2005-04-17 Love & Friendship
Rayson041705NOCO_Love&Friendship
Northern Colorado TeaM Group, #67
Loveland, Colorado
Teacher: Rayson
Topics: Love and friendships
Fundamental element of love
Acceptance of self & others
Love of the universe
Fundamental social relationships
Parents learn as friends of their children
Avoid enmeshment and co-dependencies
Integrating the world by friendliness
The stability of the Teaching Mission
Q & A: Linear/creative minds
SRC—how to proceed
Level of God Consciousness rising
Youth looking for Spirituality, not religion
Innate goodness of children
TR: Daniel Raphael
April 17, 2005
RAYSON: Good afternoon, this is Rayson.
(Group welcome.)
RAYSON: Thank you for your hospitality and thank you for your welcome. It is always good to be here with you. I feel that I am in the presence of friends, those people who hold no judgment about me, myself, or what I do, those who accept me as I am. And please know that you are friends of ours; we hold you in similar esteem and regard.
Some of you do not know how to love. Some of you do not know how to give love or receive love. Today we will speak of love as friendship. It is not by coincidence but by design that we speak of love and friendship today. You have felt this among yourselves; you were sitting at the table enjoying your conversations before this session began, and you held everyone—each of you—in similar esteem and regard, accepting them as they are, where they are, without regard to what they were wearing, the position that they held—or didn’t hold—the income that they made or didn’t make, their social standing and economic status and all the other elements, traits of social bearing for your society. This is a fundamental element of love, and that is acceptance where you are, acceptance that you are accepted in return, acceptance of others as they are.
Love is the aspect of friendship, which you feel as affection; there is an affective feeling between yourself and others. You enjoy their presence and they enjoy their presence with you. It is reciprocal. So, too, it is in the universe where you are appreciated fully and completely, as you are, where you are, under the circumstances of your life now. It is not that you are loved for what you will become, but surely that is an aspect of the development of your potential. The universe loves you as you are and as you accept and love yourself as a good friend. So, too, do you allow yourself to grow without hesitation, without judgment, without caution—simply being yourself, with yourself.
Friendship is one of the fundamental elements of social relationships in the universe. It may go by other names on the morontia worlds, but there is immediately the acceptance of others. Yes, there are some early members in the afterworld who still have caution within themselves, those animal traits within their old, ancient memory that they have brought with them, which will be erased in time.
You can accept that when you meet others from other realms, whether they look like you, or greatly dissimilar, you can accept that they are friendly, that there is no innate animosity, that there is no nationality, there is no differentiation except this oneness that you are. Some of you will be more developed than others, some of you less so. Yet, even those you recognize as being less developed, you will not have an innate hostility towards. You will accept them as they are, where they are, and they will be received well by you. This assists them greatly in their forward progress.
Parents can learn a lot by being good friends to their children, without being overly familiar, which is a different word. You must recognize that children are innately the same as you, only not developed; they are lacking in experience. They sometimes have excellent judgment yet have no way of knowing why that is so. You, as a child’s friend, can assist them in their growth as they relate to others in their milieu, in their schools, in their churches, in their play yards, and wherever else they may be.
So too, you are uniquely yourself. You are an individual. You are not others, and others are not you – you are unique. This, too, is a very important element of friendship, so that boundaries are not crossed, so that individuals do not become enmeshed with others. Enmeshment is not a good sign of friendship; it does not beget good friendly relations, but expectations and co-dependent behaviors. Realize that you are one; you are unique.
In your world, you would do great good by being friendly to others, innately, immediately, rather than being overly cautious and hostile. So much good could come into your world by an innate, friendly approach towards others. We are not speaking naively, that your innocence would be trampled by others who are more worldly, and who would take advantage of you. But really, your demeanor is first of all friendly and then afterwards, as situations reveal, to be cautious and to withdraw. We are not suggesting that by withdrawing you are then hostile, or unfriendly, mean-spirited, or denigrating towards the other person. Simply withdraw yourself from being a susceptible individual, who could become a victim. Your friendly approach as an individual, family, clan, city, county, state, and nation is important, as you become more integrated in the world through various means.
Everyone seems to be very friendly when they want to sell you something, and then, after you buy the product or service, then it is “business as usual.” We would suggest that this change to a bearing that is always friendly. Being friendly allows for the great potential of deeper affections and deeper love to develop. Friendliness is an open door; it is an attractive element of your social bearing. You can have much good come to you through your friendly bearing that you would otherwise have reflected or deflected from you by an unfriendly demeanor. Do you see the difference between being friendly and aware, and being unfriendly and unaware?
Student: Yes.
RAYSON: Thank you. It is important that you know these differences so that you can make reasonable, conscious decisions as to your demeanor.
Now, I wish to talk to you about the Teaching Mission. The Teaching Mission is a stable element of Christ Michael’s Correcting Time. It will be with Urantia long after you have passed from this world. Yet, you will see it mature and grow in its development through your lifetime. It will continue to do so and become a stable element. Yet, you will see your fellow brothers and sisters come and go, through interest and disinterest. You will see others who are politically motivated within this environment. We wish you to continue on stalwart and solid as the program that you have enjoyed thus far. Do not be errant in your attitudes towards this work, but be receptive and serving and giving.
It would be easy for you to concentrate on the negative, yet we wish you to concentrate on the positive. There will always be naysayers and those who want to deflect other’s interest in what is central to them, and have them be attracted to what they are interested in. We, however, wish you to pursue your interests as you perceive them, as you feel them, as you wish to grow. It is important that you become your full, individual self, rather than being a reflection of your friends.
The Teaching Mission has provided you with many topics of discussion. It has delineated many areas that were unknown to you. We wish that you would continue to question your materials of learning and expand your horizons of belief.
[This is Daniel. There seems to be a certain solemnity to him today, isn’t there?]
RAYSON: This is Rayson. This one I speak through is quite tired. It is not a physical tiredness, but a tiredness that runs through his being at this time. We will entertain your questions, please.
Student: I have a question arising out of the lesson we had last time. When you were talking about the linear mind and the existence of the creative side of our mind and you said you “wished us to explore those therapies, those mind expansion techniques which will assist you in unlocking the creative side of your mind.” I would ask you to expand on that please.
RAYSON: Certainly. I would suggest you think of yourself as an artist, whether you choose one color for a background as opposed to another. It is because there is not a duality that you see. There is a continuum of color. You have a creative side to yourself that is also intuitive. You have an interest, which is greater than the frame of the picture. You wish to express something through yourself that was not there before. You want to interpret your reality in ways that give you much satisfaction, in ways that you have not seen before. Surely, you can take a linear picture by a photograph, or by a digital imprint of a picture or surroundings and you can adapt it through that means. You are a creator; you have many facets of your being which can be opened.
When you read, you read through your linear mind, yet as you read, your creative mind wanders and thinks about what you are reading, is devising new ways of interpreting what you have read. There is no right or wrong way to that, it simply is a new way of interpreting what you have read. And you may not even be thinking about what you have read, but your mind has gone to some topic, which was freed during the process of reading. This is totally creative, and you have an opportunity to think in these ways.
Your literature is quite complete at this time for the mental sciences that you have in your universities and in your spiritual groups, to go to these sources and discover more about the creative mind. Do not be concerned about the linear mind, as it will be useful to guide you to these sources. You simply go to the library, which is linear, and you go through the catalog or through an index of interests and topics, and then you choose. You will find many interesting books and topics and subjects, that relate to this and to your question.
We urge you to see this as an exploration of yourself, as a way of getting to know you. Simply by going through and finding what is important and what is not important, what is of interest and what is not of interest to you, also will tell you a good deal about yourself and what you can explore and what you can develop within yourself. I will not mention specific books, but simply suggest that you pursue this investigation in this way.
Student: Thank you.
Student: Rayson, I have a question that has been brought to me. You were talking earlier about the Second Revelatory Commission and looking at the Urantia Book in terms of making perhaps ten topics, major groupings of the subjects. Could you give us a little more elaboration on that please?
RAYSON: And what is your question?
Student: Well the question is that there is a member of the Urantia teachings—he’s a leader and he has received information about the same thing we are talking about here, about looking at the Urantia Book in terms of perhaps ten major groupings of papers. Can you elaborate on that?
RAYSON: Yes I can. How would you like me to proceed?
Student: Well, any way you’d like. If you want to tell us what you think those groupings would be, that would be wonderful, but I have an idea that you will leave that up to us. Just tell us a little more about it and perhaps why this is important and perhaps there are certain parts of the Urantia Book that should be looked at first, over other parts of the Urantia Book.
RAYSON: The approach to the investigation of the Second Revelatory Commission, could proceed in many different ways: One is linearly from the beginning of the book to the end—or backwards. You can start with a paper, or you can start within a paper. You can start by personalities, or by topics, or by groups of beings. We suggest that you—not you personally, but you as a group—approach this in ways that are helpful to your living, towards your life now. You surely must have questions about your life, your living in this century, and what is occurring in your world now. You surely must have topics that are of interest to you. There could possibly be listed well over a thousand topics that would be of interest in the book to pursue an inquiry. We do suggest that you select topics that are relevant to your life, to life as a human, to life as a human on this planet, to your growth as a social-spiritual being becoming. These are of course, topics that have relevance to you and the significant word is “relevant.”
You must have an intention to do all this work. There is definitely an intention by the Second Revelatory Commission to exercise and to satisfy. Within that broad intention, mortals are most welcome to design your intention for co-creating this investigation. This is not happenstance; this is not simple intellectual inquiry; this is not tit-for-tat, this is not a political game. This is vital to your survival as a mortal, to the growth of your soul and your entry to the mansion worlds as a morontial being. We suggest that you clarify your intentions as individuals and as bodies of individuals who are intent upon this investigation. You will find this most helpful to have this clarified, as that will assist the midwayers and angels and other non-physical beings to assist you in satisfying your questions, your inquiry. Does this help?
Student: Yes, thank you.
Student: Rayson, I’ve been thinking about the fact that there have been two occurrences lately that really show how much God Consciousness there is on this planet, the tsunami in Indonesia and the death of the Pope. I am curious as to whether this increased awareness of God is sufficient for the coming of Monjoronson?
RAYSON: It is significant only as a signifier. It is a signifier that spirituality is an important aspect of an individual’s life and of their thinking, that few people see their life as immaterial, unimportant, terminal, and passé. Most people, even those who are reticent to indicate that they believe in the hereafter or God or angels, are reluctant to say that this is ”it” and there is “no more.” Remember that hope is a primary and beginning element of belief and knowing. Hope is held by all and as your world becomes more perilous, hope will grow.
Oftentimes on your world it grows in fascinatingly diverse and divergent ways, whereas on other worlds, which are less difficult than your own, hope generally always points toward the larger good of the afterlife, of a personal relationship in the afterlife with the Creator in one form or another. This awareness of the spiritual essence of life is an indicator. It does not demand the arrival of the Avonal Son, but simply is an indicator that more people are receptive to that which is not material, that which is other than mortal.
There are some in your society who are deeply interested in the occult, the evil occult, of monsters and entities that have paranormal abilities, extra human abilities. These also are signifiers in a negative way of the preparedness for the arrival of the Avonal Son. We would point out that the work of the Avonal Son will be immense, to help people understand the nature of tsunamis and the nature of men as heads of state and heads of churches. The revelation of these truths will be quite catastrophic to traditional religions, and it will bring out the awareness of many individuals that there is far more to life than destructive waves and old men who die as heads of churches. Does this satisfy your question?
Student: Somewhat. The teachers have said many times that certain things must occur before Monjoronson will be ready to make himself known here, and from a human point of view, it seems like now is a really good time! (Much laughter.)
RAYSON: From a human perspective, you are right! No my friends, we will not provide you with omens to look for, signs and darkness in the sky, or bolts of lightening or openings in the earth, tsunamis or any of those things. He will be here when it is time for him to be here, on Christ Michael’s schedule.
Student: I was thinking more in terms of the fact that things look very positive right now, in that regard. It seems to me that a larger percentage of our population is God conscious now, compared to the past years of my life, for example. It just feels like there is so much going on in people’s hearts and minds about spirituality and God consciousness. Is there a relevant question in there somewhere, or is it just my curiosity?
[Daniel: He has no reply to that.]
Student: I might bring up something related to that. Yesterday’s paper had an article about youth—quite a good percentage—that they were indeed interested in spirituality—not religion, but spirituality. And within the Urantia group and in our particular church there is a question of how do we respond to this need in our youth? We know there are some answers in the Urantia Book, but I wondered if you would care to address that with suggestions?
RAYSON: Certainly, it is a very good question because it addresses the child in everyone. The earlier statement that people are more interested in spirituality than religion, says a lot about what they are seeking, and what they are not. They are not seeking structure or interpretations of spirituality. What they wish to experience is spirituality first hand, without a box of beliefs, without doctrines. It is very much like the butterfly as a friend—you must release it and if it comes back to you, then it is yours. So too, with your children; rather than obligating them to a religion of their parents, introduce them to the freedom of their spiritual relationship with God, and their spiritual relationship with others.
There is innate in children the goodness that they came with. There are of course, temperaments and race memory, which they bring with them, but on the whole children come into the world as good beings. And the world as a whole is a good place to live, except for that which mankind—individuals—have determined to take advantage of at the cost of others. It is important that children learn that they are good, that they are inherently good, and that they are capable of making good decisions, that they are capable of being good friends with their mortal friends and a good friend to the supernatural, to Christ, to Nebadonia, to the Infinite Spirit. It is important that they know that this exists without churches, that they come together to exercise that relationship in those domains without religion, to share with others their affirmations of relationship to the Divine, that there is true joy in this sharing, not the obligations of beliefs and the statements of beliefs as the criteria of being acceptable to God or not.
Your children are our children; your children are God’s children, just as you are. God does not make religions for you; you have made religions for yourself. Where you may appreciate the Divine through these practices, others may not, but see them as obligatory and demeaning. How do children learn that they are spiritually invested already? That their lives are experiences of expressions of that spirituality? You as parents are primary to these early expressions, these early beliefs about death.
It is important that you give them primal beliefs about their relationships to God, and even more importantly, God’s relationship to them, that they might know how to behave towards their fellow brothers and sisters and to their parents, and how they may anticipate their parents will treat them as spiritually evolving individuals. Your social environment is truly a church of expression for friendship, as we spoke about before. Your social relationships are the practice environment of budding spirituality. Your social relationships are truly a church that is hallowed. Your relationships say much about who you are, not who you will become. You can determine that for yourself as friends, as children of God, by your decisions and how you treat each other and how you treat yourself.
And now my friends, it is time for me to retire. I am going to withdraw today and bid you adieu and let you choose your next meeting time. Good day.
(Group gives thanks.)
