2005-01-12-On Problem Solving

Session

Opening

Music: "Under His Wings"

Prayer: (Elena) Dear Heavenly Father, please help us pray and help us place ourselves in a position that we can listen to you, that we can hear your words and the words of your helpers, that can help us understand all of those things around us, and help us position ourselves to do the best thing that we can at any given moment. Help us to align ourselves ever and foremost closer to you. We ask these things in Jesus sweet, precious name. Amen.

TOMAS: Good afternoon. I am Tomas, your teacher and friend, moved by your sweetness and affection for one another as has been evidenced in your sharing and in anticipation of the abundance of affection in you that is even now making its way into the circuitry of the spirit which consumes us in these soirees into the dimension of communication intercourse between the spirit realm and the finite.

Lesson

This overriding paradigm that we enjoy, and in which we take such comfort, even gaining strength by the faith which we invest in the process, strengthens our resolve to go forth into the life, the arena, as it is lived in the material world, there to nobly comport yourselves as a child of God in service to humanity, all the while understanding the need to take care of oneself in the physical sense, and to curtail the depletion of the strength which spirit provides by disconnecting from this connection we have sought and found within this Teacher Mission.

The text points to the fact that while the spirit is a goal, the flesh is a fact. And what a joy to hear you refer to the text in the philosophy of Rodan, who discusses the nature of problem solving as a means of making this life easier and more readily manageable -- for certainly your problems are not all material; they are not all mechanical -- but also bridge the emotional realm, as well, and abut the morontia level.

Having one foot in the material world and one foot in divine awareness is helpful toward your integration of the human and divine nature inherent in you and contributes to your ability to solve the problems of the realm, including emotional ones, because you are connected to the spirit, and disallows your tendency to put all your eggs in the material basket and exclude the spirit reality as something which you have not got yet, as if it were truly off in the future somewhere, unattainable and impractical, for all intents and purposes.

While it is true that your full fledged spirit existence is in ages to come, it would be foolhardy of you to deny the power of the spirit that works in and with you even now as you go about your affairs and grapple with problem-solving as it is understood by humanity.

Prayer in Problem Solving

Prayer is a tool in this process. You have a problem. You want to pray about it. Many people put their problem on the table and pray about it as if disowning the problem. Facing problems and dealing with them is the responsibility of the finite being in the finite world. Even though they may seem overwhelming, or not your problem, even though you may deny a problem exists, it only gets worse if you don’t deal with it; it does not go away. And so to pray about it would be to seek the solution within yourself and within the framework of your life, to seek the strength to follow through, to seek the humility that would ask for information or help in addressing the problem.

Prayer would perhaps allow you to think in new terms of how to go about handling the problem rather than, as is so often the case, doing the same thing expecting different results, denying the problem exists, or passing the buck to someone else to fix it. This is true whether it is your personal problem/challenge or whether it is a group situation, or even now, as you are beginning to perceive, a global problem. The same truth holds. Rather than allow fear to paralyze you, pray for the fortitude and honesty it takes to discern precisely what the problem is.

Now, in terms of politics, we have a lot of finger-wagging at this point, and make no mistake, all of you are political animals, and so even in your personal problem-solving it is not unheard of for mortals to blame it on someone else. But blame is not a solution. Blame is a diversion. If it is your problem, how are you going to fix it? Many times an attitude adjustment will fix it. Simply by saying, "I’ll deal with it," and assuming the responsibility of that which you find justly or unjustly has become ‘your problem’ and that by assuming the responsibility for the problem, regardless of how it got there, you are strengthened in your resolve to fix it, to follow through, to succeed, to forge ahead, to seek satisfaction therein and a sense of accomplishment therefrom. This is a part of the power of prayer.

Part of the power of prayer in approaching the problem allows you to give up your own prejudicial attitudes by allowing them to be set aside. In prayer, it is well to put forth your concerns but then to sit in silent receptivity to hear that still, small voice, which will help to clarify what the problem is precisely, if indeed there is a problem at all. Many fears are born of vain imaginings, which can be dissolved in the light of divine love, but not all. Yet by taking your problems to God in prayer, or to Jesus, or to Mary, or to Allah, or to the Great Spirit, or to any number of icons of illustrious and divine power, you subjugate your will and your "you" to that greater perspective that will allow your biases and emotional boulders to be reduced to grains of sand that can be swept away through the living waters, or by the breath of fresh air that comes from turning over ones problems to that power, as you know from the scriptures.

But you must have been industrious. And so the realm of philosophy does indeed play a role in dealing with the mortal conundrums, thinking things through and discussing these complexities of the mind is a way of sifting the chaff from the wheat, filtering out that which does not serve, does not relate, has no bearing, and focusing on the nugget of truth and value which remains. That is the issue on which to focus, to seek solution, and this is what group council is about. It is what world council would be about. It is what universe council is about and it all takes time. All these matters are dealt with as a part of time, as a part of the material worlds, and it takes place on all the worlds throughout all the super universes.

There is no place in the material worlds that has not got one kind of problem or other to deal with, one challenge or another on the table to look at and reckon with. No matter how high you go on the scale of evolution, you will always have this pattern of truth seeking and finding available to you. How you could simplify your lives if you utilized this as a daily, hourly practice. What is truly important? What truly matters? Granted, there are many things in the life of every being that matters a great deal, but in terms of universe economy, how important are they to the overall betterment of the individual, the community, the country, and the cosmos?

Ultimately, it is discovered that no matter what your problems, you are all "Under His Wing" and there is no problem too big that cannot be solved by and through your relationship with the Divine. He sees you all, sees your struggles. That God that lives within you often works with you, as you allow it to, and rejoices to work with you more consciously than not.

The practice of consciously working with your divine Indweller gives you the reassurance that you are not alone and, even when you are not supported by your peers, you have that assurance of sonship which allows you to be confident of yourself even when and as it is necessary for the bigger picture for you to compromise or adapt to pursue the greater good, in league with those others who would find the solution to the problems inherent in an evolving world.

Even while your problems here on Urantia are somewhat unique because of the fact of your being a decimal planet and its peppered history, you are still under the umbrella of all the universe powers and personalities which oversee and nurture the growth of the universe, and so in the highest sense, you are and we are under his wing. Knowing this, and knowing we have a choice, a choice to be a conscious part of this process – forever – is, for many, enough to allow individual preferences to be put aside in furtherance of that which benefits the needs of the next step in the growth of the Supreme, the Ultimate and the Almighty.

Had you any idea that any of these various vexations that you enjoy ascribing to Murphy, had you any idea that Murphy is a natural instigator of the gods, you might look differently at the opportunities offered to engage in successful problem-solving instead of cursing Murphy, to say, "All right, Murphy. What do you want me to see here? What am I to focus on? What am I overlooking? What do you want to call to my attention? What am I to learn? In what way may I be of service to the greater good by having to deal with this ‘rinky-dink’ mortal vicissitude?"

It is too, too easy to toss Murphy over into the ‘devil made me do it’ pile, and I urge you to take the tact that God is all there is, and therefore all that is presented is presented for you to glean the truth of His being and discard the rest. The rest, which may have appeared to be boulders in your path, become beaten down, by your application and through prayer, beaten into sand – whispering, shifting sand.

What a joy it is to come here at the Father’s table and feast with you and drink of His cup, savoring the flavor of His wine and chewing on the food from His garden, drawing strength, nourishment from the moment we spent together in placid and joyous companionship, reinforcing with our very being, our divine nature, and the nature of the universe. The order, harmony, clarity and peace which prevails here in this moment and which is a respite from the vicissitudes of the mortal existence, is available to you at any time in the stillness. And yet, what a joy it is to share it in a group! And eventually this peace will prevail throughout this planet, even throughout this universe. But now, fed and refreshed, focused and filled with the joy of sonship, it is possible for us to return to our rigors with renewed courage and resolve. Are there questions?

Dialogue

A Decimal Planet

Men-O-Pah: What is meant by "a decimal planet"?

Elena: Yeah, I was curious about that, too.

TOMAS: The idea of decimal planet is based on the structure of how the universes are set up, that every tenth inhabited world is an experimental life station. The other nine planets - those which are not a decimal planet – are controlled; they have a pattern established that is not veered from, in terms of possibility of moving away from the divine plan. This decimal planet has in it a number of possible variables that may be undertaken as a result of the flexibility that is allowed on a decimal planet to verge into "uncontrolled" or "unstructured" byways.

The decimal planets have a great deal more liberty and latitude to make mistakes, but the up side of such is that often they are able to bring about certain discoveries, by accident if you will, that are then incorporated into the construction of other controlled worlds. The unfortunate analogy that has been given, and yet which is most readily understood, is that you are like a laboratory experiment on decimal worlds, but be advised that even while these life experimental stations such as Urantia are indeed able to ‘stretch the envelope’ as you say, and which naturally provide for new and different cosmic problem-solving situations, they cannot go too far.

That is to say: the acts of humanity, which are experimental, are never going to be outside that realm which we called "under his wing." It will never be out of control. It would appear to many that the world is out of control, but it is not, and you may take comfort in that knowledge, for although there are opportunities to go far afield of what one might expect to take place on a world devised, designed and created by the divine Creator Sons of God, they are not all this way. Nine-tenths of them are following an orderly path of progression.

And while their path may, in many ways, be easier, they are not the beneficiaries, as you are, of the tremendous education and actualizing that comes from those of you who have, as agondonters, suffered through the many and peculiar vagaries of life on a decimal planet. Nor have they had as much fun. (Group giggles.) And so once again you can consider yourself fortunate for having this unique experience, not only of being an ascending son but also of being one who comes from a decimal world.

Does this help to clarify?

Men-O-Pah: Yes.

Thoroah: I’m curious. Of the nearly three dozen planets affected by the Lucifer Rebellion, how many … or were there an inordinate number of … decimal planets were involved in that?

TOMAS: There are not an inordinate number of decimal planets in that cluster of worlds, which were "led astray and quarantined", no.

Thoroah: Interesting. It would almost seem like it would have been more unlikely for a highly organized world to resist, but of course that’s perhaps an unfair perspective.

TOMAS: You are thinking of it from your perspective which, of course, would be natural, about civilized behavior and uncivilized behavior, as if comparing the middle class, suburban neighborhood with gang activity. While there is some basis to the fact that a controlled environment has less trouble than an environment which is allowed to experiment, those experiments are not always unfortunate or productive of chaos, such as you see here on Urantia today.

Reneau: Was the area that was quarantined restricted to a part of our galaxy or was our galaxy simply a part of a larger area of quarantine, since we're just one tiny speck of dust in a huge galaxy? I'm looking for perspective.

TOMAS: Then let us look at it as if your fair city were to have a power failure in one grid, and all the lights went out on your block and the next block over, but the rest of the city was unaffected. Let us say that on your block and the next block over, there are 36 homes, and of the 36 homes, 32 of them are sedate, quiet, orderly, wholesome households where everyone is asleep, unaware the power failure is going on until they wake up … late, in the morning, to discover they are late for work and the coffee pot did not go on. (Chuckles) … But those others who were of a different lifestyle, who perhaps were up rabble-rousing late at night, doing odd jobs or various and sundry creative or pleasureful activities were fully inconvenienced by the blackout and thus had to scramble for ways to see in the dark.

Reneau: Is that us?

Thoroah: Agondonters.

TOMAS: You are certainly scrambling in what you imagine to be the dark.

Elena: Good analogy! That's great!

TOMAS: But if you would be patient and rest easy, in time the sun comes up, the power will come on, and life proceeds as a natural course in the universe -- if this helps convey how it is that other planets besides decimal planets were involved in the rebellion. You yourself did not rebel. Nor did the other planets. The rebellion was on a higher grid than human or humanoid.

Reneau: Although it affected us.

TOMAS: Although you were all affected. And in order to assure that the power failure did not connect and spread to other neighborhoods, it was simply quarantined. And you may be assured that the controlled worlds may not even notice they have been quarantined. They are plodding along, as usual, on their natural course of evolution. The truth is you yourself would not be aware that you had been under quarantine were it not for the Urantia Book that told you so. And so, even here and now, as the quarantine is lifting, you have myriad theories as to what this world is all about, how it relates to its cosmic neighbors, where there are cosmic neighbors, ad infinitum.

Reneau: I think we’re seeing the light of the neighborhood and wondering what happened.

TOMAS: And you are also seeing the lights that were on before they went out and your eyes are adjusting to the light. You had simply become accustomed to sitting around in the dark. And this reflects on your theory, Thoroah, that "we are remembering."

Thoroah: I was just thinking about that. We’re trying to find our history so that we can find out where we are. We can’t – I mean, it’s almost like our history is as ambiguous as our future and that seems … as the kids would say, "That’s not right."

TOMAS: It is important for those of you who are trying to attempting to get your planet back on track from the Lucifer Rebellion and pick yourself up by the bootstraps from the Adamic Default, that you should know as much as possible about your planetary circumstances, so as to have an understanding of what went on before, so that you can anticipate what might come after. For this enables you to begin to focus on some of your fears and put them on the table to be examined, so as to find individual, group, national and global solutions to the many problems that your world has undergone – many of which are simply because you are an experimental planet.

But the Rebellion and the Default were not part of the experiment. Those were betrayals to Michael as well as betrayals to Urantia’s inhabitants. It was not woven into the pattern of your potential here, your possibilities, that such a thing automatically occur, but since it did occur, and due to the fact that you are an experimental planet, it was allowed to run its course.

But I want you to take a look also at the greatness inherent in such a decision, for obviously Michael and Nebadonia had designed their universe, including Urantia, carefully and confidently, that it would and could survive such a betrayal if one should come about. You are hardier, far hardier -- even with the increased physical debilities because of the default and the plasma upstepping going awry -- than you give yourself credit for. This is why we say, so many of us look at you and say, how proud we are of you. How amazed we are. How astounding we find it that your courage and your conviction is so great in the face of terrible vicissitudes. It is because it is inbred in you, as sons and daughters of God, through Michael and Nebadonia as your universe parents, implanted in you through the Life Carriers to withstand these kinds of vicissitudes.

Reneau: We didn’t know any better.

TOMAS: This is reason enough for pausing a moment with Rodan of Alexandria to see his philosophy on problem solving. To say Urantia has no problem is to be in total denial of the opportunities at hand. Perhaps you did succeed because you didn’t know any better, and for this reason there are many who still choose to remain ignorant of the truth, but it is only because of their own fears and prejudices, otherwise they would run open arms into the living love of the universe, and appreciate the adventures possible and the accomplishments and actualities available, the riches inherent in your potential, and the joy yours for the taking.

If you could but see how wealthy you are and how invaluable these little peccadillo problems are that present themselves as irritations in your daily life, you would regard them as pretty stones or seashells found along the path, to admire, to study, and to cast aside as you make your way home to the Father.

Allowing for the fact of the time constraints of the human existence, I will close for the day, with your permission. Is there something compelling that needs addressing before we go?

Elena: Well, other than I am compelled to tell you what a wonderful lesson this has been, and thank you.

Esmeralda: It was a great lesson, Tomas. Thanks for being with us again.

Thoroah: I have one little compelling … (group laughter) It may be something for discussion at another time, but you talked about how the vicissitudes, the problem solving goes on in all the worlds through evolution. Are we talking material world, morontia world, mansion world? I’m curious what world … what type of world you are based in. What are you operating out of now?

TOMAS: My world now, for this time period, is rather like residency. I am "in residency" here; therefore, my circumstances, my architectural sphere if you will, is somewhat like a university campus, as a good analogy, and accurate. And I find my problems are related to my work, which is you. Not to say you are my problems!

Thoroah: Of course not. (Group laughter)

TOMAS: But my problems are around how best to reach and teach you, so as to bring forth from you that which is latent within you so that it may be brought forth to your betterment and to the betterment of humanity and to the glory of God. Those are tidy phrases to describe my problems, but that’s what my assignment is and thus I work therein. I want to assure you that I have a higher view, having had a great deal of experience in my many eons of existence, but even so, my problems are as important to me to solve as yours are, and I am vulnerable to being … back-sided?

Thoroah: Blind-sided?

TOMAS: Blind-sided, by my desire to see what I want to see, rather than what is.

Reneau: Um-hum.

TOMAS: And this is one of the foibles, perhaps, of faith. For while I want to have great faith in you, I don’t want to be foolish about that, either. Nor do I want you to be foolish where it is not necessary. And, of course, I certainly do not want to send you into a situation where you will be made a fool of without having the appropriate "ammunition" and the ability to see what it is you are going in there after, and in fact what you brought back with you when you come back from your experiential learning.

For believe it! -- There is a tremendous responsibility in being a teacher in this way, for as you prayed in your prayer, Elena, to have your hearts and minds opened, it is my heartfelt prayer that what I transmit to you is as close to the Voice of the Master as I can convey. He is my Teacher, and our Teacher, and yet all of us are assigned these various and sundry roles to play throughout eternity, so that we may be of service.

And when I am not sitting around pondering my problems as far as teaching you, I am sharing these experiences with my peers in the Teacher Corps and in this Melchizedekian University, that we might better understand the complexities of such a life on such a planet, and thereby help to find ways in which to direct your thoughts and feelings, so that we can all join together in solving the problems of this world -- which are many! – without presuming to take on more than we have been given or going far afield of the path we see before us. Which is why I cannot get too cocky about my role as your Teacher, for I am merely a step ahead of you, but learning, as you do, the art of living.

Reneau: I have a compelling metaphor.

TOMAS: Please share.

Reneau: Earlier you were talking about each of our problems being a shiny stone – vicissitudes that we should simply look at and then discard. And I have the feeling that many of us pick up our stones of vicissitudes and throw them in the pack on our back and keep them and continue to walk around with an ever heavier pack of vicissitudes and life problems and struggles and oh "Poor me" this and "That happened" and I can see where your advice to look at them and then discard them is very good advice.

Elena: Yes. That’s good. I’m glad you mentioned that.

Reneau: Because we carry around a lot of extra baggage. Stones.

TOMAS: That is certainly a liberated way to look at it, yes, and I appreciate your metaphor. I would like to extend that further to say that there are many who walk along the beach collecting these stones and shells and who bring them home and put them on a shelf, where they somehow begin to represent the vicissitude itself. And this, while no longer carrying it on the back, can create a bit of a museum or an Akashic record of what experience you have had, so as to share your findings with other young students and visitors. When they come by with something they are carrying that they don’t know what to do with, you can go to your shelf and point to your stone or your similar shell and recall how you dealt with it, and thus help relieve them of the burden of having to carry that albatross around their neck much farther. This is how it is that experience serves.

Reneau: Thank you, Tomas.

Thoroah: Yes, thanks.

Closing

TOMAS: Thank you all for your presence here today in this classroom and for your listening ear, and for your help as students to enable my job as a teacher to be more effective. Blessed be art thou, beloved children of God and students of Tomas. Amen and farewell.

Group: See you, Tomas. Thank you.