1992-01-01. Part II – The Lesson Aids – Topics I-M
INTERPERSONAL RELATIONSHIPS
Q: RAYSON, could you elaborate on personality commingling that you referred to earlier?
RAYSON: Yes. You may sit alone and read the truth in The Urantia Book. You may have a thought of truth on your own. But when another personality imparts this truth or thought to you and you are there to receive it, to catch it, your personalities commingle, and if the truth or thought is carried on a circuit of love it will hit its mark, and that is the power of what happens here. You are listening to my words but you are feeling the depth of my love for you as I say them, and this is unfathomably more powerful than reading these truths.
Think of the Apostles, for in truth the message of JESUS is no different than the message of The Urantia Book. Both have taught us that God is a loving FATHER and that men are all brothers. To have received this lesson at the foot of the Master would be much more impactful than to have quietly discovered The Urantia Book on your own and read by yourself.
Personality is the gift of The FATHER. When two personalities participate in give and take, a new facet of the Supreme Being is born. It is an act of creation as well as an act of learning. Does this answer? (Affirmative response.)
Student: I sincerely believe that I am specially blessed in being included. At first I didn’t know whether to believe in the teaching mission or not. And as you said, the love that is felt is part of the convincing – listening to the tapes of brother HAM teaching his group, and all of the love that I felt in his voice before you came to join us, convinced me. That what seemed true to me had to be real – that the method was real – because the love was for real. And we feel this same love from you, and are very grateful.
RAYSON: Thank you, (student). As I have grown to know each one of you, personally, and develop our little personal relationships, my love for you has blossomed. And of greatest importance is that you experience the veracity of my love, for it is the same love that comes from The FATHER for you and can come from you to each other.
Q: RAYSON, when we rediscover this simple truth we’ve been talking about, and we do that with another person of whose knowledge is commingling, and we do it – in a way – a lot of it is like a creation that moment. Isn’t it? Or did I misunderstand what you said?
RAYSON: No, you understood perfectly. It is like the creation of a cell in the body of the Supreme Being.
Student: Thank you RAYSON. That’s why it’s so terribly exciting.
Q: RAYSON, does this personality commingling have anything to do with the fact that – a person can help to heal himself by association with another person who simply cares for him and has a positive relationship with him or her?
RAYSON: Yes. Of course. There is no hurt that – there is no boo-boo that is not made better by a kiss. (laughter)
There is no great mystery here to personality commingling. It is simply talking to each other, relating. It is simply one unique child of God with one other unique child of God interacting through love. The greatest lesson is learned there. The greatest love is felt there. It’s simple. It happens all day, all the time, to every one.
(S), every burden is made lighter when shared with a friend. I spoke earlier of a circuit of love. We talked about how effective teaching is when it’s sent from teacher to student on a circuit of love. That is what helps it hit its mark. This love between personalities is powerful, and when experienced, can and has many times changed the entire emotional – and ultimately spiritual – life of beings, of people. If one is burdened and holds those burdens to himself, he carries their full weight. If a friend is present and expresses love, the circuit is affected and the burden travels across the circuit to the friend who – in a moment – shares the load and the weight is lifted.
The FATHER also provides you with this circuit, but more readily accessible to you mortals on Urantia at this time are the circuits created by your personality commingling. You must learn to lighten your burden by allowing your brothers and sisters to love you and carry their weight.
Q: Is there any qualitative difference in my relationship with other beings in this area and my relationship with you or other spiritual-morontial God?
RAYSON: Yes. I am sorry to say that though I love you deeply I cannot share the weight of your Urantia life experience as readily as those who are here with you. You may appeal to me to your angels, to MICHAEL, to The FATHER and receive great amounts of love, however the mortals of Urantia can provide an empathic experience of friendship that is founded on shared material electro-magnetic life that we cannot give you. Therefore, for the trial of Urantia life the burden is better shared with other mortals. (08/16/92)
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Q: What are the meaning and value of relationships on a celestial basis? When we are in our mansion worlds and beyond, can we maintain the same interpersonal relationships we’ve had on this planet? Do we continue on with our friends and relatives?
RAYSON: This depends on the level of progressive attainment that you have attained at that time and your relation to these other beings. You will be given an opportunity to keep on with these same relationships in the same way. But since you will be looking at your relationship from a different perspective, you may wish not to. This will be entirely up to you and your integration of your knowledge and your learnings in application to these matters at that time.
Q: Could you comment on the function of the ego in interpersonal relationships?
RAYSON: The ego is understood differently amongst each of you. When your will, your seat of identity is of a physical and mental plane of identity, when you identify with the comforts of physical life, when you identify with your status, your perception by others, your reputation, and you base your actions on these, you can say that this is caused by your ego. This is how it is taken or understood by many. In this context it will be dissipated – your ego will not be.
When you place your seat of identity in the Thought Adjuster or your soul, then when you deal with others, in your relationships you will act not in your own best interests nor in their best interests, but in the interests of The FATHER.
Q: What would you do to increase the spiritual value of our interpersonal relationships?
RAYSON: You can pray and worship and realize yourself. Self-mastery is the key to service and the best of relationships. When you have mastered yourself you are doing the will of God. When you relate to others, when you serve them, you will not be serving them because of your own ego, or your self aggrandizement, or your wish to be known as a good person, rather you will serve in the interest of God and you will relate to others with the intention of doing the will of God. This does not mean that you cannot express your own feelings of love, of empathy, compassion, and other spiritual and high emotions, because these are in line with the will of God. So the more you can realize the best part of yourself, and master yourself, the better will be your relationship with others including beings of celestial origin and the Creator.
Q: I’ve had several experiences that you might care to comment on if you feel it’s appropriate in this environment relating to my opening up in my relationship to you and to a teacher. In terms of relationships, I have thought about the past month rather heavily the statement in The Urantia Book that the act is ours, the consequences God’s. And I find that to be an incredibly powerful statement concerning ego and concerning the machinations of the human mind, that statement seems to be incredibly freeing in the sense that – for myself – it just means to just go about the business of being perfectly human, as opposed to the human conception of perfection which we all have. It’s impossible to live perfectly on a sphere that’s imperfect. But to be perfectly human is perfectly possible. And that comment about the act is yours the consequences God’s appears to me to be one of the keys in the book in the sense that it makes us free to relate to both our brother and sister human beings as we see fit with the concept of values and meanings as (S) brought up. And also it frees us to relate to those celestial personalities that we might care to relate to. I also sense that there might be an entire lesson perhaps planned on that comment because I see it to be a pivotal and powerful and very simple statement.
So I was wondering if you can confirm my experiences, or deny them, and comment on “the act is ours, the consequences God’s.”
RAYSON: Your experiences are real, although they have been attenuated by your mind and ego. As to the statement from The Urantia Book “the act is ours, the consequences God’s,” in your daily lives you act to make decisions. Some are based upon previous experiences – positive or negative. If they are positive, then most likely you will act positively. And vice versa. There are things, which are not – or cannot be – based upon previous experience because you will, I hope, look at each new bit of information without bias. But it is information, which is of value, and you will re-evaluate. When this happens, sometimes you do not know whether you should act or not. Your previous experience may tell you that you should not act. Some new information may tell you that you should act. When it is of spiritual value, and you think that it might be or could lead to value in a person, then by all means act! Your celestial backup, so to speak, will make the most out of the situation, the acts. What you have done will lead to a train of results. If you find out that it is negative, that you should not have done your act, well – of course – it is too late. But you may learn from that. That is the purpose of acting. Without action, how will you know?
This is the meaning of experiential knowledge. If you always only do what you know to be true, you may never make a mistake. But you will never gain these valuable lessons from making a wrong call. So, do not act upon fear that you will make a mistake. Act!
Q: RAYSON, how is it best to deal with the difficult personality, someone who is maybe very abusive? Which is the best way for us to deal with that for our own best spiritual growth – and for theirs?
RAYSON: Try to find out what makes that person abusive. Pray for that person. Try to find out what interests that person and communicate on that level. And after achieving some kind of feeling for each other, expand into other aspects such as his perception of God, his perception of how to relate to others, his or her way of dealing with problems, of dealing with that person’s insecurities. Find out how vulnerable that person is. Is he open and willing to let others into his inner core? Or is he arrogant with an outer shell? Most people who are abusive are the latter. They are abusive because they have a soft inner core, which they will not let others into. And so when it is threatened and when it appears that that defense is broached, that person will lash out with an invective or an act, which is aggressive and abusive.
To try to forcefully penetrate that person’s defense is unwise. It is better to subtly get closer slowly, little by little, into that person’s confidence and once you have attained a relationship where that person is willing to let you touch his inner core, then you may try to talk to him about the love of God – His unconditional love – and the love between his brothers and sisters which he can have if he only opens himself. This will be a slow process and you may be emotionally hurt in the process, But, do not fear. If you desire to make this person a better person, less abusive person, you can.
But do not be a – do not approach this person with the purpose of changing the person, or to be a teacher, or to place yourself above that person. Rather, place yourself side by side as you would to a brother or a sister and then proceed on that level of being.
Q: Do we have the responsibility to be in the space of very difficult people, or can we just love them and bless them and not be in their space.
RAYSON: You do not have to do this. Only if you wish it. If that person is so abusive and it is beyond your power to deal with that person, then try to avoid that person, by all means. You know what you are capable of. And you know what you are not capable of. Use this knowledge of yourself to ascertain the best way to deal with this person.
Q: What is our responsibility for people we don’t know, particularly groups of people on our planet who may be suffering that we are concerned about but we don’t know how to help? We feel overwhelmed with helping large groups of people whom we may never know but we still feel concern for?
RAYSON: Would you like to express how you feel? Do you feel that you should be doing something, but that you cannot?
Q: Yes, I feel like there are things that you might be able to do, but I worry with some of the things that other people have said to me, that some other things you might be doing would be self
aggrandizing, helping people do what you think they need to have done to have a better life. I wonder if, when you are helping people, how much you might be bringing in your own ego, or when you are helping them in the ways that they need to be helped.
RAYSON: Even when one is helping others because one wants to self-aggrandize one’s self that is not necessarily bad or evil. Sometimes one must do that. One must act, but the feeling for service is in them. And through that action, you will realize whether that service was, indeed, for your own purpose or if it was for The FATHER. But yes, you must act if you feel like doing service, yes. Put your heart and soul into doing that. If it turns out that you are merely inflating your own ego you will know – and then you can look into yourself and find out how you can serve others by achieving self-mastery in doing the will of God. For once you have achieved self-mastery, this feeling of wanting to do the will of God will be so overwhelming that you will not be able to keep it stoppered in you. It will by its own nature express itself.
As for the many unfortunate beings who are in their state of hunger, homelessness, sickness, and war they are out there not just on this planet but also in the universe. We must help when we can, but we must try to make sure that we do not become one of them. If each person tried their best so that they do not become dependent on others in the matter of needing hand-outs, and to try to achieve – let me rephrase that – if all of us did our utmost to achieve self-mastery, there would be less hungry, destitute, and beings of unfortunate circumstances. In other words, let us take care of ourselves so that others do not have to take care of us. When we have done that, when we are self- sufficient and we have gained enough material wealth – accompanied by spiritual and mental wealth – then we may go out and serve those who are less fortunate. But before we look to taking the mote out of the one who cannot see, let us take the beam out of our own eye. (11/15/92)
LOVE
Q: I am more reconciled today with what I’ve been feeling than I was earlier in the week. When I listen to you and to HAM, the teachers, I feel coming from each of you such a warm love, and my being responds in love to you. And I was concerned that I was not giving FATHER as much love, and that I didn’t seem to feel as personal a love from FATHER. And then I was wondering if, perhaps, what I’m feeling through you and HAM isn’t FATHER’s love, and my response back to FATHER through you. Is that true, or am I wrong?
RAYSON: I am not quite sure of what you mean.
Q: Well, you seem so much more personal. So much closer than FATHER.
RAYSON: Are you talking about The FATHER?
Student: The FATHER, our FATHER, all of us.
RAYSON: I am much closer to you because I am further down on the scale – much nearer to you. The FATHER is so far above us. His love is so strong, that it has to be filtered through your Thought Adjuster, or through other beings such as I. Do not fear, The FATHER loves you. It is His love, which keeps us going towards him. You do not see the forest for the trees. His love is so all – encompassing that you do not see each little segment – except as it comes through individuals. Do not fear. You will as time progresses be able to feel more and more of The FATHER’s love.
Student: Thank you RAYSON. I know I have it and I feel the benefits of it. I just feel it differently from loving you and HAM. (10/18/92)
Lesson I on Love:
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Love is of higher mind, part of personality expression. Love is necessary for survival of all beings in the universe. Not only must they receive love, but must also impart love to others. Love is one of the highest accomplishments that any creature can aspire to.
It sometimes is said that love is illusive, perhaps because it is not a material thing, so that when it is sought as a material thing would be sought, you lose the grasp – and yet it is most readily accessible to all who would have it. And it is so easy to have love. The having of love, the getting of love is a function of the giving of love, which may seem paradoxical, but it is not. Like other God-given qualities goodness and truth and beauty – love is not something that the material creature creates, but rather is something that is passed on through the material creature to others. It is truly a gift from God, given freely, to be experienced freely and freely passed on.
And that is what love is. Not something that can be stored, or even really calibrated in the usual sense of your thinking, yet how truly one knows when it is present, how truly one knows when there is love in the interaction between individuals.
And one of the wonderful things about love is the fact that the practice of it, the striving to be loving, to impart love to others, not only increases one’s ability to give love, but also increases the amount of love that is in turn received. The more you give, the more you in turn receive. The FATHER gives us only what we can use. There is no waste in the universe of any energy form.
Yesterday when (T/R) was practicing, the transmission had other interesting information about love, which she would like me to share with you, and so I shall.
It is useful, perhaps, to conceive of love as one might think of sunshine, the light that strikes your planet and your nearby stars. Without the light of the sun all life on Urantia would perish. Even a small feeble ray of light can sustain some sort of life form. And the sun streams forth its light at no cost, freely given and freely received. How much better, then, is the love of The FATHER streaming forth over all the universes. Unlike the light of the star, though, there can never be too much. You could never get sunburn from the love of The FATHER.
There could never be any danger in the receipt of love, or any danger in the giving of love. The love of The FATHER is freely given and is there – even in individuals who not only do not ask, but also have deluded themselves into believing that they do not want love, that they shun love. It is a fallacy to believe thus, for if the love of The FATHER were not there, they would perish. But not to worry, it – that never will stop. The shame for such individuals is that in a misguided desire to have what might be called control they may stubbornly attempt to refrain from passing The FATHER’s love on to others and, in so doing, impoverish their own lives and – at least temporarily – slow their own spiritual growth.
(T/R) worries about protection when giving out love or goodness or truth and beauty, and yet it is not these qualities of God that leave one vulnerable, contrary to her belief. Rather it is the negative qualities of fear and pride and so on that make mortals vulnerable. By working on love, by finding that which you can love in everyone and everything, you can exercise this muscle, develop it to a fuller potential, and thereby help to further your own spiritual growth.
So go forth gladly and shed love on your fellows and watch the results. Some will be immediate, others will be delayed, and many, many of the results coming from the love that you send will never be seen directly by you during your mortal lifetimes. But if you look into your own hearts and consult with your own inner self to find the truth, you will receive every assurance that the love you give causes growth and enhances the universe wherever it may fall,
Q: [Is (S) to be the conduit for healing in the area?]
RAYSON: (T/R) is a little green, as you might say, but the name is familiar. But more than that I cannot say for now. But while waiting for this person there are things that all can do to help one another. Love is not just an emotion, and not just a spiritual quality; it is a force of energy. It changes the way the body works.
Anyone could be a healer. The designated healers have somewhat better ability to focus their spiritual powers. They are very slightly more – but not that much more – (able) than the rest. And not only love for healing, but the other positive qualities so generously bestowed by The FATHER, the composite of which we call prayer: the good unselfish thought earnest thought, and wish for the well-being of another.
Prayer is most powerful and useful adjunctive to any mission, be it a human mission or a planetary mission or a personal mission of any sort. Like love, prayer never falls without engendering positive results. It always yields benefits and growth – not the instant gratification desired or even required by some – but be assured that the benefit is always there.
How healing it is to receive the love of another. Like a drink of cool water on a dry hot day. How healing it is to behold beauty. How healing to experience goodness or to know truth. (11/09/92)
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Lesson II on Love:
In keeping with the symbolic celebration on Urantia of the coming of the Christ to your planet your lesson today will be on love.
Love is the gift of the Universal FATHER, and is manifested in the Eternal Son. In the life of MICHAEL on Urantia we have witness to applied love, mercy. The gift of the father – love – and applied love – mercy – of the Son is ministered to mortals and other low-level creatures by the bestowal of the Infinite Spirit who down-steps through angels to minister the combination of love and mercy to you.
Children, love is a constant, which can be seen from the most infinite level down through the most finite. On the greatest level, which you cannot conceive of, the love of God The FATHER is so boundless that He loves every one of His creatures whether they are aware of His love or not, and still can manifest Divine and Perfect (?will?) in and of Himself as the creator of all. His love is so limitless that He loves both sinners and perfected beings alike. He is no respecter of persons, but loves each creation individually and limitlessly.
His greatest acts of love to you, mortal creatures of animal origin, are the divine fragments which each of you possess. The FATHER’s love is extended through the ministry of mercy, always – first love, second mercy, and always ends injustice. He loves His individual children and His created worlds and systems through the Universal Eternal Son. Their down-step incarnations are the tangible proof of The FATHER’s love and should serve as an inspiration to this confused and sin-ridden world of the existence of divine love and a divine pattern to all creation.
The life of MICHAEL here – as JESUS – is on a spiritual level, the perfection standard to which you should all strive. The message of JESUS was “Love your brother as yourself.” For the skeptic, cynical of heart, or pure materialist, one can argue without self-love primitive species would not survive, without sex-love the species would not have propagated, without mother-love there would be no family home life, without neighbor-love survival would be limited, without tribal-love the elements and animals would have overcome the frail mortal, without nation-love there would be no great advances, without brother-love – the highest concept of love – we would not be aware of the existence of God.
Love your neighbor as yourself. This simple concept is what will take your world into the spiritual light of the new advanced revelatory religion. Simple, but very hard to achieve.
Love one another. This involves a self-forgetfulness. Love is the desire to do good to others. And what’s in that is to put another’s needs before one’s own selfish needs for ego aggrandizement. It means that dogma must be put aside. It means that in order to love one’s fellows, tolerance must be consciously exercised every day. JESUS asks of you, learn to love one fellow more.
To understand your fellows is to love them. It is a reflection of your capacity on a spiritual level if you love and understand more of your fellows. It is not a measure of lack of divine love or spirit potential. If you do not consciously set out to know and love others you cannot truly know God, for God is not merely intellectual or philosophical, but is involved in actions in terms of service to your brothers and sisters. Service is not “done,” it is merely duty without love. You may do good works with a bad heart.
God is love. Page 552. God is love, but love is not God. If one merely performs worthy acts without God consciousness, you are not entering the kingdom of God, but you are entering the kingdom of good. There is a huge difference. Mere humanism or idealism or political-social motivation is not Godliness, although God-knowing people encompass it. Love is the difference, love of God so strong that you would do anything to know Him and be like Him. And if one love’s God and thirsts for God, to that degree how can you not love God’s creations? Recognize the fragment of God in your fellows and love that.
One can only love personality. One cannot love concepts. God is a personality in that he is your parent creator FATHER. Your word love is so inadequate. It means such base emotions on your world that we wish there was anther way to describe what spiritual love is.
Love acts without thought of reward. And love – spiritual love – is not defined by results. Plant the seeds of love and the harvest will be truth, beauty and goodness. Of that I can assure you. As to when the harvest comes, that is unknown. But love is contagious and will always be more infectious than fear, anger, hatred or sin. If you are truly illuminated from within by divine love and overflowing love for your fellow ascenders – and indeed all creation – then others cannot help but respond in kind. It is the benign virus of love. And you can be sure that you are doing the will of The FATHER.
Why, then are you not more filled with love? Why are you – like greedy animals – so often wanting to take rather than to give? John said, “children, love one another.” Why do you spend so much time staring at your own image in an antique glass when you but could lift your eyes upward and see the beauty and majesty of the universe. You will be so enlightened that you could not help but reflect divinity outward. And like a walk to the light, you will be surrounded by the multitudes as JESUS was.
JESUS did not talk down, or preach morality, or fear, or judgment, or (? – iness?). No. He simply was applied love and mercy, and lived that way. And people loved Him instantly.
You, too, may be Christ-like. It is not enough, children, to celebrate the Christ. You must be the Christ. Urantia is surely a backward and dark planet, which is why MICHAEL chose this planet, the better to contrast the light of his love against such a confused and dark, suffering world. Shine your light so that the planet may be uplifted. You to whom so much has been given should not sit and bask in The FATHER’s generosity without in turn reflecting that generosity to others. It is not enough for you to rationalize that you do not like this person or that person, these petty (??) come with ego. They will someday be an embarrassment to you.
You must begin to live the law of JESUS of Nazareth by loving more and more of your fellows the longer you live. The more you grow in the spirit, the more humans you will be tolerant and loving of. This is what the life of the master reflected: trusting in the love of The FATHER to such extent that even when one looks at this world and sees chaos, and despair, and destruction, and starvation, and conflicts, and hatred, and fear, and ignorance, and rigidity, and immoral belief systems, you can know that the outcome of the divine plan is benevolent, and enlightened, and loving and peaceful, and
joy-filled, and spiritual; that when one looks at (?ones?) own life through the valleys of confusion and doubt that your faith will know that God loves you so much that the outcome of your life will be ultimately good, goodness; that The FATHER has created you as you are – in love, and see the outcome of who you would be in love, and that your place is assured but for your choices. You have been created to conquer doubt and fear, anger and hatred, all the demons of the human condition. And though love you will.
God’s love is not finite. The more you faithfully believe this, the more love you will open yourself up to seeing. It is always there. It is your inability to take it that is the flaw.
You cannot see justice or even fairness, but you can feel the love of The FATHER if you would but try, and once having felt and become full of divine love, and so moved by the spirit you could not help but to give it away, for you would realize that the more you love the more ability you have to love. Do not (?deny?) this, children, with this gift Love freely and unselfishly and unconditionally. Love each other with the highest divine love that you can imagine.
A father often must take the long view on a child’s growth, and so we sometimes – as children – do not feel we understand His ways. That is natural, but his love is constant. A parent’s love never wavers, and your world would be so much more evolved if you each understood that you are secure in the divine love of your father. That fact does not ebb and flow, but is a constant and ever-giving replete well of strength for you to draw from. You cannot simply run out of love.
(T/R) is not 100% healed, so we will shorten this. Please read page 552 and page 10 – I’m not totally sure, 1028 I believe – which deals with love, and we will continue this discourse – which may seem simple to you, but is not – upon next meeting.
Remember to enter the kingdom of God one must love one’s fellows and God. That is the ticket. So I pray that you will be more loving, kinder, tolerant, and understanding toward each other. As God is so generous in His love to you, you also will be generous in God’s love to others, through you. (12/27/92)
MEANINGS AND VALUES
Q: In reading through The Urantia Book on meanings and values, I find that meanings and values are generally associated with things, and that a rough projection of the universe would be that the universe consists of things, meanings and values. I know what things are. I went to the dictionary to learn what meanings are, and it defined the noun “meaning” as “that which is intended or signified,” with the synonyms to be found under the word “purpose”. I also looked into the dictionary for “values” and it defines values as the order of importance or the sequence of things. The Urantia Book says one can add values to meanings as well. Can you comment on my understanding of “things” as being objects, whether they are spiritual, physical, or morontial; as “meanings” being the significance or purpose of these objects; and “values” being the relative degree of importance of either things or meanings. Could you comment on that?
RAYSON: Yes. Things are material, super-material, are objects, are receptacles, are systems, are patterns, and are matrixes. Meanings are the use of these matrixes. Values are how these meanings relate to the will of God, Do you wish more?
Q: Can there be any “value” by itself, without evaluating a thing or a meaning – just a value?
RAYSON: Pure value?
Student: Yes. In other words, can you take a six and not relate it to a four and a five and a seven and an eight?
RAYSON: Not in that context because if you cannot relate it to the others then it will not be of that value. Values can be relative but supreme values can be existential when matrixes, meanings, and values are all in a realm of non-space, non-time, then values can be pure and by itself. But this has no meaning when explained in this linear fashion. It is beyond your comprehension as of now.
Q: Is it correct to think of relationships as things, that these relationships are not only things but they have a meaning, and that their meaning is extremely high on the scale of values?
RAYSON: Relationships?
Student: Interpersonal relationships.
RAYSON: Personal relationships are very high, of very high value, yes. (11/15/92)
MENTAL IMAGES OF GOD
Q: Teacher, I am not able to follow the admonishment of many of the teachers to think of The FATHER as a friend, as someone close to me or accessible. I don’t know if that’s the Catholicism background, or what. I feel very far removed, and although I believe that there’s a benevolence and a connection of some sort, I don’t know how to get to – I don’t know how to cut through all of the layers I have in my mind between me and The FATHER.
RAYSON: If you were to succeed in cutting away the layers immediately, you would not be able to handle the energy input into your physical-mental organism and system. Yes, this is quite usual. It is easier for you to relate to the Creator Son than it is to relate to the Universal FATHER. That is because your Universal FATHER is so distant from you in levels of attainment, although he is very close to you in actuality. For you to understand, to conceive, to grasp, and to relate to The FATHER, do so with his fragments, which indwell others, for when you can relate to a Thought Adjuster in others you are relating to The FATHER. And so gradually you will have a better understanding and you will feel more in touch with the First Source and Center. Is that helpful?
Student: It scratches the surface.
RAYSON: Yes, I will scratch the surface, but you must do the work of experientializing that. In other words you will not be given a simple answer. I will give you a lead. You must work on it.
Q: The lead was: to look for God in other people?
RAYSON: Yes, and within yourself.
Student: OK, I’ll work on it.
RAYSON: If you cannot grasp this in other people, this fragment of God in other people and in yourself, how can you even think that we can directly commune with the Universal FATHER?
Student: That’s the crux of it-
RAYSON: So, keep on trying, you are asking the right question. Just proceed in that direction and you will eventually attain what you seek. I encourage you. You are much connected to where you should go. (11/15/92)
MERCY
Lesson I on Mercy:
Mercy is a good topic in light of the tragedy that has befallen all of us with the death of … and … When we go through such a painful period it is hard to believe that there is love. That is because we are so limited in our vision.
Mercy, the Memory of Mercy, is a real phenomenon. It is extended to every ascendent mortal of the realms. Each one of you has a bank account with the Most Highs with so much mercy that your survival, if you choose to survive, is insured. Mercy is extended always first. Only when it is not accepted does justice begin.
Your angels talk for you when you are evaluated. Very few mortals turn down the ministry of mercy. It was The FATHER’s will, correction, IS The FATHER’s will, to extend this gift to all creatures. Only a creature of unbalanced mind turns down this most precious gift.
Mercy is not pity, or compassion, or empathy. It is a new and separate circuit that comes from the heart of the Isle of Paradise. God loves His infant mortal creatures. Just because they cannot see does not mean it is not so. I assure you that there is more mercy listed for each and every one of you than any mortal could possibly use. God’s love for His creatures extends beyond forgiveness. Mercy is unconditional love. It is not forgiveness, because it is not judgmental.
Try to think of mercy as a cooling rain gently falling on each of you, caressing you lovingly and bringing you Godward. If you could learn to experience mercy and give it to others, you would be doing the will of God.
We cannot always know what lies around the bend. That is where faith comes in. Faith is believing without seeing. You must believe in God’s mercy against the backdrop of whatever tragedy befalls you. Even the most evil creatures are extended mercy by The FATHER. That is because everyone is spiritually equal in their free will decision-choice to ascend or extinguish themselves. Those who choose extinction choose it wilfully and not because The FATHER would not extend His mercy.
I suggest that we think this week about what mercy really is. (12/01/91)
* * *
Lesson II on Mercy:
Today I wish to speak again about mercy. Mercy is a gift bestowed by The FATHER and it is the main makeup of the Eternal Son. Christ MICHAEL is the God of Mercy on this planet as on every other. The Infinite Spirit is the minister of MICHAEL’s mercy. Through her children mercy becomes realized.
When mercy is coupled with Justice we achieve fairness. But for the children of time, especially on such a dark world as this one, the mercy of God cannot often be recognized. That is because mercy takes time, much time, to administer. Only when a child of God rejects this almost limitless gift of mercy does justice prevail.
Although from your perspective it may appear to be an unmerciful life here, that is not really true. This planet was showered with more mercy by MICHAEL’s bestowal than it could ever use in eternity.
Mercy is different from compassion or love. But one may say mercy is applied love. It is related to the great Comforter, the Spirit of Truth, which was poured out on Urantia two thousand years ago. During this painful period try to keep focused on the mercy of God, for many things have been given to you which your mortal eyes are unable to see.
Read about mercy in The Urantia Book. It will comfort and leave a great peace where a sharp pain once lived. (12/07/91)
METAPHYSICS & NEW AGE
Q: The Urantia Book chronicles religions pretty well in terms of defined religions, however it doesn’t talk about metaphysics and New Age and how those beliefs came about. And I think that when we do receive our mission, and we do – however way we are told to – spread this word, we are going to encounter questions into how did this truth – which I believe to be the truth – come about. I also came the metaphysical route. If it’s too involved to go into now, perhaps one day we can have a session to find out where the ideas of reincarnation came from, and where these different beliefs about what happens after we die. The book stops at a certain point and doesn’t really address the New Age questions which we re going to face as a group, especially in Southern California.
RAYSON: That is a good point, however reincarnation is discussed in The Urantia Book, but other recent philosophies are not mentioned deliberately, even though they have existed by different names throughout the ages. I take it you refer to psychic phenomena, UFOology, other New Age concepts which are integrated into a spiritual viewpoint.
Q: Yes, more so the last than the other two.
RAYSON: Their spiritual viewpoints have been noted throughout evolution but not in present terminology. We will discuss this, but bear in mind the truth is so overpowering that often isms fall away on their own, and the disappointments hardest to bear, (student), are those which never come. That is mota, is mota that is living morontially. But we will discuss this so that you will have a fuller understanding when it is closer to the time of your teaching mission. (05/24/92)
MIND
Q: When you discuss the three levels of mind, how do they relate to the Infinite Mother Spirit and that mind?
RAYSON: That is an excellent question, (S). Mind, human mind, mid-mind, must be prepared to receive the Adjuster. It must have the Seven Adjutant Mind Spirits, have attained the seven levels of Adjutant Mind Spirits, which are the gifts of Divine Mother and her spirit. Therefore, Divine Mother is the Deity, which prepares mid-mind for the bestowal of the Adjuster. Also, as mid-mind works with the Divine mind, Mother Spirit is working in mid-mind to help the child of time hear the Divine.
The human mind is capable of greatness, of eternity perfection. But the choices are your own. You, the human will, may turn the mind, mid-mind, away from the Adjuster into sin, evil, even into non-survival. It is this arena, more so than the Adjuster, or the Mother Spirit, which offsets these lower impulses. Do you understand?
Q: Do the impulses then, the negative impulses, that you are discussing come from the lower mind, the human electro-magnetic impulses and if that which you try to fight with the mid-mind, with the help of the Mother Spirit and the Adjutant Mind Spirit?
RAYSON: Some come from the lower mind. Yes. Some come from character flaws.
Q: Where does a character flaw reside if not in the mid-mind?
RAYSON: You are not created in perfection; therefore it is the will of The FATHER to create within you rungs on the ladder of spiritual evolution. These rungs are your faults. Your feet climb it at your will, and your destination is God the Perfect.
Q: Where does the soul go when the brain dies, when the human mind dies?
RAYSON: The soul is shepherded to the mansion worlds by your guardian seraphim where it is reunited with the Adjuster and personality of the human.
Q: So if a person’s mental capacity, through either disease or illness or old age deteriorates and becomes no longer able to function on a spiritual level, that person’s soul and Thought Adjuster wait in the Mansion worlds until the body dies and the personality is resurrected?
RAYSON: (S), that is absolutely correct.
Q: RAYSON, you spoke of the mind being the arena of choice, the conscious mind. Is the will that makes this choice a function of the personality? Is it identical to the personality?
RAYSON: No, not identical. But it is a personality function. Your personalities are incomplete in your present form. Your personality will become, or your soul will become your personality on the Mansion Worlds.
Q: Well, I’m a little confused. We are told that personality is one gift of The FATHER and is an unchanging attribute or entity.
RAYSON: But you have not attained it fully, yet.
Q: Just as we have a piece of The FATHER living within us yet we are not communicating with Him fully yet, is it similar to that?
RAYSON: Your personality is bestowed, but you have not grown into it fully yet. Your personality will be seen more clearly in the morontial because it is more fully seen. It is your soul, it will become your soul.
Q: Well what is this thing that does the choosing?
RAYSON: Will. It is human will. It is a part of personality bestowal, but it is not synonymous with personality. There are times when you may choose to follow higher mind. Other times your choice will be not so evolved. You are the same personality but your will varies.
Q: When the impulses of the lower mind, the electro-magnetic and chemical make up of our mind, weighs on us too much and we fall prey to it with anxiety or fear or even chemical imbalances or whatever, will appealing to the higher mind offset that, or will we just learn to live with that? Is there a way to reach a balance again in an unbalanced lower mind by appealing to the higher mind?
RAYSON: The balance will be achieved by, your choices. Even though impulses may be strong and sometimes irresistible, you can choose in mid-mind not to act. This is balance.
Q: Though we choose not to act, which I guess in essence is the best thing possible in a situation where your lower impulses are strongly affecting you, will the choice not to act constitute more soul growth, and will that help ease the struggle? Is there a way to ease the struggle against the lower mind impulses?
RAYSON: Yes. The more the human will chooses the higher road, the easier it becomes, because you make spiritual progress – as we discussed, circles progress, last meeting. Also, soul growth and the reality of the morontial is actually put into practice and lived here on the material level. But you must choose.
Starting as a child learns to walk, you fall, stumble, but you must get up again and take those few steps. Even when one has mastered walking there is running. (Laughter)
Q: RAYSON, The Urantia Book says that after forty years old the adjuster is like a controller. Does that mean that the mid-mind is used in some other way?
RAYSON: No, it just means that mid-mind had become more adept at hearing the Divine mind. It also means that the experience of the human has tempered the will with wisdom and evolved higher values. So choices are at a higher spiritual level and the Adjuster has a bigger field to plant seeds in. (02/17/92)
MOTA
[The T/R has just seen the Report on Channeling in the Urantia Community by Ernest Moyer and is very upset by it. The report says that the teachers are not real, rather, a deception by an invisible “spirit intelligence” known as SI.]
Lesson on Mota:
Greetings, brothers and sisters. I am RAYSON. I am your teacher. I am not unreal. I am of God. Not highly placed, but a pilgrim on the road just a little farther advanced than you, my beloved family. I am deeply saddened by (T/R’s) pain. Therefore our planned lesson will be postponed, and we will receive a short lesson on mota, the morontial state of being, thinking, existing, which is possible to attain even here on Urantia.
True existence begins when one evolves the soul enough for the being to approach, become, morontial. It is not very different from some of your highest human philosophies, thought, spiritual insights, but there is a world of difference in the day-to-day living application of these intellectual concepts. It involves more than mind. It involves feelings, action, and consecration of will. It is a different way of perceiving one’s self, one’s place in God’s universe, one’s fellows, one’s world. And the events, which react upon and are reacted to by the individual ascender.
Mota is the most basic, kindergarten level of being-ness. Some mortals have attained mota here. Most have not.
(T/R) has been told by FATHER HAM before ever she accepted her assignment that she would be asked to walk through deep valleys of sorrow. We know – correction – we see far but are not allowed to reveal but a little.
The path to God is not a straight paved road. It would be helpful to think of it as a trek through mountainous terrain. After much effort one attains the heights of the spiritual mountain. The reward is a rarefied atmosphere, an atmosphere, which is but a resting place for the soul. Serenity, peace, truth, beauty, strength, wisdom, compassion, love, closeness to God, and Godliness may be glimpsed at the top of the mountain.
But to get there, my children, involves much spiritual effort. Remember the inevitabilities of life. They are not mere intellectual concepts. Review page 51 this week. Inevitably, after replenishment of the soul, one must descend again to the more common atmosphere of humanity: the shadowy valley, the dark despairs, the pain and grief, the struggles of each of your existences, the curving roads where one can only see around the corner through faith.
What is this mota, which must be evolved in the human heart? It is in the depth of the darkness it is easiest to discern the stars. When you are in the valleys of soul growth, that is when you must raise your eyes upward and see the promise. God has written His promise to you in the heavens. In the orderly pinpoints of light across your earth sky you see the promise, the signature of the creator. What seems distant to you is your destiny – if you consecrate your will to the will of The FATHER.
Those pinpoints of distant light may be thought of as the Mansion Worlds, the Paradise ascent, each world becoming more spiritual, more fulfilled, more universal, eternal, and loving.
When darkness encroaches, fear is palpable. Fear as we know from page 556 is a spirit poison. It is an intellectual deceiver. But, alas, it is part and parcel of your experiential existence. It cannot be fully eradicated. It is like a soul disease.
What does mota tell us, children? Love is the antidote. When fear surrounds you, you must fight valiantly for an opening to allow God’s love in. It is not easy or always successful. Believe me. I empathize. I, too, was as you are. I know the struggle. In the struggle comes the victory.
Think, children, of a seed: tiny, self contained, in a packet with other seeds, not knowing any other existence, feeling secure inside a little space, seeing around, others, and deriving comfort. If the seed had consciousness that is what it would feel: safe within a prison, riot knowing that it is mostly potential, feeling this was the existence. Now, a hand reaches in, picks one seed, and places the seed away from its fellows, from its tiny home, into darkness in the earth. This seed would feel frightened, persecuted by the hand. “Why me,” it would say. “Why have I been hurt like this? Why cannot I remain in the perceived easier existence of seeddom?”
The seed would begin to change. In there it would be painful at times as the transformation, growth, occurs. It would be lonely. It would be agondonter-like because it can no longer see its fellows. It would feel abandoned, despairing, doubting, and questioning of the cruelty of its existence.
What the seed cannot know is what it is becoming, that after much struggle upward, through an environment which feels crushing – which is much physically heavier than the seedling, which involves persevering, with courage, strength, it will see the light, the warm sunlight, the fresh air, and its brethren around, arrayed in the colors of God, blowing in the winds free, well cared for by the hand of God.
This is faith. This is what is asked of you, children, faith. In the darkest hours, which each of you will go through, your faith in the sunlight in the watch care, in the assurance of what you are becoming, will get you through.
(T/R) asks about the wavering of her faith. I share the reply with you, as each of you will be strengthened by it.
Faith from the morontia is a – there is nothing, children, you can do to stop the growth of your faith. Unless your reject the survival career your faith grows ever stronger. It does not become less and more. Only the human consciousness of your faith wavers. This is natural. But your faith itself grows ever more. Morontia Mota tells you this. I believe number 13, I could be mistaken.
Faith is the gift to you from The FATHER. Your assignment is to – effort in your day-to-day life to become morontial. You will not succeed fully, but will succeed a lot. Life is but a day’s work. Do it well. Children, your work is to develop mota and put this mota into actions. The act is yours, the consequences God’s.
Through faith you will build true character. True character is courage. This is God’s promise. You have two levels. One is that eternity – your eternity of your existence – is built on your desire, will consecration, and belief in it, but your soul is constructed on your actions. Two things: submitting one’s will to The FATHER, in return you receive eternal life. Second thing: consciously acting more morontial, building your eternal soul in liaison with the mighty, wise and perfect Adjuster. These are your tasks and, children, it will not be easy. Cleverness is no substitute for character.
What does this mean? It means that intellectual understanding does not replace true feeling of spirituality. Spiritual growth comes in the heart-soul area of feeling. That is why there is despair, pain, unfairness, injustice, intolerance, bigotry, etc. It is for you to overcome these feelings and deal with
fairness, love, tolerance, compassion, understanding, wisdom, truth, beauty, and real goodness. Because it is such an imperfect world is no excuse for you to give up.
Each of you holds a miracle. None of you know your true destiny. Yet we know that each person here has a destiny on this planet to transform . …… You have a responsibility to transform your lives. It is like being a soldier for God. You will be asked much but given much more. The human will not be capable of meeting the challenge. But, you are not merely human: you have the mighty Adjuster and loving seraphim, and your eternal soul, and many many, celestial helpers. Your Adjuster is more than capable of meeting any challenge.
The human will bleed. The Adjuster will rejoice. Not in the pain, but in the gain.
Do not live in the shadow-illusions of the material narrow-minded perspective. As one walks through the dark valleys one must effort and act and look Godward. We have much compassion for your individual defeats. We are not unaware of what the struggle costs. You are more beloved because of your valiant, never ending struggle to rise above the world and your own animalistic nature.
JESUS had no fear. One of the keys to His poise and balance was His entrenched and living faith in the good outcome of life. Each of you, each of your lives, will have a good outcome. Good is too tiny a concept to describe the miracle of what awaits, but if I told you, I would be taking from you your most valiant moment.
I am aware that you are concerned with (T/R) and no one is more hurt on her behalf than I who love her truly. She and I will be friends throughout eternity. I have grown affectionately fond of her. Let me assure you – and I tell you this for one reason only – (She) possesses a very experienced Adjuster who will not fail her. She will be a great evangelist and she will not like knowing this. She, in her human heart, would very much like to abdicate this responsibility, and her will will be respected by all.
MICHAEL, Himself, has instructed us that her will is not to be tampered with. If (T/R) feels she cannot continue, our love and admiration for her efforts will not diminish, and she will continue her ascension basically unharmed.
We would like very much for her to continue because it will serve the greater good. (T/R) is assured of survival. She has already earned her place on Mansonia Two. This is not about her own advancement any longer. She has already wholeheartedly consecrated her will to the will of The FATHER – although she does not believe this. She has fulfilled her mission, children. Will she go the second mile? It is up to her. But if she accepts, she will evangelize and be a living example to all of faith triumphing over the unreality of the material values. What a great destiny! And what a painful and lonely existence for the human (T/R)!
This is an imperfect state, therefore even greatness must contain a – (T/R’s) name is significant as you probably suspect. Her becoming the Magdaline is still in progress. But she will become the essence of this morontial state as will each of you. A great destiny awaits those who have the strength of character to actually run the race. Now it is easy to learn, to listen, to feel lost and loving. It will not always be so. Personal crisis will affect each of you. No one is protected. How sad for those who never struggle. In your human state you cannot understand this morontial concept. But they are to be pitied.
Anxiety must be abandoned. The greatest disappointments are those, which never come. You will be disappointed. You will be defeated. You will enter into doubt and despair and darkness at times. But not the way you think. Do not bring this state into your hearts before its time. Each of you will go through your own Gethsemane. But to live in anticipation is a human cause of unnecessary and unreal pain.
Trust in The FATHER who loves you, each of you – personally, individually, as you are. You will get growth lessons but perhaps not those that you anticipate.
Faith is powerful. Live in faith, children, and know that some day you will understand the realities of this world. We love you. We are proud of you. We are honored in our human associates, for this mission could not proceed without you, children. We are in awe of you: so blind, and yet so valiantly, courageously going forward, reaching to the invisible hand and trusting in things you cannot see. We admire you and know what it takes for you to be here, children. You are much more spiritual in certain ways than we are. May God bless you and keep you, always. You are in our prayers constantly.
Prince MACHIVENTA sends his greetings, love and praise to each one of you. You are not unknown to even MICHAEL of Nebadon. This should give your soul sustenance. In your daily lives you might be hurt or feel small. The Creator Son, Father of our universe, knows each of you and recognizes your role in this mighty mission.
Let anyone who feels we are not of God show themselves to me. Even them, we love. We extend mercy, understanding to these troubled hearts. I would like to administer to these sad humans.
As for (T/R), she will ultimately regain her balance. Give her time, understanding, love, as you would wish for yourself. The FATHER will bless your efforts. We cannot fail. (03/29/92)
* * *
Q: I have two questions about mota. In. reading The Urantia Book about mota, looking at the world with mota vision, you know we have that pattern on 555-556 listing all the highest human philosophy that almost touches mota. How do we turn it up to the mota level, then? I tried to even write some, but when I tried to write the mota equivalent I can’t quite seem to get there. I was wondering if you might have some way to do it, or way to think about it, that would be actually mota teachings.
RAYSON: You will never achieve mota in thinking. (Laughter) Mota is achieved through increased faith which comes through a more active prayer, worship, thanksgiving, and silent receptivity life, increased awareness of love of God and the love of one’s fellows, and applied faith, love, goodness, beauty, and truth to every action of one’s life. It is a way of being that transcends physical reality.
It is seen more clearly glimpsing the reality of the morontial on this world. It is a shift in focus. When you view a design of grays and whites, you first see one pattern as the whites jump out. Then, when the focus is shifted, you can see the blacks come forward. Do you understand?
Student: Yes. I do.
RAYSON: That is mota.
Q: Would that be something like the concept of the yin and the yang-the yin and the yang of the Eastern religions on this planet?
RAYSON: No. That’s different. (05/24/92)
