2005-11-21-Heart & Mind Work Together
Marin #70
Contents
• 1 Heading
o 1.1 Topic: Heart & Mind Work Together
o 1.2 Group: Marin TeaM
• 2 Facilitators
o 2.1 Teacher: Michael, Nebadonia
o 2.2 TR: JL
• 3 Session
o 3.1 Opening
o 3.2 Lesson
o 3.3 Dialogue
o 3.4 Closing
Topic: Heart & Mind Work Together
Group: Marin TeaM
Facilitators
Teacher: Michael, Nebadonia
TR: JL
Session
Opening
Dear Michael and Mother Spirit, Welcome! Come be with us in Your special way, and accept our deepest appreciation during this season of thanksgiving for all that You’ve shown us to be thankful for—our own spiritual natures and our own souls. You’ve also given us such insights and understandings of the spiritual influences that surround us, and are actually right within us–and have been our whole lives. So with open hearts we welcome You and all Your children—the angels who help illuminate our ways. For this we are truly thankful, Amen.
Michael. Good Evening, My children, this is Michael, your father and your brother. My, what a warm welcome you give Me this evening.
Lesson.
I was very interested in your discussions and how you are all having your minds expanded greatly with so many challenges and interesting things happening. This is what We have been encouraging all along—for you to open your minds and open your hearts. Set aside any pre-judgements, for there is nothing of a spiritual nature that can impact you with its offer to change you to greater life but what you must first set aside your disbelief and, with all your power, surrender yourself and entertain to the best of your ability whatever it is you are being presented with.
This takes courage. You must be fearless. You must trust the core of your being so that, however you are immersed in some new subject, some heretofore unimaginable adventure, you can commit yourself to it and trust yourself to bob back to the surface—so to speak—and look around, and recognize familiar territory again, and let the new information, the new adventure settle in. It requires this suspension of dis-belief. You have to give the new realm of information its chance to live within you . For everything like this has its own life. This may appear quite strange at first, but for those of you familiar with the Urantia book, think of how strange this was initially.
Do you remember your first encounter when someone put the book in your hands and told you it had extra-human authors–the disbelief you felt when you first leafed through the table of contents and noticed that indeed none of these authors were human but were all extra-human with strange-sounding names like Divine Councilor, or Perfector of Wisdom, some familiar ones like Archangels or Seraphim, but then even Myself, Creator Sons of a Local Universe, and Mother Spirits of the same? How much commitment, and how much effort did it take to become somewhat familiar with this enormous cosmology that was being presented to you?
I know for many of you it took years to even begin to encompass the basic outlines contained in this one book. But think of the reward, for now you have experienced what We mean when We say that nothing of spiritual value is ever lost. This is your soul. This is truly how you are growing and will continue to grow–forever.
My children, new times are upon Urantia. When you think about being open to new ideas, new concepts, new spiritual personalities, keep in mind that what We most like to see is a balance and a real working relationship between your heart and your mind, for both are equally important. Indeed, ideally each feeds the other, playfully like two children playing leapfrog. Each feeds the other. Your mind gives very precise articulation of your feelings for, as We have mentioned the last few lessons, when you organize your feelings, your spiritual experiences, it is very critical to how you can recover them later as precise and useful memories.
So while your feelings are your most fundamental experience of your own personal reality, it is how your mind expresses these to you that makes them the most useful. In turn your understanding can itself be a source of spiritual experience, for often in your day to day life your understanding actually leads the way. It informs you what to look for, how to break down and analyze your single-knit living reality into mentally bite-sized pieces you can comprehend. And you are doing this incessantly, but especially in your good work, applying yourself to the world outside you, to others. These are your insights that lead to your good perceptions.
There are times for your mind to question what your heart tells you, for once you have taken in some new facet of reality, and accepted it as thoroughly as you can, it becomes time to see how it fits into everything else you have experienced. Here is where My Spirit of Truth, which exists equally within your heart and your mind, this is where I can help you sort through this new material and give it its proper place in your life’s experience. These are the realms of science and religion, and how they help each other grow. There is truly no fundamental disagreement between them.
Religion, your relationship with our Father, thrives as you develop your ability to comprehend all His manifold works. This is essentially science—how you understand, and organize your understanding to benefit all the aspects of your life. The only caution here, My children, is to avoid an imbalance where intellect or pure mental prowess, driven by self pride or vainglory, seeks to usurp the rightful territory of spirit. This is where mind alone becomes the experienced fundamental reality rather than feeling, and abstractions begin to drive the whole person. This is where abstract concepts, devoid of feeling or empathy, have perpetuated and continue to perpetuate some of the greatest mass horrors that mankind has known; when a kind of mathematical efficiency is applied to human relations and unique individuals are reduced to ciphers in an equation of raw power.
This is where cultures and races–considered abstractly–war with each other without any limitations. Your Mother introduced you last week to the concept that true spiritual Beings of enormous power self-limit themselves. So spirit never compels, spirit never demands. We would love to see you all grow so powerful, so strong, that you would just naturally, spontaneously limit yourselves this way due to an enormous growth of spirit. You grant others freedom. You inspire and encourage each other to be evermore free. You use your understanding and your feelings to support each other, rather than as razor-sharp weapons to cut into each others’ beliefs and faith.
Again, there is no fundamental disagreement between enlightened intellect and a mature spirituality. Each looks to the other as a true companion, a true helpmate in the great adventure of discovering the truth. So in this season of thanksgiving, My children, let us give thanks to our Father for both these gifts of His. Let us thank Mother Nebadonia for Her two highest Adjutants of Mind/Spirit—the Adjutants of Worship and Wisdom. These are two great dimensions in which you will be stretching yourself and expanding on into eternity, never, gloriously, finding an end.
Thank You, Father, for these gifts, and thank You especially for these My children.
I’ve a feeling there are a few questions here to be asked, so let’s get to them.
Dialogue.
Student. Michael, I’d like to begin by also thanking the Father for Your Spirit of Truth, for Your love, for Your dedication to Your children—to us. Thank you Father for this glorious Son of Yours.
What a gift! What a wonderful gift! Thank You, Father.
Michael. Thank you, My son. I accept your love with a gleeful heart.
Student. My first question tonight, Michael, would be taking you back to the human Jesus. I would ask You about Your experience with Your indwelling Father Fragment at the time. The text of the Urantia book is pretty specific that we cannot experience the Father Fragment on a conscious level, and I would like You to speak on this tonight, because my experience with my indwelling Father seems to be on a conversational level similar to what I’m having with You now, and so I need to have a better understanding of what I am truly experiencing, and what You experienced as a man walking on this planet, when You went up into the hills to pray and speak with Your Father.
Michael. Yes, My son, your Urantia book uses perhaps an overabundance of caution to suggest you approach your Thought Adjuster with the proper respect. And so it plainly states that when it comes to a question of whether or not this is your Thought Adjuster, or your own creative imagination–which is your own intrinsic spiritual power, the answer lies in the fruit you discover by trial and error, for in this, as in other aspects of spiritual reality, the vine is known by the fruit it bears.
Your relationship with your Thought Adjuster is very unique and personal to you, so within the limitations I just mentioned of fearlessly putting to the test what you are receiving, and being honest with yourself about this most fundamental adventure you can get into, accept what your heart tells you. It is only generally speaking that for most people their Thought Adjuster is so much a part of them, and always has been, that it is a definite hindrance to think of it as something other and expect to, say, hear a voice speaking within them as if someone were communicating with them telepathically–or some notion they may have along these lines. Usually the Thought Adjuster’s input is indistinguishable from your own thoughts. They are thoughts. Only occasionally does one strike you as so absolutely appropriate, coming as you say out of left field and implying a point of view or perspective that so perfectly encompasses the question you are involved in, that you know for sure this was your Thought Adjuster.
But for you, My son, continue to have your conversations. While they may not be one hundred percent purely your Thought Adjuster exclusive of your own spiritual creativity, this is certainly a very fine way to open yourself to this influence. This is paying proper respect to this divine Source—by really treasuring these moments–for it is this heartfelt devotion, this sincere prayer in asking for help that opens you to receive what your Mystery Monitor is capable of giving you. It sounds like a wonderful relationship to Me, My son. Carry on, keeping in mind what I mentioned earlier about both heart and mind, for it is your Father Fragment right within your mind that helps you articulate to yourself, and so understand, what is happening to you, and within you. Does this answer your question?
Student. Yes, Michael, it does. Could you share some of Your experiences–early on, and then as You grew to know the Father; how You experienced this when You were here?
Michael. For Me it was mostly an increasing presence, a feeling of not being alone, but in such a special way that very early on I enjoyed being by myself so I could feel this not-being-alone.
When I was just a child I liked to take walks and just sit and feel happy. I had such a loving father in Joseph that even though I could very clearly separate my human father from this company I felt, the essence was the same. It was wonderful. It was like having two fathers. I think I just naturally–perhaps a little bit like yourself–just naturally became more conscious of having conversations with this presence, that became more and more distinct from my own inner thinking with myself. Yet for quite a while I had no notion within Me of a separate being such as a Thought Adjuster.
It was more like a happy companionship, a sharing of My young life that in a way mirrored Me back, and gave Me myself. Then, with this extraordinarily reassurance—for I also had a very healthy ego, a very definite and growing self-perception–notions of who I was and especially who I was with My mother and father—this presence was teaching Me to relinquish Myself. With this assurance I really existed, I could forget Myself and begin to notice people. I became aware of what a delight they were. I think having this reassurance from My Father Fragment, this presence I could feel, I began to see and understand that this was also manifesting in the people around Me, and making them very distinct. So at this fairly early age I came to love individuals. And being at a great crossroads of the travel routes of that day, I felt myself blessed to see so many different kinds of people from faraway places.
This is what My Father Fragment gave Me, this supreme blessing of what My heart had yearned for all the years of My life, and was now capable of experiencing—My own sons and daughters, as one of them. If you can understand, My son, what an experience it was for a Creator Son to have such a childhood and adolescence and youth, not yet knowing Who I was. But then this adventure is what Mother Spirit and I share with each of you. For you too–in a sense–recapitulate My experience. You too will one day join with a fragment of God and look back upon your own youthful times of not yet knowing who and what you truly are, as the most amazing blessing and surprise ever concealed. Does this help your understanding, My son?
Student. Very much so. Thank You for sharing such an intimate experience–so personal. It helped me very much.
Michael. You’re very welcome. Thank you for asking. Be in My peace.
Student. Dear Michael. I would ask in a general way, can You help us be serviceable with this Magisterial Mission? We’ve been all talking about it lately and we’ve been all trying to get rid of our venom and our vitriol and our animal heritage a little, but I know what I need help from You to be more ready for this with less fear and less danger. Thank You very much.
Michael (after a long pause). Yes, My son, I’m remembering the various things that Mother Nebadonia and I have already given you along these lines. Keep asking yourself, what is the essence of mercy? Last week Mother gave you examples of how it’s often seen as contra-distinct from justice, and how one of the most profound ways you can be merciful is by being aware of the limits on your ability to adequately judge not only others but even yourself. Judgement represents a kind of closing of the books, a summation of the totality of a situation, rendering a verdict—a summation that is meant to affect things. You are informed in your textbook that judgement is inevitable and necessary for what is most familiar to you as a concept of fairness.
Living beings, living personalities exist moment to moment by a series of finalities—small discrete steps taken and accomplished, sometimes offering a bit of rest before the next adventure comes along. And the next adventure will come along, until you achieve Paradise and become totally self-initiating. And so judgement constitutes these small steps, these decisions you necessarily make, and in this context mercy so often represents a kind of deliberate delay. You deliberately and very consciously suspend judgement. You keep this small act of the drama open, sometimes for yourself, sometimes for others.
Are you aware of the fact of a mercy-lag, in time, between actions and their ultimate spiritual consequences, that our Father deliberately creates as a kind of cushion around all the imperfect, immature beings He is also constantly creating? Like Him, you can give yourself or someone else time to realize and rectify some error in judgement, or even deliberate folly. Being very gentle and supportive in helping both yourself and your friends achieve the truth of a situation, is very merciful. Perhaps most merciful of all is self-forgetfulness, this great generosity coming from an overflowing of spirit; perhaps with no notion of mercy, but still giving of yourself by realizing the unfathomable uniqueness of the illimitable personality in everybody you meet. This is the greatest gift of all you can give. This is the very essence of mercy, the very essence of genuine spiritual respect. This is love. This is that connection you talked about last week, the want of which drives some folks to take their own life. Does this help you, My son?
Student. Yes Michael, it opens up more doors of perception, and humility, where by not taking ourselves too seriously along this service trail, we move right along more smoothly. And that’s a great help. We won’t get as spiritually tired along the way. Thank You.
Michael. Yes, My son, you are very correct. Humility is the key–the wonderful feeling you get when you are perceiving something enormous. And that could be just one other person. Rest in My peace.
Student. Thank you.
Student. Yes, Michael, in Your communication with us this evening, You mentioned limiting our spiritual growth, so could You, in the context of what You were elaborating upon, could You explain that further, please?
Michael. Yes, My son, I welcome your question to clear up a possible misunderstanding. There is no way whatsoever you will ever need to limit your spiritual growth. Indeed, this is what We encourage most of all, for this is the kind of growth that will stay with you–will be your eternal treasure. And so it is the kind of wealth that you do well to build up and cherish.
But then as you gain genuine spiritual power and you become more one within, you notice right within yourself greater peace, and ease, for it’s a wonderful connection with an ever greater realm of understanding and feelings. This way you can have a very positive effect on the folks around you, if you self-limit yourself in how you use this power.
I meant it before in the context of Beings of enormous spiritual power, such as Monjoronson. Because of His very nature and origin, He would never even imagine–it would simply not occur to Him, to use His power of love and of mercy to directly affect any other being. From spirit, this is a pure gift–totally; seen from your standpoint, unimaginably unconditional. Yet this is a freewill choice of His. He is a personal being, as well as Myself, as well as Mother Nebadonia. We are aware of choices, moral choices, that are an intrinsic part of any personal being.
And so We are suggesting that, as you grow spiritually as a human being and begin to reap the rewards of greater spirit, you consciously choose not to use these powers to coerce or condition any other person. I think you can see immediately what a very real, palpable temptation this is. You limit how you use your own growing powers so that they stay truly spiritual. Does this answer your question?
Student. Yes, it does; I’m much clearer about that. And I can understand, to desire to help another person, it is a greater service for them to come to understand for themselves their own spiritual powers.
Michael. Yes. This is where love and wisdom have to go hand in hand, and be truly united in spirit, so that genuine love is wise in its effect.
Student. My consternation sometimes, is when I see a fellow human being go making a decision that may not be in their best interest, that is limited in their perspective of spiritual wisdom. And at times, for me, it is hard to watch that and not to kind-of, in a sense, say my piece, even under the guise of love. And sometimes it is hard for me not to (laughs) want to make a decision for them, or show them a better way.
Michael. Yet your very way of expressing this shows you have had experience on both extremes: one of not saying anything, and seeing some small disaster happen; or the other extreme of being too smothering, or bossy, or authoritative in controlling the situation with your own ideas of how things should go. And so you need a balance here. Generally speaking, if the situation is not potentially threatening, you let the other person gain their own experience by making their own mistakes, or having their own triumphs and accomplishments–both. You reserve your interference for when it’s genuinely needed to save life and limb.
Student. And is in a sense, trusting in love, that Divine love will guide not only myself, but it will also guide them, if I allow that love to prevail without the interference.
Michael. But to judge this takes the use of wisdom, of insight, for if you can see the probable outcome, you withhold your interfering to only those cases where there is some kind of dire consequence that you can see, but they can’t.
Student. So it’s a blend of that enlightened intellectualism and spiritual maturity, of enlightened insight and mind?
Michael. Very much so, especially when it comes to children under your care. That’s where you draw the line. You let them do as much you possibly can, and reserve your stepping in to save them grievous harm.
Then too, you’ve probably experienced moments when your own foresight or insight missed the mark completely, and certain feared outcomes never happened. This is the humility of knowing your own limitations.
Student. I guess, as You were saying about spiritual growth and spiritual powers–when to limit them, and when use them, is only to empower the person–the other individual, to be able to stand on their own two feet in the faith and acknowledgment of their own inner power, their inner source.
Michael. Yes, this is the Divine attribute of sharing. This is that wonderful experience of helping someone else grow.
Student. I understand about not wanting to change someone’s beliefs, or be malicious about it, because if you take away their beliefs, they may not have anything to hold on to. They might crumble, unless they have their own faith. So I understand, I understand that.
Michael. Well, there is a place for the Socratic or dialectic type of argument, when both parties enter into it freely in a lighthearted way of challenging and cutting up each others’ arguments–so long as the true motive is the discovery of truth. But so often these arguments degenerate and loose that high plane, and end up only lacerating each of the partners.
Student. Thank You.
Michael. You’re welcome, My son. Be in My Peace.
Student. Father, I have no questions, but just an acknowledgment of Your presence in my life, that grows sweeter all the time. And I love You very much!
Michael. Oh, My daughter!–thank you for enabling Me to be a little bit more Divine, and share this with you! Mother Spirit and I embrace you, and sustain you.
Student. And You know what I need to know in the coming weeks, to carry me through challenges that You have graciously given to me, which I welcome with open arms. And may Your will be done!
Michael. We thank you again. You are staying close to Us. And you are developing your spiritual powers. You are very graciously experiencing the reward of this too. This too is the way in which your love and your wisdom support and encourage–actually feed each other. So you go forward with both your heart and your eyes wide open.
Student. You can send me! I’m now content!
Michael. And so you know that I meant when I said what a blessing it was to find such good company. Our Father, at one and at the same time, gives us more of ourselves–more than we could ever dream of before the fact, so that with this fact we can commit more of ourselves and gain a still greater gift of all these unbelievable souls all about us. These are His greatest creations. What a tragedy it would be to have missed them! Be in Our peace and love, My daughter.
Student. I am! Thank You.
Michael. And so you learn, as I too learned, how to cherish each other. It’s always such a delightful surprise, always something beyond anticipation–this unfolding of the Father’s absoluteness, and infinity. This is why we are always on the threshold of the unknown. This is our true home. You are all deliberately created this way–for Us, and even for Himself. We live in Him; we have our life in Him; and yet–we fulfill Him. We are His Delight. We are the fulfillment of His power of creation. Thank you My Father, for these My children. And thank you, My children, for your love.
Thank you for fulfilling Me! Rest in My Peace. I bid you a wonderful Thanksgiving evening.
Student. Thank you, Michael
Nebadonia. Greetings My children, this is Nebadonia, your mother. Your Father has given you many words of wisdom to feast upon. And during this traditional time of thanksgiving, I would encourage you to spend your time in worshipful acknowledgment for all that has been given, and all that is about to come your way in the fulfillment of your Father Michael’s plan of correction.
There are glorious times to be had as you play upon this canvas of creativity and come into your true nature, now the overlay of the pattern of rebellion is coming to an end. The emergence of your personality endowments, as bestowed to you by the Father, are coming more to the front of your mind, and of your body, to the enjoyment and enhancement of your self-perception. And so I would ask you this evening, do you wish more of these endowments to be bestowed within you?
Student. Yes!
Nebadonia. For I come to you now with a proposition, and this is one that your Father and I share with you openly now. It is your choice. And, as was discussed this evening on the limitations of judgments, and the errors ensuing therein, I would ask you, are you ready for this overlay of judgment that has so insidiously impaired the operation of this planet, to now be lifted more actively from you?
Student. Yes, Nebadonia. Yes. Yes, certainly so!
Nebadonia. Then sit back My sons. Call upon that which you know of your Father: His Peace, His Truth, His Light, His Goodness.
Call upon the One with whom you are becoming more familiar, your brother, whose Spirit is now infusing this planet with forgiveness and mercy and understanding, and the instillation of a new reality of harmony and unity and fraternity on Urantia. Call upon Him now—Monjoronson–the name that is becoming more familiar within your hearts. And I am here to build within you a new endowment that will serve you very, very well of the days and years that are rapidly unfolding before you. Receive Him now. And grow in mercy. Let Him breathe into you, cell by cell, strand by strand, amalgamating greater threads of beauty into your ever-evolving souls. Receive this now, My children.
As you receive this now, be generous in your intentions to share this with others–especially those with whom you might have contentious or fractious relationships. Seed this well within those habits. Seed this well. Open your bodies wide. It is no longer your desire to strive with your brothers and sisters, to strive against them competitively, but seek to harmonize with them. Let your intention for this grow so that your capacity for mercy can expand. Seed this well within you now.
Call upon this Brother of Divine Light. It is yours for the asking. Come to know Him more intimately throughout your day. There is much to learn, and your joy will be great in coming to know Him, and to experience His exquisite presence of mercy.
You have not yet tasted the full compliment of this, yet your appetite is growing. And once you are fully satiated in mercy, the power that you wield of your Father, to help your brethren come into a fuller relationship with their Indwelling Spirit, will be quite astonishing to your fellows. Walk in this light now, My children, and bathe yourself in it, luxuriously, each and every day. I breathe this into you! I seed each cell!
Together we are carving a new reality here. And you, the workers in the field, will reap the benefits and join in the celebration of the feast–the bounty of Michael’s glory, the reclamation of Urantia into the family of Michael.
Happy, Happy Thanksgiving, My children. Rejoice! Your life is shining upon this world. Be glad, and spread the glad tidings freely. We are here with you. We thank you for your efforts. You thank Us for Our ministry in your minds, and We offer the completion of this circle up to our Paradise Source, for the fulfillment of His plans.
Closing.
Nebadonia. I take My leave now. I breathe My love upon you once more. Good evening, My precious, precious little ones! Good night, and be in Our love!
(Good evening—all)
