1999-10-10-Stillness, More

Lighterstill.jpg

Teaching buddha small.jpg

Heading

Topic: Stillness, More

Group: N. Idaho TeaM

Facilitators

Teacher: Elyon, Aaron, Lester

TR: Jonathan, Mark Rogers, Ginnie

Session

Opening

Aaron (Jonathan): Hello to you all, I am Aaron visiting on this momentous occasion. I use the word momentous not in its usual sense of being an event worthy of erecting a monument, rather I use it in a twist like your swimmer who, in laps, reaches a wall and springs back from that wall into the next leg. These meetings of yours are momentous in that way, for you retreat momentarily from the activities of your life to coil up and recoil, to propel yourselves back into your daily events with new enthusiasm, new momentum.

Lesson

Stillness

Watching you discuss stillness I am moved to make some comment. There is a great task before all of us ascending mortals, that is, to reach the Father on Paradise. I know you are fully aware of this call from God to be with Him at some time at His universe presence. Stillness is one of the most important methods for reaching Paradise.

In the course of ascension your first and exceedingly important attainment will be the fusion with the Father's Fragment. You have been instructed that this indwelling gift from the Father resides at the center of your being and to seek communion using the stillness practice in order to better associate with the Father and to better be capable of reflecting the Father to your fellows around you. Stillness today for a physically embodied mortal such as yourselves is replicating for a few simple minutes what is your entire ascension career.

All the worlds of space whirl on in great dynamics fostering manifold activities, bringing about new accomplishments in all its energy. But when you are at the Father's house, you sit at the center of universe stillness. There is no time, and space becomes a concept of dimension rather than a reality itself as you know it so concretely here on this world. In miniature your communion with the Thought Adjuster is identical to your Paradise communion with the Father.

As we make our upward climb to His house, we must use stillness to have access to God. But when that eventful day arrives for each of us and when that eventful day arrives for all of us, the moment of the maximum attainment of the Supreme, our stillness will shift. It will not be so much access to God; it will be access with God to great regions of universe potential that are, even at this hour, inaccessible to many beings far greater in stature and standing than ourselves. It is out of the stillness of Paradise that you will be propelled into these regions to explore and to discover and to reveal more of the Father. What you practice today for a few minutes of time is a reflection of a grand scheme for all creatures throughout all the universes.

You have all undergone occasional process where, as you began, you assimilated the early lessons so that you could build enough background to understand in greater scope as time unfolds. You are willing to suffer confusion as you gain your information, knowing clarity will result. Practice the stillness now with this same approach. Be not so concerned about full comprehension of its import. Practice. It will unfold the meaning and depth and the reason for such an undertaking as you repeatedly enter into this relationship with the Father.

I will now give over to your usual teachers here today. I am glad to be back among you again.

Practice

Elyon (Mark): I would once again join your group; this is your friend and associate Elyon. I would carry on a bit further with this most important topic of stillness with a characteristic metaphor.

You all are engaged in the building up and the toning of your spiritual muscles. To do this you seek out these classrooms and similar ones as you would go to a gym to work out your physical muscles. In order to enter this spiritual gym, you must already have gained the strength and the ability and the willingness to first open the door to this gym. You arrive at this facility with your own free will as your guide to prepare for something, you know not what. Upon entering this gym you realize that whenever you are in this class and for sometime thereafter you derive a pleasurable feeling of accomplishment after each and every workout.

There are a variety of instruments available to you in this workout realm, and each of you filters in and assumes your workout schedule with the implement of your choice. In so doing, through the act of repetition, you are building mass to your spiritual muscle; you are increasing your capacity to use this muscle. At times you may not realize that you are actually in training for anything but involved in the activity of the moment because it feels good. But I tell you that every trip to this spiritual gym that you make and participate in you build strength, spiritual strength.

Now it is that you would gaze over and see one of your fellows engaged in skillfully executing an iron cross, seemingly effortlessly. You know logically that, to execute a move so demanding as this requires great skill and great strength, and yet you perceive another successfully execute this move with beauty and with grace. It does not appear to be a great struggle, for this individual has been training for quite some time. But this feat that he is accomplishing is impossible without the time he has spent in training and in building up his muscles to accommodate such demands. So, on the outside it may seem as though it does not require the great deal of effort that you know that it does, rather it comes with ease to the one who has practiced for this purpose.

This is the analogy to use with yourselves when you are in doubt as to your ability to triumph over the exercise of stillness. It is exceedingly difficult for one who has not entered the gym, who has not prepared in advance to execute a move so demanding. But you, my friends, are regulars to your workout and cannot help but see the rewards of your labor and the toning of your spirit muscles to the point that you should be able to execute these moves of your choosing with far greater ease than one who has not prepared. This does not imply that performing a difficult move such as an iron cross is not difficult, for it is. It will always be difficult. What makes the difference is your preparation and your familiarity with the technique that enables you to perform such a move.

It is sometimes difficult to see over the short term or at any one glance just how your spirit muscles have been affected by this routine workout. But given a longer perspective and a more challenging routine, it is obvious to you that you have done some preparation, that you have strengthened your stance so as to be able to grasp fully the undertaking before you and execute these moves, even with grace.

It is also quite possible that in being disciplined about your exercise routine you can lose sight of training for anything in particular. The routine itself is fulfilling and rewarding, and many times that is enough. But we must all realize that we are in training constantly for our growth, for our future potential, and we must look towards our training as preparation for the actualization of these potentials and discern where our training might help us master the skills before us. I say that each one of you here is capable of performing a demanding exercise if even for a brief moment. You may not be able to sustain an iron cross indefinitely, but each of you has developed your strength to the point of being able to attempt such a maneuver. Through your future diligence you will indeed gain the strength and ability to master the most complex maneuvers.

So, it may take great amounts of rehearsal before the maneuver of stillness may seem to come with great ease and great comfort. But you may be assured that with each attempt, with each practice, with each workout, you will come closer to that goal. You will learn the routine so well that you will be able to forget it and focus then on the communion with the Father in this time as well as the discipline of focus during stillness.

We are aware that this practice of stillness asks a great deal of you in mortal form. Indeed, you, as animal descendants, respond unconditionally to the stimulus around you. We are in a sense asking for some mastery over these innate tendencies in favor of responding to the stimulus of the Father. Physical stimulants can be overwhelming to you in this phase and dominate your entire being. It is a great effort for you to subjugate these effects to the higher inspiration of your Indwelling Spirit and the Father's presence. But you will find and have already tasted that the rewards and fruits for subjugating the one to the other are vast and great. So, I would say to each of you to continue to attempt, to try again and again, simply to exercise this muscle, simply to identify this muscle and use it, and it will grow strong; it will grow faithful, and you will come to rely on this skill more than any other skill you are likely to develop at this time.

In a sense it is seen as a mystery to you how this transpires, and that is largely because for each individual it transpires differently. Yet the result of the accomplishment of this practice is all the same. It is merely the direction and with what influences you proceed toward the stillness.

As a rule I would encourage you to not be hard on yourselves for falling short of your goals or expectations in this realm, for you are not. You are in an evolutionary process which only begins here. It does not end. It will take you many chances and tries before this becomes a dominant part of your being, and that is as it should be. So, when you fall short now in this life, be easy with yourself. Be kind with yourself. Don't create yet another obstacle for yourselves in attempting to find the stillness.

I thank you for your time and remain in attendance as do others.

Light

Lester (Ginnie): Good morning, this is Lester. As you mortals struggle with your animal nature, it is amusing for us to watch this --and by amusing I do not mean anything derogatory -- but it is truly a delight to see you striving to attain something that is truly astounding. As you begin your journey with the mortal nature, you do have many obstacles to overcome in the material world and especially in yours where material things occupy so much of your time and attention. It is indeed a feat to even breathe properly, to remain relaxed, or even to enjoy yourselves. We do not mean to make this spiritual journey such a chore. It is a chore only because of all the distractions you have. We are indeed delighted that you have agreed to take this on, but we do encourage you to be a little bit lighthearted about it rather than beat yourself up for not attaining it immediately. Stillness is lightness, and the more you can unburden yourself of heavy feelings, the more you will accommodate yourself to sharing and communing with our Father, who is lightness itself.

Take joy in your spiritual journey. When you feel things becoming more like a chore than a fun thing to do, then that is a sign that you are probably trying too hard or making it something that it isn't. Anyhow, I encourage you to pay attention to the light side of you and to try to bring the stillness into your everyday activities, your music, your art, your playfulness, your cooking, your parenting. Yes, your children will teach you. You want to learn something, watch your children.

So, I encourage you today to approach this idea of stillness as lightness and ease which comes with practice, but it also comes with letting go of the heaviness. That can be done in many ways.

It has been fun to be with you today. I will make sure you don't turn this thing into a chore, too. Good day.

Dialogue

Jonathan: Thank you. First I would like to repeat two lines you were giving me before you connected with Ginnie: Not to let stillness become staleness and, rather than being apathetic in practice, be pathetic. I know you meant that to be path-oriented, motivated and directed as we approach stillness.

Since there are many ways to approach meditation: breathing, muscle relaxing, mantra, etc, what are some techniques that morontia beings use to go into stillness? Is there something we can apply to our physical station?

Lester: As you know, morontia beings do not have the difficulty that you do because of your physicality, and, of course, the farther you proceed on your journey, the lighter you become so the easier it is to be there, to be still and centered and focused almost all the time. You have a great task here. You already have accepted the Father into your hearts. You have already begun the journey.

Jonathan: Lightness is key to help us physically-bound beings to experience stillness.

Lester: The lighter you are, the easier it is to commune with the Father.

Jonathan: In The Urantia Book it says the more spiritual we become, the less responsive we are to linear gravity,(42:11.4) the gravity that holds us to a planet and the planets to each other. That is very physical. You have added to the mystery of that phrase.

Lester: Yes, you are correct. Physicality is indeed a great hindrance to being light. However, you can transcend the physicality with your mind with the assistance of your Indwelling Adjuster who is always present with you with all the teachers that surround you everyday. All of you have already begun this journey of connecting with the Father. You all are already very well advanced in this method even though you think you are not. You are a very small percent of the general population who can master this technique, many of whom have no clue as to what stillness is and who, frankly, are afraid of it. You are all quite comfortable with being in our Father's presence.

So, I encourage you to simply lighten up in whatever way you can find. A light heart, a light spirit will always clear the way for our Father to commune with you.

Kirk: I like the analogy that instead of "see the light", "feel the light".

Lester: Yes. Many of you think that being light is not being serious enough. I assure you it is the other way around.

Jonathan: We first heard of you through Jared, who is famous for encouraging us to seek stillness and practice random acts of kindness. I would append that we should engage in incredible lightness of being.

Lester: You stole my words. "The unbearable lightness of being" is what I was thinking of.

Mark: I get this image that we are in this class and, as mortals, we have some capability to rise beyond our class to reach the Father. We are nevertheless subject to our physical being and our maturity. I get the feeling that maybe as first graders we have showed up and done as well as expected. The teachers may find it hard to present us materials much above what we are familiar with because we are immature, still in first grade. Can we continue to operate at or slightly above grade level but we never can go to the next level up, maybe a morontia experience, because we are still here in this class?

Lester: I have one comment. I heard you this morning mention how moved you were at the wisdom of your child. Need I say more?

Elyon (Jonathan): This is Elyon. I would add a comment too, that is, that your schooling on this world for young children entails a lot of recess and a lot of physical activities, movement oriented activities. Then, as age increases and maturity ensues, by the time you have reached your college levels, there is no recess interval. It is all academic. Let me now invert that, turn it inside out, for the stillness is your recess time for your activities. In order for a young first grader to sit long enough to absorb a lesson, that individual needs to run around on the playground. With stillness you do your spiritual running around so that in your day-by-day events you can learn your lessons.

I hope this helps. Thank you.

Ginnie: We have the capacity to expand our abilities. There's a limit because of our mortality.

Closing

Elyon: Thank you for your input today, all of you. It is enjoyable to be in dialogue. I will now take my leave.