2011-07-21-Sharing, Agondonters
Lightline #317
Contents
1Heading
1Topic: Sharing All
2Group: Lightline TeaM
2Facilitators
1Teacher: Michael
2TR: JL
3Session
1Opening
1.1Sharing
1.2Confidence
1.3Ideal
2Dialogue
2.1Agondonters
2.2Love
2.3Generosity
3Closing
Heading
Topic: Sharing All
Group: Lightline TeaM
Facilitators
Teacher: Michael
TR: JL
Session
Opening
Dear Michael and Mother Spirit, it seems surprising that it’s only been a month since our last meeting like this, and your last lesson that occasioned quite a lot of comments and different takes on the material. But I think we all got a good dose of humility from just doing our best to be open to each other and to respond in a spiritual way. We also want to thank Mother Spirit for her last lesson on how to do this a little bit better. We really do appreciate what both of you have to offer to us, and we do our best to open our hearts and open our minds–open our feelings and open our understanding–to take in something new, something that we may not immediately recognize. But we do acknowledge that something new is the very thing that we may need the most of all. So thank you very much. Amen.
Michael: Good evening, this is Michael, your universe parent, your dear friend. I’d like to emphasize what Mother Spirit already mentioned, that we are all alike in that we are all children of our Father. This makes that special bond between and among all personal beings in his creation. So too Mother Spirit and I are blessed with humility. It’s that wonderful, wonderful spiritual awareness of something enormous, and then too, to know that we are a part of that. We were deliberately created to be a part of all of that. We thank our Father for our very ability to perceive what we can, especially when it is so much greater than ourselves. So: thank you, dear Father, for this blessing.
Sharing
Sharing all
I would like to keep my direct lesson a little shorter tonight, to engage in some more lively conversation with you all. With respect to our offerings–the suggestions that Mother Spirit and myself have given about some of the limitations that we hold ourselves to: in this we are doing our own best to be like our Father and, quite literally, share as much as we possibly can with each one of you and with every being we have an association with. So don’t think it strange that we have this relationship with both subordinate beings, with those that you might say are considered to be on a par with us, and with superordinate beings. We are all doing our best to be co-ordinate beings and feel for that coordination, that larger context within which we are so closely related.
I think it will help you to understand some of our relationships if I declare that neither I nor Mother Spirit lacks the authority or even the raw power to do things. But like our Father, we enjoy so much the sharing of all the manifold tasks and good work of our Local Universe, right down to your beloved planet here. We do so enjoy sharing all this good work with so many of you, so many of our children, and then too so many of our helpers from Paradise and all around the Creation, all those who have a deep curiosity about what is happening here. It’s not for lack of authority or power, but to act any more authoritarian-ly would be to disenfranchise all these wonderful folks of all this wonderful work that is being done, all this coordinated effort to bring your poor, benighted, war-torn world into some semblance of peace.
What God offers
As we have said before, Urantia needs no more horrors to go through. The people of your world have suffered quite enough. Yet it is a profoundly complex task to bring each individual, of their own free will, into the grace and the mercy of our Father; and all of our helpers, all the beings who are also engaged here to offer their own saving grace to each and every one. This is the way of spirit beings who do not demand. We do not command. As Mother Spirit says, we do not tell you what to think or what to do. Consider, my children, that even our Father does not tell you what to think or what to do. As you know it is very rare that you will actually hear a voice in your mind telling you, “This is God. This is your Father, and these are my thoughts to you.” Rather with an unfathomable humility on his part, he offers you his thoughts for you to accept or reject. He sets the example for all his children in the ways of the spirit. And so, my children, we can only encourage you to as much as possible treat each other this way.
You mentioned the discussions you had on my last lesson and all the different takes, all the different ways people took those words of mine. And you all experienced how spiritual exchange between personal beings actually degenerates when it gets down to simple debate, where positions are staked out like a piece of property, and sides are taken, and individuals feel the need to defend themselves and each other. And yet you all accepted each other–in time. You all found a way of resolving this and staying open to each other’s contributions.
As we’ve taught before, it’s better than to, say, forgive and forget; it’s much better to think more in terms of forgive and remember. Everything you do, especially your lively interchanges between each other, becomes part of your soul. You learn to appreciate each other. You learn to appreciate the exact same words as I’m speaking them or as you read them because although they have a kind of undeniable physical reality, so many people can take them in so many different ways. And who is to say another’s way is invalid? This is what Mother Spirit said about daring to stand naked, bereft of all your rhetorical flourishes, and all your exaggerations just to make a point, and simply offer, yourself: This is how I understand it. For it is by giving your own subjective reality some kind of supposed or asserted objective reality, that leads to so much warfare, even on this level.
Confidence
Confidence in one’s own innermost spiritual experience
And so you can also rest in peace with respect to the Teaching Mission, knowing deep within yourselves and accepting, that if someone approaches this material you find so wonderful; if someone approaches this material from a negative slant or a hyper-critical bent, you needn’t worry about their response, their take on the material. You needn’t respond in kind but rather, respond kindly. Foreswear all “Holier than Thou” attitude; or an “I’m even more gracious, and kind, and forgiving” response. No. Just be confident in your own innermost spiritual experience, and be unafraid to just say that, offer that without embellishment. Don’t be afraid to just speak plainly. In other words, let your spirit and your heart shine forth, unafraid, naked in their simplicity, and all the more glorious for that.
This is the spiritual fragrance that truly welcomes and invites another to join your merry group to share all the love and the joy that you’ve known. This is what Mother Spirit and I do our best to do, that is, to speak plainly and literally so as many as possible can derive joy from what we offer. When we use one of your idiomatic expressions we try to set it off with “as you say” or put it off in unmistakable quotation marks.
This I perhaps failed to do with my recommendation, my offering: Just do the best you can; do what you “think” best. For here again: even your Father’s input, his thoughts are just offered and your mind is that wonderful, flexible dimension of your being. So do what you think best. Entertain that “best.” Be as honest with yourself as you can about what is the best thing to do next–whether you can do it or not. Entertain it. Let it move you. It’s the doing, the existential “doing,” that is the hard part, is it not?
Ideal
Thinking, the best, and doing it
To do your best–even though you know that this time–this particular time–you may be falling so far short of what you know is best: still, to keep all that in consciousness and really exercise your personality’s innate ability of morality: isn’t that humbling too? Think of that entire, enormous ideal, that greater ideal life of yours that you can conceive. Keep it in consciousness and lean into it. Do your best to accept it, and make each decision then, at this particular time, and this situation. Make each decision too singular and unique.
So this is my offering this evening, this interpretation of: Do what you think best. This is all we can ask of you; it’s all you can ask of yourself. As I say, this is humbling enough: to keep those bright ideals in mind and, at the same time, to know inside: Here I am. I am complete, however far from perfection, however humble, or even humiliated in my own sight: I am! Here, I am! Now if you have any questions or comments? Go ahead:
Dialogue
Student: Good evening, dear Father, this is Philip. I have a question, a composed one. I would like to know what it means to be an agondonter. What qualifies a mortal as an agondonter? I would like to know a little bit about what kind of notions (?) are entrusted with an ascending career. Mainly we are more and more excited about these times for, you know, these are very important times. We are excited about performing as such–if we can be catalogued as agondonters ourselves? So I would just like to know a little bit about this.
Agondonters
Agondonter-hood
Michael: Yes, my son. This essentially means you’ve been tried. You have gone through a trial and you have maintained a faith in goodness and a trust in spirit, even if and when it was not–per se–abundantly clear. In those advanced worlds very well settled in Light and Life where, say, the average person lives for hundreds of your years, where almost every parent is what you might consider a saint, where the whole social, economic, and political organization of that society is what you would consider idyllic; in other words, all these advanced spiritual realities that you don’t have: for you to keep the faith, for you to trust in the ultimate goodness of God’s plan even while you are face to face with perhaps with some personal horror…
(Aside: By this I mean some deliberately evil act being perpetrated on you by another human being; or to look around your world and see this kind of rampant evil of unimaginable pain and suffering deliberately perpetrated on others, and not to blink at that nor look away, but truly open your heart and mind to all that is happening on this planet)
…and still keep your faith, still keep your trust, still meet that next person coming towards you with a smile, with an openness, with a cheerfulness, with support: This is the essence of an agondonter. It means that you have been tried and not found wanting. It is why even the angels envy you on this poor, benighted planet. For your opportunities to not only perceive grace, but to originate it right from yourself, right from your own heart: this is truly unmatched. Does this give you some notion, my son?
Phillip: Yes, it gives me an idea. Thank you very much. It is important to know these things.
Michael: Yes indeed. Because of this very baptism by fire, if you will, you will find yourself, ironically, in some relatively difficult things, because you have seen God’s ultimate justice, and mercy, and love. Be in my peace.
Student: Hello, can you hear me?
Michael: Yes
Student: Hi!-thank you, Michael. Quick question: I notice that many people appear to be walking around in a state of half-awaked-ness, or being just half-awake. They remind me of how I was before I felt that I was born again in the spirit. I notice that one little in-road is, for me anyway, simple. It’s just saying something genuinely complimentary–like they are superior in some way; or noticing something special about them. It’s an amazing tool. I do it because it’s just a nice way to connect and it enables me to get to see the real person when I focus on something beautiful about them.
It’s amazing–the result. It’s almost as if there is a renewed respect, as if that was lacking. I wonder sometimes if they are walking around half asleep because there isn’t this connection, like nobody makes them feel really appreciated; and I’m talking about a lot of folks. So I just wanted to throw that out there. It has worked such wonders that this might be in the right direction next. They might even say, “Hey, how come you’re always happy and nice?” This is an opportunity for me to find my joy. Everything is so much lighter when the work is the Lord’s. It’s a wonderful tool I’ve discovered–praise God that I’ve been given that opportunity!
Love
Beaming love at everybody
Michael: Yes, my daughter, you put your finger right on it. You’ve discovered a wonderful technique–if it’s genuine; if it comes from your heart. It has to be more than just a mechanical technique.
This was from a beloved teacher called Welmek. He taught a lesson once on beaming love at everybody you meet. It’s quite a challenge–everybody you meet without exception? You send them little good-wishing irrespective of their behavior towards you. It calls for kind of tough equanimity, does it not? But first of all it’s such a blessing because it gives you everybody. You might even start noticing that before this you were classifying people, maybe by body type or whether they were attractive or not. But when you start beaming love at everybody, it gives you everybody.
You’ve taken it a step further, just by being what I suggested tonight–just out of your own generosity of spirit, just to be bubbling over with love and good wishes towards everyone. What a gift that is for those who are going along, not half asleep so much as just focusing inside themselves, just to hold themselves together: for them to see that other person’s smiling face; to see that someone notices them and is sending them good wishes? What a gift! What a gift. So: carry on…(Michael breaks up laughing) It’s wonderful!
Student: Thank you so much, sir. It brings them outside of themselves, and all of a sudden they just change. They beam, and want to do more of what they think they were doing to bring them some attention. They kind-of give themselves an at-a-boy, like, give themselves a little pat. And that’s great, cause otherwise why bother? What are you going thru the motions for? Like they are really engaged then; they shift into gear. And that’s what I love about it. I get to see people come alive.
Another thing I noticed is when I forgave someone,
(Student’s aside: in the Urantia texts one of the miracles concerned forgiveness of the paralytic that was brought in thru the roof),
…I noticed the change that was instantaneously on their face. There was a softness that came to their face. It was almost a tenderness, and I didn’t even say much, just a few words. It was just my energy directed at them that had changed.
Generosity
Truly giving of oneself
Michael: This is what I meant, my daughter, of truly giving of yourself. In a way it’s like standing naked if you are just offering this without any expectation, without any requirement for them to respond in any particular way at all. You’re kind-of putting yourself out there. You’re laying yourself on the line as a pure gift. But then, the response you get is worth it, is it not? (Oh yes, yes!) You can notice as you go down a city street on the sidewalk, that you tend to meet your own expression. And so many folks, what you call half asleep, are just…their attention, their focus might be so much on themselves, holding themselves together, desperately holding themselves together at times, that if you’re in some kind of bad, evil mood, you know that’s what you’ll meet. Yet when you have this wonderful spiritual generosity, you have people trying to catch your eye to get a little hit of your energy. It’s a wonderfully spontaneous, almost instantaneous, kind of thing. Truly lively is it not?
Student: Yes–it heals! It probably can heal a lot more if I learn how to focus and funnel that. But it sure does do wonders just from the Source. It all comes from God’s love. It’s the Lord’s love–thru me.
Resilient, and loving
Michael: It’s kind of a tough love, insofar as to have the equanimity of just offering it and accepting them–whatever it is! You might get a sneer back; you might get a smile. Whatever it is, it’s ok. That’s them. It’s letting them be without putting anything on them, like, ”I’m smiling–you gotta smile back.” Nothing like that. It’s a pure offer. Carry on, daughter. Be in my peace.
Are there any other questions or comments this evening?
Closing
Someone: Hello. Thank you, Jerry.
Michael: This is still Michael. If there aren’t any more questions or comments, I’ll go ahead and wrap the evening up. Thank you all for being the occasion. And so, my dears, be in my peace. Good evening.
