1996-10-15. In God’s Time, Teachers, Community, Symbols, Expression, Hospice
Butler PA #6
Topic: In God’s Time
Group: Butler TeaM
Teacher: Tomas
TR: Gerdean
TOMAS: Hello, my friends. I am Tomas.
Group: Hello, Tomas. Welcome.
TOMAS: It is great to be here with you again. I delayed my arrival this evening in order that you might have an extended moment in time to appreciate Stillness, and also that your circuits might be adjusted according to your new elevation of energies, resultant from your experience this past weekend in company with fellow kingdom-believers.
That is a truth; you are altered henceforth as a result of that experience. No one here is in danger of circuit overload, but you have all had a vibrant dose of spiritual uplifting and this will reflect in your electro-chemical system and many other facets of your beingness.
Lesson
Time
I would like to briefly this evening talk about time. There are many who have embarked upon the study of metaphysics and cosmologies and other proponents of advanced cosmic concepts who subscribe to the theory that there is “no time.” They have reason for that understanding at this point in their growth but for us I will say that time is a reality and it differs on each level of reality.
If you were in Paradise, surely you would know the truth of timelessness, of infinity, of eternality. As life extends out from Paradise, it is necessary that time come into being as you extend further and further out through the geometric configuration of universes. Time becomes more pronounced and more valuable the farther removed from Paradise you are. And, since Urantia has far to go before its current inhabitants attain Paradise, it behooves you to understand that time is part of your framework and there is meaning to that value.
Of course, when you sit in Stillness it is possible to transcend time for a time. You can operate in nether realms that enable you to transcend time and space for a while, but as you re-enter your environment, you are perforce subject to the restrictions imposed by time. As you become more perfect, time becomes less of a constraint and more of an ally.
Many times you seek for instant results. Your phrase is, “I want what I want when I want it” and it is a typical reaction of the finite being, but as you ascend and understand the greater purpose, when you set aside personal immediate self-gratification for long-range needs of your society or your family or the greater good, you appreciate the quality of time. Time is invariably involved in the process of becoming wise. Although revelation may come in an instant, wisdom requires time.
I make reference to time this evening in part because of my earlier reference to the fact that you have all altered slightly as a result of your experience at the conference this past weekend. It may take awhile for you to appreciate this fully, but you will begin to have indications of that farther reaching viewpoint that respects the need for time to bring about fruition. All things happen in His time.
One of the most meaningful aspects of the meditation book “God Calling” are the many, many precious references to the listener to wait for God’s time, to learn to wait in abeyance and obedience to His prompt, for no matter how hard you may seek to further truth or to attain wisdom, it will only happen as it is sanctioned and inculcated by a power greater than yourself.
Your appreciation of this truth, this ability to wait until the hand of God makes motion possible, provides you with graciousness and poise. It bespeaks a patient demeanor. Waiting upon time as it is given and directed by the Father allows you to appreciate the magnitude of his overcare, and when you have learned to “wait upon the Lord” you are shown timelessness, you are given a greater expansion of time.
Your understanding of “time on your hands” takes on new meaning. Time is more manageable. Time becomes your friend instead of an enemy. You have more time in which to do more good work. You have more time to rest, you have more time to see. You are elevated and given a farther view.
This week my friends, my students, I would like for you to ponder time. Be aware of time. Not that it is 6:10 a.m. or 8:35 p.m.; not that it is lunchtime; not that it is time to depart or time to retire, but be aware of time in terms of His time. Are you operating in conjunction with His time? Are your watches, internal watches, synchronized with the timepiece of Paradise?
It is time now, my friends, to hear from you. I am eager for your input. I have missed our long chats. I saw you all so busily engaged. I was actively involved in many of your growth experiences and I immensely enjoyed myself, as I promised. The conference from my point of view was successful. It was wonderful again to be in a thriving atmosphere with my colleagues, to spend time in converse with Machiventa and others. I am eager now to hear from you as to anything you might like to bring to our table discussion. Are there questions?
Dialogue
Hunnah: I want to tell you that we have a guest this evening. We have Peri visiting us.
TOMAS: I thank you, Hunnah, for your hostessing. I do not mean to embarrass you, but you are a week late. We had Peri last week here with us.
Hunnah: You’re right! We did.
TOMAS: And yet and still you are correct for she is truly a guest, an honored guest, and it is wonderful for us all to have her, you, with us again, Peri.
I want to also say, Hunnah, that I so appreciate the sentiment behind your invitation to introduce the guest, that I will bestow that role upon you henceforth. In your home when we have a newcomer, if you would present the newcomer to me formally, as if I were visible, that I might make record of their attendance, it would be appreciated. Would that be amenable with you, my friend?
Hunnah: I think that would be fine for our readers. Peri is visiting from Ottawa, Canada, now. I’m sorry she can’t hang around longer for a more normal relationship. She said she had some questions this evening. You just love a question, so maybe she can throw it out in the room.
The Teachers
TOMAS: I am always eager to hear from you, that I might share your soul delights and needs indeed.
Iyana: It was wonderful that Peri was able to have her teacher come through when we were there last week at the meeting (in Grailville).
TOMAS: I must say that it was wonderful also for the Teachers in the Teaching Mission. The status of that visitation was and remains a treat, even for us.
Peri: As Tiamaah started to speak and there was a bit of a stir and other people commented, “We weren’t upset!” No, it was them!
TOMAS: Indeed. It was not that we were upset either. We were quite thrilled. Your voice trumpeted the personality and presence of an Avonal Son and we all look forward to hearing more. Your Teacher and our comrade had begun a dissertation, or had whetted the appetite, to give further discourse on trinity values and his efforts were rather cut short by the constraints of time.
I will say, too, for you all, that we Teachers became rather impatient with earth time this weekend for, although it is understood that those are the constraints that are necessary, we found there was not enough time to do as much as we would like to have done. Perhaps I can say with a wry smile that we did not get a chance to get a word in edgewise. …
Hunnah: I was thinking that.
TOMAS: . .. so busy were you all in your growing and sharing activities. I will not lament the circumstance since so much was accomplished, but I will state that for us Teachers, it was unfortunate that we were not also privy to the words of the Avonal Son as well as lessons from one another.
It is difficult perhaps for you, our students, to understand, but we also enjoy hearing each other’s lessons, much as visiting professors will sit in on a lecture of a favored professor in order to learn from their own peers. Perhaps in time this can evolve. Perhaps as we learn to speak more with the Morontia Companions and learn some of those social sensitivities that come when you can transcend greatly the limitations of mortal time, these may indeed come to pass.
Teacher Contact
Iyana: Just to change the subject a little bit, I would like to ask about my guide and my guide’s name. I have not, to my knowledge, in the Stillness really thought that I had anyone, other than my Thought Adjuster who, of course, I’m very happy to have.
TOMAS: Thank you, Iyana. One moment, please. Iyana, you have a teacher, a personal teacher. It is not rare but it is unusual that your teacher is a masculine teacher, a young masculine figure. I am understanding that he goes by the name of Han but my transmitter/ receiver is not secure with that interpretation. At any rate, this young male companion is an experienced companion, a lively fellow, sensitive, rather agile in terms of getting around and keeping you company as you, also, are quite agile in getting around.
Iyana: Thank you. Now, when I go into the silence, do I sometimes address him?
TOMAS: The practice that you already use is quite wonderful, yet you may converse with your personal companion as you will, as you might call up a friend on the telephone, a friend that you cherish and save special moments to share with. Your companion has been already with you for a long time and has been made aware of many of your mindsets, behaviors and conditionings and so forth, so he knows you as a human being.
Iyana: This is very interesting. Thank you.
TOMAS: You are welcome! It is always, incidentally, a true pleasure for the personal teachers when they are acknowledged and when they are, as I said, “telephoned.”
Iyana: I will sure to be in contact with dear Hans.
Hunnah: I have to tell you something, Tomas, that’s very funny. It’s that Iyana is not one to call and chat on the phone. She acts as if she gets her three cents worth and hangs up. So, good luck, Hans! (Group laughter)
TOMAS: Well, this is one case where this is not a toll call. (Group laughter)
Conferences
Hunnah: Regarding your talking about time and the conference, I was surprised too that the honored guests were not on the agenda more, but I guess it’s a spill-over from our human conditioning that they have developed the program with human names and reports because people who are going expect to see them, and I think that at the next conference, there will probably be a few alterations to make sure that that doesn’t happen.
TOMAS: Remember that all of this is experiential and that whereas on one occasion you may wing it entirely and even attend with no program whatsoever and allow it to evolve, all the way to the other side of the spectrum where every quarter hour of time is scheduled, the spirit will use that format to function at maximum capacity. The experience that we have had has shown that nothing is lost, that although the mortal organizer may feel a responsibility to rather guide the format, truly the Most Highs are in charge. It is also true that many times, if not most, the mortal subjects are operating through the guidance, under the guidance of the Most Highs and so . ..
Hunnah: I had that impression.
TOMAS: . .. the program, the format is in keeping with the overall intention.
It was important that this conference take place. It was important to the Teaching Mission and the proponents thereof. It was important to the Teachers to have the confidence of their pupils heartened by association with other pupils, other students of the Teachers, not to mention the fundamental connection of other Urantia Book readers or believers and followers of Michael, of Jesus.
Their confidence of sharing your own serendipities, your own personal experiences with the Teaching Mission, with the Teachers, has bonded you now with the larger family. Not only have you bonded yourselves with those you met and shared with at [Grailville, you are aware that you are now connected in a very personal and intimate way, in a very real way, with Teaching Mission proponents throughout Urantia. Your family has grown immeasurably by your attendance there this weekend.
Perihan, I will entertain your question if you have the words formulated.
Peri: I find myself in a quandary at times, when something is going on that I know isn’t right, but to say something would be to hurt someone, and I would like some guidance in this area.
TOMAS: Let me ask you how it is that you determine that something is wrong.
Peri: Humm. It feels abrasive, grating, really uncomfortable. There’s a squirm inside.
TOMAS: Someone has manifested tactlessness?
Peri: Yes.
TOMAS: Intolerance?
Peri: Yes. An unawareness perhaps?
TOMAS: Are we talking about one who has been born or the spirit or one who has not?
Peri: One who has.
TOMAS: Then it is incumbent upon you to take that person aside and have one of those intimate consultations that will assuage the emotional breach, and if that is not effective (which it should be), your alternative then is to allow a degree of impersonal space to stand between you.
Peri: Hmmm. Thank you.
TOMAS: You are welcome.
Community
Peri: The next question is: have you any comments, further information, in regards to the plan — the outlines of the plan Fred Harris presented to the conference?
TOMAS: Do I have any what?
Peri: Comments. Further guidance. Further information in regards to the plan regarding community and centers?
TOMAS: I actually do. But let me tell you that I have long ago made an agreement with Gerdean, at her request, in honor of her free will, since she has written this book and feels so strongly about these subjects and is so determined that the transmissions from the Teachers that she transmits shall not in any way be colored by her passion for this subject, she and I have made an agreement that I will not discuss that. However, I have been asked a question, and my role as a Teacher almost supercedes her personal concerns at this point, for you see now, it is not that I am withholding comment because of her fear of self-aggrandizement, but am responding to a growth development which has come about of its own accord.
We are, as was indicated, excited with you in your enthusiasm about the concept of community. It is and was a natural evolutionary point to come to, for although you have learned these things about and in and around and for and in support of and because of the spirit, it is only natural that in due course this would become materially manifestable. As your behaviors have changed, as your attitudes have changed, so will your political structures and your community configurations. It is truly an idea whose time has come.
But as I indicated earlier in my words regarding time, it is vital that these things take place in God’s time. It is, however, your responsibility, joy, opportunity and all those marvelous collective adjectives, to prepare yourself, to fine-tune your instrument, to do your research, to see your visions, to make those connections with your brothers and sisters that will spur and stimulate and convene these ideas into a workable reality.
Teacher Morgan has been working with a group of students in this context. It is only right that other thinking forerunners should also begin to visualize the brotherhood physically as well as spiritually. Indeed, these are natural results of your own evolution. Is there anything else you would like to know or discuss?
Symbols
Peri: There’s one small thing. Today as I was talking with Gerdean, I drew a picture of a five-pointed star with the intersection points. Is that a useful image to hold for the picture of the . .. the process of how the people will be interacting?
TOMAS: It is always well to ascertain your ideal and hold your ideal up as an illustration of how perfection can be. Any number of forward-thinking individuals can also hold up their ideal. In collective superconsciousness there are certain symbolism which will suit all of you. Certain numbers have that magical mystery about it that you would seek to honor. All of you no doubt have at heart a desire to find a sanctuary in which to worship the Father, in which to share the worship experience with others. This is a natural spiritual food that you bring to the table of the Supreme.
Iyana: Would that be similar to the symbols that Arial is bringing in? Her energy symbols? She has done some of these things for each one of us that is supposed to be our energy system.
TOMAS: Yes, in-as-much as all of you resonate to some degree or another of the visual assistance of symmetry and harmony and other movements of the eye, the ear, the breath, and so forth, that please the harmonic nature of the Inner Being.
Creativity, Expression
Iyana: Can we call upon one of the artisans or anything when we are creating? I mean, for instance, as we’re painting a picture, or getting an idea, as we go along? Sometimes I feel as though, when I’m painting, things just happen.
TOMAS: When you are creating, it is very likely that an artisan is already working with you. When you are working very hard at trying to create something, it is often yourself struggling uphill to make contact with that creative aide, and once you have attained your level of striving which “breaks through to the other side,” your prayer has been answered, in effect, and you are then allowing God to paint the picture and you are simply holding the brush. When you have this exciting experience, it is because you are being assisted.
Do not, however, allow it to become the work of the artisan for it is your work; you have held the brush. And even more importantly, you have worked and sought to attain the pinnacle of operation where you could be assisted by divinity.
Iyana: Thank you.
TOMAS: You are welcome.
Peri: I have one more question.
TOMAS: Yes, Perihan.
Tradition
Peri: Since I became acquainted with the Urantia Book, it has been a longing in my heart to unite the community of believers and their excitement with the tradition that is being currently held by Murat Yagan and the growing of the people around the world who are following the path of Ahmusta Kebzeh. Have you got any words of instruction, perhaps? Is there anything I can do to facilitate the joining the present desire?
TOMAS: The Master has indicated that it is time that His children all be brought together, and so we are all already together working toward that end, and your instincts, if you will, are correct, that bringing believers together to share, to appreciate, — if not to merge, if not at this point to homogenate — at least to stand shoulder-to-shoulder with cultural differences, even theologically cultural differences, in order that the individual evolved religions and great religions of the world may contribute and still maintain their own cultural aspects.
There are things, for example, about the Roman Catholic Church that ought never be lost because of their beauty. Like the Order you reference, their ways and means are priceless and can be of great advantage to others who are impressed by their methodologies. These gifts to the Father through the various evolved religions are worthy of note. It is only our hope that they be brought together in appreciation of one another.
It is rather like, if you will, the matter of the colored races, that on our way to becoming One, it would be helpful if we could at least stand side-by-side and acknowledge the beauty, the value, the strength, and the merit of each other. It is not necessary today, for example, that all races be blended, but it is appreciated when each racial blessing can be appreciated for its own merit in its own right. The yellow race is rich, as is the indigo race, as are the others, and on our way to the amalgamation toward the oneness, this tolerance needs to develop so that we can eventually expand from tolerance to true love, to true appreciation of the oneness of us all, whether that be in the matter or race or religion or nationality. Has that answered?
Peri: Is there anything I can do personally at this time?
TOMAS: You will be guided as you have been guided.
Peri: Thank you.
Iyana: I appreciated the fact that you were there at the conference with us, Tomas. And I appreciate that you had five or six of us from Pittsburgh there. I thought it was good support.
TOMAS: I agree. And I want to say, too, Iyana, that I am glad you were there. It pleased me greatly, of course, to have a good representation of Pittsburgh Pumpkins in attendance. I would not, could not, have missed it, for it is my mission, whether I have formal students or a formal teacher base or not. I, like you, hunger for the association of my fellows, my peers, and I would have been there to support them in our mutual goals, had you been there or not, but I want you to know that it pleases me greatly that you were there, that all of you who were there were truly there in spirit, mind and flesh. We were wholly present. I look forward to our next “divine debacle.” (Group chuckle)
Hospice
Hunnah: Your talking about our energy changing, I was very aware that I didn’t have any fatigue driving as long as I drove, and I haven’t been driving hardly at all on a trip, but the other thing is that I received a phone call yesterday from someone who is very, very special, a beautiful light, a woman who works for the hospice program in Butler, and it has been one of my suppressed dreams to bring in the healing arts in an expanded way to the hospice services than the regular nursing services, and I felt all along that this woman was partly like a crack in the wall of legal ramifications, that she would be able to bring that in, but that I wouldn’t have to do it but that opening would show itself, and I’m looking forward to finding new opportunities for caregivers and for people to expand their hearts and get them out of stagnance, if they are. There’s a lot out there and it’s exciting.
We also talk . .. You don’t have to do it on this tape, but would you please talk sometime about money? We had at the meeting a discussion about having some money left over and there seems to be this idea in people’s minds that needs to be clarified about, that it’s alright to make a profit and to use the profit. And then today I realized that the profit builds the water fountain and the water is free. I love the analogy, so perhaps some time when we’re together — You can file this, because I’m sure you’ll have a good time with this subject. Thank you.
TOMAS: Yes, Hunnah, I will approach that subject. Not today, however, but I am willing to discuss it. I suspect it will take more time than the few minutes we have remaining today.
In reference to your discourse earlier regarding hospice work, it is, of course, invaluable that tenderhearted mercies be applied to and marshaled for the dying, for those who are approaching the threshold to the new dispensation of existence. Hospice work is a new art and still it is in its flowering stages. Much work is yet to be developed in this field. It is good when healing ministrations can be applied to the young and the able who have the potential to regain, renew, restore and then serve a number of years or a period of time in response to the healing.
Hospice is not without healing needs, but this facet of care-giving is approaching work of the angels, in that, it is preparing the individual to cross over, allowing the individual to relinquish the flesh, the life in the flesh; is giving permission to be held by the Holy Arms, and is assuring the departing of their right to leave their grieving loved ones. This is a sensitive work, also requiring healing, but of a different sort. The families, the bereaved need healing also. There is truly much ministry to be accomplished by care-givers.
Hunnah: That word is the exact word I have endeared myself to, is to keep the care-giver strong, so that the quality of the care may remain consistent and improve, and . …
TOMAS: You are speaking as a true woman of the Evangelical Corp.
Iyana: May I ask, do we have the permission, when we have the tape, do I have your permission to read what you said about the hospice to the hospice group that I go to?
TOMAS: My daughter, I offer humbly any word I have uttered at any time for your free use and dissemination at your free will.
Iyana: Thank you. And I have a question. I have a neighbor that I have introduced to the Urantia Book and we have been together whenever he comes over to the house and so forth. We don’t have a regular meeting, but we talk about it and I share the Papers with him and I just want to say that I feel blessed that I have somebody that I can talk to in my neighborhood about Urantia, and he seems to think he’s blessed, because I introduced him to the Book.
TOMAS: Your numbers will grow. Where there are two or more gathered together in His name, there is He in your midst, and He will generate the energies that will act as a beacon of light to other hungry souls. Your group will come about as Machiventa promised.
Iyana: Good.
Closing
TOMAS: My friends, my beloved students and companions, I am so happy to be home with you again and to be resuming our configuration. It is always a bounty for me to be with you. My blessings upon you and on you, Peri, as you set out on your journey. We eagerly anticipate your return.
Farewell.
