2003-03-23 Societies; Bridging the gap between Muslims & Christians
Group: Northern Colorado TeaM Group, #35
Topics: Extension program
Outreach efforts and successes
In time of national distress, plant seeds!
Bridging the gap between Muslims and Christians
The Most Highs—societal & civilizational guardians
Even-handed management
Maintain & sustain society
Foster changes in societal arenas
Use political cataclysms for reconstruction opportunities
The importance of consciousness
Teacher: Rayson (TR, Daniel)
March 23, 2003
Dirk: Our presence, gathered by the river today, signifies our willingness to participate in this river of communication, teaching lessons, experience, sponsored by our Celestial Administration and facilitated by our teachers, Michael and Nebadonia and our unseen friends. We treasure your help and experience and guidance, and especially the text support. We are entering through our door to Stillness, closing down our daily lives for this experience in immersion in the river. We establish the construction of this merkaba, our heart line, our mind line, and connection. Thank you Mother/Father and our unseen friends.
Daniel: Let us continue in the silence for a few minutes to relax and become centered and open to our Father/Brother’s guidance and presence. Please come to center, bring your attention to the axis of the merkaba.
RAYSON: Good afternoon, this is Rayson. Welcome to another bright, beautiful, Sunday afternoon. We have been observing your efforts for outreach into the Denver area. This effort goes far beyond that, my friends, as your friends and others hear of this educational extension at this site. You will know that your successes are many as you see these new anchors being formed up and down the Front Range. You are instrumental in the outreach of the Teaching Mission, and far more than the Teaching Mission —the Correcting Time. And of course, the larger picture of that is a way of life that abides by the Father’s will, that strain of love and cooperation and coordination between each of you so that there is the harmony and the vibration of light, which is love, throughout your lives and the lives of others that is typical of the universe. By your example of living and with your relationship to your angels and Celestial Teachers, others who are not members of the TM will know of the beneficial effects of your association with the Teaching Mission
As you come in contact with people who are curious about the Teaching Mission, we urge you to offer the services of experienced TM members to them. We suggest that you provide a referral to those who are interested in the work that you are doing, what your group is doing, to those who could be of assistance. This is very normal in the larger universe; this occurs all the time in the morontial realm. The networking on this side is intense, it is immense, it is complex and it is complete—particularly complete. Though there is never an obligation, there is always a willingness to share this information with others, and so you may assume safely that your TM mortal friends would be willing to be of assistance to those who are curious, as they are capable of doing. As known TRs are scarce in this region, those who are available are willing to participate and share this aspect of the Teaching Mission with those who have not experienced it. There will later come those who can teach, those who are capable teachers of this skill. Not everyone, as you know, is capable of teaching the TR technique, which this one has himself admitted.
To demonstrate the successes that you have generated in co-creative manner with us, think back to six months ago, or even three months ago. There did not exist dozens of connections that you now have with individuals and associations up and down the Front Range. This is very rapid progress, in our estimation, and we hope you appreciate this degree of success, early on. It is the springtime, and so you scatter the seeds as metaphor, and some sprout and some do not.
These times of distress in your nation and the world, is a time where many people become open to new ways of thinking, as the alternative older ways are unproductive and even in some ways, destructively unproductive. So, be active now, my friends, as there is a time of yearning. And though it may sound as though this is superficial on their part, truly it is sincere; they have a concern, and though this concern may be eroded later by happiness and prosperity and by good circumstance and peace, now is the time to plant those seeds, which may lay dormant in the minds of your fellow brothers and sisters in this geographic area. And too, as this goes forward through the Internet and those connections, those who read this will be filled with more hope and encouragement of the successes of the Correcting Time, through the Teaching Mission as you have experienced it.
These individuals who are now beginning to be connected to these efforts are feeding themselves through these teachings, through lessons from other groups. And though they may live in isolation where no Urantia Book or Teaching Mission group exists, they nonetheless are growing. Fifteen years is but a snap of the fingers, my friends, as we see it, and in this snap of the fingers, we have seen great progress on your world. Those individuals who hunger, who have not been fed, have not had their thirst for spiritual development quenched, are finding that this is a source of much open-ended growth and potential, the potential that they can explore from within themselves and in association with others. You may see as metaphor, us standing around patting each other on the back, saying congratulations, and in many ways, that is true, that is what is occurring. You have done a good job, and we see the fruits of our labors too.
This is only the beginning, the fifteen years, a snap of the fingers—imagine the length of time for clapping or snapping your fingers to a song, whose duration is for decades and for centuries—you will find at the close of that song, that the world will not be the same as it is now. So I enjoin you to continue, I enjoin you to reach out in your associations and in those who have similar thoughts, those who have similar ideas, those holistic efforts to unite the spiritual and the emotional and the psychical and the living practices into one practice of living where there is a continuum.
I am going to switch subjects now, if you don’t mind, but before that, if you have questions concerning this extension program of outreach of the Teaching Mission, which you are seeing in Denver and in Golden and many other cities, and the associations that are developing, please ask them now.
Student: There was recent comment of the Most Highs having control of the situations of the world and my question is, if I think of them trying to change, or deciding to change people or leaders, then that is probably not a good assumption since it goes against the Father’s will of us having free will. So how do they change? Is it a matter of throwing cataclysms in front of some of these events, physical cataclysms—which I know they can control through Power Centers—or by some other means? Is this something that you can clarify a little bit more for me?
RAYSON: Yes, I’d be glad to. This really relates to the topics I will be speaking of next, so let me hold that aside for a moment. Were there other questions from the other members?
(None)
Student: I have a second question. It has to do with what solutions are most appropriate for bridging the gap between the Christian and the Muslim teachings. Is there any comment that you can make?
RAYSON: I would like to address your second question before the first, as I think that one will lead to the other more completely and make more sense in the end. “Is there a way of bridging the gap between the Christian and Muslim faiths?” And the answer is, yes, there are several. Let us begin by examining the Koran (or Quran), which was purportedly written by Mohammed and later amended by his followers, as were the original Christian documents. Glean from both documents those passages as closely attributable to the prophets, Jesus and Mohammed, as possible, dealing with peace and acceptance of mortal brothers and sisters. You will find that in almost any politicized religion, as these two, that there will be internal conflicts in their own content. This is certainly so of the conflict between the Old Testament and New Testament, and even within the New Testament itself.
The internal conflicts within a document indicate that the content is ambiguous, and that it is inconsistent. The truths that both prophets taught were not conflicting but always urged their followers to move towards commonality, that which is similar. The kernels of their truths promote wholeness and integration, rather than separation —there is no ambiguity. Issues of separation find their origins in ego and in political positions of individuals. But statements of unity, of oneness, wholeness, congruency, and integration are those that speak from the higher self. You know from your education from the Urantia Book, that there are no internal inconsistencies in the statements of Jesus in that book. Were he to be here today, and review all of his life, and if you were to record this on a holographic record in full, real detail of the entirety of his life, you would find no inconsistencies. The great teachers of all time have always taught with consistency. The followers who sought to control, divide and conquer, embellished and revised the origin statements to espouse division, separation, and dominance. There are many similarities between these two documents, if you are willing to find them.
Bridging the gap: Whom do you know in your neighborhood, your associations outside of that, and to the larger community who are of Muslim descent and teachings? How have you striven to reach out to them and accept them? Simple statements of, “I’m glad you are here,” “I would like to understand your religion better and know your point of view as individuals,” as they live them, are a personal way to begin. They sleep at night, awake in the morning, bathe, shower, eat, go to work, tend children, go to school, the same as you do, as your children do. This heartfelt connection between yourself and individuals of other religions is primary to bridging this gap.
Third, on a theological basis, you will find much dissimilarity in the theologies of these two religions; you will see in both a lack of a holistic theology. Each espouses that they believe in God and Allah, those two being the same figure —the Creator. This is a point of origin that is indisputable, and this is a point of much discussion that can occur between the two religions, and in doing so, each religion will grow tremendously. Were you able to project yourselves a thousand years into the future, my dear friend, you would see that your efforts would not have gone wasted or ignored, but in fact you would see the amalgamation, the uniting of the political bodies of religion. Even now this is occurring particularly in the Christian sects. This will continue.
As you know, there is an immense acceleration of scientific knowledge within your more technologically advanced nations. There will come a time before long, where there will be a renaissance of philosophical discussion, which will herald the uncovering, the revealing of the grains of unity that exist in each religion that has a center of God. Even those religions that do not espouse God, but which do not deny God, will come to this same central point—it is indisputable, inarguable, that the Creator is the point of origin for all that exists after creation. And each religion must relate itself effectively to that point, as well as the scientific and theological communities. Both scientific and philosophical thought will expand and find union by asking questions relating to that central point.
As far as you being a potent force for the elimination of disunity and disharmony between your religion and all of Islam, forget it—do not waste your time. Apply yourself in loving ways to where you live; do not generalize your thoughts about the people of Muslim faith, to those individuals who live next door. Generalizations and labeling discolor your appreciation of individuals due to bias of the general group. Doing so is grossly unfair. You do not accept that for yourself from others. Do not project it to them. And when I say “you” my dear friend, I do not mean solely yourself, but all those who read this and hear this. There is so much libel that goes on between your religions, but when you come face-to-face with helping your neighbor who is of the Islamic faith, you would treat them no differently than neighbors of your own faith. I hope you would treat them the same as neighbors on the other side of the street, or next-door who is of Buddhist faith, Taoist, or Christian faith. Whoever calls in need, respond alike with compassion.
You would do no less than Jesus would do at that time, in that situation. And even he did not try to bridge the gaps between all of the Roman Empire and the Jewish faith, but he began where he began, with individuals, knowing that his participation in their lives was powerful and effective in the long term. And if he was able to affect one individual, that was a grand victory! And look what has happened—the young man who died before his middle age has affected well over a third of all the population of your world. Do not diminish or minimize your own abilities to make a significant affect upon those who you know. You will never know, during this mortal era, how far your influence goes forward when you help individuals.
Now your second question, that of the Most Highs’ influence in your lives and the lives of others: Never will you see a crushing or powerful influence of the Most Highs to affect a change in any one individual. However, the Most Highs definitely are influential in the circumstances around individuals—where they live, where they work, those cultures around them that impinge their lives, which affect their thinking—nowhere will you ever see any direct influence to usurp individual will. Remember, the Most Highs have been around a long time; their goals are long term. Their influence upon your planet will only be slightly less long than the Midwayers who came here in the beginning and will continue on throughout the days of Light and Life on this planet. The work of the Most Highs will be essentially completed, long before then.
Think of the work of the Most Highs as similar to making steel: How do you make steel? You don’t go out to a hole in the ground and pull out rods of steel, but you take the elements that will eventually be used to make iron and then forge it into steel. Elemental iron, plus additives, plus physical exertion upon the structure of the metal, makes steel—fairly basic elements. And what are the basic elements of your world? They are the land you live on, (and yes there may be cataclysms in the land,) and there is air, and there is fire, and there is society, associations—and even in associations, it is not individuals who are changed, but the slight influences around them. It is much like what happened in your country many decades ago: Individuals crossed this wilderness and tamed it, putting dams in front of the mighty rivers, as they did not want the uneven influence of water to erode their farms, flood their houses, and kill their children and livestock, but to be used to nurture the land by making its flow even and steady; and to use the running water to generate power.
This is a similar influence of the Most Highs. They are here in very general ways; their influence is very generalized. We do not have permission to disclose how they do influence individuals, but it is not through direct cataclysmic personal tragedy or through manipulating their mind mechanisms. If you were to use an electrical grid system and the power control centers and those individuals who control that power, you can understand the influence of the Most Highs more completely. Now, you are thinking to last year or the year before when your power grid experienced many ups and downs of manipulations, which were contrived to earn some electrical association’s huge amounts of extra income, which was secured by unjust, unfair and unethical means from the common electrical user. This is not how the Most Highs work!
Even-handed management for the greatest benefit of all exemplifies the work of the Most Highs. That is an important, underlying principle for the administration of the affairs of man on your world—an even-handed application of influence for the highest and greatest good of the greatest number of people. The Most Highs are not interested in lining the pockets of already rich individuals, but they are most interested in making life more productive for all individuals. Much like the electrical grid system, everyone enjoys electrical power, to pump water, to cool refrigerators, freezers, to mix bread and to power batteries that operate electric vehicles, and so on. It is even-handed. It is much like the Most Highs being the Grand Utilities Commission, governing the water, the electrical, the gas, the sewer—all those aspects that underlie the maintenance of society. Yet there is more! Not only do they maintain and sustain your society, but also they create, and bring about changes, which necessitate growth, education, ingenuity, and diversity. Their influence is mighty and powerful, “even,” and it is long term.
Now let us, in a subtopic, associate this to the political cataclysms that are occurring in your world right now. You despair about the difficulties that are occurring; you despair about the potential ramifications to your country, its economy, and its associations with its allies, friends and neighbors in the future, and how this may affect your life, how it may affect your children’s lives, and your grandchildren’s, and their great-grandchildren—on for another 150 to 200 years. Your thoughts are not wasted, your concerns are not wasted, and they are meaningful.
You can see the potential for great political disintegration and disharmony; you see this as potentially very harmful and it threatens your life style, your comfort level, and your way of being. And surely it does; and surely it will. Yet it is much like the rubble that occurred in the cities after your great wars. This rubble was used for making new landfills, extensions into harbors and bays where your cities can grow and extend; literally, [this rubble] can be used to build new buildings, and so on. When there is disarray caused by mortal mismanagement, when there is destruction and disharmony, the Most Highs see this as a high time of opportunity, a time for reconstruction, a time for rebuilding, a time for implementing new plans or applying existing plans of Michael for the Correcting Time on this planet.
Do not be glad to see this happen, however, but participate in the rebuilding with you mind, heart, and energy. Yes the merkaba energy, here, can be used to the betterment of your world in ways that you cannot imagine. This power source and its energy is multi-dimensional, it can be applied in unlimited ways by your conscious mind where you can think of, and in ways that you can hope for.
The Most Highs do not ever wish for the destruction of any nation or any people or any culture. They do not need to do this for you humans seem to be self-destructive enough already! (Snickering from the group.) Mortals will do this and will provide the new soil for a new society, for new associations. When societies become “hard baked,” such as a lake bed that is hard as concrete, there cannot be much done about it, but when that even surface that seems so comfortable to travel upon becomes wet, becomes broken by a plow, then it provides a new environment for new arrangements, new growths. Old, staid, powerful, crystallized, politicized relationships, once broken, become new fertile ground for aiding those who have less, those who are in the majority, those who literally are the large part of your populations (over 90%,) for most of you [meaning the 90%] are powerless, and most of you do not participate in that. And were it not for the participation of Michael’s Correcting Time, you could easily return to feudal times once again.
So my friends, the Most Highs are truly your friends, your societal and civilizational guardians, the ones who see [you] through your large changes and those ways that are destructive, and turn them into productive, peaceful ways. The Most Highs are much like…are similar to your societies and civilization as your Guardian angels are to your individual lives. They do not thwart your decisions, do not thwart your will, and do not try to bridle your ego, but gently guide you in ways that are helpful and productive.
And only when you have totally dedicated your life to the Father’s way, and you have actively willed to do the Father’s will above all else, only then will your Guardian angels tie your shoestrings together and help you fall, if that is needed, so that you can rise again. Your societies cannot do that; they do not have a will; they do not have spiritual sovereignty; they do not have worth. Believe it or not, your societies do not have the worth of one individual, because they have no will, they have no survivability. Their worth lies in their capacity to produce individuals of soul-growth capacity; therefore they are worthwhile having and surely they will always be recognized, encouraged, nurtured, by the Most Highs to grow.
So you see, my friend—all my friends here—that your consciousness, your thoughts about this are primary to the healing of your world. That is why, to get back to the original question, the original statements of today’s session, of going forward to teach others, to enlighten them, it is all about consciousness. Even morality and ethics are of no use without consciousness; didactic obedience to moralities and standards of ethics, without conscious thought, do not enhance the survivability of individuals, though it does train the mind for a more speedy progress through the morontial world schools.
It is only through consciousness, and conscious decisions, understanding the repercussions of your decisions in positive and negative ways, and by applying wisdom to take the right course of action, that you truly contribute to your world. Now this is the influence of Michael and the Most Highs in the most intimate and personal way. Do you see this grand loop? There is a loop here: it affects you and you affect your society, and vice versa.
This has been, not a provocative session, but a thought provoking session. If you think of yourself as alone, and you may feel very much alone, even though you are supported by your local universe administration down to your Thought Adjuster and Guardian Angel. If you remember the lessons of a few weeks ago, you also have come to understand the intimate, loving, patient, co-creative participatory action of God, Creator, in your own personal life, and it is immediate, it is now, it is for you. We want you to know this, but most of all we want you to feel this —to feel the Creator’s over-riding love for you, and the Christ Spirit’s immediate participation in your life as you make decisions and go about your daily lives. We hope this gives you hope, a peace of living in a turbulent world in a conscious awareness that your lives are worthy and worth while, and that they are for something more than just an economic factor in your economy.
You are the primary ingredient in the economy of a spiritual universe; you are one in mind with the Thought Adjuster within you. The potentials of that combination are far more immense than you can possibly imagine today. You will not be sacrificed, for the Creator’s experience of living in you is immensely valuable. You have an immense contribution to make. When you become conscious of that on a moment-to-moment basis, every day, you become an important and powerful factor in the healing of your world and in the fulfillment of the days of Light and Life of this universe level of existence.
Blessings to you, my friends. I embrace you and love you. I feel the warmth of your companionship with me throughout the week and I enjoy that very much. Pass it on to those above, and share that with everyone here. You bring glad tidings to all of our efforts, and we are very joyous with you. Good day.
Group: Thank you, Rayson. A thought provoking lesson, yes!
