Changes

==Heading==

==Heading==

===Topic: ''Refusing to be Authoritarian.''===

===Topic: ''Refusing to be Authoritarian''===

===Group: [[Lightline TeaM]]===

===Group: [[Lightline TeaM]]===

==Facilitators==

==Facilitators==

MICHAEL:  Good evening, my children, this is Michael.  Yes, I would be more than happy to address some of your concerns. I thank you too, all of you, for just opening your minds and your hearts to follow along with what I have to offer tonight. Let me emphasize that word again--to offer. Those of you who are familiar with Mother Spirit and myself, you know that the one request that we cannot answer is a request that we tell you what to do. This is the one thing, my children, that we must refuse. This is not just to set a good example of what spirit is and how it acts; this is just our own nature. You see, from our point of view, absolute power corrupts absolutely no one. True absolute power, spiritual power such as our Father has, corrupts absolutely no one.

MICHAEL:  Good evening, my children, this is Michael.  Yes, I would be more than happy to address some of your concerns. I thank you too, all of you, for just opening your minds and your hearts to follow along with what I have to offer tonight. Let me emphasize that word again--to offer. Those of you who are familiar with Mother Spirit and myself, you know that the one request that we cannot answer is a request that we tell you what to do. This is the one thing, my children, that we must refuse. This is not just to set a good example of what spirit is and how it acts; this is just our own nature. You see, from our point of view, absolute power corrupts absolutely no one. True absolute power, spiritual power such as our Father has, corrupts absolutely no one.

===='''''[[Freedom]]'''''====

====''[[Freedom]]''====

*Refusing to be authoritarian

*Refusing to be authoritarian

I would like to set a bit of framework here, my children.  One of the great puzzles that you will encounter if you read that chapter in your Urantia Book called “Personality Survival”--which is one of the most succinct and comprehensive definitions of what you are--not only who you are but what you are: it states that personality has a quality of uniqueness. There are no two personal beings identical, and that this reality, this entity that you are is always associated with some living organization of material, or mind, or spirit; or in your case, all three. But also that each unique personality is devoid of identity. And so this becomes a great puzzle. How can something be unique, yet have no identity?

I would like to set a bit of framework here, my children.  One of the great puzzles that you will encounter if you read that chapter in your Urantia Book called “Personality Survival”--which is one of the most succinct and comprehensive definitions of what you are--not only who you are but what you are: it states that personality has a quality of uniqueness. There are no two personal beings identical, and that this reality, this entity that you are is always associated with some living organization of material, or mind, or spirit; or in your case, all three. But also that each unique personality is devoid of identity. And so this becomes a great puzzle. How can something be unique, yet have no identity?

===='''''[[Identity]]'''''====

====''[[Identity]]''====

*Uniqueness and identity  

*Uniqueness and identity  

This is one of your great spiritual achievements, to break these identifications in full consciousness and reap a greater realization of what you are as a unique personality, what you are as a singular being. For this is what you share with God, and Mother Spirit, and myself alone. This is that depth, that very depth of your uniqueness that, try as you might, you can’t fully share with all your friends, your partners and your lovers. Even in sharing so much of this essence of you, there is still that ungraspable, unfathomable part of you that can never be fully expressed--some infinite potential for growth, for realization, that can never be more than momentarily fulfilled that, maybe, will carry you on forever. But to feel that inside yourself, and then to see it, to perceive this ungraspable, infinite quality in another person, and to do this in love, and honor, and respect, in all the wonder of that: this is a life-changing moment. This is a realization of not only of who and what you are, but also to recognize this in another is a supreme moment, a supreme triumph of spirit--to see this, and then to grant this kind of reality in another, and then another, and then another.  To realize this level of your common humanity is a supreme triumph of spirit because it not only sets you free, it enables you to set them free, and delight in their very freedom from you.

This is one of your great spiritual achievements, to break these identifications in full consciousness and reap a greater realization of what you are as a unique personality, what you are as a singular being. For this is what you share with God, and Mother Spirit, and myself alone. This is that depth, that very depth of your uniqueness that, try as you might, you can’t fully share with all your friends, your partners and your lovers. Even in sharing so much of this essence of you, there is still that ungraspable, unfathomable part of you that can never be fully expressed--some infinite potential for growth, for realization, that can never be more than momentarily fulfilled that, maybe, will carry you on forever. But to feel that inside yourself, and then to see it, to perceive this ungraspable, infinite quality in another person, and to do this in love, and honor, and respect, in all the wonder of that: this is a life-changing moment. This is a realization of not only of who and what you are, but also to recognize this in another is a supreme moment, a supreme triumph of spirit--to see this, and then to grant this kind of reality in another, and then another, and then another.  To realize this level of your common humanity is a supreme triumph of spirit because it not only sets you free, it enables you to set them free, and delight in their very freedom from you.

===='''''[[Consciousness]]'''''====

====''[[Consciousness]]''====

*Becoming conscious of unconscious identifications

*Becoming conscious of unconscious identifications

There have even been some calls for myself, or Mother Spirit, or some of your other teachers to resolve these things. And again, this is understandable. It’s an appeal to authority to decide things for you. Yet this is the very thing you must grow out of. You know yourselves from turning on your TV and catching, shall we say, a dozen different viewpoints on a dozen different channels, how many of those folks are just pure ideal-logs, people who can go on for an hour or two and express only a single viewpoint, shall we say a certain political viewpoint, and totally denigrate all the other viewpoints.

There have even been some calls for myself, or Mother Spirit, or some of your other teachers to resolve these things. And again, this is understandable. It’s an appeal to authority to decide things for you. Yet this is the very thing you must grow out of. You know yourselves from turning on your TV and catching, shall we say, a dozen different viewpoints on a dozen different channels, how many of those folks are just pure ideal-logs, people who can go on for an hour or two and express only a single viewpoint, shall we say a certain political viewpoint, and totally denigrate all the other viewpoints.

===='''''[[Courage]]'''''====

====''[[Courage]]''====

*A matter of courage

*A matter of courage

===Dialogue===

===Dialogue===

Student:  I would just like to comment that, that was a beautiful reminder that we all need to co-operate, and respect each other’s diversity.

Student:  I would just like to comment that, that was a beautiful reminder that we all need to co-operate, and respect each other’s diversity.

===='''''[[Peace]]'''''====

====''[[Peace]]''====

*Let each other be

*Let each other be