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2009-12-14-Michael's Christmas Message (view source)
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, 13:57, 26 December 2009Created page with 'Image:lighterstill.jpg right|frame ==Heading== ===Topic: ''Michael's Christmas Message''=== ===Group: Marin TeaM=== ==Facilitators== ...'
[[Image:lighterstill.jpg]]
[[File:Teaching_buddha_small.jpg|right|frame]]
==Heading==
===Topic: ''Michael's Christmas Message''===
===Group: [[Marin TeaM]]===
==Facilitators==
===Teacher: [[Michael]]===
===TR: [[JL]]===
==Session==
===Opening===
Dear Michael and Mother Spirit, I’ve been trying to get some grasp on what is the [[essence]] of the coming holidays--or holy-days--at this [[time]] of year. I recalled the [[words]] of the carol celebrating the little town of [[Bethlehem]], the assertion that “the [[hopes]] and [[fears]] of all the years are met in thee tonight” with your birth as [[Jesus]]. It always puzzled me: what had fear to do with it? What could it mean by a meeting of hope and fear? But the more I [[thought]] of it, the more it seemed they are inextricably tied together.
It’s fear that [[challenges]] the innate hope of a living [[human]] [[being]], yet by the same token it’s hope that allows us to conquer our fears. So your coming was the meeting of these two [[things]]. The hope that you embodied then, and now in our ways of contacting you and [[Mother Spirit]], do give birth, do bring into [[consciousness]] those very fears and limitations that are holding us back. It’s by having [[faith]] and hope in the two of you, and in our loving connection, that we are able to meet those fears. That is the triumph of hope.
Then there’s that other essential element of the holidays--the getting together and sharing our lives. You’ve taught us the essence of [[divinity]], of God’s intrinsic [[nature]], is His ability to share living [[reality]] with others--the [[purpose]] for the whole [[creation]] and all the [[personal]] [[beings]] in it. This is another way we triumph over fear, by getting together and [[sharing]] our lives with each other. This too is the hallmark of the holidays that we treasure so deeply. So thank you, dear parents, for allowing us to share this time with you tonight. [[Amen]].
===Lesson===
MICHAEL: Good evening my children, this is Michael. I am very happy, very pleased to share this time with you. Mother Spirit and I once teased you with the notion that this is how one and one make three, that when two people get together and really enjoy each other, it seems there is some third thing that comes into [[existence]]. And this is real, this emerging surround of enjoying the [[spiritual]] [[dimension]] of [[human]] reality. It’s always here; you are always connected through your [[Thought Adjusters]], through the pure spirits of [[God]]’s [[presence]] within you, but when you get together--and this might be by telephone or email or your delightful Christmas cards--however it is you get together and [[share]] your lives with each other--this is making [[manifest]] and bringing into being, acknowledging and delighting in this spiritual [[dimension]] that so often goes unnoticed.
===='''''Friendship'''''====
For many this is just an inexplicable feeling [[good]] to be with a friend. It’s almost a definition of [[friendship]]--being with those people who simply delight you to be near even beyond your own ability to know why. The [[feeling]] seems to just spring up of it’s own. And it’s that springing up of life and joy within you that is, in its final [[analysis]], inexplicable. It just happens. So much of your curiosity is directed at this happening to know why, so you can do it again, you end up simply marveling at it. This is the unfathomable [[wonder]] of friendship, this extra [[dimension]] that comes into being when you get together.
You have that rather cynical expression that misery loves company. But seen in this [[light]], that’s a rather [[negative]] way of seeing, actually a put-down, of human nature, that when you are miserable you just want to lay it on someone else--just heap your burden on someone else. But that doesn’t really [[work]], does it? There are burdens that are yours alone to bear, and relief cannot be found in just any kind of simple company which might only make it worse. Though misery may love company, it’s not just any company is it? Think of all the hardships the [[human]] [[race]] has known. Think of the [[fear]] and the [[pain]] you yourself have known and how it is lightened, not just by company, but by that special company you call friends.
===='''''Sharing'''''====
It’s the sharing within friendship that destroys misery. It’s the very existence, the very [[demonstration]], if you will, of the [[reality]] of friendship, of this spiritual [[dimension]] of human reality; that is what works. This is what has enabled the human race to face and conquer all the tooth and claw of the [[animal]] world, all the hardships of life--the hunger and pain and exposure--even the sure [[knowledge]] of inevitable [[death]]: all of this has been more than counter-balanced by the sheer reality of friendship.
There’s a corollary here that [[beauty]] also conquers fear. Just being in the [[presence]] of something or someone demonstrating the [[quality]] of beauty--the very existence of such a [[thing]]--mitigates that anxiety. Beauty enables a [[person]] to say, Yes I am in [[pain]], but look at what a beautiful sunset there is; how lovely is this person here with me as we are doing all we can for each other. In each [[moment]] of life there is that which makes living worthwhile.
[[Mother Spirit]] and I have shared with you our [[experience]] of the human race on [[Urantia]], and how the spiritual glow coming from all the people on this planet so enormously outshines all the pain and suffering, the fear and the anxiety, even the spiritual loneliness of some. To some degree the pain and suffering of life is unavoidable simply in being a [[physical]] being subject to the inevitable decrepitude and suffering, of even a long life, ending in inevitable [[death]]. Yet accompanying that long life is an ever growing [[soul]], and so this [[transcendent]] reality--this [[cosmic]] reality co-[[author]]ed by a [[presence]] of [[God]]--this moment by [[moment]] fulfilled [[purpose]] of life--this very reality, my [[children]], that you can experience, this too is a that everlasting light that your Christmas carol speaks of. This is another [[light]] that [[illuminates]] the hopes and the fears of all the years, for that bright soulful [[illumination]]--the very existence of that illumination--outshines all the [[darkness]] of the [[human condition]].
Indeed the [[mature]] human [[soul]], having known so much life, realizes how much a part these marvelous [[bodies]] you have can give you of a [[feeling]] for [[time]] and [[eternity]] that is [[unique]] to the human races. And so this so-called [[animal]]/primitive human heritage that you must deal with in turn gives so much [[meaning]] to human life. To see things from a genuine [[spiritual]] [[perspective]] does not entail denying anything whatsoever. You have only to bite your lip or pinch your finger a tiny bit to know the reality of [[pain]]--for those of you who are not literally living in it. Yet you can see how this is not a curse. This is the most marvelous gift, this [[physical]]-ness you know. For you will come to know in time and eternity a scope of [[experience]] that no other order of being has as a personal possession. This was why, my children, one of the greatest gifts that [[Universal Father|my Father]] could give me was the ability to have a physical human life myself. It was, and remains, one of my most prized soul possessions.
I’ve talked a little bit about what those few forty years or so has meant to a being such as myself with hundreds of billions of years of life and endless trillions upon trillions of human children already in my past, still to experience being human as you can. There is no replacement, there is no [[universe]] substitute for this moment by moment living your human lives. That, my dear ones, is a radiance that will only [[grow]] in appreciation as you move beyond this first life of yours. It is what we mean when we say you are earning this appreciation of [[reality]] like no other being can, and this is an [[eternal]] possession of yours.
Now see all the limitations, the [[possibility]] for [[pain]] and suffering, in this [[light]]. You begin to glimpse, even if only a tiny speck, [[God]]’s [[wisdom]]. So add this to your [[worship]], dear ones. Thank your Father for all the irreducible aspects that go into meaning, what it means to have a human life. Even marvel at what it means when you can get together and literally create these holy-days, these holidays. What delightful excuses every [[religion]] knows to do that very [[thing]]--to set aside everything else to, fundamentally, get together and feel that extra [[dimension]] of everlasting [[light]] in which all the [[hopes]] and [[fears]] of all the years meet. This is the triumph of the human [[spirit]] and [[soul]]. This is how [[goodness]] and [[truth]] and [[beauty]] conquer fear just in your sheer experience of them--to know that such things exist. So let them remain a bit inexplicable. Let them be [[wondrous]]. Let them thrill your [[soul]].
Merry Christmas, my dear ones. Let us look to [[First Source and Center|the Source]] of the very reality of merriment. This too is where you find my peace. Now if you have any questions or comments this evening, let’s make merry with them.
===Dialogue===
===='''''Worship'''''====
Student: Father Michael, I have a question about [[worship]], like, what is it? You’ve hinted from time to [[time]], but I would like to know more explanation, if you would, please. What is worship and how do we do it?
===='''''Gratitude'''''====
MICHAEL: Yes my son, as you have been told, as you’ve read, the ability, even the [[desire]]--the impetus to worship and feel [[thankful]] means you have crossed over a threshold, and not only in the general sense of the dividing line between the [[animal]] and the [[human]], but right in your own life. You have all [[personal]]ly crossed this threshold. Sometime as a young child you moved beyond a kind of monkey-see--monkey-do kind of [[behavior]] to make a [[quality]] of [[decision]]. You chose to do something your own creative spirit suggested and it granted you the quality of [[free will]] [[dignity]], the dignity of being a full, if still little [[human being]]. The [[realization]] of a [[potential]] that was with you from conception finally was [[manifest]]. You [[experienced]] the [[dimensions]] of [[worship]] and [[wisdom]] in their most primal sense by this first act of [[choice]] with an upwelling [[feeling]] of the kind of [[joy]] and delight of being alive that [[transcends]] any kind of merriment an [[animal]] might know.
Even though incapable of being consciously articulated yet, my son, this was your first worship. Your joy of being alive resounded in [[Mother Spirit]] and myself, and in our [[Universal Father]], as a [[profound]] [[Gratitude|thankfulness]]. This joy, this delight in just being alive gave you the recognition you have a life. Hopefully, even later, came the [[understanding]] that this life you have is somewhat [[unique]] to you. This uniqueness is your God-given [[personality]], a further augmentation of this awareness of all that you are. And so, most fundamentally, [[worship]] is your thankfulness for being alive, and all that your [[soul]] is capable of experiencing that I [[touched]] on tonight, all the [[hope]] and all the fear.
This thankfulness is the most fundamental thing that registers directly with Mother Spirit and myself, and with our Father. Its coming was instantaneous with the presence of God within you. It was the birth of your soul. Though it had such unconscious beginnings, just a welling up within you as a small child, you crossed a threshold and became aware as you [[laughed]] and giggled and rolled around from time to time with the sheer exuberance of a young human being.
This worship, this thankfulness forms a connection with your Father--with His [[presence]] within you, and with all those positive qualities numbering in the hundreds you can experience in life. First the [[perception]] of them, and then the appreciation of all these positive qualities that come under [[truth]] and [[beauty]] and [[goodness]]; this too is [[worship]]. This too is saying, Thank you, Father, that these qualities of yours are real, and that I am such a being who can experience them, and know them, and make them my own.
This is how worship begins and gives rise to the [[consciousness]] wherein you decide to send a beam of [[love]] and thankfulness to [[God]], to Mother Spirit and me. It can be those little mini-[[meditations]] throughout your day when you simply say, Hello God!--thank You for me. And rest in the [[glory]] of the feelings you get with His reply. Then letting His love [[flow]] through you to another; this is the most wonderful worship of all. This is sharing your worship with another in the most direct way. You’re thanking Him by being His helping hand, reaching out to touch, and be touched.
So all of these, my son, are [[worship]]--that which rises [[spontaneously]] within you and you allow to happen, all the way to the more [[formal]] [[prayer]] of thankfulness you [[express]] in your [[mind]]. It’s all worship. It’s all part of being a human being, and being aware you have so much to be thankful for. Does this give you some sense of the [[profound]] meaning, the marvelous extent all wrapped up in that one little [[word]] ?
Student: Yes, it’s a beginning. I guess I was looking for a neat little [[formula]] I could use so I wouldn’t make any mistakes about it. But I see there is none, just maybe spontaneous [[expressions]] of [[joy]]--it looks like to me.
MICHAEL: Well, you could say in one word: thankfulness.
Student: Yeah, now it seems too simple but…yes, it is.
MICHAEL: How about: appreciation; [[sharing]]; [[friendship]]? This is what I hoped to convey this evening, how the very [[existence]] of [[spirit]], of [[truth]] and [[beauty]] and [[goodness]] in your life--just to [[realize]] these things exist--are the [[proof]] within your own [[soul]] of their [[Creator]], as well as your own [[co-creation]]. This realization is your own creative [[act]] of spirit, my son, and the basis for the most [[profound]] inner [[peace|tranquility]]. It is an enormous leap of human realization and [[understanding]] to credit that--everything--that exists only exists by way of a [[Intention|deliberate]] [[creation]], initially of God’s, then shared with all personal beings. Nothing just comes about truly spontaneously in point of [[origin]]. All [[creativity]] is of the spirit, and all [[spirit]] is [[personal]]. This is the basis for your [[enlightened]] thankfulness--your conscious appreciation, your enhanced [[shared]] [[joy]] and delight in each other, and in our Father. Is that [[worship]] enough?
Student: Yes--very much so. I expect it will get more and more expansive as time goes by.
MICHAEL: Well, my son, that’s that wonderful orientation of my [[Spirit of Truth]] within you. You’re being open to more [[truth]] and you will indeed (Michael chuckles) grow with it. Keep that orientation, and be in my peace.
Student: Thank you, Father Michael.
===='''''Ritual'''''====
Student: Good evening, Michael. My question tonight is along the lines of your talking about people coming together and enjoying one another, and sharing in their spirit. I see it as a whole [[continuum]] of the way we come together. Is there, from your [[perspective]], your [[mind]], a time when it goes from being people coming from a deeper spiritual sharing in what we could call a [[religion]]--and how that spirit of wanting to come together and worship together… How much is there a qualitative [[difference]] between people getting together in the holidays and having a good meal versus people getting together and sharing a religious [[ritual]] together?
MICHAEL: Yes, my daughter. There is no necessary [[qualitative]] [[difference]]. There is no direct correlation between spirit and--shall we say--some [[relatively]] reoccurring event as in every religious establishment on [[earth]], no correlation because these [[events]] can be attended almost devoid of spiritual sharing. They can be social requirements of the folks around one who demand these outward observances be made, so they can be made begrudgingly and with much inner cynicism and fraudulent [[emotion]], and so forth. Whereas two friends getting together in the holidays after perhaps years of not seeing each other, just that kind of thing is really a holy day for them.
===='''''Inner Life'''''====
From our viewpoint, religion is exclusively the [[relationship]] of an [[individual]] [[personality]] to [[God]]. This is the sum total of [[religion]]. What you call your religions, your religious [[Groups|groupings]], are the socialization, the [[sharing]] of that [[relationship]]. So there has to be this something inside, this [[inner life]], this inner relationship with [[God]], which [[Mother Spirit]] and I spoke about the last few times. As you say, when people with this inner sense of spirit get together, then that is the quality, the qualitative difference that may or may not coincide with so-called religious festivities. If you will, that’s the religion within the festivities, and what these festivities hopefully help to bring about.
This is such an [[individual]] [[thing]] in its [[essence]], my daughter, we have to keep aware of the level of generality on which I’m [[discussing]] these things. In each living son or daughter of God this relationship with his or her Creator is the basis of their religious life. It is this that is being shared, or not, in their get-togethers that denotes the truly religious [[character]] as different from other social [[functions]], although both may be full of [[love]] and [[Entertainment|fun]]. Deep calls to deep, and deep responds. That is what makes the holidays truly holy days. That is the [[spiritual]] [[reality]] being [[experienced]] that fills the [[soul]]. Does this give you some sense of the inner [[difference]] between religious sharing with others as contrasted with more casual occurrences?
Student: Yes. So everyone grows and develops their own inner relationship with God, and then it’s in our nature to want to share this with one another. That’s what you taught us. That’s your religion as you [[practiced]] it.
MICHAEL: Yes, this is truly my religion, and not just the religion about me. This was what I did my best to teach my followers. It was how they themselves could directly access the presence of God within them. By doing so they could [[discern]] God’s will, and get in [[tune]] and in sync with the [[ultimate]] [[law]] of the [[universe]]. This was how they could develop their will so they could choose and [[Doing the will of God|execute God’s will]]. This is the [[essence]], because it is spirit, my daughter, that unites. It is because you are a spiritual being that your [[personality]] has the ability to unite you inside. This, in turn, is what gives you the ability to unite with others, and to feel and experience together that which unites you all in a [[transcendent]] [[manner|way]]. And yes, this is intrinsically [[joyful]]. This is the fun of it all. This is the delight of love--loving and being loved. Does this seem to accord with what you’ve experienced?
Student: Oh!--definitely! In many respects it seems very simple, and yet we so often make it so [[Complexity|complicated]]. We try to build all these [[structures]] around it.
MICHAEL: It is nice to feel the impulse of [[spirit]]. The [[essence]] of [[divinity]] is to share oneself--what we call spiritual generosity. It’s the living, [[dynamic]] [[nature]] of God’s love that He wants to share with you, and that, having experienced this, you feel the same impulse to share it with others. This is the true [[origin]] of your religious organizations--the socialization--the desire to build [[societies]] in which you can share this most precious part of your [[Inner Life|inner reality]]; to make it [[manifest]] outwardly in all the good [[acts]] and joyous comings-together.
Because of geographical/cultural differences even on the very small-tribal level, this has been one of the more fundamental causes of [[warfare]] throughout human [[history]]--people [[literally]] meaning to [[decide]] on the battlefield whose [[God]] was greater than the others’. Yet this also has meant just how important this relationship has always been to people. They simply--[[profoundly]]--failed to [[realize]] their inner reality could only be offered to others; it could never be imposed. But since you are capable of imposing [[physical]] and even mental conditions on each other, the more immature and self-centered among you do make that mistake--that they can impose spiritual realities upon someone else. [[Freedom]], freedom to [[choose]], freedom to [[explore]] and seek God’s will, is of the very [[essence]] of His will.
And so, my dear, these getting-togethers of yours, do they give you this sense of freedom?
Student: Pretty much so. I can see how there is a strong tendency to nail it all down--so to speak--and make it all just so, and get people to respond in a certain way. But it would be nice to allow people to be free--to choose to come and go in whatever they believe; it would really make a [[difference]].
MICHAEL: Well, once you socialize your religious [[feelings]], there is some deliberate planning involved in getting together. Since you are in such a mobile [[society]] these days, it means you are scattered around so much more now than in the past. But by the same token, you can utilize all your modern modes of transportation and [[communication]] to get together.
===Note: 56:06===
To be continued. My apology, dear friends. I ran out of time, and I wanted to get this much out before Christmas day. There are about another twenty minutes or so to go, with this same student, but I’ll get them out in the next few days. Thanks for your understanding and patience. JL
[[Category: The Teaching Mission: Dialogues]]
[[Category: Marin TeaM]]
[[Category: Michael]]
[[Category: JL]]
[[Category: Worship]]
[[Category: Gratitude]]
[[Category: Friendship]]
[[Category: Inner Life]]
[[Category: Sharing]]
[[Category: Ritual]]
[[Category: 2009]]
[[File:Teaching_buddha_small.jpg|right|frame]]
==Heading==
===Topic: ''Michael's Christmas Message''===
===Group: [[Marin TeaM]]===
==Facilitators==
===Teacher: [[Michael]]===
===TR: [[JL]]===
==Session==
===Opening===
Dear Michael and Mother Spirit, I’ve been trying to get some grasp on what is the [[essence]] of the coming holidays--or holy-days--at this [[time]] of year. I recalled the [[words]] of the carol celebrating the little town of [[Bethlehem]], the assertion that “the [[hopes]] and [[fears]] of all the years are met in thee tonight” with your birth as [[Jesus]]. It always puzzled me: what had fear to do with it? What could it mean by a meeting of hope and fear? But the more I [[thought]] of it, the more it seemed they are inextricably tied together.
It’s fear that [[challenges]] the innate hope of a living [[human]] [[being]], yet by the same token it’s hope that allows us to conquer our fears. So your coming was the meeting of these two [[things]]. The hope that you embodied then, and now in our ways of contacting you and [[Mother Spirit]], do give birth, do bring into [[consciousness]] those very fears and limitations that are holding us back. It’s by having [[faith]] and hope in the two of you, and in our loving connection, that we are able to meet those fears. That is the triumph of hope.
Then there’s that other essential element of the holidays--the getting together and sharing our lives. You’ve taught us the essence of [[divinity]], of God’s intrinsic [[nature]], is His ability to share living [[reality]] with others--the [[purpose]] for the whole [[creation]] and all the [[personal]] [[beings]] in it. This is another way we triumph over fear, by getting together and [[sharing]] our lives with each other. This too is the hallmark of the holidays that we treasure so deeply. So thank you, dear parents, for allowing us to share this time with you tonight. [[Amen]].
===Lesson===
MICHAEL: Good evening my children, this is Michael. I am very happy, very pleased to share this time with you. Mother Spirit and I once teased you with the notion that this is how one and one make three, that when two people get together and really enjoy each other, it seems there is some third thing that comes into [[existence]]. And this is real, this emerging surround of enjoying the [[spiritual]] [[dimension]] of [[human]] reality. It’s always here; you are always connected through your [[Thought Adjusters]], through the pure spirits of [[God]]’s [[presence]] within you, but when you get together--and this might be by telephone or email or your delightful Christmas cards--however it is you get together and [[share]] your lives with each other--this is making [[manifest]] and bringing into being, acknowledging and delighting in this spiritual [[dimension]] that so often goes unnoticed.
===='''''Friendship'''''====
For many this is just an inexplicable feeling [[good]] to be with a friend. It’s almost a definition of [[friendship]]--being with those people who simply delight you to be near even beyond your own ability to know why. The [[feeling]] seems to just spring up of it’s own. And it’s that springing up of life and joy within you that is, in its final [[analysis]], inexplicable. It just happens. So much of your curiosity is directed at this happening to know why, so you can do it again, you end up simply marveling at it. This is the unfathomable [[wonder]] of friendship, this extra [[dimension]] that comes into being when you get together.
You have that rather cynical expression that misery loves company. But seen in this [[light]], that’s a rather [[negative]] way of seeing, actually a put-down, of human nature, that when you are miserable you just want to lay it on someone else--just heap your burden on someone else. But that doesn’t really [[work]], does it? There are burdens that are yours alone to bear, and relief cannot be found in just any kind of simple company which might only make it worse. Though misery may love company, it’s not just any company is it? Think of all the hardships the [[human]] [[race]] has known. Think of the [[fear]] and the [[pain]] you yourself have known and how it is lightened, not just by company, but by that special company you call friends.
===='''''Sharing'''''====
It’s the sharing within friendship that destroys misery. It’s the very existence, the very [[demonstration]], if you will, of the [[reality]] of friendship, of this spiritual [[dimension]] of human reality; that is what works. This is what has enabled the human race to face and conquer all the tooth and claw of the [[animal]] world, all the hardships of life--the hunger and pain and exposure--even the sure [[knowledge]] of inevitable [[death]]: all of this has been more than counter-balanced by the sheer reality of friendship.
There’s a corollary here that [[beauty]] also conquers fear. Just being in the [[presence]] of something or someone demonstrating the [[quality]] of beauty--the very existence of such a [[thing]]--mitigates that anxiety. Beauty enables a [[person]] to say, Yes I am in [[pain]], but look at what a beautiful sunset there is; how lovely is this person here with me as we are doing all we can for each other. In each [[moment]] of life there is that which makes living worthwhile.
[[Mother Spirit]] and I have shared with you our [[experience]] of the human race on [[Urantia]], and how the spiritual glow coming from all the people on this planet so enormously outshines all the pain and suffering, the fear and the anxiety, even the spiritual loneliness of some. To some degree the pain and suffering of life is unavoidable simply in being a [[physical]] being subject to the inevitable decrepitude and suffering, of even a long life, ending in inevitable [[death]]. Yet accompanying that long life is an ever growing [[soul]], and so this [[transcendent]] reality--this [[cosmic]] reality co-[[author]]ed by a [[presence]] of [[God]]--this moment by [[moment]] fulfilled [[purpose]] of life--this very reality, my [[children]], that you can experience, this too is a that everlasting light that your Christmas carol speaks of. This is another [[light]] that [[illuminates]] the hopes and the fears of all the years, for that bright soulful [[illumination]]--the very existence of that illumination--outshines all the [[darkness]] of the [[human condition]].
Indeed the [[mature]] human [[soul]], having known so much life, realizes how much a part these marvelous [[bodies]] you have can give you of a [[feeling]] for [[time]] and [[eternity]] that is [[unique]] to the human races. And so this so-called [[animal]]/primitive human heritage that you must deal with in turn gives so much [[meaning]] to human life. To see things from a genuine [[spiritual]] [[perspective]] does not entail denying anything whatsoever. You have only to bite your lip or pinch your finger a tiny bit to know the reality of [[pain]]--for those of you who are not literally living in it. Yet you can see how this is not a curse. This is the most marvelous gift, this [[physical]]-ness you know. For you will come to know in time and eternity a scope of [[experience]] that no other order of being has as a personal possession. This was why, my children, one of the greatest gifts that [[Universal Father|my Father]] could give me was the ability to have a physical human life myself. It was, and remains, one of my most prized soul possessions.
I’ve talked a little bit about what those few forty years or so has meant to a being such as myself with hundreds of billions of years of life and endless trillions upon trillions of human children already in my past, still to experience being human as you can. There is no replacement, there is no [[universe]] substitute for this moment by moment living your human lives. That, my dear ones, is a radiance that will only [[grow]] in appreciation as you move beyond this first life of yours. It is what we mean when we say you are earning this appreciation of [[reality]] like no other being can, and this is an [[eternal]] possession of yours.
Now see all the limitations, the [[possibility]] for [[pain]] and suffering, in this [[light]]. You begin to glimpse, even if only a tiny speck, [[God]]’s [[wisdom]]. So add this to your [[worship]], dear ones. Thank your Father for all the irreducible aspects that go into meaning, what it means to have a human life. Even marvel at what it means when you can get together and literally create these holy-days, these holidays. What delightful excuses every [[religion]] knows to do that very [[thing]]--to set aside everything else to, fundamentally, get together and feel that extra [[dimension]] of everlasting [[light]] in which all the [[hopes]] and [[fears]] of all the years meet. This is the triumph of the human [[spirit]] and [[soul]]. This is how [[goodness]] and [[truth]] and [[beauty]] conquer fear just in your sheer experience of them--to know that such things exist. So let them remain a bit inexplicable. Let them be [[wondrous]]. Let them thrill your [[soul]].
Merry Christmas, my dear ones. Let us look to [[First Source and Center|the Source]] of the very reality of merriment. This too is where you find my peace. Now if you have any questions or comments this evening, let’s make merry with them.
===Dialogue===
===='''''Worship'''''====
Student: Father Michael, I have a question about [[worship]], like, what is it? You’ve hinted from time to [[time]], but I would like to know more explanation, if you would, please. What is worship and how do we do it?
===='''''Gratitude'''''====
MICHAEL: Yes my son, as you have been told, as you’ve read, the ability, even the [[desire]]--the impetus to worship and feel [[thankful]] means you have crossed over a threshold, and not only in the general sense of the dividing line between the [[animal]] and the [[human]], but right in your own life. You have all [[personal]]ly crossed this threshold. Sometime as a young child you moved beyond a kind of monkey-see--monkey-do kind of [[behavior]] to make a [[quality]] of [[decision]]. You chose to do something your own creative spirit suggested and it granted you the quality of [[free will]] [[dignity]], the dignity of being a full, if still little [[human being]]. The [[realization]] of a [[potential]] that was with you from conception finally was [[manifest]]. You [[experienced]] the [[dimensions]] of [[worship]] and [[wisdom]] in their most primal sense by this first act of [[choice]] with an upwelling [[feeling]] of the kind of [[joy]] and delight of being alive that [[transcends]] any kind of merriment an [[animal]] might know.
Even though incapable of being consciously articulated yet, my son, this was your first worship. Your joy of being alive resounded in [[Mother Spirit]] and myself, and in our [[Universal Father]], as a [[profound]] [[Gratitude|thankfulness]]. This joy, this delight in just being alive gave you the recognition you have a life. Hopefully, even later, came the [[understanding]] that this life you have is somewhat [[unique]] to you. This uniqueness is your God-given [[personality]], a further augmentation of this awareness of all that you are. And so, most fundamentally, [[worship]] is your thankfulness for being alive, and all that your [[soul]] is capable of experiencing that I [[touched]] on tonight, all the [[hope]] and all the fear.
This thankfulness is the most fundamental thing that registers directly with Mother Spirit and myself, and with our Father. Its coming was instantaneous with the presence of God within you. It was the birth of your soul. Though it had such unconscious beginnings, just a welling up within you as a small child, you crossed a threshold and became aware as you [[laughed]] and giggled and rolled around from time to time with the sheer exuberance of a young human being.
This worship, this thankfulness forms a connection with your Father--with His [[presence]] within you, and with all those positive qualities numbering in the hundreds you can experience in life. First the [[perception]] of them, and then the appreciation of all these positive qualities that come under [[truth]] and [[beauty]] and [[goodness]]; this too is [[worship]]. This too is saying, Thank you, Father, that these qualities of yours are real, and that I am such a being who can experience them, and know them, and make them my own.
This is how worship begins and gives rise to the [[consciousness]] wherein you decide to send a beam of [[love]] and thankfulness to [[God]], to Mother Spirit and me. It can be those little mini-[[meditations]] throughout your day when you simply say, Hello God!--thank You for me. And rest in the [[glory]] of the feelings you get with His reply. Then letting His love [[flow]] through you to another; this is the most wonderful worship of all. This is sharing your worship with another in the most direct way. You’re thanking Him by being His helping hand, reaching out to touch, and be touched.
So all of these, my son, are [[worship]]--that which rises [[spontaneously]] within you and you allow to happen, all the way to the more [[formal]] [[prayer]] of thankfulness you [[express]] in your [[mind]]. It’s all worship. It’s all part of being a human being, and being aware you have so much to be thankful for. Does this give you some sense of the [[profound]] meaning, the marvelous extent all wrapped up in that one little [[word]] ?
Student: Yes, it’s a beginning. I guess I was looking for a neat little [[formula]] I could use so I wouldn’t make any mistakes about it. But I see there is none, just maybe spontaneous [[expressions]] of [[joy]]--it looks like to me.
MICHAEL: Well, you could say in one word: thankfulness.
Student: Yeah, now it seems too simple but…yes, it is.
MICHAEL: How about: appreciation; [[sharing]]; [[friendship]]? This is what I hoped to convey this evening, how the very [[existence]] of [[spirit]], of [[truth]] and [[beauty]] and [[goodness]] in your life--just to [[realize]] these things exist--are the [[proof]] within your own [[soul]] of their [[Creator]], as well as your own [[co-creation]]. This realization is your own creative [[act]] of spirit, my son, and the basis for the most [[profound]] inner [[peace|tranquility]]. It is an enormous leap of human realization and [[understanding]] to credit that--everything--that exists only exists by way of a [[Intention|deliberate]] [[creation]], initially of God’s, then shared with all personal beings. Nothing just comes about truly spontaneously in point of [[origin]]. All [[creativity]] is of the spirit, and all [[spirit]] is [[personal]]. This is the basis for your [[enlightened]] thankfulness--your conscious appreciation, your enhanced [[shared]] [[joy]] and delight in each other, and in our Father. Is that [[worship]] enough?
Student: Yes--very much so. I expect it will get more and more expansive as time goes by.
MICHAEL: Well, my son, that’s that wonderful orientation of my [[Spirit of Truth]] within you. You’re being open to more [[truth]] and you will indeed (Michael chuckles) grow with it. Keep that orientation, and be in my peace.
Student: Thank you, Father Michael.
===='''''Ritual'''''====
Student: Good evening, Michael. My question tonight is along the lines of your talking about people coming together and enjoying one another, and sharing in their spirit. I see it as a whole [[continuum]] of the way we come together. Is there, from your [[perspective]], your [[mind]], a time when it goes from being people coming from a deeper spiritual sharing in what we could call a [[religion]]--and how that spirit of wanting to come together and worship together… How much is there a qualitative [[difference]] between people getting together in the holidays and having a good meal versus people getting together and sharing a religious [[ritual]] together?
MICHAEL: Yes, my daughter. There is no necessary [[qualitative]] [[difference]]. There is no direct correlation between spirit and--shall we say--some [[relatively]] reoccurring event as in every religious establishment on [[earth]], no correlation because these [[events]] can be attended almost devoid of spiritual sharing. They can be social requirements of the folks around one who demand these outward observances be made, so they can be made begrudgingly and with much inner cynicism and fraudulent [[emotion]], and so forth. Whereas two friends getting together in the holidays after perhaps years of not seeing each other, just that kind of thing is really a holy day for them.
===='''''Inner Life'''''====
From our viewpoint, religion is exclusively the [[relationship]] of an [[individual]] [[personality]] to [[God]]. This is the sum total of [[religion]]. What you call your religions, your religious [[Groups|groupings]], are the socialization, the [[sharing]] of that [[relationship]]. So there has to be this something inside, this [[inner life]], this inner relationship with [[God]], which [[Mother Spirit]] and I spoke about the last few times. As you say, when people with this inner sense of spirit get together, then that is the quality, the qualitative difference that may or may not coincide with so-called religious festivities. If you will, that’s the religion within the festivities, and what these festivities hopefully help to bring about.
This is such an [[individual]] [[thing]] in its [[essence]], my daughter, we have to keep aware of the level of generality on which I’m [[discussing]] these things. In each living son or daughter of God this relationship with his or her Creator is the basis of their religious life. It is this that is being shared, or not, in their get-togethers that denotes the truly religious [[character]] as different from other social [[functions]], although both may be full of [[love]] and [[Entertainment|fun]]. Deep calls to deep, and deep responds. That is what makes the holidays truly holy days. That is the [[spiritual]] [[reality]] being [[experienced]] that fills the [[soul]]. Does this give you some sense of the inner [[difference]] between religious sharing with others as contrasted with more casual occurrences?
Student: Yes. So everyone grows and develops their own inner relationship with God, and then it’s in our nature to want to share this with one another. That’s what you taught us. That’s your religion as you [[practiced]] it.
MICHAEL: Yes, this is truly my religion, and not just the religion about me. This was what I did my best to teach my followers. It was how they themselves could directly access the presence of God within them. By doing so they could [[discern]] God’s will, and get in [[tune]] and in sync with the [[ultimate]] [[law]] of the [[universe]]. This was how they could develop their will so they could choose and [[Doing the will of God|execute God’s will]]. This is the [[essence]], because it is spirit, my daughter, that unites. It is because you are a spiritual being that your [[personality]] has the ability to unite you inside. This, in turn, is what gives you the ability to unite with others, and to feel and experience together that which unites you all in a [[transcendent]] [[manner|way]]. And yes, this is intrinsically [[joyful]]. This is the fun of it all. This is the delight of love--loving and being loved. Does this seem to accord with what you’ve experienced?
Student: Oh!--definitely! In many respects it seems very simple, and yet we so often make it so [[Complexity|complicated]]. We try to build all these [[structures]] around it.
MICHAEL: It is nice to feel the impulse of [[spirit]]. The [[essence]] of [[divinity]] is to share oneself--what we call spiritual generosity. It’s the living, [[dynamic]] [[nature]] of God’s love that He wants to share with you, and that, having experienced this, you feel the same impulse to share it with others. This is the true [[origin]] of your religious organizations--the socialization--the desire to build [[societies]] in which you can share this most precious part of your [[Inner Life|inner reality]]; to make it [[manifest]] outwardly in all the good [[acts]] and joyous comings-together.
Because of geographical/cultural differences even on the very small-tribal level, this has been one of the more fundamental causes of [[warfare]] throughout human [[history]]--people [[literally]] meaning to [[decide]] on the battlefield whose [[God]] was greater than the others’. Yet this also has meant just how important this relationship has always been to people. They simply--[[profoundly]]--failed to [[realize]] their inner reality could only be offered to others; it could never be imposed. But since you are capable of imposing [[physical]] and even mental conditions on each other, the more immature and self-centered among you do make that mistake--that they can impose spiritual realities upon someone else. [[Freedom]], freedom to [[choose]], freedom to [[explore]] and seek God’s will, is of the very [[essence]] of His will.
And so, my dear, these getting-togethers of yours, do they give you this sense of freedom?
Student: Pretty much so. I can see how there is a strong tendency to nail it all down--so to speak--and make it all just so, and get people to respond in a certain way. But it would be nice to allow people to be free--to choose to come and go in whatever they believe; it would really make a [[difference]].
MICHAEL: Well, once you socialize your religious [[feelings]], there is some deliberate planning involved in getting together. Since you are in such a mobile [[society]] these days, it means you are scattered around so much more now than in the past. But by the same token, you can utilize all your modern modes of transportation and [[communication]] to get together.
===Note: 56:06===
To be continued. My apology, dear friends. I ran out of time, and I wanted to get this much out before Christmas day. There are about another twenty minutes or so to go, with this same student, but I’ll get them out in the next few days. Thanks for your understanding and patience. JL
[[Category: The Teaching Mission: Dialogues]]
[[Category: Marin TeaM]]
[[Category: Michael]]
[[Category: JL]]
[[Category: Worship]]
[[Category: Gratitude]]
[[Category: Friendship]]
[[Category: Inner Life]]
[[Category: Sharing]]
[[Category: Ritual]]
[[Category: 2009]]