Changes

[[Image:lighterstill.jpg]]

Marin TM Group—Mill Valley, California—U.S.A.

 

Dear Michael and Mother Spirit, We freely admit we do but barely comprehend the reality of the spiritual dimensions, even those intrinsic to our human nature, that you’ve introduced--you yourselves vast across so many eons of time and light years of space. But: say on. You warm our hearts, and tease our curiosity, and inspire our imaginations with your words of hope and love. And so we do pray you continue. Amen.

Dear Michael and Mother Spirit, We freely admit we do but barely comprehend the reality of the spiritual dimensions, even those intrinsic to our human nature, that you’ve introduced--you yourselves vast across so many eons of time and light years of space. But: say on. You warm our hearts, and tease our curiosity, and inspire our imaginations with your words of hope and love. And so we do pray you continue. Amen.

MICHAEL: Good evening, this is Michael of Salvington; this is Jesus of Urantia. Thank you for your warm invitation, my children: I accept. Let’s go forth together, for I too have a soul that is fulfilled with my experiences with you. This is why we call upon you to stretch to taste of the glory that Mother Spirit and I know as we stretch ourselves across our millions of worlds, and get down to every single one of our children. This is our ability we treasure so dearly. This is truly what makes us what we are, and we delight in fulfilling our Father’s purpose for us. And so we invite you to join this glorious game.

MICHAEL: Good evening, this is Michael of Salvington; this is Jesus of Urantia. Thank you for your warm invitation, my children: I accept. Let’s go forth together, for I too have a soul that is fulfilled with my experiences with you. This is why we call upon you to stretch to taste of the glory that Mother Spirit and I know as we stretch ourselves across our millions of worlds, and get down to every single one of our children. This is our ability we treasure so dearly. This is truly what makes us what we are, and we delight in fulfilling our Father’s purpose for us. And so we invite you to join this glorious game.

 

We hope you understand why we cannot be more forthcoming--from a human point of view--and more completely answer some of your deeper requests. You must understand that we are like any loving, doting parents who stand their little toddlers on their feet, and then hold out their arms almost touching, to encourage their child to take those first few hesitant steps—for you, exercising your self-power of creativity and imagination. And so we reach out to you.

We hope you understand why we cannot be more forthcoming--from a human point of view--and more completely answer some of your deeper requests. You must understand that we are like any loving, doting parents who stand their little toddlers on their feet, and then hold out their arms almost touching, to encourage their child to take those first few hesitant steps—for you, exercising your self-power of creativity and imagination. And so we reach out to you.

Sometimes the only way you can achieve here-and-now is to realize what you don’t know. You need to experiment, because no one else can tell you, either. You have to formulate the experiment. You have to understand it. You have to try it. Then you have to evaluate it: did it work? Am I better or worse off? This is why we tease you with the notion of a great chasm yawning in front of you at times, simply because it’s a valid perception. You are getting out towards the edge of what you know, what you’ve already done. There is not only a whole world, there’s a whole universe out there, calling to you: and it’s all unknown. This is your eternal situation. It was created out of our Father’s wisdom and love for us.

Sometimes the only way you can achieve here-and-now is to realize what you don’t know. You need to experiment, because no one else can tell you, either. You have to formulate the experiment. You have to understand it. You have to try it. Then you have to evaluate it: did it work? Am I better or worse off? This is why we tease you with the notion of a great chasm yawning in front of you at times, simply because it’s a valid perception. You are getting out towards the edge of what you know, what you’ve already done. There is not only a whole world, there’s a whole universe out there, calling to you: and it’s all unknown. This is your eternal situation. It was created out of our Father’s wisdom and love for us.

Though it might seem counter-intuitive, or even paradoxical, you can find a very sublime and strengthening rest right in the middle of all this dynamic unfolding. That rest, my children, is because you are exercising: you are fulfilling a purpose. You are experiencing what is possible, and you can rest assured in this. There is something called accomplishment. There is a way of evaluating what you’re adding to your soul. Life is not some habitual round, some rabbit-path of least effort. That is what actually stifles your experience of life.

Though it might seem counter-intuitive, or even paradoxical, you can find a very sublime and strengthening rest right in the middle of all this dynamic unfolding. That rest, my children, is because you are exercising: you are fulfilling a purpose. You are experiencing what is possible, and you can rest assured in this. There is something called accomplishment. There is a way of evaluating what you’re adding to your soul. Life is not some habitual round, some rabbit-path of least effort. That is what actually stifles your experience of life.

This is the real stuff of your eternal life. This is all the soul stuff you’ll ever have, because it is all you’ll need. It is what is true and actual. It is part and parcel of you being a cosmic fact, an absolute reality involved in changing things by your own creative acts. Something new has come into existence and will ever be a part of the Supreme Being because you created it. In this you are most closely made in Gods’ image. Right now is a good time to start. And so will be five minutes from now, and when tomorrow becomes now.

This is the real stuff of your eternal life. This is all the soul stuff you’ll ever have, because it is all you’ll need. It is what is true and actual. It is part and parcel of you being a cosmic fact, an absolute reality involved in changing things by your own creative acts. Something new has come into existence and will ever be a part of the Supreme Being because you created it. In this you are most closely made in Gods’ image. Right now is a good time to start. And so will be five minutes from now, and when tomorrow becomes now.

Yes, I know: you can feel all that inertia piling up, feel those sticky lumps of laziness clinging to your heels. But consider: that just gives you some measure of the effort, because these are not two separate things. The effort is precisely what it takes to overcome the inertia, to reject that laziness holding you back. So be not afraid to feel both. Think of all the stimulants the human race has been enamored with from the beginning of time, just to avoid feeling the effort. Yet the experience of feeling the effort, and the drag, is what makes you strong.

Yes, I know: you can feel all that inertia piling up, feel those sticky lumps of laziness clinging to your heels. But consider: that just gives you some measure of the effort, because these are not two separate things. The effort is precisely what it takes to overcome the inertia, to reject that laziness holding you back. So be not afraid to feel both. Think of all the stimulants the human race has been enamored with from the beginning of time, just to avoid feeling the effort. Yet the experience of feeling the effort, and the drag, is what makes you strong.

If you have any questions or comments this evening, I look forward to hearing them.

If you have any questions or comments this evening, I look forward to hearing them.

 

Student: Father Michael, I don’t have any questions, just a comment. I’m still working on the last two weeks’ worth of explanations from you and Mother, and also from Welmek--who gave me a standard to judge myself by. I’m beginning to see where I’ve been…not avoiding feeling, but rather lazy. And I’ve also discovered a lot of the things I was afraid to do, was simply being afraid to make mistakes and get punished for them like when I was a young person. That stuff doesn’t exist anymore, except for me; but less so now than before. So thank you very much for your explanations and love.

Student: Father Michael, I don’t have any questions, just a comment. I’m still working on the last two weeks’ worth of explanations from you and Mother, and also from Welmek--who gave me a standard to judge myself by. I’m beginning to see where I’ve been…not avoiding feeling, but rather lazy. And I’ve also discovered a lot of the things I was afraid to do, was simply being afraid to make mistakes and get punished for them like when I was a young person. That stuff doesn’t exist anymore, except for me; but less so now than before. So thank you very much for your explanations and love.

MICHAEL: Yes, my son, the difficulty in answering the question is in its generality. For I think you can intuit that these individuals’ visions are as unique as they are. So my answer must also be general.

MICHAEL: Yes, my son, the difficulty in answering the question is in its generality. For I think you can intuit that these individuals’ visions are as unique as they are. So my answer must also be general.

We’ve talked about foresight and how it is an intrinsic part of your curiosity, at first, and then your wisdom too as that grows--to try to penetrate the future. One of the benefits of your recently developed scientific, empirical method and the energy/material world it has segregated and brought into focus, is that not only can some effect be noted throughout the entire past, but you can also project it, with mathematical accuracy, into the future. But when you get into the mental and spiritual/creative realms you mentioned, of human and extra-human activity, the future has not happened yet. It has no reality but only what you can think of as potential, existing now.

We’ve talked about foresight and how it is an intrinsic part of your curiosity, at first, and then your wisdom too as that grows--to try to penetrate the future. One of the benefits of your recently developed scientific, empirical method and the energy/material world it has segregated and brought into focus, is that not only can some effect be noted throughout the entire past, but you can also project it, with mathematical accuracy, into the future. But when you get into the mental and spiritual/creative realms you mentioned, of human and extra-human activity, the future has not happened yet. It has no reality but only what you can think of as potential, existing now.

Yet if I do not step off and embrace my ideals of what is true, and is good, and is love, and is decent, I will die at a young age—if I cling to conventionality, and sameness. I will miss God’s original intention for me. That sounds kind-of heavy…(laughter)…but it’s not!--always. So…(heavy sigh)

Yet if I do not step off and embrace my ideals of what is true, and is good, and is love, and is decent, I will die at a young age—if I cling to conventionality, and sameness. I will miss God’s original intention for me. That sounds kind-of heavy…(laughter)…but it’s not!--always. So…(heavy sigh)

MICHAEL: Yes, my son, once again I congratulate you on beginning to feel, and accept with that feeling, all these different strands pulling you this way and that. This is the first necessary step--the determination not to be afraid of feeling what you say is a disconnect—we call it a stretch—between the ideal and the real. As we’ve said before, it’s like having one foot on a dock and the other in a boat, and you are beginning to be aware of how loose the tether is between the two. You might even be ready for the realization you are the only tether between the two. You are the connection. The dock is the past, or what is known—what at least seems to be fixed, while the boat is bobbing around with the living flowing of time and circumstance rushing by.

MICHAEL: Yes, my son, once again I congratulate you on beginning to feel, and accept with that feeling, all these different strands pulling you this way and that. This is the first necessary step--the determination not to be afraid of feeling what you say is a disconnect—we call it a stretch—between the ideal and the real. As we’ve said before, it’s like having one foot on a dock and the other in a boat, and you are beginning to be aware of how loose the tether is between the two. You might even be ready for the realization you are the only tether between the two. You are the connection. The dock is the past, or what is known—what at least seems to be fixed, while the boat is bobbing around with the living flowing of time and circumstance rushing by.

Student: Michael, in this amazing teaching, this philosophic presentation, it sounds like reality is this situation in which we are faced with a decision, and we are the bridge between the dock and this little boat, and there is no other reality other than constantly being this kind of bridge between the known and the unknown, between something that doesn’t require paying dues—something conventional, and something that does require paying the dues of effort, of right effort. When we make what Buddha calls the right effort—not too much, not too little, but just the right amount, to spark a soul-discovering decision, or soul-making decision, that is what real living is. It’s called wisdom. Wise living is being in that place and not being presumptuous, on the one hand, and overly audacious, nor being too timid on the other hand. Is that what you’re saying? That’s the reality of the Supreme? I’m just trying to understand.

Student: Michael, in this amazing teaching, this philosophic presentation, it sounds like reality is this situation in which we are faced with a decision, and we are the bridge between the dock and this little boat, and there is no other reality other than constantly being this kind of bridge between the known and the unknown, between something that doesn’t require paying dues—something conventional, and something that does require paying the dues of effort, of right effort. When we make what Buddha calls the right effort—not too much, not too little, but just the right amount, to spark a soul-discovering decision, or soul-making decision, that is what real living is. It’s called wisdom. Wise living is being in that place and not being presumptuous, on the one hand, and overly audacious, nor being too timid on the other hand. Is that what you’re saying? That’s the reality of the Supreme? I’m just trying to understand.

MICHAEL: Well!—you’ve done a very good job, my son. That’s very much it—exactly what I was saying. Think of mankind’s infatuation with stimulants—which are still far and way his greatest love of psychotropic substances. They can make something seem effortless, but they are just catalysts which enable you to use energy you’ve already taken aboard—if you will. In other words, they are not food; they are not real nutrition. They are not the source of energy. I’m just suggesting that the way to achieve Buddha’s ideal is to have the courage to feel the effort, because it is exactly proportional to what is needed to overcome the drag, to reject the laziness, to move the inertia you have as a physical being involved in physical activities. This extends into the mental and spiritual realms. There are comfortable and well-though-out paths through your mind, yet you’ve all encountered mental Mount Everest’s, challenging intellectual heaps of concepts you’ve had to struggle with to comprehend.

MICHAEL: Well!—you’ve done a very good job, my son. That’s very much it—exactly what I was saying. Think of mankind’s infatuation with stimulants—which are still far and way his greatest love of psychotropic substances. They can make something seem effortless, but they are just catalysts which enable you to use energy you’ve already taken aboard—if you will. In other words, they are not food; they are not real nutrition. They are not the source of energy. I’m just suggesting that the way to achieve Buddha’s ideal is to have the courage to feel the effort, because it is exactly proportional to what is needed to overcome the drag, to reject the laziness, to move the inertia you have as a physical being involved in physical activities. This extends into the mental and spiritual realms. There are comfortable and well-though-out paths through your mind, yet you’ve all encountered mental Mount Everest’s, challenging intellectual heaps of concepts you’ve had to struggle with to comprehend.

MICHAEL: Yes, my son, this is only because feeling is the more fundamental human reality. We gave a lesson one time on how thought/conceptualization is only finely articulated feeling. True, some people do try to talk themselves into the effortlessness of some upcoming strenuous activity, and hide awhile in the thought, divorced from feeling effort, but this is generally a kind of robbing Peter to pay Paul, or a fool’s errand, and ultimately inefficient. We suggest it’s more fundamental, more soul-enriching, simply to feel the effort.

MICHAEL: Yes, my son, this is only because feeling is the more fundamental human reality. We gave a lesson one time on how thought/conceptualization is only finely articulated feeling. True, some people do try to talk themselves into the effortlessness of some upcoming strenuous activity, and hide awhile in the thought, divorced from feeling effort, but this is generally a kind of robbing Peter to pay Paul, or a fool’s errand, and ultimately inefficient. We suggest it’s more fundamental, more soul-enriching, simply to feel the effort.

It’s just that so much of your culture teaches you the exact opposite, that a good life, a successful life is effortless. Yet only when you have a total acceptance, a total oneness with effort, when you are right inside of it and are thrilled to feel that drag, that inertia giving reality and substance to your life, can it validly be expressed as seeming effortless. But that’s commitment, arising from a wisdom you have to earn.

It’s just that so much of your culture teaches you the exact opposite, that a good life, a successful life is effortless. Yet only when you have a total acceptance, a total oneness with effort, when you are right inside of it and are thrilled to feel that drag, that inertia giving reality and substance to your life, can it validly be expressed as seeming effortless. But that’s commitment, arising from a wisdom you have to earn.

Student: When you find people who have been crushed by it, and you are ministering to them, what do you need to understand about the movement of their minds, and their hearts, and their wills—which is disturbed and holding them back? For example, I have a friend who I’m worried about, who doesn’t seem able to rise to the occasion now. He’s been crushed by a victimization he has legitimately suffered.

Student: When you find people who have been crushed by it, and you are ministering to them, what do you need to understand about the movement of their minds, and their hearts, and their wills—which is disturbed and holding them back? For example, I have a friend who I’m worried about, who doesn’t seem able to rise to the occasion now. He’s been crushed by a victimization he has legitimately suffered.

MICHAEL: When you are faced with real trauma, whether of a physical, or mental, or spiritual nature, it helps to separate these somewhat in diagnosing the situation. Often the greatest part of friendship is just being there with true empathy and allowing this person to share their experience. This assuages the aloneness and feelings of being disconnected the trauma has produced. It used to be called the laying on of hands, but sometimes a good, heartfelt hug, or holding someone’s hand and sharing the painful moments with them, letting them know they are not alone, lets soul speak to soul, reach across and touch spirit. This can be the opening to a conversation where you can help them sort out what happened, and come out of the shock that is universal with all three kinds of injury. There may be large pieces missing in their life. Help them understand, which is an enormous power because it reassures the personality there is some sense that can be regained when so much is lost, and things just don't make sense—the mental part of the injury. Spiritually, they have a loss of value. People who have been injured are no longer who and what they once were, and this registers as a great loss of value. Just your valuing them can help.

MICHAEL: When you are faced with real trauma, whether of a physical, or mental, or spiritual nature, it helps to separate these somewhat in diagnosing the situation. Often the greatest part of friendship is just being there with true empathy and allowing this person to share their experience. This assuages the aloneness and feelings of being disconnected the trauma has produced. It used to be called the laying on of hands, but sometimes a good, heartfelt hug, or holding someone’s hand and sharing the painful moments with them, letting them know they are not alone, lets soul speak to soul, reach across and touch spirit. This can be the opening to a conversation where you can help them sort out what happened, and come out of the shock that is universal with all three kinds of injury. There may be large pieces missing in their life. Help them understand, which is an enormous power because it reassures the personality there is some sense that can be regained when so much is lost, and things just don't make sense—the mental part of the injury. Spiritually, they have a loss of value. People who have been injured are no longer who and what they once were, and this registers as a great loss of value. Just your valuing them can help.

I thank you, my sons, for listening to me tonight and taking to heart what I felt I needed to lay on you as a bit of a weight. I do this to help you penetrate ever deeper towards a divine necessity you can accept as part of God’s will, that actually gives meaning and value to your endeavors. There is a lot of cultural conditioning, a lot of hubris floating around, you have to get over—a lot of silly notions that devalue the effort needed. But deep inside, right at one with that effort, and whatever there is that requires effort to overcome, is that pure joy of accomplishment, of being one with our Father in creating what is, and what will be. Be in my peace. Good evening.

I thank you, my sons, for listening to me tonight and taking to heart what I felt I needed to lay on you as a bit of a weight. I do this to help you penetrate ever deeper towards a divine necessity you can accept as part of God’s will, that actually gives meaning and value to your endeavors. There is a lot of cultural conditioning, a lot of hubris floating around, you have to get over—a lot of silly notions that devalue the effort needed. But deep inside, right at one with that effort, and whatever there is that requires effort to overcome, is that pure joy of accomplishment, of being one with our Father in creating what is, and what will be. Be in my peace. Good evening.