, and can give you such a feeling for not only who, but what you are.

I think you are correct in feeling that God is the original source of everything--in potential! Part of that potential he endows you with is to be free--even from him and his ways. The Urantia Book goes to quite some pain to elucidate a whole hierarchy of what you might call simple mistakes or errors that are possible in departing from his divine ways of loving, sharing, mutual respect and encouragement--all those sorts of things.

(Consciously departing from God’s ways)

There are ways of departing from him. You do have that ability, even to the point of willfully and consciously harming others, what you call sin. Persons can be so totally wrapped up in themselves as to get some really perverted thrill or enjoyment out of actually hurting people. This goes to the point of inequity, where their personality is totally devoted to this. This is possible, right? Yet God himself does not directly create that. He creates a personality, then sets it so free that, on his or her own self, they can choose to self-creatively go against his will.

True--there is a way in which God is aware of everything, and is a participant in everything. All the evil that exists throughout his entire universe, stemming from the creativity of individual human beings, he is very much aware of. In a monistic sense of God being everything, this is part of him; it is part of his experience. But for that very reason--again your Urantia Book informs you--an intrinsic facet of personality itself is an ability to distinguish between right and wrong. In this sense God both augments, and is augmented in his experience, by the individual personal choices of all beings, from the Master Spirits of Paradise on down to human beings.

(An intrinsic joy in what’s right)

There is an intrinsic joy in what you call righteousness, things chosen by free-will beings that are to the joy and the life of both. That intrinsic joy is something our Father too delights in feeling. Your praise to him is a way of reflecting that you yourself are aware of this. You are not only thanking God as a kind of worship, but also feeling the goodness that worship gives you in that acknowledgement. It is a win-win situation that God is definitely aware of.

Yes, you are correct, my son. It goes way beyond any sense of his “need.’” But consider how much you too are capable of doing way beyond your need. Isn’t that what you call joy?—doing something just for the hell of it?

Student: Mother!

Nebadonia, laughing: I couldn’t resist the temptation to use that expression, because in one way it is an acknowledgment of what that word “hell” represents--the worst of all possible things. Yet at the same time it is such a joyful human expression that triumphs even over that notion.

Student: Yes, I see. So praise becomes--what would you say: it goes both ways.

Nebadonia: Oh yes. God enjoys worship. God enjoys when his children at all levels are aware of goodness, and chose it. This does register in him, as does all the pain and suffering people inflict on each other. It is why he always, within his choice, always has the goodness, and sharing, and delight, and joy supersede and overwhelm them in time--as they are doing.

(A sense of proportion)

Don’t forget, my son, there is an inexorable evolution happening throughout all of time and space, and it is one of love, and praise, and enjoyment, helping and sharing. All these good qualities so totally, even on your world here, a thousand-to-one overshadow all the deliberate pain and suffering.

Student: Yes, Good.

Nebadonia: Yes, on the human level, praise--if it is sincere and not overdone for some selfish reason--is an expression of thanks, right? Praise does that. It’s a positive feedback to someone, to let them know that you know. It is a way of saying thank you.

Student #2: Mother, this overlapping of praise, love, and gratitude sort of acts as a propellant to encourage the relationship between the First Source and ourselves. And it is really more for our goodness. It induces us to higher aspirations perhaps?

(Love and praise go both ways)

Nebadonia: Oh, my son, I’d say there is a kind of transcendent equality here. It is equally both ways because God loves nothing more than your love. And don’t forget, my son, you are part of God not only as your Thought Adjuster, but as the field in which you live, and move, and have your being--as it has been expressed.

So it is equally both ways. It is both the wonder that you feel in praising someone, or God himself, and in the acknowledgement on their part. In the wonderfully enduring prayer of praising God is a genuine response you are getting from him. This is not an illusion. This is real. This is why you can have a kind of double-glow when you are really feeling it. You know it is not just something coming from your own personality; it is coming from God. Does that make sense? There’s a transcendent equality here of something going both ways.

Student #2: Well, thank you for your counsel.

Nebadonia: Yes, my son. You are right that, on an experiential level, love, praise, gratitude, thankfulness and sharing are all part of one glorious reality. Equally with the fact that free will exists in its use, so it is with love, and praise, and sharing. This is what makes them real. They are something you are involved in; something you are choosing to do, especially when it is difficult--loving someone who is rather unlovable. It’s being open-minded, even if you are being attacked and abused. It’s being open-minded to all kinds of possibilities of turning a negative experience into something positive for both of you.

(This is your power)

This is your power. This is truly your power: this creativity, this something coming right out of you, unique to both you and the moment. Because you too are changing, like the moment. And like the moment, which is an existential cosmic-wide event, you are also growing in another way. You are growing a soul of your unique experience that becomes your eternal possession.

Closing

My dear ones, I bid you a good evening. I certainly enjoy these moments you are aware of me. You send me your love and your thankfulness that Michael and I are involved in you. Be in my love. Goodnight.